Chaos Corner V03 N06 8 October 1993

Copyright 1993 by Robert D. Cowles; Ithaca, NY 14850.  Permission is
hereby granted to republish complete issues in unaltered form.
Republication of partial issues must reference the source and state
that subscriptions to Chaos Corner are available (free) by sending
electronic mail to chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu.

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Welcome to 175 New Subscribers

For those who wonder if we have been completely idle here in the Corner, 
since it has been almost two months since the last issue ... if nothing 
else we have been victims of our own success with many requests for 
files and an unprecedented number of new subscriptions!  Chaos Corner 
has doubled in size just this year to over 1000 subscribers.

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Puffin is no longer an ftp site

Some earlier issues of Chaos Corner referred people to files stored on 
puffin.cit.cornell.edu ... that site was maintained somewhat out of 
perversity to see if we could provide an anonymous FTP site running on a 
DOS/Windows machine.  While it was a challenge for a while, after 
converting the machine to OS/2 and IBM's TCP/IP the system just runs and 
no longer provides a challenge.  Since we are under some pressure to 
reduce the number of machines we maintain, puffin will soon disappear 
and you should look on pelican.cit.cornell.edu for back issues of Chaos 
Corner in the /pub directory.

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All mail order is not the same -- beware

We have had several mail order experiences in the past two months.  In 
one case Dr. Chaos started worrying about the future availability of 
memory for our ThinkPad and thought we should call around and get the 
best deal before prices went too high.  The second experience was that 
of ordering the new version IBM's TCP/IP (2.0).

Ordering Memory from Nevada Computer (They run full page ads in the back 
of PC Week) ....

Sequence of Events:
August 18 (Wed) Ordered Memory for $259 + 8.25 shipping - was told it 
  would ship the following day (Thu.).  At this time, a charge for 
  $297.25 was posted to my credit card.  

August 24 (Tue) Called to say memory had not arrived.  Was told that the 
  memory had shipped on Friday, August 20.  

August 25 (Wed) Called to say memory had not arrived.  Was told that UPS 
  shipping time was 5-7 days from Nevada to New York.  I asked what I 
  had been charged and was told $297.25.  I pointed out that that was 
  the wrong amount, the person I spoke to checked and agreed and said he 
  would enter a note for me to be credited the $30 ...  it would happen 
  on Friday, Aug 27th and they would fax me a confirmation.  

August 31 (Tue) Called to say memory had not arrived.  Carl told me it
  had been shipped on August 27th, 2nd day air, and that it should be 
  there the following day.  I asked if they normally got three day 
  service for 2nd day air.  (Some general mutterings about UPS service 
  was the only response.)  I asked about the credit and there was no 
  record of it going through.  I once again asked that it be put through 
  since by now I had received the credit card statement.

September 1 (Wed) Called to say the memory had not arrived.  Was told by 
  Carl that it had gone UPS ground, had been shipped on the 27th, and I
  could expect it in 5-7 business days.  I asked that the whole amount
  for the memory be credited to my account and they re-bill me for the
  proper amount, $267.25.  Was told it would be taken care of on Friday
  and that a notation would be made in the record.  I also asked that I
  be faxed a confirmation that it was done.  Also talked with the 
  manager (Mark) so it was clear what needed to happen.  

September 8 (Wed) Called to say that memory had not arrived.  After 
  waiting on hold for 10 minutes to talk to the manager (Mark) I called
  back and spoke to Neil (Neal?).  I explained that they could still 
  recover if I had the memory by Friday (eg, send it to me by Federal 
  Express) and if they straightened out the charge to my credit card.  

September 10 (Fri) Called Visa to see if any credit had been posted to 
  my account.  None had.  It has now been over 3 weeks since I ordered, 
  and they have been unable to get me the memory and have been unable to 
  get the charged amount correct.  As a point of reference, throughout 
  this time, their ad in PC Week carried a price of $259+8.25.  

September 12 (Sun) A visitor pointed out there was a box from Nevada 
  Computer on the front porch.  

September 13 (Mon) 10:15a Talked to Dave ...  getting the credit 
  shouldn't be a problem if I talked with Mark, the manager.  I should 
  call back at about 12:30.  1:15p Talked to Mark.  He claimed that the
  credit had been issued on the 8th, and that it just took a while for
  it to show up at the credit card company.  He also explained that the
  memory had shipped to me on August 30 (!) because it had been
  backordered (!).  He never remembered having talked to me before so
  he didn't remember any of the other dates I had been told that the
  memory had shipped, or that I had never been told that the memory was
  backordered.  We had a  fairly unpleasant exchange about the credit
  for the overcharge and it  ended when he said he would mail me
  confirmation that the credit had  been sent in.  1:30p Verified that
  the credit had not been posted to the credit card company.

September 20 (Mon) 2:20p Verified that the credit had been posted on 
  September 15 (Wed) and processed by the credit card company on Friday,
  September 17.

Sorry to have put you through all that ... but I promised them that I 
would let you all know how much pleasure I had in dealing with them.
The other experience (ordering TCP/IP) was with Indelible Blue, a 
company in North Carolina that specializes in OS/2 software.  While they 
didn't have the product right away, they told me that was the case, and 
they didn't charge my credit card until the day AFTER shipping the 
product.  (Just a satisfied customer -- 800-776-8284, 919-834-7005).
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Mailbag - Mail Delay Explained

With respect to the mail delays going on across the Internet when we 
sent out the last issue of Chaos Corner, our sources tell us that a 
subscriber to the White House news summaries located in Japan requested 
all 1000+ articles and gave as an electronic address something that 
couldn't receive mail.  My informant claims that the message bouncing 
was discovered and stopped in Washington DC at 9:20 AM, but the messages 
continued to flow throughout the day.

