F I D O N E W S Volume 17, Number 04 24 Jan 2000 +----------------------------+---------------------------------------+ | 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. EDITORIAL ................................................ 1 Bullies .................................................. 1 2. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR .................................... 3 Who's Out There Lurking? ................................. 3 Why Not Cockroaches? ..................................... 5 3. ARTICLES ................................................. 6 THE BULLIES OF FIDONET ................................... 6 What are ya gonna do?!? .................................. 8 4. COLUMNS .................................................. 11 Ol'WDB: Makes you wonder ................................. 11 5. NET HUMOR ................................................ 12 Boy Becomes SomeBody ..................................... 12 6. COMIX IN ASCII ........................................... 13 Cow Circus: Cow Balancing on Ball ........................ 13 7. INTERNET INFO ............................................ 14 Fidonet-related sites .................................... 14 8. FIDONEWS INFO ............................................ 18 Masthead ................................................. 18 FIDONEWS 17-04 Page 1 24 Jan 2000 ================================================================= EDITORIAL ================================================================= Bullies Doug Myers Sunday Morning I received an article from "Mike" (full name not given) on "The Bullies of Fidonet." It's an article I don't fully agree with - but since Fidonews should be open to all viewpoints, I publish it without regret. The free press nature of Fidonews, however, does not prevent me (nor anyone else) from presenting an opinion on the issue, however. First of all, I sympathize with Mike in his plight. I would imagine that he really is receiving all the unkind messages he says he is. I'm not following the particular conferences he cites nor the discussion in progress, but the arguments between pro-life and pro-choice on abortion matters isn't exactly new nor confined to the conferences on Fidonet. My own experience has been that both extreme positions in this argument have accumulated their share of unreasonable proponents so that rational public discussion is impossible. What's unclear from Mike's account is how much he contributed to situation which led to his bannings and heated responses. I wouldn't expect him to report that he went into the discussions with an attitude and drew response in kind from his counterparts on the other extreme of the issue, but it does seem more reasonable a scenario that that he joined the conference posting sweetness and light and received personal attacks from the forces of evil. Here are two areas where Mike's case against Fidonet is clearly weak, though. (1) He holds Fidonet Sysops and Moderators responsible for controlling messages he finds offensive, and (2) he threatens legal action. If the decline of Fidonet is predicated on Sysops and Moderators controlling messages to the extent of not offending anyone, then we may as well throw in the towel now. Folks can take offense at _anything_ and frequently do. Controlling ones own reaction to offense has always been necessary for public interaction, and is hardly new to Fidonet. I doubt that this requirement has led to the decline of Fido. Yes, moderators have taken steps over the years to restrict posting which goes out of its way to be offensive, but the effort is normally directed towards the smooth flow of conversation in the echo. Participants who take offense frequently to the statements of others and expect moderator action in each case have frequently found themselves removed from the conference on the basis that their complaints are just as disruptive as the offensive posting. Which is worse: one who goes out of his way to be offensive, or one who goes out of his way to be offended? FIDONEWS 17-04 Page 2 24 Jan 2000 Threatening legal action is the lowest form of echo behavior, in my opinion. First of all, it is seldom seriously intended nor practical and, as such, is only intended as bluff and bravado. However, it's the biggest conversation killer around. What echo participant would want to cope with legal action over conversations which are supposed to be a pastime? Defending against even a