F I D O N E W S -- Vol.11 No.12 (21-Mar-1994) +----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+ | A newsletter of the | | | FidoNet BBS community | Published by: | | _ | | | / \ | "FidoNews" BBS | | /|oo \ | +1-519-570-4176 1:1/23 | | (_| /_) | | | _`@/_ \ _ | Editors: | | | | \ \\ | Sylvia Maxwell 1:221/194 | | | (*) | \ )) | Donald Tees 1:221/192 | | |__U__| / \// | Tim Pozar 1:125/555 | | _//|| _\ / | | | (_/(_|(____/ | | | (jm) | Newspapers should have no friends. | | | -- JOSEPH PULITZER | +----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+ | Submission address: editors 1:1/23 | +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Internet addresses: | | | | Sylvia -- max@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca | | Donald -- donald@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca | | Tim -- pozar@kumr.lns.com | | Both Don & Sylvia (submission address) | | editor@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca | +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | For information, copyrights, article submissions, | | obtaining copies and other boring but important details, | | please refer to the end of this file. | +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ ======================================================================== Table of Contents ======================================================================== 1. Editorial..................................................... 1 2. Articles...................................................... 2 Keybored in Ohio............................................ 2 The history of Fidonet Words of Wisedom from the past....... 3 SCA Echoarea................................................ 6 3. Fidonews Information.......................................... 6 ======================================================================== Editorial ======================================================================== FidoNews 11-12 Page: 2 21 Mar 1994 "Achieve world peace through BBSing" part II Ouch. i feel utterly scragged today. i'm almost painted out blank, fed up, trucked down, blaa and blaa. And then some of you out there sent these entertaining articles which are happening to make me feel better. Thanks. ======================================================================== Articles ======================================================================== Keybored in Ohio by Chip Morrow - 1:226/730 (Information Overload) Every so often I come to the undeniable conclusion that I really need to get a life. Everyone keeps telling me this. So, I keep looking through the department stores and catalogs, but so far haven't run across any for sale yet. Well, there was a blue light special once, but I didn't make it to the aisle in time, and, well... it's a pretty ugly story. Once in a while I get a clue as to why I spend so much time with Fidonet and everything that goes with it, and am just about to really come up with something awe-inspiring when an episode of Star Trek the Next Generation comes on the tube and blows the whole thing away. Sometimes it's just a Fidonews article. Occasionally all it takes is one of Chevy Chase's Doritos commercials. Has anyone spent umpteen hours hunched over the keyboard trying to make ERRORLEVEL 925627 do what it's supposed to do in the big batch file? Who spent time recently screaming at some TIC processor that just ate the long-awaited 500K file that your feed sent you? Did anyone mistakenly route a netmail in 1986 that was destined for across the street into the great void of cyberspace, where it's probably STILL trying to find final destination? (Well, OK... maybe it wound up in someone's Internet mailbox in Finland last month, but we're not here to pick nits). What about the file sitting in some obscure directory that doesn't do anything at all but HAS to be there or the whole thing breaks? My answer: that file contains the secret to life itself. Do NOT delete it under any cirumstances. It will be revealed to you on judgement day. My wife recently managed to pick up tickets to the Pink Floyd concert that's coming our way out here in Central Ohio in late May this year. This means I get to actually spend a long evening doing something exciting that doesn't involve a keyboard for a change. I'm really looking forward to it. Because after that's over, I can get back to fixing that confounded FILE_ID.DIZ processor, and... FidoNews 11-12 Page: 3 21 Mar 1994 The history of Fidonet Words of Wisedom from the past By Marge Robbins 1:283/120 or mrobbins@wps.com A wise man once said there is nothing new under the sun. I am begining to think that is true. Grubbing around in Fidonet's past is a lot like watching the present pass in review. Some things never change. Six and seven years ago the snooze was filled with gripes and bitches about incompetant Coordinators, dire predictions about the eminent demise