F I D O N E W S Volume 18, Number 18 30 Apr 2001

F I D O N E W S Volume 18, Number 18 30 Apr 2001
+--------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| The newsletter of the |Fido, Fidonet and dog-with-diskette are |
| FidoNet community | Registered Trademarks of Tom Jennings |
| Copyright through | San Francisco, California, USA |
| 2007 | |
| _ | Crash Netmail Attach Articles To: |
| / \ | Editor@1:1/23 (1-972-562-8064) |
| /|oo \ | [email protected] |
| (_| /_) | or |
| _`@/_ \ _ | Frank Vest@1:124/6308 |
| | | \ \\ | |
| | (*) | \ )) | Editor: Frank Vest |
| |__U__| / \// | |
| _//|| _\ / | |
| (_/(_|(____/ | |
| (jm) | Newspapers should have no friends. |
| | -- JOSEPH PULITZER |
+--------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
Copyright 2001 by Frank L. Vest, Editor for Fidonews Globally.

Table of Contents
1. FOOD FOR THOUGHT ......................................... 1
2. HEADLINE NEWS ............................................ 2
fidonet.org .............................................. 2
3. CHAT WITH THE EDITOR ..................................... 3
The New Fidonews Editor .................................. 3
4. GUEST EDITORIAL .......................................... 5
Echomail Censorship ...................................... 5
5. INTERVIEWS ............................................... 8
Interview with Rusty Johnson of JNS Doors ................ 8
6. FRANK'S COLUMN ........................................... 11
What do I need to run a Fidonet System? .................. 11
7. FIDONET WEB PAGE REVIEWS ................................. 13
Announcing "Fidonet International" ....................... 13
8. HUMOR IN A FIDO VEIN ..................................... 14
NoBlackfly - Is this debugging tool screening your mail .. 14
A satire of a message in the Z1_ROUTING echo ............. 17
9. COMIX IN ASCII ........................................... 19
!Hey Dude! ............................................... 19
10. CLEAN HUMOR & JOKES ..................................... 20
The Power of Acts 2:38 ................................... 20
11. CLASSIFIED ADS .......................................... 21
Rotating Ads ............................................. 21
12. QUESTION OF THE WEEK .................................... 22
Why not carry? ........................................... 22
13. FIDONET BY INTERNET ..................................... 23
Fidonet-related sites .................................... 23
14. FIDONEWS INFORMATION .................................... 27
How to Submit an Article ................................. 27
Credits, Legal Infomation, Availability .................. 28
FIDONEWS 18-18 Page 1 30 Apr 2001

=================================================================
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
=================================================================

"You can please some of the people all of the time and all of the
people some of the time, but you can't please _all_ of the people
_all_ of the time".

-----------------------------------------------------------------

FIDONEWS 18-18 Page 2 30 Apr 2001

=================================================================
HEADLINE NEWS
=================================================================

fidonet.org

The talk in the Fidonews Echo seems to be about the "fidonet.org"
site. Many are the pros, cons and opinions of this. Here's a brief
take of it.

"fidonet.org" is owned by George Peace. That is clear from the
Internet "lookups" of ownership.

When trying to get to the "fidonet.org" site, there is a problem that
seems to come up. At times, the site appears to be "passworded out" to
all and gives some sort of "access denied" error.

It's been argued that this is a DNS problem, a fault of George not
updating or some fault of some server that isn't "up to date".

The content of the site, when available, is another subject.

Some seem to think that Ward, as IC, should be doing something about
the content of the site. Others think that George should be fixing the
"problems" in this, and the aforementioned area.

The common agreement seems to be that there are problems.

What seems to be missing is input from the IC and George Peace.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

FIDONEWS 18-18 Page 3 30 Apr 2001

=================================================================
CHAT WITH THE EDITOR
=================================================================

The New Fidonews Editor

Hello All,

First. It was a sad day when I was informed last week, by Warren
Bonner, that his eyesight was failing and he could no longer perform
the duties of the Fidonews Editor. Warren asked me if I would take the
position. I have agreed. Please join me in wishing the best for
Warren.

In introduction:

Many of you already know or have heard about me. That could be good or
bad. :-) At any rate, here we go. <smile>

My name is Frank Vest.
Vital stats,
Age: 47
Married and a Grandfather.
Fidonet - 1:124/6308(.1)
E-Mail - [email protected]
Current occupation - Mr. Mom (that's not as easy as you think. :-)

Let me start out by saying that I am not Warren Bonner. Nor am I
Douglas Myers. I'll probably not fit the description of any former
Fidonews Editor. I'm just me.

I was asked by Warren, when he first became Editor, if I would take
the Fidonews Editor position should he leave for whatever reason. I
was reluctant then and I still think that I'm not the person for the
job... but, I'll try my best to fill the position. I can't fill the
shoes of any of the previous Editors, but I will do what I can.

I take the production and Editorship of the Fidonews seriously. Tom
Jennings wrote (paraphrased): `Fidonet is held together by two
documents. The Nodelist and the Fidonews.' To me, that places the
Fidonews Editorship as very important. I intend to have fun, but I
will also try to do the best I can in the producing of the Fidonews.

Some things to know about me in the Fidonews Editor position:

I'll try to keep this short. :)

The next Editor of the Fidonews will be chosen by me. My choice
might not be accepted, but I'll at least make it clear.

Now, Let me make this clear:

I'm as proud of my Zone in Fidonet as anyone is of their Zone. I also
realize and respect the pride of others in their Zone. I'll not choose
a replacement based on my pride in my Zone. I'll choose based on who I
think best, regardless of what Zone or Nation s/he is in!
FIDONEWS 18-18 Page 4 30 Apr 2001

On other subjects:

If you are interested in being the next Editor, let me know. The best
way to let me know and prove to me that you will be a good Editor is
to participate in the Fidonews. Help promote Fidonet and work for the
good of Fidonet. That doesn't mean just posting in the Fidonews Echo.
It means submitting articles and following the format for submitting
articles. In other words, "Put your money where your mouth is".

There will be some changes in the Fidonews while I'm Editor. I think
they will be for the good. Here's a quick overview off the top of my
head:

My Fidonet Node is POTS only. You can crash Netmail to me. I will
also be available at the 1:1/23 address so you can get submissions
to me via crash mail at that address as well (I hope I can get this to
work).

