The F I D O N E W S Volume 19, Number 03 21 Jan 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. EDITORIAL ................................................ 3 Don't get keyboard crazy ................................. 3 4. GENERAL ARTICLES ......................................... 5 A Future for Fidonet? .................................... 5 5. GUEST EDITORIAL .......................................... 7 Barking up the (wrong) Tree .............................. 7 6. FIDONET SOFTWARE REVIEWS ................................. 15 A friendly bombing run ................................... 15 7. OL'WDB'S COLUMN - WARREN BONNER .......................... 18 Ol'WDB's Column .......................................... 18 8. FIDONET'S INTERNATIONAL KITCHEN .......................... 21 Japanese Dashi ........................................... 21 Russian Borsjtj .......................................... 21 9. CLEAN HUMOR & JOKES ...................................... 23 BASTARD OPERATOR FROM HELL #1 ............................ 23 Guidelines for American Tourists ......................... 25 10. TODD COCHRANE'S FIDONET SOFTWARE LISTING ................ 29 Fidonet Software List .................................... 29 11. SPECIAL INTEREST ........................................ 33 Nodelist Stats ........................................... 33 12. FIDONEWS INFORMATION .................................... 35 How to Submit an Article ................................. 35 Credits, Legal Infomation, Availability .................. 36 FIDONEWS 19-03 Page 1 21 Jan 2002 ================================================================= FOOD FOR THOUGHT ================================================================= "I know not what weapons World War III will be fought with, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." -- Albert Einstein -- ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 19-03 Page 2 21 Jan 2002 ================================================================= INSIDE ================================================================= The Fidonews at a Glance In the "Editorial" this week, I vent some thoughts about why we so easily act like jerks in echo- and netmail. The "General Articles" section received only one submission, from Michael Grant, giving his pennies worth on the future of FidoNet. Frank Vest explains why it's more important to gain more writers to FidoNet than to increase the nodelist, in a guest editorial. In "Fidonet Software Reviews" I tell you about an old, but rarely heard of, program, that I think can make things easier for most of the users as well as coordinators and sysops of FidoNet. Ol' man Bonner is back again, as hot as ever. Our "International Kitchen" section has the first of 15 dainty dishes from Japan, thanks to Carol, our correspondent from the Far East, plus this editor takes a shot on Russian beet root soup, i.e. Borsjtj. Yet another one from the archives went into the "Clean Jokes..." section, awaiting funnier contributions from the readers. I sincerely hope that no French readers will take offence. The edge is pointed at the typical US tourist and not at you! You'll also find there the first of a planned series from the times when sysops were serious men with white coats and computers were bigger than closets and needed a small nuclear power plant to operate; the classic Bastard Operator From Hell. Just to put things in perspective. Don't try this at home kids, he's a pro, he knows what he's doing... ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 19-03 Page 3 21 Jan 2002 ================================================================= EDITORIAL ================================================================= Don't get keyboard crazy By Bj”rn Felten When on the streets in a car, you've probably encountered what's often referred to as street crazy. This is what people so easily get, when something happens. Someone bumps into your car, and suddenly you can find yourself in a highly animated discussion with the other driver, that often can develop into a nasty situation with violent, and, even, in countries where there's a handgun in every glove compartment, fatal results. How come then, that if you bump into that same person, walking on the pavement (that's sidewalk to some of you), there almost never develops a case of pavement craziness? In just a split second both parties resolve the potential conflict, and all is well. The simple explanation is body language. When you accidentally bump into someone, you know exactly what to do with your face, shoulders, arms and the rest of the body, to immediately apologize. And the amazing thing is, that this language seems to be highly universal. It works in London, Paris and Berlin as well as in Tokyo, New York and Rio de Janeiro. But when you sit tucked away in a car, with only your face showing, and sometimes not even that, behind shining or even dark windscreens, you don't have access to this powerful language. At best, all you have is the finger, and that's not the best way to start a discussion... Now take our means of communication, here in Fidonet, the written word. Ask any good actor to read a couple of lines, taken out of a greater context, and he'll tell you it's impossible to know how to read them. They can be read in a thousand different ways, giving them a thousand different meanings. This is what we're up against, when we read mail, echo- as well as netmail. We see the written words, but without the proper body language to go with those words, and without being able to hear the writer saying them in the way they were intended (high, low, funny, serious, fast, slow etc.) we lack probably 90% of the information needed to fully understand the message. So why are we then so fast to reply to those words, in the way many does: with invectives, insults and other bashings? Well, to the best of my experience, it's often persons with the greatest experience of participating in mostly sysop echoes (I think those echoes are the worst ones in this respect) that are the worst offenders. Maybe they are so used to almost every message being an attack on them personally, they automatically jump to the worst conclusion? The remedy is of course, to try to have sysops meeting in person, where they can make full use of their body language and voices. After such a SupCon or whatever, things have always cooled down considerably FIDONEWS 19-03 Page 4 21 Jan 2002 among the participants. That's a proven fact. So let's all join in on a wish for more SupCon's to the people! ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 19-03 Page 5 21 Jan 2002 ================================================================= GENERAL ARTICLES ================================================================= A Future for Fidonet? By Michael Grant (1:134/11) I note that those with a one sided view on Fidonet are still taking delight in using the Fidonews as a political platform to further their views and attempt to discredit those with ideas other than their preferred point of view. It's interesting to note that Luke Kolin has nothing constructive to say; his article is full of negativity and dire prognostications for the future of Fidonet. Not all of us are so pessimistic, however. There are many bright people with lots of good ideas to improve this network, and those ideas don't have to be politically motivated or follow an agenda. I was sitting at this computer about a week or two ago, enjoying a game of Dune (I'd just purchased the CD), when a BBS user paged me for a chat. It turns out he was a young programmer with some new ideas on messaging and Fidonet-style networks. We had a long chat, and it was mainly to do with how FTN's (Fidonet Technology Networks) can improve their visibility and participation of users from the Internet. Basically, his ideas boiled down to using a new format to access message areas from a website. He also wants to create a method for exchanging these messages amongst many systems, similar to the way that FTN's use mailers to "echo" their messages. As the ZC of an "othernet" called WorldNet (Zone 13), that mainly gates Internet Newsgroups to an FTN format, I agreed with him when he mentioned that the NNTP servers used by those Newsgroups are far too restrictive and inflexible, and the big Usenet servers generally do not listen to the concerns of their users. The FTN way of doing things, using amateur volunteer sysops, is far more responsive and responsible to their users. The format he has in mind to use is XML. "XML" stands for "Extensible Markup Language". It was designed to improve the functionality of web design by providing more flexibility and adaptability in the message identification code than HTML does. Unlike HTML, it is not a fixed format; it is not a single pre-defined markup language, but instead is actually a metalanguage, which is a language used for defining other languages. Thus it is pretty much unlimited in possibilities, because a programmer could use XML to design their own customized markup language for limitless different types of documents. (For more information on the XML format, please see the bottom of the article) This programmer told me he has talked with the developers of Synchronet BBS, and I gave him information on how to contact the author of Mystic BBS. He wants to make his new format as portable as possible, and wants to incorporate seamless conversions from his new format to SMB, JAM, and Squish format message bases. I agreed to FIDONEWS 19-03 Page 6 21 Jan 2002 alpha-test whatever software he may come up with, and to use WorldNet as a testing ground for his ideas. I envision the end result of this as in effect creating a multitude of web-based BBS's with message forums built-in. A user would log in via a CGI-type login, and would have access to a large number of different message areas, just as a BBS user would log in and have access to Fidonet echoes. Messages would then be echoed between these web-based system, and also be converted to the older FTN format to be further echoed to systems without web access. Message areas could still be effectively moderated, as the sysop of a web-based BBS could cut a person's access to his system upon a moderator's request. With proper promotion on the web, there is no reason why something like this could not prove very popular. Just look at the interest in Yahoo groups as an alternative to the standard news servers. Imagine by encouraging a multitude of systems offering shared message areas, an even higher profile on the web may be attained. Also, imagine that a user of these new systems could post a message to the actual person they're addressing, instead of being forced to address their message to "All". Imagine yet again internet-based message areas that do not contain large quantities of spam and pornographic promotions. The development of something like this may take quite a while yet, and it may take some time to see if it proves popular. I feel however, that anyone who has in mind to develop programs of this nature ought to be encouraged and assisted in every way possible. Acceptance of new ideas like this may be difficult; such changes are often resisted in Fidonet, and I cautioned this programmer not to expect immediate acceptance from Fidonet, but if it proves popular and easily convertible to the older FTN formats, I don't see any reason why Fidonet could not take advantage of this new idea to promote itself, and indeed such an idea may in fact save the old dog from an untimely demise, if we can just teach that old dog some new tricks. Here's some links to info on XML: The XML FAQ Page: http://www.ucc.ie/xml/ The XML specifications are documented at: http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml XML is public domain, and is a project of the World Wide Web Consortium. Their website is at: http://www.w3.org ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 19-03 Page 7 21 Jan 2002 ================================================================= GUEST EDITORIAL ================================================================= Barking up the (wrong) Tree By Frank Vest 1:124/6308.1 Dear Readers: Tom Jennings created Fidonet. He designed the Fidonet system around the Bulletin Board Systems that were already in existence. You remember, those Bulletin Board Systems that were/are run by those "cantankerous" Sysops. :-) Tom gave this new thing he created a name. He called it Fidonet. Why he choose that name, I don't know. Maybe there is a reason. The reason for the name, however, isn't the point of this article and I'll "let sleeping dogs lie" on that. :) Fidonet... What's in a name? Well, the trademark that Tom registered is a drawing of a dog with a diskette in it's mouth. I guess you could say that Fidonet is a dog. To be more descriptive, a female dog. I say female because she can be a real... well... er.. you know. :-) Since Fido is female, I suppose that Sysops could be considered her puppies. After all, Fido started out as a couple of dogs barking back and forth and grew from there to be thousands of dogs barking back and forth. One thing /is/ certain. Dogs bark and puppies learn to bark. Of course, puppies have to learn what to bark at. How? Maybe the mother teaches them? Maybe other influences are involved? At any rate, these puppies grow into dogs and have more puppies and so on. Some die off and others leave while new ones join. Each generation learns to bark and what to bark at from the previous group of dogs or some other influence. Many times, dogs bark up trees. They sit, or stand, at the base of trees and bark while looking up into the trees. Maybe they see something that they want or something is up there that they are trying to get down. Maybe there was something there, but it is now gone and they just bark because others are barking. Sometimes they bark at each other. Maybe they are trying to figure out what they are barking at and are asking each other; "What the heck is up there?" "Nothing." "Then why the heck are we all barking up this tree?" "I wasn't. You were. I was barking up this other tree that has something in it." "Oh yeah?? That tree is empty too!" "Are you saying that I'm stupid or something?!? I'll show you!!" And the fight is on. Now when the fight is started, the other dogs stop barking and join in the fight. They growl, snap and bite at each other. Each takes it's place on the "proper" sides and while the dog fight rages, whatever was, or might have been, in the trees goes somewhere else and is lost. FIDONEWS 19-03 Page 8 21 Jan 2002 So, what was up in those trees that was once so interesting to us dogs? What did we have then that we don't have now? Could it be Nodes? Well, yes. We are low on Nodes. Once Fidonet had tens of thousands of nodes. I'm not sure that is it... at least not totally. Maybe it's technology? Well, we had that then and we have it now. It may not be totally up to the current standards, but we use a lot of fairly high tech stuff. The old technology has and is still being replaced in Fidonet. Sure, we're not the Internet, but we're a hobby, not a business. I'm not sure that is it either... at least not totally. Again, what was up in those trees?? Could it be "Users"? You remember them, don't you? The people that used to call your BBS to talk to friends, DL a file or two, play a game, ask a question or just chat. Oh... You don't run a BBS? You've never run a BBS? :( Then please, read on. Fidonet started out as a few friends sharing messages between each other. With the advent of echomail, Fidonet grew to tens of thousands of Nodes with ten times that many Users and more. Why did Fidonet have so many Users? I'd venture that for every Node, there was a minimum of ten Users. Why?? Well, those "cantankerous" Sysops ran their Bulletin Boards for their own reasons. Mostly for, and to attract, the Users. Without the Users, why run a BBS? Sysops barked up the trees to get the Users to come down and play. Dogs like to play. :) Now, you might believe that the Internet took all the BBS Users. Did it really?? Maybe the Sysops in Fidonet let them leave. When the Internet started coming into the computer scene, it started barking up trees to attract Users and it worked. Users started leaving Fidonet to become a part of this new Internet dog. Some BBSs left because of the Internet and probably because they saw their Users leaving. Why run a BBS if the Users are leaving and new Users are not coming in? So, why did the Users leave and why didn't/don't they come back? Why didn't they use both the Internet and Fidonet? I'll give one theory that I have. Until the Internet really started becoming popular, Fidonet was "the only show in town". As such, there was really little need for Sysops or BBSs to "attract" Users. People were getting new computers. Users were telling friends about this "Fidonet" dog that was so great and showing their friends how to use that new computer to connect to this dog. Basically, The Dog barked once and the Users took it from there. In time, the dog stopped barking, certain in the belief that the Users would "keep the ball rolling". As time went on, This Internet "dog" came along. It started barking up a few trees and, like Fidonet, the Users took it from there. As Users started leaving Fidonet, Nodes started leaving. Now, Fidonet BBS Sysops didn't worry about this too much at first. It didn't matter if a User left your BBS, there were hundreds to replace that one User... But now, suddenly, these Users were leaving and no new ones were FIDONEWS 19-03 Page 9 21 Jan 2002 coming in to replace them. Of course, this had to be blamed on the Internet. There's no way that the Fidonet BBS Sysops could be at fault. "Hey you! Who are you and why are you barking up our tree?!?" "I'm the Internet. "I just wanna bark a few times." "It looks like fun!" "Ok, It won't matter anyway." Them stupid Users won't come to you because we're better!" "Besides, I too lazy to bark anyway."