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FW: [sheflug] Dinnington.net Presentation 5th September 2006
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 25 Aug '06

25 Aug '06

Hi Folks, I'm taking the liberty of forwarding this from the ShefLUG list. As well as the URL for the September 5th event itself at Dinnington, I also looked at the main Dinnington.net website at http://www.dinnington.net/ whi8ch makes very interesting reading! Dinnington is a somewhat out-in-the-sticks-ish place between Worksop and Sheffield. Not unlike a number of our own communities! This is so interesting that I might go up there for it. There are several pertienent fundamental questions that I'd like to know the answers to. For example -- what "pipe" do they tap into, and how? And how can they provide it for free -- where's the money coming from? If anyone else is interested in a possible trip up, maybe we can coordinate? (It's not at all certain I shall really go, but it's quite a possibility). Best wishes to all, Ted. -----FW: <200608251747.56972.richard(a)sheflug.co.uk>----- Date: Fri, 25 Aug 2006 17:47:54 +0100 Sender: sheflug-bounces(a)sheflug.co.uk From: Richard Ibbotson <richard(a)sheflug.co.uk> To: sheflug <sheflug(a)sheflug.co.uk> Subject: [sheflug] Dinnington.net Presentation 5th September 2006 Hi Bob Holland has been circulating some information about an event which takes place on the evening of the 5th of September over in Dinnington. This is of interest to anyone who uses or has some use for Free or Open Source software. To quote Bob's e-mail.... " Starting in September, we are beginning a series of Tuesday evening events in Dinnington to raise awareness of the project. The first of these - on September 5 - is a technical introduction to the system we have put in place in Dinnington. It is aimed primarily at those in our community who have already expressed an interest in supporting and extending the system, but I would like to extend an invitation to those from the wider FLOSS community who may be interested in finding out more about the project and how the FLOSS components are working together. Full details of the event can be found here... " http://www.dinnington.net/click-tuesday/dinnington-net-the-project -- Richard ___________________________________________________________________ Sheffield Linux User's Group - http://www.sheflug.co.uk/mailfaq.html GNU the choice of a complete generation. --------------End of forwarded message------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 25-Aug-06 Time: 18:39:10 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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HDD --> Flash??
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 25 Aug '06

25 Aug '06

Hi Folks, This morning's Guardian "Technology" section has an item about the possible replacement of the classic HDD by flash-memory modules. See: http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1856508,00.html While reading the article (mostly about cost comparisons), I was wondering about whether the data stored on a flash module would be as solidly stored as on a HDD. Finally, there was a brief discussion of the issue: "But besides cost, there are other obstacles for Flash memory replacing hard drives. Flash memory is typically guaranteed for around 1m read/write cycles, which sounds a lot, but in the context of the working life of a PC (which is continually writing, erasing or rewriting data) is not. So designers have to use techniques known as wear-levelling to shift data around the Flash memory block to reduce the risk of data error. "We can design around the problem," says Walsh." I was also wondering about how long data would "stay in place" over time anyway. Does the "bit-state" of an element on a flash module tend to "diffuse" away over time? Admittedly I have never experienced data corruption on a flash drive (though the number of read/writes to such that I've made is far from the millions); aqnd I've certainly had problems with hard drives! (But then I do hammer these). Any views? There's also an interesting insight into XP and Vista. Booting XP from a flash would be 25%-50% faster than from a HDD. And, it says, "Vista is about five times bigger than XP, and what comes along with that large size is a speed issue, even with faster CPUs. We've been working with Microsoft on ways to speed up booting and application loading by complementing the hard drive with Flash." Hmmm 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: 24-Aug-06 Time: 10:54:16 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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PC World TV Advert
by Ian bell 22 Aug '06

22 Aug '06

PC World's latest TV advert has a saleman extolling the virtues of a dual core Pentium. Dual core? asks the customer. Yes, replies salesman, Let's you do more than one thing at a time. At the very least misleading to the average punter. I have complained to the advertising standards authority. ian

