Dennis Faas

Recall: Yesterday, Don W. sent in a question which asked why he kept getting a Window every time Windows booted up saying that the file "DDRAW.DLL" could not be found . My suggestion to Don was to search for the .DLL on his system and try to locate ... the program folder to determine where the .DLL came from, uninstall the program, and then reinstall it in hopes of clearing up the error message he was receiving. Unfortunately, I forgot that some Windows operating systems will not display a .DLL file by default. Furthermore -- as Darren B. points out, the DDRAW.DLL file is actually a ... (view more)

After pumping out that 3-part series on Shopping for an LCD monitor , I've decided to take a break and let you all know what's happening with the web site. I mentioned a few newsletters ago that I had to fork out some serious $$ for a new web ... server. I ordered it at the beginning of this month and have been waiting patiently to register my own nameserver. Nameserver? What did you name your server? Actually, a nameserver is a technical term for a database record which points to the location of a web site. I have two nameservers for my web site and their names are ns1.infopackets.com and ns2. ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Don W. writes: " I have Windows 98 second edition. Just recently when windows is loading it gives an error popup; A required DLL file -- DDRAW.DLL -- was not found. Windows seems to operate as usual, but I really don't know what ... this file does and how to resolve this problem. Do you have a suggestion? " My Response: Click Start -> Find -> Files / Folders and type in the DLL file name. The result should come up with a folder that the DLL has been installed to -- this should give you an indication what the program is for. After that, you can attempt to ... (view more)

This article has been a 3 part series. Feel free to read part 1 or part 2 if you missed it already. As I mentioned part 2 of my article, I don't want to use my LCD monitor in its native resolution because images and text are too small. On the other ... hand, the display image at 1280 x 1024 resolution is incredibly clear. RE: My final thoughts on purchasing an LCD monitor Before completing this article, I received an email from Craig W. where he gives his opinion and comparison on LCD and CRT displays. He writes: " As a full time graphics developer/ 3D modeler, I would say that I have tried ... (view more)

Last week, Stan L. Jr. sent in a question which asked what should be done when a program attempts to suddenly "call home" and request a connection to the Internet. Recall: " A few days ago, I was using my computer when all the sudden, I noticed that ... some program decided that it wanted to access the Internet. I tried to cancel the request to connect to the Internet, but the bugger kept coming back asking for a connection. I then decided to try the "3 finger salute" by pressing CTRL + ALT + DEL at the same time to bring up Task Manager, but no programs were listed here ... (view more)

Last week, I left you with some thoughts on my LCD Monitor purchasing experience. If you didn't catch the first part of the article, you can read about it here . The article from last week signed off with a cliff-hanger, where I was about to tell ... about some things that I didn't like about my LCD monitor. RE: LCD Native Resolution While I was completely amazed out how crystal clear my LCD monitor was at 1280 x 1024 resolution*, the fact is that the LCD monitor looks crystal-clear *only* at this resolution. This is referred to as the monitor's Native Resolution. Generally speaking, native ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Stan L. write s: " Dear Dennis, A few days ago, I was using my computer when all the sudden, I noticed that some program decided that it wanted to access the Internet. I tried to cancel the request to connect to the Internet, but ... the bugger kept coming back asking for a connection. I then decided to try the "3 finger salute" by pressing CTRL + ALT + DEL at the same time to bring up Task Manager, but no programs were listed here that seemed to be "out of the ordinary" that might have been attempting to access the Internet. Is there a program which ... (view more)

I recently purchased a Samsung LCD (model: SyncMaster 760V TFT) for my Desktop behemoth computer. If you didn't already know, LCD stands for Liquid Crystal Display. The most noticeable features of an LCD monitor is the fact that the screen is ... perfectly flat, has an incredibly clear display, and its "backside" is very thin. Commonly referred to as a "flat screen monitors", LCD displays are most recognizably used in conjunction with a Laptop computer. Having two identical hard drives in RAID format allows me to transfer information to / from the computer 2x as fast (compared ... (view more)

Almost a month ago we were knee-deep in discussion with respect to tracking down a hacker. In short, our ongoing discussion probed possibilities and known methods which might be used to track down a hacker, if one ever attempted to hack into *your* ... computer system. RE: Can I track down a Hacker?, Part 1 , and Can I track down a Hacker?, Part 2 . Shortly after Part 2 was released, I received an email from Dan Daily (editor / webmaster) of Danny's Daily . Dan's comments focused on a proposed supposition, which was sent in from John B. in Part 2 of our Discussion . To recap: John suggested to ... (view more)