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what a nightmare - firefox 3 - spoke too soon
by Peter Alcibiades 15 Nov '08

15 Nov '08

Spoke too soon. Now its filling up with stuff like this: ** Message: GetValue variable 2 (2) ** (firefox-bin:7254): WARNING **: Exception in gr::RangeSegment So the nphelix stuff has stopped, but these messages were there before and are not fixed. What a total pile of ***. Have to move over to Konqueror, which will take the better part of the morning owing to the insane way it handles bookmarks. Peter

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what a nightmare - firefox 3
by Peter Alcibiades 15 Nov '08

15 Nov '08

It may be fixed, and if anyone else finds themselves in this nightmare, this is what it took. It seems to have been a real player library which was 32 bit, to which the 64 bit FF 3 was pointing. At least I think this is what nphelix.so is. So, reinstalling FF does not help. This generated all the error messages and segmentation errors. The smart thing to do on realizing this would just be delete all realplayer files manually from /opt/mozilla.. Now they tell me! Instead I found a real player uninstall script, which declined to run until it was pointed at /opt, and then simply deleted /opt! Fortunately there was nothing terribly vital in it, just realbasic, and and old copy of openoffice, and who needs them? Well, lots of codecs and stuff, so maybe the problems will show up later on. But at least missing files are fixable. Then I reinstalled FF again, and it seems to work. There are still sites which it fails to display correctly, but at least it is now, touch wood, not filling the hard drive with xsession error messages. Peter

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Re: [ALUG] xsession errors file absolutely huge!
by Peter Alcibiades 14 Nov '08

14 Nov '08

Following Ted's suggestions and checking while .xsession-errors is small enough to cat, this is what we see (it goes on for pages already, this is just an excerpt). Probably it would be smart to reinstall Firefox. But how can it have happened, its just a perfectly standard Lenny installation, with FF upgraded to v3 through Synaptic? Real Player isn't installed by the way. And all plugins have been disabled. Peter _____________________________________ ** (firefox-bin:4231): WARNING **: Exception in gr::RangeSegment ** (firefox-bin:4231): WARNING **: Exception in gr::RangeSegment ** (firefox-bin:4231): WARNING **: Exception in gr::RangeSegment ** (firefox-bin:4231): WARNING **: Exception in gr::RangeSegment ** (firefox-bin:4231): WARNING **: Exception in gr::RangeSegment LoadPlugin: failed to initialize shared library /opt/mozilla/nphelix.so [/opt/mozilla/nphelix.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32] LoadPlugin: failed to initialize shared library /home/peter/RealPlayer/mozilla/nphelix.so [/home/peter/RealPlayer/mozilla/nphelix.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32] LoadPlugin: failed to initialize shared library /usr/lib/totem/gstreamer/libtotem-complex-plugin.so [/usr/lib/totem/gstreamer/libtotem-complex-plugin.so: undefined symbol: _ZN13nsTArray_base9sEmptyHdrE] ** Message: GetValue variable 1 (1) ** Message: GetValue variable 2 (2) LoadPlugin: failed to initialize shared library /usr/lib/totem/gstreamer/libtotem-complex-plugin.so [/usr/lib/totem/gstreamer/libtotem-complex-plugin.so: undefined symbol: _ZN13nsTArray_base9sEmptyHdrE] ** Message: GetValue variable 1 (1) ** Message: GetValue variable 2 (2) ** Message: GetValue variable 1 (1) ** Message: GetValue variable 2 (2) ** Message: GetValue variable 1 (1) ** Message: GetValue variable 2 (2) LoadPlugin: failed to initialize shared library /opt/mozilla/nphelix.so [/opt/mozilla/nphelix.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32] LoadPlugin: failed to initialize shared library /opt/mozilla/nphelix.so [/opt/mozilla/nphelix.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32] LoadPlugin: failed to initialize shared library /home/peter/RealPlayer/mozilla/nphelix.so [/home/peter/RealPlayer/mozilla/nphelix.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32] LoadPlugin: failed to initialize shared library /usr/lib/totem/gstreamer/libtotem-complex-plugin.so [/usr/lib/totem/gstreamer/libtotem-complex-plugin.so: undefined symbol: _ZN13nsTArray_base9sEmptyHdrE] ** Message: GetValue variable 1 (1) ** Message: GetValue variable 2 (2) LoadPlugin: failed to initialize shared library /usr/lib/totem/gstreamer/libtotem-complex-plugin.so [/usr/lib/totem/gstreamer/libtotem-complex-plugin.so: undefined symbol: _ZN13nsTArray_base9sEmptyHdrE] ** Message: GetValue variable 1 (1) ** Message: GetValue variable 2 (2) ** Message: GetValue variable 1 (1) ** Message: GetValue variable 2 (2) ** Message: GetValue variable 1 (1) ** Message: GetValue variable 2 (2) LoadPlugin: failed to initialize shared library /opt/mozilla/nphelix.so [/opt/mozilla/nphelix.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32] LoadPlugin: failed to initialize shared library /opt/mozilla/nphelix.so [/opt/mozilla/nphelix.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32] LoadPlugin: failed to initialize shared library /home/peter/RealPlayer/mozilla/nphelix.so [/home/peter/RealPlayer/mozilla/nphelix.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32] LoadPlugin: failed to initialize shared library /usr/lib/totem/gstreamer/libtotem-complex-plugin.so [/usr/lib/totem/gstreamer/libtotem-complex-plugin.so: undefined symbol: _ZN13nsTArray_base9sEmptyHdrE] ** Message: GetValue variable 1 (1) ** Message: GetValue variable 2 (2) LoadPlugin: failed to initialize shared library /usr/lib/totem/gstreamer/libtotem-complex-plugin.so [/usr/lib/totem/gstreamer/libtotem-complex-plugin.so: undefined symbol: _ZN13nsTArray_base9sEmptyHdrE] ** Message: GetValue variable 1 (1) ** Message: GetValue variable 2 (2) ** Message: GetValue variable 1 (1)

