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Bad News again..
by Martyn Drake 10 Sep '01

10 Sep '01

Hi folks, More doom and gloom. The deal that I thought would happen has fallen through, and to make matters worse, I've been made redundant (thanks Internet Assist - just before my wedding!). Therefore, I will need to start arranging transfer of the domains (anglian.lug.org.uk and alug.org.uk) to whoever can host them. Now, the details for the web site and lists are:- 1) The web site occupies less than 27Mb. It runs a CVS server, but Mark Ray will need to confirm anything else that needs to run. 2) The mailing list is powered by Mailman 2.05 (and the whole thing is less than 8.7Mb). Those are the only requirements I'm aware of, but someone will need to run a DNS server for alug.org.uk as I will no longer have such luxuries at the end of the month. Regards, Martyn

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USB floppy disk drives
by Adam Bower 10 Sep '01

10 Sep '01

Hello all, Does anybody on the list own a USB floppy disk drive? If you do and you either live in North Norfolk or are coming to the Alug meet on Sunday then please let me know. I am currently struggling to update the Bios on my Vaio with not much success as it was designed to be updated from a USB floppy, my current plan of action has been making a bootable CD with a floppy image on which almost worked but when the Bios update utility ran it demands you have to save a backup of the working Bios which is a little difficult when you just booted from CD! I may have another fight with it later but if anyone has a USB floppy it will save me from going totally mad, or if you have any other suggestions then let me know. Many thanks Adam -- This message is Copyleft - all rights reversed Adam

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Re: [Alug] XSL Formatting Objects Question - Setting Document Defaults
by MJ Ray 10 Sep '01

10 Sep '01

Steve Fosdick <fozzy(a)pelvoux.demon.co.uk> writes: > I now have FOP installed though I am little disapointed that > the only Java VM it seems to work with is a non-free one, but > it now seems to be working. Is there any JVM which is both current *and* free? -- MJR Thesis watch: 27% This is my personal web site =-> http://mjr.towers.org.uk/ http://www.alug.org.uk/ <-- This is the LUG I go to I work for this clever internet developer ==> http://www.luminas.co.uk/

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Java Support in Windows XP
by Earl Brannigan 10 Sep '01

10 Sep '01

Hi all, received this this morning, thought it might interest a couple of you. Remember a few discussions recently about MS no-longer shipping a JVM. Well here is a statement (legit) from Sun.... like it! Cheers Earl PS Sorry its a bit long, but I didn't want to snip it down > -----Original Message----- > From: JDJ [mailto:editor@sys-con.com] > Sent: 09 September 2001 03:23 > To: Java Developer's Journal > Subject: Your Feedback to Scott McNealy, CEO, Sun Microsystems > > > THE PLATFORM OF CHOICE > by Scott McNealy, CEO, Sun Microsystems > > http://www.sys-con.com/java/articler.cfm?id=1155 > http://biz.yahoo.com/iw/010831/01031380.html > > It's becoming more obvious to me every day that Java technology is the > platform of choice -- in more ways than one. > > In the traditional sense of the phrase, it's the answer to the questions > all developers ask themselves: Which platform should I develop to? Which > has the biggest market, the most influence? Which provides me with a means > to demonstrate my skills and creativity? There's a second meaning as well > -- another question to answer: Which platform provides developers, > customers, and users with more choice? > > In this new meaning, "platform of choice" indicates a platform that runs > on multiple operating systems, addresses a wide spectrum of hardware, and > can spawn multiple implementations so users are free to select the one > that works best (yours, of course). > > By either definition, Java technology is still the platform of choice, and > this works to your benefit -- big time. The Java platform addresses > opportunities ranging from the biggest servers available to the desktop to > millions of new client devices -- smart cards, mobile phones, pagers, > PDAs, TV set-top boxes, and automotive systems. (Clearly the definition of > "client" is due for an update, too.) > > Java technology is really hitting its stride now. In six months, more than > six million phones enabled with Java technology have been sold in Japan, > where the three largest wireless providers -- NTT DoCoMo, J-Phone, and > KDDI -- have deployed interactive wireless services. One analyst estimates > that between now and 2005, more than 700 million JVMs will be deployed on > these new devices. > > In the server market, we're seeing unprecedented choice. There are 17 > different applications servers available today that are compatible with > the Java platform. Some are the underpinning of IDEs, but even then IT > professionals can choose the implementation that best suits their needs. > > And if the ISV they choose falls behind,they can replace one app server > with another at a dramatically lower cost. > > More than 400 major corporations are working together through the Java > Community Process to innovate, enhance,and expand Java technology. > Offerings from Sun, IBM, HP, BEA, and Oracle,to name a few, are all built > around the platform of choice. > > The lonely exception, of course, is Microsoft. Unless you've been totally > out of touch since mid-July, you're aware that Microsoft is not shipping a > JVM with Windows XP. The reason? Microsoft has used every excuse from "the > lawsuit settlement required us to do this" to my personal favorite, "We > don't want Windows to have too much code." The real reason, I suspect, is > that Microsoft is anti-choice. > > But at the end of the day, you'll want to know whether this move will > lessen the market for your products and impact your livelihood. Rest > assured that we will provide XP support. > > It will be the latest Java technology, not something old. We'll distribute > it via PC manufacturers, Web sites, ISVs -- whatever it takes to ensure > that your Java apps run anywhere. > > So keep on writing to the platform of real choice, the one that's here > today: the Java platform. > > Scott McNealy is the chief executive officer of Sun Microsystems. > > > *** > > > Add Your Feedback: > http://www.sys-con.com/java/articler.cfm?id=1155 > > Read Reader Feedback: > http://www.sys-con.com/java/articler.cfm?id=1155

