Subject: Linux-Misc Digest #176
From: Digestifier <Linux-Misc-Request@senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU>
To: Linux-Misc@senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU
Reply-To: Linux-Misc@senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU
Date:     Thu, 26 May 94 22:13:08 EDT

Linux-Misc Digest #176, Volume #2                Thu, 26 May 94 22:13:08 EDT

Contents:
  Re: Mitsumi FX001D vs Sony CDU33A? (William Turner)
  [Missing] /etc/units.. who's got a spare? (Karel Kubat)
  Word Processor Religious Wars and EZ (DAVID L. JOHNSON)
  Re: linux vs. bsd386? (Bill Karwin (Contractor-MM))
  Re: where is the source for "xbombs"? (Andrew R. Tefft)
  linux vs. bsd386? (golds)
  Re: NeXT like voice mail ? (Andrzej K. Brandt)
  Bad Experience with SWT (The Silk Road Group Ltd.)
  Re: calendar for linux ?? ("Eric Jeschke")
  Re: [perl] 'man' in perl? ("Eric Jeschke")
  Re: Looking for Linux BBS Software (Steve Manes)
  Re: Fatal Linux Networking problem - help !! (Larry Doolittle)
  Re: Linux for the masses? (WordProcessing again) (Brandon S. Allbery)
  Re: calendar for linux ?? (Robert Ashcroft)
  Re: calendar for linux ?? (Robert Ashcroft)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: wturner@acorn.co.uk (William Turner)
Subject: Re: Mitsumi FX001D vs Sony CDU33A?
Date: 26 May 1994 17:01:45 +0100

In article <1994May25.144615.60415@ans.net> dans@ans.net (Dan Simoes) writes:

>This is not a newbie question, so read on.
>I've scoured all the docs and cannot find a good answer to
>this, so bear with me.
>
>I'm finally ready to get a CDROM, and based on price I'm between the
>above 2 models.  Both are proprietary, non-SCSI.
>
>Questions:
>
>- I assume both are supported in Linux, at least the later kernels.
>  Can someone confirm this?
>
>- If you are using either of these, how is the performance UNDER
>  LINUX, and what do you use it for besides install?
>
>- Are there any known incompatibilities between Linux and
>  either of these?
>
>Lastly, I've heard good stuff about the Panasonics, but I can't
>find them locally.  Should I look at those instead?  Why?
>
>Thanks,
>
>| Dan |
>-- 
>Dan Simoes                               dans@ans.net
>Associate Programmer                    (914) 789-5378
>Advanced Network & Services               Elmsford, NY

Well, I have a Panasonic Cr-562B with multi-interface card, and
it works like a dream under both DOS and Linux.

I got the Infomagic twin-CD set, and installed the Slackware distribution
directly off the CD in under 1/2 hour (the panasonic is supported
directly - the other two may be also).

One kernel compilation later, I had CD-rom and GUS support built in,
and that was it. Completely up & running in about 1hr.


I tend to use it to listen to audio Cds (using Workman), which the
Panasonic is very good at (8x oversampling as opposed to the 4x
oversampling that the others use). I also use it to mount the infomagic
cd's, whch have an awful lot of good stuff on.


William

PS: i got the panasionc 'cos it was cheaper than both the mitsumi and the
Sony, and Ive heard bad things about the mitsumi wrt build quality...

------------------------------

From: karel@icce.rug.nl (Karel Kubat)
Subject: [Missing] /etc/units.. who's got a spare?
Date: Thu, 26 May 1994 15:52:55 GMT

Well, the header says it all I guess. I need this file for a neuron simulator,
and I don't have it --- can't even build neuron without it. The file is
supposed to define unit conversions (cm <--> inch) etc, unfortunately I have
_no_ clue whatsover about the format.

Who's got /etc/units? Or alternatively /etc/unittab? Can I have one too?

