February 2002 - main

Re: [Alug] New Scientist Article
by MJ Ray 07 Feb '02

07 Feb '02

Ian Bell: > The important thing is that the concept is being fed to a broader audience > rather than what the correct term for it is. Let's all try to say GNU Linux > from now on eh? Indeed, but if you start referring to "Open Source Music", surely you just mean music for which the sheet music is available and you can make your own arrangements of? Hardly a new concept. Yes, it's GNU/Linux if that's what you're speaking of. Otherwise how can you tell if you mean the whole OS or just the kernel? ;-) -- MJR

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Acrobat/Ghostscript printing problem
by Edenyard 06 Feb '02

06 Feb '02

Please could someone shed some light on this for me: I have Slackware 8 installed with Ghostscript 5.5 and Acrobat reader 4.05. Also, Turboprint 1.51 is installed and works in conjunction with LPR and Ghostscript to format output for an HP Laserjet 4 printer. I have a particular .PDF file that I can open in Acrobat and view on the screen without any apparent trouble. However, when I come to print it, nothing appears at the printer and CPU activity stops a very short time after Acrobat says that it has printed the document to LPR. (Normally, there's quite a few seconds' activity - 'top' shows Ghostscrpt has about 80% CPU time). Also, when this print failure happens, Ghostscrpt leaves a message in Turboprint's log file, mentioning something about "invalidacces in -dict-", whatever that means. The odd thing is that I can both view AND print the document to LPR using Xpdf. Now, presumably Xpdf printing to LPR invokes Ghostscript and Turboprint just like Acrobat does, so why does Xpdf manage to print the document when Acrobat can't?? Unfortunately, Xpdf cannot print only odd or even pages (which I need) and also it doesn't seem to handle fonts as well as Acrobat. I can see in Turboprint's log file where the printing has correctly occurred, so the same process must be happening - right? This is the first .PDF file that I've had that's caused me this trouble in Acrobat - all the others have printed just fine. If anyone can suggest a cure for this very frustrating problem, I'd be delighted - and VERY grateful! Gerald.

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Re: [Alug] Acrobat/Ghostscript printing problem
by MJ Ray 06 Feb '02

06 Feb '02

Gerald wrote: > [...] Now, presumably Xpdf printing to LPR invokes Ghostscript and > Turboprint just like Acrobat does, so why does Xpdf manage to print the > document when Acrobat can't?? Because they're completely different implementations of rendering PDFs. XPDF does its own decoding to Postscript, while it sounds like Acrobat is just passing the PDF to lpr, which usually calls Ghostscript. > Unfortunately, Xpdf cannot print only odd or even pages (which I need) [...] Print to Postscript and use psselect from pstools. > If anyone can suggest a cure for this very frustrating problem, I'd > be delighted - and VERY grateful! Don't use PDF. ghostscript, xpdf and acroread have different problems with them ;-) -- MJR

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Re: [Alug] New Scientist Article
by MJ Ray 05 Feb '02

05 Feb '02

Ian wrote: > I was browsing in Safeways this morning when I came across an intersting > article in New Scientist. It was about how the idea of Open Source > software has started to spill over into other areas of commerce. An > example given was Open Coke, a new brand of Cola for which the recipe is > published under a licence similar the GPL. It also mentioned the OAL > (Open Audio Licence) which is attempting to do something similar in the > world of music. The idea is actually called "copyleft" rather than "open source". Remember that "source" refers to the code that you compile rather than the place the code comes from. Once again, the confusing term is being spread :-( Anyway, the article is online at http://www.newscientist.com/hottopics/copyleft/ -- MJR

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Re: [Alug] re:wireless networking
by Ricardo Campos 05 Feb '02

05 Feb '02

> Further to other mailings how about a 'free' ISP? > http://consume.net/ > its off to a slow start but might be worth looking in > to.. > Tom Have you registered a node yet? (It's hard for me to tell if you're not less than 30km from NR1). There are currently operational Nodes in the Cambridge & local area (Stretham-CB6, Cottenham-CB4). There is an interesting application of "people's internet" at an estate (or an e-state) in Hulme, Manchester, called the redbricks (actually an interesting community for various reasons): www.redbricks.org.uk I've always thought that with the governments insistance that everyone be online by year x, they should be installing permanent connections in tower blocks and creating wireless LANS (if WLAN equipment gets cheaper) using refurbished PC's with Linux on, as a low cost alternative on the desktop AND servers (cos M$ OS's would cost as much/more than the hardware itself- and we know that money is the main driving force, rather than the quality of the OS). The Redbricks did it for themselves. Ricardo _______________________________________________ "There are several codes, and I know several of them." -Mr. Precise. http://www.rscampos.net Check my online diary out: http://www.rscampos.net/blog.html -- Get your free email from www.linuxmail.org Powered by Outblaze

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re:wireless networking
by tom potts 05 Feb '02

05 Feb '02

Further to other mailings how about a 'free' ISP? http://consume.net/ its off to a slow start but might be worth looking in to.. Tom __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Everything you'll ever need on one web page from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts http://uk.my.yahoo.com

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Trolltech competition
by Ian Thompson-Bell 04 Feb '02

04 Feb '02

I have just uploaded my beta software in the Trolltech competition to win a Sharp Zaurus. Has anyone else on the list entered? Ian

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wireless networking
by Jenny_Hopkins＠toby-churchill.com 04 Feb '02

04 Feb '02

Hi, last week on IRC there was someone by the nick of shadowtlx, who was interested in setting up a local wireless community network. Apologies with the delay in my writing this post for him/her as offered, I've been at home groaning with the 'flu all week. Shadowtlx lives in Norwich and is looking for people to build wireless networks with, using probably WIFI (IEEE 802.1lb) with wireless ethernet, i.e. a free internet, getting round problems of local loop (modems) being slow. A site has been registered as a speculative node on consume.net site, they provide software to run on the nodes. Anyone interested? Contact accus(a)btinternet.com (Hope I made sense of my scribbled notes there...it's all gobbledygook to me) Jen

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Weekly IRC reminder
by Neill Newman 04 Feb '02

04 Feb '02

This is the automated ALUG IRC meeting reminder sent to remind you that there is an IRC meeting tonight (Monday) at 8.00pm. The meeting takes place on the irc server irc.openprojects.net in the #alug channel, you can take a look at www.openprojects.net to get more info on the openprojects network. Most IRC clients should allow you to get there with the commands "/server uk.openprojects.net" or "/server eu.openprojects.net" and "/join #alug". Popular IRC clients include tkirc, bitchx, xchat and EPIC on Unix, and Mirc under windows. Here are some links to help you get started with irc. Unix http://www.xchat.org/ http://freshmeat.net/ http://www.epicsol.org/ Windows http://www.mirc.com (loads of help with irc for newbies!)

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KMail Problem
by Ian Bell 02 Feb '02

02 Feb '02

My emails to the group keep being intercepted by the moderator because Kmail is reporting my email address as a different one to the one I used when registering with the group. So I thought, no problem, just set up another identity in Kmail and use this whenever I post to the group. Just tried this and the moderator still intercepts. tried mailing myself and it seems no matter what identity I select, Kmail ignores it and uses the default. Is this finger trouble ot a bug in Kmail. Hopefully this will get straight through as I modified the default specially. Ian

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