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RE: [ALUG] Fwd: First ALUG competition of 2006
by Keith Watson 19 May '06

19 May '06

> From: Wayne Stallwood Sent: 18 May 2006 22:13 > On Thu, 2006-05-18 at 21:43 +0100, Brett Parker wrote: > > > > I haven't quite written the system yet, it's sort of in a> midway state > > because I've not quite decided how to write it yet (lame, I know ;) > > Write it ??? > Have we not learnt anything from Diebold in the US > > I demand a paper ballot ! No problem... ...you'll find hydraulic voting booths installed in most private and public buildings. The ballot papers can be found on convenient tear-off rolls and, after you have cast your vote, lift the lid on the voting box, deposit your completed ballot paper in the water and operate the handle to deliver your vote to the nearest counting unit. Regards, Keith ____________ Snowflakes are one of nature's most fragile things, but just look at what they can do when they stick together.

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Re: This list and html email.
by John Seago 18 May '06

18 May '06

Having the signature lines that I do, I was most embarrassed a short while ago to find that I was sending HTML mail to this list. I promptly turned it off, (I'm using Kmail), only to find that it wouldn't stay turned off and it took me nearly a whole afternoon to get it to turn off and stay turned off. -- John Seago GNU/Linux Registered User No. #219566 () ascii ribbon campaign - against html mail /\ - against microsoft attachments

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RE: [ALUG] Evil Computers
by Keith Watson 18 May '06

18 May '06

> From: Wayne Stallwood Sent: 17 May 2006 22:21 > On Wed, 2006-05-17 at 12:09 +0100, Tracy Dickerson wrote: > > > > Then the next morning after switching on, the network card > > seemed to be found but would not connect to the outside world. > > Nothing had changed and I can't work out why this has happened. > > Does the card have a link status light, if so is it on ? > > What does ifconfig say ? (you may have to be root to run > that, depending on your distribution) > > Also run route to list the routing table and ping whatever is > shown as the default gateway (that is the ip address of your > housemates router) > > If that works then try pinging an external address like google on > 66.249.93.99 > > If that works then your name resolution is broken and you > need to look at the contents of /etc/resolv.conf > > This should have something like > nameserver (ip address) where IP address should usually be the same > as the IP address of your housemates router (the address > returned as the default gateway when you ran the route command) > > With that info we should be able to track it down. Had a similar problem with an old Dell laptop a while back. Using a Live Linux CD (Ubuntu Breezy Badger in this case - it's only a matter of time before some marketing type christens them "boot'n'go" :o) ) was very useful in tracking down hardware vs. software issues. Regards, Keith ____________ CONNOISSEUR, n. A specialist who knows everything about something and nothing about anything else (q.v. EXPERT). Ambrose Bierce - The Devil's Dictionary

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RE: [ALUG] This list and html email.
by Keith Watson 18 May '06

18 May '06

> From: Adam Bower > Sent: 17 May 2006 21:01 > > I just thought I'd drop a quick email to the list just to > clarify that the Alug list is a plain text only list but I'm > bending the rules a bit for new joiners to the list as I feel > it is better to let them participate and get involved with > Alug instead of freezing them out straight away. > > When we get new people join the list who have a mail held for > moderation because it has an html part I am going to let the > post through and then mail the new joiner directly asking > them to try and post in plain text only. (Obviously if they > have posted with html and it has created a massive > attachment then I will not allow it to go to the list). > > Obviously this isn't set in stone as it's up to the people on > the list what we do but I'd like to hear a few opinions of if > people think I'm doing the right/wrong thing. > > Thanks > Adam Although I have no axe to grind wrt html mail I must admit that my sight is poor enough that I find plain text easier to deal with (and there's the admin issue of the consequent bloat in message size). I go along with Adam on this, I think a quiet word off list would be a friendly way to ask new members (and the odd recidivist :o) ) to refrain from submitting html posts. Regards, Keith ____________ TWICE, adv. Once too often. Ambrose Bierce - The Devil's Dictionary

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Evil Computers
by Tracy Dickerson 17 May '06

17 May '06

Hey guys and gals, Thank you for all your helpful posts and for welcoming me so nicely. I know have a pc at home (a friend of mine gave me his old one). I have a new problem for you to think about (if you would like to) The network card worked fine to install Fedora Core 5 on top of Windows 98 from the internet. When Windows had been wiped and Fedora was installed, I managed (with a little trouble) to connect to the internet and get all my e-mails etc (lovely 206 of them *sigh*) Then the next morning after switching on, the network card seemed to be found but would not connect to the outside world. Nothing had changed and I can't work out why this has happened. I have deleted all the network settings and rebooted, this didn't help, so I took out the network card and re-seated it. Again nothing happened. The only thing I can think of that I have not tested is the network cable that runs into my housemates router. This also hasn't changed or moved and we checked the router. He is getting a connection. Puzzled now. Any suggestions before I buy a new network card and start again? Tracy x _________________________________________________________________ Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today it's FREE! http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/

