207 lines
9.5 KiB
Plaintext
207 lines
9.5 KiB
Plaintext
Chaos Corner V02 N03 24 March 1992
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This is likely to be a little shorter than the regular Chaos Corner ...
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we are just preparing to depart today for a speaking engagement and will
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not return for several weeks. Operating, as we do, under the rule of
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"if it weren't a crisis, I wouldn't be doing it" (note the use of the
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subjunctive mood -- German grammar is sooo much fun!) we have spent the
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last week updating foils (and converting them from Word-for-Windows to
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Aldus Persuasion), and preparing the 20 page written document for the
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conference proceedings. Of course, it all could have been done a month
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ago, but it wasn't a crisis then!
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--------------------------------------------------
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SMTP mailers
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Shelia Patterson in CIT's Systems Programming Services guessed that Gary
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Buhrmaster requested his copy of Chaos Corner Volume 1 by using a
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"standard" trick. The SMTP mailers that route these files across the
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Internet don't just talk to each other; they also will talk to any human
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using 'telnet' to talk to the TCP/IP port the mailer uses. All this
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means is that you can 'telnet' to any mailer and give it any old
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interesting file you want (like sending a friend a personal mail file
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from our fearless leader). This explanation should not encourage any of
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you to try this, but it should lead you to suspect "strange" mail files
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-- if you get a mail file that you question, check with the sender, it
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may have been forged! Dr. Chaos has heard of a user at one site
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receiving a mail file from the system operator telling him he was using
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too much CPU time (not sent by the operator at all).
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--------------------------------------------------
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Mail time and bound copies of Chaos Corner Volume 1
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The trick that Gary used to get his request for Chaos Corner volume 1
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sent before the deadline was to set the date and time back by several
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days when he had test time one Sunday morning on the 3090-200J.
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Remember, bound copies of volume 1 are still available at the CIT Help
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Desk for cost (3 Dollars), or you can get the document via FTP from
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pelican.cit.cornell.edu in the /pub directory. Look for files ccv01.ps
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and ccv01.text for the PostScript and text versions, respectively. (But
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you won't get it bound with the beautiful covers designed by graphics
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artist 'Tomass Boggass'.)
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--------------------------------------------------
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Chaos Corner distribution problems
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Dr. Chaos apologizes for some confusion in the distribution of the last
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several issues of Chaos Corner. There have been some problems with
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delivery to VM/CMS-Bitnet sites and also problems with readers from
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Bitnet sites sending requests to chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu.
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At first, we thought the problem was with the SMTP mailer on the VM/CMS
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systems ... sorry to say, it (at least partially) was a problem with the
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sendmail.cf on pelican.cit.cornell.edu. After only a couple of hours of
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comparing sendmail.cf files from various systems, we were able to deduce
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the fix and update pelican. We hope this distribution will go OK ...
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because if it isn't, we're not going to be around to fix it.
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Any files that are mentioned below can be requested by sending mail to
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chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu. Note that the response is
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handled in person by Dr. Chaos so it is possible to give a more-than-
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one-word description of the file you want. (We get some requests that
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are just a little too terse -- do you think that we REMEMBER what we
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write?)
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--------------------------------------------------
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Germany and German
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A discussion list started recently dedicated to German History from 900
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to 1992. Dr. Chaos reports many discussion threads ranging from the
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current neo-Nazi movement to feelings between Protestants and Catholics.
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The list is fairly active and the postings are primarily in English. If
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you are interested, send mail to listserv@uscvm.bitnet with the single
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line 'subscribe germhist <your-name>'. Dr. Chaos reports that he also
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has copies of the regular postings for Netiquette, Emily Postnews
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Antworten, and a Glossary of English acronyms (FTP, etc.) explained in
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German. It's too bad that the local SCOLA channel on TV carries the
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German news with a one week delay. Right now we are hearing about the
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nuclear accident near St. Petersburg from a Japanese news report (with
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English subtitles).
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--------------------------------------------------
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X11 R5
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Fix number 10 for X11 Release 5 is now available. Of course, the
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complete X11R5 distribution (and fixes) is available on
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pelican.cit.cornell.edu in the pub/X11R5 directory. Fix-10 cures about
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30 problems, including some introduced by fix-09.