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xsession errors file absolutely huge!
by Peter Alcibiades 14 Nov '08

14 Nov '08

There is probably a simple explanation of this bizarre event. I got a popup message in Gnome saying that /home was out of space. It is a 200G partition, and there is not a whole lot on it, so this was puzzling. I did (after a few false starts) find . -size +10G and was astonished to be told there was just one, xsession-errors. OK, tried it with 20G.....same. Well in the end xsession-errors turned out to be 150G. Scratched my head for some minutes and then decided, why not, so I did rm. It went with no fuss. Then did du, and /home was now about 50G which seemed about right. This seemed weird enough that help was needed. Now unable to start kmail. Logged off, now unable to log back in! It wasn't the WM, since it would not work with any of them. Rebooted, and now it invoked fschk on hda6, which is where /home is, and finally after about a minute or two, it fixed something that was orphaned. And now it has loaded OpenBox and kmail perfectly fine. All the files seem to be where they should be. I am just praying that it will launch Gnome, and still more, that the files will be there when it does. What can it be? Anyone seen this before? This is Debian Lenny. By the way, sorry to have missed the Reindeer tonight, I am still not quite well enough. Next time. Peter

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Re: [ALUG] Low powered PC - I've ordered some bits
by Chris G 13 Nov '08

13 Nov '08

Re: my question yesterday about low power PC suppliers I hunted around on Google for a while and found an article on the (venerable) "Tom's Hardware" site about building a low power, but capable, system. They built a 4Gb, Intel core 2 duo system that consumed only around 30 watts when running. I've ordered bits for a similar system, it uses a FoxConn motherboard with Intel G31 chipset. My parts cost for a 4Gb system with 7400 processor (the most expensive bit, 7300 was out of stock) and a 500Gb hard disk was about £250. Compared with Mini-ITX systems and/or Intel Atom based systems this seems good value to me and gives me lots more processor power and room for expansion (i.e. adding hard disks). When the bits come and I've built it I will report its actual power consumption. -- Chris Green

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Linux sound analysis software?
by Srdjan Todorovic 12 Nov '08

12 Nov '08

Hello folks! I'm looking for some sound analysis software for Linux. I wish to be able to pass it a PCM wav or an MP3 and have it generate some statistics and preferably some graphs. In particular, I'm looking for amplitude/frequency graphs and harmonic analysers. I've just emeged sweep, and will play with that. I also intend to check out Audacity. http://liarliar.sourceforge.net/ is not really what I'm looking for. A google search gives me http://www.cmis.csiro.au/maaate/ (from 2002) but I can't list the contents of that directory. I had a look at sox, but that doesn't do what I want. I will keep looking, but was hoping that some kind soul would throw me some pointers. Having the ability to tag sound sample files or tag certain events (ie. tag a specific PCM sample or selection of samples) would certainly be a bonus. If nothing exists, I could be tempted to have a stab at making a similar program from scratch. Or would consider using libraries/classes in a custom app. Any thoughts, ideas or flames? Thanks, Srdjan

