Articles

• Announcer released as GPL
• Norman Rockwell's Fido
• Baiting Policy Trolls
• an ode to a meddler

Announcer released as GPL
by Peter Karlsson, 2:206/221, pk@abc.se

Announcer, an automated message poster previously released as shareware is now released under GPL (GNU Public License), which means that the program and its source may be distributed freely. This is done because the number of shareware registrations was extremely small. The program will still be developed and updated, but at a somewhat lower pace.

The GPL version of Announcer 1.2 (which has no extra features over the previous shareware version) can be FREQ'ed as ANNOUNCE from 2:206/221 between 00-06 CET (23-05 GMT). It can also be downloaded from the WWW at http://nafmo.home.ml.org/wolves/ http://www.softwolves.pp.se/wolves/software/announcer.shtml [URL moved [jb 4/24/01]]

Norman Rockwell's Fido
by Bill Whitehouse

Full membership and planetary network access to anyone capable of observing Zone Mail Hour. Amazing, isn't it? More remarkable, still, is watching from a distance as such an appealing - and as yet unrivaled - technology unravels.

Unbridled growth could preserve and protect fidonet from its uncoordinated flamers in years past. Now you're about all who remain; lawyer wannabes whipping your skippies all alone. Don't misunderstand. Nothing wrong, you like that sort of thing. And clean up after. But it ain't gonna make you no babies. Or keep the network from imploding.

Fido distribution is an almost entirely for-profit business proposition, anymore. How much longer, you suppose, will these broadcast vendors underwrite such a losing proposition?

Scrap the monarchy Policy 4 imposed in favor of a genuine peer- to-peer network or don't expect to see it survive another six months. Time does not stand still for fido.

I tried to interview Harry Lee - fido policy's primary author - for a news assignment 9 years ago.

Picture, if you will, a Norman Rockwell painting of a drug store soda fountain. The middle three stools are occupied by a lumbering fellow who after 15 years hauling cinderblock tips the scales at 300 lbs, easy.

That there was Harry Lee, haunting the very town Rockwell lived and painted. The same Rexall drug looks exactly as it did in Rockwell's time. So do the locals perched on the other stools. Outwardly, those Berkshire hill towns don't change much; the quaint ruin of its once thriving mill economy pickled for tour bus posterity. In other words, an anachronism.

The best Harry could tell me - strictly off the record, of course - was 'Fidonet is a weird little world of egomaniacal flamers.'

Sound right? Let me refresh your memory. What follows is a carefully selected list of mostly free software that made all this possible. We no longer inhabit in the fido nodelist but Binkley still answers infrequent inbound. Grab what you like.

BDOS_260.ZIP  206k  4/96 BinkleyTerm v2.60 Exectuables (DOS)
BDOS_XR1.ZIP  298k  4/96 Binkley v2.60 Enhanced for DOS.
BOS2_260.ZIP  260k  4/96 BinkleyTerm v2.60 Executables (OS/2)
BW32_260.ZIP  233k  4/96 BinkleyTerm v2.60 Executables (Win32)
BDOC_260.ZIP  289k  4/96 BinkleyTerm v2.60 Documentation
VIBM_110.ZIP    3k  8/88 Video FOSSIL for Bink. Req'd for color.
X00153A.ZIP   107k 12/93 BIOS services for serial communications.
BNU170.ZIP     74k 10/89 BNU v1.70 - FOSSIL Driver
NOFRMNG.ZIP     1k  4/90 Stop NoFraming Error in BNU 1.70
BCOL103.RAR    63k  7/97 BinkCol v1.03 - WYSIWYG Color Utility.
BINKSET.LZH    12k  3/96 BinkSet v1.00 - Creates/Updates Binkley.Cfg.
SINF248.RAR    80k  5/95 SITEINFO v2.48 - random mailer site text.
POINT200.ZIP  259k  1/96 PPoint v2.0 - Binkley/Squish point system.

PLZ22.LZH      26k  7/91 Command line outbound manager for Binkley.
BONK_174.ZIP  122k  1/92 Binkley outbound/nodelist manager.
YABOM110.LZH  203k  7/92 Yet Another Binkley Outbound Manager.
RESQPKT.ZIP    26k  9/90 Rescues orphan .PKT files.
SHIFTEM.ZIP     5k  4/93 Moves mail attaches to the top of HLO files.
INSP110D.ZIP  352k  5/93 DOS File/Archive/Fido Packet Mgr.
PSRT_14.ZIP   269k  4/94 FTS-0009 PKT sorter & message splitter.
UNBADPKT.ZIP   17k  2/97 Search bad packets and remake good ones.

MSGED41D.ZIP  107k  2/97 Msged message reader/editor for 16-bit DOS.
MSGED41M.ZIP   42k  2/97 Msged 4.10 documentation & sample config.
SQSH_111.LZH  691k 11/94 Squish mail tosser/scanner/packer/router.
TOPX_111.LZH   86k  7/92 Squish base message extractor/archiver.
SQAFIX.ZIP    426k 11/97 SqaFix v0.99a6: The Squish Area Manager.
MAILC120.LZH  119k  2/92 Mailwait companion for .Msg & Squish format.
MREN251.ZIP    33k  9/89 One pass .MSG renumber, relink, purge & more
ROBOT600.ZIP   31k  4/95 Harvey Parisien's In/Outbound 4d *.Pkt Robot.

