- main - earth.li

Combining a collection of images into an animation file
by Ashley T. Howes, Ph.D. 21 May '05

21 May '05

I have a collection of image files that I would like to combine into an animation file, e.g. an MPEG. I have been playing around with the ImageMagick toolkit and mpeg2encode. They work, but the quality is not very good. Let me explain that - my images have some fine detail in them I need to preserve in the final animation, and mpeg2encode does not seem to provide any options for encoding quality. Can anyone recommend a better mpeg encoder for linux, which will allow me to control the quality of the final animation? Alternatively, if there is someone on the mailing list who does this sort of activity of a semi-regular basis, could you share the best way to do what I am attempting? -- Ashley T. Howes, Ph.D. http://www.ashleyhowes.com/ "I remember the very things I do not wish to; I cannot forget the things I wish to forget." - Cicero

1 0

Where does PHP get it's host name information from?
by Chris Green 20 May '05

20 May '05

I'm trying to get PHP5.02 and Apache2 working again having upgraded my slackware from 10 to 10.1. I've got Apache going OK but PHP is acting a bit odd. The essential problem is that I've got my DNS a little bit awry (this may sound unrelated to PHP but we'll get there). Before we had broadband my system had no name as there was never a need to access it from the outside world. Now we have broadband I've got a sub-domain pointing at the system:- home.isbd.net 84.51.144.229 I have a router which is what the outside world sees when it connects to home.isbd.net and the NAT and firewall are set up to send packets to the appropriate systems on the LAN side. Within the LAN I the systems have names such as fred.isbd.co.uk (I own the isbd.co.uk domain) which only exist within the LAN and, on the Linux box, are set up in /etc/hosts. Thus there are entries such as:- 192.168.13.5 fred.isbd.co.uk fred These are very convenient as one can use the short form 'fred' to connect to that machine. However there are now some oddities occurring and I'm thinking I may have to change some/all of my hosts file. Firstly PHP keeps using the Linux server box's full name (server.isbd.co.uk) to try and do things and is failing miserably. Secondly for some reason the DNS on the LAN can't find home.isbd.net whereas everyone else in the world can find it and DNS on the LAN works for all other addresses. In general what do others here do about naming machines on a small SoHo LAN behind a router? Is there some accepted way of doing it? -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence."

4 12

Risks (or otherwise) of passwordless ssh use
by Chris Green 20 May '05

20 May '05

I currently use ssh for various logins from home and from work. I have set up the logins so that they work without me entering a password or key phrase at all, i.e. I *think* when asked for a key to generate the encrypted string used for authorisation I entered nothing. I know this creates some security holes but I'm not at all clear what they are really, can anyone elucidate? I realise that anyone with access to my work machine or my home machine will be able to login to these remote systems without knowing the password but that's not a big problem really, there is far more important and sensitive information on my desktop machines than there is on the places where I remotely login. Is this the only risk or is the encryption inherently weaker if I didn't enter a key? -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence."

5 11

How to find out what mysql databases I have?
by Chris Green 20 May '05

20 May '05

I always have this problem when I come back to using mysql. How do I find out what mysql databases I have set up? The mysql daemon (mysqld) is running, I can run 'mysql' and I get the 'mysql>' prompt but that's it, there seems ot be no simple way of finding out what databases there are there to use. -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence."

3 3

Apache + modssl + mount -o ro = segfault
by MJ Ray 19 May '05

19 May '05

Here's one I've not met before: I have an Apache (1.3.x) server doing SSL. The server has a read-only root partition and then read-write partitions for things like /home, /var, /tmp and so on. If Apache is started, all the https sites fail, return no data and say in the log "[notice] child pid 563 exit signal Segmentation fault (11)" or similar. If / is mounted read-write, Apache started, then / is remounted read-only, it works. I can't see any read-only directory being used in the httpd.conf - what's going on at startup that I'm missing? -- Thanks for any tips, MJR/slef http://mjr.towers.org.uk/

2 3

ADSL Router configuration question
by Chris Green 19 May '05

19 May '05

This isn't really a Linux question but it is network/computer related so it's not that far off topic. We've just got ADSL and I'm now up and running with a Zyxel 660H router/switch. I would like to be able to configure the Zyxel remotely using the web interface but I would also like to make a Web server on one of the machines in our home network visible to the outside world. Is it possible to do both of these things at the same time? The Zyxel has a specific menu for setting up access to the management interface, you can enable/disable the telnet and HTTP interfaces for LAN or WAN or LAN & WAN. You can also set the port number associated with these. In the NAT configuration you can set up services on the LAN which you wish to be visible to the outside world. However I don't see how one can have a web server visible to the outside world at the same time as making the management interface visible as they will both appear as the same port number and IP address. I tried changing the port number for the managment interface access from the default 80 to 8080 but that just stopped it working completely because the firewall at the other end wouldn't pass traffic on port 8080. Is there any clever redirection I can do on the LAN to make it possible to connect to the Web server on the LAN and then to the Zyxel router from the LAN side? I could configure using telnet, I'm quite happy to do that, but it's hardly secure over the internet. I suppose I can set it so that it's only accessible from specific IP addresses which might be OK. -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence."

6 12

Can one create 'per user' host name aliases?
by Chris Green 18 May '05

18 May '05

I've just got broadband (small village in Suffolk) and have a static IP address, however the host name is impossibly long, it is 84-51-144-229.isbdlt032.adsl.metronet.co.uk So, is there any way for me to provide my own personal alias for this name so I can (for example) say "ssh -l username home" where 'home' will be expanded to the full host name? This is on systems where I don't (mostly) have root access, two Linux systems where I have shell access and Solaris systems at work. What I really want is a sort of local copy of the /etc/hosts file which a user can add to. I know I could set a shell/environment variable but this requires prefixing with $ to use it and I'd like something cleaner if possible. -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence."

5 5

Cleaning a filesystem for compression
by Stuart Bailey 17 May '05

17 May '05

I have a CF card with two partitions - one ext2 and the other ext3. I want to create an image for the card but since it's about 1Gb in size, the image requires compressing before it can be ftp'd. Is there a way to zero out any unused areas in the FS in order to optimise the compression? Many thanks, Stuart. -- --------------------------------------- Stuart Bailey BSc (hons) CEng CITP MBCS LinuSoft (Proprietor) Linux Specialist (01953) 601294 (07778) 383739 http://www.linusoft.co.uk ---------------------------------------- ********************************************************************** This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, please email postmaster(a)linusoft.co.uk immediately. You should not copy or use this email or attachments for any purpose nor disclose their contents to any other person. NO BINDING CONTRACT WILL RESULT FROM THIS E-MAIL UNTIL SUCH TIME AS A WRITTEN DOCUMENT IS SIGNED ON BEHALF OF LinuSoft. LinuSoft cannot accept any responsibility for the completeness or accuracy of this message as it has been transmitted over public networks. *************************************************************************

4 3

"All for the best"
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 17 May '05

17 May '05

Hi Folks, Browsing the Guardian "Online" section this morning I came across an interesting story from last Thursday's edition which I have not seen discussed elsewhere: http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,1481272,00.html "All for the best "Linus Torvalds, who developed the Linux operating system, once more inspires a community of coders to make his open source software even better. Glyn Moody reports Thursday May 12, 2005 The Guardian You may not have noticed, but the open source community had one of its inner-circle virtual punch-ups recently. What is interesting about the spat - aside from the sight of Linus Torvalds and other top hackers swapping e-insults - is that its resolution helps to explain why Linux is so good, and why it will get even better." [now read on] 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: 17-May-05 Time: 08:43:27 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

1 0

RE:Samba Fileserver and vpn, etc.
by tom potts 17 May '05

17 May '05

If your looking for a low powered machine (and can wait) this might be what you need... http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=23271 ___________________________________________________________ Yahoo! Messenger - want a free and easy way to contact your friends online? http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com

1 0

re: [ALUG] Samba Fileserver and vpn, etc.
by David Noble 16 May '05

16 May '05

Considering the school's connection runs at 2 megabit via fibre, and my home ADSL connection has an upstream connection of 160 kb or something like that, the connection speed should be close to what I get at a school terminal anyway. Dad's a bit concerned about the power usage of running a pc 24 hours a day, so I think i'll put something fanless and energy saving together- possibly a mini-ITX box or something, and run this. Dad also only seems to use the connection for internet banking, e-mail and other stuff, so it's a bit overkill anyway, and he shouldn't mind the bandwidth usage too much :) Cheers to all that have replied- I shall keep you posted on how it goes with all. Dave.

1 0

Weekly IRC reminder
by Brett Parker 16 May '05

16 May '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!)

1 0

Samba Fileserver
by David Noble 14 May '05

14 May '05

Hi I'm kind of new to this LUG- I've been subscribed for a while, and am just trying to learn more about Linux. At the moment I only have a dual boot Linux/XP box, connected to my dormmate's laptop via a switched 10/100 connection, and to a few other computers in other dorms via a wireless access point. (I am at boarding school at a STRICTLY CLASSIFIED location) However, next year, I would like to get or put together some sort of server that is almost silent (so I can leave it on 24 hours per day), run Samba fileserving, run a vpn to a second computer at home, through the school firewall, and run a downstream proxy so people can get unrestricted internet access (from my home adsl connection) My eye is currently on getting two school computers (they are getting rid of these for about £10 or so), stuffing my copy of SuSE 9.1 on them, using remote desktop to control the one at home. I believe the spec is something like Pentium 3, 400mHz, 64 or 128 megs of RAM, 10/100 NIC, 10GB hd. I plan to upgrade one of them with a wireless card (to connect to the unsecured access point via the cantenna), and to put a 300 gig hard drive in the same one. This one would be used at school. The other one, I would leave 'as is', and use it at home, but this would have to have some sort of remote desktop connection, as my dad knows nothing about computers in general. The school is currently running an old version of Novell or something, and people have managed to use HTTPort and worms through it before. The rest of the unofficial wireless network runs Windows XP (bar one which runs Mac OSX). Is this possible? Do any of you have any suggestions?

2 1

Console messages
by Stuart Bailey 12 May '05

12 May '05

Does anyone know how to disable console messages? I have a small embedded Linux system running a graphical app which uses QT to access the frame buffer directly. However, when the app is running, I get console messages printed on the screen, thus corrupting it. The sort of message I get are eg notification of eth0 up or down, etc. Many thanks, Stuart. -- --------------------------------------- Stuart Bailey BSc (hons) CEng CITP MBCS LinuSoft (Proprietor) Linux Specialist (01953) 601294 (07778) 383739 http://www.linusoft.co.uk ---------------------------------------- ********************************************************************** This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, please email postmaster(a)linusoft.co.uk immediately. You should not copy or use this email or attachments for any purpose nor disclose their contents to any other person. NO BINDING CONTRACT WILL RESULT FROM THIS E-MAIL UNTIL SUCH TIME AS A WRITTEN DOCUMENT IS SIGNED ON BEHALF OF LinuSoft. LinuSoft cannot accept any responsibility for the completeness or accuracy of this message as it has been transmitted over public networks. *************************************************************************

5 8

Apache rewriterule
by Richard Lewis 10 May '05

10 May '05

Hey ALUG, I've been fiddling with this RewriteRule in Apache for ages (I did ask an Apache forum but no one answered). I wonder if anyone knows anything about these things? I want to make old fashioned URLs like: http://www.sara.uea.ac.uk/search_from_listings.php?artist_id=13 redirect to the new ones: http://www.sara.uea.ac.uk/?artist&id=13 I've tried this rewrite rule (and about a million permutations of it): RewriteRule ^/search_from_listings.php?artist_id=([0-9]+)$ http://www.sara.uea.ac.uk/?artist&id=$1 I've tried escaping all the characters and I've tried all sorts of combinations of flags but it never works. For some reason this: RewriteRule ^/search_from_listings.php?(.*)$ http://www.sara.uea.ac.uk/$1 matches (though it doesn't do anything useful). Any ideas? Cheers, Richard

