
                               Linux Gazette
                                      
              April 1999, Issue 39 Published by Linux Journal
                                      
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Table of Contents:

     * The Front Page
     * The MailBag
          + Help Wanted & Article Ideas
          + General Mail
     * News Bytes
          + News in General
          + Software Announcements
     * The Answer Guy, by James T. Dennis
     * More 2 Cent Tips
     * Boot Disk Failure and Recovery, by Bill Bennet
     * Comparison of Server-Based Operating Systems, by Sean Bullington
     * Compiler Construction Tools, by Richard A. Sevenich
     * EMACSulation: Templating Mechanisms, by Eric Marsden
     * Expanding Your Home Network, by JC Pollman
     * Free Philosophy: Part II, by J. W. Pennington
     * Linux Day at H-P Labs, by Paul R. Woods
     * Linux Installation Primer, Part 8, by Ron Jenkins
     * LinuxWorld Conference & Expo, by Marjorie Richardson
     * New Release Reviews, by Larry Ayers
          + Books on the Screen: XEmacs
          + A Remembrance of Text Past
     * The Standard C Library for Linux Part 5, by James M. Rogers
     * Web Page Design under Linux, by Matus Telgarsky
     * Xenmenu: An ASCII Menu Generator, by Karyl F. Stein
     * The Back Page
          + About This Month's Authors
          + Not Linux
       
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
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           Linux Gazette [INLINE] , http://www.linuxgazette.com/
    This page maintained by the Editor of Linux Gazette, gazette@ssc.com
                                      
         Copyright  1996-98 Specialized Systems Consultants, Inc.
                                      
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    "Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"
     _________________________________________________________________
   
The Mailbag!

   Write the Gazette at gazette@ssc.com
   
Contents:

     * Help Wanted -- Article Ideas
     * General Mail
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                        Help Wanted -- Article Ideas
                                      
   Answers to these questions should be sent directly to the e-mail
   address of the inquirer with or without a copy to gazette@ssc.com.
   Answers that are copied to LG will be printed in the Tips column of
   the next issue.
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Date: Mon, 01 Mar 1999 13:08:48 -0800
   From: Abdul Rauf, arauf@lums.edu.pk
   Subject: Intel NIC
   
   I have a problem while I am trying to implement firewall on a Linux
   box. Problem is that I have installed two Intel NIC's in the system
   and gave them two IPs with the same subnet, when I ping them from the
   other machines both of them reply but when I ping to each other they
   don't. What could be the reason? Thanks
   
   --
   Abdul Rauf
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Date: Mon, 01 Mar 1999 15:44:28 -0800
   From: Sudhakar Chandrasekharan, thaths@netscape.com
   Subject: DSL Access
   
   My telephone carrier slashed the prices on DSL access
   http://public.pacbell.net/dedicated/dsl/dsl_basic.html. I am currently
   on the waiting list to get connected via DSL. The PacBell page lists
   the following under the "Hardware Requirements" section -
   
   * Alcatel 1000 DSL Modem
   * POTS Spliter
   * Kingston KNE 40T Network Interface Card
   
   I have a dual-boot (Debian GNU/)Linux - Win '95 machine at home. How
   is the support for the above hardware under Linux?
   
   --
   Sudhakar
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Date: Sat, 06 Mar 1999 23:06:49 +0000
   From: "graham.drake", graham.drake@virgin.net
   Subject: video card
   
   The Linux desktops running under X do not fit my monitor, I suppose I
   have not got the resolution correct. I have a Compaq Presario 2110 but
   have not got any video card details. If anybody out there has set up
   on the same computer please would you send me details. Thanks,
   
   --
   Graham
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Date: Fri, 05 Mar 1999 20:15:23 +0000
   From: Huub van Niekerk, niekerk@igr.nl
   Subject: E-mail
   
   I'm looking for an email program that equals Windows' Eudora. Who can
   do a suggestion? Thanks.
   
   --
   Huub
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Date: Sat, 06 Mar 1999 02:57:15 +0000
   From: DanBarnes, DanBarnes@worldnet.att.net
   Subject: Joystick Article
   
   I've been puttering around off and on with getting a joystick working
   with Linux and I realize that I can't recall coming across an article
   anywhere on this, this might be a good article idea for Linux Gazette.
   
   --
   Dan
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Date: Wed, 03 Mar 1999 16:39:55 -0600
   From: Mark Forstneger, mark@advancenet.net
   Subject: new kernel
   
   I am looking for information on what differentiates kernel 2.2.x from
   2.0.x. Perhaps you could do an article on it? There were many articles
   on the Windows98 release and how it different from Windows95, whether
   one should upgrade, etc. Jump on the bandwagon. Thank you very much.
   
   -- Mark
   
     (Check out the article by Joseph Pranevich, "The Wonderful World of
     Linux 2.2." in our February issue. --Editor) 
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Date: Wed, 3 Mar 1999 14:31:00 -0800
   From: "Michel A. Lim", support@whl-international.com
   Subject: Does Linux like WINS?
   
   Hello all. Now that my network card is working, I am trying to connect
   my Linux box (Red Hat 5.2, kernel 2.0.36-0.7) to my Windows network.
   After some struggling, the Linux machine now appears and is accessible
   in the Network Neighborhoods of all my Win 9x/NT4 workstations.
   Furthermore, I can ping and telnet from each workstation to the Linux
   server by its host name (WHL31) and by its static IP address
   (192.168.34.6).
   
   However, I can only ping from the Linux box to the workstations by
   their respective IP address. Since the workstations receive IP
   addresses dynamically from the DHCP service on my NT3.51 server, I
   cannot simply add the host names for all workstations to /etc/hosts.
   Therefore, my NT3.51 server (192.168.34.1) also acts as the WINS
   server for my network. I have configured Samba (1.9.18p10) with the
   following entries in /etc/smb.conf:
wins server = 192.168.34.1
name resolve order = wins hosts lmhosts bcast

   but the Linux machine does not seem to be querying the WINS database.
   
   What am I missing here? Is there another way to direct Linux to the
   WINS database? I was hoping to try things this way first, before
   trying to set up the Linux server as the WINS and/or DNS-caching
   server for my network.
   
   Thank you for your attention in this matter. Any suggestions and ideas
   would be most welcome. However, please bear in mind that I am not very
   network savvy. For that matter, I'm also do not have any formal IS
   training.
   
   Regards, --
   Michel A. Lim
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Date: Sun, 7 Mar 1999 16:14:27 -0300
   From: "AcidBrain", AcidBrain@ThePentagon.com
   Subject: Linux to Netware Problem
   
   Hi, I liked your zine very much. I'm mailing you, because it appears
   that no one knows how to solve my problem ( at least here, in Brazil).
   The problem appears when I try to connect ( dialing ) to my ISP, that
   is a Novell Netware. Look at the logs.
   
   First, I tried to connect with minicom :
CONNECT 33600/ARQ/V34/LAPM/V42BIS

   [ after some time: ]
Connected to NetWare CONNECT 2.0.30 Service Selector on port AIO_111913000.

Sorry, there are no services available at this time.

   Ok, I thought. Minicom is not the best way to connect. So, someone
   said that connecting with pppd would be the solution. The result was
   the same. Then, I read about ezppp in one home page that said it works
   works with Win NT. The result was the same. My modem is an USR
   Sportster 33.6 - Slack 3.5 and I can connect normally in other ISPs.
   
   Would you know the solution ? If so, please help-me. Thanks,
   
   --
   AcidBrain
   
     (The best guide I know of for connecting to the Internet using PPP
     is an article by Terry Dawson "The 10-Minute Guide for Using PPP to
     Connect Linux to the Internet" found at
     http://www.linuxjournal.com/issue36/ppp.html. --Editor) 
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Date: Mon, 8 Mar 1999 17:45:41 -0000
   From: Robert Karlsson, rknna98@robertsfors.se
   Subject: Problem with the proxy
   
   I am running Slackware 3.4 with the kernel 2.0.36. I am trying to get
   my Linux to work with our schools proxy. I need some kind of proxy
   client that can handle SOCKS5. We tried some clients for SOCKS4
   (homemade) but they don't work so it got to SOCKS5. What should I do??
   I have no idea how to make it work. I don't know so much about SOCKS5
   so I cant program my own program. Is there some program for SOCKS5?
   Please answer. (I want to throw W95 in the wall) /SiD_V
   
   --
   Robert
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Date: Wed, 10 Mar 1999 20:50:03 +0000
   From: Michael Wilson, michael.wilson5@virgin.net
   Subject: Dodgy Hard Drive
   
   Before I start, excellent resource, keep up the good work... to my
   problem now. I have 3 HD's two on the master and slave on the primary
   controller and the last on the primary of the secondary controller.
   
   The dodgy drive is a Segate Medallist ST34321A. I have included a part
   of the boot.msg so as you can so what I mean...
<4>PIIX4: IDE controller on PCI bus 00 dev 11
<4>PIIX4: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
<4>    ide0: BM-DMA at 0xf000-0xf007, BIOS settings: hda:pio, hdb:pio
<4>    ide1: BM-DMA at 0xf008-0xf00f, BIOS settings: hdc:pio, hdd:pio
<4>hda: SAMSUNG SV0644A, ATA DISK drive
<4>hdb: FUJITSU MPC3064AT, ATA DISK drive
<4>hdc: ST34321A, ATA DISK drive
<4>hdd: CR-2801TE, ATAPI CDROM drive
<4>ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
<4>ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
<6>hda: SAMSUNG SV0644A, 6105MB w/490kB Cache, CHS=778/255/63, UDMA
<6>hdb: FUJITSU MPC3064AT, 6187MB w/0kB Cache, CHS=838/240/63, UDMA
<6>hdc: ST34321A, 4103MB w/128kB Cache, CHS=8894/15/63, UDMA
<4>hdd: ATAPI 8X CDROM CD-R drive, 512kB Cache
<6>Uniform CDROM driver Revision: 2.51
<4>Partition check:
<4> hda: hda1 < hda5 hda6 hda7 hda8 > hda2
<4> hdb: hdb1 < hdb5 >
<4> hdc:hdc: set_multmode: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
<4>hdc: set_multmode: error=0x04 { DriveStatusError }
<4> [PTBL] [523/255/63] hdc1 < hdc5 >

   As you can see the drive is detected as CHS 8894/15/63 I originally
   used this as my primary boot drive but had to install Linux on another
   drive and not mount the then hda2 hda5 etc as Linux it would corrupt
   the files on reboot or shutdown with an error message such as can't
   find fs signature. I have subsequently purchased a replacement primary
   drive and have changed the settings in the bios to reflect LBA for the
   Segate so as you can see the CHS is re-interpreted as CHS 523/255/63
   but that is showing an error.
   
   Any ideas, or the scrap heap for it ??
   
   --
   Michael
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Date: Wed, 10 Mar 1999 04:47:23 +0000
   From: "Rod King", kingr@mervbak.nex.net.au
   Subject: Uninstalling Software
   
   Have you had any articles on uninstalling application software in
   Linux. I am having some trouble finding information on this subject.
   Thanks
   
   --
   Rod King
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1999 15:35:34 +0000
   From: Ben, ben.metcalfe@ntli.net
   Subject: retrieving Win9x / NT user names with Linux.
   
   I've searched high and low for info on how to do this - something like
   an nbtstat on a win32 box from a UNIX server. I just need a way to
   allow a Linux server to retrieve the user name that a win9x / NT user
   is logged in to a hot-desking machine with.
   
   So if I log in to a Win95 box as fubaruser / password, then try and
   open a local intranet page on the Linux server, it will allow me to
   log in with my own personal profile for the intranet site - and this
   profile will follow me from Win9x machine to Win9x machine. Because of
   the unclean nature of these machines, and the multiplicity of browsers
   in use, cookies are impractical.
   
   help me pleeeeease?
   
   --
   Ben
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Date: Wed, 24 Mar 1999 23:03:52 -0800
   From: David Gardner gardner@transport.com
   Subject: Advice on Linux Internet gateway box...
   
   I'm using an old i486-66 box (16 MB RAM, 250 MB HD) running Linux
   2.0.32 kernel with Diald, pppd, routed and other assorted daemons. I
   also use masquerading to allow all workstations on my home network to
   get onto and use the Internet. It works okay but the syslogd tends to
   get stuck and blocks any additional dial-out sessions. Once I kill the
   syslogd process, everything goes fine again but ... nothing is logged.
   Can you make recommendations on how to solve this problem?
   
   I'm also considering ADSL to replace my POTS connection. Do you have
   any specific recommendations for converting the Internet gateway
   system?
   
   --
   David
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1999 11:20:04 -0000
   From: Brian Lycett, BrianLycett@Regis-intl.com
   Subject: PC CHIPS Problem
   
   I recently bought a brand spanking new PC-CHIPS motherboard, model
   598, with a SiS530 onboard AGP 3D graphics card. I was quite eager to
   run Linux on this, but imagine my disappointment when I started X and
   got a corrupted, garbled screen. When I came out of X, the fonts were
   also all messed up.
   
   I tried the latest XFree86 release, which is supposed to support the
   PC-Chips mainboard, but it still didn't work. Does anyone know of any
   fixes for this? The VGA uses shared system memory - could this be a
   problem?
   
   This is the first problem in Linux I've come across that I can't find
   help for anywhere.
   
   So if anyone out there could help me get X Windows up and running on
   my new box, I'd be very, very happy. Thank you.
   
   --
   Brian
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1999 14:44:06 -0600
   From: Mark Zolton, mcz@wheat.ksu.edu
   Subject: Linux, PalmIII, and Email
   
   I just purchased a PalmIII and I am interested in using it to compose
   and send email. The Pilot utilities for Linux contain a pilot-mail
   program which is capable of retrieving email from a POP client and
   sending it to the PlamIII. It sends email from the PalmIII via
   sendmail. I have no trouble getting email from the POP client,
   however, I have not played around with sendmail enough to know how to
   set it up to send email to my service providers SMTP host. What I
   would really like to find is an application which would allow me to
   use the PalmIII's serial connection to send email to an SMTP host so I
   don't have to mess with sendmail. If that isn't possible, can anyone
   recommend a good tutorial on setting up sendmail for personal use?
   
   --
   Mark
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1999 04:49:26 PST
   From: "Ar San", san_hk@hotmail.com
   Subject: TACACS is year 2000 compliance
   
   I would like to know that TACACS/TACACS PLUS is/are year 2000
   compliance?? (NetWare Server) Thanks!! --
   San
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1999 21:40:52 +0100
   From: "Wojtek Pkala", wojtekp@infonet.wroc.pl
   Subject: Scanner Mustek Cp 600
   
   The CP 600 scanners are really cheap, and that's the reason why my
   employer has equipped me with one. Right now the scanner is the only
   reason why I still have a Windows partition on my disk, as the lpt
   scanners lack generally support under Linux. I tried to use the Win3.1
   software for the scanner under Wine but to no avail. The failure
   surprised me since Wine generally handles the old small W3.1 progs
   quite well. Here is what I got:
Unexpected Windows program segfault - opcode = 8b
Page fault in 32-bit code (0x0809ddfc).
Fault address is 0x03780345
Loading symbols: wine /usr/X11R6/lib/libSM.so.6
/usr/X11R6/lib/libICE.so.6
    /usr/lib/libMesaGL.so.3 /usr/X11R6/lib/libXpm.so.4
    /usr/X11R6/lib/libXext.so.6 /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6
    /usr/lib/libncurses.so.4 /lib/libdl.so.2 /lib/libm.so.6
/lib/libc.so.6
    /lib/ld-linux.so.2 /lib/libnss_files.so.1
    TOOLHELP SHELL COMMDLG KEYBOARD WIN87EM LEAD52 PANEL USER GDI KERNEL
    WINEPS WPROCS DISPLAY SYSTEM USER32 GDI32 KERNEL32
In 32 bit mode.
Register dump:
 CS:0023 SS:002b DS:002b ES:002b FS:03b7 GS:002b
 EIP:0809ddfc ESP:40a6f5b8 EBP:40a6f61c EFLAGS:00010246(  R- 00  I  Z-
-P1 )
 EAX:03780345 EBX:000003ff ECX:0000037c EDX:03780345
 ESI:03780345 EDI:000008d4
Stack dump:
0x40a6f5b8 (USER32..code+0x33e090):  00000000 40307818 000008d4 01c004b1
08abd96              0 00000001 00000413 00000081
0x40a6f5d8 (USER32..code+0x33e0b0):  00000413 402e2598 00000000 00000413
0000000              1 00000000 00000001 00000000
0x40a6f5f8 (USER32..code+0x33e0d0):  00000000 00000001 00000000 4031754c
40a6f62              8 080c33f8 402e2598 00000081
0x40a6f618 (USER32..code+0x33e0f0):

Backtrace:
=>0 0x0809ddfc (MENU_SetItemData+0x15c [menu.c])
  1 0x0809e6e8 (MENU_ExecFocusedItem+0x5c [menu.c])
  2 0x081c7862 (TOOLBAR_SetMaxTextRows+0x22 [toolbar.c])
  3 0x081c7d53 (TOOLBAR_LButtonDown+0x47 [toolbar.c])
  4 0x081b419a (TSXFree+0x2e)
  5 0x081b4a81 (TSXMapWindow+0x65)
  6 0x0807d3a0 (CallFrom16_p_long_tp+0x8 [callfrom16.s])
  7 0x08067e87 (BUILTIN_Init+0x6b)
...

   Seems like some bug in user interface to me ? Is there any workaround
   ? (I enabled the lpt's for WINE to write) Regards --
   Wojtek
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1999 06:23:44 -0800 (PST)
   From: Jonathan Markevich, jmarkevich@yahoo.com
   Subject: Mac client over LocalTalk
   
   Does anyone know if it is possible to do file sharing over a simple
   LocalTalk (serial) connection? I had a modem cable so I could plug
   into a RS232 modem, and a null modem cable. Sounds good so far...
   
   Getting netatalk to use the serial connection instead of the Ethernet
   one was another issue... SuSE 5.2-6.0 doesn't include slattach and the
   HOWTOs claim that's what I need.
   
   This machine is a Mac Plus and it really really needs some storage
   space. It would be an awesome client otherwise; I should be able to
   run MacTCP, Eudora and Mosaic! Except... I can't LOAD them on the
   machine without some sort of networking. Incompatible floppies, you
   know.
   
   Any ideas? I've also read the netatalk HOWTO and it says "First you
   need TCP/IP running" and doesn't seem to include the thought of a
   SERIAL connection.
   
   Thanks for your help! --
   Jonathan
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1999 12:31:13 +0100
   From: tuezney, tuezney@mailserv.oma.be
   Subject: opengl accelerated?
   
   Are there already free accelerated opengl1.1 compliant drivers for
   e.g. riva TNT based cards for Linux? Is there anybody working on this?
   Xi-graphics do make them but than they are commercial!
   
   --
   tuezney
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1999 07:46:02 -0700
   From: "K.A. Steensma", steensma@flash.net
   Subject: What is a *.ajr file?
   
   I had kind of forgotten that your message about issue #38 had come in
   via email. So last night (on my desktop computer), I went over to you
   home page and found the "Linux Gazette Downloading Information"
   section, pointed at the "here" in "Linux Gazette can be downloaded by
   clicking here" and went to download issue #38. As my pointer went over
   the "here", my status line (in Netscape) indicated that I would be
   downloading "ftp://ftp.ssc.com/pub/lg/lg-issue38.tar.gz". But when I
   clicked on the "here" and the dialog box game up for me to decide
   where I wanted to put the file, the file name was
   "lg-issue38_tar.arj". (I should have said earlier that I use
   Win98/Netscapte on my desktop.) And that is exactly what I downloaded;
   a "ajr" file.
   
   Supper was on the table, so I left it as that and (later) sat in the
   bedroom (with my laptop that has the same combination of software) and
   (since I still hadn't read you issue) downloaded another copy of the
   issue. That copy was downloaded as a 'gz' file which I then
   decompressed, stored and read. It didn't come to me that (earlier) I
   had downloaded a 'ajr' file before. Now this morning, using the
   deaktop computer, I downloaded another copy and that copy was (again)
   a 'ajr' file.
   
   What is a 'ajr' compressed file? Do you have any idea why (with my
   desktop computer) I download a 'ajr' file but with my laptop, download
   a 'gz' file. I really don't think that I have made some 'silly'
   mistake or that I have different versions of the OS or Netscape (as
   far as I can remember, both machines were derived from the same
   CD/disk file (Win98 from the CD; Netscape from a downloaded
   installation file).
   
   I just started to download the base files (from the next 'here' in the
   web page) and the same thing happened again. The status bar for
   Netscape indicated that I would be accessing a 'gz' file, but the
   'Download To' dialog file indicated that I would be receiving a 'ajr'
   file.
   
   I've been around computers and the Internet long enough that I am
   considered an 'expert'. But this one kind of flips me out.
   
   --
   TIA - KAS
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 23:18:25 -0000
   From: "Monaghan Consultants Ltd", alex@monaghan.co.uk
   Subject: fdisk
   
   My fdisk (Debian 1.3) does not recognize my SCSI drive correctly. I'm
   using a Future Domain TMC8xx card using the ST01 setting in the kernel
   config, this is fine on my current small SCSI drives, but I'm wanting
   to replace these with a couple of HP C2247's.
   
   When running fdisk the initial message (and also at boot time) is
   showing >64 heads, but fdisk will only allow me to set 64 heads.
   
   How can I create a partition to use all of the disk ?
   
   Is this a limitation of fdisk, the kernel or the SCSI card ? Thanks
   
   --
   Alex Monaghan
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1999 14:34:08 -0000
   From: "Victor Gibson", victor.gibson@onlinemagic.com
   Subject: winmodems
   
   Being a complete newbie where Linux is concerned and working for a
   company that has few Unix servers running WINS and DHCP and hosting a
   few websites. I was asked if I would be interested in learning Unix to
   cover sysadmin. I jumped at the chance, although the training is not
   for a few months I decided to ditch my win98 system at home and go
   head long into a Linux install(Red Hat 5.1)
   
   It has taken me all weekend to get it up and running, with the X
   Window System configured, now this is not a long time as I like to
   read all the instructions, learn from past mistakes and many hair
   pulling moments that manuals and HOWTOs and FAQ are there for a
   reason. My next step along the Linux path is to get my modem
   working............It's a winmodem so I appear to be stuck, I do not
   really want to spend any more money on a modem; is there anyway I can
   get a winmodem (internal) to work under Linux, I read somewhere this
   is not possible as the CPU does most of the modem's work (driven by
   software.
   
   Can anyone point me in the direction of any info on getting winmodems
   to work under Linux? Thanks,
   
   --
   Victor
   
     (To my knowledge, there's no way to get a winmodem to work with
     Linux. Anyone out there have a different answer? --Editor) 
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1999 17:14:04 +0600 From: "sujon", sujon@ncll.com
   Subject: Red Hat and sendmail
   
   I installed Red Hat 4.2 and sendmail 8.5.Recently I upgraded to Red
   Hat 5.1 and sendmail 8.9.Sendmail is working on server. But when other
   user (work station/dialup line) send a mail it does not work and give
   a message recipient must be change.......
   Please help......................
   
   --
   Sujon
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1999 16:26:53 -0000
   From: "Matthew Pearson", matthew.pearson@infomatrix.ltd.uk
   Subject: Article ideas for you...
   
   I've only just discovered your site, and it looks very useful.
   
   A decent collection of how to set up and use a DAT drive with Linux
   would have made my life a lot easier recently. There are bits about it
   all over the place, but they really are all over the place.
   
   I'd like to be able to centrally administer my Linux boxes (we now
   have 6 in the office). The boxes are used for file serving, mail, and
   anything else to software development (we've got about 10 engineers
   here). I know that one way of centrally administering Unix is to
   centralize the /usr partition and NFS mount it. It doesn't look like
   RPM will allow that very easily. I don't need to be able to boot via
   the network, but it would be useful to have a more centralized system,
   than a whole bunch of boxes that have to be updated with every new fix
   or application to be added. Do you have any ideas/inspiration on this?
   
   --
   Matt Pearson
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Date: Sat, 13 Mar 1999 15:23:19 +0600
   From: "sujon", sujon@ncll.com
   Subject: Multi-login protect
   
   I am looking for a software multi-login protect for (RED HAT 5.1)
   Thanks
   
   --
   sujon
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1999 08:43:02 -0600
   From: "Jonathan", flymolo@eatel.net
   Subject: ext2fs problems
   
   I recently bought a copy of partition magic 4. I used it to steal more
   space from windows and add it to my / ext2 partition .... apparently
   it resized the partition but not the file system. Is there any way I
   can tell the file system to non-destructively rebuild itself using
   more space?
   
   --
   Jonathan
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                                General Mail
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Date: Mon, 1 Mar 1999 12:56:46 -0000
   From: "Thorp, Alexander", athorp@lucent.com
   Subject: Own domain over part-time dial-up (article, issue 36)
   
   Interesting article. Just a couple of comments about the script:
   
   First, the comment "for some reason this didn't work". It's not
   altogether clear what you expected it to do, but the exit 0 is
   entirely superfluous. If you hoped to exit from the entire script,
   this cannot be done from within a sub-shell. Is there any reason for
   executing such a phenomenal number of sub-shells? It is not as if you
   are doing the sorts of things which sub-shells make easier, such as
   localizing changes to the environment or to the current working
   directory.
   
   If one assumes that really you wanted to exit from your script here,
   then you would be better off writing:
  if [ -f /var/lock/LCK..modem ] ; then
    echo "modem not available" 1>&2  # redirect stdout to stderr
    exit 1                           # error exits should not exit 0
  else
    /etc/ppp/ppp-on
    sleep 45
  fi

   Second, test -e is bash-specific syntax. The habitual use of
   bash-specific syntax results in scripts that are non-portable. All
   versions of test (and of /bin/sh that have test as an in-built) that I
   know of support test -f; this is standard syntax for this operation.
   For example, HP-UX /bin/sh does, as it happens, support test -e, but
   on Solaris this doesn't work. For /bin/ksh the situation is reversed,
   with the Solaris version accepting test -e but the HP-UX version not.
   All Linux distributions come with a /bin/sh (sometimes just a symlink
   to /bin/bash), so better to use /bin/sh for shell programming, as per
   Unix convention, and to stick to the standard part of the shell
   programming language.
   
   It is not altogether clear whether you think that the line #!/bin/bash
   half way down the script as the first line of a sub-shell section will
   have an effect, but this could be confusing to a reader less familiar
   with shell programming.
   
   --
   Alex Thorp
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Date: Wed, 03 Mar 1999 13:26:07 -0500
   From: Siddharth Kashyap, skashya@cs.concordia.ca
   Subject: Wharf
   
   I am using Red Hat Linux 5.2. In FVWM95 I start Wharf. From this Wharf
   I click at xterm icon I get a blank xterm window. This is because the
   person who wrote the code in the file fvem2rc.modules.m4 is calling
   xterm as :

  xterm -bg black  -fg black

   Now, what annoys me is how come such a big company would do something
   as stupid as this.
   
   --
   Siddharth Kashyap
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1999 18:34:16 +0000BR From: Paul Dunne,
   paul@DUNNP.CIX.CO.UK
   Subject: Linux & the impeachment -- is there a link I'm missing?
   
   Sorry to gripe, but just browsing through the Linux Gazette mail bag,
   and... what are all those letters about the US President and his, er,
   "recent problems" doing there? The title is `Linux Gazette', right?
   Please, let's keep this sort of irrelevant material out of LG.
   
   --
   Paul
   
     (Sorry Paul -- they are there because I wrote about it in the "Not
     Linux" section and felt they had a right to reply to my remarks.
     Guess I should have put the responses in the "Not Linux" section
     too. Just didn't think of it at the time. --Editor) 
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1999 09:11:55 -0600
   From: "Louis C. Lohman", llohman@kissane.com
   Subject: KDE - so what?
   
   Am I just being obtuse, or does KDE feel like a heavy, bloated,
   resource-intensive desktop environment? If that's what I wanted, I
   would stay with M(I'm sorry, I can't say the word)t. Features and
   benefits be damned, FVWM2 comes real close to the type of
   responsiveness I feel should be expected of the desktop ... KDE
   doesn't even come close.
   
   And WHY hasn't anyone else complained? At least, not in a forum that
   I've been aware of. Is it that everyone is so enamored of the
   acceptance that Linux has been getting that they are afraid to rock
   the boat?
   
   On the other hand, I suppose that we (the Linux user community) feel
   like we can pass this KDE thing off as a ready replacement for W(I'm
   sorry, but I can't say that word, either)s, given that it is so slow
   and bloated that W(you know)s users will feel right at home.
   
   Yeah, that's the ticket, we'll make 'em feel right at home.
   
   --
   Lou Lohman
     _________________________________________________________________
   
              Published in Linux Gazette Issue 39, April 1999
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   [ TABLE OF CONTENTS ] [ FRONT PAGE ] Next 
   
      This page written and maintained by the Editor of Linux Gazette,
      gazette@ssc.com
      Copyright  1999 Specialized Systems Consultants, Inc.
      
    "Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   News Bytes
   
Contents:

     * News in General
     * Software Announcements
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                              News in General
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  May 1999 Linux Journal
  
   The May issue of Linux Journal will be hitting the newsstands April
   12. This issue focuses on Programming with an interview with Larry
   Wall, the guru of Perl. Linux Journal now has articles that appear
   "Strictly On-Line". Check out the Table of Contents at
   http://www.linuxjournal.com/issue61/index.html for articles in this
   issue as well as links to the on-line articles. To subscribe to Linux
   Journal, go to http://www.linuxjournal.com/ljsubsorder.html.
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  Linux Without Borders
  
   Date: Thu, 4 Mar 1999 08:48:20 -0500 (EST)
   Linux Without Borders is an E-list dedicated to discussion and
   implementation of the vision that in countries whose citizens are not
   yet rich enough to own Personal Computers(PCs), computers must be
   *shared*; and that the way to enable sharing while preserving
   individual privacy is to install Linux, a multi-user, multi-tasking
   operating system, on PCs owned cooperatively, or by businesses.
   
   This will enable citizens to establish their own accounts on a
   commonly owned, or rented, computer, where they can do all the things
   that citizens of wealthier countries can do: write, do accounts, and
   -- perhaps most important -- use "their" computer to communicate with
   other people, in their own country and throughout the world.
   
