- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Novell VP speaks out against Novell patent deal
by Ian McDonald 11 Mar '08

11 Mar '08

This is the guy who started Gnome, Evolution, Mono etc... http://www.linuxworld.com/news/2008/030608-mix-novells-de-icaza-criticizes.… -- Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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Fwd: [nzlug] OOXML - Petition open until 18th March
by Craig Box 10 Mar '08

10 Mar '08

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Chris Daish <chris(a)zoinks.gen.nz> Date: Mon, Mar 10, 2008 at 2:25 AM Subject: [nzlug] OOXML - Petition open until 18th March To: nzlug(a)linux.net.nz The New Zealand Open Source Society has a petition open until Monday 18th March for organisations to express support for NZOSS's position on OOXML: http://iso-vote.com/petition.html We urge all LUG members to encourage New Zealand organisations that they are affiliated with to review the materials setting out the Society's position and 'sign' the online petition before the closing date. The Society has been working with Standards NZ (SNZ) on their OOXML Advisory Committee for some time. The results of the petition may serve to support the Society's advice to Standards NZ. The Society's advice is that they not amend their earlier decision to vote against OOXML's adoption by ISO as an international standard. Standards NZ have until the end of March to determine their final vote on behalf of New Zealand. Information provided in the petition will not be made public, but we may share it with SNZ only. Thank you Chris Daish on behalf of NZOSS Committee _______________________________________________ NZLUG mailing list NZLUG(a)linux.net.nz http://www.linux.net.nz/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nzlug

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Upcoming WLUG committee meeting (1 week today)
by Meeting Reminder bot 09 Mar '08

09 Mar '08

As per the WLUG charter, please note that there is a WLUG executive committee meeting one week from today. If you wish to get an item on the agenda for this meeting, please email it to secretary(a)wlug.org.nz. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- # Previous Minutes # Treasurers report # Correspondence # Matters # Server status # General business

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Why falling Flash prices threaten Microsoft
by Ian McDonald 08 Mar '08

08 Mar '08

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/mar/06/opensource.olpc -- Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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WLUG Fixit Meeting is today!
by Meeting Reminder bot 07 Mar '08

07 Mar '08

A reminder, the WLUG Fixit Meeting is today. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday March 8th, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm We will be holding our SaturdayWorkshop (a week later than usual) at Te Whanau Pūtahi (http://zoomin.co.nz/nz/hamilton/enderley/-te+whanau+ptahi/?place/full_map) the community church at the end of Oxford Street. We'll have the usual tables, power, various ISO's, Internet, coffee and light lunch, etc.

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preload
by Bruce Kingsbury 07 Mar '08

07 Mar '08

http://www.techthrob.com/tech/preload.php Been running this a few days now, I didn't accurately time stuff before or after I installed it, but things like OOo and GIMP do seem to load a bit faster than they used to.

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WLUG Fixit Meeting tomorrow
by Meeting Reminder bot 06 Mar '08

06 Mar '08

A reminder; the WLUG Fixit Meeting is tomorrow. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday March 8th, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm We will be holding our SaturdayWorkshop (a week later than usual) at Te Whanau Pūtahi (http://zoomin.co.nz/nz/hamilton/enderley/-te+whanau+ptahi/?place/full_map) the community church at the end of Oxford Street. We'll have the usual tables, power, various ISO's, Internet, coffee and light lunch, etc.

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March Meeting is when ?
by stephen＠heyste.com 06 Mar '08

06 Mar '08

Just checking which date is the right one for this month's meeting. http://www.wlug.org.nz/MeetingTopics.2008-03-24 is Easter Monday. The side bar 'Coming Up...' (front page) shows "Wed Mar 24 7:30pm", but Wednesday is 26 March. I'm guessing it's going to be Wednesday? Yes ?? Stephen

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PC Hardware troubleshooting
by James Pluck 06 Mar '08

06 Mar '08

Hi All, I have been having an intermittent fault with my PC which has now become permanent and I'm wracking my brain to resolve it. Firstly - PC Spec AMD x64 X2 AM2 3800 CPU ASUS AM2 Nforce 570 mobo Nvidia 7600GT 256 video card (Point of View is the manufacturer) 1 GB DDR2 667 ram 250GB SATA2 Seagate Barracuda HDD 80 GB ATA133 HDD DVD writer Thermaltake Soprano case with stock thermaltake 430W psu Symptom: On Powerup system starts to power up - fans start (2x120 mm case fans, chip fan, GPU fan), hdd's start, DVD starts - then before POST whole thing shuts down. No bios beeps - nothing. I don't get the GPU POST or the system POST. I've done everything I can think of * Undo and reseat all cards and cables - test - same problem * disconnect all DVD and HDD (only mobo, ram and video connected) - test - that worked lat the beginning of the week but fault recurred last night. Redoing all tests so far doesn't work. * Removed and reseated ram - test - no go. I'm not sure if I have a PSU issue (fail or too much connected for the rating of the PSU), a graphics card failing, a ram card failing, a mobo fail or a chip fail. I don't have the hardware (this is my only pci-e system and my only sata capable system) to swap out components to isolate. Oh... and the warranty expired in November :( Can anyone suggest anything else I could do to troubleshoot this problem? Cheers James. -- James Pluck PalmOS Ergo Sum "Dear IRS: I would like to cancel my subscription. Please remove my name from your mailing list..."

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Creating rich Internet applications using WebKit
by Ian McDonald 05 Mar '08

05 Mar '08

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080303-creating-rich-internet-applic… -- Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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Interesting interview with Vint Cerf
by Ian McDonald 05 Mar '08

05 Mar '08

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080303140032154 -- Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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WLUG Fixit Meeting is today!
by Meeting Reminder bot 29 Feb '08

29 Feb '08

A reminder, the WLUG Fixit Meeting is today. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday Workshop has been postponed for a week due to all of the keyholders being away on a course on Saturday 1st. Workshop will be on Saturday 8th.

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Upcoming Fixit Meeting (1 week today)
by Meeting Reminder bot 29 Feb '08

29 Feb '08

The WLUG Fixit Meeting is 1 week away. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday March 8th, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm We will be holding our SaturdayWorkshop (a week later than usual) at Te Whanau Pūtahi (http://zoomin.co.nz/nz/hamilton/enderley/-te+whanau+ptahi/?place/full_map) the community church at the end of Oxford Street. We'll have the usual tables, power, various ISO's, Internet, coffee and light lunch, etc.

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Re: [wlug] Richard Stallman
by David Bowen 29 Feb '08

29 Feb '08

"I wonder if The Honorable David Cunliffe could be persuaded to attend." That sounds like a good idea, but as an election will be around that time, an invite to likely contenders for his job from other party's may also be in order? David --

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Richard Stallman - Waikato University
by rsinel＠bredband.net 28 Feb '08

28 Feb '08

Hello, I'm an ex pat kiwi from Hamilton living in Stockholm Sweden. I met Richard Stallman last night at the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology. I asked him if he had visited New Zealand and he said he had done twice and is planning to return there again this year in August to do some talks. I asked him is he had ever been to Hamilton and Waikato university, but he hadn't. Then he said to me "I'm open to going to new places and my schedule is not set yet, so if you your interested in me coming there for a talk get in contact with me" So, as I've been away from Hamilton since 1992, I hand over this information you, the Waikato GNU/Linux users group. I have a contact here in the Freesoftware foundation who has the good contact with Richard Stallman and has his contact details. This is a great opportunity that I think Waikato University should look into. Last night Richard Stallman held a free two hour talk on FreeSoftware to 300 people here in Stockholm. I don't have any contacts at the Waikato University computer science department, so I'm hoping someone who reads this will contact me regarding follow up of this opportunity. I wrote in my blog about last night if your interested in knowing more. http://nordickiwi.no-ip.com/blog/ Regards Roger Sinel roger.sinel(a)nordickiwi.com www.nordickiwi.com + gpg key -- http://www.nordickiwi.com/rsinel.asc + fingerprint -- F0EF 2C17 99CA DC06 132A 967F B642 D0BA 6503 87C7

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Re: [wlug] Richard Stallman - Waikato University
by Roger Sinel 27 Feb '08

27 Feb '08

Your Welcome, Yes Richard Stallman has very strong views. He is a very interesting speaker that captivates his audience. Last night he got the crowd laughing and applauding as he spoke. Then had us dead silent as he vibrantly spoke about other powerful issues. Weather one agrees with them or not it's a special thing to hear these views addressed with a live audience. /Roger On Thu, 2008-02-28 at 09:43 +1300, Daniel Lawson wrote: > On 28/02/2008, at 9:20 AM, Roger Sinel wrote: > > > Daniel, yes after I sent this e-mail to the list I searched for > > Richard > > Stallman and Waikato university and I also saw that he had been there > > before. http://list.waikato.ac.nz/pipermail/wlug/1999-March/ > > 000030.html > > > > Yes he has traveled a lot and still does, so names and places would be > > hard to remember. But he did say, Auckland, Wellington and > > Christchurch. > > :) > > Thanks for thinking of it anyway - it's always good to get interesting > speakers in. Not everyone agrees with RMS's position on a lot of > things, but if everyone agreed on things life would get pretty dull. -- Mvh Roger Sinel roger.sinel(a)nordickiwi.com www.nordickiwi.com + gpg key -- http://www.nordickiwi.com/rsinel.asc + fingerprint -- F0EF 2C17 99CA DC06 132A 967F B642 D0BA 6503 87C7

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Re: [wlug] Richard Stallman - Waikato University
by Lindsay Druett 27 Feb '08

27 Feb '08

Hey Guys, Can everyone please refrain from trying to set the record straight as to when/if Richard Stallman visited last ? It's an awesome opportunity which Bruce is currently pursuing as we speak. Sorry Daniel, your email was the first one, so I grabbed that. On Thu, 2008-02-28 at 09:11 +1300, Daniel Lawson wrote: > > I asked him is he had ever been to Hamilton and Waikato university, > > but he hadn't. > > Which is odd, because I saw him talk at Waikato University in Hamilton > in the late 90's. > > I guess he's been so many places, keeping track of them all is > hard... :) > > > _______________________________________________ > wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > Unsubscribe: http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug

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Interesting Ubuntu newsletter
by Ian McDonald 25 Feb '08

25 Feb '08

Includes things like Active Directory integration: http://lwn.net/Articles/270774/ -- Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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Petition in Support of the NZOSS Position on OOXML
by Bruce Kingsbury 24 Feb '08

24 Feb '08

Matthew Holloway has set up a petition here: http://iso-vote.com/petition.html If you feel that OOXML is not worthy of being fast-tracked into an ISO standard, here's a chance to let Standards NZ know about it.

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Saturday workshop postponed
by Bruce Kingsbury 24 Feb '08

24 Feb '08

I've just had a call back from Vicky at TWP, and it seems that all of the keyholders will be away at a course on Saturday 1st, so we'll have to have Saturday workshop a week later. The March Saturday Workshop will be on March 8th. I've updated the wiki too..

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Microsoft opens up APIs, file formats and documentation to all
by Craig Box 22 Feb '08

22 Feb '08

No, it's not a dream. Now you're awake, this will be all over the newswire... http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/feb08/02-21ExpandInteroperabi… Their new interoperability principles (http://www.microsoft.com/interop/principles/default.mspx) include such useful pieces of information as "Microsoft commits that all the protocols [..] will be made openly available to the developer community in a non-discriminatory fashion", "Microsoft will indicate [..] which protocols are covered by Microsoft patents and will license all of these patents on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms, at low royalty rates" and "Microsoft will covenant not to sue open source developers for development and non-commercial distribution of implementations of these Open Protocols." What does this mean? Time will tell, but the news sounds good for both business and Open Source developers. An interesting move! Hats off to the EU. Craig

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Microsoft pledges not to sue over open source
by Ian McDonald 21 Feb '08

21 Feb '08

http://www.news.com/8301-13860_3-9876029-56.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=254… -- Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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System spec for 3D graphic artist
by James Pluck 21 Feb '08

21 Feb '08

Hi all! I have a friend who has asked me to help him spec up a replacement computer for his family. He enjoys using gimp to create artwork and wishes to use linux exclusively on the new box. He is keen to teach himself 3D graphics to produce artwork. His requirements: Must Haves: * Linux compatibility * 2-3 years future proofed * 3D art package * 2D art package Nice to Haves: * graphics tablet compatible (This is borderline must have) He has a fairly restricted budget for this (under $2K including monitor - prefer under $1500) Currently he has an older p4 running Gutsy and a 15" LCD. Basically there is very little in his current kit that is salvageable for a significant upgrade. What I have suggested so far is * minimum 2 GB ram (preferably 3 GB+) * Nvidia GPU (around the level of 8600GT 512 I was guessing) * 3 Gig CPU minimum (prefer 4Gig or higher dual core or better I would imagine) Ok - so there's lots of guessing in there. I've not had a lot to do with 3D graphics apart from in gaming circles so I'm not as helpful for him atm as I could be. Am I on the right track for HW? Can anyone suggest requirements I have missed or HW specs to suit the requirements? Any advice would be greatly received. Cheers J -- James Pluck PalmOS Ergo Sum "Dear IRS: I would like to cancel my subscription. Please remove my name from your mailing list..."

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Where Ubuntu 8.10 will head
by Ian McDonald 20 Feb '08

20 Feb '08

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080220-next-ubuntu-release-to-be-cal… -- Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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Google sponsors improvements to Wine
by James Pluck 19 Feb '08

19 Feb '08

A very good article on Ars Technica about the support that Google has been providing to improve Wine making Dragon Naturally Speaking and Adobe software work under Wine on Linux. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080219-google-intoxicates-linux-user… -- James Pluck PalmOS Ergo Sum "Dear IRS: I would like to cancel my subscription. Please remove my name from your mailing list..."

