325 lines
14 KiB
Plaintext
325 lines
14 KiB
Plaintext
Chaos Corner V04 N03 22 June 1994
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Copyright 1994 by Robert D. Cowles; Ithaca, NY 14850. Permission is
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hereby granted to republish complete issues in unaltered form.
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Republication of partial issues must reference the source and state that
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subscriptions to Chaos Corner are available (free) by sending electronic
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mail to chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu.
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--------------------------------------------------
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Table of Contents for V04 N03
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Just a few corrections
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Further info on the Jupiter event
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US National Archives is on the Internet
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Chaos Corner not enough information?
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Service tales - Good and Bad - Continued
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Continuing selections from alt.humor.puns
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German Tutorial
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NERDATHON '94 - Call for Presentations
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Do you like to watch other people work? - CU-SeeMe
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Saving your e-mail?
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Humorous signature files
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Get your Free Subscription Here!
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--------------------------------------------------
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Just a few corrections
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Bill Homer (my college roommate from the 60's, now at Cray) and Ken
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Stuart (not ever my college roommate) were quick to point out that the
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current way to get on the mailing list that keeps you updated with
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information about the new files on CICA (the Windows archive) is now:
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Send e-mail to listserv@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu. In that message put a
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line that says
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Sub cica-l <First> <Last>
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Where <First> is your first name and <Last> is your last name.
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Apologies to Chris Johnson at SUNY Buffalo, who probably wondered where
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all those requests suddenly came from.
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A number of you asked how Dr. Chaos manages to get strange characters
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substituted for the apostrophe. It's very simple ... the "smart quotes"
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feature of Word makes it a trivial task to do some really dumb things
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like that. Interestingly, some of you have mailers that reject any mail
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files that appear to contain special characters (the company initials
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are HP), and others of you have mailers that will convert the mail file
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to something that is uuencoded. In any case, if you think we sometimes
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send out some strange stuff, you should see what we get back from 2000
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different mailers around the world! (Over 900 new subscribers so far
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this year.)
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--------------------------------------------------
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Further info on the Jupiter event
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This in from Keith Dawson about the collision of the comet Shoemaker-
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Levy and Jupiter scheduled to begin on July 16, 1994:
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There will be a string of impacts over a period of a week or so. All
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will hit in the same spot, from our point of view, behind the
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terminator; each point of impact will rotate into view about 11
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minutes later. The fireball from each impact will last only a
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minute. That's the bad news. The good news is that some of the
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impacts are expected to brighten particular Jovian moons measurably:
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impacts that occur when the moon in question is dark (eclipsed by
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Jupiter) and in our line-of-sight. Some impacts could even brighten
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the rings! The times of impact are known for some of the large
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chunks within 40 minutes; 24 hours before the first impact the
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accuracy should be better than half a minute.
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For much more detail see the Comet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9 Impact Home
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Page, the URL http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/sl9/sl9.html
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Send electronic mail to chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu if you
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would like to receive the list of Frequently Asked Questions (and
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answers) concerning this event. To subscribe to the "Comet/Jupiter
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Collision Mailing List", send mail to listproc@seds.lpl.arizona.edu (no
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subject) with the message:
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SUBSCRIBE SL9 Firstname Lastname.
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--------------------------------------------------
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US National Archives is on the Internet
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The National Archives has made available an Internet Gopher server that
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provides key information relating to the National Archives, including
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descriptions of facilities nationwide; information on agency holdings;
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publications and general information leaflets; and some Federal records
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regulations. Researchers can access information on some of the most
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widely-used collections, including the Nixon Presidential Materials,
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Ansel Adams photographs from the Still Picture Branch, captured German
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sound recordings, electronic records, and an index of selected census
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records.
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Text-based information can be accessed with a Gopher client by
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connecting to the address gopher.nara.gov. This information, together
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with future additions of hypertext and multimedia documents, can also be
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found on the WorldWideWeb (WWW), using a client such as Mosaic, at
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http://www.nara.gov.
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--------------------------------------------------
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Chaos Corner not enough information?
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If you are interested in reading real books, printed on real paper, we
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have just the list for you. Kevin Savetz has assembled a list of reviews
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of (currently 109 books, but growing all the time) books about the
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Internet and Internet resources. For your own copy of the list, send a
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request to chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu ... careful, it's over
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1700 lines long!
