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F I D O N E W S Volume 16, Number 23 7 June 1999
+----------------------------+---------------------------------------+
| The newsletter of the | ISSN 1198-4589 Published by: |
| FidoNet community | "FidoNews" |
| _ | +27-41-581-5913 [5:5/23] |
| / \ | June Publication: 1:270/720 |
| /|oo \ | |
| (_| /_) | |
| _`@/_ \ _ | |
| | | \ \\ | Editor: |
| | (*) | \ )) | Henk Wolsink 5:7104/2 |
| |__U__| / \// | Editor Pro Tem (June 99) |
| _//|| _\ / | Douglas Myers 1:270/720 |
| (_/(_|(____/ | |
| (jm) | Newspapers should have no friends. |
| | -- JOSEPH PULITZER |
+----------------------------+---------------------------------------+
| Submission address: Douglas Myers 1:270/720 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| MORE addresses: |
| |
| submissions for June: doug@mdtnbbs.com |
| |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| For information, copyrights, article submissions, |
| obtaining copies of FidoNews or the internet gateway FAQ |
| please refer to the end of this file. |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
Table of Contents
1. EDITORIAL ................................................ 1
Conflicts of Interest .................................... 1
2. GUEST EDITORIAL .......................................... 2
Dallas Hinton's Z1C Candidate's Statement ................ 2
3. ARTICLES ................................................. 5
Fidonet finally grew up - by Shannon Talley .............. 5
4. PROOFREADERS REPORT ...................................... 7
Apology to Joe Jared ..................................... 7
5. NET HUMOR ................................................ 8
Gaelic Beer Joke ......................................... 8
6. COMIX IN ASCII ........................................... 9
The Moox Brothers Cows ................................... 9
7. ADVERTISE YOUR FREE SERVICE/EVENT ........................ 10
Editor Pro Tem Special ................................... 10
Announcing Turquoise SuperStat v1.0 ...................... 10
8. NOTICES .................................................. 12
Future History ........................................... 12
Z1C Candidate's Greetings - Douglas Myers ................ 12
9. FIDONEWS INFORMATION ..................................... 14
Masthead and Contact Information ......................... 14
FIDONEWS 16-23 Page 1 7 Jun 1999
=================================================================
EDITORIAL
=================================================================
Conflicts of Interest
The election for Zone 1 Coordinator is in full swing. As of this
writing, three candidates have been nominated and accepted, though
the nominations are still open. Individuals monitoring the election
process have noted two instances where candidates my have a conflict
of interest and have asked, properly, that potential improprieties
be addressed and guarded against.
The first potential conflict of interest involves me personally.
This week, I accepted nomination as a candidate for the Z1C office.
It was suggested that acting as Editor Pro Tem of Fidonews gives me
an unfair advantage over other candidates, and that I should resign.
This places me on the horns of a dilemma in that 1) I certainly want
to maintain propriety as a candidate for Z1C and 2) I want to honor
the prior commitment I made to Henk Wolsink to keep Fidonews
flowing while he enjoys his vacation. After due consideration, I've
decided to put together Fidonews until the June 28th edition, thus
honoring my prior commitment to Henk. At that time, I will cease
and turn all relevant material over to Henk. At that point, my
association with Fidonews becomes that of any other Fido member.
In the meantime, I'll honor Fidonews' long-standing practice of
publishing all articles submitted irregardless of political content.
In practice, this means that any candidate or anyone supporting a
candidate has my pledge that their own article will see publication.
The second conflict of interest noted involves each of the other two
candidates. The Z1C election is not determined by direct sysop
vote, but rather by the ten RCs of zone 1. They have pledged to
gather regional input and vote for Z1C according to this input. The
conflict is that each of the other two candidates are sitting RCs,
and thus could "control" 20% of the effective vote.
