The F I D O N E W S Volume 22, Number 01 03 Jan 2005 +--------------------------+-----------------------------------------+ | |The newsletter of the | | | | | FidoNet community. | | Crash netmail articles to: | | | | | Editor @ 2:2/2 (+46-31-944907) | | | ____________| | | | | / __ | Routed netmail articles to: | | | / / \ | Bjorn Felten @ 2:203/0 | | | WOOF! ( /|oo \ | | | \_______\(_| /_) | Email attach to: | | _ @/_ \ _ | bfelten @ telia dot com | | | | \ \\ | | | | (*) | \ ))| | | |__U__| / \// | Editor: Bj”rn Felten | | ______ _//|| _\ / | | | / Fido \ (_/(_|(____/ | Newspapers should have no friends. | | (________) (jm) | -- JOSEPH PULITZER | +--------------------------+-----------------------------------------+ Copyright 2004 by Fidonews Editor for Fidonews Globally. Table of Contents 1. FOOD FOR THOUGHT ......................................... 1 2. REBUTTALS TO PREVIOUS ARTICLES ........................... 2 ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE .................................... 2 3. CLEAN HUMOUR & JOKES ..................................... 5 PUNNY HUMOR .............................................. 5 4. FIDONET BY INTERNET ...................................... 6 Fidonet Related Websites ................................. 6 5. ROBERT COUTURE'S FIDONET SOFTWARE LISTING ................ 9 FIDONet Software References .............................. 9 6. SPECIAL INTEREST ......................................... 14 Nodelist Stats ........................................... 14 7. FIDONEWS INFORMATION ..................................... 16 How to Submit an Article ................................. 16 Credits, Legal Infomation, Availability .................. 18 FIDONEWS 22-01 Page 1 3 Jan 2005 ================================================================= FOOD FOR THOUGHT ================================================================= It is better to be defeated on principle than to win on lies. -- Arthur Calwell ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 22-01 Page 2 3 Jan 2005 ================================================================= REBUTTALS TO PREVIOUS ARTICLES ================================================================= ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE By Sean Dennis, 1:18/200 I'd like to comment on Bjorn's editorial and Philip's article in last week's Fidonews. I read them both and basically agreed with them, but I'd like to express my opinions on both of them. First, I think that comparing some of the people in Fidonet to terrorists is a little strong, but comparing them to spoiled brats is pretty damn close to the truth of the matter. For once, I'll agree with Bjorn: the squeaky wheel gets the grease or in this case, the most replies. The problem is that the echo suddenly becomes a second-grade sandbox with people throwing sand at each other. It's really disenheartening. I come home from work and I look forward to sitting down at the console to read my mail. I absolutely love echomail-it's my way of keeping in touch with my long-time friends. But to my disappointment, I go into an echo and it's nothing but trash throwing, temper tantrums, ad hominem (personal) attacks ad nauseum... makes me wonder if it's worth keeping the Fido feed around at times. I've disconnected from several echoes because of that very reason. I won't mention any names because I don't feel like getting threatened in netmail (you all know it happens- don't pretend to be suprised) over my opinions about certain echoes. So, therein lies the problem. If I, a seasoned sysop and BBS user, cannot stand being in certain echoes because of the crap slinging, what is a new sysop or user going to think of Fidonet? Think about it, folks. What kind of example are we setting for new users? To reference Philip's article for a moment: he mentions that the very thought of Fidonet makes some new sysops sick. I second his observation because I've seen that from other sysops myself. I am in several other networks, to include my own FTN/QWK network I run, and the agreement amongst many new sysops is that Fido's old, stale, and full of inbred idiots that argue about stupid piddly things about DNS servers and nodelist formats. Worse yet, about being passworded out of someone else's system because the two "combatants" are having penis wars. ...and we wonder why Fidonet's "dying". We're doing it to ourselves, folks, and we're the only ones who can stop it. First, we need to follow Bjorn's advice and just ignore the idiots that cannot seem to stop causing trouble. Second, mail feeds need to take seriously a moderator's feed cut request. We're moderators for a reason and not all of us are on a power trip. My job as a moderator is to keep the echo listed, make sure people behave and to encourage conversation, that's it. Third, people need to resist the urge to act like complete jackasses and start attacking people for dumb reasons. Twit filters are good, but so is pressing the DELETE key or the FIDONEWS 22-01 Page 3 3 Jan 2005 right-arrow key or ENTER. They all work fine! Now, onto Philip's article... the reason for dead echoes is because everyone's in the admin articles being idiots. I've seen more idiots in certain echoes than there ever should be, but they're there. I've disconnected myself from them because they are a waste of my bandwidth, disk space and time to deal with. I'd much rather deal with a low-traffic echo than one that's got a horrific signal to noise ratio. I will, however, respectfully disagree with Philip on his newsgroups opinion. The newsgroups that I like to fancy (usually alt.bbs.