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Chaos Corner v01 n02
Chaos Corner v01n02 10Jul91
Here we are, back again. Things seem to remain busy here in the Corner
even with a birthday, a holiday, and a day at work with *no*
interruptions.
--------------------------------------------------
File transfers
This time we'll spend a little time trying to demystify some of the
hocus-pocus and spells that surround transferring files. You should be
warned, however, that this attempt cannot be entirely successful.
Successfully transferring files *does* require magic, good karma, or
*something* that always runs out just when the network daemons are
closing in.
Can *I* transfer files using FTP? Isn't that a Unix thing?
If you have a userid on a Unix, VMS, or VM/CMS system, then just enter
the ftp command to find out if it's available. FTP will prompt you for
input and you can exit by entering "quit". If you have a PC with an
ethernet card there are a number of commercial, shareware and free
products that will get you started. NCSA (the national supercomputer
center in Illinois) has PC (and Mac) software implementing ftp client
(you can get/put files from/to other systems) and ftp server (other
systems can get/put files on your workstation). For DOS/Windows users,
Dr. Chaos likes the network version of WINQVT from QPC Software that
implements ftp client and server, telnet client, and allows one to read
Network News. Both of these programs support the use of the free
Clarkson packet drivers to provide the interface to the ethernet card
(the packet drivers are in "drivers.zip" at sun.soe.clarkson.edu in
directory pub/packet-drivers). Unfortunately, neither of these programs
support telnetting to the IBM mainframes in 3270 mode.
On the Macintosh side, you need a network connection (ethernet or
PhoneNet), MacTCP, HyperCard and then you can use a great HyperCard
stack written by Doug Hornig in CIT's Information Resources division
called HyperFTP.
If you want to get files for your workstation but you don't have a
network connection, an option is to transfer the files to your userid on
a timesharing system (Unix, VMS, VM/CMS) and then use a serial
communications program like Kermit, C19, or a number of others to send
the file down (download) to your workstation (the timesharing systems
are often on raised floors, so the data goes "down" to get to your
workstation). Every time you transfer a file, an incantation has to be
performed to get the computers at each end to cooperate -- by increasing
the number of transfers you increase the likelihood that you will forget
some of the spells, or get them in the wrong order and the whole thing
won't work. Going through the whole procedure again to correct an error
isn't too bad when the file transfers proceed at the 20-40 KB/sec rates
you can often get from some sites on the Internet (if you aren't
crossing an ocean), but transferring even a 200 KB file over a 2400 baud
link will take longer than 20 minutes! The bottom line is, get a
network connection if you possibly can!
MailBag -- (Read! Dr. Chaos)
--------------------------------------------------
LPR LPD and archie
Gerhard Rentschler at U. of Stuttgart asked if I knew of a place where
they could get copies of the LPR command and the LPD daemon, since they
are not included in UTS 2.1.1 (Amdahl's version of Unix). I didn't know
where they were located, but Dr. Chaos came to the rescue by telneting
to archie at quiche.cs.mcgill.ca and very quickly coming up with about
10 different sites, on both sides of the Atlantic, that had the source
for that BSD Unix software. By the way, a recent posting claimed that
fully 40% of the TCP/IP traffic in and out of McGill University is
"archie-related" -- archie is really a valuable service for finding
software on the net, and McGill is starting to distribute the software
and database in an attempt to improve the service and spread the load.
--------------------------------------------------
The Macintosh sit and hqx extensions explained
Both Bob Blackmun at UNCCVM.BITNET and Rob Vaughn from the Cornell
Materials Science Center sent mail to Dr. Chaos explaining the .sit and
.hqx extensions on archived Macintosh files. The .hqx extension means
that it has been processed by BinHex to turn the binary file into a
printable ASCII file -- one that could be sent through e-mail. The .sit
extension means that the original files were compressed into a library
by the utility StuffIt!. Therefore, to make the file
internettour.sit.hqx useable, you would first use BinHex to turn it back
into binary, and then use StuffIt! to uncompress and restore the
original file(s).
--------------------------------------------------
Question on emulating a vt100 on a 3270
Bob Blackmun also asked if there was any software that would allow
people using telnet from VM (in a 3270 session, for example) to emulate
a VT100 terminal. As far as Dr. Chaos knows, there is no such software
available, but maybe some of you might let him know of a solution.
