Re: Attention, graying geeks: Send me your BASIC memories, as the language turns 50 -- David Brooks
There's always the Google Cached version of the article: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:m50mbLKkcpcJ:www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/1034601-469/10-print-basic-turns-50---20.html+cd=1hl=enct=clnkgl=usclient=firefox-a Peter On Wed, Apr 23, 2014 at 1:00 PM, Tom Buskey t...@buskey.name wrote: Crud, the Nashua Telegraph link is a paid only site. On Tue, Apr 22, 2014 at 7:07 PM, Ted Roche tedro...@gmail.com wrote: And Brady Carlson of NHPR talks with David: http://nhpr.org/post/basic-how-dartmouth-helped-open-programming-and-gaming-everybody And the article: http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/1034601-469/10-print-basic-turns-50---20.html Hope a few of you got in touch. -- Ted Roche Associates, LLChttp://www.tedroche.com/ ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
OT: free USB floppy
We are decluttering. I have a Lacie brand USB 3.5 inch floppy disk drive along with 27 3.5 inch disks. Free to good home. I'm in Derry, but travel frequently to Manchester and Nashua. Message me off-list if interested. --Peter ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Nashua's NHLUG meeting has been bumped 1 day to Wednesday
On Fri, Jan 25, 2013 at 11:38 PM, Joshua Judson Rosen roz...@geekspace.comwrote: chris gagnon chris.gag...@makeitlabs.com writes: Topic: Joshua Rosen will be talking about taking over an maintaining an open source project http://www.foxtrotgps.org/ and GPS And, to be clear: I will *not* just be talking about how awesome a job I've done..., because I've definitely made some notable mistakes. I *will* spend time on `how you can make it easy for upstream to accept your patches so that you can stop having to maintain them locally', so you may well want to attend even if you don't have any interest in being an upstream yourself. http://makeitlabs.com/about/map/ MakeIt Labs is actually located on the backside of the building at 29 Crown St. and can be a bit tricky to find. To get here, you will need to pass the place the GPS says we are at by at least 200 yards. Take a right onto the tree lined dirt road after Greenerd Press. The dirt road turns right to the train yard and MakeIt Labs parking lot. Yes--especially at night, it can be extremely non-obvious that you just have to go a little further East down Crown St. before you'll find the mouth of the long dirt driveway (which /does/ have a little `MakeIt Labs' sign where you might otherwise be unsurrised to find a residential-style mailbox, IIRC). If you find yourself at something like *29B* Crown St., it's because you went in the wrong driveway and want the next one to the East. Also (since I previously missed this, myself) note the very specific lat/lon coordinates: 42.760027, -71.445894 http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=42.75491lon=-71.45286zoom=17layers=M I think I should add a mention of the OpenStreetMap project to this thread. It seems particularly relevant since FoxtrotGPS uses data from OpenStreetMap and the above descriptions of how to get to MakeIt Labs seem like they are really wanting for a very detailed map. OpenStreetMap is only as detailed and accurate as the volunteer contributors want to make it. I've been adding a lot of details to the map in southern NH, though I have not yet made it to this part of Nashua. I'd love to have more people using their local knowledge to make the map of NH better, and I would be happy to answer any questions about contributing to or using the OpenStreetMap data. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Nokia N900
This may be stating the obvious, but it tripped me up when I was trying out my Garmin Etrex. You have to be still in order to get a fix. I had the Garmin attached to my bicycle and I was riding up and down my driveway while waiting to go off and map the neighborhood. No fix until I *stopped* for a minute or so. Peter On Sun, May 16, 2010 at 8:42 PM, David Rysdam da...@rysdam.org wrote: On 05/13/2010 08:19 AM, David Rysdam wrote: On 05/12/2010 06:13 PM, Joshua Judson Rosen wrote: Cold tests were performed when both Pocket PC and GPS receiver were powered off (if GPS receiver has a separate power source, the GPS receiver was unplugged) for a period of between 8 to 12 hours requiring a cold start. Warm tests Warm tests were performed when both Pocket PC and GPS receiver were powered off (if GPS receiver has a separate power source, the GPS receiver was unplugged) for a period of 30 minutes Hot tests Hot tests were performed when both Pocket PC and GPS receiver were powered off (if GPS receiver has a separate power source, the GPS receiver was unplugged) for a period of 15 minutes You missed the colder-than-cold test: - Factory is where the receiver has no knowledge whatsoever of Almanac data in turn to locate the satellites and retrieve Ephemeris data, and for a full Almanac to be downloaded can take approx 12.5 mins, hence most companies suggest a factory start of 15 minutes. - So we already know the N810 has to be worse than it should be, due to multiple reports even on this list of 15 minute TsTFF. Also, I apparently cold test my dedicated GPS 1-2 times per day. It's always read to be a GPS before I'm ready to be a driver. Perhaps that says more about how long it takes me to start driving than about how fast my GPS is. That said, I'll try to test it. I'll assume the N810 needs a factory start by this point and then start doing some cold timings. Assuming it doesn't take so long that I have to terminate the test. OK, so my tests are complete. I controlled the GPS with MaemoMapper, which shows how many satellites you've heard from (I guess) and what the signal strengths are. I'm basing average performance on these tests: http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/ttffcomparisons.php 1) Until Saturday, I hadn't had a fix for many months, so I was going to count that as a factory start. Factory start allows for around 12-15 minutes. I got a fix in under 4 minutes. Then I realized that although I was outside, I was still WiFi'd in to the house so it was using AGPS. Result: Invalid. 