November 2004 - main

RE: [ALUG] Syleham Meet on 28th November
by Keith Watson 06 Jan '05

06 Jan '05

I shall definitely be going along to this (acts of God excepted!) so anyone in the Norwich area who wants a lift let me know ASAP. :) (work email keith.watson at kewill.com or private email kpwatson at ukfsn.org) Who else is coming? Anybody interested in me doing a demo of converting a Windows only box into a dual boot Windows+GNU/Linux (Debian) system using Knoppix? Let me know via the list otherwise I'll assume it's of no interest to anyone. Incidentally I've been testing this out and a basic Windows (2000) install takes just over an hour and the conversion takes 45 mins. And the Debian install has all the functionality of Knoppix (as opposed to the very basic Windows set-up). Here's what I propose; 1) boot box with Knoppix and run the install script (includes using QTParted to repartition the disk) which sets up a 2.4 and 2.6 Linux kernel based system and uses LILO as the boot loader. [and, if we have a web feed...] 2) set up a Debian sources list and use synaptic to update the software to latest versions 3) show how easy it is to maintain the GNU/Linux software on a Debian set-up by using synaptic. As there'll be some time spent waiting for things to load off CD or from the net we can talk around some of the issues. I haven't a spare printer ATM so if anyone's interested and wants to bring one along we can also have a go at setting up a printer. If there's time I'd also like to have a chat about making backups using gnu/tar as I'm playing around with putting a script together to do this and need all the help I can get :) Regards, Keith ____________ ARMOR, n. - The kind of clothing worn by a man whose tailor is a blacksmith. - Ambrose Bierce - The Devil's Dictionary

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Christmas meal?
by Jonathan McDowell 13 Dec '04

13 Dec '04

As Mark has pointed out, we're a bit short of meetings - the regular 2nd Thursday meet in Norwich seems to be the only regular event. So, does anyone fancy a Christmas meal? I'm in Norwich, but am happy to travel and would consider driving (and thus being able to give a few lifts) if we could find a location that would help enable more people to come. J. -- Web [ Know Thy User. ] site: http:// [ ] Made by www.earth.li/~noodles/ [ ] HuggieTag 0.0.22

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Ubuntu
by John Seago 03 Dec '04

03 Dec '04

For those unable to take up the offer of free Ubuntu CD's at next Sunday's, (28th) meeting, today I was given a two disk set at Ottakar's in Norwich, presumably they are available at all branches. From the Computer books dept. one to a customer. -- John Seago Linux User #219566 (http://counter.li.org) AFFS (http://www.affs.org.uk/)

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Photo organiser and DVD authoring program
by Graham 01 Dec '04

01 Dec '04

For the past 12 months or so I've been working on a skunkworks project to organise my photographs, both digital and scanned from paper. Although far from complete it's now fairly stable and I've recently added a module to author DVD videos, having sampled a few other authoring programs and not been very impressed. I would welcome feedback from anyone able and willing to give it a try. Here's a brief feature list: 1 Photo organiser with 3-level assignable categories (to be extended to multi-way, multi-level categories). 2 Create captioned HTML slideshows from any selection of images, with optimal image sizing for Web use. 3 Screen capture module creates slideshows directly. 4 DVD authoring module acts as a front end to spumux, dvdauthor, etc. 5 Full GUI interface with Linux and Windows compatibility. 6 Built-in help documentation. 7 Open Source license - source available on request. Development assistance would be most welcome. And here's the URL: http://www.eclecity.net/mediacity.html Please bear in mind that the software has only so far been used by three people, so don't expect commercial-standard robustness if you do unexpected things with it. Contact me with any questions, particularly if it won't run for you. -- GT

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Re: [ALUG] "Phone fraud"
by tom potts 30 Nov '04

30 Nov '04

Is it just me? Surely if someone steals money from my bank account by fraud the bank would not insist I pay it and their associated profits? If someone puts a dialler on my machine without my permission they're attempting to steal my money. Therefore BT are an associate to the fact if they try and make you cough up? They should be helping to prevent theft - or is this some leftover attitude problem from their monopoly days? ___________________________________________________________ Win a castle for NYE with your mates and Yahoo! Messenger http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com

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"Phone fraud"
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 30 Nov '04

