Linux-Misc Digest #727, Volume #18 Fri, 22 Jan 99 19:13:14 EST
Contents:
Re: Netscape Communicator 4.5 (128bit) problem (Patrick O'Neil)
Re: A newbie versus "vi" (David T. Blake)
Re: Notebook buy without Windooze? ("Jeremy L. Buchmann")
Seeking your opinions and experiences (Lisa June Triplett)
"Look and feel" question... (Mark Stolz)
Re: No floppy in Linux ? (JiPUSTRADAMUS)
Re: Consumer Poll Says Microsoft Is Good For Consumers (Tony Houghton)
Re: Linux keyboard? (For emacs use) (Erik Naggum)
Re: Linux keyboard? (For emacs use) (Erik Naggum)
Re: Repartitioning (Rod Smith)
Re: 2038 and Linux (Niel Markwick)
Re: Any program conver text file to g3 format file ? (Dirk Ruediger)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Patrick O'Neil <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Netscape Communicator 4.5 (128bit) problem
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1999 14:35:04 -0700
On 21 Jan 1999 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Patrick O'Neil <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
[...]
> > Freshmeat is setup as my homepage. Ever since the change in format of the
> > page, I have found that Netscape 4.5 will crash ("Bus error" in an xterm
[...]
> I don't know why this happens, but I can confirm that bug with my
> Netscape 4.5 non-128.
Don't know how long it will last but I followed a suggestion from the
redhat mailing list I'm on and in my home directory did a "mv .netscape
.netscape-save" and then restarted netscape. It created a new .netscape
directory and I setup the preferences as I wanted...and as soon as I hit
the "Ok" button it crashed with a bus error (I had started netscape from
an xterm). I tried again and the second time I was able to hit "Ok" and
use netscape. I loaded freshmeat.net and...it didn't crash. I have since
moved my bookmarks.html from .netscape-save to the new .netscape.
It may only be OK for a short period - every time my homepage loads I
anticipate a crash - but so far so good.
patrick
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (David T. Blake)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.setup
Subject: Re: A newbie versus "vi"
Date: 21 Jan 1999 07:43:09 -0800
>> So, reiterating: can I get a GUI editor by invoking some other
>>command, or the right vi -switches or is it something I have to download
>>off the web?
Try nedit
It is friendly towards windows/mac GUI editor users.
Its key bindings drive me up the wall though. Ctrl-S
should be used to lock a term, not to save a file.
But a windows user will feel right at home.
--
Dave Blake
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------------
From: "Jeremy L. Buchmann" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.advocacy
Subject: Re: Notebook buy without Windooze?
Date: 22 Jan 1999 23:26:43 GMT
In comp.os.linux.misc Matthias Kattanek <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
: I am on the market for a new notebook. Since I am already running Linux
: for 4-5 years
: sucessfully on notebooks, sure I plan to use it on the new one too.
: Looking around, trying to get a good deal, I only seem to find notebooks
: with
: Windooze pre-installed. This is how most of the shops stock computers
: today.
: I called several vendors today and it is always the same story.
See the thread referencing an Australian's experience with trying to get a
refund from Toshiba for not using Windows. Here's the URL:
http://www.netcraft.com.au/geoffrey/toshiba.html
===================================================================
Jeremy Buchmann "Those who trade freedom for safety deserve
[EMAIL PROTECTED] neither freedom nor safety." -- Ben Franklin
===================================================================
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Lisa June Triplett)
Subject: Seeking your opinions and experiences
Date: 20 Jan 1999 22:21:48 GMT
Hi,
I'm a sociology and anthropology major at Swarthmore College. I'm also
minoring in computer science and have worked as a sysadmin and system
programmer. I'm writing my soc & anth senior thesis about the culture of
United States computer professionals. With this post, I'm trying to reach
computer professionals, specifically programmers and sysadmins (including
consultants), of all ages and levels of experience. If you fit this
description, and have the time and interest, I'd really appreciate your help.
I've been reading what both academic researchers and the popular media have
to say about computer professionals, and now I'd like to get some perspective
on whether what I've been reading and what I've observed fits other peoples'
real experiences. You can help me by answering as many of the questions on
the following questionnaire as possible, in as much detail as you would like.
