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Chaos Corner v02 n11
Chaos Corner V02 N11 21 December 1992
Here we go with the last issue of the year. Once again,
Gary Buhrmaster is the first to request a bound copy of this
year's issue of Chaos Corner. While the bound version of
volume 2 will not be available for giving this holiday
season, Dr. Chaos hopes you will keep it in mind for that
special someone on Valentine's Day.
-------------------------------------------------
Information on getting Information about Germany
A wealth of information on contact telephone numbers and
addresses for various sources of information about German
and Germany is assembled in the Frequently Asked Questions
list for the NetNews news group soc.culture.germany [Note:
the correct newsgroup is soc.culture.german]. Sources in
North America for German Language videos and cassette tapes
are included, as well as the address/phone number for
getting a (free) 8-page weekly summary of news from Germany
(available in German or English). If you would like a copy
of this FAQ, send electronic mail to chaos-
request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu. Those of you with
satellite dishes probably know that Deutsche Welle TV is now
(since 1 Nov) available on INTELSAT K (338.5 degrees East)
at 11.605 GHz. To celebrate the new service, Deutsche Welle
transmitted live a new production of Richard Wagner's
Parsifal performed by the German State Opera in Berlin.
-------------------------------------------------
Turtle PostScript and Fractal Images
In response to the item in the last issue about a PostScript
program for generating Sierpinski's Gasket, Christian
Wettergren in Sweden sent a Logo-like PostScript program
that uses a turtle language to implement a number of
examples from the book _The Science of Fractal Images_, by
M.F Barnsley; ISBN 0-387-96608-0. For a copy of the
postscript program, send mail to Dr. Chaos at chaos-
request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu.
--------------------------------------------------
Call Deutsche Welle to be added to their Mailing List
Would you like to get on the mailing list for the Deutsche
Welle world-wide programs but can never bring yourself to
send an international letter to Cologne? Now, in North
America, you can call 1-800-393-3248 [the correct phone
number is 1-800-392-3248] to give DW comments on their
short-wave programming or request a subscription to their
"tune-in" programming guide. If you are ever driving on the
autobahn between Aachen and Koeln (Cologne), the radio
antenna array near the town of Juelich (we have seen it a
number of times at 5 am as we drive to catch a plane from
Frankfurt back to the USA) ranks right up with the brown
coal pits as some of the most amazing things to see in the
area. (We assume that our friends at the KFA will correct
us if those antennae are not for DW.)
-------------------------------------------------
Macintosh interface for Gopher, WAIS, etc.
Peter Shames, at Jet Propulsion Lab has a recommendation for
you Mac users. Peter says, "I've been using TurboGopher for
some time now and find it to be an ideal Mac client for
Gopher, Archie, and even WAIS though I like WAISstation
better for that. Find TurboGopher at:
boombox.micro.umn.edu under /pub/gopher/
ftp.uu.net under /pub/archiving/gopher
Highly recommended ... it even knows enough to display
README files and to un-binhex files automatically and ask if
you wish to UnStuff any .sit files. Pretty slick."
--------------------------------------------------
New "Best of Journal of Irreproducible Results" coming soon
Mark Dionne tells Dr. Chaos that a new volume of the best
articles from the Journal of Irreproducible Results has just
been finished by the current editor, Marc Abrahams, and it
will soon be available. Dr. Chaos is eagerly awaiting the
January thaw so he can capture some cluster flies and try
out the fly-powered airplanes described in volume 1.
--------------------------------------------------
Become your own Holistic Detective
In the Macintosh archive at the University of Michigan you
can solve the paradox of the sofa and the staircase as
detailed in _Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency_ by
Douglas Adams. Look for
mac/graphics/graphicsutil/holisticsofa0.91.cpt.hqx in with
many other interesting files (like new After Dark modules)
at mac.archive.umich.edu or one of the mirror sites:
N. America wuarchive.wustl.edu in
mirrors/archive.umich.edu/mac
Australia archie.au in micros/mac/umich
Europe src.doc.ic.ac.uk in
packages/mac/umich
If you would like to be on the frequent ftp'ers (recent
files) mailing list, just drop a note to mac-recent-
request@mac.archive.umich.edu.
-------------------------------------------------
Text of the Maastricht Treaty Online
As an informed citizen of the world, Dr. Chaos is certain
that you will want to know where to obtain your own personal
copy of the treaty signed recently in Maastricht. If you
use anonymous ftp to get to Princeton.edu, just look in the
/pub directory for the file named Maastricht.Treaty.tar.Z --
remember to specify "binary" before transferring the file.