trivial legal matter would impose more expense and time demands on an individual than he is willing to devote to the hobby. In my opinion, threatened legal action gives any moderator or sysop the right to drop the threatener. Fidonet does need ways to cope with the fact that there are going to be less BBSes in the future. Unlike many of the optimists, I don't think that trend is going to reverse... though I think Fido can survive with a smaller nodelist. However, I don't think the discussion is enhanced by taking up every grudge which comes down the pike. Sorry, Mike, but I think you're going to have to come to terms with the moderators and sysops you're arguing with on your own. I don't think you'll muster "Fidonet" behind you. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 17-04 Page 3 24 Jan 2000 ================================================================= LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ================================================================= Who's Out There Lurking? philip@crookes.org Doug, Here's an e-mail I wrote in reply to Lesley-Dee's article in the last issue of Snooze. As you'll see, I used to be a Fido sysop, now I just browse the Snooze and wonder what if? As I noted to Lesley-Dee, you too may do what you will with these words, in a spectrum ranging from pulling the chain to publishing far and wide. Whatever you do will be right. Incidentally, did you know that the richest man in New Zealand is called Doug Myers? the words follow Lesley-Dee Like you, like many, I used to be in FidoNet. I joined up somewhere in the mid to late 80s, first as 2:253/197, later as 2:250/102 and later still as a node in the German Zone 24 but I forgot the number. At its peak I ran Merkinstead, a UK and later German BBS that scored upwards of 10,000 hits a month for its mix of attitude, e-mail, echoes, a real mean AI engine, downloads delivered by a Hairy Protocol and (then the wonder of the age) a unique online interface to the broadcast database that is European teletext. So why stop? I moved house, country and job. I became less and less patient with tiny-minded men with names like Keith Wassell and Ron Dwight (back then respectively *Cs in Region 25 and Zone 2). It's no coincidence that *C sounds-like STASI - the acronym of the loathsome East German spying & secret police outfit. I miss the great cameraderie - the monthly meets at the Barleycorn pub in West Didsbury in Manchester, England; the phone calls about some new discovery; the shared purchases of new exciting gear. The fact that when I joined Fido a sysop called Phil Burden could be bothered to put up with my 13 unsuccessful attempts to e-mail his system before I got it right... and then he replied with the desired node number. There was the time that Dave Thorpe found somewhere somehow the close-out stock of some company and we all bought unimagineably big 192 MB hard disks. And wondered how we could ever fill them with FIDONEWS 17-04 Page 4 24 Jan 2000 downloads and gateway programs. The time I got hold of a CD ROM drive and managed to belabor it into working with my Amstrad PC1512 computer with its 8086 CPU and incredible 640K of RAM to create what I boasted was 'one of Fido's biggest file troughs'. It probably wasn't but the files.bbs list alone was 100K long... The very first time someone called my BBS, pulled the rope to ring the bell and as the rope came away in their hand was greeted by our Butler: 'a tall, cadaverous man who sways slightly as he welcomes you to the House. Some people say he drinks so much because he has forgotten his Real Name - or is it just that he has forgotten his Name because he drinks so much?" I miss the shared pleasure of devising new toys for the BBS. The great spirit of discovery that led John Clempner to write and present to Merkinstead the software to display teletext (a closed captioning database of about 20 MB per tv channel) without even seeing the tv card in my computer. Or Simon Dowson, who created the AI engine that allowed our online Ngaire to give astonishingly believable answers to caller's questions - and even led one unfortunate lovesick lad to call the house line and insist to my astonished wife that she must allow him to pledge his troth to the lovely Ngaire at once! Merkinstead.com will, one day soon, reappear on the Internet, together with radio station 2BGR (for Bloody Good Radio) which I don't suppose we could ever have achieved with the Fido