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A more subtle (?) sqlite (or actually just SQL) question
by Chris Green 06 Nov '11

06 Nov '11

I have a database which, among other things has a date column and also has some text columns. Is there any way to ask for:- The value of a text column for the last date less than the current date E.g. I have data like the following:- Date Text --------- --------- 2011-11-4 Cabbages 2011-11-5 Fireworks 2011-11-7 Nutcase and I want the result 'Fireworks' given the date 2011-11-6. SELECT Text from db WHERE Date < '2011-11-6'; will give all previous rows, not just the row I want. I sort of need to to say:- SELECT Text from db WHERE Date 'is the biggest one less than' '2011-11-6'; I guess I can do:- SELECT Text from db WHERE Date < '2011-11-6' ORDER BY Date DESCENDING; and use the first row returned but this somehow seems inelegant. Does anyone have any better ideas? -- Chris Green

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How to work out what "SQLSTATE[HY000]: General error: 25 bind or column index out of range" actually means
by Chris Green 06 Nov '11

06 Nov '11

I'm getting this error when using PHP's PDO to insert records into an sqlite3 database. It's only happening on some inserts. SQLSTATE[HY000]: General error: 25 bind or column index out of range Now I realise it's probably telling me that some column constraint is being contravened or maybe that I have an invaldid column name or something in the insert. However I can't work out what the error is and without some sort of pointer as to which column (or whatever) is causing the problem I'm at a bit of a loss to find the error. The insert query string being handed to the prepare() function is:- INSERT INTO log (seqno, year, month, day, hour, minute, waterway, pk, place, distance, eng_hrs, fuel_cm, fuel_lt, note, type ) VALUES (:seqno, :year, :month, :day, :hour, :minute, :waterway, :pk, :place, :distance, :eng_hrs, :fuel_cm, :fuel_lt, :note, :type ); and the execute query is being handed an array with matching keys. I'm *wondering* if the issue may be that a couple of fields have characters like '-' and ',' in them, do I need to quote or escape these maybe? -- Chris Green

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HTML question - any way to do this other than using tables?
by Chris Green 02 Nov '11

02 Nov '11

I know HTML isn't strictly linux, but still it's related isn't it and there are lots of clever and helpful people here. I want to lay out some web pages in the following sort of fashion:- Top of Page Heading Sub-heading C1 Data C2 Data C3 Data More C1 data More C2 data More C3 data Sub-heading C1 Data C2 Data C3 Data More data More data More data and more etc etc Sub-heading Etc. Etc. Etc I want all of the columns under the sub-headings to be the same widths so they're aligned all the way down (i.e. the same column widths under all of the sub-headings). Using tables one could either set all the column widths explicitly (but very difficult to make it work at different resolutions then) or one could make the sub-headings a column span and just make the text bold (so as a result it's all one table). Is there any other way that would be less painful? I suppose using the column spanning method isn't too awful but it's a really pity that HTML has no other way of putting text in columns. Note that the columns are not all the same width as I have shown above. -- Chris Green

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Problem 2 - System won't start again after CMOS battery failure
by Chris Green 01 Nov '11

01 Nov '11

I have a fairly infrequently used system in our lounge that I use occasionally when I want to display stuff on the telvision. Yesterday it failed to boot when I tried to use it so, after a few failed retries I went and got my laptop. As per "Problem 1" *that* wouldn't connect to the WiFi. To get round the immediate problem I got a long patch cable and connected that way, so we could see the pictures I wanted to show on the TV! So, I'd like to get the dead CMOS system back up and running. I've replaced the CMOS battery and loaded "Optimised defaults" into the CMOS. That didn't initially work at all because it didn't enable the SATA ROM and the system, though a few years old, has just one disk drive which is a SATA disk. I've now enabled the SATA disk and the SATA ROM in the CMOS and it gets a bit further, GRUB comes up and offers me three or four kernel versions plus memtest. Memory checks OK. If I just let it go on to the default kernel it pops up the disk ID, thinks for a while, then pops up the disk ID again with "Starting system" below, and that's it. I tried the recovery mode and it looks as if it can't read the SATA disk drive, though obviously the CMOS can as otherwise it wouldn't boot into GRUB at all. It goes through a load of timeout messages and then there's a kernel panic. I was going to try and produce some detail by copying to my laptop but that's waiting for the solution to "Problem 1"! Is there any way to copy/save the boot messages produced by GRUB in recovery mode so I can Google for them and/or show them here so that someone might be able to decipher what's wrong? ... and/or can anyone suggest something deep in the CMOS settings that might have been lost and is necessary for Linux to boot from SATA successfully? It's running Xubuntu 10.10 (I think!). -- Chris Green