Dr. Chaos must sadly report that it was not immediately
obvious where the Chaos Corner archive was located on
Princeton.edu.
-------------------------------------------------
Netfax becomes a GNU Project
Peter Ware at Ohio State University has the following good
news:
"I've started maintaining netfax for the Free
Software Foundation. I'd like to collect fixes to
incorporate into the next release. In particular,
I'm interested in any fixes you have needed to
incorporate to get netfax to compile on your system.
"I'd also like to start maintaining a list of OS's
netfax runs under and a list of modems netfax works
with including revision information. If you could
email me this I'll include it in the list.
[ware@cis.ohio-state.edu]
"My goals for the next release (within two months)
are:
1. Remove dependencies on GNU make
2. Automatic configuration
3. Have an "install" target for the Makefiles
4. Improve the documentation
5. Improve portability to other OS's, modems.
"After that there are several directions I can go
with netfax:
- Incorporate "chat" scripts so netfax can work with
any modem. This may be fairly painless as I can
build off of taylor-uucp.
- Add an X UIF for sending, receiving and viewing
faxes.
- Allow a person to receive and then distribute
faxes electronically.
- Make netfax independent of postscript for
rendering (i.e. assume input is in g3 format).
Any additional ideas? Any preferences?
[ware@cis.ohio-state.edu]
"Finally, continue to send bug reports to bug-
fax@ai.mit.edu"
--------------------------------------------------
Interested in more information about free Unix (Linux)?
One of the best places to get more information about the
very popular free Unix-like operating system, Linux, is from
the Linux Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ). Matt Welsh at
Cornell provides the following methods of getting the file:
1) ftp to tsx-11.mit.edu. It's the file
/pub/linux/FAQ. It's one big ASCII file (about
150k). or ftp to sunsite.unc.edu. It's the file
/pub/Linux/docs/FAQ. Again, one big ASCII file,
same thing as on tsx-11.mit.edu.
2) If you don't have FTP access, retrieve it via the
mailserver at pit-manager.mit.edu. Send mail to
mail-server@pit-manager.mit.edu with the word "help"
in the body. or If you simply can't find the FAQ,
Matt will mail it to you. Just send to mail
(mdw@tc.cornell.edu).
3) The most recent FAQ will be posted to
comp.os.linux and news.answers every month (if you
want to wait...).
-------------------------------------------------
Problems with W4W under the OS/2-Win3.1 Beta?
If you are having problems running Word for Windows under
the OS/2 beta that supports Windows 3.1, in that some of the
drop-down menus don't -- Jason Mitchel at Harvard suggests
copying user.exe from the system directory of a running
Windows 3.1 system, and putting it in the
os2/mdos/winos2/system (or wherever you have Windows 3.1)
directory named os2user.exe. Be sure to rename the old
version of os2user.exe in case this doesn't work for you
(Dr. Chaos happily reports that it solved his problems with
Word for Windows under OS/2-Win3.1 Beta.
--------------------------------------------------
New releases of Excel and Word for Windows
Without a lot of fanfare, Microsoft has released some fixed
versions of W4W and Excel. If you haven't received your
fresh copies from Microsoft in November/December 1992,
you're backlevel. The current version of W4W is 2.0c ---
Excel is probably 4.0a, but Dr. Chaos hasn't had time to get
it loaded to check. Call your Microsoft support number for
the free update.
-------------------------------------------------
FLIST for OS/2
People that work with computers hate to have to learn new
tools when they move between platforms -- they believe that
they shouldn't have to conform to the "brain-dead" tools
that are available on the new system. For current or former
CMS users moving to OS/2 and looking for a full screen file
utility like FLIST, try /pub/os2/all/diskutils/flist58.zip
from ftp-os2.nmsu.edu.
-------------------------------------------------
Movie credits for actors, actresses, directors, writers
Each year, many books are published that rate movies and
tell which actors and actresses starred in them. But where
do you find an up-to-date list of the movie credits for each
actor, writer, director? Correct, the network, of course.
At boulder.colorado.edu in the pub/tv+movies/lists
directory, Dr. Chaos found a README file that is quoted in
part below:
This directory contains the latest releases of the
USENET rec.arts.movies lists. The lists are intended
to provide useful, current references to TV and film
credits in an electronic form.
actors.list maintained by Col Needham
<cn@otter.hpl.hp.com>
actress.list maintained by Andy Krieg
<kreig@titan.med.ge.com>
cinematographers maintained by Michel Hafner
<hafner@ifi.unizh.ch>
composers maintained by Michel Hafner
<hafner@ifi.unizh.ch>
dead.list maintained by Col Needham
<cn@otter.hpl.hp.com>
directors.list maintained by Dave Knight
<dknight@elm.sdd.trw.com>
writers.list maintained by Andy Krieg
<kreig@titan.med.ge.com>
The lists are posted to rec.arts.movies on roughly a
monthly basis, spread randomly throughout the month.
