+--------------------------+------------------------------------------+ | .----------------------. | Spring is on the WAY! | | | A monthly E-Zine | | | | | published by Fidonet | | | | | to promote BBSing | +------------------------------------------+ | | ____________. | | | | / __ | "Anyone who has never made a mistake | | | / / \ | has never tried anything new." | | | WOOF! ( /|oo \ | | | \_______\(_| /_) | Albert Einstein | | \@/ \ | | | .---.\ _ | | | _ |usb| \ \\ | | | / | .___. \ ))| | | / | /_ | / \// | Editor: Janis Kracht | | |___| // || _\ / | janis @ filegate . net | | .--`-. (_|(_|(____/ | janis kracht 1:261/38 | | |____| (jm) | | +--------------------------+------------------------------------------+ =========================================================================== ==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=Contents=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =========================================================================== Editorial ....................Editor's rants/raves (2) News: New Members (Z1) .............A list of new members! (3) Returning Members (Z1)..........Old friends come back(3) Demise of the ZoneGates..............................(4) Feature: Midnight Callers: ........What some users will do to connect to a bbs :) (5) 2008 Cooking Echo Picnic ............Oh! the Food!(8) EchoAds: CATS_MEOW Echo ......................kitties/dogs (13) Admin: New RC for Region 15 ...............................(14) Info: ..........Where to send your articles................(15) (Page 1) ============================================================================== --------- Editorial --------- This has been a really bad week for me.. My favorite dog in the world, my 13 year old black labrador retriever has been diagnosed with Laryngeal Paralysis. What that means is her larynx does not open and close properly to let air in and out at the top of her throat and so the dog isn't able to always get air down her throat or into her lungs. It's sickening. There is a surgery for this condition which will possibly extend her life somewhat but it costs about 2500-3000 dollars in US dollars. Hardly affordable in this economy or even perhaps in any economy :( So we do our best to keep her calm when it hits and try to keep her cool (dogs pant to cool off, and they can't do that with this condition of course). As we were finding out about my labrador, my 5 year old kitty Tina, also suddenly took ill for no reason we could figure.. she must have eaten something outside that was really bad for her.. within two days she was dead. We hardly had time to notice poor Tina's condition because of my dog's panic attacks when she was struggling for air.. though Ron and I did both mention to each other that come Monday we'd have to get Tina to the Vet as well.. poor kitty didn't even make it that long. So it's with all this baggage that I'm taking over as editor of FidoGazette. I'm tired of people asking me where the next issue is.. I'm tired of trying to figure out where it is myself! We'll try to keep the issues coming. May not be great issues, but I'm not such a bad writer I think . If YOU think you can keep up with the job and you seriously are willing to DO the job, feel free to contact me. Let's talk. (Page 2) New Members ------------------------------- By Janis Kracht ================================== New SysOps -- Welcome to FidoNet! ================================== Region 15 Dean Seele Region 12 Derek Mullin Region 14 Gordon Jones Region 11 Dennis Vandall Region 11 Timothy Wray Region 16 Pat Williams ================================= Returning SysOps -- Welcome back!! ================================= Region 12 Frank Linhares Region 12 Dan Gosbee ================================ In the works! ================================ R18: Chandler Scotland Bailey R18: John Merritt I may have lost some records regarding new applications via filegate.net sadly enough.. I'll keep digging, though. I've been having a rough time with my gentoo box enough to have to do a complete reinstall one day probably very soon. Bah humbug.. that's what happens when you don't run stable I guess.. haha Yeah, Benny, I know I know, but it's so daring and exciting :) (Page 3) =================== DeMISE of ZONEGATES =================== In this day and age of internet connectivity, we rarely use Zonegates and I doubt many of you even know how to route nemail using them :). Examining my logs I see the last time anyone use the Zonegate to Zone 2 at 1:1/2 was in 2008. The last time anyone use the Zonegate to Zone 3 at 1:1/3 was in 2007. We have direct connections to the other