Info-IBMPC@WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL ("Info-IBMPC Digest") (06/21/91)
Info-IBMPC Digest Thu, 20 Jun 91 Volume 91 : Issue 155
Today's Editor:
Gregory Hicks - Rota Spain <GHICKS@WSMR-Simtel20.Army.Mil>
Today's Topics:
Computer Folklore
DOS 5 odds 'n' ends
Echoing blank lines
Today's Queries:
Color Scanner/OCR Combination
Double DIsk
Editor Manufacture address
floppy drive mystery
Getting multiple files
Get username on LAN
Help finding backup programs
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Date: Mon, 10 Jun 91 16:16:42 EDT
From: Steven Segletes <steven@BRL.MIL>
Subject: Computer Folklore
On the topic of computer folklore, I enclose the text of an on-site
computer programming course announcement from the U.S. Army Ballistic
Research Laboratory, which dates back to the 1950's. The BRL was home
for the world's first all electronic digital computer, the ENIAC, in
the late 1940's, which was designed (using base 10) to compute the
firing tables for U.S. Army Ordnance. With tongue planted firmly in
cheek, the announcement serves to highlight the state of technology in
the good ol' days.
Steve Segletes <steven@brl.mil>
U.S. Army Ballistic Research Laboratory (*)
Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD
(*) Will likely go the way of the ENIAC as of October 1991, when it
gets absorbed by the Army's Laboratory Consolidation Efforts.
Date: Fri, 16 Jun 89 9:28:22 EDT
From: Mike Danish (VLD/GSB) <mbd@BRL.MIL>
Subject: For computer types
Due to the recent frequency of announcements concerning local
computer courses, I thought it might be interesting to see how this was
done in the "old" days. Even though the following was unsigned, I
suspect Dr. John Giese had something to do with it.
WHAT?
CAN EVEN THE DIRECTOR PROGRAM HIS OWN PROBLEMS NOW?
My friends at the Computing Laboratory laughed when I sat down at
the console, but their supercilious jeers instantly turned to
respectful cheers for my virtuosity and cunning control of the machine
when my own program for computing lethal volumes operated successfully
at the very first trial. "When did you ever find time to do it?" they
gasped. "We thought it took special talent and years of arduous
application, patient practice, and stultifying study at the world
renowned computing conservatories of Cambridge, Urbana, New York,
Washington, Los Angeles and Los Alomos to achieve such phenomenal
proficiency."
"Nay! Nay! Forsooth!", I scoffed. "In five easy one-hour lessons
over a period of one week at the Ballistic Institute, I mastered the
essentials of numerical THAUMATURGY and its applications by
incantation, enumeration, and simple synthesis of definitely decimal
digits, exactly eight easy kinds of instructions, a library of standard
subroutines, and my own formulas. No longer am I completely dependent
on charisma, serendipity, and the sympathetic magic of crystal balls,
slide rules, and other analogue devices for my calculations. Now I can
code my own short, simple, one-shot or few-shot programs, submit them
for 72-hour service at the Computing Laboratory, and receive the
results of the calculations while I am still interested and still need
them. Now I am the LIFE of the project and am in constant demand at
Ramo-Wooldrige (now TRW), the RAND Corporation, Lockheed Aircraft,
Tidewater Oil Company, the Smithsonian Institution and Eglin AFB.
You too can repeat this experience. No special knack or talent is
required. Positively everyone who really wants to, no matter how
brilliant, impatient, or important, can learn to program with
THAUMATURGY: secretaries, scientists, technicians, branch chiefs,
laboratory (now division) chiefs, and other administrators or drones.
Just fill out and return the attached coupon to enroll in the Ballistic
Institute's amazing new course in grossly oversimplified programming
for high-speed computers, adapted from the Computing Laboratory's
long-standing standard operating routines.
Every student will receive at the beginning of the course, a
Do-It-Yourself-Kit consisting of the THAUMATURGY Manual, blank
programming sheets, specimen punched cards and tapes, catalogs of
subroutines, THAUMATURGE's License, neoprene- tipped hexagonal
cylindrical cellulose divining rod with graphite core, etc.
