- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Looking for ubuntu.sh
by Stephen 11 May '05

11 May '05

Hi Everyone, Any one have a link to the ubuntu.sh script used at the installfest ? TIA Stephen

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Linux hardware
by Bnonn 11 May '05

11 May '05

Hi everyone Just today my sturdy old Athlon 850's CPU fan decided to give up the ghost, and I decided that it was a sign that I need to get with the times. Because I have no need for anything particularly powerful, I'm going to be purchasing an AthlonXP 2400+, since they're dirt cheap. I'd like the list's advice on what sort of mainboard is best to pair this with; or, rather, what sort of mainboard I definitely shouldn't pair it with. I'm running Ubuntu, and I know its hardware support is pretty good, but any advice you can offer would be appreciated. Onboard graphics is prefered; onboard sound is neither here nor there. Regards Bnonn

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Ubuntu Hoary CDs
by Craig Box 11 May '05

11 May '05

Hi everyone, As promised, I have 100 Hoary CDs to dispense to everyone. I'd like to get rid of them in good public places; I'll make sure about half end up at the WAND group and have a counter display at the comp sci office if I can. Any suggestions on what to do with the rest, short of 'bring them to the upcoming WLUG meeting'? Any retailers want to pick up a handful and put them on their counters? Craig

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Thunderbird inbox
by Gun Caundle 11 May '05

11 May '05

On a notebook with XP, Thunderbird started taking a long time to load. The 'total' for the inbox in the bottom right corner showed '5863' but only the received mail (81 messages)showed in the right pane. The 'total' would then increase by 50 or so intermittently and is now up to '6124' Anyone able to shed some light on this occurrence? -- Cheers Gun

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Usability study
by Craig Box 11 May '05

11 May '05

Hi all, Kirsten has asked me to pass on this message on behalf of the University of Waikato Usability Laboratory. Anyone interested should contact her directly as per below. Craig Are you an Early Technology Adopter? ---------------------------------------- The Usability Laboratory is doing usability research for Telecom. We need study participants who: * Spend $40 or more per month on their mobile phone. * Use mobile data services. * Use the Internet. * Use or have one or more of: digital camera, games console, Game Boy, personal web page or a Broadband Internet connection. If you'd like to participate, please contact: Kirsten Thomson on 0800 USABILITY or email: kthomson(a)cs.waikato.ac.nz.

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Upcoming WLUG committee meeting (1 week today)
by Meeting Reminder bot 10 May '05

10 May '05

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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- WLUG Committee Meeting To have something added to the agenda for this meeting, please email secretary @ wlug.org.nz. Provisional agenda: # Minutes from previous meeting # Matters arising # Correspondence # Treasurers report # General business

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RE: [wlug] High speed internet ADSL
by Craig Box 10 May '05

10 May '05

Ian McDonald wrote: > If the alarm is on the phone side of the filter why can't you use ADSL > elsewhere and why don't you need filters elsewhere? > > Unless by phone side you mean behind the filter instead of in the > phone socket of the filter which would then make sense. > > All that an ADSL filter is, is a cheap bandpass filter. In general alarms are wired directly into the telephone system, not to a plug which goes into a socket. If it was, then eveyrone would just unplug the socket, and the alarm couldn't dial out to say it had gone off. In a wires-to-a-wall situation, if there is a random wire cut, the alarm should go into "I have been tampered with" mode. Therefore you can't just drop an inline filter in as easily as you can in front of a telephone. You can do your own ADSL installs (http://jane.nevada.net.nz/realDSL.jpg) but unless you have good equipment, it's not advised. The internet would always drop out at the flat in the picture. :) Craig

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High speed internet ADSL
by Ron Dean 10 May '05

10 May '05

ADSL USB Modem (DSL-200) Ihug are offering 256k with a 4gig limit If you go over the limit it defaults to 64k Does anybody have experience with this modem with Ubuntu. Because I have a monitored home alarm and the phone line carries data their installation cost is $148 including modem and wiring installation this month only.

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RE: [wlug] Internet Banking using Ubuntu and Firefox
by Lindsay Druett 09 May '05

09 May '05

> On Mon, May 09, 2005 at 01:22:10PM +1200, Justin Hyde wrote: > > I contacted the bank this morning and received the reply below. > > Change banks, let them know why afterwards. > > James. Why ? At the end of the day, while it maybe frustrating that there are support issues with regards to doing Internet banking, I would rather be dealing with a bank that has a closed security policy and keeps my money safely tucked away. Security is their primary responsibility. As Matt said, a polite email to the bank explaining your problems, what you've encountered is a more appropriate action to take. Anyway, when you are more than likely to encounter the same problems with the next bank. Just bear in mind that they won't come up with an instant solution (unless they have already identified this problem) as they will spend time doing testing.

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AVG for Linux
by Shane Taylor 09 May '05

09 May '05

I know there was a thread about a month ago about Linux antivirus software, but I don't recall anyone mentioning AVG. Grisoft now have various versions of AVG 7.0 on offer for email servers & workstations. Has anyone tried any of the Linux versions yet?? http://www.grisoft.com/doc/Programs/lng/us/tpl/tpl01?prd=trisng Shane.

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RE: [wlug] Internet Banking using Ubuntu and Firefox
by Justin Hyde 09 May '05

09 May '05

yes, it should be https://www.ebank.hsbc.co.nz/ WINXP browser = Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050321 Firefox/1.0.2 Browser String from www.showmyip.com = Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050321 Firefox/1.0.2 Have to reboot to get Ubuntu version, post shortly -----Original Message----- From: mglb1-forwarding Sent: Mon 09/05/05 13:30 To: Waikato Linux Users Group Cc: Subject: Re: [wlug] Internet Banking using Ubuntu and Firefox On Mon, 2005-05-09 at 13:22 +1200, Justin Hyde wrote: > Hi > > After installing Ubuntu on the weekend at the install fest, I tried > accessing my internet banking service with HSBC. > > I got an error message saying that I should use IE or Netscape. I > contacted the bank this morning and received the reply below. > > Could someone using Ubuntu and Firefox check whether they can access > https://ebank.hsbc.co.nz to see if its just my computer or a general > problem. Assuming you meant https://www.ebank.hsbc.co.nz/ then yes, I too get an error message. > Could someone recommend a way of getting around the customer services > people at the bank and through to the IT guys? The only way I can think of is to ask the customer services people. I find email often works better than phone for these sort of problems. > As an aside, I could access this banking service using Firefox on my > WINXP setup. Now this is strange. What version or Firefox were you using under WinXP? They are most probably doing their browser detection using the UserAgent string that your browser supplies which I would have thought would have been fairly similar between Linux and Windows. Perhaps not... You could try going to http://www.showmyip.com/ in both Windows and Linux, and recording the Browser (UserAgent) string it reports, I'd be interested in seeing how they differ. Regards -- Matt Brown matt(a)mattb.net.nz Mob +64 275 611 544 www.mattb.net.nz _______________________________________________ wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz Unsubscribe: http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug

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Installfest
by Judy & Lindsay 09 May '05

09 May '05

Hello list, I'm interested to know how the install-fest went on Saturday. I was scheduled to be in Auckland at a convention for the weekend but was stricken with some illness and was left behind. Still I was able to install Ubuntu Hoary on my box. Some news would be welcome. Linz

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RE: [wlug] Internet Banking using Ubuntu and Firefox
by Justin Hyde 09 May '05

09 May '05

Thanks for all your help. I have installed the user agent switch and all seems to be working sweetly. I will contact the bank and advise them accordingly. Problem #1 solved. (how many am I allowed per day ;-) ?) -----Original Message----- From: Greig McGill [mailto:greig(a)hamiltron.net] Sent: Mon 09/05/05 14:23 To: Waikato Linux Users Group Cc: Subject: Re: [wlug] Internet Banking using Ubuntu and Firefox James Clark wrote: > On Mon, May 09, 2005 at 02:12:22PM +1200, Daniel Lawson wrote: > >>Yeah. No shit. > > I'm sure this was absolutely necessary. Away put your weapons! Dan: Less grump. James: Less zealous. ;) Anyway, on topic... I see that this is very frustrating. I was explaining to Justin on Saturday that we spend a lot of time chasing online suppliers that our clients deal with in order to get them to support firefox. They usually respond helpfully. HSBC seem to be an exception. I would suggest that the useragent workaround will get you going right now, and in the meantime, if you find that their site works flawlessly with the switch, then email them, and let them know this. It may at least convince them to opening up trials of other browsers, once they realise there may not be anything to fix. Regards, Greig. _______________________________________________ wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz Unsubscribe: http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug

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RE: [wlug] Internet Banking using Ubuntu and Firefox
by Justin Hyde 09 May '05

