// create the counter for the last element in the array
var maxTip = 0;
var tips = new Array();
var debugRandomFact = false;

// create a random number from 0 to some max value
function getRandom(max) {
   var ranNum= Math.floor(Math.random()*max);
   if (debugRandomFact) document.write("randomly selecting " + ranNum + "<br>");
   return ranNum;
} // function getRandom


// setup the array of tips by feeding in one tip at a time
function setDivTip(tip) {
   newTip = tip;
   var x=maxTip++;
   tips[x]=newTip;
   if (debugRandomFact) document.write("added " + x + " >>> " + tips[x] + "<br>");

} // function buildArray


// display random tips
function getDivTip(number) {
   var used = "_";
   var sub = 0;
   var currObj;
   if (number < maxTip) {
      for (var i=0;i<number;i++) {
         var sub = getRandom(maxTip);
         if (used.indexOf("_"+sub+"_") == -1) {
            if (debugRandomFact) document.write("get some (" + number + " of " + maxTip + ") ~ ");
            currObj=document.getElementById (tips[sub]);
            if (debugRandomFact) document.write(currObj + "<br>");
            if(currObj) {
               currObj.className ="";
               used = used + sub + "_" ;
            } else {
               i--;
            }
         } else {
            i--;
         } // if 
      } // for
   } else {
      for (var i=0;i<maxTip;i++) {
         if (debugRandomFact) document.write("get all " + maxTip + " currently " + i + " ~ ");
         currObj=document.getElementById (tips[i]);
         if (debugRandomFact) document.write(currObj + "<br>");
         currObj.className ="";
      } // for
   } // if
} // function getDivTip