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Microsoft Opens Up Proprietary Office Document Formats Too
by Ian McDonald 19 Feb '08

19 Feb '08

>From Wininfo daily: With the open versions of its Office document formats receiving mixed reviews from standards bodies, Microsoft announced late last week that it would also open up its older, proprietary Office documents formats. This change is part of an ongoing bid to get the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to accept its newer Open XML document format as a standard. As of last Friday, the specifications for Microsoft's proprietary Word, Excel, and PowerPoint binary document formats (as used in versions 97-2007 of the products) were published to the Microsoft Web site. (They were previously available by request only, though few are aware of this.) Microsoft has also created a translator for moving documents between the older binary formats and the newer Open XML formats, which it has published on the SourceForge Web site. As with the Open XML formats, the binary document formats are provided to the public under Microsoft's Open Specification Promise (OSP), which provides an open license for others to use the formats without fear of patent infringement or other legal issues. Thus, developers could use the specifications to make their own applications and services completely compatible with documents created by Microsoft's most widely used Office applications. The big question, of course, is whether these moves will be enough to convince the ISO to standardize Open XML. Microsoft's new formats failed ISO accreditation during a fast-track proposal late last year, but the ISO will have a Ballot Resolution Meeting later this month to address the company's revised proposal. According to reports, national standards bodies that participated in last year's ISO balloting submitted more than 3500 comments about the Microsoft bid, though once duplicates were removed, the number was closer to 1000. Microsoft's revised bid will apparently address every one of those comments. To comment, click here. -- Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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REMINDER: WLUG meeting tonight!
by Meeting Reminder Bot 19 Feb '08

19 Feb '08

There's a WLUG meeting tonight: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- IanMcDonald has organised Mike Culver from http://www.wlug.org.nz/Amazon to talk about what Amazon is doing with web services. Please note this is at MS4 G.02 (http://www.waikato.ac.nz/contacts/map?MS4) not the usual location. Please note this is a Wednesday, not the usual night. But it's still 7:30PM Mike's details are available at http://evangelists.wetpaint.com/page/Mike+Culver+NZ+Australia+Feb+2008

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REMINDER: WLUG meeting is tomorrow!
by Meeting Reminder Bot 18 Feb '08

18 Feb '08

There is a Waikato Linux Users Group meeting tomorrow: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- IanMcDonald has organised Mike Culver from http://www.wlug.org.nz/Amazon to talk about what Amazon is doing with web services. Please note this is at MS4 G.02 (http://www.waikato.ac.nz/contacts/map?MS4) not the usual location. Please note this is a Wednesday, not the usual night. But it's still 7:30PM Mike's details are available at http://evangelists.wetpaint.com/page/Mike+Culver+NZ+Australia+Feb+2008

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MeetingTopics.2008-02-20
by Darryl Cousins 18 Feb '08

18 Feb '08

Hi, Re the meeting on Wednesday with speaker Mike Culver. I've not been to a WLUG meeting (resident in Thames) and I would just like to check protocol that attendance is open to all interested parties. Namely, myself. :-) Regards to all, Darryl Cousins Python coder Zope3 developer

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Google launches Open source blog
by Ian McDonald 13 Feb '08

13 Feb '08

http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/ -- Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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Sun buys Innotek (makers of VirtualBox)
by Ian McDonald 12 Feb '08

12 Feb '08

http://www.cnet.com/8301-13556_1-9870157-61.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=254… -- Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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Re: [wlug] Root exploit
by jaytee＠clear.net.nz 11 Feb '08

11 Feb '08

I was a bit confused before but now it is total Regards John ----- Original Message Follows ----- > > * depends on whether your distribution includes certain > > modules or not: ubuntu's kernel is not vulnerable, > but most other distros are. > > > Curious, since this machine actually runs a fairly > standard ubuntu install and clearly was vulnerable. > > zcat(a)mandela:~$ cat /etc/lsb-release > DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu > DISTRIB_RELEASE=7.10 > DISTRIB_CODENAME=gutsy > DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 7.10" > > zcat(a)mandela:~$ uname -a > Linux mandela 2.6.22-14-generic #1 SMP Fri Feb 1 04:59:50 > UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux > > _______________________________________________ > wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > Unsubscribe: > http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug >

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Root exploit
by Bruce Kingsbury 11 Feb '08

11 Feb '08

zcat(a)mandela:~$ ./vmsplice ----------------------------------- Linux vmsplice Local Root Exploit By qaaz ----------------------------------- [+] mmap: 0x0 .. 0x1000 [+] page: 0x0 [+] page: 0x20 [+] mmap: 0x4000 .. 0x5000 [+] page: 0x4000 [+] page: 0x4020 [+] mmap: 0x1000 .. 0x2000 [+] page: 0x1000 [+] mmap: 0xb7fbe000 .. 0xb7ff0000 [+] root root(a)mandela:~# OUCH!!!! Exploit is here; http://www.milw0rm.com/exploits/5092 Instant temporary fix (zaps the live kernel with a NOP in the appropriate place) is mentioned here;http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=464953#14 Actual code for fix; http://www.ping.uio.no/~mortehu/disable-vmsplice-if-exploitable.c

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job vacancy - systems programmer
by John McPherson 11 Feb '08

11 Feb '08

Global-Pix.com runs several websites, including the Marathon-Photos.com site. In 2007 we photographed more than 1 million athletes in over 250 events through 30 countries - taking more than 3 million images. Due to expansion, we are looking for a Systems Programmer to join our small development team based at our office in Hamilton. In this position, you would help maintain and program our back-end systems. While there will be some system administration tasks to be done, the majority of your time will be spent working on software features. The following skills are essential: * several years' programming in python (or similar scripting languages) * Linux system administration * an understanding of networking (configuration, DNS/bind, diagnostics, etc) The following skills are desired, the more the better: * Server internals (eg RAID, SATA, UPSes) * Debian GNU/Linux administration experience * distributed LAN management - LDAP, SMB, SSH * C or C++ programming * SQL (preferably postgreSQL) * basic image processing * video formats/processing Salary is negotiable based on your skillset and experience. Our office has a small and friendly atmosphere close to the centre of the CBD. Please send email to vacancies(a)global-pix.com to apply or request further information. -- John McPherson

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Upcoming WLUG committee meeting (1 week today)
by Meeting Reminder bot 10 Feb '08

10 Feb '08

As per the WLUG charter, please note that there is a WLUG executive committee meeting one week from today. If you wish to get an item on the agenda for this meeting, please email it to secretary(a)wlug.org.nz. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Venue: JamesPluck's place (31 Aberfoyle Street) # Previous Minutes # Treasurers report # Correspondence # Matters # Server status # General business

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Re: [wlug] Perpetual motion??
by jaytee＠clear.net.nz 10 Feb '08

10 Feb '08

I was not trying to be controversial or odd just found it in slashdot and thought it an interesting read Regards John ----- Original Message Follows ----- > On Feb 10, 2008 11:11 AM, <jaytee(a)clear.net.nz> wrote: > > Here is the link. What do you think? > > > > http://www.thestar.com/sciencetech/article/300042#t > > Regards John > > Go google perpetual motion or read: > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_motion > > You can't violate the basic laws of physics. As to the > motor accelerating when a magnet was put near it - that > makes sense because you have energy from moving the > magnet... > > Open source is very solid, let's not look like a bunch of > strange people by debating whether you can have perpetual > motion or not, whether man landed on the moon etc.

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Perpetual motion??
by jaytee＠clear.net.nz 10 Feb '08

10 Feb '08

Here is the link. What do you think? http://www.thestar.com/sciencetech/article/300042#t Regards John

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Virtulisation for Ubuntu roundup
by Ian McDonald 09 Feb '08

09 Feb '08

Good article here: http://www.techthrob.com/tech/linux_virtualization.php -- Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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Another good interview with Linus Torvalds
by Ian McDonald 05 Feb '08

05 Feb '08

Long, but good. http://lwn.net/Articles/267764/rss -- Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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Key mobile Linux platform out in March
by Ian McDonald 04 Feb '08

04 Feb '08

http://www.news.com/Key-mobile-Linux-platform-out-in-March/2100-1039_3-6229… -- Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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Ubuntu 8.04 features/Alpha 4
by Ian McDonald 03 Feb '08

03 Feb '08

Good article here at Ars: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080202-first-look-ubuntu-8-04-hardy-… -- Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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Nokia buys Trolltech (Qt/Main KDE developers)
by Ian McDonald 01 Feb '08

01 Feb '08

I personally think that this is good news: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080128-nokia-buys-trolltech-will-bec… -- Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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Yahoo takeover by Microsoft and implications for open source
by Ian McDonald 01 Feb '08

01 Feb '08

You've all probably read by now that Microsoft is proposing to take over Yahoo. Here is an article on implcations for open source: http://blogs.cnet.com/8301-13505_1-9862772-16.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2… -- Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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WLUG Fixit Meeting is today!
by Meeting Reminder bot 01 Feb '08

01 Feb '08

A reminder, the WLUG Fixit Meeting is today. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday February 2nd, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm We will be holding our SaturdayWorkshop at Te Whanau Pūtahi (http://zoomin.co.nz/nz/hamilton/enderley/-te+whanau+ptahi/?place/full_map) the community church at the end of Oxford Street. We'll have the usual tables, power, various ISO's, Internet, coffee and light lunch, etc.

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Good interview with Linus Torvalds at LCA
by Ian McDonald 01 Feb '08

01 Feb '08

http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;444282619 -- Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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WLUG Fixit Meeting tomorrow
by Meeting Reminder bot 31 Jan '08

31 Jan '08

A reminder; the WLUG Fixit Meeting is tomorrow. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday February 2nd, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm We will be holding our SaturdayWorkshop at Te Whanau Pūtahi (http://zoomin.co.nz/nz/hamilton/enderley/-te+whanau+ptahi/?place/full_map) the community church at the end of Oxford Street. We'll have the usual tables, power, various ISO's, Internet, coffee and light lunch, etc.

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WLUG wiki site errors
by graham dixon 31 Jan '08

31 Jan '08

Hi John, >From memory there were several - I do not recall others but one which is 100% reproducible is www.wlug.org.nz/rsh(1) and the ?nocache option is not making it work for me. (I may be applying that incorrectly.) As an extra piece of information - I notice this morning that the URL appears to be trying to draw the page for ssh when I was asking for rsh. Hope this helps. cheers Graham ===================================== Message: 2 Date: Sat, 26 Jan 2008 16:26:14 +1300 From: "John R. McPherson" <jrm(a)wlug.org.nz> Subject: Re: [wlug] WLUG wiki site errors To: Waikato Linux Users Group <wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz> Message-ID: <20080126032614.GA18484(a)wlug.org.nz> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 {snip} > Over recent days I have had several of > ================================== > Fatal PhpWiki Error lib/CachedMarkup.php (In template 'browse' < 'html'):257: Error: Pure virtual > Hi, do you know which page(s) you were on that caused this? It seems that a previous version of phpwiki has made some cached pages that the current version doesn't like, for some reason. If you can figure out the page again, try it again but add a "?nocache" argument to the url and let me know if that fixes it. If it does, then it's definitely a problem with phpwiki's own caching, and I guess we can just remove all the cached pages from the database... John McPherson Send instant messages to your online friends http://au.messenger.yahoo.com

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We run them in! French police deal blow to Microsoft
by Michael McDonald 31 Jan '08

31 Jan '08

An interesting switch to Ubuntu by the Gendarmerie http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iU4Lq7tOR_WVOJLZ3IeRaIH03x6w Perhaps not too surprising as the EU and Microsoft are not the best of buddies. Michael

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Putty.exe vs. VNC vs. XWindows
by Zientek, Selene 30 Jan '08

30 Jan '08

Putty.exe vs. VNC Vs. X Windows??? Would anyone have any disadvantages or advantages of the subject above? Any thoughts would be very helpful? CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This message and any attachments originate by electronic mail from Blue Cross of Northeastern Pennsylvania, First Priority Health, AllOne Health Management Solutions, Inc. and their subsidiaries/affiliates ("BCNEPA"). Both this document and any attachments are intended for the sole use of the addressee indicated above and may contain proprietary, privileged and/or confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient of this message, you are hereby notified that any use or disclosure of this information is strictly prohibited. If you have received this transmission in error, please notify the sender by reply email and delete the original message immediately. Thank you for your cooperation.

3 2

New features in Gnome 2.22
by Ian McDonald 29 Jan '08

29 Jan '08

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=980&num=1 Roll on Ubuntu 8.04! -- Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

1 0

WLUG wiki site errors
by graham dixon 26 Jan '08

26 Jan '08

Hi, Not sure who this should be send to and I can't see any suitable contact on the WLUG site - so can someone please forward to a relevant person. Over recent days I have had several of ================================== Fatal PhpWiki Error lib/CachedMarkup.php (In template 'browse' < 'html'):257: Error: Pure virtual ================================== when searching on the wlug site. cheersGraham Send instant messages to your online friends http://au.messenger.yahoo.com

2 1

Calendar/file view
by Ian McDonald 24 Jan '08

24 Jan '08

I found this quite interesting: http://arstechnica.com/journals/linux.ars/2008/01/23/project-nemo-when-file… Who says opensource doesn't innovate? -- Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

1 0

KDE 4 review
by Ian McDonald 21 Jan '08

21 Jan '08

There is a very thorough review and article on KDE 4 here: http://arstechnica.com/reviews/os/kde-40-review.ars/1 -- Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

1 0

REMINDER: WLUG meeting tonight!
by Meeting Reminder Bot 18 Jan '08

18 Jan '08

There's a WLUG meeting tonight: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Annual WLUG BBQ at Lindsay's place, 3 John Webb Drive, Glenview (http://zoomin.co.nz/?search/index&type=ADDRESS&q=3%20John%20Webb%20Drive%2C…) 3pm until about 7pm BYO steak, beer, etc.. WLUG will provide snacks and soft drinks.

1 0

Anyone got a recent copy of Sol 10 stable +intro
by Anthony Cull 18 Jan '08

18 Jan '08

Hi wlug Im Anthony, I have a sparc netra X1 and would like to upgrade it to the latest stable release of Solaris 10... Yes I know linux works on sparc.. but hate to say this but the options are less than good. I might be prompted to join wlug and contribute my experience with *nixes over the last 5 years. I am moving from Levin to Te Aroha and thought contributing my knowledge to a local community would help. Previous EXP security & dev tester for Julex Live CD project. -- Anthony Cull cullanthony(a)fastmail.fm -- http://www.fastmail.fm - Does exactly what it says on the tin

1 0

REMINDER: WLUG meeting is tomorrow!
by Meeting Reminder Bot 17 Jan '08

17 Jan '08

There is a Waikato Linux Users Group meeting tomorrow: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Annual WLUG BBQ at Lindsay's place, 3 John Webb Drive, Glenview (http://zoomin.co.nz/?search/index&type=ADDRESS&q=3%20John%20Webb%20Drive%2C…) 3pm until about 7pm BYO steak, beer, etc.. WLUG will provide snacks and soft drinks.