09 May '05

Looks like Firefox number is slightly different Ubuntu = Firefox/1.0 WinNT = Firefox/1.0.2 Browser string from Ubuntu = Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050405 Firefox/1.0 (Ubuntu package 1.0.2) -----Original Message----- From: Justin Hyde Sent: Mon 09/05/05 13:38 To: Waikato Linux Users Group Cc: Subject: RE: [wlug] Internet Banking using Ubuntu and Firefox yes, it should be https://www.ebank.hsbc.co.nz/ WINXP browser = Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050321 Firefox/1.0.2 Browser String from www.showmyip.com = Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050321 Firefox/1.0.2 Have to reboot to get Ubuntu version, post shortly -----Original Message----- From: mglb1-forwarding Sent: Mon 09/05/05 13:30 To: Waikato Linux Users Group Cc: Subject: Re: [wlug] Internet Banking using Ubuntu and Firefox On Mon, 2005-05-09 at 13:22 +1200, Justin Hyde wrote: > Hi > > After installing Ubuntu on the weekend at the install fest, I tried > accessing my internet banking service with HSBC. > > I got an error message saying that I should use IE or Netscape. I > contacted the bank this morning and received the reply below. > > Could someone using Ubuntu and Firefox check whether they can access > https://ebank.hsbc.co.nz to see if its just my computer or a general > problem. Assuming you meant https://www.ebank.hsbc.co.nz/ then yes, I too get an error message. > Could someone recommend a way of getting around the customer services > people at the bank and through to the IT guys? The only way I can think of is to ask the customer services people. I find email often works better than phone for these sort of problems. > As an aside, I could access this banking service using Firefox on my > WINXP setup. Now this is strange. What version or Firefox were you using under WinXP? They are most probably doing their browser detection using the UserAgent string that your browser supplies which I would have thought would have been fairly similar between Linux and Windows. Perhaps not... You could try going to http://www.showmyip.com/ in both Windows and Linux, and recording the Browser (UserAgent) string it reports, I'd be interested in seeing how they differ. Regards -- Matt Brown matt(a)mattb.net.nz Mob +64 275 611 544 www.mattb.net.nz _______________________________________________ wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz Unsubscribe: http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug

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Internet Banking using Ubuntu and Firefox
by Justin Hyde 09 May '05

09 May '05

Hi After installing Ubuntu on the weekend at the install fest, I tried accessing my internet banking service with HSBC. I got an error message saying that I should use IE or Netscape. I contacted the bank this morning and received the reply below. Could someone using Ubuntu and Firefox check whether they can access https://ebank.hsbc.co.nz to see if its just my computer or a general problem. Could someone recommend a way of getting around the customer services people at the bank and through to the IT guys? As an aside, I could access this banking service using Firefox on my WINXP setup. Cheers Justin Hyde Dear Andrew, RE: HSBC Internet Access We thank you for your email. Please be advised to access the HSBC Internet Banking you will need to use one of the following: Web Browser Version PC's Internet Explorer 5.5 and 6.0 Netscape Navigator 7.0 MAC's Internet Explorer 5.1.7 for Mac OS 8.1.9.x Internet Explorer 5.2.3 for Mac OS X We apologise for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience. If you require further assistance please call our Direct Service Centre 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on 0800802380 (within New Zealand) or 09 3660366 (from overseas). Kind regards, Tatiana Mendoza Customer Service Consultant Direct Service Centre www.hsbc.co.nz --Original Message-- I have a new computer at home that has the Ubuntu version of linux as its operating system and Firefox as its web browser. When I tried accessing HSBC internet banking I was not allowed by HSBC to log on saying that I needed to Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator. I believe that Friefox and Linux are widely accepted in the IT community, so I am puzzled as to why HSBC is not allowing access through these systems. I had to log into my old computer that has Windows XP so I could send this message from HSBC internet banking. Cheers

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Installfest roundup
by Craig Box 08 May '05

08 May '05

Hi everyone, Thanks to everyone who made the WLUG Installfest for 2005 a huge success. We had around 60 people attend, with about 40 maximum at any one time; slightly more than last year. Thanks to our sponsors: * CrawshawSchool, for the venue * DSE, for donating CDs, power cables and Cat5 patch cables * AlliedTelesyn, for the loan of network equipment * O'Reilly, for giveaway and new library books. Thanks also to all the committee members and helpers who gave a lot of time and energy into getting Linux going. Twelve people took advantage of our half price membership at the installfest offer and joined WLUG. We hope you're really pleased with Ubuntu as a distribution; I'm really pleased that we got it running perfectly on nearly all PCs, including two that were having serious problems with Mandrake and SUSE. [1] The network was really great. We had no major problems on the day, and we cached all the updates beforehand so that people didn't have to wait around. We did about 2gb of traffic, but about 80% of that came out of the cache, so we only actually downloaded 400mb of data (most of which will be the updates for the two AMD64 machines that we didn't have updates cached for). If anyone has any feedback (especially new people who are on the list now) please feel free to post it here. Photo galleries are linked from the http://www.wlug.org.nz/InstallFest.2005-05-07 page. Craig [1] To my knowledge, there were only two PCs that didn't leave with Ubuntu correctly set up on them. One was a very new tablet PC that couldn't boot off an external CD-ROM drive. We got the Ubuntu netinstaller and made it boot that, but the hard drive resizing facility in the installer didn't want to resize the hard drive. The other machine was a very old laptop that had a hardware fault of some sort.

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Modem Problem
by Ron Dean 08 May '05

08 May '05

Modem times out when connecting to ihug with Ubuntu but connects fine win98 below is the connection log --> WvDial: Internet dialer version 1.54.0 -> Initializing modem. -> Sending: ATZ -> Sending: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0 -> Modem initialized. -> Sending: ATM1L1DT087300777 -> Waiting for carrier.L1DT087300777 -> Timed out while dialing. Trying again. -> Sending: ATM1L1DT087300777 -> Waiting for carrier.CARRIERL1DT087300777 -> No Carrier! Trying again. -> Sending: ATM1L1DT087300777 -> Waiting for carrier.CARRIERL1DT087300777 -> No Carrier! Trying again. -> Maximum Attempts Exceeded..Aborting!! -> Disconnecting at Sat May 7 22:38:38 2005

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Hey ;)
by B M 05 May '05

05 May '05

B M has invited you to join hi5. By joining hi5, you will be connected to B and all of B's friends. hi5 is the place where friends meet. You can use hi5 for the following purposes: * Find old friends * Meet new people * Browse photos Join B, meet B's friends, and meet people that share your interests now! Click here: http://www.hi5.com/register/LX27G?inviteId=Y3DQI1ROI520125001w0 This invitation was sent to wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz on behalf of B M (bluemaru(a)hotmail.com) If you do not wish to receive invitations from hi5 members, click on the link below: http://www.hi5.com/friend/displayBlockInvite.do?inviteId=Y3DQI1ROI520125001…

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Sarge is frozen
by James Clark 04 May '05

04 May '05

http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2005/05/msg00001.html Choice! James.

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got hardware/machines for sale?
by John R. McPherson 04 May '05

04 May '05

Hi everyone, we're considering setting a table or two aside at the installfest[1] this Saturday for the sale of machines and hardware. We'd like to have a couple of reasonable low-end/mid-range machines for sale that are suitable for a linux desktop in case anyone wants to buy a machine and get help with installation at the installfest. If you are interested in selling anything, please let me know (off-list!) so we have some idea of how much stuff we need to accommodate. Note that you'll have to be responsible for bringing it along, looking after it, and taking it away if it is unsold. [1] http://www.wlug.org.nz/InstallFest John McPherson

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Debian, Shorewall and dial-up
by Glenn Ramsey 02 May '05

02 May '05

Recently I changed the NAT/firewall setup scripts on my Debian box to Shorewall from ipmasp, because I couldn't figure out how to configure DNAT using ipmasq. There is problem with the Shorewall setup that I cannot find any references to, neither in the docs nor googling. This box does NAT/firewall for my small office LAN through a dial-up connection[1]. On boot as Shorewall tries to start I get messages saying: "modprobe: modprobe: can't locate module ppp0", until the script times out after 180s. After that, however it seems to work fine. The issue is that this extends the startup time by 3 minutes. I think this is because, following the "two interface setup" in the docs, I have set wait_interface="ppp0" in /etc/default/shorewall and this causes /usr/share/shorewall/wait4ifup to be executed. Since it's a dialup connection it can't find ppp0 at boot time, hence the problem. Removing the wait_interface causes the startup of Shorewall to fail. Seems like this would be a common issue and since I can't find any references to it this makes me think I have missed something fundamental in the setup. Apart from this issue the rest of the setup works fine. Ipmasq handles this situation by setting up LAN stuff at boot and then having a /etc/ppp/ip-up script to setup the external interface stuff. What is the right way to resolve this issue? The solution I'm after is the "standard, out of the box" one. This is because if I put in customised stuff I will inevitably forget about it and then wonder why it's broken next time I uprade something[2]. For now I have disabled shorewall at startup and added a script that contains only "/sbin/shorewall restart" to /etc/ppp/ip-up.d. This works but also involves customisation beyond what is described in the docs and is additional to the configuration provided by the package. Ie if I remove the shorewall package my script will not be deleted. I could just set the timeout in wait4ifup to be a smaller value, like 1sec, which would solve the problem but that seems like a hack that I shouldn't need, but it's more likely to be removed if I remove/purge the package. Glenn [1] in case you were wondering, DSL is not available where I live. [2] and it's frustrating enough dealing with the stuff that breaks all by itself when you upgrade something -- Glenn Ramsey <glenn(a)componic.co.nz> 07 8627077 http://www.componic.co.nz

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InstallFest
by Ron Dean 02 May '05

02 May '05

Hi I registed for the installfest on the Wiki but have had nothing to confirm it. So I'm wondering if I registed correctly

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Programming in bwBasic - newbie Linz
by Lindsay 02 May '05

02 May '05

I have downloaded and installed BWBasic to tinker with some older basic programming code that I know. I cant get it to run in RUN but it starts in Terminal. However, with no GUI I tell tell what I'm doing. 1) Is there away to make this more visual i.e. like GWBasic, Quick Basic? 2) Where can I find some coding instructions? (I have googled without getting anything I thought was relevant) Thanks in advance

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Debian Administration
by James Clark 02 May '05

02 May '05

www.debian-adminstration.org Good stuff on this site, a lot of it will be fairly portable. Cheers, James.

