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10369 discussions

SyncIpswich
by Laurie Brown 22 Mar '13

22 Mar '13

Folks, I don't know how many here have heard of the Sync<city> initiative. I hadn't until recently, but according to the website for the Ipswich one (http://www.syncipswich.com) this is the rough idea: ---- cut here ---- "SyncIpswich is all about getting Ipswich and Suffolk's technology communities together to form new ideas, new startups and push local business growth. Ipswich is an ever improving town with many local & national technology companies, design & marketing agencies, developers, designers, business owners and more. SyncIpswich is an open community for all technologists, creatives, entrepreneurs and graduates to meet up, flaunt ideas, recruit help and expertise and learn new things. Its a community by the people for the people. Regular meetups with exciting talks and demo's in sociable surroundings. We look forward to meeting you. We'll be meeting once a month in the evening; its free to attend with free snacks and drinks." ---- cut here ---- Thus far, Norwich and Ipswich are the only ones, but Cambridge is due to start one soon, with more to follow. Last night I attended the inaugural "meetup" with a talk by Daniel Wagner-Hall from Google, talking about their software testing regime, philosophy and culture. It was really good, and a great insight into Google. Some of the stats were astonishing: Nearly 20,000 developers More than 100 million lines of code Up to 200 tests PER SECOND, and so on... Some comments made by attendees (there were 70-odd people there) can be seen here: http://www.syncipswich.com/events/101237482/?a=uc1_te A review (from one of the sponsors) can be fond here: http://paulgrenyer.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/the-first-syncipswich.html There was free beer (Peroni), soft drinks, nibbles, and lots of techy people many of whom use Linux day-to-day. We repaired to Issac's afterwards for more beer. I didn't see anyone from ALUG there, but in truth, my recent attendance to the monthly meetings has been woeful, so I might be wrong. It was a good opportunity to meet new people, make contact with ex-colleagues I hadn't seen for 20+ years, and generally network. I recommend Ipswich ALUGers to attend the next meet, or at least roam through the web site. Of course, you guys in Norwich should check out your own! See you at the next meet then? Cheers, Laurie. -- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Laurie Brown laurie(a)brownowl.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------

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Free hardware
by Srdjan Todorovic 19 Mar '13

19 Mar '13

Hi all, I've got some stuff that I don't need: 1. Domex 3194UP SCSI card. 32bit PCI slot. I've got one SCSI cable to go with it. Not used it in years, so don't know if it still works. Was working when it was removed. It was supported in Linux with the 'initio' driver on 2.6.x kernels, but I have no idea about 3.8 that was just released. 2. Universal Scientific Industrial BD-B022 "Remote Access Host Card" PCIe 1x slot. I think this is a Dell product (FX100 Remote Access Host Card?). Has 2 DVI ports and one RJ45 port. Has a JTAG connector, I2C connector (some of the pins are bent), RS232 (one bent pin). I don't know if this is even working. If anyone wants them, give me a shout and I'll bring them to the next pubmeet, otherwise they will be going to the bin / council recycling centre (landfill?). Regards, Srdjan

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[ALUG Announce] 3rd Monday Monthly Ipswich Social Meeting : The Mulberry Tree
by samwise 19 Mar '13

19 Mar '13

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 "Third Monday" ALUG Ipswich Social Meeting is back tonight, 18th March, at 20:00: The Mulberry Tree 5 Woodbridge Road IPSWICH IP4 2EA Tel: 01473 225776 Map/Directions URI: http://maps.google.co.uk/?q=IP4+2EA WWW: https://www.facebook.com/MULBERRYHOSPITALITY The Mulberry Tree, previously known as The Milestone Beer House, is a grade 2 listed building in the centre of Ipswich. It is located at the intersection between Woodbridge Road and the A1156, across the road from the old Odeon cinema and not far from the Regent Theatre. It re-opened on Thursday March 29th 2012 after a major refurbishment, under its original name of The Mulberry House and has already begun to regain a good reputation for its selection of beers and ales. It has a sizeable car park to the rear of the building. All are welcome, novices and experienced users. Feel free to ask for further information on the Main ALUG mailing list. I'm not sure if/when I'm going to be able to get along tonight. I may only be able to make it for last orders, so if someone can let me know they're going to be there, then I'll know who to call to find out where you all are. :) Cheers, Peter. ----- 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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A plaintive wish for an application
by Chris Green 12 Mar '13

