January 2010 - main

Todo/Task 'links', does any program do this already?
by Chris G 24 Jan '10

24 Jan '10

As you know (probably bored to tears by now) I've been looking for a TaskList/Todo type program for a while. I've just recently realised what would really suit me - a way to add links to a web page which would pop up specific Tasks/Todos or, if it was a new task, would pop up the New Task entry box. This is surely possible, fairly easy even, a PHP link (or even some JavaScript) could easily fire off some code to search for an event in an ICS file or on a Caldav server and pop up the required window. If there's nothing out there that does this it's so "exactly what I want" I'll put my coding hat on and do it myself. Does anyone know of anything that does this or that might provide some of the tools/hooks etc that I'd need to do it myself? -- Chris Green

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extra function keys
by John Woodard 24 Jan '10

24 Jan '10

My laptop has 3 extra function keys, one brings up the default email client, Evolution on this Ubuntu box the other two are marked for the default web browser and default media player, however they do nothing at present. I expect these would launch Outlook, IE and WMP in Windows. What I would like is that they are remapped to volume up/down and mute. What is the best way to do this? Ubuntu 9.10 Gnome with pretty much everything set at defaults, no compiz or any such trickery. Cheers, BJ

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Stream media to xbox
by James Elsey 23 Jan '10

23 Jan '10

Hey guys, Does anyone here stream media across their network to an xbox 360? I've got a load of media on my fedora desktop, mostly AVI / mkvs, I want to watch them via my 360 but I really don't want to have to burn DVDs each time, and then there is the added problem of whether the 360 will read copied DVDs or not. I know there is some application that will act as a media server, to host video to the PS3, but I can't seem to find anything for the 360. I could try MythTV, but last time I tried that (about a year ago) is was effort to configure, and also was a pain having to run to the desktop to turn the video on then run back and forth to change shows/volume etc I've got telnet/vnc on iphone, maybe I could use that as a remote? Any ideas? I've got 3 seasons of stargate atlantis that are begging to be watched... James Elsey

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How to stop KDE4 automounting an external (USB) drive?
by Barry Samuels 22 Jan '10

22 Jan '10

My wife's machine is running KDE4 and when a USB (IDE) drive is plugged into it it tries to automount the partitions which are not user mountable (root only) and pops up 9 windows saying that they couldn't be mounted. I'd like to stop those popups or stop KDE4 from trying to mount that drive. Telling HAL to ignore the drive makes no difference. Help much appreciated. -- Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

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Well I'm slowly homing in on what I think I'm looking for
by Chris G 21 Jan '10

21 Jan '10

Just to keep you all well bored, here is where my search for a Wiki/Blog/CMS is now taking me. (I'm not really trying to be boring, comments, suggestions and such would be very welcome) I *think* what I'm basically after is an easy to use (i.e. easy to enter text) web page creation system which is somewhere between a blog and a wiki. The fly in the ointment is that I want to be able to put 'events' into the text somehow and I can't find any Wiki/Blog/CMS that really seems to be able to do this. Oh, I also want to be able to handle a hierarchy of pages. So, to try and give an example of what I want to do, bring out the old boat buying 'project'. This will have chunks of information (i.e. web pages) laid out as follows:- Boat purchase Searching for boat Types of boat Insurance Engineer survey ... ... Then the page about Insurance would basically be a sort of blog:- 28-Dec-2009 Asked for a quote from DBA insurers 05-Jan-2009 DBA quoted £387, seems reasonable 12-Jan-2010 Asked for quote at the Boat Show ... bla ... bla <EVENT> 01-Apr-2010 - boat insurance required I want that <EVENT> entry to somehow be a link to a calendar application of some sort which will actually have the event set up so I get a reminder or, even better, I want the blog/wiki to know that <EVENT> means it's got to remind me. My existing web info management system (cobbled together by me using reStructuredText and a small python script to automatically run it when .rst pages are browsed) does quite a bit of what I want. It provides a hierarchical set of web pages with 'crumb' links and (very) easy creation and editing using reStructuredText. However it doesn't really have any bloglike time/sequence awareness and neither does it have any ability to embed alarms/events. It may be that I could add what I need to my existing system but it feels like someone somewhere should surely have something like this already. It looks like TextPattern *might* provide quite a bit of what I want, I may install it and have a play. -- Chris Green

