[Hampshire] [ADMIN] Christmas Lecture - 1st December 2012
Ladies and Gentlemen, I am pleased to announce the first HantsLUG christmas lecture which will take place on 1st December. This event is in place of our normal december meeting, and will take place at Southampton University. The lecture will start at 5pm (please arrive early), and is followed by a dinner served at 8pm at the Mercure Dolphin hotel, just north of Town Quay. Our speaker, Mike Bond, who did his PhD in electronic bank security and now works to improve banking security, will be giving a talk titled Hacking bank cards: 10 years of tools. If you wish to come to the dinner, please choose your meal options from the menu available here: http://www.dolphin-southampton.com/dolphin_images/signature_restaurant_new_winter_menu%20Oct%202012.pdf The prices are as stated on the menu, being £14.95 for two courses, or £18.95 for three courses, except if yu want Rump or Sirloin steak, which attract a £5 surcharge. Some vegetarian options (prices for these may vary) are also available. If you wish to partake in one of the options below, please let me or Ed Beckmann know and we'll arrange it with the hotel. Baked Aubergine en Croute Filled with Savoury Rice and Tomato Sauce Beetroot Risotto with Parmesan Crisps Spinach Wild Mushroom Lasagne Drinks are not included in the meal price, but the Restaurant has a well-stocked bar which will be open before the dinner. The dress code for the dinner is smart-casual or suit (not black tie). Freinds and family are welcome to attend; if you intend to bring children let me or Ed know, and we'll arrange for smaller portions if you wish, and try to get a reduced price. Please send meal options and payment to Ed Beckmann at edward dot beckmann at gmail dot com Or see me or Ed at the November meeting on Saturday. The deadline for options and payment is Saturday 17th November. I look forward to seeing you there, Tim Brocklehurst -- 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 --
Re: [Hampshire] [ADMIN] IMPORTANT PLEASE READ!
I am willing to stand as chairman, if anybody wishes to nominate and second me. I think we've got a great LUG, and I know many of us are very grateful for the LUG. I think we're entering an extremely interesting phase of technological development. There are lots of companies and individuals coming up with great ideas, both hardware and software. This gives a lot of scope for development, learning and sharing. Personally, I think that this is what the LUG is about. All the best, Tim Brocklehurst -- 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 --
Re: [Hampshire] My 2p on the GUI 'Wars'
I was glad that there was available a nice looking modern Linux, easy-to-use distro to come-to-the-rescue of non-techie users (fluffies) like this. I could have installed my own distro-of-choice Debian Squeeze on there and everything would also be fine... but then I'd have to fiddle with installing a back-ported version of iceweasel to get smooth fonts back, and faff around getting users to log-in without a password and a bunch of other things to make it more usable for fluffies. This is stuff that we put up with but many others will not. Interesting. Personally use Debian Wheezy (current testing). I have no gripe with iceweasel's fonts, though I may be less piccy than others, standard install, straight out of the repository. Log-in without password is not hard with either GDM or KDM. And to be honest, password-less login isn't something we all want enabled by default. There are many different options. That's important. There are also a lot of software houses (both proprietary and FOSS) who have an idealised view of how the user should be working, without actually appreciating the requirements that have led to the user working the way they do. Yes, a lot of the interface hardware has been around for a long time. And much of it is very poor for interactive display terminals (for lecture controls for instance). However, it is brilliant when it comes to coding, and engineering type jobs. PLEASE can we realise, that just because there is a new way to do something that is not in itself a compelling argument for doing it. It is however, sensible to consider how we might support it, and add that support into the back-end code. Optional front-ends are great, forcing a front-end on users that they don't like will lose you both current and potential users. It has been mentioned that KDE4 was buggy. Yes, the first release was. However, KDE4 looked very much like KDE3 with some nicer artwork, and (in my opinion) a much-improved launcher (which still has a switch to classic option). The back-end improvements were considerable, but the front-end was familiar. That was why people stuck with it (and many didn't move until about 4.2 anyway). Cheers all, Tim B. -- 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 --
Re: [Hampshire] Recommendation please - Big NAS
I see no reason not to build it yourself. Depending on the criticality of your data you may wish to consider a RAID system, which you can do through Linux in software. You might like to look at some mini-itx motherboards that are around. Some are quite impressive. The case is likely to be the thing you'll struggle with, in terms of cost and space. I haven't been over-impressed with cheap stand-alone NAS boxes, in terms of performance. I'm sure the expensive ones do better. Cheers, Tim B. Hi all I'm looking for a NAS device / media server - need a recommendation please. 1) Needs to be able to store 4TB+ of data so presumably need at least 2 drive bays. 2) Needs to be on 24/7 I was thinking (and this list has previously raved about) a HP microserver. However this gives me a dilemma. I have a PC I could resurrect at the cost of the drives (which I'd need for the microserver anyway) and the cost of a big PSU (big enough to run several hard drives in one box). Said cost would probably come out just under the £230 for a microserver. All of my previous NAS devices (Bufallo Linkstation, Netgear SLU, Netgear ReadyNAS) have all been devoted NAS units so this is the first time I'd ever be buying a proper server if I bought the HP thing. So I guess my question is - why not build a machine myself instead of the microserver? Quietness isn't much of an issue because it'll be in a room separate to the TV. Are there any other considerations here? 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 -- -- 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 --
Re: [Hampshire] Free old systems
** Tim Brocklehurst t...@engineering.selfip.org [2012-05-21 23:51]: On Monday 21 May 2012 14:13:25 Paul Tansom wrote: I'm clearing out some old systems if anyone is interested. I have: IBM RS6000 E20 - I've not used it since I got it and suspect it needs an HD installed, maybe memory Sun Sparcstation 4 - again not used, complete with monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc. Cobalt Raq 4 - need an HD, once again not used, I planed to try RaqCop firewall or something on it, but haven't had the time. Collect from Portsmouth area, just north of Cosham. Can I claim the RS6000? I have a friend who just happens to need one! ** end quote [Tim Brocklehurst] You can indeed, contact me offlist to arrange collection - I'll be glad of the space that one takes up :) Thanks, Paul, when and where would you like me to collect it? Would one evening after work be ok? about 6:30pm - 7:00pm, depending how far away, and what the traffic is like? Tim B. -- 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 --
Re: [Hampshire] Help! I'm buying a laptop.
