2053 lines
96 KiB
Plaintext
2053 lines
96 KiB
Plaintext
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F I D O N E W S -- Volume 14, Number 28 14 July 1997
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+----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
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| The newsletter of the | ISSN 1198-4589 Published by: |
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| FidoNet community | "FidoNews" |
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| _ | 1-904-409-7040 [1:1/23] |
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| / \ | |
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| /|oo \ | |
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| (_| /_) | |
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| _`@/_ \ _ | |
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| | | \ \\ | Editor: |
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| | (*) | \ )) | Christopher Baker 1:18/14 |
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| |__U__| / \// | |
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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: FidoNews Editor 1:1/23 |
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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| MORE addresses: |
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| submissions=> cbaker84@digital.net |
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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| For information, copyrights, article submissions, |
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| obtaining copies of FidoNews or the internet gateway FAQ |
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| please refer to the end of this file. |
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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Happy Bastille Day?
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Table of Contents
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1. EDITORIAL ................................................ 1
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History and Future? ...................................... 1
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2. GUEST EDITORIAL .......................................... 2
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FidoNet: Past and Future ................................. 2
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3. ARTICLES ................................................. 5
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FidoNews Article Submission Guidelines update ............ 5
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Re: CRC and The Nodelist ................................. 10
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Re: Is The End Near? ..................................... 11
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4. FIDONET HISTORY .......................................... 13
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From out of the past - TJ Interview! ..................... 13
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5. COORDINATORS CORNER ...................................... 27
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Nodelist-statistics as seen from Zone-2 for day 192 ...... 27
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6. ECHOING .................................................. 28
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North American Backbone Echo Changes [May-Jun] ........... 28
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7. COMIX IN ASCII ........................................... 30
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Life from a Cow? ......................................... 30
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8. NOTICES .................................................. 32
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Future History ........................................... 32
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9. FIDONEWS PUBLIC-KEY ...................................... 33
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FidoNews PGP public-key listing .......................... 33
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10. FIDONET BY INTERNET ..................................... 34
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11. FIDONEWS INFORMATION .................................... 36
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FIDONEWS 14-28 Page 1 14 Jul 1997
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=================================================================
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EDITORIAL
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=================================================================
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Past, present and, future are revisited in this Issue.
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The republication of the updated ARTSPEC.DOC is here. It was hatched
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out via the FIDONEWS file distribution a couple weeks ago so you
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should already have but JIC. [grin]
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As I start my second year of editing FidoNews, I'd like to reassert
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my undying appreciation for those who make it work and keep it coming.
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Those of you who write articles, letters to the Editor, columns,
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updates, Guest Editorials, comix, and those who make the distribution
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work are the guts of this enterprise. And a special thanks to jim
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barchuk for maintaining the HTML version on the Internet and to Peter
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Popovich who compiles the software list. It's a lot of extra work and
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it IS appreciated!
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Today's Guest Editorial is anonymous but I'm not sure if that is
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intentional or an oversight. I didn't get an answer to that question
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in time for publication. It isn't required, but I suggest all
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submissions include a byline of some kind.
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One of our members sent in a reprint of an interview with Tom Jennings
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from 1994. I don't remember seeing it before and it appears here in
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the History section. You may find it interesting.
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I'm putting this Issue to bed early so if you were waiting till the
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last minute to send me something, it will appear next week. Refer to
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the submission schedule in the Masthead to avoid missing out.
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C.B.
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
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FIDONEWS 14-28 Page 2 14 Jul 1997
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=================================================================
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GUEST EDITORIAL
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=================================================================
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FidoNet: Past and Future
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I've read many debates about the future of the FidoNet and how it's
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sliding downhill. The friendly arguments in echomail about when the
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FidoNet's demise will come about have taken a backseat to only the
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Windows versus <insert your favorite operating system here> wars in
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frequency.
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Having pondered this a bit myself I thought I'd write up my thoughts
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on the history and future of the FidoNet for whatever it might be
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worth.
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I've been involved with the FidoNet since 1985. Yes, that makes me
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one of the old-timers in the net -- I date back before echomail and
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fondly remember how cool it was to run the original "toss" and "scan"
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echomail programs. However, I like to believe (no comments:-) that
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I'm fairly alert and can realize a sinking ship when I am on one.
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Right now, that sinking ship is the FidoNet as a whole; it's not
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sinking terribly fast, but it's still sinking.
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Let's face it, BBSing is changing and its decline can be linked
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directly to the rise of the internet. The FidoNet is not the only
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thing being changed by the rise of the internet. The internet is
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changing all aspects of computing and some aspects of our entire
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society. Just look at networking, for example. LANtastic is dead as
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a small business platform (for all intents and purposes), Novell --
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despite its huge installed base -- is on the ropes and undergoing
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major change. Even IBM's and Microsoft's networking schemes have to
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acknowledge the new god of networking: the royalty-free TCP/IP.
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There's a heckuva lot of proprietary networks that get from point to
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point actually wrapped in IP. Let's face it, commercial computing as
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a whole is in the midst of a major flux.
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But that's the commercial realm and the FidoNet is in the hobbyist
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realm of computing. Let's assume there's always going to be an
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amateur/hobbyist component of computing. That means there's always
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going to be a "market" for something like the FidoNet to allow people
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to communicate.
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Let's take a look behind this, at what made the FidoNet popular and
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gave it the popularity that it enjoyed during the late 80s and early
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90s.
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The primary reason for the rise of the FidoNet is that it took common
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hobbyist-type computing platforms (DOS & CP/M) and used the most cost
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effective way of networking them/getting mail and files back and forth
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between them (i.e. phone calls late at night in a routed scheme), and
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ran with it. In, say, 1987, the FidoNet provided a near-commercial
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level of connectivity and communication basically for free.
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FIDONEWS 14-28 Page 3 14 Jul 1997
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That combination -- common computers, good connectivity and cost
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effectiveness -- made the FidoNet a hit on the amateur/hobbyist scene
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and even caused some ripples in the commercial world.
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The problem now that I see is that the FidoNet is doing a couple of
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things "wrong." First, our level of communication/connectivity is not
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anywhere near the commercial level (commercial connectivity now being
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defined as the internet) anymore.
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Users like the GUI nature of web browsers but they're willing to take
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a small hit in terms of prettiness as long as they're getting near-
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commercial communication for free or for nearly free. The problem is
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that the FidoNet doesn't have anything like that level of
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connectivity.
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We used to have a functioning, FidoNet-wide domain where everyone in
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the FidoNet (users and Sysops alike) had an internet mail address.
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That's been dismantled at a time when the internet popularity grew by
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leaps and bounds -- how stupid!!! There's nothing that drives users
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up the wall faster than limitations in them sending mail.
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GUI interfaces and ease-of-use aspects of the FidoNet are important,
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but not nearly as important as the need to talk to the rest of the
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networked world -- and right now, that means internet e-mail
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capabilities. The FidoNet simply *must* develop a working FidoNet-
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wide FidoNet <--> internet mail gateway/method/system for the entire
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net if it is to remain viable as a "networked" network.
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The FidoNet is not presently using the cheapest way to move mail.
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This is the death knell for an amateur/hobbyist network. When the
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costs of operation are usually born by individual hobbyists, costs
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matter! What was true in 1985 or 1988 -- that the best, cheapest way
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to move mail and files was to make long distance phone calls late at
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night -- is no longer true.
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Right now, the cheapest way to move mail and files is via the
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internet. It only takes one echomail link or a few file-requests to
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make up $20 worth of long distance in a month. Right now in the US,
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almost anyone can get an unlimited-usage internet link for $20 a
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month. The internet is the cheapest way to move mail and files and
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the FidoNet has to adapt to using that cheap link.
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This new economic reality changes the way we should be sending mail
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and files. It used to be that every second counted and so maximum
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efficiency was needed in file transfers. That is no longer true with
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unlimited internet access. Now, the only need for efficiency is that
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we don't want to tie up phone lines for too long -- a very different
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idea.
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But if one looks at the state of FidoNet technology, it has not
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adapted to the new economics or to take advantage of the internet.
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The internet gateway packages out there are typically massive kludges.
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The FidoNet isn't adapting. That combined with the high cost factors
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of using long distance dial-up guarantees the death of the FidoNet.
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However, this death is totally unnecessary.
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FIDONEWS 14-28 Page 4 14 Jul 1997
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The solution is to adapt and use the internet to our own advantage.
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We can take the FidoNet's strengths -- mainly free, hobbyist BBSes
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that are for the most part publicly accessible and which provide
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quality echomail conferences which are regulated and moderated -- and
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reverse the FidoNet's decline and quite possibly make the FidoNet grow
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again. The key to this is development, development in software and in
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FidoNet standards.
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If one fantasizes a bit, there's no reason at all why we couldn't have
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a FidoNet nodelist which combined both direct dial-up systems *and*
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internet transfers through a node's local ISP. There's no reason at
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all why a 2-line BBS couldn't have users log onto one line, and if the
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second line was free, have that second line dial out to the internet
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to allow the user to ftp files from the internet. This (and this is
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simply scratching the surface) could be done while maintaining a free
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or very-low-cost BBS structure for both the user and the Sysop.
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But the bottom line is that there isn't any software development being
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done on the basic FidoNet networking technology. The primary
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development seems to be in reinventing yet more similar-functioning
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BBS software.
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I've seen only one place where there is some development to the basic
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FidoNet mail protocols being done -- in Linux. Linux, an operating
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system born on the internet, has developers working on a versions of
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the FidoNet which will use a TCP/IP internet link to do mail transfers
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and file-requests. This is the direction the FidoNet needs to go.
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It's simply taking advantage of the cheapest way to send mail and
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files. What we need is a "FidoNet-IP" -- a standard way to do FidoNet
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mail and file transfers over the internet.
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There's no reason why the FidoNet should not flourish -- it only has
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to go back to the core principles of what made it popular in the first
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place! Those principles are that it offered a structured, near
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commercial-level of communication and connectivity at little or no
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cost to users using the cheapest method of mail/file transfers for its
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Sysops.
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Despite my years in the FidoNet I have often thought about pulling the
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plug on the FidoNet. But instead, I like tinkering with computers as
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a hobby so I'm hedging my bets. I'm learning Linux and its full suite
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of TCP/IP tools, I'm tearing my hair out trying to setup "ifmail" (the
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Linux FidoNet package that makes a BinkleyTerm install look like a
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walk in the park!), and am working to keep my options open. If the
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FidoNet somehow survives, great, I'll be covered.
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Sadly, if the FidoNet does not survive (and this look like the case)
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then I'll simply offer dial-up web server/mail/ftp functions over
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TCP/IP via Linux in a new form of BBS.
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Only one question remains. The question that remains is this: are
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there enough good people, hackers, developers, visionaries, and
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interest left in the FidoNet to make this new "FidoNet-IP" a reality?
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
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FIDONEWS 14-28 Page 5 14 Jul 1997
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=================================================================
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ARTICLES
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=================================================================
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FidoNews Article Submission Guidelines
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FidoNet address 1:1/23
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Updated 1 Jul 1997 by Christopher Baker
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Updated 29 May 1991 by Tom Jennings
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Based on the original work by Thom Henderson
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| denotes a change since the last update |.
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"Fido" and "FidoNet" are registered trademarks of Tom Jennings,
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Box 410923, San Francisco CA 94141, USA and are used with
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permission.