Illustrative anecdotes are welcome. Send all responses to
[EMAIL PROTECTED] I won't use the real names of anyone who
answers this questionnaire in my paper. Thank you very much for your time
and consideration.
Sincerely,
Lisa Triplett
I. Demographics
1. In what state and city do you work?
2. Approximately how many employees of your company work at your job site?
3. How old are you?
II. Your Personal Story
1. How long have you been involved with computers? What were your first
experiences with programming or system administration?
2. Do you consider yourself fundamentally a "computer person"? How about a
"geek"? Why or why not? What do those terms mean?
3. What drew you to the type of job you have now? (or Why did you decide to
stick with computers and make it a career?) Why are you still doing it now?
Is it the same reason? What do you get out of it?
4. How does being a computer person (or just a computer professional) affect
the rest of your life? Are most of your friends computer people? If so, do
you think it's because of something fundamental you have in common or are they
just the people who are around?
5. What do you do in your free time? Do the things you do in your free time
have anything in common with working with computers? One of the things I've
noticed is that it seems like computer people (myself often included) go
about any pastime with the intention of becoming an expert-- learning all of
the terminology, reading everything that's ever been written about it,
striving to be excellent or impressive even when it's "just" the thing they
do for fun or entertainment. What do you think of this idea? Do you fit
into this? Do people you know?
II. Thoughts on the computer community and work environment
1. How is the computer industry different from other industries? Are
workplaces organized differently? Are the people different? Would you say
there is anything special about computers themselves that attracts a certain
type of person or demands a certain type of workplace organization?
2. Is the world of computer experts a secret society? Did it used to be if i
t isn't now? Is it a community at all? What does it take to be a "member"?
What binds people together? How do you earn social status in the computer
world? Is it an "old boy" network? How do women and minorities fit into the
computer community?
3. Obviously there's a stereotype of computer people as not being bound to
the same social rules as others. Have you found that places you've worked
have been more tolerant of individual quirkiness than you'd expect other
professions to be? Any stories about that?
4. I read somewhere that "managing programmers is like herding cats,"
(*Close to the Machine*, by Ellen Ullman). From that statement, you get the
idea that programmers are these fiercely independent people, brilliant but
don't play well with others, that sort of thing. How true do you think that
is? Do you think the computer industry is organized differently from other
industries because of this?
5. The computer industry seems to be undergoing a lot of changes lately,
partly because of overwhelming growth in number of companies and jobs. What
do you think are some of the major trends of change in the computer industry,
and what is your opinion of them? Are there changes in the type of people
becoming computer professionals? Changes in workplace organization?
6. What about the trend towards higher and higher level programming languages
and visual programming languages? Is the industry getting less arcane? Is
this affecting the computer community?
7. If you've worked more than one place, do you find regional differences
in the computer culture? What about differences based on size of workplace?
Any thoughts on the effects of computer firms having campuses?
8. Is there a personality difference between the people who are drawn to
programming and the people who are drawn to system administration? Between
people who do different types of programming? Do you think there's an area
of the computer industry where the "real geeks are? Where is that and why?
IV. Suggestions for me
Can you think of any books or articles I should read? Any web sites I should
visit or newsgroups/mailing lists I should check out?
Thank you so much for your help!
------------------------------
From: Mark Stolz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: "Look and feel" question...
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1999 12:13:58 +0000
Hi All--
I'm going to use Tcl/Tk to build a front end for some compiler tools
and had a question/observation about the look and feel.
It seems that a lot of the new software being developed for/ported to
Linux is adopting the Windows95 look and feel. While there are certain
elements of this that I like, for the most part I have a problem with
it. I don't want to feel that I need to be locked in to the Windows
interface paradigm in order for my code to be accepted/used by the
general public. It seems pretty limiting, not to mention ironic given
the Linux/MS relationship.
So the questions...
Are there any general GUI standards, from an application point of view,
that the general Linux community prefers?
I'm not really interested in Desktop A vs. Desktop B discussions as much
as trying to figure out how to make an application usable/acceptable
across the board. Any views/ideas about this?
--Mark
------------------------------
From: JiPUSTRADAMUS <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: No floppy in Linux ?
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1999 13:24:40 +0200
On Thu, 21 Jan 1999 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> What will I have to tell the system in order to access a floppy drive ?
mount (for dos-disks)-t msdos /dev/fd0 /mounting/point.
