A Beginner's Guide to the Internet/INTERNET.ISO/text/massinfo/maasinfo.sqw

Text File | 1996-05-06 | 21.1 KB | 410 lines

MaasInfo.SQWA = Specific Questions Waiting for Answers, by Robert Elton
Maas, version of 1991.Oct.18.

I am looking for answers for the questions listed below. Elsewhere I
provide "trivial shareware" information, where I ask anyone who finds my
information worth more than a dollar to please return the favor by
helping me find information I am seeking. Well, this is a partial list
of information I'm currently seeking. Anyone who provides satisfactory
answers to me for a few of these questions thereby satisfies his/her
"trivial shareware" fee for one of the actual MaasInfo files. Of course
if you have already provided me with good information at some time, your
fee may have already been "paid" in advance, i.e. my MaasInfo may be
paying my debt for your past information rather than vice versa.


%% New questions for MaasInfo.SQWA (just a few questions as a starter)

Where can I find a specification of the code (data representation,
translation) used by Binhex version 4?
Update: I have found a document which is a reverse-engineering of BinHex
4.0 representation, together with some Pascal sample source code. When I
have time I'll check if this info is correct ...

Where can I find a publicly-accessible database of Macintosh application
signatures (such as WILD for Hypercard), especially one that indicates
which applications are free/share ware and which are commercial?
(Boston Computer Society is alleged to be working on such, but I
haven't been able to make contact with the person in charge.)

Where can I find a publicly-accessible database of bugs in various
Macintosh programs and fixes for any that are fixable? (Yes, I know that
INFO-MAC has some of of that information hidden in the various digests,
but I am looking for more of a database with that information nicely
organized and not mixed with other messages.)

(Requests for ARPANET SIGS or other lists of interest groups, InterNet
resource handbooks, UseNet newsgroups, public-access UseNet hosts; all
satisfied, request is now moot. See MaasInfo.TopIndex for pointers to
the info I obtained.)

Where might I find tutorial and checklist of effective techniques for
finding a correct EMAIL address when the one tried first bounced? This
should cover cases when the host doesn't exist or is unreachable, when
the host exists but the mailbox doesn't, when the non-delivery notice is
so strange you don't know why your mail bounced, and when you get some
mailer-bounce message for something that doesn't even seem to be one of
your messages and have no idea why it was sent to you. This checklist
would be an alternative to dumbly posting a query to INFO-NETS and
having five people spend their time telling you the same thing they told
the last person who asked the same kind of question.

Where might I find any significant collections of public-domain
information online? I already now about Project Gutenburg which contains
public documents (Declaration of Independence and Constitution) and
published books whose copyright has expired. I also already know about
the giant archive at PIT-MANAGER.MIT.EDU containing the periodic
postings for all the UseNet newsgroups that have any. But I'm looking
more for lots of little facts (stars of movies or TV programs, TV
program listings, lists of radio stations with call letters frequency
and city, etc.) that are common knowledge that go far beyond those
Gutenburg and PIT-MANAGER archives, any other major collections of
useful "trivia".

Service bureaus around here (Mountain View, CA) charge $3.00 for each
page that is scanned, with or without OCR. This seems very expensive. I
would expect something more like $0.30 per page if the whole process is
automated (nobody manually correcting anything except alignment of paper
in the scanner). Does anybody know of a mail-order service bureau (or a
local service bureau I've overlooked) that scans at such a reasonable
cost?


%% Addenda: Here is the text formerly in the file SQWA.WRU, consisting of
old questions from 1972-73 that to this day haven't been answered. I
still would like answers to most of these.

SPECIFIC QUESTIONS WAITING FOR ANSWERS (SQWA)
Originally collected 1972-73, partially updated 1979 May 05, edited
slightly sometime in 1988, converted from POX to plain ASCII text 1991
Aug 06 and included Update: fields which however conflict with the format
of keyword lists so further edit will be needed once I figure out a
compatible format. Send answers and relevant info to Robert Maas, PO BOX
6641, Stanford, CA 94309 (if you got this via electronic mail, first try
sending back to my mailbox where these questions came from).

(After each question is a list of keywords in parenthesis)

1) REM -- Wanted, a currently-existing "sensitivity training" group, or
people interested in forming one. (ENCOUNTER SENSITIVITY TRAINING GROUP)
(Update: after 19 years of getting older, I'm no longer interested in
such a group.)

