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Chaos Corner v02 n01
Chaos Corner V02N01 17 Feb 92
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Chaos Corner Volume 1 index available
It's been 2 months since the last issue ... and many bits have gone down
the wire. We have been busy here in Chaos Corner and have collected
many items of interest for you. One which we know will be most
fascinating to you is the announcement of an index to volume 1 of Chaos
Corner (how I spent my Christmas Vacation). The index is available in
text or PostScript form -- just use anonymous ftp to
pelican.cit.cornell.edu and look in the /pub directory for the files
ccv01.index.ps for the postscript (two column) or ccv01.index.text for
the text version. Dr. Chaos really knows that what you have been
waiting for is not just the index; but all of volume 1 plus the index in
one nice big file. Just what you want ... look for the files ccv01.ps
for the PostScript version and ccv01.text for the text version in the
/pub directory on pelican.cit.cornell.edu. Thanks to Mark Bodenstein
of CIT's Host Networking group for suggesting the index.
The most frequently requested file for 1991 was by far and away the list
of answering machine messages. Now that Dr. Chaos understands the level
and interests of his readers, he told me he was very glad he did not
mention the Complete List of Blonde Jokes that was in his possession.
Mailbag
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Chaos Corner Feedback
In the early December issue we issued an invitation for people to
reserve a bound copy of Chaos Corner volume 1 by a date that was several
days prior to the date the issue was distributed. We forgot about Gary
Buhrmaster. Needless to say, when the mail file arrived that had been
clearly been sent before the deadline (and before the issue had gone
out). If you have the answer to how Gary accomplished this feat, you
too can qualify for a bound copy (printed and finished on a Xerox
DocuTech laser printer). Send your answers to
Dr_Chaos@pelican.cit.cornell.edu --- hurry, the entry deadline is
midnight on 12 Feb. 1992. Hint: Gary's userid is GOD.
Many of you are receiving Chaos Corner for the first time (we have had a
flood of subscription requests. If you want to ask Dr. Chaos a
question, or point out some horrible mistake you THINK he might have
made, just send mail to Dr_Chaos@pelican.cit.cornell.edu.
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Infor request about Macintosh fonts
Stephen Peterson at Penn State is trying to collect type 3 fonts for his
Macintosh. He, of course, has the ones from mac.archive.umich.edu but
wonders if anyone knows of other (free?) sources for type 3 fonts. In
particular, he is interested in a "stone serif" font. Dr Chaos wonders
just what a "stone serif" font would look like ...
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Chaos Corner subscriptions
Gerhard Rentschuler at the University of Stuttgart noted that he had
not received an issue of Chaos Corner for this year and wondered if he
needed to subscribe again. Dr. Chaos explained the problems of trying
to organize Chaos. While it was hard getting started on volume 2, we
can expect that Dr. Chaos will generate issues more often than every two
months.
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Security and virus attacks
A couple of security issues to get out of the way before you go any
farther. If you are running an IBM PC (or compatible), or a Unix
machine that has a PC simulator, you need to pay attention to the
Michelangelo virus warnings. The virus resides in the boot sector of
infected disks and destroys all data on the disk on March 6th (the
birthday of the artist, not the turtle). Unix systems with PC
simulators may be at risk at any time if they are booted with an
infected diskette in the floppy drive (the virus will modify the master
boot record of the main disk and require re-install your Unix system
and/or restore from your carefully made backup tapes). People at
Cornell are strongly encouraged to get a copy of F-PROT to scan for and
disinfect disks. (CIT is obtaining a site license for the Cornell
community to use it. For more information see the CIT alert dated Feb.
12, 1992.) Of course, the McAffe software is available but can cost
$85 for a full set (for individuals); companies (and universities) are
required to negotiate a site license. Dr. Chaos urges you to scan your
disks before March 6th and make a backup! (He feels very strongly about
making backups, since he spent all last week making backups .... yes, he
feels very strongly about backups.)
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Security, AIX and the on command
The other security issue affects IBM RS/6000 systems running AIX 3.1. It
seems that IBM ships the system with the "on" command enabled, and the
security for the command is rather poor. Using your favorite editor (or
SMIT), disable the "rexd" service for the inet superdaemon
(/etc/inetd.conf).
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Unix on a PC?
If you would like to roll your own system on a PC, almost everything you
would need to get started can be found in unix/bsd-sources on machine
src.doc.ic.ac.uk or on machine ftp.uu.net. Some missing utilities can
be filled in from GNU or MINIX sources -- the one vital missing piece is
'init' -- and you can have your own public domain Unix running on your
386 PC!
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Sounds - Macintosh format conversion utility
Tom Erbe at Mills College has been updating his Macintosh utility that
converts between a number of sound file formats. For the latest version
check in the ccm directory on mills.edu. The program is called Sound
Hack and as we write, the latest version is in the file
SoundHack.54.hqx.
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Sounds - Convers Sun format (au) to Soundblaster (VOC)
Anyone out there with Soundblaster can convert files in the Sun format
(files with a ".au" suffix) by using the program SUN2VOC. Similarly,
sound files with an ".iff" suffix can be converted using IFF2VOC. You
can find these programs on wuarchive.wustl.edu in the
mirrors/msdos/sound.
