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open document petition
by tom potts 22 Feb '07

22 Feb '07

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/OpenDocument/ Tom ___________________________________________________________ The all-new Yahoo! Mail goes wherever you go - free your email address from your Internet provider. http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/nowyoucan.html

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'locate' isn't always helpful, how to do better?
by Eur Ing Chris Green 22 Feb '07

22 Feb '07

While the 'locate' command is very useful at times, especially if you have lost a specific file it's much less useful when looking for, for example, a directory which has a rather common name. E.g. I was just trying to find where I have bits of vmware installed, doing a 'locate vmware' just produces zillions of lines of output. I don't (in this case) want to know all the files which are located somewhere below a 'vmware' directory, I just want to know the location of the directory. I know I can use an RE in locate but it's not all *that* simple to come up with an RE to do it. I could also use 'find' which would get me exactly the result I want with a fairly straightforward command, but it would take ages. What I really want is a 'find' that uses the locate database, I'm surprised no one has written one - or have they? -- Chris Green

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Wiki / Webmaster hours
by Matthew 22 Feb '07

22 Feb '07

Hi all, I introduced myself the other day but foolishly forgot to include a Subject. If you missed that mail and have questions, just ask. MJ Ray wrote: > ... lugmasters have been looking > at merging/co-hosting dynamic sites, to ease maintenance: there just > aren't enough webmaster-hours to go round. If iPlug has spare > webmaster-hours, please share them! I should probably commit them for one-time projects and events rather than for the continuing running of things, but I have some spare webmaster-hours here and there. I can update static and dynamic things, install and administrate CMSs and the like, and various other things that you shouldn't trust people with when you know them as well as you know me. If anyone has a surplus of project and the cause is good, drop me a mail to say what's required and I'll tell you whether I can help. I'll keep and eye on the Wiki and see if I can be useful there. Matthew

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How to check a directory is empty (probably in bash)?
by Eur Ing Chris Green 22 Feb '07

22 Feb '07

What's the simplest (and/or most concise) way to check for an empty directory? I can't just do a rmdir as I need to check three directories are empty before I can do anything drastic (like removing the directory). Not to mention that for one application of this I don't want to remove the empty directory anyway. As you've probably guessed this is to check if a maildir mailbox is empty - to do this you need to check if all three subdirectories of the maildir are empty. I can see various rather clumsy ways of doing it but nothing neat and elegant. A Google search didn't turn up much either, just some rather arcane zsh ways of doing it which were arcane enough to be zsh only I suspect. I might get carried away and write a little 'C' utility do do it if nothing sensible turns up. -- Chris Green

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RE: [ALUG] Wiki
by Tracy Dickerson 22 Feb '07

22 Feb '07

Hello, >From a non technical point of view (i.e. mine) I am finding the Wiki a very difficult place to edit. I just had to ask one of the kind fellas here at work to help me add my name to the 'Whos Who' list as there was not a option in the 'Edit (GUI)' tab to add a line as it is not active. Please can we make this Wiki user friendly to people who cannot use HTML. Or can we order the HTML page views so that someone like me has a hope in hell of understanding it with a book. Thank you in advance Tracy x -----Original Message----- From: main-bounces(a)lists.alug.org.uk [mailto:main-bounces@lists.alug.org.uk] On Behalf Of Brett Parker Sent: 21 February 2007 23:02 To: main(a)lists.alug.org.uk Subject: Re: [ALUG] Wiki On Wed, Feb 21, 2007 at 10:37:19PM +0000, samwise wrote: > Anyway, I'm finding myself struggling a bit with the limitations of > markup inside tables. It appears there's a macro to address this sort > of thing. Is there any chance someone could install this: Markup in tables?! Hnnng?! You're not planning on using tables for layout purposes are you? (as apposed to tabular data...) -- Brett Parker _______________________________________________ main(a)lists.alug.org.uk http://www.alug.org.uk/ http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main Unsubscribe? See message headers or the web site above!

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Wiki
by Jonathan McDowell 22 Feb '07

22 Feb '07

In the spirit of trying to actually get us to the point where we have new content rather than the ever recurring discussions about the fact no one updates the website, I have created: http://www.alug.org.uk/wiki/ It's a MoinMoin Wiki, because I'm more at home with them and they work with flat files (I'm not entirely sure MediaWiki will do this?). I haven't moved over content from the existing "wiki" (feel free to do this) nor linked it in from the main page yet (if it takes off this is obviously simple). So, get started. Should be perfectly possible for us to have various pages for the Norwich social meets, the Ipswich social meets and whatever else out there. Anyone can create themselves an account and I know there are anti spam measures out there for Moin so they can be looked at eventually if we see issues. J. -- 101 things you can't have too much of : 25 - email.

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"Who's Where?"
by ted.harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 21 Feb '07

21 Feb '07

If you haven't already had a look at recent changes to the Wiki at http://www.alug.org.uk/wiki I've started a page "Who's Where?" the get a ball rolling. The idea is that people can let it be known where they're "near" (in the East Anglian sense of "near") -- i.e. the places they consider it reasonable to make a trip to in oder to meet up with others in the same relation to said places. Then local "clusters" can get in touch with each other for get-togethers. The regular Norwich meets are nice, but distant for many. The occasional meets at Syleham or UEA or Gazeley/Ashley[?] have been excellent, but infrequent. Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <ted.harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 21-Feb-07 Time: 21:28:01 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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RE: [ALUG] Re: IpLUG - Meeting
by Tracy Dickerson 21 Feb '07

