main August 2001

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51 participants
215 discussions

Re: [Alug] brief intro before sunday
by Syd Hancock 11 Aug '01

11 Aug '01

Mark Thanks for the welcomes (in both senses if I read you correctly :) Syd > [Mandrake 8.0] > > Syd, glad you can join us :-)

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Getting data out of databases
by MJ Ray 11 Aug '01

11 Aug '01

I'm the secretary of an association and responsible for keeping their membership lists. As a Linux user, it seemed natural to me to keep the membership records in a database and along the way I discovered two applications which make life very much easier for the non-programmer. PostgreSQL is the database that I use, mainly because I like to have all the features available and I have never had any stability problems with it. For database design and data entry, I discovered the handy pgaccess application which presents an interface not dissimilar to a more famous program with a similar name. The notebook window which is displayed when you start up has tabs for Tables, Views, Forms, Queries and so on, while each one contains a list of available items and some actions on them. Once the command "CREATE DATABASE members;" had been given at the psql command line, it was simply a case of inputting the database details into pgaccess's "Open Database" window to be able to start entering the information. pgaccess was downloaded as part of PostgreSQL, available from ftp.postgresql.org/pub and its home page is at http://flex.ro/pgaccess/ The report generator of pgaccess is not yet finished, so I was left with the problem of how to get the data out. I usually use LaTeX for writing letters and reports, so I was quite happy to discover the GNU Report Generator, gurgle, which was originally designed to work with that. To use it, you write a short gurgle script which includes a few definitions, the database query and the template for outputting the data to another file. Here's my script to print envelopes: %%define PHYSDB "members" %%define NAMCOL %%define TEXEXT .tex %%database "members.sql" select name, institution, mailaddress from memberdetails %%header %%record \envelope{%NAME \\ %INSTITUTIO \\ %MAILADDRES} %%footer %%end The first line sets the database name to connect to, the next tells gurgle to use the names from the query, the third says to save the file with the .tex extension, then we have the query. An empty header and footer surround the record template, which simply puts the database results in a call to my "envelope" macro with some line breaks. The file is then included into my envelope printing file (which also contains the association's logo, etc) and any small changes (replacing commas in the address with line breaks, for example) are done before sending the file to the printer and generating a stack of printed envelopes for a mailshot. Gurgle can be downloaded from http://www.gnu.org/directory/GURGLE.html or http://www.dai.ed.ac.uk/homes/timc/gurgle/ and has optional modules for GNUSQL, PostgreSQL, MySQL and CA-Ingres databases as well as text dump files. Comments? Improvements? Your alternatives?

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Friday night ruminations
by Jenny Hopkins 11 Aug '01

11 Aug '01

All - just been looking through all the old digests that I've kept since joining the list and I noticed some stuff. 1. Did I ever courteously let those who helped me with samba know that the problem was as simple as not having logged off as default user and on as jenny in windows box, thus network neighbourhood didn't appear? D'oh. It took months to find that. 2. There is nothing as irritating as a newcomer constantly apologising for every post (me). Apart from the posts. 3. There was a lot of discussion earlier in the year about putting member's details such as website, irc, mugshots up on the website that fizzled out. 4. I discovered the mystery large-garden-with-swimming-pool-owner is Chris Allen. (Chris, come out from under that table...)5. I wondered how the RD250 in carrier bags was doing (Simon P) I went into a kind of glaze around April, specially when I realised it was friday night and I was sitting reading old mail on my computer. Jen.

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Linux Expo Birmingham
by Adam Bower 11 Aug '01

11 Aug '01

Hi all, Linux Expo in Birmingham is just over a month away and I figured that maybe we should organise an Alug outing to it, as I believe this was discussed just after the London Expo. I am planning to go on September the 12th but want to arrive early because there is a keynote conference with Bob Young (Redhat) and also Richard Stallman starting at 10am, this means I may make an arrangement to stay overnight or something. Anyway if you want to pre-register or find out more details visit http://www.linux-expo.com/ also pre-registration has to be done before September the 1st. Adam -- This message is Copyleft - all rights reversed Adam

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Sunday
by David Freeman 11 Aug '01

11 Aug '01

All, Update on the meet this sunday: We have the hut from 1pm so can start off from then. I have had a request for directions for people who wish to come by boat, instructions are: OS map coordinates 24405 45336 (OS Landranger map 169 I believe) Lat/Long N 52 degrees 03.627 mins, E 1 degree 16.438 mins (OS datum) Also the BBQ is a non starter(not enough interest), I suggest that we go to the PUB which is about 20yrds away. I hope to see you all on sunday. Thanks D -- "Your house sounds like a fire hazard" Peter Clarke

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brief intro before sunday
by syd 10 Aug '01

