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Problem with the Library
by Wayne Stallwood 08 Oct '05

08 Oct '05

I am moving the library to it's new home but I am having a few problems talking to mysql. mysql --host=localhost --user=opendb --password=thepassword Works, I can then see a database called aluglib and run queries on the tables etc. In my opendb config.php I have // Database configuration $CONFIG_VARS['db_server.host'] = 'localhost'; //OpenDb database host $CONFIG_VARS['db_server.dbname'] = 'aluglib';//OpenDb database name $CONFIG_VARS['db_server.username'] = 'opendb'; //OpenDb database user name $CONFIG_VARS['db_server.passwd'] = 'thepassword'; //OpenDb password But when I try and login to the Library I get the following error Access denied for user: 'opendb@localhost' (Using password: YES) Not being very experienced with these things, can anyone give me some pointers to what I am doing wrong. To move the library I simply dumped the old database and then imported that into the new one with mysql blah blah databasename < dump.sql. the rest of the site was just coped over using scp. Then I just changed the config in config.php and checked permissions. I thought that should be it ?

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Re-theme
by Bob Dove 08 Oct '05

08 Oct '05

Hi Folks, Looked at the new 'home-page' in IE6 on (SORRY) Windoze. Looks good to me - please keep it simple, no flash, java or activex - you know, the stuff that makes you site look wonderful and opens doors to all sorts of danger! Firefox is set up to crush all that sort of stuff on my machine - and on many other I would assume! Cheers, BD.

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It takes two to tango...
by Bob Dove 08 Oct '05

08 Oct '05

Hi Guys, How about some sitting in the sun and relaxing, it's getting a tiny bit tiresome to watch this quarrel. BD

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Logout for Firefox?
by MJ Ray 07 Oct '05

07 Oct '05

Does anyone know how I can make Mozilla Firefox log out of an HTTP-authenticated web site? I thought there was a menu option or extension to forget the auth details, but I can't find it now. On my own sites, I always give the option of an "forbidden forever" page (aka a Babyshambles page), but the government site I'm accessing doesn't have one. I'll restart the browser this time, but it's irritating, isn't it? Thanks for any info, -- MJ Ray (slef), Lynn, England, retposxto cxe http://mjr.towers.org.uk/

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FW: [ALUG] Alug Website
by Keith Watson 07 Oct '05

07 Oct '05

> From: Luke Dodd Sent: 07 October 2005 12:51 > > Looks OK, works in opera Mozilla and (shudder) ie ok. The > links need to be fixed, I had a problem with my css link > lists a while ago, I can't remember the fix right now but > could get it later. Although it looks completely wrong for > the alug website I could change this > <http://ccgi.doddfamily.plus.com/index_new.php> little > layout I made to look right. For other good css layouts and > ideas this > <http://webhost.bridgew.edu/etribou/layouts/index.html> is a > good site. > > Probably all useless, but I i felt bored so decided to post. > > Luke > :o) Regards, Keith ____________ Strive not for perfect actions in a perfect world, - but for appropriate actions in an imperfect world

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RE: [ALUG] Alug Website
by Keith Watson 07 Oct '05

07 Oct '05

> From: Brett Parker Sent: 07 October 2005 09:33 > MJ Ray <mjr(a)phonecoop.coop> wrote: > > Brett Parker <iDunno(a)sommitrealweird.co.uk> ... > > Questions: > > - do any of the CSS validator warnings cause anyone problems? > > I've not tested it in IE (not having a copy of IE to hand) so > there's a possibility it's completly broken there... A quick smoke test with IE seems to work ok. Like what I've seen so far. :o) Regards, Keith ____________ CONSOLATION, n. - The knowledge that a better man is more unfortunate than yourself. - Ambrose Bierce - The Devil's Dictionary

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Alug Website
by Brett Parker 07 Oct '05

