F I D O N E W S -- Vol.11 No. 7 (14-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..................................................... 1 2. Articles...................................................... 2 "Foreign" languages in the snooze........................... 2 Whining..................................................... 3 REENACT - The Living History Echo........................... 5 3. Fidonews Information.......................................... 5 ======================================================================== Editorial ======================================================================== FidoNews 11-07 Page: 2 14 Feb 1994 Well, here we go. Three articles in the mail, and every one better than any editorial we had in mind. ======================================================================== Articles ======================================================================== "Foreign" languages in the snooze by Juergen Hermann Internet jh@ccave.ka.sub.org PhoneNet 49-721-826310 (FAX, V.32bis) FidoNet#2:2476/554 (as of NodeList.035, no guarantees beyond that) Some people complained (whined?) about the appearance of articles in languages other than English. Well, here are some counterarguments... There are articles aimed at a certain limited audience, like announcing a new echo where Spanish is the language to be used. Why should this announcement be translated to English, when even in this form it's of no use whatsoever to a poor soul whose only means of (written) communication is English? What if I find the time to write a new episode of the never-ending story how one guy can fuck up whole regions in Z2, with a wink of his blue eyes? Hardly anybody of the often-cited "majority of FidoNet" (read: Z1) gives a damn about that, so why shouldn't I write it in German, sparing me some useless effort? You may suggest to put such articles into regional newsletters, but fact is that such newsletters aren't working since there's never enough input. It hasn't happened recently, but there were weeks we got an empty Snooze! And as Chris Farrar showed us in his article in Snooze #1105, many people even have problems with their mother tongue: they are either lazy -- which is tolerable in echomail contexts, but not with articles for a newsletter -- or incompetent. One could ask whether an article with such errors like swapping "their" with "they're" and "its" with "it's" is in fact written in English, if only for the sake of the argument. Finally, if you're that upset about all that outlandish gibberish, do the same some people have done because of the sometimes poor signal/noise ratio of the Snooze -- ask your feed to cut your link. After all, it's just a hobby! -- "Jeder Mensch ist in den meisten Laendern dieser Erde ein Auslaender." FidoNews 11-07 Page: 3 14 Feb 1994 Whining by Jerry Schwartz 142/928 This Is My Title (So there, I did too read ArtSpec.Doc) I see by scanning my \JUNK directory that it's been several months since I last wrote an article for FidoNews. My job has undergone some changes, and unfortunately for you all it now gives me a little more free time. As usual when such leisure grips me, I blew through several issues of FidoNews in one sitting. This kind of time lapse reading almost always motivates me to contribute my own dollop of unwholesomeness. Not all of this article is humorous or worthless tripe, so please keep reading: there may be some worthwhile tripe in it. It seems that whining has become the preoccupation of FidoNews and its correspondents, which is really a shame. In defense of those to whom God speaks directly, at least they know how to issue a good, old-fashioned, thundering denunciation. If their words had the power that their rhetoric deserves, various male generative organs would long since have shriveled up and fallen off. One recent contributor berated the editors for sloppy punctuation, capitalization, and grammar. I agree with the thrust of his message: the editors should lead by example, and even if we don't know where we're going we should still put on clean underwear and comb our hair. Unfortunately, this contributor made many of the same errors as those very editors he was upbraiding. (English is normally capitalized, for example, and while it may be bad form to end a sentence with a preposition it is worse form to leave it out altogether.) Perhaps he is from that part of Canada in which abusing the Queen's English is a patriotic duty, in which case he did a better job in English that I could ever have managed in French. Some folks are whining that FidoNews should be entirely in English, and citing Policy. Well, some of the articles I've read don't seem to be in ANY language at all, so Spanish and French should be a welcome relief. It IS too bad that we can't accomodate the extended character sets, as one correspondent observed. I remember when a major international echo was briefly cross linked with one whose language was (perhaps) Thai; it would have been easier to sight read a ZIP file than to make sense of the results. Personally, I wish we could offer timely translations of FidoNews and, for that matter, echomail; but I've been there and done that (in another context), and it was so difficult and error prone that the target audience begged me to stop. I thought about running this article through my Spanish translator, but decided that it was already too long and too senseless in English. Besides, I think the translation program has some hidden dictionary of idioms which is intended to get FidoNews 11-07 Page: 4 14 Feb 1994 stupid Anglos into trouble; some of the most innocent English phrases