+--------------------------+------------------------------------------+
| .----------------------. | 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
(grin). 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 (vbg) :)
(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 (grin). 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 (grin)). 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. Prism has changed a bit over the
years in that there aren't that many online games that used
to draw users like Scrabble (darn! I did love that one
(grin)) 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 (grin) 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 (grin) 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"
(grin) 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 (g). Spell checking your own work will help though
(something I'm typically guilty of (g)).
(Page 15)
