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"Small print" ... !!!
by ted.harding＠wlandres.net 28 Apr '11

28 Apr '11

Greetings Folks! Background: My email hosting is by 1and1.co.uk (and many thanks to Bev for suggesting 1and1 last September -- the service has been very good). I created the domain name "wlandres.net" for this purpose, and that domain is registered with 1and1. I have just received a letter from "Domain Renewal Group, Domain Name Renewal Service", telling me: "As a courtesey to domain name holders, we are sending you this reminder that your domain name registration is due to expire in the next few months [September, in fact ... ]. When you switch today to the Domain Renewal Group, you can take advantage of our best savings. Your registration for wlandres.net will expire on September 5, 2011. Act today!" This, on the face of it, looks like a blatant attempt to poach my registration with 1and1 from 1and1. Do other people get this sort of ***t? And, for what it's worth, the "small print" on the back of the letter is the smallest print I have ever seen! Measuring and counting on the longest paragraph, I find 7 lines of print on 13mm of paper, which comes out (if I've done my sums right) at 5.25 points/line of print (1 point = 1/72 inch). Allowing for inter-line spacing (aka "leading"), that's a close approximation to 4-point type size! If I put on 2 pairs of glasses at once, I can just about read it. Counting the characters in a sample line, I get 322 in one line across A4, length 20.4cm. I don't think they want me to read the small print ... Any comments? Best wishes to all, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <ted.harding(a)wlandres.net> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 28-Apr-11 Time: 08:23:22 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Bash related question
by Bev Nicolson 24 Apr '11

24 Apr '11

I've got so far installing Skype but on checking the README file as the books suggest, I don't know how to string this lot together (see below) to make a decent command. Help gratefully received. (I mean I know copy is cp but beyond that I'm stuck). << copy the binary to /usr/bin and install /sounds /lang and /avatars in /usr/share/skypedirectory >> Bev.

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Squeeze wireless
by Anthony Anson 20 Apr '11

20 Apr '11

Have Squeeze on the laptop now, but I can't suss the wireless connection - I know it works because it did last night, but with an experienced pilot. I am away on the other side of the country this weekend and thought it would be nice to use a screen I can see easily. The Eee's connection is easy - it detects and flags-up any wireless within reach, and you can then highlight it and enter the key (if required), then Bob's yer uncle. I've opened 'Preferences/network connections, added a connection and put in its name, and 'applied' it, but can get no forrarder - nothing's asked me for the key. Any kind Alugger able to provide a step-by-step list of destructions, pretty please? -- Tony Anson www.girolle.co.uk/

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Laptop HDD size and Linux
by Mark Rogers 18 Apr '11

18 Apr '11

I decided to install Linux Mint on my trusty "old" Fujitsu Siemens V5535 laptop (it's about 2 yrs old). I bought a new 2.5" 250GB SATA drive to replace the old 80GB (Windows) drive, and set off on the install. However, I got all sorts of disk errors, so (assuming the disk to be faulty) I got another (different brand) 250GB SATA drive and started again - same results. I'm also seeing issues at the POST stage (eg sometimes the BIOS doesn't report a disk being present, sometimes there's no drive to boot from, etc). Is it reasonable to conclude that the problem is that the laptop doesn't like the new disks? If so, how would I find out what the maximum disk is that the laptop will support? I can't seem to find much from a Google search. I did find a BIOS update and installed that but it changed nothing. -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

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Virtual Server performance testing
by Mark Rogers 15 Apr '11

15 Apr '11

Can anyone recommend a simple tool for benchmarking a virtual server? Everyone quotes equivalent CPU figures (eg one one server I have the equivalent of 1x0.35GHz Xeon cores) but I'd like a tool that would give me a quick benchmark that I can run on several virtual servers to make comparisons between them. I don't really care if or how the results compare with "real" CPU's, I just want to know if server A is better or worse than server B, and ideally by how much ("twice as good", etc). I don't want to hammer the virtual server or run tests for hours or days. -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

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[ALUG Announce] 3rd Monday Monthly Ipswich Social Meeting : McGintys, Northgate Street
by samwise 15 Apr '11

15 Apr '11

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- The monthly "Third Monday" ALUG Ipswich Social Meeting is back next week, Monday 18th April, at 20:00: P J McGinty & Sons 15 Northgate Street Ipswich Suffolk IP1 3BY Tel: 01473 251 515 Map/Directions URI: http://maps.google.co.uk/?q=IP1+3BY WWW: http://www.pjmcgintys.co.uk/ McGintys pub is in the centre of Ipswich. It's directly opposite the town's central library and has a reputation for good Irish beer. We're usually to be found in the lowest section of the bar, near the library entrance to the pub. All are welcome, novices and experienced users. Feel free to ask for further information on the Main ALUG mailing list. I went along to one of the recent developer meet-ups over in The Dove and can report back on who I met and what it was like. Peter T will be on hand to make a humbling apology on why, as deputy, he failed to send out the email reminder last month, whilst I was in Cuba (probably because I forgot to remind him before I went). Plus I've been messing with C++ recently and am beginning to learn just how dangerous it really is. Hope to see some of there! Peter. ----- Send discussion replies to main(a)lists.alug.org.uk (Reply-To set) Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce

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Virtualbox RDP
by Mark Rogers 13 Apr '11

13 Apr '11

Does anyone here use RDP access to a VirtualBox host? I have a couple of VBox 4.0.x installs, one on a Windows host, one on an Ubuntu host. Both are configured to allow RDP access on port 5000. Neither actually allow it but I'm not getting any useful errors to tell me what might be wrong. Eg changing the RDP client (mstsc or rdesktop) to a different port without changing the server port (thus guaranteeing a failed connection) gives me the exact same symptoms as giving the correct port details. Googling all I find is lots of instructions on what to do (and it isn't hard to configure), with very few people seemingly having any problems once they've set it up, so I don't understand why I'm having problems on multiple machines. (I've tried a few times before without success too, and I've never once had it work, so I'm sure I'm the problem!) In the past I've just worked around it but I now need to set up a headless virtual machine so I'm going to be a bit stuck if I can't get it to work. -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

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ssh problem, why can't I public-key authenticate to one particular login?
by Chris G 12 Apr '11

12 Apr '11

I want to be able to become www-data on my desktop machine so I can edit HTML files etc. directly without problems. So I have tried to set up a passwordless ssh login to www-data but I can't get it to work. Doing identical things to another login works perfectly. Before using ssh-copy-id :- chris$ ssh -l zelma chris zelma@chris's password: zelma@chris:~$ exit logout Connection to chris closed. chris$ ssh -l www-data chris www-data@chris's password: www-data@chris$ exit logout Connection to chris closed. chris$ Use ssh-copy-id to set up both logins:- chris$ ssh-copy-id zelma@chris zelma@chris's password: Now try logging into the machine, with "ssh 'zelma@chris'", and check in: .ssh/authorized_keys to make sure we haven't added extra keys that you weren't expecting. chris$ ssh-copy-id www-data@chris www-data@chris's password: Now try logging into the machine, with "ssh 'www-data@chris'", and check in: .ssh/authorized_keys to make sure we haven't added extra keys that you weren't expecting. chris$ It works to 'zelma' but not to 'www-data' :- chris$ ssh 'zelma@chris' zelma@chris:~$ exit logout Connection to chris closed. chris$ ssh 'www-data@chris' www-data@chris's password: www-data@chris$ exit logout Connection to chris closed. chris$ So there's something different about www-data but what is it? There's nothing special in the sshd_config file and I've completely removed both zelma's and www-data's ~/.ssh directories before starting the above. Any ideas/suggestions anyone? -- Chris Green

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Blogging software that can be 'filtered' - any ideas?
by Chris G 12 Apr '11

12 Apr '11

I think I'm looking for some blog software (more to use for keeping tabs on my thoughts and as an aide memoire than for inviting comments) but I'd really like to be able to 'filter' the blog. I.e. I'd like to be able to tag entries in the blog with tags such as 'boat', 'motorbike', etc. and then have the ability to view the blog as a 'boat' blog or a 'motorbike' blog showing only the boat or motorbike tagged pages. One approach of course is simply to have separate blogs for each but it's also possible there will be overlapping tags and it would also be useful to see the whole blog at times. Any ideas if there's anything out there that can do this? If one could actually set the 'current tag' for a session that would be ideal. -- Chris Green

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[ALUG Announce] ALUG Norwich Pub Meet Thurday 14th April
by Viperfang 11 Apr '11

11 Apr '11

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

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