Thanks, Karel.
-- 
email: K.Kubat@icce.rug.nl             "Premature optimization is the root
phone: (+31) 50 63 36 47                of all evil.." (Knuth)
mail : ICCE, Univ. of Groningen,
  P.O. box 335, 9700 AH Groningen, Netherlands

------------------------------

From: dlj0@ns2.CC.Lehigh.EDU (DAVID L. JOHNSON)
Subject: Word Processor Religious Wars and EZ
Date: 26 May 1994 10:40:20 -0400

Apparently some of you who are engaging in the re-incarneted discussion
about word processors (currently fussing over function-keys and file formats)
didn't like my comments in defense of EZ.  I got several letters, part of the 
most polite one replied to below.

I have nothing to say against someone writing a completely wysiwyg word
processor, which saves in TeX and is trivial to learn how to use, but as
powerful as LaTeX.  But:

EZ is easy to use, you do get a very good idea what the letter will look like
on the screen, you have ispell support, you have imorted graphics of any
format you need, you can imbed notes, spreadsheets, etc.  It formats footnotes,
quotations, equations, etc.  It saves in troff, and can print through 
ghostscript, or (as I do) using a dvi printer driver (eps).

The line lengths can be set to approximate the printed page by simply 
adjusting the width of the window.  Page breaks can be forced.

Perhaps it is possible to write something better, but that will be a major
project.  the ATK was a major project, and a damn good one for what it is.
The denigrating comments about ez are rather insulting to the people who put
it together and compiled it for linux - in pieces, no less, so we could use
what of it we needed.  Until someone comes up with something better, this will
do nicely.

It does simple word processing, letters to Mom asking for money, that sort of
thing.  don't expect to write your dissertation, where you need exact margins,
on it (you can do this, but it would be better to use TeX).  

Here's one note sent to me about it, and my reply.  I have to go find my 
asbestos gloves:

=====8<=====8<=====8<=====8<=====8<=====8<=====8<=====8<=====8<=====8<=====8<

>In article <2rt2h4$1fug@ns2.CC.Lehigh.EDU> you wrote:
>
>: >Big problem with ez is that is it not WYSIWYG, thought it looks that
>: >way.  An ez document is formatted differently for each device it is
>: >currently being view on.  In the ez editor the look of the document,
>: >page breaks, and so on change every time you resize a window.  When
>: >you print, nothing is where it was in the ez window.  
>: >
>: A small bit of experimentation, and judicious choices of fonts, will allow
>: you to choose a window size that reflects printed line length.  
>
>But never exactly and that's my point.  Not that I really care.  However,
>take paragraph orphans for example... how do you handle that with ez?
>
You can force page breaks.  that's how many WP's do it.

<snip>

>: >A wordprocessor's screen should reflect what the document will look like
>: >when PRINTED.  So if after this line the window shows a page break,
>: >it should occur in that same place when printed.  That doesn't happen
>: >with ez.  You cannot set margins or control exactly where text will
>: >appear.
>: >
>: You can too.  You certainly can set margins.
>
>I submit that you cannot because ez reformats differently for every
>type of "media."
>
1)  (this is a kludge):  Set the window width to display the same number of 
characters per line as will print, using your favorite fonts.  It won't
continue to work with other fonts, but it's a fair approximation.

2)  Use the edit styles and add styles menues to install styles with the 
relative margins you want.  These are relative to the default margins, but
now that display=printout line length (depends on your default fonts),
you have pretty good control.

>How do you set margins?  I really need to know.
>
It takes some fiddling.  First click on the `new template' in the file menu,
then in that window, use the ez,Add Style menu (choose a style name, and
put it in andrew's usual place for such).  Then set your margins, give it
a name, and save it.  Then, when you want these margins, add the style to 
your document and use the new menu items you created.  It does work.

>: >Of course, that may not be important to some but I often need to
>: >have tight control over output and ez will not do that.
>: >
>: For tight control, you need TeX.  Most word processors are not that accurate,
>: either.
>
<TeX religious comments removed>
Of course.  We agree.
 
>But, the world still wants a word processor... sigh...
>
>And to be fair, I would like one for simple documents myself.
>
And, for simple documents, ez does fine.  Who cares about precise line
breaks or indentation in a short letter to the bank?