As a special added inducement, each of the first five (5) applicants
will receive, at no extra charge: (i) Two (2) pounds of rectangular,
heavy duty, high grade, precision die cut confetti from the summary
card punch; (ii) A handsome autographed copy of the Hon. Jack S.
Phogbound's inspiring address, "Automation! Where is Thy Sting?"
lithographed in red, white, and blue, suitable for framing for office,
classroom or home;; (iii) A magnetic tape recording of genuine IGY*
data (hear the whistle of the missile on your own hi-fi); and (iv) A
lifetime subscription to Computer's Digest or the Ordnance Computer
Research Report.
Enroll immediately and avoid the rush!
The above was circa 1957
*International Geophysical Year
One further reflection: In 1954, the ENIAC's scheduled time was 164
hours per week. That year, the "good" time was 116 hours per week, or
70.7% up time.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 17 Jun 91 09:03:57 EDT
From: Joe Morris <jcmorris@mwunix.mitre.org>
Subject: DOS 5 odds 'n' ends
I second the comments about DOS 5 in INFO-IBMPC 91:139. I've installed
copies of the production code on numerous machines over the past month
or so; the only problem encountered (other than the ones noted in the
readme files) was a Plus fixed disk (not hardcard) with strange
geometry which required a new driver. The only dead-in-the-water
software product was the File Command II menuing program which IBM used
to market under the PDS banner...and no longer supports.
Installation was a snap. I timed the installation procedure on a PS/2
55SX at under 10 minutes elapsed; the uninstall process was under one
minute. If you *do* uninstall, you should be aware that the process
will restore the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT to their state as of the
installation, and any changes you have made between install and
uninstall will be lost.
You need about 3.2 MB of available disk space to install DOS 5; about
2.6 MB will be consumed. The numbers are high because your old DOS
directory is still around; you get its space back when you burn the
bridges used by the uninstall process.
There are the usual reports of some VGA cards which confuse the
installation program into incorrectly configuring the system. The
installation program displays a screen showing what it thinks is in the
computer; check it (especially the display type) carefully.
Both Microsoft and several major vendors of memory management software
(e.g., Qualitas) say that the memory management features of DOS 5 give
the functions you could get from the third-party software perhaps four
years ago. Out-of-the-box memory savings are about 42K below the 640K
line compared to DOS 3.3 (the 55SX saved 46K) if you have memory
addressable as HMA. Without HMA you lose about 13KB. Using 386^max,
QEMM, or similar products give you additional features like memory
optimization and the ability to shoehorn drivers and TSRs into odd
corners of memory.
In an aside to one of the postings in 91:139 pgn questions the
statement that the DOS kit doesn't have a bootable diskette. That's
correct; the *upgrade* kit is just that. By design it cannot be used
to install DOS on a machine which doesn't already have a working copy.
As far as I know Microsoft is selling under its own name *only* upgrade
kits and not full installation packages. You're expected to buy the
full package from whatever OEM built your computer. The upgrade kit,
by the way, will supposedly retain any special features in the OEM
version of DOS on which it is installed.
This lack of a bootable diskette almost did me in on one machine. I
upgraded a PS/2-70-121 (20 MHz mod 70 with a 120 MB disk) from PC-DOS
3.3. The disk was partitioned into four logical drives, each < 32 MB,
and (of necessity) using a DOS-16 format in the FAT. Although I
haven't seen this happen on other machines with disks > 32 MB, the
installation process quietly rebuilt the FATs in each partition to use
the BIGDOS format. In configuring the CONFIG.SYS file I made a misteak
and couldn't boot from the fixed disk...and then found that my DOS 3.3
bootable floppy wouldn't recognize the fixed disk. I recovered by
booting the uninstall disk (created during DOS 5 installation) and
abusing the machine during that boot process until it gave me a DOS
prompt. Moral: first thing after installing DOS 5, create a bootable
diskette.