While it would be ideal if the election mechanics provided for a way
to avoid this situation, I believe that we're too far into the
election process to rewrite the mechanics. The best course is to
rely on these RCs pledge to vote for Z1C according to their region's
input. Dallas Hinton and David Moufarrage are principled
individuals, and I'm satisfied that they will not resort to anything
unscrupulous to win the election. I've suggested to these
candidates that they do their best to make their region's input
known to all in the Z1_ELECTION echo and possibly have a neutral
third party handle the gathering of input.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FIDONEWS 16-23 Page 2 7 Jun 1999
=================================================================
GUEST EDITORIAL
=================================================================
Dallas Hinton's Z1C Candidate's Statement
(originally posted in Z1Election)
by Dallas Hinton (1:153/715)
Hi All!
In order to introduce myself to those of you who don't know me, or
who only think they know me, here is some information which might
help you. If you have questions to ask of me, I'll be pleased to
answer.
Who am I:
=========
I'm a 53 year old male (in Canada, my name can be used by people of
either gender). I've been married to my best girlfriend for 30 years,
and we have one special needs child (13 years old).
I'm employed as a Computer Science and Career Preparation teacher
with Grade 9-12 students (ages 15 - 19) in a large (1800+)
multi-ethnic high school in Vancouver, BC.
I am an elected executive member of the local teacher's union (3000
members).
What is my background:
=====================
I have run a full-time multi-line dial-up BBS since 1988, starting
with Opus/Seadog and progressing to my current Max/Squish/Binkley
setup.
I have been an NEC and an NC of a large net (Net 153 was over 350
members when I was NC), and am currently in my 6th year as RC of
Region 17.
I have been (or still am) an Alpha or Beta test site for Max, Squish,
Binkley, Areafix, MsgEd, timEd, Xlaxnode, Wtrgate, and other minor
software.
I'm experienced at working with people, both volunteer and draftees.
I have a good understanding of computer technology although I'm not a
certificated technician.
I teach Pascal but don't consider myself a programmer.
I have a verifiable history of coordinating, and of letting the R17
*Cs run their nets in their own way. I also have a verifiable history
of stepping in when a node has complained (and proven) that a *C has
behaved in an arbitrary and dictatorial manner. While I wouldn't
FIDONEWS 16-23 Page 3 7 Jun 1999
describe a *C as ONLY a "nodelist keeper", I'm certainly in favour of
a hands-off policy of coordination at any level.
I have a verifiable history of helping nodes and *Cs with any aspect
of FidoNet and/or computing whether by supplying software, advice, or
consolation!
Despite what you may think about my relationship with Ward Dossche, I
get along with him reasonably well. I also get along with the other
ZCs, as I do with the Zone 1 RCs.
What do I believe:
===================
I believe that each sysop should determine his/her own destiny in
FidoNet.
I believe that FidoNet is essentially an anarchy, even when we hold
"democratic" or psuedo-democratic elections.
I believe in being fair when dealing with people.
I believe in being taking a global view.
I believe in being polite and courteous at all times.
I believe in doing the best I can.
I'm willing to say "I don't know", but I believe in doing my best to
find out.
I believe in saying "I'm sorry" and "I was wrong" when that is true.
I believe in leaving echomail transport methods alone, to operate
when and how the transporters wish.
I believe that policy complaints should be the last resort, but if
someone has made a PC it should be dealt with as speedily as
possible.
I believe that PCs should be settled with the idea of fairness to all
parties, not necessarily by who is "right".
I believe that the Z1C is a coordinator, not a boss.
I believe Policy 4 needs to be interpreted somewhat more broadly than
has been past practice. I would like to see it re-written, but I
recognize how difficult it's going to be to get it accepted. Although
a majority of all RCs in all zones must approve consideration of a
new version, I think we can do it.
If I become Z1C, what will I do:
===============================
FIDONEWS 16-23 Page 4 7 Jun 1999
I'm willing to continue the practice of automatic geographic
exemptions as defined by Bob Satti.
I'm willing to work with others to get (or keep) non-dialup BBSs in
the nodelist by appropriate modifications to our formats.
