April 2007 - main

Re: Laptop
by Matthew 13 Apr '07

13 Apr '07

I've sort of gone off Novatech over the last couple of years. I had their low-end laptop a few years ago and it had a cheap and nasty case that caused heat issues, as well as a flimsy AC socket that broke and took the motherboard with it within a year. The next MoBo they put in was better though. Their recent laptop range /looks/ better, but it's hard to tell from a picture (illustrative purposes only...) and I'd be interested to hear how anyone is getting on with them. I still recommend them for desktops. > If you're still looking for a laptop /anyway/ because they're always a > good thing to have -- > I *highly* recommend Novatech (http://www.novatech.co.uk) for laptops. > My girlfriend just bought their cheapest model, sans operating system > (what a bonus!). Specs are something like 1.6GHz, 1GB RAM, 80GB HDD, > DVD-RW, Widescreen etc etc. and *everything* works out of the box > (including with the lovely Ubuntu 6.10 Edgy Eft. It was only around > £350...

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Possible Job
by David Reynolds 13 Apr '07

13 Apr '07

Hi, It was brought to my attention earlier today that one of the companies (http://www.fxhome.com) within the building is looking for a PHP developer to work on their websites. I said I'd ask on here and see if anyone was interested. If anyone is interested, either contact the company directly, or email you CV to me and I'll pass it on. Cheers, Dave -- David Reynolds david(a)reynoldsfamily.org.uk

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"Open Source"
by ted.harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 13 Apr '07

13 Apr '07

Hi Folks, I've been listening to a Radio 4 programme this evening called "Open Source": Open Source Wednesday 11 April 2007 21:00-21:30 (Radio 4 FM) Paul Bennun finds out how Free and Open Source software is making its impact felt across the world, fuelling development and saving businesses millions of pounds. Produced by a global network of software enthusiasts and freely given away, community created computer programs can compete with big business. Their creators are driven by an ideology as much as price, challenging traditional intellectual property rights and placing power in the hands of the public rather than private corporations. Linux itself is not prominently mentioned, but overall I think they have got the spirit of the thing about right (though I have quibbles about some details). No mention on the programme's website http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/pip/z9ksy/ about a "Listen Again" possibility, if you missed it, but one may come up later. Best wishes to all, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <ted.harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 11-Apr-07 Time: 21:28:55 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Laptop
by J.R. Seago 10 Apr '07

10 Apr '07

This morning my town had a series of small power cuts between 05·00 and 06·00 hours, these were so short that the incandescent light bulb on my desk light didn't go out, only flicker. My Computer did reboot on the first two occasions but then on the third occasion wouldn't do anything, I 'phoned the local computer repair people at around 09·00, who got back to me later in the day as they had been inundated with calls on the same matter. My computer rebooted at about 12·00, apparently others are still not re-started. Having given the background here's my question, as I needed to stay in email contact with a number of people today, would it be worthwhile buying a laptop, if so which one? Morgans flyer which came this morning has Toshiba's at prices starting at £328·99. Although I seem to remember reading somewhere that Mesh laptop's fitted GNU/Linux better, anyone any suggestions, or ideas of what to avoid? I'd want toput Slackware 11 onto it. -- J.R. Seago GNU/Linux Registered User No. #219566 http://counter.li.org/ () ascii ribbon campaign - against html mail /\ - against microsoft attachments

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Re: main Digest, Vol 22, Issue 13
by J.R. Seago 10 Apr '07

10 Apr '07

On Tuesday 10 April 2007 18:58, Jonathan McDowell <noodles(a)earth.li> wrote: > I'm not clear; did your local computer repair people do something that > meant your computer was functional by 12:00, or did it just magically > come back? > It magically came back, the local repair shop had spent all morning telling everyone who had rung him that that was what would happen, he got to me, In response to my answer-phone message at about 12.30. I'd tried pushing the button once more after coming back from the post office, and whoopee it worked. > > As a cheaper solution, would perhaps a decent surge protector or even > UPS maybe do what you want? I picked up a £25 Belkin UPS from eBuyer > last year and it's kept my machine up through various brownouts and > power outages. Of course it still doesn't protect me from my own > stupidity (like the time I knocked the power button while fiddling with > cables under the desk). Yes that's what he told me, as he'd spent all morning doing himself out of repair fees, I'll go in tomorrow and see what he can provide in the way of UPS, I've got my supply surge protected already. The power out was more of an excuse for something I want but don't need really, I'd rather save money as I'm trying to move at the moment. -- J.R. Seago GNU/Linux Registered User No. #219566 () ascii ribbon campaign - against html mail /\ - against microsoft attachments

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Re: Laptop
by J.R. Seago 10 Apr '07

10 Apr '07

I see that I'm still a little woozy and haven't altered the subject line or addressed the posts properly, I'll stop for the night and go to bed, with the nightcap! Apologies to all. -- J.R. Seago GNU/Linux Registered User No. #219566 () ascii ribbon campaign - against html mail /\ - against microsoft attachments