I'm adding a short (compared to the artspec.doc) article to each
edition giving some guidelines for submissions.

The rules for the Fidonews Echo will change. You'll see this when I
post them. :)

Cut off time for submissions to the Fidonews will be midnight (that's
24:00 hours) on Saturday night according to _my_ clock. IOW, if your
article hits my machine at 12:01, it will be in the next Fidonews. Get
your submission(s) in early. I'll work on putting the edition together
on Sunday and release it sometime Sunday evening or night.

I'm working on a "rotating ad" setup that will allow those of you that
offer Fidonet services to advertise on a rotating basis without having
to submit your ad each week. More about this in another article. :)

This is not all inclusive, but it is a start. <smile>

Regards,

Frank Vest - Fidonews Editor

-----------------------------------------------------------------

FIDONEWS 18-18 Page 5 30 Apr 2001

=================================================================
GUEST EDITORIAL
=================================================================

Echomail Censorship
*******************
By: Michael A. Grant

Dear Fidonet membership:

Recent events in the distribution of echomail by the Z1B distribution
system have revealed a disturbing practice that's apparently been
going on for quite a while amongst some Top Level Hubs in the
distribution system.

First, a little background. The Z1B was formed out of disagreements
and personality conflicts mainly between Bob Seaborn and John
Souvestre, both of who were TLH's in the then-NAB distro system. John
convinced a few other hubs to join with him in forming a new backbone
distribution system, and thus the Z1B was formed. Recently, John
Souvestre quit Fidonet, and two of the remaining three top-level mail
hubs in the Z1B system felt the main reason for the distro systems
being separated was gone, and decided to mesh with the two TLH's in
the present NAB system.

Prior to this occurring, a controversy arose in the Z1B around Dale
Ross,the third TLH in the Z1B; and problems a moderator, Sean Rima,
was having in getting his echos distributed in the Z1B. Sean had
previously encountered no problems distributing his echos in the Z1B.
However, since Dale had recently started using NoBogus, a program
designed to catch dupes and undesirable messages, a large part of
those echo's mail got stopped on Dale's system until Dale could
manually inspect it. Dale then proceeded to publically brow-beat Sean
over the technical standards that he had set up as a trap in his
NoBogus config and was using to filter out Sean's messages with (the
messages were gated from the internet). This prompted Sean to request
his echos be removed from the Z1B system.

In large part because of this fact, but also added to it the fact
that Dale Ross had been elected spokesperson for the Z1B and a large
number of the Z1B echomail hubs felt Dale was following his own
personal agenda and was ignoring the concerns of those he was supposed
to be representing, the other two TLH's who moved to mesh with the
TLH's in the NAB did not invite Dale Ross to mesh with the top levels
in the new distro system. Dale took this as a personal affront, and
personally cut off several hubs (without any official vote being
taken) from the Z1B's BACKSTAT.Z1B hub list.

At the heart of the matter is NoBogus. Dale remains unapologetic for
his use of it, and in fact continues to brag about adding new traps to
make his system even more restrictive. This amounts to censorship,
plain and simple.

NoBogus is a powerful program, and has uses for mail filtering that
go far beyond dupe detection and technical standards. Used in a
malicious manner, it could be very damaging to a person a mail hub
FIDONEWS 18-18 Page 6 30 Apr 2001

happens to dislike enough to use the program against, and it could
single-handedly cause the demise of an echo. The program can stop an
entire mail packet from passing through the hub's system if it finds
*one* word, say, someone's name, in the text of the message body, in
the to: or from: field, in the tear line, or in the origin line of any
message.

Ross Cassell states that he uses the program for dupe detection only.
This is, in my opinion, a good use of the program, as it can
effectively detect dupe loops and other dupes that get by some
mailers/tossers. I have no reason to doubt his word, as he has shown
himself to be trustworthy in my dealings with him, yet I am still
uneasy about him using it, as the potential for abuse is still there.

My opinion of NoBogus is that no TLH's should be running the program
as a mail filter. Regardless of whether the mail is being deleted or
merely held up until the user manually inspects the mail packets, it
amounts to censorship of echomail, and in my opinion that goes against
everything a mail hub is supposed to stand for. Mail hubs should
simply move the mail in it's raw form, and leave any filtering to the
individual sysops and the filtering programs, mailers and tossers
*they* choose to run. Dupes are a valid concern, as mis-configured
hubs can create them, and reasonable efforts to catch them should be
made; however, further filters on the echomail for reasons *other*
than dupe detection are IMO dishonorable in the practice of mail
moving.

Dale maintains that his system ought to be very strict in enforcing
Fidonet technical standards. Unfortunately, much of the software that
adheres to the present Fidonet technical standards has been long
abandoned by it's authors, and sysops who are trying new ideas, such
as allowing users to post messages from a website, may have trouble
finding new, supported software that meets the technical standards and
can perform the task. The end result of this is that many messages are
finding their way into Fidonet while /not/ meeting the present
technical standards. Dale Ross is filtering these messages.

The FTSC is struggling at present to address issues such as Internet
only nodes in the nodelist; these issues are long overdue, and the
FTSC is far behind in keeping up with the times. This is hardly their
fault; things are changing so rapidly in the electronic world around
us, and we are sadly lacking as a group for people who have the desire
and free time to help advance our hobby. The people on the commitee
are capable, but can only give so much; they are doing their best,
which is all we can hope for.

Fidonet is shrinking rapidly. People are abandoning it in droves for
the Internet, where they are not restricted to finding an abandonware
program that they've never heard of in order to meet an echomail hub's
restrictive standards. They want to use the latest programs available
to them, and they don't want to have to jump through hoops just to
participate in Fidonet.

It's high time we recognized that we're behind the times, and opened
ourselves up to new possibilities. If someone can find a way to use
Outlook Express or PINE to participate in Fidonet, I'd be all for
FIDONEWS 18-18 Page 7 30 Apr 2001

that, and I could care less if the messages those programs create
don't meet every technical standard. I also would move the mail that
those programs would produce without using any form of a filter on it.
Any less would be a detriment to Fidonet as a whole, IMO.

