F I D O N E W S -- Vol.11 No. 6 (07-Feb-1994) +----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+ | A newsletter of the | | | FidoNet BBS community | Published by: | | _ | | | / \ | "FidoNews" BBS | | /|oo \ | +1-519-570-4176 1:1/23 | | (_| /_) | | | _`@/_ \ _ | Editors: | | | | \ \\ | Sylvia Maxwell 1:221/194 | | | (*) | \ )) | Donald Tees 1:221/192 | | |__U__| / \// | Tim Pozar 1:125/555 | | _//|| _\ / | | | (_/(_|(____/ | | | (jm) | Newspapers should have no friends. | | | -- JOSEPH PULITZER | +----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+ | Submission address: editors 1:1/23 | +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Internet addresses: | | | | Sylvia -- max@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca | | Donald -- donald@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca | | Tim -- pozar@kumr.lns.com | | Both Don & Sylvia (submission address) | | editor@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca | +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | For information, copyrights, article submissions, | | obtaining copies and other boring but important details, | | please refer to the end of this file. | +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ ======================================================================== Table of Contents ======================================================================== 1. Editorial..................................................... 2 2. Articles...................................................... 2 Esperanto - The International Language...................... 2 Subject: FidoNews........................................... 3 Uucp is NOT a sysop....please!.............................. 4 Foreign Language Articles................................... 5 A comment to the editoral in FidoNews 11-3.................. 6 Dear Editor,................................................ 6 FREE ELECTRONIC MAGAZINE.................................... 7 3. Fidonews Information.......................................... 10 FidoNews 11-06 Page: 2 07 Feb 1994 ======================================================================== Editorial ======================================================================== Please find below some amusing opinions about using languages other than english in the snooze. perhaps i shouldn't say, a-musing, anything. Some of these opinions are passionate. We admire the passion with which fidolanders embrace their views. Anything worth doing is worth considering endlessly. However, endless consideration won't get the snooze out the door on time. sigh. We came really close to losing all these articles to-day ... I managed to do the standard typo while deleting backup files, and deleted the articles instead. Since we run on a network, there was the normal panic while I shut down all the other stations, rebooted the file server standalone, and unerased them again. Here they are. ======================================================================== Articles ======================================================================== Esperanto - The International Language by Frank J. Perricone, 1:325/611, perricone@wsyd.com Esperanto - The International Language A trend surfacing in recent FidoSnooze articles is the publication of articles in languages other than English. The justification: even though English is the most common language, other languages should be supported, with translations as available as possible. Of course, English is the most common language in FidoNet, because FidoNet originated in the United States. Contrary to what many Americans might think, however, English is *NOT* the most common language in the world, by far. There are some 500 million speakers of English in the world -- that is, only about 10% of the world population. More than two and a half times as many people speak Mandarin Chinese. The rapid spread of international networking is contributing to the increasing global awareness of the need to have effective communication between people of different national and cultural origins. Members of FidoNet can be proud to be in the forefront of this movement; we are the world's largest amateur network and the world's second-largest network of any sort, and when the OtherNets are added in, we are a communication system of surprising power, breadth, and effectiveness, especially considering the entire thing is run by amateurs, almost completely on a not-for-profit basis. Surely FidoNet is a haven for internationalism in communications. Thus, it surprises me that there is no widely-disseminated echo for discussion of (and in) the language of international communication, Esperanto. I have heard rumour of an echo in Germany, but the FidoNews 11-06 Page: 3 07 Feb 1994 contact addresses I was given are not in the nodelist (perhaps due to reorganizations) and I can't find anyone who is a participant. Of course, I probably could not afford the international calling anyway. The United States is known, and laughed at, around the world