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 haven t 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, it s 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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.)

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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).

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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.

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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.

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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 ...)