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--------
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SYNOPSIS:
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FidoNews is the newsletter of the FidoNet computer network, its
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Sysops and users. It is passed to its readers electronically via
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the FidoNet and other computer networks and to non-network
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readers as well.
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This document intends to tell you how to write and submit
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articles for publication in FidoNews. Much of it describes the
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technical specifications which an article must meet in order to
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be included in the newsletter, as well as broad (very) guidelines
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on content. (Of course you realize articles can be submitted only
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electronically.) Please read it carefully. The article you save
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might be your own.
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------------
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INTRODUCTION:
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FidoNews was originally founded in early 1984 to include all
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parts of the lives of its member Sysops and users, which of
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course means not just technical matters. We do not have fixed
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goals of maximum distribution or maximum readership (i.e. lowest
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common denominator) but only to meet the needs of our individual
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network members. The success of this venture has always been
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contentious at best (ahem).
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In any case the grand experiment continues. Twelve years later
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(at this writing) and over 30,000 Nodes in the network, the
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editorial policy, or lack of one, of FidoNews has shown to
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best fit our ever-changing and unpredictable needs.
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--------------
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SUBJECT MATTER:
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Articles on any subject of interest to FidoNet members and users
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FIDONEWS 14-28 Page 6 14 Jul 1997
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are welcome and encouraged, not necessarily of a technical
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nature, though priority may be, but not necessarily, given to
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articles of importance to the FidoNet, its technology and its
|
|||
|
|
uses; other networks such as uucp and the Internet; social
|
|||
|
|
aspects of communications; ethical issues; other related matters.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
--------------
|
|||
|
|
ARTICLE LENGTH:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Try to keep articles short. The longer it is, the less likely
|
|||
|
|
people are to read it. Consider splitting long articles (more
|
|||
|
|
than five pages) into smaller articles to be run serially.
|
|||
|
|
Exceptions will be made at the whim of the editors.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
For practical reasons, we will attempt to keep FidoNews to a
|
|||
|
|
"reasonable size", which is of course a highly subjective and
|
|||
|
|
variable thing. As of May 1991, the goal is under 100,000 bytes.
|
|||
|
|
Decisions regarding content may be made based upon this, though
|
|||
|
|
in general it shouldn't be an issue.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
------------------
|
|||
|
|
WRITING GUIDELINES:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
We are not all professional writers, nor is that even a goal for
|
|||
|
|
the FidoNews -- we want real communication to and from real
|
|||
|
|
people; even at the expense of so-called "good writing", which is
|
|||
|
|
frequently a tool to exclude. There are a few minimum
|
|||
|
|
requirements though for any successful writing, even for the
|
|||
|
|
lowly FidoNews:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
* The subject discussed must be clear to people other than the
|
|||
|
|
author! Don't assume that people will pick up the context from
|
|||
|
|
your writing. Tell them explicitly.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
* Why are you writing this? It may seem obvious -- "Review of the
|
|||
|
|
new Acme 75-baud Modem" -- but it's not. Are you the
|
|||
|
|
manufacturer? An irate customer? Let us know your point of
|
|||
|
|
view.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
* Who are you? A good question! Anonymity is acceptable, though
|
|||
|
|
most people want to take credit for their work. Include full
|
|||
|
|
contact information including electronic mail addresses.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
* Articles submitted via Netmail or email must contain all the
|
|||
|
|
technically required lines and delimiters in the BODY of the
|
|||
|
|
message. This includes the *[title] line and the 70 character
|
|||
|
|
width requirement. To indicate the filename type for one of
|
|||
|
|
these message submissions, place the FILENAME.TYP in the Subj:
|
|||
|
|
line of your email, Netmail, or Echomail. Those that require
|
|||
|
|
extra editing may be delayed from appearing in FidoNews.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
* Articles will appear when space becomes available, not
|
|||
|
|
necessarily the "next" issue. If your article is of a time-
|
|||
|
|
critical nature, please say so when you submit it; the editor
|
|||
|
|
FIDONEWS 14-28 Page 7 14 Jul 1997
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
still has final say.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
* The editor reserves the right to request changes from an author
|
|||
|
|
to meet these "standards", which you have to admit are pretty
|
|||
|
|
loose. It is not the intent for this to be a mechanism to
|
|||
|
|
refuse articles the editor does not like, but simply to keep
|
|||
|
|
the contents intelligible.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
* If we have a backlog of articles, we may get fussier about
|
|||
|
|
things. Historically, this has not been a serious problem.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
---------------------
|
|||
|
|
SUBMITTING AN ARTICLE
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
If all that hasn't scared you away, the next step is to create a
|
|||
|
|
text file which contains the text of your article. The resulting
|
|||
|
|
file should be sent or uploaded to "Editor", FidoNet
|
|||
|
|
address 1:1/23. The "physical" location (and phone number) of
|
|||
|
|
FidoNews varies, and hence must be found elsewhere, such as
|
|||
|
|
within a recent copy of FidoNews itself.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Filenames must follow the MSDOS standard:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
FILENAME.TYP
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
a 1 to 8 character file name (A - Z, 0 - 9)
|
|||
|
|
a period,
|
|||
|
|
a 0 to 3 character file type (A - Z, 0 - 9)
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
File types are used to distinguish types of submissions, as
|
|||
|
|
follows:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
.LET Letters to the Editor.
|
|||
|
|
.ART An article, commentary, open letter, or general news
|
|||
|
|
item.
|
|||
|
|
.GUE Want to write a Guest Editorial? [*Name & Node on line 1]
|
|||
|
|
.RTX Need to make a Retraction of a previous article or notice?
|
|||
|
|
.COL Want to become a regular contributor with your own column?
|
|||
|
|
.ANS Answers to the Question of the Week.
|
|||
|
|
.BIO FidoNet biographies - tell us your | personal | story.
|
|||
|
|
| .TRU True stories of FidoNet. |
|
|||
|
|
.HIS FidoNet history - got an anecdote to share?
|
|||
|
|
.REV Reviews of related product, services, or programs.
|
|||
|
|
.JOK Net humor in print.
|
|||
|
|
| .FIC FidoNet (computer related) short fiction. |
|
|||
|
|
.CMX Comics in ASCII. [watch those lines at 70 columns!]
|
|||
|
|
| [.CMX that are political will be renamed to .GUE] |
|
|||
|
|
.PRF Want to Proofread? Get a cookie for spotting errors.
|
|||
|
|
.AD Advertising FREE services or events.
|
|||
|
|
.SAL "For Sale"
|
|||
|
|
.WAN "Wanted"
|
|||
|
|
FIDONEWS 14-28 Page 8 14 Jul 1997
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
.NOT A notice for the back of the issue. Keep them short.
|
|||
|
|
.INT Internet addresses for FidoNet webpages of general interest.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
If your file doesn't have one of the above extensions, then it
|
|||
|
|
will lay around taking up disk space until someone takes a look
|
|||
|
|
at it and realizes what it is. Maybe.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The name of the file is up to you, though you should use a name
|
|||
|
|
which is not likely to be "stepped on" by someone else -- the
|
|||
|
|
system will not guarantee file names are unique. For example,
|
|||
|
|
FNEWS.ART is probably not a good name for an article.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
--------------
|
|||
|
|
CHARACTER SETS:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The character by character contents of the file itself must meet
|
|||
|
|
the following standards or it cannot be published in FidoNews.
|
|||
|
|
The FidoNews staff WILL NOT be responsible for making file
|
|||
|
|
contents conform to these standards.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
* FLUSH LEFT MARGIN: Please do not put a "left margin" on your
|
|||
|
|
articles. Have the text start at the very first column.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
* RIGHT MARGIN AT COLUMN 70 OR LESS: Less is tolerable, more is
|
|||
|
|
definitely not. If your cursor is resting at column 71 when
|
|||
|
|
your line is ended, you're okay. One character past that even
|
|||
|
|
with trailing spaces and MAKENEWS will barf on your submission.
|
|||
|
|
If your submission is physically rejected, the Editor will have
|
|||
|
|
to fix it manually or send it back for reformatting.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
* RAGGED-RIGHT TEXT: Word-Star style "justification" (inserting
|
|||
|
|
spaces into sentences so that a paragraph is perfectly rec-
|
|||
|
|
tangular) is extremely hard to read, and consumes needless space.
|
|||
|
|
Please don't use it!
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
* NO FUNNY CHARACTERS: This includes formfeeds, returns without
|
|||
|
|
linefeeds, linefeeds without returns, tabs and other oddities.
|
|||
|
|
The only control codes (character codes 0 through 31 decimal)
|
|||
|
|
allowed are carriage return (CR) and linefeed (LF). The only
|
|||
|
|
exception is: Control-Z "end of file" terminator characters are
|
|||
|
|
tolerated. Not required.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
* NO GRAPHICS CHARACTERS: Believe it or not, not everyone in the
|
|||
|
|
world has an IBM PC. Please restrict yourself to printable
|
|||
|
|
ASCII characters in the range 20 hex to 7E hex (space to
|
|||
|
|
tilde).
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
* LINES TERMINATED: Each line in the article should be terminated
|
|||
|
|
with a 'newline' -- either the MSDOS standard (CR/LF) or the
|
|||
|
|
unix standard (LF only).
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
-----------------
|
|||
|
|
SUBMISSION FORMAT:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
FIDONEWS 14-28 Page 9 14 Jul 1997
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Below is a sample article properly formatted. Features of it are
|
|||
|
|
discussed further below.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
--article file example begins below this line--
|
|||
|
|
*A Sample Article [this is in LINE 1 starting at COLUMN 1]
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
This is My Title
|
|||
|
|
by Joe Schmoe, [Netmail/email address]
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
And here is my article. Note that it is flush left (zero indent).
|
|||
|
|
Also note that the right margin is at column seventy so that it
|
|||
|
|
won't overflow "most" text windows. Each line has a newline. Note
|
|||
|
|
the *'ed first line. My article will be listed in the table of
|
|||
|
|
contents exactly as it appears after the * above.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Figure 1. Table 1.
|
|||
|
|
+-------+ ========
|
|||
|
|
| A Box | Alpha
|
|||
|
|
+-------+ Bravo
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Note that we am not using any funny-o characters. This ensures
|
|||
|
|
that the final article will look the same to every user, no
|
|||
|
|
matter what sort of hardware he has.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
This is the last sentence of our article.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
--article file example ends above this line--
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The FIRST line of text is the Table of Contents line. It MUST
|
|||
|
|
begin with an asterisk * as shown above. NO BLANK lines above
|
|||
|
|
title line are permitted. If you do not follow this instruction
|
|||
|
|
exactly, the article will not be listed in the Table of Contents.
|
|||
|
|
This Table of Contents listing method works for all submission
|
|||
|
|
file types.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
* Everything that follows the *'ed line will appear in the body
|
|||
|
|
of the newsletter. The *'ed line will be stripped out of your
|
|||
|
|
article text so if you want it repeated as your title in the
|
|||
|
|
article BE SURE to | REPEAT | it on a second line without the *.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
* Next should be the title or name of your article, your name,
|
|||
|
|
and contact information (network address(es), Postal Service
|
|||
|
|
address, etc) Try to keep it to one or two lines each.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
* Put a blank line between paragraphs. Paragraphs that all run
|
|||
|
|
together are very difficult to read, and may be rejected.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
* If you want to put in a table or a figure, go right ahead.