zones and have had these direct connections for a very long time. Part of that is because of the FileGate distribution carrying over into echomail and netmail distribution.. the 'one-stop-shopping' idea .. For instance, Zone 3 gets all of its files as a FileGate HUB over here and also swaps echomail and netmail back and forth, same with the other zones. Also playing into it, is the plethora of independant connections between systems and domains.. So really we don't need those Zonegates the way we did years and years ago when telephone lines controlled our pockets. With this idea in mind, I brought up the question of the ZCs removing all of the ZoneGates.. it would not make sense if only some of us continued to use them. No one had a problem with their removal, so they will be removed this coming week. They are these nodes at the top of the nodelist, 1:1/2, 1:1/3, 1:1/4, and 1:1/5: === ,2,Europe_Gate,Saskatchewan,Bob_Seaborn,1-306-979-2922,9600,H16,V34,VFC,V42b,CM ,3,Oceania_Gate,Spartanburg_SC,Ross_Cassell,000-0-0-0-0,300,CM,MO,XX,INA:the-es ,4,Latin_America_Gate,Mora_NM,Brenda_Donovan,000-65-218-223-109,300,CM,MO,IBN,I ,5,Africa_Gate,Saskatchewan,Bob_Seaborn,1-306-979-2922,9600,H16,V34,VFC,V42b,CM === Janis, Z1C (Page 4) ==================================================== Featured Articles: ================== "Midnight Callers" By Janis Kracht, 1:261/38 As I was sitting at my system Friday night, I noticed my modem announcing a caller dialing in.. Curious, since we all know this is not such a common event these days, I decided to stick around - hey, he or she might need some help.. after all, I run a totally boring linux box here . I watched as "Mike" logged in with no ANSI emulation and wondered if he knew that it was available.. I decided to go back to what I was working on and check back on him later to give him a chance to check the system out on his own.. I knew sometimes people liked to just browse around and 'discover' areas of a bbs on their own in their own time, so off I went to another session of my system. In case you are not aware, linux has multiple Desktops on your monitor, stretching across the top of your screen in small boxes. In other words, by clicking on any of those boxes, you can switch to any other desktop and use that desktop instead of the other ones while the previous one is still running.. Sort of like a DOS box in OS/2 or Windows.. (Page 5) Midnight Callers, Continued FidoGazette March 2009 but nicer I think (of course ). And that's what I did. Later, I came back to the BBS sessions in my BBS Desktop, and saw that mike was trying to run some Doors, and not having much success. I don't have many doors on my bbs because BBBS/LiI, the software I'm running is a little ornery in that department though I have gotten some to run. Anyway, I could see that he was having problems.. certainly some require that you have ANSI enabled, so I decided to try to pull him into chat.. which of course requires ansi as well :( BBBS does however have a neat feature however which allows you to IM users much like ICQ, with the MSG command.. so I sent a MSG to Mike: MSG Mike: Hi there :) Do you have Ansi on your computer? If not you won't be able to use many of the games :( Mike then told me that he was a using a data terminal.. he had no ANSI. He just wanted to chat. I said that was fine with me, I hadn't had a user who was interested in chatting in quite a while :) I have other phone modem users.. they generally log in, grab FidoNews, or FidoGazette, or the nodelist, or the latest greatest software - that kind of thing, and then log off .. I don't mind, and that seems to be what they want. But it's been a while since I've seen users who like to 'hang around' if you know what I mean. I suppose part of that is <) or Global Wars!.. or Yatztee :) I have a million projects I've started in linux to redo those games in linux.. one of these days I'll finish them .. maybe. Mike mentioned then that he wasn't so interested in playing games really.. but if I had any adventure games that would be cool since he was running Linux as well. (Page 6) Midnight Callers, Continued FidoGazette March, 2009 Here's a clip of our chat, at least from his side, you can see what he was seeing pretty much: 23:29 MIKE STANTON: sorry I am on a data terminal and it is printing everything on paper (Janis: That must look weird! I'm running Gentoo Linux here Janis: with a phone modem and telnet nodes as well) 23:30 MIKE STANTON: yeah it does. but it is working 23:30 MIKE STANTON: msg janis 23:30 MIKE STANTON: awesome 1200 baud here 23:31 MIKE STANTON: msg janis 23:31 MIKE STANTON: mostly debian and some