** F I D O N E W S ** +----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+ | 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. GUEST EDITORIAL .......................................... 2 Not a Member ............................................. 2 3. ARTICLES ................................................. 3 A Star is Born ........................................... 3 QEDIT Echo renamed ....................................... 3 4. NOTICES .................................................. 5 5. FIDONET BY INTERNET ...................................... 7 6. FIDONEWS INFORMATION ..................................... 10 FIDONEWS 15-40 Page 1 5 Oct 1998 ================================================================= EDITORIAL ================================================================= Greetings, Nothing much new this week. Some poor soul broke into my car and managed to rip out the radio, but he was caught in the act, just as he managed to break the window on my wife's car. (Auto for some of you. ;-) ) Why poor soul you may ask. When he was asked the question to what he was looking for, he replied ever so brightly, 'money'. So why was the radio removed? That's money, if he sells it, came the reply. What can one say. It must be remembered, here in South Africa, we have a extremely high unemployment and stealing from those who have it, is part of todays living. So, have the car repaired and living carries on, until it gets broken into once more, as that is the norm around here these days. Zone 5 www site is down at the present moment, as it is being moved to a new location. Give it until the end of the week and all should be well again. Happy reading, ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 15-40 Page 2 5 Oct 1998 ================================================================= GUEST EDITORIAL ================================================================= Not a Member Doug Myers I have this annoying trait of calling those I speak with "members of Fidonet." At least, it must be annoying to some, as I'm constantly reminded that moderators are not members of Fidonet, users are not members of Fidonet, point systems are not members of Fidonet... What _is_ Fidonet, anyway, that folks who make important contributions are not considered among the ranks? Do I not come here to participate in the echoes, created by those moderators? Do I not enjoy the conversations with those users and point systems? Is Fidonet just the technical organization? Is it just composed of the keepers of the key to entry, the BBS? If so, then Fidonet is truly dying: those who breathe life into Fidonet have found new roads and don't need the key to the old gates any more. Or is Fidonet the community, only with a huge underclass? Then how long will we survive when the underclass has an option to leave, and we're setting up an atmosphere where even the Microsoft Network looks friendly by comparison? I'm a member since I'm on the nodelist, I've been told. I used to own one thirty-five thousandth according to my nodelist compiler. However, it's been a long time since I stayed up nights and watched my batch files run the compiler. I've been advised that my share got smaller as Fido got bigger, but that my share has _really_ grown of late. Whatever, on my thirty-five thousandth (or greater) share, there is no underclass! -- | Fidonet: Douglas Myers 1:270/720@fidonet.org | Internet: doug@mdtnbbs.com | Standard disclaimer: The views of this user are strictly his own. | From Mdtn_BBS @mdtnbbs.com [ In the Heart of Three Mile Island ] ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 15-40 Page 3 5 Oct 1998 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= A Star is Born While the shepherds of Fido abide their flocks, wise men watched the star in the East... and the one in the South, and the one in the North. But Lisa Gronke was watching the signs, and found a new star in the Northwest. She noted it in the scriptures with these very words: 'My, my..... 'My nerd instincts ask "Why does it [the backbone] do that [make a fourth ZHub]?" '.....and with so little fanfare....' Lisa refers, of course, to the North American Backbone, the major distribution system in Fidonet Zone 1. The new Star is Bob Seaborn, announced with a quiet "ahem" by John Souvestre at the end of his stirring weekly summary of echomail changes, BACKSTAT.NA. The list of Zone Hubs has previously only included three: Zone Hubs: Eastern Star George Peace 1:270/101 george@paonline.com Southern Star John Souvestre 1:396/1 johns@sstar.com North Star Ken Wilson 1:12/12 kwilson@ccai.com NorthWest Star Bob Seaborn 1:140/1 bob@nwstar.com Perhaps the lack of fanfare which Lisa noted was because Bob Seaborn is hardly a stranger to echomail distribution. He's long flown the "NorthWest Star" origin line in his outspoken postings in administrative echoes, and has long been the key player in that "other" major distribution system, the FidoSpine. In fact, he was already connected to George Peace and Ken Wilson, though only recently in a "fully connected triangle topology" (a connection which aids in the prevention of