of the net if is this or that precieved problem isn't addressed immediately. My favorites; the nodelist is going to break everybody's software, too many echos are going to choke the net. Sound familliar? There are also voices from the past offering words of wisedom, tidbits that are of value even today. I feel moved to share one such, a parable of sorts with a moral that is as valid now as it was when first printed in the snooze six years ago. But before we get into that, I have a few requests to make of the net. Is there anybody out there who remembers when and why David Dodell stepped down as IC? Methinks there is more to the story than what little appeared in the snooze. Where are our overseas brethren in Fidonet? The history of Fidonet is YOUR history too. Won't you please help me compile it? I really don't want this to become a history of Zone 1. Anybody want to do some typing for the project? I have some very old nodelists and IFNA papers that will need to be transcribed unless either a volunteer who can scan text comes forward, or we get lucky and find electronic copies on tape or disk in some dusty corner. Giffs and JPGs are nice, but not the answer for everything. Now let us step back into time and listen to a Network Yarn that has a moral fit for today. This was first printed in Fido524.nws 13 Jun 1988. Indios (A Network Yarn) (c) 1988 James Zachary 445/2 "JERKS!" Ron jumped up from his desk and began pacing furiously. "Stupid self-serving twits!" he bellowed at his computer screen. A shadow in the doorway startled him. "Indios? Oh! I wasn't ... I mean ... sorry if I disturbed you." Indios was the caretaker and general handyman for the condominium complex where Ron lived. Rarely did he pay much FidoNews 11-12 Page: 4 21 Mar 1994 attention to anything other than his duties. "Your sink is fixed." he said with his deep, gravely voice. "What upsets you?" the old Indian then asked through lips that barely moved. "Ahhhhh, I dunno! I am sick and tired of everyone treating me like dirt!" His dark, withered face frowning, Indios shuffled his large frame to an overstuffed chair and sat down. "How do they do this? I am not understanding." Ron was surprised. In over 2 years he had never known Indios to solicit a conversation. "Well, some people are real idiots and think they know it all. They like to lord over other people, pretending they are smarter or better. All they really have are big mouths! I am going to start defending myself! I am going to be more assertive!" "Tell to me the difference of you being 'assertive' and them having 'big mouths'?" Indios asked without expression. Ron did not answer. "You sit in front of this for hours," Indios continued, pointing to the computer on Ron's desk, "and it angers you. How can this be?" "It started off to be fun," Ron answered, "then everyone started flaming at each other!" Ron could see that he was only confusing Indios. "See, with the computer, a bunch of people can leave messages to each other. It's like a big hobby for computer buffs. There is an amateur network that I belong to where we can leave mail. It was fun until it became too crowded. Now everyone just fights with each other. If someone misspells a word, someone jumps on him. If someone asks a question or has an idea that someone else thinks is stupid, then the name calling starts. We call it 'flaming'." Indios grunted and nodded that he understood. "So, you meet people on your machine so you can get angry at each other. You go to work and your clubs and get angry at others. Driving your car makes you angry at others ..." "Exactly!" Ron exclaimed. "Unless you stand up for yourself, someone will walk all over you! Believe me, when someone shoves it to me I am going to pay them back in spades!" FidoNews 11-12 Page: 5 21 Mar 1994 The Indian brushed his long, white hair back with his weathered hands and looked sadly at Ron. "So much anger ... This will make you better than them? Anger can at times be a tool but, like a surgeons knife, it should only be used when all else has failed and the cause is just ... only then with great care and control. Most swing this blade recklessly and wound themselves." "I am sick and tired of reading this crap! I am sick and tired of these pious bastards jumping on every little thing I do!" "Maybe they have a fear ... maybe they have a need. The smallest pups always growl the loudest. The others that are secure will allow this because they know these pups have needs that only can be provided for by their pretending dominance. Even with wolves, the strongest and fastest in the pack will allow the pretenders their moments, as they know it is their need and all they can really achieve." Now Ron was puzzled. "You mean I should just ignore these twinks?! That I should let them say vile things about me and others?!" "Do they strip you of your honor? Are you denied all dignity? Your family was not threatened, your