[uselessuseof]

cut takes a file as an argument. there's no need to start the line with <

   cut -c4-70 combo_not.txt|...

[akkartik]

But that's where this conversation started out. My response the last time around: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4076674

BTW, HN has some formatting support: http://news.ycombinator.com/formatdoc