266 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
266 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
Chaos Corner V02 N05 19Jun92
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Top files requesed from CC V02 N04
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For those who are interested, the top files requested from the last
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issue were: the Unofficial Smiley Dictionary, 100 Ways to Say I Love
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You, Dave Barry on Computing, and the information on getting personal
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Internet access for $29/month at 9600 baud -- the List of Telephone Area
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Codes for US and Canada also had some fair amount of interest shown in
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it. Of course, the people who asked for "all three list" received all
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four lists (since no one pointed that out, Dr. Chaos wonders if his
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readers are similar to the small furry creature he just pried out from
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between the jaws of the household cat.
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Mailbag
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--------------------------------------------------
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More on time, UTC, CUT and GMT
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In the category of corrections, Norris@athena.mit.edu points out that
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the choice of "UTC" for the time zone name was because the order of the
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letters did not correspond to the proper ordering in ANY major language.
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Joe Ahlgren (author of GeoClock) has had to do a lot of work with time
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for a number of years (Joe --- I still tell stories about the program
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you developed on the Wang calculator back at Ft. Huachuca). In any
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case, Joe had the following clarification on the difference between UTC
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and GMT.: "The change from GMT to UTC is very fundamental. GMT as a
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time standard WAS based on astronomical measurements. It is now quite
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well established that the motion of the planets is nowhere near as
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regular as atomic clocks. UTC as a time standard is based on atomic
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clocks, and the time used by most of the scientific world is sync'ed to
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this standard. The difference between this standard and the planetary
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motions is why there are "leap seconds" from time to time. However, GMT
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as a time zone still exists and is still the basis for most other time
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zones. GMT is sync'ed to UTC. It is still quite proper to say that
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Eastern Daylight Time is 4 hours behind GMT. GMT is a derived standard,
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but still the standard for time zones. Of course, there is no practical
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difference between UTC and GMT. I think the ultimate authority on these
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names is Ted Turner, and he still uses GMT. ... Paris is responsible
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BOTH for keeping the atomic time standard and keeping UTC in sync with
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the observed day by adding leap seconds. The astromomy for the later is
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scattered all over the planet, but of course not in Greenwich since it
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is too close to London."
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GeoClock reviews - correction
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We made the mistake last time of saying that
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something had appeared in PC Week about GeoClock ... having read all
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those back issues at one time must have fried Dr. Chaos's brain, because
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the mention was in CompuServe Magazine rather than PC Week. Sorry for
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the confusion.
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--------------------------------------------------
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What is this Chaos Corner stuff?
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Sean Pogue at Ohio U. may have actually asked what some of the rest of
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you were thinking when he saw Chaos Corner for the first time -- "So
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what gives with all this Dr. Chaos stuff?" The response of Dr. Chaos
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was (for those of you who wondered and didn't ask) " Chaos Corner is a
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small, randomly published electronic newsletter I write that mentions
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things I have found in the process of wandering across the network.
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Back copies are available, and a copy of Volume 1 from last year (with
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an *index*) is available in PostScript form (via ftp) or bound hardcopy
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with nice covers. What you have here is a combination of Dr. Science
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(from National Public Radio), Chaos Manor (from Byte), and Rumor Central
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(from PC Week). One writer from Finland (and unfortunately we have lost
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the name) is connecting to the internet from a Mac and is not familiar
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with any of those references (but wanted ALL the back issues!).
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Personal Internet access - clairifications
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There are a couple of clarification/additions relative to the item on
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personal internet access. The service that we have information on is
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provided by PSINet, and if you are associated with Cornell (or probably
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with the New York State University system), an ID on PSI seems to be
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available for the asking (for more information on those options just
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"telnet cornellc.cit.cornell.edu 300" and then enter the command
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"computing access info". Of course, PSINet isn't the only game in town,
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and Harry Bartholomew has the following report from California -- "I get
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9600 baud access to Internet for $17.50 /mo with unlimited time and 5 Mb
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storage at no extra charge. The vendor Netcom has POP's at local numbers
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all around the San Francisco bay area and is moving into Southern
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California as well. Contact Network Operations Mgr. Bob Rieger for
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further info at bobr@netcom.com or 408 554 UNIX for voice."
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4DOS and 4OS2
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The 4DOS discussion list has become quite active in the last few days.
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For those of you who might not have heard, 4DOS is a replacement for the
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DOS command processor COMMAND.COM. The major thing we like around here
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is the ability to recall and edit previously entered command lines, but
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there are also features like the fact that it swaps itself out of
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memory, it has a reasonable help system, it has some additional useful
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commands like 'list' and 'move', and it seems well supported shareware.
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The company (J. P. Software) has recently distributed a similar program
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for OS/2 (it replaces the OS/2 command processor CMD.EXE). The most
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recent versions of 4DOS and 4OS2 can be found on wuarchive.wustl.edu in
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the /mirrors/msdos/4dos directory.(this is for 4DOS ... look for files
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named 4dos401p.zip (programs) and 4dos401d.zip (documentation)), and in
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the /mirrors/misc/os2 directory for 4os210.zip. You can get a break on
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registering both products at the same time, and believe us, once you get
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used to the capabilities of these programs, you won't want to be without
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them in either the OS2 or the DOS environment.
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--------------------------------------------------
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4DOS alias to delete a subtree of files
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One recent question on the 4DOS list was how to set up an ALIAS that
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allows the removal of a whole subtree of files. It turns out that the
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4DOS 'delete' command has some extra capabilities and so the answer was
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just to enter the command "ALIAS ZAP=DEL /SXYZ *.*" after which the ZAP
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command will wipe out the directory subtree that you are in.
