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Re: OT: Content Management Recommendations please
by cl＠isbd.net 26 Jan '07

26 Jan '07

On Thu, Jan 25, 2007 at 02:06:38PM +0000, cl(a)isbd.net wrote: > Joomla > Drupal > MySource Classic > WebGUI > TikiWiki > > Does anyone here have any experience of any of these and/or are there any > good comparison/review sites? (I've found http://www.opensourcecms.com/ > which is useful). > Well I think I've found what I need, none of the above but:- http://www.exponentcms.org/ It's fairly new but seems to be going somewhere. It was certainly as easy as falling over to install it and I found it trivially easy to get started and actually produce some pages etc. -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

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Simple CMS and/or WYSIWYG HTML editor - any suggestions?
by cl＠isbd.net 25 Jan '07

25 Jan '07

What simple CMS and/or HTML editors would people recommend for a non-techie user (my wife)? She's most certainly not computer hostile but wants a simple way to create and maintain a small business web site. There's no requirement for selling or an associated database, it will just be a site comprising a few tens of pages outlining what she does with appropriate internal and external links. It doesn't have to have very sophisticated (or any) FTP management either as I can make the web site appear as a local file system if necessary. It would be nice if it made it easy to create sidebars, menus, etc. The ones I have looked at are things like:- nvu - OK, but seems to have gone to sleep as a project since version 1.0 bluefish - too techie seamonkey - Too simple, just edits an HTML page and that's about it. -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

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Silly Hardware Qs
by ted.harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 25 Jan '07

25 Jan '07

Hi Folks, OT Linux-wise, but a lot of you are wise, hardware-wise, as-it-were-wise ... 1. I have an old desktop, whose on/off is mechanical (mechanical link from power button to switch in PSU). This link is now dodgy, and I often have to press it on/off several times before the power finally kicks in. A possible solution, after running shutdown, is simply to switch off at the mains, leaving the power switch in the "on" state; and then, when starting up again, simply switch on at the mains. I.e. simply never switch the machine itself on or off. However, I'm a bit concerned that the surge from switching on at the mains might not be good for the machine if it goes straight through to the PSU, rather than the PSU's own switch allowing it in from an already live mains cable. Any comments? 2. If a TFT/LCD screen simply goes all white (every pixel bright white) when it's switched on, regardless of whether there's any input signel, does this indicate any particular type of internal problem which it might be worth probing for (by taking the back off and looking for, e.g., a loose chip/connection)? Best wishes to all from the Scrapyard in the Fen Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <ted.harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 24-Jan-07 Time: 11:04:06 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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ALUG Annual Nosh
by sfr 23 Jan '07

23 Jan '07

Twelve people confirmed, and three more possibly. The Reindeer has a different menu every week, so we can't get an exact one until Monday 5 February. Here's a sample menu for a rough idea. -- sfr ======================================== Reindeer Menu Homemade Cream of Vegetable Soup with Rustic Bread £3.75 Smoked Mackerel Pate with toasted Bread £3.95 Creamy Stilton Mushrooms with toasted Bread £3.95 Loaded Potato Skins filled with Cheese and Bacon, with a Sweet Chilli Sauce £3.95 ******** Venison Steak, with Tomatoes, Mushrooms and Chunky Chips £9.95 Homemade Quorn Lasagne with Garlic Bread and Salad £6.95 Pan fried Chicken Fillet, with a Smoked Cheese Sauce, Roasted New Potatoes and a selection of Vegetables £7.50 Homemade Sausage Casserole on a bed of creamy Mashed Potato £6.95 Grilled Plaice Fillets with a Dill and Butter Sauce with Roasted New Potatoes and a selection of Vegetables £7.50 A Whole Rack of Baby Back Ribs, coated in a Barbecue Sauce with spicy Potato Wedges, Coleslaw and Onion Rings £9.95 Gammon Steak with Pineapple, with Chips and Salad £7.95 ******** Desserts Banoffi Cheesecake served with fresh Cream £3.95 Vanilla Crème Brulle served with Amaretto Biscuits £3.95 Chocolate Sponge served with a warm Chocolate Sauce £3.95 Meringue Nests filled with Fresh Fruit and Chantilly Cream £4.25

