Famous flame wars, examples please?
Jean Yves Desbiens
I would like to know if there has been in the past some
celebrated flame wars in the past? If so what was their
subject ( main point of discussion ), the scope
( how many people and newsgroups were involved ), duration
(months, years) and who got out alive... :-). I don't want
a in and out discussion where the subject is always there
but the people change, there as to be a start and an end,
a semi stable group of opposing foes led preferably by
people that are respected by name on the net. Ideally, their
should be real actions resulting from such a flame fest
: RFC's, new groups, theorie, algorythm, etc.
--
SEIZE THE DAY, MAKE YOUR LIFE EXTRAORDINARY . "Dead Poets Society"
Jean-Yves Desbiens | d40...@info.polymtl.ca
Etudiant en genie informatique |
Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal Can | To indeed be a god ...,
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Cor Bosman
>I would like to know if there has been in the past some
>celebrated flame wars in the past? If so what was their
>subject ( main point of discussion ), the scope
>( how many people and newsgroups were involved ), duration
>(months, years) and who got out alive... :-). I don't want
>a in and out discussion where the subject is always there
>but the people change, there as to be a start and an end,
>a semi stable group of opposing foes led preferably by
>people that are respected by name on the net. Ideally, their
>should be real actions resulting from such a flame fest
>: RFC's, new groups, theorie, algorythm, etc.
Flamewars that will never end (a few):
amiga-pc (my computer is the best)
vi-emacs (my editor is the best)
note: emacs is a nice OS, but I prefer unix :) vi rules! (and amiga too!) :)
cor
--
|bos...@fwi.uva.nl_ // | Honest Officer , had I known my health |
|-----------------\\ //AMIGA | stood in jeopardy I would never had lit one.|
| PE no.1 \\/ | -MAXIM (of the Hells Angels)- |
|__________ Quickly Scotty,beam me up.There is no ox..y..ge..._____________|
Steve Davis
>I would like to know if there has been in the past some
>celebrated flame wars in the past?
Certainly and without a doubt, the discussion (flamage (outright
warfare)) before The Great Renaming. Just talk to any news
administrator who was around at the time ...
Stratocaster
--
Steve Davis (I'm a student, not a spokesperson!)
st...@cis.ksu.edu - Kansas State University - Manhattan KS
Don't believe what the Moral Majority says. Remember that they are neither.
Thomas Beagle
>
>I would like to know if there has been in the past some
>celebrated flame wars in the past? If so what was their
>subject ( main point of discussion ), the scope
>( how many people and newsgroups were involved ), duration
>(months, years) and who got out alive... :-). I don't want
>a in and out discussion where the subject is always there
>but the people change, there as to be a start and an end,
>a semi stable group of opposing foes led preferably by
>people that are respected by name on the net. Ideally, their
>should be real actions resulting from such a flame fest
>: RFC's, new groups, theorie, algorythm, etc.
See if you can find a site that archives news.groups
Some of the very, very best (worst?) flame wars have been to do with
reorganisations of news groups. The comp.sys.amiga.* reorg was a
classic and helped make Kent Paul Dolan a name that was used to scare
children. :-)
Unfortunately for avid flamers, part of this reorganisation introduced
the idea of *.advocacy groups. This has lead to a general improvement
in signal to noise ratios, thus disappointing those with scales,
wings, and a tendency to incendiary breath.
For your reading pleasure I enclose a posting that I came across in
rec.humor.funny in the last year. Thanks to the people who wrote
it and posted it!
---
Subject: Usenet Olympics coverage -- Day 1
From: for...@toolserv.att.com (Michael S Forbes)
Date: Wed, 4 Sep 91 3:25:5 EDT
{ed What follows is an extremely long original piece, a parody of recent
fun events in USENET life. At over 1300 lines it is a lot longer than I
usually do here, but rather than break it up into the series of still-quite-long
files that it came in, I present it as one entity, so folks can take it or
leave it as they wish. It certainly has some good moments, even for those
who have not followed the sf-lovers flame-folly it is based upon.}
The Usenet Sports Programming Network presents:
Exclusive coverage
of the
Men's Flamer Baiting Finals
|9| |8| |9| |9| |4| "Four!? You sh*thead!
\o \O \o \O \U I'm gonna take that card
| | | | | and shove it up your--"
--------------------------------- \ - o ---------------------------
'--|--__
_____________________________________ | ___________________________
|
/ \
/ |
_/_ _|_
Brought to you by the Energizer. It just keeps going and going...
[Fade to an ice rink.]
Peter:
>This is Peter Arnett here at Chuq Arena, where we're about to
>witness the finals of the men's Flamer Baiting competition.
>
>Now stepping onto the ice is Joe Newcomer, from the comp.sys.amiga
>hierarchy. Let's see what Joe's routine looks like:
Joe:
>Post to groups: comp.sys.*
>Subject: My Amiga is faster than your computer!
>(entering vi mode)
>Heck, my Amiga can EMULATE your computer, and even the emulation
>is twice as fast as your machine! It's faster than a Cray!
Peter:
>Joe's melted a small puddle of ice, and the judges are giving him
>a 7.4 overall. Not a very high score, I'm afraid; his theme was
>not the most original we've seen here at the Usenet Olympics.
>
>The Zamboni machine is clearing the rink, and our next athlete is
>Roger Noe, from rec.arts.startrek:
Roger:
>Post to groups: news.groups, rec.arts.startrek
>Subject: K*nt is trying to change The Name!
>(entering vi mode)
>Death to the infidel running-dog pagan fool who defies the gods
>and dares to insert ".sf" in The Sacred Name! Phasers on kill!
Peter:
>Roger's up to his neck in water! What an impressive performance!
>The judges are giving him a perfect 10 -- oh no! The Soviet judge
>has been overthrown in a coup, and the eight new judges are each
>giving Noe's performance a 3! That lowers his overall score to a
>5.3, and puts him in second place so far. Tough break for Roger.
>
>Next up, the defending champion: Kent Paul Dolan, from alt.flame!
Kent:
>Post to groups: news.groups, news.admin, alt.flame, talk.bizarre,
> rec.arts.sf-lovers, rec.arts.startrek
>Subject: You're a
> bunch of
> brain-dead
> nitwits!
>(entering vi mode)
>You stupid
>sheep couldn't
>reorganize
>a newsgroup
>if I led you
>through it
>myself!
>
>----------
>Grand Convener,
>net.* reorg
Peter:
>He's flooded the arena! The judges are drowning! <glug>
Bryant:
>Peter, are you still there? Peter... This is Bryant Gumbel in
>Atlanta with USPN coverage of the Usenet Olympic Games. We're
>having some technical difficulties with our Flamer Baiting crew,
>and we'll go back there in a few moments.
>
>We're taking you now to the 400-Post Relay already in progress.
>USPN's Chris Berman has an update:
The Usenet Sports Programming Network presents:
Exclusive coverage
of the
400-Post Relay
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
o o
U U __/_ __/__
O O __/_ __/__ / \===/ /
__/_ __/__ / \===/ / __/| /\
/ \===/ / __/| /\ / / \
- __/|-------/\------------/-------/--\----------/-------/---/-----
----/-------/--\----------/-------/---/----------------------------
---/-------/---/ --------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Brought to you by the Ford Pinto Historical Preservation Society.
Chris Berman:
>Bryant, we've got an exciting matchup here in the 400-Post Relay
>semi-finals. Here are the teams:
>
>Lane 1: rec.arts.startrek "Tasha Yar is a Romulan Spy" thread
>Lane 2: comp.sys.mac.* "Bug in System 7?"
>Lane 3: rec.arts.comics "Overweight Superheroes"
>Lane 4: rec.arts.sf-lovers "Orson Scott Card & Homosexuality"
>Lane 5: news.groups "Look what Kent mailed out"
>
>Each of these threads has well over 400 posts, and with the
>exception of comp.sys.mac.*'s entry, there's plenty of flaming
>going on out there. They're rounding the turn now, and here comes
>Peter "da gold and" da Silva in the lead, followed closely by
>Tim "David" Lynch.
>
>Da Silva is making the handoff to "giant rat of" Subrata Sircar,
>while Lynch hands his baton to "Downtown" Mike (Vidiot) Brown.
>Here comes Dean "just between me and" Yu from comp.sys.mac.*...
>
>Uh-oh! Mike Brown has stumbled! He forgot to put a ^L at the top
>of a potential spoiler post; it looks like the news.groups team
>has got this one wrapped up. Back to you, Bryant.
Bryant:
>Thanks for the update, Chris. Stay tuned for more exclusive
>coverage of the 1991 Usenet Olympic Games here on USPN.
Don Pardo:
>Coming up: Tape delay highlights from Beating a Dead Horse!
[to be continued...]
The Usenet Sports Programming Network presents:
Exclusive Coverage
of the
Long Post Finals
_ - ()
/
\O ungh!
/\
/| |
------/-|_
- / )
_________- | | | |
250K 500K 750K 1MB
Brought to you by the PLO. We're with you all the way, Kent!
[Cut to the "shot put" area of Spafford Stadium, where Marv Albert
is standing with a microphone.]
Marv:
>This is Marv Albert and Bernard Shaw here at the Usenet Olympics--
>Bernie, why are you lying on the ground and covering your head?
Bernie: [gets up]
>Sorry, force of habit.
Marv:
>Anyhow, we're here at the Long Post finals, where the competition
>is just about to begin. The first athlete is Eric S. Raymond,
>from the alt.folklore.computers team!
[Camera switches to Raymond, who is loosening up, then to a graphic
with Raymond's vital statistics.]
Bernie:
>Alt.folklore.computers doesn't have a lot of athletes at this
>level of competition, but they've got a sure medal winner here in
>Eric S. Raymond. He's been flamed by sysadmins several times for
>unusually large posts, and at one time proposed creating his own
>newsgroup for the postings.
Marv:
>Raymond is stepping up into the circle now. Here comes the post:
>It's version 3.4.5 of the Jargon File, over a megabyte in length!
>The crowd's on its feet!
Bernie:
>You've got to admire his form, Marv. There just aren't too many
>people who can post like that anymore.
Marv:
>Our next poster is Name Withheld by Request from alt.sex.pictures.
>We don't seem to have a lot of information about him.
Bernie:
>No, but a.s.p has a long history of placing in this event, and
>I'm sure they'll do well today.
Marv:
>It's 14 GIFs of a nude woman eating a banana! He takes the lead!
>
>Next up: The Usenet Oracle!
[The sky is darkened, and a bolt of lightning blinds everyone for a
brief moment. When the smoke clears, the Oracle is visible.]
Oracle:
>I shall now post the Ultimate Answer, which shall be infinite in
>knowledge and wisdom and will surely win this feeble contest.
Marv:
>Get back up, Bernie. Here comes the Oracle's post:
>Two bytes? That's it?! I don't believe this!
Bernie:
>Who's going to tell him he didn't win?
Marv:
>I don't know, but we're moving on to our last athlete:
>Mike Brown (Vidiot) from rec.arts.startrek.info!
[Switch to a graphic bio with Vidiot's stats.]
Bernie:
>Vidiot's one of the top athletes on the r.a.st team, and he almost
>walked away with this event at the Badwill Games.
Marv:
>Here it comes... An Esperanto version of the Program Guide!
>It's a new world record! The crowd's going wild!
>
>Well, that about wraps it up for the High Volume Post-- Wait!
>We've just recieved word that Name Withheld has been disqualified
>for failing the drug test prior to the event!
Bernie:
>Yes, it looks like Withheld's blood sample was flooded with
>testosterone. A lucky break for the Usenet Oracle, who now moves
>into third place behind Eric S. Raymond.
Marv:
>Yes, it's been another exciting day here at the Usenet Olympics!
>We'll be back with more coverage, right after this.
Don Pardo:
>Coming up: USPN exclusive coverage of the 100-Line Flame!
>Stay tuned!
The Usenet Sports Programming Network presents:
\\ \\ \\
//// //// ////
\\\\\\ \\\\\\ \\\\\\
//////// //////// ////////
(________) (________) (________) The 1991
\ / \\ \ / \\ \ /
\ / //// \ / //// \ / Usenet Olympic Games
\ / \\\\\\ \ / \\\\\\ \ /
|| //////// || //////// ||
|| (________) || (________) ||
|| \ / || \ / ||
|| \ / || \ / ||
\ / \ /
|| ||
|| ||
|| ||
|| ||
Brought to you by IBM, because we're sick of all this complacency.
[Fade to Bryant Gumbel, at Usenet Olympic Headquarters.]
Bryant:
>It's Day Three of the 1991 Usenet Olympic Games, and we've got a
>medal count for the top five teams based on the events so far:
>
> TOTAL Gold Silver Bronze
>
>news.groups 58 29 17 12
>rec.arts.startrek 55 32 9 14
>alt.flame 53 41 11 2
>rec.arts.sf-lovers 52 25 18 9
>alt.humor.oracle 43 42 0 1
>
>We also have an update on Bernard Shaw's condition, after he told
>The Usenet Oracle that he'd only won the bronze medal in the
>Long Post. Shaw was turned into a newt, but is getting better.
>
>Also remember that today is the Individual Flaming competition,
>which could mean a big jump in the standings for alt.flame.
>But first, we take you to Bob Eucher and Emil Jacobs at the
>Flameball championships:
The Usenet Sports Programming Network presents:
.__________.
| |
| ____ |
| ^____^ |
'---\\//---'
"Did not!" \\// "Did too!"
U U U O O O
-+- U -+- U -+- -+- O -+- o -+-
| -+- | -+- | | -+- | -+- |
/ \ | / \ | / \ / \ | / \ | / \
/ \ / \ / \ / \
Exclusive Coverage
of the
Flameball Championships
Brought to you by Stanford U. We'll just put it under "Research."
[Cut to a basketball court.]
Bob Eucher:
>Hey, sports fans, I love ya! We're here at Stallman Gymnasium
>watching the matchup you've been waiting for: rec.arts.sf-lovers
>against rec.arts.startrek in the Flameball championships!
Emil Jacobs:
>Bob, both teams have displayed the rough, physical style most
>common to this kind of competition, and they're really wearing
>each other down. It's a question of which team exausts their
>energy first, but there's enough bitterness to keep them both
>going for a long while yet.
Bob:
>Yeah, right now the referees look like they're about ready to
>throw in the towel. Let's see if we can pick up some of the
>taunting that's going on underneath the backboards:
Jay Maynard:
>If it hadn't been for Jim Griffith's post, none of this would have
>ever happened!
Ryan Mathews:
>Look, your crazy convener started flaming away during a CFV!
Jay:
>It's still your fault! Griffith *forced* him to start flaming!
Ryan:
>What, by gluing his hands to the keyboard?
Jay:
>Same difference!
Ryan:
>Up yours!
Bob:
>What rivalry! Boy, I'm glad it wasn't ever like this when I was
>in the game.
Emil:
>You were never really "in the game," Bob. Over to you, Bryant.
Bob:
>Hey, wait a minute--
Bryant:
>We're back at USPN Olympic Headquarters with another update:
>Tragedy struck the rec.nude bobsledding team this afternoon when
>all four members suffered a severe case of frostbite. Also, the
>rec.arts.startrek rowing team appears to have gone off course
>to make a rescue attempt on another vessel, the Kobyashi Canoe.
>
>Meanwhile, USPN live coverage continues with the "Asbestos Man"
>Triathlon. We're taking you now to Guy Steele Plaza:
The Usenet Sports Programming Network presents:
\\
// /
\\\\\\ "EEEYYYAAAAAAAGGGHH!"
