     The  F I D O N E W S      Volume 20, Number 35             01 Sep 2003 
     +--------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
     | |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: Bjrn Felten            |
     |   ______   _//|| _\   /  |                                         |
     |  / Fido \ (_/(_|(____/   |   Newspapers should have no friends.    |
     | (________)       (jm)    |                    -- JOSEPH PULITZER   |
     +--------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
            Copyright 2003 by Fidonews Editor for Fidonews Globally.


                        Table of Contents
     1. FOOD FOR THOUGHT  .........................................  1
     2. GENERAL ARTICLES  .........................................  2
        Fidonets very own Meglomaniac  ............................  2
     3. FIDONET NOTICES  .......................................... 10
        RUSSIAN_TUTOR echo  ....................................... 10
     4. HUMOUR IN A FIDO VEIN  .................................... 11
        A Portrait of J. Random Hacker  ........................... 11
     5. BEN RITCHEY'S FIDONET SOFTWARE LISTING  ................... 17
        FIDONet Software References  .............................. 17
     6. SPECIAL INTEREST  ......................................... 22
        Nodelist Stats  ........................................... 22
     7. FIDONEWS INFORMATION  ..................................... 24
        How to Submit an Article  ................................. 24
        Credits, Legal Infomation, Availability  .................. 26
     FIDONEWS 20-35               Page 1                    1 Sep 2003


     =================================================================
                             FOOD FOR THOUGHT
     =================================================================

     There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best
     of us, that it behooves none of us, to criticize the rest of us.

                                    -- anonymous


     -----------------------------------------------------------------
     FIDONEWS 20-35               Page 2                    1 Sep 2003


     =================================================================
                             GENERAL ARTICLES
     =================================================================

      Inside the mind of a Fidonets very own Meglomaniac, Dale Ross

      By: Ross Cassell 1:123/456


     Oh where do we begin?

     Do we begin in April 2001, when two of the three Z1B tier one hubs
     told Dale to take a proverbial hike because of the (mis)direction he
     was taking the Z1B, not to mention the mess he has made of it to date?

     Do we begin in the autumn of 2001, when he decided that he could be a
     member of both Regions 12 & 18 as he embroiled himself into the
     affairs of region 12?

     Do we begin with someone who has more than once published a nodelist
     that contravened the one published by both the Z1C and the IC?

     While it is very true that Dale himself fell under much scrutiny
     starting with his Z1B power trip, there is no denying that he himself
     wasted no time in labelling those who didnt "cow tow" to his political
     agendas. Ah yes, he calls them "wankers".

     Those not in his ever increasing small circle, have or have had,
     innuendo and rhetoric leveled against them, and it was he himself who
     used this same publication to relieve himself of some stress he had
     over an unfortunate incident that had at that time occurred 7 to 8
     months earlier dealing with a TIC file.

     All of this now leads to what this article is about and in general,
     its how Dale Ross the mail hub, a member of the FTSC, deals with
     conference moderators who as individuals he has some sort of political
     axe to grind because they dont worship him or some such, but refuses
     to allow them to run their echoes. The echoes in question are the
     HOLYSMOKE echo moderated by Steve Quarrella and the POL_INC echo
     moderated by Dan Ceppa (and recently me added as co-moderator).

     As Dale Ross began his crusade to alienate himself from everyone, it
     became clear that his politics did not sit right with Steve Quarrella
     who was at the time the region 19 coordinator. Steve being the
     moderator of an echo and a RC had nothing to do with the other, except
     in Dales mind. Steve had many trouble users come and go from his echo
     from time to time, but a few users some of which were point nodes off
     of Dale Ross, while one was a regular downlink were regular
     troublemakers in the echo, when Steve asked Dale Ross to assist, he
     got absolutely no cooperation from Dale, but instead Dale Ross
     figuratively tried to beat Steve over the head with the Z1B SLA.

     He was telling Steve, rather making requirements of him as to how to
     run his echo before he would lift a finger, which at that time became
     obvious that Dale had no intentions to assist Steve with cutting these
     problem users out of the echo. This went on for literally months and
     FIDONEWS 20-35               Page 3                    1 Sep 2003


     months until Spring of 2003, when Steve finally asked and received
     cooperation from Dales Z1B peers to delink Dales system from HOLYSMOKE
     altogether. Dale's uncooperative nature in of itself is what forced
     this event to occur as it did, whereas all he really had to do was cut
     the nodes Steve asked to be cut.. Did Dale try to then react to this
     cut by asking the moderator to reconsider if he did cut the users, no.
     Did Dale apologize, no. What did Dale try to do??

     I found this exchange on his BBS, it was between him and one of the
     users Steve had asked to be cut:

     This exchange was dated approximately a number of weeks after he was
     cut from the echo officially.

     --Begin Exhibit--

     Area: FidoNet.HOLYSMOKE (Religion Debate Echo)
     Message# 83411  Date: 22nd May, 2003 at 20:10
     From: Dale Ross To: Jeff Binkley
     Subject:: Re: Who is...
     Replies: Original
       (click to view previous messages in this thread)

      DR>> ... still linked to the echo? What does it take to get traffic
      DR>> generated from you?

      DR>> With best regards, Dale

      JB> A little poke or prod generally works.

     Do you think we can get some of the folks connected to Doc's place to
     accessthis area via another means other than Doc's place since we are
     nowseparated from Doc's place? That is where most of the traffic not
     on thisside came from.

     I have a mailing list setup.
     I can mail out QWK packets
     I can setup NNTP.
     I have BBS access.
     Some other system connected here may offer similar options? 1:379/1200
     canoffer and probably does offer most of this already.

     With best regards, Dale

     --- Fidolook Lite FTN stub
      * Origin: FidoHub Point 1 (1:379/1.1)

      Area:  FidoNet.HOLYSMOKE (Religion Debate Echo)
     Message# 83414  Date: 23rd May, 2003 at 01:45
     From: Jeff Binkley To: Dale Ross
     Subject:: RE: WHO IS...
     Replies:
       (click to view previous messages in this thread)

     DR> DR>> ...still linked to the echo? What does it take to get traffic
     DR> DR>> generated from you?
     FIDONEWS 20-35               Page 4                    1 Sep 2003


     DR> DR>> With best regards, Dale

     DR> JB> A little poke or prod generally works.

     DR>Do you think we can get some of the folks connected to Doc's place
     DR>to access this area via another means other than Doc's place since
     DR>we are now separated from Doc's place? That is where most of the
     DR>traffic not on this side came from.