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OS/2 archives
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The OS/2 archives are starting to build. If you are on BITNET and don't
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have ftp access, a good source is in Belgium, you can get a complete
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list of the files available by issuing the command (from CMS)
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TELL LISTSERV AT BLEUKL11 SEND OS2INDEX PACKAGE
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or put the 'send os2index package' command in a mail file and send it to
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listserv@BLEKUL11. (We put the node name in upper case so that the 'L's
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could be distinguished from the '1's.) Note that you will not get a
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response back immediately, since requests are queued for overnight
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delivery. One recent addition that Dr. Chaos wants to try is a 3-D Maze
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game.
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OS/2 Frequesntly Asked Questions (FAQ)
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In addition to the current OS/2 Frequently Asked Questions list, Dr.
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Chaos tells me that we have the current OS/2 Tips and Techniques file as
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well as the Frequently Asked Questions for Programmers. Let Dr. Chaos
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know at chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu if you would like copies
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of these lists.
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OS/2 and IBM Marketing
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The excitement in the OS/2 world started on May 1 when a blast that an
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IBMer made at the rest of the organization (on an internal IBM forum)
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about the poor job that had been done of marketing OS/2 was "leaked" and
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posted on NetNews. Needless to say, the person who leaked the article
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no longer works for IBM .... but has gotten some round-about internet
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access to enable him to post an apology on the net. This isn't a soap
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opera folks, it's real life! (it just seems a little distant sometimes
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with the slowness of keyboard interactions)
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OS/2 archive name change
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Last time we mentioned the archive site at hobbes.nmsu.edu, and now we
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get to announce that they are changing their name. It the future use
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ftp-os2.nmsu.edu so if they decide to move the archive you won't be
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lost.
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OS/2 fixes available on the Internet
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IBM is making a number of fixes available for OS/2 across the network.
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Check your favorite archive site for the fixes to the problems you most
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want to get rid of. (ftp-os2.nmsu.edu in the pub/os2/2.0/patches
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directory is a good choice because of the descriptive list that you get
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in response to a 'dir' command.
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WINDOWS archive name change
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Speaking of archives changing names, the large archive for MS Windows
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software has changed from cica.cica.indiana.edu to ftp.cica.indiana.edu.
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Dr. Chaos just reported to me that he has checked out one site that
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advertised itself as a new ftp site for Windows software, but the
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largest part of the archive seemed to be devoted to X/R-rated images, so
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there is not much of interest there.
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Windows version of dogcow
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Just to let you Mac users that Windows is finally catching up, in the
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pub/pc/win3/games directory of ftp.cica.indiana.edu look for dogcow.zip
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-- a version of the (in)famous Dogcow animated icon. (Thanks to Tom
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Young for taking the time one day to explain the dogcow icon.)
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Best Windows shareware list
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Diego A. Aranda maintains a list of the best Windows Shareware and
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Freeware. His list is available via anonymous ftp from
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ftp.cica.indiana.edu in the /pub/pc/win3/misc and the current version is
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named bw2-31-2.zip.
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--------------------------------------------------
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Windows 3.1 authors
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If you would like to see the author list of Windows 3.1 then do the
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following. In Program Manager. (1). Click Help/About. Hold down
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Shift/Ctrl and double-click the Windows logo in the upper-left of the
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About-box. Click OK. (Nothing will happen - keep going) (2).Repeat
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step (1). (A waving flag and a "Dedicated to..." message appears)
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Click OK. (3). Repeat step (1). (The Windows authors appear in the
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About box)
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Miscellaneous
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--------------------------------------------------
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Hospitality Exchange Database
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Thanks to Sheila Patterson for pointing out the existence of the
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Hospitality Exchange Database, HOSPEX@PLEARN. The purpose of the list
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is both to provide those interested in being a host a way to satisfy
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their interests and to aid those interested in finding hosts when
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traveling. They currently have hosts in over 25 countries, and on six
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continents. To start the subscription process, issue the command
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TELL LISTSERV AT PLEARN SUBSCRIBE HOSPEX <your full name>
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from CMS or send a mail file that contains only the "subscribe..."
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command. You will be sent a host's form to be filled out and returned
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to HOSPEX@PLEARN; only then will you be considered a member of HOSPEX
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and get added to the HOSPEX and HOSPEX-L lists, and will have the right
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to search through the HOSPEX database for possible hosts.
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--------------------------------------------------
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UNIX/X/Motif
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The production version of the Scientist's Workbench (an X and Motif-
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based software package developed at the Cornell Theory Center) has now
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been released. "The main functions of the Scientist's Workbench are to
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bring together the tools and software required by scientific researchers
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in a distributed computing environment, to provide a graphical interface
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to access those tools, and to provide the software necessary to allow
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researchers to easily build their own graphical interfaces." The
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interesting thing about this software is the ability to use the provided
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widgets to implement a graphical interface on top of ordinary text
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programs. The new software is available via anonymous ftp from
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info.tc.cornell.edu, in the directory pub/swb. The file README.TOP
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describes the rest of the files in the anonymous ftp, and the file
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README.CHANGES lists the changes that were made since the beta version.
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As before, we have provided binary versions of the Workbench for Sun
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SPARC and RS/6000 (AIX 3.1), as well as the source code. The new tar
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files are a complete replacement of the old software. If you have
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comments or suggestions, or would like to be added to the Scientist's
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Workbench mailing list, send a note to sciwb@tc.cornell.edu.
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--------------------------------------------------
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To get put on the Chaos Corner mailing list, just send your request to
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chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu.
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Dr. Chaos (I have a Masters Degree .... ) 8-)
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