F I D O N E W S Volume 16, Number 01 4 January 1999 +----------------------------+---------------------------------------+ | The newsletter of the | ISSN 1198-4589 Published by: | | FidoNet community | "FidoNews" | | _ | +27-41-515-913 [5:5/23] | | / \ | | | /|oo \ | | | (_| /_) | | | _`@/_ \ _ | | | | | \ \\ | Editor: | | | (*) | \ )) | Henk Wolsink 5:7104/2 | | |__U__| / \// | | | _//|| _\ / | | | (_/(_|(____/ | | | (jm) | Newspapers should have no friends. | | | -- JOSEPH PULITZER | +----------------------------+---------------------------------------+ | Submission address: FidoNews Editor 5:5/23 | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | MORE addresses: | | | | submissions=> editor@fidonews.org | | hwolsink@catpe.alt.za | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | For information, copyrights, article submissions, | | obtaining copies of FidoNews or the internet gateway FAQ | | please refer to the end of this file. | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ Table of Contents 1. EDITORIAL ................................................ 1 2. ARTICLES ................................................. 2 FTSC Administrator Election Results ...................... 2 North American Backbone Echo Changes [Nov-Dec] ........... 3 FTSC Nominations ......................................... 4 FTSC Standing Members Election Results ................... 5 Searching but not finding ................................ 6 3. NOTICES .................................................. 11 4. FIDONET BY INTERNET ...................................... 12 5. FIDONEWS INFORMATION ..................................... 16 FIDONEWS 16-01 Page 1 4 Jan 1999 ================================================================= EDITORIAL ================================================================= Greeting, A very happy 1999 to you all! One year to go and 2000 is upon us. And then? Most of the PC's break down, because either it's not Y2K compliant or the software used will see to it's downfall. What a thought. Yes, I agree and it's not a nice thought at all. Or is it? :-) A question was raised about the naming of FidoNews and I suggested we go as follows: FNEWnnnn.ZIP, this issue being FNEW1601.ZIP However, since I have not discussed this with those who rely on receiving FidoNews and their system automattically processing it, such as fidonews.org, it might not be in the interest to change it as suggested above, but rather carry on with the naming as used. Happy reading, ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 16-01 Page 2 4 Jan 1999 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= FTSC Administrator - Election Results by Mario Mure', 2:335/533 mure@sistemia.it ELECTION RESULTS FTSC ADMINISTRATOR 01 January 1999 VOTER SUMMARY ============= Eligible Voters: 17 Votes Cast: 8 Percentage voted: 47% APPOINTMENT RULES ================= From "Voting Procedure", published in the FTSC_PUBLIC echomail conference and in FIDO1547.NWS and FIDO1550.NWS: "All FTSC Standing Members as per current version of FTA-1003 who have not resigned from their position are eligible to vote. "Each vote shall be for only one of the 2 candidates. An abstention is permitted." "The elected candidate will be appointed for a period that ends 2002-12-31." CANDIDATE RESULTS - 2 Candidates, 1 Appointed ============================================= Candidate list is in order of number of votes received: # NAME NODE # VOTES APPOINTED TO 1 Colin Turner 2:443/13 8 31 Dec 2002 2 Radu Malica 2:530/139 - --- BALLOT LIST =========== Ballot list is in alphabetical order of password received: +-------------------+-----------------------------------------------+ FIDONEWS 16-01 Page 3 4 Jan 1999 | VOTER | | | PASSWORD | CANDIDATE VOTED | +-------------------+-----------------------------------------------+ | boromir | Colin Turner | | Freejack | Colin Turner | | Goran_Eriksson | Colin Turner | | (1) | Colin Turner | | Limerick | Colin Turner | | LORIEN | Colin Turner | | (2) | Colin Turner | | PICKTUR | Colin Turner | +-------------------+-----------------------------------------------+ (1) KeepOnRockingInTheFreeWorld (2) Peter_Karlsson_2:206/221.0 ----------------------------------------------------------------- North American Backbone Echo Changes [Nov-Dec] by Lisa Gronke, 1:105/9 lisa@psg.com Summary of backbone echo changes during Nov & Dec. Brought to you courtesy of (unix) diff. As