Text 44730, 174 rader
Skriven 2006-12-24 08:18:12 av Ed Hulett (1:123/789.0)
  Kommentar till text 44713 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
Ärende: America
===============
Michiel van der Vlist -> Ed Hulett wrote:
 MvdV> Hello Ed!

 MvdV> On Saturday December 23 2006 21:34, you wrote to me:

 EH>>>>>> No, it was the FIDO heirarchy who allowed FIDO to die. They could
 EH>>>>>> have made FIDO more attractive than uselessnet, but they didn't.

 MvdV>>>>> How?

 EH>>>> I don't claim to have the answer.

 MvdV>>> If you can not tell HOW it could be done, how can you be so
 MvdV>>> sure that it could have been done at all?

 EH>> You are such a pessemist.

 MvdV> I prefer to look upon myself as a realist.

 MvdV> When you get to a certain age you realise that time is the only
 MvdV> commodity that really matters as it is truly irreplaceable. So I do not
 MvdV> want to waste time. As a consequence I stay away from things that are in
 MvdV> all likehood impossible.

Wow, you really miss out a lot, don't you?

 MvdV> And believe it or not many things *are* impossible.

Nothing is impossible.

 EH>>>> I'm sure someone more creative than me in that area could come
 EH>>>> up with something.

 MvdV>>> Well, they didn't.

 EH>> No joke?

 MvdV> Nothing that worked anyway.

I see, what did they try?

 MvdV>>> Your penis may be bigger than mine, but there is no way you
 MvdV>>> could have been using FIDO as early as the late 70s. Fido was
 MvdV>>> created in 1984 by Tom Jennings.

 EH>> Hmmm... ok so it wasn't FIDO back then, but I've been using a form of
 EH>> echomail since I got my Commodore 64 in the late 70s.

 MvdV> I think you are mistaken. You may be confused with the conferences
 MvdV> offered by bulletin boards. To the users that *looked* very much like
 MvdV> echomail.

The conferences I was involved in back then were not on just a single BBS. Some
of the people I communicated with were from out of the area and used BBSes I
didn't.

 MvdV>>> You probably mean you have used BBS's since the late 70s. well,
 MvdV>>> I build my own 300 bps modem in 1978.  Ward and Herman can tell
 MvdV>>> you how it smells.. ;-)

 EH>> 300 baud was the usual speed back then. Not many could afford a 1200
 EH>> baud modem back then.

 MvdV> Coming to think of it, I had a 1200 Bps modem as well. That was V23
 MvdV> modem. I.e. split speed 1200/75. At the time those were sponsored by the
 MvdV> telecom who promoted Viditel.

Back then the Hayse 1200 baud modem was around $400 back then.

 MvdV>>> I have been involved with FidoNet as a user ever since my
 MvdV>>> former host Henk Wevers introduced FidoNet to Europe and
 MvdV>>> created net 500. The first net outside North America.

 EH>> Cool.

 MvdV> ;-)


 MvdV>>> Need we go on with this silly "yours is bigger than mine" game?

 EH>> That wasn't my intent. I was just telling you how long I've been using
 EH>> BBSes and echomail.

 MvdV> Ok. I just brought up the point thing because I think the pointlist is a
 MvdV> fair indication of the rise and fall of FidoNet here in The Netherlands.

Yes, it's a good indication that FIDO is a sick puppy.

 MvdV>>> The haydays of Fido were in the early 90s. 30.000+ nodes world
 MvdV>>> wide...

 EH>> Late 80s early 90s.

 MvdV> Z2 lagged a bit behind Z1. The top was around 1995 here.

That is understandable since FIDO started in the US.

 EH>>>> I have never blamed it on fights or failing organization.

 MvdV>>> Eh? You just wrote:

 EH>>>>>> No, it was the FIDO heirarchy who allowed FIDO to die. They
 EH>>>>>> could have made FIDO more attractive than uselessnet, but they
 EH>>>>>> didn't.

 MvdV>>> Seems to me you are blaming the organisation...

 EH>> No, I was blaming it on the inability to foresee the changes and
 EH>> coming up with something to stem the tide.

 MvdV> And *who* were you blaming then for the inability to foresee?

Those in a position to do something about it.

 EH>>>>  Usenet is a waste of time.

 MvdV>>> Your opinion to which you are entitled. It seems many
 MvdV>>> ex-FidoNet users have a different opinion.

 EH>> I have yet to find a usenet group that is worth while.

 MvdV> As I said, it is a matter of opinion. I have come across and
 MvdV> participated in some very interesting news groups.

If you can pick out the interesting posts from all the spams and cat fights.

 MvdV>>>>> I can see it from their point of view.

 EH>>>> They just want free pr0n.

 MvdV>>> pr0n??

 EH>> Porn. I used the idiot hacker spelling as a joke.

 MvdV> Keep in mind that English is not my native language. These things don't
 MvdV> carry well across a language barrier.

It appears English is a second or third language for some of the idiot hackers,
too.

 MvdV> And I think you are very wrong. It is only a small minority that is
 MvdV> after pornography.

If it's a minority, why are there so many porn sites and porn groups?

 EH>>>> It certainly can't be blamed on the users. If they had a reason
 EH>>>> to stay, they would.

 MvdV>>> Nobody is to blame. No more than anyone is to blame for the
 MvdV>>> demise of the spark transmitter or AM modulation. Something
 MvdV>>> better comes up and people move on. That is the way things go.

 EH>> Whoa! AM isn't dead, just check 160 meters. Those good old boys on 160
 EH>> would call you a blasphemer if they heard you say that.

 MvdV> Am isn't completely dead but it is on the way out fast. The broadcasters
 MvdV> are going digital soon. And yes, there are still a few diehards on the
 MvdV> amateur bands with old AM stuff. Angry nine comes to mind. Museum
stuff...

Here in the US we have a very healthy AM broadcast industry. I wouldn't write
the eulogy just yet.

Ed

-- 
"Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue,
and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition." -- Thomas Jefferson

Linux User#: 416016
Linux Machine#: 323569

--- Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7.13) Gecko/20060717 Debian/1.
 * Origin: Veritas Vos Leberabit! (1:123/789.0)