December 2005 - main

Parsimony?
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 07 Dec '05

07 Dec '05

Hi Folks, The early Unix developers were parsimonious with keystrokes (and for good reason), so gave many commands very short names (like 'ls', 'mv'). So I thought I'd do a quick hunt for all 1- or 2-letter commands names on a Red Hat 9 system. Out of the 26 + 26*26 = 702 possible command names that could be made from 1 or 2 lower-case letters, I found only 55 (8%) in root's PATH: w ab ar as at bc cc ci co cp dc dd df dp du ed ex gs gv id ip jw ld ls ln lp ls lz mf mt mv nl nm od pb pm pr ps rb rm rx rz sb sg sh su sx sz tc tl tr ul uz vi wc Now that IS parsimonious! (I've added one or two of my own, like 'tl' for 'telnet', but have left these out of the above). Hmmm, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 07-Dec-05 Time: 00:08:23 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Ebay and Firefox
by Wayne Stallwood 06 Dec '05

06 Dec '05

Since a few days ago I have been experiencing problems with the standard build of Firefox as provided within Ubuntu Breezy (1.0.7) and Ebay. I can browse lists of items for sale with no problems but if I try and open the details of an item (usually I do this in a new tab with a middle click) it sits there loading perpetually. Eventually the page may load but more often than not results in a time out when contacting cgi.ebay.co.uk Another Ubuntu machine at the office is showing the same behaviour, and an Apple Powerbook on my home connection works fine using safari. So I don't think it's connectivity related. Tried disabling the Http pipelining as I have heard that this can cause problems with some sites and that made no difference. Is this an Ubuntu update that has broken Firefox or is ebay at fault, can someone else with Firefox confirm/deny that they can repeat this problem.. Ta muchly.

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RE: [ALUG] Ebay and Firefox
by Keith Watson 06 Dec '05

06 Dec '05

> From: Wayne Stallwood Sent: 05 December 2005 23:56 > > Since a few days ago I have been experiencing problems with > the standard build of Firefox as provided within Ubuntu > Breezy (1.0.7) and Ebay. > > I can browse lists of items for sale with no problems but if > I try and open the details of an item (usually I do this in a > new tab with a middle click) it sits there loading > perpetually. Eventually the page may load but more often than > not results in a time out when contacting cgi.ebay.co.uk > > Another Ubuntu machine at the office is showing the same > behaviour, and an Apple Powerbook on my home connection works > fine using safari. So I don't think it's connectivity related. > > Tried disabling the Http pipelining as I have heard that this > can cause problems with some sites and that made no difference. > > Is this an Ubuntu update that has broken Firefox or is ebay > at fault, can someone else with Firefox confirm/deny that > they can repeat this problem.. > Just tried it and it works fine. Same distro - Ubuntu 5.10 (I have used Synaptic to ensure everythings at the latest version). Regards, Keith ____________ The first problem for all of us, is not to learn, but to unlearn. - Gloria Steinem

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Suse et al.
by Bob Dove 05 Dec '05

05 Dec '05

Hi folks, So, there we have it - not a great deal of enthusiasm for Suse! Perhaps I should have gone for the Ubuntu 'free' distro! I must say that the 'desktop' is nice, but I can't get to grips with 'home.' From 'my computer' 'home shows a set of files, but from the task bar 'home' brings up a different menu with the same files plus my personal folder. Having copied some image files into a folder, Konqueror shows a set of 'thumbs' of which some are images and some are icons. having set up associations so that clicking a thumb in Konq opens and loads the image into Gimp works with first image selected, but to load the second, Gimp has to be closed and re-opened by clicking second image. Then there are images that bring up error messages that the resolution is not supported! What's that all about? And when Gimp fires up, only one of the two tool panels load. Gimp, excellent as it is as 'free' image editor would not make me give up Photoshop, and Scribus I can't install so I don't know if I can live without QuarkXPress. Obviously I have a lot to learn, the migration from 'doze is not easy - perhaps the creators of O/S like Suse et al should make the transition from one to 'tother easier, and let users install goodies on a simple 'install' file. TMP folder; should this be treat like a 'doze 'temp' folder and cleaned out on occasions? Cheers, BD. -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.362 / Virus Database: 267.13.11/191 - Release Date: 02/12/2005

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Ubuntu CDs
by Dave Briggs 05 Dec '05

05 Dec '05

Hi chaps I had a job lot of Ubuntu 5.10 CDs through the post this weekend. The usual deal, a live CD and an install one. I have them for 'normal' PC, 64-bit and Mac. If anyone would like one (or more!) just send me an email off list with your address. Cheers -- Dave Briggs linux(a)davebriggs.net | http://davebriggs.net | http://davebriggs.net/sclug

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Another newbie joins
by Phil Wade 05 Dec '05

