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Date: Thu, 08 Dec 1994 18:20:33 GMT
From: Info-IBMPC@ARL.MIL (Info-IBMPC Digest)
Reply-To: Info-IBMPC@ARL.MIL
Subject: Info-IBMPC Digest V94 #41
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Info-IBMPC Digest           Thu, 08 Dec 94       Volume 94 : Issue  41

Today's Editor:
         Gregory Hicks - Ventura CA <GHICKS@arl.mil>

Today's Topics:
     Re: Prog. Contest Questions
     Re: Date to day of the week (3 msgs)
     "HOW TO" INFORMATION: Finding OS/2 shareware
     Re: Bad tracks on IDE
     IDE Drive: Operating System Not Found (5 msgs)
     Pentiums and MsDoz/WinDoze
     uupc checksum error when receiving CY "g" proto. package
     Protecting CONFIG and AUTOEXEC from strangers
     Gateway & Compaq problems
     My PC hangs? (2 msgs)
     WinWord 6.0 problem
     Re: Gateway & Compaq problems

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----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: tkac@oclc.org (Vincent Tkac)
Subject: Re: Prog. Contest Questions
Date: 18 Oct 1994 08:00:59 -0400

John F. Buck (jbuck@cs.indiana.edu) wrote:
:>I am intersted in acquiring copies, preferably via ftp or E-mail, of
:>questions used in either regional or national programming contests in past
:>years.     I would appreciate any help any one can provide.

:>jbuck@atanasoff.sfasu.edu

Well, I guess it is time for my yearly plea.  First, to answer your
question, there are contest problems available for ftp/gopher/web at
acm.org, cc.ysu.edu and one other site that I can't remember.  These
archives of problems are a great benefit to those running a contest as
well as those participating in one.  I went to the ACM regionals four
years (but never the nationals, sigh) and I think it was very
beneficial to have these problems sets available.  (ok, here comes the
part that nobody seems to hear)  If you have any problem sets that you
would like to make available, either from a local (high school)
contest, regional, class work or whatever please get them to me and I
will put it on one of the sights.  (The format doesn't really matter
but if you have some control over, PostScript, TeX, HTML or ascii text
is prefered).

Later,
   Vince Tkac
   tkac@oclc.org
   <a href="http://www.oclc.org:5046/~tkac> Me </a>

------------------------------

From: jfink@csugrad.cs.vt.edu (Jeff "Teker" Fink)
Subject: Re: Date to day of the week
Date: 18 Oct 1994 09:51:55 -0400

Kheir Andish  <MOGHADAS@IREARN.BITNET> wrote:
>I am looking for an algorithm to get day of the week from a given date.
>for example giving 1996/12/12 and getting friday.
>
>thanks in advance.

Here's the easiest function I've found... it should work for all cases.
-Jeff


int day_of_week(int Month, int Day, int Year)
/* Sunday = 0, ..., Saturday = 6 */
{
        int year, month, weekday;

        if (Month < 3) {
                month = Month + 12;
                year = Year - 1;
        } else {
                month = Month;
                year = Year;
        }
        weekday = (Day + 2 * month + 3 * (month + 1) / 5 + year +
                  year / 4 - year / 100 + year / 400 + 1) % 7;
        return(weekday);
}

------------------------------

From: mulligan@ACM.ORG (F. Barry Mulligan)
Subject: Re: Date to day of the week
Date: 18 Oct 1994 12:17:22 GMT

For the day of the week, where 0=Sun, 6=Sat:

    mod(7) [ 367*Y - int(7(Y+int((M+9)/12))/4) + int(275*M/9) + D + 2 ]

where int(...) means the integer portion of a value, and
      mod(7) [...] means the value modulo 7, and
      Y,M,D are the year (4 digits), month and day.

This should be correct for years between 1900 and 2099. The formula was
derived from the following and has not been extensively tested (i.e. I
did two calculations on the back of an envelope <g>).