|
|||
|
|
We do not rearrange text, so your table or figure will
|
|||
|
|
remain exactly as you entered it. Try to limit them to ones
|
|||
|
|
that make the communication CLEARER.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
* Don't put a lot of blank space at the top or bottom. The
|
|||
|
|
FidoNews-generator programs will visually separate articles
|
|||
|
|
automatically.
|
|||
|
|
FIDONEWS 14-28 Page 10 14 Jul 1997
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
* Please check for basic errors in spelling, grammar, and
|
|||
|
|
punctuation. We're not publishing a textbook, but you don't
|
|||
|
|
want it to embarrass yourself do you?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
* Don't use FidoNews to grind your personal axes against other
|
|||
|
|
FidoNet members. An article presenting a side of an internal
|
|||
|
|
dispute is one thing. An article defaming or perseverating over
|
|||
|
|
several Issues is another. Articles that merely quote endlessly
|
|||
|
|
from other sources to no particular effect are also not a good
|
|||
|
|
idea.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
* Don't republish copyrighted material from other sources WITHOUT
|
|||
|
|
the permission of those sources. Include the permission in such
|
|||
|
|
articles.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
* Remember that FidoNews is no better or worse than the articles
|
|||
|
|
submitted to it. If you want FidoNews to be a useful newsletter,
|
|||
|
|
get involved and submit useful articles. It's up to YOU to make
|
|||
|
|
it work.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
--------------------
|
|||
|
|
SUBMISSION DEADLINES:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
FidoNews is published on Monday of every week. Deadline for file
|
|||
|
|
submissions to the FidoNews Editor via file-attach is 2300 ET
|
|||
|
|
[0300 UTC/GMT] the previous Saturday. Deadline for submissions via
|
|||
|
|
Netmail, email, or in the FIDONEWS Echo is 2300 ET [0300 UTC/GMT]
|
|||
|
|
the previous Friday. Submissions which miss the deadlines will be
|
|||
|
|
processed the following week. Submission by deadline is not a
|
|||
|
|
guarantee of appearance in that week's FidoNews but it is likely
|
|||
|
|
depending on volume of submissions.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
-30-
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Re: CRC and The Nodelist
|
|||
|
|
by Gregg Jennings, 1:331/109
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
[Submitted: 06-Jul-1997]
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Brainwave, 1:362/903, writes in 1425:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Has anybody else had problems keeping current? If it's not a
|
|||
|
|
missing DIFF now and then, it's CRC trouble... What is this CRC
|
|||
|
|
thing anyway? I've been trying to find out for over a year now,
|
|||
|
|
it's been one of those things that just keeps coming up now and
|
|||
|
|
then. Right now my NODELIST.164 has an improper CRC. The
|
|||
|
|
utility I use to merge the diffs told me so, and actually added a
|
|||
|
|
line at the bottom:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
;S This Nodelist file has an improper CRC!
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The problem you, or rather your software, encountered was some bytes
|
|||
|
|
FIDONEWS 14-28 Page 11 14 Jul 1997
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
in the NodeList that had the 8th bit set high (if you don't know what
|
|||
|
|
that means don't worry unless you are a programmer), which were masked
|
|||
|
|
off, converted to 7 bit. The merging program was at fault, not the
|
|||
|
|
NodeList.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The entry for Uruguay On Line, San Carlos, Susana Baratta, had some
|
|||
|
|
strange characters in the Flags entry. The program you used to merge
|
|||
|
|
the NodeDiff made a mistake (some may say that the mistake was in the
|
|||
|
|
NodeDiff but programmers should know better).
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Your NodeList is fine, it just has some useless Flags in an entry.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
This is an example of a programming error. Now it could be not the
|
|||
|
|
writer of the Merger program, but the C (or Pascal, or whatever)
|
|||
|
|
compiler.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
This is a prime example of part of what's "wrong" with FidoNet (not to
|
|||
|
|
deride FidoNet or its programmers, all computer systems have these
|
|||
|
|
problems).
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
I'll bet that is you look in the document which came with your Merger
|
|||
|
|
that it will say something like "correct the problem". Really good
|
|||
|
|
huh?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Getting a newer or different Merger is your only answer to avoid the
|
|||
|
|
error message. Otherwise it is for all purposes harmless unless your
|
|||
|
|
process, batch files for instance, stops processing with a fatal error
|
|||
|
|
and messes up your BBS operation.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Re: Is The End Near?
|
|||
|
|
by Gregg Jennings, 1:331/109
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
[Submitted: 06-Jul-1997]
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
This is some comments about Clay's article in 1426.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Perhaps he (or others) can tell us all more about the SSTARS; I for am
|
|||
|
|
interested, and listening. Who are these SSTARS? for one. Were they
|
|||
|
|
elected? Are they elected? What conference was removed? Who is this
|
|||
|
|
"self appointed" individual?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
He mentions a lack of "testosterone to engage in battle those who
|
|||
|
|
would bring down this brotherhood." How can any battle those that they
|
|||
|
|
are not aware of?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The reason for FidoNews' failure to get to Zone 2 should be found.
|
|||
|
|
Perhaps it is just a technological one? All Sysops know how much of a
|
|||
|
|
pain in the ass it is to configure most of the software upon which
|
|||
|
|
FidoNet relies.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
FIDONEWS an outlet for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)?
|
|||
|
|
Clay obviously is missing something. Mike Bilow forwards messages from
|
|||
|
|
the ACLU mailing-list from time to time to FidoNews. FidoNews has the
|
|||
|
|
FIDONEWS 14-28 Page 12 14 Jul 1997
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
grandest of all policies: will print anything submitted. Pro or con
|
|||
|
|
ACLU he should be happy that at least someone is trying to inform
|
|||
|
|
people, the readers of FidoNews, of electronic communications
|
|||
|
|
legislation in the U.S. ACLU opponents respond please!
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Why don't we have articles published by Sysops in FidoNet? Because
|
|||
|
|
SYSOPS IN FIDONET ARE NOT SUBMITTING ARTICLES TO FIDONEWS! That's a no
|
|||
|
|
brainer!
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Perhaps one of the reasons Users (and Sysops) are leaving FidoNet is
|
|||
|
|
the constant barrage of insults and whining we have been seeing so
|
|||
|
|
often here in the Snooze and in the echos.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The insulters and the whiners are killing FidoNet!
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The insulters and the whiners are causing Users to leave!
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The insulters and the whiners offer no solutions!
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
To appear at least as a non-insulting whining person I submit this:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
1. Developers should think of the reasons why they do not want to
|
|||
|
|
provide the source code to programs they develop, so proudly, for
|
|||
|
|
FidoNetters. Just think about it.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
2. Developers should look at their proposals objectively and had
|
|||
|
|
better realize that there is never one best answer to a problem.
|
|||
|
|
Woe to the person who shouts at us for years only to realize that
|
|||
|
|
his was not the optimal solution.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
3. The people who are our representatives should let us know where
|
|||
|
|
they stand. Write to us here! Tell us that you exist at least! We
|
|||
|
|
may not agree with you but that is okay. That is how things work.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
4. Sysops, do not be afraid to speak up! Do not consider the SIZE of
|
|||
|
|
FidoNews as a deterrent to writing! We, I (at least), WANT to hear
|
|||
|
|
from you.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
5. Users and readers, write us! Do not care about what others may
|
|||
|
|
think of you or your ideas, your grammar, your expertise.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Not all that is gold glitters.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
This is OUR newsletter. This is OUR voice. Use it. It is for OUR
|
|||
|
|
benefit.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
FIDONEWS 14-28 Page 13 14 Jul 1997
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
=================================================================
|
|||
|
|
FIDONET HISTORY
|
|||
|
|
=================================================================
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
[One of our readers sent this in and the History section is just the
|
|||
|
|
place for it. Permission to reprint was received from Fringe Ware
|
|||
|
|
Review at http://www.fringeware.com/fwr/fwr01/ with email to:
|
|||
|
|
email@fringeware.com] Ed.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
From: steve@gen.lcrnet.org
|
|||
|
|
Date: 03 Jul 97 21:14:37 -0700
|
|||
|
|
Subject: Tom Jennings Interview (for fidonews)
|
|||
|
|
To: cbaker84@digital.net
|
|||
|
|
Organization: Don't Mistake Lack Of Talent For Genius
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
>From Steve Steffler, 1:342/52.3/1:342/1022
|
|||
|
|
An Interview With Tom Jennings
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
I was perusing a local BBS's file areas, and I came across this old
|
|||
|
|
(circa 1994) interview with Tom Jennings. It sheds an interesting
|
|||
|
|
light on his views on Fidonet, and perhaps shows us things from an
|
|||
|
|
interesting perspective. Maybe his comments on how Fidonet was
|
|||
|
|
supposed to be so "decentralized" will affect the views of some of
|
|||
|
|
the people at the previously nonexistent "top" of things in the Fido
|
|||
|
|
hierarchy.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
=====Cut=====
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
>From alt.bbs Fri Apr 1 10:03:40 1994
|
|||
|
|
From: riddle (Prentiss Riddle)
|
|||
|
|
Date: Fri, 1 Apr 1994 15:36:01 GMT
|
|||
|
|
Newsgroups: austin.eff,houston.efh.talk,alt.bbs
|
|||
|
|
Subject: Interview with Tom Jennings from Fringe Ware Review
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
[In honor of Tom Jennings' upcoming appearances in Austin (4/16, info
|
|||
|
|
from eff-austin@tic.com) and Houston (4/17, info from efh@blkbox.com),
|
|||
|
|
Jon Lebkowsky has kindly granted permission to reproduce the following
|
|||
|
|
interview. Enjoy.]
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Interview with Tom Jennings
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
by Jon Lebkowsky, jonl@io.com
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
reprinted with permission
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Originally published in Fringe Ware Review #1, ISSN 1069-5656.
|
|||
|
|
Copyright (c)1993 by the author. All rights reserved.
|
|||
|
|
For more details, contact: email@fringeware.com
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Our FWI prez recently had a chance to chat with Tom Jennings, who
|
|||
|
|
commented afterwards: "Think you can mention somewhere that I'm a fag
|
|||
|
|
anarcho nerd troublemaker/activist? It is important, and to me as
|
|||
|
|
well. It always gets buried. Lots of people like to know, especially
|
|||
|
|
scared people with no images of people who are gay and reasonably
|
|||
|
|
FIDONEWS 14-28 Page 14 14 Jul 1997
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
functional in some way." Tis our pleasure to honor Tom, whose work has
|
|||
|
|
been so brilliant and so far out on the Fringe, that when the US gov't
|
|||
|
|
precluded computer technology exports during the Cold War, they
|
|||
|
|
basically forgot/ignored a certain fag anarcho nerd from the Bay
|
|||
|
|
Area... As a result, Tom's FidoNet now provides the basis for computer
|
|||
|
|
networking in Eastern Europe, former USSR and most of the Third World,
|
|||
|
|
as well as a extraordinary conduit throughout the rest of the world.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Tom: This people tracking stuff... what little I know of it sounds
|
|||
|
|
very creepy. I don't want a box that reports where the hell I am all
|
|||
|
|
the time, when I walk in the room, it can tell some local machine I'm
|
|||
|
|
there. It's none of anyone's goddamn business. It's the corporate
|
|||
|
|
culture invasion on real life, like the top 1% who make all the money,
|
|||
|
|
and think everyone's gonna live like them.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Jon: Well, if you're living in an ivory tower, after you live there
|
|||
|
|
for a while, you start to think, not that it's YOUR environment, but
|
|||
|
|
it's THE environment.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
T: Yeah, it is reality, but it's a local one. Everyone they know is
|
|||
|
|
like that... well, they don't know everybody.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
J: In a conversation I had the other day with Allucquere Rosanne
|
|||
|
|
Stone, she talked about ubiquitous computing, that computers or
|
|||
|
|
computing will be invisible, it will be so omnipresent...