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New Gnome User Needs Help
by Martin Collins 21 Aug '06

21 Aug '06

Hi, after using KDE for many years now, I've defected to Gnome with Ubuntu's Dapper Drake. After using it for a few days I really like it and I'm getting along great. I had tried to use it a few times previous but always gave up and went back to KDE. Everything I use and need is available in Gnome, except one thing. In KDE I always used Konqueror for navigating around my folders and when needing to revert to the command line simply clicked on the Konsole button in Konqueror (which I placed on the toolbar) and a terminal popped open in my current working directory. I can't seem to do this in Gnome/Nautilus. I have to open Gnome Terminal separately and cd into the directory that I want. It's only a minor niggle, but I've just seemed to have fallen into working this way. I do remember, I think it was Mandrake 8.2, that Nautilus did used to have a function like the one described above. Does anyone know if this is possible in the latest Gnome/Nautilus? Thanks all. Martin

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Exim - deny rule ignored
by James Green 21 Aug '06

21 Aug '06

Hi, I'm trying to change the behaviour of exim 4.50 such that as soon as a RCPT TO: foo(a)domain.com is received, it checks if that recipient exists and if not, denies service. deny !verify = recipient Should do it, at the top of the acl_check_rcpt rule. exim -bH shows the rule being loaded, but completely ignored. Indeed testing from my gmail account results in the standard mail rejection notice complete with spam index, instead of an SMTP-level deny. Any clues? Cheers, James

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PC World
by Bob Dove 21 Aug '06

21 Aug '06

Hi folks, PC World - a good place to shop as undoubtedly almost anyone who enters the portals knows more than the staff employed. My most famous encounter was at the specialist desk wherein I enquired after a hard drive caddy or drive case. "Nah, don't make 'em anymore, no call for them." I looked on the shelves and found a Belkin device that looked as if it would do the job (it does - still) and I took it back to the specialist counter and asked the same bloke if I could mount an IDE drive in it. He concurred that what was wrote on the box was correct. I asked that as they didn't do 'em anymore - no call for them - was there a special price? They must be aware of their reputation? I worked for Dixons for ten years. In my time even the junior had a full product knowledge and was actively encouraged to join clubs, go to college or adult learning centres to learn more and more about the subject. It is embarrassing at times to overhear the sales patter! But go into any multi selling almost anything. You'll find Sales Managers, Sales Advisors, Key Account Executives (the person that knows how to write an invoice) Team Leaders but no team or any lowly sales persons. Most of these companies are driven by accountants who have know knowledge of the product. A famous photographic company I was once in frequent contact with had a policy of not employing anyone with photography as a hobby - 'we want them to sell boxes, we don't want them to like the product.' The reps main line was always 'how many outers do you want?' No trying to buy one item to replace the one you sold last week. Many more boxes - don't matter what's in 'em. These people also employ ad agencies at vast sums of money to produce these facile and incorrect ads. The ad agencies are briefed (obviously inadequately) by Sales Directors. Ah Whale! Bob Dove.

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Weekly IRC reminder
by Brett Parker 21 Aug '06

21 Aug '06

This is the automated ALUG IRC meeting reminder sent to remind you that there is an IRC meeting tonight (Monday) at 8.00pm. Historically, these used to be the only time a lot of us would be about, now the channel has some usual faces that are there most of the time (except at silly o'clock, when we might be sleeping, or on the second thursday of the month, where we might be drinking in the Reindeer), so don't feel limited to visit during this time, come visit us when ever you feel like it! The meeting takes place on the irc server irc.alug.org.uk in the #alug channel. Most IRC clients should allow you to get there with the commands "/server irc.alug.org.uk" and "/join #alug". Popular IRC clients include xchat, irssi and EPIC on Unix, and Mirc under windows. Here are some links to help you get started with irc. Unix http://www.xchat.org/ http://www.irssi.org/ http://www.epicsol.org/ Windows http://xchat.org/windows/ - the UNIX client has a windows port! http://www.mirc.com/ (loads of help with irc for newbies!)

