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Skriven 2007-08-13 01:41:53 av FidoNews Robot (2:2/2.0)
Ärende: FidoNews 24:33 [02/05]: General Articles
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GENERAL ARTICLES
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Death, How important is it?
Jeff Smith, 1:282/1031
I really wasn't planning on submitting this as an article as I
somehow thought it that might in some small way to me diminish the
tragedy of those that died. But after posting my initial message in
the Fidonews echo and getting the responses that I did. I felt that
something more needed to be said. The first questions that should be
asked are. What is death? What does death mean to us as individuals?
Some might say that death is simply the act of dying, the end of life,
the total and permanent end of all vital bodily functions. Others
might say that death is more of a transition. It is not my intention
to get into the religious aspects of death. We all have our own
beliefs about what death means to us religiously. I would like to
think that most would at least agree that death is the end of physical
life. I am sure that some will disagree simply because they need to. I
make no judgments on what death might mean to them or anyone else for
that matter. I can only judge what it means to me.
In any event my initial post was to simply express my sorrow over
those that died in Minneapolis recently. In making that expression I
was not making any national, religious, or political statement. Death
itself is unfortunate but isn't always tragic. People who die because
they have reached the end of their natural life is sad but death
really is waiting for us all. What makes death tragic is when people
die before their natural time of life has ended. Both of my parents
died in their 80's while they were sleeping. While their deaths were
certainly sad I wouldn't call their deaths tragic.
Questions have been asked if by mentioning the death of people in
the US that I was somehow trying to say that American lives and deaths
are more important than those of other countries. Nothing could be
farther from the truth. I simply mentioned the event to share my
sorrow over the tragedy. Unexpected death is sad and tragic no matter
where it occurs or whom the person is who dies. Death has no
nationality and knows no borders. Sadly it is the need of some of
those still alive to put a particular level of importance on those
that have died. I just don't understand that point of view. And resent
being told that my expression is somehow inappropriate. Or that I am
meaning something that I in no way said. To those I simply say that if
you are predisposed to take what I say a particular way. Then there
isn't anything I can say that will change your mind. You will only
believe what you have already chosen to believe. Others continue to
complain that my expression of sorrow is off-topic in the Fidonews
echo. Yet they will hypocritically fail to comment on anyone else
making their off-topic posts. Why do you think that might be? Why do
they noticeably treat people differently based on what country that
they live in? I will let people form their own opinions.
It doesn't really matter if one or a thousand people died. It also
doesn't matter in what country they might have lived. Why is it so
important that some have to bring nationality into the picture? Why
does it matter? Are we not all inhabitants of this same planet? If one
of us dies, is there some special significance that should be
associated to where that person lived? Does the life of some of us
mean less or is less important than the lives of others? I know that
some of these questions may seem somewhat naive considering the world
that we live in today. All that I ask is that you think about the
questions honestly and what your answer to them might be.
Would I have made my initial post if I had known the responses I
would get? Possibly not. I didn't think that the death of people was
as much of a national thing as some seem to think it is. The death of
the those here in Minneapolis while no more important than deaths
elsewhere are more personal to me. In fact if the collapse of the
bridge had happened 40 minutes sooner I might have been one of those
involved. My daughter now tells me that she somewhat knew (A friend of
a friend) one of the children on the school bus that was on the bridge
when it collapsed. Yes, what happened here was more personal to me
than say a similar event somewhere else but that wouldn't mean that it
was any more or less tragic. I think that is normal and I would
expect the same of anyone no matter what country they might live in. I
am not sure how much clearer I can be in trying to say what I mean. It
is also my intention NOT to get into a long protracted debate on the
meaning of either life or death. I probably don't have enough time
left for something like that. :-)
Jeff Smith
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Interzonal nodelist discrepancies
By Michiel van der Vlist 2:280/5555
In an article in FidoNews #24 of this year, ex-ZC6, Carol
Shenkenberger announced the final demise of Z6 per july 26th. On that
date the last entry in Z6 was removed and a placekeeper was
substituted for the zone segment. No, this article is not about the
usefulness of the placekeeper. It is about another observation that it
triggered. July 26th is a Thursday, so if all went well, the change
should make in in the nodelist of next Friday, #208.
Well, it didn't. Not in the version of the nodelist that is
distributed in zone 2 anyway. So I got myself a copy of the Z1 and Z3
nodelists #208. And yes, the placekeeper was there. The change did not
appear in "my" nodelist until #215. So the Z2 nodelist is one week
behind that of Z1 and Z3? For this change yes. But there seems to be
more to it than just a simple one way delay.
On Monday July 30th I submitted a change in the net 2:280 segment. Two
nodes, 1026 and 4312 that had been flagged as Down for some time, were
removed. The change made it into "my" nodelist #215 next Friday. But
not into the nodelists as distributed in Z1 and Z3. It did not make it
into Z1 until a week later: #222. So it seems the "own zone" is always
a week ahead?
No, because an even more intriguing discrepancy is that 1:275/311 is
listed as Down in Z2 nodelist #222. But not in any of the Z1 versions
that I laid hand on. This can not be explained by a mere delay. The
only explanation that comes to mind that a change was submitted and
later retracted. The change was processed, both for the Z1 and the Z2
list. The retraction however only made it in time to annul the change
made into the Z1 nodelist, but not in time for the Z2 nodelist.
Someone unfamiliar with the internal workings of FidoNet might easily
conclude that it is the International Coordinator that issues the
FidoNet nodelist and that therefore every member of FidoNet has the
same nodelist. Well, it isn't so. It may have been done like that in
the very beginning, but soon - if not right away - after zones were
introduced the ZCs started issuing their own versions of the nodelist.
They gathered the partial zone segments from each other and assembled
their own version of the nodelist from them. This made sense in the
days when sending files to another continent was expensive and slower
channels than a direct ZC to ZC contact were used to reduce the cost.
The versions distributed in the different zones are not the same. The
most obvious difference is that the zones lists their own zone first.
This was introduced by the first ZC2, Henk Wevers. His own mailer
Dutchie did not use an index file to access the nodelist, it did a
simple linear search. Since most lookups were within the own zone,
putting that first speeded up the process of nodelist lookup. Other
zones followed this practise.
All this made sense at the time. But now, when we have almost
instantaneous global communication at next to zero cost? A change I
submit on Monday, does not make it into the other zone's nodelists
until Friday next week, ELEVEN days later?! In 2007? Oh c'mon guys, we
can do better than that!
Why do we still have a different nodelist for each zone? All the
reasons for doing it in the past no longer apply. Why not let the
International Coordinator assemble a list and distribute that as *the*
FidoNet nodelist. The only obstacle I see is that we do not seem to
have an IC at the moment. There isn't a zone/1000 entry - the
traditional AKA if the IC - in any of the five zones of FidoNet that
remain. None of the ZC's seem to claim the position.
Still, even lacking an IC, there is no excuse for all these delays.
There is no technical reason that I can see, why a change on the net
level that is submitted on Thursday afternoon by an NC, can not be
included in in the nodelist that is available to every Fidonet member
on Friday morning. What it takes is a bit of interzonal coordination.
Something that never was the strong point of FidoNet, to use an
understatement. So guys at the top of the *C hierarchy get your act
together and do what it says on your hat: Coordinate!
(c) 2007, Michiel van der Vlist. All rights reserved.
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