3 3

Re: [wlug] REMINDER: WLUG meeting is tomorrow!
by jaytee＠clear.net.nz 17 Jan '08

17 Jan '08

I am hoping to make it to the BBQ tomorrow. Regards John ----- Original Message Follows ----- > Also, can I get a rough idea who is coming ? > (Please let me know if you're coming off list) > > > On Fri, 2008-01-18 at 06:26 +1300, Meeting Reminder Bot > wrote: > > > There is a Waikato Linux Users Group meeting tomorrow: > > > > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------- > > ------------ Annual WLUG BBQ at Lindsay's place, 3 John > Webb Drive, Glenview > (http://zoomin.co.nz/?search/index&type=ADDRESS&q=3%20John > > %20Webb%20Drive%2C%20Glenview%2C%20Hamilton) > > 3pm until about 7pm > > > > BYO steak, beer, etc.. WLUG will provide snacks and soft > > drinks. _______________________________________________ > > wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > > Unsubscribe: > http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug > > _______________________________________________ > wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > Unsubscribe: > http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug >

1 0

Re: [wlug] Saturday Workshop
by jaytee＠clear.net.nz 17 Jan '08

17 Jan '08

Phew! it is quiet. The last time I spoke with Bruce He seemed fairly determined for the workshop to go ahead. All the best John ----- Original Message Follows ----- > Hi all, I'm interested in attending this event, but wanted > to confirm that it is going ahead, as the list has been > 'vewy vewy quiet' lately. > > Regards, Glenn > > -- > See my blog at > http://snap-happy3216.blogspot.com > _______________________________________________ > wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > Unsubscribe: > http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug

2 1

Sun buys MySQL
by Ian McDonald 16 Jan '08

16 Jan '08

http://www.osnews.com/story/19170 -- Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

1 0

Saturday Workshop
by Glenn Enright 16 Jan '08

16 Jan '08

Hi all, I'm interested in attending this event, but wanted to confirm that it is going ahead, as the list has been 'vewy vewy quiet' lately. Regards, Glenn -- See my blog at http://snap-happy3216.blogspot.com

1 0

SimCity code released under GPL v3
by Ian McDonald 12 Jan '08

12 Jan '08

http://www.osnews.com/story/19152 And it's native Linux code too. -- Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

1 0

WRT54GL - vulnerable for Session Riding and Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
by Peter Reutemann 12 Jan '08

12 Jan '08

Just came across this vulnerability of the Linux-based WRT54GL... - news article: http://www.heise-security.co.uk/news/101650 - original vulnerability report (by Tomaz Bratusa): http://archives.neohapsis.com/archives/bugtraq/2008-01/0063.html Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

1 0

WiFi Radar
by Ian McDonald 12 Jan '08

12 Jan '08

For those battling problems with linux and WiFi like this guy: http://www.cnet.com/8301-13880_1-9848471-68.html?tag=bnpr this might be an interesting piece of software (WiFi Radar): http://wifi-radar.systemimager.org/ This might be a useful piece of software for those that don't want to play at the command line - I find NetworkManager quite frustrating personally. -- Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

1 0

KDE 4 release and screenshots
by Ian McDonald 11 Jan '08

11 Jan '08

Some nice examples of how KDE 4 looks here: http://www.news.com/2300-7344_3-6225734-1.html?tag=ne.gall.pg -- Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

1 0

ANNOUNCE: WLUG meeting is one week away
by Meeting Reminder Bot 11 Jan '08

11 Jan '08

The Waikato Linux Users Group have a meeting in one week from today: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Annual WLUG BBQ at Lindsay's place, 3 John Webb Drive, Glenview (http://zoomin.co.nz/?search/index&type=ADDRESS&q=3%20John%20Webb%20Drive%2C…) 3pm until about 7pm BYO steak, beer, etc.. WLUG will provide snacks and soft drinks.

1 0

DNS problem
by Michael McDonald 11 Jan '08

11 Jan '08

Like Jamie, I've been having problems with my Dynalink RTA1320 modem/router. I ended up replacing it with a Linksys AG300. That seemed to fix the problems, but ... about once per day access to the Internet gets cut off. It's easy enough to restore functionality. All I have to do is (a) power off/on the modem/router, or (b) disconnect/connect, or (c) add my ISP's DSN servers to the network tables on my computer. In other words, it appears to be a DNS problem. The question is what's happening? I've put my ISP's DNS addresses in the router/modem's setup (makes no difference). When DNS name resolution via the router fails, all computers on the network fail to access the Internet. The timing of the problem doesn't coincide with the monitored with the monitored burglar alarm "phoning home". Any suggestions on what the problem is or what to try next? Michael

5 7

Linux/VMWare/Windows engineer needed
by Ian McDonald 10 Jan '08

10 Jan '08

If this sounds like you and you'd like to work as part of the new systems team at Datacom then have a look at: http://it.seek.co.nz/users/apply/index.ascx?Sequence=20&PageNumber=1&JobID=… -- Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

3 5

Picasa upgrade and Google repositories for Debian/Ubuntu
by Ian McDonald 09 Jan '08

09 Jan '08

Read more here: http://www.linux.com/feature/123818 -- Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

1 0

State of Ogg Theora/Video for Linux
by Ian McDonald 05 Jan '08

05 Jan '08

http://www.linux.com/feature/123869 -- Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

1 0

DVD creator software
by James Pluck 03 Jan '08

03 Jan '08

Hi all! I'm in a bit of a bind. I'm trying to create a dvd out of some home movies we've made of our foster son so we can give them to his birth parents and his grandparents as part of their Christmas gift. However, the only software I can find is commercial and I can't afford it - let alone know how to use it. I could do with some hints, please I need software that will allow me to create a DVD that is a mix of approximately 10 video clips (in MOV format as that is the only format for video that our digi-cam uses) and a slideshow of approx 50 photos - so it's definitely less than a DVD's worth of footage. FOSS software preferred but I will try shareware or commercial if I have to. Any help that can be provided would be greatly appreciated. Cheers James. -- A Mathematician named Klein Thought the mobius strip was divine Said he "If you glue The edges of two You'll get a cool bottle, like mine!"

6 12

Explanation of Samba/Microsoft deal
by Ian McDonald 27 Dec '07

27 Dec '07

Good article here: http://www.linux.com/feature/123721 -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz

1 0

Technology in 2008 (Economist)
by Michael McDonald 23 Dec '07

23 Dec '07

Interesting forecast from the Economist. Predicts more use of Open Source. http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10410912 Michael

1 0

Java or Python?
by Chris O'Halloran 18 Dec '07

18 Dec '07

I am looking for some thoughts/opinions on the merits of these two languages. Over the years I book a few books on Java including Java in Nutshell Java Foundation Class Java for Scientist and Engineers The latter being the most useful to me. However, I've never really got the hang of how it all works. I don't have a formal programming background In recent times, I've come across Python and lately stumbled upon SciPy,ipython, NumPy and matplotlib.sourceforge.net. I've also noticed that Python has PyQt that enables you to use the Qt and poss KDE for widgets and gui interface. KDE is the desktop of choice for me and QT Designer are all "sudo apt-get install " away. Both Python and Java are cross platform which a plus. What I would like to do is put together small applications often using complex numbers and array for the engineering work that I do. Sometimes importing csv text files containing data from measurment devices. I have always thought Java was the tool for this but lately, I've noticed how easy it is to make things work with Python. especially the interactive "try a line of code, did it do what you wanted?, no, try this, ah, that works" I'm thinking that Python might provide the fast feed back approach that gets you enthused about actually coding than the steper learning curve of a more comprehensive language and not actually knowing where to start with a gui or even just how to get the IDE to use the classpath you want. I'd be interested if people had thoughts or comments on the merits. Cheers

9 11

Next year's presentations
by Roderick Aldridge 18 Dec '07

18 Dec '07

Wanted: presentations for the new year. The committee is trying to plan for a variety of presentations next year which will interest and benefit current members and make known the benefits of Linux and open source to others (and bring in new members). Make your suggestions please to the list or on the wiki at http://wlug.org.nz/IdeasForFutureMeetings or to any committee member. Preferably ones you can do yourself or can supply suitable presenter(s), but if the subject is intersting enough, other members may be able to suggest presenters. Roderick Aldridge WLUG Committee

1 0

Useful ubuntu links for new software and running 32bit apps on 64bit systems.
by Chris O'Halloran 17 Dec '07

17 Dec '07

Some information that may be of interest to ubuntu users. Heaps of debian packages http://www.getdeb.net/ And for resolving depedencies for 32bit programs on 64bit systems http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=474790

1 0

scanner2.malware-scan.com
by Michael McDonald 16 Dec '07

16 Dec '07

Has anyone else had problems with this site? It pops up a message telling you your computer is running slowly, scans your disk (I don't think it does , just makes believe it does), tells you you've got viruses, and tries to download fixes. Now, the interesting thing is that I've triggered it twice in the last few weeks, but I haven't the foggiest idea how. I've got a suspicion it may have been triggered by from my Gmail page, but when going back over my actions everything seems normal. Of course, since I'm running Ubuntu/Firefox I'm not unduly worried. I'm curious to know how I got directed there from supposedly safe sites (if it wasn't Gmail, then it must have been Computerworld NZ). I did a bit of a Google and came across this discussion on an Apple forum. Knowing the fierce loyalty of Mac owners and their claims of immunity from Internet problems, it was interesting to see that they also had the same experience as me ... but no clues as to why it was happening. http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1239037&tstart=0 Now, this makes me worried for the Windows community. It would be extremely difficult for them to avoid damage in this instance. Closing the window in the normal fashion just gets you further into the mire. I don't know just what protection the standard anti-virus / anti-spyware programs and firewalls will give a Windows user ... and I certainly don't want to experiment to find out! Have you got any information / data / comments that you can add? Michael

2 2

KDE 4 update
by Ian McDonald 13 Dec '07

13 Dec '07

Ars has a good article here: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071213-afirst-look-at-kde-4-0-releas… -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz

1 0

Fwd: [NZOSS-OpenChat] Ministry of Justice Open Source Discussion Paper
by Michael McDonald 12 Dec '07

12 Dec '07

The discussion paper is well worth reading. That paper would have been unthinkable a few years ago. Michael ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Don <don(a)catalyst.net.nz> Date: 12 Dec 2007 08:55 Subject: [NZOSS-OpenChat] Ministry of Justice Open Source Discussion Paper To: NZOSS OpenChat <openchat(a)nzoss.org.nz> This paper has been in draft form for a while. The MoJ has given it final release staus. http://nzoss.org.nz/news/2007/ministry-justice-open-source-discussion-paper I think it builds nicely on the Cunliffe speech I mentioned a few days ago. Cheers Don

1 0

Arghhh - Help
by James Pluck 11 Dec '07

11 Dec '07

(I apologise for the spam if you've gotten this twice. I think the email I originally sent it from is not subscribed to this list). Hi all! I'm in a bit of a bind. We're experiencing very poor connectivity at the moment from Slingshot. We're lucky to be able to stay online for more than 3 minutes at a time. I've just called Slingshot support and a very bored woman who sounded like it was beneath her to even talk to me was very unhelpful. refused to run any checks on the line or check logs or anything at their end unless I tried an alternative router on the line. She basically wanted me off the phone as fast as possible - presumably so she could get back to her WoW game or Puzzle Pirates or something more important than actual customer support (I tell you - if we had someone who behaved like that to customers at Quicksilver they'd be on notice pretty bloody fast!) Anyway - does anyone have a spare adsl router that I could borrow for a day or so to do some troubleshooting and see if it is my problem or Slingshot's problem. I'm in the process of choosing another provider because we've not been hapy with the service from Slingshot for some time but I'd kinda like to work out if it's a hardware issue or a connection issue before we switch. If I had the knowledge and the skills I'd probably just bite the bullet and rewire the jackpoints in this house - the current phone wiring seems a little amateurish - but we've had no troubles with any telecommunications services up until a couple of weeks ago. I have a drum of cat 5 but no skills on how to use it - *sigh* anyways - if anyone has a spare serviceable adsl router they would be willing to loan me I would be most grateful! James. -- James Pluck PalmOS Ergo Sum "Dear IRS: I would like to cancel my subscription. Please remove my name from your mailing list..."

8 11

Upcoming WLUG committee meeting (1 week today)
by Meeting Reminder bot 10 Dec '07

10 Dec '07

As per the WLUG charter, please note that there is a WLUG executive committee meeting one week from today. If you wish to get an item on the agenda for this meeting, please email it to secretary(a)wlug.org.nz. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Do we have a meeting here? # Previous Minutes # Treasurers report # Correspondence # Matters # Server status # General business CommitteeMeetingTopics

5 6

Intel 536epmodem with Ubuntu 7.10
by Ron Dean 10 Dec '07

10 Dec '07

I am trying to set up a computer for a refugee family so they have email I downloaded a driver for 7.10 and could hear dial tone and it would dial out at my home, but when I tried it in their home I could not hear dial tone . We were trying to set it up with Kiwi on line but they don't give any linux support. Any ideas ? -- Ron Dean 2 Shannon Place Nawton Hamilton Ph 8493904

5 9

Re: [wlug] WLUG BBQ Late January?
by jaytee＠clear.net.nz 10 Dec '07

10 Dec '07

January is good for me.. Regards John. ----- Original Message Follows ----- > WLUG committee have decided that rather than try to have > the end of year BBQ in December when everyone is leaving > for holidays, we'll hold in late in January after everyone > is back from holidays. > > So.. is everyone happy with a BBQ at Lindsay's place on > Jan 26th or would you prefer something earlier? > > > _______________________________________________ > wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > Unsubscribe: > http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug

2 1

OLPC project close to home
by Michael McDonald 06 Dec '07

06 Dec '07

The article's a bit short on detail, but it's interesting to hear of this project. I'm not sure this is quite what Nicholas Negroponte envisaged, but the aim of "skilling up" under-represented groups (technology-wise) might be achieved with this project. Tindall funds OLPC scheme in Otara Ken Lewis Thursday, 29 November 2007 Stephen Tindall has called an Otara youth project that plans to link members using One Laptop Per Child computers via Wi-Fi a "silver bullet" for education and could potentially transform the country. http://m-net.net.nz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2085 Michael

1 0

Bringing UK hardware to NZ
by Stuart Yeates 05 Dec '07

05 Dec '07

I'll shortly be returning to the Wellington area after 4 years in the UK. I'm looking at what hardware I should bring back and which I should sell/give away/bin before I leave. Does anyone know whether the ADSL systems in the UK and NZ are compatible? I'd like to bring back my wireless ADSL router back since it was top of the line 18 months ago. I'm planning on leaving my aged computers, but bringing back the larger disks and possibly the internal wireless card. Does anyone know of any traps there for the unwary? I'm aware that the SCART[1] plugs which all our UK TV/DVD/digital set top box systems use is almost useless in New Zealand, unless there's been a change since I left ? cheers stuart [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCART -- OSS Watch: http://www.oss-watch.ac.uk/

1 0

WLUG BBQ Late January?
by Bruce Kingsbury 05 Dec '07

05 Dec '07

WLUG committee have decided that rather than try to have the end of year BBQ in December when everyone is leaving for holidays, we'll hold in late in January after everyone is back from holidays. So.. is everyone happy with a BBQ at Lindsay's place on Jan 26th or would you prefer something earlier?