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
T: That's what Alan Kay pointed out years ago, that when technology
|
|||
|
|
gets done right, you don't even see it. When you walk in a room, your
|
|||
|
|
hand flicks a switch... how much thought do you give to that stupid
|
|||
|
|
light switch? Hopefully very little. The light comes on, and...
|
|||
|
|
Telephones are getting close to that.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
J: Even better, there's some rooms you walk into and the light
|
|||
|
|
switches on automatically, because there's motion detectors.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
T: Yeah.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Anarchy In The A-C-K
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
J: Tell me about FidoNet. As I said, I'm sorta ignorant on the
|
|||
|
|
subject...
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
T: I have a weird point of view on it, of course, having designed
|
|||
|
|
it... February or March of '94 will be it's tenth year. It is a
|
|||
|
|
network, a collection of bulletin boards. It is a loose confederation,
|
|||
|
|
and it is completely and thoroughly and utterly decentralized. There
|
|||
|
|
is literally no top. Most of it's members have a narrow view of it
|
|||
|
|
because they have this particular reality filter on all the time from
|
|||
|
|
living amongst hierarchy addicts. But FidoNet's most basic element is
|
|||
|
|
a bulletin board. What FidoNet is, is a set of protocols that lets the
|
|||
|
|
bulletin boards communicate. FidoNet started as a bunch of bulletin
|
|||
|
|
boards, running my Fido software. FidoNet was added later, to allow
|
|||
|
|
point-to-point email between Fido boards.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
J: Did you start with just a single BBS?
|
|||
|
|
FIDONEWS 14-28 Page 15 14 Jul 1997
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
T: It started with my system. I was writing software for Phoenix
|
|||
|
|
Software, which is now Phoenix Technologies. I was their first
|
|||
|
|
employee. I did all their portable MS-DOS stuff prior to the ROM BIOS
|
|||
|
|
they did, which was partly based on my previous work with "portable"
|
|||
|
|
MS-DOS... we were doing MS-DOS installations in three days, and
|
|||
|
|
charging exorbitant sums... and delivering really good stuff, people
|
|||
|
|
got their money's worth, and got it damn fast! We had it down to an
|
|||
|
|
art of just totally portable stuff. So I had this portable attitude
|
|||
|
|
toward hardware, and wrote a bulletin board sort of based on it.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
FidoNet is more importantly a social mechanism. It was pretty obvious
|
|||
|
|
from the start that it was going to be a social monster, almost more
|
|||
|
|
so than a technical thing. And it had to do with the original
|
|||
|
|
environment of bulletin boards, which were around for quite a while by
|
|||
|
|
the time I got around to doing Fido. Every bulletin board was
|
|||
|
|
completely different, run by some cantankerous person who ran their
|
|||
|
|
board the way that they saw fit, period. So FidoNet had to fit in
|
|||
|
|
that environment.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
J: A very anarchic environment.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
T: Yes, explicitly anarchic. Most people just ran them for their own
|
|||
|
|
reasons, and they were just separated by large distances of time and
|
|||
|
|
space, so they remained locally oriented. I just ran across old
|
|||
|
|
interviews and old documentation from '83 - '84, and we were saying it
|
|||
|
|
then. It was just... people didn't hear it, it just went in one ear
|
|||
|
|
and out the other. They think 'Oh, anarchism, that means throwing
|
|||
|
|
rocks at the cops!' Well sometimes, I suppose, but that's mostly a
|
|||
|
|
cop's definition of it.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The Revolution Will Be Packetized
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
J: The sense of the bomb throwing anarchist, I guess, is sort of in
|
|||
|
|
the sense of political disorder...
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
T: ...which was a specific event in the 20's in San Francisco having
|
|||
|
|
to do with union labor busts. And blackmail... this guy Tom Mooney, a
|
|||
|
|
bomb was planted and blame arranged to fall on Tom Mooney, tossing his
|
|||
|
|
ass in jail, putting the blame squarely on the anarchists.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
J: Anarchy has this sorta bad connotation, but anarchy itself is not
|
|||
|
|
unlike what so many seem to want to embrace now. I think the
|
|||
|
|
libertarian philosophy is fairly anarchic, and you find it widespread
|
|||
|
|
throughout the net. It's basically a hands-off philosophy.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
T: I think people often take it too seriously, like various anarchist
|
|||
|
|
camps that have more rules than not. I consider it a personal
|
|||
|
|
philosophy, not a political thing at all. It has nothing to do with
|
|||
|
|
party-type politics.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
J: If it becomes overtly political, it ceases to be anarchy...
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
T: Yeah, more or less, and I don't really care about what's considered
|
|||
|
|
politics per se, it's personal interaction, how I treat other people
|
|||
|
|
and how they treat me, and my relations to other people, it's
|
|||
|
|
FIDONEWS 14-28 Page 16 14 Jul 1997
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
anarchism... I always call it Paul Goodman style, which is the
|
|||
|
|
principle that people work together better if they're cooperating than
|
|||
|
|
if they're coerced. Very simple, nothing to do with goddamn party
|
|||
|
|
politics. It has to do with how you treat people that you have to work
|
|||
|
|
with. And that's what FidoNet was based on, very explicitly. It was
|
|||
|
|
sort of laid over the top of a lot of Fido bulletin boards, and let
|
|||
|
|
them talk to each other in a straightforward point-to-point manner.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Just How Big Is It?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
J: Was it just Fido boards?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
T: Just Fido at the time, because it required a fairly low-level of
|
|||
|
|
restructuring of the innards, message bases and stuff. And Fido is a
|
|||
|
|
pretty good bulletin board, has been for years, though now it's
|
|||
|
|
definitely old fashioned. I haven't done a revision to Fido for over
|
|||
|
|
two years.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
J: Are you thinking about doing that?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
T: No, I'm thinking about dropping it. <laughter> I've thought about
|
|||
|
|
it, and it's over. So FidoNet started up in spring of '84 with two
|
|||
|
|
systems, me and my friend John Madill and within four months there
|
|||
|
|
were twenty or fifty... by the end of the year, it was approaching 100
|
|||
|
|
by the next February, in nine months. It started growing really fast.
|
|||
|
|
And every single one was run by somebody for their own reasons in
|
|||
|
|
their own manner for their own purposes, so FidoNet had to accommodate
|
|||
|
|
this. And this is nothing unusual, in one sense. All computer networks
|
|||
|
|
are essentially run this way. The Internet is. There's no central
|
|||
|
|
Internet authority where you go to get a system in Internet, you just
|
|||
|
|
put it online, and find people to help you, register with the NIC
|
|||
|
|
[Network Information Center] which is just a convention for handling
|
|||
|
|
names.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
J: Sort of ideally cooperative.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
T: Yeah, it's quite cooperative, and you don't really get kicked out
|
|||
|
|
unless you technically screw up, or do something massively illegal or
|
|||
|
|
glaringly obvious. Most likely technical, like don't answer mail for a
|
|||
|
|
long time. Most electronic things are like that. It didn't start to
|
|||
|
|
take off until Echomail came by, which was done by this guy named Jeff
|
|||
|
|
Rush in Dallas as a way to talk among Dallas sysops about organizing
|
|||
|
|
pizza parties. It's a fully distributed, redundant database using
|
|||
|
|
FidoNet netmail to transport the records in the distributed database.
|
|||
|
|
It's functionally equivalent to Usenet, they gate back and forth very
|
|||
|
|
easily.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
J: Can you link FidoNet very easily to Internet or UUCP Mail?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
T: There's gateways between [FidoNet and UUCP] operating. You can just
|
|||
|
|
set up the UFGate package... [FidoNet and the Internet] they have
|
|||
|
|
totally different paradigms. IP, the Internet stuff, is fully
|
|||
|
|
connected all the time. When you want to connect to a system in
|
|||
|
|
Finland, you just rub packets with them and they come back in
|
|||
|
|
generally under a second. FidoNet is all store and forward, offline
|
|||
|
|
FIDONEWS 14-28 Page 17 14 Jul 1997
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
processing...
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
J: How big is it now?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
T: Just short of 20,000 systems.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
J: Wow, that's a lot...
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
T: It's doubled in a year... I think more than doubled in a year. It's
|
|||
|
|
been doubling every year for a long time <laughs>.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
QQBEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCKQQ
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
J: There's a lot of discussion today of encryption schemes, are you
|
|||
|
|
involved in that?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
T: Actually, yeah, I use it routinely.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
J: Using PGP?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
T: Yeah. FidoNet was pretty intentionally involved in getting PGP
|
|||
|
|
ubiquitous the first time around... an intentional, conscious quick-
|
|||
|
|
dump of about 10,000 copies in a week, starting on a Monday, just to
|
|||
|
|
be sure that it was unstoppable, and it spread very quickly. Now
|
|||
|
|
there's all kinds of arguments over whether it's legal, or whether
|
|||
|
|
it's going to incriminate me to use PGP, and the traffic into the
|
|||
|
|
network itself...
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
J: It wouldn't be a criminal issue...
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
T: People believe all kinds of crazy nonsense.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
J: Somebody has a patent on the algorithm, is that it?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
T: Yeah, and some people are afraid that if they send or pass
|
|||
|
|
encrypted data, that the police will bust into the house and steal the
|
|||
|
|
computer, all this kind of stuff... FidoNet sprung up fully-formed out
|
|||
|
|
of seeming nowhere into the rest of the computer world. Most people on
|
|||
|
|
the Internet have access to it through schools or industry. They went
|
|||
|
|
to school, then they got a job, and they grew up with maintained
|
|||
|
|
Internet connectivity... they were brought up into the sort of
|
|||
|
|
Internet-hood.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
J: I think that's changing a bit...
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
T: Oh, it is changing, it will continue to change, and someday it will
|
|||
|
|
be incomprehensible that it was this way, but as of today, it's sort
|
|||
|
|
of how it is. FidoNet did not come from that direction at all. It came
|
|||
|
|
from... the usual white guys who could afford a computer :-), but in
|
|||
|
|
the best tradition of radio and astronomy, they were at least
|
|||
|
|
amateurs, it's truly an amateur network. It is not professional, as in
|
|||
|
|
"profession"... "professional" is frequently used to mean legitimate,
|
|||
|
|
as opposed to amateur...