07 Oct '05

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 This afternoon Steve handed me a bundled of HTML goodness for the website, I've just finished hacking together something (temporary) to give you a feel for what it looks like, currently this is all done "on the fly", so if anything is updated on the alug site, it should automagically happen to this 'rethemed' version. URL: http://www.sommitrealweird.co.uk/alug/retheme/ I *think* that it's mostly working, any obvious gotchas, tell me. Cheers, - -- Brett Parker web: http://www.sommitrealweird.co.uk/ email: iDunno(a)sommitrealweird.co.uk -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.1 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFDRa/IEh8oWxevnjQRAudsAKCtTcoTmjSBeuD/jQz1mFC3lwBqRwCgu8UW xPmqvBiGwQK4IXxFVTEYr7A= =x1pP -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: [ALUG] Web site - new editing method
by Dave Briggs 06 Oct '05

06 Oct '05

Quoting MJ Ray <mjr(a)phonecoop.coop>: > What should go on the site? At the moment, there's three sections > (background, meetings and venues) and some pages and subsites, > some of which need updating, moving or culling. I guess the thing is to consider who will be using the site, which will be people new to the group and existing members. So there needs to be intro stuff about the systems ALUG covers, info about the group and how things work, maybe some sort of member directory, for the newbies. Then for both newbies and existing members there can be the pages about the local groups and meetings, maybe with more details of past meetings so people can know what to expect and stuff? Then, mainly for the existing members there could be pages about specific projects that people are working on together, say. > I don't like the suggestion that the whole site be a wiki. Agreed. > > ALUG has a problem that when people get busy, they often get > too busy to hand over tasks. If all webmasters of the current > site die, it would just sit there, going out-of-date. If all > webmasters of a wiki die, it usually gets exploited and trashed. Which might be an argument for having a system in place where as many ALUGers as possible have access to editing pages, whilst not having a wiki free-for-all situation. That way, there is always someone to pick things up in the event of things falling behind on a page. > By the way, the Shropshire LUG site suggested as a nice design > also has double navigation, error messages and "search-engine > unfriendly" URLs - all things which don't happen much with > xhtml files and they can be mirrored more easily, although we > don't have mirrors just now. It's also a little cheeky not to > link back to LUG.org.uk IMO. Yes, a fairly nice style, though. Yeah, I should have specified, it was from a style point of view that I suggested it, rather than it being a classic piece of website coding! Could the library be integrated into a new site, too? -- Dave Briggs linux(a)davebriggs.net | http://davebriggs.net | http://palimpsest.org.uk

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Re: [ALUG] Web site - new editing method
by David Reynolds 06 Oct '05

06 Oct '05

Hi, This has become quite a convoluted thread (or threads) of which the gist to me seems to be that many Aluggers are unhappy with the state of the website and their inability to edit it. I'm not sure how long the current site has been about, being a *fairly* new Alugger, but as Brett said in a previous email, the design is beginning to look a bit dated. Surely this thread is an ideal time to raise the subject of perhaps redesigning the site and trying to find a new way forward for the future web presence of Alug. Another thing that should be discussed is who is going to take responsibility for the site. As far as I can tell many people would be interested in having a hand in the website, keeping it up to date, adding content, etc but no one has even been offered the chance. Surely by using some kind of CMS it will allow more people to contribute and keep the site up to date without having to rely on one person to patch the site. Just my 2¢ Cheers Dave -- David Reynolds david(a)reynoldsfamily.org.uk

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Web site - new editing method
by MJ Ray 06 Oct '05

06 Oct '05

As mentioned yesterday, I wrote a browser-based editor for the "static" pages on the ALUG site. You can now access this by following the instructions on http://www.alug.org.uk/background/submissions.html Does anyone have time to knock up a smarter way to link it from all pages than visiting each file by hand (sed? perl?)? Help updating the site gleefully received. Email me about any editor bugs you find and I'll deal with them ASAP. Thanks, -- MJ Ray (slef), K. Lynn, England, email see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/

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Weekly IRC reminder
by Brett Parker 06 Oct '05

