RE: Request for consensus (was Re: CLUG - my observations)
If you agree that Rik's recent posts haven't made much sense, then you can implicitly agree by not replying to this message. Agreed? That's not on. That's a fine example of how not to build a community. That's an attack by lassitude - admittedly a phrase that I just invented. Personally I think that many of Rik's recent posts are nonsense (that's the bits I don't understand; maybe the problem is mine). Some of the rest I disagree with. But I won't interpret others' silence as meaning anything at all, other than that they don't reply for whatever reason. It is quite wrong to draw implications from their silence Freedom is indivisible. Freedom implies that one is free to be wrong, free to be a bloody idiot, free to irritate people. Free to agree, free to disagree. If you don't like Rik's posts, or his views or his socks or whatever, you are also free: free to delete the message thread unread. Use a kill filter. Read that again: freedom is indivisible. Slainte Gordon winmail.dat
RE: Request for consensus (was Re: CLUG - my observations)
Chris Sawtell wrote: On Wednesday 29 November 2006 17:06, Gordon Findlay wrote: Read that again: freedom is indivisible. Indeed that's true, but the question we are debating is whether we, as a group, wish to extend that freedom to members from whom excessively frequent postings seem to indicate a very different and divergent point of view of the world from that which the mainstream CLUG community members normally see things. That is a very un-free view. What 'mainstream'? Who defines the 'mainstream'? This sort of judgment is one that can only be made in a closed group. What's mainstream in CLUG? Is it Ubuntu+Gnome? Not long ago it was gentoo+KDE. Why must there be a 'mainstream' in a freedom-oriented organisation anyway? If there is to be an 'approved view' (I know, I'm drawing a long bow here) then CLUG is not free. Nor is it free if the mailing list is moderated (I draw no distinction between the mailing list and CLUG). Freedom is a delicate, and precious, flower which needs a hothouse to flourish; other occupants of the house must make allowances. to find a solution to a somewhat esoteric problem and see a continuum of postings somewhat laking in literacy skills about irrelevant politics, they'll just unsubscribe and find the solution to their particular problem elsewhere. Which is fantastic - they got their problem solved. [Humour alert: Is that a correct use of 'continuum' :-) - I'm a pedant] I don't intend to post again in this thread - I've said what I needed to say. But here's a question or two to ponder: would rms enjoy being a member of this list? Would he be in the 'mainstream'? Slainte Gordon. winmail.dat
RE: [was Slax filesystem] Qt
Rik: no-one likes a good fight more than I, although the KDE-GNOME things is really old now. But a good fight requires clear communication. I've known you a long time, and you know that I admire your efforts to promote FOSS (or FLOSS, or OSS or whatever your preferred acronym is today). I've helped you with three Software Freedom Days in the past, and sponsored them with real money. I know that you have very carefully thought through positions on many things: OSS, politics, economics to name but three. I'd be interested to hear more about your position, and the thinking that has lead to it. Over a cup of coffee, I can usually follow your reasoning, although I don't always agree. But on this list, your contributions are opaque, cryptic, and (come across anyway) as unreasoned. That's partly due to the limitations of this medium, partly due to the way that you use it Can I ask you Rik, to help me if no-one else, to - avoid cryptic remarks and in-jokes. Say what you have to say in clear English. - state your position clearly - use more words rather than fewer. Hints don't work! - ignore conspiracy theories, even involving Ballmer - accept that there will always be disagreements and people will always make different choices, because that's what this movement is all about - write in complete sentences, with reasonably standard grammatical constructs. I am sure that your views on KDE-GNOME, Qt licensing, Ubuntu vs any other distro, SuSE/RedHat are passionately held and well reasoned, even if not clearly written