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The 'nobody' user in HTML and CGI, how to best use it?
by cl＠isbd.net 19 Jan '07

19 Jan '07

I mostly understand why there is a user 'nobody' who owns all the HTML and CGI stuff in the /var/www hierarchy. However it's a bit of a pain maintaining the 'nobody' file ownership permissions there, how do other people manage this? At present I tend to do things as root and then 'chown -R nobody' which is a bit clumsy really. This is on a home system with me being the only direct user (and a few other samba file sharing users). I edit and move files around in /var/www directly as I'm really the only user most of the time and the occasional 'outside' user can just put up with anything I break for a while. The problem is that one has to be root to manipulate the files owned by nobody as one can't actually become nobody. Ooh, just tried and one *can* become nobody via root, I suppose that's one way to deal with it. So, is that what others do when doing things to files in the /var/www area, su to root and then to nobody? -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

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nspluginwrapper
by Peter Alcibiades 18 Jan '07

18 Jan '07

Has anyone successfully used this to install Flash 9 on AMD64 Debian? If so how? Wishing I had just installed 32 bit in the first place but dreading what it will take to move to it... Peter

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Wireless router recommendations + graphics card.
by Luke Dodd 17 Jan '07

17 Jan '07

Hi, Firstly I was wondering if anyone could recommend a good wireless ADSL router. The problem with my current router (dlink 604+) is that it cant seem to handle more than one person using a substantial amount of bandwidth constantly, even though over all there is bandwidth to spare. For example only one person in the house can listen to Internet radio or stream video at once, with a 2MBit link two Internet radios at 128k should be possible! So are there any routers that would share out the bandwidth more effectively to 2-5 computers at once (cheap ones :D)? Although I don't think there is anything that can be done I may aswell ask about an issue with my graphics card. It is a Xfx Geforce 6600GT 128MB, and the problem is whenever I open up any 3D application X will crash and restart, on windows any 3d applications will cause the screen to display some horizontal odd colored lines, then go blank, then I have to do a hard reboot. I tried taking out the card and putting it back in (PCIe), no difference. I wrote a small program just opening a blank opengl window and that was enough to cause the crash. 2D performance works fine, and the card had been working properly for around 9 months before this; the drivers I am using on Linux are a fairly recent nvidia beta (1.0-9631) - 3D was working fine some time after I last updated them. Because the problem started on both operating systems at once I think it can only be a hardware problem - but I really don't want to buy a new card so any suggestions would be good. (amd x2 3800+, 1024mb ram, asus a8n-e mobo, Xfx Geforce 6600GT 128MB video card) Thanks, Luke

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linux newbie - help requested
by elc＠freeola.net 15 Jan '07

15 Jan '07

Hi I've been dabbling in Windows for a few years now and thought I knew something about what I was doing. Being reluctant to spend my hard earned cash on upgrading from Win 98 SE to another Gates product, I thought I would try Linux. I am now dual booting Win 98 and Kubuntu and working with a dial up internet connection. Now I realise how much I don't know !!! My winmodem is an Intel (R) 536 EP V.92 and Kubuntu doesn't recognise it. Somewhere the internet informs me that of all the winmodems in use the one I have should have a linux driver. I've downloaded 'scanmodem' and run it and I get hundreds of lines of text that means nothing to me. Linux looks good to me, and I feel like sticking with it, if only I can get past first base. Can someone talk me thru in one syllable steps please to overcome this first hurdle.# Many thanks Eric

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a/v box 2
by robert 14 Jan '07

14 Jan '07

Thanks Wayne for your help so i would just like to ask this.What is the best supported a/v box,where can i get it and how can can i make it run my xbox and vcr.Thanks for your help Robert.