06 Oct '05

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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[ALUG Announce] LOCAL: Norwich, Sun 23 Oct 2005, ALUG
by MJ Ray 06 Oct '05

06 Oct '05

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- ALUG @ Nelson Court B Common Room, UEA, Norwich Weekend meeting: Sunday 23rd October 2005 Plan for the meeting We will meet up from 2pm onwards; we have the room until 6pm. The meeting is open to anyone interested in GNU/Linux or any Free/Open Source software. This meeting is particularly suitable if you want to bring along kit for hands-on help with installing, configuring or using linux distributions or applications or if you have something interesting that you'd like other people to see. It's also an opportunity to bring along old kit that's looking for a new home. There will probably be coffee and cake available; feel free to bring along a donation. Assuming the college bar is open we'll head there around 6ish. If you would like to get some help at the meeting, it is a good idea to mention it on [3]the main ALUG mailing list beforehand, although it is by no means a requirement. Please note we won't have internet access available. How to get there For directions, please see [4]the UEA venue information page. There are offers of carshares from the west and south. Please ask on the mailing list if interested. People at the meeting If you will be coming to this meeting, please try to say so on the mailing list, so we can have some idea of how many people may be there. Someone needs to bring biscuits - or home-made cakes - of course :-) Equipment Important disclaimer: Equipment is brought at your own risk. We strongly suggest that you tag or label your kit. No known thefts have occurred at our meetings, but there is ample scope for going home with the wrong cables, etc. Be sure to bring all appropriate power cables etc. An extra extension lead will also be a good idea. Discussion For information about this meeting or venue, please [5]use the mailing list. References 1. http://www.alug.org.uk/ 2. http://www.alug.org.uk/venues/ 3. http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main 4. http://www.alug.org.uk/venues/uea.html 5. http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main ----- 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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Re: NTLworld broadband & contract???
by Christopher Dawkins 05 Oct '05

05 Oct '05

>> Is there anyone with an NTL cable-connected wireless router? > NTLworld broadband & contract??? (Christopher Dawkins) > Re: NTLworld broadband & contract??? (Laurie Brown) > Re: NTLworld broadband & contract??? (Duncan Sample) > Re: NTLworld broadband & contract??? (Ben Whyte) > > If you get something like the Netgear WGT624 .... You really are marvellous, you lot. I had a problem on Sunday last week, I posted a query and got a bunch of helpful and accurate replies. We order the suggested router and it arrives at the same time as I do (Tuesday 4th). First thing I do is follow the instructions that came with the router, and it doesn't work. Next I follow another route through the instructions that came with the router, and it doesn't work. So, finally, I follow the ALUG instructions, and it works perfectly. Within hours there are four machines happily connected, and there'll soon be a fifth. A few hours later, NTL replies to the [same] question posed ten days ago - and, actually, with a remarkably helpful reply. Or one that would have been remarkably helpful if ALUG hadn't sorted it out within hours. Many thanks. -- Christopher Dawkins, Felsted School, Dunmow, Essex CM6 3JG 01371-821076, mobile 07816 821659 cchd(a)felsted.essex.sch.uk

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Kitmeet @ UEA, 23 October
by sfr 05 Oct '05

05 Oct '05

Sunday 23 October Nelson Court B Common Room 14:00 - 18:00 Pub afterwards Bring:- working kit, need-to-get-working kit, and kit you'd like to transfer to another home software coffee makers, tea-things, and snacks friends, relations, and gerbils. There'll be a cake-stall, but feel free to donate. Nelson Court is the building near the LCR and main car park, i.e. not the location of the last UEA meet, but the one before. FAO Sionide: it appears to have been booked as a meeting for an incipient student-union-soc, so get inaugurating :) sfr

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Re: [ALUG] WiKi Status Enquiry
by Dave Briggs 05 Oct '05

