# What's on the Internet for the
Community?

"The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong does go wrong, it usually turns out to be impossible to get at and repair."

-- Douglas Adams

Stratus Technologies sells hardware fault-tolerant computer systems. (The firm previously was called "Stratus Computer, Inc."; for a brief time it was a subsidiary of Ascend Communications.)

The redundant-component hardware architecture of the Stratus machines provides transparency in fault tolerance. Several different operating systems and software environments are used with various Stratus products, including VOS, Hewlett Packard HP-UX Unix, FTX SVR4 Unix, and Windows 2000/XP.

- comp.sys.stratus ( Usenet newsgroup)
- Stratus Community Blogs (2009: including OpenVOS discussions)
- How to Use the Info-Stratus mailing list
- Info-Stratus Frequently Asked Questions
- Archive of Stratus CAC VOS Newsletters
- 2001 Archive of Info-Stratus mailing list (for more recent, use comp.sys.stratus)
- Contacting Stratus Customer Service
- Cemprus Customer Service (transition Lucent DNCP support)
- Review of ftServer 2300/W by Techworld

## Various Vendors of Interest

- SCI Group (TPS, RoSEware, AZ7, Network Express for VOS)
- Realtime Software Engineering (RoSE products)
- Transaction Design, Inc. (BanBottlenecks.com)
- Stellar Software Corporation
  (MQSeries Messaging Middleware for VOS.)
  (Here is some background info on MQ messaging; there is an MQ client for Java.)
- 2AB, Inc. (vendor of orb2, formerly Peerlogic)
- Syllog (SFax vendor) has been acquired by Brown Brothers Harriman.
- Data Research & Applications, Inc. (data storage products, disaster recovery for Stratus systems)
- Applications Resources, Inc. (stratusoft.com: DBQ file access for VOS, Sshell)
- SoftMark Inc.
- Amstec BV (European distributors: DBQ, Keyshell, SFAX, and SPS)
- Grapevine Systems has merged with ACI Worldwide
- S2 Systems (vendor of ON/2 and NetX...was Shared Financial/SSI...now a subsidiary of Baker Communications)
- OMx Group (former TCAM)
- Stratosphere, Ltd. (consultants, Naples/Dallas/Atlanta)
- Prolifics (JAM Transactional Tools--a JYACC Company)
- Sistema Clave
- UltraEdit (PC-based editor with VOS FTP support)
- Netweave (middleware)
- Sterling Commerce (Connect:Direct)
- Market Systems Technology (ticker plant for Linux)
- Metavante Corporation (banking cash and credit applications for VOS)
- Knowledge Systems (KSI) was acquired by Interliant, which was itself acquired in May 2003 by NaviSite, Inc. of Andover, Massachusetts.
- United States Advanced Network, Inc.
- DNA, Inc. (electronic payment software for HP-UX and FTX)
- Sistemas Críticos (distributor in Argentina, Peru, Uruguay)
- Optimisa (distributor in Chile, Argentina)
- CTC Stratus Support Group (Japan) p
- CPM: Continuous Processing Machines (Russia: Lucent distributor)
- Vasco Data Security (RADIUS authentication products: also Vasco Security GmbH)
- HBF Group (E911: 2004 link)
- Spectra Logic (supporting ADIC Emass Mixed-Media Storage)

  Several vendors listed sell terminal-emulation software especially configured for efficient use with VOS. A general list of other vendors of terminal-emulation software is here.

- The mdterm

terminal emulator/middleware is now available from Realtime Software Engineering (previously Cavendish)
- Realtime Software Engineering, Ltd. (Cavendish's mdterm for Stratus)
- TurboSoft Pty Ltd. (TTWin terminal emulator: can do Stratus V103)
- teemtalk is now available from Neoware
  (multiple emulations, multiple supported client platforms; the Windows 2000/XP package can emulate Stratus V102)
- Cambridge Computer Corporation
  (vendor of PkWeb web-browser terminal-emulation plug-in for communicating with VOS hosts, also mxConnect V102 emulation for Macintosh and pkHpc for WinCE)
- Van Dyke Techologies (CRT terminal emulator; there is a special version for use with VOS)
- Kermit-95 can emulate a V101 or a V105.

  3rd-Party Hardware Sources

- Regal Technology Partners (formerly Regal Computer Solutions)
- Contemporary Computer Source
- Spectra
- Tape Drive Sales & Service
- Disc Interchange Service Company (data-conversion specialists, including COBOL data)

  ## Information from Stratus Computer

  > Stratus Computer, an operating unit of Stratus Technologies, designs, manufactures, markets, and services a range of continuously available (i.e., "fault tolerant") computer systems and associated applications. Founded in 1980, and based in Maynard, Massachusetts, since May 1999, the company focuses on the critical end of customers' businesses. Other companies that have re-sold Stratus machines under their own brand include IBM (System/88) and Olivetti (CPS/32).