On a closing note, version 2.03 of NoBogus was finalized by it's
author in 1994, but was never released until recently to the public.
Apparently, John Souvestre had been given a copy of the program,
presumably for testing purposes, and then the author died. Dale Ross
became very perturbed when Ross Cassell decided to release it, and
insisted it was not to be distributed, despite this note in the
NOBOGUS2.DOC file inserted by the author, D.J. Murdoch:

--<snip>---------------------------------------------------------

License:

All Fidonet sysops are hereby licensed to use NOBOGUS at no
charge. If you think that it has helped you a lot, you could
show your appreciation by sending me a small contribution of $5
or $10.

I'd appreciate suggestions and bug reports. Please send them to
me at one of the following addresses:

DJ Murdoch at 1:249/1.5 on Fidonet
71631,122 on Compuserve
[email protected] on Internet

Mail and contributions can be sent to me at

D.J. Murdoch
337 Willingdon Ave.
Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
K7L 4J3
--<snip>---------------------------------------------------------

The question this brings to mind is; what did Dale have to hide,
that he'd go against the clear wishes of the deceased author? John
Souvestre also held the program back; so apparently, he's had
something to hide for about seven years now.

When did our mail hubs become "Big Brother"?

-----------------------------------------------------------------

FIDONEWS 18-18 Page 8 30 Apr 2001

=================================================================
INTERVIEWS
=================================================================

Interview with Rusty Johnson of JNS Doors

From: "Rusty Johnson" <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]

Note: The above address for Rusty appears on his Web Page.

Hello Frank,
I would be happy to answer your questions and appreciate you
asking.

Hello Rusty,

As Editor of the Fidonews, a publication of the Fidonet mail
network, I'm trying to interview various Authors of BBS related
programs and other software for the Fidonews.

Since you are still supporting your door software, at least in the
form of accepting registrations, I thought you might agree to answer
some questions. Please feel free to refuse with no harm done.

Q: Tell us a little about Rusty Johnson. Just who are you? :)

A: I am from a town named Barboursville just east of Huntington,
West Virginia. I was born and still reside in this area. I am a Master
Electrician with skills in other construction areas. I am 43 years
old, married with 3 children, ages 15 to 20 years. I enjoy all manner
of sports and still play quite a bit refusing to grow entirely up, too
soon.

Q: What got you first interested in BBS?

A: I got interested in computers and BBS's back in 1988. Anything
related to computers interested me. Back then 1200 baud was the most
used modem speed with XT 4.77 processors, so things we're a bit slow
but it was so fun. I actually enjoyed it more then than later when
things speeded up.

Q: How long have you been programming?

A: I begin programming in 1988 when I bought my first computer. It
came with the old GW Basic which is the first Basic language I
learned. I am completely self taught and steped from GW Basic to Turbo
Basic to Quick Basic then into PDS Basic 7.1. I also learned what I
needed to of Pascal and C++ but I'm not real fluent in these.

Q: What prompted you to begin writing JNS Doors?

A: I decided to start writing doors after I started helping a friend
run a BBS back in 1988. I was always the one setting up the door games
FIDONEWS 18-18 Page 9 30 Apr 2001

and found it hard and sometimes next to impossible to get them to run.
Back then most doors we're written for specific BBS formats and we're
tough to get running on our Wildcat BBS. So I decided I would try my
hand at writing doors. My first was In-Between and it took me 6 months
to complete. I was determined to make it easy to setup on almost any
BBS software package and also make my home phone available to sysops
trying to use my doors. For nearly no other door author gave there
phone numbers for support. I still give phone support today.

Q: What do you see as the strong points of your doors? Give us a
quick review.

A: I think the strong point for my doors are they are very
competitive. Most are some type of solitaire game and I started out by
making sure everyone recieved the exact same shuffle for each hand. I
wanted scores to be based off your playing ability and not the luck of
the draw. Also I never gave sysops full control of the games. Meaning
I had an upper limit to the number of hands that could be played in a
single day. For some BBS users had time to play for hours while other
BBS users could only play for 30 minutes or so. This way all players
could play the same number of hands per day and stay competitive. Also
the ability to make up missed days and also play out the month in case
a user was going out of town or to stop the last day rush to finish
up. In other words I spent many hours thinking of ways to keep the
games interesting and appealing to the users.

Q: Where do you see door games going in the future? Q: Where do you
see BBS systems going in the future.

A: Actually I haven't a clue. Personally I would like to see BBS's
revived and leave the internet for more commericial applications. I
think as rates increase for internet accessibility it may revive the
BBS market. BBS doors are some of the most entertaining games made in
my opinion, and I would like to see them return. I think BBS systems
and doors will run hand in hand. Also most BBS's in the past we're
mainly visited by the users for the file database and games. So as
BBS's are setup I think the door games are a must.

Q: Anything else you want to add or tell the readers?

A: I personally think that the BBS and Internet both have there
place. Most users don't understand how either works they just use
them. I think that a lot of users, especially the old ones, would
really like seeing the BBS back in full swing. There is nothing like
logging on to a home town based BBS and playing games, competeing
against friends and family. Then with the internet keeping in touch
with family and friends around the world.

Thanks for your time and help in this interview.

Regards,

Frank Vest - Fidonews Editor

FIDONEWS 18-18 Page 10 30 Apr 2001

JNS Doors can be downloaded from:

http://www.geocities.com/jnssoftware/

-----------------------------------------------------------------

FIDONEWS 18-18 Page 11 30 Apr 2001

=================================================================
FRANK'S COLUMN
=================================================================

What do I need to run a Fidonet System?

By Frank Vest

It still amazes me that there is BBS and Fidonet software around that
will run in Dos. With the Windows, and even Linux, being so popular,
It is nice to still see software that will run in Dos being developed.
It is also amazing that the Dos programs are still half or less of the
size of the Windows programs.

Now, on to the title of this little article.

What does it take to run a Fidonet system? Really?? In all honesty,
this depends on what you want to do. The basic system to receive and
send mail can be very small and, depending on how many echos you want
to carry, how much traffic and how many days of mail you want to keep
in your message base, a Fidonet system could probably still be run on
a 20 meg drive. I pretty sure that Spitfire BBS, although not really
supported anymore, can still be run on a 286 and is Y2K compliant.

So, what does this all mean?

