375 lines
17 KiB
Plaintext
375 lines
17 KiB
Plaintext
Chaos Corner, V01, N05, 21 August 1991
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--------------------------------------------------
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News from the Soviet Union
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As this is being written, our news watcher has informed Dr. Chaos that the coup
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in the Soviet Union has collapsed, and Gorby is coming back to Moscow. If you
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are interested in tracking current events on the follow-up, the newsgroups below
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are recommended (but not necessarily endorsed) by Dr. Chaos:
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soc.culture.soviet
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misc.headlines
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talk.politics.soviet
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Other lists like soc.culture.german and soc.culture.polish may also have
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opinions expressed (Dr. Chaos urges me not to leave out alt.conspiracy as a
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source of opinion but not necessarily information).
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--------------------------------------------------
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Internet directory of services
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Scott Yanoff at the University of Wisconsin has posted a very interesting guide
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to "special" services that are available across the Internet. Because these
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services appeal so much to Dr. Chaos, we have decided to quote from Scott's
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list:
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-Cleveland Freenet telnet freenet-in-a.cwru.edu
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offers: USA Today Headline News
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-Geographic Name Server telnet martini.eecs.umich.edu 3000
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offers: Info by city or area code (Pop, Lat./Long., Elevation, etc)
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-IRC Telnet Client telnet 128.2.54.2
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offers: Internet Relay Chat access
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-Library of Congress telnet dra.com
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offers: Online catalog (you can even look up musicians work!)
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-Lyric Server ftp vacs.uwp.edu
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offers: Lyrics in text file format for anonymous ftp downloading
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-NASA SpaceLink telnet spacelink.msfc.nasa.gov
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offers: NASA news, including shuttle launches and satellite updates
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-NLS telnet nls.adp.wisc.edu
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offers: Network Library System
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-UNC BBS telnet 128.109.157.30 (login: bbs)
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offers: Access to Library of Congress and nationwide libraries.
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-Weather Service telnet 141.212.196.79 3000
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offers: Forecast for any city, current weather for any state, etc.
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-Webster telnet decoy.uoregon.edu 2627
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offers: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Spell checker. Type 'HELP' when online!
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* NOTE: No login names or passwords required unless stated *
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Dr. Chaos would like to take a little bit of space to thank the maintainers of
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the newsgroup comp.archives. They scan a number of the other newsgroups looking
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for articles that announce interesting software or information being available
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for FTP access and publish that information in comp.archives. The newsgroup was
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not active during the month of July and it has certainly made Dr. Chaos' job
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much easier to have it back again. Thanks guys!
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--------------------------------------------------
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Inside CIt drops Chaos Corner from circulation!
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Chaos Corner is no longer being carried in the internal CIT newsletter Inside
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CIT. Their publication dates were too irregular to match any reasonably chaotic
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flow of information. If you enjoy this service, consider passing it along to a
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friend. Requests to be added to the direct distribution should go to
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rdc@cornella.cit.cornell.edu.
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Mailbag (Send cards and letters to rdc@cornella.cit.cornell.edu)
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--------------------------------------------------
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Bits, bauds, and bps
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Gary Buhrmaster of Systems Programming Services in CIT is quite concerned that
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Dr. Chaos may have mislead you gentle readers in the last issue. Since he has
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been very concerned that your inquiring minds get the correct information, I
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will quote from the text of his letter to Dr. Chaos:
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I am sure you know the difference between bps (bits per second)
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and baud (the signal change rate per second). Your fingers must
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have been trembling after your RT encounter. In case it has
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become fuzzy, and because I know you want to provide correct
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information to your followers, perhaps you owe them a
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clarification. In fact, most of the 9600 bps modems actually
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transmit at 2400 baud. At each signal transition, four bits are
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represented in the new state. Four bits per transition at 2400
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transitions per second and you get 9600 bps. I am sure you also
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know that V.32bis is a standard for transmission at 14,400 bps
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(not 9600 bps as you implied).