The upgrade disk includes new drivers for numerous networks. These
drivers are supposed to provide a bridge while you get more recent
versions from the network vendors. The installation process will not
install them; that's left as an exercise for the student.
MS-DOS vs. PC-DOS: so far I can't tell any real difference except that
PC Week reports that the PC-DOS upgrade cannot be done over a network.
A local Egghead salesman says that "Your system will crash if you use
the PC-DOS upgrade on a non-IBM machine and vice versa", but I havn't
seen any problems with running the MS-DOS upgrade (on top of PC-DOS) on
any of numerous non-Blue systems. Egghead's price is $40 for either
upgrade if you fill out the questionnaire.
Summary: Especially for the price it's hard to justify not upgrading if
your machine can address HMA. Without HMA it isn't so clear a
decision. Now, if only I could convince IBM to fix File Command II...
#include <ansi.standard.disclaimer>
Joe
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 07 Jun 91 10:34:38 SET
From: Johan <JBERTELO%RKC.UFSIA.AC.BE@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
Subject: Echoing blank lines
How about typing "ECHO." (Works for sure with PC-DOS 4.0 and MS-DOS
4.01
--- Greetings from Belgium,
--- Johan
Johan BERTELOOT | E-mail : JBERTELO@RKC.UFSIA.AC.BE
User support service | BITNET : JBERTELO@BANUFS11.BITNET
Computer Center | +--------------------------------------------
University of Antwerp | | Areas of interest : Programming (Pascal,
Belgium | | C, Assembler), AI, Expertsystems,
------------------------------
SSubject: Today's Queries:
Date: 7 Jun 91 15:17:00 CDT
From: bradley@eglin.af.mil
Subject: Color Scanner/OCR Combination
I am looking for a color scanner that also works well as a grey-scale
scanner and an optical character reader (OCR).
This machine will be
connected to an 80386 PC running MS-DOS version 4.0 and Windows 3.0.
The research that I have conducted indicates that good color scanners
make lousy OCRs. I would like to survey the readers of this list to
see if any of you have found a machine that performs the OCR and color
scanning well. Please respond directly to me with hardware/software
configurations and I'll summarize to the list next week.
Thanks,
Don Bradley
DDN: BRADLEY@EGLIN.AF.MIL
P.S. I have no fancy sig blocks and everything I do on this list is of
my own doing, without the knowledge of anyone else (and usually
without the knowledge of myself)
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 10 Jun 1991 07:59 IST
From: moshe solow <CUCMS%HUJIVM1@TAUNIVM.TAU.AC.IL>
Subject: Double DIsk
Does anyone have info on "Double Disk" a commercial software program
(No hardware) that "doubles the space of your hard disk" with very
limited execute penalties.
It apparently build a virtual area and encrypts aand decrypts data as
it is called. I hear on a 286 and 386 it "is hardly noticeable".
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Date: 11 Jun 91 11:53:00 CDT
From: richardm@eglin.af.mil
Subject: Editor Manufacture address.
Does anyone out there have the address for a company that makes an
editor called 'EC'. I think it is made by 'C Source'. I would like to
purchase some copies of their editor. A phone number would be handy
too. Please send replies to me.
Thanks in advance...
Mark
RICHARDM@UV4.EGLIN.AF.MIL
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Date: Mon, 10 Jun 91 12:31:00 EST
From: MILLERB%BABSON.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu
Subject: floppy drive mystery
I have a floppy drive question that I hope someone can answer.
In the process of reviving an IBM AT, I found that I could read both
360k and 1.2m disks but I could not write to or format either kind.
Any such attempt resulted in the message "Invalid media or track 0 bad
- disk unusable." I tried many disks, with the same result, and I
satisfied myself that the problem was not in the disks.