JP
------------------------------
From: Tony Houghton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To:
alt.destroy.microsoft,comp.os.linux.advocacy,comp.os.os2.advocacy,gnu.misc.discuss,uk.comp.os.linux
Subject: Re: Consumer Poll Says Microsoft Is Good For Consumers
Date: 21 Jan 1999 23:06:35 +0000
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Mayor Of R'lyeh) writes:
> I
> don't claim to know every software company's name; but I can't think
> of a British software company that's in the big leagues at least
> public reputationwise,
Unless you include games.
--
TH * http://homepages.tcp.co.uk/~tonyh/
Supporting CUT: http://www.unmetered.org.uk/
------------------------------
From: Erik Naggum <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To:
comp.os.linux.hardware,comp.unix.questions,comp.unix.misc,comp.emacs,comp.editors
Subject: Re: Linux keyboard? (For emacs use)
Date: 21 Jan 1999 16:58:13 +0000
* [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Gabor)
| Ah, your intelligence is mind boggling. You must resort to sentences
| like the above to get your point across.
no, I was measuring yours. you failed the test...
| You need to be sent SIGTERM!
... and this proves it beyond any reasonable doubt. I love being right.
#:Erik
--
SIGTHTBABW: a signal sent from Unix to its programmers at random
intervals to make them remember that There Has To Be A Better Way.
------------------------------
From: Erik Naggum <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To:
comp.os.linux.hardware,comp.unix.questions,comp.unix.misc,comp.emacs,comp.editors
Subject: Re: Linux keyboard? (For emacs use)
Date: 21 Jan 1999 17:00:45 +0000
* [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Gabor)
| You did precisely that when you asserted, erroneously, that I am a
| right wing religious fanatic.
I did in fact not assert you were. comparing your behavior to their so
you would feel ashamed of looking like one, yes, but I was not asserting
you were. your intelligence is showing, again.
| You, sir, contradict yourself. You aren't even worth bothering with.
| Have fun in your self-righteous fantasy world.
I have. trust me. it's so fascinating to watch you people. :)
#:Erik
--
SIGTHTBABW: a signal sent from Unix to its programmers at random
intervals to make them remember that There Has To Be A Better Way.
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Rod Smith)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.setup
Subject: Re: Repartitioning
Date: 22 Jan 1999 23:32:18 GMT
[Posted and mailed]
In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Lyle Ainsworth) writes:
>
> Can I use partition magic to resize the partitions?
Version 4.0, yes. Version 3.0x or earlier, no. I wrote the review of PM
in the January issue of Linux Journal, and I had some problems with the
program reporting errors on my system. What didn't get into the printed
review was the fact that I traced the problems to my SCSI system. For
some still-unknown reason, PM objected to having a SCSI disk as the first
disk. It may have been "allergic" to SCSI generally, to my specific SCSI
host adapter (I tried two models), or to the peculiar CHS geometry on my
disks. When I added an old 540MB IDE drive, the problems evaporated.
> If I do it that way
> and make the partition where Linux resides larger, will the boot process
> be able to find where the new partition starts?
You'll probably need to re-install LILO. I recommend creating a DOS boot
floppy in advance and putting on it a copy of LOADLIN and of your current
kernel. When you're done resizing, use this floppy to start Linux via
LOADLIN, then re-run LILO when you've booted. Thereafter it should be
fine.
> Or do I have to use fips or some other program?
FIPS doesn't handle Linux ext2 partitions, so it's pretty useless for your
needs, I'm afraid.
--
Rod Smith
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.users.fast.net/~rodsmith
NOTE: Remove the digit and following word from my address to mail me
------------------------------
From: Niel Markwick <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.advocacy
Subject: Re: 2038 and Linux
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1999 16:20:09 +0100
mlw wrote:
>
> Bloody Viking wrote:
> >
> > In comp.os.linux.advocacy mlw <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > >
> > > [we'll all be fine because 2038 is so far away]
> >
> > [...] This is how we got into this whole Y2K mess in
> > the first place.
>
> These are two different problems. The Y2K problem is about the way dates
> are stored in persistent files.
