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Re: [Alug]Diary anyone?
by Jenny_Hopkins＠toby-churchill.com 09 Jul '03

09 Jul '03

Tony Dietrich wrote: >It occurred to me that one thing this group may benefit from is a >web-accessible diary. > >I could roll one out for us, but my local systems are a little >overloaded at present. > >If someone has some fast mysql and php enabled webspace they would like >to donate (that I can access via a shell would be best) then I'd be >happy to work on it .. I have a suitable php application on tap. Excellent idea. I know Adam was hoping to get a box together for ALUG bits and bobs - any progress on this Adam? Jen

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[Alug]Linux friendly printers
by Edenyard 09 Jul '03

09 Jul '03

Jamie asked: > > Can anyone recommend a Linux friendly cheap colour inkjet printer? It also key > For what it's worth, I've been very pleased with the HP DJ930C (around £77 from Staples just over a year ago). Works a treat with Linux for Gimp and just ordinary printing too. I use the Turboprint driver system which seems to give very acceptable results for photographs - with the right paper, of course. Whatever you buy, take a long close look at the running costs - i.e., how much a new cartridge will cost and what you actually get for that. I see a big advantage of the HP system in the print head being renewed every time you change the cartridge. I had an Epson once where changing the caartridge simply renewed the ink supply. When the head failed, it would have cost about twice as much to renew as another printer cost. Also take a close look at how easy it'll be to get the right drivers (especially for quality output) working with Linux. I personally find the Linux Printing How-to the most unhelpful document I've ever seen - it lets the Linux side down completely. Hence the unprecedented step I took of actually paying £12 for a set of drivers that really work! There's bound to be a wide diversity of opinion here, so I'll duck now.... Cheers, Gerald.

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[Alug]Linux & education
by Colin Hards 08 Jul '03

08 Jul '03

I'm finally compelled to write to this mail group after starting this message numerous times over the months. Sorry to be critical, but I'm somewhat jaded reading about Linux on the desktop and whether it's ready or not, or in schools etc., or how to interest the masses. The question you should be asking is - is Linux ready for the public? I don't think so, and my criticism is that this Lug is not helping to change that. You talk as a group about going into schools and this is of course important. But worrying about the wording of letters or how to tackle the press is missing the point. These students possibly won't be in a position to decide what professional software they use for quite a few years, even if you do convert them - which you must. Who you should be concentrating on is Joe public - i.e. people like me. I can see Linux is coming, I've had a Xandros box for about 6 months, but I've only managed to transfer perhaps about 5% of my real work onto it, and do that work at about 50% efficiency compared to the same tasks on my other Win2000 box. I & Joe public need some actual training. So do students and their educational peers. Even the EDP computer press correspondent might be interested. And this is the crunch. I don't really want to have to learn about Linux. I want to use a linux based PC to do real work, not mess about with the OS. But I appreciate I must learn the basics. Once I do, other aspects will fall into place over time, just as we all learnt CP/M, DOS & Windows over the years. But it's that 'over the first hump' where help is needed. Well shouldn't I open a book and get stuck in? Yes, probably I should, but I'm reluctant to spend the time leaning about Linux, any more than I want to delve into the inner workings of MS Windows. And anyway you can't ask a book questions can you? There's no substitute to talking to or learning from someone with knowledge, face to face. So what's my point? I think LUGs should be concentrating 100% on education. If you want to stay as a group of professional enthusiasts meeting every so often, then fine. Rename yourselves APLUG. If you want your favoured OS to become universally popular, get out there and start passing on your knowledge. I've been to four of five ALUG meetings and to me they're a waste of time. They're disorganised, and have no focus or agenda, no advance billing of what's to occur. With one exception I don't think I've learnt anything practical from any of these meetings. MJR kindly sorted a software install problem I had, but if today I was faced with the same problem, then I wouldn't know how to fix it. What is needed here is not band aids for on-going software glitches, but a more thorough examination of what's going on to kick start us. Once I'm achieving something as easily on my Xandros system and I can under Windows, then I'm sure to tell friends and recommend Linux. I can't at the moment. _________________________________________________________________ Use MSN Messenger to send music and pics to your friends http://www.msn.co.uk/messenger

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[Alug]CPU monitoring
by Edenyard 07 Jul '03

07 Jul '03

Tony Dietrich asked: > > Is anyone aware of a command-line program that could be used to monitor > the temperatures of a system? > I installed the lm-sensors package. I found it on a CD supplied with Linux Format magazine several months ago. There is more than one version of lm-sensors, depending upon which kernel version you use. Once installed, typing 'sensors' at the command prompt causes a list of the monitored values to appear. Hope this helps? Gerald.