gave rise to an awful lot of snickering from the Latin American community. I was also going to have my modem translate it into Taiwanese, but the ITU protocols give it a French accent it just can't seem to shake. I will admit that it was something of an eye opener to see the articles in French, Portuguese, and Spanish appearing without translation. I didn't like the way it made me feel, and we English speakers should all pause and think about that. But to threaten to drop the FidoNews because of it is ridiculous. I seem to recall that Policy exhorts us not to be too easily annoyed. I'd hate to see the reaction of those folks if something SERIOUS happened, like (for example) if they had to apply for a JOB in a foreign language the way millions of immigrants to the USA have over the years. Someone was whining about the NodeList (quality thereof). I find it hard to get too exercised about the size of the NodeList; perhaps it's because I stopped using 8" floppies a while back. The size of the NodeDiff is far more important, since I pay for that each week. If a mailer answers the phone, fine; if there is no answer, well that works out all right for me but I know it costs people money in some places where the phone company is less obliging. Nonetheless, to interpret Policy so strictly as to demand constant polling of every node to determine if it is up, down, or sideways seems absurd to me. Take a risk: crash that mail; or, if you're chicken, route it. Nothing's perfect. The commentary about the role of the moderator raised a good point: with the advent of Planet Connect and other "flat" topologies it will become difficult to cut a node's feed in some cases. As a moderator myself I've already anticipated but not yet experienced that. I don't have a good answer, either. However, peer pressure isn't likely to be a reliable solution. Just the other day I had to deal with (of all things) a CHAIN LETTER posted by (of all things) a SYSOP. I'm hoping to hear back that someone hacked his system or in some way appropriated his name, since the alternative is unpleasant to contemplate. If it ever became necessary for me to cut a node's link, and that node had a Planet Connect dish, I'm not sure what I could do. And finally, it's time for my own dry white whine: modem flags. There is now a fine crop of weeds in the modem garden, and it is starting to cost me, personally, money. I own a ZyXel modem which has a proprietary 19.2 protocol. It seemed like a good idea at the time, and it is a fine product in many ways. The problem is that the new V.FC 28.8 modems are too similar yet too different, and if I call one of them I waste my dime: we never connect. I was here first! But that's not the real issue: the real issue is that I can't identify those other modems except by examining my phone bills. The nodes that I called 100 times without ever getting a session are probably using those V.FC modems. Since FidoNews 11-07 Page: 5 14 Feb 1994 neither a Z19 flag nor a V.FC flag has been ratified, I can't use the standard techniques to modify my setup when calling them. If I knew who they were I could force my modem to 14.4, the highest speed we have in common. If I could identify the other Z19 modems reliably, I could force 14.4 with any non-ZyXel V.32bis node. But as it stand now, I can't. Someone needs to get going and create some new modem flags. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- REENACT - The Living History Echo REENACT - The Living History Echo by Gerald Todd 1:261/1151 Across the country, men and women portray for us a little bit of what life was like "back then." In museums, forts, ships, parks, schools, and many other places, these people take us back in time to meet Johnny Reb or Billy Yank, to meet one of Roger's Rangers, or a family from the prarie. These people show us where we came from, and the way we lived. They show us the tools, the food, the weapons, and they show us the beliefs, the traditions, and the songs of our heritage. These people are "Living Historians." REENACT would cover all aspects and periods of historical recreation. Topics would include: Military reenactments, sources, equipment, event schedules, museum and Park Service events, research, buy and sell, recruitment, and more. But REENACT isn't an echo, yet. This is an attempt to see what sort of "market" there is out in Fidoland to support such an echo. If you are a sysop that would be interested in carrying such an echo for yourself, or your users, please netmail me at 1:261/1151. If you are not a sysop, but would be interested in the REENACT echo call Modem Ready the RBBS at 410-360-8007 (14.4k). If there is a fair response, I will begin private distribution of the echo, and work towards getting it on the Fidonet "backbone." Thank you, Gerald Todd ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================================== Fidonews Information ======================================================================== ------- FIDONEWS MASTHEAD AND CONTACT INFORMATION ---------------- Editors: Sylvia Maxwell, Donald Tees, Tim Pozar Editors Emeritii: Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell, Vince Perriello, Tom Jennings FidoNews 11-07 Page: 6 14 Feb 1994 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 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 FidoNews 11-07 Page: 7 14 Feb 1994 trademarks of Tom Jennings, and are used with permission. Asked what he thought of Western civilization, "Giddy girls pee through car windows". [-Allison Barkley, co-editrix of the unfettered mind} -- END ----------------------------------------------------------------------