387 lines
20 KiB
Plaintext
387 lines
20 KiB
Plaintext
Chaos Corner v01n03 24Jul91
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--------------------------------------------------
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Archiving and Compression
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Here we are again! The topic for today is archive and compression
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programs! An alternative way of putting it is, "I went to that server
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with the funny name you told me about and got the file, but now when I
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try to execute it, nothing happens!"
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Most files that are available for you to retrieve by anonymous FTP are
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actually compressed libraries. Each system platform has one or more
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"standard" ways of building libraries and compressing/uncompressing
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files. There are even some areas of compatibility so that you can, for
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instance, pull the documentation out of a MS-DOS-style library while you
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are logged onto VM/CMS and see if the program looks interesting enough
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to download to your PC over a 2400 baud modem connection.
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The first concept is one of the library. If a program package requires
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multiple files, it is very handy to be able to combine the multiple
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files into a single file allowing easier retrieval from bulletin-board
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systems and across the network.
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Because of the even slower speed of normal communications (300 baud),
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algorithms were quickly developed to "squeeze" the files as they were
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combined into the library. The compression algorithms became more
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sophisticated and for some time the standard format in the PC world used
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the .arc extension. The vendor of the leading program was System
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Enhancement Associates (SEAware). Along came Phil Katz who wrote an
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excellent shareware version of the software called PKARC, and he even
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extended the .arc format to include some better and faster compression
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techniques! SEAware got upset and decided to sue Phil Katz; and, to
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make a long story short, Phil was prohibited from using ".arc" and now
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produces and maintains PKZIP -- using .zip as the filename extension.
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The grassroots resentment against SEAware was so great, almost all
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bulletin-boards and FTP sites immediately converted to .zip format files
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and almost so .arc files can be found any more.
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Now the problem with .zip is that the format and the software basically
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belongs to Phil Katz. Progress hasn't been as swift as some people
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would like; there exist programs to un-zip archives in VM/CMS and in
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Unix, but there are no utilities on those systems to create archives in
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that format (a Unix program to create zip archives is rumured to be
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available Real Soon Now). One format that IS publicly available is the
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.zoo archive, and recent work has resulted in ZOO 2.1 which has one of
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the best (space) compression algorithms (but it still runs slowly). The
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major advantage for ZOO is that the C source is widely distributed and
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so is available on a number of platforms. There are many suggestions
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that the archives on the network convert to the .zoo format on some
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date, say August 15, 1991. The zoo 2.1 files are available on
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wuarchive.wustl.edu in the mirrors/msdos/zoo directory as .exe files.
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These are "self-extracting archives" because when you enter the file
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name as a command, the command uncompresses and extracts all the files
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that are stored within it. The file you should retrieve is zoo210.exe.
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For the Macintosh platform, things seem a bit more calm, with the
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standard utility being Stuffit!, written by a 17 year-old high school
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student. (He is now in his third year at MIT, so your shareware
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registration fees will help put him through college). Mac files that
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have been processed with Stuffit! usually have a .sit extension in the
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filename.
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Of course, with Unix, the rule is to not use one utility when you can
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use two. The program to build libraries is "tar" (tape archive) and the
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utilities to compress/uncompress files is (oddly) compress and
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uncompress. Files that are in a tar archive have a .tar extension, and
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files that have been compressed have a .Z (yes, an uppercase z)
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extension. So, if I have a file named glarch.tar.Z, I would first
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uncompress it (uncompress glarch.tar -- will automatically find the file
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and remove the .Z suffix) and then un-tar it (tar -xvt glarch.tar). You
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may want to use "tar -cvt glarch.tar" first to see where tar is going to
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place the files it extracts ... especially if you are running with root
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privileges!
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Mailbag -- Questions to Read! Dr. Chaos (rdc@cornella.cit.cornell.edu)
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Vt100 emulation on 3270
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On the question of vt100 emulators for people using 3270s, Gerhard
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Rentschler at University of Stuttgart found a reference on VMSHARE
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indicating that a company called Trax Softworks had a product
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(VM/Dialout) that provided some emulation. As Gary Buhrmaster of
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Cornell points out, the emulation must be very basic (no interrupts on
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each keypress) unless you are willing to pay a terrible price in host
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cycles. Nick Gimbrone from Cornell forwarded an item from the IBM
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TCP/IP List (IBMTCP-L) indicating a product named A-NET from Teubner and
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Associates also existed that performed the emulation and ran as a VTAM
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application.
