488 lines
22 KiB
Plaintext
488 lines
22 KiB
Plaintext
F I D O N E W S -- | Vol. 9 No. 29 (20 July 1992)
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The newsletter of the |
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FidoNet BBS community | Published by:
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_ |
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/ \ | "FidoNews" BBS
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/|oo \ | (415)-863-2739
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(_| /_) | FidoNet 1:1/1
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_`@/_ \ _ | Internet:
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| | \ \\ | fidonews@fidonews.fidonet.org
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| (*) | \ )) |
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|__U__| / \// | Editors:
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_//|| _\ / | Tom Jennings
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(_/(_|(____/ | Tim Pozar
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(jm) |
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| Newspapers should have no friends.
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| -- JOSEPH PULITZER
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----------------------------+---------------------------------------
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Published weekly by and for the Members of the FidoNet international
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amateur network. Copyright 1992, Fido Software. All rights reserved.
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Duplication and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes
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only. For use in other circumstances, please contact FidoNews.
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Electronic Price: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . free!
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Paper price: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $10.00US
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For more information about FidoNews refer to the end of this file.
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--------------------------------------------------------------------
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Table of Contents
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1. EDITORIAL ..................................................... 1
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Editorial: Home, home of the deranged ......................... 1
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2. ARTICLES ...................................................... 3
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Fidonet and Russia: A New Need ................................ 3
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User-defined Origin lines for Remote Access ................... 4
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UPLink - Are you a believer? .................................. 5
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No proper title!!! ............................................ 7
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3. LATEST VERSIONS ............................................... 8
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Software Versions List ........................................ 8
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4. FIDONEWS INFORMATION .......................................... 9
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FidoNews 9-29 Page 1 20 Jul 1992
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======================================================================
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EDITORIAL
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======================================================================
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Editorial: Home, home of the deranged
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by Tom Jennings (1:1/1)
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OK, I'm back in San Fransicko, and I can edit and fool with files over
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a LAN instead of through a 16 line by 40 column screen and 19K of
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memory. A slight improvement. I made $75 worth of phone calls to
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generate FidoNews remotely. How's that for dedication! And I'm broke
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and not working! I think I have finally outgrown my Tandy 200. Time to
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scrounge for something with a diskette in it. A project for later.
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Well, no scandals, flames, outings, net wars, political conspiracies
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this week. Too bad. It's getting quiet around here.
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Actually, the above reminds me of something Vince Perriello (Josh (my
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boyfriend, remember him?) and I had coffee & pizza with Vince in
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Seattle) brought up, and I think is so obvious (in hindsight) that I'm
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completely amazed I've never heard it before --
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Why are there so few regions, of such humongous size, in North
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America? Many nets these days are larger than the biggest region in
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existence when this whole mess started.
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I think it's time to split existing regions into smaller chunks. Not
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necessarily all of them, but some are damn large, and probably the
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nets within them would appreciate a more cozy environment. We
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certainly have the technologies to deal with it.
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Speaking of which -- remember the nodelist-size problem of the last
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few months? That will look like nothing at all compared to the
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programs that will drop dead when FidoNet reaches 65,535 nodes. Some
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will probably start groaning at 32,767. Anyone taking bets? FidoNet is
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still doubling in size every 18 months or so. We're at 16,000 now. I
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doubt all FidoNet-compatible mailer programs out there are using
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"long" (ie. 32 bit) integers. I bet, for speed, most use 16 bit "int"s.
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I know my Fido/FidoNet does. (It will not handle more than 65,532
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simultaneous nodes; it won't bomb, just not let you see the 65,534th
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and up.) (Numbers zero, and 65,534 through 65,535 are reserved
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internally for magical purposes.)
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I got burned once by the changing FidoNet addressing scheme.
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Originally, FidoNet had only node numbers, 1 through 65,535. Nets were
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invented later (March 11, 1985 to be precise, though not implemented
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until June or so). All throughout Fido/FidoNet, I had code that
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checked, "if node number = other node number then..." type things all
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through it. Many dozens. When nets came along, I had to turn those all
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into "if (node number = other node number) AND (net number == other
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net number) then ..." and such like.
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FidoNews 9-29 Page 2 20 Jul 1992
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Only a year later, guess what. Zones. Oh shit. But I'm a vertebrate, I
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can learn. Instead of all that arithmetic checking, I defined a little
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data structure called a _NODE, which consisted of the node number, the
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net number, and the newly-defined zone number. Instead of in-line
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arithmetic checks, I wrote some simple subroutines. Instead of the
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previous "if ... AND ... AND ... then ..." it simply read: "if
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same_node(node structure, other node structure) then ...".
