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Syleham kit meet
by ted.harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 11 Mar '07

11 Mar '07

Is the Syleham kit meet on 1 April definitely on? A recent posting suggests it is, but the Wiki only says it is "Proposed" [posted 22 Feb 2007]. If it's on, then I'm on! (Thanks, John). Best wishes to all, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <ted.harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 11-Mar-07 Time: 12:35:32 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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A CSS and HTML question
by Eur Ing Chris Green 09 Mar '07

09 Mar '07

How do you know which CSS properties apply to which selectors? I.e. given that I want to change the spacing around lists how do I find whether it's padding or margin (or border?) that I need to change and/or what the defaults are? Not to mention how to know whether it's the space below the heading above or the space above the list that needs reducing. Personally I think we should throw the whole lot in the bin and start again! After playing with this for quite a while and having looked at lots of templates and stylesheets they're all a total mess of the worst sort of unstructured 'code' - it's the equivalent of the worst excesses of spaghetti code in Basic. I don't think it's the fault of the writers of the code, it's inherent in the way that HTML and CSS work. It's almost invitable that the template and stylesheet will become a horrible interwoven mess of classes, IDs and so on. Not to mention - why is it that the default spacing of HTML headings, lists, etc. is so awful? The defaults are such that paragraphs and lists are spaced equally from the things above them and below them. Surely a heading (for example) should be closer to the text/list below it that it refers to and further from what's above it? I always have to go and play games with the spacing to get what looks to me a reasonable layout that I would expect to get by default. .... end of Friday rant! :-) -- Chris Green

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RF Band for Wireless Routers?
by ted.harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 09 Mar '07

09 Mar '07

Hi Folks, Anyone know what Radio Frequency Band is used by Wireless Routers? Thanks, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <ted.harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 09-Mar-07 Time: 09:53:09 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Against the Day
by Richard Lewis 09 Mar '07

09 Mar '07

Hello ALUG, At the pub meet last night one of the bar staff directed our attention to a copy of /Against the Day/ by Thomas Pynchon which was found on the evening of the annual nosh in February in a Waterstones bag near our table. They've kept hold of it. If its yours, they would probably be happy for you to go in there and claim it. Cheers, Richard -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Richard Lewis http://www.richard-lewis.me.uk/ JID: ironchicken(a)jabber.earth.li -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

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Question about borders in firefox or elsewhere
by Eur Ing Chris Green 09 Mar '07

09 Mar '07

Is there any way to change the default of tables having no borders in Firefox? I know how to change the HTML of the table to show borders but I wondered if there was a way to give Firefox a set of default table border values. -- Chris Green

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Re: [ALUG] Are there any HTML 'beautifier' programs out there?
by Richard Jordan 08 Mar '07

08 Mar '07

Several years ago I used to use a program called HTML Tidy. I haven't used it for ages, but it would be worth a look. Google tells me that it can now be found at http://tidy.sourceforge.net/ Richard Jordan

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Are there any HTML 'beautifier' programs out there?
by Eur Ing Chris Green 08 Mar '07

08 Mar '07

I'm trying to understand and unpick an HTML template file, an automatic 'beautifier' would help no end, are there any out there? -- Chris Green

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[Fwd: [ALUG] I think the hard drives dead]
by Chris & Barry Chater 08 Mar '07

08 Mar '07

Hi again, Thanks for your tips and offers of help, as i live near King's Lynn it is too far to go to one of your kit meetings (Didn't you use to hold meetings in King's Lynn once?) I am in the proccess of getting quotes on having a new drive fitted as i am not too technical minded and may have attempted to change the drive on a desktop unit but not a laptop. This one is one of those you have to take apart unlike my wifes Toshiba which has a little removable cover. Got to get this sorted as i need a Linux Fix soon ;-) Barry Hi Would you believe it finally got Ubuntu Linux working on an old laptop, got a wireless card and got that working. then the other day computer froze while watching video on BBC site.Could not get it to shut down, so switched off

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Can one invoke mod_autoindex explicitly, or alternatives?
by Eur Ing Chris Green 08 Mar '07

