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Chaos Corner v03 n06
Chaos Corner V03 N06 8 October 1993
Copyright 1993 by Robert D. Cowles; Ithaca, NY 14850. Permission is
hereby granted to republish complete issues in unaltered form.
Republication of partial issues must reference the source and state
that subscriptions to Chaos Corner are available (free) by sending
electronic mail to chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu.
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Welcome to 175 New Subscribers
For those who wonder if we have been completely idle here in the Corner,
since it has been almost two months since the last issue ... if nothing
else we have been victims of our own success with many requests for
files and an unprecedented number of new subscriptions! Chaos Corner
has doubled in size just this year to over 1000 subscribers.
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Puffin is no longer an ftp site
Some earlier issues of Chaos Corner referred people to files stored on
puffin.cit.cornell.edu ... that site was maintained somewhat out of
perversity to see if we could provide an anonymous FTP site running on a
DOS/Windows machine. While it was a challenge for a while, after
converting the machine to OS/2 and IBM's TCP/IP the system just runs and
no longer provides a challenge. Since we are under some pressure to
reduce the number of machines we maintain, puffin will soon disappear
and you should look on pelican.cit.cornell.edu for back issues of Chaos
Corner in the /pub directory.
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All mail order is not the same -- beware
We have had several mail order experiences in the past two months. In
one case Dr. Chaos started worrying about the future availability of
memory for our ThinkPad and thought we should call around and get the
best deal before prices went too high. The second experience was that
of ordering the new version IBM's TCP/IP (2.0).
Ordering Memory from Nevada Computer (They run full page ads in the back
of PC Week) ....
Sequence of Events:
August 18 (Wed) Ordered Memory for $259 + 8.25 shipping - was told it
would ship the following day (Thu.). At this time, a charge for
$297.25 was posted to my credit card.
August 24 (Tue) Called to say memory had not arrived. Was told that the
memory had shipped on Friday, August 20.
August 25 (Wed) Called to say memory had not arrived. Was told that UPS
shipping time was 5-7 days from Nevada to New York. I asked what I
had been charged and was told $297.25. I pointed out that that was
the wrong amount, the person I spoke to checked and agreed and said he
would enter a note for me to be credited the $30 ... it would happen
on Friday, Aug 27th and they would fax me a confirmation.
August 31 (Tue) Called to say memory had not arrived. Carl told me it
had been shipped on August 27th, 2nd day air, and that it should be
there the following day. I asked if they normally got three day
service for 2nd day air. (Some general mutterings about UPS service
was the only response.) I asked about the credit and there was no
record of it going through. I once again asked that it be put through
since by now I had received the credit card statement.
September 1 (Wed) Called to say the memory had not arrived. Was told by
Carl that it had gone UPS ground, had been shipped on the 27th, and I
could expect it in 5-7 business days. I asked that the whole amount
for the memory be credited to my account and they re-bill me for the
proper amount, $267.25. Was told it would be taken care of on Friday
and that a notation would be made in the record. I also asked that I
be faxed a confirmation that it was done. Also talked with the
manager (Mark) so it was clear what needed to happen.
September 8 (Wed) Called to say that memory had not arrived. After
waiting on hold for 10 minutes to talk to the manager (Mark) I called
back and spoke to Neil (Neal?). I explained that they could still
recover if I had the memory by Friday (eg, send it to me by Federal
Express) and if they straightened out the charge to my credit card.
September 10 (Fri) Called Visa to see if any credit had been posted to
my account. None had. It has now been over 3 weeks since I ordered,
and they have been unable to get me the memory and have been unable to
get the charged amount correct. As a point of reference, throughout
this time, their ad in PC Week carried a price of $259+8.25.
September 12 (Sun) A visitor pointed out there was a box from Nevada
Computer on the front porch.
September 13 (Mon) 10:15a Talked to Dave ... getting the credit
shouldn't be a problem if I talked with Mark, the manager. I should
call back at about 12:30. 1:15p Talked to Mark. He claimed that the
credit had been issued on the 8th, and that it just took a while for
it to show up at the credit card company. He also explained that the
memory had shipped to me on August 30 (!) because it had been
backordered (!). He never remembered having talked to me before so
he didn't remember any of the other dates I had been told that the
memory had shipped, or that I had never been told that the memory was
backordered. We had a fairly unpleasant exchange about the credit
for the overcharge and it ended when he said he would mail me
confirmation that the credit had been sent in. 1:30p Verified that
the credit had not been posted to the credit card company.
September 20 (Mon) 2:20p Verified that the credit had been posted on
September 15 (Wed) and processed by the credit card company on Friday,
September 17.
Sorry to have put you through all that ... but I promised them that I
would let you all know how much pleasure I had in dealing with them.
The other experience (ordering TCP/IP) was with Indelible Blue, a
company in North Carolina that specializes in OS/2 software. While they
didn't have the product right away, they told me that was the case, and
they didn't charge my credit card until the day AFTER shipping the
product. (Just a satisfied customer -- 800-776-8284, 919-834-7005).
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Mailbag - Mail Delay Explained
With respect to the mail delays going on across the Internet when we
sent out the last issue of Chaos Corner, our sources tell us that a
subscriber to the White House news summaries located in Japan requested
all 1000+ articles and gave as an electronic address something that
couldn't receive mail. My informant claims that the message bouncing
was discovered and stopped in Washington DC at 9:20 AM, but the messages
continued to flow throughout the day.