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Sausage sizzle at installfest
by Craig Box 02 May '05

02 May '05

Hi, Anyone want to run a sausage sizzle/cold drink sale at the installfest? Short notice unfortunately, but if anyone has a school or another club that wants to fundraise they would be welcome to. Alternatively if anyone wants to run a sausage sizzle for the WLUG and doesn't mind bringing a BBQ, we'll buy the sausages/bread etc.. Craig

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PC Case with Tux logo.
by Oliver Jones 01 May '05

01 May '05

Hi Folks. Anyone interested in this case? It has a 360W PSU. $35 + $15 courier. Thought I'd offer it to WLUG members first as it has a Tux logo on the front. Regards -- Oliver Jones » Roving Code Warrior oliver(a)deeperdesign.com » +64 (21) 41 2238 » www.deeperdesign.com

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Acceptable use of the WLUG Mailing List
by Meeting Reminder bot 30 Apr '05

30 Apr '05

The WLUG Mailing List is the discussion-list extension of the Waikato Linux Users Group (Incorporated). As such, we expect members of this list to adhere to the principles espoused in the official WLUG Charter[1], in particular, Rule 6, which covers the activities on this mailing list. While this is an Acceptable Use Policy, the WLUG Committee do recognise the need for informal discussion among list members, and draconian administration is not the goal here. Please keep in mind, however, that your comments to this list do represent the WLUG, and while it is good to be seen as an organisation with a sense of humour, some comments may do major harm to our credibility as a serious advocate of GNU/Linux and all things Free Software/ Open Source related. List discussion should * be honest * accentuate the positive, without hyperbole or blatant misrepresentation * maintain a reasonable level of spelling and grammar * not indulge in ad hominem attacks * not continue inflammatory or abusive threads * not be unprofessional or petty, especially with respect to the names of other software companies * not promote or denigrate political, cultural, or religious views * not indulge in marketing or advertising, other than on a private sale basis, or advertising of jobs - which may be announced once only * not reproduce copyrighted material without permission from the copyright holder * not defame any person or organisation Posters who consistently violate these guidelines will be dealt with at the discretion of the List Maintainer. If you feel you have been unfairly dealt with, you have recourse to any member of the WLUG Committee[2]. Certain mailing list etiquette should also be maintained: * please use only plain text (not HTML) * reply inline or below when quoting, rather than on top * trim quotes (don't reply quoting a 10 page message with a single line of reply) If you have any questions, start reading at http://www.gweep.ca/~edmonds/usenet/ml-etiquette.html. These points have been established over a long time on this list. If you want to question them, please do it off list. As list users, use your discretion when pulling people up over etiquette - please reply off list, and if there is a serious breach, the list administrator will probably have dealt with it off-list already. [1] http://www.wlug.org.nz/WlugCharter [2] http://www.wlug.org.nz/WlugCommittee

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XML Schema Help
by Joseph Gibbs 28 Apr '05

28 Apr '05

Hi, I'm writing an XML schema for a uni assingment. I have this thing pretty much down, except for one thing. I'm referring to this document entitled "Global versus local" (http://www.xfront.com/GlobalVersusLocal.html) According to that document, and for my requirements, I can take two approaches to this. I can write things in a "Salami Slice Design" or a "Venetian Blind Design". Obviously a "which way should I design this" question comes down to how I'll be using my schema, it's purpose etc. From the URL above: "[1] The Venetian Blind design is the one to choose where your schemas require the flexibility to turn namespace exposure on or off with a simple switch, and where component reuse is important. [2] Where your task requires that you make available to instance document authors the option to use element substitution, then use the Salami Slice design." I'm not trying to ask "how do I do my assignment", my questions are: What is "namespace exposure", and why does it matter?, and, what is an "instance document" and "element substitution"? Thanks, Joseph.

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Dual Boot
by John Torrance 27 Apr '05

27 Apr '05

Thanks for the info. I had no desire to start a distro war. I do have another question though. The last time I tried to load a dual boot system with Fedora and Windows XP with Grub, I completely stuffed up my boot sector and could not access windows. I found out later that it was recoverable but I buggered it up so badly, I had to "format C" and start again. This only seems to happen with the NTFS file system windows and not using the older system which I used successfully on my other computer. I am keen to load Ubuntu but am terrified of stuffing up my windows partition. Has anyone successfully loaded a dual bootup system with Ubuntu and Windows XP (NTFS)? Cheers John

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default distro
by John Torrance 27 Apr '05

27 Apr '05

Hi I see that you are using Ubuntu v5.04 (Hoary Hedgehog) as your official distro for the install fest. What advantages does if have over the latest Fedora? As a newbie, I have some experience with Red Hat and Fedora but have never used Debian which I believe is the basis of Ubuntu. Cheers John

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Resetting the preferrred browser in KDE/Debian
by Glenn Ramsey 27 Apr '05

27 Apr '05

I am running Debian/Testing with KDE and I mostly use firefox for web browsing. Somehow (ok, really because I fiddled with the config) it has become the default browser and I can't figure out how to change it back. This is annoying because In KDE you can choose "run command" from the start menu and enter "#commandname" to get a nicely formatted man page. On my system only konqueror understands this but currently it tries to start firefox which reports that it doesn't understand the man: protocol. update-alternatives says this: pixie:~# update-alternatives --display x-www-browser x-www-browser - status is auto. link currently points to /usr/bin/konqueror /usr/bin/mozilla-firefox - priority 70 slave x-www-browser.1.gz: /usr/share/man/man1/mozilla-firefox.1.gz /usr/bin/mozilla - priority 80 slave x-www-browser.1.gz: /usr/share/man/man1/mozilla.1.gz /usr/bin/konqueror - priority 100 Current `best' version is /usr/bin/konqueror. pixie:~# update-alternatives --list x-www-browser /usr/bin/mozilla-firefox /usr/bin/mozilla /usr/bin/konqueror pixie:/etc/alternatives# ls -l x-www-browser lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 18 Apr 27 11:09 x-www-browser -> /usr/bin/konqueror Does anyone know where/how to reset this? Alternatively is there an easy way to just reset KDE to all have everything back to the default? Would it be unwise to delete or rename my .kde directory and have it recreate it? Glenn -- Glenn Ramsey <glenn(a)componic.co.nz> 07 8627077 http://www.componic.co.nz

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making a bootable CD
by John Torrance 27 Apr '05

27 Apr '05

Sorry, I hope that this is not a stupid question. I have downloaded the Ubuntu Iso - I have tried to burn a bootable disk with gnome toaster - I only seem to be able to make disks with the iso file on it. I tried dragging and dropping the file then right clicking and asking for a bootable ISO image but still got another fine .ISO coaster. Clearly my windows programs won't read these - how do I make a loadable disk from the ISO with gnome toaster? Thanks for the all the advice Cheers

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logger
by James Clark 26 Apr '05

26 Apr '05

This isn't new to me, but maybe someone might think "hey that's just what I wanted", since it's a slow day on yon list. If your running an application and want to capture the output to a system log file, you can use logger. Instead of explain it in too much depth, try the below while tail -f'ing /var/log/daemon.log. echo test | logger -p daemon.info -t \[test\] You'll now have an idea of what it does and why you might like to use it, of course you can do more so you can always rtfm @ `man logger`. Cheers, James.

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/etc
by Bnonn 26 Apr '05

26 Apr '05

A random question. Does /etc stand for Et Cetera? I can't really see why it would, but then I can't think of anything else it would stand for. Et Cetera means literally "and so forth", so I'd expect a folder called /etc to contain miscellaneous files rather than configuration data. Anyone know? Bnonn

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RE: [wlug] Ubuntu Live cd
by David Nicholls 25 Apr '05

25 Apr '05

Ron Dean wrote: Has anybody got a copy of x86 iso of the live cd. I have used Mandrake 10 for some time but would like to try this. ----------------- If you need one now, I can supply it. Cheers... david

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Ubuntu Live cd
by Ron Dean 25 Apr '05

25 Apr '05

Has anybody got a copy of x86 iso of the live cd. I have used Mandrake 10 for some time but would like to try this.

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Official announcement of 2005 Installfest
by Craig Box 24 Apr '05

24 Apr '05

Hi everyone, The Waikato Linux Users Group are proud to announce their second annual Linux installfest, to be held at the Crawshaw School Hall on Crawshaw Drive, Hamilton, from 10am on Saturday 7th May. Registration for the installfest is now open on the WLUG website at http://www.wlug.org.nz/InstallFest. There is no charge to attend. "Our last installfest was a great success and an educational experience for the WLUG, as well as the participants" says group president Greig McGill. "We look forward to applying lessons learned last year, and making this one as good as it can be." Over 50 people attended the 2004 event, and this year WLUG intend to streamline the installations in order to run more training. For people who are interested in Free Software, but not yet ready to take the leap into running Linux, the WLUG will also have demonstrations of free software for Microsoft Windows, such as the tremendously popular Firefox web browser and OpenOffice.org office software. How you can help ---------------- If you are interested in helping with the installfest organization, check out the http://www.wlug.org.nz/InstallFestToDo page, and email me if there is anything there you'd like to have a go at. If you want to sign up to either attend or help on the day, please register on the registration page. (The page will be updated later tonight; if you go earlier, please make it clear if you're a helper or a new installation). Thanks Craig

