The F I D O N E W S Volume 18, Number 46 12 Nov 2001 +--------------------------+-----------------------------------------+ | |The newsletter of the | | Fido, Fidonet and dog-with-diskette are | | | FidoNet community. | | US Registered Trademarks of Tom Jennings| | | | | San Francisco, California, USA | | | ____________| | | | | / __ | Crash Netmail Articles To: | | | / / \ | Editor@1:1/23 (1-972-562-8064) | | | WOOF! ( /|oo \ | Frank Vest@1:124/6308 | | \_______\(_| /_) | or E-Mail (attach) To: | | _ @/_ \ _ | fidonews@sbcglobal.net | | | | \ \\ | | | | (*) | \ ))| Editor: Frank Vest | | |__U__| / \// | Deputy-Editor: Lawrence Garvin | | ______ _//|| _\ / | | | / Fido \ (_/(_|(____/ | Newspapers should have no friends. | | (________) (jm) | -- JOSEPH PULITZER | +--------------------------+-----------------------------------------+ Copyright 2001 by Frank L. Vest, Editor for Fidonews Globally. Table of Contents 1. [ FOOD FOR THOUGHT ] ..................................... 1 2. [ TOP STORIES ] .......................................... 2 The Fidonews at a glance ................................. 2 3. [ FIDONET REGIONAL NEWS ] ................................ 3 Region 12 election time again ............................ 3 4. [ EDITORIAL ] ............................................ 4 "From both sides now" .................................... 4 5. [ FIDONET SOFTWARE REVIEWS ] ............................. 7 FTN software used in Russia .............................. 7 6. [ OL'WDB'S COLUMN - WARREN BONNER ] ...................... 9 18X46 .................................................... 9 7. [ ANSWERS OF THE WEEK ] .................................. 11 "What do you want in the Fidonews?" - Poll Results ....... 11 8. [ CLEAN HUMOR & JOKES ] .................................. 12 Women get last word? ..................................... 12 9. [ FIDONET CLASSIFIED ADS ] ............................... 15 Rotating Ads ............................................. 15 L.O.R.D Tournament ....................................... 15 10. [ TODD COCHRANE'S FIDONET SOFTWARE LISTING ] ............ 17 Fidonet/BBS Software Listing's* .......................... 17 11. [ JOE JARED'S FIDONET BY INTERNET ] ..................... 23 Fidonet-related sites .................................... 23 12. [ SPECIAL INTEREST ] .................................... 29 Bad Bunny Moments in Dakota .............................. 29 Nodelist Stats ........................................... 31 13. [ FIDONEWS INFORMATION ] ................................ 33 How to Submit an Article ................................. 33 Credits, Legal Infomation, Availability .................. 34 FIDONEWS 18-46 Page 1 12 Nov 2001 ================================================================= [ FOOD FOR THOUGHT ] ================================================================= Today you can go to a gas station and find the cash register open and the toilets locked. They must think toilet paper is worth more than money. --Joey Bishop ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 18-46 Page 2 12 Nov 2001 ================================================================= [ TOP STORIES ] ================================================================= The Fidonews at a glance In the "Fidonet Software Reviews" section we have an interesting article by Aleksej R. Serdyukov about what software is used in Zone 2, Region 50. You'll notice the announcement of the Region 12 RC election. This should have been in last week's Fidonews but the Editor mistook it for a regular Netmail and didn't include it. Take a trip through Dakota, U.S.A. with "Doc Logger" as he returns to give his view on some rabbits as well as U.S.A politics. Warren Bonner gives us his view on why the U.S.A is united and reminds us of where Fidonet began. The Editorial this week deals with the poll taken last week with some views from the editor on this and other things. The results of the Poll taken last week is in the "Answers of the week" section for those interested. You might want to read the "How to Submit an Article" portion of the Fidonews. Some section names have changed. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 18-46 Page 3 12 Nov 2001 ================================================================= [ FIDONET REGIONAL NEWS ] ================================================================= Region 12 election time again By: Lesley-Dee Dylan 1:250/201 Region 12 has just entered into its nomination period in our annual election for an official shield for the region's members when they take on the rest of zone 1. We have gotten past the point of appointing a returning officer (for the Americans, elections officer), to run the election, and we are now into the time period where the region's hotheads get out their shotguns and try to aim them at each others' heads to try to coerce the acceptance of a nomination. The best defence seems to be the threat of a cross-nomination. And Darrell Salter just brought out the biggest shotgun of all "if one of you doesn't accept nomination soon, we might end up with Joe Delahaye as RC." By now, Bob Seaborn will have acquired a new illicit feed of our precious regional echo, REG12, and will be providing it to Janis Kracht and Dallas Hinton. If you want to watch the entertainment, you should areafix it from one of the three. Your feed will last until Dallas can't hold back anymore and starts posting again. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 18-46 Page 4 12 Nov 2001 ================================================================= [ EDITORIAL ] ================================================================= "From both sides now" The title is part of a song that I remember. Can't say who wrote it, sang it or that those are important. This week we have two conflicting views expressed. One by Doc Logger who, being tranquilized, managed to grace us with an article. The other by Warren Bonner, a regular columnist in the Fidonews. One seems to think that the events regarding the WTC attack has brought the U.S.A. together and that the president is doing fine. The other seems to think that the government of the U.S. is just getting a "wake up" and should have woke up long ago. Either way, both are of limited interest to a select group and neither are really Fidonet related in strict terms. (pardon my take off, Doc) Rolla da flick, everyone. As I