337 lines
15 KiB
Plaintext
337 lines
15 KiB
Plaintext
Chaos Corner V02 N06 22Jul92
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Summary for Chaos Corner V02 N06
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Thanks to a recently received birthday present, the lead topic for this
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issue is Ham radio; in particular Short Wave Listening (SWL). Other
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topics will include OS/2 (since I'm entering this on a system running
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OS/2), fax software, KEDIT, Kermit, weather, and, if there is time,
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WAIS. First let's rummage around in the ...
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Mailbag
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Anonymous FTP from puffin improved (working?)
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Lee Butler at csn.org reported several times to Dr. Chaos that he has
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been unable to get and of the individual back issues from puffin (that's
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puffin.cit.cornell.edu). At first, Dr. Chaos figured that puffin had
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gotten hung up and just needed re-booting (Windows 3.1 never puts out
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UAE messages anymore ... you either get GPF messages or no response at
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all ... from ANYTHING). Things were fine between pelican and puffin so
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Dr. Chaos advised Lee to try it again. In the next batch of messages
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was one saying it still didn't work. After much experimentation (and so
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that an already long story doesn't get more out of hand), Dr. Chaos
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discovered that the failure occurred when using ftp from a Sun machine
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but not from a machine running AIX (either AIX/370 or AIX 3.1)! Even
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stranger was the fix ... Dr. Chaos got the latest version of the
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WNQVTNET package (2.6 is current and he was running 2.3), and the
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problem seemed to go away. We hope to hear good news from Lee at any
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time, that he can now get at the files.
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Motifgif movies and watching the weather
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Brian Carcich at cuspif.tn.cornell.edu writes Dr. Chaos to tell him that
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he has modified the motifgif program to play several images as a movie.
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He reports that it's great for playing the satellite images to watch the
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cloud motion (your own private Weather Channel, eh?). The diff's are in
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the file motifgif.movie.dif in the /pub directory on moe.tn.cornell.edu.
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The RS/6000 executable is also hiding there ... look in the same
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directory for 'pict' since that is what motifgif forks to for the real
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work. Brian claims that the BEST image viewer is 'getx11' from the Utah
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Raster Toolkit (URT). For right now, Dr. Chaos is sticking with xv and
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xloadimage (all these viewers are available from the /contrib
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directory on export.lcs.mit.edu).
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A version of nn for AIX on the RS/6000
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Gerhard Rentschler at Uni Stuttgart asked where Dr. Chaos got the
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version of 'nn' (NetNews reader) that he is running pelican. It only
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took Dr. Chaos only a few hours to finally locate nn.tar.Z in the /pub
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directory on acsc.acsc.com (that machine isn't searched by archie, so
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locating it was a real piece of detective work). The convenient thing
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about that versio is that it aleady contains the s-aix3.1* and m-rs6000*
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files needed to build nn and run it on an RS/6000.
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Product Warning Labels (copyrighted article, see Journal in next issue)
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As a contribution, and in exchange from being put on the subscription
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list, Terri Tracey at HP sent the following for your amusement:
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Scientific Truth in Product Warning Labels
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by Susan Hewitt and Edward Subitzky
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(Stolen Without Permission from
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Journal of anillegiblycopiedtitle)
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WARNING: This product warps space and time in its vicinity.
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WARNING: This product attracts every other piece of matter in the
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Universe, including the products of other manufacturers, with a
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force proportional to the product of the masses and inversely
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proportional to the distance between them.
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CAUTION: The mass of this product contains the energy equivalent
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of 85 million tons of TNT per net ounce of weight.
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HEALTH WARNING: Care should be taken when lifting this product,
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since its mass, and thus its weight, is dependent on its velocity
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relative to the user.
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ADVISORY: There is an extremely small but nonzero chance that,
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through a process known as "tunneling," this product may
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spontaneously disappear from its present location and reappear at
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any random place in the universe, including your neighbor's
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domicile. The manufacturer will not be responsible for any damages
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or inconvenience that may result.
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COMPONENT EQUIVALENCY NOTICE: The subatomic particles
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(electrons, protons, etc.) comprising this product are exactly the
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same in every measurable respect as those used in the products of
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other manufacturers, and no claim to the contrary may legitimately
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be expressed or implied.
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CONSUMER NOTICE: Because of the "Uncertainty Principle," it is
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impossible for the consumer to find out at the same time both
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precisely where this product is and how fast it is moving.