*) are filled with the same damned idiots that cause all sorts of hell in Fidonet. God forbid, even idiots (no names, of course) that got themselves banned from Fidonet. There's more to my opinion, but I won't vent^H^H^H^Hdiscuss it here. Also, the "hundreds and hundreds of echoes" comment: I beg to differ. I can name several "othernets" that have tons of echoes and they're all dead except the admin area(s). I've dropped many of them and am now down to a select few. This list includes a few "QWK" networks also that I've joined (I have the ability to connect Maximus to QWK networking) and since left. The "policy" comment also: Fidonet is the largest amatuer computer network in the world (the Internet doesn't count in this one). There has to be policy and rules, otherwise this place will fall apart faster than some Fidonetters' strawmen. I think if people pulled their heads out of their fourth point of contact and tried to agree to something, perhaps we'd have an updated P4. But oh no. People just have to sit here and be a *insert your favorite body orifice* about it. Why? I don't know. I personally don't see anything wrong with P4 as it stands, but I've seen some good ideas get stalled "in committee" because of stupid, inane, piddly things. However, as Tom Jennings said, the day he let go of his total control of Fidonet was the day that Fidonet went to hell in a handbasket. In some ways, Fidonet needs a controlling hand, however, it cannot be in a single hand. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, as we've seen in the semi-recent "dual ZC" debaucle, which IIRC, isn't resolved as Z2 has two ZCs listed. Folks, in my opinion, that's absolutely childish and made me lose respect for someone very quickly. Actually, several someones. I think a hundred lines of text is enough for everyone to suffer thorough for one reading. I do hope that people do enjoy my writing and if you don't, reply. Fidonews is for Fidonet. I agree with what one sysop said to me about Fidonet's health and Fidonews: "If no one's putting articles in the Fidonews, then Fidonet is surely in bad health indeed." (My paraphrase, not the exact quote.) C'mon, let's work together on this. I'm only one sysop. Fidonet's made up of sysops and users too. Maybe it's not too late to turn back the tide and make Fidonet dynamic, viable and active in the new century. I read somewhere that dialup BBSes are coming back in vogue because a FIDONEWS 22-01 Page 4 3 Jan 2005 lot of people don't feel that the Internet can be trusted anymore. It's our network, it's our hobby. If we quit acting like fools, perhaps other people will like Fidonet again and participate. (Aside to Philip: Perhaps the Quantum Condom will make a comeback! :) ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 22-01 Page 5 3 Jan 2005 ================================================================= CLEAN HUMOUR & JOKES ================================================================= PUNNY HUMOR Sean Dennis, 1:18/200 One night, a well-known orchestra was playing Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. One bass player said to the other, "We don't have much to do for a while, so let's go to the bar next door. To give us some extra time, I tied the last pages of the music together so the conductor will have to untie them when he gets near the end." They snuck out and had a few drinks together, becoming increasingly drunk. Then they staggered back into the auditorium just in time for the finish. The next day, when asked how the concert went, the conductor replied, "Pretty boring, but it picked up at the end of the Ninth when the score was tied and the bassists were loaded." ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 22-01 Page 6 3 Jan 2005 ================================================================= FIDONET BY INTERNET ================================================================= Fidonet Related Websites Thom LaCosta 1:261/1352 One approach to tracking and viewing Fidonet related websites is to visit webrings that specialize in Fidonet. A webring is a method where sites having a common theme advertise other websites with simailar themes. The advantage to the webring concept is that in theory, the sites have an interest in maintaining an accuate listing and can modify their own listings on a site by site basis. It appears that there are two fidonet webrings....the long-running system at http://b.webring.com/hub?ring=fidonet and another at http://www.fidonet.us/fidoring/ The ring at webring.com is larger, but forces the viewer to look at google ads panels. The smaller ring at fidonet.us does not depend on adverstising revenue from ads. Sysops with Fidonet related websites should consider joining one or both rings. Ring News 12/27/2004 Welcome to The Thunderbolt -- A Weather Wonder(Arkansas, US) Sysop: Daryl Stout 12/5/2004 It's a pleasure to welcome two new BBS systems to the fidonet.us webring: Pucela BBS (Valladolid, Spain) Sysop: Komunero The Realm of Darkness BBS Sysop: Ken Bowley The most current version of the list below can be viewed at http://www.fidonet.us/fidoring/sitelist.html WWW.FIDONET.US - WEBRING PARTICIPANTS BBBS Charlotte and N4RPS.net Home Page Web Page of N4RPS, Rob Sargeant, and Web portal for BBBS Charlotte, a Fidonet BBS located in Charlotte, North Carolina USA (1:379/2). http://www.n4rps.net - 6-November-2003 Fidonet - Net261 - Maryland Fidonet in Maryland - Net261 http://www.fidonet.us/net261/ - 2-March-2003 Rocasa BBS Rocasa BBS is a system accessible as both a traditional Bulletin FIDONEWS 22-01 Page 7 3 Jan 2005 Board System, via landline or telnet, as well as via the Web for message and file access. It is also the home of the BBBS FDN. http://bbs.rocasa.org - 16-June-2003 < E-Mail/News Gateway | | Program. Meltdown-BBS |UI |http://meltdown-bbs.sourceforge.net/ | | meltdown-bbs.project.petkan | | @spamgourmet.com | | Fido: 2:350/5 | | Meltdown-BBS is an FTN <-> | | Web/PHP/MySQL BBS forum system. MakeNL |U | http://hub2000.darktech.org/makenl | | fidonet.hub2000 [at] gmail [dot] com | | Fido: 1:229/2000 | | FidoNet Nodelist Processor FIDONEWS 22-01 Page 13 3 Jan 2005 +- - - - - - - - - - -+- - -+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -+ National BBS List |? | http://www.usbbs.org Hispanic FIDO/BBS's |? | http://www.conecta2.org/pucela_bbs/ (in Spanish only) | | (Extensive software & BBS Listings) +- - - - - - - - - - -+- - -+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -+ File Archives: http://archives.thebbs.org http://www.filegate.net http://sysopscorner.thebbs.org http://www.juge.com http://www.dmine.com/bbscorner/ http://garbo.uwasa.fi http://www.simtel.net http://wuarchive.wustl.edu http://maximus.midnightshour.org http://hobbes.nmsu.edu Note: most also provide FTP access (use ftp:// instead of http:// above) *=-=*=.=*=-=*=.=*=-=*=.=*=-=*=.=*=-=*=.=*=-=*=.=*=-=*=.=*=-=*=.=*=-=* Please send corrections & additions to: Robert Couture, 1:229/2000 E-Mail: rpa4email (at) rogers (dot) com Telnet: runekeep.darktech.org (Leave Feedback as Guest or create an account) Emeritus: Ben Ritchey, Todd Cochrane, Frank Vest, Peter Popovich ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 22-01 Page 14 3 Jan 2005 ================================================================= SPECIAL INTEREST ================================================================= Nodelist Stats Input nodelist nodelist.366 size 827.8kb date 2004-12-31 The nodelist has 6824 nodes in it and a total of 9494 non-comment entries including 6 zones 47 regions 385 hosts 486 hubs admin overhead 924 ( 13.54 %) and 1111 private nodes 310 nodes down 325 nodes on hold off line overhead 1746 ( 25.59 %) Speed summary: >9600 = 606 ( 8.88 %) 9600 = 5856 ( 85.81 %) (HST = 120 or 2.05 %) (CSP = 0 or 0.00 %) (PEP = 1 or 0.02 %) (MAX = 0 or 0.00 %) (HAY = 1 or 0.02 %) (V32 = 3057 or 52.20 %) (V32B = 264 or 4.51 %) (V34 = 3995 or 68.22 %) (V42 = 3357 or 57.33 %) (V42B = 264 or 4.51 %) 2400 = 59 ( 0.86 %) 1200 = 9 ( 0.13 %) 300 = 294 ( 4.31 %) ISDN = 538 ( 7.88 %) ---------------------------------------------------------- File Req Flag Applicable software Number of systems ---------------------------------------------------------- XA Frontdoor <1.99b 2227 Frontdoor 2.02+ Dutchie 2.90c Binkleyterm >2.1 D'Bridge <1.3 TIMS Xenia -------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 22-01 Page 15 3 Jan 2005 XB Binkleyterm 2.0 9 Dutchie 2.90b -------------------------------------- XC Opus 1.1 8 -------------------------------------- XP Seadog 6 -------------------------------------- XR Opus 1.03 41 -------------------------------------- XW Fido >12M 280 Tabby KittenMail -------------------------------------- XX D'Bridge 1.30 3047 Frontdoor 1.99b Intermail 2.01 T-Mail -------------------------------------- None QMM 1206 -------------------------------------- CrashMail capable = 2101 ( 30.79 %) MailOnly nodes = 3815 ( 55.91 %) Listed-only nodes = 527 ( 7.72 %) Other = 381 ( 5.58 %) [Report produced by NETSTATS - A PD pgm available from 1:106/100] [ Revised by B Felten, 2:203/208] ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 22-01 Page 16 3 Jan 2005 ================================================================= FIDONEWS INFORMATION ================================================================= How