2 2

JOB: RimuHosting Opening For a Sysadmin (and a Java Developer)
by Peter Bryant 04 Dec '07

04 Dec '07

Hi Folks. We have a full (or possibly part time) position available for a Linux systems administrator. See http://forums.rimuhosting.com/forums/showthread.php?p=645#post645 We also happen to be looking for a Java developer. See http://forums.rimuhosting.com/forums/showthread.php?t=416 Cheers, Peter Bryant http://rimuhosting.com

1 0

ADSL fault redux
by James Pluck 04 Dec '07

04 Dec '07

Hi all, After some testing - Telecom have determined there is no fault on the line that would be interfering with the dsl. I have noticed that after a few minutes of connectivity my network loses contact with the modem - no ping response - no traffic - and this loss off connection requires a hard reset to fix. This fault seems to occur regardless of whether the modem is hot or not (occurs even after the modem has been left switched off overnight. I strongly suspect my modem has gone past its best-before date. Kyle, Bruce, would I be able to arrange with one of you to borrow a spare adsl modem to try to confirm this fault? I don't have the cash atm to replace my modem but if I know it is definitely a modem issue then I can put one on layby to replace it. Kind regards J

1 0

Rationale behind KDE4 changes
by Ian McDonald 01 Dec '07

01 Dec '07

Interesting article here: http://liquidat.wordpress.com/2007/11/30/kde-4-some-reasons-for-design-deci… -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

1 0

WLUG Fixit Meeting is today!
by Meeting Reminder bot 30 Nov '07

30 Nov '07

A reminder, the WLUG Fixit Meeting is today. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday December 1st, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm We will be holding our SaturdayWorkshop at Te Whanau Pūtahi (http://zoomin.co.nz/nz/hamilton/enderley/-te+whanau+ptahi/?place/full_map) the community church at the end of Oxford Street. We'll have the usual tables, power, various ISO's, Internet, coffee and light lunch, etc.

1 0

Fwd: Computerworld TopNews | Kiwicon demo uses PlayStation 3 to crack passwords
by Michael McDonald 29 Nov '07

29 Nov '07

Another interesting article Michael ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Computerworld TopNews <info(a)fairfaxbm.tx.co.nz> Date: 29 Nov 2007 13:17 Subject: Computerworld TopNews | Kiwicon demo uses PlayStation 3 to crack passwords KIWICON DEMO USES PLAYSTATION 3 TO CRACK PASSWORDS http://s0.tx.co.nz/at/tep34n611218j139974i196841f2c7091635a4t9s4z PS3 used to conduct over 1.4 billion MD5 calculations a second, says Kiwi researcher

1 0

How To: Run the olpc's Sugar OS in Ubuntu
by Michael McDonald 29 Nov '07

29 Nov '07

Seems to run quite well. A bit strange at first. Michael ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Google Alerts <googlealerts-noreply(a)google.com> Date: 29 Nov 2007 11:02 Subject: Google Alert - ubuntu OR OLPC How To: Run the olpc's Sugar OS in Ubuntu Wired News - USA Well, it turns out it's pretty easy to install the xo's Sugar OS as an Ubuntu virtual machine. Tom Hoffman has posted some instructions for installing Sugar ... <http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2007/11/how-to-run-the.html> See all stories on this topic: <http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ncl=http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/200…>

1 0

Network latency simulation
by Glenn Ramsey 28 Nov '07

28 Nov '07

Hi, In order to test some software I am developing I need to introduce a network delay between a machine and the rest of my LAN. After a bit of web searching I discovered that this is supposed to be simple to do, you just set up Linux as a transparent bridge and use the iproute tools to simulate network behaviour. However I can't get it to work how I want. I have an old AMD K6/500 box with 2 10bT ethernet cards running Xubuntu 7.10. One card is connected to my office LAN switch and the other to a hub, like this: MachineA---switch---eth0/bridge/eth1---hub---MachineB I have installed bridge-utils and iproute and I have configured the bridge machine according to the bridge-utils documentation by removing the eth0 and eth1 entries and adding a br0 to /etc/network/interfaces : auto br0 iface br0 inet static address 192.168.1.251 network 192.168.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.1.255 gateway 192.168.1.1 bridge_ports eth0 eth1 This works fine and MachineB can get an address via DHCP and see the rest of the network. Now I need to add a delay so that all traffic between MachineB and the rest of the network has some latency. In order to add a delay, according to [1] I just need to do this: $ tc qdisc add dev DEV root netem delay 100ms I have done this for various combinations of eth0, eth1 and br0 but it only seems to delay traffic to and from the bridge itself, not traffic being relayed through the bridge. Does anyone know how to set this up to delay traffic going through the bridge? Glenn [1] http://www.linux-foundation.org/en/Net:Netem#Emulating_wide_area_network_de… -- Glenn Ramsey <glenn(a)componic.co.nz> 07 8627077 http://www.componic.co.nz

2 2

RandR
by Ian McDonald 28 Nov '07

28 Nov '07

Given graphics was focus of last meeting this might be of interest: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=927&num=1 Talks about RandR 1.2 and how to use it. -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

1 0

Fwd: "Open Source DataTurbine Initiative" Biology lunchtime seminar tomorrow (fwd)
by Ian McDonald 25 Nov '07

25 Nov '07

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Tony McGregor <tonym(a)waikato.ac.nz> Date: Nov 26, 2007 10:22 AM Subject: "Open Source DataTurbine Initiative" Biology lunchtime seminar tomorrow (fwd) To: cs-staff(a)cs.waikato.ac.nz > Open Source DataTurbine Initiative > > Tony Fountain, Paul Hubbard, Sameer Tilak, Ilya Zaslavsky > University of California, San Diego > > The vision of large-scale sensor-based Observing Systems, to address > the U.S. National Research Council's "Grand Challenges" for > environmental science, relies on robust cyberinfrastructure. Streaming > data middleware is an essential component of this cyberinfrastructure, > providing the foundation for reliable data acquisition and instrument > management services. The environmental science and engineering > communities are currently engaged in the early planning and > development phases of the next generation of large-scale sensor-based > observing systems. The Open Source DataTurbine Initiative is a new > NSF-funded project to empower these communities with Streaming Data > Middleware. > > Large-scale sensor-based observing systems face a number of > significant challenges in design and operations, including > heterogeneity of instrumentation and complexity of data stream > processing. These systems incorporate instruments from across the > spectrum of complexity, from temperature sensors to acoustic Doppler > current profilers, to streaming video cameras. They typically require > integration of instruments from various vendors and R&D labs. > Requirements on the cyberinfrastructure include scalable and secure > support for real-time data acquisition, instrument and data stream > management, and analysis and visualization. To address these > cyberinfrastructure challenges in a principled manner, we launched the > Open Source DataTurbine Initiative. > > DataTurbine is a robust open-source streaming data middleware system > that satisfies the core requirements for sensor-based environmental > observing systems. It is relatively mature and has been tested in a > variety of real-world streaming data applications. It facilitates the > development of complex distributed streaming data applications, > including real-time virtual observatories and telepresence > collaboratories. The Open Source DataTurbine Initiative combines > commercial-quality software support with an active and engaged user > and developer community. In this talk we share our vision and invite > domain scientists and developers to join the Open Source DataTurbine > Initiative. We also discuss our experiences and results from > real-world deployments of DataTurbine. Further details about the Open > Source DataTurbine Initiative can be found at: > http://www.dataturbine.org > > > When: Tues 27th Nov 12:00noon > Where: Room A.G.30 > > <<37 sem 271107 Fountain.doc>> > Vicki Smith > Administrative Assistant > Biological Sciences > The University of Waikato > Private Bag 3105 > Hamilton > > Ph 838 4148 > Fax 838 4324 > > -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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Fwd: "Open Source DataTurbine Initiative" Biology lunchtime seminar tomorrow (fwd)
by Ian McDonald 25 Nov '07

25 Nov '07

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Tony McGregor <tonym(a)waikato.ac.nz> Date: Nov 26, 2007 10:22 AM Subject: "Open Source DataTurbine Initiative" Biology lunchtime seminar tomorrow (fwd) To: cs-staff(a)cs.waikato.ac.nz > Open Source DataTurbine Initiative > > Tony Fountain, Paul Hubbard, Sameer Tilak, Ilya Zaslavsky > University of California, San Diego > > The vision of large-scale sensor-based Observing Systems, to address > the U.S. National Research Council's "Grand Challenges" for > environmental science, relies on robust cyberinfrastructure. Streaming > data middleware is an essential component of this cyberinfrastructure, > providing the foundation for reliable data acquisition and instrument > management services. The environmental science and engineering > communities are currently engaged in the early planning and > development phases of the next generation of large-scale sensor-based > observing systems. The Open Source DataTurbine Initiative is a new > NSF-funded project to empower these communities with Streaming Data > Middleware. > > Large-scale sensor-based observing systems face a number of > significant challenges in design and operations, including > heterogeneity of instrumentation and complexity of data stream > processing. These systems incorporate instruments from across the > spectrum of complexity, from temperature sensors to acoustic Doppler > current profilers, to streaming video cameras. They typically require > integration of instruments from various vendors and R&D labs. > Requirements on the cyberinfrastructure include scalable and secure > support for real-time data acquisition, instrument and data stream > management, and analysis and visualization. To address these > cyberinfrastructure challenges in a principled manner, we launched the > Open Source DataTurbine Initiative. > > DataTurbine is a robust open-source streaming data middleware system > that satisfies the core requirements for sensor-based environmental > observing systems. It is relatively mature and has been tested in a > variety of real-world streaming data applications. It facilitates the > development of complex distributed streaming data applications, > including real-time virtual observatories and telepresence > collaboratories. The Open Source DataTurbine Initiative combines > commercial-quality software support with an active and engaged user > and developer community. In this talk we share our vision and invite > domain scientists and developers to join the Open Source DataTurbine > Initiative. We also discuss our experiences and results from > real-world deployments of DataTurbine. Further details about the Open > Source DataTurbine Initiative can be found at: > http://www.dataturbine.org > > > When: Tues 27th Nov 12:00noon > Where: Room A.G.30 > > <<37 sem 271107 Fountain.doc>> > Vicki Smith > Administrative Assistant > Biological Sciences > The University of Waikato > Private Bag 3105 > Hamilton > > Ph 838 4148 > Fax 838 4324 > > -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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REMINDER: WLUG meeting tonight!
by Meeting Reminder Bot 25 Nov '07

25 Nov '07

There's a WLUG meeting tonight: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 7:30pm, TW.2.05 (http://www.wlug.org.nz/TW) 3D desktops.. compiz-fusion and Xgl?

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Linux graphics survey
by Ian McDonald 22 Nov '07

22 Nov '07

Given Monday's topic this is timely. I can't go to the meeting as will be in Auckland :-( http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=924&num=1 -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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REMINDER: WLUG meeting is on Monday
by Meeting Reminder Bot 22 Nov '07

22 Nov '07

There's a Waikato Linux Users Group meeting on Monday: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 7:30pm, TW.2.05 (http://www.wlug.org.nz/TW) 3D desktops.. compiz-fusion and Xgl?

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Amazon's e-book reader runs Linux
by Ian McDonald 21 Nov '07

21 Nov '07

http://arstechnica.com/journals/linux.ars/2007/11/20/linux-on-amazons-kindl… -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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Wireless networking problem
by Leslie Katz 21 Nov '07

21 Nov '07

My wife has as a wireless access point an Apple Airport Express that she uses with her Mac. It's set up with WPA for security. I'm am trying to use the thing as well, but am having difficulties. I have 2 laptops with wireless cards, one running Windows XP Media Centre Edition 2005 and one running Damn Small Linux 4. Generally speaking, the Windows laptop connects automatically to the wap when I boot it up. With the Linux laptop, it's very much hit and miss (with more misses than hits). When the Linux laptop is connecting, I first use wpa_supplicant to connect to the wap, followed by pump to configure the interface and all is well. When the Linux laptop isn't connecting, wpa_supplicant doesn't work and when I scan for waps using iwlist, I get a list of neighbours' unsecured waps, but no reference to the Airport Express. I can have the two laptops sitting side by side, the Windows one happily using the wap, while the Linux one isn't even aware of its existence. I'd be very grateful for any suggestions as to what to do to get the Linux laptop finding the wap reliably. Failing that, I'd be very grateful for a pointer to some site where I'm likely to get help with my problem. Thanks for reading this, Leslie -- Visit http://stumblng.tumblr.com An Australian lawyer's tumblelog about things (some legal, most not) you might otherwise have missed

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Re: [wlug] [nzlug] Laptops sans OS possible:
by Craig Box 19 Nov '07

19 Nov '07

On the subject of cheap Linux laptops, OLPC are currently running a "give one, get one" scheme: http://www.laptopgiving.org/en/give-one-get-one.php. The gist is pay $400US, give one laptop to a developing nation, and get one for yourself. I believe this may be the only way members of the public can get one of these machines, at least initially. Unfortunately it's only available in the USA and Canada. If anyone is interested, I am in Canada at present, and would be happy to deliver one or two on behalf of people in NZ. I'll be back there in early Jan, which should hopefully be just after delivery. Please contact me off-list and I'll see what I can do. Craig

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ANNOUNCE: WLUG meeting is one week away
by Meeting Reminder Bot 18 Nov '07

18 Nov '07

The Waikato Linux Users Group have a meeting in one week from today: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 7:30pm, TW.2.05 (http://www.wlug.org.nz/TW) 3D desktops.. compiz-fusion and Xgl?

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Asus Eee laptop
by Ian McDonald 16 Nov '07

16 Nov '07

You might have seen this selling for $599 at Dickies. It runs Linux and a good review at Ars Technica here: http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/eee-pc-review.ars/1 My take on this device is that it's not as innovative as the OLPC and it isn't fully featured enough. Better to buy a second hand or cheap laptop. -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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Progress of open source java from sun
by Ian McDonald 15 Nov '07

15 Nov '07

Interesting article here: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2216978,00.asp -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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Upcoming WLUG committee meeting (1 week today)
by Meeting Reminder bot 11 Nov '07

11 Nov '07

As per the WLUG charter, please note that there is a WLUG executive committee meeting one week from today. If you wish to get an item on the agenda for this meeting, please email it to secretary(a)wlug.org.nz. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- # Previous Minutes # Treasurers report # Correspondence # Matters # Server status # General business ---- CommitteeMeetingTopics

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linkedin group
by Bruce Kingsbury 11 Nov '07

11 Nov '07

If you're a member of linkedin I went ahead and set up a WLUG group which you're all welcome to go ahead and join. (If you're not someone I already know, mention when you apply how you're involved with WLUG so I have some idea of who's who.) http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/37683/4AC20543ECA9 There's also an NZOSS group on linkedin which you might be interested in..

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Skype 2.0 beta for Linux: finally supports video calls!
by Peter Reutemann 08 Nov '07

08 Nov '07

Skype 2.0 beta for Linux finally supports video calls (has been in the Windoze version for ages): http://www.skype.com/intl/en/download/skype/linux/beta/ If you prefer an open-source SIP client instead, have a look here: http://www.openwengo.org/ Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ +64 (7) 838-4466 Ext. 5174

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Fedora 8 released
by Ian McDonald 08 Nov '07

08 Nov '07

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071108-an-old-hat-with-new-tricks-fe… -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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RedHat 5.1 - with better virtualisation
by Ian McDonald 08 Nov '07

08 Nov '07

http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS9497257030.html -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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PulseAudio
by Ian McDonald 02 Nov '07

02 Nov '07

The sound server PulseAudio is a relative newcomer to the Linux audio arena, but since it has been selected as the default setup in the next releases of at least two major distributions (Fedora and Ubuntu), it's probably time to start looking into it More at: http://www.linux.com/feature/119926 -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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WLUG Fixit Meeting is today!
by Meeting Reminder bot 02 Nov '07

02 Nov '07

A reminder, the WLUG Fixit Meeting is today. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday November 3rd, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm We will be holding our SaturdayWorkshop at Te Whanau Pūtahi (http://zoomin.co.nz/nz/hamilton/enderley/-te+whanau+ptahi/?place/full_map) the community church at the end of Oxford Street. We'll have the usual tables, power, various ISO's, Internet, coffee and light lunch, etc.

