From: rdc@pelican.cit.cornell.edu (Bob Cowles)
Subject: Chaos Corner v02 n09
Summary: Various Random interesting things
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 08:55:24 GMT
Organization: Cornell Info. Tech.


Chaos Corner V02 N09   15 Sep 1992  

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Chaos Corner makes the connection!  

Based on the number of requests we got, it seems that ANY information at 
all about BSD sockets is in great demand.  Dr. Chaos was pleased that 
one programmer from Microsoft requested a copy of the document so that 
he could be sure that code sample would work in Windows NT with the new 
"WinSock" (Windows Sockets API) interface.  

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Not on alt.best.of.internet any more  

The keeper of the newsgroup has requested that I not post Chaos Corner 
directly to alt.best.of.internet ... even though Dr. Chaos thought that 
that IS the subject matter of this newsletter.  Anyway, someone else has 
to do it ... alternate newsgroups were suggested, such as alt.hackers, 
alt.religion.computers, talk.bizarre(!), rec.games.misc, comp.unix.misc, 
comp.sys.ibm-pc and soc.misc.  Look for Chaos Corner in a news group 
near you!  

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Reader has some PC graphics questions  

Eric Webster (ericw@redsone-emh2.army.mil) is having some problems with 
some animated graphics he has created.  Things seem to work OK at 
320x200-256 colors but he has some problems at higher resolutions like 
640x480-16/256 colors or 1024x768-16/256 colors.  He needs to know (1) 
if there is some general way to switch banks/pages on the video card 
without writing card-specific code each time; and (2) what are the 
different techniques are used for 16 colors rather than 256 colors? He's 
using Turbo C++ V 2.0 on a 486DX  and a Trident 8900C video card (on 
which things are working ... he wants to make the code less device 
specific).  Any advice or a pointer to a book would be really 
appreciated.  

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Mail access to IP Address Resolver  

Eric pointed out to Dr. Chaos that the guardians of MILNET have decided 
that they will allow people to use anonymous FTP, but they "protect" 
things by not putting up any name servers ... therefore Eric needed the 
dotted decimal IP address for pelican so he could get a file from there 
(128.253.194.202).  Dr. Chaos was able to point him to an Internet 
service that resolves names to IP addresses (and vice versa) through 
electronic mail (Eric couldn't use any of the standard Unix utilities 
because he's on a VAX).  The secret (thanks to the Internet Services 
List) is to send mail to resolve@cs.widner.edu where the body of the 
letter contains  

    site <address here>  

and the server will return via mail the IP address of the site.  

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Help with Lightning Strike Data?  

Alain Martineau at Hydro Quebec in Montreal is having problems plotting 
lightning strike information for the northeastern US and eastern Canada.  
He would like to find some public domain software that would put a cross 
in the right position of a map given the lat/long and intensity 
information (the cross would change in color as time passes and 
eventually disappear).  He is looking for help on PC, Macintosh, or 
VAXstation platforms, and he is willing to consider making the data 
available as a public service if he can get this working.  Contact him 
at martinea@ireq.hydro.qc.ca  

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Balancing ()s is not that easy  

Several eagle-eyed readers pointed out that the last Chaos Corner was 
missing a final ) (Rich Brennen also had some very nice things to say).  
Gary Buhrmaster just pointed out that his LISP interpreter had problems 
with the last issue.  Dr. Chaos points out that we NEVER promised any 
kind of balanced reporting!  

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Downsizing and San Francisco  

We recently attened the Downsizing Expo in the Moscone Center in San 
Francisco.  Cathie Dager from SLAC won a free printed copy of Chaos 
Corner volume 1 by correctly identifying Dr. Chaos in a crowd of several 
thousand people.  Dave Gomberg of UCSF won a similar prize for locating 
a hotel in downtown SF that saved us $45/night over the "special" expo 
rates at the Hilton.  We hope to be putting together a trip report Real 
Soon Now -- let Dr. Chaos know at chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu 
if you would like to receive a copy when it is complete.  

