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About the Chipdir

Downloading the Chipdir

Introduction

This section describes how you can download the Chipdir for either personal (harddisk or CD-R), LAN, intranet, CD-ROM or public mirroring purposes. (Click on the terms for a few small conditions or read on.)

How to download

It's difficult to predict exactly where a new version of the Chipdir will be available for download, how big it will be and if it will have been updated.
It's best to try in this order:
www.xs4all.nl/~wvganswk/chipdir.zip - Netherlands
www.ideal.net.au/chipdir/chipdir.zip - Australia

The previous version was available from:
www.ideal.net.au/chipdir/chipdir.zip Australia
ftp.unina.it/pub/chipdir/chipdir.zip Italy
www.xs4all.nl/~wvganswk/chipdir.zip Netherlands
www.hitex.com/chipdir/chipdir.zip USA/California
www.blee.net/chipdir/chipdir.zip USA/Pennsylvania
www.chipdir.com/chipdir.zip USA/Texas
flux.fe.uni-lj.si/chipdir/chipdir.zip Slovenia

The version that you're reading now will be probably be available from those same addresses again. It's hard to predict.
Here's a tip: Try to download it from the Xs4all or the Ideal site. When it goes to slowly note the size of the file and try a closer site. If the size of the file is the same, you got the latest version. By the way, please note that the Xs4all site always has the latest version, but this can also be a test version, the Ideal site should always have the latest official version.

When in doubt, feel free to email me about it.

Is the downloaded version different from the on-line version?

No it's exactly the same. The on-line sites are set-up from the same source. The only difference is that when you use the Chipdir from a local source like a harddisk or CD-R, you won't see the (few) ad's that are served from external internet sources. Let me know if using the forms works. In my current local networking set-up I can't use the forms when testing my local version of the Chipdir, but this is probably a local problem, caused by my ISDN-LAN-modem.

How to install

How to unzip the archive

Unzip it using something like:
pkunzip -d chipdir.zip DOS
unzip chipdir.zip UNIX
gunzip chipdir.tar.gz; tar xf chipdir.tar UNIX
gunzip chipdir.tar.Z; tar xf chipdir.tar UNIX
uncompress chipdir.tar.Z; tar xf chipdir.tar UNIX

Make a copy of the archive first, because the traditional UNIX tools remove the original file, when uncompressing or gunzipping.

The unzip commands will create a subdirectory called 'chipdir/' in your current directory with all the files at the appropriate places. I'm not sure about the gz and Z file, because I didn't pack them myself.

How to correct the permissions

When you unzipped the archive on a personal computer for your own usage you probably have nothing to worry about because all directories will be executable and readable by you and all other files readable.
Under some Unix's however unzip doesn't work correctly and you have to correct some of the settings. For this purpose you can download:
www.xs4all.nl/~ganswijk/mkperm.bat
(Press the shift key while clicking the link under Netscape to save the file to disk instead of showing it as a text file...)
After downloading first make this batch program executable by typing 'chmod u+x ckperm.bat'. (It's a readable batch file so you can check that it's safe to use...)
Then run the program in the directory above the directory 'chipdir'.
If you want to do the whole process by hand, make sure that all all files and directories readable and all directories also executable for the intended users.

CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW and harddisk-ability

The Chipdir is now completely useable from a (read-only) disk medium. The advertisements (mainly by Valueclick and/or Linkexchange) that are normally loaded from the Internet, won't be loaded when you're using the Chipdir from a local disk medium (as long the viewer has Javascript and you have it enabled). Of course all other functionality has been kept in tact, so you can click on links and ad's and send forms and email etc. But each time you do this your system will try to contact the Internet instead of working from the local medium. It's quite easy to guess from the format of the links etc. though if the target is local or not.
To copy the Chipdir to a CD-R, first extract it to your harddisk and then copy it to the CD-R.

Enjoy!

A few small conditions

Personal usage

No conditions. Please don't spread altered copies. I also run the Chipdir from harddisk myself of course, have fun!

LAN and Intraweb usage

No alterations please. Make sure you download and install a new version regurarly when a serious number of people are using it. (At least every year). The Chipdir will probably be updated in future once during spring and once during autumn. Put a mindit reminder on: www.ideal.net.au/chipdir/ and you'll be notified of every new (non-test) version.

CD-ROM usage

No alterations please. If you want to include the Chipdir on a CD-ROM that you're going to sell or give away in serious amounts, please contact me. Usually you can include the Chipdir in exchange for a number of free CD-ROM's. (I will usually give them away to people that helped with the Chipdir or to friends and family.)

Mirror usage

Mirror sites are still welcome. Especially in areas that haven't got a mirror site yet and that are more or less remote.
No alterations please. New mirror sites are always appreciated especially in new areas of the world. Make sure however that you're using a solid OS like Unix. Or NT when you're more masochistically inclined. ;-) The Chipdir is written to be very server independent so most serious OS's should work.
Please send me the URL, city and country of the new site, so I can put it in the overview of mirror sites.
The only alteration allowed is replacing chipdir/gif/host.gif by a small logo or ad for your own site (at 'chipdir/..'). Please make sure that it's height is less than that of the Chipdir title banner on the top of every page and that it's width plus that of the Chipdir banner even fits on a 640 pixel wide screen. Your logo or ad will be displayed on (almost) every page in the Chipdir and will draw people to your own site.
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