F I D O N E W S -- Vol.11 No.30 (25-Jul-1994) +----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+ | A newsletter of the | ISSN 1198-4589 Published by: | | FidoNet BBS community | "FidoNews" BBS | | _ | +1-519-570-4176 | | / \ | | | /|oo \ | Small animal psychology and | | (_| /_) | Spiritual guidance Department: | | _`@/_ \ _ | Rev. Richard Visage 1:163/150 | | | | \ \\ | | | | (*) | \ )) | Editors: | | |__U__| / \// | Donald Tees 1:221/192 | | _//|| _\ / | Sylvia Maxwell 1:221/194 | | (_/(_|(____/ | Tim Pozar | | (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 (not-now and always will be IC) Pozar -- pozar@kumr.lns.com | | | | submissions=> 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 Subject: SCUMREP.ART........................................ 3 Going on Vacation and Putting A BBS on Autopilot............ 4 Access/Freedom for the People...Spread the word!............ 5 Grassroots Politics: Online and Organized................... 6 On Electronic Frontier Organizations........................ 8 Cryptography and Digital Signatures......................... 10 More thoughts on recent articles............................ 12 Dear mad Emilia............................................. 13 centrefold.................................................. 14 K-12 Student Records: Privacy at Risk....................... 15 Complaint about the language using in FidoNet............... 18 A reply to 'Politiking for politics sake'.................. 19 RC25, and recent submission to FidoNews..................... 21 Mail to you from Paul Dickie................................ 26 BBS-PR16.ZIP Released....................................... 28 Fido Crucifiction........................................... 28 Hi Sylvia,.................................................. 29 Hate Speech is not Free Speech.............................. 30 FidoNews 11-30 Page: 2 25 Jul 1994 Re: The Fido Crucifixion, FidoNews 11-29.................... 31 3. Fidonews Information.......................................... 32 ======================================================================== Editorial ======================================================================== hi. it's _really_ hard to write this editorial this week because i have to tell you all this stuff, while there's music downstairs the moon is full and i went through this period last week blaaa so now all i want to do is DANCE! i gotta go dance around the living room to some music extremely soon. Not that what there is to say seriously isn't important, it is very important, but there's always more. More to do, more to hear, more to think... Consciousness twitting bomb-drop Eeek: the article published last week under Steve Winter's name was not written by him. Sure, it came in via net mail with path lines which made sense, but there was no pgp sig on it etc., so there's acatually no "proof" either way if he wrote it or he didn't. But i believe Steve Winters did not write the article which was published last week under his name, although i did not know this last week. So there's major problems. The article begged criticism, and it received some, but the criticism was directed at Steve Winter rather than the author of the article. Will the real writer please stand up? Aplologies are heartfully intended towards readers, Steve, and writers of intelligent criticism who spent their valuable time responding to a scam. Between starting to write this and now, something even more important and joyful than danceing happened. Holly, who became 9 years old this month, loggged on to this BBS from this terminal for the very first time! She liked it a lot, she told me. ======================================================================== Articles ======================================================================== FidoNews 11-30 Page: 3 25 Jul 1994 Subject: SCUMREP.ART Steve Winter (1:18/98) The recent article in the Snooze FIDO1129.NWS was not authored or authorized by me. Attached please find the article that I DID submit, but that you failed to publish. I suggest that you check your logs to find out who is impersonating me (and do publish your findings). I have never advocated illegal behaviour in FidoNet. For your information, there are BBS's who are members of the PRIME who are in no way are "christian" or even claim the title. As long as a BBS is simply willing to allow the truth on their BBS and abide by the PRIME rules while on the PRIME echos, they are accepted as members. So, I really don't think I would advocate vandalism against folks that were nice enough to join my network, eh? You really blew it this time. You censored my real submission and then published a counterfeit. I wonder if it's time for a session password.... Steve **************************************************************** Area Netmail, Msg#127, Jul-18-94 20:04:12 From: Donald Tees (1:221/192) To: Steve Winter (1:18/98) Subject: SCUMREP.ART The article came in routed, from the same node as this one (the prime network zonegate). It could have originated anywhere in the prime network. I will publish the note from you, denying authorship of the article, in the next issue, along with an apology. It will be the first article following the editorial. As to Scumrep.art, I will publish any article by you replying, that is pertainent to Fido. I will not publish 2 pages of biblical quotations. ******************************************************************** Area Netmail, Msg#136, Jul-19-94 09:21:42 From: Steve Winter (1:18/98) To: Donald Tees (1:221/192) Subject: SCUMREP.ART On , Donald Tees of 1:221/192 spake thusly to Steve Winter: DT> The article came in routed, from the same node as this one DT> (the prime network zonegate). It could have originated anywhere DT> in the prime network. FidoNews 11-30 Page: 4 25 Jul 1994 It did NOT originate within the PRIME network or it would have been routed through here. DT> I will publish the note from you, denying authorship of the DT> article, in the next issue, along with an apology. It will be DT> the first article following the editorial. DT> DT> As to Scumrep.art, I will publish any article by you replying, DT> that is pertainent to Fido. I will not publish 2 pages of DT> biblical quotations. You sure are some kind of trash!! You'll publish all kinds of non-FidoNet related sewage, but then censor Bible verses. You are hypocritical, low life, SCUM!!! Your hypocracy really stinks! Should you censor my article because of Bible verses, I will do my best to let as many people as I can know about your biased censorship. Regards, Steve ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Going on Vacation and Putting A BBS on Autopilot By: Quentin Lewis Going on Vacation and Putting the BBS on Autopilot My family and I are now on vacation in Virgina and Pennsylvania, and my BBS is going it alone back at home in NH. How could I leave my almost two year old "baby" at home alone? No, no...not a child, my BBS! Well, some people have friends that come over to feed their animals, and check on their BBS, but I had no one local to do that. It's not that the BBS is unreliable...It generally runs without incident, but lately, I have had modem lockup problems with other 28.8K modems and although though this is infrequent, I was worried that it would bring my BBS down while I was away. I had to find a way to put my mind at ease. My solution was an X-10 power controller, and an X-10 timer. I set my controller to turn the power off to my BBS once a day in the early morning hours, and turn it back on in after a minute. This effectively gives it a power-on reset every morning, and should it have been in a hung state, would clear that right up. (I also toggle power to the modem) If you are not familiar with X-10 devices, they are generally marketed for what is called "home automation". They are most frequently used to control lights, alarms, and other motors/appliences. The controllers FidoNews 11-30 Page: 5 25 Jul 1994 range from the simple several channel timers up to very fancy two way communicating CPU based computers that hook up to your PC and can be programmed! You plug the device to be controlled into a small power controller that plugs between the cord and the wall outlet. The actual timer/controller can sit anywhere in the house because it sends it's on/off/dim commands to the power contoller through the powerlines in your house! There are NO external wires as the X-10 devices communicate and get power from the power line! These devices can be used for all sorts of control/projects, and they can be purchased at a number of places. Radio Shack carries them under a "house name", and they can be bought at varous hardware stores and department stores under the Stanley or X-10 name. You can also buy them mail order through several "home control" catalog vendors. All these devices are actually made by the same company, and will interoperate with each other. So if you have to leave your BBS unattended and want to make sure it doesn't hang, or if you have other "home control" projects, you might want to read up on these controllers. Send me a netmail at 1:132/202 asking for more info, and I can probably tell you more and give you some other sources. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Access/Freedom for the People...Spread the word! By: Quentin Lewis, SYSOP 1:132/202 Online: Equality and Freedom as well as Communication As I sit here in my hotel room in Colonial Williamsburg, Va., I think of some of the great people from the origional 13 colonies that shaped our great country. I find it interesting to think of the slow and steady course our great country (the United States of America) has been steadily making toward the vision of freedom that is written in our great Constitution and Bill of Rights. As I have gone around Williamsburg this week, I have noted that although people in Revolutionary times thought their success in breaking away from England and creation of the USA was a great move toward freedom (and it was) there were some pretty large "shackles" holding many people back. The first was of course slavery, and this is what people always think of first...but there was also a great "class system" that we still have today. Oh yes, it certainly has gotten alot better than it was then, and if you think about it, our society has gotten alot more free with regard to sex, color, race, religion, and disability. It's not perfect....but it has gotten ALOT better! (Ok...well at this point I am probably losing you.....your wondering what any of this has to do with the title) FidoNews 11-30 Page: 6 25 Jul 1994 Quite simply, FidoNET, and all of the other online communicaitons medium offer freedom and open comunications for most everyone....we send our ideas out on the world and they are generally viewed without the bias of color, race, religion, or wealth/class. Similar to a letter to the editor, our ideas can be sent out to a more "global" audience for comment or enlightenment. Just think, online communications is just starting to be used. Ok, so everyone