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Yes, it was a bit more work than just adding the "... AND (zone number
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= other zone number) ...", but it paid off wonderfully -- when those
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confounded POINTS came along... it took no time at all. I simply added
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the point data element to the _NODE structure, and changed two (2)
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little routines: one to look for ".xxxx" following a node address (ie.
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the .4 in 1:2/3.4) and one to check for "point number = other point
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number ...". Done! (Also, I might add, old Fido's are very friendly;
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Fido version 10 (circa 1985) will accept "2/3.4" and consider it the
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boss' address, 2/3) (No it won't accept zone numbers, nor more than
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1200 nodes) (don't you hate when people use too many parentheses).
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Probably someone will flame me for putting too much techie stuff in
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FidoNews. Can't please everyone!
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NEXT WEEK: Is 2000 a leap year?
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
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FidoNews 9-29 Page 3 20 Jul 1992
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======================================================================
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ARTICLES
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======================================================================
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by Stephen M. Dorman
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CompuServe: 71340,136
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FIDONET: 1:107/236, 1:102/745
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Fidonet and Russia: A New Need
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I recently received a file over the DIALNET russian network listing
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all of the FIDONET boards in Russia, and other parts of the Ex
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Soviet Union. I was overwhelmed by the number. There are so many
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of us that desire to communicate with Russians, and it would seem
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that FIDONET could make a perfect conduit for this type of
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communication. Netmail is already in place, and there are also
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ECHO conferences.
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Therein lies the rub. If one wishes to correspond in English, it
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becomes a rather straightforward matter of sending NETMAIL to the
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boards in Zone 2. However, if one wishes to correspond in Russian,
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it is another matter altogether.
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Russian (as represented on MS-DOS machines) is produced via a
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Cyrillic font, which is coded using the upper 128 ASCII positions
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of the character set. Most of us see these characters as foreign
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letters and line drawing characters. The 899 Code page is
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implemented by Microsoft, and WordPerfect using a Russian coding
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called ALTERNATIVE. (It is an alternative to the old Russian system
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called GOST). Fortunately for us, most of the line drawing
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characters are spared, and we can use Russian without interfering
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with our normal programs. (Two exceptions are the double >> and
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<<).
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Transmitting NETMAIL in 8 Bits, so as to arrive in Russia looking
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like Russian, and receiving mail, requires some forethought. First,
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it cannot be sent via INTERNET. Internet is a 7 bit system (as it
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CompuServe), so it can only be done if the files are encoded using
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a 7 bit encoding system like UUEncode.
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So armed with all this information, I composed a letter in Russian
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to be transmitted. My first problem came when various boards would
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not receive certain of the UPPER 128 ASCII characters. Some would
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drop an ASCII 227, and convert it into a backspace. I was also
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concerned that some postmaster enroute would see the letter and
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thing that it was trash, and discard it. I am still looking for
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a board that 1). Sends NETMAIL, and 2). Can accept all upper 128
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ASCII characters in NETMAIL.
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Next I sought an ECHO conference for discussing the problems and
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interests of those in Russia. I tried the USA EUROPE conference
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but was immediately admonished to use English only. In fact, all
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the conferences (those at least that I know about), restrict
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language to English. There is a Spanish and German conference, but
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I assume Russian would also be not welcome there.
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FidoNews 9-29 Page 4 20 Jul 1992
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It is time that FIDONET steps up and keeps pace with the rapidly
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changing political world. It would be very nice to have an ECHO
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conference that 1). Supports the use of Russian, and 2). is echoed
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to Russia.
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I am currently developing a RUSSIAN.CPI code page for MS-DOS. It
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is almost finished. With it, and an appropriate keyboard switcher,
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I can produce Russian and English at the same time in Word
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Processing, or Telecommunications. This system is free, and will
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be available on CompuServe in the foreign language forum as soon as
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it is complete.
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
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Fredric L. Rice
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FidoNet 1:102/890.0 - The Skeptic Tank.
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(818) 914-9551
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One of the more noted comments one will hear every now and then in the
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Echo Conferences is that the origin lines of Users do not reflect the
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moods and opinions of the User yet will usually reflect the moods and
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opinions of the System Operator. This is actually an artifact of the
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application of 'clever' sayings and remarks being used in the origin
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line rather than the name of the system as it seems was originally
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intended. Indeed, you might recall a few comments in FidoNews about
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the fact that the origin lines are being somewhat 'abused.'
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Well good. Let's abuse them some more. To my knowledge, there is no
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utility, door or otherwise, which allows Users to tailor their origin
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lines for the Remote Access systems they're posting messages with. For
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this ability, I've developed a DOOR program which will allow Users to
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enter any origin they wish, provided it is from 10 to 60 characters in
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length and their security rating is of a certain value or higher.