I will build and publish a summary of policy complaints as they are
resolved.
And finally:
===========
I have a life outside FidoNet -- I'm not going to sit obsessively
over the keyboard waiting for the next message to arrive! I do,
however, check my mail regularly and I answer mail in a timely
fashion.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FIDONEWS 16-23 Page 5 7 Jun 1999
=================================================================
ARTICLES
=================================================================
Fidonet finally grew up
Shannon Talley
sysop@fidonet.dynip.com
I will take advantage of your "Editor Pro Tem Special."
In regards to the conversation between Todd Cochrane and Joe Jarad
and the "Empires", "Here, Here"!!
Todd & Joe were discussing the refinement of the nodelist to reflect
an actual "Fido-IP/Node" instead of a node number which represents a
specific geographical area.
There are two ways to employ this. Method one: "Do It". This is
the most risky method because it violates Policy 4 (too many parts
to mention). Method two: Submit a change to Policy 4 (OK, you can
stop laughing now). We could always wait until the end of the
elections and bring it up to the new Zone Coordinator. However,
with the way Fidonet has been run, I have no faith in the hierarchy.
In all actuality, it is simple to make the transition now using
method one. For instance, I received my node number (1:275/311) from
1:275/0. However, I FTP all of my mail from another node in another
part of the world. As long as a node has the -Unpublished- flag
attached in the nodelist, it is impossible to tell where they really
are.
Incidentally, because I have a 'geographical' node number, Netmail
never get's to me because I don't pull mail from my geographical NC.
See, I have a Telnet/Web only BBS. I have a series of regular
customers from all parts of the world, who access Fidonet mail
through my system in a myriad of ways. Including reading Fidonews
<bg>.
Whether RC's, NC's, or other nodes like it or not, Fidonet is going
to the Internet. As a matter of fact, it's on the internet now.
I'm not just talking about FTP'ing packets, I'm talking about "all
of it". I make Fidonet available via Telnet, QWK, & Web pages. The
problems with the nodelist we knew we would face in 1994 when the
Internet Exploded, are being faced right now, and have been faced
since (at least) 1996.
In conclusion, simply making the pen and ink changes to the nodelist
will make things run smoother for the nodes. And isn't that what
this "Amateur Network" is all about anyway? Wasn't what the
original intent by Tom Jennings?
Lastly, in response to the gentleman who said that if a BBS didn't
have at least one dial up line then they were not a real BBS. "You
can Telnet to my BBS like everyone else because a BBS by any other
FIDONEWS 16-23 Page 6 7 Jun 1999
name is still a BBS."
Let's fix the nodelist.
Shannon Talley
sysop@fidonet.dynip.com
http://fidonet.dynip.com
telnet://fidonet.dynip.com
ftp://fidonet.dynip.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FIDONEWS 16-23 Page 7 7 Jun 1999
=================================================================
PROOFREADERS REPORT
=================================================================
Last week's editorial reported a conversation in echomail between
Joe Jared and Todd Cochrane. In that editorial, I misspelled Joe's
last name as "Jarad." My apology, Joe!
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FIDONEWS 16-23 Page 8 7 Jun 1999
=================================================================
NET HUMOR
=================================================================
A Gaelic Beer Joke
An Irishman walks into a bar in Dublin, orders three pints of
Guinness and sits in the back of the room drinking a sip out of each
one in turn. When he finishes them, he comes back to the bar and
orders three more. The bartender asks him, "You know, a pint goes
flat after I draw it, wouldn't you rather I draw fresh pints for you
one at a time?"
The fellow replies: "Well you see I have two brothers. One is now in
America and the other in Australia. When we all left home we
promised we'd drink this way to remember the days when we drank
together. The bartender admits that this is a nice custom, and
leaves it there. This fellow becomes a regular in the bar and always
drinks the same way: he orders three pints and drinks them in turn.