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An PC suppliers who quote approximate power consumption?
by Chris G 12 Nov '08

12 Nov '08

Does anyone know of a PC supplier (or component supplier) who quote the actual power comsumption of their PCs? I'm looking for a moderate powered PC to run 24 hours and thus want reasonable power consumption but I want a bog standard PC not a mini ITX (or Shuttle) system as they seem expensive for not much gain. To my surprise my new Asus P5Q-VM motherboard system with 8GB of memory and 500Gb hard drive only consumes around 60 watts. That suggests that it should be possible to get a lower specification system down below 50 watts or so which would be quite acceptable. -- Chris Green

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Eeepc 900
by Barry Chater 12 Nov '08

12 Nov '08

Hi Has anyone put Ubuntu 8.04 on a Eeepc 900. If so any major problems. Barry

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How to diagnose this crash on exit from X?
by Chris G 11 Nov '08

11 Nov '08

I have just installed xubuntu 8.10 on new hardware. It is based on a an Asus P5Q-VM motherboard (all Intel, including graphics) has 8Gb of memory and a quad code processor. It all installed OK without any problems and ran OK. However since I set the graphics resolution to 1600x1200 (the display's default) it crashes *totally* on exiting from X. It's a total, hard, crash - CTRL/ALT/Fn won't switch to a text console, I can't ssh into the system (which I can before it has crashed) and I can't ping the system. There is one other symptom, when I try and switch to a text mode console (using CTRL/ALT/Fn) even when the system is running OK I get a message from my monitor saying "this mode isn't supported" which seems a little odd on a monitor capable of 1600x1200 at more than 60Hz. The monitor is a Dell 2001FP and I'm using the DVI-D input. Does anyone have any ideas how to diagnose this problem? I have hunted around the files in /var/log but I can't see anything that looks significant there. The xorg.conf file is totally uncustomised:- Section "Device" Identifier "Configured Video Device" EndSection Section "Monitor" Identifier "Configured Monitor" EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "Default Screen" Monitor "Configured Monitor" Device "Configured Video Device" EndSection -- Chris Green

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Ripping HD-DVD disks to XVID
by Mark Rogers 11 Nov '08

11 Nov '08

I have recently bought some HD-DVD disks as they're getting very cheap now that HD-DVD has been killed off in favour of Blu-Ray. I have an HD capable TV with an XVID capable DVD player built into it. And I have an HD-DVD reader (& DVD writer) to plug into my PC. At the moment I haven't connected it up because it's SATA based and I've run out of SATA connectors so some juggling is going to be required (or I can stick it into a Windows PC). So, before I go too far, does anyone have any hints as to how I can rip HD-DVD content and convert it into XVID to burn back to a DVD? I want to basically get a full DVD in MPEG4 format from an HD-DVD. Will I even be able to read the HD-DVD in Linux? (My desktop is Ubuntu 8.10.) I don't have any other HD-DVD player so buying the disks was a bit of a gamble really :-) -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0845 45 89 555 Registered in England (0456 0902) at 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

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[ALUG Announce] 3rd Monday Monthly Ipswich Social Meeting : McGintys, Northgate Street
by samwise 11 Nov '08

11 Nov '08

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 next week (Monday 17th November) 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://pjmcginty.moonfruit.com/ McGintys pub is in the centre of Ipswich, not far from our old haunt - The Milestone. It's directly opposite the town's central library and has a reputation for good Irish beer. All are welcome, novices and experienced users. Hopefully, it shouldn't be too hard to find the pack, look for those huddled around a laptop! This month, we promised to provide a beginner's tutorial to a standards-based VoIP (i.e SIP) alternative to popular proprietary applications like Skype. Following the discussion last month, we'll aim to demonstrate how to get an easy client installed under Windows and Linux, and explain how they can interoperate, as well as being able to break out to the PSTN network. The intention is to show attendees how the Skype feature-set can be replicated using standards-based and open software. We'll aim for a practical demo, but are happy to delve into the real techy stuff, if you have questions - at least one of our members works with VoIP full-time. Feel free to ask for further information on the Main ALUG mailing list. Hope to see you there, 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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How to deal with MS .docx files?
by Chris G 10 Nov '08

10 Nov '08

Is there any Linux application that will handle MS Word .docx files successfully? A .dox file is a compressed archive of .xml files but unpacking it doesn't really produce anything very usable. -- Chris Green

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Sat Nav and Linux
by mbm 09 Nov '08