18 55

6to4 site examples wanted
by Steven Lisson 24 Apr '05

24 Apr '05

Hi, I have been having some difficulty accessing the www.wlug.org.nz site via IPv6 from my network, all machines apart from the gateway do not use a 6to4 addressing (e.g. 2001:db0:10f7:1::1), as soon as a trace leaves the 2001:: range the trace fails (no matter if it leaves IPv6 via the 6to4 interface on the gateway or elsewhere on the IPv6 internet), however, the gateway that has a 6to4 address on it can ping, trace and view the website without difficulty. To assist with further troubleshooting further from my end could someone please provide me with some other sites that use 6to4 addresses so I can troubleshoot further, I was going through a list of IPv6 websites that I know of but only 1 site I tested out of about 70 on the list used a 2002:: address and it was offline in both the ipv4 and 6 internet. Sorry to be a hassle but would like to get to the cause of the issue and be able to rectify it as it is pretty much the only site I regularly visit via IPv6 that I have problems with. Regards, Steve

3 2

Joining split avi files.
by Oliver Jones 23 Apr '05

23 Apr '05

Howdy folks. Linux to the rescue yet again. I needed to join some avi files together, end on end. I did a Google and found lots of shareware/download-ware utilities for Windows for doing the job. All wanted money. Of course I thought, "This is dumb. There has to be a Linux command-line tool for this." One of the Google results mentioned avicat on Linux. Part of Mplayer's transcode suite. I knew I had transcode installed but avicat didn't exist. So I went, "$ avi<tab><tab>" and lo and behold the command avimerge appeared and looked promising. After a quite man read it became clear that this was exactly what I wanted and I set about "fixing" my avi files. Hurrah! Regards -- Oliver Jones » Roving Code Warrior oliver(a)deeperdesign.com » +64 (21) 41 2238 » www.deeperdesign.com

3 2

Microsoft announces support for Linux!
by Ian McDonald 21 Apr '05

21 Apr '05

Looks like Microsoft has realised Linux has gained real support. This is showing that Linux IS gaining real traction if Microsoft support. http://news.com.com/Microsofts+Ballmer+grins+and+bears+Linux--a+little/2100… Please remember - be professional in your replies. WLUG is not about maligning any software company - we are about supporting Linux and this has to be good news. Regards, Ian

4 3

web hosting
by stephen pearce 21 Apr '05

21 Apr '05

Our web host will soon be shutting down ... the choise of alternatives is overwhelming .. has anyone got any thoughts on best price performance options locally? Thanks Stephen

3 2

No meeting this Monday
by Craig Box 20 Apr '05

20 Apr '05

Hi everyone, Due to Monday being Anzac day and the installfest coming up soon after, we have decided to roll the planned upcoming meeting on Monday 25 April into the Installfest which is happening on Saturday 7th June. Please accept our apologies for the late decision, but rest assured that big plans are underway for the installfest and we look forward to seeing you all there! Craig (on behalf of the WLUG Committee)

5 5

Committee and installfest update
by Craig Box 20 Apr '05

20 Apr '05

Hi everyone, Another month, another committee meeting. Please see http://www.wlug.org.nz/CommitteeMeetingTopics.2005-04-20 for the minutes. I hope that due to the lack of input from the members this means we're doing everything right and you're all very happy! :) An update on the installfest planning. We are on track and you're welcome to check out whats happening at the http://www.wlug.org.nz/InstallFestToDo page. Any offers of help are always welcome! What we would love you to do is print copies of the poster from http://www.wlug.org.nz/archive/installfest/installfest-poster-2005.pdf, and put them up anywhere you can think of that people might be interested. Thanks, Craig

1 0

Intro and ISPs
by Ian Swainson 20 Apr '05

20 Apr '05

Mornin All, Just arrived in NZ from (not so) sunny Ireland, recently joined your esteemed mailing list, looking forward to catching up with some of you in person at the next installfest. Please be gentle with me... As I've just arrived, I'm looking for a nice Linux-friendly ISP to give my hard-earned cash to - any recommendations would be gratefully received. Google is usually my friend, but NZ certainly has a lot more choice than Ireland. In Ireland many of the ISPs are free, and make their money from the phone-calls. They all seem to need registration here - is that the case? In relation to above, does anyone know if this USB Modem will play with Linux nicely? http://www.dse.co.nz/cgi-bin/dse.storefront/42656b330da56e082740c0a87f99070… ...I note that it has a Conexant chipset, which reeks of WinModem nastiness. I need the modem for a lappy, so can't go the internal route. Feedback delightfully received. I have had some success with WinModems on Linux, the drivers certainly have come a long way. Not sure about this one tho. Anyhoo, let the flaming begin (although surely ye can't be as bad as the ILUG...:) ) Cheers, ian -- "Turn off the lights and I'll glow." -Implausible Claims Made by Vanilla Ice in "Ice Ice Baby." http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/lists/26DougErickson.html

5 6

Command line util of the day.
by Oliver Jones 19 Apr '05

19 Apr '05

To continue the trend set by James Clark... Here is my choice for useful command-line tool of the day. fold Fold is a simple little command line util that lets you fold lines of text at a particular width. Eg if you have some long lines of text, say out of some HTML or other document format that only maintains paragraph breaks, that you want to show on a console screen you can do this: fold -s -w 70 long-lines.txt |less This command will fold the text from long-lines.txt at 70 characters (or the nearest preceding space). If you leave off -s the lines will get cut in the middle of words. Most consoles are 80 columns wide and fold defaults to a width (-w) of 80 columns. This can also be useful in scripts where you need to display a paragraph of text with interpolated variables which you don't know the width of beforehand. Eg: echo -n "Enter some text: " read var para="You said, '$var'. That's really interesting. But \ do you know the answer to the ultimate question of life, \ the universe, and everything?"; echo $para | fold -s -w 78 - Regards -- Oliver Jones » Roving Code Warrior oliver(a)deeperdesign.com » +64 (21) 41 2238 » www.deeperdesign.com

2 2

WLUG Meeting is one week away
by Meeting Reminder bot 17 Apr '05

17 Apr '05

The Waikato Linux Users Group have a meeting in one week today. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A WLUG meeting is booked for this date. No topic has been set. If you're seeing this message, feel free to suggest or offer to present a meeting topic - the MeetingTopics page might be a good place to start.

1 0

WANTED: Cisco admin in Taupo
by Andrew Thrift 14 Apr '05

14 Apr '05

Hi All, We have a new site in Taupo that is connected to TelstraClear Private IP via a Cisco 805 Router on frame relay. As I am going on holiday tomorrow I am unable to go onsite and figure out why the connection is not coming up when the router is as far as I can remember configured properly. Is anyone on this list in Taupo and able to check it out for me, and if so reply off list with your hourly rate. Regards, Andrew Thrift National IT Manager Turbo Investments Group.

5 5

DHBs to test open source alternative to Windows and Office
by Bnonn 12 Apr '05

12 Apr '05

<http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/UNID/39A5FAC6A45E8FB2CC256FDA00319B5C?O…> --- DHBs to test open source alternative to Windows and Office Boards band together to reduce their software licensing costs Stephen Bell, Wellington New Zealand's District Health Boards plan a trial of open source desktop software in an effort to reduce the licensing fees they pay to Microsoft — more than $20 million over three years, according to one estimate. Microsoft licences are a major element of DHBs’ software costs, says Phil Brimacombe, CIO of Waitemata and Counties Manukau DHBs and healthAlliance, the shared services organisation owned by the two boards. While there are some “power users” likely to need the full capabilities of Microsoft Office and related applications, users with less elaborate IT demands may be able to use OpenOffice.org and other open source software at much-reduced cost, Brimacombe says. At a quarterly meeting of DHB CIOs in February, a joint three-part plan to reduce software costs was adopted. First, the DHBs will pilot an open source desktop environment, being put together by Steve Rayner, CIO of Wanganui DHB, to assess how many users it will serve adequately. Rayner plans to support two categories of user: "power users" with Microsoft desktop software, and "regular clinical users" with Novell Enterprise Desktop, OpenOffice.org and GroupWise running on Suse Linux. The pilot will seek to establish how many users there are with basic needs and whether it is possible to meet them with an entirely non-Microsoft environment, Brimacombe says. “The majority of users don’t use Access databases, for example; they wouldn’t use PowerPoint; they’re not advanced users of Excel and they probably only use about 20% of the functions of Word. They may manage quite well with OpenOffice.” There are also open source options for clinical database access clients, “but we don’t know how practical those are”, he says. Brimacombe expects one of the knotty problems will be DHBs’ extensive use of Outlook and Exchange. They will have to find some practical email alternative, he says. Another initiative is to approach suppliers of health software to see if they are willing to develop open source versions of their applications. At least one major provider of clinical systems, Orion, has told the board that it is looking seriously at supporting the open source Mozilla Firefox browser with its its clinical portal, Concerto, as an alternative to Internet Explorer, Brimacombe says. Laboratory software developer Sysmex has also indicated a willingness to explore open source solutions, he says. The third part of the DHBs' plan is to push for stronger representation on the public sector committee negotiating the details of G2006, the next iteration of the New Zealand Government’s bulk licensing agreement with Microsoft. Steve Mayo-Smith, CIO of Auckland DHB, will be the DHB CIO representative on the public sector negotiation group. He says DHBs will collectively have spent over $20 million on Microsoft licences during the three year of the previous agreement, G2003. “In particular the DHBs with a large user population end up with little choice within the G2003 agreement, and feel captured by the structure of that agreement into paying the highest charges, often for products that are not widely needed,” Mayo-Smith says. “The potential cost efficiencies of open source are also attractive to smaller DHBs who do not have the resources of the larger DHBs.” “We’re not expecting any stunning short-term breakthrough,” says Brimacombe, but the joint initiative, alongside individual DHB plans in the open source direction, could go some way to reducing Microsoft expenditure, “which is a big number for the taxpayer”. The push to reduce licensing costs has been building for many months, Brimacombe says; one catalyst came in mid-2004, when Dr Ross Boswell, clinical director of information systems for Counties Manukau and an open source enthusiast, addressed the quarterly CIO meeting. Discussion since then has built up to the point of a formal agreement among the boards. ---