One day he comes in and orders two pints. All the regulars notice
and fall silent, speculating about what might have happened to the
absent brother. When the fellow goes back to the bar for a second
round, the bartender says, " I don't want to intrude on your grief,
but I wish to offer my condolences on your great loss." The fellow
looks confused for a moment, then a light dawns in his eye and he
laughs and says: "Oh, no, everybody's fine. I've just given up beer
for Lent."
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FIDONEWS 16-23 Page 9 7 Jun 1999
=================================================================
COMIX IN ASCII
=================================================================
The Moox Brothers
) (
(____) _
/ = = \ ~ / \
(-O--O-) ~ ==' `==
( ) ~ 8 O O 8
/------- ||||||====== /------- ( )
/ | || \/ / | || \_/
* ||----|| * ||----||
~~ ~~ ~~ ~~
Groucho Chico
(__) ==========I
(oo) \ ||||||I
/-------\/ \ |||||I
/ | ||__o=< \ ||||I
* ||----| \ |||I
~~ ~ \ ||I
Harpo
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FIDONEWS 16-23 Page 10 7 Jun 1999
=================================================================
ADVERTISE YOUR FREE SERVICE/EVENT
=================================================================
Editor Pro Tem Special
Maybe you've wanted to publish your own Fidonews article, but
weren't sure how to go about it. Or perhaps you found the
instructions in ARTSPEC.DOC, but they were daunting.
Well, it's time to speak up! During the month of June, I'm running
an "Editor Pro Tem" special. Concentrate on what you have to say
and get it to me in some kind of readable ASCII, and I'll do the
necessary formatting for publication. You can send articles netmail
to Douglas Myers at 1:379/720, or email to doug@mdtnbbs.com.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Announcing Turquoise SuperStat v1.0 from Softwolves Software
by peter karlsson, 2:206/221.0, peter@softwolves.pp.se
Turquoise SuperStat reads the contents of a Fidonet message area in
one of its supported formats (Squish, *.MSG, FDAPX/w, JAM, MyPoint),
and creates statistics about this:
* Quoter blacklist.
* Toplist of senders.
* Toplist of receivers.
* Toplist of subjects.
* Toplist of used software.
* Postings by weekday.
* Postings by time of day.
Any of the statistic subjects may be turned off. The statistics is
stored in a text file.
The program is free and is released under the GNU General Public
License (with some minor additions).
The main archive is approx. 91 Kbyte and contains OS/2 version, source
and documentation. The Windows 95 version is in a separate archive
with only the binary, and is approx. 59 Kbyte.
FREQ:
* TURQSTAT (main archive)
* TURQWIN (Windows 95/NT version)
* from Quinta Essentia, 2:206/221.0, 22-04 GMT, 33k6.
Respect the operation times!
WWW:
* http://www.softwolves.pp.se/wolves/
Turquoise SuperStat is (c) Copyright 1998-1999 av Peter Karlsson.
FIDONEWS 16-23 Page 11 7 Jun 1999
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FIDONEWS 16-23 Page 12 7 Jun 1999
=================================================================
NOTICES
=================================================================
Future History
4 Jul - 10 Jul 1999
Z1C Election process
24 Jul 1999
XIII Pan American Games [through 8 Aug 99].
9 Jun 1999
Tenth Anniversary of the adoption of FidoNet Policy 4.07.
10 Sep 1999
10th anniversary of Zone 5 operations.
26 Oct 1999
Thirty years from release Abbey Road album by the Beatles.
31 Dec 1999
Hogmanay, Scotland. The New Year that can't be missed.
1 Jan 2000
The 20th Century, C.E., is still taking place thru 31 Dec.
1 Jun 2000
EXPO 2000 World Exposition in Hannover (Germany) opens.
15 Sep 2000
Sydney (Australia) Summer Olympiad opens.
21 Sep 2000
10 years of FidoNet in +7 (xUSSR)
1 Jan 2001
This is the actual start of the new millennium, C.E.