     DR>I have a mailing list setup.
     DR>I can mail out QWK packets
     DR>I can setup NNTP.
     DR>I have BBS access.
     DR>Some other system connected here may offer similar options?
     DR>1:379/1200 can offer and probably does offer most of this already.

     DR>With best regards, Dale

     I'll try.


     Jeff

     CMPQwk 1.42-21 9999

     --- PCBoard (R) v15.3/M 10
      * Origin:  (1:226/600)


     Prev Message New Post

     --End Exhibit--

     Sure looks like Fidonets most ethical, moral and INTEGRITY filled
     Sysop, Mail hub and FTSC member was being real cooperative.. Rather he
     was trying to hijack Steves echo, after all, how dare anyone disagree
     with how he does things!

     This is as far as things appeared to have gone with HOLYSMOKE and Dale
     Ross, but is this where this ends, no, read on, it gets better.

     The POL_INC echo moderated by Dan Ceppa, had issues with just about
     the same group of users, linked to guess who, our meglomaniac friend
     Dale Ross. Early on, Dan Ceppa used to be a point node off of Steve
     Quarrella and then eventually became a listed sysop. I suppose that
     Dans association with Steve already predispositioned Dale against him,
     but when Dan became a Fidonet sysop, it didnt help matters. Dan spent
     over a year being patient with Dale trying to deal with basically the
     same bunch of users that Steve had a issue with plus a few other
     colorful users, like Stewart Honsberger and Roy Witt who also goes by
     the alias of Andy Pead.

     Several months ago, Dale decided that he was fed up hearing from Dan
     and decided to take POL_INC off of his BBS, of course Dale made no
     attempt to work with Dan to help take the trouble users out of Dans
     echo. Dale pulled the same stunt with Dan that he did with Steve, by
     FIDONEWS 20-35               Page 5                    1 Sep 2003


     saying that Dan had to jump through major hoops by obeying Dales
     skewed interpretation of the Z1B SLA, rather what Dale was saying to
     both Steve and Dan was that they dont run their echoes, he does. What
     Dale doesnt know, is that his precious SLA is not enforceable on those
     not a party to the Z1B.

     For the last two years, we have heard Mr Dale Ross proudly proclaim
     himself Mr Integrity, Mr Ethical, Mr Moral, Mr technical, but in at
     least these cases, he didnt go the extra mile to help these
     moderators, he didnt take the high ground by setting aside political
     differences and actually assist those who sought his aid, no he saw
     two conference moderators he didnt like and wasnt going to lift a
     finger, he didnt even do the bare minimum to get by.

     Within the past month, I advised Dan Ceppa that he had exhausted every
     last ounce of patience with Dale Ross and that he would have to do
     something similiar in nature to what Steve had to do with HOLYSMOKE,
     but instead we were going to remove the Z1B SLA. Dan was advised to
     request that the Z1B remove his echo from its list of available
     echoes, the idea was to cut Dale Ross' system from his peers but still
     allow his peers to carry that echo, this was accomplished and it
     totally removed any real or perceived authority that was imagined onto
     that echo by the so called Z1B SLA.

     But here it gets interesting..

     Please bear in mind, that by this time, POL_INC has been absent from
     his BBS for a number of months..

     BTW.. His BBS is "BarkTo BBS", you can telnet to it at harborbebs.com,
     or you can use his HTTP web interface on port 8081.

     Now after this cut of his system took place, lo and behold, he puts
     POL_INC back on his BBS with a description of "Who Cares". Thats a
     rather stupid way to put things, since he made such a production to
     take it off his BBS, then after the cut is made, he puts it back,
     where he and Roy Witt have this exchange:

     This was taken from his HTTP side, so forgive the formatting. This is
     a message written by Dale Ross to Roy Witt within Dales version of
     POL_INC.

     --Begin Exhibit--

     > Whoops! Doesn't he know that the echo is available on any telnetable
     > BBS, around the world!

     Without using ANY of my fidonet mail connections I have access to
     POL_INC on no less than 20 systems. More if I look harder. They will
     have to cut ahell of a lot of systems if they are tying to keep us
     from reading the echo.

     --End Exhibit--

     A footnote here, this fact is more than obvious, although several BBS
     sysops have cooperated in shutting down alot of fake logons recently.
     FIDONEWS 20-35               Page 6                    1 Sep 2003


     But even so, this shows what Dale is up to despite him making the
     statement below:

     --Begin Exhibit--

     All of these other messages have come in from a BBS. I can link the
     echo into at least 12 different systems. However, I'll not do that.

     Dale

     --End Exhibit--

     Oh but he has and he currently still is doing that which he said he
     wouldnt do, must be that famous "Scottish Integrity" he brags about?

     Not long after I saw this exchange, I started noticing real messages
     from the POL_INC echo showing up on his BBS in his version of the
     echo, they werent up to date as far as how fast messages flow but they
     were the real McCoy as far as echo content. But the messages
     themselves had out of the ordinary formatting.. When compared to
     messages in the other echoes on his BBS, these messages lacked a
     ORIGIN line (I knew the seenby and path info wouldnt be viewable) and
     in addition to the ordinary message header displayed by the BBS,
     from/to/subj/date, the same header info was also duplicated within the
     message bodies.

     This somehow clued me that he was obtaining a QWK packet or even
     perhaps a FTN PKT, dumping all those messages to individual text
     files, stripping the ORIGIN line and other CTRL info then using BBBS's
     text file to message base import function. Whats even worse is, he is
     actually exporting these messages that he brings in this way from his
     BBS into his MAIL HUB and then onto his downlinks, some of which who
     werent part of the group of links to be cut, I have seen one such link
     reply to messages in the echo since Dale started doing this, little
     does this link know, his replies wont go out. Whats even funnier is
     Dale Ross and Roy Witt (aka Andy Pead) are also replying to messages
     in the echo as if those whom they respond to will see them.

     These were taken from a screen capture from his BBS on the telnet
     side, there are two messages, pay attention to the formatting I speak
     of in the first message and of course the second one which wouldnt
     contain the same weird format since its being posted locally by
     Dale...

     --Begin Exhibit--

     POL_INC message #13848 from Wayne Chirnside to Ross Cassell.
        Entered on 24th August, 2003 at 13:35, 22 lines.
        There are replies to this message.