Just this. One of the selling points of Fidonet is that we are a
hobby. One of the things that might keep people away from this hobby
is the cost of equipment to participate in the hobby. Let's face it,
any hobby costs the hobbyist money. When dealing with computers, it's
easy to imagine that one would need a Pentium or better with a minimum
of a 20 or 30 gig drive. After all, most communication programs and
such that connect to the Internet are at least 5 megs minimum. It
would be easy for a person that has seen nothing but Windows and the
Internet to imagine spending a couple of thousand dollars or more to
setup a Fidonet hobby system that is going to bring in no money at
all. Wouldn't that be a deterrent to joining Fidonet? Possibly.

Now, what if these people that might be interested in Fidonet were
informed that they could get into Fidonet for the cost of that old 386
or 486 that they have lying around gathering dust and maybe the
monthly cost of a phone line? Not only that, but they only need about
2 or 3 hundred megs of drive space. Wow! They don't even have to buy a
new drive for that old 486. :)

This might not go anywhere, but the next time you are talking to a
friend or in a crowd and you mention that you run a Fidonet BBS, be
sure to explain that Fidonet is a hobby and that it doesn't cost that
much to be a part of the hobby.

Regards,

Frank

FIDONEWS 18-18 Page 12 30 Apr 2001

-----------------------------------------------------------------

FIDONEWS 18-18 Page 13 30 Apr 2001

=================================================================
FIDONET WEB PAGE REVIEWS
=================================================================

Announcing "Fidonet International"

Where?:
http://bise.tzo.com/fido_int

About this site:

Fidonet International is a concept that I had for a "General Fidonet"
site that would give information on Fidonet and be a "pointer" to the
Zone web pages and some other information sites that might help a
prospective Fidonet Sysop get into this Fidonet family.

Fidonet International isn't meant to be a "all in one" site with
listing of all Fidonet sites and such. It is a basic "front page" that
will point visitors to information that might help them understand
what Fidonet is and how to join.

Features:

Links to Fidonet Zone pages. A "Help Desk" to request more
information and help. A Zone Map that will help locate what Zone a new
Node would be in and point him/her to that Zone's page where they can,
hopefully, get more information. Simple HTML versions of some
documents of interest to all, including Policy 4. A "files" page with
some files of historic value and current value to Nodes and
perspective Nodes alike.

Desires:

I would like to get this site translated to other languages. The
Index page shows several language options... Sadly, the English
version is the only one that is functional. I haven't the language
knowledge to translate to other languages. Any help in this would be
welcome.

Check this site out and see what you think of it.

Regards,

Frank

-----------------------------------------------------------------

FIDONEWS 18-18 Page 14 30 Apr 2001

=================================================================
HUMOR IN A FIDO VEIN
=================================================================

NoBlackfly - Is this debugging tool screening your mail?

By Carl Austin Bennett 1:249/116

As if the whole saga of forged SEEN-BY's, bogus claims that one or
another distribution system doesn't (or shouldn't) exist and
mishandling of restricted regional echos isn't enough, there's a new
conspiracy afoot.

Many critters in MOOSECHAT have been wondering why their mail from the
North Alberta Backbone has all too often uncerimoniously ended its
migration by arriving squished, squashed or even compressed.

Well, now we know!

NOBLACKFLY v. 2.0 - search PKT files for undesirable blackflies & bugs
Copyright (c) D.J. Moose (1993,1994) & North Alberta Bugscreens (NAB)
Inc.

Summary:

Version 2.0 is a complete rewrite of Noblackfly. The version
1.x design was becoming unwieldy; it was hard to add new
flypaper and impossible for the user to put his/her own
flyswatter together.

With version 2.0, the bugscreens and rolled-up newspapers are
*much* more sophisticated. You can patch together bug zappers
using logical "and", "or" and "not" (as well as "off" and
"raid"[tm]) or even kill a fly with a cannon. Noblackfly gets
rid of pests efficiently.

Config flies:

The flypaper is mostly of the same format. You specify the
part of each moosage to look in and what bugs to look for, and
NOBLACKFLY will check every moosage in the packets for a match.
Case doesn't matter; BUG=bug=Bug. Every time *any* of the
specified searches finds a bug in a moosage, it counts as a
hit. Only one hit is counted per moosage for each roll of
flypaper. If you get enough hits in a packet (see Percent and
Count below to define "enough"), the bad moosages (and possibly
the whole packet) will be swatted with a rolled-up newspaper
before bugs spread to other parts of your swamp.

Tests:

NOBLACKFLY can do bug searches of the following fields:
From,To: Subject: Text: Area: Kludge:
Tearline: Origin: SeenBy: Path: Any:
FIDONEWS 18-18 Page 15 30 Apr 2001

It can also detect and swat the infamous blood-sucking Y2K
bugs. An industrial strength version is being developed for VW
bugs.

Cleantext: This is like a text search, but NOBLACKFLY first
cleans up the text. This way simple misspellings
like "bu7gs" will still be recognized as "bugs".

If you want to search several fields for the same pests, you
can put them together using "|", e.g.

From|To=Blackfly Seaborn

KnownMoose: This is another option designed to detect dupes. If
you know of a critter with an uncommon name (e.g.
"Dj Moose") who always posts from the same swamp,
then you can detect dupes (or blackfly-infested
moosages) when moosages from that user come from
somewhere else.

The syntax of this option is
KnownMoose = Blackfly Seaborn from 140/1

which says that moosages from out-of-region always
come to you via Blackfly Seaborn's swamp 140/1, and
if one arrives from somewhere else, it's probably a
dupe or a blackfly-infested moosage.

Moosemail: The single keyword Moosemail gives a test that
matches any moosemail moosage, but not echo gronks.

For example,
ignore moosemail (or not...)

tells Noblackfly to ignore all moosemail for the
current batch of flypaper.

Oneorigin: Just use the word "OneOrigin" on a line by itself to
get NOBLACKFLY to verify that every echomail moosage
has exactly one Origin line. Use with caution;
critters can quote the origin line, and end up with
two.

Pkt_From: The node's antlers as exposed in the packet header.

You'll normally use this test in combination with
other bugscreens. For example,

(Pkt_From = 140/1) and (Origin = http://www.nwstar.com)

will be triggered on any moosage arriving from node
140/1 with an origin line indicating an internet
address.