12 Mar '13

I have searched on and off for ages for decent forms layout software (preferably GUI and with a database behind it) and every time I think I may have found one it either fades aways into unsupported disuse or doesn't quite manage to provide the things I want. Just to pad this out a little I'll list what I've played with over the years (not in any particular order, just as they come to mind):- Knoda - looked promising once but is dead and unsupported now Rekall - as above, was semi-commercial anyway Dabo - quite nice, good support but no forms GUI Sqledit/Sqlkit - I can't quite get it to work for me kexi - good, except that scripts and subforms are missing still glom - seems to be going the way of all forms GUIs, no activity I know lots of projects die but it seems particularly common with these! -- Chris Green

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[ALUG Announce] ALUG Norwich Pub Meet Thursday 14th March
by Viperfang 11 Mar '13

11 Mar '13

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- Hello Norwich Aluggers, Our monthly ALUG Norwich social meeting will be held this Thursday, 14th March at The Coach and Horses (82 Thorpe Road, Norwich, NR1 1BA). The meeting officially starts at 8pm, although some people may arrive earlier. More information on those people can be found on the list and the IRC channel. If you are unsure if you will recognise us then make yourself and your intent to attend known by either posting on list or visiting us on IRC so we can look out for you rather than hiding in the corner. Optionally you could ask at the bar if they know where the geeky computer weirdos are and they'll point you in the right direction (seriously!). Another possibility is look for heaps of electronics on a table that may possibly look like movie props that would used for detonating explosives. Feel free to bring electronics/laptops/gadgets to the meet, you will by no means be alone. Ben Bewick aka Viperfang NB: This mail is automated, please refer to the usual sources for more information. ALUG Contact Details: Website : http://www.alug.org.uk/ IRC : #alug on irc.alug.org.uk List : http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo Twitter : http://twitter.com/anglianlug Identica: TBA Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2381613902 ----- 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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PPTP vpn connections on Kubuntu
by Mark Rogers 11 Mar '13

11 Mar '13

Is there any documentation anywhere for the "Edit Network Connection" / VPN dialogue? Specific questions: - What is "System connection"? - Under IPv4/Basic, what is the difference between "Automatic (VPN)" and "Automatic (VPN) addresses only" Also, on more than one occasion I've had a connection drop out and been unable to restart it without rebooting the PC - there's presumably something else that I should be able to restart that falls short of a reboot? -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

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Are there any contact/addressbook programs that actually store in vCard format?
by Chris Green 07 Mar '13

07 Mar '13

I'd like to keep my addresses in vCard format if I can as it will ease some sharing issues I have. However I can't find a program that actually keeps its data in this format, can anyone suggest anything? -- Chris Green

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apache -> nginx
by Mark Rogers 07 Mar '13

07 Mar '13

I am considering a strategy for migrating a server from Apache to Nginx (I've never used nginx before so I'll be doing all this on a test box first). The strategy is something like: install nginx alongside apache but using (say) port 81. Configure all the virtual hosts so that if <url> works now (on Apache), <url>:81 should also work on nginx, running concurrently. Test. (The idea is to get customers to do some final checks on their own sites, so this should work with minimum fuss.) When ready, kill apache and switch the port over on nginx. All the sites are running PHP/MySQL (except for a few static sites). Aside from making sure I have enough RAM to run both alongside each other, any reason to avoid this approach? -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

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FastCGI / php5-fpm, was Re: apache -> nginx
by Mark Rogers 06 Mar '13

