The F I D O N E W S Volume 20, Number 35 01 Sep 2003 +--------------------------+-----------------------------------------+ | |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 2003 by Fidonews Editor for Fidonews Globally. Table of Contents 1. FOOD FOR THOUGHT ......................................... 1 2. GENERAL ARTICLES ......................................... 2 Fidonets very own Meglomaniac ............................ 2 3. FIDONET NOTICES .......................................... 10 RUSSIAN_TUTOR echo ....................................... 10 4. HUMOUR IN A FIDO VEIN .................................... 11 A Portrait of J. Random Hacker ........................... 11 5. BEN RITCHEY'S FIDONET SOFTWARE LISTING ................... 17 FIDONet Software References .............................. 17 6. SPECIAL INTEREST ......................................... 22 Nodelist Stats ........................................... 22 7. FIDONEWS INFORMATION ..................................... 24 How to Submit an Article ................................. 24 Credits, Legal Infomation, Availability .................. 26 FIDONEWS 20-35 Page 1 1 Sep 2003 ================================================================= FOOD FOR THOUGHT ================================================================= There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, that it behooves none of us, to criticize the rest of us. -- anonymous ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 20-35 Page 2 1 Sep 2003 ================================================================= GENERAL ARTICLES ================================================================= Inside the mind of a Fidonets very own Meglomaniac, Dale Ross By: Ross Cassell 1:123/456 Oh where do we begin? Do we begin in April 2001, when two of the three Z1B tier one hubs told Dale to take a proverbial hike because of the (mis)direction he was taking the Z1B, not to mention the mess he has made of it to date? Do we begin in the autumn of 2001, when he decided that he could be a member of both Regions 12 & 18 as he embroiled himself into the affairs of region 12? Do we begin with someone who has more than once published a nodelist that contravened the one published by both the Z1C and the IC? While it is very true that Dale himself fell under much scrutiny starting with his Z1B power trip, there is no denying that he himself wasted no time in labelling those who didnt "cow tow" to his political agendas. Ah yes, he calls them "wankers". Those not in his ever increasing small circle, have or have had, innuendo and rhetoric leveled against them, and it was he himself who used this same publication to relieve himself of some stress he had over an unfortunate incident that had at that time occurred 7 to 8 months earlier dealing with a TIC file. All of this now leads to what this article is about and in general, its how Dale Ross the mail hub, a member of the FTSC, deals with conference moderators who as individuals he has some sort of political axe to grind because they dont worship him or some such, but refuses to allow them to run their echoes. The echoes in question are the HOLYSMOKE echo moderated by Steve Quarrella and the POL_INC echo moderated by Dan Ceppa (and recently me added as co-moderator). As Dale Ross began his crusade to alienate himself from everyone, it became clear that his politics did not sit right with Steve Quarrella who was at the time the region 19 coordinator. Steve being the moderator of an echo and a RC had nothing to do with the other, except in Dales mind. Steve had many trouble users come and go from his echo from time to time, but a few users some of which were point nodes off of Dale Ross, while one was a regular downlink were regular troublemakers in the echo, when Steve asked Dale Ross to assist, he got absolutely no cooperation from Dale, but instead Dale Ross figuratively tried to beat Steve over the head with the Z1B SLA. He was telling Steve, rather making requirements of him as to how to run his echo before he would lift a finger, which at that time became obvious that Dale had no intentions to assist Steve with cutting these problem users out of the echo. This went on for literally months and FIDONEWS 20-35 Page 3 1 Sep 2003 months until Spring of 2003, when Steve finally asked and received cooperation from Dales Z1B peers to delink Dales system from HOLYSMOKE altogether. Dale's uncooperative nature in of itself is what forced this event to occur as it did, whereas all he really had to do was cut the nodes Steve asked to be cut.. Did Dale try to then react to this cut by asking the moderator to reconsider if he did cut the users, no. Did Dale apologize, no. What did Dale try to do?? I found this exchange on his BBS, it was between him and one of the users Steve had asked to be cut: This exchange was dated approximately a number of weeks after he was cut from the echo officially. --Begin Exhibit-- Area: FidoNet.HOLYSMOKE (Religion Debate Echo) Message# 83411 Date: 22nd May, 2003 at 20:10 From: Dale Ross To: Jeff Binkley Subject:: Re: Who is... Replies: Original (click to view previous messages in this thread) DR>> ... still linked to the echo? What does it take to get traffic DR>> generated from you? DR>> With best regards, Dale JB> A little poke or prod generally works. Do you think we can get some of the folks connected to Doc's place to accessthis area via another means other than Doc's place since we are nowseparated from Doc's place? That is where most of the traffic not on thisside came from. I have a mailing list setup. I can mail out QWK packets I can setup NNTP. I have BBS access. Some other system connected here may offer similar options? 