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a/v box
by robert johnson 14 Jan '07

14 Jan '07

Please could you tell me how to configure Linux to run my Dazzle a/v box that i got for xmas.The OS's that i'm planning to run it on is one of four:- Suse 10.2,Mandriva 06,Ubuntu 5 and Fedora 5.So if one is the easier than the rest then tell me how to configure that one as it's going to be a duel boot with Windows 98SE(hence the switch to Linux).Thanks for your help Robert ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a PS3 game guru. Get your game face on with the latest PS3 news and previews at Yahoo! Games. http://videogames.yahoo.com/platform?platform=120121

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DaDaBIK, are there no other applications like this?
by cl＠isbd.net 12 Jan '07

12 Jan '07

I'm still at my "how to create a web page for accessing a database" quest. Recently I found DaDaBIK which *seems* to be the fulfil my dreams (see http://www.dadabik.org/) Are there *really* no other applications like this around? It seems to be such an obvious thing to want but I haven't found anything else remotely like it. There are lots of database administration programs like phpmyadmin and there are quite a few database browsers but nothing quite like DaDaBIK. I'm about to install it and see if it really is as good as it seems. I'm only asking if there's anything else like it in case I'm missing something obvious that might be better. -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

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Re: ALUG Annual Nosh
by sfr 11 Jan '07

11 Jan '07

... is booked. Provisional time 7pm Thursday 8 February The Reindeer, Norwich (ie the usual pubmeet date and place, to make it easy) 9 definites, 6 maybes. Any more? I'll send out the menu in a couple of weeks. -- sfr

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[ALUG Announce] 2nd Thursday Norwich Meet : Reindeer, Dereham Road
by Jonathan McDowell 08 Jan '07

08 Jan '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, 11th January. 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. 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. -- What do you mean NO SAVING THROW? ----- 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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Crontab
by Barry Samuels 06 Jan '07

06 Jan '07

I get messages in my logs like this: Jan 4 00:00:04 localhost /usr/bin/crontab[20339]: (root) AUTH (crontab command not allowed) every day at midnight, 3:00 AM and 8:00 AM and I'm damned if I can find out what's generating them. Anyone with any bright ideas? -- Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

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ALUG Annual Nosh - RSVP
by sfr 03 Jan '07

03 Jan '07

Votes from those who replied were for 8 February, so we shall meet for a meal before/during the February monthly pubmeet at the Reindeer, Norwich. Please reply with yes (how many) or no. You can reply just to me if you don't want to clutter the list. Please reply even if it's no, because then there will be an audit trail; some people have said yes or no in person and I'm easily confused. I'll take numbers at the January pubmeet and book the table. -- sfr

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How to manage domain names on an ADSL connection?
by cl＠isbd.net 03 Jan '07

03 Jan '07

I have my Slackware Linux box connected to the outside world via a Speedtouch router. The router firewall is set up to allow incoming ssh and http connections to the Slackware box. Currently my ADSL is UKFSN/ENTANet and I have a static IP address, the domain name is 84-45-228-40.no-dns-yet.enta.net. I have a number of more useful/memorable/long-lived domains registered, some of which are hosted and some are not. Currently I have isbd.ltd.uk registered with justthename.co.uk and HTTP requests are redirected to 84-45-228-40.no-dns-yet.enta.net. This works sort of OK in the main but it's far from perfect because my Slackware box doesn't really know whether it's 84-45-228-40.no-dns-yet.enta.net or [www].isbd.ltd.uk. What's the easiest and/or neatest way of sorting this out? Obviously my basic requirement is to make my slackware box think it's isbd.ltd.uk and to hide 84-45-228-40.no-dns-yet.enta.net completely. I currently have www.isbd.ltd.uk in the following places on my slackware system:- /etc/HOSTNAME /etc/hosts at the appropriate private IP address /etc/apache/httpd.conf as the ServerName value However this causes various minor issues and infelicities, for example TWiki complains about a mismatch in the HTTP_HOST environment variable when run locally. I'd also prefer not to have to put 84-45-228-40.no-dns-yet.enta.net anywhere in HTML etc. So, what's the proper and/or best and/or easiest way to sort this out? It's really only the HTTP issues that I want/need to resolve, can Apache virtual hosting do anything for me - I suspect not as that is only if I have multiple IP addresses *actually* resolving to my machine. I don't really want to go to the extent of making my Slackware machine host isbd.ltd.uk completely as that involves DNS, MX records and all sorts of complicated things like that. I just want 'transparent' forwarding of HTTP requests. -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