--------------------------------------------------
Chaos Corner feedback
Roger Garnett of Cornell Agricultural Economics suggests Dr. Chaos delve
more into the networks at Cornell and carry items about what is
available on local archives or BBS servers. Dr. Chaos would certainly
be glad to pass along announcements or blurbs that he receives. (Why
does it always seem harder to get information about where you are than
anywhere else?)
--------------------------------------------------
FTP and potential problems under VM/CMS
Steve Peterson from Penn State had a problem trying to FTP the
internettour file from Pelican to a VM/CMS system -- he got a message
about an invalid filemode HQ. The problem lies in the way CMS FTP
command creates default CMS file names from Unix file names. CMS
"tokenizes" the Unix name by: (1) making all the characters uppercase,
(2) separating tokens at the point where a '.' appears, (3) truncating
the first two tokens to 8 characters, if necessary, (4) mapping the 3rd
token to the CMS filemode which is either one letter or one letter
followed by a digit (usually 0, 1, or 2). In the case of the file
"internettour.sit.hqx" CMS tries to create a file named "INTERNET SIT
HQ" and fails because HQ is not a valid filemode. The solution is to
specify on the "get" command what the local file name should be; that
is:
get internettour.sit.hqx tour.sithqx
will result in the file being stored on the A-disk (the default) with
the name "TOUR SITHQX".
--------------------------------------------------
Chaos Corner Feedback (Master's Degree?)
Dr. Chaos notes that only newsletter recipients on the west coast (Dave
Gomberg at UCSF and Ted Johnston at SLAC) seemed particularly concerned
about his credentials and what his Master's Degree might be in. Maybe
only keep their radios turned on. Considering the number of sentences
that end in prepositions, the degree is NOT in English!
--------------------------------------------------
Request for faster network links
Walter Wehinger, University of Stuttgart, would like to see the network
bandwidth for the international links improved. He is concerned that
his poor collector's soul will get mad because of the poor response time
between Germany and the US. Dr. Chaos points out that according to his
copy of the network map (from site nic.eu.net, directory ripe/maps), the
thickest, widest black line goes from Cornell to CERN (site of a *very*
high-energy particle collider) in Geneva, and there it stops. He
suggests that CERN, at this point, must be the sink of all network
information and that they must be encoding it into the particle beams
and storing it in the accelerator (opposing views go in opposite
directions), and that understanding the politics governing information
flow across national boundaries in Europe is not even close to the area
in which he received a Master's Degree.
--------------------------------------------------
GIF files and all that stuff
Mark Sincock of CIT asks what a GIF file is. Dr Chaos immediately
started babbling TLAs (three letter acronyms) and for quite some time it
was not possible to make out more than RLE, BMP, TIF, PCX, and MSP.
After several moments, I was able to gather that a large number of
formats exist for files that are graphical images. The CompuServe
Information Service developed one such graphical image format (gif) and
it has proven to be quite popular -- if for no other reason there exists
an incredibly large number of images stored on CompuServe available for
downloading. Programs to view GIF files and convert them to other image
formats exist on a large number of platforms. Dr. Chaos seems partial
to WinGif on his DOS/Windows systems. Users of Macintosh systems have
suggested Giffer and QuickGif as being good programs.
--------------------------------------------------
Unix Security (sic) and COPS
Kim Kohler of CIT responded to the question in the last issue concerning
COPS -- the set of programs and scripts to test the security of your
Unix system. She recommends it for use by new Unix system
administrators who aren't sure what to look for -- COPS provides a
"quick and dirty" test of the system.
--------------------------------------------------
Chaos Corner archived online?
Peter Siegel at the Cornell Theory Center asks if there will be an
online archive of "Chaos Corner." Dr. Chaos was momentarily pleased at
the suggestion but finally realized that "quality" was not the issue and
who's-disk-space-it-would-occupy was. Watch for future announcements on
the availability of back issues.
That's it for the MailBag this time around. Remember to send questions
and comments to rdc@cornella.cit.cornell.edu (Read! Dr. Chaos)
What going on? (Random Dr. Chaos)
--------------------------------------------------
Unix Internalional (UI) and Atlas
Unix International has announced plans to unveil in September their
Atlas Distributed Computing Architecture. Claims are that it will be
compliant with the rival OSF's Distributed Computing Environment and
include extensions in the areas of object-oriented technology,
distributed systems management, and distributed transaction processing.