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Frog on Glass?
Joe Morris at Mitre Corporation points out that we should be seeing an
exciting new book in the bookstores. Aimed at kindergartners, the book
is called _Kermit Learns Windows_. What will happen next? Perhaps a
book that explains that purple dinosaurs with three fingers find that
MacOS with a one-button mouse is the easiest to use?
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Mailbag - gzip is NOT zip or pkzip
David Camp points out that gzip is not a clone of zip or pkzip; rather
it uses its own, completely different compression algorithm (hence the
file extension of '.gz' rather than '.zip').
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Ever wonder if CallerID is active for you?
In North America there is a facility that is becoming available that
lets the called person know the telephone number of the calling person.
People aren't always aware that they are no longer anonymous when they
make calls, or they may have requested that CallerID be blocked for them
and wonder if the block has really been put into effect. If you call
(from North America) 1-800-852-9932, a digitized voice will tell you the
number you are calling from (if CallerID is active for you).
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Want to find out more about COSE?
A number of Unix vendors have banded together (under the threat of
Windows NT from Microsoft) and are attempting to end some of the
incompatibilities that have plagued Unix over the years. One of the
first specifications available from the consortium is the Common
Interface Specification (COSE CIS). The Open Software Foundation is
distributing the specification at no charge ... either call OSF Direct
at 617-621-7300 or send an electronic mail request to direct@osf.org.
They request that you include your surface mail address.
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Interested in free faxing?
A Internet Fax services are being set up and provide the capability to
send free faxes to certain areas. People that want to sign up to
provide the service can limit the area that they serve to just the local
community. For a current list of the areas served, send electronic mail
to tpc-coverage@town.hall.org and write to tpc-faq@town.hall.org for
more information.
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Information on the PowerPC
A list of frequently asked questions about the Macintosh version of the
PowerPC is being developed and is posted every two weeks to the
newsgroup comp.sys.mac.hardware. Another source of information is the
free magazine RS/Magazine ... write to RS/Magazine, PO Box 3272, Lowell
MA 01853-9876 (fax number 508-256-9864). Last but not least, IBM is in
the process of producing a second volume of its Technology Book about
its POWER architecture. A draft of the book can be found on the server
ibminet.awdpa.ibm.com in the /pub/rs6kpapers as techbook.ps (look for
compressed versions there too).
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Incomplete Guide to the Internet
The July edition of "The Incomplete Guide to the Internet and Other
Telecommunications Opportunities Especially for Teachers and Students,
K-12" is available from ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu. Look in the directory
/Education/Education_Resources for copies of the Guide in a variety of
formats: PostScript, RTF, WinWord, Mac Hqx compressed, and text.
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Microsoft is on the Internet!
Tired of listening to music while waiting in the Microsoft support
queues? Tired of paying CompuServe for the pleasure of searching the
Microsoft Knowledge Base? It is now available on the Internet! As of
October 4th, the Microsoft Support files are accessible on the server
ftp.microsoft.com including Knowledge Base articles AND both supported
and unsupported drivers, patches, and files associated with various
Microsoft products. Congratulations to Microsoft for providing this
service!
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Books Books Books
Prentice-Hall has opened their online store. Look at ftp.prenhall.com
for catalogs covering an increasing number of subject areas. They also
accept orders electronically .... get the order form from the directory
/pub/ptrph_cat/net.comm (get either ord-int.lst or ord-na.lst depending
on whether or not you live in North America).
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French News Available online?
We have an unsubstantiated report that it is possible to subscribe to a
online French news service by sending mail to:
frog@guvax.georgetown.edu
with the Subject: INSCRIPTION (and no message body). Can any kind
reader verify this?
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FTP archive sites on the move
Since our last issue, the archive site for the X-Window consortium has
moved from export.lcs.mit.edu to become the easier to remember ftp.x.org
(198.112.44.100). The other change is a sad report that after a number
of years of threatened cutbacks, the US Military has finally closed down
the huge PC archive site, SIMTEL20. SIMTEL20 was mirrored at a number
of other sites and the most official copy of the last state of the
archive is at oak.oakland.edu. Arrangements are being made for a
replacement site but nothing beyond that has been announced. Another
recent loss is the site that distributed hourly GIF files giving US
weather information. When Hurricane Emily was approaching the eastern
coast of the US, so many people were retrieving files that the computer
was unable to service the requests. As a result, the service was
removed and the hourly weather maps are not available from that site.
They are, however, available from wuarchive.wustl.edu in the directory
multimedia/images/wx.
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Files available from Dr. Chaos
Need to know the sound frequencies associated with various musical
notes? Dr. Chaos not only has the frequency list, but the C program that
generates the list. For you mainframe or ex-mainframe programmers out
there, Herb Hellerman at Amdahl has produced a chronology of the IBM
System/370 market from its roots through 1990. A list of vendors for
Object-Oriented DataBase Systems; a guide to games on the PC; a list of
Frequently asked questions about Wolfenstein 3D; and Frequently Asked
Questions about PS/2 computers.
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Get you Free Subscription Here!
Just send a message to Dr. Chaos - chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu
and ask to be put on the subscription list. It's that easy. Don't
delay ---- act now!
Dr. Chaos (I have a Master's degree ....)
.