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My recollection from my days as an engineer was that 14,400 bps
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transmission was to use trellis encoding to reduce the number of
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errors in transmission (and actually transmits 5 bits per
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transition, resulting in a theoretical 19,200 bps, however the
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'extra' bits are used by the correction scheme). I expect that is
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what V32bis eventually ended up 'standardizing'.
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For those of you with a thirst for what V.32/V.32bis/V.42/V.42bis really mean
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... here is a summary of a summary written by Toby Nixon, a engineer for Hayes
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(the modem people) and a frequent contributor to the comp.dcom.modems newsgroup
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on Usenet:
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V.32 is the international standard for 4800 and 9600 bps
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modulation on dial-up and leased two-wire voice-grade circuits,
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both asynchronous and synchronous. It was first standardized in
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1984.
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V.32bis was adopted in February of 1991. It is an upwardly-
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compatible extension of V.32 that supports 4800, 7200, 9600,
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12000, and 14400 bps transmission on two-wire voice-grade
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circuits. It also supports fast rate renegotiation, so that the
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modems can shift speeds rapidly in response to changing line
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conditions (whereas V.32 modems must go through a lengthy complete
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retrain cycle).
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V.42 is the international standard for error control in modems.
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It defines two protocols: a primary protocol known as LAPM which
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is defined in the main body of the standard and is based on other
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internationally standardized protocols; and an alternative
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protocol defined in an Annex to the standard which provides for
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backward compatibility with MNP2-4 modems. V.42 was adopted in
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November, 1988.
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V.42bis is the international standard for data compression in
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modems. It uses Lempel-Ziv techniques to achieve up to 4-to-1
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compression on text and other compressible files.
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Relationships: V.32bis is an upwardly compatible extension of
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V.32; they both define only a modulation scheme. V.42 error
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control can be used with either V.32 or V.32bis. V.42bis data
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compression is an extension of V.42 LAPM; support for V.42bis
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implies support for V.42.
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If that isn't more than you ever wanted to know about modems in a single
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sitting, then you'll do well on the mid-term exam (but Dr. Chaos claims you will
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have a real case of burn-out by the time of the final).
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--------------------------------------------------
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X-Windows under DOS
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Dan Bartholomew of CIT's Research and Analysis Systems (aka SEX@CORNELLC) asks
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about packages for running X-Windows under DOS. Dr. Chaos points out that the
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August 12, 1991 issue of PC Week carried a review of just those products.
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Although you may have heard rumors that they are slow, the testers found the
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performance of the leading products to be acceptable on a 33Mhz machine. Dr
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Chaos has used only one of the products reviewed, and was relieved to see that
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the people at PC Week also had trouble getting it configured.
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--------------------------------------------------
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boustrophedon
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Melinda Varian of Princeton provided the following REXX Exec from her CMS
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Pipelines presentation that is further proof of the value (?) of the
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boustrophedon:
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/* BOUSTRO REXX: Filter that writes records boustrophedon */
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Signal On Error
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Do recno = 1 by 1 /* Do until EOF */
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'readto record' /* Read from pipe */
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If recno // 2 = 0 /* If even-numbered */
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Then record = Reverse(record) /* line, reverse */
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'output' record /* Write to pipe */
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End
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Error: Exit RC*(RC<>12) /* RC = 0 if EOF */
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--------------------------------------------------
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Correction for Unix tar example
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Paul Zarnowski of Systems Programming Services in CIT gets the award for being
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awake (a cup of decaffinated coffee). The rest of you need to sit on a tack for
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a while ... not having seen the example in issue number 3 giving the example for
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un-tar-ing a file with the command "tar -xvt glarch.tar" when it clearly should
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be "tar -xvf glarch.tar". Congratulations to Paul (he just got back from
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vacation); and deepest regrets to the rest of you. Dr Chaos claims that the
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Unix programmer corollary to the injunction "Have fun!" is "A misleading error
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message is more fun than no error message at all!"
