Re: [Hampshire] Equipment Giveaway!

[Tim Brocklehurst via Hampshire]

Hi Rob,

Yes, they are all on rails installed in the rack at the moment.
The rack is a Dell 24U, approximate dimensions are: 1.2m high, 1m deep,
0.6m wide.

Cheers,

Tim B.

On Wed, 2021-03-03 at 10:31 +, rmluglist2--- via Hampshire wrote:
> Hi Tim
> 
> [snip]
> 
> Do any of these come with rails?   If so, I'm potentially interested:
> identically specced machines make ideal nodes for my cluster.   Why
> rails?   Because none of my current setup has them which causes
> problems of its own.   I might even take the rack off your hands
> (what size is it?)
> 
> Trouble is: I'm north of Manchester so I'd imagine it would have to
> wait until someone's visiting these parts - which might be quite a
> while.   Let me know if this is of any interest and I might look into
> hiring a firm to take the lot off your hands.
> 
> Cheers
> Rob
> 
> 
> --
> Please post to: Hampshire@mailman.lug.org.uk Web Interface: 
> https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/hampshire
> LUG URL: http://www.hantslug.org.uk
> --
> 
> 


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[Hampshire] Equipment Giveaway!

[Tim Brocklehurst via Hampshire]

Hi guys,

I have a load of kit which I want to get rid of. If you want to throw a
few coppers my way for it, great. The equipment is below, most of it is
working (or thought to be working at the time of writing):

10x Dell Poweredge SC1425
   - 2005 Vintage
   - Twin Intel Xeon 3.0GHz
   - 6GiB DDR2 Ram

10x Dell Poweredge 1950
   - 2008 Vintage
   - 9x working
   - Twin quad core Xeon E5410 2.33GHz
   - 8GiB DDR2 Ram
   - 8x machines have SAS card and backplane

1x Dell 24U rack (top hinge missing)

Various parts for PE1950s (only if you take a machine!)

Spare Power supplies for PE1950s

If you're near Gosport (Southampton/Portsmouth area) I can deliver it
in a COVID secure manner (except the rack, that's collection only -
it'll fit in a large estate car (just)), or you can collect. If you're
further afield let me know and I'll put the kit aside until we can
travel more freely.

Please let me know before Sunday evening 7th March, otherwise it'll be
going to the tip.

Cheers,

Tim B.



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Re: [Hampshire] Server for mutual aid group

[Tim Brocklehurst via Hampshire]

Hi Bryn,
Previous replies attached.
Tim B.
On Sat, 2020-03-28 at 09:33 +, Bryn Jones via Hampshire wrote:
> Hi,
> I had a couple of responses to my question if someone had a spare
> server and was offered a couple of vps but in all honesty I deleted
> them by mistake (hey it was 2am and I'd been working since 9am gimme
> a break lol) if either of the 2 people who replied can get back to me
> again it would be so appreciated and I promise not to delete them (I
> archive everything but some bad clicking!)
> 
> Thx
> Bryn
> 
> -- 
> 
> This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by 
> 
> E.F.A. Project, and is believed to be clean.
> 
--- Begin Message ---
Hello Bryn.

On Tuesday, 24 March, 2020, you wrote
> I'm doing tech stuff for these guys (they do,
> shopping, meds pick ups etc right now) we
> desperately need a server, it does need to have
> some guts but anything is a start!

Do you need a physical server, or would a virtual
one do?

If the latter, try Bitfolk:
https://www.bitfolk.co.uk/
They offer Xen-based virtual servers, and are
highly recommended.

Nick.

-- 
Nick Chalk . once a Radio Designer
 Confidence is failing to understand the problem.


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- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---

What sort of spec are we after?

Can possibly give you access to a decent number of cores + memory on a 
virtual if needed?


Regards,

Chris

On 24/03/2020 11:55, Bryn Jones via Hampshire wrote:

Hi,

I'm doing tech stuff for these guys (they do, shopping, meds pick 
ups etc right now) we desperately need a server, it does need to have 
some guts but anything is a start!


If you can help it would be massively appreciated and help us deliver 
services.


Thanks
Bryn

--
This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by
*E.F.A. Project* , and is believed to be 
clean.





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- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
I have some older Dell's (2930 / R410 / R610's) I'm sure I could get
something of some use together for you.

Contact me off list if you want.

On Tue, 24 Mar 2020 at 11:56, Bryn Jones via Hampshire <
hampshire@mailman.lug.org.uk> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I'm doing tech stuff for these guys (they do, shopping, meds pick ups etc
> right now) we desperately need a server, it does need to have some guts but
> anything is a start!
>
> If you can help it would be massively appreciated and help us deliver
> services.
>
> Thanks
> Bryn
> --
> Please post to: Hampshire@mailman.lug.org.uk
> Web Interface: https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/hampshire
> LUG URL: http://www.hantslug.org.uk
> --

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Re: [Hampshire] Raspberry PI

[Tim Brocklehurst via Hampshire]

Another thought is to use a series of Esp8266 devices with rwlay and temp sensors (somebody must have done one), and then central control from a PC/Pi over wifi. Sent from my Huawei phone Original Message Subject: [Hampshire] Raspberry PIFrom: Adam John Trickett via Hampshire To: Hants LUG CC: Adam John Trickett Bonjour !I have finally found a use for a Raspberry Pi...! Since moving to France we have ended up with a house with stupid electrically heated oil filled radiators. They are not properly controlled and quite inefficient, at best you can control them on a thermostat but there is no clock...It seems obvious that all I need is a thermometer, a mains relay a Raspberry Pi and some some software to create a time controlled thermostat that I can SSH into...!So I think I needa boxa AC/DC transformer for the Pia mains relaya digital thermometeran override switchsomething to mount the relay and transformer onWiFi Pi or WiFi module for Pi depending on modelI think this is technically easy to do, but the biggest constraint seems to be that the overall box needs to be small and "wife friendly"...-- Adam TrickettSaint-Malo, Bretagne, FranceAny technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced	-- anon-- Please post to: Hampshire@mailman.lug.org.ukWeb Interface: https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/hampshireLUG URL: http://www.hantslug.org.uk 
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Re: [Hampshire] Raspberry PI

[Tim Brocklehurst via Hampshire]

I have  C++ lib for DHT22 if you need it. Sent from my Huawei phone Original Message Subject: Re: [Hampshire] Raspberry PIFrom: Paul Tansom via Hampshire To: hampshire@mailman.lug.org.ukCC: Paul Tansom ** Adam John Trickett via Hampshire  [2019-02-19 12:08]:> On Monday, 18 February 2019 20:04:20 CET Tim Brocklehurst via Hampshire wrote:> > Oh, for digital thermometers, look at the DS18B20 one-wire sensors. They're> > easy to read and come in various packages. > > That's the one I've seen on various Google searches so far, seems popular, and > simple to work with.** end quote [Adam John Trickett via Hampshire]I went for a DHT22 as I needed humidity as well... and still haven't gotround to using it yet!--  Paul Tansom  |  Aptanet Ltd.  |  https://www.aptanet.com/  |  023 9238 0001 Vice Chair, FSB Portsmouth & SE Hampshire Branch  |  http://www.fsb.org.uk/=Registered in England | Company No: 4905028 | Registered Office: Ralls House,Parklands Business Park, Forrest Road, Denmead, Waterlooville, Hants, PO7 6XP-- Please post to: Hampshire@mailman.lug.org.ukWeb Interface: https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/hampshireLUG URL: http://www.hantslug.org.uk 
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Re: [Hampshire] Raspberry PI

[Tim Brocklehurst via Hampshire]

Oh, for digital thermometers, look at the DS18B20 one-wire sensors. They're easy to read and come in various packages. Sent from my Huawei phone-- 
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Re: [Hampshire] Raspberry PI

[Tim Brocklehurst via Hampshire]

How about this for the relay side of things?https://czh-labs.com/-p0198.html?gclid=Cj0KCQiAzKnjBRDPARIsAKxfTRAEdBVGf803UV1Gs99uRIiE2-Eg6pPYEpWFvF0pXhEaUpcJrIh014QaAjIQEALw_wcBYou could also stack a touchscreen on it. Sounds like you're on the right track. Cheers,Tim B. Sent from my Huawei phone-- 
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Re: [Hampshire] Annual General Meeting - Future of the LUG

[Tim Brocklehurst via Hampshire]

Good evening everybody,

I'm pleased to announce that the AGM will be held in the Mucky Duck in
Winchester at 7:30pm on the 31st August.

I hope to see lots of you there. Don't forget to register!

Tim B.

> Hello everybody,
>
> Sparked by the imminent renewal of the HantsLUG domain name, the committee
> has recently been discussing the future of the group. If there was
> significant mailing list traffic we would just renew it without concern,
> however, as there has been very little traffic, the question of whether
> the LUG should continue has been raised. We are therefore calling a
> meeting to determine the future of the LUG. A copy of the constitution is
> available on the website, should you wish to view it.
>
> In order to register to vote at the meeting, please e-mail
> webmas...@hantslug.org.uk with subject "votereg" please include your name
> in the e-mail.
>
> Details of the date and location will follow in a second e-mail. I would
> urge everyone to attend if at all possible. Ultimately, it's your LUG and
> up to you to decide it's future.
>
> If this meeting is not quorate (at least eight voting members, or ten
> percent (10%) of the total voting membership, whichever is the greater)
> the committee will hold a further general meeting to decide what happens
> next.
>
> We have three options (this will form the agenda for the meeting):
>
> 1) A new committee is elected and the LUG continues as normal. Existing
> committee members can stand for re-election. I will not be standing. -
> Please submit nominations to chair...@hantslug.org.uk
>
> 2) The committee is disbanded and the constitution suitably updated to
> enable a sole LUG member to act as benefactor; to maintain the mailing
> list and optionally the website as they see fit with a suitable degree of
> consultation from the membership. In this case the current LUG funds will
> not be handed over to the benefactor.
>
> 3) The group is wound up. The mailing list and website will be taken
> off-line and the domain-name either retained for 12 months, or given to
> another LUG in Hampshire. No funds will be retained (see below).
>
> For either option 2 or 3, no funds will be retained. This does not prevent
> long-term purchase of domain name and services by the current committee,
> prior to the funds being distributed. For distribution, the following is
> suggested:
>
> a) Nominations for suitable open-source projects/LUGs/Makerspaces etc. are
> called for, over a period of a week. A list of all nominations will be
> posted by the chairman. Nominations must be linux-related, open-source or
> charitable, and not for personal gain; makerspaces are acceptable.
>
> b) The members vote for their preferred nomination (1 vote per member) by
> e-mail. Over the course of one week.
>
> c) The votes are counted and the remaining LUG funds are split between the
> top 5 nominations by percentage of votes. This will be announced on the
> mailing list.
>
>
> Best regards,
>
> Tim Brocklehurst
>
> --
> Hampshire Linux User Group Chairman
>
>
>
> --
> Please post to: Hampshire@mailman.lug.org.uk
> Web Interface: https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/hampshire
> LUG URL: http://www.hantslug.org.uk
> --


-- 
Hampshire Linux User Group Chairman



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[Hampshire] Annual General Meeting - Future of the LUG

[Tim Brocklehurst via Hampshire]

Hello everybody,

Sparked by the imminent renewal of the HantsLUG domain name, the committee
has recently been discussing the future of the group. If there was
significant mailing list traffic we would just renew it without concern,
however, as there has been very little traffic, the question of whether
the LUG should continue has been raised. We are therefore calling a
meeting to determine the future of the LUG. A copy of the constitution is
available on the website, should you wish to view it.

In order to register to vote at the meeting, please e-mail
webmas...@hantslug.org.uk with subject "votereg" please include your name
in the e-mail.

Details of the date and location will follow in a second e-mail. I would
urge everyone to attend if at all possible. Ultimately, it's your LUG and
up to you to decide it's future.

