arachne-digest Tuesday, March 7 2000 Volume 01 : Number 1027 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 6 Mar 2000 00:15:06 -0500 (EST) From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Howard Eisenberger) Subject: Re: Improper HTML rendering of high ascii characters "Samuel W. Heywood" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > >If I wanted to use my Arachne to compose and send a note in the Spanish >language to another list member, then I would need to use the following >special non-English characters: > >�, �, �, �, �, �, �, � > >If you are looking at the text .CNM file, the above characters are properly >viewed as� (thus): > >ascii 160 = � >ascii 130 = � >ascii 161 = � >ascii 162 = � >ascii 163 = � >ascii 164 = � >ascii 168 = � >ascii 173 = � > >In order to get the aforementioned characters to be rendered correctly by >HTML, I have to use the ALT + NUM characters listed below: > >225 � >233 � >237 � >243 � >250 � >241 � >191 � >161 � I'm not using Arachne, but at the DOS console. If I view your message with CP437 (IBM) or CP850, the top line and bottom group are wrong, and the middle group is right. However, if I use CP819 (ISO-8859-1 or ISO-LATIN-1), the top line and bottom group are right and the middle group is wrong. >Why is HTML programmed in such a way so as to not perform a one-for-one >rendering of high ascii characters? IMHO, it would seem a good idea if >all HTML viewers and text-to-HTML converters were to adhere to the >international ascii standard. This would eliminate many problems in >attempting to correspond with someone in a language that is other than >one's own. I believe that in this case, ISO-LATIN-1 is the de-facto standard. This topic just came up (again) at my local FreeNet. I put a couple of files at http://www.ncf.ca/~ag221/accents/ that you might find helpful. Howard Eisenberger Ottawa - -- Attention, ce message est compos� de particules subatomiques se d�pla�ant � plusieurs centaines de milliers de m�tres par seconde. Manipuler avec pr�cautions. ... DOS TCP/IP * <URL:http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~ag221/dosppp.html> ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 05 Mar 2000 21:12:33 -0800 From: Steve Evans <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Arachne load error is history for now Sergei and all others, I have given up on ISPs Freewwweb or Compuserve working in Los Angeles area via Arachne for now. I got internet access from our local phone company, Pacific Bell. They don't use the UUNET lines, so Arachne works beautifully. I tried installing version 1.60b, but ran into memory problems (running a small home network), so I went back to version 1.50src. [Incidentally, are there known problems with version 1.60's setup wizard? I couldn't even get past the video screen --always tabbed past the the settings I wanted and then went nowhere when I ENTERed. Hit "O" for Options and proceeded to act just as crazy on other setup screens.] I don't know what Compuserve's problem was, but Freewwweb's use of UUNET local access nodes (I understand that many ISPs use UUNET) is somehow involved in tripping up Arachne within metro LA. Again, I was able to surf with Arachne just fine on Freewwweb using an access number outside of my area, also a UUNET node (per TRACERT) but obviously something different. Is it possible that access nodes in Los Angeles have extra security or spam blocking agents? Else it must be some variation in protocol or redirection that standard browsers (IE/Netscape) are able to negotiate, yet Arachne cannot. If Arachne is destined to fly in any metropolitan area like Los Angeles, seems like a question worth pursuing. But I'm afraid I can't spend any more time on it. On to other puzzles . . . Thanks again everyone for your attention and creativity and patience. Steve Evans ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 06 Mar 2000 01:12:34 -0500 From: "Clarence Verge" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: Arachne load error is history for now On Sun, 05 Mar 2000 21:12:33 -0800, Steve Evans wrote: > [Incidentally, are there known problems with version 1.60's setup wizard? I > couldn't even get past the video screen --always tabbed past the the > settings I wanted and then went nowhere when I ENTERed. Hit "O" for Options > and proceeded to act just as crazy on other setup screens.] Hi Steve; V1.60b1 has known (and probably fixed by now) problems. Among them are problems with the initial video setup and an inability to work properly without a mouse driver installed. (Even if you don't use a mouse) Hang around for the next issue !! - Clarence Verge - -- Using Arachne 1.50b2 for a change. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 5 Mar 2000 23:41:37 -0800 (PST) From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Steven Lawson) Subject: OT: Troubles with military service > The reason is that children are trained at low age, that wearing a weapon > is normal, and cool. (IMHO ... sorry if I insult you with this ...) Only if you consider Hollywood movies "training". Of course, that starts a whole other topic.. > Yes ... but what I wanted to point out is, that guns are normal 'machines' > in america ... it is normal to wear them, and gun lobbyists state that it > is even the law that allows it. Someone has been watching too many American films. There are not alot of places where it is normal to wear a gun, open or concealed in the U.S. I believe it *is* legal here in Oregon to carry open, but rarely seen as far as handguns are concerned. Rifles *are* seen here often, usually hunters carrying them into the woods to go hunting. It's not too hard to get a concealed carry permit here, and many people have them. You have to pass a gun safety test, and get a background check by the police every 4 years. It's nearly impossible to get one in many states, including California. The 2nd amendment to the Constitution deals with firearm ownership. It's wording is very strange, such that it can be interpreted totally differently depending upon whether or not you research the basis of it. In other words, just reading it and applying current definitions to the wording it appears to apply to the military. You realize something must be wrong once you realize that the *last* thing the writers wanted at the time was an armed government, thus requiring more research into the thinking and wording of the document as written over 200 years ago. Anti-gun groups try and portray it in a 20th-century interpretation. Pro-gun groups try and put forth the original interpretation. The NRA, as far as I've observed, has somehow derived it's own "as long as it's a sporting use" interpretation which baffles me... > >> but just try to drink a beer in public, and off you go to jail ... > >> (this is simply unthinkable for me ....) I think one of the biggest problems with people comparing the U.S. with their own countries is that they don't realize the size and layout of the U.S. First, the U.S. is *big*. My state, Oregon, is bigger than England. There are 49 other states. Each state has their own laws regarding alcohol and firearms. The federal government is limited by the Constitution in the power they have over the states. So, the U.S. is more like 50 different countries. Thus, while it may be illegal to drink on the street in Oregon (though the police rarely enforce it) it appears perfectly legal in Nevada (or, maybe the police just don't enforce it there on a wider scale?) Alot of the gun violence is "turf wars" between rival gangs. I can pretty much guarantee that there is nothing legal about them carrying nor shooting their guns. The random shooting and accidents might seem high until you think about the fact that these reports are coming from the equivilent of 50 countries (50 independent states), reported by a large number of news agencies competing with each other for the most sensational story to grab more viewers. Really, it's not as bad here as it appears on the news. > guns easily accesible to children, and beer in public prohibited. > This is unthinkable in Europe. Well, guns should *not* be easily accessible to kids, without parental supervision. The problem is, kids *can* manage to get them if they try and the only place they get firearm experience oftentimes is the movies (you know, the ones that show how cool and common the carrying of a gun is in America). I personally believe that kids should be instructed in *safe* gun handling at an early age, then given plenty of opportunity to go out "plinking" with your supervision so their curiosity doesn't get a chance to build up. Both of my sons learned at an early age what a gun can do, where to not point the muzzle and why, and how to *properly* unload a semiauto pistol lest someone die from an "unloaded" gun. In doing so, they are very responsible when we take the guns out for an afternoon of plinking in the woods (they are 15 and 18 now). > >> I understand that there are GREAT differences between american and > >> european culture, and apologize if somebody feels offended, but this > >> is my oppinion .... > This applies to this letter too :) I've really been trying to avoid posting to this thread, as this topic can get very heated and the Arachne list really isn't the place. I just had to put in my 2-cents worth on the subject and hope the list soon can return to its charter. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 06 Mar 2000 03:06:59 -0500 From: "Samuel W. Heywood" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: Improper HTML rendering of high ascii characters On Mon, 6 Mar 2000 00:15:06 -0500 (EST), [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Howard Eisenberger) wrote: > "Samuel W. Heywood" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> If I wanted to use my Arachne to compose and send a note in the Spanish >> language to another list member, then I would need to use the following >> special non-English characters: >> �, �, �, �, �, �, �, � >> If you are looking at the text .CNM file, the above characters are properly >> viewed as� (thus): >> ascii 160 = � >> ascii 130 = � >> ascii 161 = � >> ascii 162 = � >> ascii 163 = � >> ascii 164 = � >> ascii 168 = � >> ascii 173 = � >> In order to get the aforementioned characters to be rendered correctly by >> HTML, I have to use the ALT + NUM characters listed below: >> 225 � >> 233 � >> 237 � >> 243 � >> 250 � >> 241 � >> 191 � >> 161 � > I'm not using Arachne, but at the DOS console. If I view your message > with CP437 (IBM) or CP850, the top line and bottom group are wrong, > and the middle group is right. However, if I use CP819 (ISO-8859-1 or > ISO-LATIN-1), the top line and bottom group are right and the middle > group is wrong. Thank you for the feedback, but I don't know how to interpret the information you have provided. I do not understand how line 1 could possibly be right when viewed from the DOS console. As viewed from within Insight, and rendered to HTML, then line 1 is correct. When viewed from the DOS console the middle group and the bottom group are correct. How could it be any other way? The numeric keypad is always mapped the same regardless of whatever keyboard selection you should set up. > I believe that in this case, ISO-LATIN-1 is the de-facto standard. > This topic just came up (again) at my local FreeNet. I put a couple > of files at http://www.ncf.ca/~ag221/accents/ that you might find > helpful. OK, thanks. I'll take a look at them. >Howard Eisenberger >Ottawa >-- >Attention, ce message est compos� de particules subatomiques se >d�pla�ant � plusieurs centaines de milliers de m�tres par seconde. >Manipuler avec pr�cautions. >.... DOS TCP/IP * <URL:http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~ag221/dosppp.html> All the best, Sam Heywood P.S. BTW, your French is rendered correctly when viewed in Insight, and as rendered to HTML. It is *not* viewed correctly from the DOS console. I did not set up my DOS for any particular kind of special keyboard mapping. My DOS then is at it's default language setting, which is the US keyboard. - -- This mail was written by user of Arachne, the Ultimate Internet Client ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 6 Mar 2000 05:16:58 -0500 (EST) From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Improper HTML rendering of high ascii characters Sam Heywood, Your upper ASCII characters didn't come out right viewed in us-ascii, as your header specified: > MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit > Maybe you should have specified ISO-8859-1? I believe HTML allows specifying extended characters symbolically, something like u-umlaut, e-acute; I don't have the syntax reference in front of me. Even in English text, we have words taken from other languages like caf� (or should it be caf� ?) and �ame (first letter is supposed to be lower-case n-tilde). My guess is that, since computer technology was developed mainly in the U.S.A., the ethnocentric thought was that English is the language spoken by civilized people, thus no need for umlauts, acute accents, etc. I believe languages using the Roman alphabet with diacritical marks can already exceed 8-bit ASCII, and then there are some other alphabets (Cyrillic, Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, Greek, maybe others), and non-alphabets (Chinese, Japanese, Korean). Also, copyright symbols, trademark/service mark, euro, British pound and other currency symbols, etc. Thomas Mueller [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 6 Mar 2000 05:16:59 -0500 (EST) From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Troubles with military service > In this day & age of the US gov'ts trying to disarm the people, one town - -- and one town only -- has had a 75% drop in burglery, rape, break ins to homes, etc. It is a small town that *requires* every household to have at least one loaded gun at all times. l.d. P.S. I'm still running for President of the USA. But it will have to be a write-in vote, since I can't get on any ballots and no recognized political party wants anything to do with a "violence preaching radical" such as I. > l.d., Is that one town by any chance Kennesaw GA? How/where will you campaign for President? Arachne list by itself is not enough exposure, and many listees are outside the USA. Thomas Mueller [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 6 Mar 2000 05:16:52 -0500 (EST) From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Giant URLs/Was something to be done? I am not sure about the maximum length of a URL in Arachne, but I found one from diabetes.about.com that dwarfs that 280-character example. I think the link itself is 710 characters long, and one line comes to 712 characters. I don't know how such a long line will look to others on Arachne list: <p align="left"><a href="/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.verity.fda.gov/search97cgi/s97%5Fcgi.exe%3Faction=View%26amp%3BVdkVgwKey=http%253A%252F%252Fwww%252Efda%252Egov%252Fora%252Ffiars%252Fora%255Fimport%255Fia6610%252Ehtml%26amp%3BDocOffset=1%26amp%3BDocsFound=522%26amp%3BQueryZip=diabetic%252C%2Bchinese%2Bherbal%26amp%3BCollection=all%26amp%3BSearchUrl=http%253A%252F%252Fwww%252Everity%252Efda%252Egov%252Fsearch97cgi%252Fs97%255Fcgi%252Eexe%253Faction%253DSearch%2526QueryZip%253Ddiabetic%25252C%252Bchinese%252Bherbal%2526ResultTemplate%253Dstndrslp%25252Ehts%2526QueryText%253Ddiabetic%25252C%252Bchinese%252Bherbal%2526Collection%253Dall%2526ResultStart%253D1%2526ResultCount%253D10%26amp%3Bhlnavigate=ALL"><font color="#000000">More product alerts</font></a><font color="#000000"> from the FDA concerning Chinese herbal medicines.