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This is the ultimate in "object oriented" programming????
by cl＠isbd.net 02 Jan '07

02 Jan '07

So I have been playing a little with Ruby on Rails. I have it up and running and it works in a way but I'm totally unconvinced that it's the answer to the ultimate question - or even the answer to writing database apps for the web. Here's one little bit of code from a *very simple* tutorial example:- <html> <head> <title>My todo list</title> </head> <body> Not done:<br /> <%= display_items(@not_done) %> <p> <hr size=3> <p> Done:<br /> <%= display_items(@done) %> <hr size=3> <form method="post" action="add_item"> New item: <%= text_field("new_item", "description") %> <input type="submit" value="Add item"> </form> </body> </html> If that's either structured or object oriented then I'm a purple hippopotamus! :-) I think the fundamental problem is that HTML is a mess, until such time as that can be hidden somehow then I think we're stuck with rubbish like the above. I was hoping that Ruby on Rails helped hide some of the above junk but apparently not. Sorry - just felt like a bit of a rant! :-) -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

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I've just realised what I really want re: database/web design
by cl＠isbd.net 02 Jan '07

02 Jan '07

Just a thought really, I don't think any such thing exists. What I'd *really* like is a Wiki (or something like it) which also has database access facilities. By that I don't mean a Wiki which stores its data in a database but a Wiki which allows me to design forms for database access as well as writing 'ordinary' web pages. -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

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weird slowdown....
by Peter Alcibiades 01 Jan '07

01 Jan '07

Have you had or heard of odd behaviour apparently, at least partly, from the combination of Firefox and Gnome? After visiting a site to find out who an apparently well known singer is, I found FF paging through previous pages of its own volition, and the system as a whole hanging and slowing down. The site (devoted to one Lily Allen if it helps) kept reappearing, but the same thing happened also with the Independent site, several pages of which suddenly reappeared in the middle of reading OSNews. I thought it must be something nefarious, but what? The Independent? It seemed to hang on OSN while waiting for bilbo.counted. System Monitor doesn't reveal anything very odd, though there are spikes on the graph of 30% cpu usage, when the process table shows nothing using more than a few percent, and that is mainly system monitor itself. Moving to Konqueror didn't help. Deleting all cookies and turning off Java and Javascript didn't help. Epiphany didn't help. It happened a bit with OO but not to anything like the same extent. I more or less fixed it finally by moving to KDE. But the runaway process indicator occasionally pops up and warns about Firefox, if the threshold is set to 20%. This is on Etch AMD64, a reasonably decent Sempron with 1G memory, which of course has FF 1.5, not 2.0. Fully up to date. This am in fact, it just updated a bunch of stuff, including CUPS. Any ideas what it could be or on what else to check? I am also getting slowdowns while typing this into Kmail, which is also generating one of those warnings.... Crazy. How can it take 20%+ of cpu just to handle a few text entries? Peter

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Re: Web/Sql development environments
by Christopher Dawkins 31 Dec '06

31 Dec '06

>> Are there any mature and easy to use software development environments >> for Web/Database programming? I reckon PHP/MySQL but that may be only because that's as far as I have gone. > If you've not touched rails, and you want something nice, I suggest > django, uses a postgres backend by default, though supports multiple > others IMHO the problem with any of these is "lock in", and when they change their system you have to change with it. All us PHP developers got a nasty shock a few years ago when the "register globals" policy was changed, and we (basically) had to declare our variables in order to keep our code running. Long-term code needs to be able to run on any server under any configuration, and while this is impossible it's a lot more likely if it uses common and basic resources. I looked into Django and Dojo, and they're just - well - "big" (and Dojo seems to need Flash on the client to preserve state, and Flash has now been de-licensed for all BSD platforms except the Mac). Most effects can be created using basic HTML/CSS/Javascript - look, for example, at AHAH instead of Ajax. Of course, for progress we need bleeding-edge programmers to try out all these new things. -- Christopher Dawkins Garnetts Corner, Braintree Road, Felsted, Dunmow, Essex CM6 3DS cchd(a)pjcd.org 07816 821659 01371 821076

