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Q: Could you please suggest some contacts who can help in designing computer games.
Cawas Nazir
via email

A: I hope it@tt readers with specialization in this area will come forward. Please correspond with Cawas through it@tt. In the meantime, you could also check out www.gamasutra.com and www.digitalgamedeveloper.com.

Q: The solution you indicated (through an earlier email) has already been tried but in vain. On moving the (Word) dictionary (.DIC) files to another location, the Add option never became available. Even re-installation at that point of time did not help. It will be great if you can hint at some other possible problems which could generate this kind if error.
Indranil Mukherjee
via email

A: I did some further research of your problem. And find that there is a little know bug with the Office Custom Dictionary. It can't exceed 64 kB in size. The work around is to open the existing .DIC file and add terms to it using either WordPad (definitely not Word), Notepad or any simple ASCII text editor. You can also define a second custom dictionary by selecting Tools|Options|Spelling and Grammar|Dictionaries. Now select the existing Custom Dictionary and click Remove. Next click New to add a new custom dictionary. Give it a name and click Save. Finally click Add to select the existing custom dictionary. Word will now add entries to the new dictionary, but will be able to search both.

Q: Thanks for acknowledging my mail and look forward to its reply in your forthcoming issue. May I request your team to include topics on unfocussed careers that are possible with IT knowledge. To mention what exactly are the modules required for specific type of careers, so that job-seekers can learn accordingly.
Sutapa Ghosh
via email

A: All email sent to our address is auto-acknowledged. This is common email courtesy. As for your suggestion, perhaps it needs to be more focussed. We are unclear by what you define as "unfocussed careers possible with IT knowledge." Do let us know.

Q: Thanks for the excellent service you are rendering to your readers. I would like to know how to send a single mail and attachment to multi-recipients, without one recipient being aware that the same mail has been sent to others as well. I would like to know this trick-of-trade both for my Rediff as well as Outlook Express account .
Dhruba Sarathi Deb
via email

A: All you need to do is to put all the names of recipients in the BCC field. However, version of Outlook Express prior to OE 5 SP1 do not support this feature. And with some digging a email recipient can find out who are the other people the email has been sent to. You can also organize email addresses into Groups. This adds an additional layer of security. Do note that sending unsolicited email in bulk is classified as Spam and ISPs in India take a very dim view of such activities.

Q: I'm a regular reader of mailbox. It is very helpful. I have a Yamaha sound card and Win98. When I install Winamp i can't play CD tracks. I get a CDDB error. But I can play any MIDI or WAV files. Please help solve this problem.
Somnath Banerjee
via email

A: Actually The CDDB issue is a much deeper problem. The source database (and Web site) used to update Winamp (and other audio CD players) about CD music is no longer a free service; hence the error. As there's no free alternative available, you have to live without it. And refer to the CD inlay card for details.

Q: Thank you very much for your reply. I am sure other readers will echo my sentiments when I say that you all at IT@TT are doing a magnificent job.

I must confess that my knowledge in that field and its terminology and process is very limited. NukeNabber did not totally disconnect itself, nor the PC. The NukeNabber window displayed some port numbers. When the alert sounded, the port status displayed that a particular port was disconnected after about 2 secs or so.

Also after reading your column, I checked my System Resources and found it hovering around 55%-70% when working on Autocad. I have disabled wallpaper, screen savers, Active Desktop, extra colours and effects. After ending all other applications save Explorer and Systray, I found that it was at most 87%. Even Memturbo which I have downloaded does not seem to help the situation. Is this problem serious?

I would also like to know if I can record audio CDs using Winamp, if so, how? I usually use Music Match Jukebox to record audio CDs into mp3 format. Also, I have Real Player G2, but, can I play Real player files in Windows media player. I want to know this as I am thinking of removing Real player (but most sites use Real Player for videos and songs, so will it be a problem, or is there any other way of solving this problem).
Somdeb Das
via email

A: In that case NukeNabber is a sort of firewall cum local proxy server. It monitors attempts by any application to access your TCP/IP ports. Personally, I recommend ZoneAlarm (see Viruswatch in this issue). Your free system resources are excellent and no cause to worry about. Mine, with MemTurbo, hovers between 15-30%! And yes, you can record audio CDs with Winamp. But I recently found a better MP3 ripper. Download a copy of FreeRIP MP3 from www.mgshareware.com/frmmain.html. Media Player doesn't support Real as a native format; you still need the Real Player. And there are plenty of sites offering Media Player compatible files.

Q: I regularly read it@tt which has provided me with many computer solutions. I have a Pentium III with 32 MB RAM and 52x Infra CD-ROM Drive. Recently, my CD-ROM Drive has stopped responding. Whenever I put a CD in, it cannot detect it. Please suggest a remedy.
Aruni Mukherjee
via email

A: Your drive is probably dirty and needs a clean. It should be taken to your vendor for this. The cleaning disks available are expensive, may not solve the problem and often make it worse.

Q: I have an oft-encountered problem. When I download files from the Internet, I am asked to unzip/decompress them. Since I do not know how to do this the files are reduced to meaningless characters which are undecipherable. I do not think that I have an unzip facility on my PC. Could you please throw some light on the matter ?
SC Mittal
via email

A: You need to download and install Zip shareware. An excellent tool is WinZip 8 (www.winzip.com).

Q: I want know about upgrading my PC. I have a P200, 16 MB RAM, 2.1 GB HDD and a VIA 5SVA Apollo motherboard. Can my 'board and processor support a 20 Gb hard disk with 64 Mb RAM (66 MHz). Can I upgrade the hard disk and RAM without upgrading the 'board and processor?
Alok Padhi
via email

A: It's unlikely you will find compatible RAM today. Still, you can try. Upgrading the hard drive shouldn't be a problem unless your motherboard is unable to support it. I know that Windows 95/98 (excluding Win 98SE) have a drive restriction of 6 GB.

Q: I am a B.Com (Hons) graduate. I want to take computer as a career. After searching lots of courses, I decided to take computer-networking technology. I gathered information about courses like CNE, MCSE and CCNA. Apart from that I also consulted some persons who are related to this field. But I'm now confused because I'm told that industry demand for Novell is not so good and MCSE is better. Others said that MCSE is a product-based course and by doing it I would be unable to handle another network. I was told that CCNA was best in networking but is high-level. Actually the problem is there is no basic course for networking fundamentals. As I want to get into a course in June can you help.
Sudip Sarkar
via email

A: Your advisors are right about CNE. The opportunities for Novell-certified engineers are eroding as Windows 2000/XP and Linux are becoming the de facto NOS (network operating systems). MCSE is a Microsoft product based course. However, it depends which software you want to become certified on. In any case both CNE and CCNA are best done after you've attained some networking knowledge. Other Microsoft course are MCSD (Microsoft Certified Software Developer). My best advice is for you to try and find an entry-level course that includes networking.

Q: I am a avid reader of it@tt and learn a lot in every edition. I am currently facing a problem while reading my email from my Hotmail Account using Outlook Express. I have already downloaded my emails from my account to my Hotmail Folder. But when I am trying to read those emails I get an "Not Available Offline" error. Can you help fix this problem?
Sudeshna Chatterjee
via email

A: That's because Hotmail email remains on the Hotmail server; not your local PC. To do so you will need to move messages from the Hotmail folder into your default Inbox. A more productive solution is to download the MSN Explorer (6 MB, free, http://explorer.msn.com) and use that to access your Hotmail box.

Answers by G Menon
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