Development on Atlas is starting this summer and continues through 1993.
With that schedule, it will be an interesting race between the OSF DCE
and DME products vs. UI's Atlas. Dr. Chaos wonders if Atlas being DCE
compliant means that UI will have to throw out Sun's RPC?
--------------------------------------------------
RAID disks announced for RS/6000
RAID disk drives capable of transferring data at 18 MB/sec and available
in capacities ranging from 10.8 GB to 43 GB have been announced for the
IBM RS/6000 by Maximum Strategy. A transfer rate 4 times that of IBM's
mainframe disk drives at a cheaper price per byte!
--------------------------------------------------
C version of ADABAS and Natural soon to be available
Software AG has announced the first Unix implementations of ADABAS and
Natural will be tested on HP 9000 machines this summer, and
implementations for Sun, DEC, IBM, and SCO systems will be available by
the end of this year. Although this version is written in the C
language, it is supposed to be source code compatible with the mainframe
versions of those products.
--------------------------------------------------
Apple and IBM deal in the making?
Apple and IBM are rumored to be working on a deal allowing Apple to use
RS/6000 chip sets in future computers. In addition, there is talk of
cooperation on future object oriented operating systems (code name Pink)
able to run both OS/2 and Macintosh applications. As evidence of a "new
IBM" we see quotes such as:"They need to understand that they can
survive in this industry without being a monopoly." This sentence being
spoken by IBMer Lee Reiswig (aka Blue Ninja) about Microsoft. Is it
time to sell Microsoft short?
--------------------------------------------------
Portable database front-ends
Blyth Software Inc. will soon be shipping toolkits to give developers
the ability to create database front-end programs that are portable
between PCs (running DOS or DOS/Windows) and Macintoshes using the Data
Access Language (DAL). Working under a license agreement with Apple,
they will be producing OS/2 and Unix versions of the toolkits in the
next year. This is good news because it means CIT can start
investigating applications using Apple's DAL without the fear of being
locked into a single vendor technology. (Has that stopped anyone
before?)
--------------------------------------------------
Cursive writing you can read
Many people have the perverse idea that digital devices ought to be able
to simulate analog devices. As a result, computers often have programs
written for them to display the face of an analog clock. The latest in
this analog-on-digital line is a small PC program called SCRIPTO that
reads text and outputs block cursive to the screen or redirected to a
file. It's great for making up a signature file to append to all your
mail files. (See the initials below for sample output). There is a
separate file containing the font that you can easily customize if you
want to "improve" the output. SCRIPTO.ZIP is available on Simtel20 in
the pd1:<msdos.txtutl> directory, or at wuarchive.wustl.edu in the
/mirrors/msdos/txtutl directory.
.---. .-. /
( / | ,_. / : /_ __ __ __
/ | / : / / ) __) / ) (_
/__,/ / :_ @ (__./ / (_ (__(_ (__/ ___)
--------------------------------------------------
International Text Editor (NOT)
ALED153.ZIP described as "a small programmer's text editor" -- should be
just the thing for all you small programmers out there. This program
has stirred up an amazingly heated discussion on one of the Usenet news
groups as being yet another example of a program that did not take into
account the needs of people using languages other than American English.
I haven't actually used this program, but it caught my eye because of
the description and the long Usenet discussion. It is at wuarchive in
/mirrors/msdos/editor.
--------------------------------------------------
Kaleidoscope program of PC
DAZE41F.ZIP in the /mirrors/msdos/graphics directory is really a great
kaleidoscope program for EGA or VGA displays. I was particularly
impressed with the patterns this program was able to produce on an EGA.
--------------------------------------------------
Current Virus scanning software
SCANV80.ZIP, CLEAN80.ZIP and VSHLD80B.ZIP in /mirrors/msdos/trojan-pro
are current copies of McAfee Associates PC virus protection programs.