  > A reporter from InfoWorld interviewed Steve Kiely, the president of Stratus, in August 1999. You can read the conversation here.

  - Stratus Computer Public Web Site Map
  - StrataSearch (Problem Report Search Service--QTS for customers)
  - Stratus Education Course Schedules
  - Jobs at Stratus
  - Anonymous FTP Server at Stratus, VOS Area
  - Collected VOS Corner Articles (2004 link)
  - Anonymous FTP Server at Stratus, HP-UX Area

  > Some files on the Stratus FTP site are in ".ppt" format, a Microsoft-proprietary encoding readable only by Powerpoint. You can obtain a free read-only Powerpoint-viewer program from Microsoft.

  - Stratus Computer UK
  - Stratus Computer GmbH (auf Deutsch)
  - Stratus Computer Japan Co. Ltd.
  - Application Service Provider (ASP) Industry Consortium
  - Fault-Tolerant Server Consortium (English page)
  - Lucent Technologies (which acquired Ascend Communications) sold (for a while) DNCP pair-and-partner fault-tolerant systems to the telecommunications market.
  - Cemprus was created in late 2002 from the Lucent DNCP business.
  - Then, in May 2003, Stratus bought back Cemprus.
  - Stratus raised investment capital from Compaq and Intel (in 2001).

  ## New Money: Dealing with the Euro

  (See links here.)

  ## Various Information on the Internet

  A subset of the Samba SMB client and server has been ported to VOS by Erik Devriendt. VOS Samba provides Windows-NT-style SMB network file and print services. You can read how to use it here.

  If your computer is connected to the Internet, despite the custom in the VOS community, do not use an underscore character in its name, if you want the Domain Name System to keep track of it. We receive this same warning from The DNS Resources Directory and from cisco systems. This rule was established by RFC 1035 back in November 1987.

  When you are setting up your TCP/IP network for the first time, carefully consider the IP-address issues raised in RFC-1918. Advice on how to assign addresses in a private network can be found here. You can also consult the Internet Protocol (IP) Assignment Guidelines for End Users.

  If you'd like a VOS version of the PKzip data-compression software to be available as a commercial product, go here and request it. However, a related type of compressed data storage can be achieved with other software tools freely available from the anonymous FTP Server.

  If you read about all the different software problems that must be solved for the High-Availability Linux Project, you'll gain a greater appreciation for the benefits of the Stratus fault-tolerant hardware architecture.

  - Televideo terminals are frequently connected to Stratus hosts.
    (Diagrams of V102 keyboard templates available.)
  - Here is information on many other types of video terminals.
  - New VOS "ttp" files for ANSI terminal types. (ftp)
  - Alternatives to PC/Connect. (ftp)
  - New "ttp" files for DEC VT220 and VT320 video terminals, and for the CRT program a ttp file and a VOS keyboard setup.
  - Documentation on new ANSI-type ttps in VOS 13.5 and 14.0.
  - And general advice on connecting terminals to Stratus systems.
  - VOS 14.0 Documentation/Manual List (PDF file)
  - StrataDoc on the Web (requires site ID and password)
  - Chronology of Stratus machines that support VOS

  The Stratus V101 is a Televideo 950. The V102 terminal is a Televideo 955 equipped with the 2-page memory option. A Stratus V103 is a Link MC-5 (operated in TVI 955 mode). However, the new V105 is a different genus: it's a Boundless 4000/160 terminal, with either a PC-type or "ANSI" (DEC-like) keyboard, running in VT320/7-bit mode. (Here is some V105 information.)