AMD A6 3400 vs, the Intel i5-2430 Well, The Toshiba is quad core @ 2.3 / 1.4GHz. 4MB cache (1MB per core) a Radeon 65xx series GPU. These tend to be pretty purdy, even my 5400 mobile GPU is quite nice. The ASUS is dual core, 4 threads per-core @2.4GHz can turbo upto 3GHz. It even supports enhanced features (on-die AES crypto accellerator), carries 3MB cache (1.5M per core) houses an nVidia GTX520M which are mouth watering. IMPO, i'd hit up the i5 (ASUS) - You will get far better load handling as you have more cache on this CPU as well as far better multi-threading per-core. Also, the ATI GPU (Toshiba) will most likely steal some of your RAM for the graphics. nVidia tend to ship theirs with it's own memory. Both these CPU's are rated 35W - so price-for-price, the i5 is more bang for your buck. happy hunting, Ian Yes, on further inspection it (www.tomshardware.com has a benchmark of some very similar kit) that the choice is between graphics and maths capability. The greater CPU performance of the i5 is very tempting, and the graphics capability is probably sufficient for what I want to do. I think I've swung to the i5 now, but the Toshiba I linked to doesn't have VGA out, so it'll have to be that CPU in a different box. More searching required, I think. Tim B. -- 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 --
Re: [Hampshire] Help! I'm buying a laptop.
I've just done a bit more searching, and whilst PC-World hasn't in the past been known for incredible value, they have just occasionally come up with something impressive: http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/hp-pavilion-g6-1220sa-15-6-laptop-charcoal-grey-11361479-pdt.html This is quicker than the previous two laptops (at least from the benchmarks I've seen, which as I suggested in the first post of this thread, may be anecdotal), but it's also £50 cheaper. I didn't see much from Novatech which were really exciting for the price, but I know people who have had success with them for business. So many options, Tim B. -- 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 --
Re: [Hampshire] Help! I'm buying a laptop.
One thing I have noticed from the Tesco pics, one laptop has what appears Also, with amusement, Tesco indicate the Asus comes with 802.11b ! Bob. Thanks, Bob, nice catch. The VGA output certainly swings the balance in favour of the Toshiba. I'm not too worried about wireless, It's a nice to have, but nothing that I'm going to lose any sleep over. The VGA port also allows a second monitor for on-desk use, so that is good. This will mostly replace my desktop for a few years, but not completely as I said in another post. Backup of data is no problem; and I'll only store what I'm actually working on on the laptop anyway. I am also considering swapping the HDD for a solid-state drive that I have, and a possible RAM upgrade, to take full advantage of the multi-channel memory bus, if it's not already fully utilised. However, these are minor changes that I'm used to making! Cheers, Tim B. -- 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 --
Re: [Hampshire] [ADMIN] Meeting and AGM
Previous message, vastly cut... Just a quick reminder that the next meeting will take place as planned on Saturday 03 December at Southampton University. It will be our second attempt at our AGM for this year. Adam Trickett Chairman, Hampshire Linux Users Group http://www.hants.lug.org.uk/ Any chance that we can hold voting etc. before lunch, as I have another AGM in the afternoon, and therefore can't stay too long. I hope this doesn't cause anyone else too much inconvenience. Thanks, Tim B. -- 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 --
Re: [Hampshire] [ADMIN] December Meeting and AGM
Chris Dennis: It would be a disaster if HantsLUG fell apart completely -- maybe it will go through a quiet period and then burst into life again later. Agreed. And, like Chris, I'll help out wherever I can; but for the last 18 months or so, I have just been too busy with other things. However, my other commitments will reduce over the next 12 months, so hopefully you should see me at more meetings next year. I think the hardest part of the organisation is probably finding venues for meetings, and organising talks. We owe a great debt of gratitude to our friends at the University and IBM Hursley (and Nokia) for providing such good venues. I think next summer it might be nice to have a few informal meetings (Bar-be-que type), which might encourage other family members to attend, and take the pressure off finding formal venues. Regarding talks, I am planning to do one on interfacing digital multimeters through the serial port, which might be of interest to some, but won't be until the start of next year (still a bit more code, and a lot of slides to write). Cheers, Tim B. -- 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 --
