HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: danr@ais.org (Daniel Romanchik)
Subject: Book Review: Follow the Yellow Brick Road by Richard Saul Wurman
Organization: UMCC
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 23:14:10 GMT

Note:  This is an adaptation of a review I wrote for Test &
Measurement World, an electronics trade journal.  I think many of
the tech writers in misc.writing will find this book to be both
interesting and useful.
 
Dan
 
 
Read This Book!
 
One of the most interesting books I've read lately is _Follow the
Yellow Brick Road: Learning to Give, Take, and Use Instructions_
by Richard Saul Wurman. Despite the title, it's more than just a
"how-to" book on giving and taking instructions. It's about human
nature as much as it is about instructions.
 
Why should you care about giving and (especially) taking
instructions?  Think about it. Giving, taking, and carrying out
instructions occupies most of your work day.
 
When your boss gives you a project, he is giving you
instructions. You must then take those instructions and translate
them into a schematic for a test circuit, a computer program, or
maybe an operating manual. What are these? They are simply other
forms of instructions. Your success depends on how well you carry
out instructions from above and how well you give instructions to
those under you.
 
How well you carry out these tasks depends on how well you
understood the instructions given to you and how well folks
understand your instructions. This is where human nature fits in.
There are many barriers to understanding instructions, and most
of them have something to do with human nature. The words we use,
our body language, our ethnic heritage, and many other factors
affect our ability to give and take instructions.
 
Wurman then goes on to show us how to do it right. In the chapter
"Instruction Construction 101," he gives us the seven elements of
a good instruction:
 
- Mission (Why are you doing this?),
- Destination (Where will you be or what will
             you have when you're done?)
- Procedure (How do you do it?)
- Time (How long will it take to do it?)
- Anticipation (What happens along the way?)
- Failure (What to do is something goes wrong?)
 
How you implement these elements depends on the type of
instructions you're trying to give. Writing a computer manual is
going to be very different than telling a passing motorist how to
get to the mall.
 
This is one of those books that works on many different levels
simultaneously. It not only tells you how to give and take
instructions better, but why you should give instructions in
certain ways, and why instruction-giving and instruction-taking
is so important. That is what makes this such an interesting and
useful book.

_Follow the Yellow Brick Road: Learning to Give, Take, and Use
Instructions_ by Richard Saul Wurman. Bantam Books, 666 Fifth
Avenue, New York, NY 10103. ISBN 0-553-07425-3. 1992. 388 pages.
Price: $25.
Newsgroups: alt.books.reviews,rec.arts.books,biz.books.technical
From: sbrock@teal.csn.org (Steve Brock)
Subject: Internetworking With TCP/IP by Comer and Stevens
Organization: Colorado SuperNet, Inc.
Followp-To: rec.arts.books
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 23:52:03 GMT

INTERNETWORKING WITH TCP/IP by Douglas E. Comer and David L.
Stevens.  In three volumes: I. Principles, Protocols, and Architec-
ture, II. Design, Implementation, and Internals, III. Client-Server
Programming and Applications.  Prentice Hall, Inc., Englewood
Cliffs, NJ  07632.  Illustrated, index, bibliography, appendices,
glossary, end of chapter summaries and exercises.  Vol. I (1991) is
547 pp., $60.00 cloth (0-13-468505-9), Vol. II (1991) is 532 pp.,
$57.00 cloth (0-13-472242-6), Vol. III (1993) is 498 pp., $50.00
cloth (0-13-474222-2).