////////
\\\\O\\\\\
FLAMING ////-+/-//// SADISM
\\\\\\|\\\\\\\
/ //////\///////
\\\\\\/\\\\\\\\ \\
////////////////////
MASOCHISM
Exclusive Coverage
of the
"Asbestos Man" Triathlon
Brought to you by the Yugoslavia Ministry of Tourism and Commerce.
Willard Scott:
>Hoo, boy! I just *love* toasted marshmallows. Mmmm-mm!
>And with all these flames going around, all you need is a stick!
>It's going to be a hot one today, Bryant, without much relief in
>sight for as long as the "Asbestos Man" competition goes on.
Bryant:
>Yes, Willard, but what's happening in the competition?
Willard:
>Oh, yes! Jim Griffith of rec.arts.startrek is still holding out
>in his effort to beat yesterday's performance by rec.arts.movies.
>Judges (from misc.legal) are still reviewing the official protests
>and have yet to rule whether the r.a.m entry, a liquid metal T1000
>from "Terminator 2", is qualified to compete in the Olympics.
>
>But Jim's putting in a great performance, and hasn't posted a word
>in spite of the best efforts of alt.flame and rec.arts.sf-lovers.
>It's as if he wasn't even reading the posts! What an incredible
>display of intolerance to pain.
Bryant:
>Thanks, Willard. We'll be back with more exclusive coverage of
>the 1991 Usenet Olympic Games in a moment.
Don Pardo:
>Stay tuned for live coverage of the Mental Gymnastics finals!
>Exclusively on USPN.
[...]
The Usenet Sports Programming Network presents:
\\ \\ \\
//// //// ////
\\\\\\ \\\\\\ \\\\\\
//////// //////// ////////
(________) (________) (________) The 1991
\ / \\ \ / \\ \ /
\ / //// \ / //// \ / Usenet Olympic Games
\ / \\\\\\ \ / \\\\\\ \ /
|| //////// || //////// ||
|| (________) || (________) ||
|| \ / || \ / ||
|| \ / || \ / ||
\ / \ /
|| ||
|| ||
|| ||
|| ||
Brought to you by IBM, because we're sick of all this complacency.
[Fade to Bryant Gumbel, at Usenet Olympic Headquarters.]
Bryant:
>It's Day Three of the 1991 Usenet Olympic Games, and we've got a
>medal count for the top five teams based on the events so far:
>
> TOTAL Gold Silver Bronze
>
>news.groups 58 29 17 12
>rec.arts.startrek 55 32 9 14
>alt.flame 53 41 11 2
>rec.arts.sf-lovers 52 25 18 9
>alt.humor.oracle 43 42 0 1
>
>We also have an update on Bernard Shaw's condition, after he told
>The Usenet Oracle that he'd only won the bronze medal in the
>Long Post. Shaw was turned into a newt, but is getting better.
>
>Also remember that today is the Individual Flaming competition,
>which could mean a big jump in the standings for alt.flame.
>But first, we take you to Bob Eucher and Emil Jacobs at the
>Flameball championships:
The Usenet Sports Programming Network presents:
.__________.
| |
| ____ |
| ^____^ |
'---\\//---'
"Did not!" \\// "Did too!"
U U U O O O
-+- U -+- U -+- -+- O -+- o -+-
| -+- | -+- | | -+- | -+- |
/ \ | / \ | / \ / \ | / \ | / \
/ \ / \ / \ / \
Exclusive Coverage
of the
Flameball Championships
Brought to you by Stanford U. We'll just put it under "Research."
[Cut to a basketball court.]
Bob Eucher:
>Hey, sports fans, I love ya! We're here at Stallman Gymnasium
>watching the matchup you've been waiting for: rec.arts.sf-lovers
>against rec.arts.startrek in the Flameball championships!
Emil Jacobs:
>Bob, both teams have displayed the rough, physical style most
>common to this kind of competition, and they're really wearing
>each other down. It's a question of which team exausts their
>energy first, but there's enough bitterness to keep them both
>going for a long while yet.
Bob:
>Yeah, right now the referees look like they're about ready to
>throw in the towel. Let's see if we can pick up some of the
>taunting that's going on underneath the backboards:
Jay Maynard:
>If it hadn't been for Jim Griffith's post, none of this would have
>ever happened!
Ryan Mathews:
>Look, your crazy convener started flaming away during a CFV!
Jay:
>It's still your fault! Griffith *forced* him to start flaming!
Ryan:
>What, by gluing his hands to the keyboard?
Jay:
>Same difference!
Ryan:
>Up yours!
Bob:
>What rivalry! Boy, I'm glad it wasn't ever like this when I was
>in the game.
Emil:
>You were never really "in the game," Bob. Over to you, Bryant.
Bob:
>Hey, wait a minute--
Bryant:
>We're back at USPN Olympic Headquarters with another update:
>Tragedy struck the rec.nude bobsledding team this afternoon when
>all four members suffered a severe case of frostbite. Also, the
>rec.arts.startrek rowing team appears to have gone off course
>to make a rescue attempt on another vessel, the Kobyashi Canoe.
>
>Meanwhile, USPN live coverage continues with the "Asbestos Man"
>Triathlon. We're taking you now to Guy Steele Plaza:
The Usenet Sports Programming Network presents:
\\
// /
\\\\\\ "EEEYYYAAAAAAAGGGHH!"
////////
\\\\O\\\\\
FLAMING ////-+/-//// SADISM
\\\\\\|\\\\\\\
/ //////\///////
\\\\\\/\\\\\\\\ \\
////////////////////
MASOCHISM
Exclusive Coverage
of the
"Asbestos Man" Triathlon
Brought to you by the Yugoslavia Ministry of Tourism and Commerce.
Willard Scott:
>Hoo, boy! I just *love* toasted marshmallows. Mmmm-mm!
>And with all these flames going around, all you need is a stick!
>It's going to be a hot one today, Bryant, without much relief in
>sight for as long as the "Asbestos Man" competition goes on.
Bryant:
>Yes, Willard, but what's happening in the competition?
Willard:
>Oh, yes! Jim Griffith of rec.arts.startrek is still holding out
>in his effort to beat yesterday's performance by rec.arts.movies.
>Judges (from misc.legal) are still reviewing the official protests
>and have yet to rule whether the r.a.m entry, a liquid metal T1000
>from "Terminator 2", is qualified to compete in the Olympics.
>
>But Jim's putting in a great performance, and hasn't posted a word
>in spite of the best efforts of alt.flame and rec.arts.sf-lovers.
>It's as if he wasn't even reading the posts! What an incredible
>display of intolerance to pain.
Bryant:
>Thanks, Willard. We'll be back with more exclusive coverage of
>the 1991 Usenet Olympic Games in a moment.
Don Pardo:
>Stay tuned for live coverage of the Mental Gymnastics finals!
>Exclusively on USPN.
[...]
The Usenet Sports Programming Network presents:
\\ \\ \\
//// //// ////
\\\\\\ \\\\\\ \\\\\\
//////// //////// ////////
(________) (________) (________) The 1991
\ / \\ \ / \\ \ /
\ / //// \ / //// \ / Usenet Olympic Games
\ / \\\\\\ \ / \\\\\\ \ /
|| //////// || //////// ||
|| (________) || (________) ||
|| \ / || \ / ||
|| \ / || \ / ||
\ / \ /
|| ||
|| ||
|| ||
|| ||
Brought to you by DuPont Chemical, the makers of napalm.
[Title sequence: Computer generated athlete-type graphics whiz by
as Olympic trumpet music blares in the background. Fade slowly to
a camera shot of USPN studios; the announcer voice-over begins as
the studio lights come up:]
Don Pardo:
>USPN presents live coverage of the 1991 Usenet Olympic Games!
>We take you now to Bryant Gumbel at USPN Olympic Headquarters in
>Atlanta, Georgia.
[Fade in to Bryant sitting at a desk, with an array of TV monitors
showing the Usenet Olympic logo (five flaming torches) in the
background.]
Bryant:
>Thank you, Don, and welcome to the 1991 Usenet Olympic Games.
>USPN is proud to present the ultimate pinnacle of net competition,
>and will be bringing you up-to-the-minute coverage of all the
>major news and events as they happen, where they happen.
>
>Our staff of reporters and correspondents has been in preparation
>for several months, as have the competitors arriving here today.
>We have participants from over 78 newsgroups in the Olympics, in
>events ranging from synchronized flaming to the marathon.
>
>Our coverage will begin with the opening ceremonies, which are
>already in progress. We take you now live to Wolf Blitzer,
>standing by at Spafford Stadium.
[Fade to a 'sky-cam' shot from high above the stadium.]
Wolf:
>Thanks, Bryant. This is Wolf Blitzer, reporting to you live from
>the opening ceremonies of the Usenet Olympic Games. You're seeing
>the stadium as it appears from the Usenet Blimp, hovering high
>above the ceremonies, and as you can see most of the teams have
>already entered the stadium.
[Cut to Wolf Blitzer on the reviewing stand; he is wearing a
flak jacket and carrying a gas mask.]
>We're looking forward to an exciting, event-driven Olympics here
>at Spafford Stadium, and you can feel the anticipation in the air.
>Now entering the stadium is the news.admin team:
[A group of harried-looking sysadmins walks onto the track, circles
the stadium as quickly as possible, and takes its place among the
already assembled teams. The audience applauds lightly.]
Wolf:
>News.admin isn't an energetic team, but they've got a lot of power
>in some of the voting events. Ah, here comes the alt.flame team:
[A band of angry-looking college freshmen carring blowtorches enter
and look around the stadium as if daring anyone to post anything.
After a tense interval, they settle into place.]
Wolf:
>As might be expected, alt.flame took home several gold medals in
>the track and flame events last year, and are expected to repeat
>that performance here at the 1991 games. But there are a lot of
>loose cannons among the alt.flamers, and they tend to work against
>each other in the team sports.
[Several tall, narrow lights appear on the playing field, and the
rec.arts.startrek team beams into the stadium. The team is equally
divided between redshirt Security guards and Starfleet Admirals.]
Wolf:
>One of the biggest teams in the Usenet Olympics, rec.arts.startrek
>fields competitors in almost every event.
Bryant cuts in:
>Wolf, haven't there been reports of some bad blood between r.a.st
>and one of the other groups?
Wolf:
>Yes there have, Bryant, and here comes the "other group" now:
[The rec.arts.sf-lovers team, brandishing everything from swords
to lightsabers, enters the stadium. Many of the r.a.st athletes
put their hands near their phasers, and the r.a.sf-l team responds
with glares and similar hostility.]
Wolf:
>You can see there's no love lost between these two teams, Bryant.
>After the fiasco at the Badwill Games, where an apparent r.a.sf-l
>gold medal in Group Reorganizing was wiped out by r.a.st protests,
>there's been nothing but hatred between these two newsgroups.
>
>And that's the last of the teams entering the stadium. Here comes
>the torch-bearer, preparing to light the five torches in the logo
>and officially open the Usenet Olympics:
[Kent Paul Dolan enters, carrying a flamethrower set on "medium".
He jogs about a quarter of the distance around the track, holding
the nozzle above his head, and then sees the r.a.st team: ]
Kent:
>YOU!
>You ruined
>my beautiful
>r.a.sf-l
>reorg!
>
>You're all
>a bunch of
>morons!
>
>Take this!
[Kent sets the flamethrower on "eat flaming death" and fires into
the r.a.st group, toasting several redshirts. The r.a.st team
responds with phaser fire, temporarily stunning Kent; alt.flame
and r.a.sf-lovers immediately jump into the fray...]
Wolf:
>Um, it looks like we've got a commotion on the field...
[Phasers, swords, lasers and fire lizards duke it out on the field,
as the r.a.sf assortment plows into r.a.st. Again, several of the
redshirted Security men are killed, but none of the Admirals are
even injured. Players from rec.arts.drwho quietly begin stunning
some of the isolated players with sonic screwdrivers.]
Wolf [putting on his gas mask]:
>Bryant, it's pandemoneum here; I don't know how much longer we can
>stay on the air...
[Mutant X-men rejects from rec.arts.comics begin fighting on both
sides, and the alt.flamers start torching each other. A news.admin
player quietly begins typing on a nearby portable computer, and
the rec.arts.startrek.info team vanishes!]
Kent [recovering]:
>You haven't
>heard the
>last of me!
[Suddenly a bronze dragon appears in the air above the stadium, and
begins chewing firestone from its rider's pouch. Simultaneously, a
Klingon Bird of Prey uncloaks and locks on the nearest target...]
Wolf:
>We're out of here! [goes off the air]
[The camera returns to the USPN studios. Scenes of great violence
and carnage are visible on the monitors behind Bryant.]
Bryant:
>Once again, violence has disrupted the opening ceremonies of the
>Usenet Olympic Games. This marks the third straight year that the
>games have been marred by pre- and post-event flaming, but it's
>the first time anything has happened this early.
>
>We'll continue our coverage of the 1991 Usenet Olympic Games with
>the opening track and flame events, the Rambling Post and the
>Controversial Topic. Stay tuned to USBN for exclusive interviews
>and more excitement as we cover the 1991 Usenet Olympics.
[To be continued...]
The Usenet Sports Programming Network presents:
|-__-''.
| /\ |
|-__-''. | ( ) |
| /\ | |-__-''
| ( ) | | |-__-''. Medal Ceremonies
|-__-'' |//////|
| . U . |//////| from the
| -*- |-__-''
| | | 1991 Usenet Olympic Games
U / \ |
-*- ._________.
| | | o
/ \ | 1 | -*-
._________' | |
| | / \
| 2 '_________.
| |
| 3 |
| |
-------------------------------
Brought to you by Exxon. We like to see you wasting energy.
[Fade to Arthur Kent (no relation to KPD) at Spafford Stadium.]
Arthur:
>Welcome back to USPN's exclusive coverage of the 1991 Usenet
>Olympic Games, where we're about to witness the Controversial Post
>medal presentation. Making the presentation is Clifford Stoll,
>author of "The Cuckoo's Egg":
[Cliff is standing in front of several microphones, and his words
echo loudly across the stadium.]
Cliff:
>Our bronze medal winner in the Controversial Post is Kent Paul
>Dolan, for his admission of guilt in the e-mail canvassing.
[The crowd cheers and boos. Kent sticks out his tongue.]
Cliff:
>Our silver medal winner is Jim Griffith, for the "urgent appeal".
[Jim accepts the medal in stoic silence. Half the crowd cheers
wildly, waving little flags with the Federation logo on them; the
other half boos soundly.]
Cliff:
>And our gold medal goes to Roger Noe, for the "additional appeal"
>with a premarked 16-N ballot.
[Roger jumps up and down as the crowd reacts, inadvertently (?)
kicking Kent in the head.]
Kent:
>You did
>that on
>purpose!
Roger:
>Shut up. I'm accepting a medal.
Kent:
>We'll see
>about that!
[Three flags are slowly raised on the flagpoles behind the winners:
Two with the Federation logo, the third with a salamander on a red
background. The stadium PA system begins playing theme music from
"Star Trek: The Next Generation."]
Kent:
>You think
>you can
>trifle with
>ME, armadillo
>breath?
[Kent lunges for Roger, knocking them both off the platform. As
they struggle on the field, fistfights erupt in the stands.]
Arthur:
>Not again! We've got a developing situation here...
[The Death Star and V'ger materialize above the stadium, both
warming up for a planet-destroying blast. Jim Griffith is still
standing on the #2 spot, oblivious.]
Arthur:
>BRYANT!
