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RE: [Alug] Newsforge: NVIDIA's Latest Drivers and the Quadro FX
by Simon Jude 03 Apr '03

03 Apr '03

On Thu, 3 Apr 2003, Adam Bower wrote: > > But how well does it compare to one of the SGI VAN (visual area network) > systems, this sounds as though it is trying to compete with it. If SGI had > given you a quote then you would probably be looking at just over a million > quid for a similar system, possibly 400k second hand and thats without > support! > Yep! Exactly the original plan from about 5 years ago was for an SGI at about 400K. Evidently they quoted 1 million plus for a system for one uni and another company wheeled in a couple of PC image generators that had better performance!! We recently saw an SGI Onyx system down at BP research which wasn't too impressive!! Sorry to go a bit off topic!!!

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RE: [Alug] Newsforge: NVIDIA's Latest Drivers and the Quadro FX
by Adam Bower 03 Apr '03

03 Apr '03

> -----Original Message----- > From: Simon Jude [mailto:S.Jude@uea.ac.uk] > One the subject of Nvidia graphics cards and drivers, here at > work we are > in the process of purchasing a new VR lab. One of the PC > image generator > systems we have been shown is basically a cluster of PCs that does > parallel rendering and uses Nvidia GeForce 4 cards with one > or two tweeks > of the chips and drivers...Now for the amusing bit...for > these tweeks to > what are basically fairly standard PCs we have been quoted > 100K for one > system and 140K for a one with more rendering power. I think > I am in the > wrong business!!! But how well does it compare to one of the SGI VAN (visual area network) systems, this sounds as though it is trying to compete with it. If SGI had given you a quote then you would probably be looking at just over a million quid for a similar system, possibly 400k second hand and thats without support! > > Oh and as for support...we were quoted 20K per year for this > system!!! ;-) Commercial support isn't cheap though, 20k per year is less than the cost of 1 fairly well trained monkey... Again if it was SGI you would probably be paying about 10x as much (I won't dare compare SGI with monkeys, one of the two would get very offended) Adam

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RE: [Alug] Newsforge: NVIDIA's Latest Drivers and the Quadro FX
by Adam Bower 03 Apr '03

03 Apr '03

> Seeing it is there in gentoo.. I am going to test it out right now on > this laptop :) Is this a precursor to "For Sale - 1 used laptop, works well except screen or graphics card broken, has nvidia chipset....." ;) Adam

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Newsforge: NVIDIA's Latest Drivers and the Quadro FX
by Keith Watson 03 Apr '03

03 Apr '03

<QUOTE> http://newsvac.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=03/04/02/201255 Augustus writes "LinuxHardware.org just published a review looking at NVIDIA's latest driver. "Monday, NVIDIA took the next step in their strive to own the Linux video market with the release of their 1.0-4349 drivers. These drivers represent a first in the Linux driver market, a utility that not only installs the drivers on any distribution, but also keeps the driver up-to-date. We now take a look at this new utility and the drivers themselves. ... </QUOTE> anyone tried the new NVIDIA driver installer yet? Keith ____________ 'I always use the word impossible with the greatest caution.' - Wernher Von Braun

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RE: [Alug] Allow to sell?
by Adam Bower 03 Apr '03

03 Apr '03

> -----Original Message----- > From: Craig [mailto:craig@wizball.co.uk] > Couldn't actually think of a better subject. However, I have a few > hardwares to sell off and thought this would be the ideal place? Just > want to double check before I post another message with hardwares to > sell! Ummm, we did have an FAQ on this... I can't remember what it was though and as the site is still half down its a bit hard to tell you :) Anyhow I think it was along the lines of "selling stuff is fine but it must be GNU/Linux related or hardware must be compatible with GNU/Linux (or free software) and put ADV or advert in your subject line and make sure it is obvious that you are selling stuff." Don't send it more than once either, if you do then I will boil or barbecue you depending on what my mood is at the time :) Adam

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Allow to sell?
by Craig 03 Apr '03

03 Apr '03

Couldn't actually think of a better subject. However, I have a few hardwares to sell off and thought this would be the ideal place? Just want to double check before I post another message with hardwares to sell! -- (o_ - Craig Butcher //\ - IT Technician / Unix Support MTH/ENV @ UEA V_/_ - http://www.wizball.co.uk

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Re: [Alug] Allow to sell?
by Jenny_Hopkins＠toby-churchill.com 03 Apr '03

03 Apr '03

Craig wrote: >Couldn't actually think of a better subject. However, I have a few >hardwares to sell off and thought this would be the ideal place? Just >want to double check before I post another message with hardwares to >sell! 's'ok by me - I'm interested. Can't speak for list protocol though. Jen

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Alug site was RE: [Alug] meetings
by Adam Bower 02 Apr '03

02 Apr '03

> Oh whats up with the alug site? it is www.alug.org.uk right? > > Dennis Dryden Ummm, oh dear, php4 hosting were hosting it but if you read here http://www.php4hosting.co.uk/update.php that would explain the sites current status. Adam