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Defective By Design - Petitioning Number 10 on DRM.
by Ten 31 Dec '06

31 Dec '06

Hi all. Please consider the petition for the beloved persons in government to look at banning DRM. http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/bandrm/ I won't go on at great length about the evils of hardware, software and commercial media being "defective by design", of paying consumers being penalised (and presupposed to be dishonest) while the "pirate" suffers no ill effects, or of the threats to innovation and Free software that this technology carries along with it. This sort of nonsense is on the cusp of being an inescapable problem without much fuss, so those who have any issues with it might consider it important to make a noise at the earliest opportunity. I will leave this in the hands of the reader, although if you were apathetic or inclined to living happily with defective systems, you probably wouldn't be reading this here. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if everyone here's already signed it that wants to. Apologies for the sort of spam, but hey, it's important. Cheers. -- There are 10 types of people in this world, those who understand binary, and those who don't.

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None
by None 30 Dec '06

30 Dec '06

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Web/Sql development environments
by cl＠isbd.net 30 Dec '06

30 Dec '06

Are there any mature and easy to use software development environments for Web/Database programming? I don't really mind what language mySql/PHP seems the obvious pair but it doesn't necessarily have to be those two. I'm after writing a Web enabled database application and would like to choose a good way to do it. -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

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Removing Ubuntu
by Simon Royal 29 Dec '06

29 Dec '06

Hi I have a PowerBook G3 that dual boots between Mac OSX Tiger and Ubuntu 6. I want to remove the Ubuntu and have a single installation of Mac OSX. Well actually I don't but I cannot work out how to set Mac as the default os. I know it is to do with Yaboot but I cannot fathom it. So if anyone can help me switch Mac OSX as the default OS then it would be appreciated, otherwise any help on removing Ubuntu would also be much appreciated. Regards Simon --- www.simonroyal.co.uk - The box said requires Windows 2000 or better, so I bought an Apple Mac. There are only 10 kinds of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don't

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Book
by David Reynolds 29 Dec '06

29 Dec '06

Hi, We're having a bit of a post Christmas clear out and have a bunch of books to get rid of... (I know this isn't strictly on topic, but there is a linux book hiding in there!) Haynes Vauxhall Cavalier F - N * Hacking Linux Exposed - Brian Hatch, et al Five minutes in heaven - Lisa Alther Summer Sisters - Judy Blume * Love is a four letter word - Claire Calman Babyville - Jane Green * Sahara - Michael Palin The worlds greatest UFO mysteries - Roger Bore and Nigel Blundell Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Dave Morris Batman - Craig Shaw Gardner Long Division - Sarah Harvey American Pyscho - Brett Easton Ellis Cat - Freya North The Ivy Chronicles - Karen Quinn Wanderlust - Daniel Still Chloe - Freya North Rounders - Kevin Canty Come again - Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees Princess Daisy - Judith Krantz * We are family - Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees Lisa and Co - Jilly Cooper Ladies Man - John Ramster Serve Cool - Lauren McCrossen Pip - Freya North Azure like it - Wendy Holden Misbehaving - Sarah Harvey Barry Trotter and the Shameless Parody - Michael Gerber Snap Happy - Fiona Walker Diary of a Manhattan Call girl - Tracey Quan Fame Fatale - Wendy Holden My Legendary Girlfriend / Mr Commitment - Mike Gayle Deep Heat / Flatmates - Chris Manby Sex and the City - Candis Bushnell Fen - Freya North Virtual Love - Susan Oudot Lady Chatterley's Lover - DH Lawrence The Nanny - Melissa Nathan The Waitress - Melissa Nathan Insiders / Badboy - Elizabeth Goldsmith Seven Sunny days - Chris Manby Adrian Mole the cappuccino - Sue Townsend The Beach - Alex Garland The Ex Files - Jane Moore 4 Blones - Candis Bushnell The Trials of Tiffany Trott - Isabel Wolff Revenge of the middleages woman - Elizabeth Buchan His and Hers - Mike Gayle The boy next door - Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees * = hardback book Let me know if anyone wants any. Thanks, Dave -- David Reynolds david(a)reynoldsfamily.org.uk

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