ability to provide for those that depend on you was not threatened ... your honor was not taken." "I have my pride!" "Pride is not honor. You must know when NOT to fight before you will ever know when it is proper TO fight. Your words of anger are that of a child. Show me the burial sites of those killed by mere words ..." Ron knew he was losing the debate. This one was face to face and the words had texture, tone and emphasis ... not like text written on a flat monitor screen. "Take what is good with this and all else in life and leave behind what is bad." Indios continued, leaning forward, his eyes fixed in a gaze at Ron. "I know enough about you to say that you were granted neither the natural gift of a powerful body nor a powerful mind at birth. You were granted a more valuable gift, the gift to build whatever body and mind you choose. There are no boundaries for this gift. All you do, every day, in all walks, makes you what you are and what you will be." Indios then stood and walked to the doorway. Ron remained silent. "Will you build your body and soul of sound materials or will FidoNews 11-12 Page: 6 21 Mar 1994 you use the waste of the earth and become all that you despise?" Indios asked with a hint of a smile as he departed. Ron strolled slowly back to his desk and sat down in front of the computer. He hit a key to awaken his blank screen and then began rereading the message that had upset him earlier. After a moment he moved on to the next message, leaving the hate unanswered. "We're just puppies ... " he mumbled under his breath. "I guess Fido grew up and had a whole lot of puppies ..." He then began a reply to a message from a friend in Puerto Rico. "Take what is good ..." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SCA Echoarea By Carl Enchelmayer I have a new echo on my BBS that is not in the Fidonet Backbone at this time. It is called the SCA/Medieval Discussion Echo. This Echo deals with discussions of the SCA, which is an International Medieval re-enactment group, and with Medieval talk in general. Currently there has been a great response in my area for this echo. I have had it up and running since last summer. There are currently about ten systems that poll the echo. I would like the echo to be spread out even farther, in hopes that someday it can get into the Fidonet Backbone. WWIVNet has a similar echo called "The known world herald", but that doesn't help us guys and gals here in Fido-land. If you wish to receive this echo on your system, please drop me a netmail, and we can make arrangments to get this area to your system. -Carl Enchelmayer @1:232/305 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================================== Fidonews Information ======================================================================== ------- FIDONEWS MASTHEAD AND CONTACT INFORMATION ---------------- Editors: Sylvia Maxwell, Donald Tees Editors Emeritii: Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell, Vince Perriello, Tim Pozar Tom Jennings "FidoNews" BBS FidoNet 1:1/23 BBS +1-519-570-4176, 300/1200/2400/14400/V.32bis/HST(DS) Internet addresses: FidoNews 11-12 Page: 7 21 Mar 1994 Don & Sylvia (submission address) editor@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca Sylvia -- max@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca Donald -- donald@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca Tim -- pozar@kumr.lns.com (Postal Service mailing address) FidoNews 128 Church St. Kitchener, Ontario Canada N2H 2S4 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. Authors retain copyright on individual works; otherwise FidoNews is Copyright 1994 Sylvia Maxwell. All rights reserved. Duplication and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes only. For use in other circumstances, please contact the original authors, or FidoNews (we're easy). OBTAINING COPIES: The-most-recent-issue-ONLY of FidoNews in electronic form may be obtained from the FidoNews BBS via manual download or Wazoo FileRequest, or from various sites in the FidoNet and Internet. PRINTED COPIES may be obtained from Fido Software for $10.00US each PostPaid First Class within North America, or $13.00US elsewhere, mailed Air Mail. (US funds drawn upon a US bank only.) INTERNET USERS: FidoNews is available via FTP from ftp.fidonet.org, in directory ~ftp/pub/fidonet/fidonews. If you would like a FAQ, or have questions regarding FidoNet, or UUCP<==>FidoNet gateways, please direct them to David Deitch (1:133/411@fidonet) at deitch@gisatl.fidonet.org. 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 BBS, or Wazoo filerequestable from 1:1/23 as file "ARTSPEC.DOC". Please read it. "Fido", "FidoNet" and the dog-with-diskette are U.S. registered trademarks of Tom Jennings, and are used with permission. Asked what he thought of Western civilization, M.K. Gandhi said, "I think it would be an excellent idea". -- END