1:379/1200 canoffer and probably does offer most of this already. With best regards, Dale --- Fidolook Lite FTN stub * Origin: FidoHub Point 1 (1:379/1.1) Area: FidoNet.HOLYSMOKE (Religion Debate Echo) Message# 83414 Date: 23rd May, 2003 at 01:45 From: Jeff Binkley To: Dale Ross Subject:: RE: WHO IS... Replies: (click to view previous messages in this thread) DR> DR>> ...still linked to the echo? What does it take to get traffic DR> DR>> generated from you? FIDONEWS 20-35 Page 4 1 Sep 2003 DR> DR>> With best regards, Dale DR> JB> A little poke or prod generally works. DR>Do you think we can get some of the folks connected to Doc's place DR>to access this area via another means other than Doc's place since DR>we are now separated from Doc's place? That is where most of the DR>traffic not on this side came from. DR>I have a mailing list setup. DR>I can mail out QWK packets DR>I can setup NNTP. DR>I have BBS access. DR>Some other system connected here may offer similar options? DR>1:379/1200 can offer and probably does offer most of this already. DR>With best regards, Dale I'll try. Jeff CMPQwk 1.42-21 9999 --- PCBoard (R) v15.3/M 10 * Origin: (1:226/600) Prev Message New Post --End Exhibit-- Sure looks like Fidonets most ethical, moral and INTEGRITY filled Sysop, Mail hub and FTSC member was being real cooperative.. Rather he was trying to hijack Steves echo, after all, how dare anyone disagree with how he does things! This is as far as things appeared to have gone with HOLYSMOKE and Dale Ross, but is this where this ends, no, read on, it gets better. The POL_INC echo moderated by Dan Ceppa, had issues with just about the same group of users, linked to guess who, our meglomaniac friend Dale Ross. Early on, Dan Ceppa used to be a point node off of Steve Quarrella and then eventually became a listed sysop. I suppose that Dans association with Steve already predispositioned Dale against him, but when Dan became a Fidonet sysop, it didnt help matters. Dan spent over a year being patient with Dale trying to deal with basically the same bunch of users that Steve had a issue with plus a few other colorful users, like Stewart Honsberger and Roy Witt who also goes by the alias of Andy Pead. Several months ago, Dale decided that he was fed up hearing from Dan and decided to take POL_INC off of his BBS, of course Dale made no attempt to work with Dan to help take the trouble users out of Dans echo. Dale pulled the same stunt with Dan that he did with Steve, by FIDONEWS 20-35 Page 5 1 Sep 2003 saying that Dan had to jump through major hoops by obeying Dales skewed interpretation of the Z1B SLA, rather what Dale was saying to both Steve and Dan was that they dont run their echoes, he does. What Dale doesnt know, is that his precious SLA is not enforceable on those not a party to the Z1B. For the last two years, we have heard Mr Dale Ross proudly proclaim himself Mr Integrity, Mr Ethical, Mr Moral, Mr technical, but in at least these cases, he didnt go the extra mile to help these moderators, he didnt take the high ground by setting aside political differences and actually assist those who sought his aid, no he saw two conference moderators he didnt like and wasnt going to lift a finger, he didnt even do the bare minimum to get by. Within the past month, I advised Dan Ceppa that he had exhausted every last ounce of patience with Dale Ross and that he would have to do something similiar in nature to what Steve had to do with HOLYSMOKE, but instead we were going to remove the Z1B SLA. Dan was advised to request that the Z1B remove his echo from its list of available echoes, the idea was to cut Dale Ross' system from his peers but still allow his peers to carry that echo, this was accomplished and it totally removed any real or perceived authority that was imagined onto that echo by the so called Z1B SLA. But here it gets interesting.. Please bear in mind, that by this time, POL_INC has been absent from his BBS for a number of months.. BTW.. His BBS is "BarkTo BBS", you can telnet to it at harborbebs.com, or you can use his HTTP web interface on port 8081. Now after this cut of his system took place, lo and behold, he puts POL_INC back on his BBS with a description of "Who Cares". Thats a rather stupid way to put things, since he made such a production to take it off his BBS, then after the cut is made, he puts it back, where he and Roy Witt have this exchange: This was taken from his HTTP side, so forgive the formatting. This is a message written by Dale Ross to Roy Witt within Dales version of POL_INC. --Begin Exhibit-- > Whoops! Doesn't he know that the echo is available on any telnetable > BBS, around the world! Without using ANY of my fidonet mail connections I have access to POL_INC on no less than 20 systems. More if I look harder. They will have to cut ahell of a lot of systems if they are tying to keep us from reading the echo. --End Exhibit-- A footnote here, this fact is more than obvious, although several BBS sysops have cooperated in shutting down alot of fake logons recently. FIDONEWS 20-35 Page 6 1 Sep 2003 But even so, this shows what Dale is up to despite him making the statement below: --Begin Exhibit-- All of these other messages have come in from a BBS. I can link the echo into at least 12 different systems. However, I'll not do that. Dale --End Exhibit-- Oh but he has and he currently still is doing that which he said he wouldnt do, must be that famous "Scottish