08 Mar '07

I want a way to produce a web page which includes directory contents like those produced by apache's mod_autoindex. Looking at the apache documentation I can't see any obvious way to do this, it either displays the contents of index.html (if that's what you have set with the DirectoryIndex directive) or it will (if allowed) do what mod_autoindex is configured to do and show you the contents of the directory. I want to be able to ask for something like http://my.site.com/dira/index.html and see what's in index.html *plus* clickable links for each of the files in dira. The HEADER.html and README.html files set by the HeaderName and ReadmeName directives don't quite do what I want (though nearly). Has anyone any ideas or pointers to anything useful. Ultimately what I want is a way to have a directory where I can have a reST generated index.html file and then a list of .PDF (for example) files that can be clicked on. I don't particularly want to have to edit the index.html every time I add or delete a .PDF file. Note, it's not *just* for PDF files but it's probably for a fairly short list of file types. -- Chris Green

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Everything I do at the moment seems to end up with python!
by Eur Ing Chris Green 08 Mar '07

08 Mar '07

I seem to arrive at a python solution for everything I do at the moment:- I was looking for a backup solution and, after a bit of looking around (and help from here) I have decided to use rdiff-backup. It's working well. It's written in python. I've been looking at lightweight markup languages, in particular one for creating HTML with tables, so after hunting around for a while I find reStructuredText which is part of Docutils which is, guess what, written in python. Digging a bit further on from my reStructuredText investigations I found pyBlosxam which seems to be my sort of blog, python of course. Another utility I installed recently used Docutils as well. I'm beginning to think that people who use python must think a certain way which matches the way I want things to work. -- Chris Green

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Linux Format DVDs
by Ian bell 07 Mar '07

07 Mar '07

I have just about every Linux Format DVD from LXF20 (sometime in 2001). As I am soon to move house I want to dispose of them. Might be useful if someone wants an old distro. Happy to bring them to the next kit meet or look out any special requirements. Otherwise I'll skip them. Ian

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I think the hard drives dead
by Chris & Barry Chater 07 Mar '07

07 Mar '07

Hi Would you believe it finally got Ubuntu Linux working on an old laptop, got a wireless card and got that working. then the other day computer froze while watching video on BBC site.Could not get it to shut down, so switched off . Now on start up it says no operating system and it will not let me reinstall Ubuntu, it cant find device to partition. Do you think the hard drive has gone? It also whines when switched off. Is it a big job replacing the drive in a Packard Bell laptop, like pull one out and plug another in or is it deeper than that and more technical. Just trying to work out if it is cost effective to replace drive. Any advice ? Barry

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Debian server crashing
by mephi 07 Mar '07

07 Mar '07

I mentioned this at the Ipswich meeting, and I've not yet had a chance to do anything about it, so I thought I'd see if anyone here had any ideas too :-) My server crashes roughly once a month. It's not consistent on the day that it crashes, sometimes it can be weeks apart. But it's usually just after 7am (although today I had my first crash at 13:30). The locking up is a bit odd, as the PC still responds to pings, but I can't log in (I can type the username, but it never requests the password), and Apache stops serving files, but samba doesn't. I've got two scripts that run, an rsync backup script that runs at 7am, and one that gathers system info, which runs every 15 minutes. I thought the problem might be something clashing between the two scripts, so I tried stopping the system info script running between 7am and 8am, this obviously hasn't helped. At the Ipswich meeting it was mentioned that it could be the syslog failing, so I'm going to look into redirecting the syslog to another server. Is there anything else that anyone can think of? System: Debian Stable (Sarge, 3.1), 2.6.8-2-686-smp kernel Dual 1Ghz P3 ASUS CUR-DLS motherboard 1Gb of ECC PC100 RAM 2x Silicon Image 3114 SATA cards 6x 250Gb SATA drives in RAID 5 (mdadm) 2x 40Gb PATA drives HP 7170 Dual Port Gigabit card (64-bit PCI) Cheers, Matt

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re: 2nd Thursday Norwich Meet : Reindeer,, Dereham Road
by Dennis 07 Mar '07

07 Mar '07

Hi all, I was thinking of dropping in on the monthly meet, but I was wondering how I would recognise everyone else. How will I recognise you lot ? Dennis

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re: 2nd Thursday Norwich Meet : Reindeer,, Dereham Road
by Dennis English 06 Mar '07