If this meeting is not quorate (at least eight voting members, or ten
percent (10%) of the total voting membership, whichever is the greater)
the committee will hold a further general meeting to decide what happens
next.

We have three options (this will form the agenda for the meeting):

1) A new committee is elected and the LUG continues as normal. Existing
committee members can stand for re-election. I will not be standing. -
Please submit nominations to chair...@hantslug.org.uk

2) The committee is disbanded and the constitution suitably updated to
enable a sole LUG member to act as benefactor; to maintain the mailing
list and optionally the website as they see fit with a suitable degree of
consultation from the membership. In this case the current LUG funds will
not be handed over to the benefactor.

3) The group is wound up. The mailing list and website will be taken
off-line and the domain-name either retained for 12 months, or given to
another LUG in Hampshire. No funds will be retained (see below).

For either option 2 or 3, no funds will be retained. This does not prevent
long-term purchase of domain name and services by the current committee,
prior to the funds being distributed. For distribution, the following is
suggested:

a) Nominations for suitable open-source projects/LUGs/Makerspaces etc. are
called for, over a period of a week. A list of all nominations will be
posted by the chairman. Nominations must be linux-related, open-source or
charitable, and not for personal gain; makerspaces are acceptable.

b) The members vote for their preferred nomination (1 vote per member) by
e-mail. Over the course of one week.

c) The votes are counted and the remaining LUG funds are split between the
top 5 nominations by percentage of votes. This will be announced on the
mailing list.


Best regards,

Tim Brocklehurst

-- 
Hampshire Linux User Group Chairman



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Re: [Hampshire] Damian Brasher

[Tim Brocklehurst]

On Friday 29 May 2015 14:42:50 Stephen Pelc wrote:
 Damian Brasher died on 12 May from cancer at the age of 43.
 Damian's attitude to his cancer was extraordinary and
 inspirational.
 
 His funeral will be at
   East Chapel
   Southampton Crematorium
   Bassett Green Road
   Southampton SO16 3QB
 
 Damian's widow, Marisa McClelland, has invited all who wish to
 attend the funeral, and the wake afterwards at 133 Hill Lane,
 Southampton SO15 5AF.
 
 Stephen


Stephen, thank you for passing on this sad news.

He was an active member of the LUG for some time, and always offered advice 
freely. He will be missed.

Please pass our condolences on to Marisa.

Tim Brocklehurst.

-- 
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Re: [Hampshire] Something up with the Hantslug mailman server?

[Tim Brocklehurst]

I've seen quite a bit of spam on the Chairman address, but nothing 
unmanageable and nothing on the mailing list.

Tim B.

On Wednesday 27 May 2015 22:57:24 Chris Dennis wrote:
 Hello Vic (and all)
 
 I'll check on the server when I get a moment to make sure that nothing extra
 spammy is going on.
 
 Cheers
 
 Chris
 
 On 27/05/15 17:09, Vic wrote:
  FWIW I'm not getting Spam.  Anyhow, not labeled as coming from HantsLUG.
  
  It's all quite obvious spam, so it's not getting through my filters - I
  was just surprised to see so many delivery attempts from the lug server...
  
  Vic.

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[Hampshire] O'Reilly User Group Newsletter Winter 2015

[Tim Brocklehurst]

Hi guys,

I thought the message below might be of interest to some.

Cheers,

Tim B.

--  Forwarded Message  --

Subject: O'Reilly User Group Newsletter Winter 2015
Date: Thursday 29 January 2015, 19:02:07
From: O'Reilly UK helencodl...@oreilly.co.uk
To: chair...@hants.lug.org.uk

View this email in your browser 
(http://us8.campaign-archive2.com/?u=4babc22b9b74ea96c4cc6ca7aid=b0a02780d9e=09d9e81e80)

Welcome to our first newsletter of 2015.  This year we are pleased to announce 
that there will be more O'Reilly events in Europe. This includes OSCON, our 
Open Source conference and Solid, a one day event looking at hardware, 
software and the Internet of Things.
We hope to see you in person at events this year and if you're at FOSDEM this 
weekend, do come and say hello.
If you contact us at the O'Reilly office, you may also get a reply from a new 
name- Emma Chandler recently joined us whilst Alice is away on maternity 
leave.

* Special usergroup discount on Strata + Hadoop World, London, 5-7 May 2015  - 
Best Price ends 12 Feb (#Strata)
* Dates for your diary  - new O'Reilly events coming to Europe (#Conferences)
* We are planning some trips- see where you can find an O'Reilly Bookstall 
(#Attended events)
* Events we are supporting  - look out for O'Reilly swag if you're going to a 
conference on this list (#Sponsored events)
* New publications in January and February (#New books)
* Welcome to our new user groups (#Welcome groups)

Helen Codling (mailto:helencodl...@oreilly.co.uk) and Emma Chandler 
(mailto:e...@oreilly.co.uk)

http://oreilly.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4babc22b9b74ea96c4cc6ca7aid=a0a4319ba0e=09d9e81e80

Strata + Hadoop World is coming back to London on 5-7 May 2015.  Registration 
has now opened and our best price lasts until 12 February 2015 
(http://oreilly.us8.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=4babc22b9b74ea96c4cc6ca7aid=7bbe1182dee=09d9e81e80)
 
.  All user group members can benefit from an extra 20% discount by using code 
USRG

Over 60 sessions are already confirmed along with 3 new training sessions for 
2015.  Tickets are selling fast - we look forward to seeing you there!
Dates for your Diary - O'Reilly 2015 Conferences

There will be more information in due course but to whet your appetite, here 
are the dates of our other conferences in Europe 
(http://oreilly.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4babc22b9b74ea96c4cc6ca7aid=aa9174d838e=09d9e81e80)
 
this year.

OSCON Open Source Convention
October 26-28, Amsterdam

SOLID
October 28th, Amsterdam

Velocity
October 28-30, Amsterdam



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FOSDEM, Brussels, Belgium
31 Jan-1 Feb ** 
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FLOSS Spring Meeting, York, UK
25-26 March ** 
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27-28 March ** 
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JQuery UK, Oxford  6 March  ** 
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, send their registration 

Re: [Hampshire] Freeview DVB Tuners

[Tim Brocklehurst]

Only standard def, but I've used an Hauppauge Nova-T 500 Dual DVB-T in the 
past with good results.

Hope this helps,

Tim B.

On Sunday 02 November 2014 23:23:24 Leo wrote:
 Can anyone recommend an HD Freeview TV card that works with Linux.
 Preferably with dual tuners.
 
 Regards,
 Leo

-- 
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[Hampshire] Fwd: [Scottish] Electromagnetic Field 2014: Call for Participation

[Tim Brocklehurst]

Hi guys,

I saw this on another mailing list I'm on and thought some of you might find it 
interesting.

Cheers,

Tim B.

--  Forwarded Message  --

Subject: [Scottish] Electromagnetic Field 2014: Call for Participation
Date: Monday 07 July 2014, 20:02:33


Hello!

Electromagnetic Field (EMF) is a volunteer-run non-profit maker/hacker
camping festival in the UK. We held our first event in 2012, and this year
we're back and bigger than ever: a camping festival with over 1200 people
of all ages, just outside Milton Keynes for a long weekend between the 29th
and 31st of August.

We run this event to promote people making and learning things across as
many disciplines as possible. We'll take over a large field, roll out power
and internet to every tent, and put on talks and workshops for three days.

If you'd like a better idea of what that looks like, our website might help:
https://www.emfcamp.org/about

Our Call For Participation is open: we're looking for people to talk or
give workshops. At previous events, we've had a huge variety of talks on
everything from genetic modification to electronics, blacksmithing to
high-energy physics, reverse engineering to lock picking, computer security
to crocheting, and quadcopters to brewing. If you'd like to talk, we'll try
and fit you in.

We're especially keen to receive proposals from people outside the normal
tech conference circuit (we welcome imposters!). If you need some
inspiration, take a look at the list of talks from 2012:
https://www.emfcamp.org/talks/2012

If you'd like to submit a talk, simply fill in this short form:
https://www.emfcamp.org/cfp

We're also looking for groups to run villages: camps within EMF where
like-minded people can camp together and host activities for other members.
Previous villages have been anything from retro-gaming to lockpicking,
chillout areas, and a full workshop complete with laser cutter! Some groups
just camp together so interested people can find them, some organise a
village around a topic of interest and allow anyone to join them.

If you'd like to register a village there's more information here:
https://wiki.emfcamp.org/wiki/Villages

We're also looking for people to build installations and art around the
site. We have a limited budget available to help fund these projects, and
you can find the application form on the call for participation page.
Previous years have seen anything from ride-on tanks to floating LED
screens and gigantic metal letters spelling out the event name! We'll
consider anything interesting, so don't hesitate to get in touch if you
would like to contribute.

Last but not least: EMF is an entirely volunteer-run event and takes a vast
amount of time to organise. We need volunteers to help out in a variety of
roles before, during, and after the event. If you'd like to get involved,
email volunt...@emfcamp.org.

If you would like promotional posters, flyers and stickers to display in
your hackspace or give out at a meeting, email your address to
cont...@emfcamp.org and we'll post them out as soon as possible!

You can find out more about EMF 2014 on our website:
https://www.emfcamp.org

You may also be interested in the BBC coverage of the event in 2012:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19441861

Tickets are available from http://www.emfcamp.org/tickets, hope to see you
in the field!

Thanks,
Jonty
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[Hampshire] New Zealand Internet freedom

[Tim Brocklehurst]

Hi everybody,

I thought the message below from our friends at ScotLUG might be of interest 
to some.

Cheers,

Tim B.
-- 
Hampshire Linux User Group Chairman


--  Forwarded Message  --

Subject: [Scottish] Last Months Talk
Date: Monday 05 May 2014, 13:28:50
To: SLUG-list scott...@mailman.lug.org.uk

Hey all,

I just thought it would be good to pass on this link that Patrick sent
me after last months talk was over:

That proposed legislation from New Zealand can be found here, if
you’re interested: http://www.internetrightsbill.org.nz/

Cheers,
Kenny.

___
Scottish mailing list
scott...@mailman.lug.org.uk
https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/scottish
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[Hampshire] [Admin] February Meeting

[Tim Brocklehurst]

My thanks to Keith for a very interesting talk. Thanks also to the guys who
came along.

After the meeting I found a pair of glasses, if they belong to you please
collect them from reception.

Cheers,

Tim B.

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[Hampshire] [ADMIN] February meeting

[Tim Brocklehurst]

Hi guys,

This month's meeting will be on Saturday 1st Feb at QinetiQ Haslar starting at 
1pm. I know this is the same day as the SoMakeIt opening, but hopefully there 
is enough flexibility for those who wish to get to both meetings to make it.

This month we have a talk from Keith Edmunds. He'll be discussing using Linux 
in small business, and giving an idea about how he uses Linux in his IT 
consultancy.

As usual for meetings at QinetiQ, please e-mail me before midnight on Thursday 
if you wish to attend and I'll make sure you're on the list.

Hope to see you there,

Cheers,

Tim B.
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Re: [Hampshire] [ADMIN] February meeting

[Tim Brocklehurst]

The venue is at the south of Gosport, the nearest public transport link is 
Portsmouth harbour station and the Gosport ferry. Venue details are as 
follows:

QinetiQ
Haslar Marine Technology Park
Haslar Road
Gosport
Hampshire
PO12 2AG

On arrival, head to reception and we'll meet there.

Cheers,

Tim B.

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[Hampshire] [ADMIN] upcoming meetings

[Tim Brocklehurst]

Good evening,

Just a quick update on the next few meetings. There will not be a meeting or a 
meal in December. Nor will there be a meeting in January.

The next meeting will be 1st of February 2014 at QinetiQ Haslar, when Keith 
Edmunds will be giving a talk on how he set up Tiger Computing, and using 
linux in business.