Note that if the application has access to system date routines, simply
adding the appropriate offset (0-6) to the Julian (or Unix) date and
taking the mod(7) value will produce the day of the week.  /* barry /&

From: "The Almanac for Computers - 1989"
      Nautical Almanac Office, U.S. Naval Observatory. Washington, DC

JULIAN DATE
  The Julian date (JD) is a continuous count of days from 1 January
4713 BC (= -4712 January 1), Greenwich mean noon (=12h UT). For
example, AD 1978 January 1, 0h UT is JD 2443509.5 and AD 1978 July 21,
15h UT, is JD 2443711.125. Conversion of Gregorian calendar date to
Julian date for years AD 1801-2099 can be carried out with the
following formula:

  JD = 367K - <(7(K+<(M+9)/12>))/4> + <(275M)/9> + I +
       1721013.5 + UT/24 - 0.5sign(100K+M-190002.5) + 0.5
where K is the year (1801<=K<=2099), M is the month (1<=M<=12), I is
the day of the month (1<=I<=31), and UT is the universal time in hours.
The last two terms in the formula add up to zero for all dates after
1900 February 28, so these two terms can be omitted for subsequent
dates.

[The text uses the <...> convention to indicate truncation].

------------------------------

From: johnt@mentorg.com (John Thienes)
Subject: Re: Date to day of the week
Date: 18 Oct 1994 13:26:22 GMT

Try this.  Improvements are, of course, left as an exercise for the reader.

int monthdays[] = {31, 28, 31, 30, 31, 30,
                   31, 31, 30, 31, 30, 31};
long day_of_week (long mm, long dd, long yyyy)
{
//
// This algorithm uses 1/1/1753 as its key date
//
   long accum = 0;
   for (long i = 1753; i < yyyy; i++) {
      accum += 365 + (!(i % 4) && ((i % 100) || !(i % 400)));
   }
   for (long j = 0; j < mm - 1; j++) {
      accum += monthdays[j] + (j == 1 && (!(yyyy % 4)
                                      && ((yyyy % 100)
                                      || !(yyyy % 400))));
   }
   accum += dd;
   return ((accum % 7) + 1);
}

-- 
John Thienes                  "Soli Gloria Deo"
Mentor Graphics Corp.
john_thienes@mentorg.com

------------------------------

From: ziga.turk@fagg.uni-lj.si
Subject: "HOW TO" INFORMATION:  Finding OS/2 shareware
Date: Sat, 19 Nov 1994 06:43:08 GMT

The Shareware Search Engines (Shase) just got better.  In version 1.1
they search a directory of over 35000 files including not only Simtel,
Cica and PCGames but Linux, Netwire, OS/2, Microsoft and Umich
Macintosh archives as well.

Shase is located at:

  http://www.fagg.uni-lj.si/cgi-bin/shase

Enjoy!

Dave Tholen                 moderator for comp.os.os2.announce
Institute for Astronomy     Internet:  tholen@newton.ifa.hawaii.edu
2680 Woodlawn Drive
Honolulu, HI  96822         Astronewsbyte:  Geminid meteor shower
December 14 

------------------------------

Date:     Wed, 30 Nov 94 12:40:41 EST
From:     Gregory Hicks - Ventura Ca <ghicks@ARL.MIL>
Subject:  Re:  Bad tracks on IDE

>Is it common to find bad sectors on an IDE hard-disk?

While it is not uncommon for there to be bad sectors on an IDE drive,
it is very uncommon to see them.  During the low level formatting
process at the factory, any bad sectors are usually mapped out (hidden
if you will)...

According to my reading info from Seagate, it is possible to low level
format these drives again (in the field ==>your computer) but then the
bad sectors/tracks won't be hidden.

A factory re-format usually can hide the defects.

Regards,
Gregory Hicks

------------------------------

Date:         Wed, 30 Nov 1994 19:38:00 CST
From:         Rob McGreevy <rmcgreev@pps2-po.phyp.uiowa.edu>
Subject:      IDE Drive: Operating System Not Found.

     I recently swapped 2 IDE hardrives from 2 GW200 PCs.  Took one
from an older 4dx2 and swapped it with another from a pentium.  When I
put the larger of the 2 two drives (340meg the one that came with the
pentium) into the 4dx2 machine I keep getting an error that reads:

        Operating System Not Found.

     The drive worked fine in the other machine and if I boot from a
floppy I can get to/access the *malfunctioning* hard drive.  This seems
to indicate that the drive--at least some of it--is in good condition.
Scandisk et al tell me the disk is fine...

     I tried all the usual stuff: Scandisk, reformatted the drive,
reinstalled dos, checked cables, jumpers etc.  No luck.