noted last month, the North American Backbone changed the format of its areafix compatible lists. Backbone.na now lists all NAB backbone echos. The backbone.no list no longer exists. Echos that are in jeopardy because of low traffic or an expired Elist entry are listed in Section 3 of the weekly backstat.na. When Thom LaCosta took over the Elist function last summer, he merged all unrefreshed entries from Adrian's Elist, using the merge date as the refresh date in his database. The result was to give unaware moderators an extra five months 'til expiry. Effectively no echos have been placed in jeopardy for lack of an Elist entry since June '98. These echos are expiring now, and I expect a large number of unrefreshed echos to be dropped from the January EList and added to Section 3 of backstat.na. I _think_ those echos will be removed from backbone.na after three months if they remain un-Elisted, but only time will tell for sure. The North American Backbone also made it harder to get into, and easier to get out of, jeopardy for Low traffic. I am told that Low traffic echos will not be removed from backbone.na, so Low traffic jeopardy doesn't mean much. The net result is that the number of backbone echos is growing, although the number of backbone messages continues to shrink. diff backbone.na 06-Sep-98 backbone.na 03.Jan-99 [edited]. Added to the backbone --------------------- FIDONEWS 16-01 Page 4 4 Jan 1999 > ALLFIX_FILE Allfix File Announce Conference > ANIME Japanese Animation Echo > BBS_PROMOTION The BBS Promotion "Team" Join Us! > BEEMAIL GUI mailer for Win3.1 and Win > BINKD The ubiquitous BinkD TCP/IP FTN mailer > BURL Serialized Electronic Novels > CWL Contact World-Wide Link > DAGGER Discussions of Daggerfall and other RPG topics > FLAME National FLAME echo > MEDIEVAL Medieval studies, re-creation, arts, etc. > MP3 International MP3 Discussion Forum > NORTH_CAROLINA GENERAL CHAT FOR NORTH CAROLINA > SCI-FI_TV SCIENCE FICTION TELEVISION SHOWS echo! > TRANSCAN Trans Canada Drivel > WORLD_CRISIS Discussion of the World Financial Crisis Note: ANIME and FLAME are returning echos. Removed from the backbone or quasi-backbone ------------------------------------------- < AAOS American Atheist Online Services Echo < EFC Earth: Final Conflict series discussions < WILDRNSS Wilderness Travel and Camping ----------------------------------------------------------------- o There are 732 echos in backbone.na [03-Jan-98] (up 12) ----------------------------------------------------------------- FTSC Nominations by Goran Eriksson, 2:201/505, get@get.pp.se When working with the preparations for the FTSC elections just concluded, it struck me how foreign the nomination process prescribed by FTA-1001 is to me. In my neck of the woods, the normal thing would be for candidates in FTSC elections to nominate themselves and present themselves and their merits. The electorate would be trusted to make a sound choice between the candidates based on that information and on other information available to each member of the electorate. Certainly, formal nomination procedures like those prescribed by FTA-1001 are sometimes used also around here. In other cases, the nomination procedure may formally be open, but you don't stand any real chance if you're not recommended by the appointed nomination committee. In an organization like the FTSC as well as the FidoNet as a whole, the norm would however be that anyone may nominate anyone. Even her-/himself. Seconded nominations may occur but are not required. I therefore suggest that FTA-1001 is changed accordingly. FIDONEWS 16-01 Page 5 4 Jan 1999 You're invited to take part in the discussion about this suggestion in the FTSC_PUBLIC echomail conference. That's where the FTSC has to seek consensus for changes like these. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FTSC Standing Members - Election Results by Mario Mure', 2:335/533 mure@sistemia.it ELECTION RESULTS FTSC STANDING MEMBERS 01 January 1999 VOTER SUMMARY ============= Eligible Voters: 110 (71 RCs and 39 RECs) Votes Cast: 26 (16 RCs and 10 RECs) Percentage voted: 23% (22% RCs and 25% RECs) APPOINTMENT RULES ================= From "Voting Procedure", published in the FTSC_PUBLIC echomail conference and in FIDO1547.NWS and FIDO1550.NWS: "Only those candidates obtaining support from more than 50 % of the total number of RC's and REC's casting valid votes will be considered successfull. Successfull candidates will be appointed according to the total number of supportive votes they have received. The one with the highest number of supportive votes will be appointed first etc." "Elected candidates will be appointed for a period that ends 2000-09-30." CANDIDATE RESULTS - 4 Candidates, 4 Appointed ============================================= Candidate list is in order of number of YES votes received: # NAME NODE # YES NO APPOINTED TO 1 Lothar Behet 2:2446/301 23 3 30 Sep 2000 2 Sean Rima 2:252/300 22 2 30 Sep 2000 3 Todd Cochrane 1:345/2 18 3 30 Sep 2000 4 David Hallford 1:208/103 18 3 30 Sep 2000 FIDONEWS 16-01 Page 6 4 Jan 1999 BALLOT LIST =========== Ballot list is in alphabetical order of password received: +-------------------+-----------------------------------------------+ | | CANDIDATE NAMES | | VOTER +-----------------------------------------------+ | | Lothar | Todd | David | Sean | | PASSWORD | Behet | Cochrane | Hallford | Rima | +-------------------+-----------------------------------------------+ | caladan | YES YES YES YES | | Chopin | YES YES | | CIAO | YES YES YES | | EREBUS | YES YES YES YES | | Eucharist | YES | | FTscSM | YES YES YES YES | | GUTEN_TAG | YES YES YES YES | | HOTDOG | YES YES YES YES | | in_between | YES YES YES YES | | kachkeis | YES YES | | kalamaja | YES YES YES YES | | MAGNIFICAT | YES YES YES YES | | MNBVWQ | YES NO NO YES | | Multisync | NO NO YES YES | | MUSFTSC | YES YES YES | | phugueadugue | YES YES NO YES | | RCVOTE | NO YES YES NO | | REC23 | YES YES YES YES | | (1) | YES YES YES YES | | spudnut | YES YES YES YES | | Tony | YES YES YES YES | | Voyager | NO YES NO YES | | vrx12 | YES | | W6TFE | YES YES YES YES | | X007 | YES YES YES YES | | xxxxx | YES NO YES NO | +-------------------+-----------------------------------------------+ (1) Santo oficio de la memoria ----------------------------------------------------------------- Searching but not finding It's not a game to many of us I am writing this article in hopes it will generate some thought and be distributed to folks who can make a difference in the future of the net and search technologies. If you are such a person, sit back and relax, I'd like to converse with you about this for a few moments in a totally nonthreatening way. you might even be glad I did. LEt's take your typical day, and mine. WE've gotta get the FIDONEWS 16-01 Page 7 4 Jan 1999 kids off to school, during our work day we've got to research for upcoming projects and network with coworkers to do our daily tasks. Yes, we've also got to do lots of research, whether it's on which model of furnace to get for the house or is this a safe toy for Junior. The internet was gonna make this easier for us, right? At this point you're uttering the great words of modern search technology, such as yahoo, excite and so on. WEll, all that's fine but we're missing the boat. During one of those average days you want to order a piece of equipment you need. YOu want to make that call when you're not on your boss's dime which limits your available time to do this. So, you're going to do some research. Ah yes, the supplier has a web site, and somewhere on that web site is a price list for products they sell, and another of used merchandise they have in stock. WEll, no big deal, right? We're gonna go there and grab those two lists which are common garden variety zip files, download 'em, unzip 'em and either print 'em out or read them. Not so fast! well, we get there, but we can't quite remember under which link we found it before. LEt's wander around for awhile. Hmmm, here's a neat one, a midi file downloads and plays while a dancing bear tells you about something you really don't want. THe text scrolls across the screen so fast you couldn't read it if you tried, but let's back up, our link didn't seem to be there. Let's try another. Still not there. Where's that darned file? A coworker reminds you that you're going to be late for your lunch appointment with the prospective client if you don't get a move on, so you log off and grab your coat. AH well, maybe later this afternoon. Oops, can't get outside on the net now, can't connect, whatevver. NO luck. We had it but we lost it! Remember when the internet was a collection of machines in the halls of academia, technology companies and the military? My first contacts with the internet were in the later years of this period, through