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318 lines
14 KiB
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<TITLE>The Linux Gazette 54: The Answer Guy</TITLE>
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<IMG ALT="" SRC="../gx/navbar/left.jpg" WIDTH="14" HEIGHT="45" BORDER="0" ALIGN="bottom"><A HREF="lg_bytes54.html"><IMG ALT="[ Prev ]" SRC="../gx/navbar/prev.jpg" WIDTH="16" HEIGHT="45" BORDER="0" ALIGN="bottom"></A><A HREF="index.html"><IMG ALT="[ Table of Contents ]" SRC="../gx/navbar/toc.jpg" WIDTH="220" HEIGHT="45" BORDER="0" ALIGN="bottom" ></A><A HREF="../index.html"><IMG ALT="[ Front Page ]" SRC="../gx/navbar/frontpage.jpg" WIDTH="137" HEIGHT="45" BORDER="0" ALIGN="bottom"></A><A HREF="../faq/index.html"><IMG ALT="[ FAQ ]" SRC="./../gx/navbar/faq.jpg"WIDTH="62" HEIGHT="45" BORDER="0" ALIGN="bottom"></A><A HREF="lg_tips54.html"><IMG ALT="[ Next ]" SRC="../gx/navbar/next.jpg" WIDTH="15" HEIGHT="45" BORDER="0" ALIGN="bottom" ></A><IMG ALT="" SRC="../gx/navbar/right.jpg" WIDTH="15" HEIGHT="45" ALIGN="bottom">
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<!--endcut ============================================================-->
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<H4>"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
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</H4>
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<center>
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<H1><A NAME="answer">
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<img src="../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif" alt="(?)"
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border="0" align="middle">
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<font color="#B03060">The Answer Guy</font>
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<img src="../gx/dennis/bbubble.gif" alt="(!)"
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border="0" align="middle">
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</A></H1>
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<BR>
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<H4>By James T. Dennis,
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<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com">linux-questions-only@ssc.com</a><BR>
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LinuxCare,
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<A HREF="http://www.linuxcare.com/">http://www.linuxcare.com/</A>
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</H4>
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</center>
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<p><hr><p>
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<!-- endcut ======================================================= -->
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<H3>Contents:</H3>
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<dl>
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<dt><a href="#tag/greeting"
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><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" alt="(!)" border="0"
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align="middle"><strong>Greetings From Jim Dennis</strong></A>
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<dd>plus <a href="#tag/hgreeting"
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><strong><font size="+1">¶</font>:
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Greetings From Heather Stern</strong></A></dl>
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<DL>
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<!-- index_text begins -->
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<dt><A HREF="tag/1.html"
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><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
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alt="(?)" border="0"
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></a>LILO hangs --or--
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<dd><A HREF="tag/1.html"
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><strong>LILO Hangs in Switzerland</strong></a>
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<dt><A HREF="tag/2.html"
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><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
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alt="(?)" border="0"
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></a>question on rm command --or--
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<dd><A HREF="tag/2.html"
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><strong>Homework Answer: All about 'rm'</strong></a>
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<dt><A HREF="tag/3.html"
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><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
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alt="(?)" border="0"
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></a>Suse Linux telnet problem --or--
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<dd><A HREF="tag/3.html"
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><strong>Can't telnet to Linux server</strong></a>
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<dt><A HREF="tag/4.html"
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><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
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alt="(?)" border="0"
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></a>question on trees --or--
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<dd><A HREF="tag/4.html"
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><strong>Another Homework Assignment from Hotmail</strong></a>
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<dt><A HREF="tag/5.html"
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><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
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alt="(?)" border="0"
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></a>Telnet --or--
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<dd><A HREF="tag/5.html"
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><strong>Can't Telnet: Another possibility</strong></a>
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<dt><A HREF="tag/6.html"
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><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
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alt="(?)" border="0"
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></a>>>>> HELP ! Name of the 1st GUI used by original AOL software ??? --or--
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<dd><A HREF="tag/6.html"
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><strong>A GEM of a Question?</strong></a>
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<dt><A HREF="tag/7.html"
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><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
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alt="(?)" border="0"
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></a>Win4Lin nand NT = nil --or--
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<dd><A HREF="tag/7.html"
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><strong>Win4Lin's Limitations: VMWare's Strength?</strong></a>
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<dt><A HREF="tag/8.html"
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><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
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alt="(?)" border="0"
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></a>login script --or--
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<dd><A HREF="tag/8.html"
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><strong>"Unary Command Expected" in Shell Script</strong></a>
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<dt><A HREF="tag/9.html"
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><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
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alt="(?)" border="0"
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></a>linux --or--
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<dd><A HREF="tag/9.html"
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><strong>Step through a Program</strong></a>