XLAX_256.LZH  151k  4/94 XLAXNODE - multi-format nodelist compiler.
MKNL251.EXE    96k  6/92 MakeNL nodelist v2.51 by Ben Baker.
CHKNL214.ZIP   15k 12/94 CHECKNL v2.14 - validates nodelist segments.

XNET101.ZIP    16k  3/93 Extract nets/regions/zones from raw nodelist
HSNODE14.RAR   11k  5/95 HS-NODE v1.4 Nodelist Statistics Generator.
140LIST.LZH    33k  8/95 Track and report changes in your net.
DIFFLIST.ZIP   47k 12/95 Reports region or net nodelist changes.
BKLA202.LZH   112k  8/95 Binkley/Max Log File Analyzer/Report Maker.
TT_101.ARJ     10k  6/93 TicTrak - .Tic traffic statistics generator.
SETR180.ZIP    60k  6/97 SETR v1.80 - Squish Echomail Traffic Report.
COMPR313.ZIP   78k 11/93 Compress BBS/Mailer log by # of days.

FAN_240.ZIP   198k 12/94 Customized new file announcement utility.
QFBD102.RAR   159k  7/95 Fast, no dupe, f'req Maxfiles index generatr

BINK-IDX.ZIP   71k  9/95 File areas compiler for Qfb and Max's Fb.
UMFN100.ZIP     6k  6/92 Updates Bink's OKFILE magic f'req names.
TICK210.LZH    94k  3/92 Does for files what echomail does for msgs.
TICFG210.LZH    5k  8/92 Fully commented Tick/Hatch .Cfg.
RAID0123.ZIP  108k  4/92 AreaFix Capability For TICK File Echos.
RDOC0123.ZIP   29k  4/92 Docs for Raid V1.23 *Test*.
SEAL_050.ARJ  472k  7/96 An Areafix/Raid clone for Squish & Tick.
T2BBS510.ZIP   32k  5/95 Files.bbs & Maxfiles.Idx filebase update ute
CRCOK157.RAR   24k  7/95 Validates & corrects TIC-files.
CRC32.LZH       1k 11/94 Calcs & verifies checksum of any size file.
FILESBBS.ZIP   10k  4/90 Adds and deletes filenames from FILES.BBS.
DWNSRT64.ZIP  229k  1/98 DOWNload file SORT, ASCII and HTML file list
DRWYV231.ZIP  237k  2/96 DOORWAY to unlimited doors.
MAX301C.ZIP   689k 12/95 Maximus BBS 3.01 - common executables
MAX301R.ZIP   958k 12/95 Maximus BBS 3.01: DOS-only executables
MAX301P.ZIP   838k 12/95 Maximus BBS 3.01 - OS/2-specific executables

QEDIT3C.ZIP   205k  2/94 Configurable, multi-file text editor.
TED100.ZIP      2k 10/88 Tiny, basic function text editor.
TXZM241.ZIP    42k 10/94 Fast zmodem driver & terminal.
LIST90J.ZIP   104k  5/94 Unsurpassed ASCII File LISTer.
GFVIEW11.ZIP  240k  8/96 Graphics file viewer for List.
CED1015.ZIP    29k  7/91 DOS [C]ommand [L]ine [E]ditor.
SCRLIT17.ZIP   39k  5/93 Color Scrollback, search & write buffer.
ANSI13L.ZIP    43k  2/94 A memory-resident ANSI.SYS replacement.
AMOUS303.ZIP    8k  9/91 Small, configurable, mouse device driver.

4DOS600.ZIP   764k  7/97 4DOS v6.00 - COMMAND.COM replacement.
FU_RD19F.ZIP   39k  3/97 Resizeable, drive selectable XMS/EMS RAM dsk
CMOSSV27.ZIP   24k 10/96 Saves, inspects & restores CMOS.
SYSCAP.ARJ     12k  3/95 Boot process screen capture.
SA50SRE.ARJ   107k 10/97 Comprehensive PC system analyser.