   To subscribe, send E-mail to: Majordomo@tux.org with the following
   line in the body of the message:

subscribe linux-without-borders

   For more information:
   Alan McConnell, alan17@his.com
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  Tech Talk
  
   The Chicago Tech Talk radio show, "The Linux Show", will be
   celebrating UNIX's 30th birthday with a special show on April 6 at 8PM
   CST. Host Jeff Gearhart will be interviewing Peter Salus. Listen in
   on-line at http://www.techtalk.com/.
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  Silicon Graphics Positions Available
  
   Date: Fri, 26 Mar 1999 16:37:20 -0800
   Silicon Graphics, Inc. is a leading supplier of visual computing and
   high-performance systems. The company offers the broadest range of
   products in the industry - from low-end desktop workstations to
   servers and high-end supercomputers. Silicon Graphics and its
   subsidiaries have offices throughout the world and corporate
   headquarters in Mountain View, California.
   
   Silicon Graphics has several key teams doing Linux development here in
   the bay area, and looking for experienced engineers to join.
   
   The Linux Kernel Development team is defining and developing operating
   systems for SGI open source platforms, evolving the Linux technology
   to address SGI's key markets.
   
   The Linux Platform Development team is putting Linux on our
   next-generation scalable multiprocessor servers. This work involves
   the Intel IA64 processor, and high performance scalable I/O
   subsystems.
   
   The Storage Team will be taking the best File System SGI has to offer
   and moving that to the Linux community. They will also be moving our
   clustered File System technology based on XFS to Linux.
   
   For more information: Carol Stanford, stanford@engr.sgi.com
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  Linux Links
  
   LINUXCANADA.NET, The Future of Linux in Canada:
   http://www.linuxcanada.net/
   
   Give your opinion on Linux Certification:
   http://www.linuxcertification.org/
   
   Centuries 5,4,3,2,1,0 + Circadian Theory of Learning:
   http://people.tamu.edu/~carlson/bryson.html
   
   The LINUX Forum: http://www.mediadrone.com/linux/
   
   Index of Alternative Operating Systems, Linux news page:
   http://www.indexos.com/OS/Operating_Systems/UNIX/Linux/News/
   
   The UNIX Guru Universe: http://www.ugu.com/
   
   The LinuxStart.Com Project: http://www.LinuxStart.Com/
   
   Cool URL:
   http://www.newsnow.co.uk/cgi-bin/NewsNow/NewsFeed.htm?Topic=*.Tech&Sec
   tion=ASearchW&Search=Open+Source&ASearch=Open+Source,OSS,Apache,Linux,
   GNU,copyleft
   
   Marc Merlin's LinuxWorld Expo Page:
   http://marc.merlins.org/linux/lwce_winter99/
   
   O'Reilly Summit Highlights Business Case for Open Source: Press
   Release
   
   Investors in Red Hat: Press Release
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                           Software Announcements
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  NetBeans Ships One of the First Cross-Platform IDEs to Support Java 2
  
   Prague, Czech Republic, March 2, 1999 - NetBeans today launched
   DeveloperX2 2.1, one of the first full-featured Integrated Development
   Environments (IDEs) to support and run on Sun Microsystems, Inc.'s
   Java 2(tm) platform. DeveloperX2 2.1 enables software developers to
   build sophisticated Java Foundation Classes (JFC) GUIs, compile, and
   debug applications on the platform of their choice. NetBeans also
   simultaneously launched a concurrent version, Developer 2.1, which
   supports Swing 1.1 and Java Development Kit(tm) (JDK) 1.1.
   
   NetBeans Developer combines support for all stages of application
   development including visual design, coding, compiling, and debugging
   in a comprehensive visual programming package. It is available in two
   versions which run on all platforms that support JDK 1.1 and 1.2,
   respectively, including Windows 95/98/NT, Linux, Solaris(tm), HP-UX,
   OS/2, AIX, SGI Irix, and others. The IDE is based on JFC and JavaBeans
   Components, and all parts of the IDE are actually themselves
   JavaBeans. The result is an IDE where the user can fully customize the
   interface, modify component behavior and easily add new components.
   
   NetBeans Enterprise will allow teams of developers to build full-scale
   distributed Java technology-based applications. In addition to the
   features of Developer, Enterprise will feature several additional
   modules: Version control systems support (integration with multiple
   vendors); database connectivity - JDBC; Enterprise JavaBeans support -
   EJB; distributed computing support - RMI and CORBA; and directory
   services - JNDI.
   
   For more information:
   http://www.netbeans.com/
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  Programming Web Graphics With Open Source Software
  
   Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1999 10:13:39 -0800 (PST) Sebastopol, CA--Many people
   assume that creating web graphics requires graphics editors like Adobe
   Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro. But with Open Source software like Perl
   and GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) you have the power to
   dynamically generate graphics based on user input and activity, easily
   manipulate graphics content, and optimize graphics for compression and
   quality.
   
   Programming Web Graphics with Perl & GNU Software
   By Shawn P. Wallace
   1-56592-478-9, 470 pages, $29.95 (US$)
   
   It's a little-documented field, and the valuable free libraries and
   tools available on the Internet are little publicized. From access
   counters and log-report graphs to scientific plots and on-the-fly
   animated GIFS, graphics scripting is within the grasp of most web
   scripters. "Programming Web Graphics with Perl & GNU Software" was
   written to provide a practical resource for intermediate and advanced
   web programmers who want to use CGI Scripts to generate dynamic
   graphic content.
   
   For more information: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/prowg/
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  Kudos to Trident
  
   Date: Fri, 26 Feb 1999 16:20:15 -0500
   I'm writing you to let you know of a recent hardware company's
   exceptional support to the GNU/Linux community and the GPL.
   
   The Advanced Linux Sound Architecture project ( http://alsa.jcu.cz/)
   is a project designed to build an architecture for pro-quality sound
   and MIDI applications, from low-level drivers for sound and MIDI
   hardware to high level libraries and sequencers. The project is
   committed to releasing all work under the GPL.
   
   As you may know, many sound card manufacturers are reluctant to give
   any technical help, and even some of those that offer help require
   NDA's, which of course excludes the possibility of release source. We
   have blacklisted some companies (http://alsa.jcu.cz/black.html) who
   have either refused to release information or have decided to release
   binary-only drivers, which ALSA will not use.
   
   Trident (http://www.tridentmicro.com/) recently contacted the ALSA
   developer mailing list, having written their own drivers for their 4D
   Wave chipset for ALSA, and offering the source for the drivers. They
   graciously allowed all of it to be put under the GPL, including
   technical documents.
   
   I am hoping to drum up support for their hardware in order for the
   community to demonstrate how cooperation of this sort can aid sales.
   Maybe this will convince more companies to follow.
   
   Their chipset is used in the following products. If GNU/Linux users
   are looking towards purchasing a sound card, perhaps they would
   consider some of the following, since these cards are well-supported
   under ALSA.
Company     Product Name
=======================================
Best Union  Miss Melody 4DWave PCI
HIS         4DWave PCI
Warpspeed   ONSpeed 4DWave PCI
AzTech      PCI 64-Q3D
Addonics    SoundVision (model SV 750)
CHIC        True Sound 4Dwave
Shark       Predator4D-PCI
Jaton       SonicWave 4D
Paradise    WaveAudio Interactive (Model AWT4DX)
Promedia    Opera CyberPCI-64
Stark       PCI

   You can read more about ALSA and the call to sound card manufacturers
   at http://alsa.jcu.cz/call.html For more information:
   Thomas Hudson, Cygnus Solutions thudson@cygnus.com
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  Linux services new from VC3
  
   COLUMBIA, SC March 15, 1999: VC3, Inc. announced today that the
   company will begin offering Linux services to corporations regionally.
   The announcement comes at a time when the Linux operating system, a
   UNIX-like operating system available at no charge to businesses, is
   gaining momentum as a cost-effective system of choice for running many
   business applications.
   
   VC3 will provide Linux setup, configuration, and ongoing
   administration services for both mid-size and large companies in the
   Southeast. In addition, VC3 will support all Linux distributors that
   build their own versions of the Linux operating system, including Red
   Hat Software, Caldera Systems, and SuSE. This will enable VC3 to
   service and support all "flavors" of Linux.
   
   VC3 will provide the Linux operating software as well as set up,
   configure, and administer the operating system for large and mid-size
   corporations. Installation requires about a half-day to one day.
   Installation and configuration prices vary from $200 to $5,000
   depending on the project scope and number of servers.
   
   For more information: http://www.vc3.com/
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  JES Linux Class
  
   Date: Tue, 02 Mar 1999 12:43:38 -0800
   Newport Beach, CA JES & Associates, Inc. is once again stepping to the
   forefront to meet industry demands in announcing a new course, 200L
   Linux Fundamentals. Designed for newcomers to Linux, the three-day
   course will have its debut run beginning April 5, 1999.
   
   For more information:
   http://www.jes.com/
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  Applix Launches Open Source Initiative With Applix SHELF
  
   WESTBORO, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 2, 1999--Applix, Inc. (NASDAQ:
   APLX) a leader in decision support applications for Linux and Unix
   workstations, today launched its first Open Source initiative with
   Applix SHELF, an embeddable, full-featured programming language. With
   SHELF, application developers will be able to increase customization
   and extensibility of their applications by embedding Applixware
   language in their products.
   
   Both Applixware and Applix SHELF are available for all major
   distributions of Linux, including Red Hat, SuSE, Caldera, and
   Slackware. They are also available for Sun, IBM, Compaq, and Hewlett
   Packard Workstations, as well as for Microsoft Windows 98 and NT.
   Applix SHELF is being released under the GNU Library Public License
   (LPGL), as defined by the Free Software Foundation, Cambridge, MA.
   Under LPGL, Applix SHELF is freely usable in either the original or
   modified form. It is available now for free download at Applix's new
   Open Source-oriented website.
   
   For more information:
   Applix, Inc., http://www.applixware.org
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  esh -- A New UNIX Shell
  
   esh is a new shell for Unix, written completely from scratch. It is
   very small, both in number of lines of source code and in memory
   consumption. The whole shell is about 5000 lines of C source code, and
   occupies about twice as little memory as bash in some cases.
   
   However, esh is also extremely flexible, with a real programming
   language at the core. The syntax is a simplified form of Scheme.
   
   For more information:
   Ivan Tkatchev, http://esh.netpedia.net
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  Debian GNU/Linux 2.1 'Slink' released
  
   Date: Wed, 10 Mar 1999 12:06:46 -0500
   Debian GNU/Linux 2.1 'Slink' has officially been released on March 9,
   1999 for the SPARC, Intel x86, Alpha, and Motorola 680x0
   architectures. Release notes, installation instructions, and other
   information is available at http://www.debian.org/releases/slink/
   
   Debian GNU/Linux 2.1 contains over 2250 precompiled binary packages
   contributed from over 400 developers, including all of the favorites:
   web servers, GIMP, gcc, egcs, XFree86, SQL servers and many other
   tools and utilities.
   
   Debian's new powerful package manager 'apt' allows for easy
   installation, maintenance and updating of packages including
   sophisticated handling of dependencies and configurations. Packages
   from other distributions can easily be installed using the 'alien'
   utility.
   
   For more information:
   Debian Press Contact, press@debian.org
   Debian homepage: http://www.debian.org/
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  PROFUSO Mail Gateway
  
   Date: Wed, 10 Mar 1999 13:00:24 +0000 (/etc/localtime)
   PROFUSO proudly announces version 1.0 of PROFUSO Mail Gateway
   "Personal Edition", the freely available personal email to WWW
   gateway.
   
   We can make this powerful software available for free because the
   development of Personal Edition is supported by its commercial edition
   (PROFUSO Mail Gateway Server Edition), that is multiuser and lets you
   create web based e-mail services (like H*tmail).
   
   PROFUSO Mail Gateway is a server software for the Linux operating
   system that allows to send and receive e-mail using only a web
   browser. PROFUSO Mail Gateway extends all the functionality of e-
   mail, including multimedia and attachments, over the WWW. When
   installed on your Linux web server, all you need for e-mail is your
   favourite browser.
   
   PROFUSO Mail Gateway is available in two versions: "Personal Edi-
   tion", that is single user and freely available from our WWW site and
   "Server Edition", that is commercial and multiuser and lets you create
   your own free web e-mail service in minutes.
   
   You can download your free copy or obtain more information on the
   Server Edition at our site:
   
   http://www.profuso.com/products.html
   
   For more information:
   Giuseppe Zanetti, beppe@profuso.com
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  WebEvent! Web-based calendar software
  
   Date: Thu, 25 Mar 1999 01:15:42 -0500
   Please add WebEvent, our web-based calendar and scheduling software to
   your list of Internet applications. WebEvent has been available for
   Linux since 1995 and the commercial version has been around for over a
   year and a half.
   
   WebEvent is an interactive web-based calendar that allows you to view
   and modify calendar-type events from any computer that can run a web
   browser. Features include multiple views and formats, event types,
   repeating events, event reminders, searchable calendars,
   meta-calendars, conflict resolution, source coude, and an easy to use
   web-based interface.
   
   For more information: http://www.MatadorDesign.com/
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  SuperAnt CD-ROM with Mini-Distributions
  
   Date: Wed, 24 Mar 1999 17:56:19 -0800
   SuperAnt is announcing that effective immediately, they will be making
   available a Mini Linux Distribution CD-ROM. The Mini Distribution
   CD-ROM contains small rescue releases of Linux and packaged Linux
   systems that require only diskettes to boot from. Some contain XFree
   for Linux, allowing graphics use on properly configured systems. Some
   of the included distributions are Small Linux, Trinux, Linux Router
   Project, muLinux, Toms Disk, and LEM. The CD-ROM contains more than
   600 megabytes of files.
   
   SuperAnt is a Linux and Open Source technology provider and packager,
   selling and marketing business and recreation CD-ROMS on the Internet.
   
   For more information: http://www.superant.com/
   Steven Gibson, superant@superant.com
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  HELIOS products and support for Linux
  
   March 18, 1999- CeBIT '99, Hannover, Germany, Hall 9, Booth C25-
   HELIOS Software GmbH announces the availability of its EtherShare 2.5,
   EtherShare OPI 2.0, PDF Handshake and Print Preview products for the
   Linux operating system on computers based on Pentium processors.
   HELIOS PCShare 3 will also be available for Linux later this summer.
   
   HELIOS Software supports Linux with its file server, print server and
   PrePress applications on the HELIOS CD014, available in April. HELIOS
   CD014 includes a minimal Redhat Linux runtime to support the HELIOS
   software applications as well the Linux TCP/IP, NFS, FTP and Web
   services to serve Macintosh, Windows, UNIX and Internet clients.
   
   For more information: info@ugraf.com, http://www.ugraf.com/
   
   HELIOS Software Gmb, http://www.helios.com/
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  Communicator 4.51 now available for Linux
  
   Date: Tue, 09 Mar 1999 08:49:20 -0800
   Netscape just released Communicator 4.51 today (Tuesday, March 9),
   including the Linux version. This is the first update to Communicator
   4.5 since its release last October. It includes a Netscape branded
   version of AOL Instant Messenger 2.0 (enabling group chat), Quotes
   Anywhere (via Smart Browsing keywords), improved stability and in
   addition to several performance enhancements, this release corrects
   potential security vulnerabilities reported in recent months by
   independent programmers.
   
   Communicator 4.51 is available for download via Netscape Netcenter at
   http://home.netscape.com/download/
     _________________________________________________________________
   
              Published in Linux Gazette Issue 39, April 1999
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   [ TABLE OF CONTENTS ] [ FRONT PAGE ] Back Next 
     _________________________________________________________________
   
      This page written and maintained by the Editor of Linux Gazette,
      gazette@ssc.com
      Copyright  1999 Specialized Systems Consultants, Inc.
      
    "The Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                           (?) The Answer Guy (!)
                                      
                   By James T. Dennis, answerguy@ssc.com
                    LinuxCare, http://www.linuxcare.com/
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  Contents:
  
   (!) Greetings From Jim Dennis
   
   (?) a small question --or--
          Using a 286 as a Serial Terminal 
          
   (?) What's wrong with internal modems?
          
   (?) Error starting recompiling process?
          
   (?) How Can I Delete? --or--
          Deleting Files and UNIX Permissions 
          
   (?) No rule to make target 'config' --or--
          Recompiling Kernel to Support CD-ROM 
          
   (?) Fvwm95-Wharf --or--
          fvwm95-Wharf: xterm comes out black? 
          
   (!) Another "No Login" Problem: A little tip
          
   (?) Multilink PPP using Linux --or--
          Modem Multi-link PPP: EQL 
          
   (?) New Linux Distribution --or--
          How to Create a New Linux Distribution: Why? 
          
   (?) login source code --or--
          Seeing Stars During Login 
          
   (?) Personal LAN setup... --or--
          Setting up a Personal/Home LAN 
          
   (?) Good morning!!! --or--
          Essay Quiz 
          
   (?) diald dials every hour... --or--
          Overactive diald 
          
   (?) Modem Problem --or--
          Another Lost Soul 
          
   (?) Plee for help
          
   (?) security issue, /etc/passwd --or--
          Secure Shutdown from the Console
          
   (?) Linux and Y2K
          
   (?) Your approach to Y2K problem --or--
          Y2K Cause Arithmetic Failures?
            ____________________________________________________
   
(!) Greetings from Jim Dennis

     Dear Bill,
     
     Thanks for the offer letter. Of course, I'll take that promotion.
     I'd love a senior marketing position at Microsoft's sunny Seattle
     campus.
     
     I'll be happy to help MS focus on its core competencies (making
     mice, joysticks, keyboards, and the exciting new "Talking Teletubby
     (TM)" line of toys. It's definitely the best thing since "Teddy
     Ruskin (TM)" and the "Cabbage Patch (TM)" dolls.
     
     (I have some interesting strategic proposals for dealing with the
     Mattel and Fisher-Price problems, but we'll discuss them when you
     meet me at SeaTac next week. Not that they're anti-competitive or
     anything like that! But be sure to "secure delete" this e-mail
     after reading it. Too bad you don't have that new "one-time reader"
     code integrated into Outlook (TM) yet. We're still stuck using that
     old Norton code)
     
     I agree with your assessment about software. That's definitely
     passe. We'll only have a couple more years before those Linux geeks
     completely eat our lunch. Believe me, after this prolonged
     undercover assignment that I've been on I know all about Linus'
     subversive plan. BTW, thank Paul for starting that company to hire
     Linus. I would have hated to go to Helsinki and attempt the
     infiltration during one of their winters. I'm sure he was right to
     put that down here in the Silicon Valley; the ploy might have been
     a little too transparent if we'd put it up in King county.
     
     It's too bad that MSN has been such a flop so far. How are the AOL
     acquisition plans going? I still think you should set up a European
     shell to do that. If Daimler-Benz can buy Chrysler than I don't see
     why we can't have British Telecom come in and nab AOL.
     
     Luckily MSNBC is doing pretty well, and should be ripe for the
     Senate elections in 2002. We definitely have to finish our
     diversification out of software before then, since I don't think we
     can string out the W2K delays much longer than that.
     
     By the way, we should fire that red bearded freak that's been
     ghostwriting "The Answer Guy" for me. He's actually been HELPING
     our customers put Linux on OUR computers and I heard that he said
     some choice personal things about YOU. I even heard he got access
     to some of our internal memos and is planning on leaking them to
     "Obi Wan Raymond."
     (http://www.userfriendly.org/cartoons/archives/98dec/19981203.html)
     
     After those "Halloween" fiascos I'd hate to see an "April Fool's
     Document...."
            ____________________________________________________
   
(?) Using a 286 as a Serial Terminal

   From Richard Mills on Sun, 07 Mar 1999 
   
   Is there anyway to set-up a 286 ps/2 with and without a hard drive,
   for use as a dumb terminal over null modem? Specific program names
   would be great, I cant find a good terminal emulator for it. Also
   instructions for how to set it up on the client end would be super. 
   
   Thanks for your help. :) 
   
     (!) Sure, it's possible. It's easy. Just install a copy of DOS
     (MS-DOS, DR-DOS, FreeDOS, or whatever) and a terminal emulator like
     Telix, Procomm, Qmodem, etc.
     
     You can still find many MS-DOS compatible programs at
     ftp.simtel.net --- (which is actually an alternative name to
     ftp.cdrom.com --- the largest archive on the net)
     
     You can find some in /pub/simtelnet/msdos/commprog and others in
     /pub/simtelnet/msdos/telix/
     
     Note that Telix, Procomm, Qmodem, Telemate and most of the good
     terminal emulation packages for MS-DOS were not free. They are
     shareware. The last time I tried to register a copy of Telix I
     found that the company which had aquired the rights to the package
     had basically no interest in the MS-DOS version. They have a
     Windows version which seems to be the only one they still update.
     Luckily we don't need updates for simple terminal emulation over
     null modems and simple file transfers.
     
     Another approach would be to use the MS-DOS version of Kermit from
     Columbia University. This should be adequate for most simple
     terminal operations and it has an excellent scripting language (as
     does Telix).
     
     Good luck!
            ____________________________________________________
   
(?) What's wrong with internal modems?

   From Darrell Spice, Jr. on Sat, 06 Mar 1999 
   
   I was reading your response about the "winmodems" and wonder what's
   wrong with an internal modem? Not all internal modems are "winmodems",
   the USR 56K modem I use works fine with better operating systems
   everywhere :-) 
   
     (!) Of course I realize that "internal modem" != "winmodem" ---
     that winmodems are a subset of internal modems.
     
     My opinion on internal modems was gelled long before Windows was
     written. I think they are a bad idea. It's a matter of personal
     prejudice, borne of long years of experience. It is an opinion
     shared by most BBS sysops ISP sysadmins and other "industrial
     grade" computer users.
     
     One reason I avoid them is that I've seen internal modems meltdown
     and take out a motherboard with it. I've seen that twice. I've
     never heard of an external modem damaging a system through a serial
     line.
     
     However, it works for you --- so, by all means, use it. (They can
     be a bit cheaper, and many will only expect about two years use out
     of any modem they get so it might make sense for some users on
     financial rather than technical grounds).
            ____________________________________________________
   
(?) Error starting recompiling process?

   From darod on Fri, 05 Mar 1999 
   
   I get an error when I try to recompile the kernel. Actually, I get the
   error before I even get into the recompiling process. Here it is: 
   
     When I try to run "make menuconfig" I get the errors ( I've
     included a screenshot of what errors show up) in question. I'm a
     newbee pretty much. I've had Linux on my machine for about 2
     months. I've recompiled before but, I was using the "workstation"
     option in Mandrake. I am now using the latest version of Mandrake
     with the latest version of KDE. I chose the "custom" option for
     install this last time and now I'm running into these problems. I
     talked to several people about this and they have advised me to
     install these files;
     
   kernel headers (I knew about this one)
   kernel source (I knew about this one too)
   gcc (I didn't know about this one, but I loaded it and it still gives
   me the errors) 
   
     (!) Headers just the portions of the kernel that some other
     programs need to know to run compile and run under it. So, if you
     install just the headers you can't compile a new kernel --- but you
     can compile various programs that need to refer to kernel function
     prototypes and defined values (constants).
     
     The sources are needed to compile a new kernel, of course.
     
     gcc is the compiler (GNU C compiler). It's the tool you use to
     compile anything on a typical Linux system. There are also some
     derivative alternative compilers like egcs available.
     
   (?) I need help with this, I hope you can help me. I want to recompile
   the kernel so that I can setup my iomega zip drive. 
   
     (!) Looking at your screenshot I see errors in compiling lxdialog
     (the Linux kernel "dialog" utility which is what menuconfig uses to
     display dialog boxes, with menus etc).
     
     These errors are from the compiler's inability to find various
     header files. This is almost certainly due to a problem with your
     installation.
     
     On a properly configured system you should have a couple of
     symlinks from /usr/include to directories under /usr/src/linux. On
     my system these look like:
     
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root    26 Nov 23 16:39 /usr/include/asm
               -> /usr/src/linux/include/asm
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root    28 Nov 23 16:39 /usr/include/linux
               -> /usr/src/linux/include/linux
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root    27 Nov 23 16:39 /usr/include/scsi
               -> /usr/src/linux/include/scsi

     Once these sylinks are in place (and there's a symlink from
     /usr/src/linux to the actual location of your kernel sources) you
     should be able to build your new kernel and other software
     properly. (In your situation I'd expect that almost nothing would
     compile --- those symlinks are used by alot of software).
     
   (?) Thanks in advance, Darrin Rodriguez 
                        ____________________________
   
(?) Error starting recompiling process?

   From darod on Sun, 07 Mar 1999 
   
   Ok, 
   
   So your telling me that you think I probably won't be able to compile
   anything with the way things are now on my machine configuration,
   right? Well, what can I do short of installing the OS again? I don't
   want to loose all the tweaking I've done already if possible! What can
   I do with this thing? 
   
   Darrin 
   
     (!) What I was trying to say is:
     
     MAKE THE SYMLINKS
     
     ... and:
     
     MAKE SURE THE SYMLINKS ARE RIGHT
     
     I realize that my long description of what these symlinks are and
     why you need them didn't actually spell that out in simple, bold
     terms like this --- but that's what I meant.
            ____________________________________________________
   
(?) Deleting Files and UNIX Permissions

   From martin a. salazar on Fri, 05 Mar 1999 
   
   (?) Hi, 
   
   How can I delete files with attributes like these. 
b---r-----   1 10080    24640     96,  68 Feb 10  1977 csh.cshrc
b---rwxr--   1 24672    8231      32,  39 Dec 16  2010 exports

     (!) These look CORRUPT. See below.
     
   (?) Regards, Marty Salazar Newgen IT Corp. marty@newgen.net.ph 
   
     (!) Your ability to remove files has nothing to do with the
     permissions of the files themselves, and often nothing to do with
     the ownership of the files.
     
     Under UNIX (and Linux, of course) you need write access to the
     directory in which a link occurs to remove that link. So in a mode
     777 directory you can remove any filename (link) REGARDLESS OF WHO
     OWNS THAT FILE AND REGARDLESS OF THE PERMISSIONS ON IT.
     
     (As a special case under Linux and most modern versions of Unix if
     the mode of the directory is "sticky" --- mode 1xxx --- then you
     must have write access to the directory and you must own the file,
     or be root, to unlink/remove it).
     
     Note that I've made a distinction here between the file and its
     names (links). In a Unix/Linux filesystem a file is an association
     between an inode (a management and meta-data structure) and a set
     of data blocks (the data or file contents). The file's name is a
     link from a directory to the inode. There can be many such links or
     "hard links.
     
     Thus the process of removing a file involves "unlinking" it. When
     the link count is zero (there are no remaining links to a file) and
     there are not processes with a file open, then the filesystem
     driver removes the actual file (that is it marks the inode as
     deleted and adds all of its data blocks back to the "free" list.
     
     So the 'rm' command doesn't actually "remove files" --- technically
     it "unlinks files from directories" (which often has the side
     effect of reducing the link count to zero and consequently deleting
     the file).
     
     Understanding this hopefully explains why write access to a
     directory is generally sufficient to remove files in it.
     
     Now regarding your example:
     
     The filenames you show here would normall be related to regular
     files in the /etc/ directory. However the "permissions" you show
     suggest that these are block device nodes (links to thinks like
     your /dev/hda1, etc).
     
     Moreover the ownership/group fields are rather unlikely to be valid
     UIDs or GIDs on your system. This suggests that you have a rather
     thoroughly corrupted filesystem. So, my first suggestion would be
     to boot from a clean rescue floppy and try 'e2fsck -c' Then
     consider re-installing Linux (after backing up any data, of
     course).
            ____________________________________________________
   
(?) Recompiling Kernel to Support CD-ROM

   From PEREZ, Martin on Fri, 05 Mar 1999 
   
   Hi, 
   
   I am new to Linux and I though I would start on Red Hat 5.1, I'll 
   
   upgrade to 5.2 when I am happy and used to installing 5.1. Now I am
   able to install without an error, however, when ever I attempt to
   mount a CDROM with the -tiso9660 I get the error saying the format is
   not recognize. Therefore, I try to recompile the kernel using a 'make
   config', but WHAM!! I get a response of 'Nor rule to make target
   'config". I have installed the relevant C libraries and the like on
   install. Please Help!!! 
   
   Martin Perez 
   
     (!) Let's take this one step at a time.
     
     I usually put a space between my -t and my filetype specification.
     That might not be a problem, let's see...
     
     O.K. The mount command doesn't care.
     
     I can't say whether there is some other problem with the mount
     command that you are attempting since you don't give a full example
     of that command line.
     
     In most Recent versions of Red Hat Linux the kernel is modular.
     Thus the iso9660 filesystem type is often contained in a module
     rather than being linked directly into the kernel. You can see
     which filesystem are currently linked into your kernel and/or
     provided by loaded modules by using the command
     
     cat /proc/filesystems
     
     ... which is a dynamic list.
     
     Perhaps you need to load the iso9660 module from its home under
     /lib/modules/X.Y.ZZ/fs/ (where X.Y.ZZ is your currently loaded
     kernel's version number). You could use the 'insmod' or 'modprobe'
     commands.
     
     But wait. Many of us don't have to manually load these modules.
     What's going on?
     
     Well, there is a daemon (kerneld) which dynamically loads kernel
     modules "on demand" --- when it's properly loaded and configured.
     The phrase "on demand" means slightly different things (under the
     hood) for device drivers, filesystems, and network protocols. Also
     kerneld was a 2.0 thing. The new 2.2 kernels should be using a
     different facility called 'kmod' instead.
     
     So, it could be that you have a problem with your dynamic module
     loading subsystem.
     
     This all suggests that you've either changed things a bit from the
     default Red Hat installation, or that you haven't successfully
     completed that installation. You might want to build/rebuild your
     modules "dependencies" table. You can do that with the command:
     
     depmod -a
     
     ... which is often in the startup scripts (/etc/rc.d/*) somewhere.
     "modprobe" and the dynamic module loaders require this information
     in order to load interdependent sets of modules in the proper
     order. For example, the iso9660 filesystem module depends upon
     lower level CD-ROM device support. (They aren't combined into a
     single module for a few reasons: first a CD can have non-ISO9660
     filesystems on it; Linux allows this; also, there are many
     different CD device drivers for non-SCSI and non-ATAPI CD-ROM
     controllers).
     
     So, try that.
     
     No, regarding your problem with building a new kernel. Naturally
     you have be "in" the proper directory when you start this process.
     That would usually be /usr/src/linux --- which is usually a symlink
     to the top level diretory of a specific set of kernel sources.
     
     It's possible that you've installed just the kernel headers. This
     allows you to build other programs (which need to know about
     certain kernel prototypes and defined values (constants). However,
     you need to install the full kernel source set to actually build a
     kernel.
     
