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<html><head><title>Utilizing the USR Pilot with Linux</title></head>
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<body>
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<H4>
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"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more lovable!</I>"
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<IMG ALIGN=MIDDLE SRC="../gx/heart.gif"> </H4>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<!--===================================================================-->
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<center><table cellpadding=5><tr>
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<td><img width=79 height=98 src=./gx/mcduffie/pilot.gif alt=USR Pilot></td>
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<td><center><font size=+3>Utilizing the US Robotics Pilot with Linux</font><br>
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by James McDuffie,<a href=mailto:mcduffie@scsn.net>mcduffie@scsn.net</a></center></td>
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</tr></table></center>
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<hr>
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<h2>Why the Pilot?</h2>
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There are a lot of Personal Digital Assistants available on the market
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these days. These include the Newton, Windows CE machines, and Psion. But
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the PDA being discussed here is the US Robotics Pilot. Before purchasing a
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PDA I thought carefully about a number of issues. These included cost,
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portability, and how well it could be expanded.<p>
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The are a couple reasons why I purchased the Pilot. For one thing the
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Pilot is not very expensive. The Pilot comes in two different versions,
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called the Pilot 1000 and the Pilot 5000. These are the exact same except
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for the amount of memory they have loaded. The Pilot 1000 has 128k of
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memory while the Pilot 5000 has 512k of memory. What I did was purchase a
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Pilot 1000 and a 1 MB upgrade chip at the same time. This way I saved
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money in the long run than if I had purchased a Pilot 5000 and then later
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upgraded to 1 MBB of memory. The Pilot is considerably cheaper than other
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PDAs. Such as the Newton which is priced as under $800. The Pilot 1000
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can be found for as low as $224 and the Pilot 5000 for as low as $269.
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The 1 MB upgrade chip can be found for as little as $89. Prices such as
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this make the Pilot a cost effective solution.<p>
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Another issue was how portable the Pilot is. Carrying around a heavy PDA
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all day is not very comfortable. But the Pilot is very portable. It
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measures 4.7 x 3.2 x .7 inches, small enough to fit comfortably in your
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hand. The Pilot only weighs 5.7 ounces, with batteries. Because of this
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the Pilot can fit comfortably in your shirt pocket or your pants pocket.
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The Pilot's power supply is two 2 triple A batteries. These batteries can
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last you up to a month if you use the Pilot moderately. After all a PDA is
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supposed to help you, not burden you down by being bulky and heavy.<p>
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The Pilot is very expandable too. Such is the case with the 1 MB
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upgrade chip that can be purchased from varies places. I find that 1 MB
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of memory is more than enough memory for my needs. The Pilot is also
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expandable in that you can upload any of numerous shareware or commercial
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applications for the Pilot. There is even a program that allows you to
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hook your Pilot up to a modem and dial into your ISP and then check your
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POP mail! These applications are very small. The average application
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made for the Pilot runs about 10k. With a 1 MB chip you could
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theoretically have 100 10k apps on the Pilot. The Pilot features a RS-232
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serial connector on the bottom of it. The connector is used for syncing
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the Pilot with your desktop computer or for other uses. Other uses
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include hooking up a modem or hooking up a soon to be release wireless
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modem and pager. The Pilot can grow as your need for it grows.<p>
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<hr>
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<h2>Using the Pilot with Linux</h2>
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Right now there is software available for use with the Pilot and Linux and
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other Unix flavors. You can obtain the software for use with Linux
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from:<br>
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<a href=ftp://ns1.pfnet.com/pub/PalmOS>ftp://ns1.pfnet.com/pub/PalmOS/</a><br>
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This software is still in development, but is highly usable. To use this
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software all you have to do is get the latest pilot-link package and
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untar/ungzip it. Once you have it expanded all it takes is to run the
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<i>configure</i> script and then do a <i>make</i>. You will then have
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about 16 programs depending on what version you have. I suggest that you
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install all of these programs into their own directory. I have mine
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installed in /usr/local/pilot and have included this directory in my path
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statement. This will make it easier for you to play around with the
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software. If you want to run the software as any user other than root,
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you will have to set them suid root. I have done this but restricted
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their execution to a group that only my login is a member of. This allows
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the software to execute the serial port.<p>
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The software is simple enough to use. You simply supply supply the program
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name, the serial port and other information such as a filename. The
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pilot-xfer program allows you to install programs or data files that
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programs use into the Pilot. To install program all you would have to do
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is use the command <i>pilot-xfer /dev/cua?? -i [program name]</i>. After
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entering this your press the hot-sync button on the Pilot cradle and the
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Pilot installs the program. The program is then available for immediate
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use. Or if you wanted to install a text file into the memo you would
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simply enter <i>install-memo /dev/cua?? [file name]</i>. There are plenty
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of other programs that help you transfer information with other
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applications such as the date book, the address book and the to do list.<p>
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For me, the name of these programs are pretty long and with typing the
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serial device name it gets tedious fast. So I set up a couple of aliases
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to speed up things. Some of my aliases are:<br>
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alias pxi='pilot-xfer /dev/cua2 -i'<br>
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alias im='install-memo /dev/cua2'<br>
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These are the functions I use the most, because I hardly ever download
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applications from my Pilot since I already have them on my hard drive.