<snip>

>Also, the fonts used by ez for the screen are not the greatest and the
>printed fonts are absolutly UGLY.  ez comes with bitmap fonts which
>sometimes magnify real ugly.  Anyway you can use scalable outline fonts
>that you know of?  What about changing the printed font?
>
Some of the scaled fonts are ugly, some aren't.  the base printed font is 
selected in your ./preferences file.  Here's part of mine:

#       Change/remove these as you'd like
Print.BodyFont: Andy12
Typescript.BodyFont: Andy15b
*.MenubarTitleFont: Andy15
*.MenubarItemFont: Andy15
*.MenubarKeysFont: Andy15
*.PopupsKeysFont: Andy15
*.PopupItemFont: Andy15
*.BodyFont: Andy15
table.bodyfont: Andy15
#
# Geometry for various applications
#
#       Change/remove these as you'd like
Help.Geometry: =670x500
EZ.Geometry: 800x400
Typescript.Geometry: 380x220
Table.Geometry: 800x500

The rest of the fonts seem to be scaled from the choice of Print.BodyFont: , I 
think.

=====8<=====8<=====8<=====8<=====8<=====8<=====8<=====8<=====8<=====8<=====8<

EZ is available if you want it, if you have a use for it.  If not, good luck
writing something better.  I will be very happy to see and use something better,
myself.


David L. Johnson                             ID:  dlj0@lehigh.edu
Department of Mathematics
Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA 18015       Telephone: 610-758-3759 (office)
                                                        610-828-3708 (home)
MS-DOS: Just say No!

------------------------------

From: bkarwin@cup.hp.com (Bill Karwin (Contractor-MM))
Subject: Re: linux vs. bsd386?
Date: 26 May 1994 18:01:28 GMT

golds (golds@fjc.GOV) wrote:
: I would like to know a little about the history of these two different
: free unix variants.  Did they start from common roots and split, or
: are they more different than that?  Why should I choose one or the other?
: What are the differences in features or performance?

Linux is a UNIX clone written by Linus Torvalds, without USL or
Berkeley source code (unlike other brands of UNIX for the i386
platform).  Linux adheres as closely as possible to the POSIX
standard.  There seems to be a huge user-base for Linux, and it
is getting steadily more stable.

386BSD is a port of BSD to the i386 platform by William Jolitz.
It is mostly superceded by NetBSD and/or FreeBSD.  I don't know
anything about the number of people using these OS's.

You should be able to find lots of info about these OS's,
hardware compatibility, etc. on ftp.cdrom.com.

-Bill


------------------------------

From: teffta@cs690-3.erie.ge.com (Andrew R. Tefft)
Subject: Re: where is the source for "xbombs"?
Reply-To: teffta@cs690-3.erie.ge.com
Date: Thu, 26 May 1994 15:53:05 GMT

I have been making some changes to xbombs/xmines too, generally cleaning
it up. For example my copy has auto-start ability.

---

Andy Tefft               - new, expanded .sig -     teffta@cs690-3.erie.ge.com



------------------------------

From: golds@fjc.GOV (golds)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.386bsd.misc
Subject: linux vs. bsd386?
Date: 26 May 94 13:05:56 GMT

I would like to know a little about the history of these two different
free unix variants.  Did they start from common roots and split, or
are they more different than that?  Why should I choose one or the other?
What are the differences in features or performance?  I asked these 
questions with a different subject line and different wording a week or
so ago, and got some linux information sent to me via email, but no
comparative information, so I am trying again.  If this is likely to 
create a flame war, or has in the past, email would suffice.  Thanks for
humoring me :-).

-- 
Rich Goldschmidt: uunet!fjcp60!golds or golds@teo.ao.gov
Commercialization of space is the best way to escape the zero-sum economy.
Disclaimer: I don't speak for the government, and it doesn't speak for me...

