October 2005 - main

Anyone got some old 500MB-2GB hard drives they no longer require?
by Ashley T. Howes, Ph.D. 08 Nov '05

08 Nov '05

I'm in the process of building a small Debian GNU/Linux based cluster using old machines. It's something I always been interested in doing. I've already got the boxes, some motherboard/cpus with Pentium chips on them, and the NICs. The only thing missing are the hard disks. Has anyone got one or more they no longer need? I've managed to build the cluster for free so far, and hope to finish it in the same manner. I'd prefer sizes between 500MB and 2GB. So, if you can help, please email me. Perhaps you could bring something along to the kit meeting at UEA on Sunday? -- Ashley T. Howes, Ph.D. http://www.ashleyhowes.com "All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy. That's how far the world is from where I am. Just one bad day." - The Joker in Alan Moore's The Killing Joke

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Tiff images on a Sharp SL-C3100
by Barry Samuels 06 Nov '05

06 Nov '05

I have just bought an SL-C3100 and one of the things I'd like to use it for is viewing images, from my camera, in the field. The images are 12MB Tiff files and most of the Zaurus software can't cope with Tiff so I'd like to shrink and convert to Jpeg. I've put an Arm binary of ImageMagick 'convert' onto the Zaurus and have installed the libtiff package but if I try to use 'convert' I get a message 'Libtiff is not available'. Can anyone suggest what might cause this? -- Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

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Job specs to make you smile
by Guy Eastwood 02 Nov '05

02 Nov '05

Here's the result of a jobspec work asked me for a while back. I didn't give the print guys the final copy so the typo's aren't mine yet.. the wording... well, see what you think ;o) We got two really good members of staff added to tech dept as a result too! http://surefyre.com/surefyreold/surefyre_images/nomcse.png (No the position isn't open still) I've since come across people all over the place that have seen/heard of this ad LOL! Is weird reading the ad again, the jobspec is so much more demanding now. G

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Weekly IRC reminder
by Brett Parker 31 Oct '05

31 Oct '05

This is the automated ALUG IRC meeting reminder sent to remind you that there is an IRC meeting tonight (Monday) at 8.00pm. Historically, these used to be the only time a lot of us would be about, now the channel has some usual faces that are there most of the time (except at silly o'clock, when we might be sleeping, or on the second thursday of the month, where we might be drinking in the Reindeer), so don't feel limited to visit during this time, come visit us when ever you feel like it! 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 xchat, irssi 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://www.irssi.org/ http://www.epicsol.org/ Windows http://www.mirc.com (loads of help with irc for newbies!)

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PHP / MySQL web developer Job
by David Reynolds 30 Oct '05

30 Oct '05

Hi, I've been asked to post this job application here, in case anyone is interested: Job Type: Permanent Job Title: PHP MySQL Website Developer Location: North Norwich, Norfolk Salary: Negotiable Details: We are looking for a team player to join our development team. We have an excellent track record in delivering a diverse range of web projects to small and medium sized business across Norfolk. Ideally you will have commercial experience developing websites using PHP and MySQL preferably in a Linux environment. Ideally you'll also have an ability to create graphic designs for a web environment. Please forward a covering letter and CV to paul(a)paston.co.uk Cheers, David -- David Reynolds david(a)reynoldsfamily.org.uk

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/var/log/lastlog
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 30 Oct '05

30 Oct '05

Hi Folks, It's spring-clean time again ... Been recovering disk space occupied by stuff I don't really want to know about. In particular, /var/log/lastlog is 19MB in size, but the output of 'lastlog' is 2225 bytes on 35 lines, telling me *ALL About the Very Last Time Each User Logged In*.[1] Most of these are, of course "pseudo" users like bin daemon adm lp sync shutdown halt mail news uucp operator games gopher ftp rpm vcsa nscd sshd rpc rpcuser nfsnobody mailnull smmsp pcap apache xfs named ntp gdm who never log in anyway! So that's 19136220/35 = 546749 bytes or half a MB for each "user", and from inspection nearly all of that is bytes with value "00"! (Indeed it gzips down to 18668 bytes, i.e. 1/1000). Now I can use an extra 19MB of space on that partition (whose free space varies from near-0 to about 400MB depending on what I'm up to), so I'm feeling mean about 19MB devoted to totally boring info. Hence I'm wondering (a) what's the best way to suppress this lastlog stuff; (b) would it traumatise the system to suppress it? Thanks for any comments! Best wishes to all, Ted. [1]. E.g. ftp **Never logged in** ted pts/12 brandy Sun Oct 30 10:09:37 +0000 2005 -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 30-Oct-05 Time: 10:41:23 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Penguins
by Anthony Anson 30 Oct '05