Integrity" he brags about? Not long after I saw this exchange, I started noticing real messages from the POL_INC echo showing up on his BBS in his version of the echo, they werent up to date as far as how fast messages flow but they were the real McCoy as far as echo content. But the messages themselves had out of the ordinary formatting.. When compared to messages in the other echoes on his BBS, these messages lacked a ORIGIN line (I knew the seenby and path info wouldnt be viewable) and in addition to the ordinary message header displayed by the BBS, from/to/subj/date, the same header info was also duplicated within the message bodies. This somehow clued me that he was obtaining a QWK packet or even perhaps a FTN PKT, dumping all those messages to individual text files, stripping the ORIGIN line and other CTRL info then using BBBS's text file to message base import function. Whats even worse is, he is actually exporting these messages that he brings in this way from his BBS into his MAIL HUB and then onto his downlinks, some of which who werent part of the group of links to be cut, I have seen one such link reply to messages in the echo since Dale started doing this, little does this link know, his replies wont go out. Whats even funnier is Dale Ross and Roy Witt (aka Andy Pead) are also replying to messages in the echo as if those whom they respond to will see them. These were taken from a screen capture from his BBS on the telnet side, there are two messages, pay attention to the formatting I speak of in the first message and of course the second one which wouldnt contain the same weird format since its being posted locally by Dale... --Begin Exhibit-- POL_INC message #13848 from Wayne Chirnside to Ross Cassell. Entered on 24th August, 2003 at 13:35, 22 lines. There are replies to this message. Subject: Re: Commandments ========================= From: Wayne Chirnside To: Ross Cassell Date: 2003-08-24 11:03:00 FIDONEWS 20-35 Page 7 1 Sep 2003 Subject: Re: Commandments -=> ROSS CASSELL wrote to WAYNE CHIRNSIDE <=- RC> Do yourself a favor and if you arent supposed to be posting in RC> POLITICS, post in here.. :) Already arrived at that conclusion. I was banned but I'd neither broken any all-politics posted rule, been warned nordid my banishment cite the reason, I asked a question. Nor was Iinformed by netmail so I do not consider this ban binding inany way but considering the nature of that echoand it's participants...Since that time I have seen others violate that echo's rules withimpunity. Some kind of all-politics echo that can't tolorate a merequestion. Ah the land of the free :-( POL_INC message #13861 from Dale Ross to Wayne Chirnside. Entered on 24th August, 2003 at 13:40, 22 lines. Reply to msg # 13848. (There are no more replies.) Subject: Re: Commandments ========================= RC>> Do yourself a favor and if you arent supposed to be posting in RC>> POLITICS, post in here.. :) WC> Already arrived at that conclusion. I was banned but I'd neither WC> broken any all-politics posted rule, been warned nor did my WC> banishment cite the reason, I asked a question. Nor was I WC> informed by netmail so I do not consider this ban binding in WC> any way but considering the nature of that echo and it's WC> participants... Since that time I have seen others violate WC> that echo's rules withimpunity. Some kind of all-politics echo WC> that can't tolorate a mere question.Ah the WC> land of the free :-( So? That is a common practice here in POL_INC. Bye, Dale. --- FTNed 2001 Build 0058-RC6/Win2k * Origin: FTNed - The Best GUI FTNeditor! http://ftned.da.ru(1:379/1) --End Exhibit-- What he is doing by going to all this foolish trouble is showing his BBS as the POINT OF ORIGIN for these message from the perspective of his MAIL HUB and those linked to him for it, I confirmed this by asking a downlink of his to provide me with the seenby and path info for the latest message he had in that echo at the time of my request: --Begin Exhibit-- According to the last bundle I received that contained a POL_INC message, the following control information was present: @AREA POL_INC @MSGID: 1:379/45 2d784fc0 FIDONEWS 20-35 Page 8 1 Sep 2003 @TZUTC: -0500 @CHARSET: PC-8 @SEEN-BY: 10/22 226/600 229/1 249/116 280/5003 379/1 45 103 1200 712/848 @SEEN-BY: 2404/201 3800/1 @PATH: 379/45 1 --End Exhibit-- Dales POINTS, 10/22 and 226/600 are the banned users. People... Lets summarize. [HOLYSMOKE] * Wouldnt work with moderator. * Gets cut from the ECHO. * Tried to Hijack or co-opt the echo. [POL_INC] * Wouldnt work with moderator, even removed echo from his BBS. * Gets cut from the echo. * Puts echo back on BBS and goes to great lengths to manually import echo into his BBS with some sort of scripting that strips origin lines and makes the messages appear to show his system as point of origin, but also refeeds this to people originally cut from the echo but also people who are under some sort of impression that the feed is legitimate and really two-way with the rest of Fidonet. Is this the guy you want transporting your echoes? If he doesnt like the moderator, will he if simply defy the moderator and do this with them, heck he is doing it now. Is Dale Ross fit to serve on the FTSC? Can we really trust someone to be a scribe for our technical standards, when he does stuff like this? He has consistently showed himself to not be a team player and this only proves it, after two solid years of hearing him brag on his integrity we now know this to be a lie for no one with any integrity would go to these lengths that he has himself went