</font></p> DOS Lynx386 couldn't handle it, even after editing on my part. It looks like one about.com webmaster was trying to get in the Guinness Book of Records for the longest URL. % escape codes are only needed in URLs when a character would otherwise be illegal, such as %20 for the space. %2C for , (comma) is not necessary; I have successfully dealt with URLs that contained commas. But about.com goes crazy with commas, or maybe it's a bug in their software. Since % is ASCII 37 (25 hex), there is never any need for '%25' in a URL, it only messes things up with a browser that goes only one level deep resolving % escape codes, thus resolving %255F into %5F but not resolving %5F into _. I believe the base href was http://diabetes.about.com, so either this base href can be prepended to this giant URL, or better, "/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=" can be stripped. Now there ought to be a way to edit a link on the spot: Lynx has this feature but Netscape Communicator as of v4.04 didn't. Thomas Mueller [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 06 Mar 2000 13:46:23 +0000 From: "Cristian Burneci" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: DR-DOS 7.03 I've been using DR-DOS for some time and I am able to make the following recommendations: The biggest drawback of this system is EMM386.EXE. Don't use it unless you want to use the multitasking or the DPMI host. . Although the great majority of DOS applications will work fine, sometime you will encounter incompatibilities. DR-DOS EMM386.EXE is much slower than other products of its kind (installing Arachne with QEMM caused the setup wizard to detect my machine correctly as being a 40 MHZ 486; using EMM386 that comes with DR-DOS, Arachne stated my machine was a 386, which is at least 2 times slower). You will feel the lack of speed when playing some games (providing they work), or even when browsing with Arachne. Using QEMM or MS-DOS EMM386 is a much better alternative. Pay attention to the following if you decide to install QEMM: - You may not be able to use the quick boot feature. On my system it complains about not being able to find the ROM-BIOS handler for INT 1A - Also, you may not be able to use Dos-up since DR-DOS does the job of Dos-up by default. I've always liked DR-DOS for the great ammount of conventional memory it offered. I've obtained about 624k of low memory without effort, since almost every component of the operating system is loaded high, or in the upper memory. This makes Dos-up to be redundant, anyway, but also increases the risk of incompatibilty with some badly written software. (i.e. I have to skip the execution of the config files, or to load DOS low when I want to setup my NIC). - If using Stacker,(which I think is better than Doublespace),together with QEMM, add /QD parameter to the STACKER.INI file. for gaining some memory and to take advantage of some features of the program which were developed by Stac together with Quarterdeck. Most times, using Optimize may result in a worse configuration than without using it. Cristian Burneci - -- This mail was written by user of Arachne, the Ultimate Internet Client - -- Arachne V1.60;b1, NON-COMMERCIAL copy, http://arachne.cz/ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 05 Mar 2000 13:26:55 +0000 From: "Joerg Bartels" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Can anyone take me to a download for DR-WEBSPYDER ? (please help) NT . - -- This mail was written by user of Arachne, the Ultimate Internet Client - -- Arachne V1.60;b1, NON-COMMERCIAL copy, http://arachne.cz/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 06 Mar 2000 08:28:57 -0500 From: "Sam Ewalt" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: OT: Troubles with military service On Sun, 5 Mar 2000 23:41:37 -0800 (PST), [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Steven Lawson) wrote: > Someone has been watching too many American films. There are not alot of > places where it is normal to wear a gun, open or concealed in the U.S. I > believe it *is* legal here in Oregon to carry open, but rarely seen as far > as handguns are concerned. Rifles *are* seen here often, usually hunters > carrying them into the woods to go hunting. Yes. I'm a fifty year old American and I've never seen anyone carrying an openly displayed weapon in any city or town that I've visited or lived, except for police officers. People do carry rifles and shotguns in rural or remote areas to go hunting. There are millions of acres of undeveloped public