For the March meeting I'd like to suggest a trip to Bletchly Park on the 1st 
of March, in place of our normal meeting. Entry fee is £15, car sharing can be 
organised on the list.

For the April meeting we'll try to get hold of the guys from Linux Voice, but 
obviously this is not arranged yet.

Cheers,

Tim B.
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Re: [Hampshire] Christmas Meal

[Tim Brocklehurst]

Hi guys, just a reminder that entry closes at 9pm tonight. If you're coming to 
the meal, please let me know!

Cheers,

Tim B.
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Re: [Hampshire] Next meeting

[Tim Brocklehurst]

Good evening everyone!

If you are thinking of coming to the next meeting at Haslar, could you drop me 
an e-mail to let me know, so I can inform security.

I need confirmation of attendance by Thursday evening (9pm).

Thanks,

Tim B.

On Friday 08 November 2013 17:56:39 Tim B wrote:
 Hi guys. 
 
 The next meeting will be next Saturday (16th November) at QinetiQ Haslar
 from 2pm. For those who have not been before,  the site is located on the
 Haslar peninsula at the South of Gosport. The postcode is PO12 2AG.
 
 Given the nature of the site please let me know if you plan to attend,  so I
 can let our security guards know. 
 
 Cheers, 
 
 Tim B. 
 
 Sent from Samsung Mobile
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[Hampshire] Next Meeting

[Tim Brocklehurst]

Hi guys,

Unfortunately there will not be a meeting this month. Our next meeting will be 
in November. I will Issue details nearer the time.

Thanks,

Tim B.
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Re: [Hampshire] JOB | Permanent Linux Systems Administrator (Singapore)

[Tim Brocklehurst]

I'm pleased that people advertise available jobs on this list. It gives 
confidence that Linux is a significant part of modern business.

I would however ask that it is done only where appropriate, and not done too 
often. Please do not chase LUG members about job offers, members are free to 
accept, decline or ignore an offer if they wish, and I ask that everyone 
respects that freedom.

Thanks,

Tim B.

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[Hampshire] Light relief for a busy Friday

[Tim Brocklehurst]

Hi everyone,

Just came across this story. One for the IBMers amongst us perhaps.

http://lovemeow.com/2012/06/stray-cat-receives-employee-badge-from-ibm/

Tim B.
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Re: [Hampshire] September Meeting

[Tim Brocklehurst]

Hi guys,

Just a quick reminder that there is one day left to register your interest for 
this meeting.

All you have to do is drop me an e-mail at chair...@hantslug.org.uk with your 
full name.

Cheers,

Tim Brocklehurst

On Wednesday 28 Aug 2013 13:35:09 Tim Brocklehurst wrote:
 Hi guys!
 
 I am very pleased to announce that the next meeting will be held at
 QinetiQ's Haslar site at 1pm on the 7th September.
 
 We will have limited network access (i.e. a few people may have mobile
 broadband) so please do not expect to be able to do installs or updates
 from the web.
 
 To keep our security guys happy can you please register your interest with
 me by email (chair...@hantslug.org) no later than Wednesday 4th September.
 
 The agenda for the meeting is pretty simple:
  - Please arrive as close to 1pm as possible, as this makes life easier
 for security.
  - I'll give an introduction to the site, safety rules etc. then we will
 continue with the meeting as normal.
  - If anyone wishes to give a talk, please let me know.
 
 For those who haven't been before, the site is located on the Gosport
 peninsular. Public transport is available via Portsmouth Harbour and
 Gosport Ferry. A map of the site is here:
 
 https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=google+maps+PO12+2AGhl=enll=50.787598,-1
 .126871spn=0.021054,0.059524hnear=PO12+2AG,+United+Kingdomt=mz=15
 
 The site address is:
 QinetiQ
 Haslar Marine Technology Park
 Haslar Road
 Gosport
 PO12 2AG
 
 Cheers,
 
 Tim Brocklehurst

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Re: [Hampshire] September Meeting

[Tim Brocklehurst]

Sorry, got the e-mail wrong (missed the .uk off the end). However, for the
moment can you send all registrations to t...@engineering.selfip.org

Thanks,

Tim B.

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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Edge crowdfunding drive misses target

[Tim Brocklehurst]

On Monday 26 Aug 2013 12:25:22 Samuel Penn wrote:
 On Sunday 25 Aug 2013 21:11:58 Alan Pope wrote:
  On 25 August 2013 14:46, Simon Whitehead liquidigi...@hotmail.com wrote:
   http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23793457
   Is any mobile phone worth $625, $675, $695 or $725.
  
  I paid £429 for my phone nearly two years ago.
 
 I recently spend a similar amount. Any gadget is worth what people are
 willing to pay for them, and most people end up paying that sort of money
 for a phone, it's just spread out over two years so they have a very
 distorted view of the price of a smartphone.
 
 Not being tied into a two year contract makes it worth buying the phone
 SIM free IMO.

Hmm, I pay £25 a month (roughly) and am on a 2 year contract. That's £600 for 
the contract and includes the S3 phone (approx £400-£450 new a little while 
ago). Would I buy the phone and add a sim, saving £100 or more? No. £25 a 
month is much easier to live with; and that's quite a significant point. Most 
people will buy a phone and contract together.

Quite often, being tied to a multi-year contract isn't actually a problem for 
a lot of people; unless you're getting a bad deal or the coverage is poor in 
your area, and both of these are getting better with time.

Tim B.

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[Hampshire] Microsoft from the inside.

[Tim Brocklehurst]

Good evening everyone.

I came across the following blog entry today, it makes for quite interesting 
reading. Thought you might be interested.

http://blog.zorinaq.com/?e=74

Cheers,

Tim B.

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Re: [Hampshire] Recommendations sought for system upgrade

[Tim Brocklehurst]

On Monday 12 Aug 2013 18:01:41 Peter Alefounder wrote:
 So, I am thinking of upgrading my system. I would certainly want a
 new main board, and I understand that means a new processor as well.

It depends a bit on whether you have time or money to spend, and what sort of 
spec you are after. If you are not doing anything wildly esoteric, and you 
wish to spend the money and keep the time; then I would suggest buying an off-
the-shelf machine with an Intel I3 (or AMD A4) or better processor.

I would then connect the two machines together using a network and transfer 
all your data onto the new machine.

As for storage:
Are the ZIP disks really still necessary? or could you move to newer (and more 
available) media? (eg. SD card or USB stick).

Upgrading mouse and keyboard need not be expensive, but that is down to 
personal preference.

Cheers,

Tim B.
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Re: [Hampshire] OT:UK Mandatory ISP Filtering Selection Form Leaked

[Tim Brocklehurst]

On Wednesday 24 Jul 2013 12:26:12 Freaky Clown wrote:
 I happen to know amy mathers personally - infact i am baby sitting her
 saturday - shes a very smart cookie!! (so is her younger brother dan)
 
 

I think you may have posted this under the wrong subject line. Who knows what 
the government will do if they get hold of this information.

Tim B.

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[Hampshire] [Admin] Meetings

[Tim Brocklehurst]

Hi guys,

I've been meaning to write this note for weeks, but I've been madly busy.

There are no meetings in July and August. The next meeting will be in 
September. I'll let you know the details when I have them.

Cheers,

Tim B.
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Re: [Hampshire] Workstation and Wacom tablet for sale

[Tim Brocklehurst]

On Tuesday 02 Jul 2013 19:50:59 Richard Bensley wrote:
 I am selling the HP because it's a little too much muscle for me.

Rich, are you feeling alright? This sentence appears contrary to all computer-
owning logic.

Tim B.
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Re: [Hampshire] Hants LUG membership

[Tim Brocklehurst]

On Wednesday 12 Jun 2013 16:02:45 john lewis wrote:
 I have reluctantly decided to cease memebrship of HantsLUG. It is
 unlikely I will be able to visit any meeting in the future and I don't
 contribute much to the mailing list either these days.
 
 I have enjoyed being a member and would like to say a big thank you for
 all the help I have had from too many people to be able to list over
 the years.
 
 I shall of course continue to be a user of Debian until such time as I
 disappear into a personal /dev/nul.

John,

I'm sorry to hear that. I have just done a search from August 2009 to the 
present and found 220 e-mails from you to the list. That's a rate of about one 
a week, so you're definitely up on me!

Anyway, I'd like to thank you for your contribution, and wish you the very 
best in the future.

All the best,

Tim B.
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[Hampshire] [ADMIN] June Meeting

[Tim Brocklehurst]

Hi Everyone,

I suspect that by the time most of you read this the bank holiday will feel 
like a distant memory (well, it will be Tuesday after all). Do not despair, 
there is a HantsLUG meeting coming up, which will be a perfect opportunity to 
wax lyrical about how great the bank holiday was.

This month's meeting should be another good one. There will be a pair of PIs 
available to play with, but primarily set up for battery discharging and IO 
expansion. I'll be giving a talk about building your own expansion boards for 
the PI. We may also have other talks on the day.

We are at Southampto Uni again this month, and the meeting starts at 1pm. See 
you there!

Cheers,

Tim B.
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Re: [Hampshire] Stuart, let's connect on LinkedIn

[Tim Brocklehurst]

On Tuesday 21 May 2013 20:16:42 Daniel Llewellyn wrote:
 I prefer to be called Susan out-of-office-hours, but Stuart will suffice
 for now I guess.

LMAO for that!

Definitely post of the year so far.

Tim B.
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Re: [Hampshire] Simple Database apps

[Tim Brocklehurst]

On Wednesday 15 May 2013 20:57:47 Peter Collins wrote:
 Hi Phil
 
 On 15 May 2013 19:13, Philip Stubbs phi...@stuphi.co.uk wrote:
  My question is, what can I use that will be no more complicated
  than PHP/HTML, will run on Windows /Cygwin, and be available on Linux
  too? Ideally for my simple database type app,
 
 Also have you thought about LibreOffice Base? that would be cover on
 Windows and Linux.
 
 Rgds
 
 Peter.

I would seriously consider running a MySQL DB (standalone, no Apache or PHP) 
and then front-ending with Access over ODBC or LibreOffice.

I recently did an Access front-end and it wasn't too bad. I'm not saying it 
was a pleasurable experience, but I got through it without gouging my eyes 
out.

LibreOffice Base was similar the last time I used it. It has a few nice touches 
like being able to change the DB Schema from LOB; And of course, it's cross-
platform, so a little less lock-in.

Both Access and LOB take a bit of learning, but they are both very capable 
packages.

Cheers,

Tim B.
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Re: [Hampshire] Admin: May Meeting

[Tim Brocklehurst]

Hi guys!

Don't forget that our next meeting is on Saturday, at the University at 1pm. 
Directions are available here:  http://hantslug.org.uk/2012/10/zepler/

There will be talks on traffic accounting and building PCBs for the Raspberry 
PI.

Hope to see you there,

Tim B.

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Re: [Hampshire] Admin: May Meeting

[Tim Brocklehurst]

On Friday 19 Apr 2013 22:10:20 Tim Brocklehurst wrote:
 Our next meeting is at Southampton University on 4th May, starting at 1pm;
 And we've got a few talks planned:

This week, the Debian team annouced the release date for Wheezy. Excitingly, 
it's the weekend of the 4th/5th! Any ideas for how we can mark this momentous 
occasion?

Cheers,

Tim B.

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Re: [Hampshire] Wiki broken?

[Tim Brocklehurst]

 Resurrecting a 5 month old thread..

 I'd still like to edit a page on the wiki. Alternatively I'll move the
 content somewhere else where I can edit it, which makes me sad. What's
 the solution to this?

Alan,

Either register from the main page (http://www.hants.lug.org.uk/), or
contact Chris Dennis (webmas...@hantslug.org.uk) and he can grant you
access.

Cheers,

Tim B.

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[Hampshire] Admin: May Meeting

[Tim Brocklehurst]

Ladies and gentlemen,

My thanks to Anton and John for hosting us at IBM earlier this month.