10 11

Upcoming WLUG committee meeting (1 week today)
by Meeting Reminder bot 12 Apr '05

12 Apr '05

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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- WLUG Committee Meeting To have something added to the agenda for this meeting, please email secretary @ wlug.org.nz. Provisional agenda: # Minutes from previous meeting # Matters arising # Correspondence # Treasurers report # General business

1 0

Upgrading from RHEL 2.1 to RHEL 3.0
by Oliver Jones 12 Apr '05

12 Apr '05

Has anyone upgraded a RHEL 2.1 system to RHEL3 via up2date before? If so any pot holes I should be watchful for? I'm just getting a little sick of how out of date this RHEL2.1 box I administer is. Regards -- Oliver Jones » Roving Code Warrior oliver(a)deeperdesign.com » +64 (21) 41 2238 » www.deeperdesign.com

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Re: Linux antivirus
by David 11 Apr '05

11 Apr '05

Hi Forgot the URL for the site. Had a bit of trouble finding the Linux section myself. So for those of you prepared to risk a trip to an unknown URL. :-) http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_for_linux.html David

4 4

Time for a new PC to run Linux on?
by Craig Box 11 Apr '05

11 Apr '05

Hi everyone, We're looking at sourcing some second hand (ex lease) PCs to sell at the installfest. While what we have on the day depends on what the supplier has in stock, current prices put a Pentium 3 733 machine with 256mb RAM and 10GB of HDD (plus CD-ROM/sound/network etc) at around $250. We will of course look forward to taking these machines and helping you set Linux up on them. I would like to get an indication of how many people might be interested in taking up an offer like this, so we have an idea of how many PCs to have on hand during the day. Regards, Craig

3 2

Linux antivirus
by David 11 Apr '05

11 Apr '05

Hi A mention of antivirus on Linux reminded me to take another look at the Avast web site. They had a beta version a year or two ago. It seems to have made the product line up. I haven't used the Linux version yet, but the Windows version works well, and is available free for home use. You have to register but they don't spam you! I have used it for a few years and put other people on to it. You can also try there beta programs and report back on them. Regards David

1 0

ftp on wlug server
by John R. McPherson 10 Apr '05

10 Apr '05

Does anybody on this list use ftp to hoiho (the wlug server)? If not, we will probably disable the ftp server. John

1 0

Patents
by Lindsay 10 Apr '05

10 Apr '05

Patents The only way to fight back against these software patent advocates is to think up idea's, get together with friends and supporters and patent all your idea's. That way, when these multinational rat-bags go to patent an idea - you've already done it. Its cheaper to patent things than it is to object to the patents. So why not. Get a good patent lawyer and hoe into it. Linz

3 2

Ubuntu Warty CDs spare - linz
by Lindsay 10 Apr '05

10 Apr '05

I still have a couple of couples of Warty Ubuntu if anyone would like these. Reply and supply postal address. Linz

3 4

PCI Hardware Database
by Perry Lorier 10 Apr '05

10 Apr '05

In preparation for the WLUG Installfest, I've written up a quick hack to help people identify hardware, what drivers they need, where they can get those drivers and any quirks that the hardware may have (eg, defaulting to the internal connector rather than the external one, needing firmware to be flash upgraded before use, limitations of the device that may not be apparent initially etc). For example: http://www.wlug.org.nz/~perry/pci/?id=0200:10ec:8139:10ec:8139 What I'd really like is for people on this list to run a small shell script that looks at the hardware in their machine, and produces links to the hardware database. After following those links you'll be presented with a web page with the information known about that device, and the ability to leave some notes about that piece of hardware. This is especially important for people with winmodems as being able to quickly detect and find drivers for winmodems at the Installfest is critical for a stress free day. I'd like people to download the shell script at http://www.wlug.org.nz/~perry/pci/pci.sh and run it, check your hardware and make sure it's known about in hardware database, and write down any notes that you may have about it (especially things like if you had to download 3rd party drivers from somewhere, or minimum required kernel versions). This script requires a 2.6 kernel, and for /sys to be mounted (this should be true of any recently release distribution) If you can't get the piece of hardware working under Linux please leave a note to that effect so we can research it before the Installfest so we can have an answer to your problems ready so we can spend the rest of the day making your machine shine :) If any hardware is not detected by the database please email me the information about your hardware with: ( lspci -v ; sort -u /lib/modules/*/modules.pcimap ) | mail perry(a)coders.net -s "PCI database" The script is a bit raw (ok, a lot raw) at the moment, I plan on tidying it up a lot, but I'm also keen on getting information about various bits of hardware as soon as possible so we can start researching it in preparation for the Installfest. If you have suggestions, comments or even mild thoughts please email me (perry(a)coders.net) with them and I'll try and incorporate them into the programs before the Installfest.

1 0

RE: [wlug] Top posting
by David Nicholls 09 Apr '05

09 Apr '05

From: Bnonn [mailto:bnonn(a)orcon.net.nz] Sent: Friday, 8 April 2005 3:16 pm Subject: Re: [wlug] Top posting For what it's worth, I agree, but you will find that the acceptable use policy of the list has been updated to include no html email, and no top posting, so there you have it :) Help help! I'm being repressed! ------------ Interestingly enough, I was just doing some goooooooooooooooooogle research (cheers greig!), and came across a reasonably old netiqette article which seemed to indicate that both top *and* bottom posting were acceptable so long as it was clear what you were quoting and you - as someone else put it - didn't quote an entire email (just enough to get the idea/topic). And of course interspersed is fine too. Most of the stuff ive found seems to indicate this, even an RFC written by intel in '94. Mostly it seems to by left to the preference of the user and community you are communicating with. Cheers... david

8 9

RE: [wlug] Top posting
by David Nicholls 08 Apr '05

08 Apr '05

From: David Nicholls Sent: Friday, 8 April 2005 4:05 pm Subject: RE: [wlug] Top posting Interestingly enough, I was just doing some goooooooooooooooooogle research (cheers greig!), and came across a reasonably old netiqette article which seemed to indicate that both top *and* bottom posting were acceptable so long as it was clear what you were quoting and you - as someone else put it - didn't quote an entire email (just enough to get the idea/topic). And of course interspersed is fine too. Most of the stuff ive found seems to indicate this, even an RFC written by intel in '94. Mostly it seems to by left to the preference of the user and community you are communicating with. Cheers... David ----------------- Oh I forgot to include this: An inforative & humourous guide to writing on the internet (posting to email lists/usenet) entitled how to write - rude words are included. http://www.digiserve.com/eescape/closet/silly/Write-Like-A-Wanker.html Cheers... david

2 1

Stephen Pearce
by Oliver Jones 08 Apr '05

08 Apr '05

Could Stephen Pearce please contact me ASAP. Regards -- Oliver Jones » Roving Code Warrior oliver(a)deeperdesign.com » +64 (21) 41 2238 » www.deeperdesign.com

1 0

Creating PDFs - was Significant Press Release
by Graham 08 Apr '05

08 Apr '05

> ------------------------------ > > Message: 3 > Date: Wed, 06 Apr 2005 18:42:50 +1200 > From: Oliver Jones <oliver(a)deeper.co.nz> > Subject: Re: [wlug] A significant Press Release > To: Waikato Linux Users Group <wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz> > Message-ID: <1112769770.10434.24.camel(a)localhost.localdomain> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 > > >> This is a department dependent issue. In CS as many staff and >> students use >> a selection of Linux, Windows and MacOS X so most staff encourage >> students >> to submit in .pdf, .html or plain text. If staff in a given department >> only have access to a windows PC and students are only provided a >> windows >> lab, then the school may well require submissions in an Office format. > > > > Then install PDF Creator (http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/) > on those machines. It's a Open Source and very useful PDF generator > (acts as a Windows Printer). It is basically a thin-ish wrapper around > Ghostscript. > > >>> These are pet peeves of mine, as my missus can't drop IE/Windows >>> completely since she still needs them to do University work. >> > > > Regards > -- > Oliver Jones Â» Roving Code Warrior > oliver(a)deeperdesign.com Â» +64 (21) 41 2238 Â» www.deeperdesign.com A simple solution is to install OpenOffice.org. Then she can export to PDF or save in .doc for those that are still clinging to the sinking ship. My lecturers insist that assignments be presented in Word format. They may have some idea that it is all produced in OOo... Oh yes, they do, because I told them. ;) OpenOffice.org 2.0 will be out in a month or so or you can download the Beta from http://download.openoffice.org/2.0beta/index.html Cheers Yo Statement of Interest: There is some truth in the rumour that I am the New Zealand Marketing Contact for OpenOffice.org And yes I hope OpenOffice.org will be welcome at the installfest even if this writer runs his OOo 1.9.87 on SuSE 9.2 ;) (Though in my defense I will add that I have 1.1.2 running on a Warty Warthog box)

1 0

RE: [wlug] Official announcement of 2005 Installfest
by David Nicholls 07 Apr '05

07 Apr '05

Hey, has anyone thought of inviting DSE to this? I was thinking cheap linux boxes, demosystems, and those cheap/free cds they do with oss software on them (great for those unsure about "switching") ;) Cheers... david -----Original Message----- Sent: Thursday, 7 April 2005 2:51 pm Subject: [wlug] Official announcement of 2005 Installfest Hi everyone, The Waikato Linux Users Group are proud to announce their second annual Linux installfest, to be held at the Crawshaw School Hall on Crawshaw Drive, Hamilton, from 10am on Saturday 7th May.