2) [OBSOLETE, LONELY OLD WOMAN DIED BEFORE I COULD FIND HER A MATE]

3) [OBSOLETE, PAID $100 FOR ALTERNATE METHOD]

4) REM -- Have some issues of "A Word in Edgewise", a hundred-page essay
on human-intelligence robots of the future, want other people to read
them, want to borrow other issues about different subjects. (HAVE WORD
EDGEWISE MAGAZINE)

5) REM -- Wanted, expert player of Sprouts (math game) as opponent or
co-researcher. I have done a lot of research on the game by myself
already and want to share results. (SPROUTS MATH GAME PLAY)

6) REM -- Wanted, person in local area (south SF bay, CA) who has tapes
of oldies but goodies, to trade tapes by dubbing (see my list of what I
want and what I have). (TAPE OLDIES GOODIES DUB AUDIO)

7) [OBSOLETE, DOG DIED BEFORE IT COULD BE HELPED]

8) REM -- Wanted, the whereabouts of Mary Jean Wardell, born 1950, last
seen 1969. (WHEREABOUTS MARY JEAN WARDELL MIDGE)

9) REM -- Wanted, the whereabouts of Kathleen Pratt/Windsor, born 1947,
last seen 1962. (WHEREABOUTS KATHY KATHLEEN PRATT WINDSOR PALMDALE
SYLMAR)

10) REM -- Wanted, the whereabouts of Jacqueline June Smith, born 1945,
last seen 1963. (WHEREABOUTS JACQUELINE JUNE SMITH JACKIE)

11) REM -- Wanted, the whereabouts of Alana Grajewski, last seen 1971.
(WHEREABOUTS ALANA GRAJEWSKI)

12) REM -- Wanted, happiness; more reasonably, where to find good
counseling or therepy on overcoming the "Work Ethic". (HAPPINESS WORK
ETHIC ALTERNATIVE) (Update: I managed to outgrow workaholism on my own,
so this request is now moot.)

13) REM -- Wanted, an up-to-date consumer's information exchange.
(CONSUMER INFORMATION EXCHANGE FEEDBACK) (Update: Will be checking out
some UseNet newsgroups to see if they satisfy my needs.)

14) [OBSOLETE, I'VE LOST MY ACTIVE INTEREST IN FOLK DANCING]

15) REM -- Wanted to be mailed announcements of all free-to-public events
and clubs at Stanford. (MAIL ANNOUNCEMENT FREE PUBLIC EVENT STANFORD
ASCA)

16) [OBSOLETE, I'VE FOUND A WIFE NOW]

17) REM -- Wanted, up to date info about algorithms to sort
variable-length data in large files (appx. 30,000 records). (ALGORITHM
SORT VARIABLE-LENGTH DATA FILES MERGE COMPUTER) (Update: I've done some
more research and have a program on my Macintosh working, but further
collaboration might be useful since my program leaves some potential
optimizations undone.)

18) REM -- Wanted, person interested in moneyless society, who
understands the Heat Death of the Universe, to discuss our ideas. (HEAT
DEATH UNIVERSE DISCUSS IDEA) (Hmmm, I wonder if somebody connected with
GNU might be able to help me? I'll have to investigate that lead when I
have time.)

19) REM -- ASCA Request -- seminars / meetings / projects / lectures etc.
on how to set up a good public information system. Also I want to get in
contact with people who are thinking about public access to ISR
(Information Storage and Retrieval), and persons interested in exchanging
new ideas in ISR such as Generalized Computer Dating, Binary Vote Scheme,
computerized conferencing, and maybe trying some of these ideas. (ASCA
SEMINAR MEETING PROJECT LECTURE INFORMATION ACCESS RETRIEVAL STORAGE
COMPUTER-DATING GCD VOTE CONFERENCING COMPUTER) (Update: Perhaps I should
post this to PARA?)

20) REM -- Wanted, a person to work with me on Sort/Merge project. (SORT
MERGE) (Note, this is related to item 17.)

21) REM -- What is the state of the art in Sort/Merge algorithms which
minimize page-faults in a paged enviroment?  (COMPUTER SORT MERGE
ALGORITHM PAGE FAULT ENVIROMENT) (Note, this is related to item 17.)