     Subject: Re: Commandments
     =========================

     From: Wayne Chirnside
     To: Ross Cassell
     Date: 2003-08-24 11:03:00
     FIDONEWS 20-35               Page 7                    1 Sep 2003


     Subject: Re: Commandments

     -=> ROSS CASSELL wrote to WAYNE CHIRNSIDE <=-

     RC> Do yourself a favor and if you arent supposed to be posting in
     RC> POLITICS, post in here.. :)

     Already arrived at that conclusion. I was banned but I'd neither
     broken any all-politics posted rule, been warned nordid my banishment
     cite the reason, I asked a question. Nor was Iinformed by netmail so I
     do not consider this ban binding inany way but considering the nature
     of that echoand it's participants...Since that time I have seen others
     violate that echo's rules withimpunity. Some kind of all-politics echo
     that can't tolorate a merequestion. Ah the land of the free :-(

     POL_INC message #13861 from Dale Ross to Wayne Chirnside.
        Entered on 24th August, 2003 at 13:40, 22 lines.
        Reply to msg # 13848. (There are no more replies.)

     Subject: Re: Commandments
     =========================

     RC>> Do yourself a favor and if you arent supposed to be posting in
     RC>> POLITICS, post in here.. :)

      WC> Already arrived at that conclusion. I was banned but I'd neither
      WC> broken any all-politics posted rule, been warned nor did my
      WC> banishment cite the reason, I asked a question. Nor was I
      WC> informed by netmail so I do not consider this ban binding in
      WC> any way but considering the nature of that echo and it's
      WC> participants... Since that time I have seen others violate
      WC> that echo's rules withimpunity. Some kind of all-politics echo
      WC> that can't tolorate a mere question.Ah the
      WC> land of the free :-(

     So? That is a common practice here in POL_INC.

     Bye, Dale.
     --- FTNed 2001 Build 0058-RC6/Win2k
      * Origin: FTNed - The Best GUI FTNeditor! http://ftned.da.ru(1:379/1)

     --End Exhibit--

     What he is doing by going to all this foolish trouble is showing his
     BBS as the POINT OF ORIGIN for these message from the perspective of
     his MAIL HUB and those linked to him for it, I confirmed this by
     asking a downlink of his to provide me with the seenby and path info
     for the latest message he had in that echo at the time of my request:

     --Begin Exhibit--

     According to the last bundle I received that contained a POL_INC
     message, the following control information was present:

       @AREA POL_INC
       @MSGID: 1:379/45 2d784fc0
     FIDONEWS 20-35               Page 8                    1 Sep 2003


       @TZUTC: -0500
       @CHARSET: PC-8
       @SEEN-BY: 10/22 226/600 229/1 249/116 280/5003 379/1 45 103 1200
       712/848  @SEEN-BY: 2404/201 3800/1
       @PATH: 379/45 1

     --End Exhibit--

     Dales POINTS, 10/22 and 226/600 are the banned users.

     People...

     Lets summarize.

     [HOLYSMOKE]

     * Wouldnt work with moderator.

     * Gets cut from the ECHO.

     * Tried to Hijack or co-opt the echo.

     [POL_INC]

     * Wouldnt work with moderator, even removed echo from his BBS.

     * Gets cut from the echo.

     * Puts echo back on BBS and goes to great lengths to manually import
       echo into his BBS with some sort of scripting that strips origin
       lines and makes the messages appear to show his system as point of
       origin, but also refeeds this to people originally cut from the echo
       but also people who are under some sort of impression that the feed
       is legitimate and really two-way with the rest of Fidonet.

     Is this the guy you want transporting your echoes?

     If he doesnt like the moderator, will he if simply defy the moderator
     and do this with them, heck he is doing it now.

     Is Dale Ross fit to serve on the FTSC?

     Can we really trust someone to be a scribe for our technical
     standards, when he does stuff like this? He has consistently showed
     himself to not be a team player and this only proves it, after two
     solid years of hearing him brag on his integrity we now know this to
     be a lie for no one with any integrity would go to these lengths that
     he has himself went to.

     As he has so often told his political opponents the past two years
     that they should "resign" for whatever misdeeds he perceived them as
     having done, I think in this case this same advice moreso now applies
     to him.

     Dale, you must resign, your seat on the FTSC, your mail hub and your
     perhaps your node number.
     FIDONEWS 20-35               Page 9                    1 Sep 2003


     -----------------------------------------------------------------
     FIDONEWS 20-35               Page 10                   1 Sep 2003


     =================================================================
                              FIDONET NOTICES
     =================================================================

                               RUSSIAN_TUTOR echo
                     Aleksej R. Serdyukov  2:5020/1042.42
                             [2003.08.28 14:50 UTC]

     ,Russian_Tutor,Learn_Russian_by_example,Aleksej_Serdyukov,

     Have you ever wanted to learn Russian but did't know how? Found only
     one link to a tutorial and it was broken? Even started to learn it,
     but lost your way because of a lack of support? Learned it but not
     sure how good? Know it well, but tired of people who correct you while
     you don't really want to make mistakes and would like to fix them?
     Using a spelling checker and tired of its stupidity?

     Well, the echo could help you. It even should help you, because it is
     intended to.

     English is fully allowed there and you can start learning from the
     scratch.

     Try it!
     The echo is on the WWB already and it will be on the R50 backbone in a
     couple of days.

     The echo moderator is Aleksej R. Serdyukov (2:5020/1042.42), the
     comoderators are Douglas Connor (1:132/500) and Alex Shakhaylo
     (2:461/700).


                                    Welcome!


     P.S.: In case you are interested in a similar echo for English, you
     can try to get ENGLISH_TUTOR.


     -----------------------------------------------------------------
     FIDONEWS 20-35               Page 11                   1 Sep 2003


     =================================================================
                           HUMOUR IN A FIDO VEIN
     =================================================================

                        A Portrait of J. Random Hacker
                     forwarded by Petko Bossakov (2:350/5)

     This profile reflects detailed comments on an earlier 'trial balloon'
     version from about a hundred USENET respondents. Where comparatives
     are used, the implicit 'other' is a randomly selected segment of the
     non-hacker population of the same size as hackerdom.

     An important point: Except in some relatively minor respects such as
     slang vocabulary, hackers don't get to be the way they are by
     imitating each other. Rather, it seems to be the case that the
     combination of personality traits that makes a hacker so conditions
     one's outlook on life that one tends to end up being like other
     hackers whether one wants to or not (much as bizarrely detailed
     similarities in behavior and preferences are found in genetic twins
     raised separately).

     General Appearance
     ==================
     Intelligent. Scruffy. Intense. Abstracted. Surprisingly for a
     sedentary profession, more hackers run to skinny than fat; both
     extremes are more common than elsewhere. Tans are rare.

     Dress
     =====
     Casual, vaguely post-hippie; T-shirts, jeans, running shoes,
     Birkenstocks (or bare feet). Long hair, beards, and moustaches are
     common. High incidence of tie-dye and intellectual or humorous
     'slogan' T-shirts (only rarely computer related; that would be too
     obvious).

