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[Alug]RE: [Peterboro] GPL, freedom and bread
by John.Airey＠rnib.org.uk 02 Jun '03

02 Jun '03

You make some interesting points and I'd like to try and address some of them. Suppose your baker discovers that the flour he uses to make his bread comes from a genetically modified strain of wheat and only produces one harvest (this is actually the kind of "technology" that organisations like Monsanto are trying to sneak in). The cost of his bread has shot up as wheat has become more expensive, and because of patent restrictions he can only get his flour from one supplier. This is not unlike the situation with software. Ideally software should be "free" (free beer), but open source (free speech) is obviously a compromise. There is money to be made in both models from software support (and in the latter case from selling the packaged software). But there is an open market, just as there is in buying and selling wheat. Ultimately software is only a series of ones and zeroes (if only I'd patented it...) and these days is very very ubiquitous. You don't have to be in IT for very long to realise that the biggest software issue is support. I have the source code to some programs that I'm legally not allowed to change (it's written in Turbo Pascal, so I might not want to anyway). So the code has been abandoned, and this is happening all the time. I'd recommend writing the code for free (as is done with most Linux software) and making money from hardware or software support. Strangely enough, even Microsoft is leaning this way. - John Airey, BSc (Jt Hons), CNA, RHCE Internet systems support officer, ITCSD, Royal National Institute of the Blind, Bakewell Road, Peterborough PE2 6XU, Tel.: +44 (0) 1733 375299 Fax: +44 (0) 1733 370848 John.Airey(a)rnib.org.uk What is "real"? How do you define "real"? If you're talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and see, then "real" is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain... (Morpheus, The Matrix, 1999) - NOTICE: The information contained in this email and any attachments is confidential and may be legally privileged. If you are not the intended recipient you are hereby notified that you must not use, disclose, distribute, copy, print or rely on this email's content. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately and then delete the email and any attachments from your system. RNIB has made strenuous efforts to ensure that emails and any attachments generated by its staff are free from viruses. However, it cannot accept any responsibility for any viruses which are transmitted. We therefore recommend you scan all attachments. Please note that the statements and views expressed in this email and any attachments are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RNIB. RNIB Registered Charity Number: 226227 Website: http://www.rnib.org.uk

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Fwd: Re: List-* headers, was [Alug]GNU/Linux Partition Utilities
by Ian Bell 02 Jun '03

02 Jun '03

On Thursday 29 May 2003 2:08 pm, MJ Ray wrote: > Andrew Savory <lists(a)andrewsavory.com> wrote: > > How about a little bit of politeness and respect? > > Sorry. The message I replied to was a little terse too, not the first time > that person had raised this, added nothing new to the topic, and is > definitely a FAQ. Is this a better summary for the FAQ maintainer: You want something new, here is something new. As an experiment I have subscribed at random to three mailing lists hosted by UK Linux User Groups. They host the mailing lists something in the region of 50 UK Linux User Groups. All three of the groups I subscribed to behaved the way I would expect. Messages appear as From: 'Author' To: mailgroup. Pressing reply sends a message to the group as expected. If I want to reply just to the author I just click on his/her email address. I strongly suspect that all the mail groups hosted by the UK Linux User Groups site behave this way, It is clearly good enough and problem free enough for many other LUGs to have it set up this way. It is clearly the way users expect it to be. I see no compelling reason why our mailing list should be different. Ian -------------------------------------------------------

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[Alug]Weekly IRC reminder
by Neill Newman 02 Jun '03

02 Jun '03

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]Wine
by jamie.french＠talk21.com 01 Jun '03

01 Jun '03

This is funny, I tried to get Wine working last night as I want to run KazaaLite. I dont have much time in the evenings and all I got to work was progman! Need to do some reading. Aside, does anyone know of any P2P clients like Kazaa which run under Linux? Take Care, Jamie Best Regards, Jamie French -------------------- talk21 your FREE portable and private address on the net at http://www.talk21.com

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[Alug]EU software patent threat
by Chris Lale 31 May '03