05 Oct '05

Ben Francis wrote: > I'd recommend MediaWiki[1] which is the wiki behind wikipedia. I'm > currently using three of them, two of which are for internal use only > and soon to install a fourth. I don't know if it features password > protection for *reading* the wiki on a public web server though, I've > just been using http auth. Mediawiki works very well, though it is a large system and it might be a case of using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. I doubt the ALUG wiki would have enough pages to justify using a system on that scale, really! Having extra user names and passwords is always a pain in the neck but sadly the growth of spamming makes it a necessary evil. Also, I doubt that many ALUGers will be doing much updating on a regular basis, so it won't put upon too many people. Passwords and the like *are* against the spirit of a wiki, but it is probably less annoying for a user to use one than to have to browse a spam-clogged site. -- Dave Briggs linux(a)davebriggs.net | http://davebriggs.net | http://palimpsest.org.uk

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RE: [ALUG] WiKi Status Enquiry
by Keith Watson 05 Oct '05

05 Oct '05

> From: Adam Bower Sent: 05 October 2005 09:19 > > On Tue, Oct 04, 2005 at 11:47:39PM +0100, Alan Pope wrote: > > > > We have had edits to our (HantsLUG) wiki from the USA and Sweden > > recently. The people who made those edits made valuable > contributions > > to the site, but they're not on the mailing list. > > I figure a 2 (or is this 3?) tier-system of having approved > users with username/password who can do what they want. Then > having "approved" > users who have made (for example) 3 edits in the past that > have been approved by a moderator (have a moderation feed via > rss?) and work out who they are by cookies or hostname etc. > Then have "unapproved" users who are welcome to edit the wiki > but have to give an email address when editing, these edits > will then be approved via the moderators using rss (if they > so wish, the exact mechanism could be via a webpage and email > too) then if the moderators recognise the email address, > person, valid contribution etc. then they can whitelist > further edits from this user? > > You are then avoiding having to have any passwords (which are > a pain to > remember) but just using an email address to authenticate the > user, which in this situation is *more* than good enough. If > a user then "turned rogue" you just remove their email > address from the list of users able to make edits. sounds like it could work, like the idea of avoiding passwords via a whitlist of email addresses. How much work is involved in the implementation? Regards, Keith ____________ CORSAIR, n. - A politician of the seas. - Ambrose Bierce - The Devil's Dictionary

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WiKi Status Enquiry
by Keith Watson 05 Oct '05

05 Oct '05

What's the current status of the ALUG wiki WRT making changes? Regards, Keith ____________ Knowledge is learning something every day. - Wisdom is letting go of something every day. - Zen Saying

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Is anyone successfully using ATI...
by Ten 04 Oct '05

04 Oct '05

Is any ALUGger successfully using ATI radeon cards with real 3d acceleration these days? I recall it being a fruitless exercise in the past, but now isn't the past and I wonder if anyone's having any real success with this now. Buying a graphics card on an almost Dickensian budget, whilst wanting it to be an actual upgrade, I'm considering a low-end Radeon 9600 for 35 quid (after missing out on an nvidia Geforce 6600 for 50). I'm not convinced of the card's brilliance, but I'm more wondering whether Radeons in general are usable + good yet - it would widen the breadth of choice a little :) On the leisure side, I'd like to still be able to play a few good fps titles (which I can already do on a much cheaper card, just not in as meaningful a way as I'd like :D ) and will be buying doom 3 soon. My personal exp. has led me to think of nvidia as the only grown-up option. Am I wrong yet? -- There are 10 types of people in this world -those who understand binary, and those who don't.

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DVD Authoring
by Wayne Stallwood 02 Oct '05