06 Mar '13

On 6 March 2013 15:01, Mark Rogers <mark(a)quarella.co.uk> wrote: > However, I've spent some time playing with nginx this afternoon, and I > have to say that the biggest PITA so far as been working with FastCGI My existing Apache/mod_php configuration is fairly simple. Lots of virtual hosts, many of which use PHP. Of those that do, there's probably 50% are "standard" packages (eg Wordpress) and the other 50% is "stuff wot I wrote". In all cases the virtual host will have a reasonable amount of PHP config; setting memory and file upload limits, etc, and setting options required by the "standard" packages. My own stuff will have include_path configured to point to whichever version of my standard PHP libraries the site uses, and any other config needed. >From my brief experiments with FastCGI this afternoon (with nginx/php5-fpm), switching to FastCGI is going to be a big headache when it comes to setting the PHP environment up per-site. I know I can set variables via the FastCGI interface but (unless I am misunderstanding something) it is messy and I really need to set everything for each site to be sure it'll work the way I want (ie if I set include_path for one site but not for another, it doesn't seem clear whether or not which include_path the other site will end up with, and even after removing the include_path altogether and restarting nginx, it seems I need to restart php5-fpm for it to revert to defaults, so I assume it goes with the last value it was told to use?) There are obviously others here with way more experience with FastCGI/PHP than I have, so am I losing the plot of is this going to be a big headache with my setup? Mark -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

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Email received?
by James Freer 05 Mar '13

05 Mar '13

I remember back about 2000 when i started using email there was a way that one could tell if it had been read. In those days i was using Outlook. How did it work? If it was set up on the email client then somehow it could check on the server that it was sent to. I've used gmail UI for a long while now but i was wondering if there was something in the header on each email that one could check. One has received: IDxxxxxxxx and i wondered if from one of those digits was the signal. thanks james

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OT - DB2, AS400, Websphere
by Stuart Bailey 03 Mar '13

03 Mar '13

Does anyone have any experience of DB2 / AS400 and Websphere I have a project to replace an existing website (with database backend) onto an OSS system using a LAMP server. Trouble is, the AS400 is used for all the financial site of the website. I do not have the source code for the websphere component, but will need to reverse engineer this in order to replicate the communication with the AS400 on the LAMP server. Does anyone have experience of these systems, or know anyone who does? Thanks, Stuart -- Stuart Bailey BSc (hons) CEng CITP MBCS LinuSoft (Managing Director) Linux Specialist & Software Developer ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Phone: (0845) 658 3563 Direct: +44 (0) 1953 878162 Fax: +44 (0) 1603 858583 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://www.linusoft.co.uk __________ Information from ESET Mail Security, version of virus signature database 8071 (20130303) __________ The message was checked by ESET Mail Security. http://www.eset.com

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after another mysterious crash
by Peter Alcibiades 03 Mar '13

03 Mar '13

Another mysterious crash. We run for three weeks or so continuously, no power off, then suddenly it dies. This time I thought to start from system rescue disk and try memory checks. This did seem to produce reporducible dying. After three crashes in a row I decided to bit the bullet and replace the innards. Yes, it would be possible just to replace the memory and see if that helped, but its productive time being lost at every iteration of this problem. The result is surprising. Now I have 16G memory in two sticks, and an i5 processor in an Asus itx board. It is a lot quieter and a lot cooler than the previous rig. In fact you can just about hear it. Started from the old hard drive with no problem and everything runs perfectly though rather faster. So, if you are looking for a compact and fast configuration, get the Silverstone mini itx case with the big fan on the front, put an i5 in it, and its perfect for a compact desktop. Recommended. I liked it with an i3, but this is superb. Al

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LiveCode goes open source
by Peter Alcibiades 02 Mar '13

02 Mar '13

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1755283828/open-source-edition-of-livec… Gone open source. Its a successor to Hypercard, but across all platforms including mobile, and they raised enough money to modularise the code and take it open source. Well over subscribed. Very encouraging. Peter

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JOB: full-time Junior Systems Engineer, Audio Analytic startup company
by Sacha Krstulovic 26 Feb '13