2) A little over an hour later, I tried from a WiFi-free location. 60-90 minutes is more than 30 minutes (warm test) but much less than 8-12 hours (cold test). According to the baseline, cold tests should take ~1 m, warm tests ~30s. N810? 5 minutes. 3) As soon as I had a fix for a few seconds, I disconnected and retried. This would be a hot test and should take under 10-20 seconds. N810? 5 minutes *again*. 4) Over 12 hours after that, I disabled WiFi at home and tried again. This should be a strict cold test and again should take 1 minute. N810? 13 minutes. Furthermore, I think it would have taken longer if I'd had more patience. It went from 0-5 satellites (I thought 4 or 5 was enough, but it didn't complete then), then wandered down to 1, then back up to 5. This was at the 12 minute mark. So I pointed it up at the sky (it had been resting on the ground) and suddenly all the signal strengths leapt up and I got a fix within a minute after that. Conclusion: The N810 GPS hardware and/or software definitively sucks. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: OpenStreetMap compatible GPS?
We were contemplating GPS units last year, but we never completed the research and didn't make a purchase. That being said, it looks like the major players are Garmin and TomTom. Some TomTom units run Linux, see: http://opentom.org/ However, Garmin may be more ubiquitous. It looks like newer Garmins support USB Mass Storage. So putting OpenStreetMap data files on them is simply a matter of copying the appropriate .img file. See: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OSM_Map_On_Garmin/Mass_Storage_Mode http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OSM_Map_On_Garmin/Download --Peter On Mon, Apr 26, 2010 at 9:51 AM, bruce.lab...@autoliv.com wrote: I've got an old un-upgradable GPS unit that I'd like to replace. (At this point the maps are old enough that I've been directed out in the weeds quite a few times. Umm, that is NOT the point of a GPS...) Towards that end, I'd like to get a new GPS that is OpenStreetMap compatible. My google-fu is pretty lacking - as many list members may have noticed over the years. The OpenStreetMap site(s) I've visited haven't been too illuminating. Does anyone have direct experience with GPS units that work with OSM and are decent? Oh, and the GPS unit is recent enough that I could buy it new? TIA Bruce ** Neither the footer nor anything else in this E-mail is intended to or constitutes an brelectronic signature and/or legally binding agreement in the absence of an brexpress statement or Autoliv policy and/or procedure to the contrary.brThis E-mail and any attachments hereto are Autoliv property and may contain legally brprivileged, confidential and/or proprietary information.brThe recipient of this E-mail is prohibited from distributing, copying, forwarding or in any way brdisseminating any material contained within this E-mail without prior written brpermission from the author. If you receive this E-mail in error, please brimmediately notify the author and delete this E-mail. Autoliv disclaims all brresponsibility and liability for the consequences of any person who fails to brabide by the terms herein. br ** ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
OT: free stuff (Make Magazine)
I've got issues 01 (Jan 2005) through 20 (November 2009) of Make Magazine (O'Reilly) that I'd like to pass along. Thought their might be some interest on this list. The Derry transfer station recycles paper otherwise. Contact me off list to arrange pick up. Thanks, Peter ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: OT: free stuff (Make Magazine)
Spoken for. On Sat, Feb 6, 2010 at 2:30 PM, Peter Dobratz pe...@dobratz.us wrote: I've got issues 01 (Jan 2005) through 20 (November 2009) of Make Magazine (O'Reilly) that I'd like to pass along. Thought their might be some interest on this list. The Derry transfer station recycles paper otherwise. Contact me off list to arrange pick up. Thanks, Peter ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
gaming... for a 15-month old
The suggestions for games for 3-year olds last week got me thinking about my 15-month old son. We've got a table set up at home with a computer running Ubuntu next to a computer running Mac OS X. the 15-month old is tall enough that he can reach the keyboards and mice and he really likes to press the buttons. He does seem to notice that he's affecting things on the screen, but it doesn't seem like he's doing anything on purpose. It seems to be working okay at the moment as long as we keep an eye on him (and make sure to close Gnucash before he starts pressing keys). Is there any way to switch the computer into toddler mode: where every keystroke gives some visual or audible feedback, and the hard drive and network are not written to? We do have some plastic educational toys that do something similar, but he's always more enthralled by the real thing (cell phones, ipods, laptops, desktops, remote controls). He usually gravitates toward whatever the parents are using. Thanks, Peter ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: [semi-OT] alternatives to FairPoint in Nashua?
