F I D O N E W S -- Vol.12 No.44 (30-Oct-1995) +----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+ | A newsletter of the | ISSN 1198-4589 Published by: | | FidoNet BBS community | "FidoNews" BBS | | _ | +1-519-570-4176 | | / \ | | | /|oo \ | | | (_| /_) | | | _`@/_ \ _ | | | | | \ \\ | Editors: | | | (*) | \ )) | Donald Tees 1:221/192 | | |__U__| / \// | Sylvia 1:221/194 | | _//|| _\ / | | | (_/(_|(____/ | | | (jm) | Newspapers should have no friends. | | | -- JOSEPH PULITZER | +----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+ | Submission address: editors 1:1/23 | +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | MORE addresses: | | | | submissions=> editor@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca | | Don -- don@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca | | Sylvia max@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca | +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | 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 Dr. Mod em i lala........................................... 2 ACR (Automatic Call Rejection).............................. 2 Free Quebec! (with every purchase of double poutine)........ 3 3. Fidonews Information.......................................... 5 ======================================================================== Editorial ======================================================================== FidoNews 12-44 Page: 2 30 Oct 1995 A short issue this week, with only three articles, and an intro rather than an editorial. Here is the snooze. ======================================================================== Articles ======================================================================== Dear Madam Emilia Dr. Mod em i lala From: Sylvia Maxwell (1:221/294) On the first day of this year's 'puters Freedom and Privacy concert in Burlingame there existed a bluely glowing being with brown eyes in the VESTIBULE of a hotel, approximately under neath a chandelier and beside a piano. Many e-people were about and perchance one of you might have noticed me noticing him etc./and could help me find his temporal presence if he wishes it found? Prey tell. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ACR (Automatic Call Rejection) Automatic Call Rejection by Jerry Schwartz 1:142/928 ACR is a feature you can purchase from the telephone company; what it does is automatically reject incoming telephone calls from anyone who deliberately blocks caller identification information. I was not involved directly with any of the recent controversy over ACR, but I was on speaking terms with two NCs who were at the center of the argument and corresponded with both of them about it. Both of them are reasonable men, if somewhat fastidious about technical issues. One side contended that they had the right to reject anonymous calls, and that it served a direct and important security need: preventing people from impersonating nodes and thereby forging mail. The other side contended that existing security measures (packet and session passwords, for example) were adequate; but that was not the impetus for the complaint. The problem was a strictly technical one, and one which is beyond the control of any sysop. The sysop whose calls were rejected was NOT deliberately blocking their CID information. What happened was that his long distance carrier (MCI) was doing something which was causing the local telephone carrier at the other end to THINK that he had deliberately blocked CID. The calling sysop discovered this problem by turning on the speaker in his modem; he then heard a robotic explanation from the phone company at the far end. When he called MCI, he was FidoNews 12-44 Page: 3 30 Oct 1995 told that he would be charged for these calls because so far as MCI was concerned the call had gone through. (They did agree to eat the charges as a matter of good customer relations.) This highlights the underlying problem: telephone service is not as well-coordinated as you might expect. For example, my own area has recently changed area codes. There have since been articles in the local paper about the problems caused by this: out-of-state telephone carriers are not universally capable of handling "860" as an area code, and our local company has publicly stated that they "have no way of forcing other companies to make the necessary changes." (If you check the nodelist, you'll see that I am still using the old area code, taking advantage of a grace period.) The ACR argle-bargle occurred because either NyNEX, MCI, or the carriers down in Texas mishandled the hand-off of CID information. This is not something that the pro-ACR folks expected, or even necessarily believed possible. It is also not something that the anti-ACR folks expected, nor could they control it. I can easily conceive of several situations which might cause similar problems. Many of the analog phone lines in my company are "anonymous" and cannot accept incoming calls. I have no idea what if anything appears as CID information when I use my system at work to call out. Similarly, calls from other countries and smaller telephone carriers in the US might not look "right." In theory, ACR should detect and distinguish between "unavailable" and "deliberately blocked" but it clearly failed to do so in at least one case. Until the technological wrinkles are ironed out, we all have to be careful about adopting new techniques prematurely. Ultimately, ACR may be a "don't care" to every legitimate Fidonet sysop; but for right now, it seems to be a problem. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Free Quebec! (with every purchase of double poutine) Dear Editorbeings, Please advise both readers of the Snooz that this article was submitted by Charles Herriot (1:163/110) who successfully dragged Logger down from a hydro pole where he was beseeching pedestrians to join him in hearty song on Patsy Gallant's version of "From New York to L.A." Roll da flic, Sylvia.... Dear Reverend Visage, I feel a sort of celebratory feeling towards this missive, what with it being the 35th outpouring of mine that the Editor-beings have been gracious enough to include in their esteemed organ. To think that it all began when I wrote FidoNews 12-44 Page: 4 30 Oct 1995 about the *EC-trolls shutting down the Golden Toilet echo. There is much to comment upon this week. Our frozen country stands on the threshold of Balkanizing itself. I can't quite fathom the various sentimental outpourings by pundits who weep over the meltdown of Canada. In point of fact, I'll be one of those cheering heartily when the spoiled children in Quebec *finally* live up to their age old threats and get the hell out of confederation. They suck millions more from the public teat than they contribute through tax revenues and that doesn't begin to factor in the cost of reading everything on the damned cereal boxes in both official languages. I wonder, though, who will presume to speak and negotiate for Canada when Lobster Jack and Lucie Bouchard come calling to divvy up the spoils. Surely we won't allow Jean Cretin to straddle more than one horse at once. We need someone with bloodlust in their eyes, a bible and a flintlock... in short, you're it. I suggest you open negotiations by offering to trade Anne Murray for the Val d'Or gold mines. The culturally paranoid folks in Quebec won't notice the faint musk of sweat socks when she opens their national assembly fete. If they raise any kind of argument about it, remind them that we whupped their sorry asses on the Plains of Abraham and we'll do it again if we have to. Another matter which sticks in my craw this week concerns deer. Yup, the Bambi kind... except in this case the *lack* of deer is what is causing my apoplexy. The deer story makes the O.J. travesty seem like a model of jurisprudence. What happened was an off-duty police office was shitfaced while driving his car. He splattered a bicyclist all over one of our local roads and then screeched off from the scene of the crime. He managed to drive six kilometres to a donut shop where he discovered that the absence of a windshield, a headlight, and other parts of his car, meant that he'd been in an accident. The crime was investigated by other police officers who *neglected* to take a timely breathalyzer sample. The charge of impaired driving was withdrawn and a judge, incredibly, believed his story that he thought he'd hit a deer. During the trial the murdering bastard was chauffeured to and from court by his police buddies and generally accorded more courtesies and privileges than any other criminal. Something is truly rotten in the state of Denmark when a police officer is blessed with such a ludicrous application of justice. Meanwhile, the dead bicyclist's parents are left to grieve and to have nightmares about the fact that their son's head was found 100 metres from the road. I donned a Level 4 biohazard suit and ventured into the echo that serves Region 12. Gawd, Duddy Grimspam is *still* whinging about his completely wrong legion of world class experts. I don't think Net250 have sorted out their FidoNews 12-44 Page: 5 30 Oct 1995 differences which isn't surprising because they seem to possess the sort of collective intellect that suggests a family tree wider than it is tall. If they start playing banjos, Visage, shoot first, and ask questions later. Your absence has started to become notable... particularly by the swarthy gentlemen who claim that you owe major dollars on your gambling action associated with the GIANT PUMPKIN contest. I could have sworn that I saw you on the street the other day. Were it not for the fact that your likeness was walking in a straight line and not leering at the 300 pound courier-babes, I might have hailed you. I must go Visage, your secretary has become inhospitable and this has nothing at all to do with the fact that I wired her dictaphone earphone to the gigawatt amplifier output of my son's most incredibly bad garage band. She is neither a happy nor a well person Visage, and I think we should send her to a nice safe neighbourhood like Brentwood. Regards, Doc Logger, Giant Clam School of Opera & Small Arms Repair, Furlang Island, South Pacific ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================================== Fidonews Information ======================================================================== ------- FIDONEWS MASTHEAD AND CONTACT INFORMATION ---------------- Editors: Donald Tees, Sylvia Maxwell 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) more addresses: Don -- 1:221/192, don@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca Sylvia- 1:221/194, max@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca (Postal Service mailing address) FidoNews 128 Church St. Kitchener, Ontario Canada N2H 2S4 voice: (519) 570-3137 sylvia: (519) 579-8029 FidoNews 12-44 Page: 6 30 Oct 1995 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. Authors retain copyright on individual works; otherwise FidoNews is Copyright 1995 Donald Tees. All rights reserved. Duplication and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes only. For use in other circumstances, please contact the original authors, or the eds. OBTAINING COPIES: The most recent issue 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 by sending SASE to the above paper-mail address. INTERNET USERS: FidoNews is available via FTP from ftp.fidonet.org, in directory ~ftp/pub/fidonet/fidonews. Anyone interested in getting a copy of the INTERNET GATEWAY FAQ may freq GISFAQ.ZIP from 1:133/411.0, or send an internet message to fidofaq@gisatl.fidonet.org. No message or text or subject is necessary. The address is a keyword that will trigger the automated response. People wishing to send inquiries directly to David Deitch should now mail to fidonet@gisatl.fidonet.org rather than the previously listed address. 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. ' ' disgreement is actually necessary, or we'd all have to get in fights or semethin to amuse ourselves,, and create the requisite chaos." -Tom Jennings -- END