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The same goes for memos I install. But for the information that I create
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in the Pilot I use the <i>sync-memodir</i> program. It puts every memo in
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a separate fill. But the down side is that does not put the files in
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categories as they are on your Pilot. The up side is that the Windows
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software is not required.<p>
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<hr>
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<h2>What to do if you do not have a free serial port</h2>
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One problem I encountered was that I did not have a free serial port. My
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mouse is on cua0 and my modem on cua1. For a while I had to switch the
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Pilot cradle with my modem. This was highly annoying because I could not
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use the modem while I was playing with my Pilot. I solved this with a $29
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dollar ISA card I found at a local computer story, local as in locally
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owned and operated. The card is called the COM-5 card and is manufactured
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by Mouse Systems.<p>
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The card is useful because if COM1 and COM2 are in use then COM3 and COM4
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are not available. A COM port is simply a label that identifies a
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specific IRQ and address. COM1 and COM3 share the same IRQ as does COM2
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and COM4. But this card allows you to add another serial port at any
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combination of IRQ and address that you desire. I have mine set on IRQ 12
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and address 238. To get this to work with Linux all I had to do was tell
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Linux to map this specific address and IRQ combination to the device
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/dev/cua2. The following command does this:<br>
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setserial /dev/cua2 port 0x238 irq 12 autoconfig<br>
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It tell Linux where the serial port is available and to what device to
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map it. With this working I was able to play around with my Pilot while
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using my modem. Also I now have an extra serial port should I need it for
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other tasks.<p>
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<hr>
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<h2>Logging in to a Linux computer via the Pilot</h2>
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Logging into a Linux computer via the Pilot is possible. It is not really
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that hard once you have the correct software. All you need is the
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application called Simple Term which can be obtained from Adam's Software
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Archive listed in the links section. Install the software on the Pilot
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and then make sure the Pilot is hooked up to the serial port. Run agetty
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on the serial device such as with this command:<br>
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/sbin/agetty 19200 cua2 vt100<br>
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And then put the Pilot in the cradle and hit online. You should then be
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able to talk with your Linux computer. The reason this works with the
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cradle is because the cradle is basically just a null modem hook up to
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the computer. Because of this a null modem adapter put on the cradle will
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allow you to use the Pilot on a modem, because of the fact that it
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reverses the null modem feature of the cradle. Logging into your Linux
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computer via the Pilot is not the most useful thing in the world since
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the program does not contain any terminal emulation. But it is possible
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which makes it fun.<p>
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<hr>
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<h2>Links</h2>
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<a href=http://www.usr.com/palm/>US Robotics Pilot Page</a><br>
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<a href=http://www.pilot.org/>Scott's Pilot Page</a><br>
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<a href=http://www.inforamp.net/~adam/pilot/>Adam's USR Pilot Software Archive</a><br>
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<a href=http://members.aol.com/aslan/index.html>Aslan's Pilot PDA Links</a><p>
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These links should be enough to learn about the US Robotics Pilot and how
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to use them. I hope this information will be helpful. If you have any
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questions what so ever, please contact me.<p>
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<hr>
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<h2>Pilot-Unix Mailing List</h2>
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The pilot-unix mailing list is for discussion and idea-sharing for those
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interested in using the US Robotics Pilot PDAs with UNIX systems. This
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includes people who are interested in helping to develop tools to allow the
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Pilot to operate with UNIX, and possibly to develop an SDK for the Pilot
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for Unix.<p>
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All postings to the list should be sent to the address<p>
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pilot-unix@lists.best.com<p>
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Commands, such as subscribe or unsubscribe requests should be sent to the
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address<p>
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pilot-unix-request@lists.best.com<p>
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Note that there are two list modes - normal (you receive each message as it
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is sent) and digest. The default mode is digest mode. To subscribe to the
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digest, send an email message with the single word "subscribe" in the
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message body to "pilot-unix-request@lists.best.com". To subscribe to the
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normal list, use the word "subsingle" in the message body. You can also get
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a list of commands which the list server understands by sending mail with
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the single word "help" in the body to the -request address.<p>
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If you have administrative questions or requests which require the
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intervention of a person, please send those to<p>
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pilot-unix-owner@lists.best.com.<p>
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<!--===================================================================-->
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<center><H5>Copyright © 1997, James McDuffie <BR>
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Published in Issue 14 of the Linux Gazette</H5></center>
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