to Submit an Article If you wish to submit an article for inclusion in the Fidonews, here are some guidelines, if you send it as an attached file; the preferred method if you want reasonable control over how the published article will appear in the Fidonews: a) Plain ASCII text. If you could type it on your keyboard, it's probably quite OK. No line may be longer than 70 characters. b) Put a title to the article. Put the title in two times. The first time, on the first line, with an * before it. The second time, on the second line, without the * and centered. This will help in the format since the title with the * is removed and used in the index, the second line will become the headline. On the third line, put your name and FidoNet address, present or former. If former, you may want to add some other address where you can be reached for personal comments. c) Deadline for article submission is Sunday, 12:00 UTC. Help the Editor by following the above guides. Below are some subjects and the file extension for the article as set in the configuration file for the making of the Fidonews. Please help by putting the file extension of the correct subject on the file name if known.. Ideas for Subject areas: Subject File | Subject File ----------------------------------|---------------------------------- From the *C's *.css | Rebuttals to articles *.reb Fidonet Regional News *.reg | Fidonet Net News *.net Retractions *.rtx | General Fidonet Articles *.art Guest Editorial *.gue | Fidonet Current Events *.cur Fidonet Interviews *.inv | Fidonet Software Reviews *.rev Fidonet Web Page Reviews *.web | Fidonet Notices *.not Getting Fidonet Technical *.ftc | Question Of The Week *.que Humor in a Fido Vein *.hfv | Comix in ASCII *.cmx Fidonet's Int. Kitchen *.rec | Poet's Corner *.poe Clean Humor & Jokes *.jok | Other Stuff *.oth Fidonet Classified Ads *.ads | Corrections *.cor Best of Fidonet *.bof | Letters to the Editor *.let If you don't know or are not sure, send the article anyway. Put a .TXT on it and I'll try to figure out where it should be in the Fidonews. If you follow these simple guidelines, there should be little problem in getting your article published. If your submission is too far out of specs for the Fidonews, it will be returned to you and/or a message sent informing you of the problem. This DOES NOT mean that your article is not accepted. It means that there is something in it that I can not fix and I need your help on it. FIDONEWS 22-01 Page 17 3 Jan 2005 Send articles via e-mail or netmail, file attach or message to: Bj”rn Felten Fidonet 2:2/2 E-Mail bfelten @ telia dot com IMPORTANT! If you send the article via e-mail, make sure you put the word "fidonews" somewhere in the subject line! That way it will always pass the spam filter, ending up in the proper folder. Please include a message, telling me that you have sent an article. That way I will know to look for it. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 22-01 Page 18 3 Jan 2005 Credits, Legal Infomation, Availability + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- FIDONEWS STAFF - -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + | | | Editor: Bj”rn Felten, 2:2/2 | | Crash mail attached: Editor@2:2/2 | | E-Mail attached: bfelten @ telia dot com | | Webmaster: Jim Barchuk, jb@fidonews.org | | Columnist: Frank Vest - Frank's Column | | | + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- - EDITORS EMERITI - -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + | | | Tom Jennings, Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell, Vince | | Perriello, Tim Pozar, Sylvia Maxwell, Donald Tees, | | Christopher Baker, Zorch Frezberg, Henk Wolsink, | | Doug Meyers, Warren D. Bonner, Frank L. Vest | | | + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + Fidonews is published weekly by and for the members of Fidonet. Fidonews is Copyright (C) 2004 by Bj”rn Felten, though authors retain rights to their contributed articles. Opinions expressed by the authors is strictly their own. Noncommercial duplication and distribution within Fidonet is encouraged. Authors are encouraged to send their articles in ASCII text to the Editor at one of the addresses above. The weekly edition of Fidonews is distributed through the file area FIDONEWS, and is published as echomail in the echo FIDONEWS. These sources are normally available through your Network Coordinator. The current and past issues are also available from the following sources: + -- -- -- -- -- -- - FIDONEWS AVAILABILITY - -- -- -- -- -- -- + | | | File request from 2:2/2: | | current issue FIDONEWS | | back issue, volume v, issue ii FNEWSvii.ZIP | | | | On the web: | | http://felten.dyndns.org/fidonews | | http://www.fidonet.ca/fidonews | | | | The Snooze *and* the FIDONEWS echo in your newsreader: | | news://felten.dyndns.org/FIDONEWS | | | + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + -----------------------------------------------------------------