02 Oct '05

Anyone here have much experience with dvd-author and/or dvd-slideshow I am having a few problems with both (at the moment I am driving them from qdvdauthor, but the same issues seem to be present even if I do it from the command line) I am trying to add background music (in the form of an mp3 file) to the VMGM menu (main menu) I am trying to (or at least qdvdauthor is trying to) do the following mplex -f 8 -o "menu.mpg" "menu.m2v" "song1.mp3" Where the m2v file is a MPEG2 stream of my menu background, the mpg file is the output that goes into DVD author and song1.mp3 is the music I want. At this point I get ERROR:[mplex] File song1.mp3 unrecogniseable! mp3 file is a straight 192kbs file that seems happy enough in any player I chuck it through. dvd-slideshow I am running the command dvd-slideshow -o show -f list.txt -n Photos list.txt is a test file with entries as follows imgp1364.jpg:5:: imgp1365.jpg:5:: and so on.... When I run this I get the following in the output messages [mpeg2enc] Could not read YUV4MPEG2 header: stream requires unsupported features! Any help offered would be greatly appreciated. Wayne

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Navigation in 3d spaces
by Peter Onion 02 Oct '05

02 Oct '05

Has anyone got any good links to information or examples on how to let a user navigate through a 3d space using mouse and keyboard ? Examples of openGL code would be even better :-) Peter

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wiki fun'n'games
by Paul 02 Oct '05

02 Oct '05

Got a small problem dropped in my lap.. Need to import a whole bunch of html pages in to a wiki environment. I've installed kwiki and got it up and running with minimal effort, and now kinda stuck on the most efficient method to import the data. Does anyone have some simple suggestions ? Regards, Paul. -- From the Klingon book of C: Klingon function calls do not have 'parameters' - they have 'arguments' - and they ALWAYS WIN THEM.

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DVD Authoring (one more question)
by Wayne Stallwood 02 Oct '05

02 Oct '05

To save me burning a coaster, do you know if traditional DVD players mind having files or folders sitting outside the usual VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS. Will they just ignore the contents ? I am creating a handout DVD for a vintage car rally I attended a while ago and as well as having a some video footage and DVD photo slideshow I thought it's would be nice to provide a folder on the DVD with the high res master shots for those that want to print them or something.

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Printers
by Bob Dove 30 Sep '05

30 Sep '05

Hi all, Thanks for the riposte to my Walls End thing. Lon Dun, not sure the Gaels ever came further south than Watford Gap - which is why Lon Dunners don't (normally) wear kilts! I think that they expended their energies beating up the Picts and stayed in the hills chasing Haggis.! Printers for Linux, my Epson R300 prints from OOo OK, I haven't tried scanning with Linux yet as er, I have to use Windoze for my PhotoShop installation. Next time I have to scan, I'll see what happens and let you know - if your query isn't answered afore then. Cheers, BD.

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Eye candy
by Wayne Stallwood 29 Sep '05

29 Sep '05

I have just discovered 3ddesktop in the Ubuntu apt repositories. It gives a wholesome 3D experience to virtual desktop switching that is not unlike (or in fact if you enable the right options in the config files, exactly like) the fast user switch in OSX Only those with functional hardware 3D need bother to check it out, but I'd just thought I'd share. As well as being a bit of eye candy it actually serves a useful purpose to me. Often I forget which virtual desktop I left one of the many apps I tend to have open and so end up switching through all of them. I know there is a setting somewhere to allow the taskbar in gnome to show all open apps. but with so many open it gets too cluttered. It's hard to describe but with this you get a pretty good idea of what's on all (4 in my case) desktops because they are like panes of glass in that you can see the contents from behind.

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Alug Library
by Wayne Stallwood 28 Sep '05

28 Sep '05

We have had a few days downtime due to Plusnet changing CGI servers and me not having time to move the site over to the new one. However it is now back up. The URL has changed to http://ccgi.digimatic.plus.com/opendb/ I tried to edit the Library booklist on the Alug site to reflect this but I get an error. Warning: fopen(./pages/archive/LibraryBooklist): failed to open stream: Permission denied in /home/alug/web/contrib/lib/db_filesystem.php on line 104 Has there been a change (I didn't pay attention to) due to the Wiki spam we were getting. On a related note I am still looking for a more suitable place for online library to live as Plusnet's CGI and MySQL servers aren't that great...I was talking to somebody off list who was going to sort something out for me, including I think some form of ssh access but I think we both got distracted by real work...sorry I can't remember who that was.

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