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NOTE: The most fundamental particles in this product are held
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together by a "gluing" force about which little is currently known
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and whose adhesive power cannot therefore be permanently
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guaranteed.
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ATTENTION: Despite any other listing of product contents found
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hereon, the consumer is advised that, in actuality, this produce
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consists of 99.999999999999% empty space.
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HANDLE WITH EXTREME CARE: This product contains minute
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electrically charged particles moving at velocities in excess of
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five hundred million miles her hour.
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READ THIS BEFORE OPENING PACKAGE: According to certain
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suggested versions of a grand unified theory, the primary particles
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constituting this product may decay to nothingness within the next
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four hundred million years.
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PUBLIC NOTICE AS REQUIRED BY LAW: Any use of this product, in any
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manner whatsoever, will increase the amount of disorder in the
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universe. Although no liability is implied herein, the consumer is
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warned that this process will ultimately lead to the heat death of
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the universe.
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NEW GRAND UNIFIED THEORY DISCLAIMER: The manufacturer may
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technically be entitled to claim this product is ten-dimensional.
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Legal rights above and beyond those applicable to three-dimensional
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objects, since the seven new dimensions are "rolled up" into such
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a small area that they cannot be detected.
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IMPORTANT NOTICE TO PURCHASERS: The entire physical universe,
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including this product, may one day collapse back into an
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infinitesimally small space. Should another universe subsequently
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re-emerge, the existence of this product in that universe cannot be
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guaranteed.
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PLEASE NOTE: Some quantum physics theories suggest that when the
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consumer is not directly observing this product, it may cease to
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exist or will exist only in a vague and undetermined state.
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THIS IS A 100% MATTER PRODUCT: In the unlikely event that this
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merchandise should contact antimatter in any form, a catastrophic
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explosion will result.
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Now, what have YOU contributed to Chaos Corner recently?
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Chaos Corner Feedback
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Rhomulos - Head Jester, (where? In Australia, of course) thanks Dr.
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Chaos for adding to the subscription list, and said, "I was reading your
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old articles and if I had had them 6 months ago would have saved me lots
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of trouble."
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Chaos - lyapunov style - articles and GIF images
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Bill McQueen from Toronto, also getting into the spirit, sent along a
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couple of items. The first, in the spirit of chaos, is an archive site
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for preprints and programs concerning nonlinear dynamics and signal
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processing (is there anything else?). The node name is (of course)
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lyapunov.ucsd.edu. (If you would like to see some of the striking
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figures generated by lyapunov figures, check out the ly*.gif files in
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the /pub/gif directory on pelican.cit.cornell.edu.)
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Find people on the net with netfind
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The second item from Bill McQueen concerns the netfind tool that is
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available from ftp.cs.colorado.edu in the pub/cs/distribs/netfind
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directory. The program runs under SunOS 4.0 or higher it searches a
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number of Internet sources given a rough description of a person's name
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and where they work (company and/or location). People without a Sun on
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which to run Netfind on can telnet to bruno.cs.colorado.edu and log in
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as "netfind" (with no password). If nothing else, just take a look at
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it, Dr. Chaos used it just this afternoon; eh also suggests you ask him
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(chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu) for the FAQ file from
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news.answers on "How to find people's E-mail addresses".
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More Chaos Corner Feedback
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Last and certainly not least, in the "Made My Day" category from Charles
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Lindsay at Simon Fraser University, "I've been following your postings,
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as they have been available, and I've concluded your postings actually
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Add information to my day, rather than simply consuming time, as
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elsewhere..." Thanks Charles!
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In the next issue we will cover how to catch elephants thanks to an item
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sent in by another reader.