-- If YOU have something which you would like to see in this
Future History, please send a note to the FidoNews Editor.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Candidate's Greetings
Douglas Myers, 1:270/720, doug@mdtnbbs.com
Zone 1 Coordinator Candidate
Howdy!
It's just polite for a candidate who wishes to represent you to
offer some information on his background. As a further matter of
courtesy, I've tried to keep these remarks brief... but feel free to
ask any questions in the Z1_ELECTION or Z1_POLITICAL echoes, or
contact me at one of the above addresses.
FIDONEWS 16-23 Page 13 7 Jun 1999
Though I've been with Fido since the eighties, ever since George
Peace introduced Fido to Central Pennsylvania, most of my time was
as a user. In fact, the coordinator experience I have to offer was
developed on another smaller network - Speakeasy, operating as zone
18. Speakeasy only had nine nodes when I joined it in 1988, only 30
nodes when I was promoted to Zone Coordinator in 1992, and only 120
nodes at the highest peak I can recall.
Zone 18 in 1992 was a technical nightmare - echomail flowed
sporadically, mostly because of a lack of stable hosts, netmail was
nonexistent except as crashed, and there was no file distribution at
all. Even the nodelist was a hand-cranked affair. In the process
of working with folks to straighten all that out, I achieved
considerable "trial and error" experience - not enough to impress
the folks here on Fido who have put great systems together, but
enough that I can talk nuts and bolts with them intelligibly.
However, the technical experience gained there is not the main
qualification I bring, as I believe that I could have run the net
with considerably less technical knowledge. The talent to
accomplish all the changes already existed among the members of the
net, and my prime contribution was in working with all these people
to make it happen. Maybe that's why the position was called
"coordinator" rather than "governor."
If elected as Zone 1 Coordinator, I'd like to focus on actions which
would reverse the trend of declining use of Fidonet with a goal of
actually showing some growth. Emphasis would be in two main areas:
1. Retaining the traditional membership. BBS sysops built Fidonet
and, even though there are less BBS users, these sysops keep
Fidonet dynamic. Actions would include...
...supporting efforts to attract dial-up users on BBSes.
...continuing the recent trend of involving these sysops in the
selection of coordinators.
...working with the coordinator structure to further dispel the
perception that management of Fido is a closed process.
2. Finding the users who have fled to the Internet. Though Fidonet
has made excellent use of the Internet for moving mail, more
support is needed for the pioneers who are offering BBS services
(particularly echomail) to Internet users. Many of these people
would never hear of a BBS or Fidonet without our presence on the
Internet. I would continue the policy of automatic geographical
exemptions, of course, so that Internet nodes may find
connection irregardless of actual location. I would continue
efforts to facilitate the listing of Internet only nodes in the
nodelist.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FIDONEWS 16-23 Page 14 7 Jun 1999
=================================================================
FIDONEWS INFORMATION
=================================================================
------- FIDONEWS MASTHEAD AND CONTACT INFORMATION -------
During the month of June, 1999, the Fidonews Editor is on
vacation. Editor Pro Tem during this period is Douglas Myers,
1:270/720, doug@mdtnbbs.com. Please address correspondence,
article submissions, etc to the above addresses during this time.
Editor: Henk Wolsink
Editors Emeriti: Tom Jennings, Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell,
Vince Perriello, Tim Pozar, Sylvia Maxwell,
Donald Tees, Christopher Baker, Zorch Frezberg
"FidoNews Editor"
FidoNet 5:5/23
BBS +27-41-581-5913, 2400/9600/V34
more addresses:
Henk Wolsink -- 5:7104/2, hwolsink@catpe.alt.za
(Postal Service mailing address)
FidoNews Editor
P.O. Box 12325
Port Elizabeth,
6006
South Africa
------------------------------------------------------
FidoNews is published weekly by and for the members of the FIDONET
INTERNATIONAL AMATEUR ELECTRONIC MAIL system. It is a compilation
of individual articles contributed by their authors or their
authorized agents. The contribution of articles to this compilation
does not diminish the rights of the authors. OPINIONS EXPRESSED in
these articles ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHORS and not necessarily those of
FidoNews and/or the Editor.
