F I D O N E W S Volume 15, Number 52 28 December 1998 +----------------------------+---------------------------------------+ | The newsletter of the | ISSN 1198-4589 Published by: | | FidoNet community | "FidoNews" | | _ | +27-41-515-913 [5:5/23] | | / \ | | | /|oo \ | | | (_| /_) | | | _`@/_ \ _ | | | | | \ \\ | Editor: | | | (*) | \ )) | Henk Wolsink 5:7104/2 | | |__U__| / \// | | | _//|| _\ / | | | (_/(_|(____/ | | | (jm) | Newspapers should have no friends. | | | -- JOSEPH PULITZER | +----------------------------+---------------------------------------+ | Submission address: FidoNews Editor 5:5/23 | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | MORE addresses: | | | | submissions=> editor@fidonews.org | | hwolsink@catpe.alt.za | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | For information, copyrights, article submissions, | | obtaining copies of FidoNews or the internet gateway FAQ | | please refer to the end of this file. | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ Table of Contents 1. EDITORIAL ................................................ 1 2. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR .................................... 2 The Twit Responds - Reply to Bob Moravsik by Douglas My .. 2 3. ARTICLES ................................................. 4 ECHO TALK - Doc Logger on Coordinator Activity ........... 4 BBS = Bulletin Board System .............................. 4 Revitalizing Middle Tennessee Net BBSes .................. 6 FIDONET IN THE 2ND MILLENIUM ............................. 6 4. NOTICES .................................................. 10 5. FIDONET BY INTERNET ...................................... 11 6. FIDONEWS INFORMATION ..................................... 14 FIDONEWS 15-52 Page 1 28 Dec 1998 ================================================================= EDITORIAL ================================================================= Greetings, Hope you had a good Christmas and did not indulge yourself into too many nice things. ;-) If you did, you may find yourself a few pounds/kg havier. I would like to thank all of YOU who contributed during the past year and hope sincerely, that you will continue doing the great work in 1999. Why we have seen nothing from the ZC's & IC during the past year? Whatever it was, lets hope that we WILL see something from those gentleman during 1999. Have a great time and if you intend to blow away some of your hard earned cash on fire crackers and the likes, do it in such a manner that nobody gets hurt and keep them crakers away from your pets. Any animal for that matter! Like if you did not know, this IS the last issue for 1998 and will see you all in 1999. Happy New Year, ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 15-52 Page 2 28 Dec 1998 ================================================================= LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ================================================================= The Twit Responds Ref: "The Tampering of the Elist" Reply to Bob Moravsik by Douglas Myers > Some of you may have read the drivel posted by Douglas Myers Please note that I didn't need to resort, as you do, to calling individuals a "twit" or "tamperer" to present my arguement. Let the readers decide who is posting drivel here :) > Most of his article describes the world through the eyes of a person > to argues that reality is what he claims. ^-- who Did you expect me to argue that reality is not what I claim? > The real issue (and only issue) is: "Do the Elist keeper resolve > disputes ?" ^-- Does Actually, the elist keeper has been called upon to resolve several disputes lately. There was a dispute over listing multiple moderators, a dispute over allowing listings with spaces, a dispute over the way listings were permitted to expire, and others. The elist keeper was expected to resolve each one. > What's LaCostaPol ? Its this secret set of rules that only Thom > LaCosta knows. Where's the secret? Thom has stated consistantly that he recognizes the moderator of an echo as the individual responsible for maintaining the elist entry. If it's a secret, it isn't very well kept. > There are two sides to this issue. > 1. Moderators "control" conferences and the elisting is their > property. This is not supported by any Fidonet policy or the > laws of any nation (Remember, Fidonet is international) Nor has such been argued by me. In fact, I believe that moderators must ultimately serve the echo participants or they will