Text 220, 106 rader
Skriven 2005-04-28 19:30:21 av Carol Shenkenberger (6:757/1)
    Kommentar till text 218 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
Ärende: Re: Changing FTS-0001.
==============================
*** Quoting Michiel van der Vlist from a message to Carol Shenkenberger ***

 > Lets be frank.  I can not afford at this time to destabilize
 > my system as I'm now Z6C.

MvdV> Even without the ZC hat, I fully understand you don't want to mess wit
MvdV> a system as stablke as yours when you will be away for extened times.
MvdV> I still don';t know how you do it; runnin a system that keeps on runni
MvdV> in the autopilot for 8 month.

Grin, long practice with what runs stable has been the answer.  I first did
this when I was on the Stennis, back in 1995-1998.  That time was a bit rough
as I learned to automate everything (and you'd be amazed at what you miss when
you get back a few months later!).

Right now, main problem is mail tossing isnt activaing on event-poll (something
I've forgotten in there and I'll find it shortly).  Makenl is not automated
but that's deliberate.  When I'm at sea, I'll have to generate from there and
if the system at home is spitting out a zoneseg, I cant also do it from sea
without bolluxing up.

 > I plan (among the moelhills, and a more topmost one) to setup a
 > secondary system with IP capability and if it proves *stable* to
 > eventually swap to it.

MvdV> It will be difficult to get the same stability as you have now. I had
MvdV> the same decision to make when I added IP capability. My POTS only sys
MvdV> has been running on a DOS machine until Sept 2003. There was no way th
MvdV> I could make it take care of IP too, DOS is ony stable in a single tas
MvdV> environment, I never could get a /stable/ multitasker for DOS.

I had DOS doing IREX pretty well, but now and again (every month or 2) a
semophore would get stuck and have to be manually cleared.  Didnt work well
for long automation.

MvdV> Maybe you should go Linux.

That would be optimal but the cable modem is on the dual boot box and Don cant
use the SuSe partition for any of his games.  He's a lovely man but not a geek
and it's too confusing for him, so I'm stuck with a WIN XP solution as needed.
 I also want a JAM message base as I'm interested in Jamnntp.


 > Havent even checked if Chinese script might have some problem.
 >  While we have a few nodes listed there, they do not travel
 > the mainstream echos often enough to have generated any
 > 'complaints'.

MvdV> Chinese script in FidoNet?

I am not sure what script, I called it chinese.  Used to be we had some 10 or
so .ch echos out here.  Reputed to be in chinese.  How did they do it?  I do
not know.  I always presumed they had more than one writing style just like
the japanese.  I know I've seen 'chinese in english script' out here from time
to time so maybe thats what they did?


MvdV> You know Carol, that is one of the reasons I am sceptical when claims
MvdV> are made about Fidonet nodes in China. FidoNet is based on 8 (actually
MvdV> just 7) bit character text only.

Honestly, not sure how they did it.  Right now though, there seem to be only 2
stray nodes in China, both nominal. If the update I sent this week made it ok,
you'll see some more trimming.  It's going slow but sure to fix things.

MvdV> A medium that does not allow decent comunication in one's own laguage
MvdV> won'tattrackt many users and those users certainly won't stay if an al
MvdV> becomes available.

That may be a goodly part of why China seems to have not kicked off on the BBS
scene.  The average chinese 'bbs' is an internet site, perhaps with shared
groups, but no connect to fidonet.


 > I am in favor of allowing any codepage to be used as long as the
 > effect is cosmetic on those who do not share the same one. I am
 > adverse to mandating any one if it costs us nodes.

MvdV> So am I. In fact I am adverse to ANY change that is not downward compa
MvdV> That is why I have problems with numbers in the phone numbers field th
MvdV> aren't phone numbers. That is why I have problems with ION hosts.

Well, I'm close to you on many things although perforce, I'll have to deal with
ION hosts out here.  If (and only after approval by all ZC's) the new makenl
can be used to untie pvt and -UnPublished-, you'll see a radically different
Z6 segment with no 000- numbers and no more bogus phone entries.  I cant do
that though unless everyone else is ready for it or any zone not able to adapt
to that 'new standard' will not be able to process a Z6 segment.

I believe the biggest problem for that would be errflags which would have to be
adapted to allow for it.  Very useful program but it may be the main problem
with adaption?

MvdV> But I doubt if I will see the day that all of FidoNet goes UTF8...

Grin, mines embedded and i dont seem to have much option, but I can 'display'
more than I can quote.  I can see cyrillics and the umlaut fine, just cant
quote them at all.

This issue is the main one that has me looking at other packages at last.  I
may keep this box for backups forever, but setting up another system for wider
use, gains appeal.
                                       xxcarol

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