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Kermit 3.12 for MS-DOS moves to Beta-test  

A greatly enhanced version of Kermit is available for MS-DOS machines, 
but it's still in beta-test.  If you would like to take a look at the 
new features, use anonymous FTP to access the file at 
watsun.cc.columbia.edu and look in the kermit/bin directory for 
mstibm.exe.  Don't forget to use "binary" for the file transfer. There 
is also a new version of the "shim" that allows Kermit to run under 
Windows and use packet drivers (the packet driver has to have some place 
to put incoming data while Windows is executing some other program).  
The new version of WINPKT is at packet-drivers/bin/winpkt.com ... If you 
know any techno-weenies, they might be interested in the help file 
located at packet-drivers/doc/winpkt.hlp.  Use of some of the new 
features will require that the Kermit program on the other end is also 
3.12, or is a soon-to-be-released version of C-Kermit, or IBM Mainframe 
Kermit.  By the way, the directory kermit/bin contains some executable 
modules of C-Kermit already compiled for several different Unix 
machines.  Look for files of the form wermit.rs6000 or wermit.next.  
(No, wermit is not a typo.)

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Tired of Converting Usenet files to Binaries?  

A program is now available (well, actually, it's a perl script) that 
scans newsgroups containing binary files, retrieves (from disk or via 
NNTP), organizes, and decodes them, depositing them in a configurable 
location.  No human intervention is required.  The scripts are available 
from sgigate.sgi.com, and as of this writing the current version is in 
file aub.2.0.5.shar in /pub/aub.  

-------------------------------------------------- 
Interesting lists of phone numbers  

Let Dr. Chaos know if you would like any of these phone number lists by 
sending mail to chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu: modem 
manufacturer Tech Support and FAX numbers; the phone number from 
"Sneakers" of the female NSA agent; the number to call to reserve a 
place at the Second 1st Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony (held at MIT on 
October 1 -- sponsored by the Journal of Irreproducible Results (hurry! 
the current issue is the swimsuit edition!)); the number to call to 
specify a person in your MCI Friends & Family Calling Circle for whom 
you get a free 10 minute call every month for the next year; the numbers 
and service summaries for companies providing public access to the 
Internet (the PDIAL list); toll-free numbers in Germany (the 0130 list); 
800 numbers for various software & hardware vendors; numbers for getting 
directly to Microsoft Tech Support groups without going through the long 
phone menus; and last but not least ... the US Senate/House phone/fax 
numbers.  

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Want more Information about free Unix on 386/486 machines?  

Certainly, many people will claim it's not Unix, but the Linux effort to 
develop a full-features OS on a Intel architecture machine continues.  
Many people across the net are contributing to the project ... and the 
price of the code is right ... free.  One of the major distribution 
points is tsx-11.mit.edu but Dr. Chaos has a list of other sites if you 
are interested (and don't have access to archie).   Dr. Chaos also has 
as summary of Unix clones that run on PCs.  For a copy of the list, just 
ask for it at chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu.  

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Revealed! The OS/2 Printer -> Driver mapping  

If you ever wondered at the mapping of Printers to Print Drivers in 
OS/2, now is the time to request this information from Dr. Chaos. That's 
chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu.  We know you can hardly wait.  

-------------------------------------------------- 
What kind of Fool am I?  

What kind of person does it take to track things down across the 
Internet?  You might be interested in the results of the first Internet 
Hunt on the LIBREF-L list (and we didn't even know it was happening).  
Players had to answer how they would find the solutions to such problems 
as: (1) I'm leaving tomorrow for Japan; approximately how many yen can I 
get for a dollar? (3) I'm taking a job as a social studies teacher at a 
high school in Denver CO; where can I find a list of environmental 
organizations that could come to speak to my classes? (6) Bill Clinton 
made a speech somewhere on Earth Day this year; where can I find the 
text of it? (7)  I just read an interesting paper by a Bradley Smith in 
the Chemistry Department at the University of Western Australia; is it 
possible to get an email address for him? The answers to these questions 
and more are available from Dr. Chaos ... test your net-navigating 
skills!  

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NetNews group on Northern Exposure  

An immediately popular NetNews group has started around the television 
program, Northern Exposure.  One poster claims that if you want to see 
the real beginnings of Northern Exposure, go rent the movie Local Hero 
(it takes place in northern Scotland and concerns an oilman but many of 
the other characters are the same).  Another poster gave a trip report 
on what it was like to visit Rosalyn, WA where much of the filming is 
done (the scenes that look onto the street or take place in the street).  

-------------------------------------------------- 
Secret Screens and other Tricks?  

Ever wonder what programs had those little secret screens with pictures 
of the authors (like Windows 3)? How can you cheat at Solitare?  Learn 
all this and more when you request Joe Morris' (Mitre) collection of Ye 
Olde Secrete Screene Cheete Sheete (long; 1300+ lines).  Again, send 
your request to Dr. Chaos at chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu.  