05 Dec '05

Hi all, I've been asked to "send a short description of why you're interested in Linux to the mailing list" - so here it is. I've been into computers since 1982 (ZX Spectrum - Z80) and am now self-employed helping people with their Windoze machines. I like the politics of open-source software and I thought I'd better learn Linux before I die. I'm very, very old (58). Also, the Reindeer is a decent pub - do they still brew their own beer? -- Phil Wade Norwich

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Weekly IRC reminder
by Brett Parker 05 Dec '05

05 Dec '05

This is the automated ALUG IRC meeting reminder sent to remind you that there is an IRC meeting tonight (Monday) at 8.00pm. Historically, these used to be the only time a lot of us would be about, now the channel has some usual faces that are there most of the time (except at silly o'clock, when we might be sleeping, or on the second thursday of the month, where we might be drinking in the Reindeer), so don't feel limited to visit during this time, come visit us when ever you feel like it! 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 xchat, irssi 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://www.irssi.org/ http://www.epicsol.org/ Windows http://www.mirc.com (loads of help with irc for newbies!)

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FREE
by Bob Dove 04 Dec '05

04 Dec '05

Hi Peter and other members. I know what FREE means! I'm old enough to be ignored rather than told to go back to school (unless it is the U.S College of Irony)! Yes, I'm sure that folks do make a living out of 'Open Source' software as equally other use 'doze to make a living, but what has that to do with a 'FREE' software distribution on a magazine cover. Not only that I also know that folk down load FREE distros from the web and offer them for sale in things like micro mart. I believe I have read notices to the effect that the software is FREE - that is 'no cost' to the end user but the person downloading and offering it to other end user may charge for media used, post and pack &c. Please let me know if I have mis-understood all this 'free' stuff? "Fully paid up" as I said was an indication that I have a fully working installation of Linux and I want to learn how to make it as useful to me as 'doze. I haven't seen any postings on this ALUG that any of the members actually want dosh in exchange for their wisdom (not that I understand much of it as yet), though I'm sure not many would refuse a beer if offered in a certain Norwich hostelry! There doesn't seem to be any shortage of irony either! And no doubt in due course I'll be an adept command line typer! But thanks for the tip about mounting. I did discover that when media was in the drives (the DVD drives anyway) they were mounted. Now I need you get my USB drives recognised. Cheers, BD.

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Re: Suse 10.0 (Bob Dove)
by Peter 03 Dec '05

03 Dec '05

We've been using Suse 9.2 and 9.3 for the last year or so, and also Mandriva - 10.2, 2005 and now 2006. I do find Suse much less usable and much flakier. We are both using Gnome, so the differences are very very clear. The detection of usb peripherals isn't reliable. On Mandriva, you plug in and there they are on the desktop. On Suse, they may or may not be depending on how long you wait and what they are. My flash card reader mostly works, depending on what is in it. My USB pen drive never. On Mandriva, I have never had a partition fail to mount at startup. On Suse (9.2) one partition, a whole disk actually, simply vanished for no apparent reason. Upgraded to 9.3 and back it came. On Mandriva, the interface in either Gnome or KDE seems reasonably laid out. The default version of KDE on all of the Suses seems to have been designed by someone trying to make it look unusable. Then there is package installation. Urpmi really works quite well. YaST has you making pencil notes of whatever else you need to get as a dependency, then its dependencies, and I have actually found myself going around in circles - A requires B which requires A. My impression is that Suse comes with a less complete set of the libraries you need for adding more packages. Yes, you can install apt-rpm and edit the repositories. On Mandriva you don't really need to. Then there are the weirdnesses. Install Sylpheed, get through the dependencies (apt-rpm is essential if you are not to be driven mad by this) and the interface is simply weird - proliferation of folders as a default for instance, terrible fonts, compared to a nice clean look on Mandriva. The file manager - I cannot for the life of me figure out why sometimes when you are looking at a folder of photos, you seem to open in EOG and at other times in some kind of viewer with editing capabilities. And why has the zooming scroll wheel suddenly stopped working? Bottom line: your failing installation is a Message from Above. Someone is saying to you, You Do Not Want This Installation. Get Mandriva 2006 instead! It should have been right there on the stand. If they are out now, I'll copy one for you if you like. If you download the free CDs, you need to use the Mandriva admin centre and then add the official and contribution repositories, but it will lead you through that. You can also install over the net using one of the boot disks. I've done both, on different machines, and found either completely painless. Good luck Peter

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Re: Another newbie joins
by Phil Wade 03 Dec '05

03 Dec '05

> Not quite as old as I am, I beat you by a year, and my computing career > started long before yours - I've earned my keep by programming since > around 1970. Oh dear, does that mean I've let in a goal or something? Do we get to play again? Anyway, I'll bet my dad can beat your dad... :) -- Phil Wade

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