212 lines
9.7 KiB
Plaintext
212 lines
9.7 KiB
Plaintext
Chaos Corner V03 N04 30 June 1993
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Copyright 1993 by Robert D. Cowles; Ithaca, NY 14850. Permission is
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hereby granted to republish complete issues in unaltered form.
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Republication of partial issues must reference the source and state
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that subscriptions to Chaos Corner are available (free) by sending
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electronic mail to chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu.
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-------------------------------------------------
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OS/2 2.1
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Well, it looks like IBM managed to learn something about marketing in
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the past year since shipping OS/2 2.0. It took us almost a month to
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get the 2.0 release after it became available ... 2.1 arrived exactly
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on June 14, the "official" date for general availability. Except for
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a few minor glitches (IBM has already distributed patches for several
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of the problems ... the patches are available on well-known Internet
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sites as well as CompuServe and the IBM OS/2 Support BBS) the system
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appears to be very solid ... running applications like Word for
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Windows in a window with only the color of the mouse pointer to
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indicate if you are running a Windows application (white pointer) or
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an OS/2 application (black pointer). David Bolen's freeware slip code
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still works wonders in providing fast and easy connection to our Annex
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terminal servers. As an example, I was just able to ftp a 200K
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compressed (zip) binary file from a machine on the Internet to the
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home machine in less than 140 seconds -- better than 1400 characters
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per second! Dr Chaos points out that it doesn't make file transfers
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any faster, it just increases the number of files that you're willing
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to wait on --- it still takes nearly 30 minutes to transfer the
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equivalent of a high-density floppy disk. (Did you ever calculate the
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bandwidth of your shirtpocket?)
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-------------------------------------------------
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Jurassic Park, the movie
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Dr. Chaos had me go to the movie several times, just because he was so
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enamored with the character of the mathematician who was an expert in
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chaos theory. Aside from the special effects (the chase scene through
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the kitchen is especially good), the scene in the control room was the
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last straw as the girl was stroking the mouse over the mouse pad in an
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attempt to locate the correct file. We immediately went out and
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replaced our rodents with trackballs (you never know when a raptor is
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going to look in your window). Last but not least, the flight of
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pelicans at the end of the movie is a beautiful tribute to a majestic
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bird (at least, we here in Chaos Corner think so).
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-------------------------------------------------
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X-based program for new German Postal Codes
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The new German Postal Codes (Postleitzahlen) go into effect tomorrow,
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1. Juli. For those wanting a free X-windows based utility to search
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the database (available online, of course) can retrieve xplz 3.1 from
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ftp.germany.eu.net in the file /pub/X11/misc/xplz/xplz-3.3.tar.gz (as
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of 28. Juni). (Was ist 'gz', .... ganz Z?).
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Fermat's Last Theorem
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The big news is that someone has finally figured out a proof for
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Fermat's Last Theorem (the one where he said the margin of the book
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was too small to record it). In response to the news, Jamie Kline at
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Simon Fraser University posted the following quote:
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"If I could come back after five hundred years and find
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that the Riemann hypothesis or Fermat's last 'theorem' was
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proved, I would be disappointed, because I would be pretty
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sure, in view of the history of attempts to prove these
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conjectures, that an enormous amount of time had been spent
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on proving theorems that are unimportant to the life of man."
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-- Morris Kline, from an interview in _Mathematical People_
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(eds. Donald J. Albers and G. L. Alexanderson, Contemporary, 1985.)
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Legal News -- Windows browser for the Net
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Since necessity is the mother of invention, where else would you
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expect a Microsoft Windows Network browser to be implemented than at
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the Cornell Law School. Here is a slightly edited version of the
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original beta announcement:
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This is an announcement of the Beta Release of Cello, a multipurpose
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Net browser for Microsoft Windows 3.1
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Features:
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--WWW(HTTP/HTML) browser, with user-configurable colors
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and fonts.
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--Full-featured Gopher (though unfortunately not yet Gopher+)
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client, including a hyper-ized CSO which permits (sorta dumb)
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SMTP mailing.
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--Transparent access (via WWW) to FTP, HyTelNet, Telnet, etc.
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etc. ad infinitum.
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--Graphics and PostScript viewing and sound playing via
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MSWindows Associations...feature, using add-on, shareware
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viewers such as SNDTOOL, GV057, and the Windows version of
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GhostScript.
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--Ad-hoc Telnet, FTP, and Gopher sessions.
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--SLIP/PPP support with dialup scripting language.