redhat/suse He was at a friend's house who had this terminal and was using his phone line. Mike and I talked about programming and his hopes to become a developer. He's 18.. he'd quit school and working toward getting his high school degree and getting into college. I gave his some pointers for that one .. my own sister quit when she was 16 and combined HS and college at a local jr. colleg and ended in Medical School so he was encouraged by hearing that. He's worked in php, Java, perl, some C++.. somehow I don't think he'll have any problems finding work - which is so great. We talked about programming quite a bit.. and at one point, Mike Mike had to log off and change the roll of paper.. that must have been a little pia, but he didn't seem to mind at all. Just then his friend came over and introduced himself, and (Page 7) Midnight Callers, Continued FidoGazette March, 2009 this was so funny.. his friend said, 00:37 MIKE STANTON: msg janis 00:37 MIKE STANTON: hello, this is a friend of mike's 00:37 MIKE STANTON: msg janis 00:37 MIKE STANTON: my name is dan. he is at my house at the moment using my phone line 0:38 MIKE STANTON: msg janis 00:39 MIKE STANTON: i''m also a linux user. he converted me about a year after i met him 00:39 MIKE STANTON: msg janis 00:40 MIKE STANTON: oh, and between yo and me, his name is not mike- it's actually Will I laughed so hard, I thought I'd die at that point!!!!!! The more things change the MORE they stay the SAME!!!! HOW many years has it been since BBS's have been around??? and users have been lying about their real names LOL - sorry I just thought it was so funny :) :) It didn't bother me, it just cracked me up :) Then Mike.. er Will haha.. asked me if I'd like a picture of their terminal so I could see what they were seeing exactly.. I said Sure :) So they sent me a jpg of the terminal.. absolutely outrageous.. more like a typewriter than anything :).. a true data terminal. Dan had mentioned in our chat that Will had traded several of his servers for that data terminal (he's got other linux systems) because he valued it so much and I could see why :) They'll probably call back this weekend.. I told them I'd try to get an adventure game installed :) I better get on it :) See included photos of the terminal: DSCF0873.JPG DSCF0871.JPG ======== (Page 8) Picnic By Janis Kracht That was the name of great play I was in ages ago.. but this picnic was a whole lot more fun! With the greatest people from Fidonet's COOKING echo from all over the country traveled here to Windsor NY. It was incredible to meet everyone. It took place on the extended weekend of July 31st-August 3rd, the same weekend that the city of Binghamton has it's "Spiedie Fest". The Spiedie fest is a carnival type affair in Binghamton NY in Broome County where people meet to taste and compete to make the best marinated meats (lamb, beef, pork, or chicken) which are roasted over barbecue grills on skewers and then served on Italian rolls. This tradition started sometime back in the 50's, and has continued year after year, and the city-fathers of Binghamton, being the commercial animals they are, couldn't resist bringing hot air ballon rides into the affair to rake more $$ into it affair I only mention this to give you an idea of the atmosphere of Binghamton at the time :) We decided to skip Binghamtons' spiedie fest altogether and just have fun with each other :) The hotels were full up, rooms were hard to come by, and so I advised people to reserve as early as they could. Fortunately, they were able to do so and I think everyone did ok :) Several people stayed at a Bread&Breakfast just down the road from my house :) The food they had there sound fantastic, the people who hosted the establishment sounded like genuinely charming people. I found out from speaking to the woman that owned the B&B that previous owners of the house that I live in had run a B&B as well, I thought that was interesting.. :) Good news in case we ever start to starve here Our guests started arriving on Thursday early afternoon and I was so thrilled to meet Ruth and Steve Haffly first! We stored her homemade lasagna in my freezer until we were ready to cook it, and then Ruth showed me pictures of her quilting on her camera - outrageous stuff.. :) People started arriving and my refrigerators started overflowing and I have ummm 3 of them :) (Page 9) I have two kitchens actually.. because we are renovating the downstairs, and undecided about whether to remove a downstairs apartment or not. So right now the second kitchen is still operational, and came in very handy for the picnic.. Cooks used both kitchens.. with