WIZ37.ZIP     123k  7/96 Fast, multi-disk archive search.
PCOPY90D.ZIP   91k  4/91 Intelligent Xcopy replacement.
SPLITV10.ZIP   30k  6/97 High speed, low-drag file splitter.
ALTER6I.ZIP     6k 12/93 High speed, global search & replace.
FGREP184.ZIP   28k  6/97 Fast find strings in ASCII text.
GETLINE.ZIP     8k  3/95 Copy any lines from a text file.
CUT_10.ZIP      9k  6/93 Cut text files where specified.
STRPLINE.ZIP   13k  9/93 Strips lines matching patterns.
KLINE101.ZIP   13k  9/94 Kills matching lines.
RPSRT101.ARJ   91k 11/92 Unrivalled file sorter.
RDUP104.ZIP    14k  6/94 Deletes dupe lines across files.
CONTXT32.ZIP    4k  7/94 Converts multiple txt file formats.
SLEEK51.ZIP     9k  2/95 Smart & fast text reformatter.
SLEEP_47.ZIP   32k  6/97 Event scheduler, flag file & port monitor.
FDATE.ZIP       1k  8/88 All purpose file date/time resetter.
FDATE96A.ZIP   84k  5/97 Batch date manipulation utility.
TIMDIF13.ZIP    8k 11/95 Calculates the difference between 2 times.
DIR_DATE.ZIP   14k 10/96 File/dir/volume label time & date changer.

PKZ204G.EXE   202k  2/93 PKZIP/PKUNZIP v2.04g - compression utilities
PK260W32.EXE  689k 12/97 PKZIP v2.60 - for Win3.1+, W95 & NT.
PKLTE150.ZIP   38k  4/95 Compresses executables and device drivers.
ZIPIT126.SEA  163k 10/94 ZipIt 1.2.6 - file UNzipper for the Mac.
LHA255B.EXE    27k 11/92 Compression utility.
LZEXE.ZIP      30k  5/90 Compresses EXEcutables.
UNLZEXE.ZIP    11k  5/90 Uncompress LZEXE'd files.
ARJ250A.EXE   276k 12/95 ARJ v2.50a - the file archiver ARJ.
UNRAR.EXE      31k  4/96 View, extract, test v2.+ RAR archives.
PAK251.EXE    103k 10/90 Pak compression utility.
ARCA-E.EXE     26k  5/90 Archive compressor/extractor.

Available for f'req or first time d/l.

Providence, Rhode Island
(401) 421-2218 - Intel 14.4
File Requests Accepted All Day
Except 4am-5am EST - 5am-6am EDT

-!-
! Origin: There's no as smart as all of us. (22:109/0@freesys.org)

### 30 ###

Baiting Policy Trolls

Dear Editor,

The following correspondence inadvertently arrived as a fax on my system in response to a submission by Charles Herriot of 1:163/110. I feel, that as a Fidonet sysop, I would be remiss in my responsibility if I did not transcribe it, in its entirety, into the required format and forward it to the Snooze for your reading pleasure.

Jeff Dubois (1:163/266)

Doc Logger - 06 March 1998
Small Animal Psychology Dept,
University of Pago_Pago

Dear Logger,

On behalf of Reverend Visage, I would like to thank you for your recent correspondence apprising us of the status of the Fidonet flock.

Although Visage is currently unable to pry himself away from his spiritual work here at the Visage Home for Wayward Girls, he has asked me to respond to you on his behalf to acknowledge receipt of your correspondence.

I have attempted to provide you with his commentary as best I can recall, although it was quite difficult taking notes at the Rouge with all those naked ladies shaking their naughties in our general direction while looking for salvation. It was also difficult understanding the good Reverend after the fourth bottle of sacramental wine, his words only marginally slurred by his pelvic thrust-ridden sermon.

Nonetheless, I forward you the best iteration of his commentary.

"I have been following the transgressions of the lost and forlorn with mild amusement. I applaud the effort of Sister Labonte for bringing an otherwise lost Malaysian sheep into the flock and commend those bretheren who find solace in extending the glory of communication.

Forgive Gary, for surely he doth reveal the coyotes dressed as sheep among the flock. Time, spiritual guidance and sheer comic relief will surely reveal the worship of false policy gods as the antithesis to communication."

The Wurlitzer at the Ministry here in Phuket then broke into a bit of bump and grind, so the good Reverend Visage retired to the champagne room to bless a few virgins.

Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention.

Vicar Robert (Bob) Loblaw,
Schotchbottle Lodge,
ARDEN, ON
(613) 335-3418

an ode to a meddler

During the recent straw poll for the zec appointment by the ZC, we all were subject to the whinning of John Souvestree aka the Casun Pussy. The last Fidonews indicated we should write to John John with our opinion. As usual, the post went without a response.

Date: 03 Mar 98 06:56:14
From: Bob Moravsik on 2604/583
To: John Souvestre on 396/1
Subj: Sour Grapes

cc: Fidonews 1/23

John John:

All your whinning in the Z1_ELECTION echo has convinced most of the nodes in Fidonet that you are more for using Fidonet to increase your coffers then contributing to the hobby. Since you tried to ram your boppy into Fidonet your reputation has steadily declined. Barfaq is a farce.

Why not work for free and open communication rather then trying to meddle in the affairs of every region and conference that suits you. If this is impossible, throw the red switch and take up a hobby like knitting where you don't have to intereact with people. Watch the needles however they are sharp.

You've been thrown out of conferences because of your sillyness. Isn't it time to reassess your approach to these matters and try to undo years of building a reputation as Fidonet's "official" control freak.

Play nice !

Regards Bob Moravsik, 2604/583

--- timEd/B8----------