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Chaos Corner V02N01 17 Feb 92 -------------------------------------------------- Chaos Corner Volume 1 index available It's been 2 months since the last issue ... and many bits have gone down the wire. We have been busy here in Chaos Corner and have collected many items of interest for you. One which we know will be most fascinating to you is the announcement of an index to volume 1 of Chaos Corner (how I spent my Christmas Vacation). The index is available in text or PostScript form -- just use anonymous ftp to pelican.cit.cornell.edu and look in the /pub directory for the files ccv01.index.ps for the postscript (two column) or ccv01.index.text for the text version. Dr. Chaos really knows that what you have been waiting for is not just the index; but all of volume 1 plus the index in one nice big file. Just what you want ... look for the files ccv01.ps for the PostScript version and ccv01.text for the text version in the /pub directory on pelican.cit.cornell.edu. Thanks to Mark Bodenstein of CIT's Host Networking group for suggesting the index. The most frequently requested file for 1991 was by far and away the list of answering machine messages. Now that Dr. Chaos understands the level and interests of his readers, he told me he was very glad he did not mention the Complete List of Blonde Jokes that was in his possession. Mailbag -------------------------------------------------- Chaos Corner Feedback In the early December issue we issued an invitation for people to reserve a bound copy of Chaos Corner volume 1 by a date that was several days prior to the date the issue was distributed. We forgot about Gary Buhrmaster. Needless to say, when the mail file arrived that had been clearly been sent before the deadline (and before the issue had gone out). If you have the answer to how Gary accomplished this feat, you too can qualify for a bound copy (printed and finished on a Xerox DocuTech laser printer). Send your answers to Dr_Chaos@pelican.cit.cornell.edu --- hurry, the entry deadline is midnight on 12 Feb. 1992. Hint: Gary's userid is GOD. Many of you are receiving Chaos Corner for the first time (we have had a flood of subscription requests. If you want to ask Dr. Chaos a question, or point out some horrible mistake you THINK he might have made, just send mail to Dr_Chaos@pelican.cit.cornell.edu. -------------------------------------------------- Infor request about Macintosh fonts Stephen Peterson at Penn State is trying to collect type 3 fonts for his Macintosh. He, of course, has the ones from mac.archive.umich.edu but wonders if anyone knows of other (free?) sources for type 3 fonts. In particular, he is interested in a "stone serif" font. Dr Chaos wonders just what a "stone serif" font would look like ... -------------------------------------------------- Chaos Corner subscriptions Gerhard Rentschuler at the University of Stuttgart noted that he had not received an issue of Chaos Corner for this year and wondered if he needed to subscribe again. Dr. Chaos explained the problems of trying to organize Chaos. While it was hard getting started on volume 2, we can expect that Dr. Chaos will generate issues more often than every two months. -------------------------------------------------- Security and virus attacks A couple of security issues to get out of the way before you go any farther. If you are running an IBM PC (or compatible), or a Unix machine that has a PC simulator, you need to pay attention to the Michelangelo virus warnings. The virus resides in the boot sector of infected disks and destroys all data on the disk on March 6th (the birthday of the artist, not the turtle). Unix systems with PC simulators may be at risk at any time if they are booted with an infected diskette in the floppy drive (the virus will modify the master boot record of the main disk and require re-install your Unix system and/or restore from your carefully made backup tapes). People at Cornell are strongly encouraged to get a copy of F-PROT to scan for and disinfect disks. (CIT is obtaining a site license for the Cornell community to use it. For more information see the CIT alert dated Feb. 12, 1992.) Of course, the McAffe software is available but can cost $85 for a full set (for individuals); companies (and universities) are required to negotiate a site license. Dr. Chaos urges you to scan your disks before March 6th and make a backup! (He feels very strongly about making backups, since he spent all last week making backups .... yes, he feels very strongly about backups.) -------------------------------------------------- Security, AIX and the on command The other security issue affects IBM RS/6000 systems running AIX 3.1. It seems that IBM ships the system with the "on" command enabled, and the security for the command is rather poor. Using your favorite editor (or SMIT), disable the "rexd" service for the inet superdaemon (/etc/inetd.conf). -------------------------------------------------- Unix on a PC? If you would like to roll your own system on a PC, almost everything you would need to get started can be found in unix/bsd-sources on machine src.doc.ic.ac.uk or on machine ftp.uu.net. Some missing utilities can be filled in from GNU or MINIX sources -- the one vital missing piece is 'init' -- and you can have your own public domain Unix running on your 386 PC! -------------------------------------------------- Sounds - Macintosh format conversion utility Tom Erbe at Mills College has been updating his Macintosh utility that converts between a number of sound file formats. For the latest version check in the ccm directory on mills.edu. The program is called Sound Hack and as we write, the latest version is in the file SoundHack.54.hqx. -------------------------------------------------- Sounds - Convers Sun format (au) to Soundblaster (VOC) Anyone out there with Soundblaster can convert files in the Sun format (files with a ".au" suffix) by using the program SUN2VOC. Similarly, sound files with an ".iff" suffix can be converted using IFF2VOC. You can find these programs on