FreeDOSWritten by Stephen Bucaro
---------------------------------------------------------- Permission is granted for below article to forward, reprint, distribute, use for ezine, newsletter, website, offer as free bonus or part of a product for sale as long as no changes are made and byline, copyright, and resource box below is included. ----------------------------------------------------------FreeDOS By Stephen Bucaro Before September 1995, Microsoft Windows was an MS-DOS program. DOS was an easy to use command line operating system that provided you with complete ability to control and troubleshoot your computer. Microsoft's goal was to eliminate DOS, possibly to prevent you from having complete control of your own computer. The last stand-alone version of MS-DOS was version 6. Unfortunately, that version is not Y2K compliant. Windows 95 and later came with MS-DOS version 7. Unfortunately, that version is too integrated with operating system. It will not work without access to your hard disk. FreeDOS is a PC compatible Y2K compliant DOS that you can download from www.freedos.org. FreeDOS fits on a single floppy disk and can be used to boot your computer. Download and unzip file odin7bin.zip (756KB). Unziping will create files diskcopy.exe and fdodin07.144. Put a blank formatted floppy disk in drive. In Start | Run dialog box, or at a command prompt type "diskcopy fdodin07.144 a:" to create a bootable FreeDOS floppy disk. Why would you want to boot your computer with DOS? Maybe you want to use Windows XP without product activation. First make sure that BIOS boot sequence on your computer is configured with floppy drive as first boot device (or at least before C: drive). To get to BIOS configuration screen, press "Delete" or "F2" key (depending upon your BIOS) while your computer is starting.
| | Ten great careers for computer “geeks.”Written by Max Stein
The universal acceptance of computers into our daily lives, both at work and at home, has decreased image of computer users as being “geeks.” The word geek itself has evolved a bit - going from meaning a socially inept person who gets along better with computers than people, to someone who is an expert with computers, a guru even. In fact, many computer service companies utilize name geek in their nomenclature because of this new meaning. Not everyone who is proficient in using a computer is a geek, but there are people out there who are so interested in computers and so well versed in them, they wear title geek with pride. Many of these people may not have had formal training. They’ve been playing with computer hardware, or software since they were ten years old. So what should you do if you have this kind of computer knowledge? A few years ago, it was very easy to get a well paying computer job, without any post secondary education. Advances in technology, dot-com implosion and wider acceptance of technology doesn’t make it so easy any more. The good news is, you don’t need a four year degree to secure a well paying job in computer field. Even if you’re not a self professed computer geek, if you have an interest in a computer career, here are some good fields to study. Computer Networking Computer networking jobs entail designing, repairing and maintaining PC networks, usually in a business setting. There is no industry standard for software, but Microsoft dominates, with Novell taking a distant second place. Cisco dominates category in hardware routers. Courses of study available include A+ (basic computer hardware), MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer), MCSA (Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator), Novell Netware and Cisco Certification. Career positions in this category include network design, network administration and network security. Depending on employer, a computer networking professional may do all, or some of these duties.
|
