The F I D O N E W S Volume 23, Number 13 27 Mar 2006 +--------------------------+-----------------------------------------+ | |The newsletter of the | | | | | FidoNet community. | | Netmail attach to (POTS): | | | | | Editor @ 2:2/2 (+46-31-960447) | | | ____________| | | | | / __ | Netmail attach to (BinkP): | | | / / \ | Editor @ 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 | +--------------------------+-----------------------------------------+ Table of Contents 1. FOOD FOR THOUGHT ......................................... 1 2. EDITORIAL ................................................ 2 Copyrighting a number? ................................... 2 3. FRANK'S COLUMN - FRANK VEST .............................. 3 Changed method of listing an ION in Zone 1 ............... 3 4. DARYL STOUT'S COLUMN ..................................... 5 The BBS Corner TELNET BBS GUIDE - February 2006 .......... 5 5. FIDONET BY INTERNET ...................................... 15 Fidonet Related Websites ................................. 15 6. ROBERT COUTURE'S FIDONET SOFTWARE LISTING ................ 18 FidoNet Software References .............................. 18 7. SPECIAL INTEREST ......................................... 23 Nodelist Stats ........................................... 23 8. FIDONEWS INFORMATION ..................................... 25 How to Submit an Article ................................. 25 Credits, Legal Infomation, Availability .................. 27 FIDONEWS 23-13 Page 1 27 Mar 2006 ================================================================= FOOD FOR THOUGHT ================================================================= With the same population density as Alaska, Manhattan would have a population of 25. -- National Geographics With the same population density as Manhattan, Alaska would have a population of 44.4G, i.e. seven times the total population on this planet. -- Fidonews Editor ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 23-13 Page 2 27 Mar 2006 ================================================================= EDITORIAL ================================================================= Copyrighting a number? Can you own the right to a number? Well, if we forget about the USPTO, that obviously has totally lost contact with the real world, granting all kinds of patents that should never have been granted (actually even including certain prime numbers), I guess everybody agrees that that is impossible. With this in mind, remember that a computer file is nothing but a series of ones and zeroes -- i.e. one, usually very big, number. A file of 1kB can be represented as a 2048 digit, hexadecimal number. Now, can I do whatever I want with any given number? Of course I can, don't you agree? Nobody can "own" any particular number, or we couldn't have math at all. But still there are now laws emerging all around the world, where a few big media companies actually is given the exclusive right to certain numbers. Albeit a lot bigger numbers that the 2048 digit one, mentioned above, but still only numbers. If I send one of those numbers to a friend I may find myself on the receiving end of a multimillion dollar lawsuit and may even have to do time, sometimes almost as long as if I committed a rape or a robbery. Strange isn't it? Well, let's now move to an interesting number, the Champernowne constant. It is named after the British mathematician David Gawen Champernowne (July 9, 1912 - August 19, 2000) and is defined as the number obtained by concatenating the positive integers and interpreting them as decimal digits to the right of a decimal point. So, in the base ten system this constant is 0.1234567891011... One interesting thing about this constant is, that, since it includes all numbers it obviously also includes e.g. the 2048 digit number above (but in base ten, which makes it slightly larger). This means that the (copyrighted?) 1kB file actually is housed in the Champernowne constant. And was so, probably, long before that 1kB file was created (written, composed, painted, photographed or whatever). Strange, isn't it? ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 23-13 Page 3 27 Mar 2006 ================================================================= FRANK'S COLUMN - FRANK VEST ================================================================= Changed method of listing an ION in Zone 1 From Frank Vest as seen in the Region 19 Sysop echo The following is the text of a message supposedly from the Z1C as copied and pasted here from the Region 19 Sysop echo. --------------------------------------------------------------------- [Feel free to use this text for your NCs.. thanks, Janis] As you will notice when looking at the Zone 1 nodelist, we have not followed any definitive standard for the phone number field when listing an internet node. This must change however since a number of entries as they exist in the Zone 1 nodelist can cause a sysop running a modem (and there are still a lot of them in Fidonet) to run up costly phone bills. Worse yet, in other zones these various strings can cost our overseas friends problems with their mailers. The purpose in making this change is two-fold really. First, it is to allow all sysops in Zone 1 to block a known "string" or set of characters with their modem dialers. That way there is no question of what needs to be blocked. People in other zones can do the same. Second, it is done to protect all the internet sysops who also run a modem mailer so that their modem doesn't start calling a phone number that can be charged for repeated calls (long distance Information is one such call that can cost $$ for each call). All internet nodes must remove any numbers or characters from the telephone field, and replace it with this string: 000-0-0-0-0 If you are using the phone field to display your ip address, please change your listing to use the INA: flag where it can be safely displayed: ,node,bbs_name,location,sysop,000-0-0-0-0,CM,300,INA:some-ip-or- Domain,[flag] For instance my listing for 1:261/100 could be changed to: ,100,<