06 Mar '07

Hi all, I was thinking of dropping in on the monthly meet, but I was wondering how I would recognise everyone else. How will I recognise you lot ? Dennis

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[ALUG Announce] 2nd Thursday Norwich Meet : Reindeer, Dereham Road
by Jonathan McDowell 05 Mar '07

05 Mar '07

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 "Second Thursday" ALUG Norwich Pub Meet is this Thursday, 8th March. It's at the Reindeer pub on the Dereham Road, just opposite the City Gate. People will be there from 8pm-ish, though there may be a few people there earlier. Topics for discussion will no doubt be as varied as ever. The Reindeer has a reasonable selection of beer as well as decent coffee (with biscuits, if you're lucky). Directions to the Reindeer can be found at: http://www.alug.org.uk/venues/reindeer.html Pictures of some of the regulars, and irregulars, and, well, just some pictures of people that might or might not turn up are available from: http://www.earth.li/~noodles/Photos/2006-02-ALUG/ http://the.earth.li/~noodles/stilvoid-alug/mp20050811/ http://www.earth.li/~noodles/Photos/2005-01-ALUG-Xmas/ http://www.earth.li/~noodles/Photos/2004-08-ALUG/ Which should hopefully aid those of you wondering who to look out for, even if the images are getting a bit old now. We're /normally/ just to the left of the main entrance, though sometimes we've ended up at the far end of the pub beside the pool table, as there are comfy seats at that end. J. -- [ I'd love to but... I'm having all my plants neutered. ] ----- 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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Planet ALUG
by Dave Briggs 05 Mar '07

05 Mar '07

Would it be possible for whoever is currently looking after the planet to delete my old feed (http://feeds.feedburner.com/davebriggs) and put my new one (http://davebriggs.wordpress.com/feed/) in? Thanks! -- Dave Briggs

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Annoying shell script problem - calling external binary
by samwise 05 Mar '07

05 Mar '07

Hi, Got an annoying shell script bug. I'm using GNU bash, version 3.1.17(1)-release. Here's a testcase.sh shell script: #!/bin/bash -v myfiles="/home/samwise/Desktop/file\ with\ spaces.txt /tmp/otherfile.txt" echo binary --usethese $myfiles binary --usethese $myfiles Relevant output to console: $ ./testcase.sh #!/bin/bash -v myfiles="/home/samwise/Desktop/file\ with\ spaces.txt /tmp/otherfile.txt" echo binary --usethese $myfiles binary --usethese /home/samwise/Desktop/file\ with\ spaces.txt /tmp/otherfile.txt binary --usethese $myfiles $ I want to call an external binary with a parameter made of filenames which may contain spaces. If I run the output of the echo statement above (4th line of output) manually by cutting and pasting into the console, the scanner works fine. However, it always fails if the same command is manually called with quotes around the parameter value: WORKS: binary --usethis /home/samwise/Desktop/file\ with\ spaces.txt /tmp/otherfile.txt DOESN'T WORK: binary --usethis "/home/samwise/Desktop/file\ with\ spaces.txt /tmp/otherfile.txt" Now, despite me *not* putting in quotation marks in the shell script, it appears that the call on the third line is being interpreted as though I have used them ... and so the call fails. Anyone got any suggestions? Peter.

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Kit Meet?
by Mark Ridley 04 Mar '07

04 Mar '07

I delete all my emails (stupid habit) and the mailing list archive doesn't appear to be searchable, from a mobile browser anyway. So, is there a kit meet soon near or in Ipswich? I have a case with mobo and processor (old AMD), and an Atari ST. Someone (samwise/Peter) wanted one of them I'm sure. The meetings page on the webby was going on about 2006, plus this Treo is too fiddley to mention! :) Ta. -Mark (fed up of working in Switzerland) ----------------------------------------------------------- This message may contain confidential and/or privileged information. This information is intended to be read only by the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient, you are on notice that any review, disclosure, copying, distribution or use of the contents of this message is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete or destroy any copy of this message.