understands and wants this freedom...both in Fidonet, and in their lives. So, whats's the problem? In a single word...access! Yes, because of its size it can be said that "The sun never sets on Fidonet", there are still many people who have no idea of where to even begin to get online. Ok, Fidonet certainly isn't the ONLY place in the online world, but it is probably the most distributed online village that is run by "an average crossection" of the world. Given the "hobbiest" nature of the network, it is generally low cost to access for the user and SYSOP alike. So what can we do about this....evangilize BBS systems, and Fidonet! That's right....introduce not only your friends, but talk about it to schools and librarys. Whip up some info on it and bring it to them and try and get them "into" it. Don't forget to mention that fidonet is the first step onto the "Information Superhighway". If you belong to, or volunteer your time to a group, show them how they can use a BBS for communications. If the group is widely distributed (like across the state or country), show them how valuable it might be to have email or an ECHO set-up. Would it not be great to have a Fidonet BBS in every school in America....perhaps pulling in the K-12 ECHOS, and connecting kids from the biggest cities with those in the most remote farm areas. This wo uld truely be "the great equalizer", bringing people from many different geographic and socioeconomic areas of society together. Spread the word.....the 21st century is almost here, and society is ready to join us to "play" in our online sandbox. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Grassroots Politics: Online and Organized By: Quentin Lewis, SYSOP: 1:132/202 BBS Systems are Grassroots....Let's do some good with them! Have you ever heard people talking about "grassroots" politics? Have you ever thought about that that might mean? Have you ever thought about how Fidonet itself is a "grassroots" effort? FidoNews 11-30 Page: 7 25 Jul 1994 Think about it...tens of thousands of BBS systems that get together to form a sort of online society to pass information and further communications among those in the hobby. It would seem that Fidonet is the definition of grassroots. So how does Politics come into this...well, because I added it to the mix. The USA is supposed to be a country that is supposed to be governed "By the People, For the People"....yet many believe that alot of the legislation is forwared and paid for by well funded special interests. How is the average citizen going to have their say? Well, we must first reolize that politicians really do respect our vote...it is the ultimate power we have over them. Many of them get away with not listening to the will of the people because many people don't have a clue as to what they had done, and if they do, they are probably not informed enough on some issues to know which way they would have wanted their elected servant to have voted. So how do average people "get involved"? How about connecting people from all around the country with BBS systems, and ECHOS? That's right, and ECHO is a great way to foster the three types of communications....."Top-down", "bottom-up", and "peer to peer". Top-down communications come in the form of press release sort of info. Perhaps facts about up and coming votes, or voting records on just past votes. These are the facts that people can debate and use to get better informed on the issues. The WHITEHOUSE Echo is an example. Bottom-up communications are those that come from the "grassroots" up to any sort of leadership that might be organizing the effort. If the organization is truely "grassroots", this communication is vital to set direction for the effort. Peer-to-peer communications is probably the most critical to a grassroots effort. This consists of member-to-member discussion and enlightenment on the issues. This can take the form of debate and disagreement, but it is always vital because it brings together thoughts ad discussion between people with differnent viewpoint... indeed, often different geographic areas and conserns. This sort of "peer-to-peer" discussion should help these people better understand each others points because they can fully discuss them. Does any of this work....well, there is the example of the UWSA ECHO where a number of SYSOPS and USERS who may or may not be members of United We Stand America got together and decided to try and interconnect as many of the 50 state organizations together as could be linked by BBS. The effort started out in the old PEROT ECHO, and then when things got moving, the ECHO name was changed to UWSA. This effort was not sponsored by the UWSA national HQ, but seems to have it's blessing...and at this point, there are BBS systems in about 35 states connected. FidoNews 11-30 Page: 8 25 Jul 1994 It's true that there are only several of those states that have actually involved the UWSA state organization in the effort, but there certainly are a number of UWSA members "passing the info", and isn't that the definition of "grassroots" anyways?! So if your interested in our effort, take a look at the UWSA ECHO, or that isn't your cup of tea, you can check out the ELIST, or some of the other networks. There are Libertarian, Democrat, Republican, Pro-Gun, Pro-Life, Pro-Choice, Pro-Limbaugh, and anti-Limbaugh ECHO....in fact there are more more topics than you can imagine. Get your group online....whether politically driven or otherwise.. BBS systems and networks can be great tools for "grassroots" organizations....so get online and organized! Fidonet is the definition of grassroots anyway.....isn't it? (If you are interested several of my other proposals/writings on this subject, you can FREQ ORGANIZED.ZIP, PROPOSAL.ZIP, and/or PROPOSA2.ZIP from 1:132/202) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- On Electronic Frontier Organizations Stanton McCandlish, EFF Online Activist/SysOp mech@eff.org -- 1:109/1108 In FidoNews 11.24, the collective Editor says: >What is the difference between "place" and "space"? It's wonderful >to see EFF-type organizations sproinging up with enthusiasm. It >bothers me a bit that they are arranged according to countries. I >guess it makes sense to organize legal-aid stuff by country, because >particular beaurocratic/political situations will have problems >requiring local resources, This is indeed the case. EFF would probably like nothing better than to be able to be of direct legal assistance to non-US citizens, but we cannot. It is difficult enough to do this job even for one country, with 5 lawyers on staff, and a paralegal to boot. We'd need a team of thousands to cover all countries' laws. And that doesn't even begin to get into politics and legislation. >but... I hope the limitations of >boundaries are not imposed upon the net out of historical habits. > >Occasionally habits are useful, but if they are not continually >reviewed and revised to jive with changing reality, they turn into >rules, which is boring. Agreed wholeheartedly. However, I think more often than not the problems, besides legal/bureaucratic ones, stem mainly from national, cultural and linguistic barriers, which though eroding in these days of international FidoNews 11-30 Page: 9 25 Jul 1994 media and communication, are still strong, and important to many. One can argue whether or not nationalism and cultural pride are strengths to preserve, or weaknesses to avoid, but whatever the answer, they are strong feelings for most people. >Sure, people can think in terms of borders if they want to, but not >everyone should *have* to. Also, borders, do not have to be based >upon history. They could be based upon science fiction, or >anything at all, if they have to exist. Agreed again, and I think that networking is likely to play a large role in redefining our boundaries. Right now, however, the only practical way to go about online activism is regionally, and I've been working with the founders of various local and national groups to help get them going and to put them in touch with likeminded people. There's a strong feeling of solidarity among the "EF-groups", and we look to the day when enough critical mass is reached that the efforts can be more closely allied. I liken this process to the genesis of the Internet - one idea, many independent nodes in a non-heirachical network. It's the process of forming a community, rather than a single organization. In time the individual pieces may come together in a synergistic whole greater than the sum of it's parts. But due to the number of differing jurisdiction, each local organization needs to fill a role for the online community in it's own area; these resources cannot be generated by a hierarchical single -base group, but they can be pooled over time, to build a sort of meta-organization. To that end, I'll be making some alterations to the eff-activists mailing list [NB: a "mailing list" is the Internet equivalent, roughly, of a BBS- network echo, or a Usenet newsgroup], and it will become ef-activists, with international participation between (I anticipate) members of EFF, CPSR, SEA, EF-Canada, EFF-Austin, EF-Houston, EF-Norway, EF-Ireland, CommUnity, EF-Australia, and more. To date the list has served as a good place to pass on items of relevance to online activists (e.g. press releases, legislative texts, action alerts, etc.), but has yet to become all it can be. In time I hope to cross-gate this to Fido and other BBS networks, along with several other relevant conferences, such as comp.org.eff.news. As it is, however, I've come up against problems like dupe loops and such which can be caused by incautious cross-gating, and would like some advice on this matter from someone(s) experienced with cross-gating between Usenet/Internet and Fido, and between Fido and OtherNets, so all goes smoothly. Then we can get all of these disparate and insular virtual communities together for some serious activism. For those unaware of what EFF does, the Electronic Frontier Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization devoted to civil liberties in cyberspace. We offer legal information for sysops and users, have supported courtroom cases (such as the by-now-legendary Steve Jackson Games v. US Secret Service case), and engage in direct policywork with the Administration and Congress to work toward open access to information infrastructure (the "data super- highway"), to get wider and more affordable deployment of ISDN, to head off privacy-threatening maneuvers like the FBI's draft Digital Telephony "Wire- tap Bill", and the NSA Escrowed Encryption Standard (the Clipper Chip, as FidoNews 11-30 Page: 10 25 Jul 1994 many of you may recall from previous articles.) These are all important issues, and all of them will be affecting you (even those of you that live in other countries - the FBI is already attempting to get Russia to deploy it's own DigTel-style surveillance system, and the White House has been pressuring many European and other governments to adopt the Clipper system.) The time's come