down. But this stuff is old hat here, and everyone has come to their conclusions. Let's move on. And to pre-empt another hobby-horse of several people here: yes, I'm sending this from a Windows box. That's what I use at work, for various reasons. I teach Windows. Unlike most, I also teach Linux. At home I use FC6, having moved very recently from SUSE. I may move back to openSUSE in the future. But I'll keep my own counsel on why. Slainte Gordon - Gordon Findlay, Academic IT Manager, Avonmore Tertiary Academy ph 0 3 9772692 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] The cares of tomorrow can wait until this day is done. -Original Message- From: Rik Tindall [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Fri 11/24/2006 2:07 AM To: linux-users@it.canterbury.ac.nz Subject: Re: [was Slax filesystem] Qt Robert Fisher wrote: On Thursday 23 November 2006 11:06 am, Rik Tindall wrote: Nick Rout wrote: I haven't seen an out and out slugfest between gnome adherents and kde adherents for years now. In fact you are the only person I have seen who discusses it with such antagonism. It is a mistake to personalise this Nick, because the finger you point is at a mirror. Actually I agree with Nick on this one. Rob Yes, I heard you the first time Rob - the (AGM) night that Nick and the rest of the 'seven-month-recess' klug komiti got sacked. Since then I've learnt of your part in the koup that replaced the server-side (RedHat) focus in the klub with MandraKe (for Mugs) - just before I came along. It all makes better sense now. Just a bit of fun tho :-) 'sport competition' -- Rik winmail.dat
RE: Fwd: Re: Grossly [OT]
GAMBAS is under rapid development, and the help system lags behind the development version fairly often. Slainte Gordon Gordon Findlay, Academic IT Manager, Avonmore Tertiary Academy, Christchurch. ph: 03 977 2692 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] The cares of tomorrow can wait until this day is done. -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Kerry Mayes Sent: Thursday, 5 October 2006 2:18 p.m. To: linux-users@it.canterbury.ac.nz Subject: Re: Fwd: Re: Grossly [OT] To answer the original Question: Yes, I've used VB (well, mainly VBA) - contact me off list. On the subject of Linux / open source alternatives, I would like to find an alternative to VB that has a development environment with a context sensitive help / reference system. I want to be able to get help on the objects available and language elements. I've learned too many languages and am often needing to find the correct form of the case/ select statement for example! Suggestions so far include: wxPython ironPython Gambas how would these rate? Kerry. On 05/10/06, Andrew Errington [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: snip Apologies in advance. Any body used VB or knows a forum like this about? How about Gambas? http://gambas.sourceforge.net/ Then you would not need to apologise. I believe at least one other list member is playing with it. quote What is that new animal ? Well, Gambas is a free development environment based on a Basic interpreter with object extensions, like Visual Basic. (but it is NOT a clone!). /quote I'd second Carl's recommendation for Python. Gambas is not cross-platform. Python itself (script-level) *is* cross-platform, and with the addition of wxPython allows you to make cross-platfrom GUI applications. In fact, familiarity with VB will help with the event-style programming of a wxPython GUI app. You should probably start off with a few simple Python scripts (no GUI)- there are plenty of resources on the web including the downloadable-for-free Dive into Python by Mark Pilgrim. If you want to leap directly into the wxPython GUI world I recommend Boa Constructor as an IDE, and wxPython in Action by Noel Rappin and Robin Dunn as a reference/tutorial text. If you download the wxPython package and run the wxPython demo you will see just what wxPython can do, and of course you get all that and all the yummy goodness of Python itself. IMHO, Andrew PS I know I have reinforced the classic rabid Open-Source knee jerk response stereotype in answering a question like I want to know about this with a statement You don't want to know about that, you want this. But of course it doesn't matter as I am right.