Bryant:
>Sorry to interrupt, Arthur, but we're taking you now to the
>Ma Bell Memorial Natatorium, where the Flame Diving competition is
>in progress:
The Usenet Sports Programming Network presents:
______________
\|/
|
| Exclusive Coverage
| \ /
| | of the
| -+-
| O Flame Diving Finals
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
--|----------------------------------------------------------------
/|\ U
Brought to you by First Alert smoke and fire detection systems.
Brent Musberger:
>We're here with Leanne Phillips, one of the finalists in this
>flame diving competition. Leanne, you've been able to almost
>completely avoid being flamed, in spite of the firestorm going on
>all around you in news.groups. How have you accomplished this?
Leanne:
>Well, Brent, it's mainly a question of knowing which posters
>not to respond to during a debate. There are some people who will
>read your post with an open mind, and consider what you're saying,
>and then there are others who'll just flame away at anything.
Brent:
>Thank you, Leanne, and good luck. Now approaching the platform
>is Subrata Sircar, another one of our finalists:
Subrata:
>Post to groups: news.groups
>Subject: Recalling the rec.arts.sf.* vote
>(entering vi mode)
>I think the whole thing should be shelved for six months, and
>everyone given some time to cool down and come to their senses.
Brent:
>Oooh! The judges are pulling out blowtorches, flamethrowers,
>even a cannon! It looks like Sircar will settle for the bronze.
>
>Back to you in the studios, Bryant.
Bryant:
>Stay tuned for more coverage as the 1991 Usenet Olympics continue.
Don Pardo:
>Coming up: The Guidelines Interpretation semi-finals!
[stay tuned...]
The Usenet Sports Programming Network presents:
* @ @ *
|___ | O | ________________________________________|
/|___ '--+--' _______________________________________/|
//|_____ | ________________________________________/_|
/// | ///|
/// / \ ___. @-_ ///
/// / \ -----+-o ///
/// ---' / ///
/// @ ///
/// Exclusive Coverage ///
/// ///
/// of the ///
/// ///
*/// Heavyweight Flaming Championships *///
|_/__________________________________________________|//
|____________________________________________________|/
|____________________________________________________|
| |
Brought to you by the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
Vin Scully:
>Hello and welcome once again to the 1991 Usenet Olympic Games.
>We're here at the Bill Gates Taj Mahal Plaza, preparing for the
>final afternoon in the Heavyweight Flaming competition.
Sugar Ray Leonard:
>It's been a punishing afternoon here in the qualifying rounds,
>with several posters hospitalized for severe burns. The surprise
>upset of the day was the rec.sport.hockey tag team, finished off
>in one round by rec.guns.
Vin:
>Yes, we're down to the best of the best here in the final rounds,
>and there's no telling which one of these athletes is going to be
>our champion.
Sugar Ray:
>Here come the finalists. Wearing the red trunks is "mathew" of
>alt.flame, with an incredible 8-0 record in the preliminary bouts.
>mathew's got a great ability to duck issues and dodge facts, and
>he's one of the best on the alt.flame team.
Vin:
>In the dark blue trunks is Gym Z. Quirk, of rec.arts.startrek.
>Quirk was a late entry in this competition, but racked up a 5-0
>record to advance into the finals.
Sugar Ray:
>And the first round is about to begin...
mathew:
>Your stupid!
Gym Z.:
>You're acting like a child.
mathew:
>Shut up!
Gym Z.:
>Isn't there a rule against freshmen getting accounts?
Vin:
>Wow! These fighters aren't pulling any punches here in the early
>rounds. Can they keep this up for the entire fight?
Sugar Ray:
>I don't see how they can, Vin. They're both in prime condition,
>but there's no way that can maintain this level of ferocity.
mathew:
>Eat sh*t and die!
Gym Z.:
>I'm going to have a word with your sysadmin.
Vin:
>And there's the bell to end the first round! I don't know how the
>judges are going to score this see-saw battle.
Sugar Ray:
>Vin, I wouldn't be surprised if these two kept going until one of
>them was disconnected or dead. They don't care about the score.
Vin:
>You may be right. There's the bell for the second round...
We interrupt this program for a
. . .__ .____. . .
| | | | | | \ |
| | '-. |----' | \ |
| | | | | \ |
'____' ___/ | | \|
// // //
\\\\ \\\\ \\\\
////// ////// //////
(______) // (______) // (______)
\ / \\\\ \ / \\\\ \ /
\ / ////// \ / ////// \ /
|| (______) || (______) ||
|| \ / || \ / ||
\ / \ /
|| ||
|| ||
S P E C I A L R E P O R T
Don Pardo:
>We take you now live to Bryant Gumbel at USPN Olympic Headquarters
>in Atlanta.
Bryant:
>We're breaking in on our regular coverage to give you this update
>from the Usenet Olympic Village. Peter?
[A graphic of Usenet Olympic Village appears, with a photo of
Peter Arnett at the top right. The caption at bottom of the screen
reads: "Voice of Peter Arnett"]
Peter: [with machine gun fire in the background]
>Bryant, fighting has broken out once again here at the Usenet
>Olympic Village. Details as to the cause of the fighting are
>sketchy at this time, but it appears to have been a minor breach
>of etiquette by one of the misc.test athletes.
Bryant:
>Peter, your own safety comes first. Get out of there.
Peter:
>It's too dangerous to move around, Bryant. There's no telling
>what might happen if we went out on the streets, and it also might
>cost us several points in the ratings.
Bryant:
>True. What can you see from where you are?
Peter:
>Both rec.arts.startrek and rec.arts.sf-lovers appear to be trying
>to travel into the past, in an attempt to destroy the other group
>before it comes into existence. Flickering images of the TARDIS,
>the Guardian of Forever and an Infinite Improbability Drive are
>appearing and disappearing around the village, as several of the
>buildings and landmarks either change shape or cease to exist.
>
>Bryant, we--
Bryant:
>Peter? Peter, can you hear us? What's happening?
Kent:
>Hahahahaha!
>I'm a
>net.god!
[Stay tuned...]
The Usenet Sports Programming Network presents a:
. . .__ .____. . .
| | | | | | \ |
| | '-. |----' | \ |
| | | | | \ |
'____' ___/ | | \|
// // //
\\\\ \\\\ \\\\
////// ////// //////
(______) // (______) // (______)
\ / \\\\ \ / \\\\ \ /
\ / ////// \ / ////// \ /
|| (______) || (______) ||
|| \ / || \ / ||
\ / \ /
|| ||
|| ||
S P E C I A L R E P O R T
Jane Pauley:
>We're here at the site of the Usenet Olympic Village, or I should
>say the *former* site of the village, because it's no longer here.
>In its place is a single building, apparently named "net.kent".
Kent [in a booming voice that echoes across the village]:
>It's mine!
>All mine!
>Bow, scum!
>Hahahahaha!
Jane:
>All of the athletes here at the Olympic Village have been changed
>into mindless zombies, worshipping Kent as a net.god. We can't
>begin to measure the extent of the damage, Bryant.
Bryant:
>With us now in the studio is Douglas Adams, science fiction writer
>and author of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." Mr. Adams,
>Kent used your fictional invention to destroy all of Usenet;
>doesn't that make you something of an accessory to this disaster?
Douglas:
>Well, er um, I wouldn't exactly put it that way, Bryant. That is,
>I, er, don't think the damage is permanent.
Bryant:
>What do you mean?
Douglas:
>Well, the Guardian of Forever is a peculiar sort of time machine,
>not the well-behaved sort that most authors make up. Whatever
>changes are made in the past don't affect Star Trek crew members
>who happen to be standing in the Guardian's vicinity.
Bryant:
>Our listeners are laymen, Mr. Adams. Get to the point.
Douglas:
>Well, if the rec.arts.startrek team goes back and kills off a
>certain 14th century leper, everything will change back to
>exactly the way it was before all this began.
Bryant:
>What!? What does a 14th century leper have to do with Usenet?
Douglas:
>Look, I didn't write it. Talk to those '60s screenplay hacks.
Jane:
>Bryant, he may be right: Something's happening here...
Kent:
>Noooooooo!
[With an excess of bad '60s TV special effects, the Usenet Olympic
Village returns to its place. Kent turns into a bowl of petunias.]
Kent:
>Oh no,
>not again!
Bryant:
>What a relief. Well, that about wraps it up for the 1991 Usenet
>Olympic Games. From all us here at USPN, thanks for watching, and
>tune in next February for the 1992 Games!
\\ \\ \\
//// //// ////
\\\\\\ \\\\\\ \\\\\\
//////// //////// ////////
(________) (________) (________) The 1991
\ / \\ \ / \\ \ /
\ / //// \ / //// \ / Usenet Olympic Games
\ / \\\\\\ \ / \\\\\\ \ /
|| //////// || //////// ||
|| (________) || (________) ||
|| \ / || \ / ||
|| \ / || \ / ||
\ / \ /
|| ||
|| ||
|| ||
|| ||
have been brought to you by:
Scott Forbes
and the following good sports from various newsgroups:
Mike "Vidiot" Brown
Peter da Silva
Jim Griffith
Tim Lynch
Ryan Mathews
"mathew"
Jay Maynard
Roger Noe
Leanne Phillips
Gym Z. Quirk
Eric S. Raymond
Subrata Sircar
Dean Yu
Kent:
>You think
>you can
>get away
>with this?
Peter da Silva:
>Don't worry, Kent, it makes good fertilizer.
With apologies to:
Bryant Gumbel
Wolf Blitzer
Don Pardo
DuPont (Dow made napalm)
the works of Anne McCaffrey
Peter Arnett
Chris Berman
anyone remotely associated with Star Trek
Marv Albert
Bernard Shaw
The Usenet Oracle
Bob Eucher
Emil Jacobs
the PLO
Willard Scott
Arthur Kent
Cliff Stoll
George Lucas
Brent Musberger
Warner Brothers (the "diving into a glass" bit)
Subrata Sircar (not "Sincar")
Vin Scully
Sugar Ray Leonard
Jane Pauley
Douglas Adams
Gene Spafford
Chuq von Ruspach
Richard Stallman
Guy Steele
Bill Gates
Atlanta, Georgia
ESPN
CNN
Kuwait
...and an obscure cartoon from my childhood called "Zoolympics"
The author wishes to thank:
AT&T
for continuing to employ him in spite of all this
The Usenet Olympics will return in:
Usenet Olympics II: The Wrath of Kent
or
CFV: rec.arts.sf-lovers grand reorganization
Filmed on location in news.groups
This is a work of parody. Any similarity between people and events
in real life is deliberate, intentional, and meant to be funny.
Matthew Broderick:
>
>
>
>You're still posting?
>
>
>
>The vote's over!
>
>
>
>Go home!
--
Edited by Brad Templeton. MAIL your jokes (jokes ONLY) to fu...@looking.ON.CA
Attribute the joke's source if at all possible. A Daemon will auto-reply.
Remember: PLEASE spell check and proofread your jokes. You think I have
time to hand-correct everybody's postings?
--
Thomas Beagle | tho...@datamark.co.nz Work: 64 4 233 8186
Datamark Intl Ltd | tho...@cavebbs.welly.gen.nz Home: 64 4 499 3832
Technical Writer | Be kind to me, I think I'm suffering from angst.
G. Wolfe Woodbury
>
>celebrated flame wars in the past?
Well, the "first" flame war on "Usenet" took place even before it had a
real name or cabal! Laura Creighton complained bitterly about Bill
Joy having a halt instruction embedded in the middle of the BSD tape
boot sequence, and not having it noted that the halt was normal
behaviour and the "continue" should be pressed. Bill Joy himself
replied, implying that those who didn't like it just didn't understand
computers and operating systems. And the tradition was off and running!
The second flame war occurred in a discussion of computing as a career,
and the discussion turned on the concept that computing was running in
families, that the younger folk were getting computers from the older
folks and we might expect dynasties of computer families. Some poor
fool taling about how everyone in his immediate family was computer
literate (I was the twit) and had the indecency to be "politically
incorrect" and said "...even my half sister hacks computers for a
living." [This was in the days when "hack" was a good word.] Alas, I
don't recall the denoument of this war, since it was strongly suggested
to me at that time that I not post to news. [The flame war was over the
sexism "inherent" in the statement, and in the poor way that most
programmers treated women who were computer literate or even computer
professionals.]
The most significant flame war of Usenet history was over the "Great
Renaming" when the seven main heirarchies {comp,misc,news,rec,sci,soc,talk}
were created and the old groups {net,fa,mod} were all moved around.
There was great gnashing of teeth as groups were sorted and tossed
around and relegated to their polities.
Suprizingly, there wasn't much of a flame war over the development of
net.motss, or its movement to soc.motss.
But the most profound change to the net occurred when Richard Sexton
proposed "rec.sex" (followed closely by rec.drugs) and the group
"passed" its "vote" but the Backbone Cabal decreed that they would NOT
carry the group or create the group on the "backbone" machines.
Almost immediately, the "alt" distribution was set up, using alternative
routes that were "seperate" from the backbone (and theoretically avoided
traversing the ARPAnet). Alt.sex, alt.drugs were the first groups
created, and the next day, Brian Kantor issued the newgroup for
alt.rock-n-roll (for aesthetic purposes, said he!) Shortly
thereafter, (within about 5 months), the Backbone Cabal "officially"
abdicated (due to some dissention in the ranks over the control of
routing and newgroup guidelines) after installing the "Holey
Guidelines" and "Gene Spafford" as the new.group Tsar.
FOllowing the abdication of the Backbone Cabal oligarchy, Usenet was
proclaimed to be the worlds foremost example of a working cooperative
"anarchy" and it has remained so ever since.
Someone may want to double check the chronology around the Great
Renaming, and the abdication of the Cabal.
--
G. Wolfe Woodbury @ The Wolves Den, Durham NC [This site is NOT affiliated ]
wo...@wolves.durham.nc.us [with Duke University! Idiots!]
UUCP: ...!duke!wolves!wolfe <Standard Disclaimers apply>
Above All, we celebrate! --Celebrate the Circle, Statement of Purpose.
Koenig
>I would like to know if there has been in the past some
>celebrated flame wars in the past?
The first flame war I personally experienced was the rec.arts.sf-lovers
split and renaming, another tribute to Kent Paul Dolan. It even had one
vote invalidated.
You can often spot famous flame wars of the past or present by the creation
of an alt.religion.* or alt.fan.* - group.
One recent flame war here was the great HLL versus Assembler debate.
Nobody, as far as I know, convinced anybody of anything, but it was fun
while it lasted.
--
Thomas Koenig, ig...@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de, ig...@dkauni2.bitnet
The joy of engineering is to find a straight line on a double logarithmic
diagram.
James Kibo Parry
>You can often spot famous flame wars of the past or present by the creation
>of an alt.religion.* or alt.fan.* - group.
Hey wow! Does this mean alt.religion.kibology and alt.fan.mike-jittlov
will have a flame war now?
-- K.
Michael Parks Swaim
>
>I would like to know if there has been in the past some
>celebrated flame wars in the past? If so what was their
>subject ( main point of discussion ), the scope
>( how many people and newsgroups were involved ), duration
>(months, years) and who got out alive... :-).
lovely little spat over it AFTER the newsgroups were created.
It turned out that a significan minority had RFD and CFV in their
killfiles so they wouldn't have to see the split arguments that
occurred every six months or so, so they were completely caught by
suprise when one passed. They were NOT amused.