------------------------------

From: andy@eleet.appli.mimuw.edu.pl (Andrzej K. Brandt)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.development,comp.os.linux.admin
Subject: Re: NeXT like voice mail ?
Date: 26 May 1994 17:46:35 GMT

Bill Chin (bchin@is-next.umd.edu) wrote:
: Shahid Ikram Butt (sib1@Ra.MsState.Edu) wrote:

: : I have not installed Linux on my machine yet, I am looking to do that 
: : real soon. A quick question. Is anybody working on NeXT-like voice 
: : mail system for Linux ? I like the ability to send/receive voice mail on my
: : computer.  Just about everybody has sounblaster or compatible card and
: : it shouldn't be difficult to stnadardize something like that. 

: : If we could get voice messages and gifs in the sig file of a voice message
: : we'd very close to video-conferencing without wasting all that bandwidth.
: : The data could also be automatically compressed/decompressed 
: : uudecoded/uuencoded etc ? 

: You are talking about MIME, an Internet standard for sending "richer"
: messages than straight ascii.  You can send graphics, binaries, sounds
: and others using MIME compatible mailers on many platforms including
: Linux. 

BTW - could you suggest please some MIME mailers?

--

                               73 de Andy SP5WCA

/-------------------+--------+-------------------+-------------------------\
I Andrzej K. Brandt I SP5WCA I andy@mimuw.edu.pl I   andy@sp5wca.ampr.org  I 
\-------------------+--------+-------------------+-------------------------/
I                                                                          I
I     "Evil indeed is the man who has not one woman to mourn him."         I
I                                                                          I
I                       --- Dr. Watson in "The Hound of the Baskervilles"  I
I                                                                          I

------------------------------

From: bass@cais.com (The Silk Road Group Ltd.)
Subject: Bad Experience with SWT
Date: 25 May 1994 21:37:08 GMT


Everyone:

Althought I really like the owner of SWT Technologies, I had the follwoing
bad experience with them.  If anyone has had a better experience or
similar experiences, please let me know:

I ordered a Pentium60 PCI/EISA system from SWT, a fully loaded 
development platform for over $5800.00.  The vendor , SWT Technologies
in Texas, kept delaying the shipping date, by saying the VueSonic 17
I ordered was out-of stock.   Finally, SWT told me order was shipped.
Over a week later, no sign of any UPS truck.  SWT told me that it was shipped
without a tracking number.  UPS told me that the shipper could do
an urgent trace and get the results in one hour.  

I continued to apply pressure on SWT to get status on my hardware.
Again, no luck.  I asked UPS for a copy of the UPS pickup receipt...

None available.  

This leaves me to believe that SWT Technologies is 

a)  not truthful about shipping;
b)  3 three stooges of shipping; or
c)  very bad business people.

I don't have a crystal ball... but I can tell you that UPS charges
$0.75 (yes, 75 cents) for a tracking number.  UPS tells me that shippers
often use the "it's the shippers fault' excuse for inability to ship.

Well, I still don't have my dream LINUX system.. BIG SIGH :-(

:-(, :-(

Tim
httpd://silkroad.com/silkroad.html
bass@silkroad.com


------------------------------

From: "Eric Jeschke" <jeschke@cs.indiana.edu>
Subject: Re: calendar for linux ??
Date: Thu, 26 May 1994 16:59:27 -0500

ndr@ktibv.uucp (Nick de Ruyter) writes:

:does anyone out there know if there is a calendar for X available for
:Linux ? It is very useful to keep track of appointments and gives
:warning (beep/flashing/mail) when required.
:hp's vue and Sun's openwindows both have such features.

:If someone knows if and where, please respond !

There is calentool, if you have XView installed (check sunsite),
and ical, if you have tcl/tk installed.

ical is excellent, IMO.  It has a really cool 'import' feature;
you select text out of anything (e.g. mail or news in an xterm),
select "import" and it parses the date and time out of the text
and inserts it as a calendar entry in the appropriate spot.  It
also lets you share calendars, etc.  

ftp to harbor.ecn.purdue.edu in pub/tcl.