RE: Programming in Linux
Gambas is free, well-supported and very good at what it does. It has powerful database binding features See http://gambas.sourceforge.net Whether there's an easy way to get at the data files you have I don't know. You might need to pull the data out and import into some other format. Contact me off-list if you like. Slainte Gordon - Gordon Findlay, Academic IT Manager, Avonmore Tertiary Academy ph 0 3 9772692 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Avonmore: NZAPEP Tertiary Education Provider of the Year -Original Message- From: Alan [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sat 9/16/2006 1:49 PM To: Linux Group Subject: Programming in Linux Can anyone suggest a programming tool that is reasonably easy to understand and preferably cheap...like free I have a program that I wrote a few years ago, written in Dbase3 and Clipper, which works in DOS, but although it can be read under windows XP it cannot be worked on due to access to clipper for compiling. I would like to look at rewriting it in a language that would work in Linux. It is a reasonably large program with over 17000 lines in it and uses around 100 databases and associated Index files. Any suggestions please?? Alan winmail.dat
RE: [Fwd: Re: Reminder: CLUG meeting - photo handling]
Got any money from Kevin yet? Need mine? Slainte Gordon Gordon Findlay, Academic IT Manager, Avonmore Tertiary Academy, Christchurch. ph: 03 977 2692 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] The cares of tomorrow can wait until this day is done. -Original Message- From: Rik Tindall [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, 14 September 2006 3:12 p.m. To: linux-users@it.canterbury.ac.nz Subject: Re: [Fwd: Re: Reminder: CLUG meeting - photo handling] Roger Searle wrote: You could try the Party Warehouse on Blenheim Road who have a helium balloons sign out the front... Roger Rik Tindall wrote: PS does anyone know how cheap a small supply of helium is? (balloons) Thanks Roger. Correct track - $56 job - SFD counting. -- Rik
RE: [Fwd: Re: Reminder: CLUG meeting - photo handling]
Oh shit. Meant to be private. Sorry. Slainte Gordon Gordon Findlay, Academic IT Manager, Avonmore Tertiary Academy, Christchurch. ph: 03 977 2692 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] The cares of tomorrow can wait until this day is done. Gordon Findlay, Academic IT Manager, Avonmore Tertiary Academy, Christchurch. ph: 03 977 2692 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] The cares of tomorrow can wait until this day is done. -Original Message- From: Rik Tindall [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, 14 September 2006 3:12 p.m. To: linux-users@it.canterbury.ac.nz Subject: Re: [Fwd: Re: Reminder: CLUG meeting - photo handling] Roger Searle wrote: You could try the Party Warehouse on Blenheim Road who have a helium balloons sign out the front... Roger Rik Tindall wrote: PS does anyone know how cheap a small supply of helium is? (balloons) Thanks Roger. Correct track - $56 job - SFD counting. -- Rik
Re: Backing up MBR
Be careful with the MBR. The other day I had an issue which was resolved by MS technical support telling me to do an FDISK /MBR which removed some hidden information not needed any more. On Wed, 08 Sep 2004 08:27:35 +1200, John Blance [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: IIRC The 512 byte MBR is 446 bytes of bootloader bytes 447+ are the partition table Regards John [EMAIL PROTECTED] 09/07/04 01:06p.m. On Tue, 07 Sep 2004 12:00:44 +1200 Christopher Sawtell [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: dd if=/dev/hda of=/mnt/floppy/mbr.bin count=1 bs=512 works ok but -beware- you are backing up the primary partition table with it, mbr code ends around byte 384 on the first block if memory serves me correctly. -- Delio ** Check out our web site: http://www.cdhb.govt.nz This email and attachments have been scanned for content and viruses and is believed to be clean This email or attachments may contain confidential or legally privileged information intended for the sole use of the addressee(s). Any use, redistribution, disclosure, or reproduction of this message, except as intended, is prohibited. If you received this email in error, please notify the sender and remove all copies of the message, including any attachments. Any views or opinions expressed in this email (unless otherwise stated) may not represent those of Canterbury District Health Board ** -- Gordon Findlay [EMAIL PROTECTED] I love the way Microsoft follows standards. In much the same manner that fish follow migrating caribou. (Paul Tomblin)