Update: Our DSL service has been restored and now works as before. There were apparently multiple problems on FairPoint's end, but we also had some mis-communications internally (again, all-volunteer organization, no regular business hours). Thanks for all the helpful suggestions. The mobile broadband would be enticing since it would allow us to take our connection with us to special events, but it might not be worth the money for us. It looks like our general options are really limited to FairPoint or Comcast and at this point we'll probably stick with FairPoint. Thanks, Peter On Sun, Dec 6, 2009 at 9:39 PM, Peter Dobratz pe...@dobratz.us wrote: I help out with some of the technology stuff at a Nashua non-profit, and we're having a frustrating experience getting our DSL to work again with FairPoint (*see below for the whole story). For one phone line + voicemail + DSL, I think it's about $75/month. Are there any alternatives to FairPoint for internet + phone line in Nashua? We're far enough away from Main Street to miss out on the free Wi-Fi. Thanks, Peter The story: The non-profit is Greater Nashua Habitat for Humanity and our original office was in the basement of the church at 154 Main Street in Nashua. Last year, we were given larger, more accessible space at 63 Temple Street. At that time, we had Verizon phone and DSL in the 154 Main Street office and we added a phone line and DSL in the 63 Temple Street office. Since we envisioned 63 Temple Street to be our primary office, we moved our phone number there and then got a new number for the 154 Main Street office. After being in our new office for a while, we decided that we weren't utilizing our phone + internet at the old office enough to justify the cost, so we call up FairPoint (formerly Verizon) and order them to shut off our phone and DSL in the old office (November 16, 2009). Around 5:30 p.m. that same day while we happen to be in the office, the internet goes out (phone still works). Restarting the router/DSL modem don't fix the problem. The next day, someone calls to confirm that our request to shut off service at the old office is not affecting the DSL service we want to keep. (We're an all-volunteer organization; I was away for Thanksgiving week). On November 30, 2009, I stop in our old office (154 Main Street) and, lo and behold, the DSL line is working, but the phone is out. So with this information in hand, I call up FairPoint and tell them that they shut off the phone at one office and the DSL at the other office. I tell and re-tell this story to 4 different FairPoint workers, each promptly deciding it's not their problem and directing me to call another number. Finally, I get them to put in a ticket. I call periodically during the week to see if the ticket has been resolved and on Friday, they say everything should be working and we just need to power-cycle the router and DSL modem. I get into the office and try this today (Sunday), and after this doesn't work I call FairPoint and find out that the ticket that they said was resolved was in fact never resolved and they are still working on it. At this point, I feel like I'm getting mis-information and I'm not sure the best way to proceed. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
[semi-OT] alternatives to FairPoint in Nashua?
I help out with some of the technology stuff at a Nashua non-profit, and we're having a frustrating experience getting our DSL to work again with FairPoint (*see below for the whole story). For one phone line + voicemail + DSL, I think it's about $75/month. Are there any alternatives to FairPoint for internet + phone line in Nashua? We're far enough away from Main Street to miss out on the free Wi-Fi. Thanks, Peter The story: The non-profit is Greater Nashua Habitat for Humanity and our original office was in the basement of the church at 154 Main Street in Nashua. Last year, we were given larger, more accessible space at 63 Temple Street. At that time, we had Verizon phone and DSL in the 154 Main Street office and we added a phone line and DSL in the 63 Temple Street office. Since we envisioned 63 Temple Street to be our primary office, we moved our phone number there and then got a new number for the 154 Main Street office. After being in our new office for a while, we decided that we weren't utilizing our phone + internet at the old office enough to justify the cost, so we call up FairPoint (formerly Verizon) and order them to shut off our phone and DSL in the old office (November 16, 2009). Around 5:30 p.m. that same day while we happen to be in the office, the internet goes out (phone still works). Restarting the router/DSL modem don't fix the problem. The next day, someone calls to confirm that our request to shut off service at the old office is not affecting the DSL service we want to keep. (We're an all-volunteer organization; I was away for Thanksgiving week). On November 30, 2009, I stop in our old office (154 Main Street) and, lo and behold, the DSL line is working, but the phone is out. So with this information in hand, I call up FairPoint and tell them that they shut off the phone at one office and the DSL at the other office. I tell and re-tell this story to 4 different FairPoint workers, each promptly deciding it's not their problem and directing me to call another number. Finally, I get them to put in a ticket. I call periodically during the week to see if the ticket has been resolved and on Friday, they say everything should be working and we just need to power-cycle the router and DSL modem. I get into the office and try this today (Sunday), and after this doesn't work I call FairPoint and find out that the ticket that they said was resolved was in fact never resolved and they are still working on it. At this point, I feel like I'm getting mis-information and I'm not sure the best way to proceed. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Make Q's
#ifndef UTIL_H
#define UTIL_H
#ifdef __cplusplus
extern C {
#endif
void some_function_with_c_linkage();
#ifdef __cplusplus
}
#endif
#endif /* UTIL_H */
Could you explain why this is necessary, and what it does? What is
necessary to use this?