21 Feb '07

That sounds great Chris. What I was thinking was having a page where we make a list of the available to lend books with the following details - Title - Author - Publisher - Who owns the book And then for each book have a attached page where we can do a library checking out thing so we know who has the book on loan, when it was loaned out and when the owner got it back. That way we can keep track of the books and have a history to see which are the most popular etc. Maybe then we could have a talk from someone about the contents of the book so that a discussion has formed. Just a little idea. I would be happy to get that pages going on the Wiki to start with and then people can add books or take them off if they leave us for other things etc. Tracy x -----Original Message----- From: main-bounces(a)lists.alug.org.uk [mailto:main-bounces@lists.alug.org.uk] On Behalf Of Eur Ing Chris Green Sent: 20 February 2007 09:09 To: ALUG Subject: [ALUG] Re: IpLUG - Meeting On Tue, Feb 20, 2007 at 08:33:36AM -0000, Tracy Dickerson wrote: > Hey fellas, > > Thank you for a fab evening. It was good to meet new people (and old > friends.) > Yes, same here. > Would it be a good idea to have a code library kinda thing where we > place useful command line commands etc. Okay, this would help me, but > I think that we could all learn stuff from doing this kinda thing. > That sounds like an ideal wiki sort of thing. > I was also talking to Pete last night and mentioned a library of text > books that we could document and lend out within the group. This could > make a good talking point especially if someone is looking to do > something in particular. I have a few books that I doubt I will ever > understand that might be of use to others along the way (I was given > them). > I have quite a few, some I'd quite happily donate whereas others I'd want to keep but would be very happy to lend. -- Chris Green _______________________________________________ main(a)lists.alug.org.uk http://www.alug.org.uk/ http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main Unsubscribe? See message headers or the web site above!

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RE: [ALUG] Re: IpLUG - Meeting
by Tracy Dickerson 20 Feb '07

20 Feb '07

Please, this is not a get at iPlug or ALUG day. Why is it being treated as one. What is wrong with us at iPlug having a wiki of our own? Do we have to do everything together? If so, why have separate names? Now people, play nice. This was only our first meeting. Do not lets spoil something that was good and fun and interesting with nasty fighting when there is nothing to fight about. Tracy x -----Original Message----- From: main-bounces(a)lists.alug.org.uk [mailto:main-bounces@lists.alug.org.uk] On Behalf Of MJ Ray Sent: 20 February 2007 14:23 To: samwise(a)bagshot-row.org; main(a)lists.alug.org.uk Subject: Re: [ALUG] Re: IpLUG - Meeting samwise <samwise(a)bagshot-row.org> wrote: [...] > That said, the consensus last night seemed to me that a flexible wiki > was a priority for us and, therefore, I'm going to go ahead and set > that up before the next meet under the iPlug name (a branch of ALUG). > I hope this doesn't come across as a an attempt to splinter the ALUG > community, but I truly don't want to pile on pressure and deadlines to > a community which, I'm sure, has been doing perfectly well on its own > so far ... ;) Yes, I feel it comes across as an attempt to splinter the ALUG. Why not use the flexible wiki at http://www.alug.org.uk/contrib/ ? It's only 'not open' because there's been some low-maintenance efforts to block spammers. If you want to replace the WikiEngine, change the anti-spam and revamp the content, I'm sure many people would welcome that. The webmasters could either give you ssh, ftp or a redirect. I tried to replace it in the past, but lack of familiarity with modern wikis and a worker going silent mid-change meant it never happened. > If ALUG moves towards the same open model at any point in the future, Huh? How is ALUG not open? Have the cabal suddenly moved in and locked it down in the few months since I left? I doubt it. All you have to do is pick a job and start doing it yourselves. You don't have to "pile on pressure and deadlines" to anyone. I suggest starting by either editing the pages with the "Edit Page" links or getting website access of a type you like from either: David Reynolds Sionide and if they don't move: Jonathan McDowell Me (maybe) should still also have access and can add access, while: Darren Casey Jonathan McDowell Martyn Drake UKLUGS (Andy Smith?) control the web hosting and domains IIRC. I'm sure one of those will have time to open the door to you. I think iPlug seems to have a bad case of 'Not Invented Here' and is unwilling to cooperate with its neighbours. I feel it's particularly stupid to split an existing web site when lugmasters have been looking at merging/co-hosting dynamic sites, to ease maintenance: there just aren't enough webmaster-hours to go round. If iPlug has spare webmaster-hours, please share them! Regards, -- MJ Ray - see/vidu http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html Somerset, England. Work/Laborejo: http://www.ttllp.co.uk/ IRC/Jabber/SIP: on request/peteble. _______________________________________________ main(a)lists.alug.org.uk http://www.alug.org.uk/ http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main Unsubscribe? See message headers or the web site above!

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Re: IpLUG - Meeting
by Syd Hancock 20 Feb '07

20 Feb '07

ALUG operates over a wide geographical area which is one reason why it functions mainly through email. Meetings and new wikis etc do not 'splinter' that but add to it. As I have said several years ago, IMHO more frequent and more local meetings would be good (and was willing to be involved with organising, as some will recall). Good luck to anyone who wants to organise more frequent small meetings in the area where they live. Ignore the people who will shout you down and criticise - later they will say 'no-one ever does anything'. There is this thing called 'freedom' you know, just go ahead and do what you want to do and call it what you want to call it. Incidentally IMNSHO some of the responses from the old guard here go a long way to explain why ALUG is not expanding even though linux use in the region, as everywhere, certainly is. There is certainly room for other alternatives as well as ALUG. But then, some people dare to think that there should be more distros than just d*bi*n or even there should be alternatives to G**me, heh... Syd

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