Our next meeting is at Southampton University on 4th May, starting at 1pm; And 
we've got a few talks planned:

Traffic accounting for domestic users - Chris Malton

Cooking up the PI - Building your own expansion boards - Tim Brocklehurst

Directions are available at
http://hantslug.org.uk/2012/10/zepler/

Hope to see you there,

Tim B.
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Re: [Hampshire] Windows 8 + Dual Booting

[Tim Brocklehurst]

Make sure you get the install discs for Win 8, then you should be able to 
install it in whatever partition size you wish.

Alternatively, E-buyer have a number of laptops shipping with windows 7 here: 
http://www.ebuyer.com/search?a05471=Windows+7+Pro+64bitcat=10

Good luck,

Tim B.

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[Hampshire] April Meeting

[Tim Brocklehurst]

Hi everyone,

Just a quick reminder that the April meeting is this Saturday (6th). We are 
being hosted by IBM Hursley this month. The meeting will run from 10am to 4pm 
with lunch in the Club-house at midday.

For those who haven't been before, there is useful information here: 
http://hantslug.org.uk/locations/ibm-hursley/

The only planned talk this month is the Easter debate, which will take the 
form of a series of short debates followed by a longer discussion, open to the 
floor.

The topics are as follows:

 * Do funded developers detract from the philosphy behind Linux and FLOSS?
 * Have we waited too long for Samba4?
 * Will current hardware trends benefit Linux?
 * Has Linux been the greatest shift in computer science of the last 20 years?

The speakers are myself, Anton Piatek and Rich Bensley.

Hope to see you there,

Tim B.
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Re: [Hampshire] Posting software releases - was - Fwd: amnesia-news Digest, Vol 27, Issue 1

[Tim Brocklehurst]

 Dear All

 New Tails out last Sunday ..

 L

Thanks Les,

I'm sure this will be useful for some members.

However, could I ask (everyone) that when posting about software releases
you add a quick blurb about what the software does and who might be
interested. It only needs to be a few lines, but without it anyone who is
not familiar with the project will probably ignore your e-mail.

Cheers,

Tim B.

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Re: [Hampshire] Another Raspberry PI question.

[Tim Brocklehurst]

On Sunday 10 Mar 2013 19:50:40 James Courtier-Dutton wrote:
 As I will be doing ADC on Mains input voltage, I will be adding a
 digital isolation on the SPI bus.
 E.g. ti iso7241
Yep, that looks fine.

 So the ADC will be on the 240V AC side, but then the raspberry PI will
 be protected by the digital isolation by having the isolation on the
 link between the ADC and the PI. ADC - Isolation - SPI Bus of
 PI.
Don't forget you'll have to feed the ADC 3.3 Volts somehow.
 
 This also improves the accuracy and simplicity of the ADC side, no
 isolation transformers, and uses less power to measure it.

You could use a potential divider (two resistors) as an input stage, feeding 
an optocoupler (low-voltage AC side), which then switches 3 volts to the ADC. 
Add suitable protection diodes and filter capacitors as required. This will 
give an on/off sense, but no effective voltage measurement.

If you want voltage measurement, you'll need a potential divider and a summing 
amplifier to get a 0-3v signal which you can then sample.

For current measurement, look at current transformers, followed by a suitable 
amplifer stage.

Hope this helps,

Tim B.


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Re: [Hampshire] APC UPS advice please

[Tim Brocklehurst]

On Thursday 07 Mar 2013 15:24:55 Martin N wrote:
 After an hours charge i get 4.8V but that could be corrosion on connectors
 or my cheapo multimeter.
 
 So if the UPS dead?
 battery dead?
 
 How long does the lead acid battery last in storage?
 
 Any advice on how i can test things further?
 
 thanks for your time
 
 Martin N


Martin,

I have aquired a Belkin unit with very identical symptoms. In my case one 
battery terminal had actually corroded and fallen off, so it was a pretty 
simple fault to find. Typically, the Lead acid batteries used will be 6Volt or 
12Volt, sometimes wired in series to give 24Volts. Disconnect the battery(ies) 
and measure the voltage across them. If you are move than about two volts from 
the typical values above, it's likely that the battery is dead and needs 
replacement.

There are places which sell replacement batteries on the web at reasonable 
prices.

Cheers,

Tim B. 
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[Hampshire] April Meeting - Easter Debate

[Tim Brocklehurst]

Hello everyone,

Next month's meeting will be held at IBM Hursley. Details of exact 
arrangements will be published nearer the time, but if you're thinking of 
attending, could you drop either me or Anton Piatek an e-mail, so we know who 
will be on site.

However, we still need another (at least one) speaker for the debate. If you'd 
like to speak, please let me know by midnight on Saturday.

The topic is The future of Linux. Given that it's a rather broard title, we 
(myself and the speakers) will decide on a set of more specific subjects 
(probably 2 or 3), which are suitable for all the speakers to actually debate. 
So effectively, you can pick a subject you are reasonably familiar with. You 
will then have a few weeks to ensure that you have good arguments (which at 
least vaguely line up with the other speakers), which are then presented at 
the debate.

There is quite a bit of work involved, but it's a great way to learn more 
about a particular aspect of Linux.

Sample subjects might be:
  Do funded developers detract from the philosphy behind Linux and FLOSS?
  Have we waited too long for Samba4?
  Will current hardware trends benefit Linux?
  Was the development of Linux probable from a sociological perspective?
  Has Linux been the greatest shift in computer science of the last 20 years?
  Will Linux continue to grow at it's current rate?
  Can we advocate Linux effectively?

Hope this is food for thought, please let me know by midnight on Saturday.

Cheers,

Tim B.
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Re: [Hampshire] April Meeting - Easter Debate

[Tim Brocklehurst]

On Wednesday 06 Mar 2013 20:56:42 Tim Brocklehurst wrote:
 Hello everyone,
 
 Next month's meeting will be held at IBM Hursley. Details of exact
 arrangements will be published nearer the time, but if you're thinking of
 attending, could you drop either me or Anton Piatek an e-mail, so we know
 who will be on site.
 
 However, we still need another (at least one) speaker for the debate. If
 you'd like to speak, please let me know by midnight on Saturday.
 
 The topic is The future of Linux. Given that it's a rather broard title,
 we (myself and the speakers) will decide on a set of more specific
 subjects (probably 2 or 3), which are suitable for all the speakers to
 actually debate. So effectively, you can pick a subject you are reasonably
 familiar with. You will then have a few weeks to ensure that you have good
 arguments (which at least vaguely line up with the other speakers), which
 are then presented at the debate.
 
 There is quite a bit of work involved, but it's a great way to learn more
 about a particular aspect of Linux.
 
 Sample subjects might be:
   Do funded developers detract from the philosphy behind Linux and FLOSS?
   Have we waited too long for Samba4?
   Will current hardware trends benefit Linux?
   Was the development of Linux probable from a sociological perspective?
   Has Linux been the greatest shift in computer science of the last 20
 years? Will Linux continue to grow at it's current rate?
   Can we advocate Linux effectively?
 
 Hope this is food for thought, please let me know by midnight on Saturday.
 
 Cheers,
 
 Tim B.

As a post-script, each subject will be debated for about 30 minutes, including 
questions from the floor. So you will have about, 10 to 15 minutes per side of 
the debate.

Tim B.
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Re: [Hampshire] Improving Home Broadband Talk - Follow Up

[Tim Brocklehurst]

On Monday 04 Mar 2013 14:50:37 Clive Woodfine wrote:
 On 4 March 2013 11:32, Chris. Aubrey-Smith cas...@gmail.com wrote:
  On 3 March 2013 22:01, James Bensley jwbens...@gmail.com wrote:
  Hi All,
  
  As a follow up to the talk this weekend;
  
  Thank you, James, for an excellent presentation!
  
  Chris
 
  I second that. Just got to find time to put it into practice.
 
 At Saturdays meeting I saw a small display connected to a Raspberry Pi
 and I intended to make a note of the make and model but I forgot. Can
 anybody please give me the details.
 
 A good meeting.
 
 Clive

Clive,

I picked it up from E-Bay for about £15 delivered from China. The product name 
I have for it is

NEW 7 TFT LCD Screen Color Car Rearview Headrest Monitor For VCR DVD GPS 
CAMERA

There are loads of similar screens around if you search E-bay for in-car TFT 
or similar.

James,

Any chance you could post a list of Good Numbers for line attenuation, SNR 
etc?

Cheers,

Tim B.
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Re: [Hampshire] [ADMIN] March Meeting

[Tim Brocklehurst]

Hi everyone,

Just a quick reminder for tomorrow's meeting (sorry it's so late, been very 
busy) at Southampton University at 1pm. Details are at:

http://hantslug.org.uk/locations/zepler-building-building-59-southampton-
university/


There will hopefully be two talks;

High Performance Computing - Building a cluster - Tim Bocklehurst

Improving your broadband - James Bensley

See you there,

Tim B.

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[Hampshire] [ADMIN] March Meeting

[Tim Brocklehurst]

Ladies and gentlemen,

There is only one week until the next meeting! It will be at 1pm on the 2nd 
March, at the University. For those who haven't been before, there's a nice 
map on the website, here:
http://hantslug.org.uk/locations/zepler-building-building-59-southampton-
university/

We have several requests for talks and a few offers, on the website: 
http://hantslug.org.uk/category/talks/talks-wanted/
http://hantslug.org.uk/category/talks/talks-offered/

James B, which talk would you like to give? Chris D, do you want to give the 
IPv6 talk this month?

As there is a request for an HPC talk, I will repeat the talk I gave some time 
ago, with some minor updates (if I have time to write them in the next week).

Please contact Chris Malton with your MAC address as usual.

There will be a Raspberry PI available to play with as usual (though only with 
a small monitor this time).

Cheers,

Tim B.
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Re: [Hampshire] The future of Linux / career advice

[Tim Brocklehurst]

One question... Do you work for Google?

On Thursday 14 Feb 2013 15:33:58 j...@osml.eu wrote:

 I see a slightly different future for Linux.  The desktop, for many,
 will disappear.  The Chromebook is a V2.0 successor to the Network
 Computer.  It's a computing device.  Read you email:  Open a browser tab
 for G-Mail.  Edit a document/spread sheet/presentation: Open a browser
 tab for Google Docs/Sheets/Slides  \
 
 Chromebooks can do a lot of things, but they can do many things that
 many end users want to do.

Good grief, how many times have I heard this? The Cloud, software as a 
service etc. Yes, it suits a certain need, but it is not the all-encompassing 
solution that many people would have you believe.

In fact, for a lot of computing (CPU/Graphics intensive) tasks (as distinct 
from communication tasks i.e. e-mail etc.) it actually makes very little 
sense, and displays a complete lack of understanding of what a desktop PC 
can be (and in my case often is) used for.

However, there is good mileage in what we do at the moment, which is to use a 
COTS machine (laptop, desktop or whatever) and download the software we wish 
to use as a package, which you then install and run. This avoids the reliance 
on a potentially iffy internet connection for most of the time.

Cheers, guys,

Tim B.

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Re: [Hampshire] The future of Linux / career advice

[Tim Brocklehurst]

On Thursday 14 Feb 2013 20:49:04 Andy Smith wrote:
 I agree with you that there is a trade-off, but I just wanted to
 point out that compared to devices like a Chromebook, anything you
 can build is neither C nor OTS.

By COTS I meant a machine which was not self-built.

 The shelves that devices like Chromebooks are off of are in
 supermarkets. The shelves that you're talking about are specialist
 suppliers like Ebuyer and Scan.

Or PC World, or any other retailer. I considered a few of the supermarket 
offerings when buying my laptop. The deciding factor in the end was that Ebuyer 
had an offer on, not that the Supermarkets were unable to supply something 
suitable.