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GIF vewers for the Macintosh
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On the topic of GIF viewers for the Mac, Bob Blackmun at UNCCVM
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recommends GIF-converter 2.2.8 as being very solid with lots of
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capabilities for manipulating and storing files in various formats
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(PICT, TIFF, RIFF, EPS, and others). My tester verified that while the
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output options are nice, the program does not get along very well with
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Mac System 7.0.
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--------------------------------------------------
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archie is not edu, it's ca
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One reader reported problems with connecting to the archie server at
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quiche.cs.mcgill.edu. Dr. Chaos caught this problem immediately since
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he has watched me make the same mistake time and time again. McGill
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University is in Canada (the pink country to the north of us on the map)
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and therefore the network name ends with '.ca', not '.edu'.
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BinHex and StuffIt revealed (sit, hqx, et all)
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Tom Young of Cornell sent Dr. Chaos an explanation of the Macintosh
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utilities BinHex 4.0, BinHex 5.0, and Stuffit! that he posted to the
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info-mac list in February, 1990. It appears that one major confusion
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might arise from the fact that BinHex 4.0 is actually more advanced than
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BinHex 5.0. (The 4.0 version is the one that creates files with the
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.hqx extension.) If you download from a bulletib-board or archive site,
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a frequent problem is a reported "checksum error." The usual problem is
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that the posting is actually an e-mail message with the hqx file
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attached -- and BInHex 4.0 isn't smart enough to remove all the text
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above the line "This file must be converted using BinHex 4.0". Doing
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that by hand with word processor and saving the result as "text only"
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should allow BinHex 4.0 to decode it.
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Seemingly Random and Self Similar Things
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The famous Bill Gates memo
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Bill Gates, the Microsoft CEO, wrote a memo to his senior exective staff
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that was leaked to the press and has created lots of opportunities for
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"analysis" of Gates' psyche and Microsoft's health. Dr Chaos was able
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to obtain a copy of what is claimed to be the text from the memo. He
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assures me that the text seems to agree substantially with what has been
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reported (although it sounds a bit more reasonable in proper context).
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If you are interested, look for file gates-memo in the /pub directory on
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pelican.cit.cornell.edu.
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Site license for OSF software
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In case you are not aware (Dr Chaos assures me that he is ALWAYS
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aware!), Cornell is a member of the Open Software Foundation and has
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site licenses for the currently shipping OSF/1 and OSF/Motif products.
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OSF/Motif is currently at release 1.1 (compatible with X11R4), patch
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level 2 (otherwise known as 1.1.2). The next patch level (fixes about
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150 bugs) is expected to start shipping sometime in August. Contact
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Steve LaSala if you are interested in obtaining access to this software
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(lasala@trumpet.cit.cornell.edu). While there is no cost, if you are
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associated with Cornell, there are some licensing restrictions that you
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need to agree to before you can get the software.
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COPYTAPE --- tape copying utility
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A utility named COPYTAPE is available (in public domain) that will copy
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tapes, preserving blocking structure and placement of tape marks, and it
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reportedly also provides information about the format of the input tape.
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Has anyone used this program and/or have any comments about it?
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According to "archie", a copy is located at ftp.acsu.buffalo.edu in the
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/pub directory under the name copytape.tar.
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The GNU utilities
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The GNU Project (GNU is Not Unix -- yes, it's a recursive acronym) has
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released a number of Unix-like file utilities (cat, grep, chmod, chown,
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cp, etc.), and, like the other GNU software, they are available by
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anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in the /pub/gnu directory. GNU
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software is free from AT&T licensing restrictions, although you should
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read the copyleft (that's correct, copyleft) agreement before you use or
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make available GNU-based software.
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--------------------------------------------------
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PostScript printer initialization
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Ever wonder how to print a PostScript file generated on a Macintosh from
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your Unix system on a PostScript printer that hasn't been initialized
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properly? There is a program on apple.com called macPs, it's in
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/ArchiveVol2/Postscript directory. Assuming that you have the Laser
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Prep file from a Mac, and the PostScript file you want to print, macPs
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will act as a filter and edit the prep file into the PostScript file at
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the appropriate point. Dr. Chaos suggests you could always just use a
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Mac to drive the LaserWriter ... anyone have some spare 128K Macs?
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--------------------------------------------------
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Unix shell - tcsh
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If, in the Unix shell game, you are a devotee of tcsh, there is a new
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version available that is beiing distributed in full (for the first
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time) under the Berkeley copyright agreement. You can find it locally
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at tesla.ee.cornell.edu in the file /pub/tcsh-6.00.tar.Z. For those of
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us with fumble fingers, one of the great things about tcsh over csh is
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the ability to easily do command recall and editing. Of course, Dr
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Chaos never mistypes a Unix commnad, so he doesn't need this feature.