--
Mike Swaim | Canada will become the next world power
sw...@owlnet.rice.edu | and they will work to ENSLAVE all the nations
Disclamer: I lie | of your planet. -Ricardo
Hastur Hastur Hastur Hastur Hastur Hastur Hastur Hasdtr yy['u [{}_+
Jim Harkins
of these people really need to get a life.
jim
--
So many women, so little charisma.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Harkins [ucsd|uunet]!pacdata!jim
Pacific Data Products j...@pacdata.com
--------------------------------------------------------------
Gym Z. Quirk
>In article <1992Nov28....@vlsi.polymtl.ca> d40937@aiken (Jean Yves Desbiens) writes:
>>
>>I would like to know if there has been in the past some
>>celebrated flame wars in the past? If so what was their
>>subject ( main point of discussion ), the scope
>>( how many people and newsgroups were involved ), duration
>>(months, years) and who got out alive... :-).
> When rec.games.frp was reorganized recently, there was a
>lovely little spat over it AFTER the newsgroups were created.
>It turned out that a significan minority had RFD and CFV in their
>killfiles so they wouldn't have to see the split arguments that
>occurred every six months or so, so they were completely caught by
>suprise when one passed. They were NOT amused.
A mere candle compared to K*nt Paul Dolan's Magnum Opus, The great
rec.arts.sf-lovers Meltdown. (The following rec.arts.startrek reorg
featuring Jay Maynard's ranting about the 'Trekkie Conspiracy' might
be considered an epilogue. ;-)
The only thing in recent memory approaching that scale was the
"talk.bizarre vs. alt.tv.tiny-toon" fracas of January-February '91
which featured not only K*nt, but John Palmer (of michigan@com
fame/infamy).
Actually, the recent spats on soc.culture.* are reasonably good wrt
heat, but lack the nuances of the 'truly great' flamefest. ;-)
--
Capt. Gym Z. Quirk (Known to some as Taki Kogoma) qu...@pioneer.unm.edu
I'll get a life when someone demonstrates that it would be superior to
what I have now...
Paul Tomblin
>In article <1992Nov28....@vlsi.polymtl.ca>, d40937@aiken (Jean Yves Desbiens) writes:
>
>>I would like to know if there has been in the past some
>>celebrated flame wars in the past?
>The first flame war I personally experienced was the rec.arts.sf-lovers
>split and renaming, another tribute to Kent Paul Dolan. It even had one
>vote invalidated.
Doesn't _ANYBODY_ else remember Mark Ethan Smith? Surely this was one of
the worst flame wars in history. Touched off because said person (MES) was
upset that somebody revealed that they (MES) was a female. Notable for
several firsts:
First use of ``I'll sue you all, especially the backbone cabal'' in combat.
First time a co-worker of the head flamer wrote in to ask the rest of the net
to stop upsetting him/her, because (s)he's hard enough to work with at the
best of times.
First time 'she/her' was described as a `diminutive pronoun' of `he/his'.
--
Paul Tomblin, p...@geovision.gvc.com
(This is not an official opinion/statement of GeoVision Systems Inc.)
"There is nothing wrong with making up .signature quotes, but... make *new*
ones." - Apologies to Henry Spencer and D.Sim
Donald Newell
comp.univac or comp.eniac. The newsgroup got enough votes but
never got created. There was all sorts of heated discussion about the
backbone and suchlike.
Don N.
Wes Morgan
>
>I would like to know if there has been in the past some
>subject ( main point of discussion ), the scope
>( how many people and newsgroups were involved ), duration
>(months, years) and who got out alive... :-).
Oh, gosh, there's one that noone has mentioned yet; perhaps
they fear a reawakening.......
I'll say it: Mark Ethan Smith.
Just mention that name to any Usenet old-timer, and you should get
an *extremely* visible reaction.
Subject: Geez, that alone would take a few megabytes.
Scope: Dozens of posters, dozens of newsgroups; this may have been the
first "I'll crosspost wherever I please, dammit!" flamewar.
Duration: I just remember that it seemed like forever.
--Wes
--
MORGAN@UKCC | Wes Morgan | ...!ukma!ukecc!morgan
mor...@ms.uky.edu | Engineering Computing | mor...@wuarchive.wustl.edu
mor...@engr.uky.edu | University of Kentucky | JWMo...@dockmaster.ncsc.mil
Mailing list for AT&T StarServer S/E - starserve...@engr.uky.edu
Gary Heston
>Don't forget the wonderful flames surrounding rec.aquaria vs sci.aquaria. Some
>of these people really need to get a life.
Not to mention the rec.arts.sf.* / rec.star-trek reorg. My killfile still
has stretch marks....
--
Gary Heston SCI Systems, Inc. ga...@sci34hub.sci.com site admin
The Chairman of the Board and the CFO speak for SCI. I'm neither.
"Data sheet: HSN-3000 Nuclear Event Detector. The [NED] senses the gamma
radiation pulse [from a] nuclear weapon." As if we wouldn't notice...
Cameron Laird
.
.
.
>The only thing in recent memory approaching that scale was the
>"talk.bizarre vs. alt.tv.tiny-toon" fracas of January-February '91
>which featured not only K*nt, but John Palmer (of michigan@com
>fame/infamy).
>
>Actually, the recent spats on soc.culture.* are reasonably good wrt
>heat, but lack the nuances of the 'truly great' flamefest. ;-)
.
.
.
--
Cameron Laird
cla...@Neosoft.com (claird%Neoso...@uunet.uu.net) +1 713 267 7966
cla...@litwin.com (claird%litwi...@uunet.uu.net) +1 713 996 8546
Jim Frost
>Doesn't _ANYBODY_ else remember Mark Ethan Smith?
Yes.
There were also the flamewars produced by (Eric?) Madding's ravings.
I think someone eventually took away his keyboard.
How about the flamefests that started because of net.suicide? Some
people just didn't get it.
There were some doozies on net.bizarre too. (Who's the REAL
net.goddess?)
jim frost
ji...@centerline.com
Dan Hoey
>I would like to know if there has been in the past some
>celebrated flame wars in the past?
Numerous people mention newsgroup naming wars, and
wo...@wolves.Durham.NC.US (G. Wolfe Woodbury) said
> Well, the "first" flame war on "Usenet" took place even before it had a
> real name ....
Well, before there was Usenet and Internet, there was Arpanet. The
first flame war I know of was on an Arpanet mailing list called
HEADER-PEOPLE, a distant ancestor of comp.mail.headers. I believe
the year was 1979.
Back then you could have addresses like "Joe R. Schmo@Somewhere" where
the spaces and punctuation were part of the address. This was written
up in RFC-733 and was a standard. Some system, I think it was Tenex,
was storing outgoing mail in files named by the address, and they
suddenly realized their system wouldn't let them put spaces in file
names. So they asked the Arpanet managers to make the spaces go
away, and there was suddenly an order thundered down to the network that
addresses with spaces in them were ``no longer standard.''
The people who had spent several years putting together the mail
standards didn't think that standards should be modified to conform to
the bugs in implementations, and sent several hundred angry messages
back and forth on the subject for a week or two. In the end, they
couldn't do anything about it except refuse to modify their mail
systems. But then it was their systems that were ``nonstandard,'' and
nobody could use addresses with spaces in them because nobody could
send them mail. Eventually they all got ``fixed.'' Or, like Tenex,
they got left on the ash-heap of history.
This is the first time I'm aware of that a network argument was called
``flaming.'' Cooler heads told people to calm down and start acting
civilized. I'm pretty sure they were shouted down.
Dan Hoey
Ho...@AIC.NRL.Navy.Mil
Joel Hanes
>
> I would like to know if there has been in the past some
> celebrated flame wars in the past? If so what was their
> subject ( main point of discussion ), the scope
> ( how many people and newsgroups were involved ), duration
> (months, years) and who got out alive... :-).
Perhaps this has already been mentioned -- articles age off my
site quickly -- but anyway:
The two longest-running flamewars I know have been held in
talk.origins for lo these last six years.
I refer, of course, to
BALES IS A LIAR, featuring Jim Merritt vs Bob Bales, with
periodic expansions to virtually the whole cast of talk.origins
regulars. Bob claims to have shown that radioisotope dating
is of unknown and unknowable accuracy; efforts to explain to
him that he has demonstrated no such thing simply bounce off
his protective shield of preconceptions. Optimistic
posters continue to hope that some innovative combination
of English words, perhaps including invective, will break
down this shield -- so far, in vain.
FACTS, SHMACTS -- VELIKOVSKY KNOWS ALL, in which Ted Holden
takes on the entire world of science, proving to his own
satisfaction that Earth was recently a satelite of Saturn,
orbiting with the north pole always pointed to the primary,
and that some sort of "electromagnetic effects" produced a
"reduced felt effect of gravity", allowing the
sauropod dinosaurs to exceed the absolute limit of animal
strength represented by the weightlifter Kazmeier.
(Honest. I'm not making this up.)
During the course of these epic struggles,
many great and famous flamers have emerged from the lurking
masses, burned out, and retired from the field, only to be
return in a month or a year.
The truly amazing thing is that these two particular flamewars
are apparently of infinite duration -- they mutter off into
embers for a while, but then Bales or Holden will re-post
exactly the same absurd claims, the same vague handwaving
"proofs", and the napalm comes out immediately.
---
Joel Hanes
Matthias Urlichs
Short synopsis: A certain Bob Webber @ rutgers.edu set out to prove that
the BackBone Cabal was creating newsgroups as it saw fit, not as the
results of the votes declared; these two having differed in recent past.
(Details slip my mind. Could somebody please draw up a "major news.groups
and inter-newsgroup wars" timetable? Thank you.)
So he proposed "comp.protocols.tcp-ip.eniac". All objections to this
newsgroup, such as the impossibility of the subject matter or the non-
existence of the ENIAC, was duly refuted as not relevant because other
existing newsgroups also were illegal under such objections.
(Does anybody still have that posting? Repost it!)
The proposal generated 700 yes votes (and almost no "no"s) in about two
days and IMHO significantly hastened the eventual demise of the Cabal.
--
f u cn rd ths, u cn gt a gd jb n cmptr prgrmmng.
--
Matthias Urlichs -- url...@smurf.sub.org -- url...@smurf.ira.uka.de /(o\
Humboldtstrasse 7 -- 7500 Karlsruhe 1 -- Germany -- +49-721-9612521 \o)/
Mark E. Mallett
>d40937@aiken (Jean Yves Desbiens) writes:
>>
>>I would like to know if there has been in the past some
>>celebrated flame wars in the past?
A fondly remembered old flame: one fellow insisted that the word "of"
ought to be spelled "ov" or perhaps "uv", and that was the subject of
a long and roving, uh, discussion.
Of course, he went on to become the Vice President of the United States.
-mm-
--
Mark E. Mallett MV Communications, Inc./ PO Box 4963/ Manchester NH/ 03108
Bus. Phone: 603 429 2223 Home: 603 424 8129 BIX: mmallett
Internet: m...@mv.MV.COM ( uucp: ...{decvax|harvard}!mv!mem )
Looking for news and mail in southern NH / northern MA? Try MV!
David Lesher
# Doesn't _ANYBODY_ else remember Mark Ethan Smith? Surely this was one of
# the worst flame wars in history. Touched off because said person (MES) was
# upset that somebody revealed that they (MES) was a female.
Now come on....
You edited out ALL the interesting stuff.....
MES was a she, I guess. But (as *I* understood {what a poor choice of
words..}) it, {s}he claimed that being called female discriminated
against [her,him]. Got that, folks?
Then there was the bit that we, the Net, were damaging [her,his]
therapy by disagreeing with [her,him].
I won't even start on the part about medical school in Afganistan...
Remember, everything I say is a lie........
--
A host is a host from coast to coast..wb8foz@skybridge.scl.cwru.edu
& no one will talk to a host that's close..........................
Unless the host (that isn't close).........................pob 1433
is busy, hung or dead....................................20915-1433
Matt Welsh
>Others said:
># Doesn't _ANYBODY_ else remember Mark Ethan Smith? Surely this was one of
># the worst flame wars in history. Touched off because said person (MES) was
># upset that somebody revealed that they (MES) was a female.
>
>words..}) it, {s}he claimed that being called female discriminated
>against [her,him]. Got that, folks?
Sounds a bit like the infamous Rachel Dafni Christi, aka r...@netcom.com.
mdw
--
Matt Welsh m...@tc.cornell.edu Cornell Theory Center
"We're going away now. I fed the cat."
Tim Kuehn
>In article <1992Nov30.0...@wolves.Durham.NC.US> wo...@wolves.Durham.NC.US (G. Wolfe Woodbury) writes:
>d40937@aiken (Jean Yves Desbiens) writes:
>>I would like to know if there has been in the past some
>>celebrated flame wars in the past?
There was the one character in misc.jobs a few years back who continually
insisted that:
- Any programs written by people without CompSci degrees shouldn't be
trusted
- Ada was the solution to all the world's problems
- All 'C' compilers should be thrown out and replaced with Ada compilers
- If the switching SW had been written in Ada, the massive shutdown
of the phone system (caused by a missing "break" statement) would
never have happened.
He made for many weeks of amusing flaming.
<<<----+---------+-----+--------------+-----+---------------------------+-->>>
+ Tim Kuehn + TDK Consulting + (519)-888-0766
+ <>< + Services + ti...@tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca
<<<----+---------+-----+--------------+-----+---------------------------+-->>>
Ray Ingles
>>in alt.folklore.computers, d40937@aiken (Jean Yves Desbiens) inquires:
>>
>> I would like to know if there has been in the past some
[deletions]
> FACTS, SHMACTS -- VELIKOVSKY KNOWS ALL, in which Ted Holden
> takes on the entire world of science, proving to his own
> satisfaction that Earth was recently a satelite of Saturn,
> orbiting with the north pole always pointed to the primary,
> and that some sort of "electromagnetic effects" produced a
> "reduced felt effect of gravity", allowing the
> sauropod dinosaurs to exceed the absolute limit of animal
> strength represented by the weightlifter Kazmeier.
> (Honest. I'm not making this up.)
You forgot the bit about the 'different electromagnetic nature' back
then allowing telepathic communication between humans and between humans
and the 'higher' animals. The passing away of this telepathy is the basis
for the Towel of Babel myth. (Absolutely no kidding.)
>Joel Hanes
Sincerely,
Ray Ingles
ing...@engin.umich.edu
"The meek can *have* the Earth. The rest of us are going to the
stars!" - Robert A. Heinlein
Chris Lewis
|>I would like to know if there has been in the past some
|>celebrated flame wars in the past?
One memorable one was the famous "why do women use more toilet paper
than men?" war back in, oh, 1984 or '85. Sophie Quigley and I had lots
of fun with that one. I think Ken Arndt was in it too (he's still around
someplace).
|The most significant flame war of Usenet history was over the "Great
|Renaming" when the seven main heirarchies {comp,misc,news,rec,sci,soc,talk}
|were created and the old groups {net,fa,mod} were all moved around.
|There was great gnashing of teeth as groups were sorted and tossed
|around and relegated to their polities.
It wasn't *that* bad a flame war compared to more recent ones.
|But the most profound change to the net occurred when Richard Sexton
|proposed "rec.sex" (followed closely by rec.drugs) and the group
|"passed" its "vote" but the Backbone Cabal decreed that they would NOT
|carry the group or create the group on the "backbone" machines.
You forget: comp.protocols.tcp-ip.eniac (or whatever that was called - now
what *was* his name? W.. something) or Richard Sexton's sci.aquaria vote.
The latter being one of the most vicious I've ever seen. Quite a number of
netters swore off USENET after that one.
|Almost immediately, the "alt" distribution was set up, using alternative
|routes that were "seperate" from the backbone (and theoretically avoided
|traversing the ARPAnet). Alt.sex, alt.drugs were the first groups
|created, and the next day, Brian Kantor issued the newgroup for
|alt.rock-n-roll (for aesthetic purposes, said he!) Shortly
|thereafter, (within about 5 months), the Backbone Cabal "officially"
|abdicated (due to some dissention in the ranks over the control of
|routing and newgroup guidelines) after installing the "Holey
|Guidelines" and "Gene Spafford" as the new.group Tsar.