     Any suggestions would be appreciated!
     Thanks, RJ McGreevy

------------------------------

Date:         Thu, 1 Dec 1994 11:09:35 -0600
From:         Joe Pizzi <CSJWP@ttuhsc.edu>
Subject:      Re: IDE Drive: Operating System Not Found.

I have seen a similar problem when the drive parameters were not any
the suggested parameters.  On an IDE drive, you can set up the
parameters to any combination of heads, cylinders, and sectors per
track that when multiplied together yield a lower number than the
number of sectors actually on the drive.  However, some combinations of
parameters yield a mapping to physical drive sectors that are just
strange enough that the system cannot boot off of the drive.  Once the
system is booted, however, the drive works fine.

Check the manufacturer's drive parameter recommendations, and ensure
that the drive is *formatted* (with FDISK) to those parameters.  If you
have a disk utility (like Norton's Diskedit), you can look at the
partition table to see the present drive parameters, if FDISK cannot
see the partition information properly.

Regards,

Joe Pizzi               <csjwp@ttuhsc.edu>
Systems Programmer

------------------------------

Date:         Thu, 1 Dec 1994 11:27:00 -0800
From:         "Mike Palandri (503) 747-4501 x2867" <PALANDRI@edlane.lane.edu>
Subject:      Re: IDE Drive: Operating System Not Found.

One thing you might check is the cylinders(tracks)/heads/sectors
settings in the bios setup of the machine you moved the drive TO.
These should match what the manufacturer specified for the drive.  If
you cannot find them printed on the drive somewhere, you might be able
to get them from the machine the drive came FROM by examining its setup
(if it hasn't been changed yet to match another drive.) If you use the
right values, the setup program should report a drive capacity of
somewhere near 340 meg.

As someone else may have mentioned already, IDE drives uses a "sector
translation" process; these values are likely not the actual number of
tracks/heads/sectors physically in the drive, but they are needed to
"fool" the PC into working with a drive type it wasn't originally
intended to work with.

Good luck.
Michael Palandri
palandri@edlane.lane.edu

------------------------------

Date:         Thu, 1 Dec 1994 11:43:48 -0600
From:         Lisa Besko <00549llb@msu.edu>
Subject:      Re: IDE Drive: Operating System Not Found.

Disable the internal and external caches in the CMOS setup and see if
that makes a difference.

or

Try a different controller card.

Lisa L.W. Besko                    voice   : 517-355-4701
Ag Econ Computer Service           InterNet: 00549LLB@msu.edu
Michigan State University                    besko@pilot.msu.edu
                                   Fax     : 517-432-1800

------------------------------

Date:         Thu, 1 Dec 1994 20:24:39 -0400
From:         Tim Turner <TURNERT@cofc.edu>
Subject:      Re: IDE Drive: Operating System Not Found.

I assume you have a form of dos on the 340 hard drive...  try SYS.COM.
should be in dos directory...  this shoulf replace any missing system
files (hidden things in root directory like io.sys  and dos.sys etc...)

TURNERT@ASHLEY.COFC.EDU

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 01 Dec 1994 11:35:49 EST
From: paulp@vax.grc.nia.nih.gov
Subject: Pentiums and MsDoz/WinDoze

I am presently having problems with our newest Pentium computers, and
high memory operations using WinDoze (both 3.1 and WFW 3.11).  Our
systems are networked with Digital Equipment's Pathworks.  I have been
trying to get the systems to run, but cannot get anything to work right
if I get anything located in high memory.  The DOS side of the system
seems to work properly, but we wind up with between 388K and 450K of
conventional memory.  With this WinDoze gets messy as to whether it
will load.

I did successfully get several things loading high (memmaker on our
pentiums results in system lockup--requiring rebooting by floppy) but
then booting WinDoze and the network is not present.

Pathworks requires drivers loading in conventional memory.  When we try
to load drivers for our scanner, our optical drive, and a cdrom, we
wind up with the no-memory errors for which MsDoz and WinDoze are
famous.  All this with 16 meg in one computer and 24 meg in another.

Any assistance or pointers you could offer would be greatly
appreciated.

Paul Pullen
paulp@vax.grc.nia.nih.gov

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 1 Dec 1994 22:19:50 -0700
From: wmack@aztec.inre.asu.edu
Subject: uupc checksum error when receiving CY "g" proto. package

Can anyone of you kind souls tell me how a UNIX tty port has to be
configured to be compliant with the uucico "g" protocol?
 