duplicates, which Lisa has patiently explained in the echoes). This star-watcher would like to welcome Bob's ascendancy, and anxiously awaits Lisa Gronke's analysis of the new topology. Perhaps she'll dub it a "superimposed triangles topology" or perhaps it can now be known as a "tetrahedron topology with two open and two closed corners." -- | Fidonet: Douglas Myers 1:270/720@fidonet.org | Internet: doug@mdtnbbs.com | Standard disclaimer: The views of this user are strictly his own. | From Mdtn_BBS @mdtnbbs.com [ In the Heart of Three Mile Island ] ----------------------------------------------------------------- QEDIT Echo has a new name. FIDONEWS 15-40 Page 4 5 Oct 1998 By Stu Turk, 1:129/26, sturk@telerama.com QEDIT, the support Echo for SemWare Corporation's popular text editor, has been renamed to SEMWARE. This was due to SemWare's loss of the trademark and their request that the name be removed from the EchoList. The editor itself has been renamed to The Semware Editor Jr (TSE Jr for short.) The current shareware demo version can be found on many FidoNet boards as TSEJR40C.ZIP and ftp from semware.com. The new name reflects the fact that SEMWARE is also the support Echo for SemWare's other text editors, including the larger and more powerful The Semware Editor Pro (TSE Pro, TSE Pro/32 for Win95) and other products. Information on SemWare editors can be found at http://www.semware.com. If you followed the QEDIT Echo in the past, turn on the new SEMWARE Echo. The SemWare mailing list is being gated into the Echo and SemWare's Technical Support staff participate. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 15-40 Page 5 5 Oct 1998 ================================================================= NOTICES ================================================================= Future History 5 Oct 1998 29th Anniversary of "Monty Python's Flying Circus". 23 Nov 1998 35th Anniversary of Doctor Who. 1 Dec 1998 Fifteenth Anniversary of release of Fido version 1 by Tom Jennings. 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 15-40 Page 6 5 Oct 1998 ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 15-40 Page 7 5 Oct 1998 ================================================================= 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://www.scms.rgu.ac.uk/students/cs_yr94/lk/fido.html FTSC page http://www.goldware.dk/ftsc Echomail [pending] WebRing http://ddi.digital.net/~cbaker84/fnetring.html [TFN] General http://owls.com/~jerrys/fidonet.html http://www.trak-one.co.uk/foti ============ Zone 1: http://www.z1.fidonet.org Region 10: http://www.psnw.com/~net205/region10.html Region 11: http://oeonline.com/~garyg/region11/ Region 17: http://www.nwstar.com/~region17/ Region 18: http://techshop.pdn.net/fido/ Region 19: http://www.compconn.net Zone 1 Elist http://www.baltimoremd.com/elist/ ============ 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) 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 FIDONEWS 15-40 Page 8 5 Oct 1998 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 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: http://www.altern.org/zone4 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) ============ 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. FIDONEWS 15-40 Page 9 5 Oct 1998 -----------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. 1:124/7008 | Ben Hamilton |FTP,VMoT,F2I,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 | F2I | ??? | $2mo. 1:275/1 | Joshua Ecklund | UUE,F2I | 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,VMoT | T1 | $1mo. 1:2424/3121| Earl Clark | UUE | 33.6 | n/c 1:2604/104 | Jim Mclaughlin | FTP,VMoT,UUE | 33.6 | $1mo. 1:2624/306 | D. Calafrancesco | VFOS | 33.6 | $15yr. 1:345/0 | Todd Cochrane | FTP | T1 | n/c 1:346/250 | Aran Spence | FTP,UUE | T1 | $10mo. 1:342/1022 | Steve Steffler | UUE,F2I | 33.6 | n/c 1:3651/9 | Jerry Gause | FTP,VMoT | 33.6 | $3/$6 1:396/1 | John Souvestre | FTP,VMoT | T1 | $15mo. 2:2411/413 | Dennis Dittrich | UUE | 64k | n/c 2:33/505 | Mario Mure | VMoT,UUE | 64k | n/c 2:335/610 | Gino Lucrezi | UUE | 33.6 | n/c 2:469/84 | Max Masyutin | VMoT | 256k | n/c 2:2474/275 | Christian Emig | UUE | 64k | unkn 2:2490/5170| Lenny Murphy | F2I | ??? | n/c 5:7104/2 | Henk Wolsink | FTP | 28.8 | n/c -- + VMoT = Virtual Mailer over Telnet (various) + F2I = Fido2Int (W95) + UUE = uuencode<->email packet transfers 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. - ___ ! Origin: * Fly By Night * (609)814-1978 *(1:2623/71) ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 15-40 Page 10 5 Oct 1998 ================================================================= 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 15-40 Page 11 5 Oct 1998 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.aminet.org/pub/aminet/comm/fido/ 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/ FIDONEWS 15-40 Page 12 5 Oct 1998 Each yearly archive also contains a listing of the Table-of-Contents 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 also 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 -----------------------------------------------------------------