F I D O N E W S Volume 16, Number 44 01 Nov 1999 +----------------------------+---------------------------------------+ | The newsletter of the | ISSN 1198-4589 Published by: | | FidoNet community | "FidoNews" | | _ | 1-717-732-6820 1:270/720 | | / \ | | | /|oo \ | | | (_| /_) | | | _`@/_ \ _ | | | | | \ \\ | Editor: Douglas Myers, 1:270/720 | | | (*) | \ )) | DougM@paonline.com | | |__U__| / \// | | | _//|| _\ / | | | (_/(_|(____/ | | | (jm) | Newspapers should have no friends. | | | -- JOSEPH PULITZER | +----------------------------+---------------------------------------+ Table of Contents 1. HEADLINES ................................................ 1 New Fidonews Columnist ................................... 1 2. EDITORIAL ................................................ 2 The New MODERATOR Moderator .............................. 2 3. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR .................................... 3 Zone 3 Coordinator Resigns ............................... 3 4. ARTICLES ................................................. 5 Z2C's IP node hostility .................................. 5 5. COLUMNS .................................................. 6 Ol'WDB: Engineering Design Principles .................... 6 Fidonet-related sites .................................... 6 6. NET HUMOR ................................................ 11 The Last Chocolate Chip .................................. 11 7. NOTICES .................................................. 12 Future History ........................................... 12 8. FIDONEWS INFORMATION ..................................... 13 Masthead ................................................. 13 FIDONEWS 16-44 Page 1 1 Nov 1999 ================================================================= HEADLINES ================================================================= New Fidonews Columnist Fidonews welcomes Warren D. Bonner to the Fidonews staff as a feature columnist. Warren writes under the pen name of "Ol'WDB" and specializes in history and humor. Ol'WDB revealed that he maintains a collection of "keepers," such as the articles he published last week and this, in conjunction with his work as a free-lance writer. Warren is currently working on a historical manuscript about the true high seas battles in the Atlantic Campaign of World War II. His latest book, "The Mighty `E'astwind" is due for publication soon by the U. S. Government Press. Warren is a member of Net 103 along with Joe Jared, Fidonews columnist who has done such a great job in keeping the Internet information current and accurate. Speaking of Joe, catch his column this week. He's been looking at the Fidonet sites and identified some which don't respond or don't appear to be related to Fidonet. If you operate one of these sites and are experiencing temporary difficulties, now is a good time to talk with Joe before your site is deleted. Joe has also added information about Internet Relay Chat and Newsservers. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 16-44 Page 2 1 Nov 1999 ================================================================= EDITORIAL ================================================================= The New MODERATOR Moderator Last week, even as Fidonews was being put together, Kent Anderson announced that Tom Knowles had resigned as moderator of the echo MODERATOR and named Kent to the job. Tom, presumably, had found personal issues would limit his further involvement in Fidonet... though many speculated that charges of ELIST tampering may have influenced his decision. Kent Anderson has been a moderator's moderator for some time on Fidonet. He's well known for his even approach in the echoes he moderates, and his helpfulness to other moderators in general. Already, Kent has defused most of the unrest in the MODERATOR echo brought about by Tom Knowles authoritarian style. As Tom Knowles - either the real person or the alter ego - becomes but a dim memory in Fidonet, I expect the ELIST tampering issue to fade also... unresolved. Like most unresolved issues, though, it will rise Phoenix-like from it's own ashes, at the most inconvenient times. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 16-44 Page 3 1 Nov 1999 ================================================================= LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ================================================================= Zone 3 Coordinator Resigns Many thanks to Steve Asher (3:800/432) for relaying this message from his local echomail bases: =================================================================== Area : ZONE3_SYSOP Date : Sun Oct 24, 12:43 From : David Hales 3:801/200 To : All Subj : Z3C Hi All Jackson Harding has asked me to pass on the following information due to his system having crashed. The other day his system had a fatal failure. The system is beyond immediate repair and due to work committments (possibly overseas for a few months) available time to make such repairs is in short supply. As such and the fact he can not get on line to tell you personally, he has asked me to make this post. Jackson has stated he will not be returning to the net. That he has formally resigned as Z3C as of now. He wishes all of us well and has asked me to contact the RCs (which has been done) to organise a replacement. As for the nodelist, well, if its on his machine we may be up the creek for trying to retrive it. I have put it to the RCs perhaps whoever replaces Jackson should give us a FULL list asap and we can go from there. You will no doubt be hearing from the RCs soon. In the conversations I have had with them it looks like Malcolm Miles will be a good prospect to take the caretaker role pending an election. I suggested that if everyone is happy with Malcolm that we just get on with it (forego an election). We have just had one recently and there is no point to re-invent the wheel so soon unless there is severe discontent. (sorry Malcolm, I've put you in it). This is all of course is all subject to Malcolm and the majority of RCs being in agreement. Even though Jackson can not read this I think a thank-you is in order from us here in SA and on behalf of the member boards here FIDONEWS 16-44 Page 4 1 Nov 1999 best wishes with the future. I suppose this is all that really needs to be said at this point and it will now be up to the RCs and input from the rest of us. David Hales NC801 3:801/200 email: david@gzbbs.apana.org.au -!- ! Origin: (3:801/200) =================================================================== ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 16-44 Page 5 1 Nov 1999 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= Z2C's IP node hostility By Peter Karlsson, 2:206/221.0 About a month ago, I got a netmail from the Z2C stating that my IP node, 2:206/222.0, wasn't allowed to be listed according to the specifications used in the nodelist and recently documented by the FTSC: "To make a long story very short, in Z3 '000' is the number to alert the emergency-services. Whether or not dial-translation should take care of that in the nodelist is irrelevant because there always will be buggy systems that may create havoc; when we have an opportunity to avoid potential problems we shouldn't dismiss it, therefore I support Jackson Harding (the ZC/3) in his actions." "Therefore I am now instructing you, nodes/hubs/hosts/NCs/RCs that are involved in zone-2, to deal with this issue and get rid of the '000-'-entries. You have until Nov.1 1999 to do this, after that date the '000-'-number will systematically be replaced by '-unpublished-' and a 'Pvt' inserted in front." This is utter stupidity. IP nodes are here to stay, and we have a standard of listing them that is actually supported by both mailers and nodelist compilers. Why should people that can't configure their mailers properly stop that? Oh, and if anyone wonders why I'm writing this here instead of taking it up with the Z2C, let me quote the ending paragraph in the netmail: "Anyone that doesn't agree may make himself heard but unless a loaded and cocked hotgun points to my delicate parts I am not inclined to move on this one." Oh, well. Guess I'll see in the next nodelist whether my nodelisting of 2:206/222.0 is gone or not. And if it is, well... I'm seriously considering leaving Fidonet after over five years of active participation. :-( \\// Live long and prosper, Peter Karlsson ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 16-44 Page 6 1 Nov 1999 ================================================================= COLUMNS ================================================================= Subject: Root of Modern Engineering Design Principles From: Ol'WDB The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet 8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used? Because that's the way they built them in England, and the US railroads were built by English expatriates. Why did the English build them like that? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used. Why did 'they' use that gauge then? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing. Okay! Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in England, because that's the spacing of the wheel ruts.So who built those old rutted roads? The first long distance roads in Europe (and England) were built by Imperial Rome for their legions. The roads have been used ever since. And the ruts? The initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels and wagons, were first made by Roman war chariots. Since the chariots were made for, or by Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing. Thus, we have the answer to the original question. The United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches derives from the original specification for an Imperial Roman war chariot. Specifications and bureaucracies live forever. So the next time you are handed a specification and wonder what horses ass came up with it, you may be exactly right--because the Imperial Roman war chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the back ends of two war horses. Now the twist to the story.............. There's an interesting extension to the story about railroad gauges and horses' behinds. When we see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are made by Thiokol at their factory at Utah. The engineers who designed the SRBs might have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the factory had to run through a tunnel in the mountains. The SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track is about as wide as two horses behinds. So, the major design feature of what is arguably the world's most advanced transportation system was determined by the width of a Horse' Ass! ----------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------ ! = New entries this week ? = not responding FIDONEWS 16-44 Page 7 1 Nov 1999 ?? = unknown content, doesn't look like fidonet . -- -- -- -- --- -- -- -- -- . | FIDONET-RELATED SITES | ` -- -- -- -- --- -- -- -- -- ' Last update: Oct 29, 1999 FidoNet Homepage: http://www.fidonet.org FidoNews: http://www.fidonews.org [HTML] ftp://sstar.com/fidonet/fnews/ SDS Files: http://fidobbs.dk/download (Web Access to SDS) FTSC page: http://www.ftsc.org/ General: http://owls.com/~jerrys/fidonet.html List server: http://www.onelist.com/subscribe.cgi/fidonet-discussion Zone 1: http://www.z1.fidonet.org Region 10: http://www.psnw.com/~net205/region10.html http://www.tnl-online.com/andy/rgn10.htm Net 103: http://www.webworldinc.com/club103/ Region 11: http://oeonline.com/~garyg/region11/ Net 2410: http://oeonline.com/~garyg/net2410/ Region 13: http://www.net264.org/r13.htm Net 264: http://www.net264.org/ Region 14: Net 282: http://www.rxn.com/~net282/ Region 17: http://www.nwstar.com/~region17/ Region 18: http://techshop.pdn.net/fido/ Region 19: http://members.home.net/hbh3/r19 Net 124: http://www.startext.net/np/net124 http://texoma.net/~flv Net 130: http://www.startext.net/homes/net130 Net 393: http://www.chatter.com/~wb/ Zone 1 Elist http://members.xoom.com/echolist/ Zone 2: http://www.z2.fidonet.org 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/fido/ (English/German) Region 25: http://www.literary.freeserve.co.uk/net2502/ 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://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/4552/ 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 50: http://www.fido7.com/ (Russian) Net 5010: http://fido.tu-chel.ac.ru/ (Russian) FIDONEWS 16-44 Page 8 1 Nov 1999 Net 5015: http://www.fido.nnov.ru/ (Russian) Net 5030: http://kenga.ru/fido/ (Russian & English) ?? Net 5085: http://www.fidonet.uz/ (Russian) ? Zone 3: http://www.z3.fidonet.org Zone 4: Region 80: http://fidobrasil.8m.com (Portuguese) Region 90: Net 904: http://members.tripod.com/~net904 (Spanish) Zone 5: http://www.eastcape.co.za/fidonet/ Zone 6: http://www.z6.fidonet.org Region 65: http://www.cfido.com/fidonet/cfidochina.html (Chinese) Fidonet Via Internet Hubs a @ preceding an individual's name implies a virtual email address. The email is translated as follows firstlast@osirusoft.com will automatically route to the appropriate individual's email. Anyone in this list will also receive routed notice of this feature. In my case, it would still be joejared@osirusoft.com, but you get the idea. v-email flag firstnamelastname@osirusoft.com Node# | Operator | Facilities (*) | Speed | Basic Rate -----------+-------------------+----------------+-------+------------ Zone 1 | | | | 10/3 @ Brenda Donovan | FTP,UUE,BinkP | T1? | $??