22) REM -- How can I get over my lingering BURNOUT symptoms, or can I?
(BURNOUT ULCER DETACH PSYCHOLOGY)

23) REM -- How can I improve my memory? No matter how vitally important
something is, or how desperately I want to remember it, I still forget.
I'm sick and tired (pissed-off) at people who recite "If you really
wanted to remember it, you would."  For myself, that simply isn't true!
(I have almost hired an answering service to telephone me to remind me
of appointments.) (IMPROVE MEMORY REMEMBER FORGET APPOINTMENTS) (Update:
I haven't encountered many of those annoying people, and I keep a
calendar of important things to do on my Macintosh now, so this isn't so
big a problem now.)

24) REM -- I want to be tested for vitamin and mineral deficiencies. What
am I lacking? Where can I get a super-good blood test? (TEST VITAMIN
MINERAL DEFICIENCY HEALTH NUTRITION)

25) REM -- Research into finding a general strategy for Misere Nim
games, like the general strategy for ordinary Nim. Anyone have any
results or ideas?  I have already achieved some major results in this
research project. Wanted think-tank / problem-solve / discussion /
exchange. (STRATEGY MISERE NIM GAME MATH) (Update: Conway has a book
that explores some of these games, although with a very strange
notation. Someday when I have time I should bite the bullet and borrow
the book from the library and try to understand his notation.)

26) REM -- What vitamins and minerals are needed by my body.  How does
cooking etc. degrade the vitamin content of various foods?  Wanted a
handy source of info for now and whenever I begin using a new kind of
food. (VITAMIN MINERAL COOKING FOOD)

27) REM -- Wanted, people to read my diary and love me, maybe even
someone who will publish it.  A one-ounce packet of randomly-selected
clippings from copies of the diary is available for anyone to sample.
(READ DIARY LOVE PUBLISH SAMPLE)

28) REM -- A few years ago I saw a computer algorithm to count the "1"
bits in a computer word by means of a single multiply or divide
instruction on IBM 360 or PDP-10 and a couple other instructions.  Help
me relocate that reference. (COMPUTER ALGORITHM COUNT BIT WORD)

29) REM -- Anyone want to share my issues of Rolling Stone magazine after
I am finished with them? (ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE SHARE)

30) REM -- Where can I find an expert on the WFF'N PROOF games?  Has
anyone analyzed the proof games (multi-person)? (WFF WFF'N-PROOF GAME
LOGIC SYMBOLIC)

31) REM -- Re the N.Y. Times computerized on-line access to the morgue
index (1969.NOV to CURRENT) which now costs several hundred dollars a
month for unlimited service: (a) How useful and convenient is this
service (consumer feedback wanted)?  (b) Is there any way to get limited
service at a lower cost, perhaps through a local multiplexor? (N.Y. TIMES
MORGUE INDEX MULTIPLEXOR ACCESS)

32) REM -- Does anyone have an answer or any ideas how to research my
conjecture in knot theory about rubber-bands around a box? (TOPOLOGY MATH
KNOT-THEORY KNOT RESEARCH CONJECTURE)

33) REM -- Where can I find a group of people who like new untested ideas
and want to try them out, to share those many random ideas I come up
with. (IDEA RANDOM TRY SHARE)

34) REM -- Wanted, the whereabouts of Emilie Burge, last seen 1972.
(WHEREABOUTS EMILIE BURGE)

35) [OBSOLETE, I HAVE ACCESS TO MACINTOSH ALLEGRO COMMON LISP NOW]

36) [OBSOLETE, SUCCESSFULLY FOUND EMPLOYMENT] (Update: Unemployed again.)

37) Fran -- Wanted, a male companion, easygoing, sense of humor, age
20-30, likes music (different kinds), understanding, not good-looking,
near Sunnyvale.  I am female, age 18, 5'6" tall, brown hair.  I like
poetry, studying people.  Contact Fran Olson, [phone]. (CONNECT
PERSON DATING GIRLFRIEND MATCHMAKING SUNNYVALE COMPANION COMPANIONSHIP
MALE FEMALE LONELY LONELINESS DATE FRIEND) (Note, this ad was in 1973.)

