EMC Resolved (Somewhat) and more questions

Thanks for the inputs.

I discovered that the "hanging" on running EMC was due to the floppy drive not being
present (since it runs off the parallel port of my old laptop). I took out the CD and put
the floppy in and now it runs OK. I even hooked it up to my step motor test bed and it
works OK. Getting this far is most of the batlle so I am a happy camper.

As a note to the developers- I thought that the "zero axis following error" in the
"simulation" mode was a bit disconcerting. I got it to go away by monkeying with the
feed rate, but it seems like since this is a simulation it should just work (at least it
should work out ot the box, before the .ini file is messed with). 2 cents

Which brings to mind a few questions:

1) There is no PCMCIA stuff on the BDI CD, hence I have no ethernet, which makes
me feel as if I am in the dark ages of computing. Will installing (and running) card
services goof up the EMC ?

2) "Mini" wont run. It wants me to "install a symbolic link to an existing platform" ?
Is this hard ?

3) Is there a way (like with an oscilloscope or something) that I can verify that the real
time kernel is working properly ?

4) Is it possible to have a "conversational" session from another program ? Like could
I write some kind of thing in C++ and Qt and have it call portions of the EMC API to
make my machine do stuff ?

5) I have 350 oz. in steppers that I plan on gearing down 30:12. Will this be enough
to drive my grizzly G1008 (8"x30" half size knee mill)

6) Is there an easy way to measure the "effort" of the step motors ? What are the
guidelines for figuring out the optimum speed for the motors ?

7) The Z-axis of my mill is sloppy, sloppy, sloppy and I dont think there is much I can
do about it. I've been considering some kind of arrangement whereby I put the mill
into "drill mode (with the lever)" and use some kind of backlash proof worm gear
mechanism to drive the z-axis up and down. Has anyone else had (and solved) the
same problem ?

8) when I search this forum it seems to dribble out only a few days worth of search at
a time. Is there some way to search the whole forum ?

Thanks