  - STRATAGY User Group on the Web
  - Disaster Recovery Journal
  - Disaster Recover/Contingency Planning
  - Read about C-Kermit for VOS and then get it (ckl*) from here.
  - Ataman free software for Windows NT/2000 (including console "vi", "more", "ed" and "emacs")
  - Level 8 Systems (Geneva Message Queuing--GMQ, MSMQ implementation, Cicero)
  - Stratus HP-UX Product Information (2004 link)
  - The Unix Reference Desk (NWU)
  - Unix Reference Desk (geek-girl.com)
  - HP-UX FAQ (Ohio State)
  - HP-UX Unix Book
  - HP-UX software collection (Iowa)
  - HP-Related Web Links (Interex)
  - Java for HP-UX (HP)
  - HP-UX Developer's Kit for Java (or try these developer's resources)
  - wdb (GDB) GUI C++ debugging environment (www.hp.com)
  - HP-UX Porting and Archive Center (in Utah--or use the alternative UK centre)
  - AIX/HP-UX Interoperability Guide (InterWorks)
  - BSD Unix to HP-UX Porting Tricks (Mike Peterson)
  - HP-UX Patches (ftp: HP external)
  - Search HP-UX Sysadmin mailing list archive (nexial)
  - iij-ppp for HP-UX 10.x (barthold)
  - Workaround for Netscape binary-transfer problems?
  - ethereal network traffic analyzer for HP-UX (hpux.cict.fr)
  - HP-UX 10.x Login White Paper (CERN: setup shell and terminal)
  - MicroEmacs (several platforms, including HP-UX 10.20
- KDE Homepage (desktop environment for Unix/Linux)
- Gnome (open-source desktop manager
--now with Gimp Toolkit for HP-UX)
- OpenGroup Full-Text Publications on the Web (Unix documents)
- Unix System-Administration Independent Learning (Indiana U.)
- FAQ from comp.unix.admin (Stevens Tech)
- Here's the "Purple Book" on Unix System Administration (3rd ed.) by Nemeth, Snyder, Seebass, and Hein.
- The "Single Unix" Specification (The Open Group)
- Archive of "Info-Unix" mailing list (arl.mil)
- Enhanced Software Technologies (HP-UX tape-backup software)
- Open Group Unix-Branded Products (Stratus FTX)
- Dependability.org (IEEE Technical Committee on Fault Tolerance)
- Transaction Processing Performance Council (tpc.org)
- Object Management Group (CORBA authority)
- AT&T to install Stratus to deliver 800 services
- Uninterruptable Power Source (UPS) FAQ (NASA)
- EMACS Implementations FAQ (finseth.com--updated link)
- Introduction to Function Points (software engineering)
- STD-2167A Defense System Software Development Standard (U.S. DoD)
- Software Carpentry (open-source tools for development groups)
- The Risks of Computing
- International Standard Date and Time Notation (kuhn)
- IBM Y2K Product Readiness Summary
- John Grout's Poka-Yoke Software Quality Site (updated)
- LAN FAQ List (for local-area network administrators)
- 100-mbps Fast Ethernet Resources (utexas)
- A Guide to SNMP and CMIP (good for beginners)
- SNMP FAQs (Simple Network Management Protocol)
- archives of Usenet newsgroup "comp.dcom.net-management"
- Hedrick's Introduction to Administration of an Internet-Based Local Network
- Bisync Protocol White Paper (Aton.com)
- An Important Consideration When Debugging... (here's the Java version)
- News about Sequoia/General Automation
- Pick Systems
- U.S. Social Security Number FAQ (cpsr)
- SCSI FAQs (Small Computer Systems Interface)
  (According to Tom Clancy, all Stratus machines have a SCSI port right on the front! :-)
- X/Open Large File Support in Unix (SAS Institute)
- PR Newswire Company News on-call
- Tools to read Microsoft proprietary data formats
- Information on Networks, Communication, and Security (MSIC)
- Security hole in a version of Zmodem "rz" program (CERT)
- Purdue Computer Operations, Audit, and Security Technology (COAST)
- Trusted Information Systems Internet Firewall Toolkit
- Why Cryptography Is Harder Than It Looks or "it's hard to sell door locks to people who don't want to be bothered with keys."
- Cisco documentation on the Web
- Secure Internet Programming (Princeton)
- Network Security Consortium (security.org.il)
- Information Systems Security Officer Certification
- PCIA Protocol Specifications (pager/beeper protocols)
- InterOperability Lab (U. of New Hampshire)

