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HDD --> Flash??
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 25 Aug '06

25 Aug '06

Hi Folks, This morning's Guardian "Technology" section has an item about the possible replacement of the classic HDD by flash-memory modules. See: http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1856508,00.html While reading the article (mostly about cost comparisons), I was wondering about whether the data stored on a flash module would be as solidly stored as on a HDD. Finally, there was a brief discussion of the issue: "But besides cost, there are other obstacles for Flash memory replacing hard drives. Flash memory is typically guaranteed for around 1m read/write cycles, which sounds a lot, but in the context of the working life of a PC (which is continually writing, erasing or rewriting data) is not. So designers have to use techniques known as wear-levelling to shift data around the Flash memory block to reduce the risk of data error. "We can design around the problem," says Walsh." I was also wondering about how long data would "stay in place" over time anyway. Does the "bit-state" of an element on a flash module tend to "diffuse" away over time? Admittedly I have never experienced data corruption on a flash drive (though the number of read/writes to such that I've made is far from the millions); aqnd I've certainly had problems with hard drives! (But then I do hammer these). Any views? There's also an interesting insight into XP and Vista. Booting XP from a flash would be 25%-50% faster than from a HDD. And, it says, "Vista is about five times bigger than XP, and what comes along with that large size is a speed issue, even with faster CPUs. We've been working with Microsoft on ways to speed up booting and application loading by complementing the hard drive with Flash." Hmmm Best wishes to all, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 24-Aug-06 Time: 10:54:16 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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PC World TV Advert
by Ian bell 22 Aug '06

22 Aug '06

PC World's latest TV advert has a saleman extolling the virtues of a dual core Pentium. Dual core? asks the customer. Yes, replies salesman, Let's you do more than one thing at a time. At the very least misleading to the average punter. I have complained to the advertising standards authority. ian

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New Gnome User Needs Help
by Martin Collins 21 Aug '06

21 Aug '06

Hi, after using KDE for many years now, I've defected to Gnome with Ubuntu's Dapper Drake. After using it for a few days I really like it and I'm getting along great. I had tried to use it a few times previous but always gave up and went back to KDE. Everything I use and need is available in Gnome, except one thing. In KDE I always used Konqueror for navigating around my folders and when needing to revert to the command line simply clicked on the Konsole button in Konqueror (which I placed on the toolbar) and a terminal popped open in my current working directory. I can't seem to do this in Gnome/Nautilus. I have to open Gnome Terminal separately and cd into the directory that I want. It's only a minor niggle, but I've just seemed to have fallen into working this way. I do remember, I think it was Mandrake 8.2, that Nautilus did used to have a function like the one described above. Does anyone know if this is possible in the latest Gnome/Nautilus? Thanks all. Martin

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Exim - deny rule ignored
by James Green 21 Aug '06

21 Aug '06

Hi, I'm trying to change the behaviour of exim 4.50 such that as soon as a RCPT TO: foo(a)domain.com is received, it checks if that recipient exists and if not, denies service. deny !verify = recipient Should do it, at the top of the acl_check_rcpt rule. exim -bH shows the rule being loaded, but completely ignored. Indeed testing from my gmail account results in the standard mail rejection notice complete with spam index, instead of an SMTP-level deny. Any clues? Cheers, James

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PC World
by Bob Dove 21 Aug '06

21 Aug '06

Hi folks, PC World - a good place to shop as undoubtedly almost anyone who enters the portals knows more than the staff employed. My most famous encounter was at the specialist desk wherein I enquired after a hard drive caddy or drive case. "Nah, don't make 'em anymore, no call for them." I looked on the shelves and found a Belkin device that looked as if it would do the job (it does - still) and I took it back to the specialist counter and asked the same bloke if I could mount an IDE drive in it. He concurred that what was wrote on the box was correct. I asked that as they didn't do 'em anymore - no call for them - was there a special price? They must be aware of their reputation? I worked for Dixons for ten years. In my time even the junior had a full product knowledge and was actively encouraged to join clubs, go to college or adult learning centres to learn more and more about the subject. It is embarrassing at times to overhear the sales patter! But go into any multi selling almost anything. You'll find Sales Managers, Sales Advisors, Key Account Executives (the person that knows how to write an invoice) Team Leaders but no team or any lowly sales persons. Most of these companies are driven by accountants who have know knowledge of the product. A famous photographic company I was once in frequent contact with had a policy of not employing anyone with photography as a hobby - 'we want them to sell boxes, we don't want them to like the product.' The reps main line was always 'how many outers do you want?' No trying to buy one item to replace the one you sold last week. Many more boxes - don't matter what's in 'em. These people also employ ad agencies at vast sums of money to produce these facile and incorrect ads. The ad agencies are briefed (obviously inadequately) by Sales Directors. Ah Whale! Bob Dove.

