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OSS and Indy Media
by Karamoon 07 Jul '05

07 Jul '05

On Saturday 16th July there is an event in Norwich which may be of interest to many Aluggers. The event is EASF, a one-day conference about bad stuff that's going on and how to fix it. There will be talks, workshops, documentaries and discssions. Of particular interest to Aluggers will be the launch of Norwich Indy Media(which will utilise lots of Linux and other OSS), discussions about ID cards, how people can regain control of technology. If there is interest, we could have a meeting there about Software Freedom Day which is coming up in September. All in all it will be a very interesting day and a good chance to promote Linux and OSS to peopel who could benefit greatly from using it. Matthew __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

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Linux Format
by David Arrowsmith 07 Jul '05

07 Jul '05

Hello Folks I have a large mound of Linux Format Magazines with disks I would like to give away, before I move house. Would be a shame to recycle them so if you live in west Norwich and want to pick them up let me know. David chasboz(a)dsl.pipex.com

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Re: [ALUG] Making backups
by Peter Hunter 07 Jul '05

07 Jul '05

On Thu, 2005-07-07 at 18:57 +0100, Peter Onion wrote: > On Thu, 2005-07-07 at 17:05 +0100, Peter Hunter wrote: > > > > > I've been using nothing but evolution. I have many many messages and an > > address book full of email addresses. How can I be sending emails if I > > am not using evolution? And please don't suggest I am using Kmail > > because I tried that in a previous installation and didn't like it. > > Last time I tried it , it sucked (but that was a few years ago !) > > > > > Which version of evolution ? Things did change between the 1.9.X and > the 2.0.X releases, so maybe that's why things arn't were I would expect > them to be (I have 2.0.1 here on Suse 9.2) > > Peter I'm glad I'm not the only one who didn't like it Peter. I have just checked, it's 2.2.1 Peter > >

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Anyone interested in helping?
by Mike Banahan 07 Jul '05

07 Jul '05

I'm asking to see if anyone can lend some technical assistance ... I don't think this will count as off-topic or the wrong kind of posting, but if it does, I apologise in advance. Cutter (http://cutterproject.co.uk) is unusual but loosely similar to some other projects in the Open Source world in that it's there to provide SUPPORT not software. We think that in markets such as schools, it's crucial to be able to purchase support for something close to an off-the-shelf or turnkey solution. Telling schools to roll their own and support themselves is not going to lead to large-scale adoption in a short timescale. We are having some initial success and generating a significant amount of publicity for what we are doing. There is something deeply satisfying about seeing classrooms full of youngsters using predominantly Free Software on their desktops. We think we have a good idea about what's needed by consumers in this area. We are committed to publishing any original software that we write and adhering to the the GPL where we further develop packages like LTSP. It would be great to have a large stream of revenue that allows us to take on full-time paid developers. We aren't that far down the road yet unfortunately. At the same time, there is a number of technical issues that we want to address and are appealing for help with. We can provide some very modest funding if necessary and would like to hear from developers with good development skills who would be interested to work with us on ironing out some of the knottier matters and liaising with other similar efforts. Amongst the items on the technical roadmap at present are: - Setting up a managed Subversion repository - Improving sound support on LTSP thin clients (a challenge) - LDAP configuration of thin clients (Perl/MySQL/LDAP) - LDAP configuration of users (Perl/MySQL/LDAP) - Productising the 'grabber' classroom/terminal management tool (C++/Qt) We have to produce highly reliable software, so releasing stuff at alpha level doesn't cut it. There is a 'project office' of sorts in Cottenham near Cambridge (UK), so it would seem to make sense to focus on people who are in the area to make it easier to hold occasional face-to-face meetings. We'd be happy to hear from anyone who thinks they might enjoy working on a project that has a combination of Free and commercial imperatives intermixed. Sorry this is so long! Mike Banahan

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Formatting floppy
by Bob Dove 07 Jul '05

07 Jul '05

Hi folks, From desktop (if you use it) look at your mounted disks, drop down menu will invite you to format floppy if one is in your floppy (A) drive. Only successful thing I've done in Linux so far! And by the way, thanks to those amongst you who offered advice on writing to NTFS formated (windoze) HDs, I'm afraid I'm not that far advanced in Linux knowledge to know what you are talking about. Old dogs n that! Cheers, BD. NB: This is from 'live' SuSe 9.3 using KDE?