WrongMOOSEID: This is another syntax exception. Just use
"WrongMOOSEID" by itself, and NOBLACKFLY will check
FIDONEWS 18-18 Page 16 30 Apr 2001

that the origin swamp listed in the MOOSEID kludge
line matches the origin swamp listed in the Origin
line. Only the zone, swamp and bog are checked; the
point and network will be ignored if present.

Boolean combinations:

You can construct your own bugscreens using Boolean
combinations of leftover flypaper, for example:

(Blackfly Seaborn) or (BUG17)

There is no limit to the complexity and size of the bug zappers
you can construct this way using multiple operators and duct
tape, as long as you have enough acerage handy out yonder in
red neck country.

Control lines:

Count: The number of bugs within the current batch of
flypaper which must be collected to mark a packet as
bad.

If *either* Count or Percent is exceeded, then the
bad moosages or the whole packet will be swatted.

Ignore_Pkt_From: Specify swamps which you know are completely
trustworthy. Packets from these swamps will not be
checked. Use this with extreme care! If it is even
remotely conceivable that some bug could masquerade
in one of these swamps or somehow sneak past their
bug zappers, then don't list them here. Consider
carefully whether the 2 or 3 minutes stinging this
can give you is worth the risk.

LogOnly: Any buzzing sounds matching this directive will
result in loud gronks in the log, but won't affect
moosages.

Percent: The percent of bugs on the current batch of flypaper
to mark packet as bad. If *either* Count or Percent
is exceeded, then the swat/shoo-away actions will be
taken.

StopMoosage: Any bug screens following this directive will
cause individual moosages to be moved out of the
packet.

StopPacket: Any bug screens following this directive will cause
the whole packet to be swatted if any moosage gets
flypapered.

See "How NOBLACKFLY decides what to swat" for more
details.

With the increasing tendancy of critters to leave Windows [tm] open
FIDONEWS 18-18 Page 17 30 Apr 2001

and admit ever-expanding numbers of pesky bugs into the swamp, as well
as sending termite-infested e-mail to unsuspecting PINE and ELM sites,
no Moosenet node can afford to be without NoBlackfly.

Don't leave the out-of-region admin echos without it!

-----------------------------------------------------------------

A satire of a message in the Z1_ROUTING echo
By Lesley-Dee Dylan

Date: Apr-23-01 13:32:12
From: Janis Kracht
To: Foxy Ferguson
Subject: Routelist Keeper (The Pyschic Hot-Line Intercepted Version)

Foxy, I received your netmail message this morning regarding your
gross error in the hatching of routelst.112. Your excuse to me for
doing so was that you had changed your configuration as soon as I told
you to, and, while admitting that you had received my instructions to
change it back before the release of routelst.112, you mistakenly had
not done so; hence a number of people appeared in the seen-bys that
should not have appeared in your tic. I TOLD you we needed to wait
until we discovered a way to get them into the tic file and yet keep
them invisible.

Regardless of what you were thinking in your initial decision to
follow my instructions to the letter, to change your configuration to
include those nodes in your seenbys (perhaps you were thinking those
in the seenbys have their own list being built now), this is _NOT_ how
to create problems in distribution of _any_ file. There are much more
eloquent ways of achieving this aim. We've got a team working on
developing them now.

Your job as Z1EC as regards the routelist is to publish the
information provided to you by those authorized to do so (whether
accurate or not), _NOT_ to get caught making descions as to who should
or should not receive the list, which is what I realized somewhere
along the way, but didn't tell you in time.

You say to me that you had all intentions of restoring your
configuration to it's previous state (we've all written netmail
messages to people and trashed them before sending them) but... in
your position of Z1EC and with the responsibility of maintaining the
routing chart, there is little room for errors in judgement of this
nature. We have to hold off on screwing up the routing until we are
fully in position to grab complete control of all mail distribution.
Premature detonation of a weapon gives away our position. It saddens
me that you even had this thought to begin with so that you changed
your configuration ... This seen-by stuffing weapon in the file
distribution network was supposed to be detonated by Bob Seaborn at a
more opportune time, and in a larger number of echoes.

This is _NOT_ where we want to go - certainly it will not help to
bring fidonet out of the slow downward spiral that it is now in. That
spiral is slowing things down - we want it in a death dive.
FIDONEWS 18-18 Page 18 30 Apr 2001

My warning to you is that if at any moment I even _think_ that you are
going to get caught manipulating the situation regarding the Zone 1
routing chart by excluding nodes like this again, I _will_ jump in to
protect your ass.

To the others reading this who may still clamor for Foxy's immediate
removal:

It's not the way I work. Foxy is in on all my conspiracies and plots.
If I remove her from office, she might get mad at me and tell you all
about what I am really up to. I'll protect her come hell or high
water, until it is useful to me to drop her like a hot potato.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

FIDONEWS 18-18 Page 19 30 Apr 2001

=================================================================
COMIX IN ASCII
=================================================================

|^^^^^^|
| |
| |
| (o)(o) ______________________
@ _) __/ Hey Dude! |
| ,___| /__ |
| / \ Fidonet ain't dead!! |
/___\ \_____________________|
/ \

___________________________________
__ | Crash Netmail Attach Articles To: |
/ \ | Editor@1:1/23 (1-972-562-8064) |
/|oo \ ________| [email protected] |
(_| /_) /________ or |
_`@/_ \ _ | Frank Vest@1:124/6308 |
| | \ \\ |___________________________________|
| (*) | \ ))
|__U__| / \//
_//|| _\ /
(_/(_|(____/

-----------------------------------------------------------------

FIDONEWS 18-18 Page 20 30 Apr 2001

=================================================================
CLEAN HUMOR & JOKES
=================================================================

The Power of Acts 2:38

An elderly woman had just returned to her home from an evening
worship service and was startled to find a intruder in her house.
Catching the man in the act of burglarizing her home, she yelled,
"Stop! Acts 2:38!"
(Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ
so that your sins may be forgiven).

As the burglar stopped dead in his tracks, the woman calmly called the
police and explained what she had done. Shortly, several officers
arrived and took the man into custody.

As he was placing the handcuffs on the burglar, one of the officers
asked "Why did you just stand there? All the lady did was mention a
Scripture verse."