                             REVIEW


     TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) and
the Internet Society have been taking a bit of a bashing lately by
those in favor of OSI (Open Systems Interconnection), as evidenced
by an article in "Infoworld" earlier this month.  In the article,
Bob Metcalfe, who shipped the first commercial TCP/IP in 1980, says
that the protocol has "escaped the ivory towers to become a large-
scale government-supported effort to develop infrastructure for the
Information Age."
     Metcalfe goes on to say that TCP/IP has become "a slogan for
an entrenched technological elite, for an increasingly powerful
movement of intolerant true believers."  While these are strong
charges, he does relent a bit when he has lunch with the president
of the Internet Society, Dr. Vinton G. Cerf.
     Cerf pointed out to Metcalfe that the installation base of
TCP/IP on the Internet is 100%, over more than 5,000 constituent
computer networks.  That's something you just can't drop.  The
Internet Society and TCP/IP, Metcalfe conceded, are becoming
stronger and are here to stay.
     That's where Comer and Stevens enter the picture.  In this
three volume set, the authors introduce TCP/IP in Volume One,
describe how to program, construct interfaces of programs and
protocols, and establish corporate internets in Volume Two, and how
to design and build applications such as client-server models and
socket interfaces in Volume Three.
     All three volumes are powerful in their own way.  They serve
as manuals for operation as well as classroom texts, but Vol. III,
which just came out this month (Jan.), contains information on
innovative new Internet applications.  Some we are used to, such as
Telnet, but some are definitely left for those with experience with
concurrent programming.
     Vol. III has two editions.  The one I have uses the Berkeley
Unix socket design.  Also available is a Vol. III that utilizes
AT&T's TLI interface.  Make sure you buy the volume that applies to
your interface.
      All three volumes are written in an easy to read style and
will be important additions to any university's computer engineer-
ing library.
Xref: sparky alt.books.reviews:183 sci.anthropology:1822 alt.culture.indonesia:1008
From: danny@orthanc.cs.su.oz.au (Danny)
Newsgroups: alt.books.reviews,sci.economics,sci.anthropology,alt.culture.indonesia
Subject: Book Review - Agricultural Involution
Date: 27 Jan 93 04:02:07 GMT
Reply-To: danny@cs.su.oz.au (Danny)
Organization: Basser Dept of Computer Science, University of Sydney, Australia

Agricultural Involution - 
The Processes of Ecological Change in Indonesia 
Clifford Geertz 
University of California Press 1970 
pp.  176
[anthropology, economic history, agriculture]

_Agricultural Involution_ is one of the best known works of a very
influential anthropologist: a concise overview of the history of Indonesian
agricultural systems.  It describes the two main kinds of agriculture in
Indonesia, swidden and sawah (irrigated rice paddy fields), and their
geographical localisation (sawah being concentrated in Java and Bali
along with 70% of Indonesia's population).  It then looks at the
historical development of agriculture, and in particular the process of
"agricultural involution", where the Javanese economy, faced with
external pressure from the economic demands of the Dutch colonial regime
and internal pressure from rapidly increasing population, intensified
existing forms of agriculture rather than changing.  This involved
putting even more labour into paddy field cultivation, and increasing
per hectare output while maintaining per capita output.  Geertz's thesis
is that this process was tied up with the development of sugar as a
smallholder cash crop complementary with rice production.  

Critics have attacked Geertz's ideas in a number of places, and some of
his conclusions are now considered doubtful.  But this work is still
necessary reading for anyone interested in South East Asian agriculture,
as well as being a good introduction to the economic history of
Indonesia.  If nothing else, it will be remembered for the coining of
the term "agricultural involution".  

7/1/93
Newsgroups: alt.books.reviews,rec.arts.books
From: sbrock@teal.csn.org (Steve Brock)
Subject: Iron Joe Bob by Joe Bob Briggs (hard to categorize)
Followup-To: rec.arts.books
Organization: Colorado SuperNet, Inc.
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 04:40:45 GMT

IRON JOE BOB by Joe Bob Briggs.  Atlantic Monthly Press, 19 Union
Square West, N.Y., NY  10003.  256 pp., $19.00 cloth. 0-87113-488-8

                             REVIEW

           "Men: You're out of touch with your spear."

     If you've been anywhere near a college newspaper in the past
few years, you've undoubtedly read Joe Bob Briggs' drive-in movie
reviews - the ones that get higher ratings according to how many
breasts appear in the movie.
     But Joe Bob (aka John Bloom) wants readers to realize that he
has a wider vision and a unique insight on humanity.  Unique?
Definitely.  Insight?  Only if you're college major is frat boy.
     Volume two of Briggs' cosmic wisdom is predominately a
spearing of Robert Bly's "Iron John," in favor of more spiritual
undertakings, such as alcohol and sex (the staples of frat life). 
     According to Briggs, men don't need to trek into the wilder-
ness to pound drums, they can shuck their "weenieness," their limp
ropes (the state of the modern man as a result of the women's
movement and advertisements for "Dockers"), and take hold of their
ramrod-straight spears.  All they have to do is follow the Briggs
"Five Step Ancient-Spear Recovery Process."  The steps are as
follows:

     1.  Sweating,

     2.  Yelling,

     3.  Crying,

     4.  Beating on a drum,

     5.  Ripping your shirt off, even if it's expensive.

     While going after the men's movement, other worthy subjects
are thrown in.  The spiritual renewal found at topless bars,
wrestling events, and colleges that rank high as "party schools,"
are much more healing than twelve-step programs, support-group
therapy, or New Age Wisdom.
     This highly amusing poke will surely set-off sensitive sorts,
but rest assured that Briggs' is just putting us on.  He is, isn't
he?
Xref: sparky alt.books.reviews:184 rec.arts.books:26561
From: bh419@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Ted B Samsel)
Newsgroups: alt.books.reviews,rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Iron Joe Bob by Joe Bob Briggs (hard to categorize)
Date: 28 Jan 1993 11:34:48 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA)
NNTP-Posting-Host: hela.ins.cwru.edu