38) Gary Bailey (Remote Computing Co.) -- Hydrogen conversion for cars
similar to propane conversion.  Want current status of R+D. (AUTOMOBILE
HYDROGEN CAR PROPANE)

39) REM -- Wanted info about teletype multiplexors using a shared line
from Palo Alto to San Francisco; does one exist? (TELETYPE MULTIPLEXOR
PALO-ALTO SAN-FRANCISCO) (Update: This is moot now that the SF-based
systems I wanted to contact are now either defunct or on the InterNet.)

40) REM -- Many charities are in competition for what little money we
have to spare.  Is there an index of charities, showing where their
money goes, and providing their mailing addresses? (CHARITY INDEX)
Update: Jim Cooper <[e-mail]> says the
CFC (Combined Federal Campaign) has info about what percentage of
collection from each collector actually goes to charity.

41) REM -- Wanted expert on quantum mechanics and thermodynamics -- Is it
possible for a knowledgable athiest to ever be happy? (QUANTUM MECHANICS
HAPPY ATHIEST THERMODYNAMICS PSYCHOLOGY)

42) REM -- Re sources of energy, there are several "hidden costs"
associated with each plan.  I want information, estimates of costs
involved in the following methods of utilizing garbage as an energy
source (garbage to Methanol, garbage to Methane/Propane, garbage directly
to electricity, garbage to boil water to run turbine to produce
electricity, garbage to pellet fuel, Methane/Propane to Methanol) with
respect to the following factors (initial cost in money, raw materials,
energy, manpower and time, maintenance cost, efficiency of plant compared
to theoretical maximum based on thermodynamic calculations).  [PARTIAL
ANSWER, SCIENCE MAGAZINE 1979.FEB.23 P.719]  (SOURCE ENERGY GARBAGE
METHANE PROPANE METHANOL ELECTRICITY CRISIS PELLET FUEL ENTROPY
THERMODYNAMICS METHYL ALCOHOL)

43) REM -- How good are (Methanol, Propane, Methane, Natural gas, pellet
fuel, mixed gasses, Hydrogen, Gasoline, Coal) for the purposes of
(Automobiles, busses, trucks, rapid transit, ordinary trains, electricity
generation, commercial process heating, chemicals for plastics etc., home
furnaces, home cooking, emergency generators)? (METHYL ALCOHOL METHANOL
PROPANE METHANE GAS PELLET FUEL HYDROGEN GASOLINE COAL AUTOMOBILE BUS
TRUCK RAPID-TRANSIT TRAIN ELECTRICITY PLASTIC INDUSTRY FURNACE GENERATOR)

44) REM -- Re aluminum in garbage which is used as a source of energy.
Has Combustion Power Company or anyone else found a way to stop it from
coating the turbine blades with aluminum-oxide?  Can it be removed from
pellet-fuel?  If left in pellet-fuel, does it foul up coal furnaces in
which it is substituted? (ALUMINUM-OXIDE GARBAGE SOURCE ENERGY COMBUSTION
TURBINE PELLET-FUEL FUEL FURNACE COAL)

45) REM -- Re garbage and other organic materials as an untapped source
of energy -- it seems to me that the most promising approaches toward
utilizing this energy source are (1) Garrett Research's garbage-to-oil
process (2) the carbon-monoxide process.  Any rebuttal, or shall we start
turning these pilot plants into full-scale plants as soon as possible?
(GARBAGE SOURCE ENERGY CRISIS PYROLYSIS GARRETT OIL CARBON-MONOXIDE)

46) REM -- What set of routines exist for manipulating finite groups,
especially symmetry groups for data structures such as molecules, Sprouts
situations and arbitrary lists. I prefer LISP functions but will accept
packages of routines in other computer languages. (FINITE GROUP ALGEBRA
MATHEMATICS MATH SYMMETRY MOLECULE SPROUTS LISP COMPUTER)

47) REM -- Where does there exist an index of available computer programs
and subroutines, the index being accessible to the public, including as
much as possible the following:  Location and name of program, cost (if
any) of purchase or rent of program, description of purpose, how to
operate it, input format, output format, feedback from users on bugs and
general usefulness, cross references to similar programs, name/adr/phone
of experts who can tell you more about the program, keywords for access
to each programs' info from the top level of the index, subject breakdown
in the index. (COMPUTER PROGRAM SUBROUTINE INDEX KEYWORD ACCESS)