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--------------------------------------------------
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Space - ftp site info
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The UseNet newsgroups sci.astro and sci.space have a regular
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(approximately monthly) posting of FTP sites where you can obtain a
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large amount of space-research related material. Items include images,
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solar reports, star data bases, and space shuttle updates (another
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successful launch today). Let Dr. Chaos know if you would like a copy
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of this list.
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--------------------------------------------------
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Space, and the Flat Venus society
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From sci.space comes the report of the "Flat-Venus Society" -- anyone
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with even a low-power telescope can see that Venus is a flat disc, just
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like Earth, so this society is encouraging everyone to write their
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government representatives to urge them to uncover the fraud.
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--------------------------------------------------
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Space Calendar
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Dr. Chaos also has a copy of the 1992 space calendar compiled by Ron
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Baalke at JPL. There is still time to prepare for the Lyrids Meteor
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Shower scheduled for April 21st.
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--------------------------------------------------
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AIX Security advisory
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The Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) has issued an advisory of a
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security loophole in the RS/6000 version of AIX at service levels 3.1.6
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and before. If you do not use the uucp utilities, then you should (from
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root) issue the following command: 'chmod 0100 /usr/bin/uucp', and if
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you do use uucp then call IBM (800-237-5511) for a fix to the problem
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logged as ix18516.
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--------------------------------------------------
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AIXTIPS posted to comp.unix.aix
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Andreas Siegert of the IBM AIX Field Support Center in Munich regularly
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posts AIXTIPS to the comp.unix.aix newsgroup on UseNet,and aix-l on
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BITNET. Dr. Chaos finds that these contain useful information and has
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saved the last 5 issues.
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--------------------------------------------------
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AIX Public Domain Software archive
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Dr. Chaos hopes you are all familiar with the AIX Public Domain Software
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Repository at UCLA. The source for many applications in a form already
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ported to AIX 3.1 is available on the machine AIXPDSLIB.SEAS.UCLA.EDU.
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Once you have connected via anonymous ftp, 'get' the README file. By
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retrieving the README file, you agree to abide by instructions contained
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therein, and in any additional files which the README file references
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(legal stuff). While the initial focus is the exchange of codes and
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ports that are running, or are in process, for the RISC System/6000;
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code that runs on mainframe AIX and AIX PS/2 will also be accepted.
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--------------------------------------------------
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Gopher
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Developed at the University of Minnesota, Gopher clients and servers
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allow a user to perform a keyword search for information on the network
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and then easily retrieve that information by an appropriate access
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method. The definitive software and instructions for setting up clients
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and servers is on the machine boombox.micro.umn.edu in directory
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pub/gopher. Version 0.8 of the Unix software has just been announced,
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and clients exist for the Mac, Unix, VMS, NeXT, VM/CMS, PC-DOS, and X-
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Windows.
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--------------------------------------------------
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WAIS
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Gopher is related to the Wide Area Information Server (WAIS) code
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developed and distributed by Thinking Machines Corporation and is
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available for anonymous FTP from think.com in the wais directory. The
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current version can be found in the file named wais-8-b4.tar.Z. WAIS
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includes indexing software that some people have reportedly used to
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index their saved mail files -- they can then easily do searches to find
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that missing but suddenly very relevent mail file. Dr. Chaos thinks
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that this may well prove to be the "magic bullet" to finally get us
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organized ... now if we could only get organized enough to get the
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software running on pelican ...
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Info
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--------------------------------------------------
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Time Zone abbrevations
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Dr. Chaos reports collecting a file that contains a list of all the
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abbreviations for the various time zones, their offset from CUT (that's
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GMT for old fogies), and their English name.
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--------------------------------------------------
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Internet Services List
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Of course, the updated Internet Service List gets even longer. Just a
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couple of items: you can telnet fedix.fie.com or telnet 192.111.228.1
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(login fedix) to get information on scholarships, minority assistance,
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etc.; and if you telnet 130.44.1.100 (Login: e-math Password: e-math),
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the service is an Am. Math. Society sponsored bulletin board system with
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software and reviews. For any of you without FTP access, send mail to
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ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com Subject:(hit return) Body-of-letter: help
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(return) quit ... for information on how to access FTP sites through
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electronic mail.
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Well, we promised a short issue, so we must stop for now. Remember, for
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your own subscription or any of the files mentioned above, send you
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request to chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu.
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Dr. Chaos (I have a master's degree!)
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