To determine whether the problem was in the drive itself or in the
controller, I exchanged the drive with one from another machine
(specifically, a Gateway 386). If the AT's drive was at fault, it
should not work in the Gateway, and the Gateway's drive should work in
the AT. If, on the other hand, the AT's controller was at fault, the
AT's drive should work in the Gateway but the Gateway's drive should
not work in the AT.
The results are paradoxical: the AT's drive works in the Gateway, AND
the Gateway's drive works in the AT. What's going on here? Can anyone
tell me: a)what's wrong with what, and b)is there anything wrong with
leaving things as they are now (i.e. with the drives swapped)?
Any enlightenment will be appreciated.
Ben Miller
millerb@babson
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Date: Tue, 11 Jun 91 16:18:40 EDT
From: Jean-Serge Gagnon <JSG8A%ACADVM1.UOTTAWA.CA@VMD.CSO.UIUC.EDU>
Subject: Getting multiple files
I have FTP access to the SIMTEL20 server. I am just starting to look
through the different directories. There is so much interesting
software that I don't know what NOT to get.
Anyways, it happens a lot that I want to get 5 or 6 files at a time. My
FTP connection is using VM TCP/IP FTPR1.2.1. Now; once I've transfered
from SIMTEL20, I have to transfer to my PC.
Two problems:
1) Is there any utility for VM to do an automatic transfer of more than
one file at a time? I read somwhere in INFO-IBMPC about something
similar for PCs. It would be fun to start it at nite or something.
2) Since I am limited to 1395 block of 1024 (bytes?) each, is there a
combination PC/VM utility that will transfer directly from the remote
FTP site to my PC?
Even better, combine the two, although if I got the 2nd, I could always
write a batch file for it.
The second looks to me that it would have to run from the PC, using
whatever protocols are needed to send commands to the mainframe without
having to enter user input. Before having those commands sent, the user
would have to log on to his account and of course the remote ftp site.
Once that is done, a series of commands (i.e. CD blabla, GET fn.ft
fn.ft.fm, etc...) could be sent everytime the proper prompt is
received, much like IBM's send & receive to transfer files from the PC
to the mainframe.
I have a PC-AT clone 12MHz, EGA-Mono, 1.2M 5 1/4", 1.44M 3 1/2", 20M HD
and 1Meg RAM. The mainframe is connected to a gateway, I get to it
through an IBM SNA connection (or is it Non-SNA?) with an IBM card. The
emulation software (for a 3270 terminal) is version 3.00.
Jean-Serge Gagnon Internet: <JSG8A@ACADVM1.UOTTAWA.CA>
Bitnet: <JSG8A@UOTTAWA.BITNET>
Specialiste en Equipement Informatique
Hardware Maintenance Specialist
Universite d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
(613) 564-5903 ou/or 7813
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Date: Mon, 10 Jun 91 14:07:33 -0400
From: jguo@cs.NYU.EDU (Jun Guo)
Subject: Get username on LAN
I want to get the username currently logged on (and running my
program) in my program. I learned that this is not in the standard
MS-DOS system calls. The extended NOS system call in LANtastic is
5f83. Is this the same as in Novell? Is there any libraries that
provides these extended NOS calls that I can link with my Clipper'87
program?
Thanks a lot
Jun
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Date: Mon, 10 Jun 91 11:30:22 MDT
From: tims@goshawk.LANL.GOV (Tim Sullivan)
Subject: Help finding backup programs
I've been searching for public domain programs to back up a small (40
Mb) hard disk to floppies under DOS. I don't seem to be getting much
response other places on the net, so I thought I'd ask the digest for
the definitive answer that such a beast doesn't exist.
I was hoping that the hypothetical program worked faster than the DOS
backup command, was less susceptible to interruptions, and used
compression to reduce the number of disks. I know that such programs
are available commercially for around $100 (having read the latest PC
Magazine review of backup programs), but even that stretches my budget.
(It also seemed like just the kind of program that someone would write
for public domain, since it is needed by everybody.)
Thanks for any help.
Tim Sullivan (tims@goshawk.lanl.gov)
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End of Info-IBMPC Digest V91 #155
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