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10369 discussions

IRC
by Peter Hunter 06 Jul '05

06 Jul '05

Hi, As someone who is new to Linux (even though I have been using PC's since DOS 2.1 on a 'then' modern machine) and I've been building my own machines since about MS/PC DOS 3.3. I've never worked in the IT industry. I used to write about using computers in conjunction with amateur (HAM) radio for Practical Wireless, but again, that was all DOS and Windows. A few years ago I added Apple Mac's to my hobby and all but dumped Microsoft OS. However, I have now found Linux and am loving everything about the whole concept of what it stands for. I have been reading the threads of this latest IRC meeting and feel I could benefit a grat deal from this. I don't think I could make it EVERY monday evening, or stay for the entire meeting. This is because I am the main carer for my severely disabled wife who has MS, so her needs come first. However, I would like to 'join in' even if it's only to listen and learn. So, what is it? And, how do I join? Best regards, Peter

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Re: [ALUG] Taking risks with other peoples machines
by David Reynolds 05 Jul '05

05 Jul '05

Peter, > 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. I think you missed the beginning of the conversation (which has been going on for a few days) where wildfire_cs explained that this was a new machine with a clean Ubuntu installation and hence no data to lose. > As far as I'm concerned getting a less than expert user to > edit /etc/fstab via instructions on IRC is asking for trouble. As far as I'm concerned, they were being very careful and telling wildfire_cs how to mount the ntfs partition read-only and hence no data would be lost from that partition only. Just my 2 cents, but people are generally not irresponsible with their advice in IRC and wouldn't tell a 'less than expert user' anything that would endanger their system Dave -- David Reynolds david(a)reynoldsfamily.org.uk

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Digi-SLRs
by Bob Dove 05 Jul '05

05 Jul '05

Hi Adam and others, Firstly, I have no experience with dye-sub other than test prints Kodak mail me from time to time. All the Kodak prints are colourful subjects but none with Caucasian skin tones which is of course for a portrait photographer the test. Canon Digi-SLR 6 mP; this should be giving results akin to a similar spec film SLR with the obvious rider than unless you are using a Canon with the full format CMOS sensor your EOS lenses are not going to give their best. Most digi-slrs are using small sensors equiv to APS film format - as are most current compact digi-cams. Your digi-slr is giving you the interchangeable lens option and of course more control as to exposure via f/stop/shutter speed/ISO value et al. Your camera is highly regarded and is used by many pro's as a back up to the big brother SLR. Zoom lenses are a big expensive compromise! They are unlikely to match the definition/resolution of a good prime lens and many of the current compacts have 'simple' lenses of the 'Cooke triplet' type that are unbeaten for quality at the average 100th sec at f/11. There is then the autofocus of a lens that has an enormous depth of field - you shouldn't be able to go wrong with a good compact! However, a big zoom lens designed for full frame despite the myth that using said lens on 'half frame' gives better results 'cos you are using only the 'sweet' centre area of the image circle will not give the quality of say a Sigma designed for the smaller sensor size. But, a factor almost never taken into consideration is that interchangeable lenses wear their mounts. A fraction of a millimeter wear on flange to flange fit is magnified at flange to film or sensor and can prevent full resolution being achieved. A 'rattling good fit' is not good enough - especially with the smaller sensor formats! There are errors possible at flange to view screen distances too. Then there is always the Friday afternoon tea break model! Take your camera and lens to a good service shop and have them collimated. A good job can make your camera/lens better than new! Just like a service and M.O.T. Cheers, BD.