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How it works:
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To offer a description of the process, let me describe how it works on
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my system. Your system may choose a different route, of course, due to
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the very good flexibility of Remote Access.
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1) My WELCOME.* files have the following control sequence in them:
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^X *C /C U-ORIG APPLY
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This will cause the U-ORIG program to open up the DORINFO1.DEF file
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and extract the Users name, com port, and security value. The program
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will also extract configuration information out of a file called
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U-ORIG.CFG which contains:
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FidoNews 9-29 Page 5 20 Jul 1992
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o A default origin line
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o A minimum security level value
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o The path to the Remote Access root directory
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If the security values don't match or allow the User to apply his or
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her own origin line, then the program exits back to Remote Access. If
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the security value allows it, the Users origin line (if there is one
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yet) is extracted from the U-ORIG.DAT file and written into each one
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of the active message folders in the MESSAGES.RA data file. If the
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User doesn't have an entry, the default origin line in the U-ORIG.CFG
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file is used. This makes sure that a User does not get someone elses
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origin line applied to his or her messages.
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2) The User may select a menu option which will execute the following:
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*M C:\FRED\U-ORIG UPDATE
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The program is executed as before only this time, the User is offered
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a display of their old origin line (if there is one) and is prompted
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about whether it should be change or if a new one should be created.
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There is a 30 second time-out on the inputs so that if something goes
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wrong, U-ORIG will return to the Remote Access BBS after 30 seconds.
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After entering an origin line, the User may (K)eep, (T)ry again, or
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(Q)uit all together. If the User elects to Keep the new origin line,
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the origin line is saved to the U-ORIG.DAT file along with the Users
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name, and the new origin line is applied to the message folders,
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allowing any messages entered to have the new origin lines applied.
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There is another option and that is to execute U-ORIG without any
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option offered on the command line. When this is done, the program
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will simply update all of the active message folders with the default
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origin line stored in the U-ORIG.CFG data file.
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U-ORIG.LZH is available here for FileRequest and contains the source
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code (Written in Borlan C 2.0) so that if you find that it does things
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you don't like, you may change the code. If you have an update in mind
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or need something done to your particular version, let me know and I
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will work with you on it and FileAttach the update for free.
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Fredric L. Rice
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1:102/890.0. The Skeptic Tank.
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
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UPLink - Education for the Public
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by Joshua Penix (1:203/67)
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Recently, many of you have probably seen TV documentaries and
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mini-series based on UFO sightings, abductions and other assorted
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paranormal phenomena. Some of you may believe that what you saw is
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true, others may be skeptical.
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FidoNews 9-29 Page 6 20 Jul 1992
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We believe that the general public should be educated about the facts of
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paranormal occurences so that each individual can make his/her own
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decisisons about what they should believe and what they should
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discredit. Therefore I would like to introduce UPLink (UFO, Paranormal,
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etc. Link). UPLink is a file network of text files dealing with UFO's,
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metaphysics, visitations, paranormal occurrances and other similar
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topics.
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UPLink is being established to help augment the public's knowledge of
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these subjects. Our goal is to make available the most diverse array of
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literature written by noted scientists, military officials, and other
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people who have been directly or indirectly involved with the above
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phenomenon.
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We hope that the text files will have a broader viewing audience,
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allowing for greater critical and skeptical evaluation.
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DISCLAIMER: The officers of UPLink do not guarantee the legitimacy of
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any information passed through UPLink. However, attempts will be made
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to weed out clearly illegitimate documents. Also, opinions stated in
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the literature do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the UPLink
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officers, nor of any BBS system involved with UPLink.
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Information: To participate, you or your sysop need to set up TICK or a
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similar program which can process *.TIC files. TICK v2.10, written by
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Barry Geller, can be obtained from my system (1:203/67) under the
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filename of TICK210.ARJ, or the magic filename of TICK. (95k, available
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at
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v.32bis/v.42bis)
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The TICK tag name of the file net is UPL_TEXT. To start receiving
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files,
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I need the following information sent to me in a netmail message:
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BBS's name, number and netmail address(es).
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Sysop's name and voice number.
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A TICK password for your system.
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Once the above is sent, you may start polling my system. You will
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receive a letter with details specific to your system, as well as some
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rules and general information.
