193 lines
10 KiB
Plaintext
193 lines
10 KiB
Plaintext
Chaos Corner V03 N02 25 April 1993
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This edition of Chaos Corner is being written in yet a different way.
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First of all, we are using the March Beta release of OS/2 2.1 (with the
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INI, REXX, COM, and HPFS fixes); TCP/IP for OS/2 version 1.2.1 (with CSD
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379xx installed); David Bolen's SLIP Driver for OS/2; and Word for
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Windows. Since this machine now has an XGA card for the display, Word
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for Windows can be run right on the desktop in seamless mode. David
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Bolen's SLIP driver (unlike IBM's driver that comes with TCP/IP) doesn't
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assume that you have been assigned a fixed IP address ... in fact it
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comes with a REXX script to logon to an Annex SLIP server; parse the
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responses and configure the system appropriately with the dynamically
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assigned IP addresses. Using the TCP/IP package allows me to have a
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TN3270 session to the mainframe that stores my collected tidbits, a
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telnet session to pelican (an RS/6000) I use for a Unix base; and still
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open FTP sessions directly to various sites to verify location, etc. for
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the various things we mention here. So far, we haven’t quite gotten gif
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images generated on pelican (with xloadimage or xv) to display with the
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correct colors in an x-window ... but we have some ideas how to correct
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it. All-in-all, it’s a VERY nice setup, even if the 386-20 processor is
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a tad slow to drive all that software.
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Even with the fixes that have to be applied, the March Beta of OS/2 is
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more than worth the $15 to get the CD-ROM. I was agonizing how to get
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someone to copy the disk images from the CD-ROM to floppies, when Dr.
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Chaos grabbed it from my hand, loaded it into the CD-ROM drive on the
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RS/6000, and a few 'mount' and 'cd' commands later he started the
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process of 'cp' commands to write the disk images from the CD to
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formatted floppy disks ... all under AIX. While Dr. Chaos was creating
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the floppies, I was feeding them to a pigeon (a PS/2-80) as the first
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install.
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-------------------------------------------------
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Mailbag - Permission to republish
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Many thanks to Carlos Alberto Teixeira at the Pontificia Universidade
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Catolica do Rio de Janeiro for his kind comments in support of Chaos
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Corner. He also asks permission to reproduce all or parts of Chaos
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Corner to help people in navigating the Internet. Dr. Chaos is happy to
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grant permission in such cases, so long as the source is mentioned and
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that it is stated that (free) subscriptions are available by sending
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your request to Dr. Chaos at chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu. By
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the way, Dr. chaos tells me that he has received well over 100 new
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subscription requests since the last issue.
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-------------------------------------------------
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Space Shuttle Photographic Data Base
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Ken Stuart of CIT's Helpdesk passed on to Dr. Chaos a tip about a great
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data base of photographs of Earth taken by space shuttle astronauts.
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The vital information you need to get access to the dara base is:
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telnet sseop.jsc.nasa.gov or telnet 146.154.11.34
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and enter 'photos' at the prompt for both Username and Password. You
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will then be taken into a menu system that we found slightly confusing
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the first time ... just remember that if you get a list that scrolls
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quickly off the screen, when you exit back to the menu, you are given an
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opportunity to download the last list you displayed. We couldn't quite
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figure out how to download the same picture that we saw during a quick
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session, but there are so many interesting pictures it didn't matter.
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Pictures you select can be sent to you by email, kermit download, or
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ftp. One slight problem is that the list did not indicate the size of
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the images. Be forewarned that these images appear to be 1024 by 1024
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with 24-bit color .... that's 3 MB per image. Don't try to FTP it to
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yourself over a SLIP link while you are trying to do something else
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(like write this item in Chaos Corner). The images are not in
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gif/tif/jpg format (Dr. Chaos tells me that they are in Targa format)
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... but the format is readily handled by "standard" DOS programs like
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VPIC or CSHOW. If you don't have one of those utilities, the site has a
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copy of VPIC that you can download. Very nice resource ... thanks Ken!
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-------------------------------------------------
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POST Codes and other popular items from V03 N01
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Both Klaus Wolkersdorfer (KFA in Juelich Germany) and Jim Forkner from
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PSU both had had problems with receiving the feared "double beep" from
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their PS/2's just about the time that the last issue arrived. There
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were about the same number of requests for that file as for the file on
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Unix books and the telecom survey. The most popular file was the modem
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reviews with a total of 27 requests. John Balogh at PSU got to
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experience some of the Chaos around here as he got a fairly random
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collection of articles in response to his requests. We hope that he
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finally got the parts to the articles he requested.
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-------------------------------------------------
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Ham Radio / Shortwave Radio / Packet Radio information
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Dr Chaos has a file listing the introductory information and additional
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sources (other FTP sites) about radio. For readers of the
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rec.radio.amateur newsgroup on Usenet, these files are a de-facto
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"Required Reading List" to provide definitive answers and pointers to
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other sources for questions that come up in this forum. Request the
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file from Dr. Chaos at chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu and check
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out the information stored at ftp.cs.buffalo.edu in the pub/ham-radio
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directory. Check the README file for one-line descriptions of the
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files.