for its isolationist, naive opinions about languages. The majority of Americans still think it is appropriate for speakers of other languages to learn English -- even though these people would never consider giving up English in favor of someone else's language. Thus, it is perhaps no great surprise that there is no Esperanto echo on the North America backbone. Of course, the vast majority of Americans who have even heard of Esperanto know very little about it. In particular, few people realize that, spending only an hour or two a week, one can become fluent in the language within only a few months study. Since FidoNet has been a force in favor of international communication on an equal level, and since this trend has only increased in recent times (as evidenced by the multilingual FidoSnooze), maybe the time is right. If anyone is interested in helping me form an echo, hopefully to be moved onto the North American backbone eventually, and maybe even linked in to similar echos in other countries in the dim and hopeful future, please get in touch with me. People who are interested in the language, even if they do not speak it at all, should respond. Only if we all join together can we be successful in bringing such an echo into existence. Saluton! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: FidoNews From: David O'shea (3:640/556) I don't have time to do a full article for FidoNews.. but I thought I would be original and write a message actually about FidoNet and not some other garbage. Basically all I want to say is that I'm getting sick of reading what people's views on homosexuality and vulgar language and the right of free speech are.. when I first downloaded FidoNews I thought I was getting something that would tell me what was happening in FidoNet! Lately here in Queensland, Australia quite a few BBSs have been getting rid of FidoNet due to the garbage that is starting to get into it (a good example is the "Jane Kennedy Fan Club" in the Zone 3 Games Area, but the same happens in international echoes). There should be some way of stopping it but in the Zone 3 Games echo no one can find the moderator and it seems to be up to the users to wipe out the trash, and that just isn't possible! And now, a suggestion for FidoNet: names with meaning. I looked around on a few BBSs with FidoNet and found many meaningless names (well at least to me). There is an area called "That" which seems to be for sysops to discuss users, "Mecca" which I FidoNews 11-06 Page: 4 07 Feb 1994 still don't know about, and many more. I'm sorry I couldn't type a full article but I do not have the time. Thankyou for your time. David 'Mudlark' O'Shea ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Uucp is NOT a sysop....please! * Original To : Ola d'Aulaire, 1:141/1020 * Original From: Don Dawson, 1:141/730@fidonet * Original Date: Jan 30 10:42 [Note to all: this was taken from a local echo] On Ola d'Aulaire (1:141/1020) wrote to All: Od> Hmmmm.... Lately, when my users enter UUCP in the To: field, the Od> address Od> 2:281/10 pops up. That's in Delft, Netherlands! -- Od> with the operator listed as UUCP. Most [callers] are not Od> sophisticated enough to know that they should change that address Od> to the 1:141/420 gateway. It's an annoyance to have UUCP listed Od> as an operator in the nodelist and have it come up like that. Od> I've left instructions all over the place, but not everybody reads Od> them so their UUCP mail still tries to go to the Netherlands Od> address. Any way to tweak the nodelist not to recognize it Od> without causing a checksum failure? Ola: I answered your question in the echo, but the choices are not fool proof. Last summer, for a brief time, someone in Zone 1 used "uucp" as a sysop name. Uucp messages my callers entered were sent to Michigan, a long distance call 1/2 way across the U.S. rather than routed via local calls inside Connecticut. It's my recommendation that "uucp" be forbidden as a sysop name in the offical nodelist. If a net has a need, a suitable entry can be added to private nodelists. Bob Satti, Ron Dwight, Trev Roydhouse, Gamey Garcia, Henk Wolsink, Honlin Lue are the ZC's for each of the 6 FidoNet Zones. If they could agree to prohibit this sysop name (and put same in the nodelist as a "note") it would be put to rest once and for all. As Internet and FidoNet gating becomes more common, there is an ever increasing chance sysops and NC's will be tempted to use UUCP as a sysop name. Thanks. FidoNews 11-06 Page: 5 07 Feb 1994 Foreign Language Articles Scott Raymond (1:278/6000) > To now cut letters on the basis that they are not in english > strikes me as provincial, small-minded, and derelict in our > duty. Simply put, the answer is no. I think you may have missed my intent when I sent you that netmail quoting Fido policy. I did not say that you had to discard those articles simply because they were not in English. I was saying that the majority of Fidonet simply cannot understand them and would probably benefit from a translation. I quoted policy