     You can try the command: make menuconfig
     or: make xconfig
     
     ... to get a more attractive and friendly interface for configuring
     your kernel. It's also possible to manually edit your .config file
     --- if you insist.
     
     Anyway, make sure that you actually have the kernel sources
     installed, not just the kernel headers. Also make sure that you're
     in the correct directory and, if you're following a symlink, that
     the symlink(s) point to the right place.
            ____________________________________________________
   
(?) fvwm95-Wharf: xterm comes out black?

   From Siddharth Kashyap on Fri, 05 Mar 1999 
   
   In fvwm95, I start Wharf. Through I click at xterm icon. This gives me
   a DARK BLACK xterm window. Please help. This only happens when I enter
   as a user, not root. I am using Red Hat Linux 5.2 
   
     (!) Try renaming your user's ~/.Xdefaults file temporarily. The
     possibility is that you have some weird settings therein that are
     starting your xterm with both the foreground (-fg) and the
     background (-bg) set to black.
     
     I'm not familiar with this "Wharf." I presume it's a fvwm-95
     "module" or a small applet which gives you a little "applications
     dock" --- like AfterStep and the old NeXT desktop, perhaps. If
     that's the case --- perhaps you have to check some configuration
     file for Wharf to see if it is starting your xterm with weird
     command line options.
     
     One trick you can try is to go to a text mode terminal using
     [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[F2] or such (log in as the same user that is running
     your X session) and start an xterm from there. You could use the
     following command:
     
     xterm -display :0 -bg cyan -fg black
     
     ... which will start the 'xterm' from outside of that process
     group. Assuming that this works --- it suggests that your
     configuration somehow has some weird settings for launching its
     xterms. We're bypassing those settings and manually starting one.
     
     The the challenge is to track down which part of your system is
     harboring those settings.
                        ____________________________
   
(?) More on fvwm95 Wharf

   From Siddharth Kashyap on Fri, 05 Mar 1999 
   
   I have Red Hat Linux 5.2 I want to know is this a bug. In the fvwm95 I
   start something called Wharf. (If you click your mouse on the desktop,
   you get some options. One of them is Sytem Utilities. In System
   Utilities, there is Wharf). When you click at Wharf it opens an icon
   bar. One of the icon is for xterm. When I click at the icon I get a
   blank xterm window. Please help me. 
   
     (!) See my other answer to this question.
     
     Incidentally, it is conventional to keep your .sig (signature) to
     about 4 lines. Your correspondents probably won't appreciate
     receiving mail where the "signature" is longer than the message at
     hand.
     
     Even after all these years, Brendan Kehoe's "Zen and the Art of the
     Internet" is an excellent guide to the customs and etiquette
     conventions for many Internet protocols (including e-mail and
     netnews).
     
   [ Zen and the Art of the Internet can be found online at
   http://www.cs.indiana.edu/docproject/zen/zen-1.0_toc.html. -- Heather
   ]
            ____________________________________________________
   
(!) Another "No Login" Problem: A little tip

   From Jens Christian Gram on Wed, 03 Mar 1999 
   
   I have experienced the "no login" problem in both RH 5.1 and RH 5.2.
   The problem seems to be that the /bin/passwd command has applies some
   restrictions to the entered passwords (they can not be to short, to
   simple ...). When you use the graphic tool, no restrictions are
   applied, but you can not log in, if the password violates the
   restrictions from passwd. 
   
   I hope you understand what I mean, and that you can use my help, even
   though I am relatively new at linux. 
   
   Jens Christian Gram 
   
     (!) Of course! That explains it.
     
     The normal Linux 'passwd' command does attempt to enforce a "strong
     passwords" policy --- to ensure that the user will pick passwords
     that are unlikely to be in a potential attacker's 'crack'
     dictionary. 'crack' is a program that hashes (encodes) a list of
     words (a dictionary) into every variant of the way it might appear
     in a given password file (/etc/passwd). This is much more efficient
     than a true "brute force" attack.
     
     In any event --- the GUI tool obviously has a bug it it --- since
     it just calls the underlying 'passwd' command and doesn't relay the
     error messages back to the user. I personally consider that to be a
     major flaw and would suggest that sysadmins remove this program
     (python script?) from their systems until it's fixed.
            ____________________________________________________
   
(?) Modem Multi-link PPP: EQL

   From Spears, Michael T. on Tue, 09 Mar 1999 
   
   Are you familiar with setting up a Multilink PPP connection using two
   dial-up modems (v.90) and Linux as the client? Is so, can you point me
   in the direction of the documentation for setting this up? 
   
   Thank you, Mike Spears 
   
     (!) Use the search feature at http://www.linuxgazette.com and
     search on the term: EQL I know I discussed it a bit in issue #36.
     
     You can also get broader results doing Google
     (http://www.google.com), Yahoo! and other search using the phrase:
     "linux eql" or "+linux +eql"
     
     The Linuxcare search engine (http://www.linuxcare.com) comes up
     with the README.eql file on this keyword. It also comes up with a
     number of interesting links on the phrase: "multilink ppp"
     
     See if those help. The README.eql file is included in your Linux
     kernel sources.
            ____________________________________________________
   
(?) How to Create a New Linux Distribution: Why?

   From Cesar A. K. Grossmann on Tue, 09 Mar 1999 
   
   Hi James, it's me again... 
   
   A friend asked me how to build a new Linux CD-based distribuition, but
   I have only some clues, can you help me? 
   
   I have identified some major tasks a future Linux distributor must
   deal: 
   
    1. Decide how the distribuition will be and what it will have (BSD or
       SYSV, complete or desktop/server versions, KDE?, GNOME?, NONE?,
       etc.);
    2. Create a installer/configure script/programm according the first
       step;
    3. Create the boot/root/rescue disk(s) for the install;
    4. Create the CD structure and image;
    5. Make it work (make/"burn" the disks and test, repeat steps 2 to 5
       until it works)!
    6. Create documentation to help installing, and make some money with
       support;
    7. Endless work, endless happiness...
       
   Did I missed something (or: is this the "New CD Based Linux
   Distribution HOWTO")? There are any documents at the Internet that can
   help anyone who wants to make a new Linux CD based distribution? 
   
     (!) There is no "HOWTO Create New Distributions" that I know of.
     That is good.
     
     The most important step that you seem to have missed is to ask:
     "Why?"
     
     .. Why create a new distribution? Why are the current crop of
     distributions inadequate to your task? ..
     
     This leads to other logical questions:
     
     What other distributions are out there? What are their weaknesses
     for your purposes? Could any of them be modified to your needs?
     
     Someone wanted Red Hat Linux with KDE. So we have Mandrake. Someone
     wanted Slackware with support for RPMs so we have S.u.S.E. Some
     people didn't want to use RPMs so we have Debian. (Actually the
     roots and histories of these distributions is far more colorful and
     involved than I'm implying; but I'm trying to make a point).
     
     Keep in mind that you could start with an existing distribution and
     create a "installation profile" (S.u.S.E. even allows you to store
     these on floppy and use them for future installations). With Red
     Hat's distribution you can create a "KickStart" script which is
     effectively an installation profile (and installation automation
     tool).
     
     With Debian you'd have to do more scripting on your own. However it
     could certainly be done.
     
     Incidentally, you missed one of the chief differences among
     distributions in your list:
     
     Pick a Package Format
     
     ... personally I don't like the Linux penchant for re-inventing
     wheels. The FreeBSD "ports" (NetBSD "packages") system is rather
     nice in that it's basically a huge set of Makefiles. These get the
     "canonical" version of a package and do whatever is necessary to
     unpack, patch, build and install it. Naturally 'make' handles
     dependencies.
     
     So, if you really want to make a new distribution and you don't
     have an over-riding vision for "why" --- think about creating one
     around this concept.
     
     However, I think we've got enough variations of this wheel for now.
            ____________________________________________________
   
(?) Seeing Stars During Login

                           Re: login source code
                                      
   From john walshe on Tue, 09 Mar 1999 
   
   Hi Jim, 
   
   I am wondering how you would get the * to come up on a screen for each
   character pressed when someone is entering a login password on a unix
   platform. 
   
   Thanks, John. 
   
     (!) As your subject suggests, you'd have to modify the sources to
     the 'login' program. You'd have to put the terminal in a particular
     mode so you're getting each character (rather than getting whole
     lines at a time). This is possible on any terminal through which
     one can run 'vi' 'emacs' or any other full screen text program.
     However, the existing 'login' programs, and your shell, and the
     'ex' (or 'ed') line editors don't require this --- so they can
     still be used with teletype devices.
     
     I suspect that this is at least one reason why the login program
     doesn't provide visual cues for each character you type. Another is
     that it would reveal the length of your password to any shoulder
     surfers in your vicinity any time you logged in.
     
     I was amused that the Lotus Notes login dialog (under Windows)
     would spit out a random number of *'s for every keystroke you
     entered in the password field of the dialog. So you knew that the
     keyboard was responding --- but couldn't tell if you'd "bounced"
     some keys. That doesn't seem like much of a "solution."
     
     In any event --- feel free to play with it. Understand that 'login'
     is a security sensitive program. The slightest mistake you make
     there can probably be exploited to take over your whole system. So,
     I wouldn't deploy this on exposed servers unless you are very sure
     of your programming skills (or very foolhardy --- as the case would
     more likely be).
            ____________________________________________________
   
(?) Setting up a Personal/Home LAN

   From DrDave on Tue, 09 Mar 1999 
   
   Hi! 
   
   You may remember me from a couple of months ago, when I wrote you in
   my first weeks of using Linux, asking about the correct way to put
   together a bash script to remove spaces from filenames being copied
   from a Win98-generated CD. Since then, I've fallen for Linux like a
   stone, and I only return to Win98 when I need to do something with
   minimal or no support under Linux. (I'm working on the C chops, but
   they're nowhere near close to solving many of my problems elegantly.
   Grrrr.) 
   
   One of these things is the operation of a WebCam. Now, I've been
   through the bttv etc. sites and tried a number of things, but I'm
   forced to face the fact that my capture card is not supported under
   Linux. 
   
   [ Did you try WebCam World? Their developer's area seems to be trying
   to track all software that supports webcams, including Linux based
   apps, at http://developers.webcamworld.com/slist.html 
   
   With our fast pace of development it's also worthwhile to keep
   checking. I found this by feeding "+webcam software +linux" to Yahoo!
   -- Heather ]
   
   My first thought was that I'd put together a driver in C for the card.
   After the laughter quieted to a dull roar, I dropped that idea. My
   second thought was that I'd just have to buy a new capture card. Not
   bad, but I do like a fair amount of the software I have that works
   with my current card. Hmmm. 
   
   Third thought: Build a mini-LAN. Rehab the old 90MHz Pentium in the
   closet, throw an ethernet card in it, and run the webcam/software on
   that box, but get access to the images/clips it produces from my "main
   system" running Linux. I like this idea because it seems like it will
   work well for most things I like to do with my cam, and because I can
   learn a ton about networking in the process. 
   
   Pardon my circumlocution. I'll get to the point: (hehe) 
   
   I've done some looking at the most available docs, including the
   networking HOWTO and a couple of books I bought on general Linux
   things, but none of them address my situation directly, and I'm a
   complete novice to networking, so I'm having trouble bridging the
   gaps. Perhaps you can help... 
   
   Question 1: What networking protocol should I aim for? A friend who
   runs a major NT based network suggested setting things up with
   NetBEUI, since I'd have next to zero configuration to do before
   getting things running. I haven't seen this addressed anywhere
   directly. 
   
     (!) NetBIOS/NetBEUI "native" protocols are not supported under
     Linux. They probably won't be supported under future versions of
     NT. They are non-routable and extremely "noisy" (involving many
     broadcasts which force the software on all hosts to sift through
     many of the packets that would be more targeted and handled in
     ethernet hardware on other protocols).
     
     You want TCP/IP. In a real pinch you might use IPX (the Novell
     protocols). However, the whole Internet uses TCP/IP and even the
     latest versions of Netware and Windows prefer TCP/IP.
     
   (?) Question 2: I need to be able to access the mini-LAN and my PPP
   connection from my linux box concurrently so, for example, I can have
   the webcam generate and stamp a .jpg image on my w98 box, and have a
   background job on the linux box ftp'ing the files to my ISP's web
   server. What are my major concerns here? If I can't avoid a using an
   IP-based protocol on my LAN (so my w98 box needs an IP address), how
   do I make this work? 
   
     (!) You can have multiple interfaces on a Linux system. Each
     interface will have it's own IP address. Typically, on small home
     LANs you'll have one IP address from your ISP --- usually a
     dynamically generated one like 206.123.234.56 --- and you'll use
     "reserved/private net" addresses (as defined by RFC 1918) for all
     of your other systems.
     
     Thus your PPP interface will use the "real" IP address and all of
     your other systems will speak to the Internet through that one
     system (which is then your "router" and/or your "proxy").
     
     There is a technical, though somewhat blurred, distinction between
     a "router" and a "proxy host." Linux can act as either or both
     concurrently.
     
     One feature that's built into Linux is "IP masquerading" a
     particular form of "NAT" (network address translation). This allows
     it to re-write packet headers as it routes packets. When properly
     configured this will allow a whole network LAN to look like a
     single, busy, system to the rest of the Internet.
     
     So, let's assume that you set up an ethernet. You decide to use
     192.168.99.* for your IP addresses. According to RFC 1918 you can
     use any of the 192.168.*.* addresses, and/or you can use 10.*.*.*
     and/or you can use 172.16.*.* through 172.31.*.* (now you don't
     have to read the RFC --- since that's all of the most important
     notes from it right there).
     
     So, your Linux system sees that as eth0 (the first, and probably
     only ethernet interface on your host). So you'd have a script that
     looked something like:
     
ifconfig eth0 192.168.99.1 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.99.255
route add -net 192.168.99.0 eth0
ipfwadm -F -a acc -m -S 192.168.0.0/16 -D 0/0

     ... which would configure the interface, add the route
     (automatically done in 2.2.x --- but necessary in 2.0.x and
     earlier), and add a special entry to the "forwarding" table for the
     kernel's IP packet filtering (so-called "firewall").
     
     Your PPP configuration would set the default route (out to the
     Internet). You might use manual dialing or a program like 'diald'
     to automatically dial your ISP whenever packets get directed for it
     (dial on demand). I've heard that newer versions of the PPP daemon
     (pppd) support dial-on-demand directly --- though I haven't tried
     it.
     
     Search through the back issues of my column. I've described IP
     masquerading, diald, PPP, and routing in considerable detail and on
     a number of occasions.
     
     There are also HOWTOs on these subjects --- look at the canonical
     LDP (Linux Documentation Project) website at:
     http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP
     
     In particular you might want to look at these:
     
   Networking Overview HOWTO, by Daniel Lpez Ridruejo
          http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/Networking-Overview-HOWTO.html
          
   ISP Hookup HOWTO, by Egil Kvaleberg
          http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/ISP-Hookup-HOWTO.html
          
   ISP Connectivity mini-HOWTO, by Michael Strates
          http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/mini/ISP-Connectivity.html
          
   PPP HOWTO, by Robert Hart
          http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/PPP-HOWTO.html
          
   Diald mini-HOWTO, by Harish Pillay
          http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/mini/Diald.html
          
   IP Masquerade mini-HOWTO, by Ambrose Au
          http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/mini/IP-Masquerade.html
          
     ... those are a good start.
     
   SMB HOWTO, by David Wood
          http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/SMB-HOWTO.html
          
     ... this will give you an idea of how to use your Linux system as a
     file/print server for your Windows boxes --- using Samba. That may
     be necessary or at least helpful for your application.
     
   IPCHAINS HOWTO, by Paul Russell
          http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/IPCHAINS-HOWTO.html
          
     ... the 2.2.x kernels use this instead of ipfwadm --- so you may
     need to read this if you've upgraded your kernel.
     
   (?) Question 3: Am I getting in way over my head here? 
   
     (!) How else would you learn to swim?
     
   (?) I realize this is a pretty broad question for this forum, but any
   advice you can send my way would be greatly appreciated. I also figure
   there are probably a fair number of people out there making the
   Windows->Linux transition who might be interested in a similar
   solution for a multitude of problems. 
   
   Thanks again, David 
   
     (!) Look back through my back issues. It's all there, somewhere.
     Then again, maybe I've consolidated enough (by linking to the
     related HOWTOs) to obviate all that.
            ____________________________________________________
   
(?) Essay Quiz

   From Nilda on Wed, 10 Mar 1999 
   
    1. What are the differences between Linux and Windows in terms how
       they work?
    2. What types of products are currently available to use with Linux
       vs.Windows?
    3. Who is currently using Linux?
    4. Form a conclusion as to whether Microsoft has reason to worry
       about Linux taking over as the main operating system.
       
     (!) Nilda,
     
     Thanks for the refreshing essay assignment, but I have work to do.
     I don't remember signing up for a class in comparative OS religions
     and I don't have the time for this sort of childish prattle.
     
     If you are really interested in answers to these questions please
     feel free to search through some web sites --- particularly through
     the archives of the main "Linux media watchers" web sites:
     
   Linux Weekly News
          http://www.lwn.net
          
   Linux Today
          http://www.linuxtoday.com
          
   LinuxWorld
          http://www.linuxworld.com
          
     ... these have links to hundreds of recent press clippings from
     sources as diverse as small local newspapers and magazines like
     Scientific American. Those are a more suitable source of this sort
     of information.
     
     When corresponding with people in the Linux community it's unwise
     to "come off with a 'tude" --- like doling out an writing
     assignment or as though we "owe you" something. Most of us are
     volunteers. Those who ask me for free support at least owe me some
     courtesy --- and doing some preliminary research and/or explaining
     your specific needs and background is the least of that.
     
     Your questions are very broad --- there are rows of books devoted
     to the workings of Linux, and several ("Unix for the MS-DOS User"
     et al) that specifically compare Unix (and therefore Linux) to
     other operating systems. As for the marketing hype and drivel that
     you seem to be inviting --- the web sites I've listed above should
     provide links to plenty of that.
     
     I hope those help answer your questions. Please also feel free to
     read a few back issues of my column to get an idea of it's true
     purpose.
            ____________________________________________________
   
(?) Overactive diald

   From PCTech1018 on Wed, 10 Mar 1999 
   
   Hello Jim,
   I have been following Linux Gazette and your Answer Guy column for
   about 6 months now. You do a good job as far as I need (other people
   may need more than I do). 
   
   Situation: I have a Linux PC (RedHat 5.2) running as a dial-on-demand
   Internet Gateway using diald. It works great. I have Samba up and
   running as well as named. I can connect to the internet from both my
   Linux PC and Windows95 boxes. When the connection is down, and I
   attempt to connect with ftp, ping, http or whatever, diald correctly
   establishes the internet connection to my ISP. 
   
   Everything is hunky-dory except one annoyance: diald dials every hour
   whether or not someone is attempting an internet connection. How do I
   get this to stop? 
   
   Thanks, Darren 
   
     (!) You almost certainly have a cron script that is doing this.
     Look at your /etc/crontab file to see what's running at that time.
     Some fairly subtle things can involve DNS/MX or other Internet
     services which are dynamically bringing up your connection.
     
     'diald' has features to filter out some sorts of traffic from its
     consideration as "activity" for the line. Thus it can be configured
     to ignore some sorts of packets.
     
     Read the diald man pages for more details on that.
     
   [ The University of Oregon hosts a site which points at lots of
   documentation for Linux. At
   http://limestone.uoregon.edu/woven/linux-doc-other.html#LMP you should
   be able to find a website near you carrying manpages, if there aren't
   adequate ones on your installation. -- Heather ] 
            ____________________________________________________
   
(?) Another Lost Soul

   From gme947 on Fri, 12 Mar 1999 
   
   I recently bought a 56K V.90 modem. I am currently using the old
   Windows 3.1 and the information sheet included with the modem tells me
   to set the jumpers. I did all of this for Com2 IRQ3. Where do I put
   the Modem inf files so that my computer will recognize my new modem. I
   was able to use the dialup in DOS but not in Windows. I could not get
   Netscape to recogize the new modem. What should I do? The Modem is a
   NewCom 
   
   Thanks 
   
     (!) The problem is that you're running MS-DOS and Windows 3.1 and
     asking the Linux Gazette Answer Guy questions about it.
     
     One problem with that is that you bought a modem from a
     manufacturer and retailer that apparently won't provide you with
     any technical support (otherwise it seems unlikely that you'd be
     asking me this question).
     
     A related problem is that you're using an OS and set of software
     packages which is also unsupported by its manufacturer. (Remember
     that next time someone says "Linux is unsupported" --- clearly
     MS-DOS and Windows are even more so).
     
     Yet another problem is that you are suffering from some
     misconception about how Netscape's Navigator works. A web browser
     doesn't interact with your modem at all. It communicates with a
     TCP/IP networking protocol suite or "stack" as they are commonly
     called.
     
     In all likelihood any modem using programs on your system can
     already recognize your modem. There is some set of options you
     might have to pu in your SYSTEM.INI file so that Win 3.x programs
     can determine the COM port and IRQ that you've installed this modem
     at. I don't remember the specifics (as it's been years since I used
     or supported Windows 3.x). So you'll have to play with "Control
     Panel" and "Setup" until you bumble across the widgets that set
     these --- or read some manuals to find examples that you can put in
     with a text editor.
            ____________________________________________________
   
(?) Plee for help

   From Ian on Wed, 17 Mar 1999 
   
   Hi there Jim.... 
   
     (!) Actually, this is Heather; you sent this message to our
     consulting services. However, since you addressed it to Jim
     specifically, I'll take a first shot on behalf of The Answer Guy,
     since he's been really busy this week.
     
   (?) My name is Ian van Battum and I am a desperate man. 
   
   I have recently wanted to further my computer studies and have found
   Linux to be a great OS to learn and master. Being a complete newbie to
   Linux, I am not a stranger to OS's and what have you. 
   
   I have how ever a small problem. I have a laptop on which I would like
   to load Linux. Unfortunately it only has a floppy drive. So I need to
   go through the slog of installing off a 'million' and one floppies.
   This is not a hassle though but I am stuck when it comes the old
   procedure of doing this task. 
   
     (!) Actually, you don't need to go through as many floppies as all
     that. TurboLinux (from Pacific HiTech), Red Hat, and S.u.S.E. all
     offer single floppy starter disk images that you can download from
     the internet, put in your machine to boot it, and then they'll use
     FTP across the internet to get the rest. Of course this works best
     if you have a fairly solid link to the net, and you have a buddy to
     help you cut the initial disks.
     
     Somewhat more durable in their efforts are a 6-diskette Debian base
     packages install (after which it will be able to use even a fairly
     fragile connection, and retry as necessary).
     
     Of course Linux hasn't got the only spot in this limelight. FreeBSD
     will also install via FTP given its single boot floppy, but you do
     need a solid enough link to get the 'bin' distribution... although
     they do have their 'distributions' (base file sets; yeah, I know,
     it kind of confused me the first time I saw it, too) split into
     parts so they can be copied onto floppies and recombined, I've
     never actually done an install that way.
     
     If it weren't a laptop then it would be pretty easy to swap your
     hard drive into another system, apply the new OS, and then return
     it to your system. Of course if it weren't a laptop, it would be
     worth buying a super-cheap 2X CD-ROM... maybe even used, or as a
     giveaway from a friend joining the multimedia age.
     
     As for adding peripherals, you may not be as out of luck as you
     think. Most laptops have a parallel port, and ZIP support across
     parallel ports has been in Linux for a while now. So, you could
     potentially get a lot more files onto a ZIP. There are a few
     parallel based CD-ROMs such as the Backpack, but I'm not sure how
     well Linux supports them. And, there's usually your CardBus or
     PCMCIA slots... which I call "piecemeal"... as in that's how they
     let you upgrade your laptop, by pieces.
     
     My own Ricoh Magio E laptop installed TurboLinux great from an
     Addonics PCMCIA based CD-ROM (ATAPI/IDE drivers were used) with
     only the help of also using its 'additional hardware' disk, and
     making sure that the CD's card/cord was plugged into the lower bay
     in the type III cardbus slot. The only trick there is, the install
     floppy has to be able to spot your CardBus or pc-card controller,
     and you have to use a device whose card can be found in the card
     manager's database.
     
     If you have a 3'5" sized drive, you might actually be able to do
     this the same way a non-laptop user would, anyway. (I had an
     ordinary 3.5" drive on my Sager-Midern Pentium-60 laptop, in a
     special removable slide. It was great. It's a shame the video
     finally broke and now it won't start. Eventually I'll make enough
     free time to take it by a repair shop and see if they can do
     anything for it.) If it has a PCMCIA sized drive, then there are
     PCMCIA ports for desktop machines, as well. However, many laptops
     have proprietary internal setups, and some manufacturers have a
     policy that says you void the hardware warranty if you take out
     anything. So, be sure what you're getting into before you consider
     that route.
     
     Of much greater concern for an older model system, since Linux has
     pretty darn good support for older hardware, is whether your hard
     disk has enough space for what you want to do with it. The
     Sager-Midern mentioned above fit a Caldera Network Desktop on a 500
     MB drive fairly easily, but newer distributions have more stuff,
     and certain packages (like X networking, emacs, and source trees)
     have grown quite large over time.
     
   (?) Do you have any suggestions to resolve my problem as I have gone
   through all the web sites? I would be really greatfull if you could
   shead some light on this for me. 
   
     (!) Try the ftp sites instead of the websites. I hope I'm correct
     in assuming you have an x86 based laptop, not a PowerBook or
     Sparctop:
     
   Red Hat
          ftp://ftp.redhat.com/redhat/current/i386/images
          
   S.u.S.E
          ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/SuSE-Linux/6.0/disks
          
   Pacific HiTech
          ftp://ftp.pht.com/pub/turbolinux/images
          
   Debian
          ftp://ftp.debian.org/pub/debian/dists/stable/main/disks-i386/cu
          rrent
          
     ...though admittedly they don't make it clear which disk images are
     the one you need to do an FTP-based install. Their in-flight
     questions have gotten pretty clear about telling you which disk to
     put in, and you shouldn't need anything special from Red Hat unless
     you have an unusual controller for your internal hard disk.
     
   (?) Many thanks 
   
   Ian van Battum 
   
     (!) Well, I hope that helps out. If you still have trouble, though,
     drop us a line.
                        ____________________________
   
(!) Plea for help

   From The Answer Guy on Tues, 23 Mar 1999 
   
     Pretty good, but you missed the possibility of establishing a
     network with PLIP, then using a network-based install. All you'd
     need is a parallel "laplink" style cable. Unfortunately I don't
     think the distributions support this directly (though Debian might,
     I haven't checked). So, you'll probably need to get the minimal
     installation onto your system first, but this would probably make
     the rest a lot easier.
     
   The PLIP mini-HOWTO was just updated this month:
          http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/mini/PLIP.html
            ____________________________________________________
   
(?) Secure Shutdown from the Console

   From Werner Ackerl on Sun, 28 Mar 1999 
   
   Dear jim,
   I've been using Linux for - well, it must be four years by now, and
   I've finally got around to do my first donation to the community. 
   
   I'm a bit concerned about security - part of my tip is about creating
   a new user to run /sbin/halt - I just don't want to (re)introduce any
   hazard. 
   
   Would you please have a look a it? The text is attached. 
   
   thanks, werner 
   
   nb: My tip is intended to go to the 2-cent-tip column. I'll be glad to
   include your comments. 
   
     (!) (Attachment includes a kernel patch to change the LED status on
     kernel halt, and some suggestions on create a user account with
     /sbin/halt as a shell, etc
     
     This is all in the context of a print server in his closet that he
     wishes to run without the monitor attached most of the time. He
     also wants it to be shutdown down on a nightly basis due to the
     noise factor).
     
     Werner,
     
     I didn't attempt to do a thorough code audit of the attached file.
     However, I do have some ideas on how I'd attempt this.
     
     First, I'd avoid a kernel patch. I might write a small small
     utility shell script that would cycle among the LEDs that might
     look something like:
     
#!/bin/sh
trap "/usr/bin/setleds -L" 0 1 2 3 5 6

while /bin/true; do
        setleds -L +num; setleds -L -num
        setleds -L +caps; setleds -L -caps
        setleds -L +scroll; setleds -L -scroll
        sleep 1
        done
setleds -L

     ... this just turns each keyboard LED on then off, in turn, waits
     one second and repeats the process. The -L causes the command to
     affect only the LED lit status and not the actual keyboard lock
     status. In other words this blinks the lights without actually
     setting the keyboard CapsLock, NumLock or ScrollLock settings. The
     extra 'setleds -L' and the trap attempt to resync the the LEDs to
     our actual keyboard lock status as we exit the loop and on any
     common form of interrupt signal. (The part outside the loop is
     non-sensical for this loop, with /bin/true as our condition --- but
     would make sense if we added some 'break' test inside the loop or
     changed the loop condition).
     
     With that script set up I might invoke it via init (/etc/inittab)
     or from a startup script.
     
     That gives me a constant indicator that the computer is still
     processing user space stuff. It should also tell me when the halt
     is completed (since the 'cycleleds' script will be killed only a
     few seconds before the rest of the system has been fully halted.
     
     Instead of the special user in the /etc/passwd file (which might be
     remotely accessible) I'd just modify the line in /etc/inittab that
     refers to the /sbin/shutdown command. I'd change that line from
     something like:
     
     ca::ctrlaltdel:/sbin/shutdown -r -t 4 now
     
     ... to:
     
     ca::ctrlaltdel:/sbin/shutdown -h now
     
     ... and I'd then just use [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[Del] (the traditional PC
     "three finger salute" or "vulcan PC pinch") to do my shutdown.
     
   [ I did this for my laptop, since I'm far more likely to do that in
   order to pack it away, than to need to to restart it. -- Heather ]
   
     The advantage to this method is that it doesn't involve any login
     and that it absolutely requires physical access to the system to
     invoke (unless your attacker can employ telekinesis, of course).
     
     A more elaborate method would be to write a small C program that
     issues the appropriate ioctl()'s to cycle the LEDs at your desired
     frequencies, and to have it monitor the keyboard for your custom
     key event. Have that started from /etc/inittab.
     
     You could find out how to control the LEDs by reading the sources
     to the 'setleds' program (which is in the kbd or consoletools
     packages), and you read up on the shutdown() system call from its
     man page, or read the example in the sources to the 'shutdown'
     command.
     
