397 lines
17 KiB
Plaintext
397 lines
17 KiB
Plaintext
F I D O N E W S Volume 16, Number 26 28 June 1999
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| The newsletter of the | ISSN 1198-4589 Published by: |
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| FidoNet community | "FidoNews" |
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| _ | +27-41-581-5913 [5:5/23] |
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| / \ | |
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| /|oo \ | |
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| (_| /_) | |
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| _`@/_ \ _ | |
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| | | \ \\ | Editor: |
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| | (*) | \ )) | Henk Wolsink 5:7104/2 |
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| |__U__| / \// | |
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| _//|| _\ / | |
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| (_/(_|(____/ | |
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| (jm) | Newspapers should have no friends. |
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| | -- JOSEPH PULITZER |
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| Submission address: FidoNews Editor 5:5/23 |
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+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
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| MORE addresses: |
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| submissions=> editor@fidonews.org |
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| hwolsink@catpe.alt.za |
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| For information, copyrights, article submissions, |
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| obtaining copies of FidoNews or the internet gateway FAQ |
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| please refer to the end of this file. |
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+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
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Table of Contents
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1. EDITORIAL ................................................ 1
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He's Baaaack! ............................................ 1
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2. ARTICLES ................................................. 2
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Z1C Election moves to Regional Discussions ............... 2
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3. NET HUMOR ................................................ 3
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Top 15 Unforseen Y2K Consequences ........................ 3
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4. COMIX IN ASCII ........................................... 4
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Cows in Polonaise ........................................ 4
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5. NOTICES .................................................. 5
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Future History ........................................... 5
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6. FIDONEWS INFORMATION ..................................... 6
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FIDONEWS 16-26 Page 1 28 Jun 1999
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EDITORIAL
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He's Baaaack!
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Henk's back in town. I got email Saturday... his heart's still in
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Europe but his rear end is in South Africa. This will be my last
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issue as Editor Pro Tem; next week Fidonews will be in the capable
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hands of Henk Wolsink once again.
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It's been fun. I'd like to thank the folks who took advantage of
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the Editor Pro Tem Special to send me articles for Fidonews... where
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the heck were you all this week? :) And thanks for the suggestions
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and criticisms - it's nice to know folks out there actually read the
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Snooze!
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Thanks to Jim Barchuk for turning fidonews.org upside down so that I
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could do the Snooze from the heart of Pennsylvania. Thanks to Gary
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Rux and George Peace for modifying their TIC configuration so I
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could send instead of receive the FIDONEWS file area. And a special
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thanks to Henk for letting me roll my sleeves up and work with the
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newsletter of the Fidonet Community in his absence. Keep me in
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mind, Henk, if you need a stand in again.
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FIDONEWS 16-26 Page 2 28 Jun 1999
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ARTICLES
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Z1C Election moves to Regional Discussions
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Douglas Myers, 1:270/720
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As of Sunday, June 27th (yesterday), the Z1C election moved from
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it's zonewide public input phase to a regional discussion phase. At
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this point, at least in theory, sysops have had sufficient time to
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evaluate the candidates based on their discussions in Z1_ELECTION
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and now have one week to inform their Regional Coordinator of their
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choice. All Regional Coordinators, to the best of my knowledge,
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have pledged to vote for the candidate the sysops in their region
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selects rather than a personal choice. Most regions plan to gather
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input from Net Coordinators.
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As a concerned sysop, this is the most critical phase of the
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election for you - this next week is your only chance to make your
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choice count. You should monitor your local net's sysop echo to see
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if your NC is gathering input - if not, netmail him or her with your
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choice. Monitor your region's sysop echo to see if your Regional
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Coordinator is gathering input there. If so, speak up... even if
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you've already spoken with your net.
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It's imperative that you speak up this week, as next week, July 3rd,
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the election will move to the Regional Coordinator's private echo
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for voting. Though Ross Cassell will be reporting on this vote, it
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will be too late to influence it.
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There's much more than the identity of the next Zone 1 Coordinator
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at stake here. This will be a test of sysop involvement in Zone 1
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politics. Many feel that sysops throughout the zone just don't care
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about the coordinators who represent them. There is, in my opinion,
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the prospect that a poor turnout in this election will influence
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coordinators to conduct future sessions entirely behind closed
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doors, as has been done in the past.