48) REM -- Does anyone know a closed-form expression for the following
recursively defined function:  f(n)=if n <= 1 then zero, else the
smallest non-negative integer not an element of the set {f(i-1) XOR
f(n-i) such that 1 <= i <= n} where XOR is the "exclusive-or" logic
function operation bitwise on the numerical argument. (MATH GAME NIM
RECURSIVE FUNCTION)

49) REM -- I want to get into a discussion group regarding the moral
aspects of forcing or pressuring someone else to go along with you.  This
question appears in regard to advertising, romance, politics, evangelism,
broadcasting, conversation, etc. (DISCUSSION MORAL ETHIC FORCE PRESSURE
RAPE ADVERTISING PROPAGANDA BRAINWASH COMMERCIAL)

50) REM -- Wanted info about availability of message switching, such as
TWX or ARPA networks. (ACCESS TELETYPE DATA COMMUNICATION MESSAGE
SWITCHING TWX ARPA NETWORK) (Update: I'll withdraw this old question.)

51) REM -- The Palo Alto based company "Compatibility" wasn't very good
when I tried it two years ago.  Charisma-Kismet was even worse! Does
anyone know of a good computer-dating company nearby? (MATCHMAKING DATING
PALO-ALTO COMPATIBILITY COMPUTER) (Update: Several others I tried since
then weren't good either. I finally found somebody via an ad in Trellis
after trying that method for a couple years. This query is now
withdrawn.)

52) REM -- I'd like to start or join a discussion or conference on how
to make best use of a simple keyword-based public ISR system similar to
the Resource One Community Bulletin Board.  I have several good ideas
and want to exchange ideas with other people. (DISCUSSION CONFERENCE
RESOURCE-ONE BULLETIN BOARD EXCHANGE INFORMATION ACCESS STORAGE
RETRIEVAL ISR) Update: Resource One / Community Memory is now defunct,
but this general quesition is still worth discussing. Maybe I should
post it to PACS-L?

53) REM -- Wanted, an expert at the psychological and medical
consequences of biorhythms, to read my diary from 1961 to 1989, record
data about probable ups and downs of biorhythms.  I can then perform a
Fourier analysis on this data to determine how much biorhythms affect my
life.  This would be a reasonably good scientific test of the biorhythm
theory. (PSYCHOLOGY MEDICAL BIORHYTHM DIARY UPS DOWNS FOURIER THEORY)

54a) REM -- I have heard advertisements on the radio for a proctal
examination, a pap test, regular dental checkups, yearly medical exams,
and several other tests and exams I don't remember.  Is there any way to
get a complete list of reccommended medical exams and tests (including
how often for each)?  I would like to submit the list to my doctor to
find out when (if ever) I have most recently received each, and thereby
determine whether I am overdue for any of them. (PROCTAL EXAMINATION PAP
TEST DENTAL MEDICAL DOCTOR)

54b) Whenever I go to a new doctor, I have to fill out a questionnaire
about my medical history, most of which I do not remember very well.  Is
there any way to collect the important information from all my previous
doctors and summarize it in a "medical resume" which I could use for
reference the next time I have to see a new doctor? (DENTAL MEDICAL
RECORD RESUME DOCTOR)

55) REM -- Desire re sort/merge -- Given a body of text as input,
efficiently count up total number of occurrances of each word and
present in sorted output in alphabetical order and in order by count.
(SORT MERGE TEXT VOCABULARY) Update: I have now written this software in
PSL and will someday translate to Common Lisp. This query is hereby
withdrawn.

(Suggested additional keywords for most of the above: REM SQWA SQWA-<n>
CONNECT PERSON WANTED INFORMATION)


%% Addenda, new questions added later

I'm interested in finding people who read or browsed "The Evolution of
Cooperation" by Axelrod, or who are otherwise expert at "Prisoner's
Dilemma" and related non-zero-sum games, who would like top discuss such
matters. (I wonder if there's an interest group on such matters.)


%% Finale

The author can be contacted until 1991.Aug.31 (and possibly a bit longer) at:
 [e-mail] (just REM@SUWATSON from BitNet hosts)
and for a longer time at:
 Robert Maas, PO Box 6641, Stanford, CA 94309
 VoicePhone: 415-969-2958
and possibly also on some public bulletin boards in the San Jose area:
 408-249-7916 (RealmOfWonder) [e-mail]
 408-245-7726 (DarkSideOfMoon) !apple!uuwest!rem or <[e-mail]>


%% Very end of MaasInfo.SQWA