Text 953, 62 rader
Skriven 2006-05-06 15:29:00 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
    Kommentar till text 949 av Vladimir Donskoy (2:5020/2992)
Ärende: none
============
Hello Vladimir.

06 May 06 16:28, you wrote to me:

 VD>>>  and I know that Morse code use on the sea.

 MV>> The morse code was officially abandonned by the maritime
 MV>> community on Jan, 1st 1998.

 VD> In is not right -

Never argue with verifiable facts, there is no percentage in it:

http://www.imo.org/home.asp

 VD>  I know (and listen) signals from beacons (lighthouses) on the sea.

It was abandonned as an *official* means of communication. Yes, there are
beacons still using morse code as an *unofficial* means of identification. Both
maritime and aviation. That is just inertia and I dont think no one but a few
oddballs actually use these beacons any more for navigation.

Morse code is history. Like the horse and carriage, the sword and the steam
engine. You will still find a few of them around, but they have no impacy any
more.

You know this conversation has a high deja vu content. I must have had this
kind of conversation maybe a hundred times over the past decade.

It was Henk Wevers my former host, who founded the first net outside the US and
Canada: net 500. I was 2:500/9.5 and later 2:500/555. The net grew till there
were about a hundred nodes. Other nets also arose in the Netherlands and at the
height of FidoNet there were 13 nets with over 1200 nodes and over 5600
registred points. Region 28 was the kargest region in Z2 and the second largest
after Germany for quit some time. Then in 1995 it started to decline.  Now
there is just one net barely counting 30 sysops and 13 registred points. Not a
mere *half percent* of what it was at its hight. I have seen the rise and fall
of FidoNet in The Netherlands.

Yes and I had conversations with my fellow Fidoians in The Netherlands like the
one I now have with you: people who did not want to believe that FidoNet could
never compete witn the InterNet in the long run, people who argued by pointing
out small imperfections in the analogies I presented to them. Horses are still
here they said. Implying that FidoNet would live forever. The irony is that
*they* are all gone, they who argued like you have all gone for the greener
pastures of the InterNet and I am still here.

Dont for a minute think it will be different in your region. You are a couple
of years behind but unavoidably progress will catch up with you and your region
too will only be a very small fraction of what it once was.

There is no future for FidoNet. Accept it. You call me a conservative, but
actually it is *you* that is unable to accept that the world is changing. I
have accepted that FidoNet is a museum piece. The days that it had any meaning
are history. I am still here. 6800 other former Dutch fellow Fidoians are gone.

Accepting that FidoNet is a museum piece is the only way to survive...

Michiel

--- GoldED+/W32-MSVC 1.1.5-b20060315
 * Origin: http://www.vlist.org (2:280/5555)