332 lines
16 KiB
Plaintext
332 lines
16 KiB
Plaintext
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F I D O N E W S -- Vol.11 No. 7 (14-Feb-1994)
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+----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
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| A newsletter of the | |
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| FidoNet BBS community | Published by: |
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| _ | |
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| / \ | "FidoNews" BBS |
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| /|oo \ | +1-519-570-4176 1:1/23 |
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| (_| /_) | |
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| _`@/_ \ _ | Editors: |
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| | | \ \\ | Sylvia Maxwell 1:221/194 |
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| | (*) | \ )) | Donald Tees 1:221/192 |
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| |__U__| / \// | Tim Pozar 1:125/555 |
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| _//|| _\ / | |
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| (_/(_|(____/ | |
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| (jm) | Newspapers should have no friends. |
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| | -- JOSEPH PULITZER |
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+----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
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| Submission address: editors 1:1/23 |
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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| Internet addresses: |
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| Sylvia -- max@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca |
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| Donald -- donald@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca |
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| Tim -- pozar@kumr.lns.com |
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| Both Don & Sylvia (submission address) |
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| editor@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca |
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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| For information, copyrights, article submissions, |
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| obtaining copies and other boring but important details, |
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| please refer to the end of this file. |
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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========================================================================
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Table of Contents
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========================================================================
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1. Editorial..................................................... 1
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2. Articles...................................................... 2
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"Foreign" languages in the snooze........................... 2
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Whining..................................................... 3
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REENACT - The Living History Echo........................... 5
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3. Fidonews Information.......................................... 5
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========================================================================
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Editorial
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========================================================================
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FidoNews 11-07 Page: 2 14 Feb 1994
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Well, here we go. Three articles in the mail, and every one
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better than any editorial we had in mind.
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========================================================================
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Articles
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========================================================================
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"Foreign" languages in the snooze
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by Juergen Hermann
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Internet jh@ccave.ka.sub.org
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PhoneNet 49-721-826310 (FAX, V.32bis)
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FidoNet#2:2476/554 (as of NodeList.035, no guarantees beyond that)
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Some people complained (whined?) about the appearance of articles in
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languages other than English. Well, here are some counterarguments...
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There are articles aimed at a certain limited audience, like announcing
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a new echo where Spanish is the language to be used. Why should this
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announcement be translated to English, when even in this form it's of
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no use whatsoever to a poor soul whose only means of (written)
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communication is English? What if I find the time to write a new
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episode of the never-ending story how one guy can fuck up whole regions
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in Z2, with a wink of his blue eyes? Hardly anybody of the often-cited
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"majority of FidoNet" (read: Z1) gives a damn about that, so why
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shouldn't I write it in German, sparing me some useless effort?
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You may suggest to put such articles into regional newsletters, but
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fact is that such newsletters aren't working since there's never enough
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input. It hasn't happened recently, but there were weeks we got an
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empty Snooze!
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And as Chris Farrar showed us in his article in Snooze #1105, many
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people even have problems with their mother tongue: they are either
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lazy -- which is tolerable in echomail contexts, but not with articles
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for a newsletter -- or incompetent. One could ask whether an article
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with such errors like swapping "their" with "they're" and "its" with
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"it's" is in fact written in English, if only for the sake of the
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argument.
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Finally, if you're that upset about all that outlandish gibberish, do
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the same some people have done because of the sometimes poor
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signal/noise ratio of the Snooze -- ask your feed to cut your link.
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After all, it's just a hobby! <evil smirk>
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--
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"Jeder Mensch ist in den meisten Laendern dieser Erde ein Auslaender."
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FidoNews 11-07 Page: 3 14 Feb 1994
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Whining
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by Jerry Schwartz 142/928
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This Is My Title (So there, I did too read ArtSpec.Doc)
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I see by scanning my \JUNK directory that it's been several
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months since I last wrote an article for FidoNews. My job has
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undergone some changes, and unfortunately for you all it now
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gives me a little more free time. As usual when such leisure
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grips me, I blew through several issues of FidoNews in one
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sitting. This kind of time lapse reading almost always motivates
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me to contribute my own dollop of unwholesomeness. Not all of
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this article is humorous or worthless tripe, so please keep
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reading: there may be some worthwhile tripe in it.
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It seems that whining has become the preoccupation of FidoNews
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and its correspondents, which is really a shame. In defense of
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those to whom God speaks directly, at least they know how to
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issue a good, old-fashioned, thundering denunciation. If their
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words had the power that their rhetoric deserves, various male
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generative organs would long since have shriveled up and fallen
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off.
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One recent contributor berated the editors for sloppy
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punctuation, capitalization, and grammar. I agree with the
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thrust of his message: the editors should lead by example, and
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even if we don't know where we're going we should still put on
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clean underwear and comb our hair. Unfortunately, this
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contributor made many of the same errors as those very editors he
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was upbraiding. (English is normally capitalized, for example,
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and while it may be bad form to end a sentence with a preposition
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it is worse form to leave it out altogether.) Perhaps he is from
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that part of Canada in which abusing the Queen's English is a
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patriotic duty, in which case he did a better job in English that
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I could ever have managed in French.
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Some folks are whining that FidoNews should be entirely in
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English, and citing Policy. Well, some of the articles I've read
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don't seem to be in ANY language at all, so Spanish and French
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should be a welcome relief. It IS too bad that we can't
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accomodate the extended character sets, as one correspondent
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observed. I remember when a major international echo was briefly
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cross linked with one whose language was (perhaps) Thai; it would
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have been easier to sight read a ZIP file than to make sense of
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the results. Personally, I wish we could offer timely
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translations of FidoNews and, for that matter, echomail; but I've
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been there and done that (in another context), and it was so
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difficult and error prone that the target audience begged me to
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stop.
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I thought about running this article through my Spanish
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translator, but decided that it was already too long and too
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senseless in English. Besides, I think the translation program
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has some hidden dictionary of idioms which is intended to get
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FidoNews 11-07 Page: 4 14 Feb 1994
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stupid Anglos into trouble; some of the most innocent English
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phrases gave rise to an awful lot of snickering from the Latin
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American community. I was also going to have my modem translate
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it into Taiwanese, but the ITU protocols give it a French accent
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it just can't seem to shake.
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I will admit that it was something of an eye opener to see the
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articles in French, Portuguese, and Spanish appearing without
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translation. I didn't like the way it made me feel, and we
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English speakers should all pause and think about that. But to
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threaten to drop the FidoNews because of it is ridiculous. I
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seem to recall that Policy exhorts us not to be too easily
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annoyed. I'd hate to see the reaction of those folks if
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something SERIOUS happened, like (for example) if they had to
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apply for a JOB in a foreign language the way millions of
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immigrants to the USA have over the years.
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Someone was whining about the NodeList (quality thereof). I find
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it hard to get too exercised about the size of the NodeList;
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perhaps it's because I stopped using 8" floppies a while back.
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The size of the NodeDiff is far more important, since I pay for
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that each week. If a mailer answers the phone, fine; if there is
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no answer, well that works out all right for me but I know it
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costs people money in some places where the phone company is less
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obliging. Nonetheless, to interpret Policy so strictly as to
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demand constant polling of every node to determine if it is up,
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down, or sideways seems absurd to me. Take a risk: crash that
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mail; or, if you're chicken, route it. Nothing's perfect.
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The commentary about the role of the moderator raised a good
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point: with the advent of Planet Connect and other "flat"
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topologies it will become difficult to cut a node's feed in some
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cases. As a moderator myself I've already anticipated but not
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yet experienced that. I don't have a good answer, either.
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However, peer pressure isn't likely to be a reliable solution.
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Just the other day I had to deal with (of all things) a CHAIN
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LETTER posted by (of all things) a SYSOP. I'm hoping to hear
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back that someone hacked his system or in some way appropriated
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his name, since the alternative is unpleasant to contemplate. If
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it ever became necessary for me to cut a node's link, and that
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node had a Planet Connect dish, I'm not sure what I could do.
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And finally, it's time for my own dry white whine: modem flags.
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There is now a fine crop of weeds in the modem garden, and it is
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starting to cost me, personally, money. I own a ZyXel modem
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which has a proprietary 19.2 protocol. It seemed like a good
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idea at the time, and it is a fine product in many ways. The
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problem is that the new V.FC 28.8 modems are too similar yet too
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different, and if I call one of them I waste my dime: we never
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connect.
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I was here first! But that's not the real issue: the real issue
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is that I can't identify those other modems except by examining
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my phone bills. The nodes that I called 100 times without ever
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getting a session are probably using those V.FC modems. Since
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FidoNews 11-07 Page: 5 14 Feb 1994
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neither a Z19 flag nor a V.FC flag has been ratified, I can't use
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the standard techniques to modify my setup when calling them. If
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I knew who they were I could force my modem to 14.4, the highest
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speed we have in common. If I could identify the other Z19
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modems reliably, I could force 14.4 with any non-ZyXel V.32bis
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node. But as it stand now, I can't.