wuarchive.wustl.edu in the mirrors/msdos/sound. -------------------------------------------------- Sounds - archive site For lots of sounds in the ".au" format, including many from the movies 2001, 2010, and from the TV series of Startrek (both versions), look on machine procyon.cis.ksu.edu in the pub/Sun/Sparcsounds directory. Please let Dr. Chaos know if you find a sound file of Capt. Picard saying, "Make it so!" (Try not to use this archive during working hours in Kansas). -------------------------------------------------- Sounds and your PC As a general tool for dealing with sound files on a PC, the recommended utility seems to be PLAYBWC (it has the ability to play and edit the Mac ".snd" sound files, among other things). It can be found on wuarchive.wustl.edu on the /mirrors/msdos/sound directory. -------------------------------------------------- Archive site for Macintosh and PC sound files As a good source of Mac (and PLAYBWC) sound files, Dr. Chaos recommends that you try looking over the collection at ccb.ucsf.edu in the Pub/Sound_list directory (note the caps in the directory name since Unix is case sensitive). There is also a Sound Newsletter that you can subscribe to by sending mail to sound@ccb.ucsf.edu with a subject line of: "ADD-ME: <userid>@<site>". -------------------------------------------------- PC Compression and Library Utilities As mentioned in past issues, there are a number of programs available on the PC that compress and add to single-file libraries. It can be very confusing, even for experienced PC users, when these file compression extensions are encountered for the first time. Timo Salmi, moderator of the archives at garbo.uwasa.fi (yes, it's in Finland, so don't try FTPing there unless you really can't find what you need at a North American site, or you are already on the eastern side of the Atlantic) has canned answers to a number of frequently asked questions on file compression utilities. He has a list of the current version of the utility that is available for each of the popular types of file compression, and we thought it was worthwhile to reproduce it here: arc602.exe .arc SEA's .arc packing/unpacking system. arj222.exe .arj Robert Jung's .arj archiver lh113de.com .lzh Lharc for .lzh compression lha213.exe .lzh LHa for .lzh compression, English version. pak251.exe .pak NoGate's for pak, arc, sdn, zip, files pk361.exe .arc This packed and unpacked .arc files fast pkz110eu.exe .zip PKZIP "Euroversion" with no encryption zoo210.exe .zoo Zoo packing facility from Rahul Dhesi A more complete list of file formats and the corresponding utilities available on a variety of platforms, may be anonymous ftp'd from ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (128.174.5.59) in the directory doc/pcnet. The file is maintained by David Lemson (lemson@uiuc.edu) and is the most complete Dr. Chaos has ever seen. Of course, we have a current copy of the list, so you can always get one through electronic mail by sending your request to chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu. -------------------------------------------------- Libraries HYTELNET 5.0, the easy-to-use database utility for IBM PC users that describes how to access all Internet-accessible library catalogs, FREE- NETS, CWISs, and Library BBSs is now available. It is a major upgrade from version 4.0, and is available via anonymous FTP from access.usask.ca in the hytelnet/pc subdirectory as the file named HYTELN50.ZIP. For Unix systems, there is a basic shell script that provides menu based access to over 200 Libraries and databases across the Internet. The script is named libtel.unix and can be obtained from ftp.oit.unc.edu in the pub/docs directory. In the same location, VAX VMS users can obtain a program named libs.com that performs much the same function. -------------------------------------------------- What you need to know about modems Dr. Chaos has come across a 3-part posting titled " What You Need To Know About Modems" that is really chapter 1 of a book that will be coming out soon titled "The Joy of Telecomputing" by Patrick Chen. It is more than a little too long to include here but we would be happy to send you the files if you send electronic mail to chaos- request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu. -------------------------------------------------- Best 9600 baud modem prices Another interesting posting is Stuart Balfor's list of the best prices for 9600 baud modems. Last updated (that we saw) in mid-January, it gives sources for the advertised price, phone number to call, etc. Again, just ask for it at chaos-request.cit.cornell.edu. These are just modem prices, not recommendations (courtesy of our legal staff). -------------------------------------------------- Kermit One of the banes of file transfer for users of the Kermit communications package is always that it is a two-step process. In a recent issue of Kermit Digest, techniques were published for initiating the file transfer in one step from either the VM/CMS side of a connection or from the MS-DOS side. If you can't get a copy of Info-Kermit Digest V15 #1, send a note to Dr. Chaos requesting the Kermit file transfer information (send request to chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu). -------------------------------------------------- X11 R5 Fix #9 to X11 R5 has now been released, and is available locally to Cornell on pelican.cit.cornell.edu in the pub/X11R5 directory. Someone asked for a precompiled version for an RS/6000 since they didn't have enough disk space ... and the kind people at ux1.cso.uiuc.edu made one available. Sooo, the requestor got a precompiled version and later posted a note that he had no idea how much trouble it would cause. Dr. Chaos agrees with Chin Fang of Stanford U. who pointed out that on complex packages like X11, one has to be VERY careful about the paths for all the various pieces, since the paths to various components are compiled into the code. That's all for now. The next issue will be coming Real Soon Now! Subscribe at: Remember! Dr. Chaos - (dr_chaos@pelican.cit.cornell.edu)