2 1

Real world requirements
by James Clark 07 Apr '05

07 Apr '05

>>User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0 (Windows/20041206) >> >>I'm guess this has something to do with a draconian employer? >> >>James. > >No, it has to do with the real world requirements of my job. > >G. Such as? I'm actually interested by this. The last three years of my working career I've used primarily Linux. For a while (at my previous job) I had to KVM to a windows box periodically to use OutLook and some legacy customer management software. Now it's only Linux. Cheers, James.

4 4

Installfest poster available
by Craig Box 07 Apr '05

07 Apr '05

If you'd like a printable installfest poster that you can put up around the place, check this out; thanks to Phil Murray: http://www.wlug.org.nz/archive/installfest/installfest-poster-2005.pdf Craig

1 0

FW: [usg_list] Firefox JavaScript Engine Flaw Flagged
by Jodi Thomson 07 Apr '05

07 Apr '05

FYI ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------- Jodi W. Anderson, Mr (BA, A+, MCP) - Computer Systems Consultant Waikato University Library - Computing Operations Group Ph: +64 7 838 4323 email: jodi(a)waikato.ac.nz "Right now I'm having amnesia and deja vu at the same time. I think I've forgotten this before." > should keep an eye on this one if your using or supporting > Firefox/Mozilla.... > > from: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1782332,00.asp > > A moderately critical security flaw in the Mozilla > Foundation's Firefox Web browser could put users at risk of > information disclosure attacks, according to an advisory from > security research outfit Secunia. > > The vulnerability has been confirmed in Firefox 1.0.1 and > 1.0.2, the two latest browser releases from the open-source > foundation. It also affects the Mozilla suite, Secunia warned. > > Secunia has released an online test to allow Firefox and > Mozilla users to determine if they are affected by the bug. > > As a temporary workaround, Secunia suggests that JavaScript > support be disabled. >

6 5

Patent grabbing could harm the Internet
by David 06 Apr '05

06 Apr '05

Just a little article I came across in the Bangkok Post I.T. Database today. The article can be found at http://www.bangkokpost.com/Database/06Apr2005_datacol57.php Wanda Sloan (Sloan Ranger) has also done a review on Netscape 8 in late beta stage which has an IE rendering engine for sites that don't render properly in the Mozilla engine, which can be found here. http://www.bangkokpost.com/Database/06Apr2005_datacol59.php Regards David Bowen COMPUTER CURRENTS Patent grabbing could harm the Internet The US Patent Office seems to be granting patents for just about anything these days James Hein It was discovered recently by the Public Patent Foundation (Pubpat) that Microsoft had filed a patent application for something very similar to IPv6, which is to be the next generation of the Internet Protocol. This kind of patent grabbing can only damage the Internet as a whole. Over the past few years some companies have been trying to get as many patents as they could registered by the US Patent Office, which seems to have been going through a period where they granted everything. They probably won't ever assert the patent, especially since they forgot to mention any of the work done by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) on the process, but like SCO's efforts it could keep a few companies in line who might be worried about Microsoft ever trying to. Pubpat at http://www.pubpat.org is a group that works to protect the public from damage caused by poor implementation of the patent system. Patent number 6101499, "Method and computer program product for automatically generating an Internet Protocol (IP) address," was issued to Microsoft in 2000. By granting these types of patents the Patent Office is essentially supporting the monopolistic nature of a company like Microsoft and at the same time reducing the chances that the next generation of standards will be good ones. In this case the MS employees listed as the inventors were on the IPv6 committee of the IETF, the real inventors of the system. Ironically, in other recent news Microsoft has demanded reform of the US patent system to improve patent quality.

1 0

A significant Press Release
by wayne.luxton 06 Apr '05

06 Apr '05

Something just released - it will be interesting to see what the press does. www.greens.org.nz/searchdocs/PR8077.html Wayne

11 20

Deleting a page on Wiki
by Ian McDonald 06 Apr '05

06 Apr '05

Hi there, How do we delete pages on the Wiki or do only certain people possess this power to stop most plebs trashing our site? I was just looking at tidying up bits and pieces and can't find this info. I did RTFM and did look at the FAQ: http://www.wlug.org.nz/WikiFaq and found nothing (I will edit FAQ after I get an answer). Ian

2 1

RE: [wlug] Mailing list etiquette (was Re: Sudo)
by Gund Wehsling 05 Apr '05

05 Apr '05

I will be removing my self from this mailing list today. The amount of junk has now exceeded the amount of value. Regards Gund ________________________________ From: Daniel Lawson [mailto:daniel(a)meta.net.nz] Sent: Tue 5/04/2005 11:58 To: Waikato Linux Users Group Subject: Re: [wlug] Mailing list etiquette (was Re: Sudo) >>Also, many people read mailing lists in digest form. HTML (and other >>formats) tend to break in digest mode. > > > I hope you won't take offense, but this seems like the only good reason > to me. Surely, in the year 2005, when the HTML 4 spec has been around > for eight years and has been commonly used to style emails for not much > less time than that, it is reasonable to assume that any mail reader can > parse it? No, it's not reasonable at all. Especially not for a mailing list which will have a high rate of people using command line only mail clients, or perhaps self-written mail clients. And people using telnet to read mail. It will happen, if only because it's *this* group of people. > From a purist point of view, I agree that emails should be in plain > text. The reason I style them is because I like them to look pretty for So do it? > less computer-savvy types who I regularly email, who don't know how to > style things on their end. Additionally, there are some things that > plain text simply won't do, and which I do occasionally use (lists being > one). I can do lists very easily in plain text: * This is an example of a list * This is a second entry in a list, which has a longer line which I format approrpriately. * And here we have a third entry in a list * Look, I can do sublists too! > I'm not meaning to stir or be a pest; I just don't understand why any > mail client in use today would not support HTML; or why people would > turn it off? Surely, unless you're using OE, security isn't a problem. > People seem to manage browsing the web without issues, and that's a far > less controlled and predictable environment than email. Just because *you* use a mail client that supports HTML emails, does not mean every one *else* does. As I've said, this is mitigated by configuring your client to send an HTML block and a plain text block, however your client was not originally configured to do this, which is *probably* what prompted the "fix your client" thing anyway. > So, as I asked before with my sudo question, what am I missing? Are > people just pig-headed snobs who like to feel wronged and stand out as > martyrs for the Old School? HTML emails are horrible, plain and simple. All it takes is getting mail from someone using Incredimail for you to see the truth in this statement. _______________________________________________ wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz Unsubscribe: http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug

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Re: [wlug] SMB question
by Michael Honeyfield 05 Apr '05

05 Apr '05

> > Have you considered using pscp from > > http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/ > > I have found the putty suite to be very useful under windows and doing > > an scp transfer should get around any possible issues with samba and > > at least narrow down the possible cause of the problem if it still > > fails. > > On a side note, pscp is god awful slow - feels like half the speed of Linux > scp, and of course these are both slower than smb due to the encryption > overhead. Useful, sure, but very slow. WinSCP is no better as it uses > PuTTY's encryption code. > Still FTP (vsftpd is nice) is an option and one I use on my samba server for big transfers... dunno why, but samba is slow to transfer anything over 1GB is a single file or a collection of smaller files. Mike

1 0

SMB question
by Raymond Burgess 05 Apr '05

05 Apr '05

I am running a machine with RH 7.1, samba-2.0.10 I moving some large files from a Windows XP machine to the large amount of diskspace that is available ont he Linux machine. Files that are larger than 4GB fail to copy. Once the progress reaches 4GB windows prompts you if you wish to overright the exisiting file. I am already planning on installing a newer release on the linux box, probably Fedora Code 3 (or 4, as It will probably be out by the time I get around to it). I would like to know if any of you have successfully copied files larger than 4GB from a Windows machine to a recent build on samba. I'm not sure if it's Samba, Windows XP or the SMB protocol that is limited at 4GB. I realy don't care either, but I would like to know if this will work, it might motivate me to upgrade a little faster ;-) Anyone with FC3 able to confirm that this has worked. Raymond

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Parliamentary Questions
by Greig McGill 05 Apr '05

05 Apr '05

Hi all, After Rodney Hide spoke to us last year, he suggested that our most effective tool for advocacy would be to formulate a list of parliamentary questions. A good explanation of the usefulness of these can be found here: http://www.act.org.nz/question.jsp Mr. Hide has offered to put our questions forward, but at the moment they are a tad incoherent. Could we have some keen volunteers to edit http://www.wlug.org.nz/ParliamentaryQuestions? Be brutal. Don't worry about retaining comments - they are retained in the wiki's revision history. I'd really like to submit these in "ready to ask" form to Mr. Hide by the end of this month. Please note: The WLUG has no political affiliation with ACT or any other political party, but we know a useful tool when we see one. :) Please don't submit these questions yourself, as we would like them to all be submitted together from a single point of contact to maximise their efficiency. Thanks, Greig McGill El Presidente.