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Android phone management with Linux
by Mark Rogers 31 Oct '11

31 Oct '11

What is the best way to manage my Android phone with my Linux (U11.04) desktop? I don't currently use it for music etc, and all the stuff I've found so far seems to focus on syncing to banshee. I'm more interested in contacts, SMS/MMS, and maybe photos (I say "maybe" because it's easy enough to just drag photos off via USB anyway). I'm not particularly looking to sync the contacts etc with something else, just back them up, although sync would be fine. (Specifically: I went to NY recently and got a local PAYG SIM for the duration, then lost my UK SIM, so I now have a new SIM and have discovered just how many of my contacts were on the SIM not on the phone... Also, for the contacts that were on the phone it was obvious when I tried using them in NY just how many were prefixed 0nnn rather than +44nnn and a way to easily edit them all would be nice.) Also I'd like to archive off my SMS messages, so again it's not really about sync but just backup. Phone is an HTC Desire HD, although I will probably replace it with a newer Android (Samsung Galaxy S2 looking likely) in the near future. -- 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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Agile East Anglia
by Paul Grenyer 30 Oct '11

30 Oct '11

Hi All I've not been around here for a while, but now I'm back! And I'm promoting a new group in Norwich which I suspect would be right up some people here's street. Inspired by the Extreme Tuesday Club (XTC) in London, Agile East Anglia's intention is to organise regular informal meetings for people new to Agile, Agile practitioners and Agile experts to meet, discuss ideas and network. I'm hoping to arrange the first meeting in late November at the Coach and Horses on Thorpe Road in Norwich. http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Agile-East-Anglia-4149630 -- Thanks Paul Paul Grenyer e: paul.grenyer(a)gmail.com b: paulgrenyer.blogspot.com t: pjgrenyer

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Login puzzle
by Bev Nicolson 30 Oct '11

30 Oct '11

I now have a new to me machine. (Ubuntu 10.10, plus all updates.) On logging in I get an error message for the monitor to say (I think) that it's signal is out of range though it's fine once I'm in. However, oddly, I don't get to enter my password. This is, admittedly tricky when you've got a box right over the bit you need to type in but how do I sort these two things out? I hope this isn't a dumb question. I seem horribly good at those just now. Bev.

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Problem 1 - Can't get WiFi to connect - always get "Bad Password"
by Chris Green 30 Oct '11

30 Oct '11

This is only one of several problems in a row that I'm having trying to get an Ubuntu 11.04 machine back to life after its CMOS battery died. However this WiFi problem isn't directly related, I wanted to use my laptop next to the dead computer to do some Google'ing for the error messages and I can't get the laptop to connect to my WiFi (I normally just plug it in to the ethernet). The laptop *does* connect successfully to other WiFi networks, it currently has wicd rather than trhe default Network Manager. The symptoms, such as they are, are that it sees the WiFi network with the correct SSID and everything but although I have checked and rechecked the password it fails to connect with a pop-up window saying "Connection Failed: Bad Pasword". Other computers can connect to the WiFi OK and I have checked that they are using the same password, they are. It's a fairly simply password so I'm sure I'm not mis-typing it. So, all I can think is that there is some sort of incompatibility between wicd and the router. In wicd I'm selecting "Use Encryption" and "WPA 1/2 (Preshared Key)", on the router (Draytek Vigor 2820n) I'm setting "WPA Pre-Shared Key(PSK)" Is there anything else anyone can suggest that might be causing the failure? -- Chris Green

