February 2013 - main

Free hardware
by Srdjan Todorovic 19 Mar '13

19 Mar '13

Hi all, I've got some stuff that I don't need: 1. Domex 3194UP SCSI card. 32bit PCI slot. I've got one SCSI cable to go with it. Not used it in years, so don't know if it still works. Was working when it was removed. It was supported in Linux with the 'initio' driver on 2.6.x kernels, but I have no idea about 3.8 that was just released. 2. Universal Scientific Industrial BD-B022 "Remote Access Host Card" PCIe 1x slot. I think this is a Dell product (FX100 Remote Access Host Card?). Has 2 DVI ports and one RJ45 port. Has a JTAG connector, I2C connector (some of the pins are bent), RS232 (one bent pin). I don't know if this is even working. If anyone wants them, give me a shout and I'll bring them to the next pubmeet, otherwise they will be going to the bin / council recycling centre (landfill?). Regards, Srdjan

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after another mysterious crash
by Peter Alcibiades 03 Mar '13

03 Mar '13

Another mysterious crash. We run for three weeks or so continuously, no power off, then suddenly it dies. This time I thought to start from system rescue disk and try memory checks. This did seem to produce reporducible dying. After three crashes in a row I decided to bit the bullet and replace the innards. Yes, it would be possible just to replace the memory and see if that helped, but its productive time being lost at every iteration of this problem. The result is surprising. Now I have 16G memory in two sticks, and an i5 processor in an Asus itx board. It is a lot quieter and a lot cooler than the previous rig. In fact you can just about hear it. Started from the old hard drive with no problem and everything runs perfectly though rather faster. So, if you are looking for a compact and fast configuration, get the Silverstone mini itx case with the big fan on the front, put an i5 in it, and its perfect for a compact desktop. Recommended. I liked it with an i3, but this is superb. Al

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JOB: full-time Junior Systems Engineer, Audio Analytic startup company
by Sacha Krstulovic 26 Feb '13

26 Feb '13

Dear ALUG, Please find below a job offer which might be of interest to some of your members. Job requirements include the ability to build and maintain a local network of Ubuntu workstations with proper LDAP authentication and centralised home directories, and helping with running R&D experiments on a HPC grid. The job location is Cambridge. More details below. Thanks and best regards, - Sacha K. -- Sacha Krstulović - Dipl.Eng, PhD Lead Research Engineer Audio Analytic, Cambridge, UK Analytic Jobs, Full-Time Junior Systems Engineer (Job Ref: AA-SysEng-Full-Time-Junior) Audio Analytic is the emerging leader in sound recognition and categorisation based in Cambridge (UK); West Cambridge site 10 minutes' cycle from the city centre. Our software is used by a host of world leading security equipment manufacturers to automatically analyse sound and detect security threats, such as when someone becomes aggressive or when a glass window is broken while trying to gain entry to a building. We are currently reinforcing the core engineering team and are looking for a talented systems engineer who would like to be working in an inspirational high-tech environment at the forefront of sound recognition systems. The successful candidate will join our highly successful team and will own the management of a significant part of the company's IT infrastructure, while showing a keen interest in helping with sound recognition R&D tasks. If you would like to know more about what we technically do please visit: http://www.audioanalytic.com/en/technology or if you want to find out how many windows we had to break to develop our glass break detection abilities please visit: http://www.audioanalytic.com/en/component/content/article/12-content/3-soun…. Main Responsibilities * To work closely with our research and product engineers to build and maintain an IT infrastructure that meets the needs of our R&D processes. * To take a key role into the company's R&D by helping to run some essential R&D tasks and processes. Technical Skills Must have at least 1 years' experience in the following: Required: * Linux/Unix system administration (LDAP, NIS, SAMBA, NFS) * Linux/Unix system setup (SMP kernel, NAS storage) * Coding and running scripts. Additional: * Python a plus. * Experience in running a computer grid and running software on it (SGE SunGrid, Open Grid scheduler, HPC grid). * Interest in audio signal processing a plus (electronic music, studio recording, digital audio effects, production of general sound effects, sampling). * Experience with managing large datasets a plus (e.g., audio FX library or music library). General Skills * Good communication skills. * Excellent problem-solving skills. * Enjoy working as a member of a team and using their own initiative. * Self-confident and highly motivated. * Ability to deal confidently with a variety of people at all levels. * Able to manage own workload and meet deadlines. * Good organisational skills. * Good standard of written and spoken English. Pay This is a great opportunity to join a successful company with a huge potential for growth. The successful candidate will be compensated with an attractive package appropriate to qualifications and experience, to include a competitive salary and stock options. How to Apply For further information or to apply for this vacancy, please send a covering letter and copy of a recent CV quoting the reference AA-SysEng-Full-Time-Junior to jobs(a)audioanalytic.com<mailto:jobs@audioanalytic.com> with cc: to sacha.krstulovic(a)audioanalytic.com<mailto:sacha.krstulovic@audioanalytic.com> . Please note it is company policy not to accept job applications from recruitment consultants.

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Do I use rsync or cp?
by Chris Walker 26 Feb '13

26 Feb '13

In the recent past I asked about fixing a RAID array on a NAS drive and was kindly given some advice by Mark Rogers. Plainly a sensible option and which was included in the advice, was to have a backup. So yesterday I went out and bought a USB3 1 TB external drive along with a new USB 3 card. I've bunged the card in and got all sorts of errors, something about 'ring error' which from my brief searches relates to the kernel being too old. I'll attend to that later as I can still use the new drive on a USB 2 port. Granted it will take longer but I can live with that. My question is how should I safely copy everything off my NAS box on to the new drive? Should I just use cp or rsync? The emphasis here is 'safely' as I want to make sure I copy everything off the NAS and back again in case that goes 'nipple north'. If it helps, here's what I want to copy from - //storage_server/Laptop_Share on /media/Laptop_Share type cifs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev) //storage_server/FTP_RAID_C on /media/linux_Share type cifs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev) //storage_server/Epox_Share on /media/Epox_Share type cifs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev) //storage_server/Media_Share on /media/Media_Share type cifs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev) In the past I would simply have cp'd everything off but having watched the recent discussions on rsync, it has prompted me to ask this question here. Any help appreciated.