31 May '03

There is still time to lobby your MEPs. Please spare 5 minutes to send an email registering your concerns. The proposed directive on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions comes before the European Parliament later this month. Patenting of software is a threat to all business models, but especially Open Source (including Free) software. It also penalises software developers and users of all types of software. Dan Bricklin (who invented the electronic spreadsheet in 1979 but did not patent it) explains why at http://www.bricklin.com/patentsandsoftware.htm You can find MEP's email and letter post addresses at http://www.europarl.org.uk/uk_meps/MembersMain.htm Other sources you may wish to draw on are Alex Hudson's useful site: http://www.softwarepatents.co.uk/ Analogy with music for non-techie people: http://www.coolscience.co.uk/free-software/software-patent-music.html Illustration of the infamous "technical effect" criterion: http://coolscience.co.uk/free-software/software-patent-techeffect.html European Parliament written question E3927/02 and answer. MEPs will be reassured but you might not be: http://www2.europarl.eu.int/omk/OM-Europarl?PROG=WQ&L=EN&PUBREF=-//EP//TEXT… If you are keen, the proposed directive COM (2002) 091:http://europa.eu.int/cgi-bin/eur-lex/udl.pl?REQUEST=Seek-Deliver&COLLEC… Paper on Open Source and software patents http://eu.conecta.it/paper/Open_source_software_patent.html Cheers, Chris -- +-----------------------------------------------------------------+ | ___ Chris Lale <ctlale(a)netscape.net> | | / \ | | | <_/ My PC runs Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 (http://www.debian.org) | | \ Robust, secure and free operating system + applications. | | `- | +-----------------------------------------------------------------+

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RE: [Alug]GNU/Linux Partition Utilities
by Keith Watson 30 May '03

30 May '03

> From: Paul Tansom > > ** Keith Watson <keith.watson(a)kewill.com> [2003-05-28 09:53]: > > > From: Paul Tansom > > > > > > Not actually booted my CD and tried it, but apparently yes parted is on > > > Knoppix apparently (can't find the link I found the quote on, but it was > > > from Knoppix 3.2 onwards). Some other useful links you may be interested > > > in: > > [snip] > > > > Thanks for the excellent links Paul, especially the one for PartImage. > > > ** end quote [Keith Watson] > > No problem. It happens to be something I'm looking into myself, partly > for speeding up the install process for machine (Windows 98 primarily > unfortunately), and partly to recover some data on a couple of drives > I'm having problems with. > > One seems to have a duff sector which is preventing access to a > partition (Fujitsu 20G, newest drive I had until I bought a replacement, > but not one of the notorious ones), and the other (again a Fujitsu, but > 13G this time) which seems to have lost partition information on the > transfer to another machine. > > I'm trying to work out whether Parted will recover things for me, or > whether I'm better off to go with one of two commercial solutions I've > found: > > Acronis RecoverExpert - looks good because it supports Linux Ext2, Ext3, > ReiserFS, and Linux Swap as well as the traditional Windows formats, but > the demo is only the Windows GUI version (not the boot disk). This has > a few issues booting with the drive 13G drive connected (so I can't get > any idea of whether it will recover it) and with the 20G it just shows > the partition as duff (it seems as though it simply recovers lost > partitions rather than fixing corrupt ones). > > Active Partition Recovery - only supports FAT and NTFS partitions, but > the boot disk can see and read all the partitions in question and show > me the data, so it has a distinct attraction in that respect! > > Both about 30usd - if anyone has used either of these, or Parted or > another utility to recover a partition problem I'd be interested to > hear. > > Oh, my tape backup is giving me hassle too - I'm not a happy penguin at > the moment. Having said that, my Linux machines are going strong and it > is only my Windows 2000 that is givin me hassle (duff hardware and the > tape backups which verified fine are not allowing me to access them now > that I've lost the boot drive that they were created from - classic > backup!). > > -- > Paul Tansom: - contact paul(a)aptanet.com for more information > Internet and Intranet Solutions -- http://www.aptanet.com/ > I think you meant this to go to the list Paul :o) I've always used PartitionMagic (I've got Version 6.0 but they're up to 8.0 at present) which has served me very well. but it's not GPL or GNU/Linux though credit where it's due. Amazon has the latest release of PM for 40UKP and also the back release 7.0 at 25UKP <http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/202-8112773-2091046> Never been unlucky enough to have to recover from the sort of problems you describe but I've no doubt someone on the list will have some war stories to tell :o) Regards, Keith ____________ The shortest answer is doing. George Herbert

