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Chaos Corner v02 n09
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 [Note: the correct address is
resolve@cs.widener.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 attended 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.) [These files are now named
ckuker.rs6000 and ckuker.next]
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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.
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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.
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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 [alt.tv.northern-exp]
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).
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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 Solitaire? 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.
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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.
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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."
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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.
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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 (simply e-mail to
chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu), after all it's free!
Dr. Chaos (I have a Masters Degree ....)