Authors retain copyright on individual works; otherwise FidoNews is
Copyright (C) 1999 Henk Wolsink. All rights reserved. Duplication
and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes only. For
use in other circumstances, please contact the original authors, or
the Editor.
=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=
OBTAINING COPIES: The most recent issue of FidoNews in electronic
form may be obtained from the FidoNews Editor via manual download or
file-request, or from various sites in FidoNet and the Internet.
PRINTED COPIES may be obtained by sending SASE to the above postal
address. File-request FIDONEWS for the current Issue. File-request
FNEWS for the current month in one archive. Or file-request specific
back Issue filenames in distribution format [FNEWSGnn.ZIP] for a
FIDONEWS 16-23 Page 15 7 Jun 1999
particular Issue. Monthly Volumes are available as FNWSmmmy.ZIP
where mmm = three letter month [JAN - DEC] and y = last digit of the
current year [9], i.e., FNWSJAN9.ZIP for all the Issues from Jan 99.
Annual volumes are available as FNEWSn.ZIP where n = the Volume number
1 - 16 for 1984 - 1999, respectively. Annual Volume archives range in
size from 48K to 1.4M.
INTERNET USERS: FidoNews is available via:
http://www.fidonews.org
** http://www.fidonet.org/fidonews.htm
** ftp://ftp.fidonet.org/pub/fidonet/fidonews/
ftp://ftp.irvbbs.com/fidonews/
ftp://ftp.nwstar.com/Fidonet/Fidonews
And in non-English formats via:
** http://www.hvc.ee/pats/fidonews (Estonian)
http://www.fidonet.pp.se/sfnews (Swedish)
** LINK HAS NOT BEEN UPDATED
*=*=*
You may obtain an email subscription to FidoNews by sending email to:
jbarchuk@worldnet.att.net
with a Subject line of: subscribe fnews-edist
and no message in the message body. To remove your name from the
email distribution use a Subject line of: unsubscribe fnews-edist
with no message to the same address above.
*
You may retrieve current and previous Issues of FidoNews via FTPMail
by sending email to:
ftpmail@fidonews.org
with a Subject line of: help
and FTPMail will immediately send a reply containing details and
instructions. When you actually make a file request, FTPMail will
respond in three stages. You find a link for this process on
www.fidonews.org.
*=*=*
You can read the current FidoNews Issue in HTML format at:
http://www.fidonews.org
FIDONEWS 16-23 Page 16 7 Jun 1999
and http://www.fidonet.dynip.com/public/fidonews/default.htm
and in the FIDONEWS echo.
STAR SOURCE for ALL Past Issues via FTP and file-request -
Available for FReq from 1:396/1 or by anonymous FTP from:
ftp://ftp.sstar.com/fidonet/fnews/
Each yearly archive also contains a listing of the Table-of-Contents
for that year's issues. The total set is currently about 13 Megs.
=*=*=*=
The current week's FidoNews are now also available almost immediately
after publication on the FidoNews Editor homepage on the World Wide
Web at:
http://209.77.228.66/fidonews.html
There are also links there to jim barchuk's HTML FidoNews source and
to John Souvestre's FTP site for the archives. There is also an
email link for sending in an article as message text. Drop on over.
=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=
SUBMISSIONS: You are encouraged to submit articles for publication in
FidoNews. Article submission requirements are contained in the file
ARTSPEC.DOC, available from the FidoNews Editor, or file-requestable
from 5:5/23 [5:7104/2] as file "ARTSPEC.DOC". ALL Zone Coordinators
should have copies of ARTSPEC.DOC. Please read it.
"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.
"Disagreement is actually necessary,
or we'd all have to get in fights
or something to amuse ourselves
and create the requisite chaos."
-Tom Jennings
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Reference in New Issue Copy Permalink