either be driven from the echo or abandoned to the echo. What is actually at issue is the question of who speaks for the echo participants. The moderator is recognized by the NAB, FidoSpine, and Elist Keeper. Each of these bodies looks to the moderator field in the elisting to determine who this spokesman is. If you choose to call him "trustee" or "steward" or "owner" or whatever, that's fine... but he FIDONEWS 15-52 Page 3 28 Dec 1998 or she should be listed in the moderator field for the world to know. > 2. Moderators serve the participants. > If one takes the later then the elist password is seperate from the > moderator. You make this assertion, but offer no arguement as to why the password should be denied the moderator. The password is little more than a housekey - if it's lost or stolen, then it's appropriate to change the locks. > Without guidance from Satti (who has the power to extend Fidonet > policy), LaCosta should not have compromised the Elist security. > THAT IS THE ONLY ISSUE. I'm not sure why Fidonet Policy should need extended here. Certainly it doesn't require an act of Congress if some apartment manager decides to change a lock after a tenant vacates... and the new tenant might even feel that security has been enhanced :) ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 15-52 Page 4 28 Dec 1998 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= . -- -- -- -- -- ECHO TALK -- -- -- -- -- . | Food for thought from Fido's echomail. | | Purloined without permission by D Myers | ` -- -- -- -- -- -- - -- -- -- -- -- -- ' Doc Logger on the subject of Coordinator activity: ------------------------------------------------------------------- I think your appraisal of the role of *Cs lets them off too lightly when you suggest that they haven't been obstructionist. Every action that Satti has taken towards Region12 or members of our region has been exactly that. Kohl and Hinton engaged in exactly the same activities, getting their knickers in a knot when nodes sought to join an environment where they were made welcome. It may be an academic point to ask how many nodes gave up in disgust when they encountered a Bob Hall, a Dave Hunter, a Hans Toby, a Gary Gilmore, or any of a raft of other people who forgot that the point was communication rather than turf wars. I'd bet my stuffed armadillo collection that you could lay all of the missing Montana nodes at the doorstep of an NC whose overweening control ambitions throttled the net...ditto for net243. When the ZC is paralyzed by incompetence, the tribal sense of belonging is lost because the sysop peasantry see the organization in terms of fading, semi-literate relics clinging to power which they weild capriciously. Even a fractional amount of initiative on the part of a *C can bring spirit to the enterprise, and conversely, a bunker-hiding *C can create the opposite effect. ----------------------------------------------------------------- BBS =3D Bulletin Board System OSP =3D Online Service Provider Okay, now read the first two lines 3 more times. Now take a look at your system which you are running or logging in to. Is it more like a "BBS' or an "OSP", well most of you should say "OSP", as this is what it really is. The "BBS" part is still there, if you see or run an effective Bulletins section of the system, then call that section BBS, as the rest of the system is an Online Service Provider. It is not changing the "BBS",it is changing the name to a better well understood name. "BBS" is nolonger a "BBS" anymore! "BBSes" years ago used to only have local bulletins, but for the past 15 years or more, many systems do not even have 1 useful bulletin! FIDONEWS 15-52 Page 5 28 Dec 1998 Why is a "BBS" called a "BBS" when there is no Bulletins?? why? When you can call it an "OSP" and it sounds more like what it really is. Do you know where the "BBS" term came from? Well I bet most of you probably have no clue, it is quite simple, in the 1970's "BBS" were used for that very reason, to pass out bulletins to whom ever wanted to know, and that was all. Then one day some programming decided to add some extra features to their "BBS" like email support, and public msgs sections, eventualy it became what you see today. But today, it is no longer a "BBS" it is undoubtably an "OSP". The term "OSP" was used back then, but nobody understodd what an "OSP" was, yet they know what a "BBS" was, so everyone continues to use the term "BBS". No that term is over used in our online culture, this needs to