     A substantial minority prefers 'outdoorsy' clothing --- hiking boots
     ("in case a mountain should suddenly spring up in the machine room",
     as one famous parody put it), khakis, lumberjack or chamois shirts,
     and the like.

     Very few actually fit the 'National Lampoon' Nerd stereotype, though
     it lingers on at MIT and may have been more common before 1975. These
     days, backpacks are more common than briefcases, and the hacker 'look'
     is more whole-earth than whole-polyester.

     Hackers dress for comfort, function, and minimal maintenance hassles
     rather than for appearance (some, perhaps unfortunately, take this to
     extremes and neglect personal hygiene). They have a very low tolerance
     of suits and other 'business' attire; in fact, it is not uncommon for
     hackers to quit a job rather than conform to a dress code.

     Female hackers almost never wear visible makeup, and many use none at
     all.

     Reading Habits
     ==============
     FIDONEWS 20-35               Page 12                   1 Sep 2003


     Omnivorous, but usually includes lots of science and science fiction.
     The typical hacker household might subscribe to 'Analog', 'Scientific
     American', 'Co-Evolution Quarterly', and 'Smithsonian'. Hackers often
     have a reading range that astonishes liberal arts people but tend not
     to talk about it as much. Many hackers spend as much of their spare
     time reading as the average American burns up watching TV, and often
     keep shelves and shelves of well-thumbed books in their homes.

     Other Interests
     ===============
     Some hobbies are widely shared and recognized as going with the
     culture: science fiction, music, medievalism, chess, go, backgammon,
     wargames, and intellectual games of all kinds. (Role-playing games
     such as Dungeons and Dragons used to be extremely popular among
     hackers but they lost a bit of their luster as they moved into the
     mainstream and became heavily commercialized.) Logic puzzles. Ham
     radio. Other interests that seem to correlate less strongly but
     positively with hackerdom include linguistics and theater teching.

     Physical Activity and Sports
     ============================
     Many (perhaps even most) hackers don't follow or do sports at all and
     are determinedly anti-physical. Among those who do, interest in
     spectator sports is low to non-existent; sports are something one
     *does*, not something one watches on TV.

     Further, hackers avoid most team sports like the plague (volleyball is
     a notable exception, perhaps because it's non-contact and relatively
     friendly). Hacker sports are almost always primarily self-competitive
     ones involving concentration, stamina, and micromotor skills: martial
     arts, bicycling, auto racing, kite flying, hiking, rock climbing,
     aviation, target-shooting, sailing, caving, juggling, skiing, skating
     (ice and roller). Hackers' delight in techno-toys also tends to draw
     them towards hobbies with nifty complicated equipment that they can
     tinker with.

     Education
     =========
     Nearly all hackers past their teens are either college-degreed or
     self-educated to an equivalent level. The self-taught hacker is often
     considered (at least by other hackers) to be better-motivated, and may
     be more respected, than his school-shaped counterpart. Academic areas
     from which people often gravitate into hackerdom include (besides the
     obvious computer science and electrical engineering) physics,
     mathematics, linguistics, and philosophy.

     Things Hackers Detest and Avoid
     ===============================
     IBM mainframes. Smurfs, Ewoks, and other forms of offensive cuteness.
     Bureaucracies. Stupid people. Easy listening music. Television (except
     for cartoons, movies, the old "Star Trek", and the new "Simpsons").
     Business suits. Dishonesty. Incompetence. Boredom. COBOL. BASIC.
     Character-based menu interfaces.

     Food
     ====
     FIDONEWS 20-35               Page 13                   1 Sep 2003


     Ethnic. Spicy. Oriental, esp. Chinese and most esp. Szechuan, Hunan,
     and Mandarin (hackers consider Cantonese vaguely d'eclass'e). Hackers
     prefer the exotic; for example, the Japanese-food fans among them will
     eat with gusto such delicacies as fugu (poisonous pufferfish) and
     whale. Thai food has experienced flurries of popularity. Where
     available, high-quality Jewish delicatessen food is much esteemed. A
     visible minority of Southwestern and Pacific Coast hackers prefers
     Mexican.

     For those all-night hacks, pizza and microwaved burritos are big.
     Interestingly, though the mainstream culture has tended to think of
     hackers as incorrigible junk-food junkies, many have at least mildly
     health-foodist attitudes and are fairly discriminating about what they
     eat. This may be generational; anecdotal evidence suggests that the
     stereotype was more on the mark 10--15 years ago.

     Politics
     ========
     Vaguely left of center, except for the strong libertarian contingent
     which rejects conventional left-right politics entirely. The only safe
     generalization is that hackers tend to be rather anti-authoritarian;
     thus, both conventional conservatism and 'hard' leftism are rare.
     Hackers are far more likely than most non-hackers to either (a) be
     aggressively apolitical or (b) entertain peculiar or idiosyncratic
     political ideas and actually try to live by them day-to-day.

     Gender and Ethnicity
     ====================
     Hackerdom is still predominantly male. However, the percentage of
     women is clearly higher than the low-single-digit range typical for
     technical professions, and female hackers are generally respected and
     dealt with as equals.

     In the U.S., hackerdom is predominantly Caucasian with strong
     minorities of Jews (East Coast) and Orientals (West Coast). The Jewish
     contingent has exerted a particularly pervasive cultural influence
     (see Food, above, and note that several common jargon terms are
     obviously mutated Yiddish).

     The ethnic distribution of hackers is understood by them to be a
     function of which ethnic groups tend to seek and value education.
     Racial and ethnic prejudice is notably uncommon and tends to be met
     with freezing contempt.

     When asked, hackers often ascribe their culture's gender- and
     color-blindness to a positive effect of text-only network channels.

     Religion
     ========
     Agnostic. Atheist. Non-observant Jewish. Neo-pagan. Very commonly,
     three or more of these are combined in the same person. Conventional
     faith-holding Christianity is rare though not unknown.

     Even hackers who identify with a religious affiliation tend to be
     relaxed about it, hostile to organized religion in general and all
     forms of religious bigotry in particular. Many enjoy 'parody'
     FIDONEWS 20-35               Page 14                   1 Sep 2003


     religions such as Discordianism and the Church of the SubGenius.

     Also, many hackers are influenced to varying degrees by Zen Buddhism
     or (less commonly) Taoism, and blend them easily with their 'native'
     religions.