     There is a small package that's included with Debian 2.x that
     blinks your LEDs based on network traffic. There's also a utility
     called "loaddog" which is a system load watchdog. These are the
     sorts of things you might use on your system to monitor your
     system's activity without turning on the monitor and without
     connecting to it through your LAN from the other systems on your
     net.
     
     Of course, if I had this system in my closet and I wanted to shut
     if off, I'd just have a script on my desktop system that would
     perform the desired operation over ssh. It's assume that the system
     was pretty well done with its shutdown by the time I got to it from
     my desk.
     
     With newer APM motherboards you can configure you systems to power
     off on shutdown. I think this is possible even with desktop systems
     that implement APM features.
     
     I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with your approach.
     However, it seems like more work and more risk than my method.
     
     As for the noise. I can understand your concern. I have a number of
     relatively noisy computers around the house and am considering
     trading them out for quieter systems. It's ironic that these
     systems (like my trusty old 386s --- my router and my main mail,
     news and internal web server) are still electronically perfectly
     suitable for my workload and that the only reason I'm considering
     replacing them is to reduce the power consumption, heat generation,
     and noise emanations.
     
     Luckily I have just enough load on my finances to resist the urge
     to buy couple of rackmounted Corel Netwinders and/or Cobalt Raq's.
     Those are both very quiet systems with much less fan noise than my
     current systems. I already have most of my current systems in a
     closet, with cables leading out to a switchbox, and thence to my
     keyboard and monitor.
     
     One of my best customers has his cables poked through a wall
     between his den and the garage. That room is really quiet.
     unfortunately my house isn't laid out in a way that makes that
     feasible. The garage is by the kitchen and the den and bedrooms are
     all adjacent to one another.
     
     As I get richer (or less thrifty) I'll probably get a couple of
     Igel (http://www.igelusa.com) X terminals or desktop Netwinders
     (http://www.hcc.ca) to use at my desk and in the living room.
            ____________________________________________________
   
(?) Linux and Y2K

   From Jack on Mon, 29 Mar 1999 
   
   Hi - 
   
   I am trying to sell Linux to management and their concern is Y2K -
   what can I say and where can I go to find out more about Linux
   readiness for Y2K ? 
   
   Thanks for your help Jacques Surveyer 
   
     (!) First note that the core Linux and other Unix utilities and
     kernels all use a representation of time that does't overflow (on
     32-bit systems) for about another 40 years.
     
     In other words Unix and Linux on 32-bit system shouldn't have any
     Y2K issues.
     
     Also note that some user space applications might have their own
     problems --- depends entirely on the programmers but that the wide
     availability of source code for the major of Linux (and other UNIX)
     applications and utilities as already resulted in widespread
     auditing.
     
     Since Linux is not centrally managed or controlled you can't point
     to a single entity that has done a comprehensive Y2K audit of
     "Linux" and/or the GNU system. So, you'll have to check your key
     applications yourself.
     
     The best link I know of relating to this question is:
     
   Linux and Year 2000
          http://www.linux.org.uk/mbug.html
          
     ... which discuss the issue and gives links to Linux vendor
     statements.
            ____________________________________________________
   
(?) Y2K Cause Arithmetic Failures?

   From Clayton Knight on Mon, 29 Mar 1999 
   
   James, 
   
   I have noticed that your approach to solving the Y2K problem is to
   just not let the year advance past 1998. 
   
   Your past columns list has Answer Guy #25 as February 1998, shouldn't
   that be 1999?? 
   
   -Clayton 
   
     (!) I have nothing to do with the numbering or dating of my column.
     I answer these questions via e-mail and copy my wife and my editor.
     My wife collects them near the end of the month and runs them
     through a custom e-mail to HTML filter that she's cooked up in
     PERL. Then then packs that up and FTPs it to a site where the Linux
     Gazette editorial staff can grab it and link it into their issue.
     
     However, I think your arithmetic may be in error.
     
     I'm working on LG issues #39. This is for April of 1999. 39 - 14 =
     25 which would be February of 1998. Since LG comes out monthly and
     February of 1998 was, indeed about 14 months ago I think everything
     is kosher.
     
     The confusion might be caused by the simple fact that ALL of the
     back issues of LG are still available on the web. Many of them are
     available from many mirrors and they are translated by volunteers
     world-wide into various languages.
     
     However, I've just posted link that is more relevant to Y2K and
     Linux. Take a look at that in this month's LG.
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                     Copyright  1999, James T. Dennis
             Published in The Linux Gazette Issue 39 April 1999
                                      
    "Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                               More 2 Tips!
                                      
               Send Linux Tips and Tricks to gazette@ssc.com 
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  New Tips:
  
     * Netscape for Linux trick 
     * ATAPI Zip drives under Linux 
     * Booting off SCSI 
     * what is my dialup (ppp) IP number? 
     * Common POP3 Error 
     * Spell checking a single word...1 
     * Spell checking a single word...2 
     * Spell checking a single word...3 
     * Spell checking a single word...4 
     * Spell checking a single word...5 
     * Spell checking a single word...6 
       
  Answers to Mail Bag Questions:
  
     * Linux Download 
     * Re: We do not relay...1 
     * Re: We do not relay...2 
     * Re: We do not relay...3 
     * RE: Multiple booting (LG #38) 
     * Re: Linux & Win95/98/NT clients 
     * Word to Postscript...1 
     * Word to Postscript...2 
     * Word to Postscript...3 
     * RE: Korn Shell FAQ...1 
     * RE: Korn Shell FAQ...2 
     * Re: Help wanted -- article ideas 
     * FW: Linux Gazette #37 question 
     * Re: Making a Red Hat 5.2 CD 
     * 2 cent correction 
     * Etherexpress NIC 
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  Netscape for Linux trick
  
   Date: Wed, 24 Mar 1999 01:25:12 +0000
   From: andy deck, andy.deck@nyu.edu
   
   This script will strip away some of the annoying unconfigurable parts
   of Netscape and replace them with links and button titles that you
   choose.
   
   This script can be used to modify Netscape 4.51 binaries that run
   under Linux (ELF).
   
   It will modify the following hard-coded values, which are not
   modifiable with the preferences:
    1. removes "Netscape:" from the title bar
    2. Changes base url for several links that normally are directed to
       home.netscape.com You will be prompted for a substitute URL. Note
       that you will be prompted for a URL that ends with a foldername,
       not a file. This is because the foldername prepends several files.
       You should be able to make files in the folder you suggest as an
       alternative.
    3. Changes the label on the "My Netscape" button in the navigation
       toolbar. And changes the link.
    4. Changes the link for the Search button on the navigation toolbar.
    5. Changes the link behind the N button on the navigation toolbar.
       Currently I've hard-coded this to "newssites.html" But you can
       edit that value in the script.
       
   When modifying values you need to be aware that the binary produced by
   this process (usually it will be called "netscape.new") MUST be the
   same number of bytes long as the original.
   
   This script comes with no guarantees. It's working for me, and I've
   made it as friendly as seems necessary. Good luck.
   
   --
   Andy
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  ATAPI Zip drives under Linux
  
   Date: Tue, 2 Mar 1999 14:31:51 -0800 (PST)
   From: Nicolas Pujet, npujet@yahoo.com
   
   I just read a good article on using internal ATAPI Zip drives under
   Linux at ../issue28/lg_tips28.html#atapi However I would like to
   suggest a simplified procedure for beginning Linux users. This
   procedure does not deal with SCSI at all.
   
   |-----------------------------------------------|
   | A simple setup procedure for ATAPI Zip drives |
   |-----------------------------------------------|
   Step 1: figure out the device name
   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
   Run dmesg and look for a block of lines looking like this:

hda: ST34342A, 4103MB w/0kB Cache, CHS=523/255/63
hdc: Pioneer CD-ROM ATAPI Model DR-A24X 0105, ATAPI CDROM drive
hdd: IOMEGA ZIP 100 ATAPI, ATAPI FLOPPY drive

   Here the Zip drive has become hdd. Since DOS formatted Zip disks use
   partition 4, the device name will be /dev/hdd4
   
   Step 2: set up mounting
   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
   Login as root, make a directory /zip and allow users to mount DOS
   formatted Zip disks by adding the following line to the /etc/fstab
   file:

/dev/hdd4           /zip              vfat   noauto,user  0 0

   Reboot to make these changes effective.
   
   You are now ready to use Zip disks !
   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
   Any user can now put a Zip disk in the drive and mount it by typing:

mount /zip

   which makes the contents of the disk available in the directory /zip .
   
   When the user is done with the Zip disk, he should unmount it:

umount /zip

   Now the "eject" button on the drive can be used to eject the disk.
   
   Notes: -----
     * if you try to unmount the Zip disk while being in the directory
       /zip, the following error message appears:

       umount: /dev/hdd4: device is busy
       So just move to an other directory (in every xterm window !) and
       try again.
     * some people have the Zip drive on hdb instead of hdd, so they
       should use /dev/hdb4 instead of /dev/hdd4
     * In the fstab file you can change vfat to msdos if you don't like
       long file names
     * The ATAPI drive setup is quite fast: I tried to copy a 53 MB file
       from a Zip drive to a hard drive. It took just under 90 seconds,
       i.e. the transfer rate was 588 kB/second (compare with 92
       kB/second with a parallel port Zip drive, as reported in the
       mini-howto).
       
   Cheers,
   
   --
   Nicolas Pujet
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  Booting off SCSI
  
   Date: Mon, 8 Mar 1999 18:10:21 -0500 (EST)
   From: Greg Romaniak greg@snoopy.gwr.com
   
   Regarding the recent $.02 tips on booting off a SCSI drive with IDE
   drives also installed -- I used a quick-and-dirty solution that worked
   for me -- but no guarantees. Simply don't define the IDE drives in the
   CMOS. This way, the system doesn't "see" them on boot and the SCSI
   BIOS take over as if there were no IDE drives. Once Linux starts
   booting off the SCSI drive, the IDE drivers in the kernel will do
   their own probe for IDE devices and find the IDE drives.
   
   --
   Greg
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  what is my dialup (ppp) IP number?
  
   Date: Wed, 10 Mar 1999 21:12:44 +0000
   From: Matt Willis, matt@optimus.cee.cornell.edu
   
   Okay. This drove me nuts for a while. Here's a succinct perl script to
   give you the current ppp IP address. This can come in handy for
   assigning DISPLAY variables for remote X events, etc. It saves the
   current IP in ~/.myip

#!/usr/bin/perl
open(IFCONFIG,"/sbin/ifconfig|") || die "Can't open /sbin/ifconfig!\n";
while (<IFCONFIG>) { last if (/^ppp0/); }
$_ =<IFCONFIG>;
($inet,$ptp,$mask) = /.*:([\d\.]*) *.*:([\d\.]*) *.*:([\d\.]*)/;
close(IFCONFIG);
open(MYIP,">$ENV{HOME}/.myip");
print MYIP "$inet \n";
close(MYIP);

   nb - I did this using kernel 2.2.3 and the success of the script may
   depend on what the ipconfig output looks like. For me, it looks like
   this:

ppp0      Link encap:Point-to-Point Protocol
     inet addr:139.186.224.88  P-t-P:139.186.0.50 Mask:255.255.255.255

   If yours is different, you may require tweaking. If there is no ppp0
   then .myip gets written over with a blank.
   
   --
   Matthew Willis
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  Common POP3 Error
  
   Date: Sat, 27 Mar 1999 21:57:17 +0000
   From: Carlos Sousa, majestik@mail.telepac.pt
   
   There is a common error that occurs when downloading mail for a local
   machine through POP3.
   Sometimes when downloading mail we receive the following error message
   from the POP3 server:
   
   being read already: /usr/spool/mail/XXXXXXX
   
   where XXXXXXX is the login for the account.
   
   This occurs because the client is interrupted while performing any
   task on the pop3 server or failed to send the quit command to the pop3
   server, causing the lock file from that pop3 account to stay there,
   causing the occurence of the error message in future attempts to
   retrieve mail.
   
   The problem can be solved deleting the following file in the pop3
   server:
   
       /usr/tmp/.pop/XXXXXXXX
   
   You may think that this article is pure loss of disk space, but
   believe, 3 network admins at my university were unable to solve the
   problem.
   
   --
   Carlos
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  Spell checking a single word...1
  
   Date: Tue, 02 Mar 1999 22:37:27 -0600
   From: "Ken V. Broezell", broezell@cig.mot.com
   
   Hi Ben. I just read your 2 cent tip in the March Linux Gazette. Did
   you realize that ispell can already be used to check a single word as
   follws:
echo ticckle | ispell -a
@(#) International Ispell Version 3.1.20 10/10/95
& ticckle 1 0: tickle

   In the above example ticckle was found to be misspelled and tickle was
   suggested as the correct spelling.
   
   I execute this not as an alias but as a 1 line shell script:
cat /usr/local/bin/ws
echo $1 | ispell -a

   --
   Ken
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  Re: Spell checking a single word...2
  
   Date: Wed, 3 Mar 1999 22:08:57 -0500 (EST)
   From: "Ben 'The Con Man' Kahn", xkahn@cybersites.com
   
   To: "Ken V. Broezell":
   Yep! I knew that. Actually, my tip was in reply to someone who posted
   just that piece of information. I don't like that output. Under my
   solution, nothing extra is shown if the word is spelled correctly. If
   the word is spelled wrong, you get a curses based interface which lets
   you select the correct word or try to spell it right. I find it
   removes most of the guess work.
   
   --
   Benjamin Kahn
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  Re: Spell checking a single word...3
  
   Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1999 20:19:27 -0700 (MST)
   From: Michal Jaegermann, michal@ellpspace.math.ualberta.ca
   
   In "2c Tips" Benjamin Kahn presents an eye popping tcsh macro and
   writes: "I have no idea how to do this in bash". The answer is
   "simpler and more general". Try this (may go into your .bashrc):
spell () { echo $@ | ispell -a | sed -n -e '/^\&/p' -e '/^\#/p';}

   and type spell tihs is a tset. You will see on your screen:
& tihs 6 0: this, ties, Tims, tins, tips, tits
& tset 2 10: set, test

   Numbers like "2 10" mean that there are two replacement propositions
   and that a "bad" word starts after ten characters of your input. '#'
   character above is reserved for words ispell knows nothing about
   whatsoever. Translating that to tcsh is left as an exercise for a
   reader. :-)
   
   Michal
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  Re: Spell checking a single word...4
  
   Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1999 22:42:11 -0500 (EST)
   From: "Ben 'The Con Man' Kahn", xkahn@cybersites.com
   
   Michal:
   That's correct -- this script will work to spell check a word, phrase,
   paragraph, etc. However, under my solution, nothing extra is shown if
   the word is spelled correctly. If the word is spelled wrong, you get a
   curses based interface which lets you select the correct word or try
   to spell it right. I find it removes most of the guess work.
   
   --
   Benjamin Kahn
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  Spell checking a single word...5
  
   Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1999 16:41:04 -0600 (CST)
   From: "Michael P. Plezbert", plezbert@cs.wustl.edu
   
   There's a much easier way to do this, using the -a option to ispell:
echo 'wordyouwanttocheck' | ispell -a

   --
   Michael
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  Spell checking a single word...6
  
   Date: Fri, 05 Mar 1999 15:03:47 +0100
   From: Dennis van Dok, dvandok@wins.uva.nl
   
   Gazette march 1999 contained a tip for checking a single word with
   ispell from the command line. This is a shorter solution:
echo frobnicate | ispell -a

   regards,
   
   --
   Dennis van Dok
     _________________________________________________________________
   
    Tips in the following section are answers to questions printed in the Mail
    Bag column of previous issues.
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  ANSWER: Linux Download
  
   Date: Wed, 3 Mar 1999 09:09:40 +0100
   From: Ian Carr-de Avelon, ian@emit.pl
   Status: RO
   
   N.B. English at end
   
   Beste Jaap,
   Ik neem aan dat jij een typierende nederlander bent en geen probleem
   met een aantword in het engels hebt. Ben ik hier verkeerde, neem even
   contact voor een vertaaling.
   
     From: "Jaap Wolters", woltersj@hotmail.com:
     Ik heb geprobeert jullie programma "LINUX" te downloaden, maar ik
     krijg geen toegang. hoe zou het toch kunnen? Op de t.v werd verteld
     dat het programma beter is dan Windows 98, Minder fouten en minder
     vastlopers. Is het programma windows compatible zodat ik mijn oude
     windows spellen kan doorspelen. Ik heb ZEER veel belang bij dit
     programma, maar aangezien me het niet lukt om het te downloaden zou
     ik graag uw advies willen.
     
   QUESTION
   ========
   I can't access Linux for download. Will it run my old Windows games?
   What do you suggest I do as I can't download.
   
   ANSWER
   ======
   If you can't easily down load Linux, your best is to get Linux on a
   CD-ROM. The CD is likely to come free with a book on Linux, maybe
   there is one in your local library, or a Linux magazine. To run
   programs writen for Microsoft Windows under Linux's "X" windows, you
   will need the emulator WINE. As WINE is an emulator, it tends to run
   programs a little slower than '98 and can't handle tricks which some
   programers include in their programs. I run MS Word with WINE with no
   problems, but arcade games need speed and use tricks, so you may have
   to get some nice new Linux games to go with your system.
   
   --
   Ian
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  ANSWER: We do not relay...1
  
   Date: Mon, 8 Mar 1999 18:18:34 -0500
   From: Ayman Haidar, haidar@usol.com 
   
   I hope you solved your problem by now, but in case if you haven't.. I
   just had the same problem, and after a long search all over the
   internet I finlly gave up and dumped sendmail for qmail, it's
   extremely easy to install and run. Maybe you should give it a try.
   
   --
   Ayman Haidar
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  ANSWER: Re: We do not relay...2
  
   Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1999 18:55:13 +0000
   From: Jeremy Page, jpage@cwcom.net
   
   I don't know whether this may help you, but I also had the same
   problem recently. For me the problem occurred when my mail client (in
   this case Pine) had the setting SMTP server = localhost. When I
   changed it to the actual hostname the error stopped. Just don't ask me
   why - someone else will probably tell you that.
   
   --
   Jeremy Page
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  ANSWER: Re: We do not relay...3
  
   Date: Sun, 07 Mar 1999 15:45:46 +0000
   From: "Jimmy O'Regan", Jim.Regan@lit.ie
   
   Regarding "We do not relay":
   
   In /etc/mail you should find files called ip_allow and name_allow To
   allow your machine to be used to send mail, simply place either IP
   addresses (ip_allow) or domain names (name_allow) into these files.
   
   For all machine in a domain, just type in the domain, eg: lit.ie for a
   subnet, use blanks in the place of wildcards, eg. 172.16 172.17.100
   
   --
   Jim
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  ANSWER: RE: Multiple booting (LG #38)
  
   Date: Mon, 08 Mar 1999 20:33:46 +0900
   From: Matt Gushee, matt@it.osha.sut.ac.jp
   
     Richard Veldwijk writes:
     As I've got kids and kids tend to play games, I have to have
     Micro$oft products on my machine. As I use OS/2 and Linux myself,
     here's a nice tip: Install OS/2's boot manager. If you have OS/2
     installation floppies, you can run an OS/2 FDISK and install the
     boot manager, even without installing OS/2 itself.
     
   As a former OS/2 user, I can confirm that OS/2 is Good Stuff (TM) ...
   and the above method may be the easiest way to set up dual booting
   (and I think you have to use it if you boot OS/2) On the other hand,
   LILO can do pretty much the same things, and doesn't have this
   drawback:
   
     Only the last booted C-partition is visible. If you need to access
     the other, you'll have to hide one and unhide the other.
     
   Versions of LILO >= 20 allow you to have partitions automatically
   "hidden" or "unhidden" at boot time -- but unlike OS/2's boot manager,
   the "hiding" doesn't affect access from Linux. You do it with an entry
   something like this in /etc/lilo.conf
win95 = /dev/hda1
  ..........
  change
     partition = /dev/hda2
        deactivate
     partition = /dev/hda1
        activate

   *Something* like that. I've done it, but it was a couple of years ago,
   so I may have forgotten some details. For more info, check the LILO
   User's Guide (not the man page -- it's a big document probably in
   PostScript).
   
   Happy booting!
   
   --
   Matt Gushee
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  ANSWER: Re: Linux & Win95/98/NT clients
  
   Date: Sun, 07 Mar 1999 16:20:14 +0000
   From: "Jimmy O'Regan", Jim.Regan@lit.ie
   
   There are two things you can do to use Linux as an image server.
   
   Attach the hard drive you want to use as an image to your linux box,
   and use something like this: (reverse procedure for making a boot
   flopy) dd if=/dev/hdb1 of=/path/to/disk.image bs=1024 conv=sync; sync
   You'll have to find out the right byte size (bs) though, the 1024 is
   just a guess:) This will create an image of the disk on the machine in
   /path/to/ called disk.image Linux can read and write FAT16 and FAT32
   partitions, but it can't write NTFS (yet). You'll need a commercial
   DOS tool like Ghost (http://www.ghost.com) for NTFS.
   
   To recreate the image, boot with a linux boot floppy (with dd), and
   run mkdosfs on the hard drive (I'm not sure if that's necessary, but I
   doubt it can hurt) then the same dd command with the if and of
   parameters swapped.
   
   The other option, which will be required for NTFS, is to set up Samba
   on the Linux box, and use a bootable DOS floppy and ghost.to read and
   write the images. Ghost comes with documentation, and is easy to use.
   
   --
   Jim
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  ANSWER: Word to Postscript...1
  
   Date: Sun, 07 Mar 1999 15:56:31 +0000
   From: "Jimmy O'Regan", Jim.Regan@lit.ie
   
   I'm pretty sure you mean that you want to convert the word documents
   to postscript on your Linux box, but I don't think there's a way of
   doing it yet. The closest there is to it is MS Word View
   (http://www.csn.ul.ie/~caolan/docs/MSWordView.html) which converts
   Word 8 to HTML.
   
   This is how you do it on the windows machine: In Control panel, select
   Printers, Add Printer, Click Next, select a postscript compatible
   printer from the list (try Oki OL-850/PS), select File: as the port to
   attach it to, name it, and select 'no' for "Make default printer". You
   should be prompted for a file name when you print. It works for me.
   
   --
   Jim
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  ANSWER: Word to Postscript...2
  
   Date: Tue, 2 Mar 1999 13:33:31 -0500 (EST) From: Padraic Renaghan,
   padraic@renaghan.com
   
     JX: From time to time, people e-mail me documents in Microsoft Word
     format. Do you know where I can find an utility to convert the MS
     Words documents into Postscript format so that I can view/print
     them in Linux?
     
   I don't know of anything to convert MS Word to Postscript, but I do
   know of a utility to convert MS Word 8 (Office 97) to HTML which can
   then be read by a web browser and printed.
   
   http://www.csn.ul.ie/~caolan/docs/MSWordView.html
   
   --
   Padraic Renaghan
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  ANSWER: Word to Postscript...3
  
   Date: Wed, 10 Mar 1999 09:53:35 +0500 (PKT)
   From: Shahbaz Javeed, sjaveed@bigfoot.com
   
   Greetings. I have found the program mswordview to be almost
   indispensable. It doesnt convert Word97 documents to PS, but it
   converts them to HTML, which comes a close second. An alternative
   would be to use StarOffice 5.0 (you can get a personal edition for
   free at http://www.stardivision.com) which can read and write to all
   Office97 file formats.
   
   Hope this helps.
   
   --
   SJ
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  ANSWER: RE: Korn Shell FAQ...1
  
   Date: Tue, 2 Mar 1999 13:30:09 -0500 (EST)
   From: Padraic Renaghan, padraic@renaghan.com
   
     JT: I'm looking for a good Korn Shell FAQ, because I dislike
     reading the Manpages. Does anyone know a good Internet Address of a
     FAQ?
     
   I have found the SHELLdorado site to be very helpful. I has good shell
   tips and a great list of other shell resources.
   http://www.oase-shareware.org/shell/
   
   As for learning the korn shell (I am not sure that is what you are
   doing, but regardless), I purchased the following book which is
   EXCELLENT! I highly recommend it.
   http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0134514947/
   
   --
   Padraic Renaghan
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  ANSWER: Korn Shell FAQ...2
  
   Date: Wed, 3 Mar 1999 16:04:30 +0100 (CET)
   From: Arne Knut Roev, akroev@online.no
   
   You wrote:
   
     I'm looking for a good Korn Shell FAQ, because I dislike reading
     the Manpages. Does anyone know a good Internet Address of a FAQ?
     
   Now, I am going to tell you a secret:
   
   FAQ-files _supplement_ the documentation, they do _not_ _replace_ it.
   So, you should get into the habit of using man/info pages, since they
   are the places where you can find the formal documentation you
   sometimes need.
   
   However, FAQ-files and HOWTOs _do_ have their uses, so they are by no
   means useless.
   
   And in any case, when you are looking for this kind of stuff (relating
   to Linux documentation), you look for the "Linux Documentation
   Project" (short: LDP). The www-adress I have for this, is:
   "http://www.linuxresources.com/LDP" (I am putting it this way, because
   I am not sure whether this is the address of the main site, or of a
   mirror.)
   
   NB: I am cc'ing this letter to the www-based Linux Gazette, in case
   they want to publish this info. (After all, I _am_ replying to a
   letter published there.)
   
   Arne
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  ANSWER: Re: Help wanted -- article ideas
  
   Date: Tue, 02 Mar 1999 10:53:36 -0300
   From: Andre Correa, andcor@tesla.com.br
   
   Re: Kristoffer Andersson
   I had problens that I think are same as yours. Here in our office I
   have am internal network with 192.168.x.x IP addresses masqueraded to
   the net throught a Linux box with 2.1.x kernel and everything goes
   fine but I needed to let outside users see our Intranet. I searched
   and found a program called rinetd that makes redirection of requests
   so any request coming to our masq box in port 80, for example, is
   redirected to 192.168.3.21 in port 80 and then everyone in the
   Internet can see our pages using our masq box IP address. It works
   fine for a while now.
   
   from the man rinetd we have:
RINETD(8)                UNIX System Manager's Manual                RINETD(8)

NAME
     rinetd - internet ``redirection server''

SYNOPSIS
     /usr/sbin/rinetd

VERSION
     Version 0.52, 9/7/1998.

DESCRIPTION
     rinetd redirects TCP connections from one IP address and port to another.
     rinetd is a single-process server which handles any number of connections
     to the address/port pairs specified in the file /etc/rinetd.conf.  Since
     rinetd runs as a single process using nonblocking I/O, it is able to
     redirect a large number of connections without a severe impact on the ma-
     chine. This makes it practical to run TCP services on machines inside an
     IP masquerading firewall. rinetd does not redirect FTP, because FTP re-
     quires more than one socket.

   You can find at sunsite.unc.edu
   
   good luck
   
   --
   Andre Correa, Sao Paulo/Brazil
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  ANSWER: FW: Linux Gazette #37 question
  
   Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 11:29:05 -0600
   From: "McKown, John", JMckown@Insurdata.com
   
   xia@xlnt.com: You asked if there is some way to view MS Word files
   under Linux. Have you tried mswordview? You can download it from
   http://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/www/converters or
   ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/www/converters/mswordview-0.5.1.t
   ar.gz
   I'm sending this from work, so I'm forced to use MS Outlook to send
   it. I hope you can read it OK. I have not tried using this, so I don't
   know how good it is. the .lsm file says that it works with MS Word 97.
   
   --
   John McKown
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  ANSWER: Re: Making a Red Hat 5.2 CD
  
   Date: Sat, 13 Mar 1999 20:03:50 -0200 (GMT+2)
   From: BenettOr, benettor@nightmare.gr
   
   Yeah, this is a common problem when users trying to install RedHat by
   donwloading the disksets from the net.
   
   In order to install RedHat 5.0+, downloaded from a site or ftp you
   have to burn (copy) it on a cd in the following directory:
   
   \RedHat\
   
   "R" and "H" in uppercase mode. This means that you have to cd-copy it
   on Microsoft Extension mode (lower and upper case support) and not in
   ISO9660. Down that directory copy the disksets directories: A, A1..
   etc. etc.
   
   Then start the installation running the batch file included on the
   distribution.
   
   --
   BenettOr
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  ANSWER: 2 cent correction
  
   Date: Fri, 26 Mar 1999 11:47:43 -0800
   From: Ben Kosse, BKosse@thecreek.com
   
   The Ensoniq AudioPCI actually has the necessary circuitry to do
   hardware MIDI, it simply lacks the onboard RAM, using instead your
   system RAM to hold the samples.
   
   --
   Ben Kosse
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  ANSWER: Etherexpress NIC
  
   Date: Thu, 25 Mar 1999 09:44:27 -0300
   From: "Sergio Pires", sergio.drtmg@mtb.gov.br
   
   Mr Lim:
   I read your mail in LG and the only thing I saw is you are using irq 7
   normally assigned to the parallel port. Try to choose another irq #
   (5, for example) and it will work.
   
   --
   Sergio Pires
     _________________________________________________________________
   
              Published in Linux Gazette Issue 39, April 1999
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   [ TABLE OF CONTENTS ] [ FRONT PAGE ] Back Next 
     _________________________________________________________________
   
      This page maintained by the Editor of Linux Gazette, gazette@ssc.com
      Copyright  1999 Specialized Systems Consultants, Inc.
      
    "Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                       Boot Disk Failure and Recovery
                                      
                               By Bill Bennet
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   So you think it can't happen to you? Well, this is the scene:
    1. First, get bored while waiting around for something.
    2. Even worse, read a Y2K warning that says you can change your
       system time manually to avoid trouble.
    3. Next, decide to go into the system setup and look at your CMOS
       settings to see what you can see.
    4. Then make a terrible decision; like "Hey, the system time is off
       by a few minutes. I will correct the time."
    5. Then do a dumb thing, like change the system time in the CMOS
       settings.
    6. Reboot and get this message:"BOOT DISK FAILURE. Please insert a
       system disk and reboot."
       
            What did I do? I recovered the system with linux, thats what
   I did. The system here is set up to dual boot with Windows95 and three
   different Linux distributions via LILO, the Linux boot loader.
   
            Since the Master Boot Record on sector 0 is booting DOS and
   Linux, I thought it was prudent to use the DOS version of fdisk to try
   to recover the partition table. Ha! "What a lack of features you have,
   Grandma."said little Red LinuxHat.
   
Sys a:

            The job I tried to do was to boot with my Windows95 rescue
   disk, which you make before this ever happens. You do have one, don't
   you? For a simple boot diskette, pop a floppy in the "A:" drive and
   type "sys a:".
   