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<dt><A HREF="tag/10.html"
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><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
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alt="(?)" border="0"
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></a>Question from a quasi Novice... --or--
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<dd><A HREF="tag/10.html"
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><strong>Linux is {Now|Not} UNIX</strong></a>
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<dt><A HREF="tag/11.html"
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><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
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alt="(?)" border="0"
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></a>Thanx for -->Re: hanging the IFS to newline --or--
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<dd><A HREF="tag/11.html"
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><strong>Embedding Newlines in Shell and Environment Values</strong></a>
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<dt><A HREF="tag/12.html"
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><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
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alt="(?)" border="0"
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></a>Home partition sizes --or--
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<dd><A HREF="tag/12.html"
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><strong>Sizing the Home Directories: Quotas and Partitioning</strong></a>
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<dt><A HREF="tag/13.html"
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><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
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alt="(?)" border="0"
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></a>calculate cpu load --or--
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<dd><A HREF="tag/13.html"
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><strong>Use the Sources, Dude!</strong></a>
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<dt><A HREF="tag/14.html"
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><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
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alt="(?)" border="0"
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></a>Scheduling 3rd party services --or--
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<dd><A HREF="tag/14.html"
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><strong>Cron</strong></a>
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<dt><A HREF="tag/15.html"
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><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
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alt="(?)" border="0"
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></a>a quick question --or--
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<dd><A HREF="tag/15.html"
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><strong>DIR <TT>/S</TT></strong></a>
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<dt><A HREF="tag/16.html"
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><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
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alt="(?)" border="0"
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></a>Shared Libraries --or--
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<dd><A HREF="tag/16.html"
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><strong>Limiting "Public Interfaces" on Share Libraries</strong></a>
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<dt><A HREF="tag/17.html"
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><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
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alt="(?)" border="0"
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></a>Passwords problems --or--
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<dd><A HREF="tag/17.html"
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><strong>Corel Linux and Blank Passwords</strong></a>
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<dt><A HREF="tag/18.html"
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><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
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alt="(?)" border="0"
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></a>Dual Boot Questions. --or--
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<dd><A HREF="tag/18.html"
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><strong>Windoze [sic] on 2nd Hard Drive</strong></a>
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<!-- index_text ends -->
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</DL>
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<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
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<A NAME="tag/greeting"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A>
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<H3 align="left"><img src="../gx/dennis/bbubble.gif"
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height="50" width="60" alt="(!) " border="0"
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>Greetings from Jim Dennis</H3>
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<!-- begin greeting -->
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<P>I had a great time this weekend at an annual science fiction conference
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named <a href="http://www.baycon.org/">Baycon</a>. Heather and I were staff
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in their first terminal room, sponsored by <a href="http://www.redhat.com/"
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>Red Hat</a>, <a href="http://www.linuxcare.com/">LinuxCare</a>,
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and <a href="http://www.valinux.com/">VA Linux Systems</a> and it was
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a rousing success. Other SF conventions are looking forward to doing
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the same.
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</P><P>
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Good news: Heather, my wife and principle editor,
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will be taking over the Answer Blurb. She's refined her
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'lgazmail' PERL script to the point where she can take up the
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slack and has graciously agreed to take over responsibility
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for the monthly blurb as well.
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</P><P>
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Long time readers may recall that early Answer Guy columns
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had no blurbs. They also had no HTML formatting. The URLs
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weren't even wrapped in links! I'd been frustrated by this
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for some time --- from about the time that I realized that
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Marjorie (then the editor of LG) was publishing my responses
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as a column, (and that she had dubbed me with as "The Answer
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Guy" --- a title that still makes me nervous).
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</P><P>
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Heather agreed to step of to the plate and do the formatting.
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She tried a few mail-to-web utilities like MHOnArc, and
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John Callendar's Babymail, etc. Then she decided to derive
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her own from a Babymail source. So her script reads "Jim's
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e-mail markup hints" and converts it to reasonable HTML.