be changed to it's proper term. I'm not saying an "OSP" has too offer internet services, but still can offer BBS-email (OSP-email) , online games, public message domains (echomail) and so on. An ISP does not offer personal online games, msg conferences, inter-ISP games, and so on. This can work with almost every feature of a "BBS" or we should say "OSP". Overall, if you think about what a "BBS" is today, it can offer a lot and I do mean a heck of a lot more services than any ISP can offer to it's customers (users) and most "BBS"'s of today are free, if not really cheap for extra and special accesses. It all just makes more sence this way. We can be powerful systems once again. The time is here. The technology is here. The market is here more than ever. Lets use it. All an "OSP" needs to be called an "OSP" is, what all "BBS"s have now. and if there are _NO_ usefull bulletins, then is _NOT_ a "BBS" at all. A "BBS" has bulletins. An "OSP" has any other online service available, and this DOES NOT have to be an internet service; just services like online games, public message domains, multi-node chat, local private email. Sounds familair? Just think, try to explain "BBS" to someone who never loged on to one. What do they think is on it? bulletins. Are people always attracted to bulletins? no. If you say "OSP" what will they think? "humm sounds interesting, I wonder what services they offer.", and voila you get some new users. And from there, it is your system that should attract them. Please try to inform other users and SysOps in your area somehow on what an OSP is and that BBS is only a section of an OSP. Work together, and this old, yet not used very often term will be in it correct place. Doesn't it just make more sence? Please pass this information on to your NEC, ZEC, and other local SysOps. thanx FIDONEWS 15-52 Page 6 28 Dec 1998 **PS: and remember this** "call your system what it really is, not something it isn't!" written by Joel Gathercole aka Greenie -BBS World Magazine - 26/12/98 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Revitalizing Middle Tennessee Net BBSes An Attempt at Revitalizing Net 116 BBSes by John Graves, 1:116/35, Net116@nashville.com In the article in Fidonews Volume 15, Number 8, entitled "Revitalizing a Small Part of Fidonet" by Neil Hoener, 1:128/103, Mr. Hoener describes one of the ways that Pikes Peak Net is trying to revitalize their BBSes. The Pikes Peak Net asked Hilgraeve Inc. for permission to include icons for their BBSes along with an upgrade for HyperTerminal 3.0. For those who may be unfamiliar with HyperTerminal, it is the basic terminal program Microsoft includes with Windows 95, 98, and NT 4.0. Shortly after Windows 95 was released, Hilgraeve began offering an upgrade to the version included with Windows. This upgrade is free for personal use and can be registered for business use for a small fee. This upgrade turns HyperTerminal into a full-featured terminal program that is quite suitable for calling Fidonet BBSes. Inspired by that article, I contacted Hilgraeve and asked for permission to create an install program that would upgrade the HyperTerminal software that comes with Windows to Hilgraeve's HyperTerminal 4.0 Personal Edition and include "connectoids", links that can be placed on the Windows desktop or anywhere on a Windows 95/98/NT computer, to allow users to call Middle Tennessee Net BBSes with a simple click of their mouse. Within 36 hours, a representative of Hilgraeve contacted me and gave me their permission. Hilgraeve is quite willing to allow Fidonet Sysops to bundle our BBS connect icons with the upgrade of their product. All they ask is that we send them a copy of the finished install for them to keep for their records and that we do not charge for the upgrade. We are planning to advertise this upgrade via flyers distributed at local computer stores and on our WWW pages. We'll send a copy free of charge to anyone requesting it. While we will make this available on floppy disk upon request, we think most of the distribution will be done by downloads from web pages and file attaches in email. As a result, the cost to our net will be minimal. I urge anyone searching for a way to increase callers to their BBS to give this method a try. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONET IN THE 2ND MILLENIUM FIDONEWS 15-52 Page 7 28 Dec 1998 - An Article by Pete Snidal, Sysop of 1:353.910 - Compuglobal Hypermeganet BBS - Okay, I know the title's a little too catchy; but it says something important. Fidonet _does_ have a place in the next millenium. The internet hasn't killed what Fidonet does, and it certainly hasn't replaced it. This little article intends to discuss a few things I think we need to consider as owner/ operators of Fidonet systems. Here is what Fidonet does best: It provides low-cost access to a broad range of Forums/discussion areas which foster communication between computer users all over the planet. These Fidoechoes are spam-free, friendly, and easy to use. They cover a very broad potential range of subjects, and are moderated to ensure a fair to good selectivity of information (staying on topic.) If we, as sysops, can hold onto this basic idea, and try to provide at least one system in every possible calling area which operates with this basic aim in mind, Fido will live on for a long time. There's room for gameboards out there, I suppose, but I think it's important to keep the worldwide conference connectivity aspect in the foreground. What does this mean to the average sysop? It means that, if we want to see Fido stay in business, we must publicize its availabilty in our area, and we must have our systems set up so that any would-be users who call them will be greeted by user-friendly, properly configured software presenting a good basic set of Fidoechoes covering a wide range of interests. I think it's important to offer a good general list of echoes in the smorgasbord; areafixing and configuring a few echoes you personally may not be particularly interested in will bring more participants to Fido, and will have to improve the quality and quantity of participation in _all_ echoes in the long run. Including your favourites. Preferably, the Message Menu will show a hierarchical listing of available echoes, starting at the first level with no more than a screenful of headings, such as: Local Messaging Environmental Issues Hobbies Humour News Postings Politics Technical Subjects Writing and probably a further set of special interest echoes, such as Health FIDONEWS 15-52 Page 8 28 Dec 1998 Women's Issues Men's Issues Teen Stuff Kids Stuff and from this main message menu, the user should then be able to make a choice and get a breakdown of any of the given headings to all the echoes which are relevant. Politics, for example, could break down into National Politics, Provincial Politics, Local Politics, Party of Your Choice, etc. What is Very Important is that the front-end software be intuitive as possible, and that it gives access to a good general interest range of message areas. The intelligent would-be user can be counted on, I think, to make a fairly decent effort to figure out the navigation, if given half a chance. It isn't important that it be GUI or even graphical, I don't think, since text conferencing is the basic issue here - if he can't bother to take the time to read the instructions, or is completely rodent-dependent, what contributions will s/he make to the conferences anyway? Something we have to consider is that the new user, unlike ourselves, must at first depend on the front-end software to navigate the message base. We who have long ago graduated to offline readers, such as Harvey Parisien's excellent OFFLINE, or the even better alternative of TIMED, sometimes tend to forget what it was like to dial our first bbs and try to navigate around the message base. If it was too difficult, as many of them are, we most likely jumped into a game door, and thus were lost to Fidonet as conference contributors, in some cases pretty well forever. Other prospective users, having discovered that the Internet, as well as the real game computers such as Nintendo et al, do games so much better and thus also are lost forever. So it's very important to present a properly set up front end of good quality, with a good basic set of conferencing echoes to the new user from the git-go. A really necessary item in bbs front-end software is that it offers the user a chance to see a L)ist of messages available in any base, showing one line per message of such information as originator, destination, and title. Without this option, software which replies to the R)ead a Message command with a request for a message number is pretty meaningless. And if the user has the good humour to offer up a message number at random (unlikely - alt-h is more likely) and unluckily picks a private message, s/he gets nothing for his/her trouble, and is now getting really discouraged. Listing of messages is a very important