            Once the diskette boots, you try to cd to "C:" drive. Ha! It
   is not there. It is gone. The first thing to try is fdisk (DOS), to
   see what it can do. The upshot is that it don't do much. All that
   fdisk (DOS) said to me was that the hard disk was empty, with no
   partitions. Yikes, what a mess. The other hard disk, which has two DOS
   partitions, was fine. BUT, the Master Boot Record was gone. I used the
   command fdisk /MBR and nothing happened, nothing changed. According to
   fdisk (DOS), there was no partition table, no partition and you are
   out of luck. I suppose this lack of features is designed to have me
   running to a data recovery specialist to get "saved" for a fair
   exchange of dollars.
   
Enter Linux

            Now that you have proved that the other system is lacking
   some power, it is time to boot linux. I grabbed a boot disk, which you
   make before this ever happens. You do have one, don't you? In RedHat
   you simply put a blank diskette in the floppy drive and type
   mkbootdisk. Man oh man, I love linux! No clickety-clicks, no waiting,
   just service and super powers. I guess it helps when your software is
   written by the best and brightest minds in a free thought environment.
   
            The RedHat boot image for installation is also a rescue
   diskette. Tell it you are doing the "expert" mode (I am not but you
   may be one) and press "Enter". Tell it if you have a colour terminal
   and configure the keyboard. Now put in the supp.img diskette and press
   "Enter". You get a "# _" prompt. Type this:
mknod /dev/hda b 3 0

            Now you have a new device called /dev/hda. It is your
   original old hard disk drive.
   
             The next thing is to mount your old root partition and run
   lilo. So cd to / and make a new directory to mount the thing: mkdir
   any_name_will_do. Type this:
mount /dev/hd_your_root_partition_here /any_name_will_do

             Then cd to /any_name_will_do/sbin and run lilo. Type this:
./lilo -C /any_name_will_do/etc/lilo.conf

Super Powers

            The fdisk (GNU/Linux) is able to make your partitions and set
   the file type for them. Also, it can verify the partition table. So,
   in my time of need this is what I did. I typed "v" for verify.
   
            The program reported to me that the partition table had been
   altered! No kidding. Then I typed "w" to write the table to the disk
   and quit fdisk.
   
Reboot and hope

            The system rebooted perfectly as usual. Linux wins again.
   
   
Leeloo's name was a peek at the future

            Yeah, I watched the Fifth Element several times. The LILO
   boot loader can easily re-write the Master Boot Record just by running
   it once on its /etc/lilo.conf file. Type /sbin/lilo and the job is
   done. You may now boot from the hard disk drive.
   
There can be only One

             The DOS fdisk can alter your view of the world. When you
   have only one hard disk drive it will let you make one and only one
   primary partition. If you have a second HDD it will let you make the
   four primary partitions allowed by the PC's designers or three primary
   and one extended.
   
             When you have only one primary partition then you can't be
   trying to boot more than one type of Operating System. Normally, that
   is. Linux can boot from a logical drive on an extended partition with
   loadlin.exe.
   
             I guess it must be too hard to compete on the merits of the
   product, so the DOS Borg must use this type of anti-competitive
   approach in order to maintain market share. Just imagine one primary
   partition covering 100% of the disk. "Yeah, that will keep them from
   even trying to get a real OS".
   
            Frighten them with dire warnings, too. Tell them their system
   has performed illegal operations and general protection faults.
   
            In my mind, Microsoft is the illegal operation and the DOJ is
   guilty of general protection faults from not protecting the public in
   general.
   
     _________________________________________________________________
   
Scared of the Beast

   With good reason, too. DOS always writes over the Master Boot Record
   when you install it. The beast has the arrogance to exclude all other
   possible operating systems when it is time to install. This is not an
   oversight, it is not a test. You are caught square in the middle of
   the cut-throat world of big business. Get used to it gentle linuxian,
   your system has been discovered by the rest of the world. They say
   "Defend your turf or die". I say "remember the Apple" and let us not
   have it happen again that an excellent system gets shoved aside and
   marginalized as a specialty item. Linux can do EVERYTHING. Lets bring
   it on!
     _________________________________________________________________
   
Reference reading:

   Clock mini-HOWTO -- required reading for real-time Linuxians
   
   Large Disk mini-HOWTO -- excellent Master Boot Record discussion
   
   Linux+DOS+Win95 mini-HOWTO -- here's a good /etc/lilo.conf example
   
   Partition mini-HOWTO -- required reading for all linuxians
     _________________________________________________________________
   
             made with mcedit on an i486 with GNU/Linux 2.0.35
                                      
   The adamant position of the author is in no way meant as an affront to
                              sincere readers.
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                       Copyright  1999, Bill Bennet
             Published in Issue 39 of Linux Gazette, March 1999
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   [ TABLE OF CONTENTS ] [ FRONT PAGE ] Back Next 
     _________________________________________________________________
   
    "Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                Comparison of Server-Based Operating Systems
                                      
                             By Sean Bullington
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   The world of computers has shifted in recent years. 8088s have given
   way to 64-bit out-of-order executing multiprocessor systems,
   monochrome green displays have improved to 32-bit true color, and even
   mainframes have almost disappeared in favor of workstation clusters
   and client-server based systems. In the modern day business world, the
   market for server-based operating systems is extremely competitive and
   very lucrative for the businesses involved. Companies such as Sun
   Microsystems and Microsoft battle constantly to gain ground in the
   race to provide a better operating system to sell to their customers.
   Microsoft's Windows NT and Sun's SunOS/Solaris operating systems are
   extremely full-featured, usually well supported and fairly efficient
   in terms of their usage and implementation. However, one of the
   biggest challenges facing these commercial operating systems today is
   not whether Microsoft will edge out Sun or vice-versa, but whether
   non-commercial operating systems, such as Linux or the BSD
   distributions, will prove strong enough to edge out the bigger
   corporations. Both Linux and the BSD variants run on many different
   architectures, have growing application and technical support options,
   are increasingly efficient, and best of all, are freely available.
   
   One of the main concerns when considering a server for running your
   business is whether or not the operating system has vendor support for
   the applications you need and use. Both Sun and Microsoft excel in
   having major vendors supporting their platforms due to their longevity
   in the server market and their mass amounts of market share. Linux and
   BSD however, are slowly and steadily gaining ground against the
   giants. As the free UNIX systems become more well-known and
   widespread, vendors such as Netscape, Hewlett Packard and others are
   investing time and money in providing applications and hardware
   adapted for these systems.
   
   The portability among these varying systems is improving as well and
   is a major consideration in their race against each other. For
   example, if you run Solaris on a SPARC, you can buy a product called
   SoftWindows (http//www.insignia.com/SoftWindows/) which allows a SunOS
   user to emulate Microsoft's Windows 95 in a window on the desktop,
   running virtually all the Windows applications. The rest of the UNIX
   world also has emulators such as DOSEMU for DOS applications, and WABI
   or WINE for Windows-based emulations. NT falls short in this respect,
   lacking well-developed emulators, and it does not easily support the
   same shell-scripting languages (other than Perl) that can be quickly
   shared across most UNIX platforms. While this may not seem to hinder
   NT currently, as Linux and BSD grow up in the corporate market it will
   become a larger factor. Companies looking to switch from SunOS might
   find it easier to go with a free operating system which is compatible
   with their current one, saving the cost of upgrading virtually 100% of
   their hardware and software.
   
   Software support for your operating system is unquestionably a useful
   benefit, but what happens if the software for your system is
   incredibly complex and requires various configuration changes to your
   operating system? Simply having the product available for a system is
   not enough; the issue of technical support is extremely important in
   today's market. Commercial operating systems are well-supported--they
   have no choice. If a company wants to market an OS today, it must
   provide timely end-user support to the customer with a problem. Both
   Microsoft and Sun have corporate support options which involve people
   working diligently on your problem until it has either been fixed or a
   workaround has been established. Of course, there are exceptions to
   this rule and not every problem found is immediately fixed, especially
   in Microsoft's case. The point is that support is guaranteed (usually)
   to be there when you have questions. This has been one of the major
   drawbacks in the free-OS world.
   
   The main method of support for both Linux and BSD is not one on which
   most corporations would be willing to rely on. Support for Linux and
   BSD is usually done through either newsgroups or various sources of
   information on the World Wide Web. No one is required to answer a
   question posted to a newsgroup, and indeed while most people who
   organize the individual distributions of each OS will provide support,
   there is no requirement that they do so. If the system goes down,
   often it is strictly up to the end-user to dig around and find what
   information he can to solve the problem. For instance, if a Linux user
   were to call up Patrick Volkerding (the man behind the Slackware Linux
   distribution) and tell him he better solve their problems or they will
   speak to his manager, the user will most likely hear a <click> on the
   other end of the phone line as he hangs up. An interesting note,
   however, is that many of the people responsible for the distributions
   will be more than happy to answer questions. Theo de Raadt, the man
   behind the OpenBSD distribution, welcomes questions, and often answers
   (and sometimes argues) questions posted to newsgroups. Good luck in
   getting Bill Gates to involve himself in a 50-message thread over the
   ease of installing security patches to Windows NT. The bottom line,
   however, is that technical support is one of the biggest
   considerations large companies have when choosing an OS, and while the
   free-OS world may be catching up, it still has a long way to go.
   
   A third major comparison between server-based operating systems would
   be how efficient and customizable the system is to an end-user's
   needs. Differences in this comparison range from extremely high-level
   (various fonts and colors or virtual desktops) to very low-level
   (kernel customization, configuration and efficiency). Commercial
   operating systems tend to be much easier to install, walking you
   through what needs to be installed and how it will be done. Again,
   this is a requirement when you are charging money for your software.
   Making an easier to use product has great appeal and is one of the
   largest marketing strategies in use today in the computer industry.
   Both Microsoft and Sun have attempted to make their installations
   visually pleasant and almost ``hold-your-hand'' simple. The commercial
   systems also release patches and minor updates to keep their systems
   usable, for example of NT's service packs or Solaris' update clusters.
   By charging for their software, the vendors usually feel some degree
   of responsibility for fixing and updating their products to keep them
   usable. Sometimes this is free, and other times the software company
   will change the version or name of its OS and charge customers to
   upgrade.
   
   The world of the free operating systems works somewhat differently.
   Many times the installation is so confusing and non-intuitive that 95%
   of the people who use computers today would not be able or willing to
   muddle through it. The systems are getting to be more user-friendly,
   and distributions such as Slackware and Red Hat offer a semi-graphical
   install which is more intuitive than Open BSD, which goes so far as to
   require the user to know how many cylinders his hard drive has on it.
   While this might not be that difficult for a user who is familiar with
   all the components of his system, a small business owner in need of a
   simple server might be scared away. The usability issue goes back to
   the fact that because the developers of these distributions receive no
   monetary gain for each installation, they can make it as easy or as
   difficult as they desire, which is completely understandable. The same
   reasoning applies to patches and updates. Ironically, patches and
   updates are generally faster to appear when problems arise in these
   free operating systems because of the nature of support for Linux and
   BSD. Because the source code to these operating systems is free, many
   users take it upon themselves to code bug-fixes and produce patches.
   Updates to low-level software such as the Linux kernel come out
   frequently, offering better support and many bug fixes over previous
   versions. This results in faster problem solving and even in the
   availability of patches which are so obscure that larger vendors such
   as Microsoft or Sun would not devote the time and resources to
   providing. Sun has even started to recognize the benefits of
   enthusiasts and hobbyists using their operating system and has started
   offering Solaris for free (the user pays just the media and
   shipping/handling fees--see
   http://www.sun.com/solaris/freesolaris.html).
   
   Operating systems control how we work, what we work on, and how our
   businesses are run. As business competition heats up, financial
   considerations in upgrading and replacing computer equipment can
   become vital to a company's continued success. Commercial operating
   systems are tested products which come from a company that will
   provide support for their product. Most commercial operating systems
   also provide better software support, as software vendors are willing
   to develop their products for an environment they know will be
   well-used and thus profitable. Non-Commercial operating systems offer
   a number of positive reasons to choose them over a commercial OS, but
   they still have a couple of key drawbacks. Scarce software support and
   non-reliable technical support often provide managers with enough
   reason to choose a commercial operating system over a free one. While
   many companies are using free operating systems and are very
   successful at it, most are not willing to stake their business on
   whether or not their system administrator can figure out why their
   server is down by looking through a comp.os newsgroup. Just don't be
   surprised if you come to work one day to find that your company has
   decided to go with FreeBSD and qmail to run their new mail system
   rather than upgrading to Windows NT and shelling out the cash for
   Exchange Server.
   
  Resources
  
   Linux.
   
   Slackware - www.slackware.org (commercial or free download)
   Red hat - www.redhat.com (commercial or free download)
   Suse - www.suse.com (commercial)
   Debian - www.debian.org (free)
   Caldera OpenLinux - www.calderasystems.com (commercial)
   Other Misc. Linux Distributions -
   ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/distributions
   BSD.
   Open BSD - www.openbsd.org (free)
   FreeBSD - www.freebsd.org (free)
   NetBSD - www.netbsd.org (free)
   BSDi - www.bsdi.com (commercial)
   Sun Microsystems.
   Solaris/SunOS - www.sun.com/solaris (commercial, free for
   non-commercial use)
   Microsoft.
   Windows NT - www.microsoft.com/ntserver (commercial)
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                     Copyright  1999, Sean Bullington
             Published in Issue 39 of Linux Gazette, April 1999
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   [ TABLE OF CONTENTS ] [ FRONT PAGE ] Back Next 
     _________________________________________________________________
   
    "Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                        Compiler Construction Tools
                                      
                           By Richard A. Sevenich
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                           Part I:  - JFlex and CUP
                                       
   by Richard A. Sevenich, Department of Computer Science, Eastern
   Washington University
   March 25, 1999
   
   Traditionally, in the UNIX world, there are two complementary compiler
   construction tools which are available:
     * one to build lexical analyzers (often called 'lexers' or
       'scanners') e.g. lex, JLex, JFlex
     * one to build syntactic analyzers (often called 'parsers') e.g.
       byacc, bison, CUP
       
   These tools are freely available in the GNU/Linux world, usually free,
   in some cases licensed under the GPL. It should be pointed out that
   lexical and syntactic analysis are two of the primary jobs to be
   performed by a language translator. A lexer and parser built with the
   above tools do not automatically accomplish a third crucial task,
   target code generation. However, these tools provide the programmer
   with convenient 'hooks' for incorporating target code generation.
   
   Later in this series of articles I hope to introduce two of these
   tools, JFlex and CUP, in a tutorial setting. I will enlist the help of
   several students in my compiler design course as coauthors.
   Ultimately, I hope to persuade those unfamiliar with these tools that
   they are very practical. I've chosen JFlex and CUP because they
   produce java code and it is high time for me to learn some java. This
   unfamiliarity with java will also provide me with a scapegoat when I
   do something stupid - I can blame it on that unfamiliarity.
   
   This first article will provide background for the series. The next
   article, which should follow fairly soon, will show how/where to get
   these tools, give a very specific installation scenario, and produce a
   simple application as a development example. A third article will give
   a practical real world example (to be described below). If the third
   article becomes unwieldy, it may be broken  into parts.
   
  The Lexical Analyzer (a.k.a. 'lexer' or 'scanner')
  
   Language translation converts source code from some language into
   target code in some other language. The 'traditional' compiler may
   convert source code into assembly language or even machine code -
   although the later articles in this series will focus on other targets
   than these. The first task of language translation is akin to
   examining an English essay to make sure that the words are spelled
   correctly. The lexer performs this job on our source code by
   recognizing a series of contiguous symbols as valid or not e.g. the
   lexer might
     * recognise 'while' as a keyword
     * recognize '47452' as a decimal integer literal
     * complain that 'fr%$glp' is not recognized
       
   The lexer is analogous to a spelling checker for a source program.
   
   A utility such as JFlex builds a lexer from a specification file the
   programmer writes to define the 'words' (lexical tokens) in the
   desired language. Let's say the programmer defines a new langauge
   called pronto and writes a file 'pronto.flex' which defines valid
   lexical tokens for pronto. Then the command line operation 'JFlex
   pronto.flex' will produce a java version of a lexical analyzer, say,
   "Lexer.java'.
   
   In its most primitive deployment, the lexer merely indicates that the
   source file consists of all valid lexical tokens or not - a boolean
   yes or no. The family of lexers under discussion are built to do more
   and, in particular, can cooperate with the parser (to be discussed
   under the next heading). In the typical application the lexer is, in
   fact, called by the parser and the lexer can do these jobs:
     * recognize a lexical token and return to the parser an
       identification code indicating the token type
     * pass to the parser related information e.g. the actual string
       recognized, or the value of an integer literal
     * perform other programmer coded actions upon recognition of a token
       
   The first of the three items above allows the lexer to support the
   parser's central task, syntactic analysis. The other two items are
   especially useful in helping the parser in ultimately generating
   target code.
   
  The Syntactic Analyzer (a.k.a. the 'parser')
  
   Continuing the analogy that began the previous section, just as the
   lexer checks words for spelling, the parser examines the source to
   assure that the 'words' are arranged in valid grammatical constructs.
   For example, for some programmer's new language the lexer might pass
   these six valid tokens to the parser:
   {  if  + while ] } - the lexer only worries about token validity, not
   the arrangement.
   However, the parser sees the arrangement '{ if + while ] }' as
   invalid. Just as the lexer is a source code spelling checker, the
   parser is a grammar checker.
   
   [ Note: The compilerati will realize that the lexer is actually
   checking the source code validity against a very simple 'regular
   grammar' specification and that the parser is checking the source code
   against a less simple 'context free grammar' specification - as
   defined in the Chomsky hierarchy. Typical compiler design books
   discuss the theory at length.]
   
   A utility such as CUP builds a parser from a specification file the
   programmer writes to define the syntactic structure in the desired
   language. For the fictitious new language called pronto, the
   programmer might write the specification file as 'pronto.cup'.  Then
   the command line operation 'java java_cup.Main < pronto.cup' will
   produce several files one of which is a java version of the desired
   syntactic analyzer, "parser.java'.
   
   In its most primitive deployment, the parser indicates that the source
   file is either grammatically correct or not - again, a boolean yes or
   no. The family of parsers under discussion can do an additional task -
   whenever a valid grammatical construct is found, perform any code that
   the programmer cares to encode. This 'hook' is typically used to
   support target code generation in two execution styles:
   generated code written to a file to be executed later
   generated code to be executed while the parser operates
   
  Application Specific Languages
  
   The compiler construction tools under discussion can be used to
   develop a full-blown language translator e.g. for C, Pascal, FORTRAN,
   Perl, etc. These would comprise major development projects. Here I'd
   like to discuss translators for 'Application Specific Languages',
   typically a more modest project, yet quite useful. I'll define an
   'Application Specific Language' (ASL) operationally, by means of two
   examples.
   
   Example 1 - A generalized industrial control language
   
   Let's say Fred works for a company that produces industrial
   controllers, which are driven by a computer. When Fred is hired, the
   company has already developed and deployed a powerful, general pupose
   control language based on generalized, parallel state machines.
   However, customers must become programmers to use the controller;
   customers formally trained as chemical engineers, mechanical
   engineers, technicians etc. with little desire or time to learn a new
   general purpose programming language. The product is very general
   pupose, useful in many niche industries - automotive, petroleum,
   logging mills, satellite control, etc.
   
   Fred has been hired to put a front end on the language for every one
   of the exploitable niche markets. In each case, the front end is to be
   tailored to the terminology used by the niche market customer and to
   be easy to use. The front end might be of the 'fill in the blanks'
   variety, a GUI, whatever. The front ends are really new languages all
   with the same target language (the general purpose control langauge).
   Each front end exemplifies an ASL.  By using the compiler construction
   tools (e.g. JFlex and CUP), Fred capitalizes on several benefits
   including:
     * the capability of checking the customer's source code for lexical
       and syntactic errors and returning meaningful error messages
     * the development of each ASL will have certain similarities
     * the specification files for the lexer and parser are highly
       maintainable
       
   Example 2 -  A generalized Fuzzy Logic based decision package
   
   Fuzzy Logic has proved useful, not only in its traditional role in
   industrial control, but also in a decision making role. It can be used
   to play the stock market (and lose money more elegantly?), to choose
   from among a corporation's research or marketing strategies, to aid in
   avalanche prediction, etc.
   
   Let's suppose that Fred's significant other, Sally, has programmed a
   general pupose Fuzzy Logic decision maker. To apply it to different
   problems it is initialized from appropriately different initialization
   data files. Sally markets this product to various niches, but finds
   former customers a constant burden on her time. The problem is really
   inherent in the way Fuzzy Logic works. The customer is the expert in
   his/her particular problem space.  A Fuzzy Logic model is initialized
   by incorporating the expertise of the user. The user gains more
   expertise as the model is used and will constantly want to tweak the
   model. The crux of Sally's problem is that the initialization file
   must be prepared with great programming care. The customers are not
   programmers and easily make mistakes (most likely syntactic) in
   preparing such a data file. They always run into problems, call on
   Sally for help, and expect her to do it at a fairly low margin. She
   must respond to maintain her reputation and, hence, her financila
   success.
   
   Her solution is to make an 'idiot-proof' front end that will automate
   writing the initialization data file. The front end is tailored to the
   niche customer's terminology and problem space. The front end is an
   ASL with the initialization data file as the target language. The
   translator can be written with the help of the compiler construction
   tools, just as done by Fred for the industrial control scenario. The
   translator guarantees that the lexical and syntactic content of the
   data file is correct.
   
   If the front end is cleverly defined the customer will find it useful.
   Note that the customer is an expert on the problem semantics, where
   programmer Sally would be weakest. The customer will solve the
   semantic problems, and the ASL translator will avoid the lexical and
   syntactic problems related to the initialization data file.
   
   Upshot
   
   The two preceding examples have an obvious common thread. It should be
   emphasized that in designing the front end ASL's, Fred and Sally must
   interact strongly with the niche customers. After all, the ASL is to
   be useful to a programming novice who, at the same time, has expertise
   in the problem space. If this interaction fails, the ASL will not be
   well received and may fail in its intended market.
   
   The Fuzzy Logic example is, in fact, the course project for this
   quarter's compiler design class - assuming Sally doesn't beat us to
   it.
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                   Copyright  1999, Richard A. Sevenich
             Published in Issue 39 of Linux Gazette, April 1999
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   [ TABLE OF CONTENTS ] [ FRONT PAGE ] Back Next 
     _________________________________________________________________
   
    "Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                                EMACSulation
                                      
                              By Eric Marsden
     _________________________________________________________________
   
     This column is devoted to making the best use of Emacs, text editor
     extraordinaire. Each issue I plan to present an Emacs extension
     which can improve your productivity, make the sun shine more
     brightly and the grass greener.
     
                                  Templating
                                       
   Documents often conform to a boilerplate: a regular structure which is
   boring to type in for each document. Most wordprocessors recognise
   this and allow you to create templates for business letters, technical
   reports, memos etc. Emacs can do one better than these static
   "skeletons", since its templating mechanism allows you to insert
   dynamically generated text, according to the file's name, your login,
   the date, or the results of a shell command.
   
   The Emacs auto-insertion mechanism allows you to set up boilerplates
   which will be instanciated upon file creation, based on the new file's
   name or mode. For example, when you create a file called lsys.h, it
   will ask you Perform C / C++ header auto-insertion?, and if you say
   yes might insert something like
   

    /**********************************************************************
     * lsys.h
     *
     * Eric Marsden  <emarsden@mail.dotcom.fr>
     * Time-stamp: <>
     **********************************************************************/
    #ifndef _LSYS_H_
    #define _LSYS_H_




    #endif /* _LSYS_H_ */

   Note that #ifdefs have been generated to protect against multiple
   inclusions of the header. You might want to add additional elements
   such as your company's copyright blabber, skeletal revision history
   comments, or an RCS version $Id. The auto-inserted content depends on
   the major mode: upon creation of a file called lsys.sgml the
   auto-inserted text might be
   

    <!DOCTYPE ARTICLE PUBLIC "-//Davenport//DTD DocBook V3.0//EN" [
    ]>
    <article>
      <artheader>
        <date>1999-03-01</date>
        <title> </title>
        <subtitle> </subtitle>
        <author>
          <firstname>Eric</firstname>
          <surname>Marsden</surname>
          <affiliation><orgname>CULTe</orgname></affiliation>
        </author>
        <authorinitials>ecm</authorinitials>
        <abstract>
          <para>

          </para>
        </abstract>
      </artheader>

      <sect1><title> </title>
        <para>

        </para>
      </sect1>
    </article>

   [These font-enhanced program listings were generated by Hrvoje
   Niksic's excellent htmlize package, which generates HTML renderings of
   font-locked buffers.] Auto-insertion can be activated by saying
   

    (add-hook 'find-file-hooks 'auto-insert)
    (setq auto-insert-directory (expand-file-name "~/.autoinsert/"))

   The autoinsert package (written by Charlie Martin) is distributed with
   default templates for several modes. There are two ways of customizing
   the auto-inserted contents: the simplest (which doesn't require any
   knowledge of elisp) involves placing files in the directory
   ~/.autoinsert/ and registering them with autoinsert:
   

    (define-auto-insert "\\.html\\'" "autoinsert.html")

   The "\\.html\\'" is a regular expression which matches filenames
   ending in .html (note the use of \\' to match the end of a string,
   rather than $ for the end of a line, since filenames are allowed to
   contain newline characters). This should lead to the contents of the
   file ~/.autoinsert/autoinsert.html being inserted automatically when
   you create a file whose name ends in .html. This method only allows
   insertion of static content. Insertion of dynamically generated
   content is also possible if you know some Emacs Lisp; here is some
   code which creates skeleton C or C++ headers, as in the first example
   in this article:
   
     ;; autoinsert.el
     (define-auto-insert
        (cons "\\.\\([Hh]\\)\\'" "My C / C++ header")
        '(nil
           "/*" (make-string 69 ?*) "\n"
           " * " (file-name-nondirectory buffer-file-name) "\n"
           " *\n"
           " * " (user-full-name) " <" user-mail-address ">\n"
           " * Time-stamp: <>\n"
           " *" (make-string 69 ?*) "*/\n"
           (let* ((noext (substring buffer-file-name 0 (match-beginning 0)))
                  (nopath (file-name-nondirectory noext))
                  (ident (concat "_" (upcase nopath) "_H_")))
             (concat "#ifndef " ident "\n"
                     "#define " ident  "\n\n\n"
                     "\n\n#endif /* " ident " */\n"))))

   How does the autoinsertion work? Each time you open a file in Emacs,
   it runs a special hook called find-file-hooks. This is where things
   such as enabling syntactic highlighting or checking whether a file is
   under a version control system (RCS or CVS) occur. The add-hook line
   above latches the autoinsertion onto this hook.
   
Dmacro

   The Dynamic Macro package by Wayne Mesard allows you to insert
   structured text at any time, not only at document creation time.
   dmacro provides facilities such as prompting the user for input,
   inserting the contents of a file or the output from a shell command,
   and positioning the cursor or the mark after the insertion. One
   particularly nice feature is the ability to indent autoinserted
   contents according to the current mode. It could be used as a way of
   enforcing (well, encouraging developers to adhere to) coding
   standards, and can reduce development time by preventing typos in
   repetitive text. dmacro is not distributed with Emacs; you will have
   to download and install it (which is just a matter of saying make). It
   can be activated by saying in your ~/.emacs (where the .dm file
   contains your personal macros; see below for some examples):
   

    (require 'dmacro)                       ; dynamic macros
    (dmacro-load "~/elisp/ecm.dm")

   The dmacro package is very well documented, so I will only provide a
   few motivating examples. Here is one which will insert the skeleton of
   a for block in C-mode (macros can either be global, or specific to a
   certain major mode):
   

    # file ~/elisp/ecm.dm
    # ================================== Stuff for C-derived modes =======
    # MODE:     c-mode c++-mode java-mode
    ifor        indent  interactive for statement (prompts for variable name)
    for (~(prompt var "Variable: ") = 0; ~prompt < ~@; ~prompt++)
    {
     ~mark
    }
    #

   You activate the macro by typing C-c d ifor (with tab completion on
   the macro's name). It should prompt you for the name of the variable:
   
   [INLINE]
   
   and the result should look like this. The next example demonstrates
   how to insert a timestamp of the form -ecm1999-02-29 in the current
   buffer (pet peeve: given the value of a uniform, standardized external
   representation for dates, I make a point of systematically using the
   ISO 8601 format). You invoke this macro by typing C-c d dstamp. The
   corresponding code (which also demonstrates the use of an alias to
   factorize out commonly used definitions) is:
   

    # ALIAS: iso-date (eval (format-time-string "%Y-%m-%d"))

    # ================================= Stuff for all modes ============
    # MODE:     nil

    dstamp      expand  user id and date
     -~user-id~(iso-date)
    #

Related packages

   There are several other packages which provide similar functionality
   to dmacro. tempo.el (included with both GNU Emacs and XEmacs) was
   originally written as an adjunct to html-helper-mode, providing
   facilities for inserting balanced bits of HTML markup, but can be used
   for other purposes. It is also possible to extend the standard abbrev
   mechanism to insert dynamically generated text by hacking the
   abbrev-mode-hook, as explained in the following message posted
   anonymously to gnu.emacs.help. Finally, there is template.el by
   Christoph Wedler which seems very comprehensive.
   
Feedback

   The January 1999 EMACSulation on abbreviation mechanisms had a
   bootstrap problem: I indicated how to create abbreviations and how to
   have them read in automatically when Emacs starts up, but the
   instructions that I gave weren't sufficient to get Emacs to save
   abbrevs automatically when quitting. Thanks to Nat Makarevitch and
   Dave Bennet for pointing this out. Here is a revised version of the
   code that I proposed (the last line is what was missing):
   

    ;; if there is an abbrev file, read it in
    (if (file-exists-p abbrev-file-name)
       (read-abbrev-file))
   (setq-default save-abbrevs t)

   A few European readers also asked about abbreviations containing 8bit,
   non-ASCII characters. In its default state Emacs won't take them into
   account, since it assumes that characters with the 8th bit set are non
   word-constituent. To modify this (to take into account accented
   characters in the iso-8859-1 character map, for example) you need to
   do something like
   

    (set-language-environment 'Latin-1)   ; GNU Emacs 20.x
    (require 'iso-syntax)                 ; GNU Emacs 19.x

   (there are major differences between the way that GNU Emacs 19.x and
   20.x handle different character encodings; recent versions can handle
   multibyte characters, required for representing asian languages.
   Rather than using Unicode, Emacs uses adjustable width characters. For
   XEmacs this MULE (MULtilingual enhancements for Emacs) support is a
   compile-time option in recent versions.)
   