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Is it possible to prevent this web redirect?
by Chris Green 29 Oct '11

29 Oct '11

This isn't specifically linux but there are lots of knowledgeable people here, so ..... I'm trying to go to the following web page:- http://auberge.delecluse.free.fr When I load the above in Firefox (or IE for that matter) it pops up the web page momentarily but then, within a second or so, redirects me to http://www.cibleclick.com/. I've seen this sort of thing before but I'm more interested in seeing the 'right' web page this time. If you use lynx or w3m to go to http://auberge.delecluse.free.fr then you don't get redirected, but of course there's not much in the way of pictures to look at. Is there any way I can get Firefox (or something else) to show the wanted web pages? -- Chris Green

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Re: [ALUG] Google Chrome - anyone use it?
by mick 27 Oct '11

27 Oct '11

On Fri, 21 Oct 2011 23:22:03 +0100 James Freer <jessejazza3.uk(a)gmail.com> allegedly wrote: > > I wonder what you'd have written if i said i'd installed Chromium! <tinfoil beanie hat> Much the same. Chromium, or any OS which relies primarily on web (or "cloud") based storage and applications, has the same implications for reductions in privacy. Any use model which stores my data (in the broadest possible sense) on someone else's systems, particularly where those systems may be in a country where UK laws on data privacy do not apply, bothers me. When that system is owned by a company which explicitly makes money by aggregation of personal data and whose CEO has the ludicously cavalier attitude towards personal privacy demonstrated by Eric Schmidt (c.f. wonderful remark: "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place" [1]) I get even more bothered. > Installing Chrome was part of my hunt to find a better browser. I find > Firefox 'hangs' after any lengthy browsing... it always seems to have > done, i recall switching to Netscape back in about 2004/2005 because > it was so bad and hasn't improved much in many ways. Seamonkey seems > to have inherited some of that. I started looking for something better > and wasn't too impressed by Epiphany which is supposed to be Debian's > default browser [i think]. You could try opera. It isn't open source, or truly free in the "freedom" sense, but it is free of cost and it works well under linux. But beware here too of opera's ability to track your usage through its "opera turbo" option. This can be a useful option for speeding web browsing on a slow link, but it does this by pulling the data from opera's own caching proxy service. You pays your money.... > It seems google have taken the OS code and made their own - with it > perhaps some of their "sinful additions". I thought it was easier to > reply by numbering the paragraphs. > > 1] In my mind is do they really collect data about individuals? One > can suspect them of doing such things but why would they do it. They > are a business focussed on developing search on the internet. I see no > reason to believe they actually do anything with that data other than > pursuing that objective. Would they take passwords and look in detail > at what individuals access? The security risk is far too high. Someone > would have got into the google complex and splashed it across the > world by now - google would be dead within a couple of days. I'm sure > the google complex security is ten times that of Fort Knox but even > so. Yes they do. In the name of "personalising your experience" they will do all that they can to get as close to you as an individual as is possible. Consider how you are "encouraged" to sign up to google services "for a richer experience". And it matters not at all whether google itself uses that data, the very fact that it has that much data aggregated makes it an attractive target for those of malign intent (or governments armed with warrants). > 2] I don't find it ok but... i recognise that for them to provide an > excellent service finance has got to come into the picture somehow. > The fact that the advertising means that an organisation for a high > fee gets pole position on page one of a google search compared with > that pays less. BUT if one compares with other search engines it's > surprising how much they vary... but then only some of the time. So > how are Altavista, Ask.com etc getting funds to pay staff. I haven't > done any comparisons for a few years now i admit. I've just used > google as i've felt they were more ahead in research than others. > Google are very smart i must say... the features they provide for free > are excellent - they wouldn't be able to do that without finance > somehow. What have i browsed today; Spaceship Galactica, ebay, solid > fuel stoves - so what. In summary perhaps it's appropriate to say one > should be WARY of google recording visits. But then again one can > search 'death camps'... and all these places spring up across a > certain country - no one knows why/what purpose they are for [gosh > what have i written perhaps i'll get 'neutralised' next week by men in > black... google might be studying this email]. Google are not in business for my benefit, they do it to make money. I have no problem with any company making money (it's what makes the western world work (or not, depending upon your perspective) but I do have a problem when their primary mechanism of funding leads them to a position where taking liberties with personal privacy becomes the norm. > I have not found any evidence that google has blocked information >or in effect provides contrived searches.