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10369 discussions

Sort of philosophical question about Web/Client/Server workings
by Chris Green 17 Jun '12

17 Jun '12

Every time I try and do some web application programming that involves forms (i.e. getting data from a user) it ends up being far more complicated than I expect (and more complicated than it should be I feel). Anywhere else that one programs something to get some data from a user it's fairly direct and simple:- Output something to ask a question Wait for user to enter response Get return with the response OK, it's a bit more complex/messier when using a GUI because there isn't necessarily a simple single thread but it still comes down to the program waiting for an event and, when the event happens, it gets handed some data. However when web programming it's nothing like this, one can't simply ask a question and get the answer. Say one has a PHP script running server side, it creates a form which is then displayed when the client requests it and the client fills in the form. The trouble is that there's no direct way for the PHP script that created the form to get the result - at least there isn't in any of the environment/frameworks that I've used. What happens is that there is *another* script which gets run (server side) when the client submits the form duly filled in. This other script has no direct connection with the script that created the form, no common environment, nothing. It's thus very difficult to write simple form driven applications as one can't simply display a form and get the data from the form in 'one place' as it were. Am I missing something obvious here? -- Chris Green

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xterm input delay and alsamixer display screwed up
by Srdjan Todorovic 16 Jun '12

16 Jun '12

Hi all, If I run KDE on the laptop and run Konsole or xterm, I can type commands immediately. Running alsamixer is also fine. Running fluxbox with xterms, input into xterm is delayed on startup by at least 10 to 30 seconds. Nothing echoed to the terminal while I type. Eventually it will show up. Running alsamixer in it caused bits of the ncurses display to screw up, last time I ran it. The volume control levels would be half-drawn etc. Any suggestions what might be the cause and how to fix? I'll try disabling xorg compositing as suggested here: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/xterm-delayed-input-fr… but I'd rather like to keep compositing alive any time I run KDE... Thanks, Srdjan

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How to get rid of "Notice: trying to get property of a non-object" errors in PHP
by Chris Green 15 Jun '12

15 Jun '12

I'm trying out a chunk of downloaded software and it's actually quite close to what I want. However it's outputting *hundreds* of "Trying to get property of non-object" errors which are somewhat distracting as there are more of them than actual data. I'm pretty sure the reason they're appearing is because the code is accessing lots of values before they're created (and presumably doing the right thing when they're null). It's not just in one place in the code so I can't very easily go and change the code at every place this is happening. Is there a way to turn of this particular warning? I'd rather not turn of all warnings and I'd rather do it just for this application rather than everywhere (I want to see warnings on code I've written!). -- Chris Green

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[ALUG Announce] ALUG Norwich Pub Meet Thursday 14th June
by Viperfang 14 Jun '12

14 Jun '12

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 June 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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Linux Mint 12 Wireless Issues
by Paul Grenyer 13 Jun '12

13 Jun '12

Hi All I've a new Lenovo T520 and I've installed the latest Linux Mint on it, but the wireless is painfully slow. I can't even log into my router's admin page. If I reboot into Windows 7 the speed is fine. I haven't tried a wired connection yet. I'm hoping that the wired connection is fast and might update some drivers as part of the general update process. However, if that doesn't work, I really don't have a clue where to start. The wireless adapter in the T520 is an Intel Centrino Wireless-N 1000. Can you guys give me any pointers, please? -- Thanks Paul Paul Grenyer e: paul.grenyer(a)gmail.com b: paulgrenyer.blogspot.com t: pjgrenyer ACCU Member: License to code. (http://www.accu.org)

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Scientific Linux
by Ted.Harding＠wlandres.net 13 Jun '12

13 Jun '12

Hi All Anyone using Scientific Linux? Not that there's anything specially scientific about it in its generic form. It's basically a clone of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and it's called "Scientific" because it was put together by FermiLabs and CERN. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_Linux and https://www.scientificlinux.org/ I'd be interested to hear of experiences with it (especially from anyone who has installed scientific extras). Ted. ------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)wlandres.net> Date: 12-Jun-2012 Time: 23:04:55 This message was sent by XFMail -------------------------------------------------