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Frog on Glass?

Joe Morris at Mitre Corporation points out that we should be seeing an 
exciting new book in the bookstores.  Aimed at kindergartners, the book 
is called _Kermit Learns Windows_.  What will happen next?  Perhaps a 
book that explains that purple dinosaurs with three fingers find that 
MacOS with a one-button mouse is the easiest to use?

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Mailbag - gzip is NOT zip or pkzip

David Camp points out that gzip is not a clone of zip or pkzip; rather 
it uses its own, completely different compression algorithm (hence the 
file extension of '.gz' rather than '.zip').

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Ever wonder if CallerID is active for you?

In North America there is a facility that is becoming available that 
lets the called person know the telephone number of the calling person.  
People aren't always aware that they are no longer anonymous when they 
make calls, or they may have requested that CallerID be blocked for them 
and wonder if the block has really been put into effect.  If you call 
(from North America) 1-800-852-9932, a digitized voice will tell you the 
number you are calling from (if CallerID is active for you).

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Want to find out more about COSE?

A number of Unix vendors have banded together (under the threat of 
Windows NT from Microsoft) and are attempting to end some of the 
incompatibilities that have plagued Unix over the years.  One of the 
first specifications available from the consortium is the Common 
Interface Specification (COSE CIS).  The Open Software Foundation is 
distributing the specification at no charge ... either call OSF Direct 
at 617-621-7300 or send an electronic mail request to direct@osf.org.  
They request that you include your surface mail address.

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Interested in free faxing?

A Internet Fax services are being set up and provide the capability to 
send free faxes to certain areas.  People that want to sign up to 
provide the service can limit the area that they serve to just the local 
community.  For a current list of the areas served, send electronic mail 
to tpc-coverage@town.hall.org and write to tpc-faq@town.hall.org for 
more information.  

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Information on the PowerPC

A list of frequently asked questions about the Macintosh version of the 
PowerPC is being developed and is posted every two weeks to the 
newsgroup comp.sys.mac.hardware.  Another source of information is the 
free magazine RS/Magazine ... write to RS/Magazine, PO Box 3272, Lowell 
MA 01853-9876 (fax number 508-256-9864).  Last but not least, IBM is in 
the process of producing a second volume of its Technology Book about 
its POWER architecture.  A draft of the book can be found on the server 
ibminet.awdpa.ibm.com in the /pub/rs6kpapers as techbook.ps (look for 
compressed versions there too).

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Incomplete Guide to the Internet

The July edition of "The Incomplete Guide to the Internet and Other 
Telecommunications Opportunities Especially for Teachers and Students, 
K-12" is available from ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu.  Look in the directory 
/Education/Education_Resources for copies of the Guide in a variety of 
formats: PostScript, RTF, WinWord, Mac Hqx compressed, and text.  

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Microsoft is on the Internet!

Tired of listening to music while waiting in the Microsoft support 
queues?  Tired of paying CompuServe for the pleasure of searching the 
Microsoft Knowledge Base?  It is now available on the Internet!  As of
October 4th, the Microsoft Support files are accessible on the server 
ftp.microsoft.com including Knowledge Base articles AND both supported 
and unsupported drivers, patches, and files associated with various 
Microsoft products.  Congratulations to Microsoft for providing this 
service!

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Books Books Books

Prentice-Hall has opened their online store.  Look at ftp.prenhall.com 
for catalogs covering an increasing number of subject areas.  They also 
accept orders electronically .... get the order form from the directory 
/pub/ptrph_cat/net.comm (get either ord-int.lst or ord-na.lst depending 
on whether or not you live in North America).

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French News Available online?

We have an unsubstantiated report that it is possible to subscribe to a 
online French news service by sending mail to:

         frog@guvax.georgetown.edu

with the Subject: INSCRIPTION (and no message body).  Can any kind 
reader verify this?

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FTP archive sites on the move

Since our last issue, the archive site for the X-Window consortium has 
moved from export.lcs.mit.edu to become the easier to remember ftp.x.org 
(198.112.44.100).  The other change is a sad report that after a number 
of years of threatened cutbacks, the US Military has finally closed down 
the huge PC archive site, SIMTEL20.  SIMTEL20 was mirrored at a number 
of other sites and the most official copy of the last state of the 
archive is at oak.oakland.edu.  Arrangements are being made for a 
replacement site but nothing beyond that has been announced.  Another 
recent loss is the site that distributed hourly GIF files giving US 
weather information.  When Hurricane Emily was approaching the eastern 
coast of the US, so many people were retrieving files that the computer 
was unable to service the requests.  As a result, the service was 
removed and the hourly weather maps are not available from that site.  
They are, however, available from wuarchive.wustl.edu in the directory 
multimedia/images/wx.

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Files available from Dr. Chaos

Need to know the sound frequencies associated with various musical 
notes? Dr. Chaos not only has the frequency list, but the C program that 
generates the list.  For you mainframe or ex-mainframe programmers out 
there, Herb Hellerman at Amdahl has produced a chronology of the IBM 
System/370 market from its roots through 1990.  A list of vendors for 
Object-Oriented DataBase Systems; a guide to games on the PC; a list of 
Frequently asked questions about Wolfenstein 3D; and Frequently Asked 
Questions about PS/2 computers.

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Get you Free Subscription Here!

Just send a message to Dr. Chaos - chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu
and ask to be put on the subscription list.  It's that easy.  Don't 
delay ---- act now!

Dr. Chaos (I have a Master's degree ....)