09 Nov '08

I am considering buying a satnav and would welcome some advice. I've never used one and I'm assuming any setup software, map updates etc will need a Windows PC. I don't have such a thing and want to avoid buying a satnav which I can't then fully use/update/configure or whatever for lack of windows availability. Any suggestions? Or am I worrying unnecessarily? Cheers 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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[ALUG Announce] 2nd Thurs Pub Meet 13 November 2008
by David Reynolds,,, 07 Nov '08

07 Nov '08

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- Dear ALUG, The monthly second Thursday social meeting of ALUG will take place on 13th November 2008 at The Reindeer (10 Dereham Road, Norwich, NR2 4AY; tel. 01603 762223). It's very near the junction of Dereham Road and the Norwich inner ring road (Grapes Hill) and serves a selection of real ales, nice pub food (if you fancy going early to eat) and coffee. There are generally people there from 20:00 onwards and we tend to sit to the left of the main entrance. We look forward to seeing you there. Cheers, David -- David Reynolds david(a)reynoldsfamily.org.uk ----- 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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help with wpa_supplicant please
by CDW (Linux) 02 Nov '08

02 Nov '08

Can I say first off that I'm trying to make wpa_supplicant work with DesktopBSD so apologies if some of you feel I shouldn't be asking for help here. I have an old IBM Thinkpad and having tried various brands of Linux, DesktopBSD was the only OS that installed correcly. I then wanted to make it to talk to my other machines which meant networking. It doesn't have a LAN port so I bought what I thought was a good wireless card. I was wrong. It's a Netgear WG511v2 and I've had to install it using ndisgen. I can get the thing to recognise my wireless LAN and if I run ifconfig, it reports :- ndis0: flags=8842<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 ether 00:1b:2f:d0:69:59 media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet autoselect (DS/11Mbps) status: associated ssid ss2_scanning channel 11 bssid 00:0f:3d:34:d6:f6 authmode WPA privacy OFF txpowmax 100 bmiss 7 My /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf file looks like this ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant ctrl+interface_group=wheel network={ ssid="ss2_scanning" proto=WPA key_mgmt=WPA-PSK pairwise=TKIP group=TKIP psk="c:(vo.............$-" } So the question is, does the psk data have to be in quotes and in hex? If so, how do I translate my ascii line into hex? I've read lots and lots of stuff online about all this and to be honest, I'm thoroughly confused. I'd appreciate any help. -- __ __| |_ __ __ .-----------------------------------------------. / _/ _` \ V V / | mailto:cdw_alug@the-walker-household.co.uk | \__\__,_|\_/\_/ |_______________________________________________|

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Print Postage (Royal Mail)
by Steve Fosdick 31 Oct '08

31 Oct '08

Has anyone had occasion to use the "Print Postage" service from Royal Mail? Does it reply on installing any proprietry software on your PC (including Adobe Flash) or is it usable from a normal web browser? Regards, Steve.

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Firefox 3
by Peter Alcibiades 31 Oct '08

31 Oct '08

Just upgraded to this. Am I alone in finding it very disconcerting? In fact, its so disconcerting that I'm seriously thinking of migrating to Konqueror. First there is the way fonts behave. Completely weird. Large spaces between words. It looks sort of like monospace, but for words, and the spacing on the page of a chunk of prose is weird. Tinkering at great length with the fonts helped a bit, I finally found one of the MS ones that looks not normal, but relatively bearable. Then there is the way that they have helpfully made the tab closures look all the same, whether for the open tab or others, so you can no longer see easily by the fact that the active one is red which it is. Then some pages simply don't display properly - ones which used to in 2.x That is, chunks of them are simply missing. 90% of the themes do not work with 3.x yet, so your ability to change any of the appearance is limited. Perhaps most disconcerting is the way autocompletion now seems to work. When you type in a url, it produces a list of suggestions in large font, with legends under them, most of which appear not to have been ones you've previously visited, and most of which I have no intention of ever visiting. It feels like a sort of weird spam. What on earth was wrong with just giving you a list in some reasonably sized and neutral font? Is there any way to get back to that? And is this actually advertising? Its hard to see that it could be, since many of the links are to sites that would likely not pay. Is it some idiot's idea of how to be helpful? I'd be on K now, except for the fact that migrating the bookmarks is a horrendous process. K seems to do imports in such a way that you end up with everything on one huge page which totally occupies the screen. Why it cannot simply import them in the folders they are in....! Or is this just me? Does everyone else think its the bees knees, the dogs unmentionables and so on? Peter