C compilers do not name mangle symbols in the way that C++ compilers do.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compatibility_of_C_and_C%2B%2B#Linking_C_and_C.2B.2B_code
Basically, C++ supports function overloading (two functions with the
same name that differ only in argument lists). The actual name of the
function that is used by the linker has an encoded version of both the
function name and its argument types in it. However, C does not need
the same kind of name changing behavior because it doesn't support
function overloading.
--Peter
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Re: [GNHLUG] [DLSLUG-Announce] TONIGHT: OpenStreetMap - Open Data for Mapping - DLSLUG Monthly Meeting 2009-06-04
In response to some previous postings on this list about OpenStreetMap, I was inspired to start mapping around my house in Derry, NH. See the map so far here: http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=42.88044lon=-71.3262zoom=17layers=B000FTF I'm running the JOSM Jar file on Ubuntu and using gpsbabel to grab GPS traces from my Garmin etrex. Peter On Thu, Jun 4, 2009 at 1:44 PM, Bill McGonigleb...@bfccomputing.com wrote: [ bring some cash for dinner as it makes the single-party bill far simpler to settle ] *** Dartmouth-Lake Sunapee Linux User Group http://dlslug.org/ a chapter of GNHLUG - http://gnhlug.org *** The next regular monthly meeting of DLSLUG will be held: Thursday, June 4th, 7-9PM at: Dartmouth College, Carson L02 All are welcome, free of charge. Agenda 5:30 Pre-meeting dinner at EBA's. 7:00 Sign-in, networking 7:15 Introductory remarks 7:20 OpenStreetMap - Open Data for Mapping presented by Russ Nelson Russ is currently pitching Open Data. The left hand to Open Source's right hand, Open Data is an essential part of many programs. You may think Oh, but my program doesn't use any data. But what about fonts? What about configuration files? What about any files your program reads or writes? OpenStreetMap is geodata, a collection of locations (intersections), connections between them (roads), and connections between the connections (bus routes). All of these can have arbitrary amounts of metadata stored with them, like names, speed limits, purpose of the road, etc. All of this is stored in a PostgreSQL database and available through an API which presents a simpler interface than raw SQL queries. With all of this data in hand, you can make a map. But maps aren't new; why is OpenStreetMap (OSM) new? OpenStreetMap is licensed under a community reciprocal license, so that people who contribute to it are confident that the people who distribute it will reciprocate under the same license. Unlike public domain data like the Census's TIGER data, OSM has a custodian who wants your contributions. Unlike proprietary data like Google Maps, or its underlying proprietary geodata, OSM is freely copyable and open to all for editing. Russ Nelson is an early Linux adopter; in fact an early adopter of all sorts of technology, including the first non-Compaq iPAQ reflashed to run Linux. He finally gave up on assembly language a few years ago and now programs in C and most languages beginning with P. He almost got a PhD from Clarkson University but managed to escape writing a dissertation. Russ has been giving away his software since he started writing it in 1974. Prior to his GPLed Freemacs package, there weren't many people to distribute it to. He really came to the fore with his Packet Driver Collection, begun while a staff member at Clarkson. A GPL'ed set of DOS Ethernet drivers, they arguably put GPL'ed software on more CPU's than anything prior to Linux. Supporting free software full-time since 1991, Russell is a founding member of the Open Source Initiative and a Cloudmate Community Ambassador. He lives in Potsdam, NY with his wife and two nearly-adult children, but was born in NYC and raised in Baldwin out in Nassau County. 8:50 Roundtable Exchange - where the attendees can make announcements or ask a Linux/FLOSS question of the group. - Driving Directions Please see the website for links to driving directions. Refreshments We currently lack a refreshment sponsor. If you or your company would like to provide or sponsor refreshments, please get in touch. RSVP RSVP by replying to this e-mail so we can give any refreshment sponsor a count. Mailing Lists There are two primary mailman lists set up for DLSLUG, an Announce list and a Discuss list. Please sign up for the Announce list (moderated, low-volume) to stay apprised of the group's activities and the Discuss list (unmoderated) for group discussion. Links to the mailing lists are on the webpage. Tell Your Friends Please pass this announcement along to anyone else who may be interested. -- Bill McGonigle, Owner Work: 603.448.4440 BFC Computing, LLC Home: 603.448.1668 http://www.bfccomputing.com/ Cell: 603.252.2606 Twitter,
Re: [OT] Experience with getting participation in school web site by teachers