  ## Language and Tool Resources

  #### Web Resources

  - C Language FAQ by Steve Summit
    (or access the alternate source for this FAQ or buy the book)
  - C Programming Reference Material (M. Leslie: incl POSIX functions)
  - LCLint code analyser
  - C++ FAQ Lite (Marshall Cline)
  - G++ Compiler FAQ (cygnus)
  - Comparison of PL/I and C (Sturm)
  - PL/I Resources (maintained by R.A. Vowels...
    including the C to PL/I Translation Project.)
  - PL/I Connection Newsletter (IBM)
  - IBM VisualAge PL/I
  - Liant (PL/1 and COBOL compilers)
  - Kednos (PL/1 compilers: heir of Translation Systems)
  - COBOL FAQ (wmklein: Frequently Asked Questions 2000 link)
  - Fujitsu NetCOBOL for Linux (2002-10-14 link)
  - The COBOL Foundation
  - Merant/Microfocus (vendor of COBOL compiler for Unix)
  - Mike Murach & Associates (Books for the programmer, from JCL and COBOL to Java)
  - Fortran Information (fortran.com)
  - Lahey Fortran 90
  - IBM XL Fortran (for Linux, AIX, MacOSX)
  - GNU Fortran 77 and GNU Fortran 95
  - User Notes on Fortran Programming (UNFP)
  - Legacy Reserves: (job exchange for seasoned IT professionals)
  - The CAC Newsletter 0034 contains (near the end) a cross reference of "equivalent" commonly used VOS and Unix commands.
  - Open Source POSIX/GNU tools for VOS (gawk, diff, tar, bison, etc.)
  - Open Source POSIX/VOS assistance/patches by Erik Devriendt
  - Parent of POSIX (IEEE Portable Applications Standards Committee)
  - Programming and network-application tools (Thomas E. Dickey)
  - Uri's TCP/IP Resource List (at private.org.il ... or use mirror site at Best.com)
  - "Mini-FAQ" on TCP/IP applications (technion.ac.il)
  - TCP Connection States: a Clue to Network Health (SysAdmin magazine article by Noah Davids)
  - Secure Unix Programming FAQ
  - Unix Socket FAQ
  - JAM Support Mailing List (prolifics.com)
  - Java FAQ
  - Character-Cell-Terminal Implementation of Java AWT (Rob Pitman)
  - expat XML Parser Toolkit (Clark)
  - Home of the perl Language
  - VOS Perl man-page documentation (via Apple Computer?)
  - perl Frequently Asked Questions
  - Other perl FAQs
  - Comprehensive perl archive network (perl.com)
  - Online perl manual (uni-mainz.de)
  - What if Coca Cola did what Microsoft does?

  #### Related Usenet newsgroups

  > These Usenet "news" links work only if your Web browser is configured to know a valid news server, and if the server carries that newsgroup.

  - comp.sys.stratus
  - comp.lang.pl1
  - comp.lang.cobol
  - comp.lang.c
  - comp.lang.c.moderated
  - comp.lang.fortran
  - comp.sys.hp.hpux
  - comp.sys.isis

  ## Some Stratus Surprises on the Web

  - Stratalums
  - The VOS Programming Quiz is no longer available.
  - Nocturnal Fog and Stratus Over the Northern Plains (Java animation)
  - Dodge's Stratus
  - Does your Stratus need better seat belts?
  - A Stratus Pylon from Ohio Willow Wood ("impact reducing").
  - The Stratus Network? (get your bronze accounts here)
  - Both Bill Foster and Jim Treybig are mentioned in this story about Hewlett-Packard's HP3000.
  - EDGAR is operated by the SEC.
  - You've heard of the von Neumann bottleneck? What about the von Neumann Gargoyle?
  - We don't mind if you join this Tandem Club.
  - The Register reports that one airport may be reconsidering
    its commitment to Windows in critical systems.
  - Multics had a lot of influence on VOS.
  - George Goble, World Champion Charcoal Lighter, no longer has this web page,
    but you can read a summary of his achievement here.
    (Thanks to David McReynolds, formerly of S2 Systems, for this pointer.)
  - How Java Came to Be (a technological fable, courtesy of Al Geist)
  - Commentary on the Intel i860 (Bayko)
  - HP's PA-8500 (PA-RISC) Processor

  ## Corporate News Concerning Stratus and Lucent

  - Stratus got the telecom business back!
  - Recent News Releases from Stratus
  - The Compaq/Intel/Deutsche Bank Investment and Collaboration (2001)
  - Summary of Ascend's Acquisition of Stratus (1998)
  - Summary of Lucent's Acquisition of Ascend (1999)

  ## Y2K Events and Planning for Y2K+1

  Stratus Computer has made announcements about its Y2K policy and Millennium support plans. The Stratus web site (http://www.stratus.com/) is the only official source of such statements.

  Year 2001 followup:
  If you'd like to be sure what the meaning is of the date string "01-02-01", then you may wish to review the issues regarding interpretation of 2-digit year values in `s$cv_to_int_date_time`.

  Click here to see a successful withdrawal of money, at 2000-01-01_00:05:00, from an Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) in New Zealand controlled by a Stratus computer.