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
J: You mean "hobbyist?"
|
|||
|
|
FIDONEWS 14-28 Page 18 14 Jul 1997
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
T: Yeah, amateur as a word became disparaging, but we mean it actually
|
|||
|
|
in the older sense, like the radio amateur sense. We don't do it for
|
|||
|
|
money, it's done for the sake of itself. So for the most part, FidoNet
|
|||
|
|
members never had that traditional kind of connectivity, and also
|
|||
|
|
didn't have the corporate culture, and didn't have the computer
|
|||
|
|
network culture, so it basically formed in the dark, on its own.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
550 Flavors of Culture
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
J: Speaking of the word "culture," do you find that within the FidoNet
|
|||
|
|
universe, there's a particular set of cultural predilections? Does
|
|||
|
|
there tend to be a general kind of group or community that uses
|
|||
|
|
FidoNet?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
T: Well, it's like any of those things, it's really subjective. But,
|
|||
|
|
yeah, there do seem to be, in my travels on Internet and FidoNet,
|
|||
|
|
distinct flavors. One is not better than the other, I can tell you
|
|||
|
|
that, culturally speaking. The Internet people say, "Oh, but the flame
|
|||
|
|
level on FidoNet is so awful." Bullshit. The flame level on the
|
|||
|
|
Internet is just as high. It's in loftier language, five line
|
|||
|
|
signatures, and all that kind of crap... but I'm sorry, it's not any
|
|||
|
|
better, it's just different. What it is, is less alien to them, more
|
|||
|
|
comfortable... and vice-versa from the FidoNet side. It's more
|
|||
|
|
comfortable, it's more familiar, the language used and the acronyms
|
|||
|
|
and the smiley faces, all of that junk.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
There is a FidoNet flavor, through the usual sociological things. The
|
|||
|
|
people who originally populated it defined this vague common set, and
|
|||
|
|
people who come onto it self-select ("Oh, I like that!") and join it,
|
|||
|
|
and then enhance it, or they're sort of neutral and they come in and
|
|||
|
|
they just absorb it because... you know, you start hanging out with
|
|||
|
|
people, and you pick up their manner of speaking. And there are
|
|||
|
|
people, of course, who are utterly opposed to this, and want to make
|
|||
|
|
it professional and some just don't care, and live in a corner of it.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
But yeah, there are things in common, and I have a hard time putting
|
|||
|
|
my finger on what they are. It is fiercely independent, utterly,
|
|||
|
|
fiercely independent. It is viciously anti-commercialization. It has a
|
|||
|
|
long history of some nasty politics, some really enlightened politics,
|
|||
|
|
and I think in a lot of ways they have more pragmatic view, and a
|
|||
|
|
better view Q better meaning more functional in today's world Q than
|
|||
|
|
people who haven't had to pay their own phone bills.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
J: Some people argue that you can't have strictly online community,
|
|||
|
|
and others believe that you can. Some feel that there has to be some
|
|||
|
|
kind of face-to-face interaction. In the Internet there has not been
|
|||
|
|
as much of that until it began to become more broadly accessible to
|
|||
|
|
regular people...
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
T: The Internet is still completely and thoroughly inaccessible... I'm
|
|||
|
|
sorry, it is simply not accessible. You have to have a large amount of
|
|||
|
|
hardware or an intimate relationship with someone who does, like you
|
|||
|
|
have to go to school or something. Otherwise you're paying money...
|
|||
|
|
and there are people who fall through the cracks...
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
FIDONEWS 14-28 Page 19 14 Jul 1997
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
J: How about public access Internet?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
T: Yeah, but if there's more than 100 terminals in the U.S. that any
|
|||
|
|
average person could walk up to and figure out how to use in less than
|
|||
|
|
a week, I would be surprised. It still takes huge amounts of
|
|||
|
|
specialized knowledge.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
J: But the technical side is fairly dense...
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
T: Oh, yeah... I've been an SWTP, CP/M, DOS hacker and hardware hacker
|
|||
|
|
for fifteen fucking years, twenty years, and UNIX is so intimidating,
|
|||
|
|
arbitrarily difficult to use... a lot of the users have this macho
|
|||
|
|
attitude that "Well, you should have to plow through it, I did." The
|
|||
|
|
whole priesthood nonsense. It's stupid. And the argument whether
|
|||
|
|
online culture is possible or not, that ain't where it's gonna get
|
|||
|
|
decided. It either gets made or it doesn't. I think there are online
|
|||
|
|
communities. The people who are doing it aren't asking themselves,
|
|||
|
|
"Are we an online community?" They're just going about their business.
|
|||
|
|
They're not tangible enough to really get documented except in
|
|||
|
|
hindsight, you look back and say "Oh, yeah, those people are" or "No,
|
|||
|
|
they really weren't, when push came to shove, they didn't stay
|
|||
|
|
together."
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
J: At EFF-Austin we've been a little more self-conscious about it,
|
|||
|
|
we've actually been trying to do some community-building, to try to
|
|||
|
|
structure an online community in Austin where we'd have some force to
|
|||
|
|
get things done, various projects. One of the things we're doing that
|
|||
|
|
other EFF-related groups haven't been doing is arts projects, and in
|
|||
|
|
doing those things, in talking to some of the people who are
|
|||
|
|
interested in doing that, I realized that there are a lot of writers
|
|||
|
|
and artists who are hungry to get online. They know it's there,
|
|||
|
|
they'd like to be using it, but they can't get access to it because
|
|||
|
|
they can't, unless they stumble into it, find a system that'll give
|
|||
|
|
them an account. It's kind of like what you were saying about
|
|||
|
|
barriers... but I wonder if, in the FidoNet world, you find writers
|
|||
|
|
and artists using FidoNet to share information and to form arts
|
|||
|
|
communities?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
T: Well, there's a lot more less-technical people involved, because
|
|||
|
|
you can put a $300 system together, line cord to phone jack. That just
|
|||
|
|
means that the entry level is a lot lower. And it's functional as
|
|||
|
|
hell! I mean, So what if it's slow? 5 seconds or 100 milliseconds,
|
|||
|
|
what's the difference to most people?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
All Look Completely Different
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
J: The link, the network, is strictly for email? Or do you have some
|
|||
|
|
other stuff, file transfer... ?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
T: Oh, there's lots of file transfer stuff. In some ways it's a lot
|
|||
|
|
more sophisticated than the FTP stuff from the user's point of view.
|
|||
|
|
There's this thing called the SDN, the Software Distribution Network,
|
|||
|
|
which looks like a conference for files, where the objects are not
|
|||
|
|
messages, but files. And they're stored in a redundant manner, some
|
|||
|
|
locally concentrated, some far away and scattered. It's kind of
|
|||
|
|
FIDONEWS 14-28 Page 20 14 Jul 1997
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
nebulous, like most network things are. They do monthly announcements
|
|||
|
|
of new files, and most of it's shareware, or free. You can do things
|
|||
|
|
like file attach (send with a message), and file requests (file fetch
|
|||
|
|
via message).
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
FidoNet doesn't have the problem that a lot of older networks have,
|
|||
|
|
with seven bit channels and all that crap. We have eight bit channels
|
|||
|
|
with 32 bit CRCs. We do run into the alien system problems... ASCII
|
|||
|
|
character sets vs. the Cyrillic alphabets and all that kinda stuff.
|
|||
|
|
Those problems are about as chaotic as they are anywhere else.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
J: How about remote login?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
T: No... the systems in FidoNet are radically different. There's Radio
|
|||
|
|
Shack color computers, there's CP/M machines, Apple IIs, giant DOS
|
|||
|
|
machines, giant LANs of UNIX boxes, all running common protocols in a
|
|||
|
|
far broader hardware base than most, even UNIX boxes. There's no
|
|||
|
|
unified operating system, there's a set of protocols, there's 40 or 50
|
|||
|
|
different mailers, and FidoNet interfaces in bulletin boards, and they
|
|||
|
|
all look completely different. So it's at a much higher level of
|
|||
|
|
abstraction than the FidoNet gets defined at. I bet a lot of the
|
|||
|
|
Internet, some huge proportion, is UNIX...
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
J: You certainly need some kind of standard to be interoperable to the
|
|||
|
|
extent that the Internet is, don't you?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
T: No, where the real compatibility is is the TCP/IP layer, and that's
|
|||
|
|
rock solid, and that's the thing in common. All the rlogin, telnet,
|
|||
|
|
and ftp stuff partly user paradigm, rather than just a set of
|
|||
|
|
protocols. It's well, and fine, and wonderful, and I love it, but it
|
|||
|
|
does put a real crimp on style.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
[Ed Cavazos, almost-attorney and vice-prez of EFF-Austin, shows up and
|
|||
|
|
settles in to listen. The conversation continues.]
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The Color Of Money
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
T: A lot of FidoNet is so radically different, you can't get people to
|
|||
|
|
either hear it or understand what's going on, because it's NOT like
|
|||
|
|
any of the others, and it was intentionally not made like the others,
|
|||
|
|
and some of the really basic principles that seem random are
|
|||
|
|
intentional... they're in writing, and have been in writing for seven
|
|||
|
|
years. The strictly American anarchist principles that it's based on
|
|||
|
|
are written into the policy documents.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
We actually had in '85, '86, '87 an attempted takeover by a
|
|||
|
|
corporation that was formed from within, it was like a cancer that
|
|||
|
|
became a giant boil on the surface, called IFNA, the International
|
|||
|
|
FidoNet Association, that was sort of a good idea, or a potentially
|
|||
|
|
good idea, when we started it at the 200 node level. By the time it
|
|||
|
|
got around to being implemented, at 500 nodes, the world had utterly
|
|||
|
|
changed. With 200 people, you can run it like a club. It was 90% U.S.,
|
|||
|
|
90% white guys with computers, and at the 500 node level, it was about
|
|||
|
|
20% European and definitely, obviously growing. It hopped the puddle,
|
|||
|
|
with systems appearing in South America, scattered, but you know how
|
|||
|
|
FIDONEWS 14-28 Page 21 14 Jul 1997
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
that goes... when you get one, then you get two, and then four, and
|
|||
|
|
they start to grow.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
We were very naive, and I was right in the middle of it. Some of us
|
|||
|
|
learned quickly, this isn't going to work! But this corporation grew,
|
|||
|
|
and became a 501(c)(3), and like all of those things, they get power-
|
|||
|
|
hungry, and they get grabby of territory, and we had to fight it off,
|
|||
|
|
and it was fought off by the constituents of the network... and it was
|
|||
|
|
killed off. They had gained control of the copyright and the
|
|||
|
|
trademarks, and they were fought off. The network, instead of dying,
|
|||
|
|
like everyone predicted, thrived.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
J: So how did this fight go?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
T: It was fought by lawyers and proxy votes and all the usual crap, in
|
|||
|
|
a goddamn hotel in San Jose, was the final straw...