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WLUG Fixit Meeting tomorrow
by Meeting Reminder bot 01 Nov '07

01 Nov '07

A reminder; the WLUG Fixit Meeting is tomorrow. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday November 3rd, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm We will be holding our SaturdayWorkshop at Te Whanau Pūtahi (http://zoomin.co.nz/nz/hamilton/enderley/-te+whanau+ptahi/?place/full_map) the community church at the end of Oxford Street. We'll have the usual tables, power, various ISO's, Internet, coffee and light lunch, etc.

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REMINDER: workshop on Saturday
by Bruce Kingsbury 01 Nov '07

01 Nov '07

Saturday November 3rd, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm We will be holding our SaturdayWorkshop at Te Whanau Pūtahi, the community church at the end of Oxford Street. We'll have the usual tables, power, various ISO's, Internet, coffee and light lunch, etc. http://wlug.org.nz/SaturdayWorkshop.2007-11-03

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Follow-up to Monday night Gaming meeting
by Bruce Kingsbury 30 Oct '07

30 Oct '07

A lot of people asked me after the meeting for various web addresses of software mentioned, so I've added links for everything that was discussed (and some that I intended to discuss, but didn't get to) on the meeting page. http://wlug.org.nz/MeetingTopics.2007-10-29 Plus a brief summary of everything.

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ODF group abandons ODF!
by Ian McDonald 30 Oct '07

30 Oct '07

This one is a little bizarre! http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/9793D43B77C420EECC257384001906D0 -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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REMINDER: WLUG meeting tonight!
by Meeting Reminder Bot 28 Oct '07

28 Oct '07

There's a WLUG meeting tonight: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 7:30pm, TW.2.05 (http://www.wlug.org.nz/TW) Linux gaming: James and Bruce will present some Games that run on Linux, either natively or under Windows compatibility wrappers like Wine.

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Kernel Killer
by elroy 28 Oct '07

28 Oct '07

Has anyone seen this before? I'm pretty sure I know what it is :-) How I did it: Select ~4,000 image files in file manager (to delete) - but with 'Show As Thumbnail' selected - managed to kill an E6300 (Dual-Core 1.86GHz w/2GB RAM and 2GB SWAP). Questions: ========== a) Is this a case of the kernel running out of physical AND virtual memory? b) I have a SWAP file size of " cat /proc/swaps Filename Type Size Used Priority /dev/sdb2 partition 3903784 0 -1 " Should be ~4GB - but 'top' was only showing 2GB in-use/useable - should I have split the 4GB into 2x 2GB SWAP partitions for GNU/Linux to utilise it all? c) Can anyone explain in nice laymans terms the correct use of the 'Alt + SysReq' and 'Alt + S' and 'Alt + U' and 'Alt + B' key sequence (I used this to (I think) tell the machine to safely shut down). Cheers, Elroy. > [ 5756.653718] passkey-agent invoked oom-killer: gfp_mask=0x201d2, order=0, oomkilladj=0 > [ 5756.653741] [<c015a915>] out_of_memory+0x175/0x1b0 > [ 5756.653759] [<c015c364>] __alloc_pages+0x2e4/0x340 > [ 5756.653770] [<c015db69>] __do_page_cache_readahead+0x109/0x250 > [ 5756.653781] [<c02ed622>] io_schedule+0x22/0x30 > [ 5756.653787] [<c02ed8cb>] __wait_on_bit_lock+0x5b/0x70 > [ 5756.653790] [<c01570d0>] sync_page+0x0/0x40 > [ 5756.653799] [<c01570b3>] __lock_page+0x73/0x80 > [ 5756.653809] [<c0159b13>] filemap_nopage+0x2c3/0x3a0 > [ 5756.653820] [<c01643ea>] __handle_mm_fault+0x14a/0xa40 > [ 5756.653825] [<c0102236>] __switch_to+0xc6/0x1f0 > [ 5756.653842] [<c02f0658>] do_page_fault+0x128/0x600 > [ 5756.653854] [<c02f0530>] do_page_fault+0x0/0x600 > [ 5756.653859] [<c02eed0c>] error_code+0x7c/0x90 > [ 5756.653872] ======================= > [ 5756.653873] Mem-info: > [ 5756.653875] DMA per-cpu: > [ 5756.653877] CPU 0: Hot: hi: 0, btch: 1 usd: 0 Cold: hi: 0, btch: 1 usd: 0 > [ 5756.653880] CPU 1: Hot: hi: 0, btch: 1 usd: 0 Cold: hi: 0, btch: 1 usd: 0 > [ 5756.653882] Normal per-cpu: > [ 5756.653884] CPU 0: Hot: hi: 186, btch: 31 usd: 38 Cold: hi: 62, btch: 15 usd: 60 > [ 5756.653887] CPU 1: Hot: hi: 186, btch: 31 usd: 59 Cold: hi: 62, btch: 15 usd: 61 > [ 5756.653888] HighMem per-cpu: > [ 5756.653890] CPU 0: Hot: hi: 186, btch: 31 usd: 143 Cold: hi: 62, btch: 15 usd: 45 > [ 5756.653893] CPU 1: Hot: hi: 186, btch: 31 usd: 121 Cold: hi: 62, btch: 15 usd: 23 > [ 5756.653897] Active:247244 inactive:246390 dirty:0 writeback:0 unstable:0 free:12228 slab:5093 mapped:650 pagetables:2205 > [ 5756.653901] DMA free:8128kB min:68kB low:84kB high:100kB active:600kB inactive:708kB present:16256kB pages_scanned:2015 all_unreclaimable? yes > [ 5756.653903] lowmem_reserve[]: 0 873 2015 > [ 5756.653908] Normal free:40296kB min:3744kB low:4680kB high:5616kB active:408760kB inactive:407108kB present:894080kB pages_scanned:1419965 all_unreclaimable? yes > [ 5756.653911] lowmem_reserve[]: 0 0 9139 > [ 5756.653915] HighMem free:488kB min:512kB low:1736kB high:2960kB active:579616kB inactive:577744kB present:1169800kB pages_scanned:1908817 all_unreclaimable? yes > [ 5756.653918] lowmem_reserve[]: 0 0 0 > [ 5756.653920] DMA: 2*4kB 49*8kB 61*16kB 29*32kB 13*64kB 5*128kB 5*256kB 0*512kB 1*1024kB 1*2048kB 0*4096kB = 8128kB > [ 5756.653928] Normal: 32*4kB 23*8kB 13*16kB 17*32kB 91*64kB 5*128kB 2*256kB 7*512kB 14*1024kB 5*2048kB 1*4096kB = 40296kB > [ 5756.653936] HighMem: 8*4kB 9*8kB 0*16kB 0*32kB 0*64kB 1*128kB 1*256kB 0*512kB 0*1024kB 0*2048kB 0*4096kB = 488kB > [ 5756.653945] Swap cache: add 1476597, delete 1476597, find 120489/168440, race 4+39 > [ 5756.653947] Free swap = 0kB > [ 5756.653948] Total swap = 3903784kB > [ 5756.653950] Free swap: 0kB > [ 5756.658573] 524128 pages of RAM > [ 5756.658575] 294752 pages of HIGHMEM > [ 5756.658576] 5910 reserved pages > [ 5756.658577] 3523 pages shared > [ 5756.658579] 0 pages swap cached > [ 5756.658580] 0 pages dirty > [ 5756.658581] 0 pages writeback > [ 5756.658582] 650 pages mapped > [ 5756.658584] 5093 pages slab > [ 5756.658585] 2205 pages pagetables

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WLUG members
by Simon Green 28 Oct '07

28 Oct '07

Hi all, For those that are WLUG members, this is a friendly reminder that your 2007-08 subs are now due. There are three easy payment methods: 1) Bring $20 cash or a cheque to the WLUG meeting tomorrow night. You will be issued with a receipt 2) Pay via Internet banking, or at an ASB branch. Please make sure your login name or real name is used as a reference. The WLUG bank account number is available at https://secure.wlug.org.nz/join.html 3) Send a cheque to WLUG, PO Box 21051, Hamilton 3249. Make sure that your user name is on the back of the cheque. Reminder notices will be sent out in a fortnight for current members who have not paid. If you are not a member of WLUG, now is an excellent time to think about joining. It is only $20 per year, and you'll be supporting a good cause. Benefits of membership as well as information on how you can sign up can be found at: https://secure.wlug.org.nz/join.html And finally for those that have already paid their 2007-08 membership, thank you very much Simon Green WLUG Membership Manager membership(a)wlug.org.nz

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The Vampire resurrects itself from the stake plunged into it
by Ian McDonald 25 Oct '07

25 Oct '07

Well we thought that SCO had died with it's bankruptcy protection but it appears the Linux side hasn't. http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS7753951114.html Note that any new owners will have any more lucnk I think. -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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REMINDER: WLUG meeting is on Monday
by Meeting Reminder Bot 25 Oct '07

25 Oct '07

There's a Waikato Linux Users Group meeting on Monday: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 7:30pm, TW.2.05 (http://www.wlug.org.nz/TW) Linux gaming: James and Bruce will present some Games that run on Linux, either natively or under Windows compatibility wrappers like Wine.

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Mounting an image
by Chris O'Halloran 25 Oct '07

25 Oct '07

Two weeks ago, I discovered my harddrive was dead. The bios won't even detect it :( I tried to restore my backups onto another computer from a couple of tar.gz files on a USB drive only to find errors when gunzipping them. :(. I can get about 1/3 files off.) However, I notice that somehow I made an image of the whole harddrive (12 partitions) and it stored on my USB drive too as /kubuntu/dev/hda I tried doing the mount /media/disk/kubuntu/dev/hda -o loop /mnt/hda (after making /mnt/hda first) but it (not unsuprisingly) can't figure out the partitions.of find a file system. There were all ext2 or ext3 from memory Is there a way I can mount this image? Do I need the partition tables? would ubuntu dapper have made a copy and put them anywhere? I have /etc and /var from the disk too. This /dev/hda is about 25G so I am wondering if I have a suitable image. And maybe I can recoved the photos etc. Thanks for any thoughts or suggestions. Cheers Chris

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Email training system
by Michael McDonald 25 Oct '07

25 Oct '07

Does anyone know of a email server, preferably free, that can be used in a training environment? Current requirements are POP3 and SMTP access. All email is to be confined to a single domain (the classroom - not registered) and access to the (external) Internet should be blocked. It appears there could be a fair amount of work in setting up "standard"software for this limited task, but I would prefer something that most people would find simple to install to maintain. Michael

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Gimp 2.4
by Ian McDonald 24 Oct '07

24 Oct '07

Nice features and screenshots here: http://www.redhatmagazine.com/2007/10/23/gimp-24-preview/ -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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Re: [wlug] Ubuntu 7.10 released
by jaytee＠clear.net.nz 24 Oct '07

24 Oct '07

Hi again, Like Michael, I did a "famous last words" thing on closing my "successful" 7.10 after changing to open source ATI graphics drivers it failed to reboot giving a Check system then press f2. I wonder if Ian's link to the new Ati drivers (ATI mobility 9000 radeon) would help or fix the problem???? Please respond.. Regards John ----- Original Message Follows ----- > Hi all, > I did the change to 7.10 my wireless works straight > away for only the second time ever. Glxgears is a bit sad > at 132fps but I only have a ati mobility radeon 9000 so I > guess there is not much hope for anything better. Unless > someone knows of a tune up script to get a better result > *hopes... Regards John > > > ----- Original Message Follows ----- > > On 21/10/2007, Michael McDonald <mikencolleen(a)gmail.com> > > > wrote: I did the change to 7.10 yesterday. No > > problems so far. > > > > Now what's that about "famous last words". I pressed > > "send" and requested the system update (timezone data) > > then my screen went dim and the system failed to > > respond. Restarted X (Ctl/Alt/Bksp) and I'm back in > > business. > > Michael > > _______________________________________________ > > wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > > Unsubscribe: > > http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wl > _______________________________________________ > wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > Unsubscribe: > http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug

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Astrophysicist Replaces Supercomputer with Eight PlayStation 3s
by Michael McDonald 23 Oct '07

23 Oct '07

An interesting read ... Astrophysicist Replaces Supercomputer with Eight PlayStation 3s http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/news/2007/10/ps3_supercomputer Michael

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Improved proprietary ATI drivers
by Ian McDonald 23 Oct '07

23 Oct '07

Can now use aiglx rather than xgl which means graphics should work better I think: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=887&num=1 -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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How to figure out what script is starting a process
by Chris O'Halloran 23 Oct '07

23 Oct '07

Hello, I have got compiz fusion to work on my KDE Kubuntu laptop. Compiz is little buggy on KDE so it would be nice to manually start it rather than it automagically start when I login. However, I can't figure out where its getting started from. Is there a way to track what script started a feature. I can find the script for compiz.real but I can't figure out what calls this script. Similary what is the grep command to search a set of configuration files for a key word? I remember someone mentioning it for search kernel sources a few months back. Cheers Chris

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Linux graphics survey
by Ian McDonald 22 Oct '07

22 Oct '07

These people are behind promoting graphics for linux quite heavily: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=lgs_2007 -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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Ubuntu 7.10 released
by Simon Green 21 Oct '07

21 Oct '07

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Ubuntu Announcements <noreply(a)ubuntu.com> The Ubuntu team is proud to announce version 7.10 of the Ubuntu family of distributions. Ubuntu is a full-featured Linux distribution for desktops, laptops, and servers, with a fast and easy install and regular releases. A tightly-integrated selection of excellent applications is included, and an incredible variety of add-on software is just a few clicks away. Read more about the features of Ubuntu 7.10 in the following press releases: Ubuntu 7.10 http://www.ubuntu.com/news/ubuntu710 Desktop edition http://www.ubuntu.com/news/ubuntu-desktop710 Server edition http://www.ubuntu.com/news/ubuntu-server710 Ubuntu family http://www.ubuntu.com/news/ubuntu-family710 Professional technical support is available from Canonical Limited and hundreds of other companies around the world. For more information about support, visit http://www.ubuntu.com/support Ubuntu 7.10 will be supported for 18 months on both desktops and servers. Users requiring a longer support lifetime on servers may choose to continue using Ubuntu 6.06 LTS, with security support until 2011, rather than upgrade to or install 7.10. Ubuntu 7.10 is also the basis for new 7.10 releases of Kubuntu and Edubuntu: Kubuntu announcement http://kubuntu.org/announcements/7.10-release.php Edubuntu announcement http://www.edubuntu.org/news/7.10-release To Get Ubuntu 7.10 ------------------ To download Ubuntu 7.10, or obtain CDs, visit: http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu Users of Ubuntu 7.04 will be offered an automatic upgrade to 7.10 via Update Manager. As always, upgrades to the latest version of Ubuntu are entirely free of charge. For further information about upgrading, see http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/upgrading We recommend that all users read the release notes, which document caveats and workarounds for known issues. They are available at: http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/710 Find out what's new in this release with a graphical tour: http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/710tour If you have a question, or if you think you may have found a bug but aren't sure, try asking on the #ubuntu IRC channel, on the Ubuntu Users mailing list, or on the Ubuntu forums: #ubuntu on irc.freenode.net http://www.ubuntuforums.org/ http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users Helping Shape Ubuntu -------------------- If you would like to help shape Ubuntu, take a look at the list of ways you can participate at http://www.ubuntu.com/community/participate/ Developers should consider attending the upcoming Ubuntu Developer Summit in Cambridge, Massachusetts (US) starting 29 October. More information is available at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UDS-Boston More Information ---------------- You can find out more about Ubuntu and about this release on our website: http://www.ubuntu.com/ To sign up for future Ubuntu announcements, please subscribe to Ubuntu's very low volume announcement list at: http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-announce -- ubuntu-announce mailing list ubuntu-announce(a)lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-announce

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ANNOUNCE: WLUG meeting is one week away
by Meeting Reminder Bot 21 Oct '07

21 Oct '07

The Waikato Linux Users Group have a meeting in one week from today: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 7:30pm, TW.2.05 (http://www.wlug.org.nz/TW) Linux gaming: James and Bruce will present some Games that run on Linux, either natively or under Windows compatibility wrappers like Wine.