land and also many, many private farms where hunting is allowed. Millions of ordainary people hunt for food and for recreation in the United States. There is a big problem here now with unstable individuals shooting up their schools and work places, but this is very *aberant* behaviour even here in the gun loving United States. These terrible incidents have been highly publicized, but the murder rate in big cities like New York, Detroit and Chicago has been declining rapidly due to more effective and intelligent police work. Sam Ewalt - -- This mail was written by user of Arachne, the Ultimate Internet Client - -- Arachne V1.60;b1, NON-COMMERCIAL copy, http://arachne.cz/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 6 Mar 2000 08:39:13 -0500 From: Roger Turk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Arachne load error is history for now Steve, Sorry that you are giving up (temporarily) accessing the web thru Compuserve. If you want to invest a few dollars in a toll call, I know that Compuserve's Tucson access number (520-571-0207) works. I also know that one of the San Diego access numbers also works as when I was in San Diego about 6 months ago, I used it. (I didn't try the other number, and I forget which number I used.) About a year and a half ago, Compuserve *did* implement an spam-guard, but AFAIK, it didn't affect internet access. Some months before it was implemented, I started having problems getting e-mail messages from a list service that I subscribed to. I sent a message to Compuserve's support asking if they were testing a spam blocker and they said (of course), No. Then they sent out a message to their subscribers describing their spam blocker and what to do to disable it. I have it disabled, and any spam that I receive, I forward to Compuserve Support reporting it as unwanted spam. Compuserve Support has been revamped and now has three different e-mail addresses. Remind me again about what happens when you "almost" get connected to the web thru Compuserve. Do you have Arachne's home page start downloading, or do you start loading Compuserve's first screen? Do you get/see any error messages? Have you checked Compuserve for the phone number for the area code you are calling from? Roger Turk Tucson, Arizona Steve Evans wrote: >>Sergei and all others, I have given up on ISPs Freewwweb or Compuserve working in Los Angeles area via Arachne for now. I got internet access from our local phone company, Pacific Bell. They don't use the UUNET lines, so Arachne works beautifully. I tried installing version 1.60b, but ran into memory problems (running a small home network), so I went back to version 1.50src. [Incidentally, are there known problems with version 1.60's setup wizard? I couldn't even get past the video screen --always tabbed past the the settings I wanted and then went nowhere when I ENTERed. Hit "O" for Options and proceeded to act just as crazy on other setup screens.] I don't know what Compuserve's problem was, but Freewwweb's use of UUNET local access nodes (I understand that many ISPs use UUNET) is somehow involved in tripping up Arachne within metro LA. Again, I was able to surf with Arachne just fine on Freewwweb using an access number outside of my area, also a UUNET node (per TRACERT) but obviously something different. Is it possible that access nodes in Los Angeles have extra security or spam blocking agents? Else it must be some variation in protocol or redirection that standard browsers (IE/Netscape) are able to negotiate, yet Arachne cannot. If Arachne is destined to fly in any metropolitan area like Los Angeles, seems like a question worth pursuing. But I'm afraid I can't spend any more time on it. On to other puzzles . . . Thanks again everyone for your attention and creativity and patience. Steve Evans<< ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 06 Mar 2000 11:09:57 -0400 From: "Dev Teelucksingh" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: FreeCDP - plays MIDI, MP3, WAV, S3M, MOD, etc, etc Here is something that might be useful for other Arachians : FreeCDP v1.1 http://members.aon.at/seal/index.htm Plays MIDI,WAV,MOD,XM,S3M,JGM,UMX,MP3 and audio CDs. The size of CDP.EXE is 200K but you will probably need to download SETUP.EXE (600K) to configure your sound card. Coded in DJGPP so it's for 386's and above. The source code is also available. Dev Teelucksingh [EMAIL PROTECTED] Interesting DOS programs page at http://www.opus.co.tt/dave ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 7 Mar 2000 11:57:56 +0100 (CET) From: Michael Polak <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: sendmail at arachne.cz was temporarily down. For unknown reason, sendmail at home.arachne.cz has died and our domain was not receiving any mail, including mailing list. The situation should be fixed just no, but some of e-mail you have sent may have bounced. - -- http://arachne.cz/ (Arachne Labs: internet - software - linux - mp3) ------------------------------ End of arachne-digest V1 #1027 ******************************