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Sudo
by Bnonn 05 Apr '05

05 Apr '05

Hi everyone. I'm wondering if someone can explain the rationale behind sudo. Ubuntu uses sudo by default, rather than having normal root access, although you can use root access if you wish. This is supposedly done with security in mind, but I don't see how it makes things more secure. It seems to me that allowing a user to execute commands which require root privileges, without having the root password, is really dangerous. For example, logged in as bnonn I can execute: $ sudo passwd root And change the root password. This doesn't seem secure to me! What am I missing? Regards Bnonn

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Re: [wlug] SMB question
by Michael Honeyfield 05 Apr '05

05 Apr '05

> I am running a machine with RH 7.1, samba-2.0.10 > > I moving some large files from a Windows XP machine to the large amount > of diskspace that is available ont he Linux machine. > > Files that are larger than 4GB fail to copy. Once the progress reaches > 4GB windows prompts you if you wish to overright the exisiting file. > > I am already planning on installing a newer release on the linux box, > probably Fedora Code 3 (or 4, as It will probably be out by the time I > get around to it). > > I would like to know if any of you have successfully copied files larger > than 4GB from a Windows machine to a recent build on samba. I'm not > sure if it's Samba, Windows XP or the SMB protocol that is limited at > 4GB. I realy don't care either, but I would like to know if this will > work, it might motivate me to upgrade a little faster ;-) > > Anyone with FC3 able to confirm that this has worked. > Possible some sort of file size limit.. not sure. Is it possible to setup a ftp server and copy them off? Mike

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RE: [wlug] Mailing list etiquette (was Re: Sudo)
by David Hallett 05 Apr '05

05 Apr '05

At 15:27 5/04/2005, you wrote: >I will be removing my self from this mailing list today. >The amount of junk has now exceeded the amount of value. > >Regards, Gund Hi Gund, I don't appreciate receiving this kind of junk from mailing lists. Please stop sending it to this list. Thanks, David

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Mailing list etiquette (was Re: Sudo)
by Daniel Lawson 05 Apr '05

05 Apr '05

> > >I'm happy to alter my mailer to observe the netiquette you speak of. I'm >afraid I wasn't aware of it. What is the reason behind it, may I ask? > > What is the reason behind not posting an HTML only email to a mailing list? It's often extended to "Don't post in HTML at all", for a variety of reasons, some of which might be weighted more highly in this case due to the nature of this particular list. When you post in HTML or RTF, or to spell it out clearly, in anything that isn't plain ASCII or ISO-8859, you make it significantly harder for people whose mailers don't understand the format you use to read your email. While you can feel free to inconvenience your friends as much as you like, you should not assume that everyone on a mailinglist will have the ability to read whatever non-basic format you post in. Now, you might argue that "all modern email clients support HTML, so why can't I use it?". Quite simply, not everyone runs an email client that supports HTML. Or they've disabled it. I'd also suggest that on a LUG mailing list especially, the proportion of users with email clients that will not parse HTML is considerably higher than on your typical mailing list. If someone does have a client that doesn't have HTML read support, or if they have disabled it, they end up having to read the raw HTML to read your post. Yes, I can parse HTML. No, I don't want to unless I'm developing a webpage. I'll skip an HTML only email sooner than read it, especially with the cluttered HTML most email clients generate. This is mitigated somewhat by sending HTML and plain blocks, but you don't really gain much from HTML emails. Also, many people read mailing lists in digest form. HTML (and other formats) tend to break in digest mode. Basically, when posting to a mailing list, you're taking part in a community of peers. By sending HTML only emails, you're doing something equivalent to interrupting people's conversations in loud Swahili. I have to say here that I use thunderbird, which seems to like sending in HTML and plain by default, and will reply to HTML in HTML and plain by default. This isn't my preferred choice! > > >> Daniel Lawson wrote: >> > > >>>> As humourous as this thread is, HTML mails generally are discouraged >>>> to mailing lists, as a form of netiquette. If you send both HTML and >>>> plain text, then at least a sensible reader will only show plain text >>>> in appropriate circumstances, however it's still not preferred. If you >>>> can't make your mailer send both html and plaintext, then I'd go with >>>> the grandparent's advice of "Fix your mailer" >> >>

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Re: [wlug] Mailing list etiquette (was Re: Sudo)
by Michael Honeyfield 05 Apr '05

05 Apr '05

> > I have to say here that I use thunderbird, which seems to like sending > > in HTML and plain by default, and will reply to HTML in HTML and plain > > by default. This isn't my preferred choice! > > > Ditto. I've even set the plain text option hard in my prefs file, it > just refuses. :( > Any Thunderbird gurus out there that know how to fix this? I've > followed the instructions at: > > http://kb.mozillazine.org/Thunderbird_:_FAQs_:_Using_Plain_Text > Not only is there the plain vs html text emails, there is also the way in which you post. NZOSS tries to use a post at the bottom of each email, making the thread logical to read, snipping where needed if the thread becomes too long. This is probmatic for those that use Outlook, for example, since outlook will post to the top of the email.. I have a link to mailing list etiquette, but cant find it atm. Mike

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Re: wlug Digest, Vol 166, Issue 8
by d_king＠xtra.co.nz 05 Apr '05

05 Apr '05

On 5 Apr 2005 at 11:59, wlug-request(a)list.waikato.ac.nz wrote: > Message: 3 > Date: Tue, 05 Apr 2005 11:41:56 +1200 > From: Bnonn <bnonn(a)orcon.net.nz> > > I'm not meaning to stir or be a pest; I just don't understand why any > mail client in use today would not support HTML; or why people would > turn it off? Surely, unless you're using OE, security isn't a problem. Ummm, you're missing several other security issues. An example would be the exploit that is available via GIF images. My modern eMail reader (copyright 2004) doesn't display images that aren't included in the eMail as an attachment. This is a security feature. But, my eMail program is free, and is written by a NZ'er > People seem to manage browsing the web without issues, and that's a far > less controlled and predictable environment than email. That all depends on which web browser you use......but that's a seperate flame war. --- David G King : d_king(a)xtra.co.nz zl1dgk(a)nzart.org.nz ZL1DGK http://dking.gen.nz http://freet.blogspot.com

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Gov.uk backs open source drive
by Jodi Thomson 04 Apr '05

04 Apr '05

The Government has funded a ground-breaking new venture to accelerate the use of open source software (OSS) throughout local government. Known as the Open Source Academy, the project represents one of the most significant developments yet in moves to drive up OSS adoption in government. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/04/04/uk_government_backs_open_source_ drive/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------- Jodi W. Anderson, Mr (BA, A+, MCP) - Computer Systems Consultant Waikato University Library - Computing Operations Group Ph: +64 7 838 4323 email: jodi(a)waikato.ac.nz "Right now I'm having amnesia and deja vu at the same time. I think I've forgotten this before."

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Re: [wlug] fw: GIMP article
by Joseph Gibbs 04 Apr '05

04 Apr '05

As an aside, Photoshop users may find this useful: http://codemills.com/blog/?p=4 [Making GIMP menus more like Photoshop menus] Joseph. -----Original Message----- From: "Craig Box" <craig(a)dubculture.co.nz> To: "'Waikato Linux Users Group'" <wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz> Date: Mon, 4 Apr 2005 11:22:40 +1200 Subject: [wlug] fw: GIMP article Was emailled this this morning - as I only made one edit, and am not actually the author, I thought I'd share it with the mailing list. (Another success story!) - Dear Craig, I really loved your November 2004 (update date) Gimp vs Photoshop article which I came across while googling "gimp export pdf." I didn't put two and two together (that postscript files are most easily converted to pdf) until I read your article and was staying away from The Gimp for that reason (would not export to pdf). No matter how obvious it is now, it did not occur to me until your article. So I am going to give The Gimp a try. Thanks! John White _______________________________________________ wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz Unsubscribe: http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug

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Re: [wlug] Curious about OSS
by Michael Honeyfield 04 Apr '05

04 Apr '05

I lead in Yoper's (www.yoper.com) development. Tho my efforts are not focused on a singular application, it is spread out across many. Does that count? Mike > Hi all, > > Just curious. Among all the emails about _using_ OSS, how many > people here _produce_ OSS? > > I'll hold my hand up -- bibliography management systems etc. at > www.sourceforge.net/projects/wikindx > and > www.sourceforge.net/projects/bibliophile > > Mark. > > _______________________________________________ > wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > Unsubscribe: http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug >

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Re: [wlug] Parliamentary Questions
by Michael Honeyfield 04 Apr '05

04 Apr '05

> While the remarks are in jest (yours and mine), it bugs me that people > seem to consider Rodney Hide to be an incompatible fit in terms of > putting our views to parliament? Why is that? Perhaps we should start > a politics thread, but it could get messy... > > Anyway, in summary - he's a liberal, so he cares about personal freedom, > and he is passionate about Open Source. How can that require loose > coupling? :) I don't think it matters which member of parliament, as long as they are willing to take our (Linux/OS community) concerns/issues etc to parliament on behalf of us. Act is not my choice when it comes to voting time, but if Act will help create parliamentry awareness, then sweet. Likewise with Greens... the more the merrier. Just my thoughts on that. Mike

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Questions in Parliament
by wayne.luxton 04 Apr '05

04 Apr '05

Hi folk In relation to questions in Parliament Nandor Tanczos Green Party Technology spokesperson would also be a good person for the job and when I looked on the Green Party website I see he already has a track record in support of open source, including questions. See www.greens.org.nz/searchdocs/other6984.html www.greens.org.nz/searchdocs/PR8077.html www.greens.org.nz/searchdocs/PR7725.html www.greens.org.nz/searchdocs/PR7657.html www.greens.org.nz/searchdocs/PR7285.html He is in Hamilton a lot ( he may even live there now) His contact is nandor.tanczos(a)parliament.govt.nz phone 04 4706716 in Wellington or hamilton.office(a)greens.org.nz phone 8340299 Wayne

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fw: GIMP article
by Craig Box 03 Apr '05

03 Apr '05

Was emailled this this morning - as I only made one edit, and am not actually the author, I thought I'd share it with the mailing list. (Another success story!) - Dear Craig, I really loved your November 2004 (update date) Gimp vs Photoshop article which I came across while googling "gimp export pdf." I didn't put two and two together (that postscript files are most easily converted to pdf) until I read your article and was staying away from The Gimp for that reason (would not export to pdf). No matter how obvious it is now, it did not occur to me until your article. So I am going to give The Gimp a try. Thanks! John White