     There is a definite strain of mystical, almost Gnostic sensibility
     that shows up even among those hackers not actively involved with
     neo-paganism, Discordianism, or Zen. Hacker folklore that pays homage
     to 'wizards' and speaks of incantations and demons has too much
     psychological truthfulness about it to be entirely a joke.

     Ceremonial Chemicals
     ====================
     Most hackers don't smoke tobacco, and use alcohol in moderation if at
     all (though there is a visible contingent of exotic-beer fanciers, and
     a few hackers are serious oenophiles). Limited use of non-addictive
     psychedelic drugs, such as cannabis, LSD, psilocybin, and nitrous
     oxide, etc., used to be relatively common and is still regarded with
     more tolerance than in the mainstream culture. Use of 'downers' and
     opiates, on the other hand, appears to be particularly rare; hackers
     seem in general to dislike drugs that 'dumb them down'. On the third
     hand, many hackers regularly wire up on caffeine and/or sugar for
     all-night hacking runs.

     Communication Style
     ===================
     See the discussions of speech and writing styles near the beginning of
     this File. Though hackers often have poor person-to-person
     communication skills, they are as a rule extremely sensitive to
     nuances of language and very precise in their use of it. They are
     often better at writing than at speaking.

     Geographical Distribution
     =========================
     In the United States, hackerdom revolves on a Bay Area-to-Boston axis;
     about half of the hard core seems to live within a hundred miles of
     Cambridge (Massachusetts) or Berkeley (California), although there are
     significant contingents in Los Angeles, in the Pacific Northwest, and
     around Washington DC. Hackers tend to cluster around large cities,
     especially 'university towns' such as the Raleigh-Durham area in North
     Carolina or Princeton, New Jersey (this may simply reflect the fact
     that many are students or ex-students living near their alma maters).

     Sexual Habits
     =============
     Hackerdom tolerates a much wider range of sexual and lifestyle
     variation than the mainstream culture. It includes a relatively large
     gay contingent. Hackers are somewhat more likely to live in polygynous
     or polyandrous relationships, practice open marriage, or live in
     communes or group houses. In this, as in general appearance, hackerdom
     semi-consciously maintains 'counterculture' values.

     Personality Characteristics
     ===========================
     The most obvious common 'personality' characteristics of hackers are
     FIDONEWS 20-35               Page 15                   1 Sep 2003


     high intelligence, consuming curiosity, and facility with intellectual
     abstractions. Also, most hackers are 'neophiles', stimulated by and
     appreciative of novelty (especially intellectual novelty). Most are
     also relatively individualistic and anti-conformist.

     Although high general intelligence is common among hackers, it is not
     the sine qua non one might expect. Another trait is probably even more
     important: the ability to mentally absorb, retain, and reference large
     amounts of 'meaningless' detail, trusting to later experience to give
     it context and meaning. A person of merely average analytical
     intelligence who has this trait can become an effective hacker, but a
     creative genius who lacks it will swiftly find himself outdistanced by
     people who routinely upload the contents of thick reference manuals
     into their brains.

     Contrary to stereotype, hackers are *not* usually intellectually
     narrow; they tend to be interested in any subject that can provide
     mental stimulation, and can often discourse knowledgeably and even
     interestingly on any number of obscure subjects --- if you can get
     them to talk at all, as opposed to, say, going back to their hacking.

     It is noticeable (and contrary to many outsiders' expectations) that
     the better a hacker is at hacking, the more likely he or she is to
     have outside interests at which he or she is more than merely
     competent.

     Hackers are 'control freaks' in a way that has nothing to do with the
     usual coercive or authoritarian connotations of the term. In the same
     way that children delight in making model trains go forward and back
     by moving a switch, hackers love making complicated things like
     computers do nifty stuff for them. But it has to be *their* nifty
     stuff. They don't like tedium, nondeterminism, or most of the fussy,
     boring, ill-defined little tasks that go with maintaining a normal
     existence. Accordingly, they tend to be careful and orderly in their
     intellectual lives and chaotic elsewhere. Their code will be
     beautiful, even if their desks are buried in 3 feet of crap.

     Hackers are generally only very weakly motivated by conventional
     rewards such as social approval or money. They tend to be attracted by
     challenges and excited by interesting toys, and to judge the interest
     of work or other activities in terms of the challenges offered and the
     toys they get to play with.

     In terms of Myers-Briggs and equivalent psychometric systems,
     hackerdom appears to concentrate the relatively rare INTJ and INTP
     types; that is, introverted, intuitive, and thinker types (as opposed
     to the extroverted-sensate personalities that predominate in the
     mainstream culture). ENT[JP] types are also concentrated among hackers
     but are in a minority.

     Weaknesses of the Hacker Personality
     Hackers have relatively little ability to identify emotionally with
     other people. This may be because hackers generally aren't much like
     'other people'. Unsurprisingly, hackers also tend towards
     self-absorption, intellectual arrogance, and impatience with people
     and tasks perceived to be wasting their time.
     FIDONEWS 20-35               Page 16                   1 Sep 2003


     As cynical as hackers sometimes wax about the amount of idiocy in the
     world, they tend by reflex to assume that everyone is as rational,
     'cool', and imaginative as they consider themselves. This bias often
     contributes to weakness in communication skills. Hackers tend to be
     especially poor at confrontation and negotiation.

     As a result of all the above traits, many hackers have difficulty
     maintaining stable relationships. At worst, they can produce the
     classic {computer geek}: withdrawn, relationally incompetent, sexually
     frustrated, and desperately unhappy when not submerged in his or her
     craft. Fortunately, this extreme is far less common than mainstream
     folklore paints it --- but almost all hackers will recognize something
     of themselves in the unflattering paragraphs above.

     Hackers are often monumentally disorganized and sloppy about dealing
     with the physical world. Bills don't get paid on time, clutter piles
     up to incredible heights in homes and offices, and minor maintenance
     tasks get deferred indefinitely.

     The sort of person who uses phrases like 'incompletely socialized'
     usually thinks hackers are. Hackers regard such people with contempt
     when they notice them at all.

     Miscellaneous
     =============
     Hackers are more likely to have cats than dogs (in fact, it is widely
     grokked that cats have the hacker nature). Many drive incredibly
     decrepit heaps and forget to wash them; richer ones drive spiffy
     Porsches and RX-7s and then forget to have them washed. Almost all
     hackers have terribly bad handwriting, and often fall into the habit
     of block-printing everything like junior draftsmen.

