ML>  David Williams regarding long-range lightning >

 ML> What's up with the date on your computer?  Or is it something on
 ML> the BBS you're using?  2034?!

it is a y2k bug that appears to originate in the bbs software running on
the system that paul uses... inquiries in that direction indicate that that
operator would likely just leave the net rather than going thru software
changes... i've been watching this (via pktdate y2k repair software) since
the turn of the century ;(

pktdate is/was written by tobias ernst... iirc, he is no longer in
fidonet... pktdate is free... you should find it in Y2KTOOL5.ZIP in the
"Coordinator Tools and Utils" file echo... 

Fido Year 2000 Tools Rel. 5 by Tobias Ernst
===========================================
PKTDATE  1.4  is a program that can analyse
PKT files for structural errors that result
from year 2000 related bugs in the creating
software and automatically  fix such broken
PKT files.  It is intended for use  at  hub
level in the Fidonet distribution structure
in  order  to  alleviate the effects of the
year 2000 problem  on  the smooth operation
of Fidonet.  Also included  are  a  general
information  text  on the year 2000 problem
in Fidonet,  and  tools  for analysing MSG,
JAM  and   Squish   message   base   files.
Includes  OS/2, Win32, DOS, Linux and Amiga
binaries and source.  Unzip with -d option!
= Jetzt auch mit Deutscher Dokumentation! =

if you can't find it locally, it is available via my site... everything is
operational except POTS connections... if your system can do fido via
telnet, then you should be able to freq it easily...

it is 378994 bytes and released 19 Jan 2000...

)\/(ark