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JPEGS et al
by Bob Dove 05 Jul '05

05 Jul '05

Hi Guys, I used a 'live cd' version of Suse 9.3, which loaded my Epsom R300 semi OK and printed a nice test sheet. This edition of Suse includes Open Office 2.0 (which I use in win as well) that prints as well in Linux as in win. I couldn't access images from my Windoze system however, Suse shows me the drives but I can't access them or write to them. Is this 'cos the are formatted NTFS? Do I need a Linux formatted drive to write to/load from? Mandrake Move however needed a special printer driver driver which Epson don't have yet. Re quality InkJet Vs. minilab. Minilabs largely use hybrid printers - real continuous tone photographic colour paper ('C-Type') and wet chemistry although Noritsu are now installing a minilabs with an Epson InkJet front end. The photo-colour paper is exposed to a 'virtual neg' via laser or LCD block via relay lens as most labs now dev the film and scan it to digital files which are 'flattened' tonally to an easy to print result. Most no longer print from a neg. This flattening of course removes a lot of the possible subtlety and tonal range that a neg/pos process provides. However, a digital file from your own camera - especially 'raw' or 'native' format that hasn't been JPEG'd already will produce better than InkJet from a hybrid printer. It is a sad fact however that the digital photographic market place is filled with hype rather than reality and many digital photographers just don't know what their equipment is capable of. Picture libraries are now asking for digital files ca. 40 mB in size to ensure that they have images capable of making an A4 mag cover or A3 dps. Of course, a 35mm trannie scanned to 48 bit will provide this! (Image size ca 7 x 10in @ 16 bits per channel is 40.9 mB - 2235 x 3196 pixels. The original trannie does of course contain more info than can be accessed digitally! It boils down to that if you are a pro' or keen amateur photographer you'll be taking your fully Photoshopped or Gimped files to the lab on a CD for real photos while if your 'normal' requirements are family happy snaps an Epson ('cos the clone inks are SO much cheaper) will suffice. But, even Epson and HP genuine inks fade fast (within six months for photo's on display in normal (i.e., mine) lighting whereas the photo-paper doesn't. I and photographer colleagues have been conducting longevity tests on IJ prints since whoever claimed that they were of photographic quality - they ain't! Horses for courses tho'! Cheers, BD.

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a small light at the end of the tunnel
by tom potts 04 Jul '05

04 Jul '05

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4642461.stm ___________________________________________________________ How much free photo storage do you get? Store your holiday snaps for FREE with Yahoo! Photos http://uk.photos.yahoo.com

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Weekly IRC reminder
by Brett Parker 04 Jul '05

04 Jul '05

This is the automated ALUG IRC meeting reminder sent to remind you that there is an IRC meeting tonight (Monday) at 8.00pm. 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 tkirc, bitchx, xchat 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://freshmeat.net/ http://www.epicsol.org/ Windows http://www.mirc.com (loads of help with irc for newbies!)

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RE: [ALUG] Re: Re: Printing JPG and GIF files - what's the simplest way?
by Keith Watson 04 Jul '05

04 Jul '05

> From: Chris Green Sent: 01 July 2005 13:33 > On Fri, Jul 01, 2005 at 01:27:44PM +0100, Adam Bower wrote: > > On Fri, Jul 01, 2005 at 01:21:16PM +0100, Chris Green wrote: > > > > > I have my printer drivers installed in CUPS and > everything else uses > > > those by selecting printer Oj for the Officejet and Lj for the > > > Laserjet. Gimp seems to send postscript to the printer > even though > > > I selected one of my CUPS printers, that's a bit brain dead. The > > > Gimp doesn't seem to have drivers for my (pretty > standard) HP printers. > > > > What printers? (model numbers please) and which distro? > Printing can > > be "fun" sometimes so there is an element of stabbing in > the dark with > > the info you gave us so far :) > > > Slackware 10.1 with CUPS. > > Printers are an HP7310 and an HP1060 (I think). I have the > HPLIP drivers installed for the printers and they work well > in general. > I can print with no problems from firefox for example, it's > just that I'm having trouble getting these .GIF and .JPG > files to print so they look sensible on an A4 sheet of paper. Have you installed GimpPrint? I have a completely non-standard (as far as Linux is concerned) Canon S400 and I use CUPS and GimpPrint and its always worked straight out of the box (bet you really wanted to know that :o) ). Do you have OpenOffice installed (or anything with a decent Word Processor)? A technique I've often used is to open a blank document and then imported an image into it, then just printed the page with the image. It's a useful technique that I've used successfully under Windows, Unix and Linux at various times (assuming that you can print ok from the WP software). Regards, Keith ____________ Even before I can say it, it is no more. - Sengai