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[ALUG Announce] 3rd Monday Monthly Ipswich Social Meeting : The Mulberry Tree
by samwise 18 Feb '13

18 Feb '13

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 back tonight, 18th February, at 20:00: The Mulberry Tree 5 Woodbridge Road IPSWICH IP4 2EA Tel: 01473 225776 Map/Directions URI: http://maps.google.co.uk/?q=IP4+2EA WWW: https://www.facebook.com/MULBERRYHOSPITALITY The Mulberry Tree, previously known as The Milestone Beer House, is a grade 2 listed building in the centre of Ipswich. It is located at the intersection between Woodbridge Road and the A1156, across the road from the old Odeon cinema and not far from the Regent Theatre. It re-opened on Thursday March 29th 2012 after a major refurbishment, under its original name of The Mulberry House and has already begun to regain a good reputation for its selection of beers and ales. It has a sizeable car park to the rear of the building. All are welcome, novices and experienced users. Feel free to ask for further information on the Main ALUG mailing list. I may be late to arrive tonight, so feel free to email / call me to find out where I am if you're planning on popping along. Cheers, 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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I thought I understood rsync, but clearly I don't
by mick 16 Feb '13

16 Feb '13

As it says really. I need some advice on an rsync mechanism I use to routinely backup my desktop to my NAS. The command I have used for some time is: /usr/bin/rsync -rLptgoDvz --stats / --exclude-from=rsync-excludes /home/mick nas:/home/mick-backup ("/" indicates line break above and is not part of the command line) That has worked fine for some long time, but I have just upgraded my desktop disk from 1TB to 2TB. In the process of doing so I moved the old disk to a new SATA port so that I could just copy across internally all my data from the old disk to the new. In doing so (using something like "cp -r /old-disk/micks-stuff /new-disk/micks-stuff") like a pillock I forgot to add the -p switch so all my files now have a current date/time as last modified. Guess what? My latest rsync now seems to be updating ALL by backed up files (over 800 GB of videos/photos/music etc) to the NAS. This will take some time. I thought that rsync used a rather more sophisticated algorithm (including checksums for example) than simply a check of last modified time stamp. In trying to reduce the file transfer I have tried modifying the rsync command by taking out the -t switch, but of course that doesn't work, all that happens is that the target file date/time remains unmodified after the copy. So, short of actually letting the rsync run to completion, can anyone suggest a better approach (and yes, I know I could have saved myself a lot of pain by being more careful earlier....) Cheers Mick --------------------------------------------------------------------- blog: baldric.net gpg fingerprint: FC23 3338 F664 5E66 876B 72C0 0A1F E60B 5BAD D312 ---------------------------------------------------------------------

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"Correct" way to mount CIFS shares after network comes up and unmount them before it comes down
by Mark Rogers 15 Feb '13

15 Feb '13

As per subject really! On my old PC I had CIFS entries in fstab and scripts in /etc/network/if-up.d and if-down.d, and whilst the mount worked well the unmount usually locked the PC on shutdown (SysRq-B was about the only thing it would respond to). I now have a new PC so I want to set this up correctly. All I want is that when eth0 comes up, several Samba shares are mounted, and before eth0 goes down they are unmounted (forcibly if necessary). I've looked at upstart as a possibility but I don't see how to run a script before networking goes down, unless I edit the relevant network script (I don't want to change system scripts). In case I'm overcomplicating this, all I really want is a handful of shares to be available whenever the network is, and for them not to cause me problems if I restart or shutdown networking. I'm using Kubuntu 12.10 -- 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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JOB: QA Engineer
by James Tobin 15 Feb '13

15 Feb '13

Hello, I'm working with an employer that is looking to hire both experienced and graduate QA Engineers. This would be a permanent position working from home. You should have: 1. An interest in programming as well as open source databases; 2. Test development skills using C++/Java as well as scripting languages like Python, Ruby, Perl. Please email me using jamesbtobin(a)gmail.com to learn more. All the best, James

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Two network switches free to a good home
by Srdjan Todorovic 15 Feb '13

15 Feb '13

Hi all, I've got 2 network switches free to a good home. They are untested (fans spin and LEDs light up, but not tested network ports), but I have no reason to suspect they are duff. They are: 1. CentreCOM FS716 16-port 10/100 mbps switch. 2. Netgear FS518T 18-port switch. 10/100 mbps for ports 1-16 (I think) and 1 Gbps for ports 17 and 18. Both do not have the auto mdix thingy so you will need correct patch ethernet cables (port 16 has the ToPC / ToHub toggle button on both switches). Both are powered using mains kettle cable (not supplied). Both have fans (the Netgear is a fair bit louder). Both are about the same size, just bigger than A4 paper I'd think, and metal cased, about 1U high. Google the dimensions if you want. I can bring them both in to this week's ALUG meet in Norwich. If anyone wants them, let me know so I can stick them in the car for the meet. Regards, Srdjan

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Web site archiving
by Bev Nicolson 14 Feb '13

14 Feb '13

I could use Scrapbook to save web pages but is there something I can use to save multiple pages or entire sites? It's just for personal use. Any ideas? Bev.

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