Re: simplymepis-2004.rc2.us.iso
I have a copy - email me off list if you want it. I'm based in CBD (Cashel St) Gordon From: Dave G [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: 2004/07/25 Sun PM 10:43:45 GMT+12:00 To: CLUG Mailinglist [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: simplymepis-2004.rc2.us.iso Has anyone got a copy of the latest Mepis release that I could get off the?? As far as I can tell the latest release is: simplymepis-2004.rc2.us.iso I am keen to have a look at it but it is a bit bit to download on my fairly average dial-up connection It is avaliable fom the mirrors at: http://www.mepis.org/book/view/1462 -- cheersdave g Mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _ KMail 1.6.2 using Kontact - KDE Desktop 3.2.2 Mepis Linux - Kernel 2.4.22 (i686) _
Re: ADSL Modem/Router Choices
David Stephen wrote: I am about to get connected via JetStream - TelstraClear is not available in my area. Consequently I need to purchase a suitable modem. There is a bewildering choice, some are remarkably cheap, but are they any good? I'm of Scottish heritage and don't want to spend any more than I have to. A quick search of local suppliers shows a range of cheap ADSL modem/routers that all look as though they will do the job. Three examples: - Puretec PT-3812 $100 http://www.puretek.com.tw/product/adsl%20modem/adsl%20products%20.htm#router I have one of these, and have had a lot of trouble with the local (ethernet) connection dropping. There's lots of good information about it in a blog at http://peteashton.com/001128.html (there's also a signisficant amount of drivel). Slainte Gordon -- Gordon Findlay, AKA [EMAIL PROTECTED] I love the way Microsoft follows standards. In much the same manner that fish follow migrating caribou. (Paul Tomblin)
Re: Web design course (Was: Meeting tonight :)
Christopher Sawtell wrote: On Wed, 29 Jan 2003 18:33, Yuri de Groot wrote: (p.s I just found out that in a web design course at school that i HAVE to use Dreamweaver. Damm Winblows lovers stupid #$%#$^_*(0 ramble ramble Ramble Dude, that sucks. I'd expect a web design course to teach the principles rather than one specific tool. Your school needs to be told that the word 'Education' is derived from the Latin phrase 'e duco' which means 'to draw out', i.e. Education (note big E) is supposed to be the process of drawing out the best from the pupils. imho most schools world wide fail abjectly. Many schools conveniently forget this and muddle-up the meaning of education (small e) with schooling and vocational training. Rubbish. I have three main objections to this sort of argument, which I see trotted out far too often. 1: Education cannot take place outside of a context. In this case, a web design course cannot happen without using a tool to generate HTML. This tool better not be notepad or vi. In that case, the pernickity syntax of HTML would get in the way of learning web design - the course would (probably) degenerate into a course on vi, or on HTML syntax, completely ignoring the important stuff - for example, that frames are evil :-) 2: Teachers cannot be expected to cater for arbitrary tools. Think about it - some teacher has had to learn to design web pages him/herself. She has not been paid anything extra for this increased skill, nor given any significant amount of time or resources to assist. You cannot expect her to do it all again with another toolset just because someone doesn't want to use Dreamweaver. It is not her job to cater for everyine's favourite tools. IMO, Dreamweaver is pretty horrible at many things: some of its manipulations of tables are downright bizarre. But at most elementary tasks it is at least as good as Frontpage. I wonder why the school isn't sing Frontpage: after all, that's free and they had to pay for DW. 3: Arguing the meaning of a word from its derivation is meaningless, and a cheap shot. Meanings change. Are you aware that the word bimbo, by derivation, refers to males? Apologies to the list - let's nip this discussion in the bud right now; it has little to do with the LUG
Software RAID
Hi it has been suggested to me that I configure a server to use software RAID 1, with two IDE drives, to provide a measure of redundancy. I'm dubious. Does anyone have any experience with this sort of arrangement: specifically with the RAID performance and the impact on the server? Yes, this is an attempt to d othings on the cheap :-) Slainte Gordon