/$10 12/12 | Ken Wilson | FTP | T1 | $24mo. 13/25 @ Jim Balcom | FTP | 56k | $20mo. 103/301 @ Joe Jared | BinkP | aDSL | n/c 105/8 | Russ Johnson | FTP,BinkP,VMoT | 384k | n/c 105/72 @ Larry James | FTP | aDSL | $5/$15 mo. 106/1 @ Matt Bedynek | BinkP, FTP | 128k | n/c 106/6018 | Lawrence Garvin | FTP, VMoT | 64k | $5/mo 140/1 @ Bob Seaborn | FTP | T3 | $5/$16 167/133 | Stephen Monteith | BinkP | 128k+ | n/c 211/417 @ Korombos | BinkD,UUE,FTP | T1 | n/c 246/160 @ Mason Vye | FTP, UUE | 56K | n/c 270/101 @ George Peace | FTP | 6mbps | $20mo. 271/140 | Tom Barstow | UUE | T1 | n/c 280/169 | Brian Greenstreet | FTP | 33.6 | $2mo. 342/3 | Richard Dodsworth | BinkP,FTP | 128K+ | n/c 345/0 @ Todd Cochrane | FTP | T1 | n/c 396/1 @ John Souvestre | FTP,VMoT | T1 | $10/mo 396/45 | Marc Lewis | UUE | 33.6 | $26/yr 2401/305 | Peter Rocca | FTP,UUE | T1 | unkn 2424/101 | Kari Suomela | FTP,VMoT,BinkP,UUE| T1 | n/c 2604/104 | Jim Mclaughlin | FTP,VMoT,UUE | 33.6 | $1mo 3613/1275 @ Jack Yates | UUE | 28.8 | n/c 2613/404 @ David Moufarrege | BinkP,FTP,VMoT | 128k+ | n/c 2624/306 @ D. Calafrancesco | VMoT | 33.6 | n/c FIDONEWS 16-44 Page 9 1 Nov 1999 3632/84 | Robert Todd |FTP,VMoT,UUE,BinkP | 57.6k | n/c 3639/93 @ Ross Cassell | FTP, BinkP | 128K+ | n/c 3651/9 | Jerry Gause | FTP,VMoT | 33.6 | $3/$6 3803/1 @ Ben Ritchey | UUE | 56k | n/c -------------------------------------------------------------- Zone 2 | 20/11 | Henrik Lindhe | BinkP | ??? | n/c 31/1 | Gabriel Plutzar | BinkP | T1+ | n/c 203/600 | Mikael Karlsson | UUE | 64k | n/c 221/360 @ Tommi Koivula | BinkP,UUE | ??? | n/c 236/205 @ Michael Kaaber | BinkP | ??? | n/c 246/2098 | Volker Imre | BinkP | ??? | n/c 284/800 | Jeroen VanDeLeur | FTP,UUE | 64k | n/c 292/626 | Filip Ruymen | Binkp, UUE | 128K+ | n/c 292/2003 | Eric Vaneberck | BinkP | 768k | n/c 301/1 | Peter Witschi | BinkP | ??? | n/c 332/807 | Roberto Mascolo | BinkP | ??? | n/c 335/535 @ Mario Mure | BinkP,VMot,UUE | 64k | n/c 335/610 | Gino Lucrezi | UUE | 33.6 | n/c 344/201 | Julio Garcia | BinkP | ??? | n/c 346/3 @ Carlos Navarro | UUE | ??? | n/c 382/100 | Sinisa Burina | BinkP | ??? | n/c 406/555 | Marius Kaizerman | BinkP | ??? | n/c 406/555 | Ofir Michaeli & | BinkP | ??? | n/c 423/81 | Milos Bajer | BinkP | ??? | n/c 464/4077 | Serguei Trouchelle| UUE | 19.2 | n/c 465/204 | Va Milushnikov | BinkP | 33.6k | n/c 469/84 | Max Masyutin | VMoT | 256k | n/c 480/112 | Adam Sarapata| FTP, VMoT, UUE,BinkP| 128k | n/c 2411/413 @ Dennis Dittrich | UUE,BinkP | 64k | n/c 2446/301 | Lothar Behet | BinkP,VMoT,UUE,FTP | 64K | n/c 2474/275 | Christian Emig | UUE | 64k | unkn 5030/115 | Andrey Podkolzin | BinkP | ??? | n/c 5100/8 | Egons Bush | BinkP | ??? | n/c 5020/1159 | Gennady Kudryashoff | UUE | 33.6 | n/c -------------------------------------------------------------- Zone 3 633/260 @ Malcolm Miles | FTP,BinkP | 64K | n/c 640/954 | Rick Van Ruth | FTP,VMot,UUE,BinkP| 56K| n/c 774/605 @ Barry Blackford|BinkP,VMoT:10023,ifcico,FTP |33.6| n/c -------------------------------------------------------------- Zone 4 905/100 | Fabian Gervan | VMoT,UUE,BinkP | 128k | n/c 902/18 | Javier Tejedor | UUE | 33,6 | n/c -- * FTP = Internet File Transfer Protocol * VMoT = Virtual Mailer over Telnet (various) * UUE = uuencode<->email type transfers * BinkP = front end mailer for TCPIP networks ---------------------------------------------- Fidonet oriented news servers FIDONEWS 16-44 Page 10 1 Nov 1999 news.osirusoft.com (US west coast) agnese.fidoitalia.net (Italy) Fidonet oriented chat rooms. room #fidonet 5PM (PDT 10AM GMT) Sundays irc.isonline.com irc.killaz-r-us.com irc.korombos.org ---------------------------------------------- Please send updates, corrections and suggestions to Joe Jared, 1:103/301, joejared@osirusoft.com, and complaints to jarhead@osirusoft.com . ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 16-44 Page 11 1 Nov 1999 ================================================================= NET HUMOR ================================================================= The Last Chocolate Chip Thanks to Roy Reed rcreedv@juno.com An elderly man lay dying in his bed. In death's agony, he suddenly smelled the aroma of his favorite chocolate chip cookies wafting up the stairs. He gathered his remaining strength, and lifted himself from the bed. Leaning against the wall, he slowly made his way out of the bedroom, and with even greater effort forced himself down the stairs, gripping the railing with both hands, he crawled downstairs. With labored breath, he leaned against the door-frame, gazing into the kitchen. Were it not for death's agony, he would have thought himself already in heaven: there, spread out upon waxed paper on the kitchen table were literally hundreds of his favorite chocolate chip cookies. Was it heaven? Or was it one final act of heroic love from his devoted wife, seeing to it that he left this world a happy man? Mustering one great final effort, he threw himself toward the table, landing on his knees in a rumpled posture. His parched lips parted: the wondrous taste of the cookie was already in his mouth, seemingly bringing him back to life. The aged and withered hand trembled on its way to a cookie at the edge of the table, when it was suddenly smacked with a spatula by his wife. "Stay out of those," she said, "they're for the funeral." ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 16-44 Page 12 1 Nov 1999 ================================================================= NOTICES ================================================================= Future History 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 16-44 Page 13 1 Nov 1999 ================================================================= FIDONEWS INFORMATION ================================================================= FIDONEWS MASTHEAD Fidonews Staff: Editor: Douglas Myers, 1:270/720, DougM@paonline.com Webmaster: Jim Barchuk, jb@fidonews.org Columnist: Joe Jared, 1:103/0, jarhead@osirusoft.com (Fido Via Internet Hubs column) Columnist: Warren D. Bonner, 1:103/401, wdbonner@pacbell.net (Warren uses the pen name "Ol'WDB") Editors Emeriti: Tom Jennings, Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell, Vince Perriello, Tim Pozar, Sylvia Maxwell, Donald Tees, Christopher Baker, Zorch Frezberg, Henk Wolsink ------------------------------------------------------ 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 (C) 1999 Douglas Myers. 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 by file-request, or from various sites in FidoNet and the Internet. STAR SOURCE for all past issues: 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 for that year's issues. The total set is currently about 13 Megs. INTERNET USERS: FidoNews is available via: http://www.fidonews.org ftp://ftp.irvbbs.com/fidonews/ ftp://ftp.nwstar.com/Fidonet/Fidonews And in non-English formats via: FIDONEWS 16-44 Page 14 1 Nov 1999 http://www.fidonet.pp.se/sfnews (Swedish) *=*=* You may obtain an email subscription to FidoNews by sending an email as shown: ======== To: majordomo@fidonews.org Subject: help lists end ======== A return message will explain the details of three possible distribution list formats. * You may retrieve current and previous Issues of FidoNews via FTPMail by sending email to: ftpmail@fidonews.org with a Subject line of: help 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 http://www.fidonews.org/ftpmail/. *=*=* You can read the current FidoNews Issue in HTML format at: http://www.fidonews.org and http://www.fidonet.dynip.com/public/fidonews/default.htm and in the FIDONEWS echo. =*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= SUBMISSIONS: You are encouraged to submit articles for publication in FidoNews. In general, send your articles in ASCII (text) format via netmail or email to the addresses listed above for the editor. The exact article submission requirements for the Fidonews software are contained in the file ARTSPEC.DOC, available from most Fidonet hubs. However, you should concentrate on what you wish to say, as the editor will normally take care of the technical requirements. "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. FIDONEWS 16-44 Page 15 1 Nov 1999 "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 -----------------------------------------------------------------