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Sounds - archive site
For lots of sounds in the ".au" format, including many from the movies
2001, 2010, and from the TV series of Startrek (both versions), look on
machine procyon.cis.ksu.edu in the pub/Sun/Sparcsounds directory.
Please let Dr. Chaos know if you find a sound file of Capt. Picard
saying, "Make it so!" (Try not to use this archive during working hours
in Kansas).
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Sounds and your PC
As a general tool for dealing with sound files on a PC, the recommended
utility seems to be PLAYBWC (it has the ability to play and edit the Mac
".snd" sound files, among other things). It can be found on
wuarchive.wustl.edu on the /mirrors/msdos/sound directory.
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Archive site for Macintosh and PC sound files
As a good source of Mac (and PLAYBWC) sound files, Dr. Chaos recommends
that you try looking over the collection at ccb.ucsf.edu in the
Pub/Sound_list directory (note the caps in the directory name since Unix
is case sensitive). There is also a Sound Newsletter that you can
subscribe to by sending mail to sound@ccb.ucsf.edu with a subject line
of: "ADD-ME: <userid>@<site>".
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PC Compression and Library Utilities
As mentioned in past issues, there are a number of programs available on
the PC that compress and add to single-file libraries. It can be very
confusing, even for experienced PC users, when these file compression
extensions are encountered for the first time. Timo Salmi, moderator of
the archives at garbo.uwasa.fi (yes, it's in Finland, so don't try
FTPing there unless you really can't find what you need at a North
American site, or you are already on the eastern side of the Atlantic)
has canned answers to a number of frequently asked questions on file
compression utilities. He has a list of the current version of the
utility that is available for each of the popular types of file
compression, and we thought it was worthwhile to reproduce it here:
arc602.exe .arc SEA's .arc packing/unpacking system.
arj222.exe .arj Robert Jung's .arj archiver
lh113de.com .lzh Lharc for .lzh compression
lha213.exe .lzh LHa for .lzh compression, English version.
pak251.exe .pak NoGate's for pak, arc, sdn, zip, files
pk361.exe .arc This packed and unpacked .arc files fast
pkz110eu.exe .zip PKZIP "Euroversion" with no encryption
zoo210.exe .zoo Zoo packing facility from Rahul Dhesi
A more complete list of file formats and the corresponding utilities
available on a variety of platforms, may be anonymous ftp'd from
ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (128.174.5.59) in the directory doc/pcnet. The file is
maintained by David Lemson (lemson@uiuc.edu) and is the most complete
Dr. Chaos has ever seen. Of course, we have a current copy of the list,
so you can always get one through electronic mail by sending your
request to chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu.
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Libraries
HYTELNET 5.0, the easy-to-use database utility for IBM PC users that
describes how to access all Internet-accessible library catalogs, FREE-
NETS, CWISs, and Library BBSs is now available. It is a major upgrade
from version 4.0, and is available via anonymous FTP from
access.usask.ca in the hytelnet/pc subdirectory as the file named
HYTELN50.ZIP.
For Unix systems, there is a basic shell script that provides menu based
access to over 200 Libraries and databases across the Internet. The
script is named libtel.unix and can be obtained from ftp.oit.unc.edu in
the pub/docs directory. In the same location, VAX VMS users can obtain
a program named libs.com that performs much the same function.
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What you need to know about modems
Dr. Chaos has come across a 3-part posting titled " What You Need To
Know About Modems" that is really chapter 1 of a book that will be
coming out soon titled "The Joy of Telecomputing" by Patrick Chen. It
is more than a little too long to include here but we would be happy to
send you the files if you send electronic mail to chaos-
request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu.
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Best 9600 baud modem prices
Another interesting posting is Stuart Balfor's list of the best prices
for 9600 baud modems. Last updated (that we saw) in mid-January, it
gives sources for the advertised price, phone number to call, etc.
Again, just ask for it at chaos-request.cit.cornell.edu. These are just
modem prices, not recommendations (courtesy of our legal staff).
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Kermit
One of the banes of file transfer for users of the Kermit communications
package is always that it is a two-step process. In a recent issue of
Kermit Digest, techniques were published for initiating the file
transfer in one step from either the VM/CMS side of a connection or from
the MS-DOS side. If you can't get a copy of Info-Kermit Digest V15 #1,
send a note to Dr. Chaos requesting the Kermit file transfer information
(send request to chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu).
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X11 R5
Fix #9 to X11 R5 has now been released, and is available locally to
Cornell on pelican.cit.cornell.edu in the pub/X11R5 directory. Someone
asked for a precompiled version for an RS/6000 since they didn't have
enough disk space ... and the kind people at ux1.cso.uiuc.edu made one
available. Sooo, the requestor got a precompiled version and later
posted a note that he had no idea how much trouble it would cause. Dr.
Chaos agrees with Chin Fang of Stanford U. who pointed out that on
complex packages like X11, one has to be VERY careful about the paths
for all the various pieces, since the paths to various components are
compiled into the code.
That's all for now. The next issue will be coming Real Soon Now!
Subscribe at: Remember! Dr. Chaos - (dr_chaos@pelican.cit.cornell.edu)