technology of the time. And when it does, no whining weasel Wassells, no drivelling dweebly Dwights, will tell me what to put up, which messages I may carry, who I may allow to come onto my property. And if Keith Wassell or Ron Dwight don't like these words, I invite them or any other *C to discuss the question with me keyboard to keyboard at philip@crookes.org. Attorneys at thirty paces! Fido's strength was its friendship, anarchy, common purpose and shared sense of exploration. Its weakness was and is the whole crap and bullshit of Policy - (since when does English give capital letters to plain ornery words?) and the unnecessary power structure inherent in the *C system. Fido needs exactly as much Policy as does the Internet. No less, no more. But it won't happen because the boys won't let go of the toys until one day the nursery will be empty and no-one will care any more. If anyone cares now. So long as anyone can de-list a Fido node, Fido is doomed. So long as the Nodelist entry is conditioned on anything other than purely technical grounds, Fido will die. Because even though I pay people money for my DNS listing, nobody is telling me what I may do with it. Not to mention that the Internet is bigger, better connected, cheaper to do and more fun. You're free to do what you like with this outpouring of sentimentality and drivel. Print it, dump it, shred it, feed it to the cat. Even put it through Merkinstead's Mincing Machine (tho it may well hit you with its handbag if you do!) FIDONEWS 17-04 Page 5 24 Jan 2000 But, like Fido used to be and stopped being, it was fun while it lasted. Philip ----------------------------------------------------------------- Why Not Cockroaches? Andrei Fomenko 2:5041/14.8 In the FIDONEWS echo, Andrei questions the use of ASCII cows in the comix section... ------------------- AF> Why cows? What about goats or cockroaches? :) DM> No one knows how to draw them :( \ / -o- -o- AF> Such a..... an insect lives in my appartment #8-[ ] -o- AF> Bleah! BUT, once I saw it eating a cockroach :) I -o- AF> mean IT was eating a cockroach, NOT me:) -o- -o- -o- -o- -o- | / \ DM> Keep it. It's kinda like keeping a cat to control the rats :) ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 17-04 Page 6 24 Jan 2000 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= THE BULLIES OF FIDONET "Mike" In this "Open Letter", I would like to call attention to the problem of certain resident "bullies" who presently prowl Fidonet. Just how does one defend against such cyberspace bullies within the confines of Fidonet? Not too effectively, I'm sorry to say. In this letter, I will name only people who I have interacted with favorable. Anyone that I accuse of any improper conduct has NOT been named herein because it is not my intent to further involve FidoNet into the dispute. My first experience with Fidonet was with Airpower BBS in the Philadelphia metropolitan area and it's sysop, Jim Henry, who is one of the few conscientious and fair sysops I've met in cyberspace. Upon discovering the Abortion conference; and making known my pro-life position I quickly found the Moderator of that conference very biased against anyone who held a view contrary to hers. The moderator, on a "bad hair day" unfairly and arbitrarily dismissed me from the conference because of my religious views. A series of ongoing insulting and defamatory messages ensued in the conference after I was booted and I began responding to each writer via net mail to correct misinformation. And, she was not the only one with that attitude in the conference. As a result, most of the real pro-life people in that conference left, even though the conference was taken over by a new moderator who I believe is a paper Christian/pro-lifer. Some time later, that Moderator who I believe was fully aware of the unfairness afforded me by his predecessor allowed me back into the conference. Unfortunately, the new moderator did not have the confidence to run the conference without intimidation and control from some of the senior pro-babykilling members of the conference. When a dispute arose between myself and one of the other members of the conference about his sending me offensive, blasphemous and religiously harassing messages in the conference, addressed to me personally the offending person voluntarily agreed to stop posting such messages. A little while later, the same person again began using the offensive post to me, knowing full well that I was offended by it because of it's blasphemous content. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that some "old timer" pro-abortion people in the conference who didn't want the pro-life message to get too much exposure could figure out what a "fence teetering" moderator would do if he got into a serious legal jam. After I agreed to stop posting my messages to the perp who was sending me the harassing, blasphemous messages; and without ever ordering said perp to stop posting to me, the moderator booted me from the abortion conference. Shortly thereafter I began complaining (mostly by private messages) to people who were defaming FIDONEWS 17-04 Page 7 24 Jan 2000 me in the Abortion conference. I also notified the moderator and several members of the conference that I would sue them for their tortious acts against me. The "perp" after being warned by the moderator of the Bible conference about his messages to and about me left the Bible conference and went over to "Holysmoke" where he began posting untrue statements about me and the long standing dispute. I filed a cease and desist message defending myself in that conference and specifically avoiding engaging in any discussions with anyone in Holysmoke. Many of the obnoxious people in Holysmoke who frequent that conference solely to be obnoxious began, along with the "perp" to post sexually harassing, religiously harassing, defamatory/slanderous/libelous messages to and about me on Holysmoke, a public and international conference. After attempts to reach the Moderator of Holysmoke failed, I contacted the sysop of the BBS system that the perp was posting from (and the sysops of others sending such messages) requesting that they control these persons sending the unsolicited, unwanted, harassing, defamatory /slanderous/libelous messages and cause them to cease and desist. One of these people sending such messages was himself a sysop and a major hub on Fidonet who retaliated by contacting my sysops to get my access cut. The perp contacted the new moderator of the Abortion conference for help; and that moderator sent false information to the sysop of the perp intended to convice the sysop that I was the person in the wrong. That sysop, who was also one of my sysops, then cut my access to his board; and presumably without controlling the perp. In fact, that sysop did a trace to determine what my ISP was for telnetting to his board and then published that information in the Holysmoke conference, presumably to enable some of the more vicious posters in that conference to harass me further. The messages I get from the sysops, (one in particular) is that he and the other posters have the right to say whatever they want to say and send it in messages to me any time they want and that I have to be a captive audience for such messages. That is to say that they have every right to send me messages (even after I demand that they cease and desist) containing defamatory/slanderous/libelous accusations that I have sex with dogs, that I suck ****, and similar and more vulgar accusations together with blasphemous and horrible things said about my Lord Jesus Christ, His Mother, Catholics and Christians in general. I think my sysop, Jim Henry is an upright guy; but I also think the present organization of Fidonet leaves him little choice about backing up one of his subscribers against the group of cyber-bullies that presently roam Fido-Net.........some of them sysops themselves. I went to the sysops of the perps and even advised them of the law of the matter with the result that two of them refused to act, one of them asserted his right to do whatever he wanted and one of them booted me from his bulletin board. FIDONEWS 17-04 Page 8 24 Jan 2000 The "death rattles" of Fidonet have been in the air for quite some time; and I hardly think that such gross, manifest unfairness is going to help Fidonet survive. Do I WANT to sue sysops, FidoNet and other people? Certainly not! I think FidoNet serves a very useful purpose in cyberspace; and I think there are very many talented and dedicated people serving FidoNet. One FidoNet person who responded quickly to my request for help was Fane; and I think that if all of Fidonets members conducted themselves as he did, Fidonet's chances of survival would be greatly enhanced. I am not the kind of person who will sit back and send me emails/messages posts which contain the line "Jesusonacid@yahoo.com" or other malicious