:Thanx in advance,

:Nick
:Kinetics Technology International B.V.
:The Netherlands
:phone : (+31) 079 - 531 825

-- 
Eric Jeschke                      |          Indiana University
jeschke@cs.indiana.edu            |     Computer Science Department

------------------------------

From: "Eric Jeschke" <jeschke@cs.indiana.edu>
Subject: Re: [perl] 'man' in perl?
Date: Thu, 26 May 1994 17:16:17 -0500

jem@bittyblue.oit.unc.edu (Jonathan Magid) writes:

:sunsite.unc.edu:/pub//Linux/system/Manual-pagers/man-pl-3.tgz.

:ps. a search on the INDEX.whole or 00-find.Linux would have quickly
:turned this up.

I've been using this for a while, but it's got a couple of drawbacks.

[1] It doesn't recognize .gz extension.  I tried to edit all the scripts
to recognize gz, but my Perl hacking is still at a primitve stage and
it didn't quite work.  Of course, the recognized extensions are hard-
wired in everywhere...

[2] It doesn't support preformatted pages.  I realize this is a design
decision, but I have a lot of cat pages with no "man" equivalents left
over from the old SLS days.  I'd like them to work too.

BTW, anyone know if "tkman" has added the ability to use compressed
man pages?

-- 
Eric Jeschke                      |          Indiana University
jeschke@cs.indiana.edu            |     Computer Science Department

------------------------------

Crossposted-To: alt.bbs,alt.bbs.unixbbs,comp.bbs.misc
From: manes@magpie.com (Steve Manes)
Subject: Re: Looking for Linux BBS Software
Date: Thu, 26 May 1994 03:25:02 GMT

System Administrator (root@bbs.dsnet.com) wrote:
: root (root@jaxnet.jaxnet.com) wrote:
: : I am looking for some good bbs software that will run under Linux.  Some
: : of the key things that I am looking for are:

: : 1)  Written and Supported inside the United States!
: : 2)  Source code must be provided (I love to customize)
: : 3)  Must be able to support subscription based service
: : 4)  Must be able to optionally enforce daily time limits
: : 5)  Must track users usage (number of minutes connected in a log or something)
: : 6)  Must be able to run external programs and shell accounts
: : 7)  Must be able to allow guest logins
: : 8)  Each user must have their own login ID (no generic logins like 'bbs')

: : Some things that would be nice but are not mandatory.

: : 1)  RIP graphics
: : 2)  ANSI graphics

: No such animal.


Whaddya mean?  Magpie/Unix does, and then some.
 
==========================================================================
   Steve Manes                                         manes@magpie.com 
   N'Yawk, N'Yawk                                           =o&>o

------------------------------

From: doolitt@cebaf4.cebaf.gov (Larry Doolittle)
Subject: Re: Fatal Linux Networking problem - help !!
Reply-To: doolitt@cebaf4.cebaf.gov (Larry Doolittle)
Date: Thu, 26 May 1994 17:37:59 GMT

In article <1994May24.104517.7033@uk.ac.swan.pyr>, iiitac@uk.ac.swan.pyr
(Alan Cox) writes:
> In article <james-230594172726@139.80.104.44>
james@physics.otago.ac.nz (James Brundell) writes:
> >This was the response from our University Computer Services Centre System
> >Manager after our department successfully connected a linux box to our
> >local network (and hence the world) !!
> >Any comments or suggestions ?
> >
> >>He's welcome to connect it to the net IF:
> >>        1. An appropriately authorised person holds the 'root' password. 
> Sounds sensible - responsibility is important.
> >>        2. He doesn't unless he's 1 , which he won't be unless he
spends $900
> >>                to learn sysadmin from me
> This is suspicious. Do the university have a formal policy that allows admins
> to forcibly charge $900 - I'd really urgently talk to some student 
> representatives. I suspect (and hope) he is well outside university
rules here
> and heading into the realm of extortion

There is another answer to all of this - if you are willing to
live with reduced functionality while you learn-by-doing,
turn off inetd!  You can still telnet/ftp/X/mail *OUT*, but
there are no holes coming *IN*.  ObCourse, you cannot recieve
mail or check your files from remote machine, but that is a
small price to pay for being able to sleep at night (instead
of monitoring comp.unix.security 24hrs/day).