They will be updated here at the same Frequency.
The tools directory contains a set of Unix shell
scripts that enable users to create and search a
massive movie database using the information
contained on the lists.
-------------------------------------------------
Helpful FTP but no dates?
Many sites are now running a version of FTP that provides
you with a single line description of the file when you do a
'dir' command. The problem with that feature is that
sometimes you want to see what files are new since a certain
date and that information is not displayed. It turns out
that the date information is available if you specify 'dir -
d' -- we are sure this is clear if you read the
documentation available at those sites (READ THE
DOCUMENTATION?), but such things aren't always possible (or
even likely). (Parenthetical comments courtesy of Dr. Chaos)
-------------------------------------------------
Looking for a good Majongg game to run under OS/2?
Naji Mouawad at the University of Waterloo recommends that
you try out majongg.zip [Note: the correct name for the
games is Mahjongg and the file is named mahjongg.zip] from
the soft/os2/Demo/Games directory (case matters) on
rusmv1.rus.uni-stuttgart.de. He says that it is better than
several other versions he has found, although it is
optimized for use with a 8514/A video driver.
-------------------------------------------------
Guide to Books about Unix
The Concise Guide to Unix Books is an excellent starting
point for finding out where to look for more information on
the Unix operating system. The subject areas covered
include:
A. General Unix Texts
B. Shells
C. Unix Editors
D. Networking and Communications
E. System Administration
F. Unix Security
G. Programming
H. TeX
I. X Window System
J. Dictionary
K. Other Lists
where "Other Lists" references other Unix bibliographies.
The latest version of the guide is at pit-manager.mit.edu
(along with many other FAQ lists from Usenet news groups) in
/pub/usenet/news.answers/books and look for the file named
'unix'.
--------------------------------------------------
Release 1.2 of Xgopher is now available
Support for new types (image files, binary files, tn3270
sessions), new bookmark support and a host of other features
have been added to the most recently released version of
Xgopher. Look for the file on ftp.cso.uiuc.edu in the
uiuc/src directory or on export.lcs.mit.edu in the contrib
directory (the name of the file is xgopher.1.2.tar.Z). Of
course, another good place to try is the home of all gopher
software boombox.micro.umn.edu (in the pub/gopher/Unix
directory).
-------------------------------------------------
Network News - Other sources
Dana Noonan publishes Network News about library collections
and other things that might be of interest. One way
suggested to find out if there might be a bitnet discussion
list of interest to you on a particular topic is to send a
mail file to listserv@bitnic.bitnet with the following one
line command:
list global /topic for example: list global /chaos
The results of the search will be sent back to you within
several minutes. If you are interested in trying out Net
News, send a mail file to listserv@ndsuvm1.bitnet containing
the line:
subscribe nnews <first-name> <last-name>
The ftp archive for back issues is on vm1.nodak.edu in the
NNEWS directory. Another good list of Internet sources is
Jean Polly's Surfing the Internet, now in version 2. Use
anonymous FTP to access host nysernet.org and look in the
pub/resources/guides directory for the file
surfing.the.internet.2.0.2.txt (check for similar names
because the version number is changing as it is being
updated).
--------------------------------------------------
Preview Issue of the CYBERSPACE VANGUARD is now available
A new electronic magazine is just starting up with an area
of focus on things of interest to the science fiction
community (Dr. Chaos claims that that doesn't focus things
down very much). They are also looking for authors, so here
is your chance if you want to contribute to a new
publication. For more information, write to
cn577@cleveland.freenet.edu. If you would like to see the
preview issue, let us know at chaos-
request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu -- a sample from one of the
articles is shown below.
--------------------------------------------------
What do Captain Picard and Scrooge have in common?
The following article is excerpted from the preview issue of
the CYBERSPACE VANGUARD.
[Note: Patrick Stewart's one man version of Charles
Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" will run from December
15, 1992 until January 3, 1993 on Broadway at the
Broadhurst Theater (235 West 44th Street in New York
City). Tickets are $45 and can be ordered from
Tele- Charge at (212) 239-6200.]