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Weekly IRC reminder
by Neill Newman 10 Sep '01

10 Sep '01

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.openprojects.net in the #alug channel, you can take a look at www.openprojects.net to get more info on the openprojects network. Most IRC clients should allow you to get there with the commands "/server uk.openprojects.net" or "/server eu.openprojects.net" 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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FW: Help us fight the EUCD by leafletting about copy-protected CDs
by Martyn Drake 09 Sep '01

09 Sep '01

Just forwarding this announcement that came in for the group. BTW, potential good news about the list and web hosting, but I can't say anything as yet until early next week until everything has been agreed (if agreed!). To those that are currently offering hosting - my humble thanks to all, and hopefully we should know next week where things are heading. Regards, Martyn (aren't weddings a bugger to organise) Drake -----Original Message----- From: Jim Peters [mailto:cd@uk.eurorights.org] Sent: 09 September 2001 17:26 To: Martyn Drake Subject: Help us fight the EUCD by leafletting about copy-protected CDs CAMPAIGN FOR DIGITAL RIGHTS, UK ACTION DAY, SATURDAY 15th Please help us fight the EUCD and avoid more cases like that of Dmitry Sklyarov by distributing leaflets outside major record stores in your local town centre this Saturday. I'm writing to all the UK Linux user groups to invite them to join us in this action. We are planning a nationwide leafletting campaign to raise public awareness about the new copy-protected CDs that the major record labels have started to sneak into the UK, and to use this issue to raise awareness about the EUCD, the DMCA and the case of Dmitry Sklyarov. Check out our leaflet, which we hope will make the man in the street and his family say "Enough is enough!": http://uazu.net/cd/ Here is some background on all of this, in case any of these issues are unfamiliar to you: Dmitry Sklyarov: --------------- I hope you have already heard about the case of Dmitry Sklyarov, the Russian cryptographer who was arrested in the USA after presenting a paper at DEFCON in which he exposed weaknesses in Adobe's eBook encryption. He faces up to 25 years in jail if found guilty. Check out the campaign in support of him: http://www.freesklyarov.org/ http://www.freedmitry.org/ He was arrested under America's new controversial DMCA laws. The Campaign for Digital Rights: ------------------------------- This is a UK group that formed to handle action in support of Dmitry here in the UK - it is linked off the freesklyarov site. Already two protests have taken place in London. Check out the web-site for details of these, and for mailing lists, flyers and other materials: http://uk.eurorights.org/ Soon after its formation, it became clear that the case of Dmitry Sklyarov was just the tip of the iceberg, and that the CDR could usefully campaign on much broader issues. For one thing, coming soon are the European equivalents of the DMCA laws, known as the EUCD, which have yet to be passed into law (they must be passed in each country individually). There is a chance that we may be able to make a difference here before it is too late. The new copy-protected CDs: -------------------------- These are the record manufacturer's latest ploy to put an end to MP3s and digital copying of CDs. They have developed a format which intentionally corrupts the error correction code on a CD, forcing a normal CD player to error-correct constantly, and even to interpolate and fabricate parts of the sound. They have been releasing these into the shops to see if anyone notices the difference, hoping that by claiming that there was no increase in the rate of return of these CDs, that they can justify putting all CDs into this format. They have released one million of these CDs into the UK alone. When ripping tracks from one of these CDs using a computer, naturally the CD drive complains about all these badly corrupted blocks, so it is impossible to rip the CD in the normal way. It might be possible to extract digital audio from CD drives that have SPDIF outputs, but in any case the audio quality of the CD can never be full CD-quality due to all the intentional corruption. Our campaign: ------------ We believe that the public will be outraged if they learn what the manufacturers are trying to do, and so we hope to give the public this information, and encourage them to act on it. That is the purpose of the leaflet. If there is enough public pressure on the record stores, this will be an extremely embarrassing situation for them, and they will be forced to choose between supporting the public (who keep them in business) or supporting the manufacturer. I'm sure you can see how this could be a potent force to help improve the situation. In addition, the media attention this would generate will allow campaigns against the EUCD to have much more credibility, giving us a chance to make a difference before it is too late. How you can help: ---------------- Even a single person handing out 500 leaflets in their local town centre this Saturday can make an enormous difference. If a group of you can get together, you could cover all the major record stores in your locality. If there are even more volunteers, you could make placards and get even more public attention. It's up to you. Apart from organising action in our own localities, we hope to help you by providing materials and a central point for coordination. We have the leaflet mentioned above ready for you to print out and take to a copy-shop, with another more general flyer coming soon to print on the reverse. On the CDR site there are also further EUCD and DMCA-related materials that might be useful for larger protests: http://uazu.net/cd/ http://uk.eurorights.org/ If you're thinking of leafletting in your area, check out the following page to see if anyone else is planning to do so as well. You could get in contact, and pool resources: http://uazu.net/cd/volunteers.html If there isn't someone already listed there for your locality, and you'd be willing to put up your contact details, please E-mail me this information at the address below. I need: the location you intend to cover, your name or the name of your group, plus some contact details (E-mail address and/or phone number): mailto:cd@uk.eurorights.org If you're not available on that day, but you know someone who might be, or some other group I might not have contacted, please forward this message to them. Particularly, user groups, if you have a mailing list, please let everyone know about this. The more people we can get involved, the better. If you want to keep in touch with further developments after this weekend, please join either the announce list or the discussion list at the CDR site: http://uk.eurorights.org/ Well, thankyou for reading all of this. I really hope that we can make a difference this Saturday and start to turn the tide against these extremely unpleasant plans from the media giants. Jim Peters -- Jim Peters (_)/=\~/_(_) Uazú (_) /=\ ~/_ (_) jim@ (_) /=\ ~/_ (_) www. uazu.net (_) ____ /=\ ____ ~/_ ____ (_) uazu.net