Um, no, the backbone fell apart over comp.women - another nasty one.
Quite a few of the oldtimers melted back into the woodwork over comp.women
and sci.aquaria. Many of them are still around - moderating this, or
faq-writing that, but you never see them get involved in "politics" anymore.
Then again, we're getting older too ;-)
--
Chris Lewis; cle...@ferret.ocunix.on.ca; Phone: Canada 613 832-0541
Psroff 3.0 info: psroff-...@ferret.ocunix.on.ca
Ferret list: ferret-...@ferret.ocunix.on.ca
Norman Lin
>>>I would like to know if there has been in the past some
>>>celebrated flame wars in the past?
On sci.skeptic, there was a 'David Tiberio' who claimed to have
invented a perpetual motion machine. Naturally, the audience
of sci.skeptic being what it is, this resulted in months and
months of flamage. In fact, there was so much traffic on that
single topic that I unsubscribed to the group and haven't been
there since. (For all I know they could STILL be discussing it.)
Norman Lin
nor...@mailhost.ecn.uoknor.edu
Zhenya Gorokhovsky
> On sci.skeptic, there was a 'David Tiberio' who claimed to have
> invented a perpetual motion machine. Naturally, the audience of
> sci.skeptic being what it is, this resulted in months and months of
> flamage. In fact, there was so much traffic on that single topic
> that I unsubscribed to the group and haven't been there since. (For
> all I know they could STILL be discussing it.)
And you claim there is no perpetual motion?
Zhenya
JKF
What exactly *was* the source of disagreement in the sci.aquaria and
rec.aquaria flamewar?
Willie Boy
and comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy.
There are these constant flame wars going on between the two camps.
"OS/2 is better! No, Win 31 OS has more app! Win 31 is not an OS! Yes,
it is! No, it is not!! NT will beat the living daylight out of OS/2
with all the advanced features anyways! OS/2 3.0 will have all those
features too..." You get the idea.
The debate (more like a flame war) about whether Win 3.1 is an OS has
been going on for over a year now.
Some of the Micro$oft employees really get involved too.
Charles R. Dennett
I don't have a specific one in mind, but I used to get a charge out of
anything involving Mark Ethan Smith. What ever happened to her
anyway?
Charles Dennett -- den...@kodak.com
Barry McConnell
>On sci.skeptic, there was a 'David Tiberio' who claimed to have
>invented a perpetual motion machine.
Not the same David Tiberio of comp.sys.amiga.advocacy fame, who got the
"Best April Fools" award earlier this year? He posted a *lot* of convincing
things that day, and I imagine the "perpetual motion machine" was one of
them. What was the original post's date? :-)
>Norman Lin
Barry.
Koenig
on alt.irc, on the use or misuse of bots (IRC automatons). Accusations
of cluelessness are flying particularly low in this one.
--
Thomas Koenig, ig...@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de, ig...@dkauni2.bitnet
The joy of engineering is to find a straight line on a double logarithmic
diagram.
Joe Bore
some one started this thread. In it he looked back in history and
recounted just about every major (and minor ones too) flame war he would
list the topic and then point out which side finally won such popular wars
as emacs vs vi, dos vs unix, msg passing vs monolithic kernels and other
various threads all in all the article is really funny and historic too.
I would re-post it, but unfortunately I accidentally erased my news folder
directory about 2 months ago and i dont feel like diggin out the back up
tape, although i may go digging now...
jb
In article <1992Dec3.1...@kodak.kodak.com>
--
--------
Hank Roberts
>Well, the "first" flame war on "Usenet" took place even before it had a
>real name or cabal! Laura Creighton complained bitterly about Bill
>Joy having a halt instruction embedded in the middle of the BSD tape
>boot sequence, and not having it noted that the halt was normal
>behaviour and the "continue" should be pressed. Bill Joy himself
>replied, implying that those who didn't like it just didn't understand
>computers and operating systems. And the tradition was off and running!
A correction reposted from my local system, where I had ported your
history (posted here with permission):
55.519 02:45 3Dec92 Josh Gordon (jpgordon) 7 lines
Slight correction, from Laura (my wife): what you refer to was not the first
Nathan J. Mehl
>I would like to know if there has been in the past some
>celebrated flame wars in the past? If so what was their
>subject ( main point of discussion ), the scope
>( how many people and newsgroups were involved ), duration
>(months, years) and who got out alive... :-).
Strangely, nobody has yet mentioned the Great Homosexuality Flamewar,
which periodically convulses any number of newsgroups, including (but
not limited to) alt.sex, soc.motss, soc.bi, alt.politics.homosexuality,
alt.sex.stories, alt.rock-n-roll.metal.metallica and many, many others.
It's main characters have varied over the years, practically the only
constants being Clayton Cramer and Theodore Kaldis. Its high point
was probably about eight months ago, when a lunatic by the name of
Daniel Karnes started doing multiple daily posts to just about all of
the above groups (excepting alt.r-n-r.metallica). Karnes later dropped
out of sight, his last post being a forgery to news.announce.important
(n.a.i is moderated; he forged the approval) saying that his wife had
left him, and that anybody running into her at a craft show should mail
him.
Whatever it lacks in tone, quality or depth, it makes up for in sheer
length and number of accounts yanked.
Worse yet...it's still going on. Alt.politics.homosexuality is its
main home these days, with occasional spillovers into alt.sex, and
random flareups just about everywhere else.
--
+---------[Nathan J. Mehl]-----------[nm...@ccat.sas.upenn.edu]--------+
|"Okay. I'd like My Fair Lady with Arnold Schwarzenegger as Professor |
| Henry Higgins, Amadeus with Arnold Schwarzenegger as Salieri instead |
| of F. Murray Abraham, The Diary of Anne Frank...." - Mark Leyner |
Eeyore's Evil Twin
>In <Byo2L...@constellation.ecn.uoknor.edu> nor...@midway.ecn.uoknor.edu (Norman Lin) writes:
I just want to thank everyone contributing to this thread for successfully
dredging up nightmares that I thought I'd successfully put behind me.
Even after all this time, the mention of the sci.aquaria discussion makes my
fingers twinge.
>>Norman Lin
this is
>Barry
this is
>>Norman Lin
See, meeting people on the net isn't so hard...
--
Chuq "IMHO" Von Rospach, ESD Support & Training (DAL/AUX)
Member, SFWA =+= Editor, OtherRealms
ch...@apple.com | GEnie: MAC.BIGOT | ALink:CHUQ
Sterling Holloway: We'll miss you.
Jared Dahl
|> d40937@aiken (Jean Yves Desbiens) writes:
|>
|> >I would like to know if there has been in the past some
|> >celebrated flame wars in the past? If so what was their
|> >subject ( main point of discussion ), the scope
|> >( how many people and newsgroups were involved ), duration
|> >(months, years) and who got out alive... :-).
|>
|> Strangely, nobody has yet mentioned the Great Homosexuality Flamewar,
|> which periodically convulses any number of newsgroups, including (but
|> not limited to) alt.sex, soc.motss, soc.bi, alt.politics.homosexuality,
|> alt.sex.stories, alt.rock-n-roll.metal.metallica and many, many others.
Or the "Fraternities are evil" debate the flares up on soc.college
and alt.folklore.college. Not particularly exciting, but pretty
regular.
--
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
| Jared Dahl | "My heart is human, my blood is boiling, |
| Systems Programmer | my brain IBM" |
| IBM - Rochester, MN | -- STYX, "Mr. Roboto" |
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Opinions expressed are mine, not IBM's.
Magnus Olsson
>I know this is a completely non informative post, but about 1 year ago
>some one started this thread. In it he looked back in history and
>recounted just about every major (and minor ones too) flame war he would
>list the topic and then point out which side finally won such popular wars
>as emacs vs vi, dos vs unix, msg passing vs monolithic kernels and other
>various threads all in all the article is really funny and historic too.
>I would re-post it, but unfortunately I accidentally erased my news folder
>directory about 2 months ago and i dont feel like diggin out the back up
>tape, although i may go digging now...
I must have missed that article.
Could somebody who has it archived please re-post it?
Magnus Olsson | \e+ /_
Department of Theoretical Physics | \ Z / q
University of Lund, Sweden | >----<
mag...@thep.lu.se, the...@seldc52.bitnet | / \===== g
PGP key available via finger or on request | /e- \q
Dave Ratcliffe
In article <1992Nov30.0...@wolves.Durham.NC.US>, wo...@wolves.Durham.NC.US (G. Wolfe Woodbury) writes:
>d40937@aiken (Jean Yves Desbiens) writes:
>>
>>I would like to know if there has been in the past some
>>celebrated flame wars in the past?
>
>proposed "rec.sex" (followed closely by rec.drugs) and the group
>"passed" its "vote" but the Backbone Cabal decreed that they would NOT
>carry the group or create the group on the "backbone" machines.
I believe (and am sure to be corrected iffen I'm wrong:) that Richard
proposed "rec.fuck" as an example for something or other. It was taken
as a serious idea and developed legs of its own.
>Almost immediately, the "alt" distribution was set up, using alternative
>routes that were "seperate" from the backbone (and theoretically avoided
>traversing the ARPAnet). Alt.sex, alt.drugs were the first groups
>created,
Which essentially makes Richard Sexton the "Father" of the alt.* world
whether he wants the title or not.
Ain't history neat?
--
vogon1!compnect!frackit!da...@psuvax1.psu.edu | Dave Ratcliffe |
- or - ..uunet!wa3wbu!frackit!dave | Sys. <*> Admin. |
| Harrisburg, Pa. |
John Ruschmeyer
>I just want to thank everyone contributing to this thread for successfully
>dredging up nightmares that I thought I'd successfully put behind me.
>
>Even after all this time, the mention of the sci.aquaria discussion makes my
>fingers twinge.
Warning: topic drift ahead.
Over lunch, I got to talking to Bill Pechter about the slide rule thread
in this group. It dawned on me that while this was a lovely nostalgia trip of
a thread, the diversity of posts and the slide rules mentioned point out
how easily a flame war can get started.
If the net had existed 35-40 years ago, would we have seen wars on topics
such as:
Metal vs. Bamboo (fie on you with plastic rules)
Real men use log-log rules
Optimum slide rule length
How many scales *do* you need?
My rule is better than your rule. (rule.pickett.advocacy, anyone?)
Not to mention the occasional crossposts from comp.sys.univac.
Scary thought...
<<<John>>>
Greg Woods
>Which essentially makes Richard Sexton the "Father" of the alt.* world
>whether he wants the title or not.
Memories fade (sometimes thankfully :-) but mine is that Brian Reid
is the father of "alt". He refused to accept the placement decided
upon by the then-cabal of the group he moderated into the new
naming hierarchy during the "great renaming". As I remember it
was a fairly trivial issue, something like "rec.recipes" vs.
"rec.food.recipes", and in fine USENET tradition it touched off
a bitter flame war that finally resulted in the establishment of
an entirely new hierarchy. The first "alt" groups were
alt.gourmand (the recipes group), alt.sex and alt.drugs.
The drugs flame war was amusing as well. The backbone would have
gladly accepted the drugs group if the sponsors of that group
had been willing to name it sci.med.drugs, but the sponsors
absolutely insisted upon rec.drugs and the backbone absolutely
refused to accept it under that name. This was almost as bad as
the sci.aquaria thing.
--Greg
Ron Dippold
soc.culture.indian.american. I think that was resolved when someone
finally ran a vote and managed to keep him at arms length to avoid the
"kiss of death" effect.
--
This is a crude version of a more advanced joke that has never been written.
Charlie Gibbs
nor...@midway.ecn.uoknor.edu (Norman Lin) writes:
>On sci.skeptic, there was a 'David Tiberio' who claimed to have
>invented a perpetual motion machine. Naturally, the audience
>of sci.skeptic being what it is, this resulted in months and
>months of flamage. In fact, there was so much traffic on that
>single topic that I unsubscribed to the group and haven't been
>there since. (For all I know they could STILL be discussing it.)
If they are, then maybe he really _did_ invent a perpetual
motion machine. :-)
Charli...@mindlink.bc.ca
I used to be indecisive, but now I'm not so sure.
Werenfried Spit
the net with 'THIS WILL GET ME A NOBEL PRIZE (YOU'LL FIND OUT I'M RIGHT)'
and innumerous responses to his theory, his way of argumenting etc.
Worse are the wars on talk.politics.soviet, soc.culture.*** by
people who flood the net trying to prove that some ethnic group
is responsible for all evil in this world. Right now there is
a SERDAR posting about 1GByte a week on how the Greeks and the
Armenians supposedly conspire to idontknowwhat. You can imaine
the kind of response.
Jeremy Reimer
>
> Msg-ID: <1fl9n...@nml2sun.hsc.usc.edu>
> Posted: 3 Dec 92 15:39:28 GMT
>
> Org. : University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Boy, if _I_ was a Microsloth employee, I'd keep my head low during these
discussions!
--
Jeremy_Reimer@ |"It turned out, as N-Man discovered later, that the black
mindlink.bc.ca | boat hadn't been after him at all. It was full of riotous,
---------------| unemployed former James Bond villains enraged at the fall
aka THE JAGUAR!| of Communism in the Soviet Union."
---------------|
Stealth Sig#69 | --From "N-Man #3: N-Man on Holiday"
Bernd Felsche
wt...@nml2sun.hsc.usc.edu (Willie Boy) writes:
>If you want to experience flamewars, just check out comp.os.os2.advocacy
>and comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy.
Not to overlook comp.sys.amiga.advocacy - the mother of all flame wars?
Well, maybe you should look in alt.fan.john-palmer.
Every one of his comments on the net is readily combustible.
And he has a mean temper: He'll have a private investigator
on your back to get some ammunition to sling mud, write to
the postmaster on every host on your path asserting that
your postings are inappropriate, etc... An all-round fun guy
to flame. :-) Even if he's right very occasionally :-)
Maybe, as a "victim", I'm a little unfair.
Send flames to alt.fan.john-palmer
--
+-----+ Bernd Felsche _--_|\ #include <std/disclaimer.h>
| | | | MetaPro Systems Pty Ltd / \ ber...@metapro.DIALix.oz.au
| | | | 328 Albany Highway, X_.--._/ Fax: +61 9 472 3337
|m|p|s| Victoria Park, Western Australia 6100 v Phone: +61 9 362 9355
Peter da Silva
> What exactly *was* the source of disagreement in the sci.aquaria and
> rec.aquaria flamewar?
At the time, news in the rec and alt hierarchies wasn't getting shipped
to Europe, mainly because of resource problems. So Richard Sexton decided
that the only way to get his friends in Europe access to alt.aquaria was
to move it to sci. Of course, there was no way he'd be able to get it put
in sci on that basis, so he spent months arguing that keeping fish as a
hobby WAS TOO science.
--
Peter da Silva. <pe...@sugar.neosoft.com>.
`-_-' Oletko halannut suttasi t än ä än?
'U`
Tarjoilija, t äm ä ateria el ä ä viel ä.
JKF
>I haven't seen any mention yet of Alok vs. everyone regarding
>soc.culture.indian.american. I think that was resolved when someone
>finally ran a vote and managed to keep him at arms length to avoid the
>"kiss of death" effect.