OK. Jean-Luc Picard as Scrooge. You can
picture that, can't you? Heck, some of you probably
think he IS Scrooge. All right, how about Picard as
Bob Cratchit? Or Marley's Ghost? Now. How
about Patrick Stewart, the man who plays Picard on
Star Trek: The Next Generation, as all of them.
And Tiny Tim. And dozens of others. At the same
time.
"It's the ultimate piece of fun for an actor,
because not only do I get to play the dramatic role
of Scrooge but also the children, Mrs. Cratchit and
Mrs. Fezziwig," Mr. Stewart said in an interview
with the New York papers around this time last year.
This is the third year that Patrick Stewart has
taken time off during the holidays to perform his
one man adaptation of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas
Carol." Mr. Stewart has created his own adaptation
of the book. More than just a reading, he performs
all the roles, including the props. (You know it's
not English 101 when you're dealing with a man who
takes a break for an imaginary glass of water.) At
one point, during the Fezziwigs' party, he plays
eleven roles at once. "It's a stupendous actors'
workout and that's what it's meant to do: Keep my
stage arteries from clogging up."
--------------------------------------------------
Need access to NetNews?
If you have a newsreader, or something that can talk to NNTP
servers on TCP/IP port 119 (telnet will do this if you
want), give uwm.edu (129.89.2.1) or sol.ctr.columbia.edu
(129.59.64.40) a try [another site worth trying is
umd5.umd.edu]. For a public access Unix system with Usenet
NetNews, try using telnet to nyx.cs.du.edu (130.253.192.68)
-- login as "new" -- reports are that it is a nice system
but can be a little slow.
--------------------------------------------------
Results of the November and December Internet Hunts
First with archie, then gopher, wais and now veronica ...
it's almost becoming TOO easy to find things on the
Internet, right? Let Dr. Chaos know if you would like a
description of how the winners did it when it came down to
finding incredible things on the network (the December
winner did almost all his work from within gopher). Have no
fear, look for Dr. Chaos on a wais server near you in the
coming year. For the Hunt results send your request to
chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu.
--------------------------------------------------
Scientist's Workbench Version 2.0 is now available
The following information has been provided by Caroline
Hecht, Project Manager at the Cornell Theory Center:
The Scientist's Workbench (SWB) is an X and Motif-
based software package developed at the Cornell
Theory Center. The main functions of the
Scientist's Workbench are to bring together the
tools and software required by scientific
researchers in a distributed computing environment,
to provide a graphical interface to access those
tools, and to provide the software necessary to
allow researchers to easily build their own
graphical interfaces.
Included in the distribution are executable widgets
(small X clients) that provide graphical interfaces
to common tasks such as displaying and responding to
a prompt, or specifying a file name. The output
from the executable widgets is sent to standard
output by default. Executable widgets may be
invoked from the command line or shell scripts,
enabling users to easily replace text-based
interfaces with graphical ones.
Version 2.0 of the Scientist's Workbench software is
now available from the Cornell Theory Center. The
new software may be obtained via anonymous ftp from
info.tc.cornell.edu, in the directory pub/swb. The
file README.TOP describes the rest of the files in
the anonymous ftp. We are now providing binaries
for Sun SPARC, RS/6000 (AIX 3.2), SGI, and DEC 5000
(and 3100), as well as the source code. To build
from the source, the user must have OSF Motif;
however, to install and run the binaries Motif is
not required.
--------------------------------------------------
CCITT Documents to be available across the network!
Carl Malamud, author of several Interop books, has been
waging a campaign for several years to get the CCITT
documents widely available. It stands to reason that
without wide availability of the standards documents, not as
much software will be developed that conforms to the
standards. At long last, starting in November 1992, the
TELEDOC distribution system became operational. Document
formats that are planned to be made available include ASCII,
Microsoft RTF, Word for Windows, PostScript and CCITT
ODA/ODIF. For more information or to obtain a user's guide,
the press release recommends you contact either
shaw@itu.arcom.ch or bautista@itu.arcom.ch.
--------------------------------------------------
Subscribe to Chaos Corner
We will now close off the year of 1992 as we head into the
winter season. Dr. Chaos and I hope you have found some
items in the past year that have been helpful, amusing,
outrageous (where did we put the Complete Set of Clinton
Jokes?) or instructive. If you would like a subscription,
send your request to chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu
and you will be sent a confirmation and directions for
obtaining back issues (hint: look in the pub directory of
pelican.cit.cornell.edu).
Dr. Chaos (I have a Master's Degree ... )
