Info-IBMPC@WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL ("Info-IBMPC Digest") (11/12/90)
Info-IBMPC Digest Mon, 12 Nov 90 Volume 90 : Issue 176
Today's Editor:
Gregory Hicks - Rota Spain <GHICKS@WSMR-Simtel20.Army.Mil>
Today's Topics:
Address of Western Digital?
RE: Clipper Applications
gif sites
How to kill a never ending program?
Graphic File Formats, Patching .EXE files, Z-248 Memory
Re: OS/2 Standard Edition 1.1
Re: Hard Drive Saver
Re: Suggestions for PC Anti-Viral programs
Today's Queries:
Adjusting size of TSR
Mailing List for HP Calculators
VGA pages
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Date: Sun, 21 Oct 90 1:56:45 CDT
From: david@wubios.wustl.edu (David J. Camp)
Subject: Address of Western Digital?
In Reply to <Christoph Baumhof> (ua21@dkauni2.bitnet):
>I'm looking for an e-mail or postal address of Western Digital
>Corporation...
I suggest that you try their 800 number (1-800-832-4778). I have used
this many times, and it makes great economic sense. The computerized
answering machine is so efficient, that I have had all my questions
answered without ever needing to speak with a human. This system
probably saves Western Digital an enormous amount of money in tech
support salaries, plus provides an invaluable public service. The
system can provide the parameters to the low-level format utility for
many drives. -David-
david@wubios.wustl.edu ^ Mr. David J. Camp
david%wubios@wugate.wustl.edu < * > +1 314 382 0584
...!uunet!wugate!wubios!david v
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Date: 22 Oct 90 08:02:00 EDT
From: "CMSGT LARRY KELLY" <kellyl@v3.hanscom.af.mil>
Subject: RE: Clipper Applications
Regarding your posting in INFO-IBMPC, I haven't been able to play with
one of the new UNISYS 386's yet but here's a couple of ideas about your
Clipper problems:
1) Check the memory available to the clipper application on the way
in. Make the first line of the app a call to MEMORY(0) and display the
results followed by a WAIT. Compare the results on the old machine and
on the new. My guess is that Clipper is getting less memory to start
with. Have you changed DOS versions (4.01 will eat a big chunk),
FILES/BUFFERS/TSR's, etc? Is the SET CLIPPER environment variable
different on the two machines?
2) Since you may have to live with the amount of memory available,
there are some things you can do.
a) If your not using overlays, use them. Even just using PLINK
that should get you some space. (Better to use the tools mentioned
below)
b) If your already overlaying with PLINK, get one of the new
linkers. The two most successful are BLINKER and WARPLINK. BLINKER is
Clipper specific, WARPLINK is not. Both allow dynamic overlaying and
save significant memory as well as eliminating the need for spending
lots of time with the overlay structure.
c) If the only real "show stopper" is calls to external DOS
programs get OVERLAY() by Gambit Software. Its the best (IMHO) tool
for shelling out to DOS and back in.
Feel free to give me a call if I can help. I have pretty extensive
experience with Clipper. Usual disclaimers apply.
LAWRENCE F KELLY, CMSgt, USAF (617) 377-3098
Superintendent, Accounting and Finance Directorate DSN: 478-3098
Deputy Chief of Staff, Comptroller
Electronic Systems Division
Hanscom AFB, MA 01731
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Date: Sun, 21 Oct 90 2:09:48 CDT
From: david@wubios.wustl.edu (David J. Camp)
Subject: gif sites
In Reply to Kevin Patrick <kevin@tgun.webo.dg.com>
>
>Does anyone know of any sites containing R and X rated gif files such
...
No, I know of no such site, but it would be good for some individual
with lots of bucks to set up an anonymous uucp site for banned
material. -David-
david@wubios.wustl.edu ^ Mr. David J. Camp
david%wubios@wugate.wustl.edu < * > +1 314 382 0584
...!uunet!wugate!wubios!david v
------------------------------
Date: 21 Oct 90 05:09:02 GMT
From: dgil@pa.reuter.COM (Dave Gillett)
Subject: How to kill a never ending program?
>elmar@uni-paderborn.de (Elmar Schalueck) writes:
>>I think there must be a way to kill the program in the memory by using
>>a TSR, that could be evoked by a certain keystroke (Alt-Esc).
>Capture the hot key sequence, insure that the DOS busy flag is not set,
>then simply issue an int 0x20 (or int 0x21, function 0x4c). Since DOS
>sees the current running program as the active process, it will simply
>terminate that program.
[ Additional caveats deleted, but concurred with. ]
Of course, if the runaway program has trashed the keyboard bit in the
IMR (intentionally or accidentally), your hot-key will never be seen.
Your TSR could maybe also hook the timer interrupt, and check each tick
that it can still get a keyboard interrupt, but then what if it trashes
that bit too? So maybe you have to hook ALL of the hardware
interrupts, and even then you could get locked out.... Or you could
run everything under a debugger, especially one with a reset switch or
a virtual (8086 on 386) mode.
Almost any software-only solution can be defeated in software.
Dave
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 21 Oct 90 14:21 CDT
From: A10DAG1%NIU.BITNET@UICVM.uic.edu
Subject: Graphic File Formats, Patching .EXE files, Z-248 Memory
In IBM-PC digest Volume 90 number 158...
Doug Moncur asked about graphics file formats. For GIF files, the
CompuServe document describing the format is public domain and can be
obtained from many sources (including compuserve...). I also have C and
Pascal sources for handling gif files if anyone is interested...
