Mail Archives: opendos/2004/01/14/06:24:39
Originally to: Day Brown
>> DB> Where do you logon?
>>
>> One way to access it is to get hold of a copy of the nodelist, select a
>> prospective Boss and apply for a Point.
DB> i downloaded the nodelist, which has a .z02 extension that I
DB> dont have an archive extractor for.
sure you do... its a ZIP file...
DB> Why, in the sam hill dont they just make it a .zip? WTF?
why? because the Z denotes that its a ZIP file... the 02 denotes the julian day
of the year... since there are only three characters available in 8.3 format
filenames, this was the best thing that could be done way back when... just be
thankful that you found it as a Zxx file and not an Axx file as it should also
be... Axx files are ARC files...
DB> And why, when an internet greenhorn goes to fidonet.org, dont
DB> they just have the links to show him the numbers that might
DB> be a local call?
because that site is supposed to point you in the general direction of sites
closer to you... each of those sites is maintained by someone else... and those
will likely point you to sites even closer to you...
DB> Fido might once have been a powerhouse that people hadda do
DB> things their way, but now, it should be accomodating to the
DB> habits of net users, or it will continue the slow slide to
DB> oblivion.
it is accomodating the habits of i'net users... they click here and click there
so click points are provided OB-)
DB> I see a similar phenomena on the Ham radio lists, very low
DB> traffic, and again, they have not tried to integrate their
DB> system with the available bleeding edge, (never mind cutting
DB> edge) technology that would make the hardware setup a lot
DB> more affordable.
DB> It looks like the internet is taking over all forms of
DB> communication, which makes us all much more vulnerable to
DB> disaster should terrorism, sabotage software, or just plain
DB> stupidity, crash the net.
yup... and if one has watched the terminator movies, they can easily see what
may come to pass...
DB> Nowhere, on either fido or ham lists did I see anyone trying
DB> to integrate the two technologies, which would permit a
DB> wireless data network to operate as a backup to the internet.
can't do that... you can read stuff on ham bbs' but you can't write or transmit
anything unless you hold a ham license... them's gov't rules... fidonet is not
governed in that way at all...
DB> formerly, when there was an earthquake, flood, hurricane, or
DB> whatever, local ham radio operators offered valuable
DB> communication services. That safety net is vanishing. You get
DB> the idea that cell phones has made ham obsolete; which makes
DB> sense to urbanites, but anyone who lives in a mountainous
DB> area knows how spotty coverage is.
ham is still around and do provide those same services... they are just not as
visible as they once were due to the proliferation of more trees in the
forest...
)\/(ark
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