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
J: Were you a part of this corporation at all?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
T: Well, a bunch of us started it... at first, we were brainstorming
|
|||
|
|
what we could do... deals on modems, some obvious stuff. And we'd have
|
|||
|
|
a spokesperson from FidoNet who'd attend the EMA meetings once a year
|
|||
|
|
and represent bulletin board operators and FidoNet members in
|
|||
|
|
electronic privacy things and the technical trade stuff and the
|
|||
|
|
obvious things. And those are still lacking, we still need them. But
|
|||
|
|
it was established really early that everyone not only retains control
|
|||
|
|
of their system, but they're expected to do their part to run it,
|
|||
|
|
because there is no one else to run it. And as simple as it sounds,
|
|||
|
|
it's a really radical act to get that across, so that people don't
|
|||
|
|
just sit on their butts. And of course, the usual 10% does the work,
|
|||
|
|
and 90% sits on their butts, but that's fine, too.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Double Plus Plus Good
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
T: FidoNet's a little odd, unlike the Internet, which has a domain
|
|||
|
|
name system... you say "Connect to toad.com," it says, ".com, okay,
|
|||
|
|
over there, toad... here's the address," and you go after it. FidoNet
|
|||
|
|
has what appears to be a centralized database that every system in the
|
|||
|
|
net has, a copy of this at the moment 2 megabyte long ASCII database,
|
|||
|
|
with 20,000 records in it. And it's updated every week, it contains
|
|||
|
|
the full physical and logical information about the entire network...
|
|||
|
|
phone number, system name, restrictions on use, protocols supported,
|
|||
|
|
some ASCII text, like system name, and city, all that kind of junk. It
|
|||
|
|
contains the hierarchical addressing scheme of the network, and it
|
|||
|
|
contains a lot of redundancy.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
J: Given that there's no central authority, who maintains this
|
|||
|
|
database?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
T: A local autonomous unit in FidoNet... First... the terminology in
|
|||
|
|
FidoNet is point-node-net-zone. Points aren't really part of FidoNet,
|
|||
|
|
they're a peculiar thing... a node is the basic unit, it is a bulletin
|
|||
|
|
board or a mail-only site, generally a phone number with a modem on
|
|||
|
|
it. A net is a cluster of Fidos, a cluster of nodes, like San
|
|||
|
|
Francisco has Net 125, SFBay Net, 75-80 systems. A node in a net is
|
|||
|
|
FIDONEWS 14-28 Page 22 14 Jul 1997
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
the basic social organizational unit. It was designed to be small
|
|||
|
|
enough to comprehend in regular old terms, like we all know and love,
|
|||
|
|
clubs and that kind of group... when they get too big they tend to
|
|||
|
|
fragment into pieces, which become autonomous units, then nets are
|
|||
|
|
collected into the real-life geography of continents.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The North American phone system is alien to the Western European ones,
|
|||
|
|
and they have lots of mutually-alien phone systems. The North
|
|||
|
|
Americans tend to be a lot less political... Zone 1 encompasses
|
|||
|
|
Mexico, U.S., and Canada, and nobody ever batted an eye over it. It's
|
|||
|
|
like, "Oh, okay, that makes sense." In Europe, they're fiercely
|
|||
|
|
defensive of the political boundaries, and it's really silly. Local
|
|||
|
|
autonomy was the critical thing to make it work, because who's going
|
|||
|
|
to allow somebody in New Jersey to dictate how they're going to run
|
|||
|
|
their system? There'd be no way to exert any kind of control, and once
|
|||
|
|
you start getting into control wars, you spend all your time doing
|
|||
|
|
that.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
So the way the node list is made is that every net fragment makes its
|
|||
|
|
own chunk of the node list, which is a very straightforward task, even
|
|||
|
|
though it ends up being work. They're passed up through regional
|
|||
|
|
coordinators who take these fragments, and everybody gets a copy of
|
|||
|
|
everybody else's weekly list, and each of them compiles a giant list,
|
|||
|
|
then they do a difference, this week from last week, and mail out that
|
|||
|
|
difference back down the tree. So if you chopped off half the network
|
|||
|
|
and smashed it flat, it would regenerate itself. It's a balance of
|
|||
|
|
terror, that's what it is. It's a genuine balance of terror in
|
|||
|
|
responsibility and power. What you get for that redundancy is that no
|
|||
|
|
one can cut you out of the network, no one can declare that you can't
|
|||
|
|
communicate.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
In the UUCP world none of this happens because the social environment
|
|||
|
|
is much more substantial... universities, Hewlett Packard... Your
|
|||
|
|
neighbors, in theory, can cut you off, and you disappear, no one knows
|
|||
|
|
about you, if you're eliminated from the bang path, no one can talk to
|
|||
|
|
you, and that's it, you don't exist, it's as simple as that.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
In FidoNet, and this has happened recently in England... a bunch of
|
|||
|
|
religious fundamentalists by just hammering away gained control of
|
|||
|
|
large chunks of the FidoNet in the U.K., and they started having
|
|||
|
|
fits... "Why, there's perverts on this board, and we're not gonna have
|
|||
|
|
'em in FidoNet!" <laughter> And they clipped them out of the goddamn
|
|||
|
|
list, they removed the entries from the U.K. list. You sort of noticed
|
|||
|
|
they disappeared, but those people can still communicate, they can
|
|||
|
|
mail you their fragment, hand-generated if necessary, and all the node
|
|||
|
|
list processors let you incorporate private lists, and you can reply
|
|||
|
|
back, just like that. No one can be cut out of the network.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
If you start thinking about it, you realize that there are a number of
|
|||
|
|
good and bad side effects from this. Like, if you have some real
|
|||
|
|
asshole troublemaker, there's nothing you can do about it. Like,
|
|||
|
|
unless somebody comes in and pulls out a gun or something, it's kinda
|
|||
|
|
hard to get someone kicked out of a more or less public place... well,
|
|||
|
|
[here in] the hotel would be relatively easy, but out in the street,
|
|||
|
|
you've just gotta live with your neighbors. And the same is true in
|
|||
|
|
the FidoNet. You have to learn to live with your neighbors, and vice
|
|||
|
|
FIDONEWS 14-28 Page 23 14 Jul 1997
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
versa. The flaming assholes have to learn how to behave well enough to
|
|||
|
|
not be utterly censured. Which is what generally happens to them...
|
|||
|
|
people just ignore them.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
There was one guy, he was another fundamentalist Christian nut case.
|
|||
|
|
He was amusing, actually. He was a "true Bible" believer, this was
|
|||
|
|
called pre-rapture, or something or other, some pre-rapture network...
|
|||
|
|
he was persecuted by all sides, and he loved it. He was mailing
|
|||
|
|
everybody this gibberish, pages and pages of gibberish. And there's
|
|||
|
|
programs that just filter out mail, and you say, I don't wanna see
|
|||
|
|
mail from this address...
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
J: A bozofilter.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
T: Yeah, basically, it's a bozofilter, we've had 'em for a long time.
|
|||
|
|
And there's also another one that's called bounce... whenever you get
|
|||
|
|
anything from this guy, bounce it back. It appends a bit of text that
|
|||
|
|
says "This message is refused at site so-and-so, have it back," which
|
|||
|
|
IRRITATES people! But it just works out that people, even the crazy
|
|||
|
|
ones are social organisms. We don't really like to be disliked too
|
|||
|
|
widely, we like to have an audience, if nothing else. So that's the
|
|||
|
|
underpinnings...
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
FidoNet has been very flexible technically. When technological changes
|
|||
|
|
or opportunities come by, within a year half the net supports them. In
|
|||
|
|
about '85 U.S. Robotics very smartly discovered bulletin boards, and
|
|||
|
|
they realized the way it works is, even though there's a relatively
|
|||
|
|
small number of bulletin board sysops, if you're bulletin board
|
|||
|
|
caller, who do you look to to see what hardware to buy? The sysop. And
|
|||
|
|
they ask, "What kind of modem do you have... oh, it must be pretty
|
|||
|
|
good if you use it," because when it's bad, they mouth off to hundreds
|
|||
|
|
of people about it.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
So USR basically courted the FidoNet, and said "What do you want to
|
|||
|
|
see in a modem?" The first modem they did this with was the Courier
|
|||
|
|
2400, which was 600 bucks new at the time, or 700 bucks. They offered
|
|||
|
|
a 50% off deal, down to about 300 or 400 dollars, which was a bargain,
|
|||
|
|
relatively speaking. We wanted true flow control, and a symmetrical
|
|||
|
|
modem with basic AT command set, and they did it. It was an instant
|
|||
|
|
success. And then they did the HST, much to most of the industry's
|
|||
|
|
annoyance, they did this kludgey proprietary asymmetrical protocol
|
|||
|
|
9600 one way, 300 baud the other way... they came to us again, and we
|
|||
|
|
worked out more handshake stuff, and started changing protocols on our
|
|||
|
|
side.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
FidoNet was originally based on xmodem, which is amazingly similar to
|
|||
|
|
X.25's packet ack, like Kermit, only much more efficient than Kermit,
|
|||
|
|
and very much like UUCP-G, only it's not windowed... block ack block
|
|||
|
|
ack block ack... it's fine at 2400 baud and below, above 2400 baud it
|
|||
|
|
was not good. We had asymmetrical modems that collapsed. So there had
|
|||
|
|
been another protocol called Wazoo around, and it instantly became
|
|||
|
|
hot, because it did protocol negotiation when you started a session,
|
|||
|
|
and it could pick ZMODEM [trademark Chuck Forseberg], which is fully-
|
|||
|
|
windowed, screaming fast, you can run it ackless. You could work the
|
|||
|
|
hell out of an HST in ways that other protocols couldn't. Internet
|
|||
|
|
protocols and UUCP-G were just useless, in other words, the modem was
|
|||
|
|
FIDONEWS 14-28 Page 24 14 Jul 1997
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
useless for existing protocols. So FidoNet's historically been very
|
|||
|
|
flexible, technology-wise.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
McLuhanites: Myopy, My Opium
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Ed: Are you familiar with John Quarterman? Have you seen his maps of
|
|||
|
|
FidoNet?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
T: No, I haven't seen his maps of FidoNet. [Quarterman did show 'em
|
|||
|
|
off later in the conference.] I talk to him occasionally, I
|
|||
|
|
republished one of his articles in FidoNews a while ago... FidoNews is
|
|||
|
|
a weird phenomenon in itself... a 20,000 circulation weekly newsletter
|
|||
|
|
in its tenth year. It sort of goes unacknowledged... FidoNet has a
|
|||
|
|
giant credibility problem, because it sprang forth fully-formed 'way
|
|||
|
|
outside all traditional computer things, and because it works on PCs
|
|||
|
|
and Radio Shack Color Computers (which actually turns out to be a nice
|
|||
|
|
processor, it runs OS9 on a 6809... you can run multiusers on a $99
|
|||
|
|
packaged machine). It's really some amazing software.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
FidoNews was designed in '84 in the first year as the meta-net, to
|
|||
|
|
discuss the net itself, to discuss the social end of the net. In the
|
|||
|
|
first issue was a retired Air Force colonel or something, whining
|
|||
|
|
about the military retirement process, and people instantly said,
|
|||
|
|
"This is supposed to be a technical newsletter, this is FidoNet..."
|
|||
|
|
and I said, "No, bullshit, it's not. I'm tired of just this techie
|
|||
|
|
crap. Do you talk on the phone about your telephone all the time?
|
|||
|
|
'Gee, I've got a great new phone, it's got all these pushbuttons...'
|
|||
|
|
and you get bored very quickly. It's like radio amateurs talking about
|
|||
|
|
their goddamn antennas." Who wants to put up with that stuff?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
J: We've been talking about that a lot. There's three or four
|
|||
|
|
magazines devoted to online cultures, cultures of the Matrix, that
|
|||
|
|
focus on the Internet a lot. Wired is one, Mondo in a real different
|
|||
|
|
way, and bOING-bOING, of course, in a REAL different way. And we
|
|||
|
|
realized that a lot of the articles are preoccupied with the carrier,
|
|||
|
|
with the technology for carrying messages, and not so much with the
|
|||
|
|
messages themselves or the cultures themselves, the sorts of cultures
|
|||
|
|
that are evolving.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
T: Yeah, they forget that what we're making is a goddamn conduit; it's
|
|||
|
|
a medium, it's not content! A content comes with it, because they're
|
|||
|
|
brand new mediums, they fail a lot, and they need to be developed...
|
|||
|
|
all software sucks, and all hardware sucks, so you end up talking
|
|||
|
|
about it a lot, but yeah, that's not the point.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
J: What's really more fascinating is what's at either end of the
|
|||
|
|
conduit...