Well, sorta... he was shown to have been Bad during the first vote... I
came along during the second vote, posted the results of an informal poll
I'd taken among newsreading friends who weren't following the debate in
which a staggering majority of them looked at the proposed name and
guessed it was about Amerinds (Native Americans, or whatever). I kept
reposting this every couple of days, Alok kept ignoring it, and I kept
getting email from people saying "good point. i voted no."
Fun flamewar.
G. Wolfe Woodbury
>and comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy.
It is my opinion that something posted in a group that is intended to
house the flamebit material (i.e. the advocacy group phenomenon) is not
subject to inclusion in the "great flame wars" category by specific
entry. Just note the existence of the advocacy groups.
Actually, the flame topic that has been a nearly constant presence on
the net since its inception is "what is Usenet, and who (controls) it"
Closly allied is the "Copyright" flame fest that erupts with a period of
about 8 months.
--
G. Wolfe Woodbury @ The Wolves Den, Durham NC [This site is NOT affiliated ]
wo...@wolves.durham.nc.us [with Duke University! Idiots!]
UUCP: ...!duke!wolves!wolfe <Standard Disclaimers apply>
Above All, we celebrate! --Celebrate the Circle, Statement of Purpose.
G. Wolfe Woodbury
>
>Strangely, nobody has yet mentioned the Great Homosexuality Flamewar,
>
>constants being Clayton Cramer and Theodore Kaldis.
Heck no. Claytoon is a recent newcomer to that particular flamewar. And
TK has learned not to post his shit to soc.motss. Of much longer
duration and constancy in the effort are the defenders: Jess Anderson,
Steve Dyer and Laura Creighton. There are tons of others, but these
three count as net.old.timers in my book. (Laura gets a special mention
as probably being the first net.feminist!)
Daniel Drucker
> nor...@midway.ecn.uoknor.edu (Norman Lin) writes:
>
> > On sci.skeptic, there was a 'David Tiberio' who claimed to have
> > invented a perpetual motion machine. Naturally, the audience of
> > sci.skeptic being what it is, this resulted in months and months of
> > flamage. In fact, there was so much traffic on that single topic
> > that I unsubscribed to the group and haven't been there since. (For
> > all I know they could STILL be discussing it.)
Kill file? Whats that?
--
Daniel Max P. Drucker mertwig!xy...@uunet.uu.net
Amateur radio callsign pending
"Difficulty! It's the single simplest machine in the entire Universe!" -HHGTTG
Matthew Curtin
on (again :) on comp.security.misc and comp.org.eff.talk...
__________________________________________________________________________
| C. Matthew Curtin ! "But I am the enlightened one, they are |
| P.O. Box 27081 ! but mere sheep, following each other in |
| Columbus, OH 43227-0081 ! the name of compatibility." -B. Heineman |
| 614/365-3272 (voice mail) ! Apple II Forever! |
|_cmc...@bluemoon.use.com_____!_____________GNO_your_AppleIIGS!__________|
Rich Payne
>In article <GOROKHO1.9...@husc10.harvard.edu> goro...@husc10.harvard.edu (Zhenya Gorokhovsky) writes:
>>nor...@midway.ecn.uoknor.edu (Norman Lin) writes:
>>
>>> On sci.skeptic, there was a 'David Tiberio' who claimed to have
>>> invented a perpetual motion machine. Naturally, the audience of
>>> sci.skeptic being what it is, this resulted in months and months of
>>> flamage. In fact, there was so much traffic on that single topic
>>> that I unsubscribed to the group and haven't been there since. (For
>>> all I know they could STILL be discussing it.)
>>
>
>Of course there is, it's called Brownian motion.
This has started up (and possibly died) in alt.sci.physics.new-theories.
And the distinction between "perpetual motion" and a "perpetual motion
machine" has not been missed.
>--
>Thomas Koenig, ig...@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de, ig...@dkauni2.bitnet
>The joy of engineering is to find a straight line on a double logarithmic
>diagram.
Rich
Thomas Koenig
>nor...@midway.ecn.uoknor.edu (Norman Lin) writes:
>
>> On sci.skeptic, there was a 'David Tiberio' who claimed to have
>> invented a perpetual motion machine. Naturally, the audience of
>> sci.skeptic being what it is, this resulted in months and months of
>> flamage. In fact, there was so much traffic on that single topic
>> that I unsubscribed to the group and haven't been there since. (For
>> all I know they could STILL be discussing it.)
>
>And you claim there is no perpetual motion?
Of course there is, it's called Brownian motion.
Matt Welsh
>
>Kill file? Whats that?
You have much to learn, O budding hacker.
mdw
--
Matt Welsh m...@tc.cornell.edu Cornell Theory Center
"We're going away now. I fed the cat."
Phil Gustafson
> ... Richard Sexton decided
>that the only way to get his friends in Europe access to alt.aquaria was
>to move it to sci. Of course, there was no way he'd be able to get it put
>in sci on that basis, so he spent months arguing that keeping fish as a
>hobby WAS TOO science.
For a current, yet far smaller, example of the same thing, see the current
Furr/Maynard slugfest on news.misc re the promotion/cooption of a.f.c
phil
--
|play: ph...@rahul.net
|work: (Under Construction) | Phil Gustafson 408-286-1749 |
Ken Bibb
dedicated to it: alt.fan.john-palmer. For more info, ask *them* who he is :)
--
Ken Bibb "he heard the snow falling faintly through the
kb...@qualcomm.com universe and faintly falling, like the descent of
jes...@crash.cts.com their last end, upon all the living and the dead."
--"The Dead", James Joyce
Gym Z. Quirk
>soc.culture.indian.american. I think that was resolved when someone
>finally ran a vote and managed to keep him at arms length to avoid the
>"kiss of death" effect.
That sputtering candle? A shallow reflection of K*nt Paul Dolan's
works of last year. ;-)
(Flame-bait? Me? ;-)
As I've said before, the current spate of soc.{culture,religion}.*
flamewars do have a decent degree of heat, but I feel they lack the
element of 'flame the bastard for flaming sake'. ;-)
(Now, the current JKF vs. Jay Maynard fracas is more like it. ;-)
--
Capt. Gym Z. Quirk (Known to some as Taki Kogoma) qu...@pioneer.unm.edu
I'll get a life when someone demonstrates that it would be superior to
what I have now...
Peter Shenkin
>--
>f u cn rd ths, u cn gt a gd jb n cmptr prgrmmng.
>--
Speaking of folklore, who did this first: Matthias or me?
-P.
--
************************f*u*cn*rd*ths*u*cn*gt*a*gd*jb************************
Peter S. Shenkin, Box 768 Havemeyer Hall, Dept. of Chemistry, Columbia Univ.,
New York, NY 10027; she...@still3.chem.columbia.edu; (212) 854-5143
*** In scenic New York: where the Third World is just a subway ride away ***
Zhenya Gorokhovsky
> In article <1992Dec5.1...@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de> ig...@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de writes:
>>In article <GOROKHO1.9...@husc10.harvard.edu> goro...@husc10.harvard.edu (Zhenya Gorokhovsky) writes:
>>>And you claim there is no perpetual motion?
>>
>>Of course there is, it's called Brownian motion.
> This has started up (and possibly died) in
> alt.sci.physics.new-theories. And the distinction between
> "perpetual motion" and a "perpetual motion machine" has not been
> missed.
I am glad there are people who take my postings seriously.
zhenya gorokhovsky
goro...@husc.harvard.edu
1) You cannot win
2) You cannot break even
3) You cannot get out of the game
Doug Siebert
>goro...@husc10.harvard.edu (Zhenya Gorokhovsky) writes:
>> nor...@midway.ecn.uoknor.edu (Norman Lin) writes:
>>
>> > On sci.skeptic, there was a 'David Tiberio' who claimed to have
>> > invented a perpetual motion machine. Naturally, the audience of
>> > sci.skeptic being what it is, this resulted in months and months of
>> > flamage. In fact, there was so much traffic on that single topic
>> > that I unsubscribed to the group and haven't been there since. (For
>> > all I know they could STILL be discussing it.)
>Kill file? Whats that?
Its a mechanism on most newsreaders to allow the reader to selectively "kill"
(not see) posts on certain subjects, or, in your case, certain people, which
due to their large number of uninteresting and completely useless posts,
aren't something the reader wishes to bother with.
I'm sure you'll note this fact if you keep posting in the same way and same
volume as you have been these last few weeks. The way you note this fact is
that no one will ever respond to your posts, because you'll be on everyone's
kill file. Like mine.
--
/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------\
| Doug Siebert | "I don't have to take this abuse |
| Internet: dsie...@isca.uiowa.edu | from you - I've got hundreds of |
| NeXTMail: dsie...@chop.isca.uiowa.edu | people waiting in line to abuse |
| ICBM: 41d 39m 55s N, 91d 30m 43s W | me!" Bill Murray, Ghostbusters |
\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------/
Cameron Laird
Proposed taxonomy:
I. Usenet-specific disputes:
A. renamings [multitudinous]
B. "N shouldn't F, because of the no-commerce rule"
C. "What I write is {im,ex}plicitly {,not} copyrighted."
C. other arguments
1. what is usenet: oldtimers vs. pups
2. other
II. Political correctness
A. gender issues
1. having a gender ...
2. homosexuality
B. ethnicity in Amurrica
III. Sports
A. "Ed Lor doesn't have the facts"
B. other
IV. Cranks
A. Scientific
1. pyramid builders
2. perpetual movers
3. planet re-aligners
B. Ethnic haters
1. Turks
2. anti-Turks
3. other
V. Fundamental rudeness
A. spelling
B. your mother
C. anything involving *.psuvm.edu
VI. religious differences
A. emacs vs. vi
B. UNIX vs. VMS
C. Microsoft vs. anyone
D. assembly language vs. fifth generation
E. H. Rubin vs. 21st century
...
I give up. This is already a hemibel more involved
than I thought it would be, and I haven't even made
a place for people who don't think other people
should wail on them just for wanting a weedless lawn.
--
Cameron Laird
cla...@Neosoft.com (claird%Neoso...@uunet.uu.net) +1 713 267 7966
cla...@litwin.com (claird%litwi...@uunet.uu.net) +1 713 996 8546
Lon Stowell
>
>Actually, the flame topic that has been a nearly constant presence on
>the net since its inception is "what is Usenet, and who (controls) it"
>Closly allied is the "Copyright" flame fest that erupts with a period of
>about 8 months.
And the ever-popular "Amway is a scam--No it's not" battle that
pops up on misc.consumers frequently..and on misc-jobs* anytime
a "miraculous opportunity" posting shows up.
Jonathan Dasteel
dsie...@icaen.uiowa.edu (Doug Siebert) writes:
xy...@mertwig.UUCP (Daniel Drucker) writes:
>Kill file? Whats that?
Its a mechanism on most newsreaders to allow the reader to selectively "kill"
...
He was being sarcastic!
James Michael Chacon
>dsie...@icaen.uiowa.edu (Doug Siebert) writes:
>He was being sarcastic!
The way this guy has been posting to other groups, I kinda doubt it.
James
Karthik P Sheka
Concidering it was D. Drucker who asked, I wouldn't be so sure. The kid
has only posted for a couple of months now, and has the gall to call
himself a "networks wizard" without giving a single example of his
wizardry. He's giving me a really good reason to start keeping permanent
kill files myself...
Besides, Siebert's response reminds me of some of the deadpan humor in the
Airplane! movies. :-)
Karthik Sheka | It's not an optical illusion. It just looks like
k...@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu | one.
kar...@cs.columbia.edu | By "recursion" I mean "defined by recursion".
Charles Lasner
|
|Concidering it was D. Drucker who asked, I wouldn't be so sure. The kid
------------------------------------------------------------^
|
|has only posted for a couple of months now, and has the gall to call
|himself a "networks wizard" without giving a single example of his
|wizardry. He's giving me a really good reason to start keeping permanent
|kill files myself...
|
|Besides, Siebert's response reminds me of some of the deadpan humor in the
|Airplane! movies. :-)
|
Don't call me surely.
cjl
Joel Furr
Organization: Escape from Blacksburg, VA
In article <Byupt...@rahul.net> ph...@rahul.net (Phil Gustafson) writes:
>In article <Byt4L...@NeoSoft.com> pe...@NeoSoft.com (Peter da Silva) writes:
>> ... Richard Sexton decided
>>that the only way to get his friends in Europe access to alt.aquaria was
>>to move it to sci. Of course, there was no way he'd be able to get it put
>>in sci on that basis, so he spent months arguing that keeping fish as a
>>hobby WAS TOO science.
>
>For a current, yet far smaller, example of the same thing, see the current
>Furr/Maynard slugfest on news.misc re the promotion/cooption of a.f.c
>
Bowing modestly, I remind all who are opposed to the hostile takeover of
alt.folklore.computers by comp.society.folklore to send a no vote to
vot...@sq.com before Tuesday, December 15.
Joel Furr
Organization: Escape from Blacksburg, VA
In article <_w6q...@lynx.unm.edu> qu...@pioneer.unm.edu (Gym Z. Quirk) writes:
>In article <rdippold.723497995@qualcom> rdip...@qualcom.qualcomm.com (Ron Dipp
old) writes:
>>I haven't seen any mention yet of Alok vs. everyone regarding
>>soc.culture.indian.american. I think that was resolved when someone
>>finally ran a vote and managed to keep him at arms length to avoid the
>>"kiss of death" effect.
>
>That sputtering candle? A shallow reflection of K*nt Paul Dolan's
>works of last year. ;-)
>
>(Flame-bait? Me? ;-)
>
>As I've said before, the current spate of soc.{culture,religion}.*
>flamewars do have a decent degree of heat, but I feel they lack the
>element of 'flame the bastard for flaming sake'. ;-)
>
>(Now, the current JKF vs. Jay Maynard fracas is more like it. ;-)
>
Bowing modestly once again, I note for the record that I've now received 61
pieces of fan mail as a result of the Zippy the Pinhead post, not to mention
five pieces of email saying "gee, you sure were mean to him. pick on someone
who can defend himself" in apparent seriousness.
That's vot...@sq.com if you oppose the hostile takeover of
alt.folklore.computers. Send in your votes before December 15.
Joel Furr
Organization: Escape from Blacksburg, VA
In article <x3z...@lynx.unm.edu> qu...@pioneer.unm.edu (Gym Z. Quirk) writes:
>In article <ByJHx...@rice.edu> sw...@owlnet.rice.edu (Michael Parks Swaim) wr
ites:
>>In article <1992Nov28....@vlsi.polymtl.ca> d40937@aiken (Jean Yves Des
biens) writes:
>>>
>>>I would like to know if there has been in the past some
>>>celebrated flame wars in the past? If so what was their
>>>subject ( main point of discussion ), the scope
>>>( how many people and newsgroups were involved ), duration
>>>(months, years) and who got out alive... :-).
>
>> When rec.games.frp was reorganized recently, there was a
>>lovely little spat over it AFTER the newsgroups were created.
>>It turned out that a significan minority had RFD and CFV in their
>>killfiles so they wouldn't have to see the split arguments that
>>occurred every six months or so, so they were completely caught by
>>suprise when one passed. They were NOT amused.
>
>A mere candle compared to K*nt Paul Dolan's Magnum Opus, The great
>rec.arts.sf-lovers Meltdown. (The following rec.arts.startrek reorg
>featuring Jay Maynard's ranting about the 'Trekkie Conspiracy' might
>be considered an epilogue. ;-)
Would someone please explain for those of us fortunate enough to miss Maynard's
"Trekkie Conspiracy" rantings what this refers to? As Maynard's most devoted
fan, I'd sure like to know what other net.achievements ol' Jay has been
credited with.
