Just out of curiosity, I tried the Linux od utility and the ppt od utility. I created a file called "text":

Some random text.\nMore\nEven More\n
[download]

Then for the Linux utility:

od -N 36 -c /root/Desktop/text
[download]

Then for the ppt version of od:

/usr/local/ppt/bin/od -c /root/Desktop/text
[download]

The Linux od let me control the number of bytes that were dumped; however, with the ppt od, there is no -N option.