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Firefox 3
by Peter Alcibiades 31 Oct '08

31 Oct '08

Here is another weird thing. Downloading, everything slows to a halt - FF at least. You can't open another site without a 5-10 second delay. Then after a short period speed falls from the normally scintillating tiscali 120k to around 5k. Gradually. Is this sounding like memory leak? Peter

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Firefox 3
by Peter Alcibiades 31 Oct '08

31 Oct '08

Wayne, it is really weird. This am Slax looks just fine. Then I go to another site, Climate Audit, look at the first post which contains some graphs. They are all black. Click on them, the enlarged versions are all just fine. Go back, the smaller ones are totally black. Close FF and restart it again, now they display perfectly with a white background. Its not the settings of the background or colors either, because when I checked use system colors, the charts did not change, but most everything else turned black! The right thing must be to uninstall and then reinstall probably. Very odd. Peter

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Firefox 3
by Peter Alcibiades 29 Oct '08

29 Oct '08

What doesn't display? Slax org of all things! The page itself displays, but in the background and around the edges there is a sort of collage of other bits of Firefox. Iceweasel actually. Repeated several times over. Only way to get to the page is with.... Konqueror! Maybe I have to get it from Mozilla direct, this one is an upgrade from the Debian Lenny repository. Peter

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Re: [ALUG] Intercepting TCP comms
by David Reynolds 29 Oct '08

29 Oct '08

On 29 Oct 2008, at 11:05 am, Mark Rogers wrote: > In contrast, netcat seems to need scripts to be written to spawn > processes when connections are made and is altogether more complicated > for this task than socat. If it weren't for the pointers to netcat I'd > not have found it, though, so thanks again all! We did have a chat about that in IRC and it was pointed out that Netcat might not be able to make to do it without a script. At least it was some help in enabling you to find socat ;) -- David Reynolds david(a)reynoldsfamily.org.uk

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Intercepting TCP comms
by Mark Rogers 29 Oct '08

29 Oct '08

I'm trying to write some application code which will communicate via a TCP connection to a device. I have complete control of my application (which runs on a server to which I have SSH access) and no control of the device. At the moment my comms code is not working and I want to debug it at a binary level. For sake of argument, let's say the server connects to port 10000 on the device. I want to (a) listen on port 10000 on my desktop, (b) configure the server to think the device is my desktop, (c) forward any data I get on port 10000 to port 10000 on the device, and send any replies back whilst (d) logging everything going to/from the device. Any suggestions as to how I might do this? Or some suitable terminology to Google for? My desktop is Ubuntu and I have the luxury of a GUI there if I need it. The application is a Modbus/TCP driver for an industrial unit if anyone is interested. The protocol is simple, but binary. -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0845 45 89 555 Registered in England (0456 0902) at 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

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Re: [ALUG] Firefox 3
by Bev Nicolson 28 Oct '08

28 Oct '08

<<Just upgraded to this. Am I alone in finding it very disconcerting?>> <<Perhaps most disconcerting is the way autocompletion now seems to work.>> It was bit odd the first time I upgraded. I couldn't see how to go back several pages it's all become clear now. The spellcheck feature is a genius idea so that also helped to win me round. I don't mind the autocomplete feature. Most of the suggestions are of url's that I have typed in or looked at recently. The only wrinkle in this otherwise delightful browser is its tendancy to pick unicode/whatever for the character encoding so the question mark in the diamond appears where a pound sign should be etc. It can be changed manually but it has to be done fairly frequently as there is no option to save the setting. Sigh. I hope this gets fixed. Bev. -- _______________________________________________ Surf the Web in a faster, safer and easier way: Download Opera 9 at http://www.opera.com Powered by Outblaze

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Looking for SDRAM PC133 *ECC Buffered*
by Richard Bensley 28 Oct '08

28 Oct '08

Hey all, does anyone have ECC Buffered/Server grade PC133 SDRAM they don't mind parting with or selling? Looking for sticks in the region or 512-1GB to get a total of 2GB for a server. Cheers Rich -- Richard Charles Bensley richardbensley(a)gmail.com http://www.richardbensley.co.uk 07846466530

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CodeWeavers Linux Software - free download for 24 hours
by samwise 28 Oct '08

28 Oct '08

Thought this story might be of some interest ... Peter. CodeWeavers download-only Pro version will be available for free download for 24 hours, starting tomorrow: http://www.codeweavers.com/about/general/press/20081027/

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