The F I D O N E W S Volume 18, Number 50 10 Dec 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 Fidonews Editor for Fidonews Globally. Table of Contents 1. [ FOOD FOR THOUGHT ] ..................................... 1 2. [ INSIDE ] ............................................... 2 The Fidonews at a Glance ................................. 2 3. [ GENERAL ARTICLES ] ..................................... 3 All good things must end ................................. 3 Travels through Darwin, Zone 3 ........................... 3 4. [ FIDONET CURRENT EVENTS ] ............................... 5 An end to RC elections throughout zone one? .............. 5 Formal request for Policy change ......................... 6 5. [ REBUTTALS TO PREVIOUS ARTICLES ] ....................... 8 Rebuttal to Doc Logger ................................... 8 6. [ OL'WDB'S COLUMN - WARREN BONNER ] ...................... 9 Ol'WDB's Column .......................................... 9 7. [ COMIX IN ASCII ] ....................................... 11 Poor Doggie .............................................. 11 8. [ CLEAN HUMOR & JOKES ] .................................. 12 Psychic .................................................. 12 9. [ SPECIAL INTEREST ] ..................................... 13 Nodelist Stats ........................................... 13 10. [ TODD COCHRANE'S FIDONET SOFTWARE LISTING ] ............ 15 Fidonet Software List .................................... 15 11. [ JOE JARED'S FIDONET BY INTERNET ] ..................... 19 Fidonet-related sites .................................... 19 12. [ FIDONEWS INFORMATION ] ................................ 25 How to Submit an Article ................................. 25 Credits, Legal Infomation, Availability .................. 26 FIDONEWS 18-50 Page 1 10 Dec 2001 ================================================================= [ FOOD FOR THOUGHT ] ================================================================= "Finally 21, and Legally Able to Do Everything I've Been Doing Since 15." ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 18-50 Page 2 10 Dec 2001 ================================================================= [ INSIDE ] ================================================================= The Fidonews at a Glance Carl Austin Bennett visits us in the "Current Events" with his view on current Zone1 events as they affect Zone 1 and possibly all of Fidonet. The Editor also visits the "Current Events" with an attempt at the "impossible". Andrea Santos visits us with a rebuttal to Doc Logger. OL'WDB gives us some views in his column. In the "General Articles", there are a couple of visits from xxcarol. One is about her visit to Australia. Darwin, to be exact. This week's Comix seems to tell a story. "Poor Doggie" The "Fidonet Software Listing" has a new format. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 18-50 Page 3 10 Dec 2001 ================================================================= [ GENERAL ARTICLES ] ================================================================= All good things must end From Carol Shenkenberger 6:730/275 In 1988 I bought my first 'real machine' from ZEOS corporation. Steady and faithful, she stayed with me in one level or another for the next 6 years. Finally, after my 3 cats had a fight which caused a 'cat-as-trophy' of 'cat-scading-cards' inside, all but my trusty keyboard was dead. Ah, but that keyboard! Memories! It's fingerworn to where most of the alphabet has worn off. It has 'clean spots' from when in San Diego, we held conventions and took our BBS machines offline for the day to demo them to the public. See, it was so old and decrepit by then, a q-tip got used and made clean spots . Years of messages of joy and of pain have traversed those old keys. Now I think, it sits in a spot of honor, having at last been replaced with a new one. *sniff* I miss her already. xxcarol Sasebo, Japan ----------------------------------------------------------------- Travels through Darwin, Zone 3 From Carol Shenkenberger 6:730/275 I'd like to tell you all how delightful Australia is! I didn't get to see much other than downtown Darwin and sadly did not get to meet any sysops while there, but I had a lively email exchange with Kevin Symons (most seen in the COOKING echo) and Greg (same echo) who both live in Adelaide. I spoke with Greg's daughter-in-law and we will meet up for lunch/dinner next trip. The first thing you note as a traveller arriving, is the lovely blue water. Ok, it's not as 'grab your eyeballs and shake you blue' as Okinawa but it is notable! The pier is very clean and well situated for walking to town if you feel like taking a stroll vice the bus. The busses by the way are exceptionally clean and well run. Kudos to OZ for that one! The town part I saw is mostly walking distance from the pier-side portion and being a sailor, I had to try 'pub crawling' (oh my head!). Pub crawling in OZ is an interesting experience. Beer comes in two sizes. Too small and too large (grin). The brands are ones the average American will never have tried for the most part. Fosters and Guiness were the only 2 familiar names. I tried all the other ones and found 'Victoria Bitters' (VB) to be the one I liked the best. I didnt try any bottled types, just draft. Walking about you find many native Australians (Aborigonees?) who FIDONEWS 18-50 Page 4 10 Dec 2001 don't wear shoes (by choice). I talked with Bil for about 2 hours while lazing about the local shopping district and we had fun with our different accents. Good conversationalist and I caught a story hour with him and some kids. Shopping is both familiar and strange at the same time. Walmart for example is a grocery store. They have Kmarts and McDonalds and such like plus some facinating OZ chain stores. All in all, it was a good place to be and seemed an excellent place to live. Exchange rate was about 2$OZ for 1$USD. Works out the same though as everything costs almost twice as much. 20$ USD is still enough to go pub crawling although it becomes 40$OZ and change. A difference is getting used to using coins to pay for things. Those of us from Japan are used to that but it's even more notable in OZ. Probably that's because of the denominations used there. I saw one other