The F I D O N E W S Volume 19, Number 07 18 Feb 2002 +--------------------------+-----------------------------------------+ | |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 @ 2:2/2 (+46-31-944907) | | | WOOF! ( /|oo \ | Routed netmail articles to: | | \_______\(_| /_) | Bjorn Felten @ 2:203/0 | | _ @/_ \ _ | Email attach to: | | | | \ \\ | bfelten@telia.com | | | (*) | \ ))| | | |__U__| / \// | Editor: Bj”rn Felten | | ______ _//|| _\ / | | | / Fido \ (_/(_|(____/ | Newspapers should have no friends. | | (________) (jm) | -- JOSEPH PULITZER | +--------------------------+-----------------------------------------+ Copyright 2002 by Fidonews Editor for Fidonews Globally. Table of Contents 1. FOOD FOR THOUGHT ......................................... 1 2. INSIDE ................................................... 2 The Fidonews at a Glance ................................. 2 3. TOP STORIES .............................................. 3 The Email read around the World .......................... 3 4. GENERAL ARTICLES ......................................... 5 Continuing the Computer Nazis' theme ..................... 5 Catcalls from the Cheap Seats ............................ 5 Someone's high! .......................................... 7 September 11th 2001, remembering heroes! ................. 9 Point About SPAM! ........................................ 10 5. OL'WDB'S COLUMN - WARREN BONNER .......................... 12 Knowing Makes the Difference ............................. 12 6. FIDONET'S INTERNATIONAL KITCHEN .......................... 14 Japanese Deep Fried Tako (Octopus) ....................... 14 7. CLEAN HUMOR & JOKES ...................................... 15 BASTARD OPERATOR FROM HELL #5 ............................ 15 Johnny's ordeal .......................................... 16 8. TODD COCHRANE'S FIDONET SOFTWARE LISTING ................. 18 Fidonet Software List .................................... 18 9. FIDONET BY INTERNET ...................................... 22 Fidonet-related sites .................................... 22 10. SPECIAL INTEREST ........................................ 27 Nodelist Stats ........................................... 27 11. FIDONEWS INFORMATION .................................... 29 How to Submit an Article ................................. 29 Credits, Legal Infomation, Availability .................. 30 FIDONEWS 19-07 Page 1 18 Feb 2002 ================================================================= FOOD FOR THOUGHT ================================================================= Good judgement comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgement. - Texas Bix Bender ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 19-07 Page 2 18 Feb 2002 ================================================================= INSIDE ================================================================= The Fidonews at a Glance Unfortunatly(?) work prevented me from finding the time to put together an editorial this week. I'd rather not write anything at all than whipping up something half-hearted. "Top Story" is the spam attack on Fidonet this week. Shannon Talley explains what happened in "The Email read around the World". In the "General Articles" section Bobby Queen gives his point of view on the spam issue in "Point About SPAM!". Gary Gilmore has some thoughts about P4 and the future (or rather lack thereof) for Fidonet in "Someone's high!". Last week's performance went uninterrupted from the cheap seats, but this week Luke is back with more "Catcalls...". Reluctantly I allow yet another article on the Nazi theme; "Continuing the Computer Nazis' theme...". Reluctantly because I know that a lot of readers (including this editor) take offence by the misuse of the symbols from this dark period of mankind. If what you mean to say is "fascist", please don't use a word that has so many other associations attached to it. Finally Ward Dossche reminds us of some things in the world, that could use a little of the same attention, that some more spectacular (media-wise) events get, in "September 11th 2001, remembering heroes!" In "Knowing Makes the Difference" Warren Bonner gives some advice on how to avoid the worst damage if you lose your wallet. Some details are US specific, but you should easily be able to work out your own. In our "International Kitchen" section, Carol makes "Japanese Deep Fried Tako (Octopus)". The fifth episode from "BASTARD OPERATOR FROM HELL" in the "Clean Jokes..." plus "Johnny's ordeal", a cute little child story from the ever so productive Warren Bonner. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 19-07 Page 3 18 Feb 2002 ================================================================= TOP STORIES ================================================================= The Email read around the World Shannon Talley, 1:275/311 Tuesday, 12 February 2002, was a beautiful sunny day here in Virginia Beach, and the drive home from work was average. I stopped by the store and picked up some groceries, and continued my trek home, completely unaware of the events that transpired earlier in the day on my BBS. Once I arrived home, I put away the groceries, poured a glass of iced tea, and sat down to check my Email and catch up on echomail. Immediately upon opening my Email, I was absolutely "floored" by the sheer amount I received that afternoon. Nearly 40 Emails in each of my boxes and an equal amount of Netmail had all been waiting my arrival home. I took a deep breath and began to read the first one. Much like the rest of the Emails, it was a simple and kind notification that a user on my BBS had spammed "EVERY SINGLE ECHO in the NAB "AND" the WWB. Most of the Emails were kind, and more informative in nature. Others were extremely nasty Emails from other SYSOPs accusing me of terrible atrocities of which I could never commit. A user named NADIA RIVIERA2 had logged into my server earlier in the day (12:10 est) and verified using my Email verification. I have my Email verification setup to block over 12,000 known "anonymous" Email accounts. However, they used one which wasn't in my system, and effectively "slipped" through the cracks. After verifying, they proceeded directly to my information page regarding accessing Fidonet via Usenet (News-server). Within 30 minutes, they had sent an Email entitled: 23 Female with new website - sexy pics of me.nws to every single echo in Fidonet. It was too late... There was nothing I could do... They had been tossed, and sent.. I immediately banned the user, knowing it was really too late... I then attacked the logs with extreme prejudice. I was able to determine their IP address (65.32.27.188), and then