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This election has busted one myth already: the feeling that any
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sysop level input into the election process would drag the election
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into senseless and unproductive bickering. However, the public
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discussion period was mostly orderly, with sysops asking reasonable
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and poignant questions, and candidates very responsive. Follow
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through by sysops in the next week should lay to rest the myth of
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sysop apathy in Fidonet.
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FIDONEWS 16-26 Page 3 28 Jun 1999
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NET HUMOR
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The Top 15 Unforeseen Consequences of the "Millennium Bug"
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15. IRS demands a hundred years of interest from stunned taxpayers.
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14. "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall" song gets stuck in infinite
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loop.
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13. At the stroke of midnight, Windows 99 turns back into DOS 1.0,
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the Pentium V turns back into an 8088, and the Handsome User is
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left holding a beautiful glass mouse.
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12. Internet Movie Database now lists "1901: A Space Odyssey"
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11. Residents of Indiana have to figure out if they're off by 999
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years, 364 days and 23 hours, or 1000 years and one hour.
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10. Bob Dole's age erroneously listed with only 2 digits.
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9. Mel Brooks's "2000 year old man" skit stops being funny....
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oops, too late!
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8. Sales of Coca Cola jumps drastically after original
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cocaine-laden formula becomes legal again.
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7. Software engineers point out that since computers think it's
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almost 1900, we technically have to "party like it's 1899,"
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which, frankly, doesn't seem like much fun.
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6. Microsoft declares the year 1900 to be the new standard of the
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"Gatesian" calendar.
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5. Jesus shows up late for His second coming, blames it on COBOL
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programmers.
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4. Computers temporarily fooled into thinking Strom Thurmond is
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only 103.
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3, First Top 5 List of the year? "Reasons No One Would Ever
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Assassinate President McKinley"
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2. Using a computerized adoption service, Michael Jackson
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mistakenly takes home some octogenarians.
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and the Number 1 Unforeseen Consequence of the "Millennium Bug"...
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1. Unexpected demand for COBOL programmers results in severe
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understaffing of fast-food restaurants.
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FIDONEWS 16-26 Page 4 28 Jun 1999
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COMIX IN ASCII
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=================================================================
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* (__)* (__)* (__)* (__)
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\ (oo) \ (oo) \ (oo) \ (o-)
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\-------\/ ^^\-------\/ ^^\-------\/ ^^\-------\/
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| // | // | // | ||
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||------+ ||------+ ||------+ ||----||
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^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^
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Cows in polonaise
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FIDONEWS 16-26 Page 5 28 Jun 1999
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NOTICES
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Future History
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24 Jul 1999
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XIII Pan American Games [through 8 Aug 99].
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10 Sep 1999
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10th anniversary of Zone 5 operations.
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26 Oct 1999
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Thirty years from release Abbey Road album by the Beatles.
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31 Dec 1999
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Hogmanay, Scotland. The New Year that can't be missed.
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1 Jan 2000
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The 20th Century, C.E., is still taking place thru 31 Dec.
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1 Jun 2000
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EXPO 2000 World Exposition in Hannover (Germany) opens.
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15 Sep 2000
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Sydney (Australia) Summer Olympiad opens.
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21 Sep 2000
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10 years of FidoNet in +7 (xUSSR)
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1 Jan 2001
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This is the actual start of the new millennium, C.E.
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-- If YOU have something which you would like to see in this
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Future History, please send a note to the FidoNews Editor.
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
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FIDONEWS 16-26 Page 6 28 Jun 1999
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=================================================================
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FIDONEWS INFORMATION
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=================================================================
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------- FIDONEWS MASTHEAD AND CONTACT INFORMATION -------
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Editor: Henk Wolsink
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Editors Emeriti: Tom Jennings, Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell,
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Vince Perriello, Tim Pozar, Sylvia Maxwell,
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Donald Tees, Christopher Baker, Zorch Frezberg
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"FidoNews Editor"
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FidoNet 5:5/23
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BBS +27-41-581-5913, 2400/9600/V34
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more addresses:
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Henk Wolsink -- 5:7104/2, hwolsink@catpe.alt.za
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(Postal Service mailing address)
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FidoNews Editor
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P.O. Box 12325
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Port Elizabeth,
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6006
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South Africa
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------------------------------------------------------
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FidoNews is published weekly by and for the members of the FIDONET
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INTERNATIONAL AMATEUR ELECTRONIC MAIL system. It is a compilation
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of individual articles contributed by their authors or their
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authorized agents. The contribution of articles to this compilation
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does not diminish the rights of the authors. OPINIONS EXPRESSED in
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these articles ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHORS and not necessarily those of
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FidoNews and/or the Editor.