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
T: Yeah, the telephone proved that. It's actually a way to convey
|
|||
|
|
social information, emotion, that's why telephones worked, you can
|
|||
|
|
talk over them. How many ways can you say "No" with a keyboard? Not
|
|||
|
|
very many. 25 or 50 if you're incredibly ingenious. Smiley faces and
|
|||
|
|
uppercase... All the cultural information is stripped. And a lot of it
|
|||
|
|
has simply been access. Those at the gates determine who comes in. If
|
|||
|
|
you own the $5,000 PC...
|
|||
|
|
FIDONEWS 14-28 Page 25 14 Jul 1997
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
J: Is that what brings you here [to the fourth conference on
|
|||
|
|
Computers, Freedom, and Privacy), access issues?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
T: Yeah, that's why I'm always skeptical of large-scale networks.
|
|||
|
|
While I'm on the Internet, I don't have any pretensions of being...
|
|||
|
|
"Why, the world is connected!" No, one percent of one percent is
|
|||
|
|
connected, barely, and the tools really suck. Through no fault of the
|
|||
|
|
authors, they're incredible works, the foundation to a world. But
|
|||
|
|
they're hardly accessible to everyone in the world.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
J: I had to buy my access to the Internet, at first. The WELL...
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
T: Mine I get because I'm managing a small IP cooperative, and I get
|
|||
|
|
it sort of as a perk to my $400 to $500 salary for what is essentially
|
|||
|
|
a full-time job.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
J: Actually, I've been able to pick up other accounts since, but the
|
|||
|
|
only way that I could have got in in the first place was by buying
|
|||
|
|
access, because I'm not really very technical. My interests are more
|
|||
|
|
sociopolitical, I guess...
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
T: I don't really have any serious problems with the way things exist.
|
|||
|
|
For better or worse, that's the way that all complicated things have
|
|||
|
|
been developed in our little Western history timeline. It takes
|
|||
|
|
resources and effort and energy, and they do spread out, eventually.
|
|||
|
|
And they get defined along the way, they definitely have basic
|
|||
|
|
cultural assumptions glued into them at the very base.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
J: It allows a more distributed way of organizing and doing things...
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
T: We'll see if it's ever as good as the telephone is. It doesn't get
|
|||
|
|
much better than the telephone, when you think about its position in
|
|||
|
|
society. Like Bruce said in his Hacker Crackdown, you notice them
|
|||
|
|
when you don't have one, they're so ubiquitous, they're like light
|
|||
|
|
switches. You don't think of a telephone, it's not an exciting object.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
J: I can remember when there was a single phone in the house, and it
|
|||
|
|
was a big deal to have a second phone, which was usually on the same
|
|||
|
|
line. And now I have three phone lines, and one is a dedicated data
|
|||
|
|
line. I don't think I know many people who don't have at least two or
|
|||
|
|
three phones in their house.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
T: I'm down to two, and I consider that rarefied... I only need two
|
|||
|
|
lines now, after having six at one point, all these bulletin boards
|
|||
|
|
and data lines, now it's like, oh, a voice line, and a data line...
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
J: I prefer asynchronous text swapping, but I'm not sure why, maybe a
|
|||
|
|
personal idiosyncrasy. It seems funny to me, because Matisse Enzer,
|
|||
|
|
the support guy on the WELL... when we're having a problem, and we
|
|||
|
|
can't quite figure out how to communicate about it, he always says,
|
|||
|
|
"Well look, why don't I call you up, and we'll talk about it." And I
|
|||
|
|
always say, "No, wait, I don't wanna talk, I just wanna text!"
|
|||
|
|
<laughter>
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
-----
|
|||
|
|
FIDONEWS 14-28 Page 26 14 Jul 1997
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Originally published in Fringe Ware Review #1, ISSN 1069-5656.
|
|||
|
|
Copyright (c)1993 by the author. All rights reserved.
|
|||
|
|
For more details, contact: email@fringeware.com
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
steve@gen.lcrnet.org
|
|||
|
|
generica@geocities.com
|
|||
|
|
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/3755
|
|||
|
|
team os/2
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
FIDONEWS 14-28 Page 27 14 Jul 1997
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
=================================================================
|
|||
|
|
COORDINATORS CORNER
|
|||
|
|
=================================================================
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Nodelist-statistics as seen from Zone-2 for day 192
|
|||
|
|
By Ward Dossche, 2:292/854
|
|||
|
|
ZC/2
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
+----+------+------------+------------+------------+------------+--+
|
|||
|
|
|Zone|Nl-164|Nodelist-171|Nodelist-178|Nodelist-185|Nodelist-192|%%|
|
|||
|
|
+----+------+------------+------------+------------+------------+--+
|
|||
|
|
| 1 | 8182| 8182 0 | 8182 0 | 7828 -354 | 7828 0 |30|
|
|||
|
|
| 2 | 15703|15666 -37 |15640 -26 |15577 -63 |15485 -92 |60|
|
|||
|
|
| 3 | 758| 758 0 | 743 -15 | 728 -15 | 718 -10 | 3|
|
|||
|
|
| 4 | 514| 514 0 | 519 5 | 517 -2 | 517 0 | 2|
|
|||
|
|
| 5 | 87| 87 0 | 87 0 | 87 0 | 87 0 | 0|
|
|||
|
|
| 6 | 1078| 1079 1 | 1079 0 | 1079 0 | 1079 0 | 4|
|
|||
|
|
+----+------+------------+------------+------------+------------+--+
|
|||
|
|
| 26322|26286 -36 |26250 -36 |25816 -434 |25714 -102 |
|
|||
|
|
+------+------------+------------+------------+------------+
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
FIDONEWS 14-28 Page 28 14 Jul 1997
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
=================================================================
|
|||
|
|
ECHOING
|
|||
|
|
=================================================================
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
North American Backbone Echo Changes [May-Jun]
|
|||
|
|
by Lisa Gronke, 1:105/16
|
|||
|
|
lisa@psg.com
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Summary of backbone & quasi-backbone echo changes during May & Jun.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Brought to you courtesy of (unix) diff.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
diff (backbone.na + backbone.no) 04-May-97 06-Jul-97 [edited].
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Echotag change
|
|||
|
|
--------------
|
|||
|
|
< WIN97 Windows 97 Echo [old echotag]
|
|||
|
|
> MEMPHIS Windows 97 Echo [new echotag]
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Added to the backbone
|
|||
|
|
---------------------
|
|||
|
|
> ASCII_ART G-rated ASCII Art Showcase
|
|||
|
|
> ATM Amateur Telescope Making
|
|||
|
|
> ET_SIGHTINGS ET_SIGHTINGS Discussion Conference
|
|||
|
|
> FIDS_DEV Fidonet/Internet Distribution System Developers
|
|||
|
|
Forum
|
|||
|
|
> FIDS_SYSOP Fidonet/Internet Distribution System Sysops
|
|||
|
|
Forum
|
|||
|
|
> HDTV High Definition TeleVision Conference
|
|||
|
|
> INTBBS_WK International BBS Week echo
|
|||
|
|
> MOD1000 Tandy Model 1000 Personal Computers Conference
|
|||
|
|
> NATURE (low traffic since 6/1/97)
|
|||
|
|
> OFFICE97 Microsoft Office 97 Support Echo
|
|||
|
|
> POOH Pooh and Friends
|
|||
|
|
> REPUBLICAN Republican GOP Party Policy and Events
|
|||
|
|
Discussion
|
|||
|
|
> SHOTGUN_USERS Shotgun Professional SVGA BBS Support
|
|||
|
|
> TECH-CHAT TECHnical-CHAT conference
|
|||
|
|
> WC4_32BIT Wildcat 4 32-Bit
|
|||
|
|
> WHITEHOUSE_TALK Discussions of current White House Press
|
|||
|
|
Releases
|
|||
|
|
> Z1_FIDONET FidoNet Echo Distribution discussion
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Removed from the backbone or quasi-backbone
|
|||
|
|
-------------------------------------------
|
|||
|
|
< ANIMANIACS Discussions about the TV show Animaniacs
|
|||
|
|
< AOP (low traffic since 4/1/97)
|
|||
|
|
< AVICULTURE (low traffic since 4/1/97)
|
|||
|
|
< BARBIE (low traffic since 4/1/97)
|
|||
|
|
< BIOMED (low traffic since 4/1/97)
|
|||
|
|
< CAD-CAM (low traffic since 3/1/97)
|
|||
|
|
< CARE_GIVER (low traffic since 4/1/97)
|
|||
|
|
< CHICORA_GEN (not in EchoList since 4/1/97)
|
|||
|
|
< DARKSOFT (low traffic since 4/1/97)
|
|||
|
|
< DEMOCRATS (low traffic since 3/1/97)
|
|||
|
|
< ECSTASY (low traffic since 3/1/97)
|
|||
|
|
FIDONEWS 14-28 Page 29 14 Jul 1997
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
< FLAME National Flame! Echo
|
|||
|
|
< JAZZ Jazz and related topics
|
|||
|
|
< LASERPUB (low traffic since 3/1/97)
|
|||
|
|
< MOD_COUNCIL (low traffic since 3/1/97)
|
|||
|
|
< MS_SUPPORT (low traffic since 4/1/97)
|
|||
|
|
< NATIVE_ISSUES (low traffic since 4/1/97)
|
|||
|
|
< NETLINE (low traffic since 3/1/97)
|
|||
|
|
< OMEGA_SOFT (low traffic since 3/1/97)
|
|||
|
|
< PROBLEM_CHILD (low traffic since 4/1/97)
|
|||
|
|
< RARE_CONDITION (low traffic since 4/1/97)
|
|||
|
|
< SIP_SAA (low traffic since 4/1/97)
|
|||
|
|
< TREK_FAN_ORG (low traffic since 4/1/97)
|
|||
|
|
< ULTRABETA (low traffic since 3/1/97)
|
|||
|
|
< VHEAL (low traffic since 4/1/97)
|
|||
|
|
< VOCAL (low traffic since 3/1/97)
|
|||
|
|
< WRESTLE_RPG (low traffic since 4/1/97)
|
|||
|
|
< ZMODEM (low traffic since 4/1/97)
|
|||
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
|||
|
|
o There are 734 echos in backbone.na [06-Jul-97] (down 29)
|
|||
|
|
o There are 73 echos in backbone.no [06-Jul-97] (up 18)
|
|||
|
|
o for a total of 807 backbone & quasi-backbone echo (down 11)
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
FIDONEWS 14-28 Page 30 14 Jul 1997
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
=================================================================
|
|||
|
|
COMIX IN ASCII
|
|||
|
|
=================================================================
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
--- Following message extracted from ASCII_ART @ 1:18/14 ---
|
|||
|
|
By Christopher Baker on Sun Jul 13 17:05:57 1997
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
From: SB Perelman
|
|||
|
|
To: All
|
|||
|
|
Date: 06 Jul 97 07:07:33
|
|||
|
|
Subj: BovinEducation
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
All I Need To Know About Life I Learned From A Cow:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
__.----.___
|
|||
|
|
|| || (\(__)/)-'|| ;--` ||
|
|||
|
|
_||____________||___`(QQ)'___||______;____||_
|
|||
|
|
-||------------||----) (----||-----------||-
|
|||
|
|
_||____________||___(o o)___||______;____||_
|
|||
|
|
-||------------||----`--'----||-----------||-
|
|||
|
|
|| || `|| ||| || || ||jgs
|
|||
|
|
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
1. Wake up in a happy MOOO-d.
|
|||
|
|
2. Don't cry over spilled MILK.
|
|||
|
|
3. When chewing your cud, remember: There's no fat, no calories,
|
|||
|
|
no cholesterol, and no taste!