     -----------------------------------------------------------------
     FIDONEWS 20-35               Page 17                   1 Sep 2003


     =================================================================
                  BEN RITCHEY'S FIDONET SOFTWARE LISTING
     =================================================================

                    -=:{ FIDONet Software Reference }:=-

         Type: M=Mailer  T=Tosser  B=BBS  D=Door  C=Comm/Terminal
               P=Points  E=Editor  I=Internet  U=Utility  ?=Info

     .- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -.
     |Software: Author     |Type |URL, Contact, Ver, Notes      Help Node|
     `- - - - - - - - - - -+- - -+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -'

      Argus                |M    |http://www.ritlabs.com/argus/  2:469/84
                           |     | argus@ritlabs.com  Tel: 373-2-246889
                           |     | v3.210 on Mar 20th 2001

      BeeMail:             |M    |http://beemail.gexonline.net   1:105/10
       Stephen Proffit     |     | beemail@gexonline.net

      BinkleyTerm XE       |M    |http://btxe.sourceforge.net     1:1/102
                           |     | v2.60XE/Gamma-6 on Nov 11th 1998

      BinkD                |MI   |http://2f.ru/binkd/
                           |     | maloff@corbina.net
                           |     | v0.94 on Jul 24th 2000

      FIDO-Deluxe IP       |MPUI |http://www.fido-deluxe.de.vu 2:2432/280
       Michael Haase       |     | m.haase@gmx.net
                           |     | v2.3 on Jul 18th 2003

      Fidonet to Internet: |MI   |http://www.terminate.com
       Bo Bendtsen         |     | sales@terminate.com
                           |     | v2.00 on Mar 23rd 1997

      FrontDoor, FD/APX:   |MTPC |http://www.defsol.se          2:201/330
       Definite Solutions  |     | sales@defsol.se                1:1/101
                           |     | v2.26SW & v2.33ml FD, v1.15 APX

      Husky Project        |MTPUI|http://husky.sf.net
                           |     | v1.4.0 on Feb 11th 2003

      InterMail, InterEcho |MT   |http://www.ifido.com            1:1/133
                           |     | bob@nwstar.com
                           |     | v2.50 IM, v1.19 IE

      Radius (based on     |M    |http://fido5012.narod.ru/     2:5012/38
               Argus)      |     | fido5012@zaural.net Tel: 7-3522-469463
                           |     | v4.009 on Jan 2nd 2003

      Terminate            |MBP  |http://www.terminate.com
                           |     | v5.00 on Aug 7th 1997

      Tmail                |MI   |http://www.tmail.spb.ru  v2608

      WildCat! Interactive |MTBEI|http://www.santronics.com
     FIDONEWS 20-35               Page 18                   1 Sep 2003


       Net Server, Platinum|     | sales@santronics.com
       Xpress: Santronics  |     | Tel: (305) 248-3204
       Software, Inc.      |     | AUP 450.2 on Jul 9th 2002
     +- - - - - - - - - - -+- - -+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -+

      Fidogate             |TUI  |http://www.fidogate.org
                           |     | Martin_Junius@m-j-s.net  v4.4.4

      FMail                |T    |http://fmail.nl.eu.org       2:280/1076
                           |     | wijnstra@fmail.nl.eu.org  v1.60

      JetMail: JetSys      |TU   |http://www.jetsys.de  js@jetsys.de
       (ATARI ST only)     |     | v1.01 on Jan 1st 2000

      Squish               |T    |http://www.lanius.com
                           |     | sales@lanius.com  v1.11
                           |     |http://www.vector11.com/maximus/

      Watergate            |TUI  |http://www2.sbbs.se/hp/ramon/
                           |     | ramon@sbbs.se
                           |     | v0.93p9 on Dec 14th 1998
     +- - - - - - - - - - -+- - -+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -+

      BBBS                 |BI   |http://www.bbbs.net  b@bbbs.net
                           |     | v4.00MP on Oct 25th 1999      2:22/222

      ELEBBS: The Elevator |B    |http://www.elebbs.com
       Software Production |     | elebbs@elebbs.com
                           |     | v0.10.RC1 on Jun 9th 2002

      EZYCom BBS           |BT   |http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~dcbbs/
                           |     | pjs@optushome.com.au         3:633/104
                           |     | v2.0 on 3 May 2003

      Falken BBS           |B    |http://falkenbbs.com
                           |     | v12.0 on Feb 2nd 2002

      Hermes II Project    |B    |http://www.hermesii.org
                           |     | info@HermesII.org  v3.5.9 Beta Final

      Maximus BBS          |B    |http://www.lanius.com
                           |     | sales@lanius.com  v3.01
                           |     |http://www.vector11.com/maximus/

      MBSE BBS:            |BI   |http://mbse.sourceforge.net  2:280/2802
       Michiel Broek       |     | mbroek@users.sourceforge.net
                           |     | v0.33.21 on Jun 4th 2002

      Mystic BBS           |B    |http://www.mysticbbs.com
                           |     | v1.07.3 on May 13th 2001

      Nexus BBS            |B    |http://www.nexusbbs.net
                           |     | groberts@nexusbbs.net
                           |     | v0.99.41.001 beta on Jun 10th 2001

      Proboard BBS         |B    |http://www.proboard.be
     FIDONEWS 20-35               Page 19                   1 Sep 2003


                           |     | v2.17 on Jun 9th 2002

      RemoteAccess BBS:    |B    |http://www.rapro.com            1:1/120
       Bruce Morse         |     | bfmorse@rapro.com
                           |     | v2.62.2SW

      Spitfire BBS: Buffalo|B    |http://www.angelfire.com/ia/buffalo/
       Creek Software      |     | MDWoltz@aol.com                1:1/150
                           |     | v3.6 on Aug 20th 1999

      Synchronet BBS       |BT   |http://www.synchro.net
                           |     | sysop(at)vert(dot)synchro(dot)net
                           |     | v3.10L Beta

      Telegard BBS         |B    |http://www.telegard.net
                           |     | support@telegard.net
                           |     | v3.09g2 SP4
     +- - - - - - - - - - -+- - -+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -+

      Atlantis Software    |D    |http://www.jimmyrose.com/atlantis/
                           |     | last update: Jun 2002

      BBS Central          |D    |http://www.rpcomputers.com

      Bentstone            |D    |http://www.srupc.com/mall
       Capabilities Group  |     | info@stonebenders.com

      Cheepware:           |D    |http://www.midnightshour.org/cheepware/
       Sean Dennis         |     | hausmaus@midnightshour.org    1:11/200

      DDS (Doorware        |D    |http://www.doorgames.org     1:2404/201
       Distribution System)|     | ruth@doorgames.org
       Ruth Argust         |     |

      DoorMUD              |D    |http://www.dmud.thebbs.org
                           |     | v0.98 Jun 1st 2002