something called fidonet. It was a gateway connection, no binary files could be transferred, but a guy could get a lot of work done. Under the strategies employed in those halcyon days of the net, I might get the price lists in the above example via ftp. REmember Ftp? Simple to use, allowed anonymous log-ins, didn't care if your browser doesn't have the latest plug-ins. IT worked for everybody, worked well too. I might ftp the file, or I might use a doccument or database search tool such as wais to narrow down my search to items I knew I wanted. I can have a price quote of those items via email using something akin to wais. I send out my email, meanwhile go have my lunch with my coworker and the prospect, come back and get other work done. When checking my email later my request has made it through the queue, I find. The results of my search are now sitting in my email in-box for my perusal. No muss, no fuss, no strain, but the gain I sought when I was playing with my browser like I was channel surfing between football games. I don't want to channel surf I want to get what I want and leave. If I'm in the mood for browsing, the web or my FIDONEWS 16-01 Page 8 4 Jan 1999 public library both work fine, but if I really want to find it, my public library has the edge. It can accomodate me there too with the Dewey Decimal system and knowledgeable librarians. Yes, I lament the loss of some of the old standard internet search tools, Archie and wais to name but two. Consider the FIdonet gateway I spoke of earlier. SEarch tools such as those I mention could be used from gateway connections to the net such as Fidonet. Not so with the newer breed of search engine and information retrieval which is the www. Here's another example of the search from hell. This one was saved, though, by a knowledgeable librarian who figured out four11.com just wasn't getting us where we wanted to go. Yes, the web has opened up the internet to the masses, and there are many web search tools to choose from which offer the same functionality. Or do they? Sometimes using modern search strategies you just can't get there from here. A few months ago, I wanted to look up an alleged bail bondsman from the Kansas City Missouri area. He had contacted me looking for one of my daughters as she'd helped out a boyfriend once. I had a phone number and wanted to cross reference it with listed bail bonding agencies in the area, so off to my local library I went hoping to browse their cdrom telephone directory. AS I'm a blind person, I scheduled time with my reader to accomplish this. Much to my surprise, the Library's telephone directories cd had disappeared in favor of an internet workstation. (Great! another one for patrons to use.) But now, on with our search. The librarian punches up four11.com for my reader. WE try to find a way to just browse listings for the area, but it wants to know if we want to buy a computer, we want to find people or whatever. WE enter "Bail Bond" as a string but it burps on that. SO much for four11.com or similar strategies. WHat a joke! After wasting twenty minutes we're still not finished and we have other things to do with our afternoon. An emailable wais server, on the other hand would have given us just what we need. With a hardcopy telephone directory or Boolean logic and the old text search engines we would have been able to retrieve our information and be on our way. one can narrow one's search terms and get the information sought. In the phone directory search example, the librarian finally figured out we couldn't get there from here and offered us a hardcopy Kansas City area phone directory. Within its pages was what we sought, and we verified the legitimacy of the individual and moved on It took us exactly three minutes from the time the physical phone directory was placed at our disposal. . SO now I'm to the place where I'm going to ask you to do something. If you're an average net citizen like me, demand that search engine providers provide an offline search capability. which usually would mean an emailable interface. Offline FIDONEWS 16-01 Page 9 4 Jan 1999 searching saves you time. It also saves other net citizens trouble. Sure, your request is queued up behind those who got there before you, but you're using less resources to accomplish the job than you would online browsing complex web pages. You don't get the seeming instant gratification you get from a web