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"Relay" of FTP?
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 03 Jul '05

03 Jul '05

Hi Folks, Here I go trying to break the rules again .. or am I? When I dial-up, my "gateway" machine gets an IP address which I can find out. So, from outside, I can telnet, ftp etc. to my gateway. If I want to telnet to one of the machines inside my LAN, I could first telnet to the gateway, and then from there to any of the others. A bit cumbersome, but not a problem. However, if I want to FTP to one of my internal machines, it's much more cumbersome: first FTP to the gateway, then telnet to the gateway and from there FTP to the desired machine. I'm wondering if there's some sort of protocol for getting directly to an "internal" machine (whose IP address is not known to the Net) by a kind of "relay" via the gateway (whose external IP address is known to the net). There's an analogy in Internet mail, whereby you can force mail to aa.bb.cc.dd to be routed via AA.BB.CC.DD, by addressing to @AA.BB.CC.DD:user@aa.bb.cc.dd (so-called "routing addresses). So can I, for instance, do something like telnet @213.130.142.61:192.168.0.7 (where 192.168.0.7 is the address of a machine on my private LAN, and 213.130.142.61 is an IP address my gateway waas recently given on dialup)? And, similarly, something like ftp @213.130.142.61:192.168.0.7 ?? Or is there a different way to do it? Or no way at all? When I try the above on my LAN, e.g. telnet @192.168.0.7:192.168.0.1 I get "Aborted", and telnet 192.168.0.7:192.168.0.1 gives me 192.168.0.7:192.168.0.1: Unknown host and similarly "Name or service not known" with FTP, so presumably I've got the details wrong above, if it's possible at all. But you get the idea ... With thanks, and 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: 03-Jul-05 Time: 21:34:12 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Greatings Everyone
by Peter Bassill 03 Jul '05

03 Jul '05

Hey all Just a quick hello. Ive just moved back to Norwich after a few years away and am looking to find my local lug. Hopefully I will see you all at your next meeting. See you all soon. Pete Bassill

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MS settles with IMB
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 02 Jul '05

02 Jul '05

Hi Folks, I read today: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8209-1677235,00.html that MS have agreed to pay IBM $775 to settle claims going back to the 1990s. In particular they are related to a case against MS by the US Givet that its practices caused the demise of IBM's OS2 operating system. I recall that, in 1990-91 (i.e. before Linux came on the scene), I got seriously interested in OS2 as an OS for the IBM PC that offered functionality similar to the capabilities of Unix (which, already having experience of, I was eagerly looking for on the PC, being frustrated with the limitations of DOS and disgusted with the marshmallow experience of early Windows -- pink, sugary, squodgy, of no nutritional value, nauseating in large quantities, and liable to adhere tackily to whatever you were trying to do). Then, of course, came Linux; and, personally, I've never looked back. But I think the worlds of both serious and consumer computing were deprived, when OS2 sank, of what would probably have become a great OS. Ironically, at that same time (1991) I also learned of the existence of the MS project for Windows NT -- yes, it goes back that far! This, too, seemed as if it might offer Unix-like capabilities, and was another thing I was keeping an eye on in the hope that the PC would be enabled to yield the performance that its hardware was capable of. For some reason, however, it was many years before NT became generally used, and then mainly in "the background" in the corporate and institutional sector. It's satisfying, after all these years, to learn that IBM is (in effect) vindicated; but depressing all the same to be aware that a promising initiative had died so early on. 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: 02-Jul-05 Time: 09:19:26 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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