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--------------------------------------------------
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Service tales - Good and Bad - Continued
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In the last issue of Chaos Corner, we thanked The Computer Center in
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Ithaca for being able to repair our ThinkPad on a schedule that didn't
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require them to keep it for long periods of time. Of course, the REAL
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name of the business is "The Computing Center" (sorry, Larry).
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Also in the last issue we promised to keep you up-to-date about the
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Dallas-area Internet provider DFW.NET. There was apparently a lost mail
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file ... a couple of telephone calls later and the SLIP connection from
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my ThinkPad to the Internet through DFW.NET was working fine. If you're
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in the DFW area, you might want to give them a try ... tell Jack that
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Dr. Chaos sent you. (E-mail to root@dfw.net, or telnet to info@dfw.net
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or call 1-214-748-4000).
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On the continuing saga of the PS/2 model 80 upgrade ... we have spent
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time talking on the phone to the IBM OS/2 support team and we have also
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requested help from the net, and we quote:
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I purchased several Evergreen Technologies chip upgrades to speed up
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some old PS/2 model 80s we had (386-DX 20). The first machine I
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upgraded was running OS/2 2.11 and has an XGA video adapter. I found
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that icons in open windows on the desktop were generally not visible
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after I enabled the cache on the chip (either with a OS/2 driver or
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from a DOS session). The icons were there, and would show up if you
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selected them, but would usually disappear again if you selected
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something else in the window (but not always). The icon behavior
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would return to normal if I disabled the cache or re-booted. I tried
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the chip in another PS/2-80 that had a 8514 graphics adapter thinking
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that the different video card might make a difference. Sure enough,
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everything worked OK. Then I realized that the OS/2 system on that
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machine was at 2.1 rather than 2.11. I upgraded the system to 2.11,
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and the strange icon behavior returned!
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The people at Evergreen don't have any other experience with this
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kind of problem (but with the latest info they were going to check
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out 2.11) and the IBM OS/2 support team is also unclear as to what
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could be causing this kind of problem. Does anyone have suggestions
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as to where the problem can lie ... like what might have changed in
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the way the display of icons is done in OS/2 2.11 that would create
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problems when the cache is enabled on one of these chip upgrades?
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Robert(s) and Ken at OS/2 support have been interested in the problem
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and have devoted significant time investigating the problem. Stay
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tuned...
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--------------------------------------------------
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Continuing selections from alt.humor.puns
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Since puns are very dependent on the language, we are reproducing here a
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recent post from the Usenet group alt.humor.puns that is NOT in English.
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To be fair, the original had an explanation in English - if you would
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like the complete version, let Dr. Chaos know at by requesting the
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English version from chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu.
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Ein Kind kam eines Tages von der Schule nach Hause. Die Mutter hat
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ihm gefragt: "Was hast du heute gelernt?"
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Es erwidert: "In der Religionstunde haben wir gelernt, dass Gott eine
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Kelle ist."
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"Was?", sagte die Mutter. "Kannst du das mir erklaeren? Habt ihr
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eine Bibelgeschichte gehoert?"
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Das Kind sagte: "Ja, wir haben gelernt, wie Gott den Himmel und die
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Erde gemacht hat."
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"Also, du hast gelernt, dass Gott der Schoepfer ist, ne?" sagte die
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Mutter.
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Das Kind sagte: "Ja, ich wusste, dass es etwas in der Kueche war."
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It always helps when the different meanings in one language corresponds
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to the meanings in another language. If your knowledge of German is
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anything like ours, it helps to know that "Kelle" and "Shoepfloeffel"
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mean ladle, and "Schoepfer" means creator (interestingly, "schopfen" is
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the verb meaning "to ladle" NOT "to create" ... but we digress).
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--------------------------------------------------
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German Tutorial
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If you need to brush up on your German skills to understand the above
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passage, the SimTel PC archives may contain what you need. Look for
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the file gplus30.zip in /msdos/langtutr at the sites that mirror the
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contents of the SimTel archives (like oak.oakland.edu).
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German Plus v3.0 is a language tutorial featuring review and
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exercises of over 500 nouns, adjectives, and verbs conjugated in the
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four major tenses. The program contains a look-up feature for use
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with the database.