|
|||
|
|
4. The grass is green on the other side of the fence.
|
|||
|
|
5. Turn the UDDER cheek and MOOO-ve on.
|
|||
|
|
6. Seize every opportunity and MILK it for all its worth!
|
|||
|
|
7. It's better to be seen and not HERD.
|
|||
|
|
8. Honor thy FODDER and thy mother and all your UDDER relatives.
|
|||
|
|
9. Never take any BULL from anybody.
|
|||
|
|
10. Always let them know who's the BOSSY.
|
|||
|
|
11. Stepping on COWpies brings good luck.
|
|||
|
|
12. Black and white is always an appropriate fashion statement.
|
|||
|
|
13. Don't forget to COW-nt your blessings every day.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
-joan
|
|||
|
|
-- .-.
|
|||
|
|
{\('v')/}
|
|||
|
|
(\_/) ____________________`( )'_____
|
|||
|
|
( =(^Y^)= (_ punk1111@juno.com ^^" "^^
|
|||
|
|
____\_(m___m)_________)tark, joan
|
|||
|
|
ASCII art: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7373/
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
---
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
o SB Perelman, 1:103/505
|
|||
|
|
)/\,[_) SB.Perelman@505.sasbbs.com
|
|||
|
|
`T7 ]=[ Moderator & Curator: ASCII_ART
|
|||
|
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Origin: Shofar _ 714-838-3837 _ ASCII & Ye Shall Receive (1:103/505)
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
FIDONEWS 14-28 Page 31 14 Jul 1997
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
FIDONEWS 14-28 Page 32 14 Jul 1997
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
=================================================================
|
|||
|
|
NOTICES
|
|||
|
|
=================================================================
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Future History
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
1 Aug 1997
|
|||
|
|
International FidoNet PENPAL [Echo] meeting in Dijon, France
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
13 Oct 1997
|
|||
|
|
Thanksgiving Day, Canada.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
1 Dec 1997
|
|||
|
|
World AIDS Day.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
10 Dec 1997
|
|||
|
|
Nobel Day, Sweden.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
12 Jan 1998
|
|||
|
|
HAL 9000 is one year old today.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
30 Apr 1998
|
|||
|
|
Queens Day, Holland.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
22 May 1998
|
|||
|
|
Expo '98 World Exposition in Lisbon (Portugal) opens.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
1 Dec 1998
|
|||
|
|
Fifteenth Anniversary of release of Fido version 1 by
|
|||
|
|
Tom Jennings.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
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.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
15 Sep 2000
|
|||
|
|
Sydney (Australia) Summer Olympiad opens.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
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.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
FIDONEWS 14-28 Page 33 14 Jul 1997
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
=================================================================
|
|||
|
|
FIDONEWS PUBLIC-KEY
|
|||
|
|
=================================================================
|
|||
|
|
|
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|
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|
|
[this must be copied out to a file starting at column 1 or
|
|||
|
|
it won't process under PGP as a valid public-key]
|
|||
|
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|
|||
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|
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|
|
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|
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|
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|
|||
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|
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-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
|
|||
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|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
File-request FNEWSKEY from 1:1/23 [1:18/14] or download it from the
|
|||
|
|
Rights On! BBS at 1-904-409-7040 anytime except 0100-0130 ET and Zone
|
|||
|
|
1 ZMH at 1200-9600+ HST/V32B. The FidoNews key is also available on
|
|||
|
|
the FidoNews homepage listed in the Masthead information.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
|||
|
|
FIDONEWS 14-28 Page 34 14 Jul 1997
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
=================================================================
|
|||
|
|
FIDONET BY INTERNET
|
|||
|
|
=================================================================
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
This is a list of all FidoNet-related sites reported to the Editor as
|
|||
|
|
of this appearance.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
============
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
FidoNet:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Homepage http://www.fidonet.org
|
|||
|
|
FidoNews http://ddi.digital.net/~cbaker84/fidonews.html
|
|||
|
|
HTML FNews http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6894/
|
|||
|
|
WWW sources http://www.scms.rgu.ac.uk/students/cs_yr94/lk/fido.html
|
|||
|
|
FTSC page http://www2.blaze.net.au/ftsc.html
|
|||
|
|
Echomail http://www.portal.ca/~awalker/index.html
|
|||
|
|
WebRing http://ddi.digital.net/~cbaker84/fnetring.html
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
============
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Zone 1: http://www.z1.fidonet.org
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Region 10: http://www.psnw.com/~net205/region10.html
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Region 11: http://oeonline.com/~garyg/region11/
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Region 13: http://www.smalltalkband.com/st01000.htm
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Region 14: http://www.netins.net/showcase/fidonet/
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Region 15: [disappeared?]
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Region 16: http://www.tiac.net/users/satins/region16.htm
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Region 17: http://www.portal.ca/~awalker/region17.htm
|
|||
|
|
REC17: http://www.westsound.com/ptmudge/
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Region 18: http://www.citicom.com/fido.html
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Region 19: http://www.compconn.net
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
============
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Zone 2: http://www.z2.fidonet.org
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
ZEC2: http://www.proteus.demon.co.uk/zec.htm
|
|||
|
|
Zone 2 Elist: http://www.fbone.ch/z2_elist/
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Region 20: http://www.fidonet.pp.se (in Swedish)
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Region 24: http://www.swb.de/personal/flop/gatebau.html (in German)
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Region 25:
|
|||
|
|
http://members.aol.com/Net254/
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
FIDONEWS 14-28 Page 35 14 Jul 1997
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Region 27: http://telematique.org/ft/r27.htm
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Region 29: http://www.rtfm.be/fidonet/ (in French)
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Region 30: http://www.fidonet.ch (in Swiss)
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Region 34: http://www.pobox.com/cnb/r34.htm (in Spanish)
|
|||
|
|
REC34: http://pobox.com/~chr
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Region 36: http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/7207/
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Region 41: http://www.fidonet.gr (in Greek and English)
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Region 48: http://www.fidonet.org.pl
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
============
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Zone 3: http://www.z3.fidonet.org
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
============
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Zone 4: (not yet listed)
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Region 90:
|
|||
|
|
Net 904: http://members.tripod.com/~net904 (in Spanish)
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
============
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Zone 5: (not yet listed)
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
============
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Zone 6: http://www.z6.fidonet.org
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
============
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
FIDONEWS 14-28 Page 36 14 Jul 1997
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
=================================================================
|
|||
|
|
FIDONEWS INFORMATION
|
|||
|
|
=================================================================
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
------- FIDONEWS MASTHEAD AND CONTACT INFORMATION -------
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Editor: Christopher Baker
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Editors Emeritii: Tom Jennings, Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell,
|
|||
|
|
Vince Perriello, Tim Pozar, Sylvia Maxwell,
|
|||
|
|
Donald Tees
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
"FidoNews Editor"
|
|||
|
|
FidoNet 1:1/23
|
|||
|
|
BBS 1-904-409-7040, 300/1200/2400/14400/V.32bis/HST(ds)
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
more addresses:
|
|||
|
|
Christopher Baker -- 1:18/14, cbaker84@digital.net
|
|||
|
|
cbaker84@aol.com
|
|||
|
|
cbaker84@msn.com
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
(Postal Service mailing address)
|
|||
|
|
FidoNews Editor
|
|||
|
|
P.O. Box 471
|
|||
|
|
Edgewater, FL 32132-0471
|
|||
|
|
U.S.A.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
voice: 1-904-409-3040 [1400-2100 ET only, please]
|
|||
|
|
[1800-0100 UTC/GMT]
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
------------------------------------------------------
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
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.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Authors retain copyright on individual works; otherwise FidoNews is
|
|||
|
|
Copyright 1997 Christopher Baker. 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 the FidoNet and 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 [FNEWSEnn.ZIP] for a
|
|||
|
|
FIDONEWS 14-28 Page 37 14 Jul 1997
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
particular Issue. Monthly Volumes are available as FNWSmmmy.ZIP
|
|||
|
|
where mmm = three letter month [JAN - DEC] and y = last digit of the
|
|||
|
|
current year [7], i.e., FNWSFEB7.ZIP for all the Issues from Feb 97.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
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Annual volumes are available as FNEWSn.ZIP where n = the Volume number
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1 - 14 for 1984 - 1997, respectively. Annual Volume archives range in
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size from 48K to 1.4M.
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INTERNET USERS: FidoNews is available via:
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http://www.fidonet.org/fidonews.htm
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ftp://ftp.fidonet.org/pub/fidonet/fidonews/
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ftp://ftp.aminet.org/pub/aminet/comm/fido/
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*=*=*
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You may obtain an email subscription to FidoNews by sending email to:
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jbarchuk@worldnet.att.net
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with a Subject line of: subscribe fnews-edist
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and no message in the message body. To remove your name from the email
|
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distribution use a Subject line of: unsubscribe fnews-edist with no
|
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message to the same address above.
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*=*=*
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You can read the current FidoNews Issue in HTML format at:
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http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6894/
|
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STAR SOURCE for ALL Past Issues via FTP and file-request -
|
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Available for FReq from 1:396/1 or by anonymous FTP from:
|
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ftp://ftp.sstar.com/fidonet/fnews/
|
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Each yearly archive also contains a listing of the Table-of-Contents
|
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for that year's issues. The total set is currently about 11 Megs.
|
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=*=*=*=
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The current week's FidoNews and the FidoNews public-key are now also
|
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available almost immediately after publication on the Editor's new
|
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homepage on the World Wide Web at:
|
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http://ddi.digital.net/~cbaker84/fidonews.html
|
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|
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There are also links there to jim barchuk's HTML FidoNews source and
|
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|
|
to John Souvestre's FTP site for the archives. There is also an email
|
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link for sending in an article as message text. Drop on over.
|
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=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=
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A PGP generated public-key is available for the FidoNews Editor from
|
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|
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FIDONEWS 14-28 Page 38 14 Jul 1997
|
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|
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1:1/23 [1:18/14] by file-request for FNEWSKEY or by download from
|
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|
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Rights On! BBS at 1-904-409-7040 as FIDONEWS.ASC in File Area 18. It
|
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|
is also posted twice a month into the PKEY_DROP Echo available on the
|
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|
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Zone 1 Echomail Backbone.
|
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*=*=*=*=*
|
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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
|
|||
|
|
ARTSPEC.DOC, available from the FidoNews Editor, or file-requestable
|
|||
|
|
from 1:1/23 [1:18/14] as file "ARTSPEC.DOC". ALL Zone Coordinators
|
|||
|
|
also 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,
|
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|
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and are used with permission.
|
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|
|
"Disagreement is actually necessary,
|
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|
|
or we'd all have to get in fights
|
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|
|
or something to amuse ourselves
|
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|
|
and create the requisite chaos."
|
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|
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-Tom Jennings
|
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-30-
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
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