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PC Disposal
by Ian bell 03 Mar '07

03 Mar '07

While we are discussing getting rid of old stuff, I saw on Look East a short while ago and article about a company in Norwich that recycles computer hardware inlcuding peripherals. I have Googleg but all I can find is companies that deal with corporate disposals rather than individuals. Is the dump the only alternative for individuals? Ian

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Firefox help - how it displays directories
by Eur Ing Chris Green 03 Mar '07

03 Mar '07

Yesterday or the day before I saw in passing a web page that had a reference to how Firefox displays directories (i.e. when you open a directory with no index.html and you're allowed to). It had something about extra decorations and how to make things appear in the "Description" column. Can anyone give me a pointer to documentation on this? -- Chris Green

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Re: [ALUG] cups server broken after upgrade to etch
by Jenny Hopkins 02 Mar '07

02 Mar '07

Fixed. And the problem was? Cupsys_1.2.7 package hadn't installed properly, which in turn meant cupsys-driver-gimpprint and cupsys-driver-gutenprint hadn't installed properly. I found and fixed this by: 1. removed the cupsys package and moved /etc/cups directory. 2. installed above packages. I tried all this yesterday and it was all a bit twitchy, but today it absolutely refused to install cupsys, as it couldn't read '/etc/cups/cupsd.conf'. I had a look, and this didn't exist, as it was part of the cupsys package itself. 3. I examined the package in /var/cache/apt/archives, and hand-copied the cupsd.conf to /etc/cups. 4. I re-ran the install command, and this time it installed, then gutenprint ran a whole bunch of useful, helpful stuff, which it definitely hadn't yesterday. 5. The printer was detected and a test page printed successfully. Hoorah! I wonder if this is a bug I ought to report. Perhaps the pre-inst and post-inst lines are muddled or something, or more likely it was my bad luck. Thanks for all the help. I can also use the hp-toolbox now as a result of the breakage. Jenny I

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cups server broken after upgrade to etch
by Jenny Hopkins 02 Mar '07

02 Mar '07

Hullo there, I've just upgraded my debian amd64 server to etch. cups print server is now misbehaving. If I use the web interface on ipp 631, clicking on any of the links request I use https:blah, rather than http:blah, and offer the URL, but following that link causes the page to hang and cupsys to be restarted. Previously I would be asked for a login and password. If I try printing a test page from the web interface, I get the error "Printer not connected; will retry in 30 seconds". The error log on the server says: "D [01/Mar/2007:19:34:07 +0000] cupsdAuthorize: No authentication data provided." I have a queue of daughters waiting to print homework, help! These are the packages I've been upgraded to: dpkg -l | grep cupsys ii cupsys 1.2.7-4 Common UNIX Printing System(tm) - server ii cupsys-bsd 1.2.7-4 Common UNIX Printing System(tm) - BSD comman ii cupsys-client 1.2.7-4 Common UNIX Printing System(tm) - client pro ii cupsys-common 1.2.7-4 Common UNIX Printing System(tm) - common fil ii cupsys-driver-gimpprint 5.0.0-3 printer drivers for CUPS ii cupsys-driver-gutenprint 5.0.0-3 printer drivers for CUPS ii libcupsys2 1.2.7-4 Common UNIX Printing System(tm) - libs ii libcupsys2-gnutls10 1.2.7-4 Common UNIX Printing System(tm) - dummy libs Thanks, Jenny

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Re: SLED
by Eur Ing Chris Green 02 Mar '07

02 Mar '07

On Fri, Mar 02, 2007 at 09:58:53AM -0000, Peter Onion wrote: > <AOL> Me Too </AOL> I just don't trust them not to do what ever M$ tells > them to do :( > > I've just removed SuSE 10.0 from the last of my machines, and I've gone all > retro, and put Gentoo on instead ;) It's almost as much fun as Slackware > used to be :) > It still is! :-) -- Chris Green

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SLED
by Greg Thomas 02 Mar '07

02 Mar '07

Yesterday, I received a presentation on SLED - http://www.novell.com/products/desktop/ Essentially, SUSE Linux + OpenOffice + Novell improvements. FWIW, I was dead impressed. OK, so underneath it all it's just another Linux distro, but it is really really nicely packaged. Yes, it's €47 pa (for support updates + support), but it's not aimed at the readers of this list - for the first time I really think there is a genuine enterprise ready alternative to Windows on the general user desktop. Greg

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