insults to my religion. Sure, you arguably might have the right to say that in public when nobody is around; or when someone is around who doesn't object. However, in the face of repeated objection you have no right to force me to be a captive audience for your awful posts or your defamation/slander/libel or harassment. Fidonet, this is the writing on the wall. I thank the sysops and posters who supported me in this matter; and I sincerely hope that someone in Fidonet might take this message to heart. I would respectfully remind all of you sysops of a major rule of Fidonet: 1.2.1.1 (Users): The sysop is responsible for the actions of any user when they affect the rest of Fidonet. (If a user is annoying, the sysop is annoying.) Any traffic entering FidoNet via a given node, if not from the sysop, is considered to be from a user and is the responsibility of the sysop. (See section 2.1.3). ----------------------------------------------------------------- What are ya gonna do?!? Is It Dying? Frank Vest, 1:124/6308.1 Ok folks. Y2K has come and gone. It's time to move onward and upward. I must admit to some concern regarding Y2K. I wondered if my system would survive and how many, if any, of the other Fidonet Nodes would survive. As it turned out, I made it and many more as well. Ok, so what? I'll tell ya! Since I survived and Fidonet survived, it's time to get Fidonet into the 21st century. Yeah, I know that the 21st century doesn't start for another year, but that doesn't matter to me and shouldn't to you. Darrell Salter wrote a "thoughts" article in one Fidonews. I respect Darrell and agree with some of what he said. We will let Fidonet die if we don't do something. Darrell is after the internet side and changes to P4. I applaud him for that. Me, I want the other FIDONEWS 17-04 Page 9 24 Jan 2000 side. Telnet is fine. I have no problems with those that want to go that route. I just like the dial up idea. P4 works for me and that's fine. If it changes, I'll deal with that as well. Heck, I'm easy. (did I say that? :-) So, where does that leave us and what the heck are you talking about? Simple. Promote Fidonet. I don't really care how, just as long as it's positive. I've heard all the negative I care to. It's time to go positive. Ok, How do we promote Fidonet? Well, we could all take out ads and spend lots of money on commercials and stuff like that...... Hmmm, I guess not. :) This is a hobby and, as such, most of us don't have or aren't willing to spend lots of money promoting. So what do we do? Geesh! Here's a road map. :) 1. Talk about your BBs to friends or other people you get into idle conversation with. a. If you're not a Sysop, do the same thing about the BBS(s) that you like. 2. Are you on the Internet? Gotta web page? a. Put a small page up for your BBS, or add a page on your site. b. Plug your BBS in the appropriate Newsgroups. 1. Don't like Newsgroups? Don't read them! Just post to them. :) (do you think the spammers read the groups they post to? :) 3. You're not a Sysop but have a web page? a. Put a link to your favorite BBS' page or to a BBS site. 4. You're at your favorite computer store. Ask the manager if you can put some fliers in the store with BBS numbers and "how to connect" information. (of course, you need to print some fliers. :) I'm sure there are other ways to promote BBS' and Fidonet. These are just some "off the top of my head thoughts". In the "For What It's Worth area" I put a small post in the "general" newsgroup for my area (Dallas/Ft. Worth) and snagged three people off the web. One left me a nice note that read, I thought that all the BBS' in DFW were gone. Now, wasn't that a kick. :) The ad wasn't fancy, big or anything like that. The whole post was as follows: - start Collin Country Station BBS is open and waiting for new Users. We have Message areas, Games and other things of interest. FIDONEWS 17-04 Page 10 24 Jan 2000 Dallas Metro Number is 972-562-8064 Don't know what a BBS is? Check out the Web Page at http://texoma.net/~flv There is more out there that the Internet and AOL - end I'm gonna pull BBS'ing and Fidonet back into the light. You can do what you will. If Fidonet and BBS'ing die, it won't be from lack of effort on my part. What are you going to do?!? Oh yeah! If you don't have a BBS in your area, start one. If you do have a BBS, promote it. :) Have fun. Call a BBS. Enjoy life! ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 17-04 Page 11 24 Jan 2000 ================================================================= COLUMNS ================================================================= Makes you wonder... Ol'WDB "I've never understood why women love cats. Cats are independent, they don't listen, they don't come in when you call, they like to stay out all night, come home and expect to be fed and stroked, then want to be left alone and sleep. "In other words, every quality that women hate in a man, they love in a cat." ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 17-04 Page 12 24 Jan 2000 ================================================================= NET HUMOR ================================================================= Boy Becomes SomeBody A man is waiting for wife to give birth. The doctor comes in and informs the dad that his son was born without torso, arms or legs. The son is just a head! But the dad loves his son and raises him as well as he can, with love and compassion. After 21 years, the son is old enough for his first drink. Dad takes him to the bar and tearfully tells the son he is proud of him. Dad orders up the biggest, strongest drink for his boy. With all the bar patrons looking on curiously and the bartender shaking his head in disbelief, the boy takes his first sip of alcohol. Swoooop! A torso pops out! The bar is dead silent; then bursts into a whoop of joy. The father, shocked, begs his son to drink again. The patrons chant "Take another drink"! The bartender still shakes his head in dismay. Swoooop! Two arms pops out. The bar goes wild. The father, crying and wailing, begs his son to drink again. The patrons chant "Take another drink"! The bartender ignores the whole affair. By now the boy is getting tipsy, and with his new hands he reaches down, grabs his drink and guzzles the last of it. Swoooop! Two legs pop out. The bar is in chaos. The father falls to his knees and tearfully thanks God. The boy stands up on his new legs and stumbles to the left.... then to the right.... right through the front door, into the street, where a truck runs over him and kills him instantly. The bar falls silent. The father moans in grief. The bartender sighs and says, "That boy should have quit while he was a head." ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 17-04 Page 13 24 Jan 2000 ================================================================= COMIX IN ASCII ================================================================= * \ w \ w \\ /\ // \\/ \// | | Cow Circus |(__)| \(OO)/ Cow Balancing //\/\\ on Ball || || ||__|| /^^ ^^\ / ======== \ / \ |==============| \ / \ ======== / \ _____ / ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 17-04 Page 14 24 Jan 2000 ================================================================= INTERNET INFO ================================================================= ! = New entries this week ? = not responding ?? = unknown content, doesn't look like fidonet . -- -- -- -- --- -- -- -- -- . | FIDONET-RELATED SITES | ` -- -- -- -- --- -- -- -- -- ' Last update: Jan 15, 2000 FidoNet Homepage: http://www.fidonet.org FidoNews: http://www.fidonews.org [HTML] ftp://ftp.nwstar.com/fidonet/fidonews/ ftp://ftp.sstar.com/fidonet/fnews/ Echomail links: http://www.osirusoft.com/fidoip.html 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/ Net 203: http://www.geocities.com/Area51/8687/net203index.html Region 11: http://oeonline.com/~garyg/region11/ Net 2410: http://oeonline.com/~garyg/net2410/ Region 12: http://sparkys.dyndns.org Region 13: http://www.net264.org/r13.htm Net 264: http://www.net264.org/ Net 275: http://www.homershut.net/~mahoover/net275/ Region 14: Net 282: http://www.rxn.com/~net282/ Region 15: Region 16: Region 17: http://www.nwstar.com/~region17/ Region 18: http://techshop.pdn.net/fido/ Region 19: 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 ftp://ftp.sstar.com/fidonet/zone2 (Z2 nodelists etc.) Region 20: http://www.fidonet.pp.se (in Swedish) Region 23: http://www.fido.dk (in Danish) FIDONEWS 17-04 Page 15 24 Jan 2000 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 ! Net422: http://www.fido.sk (Slovak/English) 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 5049: http://www.n5049.z2.fidonet.org (English/Russian) ?? 