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--------------------------------------------------
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Viewing Postscript files in an X-Window
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Ever want to preview PostScript files easily in an X-Window? In a
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previous issue I referred to a PostScript (well, actually Ghostscript)
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previewer named ghostscript. There is now an X-Window user interface
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for Ghostscript available called GSPreview from export.lcs.mit.edu
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[18.30.0.238] under /contrib/gspreview1.0+wcl.tar.Z. The files for
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ghostscript are not included here, you have to get them from the same
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place you get the other GNU software -- prep.ai.mit.edu in the /pub/gnu
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directory. GSPreview includes a small patch to ghostscript so the two
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programs can communicate. X11R4 is required, as is the Athena widget
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set. This software is announced as release 1.0 (beta) so there might be
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some rough edges.
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--------------------------------------------------
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Update to Windows 3.0a available
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There was a possibly confusing item in the last Chaos Corner about an
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update to Windows 3.0a being available. Dr. Chaos has suggested an
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improved explanation, so we are going to try again. The update is at
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cica.cica.indiana.edu in the /pub/pc/win3/util directory. Because of
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some problems in the initial uploads, there are three (3) files that
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have to be retrieved (win3a1.zip, win3a2.zip, and win3a3.zip). Gerhard
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Rentschler at the University of Stuttgart wondered how to install
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updates and it activated Dr. Chaos to start cruising the network looking
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for the answer. Thanks to Holger Veit at the University of Duisberg we
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have the following answer:
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1. Create a new directory, let's say C:\WININST;
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2. Unzip WIN3A1.ZIP, WIN3A2.ZIP, WIN3A3.ZIP (in this sequence;
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allowing PKUNZIP to overwrite the old files) into this directory;
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3. Do SUBST A: C:\WININST; and
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4. Set A:, run A:SETUP, answering the questions correctly.
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The result, as Dr. Chaos can proudly verify, is a working Windows 3.0a.
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--------------------------------------------------
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CPU utilization meter under Windows
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Some acquaintances of Dr. Chaos have been known to poke fun at his
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personal computer because it is not only air-cooled, but it doesn't have
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an indicator to show the CPU utilization. While the recent spell of hot
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weather has demonstrated the need for water-cooling, real help has come
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from another direction. Performance Meter 2.0 is a Windows 3.0 program
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that puts a small CPU utilization bar chart (similar to xload on Unix
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systems) in the upper right corner of the screen. The program can be
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found on cica.cica.indiana.edu in file /pub/pc/win3/util/perfm201.zip.
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Dr. Chaos is already trying to figure out how to save the charts into an
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Excel spreadsheet so he can justify a CPU upgrade.
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--------------------------------------------------
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Command line interface for Windows
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Several interesting programs Dr Chaos downloaded recently may help him
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eliminate his annoying habit of bringing up a fullscreen version of DOS
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every time he needs to do some file manipulation in Windows. Two
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programs, WINCLI and PSHELL bring the DOS command line to a window with
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scrollback and (in the case of PSHELL) most of the functionality of 4DOS
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(including command recall and editing). Another program, File Manager,
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puts up a window containing what appears to be to independently
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functioning "Open" dialog boxes with action buttons like "move" and
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"copy" between them. File Manager seems fairly easy to use and is
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certainly better than the program that comes with Windows 3.0! All
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programs are on cica.cica.indiana.edu in the /pub/pc/win3/util
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directory. PSHELL is in 4win105.zip; File Manager is in fileman.zip,
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and WINCLI is in wincli21.zip.
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--------------------------------------------------
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WinQVT/Net -- TCP/IP clients for Windows
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The Windows program Dr. Chaos favors for network access (WinQVT/Net) has
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just been updated again. SIMTEL20 (and mirror sites like
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wuarchive.wustl.edu) have version 1.73, but version 1.8 has just
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appeared at cica.cica.indiana.edu in the /pub/pc/win3/util directory
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under the name qvtnet18.zip. The new version has a two-statement script
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language allowing you to fire up telnet sessions and logon to hosts
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during the Windows startup (you can also change the foreground and
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background colors on the FTP and NNTP screens).
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--------------------------------------------------
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Solar Eclipse GIF files
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While some people were traveling to various parts of the world to view
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the recent solar eclipse, Dr Chaos viewed the eclipse from a different
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perspective -- that of the GEOS weather satellite. A series of striking
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(black and white, unfortunately) satellite photos is stored on
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vmd.cso.uiuc.edu in the phil.515 directory. SOLAR17Z.GIF through
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SOLAR21Z.GIF (the number is the approximate Greenwich Mean Time of the
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photo - Zulu) is a series of pictures as the shadow of the moon moved
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across the earth from Hawaii, across Mexico and South America.