10 Aug '01

Hi All I'm hoping to come to the meet on sunday so I thought I'd give a brief intro. I've played around with computers and telecoms for about 14 years but still know surprisingly little. I am one of life's dabblers and now I'm dabbling into linux. I've played around with a few distributions recently and at the moment have mandrake 8.0 installed with KDE 2.11. Yesteray evening I tried setting up the internet access and within a few minutes was on line. Very impressed. So here in tribute is my first email message using linux (apart from a test send and receive which doesn't count). I know it's not really 'installing' or 'managing linux' in any technical sense - using an installer that auto configfures everything, using a few menus in KDE to set things up - but all the same, for a newbie like me it is great to have something tthat I can actually use while I start looking around under the bonnet. I bought and read a lot of 'Running Linux' two years ago. It's fascinating but does give the impression that al of that hand-editing of config files and using the command line is the only way to install and use linux. So when I first tried out a Storm Linux CD last year I was absolutely gobsmacked to find a GUI desktop coming up. Who'd have known? I know it sounds daft but there must be many others who think like that after looking at the recommended books. I really don't think that the linux community puts over how easy it is to install and use, at least to do a few simple things like browse the web and send a few emails etc. (I'm assuming that it still works today of course when I come to send this in a few minutes :) Anyway, I know I'm boring all you non-quiche-eating sysadmins out there but if there are any other newbies lurking on the list, wondering whether to dive in, then I just want to say - go for it and have a go. With a beginners distribution at least, it really does seem to be pretty straightforward - if I'm not tempting providence, fingers crossed and pass the garlic. Hope to meet some of you on sunday - hopefully I won't be the only peson who doesn't know their xml from their sql Regards Syd PS - I will be driving so anyone from the Norwich area need a lift - email me.

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Re: [Alug] This meeting thingy
by David Freeman 10 Aug '01

10 Aug '01

On Thu, 9 Aug 2001 23:25:35 +0100 Steve Fosdick wrote: > On Thu, Aug 09, 2001 at 08:13:33AM +0000, David Freeman wrote: > > > its a 35 min bus ride from Ipswich station, and will cost about £205 > > return (long time since I used it) > > Two pounds and fivepence, or two hundred and five pounds? > > Steve. D'oh oops that should be 2.05 ukp Sorry D > _______________________________________________ > alug, the Anglian Linux User Group list > Send list replies to alug(a)stu.uea.ac.uk > http://www.anglian.lug.org.uk/ http://rabbit.stu.uea.ac.uk/cgi-bin/listinfo/alug > See the website for instructions on digest or unsub! -- "Your house sounds like a fire hazard" Peter Clarke

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Re: [Alug] This meeting thingy
by David Freeman 10 Aug '01

10 Aug '01

On 08 Aug 2001 20:53:38 +0100 MJ Ray wrote: > Q1. Does anyone from K.Lynn - Thetford - Bury want a lift to the next > meeting? Not sure. I think Jen may be on that sort of area, but I think she is bringing the bike. > Q2. If not, how long does it take to get from Ipswich's train station > to the venue? And how much? its a 35 min bus ride from Ipswich station, and will cost about £205 return (long time since I used it) > Q3. What are we supposed to bringing? Beer, gifts and T-shirts for me and a little money for the pub afterwards :o) Seriously, its just like any normal meet. We wont be doing the BBQ afterwards as I can't get permission to burn the green down, so the plan now stands at going to the pub which is only 20 yrds from the hut. OS map coordinates 24405 45336 (OS Landranger map 169 I believe) Lat/Long N 52 degrees 03.627 mins, E 1 degree 16.438 mins (OS datum) For those who need them Thanks D -- "Your house sounds like a fire hazard" Peter Clarke

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Wireless LANS and DMCA
by David Freeman 09 Aug '01

09 Aug '01

http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20010806S0006 Is an interesting article on how the WEP encryption on Wireless LANS has been comprimised, there is a paper being released next week on it. One thing I note here is no case has been bought under the DMCA for circumventing copy protection measures, which is what you could say WEP is if they say CSS is copy protection for DVD! Also for those who care there is a DMCA equivlent currently going through the EU which will be a big problem see www.eurocrimes.org Thanks D -- "Your house sounds like a fire hazard" Peter Clarke

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Latex help
by Alexis Lee 09 Aug '01

09 Aug '01

I have a Latex table (begin{tabular}), and I want it to break one of the columns if it needs to. So rather than: <------------ size of page ------------> /---------------------------------------------------\ | field | field | long field | field | | field | field | long long long long field | field | | field | field | long field | field | \---------------------------------------------------/ I get: /--------------------------------------\ | field | field | long field | field | | field | field | long long | field | | | | long long | | | | | field | | | field | field | long field | field | \--------------------------------------/ Anyone? Alexis -- Failure- When your best just isn't good enough. "Democracy is an appalling system of government, but it is seven times better than any other" - Churchill "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance" - Derek Bok

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