258 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
258 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
Chaos Corner V02N01 17 Feb 92
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Chaos Corner Volume 1 index available
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It's been 2 months since the last issue ... and many bits have gone down
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the wire. We have been busy here in Chaos Corner and have collected
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many items of interest for you. One which we know will be most
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fascinating to you is the announcement of an index to volume 1 of Chaos
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Corner (how I spent my Christmas Vacation). The index is available in
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text or PostScript form -- just use anonymous ftp to
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pelican.cit.cornell.edu and look in the /pub directory for the files
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ccv01.index.ps for the postscript (two column) or ccv01.index.text for
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the text version. Dr. Chaos really knows that what you have been
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waiting for is not just the index; but all of volume 1 plus the index in
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one nice big file. Just what you want ... look for the files ccv01.ps
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for the PostScript version and ccv01.text for the text version in the
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/pub directory on pelican.cit.cornell.edu. Thanks to Mark Bodenstein
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of CIT's Host Networking group for suggesting the index.
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The most frequently requested file for 1991 was by far and away the list
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of answering machine messages. Now that Dr. Chaos understands the level
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and interests of his readers, he told me he was very glad he did not
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mention the Complete List of Blonde Jokes that was in his possession.
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Mailbag
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Chaos Corner Feedback
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In the early December issue we issued an invitation for people to
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reserve a bound copy of Chaos Corner volume 1 by a date that was several
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days prior to the date the issue was distributed. We forgot about Gary
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Buhrmaster. Needless to say, when the mail file arrived that had been
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clearly been sent before the deadline (and before the issue had gone
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out). If you have the answer to how Gary accomplished this feat, you
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too can qualify for a bound copy (printed and finished on a Xerox
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DocuTech laser printer). Send your answers to
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Dr_Chaos@pelican.cit.cornell.edu --- hurry, the entry deadline is
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midnight on 12 Feb. 1992. Hint: Gary's userid is GOD.
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Many of you are receiving Chaos Corner for the first time (we have had a
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flood of subscription requests. If you want to ask Dr. Chaos a
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question, or point out some horrible mistake you THINK he might have
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made, just send mail to Dr_Chaos@pelican.cit.cornell.edu.
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Infor request about Macintosh fonts
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Stephen Peterson at Penn State is trying to collect type 3 fonts for his
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Macintosh. He, of course, has the ones from mac.archive.umich.edu but
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wonders if anyone knows of other (free?) sources for type 3 fonts. In
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particular, he is interested in a "stone serif" font. Dr Chaos wonders
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just what a "stone serif" font would look like ...
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Chaos Corner subscriptions
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Gerhard Rentschuler at the University of Stuttgart noted that he had
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not received an issue of Chaos Corner for this year and wondered if he
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needed to subscribe again. Dr. Chaos explained the problems of trying
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to organize Chaos. While it was hard getting started on volume 2, we
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can expect that Dr. Chaos will generate issues more often than every two
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months.
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Security and virus attacks
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A couple of security issues to get out of the way before you go any
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farther. If you are running an IBM PC (or compatible), or a Unix
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machine that has a PC simulator, you need to pay attention to the
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Michelangelo virus warnings. The virus resides in the boot sector of
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infected disks and destroys all data on the disk on March 6th (the
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birthday of the artist, not the turtle). Unix systems with PC
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simulators may be at risk at any time if they are booted with an
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infected diskette in the floppy drive (the virus will modify the master
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boot record of the main disk and require re-install your Unix system
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and/or restore from your carefully made backup tapes). People at
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Cornell are strongly encouraged to get a copy of F-PROT to scan for and
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disinfect disks. (CIT is obtaining a site license for the Cornell
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community to use it. For more information see the CIT alert dated Feb.
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12, 1992.) Of course, the McAffe software is available but can cost
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$85 for a full set (for individuals); companies (and universities) are
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required to negotiate a site license. Dr. Chaos urges you to scan your
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disks before March 6th and make a backup! (He feels very strongly about
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making backups, since he spent all last week making backups .... yes, he
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feels very strongly about backups.)
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Security, AIX and the on command
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The other security issue affects IBM RS/6000 systems running AIX 3.1. It
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seems that IBM ships the system with the "on" command enabled, and the
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security for the command is rather poor. Using your favorite editor (or
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SMIT), disable the "rexd" service for the inet superdaemon
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(/etc/inetd.conf).
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Unix on a PC?
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If you would like to roll your own system on a PC, almost everything you
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would need to get started can be found in unix/bsd-sources on machine
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src.doc.ic.ac.uk or on machine ftp.uu.net. Some missing utilities can
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be filled in from GNU or MINIX sources -- the one vital missing piece is
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'init' -- and you can have your own public domain Unix running on your
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386 PC!
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Sounds - Macintosh format conversion utility
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Tom Erbe at Mills College has been updating his Macintosh utility that
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converts between a number of sound file formats. For the latest version
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check in the ccm directory on mills.edu. The program is called Sound
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Hack and as we write, the latest version is in the file
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SoundHack.54.hqx.
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Sounds - Convers Sun format (au) to Soundblaster (VOC)
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Anyone out there with Soundblaster can convert files in the Sun format
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(files with a ".au" suffix) by using the program SUN2VOC. Similarly,
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sound files with an ".iff" suffix can be converted using IFF2VOC. You
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can find these programs on wuarchive.wustl.edu in the
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mirrors/msdos/sound.