for all of us to get involved, and to get organized. The opposition on these issues, ranging from telco monopolists to Executive Branch agenices, have a headstart and vast resources. The wild and wooley days when the online world was a well-kept secret are drawing to a close, and if we wish to preserve it's better aspects, we'll need to cooperate, and to present a strong, united voice. For more info on EFF, our mission, membership in the organization, and details about our mailing lists, you can send any message (e.g. via UUCP gate) to info@eff.org in the Internet, or call our BBS, Outpost, at +1 202 638 6120 (300-14000bps, V32b, V42b; 8N1) or +1 202 638 6119 (300-14400bps, V32b, V42b; 16800 ZyX; 8N1). The BBS is free and up continuously except for mail hour. >I still haven't heard any more about nodes disappearing in Italy, >despite trying to find information. This makes me curious. I'll forward what I have on it, and you might find some of it FidoNewsworthy. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Cryptography and Digital Signatures A Short Clarification Stanton McCandlish - Electronic Frontier Foundation Online Activist/SysOp mech@eff.org - 1:109/1108 - Outpost +1 202 638 6119, +1 202 638 6120 In article "Fido Newsletter Content" in FNews 11.27, Neil Lauritsen (1:3603/120), like many others, expresses opposition to the use of encryption and digital signatures in FidoNet. I won't broach the subjects of censorship (the main topic of Neil's article), or of legal liabilities and why you should allow cryptography [the interested should read the sci.crypt FAQ which is available from most BBSs including ours, then read the ECPA law and associated commentary available from our BBS, and mentally correlate these pieces of information with eachother. See also legal articles by Mike Riddle in previous issues of FidoNews], as these are very large topics which I probably cannot clarify adequately in so short a space. I'll just focus on the common confusion about what digital signatures are. >Dear Ed..I agree [about the perceived need to censor FidoNews] >and I run an Adult Oriented BBS. I also strongly object to encripted >passages or signatures as also appeared in this issue. I do have a right >to refuse to forward to distribute materials which are encripted (and I >am a Net Host) as you also have the right to refuse to accept articles >with unacceptable language as part of your FIDO news. Freedom of speech >cannot be used as an argument to condone these violations of our trust >in the editor. [...] >Neil - NC3603 FidoNews 11-30 Page: 11 25 Jul 1994 [...] >Dear Editor, Please do not forward for distribution to my net any >articles which contain any form of encription either in the text or in >the signature. Nor any articles containing language which you would >not use in your own house of worship. Ignoring for now the well-known fact that FNews editors exercise little if any editorial control, and the issue of what is or is not appropriate language, let's get to the heart of the matter. Neil appears to conflate encryption and digital signatures, as if they were the same thing. They are not. 1) Encryption is the protection of information from anyone other than the intended recipient(s) by encoding it via a mathematical process such that a "key" is required for decoding, a key possessed (unless something has gone wrong) only by the intended recipient(s). In short, for the purposes of FidoNet, encryption is the process of making the content of a message private. [Note: Again, I'm not going to go into any pro or con on this issue, and will not respond to flames on this topic. It'll come up again eventually as it always does, but right now let's stick to signatures.] 2) Digital signatures are a by-product of cryptography. They use the mathematical processes of encryption - the application of cryptographic algorithms to data - to produce an ideally unforgeable "signature". Provided the algorithm is strong, the signature serves as a unique and trustable identifier, and can be used to prove that, yes, this person or that did in fact write and send this or that message. The salient points here are: A) Digital signatures do something close to the opposite of what many perceive cryptography (often wrongly) to be designed for - rather than hide information or serve to protect someone, they carve information in virtual stone, and securely identify someone [Note: This is an oversimplification, as encryption can be used for many purposes, including the protection of passwords, transactional security, and confidentiality of records, while digisigs can be used to protect persons and their assets in numerous ways, not least of which are making it more difficult to perpetrate forgery, and ensuring that a recipient of a message is certain that they are in communication with who they think they are and do not reveal privileged information.] B) Digital signatures are *NOT* "secret messages". They do not encode any human-readable text, and are similar to CRCs and checksums. They consist of binary data used by a program for verification purposes. Again, digital signatures are not encrypted mail, in any way shape or form, and attempting to censor the flow of mail on such a mistaken basis is no more logical than banning all *.MSG mail because it does in fact contain encoded binary data in the headers, such as the seen-by information. Or perhaps we should ban the use of archiving, since ZIP, ARC, and other formats use checksums to validate the integrity of the compressed files? The