-------------------------------------------------- 
Are you facing a Co-Processor Quiz?  

If you have a REAL need to know about math co-processors ... we have a 
four (4) part posting on EVERYTHING you would ever want to know about 
them.  Dr. Chaos just sneered at me and said that I would I would save 
doggie doo if it was posted in four parts and labeled as a FAQ.  Come to 
think about it, I think that there is something like that over here in 
the rec.pets.dog folder .....  

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Hitchhiker's Guide on BBC!  

If you have access to a shortwave radio (you can get a GE radio for $60-
70), you might be interested in the Hitchhiker's Guide series that 
started on BBC on August 20.  It is broadcast on Wednesday evenings (in 
the US) at 8:30 EDT (0:30 CUT on Thursday morning).  Of course, we have 
the BBC frequencies for you at that time ... 7325, 6175 Mhz in North 
America, 90200, 648 Mhz in Europe.  Other locations (au & br) should 
send mail to Dr. Chaos if they want the frequencies ... or ftp the 
frequency list (can you figure out where?).  

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The Physics of Computation  

A new book due out this autumn is _Computation:  The Micro and the Macro 
View_ by B. A. Hubberman (Xerox Palo Alto).  

"The laws and methodology of physics are starting to provide powerful 
insights into the nature and dynamics of computation.  This book 
contains a number of articles that illustrate how fields ranging from 
quantum mechanics to statistical physics and nonlinear dynamics can help 
elucidate the nature of computation."  

You probably won't find it at the check-out line of the grocery store, 
so if you have to order it, use ISBN 981-02-0981-9 (US$ 45) or, for the 
paperback use 981-02-0982-7 (US$ 28).  

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Sources for UCB Logo  

Dr. Chaos has noticed that the Windows version of Logo that he mentioned 
in an earlier issue was quite popular (it has gone through several 
changes in version number since that issue was distributed so you have 
to look carefully to find it.  In any case, there is another 
implementation of Logo developed at UC Berkeley and it can be found on 
anarres.cs.berkeley.edu in the following files:  

        pub/ucblogo.tar.Z       Unix version
        pub/ucblogo.zip         DOS version 
        pub/ucblogo.sit.hqx     Mac version  

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Mail Server for Macintosh archive at U-Mich  

The large Mac archive at the University of Michigan can now be reached 
even if you have only electronic mail access to the Internet.  For more 
information on how to access the archive, send a mail file with the 
single word "help" to mac@mac.archive.umich.edu (if you put the word 
"index" on another line, you will also receive a COMPLETE index and 
description of all the files available in the archive.  

-------------------------------------------------- 
Worried about Software License compliance on Macintosh's?  

One program at the U-Mich archive can be of help in taking inventory of 
Macintosh systems.  In /mac/system.extensions/da/tattletale1.50.cpt.hqx 
is a program allowing you to "obtain DETAILED reports of your current 
configuration, files, reserved System heap space, available and 
unavailable traps, and much more.  VERY complete.  Version 1.5.0 
includes greater help and many bug fixes."  

-------------------------------------------------- 
Version 1.1 of Socket has been Released  

"Socket(1) implements an interface to TCP sockets at shell level. Client 
and server sockets can be used from shell scripts or interactively.  
Socket can also run a program with stdin, stdout, and stderr connected 
to the socket connection.  Sample shell scripts implementing a finger 
client (remote only) and a finger daemon are included."  This has been 
posted to the Usenet sources, so if you check with archie, we're sure 
you will be able to find copies on sites near you.  

-------------------------------------------------- 
The Small World Department  

If you have been reading for a while, you know that Dr. Chaos located 
one of his fellow draftees not too long ago ... and they had been out-
of-touch for about 18 years.  Well, it's happened again.  Dr. Chaos 
thought he would try out Eric Jacobsen's shell script to query the 
server at pit-manager.mit.edu ... needing something useful to try, Dr. 
Chaos put in the name of his college roommate that he hadn't heard from 
in approximately 15 years.  When the response came back from the server, 
Dr. Chaos send a mail file asking, "Are you the ..." ... within an hour 
the response came back that contact had been re-established! 

That's all for now ... remember, if you want your own subscription to 
Chaos Corner, just ask (mail to chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu), 
after all it's free!  

Dr. Chaos (I have a Masters Degree ....)