> Ummm proving a negative is difficult. How exactly would you know with any certainty that search results had not been tampered with? And in fact, "tampering" with search results is exactly what google is offering you in the name of "personalised experiences". (As an aside here, I was intrigued to discover that I cannot now view the onion news article I reference below without "signing in" to youtube. I get the messages: "The video that you have requested has not had a rating provided by the content owner and may not be appropriate for younger audiences." and "To view this video or group, please verify that you are of the appropriate age by signing in or signing up. If you would instead prefer to avoid potentially inappropriate content, consider activating YouTube's Safety Mode." No google, I will /not/ bloody well sign up just to view a video about you. See [4] for the image of the page I get. Maybe they are on to me. :-) ) > 3] You raise an good point here. I had a website that i used to test > out some mindmapping. I was chuffed that google had found it... maybe > it was from google toolbar - but i also tried a search at school and > it found it (no google toolbar used). I merely used google toolbar to > stop me deleting my valuable bookmarks when i did a reinstall [but > that was a while back and i'm rather better now at backups! I'd > remember everything apart from bookmarks]. Google is for finding info > and that's what it did - just because there were no links... doesn't > necessarily mean that google toolbar was reporting pages - it found > them. Since using bookmarks (html stored in home directory) over the > last few weeks i must say it's quicker than using google bookmarks via > the toolbar so i doubt if i'll be using it again. I should try > Chromium... but i've read a load of bugs and yet to see many for > Chrome. With respect, I think you missed a point here. The issue is that google toolbar reports searches to google. Once google has then indexed the pages (if they are not already public) they become available to anyone, regardless of whether that later searcher has the toolbar installed. So your finding the pages from a search at school is not surprising. No search engine can discover truly "orphaned" web pages unless the engine is pointed to those pages in some way. So google cannot just "find" web pages, they have to have an external link. That is one reason that google toolbar is sneaky. > 4] You could well be right. But they want to stop that legislation as > it would limit their scope for a search engine. Stuff shouldn't be on > the web if it's not to be found and read. I've been surprised at what > google's found when i've posted on various forums on topics of > gardening, dogs and classic cars. (Minor correction here. I meant "do not track" not "do not follow", but the issue is the same.) Implying a motive here is difficult I agree. But consider the track record. I tend to agree with the author of an article in wired [2] when he said "it’s about money that Google stands to lose if users of its browser get an easy way to opt out of its advertising tracking." > Perhaps i'm naive but i think google are very smart and deserve their > success. The World watches them but i think they're clean. As for > gmail; there are some things that irritate me but AOL and other's > nothing like as good. The 'conversations' make list replies very easy, > one can set an email client but i find them far too slow for my amount > of mail - only one i've found useable is Alpine but for > 'conversations' far too slow. Star important emails i don't want to > delete and when it comes to 'clearing', search the 'unstarred' and > then delete. Sure, I agree that they are smart. But I don't agree that they are clean. For an amusing, irreverent, and not entirely unbelievable view of google's attitude to privacy, see the onion news opt out video at [3] Mick </tinfoil beanie hat> Notes [1] See http://www.osnews.com/story/22603/You_Have_Zero_Privacy_Anyway_--_Get_Over_… [2] http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/04/chrome-do-not-track/2/ [3] Onion News Network on google opt-out http://www.theonion.com/video/google-opt-out-feature-lets-users-protect-pri… [4] http://rlogin.net/google/google-opt-out.png

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