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RE: [Alug]New Member Intro RE: [Alug]New Member Intro
by Dan Beimborn 30 May '03

30 May '03

Hmm, I sent it once and it was rejected due to my "From" not being subscribed, then I subscribed properly and resent it. I guess this first one also got approved. Sorry for the dupe DB Hmm, I sent it once and it was rejected due to my "From" not being subscribed, then I subscribed properly and resent it. I guess this first one also got approved. Sorry for the dupe DB ps- :) From: "Keith Watson" <Keith.Watson(a)Kewill.com> To: <main(a)lists.alug.org.uk> Subject: RE: [Alug]New Member Intro Date: Fri, 30 May 2003 11:47:29 +0100 >> From: Dan Beimborn >> >> Hi Folks, ...snip... Anyone else get a strange feeling of deja vu? :o) Keith

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[Alug]New Member Intro
by Dan Beimborn 30 May '03

30 May '03

Hi Folks, I'm a recently-relocated Sysadmin/Network Guy/Web Guy/Bottle Washer from California (San Jose) where I worked for a software company that did firewall/HA & Linux appliances in the storage space. I have a lot of background in TCP/IP/network/security/exotic routing on Linux systems, and also had a great time getting linux running inside old arcade cabinets. I also used to beta test Linux games for id software, but sadly I discontinued that relationship before I could get any copies of Doom 3 for Linux! My wife is a Norfolk girl, and after years of thinking about it, we finally decided to move here (Holt) to take advantage of the sun & heat we missed out on living in cold, dark California. I'm in the hunt for work doing just about anything with Linux, though my specialties are perl/apache/mysql and firewall/security/networking. Looking forward to pelting the natives with penguin dolls whenever the chance arrives (you do that here, right? right?) DB

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[Alug]Wine
by Edenyard 30 May '03

30 May '03

Has anyone here ever had any experience of using Wine to run anything useful? I've tried installing it twice now on my Slackware 8.1 system. Sure enough, it runs solitaire (from an old Win3.11 disk I have) as claimed in teh documentation, but it chokes completely on anything and everything else that I've tried, specifically catalogue-CDs from the likes of Farnell, RS, Texas, etc., including one old one that I KNOW has been run on W3.1. I have wine-20030408 and kernel 2.4.18 on an Athlon 1000 with 256Mb RAM. I installed it using ./tools/wineinstall as instructed and running ./tools/winecheck gives a score of 85%+, so I think I've got at least most of the config right. Most of the error messages start 'fixme: ', which suggests to me that perhaps it isn't even intended to work. I don't have a Windoze partition on either of my PCs, but my understanding of the Wine documentation is that I don't need one. A 500+ Mb package just to run solitaire (and, to be fair, winmine....) seems pretty useless to me. Is it really intended for running 'real- world' applications or I being really dumb here? If it really is as bad as it seems, is there any alternative emulator (or whatever they're called) for running these catalogue-CDs? Any help appreciated, thanks! Gerald.

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Re: [Alug]Wine
by Edenyard 30 May '03

30 May '03

Dan Hatton wrote: > > If they're anything like the catalogue CDs I've used, they rely on the > presence of Internet Explorer. I've just checked, and although IE6 > will run under wine (in the sense of a window appearing, with menus > that will drop down,) it doesn't seem keen to do much. Also, as you > don't have a Windows partition, I guess you'd need to install it. I > have two nasty feelings about this. > I remember back in the dark old days when I existed on a mixture of DOS mainly with a little Doze 3.1, these exact same catalogue CDs ran then. That certainly didn't have this Explorer thing on it, so I suppose that I have to hunt for another reason for its failure. In any case, wouldn't Explorer be just for looking at .html pages? (Excuse ignorance on this - I've never used it!) Cheers, Gerald.

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