Ah Joe Bob.....The redneck Dave Barry. 
Keep the baby, Faith....
"Check it out".
-- 
Ted....
Newsgroups: alt.books.technical
Subject: Suggestions for VMS/DCL third-party books
From: tshin@husc8.harvard.edu (Tae Shin)
Date: 23 Jan 93 23:37:03
Distribution: world
Organization: Harvard Arts and Sciences Computer Services, Cambridge, MA

Does anyone have any suggestions for some good third-party books on VMS/DCl and
VAX system administration?  Our department had a complete set of the manuals,
but many of the key volumes have been stolen.  Thanks for any help or 
suggestions.

T.B.Shin
tshin@husc8.harvard.edu
Newsgroups: alt.books.technical
From: an1060@anon.penet.fi
Subject: Topological Vector Spaces
Organization: Anonymous contact service
X-Anonymously-To: alt.books.technical
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 22:08:37 GMT

X-Anon-To: alt.books.technical


Hello,

I have the following book for sale:

Topological Vector Spaces, by Narica & Beckenstein, Marcel Dekker, Inc.
Monographs & Textbooks in Pure & Applied Mathematics #95, 1985.

List Price is:  $110    I ask:  $80 + shipping charges

It is in excellent condition!!

Please reply to:  mantell@ams.sunysb.edu

Thanks

Abe


-------------------------------------------------------------------------
To find out more about the anon service, send mail to help@anon.penet.fi.
Due to the double-blind system, any replies to this message will be anonymized,
and an anonymous id will be allocated automatically. You have been warned.
Xref: sparky alt.books.technical:469 comp.lang.vhdl:691
From: nyp00@cd.amdahl.com (Nicholas Y. Pang)
Newsgroups: alt.books.technical,comp.lang.vhdl
Subject: Recommendations for VHDL Book
Keywords: vhdl programming language
Date: 22 Jan 93 16:17:49 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Amdahl Corporation, Sunnyvale CA

Can someone recommend a good VHDL book. Maybe three books,

	(1) As an Introductory Text		(beginners/management)
	(2) As a Reference Guide			(experienced)
	(3) Emphasis on Synthesis using RTL	(experienced)

Thanks!

-- 
Nicholas Pang         nyp00@cd.amdahl.com       
Amdahl Corporation    nyp00@outs.ccc.amdahl.com 
Newsgroups: alt.books.technical
From: bathurst@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Bruce Bathurst)
Subject: Re: Thermodynamics
Originator: news@nimaster
Organization: Princeton University
Distribution: na
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1993 02:20:26 GMT

The difficulty with this simple request is that classical
thermodynamics is just a couple of abstract theorems until it is
reified with applications.  Hence every book on classical
thermodynamics has applications to some special discipline or other,
from biology to mechanical engineering.

The problem with Denbigh is that it's not an introduction.  Its
discussion of fundamentals probably is the clearest anywhere, but it
requires a certain "sophistication" (which I can't define).  [Check
the discussion of which quantities are measurable--this is found no
where else.]

There is a book I can recommend: De Heer, J., 1986. Phenomenological
Thermodynamics with Applications to Chemistry. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice-Hall.  I'm not really sure it's an introduction either, but
the presentation is very nice, and covers both the American and
European schools of chemical thermodynamics.

Others I can recommend are by Everett, by McGlashan, and two older
books, one by Eherenfest and one by Macdougall.  Lewis and Randall
defined the American school. (A review at the time deprecated their
concept of chemical activity (relative escaping tendency) and claimed
it would never survive to the 2d edition.) Zemansky's Heat and
Thermodynamics is the most popular American introduction for physics
students; but I'm not keen on texts, myself.  Of these books,
Zemansky, Everett, and possibly McGlashan are introductions.