      Elysium Software     |D    |http://www.elysoft.com
                           |     | mpreslar@mailcity.com

      Jibben Software      |D    |http://www.jibbensoftware.com
                           |     | scott@jibben.com
                           |     | 1995-99 Release dates

      JNS Software:        |D    |http://www.geocities.com/jnssoftware/
       Rusty Johnson       |     | rustyjohnson57@hotmail.com
                           |     | Tel: (304) 733-0113

      John Dailey Software |D    |http://www.johndaileysoftware.com
                           |     | support@johndaileysoftware.com

      LORD (Legend of the  |D    |http://www.lordlegacy.org
       Red Dragon) Reborn  |     | mike@lordlegacy.org
                           |     | v4.06 on Feb 5th 2001

      Lord-II IGMs         |D    |http://www.shelby.net/wizards/lord2igm/
     FIDONEWS 20-35               Page 20                   1 Sep 2003


      PC Pursuits          |D    |http://www.pcpursuits.com
                           |     | brucep@pop.kis.net
                           |     | Tel: (301) 240-6653

      Shining Star         |D    |http://www.shiningstar.net/bbsdoors/
                           |     | nannette@shiningstar.net

      Sunrise Doors:       |D    |http://www.sunrisedoors.com
       Al Lawrence         |     | al@sunrisedoors.com
                           |     | Tel: (404) 256-9518

      The Brainex System   |D    |http://www.brainex.com/brainex_system/
                           |     | stanley@brainex.com  1994-99 Releases

      Trade Wars           |D    |http://www.eisonline.com/tradewars/
                           |     | jpritch@eisonline.com
                           |     | v3.09 (DOS-32) in 2002

      Vagabond Software:   |D    |http://www.vbsoft.org        1:124/7013
       Bryan Turner        |     | vagabond@vbsoft.org
                           |     | last update: Jul 17th 2002

      (various)            |D    |http://www.webnexus.com/users/etow/
     +- - - - - - - - - - -+- - -+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -+

      APoint               |PI   |http://www.apoint-mail.de
                           |     | dirk.pokorny@apoint-mail.de
                           |     | v1.25                   2:2426/1210.13

      CrossPoint (XP)      |P    |http://www.crosspoint.de
                           |     | pm@crosspoint.de  v3.12d Dec 22nd 1999
      FreeXP               |P    |http://www.freexp.de         2:2433/460
                           |     | support@freexp.de
                           |     | v3.40 RC3 Apr 28th 2002
      OpenXP/32            |PI   |http://www.openxp.com        2:248/2004
                           |     | mk@openxp.de  v3.8.7 beta Aug 3rd 2002

      PPoint               |P    |http://www.alcuf.ca           1:249/114
                           |     | v3.04 on Jan 10th 2000
     +- - - - - - - - - - -+- - -+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -+

      GoldEd+              |E    |http://mik.nu/golded-plus/   2:203/6600
                           |     | v1.1.5 Snapshot on Feb 28th 2003

      SqEd32               |E    |http://www.sqed.de
                           |     | v1.15 on Dec 15th 1999

      TimEd                |E    |http://blizzard.dnsalias.org/fidonet
                           |     | mail@ozzmosis.com            /timed
                           |     | v1.11.a5 in March 2003       3:633/267
     +- - - - - - - - - - -+- - -+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -+

      Allfix               |U    |ftp://ftp.nwstar.com           1:140/12
                           |     | bob@nwstar.com
                           |     | v5.13 (v6?)

     FIDONEWS 20-35               Page 21                   1 Sep 2003


      GiGo                 |UI   |http://www.gigo.com
                           |     | v0109 on Jan 9th 1997

      Internet Rex:        |UI   |http://members.shaw.ca/InternetRex/
       Charles Cruden      |     | telnet://xanadubbs.ca        1:342/806
       (Khan Software)     |     | v2.29 on Oct 21st 2001

      PeopleComm Terminal  |CUI  |http://www.peoplecomm.org     1:128/148
       (BBS & Telnet w/    |     | edward.williams@adelphia.net
        ZModem)            |     | v1.01a on Feb 11th 2003

      TransNet             |UI   |http://www.ressl.com.ar/transnet/
                           |     | transnet@ressl.com.ar
                           |     | v2.11 on Jul 18th 1998

      TransX: Multiboard   |UI   |http://www.multiboard.com/software/
       Communications, Inc.|     | support@multiboard.com      1:2401/305
                           |     | v3.5
     +- - - - - - - - - - -+- - -+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -+

      National BBS List    |?    | http://www.usbbs.org

      Hispanic FIDO/BBS's  |?    | http://www.conecta2.org/pucela_bbs/
       (in Spanish only)   |     |  (Extensive software & BBS Listings)
     +- - - - - - - - - - -+- - -+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -+

      File Archives: http://archives.thebbs.org  http://www.filegate.org
       http://sysopscorner.thebbs.org                http://www.juge.com
       http://www.dmine.com/bbscorner/             http://garbo.uwasa.fi
       http://www.simtel.net                  http://wuarchive.wustl.edu
       http://hobbes.nmsu.edu

      Note: most also provide FTP access (use ftp:// vice http:// above)

     *=-=*=.=*=-=*=.=*=-=*=.=*=-=*=.=*=-=*=.=*=-=*=.=*=-=*=.=*=-=*=.=*=-=*

      Note: Please send corrections & additions to: Ben Ritchey, 1:393/68
               ( or FReq Magic INFO direct for E-mail address )
             WildCat! BBS at +1-337-232-4155  24/7  33.6kBps,8,N,1
          Internet: http://bellsouthpwp.net/c/m/cmech617/fidosoft.txt

      Emeritus: Todd Cochrane, Frank Vest, Peter Popovich


     -----------------------------------------------------------------
     FIDONEWS 20-35               Page 22                   1 Sep 2003


     =================================================================
                             SPECIAL INTEREST
     =================================================================

                         Nodelist Stats

      Input nodelist  nodelist.241
                size  960.5kb
                date  2003-08-29

      The nodelist has   8344 nodes in it
        and a total of  11090 non-comment entries

              including     6 zones
                           59 regions
                          439 hosts
                          594 hubs
         admin overhead  1098 ( 13.16 %)

                    and  1003 private nodes
                          273 nodes down
                          372 nodes on hold
      off line overhead  1648 ( 19.75 %)


      Speed summary:

               >9600 =    666 (  7.98 %)
                9600 =   7264 ( 87.06 %)
                              (HST  =  150 or   2.06 %)
                              (CSP  =    1 or   0.01 %)
                              (PEP  =   11 or   0.15 %)
                              (MAX  =    0 or   0.00 %)
                              (HAY  =    1 or   0.01 %)
                              (V32  = 3892 or  53.58 %)
                              (V32B =  380 or   5.23 %)
                              (V34  = 4822 or  66.38 %)
                              (V42  = 4054 or  55.81 %)
                              (V42B =  403 or   5.55 %)
                2400 =     80 (  0.96 %)
                1200 =      6 (  0.07 %)
                 300 =    328 (  3.93 %)

                ISDN =    752 (  9.01 %)

     ----------------------------------------------------------
      File Req Flag   Applicable software     Number of systems
     ----------------------------------------------------------
      XA              Frontdoor <1.99b             2817
                      Frontdoor  2.02+
                      Dutchie 2.90c
                      Binkleyterm >2.1
                      D'Bridge <1.3
                      TIMS
                      Xenia
     --------------------------------------
     FIDONEWS 20-35               Page 23                   1 Sep 2003


      XB              Binkleyterm 2.0                10
                      Dutchie 2.90b
     --------------------------------------
      XC              Opus 1.1                       11
     --------------------------------------
      XP              Seadog                          6
     --------------------------------------
      XR              Opus 1.03                      43
     --------------------------------------
      XW              Fido >12M                     329
                      Tabby
                      KittenMail
     --------------------------------------
      XX              D'Bridge 1.30                3738
                      Frontdoor 1.99b
                      Intermail 2.01
                      T-Mail
     --------------------------------------
      None            QMM                          1390
     --------------------------------------

      CrashMail capable =   2587 ( 31.00 %)
      MailOnly nodes    =   4616 ( 55.32 %)
      Listed-only nodes =    644 (  7.72 %)
      Other             =    497 (  5.96 %)

      [Report produced by NETSTATS - A PD pgm available from 1:106/100]
      [                                 Revised by B Felten, 2:203/208]

     -----------------------------------------------------------------
     FIDONEWS 20-35               Page 24                   1 Sep 2003


     =================================================================
                           FIDONEWS INFORMATION
     =================================================================

                            How to Submit an Article

     If you wish to submit an article for inclusion in the Fidonews, here
     are some guidelines, if you send it as an attached file; the preferred
     method if you want reasonable control over how the published article
     will appear in the Fidonews:

     a) Plain ASCII text. If you could type it on your keyboard, it's
        probably quite OK...

     b) Put a title to the article. Put the title in two times. The first
        time, on the first line, with an * before it. The second time, on
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     c) Deadline for article submission is Sunday, 12:00 UTC.

     Help the Editor by following the above guides. Below are some subjects
     and the file extension for the article as set in the configuration
     file for the making of the Fidonews. Please help by putting the file
     extension of the correct subject on the file name if known..

     Ideas for Subject areas:

         Subject                  File |      Subject                 File
     ----------------------------------|----------------------------------
      From the *C's              *.css |  Rebuttals to articles      *.reb
      Fidonet Regional News      *.reg |  Fidonet Net News           *.net
      Retractions                *.rtx |  General Fidonet Articles   *.art
      Guest Editorial            *.gue |  Fidonet Current Events     *.cur
      Fidonet Interviews         *.inv |  Fidonet Software Reviews   *.rev
      Fidonet Web Page Reviews   *.web |  Fidonet Notices            *.not
      Getting Fidonet Technical  *.ftc |  Question Of The Week       *.que
      Humor in a Fido Vein       *.hfv |  Comix in ASCII             *.cmx
      Fidonet's Int. Kitchen     *.rec |  Poet's Corner              *.poe
      Clean Humor & Jokes        *.jok |  Other Stuff                *.oth
      Fidonet Classified Ads     *.ads |  Corrections                *.cor
      Best of Fidonet            *.bof |

     If you don't know or are not sure, send the article anyway. Put a .TXT
     on it and I'll try to figure out where it should be in the Fidonews.

     If you follow these simple guidelines, there should be little problem
     in getting your article published. If your submission is too far out
     of specs for the Fidonews, it will be returned to you and/or a message
     sent informing you of the problem. This DOES NOT mean that your
     article is not accepted. It means that there is something in it that I
     can not fix and I need your help on it.
     FIDONEWS 20-35               Page 25                   1 Sep 2003


     Send Articles via E-mail or Netmail, file attach or message to:

              Bjrn Felten
     Fidonet  2:2/2
     E-Mail   bfelten@telia.com

     Please include a message, telling me that you have sent an article.
     That way I will know to look for it.


     -----------------------------------------------------------------
     FIDONEWS 20-35               Page 26                   1 Sep 2003


                    Credits, Legal Infomation, Availability

     + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --  FIDONEWS STAFF - -- -- -- -- -- -- -- +
     |                                                                |
     | Editor:        Bjrn Felten, 2:2/2, editor@fidonews.org        |
     |                Crash mail attached: Editor@2:2/2               |
     |                E-Mail attached:     bfelten@telia.com          |
     | Webmaster:     Jim Barchuk, jb@fidonews.org                    |
     | Columnist:     Warren Bonner - Ol'WDB's Corner                 |
     | Columnist:     Frank Vest - (reserved for future use)          |
     | Columnist:     Luke Kolin - Catcalls from the Cheap Seats      |
     |                                                                |
     + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- +

     + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -  EDITORS EMERITI - -- -- -- -- -- -- -- +
     |                                                                |
     |       Tom Jennings, Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell, Vince         |
     |       Perriello, Tim Pozar, Sylvia Maxwell, Donald Tees,       |
     |       Christopher Baker, Zorch Frezberg, Henk Wolsink,         |
     |       Doug Meyers, Warren D. Bonner, Frank L. Vest             |
     |                                                                |
     + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- +

     Fidonews is published weekly by and for the members of Fidonet.
     Fidonews is Copyright (C) 2003 by Bjrn Felten, though authors
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     at one of the addresses above.

     The weekly edition of Fidonews is distributed through the file
     area FIDONEWS, and is published as echomail in the echo FIDONEWS.
     These sources are normally available through your Network
     Coordinator. The current and past issues are also available from
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     + -- -- -- -- -- -- -  FIDONEWS AVAILABILITY - -- -- -- -- -- -- +
     |                                                                |
     |         File request from 2:2/2:                               |
     |               current issue                    FIDONEWS        |
     |               back issue, volume v, issue ii   FNEWSvii.ZIP    |
     |         ftp://ftp.nwstar.com/fidonet/fidonews/                 |
     |         http://www.fidonews.org                                |
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     |                             (subject: help body: list)         |
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     |                                                                |
     + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- +

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