FidoGazette ** Volume 1 Number 5 ** 29 October 2007
The FidoGazette: An Alternative Fidonet Newsletter
Editor: Sean Dennis - 1:1/23 - sean@outpostbbs.net
"There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his
home." - Ken Olsen, President, Digital Equipment, 1977
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Table of Contents
1. EDITORIAL ................................................ 1
So Little Time ........................................... 1
2. ARTICLES ................................................. 2
Cheepware News ........................................... 2
3. FOOD FOR THOUGHT ......................................... 4
Apple Pastry Napolitano .................................. 4
4. NOTICES .................................................. 5
Region 13 Website - New URLs ............................. 5
5. STATIC STUFF ............................................. 6
BBS Lists ................................................ 6
6. FIDOGAZETTE INFORMATION .................................. 7
FGAZ 5-01 Page 1 29 Oct 2007
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EDITORIAL
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So Little Time
by Sean Dennis 1:1/23
The nights have turned cold and I've suddenly been bitten by the
programming bug. The long, quiet nights at work have given me the
chance to do something I'd been meaning to do for two years now-I
moved all of my BBS doors to a single doorkit and have been busy
keeping warm over a hot compiler. See my article about Cheepware
in this issue.
This is definitely my favorite time of year. It's getting down
around 40 degrees F (4.4 degrees C) here at night, so I had to
dig out my big winter coat. It's a very nice reprieve from the
hot, humid heat that we have had to suffer through for far too
long this year, but I can assure you that by March, I'll be
complaining about wanting the heat again.
There's been an interesting discussion about the viability of
Fidonet in Z1C lately. We all are still at somewhat of a loss
to deciding how to fix the hemorraging of Fidonet with users
and systems. I'm afraid that there's not too much we can do
since we're not "instant gratification" that the younger people
these days wish for...indeed, need due to their attention span
and memory being equivalent to a goldfish's.
But I must quit rambling. I promised my wife that we will go
and get her a pumpkin to carve tonight before I trudge to work.
I suppose I must keep good on my promise or else things may not
be as pleasant as they could be around the Dennis household. You
wives know what I mean and you husbands can sympathize with me on
this one.
Remember-for those of us in the US, we turn back our clocks (if
you participate in Daylight Savings Time) NEXT weekend since the
great ones on high (read: Congress) decided to make our lives
miserable for an extra week...
See you all next week.
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FGAZ 5-01 Page 2 29 Oct 2007
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ARTICLES
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Cheepware News
By Sean Dennis 1:18/200
After a fit of madness, I've updated nearly all of my doors with a
new doorkit. This means all of my doors will be /much/ easier to
set up and use. All of my doors are 16-bit DOS doors that
use DOOR.SYS or DORINFO1.DEF. A FOSSIL driver is required for use
but ANSI.SYS is not as the doors have their own ANSI driver built-in.
All of my doors and utilites are freeware (but cannot be used on a
pay ["for-profit"] BBS).
I've updated these doors:
* The Magic Oracle
* Chinese Zodiac
* Attitude Assessment
I'm releasing a new door:
* Dr. Seuss Purity Test-my first (and probably only) adult-oriented
BBS door. It's a fun "purity test" that has a touch of Dr. Seuss in
it.
I'm releasing a new BBS sysop utility:
* TGShort-this is for Telegard BBS sysops (v3.09 and up) only. This
program will let you add a line to SHORTMSG.DAT which is shown upon
doing a full login to your BBS. It's handy for making sure nightly
batch files run, et al. There's a Win32 and an OS/2 version (both
32-bit).
You can get any (or all!) of my doors and utilities via the following:
Filebone: You can get the files automatically sent to you via
filebone if you subscribe to CH-WARE or TG_SUP (Fidonet)
or MIN_MISC (Micronet).
Web: Point your browser to http://outpostbbs.net (click on the
Cheepware link).
BBS: Call (770-489-1561) or telnet to my BBS
(telnet://bbs.outpostbbs.net) and go into the Cheepware
filebase.
Crash FREQ: Crash 1:18/200@Fidonet or 618:618/1@Micronet with
FREQ . You can also FREQ CHEEP for the
entire set of Cheepware filenames.
Email FREQ: Send an email to bbs@outpostbbs.net with the subject of
FREQ and the message body of FREQ . You can
FGAZ 5-01 Page 3 29 Oct 2007
also FREQ CHEEP for the entire set of Cheepware filenames.