to. As he has so often told his political opponents the past two years that they should "resign" for whatever misdeeds he perceived them as having done, I think in this case this same advice moreso now applies to him. Dale, you must resign, your seat on the FTSC, your mail hub and your perhaps your node number. FIDONEWS 20-35 Page 9 1 Sep 2003 ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 20-35 Page 10 1 Sep 2003 ================================================================= FIDONET NOTICES ================================================================= RUSSIAN_TUTOR echo Aleksej R. Serdyukov 2:5020/1042.42 [2003.08.28 14:50 UTC] ,Russian_Tutor,Learn_Russian_by_example,Aleksej_Serdyukov, Have you ever wanted to learn Russian but did't know how? Found only one link to a tutorial and it was broken? Even started to learn it, but lost your way because of a lack of support? Learned it but not sure how good? Know it well, but tired of people who correct you while you don't really want to make mistakes and would like to fix them? Using a spelling checker and tired of its stupidity? Well, the echo could help you. It even should help you, because it is intended to. English is fully allowed there and you can start learning from the scratch. Try it! The echo is on the WWB already and it will be on the R50 backbone in a couple of days. The echo moderator is Aleksej R. Serdyukov (2:5020/1042.42), the comoderators are Douglas Connor (1:132/500) and Alex Shakhaylo (2:461/700). Welcome! P.S.: In case you are interested in a similar echo for English, you can try to get ENGLISH_TUTOR. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 20-35 Page 11 1 Sep 2003 ================================================================= HUMOUR IN A FIDO VEIN ================================================================= A Portrait of J. Random Hacker forwarded by Petko Bossakov (2:350/5) This profile reflects detailed comments on an earlier 'trial balloon' version from about a hundred USENET respondents. Where comparatives are used, the implicit 'other' is a randomly selected segment of the non-hacker population of the same size as hackerdom. An important point: Except in some relatively minor respects such as slang vocabulary, hackers don't get to be the way they are by imitating each other. Rather, it seems to be the case that the combination of personality traits that makes a hacker so conditions one's outlook on life that one tends to end up being like other hackers whether one wants to or not (much as bizarrely detailed similarities in behavior and preferences are found in genetic twins raised separately). General Appearance ================== Intelligent. Scruffy. Intense. Abstracted. Surprisingly for a sedentary profession, more hackers run to skinny than fat; both extremes are more common than elsewhere. Tans are rare. Dress ===== Casual, vaguely post-hippie; T-shirts, jeans, running shoes, Birkenstocks (or bare feet). Long hair, beards, and moustaches are common. High incidence of tie-dye and intellectual or humorous 'slogan' T-shirts (only rarely computer related; that would be too obvious). A substantial minority prefers 'outdoorsy' clothing --- hiking boots ("in case a mountain should suddenly spring up in the machine room", as one famous parody put it), khakis, lumberjack or chamois shirts, and the like. Very few actually fit the 'National Lampoon' Nerd stereotype, though it lingers on at MIT and may have been more common before 1975. These days, backpacks are more common than briefcases, and the hacker 'look' is more whole-earth than whole-polyester. Hackers dress for comfort, function, and minimal maintenance hassles rather than for appearance (some, perhaps unfortunately, take this to extremes and neglect personal hygiene). They have a very low tolerance of suits and other 'business' attire; in fact, it is not uncommon for hackers to quit a job rather than conform to a dress code. Female hackers almost never wear visible makeup, and many use none at all. Reading Habits ============== FIDONEWS 20-35 Page 12 1 Sep 2003 Omnivorous, but usually includes lots of science and science fiction. The typical hacker household might subscribe to 'Analog', 'Scientific American', 'Co-Evolution Quarterly', and 'Smithsonian'. Hackers often have a reading range that astonishes liberal arts people but tend not to talk about it as much. Many hackers spend as much of their spare time reading as the average American burns up watching TV, and often keep shelves and shelves of well-thumbed books in their homes. Other Interests =============== Some hobbies are widely shared and recognized as going with the culture: science fiction, music, medievalism, chess, go, backgammon, wargames, and intellectual games of all kinds. (Role-playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons used to be extremely popular among hackers but they lost a bit of their luster as they moved into the mainstream and became heavily commercialized.) Logic puzzles. Ham radio. Other interests that seem to correlate less strongly but positively with hackerdom include linguistics and theater teching. Physical Activity and Sports ============================ Many (perhaps even most) hackers don't follow or do sports at all and are determinedly anti-physical. Among those who do, interest in spectator sports is low to non-existent; sports are something one *does*, not something one watches on TV. Further, hackers avoid most team sports like the plague (volleyball is a notable exception, perhaps because it's non-contact and relatively friendly). Hacker