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--------------------------------------------------
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Online Card Catalog access under Windows
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For those of you who would rather conduct searches of library card
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catalogs than view pretty pictures, there is a newly announced hypertext
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viewing program that runs under Windows 3.0 and provides connection and
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search information for the On-Line Public Access Catalogs (OPACs). The
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software is called CATALIST and it is available from ZEBRA.ACS.UDEL.EDU
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in the directory pub/library. You will not be able to list the
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directory, but you can get the readme.txt file that explains how to get
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everything else you need. Dr. Chaos hasn't had a chance to unpack the
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files yet, but it does look promising.
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--------------------------------------------------
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Free NFS server software for the PC
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Dr. Chaos loves connecting his machines together and trying to discover
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new, unnatural acts for them to perform. The latest activity (performed
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in the dead of the night) was to NFS mount his PCs hard disk on his Unix
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system and (gasp) back up the disk to an 8mm tape! It all worked after
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only about 20 tries (not the fault of the software), and, in fact, the
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files we discuss here can often be found in the /pub/puffin directory of
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pelican.cit.cornell.edu -- and that directory is REALLY /pub of the
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DOS/WIndows machine puffin.cit.cornell.edu. The NFS server software,
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soss (Son of Sam's Server), can be found on grape.ecs.clarkson.edu in
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the /pub/msdos/tcpip directory. The file soss.zoo contains source and
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executables, and sossexe.zoo contains just the executables. Get
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sossread.me for more information. Unfortunately, the software doesn't
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cooperate with WinQVT/NET, so the puffin directory is present when Dr.
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Chaos isn't "doing" Windows. Now, the REAL reason for bringing this up
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is that the aforementioned directory contains some VERY important files
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... back issues of ..(you guessed it!).. * Chaos Corner * -- they can
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be found under the user-friendly names of ccv01n**.<ext> where ** is the
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edition number, and <ext> is doc for the winword document, mac for the
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Macintosh Word format document, and txt for the plain text file.
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--------------------------------------------------
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High speed modems and maximum data rates
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Ever wonder what is maximum data rate that can be achieved over current
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voice-grade lines? The current bottleneck (according to the discussion
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on the comp.dcom.modems newgroup) is the analog-to-digital converter
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used in the central office. Based on the rate that the converter
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(called the CODEC) samples the analog line, the maximum data rate is
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about 22-24Kbps -- of course, that does not take into account any
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compression the modems may be doing for you. Dr. Chaos was heartened by
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the possibility of a modem speedup by a factor of 10 over what he is
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currently using.
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--------------------------------------------------
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BBS numbers for modem manufacturers
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If you are buying any of the new modems high speed modeme, you should
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know that many manufacturers have bulletin-board systems available for
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you to call and receive software, tips, and customer support. Some of
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the numbers are:
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Hayes Public BBS 404-446-6336 BBS/email&messages
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Hayes Public BBS 800-874-2937 BBS/Tech Support
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Intel 800-538-3373 Tech Support
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Intel Support 503-645-6275 BBS
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Telebit Corp. 800-835-3248 Tech Support
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U.S. Robotics 708-982-5092 BBS
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Everex 415-438-4650
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There are also some cute numbers like 1-800-DIAL-USR, or 1-800-US-HAYES,
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but Dr. Chaos doesn't like to talk about them.
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--------------------------------------------------
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Info on making your computer noisy
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As a change in pace from displaying pictures, your computer can also
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make a variety of sounds. To help you know more about what is
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available, there is an online newletter carrying information on such
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topics as:
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-- Midi BBS listing (issue 4)
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-- FTP sites that carry sound files and players
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-- Reviews of new sound software
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-- Questions asked about playing sound files
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-- Latest in sound hardware
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Dr Chaos has not extended his environmental pollution to include the
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aural sense (yet) -- it is just a little chilling to hear HAL's voice
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come out of the speaker on your computer. At any rate, the issues of
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the sound newsletter can be found on wuarchive.wustl.edu in the
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mirrors/misc/sound directory in the files sound1.txt -- sound5.txt. The
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program in remac.zip is supposed to allow PCs to play Mac sound files,
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and playmac2.zip contains a "point-and-shoot" interface for remac. The
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5th issue of the newsletter contains a list of FTP sites and BSSs for
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sound files.
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Quiet! (or, if you leave in California, Peace!)
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Dr. Chaos (I have a Master's Degree)
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Send requests to rdc@cornella.cit.cornell.edu to get on the e-mail list.
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