traced it to their ISP (Road Runner-Southeast), and sent them an Email. That wasn't enough... I was very angry. So, I picked up the phone and called them. I talked to someone, who transferred me to someone else, and so on, and so on, until I finally reached a Manager/Administrator (or so he claimed). He knew what Fidonet was, and was aware of what that user really did. Then it dawned on me... Within the text of that users Spam was reference to a "porn" site. So, I traced that porn site to an IP address, and provided that information to the guy I was speaking with on the phone. That IP address was a static IP owned by Road Runner-Southeast! That was the catalyst. That user lost their FIDONEWS 19-07 Page 4 18 Feb 2002 account right then - and there. I could swear I heard him actually hit the delete key on his keyboard as he said, "He's history". So, what do I do now... I feel like I have egg on my face, but heck, it's not really my fault. I have done more to secure my system than most SYSOPs have done. I certainly took care of the situation (after the fact) I don't have time to personally validate each account! I'm a sailor and I go to sea... ALLOT.. I have approximately 15-35(at the most) new users every single day. I'd like to say, "This may happen sometimes"... But that sounds lame. I like Fidonet. I like MY Fidonet Spamless. I believe the most I can do right now is offer you my sincere apology. I'm terribly sorry this happened, and as god as my witness, I will do everything I can to keep this from happening again. Sincerely, Shannon Talley ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 19-07 Page 5 18 Feb 2002 ================================================================= GENERAL ARTICLES ================================================================= Continuing the Computer Nazis' theme... by Aleksej R. Serdyukov AKA Deleter 2:5020/1973.20@FidoNet Subj ;) In Russia, we call c.Nazis 'lamers', but there is too many people who use this word to call dummies by it, not excluding dummies themself. Unfortunaly, I would say 'most of people'. But that is not such bad as people on TV, radio etc those knowleges about computers are ZERO. They call hackers 'computer genies', even when talking about real lamers. There are many programs-'scanners' that are used for stealing passwords from ISPs, and each lamer can use them! I know one such man.. He steals passwords and think himself is hacker. Sometimes people from ISP came to him, but he doesn't open the door and thinks he is kewl. Once I heard on TV that a hacker had been arrested in a Russian town for stealing and using passwords from a local ISP. They called him a 'computer genie'! I think he had used the same simple program.. And I remember that was a program about Internet! Heh, mey be if it could be about FidoNet, they wouldn't say so. ;) Hmm, that's all :-| See you later, people! article saved on 12.02.2002 16:23 MSK ----------------------------------------------------------------- Catcalls from the Cheap Seats By Luke Kolin I am anxiously counting the days towards the equinox, when our faithful editor might start seeing significantly more day than night. Already the shorter nights are having some effects on our good Sweede, as he apparently is moving out of his winter hibernation to notice that gosh, BBS software looks an awful lot like a DOS screen of the late 1980s. Not surprising, since the guts of most BBS software was written in the late 1980s and hasn't been updated since. Speaking of ancient history, the university courses I took several years ago on early European governance appear to be bearing fruit at last. Apparently, FidoNet is moving its form of governance from the early feudal period to mid seventeenth century Great Britain's form of representative governance. Let me outline a few basic issues which immediately sprang to mind when I read the proposed Policy changes. First, to claim that sysops now have the right to change Policy is absolutely laughable. At no point do the sysops actually have any means of registering their opinions short of an informal polling of FIDONEWS 19-07 Page 6 18 Feb 2002 the sysop base by an NC. When I was an RC back in 1991-92, I had the opportunity along with the NCs in my Region to vote on the last significant amendment to Policy, Pablo Kleinmann's so-called WorldPol. At that time, we did exactly what this policy amendment suggested we do - we canvassed the sysops in our Nets or Region and voted accordingly. Now, a full decade later, we have a dramatic new suggestion in Policy - we're going to formally codify the voting process as it was in 1992! Such a breathtaking extension of democracy. Bob Short considers such a farce to be "definite and adequate node represntation". Apparently, he's missed out on certian democratic advances that have occurred in the past two centuries, such as the principle of 'one person, one vote' and the universal franchise. Instead, we have the sysops of a rinky-dink two node network (of which there are more than a few) having far more of a say than a vibrant network with fifty to a hundred nodes (do they still exist?) This reminds me of the days of the 'rotten boroughs' in the British Parliament of the eighteenth century where the riding of Old Sarum (and approximately thirty others) had a grand total of one legal voter to vote for the MP. Second, let's assume you have a mid-sized network of fifty nodes that is split down the middle, with twenty folks on each side (and ten who don't care). No matter which way the NC casts his or her ballot, at least twenty nodes will have been utterly disenfrachised - their opinions will not be recognised or recorded. Bob, your democracy questions are clearly answered: there is no democracy, there is no franchise, there is no progress. How can we call a process democratic when it depends on sysops hoping that their NC or RC will listen to what they have to say? Finally, apparently the sysop community isn't trusted enough to actually initiate a policy vote, which remains firmly in the hands of the Regional Co-ordinators. This body has always had the ability to initiate policy changes, and it's precisely because of this that there has been no meaningful change in nearly a decade and a half. Warren mentions in his article that Policy is unable to give sysops the right to vote. Where do these changes do that? Nowhere. He's always supported their right to change policy. So why are we encouraging a policy amendment that explicitly reinforcing their inability to propose change or to vote on change? Let me propose my own changes. 8.1 Initiation A referendum on policy modification is invoked when at least 10% or one hundred sysops, whichever is smal