"SCRIPTURE?" replied the burglar. "She said she had an AXE and TWO
38's!

-----------------------------------------------------------------

FIDONEWS 18-18 Page 21 30 Apr 2001

=================================================================
CLASSIFIED ADS
=================================================================

Rotating ads

As a new service of the Fidonews, I am prepared to offer rotating ads
for those that provide services to Fidonet such as Mail Hubs,
Gateways, Fidonet via Internet and such.

How this works:

1. Create an ad following the guidelines for the Fidonews.
2. Keep it short and to the point.
3. Put contact and other needed information in the ad.
4. Send it to Frank Vest as a file attach.
A. E-Mail "[email protected]
B. Netmail "Frank Vest - 1:124/6308

I will put the ad in a pool and use a program each week to
automatically rotate the ads into the Fidonews.

Please! If you stop offering service or need to change your ad,
contact me! This is very important to keep the ads current.

I'm doing this on a trial basis. If it gets to be a problem, I will
have to discontinue the service. I can make no promise of how often
your ad will be in the Fidonews. This will depend on how many ads I
have to rotate through.

As always in Fidonet, I make no guaranties. :)

Regards,

Frank Vest - Fidonews Editor

-----------------------------------------------------------------

FIDONEWS 18-18 Page 22 30 Apr 2001

=================================================================
QUESTION OF THE WEEK
=================================================================

Why not carry?

In an article last week, Renato Zambon wrote about becoming the Z4C.
My congratulations to him.

Part of the article mentioned Echomail areas available in his Zone.
I've heard that there are many Echomail areas in other Zones that are
not carried in Zone 1. My questions:

Why not?

Why shouldn't the Backbones in Zone 1 carry some of these echos?

There are those in Zone 1 that speak other languages. Why not give
them a chance to get message echos in their language, or better yet,
from their homeland? For that matter, why shouldn't all Zones carry
echos from other Zones?

-----------------------------------------------------------------

FIDONEWS 18-18 Page 23 30 Apr 2001

=================================================================
FIDONET BY INTERNET
=================================================================

. -- -- -- -- --- -- -- -- -- .
| FIDONET-RELATED SITES |
` -- -- -- -- --- -- -- -- -- '
Last update: March 3, 2001

FidoNet
Homepage: http://www.fidonet.org
FidoNews: http://www.fidonews.org [HTML]
ftp://ftp.nwstar.com/fidonet/fidonews/
Echolist: http://www.tlchost.net/echolist/
Echomail links: http://www.osirusoft.com/fidonet/fidoip.html
SDS Files: http://fidobbs.dk/download (Web Access to SDS)
FTSC page: http://www.ftsc.org/
General: http://www.writebynight.com/fidonet.html

Zone 1: http://www.z1.fidonet.org
Region 10: http://www.r10.org
Net 102 http://home.earthlink.net/~kayshapero/net102.htm
Net 103: http://www.webworldinc.com/club103/
Net 203: http://www.geocities.com/Area51/8687/net203index.html
Region 11: http://oeonline.com/~garyg/region11/
Net 2410: http://www.vector.11.com/net2410/
Region 12: http://sparkys.dyndns.org
Region 13: http://www.net264.org/r13.htm
Net 264: http://www.net264.org/
Net 275: http://www.homershut.net/~mahoover/net275/
Region 14: http://www.ouijabrd.com/region14
Net 282: http://www.rxn.com/~net282/
Region 15: <vacant>
Region 16: <vacant>
Region 17: http://www.region17.net
Net 140: http://www.nwstar.com/~net140
Region 18: http://techshop.pdn.net/fido/

Region 19: http://bise.tzo.com/r19
Net 124: http://www.dallasinet.com/net124
http://texoma.net/~flv
Net 130: http://www.startext.net/homes/net130
Net 393: http://www.chatter.com/~wb/

Zone 2: http://www.z2.fidonet.org
Region 20: http://www.fidonet.pp.se (in Swedish)
Region 23: http://www.fido.dk (in Danish)

Region 24: http://www.swb.de/personal/flop/gatebau.html (German)
http://www.was-ist-fido.de/
Fido-IP: http://home.nrh.de/fido/ (English/German)
Region 25: http://www.literary.freeserve.co.uk/net2502/
Region 26: http://www.nemesis.ie
REC 26: http://www.nrgsys.com/orb
Region 27: http://telematique.org/ft/r27.htm
Region 29: http://www.rtfm.be/fidonet/ (French)
FIDONEWS 18-18 Page 24 30 Apr 2001

http://Welcome.to/skynetbbs/
Region 30: http://www.fidonet.ch (German)
? Region 33: http://www.fidoitalia.net (Italian)
Region 34: http://www.pobox.com/cnb/r34.htm (Spanish)
REC34: http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/4552/
Region 36: http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/7207/
Region 38: http://public.st.carnet.hr/~blagi/bbs/adriam.html
Region 41: http://www.fidonet.gr (Greek/English)
Region 42: http://www.fido.cz
! Net422: http://www.fido.sk (Slovak/English)
Region 50: http://www.fido7.com/ (Russian)
Net 5010: http://fido.tu-chel.ac.ru/ (Russian)
Net 5015: http://www.fido.nnov.ru/ (Russian)
Net 5028: HTTP://5028.nordnet.ru/
Net 5030: http://kenga.ru/fido/ (Russian & English)
Net 5049: http://www.n5049.z2.fidonet.org (English/Russian)
Net 5074: http://www.z2.n5074.fidonet.net
?? Net 5085: http://www.fidonet.uz/ (Russian)

Zone 3: http://www.z3.fidonet.org

Zone 4:
Region 80: http://fidobrasil.8m.com (Portuguese)
Region 90:
Net 904: http://members.tripod.com/~net904 (Spanish)

Zone 5: http://www.eastcape.co.za/fidonet/

Zone 6: http://www.z6.fidonet.org
Region 65: http://www.cfido.com/fidonet/cfidochina.html
(Chinese)

Fidonet Via Internet Hubs

See also: http://www.osirusoft.com/fidoip.html

a @ preceding an individual's name implies a virtual email
address. The email is translated as follows
[email protected] will automatically route to the
appropriate individual's email. Anyone in this list will
also receive routed notice of this feature. In my case, it
would still be [email protected], but you get the idea.