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XSL Formatting Objects Question - Setting Document Defaults
by Steve Fosdick 09 Sep '01

09 Sep '01

After the responses to my question about publishing in both print and HTML format I decided to have a go with XML, XSL and FOP. I now have FOP installed though I am little disapointed that the only Java VM it seems to work with is a non-free one, but it now seems to be working. I now have a mostly complete stylesheet for print which just needs some tuning to make it look prettier but it also seems that I am forever having to repeat font attributes in various different bits of the stylesheet. What I would like to do if I can is to define some defaults for the font attributes to apply to the whole document and then the style template for the each of the various XML elements can just override the ones it needs to. Does anyone know how to do this? Steve Fosdick.

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kernel version 2.4.9 problems
by Adam Bower 09 Sep '01

09 Sep '01

Hi all, maybe this is just me but kernel 2.4.9 seems to be almost as broken as a copy of windows ME!! last night I decided to get all my machines up to 2.4.9 (they were on a mix of 2.4.*) The first machine I have to downgrade was my NFS server, I can't remember the exact details but I was first having trouble getting the NFS to compile as a module but when I built it into the kernel it compiled. I then restart my box and the NFS clients start complaining that they can't get request slots etc. I put this down to some kind of 2.4.9 problems so restored the old 2.4.7 image and the NFS starts working again. The next machine that got 2.4.9 was my Vaio, this time 2.4.9 compiles nicely and there were no problems until I try and use my 3Com network card, the driver loads dmesg says everything is all nice and lovely, even the flashy light on the side of the card lights up! but does it work, the short answer is no. The final machine to get 2.4.9 (well I was compiling on all 3 at once) is my main workstation, and everything appeared to be ok until just now when I noticed lots of apps are segfaulting! Anyway rant over, I will check out the kernel mailing lists etc. to see if it is a problem at my end or Linus has decided to break the vm again. Has anyone else had any similar problems? I am looking at the FreeBSD cds in a very different light just now though, maybe I will be doing an install fest to BSD very soon ;-) Adam -- This message is Copyleft - all rights reversed Adam

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Re: [Alug] kernel version 2.4.9 problems
by MJ Ray 09 Sep '01

09 Sep '01

xsprite(a)bigfoot.com writes: > hmm? > http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/synching.html > http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/makeworld.html "make world" is not a clean entire upgrade, nor does it claim to be. Last I checked, there was no nice way to install security patches to installed software either. The engineering of BSD lags some way behind Debian, sadly. -- MJR Thesis watch: 27% This is my personal web site =-> http://mjr.towers.org.uk/ http://www.alug.org.uk/ <-- This is the LUG I go to I work for this clever internet developer ==> http://www.luminas.co.uk/

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Re: [Alug] kernel version 2.4.9 problems
by MJ Ray 08 Sep '01

08 Sep '01

Adam Bower <abower(a)thebowery.co.uk> writes: > Anyway rant over, I will check out the kernel mailing lists etc. to see if > it is a problem at my end or Linus has decided to break the vm again. Has > anyone else had any similar problems? I doubt it's a conscious decision, but I still can't quite bring myself to trust 2.4 kernels with machines I need until they get development on 2.5 underway. OK, cock-ups do happen in a stable series (2.2.17/18 OOM nuttiness, anyone?), but 2.4.x still hasn't been allowed to stabilise. > I am looking at the FreeBSD cds in a very different light just now though, > maybe I will be doing an install fest to BSD very soon ;-) Oh, any infatuation with FreeBSD will soon wear off when you try to upgrade between versions. No "apt-get dist-upgrade" there. Not even a clean upgrade option. -- MJR Thesis watch: 27% This is my personal web site =-> http://mjr.towers.org.uk/ http://www.alug.org.uk/ <-- This is the LUG I go to I work for this clever internet developer ==> http://www.luminas.co.uk/

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