Next time ...

   Next month we'll look at spell checking with Emacs. Thanks to
   Jean-Christophe Arnu for commenting on a draft of this article. Don't
   hesitate to contact me with comments, corrections or suggestions
   (what's your favorite couldn't-do-without Emacs extension package?).
   C-u 1000 M-x hail-emacs !
   
   PS: Emacs isn't in any way limited to Linux, since implementations
   exist for many other operating systems (and some systems which only
   halfway operate). However, as one of the leading bits of free
   software, one of the most powerful, complex and customizable, I feel
   it has its place in the Linux Gazette.
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   EMACSulation #1: Handling Compressed Files, February 1998
   EMACSulation #2: Internet Ready, March 1998
   EMACSulation #3: Ediff, April 1998
   EMACSulation #4: Emacs as a Server, June 1998
   EMACSulation #5: Customizing Emacs, August 1998
   EMACSulation #6: Saving Time, January 1999
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                       Copyright  1999, Eric Marsden
             Published in Issue 39 of Linux Gazette, April 1999
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   [ TABLE OF CONTENTS ] [ FRONT PAGE ] Back Next 
     _________________________________________________________________
   
    "Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                        Expanding Your Home Network
                                      
                               By JC Pollman
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   You have struggled and gotten your home network working. I assume you
   have some sort of dial on demand, printer serving, and probably file
   sharing using samba. After a couple of weeks of relaxing and
   self-congratulating, you ask yourself: now what?
   
     What follows are bits and pieces of useful improvements I have come
   across while running my own home network. All of them provide me with
   added features and greatly extended my knowledge of Linux. Although I
   use the Redhat distribution, they should work on all distributions.
   What I present here are quick set-ups, to truely understand what you
   are doing you have to read the How-Tos and files that come with the
   programs.
   
   Am I Connected? You know by now that, just because the modem dialed,
   you are not guaranteed of getting connected. And it would also be nice
   to know when the modem goes off line - especially if  you are using an
   internal modem and your server is without a monitor like mine. Linux
   obviously knows when these things happen as it executes commands when
   the on-line-status changes. You can take advantage of this by putting
   your own commands in the scripts it runs. When the modem connects AND
   you are logged into your ISP, Linux runs the /etc/ppp/ip-up script,
   and when the modem goes off line, it runs the /etc/ppp/ip-down script.
   All you have to do is to add a line at the end of these scripts to
   tell you what happened. I use sound files to announce the connect
   status. One of the last lines of my ip-up is:
   
   cat /etc/ppp/doom.au >/dev/audio &
   
   This "plays" the doom.au file and lets me know that I am fully
   connected to the internet. Add a similar line to your ip-down file to
   tell you when the modem goes off line.
   
   TIME. You can also use the ip-up file to keep your server's time
   accurate. There are several time programs you can use, but I find
   netdate the easiest. I just add these lines after my sound line:
   
   /usr/sbin/netdate isp-computer
   
   clock -w
   
   where isp-computer is the name of a computer at my ISP, and clock -w
   writes the time to the cmos.
   
   Cleaning Up after pulling the plug. My wife is famous for finding
   something on the net and then wanting to make an immediate phone call.
   This usually means she pull the modem's phone wire out of the jack and
   then makes her call. This is nothing tragic, but I ended up with lots
   of ip-down scripts that never finish executing. Typing ps ax on
   Saturday usually gave me a half dozen processes to kill. I got tired
   of this and wrote a script to clean them up automatically:
   
   #!/bin/sh kill `ps ax|grep down|cut -c 1-5`
   
     I set this up as a cron job, so it runs every night.
   
   One Home for All. You probably have Linux running on more than one of
   your client programs. Keeping your personal setup in sync between
   computers becomes a pain after a while. Additionally, it would be nice
   when you run your email program to have all your folders available,
   and have your bookmarks available when you startup Netscape. The
   solution is to have use the /home directory on the server as the /home
   directory on all the computers. To do this, make sure all the kernels
   have nfs compiled into them, export the /home directory on the server,
   and then mount the server's /home directory on the clients. The server
   uses the file: /etc/exports to decide what, and how, to allow other
   computers to use. The appropriate line from my exports file is:
   
   /home  *.kulai.org(rw)
   
   where my network is kulai.org.  Then you can mount the server's /home
   directory by putting a line in your fstab that looks like this:
   
   192.168.124.10:/home /home      nfs noauto,rw,rsize=8192,wsize=8192 0
   0
   
   Note: my home server's ip address is: 192.168.124.10 Yours will be
   different. Then mounting the /home directory with a line in your
   rc.local like this:
   
   mount  /home
   
   This is a fairly simple process, but there are some gotchas you need
   to be aware of. NFS does not have a solid reputation for reliability
   and security. Some versions of the kernel do not work well with NFS,
   so check the news groups and dejanews if everything looks good but you
   can not mount /home. Also, the users on the different computers must
   all have the same UID and, I think GID, on each computer. For example,
   if Fred is UID 500 on the server, he must be UID 500 on all the other
   computers - as stated in the /etc/passwd file. There are ways around
   this, but life is much easier if the UIDs match. Additionally,
   mounting the entire /home directory is probably not the best solution
   when what you really want is just /home/user. You can get around this
   in xdm by using the Xstartup and Xreset files to mount and unmount the
   user's home directory when they login and logout. This method has
   problems with KDE as KDE does not shut down fast enough and so Xreset
   will not unmount the directory.
   
   A more elegant solution is to use automount. It will automatically
   mount /home/user directories, and can also automount  your floppies
   and cdroms. First, recompile your kernel with automount turned on.
   Then install the autofs program.  Then create the file:
   /etc/auto.master. It needs only one line:
   
   /home   /etc/auto.home --timeout 120
   
   which says: use /home as the mount point, and the file:/etc/auto.home
   to define the subdirectories.  The timeout option is for automatic
   unmounting after 120 seconds of inactivity. If you want to use this to
   automount floppies, cdroms, etc, you will need another line - read the
   Howto and Install files.
   
   Then create the /etc/auto.home  file.  A line from mine reads:
   
   nick    -rw,soft,intr,rsize=8192,wsize=8192
   192.168.124.10:/home/nick
   
   The first entry: nick , is the subdirectory under /home that autofs
   will use to mount the nfs directory:  192.168.124.10:/home/nick.
   Note, the server must now export each user's home directory
   individually, e.g. the exports file now reads:
   
   /home/nick    *.kulai.org(rw)
   
   Another advantage of this setup for the adventurous: I run several
   un*xes at home.  If I run the same version of the programs in them
   that I run in Linux, by mounting my home directory I keep the same
   initialization files, e.g. I use icewm for my window manager in Linux
   and FreeBSD, because I mount the same /home directory for both OSes,
   my menus stay the same.
   
   Common Passwords. As computers, and especially hard drives, come and
   go, I find that keeping the passwords in sync is also an annoying
   task. Linux provides a simple solution: NIS. Basically, the server
   does the login, so, no matter which computer you are using, the login
   verification is run against a single file on your server. This will
   only keep the un*x passwords the same: I manually made the MS Windows
   passwords the same, so when my spouse, or kids, get on the computer,
   they type the same user name and password no matter whether they are
   running Windows or Linux.  You will have to read the NIS Howto as it
   is beyond the scope of this article to explain how to set it up.
   
   HTTP Proxy. If your family members go to many of the same web pages
   you can speed up the "download" time by caching the pages on your
   server. That way, if your spouse goes to www.Yahoo.com in the
   afternoon, and your kids go to it when they get home from school, they
   get the copy off of the server which is much faster than actually
   connecting to the site. This pays big benefits when several of you are
   on the internet at the same time.  You can setup Apache to do this if
   you have Apache running already, or check http://freshmeat.net for a
   http proxy program.
   
   USENET News.  I assume that anyone reading this article is also a big
   user of the usenet news groups.  Setting up a full fledged news server
   for home is just too much work, but a program named leafnode may be
   just the solultion.  After setting it up and allowing it to get the
   list of news groups from your current server, point your news reader
   (Linux, Windows, or in any other operating system) to your server.
   Subscribe to the groups you want and then rerun leafnode. It will only
   get the articles from the groups people on your network subscribed
   to.  I set it to run, via cron, at 4 in the morning so at 5, when I
   arrive with my cup of coffee, all the articles for all my groups are
   ready and waiting for me on my server. Sweet!
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                        Copyright  1999, JC Pollman
             Published in Issue 39 of Linux Gazette, March 1999
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   [ TABLE OF CONTENTS ] [ FRONT PAGE ] Back Next 
     _________________________________________________________________
   
    "Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                          Free Philosophy: Part II
                                      
                        Cooperation vs. Competition
                                      
                            By J. W. Pennington
     _________________________________________________________________
   
     "That most of us consistently fail to consider the alternatives to
   competition is a testament to the effectiveness of our socialization."
                                -Alfie Kohn
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   This is the second article in a series exploring the philosophy of
   free software. The first, entitled The Beauty of Doubt and published
   in the February 99 issue, covered the concept of doubt, and discussed
   the improbability that good software can be developed if one does not
   have the ability to doubt that one's code, work, theory, or whatever
   may be flawed. The arrogance that a final product is unimprovable is
   something rarely if ever seen in the free software community (FSC).
   This allows for the continued improvement that we all see, and for the
   quick reaction to problems.
   
   In this article, I discuss competition with the intention of making a
   case for the FSC's necessity for cooperation in order to
   exist/succeed. Again, I tell the reader that I am primarily an
   anthropologist, and as such have little experience writing a technical
   article. This is written quite theoretically and argumentatively (if I
   may make that word), and I have written at great length on the
   competition/cooperation argument itself, preserving its association
   with the FSC until the end. I have done this not to bore or to preach
   to the reader (well, maybe a little) but to introduce as much of the
   full argument as possible in as little space as possible.
   
   Note: I will warn the reader that this article is a bit reactionary
   and outspoken. I do not write like this to strike fear or any other
   emotion into the hearts of the reader. I only do it to underline the
   somewhat insidious problem. I apologize in advance for yelling. With
   that said, and before I begin this month's discussion, I'd like to
   clear up some issues. I received a great deal of email regarding the
   last article. Most of it was positive, and I thank all of those who
   sent it. Some was quite critical, and I really thank the critics. I do
   want this to be an open discussion, and it would be quite blind of me
   to argue for humility while refusing to accept that my ideas are
   flawed. For this reason, I would like to address the two major points
   discussed in the many email critiques. In the interest of space,
   however, I have placed this in another location. Hopefully this will
   make it easier for those who are not concerned about these
   criticisims, but not too difficult for those who are. People new to
   the Free Software Community or to Linux are urged to read it however,
   as there are some important points made. Suffice it to say here that I
   am not the official spokesperson for the Free Software Movement, nor
   are my opinions official in any way. For the official opinions and
   philosophy of the GNU foundation, visit their website at www.gnu.org.
   
   What are Competition and Cooperation?
   
   In order to adequately condemn competition (which is honestly my
   intention) and demonstrate the advantage of cooperation, I must first
   take the time to define and explain the two opposing ideas.
   Competition, technically stated, is striving to outdo another. Put
   another way, it is the attempt to accomplish something at the expense
   of others, or in such a way as to make it impossible for another to
   accomplish the same thing. The bluntest, and most unattractive manner
   in which to say this is that my success requires your failure. This is
   what Alfie Kohn calls Mutually Exclusive Goal Attainment, MEGA[1]. Put
   this way, competition doesn't sound as healthy as it's cracked up to
   be. It is trying to do something specifically so that others cannot.
   It being better (often at any cost) than everyone else. It is proving
   to oneself, if not to anyone else, that the world is beneath them- if
   only in one particular circumstance. It is constant, it is pervasive,
   and it is the American way.
   
   Okay, I'll rephrase that: It's the Western way. One would be hard
   pressed to find a culture who does it more than we do. We've found
   ways to compete that are completely mind boggling, including such
   dubious honors as "He who can cram most processed meat into his mouth
   in the least amount of time," or, the good old hot dog eating contest.
   We compete for everything: Most sales in a given month, hottest
   chicken wings (I'm from Buffalo, no wisecracks), fastest car, even
   biggest breasts and shortest shorts. Contests for beauty, size, speed,
   notoriety ad nauseum exist in modern culture, and this is no less true
   in the software world.
   
   Most companies, including our "beloved" software companies, spend
   literally billions of combined dollars trying to, in effect, put other
   companies out of business. By selling their software at "competitive
   prices" and trying to prove the unworthiness of their rival's work,
   companies compete for "product placement," "competitive positioning,"
   "prime marketshare," or any number of obscure euphemisms, all of which
   mean selling "our" product and causing "theirs" not to be sold. There
   exists a large undercurrent of greed, espionage, dishonesty, and
   hostility in this endeavor, and many will understand that I do not
   write that in paranoia. Companies are often forced to bundle certain
   software/hardware or risk losing business, paying outrageous prices
   (read: fines), or any number of other negative outcomes. Naming no
   names, there are magazines and computer journals which are paid,
   literally, to not advertise the products of various companies, to not
   offer the option or information necessary to consider an opposing
   product. It is not only the rival company which loses in this
   competition. In this, we all lose.
   
   Diametrically opposed to this is Cooperation, which is, again
   literally stated, the endeavor to work together for a common goal or
   purpose. Much more broadly put, it is the act of aiding another in the
   pursuit of a goal in such a way as to promote the attainment of a goal
   which you are pursuing. In other words, I may not be trying to achieve
   the same thing that you are, but my helping you may further my cause
   as well. The most positive factor in cooperative endeavors is their
   ability to ensure mutually dependent success. If my helping you
   furthers my own goal, then I become fully committed to your success,
   and you to mine. If you fail, then I fail. The benefits of
   cooperation, when stated without the trappings of culture, are
   abundantly clear; however, they are often ignored or forgotten when
   competition places its very effective blinders on us.
   
   Why is Competition So Bad?
   
   When all but the most cynical of us think of competition, many ideas
   swim forward in our minds. The accomplishment of the pioneers of
   America, baseball and the Yankees (or whomever you may root for), the
   victory of World War II, the possibilities are countless. What all of
   these thoughts share is that they applaud the winners, who rarely make
   up more than 50% of the total. The situation which is always created
   is one in which there is an inevitability of failure. There will be a
   loser. Why do we accept this? Because the positive spin on the many
   benefits and few negative aspects of competition that we have all
   grown up seeing, and which all but 2% of you reading this firmly
   believe, are akin to brainwashing.
   
   Now don't crucify me, or at least wait until I'm finished. When I use
   the term brainwashing, I'm not saying "all of you are mindless idiots,
   the pawns of the media." I am only saying that our belief in
   competition perpetuates itself in the media, and we see it literally
   hundreds if not thousands of times a day, so much that we come to
   think of it as the "natural order" of things. We have been socialized
   to accept it. In our minds, competition has become the healthiest way
   to better any situation, be it the consumer's choice, the product's
   effectiveness, or the game itself. It is normal, it is healthy, and it
   is "human nature." I can assure you, as an anthropologist and as an
   anticompetitive person, that competition is not a natural human
   tendency, it is not human nature. (In fact, I have yet to see anything
   that has been labeled human nature actually be so, mainly because
   human nature is most often used as a justification for something that
   is otherwise negative, how many times is the donation to a charity
   shrugged off as "human nature?")
   
   I should here note that there are two main forms of competition which
   can be discussed. The first I'll call Situational Competition. This is
   competition based on an external, unavoidable situation, such as
   competition for food where there is little. Basically, this is a
   struggle for survival, and I would argue that in this sense
   competition emphatically is human nature. We are all animals
   (theological arguments aside) and we will therefore do what we must to
   survive. Strangely enough, it is often these situations which cause
   humans to cooperate completely. Weird species, us.
   
   The second form I call Conceptual Competition. This is competition
   based on an internal, conceptual situation. Here, we find the
   competition to which I am opposed, that being the desire to be the
   only holder of a status or conceptual prize, be it money, power, fame,
   etc. Ironically, it is this form of competition which is often cited
   as human nature, a supposition for which there is little, if any,
   support in the social or natural scientific literature [2]. If there
   is to be a single dominant principal of human nature in this argument,
   it would most certainly be cooperation; however, to argue that
   anything is just human nature is to forget that every individual will
   act differently, however slightly, in every situation. There is no
   single "human nature" because the topic is so vast, and so dynamic.
   
   How the Free Software Community (co)Operates
   
   I would argue, as I believe most social scientists would, that the
   natural tendency of human beings is in fact cooperation. This tendency
   manifests itself nicely in the practices and beliefs of the Free
   Software Community. Unfortunately, I am unable to state honestly that
   either free software advocates in general, or Linux users in
   particuliar, are individually non-competitive. I have seen far too
   many instances of "number dropping [a]" and other things to say this
   with much conviction. The truth is that there are very few people as
   [crazy, pointless, stupid] anticompetitive as I am, making it a rule
   to help an opposer beat me at a game in order to better their game.
   The very great majority of people are individually very competitive.
   And the acts of the FSC itself are, in a sense, competitive. They are
   competitive in that they try to offer a substutite for a proprietary
   product, admittedly, a weak argument, but that pleases me. The goal of
   the FSC, however, is free access to information for everyone. The
   desired outcome of the endeavor is not to convince people that a given
   free product is in any way "better" than a proprietary product (though
   very often it is), it is only to offer the product freely and openly
   to all.
   
   Also, competition is (at least as far as I can tell) anathema to the
   innerworkings and the dynamics of the FSC. Competition as a principle
   cannot survive in this community. This is because the entire community
   fails in its desired goal if those within the community fail. The
   general rule in the free software community (and in the broader hacker
   community [b] as well) is cooperation, or my answer to Alfie Kohn's
   idea of MEGA, that is Mutually Achievable Goal Attainment, MAGA.
   
   The rules as I have come to learn them are as follows:
    1. Learn everything you can about [fill in blank with programming,
       electronics, computers, or whatever else you fancy]
    2. Never exclude another from learning about [see above]
    3. Offer freely what you learn/do, so that others might use/learn
       from it
          + Note: Charging enough money to put food on your table is
            acceptable. The corollary to this rule is "help your fellow
            hacker by giving him enough money to put food on his table."
            The philosophy being that if he dies of starvation there's
            one less good brain on the task :-)
    4. Never destroy/break the work of another person. That's a cracker's
       job, and we often don't like them.
       
   Of course, this list is neither exhaustive nor exclusive, but it shows
   the inherent cooperation involved. The idea of the Free Software
   Movement is to allow free information access to all, this precludes
   the idea of competition. If, for instance, I make information free to
   all, then I include potential rivals, and rivals cannot be rivals if
   there is nothing to fight about. This, of course, ignores the constant
   fear in the FSC that a proprietary company will take work done by
   honest FSC members and make it proprietary. There are rivals here. The
   hope is that adequate protection can be found so that what is free,
   stays free.
   
   Concluding Thoughts,
   or,
   The Last of the Diatribe
   
   There is competition everywhere, and companies promote this. How many
   times have we heard that something will "increase competition" in
   [insert business]. It's a fallacy. One company owning everything is
   indeed bad. In that case we rest at the mercy of an "overlord," but
   many companies competing is not necessarily a better situation. The
   argument for competition is that a company will always produce better
   and more cost effective goods, in order to entice the buyers more than
   another company. Anyone who believes that this is what happens is- and
   I am really risking crucifixion here- fooling themselves. The real
   outcome is that companies bury patents so that you keep buying their
   goods (Westinghouse and the lifelong lightbulb), downplay or
   negatively affect the development of various beneficial techniques
   (American automobile companies, and petroleum companies would not want
   you to know about the 100+ miles to the gallon a ceramic engine and
   patent-buried cooling system can get you, and a notably efficient
   electric car is available in only two U.S. states, and then only
   because its availability is legislated), and use every method possible
   to remove all rival companies from their path to total information
   control (the real goal of MicroSoft and other large companies?).
   
   Competition is, without fail, a negative proposition to the consumer
   and to the development of any technique/product. We hear constantly
   that competing companies produce better products because of
   competition, and that they do it "all for the benefit of the
   consumer." Imagine what could be produced if they were all honestly
   working together. Maybe one day the Free Software Movement will show
   us.
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Notes
   
   a: A variation of name dropping which involves the participant giving
   the number of the first Linux kernel he (I have yet to see a female
   name) used. This is always lower than someone else's number. What's
   the point fellas?
   b: Please do not confuse this with "cracker!" A hacker is, simply put,
   someone who revels in understanding. For a more definitive description
   of the difference between the two, see The Hacker Anti-Defamation
   League's website.
   
   References
   
   1: Kohn, Alfie. 1992. No Contest: The Case Against Competition. New
   York: Houghton Mifflin. p 4.
   2: See note 2, chapter 2 in Kohn.
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                     Copyright  1999, J. W. Pennington
             Published in Issue 39 of Linux Gazette, April 1999
     _________________________________________________________________
   
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     _________________________________________________________________
   
    "Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                           Linux Day at H-P Labs
                                      
                              By Paul R. Woods
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   As you might have noticed recently, several large companies have begun
   to take an interest in Linux. The Hewlett-Packard Company is one of
   these, the first official involvement being their announcement of
   Linux support for a line of PC Servers, announced in late January.
   Shortly thereafter, though not as a direct consequence, a group within
   H-P sponsored what they called "Linux Day at H-P Labs" which was held
   on February 9th of this year.
   
   Interested people gathered from all over the corporation to the H-P
   Labs buildings in Palo Alto to hear from Bob Young, of Red Hat, and
   from Linus Torvalds himself. Jean Bozman from IDC also spoke,
   detailing the tremendous growth that Linux is experiencing.
   
   The large conference room that was built for groups of 160 people
   failed to hold a standing-room-only crowd that spilled out into the
   hallway, so an overflow room had to be used, besides. Additionally,
   teleconferencing was used to bring the program to people who couldn't
   travel to the conference in person.
   
   I was very interested in what Linus and Bob said and thought that I
   would pass along what I heard. Their comments were informative and
   filled in the history of how Linux came to be in its current position.
   
    Linus Torvalds
    
   When Linus got the idea in 1991 to write what has become Linux, he had
   six month's experience with Unix. He liked it much more than other
   OSs, but there was a slight problem. Actually several hundred to over
   a thousand problems, those being the dollars it would cost to buy a
   commercial Unix he could use at home. At that time, all Unicies were
   priced for large institutions, not for individuals--especially not
   poor students. As a portion of the hardware cost, buying Unix for a PC
   doubled, at least, the cost of the platform. Linus began working on
   his OS to provide himself and others with a low-cost (free) Unix-like
   OS for personal use. After the initial release, interest snowballed
   and the number of contributors increased. As Linus put it, a lot of
   people put in a lot of work and he gets all the credit.
   
   The people who contribute to Linux are motivated by personal
   satisfaction, not money. Many people do their best work for personal
   satisfaction. In a commercial setting, where the programmer is being
   paid to develop, his manager might not allow him to refine, count
   cycles, etc., like he can do on his own time. In many cases, it would
   not be viewed as cost effective to allow engineers that sort of time.
   Whether it's for personal satisfaction, a desire to impress others, or
   competition among kernel developers, a lot of craftsmanship goes into
   much of the code.
   
   Linux benefits from a development staff so large that no company could
   afford it. And much of the work is so meticulous that, in a commercial
   setting, the cost would be too high to recapture the programmers'
   salaries. The absence of monetary concerns has created a product that
   is better than any company could afford to produce. The result of
   Linux being free is that it has good technology due to collaboration,
   and it is good for individuals to use and learn on.
   
   Despite his desire for free software, he does not believe Open Source
   Software (OSS) should be the only way to license software. In his
   opinion, OSS is good for "black and white" technical issues or
   infrastructure.
   
   It took two-and-a-half years between versions 2.0.0 and 2.2.0 of the
   kernel, but still there are criticisms that Linux releases too often,
   because of the 36 sub-releases of 2.0. Linus said that since the
   kernel developers mostly compile the kernel, other things that break
   get found by non-kernel developers. Releasing often allows these
   things to be found early. Within the first two weeks of the 2.2
   release, there are already two patches. He went on to say that if what
   you have is working for you and there is no obvious reason to upgrade
   kernels, then don't.
   
   Linus' wish list for future kernels:
   
   1. parallel processing improvements (this seems to be a favorite topic
   for him. One of the major improvements from 2.0 to 2.2 is in the SMP
   capabilities),
   
   2. a journaled file system [not because he thinks it is good, but
   there have been many requests], and
   
   3. improvements for clustering (again parallelism).
   
   In response to a question about porting Linux to PA-RISC, he said that
   a partial port has been done and appears to work, but there is not a
   lot of demand from end users. (It was unclear to me whether he was
   referring to the MkLinux port reported in Linux Journal #44 (see
   http://www.ssc.com/lj/issue44/2355.html), or some other work.)
   
   When asked about types of programs for which kernel optimizations are
   considered, he mentioned that web applications (which spend 90% of
   their time in kernel-land), benefit far more than compilers, for
   example, which spend very little time in the kernel.
   
   When asked what H-P could do to help Linux: "H-P can release specs."
   and "...stay away from legal problems with employees releasing under
   the GPL [on their own]."
   
   Quotes from this talk:
   
   "Operating systems shouldn't be as exciting as they [currently] are."
   
   "2.2 doesn't do everything. It does everything you'd want to do."
   
   "Set up a skunk works to develop a journaling file system within H-P.
   I dare you."
   
   Talking about the increasing complexity of kernel code management:
   "[the] system is so complete that it is harder to add new features."
   
   And, about how some companies deal with the GPL: "...more lawyers than
   engineers...a dark and awful place."
   
    Bob Young, Red Hat
    
   To make sure we remembered who he was, Bob Young set his red hat on
   the lectern at the beginning of his talk. He was also wearing red
   socks. Red must have become his favorite color. He had no slides
   saying that he saved such multimedia presentations for non-technicals-
   -like venture capitalists. Red Hat currently consists of about 100
   engineers and marketing people in the hills of North Carolina where,
   according to Bob, salaries are low.
   
   Bob made an analogy where he compared a "car" to a brand of car, and
   Linux to a brand of Linux, Red Hat. He considers Linux to consist of
   the kernel (the engine) and all the other programs, shells, and
   utilities that make it useful. He said that, although you could build
   your own car, we "usually" rely on a car maker to put all the parts
   together for us. So, in this way, we "usually" rely on Red Hat,
   Caldera, Debian, SUSe, etc. to assemble a useful distribution of
   Linux.
   
   Bob's background was in leasing computers to large companies. In those
   days, once a company bought into a computer vendor's product, they
   were pretty much stuck with them, because one vendor's machines didn't
   work with any other's. He noticed that these companies didn't like
   that their second computers would cost much more than their first
   ones. This amounted to a loss of control in that the companies, once
   they had decided on a particular vendor's systems, were more or less
   stuck with them, unless they wanted to spend a lot of money and effort
   switching over completely to another vendor. The PC answered this loss
   of control by allowing companies to pick and choose PC components that
   all interoperated, mostly. Linux does for computer software what PCs
   did for hardware. Linux was intended to be Unix-like, differentiated
   by its licensing scheme. It has given control to the user that is not
   available from commercial OS vendors, including non-Unix flavors.
   
   Red Hat started with FreeBSD (other free OS) while Caldera was pushing
   Linux. Bob wondered why Linux was getting to be so popular. When he
   found out why, he was waiting for some alternative hardware company
   like Next or Be to pick up on Linux. They didn't, so he did.
   
   Bob said that Linux benefitted from Linus' relative isolation in
   Finland. If there had been a group of locals form as the main
   contributors, then any distant help over the internet would be more
   likely to be shut out, because the remote person wouldn't be there to
   discuss and defend ideas. With everyone having to work over the
   internet because of the distance, all ideas had equal chance. Having
   developed a way to work over the internet also encouraged a broader
   cooperative base.
   
   He also explained that there are two types of programmers: those that
   write company-internal applications, and those that write commercial
   software; the latter are more likely to be Linux contributors, because
   of their mindset toward the end product, i.e., users versus sellers.
   He used an example to explain why cooperatively developed software is
   more likely to be better software than commercial software. Imagine a
   radio astronomer has an idea for software to help point his radio
   dish. He could develop it in isolation, then try to market it to the
   "three other" radio astronomers that might be interested in it. He
   would also be the only one to support it and fix any bugs found in it
   by the customer-users. The other way he could do it is to involve the
   others from the start in the development of the software. Bob's
   argument is that the software that would result from this
   collaborative effort would be better than what the commercial model
   would produce. Also, any bugs could be fixed by more people, and thus
   would be fixed faster. Bob calls this arrangement a "meritocracy".
   Linux benefits from being a meritocracy because the contributors do
   their work for the benefit of the code they themselves want to use.
   They also get credit among the development community.
   
   Periodically, the Unix community undergoes unification, but between
   these times you see mostly division due to proprietary development
   from each of the vendors. When asked about the other Linux
   distributors, and the danger of the same divisions happening among
   them, Bob pointed out the expense of code forking. If one of the
   vendors forks the code, they then become the only ones who can
   maintain the code, which he believes would be very expensive. He
   estimates that code maintenance represents about 90% of the cost for a
   traditional commercial software vendor. Red Hat wants their
   developments to be adopted by Linus. In this way, Bob views all of the
   Linux distributors as partners.
   
   Red Hat doesn't want to be in the shrink-wrap distribution business.
   They would rather make their money from support. Bob pointed out,
   though, that the harder they try to get out of that business, the more
   shrink-wrap they sell. Now they are quite a large software
   manufacturer.
   
   Quotes from the talk:
   
   "DOS is not an operating system; it is a bad collection of device
   drivers."
   
   Question from the audience: "Is the browser part of the operating
   system?"--big laughs
   
    The Rest of the Day . . .
    
   In the afternoon session, a dozen presenters from within H-P spoke
   about Linux in their current projects or products. This is all pretty
   new stuff so I am not allowed to write about it in detail. However, I
   can give some general information about the areas in which Linux is
   finding place. This covers the spectrum from internal use only, to
   embedded Linux in full commercial products.
   
   In the area of EDA (Electronic Design Automation) software H-P obtains
   some tools from EDA vendors, while other tools are written internally.
   One participant spoke about several internal EDA tools that had been
   ported to Linux.
   
   Another story of porting internally written software to Linux was from
   a division that produces a commercial IC tester. Wanting to take
   advantage of the Intel platform, they had to decide between Linux and
   NT and found that the Linux port was much simpler and less expensive.
   Also, by purchasing a handful of proprietary libraries, they were able
   to make the user interface on the new platform appear the same as on
   the old.
   