Steven baking his Whole Wheat bread in my Clay Insert Oven in one kitchen, and Gail baking her Pecan Pies in my new Whirlpool oven in the other kitchen :) Ron had just finished the center island (and I'm not kidding, he really just finished it the night before), and it came out absoutely beautiful. We covered it with Italian Marble we found on sale at HomeDepot about 6 months ago, and that new WhirlPool Range was also a MarkDown at Lowes because the people who bought decided they didn't want it.. so I got it for less than half-price ( $400 for a $1200.00 stove with full warranty). So I spent my money on an outrageously expensive drawer-diswasher by fisher-paykel, and an over the center-isle range-hood from Italy! Heh :) Anyway, it pays to be cheap :) Back to the picnic :) The first evening, we ate at an Italian restaurant in Binghamton because who wants to cook after you've been driving cross-country or traveling, etc.. we ate like oinkers :) The next day, Michael Loo saw me making some Pizza Fritta and decided to take over when he recogized it as a favorite in Boston :) We eat ours as larger stretched out pieces of dough fried and sprinkled with suger, he likes it rolled into balls and dusted with confectioners sugar.. either way, it was great :) Carol Shenkenberger came and it was so great to meet her and her daughter Charlotte! Carol and I have been typing to each other for years.. when she'd go overseas, I'd often try to help keep her connected to the echos when I could help with that.. so it was fantastic to finally meet face to face :) She brought her vertisserie and Michael threw in one of the grass-fed pork roasts I had and did amazing things with it.. geez that guy can cook :) I decided I had to make something Italian since I mean.. geez.. I'm 100% Italian.. 1/2 sicilian, you can't just let people work like slaves in your house Lol.. and these people were cooking in every corner, except for those at the table haha.. those were the Eats.. Generally all they did were what they were supposed to.. eat :) We were happy to plunk down a bazillion dishes for them to try too :) So I made a Tiramisu and we dove into that. That night we decided to go to a chinese restaurant that Ron and I had found that was incredible and very authentic.. again, we ate til we could explode I thought, then returned to our house and had some beers. By now the house was full of people, we had people saying in the Living room - my daughter, her husband and her kids decided to check out the action and my daughter brought her college friend with her as well. Seeing the pile of people, I decided to make some Reuben sandwiches. I made about 12 of them and they were gone in about 10 minutes :) (Page 10) Picnic Continued FidoGazette March 2009 Somewhere in there, we decided we had to crack open the Durian that Carol had brought with her... she'd left it hanging outside in the Gazebo.. you can't keep them in the house because they smell SO bad :) Well, we have some excellent pictures of some people's first tastes of that duian :) My daughter's girlfriend's face is a classic with a mouthful of the stuff :) :) A Durian is an Oriental fruit that is incrediably hard like a walnut on the outside - it has to be cracked open, but the fruit inside is soft and delicious.. the only thing you can compare it to is really custard.. it is delicious, but takes getting used to :) Ruth's lasagne and meatballs and brasciole came out and Charlotte nearly cleaned that out hahaha :) Then my son and his girlfriend hit it quite well from what I understand. Michael made some exisite curry from lamb that he picked up in Binghamton, this is the recipe he used: ==Michael's Lamb Curry== 2 lb lamb, in 3/4" pieces 3 Tb cumin 1/2 Tb cloves 1 Tb coriander powder 4 cloves garlic, minced fine 2 Tb ginger 1 ts cinnamon 1 Tb celery salt water 2 Tb tomato paste (if available) 2 lg onions 2 Tb butter or neutral oil 2 Tb paprika or tt 1 ts hot chile powder or tt 1 Tb cumin or tt s, p All measurements are approximate and to taste Combine lamb and next 7 ingredients. Marinate overnight. Add water to moisten and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer until meat is almost tender, maybe 1 1/2 hr. Add tomato paste and taste for seasoning - add celery salt as needed. Remember, though, that the celery salt is a substitute for the unavailable fenugreek powder. Chop onions and saute in butter; when wilted, add to the stew. Add paprika and hot chile powder to taste. Kick it up with more cumin, salt, and pepper. if needed. Remove cover and continue cooking until sauce is of the desired consistency or until people start to fuss about lunch, which