In particular:
How are the ixon, ixoff, ixany to be set?  Are there corresponding
oxon, oxoff, oxany flags (why is there a on AND off flag?  What flags
make the UNIX box honor CTS/RTS?
 
I have set up UUPC and got to the point where I see my first file be
transferred and all of its packets get acknowledged (0x10 0x9 type
packets).  However, when the Unix host tries to send the "CY" buffer
after reception of the complete file, my PC sees check sum errors.
 
A closer look at the linedata log reveals that the 64 bit CY package is
only 60 or 61 bytes long (after these 60 or so bytes another 0x10 0x9
package starts).
 
What could be the reason for these lost bytes?
 
I run on a 386 SX 16Mhz with a cheap modem (8250 uart/hayes compatible)
at 2400 baud. Have no problem whatsoever to transfer files from
compuserve or long text files through ascii capture.
 
 I really would appreciate if you could give me some hints of what's
going on.
 
Walter J. Mack
 
Please send mail to wmack@aztec.asu.edu

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 2 Dec 1994 02:25:16 -0300
From: Santiago Ferreiro <santifer@chasque.apc.org>
Subject: Protecting CONFIG and AUTOEXEC from strangers
 
Montevideo, December 1st, 1994
 
(This letter was send to Mr. Bunch <rth1cdb@rth10.med.navy.mil as an
answer to a topic read in an Internet conference. The article to which
replies is to the one written on Wed,21 Jul 93 in Info-ibmpc Digest V93
#76)

Dear Mr. Bunch,
    I've recently read in an Internet conferenc about a person who
wanted to protect his Config.sys and Autoexec.bat files from strangers.
Maybe its out of date, but anyway I'd like to show you my solution,
which I have used just for preventing INSTALL programs of modifying
them, not for people, but it'll do fine for people who ignore this
solution.

  I've read you solutions, but in spite of them I think this is a
better way of doing it. Much simpler and so strange that's difficult to
imagine and thus, secure.

    The idea follows. I think that the better way of doing it is
patching the COMMAND.COM file, which is the one in charge of calling
the CONFIG.SYS file first and them the AUTOEXEC.BAT.

  The idea is to change the command.com so that it calls other files
rather than config and autoexec, leaving "copies" of them with their
original names just as dummies for people. The real config and autoexec
files will still remain as text files, but called, say, "CHSAED.BIN"
and "SDFRSMFC.RTS" respectively.  No one will pay atention to this
files (you can even hide them with ATTRIB), which will pass unadverted.

Changes on config.sys and autoexec.bat will make no effect.
 
  HOW TO DO IT:
    - First make a bootable diskette, and keep it if
things go wrong. 
    - Go to root directory of booting drive.
    - Use a low level editor, just as Norton's DISKEDIT.
    - Use FIND Command to search for string "CONFIG.SYS"
    - Change this string with whathever you like,
provided you keep DOS sintax of a file, you write them in CAPS,
and you use the same number of letters.
(When you change AUTOEXEC.BAT, remember to change just where it
says AUTOEXEC.BAT just next to CONFIG.SYS, and not to
/KAUTOEXEC.BAT, which follows.
    - Save the changes.
    - Create the new "Config.sys" and "Autoexec.bat"
files with their new names, and if you like hide them. You can
use the command "COPY CONFIG.SYS NewNam.XXX" and "COPY
AUTOEXEC.BAT NewNamex.xxx"
    - Boot your computer. (You may do some changes
to the new files to see which copies are executed).
 
    - If thinks go wrong, boot with the diskette and
copy the command.com file from A: to C: and start again.
 
  Good luck !
 
  Please contact me if this doesn't work, since as I've
said, I'm using it without problems.
 
      Regards,
        Santiago M. Ferreiro
            <santifer@chasque.apc.org>

------------------------------

Date: 02 Dec 94 02:42:42 PST
From: "AGBONILE, O. U." <OAGB@chevron.com>
Subject: Gateway & Compaq problems

Hi guys, I have two problems and I would appreciate any help.

Firstly, there's a Gateway 2000 pentium/66 PC that when switched on
appears dead except that it beeps thrice every 3 seconds or so. I
removed all the cards to see if any of them was the problem but it is
still the same. I even changed the VGA card but still no luck. No
signal seems to be getting to the monitor and the only sign of life in
the system is the periodic three beeps.

