Ask DACS
June 2007

Jim Scheef, Moderator
Lisa Leifels, Reporter

We welcome questions from the floor at the start of our General Meetings. In addition, members who are not able to attend the General Meeting may submit questions to askdacs@dacs.org. We will ask the question for you and post the reply in DACS.ORG. Please provide as much information as possible since we can’t probe during the session.

Q. A question was emailed from someone who is preparing a text file of data that is to be entered into a database and would like to know which column they are on when they are editing the file.

A. Text editing software will usually show you what column and row you are on. TextPad, Notepad++ and K-edit were three different programs that were recommended at the meeting. Another solution is to switch to a monospace font such as Courier or LetterGothic, so that the data in each row will line up correctly. Then create a file with one row containing the set of numbers 1234567890 repeating across as many times as you need. Copy the row of numbers into your data file and you will have instant column markers that you can remove once you’re done editing the file.

Q. There have been a few times when a person who is typing an email message in Yahoo! mail gets disconnected from the Internet and the email message is lost. Is there a way to get the email message back?

A. Unfortunately, the email message is most likely gone. One suggestion was to save long or important email messages in a Microsoft Word file and then paste the text into the body of a Yahoo! mail message. Someone brought up the point that Gmail saves your composed mail to a drafts folder after a period of time, which may mean that this feature could be added to Yahoo! Mail in the future.

Q. I can no longer see the names of the files in my recycle bin, how can I fix this?

A. One solution that may resolve this problem is to right click on the Recycle Bin and select Properties. Check the box next to “Do not move files to the recycle bin. Remove files immediately when deleted”. Next delete a file you really don’t want. Right click on the Recycle Bin again and select Properties and this time uncheck the box next to “Do not move files to the recycle bin. Remove files immediately when deleted”. Try deleting another file you don’t want to see if you are able to see it when viewing the files in your recycle bin.

Q. Charter cable is my ISP and I am having trouble resolving domain names on my router.

A. The purpose of the Domain Name System (DNS) is to translate IP numbers into alphanumeric names that are easier to remember. This translation is performed by special computers on the Internet called DNS Servers. Each ISP provides its own DNS Servers to its customers. Lately there have been an increasing number of attacks against local ISP’s and their DNS Servers.

The first step is to make your ISP aware of the problem so it can be fixed. Another approach is to use the DNS Server of a different ISP. Just ask someone you know for the DNS Server they are using and see if it works for you. You can also use the DNS Servers from OpenDNS.com. If you don’t mind competing with the thousands of DNS Servers, you could even use the Internet’s root DNS Servers directly. Another option with which people have had success is using the “unofficial” Open Root confederation DNS Servers.

Submit any question to: askdacs@dacs.org.