26 Feb '13

Dear ALUG, Please find below a job offer which might be of interest to some of your members. Job requirements include the ability to build and maintain a local network of Ubuntu workstations with proper LDAP authentication and centralised home directories, and helping with running R&D experiments on a HPC grid. The job location is Cambridge. More details below. Thanks and best regards, - Sacha K. -- Sacha Krstulović - Dipl.Eng, PhD Lead Research Engineer Audio Analytic, Cambridge, UK Analytic Jobs, Full-Time Junior Systems Engineer (Job Ref: AA-SysEng-Full-Time-Junior) Audio Analytic is the emerging leader in sound recognition and categorisation based in Cambridge (UK); West Cambridge site 10 minutes' cycle from the city centre. Our software is used by a host of world leading security equipment manufacturers to automatically analyse sound and detect security threats, such as when someone becomes aggressive or when a glass window is broken while trying to gain entry to a building. We are currently reinforcing the core engineering team and are looking for a talented systems engineer who would like to be working in an inspirational high-tech environment at the forefront of sound recognition systems. The successful candidate will join our highly successful team and will own the management of a significant part of the company's IT infrastructure, while showing a keen interest in helping with sound recognition R&D tasks. If you would like to know more about what we technically do please visit: http://www.audioanalytic.com/en/technology or if you want to find out how many windows we had to break to develop our glass break detection abilities please visit: http://www.audioanalytic.com/en/component/content/article/12-content/3-soun…. Main Responsibilities * To work closely with our research and product engineers to build and maintain an IT infrastructure that meets the needs of our R&D processes. * To take a key role into the company's R&D by helping to run some essential R&D tasks and processes. Technical Skills Must have at least 1 years' experience in the following: Required: * Linux/Unix system administration (LDAP, NIS, SAMBA, NFS) * Linux/Unix system setup (SMP kernel, NAS storage) * Coding and running scripts. Additional: * Python a plus. * Experience in running a computer grid and running software on it (SGE SunGrid, Open Grid scheduler, HPC grid). * Interest in audio signal processing a plus (electronic music, studio recording, digital audio effects, production of general sound effects, sampling). * Experience with managing large datasets a plus (e.g., audio FX library or music library). General Skills * Good communication skills. * Excellent problem-solving skills. * Enjoy working as a member of a team and using their own initiative. * Self-confident and highly motivated. * Ability to deal confidently with a variety of people at all levels. * Able to manage own workload and meet deadlines. * Good organisational skills. * Good standard of written and spoken English. Pay This is a great opportunity to join a successful company with a huge potential for growth. The successful candidate will be compensated with an attractive package appropriate to qualifications and experience, to include a competitive salary and stock options. How to Apply For further information or to apply for this vacancy, please send a covering letter and copy of a recent CV quoting the reference AA-SysEng-Full-Time-Junior to jobs(a)audioanalytic.com<mailto:jobs@audioanalytic.com> with cc: to sacha.krstulovic(a)audioanalytic.com<mailto:sacha.krstulovic@audioanalytic.com> . Please note it is company policy not to accept job applications from recruitment consultants.

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Do I use rsync or cp?
by Chris Walker 26 Feb '13

26 Feb '13

In the recent past I asked about fixing a RAID array on a NAS drive and was kindly given some advice by Mark Rogers. Plainly a sensible option and which was included in the advice, was to have a backup. So yesterday I went out and bought a USB3 1 TB external drive along with a new USB 3 card. I've bunged the card in and got all sorts of errors, something about 'ring error' which from my brief searches relates to the kernel being too old. I'll attend to that later as I can still use the new drive on a USB 2 port. Granted it will take longer but I can live with that. My question is how should I safely copy everything off my NAS box on to the new drive? Should I just use cp or rsync? The emphasis here is 'safely' as I want to make sure I copy everything off the NAS and back again in case that goes 'nipple north'. If it helps, here's what I want to copy from - //storage_server/Laptop_Share on /media/Laptop_Share type cifs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev) //storage_server/FTP_RAID_C on /media/linux_Share type cifs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev) //storage_server/Epox_Share on /media/Epox_Share type cifs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev) //storage_server/Media_Share on /media/Media_Share type cifs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev) In the past I would simply have cp'd everything off but having watched the recent discussions on rsync, it has prompted me to ask this question here. Any help appreciated.