30 Nov '04

ALUGgers who watched this evening's "Look East" will have seen that dialup phone fraud is in the news again -- people getting phone bills for hundreds of pounds for internet calls to Vanuatu, Chile, etc. on premium rates. Some Linux-users may have seen it too! What I'd like to ask knowledgeable folk is: how does it in fact work? I've never seen more than a vague description of it, on the lines that when one is on line "the call is diverted to a premium rate number", apparently through some subversion of Internet Explorer. Well, just how does that happen? Does it disconnect and then immediately dial out to a new number, unnoiticed by the user? Does it change the dialup settings as originally stored in some system file and use these thereafter? By what mechanisms are these activities mediated? This is not really a question about IE, though I'm sure that some "feature" of IE has a lot to do with it. I'm also interested in the question of how "generalisable" this mechanism might be: is it a transferrable skill, so that what can be done to IE today could be done to Netscape, Mozilla, Firefox, Opera, ... , tomorrow? (I find it reassuring that kppp throws up a window during the dialup process in which the dialog with the modem is shown, so that one can actually see what number is being dialled.) Thanks in advance for informed replies! Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 [NB: New number!] Date: 25-Nov-04 Time: 19:11:57 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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SCO Site Cracked?
by Keith Watson 29 Nov '04

29 Nov '04

take a look at www.sco.com , if they haven't fixed it by now. Regards, Keith ____________ Since it is no part of the words we unthinkingly use, it leaves no trace in the things we say. - Dogen

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RE: [ALUG] Ubuntu Gotcha
by Keith Watson 29 Nov '04

29 Nov '04

Just checked Ubuntu Bugzilla and it has been reported by others. Regards, Keith ____________ CONSERVATIVE, n. - A statesman who is enamoured of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others. - Ambrose Bierce - The Devil's Dictionary > -----Original Message----- > From: main-admin(a)lists.alug.org.uk > [mailto:main-admin@lists.alug.org.uk]On Behalf Of Keith Watson > Sent: 29 November 2004 15:52 > To: ALUG Main (E-mail) > Subject: [ALUG] Ubuntu Gotcha > > > passed a copy of Ubuntu onto a work colleague who fell upon > it with glee and installed it on his Toshiba Tecra S2 laptop. > He wanted dual boot with Windows XP. All went well until he > found that on selecting Windows XP from the Grub menu he got > "NTLDR not found". > > After checking the grub menu.lst file on my system (I dual > boot between windows XP and Linux quite happily) and making > sure that they were the same, a quick google brought up this > little gem on the Fedora bug list; > > Bug 115980 - will not boot to windows partition using grub > menu > <https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/long_list.cgi?buglist=115980> > > Reading through the text it seems that this has more to do > with the BIOS settings rather than the distro used. > > Regards, > > Keith > ____________ > A bend in the road is not the end of the road... - unless > you fail to make the turn. > > _______________________________________________ > main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > http://www.alug.org.uk/ > http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main > Unsubscribe? See message headers or the web site above! >

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Ubuntu Gotcha
by Keith Watson 29 Nov '04

29 Nov '04

passed a copy of Ubuntu onto a work colleague who fell upon it with glee and installed it on his Toshiba Tecra S2 laptop. He wanted dual boot with Windows XP. All went well until he found that on selecting Windows XP from the Grub menu he got "NTLDR not found". After checking the grub menu.lst file on my system (I dual boot between windows XP and Linux quite happily) and making sure that they were the same, a quick google brought up this little gem on the Fedora bug list; Bug 115980 - will not boot to windows partition using grub menu <https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/long_list.cgi?buglist=115980> Reading through the text it seems that this has more to do with the BIOS settings rather than the distro used. Regards, Keith ____________ A bend in the road is not the end of the road... - unless you fail to make the turn.

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RE: [ALUG] SCO Site Cracked?
by Keith Watson 29 Nov '04

29 Nov '04

> From: Martyn Drake Sent: 29 November 2004 14:24 > > Keith Watson wrote on 29 November 2004 13:54: > > > take a look at www.sco.com , if they haven't fixed it by now. > > Love it! "SCO - We own your code - pay us all your money", > and it's been > cleverly integrated into the site design too. I think it's > an inside job, > that or they've suddenly got a sense of humour :) Or maybe it isn't a crack? Maybe the people in charge have decided that honesty is the best policy ;-) Keith ____________ 'Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one less travelled by, - and that has made all the difference.' - - Robert Frost

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