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Re: [Alug] meetings
by NuTTeR -- Not Entered -- 02 Apr '03

02 Apr '03

Ye that seems like a good idea to me dont you need a certain amount of UEA students to do it(15?)? If it is too late just do it next year(Sep or October or whenever you go back). Oh whats up with the alug site? it is www.alug.org.uk right? Dennis Dryden ----- Original Message ----- From: Kamel Saadi <kamel_saadi(a)yahoo.co.uk> Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2003 09:40:02 +0000 To: main(a)lists.alug.org.uk Subject: [Alug] meetings > Hi, > > I think as a UEA student I can create a linux society, I don't know > whether it is late or not but I will ask and find out, this way we can > have regular meetings. If you think it is a good please let me know. > > Regards. > > Kamel. -- _______________________________________________ Get your free email from http://www.graffiti.net Powered by Outblaze

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Gentoo and the LSB
by Laurie Brown 02 Apr '03

02 Apr '03

Folks, According to the latest Gentoo newsletter, the following is happening: "In what will likely prove to be a controversial decision, Portage 2.1 will adopt the RPM format for all packages moving forward. The use of ebuilds will be deprecated in favor of the defacto RPM standard. The primary driver for this decision was to ensure compliance with the Linux Standard Base[1] specification, which mandates RPM support for package management." Further: "Additionally, because of LSB's required library support[2], the xfree86 package will move to become part of the base Gentoo Linux system, rather than an optional addition." I have *major* problems with this. Firstly, I want compiled, optimised code, not someone else's RPMd crap, and secondly, what the hell do I want xfree86 on a server for? I've been really happy with G2 for the last year, and now this... What's Debian doing in this regard? Anyone know? Cheers, Laurie. -- -------------------------------------------------------------------- Laurie Brown laurie(a)brownowl.com --------------------------------------------------------------------

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Busting the Spam Buster ...
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 01 Apr '03

01 Apr '03

Got yet another of those performance-enhancer spams. The HTML has been confusingly fragmented (see below) no doubt to evade filters which search for keywords ... Ted. EXCERPT: ======================================================= From: Agnes McMullin <Chunnsxw(a)i-france.com> Subject: Greetings <html> <body SIZE AND STAMINA DO MATTER More Than You Can Possibly Imagine!! She is just trying to spare your feelings by telling you otherwise. DON'T WAIT UNTIL SHE IS GONE TO FIND OUT THAT YOU COULDN'T SATISFY HER!!! INTRODUCING, THE FIRST ALL-IN-ONE Male Performance Enhancer AND Penis Enlargement [etc.] ========================================================= -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 167 1972 Date: 01-Apr-03 Time: 13:16:09 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Weekly IRC reminder
by Neill Newman 31 Mar '03

31 Mar '03

This is the automated ALUG IRC meeting reminder sent to remind you that there is an IRC meeting tonight (Monday) at 8.00pm. 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 tkirc, bitchx, xchat 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://freshmeat.net/ http://www.epicsol.org/ Windows http://www.mirc.com (loads of help with irc for newbies!)

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Norwich PC User Group
by Syd Hancock 28 Mar '03

28 Mar '03

here is some more info for anyone in the area who might be interested: NPCUG: website is now <http://www.npcug.org> The serie of introductory workshops on linux continues - seem to be booked up now but if nothing else it shows that interest is growing. Email contacts: see the site but maybe general email (as opposed to, say, membership enquireies etc) should go to Ann Chesterton who deals with Public Relations <chestep(a)clara.co.uk> Regards Syd

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What wakes my hard disk up?
by Edenyard 27 Mar '03

27 Mar '03

Does any one have any ideas how to track down what's waking my hard disk up every few seconds? The problem is that the Linux PC sometimes spends hours not being used and I'd like the HDD to spin down after (say) 15 minutes of inactivity. I've set the BIOS power-saving HDD spin-down and this works well enough when booted to DOS, but in Linux it just won't sleep. If I force it to sleep using 'hdparm -y /dev/hda1', it spins down and promptly starts up again after a few seconds. I've ensured that it's not cron waking it up and I've also disabled the syslog from writing ' -- mark --' into the log file every so often, but now I'm stumped. I've looked in the log files in /var/log but nothing's owning up so far. Is there a way of logging every disk access request or something like that? Any ideas, anyone? Thanks! Gerald.