2 2

Weekly IRC reminder
by Brett Parker 09 May '05

09 May '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!)

1 0

Internet shop in Ely area
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 08 May '05

08 May '05

MJR has suggested I let the list know about this. As of very recent date (about 2 weeks ago) there is now an internet cafe in Soham. MJR tells me that there is (or used to be) one in King's Lynn, though doesn't know about Downham Market.. Elians will know that there is none in Ely. The Soham people tell me they're "the only place this side of Cambridge and Newmarket", which I can well believe. I forget what the Soham shop calls itself, but finding it is very simple. Once in Soham, find the Budgens car park. From there, take the footpath with the signpost "High Street". As you emerge from this, the Internet cafe is facing you on the opposite side of the High St. I found the proprietor (who runs it as a sideline to an insurance business) very friendly and helpful. 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: 29-Apr-05 Time: 00:30:27 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

6 9

Humongous computing with Windows XP 64bit Edition
by Tatsuhiko Maegawa 08 May '05

08 May '05

Hello from Japan. I love using Linux, and I've installed AMD64 version of Gentoo Linux. It has some hitches with Japanese stuff, so I am still obliged to use Windows for sake of typing stuff in Japanese. When I visited Tokyo Akihabara, I've seen Windows XP 64bit Edition on sale. Interested, looked up, and found out that I need 1 Gigabyte RAM in order to install it. Since many visiters out there searches for humongous computer (but they are geeks, not pimps) they make no surprise about it - but me. Though I am not interested in using Windows XP 64 bit Edition, it crosses my mind as to whether I need 1Gigabyte of RAM for my Linux machine. At the moment, I see no reason why I bundle up further, as my machine seems running well. I know I need little further up on developing stuff with Java, since Eclipse kindly asks 758Mb of RAM for ease. Tatsuhiko Maegawa tatsuhiko(a)jazzman.jp http://blog.jazzman.jp == This is private mail ==

2 1

Norwich "Second Thursday" Social Meeting - The Reindeer - 20:00 Thursday 12 May
by Brett Parker 07 May '05

07 May '05

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi guys, Just a quick reminder that this coming Thursday (12 May) is the regular Norwich "Second Thursday" alug social meeting. Generally meetings start around 8pm and go on till either we all have to go home or we get kicked out of the pub. The meeting will be held in The Reindeer pub, which is just across the road from the City Gate where we used to hold meetings. Directions to The Reindeer can be found at: http://www.alug.org.uk/venues/reindeer.html I should warn anyone that's come before that I'm, erm, very much less hairy, so might not stick out quite as well as previously. I *imagine* that there will be at least myself and Noodles present, quinophex is hoping to come but he's not been well recently, neither has wildduck, so he may not be there. I'm not quite sure if paul_c will even be back in the country by then, I don't think he will... Anyways - hope to see lots of you there, - -- Brett Parker web: http://www.sommitrealweird.co.uk/ email: iDunno(a)sommitrealweird.co.uk -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.0 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFCfSagEh8oWxevnjQRAnfsAJ9ovJq5Z6nVVl326SS+h3P9jS3EtwCgrFkn GJRptcF1HEhdILJd65Yja6w= =w2Ll -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

1 0

matrox G450 driver
by Jenny Hopkins 07 May '05

07 May '05

Hi, Has anyone had a Matrox G450 working using the mga linux driver? I'm trying to avoid having to build the Matrox driver, but things aren't looking good. Thanks, Jenny

3 5

HTML
by Bob Dove 06 May '05

06 May '05

Hi Folks, <centre> * </centre> won't do anything 'cos it's spelt proper like, you have to use MS-English <center> * </center> to 'center text or w.h.y. (Did the cousins invent html, or was it writ in MS? Cheers, BD. Incidentally, I use HTML Kit in Win, it might be worth looking at their site to see if there is a Linux version available. www.Chami.com Cheers, BD. -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.10.4 - Release Date: 27/04/2005

5 6

Microsoft offering support of Linux?
by Stuart Bailey 04 May '05

04 May '05

Just found this and thought it might be of some interest: http://software.silicon.com/os/0,39024651,39129739,00.htm Maybe Microsoft are beginning to warm to Linux ;-) -- --------------------------------------- Stuart Bailey BSc (hons) CEng CITP MBCS LinuSoft (Proprietor) (01953) 601294 (07778) 383739 http://www.linusoft.co.uk ---------------------------------------- ********************************************************************** This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, please email postmaster(a)linusoft.co.uk immediately. You should not copy or use this email or attachments for any purpose nor disclose their contents to any other person. NO BINDING CONTRACT WILL RESULT FROM THIS E-MAIL UNTIL SUCH TIME AS A WRITTEN DOCUMENT IS SIGNED ON BEHALF OF LinuSoft. LinuSoft cannot accept any responsibility for the completeness or accuracy of this message as it has been transmitted over public networks. *************************************************************************

3 2

URGENT: SMTP Authenitcation in Linux
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 04 May '05

04 May '05

Hi Folks, I've just received the following from my ISP (BT-yahoo.com): Subject: Warning: Possible misuse of email address Dear Sir or Madam, Your email address has been used to send unauthenticated email through BT mail servers. If you are a BT Yahoo! Internet customer, you must take action by 6.00am on 27th April 2005 if you wish to continue to use BT mail servers. If you are BT Yahoo! Internet customer Please make a simple change: switch on 'SMTP authentication'. This is usually done by ticking a box called 'My server requires authentication' in your email program settings. [...] This particular message was sent to my "efh(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk" email address (which is a genuine account on nessie). I guess this arises because I have my home sendmail configured to masquerade as "nessie.mcc.ac.uk" when sending by SMTP, and "efh" is the user on the home machine from which mail is sent out. (I've been using this setup for years with no problems so far, in order to reconcile (a) being able to mail between my different home machines, and (b) being recognisable to the outside world as a mail originator (since my home LAN is not recognisable outside my LAN). I.e. the following is the start of a typical SMTP dialogue when initiating sending of a mail: 220 smtp807.mail.ukl.yahoo.com ESMTP >>> EHLO nessie.mc.ac.uk 250-smtp807.mail.ukl.yahoo.com 250-AUTH LOGIN PLAIN XYMCOOKIE 250-PIPELINING 250 8BITMIME >>> MAIL From:<efh(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> 250 ok >>> RCPT To:<someone(a)somewhere.on.the.net> 250 ok ETC The "EHLO nessie.mc.ac.uk" and "MAIL From:<efh(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk>" are composed by sendmail, which is configured to masquerade in this way (for the reasons above). This has, as I say, worked without a hitch for years. Now, as you can see, I have been given less than 48 hours to activate "SMTP authentication", after which presumably BT's SMTP servers will no longer accept SMTP from me and I would be unable to use this connection to send email any more. the version of sendmail on the machine whicj looks after my email with the outside world is sendmail-8.8.5 from January 1997 and as far as I can see has no provision for anything resembling SMTP authentication. I've been browsing the web a bit on this topic, and it seems to me that setting it up in Linux is, even now, not straightforward, nor -- depending on your email setup -- even possible. I would be very grateful for good advice about how to grasp this nettle, while there is still time! (Clearly, the advice given in BT's message above is out of the question for me!) Also: Is there anywhere I can read what the details of the "SMTP authnetication" protocol are? 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: 25-Apr-05 Time: 15:59:32 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

9 12

kernel questions
by Richard Lewis 03 May '05

03 May '05

Hello ALUG, I've just installed my first home compiled kernel! I used the kernel-source-2.6.11 package from Debian unstable (not my normal version, I just got the deb from a mirror). I got caught out by the bug which stops console VGA mode from working (and, annoyingly, compiled twice thinking I'd done something wrong!). Anyway, I was just wondering what people think about the Debian version of the kernel. I don't really know much about it. How does it differ from the standard version? Is is better? Worse? I understand they add some patches and remove some non-free firmware; is this a good/bad thing? I noticed the current stable, standard version is called '2.6.11.7', does that mean its a later version than the Debian one? Richard.

1 1

TT Fonts
by Leon Stedman 02 May '05

02 May '05

Hello All, Can anyone outline the steps needed to add a character, specifically a pound sterling sign, to a true type font. What software would I need, and what information would I need about the font itself. Thanks. Leon Stedman

1 0

Geeky Terminology.
by Bob Dove 02 May '05

02 May '05

Hi Guys, Er - should somebody write a glossary of terms so thet those looking for the way in can understand the posings? (Sorry, postings)! Cheers, BD. NB: Any of you lot Boy Scouts? -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.10.4 - Release Date: 27/04/2005

4 3

Weekly IRC reminder
by Brett Parker 02 May '05

02 May '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!)

1 0

new alug member
by Paul 01 May '05

01 May '05

Congratulations to Kirsty and Adam on the birth of their new daughter - A healthy 3.78Kg.. May she live in interesting times. Regards, Paul. -- Pieces of seven, pieces of seven - A parroty error. "To err is human...to really f*** things up requires the root password." From a collection of quotes at http://www.indigo.org/quotes.html

9 9

Boring times?
by Bob Dove 01 May '05

01 May '05

Hi All, Boring times - how about now with a plethora of party political broadcasts! re newborn - many congrats to happy couple. Is it firstborn? Can guarantee some "times" which you may well describe as "interesting" (with some basic Anglo Saxon thrown in) but yes, it is a form of curse if you believe in that sort of thing! Cheers, BD. -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.10.4 - Release Date: 27/04/2005

1 0

Download Probs at NVIDIA?
by Martin John Collins 01 May '05

01 May '05

Hi, I'm trying to download the linux display drivers and the NForce drivers from NVIDIA but all downloads seem to be halting at around the 5% mark. I have tried various browsers and methods even wget , but it's always the same - download halts with no error messages. Is this just me or can some one replicate it? Rgds, Martin

2 1

Re: [ALUG] HTML
by John Seago 30 Apr '05

30 Apr '05

On Saturday 30 Apr 2005 06:26, Alan Pope <alan.pope(a)gmail.com> wrote: > I think it's commonly known as 'International English'. No it was actually deliberate, in order to seperate the english spoken by the 'English', from that spoken by those in the newly independent USA. If I recall correctly it was the Webster of 'Webster's' Dictionary who came up with the alternate spellings. -- John Seago GNU/Linux User #219566 http://counter.li.org AFFS http://www.affs.org.uk/

2 1

Suse 9.3
by Nick Daniels 29 Apr '05

29 Apr '05

Hi I installed Suse 9.3 last night, now using Konqueror, with about every other change of website, I get "An error occurred while loading http://news.bbc.co.uk/: Unknown host news.bbc.co.uk" or similar, Firefox is O.K. Also when checking mail I get "unknown host pop.freeserve.co.uk" about every other try, have been using Suse since 7.0, and never had this sort of trouble Firewall is set to "default", connection is dialup BTW if you want mp3 support other than in Real Player you have to download the 4 extra multimedia packs from YOU Regards -Nick Daniels

3 5

Usable distro for crappy old 'pooter?
by Joe Button 29 Apr '05

29 Apr '05

Hi. We have a P233 machine in our office with 96Mb ram. It's been running Windows 98 for the last few years and it would be good to move it to something less moribund. I installed Mandriva on it but it runs like a dog, compared to Win98. Can anyone suggest a distro that will turn our dinosaur into a usable office machine? I was thinking maybe Gentoo + distcc. Any recommendations? Cheers, Joe