only difference is the use of certain type of mathematical algorithm in digisigs, and they are visible in the text of the message, and readily identified with their own header. Not only are digital signatures easily distinguised from encrypted messages by their headers, it is trivial to scientifically prove that they are not hidden messages by running them through a copy of the program that created FidoNews 11-30 Page: 12 25 Jul 1994 them (in most cases PGP, though others, such as TISPEM and RIPEM are in use.) Any copy of PGP will recognize any PGP signature mathematically as a signature, not as an encrypted message. You can't lie to it, and it can't lie to you. Not without breaking the mathematical laws of the universe, at any rate, and I don't think any of us have seen [the] God[s] online any time lately. If you are paranoid and suspect your PGP has been tampered with, the source code, like the binaries, is available widely as freeware for your examination. Casting aside any misapprehensions then, it should be clear that if you are obligated to pass on mail from other systems by FidoNet policy, this includes mail bearing digital signatures (indeed you should feel safer doing so than passing on messages without them, since in the event of being held liable for this, that or the other, you'll have definitive proof of the source), even if not required to carry encrypted messages. The only other serious objection to digital signatures I've yet to see is the issue of wasted bandwidth. Most of you can probably see through this one, but just in case it sounds persuasive, consider that by this reasoning, we'd also have to ban all use of taglines and origin lines, quoting, and posting messages that are not of informative value to the majority of readers, as "wasted bandwidth." The fact is, digital signatures are small, and infrequently used, and do not contribute to any significant degree to the amount of traffic. And to many they are in fact informative and useful. One final point to consider. The US government has, as a sidelight to it's "Clipper" chip, proposed it's own Digital Signature Standard, and is already making noises that its use may become mandatory for certain applications. You may not use digisigs now, but in the very near future this technology will be built into a great number of hard- and software applications. The more senseless opposition there is to private-sector digital signatures and encryption, the more likely it is that we'll be forced to use digital signature, crypto, and communications technology devised by the NSA and FBI. As anyone following the Clipper and Digital Telephony debates knows only too well, these agencies are far less concerned about your security or privacy that they are about protecting their own abilities to monitor you at their convenience. Note of course that the above applies to US law. The situation may or may not be analogous in other countries. In any case this is not to be construed as legal or professional advice or service of any sort. If you have serious legal questions about this matter you should contact an attorney in your area who is knowledgeable regarding the apropos privacy, communications and computer law. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- More thoughts on recent articles by Shawn McMahon, 1:19/34 smcmahon@infomail.com Thoughts on events in recent issues -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- FidoNews 11-30 Page: 13 25 Jul 1994 (This one is to Wing Kin Chan, but I'm sending it here because it's time to remind everybody again.) If you can't use Chinese in a local echo, there's a simple solution, Chan. Start your own echo. Give it an echotitle that is transliterated Chinese. Give it an elisting with the header info in English, and the description in transliterated Chinese. Give it a rule that all messages must be in Chinese, or contain Chinese translation. Write an advertisement for it, entirely in Chinese, and submit it to Fidonews. It's only a local echo, so you shouldn't have any trouble getting distribution started, *IF* there are others who desire such an echo. The echoes of which you complain belong to their respective moderators; nobody's forcing you to carry them, and if they are then you have a seperate issue about which to complain. Make your own echoes if you don't want to play by their rules. One last thought: Is there any truth to the rumor that Steve Winter's therapist said he had a messiah complex, but Steve forgave him? -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6 iQCVAgUBLiuucObJC2KuabptAQHgCwP7B4ctrw92qG4gHm6poMMtJPKamQU/OLXO SFqx5pqt3FXTtaDnUUTo2HwYQzSQRkb6tYQ5rws8tGM6fpPPaA3NMWzngb33i6w7 sGpv7V9tPjkK06vYdxPkavrXalVv8UELWCQRGyQ4C3DRooZlSJDA94JK/grKDLMJ 56T3cxDnUbM= =xpMT -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear mad Emilia Q: Why are you mad? A: Sometimes I'm not, sometimes i am. I spend so much reading and writing electronically that to listen and speak with a screen and a keyboard feels more natural than picking up a telephone or meeting face-to-faces. Something has happened to the way I experience misself and others because of this. Q: What? A: Everything is faster, less stable, at best more generative than before. I do not feel comfortable defining what I think, as a static statement. I can only state what i am thinking at this FidoNews 11-30 Page: 14 25 Jul 1994 particular moment. A: So what? This sounds like going to school. Q: Yes, but in school, there are tests and grades and classes, which are defined for