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The LA Fox Developer Newsletter
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June 1999
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SlowStart is a small program that fixes a problem on Pentium II computers that have trouble starting some 16 bit programs like FoxPro for Windows. It seems that Windows (NT Workstation 4.0 in our case) intermittently expects a program to be loaded before
it
actually is. This results in a “Divide By Zero or Overflow” message from NT (I don’t know what happens on Windows 95 or 98) and the process never starts. So I wrote a small program to make the processor busy while starting a program.
There are two ways to use SlowStart. The first method involves passing command line arguments from SlowStart directly to the application being launched. The second method employs a shortcut to pass arguments; as well as allowing you to specify a startup directory different than SlowStart’s startup directory.
For the first method use the command line as follows:
SlowStart I-t n -timeout n] program-to-launch
(argi ][arg2][arg3].
.
.[argn]
Note that any command line switches passed to SlowStart must come before the program-to-launch.
The second method employs a shortcut to pass parameters, startup directory, and any other shortcut properties to the program being launched. First, create a shortcut to the 16 bit program you wish to run. Second, create another shortcut to SlowStart. Third, change the SlowStart shortcut’s target property to include the path to the shortcut created in the first step. Note that quotes are required if there are any spaces in the path or filename. When in doubt, include them anyway and you can’t go wrong. See the screen capture below for a demonstration.
The -t (-timeout also works) argument followed by a number tells
SlowStart how long (in seconds) to make the processor busy.
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Microsoft and Micro Endeavors Team Up to Deliver Compresive Developer Curriculum
Micro Endeavors’ Skills 2000 Visual Basic Curriculum Licensed by Microsoft
UPPER DARBY, PA- May 19, 1999--Micro Endeavors, Inc. (MEl) today announced an agreement with the Microsoft Corporation to license its Skills 2000 Training Curriculum for developers. This curriculum addresses the training needs of individuals without previous Information Technology experience and provides a great learning path for students wanting to enter the IT field as developers. The Micro Endeavors courses will become a part of the Microsoft Official Curriculum (MOC)for Developers that is taught by Microsoft Certified Technical Education Centers (CTEC) worldwide. The new co-branded Microsoft/MEl courses will be orderable by Microsoft CTEC’s beginning July 1, 1999. The course titles will include:
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Introduction to Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 6, course# 1587A, 5-days of training.
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Principles of Business Application Development, course #
1632A, 5-days of training.
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Building Data-Centric Business Applications with Microsoft
Visual Basic 6, course # 1633A, 5-days of training.
In 1997, Microsoft Corporation launched their Skills 2000 Initiative to promote awareness about the growing skills gap in the IT industry. In fact, the need for IT professionals today has grown to critical numbers. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1998-99 Occupational Outlook Handbook, computer and data processing services are expected to be the fastest-growing industries. At the same time, there is an acute shortage of qualified IT workers in the United States. With an estimated shortfall of nearly 400,000 workers last year alone, it’s clear that skilled IT professionals are-and will continue to be- in great demand.
In response to the ever-growing shortage of qualified IT professionals, Micro Endeavors, Inc., a Microsoft Certified Technical Education Center and Solution Provider-Partner, developed the Skills 2000 Technical Training Curriculum to fill the IT skills gap. The curriculum was designed from the outset to complement the Microsoft Official Curriculum (MOC), which was primarily designed for people who already have 1-3 years of programming experience. The Skills 2000 curriculum provides a training bridge between the MOC courses and a clear path for an individual to move toward Microsoft technical certification and into an entry-level IT positions.
The curriculum actually answers two questions: how do corporations fulfill their IT staffing needs; and, how can people with little or no experience get into the information technology profession? Daryl Hancock, a Regional Training Manager for Microsoft Corporation, says, “This curriculum is helping Microsoft close
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