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ALUG Contrib blockage
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 20 Aug '06

20 Aug '06

Hi Folks, Browsing just now on the ALUG home page http://www.alug.org I found that everything that points to anything under http://www.alug.org/contrib/ ends up at http://www.alug.org.uk/blocked.htm with the page: ACCESS DENIED You have been blocked from accessing this site due to the security settings in place If you feel this in error please contact the mailing list for assistance. This is only a temporary measure until stricter posting rules are put in place. I know this is an old issue, but I'm windering how it's going. It doesn't look too good to have 4 out of the 9 links on the home page going nowhere! 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: 20-Aug-06 Time: 18:11:25 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Sensors
by Barry Samuels 18 Aug '06

18 Aug '06

Now that I've changed over to a 2.6 kernel some of the sensors modules will not load automatically. When the machine boots i2c_core and i2c_amd756 are both loaded but w83781d and i2c_isa are not but if I load w83781d manually using modprobe after booting both these 'missing' modules load and sensors then works. I have an lm-sensors file in /etc/modprobe.d which contains (can't stop the line wrapping in my mailer): install w83781d /sbin/modprobe i2c_amd756; /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install w83781d # Supplied by Tyan options w83781d force_w83782d=0,0x2d force_subclients=0,0x2d,0x48,0x49 force_w83627hf=0,0x2c force_subclients=0,0x2c,0x4a,0x4b init=0 Any ideas? -- Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

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Flash
by Bob Dove 17 Aug '06

17 Aug '06

Hi folks, Will flash be the death of the internet? A company I do some PR work for has for the past two years employed a young 'whizz kid' (MD's son) to liven up their website. Has lots of 'flash' flash (the company do manufacture Studio Flash equipment) animations &c, but takes so long to load that potential customers move onto a competitors site in 'penny plain' HTML. Despite being told that the only people who can be bothered with flash are other website designers who do not buy their products they do persist. I suppose the MD's son has to be employed at something! What do ALUGers think. Are we getting too clever by far and missing the point? Cheers, BD.

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I'm flummoxed too!!!
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 16 Aug '06

16 Aug '06

Hi folks, I have been trying to follow up a story on the BBC News website: " Tests flummox trainee teachers" http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4793655.stm which describes how trainee teachers were failing basic tests in numeracy, literacy and information technology. The above URL gives some examples of test questions in literacy and numeracy, but none from ICT. So I followed a link on the right of the story "Sample ICT test" at http://www.tda.gov.uk/skillstests/practicematerials/ ict/practicematerial.aspx [all one line] to see how I would get on. Until I read the "Minimum specifications". Now I'm flummoxed too. And depressed. 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: 16-Aug-06 Time: 00:01:55 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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PCI wireless network card
by Barry Samuels 15 Aug '06

15 Aug '06

One of my computers, currently connected to the network by cable, may have to be moved to another room where connecting by cable is not practical. I do have a wireless access point so can anyone recommend a PCI wireless network card that will work with Linux (Debian Etch/Testing) without a lot of messing about. I don't want to use the software, the name escapes me, that uses Windows drivers as I've had problems using that in the past. -- Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

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Re: [ALUG] 2.6.17 kernel firewall problem
by Barry Samuels 15 Aug '06

15 Aug '06

On 15/08/06 10:44:30, Brett Parker wrote: > On Tue, Aug 15, 2006 at 10:14:42AM +0100, Barry Samuels wrote: > > > > "No chain/target/match by that name" > > > > Can anyone explain what might cause this? > > I expect that you've got some version of a firewall script somewhere > and that you've missed some of the iptables options when compiling > the kernel and that's what's causing the issue - probably worth > checking what Guarddog is trying to do. > > Cheers, > -- > Brett Parker Is there any way that I can identify what iptables option the error message refers to? -- Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