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Re: [wlug] Ubuntu 7.10 released
by jaytee＠clear.net.nz 21 Oct '07

21 Oct '07

Hi all, I did the change to 7.10 my wireless works straight away for only the second time ever. Glxgears is a bit sad at 132fps but I only have a ati mobility radeon 9000 so I guess there is not much hope for anything better. Unless someone knows of a tune up script to get a better result *hopes... Regards John ----- Original Message Follows ----- > On 21/10/2007, Michael McDonald <mikencolleen(a)gmail.com> > > wrote: I did the change to 7.10 yesterday. No problems > so far. > > Now what's that about "famous last words". I pressed > "send" and requested the system update (timezone data) > then my screen went dim and the system failed to respond. > Restarted X (Ctl/Alt/Bksp) and I'm back in business. > > Michael > _______________________________________________ > wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > Unsubscribe: > http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wl

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Home networking with SSH
by Ian McDonald 20 Oct '07

20 Oct '07

The Secure Shell (SSH) network protocol makes it easy to connect computers that are running Linux, share files, and remotely run applications. Along with an X server, it can make sharing a single computer simple on a home network. In my home, my wife and I need to share a desktop computer -- often at the same time. The computer runs Slackware Linux, and we have individual user accounts, Thunderbird email profiles, Firefox bookmarks, and other documents. Linux gives us the ability to share the computer by using multiple X Window sessions, each on its own virtual terminal. But the computer has only one monitor and one keyboard, which limits us to one user at a time. For more see: http://www.linux.com/feature/119744 -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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KDE 4 looking nice
by Ian McDonald 17 Oct '07

17 Oct '07

http://kde.org/announcements/announce-4.0-beta3.php -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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Linspire 6 doesn't inspire
by Ian McDonald 17 Oct '07

17 Oct '07

They say it basically pampers to Microsoft and many features are missing. In the past Linspire was a distro that was gaining popularity for ease of use and features but this doesn't sound positive. http://www.linux.com/feature/119866 -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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PulseAudio
by Ian McDonald 17 Oct '07

17 Oct '07

PulseAudio is a cross-platform, open source sound server that supports advanced software mixing capabilities and network transparency. PulseAudio is designed to be a drop-in replacement for the Esound daemon and uses a pluggable Esound module for backwards compatibility. PulseAudio provides the infrastructure needed to bring a next-generation audio experience to the Linux desktop. PulseAudio will make it possible to independently control the volume of individual applications, support moving audio streams between devices on the fly, output audio on multiple devices simultaneously, and provide compatibility with GNOME's fast user switching functionality. For more see: http://arstechnica.com/journals/linux.ars/2007/10/17/pulseaudio-to-bring-ea… -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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NZer helps stop most of Amazon 1-Click patent
by Ian McDonald 17 Oct '07

17 Oct '07

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071017-amazons-1-click-patent-picked… Note - the issue here was prior art (i.e. Amazon patented something already invented). This is different to whether software patents are valid altogether... -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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Redhat/Novell get sued for patents
by Ian McDonald 17 Oct '07

17 Oct '07

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071012-patent-holding-company-target… The patent seems to be (as I read it) for the multiple desktop support in bottom right corner where you click on it. It was patented by Xerox in 1987 and they must have bought it at some time. I know this has been in X Windows forever (I used it in the 1980s) if I read it correctly. Will be interesting to see what comes of it. Of course there is a (tenuous) Microsoft link. -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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Microsoft gets approval for two open source licenses from OSI
by Ian McDonald 16 Oct '07

16 Oct '07

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071016-microsoft-gets-official-open-… -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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Red Hat Global Desktop
by Ian McDonald 15 Oct '07

15 Oct '07

An update on this here: http://desktoplinux.com/news/NS6584091276.html They say it's going to rapidly evolve but lists Gnome 2.16 which is now two versions old. I think most people who want to play will use Fedora or Ubuntu but this might be of some use for businesses who like conservative stuff. -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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Announcing the Release Candidate for Ubuntu 7.10
by Simon Green 11 Oct '07

11 Oct '07

Date: 12 Oct 2007 10:21 To: ubuntu-announce(a)lists.ubuntu.com The Ubuntu team is proud to announce the Release Candidate for version 7.10 of Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Edubuntu, Gobuntu, and Xubuntu codenamed "Gutsy Gibbon". The Release Candidate includes installable live Desktop CDs, server images, alternate text-mode installation CDs, and an upgrade wizard for users of the current stable release. We consider this release candidate to be complete, stable, and suitable for testing by any user. The final release of version 7.10 is scheduled for 18 October 2007 and will be supported for 18 months on both desktops and servers. Users requiring a longer support lifetime on servers may choose to continue using Ubuntu 6.06 LTS, with security support until 2011, rather than upgrade to 7.10. Before installing or upgrading to Ubuntu 7.10 please read https://wiki.ubuntu.com/GutsyReleaseNotes About The Release Candidate --------------------------- The purpose of the Release Candidate is to solicit one last round of testing before the final release. Here are ways that you can help: * Upgrade from Ubuntu, Kubuntu, or Edubuntu 7.04 to the Release Candidate by following the instructions given above. * Participate in installation testing using the Release Candidate CD images, by following the testing and reporting instructions at http://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/ISO Desktop highlights ------------------ Compiz Fusion: This innovative compositing window manager enables 3-D desktop effects that let users work with, and see, their desktops in completely new ways. Printer installation: In GNOME, printers are automatically configured for use as soon as they are connected. Free Flash support with Gnash: Ubuntu 7.10 leads the pack with a preview of this Flash browser plugin. Although still actively in development and not yet fully supported by Ubuntu, Gnash gives a glimpse into the future of free Flash, bringing partial Flash support to 64-bit desktop systems. Automated Firefox plugin installation: Beyond the addition of Gnash, Firefox in Ubuntu now supports automatic installation of popular plugins through the standard Ubuntu package repositories, for a richer web-browsing experience with the integrated security support of the rest of the Ubuntu system. Server highlights ----------------- AppArmor: This easy-to-deploy kernel technology limits the resources an application is allowed to access and can be used to provide an added layer of protection against undiscovered security vulnerabilities in applications. Pre-configured installation options: Mail Server, Print Server, Database Server, and File Server options join existing LAMP and DNS options for pre-configured installations, easing the deployment of common server configurations. Edubuntu highlights ------------------- Faster thin clients: Thin clients have been sped up significantly through the use of compressed images. Updated login manager: The thin-client login manager has been completely reworked, with themes for all Ubuntu flavors, support for autologin, and optional unencrypted graphics transport for improved performance on slower hardware. Kubuntu highlights ------------------ As well as the above desktop highlights, the following new features are specific to KDE users: Dolphin file manager: This updated file manager gives Ubuntu users a glimpse of the upcoming KDE 4. Strigi desktop search: Another pillar of KDE 4 available now in Kubuntu. Restricted-manager: Kubuntu 7.10 includes a KDE front-end for easy installation of proprietary drivers, complementing the existing GNOME front-end. Please see https://wiki.kubuntu.org/GutsyGibbon/RC/Kubuntu for details. Gobuntu highlights ------------------ Gobuntu 7.10 is the debut full release of the Ubuntu version that is composed entirely of open source non-restricted software. For experienced Linux enthusiasts, Gobuntu will act as the test bed for developing a user-friendly operating system with no compromise in terms of the open source philosophy. This initial release comes without any software from the restricted component, and with artwork for usplash and the isolinux CD bootloader. The full release notes can be found at http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/710rc To Get the Ubuntu 7.10 Release Candidate CD ------------------------------------------- To perform a new installation or try out 7.10 "live" from CD, download the Ubuntu 7.10 Release Candidate (choose the mirror closest to you): Europe: http://se.releases.ubuntu.com/7.10 (Sweden) http://nl.releases.ubuntu.com/7.10 (The Netherlands) http://ftp.snt.utwente.nl/pub/linux/ubuntu-releases/7.10 (The Netherlands) http://ie.releases.ubuntu.com/7.10 (Ireland) http://it.releases.ubuntu.com/7.10 (Italy) http://gb.releases.ubuntu.com/7.10 (Great Britain) http://de.releases.ubuntu.com/7.10 (Germany) http://fr.releases.ubuntu.com/7.10 (France) Asia/Pacific: http://tw.releases.ubuntu.com/7.10 (Taiwan) http://mirror.optus.net/ubuntu-releases/7.10 (Australia) Africa: http://za.releases.ubuntu.com/7.10 (South Africa) North America: http://ca.releases.ubuntu.com/7.10 (Canada) http://releases.ubuntu.com/7.10 (United States) South America: http://br.releases.ubuntu.com/7.10 (Brazil) Rest of the world: http://releases.ubuntu.com/7.10 (Great Britain) Please download using Bittorrent if possible. For more information about using Bittorrent, see: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BitTorrent Upgrading from Ubuntu 7.04 -------------------------- To upgrade from Ubuntu 7.04 to Ubuntu 7.10 Release Candidate, follow these instructions: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/GutsyUpgrades Feedback and Helping -------------------- If you would like to help shape Ubuntu to better meet your future needs, take a look at the list of ways you can participate at http://www.ubuntu.com/community/participate/ Your comments, bug reports, patches, and suggestions will help turn this release into the best release of Ubuntu ever. Please report bugs through the Launchpad bug tracker: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/gutsy/+bugs If you have a question, or if you think you may have found a bug but aren't sure, first try asking on the #ubuntu IRC channel on FreeNode, on the Ubuntu Users mailing list, or on the Ubuntu forums: http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users http://www.ubuntuforums.org/ More Information ---------------- Ubuntu is a Linux distribution for your desktop, laptop, thin client, and server, with a fast and easy install. Ubuntu comes in several variants, including Ubuntu Desktop, Server, Kubuntu, Edubuntu, and Xubuntu. The Ubuntu project makes no distinction between a free edition and an enterprise edition - this is our best work and it is freely available. Used by businesses, home users, schools, and governments around the world, Ubuntu offers regular releases, a tight selection of excellent packages installed by default and professional commercial technical support from Canonical Ltd and hundreds of other companies. You can find out more about Ubuntu and about this preview release on our website, IRC channel, and wiki. If you are new to Ubuntu, please visit: http://www.ubuntu.com/ To sign up for future Ubuntu announcements, please subscribe to Ubuntu's very low volume announcement list at: http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-announce -- ubuntu-announce mailing list ubuntu-announce(a)lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-announce

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Linux the cause of Ebay phishing...
by Ian McDonald 09 Oct '07

09 Oct '07

http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=18738 The moral of the story is that unsecured (particularly unpatched) Linux boxes are just as bad (or worse) than Windows boxes. I've seen a lot of people just install Linux machines and leave them running. Yes they run forever, but that doesn't make them secure. It seems like Linux is now more and more a target. -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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Microsoft make noise about RedHat
by Ian McDonald 09 Oct '07

09 Oct '07

Ballmer is back to his talk (and no action): http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2200717/microsoft-sharpens-aims-patent -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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Fwd: Linux kernel 2.6.23 released
by Ian McDonald 09 Oct '07

09 Oct '07

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Linux Kernel Distribution System <kdist(a)linux.kernel.org> Date: Oct 10, 2007 10:08 AM Subject: Linux kernel 2.6.23 released To: linux-kernel-announce(a)hera.kernel.org Linux kernel version 2.6.23 has been released. It is available from: Patch: ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/patch-2.6.23.bz2 Full source: ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.23.tar.bz2 Sizes in bytes Compressed Uncompressed ------------------------------------------------------------ Patch 6127045 32897292 Full source 45488158 264704000

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[Fwd: Re: Linux the cause of Ebay phishing...]
by Lindsay Druett 09 Oct '07

09 Oct '07

-------- Forwarded Message -------- From: Lindsay Druett <lindsay(a)wired.net.nz> Reply-To: lindsay(a)wired.net.nz To: Bruce Kingsbury <zcat(a)wired.net.nz> Subject: Re: [wlug] Linux the cause of Ebay phishing... Date: Tue, 09 Oct 2007 20:05:28 +1300 And going to the Linux front.... Redhat server is a baddie... I had to sort out a Linux server last week for a rather large customer. In the /etc/rc(whatever).D they had everything under the sun *and* the moon. Would you believe, they had /etc/init.d/ipchains start and /etc/init.d/iptables start together... Going to my ITS days... Slackware was the ITS standard distro when I was working for Uni, and the big concern was security (no wonder). The BOFH had done a crack down on ITS security when I was there, and believe or not, my work desktop got the rubber stamp. It wasn't running Slackware, and if it ran slackware, it would have failed miserably, but it ran SuSe desktop of all things... Oh yeah... || to your distro Denise... On Tue, 2007-10-09 at 19:26 +1300, Bruce Kingsbury wrote: > > Linux OTOH can be set up so, for example, the MySQL database could > > only be accessed via 127.0.0.1 if it was only for the local webserver, > > or opened up only to the hosts that need to access the database > > server. > > Windows can be set up the same way, it just typically isn't. > > Many linux distros (particularly the ones intended for desktop users) > have a policy of 'no open ports' and a lot of software like MySQL is > similarly preconfigured to only listen to localhost. My experience with > Windows, all sorts of completely unnecessary things end up listening on > all interfaces, simply because on the chance that you happen to need > those services, they'll already be installed and accessable. Hello > slammer! That's great from an 'everything just works' perspective, > perhaps.. but it's terrible from a security perspective. > >