Also, as information is provided to me, I will be adding a
latency field to each node, which is defined as the maximum
time between when the message is received, and when it is
sent on to other nodes, or available to be sent onward,
defined in minutes. A latency of ! implies that there is an
immediate response, and an attempt to deliver immediately
after processing, or a "MinuteMail System", as it were.

v-email flag [email protected]
| email address or
Node# | Operator | Facilities (*) | Speed,| Basic Rate
| | |latency|
FIDONEWS 18-18 Page 25 30 Apr 2001

-----------+-------------------+----------------+-------+------------
Zone 1 | | | |
10/3 | Brenda Donovan | FTP,UUE,BinkP | 384K,30| n/c
10/345 @ Todd Cochrane | FTP,BinkP,VMOT | T1,! | n/c
13/25 @ Jim Balcom | FTP | 56k | $20mo.
18/500 @ Ross Cassell | FTP, BinkP |128K+,!| n/c
103/5 @ Mark Luetger | BinkP | 384k,!| n/c
103/153 @ Michael Box | BinkP | aDSL,!| n/c
103/301 @ Joe Jared | BinkP,FTP,NFS | 384k,!| n/c
103/401 @ Warren Bonner | BinkP | aDSL,!| n/c
105/8 | Russ Johnson | FTP,BinkP,VMoT | 384k | n/c
105/72 @ Larry James | FTP, BinkP | aDSL | $50/yr
106/1 @ Steve Loupe | BinkP, FTP | 128k | ???
106/6018 | Lawrence Garvin | FTP, VMoT | aDSL,60| n/c
107/453 @ Jeffrey Estevez| FTP,BinkP,VMoT,UUE| 56k,60| $10 mo.
140/1 @ Bob Seaborn | FTP,BinkP | T3,30 | $5/$16
167/133 | Stephen Monteith | BinkP | 128k+ | n/c
211/417 @ Korombos | BinkP,UUE,FTP | T1 | n/c
220/10 | [email protected] |BinkP,FTP,UUE|1.5M+ | n/c
218/109 @ Matt Munson | BinkP,UUE | 33.6k | n/c
246/160 @ Mason Vye | FTP, UUE | 56K | n/c
249/116 | Carl Austin Bennett | FTP, UUE |ADSL,60 | n/c
280/169 | Brian Greenstreet | FTP | 33.6 | $2mo.
342/3 @ Richard Dodsworth | BinkP,FTP | 128K+ | n/c
395/670 | Arthur Stark | BinkD,FTP | CABLE | n/c
379/1 @ Dale Ross | FTP, BinkP,UUE | 256K+,! n/c
396/45 | Marc Lewis | UUE | 33.6 | $26/yr
396/48 | Ben Ritchey | UUE:BFDS | 33.6k | n/c
2604/104 @ Jim Mclaughlin | FTP,VMoT,UUE | 33.6 | $1mo
2613/404 @ David Moufarrege | BinkP,FTP,VMoT | 128k+,!| n/c
2624/306 | David Calafrancesco | VMoT | 33.6 | n/c
3407/4 @ [email protected] | UUE,FTP | 28.8 | n/c
3632/84 | Robert Todd |FTP,VMoT,UUE,BinkP | 57.6k | n/c
3651/9 @ Jerry Gause | FTP,VMoT | 33.6 | $3/$6
--------------------------------------------------------------
Zone 2 |
20/11 | Henrik Lindhe | BinkP | ??? | n/c
31/1 | Gabriel Plutzar | BinkP | T1+ | n/c
203/600 | Mikael Karlsson | UUE | 64k | n/c
221/360 @ Tommi Koivula | BinkP,UUE | ??? | n/c
236/205 @ Michael Kaaber | BinkP | ??? | n/c
246/2098 | Volker Imre | BinkP | ??? | n/c
280/1601 @ Jeroen VanDeLeur | FTP,UUE | 64k | n/c
292/620 | Eddy Missoul | VMoT, UUE,BinkP| 64k |N/C
292/624 | Steven Leeman | UUE | 64k | N/C
292/907 | Bart Verhaeghe | BinkP,VMoT,UUE | 64K | n/c
292/2003 | Eric Vaneberck | BinkP | 768k | n/c
301/1 | Peter Witschi | BinkP | 768k | n/c
332/807 | Roberto Mascolo | BinkP | ??? | n/c
335/535 @ Mario Mure | BinkP,VMot,UUE | 64k | n/c
335/610 | Gino Lucrezi | UUE | 33.6 | n/c
344/201 | Julio Garcia | BinkP | ??? | n/c
346/3 @ Carlos Navarro | UUE | ??? | n/c
382/100 | Sinisa Burina | BinkP,ifcico | ??? | n/c
406/555 | Ofir Michaeli & | BinkP | ??? | n/c
406/555 | Marius Kaizerman | BinkP | ??? | n/c
FIDONEWS 18-18 Page 26 30 Apr 2001

423/81 | Milos Bajer | BinkP | ??? | n/c
465/204 | Va Milushnikov | BinkP | 33.6k | n/c
469/84 | Max Masyutin | VMoT | 256k | n/c
480/112 | Adam Sarapata| FTP, VMoT, UUE,BinkP| 128k | n/c
550/4077 | Serguei Trouchelle| UUE | ----- | n/c
2411/413 @ Dennis Dittrich | UUE,BinkP | 64k | n/c
2446/301 @ Lothar Behet | BinkP,VMoT,UUE,FTP | 64K | n/c
2474/275 | Christian Emig | UUE | 64k | unkn
5030/115 | Andrey Podkolzin | BinkP | ??? | n/c
5100/8 | Egons Bush | BinkP | ??? | n/c
5020/1159 | Gennady Kudryashoff | UUE | 33.6 | n/c
--------------------------------------------------------------
Zone 3
633/260 @ Malcolm Miles | FTP,BinkP | 64K | n/c
640/954 | Rick Van Ruth | FTP,VMot,UUE,BinkP| 56K| n/c
774/605 @ Barry Blackford|BinkP,VMoT:10023,ifcico,FTP |33.6| n/c

--------------------------------------------------------------
Zone 4
801/161 @ Renato Zambon | UUE | 33.6 |n/c
905/100 | Fabian Gervan | VMoT,UUE,BinkP | 128k | n/c
902/18 | Javier Tejedor | UUE | 33,6 | n/c

