raymond@math.berkeley.edu (Raymond Chen) (09/20/90)
There seems to be a recent spurt of questions which are answered
in the monthly Frequently Asked Questions. (Because the academic
year is starting?)
As a reminder to new readers: The file of Frequently Asked Questions
is posted near the beginning of the month with a month-long expiration
date, so there should always be a copy of it available. If you can't
find one, you can obtain a fresh copy by sending electronic mail
to the account rjc@math.princeton.edu with a blank subject line, and
containing the single line
send faq.csip
Note that mail to this account is never seen by a human being%, so be
careful to get it right. In particular, don't append a signature.
% - Well, if everything goes right, the mail is never seen by a human
being.
--
Raymond Chen (raymond@math.berkeley.edu)
Maintainer of the comp.sys.ibm.pc Frequently Asked Questions.raymond@math.berkeley.edu (Raymond Chen) (09/24/90)
Seeing as it's the time of year for lots of questions from people
who are new to the group, let me point out that there exist many
files which attempt to answer some of the more frequently-asked
questions in the comp.sys.ibm.pc hierarchy.
One such you should have seen by now is the infamous "Answers
to Frequently Asked Questions" in comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc. This article
describes some additional files new users may find useful.
First, a partial list of the files available, then instructions on
how to request these files.
Filename What it discusses
-------- -----------------
faq.csip Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
faq.more More Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
old.questions
Less frequently asked questions.
products "What does everyone think of <Company X>?"
starter.kit
"How do I decode the programs posted to comp.binaries.ibm.pc?"
24hrs "Should I leave my computer on 24 hours a day?"
"Is it okay to mount my computer sideways?"
books "Can anyone recommend a book that describes..."
"Who is the publisher of..."
cache "How does a disk cache work?"
coherent "What do you think of Mark Williams' UNIX clone?"
comm "Where can I get UUCP/news for my PC?"
"How do I access COM3 and COM4?"
"How do I make a null modem?"
contact "What is the phone number/address/BBS number for..."
editor "Where can I get emacs for the PC?"
"Which editors handle very long lines?"
"Which editors handle very large files?"
"Which editors can take advantage of 43-line mode?"
"Which editors are suitable for scientific writing?"
memory "What is the difference between expanded and extended memory?"
nobreak "How can I disable Ctrl-Break?"
post "What does error code ### mean when I boot my machine?"
x.windows "Where can I get X Windows for the PC?"
How to obtain these files
-------------------------
If you have ftp capability, ftp the files from math.princeton.edu
[128.112.128.157] from the directory pub/rjc/csip. Most of the
files have been compressed by the UNIX "compress" program (consult
faq.csip to see how to uncompress these files).
If you do not have ftp capability, you can request them via email.
Send a message to rjc@math.princeton.edu with a BLANK subject line,
and containing lines
send XXXX
send YYYY
where you should replace XXXX and YYYY with the names of the file you
want. Do *NOT* append a signature or prepend any header information.
Mail sent to the account rjc@math.princeton.edu is processed by a very
stupid computer program.
If you are requesting the files by email, please read that preceding
paragraph *very* carefully. Notice that the address is not the address
I'm posting from. Notice that signatures must not be appended.
Notice that the word "send" is in lowercase.
Please use ftp if your system is capable of doing it. Transmitting
large quantities of email is considered impolite by many system
adminstrators.