dacs.doc electric

Random Access

Instant Replay: November 1998

Bruce Preston, Moderator

Q. A brokerage Website that I use requires 128-bit security. I added it to Internet Explorer 4.0, and now I can’t reference some other sites since they don’t have the corresponding level of security on their server. What do I do? A. Within Internet Explorer 4.0 you have the option of specifying the level of security you want to enforce. It is in OPTIONS. Adjust the security level down to match the other sites when you want to work with them, and then adjust it back up when required for the brokerage Website. Q. I use Boot Manager so I can get to Windows 3.1 and DOS 6.0 or to Windows 95. However, when I run a DOS application and try to use PrintKey, it doesn’t work. A. PrintKey is a Windows application, so it shouldn’t cut in if you are in pure DOS. In pure DOS, the PrintScrn key dumps directly to the printer. It isn’t likely, but take a look at your AUTOEXEC.BAT or CONFIG.SYS file when you boot and see see if there are references to PRINTKEY. Highly unlikely, but if so, try commenting it out with a REM<space> at the start of the line. Q. I have a 200MB hard disk on a 486 and want to upgrade to a 2GB drive. Will I get into trouble if I make the new drive a slave drive and FDISK it, FORMAT it, and then copy everything from the first drive to the second drive? I don’t have enough room to put any applications on the current C: drive. A. That will move data quite nicely, but it won’t move the operating system, including the Windows registry. You might be able to do it with PowerQuest’s DriveCopy. To make room to install DriveCopy, check to see if you’ve got any files in \TEMP and \WINDOWS\TEMP. Q. I have a new machine and found that the Media Player applet didn’t work. I used the “Windows Update” application, which brought down a new version of something, but in doing so it made a mess of my system, including a demand for a reformat, which additionally disabled FAT32. A. Several people reported problems with Media Player and FAT 32. The consensus: don’t use it or upgrade to it. Q. I would like to use a second hard drive for backing up the data on my primary hard drive(s). My primary hard drives are in “removable hard drive trays.” When I change the hard drive, my drive letters for the second hard drive are messed up. A. Each physical hard disk gets a letter first, then after all of the physical hard drives have been assigned a letter all of the additional partitions on the first hard disk are assigned letters; then all of the additional partitions on the second hard are assigned letters. Then removable media such as CD-ROMs and ZIP drives are assigned letters. For example, suppose you started with a single hard drive C: with additional partitions of D: and E:, and a CD-ROM known as F:, and a ZIP drive as G:. If you then add a new second drive with two additional partitions on it, you would end up with: C: on first drive, D: on second drive, E: on first drive (old D:), F: on first drive (old E:) then G: and H: on the new drive. Your CD-ROM will now be I:, and the ZIP drive will be J:. In Windows 9x, you may permanently assign a letter to CD-ROMs and ZIP drives - I would suggest that you use Y: for the CD-ROM and Z: for the ZIP drive. Then, once you install software that expects to find the data on a CD or ZIP drive, if you add additional drive(s) or change the drive partitions, the CD and ZIP assignments won’t change. Lastly, if you have Partition Magic, it has a utility which will go through the Windows 3.x, Windows 9x registry and .INI files and adjust references to drive letters. Suggestion: If you are going to be playing with multiple drives and partitions, place a file in the root of each partition which identifies the drive—for example I have files called DRIVE.ID, which contain text such as “C: Drive 0 Partition 1”. That way, if things seem to be mixed up, you will have a file that uniquely identifies the drive. Q. I run Windows 3.11, and run Netscape Navigator 4.0. When I get to certain Websites, I get a message saying “Starting Java” and then Netscape drops the connection. What do I do to fix it? A. If you are running the original Navigator 4.0, go get the newest fractional release (thought to be 4.0.7) Q. I have a DOS application that needs RAM-disk for temporary storage. Where can I get RAM-disk software? A. RAM-disk is generally not used by today’s applications. If you need it to support an old application, see if your version of DOS has the RAMDRIVE driver (.SYS or .DRV). Or find someone who had a add-on memory card such as an AST card or QuadRAM card and see if they can provide a RAM-disk driver. Q. Does anyone know where I can find a good random generator? The one built into Basic and the common Fortran library routine ‘randu’ are not nearly random enough. A. There is a classic book “Numerical Recipes in C: The Art of Scientific Computing,” which is in print and available. It is also available on disk, and we are told that portions of it can be found on the Internet. Also, check www.nist.gov, then search for “random number generator”. After the meeting I did the search and found 77 references.