I setup WordPress for a personal blog and for two non-profit organizations that I'm involved with. It's designed to work with the LAMP stack. In fact, in one case, we ended up switching web hosts (IIS/Windows/ColdFusion server to Linux/Apache/PHP) just to make it easier to get WordPress setup. In any case, I think WordPress would be an excellent fit for your requirements. The pages are all editable using a rich text editor in a modern web browser (like recent versions of Firefox). For your case, I think the effort would be minimal enough for each teacher to edit their static pages and blog posts. Uploading pictures with thumbnails is very easy. You can also upload a bunch of themes to your server and then each teacher could pick a theme and even fairly easily switch themes while preserving the underlying content. One of the neat things is that a change history is kept for the pages/posts so you can easily see what changed. --Peter If your curious, here's the sites that I've had a hand in creating or maintaining over the last 6 months or so: http://www.dobratz.us/blog - baby pictures. This was my first foray into WordPress and it was created with a 2-week-old at home and under the duress of receiving many emails from relatives near and far complaining about not having enough baby pictures. The wordpress instructions claimed that it takes 15 minutes to install. It took me 30 minutes (file permissions needed modifying, PHP file upload limit needed and increase). http://www.litchfieldchurch.org/ - this is a new URL for my church and new website. It replaced the old website which was handcrafted using static HTML pages with updates every 3 months or so. http://www.nashabitat.org/ - replaced an existing handcrafted site with ColdFusion. Updates ot the site were spotty, and sometimes would take 6 months. One tricky thing here was a web form, but we found a WordPress plugin to handle this: http://www.deliciousdays.com/cforms-plugin On Sun, May 31, 2009 at 2:22 PM, Dan Jenkins d...@rastech.com wrote: This is totally off-topic (except that we use Linux for all of the server infrastructure there), but I figured some of you may have some insight on this issue. We have an elementary school as a client. They want to have a more dynamic web site with teachers / classrooms having more up-to-date web presence. Web presence defined as any of web page(s), blogs, wiki, etc. Each classroom sub-site could be different. They just want to have something which teachers would update with minimal effort for those who won't/can't expend more effort. As most places, there are a few zealous ones, a bulk of if-it's-not-too-much-trouble (or, to be honest, I-don't-have-enough-time-as-it-is) ones and a few no-way-no-how ones. They do not have a clear idea of what they want to present, nor to whom. (I know that ought to be the first thing, but they simply don't know yet.) This is brain-storming phase. They tried a website some years ago, with each classroom having a web page, but it bogged down. They were using various web editors (Publisher mostly), and most people got tied up in the effort of creating web pages that looked good to them, versus content that was useful to others. I am not looking for ways to inspire them (though I will be happy to listen to any). I am looking for tools to make it easy for them to update content (broadly defining content) and provide an overarching structure to make it easy-to-find. They have four Linux servers (Mandriva), with the usual LAMP. We are planning on overhaul of their Linux servers this summer to address performance (on their email server/web filter) and storage issues (they are doing much more video editing and space has gotten tight). This summer would be a good time to put any new infrastructure for this in place. Does anyone have any suggestions? -- Dan Jenkins, Rastech Inc., Bedford, NH, - 603-206-9951 *** IT support excellence for thirty years ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: linux accounting software or cheap winxp
On Fri, Feb 13, 2009 at 8:13 PM, virgins...@vfemail.net wrote: From: Lloyd Kvam pyt...@venix.com Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2009 18:29:27 -0500 I could not find any adequate business accounting packages for Linux. There's a GTK-based (gnome-based glade-based guile-based...) accounting package called Gnucash (www.gnucash.org). My wife and I have been using Gnucash at home for the past 2 1/2 years. We're running the version that can be had with apt-get on Ubuntu. We're using this strictly for personal finance purposes. The reason we went with Gnucash is because of the $0 cost. Also, we can run it remotely using X11 on our Mac laptop when it's convenient. Overall, it seems to be somewhat rough around the edges, but it serves our purpose. We started with almost no knowledge of accounting, so we got a short tutorial on accounting from the Gnucash manual (assets, liabilities, income, expenses). I've had some brief exposure to QuickBooks and it seems like they use the same concepts. They have a bunch of reports defined that you can use (transaction report, balance sheet, etc). These do have some options that you can change in the GUI, but we've found that sometimes it's easier to just use a spreadsheet to get exactly what we want. Currently, we're using the manual process of one of us reading out numbers and the other one entering them into a spreadsheet. This would seem inefficient, but we use this as an opportunity to review each line item. If you want to do more advanced customizations of reports or invoices, then you might have to brush up on your Scheme skills and edit the source code of the report. For what it's worth, I think they are trying to target the needs of the business user and many of the new features seem to be geared towards businesses. Also, recently, they've ported it to Windows and