FidoNews · Vol 20, No 35 · 01 Sep 2003
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: Björn 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
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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.
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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
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