October 2014 - main

[ALUG Announce] ALUG Norwich Pub Meet Thursday 9th October
by Viperfang 06 Oct '14

06 Oct '14

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- Hello Norwich Aluggers, Our monthly ALUG Norwich social meeting will be held this Thursday, 9th October at The Coach and Horses (82 Thorpe Road, Norwich, NR1 1BA). The meeting officially starts at 8pm, although some people may arrive earlier. More information on those people can be found on the list and the IRC channel. If you are unsure if you will recognise us then make yourself and your intent to attend known by either posting on list or visiting us on IRC so we can look out for you rather than hiding in the corner. Optionally you could ask at the bar if they know where the geeky computer weirdos are and they'll point you in the right direction (seriously!). Another possibility is look for heaps of electronics on a table that may possibly look like movie props that would used for detonating explosives. Feel free to bring electronics/laptops/gadgets to the meet, you will by no means be alone. Ben Bewick aka Viperfang NB: This mail is automated, please refer to the usual sources for more information. ALUG Contact Details: Website : http://www.alug.org.uk/ IRC : #alug on irc.alug.org.uk List : http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo Twitter : http://twitter.com/anglianlug Identica: TBA Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2381613902 ----- 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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Default anacron run time of 07:30, what's the logic (if any) for this?
by Chris Green 03 Oct '14

03 Oct '14

I was just wondering why my system is sometimes somewhat busy in the morning and it occurred to me to that anacron might be something to do with it. This is my desktop system which is left turned on all the time. So, after digging around a bit I found that anacron gets run (via /etc/cron.d) at 07:30. So anything that takes a while, like a weekly incremental backup, can often be running when I'm using the computer. What's the reason for choosing 07:30? If the computer is never turned on at 07:30 then does anacron ever get run? Presumably it must get run as part of system start-up otherwise anacron tasks would never be run. So, why not set the default time to 02:30 or something similar so that, if the computer is turned on tasks get run in the small hours? It's easy enough to change of course and I will do so, but the default seems a little odd. -- Chris Green

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.deb vs .rpm (or apt-get vs yum)
by Mark Rogers 03 Oct '14

03 Oct '14

It's been many years since I last used a .rpm based distribution in anger, but the experience lead me to dislike them compared with .deb based distros. In particular I had a number of occasions where an installation issue lead me to a system that I could not fix, where that has never happened to me yet in all my years with .deb-based systems (Debian and Ubuntu). Sure I've had conflicts and problems, but I've always been able to get pas them. Am I right to trust .deb more than .rpm? Should I give (eg) Fedora another chance? Incidentally I also found package management faster with .deb (eg apt-get update vs yum update, apt-get install vs yum install). Stable beats speed but .deb seemed to give me both. Mark -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

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Command line database editor (for sqlite3)
by Chris Green 01 Oct '14

01 Oct '14

Is there such a thing? Of course I know and use the sqlite3 command line utility but that's just a way of running SQL from the command line. What I want is some sort of wrapper/utility that reads the data from the database, presents it to me in some sort of reasonably editable format and then, when I've changed something writes it back. I'd be happy enough with a simple browse facility plus some sort of way of changing individual fields. So "dbedit xyz.db table1" just presents me with the data in some sort of reasonable, scrollable column layout. Then some sort of command says "change column 10, row 4 to 'ABCDE'". -- Chris Green

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OT Domain name hosts
by Bev Nicolson 01 Oct '14

01 Oct '14

A bit off topic perhaps but I thought I'd ask you lot. Domain name hosting. Ted might be puzzled by this since I recommended 1&1 a while ago now. They haven't been a bother but it looks like I should think about transferring things for various reasons. Who out there is cheap and reliable? How do you find out exactly how much any one package will cost per year? I'm just talking about a domain name and related email address. Bev.

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