 We as computing enthusiasts and professionals need to be careful
 about falling into the trap of not considering the needs of normal
 people. Normal people are extremely well-served by very cheap tablet
 devices and cloud computing, and this is only going to become more
 the case.

Indeed they are. However, it is only one use case. We must also avoid falling 
into the trap of thinking that anyone who doesn't work in IT only wants to use 
a limited set of features.

Cheers,

Tim B. 

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Re: [Hampshire] The future of Linux / career advice

[Tim Brocklehurst]

Some nice fodder for the debate here! Perhaps you'd like to speak Ally.

On Wednesday 13 Feb 2013 16:31:53 Ally Biggs wrote:
 Do you guys ever think there will be a day that Linux will be as popular as
 Windows in the desktop market.

Depends what the desktop market is, and what you intend to do with it. I see 
a sort of power-user/home-user split being driven by Microsoft, but I don't 
know where this will get them. I use both (Linux  windows) at work, mainly 
for Legacy reasons and 1 piece of CAD software. At home I use Linux (more-or-
less) exclusively.

 Personally I can't see this happening anytime soon. This isn't a personal
 attack on Linux just want to get some thoughts and inspiration.
 
 I use both Windows and Linux have a strong interest in both but currently
 am having a tug of war with my thought patterns career wise. The majority
 of my thoughts are saying focus on learning Linux starting with Linux+
 with the eventual aim of going for the RHCSE. The other half is saying go
 down the Microsoft route taking a client exam and going for the server
 2012 admin certs.

Do both if you can. If not, improve your Linux skills. However, you may find 
yourself swearing at Windows servers. Also take note that both these systems 
are not things that can be learnt quickly (Some time ago I estimated that the 
kernel took 2000 man-years to write, so you can't expect it to be quick to 
learn). You can only learn about parts of these systems by solving your 
specific problems.
 
 Has anyone been in a similar situation?
Not really, the decision was pretty clear for me when I lost a load of work at 
Uni. Regardless of the quality of Linux I was moving from XP.

 I would say that I enjoy Linux more the whole Open source ethos, I actually
 feel like I am learning when using the cli as opposed to clicking my way
 through the GUI in Windows.

I like the CLI; also scripting.

 Making the transition from Windows to Linux was challenging initially I
 probably will continue to learn Linux (Redhat, Debian) for server related
 tasks and use Win 7 for client tasks.

Depens what the client tasks are. You may find that you don't need Windows at 
all.

 The thing which bothers me though about Linux ok it's free and if you have
 the skills you can do great things but why isn't it being adopted more for
 everyday use. Also why don't the developers standardise a distribution for
 the home user i.e same package manager and packages.

Awareness? Learning curve? Pre-installation? And many users don't care what 
they use, as long as it works for them.

 The problem with desktop Linux I think is when the shit hits the fan and
 something needs to be configured or a driver needs to be added your
 average user isn't going to want to sit typing commands in a terminal or
 spending hours finding the solution into a community.

As others have said, that's rare, and, if they're running Windows, often the 
point at which a home user buys a new computer. You are using Linux and there 
IS a helpful community, but it doesn't mean that there are no problems, only 
that there is a chance of fixing things.

 The other problem I found is the community alot of people expect you to be
 some kind of command line genius who is capable of reciting the whole
 encyclopaedia of man pages. So when you ask for help or guidance you often
 get a dismissive response.

I try not to be dismissive, but an amount of initial effort goes a long way. 
Think of it like helping a student do homework. Are you willing to give 
advice? yes. Are you willing to do it for them? No.

 Documentation is horrendous aswell especially if you are making the
 transition from Windows. Pick up a starting to learn Linux book and a
 couple of pages in you end up with the worlds worst headache.

Yes and no. The documentation that is there is often quite good in many cases 
(I cite the QT4 documentation as the best ever written, and the MSDN 
documentation as some of the worst, second only to CodeGear (formerly Borland 
C++ Builder), which says See the MSDN Docs throughout). However, it might 
not be simple, and that's often because what you're doing isn't simple. One 
thing to note here is that error messages in Linux are often a lot more 
helpful than they are in Windows.

 So how did you guys learn Linux?  Has anyone else made the transition
 from Windows? 

I needed to do an interfacing job, and I'd just lost a load of work in XP, so 
there was some impetus. From there, I tried to understand and solve problems 
as they arose. Learning happens over time.

Or what are the key areas to focus on to develop a good foundation.
 Need some inspiration if I go down the Linux route would I be missing
 out on much? Please help me resolve the tug of war it is driving me mad :)

Command line is important (obviously) but understand your shell (e.g. bash), 
and how to script things.
Networking is also important, not only at the interface level, but doing some 
socket programming and implementing a 

Re: [Hampshire] [Admin] Upcoming meetings

[Tim Brocklehurst]

On Wednesday 13 Feb 2013 20:04:27 Chris Dennis wrote:
 On 11/02/13 18:57, Tim Brocklehurst wrote:
  In April, we are privileged to be hosted at IBM Hursley.
 
 Will the April meeting also be a 1pm start?
 
 cheers
 
 Chris

That is yet to be decided.
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[Hampshire] [Admin] Upcoming meetings

[Tim Brocklehurst]

Hi guys,

Just thought I'd give you an update on the next two meetings.

Next month we are at the University again (Bldg 59). We start at 1pm (Saturday 
2nd March). Please post about any talks you want etc.

In April, we are privilidged to be hosted at IBM Hursley. For those who 
haven't been before it's a great opportunity. The plan is to hold the Easter 
debate at this meeting, but we need some speakers. The topic is (broadly) The 
Future of Linux; The exact topics covered are at the discretion of the 
speakers, but there's plenty to go at, from mobile-space to server-space, 
SystemD to the Desktop.

Could anybody who is interested in speaking at the debate let me know. We'll 
need a minimum of two people.

Look forward to seeing you at the next meeting,

Tim B.
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Re: [Hampshire] [Admin] Upcoming meetings

[Tim Brocklehurst]

On Monday 11 Feb 2013 20:23:35 Anton Piatek wrote:
 On 11 Feb 2013 19:32, an...@piatek.co.uk wrote:
  I'm always up for a debate :-)
 
 That said, I am also happy to be the host for the debate if nobody else
 wants to.
 We should have several microphones in the auditorium if that would suit the
 event, otherwise there are more informal rooms available.

I am quite happy to chair the debate, which would then free you up for 
debating.
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Re: [Hampshire] [OT] Car based entertainment

[Tim Brocklehurst]

How about a Raspberry PI and a cheap in-car TFT? I just picked up a TFT 
(Composite only) for £15 off E-bay.

Tim B.
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Re: [Hampshire] SSD Laptop HDD as drop-in replacement?

[Tim Brocklehurst]

On Friday 08 Feb 2013 21:50:55 Imran Chaudhry wrote:
 I'm thinking of buying an SSD for my Dell Inspiron 6400 when Debian
 Wheezy becomes stable and to benefit from fast bootup.
 
 The laptop is 2006 vintage and has a spinning rust SATA drive. Can I
 just use any SSD SATA laptop drive as a drop-in replacement or do I
 have to be careful about particular types eg SATA II/III, BIOS
 incompatibilities etc?
 
 Thanks

Imran,
Any SSD should work. There is a range of speeds, depending on what you want to 
pay. As long as it is a reasonably recent Laptop you should not have any 
issues with the BIOS.

Cheers,

Tim B.

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Re: [Hampshire] Another Raspberry PI question.

[Tim Brocklehurst]

On Tuesday 05 Feb 2013 18:12:24 Bob Dunlop wrote:
 Anyway whilst it is possible to build isolated inputs that
 understand two or more levels and relay them through to the
 micro as an analogue signal to measure with and ADC I bet the
 setup is ticky.  I'd suggest builing two digital inputs to allow
 you to monitor white and grey directly and ignore the orange.

Interfacing an ADC is not hard. The MAX 146 communicating over SPI is pretty 
simple (I've done it and I'm happy to share the circuit diagram and code).

The further question that springs to mind is do you actually have to monitor 
AC at all? Typically, there is a number of thermostats around the house. As I 
understand it, these are just bi-metallic switches. Do these still switch 
correctly at a lower voltage? Or can they be replaced with something like the 
DS18B20 1 wire temperature sensor? These are cheap and simple to interface.

At which point your controls are the valve(s), boiler and pump.

Cheers,

Tim B.
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Re: [Hampshire] Another Raspberry PI question.

[Tim Brocklehurst]

On Tuesday 05 Feb 2013 23:25:15 James Courtier-Dutton wrote:

 The 1 wire therm is a good idea. The fewer moving parts the better.
 With therm sensors rather than on/off at particular temp, i can make the
 heating system better. I.E. When in heating hours, heat normally, when out
 of heating hours, make sure the system does not freeze. I don't need to
 adjust the heating with a stat dial on the wall, i can use a smart phone
 app.
 I still wish to detect 240V AC because that will help with fault finding.
 The system could do analysis for me and tell me which part has failed. I
 think the ADC would be good for that.
 Example diag:
 1) Turn burner on and send heat to the HW. If the HW temp does not rise a
 bit, something is wrong in that part.
 2) If the burner is on but the HW temp is still falling. The sensor is Ok,
 but something else is faulty.
 3) If different power is sent to the diverter valve, does the orange output
 change as expected. Points to working valve or not.
 4) Measure current and volts to the pump. A pump should always draw a
 predictable amount of current when on. If not, faulty pump.

Have a look at:

https://github.com/TimB-
QNA/Electronics/tree/master/RaspberryPi/InvestigationBoards/SPI_ADC

I will add some code to read/write all the stuff on that board at some point 
(all written as it is, just not tidy!). You can adapt pretty much everything 
there for your purposes.

Given that the DS18B20 has a unique ID per chip, you could also use them 
locally around the boiler. 

Tim B.
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Re: [Hampshire] Raspberry Pi Questions

[Tim Brocklehurst]

On Monday 04 Feb 2013 20:13:45 Dr A. J. Trickett wrote:
 Hi,
 
 Having actually seen and photographed a Raspberry Pi I think I'm sold on
 the idea of them. I currently have an Ethernet switch under the TV, spare
 power and a CRT (composite TV input) though I do plan to replace it with a
 flat TV of some sorts eventually (HDMI input).
 
 It seems to make sense that a RPi Model B makes sense, it would be small,
 silent and fun - it appeals to my inner geek. I've a few questions:
 
 1) Where is the best place to get one? Maplin or Farnell or RS?
 
 2) What else does it need?
   An SD card for the OS and local storage
   A case
   A USB power supply
   A USB keyboard and mouse if you want to drive it directly

I got mine from Farnell. Always found them good. SD card is required (anything 
above 2GB I think). A case is a good idea, though no idea where to source one. 
Phone charger (for modern smart phone will work fine).

Cheers,

Tim B.
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Re: [Hampshire] Another Raspberry PI question.

[Tim Brocklehurst]

On Monday 04 Feb 2013 21:49:18 James Courtier-Dutton wrote:
 Hi,
 
 I have found lots of web site detailing how to drive a relay from a
 Raspberry PI, for example, turning 240V AC mains devices on and off.
 What I cannot find is how to have the PI detect if 240V is on a wire
 or not. I.e. If a 240 AC wire is powered or not?

 Done anyone know of any sort of detect 240V AC adapter for the GPIO
 of the Raspberry PI?

I don't know of any pre-made boards/kits, so it's probably a DIY job.

There are (at least) two ways of doing this. You can either sense voltage, in 
which case you need some form of rectifier, potential divider and buffer 
circuit 
(possibly an optocoupler). There is some info here: 
http://www.edaboard.com/thread206697.html

Alternatively you can sense current, in which case you can use a non-contact 
current sensor (possibly a current transformer or hall-effect sensor), and 
some suitable amplification. Some info here: http://talk.jeelabs.net/topic/49

Just be aware that the arduino kit works on 5v DC signal levels, whereas RPI 
works on 3.3v, so although this has been done for Arduino, it will require a 
small tweak for RPI.