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How would the team produce a simple web page with a running balance/total on it?
by Chris Green 12 Jun '12

12 Jun '12

I've wanted to do this at several different times and places, some of my solutions are OK'ish but I've not really come up with something neat and tidy for doing it. I want a simple (for the user, and preferably for me too in creating it) web page where a user can enter an amount, probably with a date and a description, that gets added to (or subtracted from) a running total. The user can also see the list of transactions that contributes to the current total. I.e. I want something that looks like a bank statement but can be changed easily on the web page itself. So we'd have something like:- Date Descritption Credit Debit Balance 2012-01-01 Start of year 1234.00 1234.00 2012-02-14 Valentine Pres 12.34 1221.66 2012-03-01 Paid for joke 99.00 1320.66 etc. Plus either a blank line at the bottom of the table to enter new values, or some edit boxes to add new values. There's lots of online spreadsheets out there but since they all tend to be Excel lookalikes they don't do running balances very easily, you have to keep re-entering the balance calculation in the balance column, there doesn't seem to be any easy way to say a column is a calculated value that is always the same calculated value (or at least I've not found it). My implementations so far have either used a database with a very nasty complicated calculated value in the Balance column (that depends on the ordering of the date column which isn't always a good idea if there's more than one entry on the same date) or uses a plugin I have developed for my Wiki which requires the user to edit the wiki page - OK for me usually but not very good for other users. Any bright ideas anyone? Doesn't actually have to be web accessible as it will only have one or two users for each instance so could be done with a dedicated application and a shared file for example. -- Chris Green

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Email clients! - Alpine... anyone use it?
by James Freer 04 Jun '12

04 Jun '12

For a while i've just used the browser for email having found Thunderbird, Evolution and similar so slow on imap. Mutt i managed to set up but being so configurable wasn't to my liking. Alpine seems the fastest of any i've tried... easy to setup - just wondering if anyone else on here uses it. If they do any problems? jmaes

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Multi-VPN configuration
by Mark Rogers 04 Jun '12

04 Jun '12

I always get into a muddle when I try to set up VPN connections but I'm going to have another go.. What I have is lots of Linux "devices" (typically ARM boxes running Debian) which will be plugged into networks giving them Internet access. What I want to achieve is to have them auto-connect to a VPN, such that I am able to access all of them, but also that the end user can connect to their own devices but nobody elses. Ideally I'd also like other VPN capable devices, such as Draytek routers, to be able to join in the party. My starting point - which may well be wrong, is to assume that I want a server running OpenVPN somewhere on t' Internet. (Is that the right place to start?) I find the OpenVPN documentation to be very detailed but hard to narrow it down to any particular usage case unless it's a standard config (eg "road warrier"). What I don't want at my end is to *have* to connect separately to each VPN. Doing so optionally would be good (but would be possible in the same way an extra device could), but it could be I end up with dozens or hundreds of separate segregated VPNs. Furthermore, it's likely that I will want all of the VPNs to have access to certain facilities (eg databases, FTP) on other servers without having to make the other servers join multiple VPNs. -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) 21 Drakes Mews, Milton Keynes, MK8 0ER

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How to print stupid Royal Mail price list?
by Chris Green 01 Jun '12

01 Jun '12

The Royal Mail used to provide a neat PDF file which fitted A4 to show their postage prices. The latest version though is a 'booklet' so I can't see any way to actually print it on an A4 printer. This is the link to the PDF:- http://c435158.r58.cf3.rackcdn.com/Royal_Mail_Our_Prices.pdf Can anyone tell me how to split it up into printable pages? I've tried ImageMagick's convert but that didn't default to what I wanted, maybe I need some more options to tell it what to do. -- Chris Green

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