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Radio -Shortwave Broadcast schedules
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The key resource for Shortwave Listening (SWL) and also for people who
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love to try and pick up distant stations (DXing) is the set of broadcast
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schedules maintained on nic.funet.fi in the /pub/dx/text/schedules
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directory. Not all the schedules are very current but they do give you
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a good idea of the times and frequencies to look for a particular
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station. (Dr. Chaos spends hours watching me write and listening
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to Deutsche Welle -- a station that broadcasts in German and English
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from Koeln (Cologne for the French speakers) each evening. Once DW is
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no longer broadcasting to North America (at about 0200), He switches
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over the Radio Austria being broadcast from Wien (Vienna). Another
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handy resource is a one page sheet listing the general use of frequency
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ranges, time frequencies, and a chart to translate GMT (or UTC or CUT)
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to USA time zones. If you would like the guide, let Dr. Chaos know at
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chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu. If you enjoy scanning rather
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than listening to the SW bands, check out the frequency lists for
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different parts of the country that are available on ftp.cs.buffalo.edu
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in the pub/ham-radio directory. There is also software available for a
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couple of the more expensive scanners that allow control through an
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RS-232 port. Of course, the way to get started is by reading the
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Frequently Asked Questions lists, available on the NetNews group
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rec.radio.shortwave, at the FTP site mentioned above, or at the
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repository of all FAQ files, pit-manager.mit.edu, in the directory
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/pub/usenet/rec.radio.shortwave.
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Is your scanner legal?
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One of the big controversies in the scanning world has been over the
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laws passed to prevent people from using information they got by
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scanning the cellular telephone bands. Some scanners are being sold
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that do not scan those bands, but only require a pair of wire cutters
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and about 10 minutes to restore that capability. Interestingly enough,
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there does not seem to be any law covering what information is picked up
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by listening in on portable telephone conversations. Dr. Chaos believes
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that the best rule to follow is that if you are broadcasting on the
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airways, then assume that you have traded privacy for convenience and
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shouldn't be surprised at who might be listening.
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Archive of ShortWave Listening (SWL) articles
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An archive of articles on ShortWave Listening is available from the
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mailserver at vmsserv@arecibo.aero.edu. Just put in the BODY of your
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mail file one or more of the following commands: DIR, GET, HELP,
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INDEX, or ?.
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OS/2 & this version of Chaos Corner
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For the first time, this issue is being written under OS/2 2.0, running
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C-Kermit for OS/2 in one window, and running KEDIT for OS/2 in another
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window (I find it crucial to be able to use copy-and-paste to transfer
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names of machines and directory paths). The version of Kermit allows
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two extra editing options ... one is copy-and-paste -- one operation
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that copies the highlighted text to the location of the cursor; and the
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other operation is 'append' that adds the highlighted text to whatever
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is
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already in the copy buffer. KEDIT, the Xedit-like editor (with REXX
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macro interface) for DOS and OS/2 has some nice new features in Version
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5.0 ... of course, I've always thought that KEDIT was the REAL product
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and that CMS Xedit was just what you had to live with because of the
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3270 interface.
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OS/2 C++ computer (GNU) and OS/2 archive sites
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OS/2 is getting to have a significant amount of software available for
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it via FTP. One significant addition was the availability of the latest
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version of the GNU C++ compiler. By the time Microsoft and Borland get
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around to producing C++ compilers for OS/2 they will have to product a
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reasonably good product to be able to compete against what people can
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get from GCC for free. For OS/2 software via FTP, look on machines
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cc1.kuleuven.ac.be (the list of files is named O2.FILELIST, but 'cd' to
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ANONYMOU.201 to locate the files) and ftp-os2.nmsu.edu.
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Weather information available on the Internet
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For those of you following the weather, there is a wealth of information
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over the Internet. Not all of it is well organized or put in standard
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formats, but with some work (and maybe with some pressure in the right
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places) things can happen. Right here at Cornell is a large collection
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of climate data for the Northeastern USA. Only a limited amount of
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current/forecast data is available ... the researchers are more
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concerned with long-term climate changes than with short-term forecasts.
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If you are interested in getting access, contact Keith Eggleston at
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keith@metvax.cit.cornell.edu or (607)-255-1749 (or 3034) to signup for a
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userid. There are no charges, but they don't think that weather
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information is of very wide interest on campus (except for some isolated
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"crazies" who have the current weather map updated hourly as the
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background for their workstation display). As usual, the other place to
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start looking for information, is the FAQ list for the NetNews group
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sci.geo.meteorology. Send electronic mail to Dr. Chaos at
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chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu if you would like a copy of the
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information on weather data sources available across the Internet (and
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other places).
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Out of time and space for now; the fax and WAIS topics will just have to
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wait until next time (maybe by that time Dr. Chaos will have them
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working).
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For your own subscription to Chaos Corner, just send your request off to
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chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu.
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Dr Chaos (I have a Master's Degree)
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