And at user interfaces:
'Please enter date of transaction (YYMMDD):
And in calculations:
int CompareDateStrings(char *d1, char *d2) /* d1,d2=DD/MM/YY */
And in output formats:
printf("%02d/%02d/%02d",day,mon,year)
- and these are the only few examples off the top of my head...
> The 2038 bug is the way dates are
> represented inside the OS.
And at the OS->App interface
And inside the app if the app writer chooses to use this helpful ANSI
standard time/date format...
And inside the app's data file if the app writer chooses to use this
helpful ANSI standard time/date format...
> As long as all applications store dates as MM/DD/YYYY the applications
> will be fine.
see above...
> It is only routines like:
>
> [snipped sample function doing something once an hour based on time_t/sleep]
>
> The above routine will fail once in 2038 (on a 32 bit platform). Other
> than that,
Ok, how about (bad example alert!) a function that calculates the future
value of a long term investment (say, a pension). The original code used
the Unix time functions to parse an input time, and calculate the number
of days between now and the retirement date - because they were already
there, and he had a deadline, and it saved him coding a complicated date
library. And anyway, this program was written 15 years ago, it will be
recoded in a few years time... except that it wasn't.
If I am going to retire on my 65'th birthday, and I was born after end
April 1973, this program will fail to calculate the future value of my
pension _NOW_
You can say that the programmer was stupid... but so were the
programmers who introduced the Y2000 bug...
Better example... The calendar application supplied with CDE (OSF's
desktop manager) cannot display dates after 31/12/2037... Why? it is not
part of the OS kernal... it doesn't _need_ to use time_t, but it does.
Pity, I would have liked to set an alarm on my 65th birthday!
> I can not see any real problem with the 2038 bug, because no
> one will be using 32 bit computers in 40 years.
So what! Just because you have a 64 bit chip doesn't mean that all your
software will automagically update itself to use all those loverly 64
bits!
The DEC Alpha is a 64 bit computer that exists now. DEC Unix is a 64 bit
OS that
uses a 32 bit time_t. It _may_ use a 64 bit time quantity internally...
but, the output of date(1) still rolls over at Y2038.
I guess DEC thought that making time_t 64 bit would cause so many
incompatabilies with data files, communications struct's, cross-platform
file formats, assumptions in existing code, etc etc etc - basically
ANYTHING that used time_t that might be transmitted by any means to a
machine that uses a 32 bit time_t - that they decided (wisely I belive)
to leave it as it is until a standard is agreed upon.
Thats the thing... time_t is an ANSI standard. Somewhere there are
comittees of people talking about these standards, thinking about the
pro's and con's of each solution. Rumour has it that C9x will have a 64
bit int. I would not be surprised if it also defined a 'longer' time
type (bigtime_t?!) that would outlast the universe!
I doubt very much if the definition of time_t will be changed... the
'but it would only need a recompile' answer has too many side-effects
from people assuming time_t is 32 bits everywhere their data is used...
Like for instance the file system becomming unreadable because file
times were stored in the directory as time_t values... old kernal reads
32 bits, new reads 64... whoops, corrupt disk!
As with Y2000, and 29/2/2000 problems, these issues require real
thought, not just a cursor glance and a quick suugestion for a solution.
Niel.
--
Niel Markwick
Unix application programmer...
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Dirk Ruediger)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.networking,de.alt.comm.mgetty
Subject: Re: Any program conver text file to g3 format file ?
Date: 22 Jan 1999 18:43:49 GMT
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
On 22 Jan 1999 13:39:30 GMT, Wilson Lam <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>Hi,
>I have tried pbmtext comes with mgetty. It seems it not working
>correctly. Is there any other program can do the job correctly ?
>Any help is appreciated !
>
>Wilson
>
Hi,
I assume, you want to convert the text into faxg3 format. So convert it to
postscript and then w/ ghostscript to output format "faxg3".
Alternatively, you can convert the file into dvi dvi-format (output of latex)
and let dvi2fax (included in tetex-pkg) the conversion to faxg3.
Good luck!
Ciao for now, Dirk
--
Dirk Ruediger, Magdeburg, Germany
"I used to be interested in Windows NT, but the more I see of it the more it
looks like traditional Windows with a stabler kernel. I don't find anything
technically interesting there. In my opinion, MS is a lot better at making
money than it is at making good operating systems." -- Linus Torvalds
------------------------------
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End of Linux-Misc Digest
******************************