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[Alug]Norwich ideas: posters and demos?
by MJ Ray 07 Jul '03

07 Jul '03

Inspired by Colin's message, I thought of this. Talks seem not to work well for us and I think that the RBL isn't really an ideal talk venue, so how about posters? Bring along an A0's worth of paper explaining the topic and be there to talk about it with interested people. If it's a practical topic, bring along a system and demonstrate it too. This also won't interfere with the normal "box-fixing" that goes on. In the past, I remember informal demos being some of the most useful bits, but they're haphazard and unstructured. I'm not suggesting anything really demanding, but a bit of background material put up and some advance warning about what will be there. A bit of background on posters (but a bit more formal) can be found at http://www.lcsc.edu/ss150/poster.htm Hopefully these can satisfy all sorts of people, from beginners to veterans, in the same room at the same time (which I think is the constraint that killed enthusiasm at the first few meetings for my talks suggestions earlier in the year, as it alienates a significant number of the people for a significant chunk of time). For example, I'd love to learn more about building Morphix, but I'm not having much luck yet (bug report open) and I know someone here knows about it... ;-) Could we have a demo and some background material at the next Norwich ALUG? Also, I'm happy to present something at Norwich, but I'd rather take requests. What do you want? -- MJR/slef My Opinion Only and possibly not of any group I know. http://mjr.towers.org.uk/ jabber://slef@jabber.at Creative copyleft computing services via http://www.ttllp.co.uk/ Thought: "Changeset algebra is really difficult."

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[Alug]CPU monitoring
by Tony Dietrich 07 Jul '03

07 Jul '03

Is anyone aware of a command-line program that could be used to monitor the temperatures of a system? -- Tony Dietrich <td(a)transcc.co.uk> Transoft Computer Consultancy Ltd. -- Tony Dietrich <td(a)transoft.demon.co.uk> Transoft Computer Consultants

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[Alug]CPU monitoring
by Tony Dietrich 07 Jul '03

07 Jul '03

Is anyone aware of a command-line program that could be used to monitor the temperatures of a system? -- Tony Dietrich <td(a)transcc.co.uk> Transoft Computer Consultancy Ltd.

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Re: [Alug]Linux & education
by Jenny_Hopkins＠toby-churchill.com 07 Jul '03

07 Jul '03

Colin Hards wrote: >Yes, probably I should, but I'm >reluctant to spend the time leaning about Linux, any more than I want to >delve into the inner workings of MS Windows. I've got both MS and Linux PCs here on my desk at work. I've gone to the trouble of finding out how the linux box works, with the result that it performs exceedingly well for my day's work. I can't get at the MS one to do anything about how it works, with the result that I regularly get in a furious temper with it as it performs badly on a daily basis. My point is that you get away with not learning about a windows PC not because it works without having to do so but that you can't anyway mostly. Adam Bower wrote: >Alug is run by the members for the >members if it is not meeting your needs then *you* do something about it. I would say also: ALUG is more a group of enthusiasts who have quite willing spirits to help *where asked*. I don't think anyone has ever advertised themselves to be the equivalent of one of the training courses advertised at vast expense. Personally I have got an enormous amount of help and support from ALUG, if it hadn't been for some of the help at meetings and on list I'd still be programming in visual basic and throwing my single MS computer through the window on a daily basis. Jen.

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Re: [Alug]Next Meeting
by John Seago 07 Jul '03

07 Jul '03

On Monday 07 July 2003 10:03 am, you wrote: > On Sunday 06 July 2003 19:36, John Seago wrote: > > Where and when is this, I ask as I have a library book I wish to > > return, (without having to drive al the way to Cambridge to give it > > back to Adam, although I may be going that way soon). > > If getting to Bury is easier, I am going to Cambridge on Tues afternoon > and could take if for you. No that's OK, I was of the opinion that the next meeting is sometime this month at Syleham, and I wanted to go to the meeting, more than to return the book. I just can't find the date for the meeting. -- John Seago

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[Alug]Weekly IRC reminder
by Neill Newman 07 Jul '03

07 Jul '03

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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