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Chaos Corner v03 n02
Chaos Corner V03 N02 25 April 1993
This edition of Chaos Corner is being written in yet a different way.
First of all, we are using the March Beta release of OS/2 2.1 (with the
INI, REXX, COM, and HPFS fixes); TCP/IP for OS/2 version 1.2.1 (with CSD
379xx installed); David Bolen's SLIP Driver for OS/2; and Word for
Windows. Since this machine now has an XGA card for the display, Word
for Windows can be run right on the desktop in seamless mode. David
Bolen's SLIP driver (unlike IBM's driver that comes with TCP/IP) doesn't
assume that you have been assigned a fixed IP address ... in fact it
comes with a REXX script to logon to an Annex SLIP server; parse the
responses and configure the system appropriately with the dynamically
assigned IP addresses. Using the TCP/IP package allows me to have a
TN3270 session to the mainframe that stores my collected tidbits, a
telnet session to pelican (an RS/6000) I use for a Unix base; and still
open FTP sessions directly to various sites to verify location, etc. for
the various things we mention here. So far, we havent quite gotten gif
images generated on pelican (with xloadimage or xv) to display with the
correct colors in an x-window ... but we have some ideas how to correct
it. All-in-all, its a VERY nice setup, even if the 386-20 processor is
a tad slow to drive all that software.
Even with the fixes that have to be applied, the March Beta of OS/2 is
more than worth the $15 to get the CD-ROM. I was agonizing how to get
someone to copy the disk images from the CD-ROM to floppies, when Dr.
Chaos grabbed it from my hand, loaded it into the CD-ROM drive on the
RS/6000, and a few 'mount' and 'cd' commands later he started the
process of 'cp' commands to write the disk images from the CD to
formatted floppy disks ... all under AIX. While Dr. Chaos was creating
the floppies, I was feeding them to a pigeon (a PS/2-80) as the first
install.
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Mailbag - Permission to republish
Many thanks to Carlos Alberto Teixeira at the Pontificia Universidade
Catolica do Rio de Janeiro for his kind comments in support of Chaos
Corner. He also asks permission to reproduce all or parts of Chaos
Corner to help people in navigating the Internet. Dr. Chaos is happy to
grant permission in such cases, so long as the source is mentioned and
that it is stated that (free) subscriptions are available by sending
your request to Dr. Chaos at chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu. By
the way, Dr. chaos tells me that he has received well over 100 new
subscription requests since the last issue.
-------------------------------------------------
Space Shuttle Photographic Data Base
Ken Stuart of CIT's Helpdesk passed on to Dr. Chaos a tip about a great
data base of photographs of Earth taken by space shuttle astronauts.
The vital information you need to get access to the dara base is:
telnet sseop.jsc.nasa.gov or telnet 146.154.11.34
and enter 'photos' at the prompt for both Username and Password. You
will then be taken into a menu system that we found slightly confusing
the first time ... just remember that if you get a list that scrolls
quickly off the screen, when you exit back to the menu, you are given an
opportunity to download the last list you displayed. We couldn't quite
figure out how to download the same picture that we saw during a quick
session, but there are so many interesting pictures it didn't matter.
Pictures you select can be sent to you by email, kermit download, or
ftp. One slight problem is that the list did not indicate the size of
the images. Be forewarned that these images appear to be 1024 by 1024
with 24-bit color .... that's 3 MB per image. Don't try to FTP it to
yourself over a SLIP link while you are trying to do something else
(like write this item in Chaos Corner). The images are not in
gif/tif/jpg format (Dr. Chaos tells me that they are in Targa format)
... but the format is readily handled by "standard" DOS programs like
VPIC or CSHOW. If you don't have one of those utilities, the site has a
copy of VPIC that you can download. Very nice resource ... thanks Ken!
-------------------------------------------------
POST Codes and other popular items from V03 N01
Both Klaus Wolkersdorfer (KFA in Juelich Germany) and Jim Forkner from
PSU both had had problems with receiving the feared "double beep" from
their PS/2's just about the time that the last issue arrived. There
were about the same number of requests for that file as for the file on
Unix books and the telecom survey. The most popular file was the modem
reviews with a total of 27 requests. John Balogh at PSU got to
experience some of the Chaos around here as he got a fairly random
collection of articles in response to his requests. We hope that he
finally got the parts to the articles he requested.
-------------------------------------------------
Ham Radio / Shortwave Radio / Packet Radio information
Dr Chaos has a file listing the introductory information and additional
sources (other FTP sites) about radio. For readers of the
rec.radio.amateur newsgroup on Usenet, these files are a de-facto
"Required Reading List" to provide definitive answers and pointers to
other sources for questions that come up in this forum. Request the
file from Dr. Chaos at chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu and check
out the information stored at ftp.cs.buffalo.edu in the pub/ham-radio
directory. Check the README file for one-line descriptions of the
files.
