Chaos Corner V02 N09 15 Sep 1992 -------------------------------------------------- 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. -------------------------------------------------- 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! -------------------------------------------------- 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. ------------------------------------------------- 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
and the server will return via mail the IP address of the site. -------------------------------------------------- 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 -------------------------------------------------- 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! -------------------------------------------------- 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. -------------------------------------------------- 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] -------------------------------------------------- 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. -------------------------------------------------- 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. -------------------------------------------------- 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. -------------------------------------------------- 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. -------------------------------------------------- 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! -------------------------------------------------- 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). -------------------------------------------------- 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. -------------------------------------------------- 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 ..... ------------------------------------------------- Hitchhiker's Guide on BBC! If you have access to a shortwave radio (you can get a GE radio for $60-70), you might be interested in the Hitchhiker's Guide series that started on BBC on August 20. It is broadcast on Wednesday evenings (in the US) at 8:30 EDT (0:30 CUT on Thursday morning). Of course, we have the BBC frequencies for you at that time ... 7325, 6175 Mhz in North America, 90200, 648 Mhz in Europe. Other locations (au & br) should send mail to Dr. Chaos if they want the frequencies ... or ftp the frequency list (can you figure out where?). -------------------------------------------------- The Physics of Computation A new book due out this autumn is _Computation: The Micro and the Macro View_ by B. A. Hubberman (Xerox Palo Alto). "The laws and methodology of physics are starting to provide powerful insights into the nature and dynamics of computation. This book contains a number of articles that illustrate how fields ranging from quantum mechanics to statistical physics and nonlinear dynamics can help elucidate the nature of computation." You probably won't find it at the check-out line of the grocery store, so if you have to order it, use ISBN 981-02- 0981-9 (US$ 45) or, for the paperback use 981-02-0982-7 (US$ 28). -------------------------------------------------- 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 ) -------------------------------------------------- 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. -------------------------------------------------- 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." -------------------------------------------------- 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. -------------------------------------------------- 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 ....)