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RE: [ALUG] New user
by Keith Watson 07 Jul '05

07 Jul '05

> From: Wayne Stallwood Sent: 06 July 2005 22:11 > > On Wed, 2005-07-06 at 10:43 +0100, Brett Parker wrote: > > > > Before Amstrad got their grubby paws on it, then :) God, I remember > > the days of autoexec.bat and config.sys, and am very glad > that I don't > > have to deal with that any more :) > > Actually I sort of miss those days. > > I remember hours of fun trying to balance loaded TSR's with > available (and pretty scarce) RAM. Oh and remember the > different areas of Ram Extended and Expanded wasn't it ? PC > Tools and early versions of Norton Utils ? > > Not forgetting having to use Debug to low level format Hard > Drives and manually parking heads before moving machines. > > OK you're right it wasn't that much fun was it :-) <nostalgia> Ahh!! </nostalgia> and let's not forget punched cards and..... paper tape. Oh! those were the days. Regards, Keith ____________ EGOTIST, n. - A person of low taste, more interested in himself than in me. - Ambrose Bierce - The Devil's Dictionary

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RE: [ALUG] Re: New user
by Keith Watson 07 Jul '05

07 Jul '05

> From: Chris Green Sent: 07 July 2005 09:38 > > On Thu, Jul 07, 2005 at 09:12:06AM +0100, Peter Hunter wrote: > > Yep, you're quite right Keith, we should stop living in the > past. But > > it is nice to talk about these things at times. > > > > Later on I worked on many of the early DEC machines, PDP-8, PDP-12 (my > speciality) and PDP-11. At that time all except the PDP-12 > (which was a bit of an oddity) had to be booted by manually > entering a simple paper tape loader in binary using the front > panel switches and then loading the rest of the startup > programs from paper tape. Ahh, we used to DREAM of being able to "boot using a simple paper tape loader in binary using the front panel switches and then loading the rest of the startup programs from paper tape" :o) Mind you as someone of similar vintage and background to Chris I can't do too much leg pulling. Do you remember the metallic 'paper' tape that was used for things like boot routines and compilers etc.? Used to be coloured on one side (red, green, blue) and silver or gold on the other. Made great Christmas decorations. Regards, Keith ____________ To know that you know, and to know that you don't know - that is the real wisdom. - Confucius

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New user
by Peter Hunter 07 Jul '05

07 Jul '05

Hi all, but Bret and Adam especially, I have been reading the post on this subject and am really worried now about joining IRC and asking for help. Like Peter I have also used PC/M, in fact I started with the very early Spectrums from Sir Clive. I have also talked people through (over amateur radio) editing Autoexec.bat and Config.sys files, sometimes over and over again. Like many other users I am new to LINUX, not new to computers. Therefore I EXPECT to make mistakes, how else can I learn? If I ask 'how do I edit this config file' I want you to tell me just that, not have me email it to you and you email the edited file back, how on earth can I learn anything from that? After all, if I wanted to put a plug on a new bit of coax I wouldn't send it to someone else to do for me! Maybe some would!! Please, please, please treat me as a new LINUX user and not as a complete dork. Regards Peter

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Taking risks with other peoples machines
by Peter Onion 06 Jul '05

06 Jul '05

I do hope that the wrecklessness with which people are treating other peoples machines on the IRC channel at the moment doesn't result in the loss of anyones important data. As far as I'm concerned getting a less than expert user to edit /etc/fstab via instructions on IRC is asking for trouble. Peter O

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RE: [ALUG] What I was worried about
by Keith Watson 06 Jul '05

06 Jul '05

> From: John Woodard Sent: 06 July 2005 12:19 > > > From: Ten Sent: 06 July 2005 11:28 > > > > At the risk of invoking Godwin, this is exactly how Hitler used to > > behave in IRC. > > > > > > Sorry, I had to say that, it's my condition... anyway.. > > May that put to death what is becoming a stale thread. > > Just for those who aren't quite so familiar with the > Nazi/Hitler/Godwin thing see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law > > Cheers, > BJ Ah, but doesn't Quirk's exception apply in this case? Regards, Keith ____________ 'I can see nobody on the road.' said Alice. - 'I only wish I had such eyes,' said the King - 'to be able to see Nobody! And at that distance too!' - Lewis Carroll

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