  - Year 2000 Readiness Disclosure for VOS
  - Glitches to Avoid when Upgrading VOS for Y2K
  - Stratus Y2K Patches for HP-UX (sse:sqa/rm)
  - Year-2000 Readiness Checklist (Software Engineering Institute)

  ## Network Annoyances: What to Do?

  - How to Turn Off HTML Encoding of your Email Messages (Belgium)
  - In Outlook: Convert HTML Messages to Safe Text (NTbugtraq.com)
  - HoaxBusters (CIAC/DOE)
  - Internet Mail Consortium
  - Scientific analysis of how email addresses get unwanted email (Center for Democracy and Technology: March 2003)
  - Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email (CAUCE)
  - Internet Fraud Complaint Center (U.S. FBI)
  - Promote Responsible Net Commerce: Boycott Spam! (vix)
  - Figuring Out Where Spam Came From
  - Spamorama policy and recommendations from L-Soft
  - Email Address Munging (to foil massmailers)
  - Spam FAQ
  - CancelMoose Home Page

  ## Using Mailing Lists on the Internet

  - Where to set up a special mail account just for public posting.
  - The Unofficial AOL Email FAQ (with IMAP as of April 2004)
  - Searchable Database of over 9000 mailing lists
  - SkyList Mailing-List Service
  - Liszt Mailing-List Search Database
  - Resources for Moderators of Online Discussion (nau.edu)
  - Practical Aspects of Usenet Newsgroup Moderation
  - What are all those mailing-list headers? (tidbits.com-- and the new RFC about headers.)

  Go to miscellaneous information page....
  Back to video-terminal information....

  #### Former Quotations of the Month

  "As practiced by computer science, the study of programming is an unholy mixture of mathematics, literary criticism, and folklore."

  -- B. A. Sheil (circa 1981)

  Stratus Computers Appear in Techno-Thriller:
  "The client used Stratus mainframes, compact powerful machines that were easily networked...."

  -- Tom Clancy, Debt of Honor, page 54.

  A distributed system is one in which the failure of a computer you didn't even know existed can render your own computer unusable.

  -- Leslie Lamport

  "We decided years ago that the most important element in this business is information technology, and we have geared everything to that philosophy--recruitment, training and compensation. Fail-safe precision is the key to it all."

  -- Frederick W. Smith, Chairman and CEO of FedEx.

  Computer science is the first engineering discipline ever in which the complexity of the objects created is limited by the skill of the creator and not limited by the strength of the raw materials. If steel beams were infinitely strong and couldn't ever bend no matter what you did, then skyscrapers could be as complicated as computers.

  -- Brian K. Reid, in Communications of the ACM, October 1987

  Y2K Questions

  - We've heard that motorcycles and trucks will stop on January 1.
    Is it true that bicycles will also stop working?
  - Will airplanes really fall out of the sky?
  - Will Jesus return and tell all the Christians to become Muslims?

  -- Inhabitants of the village of Baani in Burkina Faso

  "It's boring!"

  -- Dan Danz of Stratus, at 1999-12-31 22:30 EST,
  waiting for Y2K-related problems to be reported
  by Stratus customers around the world

  (Is there a problem with this page?)

  This page's count says that you are visitor number since 2000-01-01.

  If you have trouble accessing the FTP server at Stratus while using a Web browser, be sure that the IP address of the machine where your browser is running is registered in the Domain Name Service with a single, correct PTR record for reverse lookups to a domain name.

  This page will expire on 19 January A.D. 2048 at 22:14:06 est, or possibly earlier, depending on ambient conditions.

  ## Thanks

  From 1991 to 2010, the Info-Stratus mailing list was the most widely used forum for technical discussion and professional camaraderie among people who use the computing systems made by Stratus Computer, Inc. and its successor, Stratus Technologies. The systems included the product cousins sold by Ascend Communications, Lucent Technologies, Cemprus LLC, IBM, and NEC.

  Through most of its existence, messages from Info-Stratus were transceived via a gateway to and from the Usenet newsgroup comp.sys.stratus (As of A.D. 2010, it is probably necessary to remind readers that "Usenet", formed circa 1981 by Truscott and Bellovin, formed the foundation of what is now mostly thought of as "Google Groups".)

  Richard S. Shuford (maintainer of this web page) was the founder of Info-Stratus and, through its end in the spring of 2010, was the principal administrator. However, he received a lot of help and encouragement, from a lot of people, whose names include:

  - David Link
  - Tim Phillips
  - Jonathan Holt
  - Andy Melnyk
  - Dr. Curtis Paul
  - Dr. Charles Cooke
  - Paul Green
  - John Bilotti
  - Bob Sweeney
  - Dick Wall
  - Stacey Wall
  - Bill Lewis
  - Mark Hyde
  - Byron C. Howes
  - James L. Pugh
  - Mike Oliver
  - Mitchell Pilot
  - Larry Sanchez
  All participants in Info-Stratus and comp.sys.stratus owe thanks to the above contributors.