climb into my "time capsule" and press the "red button" (Oh no! Not the "RED BUTTON!!), I'm whisked back through the Fidonews. Years fall away. Editors and articles from the past appear to me in visions of days gone by. =-=-=-= It's 1985. fido201.nws "The new years first newsletter ... more and more articles and ads every week. One complaint from a few people: not too much of interest to general users, so far all articles have been from Sysops. While that is fine, maybe encourage a few users to send articles? FidoNews is NOT only for sysops, it is for anyone." =-=-=-= It's 1986. fido304.nws "Disclaimer or don't-blame-us: The contents of the articles contained here are not our responsibility, nor do we necessarily agree with them; everything here is subject to debate. We publish EVERYTHING received." =-=-=-= It's 1996. Fido1303.nws "There were no articles submited this week." -=-=-=- FIDONEWS 18-46 Page 5 12 Nov 2001 It's 2001. fnews1844.nws "I respect the tradition of FidoNews editors to publish anything not in violation of the (NA?) law. Maybe it is time however to review this policy. Maybe it is time to define the topic of FidoNews and restrict articles to those that are on topic." -=-=-=- It's Nov. 12, 2001 Whew! What a trip!! It's good to be home again. I think. :/ Yes, I'm picking editions and all that other "unfair" stuff. So what?? Go write a rebuttal. The gist (is that a word?) is that in the examples given, it's thought that the Fidonews is not just for Sysops. Then we go back to the "publish anything" syndrome. Then there are no articles. The current thing is that articles should be about Fidonet only. No special interest groups. Really!! Try to please people and what do ya get?!? Ah well. We have the answers to last week's "Question of the week" poll. I guess that's not Fidonet related either, but at least it asked for an opinion about the Fidonews. Whatever shall we do?? The poll seems to indicate that all sections are liked in general... Well, except for the "Comix in Ascii" "Recipes" and "Poet's Corner", and even they made high marks on the wall when they jumped. I'm not being ungrateful for your replies, dear reader. In fact, I am impressed with the turn out. My expectation was to get a couple of responses and that would be it. We may try this again sometime. Thanks to all of you who replied! What did this little trip into the past and last week's poll prove? Nothing that we in Fidonet didn't already know. A poll will generally have about an equal percentage of votes no matter how many questions are asked. IOW, everybody likes a different part of some of it. There will be a small percent of the total possible represented in the poll. IOW, Some will try to make a difference while others sit back and watch them beat their heads against the wall... then complain about the whole thing while doing nothing. No matter what you do, somebody won't like it. IOW, You can't please all the people all the time... and some won't be pleased anytime. I'm sure that there are other things that were proved by last week's poll too. Oh well. FIDONEWS 18-46 Page 6 12 Nov 2001 As I read and read and read in the Fidonews echo, I watch for articles coming in via Netmail or E-mail. I hope for an article about Fidonet. I get articles about other things. :( I note that in past editions this was also the case. In some issues, there were no articles. In others there were articles about this or that Zone, Region or Net. Some were about happenings other than Fidonet and a few, very few, were of interest to all. I've read thoughts of how the Fidonews is for users as well as Sysops, should be only about Fidonet, can have any subject, should be of general interest and other variations. What I see in the past is what I see in the present. Lots of talk, complaints, ideas, demands and little in the way of action. A new Fidonews Editor comes around with ideas and dreams of making the Fidonews a great place. S/he is met with all of the aforementioned complaints and little help. If the "Snooze" is empty, it's boring. If it's full of articles by a couple of people with one view, it's one sided and boring. If the editor changes anything, it's wrong, one sided and boring. To tell the truth, I find the Fidonews boring, but for a different reason. I read the articles over and over while formatting and putting the Fidonews together. :-) Of all that I've mentioned in this writing, there is one thing that worries me. The threats I've read and received. Threats such as; `I'll see what I can do.' `I may just write an article!' `It's almost finished.' `I thought about writing an article!' ` Maybe next week I can get something to you.' If all these threats are carried out, Whew!! We might have a Fidonews that had something in it. Wouldn't that be awful?? :) So! What's the answer?? Same as it was to start with. The Fidonews is what _YOU_ make of it. I hope that all of you have a great Fidonet day, a better Fidonet tomorrow and are pleased once in your life. Regards, Frank Vest - Editor, Fidonews ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 18-46 Page 7 12 Nov 2001 ================================================================= [ FIDONET SOFTWARE REVIEWS ] ================================================================= What FTN software is used in Z2 R50? by Aleksej R. Serdyukov 2:5020/1973.20 Now I want to tell you what software Russians (and ex-USSR) use for their FidoNet and BBS purposes. At first I'll tell what software I use... It is: Tosser: FastEcho v1.46.1 by Software Technik Burchhardt Fileechos: AllFix v5.13 build 4 by Harms Software Eng. Editor: GoldED+/386 1.1.5-20011017 (c) Odinn Sorensen->Alexander S. Aganichev (my first was the same but 1.0.0) Mailer: KittenMail v0.11.1f2 W32 by Andrew Lopatin (at start of my Fido-life I used T-Mail 2606.DOS and then T-Mail 2607.DOS) BBS: MushroomBBS v1.0.0.3 by virtual booster //ScF, based on Tornado BBS v1.71alpha23 by Konstantin Klyagin->Alexey Kljatow FOSSIL driver: ADF v1.50 Operating system: MS Windows 98SE (4.10.2222), sometimes I use DOS v7.10 from it but my modem doesn't work then. I also use Bink-style outbound and JAM message base. So, that's what I use. And, about others ;) FastEcho and ParToss (Parma Tosser) are the most used tossers in XSU (ex-USSR). Then JustTosser and HPT go. Some people also use GEcho and CrashMail, Echomail, XMail, QEcho... The previous sentence is made of editors