because there are *reasons* why English is the official language of Fidonet. For one, it's the international language of the world chosen by the United Nations. For another, more than half of the people in Fidonet speak English as their first language, and almost all of the rest unnderstand enough English to get by. English is the lowest common denominator in Fidonet, and by publishing articles that are not in English, you exclude the majority of the people reading Fidonews. Look at it from a reader's point of view - if you place articles in Fidonews that are in a language foreign to the reader, then you are discriminating against those people unable to read it. I didn't want or ask you to discard the articles - all I wanted was to be provided a translation so I could benefit from the articles being published. So far, three non-English articles have been published. The first was written by Francios Thunus, who seems to be fluent in four languages (English, French, Spanish, and a Germanic tongue with which I am not familiar - perhaps is *is* German, but I cannot be sure). I admire Francois; I am adept with English, but my skills are lacking in other languages. I know enough to get my face slapped in seven different countries, but not enough to hold a conversation - or even understand what is being said to me - for more than ten seconds. The other two articles were written by Pablo Kleinman. Long time readers of the Snooze are familiar with Pablito - while I do not agree with everything he has to say, I would like to point out that he is fluent in both English and Spanish. I'm not saying that the people who wish to write articles in languages other than English should not have their articles published; I'm just asking them to provide an English translation so the rest of us can benefit from their words. FidoNews 11-06 Page: 6 07 Feb 1994 A comment to the editoral in FidoNews 11-3 From: Mikael Ståldal (2:201/337) Jag tycker att det är dumt att publicera artiklar på andra språk än engelska i FidoNews. Engelska är det språk som flest, just därför är det officielt i FidoNet. Att tillåta flera språk i FidoNews löser inga problem, det skapar problem. Did you understand the above paragraph? It's in Swedish, my native language. The translation is a bit down, but have a try before you press the PageDown key. I think it's stupid to publish articles in other languages than English in FidoNews. English is the language that most people understands, that's why it's the official language in FidoNet. Allowing several languages in FidoNews doesn't solve any problems, it creates problems. Best Regards Mikael ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Editor, I would like to express my resounding agreement with Mr. Dennis McClain- Furmanski's article intitled "What An Editor is For" that appeared in FidoNews Vol.11 No.4. In reference to the editorial in that same issue, I wish to point out that I by no means wish to "tell you what to do". I do believe, however, that as editor you do need more of an editorial direction for FidoNews. A few weeks ago I requested from my hub to have my feed to FidoNews removed. He complied and I skipped an issue, but it appeared in my inbound directory the following week. Apparently the switch was not perminent. I had intend to compose a netmail to him requesting once again to cease sending the 'Snooze' this way, but decided to take another peek. I couldn't resist... heh. As I read your editorial I was emmediately ready to simply forget it and write my hub with the request, however, I wanted to catch the news blurb about the Handyman echo first. Mr. McClain-Furmanski's article caught my eye (it was of similar title I had at one time considered writing myself) and thus I read it. It gives me hope that you will heed his advice. There are echoes, in large part, that serve the same function that FidoNews does at the moment. A "Letters to the Editor" section may be a good addition, but please don't pass off such posts as "articles". Perhaps a section specifically for "opinions", but they should be well written and pertinent, not simply inclusive replies. Most of what appears in FidoNews is nothing more than an echomail or netmail message dumped into a file. FidoNews 11-06 Page: 7 07 Feb 1994 I believe that with a slighty more oriented editorial bent FidoNews could be a wonderful publication. I by no means expect to agree with everything published, indeed my experience in FidoNet to date has provided me with more than a few opportunities to question and defend my own opinions. It's a healthy thing from time to time. However, there is no excuse for poor quality. I am not interested in recieving a compilation of echomail/netmail messages. I *am* interested in reading well written, interesting, and pertinent information and commentary about the FidoNet community. I have decided not to press my hub to stop sending me FidoNews at this time. My hope is that you will take to heart what Mr. McClain-Furmanski and others like him say. The current ideals of providing an open