Secondly, the Compaq Deskpro XE 450 I use at work does not keep the
time correctly. When I set the time, it keeps it correctly for a while
but by the next day, it's late by about  30 minutes (I always switch
the PC off before I leave for the day). But everything else is ok with
the PC. It keeps the system configuration correctly.

I would really appreciate any help.

Uwa Agbonile
oagb@chevron.com

------------------------------

Date: 02 Dec 94 08:59:49 EST
From:  "Reuven E. Chapman" <RCHAPMA1@umdacc.umd.edu>
Subject: My PC hangs?

Hello PC users:

I have a 386/33 pc with 4mb ram a couple of ide drives, a modem,
cd-rom, and tape streamer in a tower case. I have had it for about 4
years now. Recently, at more frequent intervals the system would
display one of 2 symptoms that may be related:

1) During the autoexec, the program would seemingly hang before it has
finished the series of programs it runs through on start up.

2) It will go into V-E-R-Y S-L-O-W motion. For example, at the Dos
prompt I might type dir<enter> and yet only after a few seconds would
it display the 'd' and a few seconds later the 'i' and a few seconds
later the 'r', etc.

I also notice that when occurance 1 happens if I push the reset button
or power down and immediately power up the problem is still there. I
usually have to leave the pc alone for a while or the night and try
again some other time.

At first I thought there may be some semi-loose connection as the pc
heats up inside and shorts/opens some weak connection. I haven't
convinced myself yet.  Does anyone have any other ideas?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. TIA,

Reuven E. Chapman, Systems Analyst, CISG, Comptroller's Office
University of Maryland at College Park    Voice: (301)405-7494
Internet: RCHAPMA1@UMDACC.UMD.EDU         FAX:   (301)314-9889

------------------------------

Date:     Fri, 2 Dec 94 12:00:08 EST
From:     Gregory Hicks - Ventura Ca <ghicks@ARL.MIL>
Subject:  Re:  My PC hangs?

Have you scanned your machine for viruses?  Do you have an 'emergency'
boot diskette?  If not, go to another machine that has the same size A:
drive as yours and make one.  After you make this disk, write protect
it.  Then try booting from it.  If you observe the same symproms,
probably machine or installed system problem.  If the problems are
gone, you probably have a virus and need a program like FPROT of
McAfee's SCAN/CLEAN.

On your boot disk, you might want to put FDISK, and FORMAT as well as
EDIT (with QBASIC) as a very rudimentary boot disk.  Other utilities as
necessary.

You also might try - after booting from the clean floopy - FDISK /MBR
to re-write the master boot record.

Regards,
Gregory Hicks

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 2 Dec 1994 14:05:11 GMT
From: maurizio lana <lana@cisi.unito.it>
Subject: WinWord 6.0 problem

I got sometimes a strange effect when printing big (300-400K and more)
documents: the text on some lines here and there (always the last
and/or the first of somne pages) disappear in printing, while the Print
Preview shows nothing wrong; and in printing those lines remain as
blanks (the page is not formatted as though they weren't there).

I tried to reinstall windows, word, unistalling anything possible,
double checked the printer setup, and so on.  Any idea?

Microsoft, here in Italy has few phone lines, and you must wait -paying
for it!- listening to interminable messages saying that the lines are
occuped, but if you hang up you loose your queue position (!!!); and
anyway after minutes and minutes you hang up...  So from Microsoft, no
hope even if you are a registered user!

Many thanks.
Maurizio
PS: if possible, please, CC: directly to me

Maurizio Lana - CISI Universita' di Torino
Via Sant'Ottavio 20 - 10124 Torino
email:lana@rs950.cisi.unito.it - fax 39-11-8991648

------------------------------

Date:     Fri, 2 Dec 94 11:52:15 EST
From:     Gregory Hicks - Ventura Ca <ghicks@ARL.MIL>
Subject:  Re:  Gateway & Compaq problems

Let's see what the readership has to say about your first problem and
the three beeps.

Re: your clock not keeping time, sounds like the lithium battery is
reaching the end of its life.  I'd go get another one, open the
computer up, see how to replace it (*don't* do it yet!), power the
thing up and replace.

If you don't feel comfortable replacing the battery while the machine
is turned on, make a note of your CMOS settings, turn the machine off
and replace the battery.  You'll have to re-enter the settings before
you can use it however...

Regards,
Gregory Hicks

------------------------------

********************************
End of Info-IBMPC Digest V94 #41