-------------------------------------------------
Need help getting IBM's TCP/IP for OS/2 running?
Some of the best advice you can find on installing TCP/IP 1.2.1 under
OS/2 is in the file tcpstart.txt available via anonymous ftp from the
machine ftp-os2.nmsu.edu in the pub/os2/2.x/network. While you're
there, don't pass up the opportunity to get David Bolen's beta test
version of a SLIP driver. As stated earlier, it works much better than
IBM's SLIP driver, especially if you have to login to a SLIP server
without a preassigned IP address. Using v32.bis modems, we are getting
ftp file transfers of nearly 2500 characters per second. The slip
driver is in file slip20b1.zip in the same directory as tcpstart.txt
(but don't forget to use 'binary' file transfer). As to other sources
on the Internet for OS/2 software, just ask Dr. Chaos for a list of
sites compiled by Phillip Parker at Wichita State University ... just
send mail to chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu. (Those of you in
Europe might want to check out ftp.luth.se for OS/2 software.)
-------------------------------------------------
New OS/2 support for seamless Windows on 8514 monitor
There are now drivers available that (at last!) allow people using the
OS/2 2.1 beta in 8514 mode (8514 is the number of a 16 inch color
monitor that IBM produced a number of years ago that allowed resolutions
of 1024 by 768 with 256 colors, but you knew that!) to run with seamless
Windows. IBM only supports the drivers with the March version of the
beta, but reports are that the drivers also work with the widely
distributed December beta. Get the 8514 drivers in file b8514a.zip on
software.watson.ibm.com in the pub/os2/os2fixes directory.
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How to run your favorite DOS and Windows games under OS/2
Last but not least, the file that explains what changes you have to make
to those pesky "DOS Settings" to get various games to work correctly has
recently been updated to version 2.0. Look for file games20.txt in the
pub/os2/2.x/info directory on ftp-os2.nmsu.edu (along with a lot of
other files containing information about OS/2 2.x).
-------------------------------------------------
More files available from Dr. Chaos
ZEOS has contributed a list of telephone numbers for a number of
computer hardware and software companies. For you compy of the list
just ask Dr. Chaos at chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu. Ever
wonder how to get started at picking locks, ... errr, locksmithing?
Just ask Dr. Chaos for the frequently asked questions from the Usenet
group alt.locksmithing. Want to communicate with President Clinton by
electronic mail? More realistically, you can get an increasing amount
of government-provided information across the Internet. Just ask for
the White House Electronic Communications FAQ-list. A short but
invaluable list of Internet tools is maintained by John December at RPI.
Look for file pub/communications/internet-tools via anonymous ftp from
the host ftp.rpi.edu. Ever want a complete list of the two-character
country codes are that at the end of non-USA Internet addresses? Ever
want to know what Bulletin-Board Systems are accessible on the Internet?
Frustrated by the possibility of ever sorting through the huge nuber of
programs to find the ones that are really useful? --- You need Samuel
Ko's guide to the really useful MSDOS software. Do you need to know
(even if you don't really want to) about how serial ports work? What are
the top 100 PC Games as selected by people voting across the net?
Summaries of games available for DOS and OS/2? The 1992 Game Bytes
Awards and the Index for the Issues 1-8 of Game Bytes (an electronic
magazine on games)? Files on these topics are available for the asking
from Dr. Chaos at chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu.
-------------------------------------------------
New postal codes coming in Germany
As of July 1, all the postal codes are changing in Germany. (Since the
re-unification of Germany, a number of towns had postal codes that were
duplicates). In the process of assigning new postal codes, some
restructuring is occurring making it impossible to come up with a simple
mapping from the old code to the new one. A great deal of information
about the new postal codes (Postleitzahlen or PLZ) is now available in
the directory info/allgemein/PLZ of ftp.uni-stuttgart.de.
-------------------------------------------------
Question about job exchanges
Eileen Driscoll at Cornell (607) 255-3228, or in more familiar terms
E_Driscoll@qmrelay.mail.cornell.edu, need to interview who have
exchanged jobs for an article she is writing. If you or anyone that you
know of has exchanged jobs for some period of time, she would really
like to know about it. She is alos interested in how people make
arrangements for study leaves.
Well, we hit the limit for this issue. Remember, for your subscription
just ask Dr. Chaos at chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu. It can't
be too expensive!
Dr. Chaos (I have a master's degree ...)
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