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Weekly IRC reminder
by Brett Parker 21 Aug '06

21 Aug '06

This is the automated ALUG IRC meeting reminder sent to remind you that there is an IRC meeting tonight (Monday) at 8.00pm. Historically, these used to be the only time a lot of us would be about, now the channel has some usual faces that are there most of the time (except at silly o'clock, when we might be sleeping, or on the second thursday of the month, where we might be drinking in the Reindeer), so don't feel limited to visit during this time, come visit us when ever you feel like it! The meeting takes place on the irc server irc.alug.org.uk in the #alug channel. Most IRC clients should allow you to get there with the commands "/server irc.alug.org.uk" and "/join #alug". Popular IRC clients include xchat, irssi and EPIC on Unix, and Mirc under windows. Here are some links to help you get started with irc. Unix http://www.xchat.org/ http://www.irssi.org/ http://www.epicsol.org/ Windows http://xchat.org/windows/ - the UNIX client has a windows port! http://www.mirc.com/ (loads of help with irc for newbies!)

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ALUG Contrib blockage
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 20 Aug '06

20 Aug '06

Hi Folks, Browsing just now on the ALUG home page http://www.alug.org I found that everything that points to anything under http://www.alug.org/contrib/ ends up at http://www.alug.org.uk/blocked.htm with the page: ACCESS DENIED You have been blocked from accessing this site due to the security settings in place If you feel this in error please contact the mailing list for assistance. This is only a temporary measure until stricter posting rules are put in place. I know this is an old issue, but I'm windering how it's going. It doesn't look too good to have 4 out of the 9 links on the home page going nowhere! best wishes to all, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 20-Aug-06 Time: 18:11:25 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Sensors
by Barry Samuels 18 Aug '06

18 Aug '06

Now that I've changed over to a 2.6 kernel some of the sensors modules will not load automatically. When the machine boots i2c_core and i2c_amd756 are both loaded but w83781d and i2c_isa are not but if I load w83781d manually using modprobe after booting both these 'missing' modules load and sensors then works. I have an lm-sensors file in /etc/modprobe.d which contains (can't stop the line wrapping in my mailer): install w83781d /sbin/modprobe i2c_amd756; /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install w83781d # Supplied by Tyan options w83781d force_w83782d=0,0x2d force_subclients=0,0x2d,0x48,0x49 force_w83627hf=0,0x2c force_subclients=0,0x2c,0x4a,0x4b init=0 Any ideas? -- Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

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Flash
by Bob Dove 17 Aug '06

17 Aug '06

Hi folks, Will flash be the death of the internet? A company I do some PR work for has for the past two years employed a young 'whizz kid' (MD's son) to liven up their website. Has lots of 'flash' flash (the company do manufacture Studio Flash equipment) animations &c, but takes so long to load that potential customers move onto a competitors site in 'penny plain' HTML. Despite being told that the only people who can be bothered with flash are other website designers who do not buy their products they do persist. I suppose the MD's son has to be employed at something! What do ALUGers think. Are we getting too clever by far and missing the point? Cheers, BD.

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I'm flummoxed too!!!
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 16 Aug '06

16 Aug '06

Hi folks, I have been trying to follow up a story on the BBC News website: " Tests flummox trainee teachers" http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4793655.stm which describes how trainee teachers were failing basic tests in numeracy, literacy and information technology. The above URL gives some examples of test questions in literacy and numeracy, but none from ICT. So I followed a link on the right of the story "Sample ICT test" at http://www.tda.gov.uk/skillstests/practicematerials/ ict/practicematerial.aspx [all one line] to see how I would get on. Until I read the "Minimum specifications". Now I'm flummoxed too. And depressed. Best wishes to all, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 16-Aug-06 Time: 00:01:55 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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