search, but how many times did you really need the information you sought right now? While you were clicking away to get your search started, wouldn't you rather have sent your request out over the net and gone to have a cup of coffee or a snack? Maybe you would have had time to help Junior with that math problem. If you're a system administrator or operator in a network such as Fidonet, demand such services be placed at your disposal by the companies with whom you do business as an alternative to all the glitz. . Your users can benefit from them as can you yourself. Value added is a big buzzword today, and for the bbs operator hobbyist, it isn't gratifying without callers. Callers will call when they feel they derive a benefit, and these tools are definitely a benefit when they're understood. A little education makes them quite understandable. Try it, your users will like it! Just tell 'em a little bit about how to use it. They'll do the rest. I know, I was such a bbs operator for awhile. The internet hadn't yet come to town, and users were using the mail gateway and a few search tools I made them aware of. They were quite happy to find they could do this with their older hardware and software, especially since full net access had yet to come to my community. If you're someone in a position to choose what software options will be available for users of search technologies, consider these simple options from the earlier days of the net. They use less resources but are just as useful. For your users who are intimidated, explain to them how these systems work. YOu'll find converts aplenty when they realize how much faster it really is for them. Platform dependency isn't an issue with these search engine strategies either. The old apple II, the commodore models, anything that can use email and a terminal program can access them if it has a net connection somehow. SOme still use email services through gateways from bbs networks and the like. FOr those folks and the developing nations' citizens such strategies give them full access to the resources that make the internet what it is. FInally, thanks for taking the time to read this. YOu are free to distribute it to any interested party or appropriate usenet forum or listserv. REgards, Richard WEbb FIDONEWS 16-01 Page 10 4 Jan 1999 P.O. Box 614 West Burlington, ia. 52655 Internet elspider@interl.net Messages voice phone only: (319) 758-0427 ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 16-01 Page 11 4 Jan 1999 ================================================================= NOTICES ================================================================= Future History 16 Feb 1999 13th Anniversary of the introduction of EchoMail by Jeff Rush. 12 May 1999 12th Anniversary of Fido Operations in Zone 4; 10th Anniversary of the creation of FidoNet Zone 4. 24 Jul 1999 XIII Pan American Games [through 8 Aug 99]. 9 Jun 1999 Tenth Anniversary of the adoption of FidoNet Policy 4.07. 10 Sep 1999 10th anniversary of Zone 5 operations. 26 Oct 1999 Thirty years from release Abbey Road album by the Beatles. 31 Dec 1999 Hogmanay, Scotland. The New Year that can't be missed. 1 Jan 2000 The 20th Century, C.E., is still taking place thru 31 Dec. 1 Jun 2000 EXPO 2000 World Exposition in Hannover (Germany) opens. 15 Sep 2000 Sydney (Australia) Summer Olympiad opens. 21 Sep 2000 10 years of FidoNet in +7 (xUSSR) 1 Jan 2001 This is the actual start of the new millennium, C.E. -- If YOU have something which you would like to see in this Future History, please send a note to the FidoNews Editor. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 16-01 Page 12 4 Jan 1999 ================================================================= FIDONET BY INTERNET ================================================================= This is a list of all FidoNet-related sites reported to the FidoNews Editor as of this issue; see the notice at the end. FidoNet: Homepage http://www.fidonet.org FidoNews http://www.fidonews.org [HTML] http://209.77.228.66/fidonews.html [ASCII] WWW sources http://travel.to/fidonet/ FTSC page http://www.goldware.dk/ftsc Echomail [pending] General http://owls.com/~jerrys/fidonet.html http://www.nrgsys.com/orb/foti List servers: http://www.onelist.com/subscribe.cgi/fidonet-discussion ============ Zone 1: http://www.z1.fidonet.org Region 10: http://www.psnw.com/~net205/region10.html Region 11: http://oeonline.com/~garyg/region11/ Region 13: Net 264: http://www.net264.org/r13.htm Region 17: http://www.nwstar.com/~region17/ Region 18: http://techshop.pdn.net/fido/ Region 19: http://www.compconn.net/r19 Zone 1 Elist http://www.baltimoremd.com/elist/ Not sure where the following should be placed: http://www.angelfire.com/biz/snwvlly/fido.html ============ Zone 2: http://www.z2.fidonet.org ZEC2: Zone 2 Elist: http://www.fbone.ch/echolist/ Region 20: http://www.fidonet.pp.se (in Swedish) Region 23: http://www.fido.dk (in Danish) Region 24: http://www.swb.de/personal/flop/gatebau.html (German) FIDONEWS 16-01 Page 13 4 Jan 1999 Fido-IP: http://home.nrh.de/~lbehet/fido (English/German) Region 25: http://www.bsnet.co.uk/net2502/net/ 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://pobox.com/~chr 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 Region 48: http://www.fidonet.org.pl 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 5073: http://people.weekend.ru/soa/ (Russian) ============ Zone 3: http://www.z3.fidonet.org ============ Zone 4: Region 90: http://visitweb.com/fidonet Net 903: http://www.playagrande.com/refugio Net 904: http://members.tripod.com/~net904 (Spanish) ============ Zone 5: http://www.eastcape.co.za/fidonet/index.htm ============ Zone 6: http://www.z6.fidonet.org Region 65: http://www.cfido.com/fidonet/cfidochina.html (Chinese) FIDONEWS 16-01 Page 14 4 Jan 1999 ============ Pages listed above are as submitted to the FidoNews Editor, and generally reflect Zone and Regional Web Page sites. If no Regional site is submitted, the first Network page from that Region is used in its place. Generally, Regional pages should list access points to all Networks within the Region. TCP/IP accessible node access information should be submitted to the FidoNews Editor for inclusion in their Region or Zone. -----------oOo------------- Fidonet Via Internet Hubs Node# | Operator | Facilities (*) | Speed | Basic Rate -----------+-------------------+----------------+-------+------------ 1:12/12 | Ken Wilson | FTP | T1 | $24mo. 1:13/25 | Jim Balcom | FTP | 56k | $20mo. 1:106/1 | Matt Bedynek | FTP,VMoT,UUE | 64k | $5/$15mo. 1:106/6018 | Lawrence Garvin | FTP,VMoT | 64k | $5/mo. 1:107/451 | Andy Knifel | FTP, VMoT, UUE | 33.6 | n/c 1:124/7008 | Ben Hamilton | FTP,VMoT,UUE | 64k | $10/$20mo. 1:140/12 | Bob Seaborn | FTP | T1 | $5/$20 1:270/101 | George Peace | FTP | T1 | $30mo. 1:271/140 | Tom Barstow | UUE | T1 | n/c 1:275/1 | Joshua Ecklund | UUE | 28.8 | $10/yr. 1:280/169 | Brian Greenstreet | FTP | 33.6 | $2mo. 1:2401/305 | Peter Rocca | FTP,UUE | T1 | unkn 1:2424/10 | Alec Grynspan | FTP,UUE | T1 | n/c 1:2604/104 | Jim Mclaughlin | FTP,VMoT,UUE | 33.6 | $1mo. 1:2624/306 | D. Calafrancesco | VMoT | 33.6 | $15yr. 1:345/0 | Todd Cochrane | FTP | T1 | n/c 1:346/250 | Aran Spence | FTP,UUE | T1 | $10mo. 1:396/45 | Marc Lewis | UUE | 33.6 | $26/yr. 1:3651/9 | Jerry Gause | FTP,VMoT | 33.6 | $3/$6 1:396/1 | John Souvestre | FTP,VMoT | T1 | $15mo. 2:33/505 | Mario Mure | VMoT,UUE | 64k | n/c 2:254/175 | Alex Kemp | UUE | 56k | n/c 2:284/800 | Jeroen VanDeLeur | FTP,UUE | 64k | n/c 2:335/610 | Gino Lucrezi | UUE | 33.6 | n/c 2:469/84 | Max Masyutin | VMoT | 256k | n/c 2:2411/413 | Dennis Dittrich | UUE | 64k | n/c 2:2474/275 | Christian Emig | UUE | 64k | unkn 3:633/260 | Malcolm Miles | FTP | 33.6 | n/c 4:905/100 | Fabian Gervan | VMoT, UUE | ??? | n/c 5:7104/2 | Henk Wolsink | FTP | 28.8 | n/c -- * FTP = Internet File Transfer Protocol * VMoT = Virtual Mailer over Telnet (various) * UUE = uuencode<->email type transfers [I'm only cataloging transfer methods, eg, ftp, email, telnet. Specific programs using these protocols are no longer being listed. Contact the system operators for details of which programs they have available.] FIDONEWS 16-01 Page 15 4 Jan 1999 Compiled by C. Ingersoll, 1:2623/71, (609)814-1978, fbn@dandy.net Posted on the 1st of every month in FN_SYSOP, R13SYSOP and Fidonews. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 16-01 Page 16 4 Jan 1999 ================================================================= FIDONEWS INFORMATION ================================================================= ------- FIDONEWS MASTHEAD AND CONTACT INFORMATION ------- Editor: Henk Wolsink Editors Emeritii: Tom Jennings, Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell, Vince Perriello, Tim Pozar, Sylvia Maxwell, Donald Tees, Christopher Baker, Zorch Frezberg "FidoNews Editor" FidoNet 5:5/23 BBS +27-41-515-913, 2400/9600/V.34/V.90 more addresses: Henk Wolsink -- 5:7104/2, hwolsink@catpe.alt.za (Postal Service mailing address) FidoNews Editor P.O. Box 12325 Port Elizabeth, 6006 South Africa ------------------------------------------------------ FidoNews is published weekly by and for the members of the FIDONET INTERNATIONAL AMATEUR ELECTRONIC MAIL system. It is a compilation of individual articles contributed by their authors or their authorized agents. The contribution of articles to this compilation does not diminish the rights of the authors. OPINIONS EXPRESSED in these articles ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHORS and not necessarily those of FidoNews and/or the Editor. Authors retain copyright on individual works; otherwise FidoNews is Copyright 1998 Henk Wolsink. All rights reserved. Duplication and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes only. For use in other circumstances, please contact the original authors, or the Editor. =*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= OBTAINING COPIES: The most recent issue of FidoNews in electronic form may be obtained from the FidoNews Editor via manual download or file-request, or from various sites in the FidoNet and Internet. PRINTED COPIES may be obtained by sending SASE to the above postal address. File-request FIDONEWS for the current Issue. File-request FNEWS for the current month in one archive. Or file-request specific back Issue filenames in distribution format [FNEWSFnn.ZIP] for a particular Issue. Monthly Volumes are available as FNWSmmmy.ZIP where mmm = three letter month [JAN - DEC] and y = last digit of the current year [8], i.e., FNWSJAN8.ZIP for all the Issues from Jan 98. FIDONEWS 16-01 Page 17 4 Jan 1999 Annual volumes are available as FNEWSn.ZIP where n = the Volume number 1 - 15 for 1984 - 1998, respectively. Annual Volume archives range in size from 48K to 1.4M. INTERNET USERS: FidoNews is available via: http://www.fidonews.org http://www.fidonet.org/fidonews.htm ftp://ftp.fidonet.org/pub/fidonet/fidonews/ ftp://ftp.irvbbs.com/fidonews/ ftp://ftp.nwstar.com/Fidonet/Fidonews And in non-English formats via: http://www.hvc.ee/pats/fidonews (Estonian) http://www.fidonet.pp.se/sfnews (Swedish) *=*=* You may obtain an email subscription to FidoNews by sending email to: jbarchuk@worldnet.att.net with a Subject line of: subscribe fnews-edist and no message in the message body. To remove your name from the email distribution use a Subject line of: unsubscribe fnews-edist with no message to the same address above. * You may retrieve current and previous Issues of FidoNews via FTPMail by sending email to: ftpmail@fidonews.org with a Subject line of: help and FTPMail will immediately send a reply containing details and instructions. When you actually make a file request, FTPMail will respond in three stages. You find a link for this process on www.fidonews.org. *=*=* You can read the current FidoNews Issue in HTML format at: http://www.fidonews.org STAR SOURCE for ALL Past Issues via FTP and file-request - Available for FReq from 1:396/1 or by anonymous FTP from: ftp://ftp.sstar.com/fidonet/fnews/ Each yearly archive also contains a listing of the Table-of-Contents FIDONEWS 16-01 Page 18 4 Jan 1999 for that year's issues. The total set is currently about 13 Megs. =*=*=*= The current week's FidoNews and the FidoNews public-key are now also available almost immediately after publication on the FidoNews Editor homepage on the World Wide Web at: http://209.77.228.66/fidonews.html There are also links there to jim barchuk's HTML FidoNews source and to John Souvestre's FTP site for the archives. There is also an email link for sending in an article as message text. Drop on over. =*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= SUBMISSIONS: You are encouraged to submit articles for publication in FidoNews. Article submission requirements are contained in the file ARTSPEC.DOC, available from the FidoNews Editor, or file-requestable from 5:5/23 [5:7104/2] as file "ARTSPEC.DOC". ALL Zone Coordinators should have copies of ARTSPEC.DOC. Please read it. "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. "Disagreement is actually necessary, or we'd all have to get in fights or something to amuse ourselves and create the requisite chaos." -Tom Jennings -----------------------------------------------------------------