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2.6.17 kernel firewall problem
by Barry Samuels 15 Aug '06

15 Aug '06

Recently in another post I mentioned that using kernel 2.6 on my machine caused a 5 minute delay before it started to boot which is why I'm still using kernel 2.4. I tried a number of different 2.6 versions as they appeared but they all produced this boot delay. Then I decided to try the latest - 2.6.17 and now find that the delay has disappeared. Having compiled this kernel and booted it I now get four error messages all the same when I run the firewall (which is generated by Guarddog): "No chain/target/match by that name" Can anyone explain what might cause this? When I've tried earlier 2.6 kernels I haven't had these errors. -- Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

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[OT] BBC News 24??
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 14 Aug '06

14 Aug '06

Hi Folks Sorry for OT but there are not many other informed people I can consult! Q: What's happened to BBC News 24 on-line?? Until the end of last week I could find it on the BBC News website http://news.bbc.co.uk and indeed had it running for extended periods keeping a "background" ear on the news about air travel etc. Yesterday and today I can't find a direct link. The alleged "BBC News 24 Home Page" at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/bbc_news_24/default.stm is simply blank, and while you can find the schedule listing (with link to above "Home Page") at http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcnews24/listings/ index.shtml?service_id=4352&day=today [all one line], there's no link to watch it on-line. Anyone know what's happening? With thanks, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 14-Aug-06 Time: 10:55:15 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Weekly IRC reminder
by Brett Parker 14 Aug '06

14 Aug '06

This is the automated ALUG IRC meeting reminder sent to remind you that there is an IRC meeting tonight (Monday) at 8.00pm. Historically, these used to be the only time a lot of us would be about, now the channel has some usual faces that are there most of the time (except at silly o'clock, when we might be sleeping, or on the second thursday of the month, where we might be drinking in the Reindeer), so don't feel limited to visit during this time, come visit us when ever you feel like it! The meeting takes place on the irc server irc.alug.org.uk in the #alug channel. Most IRC clients should allow you to get there with the commands "/server irc.alug.org.uk" and "/join #alug". Popular IRC clients include xchat, irssi and EPIC on Unix, and Mirc under windows. Here are some links to help you get started with irc. Unix http://www.xchat.org/ http://www.irssi.org/ http://www.epicsol.org/ Windows http://www.mirc.com (loads of help with irc for newbies!)

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How to get a transparent background in Gimp
by cl＠isbd.net 12 Aug '06

12 Aug '06

The title says it all really, is it possible to get a transparent background in the Gimp? I have an image I've created with one of the script-Fu utilities and I can get the background window up but there seems to be no way to say 'no background'. -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

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gawk on gnuwin32
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 11 Aug '06

11 Aug '06

Hi Folks, I appeal to the ALUG Linux Consulate to rescue me, a citizen of Linux, from a foriegn and dangerous land! I want to experimentally try running gawk on a Win98 system (the background is that a friend, currently working in Africa and stuck with Windows, could have the daunting task of restructuring the records in a CSV file solved in an awk 2-liner, instead of pulling hair out trying to do it in FoxPro). Since I've never tried running any GNU stuff on Windows, so cannot offer any advice based on experience, I thought I'd better acquire some before shooting my nouth off. This I went to http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/gawk.htm and downloaded the "Setup" package (a 6.6MB .exe file), planted it in [excuse my language] C:\Program Files\GnuWin32\gawk [maybe that was a mistake?] and ran the setup file gawk-3.1.3-2.exe All seemed to go smoothly, the files being installed in the above directory. Then I tried (in a DOS box) to run gawk '{print "Ted"}' and got an error that the "'" character was illegal! So I feel stuck! Has anyone been there and succeeded, and can offer advice? With thanks, Ted. PS If there are any FoxPro experts out there who could short-circuit the problem by advising how to do it in FoxPro, I can send a mini-example of the job that needs to be done. It's really simple, logically speaking, but has a twist which might mean a little neat footwork. In which case very many thanks for that! -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 05-Aug-06 Time: 21:03:11 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Kaspersky Antivirus
by Stuart Bailey 11 Aug '06