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</P><P>
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Heather also designed and drew the new Answer Guy Wizard (TM?)
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with its distinctive Question Crystal Ball and Answer Speak Bubble
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--- which visually refer to the question and answer speak bubbles
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throughout the column. (She's also added the pilcrow bubble
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for editorial comments).
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</P><P>
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In other words, Heather went way beyond just "wrapping the URLs
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in links" and completely overhauled the visual look of our
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column.
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</P><P>
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I should also note that Heather is no slouch technically. She
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has often helped me find answers to questions --- including the
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answers that I've published here.
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</P><P>
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When we did that overhaul I also decided to add the "blurbs"
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The idea was to say things of interest that were not in response
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to any questions. (I suppose I could've use a shill to jury rig
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the desired questions, but that would be cheating!).
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</P><P>
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The blurb has sometimes been editorial (commenting on the
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Mindcraft/Microsoft fiasco and the wonderful Linux community
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anti-FUD response). Sometimes it's been a summary and commentary
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on the sorts of questions we got in the previous month, feedback
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that we got from my answers, and any trends that we were seeing,
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etc.
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</P><P>
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For awhile I tried to identify a specific person and
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forum every month --- to recognize them with the "Answer Guy's
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Support Award." I wanted to point out where other individuals
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were providing lots of technical support in more specific forms
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of support in various fora. For instance in May I wanted to
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recognize Ben Collins of the Debian-SPARC mailing list. He
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seems to respond to most of the questions that show up there.
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(Unfortunately I was too much of a flake to keep that up for
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long. It's hard to dig up a really good new selection every month).
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</P><P>
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Of course there have also been the two April Fool's hoax blurbs
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and a few others that weren't really there.
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</P><P>
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The sad fact is that I don't have enough time to conceive and compose
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articles for this column every month. It is much easier for me to
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answer questions (react) than to write from scratch. (I tend to
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digress enough when there IS a question at hand. I'm a regular
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attention deficit train wreck when left to my own devices!).
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</P><P>
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Let me reassure everyone that I'm not leaving the "Answer Guy"
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column. I'm somewhat compulsive about answering technical questions,
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and I used to make a hobby out of USENet netnews before the
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advent of LG ensured that I get a 100 or so diverse Linux questions
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every month in my inbox. I sometimes still make it out to
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USENet --- though I dropped the uucp netnews feed that used to
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fill the disk on antares on a semi-regular basis! (Now I just
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telnet out to a shell account at my ISP, or use my $NNTPSERVER
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environment setting to get to his news server).
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</P><P>
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I'll also probably still insert a few comments to supplement
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Heather's.
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</P>
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<!-- end greeting -->
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<!-- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -->
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<A NAME="tag/hgreeting"><HR WIDTH="40%" ALIGN="center"></A>
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<H3 align="left"><img src="../gx/dennis/hbubble.gif"
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height="50" width="60" alt="(¶) " border="0"
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>Greetings from Heather Stern</H3>
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<!-- begin hgreeting -->
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<P>
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Hi everybody. I suppose I don't have to introduce myself now. I will
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also be taking on some deeper organizational features -- in the next few
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months we'll see a revamp of how Tips, the Mailbag, and Answer Guy messages
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are formatted -- though I think they won't look all that different.
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</P><P>
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Also, we'll have more Wizards joining us. Jim had from the early days
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conveived of this as The Answer Gang -- he was just helping an editor with
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a few technical notes, a role which anyone can play. The Mailbag and Tips
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is popular and more gurus are around, now. If you'd like to join The
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Answer Gang as a regular, let us know what your specialties are.
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</p><p>
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I'll have something more "Blurb"ish next month. On to the answers!
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</p>
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<!-- end hgreeting -->
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<!--startcut ======================================================= -->
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<P> <hr> </p>
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<H5 align="center"><a href="http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html"
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>Copyright ©</a> 2000, James T. Dennis
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<BR>Published in <I>The Linux Gazette</I> Issue 54 June 2000</H5>
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<H6 ALIGN="center">HTML transformation by
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<A HREF="mailto:star@tuxtops.com">Heather Stern</a> of
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Tuxtops, Inc.,
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<A HREF="http://www.tuxtops.com/">http://www.tuxtops.com/</A>
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</H6>
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