and accessable forum for expressing views and relating news about FidoNet *can* be maintained, but that does not mean a little editorial disgretion can't be excercised in determining what to print. In a recent (rather spirited) net election I posted an excerpt from _The New Hacker's Dictionary_ (Raymond, Eric S., Ed., The MIT Press, Cambridge Massachusettes, 1993) in the hopes of illustrating a point about FidoNet. It didn't exactly work, but it was a spirited contest to put it midily. It's a bit off the topic, but I'd like to leave you with a bit from that book for consideration. "The most reliable manifistation of [the HACKER ETHIC] is that almost all hackers are actively willing to share technical tricks, software, and (where possible) computing resources with other hackers. Huge cooperative networks such as USENET, *FidoNet* and Internet can function without central control because of this trait; they... _rely on and reinforce a sense of community that may be hackerdom's most valuable intangible asset_." [pg. 219] Angel's Luck, Cristopher D. Egger, Sysop The New Amanda BBS (1:170/612) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- FREE ELECTRONIC MAGAZINE Thank you for posting the HOTT announcement in FidoNews. The announcement has been significantly updated (see the update toward the end of the announcement); if possible, please post the new info to FidoNews. Too, it was not clear from the announcement in FidoNews that HOTT is available to all BBSes for posting ... FREE OF CHARGE! Matter of fact, I'm counting on FidoNet-based BBSes to help with our circulation drive. Please let your readers & sysops know that HOTT is available for their distribution. Thank you very much. The latest announcement follows. FidoNews 11-06 Page: 8 07 Feb 1994 * * * P R E S S R E L E A S E * * * P R E S S R E L E A S E * * * B R I E F R E L E A S E FREE ELECTRONIC MAGAZINE ON NEW GENERATION COMPUTING & COMMUNICATIONS Free, electronic magazine features article summaries on new generation computer and communications technologies from over 100 trade magazines and research journals; key U.S. & international daily newspapers, news weeklies, and business magazines; and, over 100 Internet mailing lists & USENET groups. Each issue (10/year) includes listings of forthcoming & recently published technical books and forthcoming shows & conferences. Bonus: Exclusive interviews with technology pioneers. E-mail subscription requests to: listserv@ucsd.edu (Leave the "Subject" line blank.) In the body of the message, type: SUBSCRIBE HOTT-LIST (do not include first or last names) Gated to the USENET group bit.magazines.computing. * * * P R E S S R E L E A S E * * * P R E S S R E L E A S E * * * G E N E R A L R E L E A S E HOTT -- Hot Off The Tree -- is a FREE monthly (10/year) electronic magazine featuring the latest advances in computer, communications, and electronics technologies. Each issue provides article summaries on new & emerging technologies, including VR (virtual reality), neural networks, PDAs (personal digital assistants), GUIs (graphical user interfaces), intelligent agents, ubiquitous computing, genetic & evolutionary programming, wireless networks, smart cards, video phones, set-top boxes, nanotechnology, and massively parallel processing. Summaries are provided from the following sources: Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, San Jose Mercury News, Boston Globe, Financial Times (London) ... Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report ... Business Week, Forbes, Fortune, The Economist (London), Nikkei Weekly (Tokyo), Asian Wall Street Journal (Hong Kong) ... over 50 trade magazines, including Computerworld, InfoWorld, Datamation, Computer Retail Week, Dr. Dobb's Journal, LAN Times, Communications Week, PC World, New Media, VAR Business, Midrange Systems, Byte ... over 50 research journals, including ** ALL ** publications of the IEEE Computer and Communications Societies, plus technical journals published by AT&T, IBM, Hewlett Packard, Fujitsu, Sharp, NTT, Siemens, Philips, GEC ... over 100 Internet mailing lists & USENET discussion groups ... plus ... * listings of forthcoming & recently published technical books; FidoNews 11-06 Page: 9 07 Feb 1994 * listings of forthcoming trade shows & technical conferences; and, * company advertorials, including CEO perspectives, tips & techniques, and new product announcements BONUS: Exclusive interviews with technology pioneers ... the first issues feature interviews with Mark Weiser (head of Xerox PARC's Computer Science Lab) on ubiquitous computing, Nobel laureate Joshua Lederberg on the information society, and MCC CEO (and former DARPA director) Craig Fields on the future of computing TO REQUEST A FREE E-MAIL SUBSCRIPTION, FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS BELOW Send subscription requests to: listserv@ucsd.edu Leave the "Subject" line blank In the body of the message input: SUBSCRIBE HOTT-LIST If at any time you choose to cancel your subscription input: UNSUBSCRIBE HOTT-LIST Note: Do *not* include first or last names following "SUBSCRIBE HOTT-LIST" or "UNSUBSCRIBE HOTT-LIST" For your privacy, please note that the list will not be rented. If you have problems and require human intervention, contact: hott@ucsd.edu USENET AVAILABILITY HOTT is gated to the USENET group bit.magazines.computing FIRST ISSUE The first issue of the reinvented HOTT e-magazine is scheduled for transmission in February. PLANNED FEATURES There are numerous features that I plan to add over the next year. First, I want to expand trade magazine coverage to over 200 sources, including at least 30 British trade publications. Also, I want to provide summaries of U.S. and U.K. national news programs, i.e., ABC, CBS, NBC, and BBC. I'd like to transmit selected full-text features from The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The (London) Financial Times, and a Japanese English-language daily (plus article summaries from a few other Japanese English-language dailies; there are a half- dozen English-language dailies published in Japan). Eventually, I'd like to add The New York Times (if I can negotiate a reasonable rate), FidoNews 11-06 Page: 10 07 Feb 1994 The San Jose Mercury News, and The Boston Globe. And maybe even Newsbytes and the Japanese English-language equivalent to Newsbytes. I'm currently negotiating with The Los Angeles Times Syndicate for Michael Schrage's "Innovation" column (Michael is willing to comp HOTT on an experimental basis) and I'd like to add a few other syndicated columns. And I have several other surprises! UPDATE -- 22 January 1994 In the last month HOTT has grown from 2,000 to over 22,000 individual subscribers; this already makes HOTT the largest circulation mailing list on the Internet. And this figure does NOT include distribution points in the U.S., such as CMU's Computer Science Department. An additional 15,000 readers are being reached through distribution points in over a dozen countries, including: Canada, the U.K., France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Estonia, Israel, South Africa, Zambia, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, and the equivalent of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in the People's Republic of China -- and more distribution points, each representing an average of 500-1,000 readers, are being added each week. And as part of our publicity campaign, we're mailing (by snail mail, fax, and e-mail) this announcement to over 1,000 media contacts in the U.S.; this will be followed in late 2Q 94 with a mass mailing to over 1,000 media contacts in Europe. Our goal is to make HOTT the first mass distribution AND truly global periodical on the Information Superhighway. Help us to achieve our goal by subscribing ... and by informing your colleagues/readers of our offering. Thank you very much. Bye! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================================== Fidonews Information ======================================================================== ------- FIDONEWS MASTHEAD AND CONTACT INFORMATION ---------------- Editors: Sylvia Maxwell, Donald Tees, Tim Pozar Editors Emeritii: Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell, Vince Perriello, Tom Jennings IMPORTANT NOTE: The FidoNet address of the FidoNews BBS has been changed!!! Please make a note of this. "FidoNews" BBS FidoNet 1:1/23 BBS +1-519-570-4176, 300/1200/2400/14400/V.32bis/HST(DS) Internet addresses: Don & Sylvia (submission address) editor@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca Sylvia -- max@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca FidoNews 11-06 Page: 11 07 Feb 1994 Donald -- donald@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca Tim -- pozar@kumr.lns.com (Postal Service mailing address) (have extreme patience) FidoNews 128 Church St. Kitchener, Ontario Canada N2H 2S4 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 1994 Sylvia Maxwell. All rights reserved. Duplication and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes only. For use in other circumstances, please contact the original authors, or FidoNews (we're easy). OBTAINING COPIES: The-most-recent-issue-ONLY of 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 Internet. PRINTED COPIES 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.) INTERNET USERS: FidoNews is available via FTP from ftp.fidonet.org, in directory ~ftp/pub/fidonet/fidonews. If you have questions regarding FidoNet, please direct them to deitch@gisatl.fidonet.org, not the FidoNews BBS. (Be kind and patient; David Deitch is generously volunteering to handle FidoNet/Internet questions.) 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 1:1/23 as file "ARTSPEC.DOC". Please read it. "Fido", "FidoNet" and the dog-with-diskette are U.S. registered trademarks of Tom Jennings, and are used with permission. Asked what he thought of Western civilization, M.K. Gandhi said, "I think it would be an excellent idea". -- END ---------------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 11-06 Page: 12 07 Feb 1994