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Authors retain copyright on individual works; otherwise FidoNews is
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Copyright (C) 1999 Henk Wolsink. All rights reserved. Duplication
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and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes only. For
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use in other circumstances, please contact the original authors, or
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the Editor.
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=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=
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OBTAINING COPIES: The most recent issue of FidoNews in electronic
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form may be obtained from the FidoNews Editor via manual download or
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file-request, or from various sites in FidoNet and the Internet.
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PRINTED COPIES may be obtained by sending SASE to the above postal
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address. File-request FIDONEWS for the current Issue. File-request
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FNEWS for the current month in one archive. Or file-request specific
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back Issue filenames in distribution format [FNEWSGnn.ZIP] for a
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particular Issue. Monthly Volumes are available as FNWSmmmy.ZIP
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where mmm = three letter month [JAN - DEC] and y = last digit of the
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current year [9], i.e., FNWSJAN9.ZIP for all the Issues from Jan 99.
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Annual volumes are available as FNEWSn.ZIP where n = the Volume number
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FIDONEWS 16-26 Page 7 28 Jun 1999
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1 - 16 for 1984 - 1999, respectively. Annual Volume archives range in
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size from 48K to 1.4M.
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INTERNET USERS: FidoNews is available via:
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http://www.fidonews.org
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** http://www.fidonet.org/fidonews.htm
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** ftp://ftp.fidonet.org/pub/fidonet/fidonews/
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ftp://ftp.irvbbs.com/fidonews/
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ftp://ftp.nwstar.com/Fidonet/Fidonews
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And in non-English formats via:
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** http://www.hvc.ee/pats/fidonews (Estonian)
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http://www.fidonet.pp.se/sfnews (Swedish)
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** LINK HAS NOT BEEN UPDATED
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*=*=*
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You may obtain an email subscription to FidoNews by sending email to:
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jbarchuk@worldnet.att.net
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with a Subject line of: subscribe fnews-edist
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and no message in the message body. To remove your name from the
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email distribution use a Subject line of: unsubscribe fnews-edist
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with no message to the same address above.
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*
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You may retrieve current and previous Issues of FidoNews via FTPMail
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by sending email to:
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ftpmail@fidonews.org
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with a Subject line of: help
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and FTPMail will immediately send a reply containing details and
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instructions. When you actually make a file request, FTPMail will
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respond in three stages. You find a link for this process on
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www.fidonews.org.
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*=*=*
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You can read the current FidoNews Issue in HTML format at:
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http://www.fidonews.org
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and http://www.fidonet.dynip.com/public/fidonews/default.htm
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and in the FIDONEWS echo.
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STAR SOURCE for ALL Past Issues via FTP and file-request -
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FIDONEWS 16-26 Page 8 28 Jun 1999
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Available for FReq from 1:396/1 or by anonymous FTP from:
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ftp://ftp.sstar.com/fidonet/fnews/
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Each yearly archive also contains a listing of the Table-of-Contents
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for that year's issues. The total set is currently about 13 Megs.
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=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=
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SUBMISSIONS: You are encouraged to submit articles for publication in
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FidoNews. Article submission requirements are contained in the file
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ARTSPEC.DOC, available from the FidoNews Editor, or file-requestable
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from 5:5/23 [5:7104/2] as file "ARTSPEC.DOC". ALL Zone Coordinators
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should have copies of ARTSPEC.DOC. Please read it.
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"Fido", "FidoNet" and the dog-with-diskette are U.S. registered
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trademarks of Tom Jennings, P.O. Box 410923, San Francisco, CA 94141,
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and are used with permission.
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"Disagreement is actually necessary,
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or we'd all have to get in fights
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or something to amuse ourselves
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and create the requisite chaos."
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-Tom Jennings
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