There are also a range of mains voltage and current monitoring ICs available 
which will interface nicely with the PI over SPI or I2C, however, these 
require printed circuit boards to be made. Not too difficult, but another thing 
to learn.

Personally, I'd use a current transformer and a suitable interface IC.

Cheers,

Tim B.

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Re: [Hampshire] Little job needed for TV video company

[Tim Brocklehurst]

On Sunday 03 Feb 2013 15:19:01 Edward Beckmann wrote:
 Hi
 
 For anyone interested, I know the current provider, who is willing to have
 a brief chat about the job.

Two people have already offered their services.

Thanks,

Tim B.
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[Hampshire] Little job needed for TV video company - SUSE RAID.

[Tim Brocklehurst]

Hi Guys,

Small support task (probably about 1 day, maybe 2 including backing up 
existing data) to help out a local company between Andover and Stockbridge. If 
anyone is able to help, let me know and I'll put you in touch. I have given 
the enquirer some basic details on RAID, and advised that he doesn't move to a 
windows server, as per last part of thier e-mail.

Cheers,

Tim B.

Original Message below:

To: chair...@hantslug.org.uk

Hi Tim
I wonder if you could help us. Do you know anyone who could configure a 
Suse RAID 5 Array on a fairly old machine so that we can increase the 
disk sizes?
We are a small video company between Andover and  Stockbridge

Details are -
We have a Tyan 2892 mb in a 16 X HD server chassis. We only use it as a 
place to keep our very large video file back ups. It connects by gigabit 
ethernet to our Win 7 work stations. (We have to have Windows to run 
Adobe production software)

It has 16 HD including a sys drive, some office data (which we can put 
anywhere else) and 12 X 750 Gig of video files in a RAID 5 array
We want to change 6 HDs initially with 2TB HDs. At present most the data 
is already copied off.

We had thought our one year old version of Suse and our RAID controller 
(unknown to us at present) would enable us to upgrade one disk at a time.
Failing that we would configure two arrays, one to hold the new disks 
and one to use the rest of the existing ones.

The Suse and server have run faultlessly for several years.We have had 2 
or 3  single failed HDs that get replaced and re-stripe/restore RAID 5  
data  with no problems.

We cannot find a local Linux person to call on for occasional support so 
were thinking we should move to Windows - but we don`t really want to 
although we are ourselves reasonably proficient with Windows (started 
before XP now on Win 7  - 6 work station PCs.

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Re: [Hampshire] Meeting Talks

[Tim Brocklehurst]

James,

Could you liase with Chris Dennis on this?

Cheers,

Tim B.

 Reviving an old thread :)

 When this thread was first alive the wiki was down, this page is up
 and running now;

 http://www.hants.lug.org.uk/wiki/MeetingSuggestions/Talks

 I think the talks are a really good way of promoting the open sharing
 of information amongst the luggers, and bring new faces to the LUG
 meetings (there are three great talks happening this weekend if you
 didn't know already!). I am quite happy to be the one to record talks
 ( although I would have to be loaned a camera :D ) and either provide
 free hosting for the video files or be the one to upload them to
 YouTube (to tie in with the currently running social media thread,
 HantsLUG could have a YouTube channel? Again I would happily volunteer
 my self to run this).

 Can a site admin chime in here please? Currently account creation is
 disabled, is this going to be re-enabled ever? It would be nice if LUG
 members could freely sign up and request/offer talks.

 Kind regards,
 James.

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Re: [Hampshire] Promoting LUG meets via social networking

[Tim Brocklehurst]

On Monday 28 Jan 2013 08:10:56 Tony Whitmore wrote:
 On 2013-01-27 23:48, Lisi wrote:
  I would have though that talks for the complete beginner would have a
  very
  limited audience at LUG meetings, where the majority of people
  present are
  experienced users.
 
 I'm not so sure. The most popular talk I did was How to install
 Ubuntu, where I ran through installing and configuring Ubuntu to first
 log in. The beginners guide to MySQL was also very popular.

Fancy doing the same again? Perhaps in more of a workshop format?

Tim B.
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Re: [Hampshire] Promoting LUG meets via social networking

[Tim Brocklehurst]

On Monday 28 Jan 2013 15:20:09 Roger Munford wrote:
 It would be nice to know what time the talks will take place.
 
 Roger

There are no times for talks to prebook. I have avoided this so that people 
wouldn't feel discouraged from talking/demoing; thinking that a 30 minute slot 
meant talking for 30 minutes. As we move towards a workshop setup, short 
talks can be backed up with small group demos and walkthroughs. Talks can 
still be scheduled, please just reply the the meeting notification and request 
a time.

The same goes for requesting talks or demos. There are lots of people who can 
help, so please post your requests on the meeting notification, and hopefully 
someone will be able to answer.

I am happy to do a How to setup a Linux-box starting from Windows 7 demo at 
any meeting. Just come and ask.

Cheers,

Tim B.
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Re: [Hampshire] Promoting LUG meets via social networking

[Tim Brocklehurst]

On Monday 28 Jan 2013 22:44:00 Lisi wrote:
 On Monday 28 January 2013 22:24:31 Michael Daffin wrote:
  I wonder if it is worth setting up a webpage that users can request a
  topic for a talk/demo and possibly where other users can register topics
  they are willing to talk about.
 
 We used to have one on the wiki.  Has it been deleted/removed?
 
 Lisi

No, it hasn't been removed; As you know, Chris Dennis is working hard on the 
new website, to try to streamline exactly that sort of process. I am sure he 
would appreciate any help or insight.

Tim B.

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[Hampshire] [ADMIN] February meeting - This week!

[Tim Brocklehurst]

Hi guys,

The february meeting is this Saturday (where did January go?) in Building 59 
at Southampton University, from 1pm.

Please send your MAC addresses to Chris Malton by Wednesday if you wish to 
have WiFi access.

From the recent mailing list traffic, we seem to have lots of interest, and a 
few offers of talks/demos. The following is not definitive, but so far we have:

Rich Bensley - Starting with MySQL
Tim B - From Windows 7 to Linux - Basic setup and CLI (on request).
Chris Malton - Doing cool streaming stuff involving servers, PIs and networks. 
[I presume, Chris. - Unconfirmed]

We will also have a Raspberry PI to play with, as we did last month.

Please don't feel that you have to be an expert to come to the meeting, 
experience is not a pre-requisite!

See you there,

Tim B.

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Re: [Hampshire] Promoting LUG meets via social networking

[Tim Brocklehurst]

On Sunday 27 Jan 2013 18:13:22 Anton Piatek wrote:
 I have done a basic intro to the Linux and the command line at work and
 will be repeating it. Maybe I should do it for the lug? I assumed it would
 be a bit basic...

Please do!

Tim B.
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Re: [Hampshire] Promoting LUG meets via social networking

[Tim Brocklehurst]

On Sunday 27 Jan 2013 18:00:26 Ally Biggs wrote:
 Just a idea but to attract more newcomers to meets. You should hold
 Talks on stuff like the basics of Linux
 Administration covering areas such as basic samba (getting windows and
 Linux to play nicely). There is probably Alot of people out there coming
 from a windows world who are making the transition to Linux. Who are not
 necessarily gurus and do not want to sit to talks and lectures on advanced
 topics. With raspberry pi being released this would also be a perfect
 opportunity To grab new users attention. I'm quite
 New to Linux myself I wouldn't want to
 Attend a meeting and sit through a talk
 On something I'm either not interested in or am technically not at that
 level. It would put me off attending further meetings. A beginners setting
 up a Linux server workshop would be very Popular with myself and a lot of
 other
 People out there. Just some thoughts

Ally,

The plan this year is to have a few scheduled events. A lecture (which we've 
done), a debate (still being developed), and a social BBQ in the summer. Other 
monthly meetings have had a much less formal agenda for quite a while. I 
like the workshop idea, and that's what we're gradually moving towards. 
There are usually enough knowledgable people at the meetings to answer most of 
your questions, and can walk you through the steps. If there's a particular 
area you're interested in which you want a demo on, then please post a request 
for info when the meeting is announced (sorry I've been a bit slow doing it 
this month), and someone might be able to help you. I can certainly help with 
your topics above.

Hope to see you at the Feb meeting,

Tim B.

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Re: [Hampshire] Promoting LUG meets via social networking

[Tim Brocklehurst]

On Sunday 27 Jan 2013 17:47:41 Alan Pope wrote:
 Hullo,
 
 It struck me today that the LUG doesn't have any kind of active presence
 on social networks (such as Twitter, Facebook and Google+). I have seen
 other LUGs promote their meetings (and not much else) via these networks
 and it struck me as a good way to reach a wider audience than the
 website and mailing list currently do.
 
 I wondered if it might be worth setting up a presence on each of the
 above networks and have some people responsible for posting when the LUG
 has a meeting.
 
 To be clear, this isn't to replace the mailing list or website, and
 isn't targeting _you_ because you are already on the list. It's to
 target potential new people.
 
 Opinions / flames...
 
 Cheers,

Alan,

This is not the first time it has been suggested. (See my thread back in 
October entitled [Admin]Observations, improvements and initiatives. However, 
there was not a huge response to the idea.

I still think it's a good idea, but based on the amount of support, nothing 
further has happened.

Tim B.

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[Hampshire] [ADMIN] February Meeting

[Tim Brocklehurst]

Hi everyone,

I'd like to announce that the February meeting will take place on the 2nd
of Feb. We are in our usual place (Building 59, Southampton University),
and start at 1pm.

There is no firm plan of talks etc., but if anyone wants to give a talk or
demo, we can do it on an ad-hoc basis as we did in January. There will be
a Raspberry PI available to play with, as last month.

Hope to see you there,

Tim B.

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Re: [Hampshire] Suggestions for MySQL connectivity

[Tim Brocklehurst]

 Clearly we have to go somewhere else. Can anybody recommend a hosting
 company that will provide a direct connection to MySQL?
 
 The support told me that it was a wicked thing to do a huge security
 risk. Not having been involved in software for several years, I am
 willing to believe that it could have become a problem, but is it such a
 risk that nobody will offer direct connections. If so what are the the
 mechanisms that are unsafe? Also what alternative techniques are
 available to transfer data between databases.

Roger,

Providing a direct connection to MySQL (or any database server) is probably 
not a good idea [1]. Put simply, while MySQL has some security features, I 
wouldn't rely on them over the internet. This drove me to hosting a similar 
setup internally at a company I was working for some years back.

You could consider an SSH tunnel, or a VPN tunnel into the remote server, and 
then access the database through that. There are loads of examples of these, 
just google. The tunnel itself secures any data that is transmitted through 
it, so the other end just looks like a continuation of your LAN. However, if 
you do this you need to ensure that passwords and/or keys are kept safe, and 
are suitably strong.

Alternatively, there is nothing to stop you hosting it internal to the 
company, as long as they have a sufficiently reliable (and fast enough) 
broadband provider. However, this has both pros and cons.

Hope this helps,

Tim B.

[1] http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/security-against-attack.html
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Re: [Hampshire] Devopsdays London

[Tim Brocklehurst]

I won't be going; Just can't consider £120 at the moment on anything that's 
not esssential.

Also there is little description of what the conference is about on the 
website (as far as I was interested to browse; which wasn't very far). 
Dropping a note to mailing lists will get better response if you state what 
it's about. possibly the following:

What it is.
What the aim is.
Who it's for.
Where/When/How much

Good luck, 

Tim B.

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Re: [Hampshire] [ADMIN] January Meeting

[Tim Brocklehurst]

Hello everyone,

Just a two-day reminder for the next meeting. Normal place (Southampton Uni, 
Building 59) but starting at 1pm this time. We have a good line-up this month; 
We will have a Raspberry PI to play with; I will be giving a demonstration on 
how to analyse high-speed interface signals with minimal equipment. Chris will 
be available to talk about the website, and John might be coaxed into demoing 
the network security game he posted about a few days ago.