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[ALUG Announce] 3rd Monday Monthly Ipswich Social Meeting : The Mulberry Tree
by samwise 18 Feb '13

18 Feb '13

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 "Third Monday" ALUG Ipswich Social Meeting is back tonight, 18th February, at 20:00: The Mulberry Tree 5 Woodbridge Road IPSWICH IP4 2EA Tel: 01473 225776 Map/Directions URI: http://maps.google.co.uk/?q=IP4+2EA WWW: https://www.facebook.com/MULBERRYHOSPITALITY The Mulberry Tree, previously known as The Milestone Beer House, is a grade 2 listed building in the centre of Ipswich. It is located at the intersection between Woodbridge Road and the A1156, across the road from the old Odeon cinema and not far from the Regent Theatre. It re-opened on Thursday March 29th 2012 after a major refurbishment, under its original name of The Mulberry House and has already begun to regain a good reputation for its selection of beers and ales. It has a sizeable car park to the rear of the building. All are welcome, novices and experienced users. Feel free to ask for further information on the Main ALUG mailing list. I may be late to arrive tonight, so feel free to email / call me to find out where I am if you're planning on popping along. Cheers, Peter. ----- 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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I thought I understood rsync, but clearly I don't
by mick 16 Feb '13

16 Feb '13

As it says really. I need some advice on an rsync mechanism I use to routinely backup my desktop to my NAS. The command I have used for some time is: /usr/bin/rsync -rLptgoDvz --stats / --exclude-from=rsync-excludes /home/mick nas:/home/mick-backup ("/" indicates line break above and is not part of the command line) That has worked fine for some long time, but I have just upgraded my desktop disk from 1TB to 2TB. In the process of doing so I moved the old disk to a new SATA port so that I could just copy across internally all my data from the old disk to the new. In doing so (using something like "cp -r /old-disk/micks-stuff /new-disk/micks-stuff") like a pillock I forgot to add the -p switch so all my files now have a current date/time as last modified. Guess what? My latest rsync now seems to be updating ALL by backed up files (over 800 GB of videos/photos/music etc) to the NAS. This will take some time. I thought that rsync used a rather more sophisticated algorithm (including checksums for example) than simply a check of last modified time stamp. In trying to reduce the file transfer I have tried modifying the rsync command by taking out the -t switch, but of course that doesn't work, all that happens is that the target file date/time remains unmodified after the copy. So, short of actually letting the rsync run to completion, can anyone suggest a better approach (and yes, I know I could have saved myself a lot of pain by being more careful earlier....) Cheers Mick --------------------------------------------------------------------- blog: baldric.net gpg fingerprint: FC23 3338 F664 5E66 876B 72C0 0A1F E60B 5BAD D312 ---------------------------------------------------------------------

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"Correct" way to mount CIFS shares after network comes up and unmount them before it comes down
by Mark Rogers 15 Feb '13

15 Feb '13

As per subject really! On my old PC I had CIFS entries in fstab and scripts in /etc/network/if-up.d and if-down.d, and whilst the mount worked well the unmount usually locked the PC on shutdown (SysRq-B was about the only thing it would respond to). I now have a new PC so I want to set this up correctly. All I want is that when eth0 comes up, several Samba shares are mounted, and before eth0 goes down they are unmounted (forcibly if necessary). I've looked at upstart as a possibility but I don't see how to run a script before networking goes down, unless I edit the relevant network script (I don't want to change system scripts). In case I'm overcomplicating this, all I really want is a handful of shares to be available whenever the network is, and for them not to cause me problems if I restart or shutdown networking. I'm using Kubuntu 12.10 -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

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JOB: QA Engineer
by James Tobin 15 Feb '13

15 Feb '13

Hello, I'm working with an employer that is looking to hire both experienced and graduate QA Engineers. This would be a permanent position working from home. You should have: 1. An interest in programming as well as open source databases; 2. Test development skills using C++/Java as well as scripting languages like Python, Ruby, Perl. Please email me using jamesbtobin(a)gmail.com to learn more. All the best, James