   Another couple of speakers shared their groups' use of embedded Linux
   in the rapid prototyping of products; one in the area of networked
   peripheral control, and the other in the area of telecommunications
   measurement.
   
   There were also some strictly software products that have been or will
   soon be ported to Linux for general availability, including OpenMail,
   H-P Web JetAdmin, and Firehunter ISP management software (see
   http://www.hp.com for more information).
   
   Finally, there is a group at H-P Labs porting Linux to IA-64. They
   demonstrated an emulator that can run the 64-bit code on a P133. A
   talk and paper will be given at Linux Expo in May.
   
   One of the most important things I learned by attending Linux Day is
   that there is a lot of interest in Linux within H-P.
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                      Copyright  1999, Paul R. Woods
             Published in Issue 39 of Linux Gazette, April 1999
     _________________________________________________________________
   
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     _________________________________________________________________
   
    "Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                         Linux Primer Series Part 8
   
                Advanced Network Services version 03.30.1999
   
   Copyright 1998, 1999 Ron Jenkins. All rights reserved.
   
   I welcome your suggestions, corrections, criticisms, and comments. I
   may be reached at the following address - rjenkins62@netscape.net .
   
   This work is provided on an "as is" basis. The author provides no
   warranty whatsoever, either express or implied, regarding the work,
   including warranties with respect to its merchantability or fitness
   for any particular purpose.
   
   You may have noticed that my e mail address has changed again. My ISP
   has decided to move to metered access, just as my last one did. This
   seems to be a growing trend, at least here in the Midwest.
   
   To eliminate the need for constantly changing this stuff, I have
   acquired an account @ Netscape, which will remain constant, regardless
   of ISP changes.
   
   As soon as I can afford it, or can find a place to house my webpages,
   I will post it here. Unfortunately, I will be unable to have the
   updates and enhancements to my column on-line until then.
   
   Before I get a flood of "Get a Geocities page" messages, let me just
   say that I have requirements that Geocities is unwilling to supply.
   
   The qni.com address will still be functional for a couple of months,
   to make the transition as smooth as possible.
   
   Operating Systems Covered/Supported: 
   
   Slackware version 3.6 
   
   RedHat version 5.1 
   
   Windows NT Server version 4.0 
   
   Windows NT Workstation version 4.0 
   
   I only test my columns on the operating systems specified. I don't
   have access to a MAC, I don't use Windows 95, and have no plans to use
   Windows 98.
   
   If someone would care to provide equivalent instructions for any of
   the above operating systems, I will be happy to include them in my
   documents. 
   
   Advanced Network Services:
   
   This month, we will be examining some advanced services that you may
   or may not want to use on your home network.
   
   In particular, we will be looking at some options for streamlining the
   connection scripts, executing demand dialing, and time synchronization
   issues.
   
   In this month's column, we will be looking at the following areas of
   interest:
   
   Customization options for the connect scripts
   
   Time Synchronization
   
   Demand Dialing
   
   As always, I will include ant distribution specific information as
   necessary. Unless indicated otherwise, the information will apply
   equally to both distributions.
   
   Customization options for the connect scripts:
   
   I can't stress enough the importance of assuring that your PPP
   software is version 2.3 or above. It is the added functionality that
   this software contains that make the following things possible.
   
   With version 2.3 or greater, here are some of the things we can do
   right from the script, rather than having to run ancillary programs to
   accomplish similar functions.
   
   Auto-reconnect - This option is enabled using the keyword "persist" in
   the connect script. This eliminates the need for the pppupd software
   we have been using.
   
   Demand Dialing - This option is enabled using the keyword "demand" in
   the connect script. This eliminates the need for a third party
   program, such as diald.
   
   Therefore, a new revised script taking advantage of these options
   would look something like this:
   
   Begin connect script example -
   
   #!/bin/sh
   
   pppd connect \
   
   'chat -v -f /path/to/chat/script' /dev/cua1 115200 -detach crtscts
   modem \
   
   -proxyarp defaultroute demand persist &
   
   End connect script example -
   
   Note that no changes are required to your chat script, as this just
   handles the initial terminal login, then hands off to the PPP daemon.
   
   Also, if your ISP's interpretation of the phrase "Unlimited Usage" is
   like mine, you will be limited to 10 to 12 hours per day. I would
   strongly suggest that if this is the case, then consider moving to
   another ISP.
   
   If you choose to stay, the demand dialing function will be required,
   unless you want to connect manually each time, or if you have a
   regular period of time during which you use the Internet, you may want
   to write a cron job to take care of connecting and disconnecting.
   
   For instance, say you connect from 8:00 a.m. To 8:00 p.m. every day,
   and wish to automate the procedure. You would simply open your crontab
   file with the command "crontab -e" and enter the following two lines:
   
   0 8 * * * /path/to/your/connect/script
   
   0 20 * * * /path/to/your/ppp-off/script
   
   or staying with our examples we have been using:
   
   0 8 * * * /sbin/unicom
   
   0 20 * * * /usr/sbin/ppp-off
   
   Time Synchronization:
   
   Although we don't often think about it, time is very important to the
   proper operation of computers and programs.
   
   Y2K issues aside, many services on your network or individual systems
   depend on an accurate measurement of time.
   
   UNIX and Linux in particular are very picky about time discrepancies,
   and tend to do nasty things to your processes and data if two machines
   disagree about the time.
   
   Briefly, there are two methods of acquiring an accurate measurement of
   time:
   
   From an internal device (such as your CMOS clock,) or from an external
   source, such as a time server or frequency standard.
   
   This will be old hat to those of you who come from an amateur radio
   background, but the government has just such a source available, and
   several different options for availing yourself of its use.
   
   Your internal CMOS clock is unreliable, and dependent upon a constant
   power source. So in this area we will concentrate on synchronizing our
   machines, and our network to an external source.
   
   The "absolute standard" for time is an atomic clock housed at the
   National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Fort
   Collins, Colorado.
   
   There are many ways to use this standard to synchronize your network,
   ranging from Radio Frequency receivers to modem dial up connections,
   to Global Positioning Satellites (GPS.)
   
   Here we will concentrate on using the Internet to accomplish this
   synchronization.
   
   The de facto standard for this purpose is something called the Network
   Time Protocol, or NTP. Some systems, particularly RedHat based
   systems, often come with ntp or xntp pre-installed. Check the
   documentation and man pages for more information.
   
   If you are using a Slackware based machine, you will have a utility
   called netdate that will serve the same function. You can initiate
   netdate manually, trough a script, or from a cron job. Check the man
   page for more details.
   
   Either system will require you to specify one or more time servers
   from which accurate data can be obtained.
   
   Time Servers are machines that collect and dispense accurate time
   data. They are organized in to "stratums" with the lower numbers being
   the more accurate.
   
   Stratum one servers are usually servers that have some sort of direct
   logical connection to the atomic clock, either by radio satellite or
   modem, and an accurate external device to make this connection.
   
   Stratum two servers acquire data from the stratum one machines, and
   pass it along to other stratum two machines, or peers, and down to
   stratum three machines, and so on.
   
   For most home applications, and business applications that do not
   require a "real time clock," stratum two servers are more than
   adequate for your needs.
   
   For a list of time servers, as well as the ntp software, see the
   resources section.
   
   Demand Dialing:
   
   If you have followed the above instructions, then this should be a
   moot point. If you cannot or will not upgrade your PPP software to 2.3
   or above, you will need to use diald or something similar to initiate
   the demand dialing function.
   
   Configuration of diald or one of the other programs is beyond the
   scope of this document. Check your preferred program documentation and
   man pages for more information.
   
   If enough people express interest, I will devote a column specifically
   to this subject in the future.
   
   Next month, we will conquer Print Services. See 'ya then!
   
   References:
   
   PPP HOW-TO
   
   pppd man pages
   
   netdate man pages
   
   Resources:
   
   http://www.nist.gov/
     _________________________________________________________________
   
               Previous ``Linux Installation Primer'' Columns
                                      
   Linux Installation Primer #1, September 1998
   Linux Installation Primer #2, October 1998
   Linux Installation Primer #3, November 1998
   Linux Installation Primer #4, December 1998
   Linux Installation Primer #5, January 1999
   Linux Installation Primer #6, February 1999
   Linux Installation Primer #7, March 1999
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                       Copyright  1999, Ron Jenkins
             Published in Issue 39 of Linux Gazette, April 1999
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   [ TABLE OF CONTENTS ] [ FRONT PAGE ] Back Next 
     _________________________________________________________________
   
    "Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   A Linux Journal Preview: This article will appear in the May 1999
   issue of Linux Journal.
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                        LinuxWorld Conference & Expo
                                      
                           By Marjorie Richardson
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Photo Album
   
   Back home from LinuxWorld, the first Linux conference held on the West
   Coast, I am finding it difficult to concentrate and get back in the
   normal groove. I spent a remarkable two days, March 2 and 3, in the
   San Jose Convention Center and everyone who didn't go has been
   dropping by to find out about it. This was a major conference with
   more than just the usual suspects in attendance, and everyone had a
   big announcement.
   
   Over 6,000 people turned out to join in the excitement. Described by
   one attendee as ``heady stuff'', I can't think of a better way to
   describe it. The attendance by the big-name vendors is a sure sign
   that Linux has made the big leagues. When introducing Dr. Michael
   Cowpland's keynote speech, Jon ``maddog'' Hall described this
   conference as Linux's ``coming out'' or ``sweet 16'' party, with the
   business community embracing the Linux community and Linux embracing
   business--``Welcome to the world of Linux!'' he said.
   
   Dr. Cowpland gave an articulate speech, focusing on the ways Corel is
   using Linux now and in the future. While I was a bit surprised to
   learn the first keynote was a company presentation, it certainly gave
   a clear picture of how big business perceives Linux as an excellent
   opportunity for promoting growth and profit. Dr. Cowpland said again
   that Corel would be porting all their products to Linux and continuing
   to support the WINE project. His presentation of the Quattro Pro
   spreadsheet program running on WINE was quite impressive--fast and
   quite attractive. He announced WordPerfect Office 2000, stressing
   their goal of ``value, performance and compatibility'', and a Corel
   distribution which will combine the best features from each of the
   current distributions and be ready for release in the fall. He
   predicted that by the end of the year, we will be able to buy
   high-performance computers, such as Gateway, for $600 to $800,
   preloaded with Linux. Sounds good to me.
   
   Linus gave a well-received keynote address and participated on a panel
   discussion of ``The Continuing Revolution'', moderated by Eric
   Raymond. He also showed up at the Compaq booth with Jon Hall for fans
   to visit, take photos and get autographs.
   
   I attended only one other talk (too much booth duty) and that one was
   by Larry Wall (See in this issue). Larry has a casual speaking style
   that fits well into this environment. Two quotes I enjoyed were:
   
     Perl does one thing right--it integrates all its features into one
     language.
     
     Journalists who give Perl bad press should experience more angst in
     their writing.
     
   Speaker Dan Quinlan will also be appearing in our pages soon. Dan is
   writing a feature article for our June Standards issue.
   
   I spent a good bit of time talking to various vendors. Here's a bit of
   what I found out:
   
     * Tripwire Security Systems, Inc.: Tripwire is a file integrity
       security system (see ``Tripping up Intruders with Tripwire'' by
       Kevin Fenzi, August 1997) that became commercial in January of
       this year. All 2.x releases are still freely available and include
       the basic support of 48-hour e-mail response. They provide
       extended support (4-hour response) for a fee. Biggest additions
       are Algomol encryption for the database, damage inventories and
       e-mail warnings when damaged files are found. I brought back a
       Tripwire CD for our system administrator to play with, so expect a
       review in a future issue.
     * GraphOn: This company is promoting their Go-Global thin PC X
       server software designed for high-speed access to UNIX/X-based
       applications on the server from any desktop. A web site has been
       established at http://playpen.graphon.com/, where Windows users
       can enjoy the experience of running Linux. Corel, a partner of
       GraphOn, has embedded the thin-client software in WordPerfect 8,
       making it web-enabled.
     * ICP Vortex: This German-based company has the number one RAID
       controller in Europe and they have a fully bootable implementation
       for Linux. Drivers for their controller can be found in all major
       distributions. Beginning this month, they are shipping a 64-bit
       PCI-fibre channel RAID controller, which can also be run in 32-bit
       slots. ICP is committed to continuing support of the Linux
       operating system. One of their big users in the U.S. is Linux
       Hardware Solutions, and they have promised us a review of this
       excellent RAID device.
     * Precision Insight: With funding from Red Hat and XGI, this company
       is creating an OpenGL 3-D infrastructure within XFree86 servers
       that will enable developers to access device drivers which permit
       access to OpenGL clients.
     * Cygnus Solutions: Cygnus Solutions has had an open source business
       model since 1989, providing support for open source software. It
       is now a member of the Fortune 500. At this show, they talked to
       me about the cross-compilers included in their GNUPro Toolkit for
       Linux. The Toolkit includes all the popular GNU tools, along with
       added features and custom enhancements such as a graphical user
       interface to the tools.
     * IBM demonstrated several of their products that now run on Linux,
       including the WebSphere product line, the Andrew File System and
       the DB2 database system. Also on display was the first commercial,
       Java-based emulator for Linux called IBM Host On-Demand. This
       product provides secure access to data and applications via a web
       browser. When I asked how it happened that IBM was entering the
       Linux market, the answer was ``user demand''. How about
       that--asking for what you want truly works!
     * Informix: Janet Smith of Informix graciously came by the Linux
       Journal booth to visit me while I was on booth duty. Informix has
       a very large presence among value added resellers (VARs) and
       recently formed an alliance with Hewlett-Packard to deliver
       Linux-based Internet solutions through their Covision program.
       Informix also announced an alliance with Jones Business Systems,
       by which Informix Linux products will be distributed through JBS'
       reseller channels. HP was also at the conference to show off
       OpenMail, but I didn't get the chance to talk to them.
     * Stalker Software: Ali Liptrot of Stalker Software also came by to
       say ``hi''. When I went by their booth, it was flooded with
       traffic to see the demonstrations of their CommuniGate Pro
       messaging system.
     * Appgen Business Software, Inc.: Jim Kelly stopped by to tell me
       about their financial software. I had thought financial software
       was one place Linux was weak--looks like I was wrong.
       
   All the major distributions were there giving away t-shirts and other
   goodies, and in general amazing everyone with their new releases. I
   saw a beta demonstration of Caldera's next release of OpenLinux which
   has the easiest install I've ever seen. They've provided a GUI using
   QT from Troll Tech, and it just zips through, probing for mouse and
   other information, completing the install without the user having to
   do a thing. It even provides a window so you can play Tetris while
   waiting for the install to complete. Not having a ``smart'' install is
   one item many people have said was a major drawback for Linux--well,
   now Linux has it. One more reason for not using Linux has just been
   blown away.
   
   While doing booth duty on Wednesday, I got to meet many of our readers
   and authors as well as introduce new people to Linux Journal. I had a
   lot of fun. We shared our booth space with our publisher SSC, there to
   promote their latest book, The Artists' Guide to the GIMP by Michael
   J. Hammel. Michael was there and many fans showed up to meet him and
   have their books signed.
   
   All in all, it was a great show and IDG is planning a repeat
   performance in August. So if you missed it, come and drop by the LJ
   booth then for a visit. Heady stuff, indeed!
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                   Copyright  1999, Marjorie Richardson
             Published in Issue 39 of Linux Gazette, April 1999
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   [ TABLE OF CONTENTS ] [ FRONT PAGE ] Back Next 
     _________________________________________________________________
   
    "Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                            Books On The Screen
                                      
                    Reading Electronic Texts With XEmacs
                                      
                               by Larry Ayers
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                                Introduction
                                      
   During a snowy and windy period this past winter I badly needed
   something new to read. None of the plentiful books in the house looked
   appealing and the prospect of driving to town for a visit to the
   library seemed like an awful lot of trouble, given the poor road
   conditions caused by drifting snow.
   
   I was vaguely familiar with Project Gutenberg, a cooperative project
   intending to make public-domain literary texts freely available in
   digital form, but had never obtained any of these electronic books. A
   quick search on the net led me to one of the Gutenberg web-sites,
   where I was surprised to see the extensive listings of novels and
   other literary works, all either manually retyped or scanned from
   print editions by numerous volunteers. As the wind whistled around the
   house I tried reading one of these book-files, interested in
   determining whether eyestrain would be a problem.
   
                             First Impressions
                                      
   The files are available compressed with a zip archiver; when
   unarchived on a Linux system those DOS filesystem ^M carriage return
   symbols terminate each line. The Info Zip unzip utility will
   automatically strip them from the file if the -a switch is given to
   the command, as in this example:   unzip -a [filename]. This isn't too
   useful if Emacs' native jka-compress archive file handler is used
   (which calls zip and unzip internally), allowing the file to be
   automatically uncompressed and decompressed when it is respectively
   opened and closed. In this case the easiest way I've seen for
   converting DOS-format line-endings to unix-format is a handy pair of
   Lisp function which Earl Stutes wrote about in LG #10; I'll repeat
   them here:
(defun dos-unix ()
  (interactive)
  (goto-char (point-min))
  (while (search-forward "\r" nil t) (replace-match "")))

(defun unix-dos ()
  (interactive)
  (goto-char (point-min))
  (while (search-forward "\n" nil t) (replace-match "\r\n")))


   With these two functions inserted in your .emacs file, converting a
   file is simply a matter of typing M-x dos-unix. It could be bound to a
   keystroke if you find that you use it often.
   
   Well, now the file is more readable but there are other issues which
   make reading an entire book awkward. It's a pain to find your place in
   the file between reading sessions; it would also be convenient to be
   able to load the file without needing to type in the complete path.
   Two XEmacs modes can be a great help.
   
                               Helpful Modes
                                      
   The obvious method of saving your place is an analog to a bookmark in
   a hard-copy book, the Emacs bookmark facility. Bookmarking doesn't
   automatically update, a deficiency which Karl Hegbloom's Where-Was-I
   database corrects. This mode is toggled on for individual files, since
   with many files your "place" isn't important. The mode is toggled by
   typing M-x tog[TAB] wh[TAB]. The tab key is used to automatically
   complete the expression; it's quicker to type than the full form, M-x
   toggle where-was-i. Once the mode is activated closing or killing a
   file saves the point position in a binary database in your root
   directory. Open the file later and there is the cursor, just where you
   left off reading. This is especially handy with book-length files,
   many of which are over a megabyte in size. Hegbloom's package is
   included in recent versions of XEmacs; in the current betas which use
   the new package system it is part of the edit-utils package.
   
   The other XEmacs mode which I recommend for general use as well as for
   reading books is Juergen Nickelsen's recent-files.el, also included
   with XEmacs and in the edit-utils package. This ingenious mode is
   activated by inserting these lines in your .emacs file:
(load "recent-files")
(recent-files-initialize)


   This mode maintains a new menu in the menu-bar with two submenus. The
   first submenu is a list of the past several files you have loaded into
   XEmacs; these entries gradually get superseded by newer ones. The
   other one can contain entries which are permanent. The permanent files
   are those which you often edit, perhaps certain configuration files or
   a journal. There are also options on the menu to make a temporary
   listing permanent or vice-versa.
   
   With both of these excellent modes in action XEmacs' transition to a
   comfortable displayer of books is nearly complete. One last
   possibility is to use a TrueType proportional font along with a server
   such as xfstt; I find these fonts to be easier on the eyes for passive
   reading.
   
   Another helpful mode is one of the several available dictionary modes
   which I discussed in LG #34. I've noticed that I'm more likely to look
   up an unfamiliar word in an on-line than in a paper dictionary. One
   keystroke to look up a word is certainly convenient.
   
                                 Conclusion
                                      
   Until the quality of computer displays improves significantly, reading
   text on paper will still be preferable for protracted reading
   sessions. Still, I've enjoyed reading several of the Gutenberg texts,
   many of which it had never occurred to me to seek out in a library.
   The ability to cut and paste from a book can be useful --plus you can
   correct typos!
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Last modified: Sun Mar 28 18:18:26 CST 1999
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                       Copyright  1999, Larry Ayers
             Published in Issue 39 of Linux Gazette, April 1999
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   [ TABLE OF CONTENTS ] [ FRONT PAGE ] Back Next 
     _________________________________________________________________
   
    "Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                         A Remembrance of Text Past
                                      
                 The Remembrance Agent As An Aid To Writers
                                      
                               by Larry Ayers
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                                Introduction
                                      
   In 1930 a writer named C.E. Montague offered this speculative view of
   one aspect of the writer's craft:
   
     So, to a writer happily engaged on his work and excited by it,
     there may come a curious extension of his ordinary faculties; he
     will find portions of knowledge floating back into his brain,
     available for use, which he had supposed to be thrown away long ago
     on the rubbish-heap outside the back door of his mind; relevant
     passages will quote themselves to his mind from books he scarcely
     remembers to have ever read; and he suddenly sees germane
     connections where in his ordinary state of mind he would see
     nothing. The field of consciousness has expanded again. People of
     strong social instinct often derive the same experience from
     animated conversation; the exercise of their own vivacity stirs
     latent powers of apprehension in them; the area upon which they are
     able to draw for those piquant incongruities, which are the chief
     material of wit, is for the moment widened; the field of comic
     consciousness is enlarged.
     
   Excerpted from A Writer's Notes On His Trade, by C.E. Montague
   
   In Mr. Montague's day a writer had to rely on good memory and
   serendipity, then hope for the best. The advent of the personal
   computer has provided writers with new methods of recalling previously
   read texts which pertain to a work-in-progress. After all, the
   pleasant state of being "happily engaged ... and excited" is
   unpredictable and difficult to summon at will. One function of a
   computer is to act as an extension of human memory. The serendipity of
   chance thoughts and ideas is missing, but searching and indexing along
   with regular expressions can add a new dimension to the retrieval of
   information.
   
   Scott Rosenberg, in a recent issue of the on-line magazine Salon,
   wrote about a variety of PIM software which he and his readers have
   used to organize personal notes and random saved text. (The article is
   available here.) Rosenberg writes that several popular pieces of
   organizing software have been orphaned by their parent companies
   (always a risk when using proprietary programs), leaving users in the
   unfortunate position of depending on unmaintained and static software.
   At the end of the article, after discussing the pros and cons of
   various organizing methods, he mentions that several free-software
   users had e-mailed him descriptions of how Emacs can be used to
   simplify access to collections of textual information, which brings me
   to the subject of this article, a system written by Bradley Rhodes and
   several undergraduate students at MIT.
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                           The Remembrance Agent
                                      
   Imagine typing an essay or letter with an attentive and devoted
   servant peering over your shoulder. Imagine as well that convenient to
   this servant's reach is a well-ordered filing cabinet containing reams
   of documents which concern your various interests. This servant's sole
   duty is to notice the subject matter of the sentence you are typing,
   then to rapidly find all documents which contain any mention of that
   subject and array them upon a table convenient to your occasional
   glance.
   
   Aside from the distraction caused by this bustling servant hovering
   about, the above fantasy is unlikely; no-one is as patient and
   nimble-fingered as this servant would need to be. The Remembrance
   Agent is a software system which in effect acts as this superhuman
   servant. It is composed of the following components:
     * A compiled C program, ra-index, which constructs an indexed binary
       database of the text files in a directory
     * Another executable, ra-retrieve, which will find documents
       matching keywords in the text being currently typed
     * An Emacs-Lisp file, remem.el, which provides an Emacs or XEmacs
       interface to the first two utilities
     * Another Lisp file, remem-custom.el, which allows a user to easily
       customize the directories to be searched, the default screen
       colors, and the time intervals between searchs.
       
   The ra-index program is the core of the system. It is run with this
   syntax:
ra-index [-v] <base-dir> <source1> [<source2>] ...
             [-e <excludee1> [<excludee2>] ...]

   The "basedir" in the command is by default a subdirectory
   of~/RA-indexes, while "source1", etc. can be either individual files
   or entire directories. The files can be saved e-mail messages or
   news-group postings, HTML files, or any other ASCII text files. The
   optional "excludees" are subdirectories which ra-index will ignore.
   
   The  -v  switch at the beginning of the command turns on verbose mode,
   letting you see just what the program is doing. The result is a binary
   database of keywords along with some index files. As an example I ran
   the command on a directory containing all of the back-issues of the
   Gazette. Afterwards a listing of the contents of
   ~/RA-indexes/linux_gazette looked like this:
-rw-r--r--   1 liatris     liatris        41796 Mar 27 13:12 doclens
-rw-r--r--   1 liatris     liatris        34894 Mar 27 13:12 doclocs
-rw-r--r--   1 liatris     liatris        23220 Mar 27 13:12 doclocs_offs
-rw-r--r--   1 liatris     liatris        60270 Mar 27 13:12 titles
-rw-r--r--   1 liatris     liatris         4644 Mar 27 13:12 titles_offs
-rw-r--r--   1 liatris     liatris      2794112 Mar 27 13:12 wordvecs
-rw-r--r--   1 liatris     liatris       571152 Mar 27 13:12 wvoffs

   As a rough idea of the relation of database to source, the directory
   listed above occupies three and one-half mb., while the LG back-issue
   directory is nearly forty mb.; in this case at least the database is
   nearly nine percent as large as the source.
   
   Ra-index deals intelligently with several common file formats. Headers
   of e-mail and usenet messages are ignored as well as the tags in HTML
   files.
   
   The corresponding retrieval program, ra-retrieve, is normally run by
   the Emacs front-end to Remembrance Agent. Typing C-c r r in an Emacs
   session activates RA; a new Agent window appears and the database is
   searched for matches to a configurable number of words surrounding the
   point position in the file being edited.
   
   Here is a screenshot which shows the Agent in action; this HTML file
   is being edited in XEmacs, with the RA window showing files in a
   directory containing past issues of LG:
   
   Agent and XEmacs
   
   Each file shown contains one or more keywords which match a word
   within three hundred characters of the cursor position in the file
   being edited. The number in the leftmost field can be selected with
   the mouse and that file will be loaded in the main editing window; the
   decimal fractions in the next field are the file's "score", with 1.00
   the high end of the range. Clicking the right mouse button on a file's
   line in the RA window will enable the user to see (in a small pop-up
   box) what keywords relate the file to the file in the main window.
   Every few seconds the listings in the RA window are updated to
   correspond to what is currently being written. Depending on typing
   speed this update interval can be a configurable number of seconds.
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                               Installing RA
                                      
   After the two executables have been compiled and moved to
   /usr/local/bin or another binary directory, installation consists of
   copying the two Lisp files to a location Emacs knows about, such as a
   site-lisp directory. Then the remem-custom.el file needs to be edited.
   In this file are options which set the location of the two
   executables, databases to be searched, and font-lock highlighting
   colors. The last step is insertion of these lines in your .emacs file:
(load "remem.el")
(load "remem-custom.el")

   Before starting Emacs (after RA is installed) thought needs to be
   given to choosing files and directories to be indexed. Too many files
   will result in bulky databases and slower searches. I tried indexing
   some old mailbox files and discovered that I save too many messages.
   It all depends on the type of writing and subject matter planned. Run
   ra-index on some varied material, creating several subdirectories in
   ~/RA-indexes, and try them separately, editing the remem-custom.el in
   order to let the Emacs interface know which database to use.
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                                 Conclusion
                                      
   It takes some practice to be able to use RA effectively. At first the
   periodically-refreshed Agent window is distracting; I'd find myself
   wondering just what connection a retrieved filename had to what I was
   writing and lose my train of thought while investigating. One
   technique is to toggle RA off when actively writing (the C-c rr
   command both starts and stops RA), then toggle it back on while
   reviewing newly-typed material. Choosing appropriate files to index
   makes a big difference in RA's usefulness and this takes
   experimentation as well.
   
   I noticed some problems (mainly with the mouse) when running RA under
   XEmacs. The current version (2.01) is the first to support XEmacs at
   all, so possibly future releases will fix the aberrant behavior. Under
   GNU Emacs the package is well-behaved. The documentation at this point
   is minimal but adequate; enough is supplied to install and configure
   the package but little explanation of internals and advanced usage,
   though the source is well-commented.
   
   Aside from these minor complaints, the Remembrance Agent is that rara
   avis in the software world, a software package which truly breaks new
   ground. The concept is innovative enough to explain why using RA is
   rather disconcerting at first and requires some user adaptation.
   Normal user-level software responds to a command, then quiescently
   waits for the next one. RA resembles a daemon process which goes about
   its work in the background, but daemons don't display the fruits of
   this activity in an editor window!
   
   If you would like to give the Remembrance Agent a try, the current
   version is available from the RA home web-site.
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Last modified: Sun Mar 28 10:26:43 CST 1999
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                       Copyright  1999, Larry Ayers
             Published in Issue 39 of Linux Gazette, April 1999
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   [ TABLE OF CONTENTS ] [ FRONT PAGE ] Back Next 
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   "Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   
   
                      The Standard C Library for Linux
                                      
               Part Five: <stdlib.h> Miscellaneous Functions
                                      
                             By James M. Rogers
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   The last article was on <ctype.h> character handling.  This article is
   on <stdlib.h> which contains many small sections: integer math,
   sorting and searching, random numbers, string to number conversions,
   multibyte character conversions, memory allocation and environmental
   functions.   Because this library contains so many small  yet very
   important sections I want to discuss each of these groups in its own
   section.  An example will be given in each section below because these
   functions are too diverse to have a single example for all of them.
   
   I am assuming a knowledge of c programming on the part of the reader.
   There is no guarantee of accuracy in any of this information nor
   suitability for any purpose.
   
   As always, if you see an error in my documentation please tell me and
   I will correct myself in a later document.  See corrections at end of
   the document to review corrections to the previous articles.
   
   Integer Math
   #include <stdlib.h>
       int      abs(int x);
       div_t    div(int numerator, int denominator);
       long int labs(long int x);
       ldiv_t   ldiv(long int numerator, long int denominator);
       
   int x
   int numerator
   int denominator
   The long int versions are the same as the three int arguments.
   
   abs returns the absolute value of the argument.
   div returns a data structure that contains both the quotient and
   remainder.
   labs is the long version of the abs function.
   ldiv is the long version of the div function.
   
   Integer math is math using whole numbers.  No fractions.  This is math
   from the fourth grade.  If you remember the numerator is divided by
   the denominator and the answer is the quotient with the left over
   stuff being the remainder then you have got it.  The div_t and ldiv_t
   are structures that hold the quotient and the remainder.  These
   structures look like this:
   
   struct div_t {
       int quot;
       int rem;
   }
   
   struct ldiv_t {
       long int quot;
       long int rem;
   }
   
   These types are already defined for you in the <stdlib.h> library.
   The example file shows a few ways to use these four functions.
   