is about 15 min sooner. Source: Kracht family restaurant, cook: moi,date: 03 Aug08 ================ (Page 11) Picnic Continued FidoGazette March 2009 ================ Janis' Tiramisu ================ 1 lb. mascapone cheese (no substitutes) 4 eggs 7 tablespoons of sugar bitter chocolate chips dark cocoa powder espresso coffee (about 5 espresso size cups) + 1 spoon of marsala wine (if you don't have it, do not use anything else - just skip the wine.) Italian finger biscuits (1 packet) Beat the whites until firm. Mix mascarpone, sugar, yolks and then gradually incorporate the whites. When the mix becomes creamy, add the chocolate chips (should be bitter to contrast with the sweetness of the cream) and pour a thin layer on the serving bowl (I usually serve it on a lasagna type of dish, which is not too deep). Quickly soak the biscuits in the coffe (mixed with marsala) and layer them on, adding some more cream on top. Depending on how big the serving dish is, you may be able to make 2 layers of biscuits (try to make a thick layer between one layer of biscuits and the other); in any case, remember to finish always with a layer of cream on top which you will sprinkle with cocoa powder. You can make tiramisu a few days before your dinner party and freeze it. In this case it is advisable to top it with cocoa powder only once it's defrosted (the powder will otherwise get a "damp" aspect which is not very nice). Serves 10 people. === I would love to host another picnic some day - unfortunately, Windsor has no public transportation to Binghamton.. not normally a problem though as we're used to 'commuting' the 15-20 minutes to civilization.. I guess if you are used to 'the big city' it's the way you live as well Anyway, I'd love to see a FidoCon here someday.. that would be something! [-#-] (Page 12) =========================================================== Great Echos: CATS_MEOW Echo A nice place to Visit! This echo is a comfy place to talk about your cat or dog or life of one of your pets WITH your cat or dog :) Mainly we are interested in discussing whatever animal is the Cat's Meow of your life.. :) We talk about new pedicure tools and our experiences with them, the food we find that works or doesn't work with our pets, etc. and of course when in the mood we pay tribute to great pets we've had. We've all known some furry beast that was the uncommon best friend of all time, and this is a great place to tell others about him or her. Moderators: Janis Kracht Carol Shenkenberger Rules: CATS_MEOW The Cats_Meow Sanity Check Echo The Cats_Meow Sanity Check Echo is a place where you can discuss your cat, your dog or your home where you're trying to make both of these co-exist happily! :) Thinking of adding a new member to the family? Not sure how your resident feline will react, or how your resident Dog will react to your new kitty? Maybe we can help :) Topics can include anything to do with pets, though we're a little partial to cats here :) (Page 13) Admin: New RC for Region 15 This month, Phil Kimble, from Colorado Springs, Colorado took on the office of R15C replacing Brenda Donovan. Brenda is retiring after several years as R15C, and previously held the office of R10C for many many years! Brenda, we hope you enjoy your time off, you've certainly earned it.. thank you for the many years of faithful and dedicated work. Phil has been a FileGate HUB for many years, even throughout his time overseas in Iraq (!) that is some dedication! Thanks for helping out Phil! (Page 14) INFO: Where to Send Your Articles Unlike most editors, I surely do not mind running my mouth when there is a sparcity of articles for the 'zine. I'd MUCH rather you sent in material but I think until someone starts a discussion you feel like commenting about, you evil dullards (just kidding!!!) will no doubt complain about "no issues" So I will fill these issues with my meanderings and thoughts and hopefully we will grow into something of consequence here :) Don't be offended.. write an article! If you WOULD like to submit an article and prove me wrong about the dullard aspect of you guys and gals , feel free to drop your article off at: My email attach to address: janis@filegate.net Fidonet attach: Janis Kracht 1:261/38 Modem: 607-655-5652 1:261/100 filegate.net via telnet mailer filegate.net via binkp mailer Give it a title, sign your name and network address if you have one and send it along! Don't worry about the format, I can take anything you send me and mutilate it further as you can see above. Linux is nice that way . Spell checking your own work will help though (something I'm typically guilty of ). (Page 15)