See you there!

Tim B.

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Re: [Hampshire] educational game?

[Tim Brocklehurst]

On Tuesday 08 Jan 2013 17:04:04 john wrote:
 Hi
 
 I have just discovered this game d0x3d.  See
 http://d0x3d.com/d0x3d/welcome.html.
 
 It looks educational on network security and appears to be fun.  Could be
 used at a LUG meet?
 
 Have a look interested in your thoughts.
 
 John Eayrs

All linux-related topics are fair game for talks, demos, etc. in this LUG! 

Tim B.
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Re: [Hampshire] Windows 8 (Not entirely O.T.)

[Tim Brocklehurst]

Full marks for bravery for that post.

The Gates foundation does actually do a lot of good; but it always seems to me 
like the satisfaction of a guilty conscience (just my opinion).

As for where you should send them; surely in front of said Windows 8 machine.

I can only suggest that you object to the 3-line whip in the strongest 
possible terms and put something sensible on the machine.

Tim B.
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[Hampshire] [ADMIN] January Meeting

[Tim Brocklehurst]

Well, Merry Christmas everyone! Hope everyone had a good time.

Just a quick heads-up for the January meeting. It will be held on the 12th at 
our usual place. Southampton Uni, Building 59. We'll be trying a slightly 
different format this time. We will start at 1pm and end at 4pm. We're trying 
this because I've noticed that there is not a huge turnout until about 12 
anyway.

I will have a Raspberry PI (and screen this time) available for people to play 
with. I can also demonstrate how to analyse some of the signals output by the 
Pi; Especially those that are too fast for a normal volt-meter to capture.

If anyone wants to give a talk, let me know.

See you there,

Tim Brocklehurst
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Re: [Hampshire] Vodafone USB dongle and wvdial

[Tim Brocklehurst]

Haven't used wvdial (at least not directly). But I have used the same VF 
dongle on Debian Wheezy through netork manager. You'll probably need details 
about the device which aren't immediately obvious, but I found them using VF's 
Win7 utility.

Good luck,

Tim B.

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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu spy program

[Tim Brocklehurst]

Thanks for the repost Andy.

I read about this last month, and I must admit that I felt glad that I'm not a 
Ubuntu user.

I'm not so worried about Canonical collecting data, as I am about whether I 
trust that Canonical has my best interests at heart. And that's why I don't 
use Ubuntu.

There is an implicit trust that the distribution maintainers will take 
decisions that are at least in the spirit of those that you would make 
yourself. I realise that sometimes upstream makes big changes (generally with 
good reason), but it's up to the distributions to decide if, when and how to 
adapt to it. Personally, I'm a Debian guy, and with the slight exception of 
early versions of KDE4 and Amarok (notably); the debian maintainers have done 
a damn good job of giving me the system I need for both work and home.

However, once you remove that trust between user and maintainer, you stand to 
lose users; quickly. I realise that Canonical has to pay the bills, and I know 
they want to be new and flag-waving; but the flag you need to wave is we have 
happy users, not we keep doing things and accidentally irritate you. 
Canonical's influence has been massive, and beneficial; don't underestimate 
that; particularly raising the expectations for the quality of the desktop.

Unfortunately, with this following hot on the heels of Unity, I think many 
users might migrate to other distro's and not recommend Ubuntu at all. After 
all, would you use a system out of choice if you didn't think you could trust 
the developers? Isn't that WHY we use Linux at all?

Cheers,

Tim B.

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Re: [Hampshire] LUG revellers in hotel shock horror

[Tim Brocklehurst]

Yes, I found that too. Hence why my original post on the website doesn't
contain the world Hotel. My apologies if this confused anyone. It was a
pain to write I can assure you!

Cheers,

Tim B.

 Just an amusing side note...

 I tried to add my item about the Christmas Lecture to the wiki, and got
 the message:

Sorry, can not save page because Hotel is not allowed in this wiki.

 It seems that the anti-spam software doesn't like the thought of
 anything that involves a hotel.

 I've fixed the wiki now, removing such dubious terms as 'furniture',
 'coupons', and 'chandelier' from the banned list.

 Of course, the true story about what really went on in the the hotel
 that night remains untold...

 cheers

 Chris
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Re: [Hampshire] CoderDojo Southampton?

[Tim Brocklehurst]

On Sunday 09 Dec 2012 15:43:43 Imran Chaudhry wrote:
 I've recently become aware of this CoderDojo thing from an article
 in the Guardian [0]
 
 It got me thinking on how great it would be if Southampton had one of
 these. I have been reading the website and Getting started guide [1]
 and it all looks doable.

I have spoken to STEMNET about supporting local schools who are interested in 
software and tech, and they seemed to be interested. Quite a few schools are 
already doing after-school programming-type activities, so I think it's best 
to offer support for this within the current HantsLUG structure. I need to 
chase it up again, but it is really down to the teachers and students to make 
use of it.

 For me, I'm thinking I have too many family and personal commitments
 to give this a go as a mentor... but I thought I'd put it out there
 just in case anyone is interested? It's something I am still thinking
 about so who knows.

Yep, me too, weekly mentoring isn't likely to happen in person, but as a LUG 
we do have a mailing list. I am happy to visit schools and give talks about 
how I use technology and software in a maritime setting, about what the LUG 
can offer, and what STEM means for the next generation.

 One challenge is lack of weekly venue perhaps, something the
 Southampton Hackspace people seem to be having too [2].

Ah, that's a problem, especially when you start specifying requirements. We 
are very lucky to have simple requirements and have a useful man on the 
insidetm

If anyone wants to get into helping out schools, talk to STEMNET 
http://www.stemnet.org.uk/ and consider becoming an ambassador.

Cheers,

Tim B.
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Re: [Hampshire] Christmas Lecture

[Tim Brocklehurst]

Hi guys,

Just a quick reminder that the first ever HantsLUG Christmas Lecture will
be held tomorrow at 5pm at Southampton University (Zepler/Mountbatten
Building). RHoK will also be running in the same building, so it's a
fantasic opportunity to meet new people and see what else is happening in
our area.

Hope to see you there,

Tim B.

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Re: [Hampshire] 8TB Cloud

[Tim Brocklehurst]

Hi Rob,

See comments below:

On Sunday 25 Nov 2012 11:23:53 Rob Malpass wrote:
 I'm trying to build a PC which has 8TB of storage - to be my media server.
 For the moment, I'm deliberately ignoring devices like microservers or
 Drobos - mostly on cost and the fact I have several towers with enough
 space to take 4*2TB drives.   I've not built a PC for ages so I have a few
 questions:

Do you intend to use RAID 0 or LVM across the drives to give you 8TB? If so, 
you might consider another smaller drive for the OS. It depends on how worried 
you are about reliability. I would seriously consider RAID5 or similar, which 
will still give you 6TB, which is actually loads of TV.

 1) Is SATA still the bus of choice?   According to Novatech, there is now
 Serial attached SCSI.   I don't think any of my mobos have this bus, and
 indeed it seems the drives sizes here are a lot smaller than I need - but
 is there anything pushing this over SATA?

SAS is around for servers, but SATA is more than sufficient for what you're 
doing. Even if you were thinking of using a SATA port expander, you won't be 
band-width limited by SATA.

eg. 
http://compare.ebay.co.uk/like/110959611583?var=lvltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypesvar=sbaradtype=placrdt=0

 2) Presumably I need a stronger power supply.   If there are 4 hdds and 1
 DVD drive - what sort of wattage should I be looking at?

I have been running something similar with a 350W PSU from E-buyer for some 
years now. However, I may have just been lucky.

 3) If, expense notwithstanding for the moment, I did this as 4*2TB external
 USB hard drives, I've had trouble sharing these with Ubuntu before now.
 For some reason they're mounted under /media under a strange (and seemingly
 random) string of characters (which change every time the server is
 restarted) such that permanent shortcuts from other devices on the network
 wouldn't work and would need to be re-established each time I connect.  
 Has anyone worked around this?

Ah, the joys of USB device evaluation. As others have said, you can mount 
these as you would any other device. However, if you use USB interfaces 
(except USB3) you will significantly drop the bandwidth to each disk, and 
therefore reduce your transfer rates to a maximum of 480MBps (60MB/s) less 
overhead across all disks which are connected to a given host channel. Don't 
use USB, use a SATA port multiplier.

Cheers,

Tim B.

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Re: [Hampshire] Hard disk failing

[Tim Brocklehurst]

On Saturday 24 Nov 2012 13:17:12 Kevin Safford wrote:
 gsmartcontrol reports that my hard disk is failing.
 
 I can still read and write to the disk, but I want to replace it before
 it's too late. I've not had to do anything like this before, so help! I
 have a new disk, ready and waiting.
 
 The failing drive is partitioned as:
   /dev/sda1   ext4/   37.25 GiB
   /dev/sda3   ext4/home   424.63 GiB
   /dev/sda2   extended3.87 GiB
  /dev/sda5swap
 
 After the latest problems, I booted into recovery mode and ran fsck,
 accepting the default options, to tidy up orphan files.
 
 I then installed ddrescue, and put a copy of /dev/sda on an external
 hard drive:
 
  sudo ddrescue /dev/sda /media/rescue/sda_rescue rescue.log
 
 That gives me a 500 GB file. I've also got (stored separately), gz
 backups of /home.
 
  From some of the messages I got when installing ddrescue (from memory,
 that there's no version information for various packages, assuming they
 are not installed), I've lost some of the synaptic information.
 
 What's my best way forward from here? When I've swapped disks, can I use
 dd to write my rescued information to the new hard drive?
 
 If so, is it advisable to do this, or is it better to do a clean
 install, and copy over /home from a backup?
 
 If I do a clean install, what's the easiest way of getting a list of
 software that I've installed through synaptic, and reinstalling it?
 
 I'm running Mint 13 Mate 64-bit.

If you don't have too much stuff configured (or time is not an issue) I would 
opt to do a clean install on the new disk and then copy /home from the 
existing disk.

On debian type systems you can use dpkg --get-selections as root to show 
installed packages. If you diff this against a clean install then you should 
get a managable number of packages to re-install.

You can also use tar to archive the root partition (ie. tar --one-file-system -
cvf root.tar /) and then restore it on your new disk.

On using dd, if you dd a whole device (/dev/sda), then you store the whole 
geometry. If you dd /dev/sda1, then you only store the filesystem and you can 
mount this with loopback options later, which is more flexible. Chances are 
that when you change disks you would usually take the opportunity to put more 
storage in. Therefore, recreating the exact device may not be what you are 
after.

Hope this helps,

Tim B. 
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Re: [Hampshire] Christmas Lecture

[Tim Brocklehurst]

On Monday 19 Nov 2012 16:59:49 Jon Wilks wrote:
 Is it OK to go to the lecture and skip the email?
 
 Jon

Yes, only the meal needs pre-registering.

Tim B.
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Re: [Hampshire] Christmas Lecture

[Tim Brocklehurst]

Hey guys,

Only 3 days to get your orders for the meal in. I can't guarantee a seat with 
us if you don't let Ed have your order before Wednesday.

Cheers,

Tim B.

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Hampshire Linux User Group Chairman

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[Hampshire] Christmas Lecture

[Tim Brocklehurst]

Ladies and gentlemen,

This is a reminder that the Christmas Lecture will be held on the 1st December 
at Southampton University. We will be next-door to our usual location (in 
Zepler/Mountbatten building). There will be signs in prominant positions.

If you want to join us for the meal afterwards, please let Ed Beckmann ( 
edward.beckm...@gmail.com ) know (and send him your cheque) by Wednesday 21st 
November, or earlier if you possibly can.