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Linux on the motherboard
by Ian McDonald 09 Oct '07

09 Oct '07

This was quite an interesting article about a new ASUS motherboard which has Linux and Skype on the motherboard itself: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=869&num=1 -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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openSUSE 10.3 review
by Ian McDonald 08 Oct '07

08 Oct '07

This is out now and here's a review: http://lunapark6.com/opensuse-103-review.html -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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Developing open source software better
by Ian McDonald 08 Oct '07

08 Oct '07

I found this an interesting read: http://humanized.com/weblog/2007/10/05/make_oss_humane/ -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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Upcoming WLUG committee meeting (1 week today)
by Meeting Reminder bot 07 Oct '07

07 Oct '07

As per the WLUG charter, please note that there is a WLUG executive committee meeting one week from today. If you wish to get an item on the agenda for this meeting, please email it to secretary(a)wlug.org.nz. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- # Previous Minutes # Treasurers report # Correspondence # Matters # Server status # General business

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laptop problem
by jaytee＠clear.net.nz 06 Oct '07

06 Oct '07

Hi All. My machine began behaving badly. It appeared to run out of memory then totally lock up. I ran "Memtest outcome was 10 tests no errors. I replaced the hard drive with no difference being made. A simple example of one the problems was the live disc install for Feisty. Disc took forever to load then when install selected the furthest it ever went was to detecting file systems then it just quit or looped or locked. The proccessor is incredibly hot with constant stream over very hot air being forced out by the fan. The fan appears to ok as do the airways. Can anyone venture a fix for this??? Regards John

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What a hoot!
by Michael McDonald 05 Oct '07

05 Oct '07

Hi I thought the following reported error message was a joke, but it appears to be genuine. Admittedly, it was a rather rare one. Can you imagine the look on a person's face if they received this error message? Reported in Computerworld http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/fry/B89135639310C834CC25736B0005B677 Error Message: Your Password Must Be at Least 18770 Characters and Cannot Repeat Any of Your Previous 30689 Passwords — Microsoft KB article Q276304 ( http://support.microsoft.com/kb/276304/en-us ) Michael -- Michael Note: Email addresses have changed ... Michael .. mikencolleen(a)gmail.com Colleen .. colleennmike(a)gmail.com

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System Rescue CD does network boot now
by Ian McDonald 05 Oct '07

05 Oct '07

>From lwn.net: DesktopLinux.com reviews the 0.4 version of SystemRescueCD, a Gentoo-based distribution for repairing broken systems. "Another major improvement is that you can now use PXE network booting. With PXE, you can boot a troubled PC remote over your LAN into SystemRescueCD. This is great, for example, for a help desk repairing systems scattered over an office or campus. To get this to work, the PCs will need to be set to use wake-on-LAN and network boot. That's been a standard PC feature since 2001, but it usually must be made active in the BIOS before you can use it." Article at: http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS4076782266.html -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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Installfest '07
by Lindsay Druett 05 Oct '07

05 Oct '07

Hi Everyone, As announced at the AGM tomorrow is our annual Installfest. It is being held at the Gateway Christian Centre, 950 Victoria St, Hamilton, where there is plenty of parking available in the carpark. It would be greatly appreciated, that no matter how much or how little experience you have with Linux, that you come along as there maybe people who are totally new Linux may also be coming along. We already have a family of people coming down from Auckland who want to see a bit of Hamilton and get a feel of the Waikato Linux community. Who knows who else is coming along... As well has assisting people with desktop Linux, we'll also be playing around with specialist type applications, such as VoIP using Trixbox, installing Linux on a Linksys WRT54GL. Personally, I can see with the future of Installfests would be like drag race meetings where we all get together start showing off our hardware and skill set. Linksys (a division of Cisco Systems) has been a great supporter on this event where they have kindly loaned us a whole lot of networking equipment including the switches to connect everyone together, IP hones, including their flagship IP Phone, the SPA961 IP Phone, plus some other goodies. I would also like to thank Bruce who has worked really hard to organise this event. Of course, Tux will be attending the event, most probably trying to beat our neighbors across the ditch at Tremulous. Regards, Teh Linz, WLUG Vice-President.

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Interesting article on Lotus Symphony
by Ian McDonald 05 Oct '07

05 Oct '07

http://www.linux.com/feature/119596 -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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Skype 1.4 for Linux released
by Ian McDonald 05 Oct '07

05 Oct '07

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=NjA5Nw -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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Update on the OLPC
by Ian McDonald 04 Oct '07

04 Oct '07

>From NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/04/technology/circuits/04pogue.html?_r=3&ore… -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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Re: [wlug] Microsoft starting to open source .NET
by David 04 Oct '07

04 Oct '07

Yes, seriously! http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=NjA5Mg It's not all of it and it's not the greatest license but it's a start. Can there be any doubt that open source is a better model as Microsoft starts to slowly embrace it?? I think the specs to .net would be better than source code under those terms. http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2191754,00.asp Microsofts open source trap. -- Some people say that if you run a windows installer cd backwards it commands you to worship the devil... But its worse if you run it forwards, then it installs windows!

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Microsoft starting to open source .NET
by Ian McDonald 04 Oct '07

04 Oct '07

Yes, seriously! http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=NjA5Mg It's not all of it and it's not the greatest license but it's a start. Can there be any doubt that open source is a better model as Microsoft starts to slowly embrace it?? -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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3Com goes VoIP with Asterisk
by Ian McDonald 03 Oct '07

03 Oct '07

Great move on their behalf: http://blogs.cnet.com/8301-13505_1-9790221-16.html?tag=bnpr -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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Fwd: Open source software and Consumer testing
by Ian McDonald 02 Oct '07

02 Oct '07

And Consumer are doing a feature on Linux in the future. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Oct 2, 2007 1:21 PM Subject: Open source software and Consumer testing To: ian.mcdonald(a)jandi.co.nz Hi Ian Thanks for the email. We've considered doing Linux and other operating systems for some time. The last time we looked at it, the powers that be decided that it was not worth doing. The reason for this was that in one of our computer surveys, less than 1 percent used a linux based system. However, as I'm sure you're thinking, perhaps less than 1 percent use it because they're simply not aware of the existence of these other options. This is something I'm interested in doing and I've convinced our research manager to let us do it but the timeframe hasn't been determined yet - it will take a little time to do properly. So while you may not see it in the next month, it's certainly something we're going to do. That line certainly wasn't meant to apply to open source software of the type you describe and we should clarify that. There is no doubt that a groundswell is definitely developing towards alternative software. We're certainly not in any way biased towards Microsoft, PCs versus Mac, etc, so don't feel it's an intentional snub at other possibilities. I've just finished an article on office suites which should be online soon. We recommend OpenOffice as well as MS Office 2007. Hope this helps. Best regards Marc Wendelborn Technical Writer Consumers' Institute 39 Webb St Te Aro, Wellington -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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Pharmac publishes directly with open source
by Michael McDonald 01 Oct '07

01 Oct '07

Interesting article from Computer World ... Pharmac publishes directly with open source The TeX solution reduced the cost of the project to a fraction of what the proprietary solution would have cost, says IT manager http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/25F72F231ABF8F5ACC2573630083A579 Michael

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Fwd: Your article on EULA - feedback on Free Software
by Ian McDonald 01 Oct '07

01 Oct '07

If any others of you are Consumer members you might like to write something to them. Please be polite. They have often recommended software such as Openoffice before so I think this is a genuine mistake. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Ian McDonald <ian.mcdonald(a)jandi.co.nz> Date: Oct 2, 2007 8:49 AM Subject: Your article on EULA - feedback on Free Software To: editor(a)consumer.org.nz Dear Sir/Madam, I noticed online at this page: http://www.consumer.org.nz/topic.asp?category=Computers%20%26%20Phones&subc… that you said this: Use caution with 'free' software. It is rarely free. There's often a trade-off in advertising, access to personal information or use of your computer's resources. For example, peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing programs use your computer to send information across the web which may leave it vulnerable to viruses, software flaws and trojans (malicious programs hiding in benign applications). I think that this is a little misleading as there is a whole category of free software which is completely different. This is also called "open source" software. Some examples of this are Firefox, OpenOffice (which you have mentioned positively previously) and Linux. Many large companies such as Google run on free software. A good article on free software is one here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Software I think the software you mean is actually freeware which I agree is often very problematic. This is described here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeware It would be great if you can print a clarification for this as often free software/opensource software is a better choice than paid software. Regards, Ian McDonald (An open source software programmer) -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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WLUG Installfest
by Bruce Kingsbury 30 Sep '07

30 Sep '07

You may be aware that WLUG have planned an installfest for Saturday 6th Oct. In order for this to be a successful event we really need a good number of volunteers to turn up on the day. It doesn't matter if you're not a linux guru, someone with any experience at all is going to be helpful to someone who's never used Linux before. Also we've planned 2,000 fliers to go in letterboxes on Wednesday. Rod and myself are prepared to do 1,000 each if necessary but a few volunteers here would greatly help.

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Any coders here wantto write a patch for Tremulous?
by Bruce Kingsbury 29 Sep '07

29 Sep '07

gpg authentication patch for tremulous; Tremulous client and server run as a single thread, 20 'frames' per second. Because of this time limit, the current system for identifying admins on a server consists of a 32byte cookie named 'cl_guid' which is stored (if the user has any admin priviledges) on the server in admin.dat and sent by the client in plaintext at connect time. This is less-than-ideal. I don't think it would be too difficult to fork off an authentication thread which uses pgp to do a proper signed-challenge authentication. This would be a completely different thread and not constrained by the 50ms frame timelimit. My suggestion, connecting clients optionally send a cl_gpgauth flag which indicates if they're willing to gpg-authenticate. If the server doesn't care then we don't ignore it (as an unpatched server will do) and their guid is accepted as-is. If we want to give them ops, the server requests they sent their public key which is stored in the admin.dat in some appropriate manner. If at the time they connect the guid they've sent is in the admin.dat and has a public key, the server immediately sets their GUID to “”, sends them a 'challenge' of 256 bytes (2048 bits) which is also stored locally, and carries on. If they're in admin dat and don't have a public key, no problem.. existing behaviour. (There might need to be some kind of connection-rate-limit and challenge-drop-time to prevent denial of service attacks on the server at this point.) Until they answer the challenge, or if they ignore the challenge completely, they end up with an effective GUID of “” Client binary, on receiving the challenge, forks off a gpg process to sign the challenge block with their Tremulous private key. When the fork ends (perhaps dozens of frames later) the next reply to the server will include a detatched signature of the challenge data. The server then forks off a GPG process and checks that they've correctly signed the challenge block, and (again perhaps dozend of frames later) if the gpg result is correct, their ingame guid is set back to the one listed in the admin.dat, and existing server code handles whatever privileges are implied by this. Result, connecting ops have their guid set to "" immediately when they first connect, it should only take a few seconds to do the authentication, and they'll have their regular ID back faster than it takes to unpack all the models and textures. Note; cl_guid is not their gpg-key signature or anything like that, it's still just a big random number, and the server keeps a record of both only if there's any reason for them to be authenticated.

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Police go wikiing
by Ian McDonald 29 Sep '07

29 Sep '07

And using open source software too (pmwiki): http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10466034&ref=… -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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OpenCD reborn as OpenDisc
by Ian McDonald 27 Sep '07

27 Sep '07

http://lwn.net/Articles/251967/rss -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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Be careful out there upgrading Ubuntu
by Ian McDonald 26 Sep '07

26 Sep '07

I've seen quite a few reports recently about people upgrading to Feisty and breaking their systems. I've also had problems with the previews of Gibbon (7.10) and this has caused my system to break quite a bit, quite badly. (Multiple instances of not being able to use my GUI environment at all). I'm not trying to slag Ubuntu off - and it's probably only 1% of people having issues. Just remember with any upgrade that you should always have backups. This applies whether you use Windows or Linux or the Mac or whatever.. It's just that Linux upgrades a bit more often typically. I've written a bit about bugs recently on my blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz/2007/09/bugs-bugs-bugs.html Ian -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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Geography tool going open source
by Ian McDonald 26 Sep '07

26 Sep '07

Autodesk opensourcing a tool. No interest to me but might interest someone here: http://www.news.com/8301-13580_3-9784878-39.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=254… -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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Another gnome 2.20 article - more detail
by Ian McDonald 25 Sep '07

25 Sep '07

http://arstechnica.com/reviews/os/gnome-2-20-review.ars/1 -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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HP to expand Linux PC offering
by Ian McDonald 25 Sep '07

25 Sep '07

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070924-hp-to-expand-linux-pc-offerin… -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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OLPC for sale!!
by Bruce Kingsbury 24 Sep '07

24 Sep '07

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6994957.stm

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REMINDER: WLUG meeting tonight!
by Meeting Reminder Bot 23 Sep '07

23 Sep '07

There's a WLUG meeting tonight: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 7:30pm, TW.2.05 (http://www.wlug.org.nz/TW) This will be the AGM for Wlug and WlugElections will be held. If you're interested in standing for WlugCommittee sign up on the WlugElections page There is a small proposed change to the charter at WlugCharterDiscussion.

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REMINDER: WLUG meeting is on Monday
by Meeting Reminder Bot 20 Sep '07

20 Sep '07

There's a Waikato Linux Users Group meeting on Monday: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 7:30pm, TW.2.05 (http://www.wlug.org.nz/TW) This will be the AGM for Wlug and WlugElections will be held. If you're interested in standing for WlugCommittee sign up on the WlugElections page There is a small proposed change to the charter at WlugCharterDiscussion.

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Gnome 2.20 is out
by Ian McDonald 19 Sep '07

19 Sep '07

Soon to come to Ubuntu 7.10 and other distros as they release: http://www.gnome.org/start/2.20/notes/en/ -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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Linix on cellphones
by Ian McDonald 17 Sep '07

17 Sep '07

Good background article here (not much technical info though): http://www.linux.com/feature/119159 -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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ANNOUNCE: WLUG meeting is one week away
by Meeting Reminder Bot 16 Sep '07

16 Sep '07

The Waikato Linux Users Group have a meeting in one week from today: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 7:30pm, TW.2.05 (http://www.wlug.org.nz/TW) This will be the AGM for Wlug and WlugElections will be held.

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Vinagre - a Gnome VNC client
by Ian McDonald 16 Sep '07

16 Sep '07

Looks cool: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=839&num=1 -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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Software Freedom Day
by Lindsay Druett 16 Sep '07

16 Sep '07

Hey Guys, The Software Freedom Day, which occurred yesterday, Saturday 15th September 2007, wasn't well planned, however, a totally spontaneous event happened, which involved the Tux (worn by Cairo Kingsbury) going to the Waikato vs. Wellington rugby match at Waikato Stadium wearing the Waikato supporter colours, along with Bruce and myself. And was also followed by Tux's appearance at the Hamilton PC Users Group fixit workshop, supported by Bruce and Roderick. For more details look at this site. http://softwarefreedomday.org/teams/oceania/nz/hamilton We had intentions of running an Installfest on Software Freedom day, however, we would like to replace October's fixit workshop with the WLUG Installfest. More details of the Installfest will follow after tomorrow night's committee meeting. Regards, Lindsay Druett WLUG Vice-president.