are releasing Windows binaries with each release. That is, except for the crashes. For reasons only my CPU may ever know, Gnucash decided to crash every ten or so transactions I entered into it. My workaround was to save early and often, but it eventually got to be so annoying that I stopped using Gnucash all together. Current versions may be more stable. The one I was using wasn't. I think Gnucash has gotten better since you used it. We've gotten in the habit of saving after each transaction because it used to crash more often. I filed a bug report on Ubuntu about one persistant crash and it turned out to be an inconsistancy in one of the libraries that Gnucash was using. That problem was fixed in the next release of Ubuntu. We used to have crashes every other time we used it, but now I can't remember the last time it has crashed (Gnucash 2.2.4 on Ubuntu 8.04). Peter ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Conducting GNHLUG business on Facebook (was Stop! Unix Time)
Me, neither - Facebook would seem to be a poor choice as a venue for conducting GNHLUG business as (it seems to me that) Facebook is not really in keeping with much of what the GNHLUG is about: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/4413483/Networking-site-cashes-in-on-friends.html Yes, when you use Facebook, you will see ads targeted to information you have given them. I don't know, but if I have to see ads, I'd rather see ads that have some chance of being relevant to me. There are quite a few get-rich-quick ads, but they are confined to the right column and standard rules of common sense apply. At least the site is relatively crisply laid out and devoid of animated GIFs. As per being relevant to GNHLUG: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17437104832 Here's a better link to the Bell Labs Unix Time event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?sid=184869022bae0c8a58b76d4ecee5fe21eid=10378926406 For what it's worth, I just joined Facebook earlier this weekend, and then I was able to get in contact with someone from high school. I learned that I missed out on the 10-year high school reunion. I had updated my contact info on the official alumni site, but I hadn't joined Facebook, so they couldn't find me. Of our graduating class of 270, 124 are members of Facebook. So yes, go where the people are. Peter ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: (OT) Flaky USB Bus
I have (my wife) a Win XP machine that is driving me beserk. She decided that a new printer was in order and I would (obviously) take care of the rest of that idea... How would you check the functionality of a USB Bus / Controller? At the risk of bringing this on-topic, you could try booting the machine with a Linux live CD. I know the Ubuntu installer CD has this, and I think a bunch of other distributions do too (Knoppix was one of the first to make this popular). You can boot up the live CD and run Linux without touching the contents of the hard drive. Hopefully, you can print too. Peter ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: buying a laptop either bare or with Ubuntu
I guess I'll throw my two cents in... while we're throwing pennies around, I think a lot of time when you buy a computer with Windows, you're actually getting the Windows OS and a bunch of other software that you'd rather not have (crapware). These are programs that have some means of generating revenue for their makers and the software makers pay the PC manufacturer to have them pre-installed. These programs are usually Windows-only, so you end up not getting them with Linux. Peter ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Ubuntu
Ubuntu has worked at making the average-user experience easier, is that it? Short answer: I'm an Ubuntu user and overall very happy with the experience for an average desktop user. Read on for how I got there. I've ran Red Hat (4.2 I think) sometime around 1997-1998 when I was first interested in trying out this Linux thing. On the recommendation of a friend, I switched to Debian and used that for a number of years until switching to Ubuntu a few years ago. I really appreciate little niceties in Debian like man-pages for everything (including config files). Sometimes you have upstream packages where the debian packager writes the man page just so that the package conforms to the Debian standard (policy I think they call it). Programmers don't always like to write documentation, but when you're stuck trying to figure something out, being and to type man just-about-anything is a real help. The second major advantage to Debian is apt (the package manager that allows you to download packages). My favorite tiny text editor is jove, but it's not included by default. All I need to do is apt-get install jove and faster than I can figure out which other text editors are installed I can start editing config files (I switched away from RedHat before yum came about.) Another reason at the time to switch from Red Hat to Debian was Debian's ability to be downloaded as a set of 5 or so floppy disk images and then install by downloading the packages over the network (this was before the prevalance of CD burners that worked reliably with cheap media, enough bandwidth to download ISOs quickly, and even PCs that booted from CD without the help of a floppy). In Debian, you have stable, testing, and unstable (a.k.a. sid - still in