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-------------------------------------------------
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Need help getting IBM's TCP/IP for OS/2 running?
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Some of the best advice you can find on installing TCP/IP 1.2.1 under
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OS/2 is in the file tcpstart.txt available via anonymous ftp from the
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machine ftp-os2.nmsu.edu in the pub/os2/2.x/network. While you're
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there, don't pass up the opportunity to get David Bolen's beta test
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version of a SLIP driver. As stated earlier, it works much better than
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IBM's SLIP driver, especially if you have to login to a SLIP server
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without a preassigned IP address. Using v32.bis modems, we are getting
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ftp file transfers of nearly 2500 characters per second. The slip
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driver is in file slip20b1.zip in the same directory as tcpstart.txt
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(but don't forget to use 'binary' file transfer). As to other sources
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on the Internet for OS/2 software, just ask Dr. Chaos for a list of
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sites compiled by Phillip Parker at Wichita State University ... just
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send mail to chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu. (Those of you in
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Europe might want to check out ftp.luth.se for OS/2 software.)
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-------------------------------------------------
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New OS/2 support for seamless Windows on 8514 monitor
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There are now drivers available that (at last!) allow people using the
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OS/2 2.1 beta in 8514 mode (8514 is the number of a 16 inch color
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monitor that IBM produced a number of years ago that allowed resolutions
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of 1024 by 768 with 256 colors, but you knew that!) to run with seamless
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Windows. IBM only supports the drivers with the March version of the
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beta, but reports are that the drivers also work with the widely
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distributed December beta. Get the 8514 drivers in file b8514a.zip on
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software.watson.ibm.com in the pub/os2/os2fixes directory.
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-------------------------------------------------
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How to run your favorite DOS and Windows games under OS/2
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Last but not least, the file that explains what changes you have to make
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to those pesky "DOS Settings" to get various games to work correctly has
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recently been updated to version 2.0. Look for file games20.txt in the
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pub/os2/2.x/info directory on ftp-os2.nmsu.edu (along with a lot of
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other files containing information about OS/2 2.x).
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-------------------------------------------------
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More files available from Dr. Chaos
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ZEOS has contributed a list of telephone numbers for a number of
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computer hardware and software companies. For you compy of the list
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just ask Dr. Chaos at chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu. Ever
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wonder how to get started at picking locks, ... errr, locksmithing?
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Just ask Dr. Chaos for the frequently asked questions from the Usenet
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group alt.locksmithing. Want to communicate with President Clinton by
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electronic mail? More realistically, you can get an increasing amount
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of government-provided information across the Internet. Just ask for
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the White House Electronic Communications FAQ-list. A short but
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invaluable list of Internet tools is maintained by John December at RPI.
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Look for file pub/communications/internet-tools via anonymous ftp from
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the host ftp.rpi.edu. Ever want a complete list of the two-character
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country codes are that at the end of non-USA Internet addresses? Ever
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want to know what Bulletin-Board Systems are accessible on the Internet?
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Frustrated by the possibility of ever sorting through the huge nuber of
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programs to find the ones that are really useful? --- You need Samuel
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Ko's guide to the really useful MSDOS software. Do you need to know
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(even if you don't really want to) about how serial ports work? What are
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the top 100 PC Games as selected by people voting across the net?
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Summaries of games available for DOS and OS/2? The 1992 Game Bytes
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Awards and the Index for the Issues 1-8 of Game Bytes (an electronic
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magazine on games)? Files on these topics are available for the asking
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from Dr. Chaos at chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu.
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-------------------------------------------------
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New postal codes coming in Germany
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As of July 1, all the postal codes are changing in Germany. (Since the
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re-unification of Germany, a number of towns had postal codes that were
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duplicates). In the process of assigning new postal codes, some
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restructuring is occurring making it impossible to come up with a simple
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mapping from the old code to the new one. A great deal of information
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about the new postal codes (Postleitzahlen or PLZ) is now available in
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the directory info/allgemein/PLZ of ftp.uni-stuttgart.de.
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-------------------------------------------------
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Question about job exchanges
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Eileen Driscoll at Cornell (607) 255-3228, or in more familiar terms
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E_Driscoll@qmrelay.mail.cornell.edu, need to interview who have
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exchanged jobs for an article she is writing. If you or anyone that you
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know of has exchanged jobs for some period of time, she would really
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like to know about it. She is alos interested in how people make
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arrangements for study leaves.
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Well, we hit the limit for this issue. Remember, for your subscription
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just ask Dr. Chaos at chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu. It can't
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be too expensive!
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Dr. Chaos (I have a master's degree ...)
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.
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