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--------------------------------------------------
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NERDATHON '94 - Call for Presentations
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The Nerdathon is a computer industry get-together that is intended to
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bring visionary software (and hardware) developers together in a relaxed
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environment with venture capitalists to explore new opportunities for
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cooperation.
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The theme of the first annual Nerdathon (to be held November 18-20, 1994
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-- immediately after COMDEX) is: "Windows into the Internet".
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This event will allow for sharing of real-world examples of how the
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Internet is opening up windows of opportunity and changes in how people
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are working and living.
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Presentations are being sought on the following topics:
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Software: Graphic user interfaces for use with Internet: (MOSAIC,
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Macintosh, MS-Windows, etc.,); Agents; Enablers; Knowbots; Multi-
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user
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games, Virtual reality, ...
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Hardware: Big screen terminals, fast modems, ISDN, ATM, ...
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Cable TV: Internet delivery via cable TV.
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Government: Plans for the National Information Superhighway, Grant
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sources, Security, Cryptography & the Clipper chip.
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Industry: Telecommuting via Internet, virtual corporations and entirely
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new kinds of businesses that are enabled by the Internet.
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Community: Local community networks; Examples of how small businesses
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are using the Internet and local networks to interact and compete;
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Life-style changes; Doing business from remote locations.
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Legal: Privacy, Patents, Copyrights, Nevada as a business environment.
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Venture Capitalists: prospects for Internet-related businesses.
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If you are interested in presenting, please E-mail a brief synopsis of
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your presentation to g_rider@libre.com by July 1, 1994.
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If you wish more information, please E-mail a request to
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g_rider@libre.com. If you are interested in attending, send E-mail to
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hyatt@libre.com for event and hotel room reservations.
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--------------------------------------------------
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Do you like to watch other people work? - CU-SeeMe
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If you enjoy watching other people work at their computer ... especially
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from the point of view of the computer, take a look at CU-SeeMe. There
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are Windows and Macintosh versions available via anonymous ftp on
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comet.cit.cornell.edu in the /pub/video directory. Even if you don't
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have a camera mounted on your monitor so that other people can see you
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working, you can watch others AND if you subscribe to the mailing list
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you may hear about "special" net events. To join the list, send a
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message with the following line as the entire message body to
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listserv@cornell.edu:
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subscribe cu-seeme-l <first name> <last name>
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The software supports one-on-one and one-on-many conferencing; the
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Windows version does not yet support audio. Dr Chaos verifies that the
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Windows version runs just fine under OS/2 in seamless mode using the
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OS/2 TCP/IP 2.0 version of the Winsock code.
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--------------------------------------------------
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Saving your e-mail?
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An article in the Los Angeles Times on 16 June 1994 by Leslie Helm,
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titled "The Digital Smoking Gun" warns that mismanaged E-Mail poses
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serious risks to companies.
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...
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In the process of pretrial fact finding known as discovery, an
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attorney can demand from a company all electronic files having to do
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with a client's case. Federal rules introduced in December require
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companies to hand over a list of all available electronic data and to
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refrain from deleting any.
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...
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"It's as if people put their brains on hold when they write e-mail,"
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a consultant said. "It's a substitute for a phone call, and that's
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the danger."
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...
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E-Mail Tips --:
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- Establish an e-mail policy that urges users to exercise the
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same restraint in writing e-mail messages that they do when writing
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letters or memos. Employees should be told that "anything you put in
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this computer can and will be used against you in a court of law."
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- The company should implement an aggressive document retention
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policy that limits the number of saved e-mail messages both on the
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company's central computers and in personal computers.
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- Warn employees to be careful about forwarding messages to
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employees or outsiders.
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--------------------------------------------------
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Humorous signature files
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Do you have signature envy, those cute little sayings and drawing that
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people have appended to the bottom of each of their mail files or Usenet
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postings? Dr. Chaos has a collection of lighthearted and sometimes
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bizarre list of signatures that he found on Usenet. Maybe it will
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inspire you to improve your signature. For you own copy send mail to
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chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu and ask Dr. Chaos for the .sig
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collection.
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--------------------------------------------------
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Get your Free Subscription Here!
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Just send a message to Dr. Chaos - chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu
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and ask to be put on the subscription list. From CompuServe, use the
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address INTERNET:chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu. It's that easy.
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Don't delay ---- act now!
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Dr. Chaos
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