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Re: [ALUG] preventing shutdown with remote working going on
by Peter Alcibiades 20 Jan '10

20 Jan '10

Thanks, this is brilliant. I have to make sure it catches XDCMP sessions as well as SSH ones, but it seems bound to. Brilliant! Yes, the answer might well be a server and all remote logins, from a technical point of view. Agreed. They have talked about that. But how they would manage to maintain it themselves, if something happened to me? This is doing our best to keep it as simple as possible, and to make sure that if it falls over, it will be no more than inconvenient. Or if I fall over. Peter > Assuming a debian-like system, what about molly-guard? > > http://www.ubuntugeek.com/molly-guard-protects-machines-from-accidental- > shutdownsreboots.html > http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/molly-guard > > Cheers, > > David >

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DNS queries
by Mark Rogers 19 Jan '10

19 Jan '10

I have a list of addresses I need to perform a DNS lookup for. What I need to know is the authoritative server for the domain, and the result of the lookup (A record with IP or CNAME with host). I tried: dig www.google.co.uk .. and it's not showing me the authoritative servers. So I tried: dig www.google.co.uk +nssearch .. and got a blank response. Suggestions? Background: I have a webserver which will shortly be changing it's IP address. It has a local DNS which will be updated as part of the migration so anything which uses that server for authoritative DNS will be updated automatically. However anything on an external DNS may need updating, depending on whether it references the server by CNAME or A record (and if CNAME I need to check that whatever that is gets updated too). So I need to know which addresses still point at the server, and of those which are not in the local DNS and of those which need updating (and where). -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

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Which Netbook For Ubuntu?
by Simon Royal 19 Jan '10

19 Jan '10

Hi I have been using Ubuntu solidly for a few weeks now and loving it. A Mac fan prior to that for 10 years, I got given an old Samsung A10 laptop, installed Ubuntu and the rest is history. The Samsung is a little beaten up but works fine. Now I have gotten comfortable with Ubuntu and sold my Apple PowerBook I am on the look out for something a bit better and would really like a small netbook. I don't do anything to intense. I only write, email, surf (including games in FaceBook), the odd image editing in GIMP and a bit of Skype. First of all, does anyone have any recommendations as to which netbook to look at? Does anyone have one for sale? I don't really want anything with a 7" screen. I need one to run Ubuntu 9.10. My current Samsung is a 1.1Ghz Duron, so something with a little more oomph would be nice, although Ubuntu runs very smoothly on it with 1GB RAM. Simon Royal --- Catch me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal or Skype: Simon-Royal _________________________________________________________________ We want to hear all your funny, exciting and crazy Hotmail stories. Tell us now http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/195013117/direct/01/

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Re: [ALUG] Laptop Adapter
by Simon Royal 19 Jan '10

19 Jan '10

James Picture is attached. Sorry for the poor quality but I only have my mobile for communication. Under the laptop it says 19v 4.2a max. On the adapter it says 19v 3.79a. The adapter was a cheap 2-power one not a genuine Samsung one. Simon --- Catch me on Twitter http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal or Skype me: Simon-Royal - original message - Subject: Re: [ALUG] Laptop Adapter From: James Taylor <jt(a)imen.org.uk> Date: 18/01/2010 23:03 Can you read the underside of your laptop and tell us the voltage and power that you require, then if possible take a pic of the socket? Maybe a camera phone pic would suffice? JT On 18 Jan 2010, at 20:25, Simon Royal wrote: > Hi all. > > Can anyone help in my hour of need. I have a Samsung A10 laptop, which I have been running Ubuntu on and loving it. > > The adapter has just blown. The light doesnt come on and I am stuck without a computer or access to my files. > > You dont happen to have a spare one or a generic one? > > Simon > > --- Catch me on Twitter http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal or Skype me: Simon-Royal > > > _______________________________________________ > 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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Laptop Adapter
by Simon Royal 19 Jan '10

19 Jan '10

Hi all. Can anyone help in my hour of need. I have a Samsung A10 laptop, which I have been running Ubuntu on and loving it. The adapter has just blown. The light doesnt come on and I am stuck without a computer or access to my files. You dont happen to have a spare one or a generic one? Simon --- Catch me on Twitter http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal or Skype me: Simon-Royal

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