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 See also: http://www.osirusoft.com/fidoip.html 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. Also, as information is provided to me, I will be adding a latency field to each node, which is defined as the maximum time between when the message is received, and when it is sent on to other nodes, or available to be sent onward, defined in minutes. A latency of ! implies that there is an immediate response, and an attempt to deliver immediately after processing, or a "MinuteMail System", as it were. FIDONEWS 17-04 Page 16 24 Jan 2000 v-email flag firstnamelastname@osirusoft.com | email address or Node# | Operator | Facilities (*) | Speed,| Basic Rate | | |latency| -----------+-------------------+----------------+-------+------------ Zone 1 | | | | 10/3 @ Brenda Donovan | FTP,UUE,BinkP | 384K,30| n/c 10/345 @ Todd Cochrane | FTP,BinkP,VMOT | T1,! | n/c 12/12 @ Ken Wilson | FTP | T1 | $24mo. 13/25 @ Jim Balcom | FTP | 56k | $20mo. 103/5 @ Mark Luetger | BinkP | 384k,!| n/c 103/153 @ Michael Box | BinkP | aDSL,!| n/c 103/301 @ Joe Jared | BinkP,FTP | aDSL,!| n/c 103/401 @ Warren Bonner | BinkP | aDSL,!| n/c 105/8 | Russ Johnson | FTP,BinkP,VMoT | 384k | n/c 105/72 @ Larry James | FTP | aDSL | $50/yr 106/1 @ Matt Bedynek | BinkP, FTP | DS-3,5| $5/$15 mo 106/6018 | Lawrence Garvin | FTP, VMoT | aDSL,60| n/c 107/453 @ Jeffrey Estevez| FTP,BinkP,VMoT,UUE| 56k,60| $10 mo. 140/1 @ Bob Seaborn | FTP,BinkP | T3,30 | $5/$16 167/133 | Stephen Monteith | BinkP | 128k+ | n/c 211/417 @ Korombos | BinkP,UUE,FTP | T1 | n/c 218/109 @ Matt Munson | BinkP,UUE | 33.6k | n/c 244/2 | Kari Suomela | FTP,VMoT,BinkP,UUE| T1,! | $25.00/mo 246/160 @ Mason Vye | FTP, UUE | 56K | n/c 271/140 @ Tom Barstow | UUE,FTP | T1 | n/c 280/169 | Brian Greenstreet | FTP | 33.6 | $2mo. 342/3 @ Richard Dodsworth | BinkP,FTP | 128K+ | n/c 395/670 | Arthur Stark | BinkD,FTP | 128k | n/c 396/1 @ John Souvestre | FTP,VMoT | T1,10 | $5/mo 396/45 | Marc Lewis | UUE | 33.6 | $26/yr 2604/104 @ Jim Mclaughlin | FTP,VMoT,UUE | 33.6 | $1mo 2613/404 @ David Moufarrege | BinkP,FTP,VMoT | 128k+,!| n/c 2624/306 @ David Calafrancesco | VMoT | 33.6 | n/c 3613/2 @ jyates@bsdi.ldl.net | UUE | 28.8 | n/c 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 -------------------------------------------------------------- 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 | 768k | 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 FIDONEWS 17-04 Page 17 24 Jan 2000 406/555 | Ofir Michaeli & | BinkP | ??? | n/c 406/555 | Marius Kaizerman | 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 news.osirusoft.com news.tardis.net Fidonet oriented chat rooms. room #fidonet 5PM (PDT 11AM 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 17-04 Page 18 24 Jan 2000 ================================================================= FIDONEWS INFO ================================================================= 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") | | Humor: Roy Reed, rcreed@juno.com | | | + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- - EDITORS EMERITI - -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + | | | Tom Jennings, Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell, Vince | | Perriello, Tim Pozar, Sylvia Maxwell, Donald Tees, | | Christopher Baker, Zorch Frezberg, Henk Wolsink | | | + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + "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 is published weekly by and for the members of Fidonet. Fidonews is Copyright (C) 2000 by Douglas Myers, though authors retain rights to their contributed articles. Opinion expressed by the authors is strictly their own. Noncommercial duplication and distribution within Fidonet is encouraged. Authors are encouraged to send their articles in ASCII text to Douglas Myers at one of his addresses above. The weekly edition of Fidonews is distributed through the file area FIDONEWS, and is published as echomail in the echo FIDONEWS. These sources are normally available through your Network Coordinator. The current and past issues are also available from the following sources: + -- -- -- -- -- -- - FIDONEWS AVAILABILITY - -- -- -- -- -- -- + | | | Freq FIDONEWS @ 1:270/720, 1:140/1, or 1:396/1 | | ftp://ftp.sstar.com/fidonet/fnews/ | | ftp://ftp.nwstar.com/fidonet/fidonews/ | | http://www.fidonews.org | | email subscription: majordomo@fidonews.org | | (subject: help body: list) | | ftp mail: ftpmail@fidonews.org (subject: help) | | | + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + FIDONEWS 17-04 Page 19 24 Jan 2000 -----------------------------------------------------------------