sports are almost always primarily self-competitive ones involving concentration, stamina, and micromotor skills: martial arts, bicycling, auto racing, kite flying, hiking, rock climbing, aviation, target-shooting, sailing, caving, juggling, skiing, skating (ice and roller). Hackers' delight in techno-toys also tends to draw them towards hobbies with nifty complicated equipment that they can tinker with. Education ========= Nearly all hackers past their teens are either college-degreed or self-educated to an equivalent level. The self-taught hacker is often considered (at least by other hackers) to be better-motivated, and may be more respected, than his school-shaped counterpart. Academic areas from which people often gravitate into hackerdom include (besides the obvious computer science and electrical engineering) physics, mathematics, linguistics, and philosophy. Things Hackers Detest and Avoid =============================== IBM mainframes. Smurfs, Ewoks, and other forms of offensive cuteness. Bureaucracies. Stupid people. Easy listening music. Television (except for cartoons, movies, the old "Star Trek", and the new "Simpsons"). Business suits. Dishonesty. Incompetence. Boredom. COBOL. BASIC. Character-based menu interfaces. Food ==== FIDONEWS 20-35 Page 13 1 Sep 2003 Ethnic. Spicy. Oriental, esp. Chinese and most esp. Szechuan, Hunan, and Mandarin (hackers consider Cantonese vaguely d'eclass'e). Hackers prefer the exotic; for example, the Japanese-food fans among them will eat with gusto such delicacies as fugu (poisonous pufferfish) and whale. Thai food has experienced flurries of popularity. Where available, high-quality Jewish delicatessen food is much esteemed. A visible minority of Southwestern and Pacific Coast hackers prefers Mexican. For those all-night hacks, pizza and microwaved burritos are big. Interestingly, though the mainstream culture has tended to think of hackers as incorrigible junk-food junkies, many have at least mildly health-foodist attitudes and are fairly discriminating about what they eat. This may be generational; anecdotal evidence suggests that the stereotype was more on the mark 10--15 years ago. Politics ======== Vaguely left of center, except for the strong libertarian contingent which rejects conventional left-right politics entirely. The only safe generalization is that hackers tend to be rather anti-authoritarian; thus, both conventional conservatism and 'hard' leftism are rare. Hackers are far more likely than most non-hackers to either (a) be aggressively apolitical or (b) entertain peculiar or idiosyncratic political ideas and actually try to live by them day-to-day. Gender and Ethnicity ==================== Hackerdom is still predominantly male. However, the percentage of women is clearly higher than the low-single-digit range typical for technical professions, and female hackers are generally respected and dealt with as equals. In the U.S., hackerdom is predominantly Caucasian with strong minorities of Jews (East Coast) and Orientals (West Coast). The Jewish contingent has exerted a particularly pervasive cultural influence (see Food, above, and note that several common jargon terms are obviously mutated Yiddish). The ethnic distribution of hackers is understood by them to be a function of which ethnic groups tend to seek and value education. Racial and ethnic prejudice is notably uncommon and tends to be met with freezing contempt. When asked, hackers often ascribe their culture's gender- and color-blindness to a positive effect of text-only network channels. Religion ======== Agnostic. Atheist. Non-observant Jewish. Neo-pagan. Very commonly, three or more of these are combined in the same person. Conventional faith-holding Christianity is rare though not unknown. Even hackers who identify with a religious affiliation tend to be relaxed about it, hostile to organized religion in general and all forms of religious bigotry in particular. Many enjoy 'parody' FIDONEWS 20-35 Page 14 1 Sep 2003 religions such as Discordianism and the Church of the SubGenius. Also, many hackers are influenced to varying degrees by Zen Buddhism or (less commonly) Taoism, and blend them easily with their 'native' religions. There is a definite strain of mystical, almost Gnostic sensibility that shows up even among those hackers not actively involved with neo-paganism, Discordianism, or Zen. Hacker folklore that pays homage to 'wizards' and speaks of incantations and demons has too much psychological truthfulness about it to be entirely a joke. Ceremonial Chemicals ==================== Most hackers don't smoke tobacco, and use alcohol in moderation if at all (though there is a visible contingent of exotic-beer fanciers, and a few hackers are serious oenophiles). Limited use of non-addictive psychedelic drugs, such as cannabis, LSD, psilocybin, and nitrous oxide, etc., used to be relatively common and is still regarded with more tolerance than in the mainstream culture. Use of 'downers' and opiates, on the other hand, appears to be particularly rare; hackers seem in general to dislike drugs that 'dumb them down'. On the third hand, many hackers regularly wire up on caffeine and/or sugar for all-night hacking runs. Communication Style =================== See the discussions of speech and writing styles near the beginning of this File. Though hackers often have poor person-to-person communication skills, they are as a rule extremely sensitive to nuances of language and very precise in their use of it. They are often better at writing than at speaking. Geographical Distribution ========================= In the United States, hackerdom revolves on a Bay Area-to-Boston axis; about half of the hard core seems to live within a hundred miles of Cambridge (Massachusetts) or Berkeley (California), although there are significant contingents in Los Angeles, in the Pacific Northwest, and around Washington DC. Hackers tend to cluster around large cities, especially 'university towns' such as the Raleigh-Durham area in North Carolina or Princeton, New Jersey (this may simply reflect the fact that many are students or ex-students living near their alma maters). Sexual Habits ============= Hackerdom tolerates a much wider range of sexual and lifestyle variation than the mainstream culture. It includes a relatively large gay contingent. Hackers are somewhat more likely to live in polygynous or polyandrous relationships, practice open marriage, or live in communes or group houses. In this, as in general appearance, hackerdom semi-consciously maintains 'counterculture' values. Personality Characteristics =========================== The most obvious common 'personality' characteristics of hackers are FIDONEWS 20-35 Page 15 1 Sep 2003 high intelligence, consuming curiosity, and facility with intellectual abstractions. Also, most hackers are 'neophiles', stimulated by and appreciative of novelty (especially intellectual novelty). Most are also relatively individualistic and anti-conformist. Although high general intelligence is common among hackers, it is not the sine qua non one might expect. Another trait is probably even more important: the ability to mentally absorb, retain, and reference large amounts of 'meaningless' detail, trusting to later experience to give it context and meaning. A person of merely average analytical intelligence who has this trait can become an effective hacker, but a creative genius who lacks it will swiftly find himself outdistanced by people who routinely upload the contents of thick reference manuals into their brains. Contrary to stereotype, hackers are *not* usually intellectually narrow; they tend to be interested in any subject that can provide mental stimulation, and can often discourse knowledgeably and even interestingly on any number of obscure subjects --- if you can get them to talk at all, as opposed to, say, going back to their hacking. It is noticeable (and contrary to many outsiders' expectations) that the better a hacker is at hacking, the more likely he or she is to have outside interests at which he or she is more than merely competent. Hackers are 'control freaks' in a way that has nothing to do with the usual coercive or authoritarian connotations of the term. In the same way that children delight in making model trains go forward and back by moving a switch, hackers love making complicated things like computers do nifty stuff for them. But it has to be *their* nifty stuff. They don't like tedium, nondeterminism, or most of the fussy, boring, ill-defined little tasks that go with maintaining a normal existence. Accordingly, they tend to be careful and orderly in their intellectual lives and chaotic elsewhere. Their code will be beautiful, even if their desks are buried in 3 feet of crap. Hackers are generally only very weakly motivated by conventional rewards such as social approval or money. They tend to be attracted by challenges and excited by interesting toys, and to judge the interest of work or other activities in terms of the challenges offered and the toys they get to play with. In terms of Myers-Briggs and equivalent psychometric systems, hackerdom appears to concentrate the relatively rare INTJ and INTP types; that is, introverted, intuitive, and thinker types (as opposed to the extroverted-sensate personalities that predominate in the mainstream culture). ENT[JP] types are also concentrated among hackers but are in a minority. Weaknesses of the Hacker Personality Hackers have relatively little ability to identify emotionally with other people. This may be because hackers generally aren't much like 'other people'. Unsurprisingly, hackers also tend towards self-absorption, intellectual arrogance, and impatience with people and tasks perceived to be wasting their time. FIDONEWS 20-35 Page 16 1 Sep 2003 As cynical as hackers sometimes wax about the amount of idiocy in the world, they tend by reflex to assume that everyone is as rational, 'cool', and imaginative as they consider themselves. This bias often contributes to weakness in communication skills. Hackers tend to be especially poor at confrontation and negotiation. As a result of all the above traits, many hackers have difficulty maintaining stable relationships. At worst, they can produce the classic {computer geek}: withdrawn, relationally incompetent, sexually frustrated, and desperately unhappy when not submerged in his or her craft. Fortunately, this extreme is far less common than mainstream folklore paints it --- but almost all hackers will recognize something of themselves in the unflattering paragraphs above. Hackers are often monumentally disorganized and sloppy about dealing with the physical world. Bills don't get paid on time, clutter piles up to incredible heights in homes and offices, and minor maintenance tasks get deferred indefinitely. The sort of person who uses phrases like 'incompletely socialized' usually thinks hackers are. Hackers regard such people with contempt when they notice them at all. Miscellaneous ============= Hackers are more likely to have cats than dogs (in fact, it is widely grokked that cats have the hacker nature). Many drive incredibly decrepit heaps and forget to wash them; richer ones drive spiffy Porsches and RX-7s and then forget to have them washed. Almost all hackers have terribly bad handwriting, and often fall into the habit of block-printing everything like junior draftsmen. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 20-35 Page 17 1 Sep 2003 ================================================================= BEN RITCHEY'S FIDONET SOFTWARE LISTING ================================================================= -=:{ FIDONet Software Reference }:=- Type: M=Mailer T=Tosser B=BBS D=Door C=Comm/Terminal P=Points E=Editor I=Internet U=Utility ?=Info .- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -. |Software: Author |Type |URL, Contact, Ver, Notes Help Node| `- - - - - - - - - - -+- - -+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -' Argus |M |http://www.ritlabs.com/argus/ 2:469/84 | | argus@ritlabs.com Tel: 373-2-246889 | | v3.210 on Mar 20th 2001 BeeMail: |M |http://beemail.gexonline.net 1:105/10 Stephen Proffit | | beemail@gexonline.net BinkleyTerm XE |M |http://btxe.sourceforge.net 1:1/102 | | v2.60XE/Gamma-6 on Nov 11th 1998 BinkD |MI |http://2f.ru/binkd/ | | maloff@corbina.net | | v0.94 on Jul 24th 2000 FIDO-Deluxe IP |MPUI |http://www.fido-deluxe.de.vu 2:2432/280 Michael Haase | | m.haase@gmx.net | | v2.3 on Jul 18th 2003 Fidonet to Internet: |MI |http://www.terminate.com Bo Bendtsen | | sales@terminate.com | | v2.00 on Mar 23rd 1997 FrontDoor, FD/APX: |MTPC |http://www.defsol.se 2:201/330 Definite Solutions | | sales@defsol.se 1:1/101 | | v2.26SW & v2.33ml FD, v1.15 APX Husky Project |MTPUI|http://husky.sf.net | | v1.4.0 on Feb 11th 2003 InterMail, InterEcho |MT |http://www.ifido.com 1:1/133 | | bob@nwstar.com | | v2.50 IM, v1.19 IE Radius (based on |M |http://fido5012.narod.ru/ 2:5012/38 Argus) | | fido5012@zaural.net Tel: 7-3522-469463 | | v4.009 on Jan 2nd 2003 Terminate |MBP |http://www.terminate.com | | v5.00 on Aug 7th 1997 Tmail |MI |http://www.tmail.spb.ru v2608 WildCat! Interactive |MTBEI|http://www.santronics.com FIDONEWS 20-35 Page 18 1 Sep 2003 Net Server, Platinum| | sales@santronics.com Xpress: Santronics | | Tel: (305) 248-3204 Software, Inc. | | AUP 450.2 on Jul 9th 2002 +- - - - - - - - - - -+- - -+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -+ Fidogate |TUI |http://www.fidogate.org | | Martin_Junius@m-j-s.net v4.4.4 FMail |T |http://fmail.nl.eu.org 2:280/1076 | | wijnstra@fmail.nl.eu.org v1.60 JetMail: JetSys |TU |http://www.jetsys.de js@jetsys.de (ATARI ST only) | | v1.01 on Jan 1st 2000 Squish |T |http://www.lanius.com | | sales@lanius.com v1.11 | |http://www.vector11.com/maximus/ Watergate |TUI |http://www2.sbbs.se/hp/ramon/ | | ramon@sbbs.se | | v0.93p9 on Dec 14th 1998 +- - - - - - - - - - -+- - -+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -+ BBBS |BI |http://www.bbbs.net b@bbbs.net | | v4.00MP on Oct 25th 1999 2:22/222 ELEBBS: The Elevator |B |http://www.elebbs.com Software Production | | elebbs@elebbs.com | | v0.10.RC1 on Jun 9th 2002 EZYCom BBS |BT |http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~dcbbs/ | | pjs@optushome.com.au 3:633/104 | | v2.0 on 3 May 2003 Falken BBS |B |http://falkenbbs.com | | v12.0 on Feb 2nd 2002 Hermes II Project |B |http://www.hermesii.org | | info@HermesII.org v3.5.9 Beta Final Maximus BBS |B |http://www.lanius.com | | sales@lanius.com v3.01 | |http://www.vector11.com/maximus/ MBSE BBS: |BI |http://mbse.sourceforge.net 2:280/2802 Michiel Broek | | mbroek@users.sourceforge.net | | v0.33.21 on Jun 4th 2002 Mystic BBS |B |http://www.mysticbbs.com | | v1.07.3 on May 13th 2001 Nexus BBS |B |http://www.nexusbbs.net | | groberts@nexusbbs.net | | v0.99.41.001 beta on Jun 10th 2001 Proboard BBS |B |http://www.proboard.be FIDONEWS 20-35 Page 19 1 Sep 2003 | | v2.17 on Jun 9th 2002 RemoteAccess BBS: |B |http://www.rapro.com 1:1/120 Bruce Morse | | bfmorse@rapro.com | | v2.62.2SW Spitfire BBS: Buffalo|B |http://www.angelfire.com/ia/buffalo/ Creek Software | | MDWoltz@aol.com 1:1/150 | | v3.6 on Aug 20th 1999 Synchronet BBS |BT |http://www.synchro.net | | sysop(at)vert(dot)synchro(dot)net | | v3.10L Beta Telegard BBS |B |http://www.telegard.net | | support@telegard.net | | v3.09g2 SP4 +- - - - - - - - - - -+- - -+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -+ Atlantis Software |D |http://www.jimmyrose.com/atlantis/ | | last update: Jun 2002 BBS Central |D |http://www.rpcomputers.com Bentstone |D |http://www.srupc.com/mall Capabilities Group | | info@stonebenders.com Cheepware: |D |http://www.midnightshour.org/cheepware/ Sean Dennis | | hausmaus@midnightshour.org 1:11/200 DDS (Doorware |D |http://www.doorgames.org 1:2404/201 Distribution System)| | ruth@doorgames.org Ruth Argust | | DoorMUD |D |http://www.dmud.thebbs.org | | v0.98 Jun 1st 2002 Elysium Software |D |http://www.elysoft.com | | mpreslar@mailcity.com Jibben Software |D |http://www.jibbensoftware.com | | scott@jibben.com | | 1995-99 Release dates JNS Software: |D |http://www.geocities.com/jnssoftware/ Rusty Johnson | | rustyjohnson57@hotmail.com | | Tel: (304) 733-0113 John Dailey Software |D |http://www.johndaileysoftware.com | | support@johndaileysoftware.com LORD (Legend of the |D |http://www.lordlegacy.org Red Dragon) Reborn | | mike@lordlegacy.org | | v4.06 on Feb 5th 2001 Lord-II IGMs |D |http://www.shelby.net/wizards/lord2igm/ FIDONEWS 20-35 Page 20 1 Sep 2003 PC Pursuits |D |http://www.pcpursuits.com | | brucep@pop.kis.net | | Tel: (301) 240-6653 Shining Star |D |http://www.shiningstar.net/bbsdoors/ | | nannette@shiningstar.net Sunrise Doors: |D |http://www.sunrisedoors.com Al Lawrence | | al@sunrisedoors.com | | Tel: (404) 256-9518 The Brainex System |D |http://www.brainex.com/brainex_system/ | | stanley@brainex.com 1994-99 Releases Trade Wars |D |http://www.eisonline.com/tradewars/ | | jpritch@eisonline.com | | v3.09 (DOS-32) in 2002 Vagabond Software: |D |http://www.vbsoft.org 1:124/7013 Bryan Turner | | vagabond@vbsoft.org | | last update: Jul 17th 2002 (various) |D |http://www.webnexus.com/users/etow/ +- - - - - - - - - - -+- - -+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -+ APoint |PI |http://www.apoint-mail.de | | dirk.pokorny@apoint-mail.de | | v1.25 2:2426/1210.13 CrossPoint (XP) |P |http://www.crosspoint.de | | pm@crosspoint.de v3.12d Dec 22nd 1999 FreeXP |P |http://www.freexp.de 2:2433/460 | | support@freexp.de | | v3.40 RC3 Apr 28th 2002 OpenXP/32 |PI |http://www.openxp.com 2:248/2004 | | mk@openxp.de v3.8.7 beta Aug 3rd 2002 PPoint |P |http://www.alcuf.ca 1:249/114 | | v3.04 on Jan 10th 2000 +- - - - - - - - - - -+- - -+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -+ GoldEd+ |E |http://mik.nu/golded-plus/ 2:203/6600 | | v1.1.5 Snapshot on Feb 28th 2003 SqEd32 |E |http://www.sqed.de | | v1.15 on Dec 15th 1999 TimEd |E |http://blizzard.dnsalias.org/fidonet | | mail@ozzmosis.com /timed | | v1.11.a5 in March 2003 3:633/267 +- - - - - - - - - - -+- - -+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -+ Allfix |U |ftp://ftp.nwstar.com 1:140/12 | | bob@nwstar.com | | v5.13 (v6?) FIDONEWS 20-35 Page 21 1 Sep 2003 GiGo |UI |http://www.gigo.com | | v0109 on Jan 9th 1997 Internet Rex: |UI |http://members.shaw.ca/InternetRex/ Charles Cruden | | telnet://xanadubbs.ca 1:342/806 (Khan Software) | | v2.29 on Oct 21st 2001 PeopleComm Terminal |CUI |http://www.peoplecomm.org 1:128/148 (BBS & Telnet w/ | | edward.williams@adelphia.net ZModem) | | v1.01a on Feb 11th 2003 TransNet |UI |http://www.ressl.com.ar/transnet/ | | transnet@ressl.com.ar | | v2.11 on Jul 18th 1998 TransX: Multiboard |UI |http://www.multiboard.com/software/ Communications, Inc.| | support@multiboard.com 1:2401/305 | | v3.5 +- - - - - - - - - - -+- - -+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -+ National BBS List |? | http://www.usbbs.org Hispanic FIDO/BBS's |? | http://www.conecta2.org/pucela_bbs/ (in Spanish only) | | (Extensive software & BBS Listings) +- - - - - - - - - - -+- - -+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -+ File Archives: http://archives.thebbs.org http://www.filegate.org http://sysopscorner.thebbs.org http://www.juge.com http://www.dmine.com/bbscorner/ http://garbo.uwasa.fi http://www.simtel.net http://wuarchive.wustl.edu http://hobbes.nmsu.edu Note: most also provide FTP access (use ftp:// vice http:// above) *=-=*=.=*=-=*=.=*=-=*=.=*=-=*=.=*=-=*=.=*=-=*=.=*=-=*=.=*=-=*=.=*=-=* Note: Please send corrections & additions to: Ben Ritchey, 1:393/68 ( or FReq Magic INFO direct for E-mail address ) WildCat! BBS at +1-337-232-4155 24/7 33.6kBps,8,N,1 Internet: http://bellsouthpwp.net/c/m/cmech617/fidosoft.txt Emeritus: Todd Cochrane, Frank Vest, Peter Popovich ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 20-35 Page 22 1 Sep 2003 ================================================================= SPECIAL INTEREST ================================================================= Nodelist Stats Input nodelist nodelist.241 size 960.5kb date 2003-08-29 The nodelist has 8344 nodes in it and a total of 11090 non-comment entries including 6 zones 59 regions 439 hosts 594 hubs admin overhead 1098 ( 13.16 %) and 1003 private nodes 273 nodes down 372 nodes on hold off line overhead 1648 ( 19.75 %) Speed summary: >9600 = 666 ( 7.98 %) 9600 = 7264 ( 87.06 %) (HST = 150 or 2.06 %) (CSP = 1 or 0.01 %) (PEP = 11 or 0.15 %) (MAX = 0 or 0.00 %) (HAY = 1 or 0.01 %) (V32 = 3892 or 53.58 %) (V32B = 380 or 5.23 %) (V34 = 4822 or 66.38 %) (V42 = 4054 or 55.81 %) (V42B = 403 or 5.55 %) 2400 = 80 ( 0.96 %) 1200 = 6 ( 0.07 %) 300 = 328 ( 3.93 %) ISDN = 752 ( 9.01 %) ---------------------------------------------------------- File Req Flag Applicable software Number of systems ---------------------------------------------------------- XA Frontdoor <1.99b 2817 Frontdoor 2.02+ Dutchie 2.90c Binkleyterm >2.1 D'Bridge <1.3 TIMS Xenia -------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 20-35 Page 23 1 Sep 2003 XB Binkleyterm 2.0 10 Dutchie 2.90b -------------------------------------- XC Opus 1.1 11 -------------------------------------- XP Seadog 6 -------------------------------------- XR Opus 1.03 43 -------------------------------------- XW Fido >12M 329 Tabby KittenMail -------------------------------------- XX D'Bridge 1.30 3738 Frontdoor 1.99b Intermail 2.01 T-Mail -------------------------------------- None QMM 1390 -------------------------------------- CrashMail capable = 2587 ( 31.00 %) MailOnly nodes = 4616 ( 55.32 %) Listed-only nodes = 644 ( 7.72 %) Other = 497 ( 5.96 %) [Report produced by NETSTATS - A PD pgm available from 1:106/100] [ Revised by B Felten, 2:203/208] ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 20-35 Page 24 1 Sep 2003 ================================================================= FIDONEWS INFORMATION ================================================================= How to Submit an Article If you wish to submit an article for inclusion in the Fidonews, here are some guidelines, if you send it as an attached file; the preferred method if you want reasonable control over how the published article will appear in the Fidonews: a) Plain ASCII text. 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