January 2005 - main

Weekly IRC reminder
by Neill Newman 10 Jan '05

10 Jan '05

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.alug.org.uk in the #alug channel. Most IRC clients should allow you to get there with the commands "/server irc.alug.org.uk" 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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reminder, Christmas dinner Friday 14th and City Gate Thursday 13th
by adam＠thebowery.co.uk 08 Jan '05

08 Jan '05

There should be several of us at the City Gate on Thursday next week, details here http://www.alug.org.uk/venues/norwich.html Also next Friday is the Alug xmas dinner, this will be at the Buckinghamshire Arms which is in Blickling near Aylsham North Norfolk. http://www.buckinghamshirearms-norfolk.co.uk/ so far 10 people have confirmed, if you would also like to come to this dinner let me know via email as they would like to know the numbers in advance. The Bucks is a nice pub, sitting just outside Blickling Hall, they always have a few good Norfolk cask ales on, and every time I have eaten there the food has been fantastic. They also don't have things like fruit machines and jukeboxes (which imho is an advantage) to make noise at you and get in the way of conversation. Adam -- jabberid = quinophex(a)jabber.earth.li AFFS || http://www.affs.org.uk/ || Not a filesystem

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Anyone interested in DDS-2 tape drives?
by Chris Green 08 Jan '05

08 Jan '05

Before I try selling them elsewhere (on Ebay?) is anyone here interested in buying an HP C1553A DDS-2 tape drive? I have two of them and about 30 tapes. They can read/write 60, 90 and 120 metre tapes, up to 8Gb a 120 metre tape. They have a SCSI interface and I may be able to find a SCSI card to go with them if necessary. -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence."

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RE: [ALUG] Syleham Meet on 28th November
by Keith Watson 06 Jan '05

06 Jan '05

I shall definitely be going along to this (acts of God excepted!) so anyone in the Norwich area who wants a lift let me know ASAP. :) (work email keith.watson at kewill.com or private email kpwatson at ukfsn.org) Who else is coming? Anybody interested in me doing a demo of converting a Windows only box into a dual boot Windows+GNU/Linux (Debian) system using Knoppix? Let me know via the list otherwise I'll assume it's of no interest to anyone. Incidentally I've been testing this out and a basic Windows (2000) install takes just over an hour and the conversion takes 45 mins. And the Debian install has all the functionality of Knoppix (as opposed to the very basic Windows set-up). Here's what I propose; 1) boot box with Knoppix and run the install script (includes using QTParted to repartition the disk) which sets up a 2.4 and 2.6 Linux kernel based system and uses LILO as the boot loader. [and, if we have a web feed...] 2) set up a Debian sources list and use synaptic to update the software to latest versions 3) show how easy it is to maintain the GNU/Linux software on a Debian set-up by using synaptic. As there'll be some time spent waiting for things to load off CD or from the net we can talk around some of the issues. I haven't a spare printer ATM so if anyone's interested and wants to bring one along we can also have a go at setting up a printer. If there's time I'd also like to have a chat about making backups using gnu/tar as I'm playing around with putting a script together to do this and need all the help I can get :) Regards, Keith ____________ ARMOR, n. - The kind of clothing worn by a man whose tailor is a blacksmith. - Ambrose Bierce - The Devil's Dictionary

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Review of Linux Server Hacks in ALUG library now on ALUG website
by Ashley T. Howes, Ph.D. 05 Jan '05

05 Jan '05

After finishing O'Reilly's Linux Server Hacks book (which is part of the ALUG library), I have written a small review: http://www.alug.org.uk/contrib/?Read%20LSH%20Review I recommend anyone who has borrowed a book from the library in the past to write a review. After talking to Adam about the library a few weeks ago, he informed me that this is one of the reasons that O'Reilly supplied the books to us to begin with. So, write your reviews and we may get more books :) -- Ashley T. Howes, Ph.D. http://www.ashleyhowes.com "Some people see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not?" - Robert F. Kennedy (originally George Bernard Shaw)

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Linux, TV cards and DVD recording
by Barry Samuels 03 Jan '05

