IT@TT - Online

Q: When I shut down my Pentium133, I often receive "Detector" "This program has performed an illegal operation.." How do I resolve it?
Nikhil Ch. Agrawala
via email

A: It appears that you have some kind of virus that is causing the error. Use Trend Micro HouseCall (www.antivirus.com) to scan your system.

Q: I use Win95. There are some small icons at the right hand side corner that always appear during startup. I want to delete these but have been unable to do so. Please help.
Tushar Kanti Dawn
via email

A: We don't understand what icons you are referring to or in which right-hand corner of the screen they appear: top or bottom. Please send us more details.

Q: I plan start a cyber cafe as I have computer experience. I want to do DTP, data entry, computerised accounting and web-page designing. How can I get such jobs.
Indranil Majumder
via email

A: Try lo-cost advertising that show cases your skills. And design all your own publicity material e.g. hand-outs and advertisements to be inserted in the local yellow pages. You could also prepare your own home page advertising your skills.

Q: I have a Celeron 266. Whenever I open Internet Explorer (IE) or Outlook Express (OE) I get a message that "The Service Profile is damaged." How do I fix this problem. Can you also let me know which sites allow free PC-to-phone to Canada.
Vicky Indian
via email

A: We suggest you read this Microsoft Knowledge Base article: http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q232/6/28.asp. Voice over IP is still banned in India. And you can have your ISP account terminated for misuse. We know that Caltiger blocks this service. both MSN Messenger and Yahoo Pager support calls to North America.

Q: I use OE to receive email from my Yahoo and Caltiger accounts. But I am unable to connect to rediffmail. Can you tell me how to connect. I also can't send email from OE using my Caltiger, Yahoo and Rediffmail accounts.
M.I.Ali
via email

A: You can't send or receive email in OE using Rediffmail as this is a Web-only email service. Use smtp.mail.yahoo.com as your Yahoo SMTP server. You need to first POP-authenticate yourself before you are allowed to send email. For Caltiger, we suggest you check your documentation or the ISP's site.

Q: What is the difference between linear and non-linear editing. Can you also give some video cutter (sic) software. How can I transfer a movie from VCD to .AVI format. What is best software to compress multimedia files to a floppy disk.
Dhiman Chatterjee
via email

A: In linear editing you work in a 1-2-3-4 sequence. Each source has to be copied in turn into the file being prepared. In non-linear, you can add frames or use sources in any order. Video editing solutions like Miro and EditBay typically comprise a hardware card, a SCSI drive to record sequences and editing software. Visit http://www.mediawaresolutions.com/ for more on some great video editing tools. To convert VCD to .AVI you need a VCD player, video capture card and editing tools. Connect the VCD player's Video Out to the card's Video IN. Next play the VCD and use the software provided to capture the frames. This file can be saved as .AVI. Current video compression (usually MPEG) are not good enough to transfer video to a floppy.

Q: Which is the best way to preserve computers from viruses. And what are virus symptoms.
Md Tarique Nisar
via email

A: Put the PC in a sealed display window and admire it from afar :) But jokes apart, common virus-like symptoms include computer slowing down, free disk being reduced, files being modified or deleted. And even friends complaining that you keep sending them email with attachments.

Q: I have a Pentium 100, 16 MB RAM with Win 95. What is the minimum requirement for Oracle 8i Enterprise edition? Can I run it by increasing RAM to 32 MB? Will my mother board support SDO RAM?
Indro Chakravarty
via email

A: Oracle Enterprise requires Windows NT. You will need at least 64 MB RAM. You won't find EDO RAM today. And EDO RAM-compatible mother boards may not accept SDO RAM. So why not consider a mother board upgrade?

Q: I have noticed when my system boots, in the computer properties the performance shows 94% free. But as I use applications and even after closing them, the free resources are only 84%. Why?
Tirthankar Ray
via email

A: This has already been answered in the Techtalk (it@tt, 6 March 01) on Windows memory leaks. There's nothing much you can do except install a memory defrag tool like MemTurbo (it@tt, 20 March 01)

Q: I have P-III and use OE5. Whenever I try to download mail I get an error "Connection to the Server has failed..." What is the cause and how can I fix it. Now I am composing all my email online since I can't use OE.
DJ Basu
via email

A: Were you ever able to use OE to receive and send email from your VSNL account. If so, its possible that the mail server settings have been changed. This is an OE 5x bug that keeps switching the incoming mail server to 'localhost'. Do get back to us with more details.

Q: I have a webveda.com mail account. Could you provide me the POP and SMTP mail server names. Could you also start a new section of software programming.
Sudesh Kumar Dugar
via email

A: For more on Webveda we suggest you visit the site. We will consider your request. Readers interested in a software programming column should email us their votes for or against.

Q: I want to know if music in old LP records can be converted to .wav format. What is the software required.
Partha Pratim
via email

A: Converting LPs to .WAV is similar to converting audio tapes to .WAV. Read more here: http://webdevelopersjournal.com/discuss/audio_faq.html#lps.

Q: I have the Crystal Codec installed and can't play MIDI files. I tried installing the 3Com Euthesys but this was useless. I get "ADI/ICH cannot locate hardware. 3Com will not run" error. Can you help me?
Pratik Kothary
via email

A: We suggest you check out this Microsoft Knowledge Base artciel: http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q172/7/24.ASP.

Q: I am a first year Commerce student and the IT industry really fascinates me. Should I opt for private institutes such as NIIT, Aptech, or Pentasoft. Or would degree courses be better. Some of my friends advised that I opt for the BSIT (Bachelor of Science in Information Technology) course from MAHE (Manipal Academy of Higher Education). An institute, IIAS in Salt Lake (Calcutta) also offers a BSIT course on behalf of Preston University, USA. But this is not recognized in India. So which should be a better option, MAHE or IIAS?

Or would BCA be better? I didn't have pure Mathematics in my higher secondary. Is it true that the BCA degree offered by IGNOU is not recognized, as it is an open university? Someone also suggested that I do an e-commerce course and then take up a part-time job? Also how important is vendor certification for a IT career seeker
Udit Saraff
via email

A: Actually you've answered your own question. Avoid courses not recognized in India. IGNOU course are recognized as it is a deemed university. After spending quite a bit of your parent's money on a course, why would you want to do a part-time job? How about full time? Vendor certification is important if you plan to specialise in a vendor-specific platform like Cisco routers or Oracle. Most companies was people who can learn fast and then apply their skills to make their employer richer.

G Menon
[email protected]

Top

Other Articles