--------------------------------------------------
Windows utilities and update to version 3.0a
Several interesting Windows 3 utilities are now available in the
/mirrors/msdos/windows3 directory. ACHART12.ZIP displays a chart of all
the characters (printable and control characters) in several character
sets. WINHV11.ZIP is a hex file viewer that allows you to specify
search strings. Last and definitely not least, Microsoft has finally
reacted to all the complaints about Windows applications being unstable
and the number of times users are seeing the infamous message
"UNRECOVERABLE APPLICATION ERROR, Terminating current application." (At
this point, if you are lucky, you can still gracefully exit your other
applications and re-boot the machine. This message is known as the "UAE
message.") The solution to these problems is to provide a program
(DRWATSON.ZIP) that will trap the UAEs and display lots of cryptic
diagnostic information. An application developer can send this
information into Microsoft and their software engineers can figure out
where the application is going astray (it couldn't be a Windows bug,
could it?). In any case, if you do any development of Windows
applications, this program is a must, and it's only about 2 years too
late. If you are not an applications developer but are still bothered
by UAE messages, the general consensus on the net was that you could use
it as leverage to get Microsoft to send you a free upgrade to Windows
3.0a ... where a lot of bugs are fixed. If you act quickly, the updates
to bring Windows up to 3.0a are rumored to be at cica.cica.indiana.edu
in the pub/pc/win3/misc directory. Look for win3a1.zip, win3a2.zip and
win3a3.zip. You will need about 1.3 MB of disk space to transfer these
files. Create a new directory, say C:\WININST; unzip the files into
that directory (1.5 MB) in numerical order. (The third zip file will
replace 4 files that were munged originally.) If you execute
SUBST A: C:\WININST
then run switch to the "new" A: drive and run SETUP. In less than a
minute you will have an updated Windows 3.0a system.
--------------------------------------------------
New release of NCSA Telnet for PC available
The /mirrors/msdos/ncsatelnet directory contains the just released
version of NCSA's TELNET (2.3.01) for PCs ... update.tel is an ASCII
file that describes the changes in this version, and info.tel is a
description of NCSA Telnet and its utilities (FTP, etc.).
--------------------------------------------------
Plan 9 from Outer Space
The original developers of the Unix operating system are still working
for Bell Labs and still developing operating systems. The latest is
called Plan-9 (after a science fiction movie called "Plan-9 from Outer
Space"), and while not available outside of AT&T (the movie is
available), some documentation is available as a PostScript file at
ftp.cs.toronto.edu in /doc/plan-9.ps.Z (this is a Unix compressed
PostScript file; there are decompression utilities for this format on a
number of other platforms -- let Dr Chaos know if you need help).
--------------------------------------------------
Answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Many of the Usenet news groups have periodic postings to remind new
readers the purposes of the newsgroups, proper etiquette on the network,
and answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs). Copies of these
periodic postings are maintained at pit-manager.mit.edu in the
/pub/usenet/<newsgroup> directories. These postings, particularly the
FAQs, provide valuable information and work-arounds for problems
commonly encountered in any number of areas. The newsgroup
"comp.mail.misc" maintains an Inter-Network Mail Guide;
"comp.binaries.ibm.pc" maintains a Beginner's Guide to Binaries and a
Beginner's Guide to FTP; and newsgroups "rec.sport.basketball" and
"rec.sport.football" contain the weekly results of the sportswriters'
poll during the course of the sport's season. Jonathan Kamens of MIT's
Project Athena maintains this archive on a volunteer basis.
At the site sh.cs.edu in the nsfnet directory, you can find two files
that may be useful: "questions-and-answers-beginners" and "questions-
and-answers-advanced." These files provide background information on
NSFNet in addition to telling how to access nic.ddn.mil and query the
"whois" database to find out if a site has a computer on the Internet.
--------------------------------------------------
CD-ROM from 1991 Sun User's Group meeting
The Sun Users Group has announced their 1991 SUG CD-ROM. The CD-ROM
contains over 300 MB of source code, software archives, compiled Sun 4
binaries and nearly 200 MB of Sun Microsystems' software patches.
Prices vary from $260 to $330 depending on whether you are a SUG member
and if your location is domestic or international. The contents appear
to be quite impressive and Dr Chaos has an electronic copy of the order
form if you are interested.