03 Jan '05

I am thinking of getting a digital TV card for my computer so that I can record programmes for viewing later on my television using a DVD player. I already have a DVD R/W drive on my computer ( 2 x 1.3 MHz CPUs ). I'm using a 2.4 kernel and don't propose moving to 2.6 in the near future. I'm planning to use what I believe is called Terrestrial digital broadcasting and NOT satallite broadcasts. I've borrowed someone's set top box for a short time and was able to get BBC1, BBC2, BBC3, BBC4 and Channel 5. This was using an ordinary pre-channel 5 aerial so I'm hoping that a proper digital aerial will give more channels. According to freeview.co.uk I can't get any digital channels for my postcode, BBC tells me that I can get only BBC channels and dtg.org tells me I can get all of them. Ain't the web wonderful? This raises lots of questions and the more research I do the longer the list of questions seems to grow. I'm thinking of an Hauppauge WinTV-Nova-T PCI as I understand it works with Linux. Is it going to be difficult to set up? Any suggestions/ recommendations for other PCI cards? The specification for this says that it accepts UHF input only but what I want to know is can I plug my tv aerial lead into it and expect it to work? What Linux software is available/needed? I don't understand a lot of the terminology and don't know what to search for. I run Debian Sarge/ Testing. How easy/difficult is it to create DVD discs with, for example, 2 hours of recording? What about file sizes greater than 2 GB? Do I need to take the different DVD formats ( DVD-R DVD+R ) into account when using a DVD player for playback? Watching the only DVD disc I have (Life on Earth - BBC), which came with a packet of cornflakes, I see that moving objects are noticeably blurred. Is this a function of my video setup Matrox Millenium AGP. Any comments and advice would be appreciated at this stage. I feel like someone who's learning to fly for the very first time in dense fog! Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

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Weekly IRC reminder
by Neill Newman 03 Jan '05

03 Jan '05

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.alug.org.uk in the #alug channel. Most IRC clients should allow you to get there with the commands "/server irc.alug.org.uk" 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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Transcode tips
by Wayne Stallwood 02 Jan '05

02 Jan '05

Maybe I am not even using the right tool here...but I have a DVD (or actually a set of DVD's) to which my client holds full rights, they are unencumbered by any CSS copy control system. We have a solid state media playback system that we want to play back the DVD content from a memory card. From what I can tell from the Engrish manual that came with the media player the video format needs to be VCD (which I gather is mpeg1) Try as I might I can't get transcode to do anything but come up with cryptic error messages, first it was complaining that- [transcode] warning : (encoder.c) audio codec not supported by export module That was using the following command transcode -i vts_01_1.vob -o /home/wayne/wayne.mpg -x mpeg2 -y mpeg2enc -F vcd Now I am not bothered about audio for this task....so I tried transcode -i vts_01_1.vob -o /home/wayne/wayne.mpg -x mpeg2,null -y mpeg2enc,null -F vcd Which gives me the following output at the bottom of this message. Anybody able to point me at a readable howto or tell me what I am doing wrong..I am sure it shouldn't be this hard. transcode v0.6.12 (C) 2001-2003 Thomas Oestreich, 2003-2004 T. Bitterberg [transcode] (probe) suggested AV correction -D 0 (0 ms) | AV 0 ms | 0 ms [transcode] auto-probing source vts_01_1.vob (ok) [transcode] V: import format | MPEG-2 (V=mpeg2|A=null) [transcode] V: AV demux/sync | (1) sync AV at initial MPEG sequence [transcode] V: import frame | 720x576 1.25:1 encoded @ 4:3 [transcode] V: bits/pixel | 0.174 [transcode] V: decoding fps,frc | 25.000,3 [transcode] A: import format | 0x10001 LPCM [48000,16,2] 1536 kbps [transcode] A: export | disabled [transcode] V: encoding fps,frc | 25.000,3 [transcode] A: bytes per frame | 7680 (7680.000000) [transcode] A: adjustment | 0@1000 [transcode] V: video buffer | 10 @ 720x576 [import_null.so] v0.2.0 (2002-01-19) (video) null | (audio) null [import_mpeg2.so] v0.4.0 (2003-10-02) (video) MPEG2 [export_null.so] v0.1.2 (2001-08-17) (video) null | (audio) null [export_mpeg2enc.so] v1.1.10 (2003-10-30) (video) MPEG 1/2 [import_mpeg2.so] tcextract -x mpeg2 -i "vts_01_1.vob" -d 0 | tcdecode -x mpeg2-d 0 [export_mpeg2enc.so] *** init-v *** ! [export_mpeg2enc.so] cmd=mpeg2enc -v 0 -I 0 -q 3 -f 0 -4 2 -2 3 -b 1800 -F 3 -np -a 2 -o "/home/wayne/wayne.mpg.m1v" sh: line 1: mpeg2enc: command not found wayne@linux:/media/dvd/video_ts>

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RE: [ALUG] Christmas Meal
by Elisabeth 02 Jan '05

02 Jan '05

>===== Original Message From Anthony Anson <tony.anson(a)zetnet.co.uk> ===== >from Brett Parker: > >> Of course, the other thing that now needs organizing (not one of alugs >> strong points at the moment ;) is how the hell we all get there, but >> that's not such a big problem :) > >That's reassuring - I thought it was. And getting home again an even >bigger one. Only if you can't stagger to one of the cars. e

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