feature. The best example of good front-end software, offering this feature, hierachical menus, a good shot at intuitive user-friendly navigation, and still selling for the amazing price of * FREE *, is my personal favourite, Maximus 2.03. If it scared you once, and you shone it on because of all those scary *.ctl files and stuff, have another look at it now. You've likely become much more computer-savvy since then, and it'll look a whole lot simpler. Why am I writing this? Well, although a grunt sysop in a small FIDONEWS 15-52 Page 9 28 Dec 1998 town in interior British Columbia, I'm currently on a visit to the Big Smoke, Vancouver - home of net 153. I brought a computer along, and thought I'd peruse the nodelist, and see what good ideas I could take home with me for my own system. And I've found a few good ideas, but what I've found a lot more of is reasons why Fidonet is dying. Poorly configured systems with badly-chosen, in a word, crappy front ends. Message menus running to many screens of very limited-interest technical echoes which should show to the new user as one item on the first hierarchical menu screen. No choices of the most basic echoes of general interest, such as WORLDTLK, ANEWS, LOC.BUYSELL (a BC-wide echo), BC_CHAT, BC_TEEN, ALTMED, FUNNY, or SIMPSONS. No indication that other echoes are possible, if the interest is expressed, let alone a list of these. There are a number of echoes we all should carry as "bait" to encourage would-be's to become regular users of Fidonet, whether we personally have any particular interest in them or not. Check the 'bone list for ideas. I ran into 'way too many "attitude" systems, with the sysop's cunning bulletins basically saying this-is-my-system-and-I-don't- care-if-you-ever-call-back-get-screwed. I have no quarrel with this attitude, if the number of the bbs is not publicized on the nodelist and/or on the various lists of bbs's available, but if you're showing this kind of attitude on a bbs representing Fidonet, I for one really wish you'd change your listing to private, since that's obviously what you had in mind in the first place. In other words, don't invite people to Fidonet, and then tell them to screw off. The only thing that's going to save Fidonet is attracting and holding contributors to the echoes. This is good for all of us, and good for them as well. Fidonet's conferencing is a valuable resource which a lot more people would be using if they were introduced to it through properly configured, hospitable local bbs's, and those of us who care should really do all we can to make this service available to prospective users. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 15-52 Page 10 28 Dec 1998 ================================================================= NOTICES ================================================================= Future History 16 Feb 1999 13th Anniversary of the introduction of EchoMail by Jeff Rush. 12 May 1999 12th Anniversary of Fido Operations in Zone 4; 10th Anniversary of the creation of FidoNet Zone 4. 24 Jul 1999 XIII Pan American Games [through 8 Aug 99]. 9 Jun 1999 Tenth Anniversary of the adoption of FidoNet Policy 4.07. 10 Sep 1999 10th anniversary of Zone 5 operations. 26 Oct 1999 Thirty years from release Abbey Road album by the Beatles. 31 Dec 1999 Hogmanay, Scotland. The New Year that can't be missed. 1 Jan 2000 The 20th Century, C.E., is still taking place thru 31 Dec. 1 Jun 2000 EXPO 2000 World Exposition in Hannover (Germany) opens. 15 Sep 2000 Sydney (Australia) Summer Olympiad opens. 21 Sep 2000 10 years of FidoNet in +7 (xUSSR) 1 Jan 2001 This is the actual start of the new millennium, C.E. -- If YOU have something which you would like to see in this Future History, please send a note to the FidoNews Editor. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 15-52 Page 11 28 Dec 1998 ================================================================= FIDONET BY INTERNET ================================================================= This is a list of all FidoNet-related sites reported to the FidoNews Editor as of this issue; see the notice at the end. FidoNet: Homepage http://www.fidonet.org FidoNews http://www.fidonews.org [HTML] http://209.77.228.66/fidonews.html [ASCII] WWW sources http://travel.to/fidonet/ FTSC page http://www.goldware.dk/ftsc Echomail [pending] General http://owls.com/~jerrys/fidonet.html http://www.nrgsys.com/orb/foti List servers: http://www.onelist.com/subscribe.cgi/fidonet-discussion ============ Zone 