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For further information, or if you have any questions, contact by
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netmail:
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Joshua Penix
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1:203/67 - FidoNet
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20:202/0 or 20:202/16 - MailNet
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Thank you - Dan Brown, Steve Jones, Joshua Penix -- Founding Officers
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Thank you,
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FidoNews 9-29 Page 7 20 Jul 1992
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
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Brian Hampson
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1:153/733
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The JAZZ echo is now on the BACKBONE
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------------------------------------
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So, you ask....who cares? It appears that quite a few people do,
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actually. I myself care because it means that more people will be able
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to easily join in the discussions and general philosphizing about some
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of the Jazz greats, or Jazz (soon to be) greats. It also means that
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you, the reader can easily hook in without worrying about LD polling
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regularily to keep up with the happenings in the world of Jazz.
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Why even start a JAZZ echo?
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Well, after some hunting around and finding various music echos that
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were general, or not in the vein we were looking for, it dawned upon me
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that we could start a JAZZ echo, at least here in BC or Region 17. Like
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any good thing, word spread and people were asking for feeds from
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Alberta, Ottawa, New Orleans, and others from Texas were looking forward
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to seeing the echo as well. In almost ANY city (except maybe some
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really "country" places) Jazz is always alive and a part of the culture.
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It is this life that we are tapping into, and helping new Jazz
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afficianados with choices regarding which of the many artists that s/he
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might be considering as a baptism into the world of the music of "Body and
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Soul".
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In short, in the Jazz echo, the only restriction is that the discussion
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pertain to Jazz. It may range from a question of why some great changed
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labels when the first had better recordings, to a review of the latest
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events at the Montreal or New Orleans Jazz festival.
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So ask your echo hub to hook you up to JAZZ, and drop us a line about
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your tastes and interests, some may disagree, while you may find out
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some things you didn't know before.
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Looking forward to reading you.
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
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FidoNews 9-29 Page 8 20 Jul 1992
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======================================================================
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LATEST VERSIONS
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======================================================================
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||
|
||
Software Versions List
|
||
|
||
Please refer to the article in this issue...
|
||
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||
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
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FidoNews 9-29 Page 9 20 Jul 1992
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======================================================================
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FIDONEWS INFORMATION
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======================================================================
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------- FIDONEWS MASTHEAD AND CONTACT INFORMATION ----------------
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Editors: Tom Jennings, Tim Pozar
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Editors Emeritii: Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell, Vince Perriello
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"FidoNews" BBS
|
||
FidoNet 1:1/1
|
||
Internet fidonews@fidonews.fidonet.org
|
||
BBS (415)-863-2739 (2400 only until further notice!)
|
||
|
||
(Postal Service mailing address) (have patience)
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||
FidoNews
|
||
c/o World Power Systems
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Box 77731
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San Francisco
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CA 94107 USA
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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.
|
||
|
||
|
||
FidoNews is copyright 1992 Fido Software. All rights reserved.
|
||
Duplication and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes
|
||
only. For use in other circumstances, please contact FidoNews (we're
|
||
easy).
|
||
|
||
OBTAINING COPIES: FidoNews in electronic form may be obtained from
|
||
the FidoNews BBS via manual download or Wazoo FileRequest, or from
|
||
various sites in the FidoNet and via uucp. PRINTED COPIES mailed
|
||
may be obtained from Fido Software for $10.00US each PostPaid First
|
||
Class within North America, or $13.00US elsewhere, mailed Air Mail.
|
||
(US funds drawn upon a US bank only.)
|
||
|
||
BACK ISSUES: Available from the following sources (and possibly
|
||
others), via filerequest or download (consult a recent nodelist for
|
||
phone numbers). Back issues are *NOT* available from FidoNews 1:1/1.
|
||
|
||
FidoNet 1:102/138 (All issues)
|
||
FidoNet 1:216/21 (All but 18 issues)
|
||
FidoNet 1:125/1212 (All except 7-47)
|
||
FidoNet 1:107/519.1 (All issues)
|
||
2400 bps: +1-201-473-1991
|
||
9600 bps HST: +1-201-473-2853
|
||
FidoNews 9-29 Page 10 20 Jul 1992
|
||
|
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|
||
Internet ftp.ieee.org, in directory ~ftp/pub/fidonew/fidonews
|
||
|
||
SUBMISSIONS: You are encouraged to submit articles for publication in
|
||
FidoNews. Article submission requirements are contained in the file
|
||
ARTSPEC.DOC, available from the FidoNews BBS, or Wazoo filerequestable
|
||
from 1:1/1 as file "ARTSPEC.DOC".
|
||
|
||
"Fido", "FidoNet" and the dog-with-diskette are U.S. registered
|
||
trademarks of Tom Jennings of Fido Software, Box 77731, San Francisco
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CA 94107, USA and are used with permission.
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Asked what he thought of Western civilization,
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M.K. Gandhi said, "I think it would be an excellent idea".
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-- END
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