Further details are on the website, http://www.hants.lug.org.uk/wiki/HomePage

We are welcome to visit the RHoK event which is going on at the same time, 
also in Zepler/Mountbatten.

Cheers,

Tim B.
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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity

[Tim Brocklehurst]

On Friday 09 Nov 2012 14:30:41 Gordon Scott wrote:
 Those touchpoint things seem quite good for normal mouse work, any idea
 if they're really workable for heavier graphics stuff, specifically
 PCB-CAD, which is the time I have to use it most, though some large
 cut-and-paste tasks can be as bad. (I'm _not_ doing freehand drawing.)

I do quite a bit of CAD now and again (usually part free-hand i.e. not using 
grid or object snapping), and I'm not aware of anything that beats the mouse 
for precision and speed. I have a touchpad on the laptop, and while it's a 
good one, it just doesn't compare. I've never had any luck with the 
touchpoints either. CAD packages are unusually mouse-heavy, but also require 
typing a fair few commands, so keeping the keyboard area clear is important.

Tim B.

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Hampshire Linux User Group Chairman

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Re: [Hampshire] Wiki broken?

[Tim Brocklehurst]

  On 05/11/12 15:46, Chris Dennis wrote:
  So, this is the plan.  I've re-enabled new accounts, which means that
  anyone can create an account.  BUT, only users who are members of the
  'editors' group can change things.  If you want to be an editor, create
  an account, and let me know your user name by sending an email to
  webmas...@hantslug.org.uk.
  
  Hmmm...  Less that 24 hours later, about 50 random user names have
  appeared in the wiki's list of users.  No pages have been hacked, but
  it's a bit of a worry...

Could I suggest an account on application-to-the-webmaster system? I'd be 
surprised if there will be more than 10 contributors?

Cheers,

Tim B.
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Hampshire Linux User Group Chairman

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Re: [Hampshire] Lost Panel

[Tim Brocklehurst]

On Saturday 27 Oct 2012 13:58:44 Chris. Aubrey-Smith wrote:
 Help! Using Debian 6 and I've somehow lost the panel from the top of the
 screen. This means I have no easy access to installed software (have to
 find and invoke the individual binaries) or even to a command line! Can't
 even shut down gracefully!
 
 Everything's backed up and I have access to other machines, but I'd rather
 not have to spend hours rebuilding the system from scratch.
 
 What do I do now?
 
 Chris

Chris,

Ctrl+Alt+F1 to F6 will get you a console. Can you give us a bit more info? 
Which desktop are you using? Have you recently done an update etc?

Hope this helps,

Tim B.

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Re: [Hampshire] Random Hacks of Kindness, 1-2 December, Southampton

[Tim Brocklehurst]

On Wednesday 24 Oct 2012 12:20:19 Dirk Gorissen wrote:
 Hi Guys,
 
 RHoK.org events happen twice every year for the next round (1-2
 December) we are the only UK location. With talks from
 crisismappersuk, google, cleanwebuk, import.io, and support from
 Google, Microsoft, and others it should be a great event and the
 chance to do something for the better.

As Chris pointed out, this event looks like it will clash with our December 
meeting. Actually, the two events can co-exist and may be mutually beneficial. 
I don't want to say too much about our December meeting just yet, as details 
will be announced in the next few days. However, it will be a more formal 
lecture format with a guest speaker, followed by a dinner. The lecture will 
start in the late afternoon on the 1st, so if you wish to visit RHOK there 
will be plenty of time to do so.

From what Dirk has told me, the rhok is a weekend event, starting with a 
social the Friday evening and running the whole day Saturday (9am-11pm at the 
latest) and Sunday (9am-5pm). RHOK is a hackathon with a definite deadline. 
Teams have from Saturday 10am to Sunday 4pm to solve a problem and develop a 
prototype before judging begins. This means that typically everybody is glued 
to their laptops and its not uncommon for people to work straight through the 
night. There are 3 short (5-10min) talks scheduled around lunchtime on 
Saturday, and during the weekend there will be occasional video hangouts with 
other rhok locations around the world.

If you are interested in seeing what's going on, go to Dirk's site for more 
details.

Cheers,

Tim B.
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Hampshire Linux User Group Chairman

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Re: [Hampshire] Random Hacks of Kindness, 1-2 December, Southampton

[Tim Brocklehurst]

On Wednesday 24 Oct 2012 23:30:38 Chris Dennis wrote:
 On 24/10/12 12:20, Dirk Gorissen wrote:
  Hi Guys,
  
  RHoK.org events happen twice every year for the next round (1-2
  December) we are the only UK location.
 
 This is on the same date, and in (roughly) the same location as our
 planned December meeting: can we combine the two in some way?
 
 cheers
 
 Chris

Yep, Already in discussions with Dirk. I'll let you know the outcome.

Tim B.
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Hampshire Linux User Group Chairman

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[Hampshire] [ADMIN] November Meeting

[Tim Brocklehurst]

Hi guys,

Just a quick reminder that our next meeting will be at 10am on Saturday 3rd of 
November.

There is just one talk this month (about recording and making sense of motion 
data), but there's still time to offer!

Cheers,

Tim B.

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[Hampshire] [Admin]Observations, improvements and initiatives

[Tim Brocklehurst]

I'll apologise in advance for this rather lengthy e-mail, but I think it's 
important that I outline a few observations and ideas I have. The points below 
were discussed at the last meeting, and I have updated this version in light 
of the comments recieved.

If you want to discuss the following points, please reply to this e-mail with 
the subject line specified.

Observations:

Meeting Venues: (subject line [ADMIN][OBS-MEET_VEN])
We have had an issue with the availability of meeting venues. I'm glad 
to 
say the Chris Malton has confirmed the availability of our normal meeting room 
for the forseable future. I will continue to try to find some alternative 
venues, just to provide a bit of variety.
Alternative venues will probably be pubs. If anyone knows of suitable 
locations, or friendly companies who would be willing to loan us a conference 
room, please let us know!

No meetings over the summer: (subject line [ADMIN][OBS-SUMMER])
This year, we didn't have any meetings over the summer. The reasons for 
this were numerous, including venue availability, and having such nice 
weather. I suggest that we have a “summer break” where the July and August 
meetings are replaced with an informal barbeque in late July. Hopefully, this 
will keep things going, but in a more relaxed manner.

Publicity: (subject line [ADMIN][OBS-PUB])
We currently have very little publicity, we can be found by 
web-searches, 
but we're not exactly well known by the general public as it were. In 
parallel with the proposed events (see later in this e-mail), I suggest we 
investigate advertising on radio (eg. Radio Solent / Wave105 / Jack FM), 
possibly giving a short interview or similar about the upcoming events and 
meetings (Wave 105 has (or at least, had, a section for upcoming local 
events). Would anyone like to take on the mantle of Publicity Rep?
An easy win for us is to put together a Facebook page for the LUG, 
which hopefully would raise our profile through networks of friends (I'm fully 
aware that not everyone uses facebook).



Improvements:

Website Layout: (subject line [ADMIN][IMP-WEB])
At present, the general layout and presentation of the website is a 
little dated compared to other LUGS. There is useful information on the site, 
but it needs a bit of a re-organisation. I think Surrey has the right idea 
with thier homepage ( http://surrey.lug.org.uk/ ). It's clear and informative. 
I think it would be useful to schedule time at January's meeting to discuss 
ideas in detail, but please start discussing options now!.

LUG / Hackerspace relations: (subject line [ADMIN][IMP-HACK])
Hackerspaces are becoming more prevalant, and I don't believe that they 
are any sort of threat to the LUG. I think there is a lot to learn from making 
and building things, and there's a lot of information in both the LUG and 
Hackerspaces which can be mutually beneficial. I think this is particularly 
important for the younger LUG members (thinking 16-21yo), as there is a good 
probability that if they choose an engineering career there will be a lot of 
cross-over. So I heartily welcome any talks about hacking (the legal 
interfacing or coding type), interfacing electronics. I think we could also 
consider holding joint meetings.



New initiatives:

Support for LUG members' projects: (subject line [ADMIN][INI-PROJECTS])
This suggestion recieved considerable discussion, and requires careful 
thought about the terms under which we operate such a scheme. Initially, I had 
only really considered fiscal funding, in order to help younger members to get 
ideas off the ground. In discussion, however, the point was made that help in 
the form of knowledge and kit was just as useful (if not moreso) than finance. 
Consequently, I have renamed this initiative.
I suggest that a crowdfunding-type mechanism is used (with donations 
able 
to be made in the form of time and experience as well as money), with project 
application to the comittee. On application, projects will be subject to a 
review for suitability by the committee. After which, sucessful projects will 
be put onto the website. Rather than a requiring a total amount to be raised 
before the project is funded, I think it would be preferable to provide 
funding in a drip-feed manner, as donations come in.
It is expected that presentations given at LUG meetings will increase 
the 
probability of funding, and these presentations can be recorded and added to 
the website for public viewing. Conversely, it is unlikely that you will 
continue to be funded if you show little or no progress, and this is not 
likely to do you any favours for future bids. I am sure that good accounting 
and thanking those who donate time and equipment will go down well too!
Concern was raised that there was possibility for cons and deception 
with 
this initiative. That is certainly true, but I must stress that under the 

Re: [Hampshire] [ADMIN] Chairman's intro and November meeting

[Tim Brocklehurst]

On Friday 12 Oct 2012 21:47:19 i...@astrometrics.org.uk wrote:
  I wont be able to make the talk on Android for Motion Logging. I would
  be extremely grateful on seeing the presentation slides if poss.

Ian,

No problem. I'm using an app (AndroSensor) to grab the data, most of the talk 
will be focussed on doing something with the data, displaying and 
understanding it. If you're interested in development of motion logging on 
Android, then the authors of the App would be worth contacting.

Cheers,

Tim B.

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Re: [Hampshire] [ADMIN] Chairman's intro and November meeting

[Tim Brocklehurst]

Thanks Imran...

 I will try and put my money where my mouth is and whip up something for
 November.

That would be great. I'm sure nobody want me to be the sole speaker over the 
next few months!

 I sadly could not attend the AGM for family reasons and felt bad about it.

No need to feel bad. Family should come first.

See you in November.

Tim B.

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[Hampshire] [ADMIN] Chairman's intro and November meeting

[Tim Brocklehurst]

Hi everyone!

As Adam has already informed you, I am the new chairman. Hopefully you'll 
think that's a good thing! I would like to thank Adam for doing a heoric job 
through a time of adversity, with many other pressures on his time. My thanks 
also to the rest of the comittee for enabling the LUG to run smoothly under 
his direction.

For those who don't know me, I'm 27, I live in Gosport, and earn my living as 
a software engineer. I studied Naval Architecture (specialising in small craft 
design) at both Southampton University and the Solent University. My interests 
include boats, aircraft and electronics.

At some point this week, I will post an overview of what I will be 
concentrating on during my term in office. This was discussed in some detail at 
the last meeting, and the feedback recieved was generally positive.

I think it is important to remember that everyone can participate in the LUG 
to some degree (in fact, to whatever degree they wish) and I will be making as 
many of the new iniatives open to everyone as possible. I would particularly 
like to encourage people to give talks at our monthly meetings. Talks don't 
have to be long, they can be about anything linux or FOSS related, you can 
even do a talk to demonstrate a problem and ask for help. If you are willing 
to give a talk, just let me know and I'll make sure you get to give your talk.

Our next meeting will be held from 10am (until about 4pm) on Saturday 3rd 
November at Southampton University, in the ECS building. I would like to thank 
Chris Malton for securing our normal room well into next year.

I hope to see many of you at the next meeting!


Tim Brocklehurst

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Re: [Hampshire] Fwd: Linux on a G4 Mac Mini

[Tim Brocklehurst]

Victor,

What do you get if you boot without the hard-disk? I know that sounds weird, 
but it might force some boot options. Then pick up an HDD from ebuyer or 
similar.

Cheers,

Tim B.

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