me by others. Electronically, I have to chose which information I want to know, and I have to look for it, and I learn what I want to chose while looking, and...and...it's all personalized and tangential and would never fit on a pre-written curriculum. Everyone is at once a teacher and a student. Electronic communication is mind-to-mind like paper letters, but really fast and totally open. Statements making me think catch my interest. Rather than evaluating statements by comparing them to what I already know and deciding whether or not they "fit", I just feel like adding to the image base in my head by considering them. A: How can you have any definition of right or wrong or any system of valueing if you consider rather than evaluate statements! You are becoming monstrous! Q: Attention is valuable. Statements which cause thought, which is the process of giving attention, are valuable. Ideas about right and wrong don't work any more. A: Then you are prommoting shock value! What good is this? And how can you BE or DO without a guiding sense of right and worng! Q: Shock cannot be prommoted. Attention is granted when interest is offered. Everyone decides for themselves how they will give attention or not. And I did not say I had no "sense" of right and wrong, I said I had no definition of those things. Without eliminating huge chunks of my image base, it is impossible to define "right" and "wrong"... so I rely on emotions instead of logic when trying to figure out how to treat beings. Q: I do not want to delete any part of my image base, because i'm trying to make it bigger. why?? A: I do not want to delete any part of my image base, because i'm trying to make it bigger. why?? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- centrefold By Madam Emelia .................................................................... .................................................................... .................................................................... .................................................................... .................................................................... ...........................||||||||||||||||||||||................... .......!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!..|......................................... ........... ....||..... /####\ .......................... ......... ___O___ ..||.. ##O#### ...................... .......... ~~~~~~~~ ...||.... ____________ ........................ ..........,,,,,,,,,,....||.....""""""""""".......................... ....................||................................ ...................||............................... ...................|||||....................... ................|O..O|...................... ............/..\...../\................ ........-/.......\/....\......... .......\.... ...../_..... .......\... ...../...... .......\...../...... .......\/....... .....~...... ........ ...................o..................o............................. ....................o................o.............................. ......................o...........o................................. .........................o.....o............................ ....... ....... ....................o............................... ....... ....... ............................... ............. ....... ....... ...... ................. ......... ....... ....... .... * ........... * ....... ....... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Seattle CPSR Policy Fact Sheet K-12 Student Records: Privacy at Risk From: tomj@wps.com (Tom Jennings) From: "D. V. Henkel-Wallace" TOPIC The U.S. education system is rapidly building a nationwide network of electronic student records. This computer network will make possible the exchange of information among various agencies and employers, and the continuous tracking of individuals through the social service, education and criminal justice systems, into higher education, the military and the workplace. WHAT IS THE ISSUE? There is no adequate guarantee that the collection and sharing of personal information will be done only with the knowledge and consent of students or their parents. Changes Are Coming to Student Records National proposals being implemented today include: - An electronic "portfolio" to be kept on each student, containing personal essays and other completed work. - Asking enrolling kindergartners for their Social Security Numbers, which will be used to track each student's career after high school. FidoNews 11-30 Page: 16 25 Jul 1994 - Sending High school students' transcripts and "teachers' confidential ratings of a student's work-related behavior," to employers via an electronic network called WORKLINK. At the heart of these changes is a national electronic student records network, coordinated by the federal government and adopted by states with federal assistance. Publication 93-03 of the National Education Goals Panel, a federally appointed group recently empowered by the Goals 2000 bill to oversee education restructuring nationally, recommends as "essential" that school districts and/or states collect expanded information on individual students, including: - month and extent of first prenatal care, - birthweight, - name, type, and number of years in a preschool program, - poverty status, - physical, emotional and other development at ages 5 and 6, - date of last routine health and dental care, - extracurricular activities, - type and hours per week of community service, - name of post-secondary institution