Bruce (Gypsy Scholar)


-- 
Department of Geological and Geophysical Sciences
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544
bathurst@phoenix.princeton.edu bathurst@pucc.bitnet !princeton!phoenix!bathurst
Newsgroups: alt.books.technical
From: Jack_Lee@mindlink.bc.ca (Jack Lee)
Subject: Re: Technical Bookstore on e-mail
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 1993 11:20:53 GMT

> Tim Guerrette writes:
>
> Msg-ID: <1jhqk1INN739@lynx.unm.edu>
> Posted: 19 Jan 1993 21:08:17 GMT
>
> Org.  : University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
>
> If anyone is interested... there is a technical bookstore that you can
> e-mail for a copy of the catalog to be mailed to you. I'm not sure if they
> have one to e-mail to you, but it's worth a shot. I also think that you can
> order on e-mail too!
>
> If your interested in information the address is: info@bookstor.hmp.com
>
> Good luck,
>
> ============================================================================
> ===
> Timothy Guerrette                       Internet: orion@polaris.unm.edu
> University of New Mexico
> Albuquerque, NM
>     "Yesterday is history, tomorrow is vision, today is just a bitch!"
> ============================================================================
> ===


In Canada, there is Siliconnections_Books@mindlink.bc.ca as well.

-J

Newsgroups: alt.books.technical
From: mjkamal@vela.acs.oakland.edu (M.J.Kamal)
Subject: Thermodynamics
Organization: Oakland University Computing Center
Distribution: na
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 23:17:29 GMT

Could any one recommend a GOOD introductory Thermodynamics book?
It has to be classical Thermodynamics. Any info would be appreciated.
Please e-mail.

Thanx

mjkamal@vela.acs.oakland.edu
Newsgroups: alt.msdos.programmer
From: mchen@sol4.cs.psu.edu (Michael Chen)
Subject: Formatting non-standard disks?
Distribution: alt
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 1993 03:22:54 GMT

  Anyone have source code (or at least information) on formatting non-standard
disk sizes on the PC?  I have code that seems to work on machines slower than
a 486/33 for 10 sectors per track (800K).  I'm wondering if anyone knows how
to do 20 instead of 18 on a high-density disk.  I don't care about setting up
the FAT or any of that; I just need it to be formatted so the BIOS routines
can find all 20 sectors.

-- Mike 
--
_____________________________________________________________________________
| Michael Chen			| From the depths of our most lucid horrors |
|				| spring our fond hopes and pure desires... |
| mchen@cs.psu.edu		| except what comes from HELL! :-) 7/23/92  |
\_______________________________\___________________________________________|
Xref: sparky alt.msdos.programmer:3225 comp.os.msdos.misc:7181 comp.os.msdos.programmer:12408
From: cctr132@csc.canterbury.ac.nz (Nick FitzGerald, PC Software Consultant, CSC, UoC, NZ)
Newsgroups: alt.msdos.programmer,comp.os.msdos.misc,comp.os.msdos.programmer
Subject: Re: Batch files
Date: 25 Jan 93 00:46:13 GMT
Article-I.D.: csc.1993Jan25.134613.1
Reply-To: Nick FitzGerald <n.fitzgerald@csc.canterbury.ac.nz>
Organization: University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand

In article <1993Jan24.135115.10741@gmuvax2.gmu.edu>, skhan@gmuvax2.gmu.edu
(Shahab Raza Khan) writes:

> I have an interesting question.  I want to write a batch file
> which would do the following:
> 
> 1. Down load our backup software from one of our LANs.  The
>    software is not in compressed form but regular files.
> 2. Edit the autoexec.bat file to login to separate accounts on
>    the LAN (e.g. user1, user2 etc)
> 3. edit the config.tel file (for use with telnet) and change the
>    IP number in it (e.g. 129.174.1.1 129.174.1.2 etc)
> 
> I have a pretty good idea of how to do the downloading would
> work.  There are about 50 computers which have to be configured
> with the above procedure.  So far we have used manual ways to do
> this.  If anyone has a nice way of doing this please let me
> know.

I have followed up in News rather than mailing as requested, as this may
be of more general interest.

Believe it or not, EDLIN (that most ghastly of DOS "utilities") may be
the answer to your problem.  Its (sole ?) virtue lies in the fact that
it reads from stdin, so can be driven by a script file.

I've never used it in this manner (I've never used full stop, he adds
proudly  8-) ), but have seen some fiendishly clever batches in PC Mag
based (in part) on this.

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 Nick FitzGerald, PC Applications Consultant, CSC, Uni of Canterbury, N.Z.
 n.fitzgerald@csc.canterbury.ac.nz  TEL:+64(3)364 2337, FAX:+64(3)364 2332
Newsgroups: alt.msdos.programmer
From: fprince@cwis.unomaha.edu (Frank E. Prince)
Subject: .com and .exe files
Organization: University of Nebraska at Omaha
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 23:10:26 GMT

Could anyone tell me the difference between .com and .exe files. The
most I've come up with is that a com file is an "executable memory image"
but that definition was somewhat out of context, and I don't really
understand it. I've done some assembly language programming with MASM so
I do understand instruction sets, stacks, registers etc. Any information
regarding this is much appreciated.
			Thanks,
				Frank
Newsgroups: alt.msdos.programmer
From: mikep@world.std.com (Michael Podanoffsky)
Subject: Re: .com and .exe files
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 03:33:21 GMT


Both .com and .exe files can be loaded anywhere.