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Random and Self-Similar Things
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--------------------------------------------------
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USGS Maps available on CD-ROM
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If you like maps, you must know that the U. S. Geological Survey is distributing
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their 1:2,000,000 scale maps on a CD-ROM. The last reported price was $20 for
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data on all 50 states organized into 21 regions. You need to have a PC with an
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EGA display and 512KB. For more information contact:
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Earth Science Information Center
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U.S. Geological Survey
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507 National Center
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Reston, VA 22092
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Telephone: 703+648-6045 or 1+800+USA-MAPS (872-6277)
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--------------------------------------------------
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CD-ROM on Novell networks
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Micro Design International has announced that they have the first CD-ROM drive
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certified for Novell networks. If you are interested. try contacting:
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Micro Design International, Inc.
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6985 University Boulevard
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Winter Park, FL 32792
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Phone: (407) 677-8333
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Fax: (407) 677-8365
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--------------------------------------------------
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More Pi than you can possibly eat
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Do any of you have a passion for sweets? If so, you can satisfy them at site
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ftp.pitt.edu where in the info/general directory they have the file pi.dat
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containing more than 1.25 MILLION digits of pi. Dr Chaos suggests that you try
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plotting them to determine if you can discern a pattern. Good luck!
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--------------------------------------------------
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Kaos (the real thing)
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On the local front, Dr. Chaos reports on a program called Kaos (for sunview)
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written by Swan Kim and John Guckenheimer at Cornell to investigate dynamical
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systems. Look for the files kaos_4.1.tar.Z and kaos_users_manual on
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marcy.tn.cornell.edu in the /pub directory. Dr. Chaos has a report that an X-
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windows version of the program will be available soon in the same place. Does
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anyone have more detailed (or accurate) information?
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--------------------------------------------------
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Scientist's WorkBench
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The Scientist's WorkBench project at the Cornell Theory Center is winding up
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their -pre-beta testing (is that like alpha-plus?) and plan to have the beta
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version available on September 15, 1991. If you haven't heard of SWB, it is an
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X-based application combining "tools to enhance the development, testing, and
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execution of scientific codes." Binaries are available for IBM RS/6000 and
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SPARC workstations on eagle.tc.cornell.edu in the pub/swb directory. Dr. Chaos
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suggests reading the file README.TOP for more information.
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--------------------------------------------------
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ISIS
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For those of you interested in the ISIS distributed system developed in the
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Cornell Computer Science Department, it is still available on ftp.cs.cornell.edu
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(look for ISISV21.TAR.Z). There are some patches/bug reports that are also
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available in that location. Ken Birman reports that version is no longer
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supported at Cornell because they are all using the commercial version (ISIS
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V3.0.2) from ISIS Distributed Systems Inc. There may be another free version
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(V2.2) but it will take 6-8 weeks of time and as yet there is no estimated
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release date.
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--------------------------------------------------
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Security and good passwords
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For those Systems Administrators that want to keep up on security by making sure
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your users have not chosen easy-to-guess passwords, crack 3.1 is currently
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available from wuarchive.wustl.edu in the /packages directory under the name
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crack3.1.tar.Z. Dr. Chaos claims that a newer version "that can take apart
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systems in just a few minutes" is being worked on and will be available "real
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soon now."
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--------------------------------------------------
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Programming contest
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Once again this fall, Duke University will be sponsoring a Internet Programming
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Contest and is soliciting problems to use in the contest. The problems should
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be solvable in C or Pascal in less than 4 hours and the preference is for the
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"algorithmically challenging" type (as opposed to coding long tables, etc.).
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Send potential problems to ola@cs.duke.edu. More information about the contest
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itself will be available at a later date.
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--------------------------------------------------
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Startrek
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For those Startrek fans among you, Dr. Chaos reports the availability of the
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Lists of Lists for both versions of the show are available at ftp.cs.widener.edu
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in the pub/strek directory -- look for tos_lists and tng_lists. A summery of
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each show is included along with original air dates, episodes in which Picard
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violated the Prime Directive, and mistakes/inconsistencies that people have
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caught. Similar information is available for the Simpson's in the pub/simpsons
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directory.