   String to Number Conversions
   #include <stdlib.h>
       double   atof(const char *string);
       int      atoi(const char *string);
       long int atol(const char *string);
       double   strtod(const char *string, char **endptr);
       long int strtol(const char *string, char **endptr, int base);
       unsigned long int strtoul(const char *string, char **endptr, int
       base);
       
   const char *string
   char **endptr
   int base
   
   atof is acsii to float conversion.
   atoi is ascii to integer conversion.
   atol is acsii to long conversion.
   strtod is string to double conversion.
   strtol is string to long and the string can contain numbers in bases
   other than base 10.
   strtoul is the same as strtol, except that it returns an unsigned
   long.
   
   If you are reading in a number from user input then you will need to
   use these routines to convert from the digits '1' '2' '3' to the
   number 123.  The easiest way to convert the other way, from a number
   to a string,  is to use the sprintf() function.
   
   The example program is just a sample of use of each of the above
   commands.
   
   Searching and Sorting
   #include <stdlib.h>
       void qsort(void *base, size_t num_of_objs, size_t size_of_obj, int
       (*compar)(const void *, const void *));
       void bsearch(const void *key, void *base, size_t num_of_objs,
       size_t size_of_obj, int (*compar)(const void *, const void *));
       
   void *base
   size_t num_of_objs
   size_t size_of_obj
   const void *
   const void *key
   
   qsort will sort the array of strings using a comparison function that
   you write yourself.
   bsearch will search the sorted array using a comparison function that
   you write yourself.
   
   You do not need to write your own sorting routines yourself.  Through
   the use of these functions you can sort and search through memory
   arrays.
   
   It is important to realize that you must sort an array before you can
   search it because of the search method used.
   
   In order to generate the information to have something to sort I
   combined this example with the random number generation.  I initialize
   a string array with a series of random numbers and then sort it.  I
   then look to see if the string 1000 is in the table.  I finally print
   out the sorted array.
   
   Memory Allocation
   #include <stdlib.h>
       void *calloc(size_t num_of_objs, size_t size_of_objs);
       void free(void *pointer_to_obj);
       void *malloc(size_t size_of_object);
       void *realloc(void *pointer_to_obj, size_t size_of_obj);
       
   size_t num_of_objs
   size_t size_of_objs
   void *pointer_to_obj
   
   free will free the specified memory that was previously allocated.
   You will core dump if you try to free memory twice.
   malloc will allocate the specified number of bytes and return a
   pointer to the memory.
   calloc will allocate the array and return a pointer to the array.
   realloc allows you to change the size of a memory area "on-the-fly".
   You can shrink and grow the memory as you need, be aware that trying
   to access memory beyond what you have allocated will cause a core
   dump.
   
   Runtime memory allocation allows you to write a program that only uses
   the memory that is needed for that program run.  No need to change a
   value and recompile if you ask for the memory at runtime.  Also no
   need to setup arrays to the maximum possible size when the average run
   is a fraction the size of the maximum.
   
   The danger of using memory this way is that in complex programs it is
   easy to forget to free memory when you are done with it.  These
   "memory leaks" will eventually cause your program to use all available
   memory on a system and cause a dump.  It is also important to not
   assume that a memory allocation will always work.   Attempting to use
   a pointer to a memory location that your program doesn't own will
   cause a core dump.  A more serious problem is when a pointer is
   overwriting your own programs memory.  This will cause your program to
   work very erratically and will be hard to pinpoint the exact problem.
   
   I had to write two different examples to demonstrate all the diversity
   of these functions.  In order to actually demonstrate their use I had
   to actually program something halfway useful.
   
   The first example is a stack program that allocates and deallocates
   the memory as you push and pop values from the stack.
   
   The second example reads any file into the computers memory,
   reallocating the memory as it goes.  I left debug statements in the
   second program so that you can see that the memory is only reallocated
   when the program needs more memory.
   
   Environmental
   #include <stdlib.h>
       void abort ( void );
       int atexit ( void ( *func )( void ) );
       void exit ( int status);
       char *getenv( const char *string);
       int setenv ( const char *name, const char *value, int overwrite );
       int unsetenv ( const char *name, const char *value, int overwrite
       );
       int system ( const char *string );
       
   void
   void (*func)(void)
   int status
   const char *string
   const char *name
   const char *value
   int overwrite
   
   abort causes the signal SIGABORT to be sent to your program.  Unless
   your program handles the signal it will exit with an abort error.
   atexit will allow you to run a set of function calls upon exit from
   your program.  You can stack them up quite a bit, I seem to remember
   that you can have up to 32 of these.
   exit will exit your program with the specified integer return value.
   getenv will return the value of the environmental variable specified
   or a NULL if the environmental variable is not set.
   setenv will set the specified variable to the specified value, will
   return a -1 on an error.
   unsetenv will unset the specified variable
   system will execute the specified command string and return the exit
   value of the command.
   
   These functions allow you to connect back to the unix environment that
   you ran your program from and set exit values, read the values of
   environmental variables and run commands from within a c program.
   
   The example program demonstrates how to read an environmental variable
   and the two different methods of setting an environmental variable.
   Run this program without TESTING being set and then run `export
   TESTING=anything` and run the program again.   You will notice the
   difference between the two runs.  Also notice the order of the
   atexit() function calls and the order that they are actually called
   when the program does exit.  Copy one of the abort() calls out before
   the exit and reexecute the program, when the abort is called the
   atexit() functions are not called.
   
   Random Numbers
   #include <stdlib.h>
       int rand(void);
       void srand(unsigned int seed);
       
   void
   unsigned int seed
   
   rand will return a random value between 0 and RAND_MAX.
   seed starts a new sequence of psuedo-random numbers.
   
   The rand function will set the seed to 1 the first time that you call
   rand in your program unless you set it to something else.  The
   sequence of numbers that you get from rand will be in the same order
   if you set seed to the same value each time.  To get closer to truly
   random numbers you should set the seed to something that won't
   repeat.  time() is what I use in the example.
   
   The example for this section has been combined with the sorting and
   searching.
   
   Multibyte Conversions
   #include <stdlib.h>
       int mblen(const char *s, size_t n);
       int mbtowc(wchar_t *pwc, const char *s, size_t n);
       int wctomb(char *s, wchar_t wchar);
       size_t mbstowcs(wchar_t *pwcs, const char *s, size_t n);
       size_t mbstowcs(char *s, wchar_t *pwcs, size_t n);
       
   This is that new fangled multilanguage character mapping stuff.  I
   don't think that I am qualified to write about it yet.  I will revisit
   it once I have covered everything else.  Or maybe someone else could
   tell us how to use these in everyday programming.
     _________________________________________________________________
   
    Bibliography:
    
   The ANSI C Programming Language, Second Edition, Brian W. Kernighan,
   Dennis M. Ritchie, Printice Hall Software Series, 1988
   
   The Standard C Library, P. J. Plauger, Printice Hall P T R, 1992
   
   The Standard C Library, Parts 1, 2, and 3, Chuck Allison, C/C++ Users
   Journal, January, February, March 1995
   
   STDLIB(3), BSD MANPAGE, Linux Programmer's Manual, 29 November 1993
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   
            Previous "The Standard C Library for Linux" Articles
                                      
   The Standard C Library for Linux, stdio.h, James M. Rogers, January
   1998
   The Standard C Library for Linux, stdio.h, James M. Rogers, July 1998
   The Standard C Library for Linux, stdio.h, James M. Rogers, August
   1998
   The Standard C Library for Linux, ctype.h, James M. Rogers, March 1999
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                     Copyright  1999, James M. Robers
             Published in Issue 39 of Linux Gazette, April 1999
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   [ TABLE OF CONTENTS ] [ FRONT PAGE ] Back Next 
     _________________________________________________________________
   
    "Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                        Web Page Design under Linux
                                      
                            By Matus Telgarsky 
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   The "web" started out as a small project in which data was to be
   easily accessed by different people. In modern times, the web has
   filled the role of a worldwide storehouse of data and communication.
   Most companies have a location with which they may now be accessed on
   the internet. Everybody and anybody has a web page nowadays. A good
   web page can captivate the readers and relay information easily.
   Remember; there are 2,000,000 other web pages discussing a topic
   identical to yours; but you want to attract people with a well laid
   out web page. If done right, you can even get people who do not know
   you interested about you. This article will outline how to create an
   attractive webpage under the best of OSes, Linux.
   
    Introduction to Web Page Design
    
   Building an informational and interesting web page can actually be
   difficult. First off, a web page must be aesthetically pleasing. It
   sounds kind of funny, but that is the plain truth. People will enjoy
   what they are reading if what they read is well laid out. Also, a web
   page cannot suck up too much bandwidth. You want to appeal to many
   people; not just those who have an OC3 to their house. Sometimes it
   may be nice to offer a higher and a lower bandwidth version of your
   page. If someone looking for information comes to your page and has to
   wait a long time for it to come in, they will leave. Also, eyecandy
   can be bad. Two thousand little things moving on a screen and sharp
   bright colors will distract and more importantly annoy the reader. I
   know that if I go to a page which annoys me or is too slow, I will go
   to the next that I found! Lastly, be expedient and terse. Modern HTML
   provides many splendid ways to provide data in a small clean manner.
   For example, tables look really nice in newer versions (see
   www.gnome.org for a nice example). Unordered and ordered lists are an
   easy and effective way to lay out info. Well those are the simple
   basics; now let's get to work.
   
    Editing the HTML
    
   A true web page is made by hand. If you wrote a cgi script which
   cranks out html, it was all done by hand (and if a computer did it
   automatically, it was most likely incredibly inefficient). The html
   should be indented and spaced for clarity. Important however is to
   have a program with which to edit HTML, and linux offers many.
   
   A editor for html is vim. The newer versions automatically detect what
   type of file you are editing and will load in key words accordingly.
   Vim will automatically color code certain words, and with different
   colors, alert you to some mistakes, etc. Vim can be attained from
   www.vim.org, and some neat mods for it can be received from
   ftp.mandrake.net. Another editor is Xemacs. Xjed also does the job.
   Both can color code and do all the other nice tricks, all in an
   intuitive and attractive X interface.
   
   HTML editors may seem a superficial thing, however they really help in
   reading code, understanding errors and building web pages quickly,
   efficiently, and cleanly.
   
    Graphics
    
   A web page needs graphics. I don't mean gaudy backgrounds and huge
   logos; I mean images which mesh with the text and other aspects of the
   web page seamlessly. Once again, linux offers many ways to create,
   edit, and view graphics.
   
   Simple graphical elements may made with xpaint and played around with
   and viewed with xv. For the real stuff however, one needs the GIMP (if
   you don't have it, run to www.gimp.org by all costs!). For those who
   are unfamiliar with the GIMP, it is the free photoshop for Linux. Most
   photoshop users will agree that this free software app is easily
   better than photoshop. And it runs on Linux. In any case, with the
   GIMP, logos, transparent images, animated gifs, and a million other
   things can be made. With the GIMP, a background that looked too
   caustic can be modified to be perfect. An image that just doesn't seem
   to fit can have the edges faded into transparency and other neat
   tricks. The GIMP is the comprehensive tool with which to create
   attractive web page graphics. For some creative ideas of what you can
   do with the GIMP, refer to www.gimp.org, contest.gimp.org, and to some
   older linux journal articles.
   
   Graphics must be made to mesh seemlessly with the text and other
   information in a web page. With the GIMP and other tools, professional
   quality graphics can be made quickly and easily. Remember; people will
   stay at that pretty homepage, and if you create nice graphics that go
   well with the rest of the page, than you have a winner.
   
    Miscellania
    
   Other areas of multimedia are also common on the web. Animations can
   be made with the GIMP, and viewed with xanim. The use of midi seems to
   be dying down and so really doesn't seem important. It bugs a lot of
   people, anyway.
   
   A note on backgrounds. Don't make backgrounds that hurt peoples eyes,
   are 2 meg jpegs, or just mess things up in general. Sometimes good
   backgrounds can be a very simple pattern (slashdot.org, just plain
   white). Backgrounds should be interesting, but should not render the
   text unreadable. Newer versions of HTML can make tables look very
   pretty; one approach taken is to have the text in a table on a
   background (www.gnome.org). Remember; if people can't read the page,
   they'll leave! One of the reasons why slashdot.org is so popular is
   because it is very beautifully and easily laid out (kudos go to Rob).
   A rule of thumb is to have a background which is just one color or an
   image without much color variation. One idea would be to emboss what
   you wanted to use as a background and then play with the color balance
   to give it the color you want. But this isn't absolute; don't get me
   wrong, you can break this rule, it is just that this is a rather safe
   approach if nothing else seems to work. Backgrounds are actually an
   extremely tough issue in web page design.
   
   As far as browsers go, there are many possibilities. Netscape/Mozilla
   is pretty much the staple now, especially since it is free and source
   code is distributed (cheers). KDE also has a pretty nice one. Many are
   being developed for GTK/GNOME, and can be looked up at www.gnome.org.
   Even though they are "in development," don't be scared to use them;
   they will definitely make up their shortcomings by being twenty times
   faster than netscape.
   
   Experiment! It's amazing how many ways there are to create
   informational and well outlined web pages! A few examples of good web
   pages are www.gnome.org, www.gimp.org, slashdot.org. Notice that in
   all of these there are no readability problems, no nuisances on the
   screen, terseness, etc. If you notice an HTML trick you like, check
   out the source code and note down the page (bookmark it).
   
    The End.
    
   So now you are ready to make neat wepages fast, right? Right. Always
   keep the basic rules in your head. Remember that you want people
   coming to your page. Necessary grpahics and text editors are easily
   and freely available for linux, and browsers to view your products
   with shouldn't be a problem. Above all else, have fun, make a web page
   you like, and ... use Linux =).
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                     Copyright  1999, Matus Telgarsky
             Published in Issue 39 of Linux Gazette, April 1999
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   [ TABLE OF CONTENTS ] [ FRONT PAGE ] Back Next 
     _________________________________________________________________
   
    "Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                      Xenmenu: An ASCII Menu Generator
                                      
                             By Karyl F. Stein
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Even though the world is moving toward slick graphical user interfaces
   and World Wide Web (WWW) technology, there is still a need to cater to
   those who use ASCII-based terminals. For example, many Internet
   Service Providers offer shell accounts, and even more public-access
   systems see a lot of use of their text-based interfaces. The systems
   that offer ASCII front-ends often have programs to automate common
   tasks that a user would want to accomplish, but the user still has to
   learn how to run those programs from a shell prompt. Some
   organizations have developed complex menu systems that shield the user
   from the intricacies of the underlying system. However, those
   programs-- usually written in some shell scripting language--are often
   slow, offer minimal security, consume an inordinate amount of
   resources, and may be confusing to maintain.
   
   Having experience as an administrator for a few public-access systems,
   I have been faced with the challenge of not only designing browser
   independent WWW interfaces, but also easy-to-use text-based
   interfaces. After creating mixtures of clunky shell scripts and
   inflexible C programs to address the latter, I decided that it would
   make things easier for me and other administrators to have a fast,
   easy-to-manage, and highly configurable method for generating text
   menus. The solution that I came up with, and which I will be
   discussing in this article, is Xenmenu, (pronounced zen-menu).
   
   During the initial design of Xenmenu, a few major goals were
   addressed. First and foremost, a solution that strives to make things
   easy should not be overly complex to use or administrate. At the same
   time, this solution should be flexible enough to allow administrators
   to tailor the system to meet their exacting specifications. These
   requirements may include a security policy for a site, so Xenmenu
   needs to incorporate features that allow it to be used as a secure
   shell. Finally, Xenmenu should be as small and fast as possible.
   
   The four main components of Xenmenu are the core program, the
   configuration files, the menu description files, and the support
   files. The job of the core program is to first configure itself, then
   go into a loop of reading the menu description files, formating and
   displaying them to the user, and reading the user's input. Each of
   these stages will now be described in detail.
   
   There are three configuration files which may or may not exist. The
   first two of these files are analogous to the system-wide and
   user-specific shell configuration files such as /etc/csh.login and
   ~/.login. The final configuration file, which also may or may not
   exist, is the secure configuration file; any previous action taken by
   the first two configuration files may be overridden by the secure
   configuration file. This allows administrators to give users access to
   change their environment without compromising security. Of course, the
   installer may also opt to disallow the user from creating a
   personalized configuration file at all if security is a major concern.
   
   The configuration files only allow two directives: the setting of
   environment variables and the execution of programs. For this reason
   the configuration language is simple. The format of the configuration
   files are:
ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE VALUE
run PROGRAM [ARGUMENT [ARGUMENT ...]]

   The first line is an example of setting an environment variable. An
   example of this in use would be: PAGER /usr/bin/more. This would set
   the environment variable PAGER equal to /usr/bin/more. The second line
   is an example of executing an external program from within the
   configuration file. An example of this would be: run /bin/cat
   /etc/motd.
   
   Once the configuration files are acted upon, a menu file is read and
   displayed to the user. These menu files are the most important part of
   Xenmenu from an administrator's standpoint since they define how the
   menu will look and react to the user. Since most of an administrator's
   time will be spent writing the menu files, they are designed to be
   easy to create. At the same time, flexibility is a major concern.
   
   Menu files are plain text files that may be modified and reinstalled
   even while people are actively using Xenmenu. Each line of a menu file
   is a command, comment, or a blank line. Commands may have zero or more
   arguments separated by one or more spaces depending on the command.
   Comments are inserted by placing a # as the first non-space character
   on a line and continue until a new line is reached. Blank lines are
   ignored.
   
   There are three main parts to a menu file: global options, formatting
   and display options, and choice declarations. Global options should
   appear before any choice declarations are made and affect the overall
   look and feel of the menu. Currently, there are only two global
   options: checkcase and nocheckcase. If checkcase is defined, then
   choice declarations will be case sensitive. This means that if the
   user enters a "Q", it will be acted upon differently than if they
   entered a "q". The default behavior is nocheckcase which means that a
   user may enter either a "Q" or a "q" and the same action will be
   taken.
   
   The bulk of the commands available for use in menu files are the
   formatting and display options. These options define how a menu will
   be drawn on a user's screen and may be given at any point within a
   menu file. The available commands and the arguments they accept, (if
   any), are given below. Arguments given in <> marks are required, while
   those in [] marks are optional. Some references are made to the file
   config.h. This file is part of the Xenmenu distribution and may be
   edited before compilation when installing Xenmenu.
     * center <string>: Centers the given string on the screen. The
       string will be wrapped as needed to fit on the user's screen.
     * columns [number]: Set the number of columns in which to print
       options to [number]. If [number] is not defined, then 1 column is
       used. This is analogous to the HTML <table> declaration.
     * header [header]: Defines the menu header to be [header]. If header
       is blank, then MENUHEAD as defined in config.h is used.
     * name [name]: Defines the menu name to be [name]. If [name] is
       blank, then [name] is cleared.
     * notype: Suppresses the printing of the option type, (i.e. menu,
       file, or exit) after the option name.
     * opttail [string]: Defines [string] as the string to be printed
       after an option value, (it is what separates the option value and
       the option name).
     * print [-n] [string]: Prints [string] to the screen. If no string
       is defined, a blank line will be printed. If [string] contains
       something between '' marks, it is taken as a command to be run. To
       print a ' character, enter it as ''. Environment variables may be
       printed by preceding them with a $ mark. To print a $ character,
       enter it as $$. If the -n argument is given, than a newline is not
       appended to the end of [string]. Usually, all leading spaces and
       tabs are removed from [string] before it is printed to the screen.
       In order to print leading spaces, begin the string with a double
       quote. Any double quotes within the string are treated as literals
       and printed to the screen. A double quote found at the end of a
       string, if the string begins with a double quote, is not printed,
       however. A double quote may also be used if you want to print a -n
       at the beginning of the string. Finally, the string to print will
       be wrapped as needed in order to fit nicely on the user's screen.
     * printfile <file>: Prints the <file> to the screen. If SECURE,
       (defined in config.h), is > 4, then the path to <file> is taken
       from SECUREDIR, otherwise <file> should contain a path.
     * printheader: Prints the menu header. The [header] will be printed
       on the left side of the screen and the [name] on the right side. A
       default header value, defined in config.h is used if header is not
       defined. No name is printed if not defined.
     * printline [string]: Prints a line across the screen. If [string]
       is not defined, a line of dashes will be printed, otherwise a line
       composed of [string] will be printed.
     * prompt [string]: Sets the menu prompt to [string]. If [string] is
       not defined, then DEFAULTPROMPT defined in config.h is used. NOTE:
       Everything after the keyword prompt and a space is taken as the
       prompt, (including spaces).
     * run <file>: Runs the defined file. If SECURE, (defined in
       config.h), is a 1, 3, 5, or 7, then the path to <file> is taken
       from SECURERUN, otherwise <file> should contain a path.
     * type: Prints the option type, (i.e. menu, file, etc.) after the
       option name. This is the default.
       
   Choice declarations define how the menu should react to user input. A
   choice may either run an external program, display a file, load and
   display another menu, or exit the menu system. Each choice may contain
   a value, a name, a comment, or a combination of the three. Choices are
   defined in the following way:
option {
   <definitions>
}

   The <definitions> part may contain one or more of the commands listed
   below. The argument convention is the same as above with required
   arguments contained in <> marks, and optional ones enclosed in []
   marks. Again, references to the file config.h are given.
     * exit: This means that the menu will exit if this option is chosen.
     * file <file>: This is the filename that will be read if the menu
       option is chosen. If SECURE, (defined in config.h), is > 4, then
       the path to <file> will be taken from SECUREDIR, otherwise <file>
       should contain a path.
     * menu <file&gta;: This means that the menu <file> will be loaded if
       this option is picked. If SECURE, (defined in config.h), is a 2,
       3, 6, or 7, then the path to <file> is taken from MENUHOME,
       otherwise <file> should contain a path.
     * run <file>: This means that the program <file> will be run if this
       option is picked. If SECURE, (defined in config.h), is a 1, 3, 5,
       or 7, then the path to <file> is taken from SECURERUN, otherwise
       <file> should contain a path.
     * comment <comment>: This is an optional field which holds a
       description of the menu item.
     * name <name>: This is the name of the option.
     * noprint: This will cause the option not to be printed to the
       screen.
     * value <value>: This is an optional field that holds the menu NOTE:
       Values will be automatically assigned by the menu if none is
       given.
       
   As mentioned above, Xenmenu may also be used as a secure shell. When
   compiling Xenmenu, the administrator may select various security
   options. Zero--the default--or more of these options may be given at
   compile time. The options allow for:
    1. The ability to only run programs in a given path,
    2. The ability to only view files under a certain directory,
    3. The ability to only view menus under a certain directory, and
    4. The ability to turn off parsing a user's personal configuration
       file.
       
   It is important to realize that Xenmenu can not make any guarantees as
   to the security of any external program that it calls; if you allow
   the user to run the mythical program foo from Xenmenu, and foo
   contains a security hole, than the user may be able to exploit that
   hole to violate your security policy. However, by using Xenmenu as a
   user's shell in conjunction with the above security options, an
   administrator can limit what a user may do on the system.
   
   Finally, there are a couple small features that Xenmenu offers which
   are not listed above. First of all, if the user enters something which
   is not an option for the menu they are viewing, what they input is
   sent to a shell for parsing. This allows the user to enter valid shell
   commands even if they are not a menu option. This does not allow them
   to violate any security settings, however. Secondly, the user may
   resize their screen and the next menu loaded will adjust itself to fit
   within the new screen size.
   
   I hope that this article gives you a good understanding of Xenmenu and
   what it can do. I also hope that Xenmenu provides a solution to your
   need for an ASCII menu generator, (if you have such a need).
   Currently, Xenmenu is still under development, however it is actively
   being heavily used on more than one system. The source code for
   Xenmenu is released under the Gnu Public License and may be found at
   http://www.xenos.net/~xenon/software/xenmenu. The author welcomes any
   suggestions, comments, or complaints you may have via E-Mail to
   xenon@xenos.net.
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                      Copyright  1999, Karyl F. Stein
             Published in Issue 39 of Linux Gazette, April 1999
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   [ TABLE OF CONTENTS ] [ FRONT PAGE ] Back Next 
     _________________________________________________________________
   
           Linux Gazette... making Linux just a little more fun! 
                                      
                         Published by Linux Journal
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                                 The Back Page
                                       
     * About This Month's Authors
     * Not Linux
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                         About This Month's Authors
     _________________________________________________________________
   
    Larry Ayers
    
   Larry lives on a small farm in northern Missouri, where he is
   currently engaged in building a timber-frame house for his family. He
   operates a portable band-saw mill, does general woodworking, plays the
   fiddle and searches for rare prairie plants, as well as growing
   shiitake mushrooms. He is also struggling with configuring a Usenet
   news server for his local ISP.
   
    Bill Bennet
    
   Bill, the ComputerHelperGuy, lives in Selkirk, Manitoba, Canada; the
   "Catfish Capitol of North America" if not the world. He is on the
   Internet at www.chguy.net. He tells us "I have been a PC user since
   1983 when I got my start as a Radio Shack manager. After five years in
   the trenches, I went into business for myself. Now happily divorced
   from reality, I live next to my Linux box and sell and support GPL
   distributions of all major Linux flavours. I was a beta tester for the
   PC version of Playmaker Football and I play `pentium-required' games
   on the i486. I want to help Linux become a great success in the gaming
   world, since that will be how Linux will take over the desktop from
   DOS." It is hard to believe that his five years of university was only
   good for fostering creative writing skills.
   
    Jim Dennis
    
   Jim is the proprietor of Starshine Technical Services and is now
   working for LinuxCare. His professional experience includes work in
   the technical support, quality assurance, and information services
   (MIS) departments of software companies like Quarterdeck,
   Symantec/Peter Norton Group and McAfee Associates -- as well as
   positions (field service rep) with smaller VAR's. He's been using
   Linux since version 0.99p10 and is an active participant on an
   ever-changing list of mailing lists and newsgroups. He's just started
   collaborating on the 2nd Edition for a book on Unix systems
   administration. Jim is an avid science fiction fan -- and was married
   at the World Science Fiction Convention in Anaheim.
   
    Michael J. Hammel
    
   A Computer Science graduate of Texas Tech University, Michael J.
   Hammel, mjhammel@graphics-muse.org, is an software developer
   specializing in X/Motif living in Dallas, Texas (but calls Boulder, CO
   home for some reason). His background includes everything from data
   communications to GUI development to Interactive Cable systems, all
   based in Unix. He has worked for companies such as Nortel, Dell
   Computer, and Xi Graphics. Michael writes the monthly Graphics Muse
   column in the Linux Gazette, maintains the Graphics Muse Web site and
   theLinux Graphics mini-Howto, helps administer the Internet Ray
   Tracing Competition (http://irtc.org) and recently completed work on
   his new book "The Artist's Guide to the Gimp", published by SSC, Inc.
   His outside interests include running, basketball, Thai food,
   gardening, and dogs.
   
    Ron Jenkins
    
   Ron has over 20 years experience in RF design, satellite systems, and
   UNIX/NT administration. He currently resides in Central Missouri where
   he is pursuing his writing, helping folks solve problems and find
   solutions, teaching, and generally having a dandy time while looking
   for some telecommuting work. Ron is married and has two stepchildren.
   Ron has begun to worry about referring to himself in the third person.
   
    Eric Marsden
    
   Eric is studying computer science in Toulouse, France, and is a member
   of the local Linux Users Group. He enjoys programming, cycling and Led
   Zeppelin. He admits to once having owned a Macintosh, but denies any
   connection with the the Eric Conspiracy Secret Labs.
   
    J.W. Pennington
    
   After 8 years, J.W. Pennington escaped from the U.S. Military and is
   currently in hiding. He is posing as an older student who is
   completing his degrees in Anthropology and Geology at the College of
   Charleston in South Carolina. He began playing with computers at the
   age of 12, and still has the TI 99/4A on which he taught himself
   BASIC. A collector of old computers, his lifelong dream is to build a
   house in the shape and color of a Vic-20, with a huge keyboard as the
   front porch, and a game port as the garage. Sometimes he hears voices.
   
    James Rogers
    
   James and Shala Rogers live on the Olympic Peninsula in the middle of
   nowhere. James is a systems programmer for the University of
   Washington Medical Centers, Harborview Medical Centers and the
   University of Washington Physicians Network. He is a Health Level 7
   Interface programmer who is currently writing a GNU licensed HL7
   interface. These interfaces allow approximately 40 medical computer
   systems to communicate with each other across the entire Seattle
   Metropolitan area.
   
    Richard Sevenich
    
   Richard is a Professor of computer science at Eastern Washington
   University in Cheney, WA. He is also a part-time ski patroller at
   Schweitzer Mountain near Sandpoint, Idaho. His computer science
   interests include Fuzzy Logic, Application-Specific Languages and
   Parallel, Distributed, Real-time Industrial Control. He is an
   enthusiastic user of Debian/GNU Linux.
   
    Karyl F. Stein
    
   Karyl is an undergraduate student at Purdue University. He has been
   involved with running various public-access systems for a number of
   years including "America's First Public Access UNIX System" M-Net,
   (found at m-net.arbornet.org), and his own personal system, Freeport,
   (which may be found at freeport.xenos.net).
   
    Matus Telgarsky
    
   Matus has been avid an avid Linux user for many years now. Web page
   design has been dear to hime due to many jobs he receives being
   webmaster and making web pages, and since he will not touch anything
   but Linux, that is where he makes his web pages.
   
    Paul Woods
    
   Paul is an electrical engineer who, together with wife Suzanne, has
   four young children, a mortgage, and little free time. So he is glad
   to be able to play with Linux at his job with Hewlett-Packard Company,
   where he has worked since 1994. Paul graduated with a M.Sc.E.E. from
   Brigham Young University.
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                                 Not Linux
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Thanks to all our authors, not just the ones above, but also those who
   wrote giving us their tips and tricks and making suggestions. Thanks
   also to our new mirror sites.
   
   Have fun!
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Marjorie L. Richardson
   Editor, Linux Gazette, gazette@ssc.com
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   [ TABLE OF CONTENTS ] [ FRONT PAGE ] Back 
     _________________________________________________________________
   
      Linux Gazette Issue 39, April 1999, http://www.linuxgazette.com
      This page written and maintained by the Editor of Linux Gazette,
                              gazette@ssc.com
                                      
           Copyright  1999 Specialized Systems Consultants, Inc.