place but only from a distance. East Timor, which is part of Indonesia geographically. We did a 'humanitarian assistance' visit there where the Dentist and Medical Doctor went ashore with teams to treat patients. I don't know if that's zone3 or zone6. Suai Beach area and the people are very poor. Due to several local diseases which we have no immunity for (malaria for example), few got to get off the ship there and I lost the raffle for one of the slots. Those who did get to go, told us all about it. War has been a constant in their lives and we were able to do little in the big scheme of things but we eased a few people. We also took a huge load of donated goods from Darwin up there for distribution. T-shirts, shoes, medicines, toys, and educational materials were the main lot of that. The schools had asked for pencils and notepads for example and we took up a ship collection of over 1,500$ then got lots of such wholesale from the Darwin stores and delivered it. 3,000$OZ goes a long way wholesale for those types of supplys. xxcarol ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 18-50 Page 5 10 Dec 2001 ================================================================= [ FIDONET CURRENT EVENTS ] ================================================================= An end to RC elections throughout zone one? Carl Austin Bennett 1:249/116 It appears that our illustrious ZC1 has been tampering with the content of regional nodelist segments, removing both 1:12/0 (Lesley-Dee Dylan) and 1:12/379 (Dale Ross). The name which appears in the /0 position is neither that of the elected RC nor the deputy RC. So what does this mean to sysops in the other nine regions of zone one, or elsewhere in Fidonet? If your region has a policy where your NC's elect an RC, kiss it goodbye. If your region has a policy where your sysops elect an RC, kiss it goodbye too. Janis has just unilaterally set this network back twelve years, way back to the distant 1200-bits-per-second days before RC's were selected democratically by various regions which they represent. A dangerous precedent has been established. If Z1 reverts to a 1989-style "ZC appoints RC's who appoint the ZC" system there is nothing to stop Janis from removing your RC's or even from removing all ten Z1 RC's and replacing them with her own supporters. This precedent also sends a clear but unfortunate message to the other zones. At this point, all checks and balances in the system are removed. You have a regional policy (such as those in regions like R13 and R18) intended to guarantee your net's right to go vote? Expect it to be ignored in much the same way that R12's current election policy is being ignored. Who, then, does this affect? Everyone. The vast majority of regions have some procedure in place to elect co-ordinators. This affects them all. That Janis and Lesley-Dee hold politically opposite opinions is beside the point. This does not justify tampering with the nodelist in this way. Lesley-Dee was elected to represent her region, not to represent one ZC. She was elected by a little more than a 2:1 majority of sysops in-region. She answers to the region which elected her, period. As for Janis' claim that Lesley-Dee should not have given an RIN to Dale Ross? A red herring. Lesley-Dee didn't nodelist Dale, I did. I listed Dale to address concerns expressed by members of the region about the political "go list yourself elsewhere" sentiments being directed at him. FIDONEWS 18-50 Page 6 10 Dec 2001 I have since stepped down, but as we say in MOOSECHAT, the buck stops here. So what should be done? If Janis was put in the ZC position by six regions, then six regional co-ordinators would be able to overrule her or even force the election of a new ZC should the need arise. There are more than six regions in zone one with elected co-ordinators in some form; these regions all have a direct interest in seeing this dangerous precedent reversed in order to keep their own elected RC's. However, for such an approach to be effective, other regions need to speak out now. Waiting until more of the RC's (or even all of them) have been removed and replaced with Janis' hand-picked appointees will only make the problems much worse. If you are a sysop elsewhere in zone one, contact your RC and ask for their intervention. If you are an RC still in place elsewhere in zone one, contact your fellow RC's. It only takes six regions to address this issue. The worst thing that you can do is to sit and do nothing. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Formal request for Policy change From/By Frank Vest 1:1/23 It was brought up in the Fidonews echo that the section of P4 regarding the Fidonews is not accurate. Below is a message that I, as Fidonews Editor, wrote to all the RCs in Fidonet. I see this as a "do'able" thing. It would affect no other section of P4. It might, in fact, get the RCs in Fidonet together to do more good for P4 and Fidonet in general. If the RCs can work together to do this small thing, it is possible that they can work together to do other things for P4 and Fidonet. I felt it an obligation for me and worth the try. If you feel similar, please contact your NC, RC or ZC in support of this. Thank you. ---- begin --- Dear Regional Coordinators, Please reference the below quoted section of Policy 4; "1.3.1 FidoNews FidoNews is a weekly newsletter distributed in electronic form throughout the network. It is an important medium by which FidoNet sysops communicate with each other. FidoNews provides a sense of being a community of people with common interests. Accordingly, sysops and users are encouraged to contribute to FidoNews. Contributions are submitted to node 1:1/1; a file describing the FIDONEWS 18-50 Page 7 10 Dec 2001 format to be used is available from 1:1/1 and many other systems." This is not accurate in that the address given is not correct. I would like to ask that the below change to Policy 4 be proposed and that this change be voted on as noted in Policy 4. "1.3.1 FidoNews FidoNews is a weekly newsletter distributed in electronic form throughout the network. It is an important medium by which FidoNet sysops communicate with each other. FidoNews provides a sense of being a community of people with common interests. Accordingly, sysops and users