11 Aug '06

Please forgive the commercial nature of this mail. I have negotiated a deal with Kaspersky for their Linux Workstation product. They normal only sell in batches of minimum 5 licences. However, they have offered me to buy batches of licences and then to resell the to others. The cost would work out at £30 inc VAT each licence. If anyone is interested, contact me off list. Many thanks, Stuart -- --------------------------------------- Stuart Bailey BSc (hons) CEng CITP MBCS LinuSoft (Owner) Linux Specialist (0845) 6583563 http://www.linusoft.co.uk ----------------------------------------

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Passing TAB character as commandline parameter (to xls2scv)
by Mark Rogers 11 Aug '06

11 Aug '06

I'm playing around with xls2csv (part of the catdoc application). Something simple like: xls2csv -c~ products.xls > products.txt does what I'd expect (exports the XLS, using "~" as the field separator). Any suggestions how I can make this create a tab separated file instead? I think this is more about how to pass the TAB through the shell (ie more to do with bash than xls2csv) but I could be wrong. -- Mark Rogers More Solutions Ltd :: 0845 45 89 555

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Meeting report - 10th August 2006
by David Reynolds 11 Aug '06

11 Aug '06

Attendees: Myself (Dave|Paperface), J (mChicago), Simon (Sionide), Rob (robrob), Jonathan (Noodles), Peter (not on IRC), Joe (Joeboy), Adam (quinophex) and Eli (sfr). The weather was not quite so nice this month starting to rain about 5 minutes before I got to the pub. We still had a reasonably good turnout nevertheless. We sat in a different place (up in the restaurant bit) so that Simon could have power for his laptop for which the Reindeer staff kindly let us use an extension cable. Simon brought along a USB coffee cup warmer and it was discussed whether or not it broke the USB spec. Conversation included: PHP being crap (will there ever be a pub meet where PHP isn't mentioned), Windows Vista, mounting of ntfs filesystems in DSL, talk about Plan 9 [1]. Rob wondered why ethernet adaptors don't appear in /dev/ when every other device does. Peter brought along a problem which Noodles helped him with which involved exporting a proprietary database to XML and then rendering the XML in a web browser. They also talked a bit about formal database design. Simon and I discussed plans for the website and this was turned over to the rest of the group and we talked about the different lugs in the Anglia region including PLUG and Cam-LUG. Hopefully, I've not missed anything. Cheers, Dave [1] http://cm.bell-labs.com/plan9/ -- David Reynolds david(a)reynoldsfamily.org.uk

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Utility for converting text to image
by cl＠isbd.net 10 Aug '06

10 Aug '06

Are there any simple utilities out there for converting a few characters of text (colloquially known as a 'word') to an image for use on the web? I.e. convert text to .png or .gif. It would be nice if one could set style, colour, etc. as well as size. -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

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[ALUG Announce] 2nd Thursday Norwich Meet : Reindeer, Dereham Road
by Jonathan McDowell 08 Aug '06

08 Aug '06

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, 10th August. 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. -- 101 things you can't have too much of : 48 - Pies. ----- 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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Data recovery
by Stuart Bailey 08 Aug '06

08 Aug '06

I have a customer who's laptop hard disk has crashed, and he needs to recover data from it. Can anyone recommend anyone specialising in data recovery - possibly in the Cambridge area? many thanks, -- --------------------------------------- Stuart Bailey BSc (hons) CEng CITP MBCS LinuSoft (Owner) Linux Specialist (0845) 6583563 http://www.linusoft.co.uk ----------------------------------------

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Digital TV Card
by Nick Daniels 07 Aug '06

07 Aug '06

Hi Can anyone reccomemed a digital TV Card for use with Linux. Kind Regards - Nick Daniels

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