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Re: [wlug] Real world requirements
by Michael Honeyfield 03 Apr '05

03 Apr '05

> >>User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0 (Windows/20041206) > >> > >>I'm guess this has something to do with a draconian employer? > >> > >>James. > > > >No, it has to do with the real world requirements of my job. > > > >G. > > Such as? I'm actually interested by this. > > The last three years of my working career I've used primarily Linux. For > a while (at my previous job) I had to KVM to a windows box periodically > to use OutLook and some legacy customer management software. Now it's > only Linux. > Here at EDS Windows XP, Internet Explorer and Outlook are real world requirements.... Not everyone's work place has the luxary of using OSS for their tools and platforms. Mike

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Re: [wlug] Parliamentary Questions
by Michael Honeyfield 03 Apr '05

03 Apr '05

> Michael Honeyfield wrote: > > >Will wlug be working with NZOSS on submitting these or will wlug do it independent of them? > > > >Mike > > > > > > > > We'd like it to get done. Preferably yesterday. Hence we're taking the > initiative and doing it ourselves. Rodney Hide has kindly offered a > channel, and we'd like to take it. > > G. OK, I will take a look through the course of the day for you. Cheers Mike

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Re: [wlug] Parliamentary Questions
by Michael Honeyfield 03 Apr '05

03 Apr '05

> Hi all, > > After Rodney Hide spoke to us last year, he suggested that our most > effective tool for advocacy would be to formulate a list of > parliamentary questions. A good explanation of the usefulness of these > can be found here: > > http://www.act.org.nz/question.jsp > > Mr. Hide has offered to put our questions forward, but at the moment > they are a tad incoherent. Could we have some keen volunteers to edit > http://www.wlug.org.nz/ParliamentaryQuestions? > > Be brutal. Don't worry about retaining comments - they are retained in > the wiki's revision history. I'd really like to submit these in "ready > to ask" form to Mr. Hide by the end of this month. > > Please note: The WLUG has no political affiliation with ACT or any > other political party, but we know a useful tool when we see one. :) > Please don't submit these questions yourself, as we would like them to > all be submitted together from a single point of contact to maximise > their efficiency. > > Thanks, > > Greig McGill > El Presidente. Will wlug be working with NZOSS on submitting these or will wlug do it independent of them? Mike

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PalmyLUG
by John Eyres 03 Apr '05

03 Apr '05

Yes, we've started a Palmerston North LUG -1st meet 24th March went well with 15 people attending, site under construction viewble at lug.spinningplanet.co.nz mailing list on the way considering sending delegation of gentoo cult members to next wlug

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WLUG Meeting is tonight
by Meeting Reminder bot 27 Mar '05

27 Mar '05

The WLUG meeting is this evening ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Location: http://www.wlug.org.nz/LitB, Waikato University Time: 7pm (note! earlier time) PerryLorier on http://www.wlug.org.nz/IPv6, why it's needed, what it solves, how it differs from http://www.wlug.org.nz/IPv4, and why http://www.wlug.org.nz/WLUG should be supporting its use. ---- See also OldMeetingTopics.

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WLUG Meeting is on Monday
by Meeting Reminder bot 24 Mar '05

24 Mar '05

The WLUG meeting is on Monday ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Location: http://www.wlug.org.nz/LitB, Waikato University Time: 7pm (note! earlier time) PerryLorier on http://www.wlug.org.nz/IPv6, why it's needed, what it solves, how it differs from http://www.wlug.org.nz/IPv4, and why http://www.wlug.org.nz/WLUG should be supporting its use. ---- See also OldMeetingTopics.

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Committee meeting minutes
by Craig Box 23 Mar '05

23 Mar '05

http://www.wlug.org.nz/CommitteeMeetingTopics.2005-03-23 Craig

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Patents
by Gavin Denby 23 Mar '05

23 Mar '05

The public comment period for proposed amendments to the Patents Act expired on March 11, “so a meeting is now the best way we have of communicating with the politicians and telling them what the issues are,” says NZOSS president Peter Harrison. Full story at: http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/NL/9A6B2014750A3A95CC256FCA002B46C1 If the LUG or any person wishes to make a submission time is running out. Do our political contacts have any guidelines we can post for submissions on patents, esp with regard the NZ free trade agreements.

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Funding application
by Craig Box 21 Mar '05

21 Mar '05

>From time to time, the WLUG will apply for funding from community organisations such as Trust Waikato and the Sky City Trust. Funding applications need to be for a specific project, normally for the purchase of physical items, with a prepared budget, and not just for general expenses. If any members on the list have any suggestions of things that they would like to see the LUG apply for funding for, please contact me off list by 5pm tomorrow. Thanks, Craig

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WLUG Meeting is one week away
by Meeting Reminder bot 20 Mar '05

20 Mar '05

The Waikato Linux Users Group have a meeting in one week today. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Location: http://www.wlug.org.nz/LitB, Waikato University Time: 7pm (note! earlier time) PerryLorier on http://www.wlug.org.nz/IPv6, why it's needed, what it solves, how it differs from http://www.wlug.org.nz/IPv4, and why http://www.wlug.org.nz/WLUG should be supporting its use. ---- See also OldMeetingTopics.

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Mozilla Foundation.
by Oliver Jones 18 Mar '05

18 Mar '05

Hi Folks. I decided to donate some bucks to the Mozilla Foundation and in the process bought a Firefox/Thunderbird Guide & CD and a Firefox poster. I don't need them so I thought I'd donate them to the WLUG. Perhaps the poster can be displayed somewhere prominently at Waikato Uni in an effort to encourage Firefox adoption. Where do I send them? Regards -- Oliver Jones » Roving Code Warrior oliver(a)deeperdesign.com » +64 (21) 41 2238 » www.deeperdesign.com

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UPS's for sale, work with Linux, BSD, etc.
by Oliver Jones 16 Mar '05

16 Mar '05

Hi Folks. As we are Linux types we tend to leave out PC's and servers on all the time. As such it is good to have UPS power protection. Historically I've always used SOLA (now Powerware) gear. I have a few used SOLA UPS's for sale. I have an older SOLA 320/700VA device for sale for $80. A newer SOLA 325/750VA for $250 and a SOLA 520/1800VA Rackmount for $970. The 520/1800VA device is only about 14 months old and in excellent condition. I also have a SOLA 325/1000VA device but I think its battery has died. I need to run some tests. The outcome of those tests will dictate price. Batteries can be easily sourced from the NZ distributor in Auckland. These are all good quality devices with online buck and boost to keep the power running smoothly into protected equipment. The 700VA & 750VA devices will keep a workstation/server running for about 30 to 45 minutes on battery depending on the equipments current draw. The Rackmount unit will keep a few power hungry servers running for about the same time. Less power hungry devices will probably last about 1.5 hours on it. All of the UPS devices can be monitored via their included serial cables and they come with monitoring software for a variety of OSs including Linux and BSD. Though the included Unix software isn't as good as NUT (www.networkupstools.org) I actually managed to get SOLA to provide protocol documentation of the UPSs to the NUT project which was nice. The 520 also has an SNMP expansion card bay. No need to replace power cords either like you do with some APC gear. All the UPS's have four standard AU/NZ power plugs on the back. If anyone needs a good Linux/BSD compatible UPS let me know. Note that all prices include GST but exclude shipping. Regards -- Oliver Jones » Roving Code Warrior oliver(a)deeperdesign.com » +64 (21) 41 2238 » www.deeperdesign.com

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Upcoming WLUG committee meeting (1 week today)
by Meeting Reminder bot 15 Mar '05

15 Mar '05

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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- WLUG Committee Meeting To have something added to the agenda for this meeting, please email secretary @ wlug.org.nz. Provisional agenda: # Minutes from previous meeting # Matters arising # Correspondence # Treasurers report # Reply To Munging on the mailing list # General business

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Erics Ultimate Solitare
by Oliver Jones 10 Mar '05

10 Mar '05

I have a copy of Eric's Ultimate Solitaire to give away. Lucky person gets to pay the postage... ;) Regards -- Oliver Jones » Roving Code Warrior oliver(a)deeperdesign.com » +64 (21) 41 2238 » www.deeperdesign.com

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WLUG server down because of tunnel fire?
by Ian McDonald 09 Mar '05

09 Mar '05

I am guessing that this is the reason it is not up still? Can anybody confirm.

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Effective advocacy.
by Greig McGill 08 Mar '05

08 Mar '05

Hi WLUGers. I realise, as displayed at the last LUG meeting, that most of you read slashdot. :) Even so, I'd like to ensure that all of you have read the O'Reilly article on effective advocacy. Advocacy is something that is very important to me, and our WLUG Charter also lists it as one of the core goals of our group. http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2005/03/03/advocacy.html I think we have been doing well lately to be taken reasonably seriously as a LUG, and I'd like to continue this trend. One thing which I perceive to be damaging to our credibility is people at meetings asking "questions" which are little more than excuses to rant about how Microsoft ate their baby/killed their cat/defiled their church/whatever. I don't like Microsoft. I've never liked them, even before they adopted their extremely aggressive and monopolistic business practices. That said, calling them evil, and frothing at the mouth to people who can't do anything about it, does absolutely nothing to help the situation. It only serves to weaken the perception of the WLUG as a credible entity. Jokes are fine. I like jokes. Just remember that nobody likes to listen to a zealot (think of the mad bible bashers in Garden Place...), and "being that guy" will never get you taken seriously. This is as close to official as I like to get, so please take it on board. Your funloving, but slightly frustrated President, Greig McGill.

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