7 6

LISP questions
by Richard Lewis 29 Apr '05

29 Apr '05

Hello ALUG, I thought I'd try and learn LISP for fun! I've found some good tutorials on the web but I can't seem to find a mailing list. I found common-lisp(a)ai.sri.com but I can't find archives for it and the description I read makes it sound like they may not like newbie questions. Does anyone know of any LISP lists that would be good for newbies? And if anyone on ALUG has any experience with LISP: I've been writing a 'hello world' program which consists of a function that returns T if the given parameter is prime or else it returns NIL; the only thing is, it doesn't work. It always returns NIL which I think its getting from the <then> clause of the second (if ) function. I think I may have misunderstood the way that LISP functions return their results: if the number is prime then it should return the (not ()) from the first (if ) function but it doesn't. Heres the code in case anyone knows about LISP: ======================================== ; the recursive function: (defun prime-rfunc (x iterator) (print x) ; for debugging (print (1+ iterator)) ; for debugging (if (= x iterator) (not ()) (if (= 0 (mod x (1+ iterator))) () (prime-rfunc x (1+ iterator))) ) ) ; because the recursive function takes a second, ; non-variable argument, prime is a wrapper function ; which just takes the intuitive first argument: (defun prime (x) (prime-func x 1)) ; test it: (print (prime 7)) ======================================== Cheers, Richard

2 3

Re: Usable distro for crappy old 'pooter?
by tom potts 29 Apr '05

29 Apr '05

To take things to extreeemes I had SuSe 5.3 running on a 16 Mhz 386 with a 50Meg HD and 4MB ram. If I remember rightly it ran X albeit a bit slowly. I ran it as a print server for a while but then left it running some self-tests on system and MySql (3..) for about a year until one day I found a mains cable leading into the darkest reaches of my attic and it was still running cleanly. I can burn you a copy if you're really sad like me and cant throw things away even though you risk divorce and the floor caving in! RH6.1 on a 486 with 32MB makes a perfectly usable internet cafe though it will choke on some sites with dire JS and Movies are only 'watchable' after eleventeen pints. 96Meg- Luxuery. When I was a kid...... Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com

1 0

Re: main digest, Vol 3 #524 - 17 msgs
by John Seago 29 Apr '05

29 Apr '05

On Friday 29 Apr 2005 06:26, main-request(a)lists.alug.org.uk wrote: > The conventional answer to this is normally Slackware. I think because > of ZipSlack and also because they make available *all* of their releases > - ever - every single one. So the idea is that you can pick up an older > version which was built when your machine was the cutting edge. Try running Slackware 8 and working your way up to 9·1. All the Slackware versions are available here: ftp://ftp.mirror.ac.uk/sites/ftp.slackware.com/ -- John Seago GNU/Linux User #219566 http://counter.li.org AFFS http://www.affs.org.uk/

1 0

Somewhat urgent - dvd data recovery
by Joe Button 28 Apr '05

28 Apr '05

Hi. I've got some people coming round tonight to watch a film I've got in mpg format on a data DVD. Unfortunately I've just discovered I can't read beyond about three quarters of the file. Does anyone have any idea how I could recover the rest of this file, or at least most of the rest of it? Thanks in advance. Sorry to be so demanding today.

3 3

Re: [ALUG] Usable distro for crappy old 'pooter?
by Richard Lewis 28 Apr '05

28 Apr '05

On 28 Apr 2005, at 13:25, Joe Button wrote: > We have a P233 machine in our office with 96Mb ram. It's been running > Windows > 98 for the last few years and it would be good to move it to something > less > moribund. I installed Mandriva on it but it runs like a dog, compared > to > Win98. Can anyone suggest a distro that will turn our dinosaur into a > usable > office machine? I was thinking maybe Gentoo + distcc. Any > recommendations? The conventional answer to this is normally Slackware. I think because of ZipSlack and also because they make available *all* of their releases - ever - every single one. So the idea is that you can pick up an older version which was built when your machine was the cutting edge. Cheers, Richard

1 0

Amstrad PCW
by Bob Dove 26 Apr '05

26 Apr '05

Hi Folks, re Ashley/PCW. I have the original PCW disks CP/M Plus on Amstrad 3 inch disk backed with Locoscript, plus another disk with Dr. Logo, help and programming utilities which came with my PCW 256, plus many other 3 in disks with MicroDesign, Literatus, Locoscript 2, fonts &c plus many 3 in 'work' disks. I don't have a working PCW. I would be prepared to loan these disks out if they would be of use, and perhaps sell some of the very rare 3 in disks. From memory, the PCW was started with the CP/M disk in the 'A' drive so it would load the program into memory, then once that was loaded you would load Locoscript or whatever else you wanted to run. I think you made a start-up disk so as not to spoil the original program master disk. It was a wonderful machine that would run a word processor, spread sheet and graphics program in 256 Kb of RAM! I have a working Amstrad PC 1512 DD as well if anybody is interested in PC pre-history! Cheers, BD. -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.9.13 - Release Date: 16/04/2005

13 21

Re: [linux-users] URGENT: SMTP Authenitcation in Linux
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 25 Apr '05

25 Apr '05

Hi Folks, While I'm still able to do so, I'd like to thank all who rushed so promptly to my rescue, with a lot of useful-looking advice. There's a lot to follow up there (should keep me busy for what remains of my time ... !). Meanwhile, for your entertainment [?], you may like to hear of what happened when I followed Simon Hobson's advice (via linux-users & man-lug): On 25-Apr-05 Simon Hobson wrote: > Bummer ! > > Though my experience with BT is that I'm surprised they > know what authenticated SMTP is ! > > Whilst I doubt if you'll get anywhere, I would be inclined > to approach BT and explain that at the moment you can't/don't > know how to turn on authentication for your mail setup (but > are looking into it). > [...] Well, I did call their "SMTP Authentication Team" number, and was connected to a very nice Indian gentleman, who listened to me carefully. He even seemed to be more than a little aware of Linux (to the point of paying tribute to its security compared with you-know-what). The upshot was: "We are not trained in these mail clients and we are not authorised to give advice about them. I suggest you contact the Linux help desk." Well, I guess I already did that! Thanks, hot-liners, I'll be looking into your suggestions! All best wishes, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 25-Apr-05 Time: 17:42:52 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

1 0

Weekly IRC reminder
by Brett Parker 25 Apr '05

25 Apr '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!)

1 0

HTML editor - recommendations?
by Anthony Anson 24 Apr '05

24 Apr '05

I'm used to using Arachnophilia for writing pages (though most of what goes on the page is hand-crafted, not point-and-click.). What editor would people recommend for running under Debian? (I dislike Mozilla's offering.) Requirements: *NOT* a (so-called) WYSIWYG thing. CSS-capable Easily understood by a beer of very little brian. And: Does anyone know of a file which lists all the available HTML tags, and where it can be got? (I might have missed it, but I did look on W3C.com) And: could someone please explain (in worms of one syllabub) what  does? (I've been playing with Pagemill, which came with the scanner.) -- Tony http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/ The only way to tell when a Finn is in love with you is that they look at your feet instead of their own.

5 8

Re: Re: [ALUG] OOo
by John Seago 24 Apr '05

24 Apr '05

On Sunday 24 Apr 2005 06:26, Graham <gt(a)pobox.com> wrote: > Any distribution of that size is bound to be selective, leaving out > anything not essential to its perceived target market. So I wouldn't > expect to see - for example - a full development environment or lots of > multimedia. Of course, not everyone wants these things, and that's > fine, but if you have more eclectic needs you'll be doing a lot of > downloading anyway, so it makes more sense to do a full FTP install and > get just what you want. > > -- GT I share your opinion, if one wants, or needs to have an install of Debian then the obvious chioce is to use Debian, using the new installer it is no more difficult to use than the installer in Ubuntu. The subjest has been discussed here: http://ianmurdock.com/archives/000244.html and here: http://ianmurdock.com/archives/000258.html -- John Seago GNU/Linux User #219566 http://counter.li.org AFFS http://www.affs.org.uk/

1 0

OOo
by Bob Dove 23 Apr '05

23 Apr '05

Hi Guys, OOo v.2.0 is available from website - not sure whether full or beta or whether Linux (surely?) or Win. It is promised for May in an editorial in a Linux mag I browsed in the only place in Colchester you can browse Linux - W.H.Smiths. So, what should be my first step in migrating from MS? Partition my hard drive? How??? I understand Linux wants two partitions so do I divide my HD, half each for Win and Linux, then re-partition the Linux lump? The instructions with a Linux prog disk seem extraordinarily complicated. Like it wants to frighten me away rather than induce me to dip my toes! I have one of these bootable disks with a working Linux but it only appears to see the apps on the disk and built in - Mandrake I think. Cheers, BD. -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.9.13 - Release Date: 16/04/2005

5 8

[Rebecca@vbug.co.uk: Speaker Opportunity with Anglian LUG]
by Adam Bower 23 Apr '05

23 Apr '05

Hi all, Um, this came to the main-admin address today, I'm not quite sure what to make of it, any ideas? We did have an email about a talk from Graham Parker on a similar subject (Windows and .net) a few months back but I think that we talked about it on irc, and then forgot about it. Adam ----- Forwarded message from Rebecca Bursnall <Rebecca(a)vbug.co.uk> ----- From: Rebecca Bursnall <Rebecca(a)vbug.co.uk> To: "'main-admin(a)lists.alug.org.uk'" <main-admin(a)lists.alug.org.uk> Subject: Speaker Opportunity with Anglian LUG Date: Mon, 4 Apr 2005 14:11:28 +0100 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2653.19) Hi A colleague of mine, Graham Parker, is looking to reach out further into the community this year. In particular he is looking for speaking engagements with Linux user groups on the subject of Windows Platform Integration through the use of Web Services. He has delivered a number of talks around the UK in the last few years and delivered Talk 1 attached to the JSIG (see www.jsig.com) in December 2004 and Talk 2 to Doncaster & Scunthorpe Linux UG in February 2005 and Aylesbury Linux User Group in March 2005. Do you have an opportunity this year for him to come and speak to your audience? Best wishes Rebecca Rebecca Bursnall VBUG Events Manager Tel: 01753 648555 Fax: 01753 647222 Email: rebecca(a)vbug.co.uk www.vbug.net Check out all forthcoming VBUG events at http://www.vbug.net/events/default.asp <<DCG Standard Talk Outline.txt>> About these Sessions: --------------------- I am looking to come to talk to your audience so that they can express their views honestly, ask challenging questions and share perspectives with their peers on a series of today's important modern technology challenges when it comes to working with .NET and Windows. Talk 1: Integrating J2EE with .NET The only other major contender besides Java for the hearts and minds of software developers is Microsoft?s .NET initiative. In this session we will see Why Java/J2EE Developers might be interested in knowing more about .NET? All the major elements of .NET will be covered; including the CLR, Visual Studio .NET and language support. As far as Java/J2EE .NET integration points are concerned Web Services are certainly the key features but what are the other options? We?ll explore the basic elements of.NET Smart Clients, highlighting some of the benefits of Windows Forms and office integration. We?ll also cover the key advances in deployment and security. We?ll hook up a simple Smart Client application to a contract exposed by a publicly available Web Service and look at the C# Code automatically created. Talk 2: Windows Platform Integration It is now a well-accepted fact that most IT infrastructures are made up of a variety of platforms and environments, rather than the homogenous ?one vendor? vision. This reality means it makes sense for IT professionals and developers to build up their knowledge of other technologies beyond their current core skills. Instead of re-igniting the well known platform wars; in this session we will take a more practial approach. As far as platform integration is concerned, Web Services are probably the most discussed example. But what are the other options? We?ll start by building a simple .NET web service. And go on to hook up a simple application to the contract exposed by this service, looking at the automatically generated code that results. There will be time for questions and maybe we'll even let off a bit of steam about certain platform frustrations. About Graham Parker: Graham Parker worked on various versions of Unix for ICL after graduating in 1990. He joined VBUG in 1994 and was Chairman of the group from 1997 until 2005. He is a co-founder and principal of DevTrain ? a .NET focused training company see http://www.devtrain.co.uk/. ----- End forwarded message ----- -- jabberid = quinophex(a)jabber.earth.li AFFS || http://www.affs.org.uk/ || Not a filesystem

11 16

Linux Political Party
by Nick Daniels 21 Apr '05

21 Apr '05

Hi A bit off topic, but found this regarding Labour Manifesto: Finally, a small section headed "Copyright in a digital age" may or may not be ominous. "We will modernise copyright and other forms of protection of intellectual property rights so that they are appropriate for the digital age," it says. Which is something we're all in favour of, but we fear they may disagree with us on what is "appropriate". It continues: "We will use our presidency of the EU [this expires on 31st December, so we'll hear about it very soon] to look at how to ensure content creators can protect their innovations in a digital age. Piracy is a growing threat and we will work with industry to protect against it." This does not sound like good news, necessarily. Still anything that might stop Alastair Campbell's minions nicking other people's dossiers off the Internet surely isn't all bad. ® http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/04/14/labour_2005_manifesto/ Regards Nick Daniels

2 1

Next Social Meeting: The Reindeer, Dereham Road, Norwich: Thurs 14th April from 8pm
by Brett Parker 19 Apr '05

19 Apr '05

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi all, Just a quick reminder that there's the usual second thursday Norwich social meeting tommorow (Thurs 14th April, 2005), starting from 8pm in The Reindeer. I'll be the hairy one with a pint in my hand :) Hope to see lots of you there. For those who don't know where The Reindeer is, the directions can be found at: http://www.alug.org.uk/venues/reindeer.html Thanks, - -- Brett Parker web: http://www.sommitrealweird.co.uk/ email: iDunno(a)sommitrealweird.co.uk -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.0 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFCXXYwEh8oWxevnjQRAk+zAKDJhzbwe7jturUsWqSzcgkSzdgMngCgwLT8 Tjm2WVqiFKUIYKGhjpkkQak= =sCL9 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

2 3

Re: main digest, Vol 3 #503 - 17 msgs
by Bob Dove 19 Apr '05

19 Apr '05

Hi Guys, Sorry if I upset someone by using the MS/OE reply system. I know no better - tho' I suppose I could create new message - but then you may not know to what I refer??? Anyway, I didn't realise the whole digest would be sent back - I'll try harder! Any of you guys using Firefox? Can you tell me why I can't close it (v.1.0) and disconnect from web. I have to switch my machine off and reboot to kill the connection! Best regards, Bob Dove (henceforth BD) -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.9.13 - Release Date: 16/04/2005

2 1

tail ender's progress
by d922989 19 Apr '05

19 Apr '05

It took me a long time but I finally have my first install running KDE and here is my first post from a non-Bill system. So far my feeling is that it was well worth the hours of googling to get here. KDE seems to be add to, rather than obscure, the interface with my machine. And add me to the virtual desktops fan club already. Now, being a mere user of applications with 'productivity' stuff to get done I will need to get Open Office but first I suppose I should upgrade this 2.2.20 idepci to Sarge. More trials ahead then but worth it for the sense of learning and gradual empowerment that I never got with win. I think OOo 1.4 is the latest version available as debs but will 2.0 go with Debian yet? BTW1 on googling newsgroups- top posters are preferable when searching as you only get to see the initial lines of posts when viewing threads. BTW2 my first computer at school was a NASCOM 2, it ran BASIC and Z80 assembler. Home machine an Atari 800, the first to have a seperate graphics processor enabling sprites (or 'player missile graphics'). A lot of my school/ uni pals who grew up with stuff like this and other early systems mentioned on this list recently are now developers of various kinds. Where is the next generation going to come from? Rob

1 0

Old PC's
by Bob Dove 18 Apr '05

18 Apr '05

So now we know - you are all a bunch of nerds really! PCW - what's LocoLink? I have LocoMail (which I believe is incorporated in Loco2) and LocoFile. It seems strange now, but a PCW 256 was used as 'the computer' in a multi million pound turnover company I worked for which is why I chose it when I became 'freelance.' I added a 3.5in drive and another ram chip to make it a 512. The company made a major jump from PCW to Mainframe! My first 'proper PC' was faster and more powerful than the mainframe! My local library controlled all their ins, outs, budgets and stock on an Atari and a colleague used a similar to run his graphics business. PC1512 DD. Colour screen - 3 colours, no tones! Originally 2 x 5 .25 in drives, one of which I swapped for a 3.5in 'cos the 3.5 in 720 Kb disk held twice as much data as the 5 in. I also added a 20Mb (HUGE for the day) hard card. I must dig it out of the garage and fire it up and see what happens! I also had a 1640 which had twin drives that again I modded to 5.25 and 3.5. It, like my PCW committed suicide and was replaced with a 'pre-owned' IBM desktop. I forget the ram, 8 Mb comes to mind. HD was 40 Mb. I ran Paint Shop Pro on the 1640. I have locoScript Pro on 5.25 disks - it was/is a good word processor! GEM. Digital Research GEM came with the Amstrad 1640. It was the first GUI as far as I know. Any one who has used it will recognise the folders, drop down menus and task bar as both AppleMac and Windows use the same styles. If you learnt with GEM, Windows came easy! I presume Jobs or Gates bought GEM to make their systems work! Cheers, BD. -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.9.13 - Release Date: 16/04/2005

2 1

Re: using X across an ssh connection - how?
by Chris Green 18 Apr '05

18 Apr '05

On Fri, Apr 15, 2005 at 08:52:02AM +0100, Chris Green wrote: > On Thu, Apr 14, 2005 at 10:30:23PM +0100, Adam Bower wrote: > > On Thu, Apr 14, 2005 at 09:29:00PM +0100, Chris Green wrote: > > > > > The ssh man pages say that ssh will set the DISPLAY environment > > > variable but it doesn't seem to do so, 'echo $DISPLAY' produces > > > nothing. > > > > > > What am I doing wrong? > > > > Does the remote end have the option "X11Forwarding yes" in the > > /etc/ssh/sshd_config file? > > > Aha, no it doesn't. Can I override that with a local config file > and/or a command line argument? (The remote machine isn't mine, it's > the hosting company where my web pages are hosted) > [Sorry, intermediate message not sent to list] OK, I've created a local config file on the remote system with "X11Forwarding yes" in it. Still no joy. When I connect using "ssh -X <remote>" there's still not DISPLAY variable set. -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence."

3 4

Weekly IRC reminder
by Brett Parker 18 Apr '05

18 Apr '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!)

1 0

Multiple Pointing devices
by Wayne Stallwood 17 Apr '05

17 Apr '05

I have been made soft by point and click installation GUI's I think. I have acquired a broken Fujitsu P1120 sub notebook (it really is tiny) after it had coke (the drink) spilt all over it. After a lot of cleaning up and a tricky repair operation on the keyboard it is now once again operational. It probably deserves a slightly more lightweight distro (it's only a Transmeta 800) but until I have learnt more about the hardware I have installed SuSE 9.2 on it. SuSE 9.2 has done a fantastic job of discovering the hardware, all the usually tricky things are working. Suspend mode, lid switch, CPU throttling (different profiles for AC and battery power), built in wireless, battery meter. In fact only two things remain. The modem (which I am not bothered about at the moment) and the touchscreen. It has a "nipple" pointer as well and that is working fine. I can see the touchscreen device in /proc/bus/usb as follows T: Bus=01 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=02 Cnt=01 Dev#= 2 Spd=1.5 MxCh= 0 D: Ver= 1.10 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS= 8 #Cfgs= 1 P: Vendor=0430 ProdID=0508 Rev=11.30 S: Manufacturer=Fujitsu Takamisawa S: Product=USB Touch Panel C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=a0 MxPwr= 20mA I: If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=03(HID ) Sub=01 Prot=02 Driver=usbhid E: Ad=81(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS= 8 Ivl=10ms The fact that the hid driver has picked it up is a positive thing, but how do I add this to my X config and would it be reasonable to expect things like tap to click to work. Also will adding this break the already configured nipple pointer or can you specify more than one active pointing device. As always any help would be appreciated.

2 3

Re: [ALUG] Re: main digest, Vol 3 #503 - 17 msgs (Modified by David Reynolds)
by David Reynolds 16 Apr '05

16 Apr '05

Bob, > Sorry if I upset someone by using the MS/OE reply system. I know no > better - > tho' I suppose I could create new message - but then you may not know > to > what I refer??? Anyway, I didn't realise the whole digest would be sent > back - I'll try harder! > Don't worry about it too much, it's just easier to chop out any bits that aren't necessary and only include the bit you are replying to. > Any of you guys using Firefox? Can you tell me why I can't close it > (v.1.0) > and > disconnect from web. I have to switch my machine off and reboot to > kill the > connection! Is this Broadband or dialup? Either way, you shouldn't need to reboot to disconnect from the internet. Also is this windows or linux? If linux, which dialer are you using? -- David Reynolds david(a)reynoldsfamily.org.uk

1 0

using X across an ssh connection - how?
by Chris Green 15 Apr '05

15 Apr '05

I'm trying to use X Windows across an ssh connection. It's an ssh connection I've used for a long time for normal terminal command line connections so I can ctually make the connection successfully with no problem. To try and use X I've changed the command line from 'ssh -x <remote>' to 'ssh -X <remote>'. The ssh man pages say that ssh will set the DISPLAY environment variable but it doesn't seem to do so, 'echo $DISPLAY' produces nothing. What am I doing wrong? -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence."

6 7

Re:using X across an ssh connection - how?
by tom potts 15 Apr '05

15 Apr '05

I use an application called VNC which is a remote desktop tool - it gives you an X window view of the remote machine and it works on several platforms. www.vnc.com is where I got it from but the site has been updated so my old link doesnt work but have a llok there or http://sourceforge.net/projects/vnc-tight/ may be of use. You should be able to set them up to work over ssl and grid compute from the bath - but dont forget to run your laptop on batteries! Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com

1 0

Kate editor
by Richard Lewis 14 Apr '05

14 Apr '05

Hello ALUG, I've run into this problem several times now (I normally don't worry about and just use sed instead): in KDE's Kate text editor (and KEdit as well) is it possible, in the Search and Replace tool, to put a new line character in the replacement field? (Assuming you're not using regular expressions) Cheers, Richard

1 0

OT: Amstrad PCW CP/M Discs
by Ashley T. Howes, Ph.D. 14 Apr '05

14 Apr '05

Off topic again, but it worked so well last time (thanks Mike @ UEA) that I thought I would risk it again :) I've got two old Amstrad PCWs. They both power on, but don't read any disks that you give them. The disks came from someone else, so they may or may not be blank :) In order for me to test these vintage computers, I need a working copy of CP/M for PCW or similar. That way, I can get them to boot into a workable state. Does anyone have one of these? I can supply discs (Amstrad 3 inch) for you to copy onto. Once I have a working disc, I can check if these machines work or whether they are going for a trip into the skip :) -- Ashley T. Howes, Ph.D. http://www.ashleyhowes.com "A martial art is like a mirror in which you look at yourself before you wash your face in the morning. You see yourself simply, the way that you are." - Bira Almeidai

3 4

Next Social Meeting: The Reindeer, Dereham Road, Norwich: Thurs 14th April from 8pm
by Brett Parker 13 Apr '05

13 Apr '05

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi all, We're nearly at that time of the month again, yes, that's right, the time for the second thursday, norwich, alug social evening meeting. This time round we'll be in The Reindeer, which is (basically) opposite the City Gate. Attendees to these meetings usually include (but are most certainly not limited to, we like new people!): Me (iDunno) Jonathan (Noodles) Adam Bower (quinophex) Kirsten Naylor (wildduck) Eli (sunflowerinrain) Paul (paul_c) Martijn (mak) Last month we had a very nice turnout, it was good to see you all, I hope you can make it again this month. For those that don't know where The Reindeer is, the directions can be found at: http://www.alug.org.uk/venues/reindeer.html Now, someone kick me and remind me that I need to write the other patch to the website to fix the rest of the references to the venue change ;) Thanks, - -- Brett Parker web: http://www.sommitrealweird.co.uk/ email: iDunno(a)sommitrealweird.co.uk -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.0 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFCVqQtEh8oWxevnjQRAqzJAKCTDwpV4N0rYXY+ap6T51rfb8xKmQCfZFKT 9/UgsTps4d8m/E6JRgG+2dc= =fgDb -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

2 1

another new member
by David Studholme 13 Apr '05

13 Apr '05

Evening, all. I've been lurking on the list for a while, and thought it's about time I introduced myself. I've been playing with various flavours of Unix/Linux for several years now both at home and at work. My main Linux activity is using PERL to do various analysis of biological data. See http://www.sainsbury-laboratory.ac.uk/bioinformatics.html for more info. I've still got a lot to learn, as I found out this weekend when trying (and failing) to get Debian up and running on my laptop :-( Cheers, Dave

1 0

Re: [ALUG] LISP questions and other manuals
by tom potts 13 Apr '05

13 Apr '05

http://compubooks.eigenstart.nl/ has lots of lisp books/tutorials and lots of other languages and os's etc Downloadem while you can! Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com

2 1

Blocking Posts to the List
by John Seago 12 Apr '05

12 Apr '05

To the best of my recollection some of the lists to which I am subscribed refer posts to moderation where the subject list is, "Re: Contents of main digest...", thus, in the main, catching posts to which one may have replied in haste, by simply hitting the 'reply' button. such a policy would have caught the post by Bob Dove. Aside to Bob Dove, top-posting is placing you reply above the quoted material, the usual practice is to cut the quoted material and then reply underneath the quoted material, or to interleave them into the quoted material. see: http://www.catb.org/~esr//jargon/html/T/top-post.html http://home.online.no/~shughes/a57998/quote.html which may be of some help. -- John Seago GNU/Linux User #219566 http://counter.li.org AFFS http://www.affs.org.uk/

8 14

Looking for calender/timeline/chronology application
by Chris Green 12 Apr '05

12 Apr '05

I'm looking for an application which will allow me to write a sort of history. It's a bit difficult to describe but I'll do my best. What I want is an application which will provide a timeline with divisions of days, months and years as required with the ability to write quite large chunks of text by the timeline. Then, if possible, I'd like to be able to have hyperlinks in the text that would lead out to other descriptions etc. or even to other parts of the timeline. I want the timeline to be flexible so that in one place a day might take up as much space as a year does elsewhere on the line, I don't want a calendar type fixed layout. Basically it's a set of interactive web pages with the addition of the timeline 'in the middle'. Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions for what I could use? It doesn't have to be web based by the way but I suspect that a web application is most likely. -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence."

4 3

RE: [ALUG] Linux Political Party
by David Briggs 12 Apr '05

12 Apr '05

> Below is a letter I got after asking the library > spends on proprietary software, I did not use the > phrase "Open Source" A pretty disappointing response that you got. Looking at the relevant page of the 2004/5 budget yields little (http://www.norfolk.gov.uk/council/departments/finance/Budget%20Book%202004_ 2005.pdf - page 20 of the pdf). You could always try asking the Education and Cultural Services Scrutiny Review Panel (http://www.norfolk.gov.uk/council/committees/papers/schedules/education_cul tural.htm) to have a look into this for you. It might make a difference if it came from ALUG as an organisation. Both MJ and I know a bit about Scrutiny, though from rather different perspectives ;-). Dave

3 2

New member
by Bob Dove 11 Apr '05

11 Apr '05

Hi, I'm an ungruntled Win user. I'd like to try Linux but it seems I have to go back to the dreaded command line. I did conquer this in CP/M and DOS but having used Win since v.3.0 I have forgotten a lot about command lines! The Linux 'language' is akin to Terry Pratchett and you 'lug' members seem to have a bit of a sense of humour. I must say that installing Win is much MUCH easier than installing Linux!!! Something I haven't managed so far. Then there is the problem that I absolutely need to be able to run QuarkXPress and Photoshop (PS). I understand that 'WINE' can be used to a degree with older versions. GIMP is not in anyway equal to PS as any PS user will confirm, in fact there is no other program equal to PS! I already use OOo v 1.3 (in Win) in preference to MS Office. I like it and looking forward to using v 2.0. I need to know what program to choose as a starter, how to partition my C drive to install Linux into &c. Cheers, BD. -- Internal Virus Database is out-of-date. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.9.1 - Release Date: 01/04/2005

10 24

Seeing as the list has been a little quiet of late
by Wayne Stallwood 11 Apr '05

11 Apr '05

I posted this to a newsgroup yesterday, the more I think about it the more I think someone *could* make a go of selling a Apple like solution. Anyone care to comment ? > > When are those people over there ever going to wake up? Jobs could put > Gates on > welfare if he'd port the Mac OS to the PC. I'd buy it in a heartbeat, > even with Apple's usurious profit margins .. Every time I hear this I wince, Do you know what OSX would become if it was ever ported over to the X86 platform... OSX is nice, clean, relatively stable and deserved of the "Just works" title simply because the developer of the OS is in 100% control of the platform. The only machines that (in a legitimate manner) can run OSX are designed and manufactured under licence from Apple themselves. Because of this I would expect random crashes and installation difficulties from an Apple no more than what I'd expect from say an Xbox. Port it over to a platform like x86 where there are a thousand manufacturers competing with their own little tweaks, variations and buggy third party drivers combined with the massive task of support for legacy hardware and applications and you'd either have the unstable mess that is Windows XP or limited manufacturer hardware support as towards Linux. Think about this- (and if anybody forms a business model based on this I thought of it first :-) ) For the sake of argument (and because we are on a SuSE newsgroup here) Lets say Novell came up with their own hardware platform, base it on X86 architecture if you like. Now imagine that they only supported SuSE linux when it was running on that platform, and the only third party hardware and software they supported was that which they had agreed (by arrangement with the manufacturer) was compatible with SuSE linux. Imagine how stable and easy to use that system could be, everything could just plug in and work, there would be almost zero hardware compatability issues because they would have been resolved by Novell/The Hardware manufacturer before you bought the kit....it would be just like an Apple (or a Sun box) Of course some people would shun it, they would say that they can buy a computer cheaper from Dell cheaper than the Novell one and then download a free Linux distribution to go on it, or they'd say that Novell don't sell a computer that meets their particular needs, or they dislike the fact they they are tied into one vendor. But some people want more of an appliance than a computer and that's how I see Mac's, you take them home and plug them in and they just work.

8 13

Weekly IRC reminder
by Brett Parker 11 Apr '05

11 Apr '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!)

1 0

Asus A8V networking problem
by Dennis Dryden 11 Apr '05

11 Apr '05

Hello, I decided to upgrade my PC a few month's ago and ended up purchasing an Asus A8V motherboard and a AMD 3200 Athlon64 CPU. It's been working just fine after some initial problems(just needed a bios upgrade) but yesterday decided to stop the built in network card from working. I cant think of anything i had changed to messup configurations or make it act any differently so im quite confused as to what the problem is. The onboard NIC uses the sk98lin kernel module and when i try to modprobe it i get the message that the card was not found. In WindowsXP(the 64bit beta) the card shows up but tells me the network cable is unpluged(its not and the cable works fine). So i decided to just get another NIC and got a cheap Realtech pci card, when i try to modprobe its driver i see a similar message telling me that it can't talk to the card, and in windows i get the message again that the network cable is unpluged. Anyone have any ideas what my problem might be? Thanks, Dennis Dryden

4 4

Re: New member
by John Seago 09 Apr '05

09 Apr '05

This whole correspondence on the matter of posting using the conventions applied by the majority of Linux users, must by now have become very embarrassing to the OP. I do hope that it has not reached the point where he is discouraged. If he is finding it difficult to install a complete Linux Distribution, one answer might be to find an email client that he can use on his Microsoft operating system. I didn't use Windows for very long before changing to Linux, and it is now long enough ago for me to have forgotten how it works, but I understand that Netscape/Mozilla/Firefox, together with their associated email clients will work on Windows. -- John Seago GNU/Linux User #219566 http://counter.li.org AFFS http://www.affs.org.uk/

2 1

Re: main digest, Vol 3 #499 - 4 msgs
by Bob Dove 08 Apr '05

08 Apr '05

Now Guy's, Apple OS/X - Unix ain't it, similar to Linux??? Don't bother to port Apple/Unix to the 99% of the market that uses a PC, you can get the 'real' Unix O/S. Did I read somewhere a complaint that Bill gates had copied the Apple GUI to make Win? I think Apple cribbed the Digital Research GUI to make the Apple O/S. Cheers, BD. ----- Original Message ----- From: <main-request(a)lists.alug.org.uk> To: <main(a)lists.alug.org.uk> Sent: Thursday, April 07, 2005 6:26 AM Subject: main digest, Vol 3 #499 - 4 msgs > Send main mailing list submissions to > main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > main-request(a)lists.alug.org.uk > > You can reach the person managing the list at > main-admin(a)lists.alug.org.uk > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of main digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Seeing as the list has been a little quiet of late (Wayne Stallwood) > 2. Re: Seeing as the list has been a little quiet of late (Adam Bower) > 3. Re: Seeing as the list has been a little quiet of late (Wayne Stallwood) > 4. Re: Seeing as the list has been a little quiet of late (Adam Bower) > > --__--__-- > > Message: 1 > From: Wayne Stallwood <ALUGlist(a)digimatic.plus.com> > To: main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > Date: Wed, 6 Apr 2005 17:45:50 +0000 > Subject: [ALUG] Seeing as the list has been a little quiet of late > > I posted this to a newsgroup yesterday, the more I think about it the more I > think someone *could* make a go of selling a Apple like solution. Anyone care > to comment ? > > > > > When are those people over there ever going to wake up? Jobs could put > > Gates on > > welfare if he'd port the Mac OS to the PC. I'd buy it in a heartbeat, > > even with Apple's usurious profit margins .. > > Every time I hear this I wince, Do you know what OSX would become if it was > ever ported over to the X86 platform... > > OSX is nice, clean, relatively stable and deserved of the "Just works" title > simply because the developer of the OS is in 100% control of the platform. > The only machines that (in a legitimate manner) can run OSX are designed > and manufactured under licence from Apple themselves. Because of this I > would expect random crashes and installation difficulties from an Apple no > more than what I'd expect from say an Xbox. > > Port it over to a platform like x86 where there are a thousand manufacturers > competing with their own little tweaks, variations and buggy third party > drivers combined with the massive task of support for legacy hardware and > applications and you'd either have the unstable mess that is Windows XP or > limited manufacturer hardware support as towards Linux. > > Think about this- (and if anybody forms a business model based on this I > thought of it first :-) ) > > For the sake of argument (and because we are on a SuSE newsgroup here) Lets > say Novell came up with their own hardware platform, base it on X86 > architecture if you like. > > Now imagine that they only supported SuSE linux when it was running on that > platform, and the only third party hardware and software they supported was > that which they had agreed (by arrangement with the manufacturer) was > compatible with SuSE linux. > > Imagine how stable and easy to use that system could be, everything could > just plug in and work, there would be almost zero hardware compatability > issues because they would have been resolved by Novell/The Hardware > manufacturer before you bought the kit....it would be just like an Apple > (or a Sun box) > > Of course some people would shun it, they would say that they can buy a > computer cheaper from Dell cheaper than the Novell one and then download a > free Linux distribution to go on it, or they'd say that Novell don't sell a > computer that meets their particular needs, or they dislike the fact they > they are tied into one vendor. But some people want more of an appliance > than a computer and that's how I see Mac's, you take them home and plug > them in and they just work. > > > --__--__-- > > Message: 2 > Date: Wed, 6 Apr 2005 19:45:31 +0100 > From: Adam Bower <adam(a)thebowery.co.uk> > To: main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > Subject: Re: [ALUG] Seeing as the list has been a little quiet of late > > On Wed, Apr 06, 2005 at 05:45:50PM +0000, Wayne Stallwood wrote: > > I posted this to a newsgroup yesterday, the more I think about it the more I > > think someone *could* make a go of selling a Apple like solution. Anyone care > > to comment ? > > > Port it over to a platform like x86 where there are a thousand manufacturers > > competing with their own little tweaks, variations and buggy third party > > drivers combined with the massive task of support for legacy hardware and > > applications and you'd either have the unstable mess that is Windows XP or > > limited manufacturer hardware support as towards Linux. > > Well, Mac OS X is partially a port of BSD Unix and NeXT technology, NeXT > made releases of their software for x86, BSD Unix runs on x86, Darwin > exists for x86 and there are a few bits of other software that are > obviously not ported yet and lots of bits of GPL stuff in OS X. > > Basically, yeah Apple could put everything into a big mixing pot and > come out with a version that runs on x86 and it would probably be very > cool, worrying about some drivers isn't really a huge problem as if you > buy crap hardware then you get crap drivers, if the hardware already has > a Mac OS X driver then why should the x86 version be any crapper? > > The reason that Apple won't release Mac OS X on x86 would be because it > would instantly kill their hardware lineup, who would buy a > super-expensive Mac for twice as much as a cheap x86 box with Mac OS X? > and given that how many people would then buy Mac OS X for x86 when they > could just pirate it? At this point Apple will have managed to kill > their revenue stream, Apple would die as would Mac OS X and a large > company that opposes M$ would crumble into the dust. This would be bad > news and not very good news for Linux as M$ (who are imho far more evil > than Apple will ever be) would now have a larger market share and more > of a stranglehold on that monopoly of theirs, *just* kept it on topic > there with that last line. > > Adam > -- > jabberid = quinophex(a)jabber.earth.li > AFFS || http://www.affs.org.uk/ || Not a filesystem > > > --__--__-- > > Message: 3 > From: Wayne Stallwood <ALUGlist(a)digimatic.plus.com> > To: main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > Subject: Re: [ALUG] Seeing as the list has been a little quiet of late > Date: Wed, 6 Apr 2005 21:45:45 +0000 > > On Wednesday 06 April 2005 7:45 pm, Adam Bower wrote: > > > Basically, yeah Apple could put everything into a big mixing pot and > > come out with a version that runs on x86 and it would probably be very > > cool, worrying about some drivers isn't really a huge problem as if you > > buy crap hardware then you get crap drivers, if the hardware already has > > a Mac OS X driver then why should the x86 version be any crapper? > > I remain unconvinced, it's hard to properly QA software or hardware for the= > =20 > X86 platform because there are so many variables and inconsistencies. If yo= > u=20 > say "Supports Mac OSX" then you are really talking about a very limited ran= > ge=20 > of machines that you have to test your product against. > > > > > The reason that Apple won't release Mac OS X on x86 would be because it > > would instantly kill their hardware lineup, who would buy a > > super-expensive Mac for twice as much as a cheap x86 box with Mac OS X? > > Agreed apart from the bit about Mac's being super expensive, that's only tr= > ue=20 > if you ignore things like build quality and sensible design and just compar= > e=20 > clock speeds. > > I struggle to find laptops as well designed as say the iBook or Powerbook's= > =20 > for less money when I start to consider other things that are important to = > me=20 > (portability, battery life, build quality). > > When the Dual G5 was first made available it was very hard to build a X86=20 > based machine with the same real world performance for much less money and= > =20 > that's completely ignoring the fact that they are one of the best designed= > =20 > and built Workstations I have ever had the pleasure of pulling to bits. > > You can beat the Mini Mac on a straight price/performance comparasion, but= > =20 > factor in subjective things like near silent running and the tiny form fact= > or=20 > and you'll struggle to find anything to compare. Just off the top of my hea= > d=20 > a MiniITX board, case, memory, Hard drive, Slimline CDRW and PSU comes to=20 > about =A3250 retail (and that's for less performance and does not include a= > n=20 > operating system or any manufacturer support)=20 > > > > and given that how many people would then buy Mac OS X for x86 when they > > could just pirate it? > > At this point Apple will have managed to kill=20 > > their revenue stream, Apple would die as would Mac OS X and a large > > company that opposes M$ would crumble into the dust. This would be bad > > news and not very good news for Linux as M$ (who are imho far more evil > > than Apple will ever be) would now have a larger market share and more > > of a stranglehold on that monopoly of theirs, *just* kept it on topic > > there with that last line. > > Agreed > > > --__--__-- > > Message: 4 > Date: Wed, 6 Apr 2005 23:44:01 +0100 > From: Adam Bower <adam(a)thebowery.co.uk> > To: main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > Subject: Re: [ALUG] Seeing as the list has been a little quiet of late > > On Wed, Apr 06, 2005 at 09:45:45PM +0000, Wayne Stallwood wrote: > > > Agreed apart from the bit about Mac's being super expensive, that's only true > > if you ignore things like build quality and sensible design and just compare > > clock speeds. > > No, have to disagree on this totally, build quality is something you > can't argue about really as it gets subjective to the actual machine you > do the comparison with. There are crap built x86 machines, but then > there are some fine examples of x86 engineering. Sensible design, I > would/could somewhat agree on in the Macs favour, although there are > flaws (more on that below) and the clock speed comparison isn't really > what I am basing my examples on. Just look how much Apple charge you to > have more Ram, faster/bigger harddisks, or upgraded gfx cards when you > compare like for like Apple seems to be charging at least a 50% premium > over what you can buy for an x86 pc. They usually want 35 quid! just to > add bluetooth support. > > > I struggle to find laptops as well designed as say the iBook or Powerbook's > > for less money when I start to consider other things that are important to me > > (portability, battery life, build quality). > > IBM thinkpads are good, and I given that around 50% of Mac laptop owners > I know have had to send the thing off for repair within the first year > (and quite a few of them more than once) I think Mac laptops suck, > although they do appear to be getting better again so ask me again in > another year. > > > When the Dual G5 was first made available it was very hard to build a X86 > > based machine with the same real world performance for much less money and > > that's completely ignoring the fact that they are one of the best designed > > and built Workstations I have ever had the pleasure of pulling to bits. > > That will be the one that Apple got in trouble for because they lied > about the performance ;) and how do you categorise "real world > performance"? Many of the tasks I want to do on my computer are not > possible on a Mac, that would mean it has a real world performance > rating of 0, on other tasks then it may be slightly faster but then I > could buy 2 (or more) x86 machines for the same price. Also look at how > expensive a Mac that will play Doom III nicely costs compared to an x86 > gaming rig. > > > You can beat the Mini Mac on a straight price/performance comparasion, but > > factor in subjective things like near silent running and the tiny form factor > > and you'll struggle to find anything to compare. Just off the top of my head > > a MiniITX board, case, memory, Hard drive, Slimline CDRW and PSU comes to > > about £250 retail (and that's for less performance and does not include an > > operating system or any manufacturer support) > > There have been many other small form factor PCs in the past, tbh I'm > not too worried about how big my computer is as it sits under my desk. > Also you have to factor in the one of the design flaws of the Mac mini > with its dodgy dvi/vga adaptor which isn't compatible for the vesa spec > which to me suggests a big Apple design flaw (so it isn't *always* > sensible design). > > There are some benefits to having a Mac, but then downsides too. Trying > to take the Mac cult approach of "everything is good" doesn't really > work. I'm not really defending x86 though, as I think the architecture > is a bit crap but then again there aren't many options but I think I > will stay put for now. I also thought of one more point that wasn't > raised and that is the relative upgradability of a PC compared to a Mac. > > The machine I am typing on was originally a 1.4Ghz Athlon with a > Ge-Force 2 card which cost 600 quid, the motherboard died and it cost > 50 quid to replace with a newer better motherboard and around the same > time I upgraded the gfx card to a geforce 4 for 100 quid. At christmas > I upgraded the cpu and gfx card which cost me 200 quid for a 2.mumble > Ghz Athlon and a GeForce 6600GT card and the upgrade required me to buy > some new ram (total 1GB). Every time I have upgraded the machine I have > sold many of the bits on ebay. > > When I add up what it has cost me over 4 years (1050 quid) and what I > got back by selling bits (150 quid, and if I had sold the geforce 2 card > I would have got another 50 quid) It has cost me 850 quid to have a > machine that is more than fast enough (and at the beginning was fairly > high end) for nearly 4 years with no upgrade projected for another 2 > years I would say that works out as a bit of a bargain compared to an > equivalent Mac (in fact, looking at the Apple store online, an > equivalent (but admittedly slightly faster) G5 Mac would cost me about > 1361 quid. God knows what the price would have been if I had stayed with > Mac kit from the beginning. > > Adam > -- > jabberid = quinophex(a)jabber.earth.li > AFFS || http://www.affs.org.uk/ || Not a filesystem > > > > --__--__-- > > _______________________________________________ > main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > http://www.anglian.lug.org.uk/ > http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main > > > End of main Digest > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. > Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.9.1 - Release Date: 01/04/2005 > -- Internal Virus Database is out-of-date. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.9.1 - Release Date: 01/04/2005

7 13

Dgestigest
by John Seago 08 Apr '05

08 Apr '05

On Friday 08 Apr 2005 15:51,Brett Parker <iDunno(a)sommitrealweird.co.uk> wrote: > I didn't know that there was every any blocks, maybe you're dreaming > again, Mr Ray :) If there weren't, there should be, the very first post of the previous digest, quoted, (underneath the reply, so there was also the sin of top-posting), the entire digest. > I would suggest that the list doesn't have enough traffic to make digest > particularly useful, how many people (out of interest) have this option > set? I do, I'm subscribed to a large number of Mailing Lists, all of them, where they have the option, in the digest format. -- John Seago GNU/Linux User #219566 http://counter.li.org AFFS http://www.affs.org.uk/

1 0

Re: [ALUG] New member
by John Seago 08 Apr '05

08 Apr '05

On Friday 08 Apr 2005 12:05, Anthony Anson <tony.anson(a)zetnet.co.uk> wrote: > > http://www.ubuntulinux.com/ There is also http://www.kubuntu.org.uk/ if one would like to try out Ubuntu woith a KDE destop, (thus avioding the commandline). > Knoppix is a good way to start, too. > > Have a browse over www.linuxemporium.co.uk Also go to: http://distrowatch.com/ and have a look at all (?) the various varieties of Linux available. -- John Seago GNU/Linux User #219566 http://counter.li.org AFFS http://www.affs.org.uk/

1 0

Re: main digest, Vol 3 #499 - 4 msgs
by tom potts 08 Apr '05

08 Apr '05

I think it was Xerox who came up with the first WIMP system in 1981 with the Star Information System. Microsoft first mentioned their vapourware of win1 (text!) in 83 and didnt ship till nove 85 and 90 for 3.0. All the inovation of snail! Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com

1 0

Re: [ALUG] New member
by Joe Button 08 Apr '05

08 Apr '05

On Friday 08 April 2005 12:04, Chris Walker wrote: > Windows rewrote the MBR and so I lost Lilo. Can I get it back? Not a > chance! Definitely worth having some kind of rescue CD for such occasions. Personally I tend to use SystemRescueCd, or occasionally Knoppix (the PXE boot server thingy is a life saver). Plus I'd recommend getting to know grub instead of Lilo. It's tempting to stick with what you know but grub really does make things much easier. Tip of the day: Always make sure you have a separate /boot partition, that way it's much easier to manage / not trash your grub config etc.

1 0

Printer not working
by Peter Hunter 08 Apr '05

08 Apr '05

Hi all, I have just connected my Epson Stylus CX 3600 all in one printer to the spare USB port. SUSE 9.2 recognised it straight away, told me what the printer was and configured it. However, When I did a test print, and tried to print an email, everything 'seemed' to work ok, except nothing printed! There are no print jobs waiting in the queue. When I click on print the window opens and shows the Epson Stylus CX 3600 as the selected printer. Under the following headings is shows, Status: Idle (Accepting print jobs). Location: USB printer on //EPSON/Stylus%20CX3600. Comment: Local RAW Printer. And at the bottom it says, Print System Currently Used: CUPS. So, why is it that when I click on print, nothing happens? I know the printer works okay as it is also connected to my Windows PC and Apple Mac, via a printer hub. Yes, the printer is switched on, and the correct port is selected on the hub (I've tried them all just in case). The cable and connections must be okay as the printer was detected as soon as I connected it. Any help would be very much appreciated. I don't know enough about Linux or UNIX yet to trouble shoot via the command line, but I'm willing to follow instructions / directions. Many thanks for reading this, Peter

1 1

autocheck email?
by Peter Hunter 07 Apr '05

07 Apr '05

Hi all, I know I have asked this before, but I had to re-install Linux (SuSE 9.2) onto a new (old) computer. I'm now using a P3 500MHz machine with a 10GB hard drive, DVD-RW and just 160 MB RAM (for now, anyone got any PC 100 they want to get rid of cheap?). Anyway, I have got all the email connection sorted ok, I just want to get KMail to check for new messages every couple of mins or so. How do I do it? Like I said, I asked before but can't remember what was said. This time I'll print out the reply and keep it in my folder. Thanks in advance. Peter

2 2

Re: apple kit
by phil 07 Apr '05

07 Apr '05

> Adam > IBM thinkpads are good, and I given that around 50% of Mac laptop > owners > I know have had to send the thing off for repair within the first year > (and quite a few of them more than once) I think Mac laptops suck, > although they do appear to be getting better again so ask me again in > another year. Well - guess they were unlucky - the iBook has had a fair run of dodgy motherboards, but I gather an extra generous replacement program fixed many of those. I'm certainly getting one to replace my G3 Pismo this year which has zero spent on it since I bought it. And it still has a fairly good resale value. > >> When the Dual G5 was first made available it was very hard to build a >> X86 >> based machine with the same real world performance for much less >> money and >> that's completely ignoring the fact that they are one of the best >> designed >> and built Workstations I have ever had the pleasure of pulling to >> bits. > > Also look at how > expensive a Mac that will play Doom III nicely costs compared to an x86 > gaming rig. You're starting to sound like a Winders troll there! > >> You can beat the Mini Mac on a straight price/performance >> comparasion, but >> factor in subjective things like near silent running and the tiny >> form factor >> and you'll struggle to find anything to compare. Just off the top of >> my head >> a MiniITX board, case, memory, Hard drive, Slimline CDRW and PSU >> comes to >> about £250 retail (and that's for less performance and does not >> include an >> operating system or any manufacturer support) > > There have been many other small form factor PCs in the past, tbh I'm > not too worried about how big my computer is as it sits under my desk. > Also you have to factor in the one of the design flaws of the Mac mini > with its dodgy dvi/vga adaptor which isn't compatible for the vesa spec > which to me suggests a big Apple design flaw (so it isn't *always* > sensible design). From what I gather it's a low voltage thing that only shows up on certain monitors? As this is a version one product, guess it'll get resolved in the next revision. Tough on the early adopters I know, but it's not that it won't work with ANY monitors, just SOME. > > The machine I am typing on was originally a 1.4Ghz Athlon with a > Ge-Force 2 card which cost 600 quid, the motherboard died and it cost > 50 quid to replace with a newer better motherboard and around the same > time I upgraded the gfx card to a geforce 4 for 100 quid. At christmas > I upgraded the cpu and gfx card which cost me 200 quid for a 2.mumble > Ghz Athlon and a GeForce 6600GT card and the upgrade required me to buy > some new ram (total 1GB). Every time I have upgraded the machine I have > sold many of the bits on ebay. > > When I add up what it has cost me over 4 years (1050 quid) and what I > got back by selling bits (150 quid, and if I had sold the geforce 2 > card > I would have got another 50 quid) It has cost me 850 quid to have a > machine that is more than fast enough (and at the beginning was fairly > high end) for nearly 4 years with no upgrade projected for another 2 > years I would say that works out as a bit of a bargain compared to an > equivalent Mac (in fact, looking at the Apple store online, an > equivalent (but admittedly slightly faster) G5 Mac would cost me about > 1361 quid. God knows what the price would have been if I had stayed > with > Mac kit from the beginning. Probably 1361 quid... As was stated at the beginning, it's the appliance thing. Many Mac users buy their kit like other people buy stereos or TV's. They use it till they fancy another. I'll use this G4 iMac for about 2 more years and get the latest and greatest to replace it. Obviously they break for some people, - I've a 93 or 4 vintage LC that won't boot, but I've never had a hardware failure in anything else yet. That's about 40 or 50 machines. This that one I've a 1989 Classic upstairs, still runs just fine, never been opened. Logic battery died years ago, but it ticks along. It's a mindset thing. I buy my Mac to do a job. If it earns me enough I buy another.Phil

1 0

Thunderbird help?
by Anthony Anson 07 Apr '05

07 Apr '05

A fiend of mine is having prombles with Thunderbird (1.0 ISTR) I offered to ask for a howto? from the Shed, but I gooved I'd ask in zetnet.support while I was about it. Not having got a lot to pass on, I bethought me of the ALUG list... <Q> Yes please would you ask how to make the Junk empty to Trash automatically. I have ticked the box but it doesn't work :( Anna </Q> -- Tony http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/ The only way to tell when a Finn is in love with you is that they look at your feet instead of their own.

2 2

External SATA drives
by Wayne Stallwood 04 Apr '05

04 Apr '05

At the kit meet I was talking to someone about the availability of external SATA enclosures and how we were frustrated that external SATA sockets are available but seemingly there is nothing to plug into them. I think it could have been Noodles but I am not sure Anyway such a device does exist and they are available from Scan (right device, wrong picture on their site) It's the Highpoint Rocketmate 1000, strangely it only supports traditional IDE ATA drives internally and price is not available on the Scan site but I have the product PDF's if whoever it was is interested.

1 0

Setting windows workgroups from DHCP on Linux
by Stuart Bailey 30 Mar '05

30 Mar '05

Hi, Does anyone know if it is possible to configure a DHCP server to automatically assign workgroups to windows clients? Many thanks, -- --------------------------------------- Stuart Bailey BSc (hons) CEng CITP MBCS LinuSoft (Proprietor) (01953) 601294 (07778) 383739 http://www.linusoft.co.uk ---------------------------------------- ********************************************************************** This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, please email postmaster(a)linusoft.co.uk immediately. You should not copy or use this email or attachments for any purpose nor disclose their contents to any other person. NO BINDING CONTRACT WILL RESULT FROM THIS E-MAIL UNTIL SUCH TIME AS A WRITTEN DOCUMENT IS SIGNED ON BEHALF OF LinuSoft. LinuSoft cannot accept any responsibility for the completeness or accuracy of this message as it has been transmitted over public networks. *************************************************************************

3 4

nfs mounted directory ownerships
by Jenny Hopkins 25 Mar '05

25 Mar '05

Hi all, I have a central directory owned by user 'balloon' on my server. This can be nfs mounted onto serveral other computers, each with a user 'balloon'. However, the server UID for balloon is different from that of the clients. I'm reluctant to start changing things in /etc/passwd. Is there an elegant way to state the nfs mount with username permissions rather than number? Thanks, Jenny

5 8

Max partition size
by beb 25 Mar '05

25 Mar '05

I've just put in a second harddrive (40GB) in my box (running Sarge on a (badly) customised 2.6.10 kernel). I deleted all the old partitions using fdisk and created a single new 40GB one (actually 39.something according to the partition table), but when mounted 'df' reports it as only 17GB. If I create two partitions of roughly 20GB each then 'df' reports the disk size correctly. Can anyone suggest what the problem is please? Also, during my googles about this I kept seeing pages stating that the maximum drive size in linux is 138GB. Was I just looking at old webpages or is that still the case in the latest kernels? Thanks, beb -- <Insert Bill Hicks quote here>

1 1

Caption Competition
by Peter Onion 24 Mar '05

24 Mar '05

I think we need to put some words to this picture.... http://www.btinternet.com/~Peter.Onion/ALUG/caption.jpg >From sunflowerinrain's decription of the day.... "Mike's crimson machine which has refused installs of Redhat, Mandrake, etc. suffered various attempts to install Debian unstable which resulted in it booting into Win98. Brett re-partitioned and de-bootstrapped it and got almost all the way through the process of getting a working Debian before running out of time. " PeterO

3 2

DemosOfferedDemosWanted page on web site
by Peter Onion 23 Mar '05

23 Mar '05

I just found the "DemosOfferedDemosWanted" page on the web site. http://www.alug.org.uk/contrib/?DemosOfferedDemosWanted How "current" are those lists ? Without dates it's impossible to tell when the requests & offers were made. PeterO

4 3

OT: SGI Access
by Ashley T. Howes, Ph.D. 23 Mar '05

23 Mar '05

Hi all, First, apologies for being off-topic, but I'm exploring all opportunities. When I complete my Ph.D. research a few years ago, I done all my work on an SGI. On reviewing my work recently, I discovered that most of animations I created are in SGIs movie format. I've tried some options including xanim to view them in linux, but because I created the movies with compression on each frame, I can't get them to play. Rather than recreating the original files, what I really want to do is convert these files from SGI format to quicktime, or extract the original frames. In fact, there is a command to do this on the SGI - dmconvert. Before I go ahead and buy an SGI via eBay or similar (which may or may not work), I was wondering whether anyone here has, or has access to an SGI which could do the movie conversion. I could supply the original movies on CD for you to convert, or we could work together to do this. I know this is a long shot, but can anyone help me? -- Ashley T. Howes, Ph.D. http://www.ashleyhowes.com "May your spirit be renewed in earth's solitary places." - Native American Indian Blessing

3 2

Re: [ALUG] Multi-card reader
by Chris Glover 23 Mar '05

23 Mar '05

On Wed, 2005-03-23 at 11:49 +0000, Chris Walker wrote: > On Wed 23 Mar, Chris Glover wrote: > > > > On Wed, 2005-03-23 at 11:15 +0000, Chris Walker wrote: > > > Hello, > > > > > > I've just removed a USB card reader from my Mandrake 10 system and added > > > a USB 2.0 card and connected up a new multi-card reader to it. But I > > > can't get the system to recognise the new hardware. Where am I going > > > wrong? > > > > > > I've tried googling for multi-card reader but nothing useful comes up. > > > > > > > Hi Chris, > > > > Have you loaded the ehci-hcd module? You need this for USB 2 to work. > > You'll have to talk me through that one. I don't know how to do that. > It's exactly as Brett said. You could try typing /sbin/modprobe ehci-hcd /sbin/modprobe usb-storage You need to be logged in as root. > > Have you tried other devices on this card? Does lsusb show it is there? > > I get 'command not found' for that as I do for modprobe - suggested by Breet > Parker in the list. > What does the output of dmesg show you? To install lsusb on Gentoo, type emerge usbutils It's available on other distros as well, but it's been so long since I used Redhat I've forgotten what th epackage is called. -- Chris ---------------------------------- E Mail: chris(a)glovercc.clara.co.uk SIP: 84411389(a)voiptalk.org IAXTEL: 17003366726

1 0

Re: [ALUG] New Member Intro
by Gareth 23 Mar '05

23 Mar '05

Hey Ben, sorry for the late post, yeah I've had a look at ubuntu but havn't tried the live cd yet. It's an old-world G3 thats been sucking most of my time, so i'm not sure it would work. I've got debian installed and working with a 2.4 kernel, but main problem now is getting X to work wiv an old fixed refresh rate monitor. Got the ati drivers going the other day, but still no joy. I had the machine working with an old copy of Yellowdog (RedHat) and tried just copying the xfree86.config file.. - If anyone thinks they can help lemme know and il'll send in specs. Gonna give debian/ubuntu a go on my powerbook once i have the money to hookup a new harddrive, i 'll need to dual boot as I need a mac partition for my work. As for airport extream, is it that the drivers are still closed source? I've been looking into getting an original airport card but the prices on ebay are mad!! Cheers -Gareth -- "All our knowledge past, present and future is nothing compared to what we will never know." >>Gareth Porteous wrote: >>I've been spending most of my time jostling with Debain getting it >>installed and working on some old world machines to give me something new >>to play with. >> >> >Welcome! >Have you seen the Ubuntu Linux Live CD for powerpc? >http://cdimage.ubuntulinux.org/releases/hoary/current/ >I tried it on my iBook at work and it looked very good, I've installed >Ubuntu on an iBook before with the "Warty Warthog" release. >Unfortunately the new wireless cards aren't supported because the specs >haven't been released but pretty much everything else works. I'd be >interested to hear how it copes on older kit but you might be right >sticking to Debian for those. > >-- >Ben "tola" Francis http://hippygeek.co.uk >---------------------------------------------------- >COMPUTER SUPPORT for small businesses and home users >http://tolatech.co.uk >----------------------------------------------------

2 1

Re: [ALUG] Multi-card reader
by Brett Parker 23 Mar '05

23 Mar '05

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Chris Walker <chris_linux(a)wymondham.demon.co.uk> wrote: > Hello, > > I've just removed a USB card reader from my Mandrake 10 system and added a > USB 2.0 card and connected up a new multi-card reader to it. But I can't get > the system to recognise the new hardware. Where am I going wrong? > > I've tried googling for multi-card reader but nothing useful comes up. Right, assuming kernel 2.6.x... $ modprobe ehci-hcd $ modprobe usb-storage I can't remember if that's the same for 2.4.x, I know it got changed at some point, but I can't remember the exact point. And marvel as you get SCSI disks ;) Basically, USB multicard readers present themselves as 1 (or more) usb mass storage devices, that are then treated as SCSI devices. My 6 in 1 presents itself as 4 devices, for example, one for each different shaped hole. Hope that helps - -- Brett Parker web: http://www.sommitrealweird.co.uk/ email: iDunno(a)sommitrealweird.co.uk -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.0 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFCQVGAEh8oWxevnjQRAsQjAKCfv2R/ooN3Io8RlmUhGKloBaj2jgCfdQck Hbwek0l2MpYm4FFZ4amfFxU= =Nj8h -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

1 0

Re: [ALUG] Spring Kit Meet
by John Seago 23 Mar '05

23 Mar '05

On Wednesday 23 Mar 2005 06:26, Anthony Anson <tony.anson(a)zetnet.co.uk> wrote: > Have you tried makingh a tisane from feverfew leaves? Whilst they grow quite readily, we had them all over a previous garden, you have to make sure that you get the right variety of Feverfew. -- John Seago GNU/Linux User #219566 http://counter.li.org AFFS http://www.affs.org.uk/

1 0

NetGEM Netbox - modem isdn network (dsl) version
by Mardin 22 Mar '05

22 Mar '05

Hi everybody, I found some threads on this list talking about Netgems Netbox (connected via ISDN, MODEM or Network) ... Anybody has some informations about hacking the box or getting custom firmware ... I have one with 56k modem ... maybe it is a neutral box (maybe developers one) ... I'm very happy about getting every information available ... I'm little frustrated about aswers from netgem ... not giving any internal information about the box ... Last time I saw someone who sells the box on TV shopping channels ... maybe it was TRLshop in germany ... 150 EURO :-) ... I bought one on ebay for about 39 EURO *g* It will be nice to startup a project ... if some people will join it ... Thanks to the community Martin

2 1

Spring Kit Meet
by Elisabeth 22 Mar '05

22 Mar '05

Present: Jonathan (Noodles), Mark (slef), Brett (iDunno), Martijn (mak), James (mChicago), Ashley (Ashley), Peter Onion (PeterO), Gareth (flux), Mike, Rob, flux' brother Graeme, James W, and Eli/elspeth (sunflowerinrain) Mike's crimson machine which has refused installs of Redhat, Mandrake, etc. suffered various attempts to install Debian unstable which resulted in it booting into Win98. Brett re-partitioned and de-bootstrapped it and got almost all the way through the process of getting a working Debian before running out of time. Noodles got rid of some of his collection of junk ("anyone want a Psion 3A?") and acquired a printer. Peter's Elliot 803 emulator - the Noise Machine - was much admired, as was J's embryonic museum. Martijn/mak did a Xen demo of virtual machines - VNC onto Fedora and Debian; he also took mugshots with the clever idea of adding names, so we know who we are now. We had tea, a filter coffee machine and an expresso machine, and many kinds of cake and biscuit, including Rob's home-made bara brith (tea bread, boyo) which was more fruit and nut than cake. Suddenly time was up and we had to clear up and leave in a hurry. Some people went for fish n chips then on to the Fat Cat, where a Lisa joined us to watch geeks at play; finally a few went to see Constantine and the rest went home. Good day.

4 5

Kit Meet Photos
by Martijn Koster 21 Mar '05

21 Mar '05

I've posted the who's-who photos from today's ALUG kit meet on http://www.greenhills.co.uk/mak/ALUG-Kit-Meet-20050320/ALUG-Kit-Meet-200503… It was good fun to see everyone, especially new faces, and to see what people are up to. From simple Linux installs (ehr Brett?), to mChicago's collection of mini-itx bits, and Peter's impressive (if noisy!) Elliot 803 emulator. A big thank-you to Elisabeth for organising the room, and to everyone for bringing food&drink... -- Martijn

6 7

RE: [ALUG] Kit Meet Photos
by Elisabeth 21 Mar '05

21 Mar '05

>===== Original Message From Mike Morton <mtm(a)cmp.uea.ac.uk> ===== >Many many thanks! I owe you a round or three next time >we're in the City Gate. :-) That'll be the Reindeer! e

1 0

detecting power failure
by Richard Lewis 21 Mar '05

21 Mar '05

Hello ALUG, Does anyone know if there will be a log entry somewhere on my Debian system (or anything else) which will tell me if it suffered a power failure over the weekend? I've just noticed that the web and database servers on my workstation (I use them for testing code) were running when I came in this morning and I'm sure I stopped them both on Friday. Everything else about the machine is normal. Cheers, Richard

4 4

Anyone know what the implications of lo (loopback interface) not working?
by Simon Marden 21 Mar '05

21 Mar '05

I have Fedora server running behind an ADSL router that is set to allow a default LAN DMZ address matching the servers fixed internal IP. Now, until the other day (this has worked for weeks), I could see the server from the internet just fine, then it must have dropped off on a bootup one morning. The only problem I can find with the networking is the fact that the lo interface seems to be broken for some reason. eth0 works just fine and I can access the server on the LAN, just not through the router. Which by the way is a Netgear DG834G and has not been fiddled with in any way i.e I haven't changed the config at all lately. Thanks for listening :) Si. -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.7.4 - Release Date: 18/03/2005

1 1

"pharming"
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 21 Mar '05

21 Mar '05

Hi Folks, I've just read a Guardian article this morning about the "pharming" scam -- unlike "phishing" where you click on a real-looking URL in an email, with a false one hidden behind it, this depends on a rogue program infiltrated into the computer which re-directs a genuine URL to a false address which then mimics the real one. See: http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/news/0,12597,1442474,00.html The article concludes: In a reversal of current internet security protocols, banks may attempt to tackle the virus by proving their own identity to customers when they visit their sites. I would have thought the simple solution was for people just to use the IP address, e.g. http://155.136.80.71/EbankLoginStuff instead of http://www.rbs.co.uk/EbankLoginStuff for the Royal Bank of Scotland. Or am I missing a trick? 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: 21-Mar-05 Time: 07:51:27 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

2 1

Intel ICH6 Soundcard - Analogue and SPDIF
by Chris Glover 20 Mar '05

20 Mar '05

Hi, I have a Shuttle SB83G5 machine, which has an Intel ICH6 chipset. I've got the soundcard working with ALSA using the snd-intel8x0 driver. My problem is this, I can get audio via the analogue outputs or the SPDIF output, but not both at the same time. I've done a fair bit of googling, and by the looks of it, no one has suceeded. Anybody here managed to get the same thing to both outputs at the same time? The soundcard is the same as the Intel8x0/nForce2/Realtek ALC650. If only I had a spare PCI slot, I'd stick a Creative Audigy in it. Never had any trouble with that outputting to both places at the same time. Thanks in advance Chris -- Chris ---------------------------------- E Mail: chris(a)glovercc.clara.co.uk SIP: 84411389(a)voiptalk.org IAXTEL: 17003366726

1 0

New Member Intro
by Gareth Porteous 20 Mar '05

20 Mar '05

Hey guys, I should really introduce myself properly. My name's Gareth (but my friends call me Gari) and I've been lurking around on the irc server from time to time as flux. Some of you will know me as the guy who came along to the City Gate on the 10th and sat in the corner talking to Kirsten for most of it. Forgive me for doing that and not introducing myself, I was feeling kinda shy as I wasn't expecting there to be so many peeps turning up. I enjoyed it all nevertheless, and it was nice to meet some like-minded people, good fun too listening to lots of different stories and of course various rants about floating point math... well maybe I dosed off a bit at that point! ;-) Anyway I'm basically a 23 year old mac-head whose been in touch with *nix for quite a while now. My first experience was way back in the 90's when I attempted to install something called MKLinux on an old powerpc. I didn't get very far at all but it lit a spark and since then I've had experience with shell accounts and a small amount of programming. I guess my current *nix experience comes from, dare I mention it - MacOSX!.. Tho recently I've been spending most of my time jostling with Debain getting it installed and working on some old world machines to give me something new to play with. As far as my job is concerned I've just been doing a spot of work for a guy who runs Computek, a macintosh repair place based in Norwich, and also working as a digital assistant photographer. Technically I'm freelance so I get to work from home most of the time, but that can be a curse too, especially when u don't get paid on quiet days to geek out. I'm hoping to come along to the kit meet on Sunday 20th. It'll be cool to meet some of u guys again and checkout the general vibe a bit more. Should be up for a good few drinks after too!! I may also bring my brother Graeme along as he's back on study leave from Aberystwyth university. He's doing maths there and is more of a geek than I am in many ways. We've both been very interested in Linux and the Open Source community for quite a while and really want to extend our experience in that direction. With the hope that one day soon we can pledge our allegiance to that big giant penguin... :-) Look forward to meeting you all! Take care -Gareth

2 1

By car to the Kit Meet
by Elisabeth 20 Mar '05

20 Mar '05

Constable Terrace is next to the Central Car Park (which is not the Main Car Park). At the main entrance to UEA, take the right lane and turn right onto the campus. Go down the hill, following signs for Central Car Park. It's a left turn. Parking costs £1. e/sunflowerinrain

4 3

RAM-disk[?] on USB mem-stick?
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 19 Mar '05

19 Mar '05

Hi Folks, I've had a 256MB USB memory stick for a few weeks -- very useful for transferring files etc. Now -- this is twice the RAM (128MB) on my laptop. It would often be useful to have more RAM! Is there a way to extend RAM using such a device? (Something like a RAM-disk appended to hardware RAM). Thanks, and 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: 17-Mar-05 Time: 22:39:05 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

4 3

2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

1997

main