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Re: main Digest, Vol 22, Issue 13
by J.R. Seago 10 Apr '07

10 Apr '07

On Tuesday 10 April 2007 18:58, main-request(a)lists.alug.org.uk wrote: > I'm hazarding a guess here (based on your email address)... but, even if > you had a magical laptop and the power went out how would you get online > if your adsl router didn't have power? :) You'd need some kind of ups or > a usb dsl modem (but they eat battery very quickly). Of course a ups on > the dsl gear and a laptop would give the most uptime in the event of a > power failure, but i'd look at a ups for the main machine anyway "just > in case" so it doesn't get the psu busted if it happens in the future. > > Adam Everything else just restarted itself when the power came back, printer router, monitor the lot, it was just on the third power down, (I think rather than out), that the computer wouldn't reboot, it did about 5 > 6 hours later, but apparently it the, internal power supply, (is that the right description/nomenclature), will reset after a while. I'd been having a bad night which was why I was up at five anyway, (unlike you my daughter is all grown up, and dose'n't get me up in the night. Which is why I wasn't thinking straight and leapt to the conclusion I could spend some money and buy shiny new toys. But as I said above I'm going to see the nice man who tried to get everybody working without charging them, to see about surge and UPS thingy's, I might be better tomorrow, and think straight, when today's pills have been topped up with a nightcap! Thanks to every body for the advice, but I'll just stick to the boring sensible stuff at the moment! -- J.R. Seago GNU/Linux Registered User No. #219566 () ascii ribbon campaign - against html mail /\ - against microsoft attachments

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Scheduling problem
by Stuart Bailey 10 Apr '07

10 Apr '07

I'm having trouble with a process taking too long, and holding up other processes. Basically, the process produces a bitmap showing a map of the geographical position, with a number of feature plotted. Whilst this is going on, data from a GPS receiver is being displayed on screen. These are separate processes. However, when the map is being produced, the data display freezes. Once the map is finished, the data display continues as if nothing happened. I've tried running the mapping process under nice, with a priority value of 20 (minimum), but this has made no significant improvement. Is there a way to limit the processor time that a process can take - say specifying that the process cannot exceed 20% processor time? Many thanks, Stuart -- --------------------------------------- Stuart Bailey BSc (hons) CEng CITP MBCS LinuSoft (Owner) Linux Specialist (0845) 6583563 http://www.linusoft.co.uk ----------------------------------------

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[ALUG Announce] 2nd Thursday Norwich Meet : Reindeer, Dereham Road
by Jonathan McDowell 10 Apr '07

10 Apr '07

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- The monthly "Second Thursday" ALUG Norwich Pub Meet is this Thursday, 12th March. Apologies for the slightly later than usual reminder; I blame Easter confusing me. It's at the Reindeer pub on the Dereham Road, just opposite the City Gate. People will be there from 8pm-ish, though there may be a few people there earlier. Topics for discussion will no doubt be as varied as ever. The Reindeer has a reasonable selection of beer as well as decent coffee (with biscuits, if you're lucky). Directions to the Reindeer can be found at: http://www.alug.org.uk/venues/reindeer.html Pictures of some of the regulars, and irregulars, and, well, just some pictures of people that might or might not turn up are available from: http://www.earth.li/~noodles/Photos/2006-02-ALUG/ http://the.earth.li/~noodles/stilvoid-alug/mp20050811/ http://www.earth.li/~noodles/Photos/2005-01-ALUG-Xmas/ http://www.earth.li/~noodles/Photos/2004-08-ALUG/ Which should hopefully aid those of you wondering who to look out for, even if the images are getting a bit old now. We now have an area reserved for us, so should be easier to find. As you enter through the main door you'll see a small set of steps ahead of you - the area just up those steps and to the left is where we'll be. J. -- [ I'd love to but... I'm having all my plants neutered. ] ----- Send discussion replies to main(a)lists.alug.org.uk (Reply-To set) Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce

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Debian Testing, USB and Win CE
by Barry Samuels 08 Apr '07

08 Apr '07

I have just bought a navigational GPS unit which serves for use in-car and whilst walking. It has a label on the back which says: Win CE .NET 4.2 Core. I also have a Thinkpad which came with Windows XP. This GPS unit is recognised by XP using active sync but I'd prefer to use RAKI (synce-kde) running under Linux. After plugging the unit into a USB port I get this in the logs: kernel: usb 1-7.1: new full speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 33 kernel: usb 1-7.1: device descriptor read/64, error -32 kernel: usb 1-7.1: device descriptor read/64, error -32 kernel: usb 1-7.1: new full speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 34 kernel: usb 1-7.1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice There is nothing else in the logs relating to that connection and RAKI does nothing - it apparently does not recognise it and I don't know what the error means. Any help would be welcome. -- Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

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