30 Oct '05

It has been reported that penguins can get avian 'flu as well: Now read on - nicked from a newsgroup: H5N1 BIRD FLU BELIEVED TO BE FIRST VIRUS UNABLE TO SPREAD THROUGH MICROSOFT OUTLOOK Researchers Shocked to Finally Find Virus That Email App Doesn't Like Atlanta, Ga. Scientists at the Center for Disease Control and Symantec's AntiVirus Research Center today confirmed that H5N1 bird flu cannot be spread by Microsoft's Outlook email application, believed to be the first time the program has ever failed to propagate a major virus. "Frankly, we've never heard of a virus that couldn't spread through Microsoft Outlook, so our findings were, to say the least, unexpected," said Clive Sarnow, director of the CDC's infectious disease unit. The study was immediately hailed by British officials, who said it will save millions of pounds. "Up until now we have, quite naturally, assumed that bird flu was spread by Microsoft Outlook," said Sir Liam Donaldson, Britain's Chief Medical Officer. "By eliminating it, we can focus our resources elsewhere." However, researchers in Romania, where bird flu has recently appeared, said they are not yet prepared to disqualify Outlook, which has been the progenitor of viruses such as "I Love You," "Bubbleboy," "Anna Kournikova," and "Naked Wife," to name but a few. Said Andrei Niculescu, director of the Molecular Virology Lab at Bucharest University: "It's not that we don't trust the research, it's just that as scientists, we are trained to be sceptical of any finding that flies in the face of established truth. And this one flies in the face like a blind drunk sparrow." Executives at Microsoft, meanwhile, were equally sceptical, insisting that Outlook's patented Virus Transfer Protocol (VTP) has proven virtually pervious to any virus. The company, however, will issue a free VTP patch if it turns out the application is not vulnerable to bird flu. Such an admission would be embarrassing for the software giant, but Symantec virologist Ariel Kologne insisted that no one is more humiliated by the study than she is. "Only last week, I had a reporter ask if the bird flu spreads through Microsoft Outlook, and I told him, 'Doesn't everything?'" she recalled. "Who would've thought?" -- Tony http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

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Southern kit meet - any takers?
by Chris Green 28 Oct '05

28 Oct '05

It was suggested a little while ago that we might have a 'southern' kit meet, somewhere near Ipswich for example. Is there much support for this idea? E.g. how many people would actually come? Assuming that there aren't 500 people coming I could host it if the location was deemed suitable. I'm just about equidistant from Ipswich, Felixstowe and Woodbridge and very easy to get to from the A14, as long as you don't mind narrow lanes. Personally I'd prefer an evening rather than week-end as daylight is a precious resource needed for working outside. -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence."

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RE: [ALUG] PHP / MySQL web developer Job
by Keith Watson 28 Oct '05

28 Oct '05

> From: MJ Ray Sent: 28 October 2005 14:19 > > David Reynolds <david(a)reynoldsfamily.org.uk> > > I've been asked to post this job application here, in case anyone is > > interested: > > Please send job adverts to linuxjobs. You can find it at > http://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/linuxjobs > or linked from the FAQ. As a list subscriber I am quite happy for local people to post job vacancies for linux related local jobs here. Of course it's in their own interest for them to cross post to linuxjobs also. Regards, Keith ____________ All that is gold does not glitter; nor all those that wander are lost. - J.R.R. Tolkien

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RE: [ALUG] Penguins
by Keith Watson 28 Oct '05

28 Oct '05

> From: Anthony Anson > > The message > <63F7A21F1CA18143AFDBF28E2A7D6BBA02667C7D(a)endor.kewill-europe.com> > from "Keith Watson" <keith.watson(a)kewill.com> contains these words: > > > I definitely would not mix Lemsip and whiskey. Lemsip and brandy is > > better but I would recommend that you leave off the Lemsip and just > > keep taking the brandy (preferably French and over 10 years old :o). > > Expensive, yes, but after the 3rd glass who cares!! > > Make the first two glasses 50 year old Grand Armagnac, after > that you can guzzle cheapo - you'll hardly know the difference. > I'll drink to that! :o) Regards, Keith ____________ Everything that can be invented already has been. - This statement was released in 1899 by the U.S. Patent Office. - If these 'experts' ran the world we would still be sitting in the dark.

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