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SCO file for bankruptcy protection
by Ian McDonald 15 Sep '07

15 Sep '07

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/09-1… -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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ATI to release open specifications for cards
by Ian McDonald 12 Sep '07

12 Sep '07

And the interesting news keeps coming: http://www.arstechnica.com/journals/linux.ars/2007/09/05/amd-to-deliver-bet… Now Nvidia - about time for you to do the same, now Intel and ATI/AMD are getting on board. -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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Upcoming WLUG committee meeting (1 week today)
by Meeting Reminder bot 11 Sep '07

11 Sep '07

As per the WLUG charter, please note that there is a WLUG executive committee meeting one week from today. If you wish to get an item on the agenda for this meeting, please email it to secretary(a)wlug.org.nz. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- # Previous Minutes # Treasurers report # Correspondence # Matters # Server status # General business

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Uploading man pages
by Ian McDonald 10 Sep '07

10 Sep '07

Is there a script or something around to upload man pages for the Wiki? I was just going to put some more recent ones on and wanted to preserve formatting. I know Perry did a whole lot originally and just wondered how they were done. Ian -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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Ubuntu CDs
by Eric Light 10 Sep '07

10 Sep '07

Hi everyone, Is there anyone near Hillcrest / Uni area who wouldn't mind burning a 7.04 CD for me? I'll replace it with two blanks from the excitingly unknown brand "Office Solutions". Cheers, - Eric

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Laptop monitor
by Chris O'Halloran 09 Sep '07

09 Sep '07

Hello people, A friend has a Dell Inspiron Laptop that is now out if its warranty period. The screen has become slightly distorted in the sense that there are now two vertical bars about 2 inchs wide each spaced apart by about 1 inch from the centre. There "bars" are simply the screen image overexposed, ie noticably whiter than the rest of the screen but you still legible. I was wondering if anyone might care to comment on the prognosis. Can it be repaired and is that likely to be economical? Thanks for any comments. Chris

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Help Please
by John Torrance 08 Sep '07

08 Sep '07

I have recently loaded Feisty 7.04 and am having a few basic problems which probably relate to my ineptitude. Firstly, it does not recognise my 22" LCD monitor as such and I cannot change the display to the appropriate settings. The second is getting it to recognise my Brother 215c printer. Can anyone tell me how to solve these issues? Thanks John

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Getting webcams working
by Ian McDonald 06 Sep '07

06 Sep '07

Here is an article for those that have struggled with these. I know have... http://www.linux.com/feature/118896 -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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Novell work with Microsoft on Silverlight
by Ian McDonald 05 Sep '07

05 Sep '07

Very interesting read here: http://www.arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070905-microsoft-releases-silver… Microsoft seem to be opening up a bit here. Not totally, but a bit. -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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Putting your ancestors on the web
by Ian McDonald 05 Sep '07

05 Sep '07

Neat little PHP program discussed here - http://www.linux.com/feature/118881 -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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Fwd: [wlug-committee] UG News--Women in Tech Series from www.oreillynet.com
by Ian McDonald 04 Sep '07

04 Sep '07

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Marsee Henon <marsee(a)oreilly.com> Date: Sep 5, 2007 9:48 AM Subject: [wlug-committee] UG News--Women in Tech Series from www.oreillynet.com To: wlug-committee(a)list.waikato.ac.nz Hi Please share the following press announcement with your members if you think they will be interested. --Marsee Women of Tech: Hear Us Roar, A Special Series from www.oreillynet.com The Mighty Voices of Sisterhood in Tech Sebastopol, CA--There's no doubt that women coders, developers, designers, and programmers are a powerful force in the modern tech industry, despite their smaller numbers compared to men. At the same time many of the major impacts and innovations of women at every level of the development and evolution of technology--from the first female coders to today's Web 2.0 pioneers--aren't all that well known. But starting now, O'Reilly Media aims to celebrate and give voice to the real-world experiences and concerns of these female trailblazers by publishing a new online series, "Women in Tech." The brainchild of Tatiana Apandi, an associate editor at O'Reilly, the series features articles solicited from technology's female side--and all focused on what it's like to carve out a career in technology. The timely new series reveals the challenges, rewards, and, sometimes, frustrations of being a woman in an industry still dominated by men. "Each day, we'll present a different woman's story that I believe will open readers' eyes to her unique perspective," explains Apandi. "We have contributions from conference organizers, authors, programmers, developers, and more--women who have pioneered prosperous careers in technology." "As the series progresses, I hope readers find that this myriad of female perspectives shows how valuable it is to hear different points of view," says Tatiana. "Whether readers think there are issues on which we need to work or that there are no issues at all, one underlying truth is that we need to support each other as individuals and help one another with our separate goals." With clarity, honesty, and wit, this collection reveals what it's like to be in the minority of the male-dominated geek culture. Here are just a few of the voices in this upcoming series: - Anna Martelli, Ravenscroft, Pythonista - Audrey Eschright, independent programmer/designer/publisher - CJ Rayhill, SVP of Product Management and Technology for Safari Books Online - Dawn Foster, Director of Developer Relations at Jive Software - Dru Lavigne, Chair of the BSD Certification Group Inc - Gabrielle Roth, member of the Portland Perl Mongers - Jeni Tennison, independent consultant and author - Jill Dyche, partner and co-founder of Baseline Consulting - Juliet Kemp, Systems Administrator for the Astrophysics group at Imperial College - Julia Lerman, Board member of the Vermont Software Developer Alliance, runs the Vermont.NET User Group - Kaliya Hamlin, unconference Shesgeeky.org organizer - Kirsten Jones, webmaster for The Perl Foundation - Lauren Wood, Chaired for the W3C DOM Working Group - Leslie Hawthorn, works for Open Source Programs Office at Google - Selena Deckelmann, leads PDXPUG, a PostgreSQL Users Group - Shelley Powers, software developer/architect, photographer, and author The "Women in Tech," series starts Sept 4. Find out what they have to share and join the discussion here: http://www.oreillynet.com/womenintech/ About O'Reilly O'Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, and conferences. Since 1978, O'Reilly Media has been a chronicler and catalyst of cutting-edge development, homing in on the technology trends that really matter and spurring their adoption by amplifying "faint signals" from the alpha geeks who are creating the future. An active participant in the technology community, the company has a long history of advocacy, meme-making, and evangelism. # # # O'Reilly is a registered trademark of O'Reilly Media, Inc. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners. _______________________________________________ wlug-committee mailing list wlug-committee(a)list.waikato.ac.nz http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug-committee -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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Linux App Finder
by Daniel Lawson 04 Sep '07

04 Sep '07

I saw this linked off an article this morning, and it looked like it might be useful to someone in WLUG: http://linuxappfinder.com/

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E-waste day coming to Hamilton (and other centres) September 29th
by Ian McDonald 03 Sep '07

03 Sep '07

Folks, If you're like me you've probably got lots of computer junk. E-waste day has been run successfully in Wellington before and is now coming to Hamilton and other cities. More details are at: http://hamilton.co.nz/page/pageid/2145835076/Electronic_Waste Ian -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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Google Desktop + Thunderbird = Trouble
by Michael McDonald 03 Sep '07

03 Sep '07

Just to let you know ... the combination of the two on my system (Ubuntu 6.10) is dynamite. CPU usage hits 100% every couple of minutes, regular as clockwork, slowing everything down. Stop one of the programs (doesn't matter which) and the regular spikes disappear. The problem has been noted by others. Deleting emails crashes Thunderbird! Is the problem worthy of an entry in the Wiki? Michael

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Re: [wlug] Saturday Workshop.
by jaytee＠clear.net.nz 02 Sep '07

02 Sep '07

Hi All, I made a choice to download, burn and install Gutsy Gibbon tribe 5. amd 64 arch. (also an involuntary decision to delete my windows xp pro partion oops :-( ) It appears that the restricted driver manager does not work and dmesg gives several errror messages of: [ nn.nnnnnn] bcm43xx: Error: Microcode "bcm43xx_microcode.fw" not available or load failed. If anyone can point me towards a work around it would be appreciated. Regards John. ----- Original Message Follows ----- > I'll bring along a feisty 64-bit CD, and can also help > with the broadcom wireless, as that is what my laptop has. > I should be there by 11am on Saturday (if not 10am) > > -- simon > > On 29/08/2007, jaytee(a)clear.net.nz <jaytee(a)clear.net.nz> > > wrote: Hi All, > > If any one who is going to the fixit meeting has a > > Feisty 64bit install disc it would be helpful as I > > downloaded a 64 bit version of Feisty .ISO and saved it > > to my windows ntfs partition then burned it with my > > Gnomebaker in Dapper only to find the CD had two file > > errors on it. Maybe dragging it across to Ubuntu > > corrupted them. Also if I can get a successful > > install(64 or 32 bit) I would probably need a help with > > my broadcom wireless card set up. > > Regards John > > > > > > > > ----- Original Message Follows ----- > > > We will be holding a Saturday Workshop on Sept 1st at > > > Oxford St Church. > > > > > > Bring your computer along, and we'll try to help with > > > any issues you may be having. Or you may be able to > > > help someone else. > > > > > > Full details are on the wiki: > > > http://wlug.org.nz//SaturdayWorkshop.2007-09-01 > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > > > Unsubscribe: > > > http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug > > > > _______________________________________________ > > wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > > Unsubscribe: > http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug >

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First alpha of Python 3 out
by Ian McDonald 31 Aug '07

31 Aug '07

http://lwn.net/Articles/247689/rss -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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WLUG Fixit Meeting is today!
by Meeting Reminder bot 31 Aug '07

31 Aug '07

A reminder, the WLUG Fixit Meeting is today. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday September 1st, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm We will be holding our SaturdayWorkshop at Te Whanau Pūtahi (http://zoomin.co.nz/nz/hamilton/enderley/-te+whanau+ptahi/?place/full_map) the community church at the end of Oxford Street. We'll have the usual tables, power, various ISO's, LAN, coffee and light lunch, etc. I'm not sure at this time if we'll have a broadband internet connection but we're working on it.

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Brand new notebooks for $498 for next 2 days
by Ian McDonald 31 Aug '07

31 Aug '07

Folks, We just got a new notebook today from Dick Smith Powerhouse on very good special and would make good Linux box. Acer Aspire 5310-300508 Celeron M 520 512 MB RAM Intel 950 graphics Broadcom wireless 80 GB Hard drive Vista Basic (Will use our Vista Ultimate won at WLUG meeting!) $598 paid and $100 cashback by redemption. We upgraded with another 1 GB SODIMM to 1.5 GB from PBTech for just over $100. There are 20 per day available on Saturday and Sunday - opening 8:30 am. I got there before 7 am this morning and got it. I was number 15 in queue but #7 for laptop. It's not a particularly powerful machine but if you want a good price then get in quick (and early!) Other deals: Saturday only 10 Toshiba 37" LCD TV $1549 Sunday only 20 PS3 with 2 games/extra controller $999 (also a good Linux box!) and heaps of other specials. e.g 10 c per photo (limit 100 per customer) Ian -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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NZ Votes no to OOXML
by David 30 Aug '07

30 Aug '07

I see we have voted _NO http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?ContentId=7322 _ -- Some people say that if you run a windows installer cd backwards it commands you to worship the devil... But its worse if you run it forwards, then it installs windows!

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Nominations for next committee
by Ian McDonald 30 Aug '07

30 Aug '07

Folks, We are calling for nominations for the next committee at this page: http://wlug.org.nz/WlugElections Please feel free to put yourself, or someone else (with their approval) onto this page. Current committee members - please update your status for next year (if you know what you wish to do!) Please note that this does not preclude nominations on the night which usually occur also. This page just helps us plan a little in advance. Regards, Ian -- Web1: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4/ Web2: http://www.jandi.co.nz Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz

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Introducing the Hardy Heron
by Simon Green 30 Aug '07

30 Aug '07

Gutsy is still a month and a half away and they have already announced the next LTS release of Ubuntu. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Jono Bacon <jono(a)ubuntu.com> Date: 29 Aug 2007 23:15 Subject: Introducing the Hardy Heron Hi Folks, I am delighted to have the pleasure of announcing the Hardy Heron (Ubuntu 8.04), the next version of Ubuntu that will succeed Gutsy Gibbon (Ubuntu 7.10, due for release in October 2007). Not only will the Ubuntu community continue to do what it does best, produce an easy-to-use, reliable, free software platform, but this release will proudly wear the badge of Long Term Support (LTS) and be supported with security updates for five years on the server and three years on the desktop. We look forward to releasing the Hardy Heron in April 2008. With the opening of each new release cycle of Ubuntu, we have more and more opportunity at our fingertips. Not only are our friends in the upstream world constantly innovating and extending their applications and software, but the Ubuntu community continues to see incredible growth in its diverse range of areas such as packaging, development, documentation, quality assurance, translations, LoCo teams and more. Each new release gives us all an opportunity to shine, irrespective of which bricks in the project we are laying, and this is at the heart of our belief - working together to produce an Operating System that will empower its users and shape the IT industry, putting free software at the corner-stone of our direction.

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Standards NZ notes "No"
by Michael McDonald 30 Aug '07

30 Aug '07

The voting has taken place. http://www.standards.org.nz/news-and-seminars/current-news/New+Zealand+cast… Michael

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Microsoft's Open XML
by Shannon Skinner 30 Aug '07

30 Aug '07

Did anyone else notice the Microsoft advertisement placed in yesterdays Waikato Times (Wed, Aug 29, page 8)? It was basically a PR piece lobbying Standards NZ to accept Open XML as an ISO standard, disguised as an open letter to all New Zealanders. Using such emotive headings as, "Protecting our heritage, our future....", and "This is about much more than technology - it is about New Zealand", it also gives these bullet points: - Protect our heritage - Provide choice - Secure our future - Foster innovation - Give confidence I'm surprised they didn't continue with the following: - Cures global warming - Ends world hunger - Saves the whales ;P There's been quite a bit of coverage of this on the usual tech sites, but here's one that popped up this morning for me: Linux Foundation Urges 'No' Vote On Microsoft's Open XML Format http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=201803012 "Microsoft Office's Open XML or OOXML is the default file format for documents built and used by Office applications. The Linux Foundation says the format "is specific to Windows and other Microsoft products," it relies on references to "many Microsoft proprietary specifications" that are not publicly available and it is uncertain whether Open XML "can be used with other operating systems, like Linux."" For the pro-Open XML lobby group: http://www.openxmlcommunity.org/ Given Microsofts history of "embrace and extend" when it comes to standards, is there an expectation that they will behave differently this time? If you feel so inclined, you could send Standards NZ an email with your views on the matter: http://www.standards.co.nz/about/contact-us/default.htm Cheers Shannon

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