main March 2010

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38 participants
48 discussions

comparing two drives at very low level
by Peter Alcibiades 06 Mar '10

06 Mar '10

We have a sort of iTunes type of software, which loads up a compact flash card. It is proprietary to the very expensive device which uses the content on the card. The expensive device has not yet arrived, so I am trying out loading cards. This software will run under Wne, and it appears to format and load the content onto the card. However, when the supplier gets the card, he says its not recognised by the equipment. This is really funny, since when he then reformats and reloads the card i Windows, it is still not OK. He is going to send me back a working card and mine so I can compare the two. At the moment, its hard to see is it just a bad card, or is there something about what the software did in Wine (or maybe what mtools did when formatting it to FAT16) that makes it unusable even when reformatted. It seems unlikely, but maybe it is the boot sector that is a problem. Wine running as an end user will probably not be able to rewrite boot sectors? Question: is there any software which will do a diff at a low level on two cards, the one he sends me, and a new one I generate using Wine? If they are different, we could tell how and maybe even hex edit and correct it. Or I could take an image of both, and is there any way of doing a diff on images? Peter

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Is it me, or BBC?
by Ted.Harding＠manchester.ac.uk 04 Mar '10

04 Mar '10

Greetings all! I have just been trying to "Listen Again" to File on Four (BBC Radio 4, 8pm Tuesday 2 March): I got the message "Insufficient bandwidth to play this programme, click here to find out more" So I did that, and the Beeb put me through a series of speed tests, with results: 1. Your connection 3028 kbps Your available bandwidth is 3028kbps. 2. TV - HD 3500 Uses 115% of your available bandwidth.kbps [with "Red Cross"] 3. TV 1500 kbps Uses 49% of your available bandwidth. [with "Green Tick"] 4. TV 800 kbps Uses 26% of your available bandwidth. [with "Green Tick"] 5. Radio 128 kbps Uses 4% of your available bandwidth. [with "Green Tick"] And this was on "Low Bandwidth version", tried after "Normal Bandwidth" had hung. So, on the face of it, it looks as though the Beeb are saying I can't listen to a Radio programme (for which I have 25 times the required bandwidth) because I don't have enough bandwidth for HD TV!!! Any comments? (And, by the way, were shall we be after the Beeb have halved their website?) Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)manchester.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 04-Mar-10 Time: 11:41:17 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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ThinkPad... Xubuntu... Maxxed Out Memory
by Simon Royal 03 Mar '10

03 Mar '10

Hi I have been running my ThinkPad 600 300Mhz P2 with 160MB of RAM with Xubuntu 9.10. It has been an ok experience. Better than you think. Better than Windows XP. I ordered another 128MB RAM stick and it arrived today. So it is now maxxed to 288MB and I must say it runs a lot better. It boots a lot faster and web browsing is a lot better. It doesn't seem to be accessing the hard drive so much, which is a good thing. It is nowhere near as sluggish and is quite nice to use. On a whole Xubuntu at such a low spec runs very well, but I recommend using the alternative CD which has a text based installer rather than the pretty Ubiquity installer from the regular Ubuntu/Xubuntu CD. As it installs a lot faster. I have gotten quite attached to this little beast and with the extra RAM it makes it a lot nicer to use. I shall be keeping it a lot longer. Simon Royal --- Catch me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal or Skype: Simon-Royal _________________________________________________________________ Tell us your greatest, weirdest and funniest Hotmail stories http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/195013117/direct/01/

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Train Tickets for Sale
by James Bensley 03 Mar '10

03 Mar '10

Got some unwanted train tickets between Norwich and Nottingham. Two adult returns booked for this Friday, they are non-refundable but I can reschedule them. If anyone wants a pair of adult return tickets between Norwich and Nottingham for any date other than this Friday I can have them rescheduled, sent to me and then I will post them to you? They were £50 so if anyone wants to make any sort of offer (even though its most unlikely anyone wants to go between Norwich and Nottingham) just let me know! -- Regards, James ;)

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Xubuntu vs Ubuntu
by Simon Royal 02 Mar '10

02 Mar '10

HiI am a big fan of Ubuntu. It got me really interested in Linux and gave me the push to leave Mac and Windows behind. I had Ubuntu 9.10 running on a Samsung A10 1.1Ghz Duron and loved it, then the laptop died. I then was given an IBM ThinkPad 600 and after running a few ' lightweight' distros have been quite impressed with Xubuntu 9.10 on it.A few people said not to both with Xubuntu, some even said it was more RAM intensive than Ubuntu. So I am beginning to wonder whether my ThinkPad would run better with Ubuntu rather than Xubuntu.I tried Xubuntu with LXDE window manager and didn't like it and didn't find it very fast. I like the Xfce as it is very close to Gnome. Is it more than just RAM that would pose a problem with Ubuntu as opposed to Xubuntu.I know a bit more RAM would help whatever distro I use, but 160MB seems to handle the basics under Xubuntu, but would it be enough for Ubuntu - even though there are reports Xubuntu is more RAM heavy than Ubuntu.According to the specs Ubuntu only requires a 300Mhz and Xubuntu requires 333Mhz, but I have Xubuntu running on a 300Mhz just fine.Ultimately my question is, would Ubuntu run better than Xubuntu? I am trying to squeeze every ounce of power out of this beast.Regards Simon Royal --- Catch me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal or Skype: Simon-Royal _________________________________________________________________ Do you have a story that started on Hotmail? Tell us now http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/195013117/direct/01/

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Xubuntu nm-applet
by Simon Royal 01 Mar '10

01 Mar '10

Hi I have been running Xubuntu for a while and loving it. I finally sorted out sound on my ThinkPad 600, but I have one more thing I cant get round. When I boot up I get faced with a keyring password request box. It is to do with Network Manager or nm-applet. It appears because my ThinkPad automatically connects to my wireless network which is WPA protected. However, I cannot find out how to stop this box coming up. I need some kind of auto authentication to stop it asking everytime I boot. I have searched the net and can find instructions for Ubuntu and early versions of Xubuntu, but not Xubuntu 9.10. Any ideas? Simon Royal --- Catch me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal or Skype: Simon-Royal _________________________________________________________________ Do you have a story that started on Hotmail? Tell us now http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/195013117/direct/01/

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Plain Text Test
by Simon Royal 01 Mar '10

01 Mar '10

Hi. Ignore this please or at tell me if this email is coming through as plain text. I use Windows Live (the new Hotmail) and it was sending all my mail out in rich text which ALUG seems to moderate. I have just changed it and just wanted to make sure it works. Regards 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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Text insertion point - do others find it irritating?
by Chris G 01 Mar '10

01 Mar '10

I am *forever* getting text inserted at the wrong place because it's inserted at the mouse cursor rather than the text cursor. This happens particularly in web textareas but the problem is common to most/all GUI applications I think. (I just tried in OpenOffice and it's the same there). Surely by default one would expect text to be inserted at the *text* cursor, not where you've moved the mouse cursor to which is often out of the way to avoid it obscuring what you're typing. My editor (xvile) manages to do it right, it's a GUI application but text inserts where I'm typing. Is there a setting somewhere to say "insert text at the text cursor"? -- Chris Green

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