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Someone needs to get going and create some new modem flags.
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
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REENACT - The Living History Echo
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REENACT - The Living History Echo
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by Gerald Todd 1:261/1151
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Across the country, men and women portray for us a little bit of what
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life was like "back then." In museums, forts, ships, parks, schools,
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and many other places, these people take us back in time to meet
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Johnny Reb or Billy Yank, to meet one of Roger's Rangers, or a
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family from the prarie. These people show us where we came from,
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and the way we lived. They show us the tools, the food, the weapons,
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and they show us the beliefs, the traditions, and the songs of our
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heritage. These people are "Living Historians."
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REENACT would cover all aspects and periods of historical recreation.
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Topics would include: Military reenactments, sources, equipment, event
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schedules, museum and Park Service events, research, buy and sell,
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recruitment, and more.
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But REENACT isn't an echo, yet. This is an attempt to see what sort
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of "market" there is out in Fidoland to support such an echo. If you
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are a sysop that would be interested in carrying such an echo for
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yourself, or your users, please netmail me at 1:261/1151. If you are
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not a sysop, but would be interested in the REENACT echo call
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Modem Ready the RBBS at 410-360-8007 (14.4k). If there is a fair
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response, I will begin private distribution of the echo, and work
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towards getting it on the Fidonet "backbone."
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Thank you,
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Gerald Todd
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
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========================================================================
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Fidonews Information
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========================================================================
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------- FIDONEWS MASTHEAD AND CONTACT INFORMATION ----------------
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Editors: Sylvia Maxwell, Donald Tees, Tim Pozar
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Editors Emeritii: Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell, Vince Perriello,
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Tom Jennings
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FidoNews 11-07 Page: 6 14 Feb 1994
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IMPORTANT NOTE: The FidoNet address of the FidoNews BBS has been
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changed!!! Please make a note of this.
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"FidoNews" BBS
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FidoNet 1:1/23
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BBS +1-519-570-4176, 300/1200/2400/14400/V.32bis/HST(DS)
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Internet addresses:
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Don & Sylvia (submission address)
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editor@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca
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Sylvia -- max@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca
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Donald -- donald@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca
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Tim -- pozar@kumr.lns.com
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(Postal Service mailing address) (have extreme patience)
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FidoNews
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128 Church St.
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Kitchener, Ontario
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Canada
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N2H 2S4
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Published weekly by and for the members of the FidoNet international
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amateur electronic mail system. It is a compilation of individual
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articles contributed by their authors or their authorized agents. The
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contribution of articles to this compilation does not diminish the
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rights of the authors. Opinions expressed in these articles are those
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of the authors and not necessarily those of FidoNews.
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Authors retain copyright on individual works; otherwise FidoNews is
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copyright 1994 Sylvia Maxwell. All rights reserved. Duplication and/or
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distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes only. For use in
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other circumstances, please contact the original authors, or FidoNews
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(we're easy).
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OBTAINING COPIES: The-most-recent-issue-ONLY of FidoNews in electronic
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form may be obtained from the FidoNews BBS via manual download or
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Wazoo FileRequest, or from various sites in the FidoNet and Internet.
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PRINTED COPIES may be obtained from Fido Software for $10.00US each
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PostPaid First Class within North America, or $13.00US elsewhere,
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mailed Air Mail. (US funds drawn upon a US bank only.)
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INTERNET USERS: FidoNews is available via FTP from ftp.fidonet.org, in
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directory ~ftp/pub/fidonet/fidonews. If you have questions regarding
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FidoNet, please direct them to deitch@gisatl.fidonet.org, not the
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FidoNews BBS. (Be kind and patient; David Deitch is generously
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volunteering to handle FidoNet/Internet questions.)
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SUBMISSIONS: You are encouraged to submit articles for publication in
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FidoNews. Article submission requirements are contained in the file
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ARTSPEC.DOC, available from the FidoNews BBS, or Wazoo filerequestable
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from 1:1/23 as file "ARTSPEC.DOC". Please read it.
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"Fido", "FidoNet" and the dog-with-diskette are U.S. registered
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FidoNews 11-07 Page: 7 14 Feb 1994
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trademarks of Tom Jennings, and are used with permission.
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Asked what he thought of Western civilization,
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"Giddy girls pee through car windows".
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[-Allison Barkley, co-editrix
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of the unfettered mind}
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-- END
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
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