225 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
225 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
Chaos Corner V03 N05 9 August 1993
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Copyright 1993 by Robert D. Cowles; Ithaca, NY 14850. Permission is
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hereby granted to republish complete issues in unaltered form.
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Republication of partial issues must reference the source and state
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that subscriptions to Chaos Corner are available (free) by sending
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electronic mail to chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu.
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--------------------------------------------------
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Slow Mail Distribution Possible
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This issue my be distributed more slowly than normal. There is
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currently a mail loop on the Internet due to a host in Japan rejecting
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some of the White House news summaries and the Listserv responsible for
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distributing the summaries doesn't appear smart enough to stop it. Dr.
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Chaos would dearly like to turn this situation into some lesson but I
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think the situation speaks for itself.
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--------------------------------------------------
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Mailbag - What does .gz suffix on files mean?
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Thanks to Gerhard Rentschler in Stuttgart and Achim Dreyer in Paderborn
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for informing me that the .gz suffix on files means that they have been
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compressed with the GNU version of the ZIP software. Achim even sent
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along the Unix MAN documentation pages for the gzip, gunzip and zcat
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commands. By the way, Dr, Chaos points out that gunzip can handle file
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compressed with gzip, and also zip, compress, and pack. Looks like a
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handy command to have around on a Unix system. Vielen Dank!
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--------------------------------------------------
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Mailbag - E-mail to Antarctica
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David Coughran pointed out that when his brother was stationed at the
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South Pole, they exchanged mail through a machine that was supposed to
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have a satellite relay for messages. The technique was to send the mail
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to spole@atsvax.rsmas.miami.edu and put the name of the person you were
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sending to in the subject line. It certainly is another technique and
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the one you use MAY depend on where you are stationed.
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--------------------------------------------------
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CHAOS CORNER is WORLD-WIDE
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Ron McCoy happened to see someone from McMurdo Sound post something to
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the weather list (wx-talk) and gave Dr. Chaios his electronic mail
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address. Within 24 hours, Matt Stinson responded to the call and is now
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our first subscriber from "way-down-under" (or "way-up-on-top"). Chaos
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Corner now goes to all 7 continents.
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--------------------------------------------------
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Apologies for the Garbage
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If your last issue of Chaos Corner came through looking a little
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garbled, we had a slight problem in getting "smart quotes" turned off
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soon enough in Word4Windows (running under OS/2, of course). It seems
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that some mail transports detected the non-standard ASCII characters in
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the file and converted it to some other encoding scheme. We can send
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you a "clean copy" of the last issue if you need one.
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--------------------------------------------------
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IBM ThinkPad 720c
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One reason that this issue is a little later than normal in coming out
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is that I have invested significant time the past month in becoming more
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productive (and if you believe that .... ); and am now the proud owner
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of an IBM ThinkPad 720c, with 12 MB RAM (before memory prices went
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out of sight in the past month), 160 MB disk, and two PCMCIA cards: and
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IBM Ethernet adapter, and a MegaHertz X-Jack 14.4 data/fax modem. Dr.
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Chaos and I fight over who gets to play with the new toy all the time.
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The machine is really a dream; from the large active-matrix color screen
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(we have read that it is the only laptop that meets German standards
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because there are requirements for how large the letters must be on a
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24x80 screen that can only be met by one that is at least 10.4 inches
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measured diagonally. The machine has OS/2 2.1 and TCP/IP for OS/2
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installed on it ... so using the Ethernet adapter we have achieved file
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transfers with FTP of 250KB to 320KB per second to pelican on the same
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network (no gateways in between).
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The X-Jack modem is nice ... it has a retractable connector that the
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RJ-11 plug fits directly into. The only problem is that MegaHertz has
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yet to develop the necessary software drivers to (1) get the modem to
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operate under OS/2; and (2) to get the modem to operate in a fashion
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that is consistent with the "Card and Socket Services" that is supposed
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to be used as the interface to all PCMCIA cards under OS/2. According
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to the BBS that MegaHertz runs, they expected to have OS/2 drivers in a
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couple of weeks ... and that was 7 weeks ago.
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This file is being written on the ThinkPad while I am accessing my
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stored files via slip through a Zoom V.32bis modem. I will be sending
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it out using LaMail that comes with the IBM TCPIP package. Look
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carefully at the "From:" line if you want to get some clue as to how
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secure Internet mail transport really is. We point that out not so you
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will try to send mail as your boss, but so you will maintain some degree
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of healthy skepticism about the origin of mail files you receive. By
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the way, for those of you looking for a way to move from a VM/CMS
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version of mail to a more politically correct one, LaMail under OS/2
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will use your CMS NAMES file with almost no changes. There is also an
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add-ins available from ftp-os2.cdrom.com in os2/2_x/network:
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lampop11.zip gives an interface to POP3 mail servers; nistime.zip
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provides an interface to the Internet time service and allow you to set
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your PCs clock correctly; os2gofer.zip and os2wais.zip provide gopher
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and wais clients, respectively; and ltimes11.zip (LaTimes) provides
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an interface to NNTP Usenet News servers.