1: http://www.z1.fidonet.org Region 10: http://www.psnw.com/~net205/region10.html Region 11: http://oeonline.com/~garyg/region11/ Region 13: Net 264: http://www.net264.org/r13.htm Region 17: http://www.nwstar.com/~region17/ Region 18: http://techshop.pdn.net/fido/ Region 19: http://www.compconn.net/r19 Zone 1 Elist http://www.baltimoremd.com/elist/ ============ Zone 2: http://www.z2.fidonet.org ZEC2: Zone 2 Elist: http://www.fbone.ch/echolist/ Region 20: http://www.fidonet.pp.se (in Swedish) Region 23: http://www.fido.dk (in Danish) Region 24: http://www.swb.de/personal/flop/gatebau.html (German) Fido-IP: http://home.nrh.de/~lbehet/fido (English/German) Region 25: http://www.bsnet.co.uk/net2502/net/ FIDONEWS 15-52 Page 12 28 Dec 1998 Region 26: http://www.nemesis.ie REC 26: http://www.nrgsys.com/orb Region 27: http://telematique.org/ft/r27.htm Region 29: http://www.rtfm.be/fidonet/ (French) Region 30: http://www.fidonet.ch (German) Region 33: http://www.fidoitalia.net (Italian) Region 34: http://www.pobox.com/cnb/r34.htm (Spanish) REC34: http://pobox.com/~chr Region 36: http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/7207/ Region 38: http://public.st.carnet.hr/~blagi/bbs/adriam.html Region 41: http://www.fidonet.gr (Greek/English) Region 42: http://www.fido.cz Region 48: http://www.fidonet.org.pl Region 50: http://www.fido7.com/ (Russian) Net 5010: http://fido.tu-chel.ac.ru/ (Russian) Net 5015: http://www.fido.nnov.ru/ (Russian) Net 5030: http://kenga.ru/fido/ (Russian & English) Net 5073: http://people.weekend.ru/soa/ (Russian) ============ Zone 3: http://www.z3.fidonet.org ============ Zone 4: Region 90: http://visitweb.com/fidonet Net 903: http://www.playagrande.com/refugio Net 904: http://members.tripod.com/~net904 (Spanish) ============ Zone 5: http://www.eastcape.co.za/fidonet/index.htm ============ Zone 6: http://www.z6.fidonet.org Region 65: http://www.cfido.com/fidonet/cfidochina.html (Chinese) ============ Pages listed above are as submitted to the FidoNews Editor, and generally reflect Zone and Regional Web Page sites. If FIDONEWS 15-52 Page 13 28 Dec 1998 no Regional site is submitted, the first Network page from that Region is used in its place. Generally, Regional pages should list access points to all Networks within the Region. TCP/IP accessible node access information should be submitted to the FidoNews Editor for inclusion in their Region or Zone. -----------oOo------------- Fidonet Via Internet Hubs Node# | Operator | Facilities (*) | Speed | Basic Rate -----------+-------------------+----------------+-------+------------ 1:12/12 | Ken Wilson | FTP | T1 | $24mo. 1:13/25 | Jim Balcom | FTP | 56k | $20mo. 1:106/1 | Matt Bedynek | FTP,VMoT,UUE | 64k | $5/$15mo. 1:106/6018 | Lawrence Garvin | FTP,VMoT | 64k | $5/mo. 1:107/451 | Andy Knifel | FTP, VMoT, UUE | 33.6 | n/c 1:124/7008 | Ben Hamilton | FTP,VMoT,UUE | 64k | $10/$20mo. 1:140/12 | Bob Seaborn | FTP | T1 | $5/$20 1:270/101 | George Peace | FTP | T1 | $30mo. 1:271/140 | Tom Barstow | UUE | T1 | n/c 1:275/1 | Joshua Ecklund | UUE | 28.8 | $10/yr. 1:280/169 | Brian Greenstreet | FTP | 33.6 | $2mo. 1:2401/305 | Peter Rocca | FTP,UUE | T1 | unkn 1:2424/10 | Alec Grynspan | FTP,UUE | T1 | n/c 1:2604/104 | Jim Mclaughlin | FTP,VMoT,UUE | 33.6 | $1mo. 1:2624/306 | D. Calafrancesco | VMoT | 33.6 | $15yr. 1:345/0 | Todd Cochrane | FTP | T1 | n/c 1:346/250 | Aran Spence | FTP,UUE | T1 | $10mo. 1:396/45 | Marc Lewis | UUE | 33.6 | $26/yr. 1:3651/9 | Jerry Gause | FTP,VMoT | 33.6 | $3/$6 1:396/1 | John Souvestre | FTP,VMoT | T1 | $15mo. 2:33/505 | Mario Mure | VMoT,UUE | 64k | n/c 2:254/175 | Alex Kemp | UUE | 56k | n/c 2:284/800 | Jeroen VanDeLeur | FTP,UUE | 64k | n/c 2:335/610 | Gino Lucrezi | UUE | 33.6 | n/c 2:469/84 | Max Masyutin | VMoT | 256k | n/c 2:2411/413 | Dennis Dittrich | UUE | 64k | n/c 2:2474/275 | Christian Emig | UUE | 64k | unkn 3:633/260 | Malcolm Miles | FTP | 33.6 | n/c 4:905/100 | Fabian Gervan | VMoT, UUE | ??? | n/c 5:7104/2 | Henk Wolsink | FTP | 28.8 | n/c -- * FTP = Internet File Transfer Protocol * VMoT = Virtual Mailer over Telnet (various) * UUE = uuencode<->email type transfers [I'm only cataloging transfer methods, eg, ftp, email, telnet. Specific programs using these protocols are no longer being listed. Contact the system operators for details of which programs they have available.] Compiled by C. Ingersoll, 1:2623/71, (609)814-1978, fbn@dandy.net Posted on the 1st of every month in FN_SYSOP, R13SYSOP and Fidonews. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 15-52 Page 14 28 Dec 1998 ================================================================= FIDONEWS INFORMATION ================================================================= ------- FIDONEWS MASTHEAD AND CONTACT INFORMATION ------- Editor: Henk Wolsink Editors Emeritii: Tom Jennings, Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell, Vince Perriello, Tim Pozar, Sylvia Maxwell, Donald Tees, Christopher Baker, Zorch Frezberg "FidoNews Editor" FidoNet 5:5/23 BBS +27-41-515-913, 2400/9600/V.34/V.90 more addresses: Henk Wolsink -- 5:7104/2, hwolsink@catpe.alt.za (Postal Service mailing address) FidoNews Editor P.O. Box 12325 Port Elizabeth, 6006 South Africa ------------------------------------------------------ FidoNews is 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 and/or the Editor. Authors retain copyright on individual works; otherwise FidoNews is Copyright 1998 Henk Wolsink. All rights reserved. Duplication and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes only. For use in other circumstances, please contact the original authors, or the Editor. =*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= OBTAINING COPIES: The most recent issue of FidoNews in electronic form may be obtained from the FidoNews Editor via manual download or file-request, or from various sites in the FidoNet and Internet. PRINTED COPIES may be obtained by sending SASE to the above postal address. File-request FIDONEWS for the current Issue. File-request FNEWS for the current month in one archive. Or file-request specific back Issue filenames in distribution format [FNEWSFnn.ZIP] for a particular Issue. Monthly Volumes are available as FNWSmmmy.ZIP where mmm = three letter month [JAN - DEC] and y = last digit of the current year [8], i.e., FNWSJAN8.ZIP for all the Issues from Jan 98. FIDONEWS 15-52 Page 15 28 Dec 1998 Annual volumes are available as FNEWSn.ZIP where n = the Volume number 1 - 15 for 1984 - 1998, respectively. Annual Volume archives range in size from 48K to 1.4M. INTERNET USERS: FidoNews is available via: http://www.fidonews.org http://www.fidonet.org/fidonews.htm ftp://ftp.fidonet.org/pub/fidonet/fidonews/ ftp://ftp.irvbbs.com/fidonews/ ftp://ftp.nwstar.com/Fidonet/Fidonews And in non-English formats via: http://www.hvc.ee/pats/fidonews (Estonian) http://www.fidonet.pp.se/sfnews (Swedish) *=*=* You may obtain an email subscription to FidoNews by sending email to: jbarchuk@worldnet.att.net with a Subject line of: subscribe fnews-edist and no message in the message body. To remove your name from the email distribution use a Subject line of: unsubscribe fnews-edist with no message to the same address above. * You may retrieve current and previous Issues of FidoNews via FTPMail by sending email to: ftpmail@fidonews.org with a Subject line of: help and FTPMail will immediately send a reply containing details and instructions. When you actually make a file request, FTPMail will respond in three stages. You find a link for this process on www.fidonews.org. *=*=* You can read the current FidoNews Issue in HTML format at: http://www.fidonews.org STAR SOURCE for ALL Past Issues via FTP and file-request - Available for FReq from 1:396/1 or by anonymous FTP from: ftp://ftp.sstar.com/fidonet/fnews/ Each yearly archive also contains a listing of the Table-of-Contents FIDONEWS 15-52 Page 16 28 Dec 1998 for that year's issues. The total set is currently about 13 Megs. =*=*=*= The current week's FidoNews and the FidoNews public-key are now also available almost immediately after publication on the FidoNews Editor homepage on the World Wide Web at: http://209.77.228.66/fidonews.html There are also links there to jim barchuk's HTML FidoNews source and to John Souvestre's FTP site for the archives. There is also an email link for sending in an article as message text. Drop on over. =*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= 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 Editor, or file-requestable from 5:5/23 [5:7104/2] as file "ARTSPEC.DOC". ALL Zone Coordinators should have copies of ARTSPEC.DOC. Please read it. "Fido", "FidoNet" and the dog-with-diskette are U.S. registered trademarks of Tom Jennings, P.O. Box 410923, San Francisco, CA 94141, and are used with permission. "Disagreement is actually necessary, or we'd all have to get in fights or something to amuse ourselves and create the requisite chaos." -Tom Jennings -----------------------------------------------------------------