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Re: [Alug] blackbox
by Jenny_Hopkins＠toby-churchill.com 27 Mar '03

27 Mar '03

Chris Glover wrote: >Usually, when you run xterm, you can specify a window name. I tend to use > >xterm -name PUTWHATEVERHERE -bg black -fg white -display wibble:0.0 & > >HTH Chris - way to go! I've got a lurid screen covered with purple and blue screens now. Ouch! Thanks, Jenny :-)

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blackbox
by Jenny_Hopkins＠toby-churchill.com 27 Mar '03

27 Mar '03

Hullo, I'm using blackbox window manager, with bbkeys for keyboard shortcuts. Two things I can't work out: 1. How to save not only the number of workspaces and their names, but the actual "contents" of that workspace, - i.e. if i close xwindow when I had three xterms open in a workspace, they are still there when I startx again. At the moment if I restart, the workspaces are all there but are empty. 2. If it is possible to change the name of an xterm window from "xterm" to something more likely to help me remember what the hell is going on in that particular window! Thanks, Jenny

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Re: [Alug] What wakes my hard disk up?
by Edenyard 27 Mar '03

27 Mar '03

Adam Bower wrote: > > Are you using ext3 or reiserfs or XFS? > Sorry - I've half-jobbed! I should have said it's a Slackware 8.1 system using ext2 and kernel 2.4.18. raph(a)panache.demon.co.uk wrote: > > sync runs every 30 secs to flush the disk buffers. > This sounds a bit fundamental. Does this mean that, in general, Linux users never allow their HDDs to sleep then? Gerald.

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meetings
by Kamel Saadi 26 Mar '03

26 Mar '03

Hi, I think as a UEA student I can create a linux society, I don't know whether it is late or not but I will ask and find out, this way we can have regular meetings. If you think it is a good please let me know. Regards. Kamel.

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Power management
by BenEBoy 26 Mar '03

26 Mar '03

I don't suppose anyone knows how to turn off the standby mode thingy in linux (heh, I'm well up to speed on my terminology aren't I?). It is damned annoying having the monitor turn itself off after 15 minutes or so of being unattended :-) Especially when watching the pretty visuals from various XMMS plugins. I've checked all the places I could think of, but can't find hide nor hair of it. cheers, BenE (Oh, using linuxfromscratch 4.0 BTW)

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Re: [Alug] Introduction to the group
by Edenyard 26 Mar '03

26 Mar '03

Syd Hancock wrote: > (....) > So, is anyone interested? > Yes! In my own case, the closer a meet is to my own front door step (so to speak), the higher the probability that I'll attend. This is solely due to lack of time, rather than apathy. Every hour spent travelling is an hour not spent shortening the (seemingly) endless list of clients' problems - and solving those is what puts bread on my table! Don't know whether that was the answer you wanted or not, Syd... Gerald.

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Re: [Alug] Introduction to the group
by Syd Hancock 26 Mar '03

26 Mar '03

> Hmmm.... Seems like people HAVE indeed heard of this part of > the world. Maybe we need a special East Suffolk Branch? You know, I've thought for some time that one of the difficulties that we face is that ALUG covers a very large area. As linux use spreads then perhaps we need to focus on smaller catchment areas. It is significant, for example, that the Norwich PC user group has recently held two monthly meetings devoted to linux. Of course is important to avoid schisms and splintering - or even to give the appearance of setting off alone. Within the LUG structure, is there any provision for local groups, affiliated to a regional umbrella group (e.g. a Martesham LUG affiliated to ALUG)? Just a thought thrown open for discussion. Syd

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apt setup help
by Paul 25 Mar '03

25 Mar '03

After trawling though the man pages for apt, apt-get, apt.conf and synaptic, I can't see how to set the system up to use a local repository. Searched the alug archives for an answer to no avail.. The packages need to be on a hard drive so that I can mess around on a box that doesn't have internet access... So two questions for the apt-experts.. What do I need to add to /etc/apt/apt.conf or *.lists to get Synaptic to use a local directory ? Do I need to auto-generate a package list to resolve dependency problems, or does apt do this without prompting ? Regards, Paul. -- "To err is human...to really f*** things up requires the root password."

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Evening Meetings
by Keith Watson 25 Mar '03

25 Mar '03

Like some others, I find it a bit difficult to get to meetings a weekends at the moment, but there's nothing to stop those of us who do live in a local area getting together anytime to have a pint and talk shop. Is there any interest in an evening meet in or around the Norwich area sometime for us locals? Any suggestions for a venue? Keith ____________ EXPERT, n. see EX - a has been, and SPURT - a drip.

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Introduction to the group
by Edenyard 25 Mar '03

25 Mar '03

Hmmm.... Seems like people HAVE indeed heard of this part of the world. Maybe we need a special East Suffolk Branch? I was beginning to think that Norwich had a monopoly on ALUG. Gerald (Martlesham) ("Where...?") Neil Marjoram wrote: > Based in Ipswich. iD <id(a)nooped.com> wrote: >> Where about in suffolk then? I live near Beccles. > Ipswich.

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RE: [Alug] Is GNU/Linux more secure than Windows?
by Jenny_Hopkins＠toby-churchill.com 25 Mar '03

25 Mar '03

> Incidentally, is The Cuckoo's Egg as good a read? I lent an alugger my copy and can't remember who, if anyone has a copy and don't know where it came from? No response on the alug library books yet, - anyone? Jen

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