James Fox asked about patching .exe type files with debug. From your
description, it sounds like you are doing it correctly. I have done
this before, and it really does work. Possibly, it is the patch you are
doing that is incorrect. What are you trying to patch, and *exactly*
how are you doing it? (ie: patching data is vastly different from
patching code...)
Dennis McCormick asked about a Zenith Z-248 AT and a memory board. If
I remeber correctly, the 248 is a '286-12...? If so, I have the same
machine at work. I have an AST-Rampage memory board with 1M on it
allocated as EMS. The setup I used was to have 640k on the motherboard,
and told the CMOS that the only memory was the 640k. Then I used AST's
device driver to allocate the card's memory as EMS. This setup works
perfectly, I get 640k main memory, and 1M of EMS memory.
=> David <=
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 22 Oct 90 13:30:28 PDT
From: fanj%remb6489.wpd.sgi.com@SGI.COM (Fan Jiao 9U-510 x1615)
Subject: Re: OS/2 Standard Edition 1.1
I have been using OS/2 S.E.(1.1) for i286(12MHZ) 3/4/5/MB in last two
years.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 22 Oct 1990 14:38:59 PDT
From: George_C._Burkitt.El_Segundo@xerox.com
Subject: Re: Hard Drive Saver
>Is there such a beast as a hard drive saver?
>not be exactly what you are looking for, but I have a program called
NOHARD.COM ...
The PC hard disk is controller / drive combo is not designed to provide
power ON/OFF control of the drive. Some drives using the ESDI and
SCSI interfaces have the capability to accept a power - on logic
command, but not the ST506/412 or RLL drives (or the newer IDE / AT
drives) usually found in PC's. They require a real power OFF
condition on the power connector to stop spinning, and this takes a
hardware switch plus software program.
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 21 Oct 90 17:18:50 +0200
From: Izar Tarandach <izar%shum.huji.ac.il@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
Subject: Suggestions for PC Anti-Viral programs.
In comp.sys.ibm.pc.digest you write:
>However, the age of the PC virus has arrived. I am currently fighting
>off an attack of the Ping-Pong virus, and am not having much luck. What
>I need are suggestions on the best way to keep a room full of PC's
>virus-free. Particularly valuable would be names of programs that act
>to prevent the machines becoming infected in the first place, as
>GateKeeper and Vaccine do on the Mac.
See, here we have pretty much of the same problem. Presently we use an
internally developed program (actually, it's a huge scheme!) that
prevents *any* .COM or .EXE to be run from A:, when the boot drive is
C:.
Now, I am working in a program that will prevent C: to be accessed,
when the A: drive is booted from, thus completing the system.
If you're still interested, I can try to pass you the general ideas
(unfortunnatelly the code is proprietary), so that you can develop your
own scheme.
Regards,
Izzy
Izar Tarandach izar@shum.huji.ac.il
HUJI/Jerusalem, Israel
disclaimer: All opinions are MY responsability
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 22 Oct 90 09:15:05 EDT
From: Mike=Fox%LAN%CON@nursing.con.ohio-state.edu
Subject: Adjusting size of TSR
I've been experiementing with TSR programming and am using C. I've
also been using Blaise's Turbo C library of routines (specifically, the
routines for doing TSRs).
I would like to know how I can adjust the size of my TSR. I've
written a fairly small program (it shouldn't get much bigger) that
get's a few lines of input from the keyboard and stores it in a file to
be retrieved later. I've also used some window routines from the
Blaise's Turbo C library to make the input screen look nice. The
smallest I've been able to make the program is 64K (by compiling in the
Tiny mode). I would like some good sound advice (or reference to a
good sound book on the topic) on how I can get the Turbo C compiler to
make my TSR smaller. My program is of no use if it takes up more than
32K (though I think, with the amount of code I have, I should be able
to put it in 16K of space, atleast).
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 22 Oct 90 08:24:38 EDT
From: DBILLINGSLEY <J2YC@UNB.CA>
Subject: Mailing List for HP Calculators
Hello,
I am trying to find the mailing list for hewlett packard calculators...
I have an IBM XT Turbo which I plan to hook with it but cannot find the
archival sites containing the software...
This conference is also ported to Fido via the HPHH echo.
Regards
Derek Billingsley
University of New Brunswick
Faculty of Electrical Engineering (student)
[Try sending a "SUBSCRIBE HP-48 Derek Billingsley" to
LISTSERV@NDSUVM1.bitnet to sign up to the list. Address Queries to
HP-48@NDSUVM1.bitnet]
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 21 Oct 90 22:59:17 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Brian M. Gottier" <bg0v+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: VGA pages
Responses to my last question (THANKS!!!) were so helpful I thought I
would try my luck again...
Is it possible to keep more than one graphics page in the VGA at one
time? I am working in 640x480 16 color mode. I know that in this mode
there is only one memory mapped page at a time (in fact, only one
memory mapped bit plane at a time). The thing is, I have read
advertisements for some VGAs that say that they have 512K of RAM on
them. This is certainly enough to provide more than one page of
graphics in the mode I am working in. Even if this is the case, I am
working on a model 70 PS/2 and I doubt if IBM was generous enough to
provide 512K of RAM on the VGA on the board.
-Thanks
Brian
bg0v@andrew.cmu.edu
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End of Info-IBMPC Digest V90 #176
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