October 2011 - main

[ALUG Announce] 3rd Monday Monthly Ipswich Social Meeting : McGintys, Northgate Street
by samwise 14 Oct '11

14 Oct '11

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- The monthly "Third Monday" ALUG Ipswich Social Meeting is next week, Monday 17th October, at 20:00: P J McGinty & Sons 15 Northgate Street Ipswich Suffolk IP1 3BY Tel: 01473 251 515 Map/Directions URI: http://maps.google.co.uk/?q=IP1+3BY WWW: http://www.pjmcgintys.co.uk/ McGintys pub is in the centre of Ipswich. It's directly opposite the town's central library and has a reputation for good Irish beer. We're usually to be found in the lowest section of the bar, near the library entrance to the pub. All are welcome, novices and experienced users. Feel free to ask for further information on the Main ALUG mailing list. Peter. ----- Send discussion replies to main(a)lists.alug.org.uk (Reply-To set) Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce

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R.I.P. Dennis Ritchie
by ted.harding＠wlandres.net 14 Oct '11

14 Oct '11

Good morning. This morning's news reports the death of Dennis Ritchie: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15287391 at the age of 70 (I hadn't realised before that he was younger than me ... ). That news article is not bad on the importance of UNIX and C. However, it could have tried a bit harder to describe the merits of UNIX as an operating system. I like to think of using UNIX as though it were a system of mountain streams, some of them torrents, some trickles, but all joining up and crystal clear. You could get to any part of the system by climbing the rocks, if you are agile enough. The things you drop into them here and there get carried down and emerge in the desired order and relationships, provided you drop them in at the right times and places. By contrast, systems which emerged 20-30 years after the early years of UNIX are more like the garishly decorated interior of a sluggish pleasure cruiser, with smudgy windows that you can't see out of while being served with cheap champagne and burgers, as the vessel lurches along a stagnant drab canal and lumps of effluent slap up against its bows, sometimes piling up and bringing it to a halt -- whereupon it sinks, leaving the passengers spashing and floundering in the mess. I hope we shall be seeing proper tributes to the clarity, simplicity and completeness of the original UNIX concept and implementation, and to its well deserved longevity, which owe so much to Dennis Ritchie and the other founder members of the UNIX team. Best wishes to all, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <ted.harding(a)wlandres.net> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 14-Oct-11 Time: 08:44:50 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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.htacces question - how to prevent access to sub-directories?
by Chris G 12 Oct '11

12 Oct '11

I have a common .htaccess file that I use for a number of wiki directories scattered around my server. I keep it along with the wiki software in git. This makes it easy when I fix/change things in the wiki software etc. as I can copy the whole lot out to all the wikis when I do an upgrade. I want to prevent access to some sub-directories of the wiki (specifically the data, conf, bin and inc directories) and I can't see any easy way to do this. OK, I *could* put a .htaccess file in each of data, conf, bin and inc but that seems a lot of unnecessary junk. If I could dream up a directive to put in the top level (wiki top level that is) .htaccess to deny access it would be much simpler to maintain. I'm only using .htaccess anyway because it simplifies maintenance, I could of course put all the contents of the .htaccess files in <Directory> sections of the main apache.conf file, it would be more efficient but I'd have to have a <Directory> section for every wiki and, if I moved a wiki, I'd have to change the apache.conf file. It's much easier to maintain if I put the wiki specific stuff in the .htaccess file. -- Chris Green

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[ALUG Announce] ALUG Norwich Pub Meet Thursday 13th October
by Viperfang 10 Oct '11

10 Oct '11

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- Hello Aluggers, Our monthly ALUG Norwich social meeting will be held this Thursday, 13th October at The Coach and Horses (82 Thorpe Road, Norwich, NR1 1BA). The meeting officially starts at 8pm, although some people may arrive earlier. More information on those people can be found on the list and the IRC channel. If you are unsure if you will recognise us then make yourself and your intent to attend known by either posting on list or visiting us on IRC so we can look out for you rather than hiding in the corner. Optionally you could ask at the bar if they know where the geeky computer weirdos are and they'll point you in the right direction (seriously!). Another possibility is look for heaps of electronics on a table that may possibly look like movie props that would used for detonating explosives. Feel free to bring electronics/laptops/gadgets to the meet, you will by no means be alone. Ben Bewick aka Viperfang NB: This mail is automated, please refer to the usual sources for more information. ALUG Contact Details: Website : http://www.alug.org.uk/ IRC : #alug on irc.alug.org.uk List : http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo Twitter : http://twitter.com/anglianlug Identica: TBA Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2381613902 ----- Send discussion replies to main(a)lists.alug.org.uk (Reply-To set) Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce

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Web/Javascript (I assume) question - horizontal scrolling text from newsfeed - how?
by Chris G 09 Oct '11

09 Oct '11

Considering how many of these things you see around the web I thought it would be easy! I've been asked to put a horizontally scrolling text feed onto a web page and my Google searching has just turned up loads of sort of messy half-working bits of Javascript. Many of the sites which supposedly show how to do this don't even seem to work themselves which isn't very encouraging! So, is it really that difficult to display something like an RSS feed (could just be text headlines collected manually actually) as a horizontally scrolling line of text? Any pointers to examples of how to do it or to sites that explain it well would be very welcome. -- Chris Green

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DHCP not setting /etc/resolv.conf
by Chris G 06 Oct '11

06 Oct '11

I am trying out my new TP-Link TL-WR743ND Wireless Client router. After a couple of minor configuration issues I have it working as a WiFi client to my main WiFi, this is in preparation for doing the same thing when it's on our boat using the marina's WiFi. One fundamental thing that I had to fix was to change its IP because (not surprisingly) it didn't want to work with the same 192.168.1.x subnet as the main WiFi/LAN. So it's now 192.168.13.1 and I have it working. However I'm currently having to manually edit /etc/resolv.conf every time I start up because Network Manager is emptying it. The TL-WR743ND is set up to provide DHCP and the settings look right to me. It's working to the extent that it's giviing the client laptop I'm using to test it an IP address of 192.168.13.100 which is the start of the DHCP range in the TL-WR743ND. The default gateway is 192.168.13.1 and the primary DNS is 192.168.1.2 (I have a dnsmasq server for the local LAN running there). But on rebooting I just get:- # Generated by Network Manager and nothing more in /etc/resolv.conf. The client laptop is directly plugged in to one of teh LAN ports on the TL-WR743ND and it has its wireless turned off so that *shouldn't* be interfering. Does anyone have any ideas what might be wrong? It seems unlikely that the DHCP server on the TL-WR743ND is that broken, is it?! -- Chris Green

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Norwich 2600: This Friday!
by Ben Bewick 04 Oct '11

04 Oct '11

For those of you who are interested, there is a 2600 meeting in Norwich this friday, full details on our website! http://www.norwich2600.co.uk

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Efficient/simple basic data entry application for sqlite3 or mySql database wanted
by Chris G 04 Oct '11

04 Oct '11

I want a simple, straightforward way to enter data into a sqlite3 database, by this I mean:- I want to be presented with the existing table contents with rows across the page (it will fit across the screen, the database will have only five or six columns). It would be nice if I can customise the sort order. I want to be able to add data at the bottom where there will be an empty row by simply typing the data in and tabbing to the next field, no pop-up boxes or other hoops to jump through. None of the applications that I can find provide anything remotely as easy as this, both sqlitebrowser and sqliteman are very painful to use for entering data. The application can run on the local PC or as a web application. I already have a plugin for my Wiki that does most of what I want with the database but it can only do data entry with a single row of the database shown (i.e. what Access calls 'columnar'), what I want is what Access calles 'tabular'. If there's nothing suitable for sqlite3 I could use mySql instead. -- Chris Green

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How to enable WiFi from cammand line on eeePc?
by Chris G 03 Oct '11

03 Oct '11

I have an Asus eeePc 701 running Ubuntu 10.04, no GUI just the base installation plus a few bits I needed. We now have WiFi available on the boat (where the eeePc is) and so I want to use it from the eeePc - does anyone know how to do it? The eeePC sees the Wifi as an ifconfig returns some information about it, what command line tools etc. do I need to configure it? The WiFi is pretty standard with "WPA & WPA2 Personal" security. -- Chris Green

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cisco router
by mick 01 Oct '11

01 Oct '11

Hi Guys Clearing my cupboard again I have an old Cisco SOHO 97 (837 equivalent) ADSL router going spare (free to a good home). Could be useful to sopmeone who wants to be able to play with cisco IOS (trust me, you wouldn't want to use the web interface, it's crap). Mick --------------------------------------------------------------------- The text file for RFC 854 contains exactly 854 lines. Do you think there is any cosmic significance in this? Douglas E Comer - Internetworking with TCP/IP Volume 1 http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc854.txt ---------------------------------------------------------------------

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