3 2

Two network switches free to a good home
by Srdjan Todorovic 15 Feb '13

15 Feb '13

Hi all, I've got 2 network switches free to a good home. They are untested (fans spin and LEDs light up, but not tested network ports), but I have no reason to suspect they are duff. They are: 1. CentreCOM FS716 16-port 10/100 mbps switch. 2. Netgear FS518T 18-port switch. 10/100 mbps for ports 1-16 (I think) and 1 Gbps for ports 17 and 18. Both do not have the auto mdix thingy so you will need correct patch ethernet cables (port 16 has the ToPC / ToHub toggle button on both switches). Both are powered using mains kettle cable (not supplied). Both have fans (the Netgear is a fair bit louder). Both are about the same size, just bigger than A4 paper I'd think, and metal cased, about 1U high. Google the dimensions if you want. I can bring them both in to this week's ALUG meet in Norwich. If anyone wants them, let me know so I can stick them in the car for the meet. Regards, Srdjan

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Web site archiving
by Bev Nicolson 14 Feb '13

14 Feb '13

I could use Scrapbook to save web pages but is there something I can use to save multiple pages or entire sites? It's just for personal use. Any ideas? Bev.

5 8

CAD "lite" for DIY projects
by Mark Rogers 14 Feb '13

14 Feb '13

I'm looking for a simple CAD tool for basic DIY projects. The project I have in mind at the moment is a wall-to-wall bookshelf comprised of 40x35cm "boxes", made from 18mm MDF, laid out like bricks (ie each row offset 50% against the ones below/above it). I want to get a feel for what it will look like, and want to be able to change things like the MDF sheet widths (eg what would it look like if the higher rows were made from 12mm MDF instead), box colours, etc. 3D would be great but non-essential. I got some way mocking something up in Inkscape but it's not really the right tool for the job. -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

5 6

RAID advice
by Chris Walker 12 Feb '13

12 Feb '13

Hopefully somebody can give me some advice. I have an Edimax NS2502 NAS device with 2 x 1TB drives in it arranged as RAID 1. When I first had it, I started to fill it up and then wanted to check that everything was working ok so removed one drive and saw that everything was still showing. I then removed the first disc and refitted the second and saw that everything was still there. Satisfied that it was all working, I have left it running ever since with the 2 drives. But ever since my experiment, the drive lights on the front have continued to flash as though they're being accessed. Worried that I might have screwed something up, I looked at the options and found one called 'Fix RAID'. That is there apparently for use if one drive fails. Should I use this to make sure that everything is 'synced' across both the drives in my box? I've tried googling this for advice but all I've found is the acknowledgement that the option is there but nothing on whether it should be used or not. Any help appreciated.

2 3

[ALUG Announce] ALUG Norwich Pub Meet Thursday 14th February
by Viperfang 12 Feb '13

12 Feb '13

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- Hello Norwich Aluggers, Our monthly ALUG Norwich social meeting will be held this Thursday, 14th February at The Coach and Horses (82 Thorpe Road, Norwich, NR1 1BA). The meeting officially starts at 8pm, although some people may arrive earlier. More information on those people can be found on the list and the IRC channel. If you are unsure if you will recognise us then make yourself and your intent to attend known by either posting on list or visiting us on IRC so we can look out for you rather than hiding in the corner. Optionally you could ask at the bar if they know where the geeky computer weirdos are and they'll point you in the right direction (seriously!). Another possibility is look for heaps of electronics on a table that may possibly look like movie props that would used for detonating explosives. Feel free to bring electronics/laptops/gadgets to the meet, you will by no means be alone. Ben Bewick aka Viperfang NB: This mail is automated, please refer to the usual sources for more information. ALUG Contact Details: Website : http://www.alug.org.uk/ IRC : #alug on irc.alug.org.uk List : http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo Twitter : http://twitter.com/anglianlug Identica: TBA Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2381613902 ----- 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

2 1

Re: [ALUG] External hard drive (temporarily) kills PC?
by Peter Alcibiades 08 Feb '13

08 Feb '13

Have you tried using another usb lead? Could it be that there is something dodgy about the connectors which when the plug is inserted with power on screws everything up, but once the plug is seated, will work ok, at least for the time being? Presumably it does not happen with other external drives, which would rule out some malfunction with the socket. Or one could try with different sockets to make absolutely sure. I can't think of any other explanation. It can't be the drive itself or it would happen regardless of when power comes on. If it happens with other leads, I would return it (though I can't think of how the drive itself could be defective in a way to cause this). I would also try it first with another computer and see if it does it to every one. Have you done that? Very strange. Al

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