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--------------------------------------------------
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Weather GIFs
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Dr. Chaos was excited to see a posting on19Aug claiming that there were some
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nice gif images from the weather satellite showing hurricane Bob. The bad news
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is that they are stored on a computer at the University of Rhode Island -- and
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they haven't been on the network since some time on that day (attempts to reach
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uriacc.uri.edu still get the "network is unreachable" message). All is not
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lost, Dr. Chaos manages to get a satellite image from vmd.cso.uiuc.edu (in the
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phil.515 directory) that shows Hurricane Bob approximately centered over Rhode
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Island. Look on pelican.cit.cornell.edu (our Unix home-away-from-home) in the
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/pub/gif directory for the file ts-bob.gif.
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--------------------------------------------------
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PC Fractal software
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On the PC front, the popular fractal generating program FRACTINT is now at
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version 16.11 and is available at wuarchive.wustl.edu in the
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/mirrors/msdos/graphics directory under the name of frai1611.zip (fras1611.zip
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for the source).
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--------------------------------------------------
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PC computers and keeping the right date
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If you have noticed that leaving your PC on overnight means that the date
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doesn't get updated at midnight, here is just the program for you. On a
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periodic basis, CLOCKDEV reads the battery-backed clock chip to verify that the
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DOS date/time agree with it. Dr. Chaos has installed this program on puffin and
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found it worked like a charm ... the date is now correct when he arrives in the
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morning. Look for file clkdev14.zip on wuarchive.wustl.edu in the
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/mirrors/msdos/sysutl directory.
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--------------------------------------------------
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OS/2 beta test
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Since Dr. Chaos has received an early evaluation copy of OS/2 2.0, he has gotten
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interested in archives of OS/2 software. The most promising appears to be mims-
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iris.waterloo.edu (in the os2/* directories). He promises more info later after
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he has a chance to investigate further.
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--------------------------------------------------
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Hex, octal, ascii comversion tables
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Tired of looking up the hex/octal/decimal values for various ascii characters?
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Xascii is a small application that displays those values for the whole ascii
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character set and is available from ftp.eng.auburn.edu. Get the file
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xascii.tar.Z from the /pub directory. For Windows 3.0 users, Dr. Chaos
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recommends ACHART from wuarchive.wustl.edu in the mirrors/msdos/windows3
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directory stored as achart12.zip.
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--------------------------------------------------
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CPU utilization under Windows
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Speaking of Windows 3.0 software... there is an updated version of the
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Performance Meter utility (it shows a moving graph of you CPU utilization) that
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uses the keep-in-front option. Look for perfm202.zip on cica.cica.indiana.edu
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in the /pub/pc/win3/util directory.
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--------------------------------------------------
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Windows and win32
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At a Windows 3 conference last week, Microsoft distributed a white paper
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detailing the Windows 32-bit API and products that would contain it. A
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compressed PostScript file containing the paper is on uunet.uu.net in the
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/vendor/microsoft/isv-communications directory. Look for file ntwn32.zip (or
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ntwn32.txt for text-only). Dr. Chaos reports that he also found in the same
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directory the file win31be.zip which appears to be a compressed form of an
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application to beta-test Microsoft Windows 3.1. (I can hear the keys clicking
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away even as I write this.)
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--------------------------------------------------
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Jargon and TLA
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Confused by all the jargon in this business? Do you find that the person next
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door to you speaks a different set of TLAs than you do? A new, updated version
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of the Jargon File is available from mc.lcs.mit.edu in the pub/jargon directory
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(look for jargon296.ascii or, for the compressed version, jargon296.ascii.Z).
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Out of space and mostly out of time for this issue. Please keep those
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electronic cards and letters coming in ... remember! Dr. Chaos (rdc)
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at cornella.cit.cornell.edu -- we all thank you!
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Dr. Chaos (I have a Masters Degree)
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