Jim Frost
>Proposed taxonomy:
Pretty good, but you forgot one:
>IV. Cranks
> A. Scientific
> 1. pyramid builders
> 2. perpetual movers
> 3. planet re-aligners
4. Flat-earthers.
(Even calling them cranks would probably promote a flame-fest. :-)
jim frost
ji...@centerline.com
Jim Frost
>Airplane! movies. :-)
...but that's not important now.
jim frost
ji...@centerline.com
Brent Benson
comp.lang.misc/comp.arch vs Herman Rubin debate. Rubin wins my award
for extreme persistance and self-imposed ignorance.
--
Brent Benson
Harris Computer Systems
Phil Kernick
> In article <1fh0sb...@smurf.smurf.sub.org> url...@smurf.sub.org (Matthias Urlichs) writes:
> >--
> >f u cn rd ths, u cn gt a gd jb n cmptr prgrmmng.
> >--
>
> Speaking of folklore, who did this first: Matthias or me?
I have seen essentially the same thing in a book entitled "Metamagical
Themas" by Douglas Holfstadder. I don't know whether you predate him
though...
Regards,
Phil.
--
_-_|\ Phil Kernick "Sleep all day,
/ \ University of Adelaide Party all night,
\_.-*_/ E-Mail: ph...@adam.adelaide.edu.au It's fun to be a
v Phone: +61 8 228 5914 Vampire!"
Roger MacNicol
>VI. religious differences
> A. emacs vs. vi
> B. UNIX vs. VMS
> C. Microsoft vs. anyone
> D. assembly language vs. fifth generation
> E. H. Rubin vs. 21st century
> ...
>
The vi vs emacs one has just been settled decisively: the latest MKS
newsletter (Toolmaker) says that they did a survey and over 60% perfer
vi (around 20% perfer brief) and LESS THAN 10% perfer emacs. (cf voting
for President elect Clinton). It's over and vi won.
- Roger
(I hope no smiley was needed)
--
******************************************************************
* Roger MacNicol, Snr. Software Engineer
* VMark Software, Inc., 30 Speen Street, Framingham, MA 01701-1800
* email: uvmark%ro...@merk.com
Taki Kogoma
>>
>>A mere candle compared to K*nt Paul Dolan's Magnum Opus, The great
>>rec.arts.sf-lovers Meltdown. (The following rec.arts.startrek reorg
>>featuring Jay Maynard's ranting about the 'Trekkie Conspiracy' might
>>be considered an epilogue. ;-)
>
>Would someone please explain for those of us fortunate enough to miss Maynard's
>"Trekkie Conspiracy" rantings what this refers to? As Maynard's most devoted
>fan, I'd sure like to know what other net.achievements ol' Jay has been
>credited with.
Ok. Last year, after the first attempt at splitting rec.arts.sf-lovers
went up in a wonderful little shower of sparks (K*nt had been
mouthing off both via e-mail and on news.groups about the state of the
vote), Jay started accusing 'The Trekkie Conspiracy' of "torpedoing"
the re-org. (True, a couple of the more prominent members of
rec.arts.startrek *did* voice opinions opposing the [later dropped]
proposal to move rec.arts.startrek into the new rec.arts.sf.*
heiriarchy.) Eventually, when rec.arts.startrek came up with its own
re-org plan, Jay started campaigning against it as "revenge for the
Trekkies' interference' in the rec.arts.sf-lovers meltdown."
Perhaps the following will aid in enlightening:
---[Begin included file]---
1994...
WASHINGTON, D.C. (UPI) -- A terrified nation sat in stunned
silence Friday as a special television news report revealed what one
man had suspected for years: Star Trek fans are controlling the
country. Calling a special White House press conference, a white-
faced George Bush stated: ``I can't hide it anymore! My
administration is being run by Trek-AAARRRGGGH!''. At this point, a
crazed John Sununu, wearing a loose-fitting Trek uniform and rubber
clip-on Spock-ears, pulled out a phaser and shot the president, who
vanished into a thousand points of light.
The horrifying revelation was not altogether unexpected,
however, as pressure was being brought upon the administration by Jay
Maynard, whose belief in a far-reaching "Trekkie Conspiracy" was
finally vindicated.
In an interview with PEOPLE magazine, Maynard explained how he
came to the conclusion that the trekkies were up to no good. ``I was
watching the Great Rec.Arts.SF-Lovers Re-Org of '91, and I noticed a
large corps of militant trekkies trying to destroy the vote!'' The
failure of that re-org lead to the Great USENET Collapse of '92, which
lead to an increased crime rate as flame-prone posters were forced to
vent their rage by holding up convenience stores.
``No one else saw the conspiracy.'', said Maynard. ``Those
trekkies were sneaky little devils! But they were definitely trying
to torpedo the vote. Then it hit me! Didn't trekkies succeed in
getting the test Space Shuttle named Enterprise? I figured they could
be responsible for all kinds of things!''
Indeed they were. In three years of investigation, Maynard
discovered the following:
-- Trekkies sabotaged the Hubble Space Telescope, because they
were afraid it would prove that Vulcan didn't exist.
-- Trekkies got super-trekkie Dan Quayle appointed Vice
President. His glassy stare is a result of his watching five hours of
Star Trek every night.
-- The Rodney King beating actually took place when King told
the policemen that William Shatner is bald.
-- San Francisco's 1989 Earthquake was caused by trekkies with
secret devices, in retaliation for the Navy's decision to move the
nuclear vessel Enterprise out of San Francisco, site of the
headquarters of the fictional Starfleet.
After the President's startling revelation, and subsequent
demise, the FBI proceeded to round up the major conspirators,
including Mike ``Vidiot'' Brown, who had single-handedly brought the
world computer communications network to its knees by repeatedly
posting the PostScript version of his 5000-page magnum opus,
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Star Trek (and Quite a Lot of
Stuff You Couldn't Care Less About, Too), and Tim Lynch, whose Star
Trek reviews were said to contain subliminal messages reading ``Live
Long, Propser, and Unquestioningly Obey the Will of the High Trekkie
Command''.
In a related story, Paramount Pictures has announced that
plans for Star Trek X: Wheelchairs n' Phasers, have been put on
indefinite hold.
[From Michael Scott "Uncle Mikey" Shappe shortly following the
r.a.sf-l meltdown, and just before Scott Forbes started the '91 Usenet
Olympics.]
---[End included file]---
It was at about this time that I admitted to being the 'Secret Master
of rec.arts.startrek'. ;-)
--
Capt. Gym Z. Quirk (Known to some as Taki Kogoma) kog...@vesta.unm.edu
Don Stokes
> > >f u cn rd ths, u cn gt a gd jb n cmptr prgrmmng.
>
> Themas" by Douglas Holfstadder. I don't know whether you predate him
> though...
I'm pretty sure I saw it around before Metamagical Themas came out. I
may be wrong. But I though "f u nc rd ths" had been around quite a while.
--
Don Stokes, ZL2TNM (DS555) d...@zl2tnm.gen.nz (home)
Network Manager, Computing Services Centre d...@vuw.ac.nz (work)
Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand +64-4-495-5052
Daniel Drucker
>
> dsie...@icaen.uiowa.edu (Doug Siebert) writes:
>
> xy...@mertwig.UUCP (Daniel Drucker) writes:
> >Kill file? Whats that?
>
>
> Its a mechanism on most newsreaders to allow the reader to selectively "ki
> ...
>
> He was being sarcastic!
Thank you! People, stop mailing me about that! I was being sarcastic!
--
Daniel Max P. Drucker Amateur radio: N2SXX xyzzy%mer...@uunet.uu.net
______________________________________________________________________________
"Difficulty! It's the single simplest machine in the entire Universe!" -HHGTTG
William C. Barwell
> Maybe not famous yet, but in sci.physics there is some guy filling
> the net with 'THIS WILL GET ME A NOBEL PRIZE (YOU'LL FIND OUT I'M RIGHT)'
> and innumerous responses to his theory, his way of argumenting etc.
>
> Worse are the wars on talk.politics.soviet, soc.culture.*** by
> people who flood the net trying to prove that some ethnic group
> is responsible for all evil in this world. Right now there is
> a SERDAR posting about 1GByte a week on how the Greeks and the
> Armenians supposedly conspire to idontknowwhat. You can imaine
> the kind of response.
>
>
Alt.abortion. Plus numerous vindictive, bitter, ongoing arguements on
abortion all over the net. The most boring subject of the 90's.
--
po...@unkaphaed.gbdata.com (William C. Barwell)
Unka Phaed's UUCP Thingy, Houston, TX, (713) 943-2728
After December 31, (713) 481-3763
1200/2400/9600/14400 v.32bis/v.42bis
Jimmy Malcolm Pierce
>Alt.abortion. Plus numerous vindictive, bitter, ongoing arguements on
>abortion all over the net. The most boring subject of the 90's.
Hmmm. not a flame war, but alt.callahans was the only news group
to actually have a discussion on abortion. We agreed to disagree.
It got a little heated a few times, but certainly not the meltdown
that occurred elsewhere. DJ.
--
Jim Pierce Bach. of Sci. in Applied Computer Science USM - Gulf Park Campus
jmpi...@whale.st.usm.edu Disclaimer: Standard.
J Lee Jaap
j...@dasteel.UUCP (Jonathan Dasteel) writes:
> dsie...@icaen.uiowa.edu (Doug Siebert) writes:
> xy...@mertwig.UUCP (Daniel Drucker) writes:
> >Kill file? Whats that?
> Its a mechanism on most newsreaders to allow the reader to selectively "ki
> ...
> He was being sarcastic!
Thank you! People, stop mailing me about that! I was being sarcastic!
The original poster was asking for classic flamewars. I figured that
Daniel was providing an example in a subtle way. Apparently too
subtle for some. :-) Especially since the post he followed up had
no mention of killfiles (as I remember). Ah, such is the net.
--
J Lee Jaap <J.L....@LaRC.NASA.Gov> +1 804/864-2148
employed by, not speaking for, AS&M Inc, at
NASA LaRC, Hampton VA 23681-0001
Anthony E. Siegman
decade or two ago at Stanford, when someone posted an inquiry asking
for recommendations of good, cheap dentists in the area. Among the
replies was one that said, recalled more or less verbatim: "Dr. xxx is
not particularly cheap, but I think he's very good, and his
receptionist is very cute".
This of course started a flame war as to sexist remarks, etc.,
etc., which went on for weeks.
The crowning point for me was when I printed off a complete copy of
the exchanges on blue-bar paper (which says this was long enough ago
to be in the mainframe pre-PC era, but recent enough that feminists
were on line), and took it to my dentist for his amusement; and his
receptionist, a motherly type, listening in on our conversation,
immediately said: "Oh, I know Dr. xxx's receptionist -- she IS cute!".
Jim Frost
>The vi vs emacs one has just been settled decisively: the latest MKS
>newsletter (Toolmaker) says that they did a survey and over 60% perfer
>vi (around 20% perfer brief) and LESS THAN 10% perfer emacs. (cf voting
>for President elect Clinton). It's over and vi won.
I could see them getting results like that. That's be a lot like
asking around IBM to see whether INed is more popular than emacs and
concluding that INed is preferred. In the MKS case most of the users'
machines couldn't run a real version of emacs even if they tried, and
many of the machines aren't really fast enough anyway.
>* VMark Software, Inc., 30 Speen Street, Framingham, MA 01701-1800
Say "hi" to Selina for me.
jim frost
ji...@centerline.com
Matthias Urlichs
she...@still3.chem.columbia.edu (Peter Shenkin) writes:
> In article <1fh0sb...@smurf.smurf.sub.org> url...@smurf.sub.org (Matthias Urlichs) writes:
> >--
> >f u cn rd ths, u cn gt a gd jb n cmptr prgrmmng.
> >--
>
> Speaking of folklore, who did this first: Matthias or me?
>
(currently 28885 entries, almost duplicate-free, and going strong :-).
DO NOT ask me for the file.
--
Fear and loathing, my man, fear and loathing.
%%
Variables won't, constants aren't.
-- Don Osborn
%%
Talent, lying in the understanding, is often inherent; genius, being the
action of reason and imagination, rarely or never.
-- Coleridge
%%
Money can't buy happiness, but it lets you be miserable in comfort.
%%
Roses on your piano isn't nearly as good as tulips on your organ.
--
Matthias Urlichs -- url...@smurf.sub.org -- url...@smurf.ira.uka.de /(o\
Humboldtstrasse 7 -- 7500 Karlsruhe 1 -- Germany -- +49-721-9612521 \o)/
Jeff Randall
>Definitely not me. It's a random selection from my Fortunes file
>(currently 28885 entries, almost duplicate-free, and going strong :-).
>DO NOT ask me for the file.
how about putting it up for FTP somewhere? sunsite.unc.com perhaps?
The fortunes files I have access to seem rather small... I'd kill for
a good sized one.. =)
--
Jeff-R...@uiuc.edu (ASCII mail) THIS IS _NOT_ CCSO'S OPINION!!!
jar4...@sumter.cso.uiuc.edu (NeXT mail) If It were, It would've had a
wi....@n7kbt.rain.com (anon) more important name on it. =)
Daniel Drucker
> xy...@mertwig.UUCP (Daniel Drucker) writes:
>
> >goro...@husc10.harvard.edu (Zhenya Gorokhovsky) writes:
>
> >> nor...@midway.ecn.uoknor.edu (Norman Lin) writes:
> >>
> >> > On sci.skeptic, there was a 'David Tiberio' who claimed to have
> >> > invented a perpetual motion machine. Naturally, the audience of
> >> > sci.skeptic being what it is, this resulted in months and months of
> >> > flamage. In fact, there was so much traffic on that single topic
> >> > that I unsubscribed to the group and haven't been there since. (For
> >> > all I know they could STILL be discussing it.)
>
> >Kill file? Whats that?
>
> Its a mechanism on most newsreaders to allow the reader to selectively "kill"
Sarcasm, people, sarcasm! What I mean is why unsubscribe the group? Why not
just put the subject and/or people involved into the kill file?
`Grave' Dave Gymer
>> xy...@mertwig.UUCP (Daniel Drucker) writes:
>> >Kill file? Whats that?
>> Its a mechanism on most newsreaders to allow the reader to selectively "kill"
>The way this guy has been posting to other groups, I kinda doubt it.
Well, I don't think the post he was following up to mentioned the name
`kill file' (certainly not in the bit he quoted, and I don't think in
the rest), so my vote is for sarcasm...
-- Dave
--
`Grave' Dave Gymer
Life is like a grapefruit.
Jim Heath
the Greeks and Turks on Soc.history.
--
"Land of song, said the warrior bard, Jim Heath
Though all the world betrays thee.
One sword, at least, thy rights shall guard, (The Minstrel Boy)
One faithful harp will praise thee." (Thomas Moore)
Matt Welsh
>There is _currently_ a pretty hot and long-lived flamewar going on between
>the Greeks and Turks on Soc.history.
It's been going on since circa 300 B.C., but at the outset it was a REAL war,
not just a flame war. :)
mdw
--
Matt Welsh m...@tc.cornell.edu Cornell Theory Center
"Go on, emote! I was raised on thought balloons!"
Eugene N. Miya
>I. Usenet-specific disputes:
> A. renamings [multitudinous]
> B. "N shouldn't F, because of the no-commerce rule"
> C. "What I write is {im,ex}plicitly {,not} copyrighted."
> C. other arguments
> 1. what is usenet: oldtimers vs. pups
> 2. other
>II. Political correctness
> A. gender issues
> 1. having a gender ...