--------------------------------------------------
Radio Shack CD-ROM drive (continued)
In the last issue we reported that Radio Shack was selling a CD-ROM unit
and expansion card for PCs at $399. The local dealer did call back and
let Dr Chaos know that the drives were available 5-6 days after you
place an order. We blindly (blush) reported the information from Byte
that the drives were a little slow on access time but transferred data
at a rapid 150 KB/sec -- we didn't realize at the time that *all* CD-ROM
drives transfer data at 150 KB/sec. There is a very nice summary of CD-
ROM technology written in 1988 by Andy Poggio of Apple Computer that Dr
Chaos has enjoyed. "If you are buying a CD-ROM drive, ... two factors
NOT to consider are capacity and data rate. The capacity of all CR-ROM
drives is determined solely by the CD they are reading. ... All CD-ROM
drives read data at a net 150 Kbytes/sec for CD-ROM data." This summary
is in the archives for the CDROM-L mailing list on BITNET, maintained by
the LISTSERV at UCCVMA. Let Dr. Chaos know if you need more info.
--------------------------------------------------
Unix Windows on DOS (multiple Unix sessions on one line)
The fascinating program award this time goes to some software called
Unix Windows. While running from a single DOS PC over a single
communications port, Unix Windows allows you to have up to seven shells
running at once. The protocol requires you to have a server running on
the remote Unix machine to manage the switching between windows, etc.
The author promises to have a new version out Real Soon Now that
includes many more features (like X/Zmodem file transfer), and he speaks
in glowing terms of a future version written to run under Windows 3.
For now, you can get the programs from wuarchive.wustl.edu in the
/mirrors/msdos/modem directory under the name UWPC105.ZIP.
--------------------------------------------------
More AIX software archived software
On the RS/6000 AIX 3.1 front, byron.u.washington.edu has collected
programs that have been ported to AIX 3.1. Dr. Chaos poked around at
the site and found things like kermit, emacs, and xntp among other
things. If you have an IBM RS/6000, it might be a good place to keep an
eye on (or a good place to contribute to if you have already ported some
software).
--------------------------------------------------
GIF weather map updated hourly
For those of you more interested in looking at a tube than out the
window, how do you get a picture of what the weather is like? The
answer is that at site vmd.cso.uiuc.edu in directory phil.515 there is a
GIF image of a national weather map containing station reports,
isobars, the radar summary, any current severe weather watch boxes, and
the latest position plot of warm and cold fronts. At approximately 15
minutes past the hour you can retrieve the just-updated file wxmap.gif
and see what's going on across the nation (even better than looking out
the window, right?).
--------------------------------------------------
Mac utilities for viewing GIF image files
If you would like to be able to view GIF files and you are most
comfortable with the Macintosh environment, the most popular utilities
seem to be Giffer and QuickGif. Dr. Chaos hasn't used either program
but has just sent copies to his delta-tester. If the tester promises to
report back, he will be told where he can access "cowgirl.gif" (*only*
as an experiment to test the features of the programs). The programs
came from (where else) wuarchive.wustl.edu in the /mirrors/info-
mac/art/gif directory and the files are named giffer-110b1.hqx and
quick-gif.hqx, respectively. Dr. Chaos is having trouble with this
delta-tester since BinHex seems to consistently give a checksum error
for files this guy downloads from VM/CMS (even though binary transfers
have been done in all cases). Righteous Dr.Chaos is *confident* the
*HE* is not doing anything incorrectly -- does anyone have suggestions
for the tester?
--------------------------------------------------
GIF, fractals, balls
While cruising the network, Dr. Chaos noted in the download statistics
from garbo (a well known archive site in Finland) that the file
balls2.gif was being downloaded very frequently. Quickly checking
wuarchive in the /graphics/gif/b (the GIF files are stored in the
directory corresponding to their first letter) directory, he transferred
the rather large file (over 500KB) to pelican (a RS/6000). Using the
motifgif program to display the file, he discovered that balls2.gif is a
beautiful picture that appears to be the Mandelbrot set in 3-D, where
the surfaces are silvered balls that show the reflections of the other
balls. His immediate reaction was to transfer it to puffin (a PS/2-80
running DOS/Windows), use the WinGif program to convert the GIF file to
a BMP-format file the same size as the screen (768x1024 pixels), and
then load it as wallpaper (the Windows background). It is really great!
That's all for now. If you would like to receive electronic copies of
Chaos Corner or have comments/questions/objections, send them to:
rdc@cornella.cit.cornell.edu
.---. .-. /
( / | ,_. / : /_ __ __ __
/ | / : / / ) __) / ) (_
/__,/ / :_ @ (__./ / (_ (__(_ (__/ ___) (I have a Master's degree)
