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OpenDocument Foundation ODF da Vinci plugin ended
by samwise 23 Oct '07

23 Oct '07

Hi, For the open source activists on the list. We had a bit of a discussion on the use of ODF vs. MSOOXML in a corporate environment at the last Ipswich meet (more specifically, my ability to invoke a flame fest on the topic at work, without trying). I'm rather glad I didn't get too deeply involved in the debate - because I'm convinced now I'd've probably been on the losing side. ;) I'm not sure how widely it's been picked up, but I noticed yesterday that the OpenDocument Foundation's site [http://opendocument.foundation.googlepages.com/] has had a small note quietly appended. 'Note: All work on ODF da Vinci has ended. Without OASIS approval of our five generic eXtensions, known as the iX enhancements, we can not effectively convert existing Microsoft documents, applications and processes to ODF. The loss of fidelity and feature — business process specific information is too great. We are however able to make full, high fidelity "round trip" conversions to the W3C's CDF — meeting critical market requirements. If at some point in the future, the OASIS ODF TC does approve both our ODF iX enhancements, and, our "Universal Interoperability Framework Proposal", we will configure da Vinci to support both CDF and ODF iX.' Given this was the only MS Office plugin that was claimed would eventually provide a 100% perfect 'round trip' conversion fidelity, this sounds like a blow for ODF interoperability with MS Office and I think we're going to have to continue along in the era of document conversions mostly working, except for those tricky bits (i.e. anything involving tables or diagrams!). It's a shame - I'm big on promoting open standards but if the Massachusetts result didn't spell the end to ODF's challenge to MS Office, practically I think this might ... Peter.

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Using VPN to provide static IP
by Mark Rogers 22 Oct '07

22 Oct '07

I have an application which needs to authenticate via an online server, and it must use a static IP to do it. I need to do it via a mobile connecting through a 3G connection, so static IP is out. The only way I can see to do this is to create a VPN (eg using OpenVPN) and connect the laptop to that, then make the connection through that. Since I'm not entirely sure how to do this, before I waste time trying it, can anyone give me a sanity check that this is the right approach? The only thing that worries me to start with is that I'm going into the VPN and out again; normally when I use a VPN it's to connect to a network, not use it as a gateway. -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0845 45 89 555 Registered in England (0456 0902) at 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

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First Cambridge and East Anglia Python Meeting
by Richard Lewis 22 Oct '07

22 Oct '07

Dear ALUG, Following a very successful Python Conference UK[1] in September, a small group of us are attempted to set up a regional Python users group for East Anglia and Cambridge[2]. We have arranged to hold our first meeting on the evening of Tuesday 30th October at the Carlton Arms[3] (CB4 2BY). People intend to arrive from 19:00 onwards. I'll post any further details if they become available, otherwise feel free to contact me (on- or off-list) regarding this. Cheers, Richard [1] http://www.pyconuk.org/ [2] http://www.pyconuk.org/community/Cambridge_and_East_of_England [3] http://www.thecarltonarms.co.uk/ -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Richard Lewis http://www.richard-lewis.me.uk/ JID: ironchicken(a)jabber.earth.li -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- +-------------------------------------------------------+ |Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments.| |http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html | +-------------------------------------------------------+

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Free Stuff
by David Reynolds 22 Oct '07

22 Oct '07

Hi, Been tidying up our spare room / office today and found a couple of bits that we don't need any more that are free to anyone who can come pick them up - Small 4 port hub thing - has 4 ethernet ports and one BNC port. I think it's only 10MB and has an American power supply with it, so would need an adaptor or replacement power supply http://david.reynoldsfamily.org.uk/stuff/hub.jpg - Micro ATX emachines case with DVD drive / CD Drive / Floppy Drive / Power supply - Please note this has no motherboard in it http://david.reynoldsfamily.org.uk/stuff/case.jpg Cheers, Dave -- David Reynolds david(a)reynoldsfamily.org.uk

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Gnome terminal, can't display Help
by Chris G 20 Oct '07