> 2. homosexuality
> B. ethnicity in Amurrica
>III. Sports
> A. "Ed Lor doesn't have the facts"
> B. other
>IV. Cranks
> A. Scientific
> 1. pyramid builders
> 2. perpetual movers
> 3. planet re-aligners
> 1. Turks
> 2. anti-Turks
> 3. other
>V. Fundamental rudeness
> A. spelling
> B. your mother
> C. anything involving *.psuvm.edu
>VI. religious differences
> A. emacs vs. vi
> B. UNIX vs. VMS
> C. Microsoft vs. anyone
> D. assembly language vs. fifth generation
> E. H. Rubin vs. 21st century
I like this taxonomy. Keep reposting it from time to time.
One of my favorite flame wars from net.space/SPACE-digest mailing list
from 1982 on is the toxicity of plutonium.
just passing thru.....
--eugene miya, NASA Ames Research Center, eug...@orville.nas.nasa.gov
Associate Editor, Software and Publication Reviews
Scientific Programming
{uunet,mailrus,other gateways}!ames!eugene
Seeking Books to buy: Bongard, Pattern Recognition
3 down 1 to go.
The CA DMV News posting quiz
Test your news skills (answer T or F).
Beginner (reader)
Can deliberately (not accidentally) invoke mail, news, bbs, or notes.
Can get out of said system cleanly (without issuing an interrupt).
Might be able to read news. Can't post or send mail
(probably because it invokes a foreign editor).
Blown away when .newsrc (or .notesrc) starts up with 2245 lines (e.g.).
Can't understand strange symbols.
Strictly a lurker.
Intermediate (user)
Beyond the beginner stage.
Can read news groups sequentially.
Can post follow-ups.
Capable of invoking the system help command.
Incapable of skipping articles.
Not necessarily capable of article or group searching.
Selectively reads news groups. Ignores the rest.
Expects others to post and generate articles like a magazine.
Does not understand flame wars.
Recognizes smilies 8^) [I have glasses.], maybe makes ASCII graphics.
Lurker, sometime poster.
Advanced (poster)
Beyond the intermediate stage.
Can read news groups or posts in any order (random access).
Can skip news articles.
Can search a news article or new group.
Can unsubscribe/subscribe from news.groups at will.
Understands the differences in terminology (e.g., doesn't freak out
when seeing the words notesfile, BBS, or discussion group).
Knows how to use Followup lines.
Can use Kill files.
Can understands and edits .newsrc, .notesrc, .signature, etc. files.
May understand the news.hierarchy.
Can set up FAQs.
Understands flame wars.
System Admin ()
Beyond the advanced poster stage.
Can set up a news system.
Can decipher UUCP Paths.
Can clean a news system when the file system gets full.
Understands (read and edit) headers.
Knows where articles actually sit.
Understands or can set up news gateways.
Understands accounts like root, system, postmaster, etc.
Can control flame wars. ( rm -r /usr/spool/news/fav.news.path 8^)
Not without a sense of humor.
Able to piece together and understand deliberately obscure FAQ postings.
May know how to forge postings.
May moderate a news.group.
Explain the initials DMV in this context?
Joe Bore
see it i pulled out the tape and digged it up...it is a summary of
flame wars and some other spurious noise about flame wars...i dont
have the original poster's name or address, but it is very funny...
enjoy:
Noting the various ongoing, or periodically errupting wars, and other
forms of low intensity conflict as they appear on the net
vi vs. emacs
RISC vs. CISC
Floating diacritics
MIPS vs. SPARC
BSD vs. Sys. V
Unix vs. MSDOS
Dynamically linked libraries
Amiga vs. Macintosh
Dynamic storage management
Job control
Segmented address spaces (the 200 year war)
Mach vs. Chorus
C vs. any other language
...
I was wondering about the flame wars of yesteryear - and whether it is
possible to pick eventual winners.
CPM/86 vs. MSDOS - MSDOS won
Z80 vs. 6502 - Z80 won?
80, 72, 60, 40 char. displays - 80 char. displays
As per the following flame I recently ran across:
BITCH, BITCH, BITCH !!! SOME PEOPLE ARE JUST INCAPABLE OF BEING CONTENT. NO
SOONER THAN I HAD FINISHED MY REPLY TO ALL OF THE TTY PEOPLE (VOLUME 13.21),
TONY INFORMED ME THAT SOME VDM OWNERS HAD TROUBLE READING MY 80 CHARACTER
LINES ON THEIR QUAINT I/O DEVICES. I WILL NOT ACCOMODATE YOU, AND HERE'S WHY:
I PAID GOOD BUCKS FOR THE TOOLS I USE, AND I CHOOSE TO USE THEM. FRANKLY, I
CAN'T FATHOM WHY ANYONE WOULD ADMIT TO OWNING ONE OF THOSE THINGS AT ALL. I'VE
SEEN WHAT YOU GUYS ARE UP TO: THOSE HORRID, NARROW LITTLE PROGRAMS WRITTEN IN
PROCESSOR TECHNOLOGY'S 5K BASIC (YOU KNOW THE ONES WITH A LINE FOR EVERY SINGLE
LITTLE THING - 15 DECWRITER PAGES JUST TO PRINT YOUR VERSION OF WUMPUS [ABOUT
WHICH I SHALL BE HEARD FROM LATER]). YOU GUYS HAVE EXPOSED YOURSELVES TO CAT-
ARACTS AND MYOPIA BY LOOKING AT YOUR VDM'ED TVS. LEAVE ME OUT OF IT !!! THE
COMPANY WHO SUPPLIED THOSE B & W CRAYON BOXES TO YOU IS A PLACE TO SUSPECT...
SEMI-KITS, 8K BASIC THAT WILL BE READY IN 1976 AND ENOUGH ADVERTISING TO EN-
SURE YOU WILL HAVE PAID TOO MUCH FOR YOUR 'SOL'; ANOTHER MITS I THINK...
ZOSO
That little snipe appeared on CPMUG disk 21. Some more flame wars of
yesteryear:
TTY vs. glass TTYs - glass TTY's
Upper case vs. mixed case - mixed case
Variable names with more than
1 or 2 letter names - long variable names
Putting comments and unnecessary
spaces in source code - clearly documented code
Zilog vs. Intel mnemonics - combatants died during battle
8 vs. 16 bits - 16 bit processors
To window or not to window - to window
16 vs. 32 bits - 32 bit processors
To mouse or not to mouse - to mouse
...
How controversial some of these arguments were at the time, and on
first appearance, how silly many of them now appear.
Gordon Irlam
(gor...@cs.adelaide.edu.au)
EMACS vs. LINED/SOS
APL vs. anything else
LISP vs. anything else
VMS vs. Unix
TOPS-20 vs. TOPS-10
TOPS-20 vs. anything else
DEC-10/20 vs. anything else
What is a "mini"-computer?
Distributed vs. central computing
Top-down vs. bottom-up parsing
Operator precedence vs. all other parsing methods
Recursive descent vs. all other parsing methods
LL(1) vs. all other parsing methods
LALR(1) vs. all other parsing methods
6-character identifiers vs. 8-character identifiers
"reserved" words vs. "key" words
TSS/360 vs. OS/360
TSS/360 vs. CP/CMS
CP/CMS vs. OS/360
OS/TSO vs. TSS/360, RJE, ad nauseam
RJE vs. courier services
110 baud vs. 300 baud
Timesharing vs. batch
Algol vs. anything else
Fortran vs. anything else
COMIT vs. SNOBOL
2741s vs. 1050s
360 DOS vs. 360 OS
Cards vs. tape/disk
Tape vs. disk
Rotating platter tapes vs. disk (that is, using the disk to emulate
a tape instead of
actually using random access)
IOCS vs. RADIO (only a 1440 programmer
would get this!)
IOCS vs. "R" instruction for card reader
IBM 80-column cards vs. IBM 90-column cards
Unit Record equipment vs. 360/20
/360 (which required an operating system) vs.
any "real" computer (which could run
without an operating system)
Microcode vs. random logic
Goto vs. no goto
Spooling devices vs. direct device access
Virtual memory vs. real memory
Paging vs. swapping
Paging/swapping vs. memory resident
Overlays vs. writing "tight code"
"Tight" code vs. "readable/maintainable" code
Interrupts vs. polling
Asynchronous vs. synchronous I/O (calls,
instructions)
Edit instructions vs. no edit instructions
COBOL-oriented instruction sets (see VAX for
latest incarnation) vs. conventional CISC
Procedure call instructions vs. PUSHJ (e.g.,
complex parameter stacking, etc.)
Complex exception handlers vs. simple stack
unwinders
Structured stack unwinders vs. setjmp/longjmp
PL/1 vs. anything else
COBOL vs. anything else
Assembly language vs. anything else
JCL vs. the known universe
Binary vs. "packed decimal"
COMPUTATIONAL-2 vs.
COMPUTATIONAL-3
Integer vs. floating point (actually, this is perhaps
the first flamewar, since it was started
by John von Neumann)
As I think of more, I'll submit them...
joe
|><>
thats it...if i remember correctly i rember rolling on the floor for
several minutes after reading this, hope it has the same effect on
you...
jbore
--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Joe Bore | LEHMAN
jb...@shearson.com | ...!uunet!shearson.com!jbore | BROTHERS
(212)464-3431, Beeper: (212)396-4248 | --------
Hans Mulder
>In article <1992Dec10....@CERIS.Purdue.EDU> jhe...@CERIS.Purdue.EDU (Jim Heath) writes:
>>There is _currently_ a pretty hot and long-lived flamewar going on between
>>the Greeks and Turks on Soc.history.
>It's been going on since circa 300 B.C., but at the outset it was a REAL war,
>not just a flame war. :)
It started much earlier, as a flame war, but in 300 B.C. someone pulled the
plug on the Usenet link between Greece and Turkey, hoping that that would
stop the flames coming in. It didn't work out quite the way he expected.
HansM
Doug McLaren
>On flamewars of the present... one huge flamefest at the moment is out
>on alt.irc, on the use or misuse of bots (IRC automatons). Accusations
>of cluelessness are flying particularly low in this one.
Never expected to hear IRC mentioned on a.f.c ... ddials, perhaps, but
not IRC. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not ... probably not. :)
Famous flame war? How about the one that used to pop up on alt.binaries.
pictures.erotica (formerly alt.sex.pictures) (it may still -- I grew tired
of it after a while ...)
Should they split into alt.sex.pictures.male and female?
... alt.sex.pictures.straight or gay ?
... etc.
Of course, somebody would start gay bashing, and all hell would break loose.
Then in a month or so, it would die down.
A month or two passes, and some newbie mentions his great idea ... "Let's split
this newsgroup into .male and .female ..."
You get the idea ...
--
----------------------- \ Zippy says:
Doug McLaren, \ I've got an IDEA!! Why don't I STARE at you so
DemoN on IRC \ HARD, you forget your SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER!!
dou...@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu \
-------------------------- /
Lachlan Cranswick
>The flamewar regarding rtm's 1988 Internet worm is pretty good. It's going
>on (again :) on comp.security.misc and comp.org.eff.talk...
Does anyone have an article on the history of internet worm?
How it worked, who got hit, and actions to prevent
it occuring again?
Thanks in advance, Lachlan.
PS: I'm not after source code - I'm just curious.
--
Lachlan Cranswick - CSIRO _--_|\ lac...@dmp.CSIRO.AU
Division of Mineral Products / \ tel +61 3 647 0367
PO Box 124, Port Melbourne 3207 \_.--._/ fax +61 3 646 3223
AUSTRALIA v
Matthias Urlichs
j...@sunSITE.unc.edu (Jonathan Magid) writes:
> In article <Bz13C...@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> Jeff-R...@uiuc.edu (Jeff Randall) writes:
> >url...@smurf.sub.org (Matthias Urlichs) writes:
> >
> >>Definitely not me. It's a random selection from my Fortunes file
> >>(currently 28885 entries, almost duplicate-free, and going strong :-).
> >
> >>DO NOT ask me for the file.
> >
> >how about putting it up for FTP somewhere? sunsite.unc.com perhaps?
> >
> >The fortunes files I have access to seem rather small... I'd kill for
> >a good sized one.. =)
>
> Hey! last time I checked, the University of North Carolina was still
> a (more or less) educational institution.
>
;-)
> I'd be glad to give a canonical fortune file a home, but from the caps,
> I suspect Matthias' reason is more than an unwillingness to mail it out
> to everyone.
>
Nope, the reason is an _inability_ to mail it out to everyone.
I have to pay $.02 per kByte (both directions).
I'd like to include a few more fortunes into that file before actually
putting the mother of all fortune files ;-) up for FTP anywhere.
> Btw, speaking of cool things... Thanks to fra...@cs.adelaide.edu.au
> I have a copy of the Chernenko forgery April Fools posting as
> /pub/docs/about-the-net/Usenet/moskvax-april-fools on
> sunsite.unc.edu
Pure history... Do other April Fools postings still exist somewhere?
I'd hate them to have gone to net.heaven.
--
Have you seen the latest Japanese camera? Apparently it is so
fast it can photograph an American with his mouth shut!
Ken Hornstein
>Famous flame war? How about the one that used to pop up on alt.binaries.
>pictures.erotica (formerly alt.sex.pictures) (it may still -- I grew tired
>of it after a while ...)
>
> Should they split into alt.sex.pictures.male and female?
> ... alt.sex.pictures.straight or gay ?
> ... etc.
I liked the one where someone posted and said:
"I have this really cool site for X-rated GIFs. It's not in the
nameserver yet, you'll have to use the IP address. Just ftp to 127.0.0.1.
You might have to logon as yourself, however".
:-)
--Ken
Charles Lasner
>
>It started much earlier, as a flame war, but in 300 B.C. someone pulled the
>plug on the Usenet link between Greece and Turkey, hoping that that would
>stop the flames coming in. It didn't work out quite the way he expected.
Who was in tthe Backbone Cabal then?
cjl
Jim Frost
>Does anyone have an article on the history of internet worm?
There was a pretty good article on it in JACM a couple of years ago
('90 I think but I can't remember exactly). It should be pretty easy
to find.
Some of why the worm was designed the way it was is fascinating, but
unfortunately real details on its design tradeoffs are available only
from RTM and I suspect he's not going to want to talk about it for
awhile.
>How it worked, who got hit, and actions to prevent
>it occuring again?
Who got hit is simple: just about everyone utilizing Sun-3 and
VAX/UNIX systems who was connected to Internet. It was really
impressive just how many sites were affected.
The JACM article does a pretty good job of describing how the worm
worked. It's likely that something like it would still work fairly
well although the preponderance of DNS, vendor bug fixes, and improved
password protection techniques will severely limit its effectiveness.
Many sites now use a single-point-of-contact for their internet
connection which makes improved security WRT the outside world much
easier. Some sites -- like mine -- even make use of packet filtering
at their gateways.
I never thought I'd be glad to be at a UUCP-only site until that day.
:-)
jim frost
ji...@centerline.com
Russell E. Billings
> lac...@dmp.csiro.au (Lachlan Cranswick) writes:
>>Does anyone have an article on the history of internet worm?
>
> There was a pretty good article on it in JACM a couple of years ago
> ('90 I think but I can't remember exactly). It should be pretty easy
> to find.
Assuming that Jim meant "Communications of the ACM", here is the article
in question:
Spafford, E.H. The Internet Worm: Crisis and aftermath. Communications
of the ACM, volume 32, number 6 (June 1989).
I, too, was very glad that my University was not part of the Internet that
day.
Russell Billings
--
Russell E. Billings - Graduate Student - University of Louisville
BITNET : rebi...@ulkyvx.bitnet UUCP : ...!psuvax1!rebi...@ulkyvx.bitnet
"You can choose a ready guide in some Celestial Voice,
If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice!" - Rush