You can get support for all the Cheepware releases by visiting the
CHWARE echo in Fidonet or subscribing to the Cheepware mailing
list (send an email to majormajor@outpostbbs.net with the subject
of "subscribe cheepware" (without the quotes).
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FGAZ 5-01 Page 4 29 Oct 2007
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FOOD FOR THOUGHT
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Apple Pastry Napolitano
By Janis Kracht, 1:261/38
This was my grandmother's recipe - I once saw a show where Mario
Batali was opening a new restaurant in Manhatten - and this was one
of the desserts he featured. I thought it looked familiar :)
Filling:
6-8 medium apples, peeled, cored, sliced.
10 almonds
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter, room temperature.
5 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
Pastry:
3/4 cup flour
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
Enough milk to moisten
Mix filling ingredients and let stand while you make the pastry. Put
the pastry ingredients in a bowl and mix. Let the pastry sit for 5
or 10 minutes. Form a ball of the dough. The dough should be soft,
but not sticky. Turn dough out on a floured board and knead a few
minutes. Flatten and stretch the dough from the center with your
hands. Keep stretching to a large thin sheet (similar to pizza).
Spread the Apple filling mix over the pastry. Roll the pastry
starting from the back toward you. Pinch any holes together that may
form. Pinch the edges together to seal the pastry. Cut the roll in
2 or 3 sections almost to the edge, pinching to close. Lift the
pasty onto a buttered cookie sheet. Bake at 350F for 20 minutes, or
until golden brown.
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FGAZ 5-01 Page 5 29 Oct 2007
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NOTICES
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Region 13 Website - New URLs
Michael Luko, 1:266/512
Region 13 Website new URL's:
Main/direct:
http://mysite.verizon.net/vze2db48/r13/index.html
Redirected:
http://r13.webhop.org
http://www.r13.webhop.org
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FGAZ 5-01 Page 6 29 Oct 2007
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STATIC STUFF
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BBS Lists
By Sean Dennis
TELNET/DIALUP BBS GUIDES
------------------------
If you're looking for a new BBS to try or are trying to find one from
the past that may still be around, here's a few places to try:
** The BBS Corner's Telnet and Dial-Up BBS Guide
Maintained by Dave Perrussel (1:275/89)
http://www.telnetbbsguide.com
Dave maintains one of the most up-to-date telnet and dial-up
BBS lists in the world. There are over 450 BBSes listed on
his site. You can get to the dial-up BBS guide by clicking
on the "Dial-Up BBS Guide" link on the left side of the page
under the "Other Useful Information" header.
** Synchronet BBS List
Automatic maintenance
http://www.synchro.net/sbbslist.html
The Synchronet BBS List has the unique ability to check all of
the nodes listed in it nightly to make sure they are actually
responding if someone calls (note that it just means the port
is open, not that there may be a BBS there). There are over
160 active Synchronet-based BBSes listed and that number changes
slightly each night.
** BBSFinder.com
Automatic maintenance
http://www.bbsfinder.com
BBSFinder.com is a site that uses special clients that telnetable
BBSes run every five minutes to let the website know that they're
"alive", so you can be assured that if you connect to a BBS that's
listed on the website, it's active.
For sysops: there are several BF clients to choose from on there,
but there is not an OS/2-native one. However, Shawn Highfield
has written one and it is available at:
http://t1ny.kicks-ass.org:9080/file/tsoft/bfcon2v1.zip or by
email FREQ to freq@rogers.com with the subject "FREQ" and the
message body "FREQ bfcon2v1.zip" (both without quotes).
If you know of another -actively maintained- BBS list, please feel
free to send me the information and I'll make sure it gets in here.
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FIDOGAZETTE INFORMATION
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FidoGazette is a weekly publication for the sysops of Fidonet.
This newsletter has no association with the Fidonews and is
edited and published by an independant editorial staff.
Editor: Sean Dennis - 1:1/23 - sean@outpostbbs.net
For submission information, please FREQ FGAZSUB from 1:1/23 or
send an email to bbs@outpostbbs.net with the subject line of
FREQ and the message body of FREQ FGAZSUB. If neither of those
are workable for you, please send the editor a netmail and he
will make sure you get what you need.
Thank you for reading the FidoGazette.
We welcome your submissions! After all, this is for you, the sysop.
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