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Linux Astronomy software
by mephi 21 Sep '07

21 Sep '07

A while ago someone posted here asking for Linux software that performed a function similar to a windows package, and as it was one I'd heard of, I think it was either k3CCDTools or Registax. If it was k3CCDTools, then I've just started to use the qastrocam software, which I think does a very similar job. If it was Registax, did you ever find anything? Matt

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Re: [ALUG] Anyone here running Fedora 7?
by Richard Bensley 19 Sep '07

19 Sep '07

>Here in the film industry, 64-bitness is helping with rendering >performance and also on the desktop where artists need to use vast >chunks of memory for their 3D and even 2D packages. I recently moved over to Red Hat for Softimage. 64bit Softimage is a no go for me, the support and stability under Linux is useless, and it's just about bearable under vista 64bit! As you say for rendering, having debian 64bit dual boot on my core2duo box with mental ray works a treat! I have seen Maya used on 64bit boxes, with a quadro or two and like 8GB of ram, anything to keep that crap from crashing ;) Of course the Autodesk IFFS suites and the like are all 64bit, but I would rather buy a house. Martyn, what 64bit 2D packages are you using?!? The closest thing I have to anything like that is a 64bit zbrush binary in windows :S Rich

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FAX with Linux
by James Freer 19 Sep '07

19 Sep '07

Hi Mark I read your post with interest - i'd also like to know the best way of faxing with Linux. Winfax i don't think is your best choice. I also have tried winfax and it is quite a complicated app with telephone answering m/c etc. Difficult to incorporate with Wine i would have thought - but i'm only a newbie to Linux. For several years i've used an excellent small programme called FaxNow - printer driver sending any doc from any application (simple but effective). I got it on a pc mag CD. Receiving is the problem as one has to switch the line manually to receive. So i used eFax to receive [free for 20 faxes a month] and this last year Faxtastic [free but needs to receive at least one fax per quarter to keep account open]. I always got better quality faxes than a fax machine and no costs. These were .tif files. I noticed you mentioned pdfs - the ones i've looked at were tiff but pdf you probably pay for. Reading faxes is the problem - what they are read with must be able to read MULTIPLE PAGES. Most viewers are able to read a single sheet e.g. PhotoImpact, XnView. I used the efax messenger for a while just to view - they make their money on sending. I did find a multiple page viewer http://www.tiffsuite.theimageanvil.co.uk/ No one else mentioned this. I can't see how converting files is going to allow for multiple pages. I found the Tiff Viewer basic but reliable - useful for looking through received faxes. Alternatively, when i started using FireFox found a tiff viewer as an addon to FireFox - www.alternatiff.com [this is excellent]. This was in windoze so as far as Linux goes... hopefully someone may know? a] Use alternatiff in Linux (it says only for windows but i've imported my windows themes into Linux Firefox so could work) and use Gfax or Faxnow (through wine) to send. If alternatiff won't work i'm sure the Tiff viewer would as it is a basic .exe app. b] Ubuntufax.com on VmWare - this is quite NEW i haven't investigated this yet but if it sends a pdf to your email problems solved. Ideal solution! b] Simple solution - pay £10-£20 per month for the variety of paid services. I will be keeping windows on a machine for some time so will probably just continue until a Linux solution comes along and i've stopped using windows. I knew an IT consultant a few years back who recommended not using WinFax as he'd had known a lot of problems with it - you're welcome to a copy of FaxNow and the Tiff viewer if they'll run in Wine. I'm not as knowledgeable as some on the IT side but i don't think the answer is converting files or using WinFax. james

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Anyone here running Fedora 7?
by Chris G 19 Sep '07

19 Sep '07

I'm thinking of moving from Slackware to Fedora for my next upgrade. There are a number of reasons for this:- I have Fedora on my desktop at work and have found it quite good (and easy) to work with, an additional advantage of course is having the same distribution in both places. It's more compatible with Vmware, Vmware can be installed on Slackware as a host but it's a bit of a fiddle. While Fedora isn't 'supported' by Vmware, RedHat is supported and Fedora is similar enough to RedHat for Vmware to install simply. I'm thinking of going to a 64-Bit OS and there isn't a 64-bit version of Slackware. Can anyone envisage any bit 'gotchas' if I do this? Are there any major pitfalls when moving from 32-bit to 64-bit? -- Chris Green

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A question about 'relative' and 'absolute' in HTML/CSS
by Chris G 18 Sep '07

18 Sep '07

The question is basically - what do they actually mean? I have just been playing with setting some font sizes to various 'relative' sizes and the results don't seem to make sense to me. OK, I *think* I know what the 'absolute' sizes mean. If I set a size to "1cm" (yes, I know the quotes aren't necessary in the CSS) I get something that is 1cm high and if I set it to "1in" I get text one inch high. However I'm not at all clear how the system knows how big my display is, if I connect a smaller display to the same output then the text will be smaller even though I have changed nothing. Is the correct absolute size dependent on me having set up my display correctly at some point? Anyway, on to the bit I understand less well, what do relative sizes mean? For font-size we have:- * em (ems, the height of the element's font) * ex (x-height, the height of the letter "x") * px (pixels, relative to the canvas resolution) So what is meant by "the height of the element's font"? It can't be an absolute value (in cm or in) because that would mean the result would be absolute. I can see that there could be a relation between everything and, say, the default BODY text size so that if you change the BODY text size everything else changes in proportion but where does that BODY text size come from? Is it what I set in my browser as the font size? If that is right I sort of follow, everything is relative to the default font size set in the browser. Sizes set in em or ex are then relative to that size. However that leaves pixels, what on earth does "pixels, relative to the canvas resolution" mean? Does it mean a size related to the screen size, but how does one interpret 'pixels' in this context? If I say the font size is to be 16 pixels what does that really mean? If it really means 16 pixels of my screen then surely it's an absolute size. Certainly none of the relative sizes are relative to the browser window size which in many ways would make most sense. If they *were* relative to the window size a web page would (if it used relative sizes) just scale as you grow and shrink the window. As it is, even with relative sizes for things, when you grow and shrink the window the text stays the same size and is re-laid out to fit. Whatever, there's surely a web site somewhere that explains all this, can someone point me at it please. http://www.htmlhelp.com/ is an excellent site for the details of writing HTML and CSS but doesn't really explain the sizing (not for me anyway). -- Chris Green

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Can I use OSS as well as Alsa?
by Barry Samuels 18 Sep '07

18 Sep '07

Debian 'Testing' Kernel 2.6.22.6 Alsa 1.3.3 I have a USB record turntable that works without problems under OSS but won't work with Alsa (which I'm now using). Can I set up OSS and Alsa so that I can switch between them and, if so, how would I do it? -- Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

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UK Suse Linux User Group Announcement
by Julie Grant 17 Sep '07

17 Sep '07

Dear Sir or Madam, We are pleased to announce the creation of The UK SUSE Linux User Group (UK SLUG) the UK forum for Users of SUSE® Linux. The User Group will be formally launched at the next UK Groupware User Group conference on Thursday 25th October at the Burlington Hotel, Birmingham. The group has been formed on the basis of providing an opportunity for users of SUSE® Linux to network on a national basis and share other information with other users and UK Vendors. Initially, the group will run alongside the well established Groupware User Group events that take place quarterly, at locations across the UK including Novell UK offices in Bracknell, Leeds, Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh etc. The UK SLUG web site is already released and can be found at http://www.ukslug.org.uk . You will find the latest SUSE news, our forthcoming events, links to items of interest for the SUSE user community, polls, snippets and a wealth of information for any SUSE user or administrator. The site is regularly updated and will grow in content over the coming months. We believe the UK SUSE® community can organise and host successful events, that the SUSE® product and its many add-ons and complementary products are a vital and integral part of so many of our organisations and that we are passionate about the need for a platform to share our successes and our frustrations and collectively bring greater clarity for all SUSE® users. Please take a look at our website for details regarding the launch announcement and how you can register as a member either as a corporate organisation, vendor or individual. Web: www.ukslug.org.uk . Email: info(a)ukslug.org.uk Address: UK SLUG, 7 Manor Buildings, North Perrott, Crewkerne, Somerset. TA18 7ST. Tel: 01460-271055 Julie Grant, UK SLUG Registered Address : 7 Manor Buildings, North Perrott, Crewkerne, Somerset, TA18 7ST Registered England & Wales - 3981322 CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION This e-mail and any files attached with it are confidential and for the sole use of the intended recipient(s). If you are not the intended recipient(s) you are prohibited from using, copying or distributing this or any information contained in it and should immediately notify the sender and delete the message from your system. Internet communications are not secure and Blueloop Limited is not responsible for unauthorised use by third parties nor for alteration or corruption in transmission. Furthermore, while Blueloop Limited have taken reasonable precautions to minimise the risk of software viruses, it cannot accept liability for any damage which you may suffer as a result of such viruses, and we therefore recommend you carry out your own virus checks on receipt of any e-mail.

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(no subject)
by jim snyder 17 Sep '07

17 Sep '07

Hi there, I'm a Certified Linux System Administrator & I've just joined. If you have ever used linuxgym.com or done LPI exams could you please email me your opinions of linuxgym & LPI exams to jim.snyder(a)linuxmail.org Cheers :) Tel.: +447914011154 = -- Powered by Outblaze

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HP Photosmart R507 not being assigned usb device number
by Jenny Hopkins 17 Sep '07

17 Sep '07

Hullo there, I'm trying to use gphoto2 on a debian linux box. The camera in question is an HP Photosmart R507, which is detected when usb is plugged, but no device is being assigned in /proc/bus/usb. Any ideas as to why welcome. It works on another debian box okay, and I can see the new device appearing. Thanks, Jenny

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Logik IR100
by Wayne Stallwood 15 Sep '07

15 Sep '07

There has been a bit of discussion regarding these Tabletop Internet radios at Alug Meets and on IRC (mostly as Currys are selling them at £40 at the moment which is quite a bargain) Noodles talked me into buying one at the last ALUG social (it didn't take a lot of effort) For those that don't know the IR100 is a mains powered standalone radio (there is also another version that is designed to plug into a Hifi) that links up via wireless and can stream internet radio stations or play mp3's located on a SMB share. Initially I was quite disappointed to discover that they fall over if scanning shared folders with more than 5000 tracks in them (I have more like 25,000). However gmediaserver v0.12.0 appears to work perfectly with them and also gives you the advantage of faster track access/navigation at the expense of some of the search functionality offered when you use SMB share access. The device is not on the gmediaserver compatibility list (I have just sent them a compatibility report so hopefully it will be soon) so I thought it would be worth mentioning that it works here

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