From: dagoura@MIT.EDU
Message-Id: <9309292312.AA15507@w20-575-14.MIT.EDU>
To: mitgaard@MIT.EDU
Subject: Computer Tricks for the SCA
Date: Wed, 29 Sep 93 19:12:23 EDT
Content-Length: 4338


Greetings all and sundry, from Tibicen!

	Here follow some nifty computer toys on Athena which
(sometimes) pertain to the SCA.  It will also answer that question
"how did she know I was logged in???".  Read on....

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THE SCA ZNOL and how to alias it.

	As some (most?) of you know, there is a utility called "znol"
which reads all the usernames in a file called .anyone which you keep
in your homedir (you can put any names you like in it) and finds out
which of them are currently logged on (so you can zwrite those
people).  A much less well known fact is that znol can take a file as
an argument, and use the other file in the place of the .anyone.

	In other words...

If you do

athena% znol

you will get the list of those people in your own .anyone file who are
currently logged on.  *****But if you do

athen% znol -f /afs/athena.mit.edu/user/s/c/sca/.anyone

****you will get a list of mitgaard subscribers currently on line****

Some of us are too lazy to be bothered with remembering that, so we
stick it in our .alias files.  To do that:

(0) cd

(you must do this in your homedir)

(1) emacs .alias

(2) insert the line "alias znolsca 'znol -f /afs/athena.mit.edu/user/s/c/sca/.anyone' "

(3) save and exit the file

(4) type "source .alias" at an athena prompt.

From now on, when you type "znolsca" at an athena prompt, you will get
the SCA znol.

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THE SCA ZEPHYR INSTANCE

	Some of you have no doubt fallen prey to the evil vice of
zephyr instances (essentially zephyr conference calls).  They are
wicked distracting things which will cut into your productivity and
make you far more socialized than any good nerd need be.  But if you
must....

athena% zctl add message mitgaard \*

	This will subscribe you the the mitgaard zephyr instance.  To
send a message to it:

athena% zwrite -i mitgaard

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HOW TO CHANGE FINGER INFORMATION

Finger is the program which turns up lots of nifty info about people
on line.  But sometimes you may want to change this info.  You may
notice if you finger dagoura, my nickname is listed as Tibicen.  To
change the finger info type:

athena% chfn

It will walk you through the steps.  It will take a little while (24
hrs) for the database to be updated.  Please note, this is only the
*athena* information which is changed.  The on-line student directory
cannot be altered by us mere mortals.

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HOW TO CHANGE THE NAME THAT APPEARS ON ZEPHYRS

It's called a "z-sig" by most people.  To do this, type

athena% zctl set zwrite-signature "<Whatever you want for a z-sig>"

Where <Whatever you want for a z-sig> is replaced by whatever you want
for a z-sig.

This changes the default, but you can also change a name for a single
zephyr, by, when you're zwriting someone:

athena% zwrite dagoura -s "Jane Doe"

This would change the zwrite headed to me so it said "Jane Doe" in the
signature line.

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THE RIALTO

	Someone in passing (you know who you are) made a joke to me:
"Is there a Kingdom of the Internet?"  To you I answer: Almost.  It's
called the Rialto, and involves more messages than most people can
keep up with.  Fortunately, we here at MIT can read it as NetNews,
instead of having to subscribe to it as an email list (you know, like
mitgaard, only for the whole planet :).  To get into NetNews, go to
Dash (the menu across the top of your screen), and click on
"Communication".  Click on the "Netnews" arrow, then click on the "X
News Reader" arrow, then when asked, click on "yes".  When the reader
comes up, use the scroll bar to find "Rec.Org.SCA", and "add" it.  (At
this point you can add any other groups you'd like, but I'll go on).
Hit "quit", then you'll see a line which sez something like 

"rec.org.sca				500000000 messages unread"

click on it, and click "read".  Have fun.  Hit "quit" when you're
done.  

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Written by Tibicen Blackmane			           Sept. A.S. XXVIII
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