You should also make sure rpc.portmapper is off.

There is a theoretical posibility of security holes coming
from the XFree server, since it runs as root and listens
to a network socket.  I have not heard of any serious
security holes from that, though, and it seems like a
good cost/benefit tradeoff to allow it to run.

I have been recommending this approach to novices here for
a few months now, and I feel vindicated that it is sensible
after this rlogind/telnetd/login hoo-rah.

                 - Larry Doolittle   doolittle@cebaf.gov

> >>        3. it does not run mail - theres a hole in linux 
> Utter crap - Tell him to substantiate the claim. More seriously
however a Linux
> box like a DOS box can be used to tap into an ethernet and play merry
hell. That
> is a reasonable excuse for all but the forcibly charging of money
> >>        5. It is PROPERLY configured to be connected to the net.
That means 
> >>                John or I configure it and charge him for the provilege.
> See the answer to number 2. Better yet find a decent university.
> 
> To an extent I sympathise with him. On a network with poor basic security and
> sysadmins who don't understand everything they need to (or are just plain too
> busy - which is often true) these issues are difficult. When it comes to 
> university student areas machines are often using twisted pair, always
filtered
> from anything critical and easily logged. 

------------------------------

From: bsa@kf8nh.wariat.org (Brandon S. Allbery)
Subject: Re: Linux for the masses? (WordProcessing again)
Date: Thu, 26 May 1994 16:15:12 GMT

In article <CqE085.G8y@brunel.ac.uk>, ee90dcs@brunel.ac.uk says:
+---------------
| I agree.  Thats why I like F11.  WP could get round this by asking before
| deleting codes which will affect things outside the block being deleted.
+------------->8

Last I saw, this was a configurable option in WP5.1 at least...

++Brandon
-- 
Brandon S. Allbery         kf8nh@kf8nh.ampr.org          bsa@kf8nh.wariat.org
The FUDs at Microsoft are shouting "Kill The Wabi!"

------------------------------

From: rna@leland.Stanford.EDU (Robert Ashcroft)
Subject: Re: calendar for linux ??
Date: 27 May 1994 00:55:07 GMT

In article <2s383c$4f6@deneb.dur.ac.uk>,
A.J.Scholl <A.J.Scholl@durham.ac.uk> wrote:
>ndr@ktibv.uucp (Nick de Ruyter) writes:
>
>
>>Hi there,
>
>>does anyone out there know if there is a calendar for X available for
>>Linux ? It is very useful to keep track of appointments and gives
>>warning (beep/flashing/mail) when required.
>
>Try ical - it is a tcl/tk based calendar. Compiles with no trouble under
>linux (but you need the tcl/tk libraries)
>
>Find it in harbor.ecn.purdue.edu:/pub/tcl, or in Europe
>ftp.ibp.fr:/pub/tcl/contrib

I second the motion.  And the latest version (in pre-release) also has
a "to do" list feature.  Plus the author is a friend of mine and a real
cool guy ;-)

RNA

------------------------------

From: rna@leland.Stanford.EDU (Robert Ashcroft)
Subject: Re: calendar for linux ??
Date: 27 May 1994 00:55:35 GMT

In article <2s383c$4f6@deneb.dur.ac.uk>,
A.J.Scholl <A.J.Scholl@durham.ac.uk> wrote:
>ndr@ktibv.uucp (Nick de Ruyter) writes:
>
>
>>Hi there,
>
>>does anyone out there know if there is a calendar for X available for
>>Linux ? It is very useful to keep track of appointments and gives
>>warning (beep/flashing/mail) when required.
>
>Try ical - it is a tcl/tk based calendar. Compiles with no trouble under
>linux (but you need the tcl/tk libraries)
>
>Find it in harbor.ecn.purdue.edu:/pub/tcl, or in Europe
>ftp.ibp.fr:/pub/tcl/contrib

I second the motion.  And the latest version (in pre-release) also has
a "to do" list feature.  Plus the author is a friend of mine and a real
cool guy ;-)

RNA

------------------------------


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