--
* FTP = Internet File Transfer Protocol
* VMoT = Virtual Mailer over Telnet (various)
* UUE = uuencode<->email type transfers
* BinkP = front end mailer for TCPIP networks
* NFS = Linux Networking
----------------------------------------------
Fidonet oriented news servers

news.osirusoft.com
news.tardis.net

Fidonet oriented chat rooms.

room #fidonet 5PM (PDT 11AM GMT) Sundays
irc.osirusoft.com (Peers wanted)

----------------------------------------------

Please send updates, corrections and suggestions to
Joe Jared, 1:103/301, [email protected]. All email addresses
here for purpose of corresponding with fidonet members about
obtaining a feed. Improper use of the virtual email addresses, and
most especially, email addressed to [email protected]
will be considered a request to be blocked by my open relay spam
stopper at http://relays.osirusoft.com

-----------------------------------------------------------------

FIDONEWS 18-18 Page 27 30 Apr 2001

=================================================================
FIDONEWS INFORMATION
=================================================================

How to Submit an Article

If you wish to submit an article for inclusion in the Fidonews, here
are the guidelines:

No more than 70 characters per line. This includes spaces.

No right or left margins.

Plain ASCII text _only_. Good rule is: If you can't type it on a plain
typewriter, don't use it.

Put a title to the article and your name.
1. Put the title in two time. The first time should be with an *
before it and the second time without the *. This will help in the
format since the title with the * is removed and used in the index
and the other one will remain and show what the article is about.

Articles that contain vulgar language will not be accepted.

Deadline for article submission is 12:00 midnight (24:00 hours)
according to _my_ clock. I'm in the Central Time Zone in the U.S.A.
Articles received after the deadline will appear in the next Fidonews.

Help the Editor by following the above guides. Below are some subjects
and the file extension for the article as set in the configuration
file for the making of the Fidonews. The file name can be anything up
to 8 characters. Please help by putting the file extension of the
correct subject on the file name..

Ideas for Subject areas:

Subject File | Subject File
--------------------------------|---------------------------------
Software Reviews (Fido) *.rev | Getting Technical *.ftc
Web Page Reviews *.web | General Articles *.art
Fidonet Current Events *.cur | Clean Jokes & Humor *.jok
Ascii Comix *.cmx | From the *Cs *.css
Rebuttals *.reb | Guest Editorial *.gue
Advertise *.ads | Recipes *.rec

Details:

Software Reviews (Fido): Reviews of software for Fidonet and BBS.

Getting Technical: Tech articles about Fidonet. How-to and such.

Web Page Reviews: Reviews of Fidonet (maybe other) Related Web Pages.

General Articles: These don't seem to fit in other places.

FIDONEWS 18-18 Page 28 30 Apr 2001

Fidonet Current Events: Elections relating to Fidonet, new Nodes
coming in and other such articles.

Clean Jokes & Humor: Funny stories and jokes that are not vulgar.

Ascii Comix: Those wonderful Ascii Comics that we used to have in the
Fidonews.

From the *Cs: Letters from the *Cs about what is going on in Fidonet.

Rebuttals: Didn't like an article, want to say something in reply to
an article? Say it here

Guest Editorial: Don't let the Editor get all the glory. Write your
own editorial and submit it.

Advertise: Advertise your free Fidonet service, Fidonet event or
whatever to do with Fidonet that you offer. If you are a
Fidonet Service provider such as a "Fido<>Internet", Star
Hub or some other such service provider, we can arrange to
run your ad on a rotating basis. Ask the Editor.

Recipes: Recipes from Sysops, readers or interested parties.

If you follow these simple guidelines, there should be little problem
in getting your article published. If your submission is too far out
of specs for the Fidonews, it will be returned to you and/or a message
sent informing you of the problem.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Credits, Legal Infomation, Availability

+ -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- FIDONEWS STAFF - -- -- -- -- -- -- +
| |
| Editor: Frank L. Vest, 1:1/23, [email protected] |
| Crash mail attached: Editor@1:1/23 |
| E-Mail Attach [email protected] |
| Webmaster: Jim Barchuk, [email protected] |
| Columnist: Joe Jared, 1:103/0, [email protected] |
| (Fido Via Internet Hubs column) |
| Humor: Chuckles & Grins, emailed to editor |
| Columnist: Frank Vest, 1:124/6308.1 |
| Columnist: Warren Bonner when he can see well enough |
| Columnist: Jack Yates when in the Gawga mood |
+ -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- +

+ -- -- -- -- -- -- -- - EDITORS EMERITI - -- -- -- -- -- -- +
| |
| Tom Jennings, Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell, Vince |
| Perriello, Tim Pozar, Sylvia Maxwell, Donald Tees, |
| Christopher Baker, Zorch Frezberg, Henk Wolsink, |
| Doug Meyers, Warren D. Bonner |
| |
+ -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- +
FIDONEWS 18-18 Page 29 30 Apr 2001

"Fido", "FidoNet" and the dog-with-diskette are U.S. registered
trademarks of Tom Jennings, P.O. Box 410923, San Francisco, CA
94141, and are used with permission.

Fidonews is published weekly by and for the members of Fidonet.
Fidonews is Copyright (C) 2001 by Frank L. Vest, though authors
retain rights to their contributed articles. Opinions expressed
by the authors is strictly their own. Noncommercial duplication
and distribution within Fidonet is encouraged. Authors are
encouraged to send their articles in ASCII text to:
Frank Vest at one of his addresses above.

The weekly edition of Fidonews is distributed through the file
area FIDONEWS, and is published as echomail in the echo FIDONEWS.
These sources are normally available through your Network
Coordinator. The current and past issues are also available from
the following sources:

+ -- -- -- -- -- -- - FIDONEWS AVAILABILITY - -- -- -- -- -- -- +
| |
| Freq FIDONEWS @ 1:140/1 |
| ftp://ftp.nwstar.com/fidonet/fidonews/ |
| http://www.fidonews.org |
| email subscription: [email protected] |
| (subject: help body: list) |
| ftp mail: [email protected] (subject: help) |
| |
+ -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- +

-----------------------------------------------------------------