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Bletchley Park
by Richard Lewis 17 May '06

17 May '06

Hello ALUG, Just before we all left last night, I remembered that a little while ago on IRC mention had been made of a possible trip to Bletchley Park. Now that the weather has taken a turn for the better, I wonder if anyone still thinks this may be fun? There's a fairly informative website at: http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/ They do group weekend visits between 10:30 and 17:00 for 8.00 GBP per head for 20+ people and allow (possibly require) booking. Maps and various route planning info: http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/content/visit/findus.rhtm For those of us in Norwich, the train journey is not all that good: AFAICT you need to go through London (Liverpool St -> Euston) and it takes about 3:30 hours. By road it will probably take about 3 hours (A11, through Thetford, Cambridge, A428 through Bedford to Milton Keynes). Any thoughts? Cheers, Richard -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Richard Lewis Sonic Arts Research Archive http://www.sara.uea.ac.uk/ -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

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Re: [linux-users] Segfaults with Firefox-1.0
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 17 May '06

17 May '06

On 17-May-06 David Johnson wrote: > On Wednesday 17 May 2006 13:53, Ted Harding wrote: >> >> If anyone else would like to try this and report >> results, I'd be obliged. >> > > I'm seeing the same issue with my Firefox (v1.0.8), > but Konqueror has no problems with it. > > Accessing it with popup blocking disabled seems to fix it, > so I guess it's a bug in Firefox's popup blocking... > > Regards, > David. Thanks, Dave (Gilbert) for confirming that firefox can be flaky, and David (Johnson) for the above. Yes, you were right! Disabling pop-up blocking solves the problem. The reason http://www.shop.bt.com bombs right out is that you get one of those smarmy "special offers and competitions" popups while the top page is still loading. You're not meant to miss it! (Which leads me to wonder: can a website send a popup which might force a popup blocker to segfault? Good way to get you to turn off the blocker ... ). Thanks, and all best wishes, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 17-May-06 Time: 14:21:46 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Segfaults with Firefox-1.0
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 17 May '06

17 May '06

Hi Folks, I've been noticing a tendency for my Firefox-1.0 to segfault when accessing certain sites. It may not be Firefox of course, but a possible (e.g.) RAM weakness or something else hardware related. The message to the terminal is always run-mozilla.sh: line 451: 2894 Segmentation fault "$prog" ${1+"$@"} which is a line in the startup-script. One site which seems to trigger it every time is http://www.shop.bt.com If anyone else would like to try this and report results, I'd be obliged. With thanks, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 17-May-06 Time: 13:53:05 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Encryption
by Richard Brooklyn 17 May '06

17 May '06

The other day, I got myself a new laptop, all is well and good with it running Ubuntu Dapper. I saw a article in Linux Format about encrypting the hard drive. I did follow it closely, but was unable to make it work. This was probably due to me trying to encrypt / instead of something like /home so I gave up. But I do wish to try again. I've just downloaded OpenSUSE 10.1, which gives the option to encrypt during the installation. It [the OpenSUSE install] seems to work pretty well, especially if you're just a single user, you can set a nice long password for /home, and it will ask for the passphrase during start-up, which I was very happy with. But it's got me wondering. Exactly how secure is this? Let's say I can use either OpenSUSE 10.1 or Ubuntu Dapper .. Say someone steals my laptop. Is it possible they will ever get hold of my data (ie. decrypt it)? Should I be encrypting more than just /home? (I was thinking about /tmp -- but I don't want to keep entering in loads of passphrases on every boot). Is it possible to encrypt / at all? That would be very handy, then it's just one passphrase, and I know that everything is secure, but I know I can expect a performance hit with this (which is not important). Cheers, Richard.

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64 bit operating systems
by Nick Daniels 16 May '06

16 May '06

Hi Many thanks for all the advice: I downloaded Suse 10.1x64 this weekend and it runs perfectly, and detect all my hardware, however, I am determined to get Kubuntu/ Ubuntu running as well The problem with the Xsever not starting in Ubuntu 64 bit appears forums, with the answer "change the driver from "nv" to "vesa" in xorg.conf" How can I edit xorg.conf from the command line? Kind regard- Nick Daniels

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