attended, - post-secondary degree or credential, - employment status, - type of employment and employer name, - whether registered to vote. It also notes other "data elements useful for research and school management purposes": - names of persons living in student household, - relationship of those persons to student, - highest level of education for "primary care-givers," - total family income, - public assistance status and years of benefits, - number of moves in the last five years, - nature and ownership of dwelling. Many of these information categories also were included in the public draft of the 'Student Data Handbook for Elementary and Secondary Schools', developed by the Council of Chief State School Officers to standardize student record terminology across the nation. State and local agencies theoretically design their own information systems, but the handbook encourages them to collect information for policymakers at all levels. Among the data elements are: - evidence verifying date of birth, - social security number, - attitudinal test, - personality test, - military service experience, - description of employment permit (including permit number,) - type of dwelling, - telephone number of employer. WHO CAN ACCESS THIS COMPREHENSIVE INFORMATION? FidoNews 11-30 Page: 17 25 Jul 1994 Officers, employees and agents of local, state and federal educational agencies and private education researchers may be given access to individual student records without student or parent consent, according to the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (20 USC 1232g) and related federal regulations (34 CFR 99.3). Washington state law echoes this federal law. WHAT IS COMING NEXT? Recent Washington state legislation (SB 6428, HB 1209, HB 2319) directly links each public school district with a self-governing group of social service and community agencies that will provide services for families. This type of program is described in detail in the book, Together We Can, published jointly by the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The book speaks of "overcoming the confidentiality barrier," and suggests creating centralized data banks that gather information about individuals from various government agencies - or in other ways ensuring agencies, "ready access to each other's records." The book calls for a federal role in coordinating policies, regulations and data collection. A group in St. Louis, MO, called Wallbridge Caring Communities, is cited as a model for seeking agreements to allow computer linkups with schools and the social service and criminal justice systems to track school progress, referrals and criminal activity. WHAT HAPPENED TO ONE COMMUNITY In Kennewick, WA, over 4,000 kindergarten through fourth graders were rated by their teachers on how often they lie, cheat, sneak, steal, exhibit a negative attitude, act aggressively, and whether they are rejected by their peers. The scores, with names attached, were sent to a private psychiatric center under contract to screen for "at-risk" students who might benefit from its programs. All of this was done without the knowledge and consent of the children or their parents. CPSR's POSITION CPSR Seattle believes that schools other agencies should minimize the collection, distribution and retention of personal data. Students and/or their parents should decide who has access to detailed personal information. CPSR ACTIONS Representatives of CPSR Seattle have gone to Olympia to: - oppose the use of the Social Security Number as the standard student identifier, - urge legislators to set educational goals that can be measured without invading privacy, - oppose turning over individual student records to law enforcement officials apart from a court order or official investigation. FidoNews 11-30 Page: 18 25 Jul 1994 Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility - Seattle Chapter P.O. Box 85481, Seattle, WA 98145-1481 (206) 365-4528 cpsr-seattle@csli.stanford.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Complaint about the language using in FidoNet From: Fredric Rice (1:102/890) > From: Wing Kin Chan <100314.2115@compuserve.com> Greetings, honorable Sir. > I am a doctor and living in Macau (a city near Hong Kong). > Over 90% of citizens is using Chinese as their motherlanguage > here. And I like to access the local BBS, some of them > are the nodes of FidoNet. We wrote the local messages with > Chinese since long long ago. But recently, some of these > SysOps created some rules which inhibited us for using Chinese > in some local echos. To hades with their rules then, Sir. In your local forums, the language should be the domestic language. I can see some people advancing a requirement for a common language in an international forum yet in local forums, you should be asking the people who imposed these rules what their motivations are. Quite simply, were I in your and your fellow's position, I would refuse to follow the silly rule. In other words, launch a rebellion against it. If you and your friends are defeated, then you should start your own local forums. When a forum is created, the moderator should, in my humble opinion, dictate the language(s) used. Were an international forum on the backbone set aside to discuss Chinese art, and were it created by yourself and moderated by yourself, you should demand that the language(s) of your choice be used. No one should tell you that you must use Australian in the forum. If you import the SCIENCE forum, for instance, which was cre