20 Oct '07

In Fedora 7 when I click on 'Help' in the gnome-terminal menu I now get a message saying:- There was an error displaying help: There was an error launching the default action command associated with this location. It used to work so what have I screwed up? FWIW I wanted Help because the URL launching action isn't working either, I suspect this could well be the same or similar issue. It's a pity there isn't an ordinary man page for gnome-terminal, less likely to get lost. -- Chris Green

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HTML question - how to create a sequence of varying indents
by Chris G 19 Oct '07

19 Oct '07

I want to lay a list of items out as follows:- item1 item2 item3 item4 item5 Wnat's the simplest way of doing this in HTML? I'm doing it in a CGI script (i.e. the CGI will be writing the text) so the simpler the better really. -- Chris Green

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Mixer/sound driver volume levels and distortion
by Neil Sedger 19 Oct '07

19 Oct '07

Hi all, I have onboard AC97 sound, according to kmix my system automatically set itself up with the 'VIA 8237' driver, which is probably right. I have a good old analog connection to an amplifier. If I set master and PCM to 100% the volume is at a good level but is very distorted. If I move both down 'a bit' then the distortion goes away but it's all a bit unscientific as to how much that 'bit' is. If I leave PCM at 100% and move Master about it gets quieter but is always distorted. In Windows on the same hardware, setting all mixers to 100% seems to output a good, loud, non distorted sound, I'd guess at the 'line level' that my amp is expecting. Is there a setting somewhere in the (ALSA) driver to set the maximum output to 'line level' so I can set kmix at 100% and get good volume and no distortion? There is an 'External amplifier' switch in kmix but it appears to have no effect. I've had a good root around on Google and the answer appears to be 'turn the mixer volumes down a bit' - e.g.: http://alsa.opensrc.org/index.php/TroubleShooting#Sound_can_be_heard_but_it… There must be something more accurate? If the Windows drivers have some built-in setting can it be replicated? Cheers Neil

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Viewing XML files
by Mark Rogers 19 Oct '07

19 Oct '07

I have some relatively large* XML files (about 3MB) which I need to work with (view certainly, edit would be nice). They're not formatted - there are no line breaks in the files - which means most of the editors I've tried to open them with have struggled, and FireFox took about half an hour to open one of them. What are good (preferably GUI) tools for this kind of thing? I'm on Ubuntu some Gnome-biased is great, but to be honest anything that does the job is great enough. The application which creates them can comfortably handle a valid reformatted file, so if the lack of formatting is lost on a save that's not an issue. I don't really want to have to preprocess the files to tidy them before opening, though, as the files change frequently. [*] Personally I find it hard to believe that 3MB is "large" in today's world, but I guess it is quite a long line if you're expecting line breaks. -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0845 45 89 555 Registered in England (0456 0902) at 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

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Any good tools for generating HTML tables out there?
by Chris G 18 Oct '07

18 Oct '07

I'm using reStructuredText extensively for writing notes etc. that I can use both as written and by generating HTML from the .rst files so they can be viewed in a browser. However the table generation syntax in reStructuredText is a bit clumsy, 'simple tables' are OK but don't have row spans and I really want row spans, 'grid tables' can do anything but take a huge amount of effort to type. So, I'm after some simple way of generating HTML tables, preferably from some sort of text 'source' file that is itself reasonably readable. Has anyone here got any suggestions for anything like this? -- Chris Green

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Re: [ALUG] usb printer not recognised
by J.R. Seago 18 Oct '07

18 Oct '07

On Thursday 18 October 2007 "Jenny Hopkins" <hopkins.jenny(a)gmail.com> wrote: > I've stuck an HP LaserJet 1018 onto a debian stable box. Printer only > has usb connection. However, hp-probe says there are no devices > found, and lsusb agrees with this. I occasionally have a similar problem with Slackware, (It happened again only yesterday), the computer does'nt 'see' the printer, I think it is that the USB plugs are'nt a very good fit. I usually have to unplug, re-plug, (and wiggle), and then reinstall, (sometimes up to five or six times before the computer 'sees' the printer and it succesfuly re-installs. -- J.R. Seago GNU/Linux Registered User No. #219566 http://counter.li.org/ () ascii ribbon campaign - against html mail - against microsoft attachments /\

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