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Sounds - archive site
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For lots of sounds in the ".au" format, including many from the movies
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2001, 2010, and from the TV series of Startrek (both versions), look on
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machine procyon.cis.ksu.edu in the pub/Sun/Sparcsounds directory.
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Please let Dr. Chaos know if you find a sound file of Capt. Picard
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saying, "Make it so!" (Try not to use this archive during working hours
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in Kansas).
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Sounds and your PC
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As a general tool for dealing with sound files on a PC, the recommended
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utility seems to be PLAYBWC (it has the ability to play and edit the Mac
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".snd" sound files, among other things). It can be found on
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wuarchive.wustl.edu on the /mirrors/msdos/sound directory.
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Archive site for Macintosh and PC sound files
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As a good source of Mac (and PLAYBWC) sound files, Dr. Chaos recommends
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that you try looking over the collection at ccb.ucsf.edu in the
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Pub/Sound_list directory (note the caps in the directory name since Unix
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is case sensitive). There is also a Sound Newsletter that you can
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subscribe to by sending mail to sound@ccb.ucsf.edu with a subject line
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of: "ADD-ME: <userid>@<site>".
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PC Compression and Library Utilities
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As mentioned in past issues, there are a number of programs available on
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the PC that compress and add to single-file libraries. It can be very
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confusing, even for experienced PC users, when these file compression
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extensions are encountered for the first time. Timo Salmi, moderator of
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the archives at garbo.uwasa.fi (yes, it's in Finland, so don't try
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FTPing there unless you really can't find what you need at a North
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American site, or you are already on the eastern side of the Atlantic)
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has canned answers to a number of frequently asked questions on file
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compression utilities. He has a list of the current version of the
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utility that is available for each of the popular types of file
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compression, and we thought it was worthwhile to reproduce it here:
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arc602.exe .arc SEA's .arc packing/unpacking system.
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arj222.exe .arj Robert Jung's .arj archiver
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lh113de.com .lzh Lharc for .lzh compression
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lha213.exe .lzh LHa for .lzh compression, English version.
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pak251.exe .pak NoGate's for pak, arc, sdn, zip, files
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pk361.exe .arc This packed and unpacked .arc files fast
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pkz110eu.exe .zip PKZIP "Euroversion" with no encryption
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zoo210.exe .zoo Zoo packing facility from Rahul Dhesi
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A more complete list of file formats and the corresponding utilities
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available on a variety of platforms, may be anonymous ftp'd from
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ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (128.174.5.59) in the directory doc/pcnet. The file is
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maintained by David Lemson (lemson@uiuc.edu) and is the most complete
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Dr. Chaos has ever seen. Of course, we have a current copy of the list,
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so you can always get one through electronic mail by sending your
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request to chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu.
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Libraries
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HYTELNET 5.0, the easy-to-use database utility for IBM PC users that
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describes how to access all Internet-accessible library catalogs, FREE-
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NETS, CWISs, and Library BBSs is now available. It is a major upgrade
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from version 4.0, and is available via anonymous FTP from
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access.usask.ca in the hytelnet/pc subdirectory as the file named
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HYTELN50.ZIP.
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For Unix systems, there is a basic shell script that provides menu based
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access to over 200 Libraries and databases across the Internet. The
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script is named libtel.unix and can be obtained from ftp.oit.unc.edu in
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the pub/docs directory. In the same location, VAX VMS users can obtain
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a program named libs.com that performs much the same function.
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What you need to know about modems
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Dr. Chaos has come across a 3-part posting titled " What You Need To
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Know About Modems" that is really chapter 1 of a book that will be
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coming out soon titled "The Joy of Telecomputing" by Patrick Chen. It
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is more than a little too long to include here but we would be happy to
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send you the files if you send electronic mail to chaos-
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request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu.
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Best 9600 baud modem prices
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Another interesting posting is Stuart Balfor's list of the best prices
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for 9600 baud modems. Last updated (that we saw) in mid-January, it
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gives sources for the advertised price, phone number to call, etc.
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Again, just ask for it at chaos-request.cit.cornell.edu. These are just
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modem prices, not recommendations (courtesy of our legal staff).
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Kermit
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One of the banes of file transfer for users of the Kermit communications
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package is always that it is a two-step process. In a recent issue of
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Kermit Digest, techniques were published for initiating the file
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transfer in one step from either the VM/CMS side of a connection or from
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the MS-DOS side. If you can't get a copy of Info-Kermit Digest V15 #1,
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send a note to Dr. Chaos requesting the Kermit file transfer information
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(send request to chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu).
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--------------------------------------------------
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X11 R5
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Fix #9 to X11 R5 has now been released, and is available locally to
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Cornell on pelican.cit.cornell.edu in the pub/X11R5 directory. Someone
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asked for a precompiled version for an RS/6000 since they didn't have
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enough disk space ... and the kind people at ux1.cso.uiuc.edu made one
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available. Sooo, the requestor got a precompiled version and later
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posted a note that he had no idea how much trouble it would cause. Dr.
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Chaos agrees with Chin Fang of Stanford U. who pointed out that on
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complex packages like X11, one has to be VERY careful about the paths
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for all the various pieces, since the paths to various components are
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compiled into the code.
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That's all for now. The next issue will be coming Real Soon Now!
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Subscribe at: Remember! Dr. Chaos - (dr_chaos@pelican.cit.cornell.edu)
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