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--Supports wide range of LAN configurations via Distinct
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TCP/IP runtime stack.
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--Hardware:
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Cello needs a Windows 3.1-capable machine with enhanced mode
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and (preferably) swapping enabled. It is hungry for extended RAM.
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--Software:
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Cello depends (for now; we're working on a Winsock version) on the
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Distinct TCP/IP runtime stack. The LII has licensed the use of a
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runtime of this software for use by US academic institutions
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for a period of one year, starting June 1, after which we will
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renegotiate the license. All non-USA-academic users are strongly
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urged to contact Distinct directly at mktg.distinct.com.
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--How to get it:
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FTP to fatty.law.cornell.edu, the /pub/LII/Cello subdirectory.
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The distribution is in multiple files. At a minimum, you will
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need:
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README.1ST, which contains unpacking instructions.
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CELLO.ZIP, which contains the executable and Help application
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DIS.ZIP, which contains the runtime stack.
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It is requested that you get the optional packages like VIEWERS.ZIP
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and GSWIN.ZIP from other ftp sites (like ftp.cica.indiana.edu or
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oak.oakland.edu) to keep the load down on fatty. (GSWIN.ZIP is over
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2MB ... you are going to need a LOT of free space to play around with
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this stuff, especially when you get started with sound files).
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Installation is performed by following the instructions in
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README.1ST, then using the online help. Additional support is
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available from a listserv list called appropriately enough CELLO-L.
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To subscribe, send a message to listserv@fatty.law.cornell.edu with
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the one-liner:
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sub cello-l your full name
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in the body of the message. cello-l is watched by the developer and
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by a few folks who graciously assisted in alpha testing and who
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know more about the software's treacherous behavior than its
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author; the listowner is Will Sadler at Indiana University Law
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School
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-------------------------------------------------
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Mailbag - Antarctica
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Thanks to Greg Earle, Christian Smith (aka Blackplague), David Camp
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and Nick Gimbrone who responded to the query about Antarctica being on
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the net. It appears that the research installation at McMurdo Sound
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at least has electronic mail access routed through New Zealand.
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Mailbag - Access to US Government Information
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Joe Ahlgren (author of GeoClock -- thanks for sending me the new
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version, Joe) says there is a BBS at 703-321-8020 named FedWorld in
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the Washington DC metro area that has the White House info mentioned
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in V03N03. Anyone know if FedWorld is accessible on the Internet?
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Joe is teaming up with CNN to produce a product like GeoClock (look
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for WorldClock in a store nearby) ... he's still waiting for the
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invitation to the party with Jane Fonda.
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-------------------------------------------------
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Everything you wanted to know about Gopher
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The latest Gopher Guide, a revised version from June 15, is now
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available for anonymous ftp from the source of gopher things ...
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boombox.micro,umn.edu. Look for the file GopherGuide_Jun15b.ps in the
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/pub/gopher/docs directory. It's over a megabyte in length, so make
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sure you have plenty of room on your disk (and lots of paper in your
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printer).
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Object Oriented Database results
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Mike Carey, David DeWitt and Jeff Naughton at the University of
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Wisconsin have developed a set of benchmarks for Object Oriented
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Database systems. They reported the results of running a number of
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the benchmarks at the 1993 SIGMOD conference, but you can get copies
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of the paper presented at the conference (in PostScript form) and an
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expanded version that contains more information from more tests. This
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information is from the README file in the OO7 (that's uppercase oh-
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oh-seven, not zero-zero-seven) directory on ftp.cs.wisc.edu:
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1) sigmod.ps - the postscript file corresponding to the OO7 paper
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that will appear at the 1993 SIGMOD conference.
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2) implementations - directory containing implementations of the OO7
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benchmark for E/Exodus, Objectivity, Ontos and ODI. An O2
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implementation is in the works. The implementations directory
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contains tar files for the four systems.
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3) techreport.ps - a postscript file that is the "full version" of
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the sigmod paper. This is an expanded version of the sigmod
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paper with some more tests and a more thorough description of the
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benchmark and its motivation.
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Dr. Chaos points out that you shouldn't miss the README file; it
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contains a fascinating description of the actions of one of the
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database vendors (ODI) and why the results of their benchmark tests
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are not reported.
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-------------------------------------------------
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Wrapup of V03 N04
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For your own *free* subscription to Chaos Corner, send electronic mail
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to chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu.
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Dr. Chaos (I have a master's degree ...)
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