A .com file contains no segments whatsoever.  All data, code and stack share
the same 64k segment.

An .exe file contains segments and can exceed 64k.  Only .exe files are really
rommable should this ever be needed.  One major side effect is that different
code segments may be produced.

.com files are an exact byte image of the program in memory without any
relocation information.  That means all references are near.

.exe files contain a header and several segments.

------------------------

I should know: I wrote RxDOS an msdos replacement which is available in 
source code form: e-mail me if you need additional info.  

mikep@world.std.com
From: Anonymous U
Newsgroups: alt.msdos.programmer
Subject: Re: XCOPY in the background ?  Get OS/2?
Date: 22 Jan 1993 02:33:08 GMT
Organization: Gustavus Adolphus College
NNTP-Posting-Host: osric.gac.edu

John Villalovos writes
DOS-programs
> >in the background (multitasking), so I can work in the foreground with  
another
> >program. (like in UNIX: 'command &' runs 'command' in the background)
> >I would prefer a unit or program in Pascal or a already compiled program.
> 
> Get OS/2.

But does OS/2 have a feature like 'command &' in UNIX, so you don't have to  
switch to another shell window to do something else?
--
"Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he
 does not become a monster.  And when you look long into an abyss,
 the abyss also looks into you." -- Nietzsche
Newsgroups: alt.msdos.programmer
From: Ralf.Brown@B.GP.CS.CMU.EDU
Subject: Re: How do I get starting sector of file?
Originator: ralf@B.GP.CS.CMU.EDU
Organization: Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer Science
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 14:22:57 GMT

In article <1jo1afINNps3@gap.caltech.edu>, jkubicky@cco.caltech.edu (Joseph J. Kubicky) wrote:
}I want to know how to read the starting sector of a file.  I also
}want to know how to create a sequential file of fixed length.  I want
}to do all this so I can do more direct I/O to the disk and (hopefully)
}realize some performance gains over normal DOS or C-lib file I/O functions.

I doubt that a 3-5% performance increase will be worth the effort and
possible incompatibilities of bypassing DOS....  You can get around 97%
of the theoretical maximum throughput using only DOS services if you
   a) use large reads (at least 32K at a time),
   b) do all reads in multiples of the sector size (thus transferring
       directly between your buffer and disk, without going through
       the DOS disk buffers),
   c) ensure enough disk buffers to keep the FAT in memory
and
   d) keep the disk defragmented.

Having said that, you can determine the starting cluster of a file from
its directory entry; to get that, you should use the old-style FCB
findfirst/findnext calls (INT 21/AH=11h,12h).  Then, get the DOS Disk
Parameter Block for the drive with INT 21/AH=1Fh or INT 21/AH=32h,
and compute the starting sector based on the number of the first data
sector and the number of sectors per cluster.

-- 
Internet: RALF+@CS.CMU.EDU   |The University would disclaim this if it knew...
FIDO: Ralf Brown 1:129/26.1  |
BIT: RALF%CS.CMU.EDU@CARNEGIE|"Fall seven times, stand up eight."
AT&Tnet: (412)268-3053 school|   -- Japanese proverb
From: roy%cybrspc@cs.umn.edu (roy)
Newsgroups: alt.msdos.programmer
Subject: Re: C/C++ 7.0 idiotic linking problem (the shame!)
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 93 18:33:21 CST
Organization: Villa CyberSpace, Minneapolis, MN
X-Newsreader: rusnews v0.98

gaf@anasazi.com (Guy Finney) writes:

> That was it.  This was very annoying.  One might be forgiven for thinking
> that Microsoft would have anticipated this and either named their linker
> something else, or at least mentioned in the release notes that they
> overloaded the name link.exe so you could take appropriate action.

Niether did they mention overloading rm.exe... Do you know how
frustrating it is to issue 'rm -rf dir' and get not a single byte of
freed space?  In this case, MSC was on the path ahead of MKS... until
then!

> Oh well.  Another fun DOS development story.  I'm glad I don't work
> on DOS for a living.

I do.  Stay away if you can.  Or at least go Borland.  (they didn't
overload link, either)
--
Roy M. Silvernail --  roy%cybrspc@cs.umn.edu - OR-  cybrspc!roy@cs.umn.edu
  perl -e '$x = 1/20; print "Just my \$$x! (adjusted for inflation)\n"'
        "What do you mean, you've never been to Alpha Centauri?"
                                               -- Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz