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Eye Candy
by Wayne Stallwood 21 Sep '04

21 Sep '04

Adam's last post got me thinking about the use of Eye Candy in software. What do the group think are good and bad examples of effects or eye candy. For example ( this is going to be a popular one I feel ) I absolutely hate the dog that appears when searching for a file in Windows XP (Spot I think it's called), it adds nothing to the search functionality and just wastes some screen estate. On the same OS I quite like the transparent mail notification that appears when Outlook 2003 receives a new mail (if you haven't seen it, it pops up above the system tray with a brief summary of the incoming mail over the active windows but transparent enough to still see the active window through it) It's pretty handy as it usually catches my eye and appears for long enough and with enough information for me to make a judgement as to whether it's a mail I need to deal with now or leave for later.

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[Fwd: Re: [ALUG] Eye Candy]
by Stechjo 20 Sep '04

20 Sep '04

>> I was going to say gvim, but "apt-cache search" digs up vim-gnome, >> vim-gtk. vim-lesstif, and vim-tcl instead. >> >> Hmmm .... > Welcome to the confusing world of vim! :D Nah, it's easy: # USE="-gnome gtk" emerge vim ;)

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Weekly IRC reminder
by Neill Newman 20 Sep '04

20 Sep '04

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!)

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Drawing program for plans, layouts, etc. wanted
by Chris Green 18 Sep '04

18 Sep '04

I've been looking for a simple program to draw plans and maybe flowcharts and other similar layout type things for ages (like years!). However I've never really found anything that fills the bill. Has anyone got any suggestions? I'm currently playing with Qcad which is OKish but it's not as intuitive as I would like for the basic operations of drawing rectangles and moving them around. If I can't find anything better I may persevere with Qcad but it's really both more and less than what I actually want. -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence."

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Radio player thingy
by John Seago 18 Sep '04

18 Sep '04

Is there a free software radio player available, which now I have broadband, I can install? -- John Seago Linux User #219566 (http://counter.li.org)

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Re: Radio player thingy
by John Seago 17 Sep '04

17 Sep '04

Thank you to all who replied, I've got it installed, now all I have to do is to get it to let noise/sounds out my puny loudspeakers. -- John Seago Linux User #219566 (http://counter.li.org)

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Weekly IRC reminder
by Neill Newman 13 Sep '04

13 Sep '04

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!)

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Re: [ALUG] old Pentiums, was free printers etc.
by Tim Green 12 Sep '04

12 Sep '04

On Sat, 11 Sep 2004 22:15:15 +0100 (BST), Chris Walker <linux(a)wymondham.demon.co.uk> wrote: > Blimey. I didn't think anybody would want a Pentium of that speed so if > anybody else wants one, I have a P75 or thereabouts in my garage with > Smoothwall installed on it. I work on the outskirts of Norwich so if you > want it delivered I might be able to oblige. I was easily able to shift my old AMD-K5/75 earlier this summer in exchange for a couple of cans of beer. The only fault was the BIOS battery had gone so the date would reset back to 1-1-1996 on power up. It made a great firewall :-) Tim.

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Sound doesn't work
by Graham 11 Sep '04

11 Sep '04

I've reinstalled SuSE 9.1 after a hard drive upgrade and an audio problem previously encountered has reappeared. It was solved a few months ago with the help of this group but for some reason my ALUG mail folder was wiped during the backup/restore so I don't have the previous messages. Basically, the system has stopped emitting sound. Immediately post installation I heard a few noises but now I'm trying to play mp3s or videos, nada. I seem to remember the answer had to do with using alsaconf instead of YAST's audio settings. Running alsaconf to set up the VIA VT8233 sound system first throws three warnings about "modinfo: command not found" but then detects the sound system and claims to set it up. After that, XMMS complains about "Couldn't open audio - please check that..(etc)" and doesn't play the file. However, it may or may not be relevant that on boot, as KDE is setting up I get an "Error - KDesktop" with the rather ungrammatical message "Could not start process Unable to create io-slave: klauncher said Unknown protocol 'devices'". Presumably something I've screwed up; might it be related? Can anyone remember how they helped me last time, or can suggest what to do? -- GT

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Re: [ALUG] free printers, scanner, Norwich area
by Syd Hancock 11 Sep '04

11 Sep '04

[Apologies if this doesn't thread but I am reading main via the archives only so cannot reply directly.] Syd Hancock wrote: > Having a clear out. Going: [...] Both laserjets have gone. > 3. PB (badged Lexmark) Colourjet 9000 > Colour inkjet printer. May not be working. > > 4. Agfa Studioscan IIsi scanner > Old but serviceable. > SCSI interface - large 50-way D connector (SCSI-1 ?). Can give a > suitable scsi card and cable if needed (Adaptec AVA-2904). > Scanner was never used with linux but AFAIK it is supported. SCSI > card definitely supported. Inkjet, scanner and i/f still available. > 5. A couple of old pentium 60 (or similar) machines, Pentiums have gone. Syd

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