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--------------------------------------------------
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IBM Support BBS
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One great source of information that has been very helpful, especially
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for a machine as new as the ThinkPad 720c and an operating system just
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recently released as OS/2 2.1 (we're real gluttons for punishment here)
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is the IBM Support BBS. If you have a modem, you can always get the
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latest versions of reference diskettes, diagnostic diskettes, drivers,
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etc. from this bulletin-board system ... it's at (404) 835-6600 for
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right now ... but as of August 27, 1993, locate it at (919) 517-0001.
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The OS/2 drivers for the IBM Ethernet adapter card were not available
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when we picked up the machine, but on July 17th they appeared on the BBS
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and we have been using them ever since.
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--------------------------------------------------
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Downsizing Expo
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We have just returned from this year's Downsizing Expo. There are some
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interesting changes in what appears to be the conventional wisdom this
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year as opposed to last year. We will soon be announcing the
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availability of our notes (thanks to having a laptop) ... if you would
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like a copy, just ask for it at chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu
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... and they're guaranteed to get out ssoner than the notes from last
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year (which never got out at all).
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--------------------------------------------------
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Open Vendors and Open Specifications
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We listened to a number of vendors talk about how "open" they were. It
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appears that vendors like Microsoft and Novell believe that they are
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open because when they make up a new standard, they publish the specs
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"openly" so that anyone can follow them (of course, they still retain
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control over the spec and feel free to make any changes they want to).
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Other vendors support the open standards that are not under the control
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of a single vendor ... and that seems to be what we really want when we
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talk about open systems. Hats off to those vendors! (As usual, IBM is
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a large enough company that it does both at the same time!)
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--------------------------------------------------
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KERMIT faster than ZMODEM?
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It has always beeen common wisdom that if you wanted to used the fastest
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PC file transfer protocol, you used Zmodem ... with the standard DOS
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implementation being available as the shareware program DSZ from Omen
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Technologies. If you wanted to use a more solid and universally
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available protocol, you used Kermit, a freeware program available from
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Colombia University ... and you paid for that by having to live with a
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slower form of file transfer. No More! According to the latest Kermit
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Digest, the newest versions of MS-DOS Kermit (3.13) and C-Kermit 5A(189)
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(available for VMS, Unix and OS/2) now understand a fast transfer mode
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that can allow them to meet or exceed the speed of Zmodem transfers! To
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get the latest version of Kermit, look in the /kermit/bin directory at
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watsun.cc.columbia.edu. For MS-DOS Kermit, get the file msvibm.zip
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(don't forget to use 'binary' transfer mode), for OS/2 2.x get the file
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ckoker32.exe (get ckoker16.exe for releases 1.x). If you want the Unix
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version for a particular machine look for files of the form
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ckuker.<system-name>, e.g. ckuker.sparc.sunos41c or ckuker.unixware for
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binaries that have already been compiled for the appropriate system.
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--------------------------------------------------
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Educational Software Guide
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A Parent-Teacher Association in Maryland has put together a guide to
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educational software that may serve as a good starting point for getting
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kids to work with computers. Not only are programs given a score, but
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the guide includes vendor addresses and telephone numbers. If you woud
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like a copy, ask Dr. Chaos at chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu.
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--------------------------------------------------
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CERT Advisory for Anonymous FTP Providers
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The Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) has been receiving an
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increasing number of reports of people misusing anonymous FTP. To
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protect anonymous FTP as a resource service on the net, CERT has issued
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some configuration guidelines on the accepted ways to set up your system
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to provide an anonymous FTP service. For your own copy of the CERT
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advisory send electronic mail to chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu
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or get the original (or any CERT advisories) from /pub/cert_advisories
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of the machine cert.org (192.88.209.5) by anonymous FTP (we assume that
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they have their directories set up correctly).
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--------------------------------------------------
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Need Translation between IP Address and Hostname?
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The University of California at Berkeley has an experimental server
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available that allows one to do searches of host nametables, BITNET node
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tables, etc. Just issue the telnet command to host netinfo.berkekey.edu
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and specify port 117 (usually that is the second parameter on the telent
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command line). Entering a ? will get you a list of the commands. Of
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course, you might need to know the IP address to get there ... so use
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128.32.206.12 or 128.32.136.12.
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--------------------------------------------------
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Like Directory Viewer in "Jurassic Park"?
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It can be yours ... that is if you use (or know someone who uses) a
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Silicon Graphics machine. The binaries for the program are on the host
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sgi.sgi.com in the directory /sgi/fsn. Look for file fsn.tar.Z and
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check out the README in the same directory for more information about
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the program.
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--------------------------------------------------
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Images from "Jurassic Park"
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If you would like GIF or JPG images from some scenes of the film
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Jurassic Park, look in the gifserv/jurassic/gif or gifserv/jurassic/jpg
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directories of merlin.etsu.edu ... there are about 15 jpg files and
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twice as many gif files there for your enjoyment. The machine is at
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East Texas State University (Central Time Zone) and they restrict the
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number of anonymous FTP users from off-campus during prime hours.
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--------------------------------------------------
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Get you Free Subscription Here!
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Just send a message to Dr. Chaos - chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu
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and ask to be put on the subscription list. It's that easy. Don't
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delay ---- act now!
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Dr. Chaos (I have a Master's degree ....)
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