development). The stable distribution is what people are referring to with the long release cycles. At various times, I've ran all three of them. With stable, you have really old and well-tested software. The Debian folk seem to be sticklers for only including security updates, so when some software comes out with a new version to address a security issue and add some new features, the Debian maintainers pick through the source and only grab the security update related bits. Often times when you are using free software, you'll find that it doesn't do something that you want and if you start working with the software authors, the first thing they want you to do is start running the latest version, not the 2-3 year old version in Debian stable. For some time, I ended up compiling my own versions of certain applications. Usually the Debian package lists what packages you need to build from source and you can just install those (packages ending in dev), then you compile and install to /usr/local some newer version of a package. You run into problems when the software needs a newer version of something more system-wide like gnome and your Debian stable has too old of a version. Pretty soon, you move to Debian testing, which is where the packaged software goes after it's been uploaded to unstable and shown not to majorly break stuff. But then with large system-wide libraries, upgrading them typically breaks at least something, so the Debian guys hold-off on moving it from unstable to testing, and then you end up running Debian unstable. In order to shield yourself from the breakage of updating the packages on your system, you end up only doing it every few weeks or so when you have time to sit down and sort out any breakages that might arise. Either way, you seem to be stuck between old software and bleeding edge software that breaks frequently. For a server, running old software that's been thoroughly testing is a good thing, but for the average desktop user, you typically want to use more recent versions of stuff. Ubuntu seems to address these problems with Debian. You still end up with a lot of Debian goodness when running Ubuntu (they didn't take the man pages away). They still use apt and .deb files (though with their own repository). But to answer your original question, Ubuntu really does focus on the average user's experience. More often than not, stuff just works in Ubuntu. It also has less of a designed by committee feel to it. They are a little less pedantic when it comes to licensing (Firefox is still called Firefox, not Iceweasel). They have gained significant mind-share (lots of people write Ubuntu-this and Ubuntu-that howtos). They do have some good user forums where someone else has usually come across and solved the problem you're looking at. My day to day Ubuntu usage now mainly centers around gnucash and web browsing on a Dell desktop that's a few years old, so I'm no longer pushing it in terms of bleeding edge hardware and software support. Peter ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
UPS disposal options?
I've got a PK Electronics BlackoutBuster (500VA UPS) with a spent battery. It looks like the company is also no longer existent. I've re-arranged my house and purged of non-essential electronics on ebay, so this UPS is no longer needed (my 2 remaining UPSs are APC). Is there a better way to dispose of this than the dumpster? The Derry Transfer station accepts Automobile, and Rechargeable Nickel Cadmium batteries, but somehow I don't see them knowing what to do with a UPS. Thanks, Peter ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Firefox 3 AwesomeBar
Okay, I like the new Awesome Bar even though I'll still always call it simply the address bar. I've been using Firefox 3 for a few weeks now since I upgraded to Ubuntu 8.04. I've seen some of these negative comments before, but let me attempt to debunk. 1. Screen real estate So, the drop down in the address bar takes up more space, so what? It only shows up when you are typing in the address bar. When you're typing in the address bar, you're trying to go to a web page with a specific URL (not trying to interact with another application like Gimp or gnomine). Even if you were able to see many more URLs in the drop down list when you start typing, it's a lot easier to just keep typing until the one you want bubbles to the top and then select it that to visually inspect each element until you find it. 2. Matches more stuff (too much stuff?) This is a very good thing. Most of the time useful information is buried in the page title or at the end of a URL. For example, I like to check a particular players profile on Yahoo Golf (http://sports.yahoo.com/golf/pga/players/Ben+Crane/3028). With the old address bar, I'd have to pretty much type out the full URL which I can't remember. Now I just type the last name and I'm there. Most websites with structured information are like this with only the interesting bits of info at the end of the URL. In an ideal www, all URLs and page titles would contain equally useful information, but often in practice it's only one or the other. At first it seems to show about 6 URLs. If you click the down arrow on the right, it shows more matches, but since you're already typing in the address bar and you have some idea of what you are looking for, you can just type a few more characters, so rather than just typing e, you can type e, followed by two or three other letters and pretty much narrow down your search. The whole point is that you're limiting your search to places that you've already been to. Yes, it's different, but after using it for a few weeks I find that it works better for the typical use cases. Peter On Tue, Jun 17, 2008 at 9:28 PM, Ben Scott [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Been trying Firefox 3 out on my 'nix box at home. So far, seems like an overall improvement. Does seem faster, especially in the history, and for some kinda of JavaScripty pages. I think the icons in the UI theme are a bit too uniform (thus hard to differentiate), but that's no biggie. But I hate the root-fscking AwesomeBar. For those who don't know, the location bar in Firefox 3 has been improved to be a search engine with real-time feedback. If I start typing gnh to get, oh the GNHLUG website, like I would in Fx 2.0, it instead does a full-text partial-word match on everything it can find: URLs in history. Page titles in history. Bookmark URLs. Bookmark names. I'm surprised it doesn't just grep my hard drive. To highlight just how stupid this is, say I'm an Everything2 noder (I'm not, but say I am). So I type e into my location bar, expecting that to be my most used URL beginning with e. Instead, it finds everything in my bookmarks and history that contains the letter e. *Anywhere*. .es.com? That matches. A page titled This thing sucks ssess a lot? That matches. Oh, and it takes up much more screen real-estate than the old one. Much larger fonts, two lines per hit, extra graphics. It favors vertical space over horizontal space, which is especially odd given the current trend towards wide-screen displays. Apparently, lots of people hate this thing, but the developers are pulling a Microsoft and telling users they're wrong and the devs know better. Anyhow, I haven't found a way to completely disable this abomination yet, but the following goes a long way: Install the OldBar Extension (16,000+ downloads and climbing!) to change the look back to the old way: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6227 Make the following about:config changes to get the feel closer to the old way: browser.urlbar.matchOnlyTyped = True browser.urlbar.matchBehavior = 2 -- Ben ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
low power linux PC?
So I want to setup a linux server at home to do backups from various computers around the house. Amanda looks promising ( http://amanda.zmanda.com/ ) For the backup server, I want to setup a separate box, probably running Debian. As the primary purpose of this computer is just to store the backups, my primary feature consideration is power requirements. Is there anything out there that can run Linux, have a few 250 GB or greater hard drives, and run on around 50 Watts or less? It can be a headless box that I ssh into. Thanks, Peter ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
PDA with barcode reader recommendations?
Can anyone recommend a PDA with the following features?: - built in barcode reader. Needs to read standard retail barcodes (such as those found on a six-pack of beer). A PDA with barcode attachment would work, but no dongles. - connects to linux using USB or some other standard interface, and doesn't require a kernel recompile (using stock Ubuntu 7.10 x86) - can run custom applications. Python and wxWindows would be sweet, but anything that can be developed on linux would be fine. - hobbyist price, sub $500. Does such a device exist? Thanks, Peter ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
FREE - partially broken eMac
I've got an eMac (2004 vintage) up for grabs. While running OS X, the display would crash intermittently (Open GL stuff like screen savers and iTunes visualization would trigger this very quickly). I think that I may have exceeded the 95 degree maximum operating temp on occasion in these hot NH summers. Odd thing is that while the display was frozen, you could still ssh into it (there might have been a way to restart the display server, but I never dove into the OS X internals enough to trouble shoot it). But the display crashing happens frequently enough to render OS X useless. So at one point, I thought I would try Linux to see if it would work. I managed to get Ubuntu 6.10 (PowerPC) installed and with some tweaking of the Xorg config file and some oddball binary install for the wireless network card driver, it seemed to be actually somewhat usable for web browsing and the like. At some point, I did a apt-get dist upgrade and then ran into the symptoms of this bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-ati/+bug/153599 In other words, X doesn't work any more, and to cut to the chase, the ratio of my free time to tinker with this stuff and my lack of desk space is causing me to offer this free to the first taker on the list. You get: 1 partially broken eMac (note: this weighs 50 pounds) 1 Apple keyboard (the all white kind) 1 Apple 'mighty' mouse 1 vintage Apple mouse pad Pick up at my house in Derry. Email me off list. Thanks, Peter ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
linux on old laptop with 8 MB RAM
I was given a Toshiba 105cs laptop. Specs: Pentium 75 Mhz 500 MB HDD 8 MB RAM 1 3.5 inch floppy I believe this laptop had windows 95 on it originally, but the hard drive has been formatted fat32. This does have 2 PCMCIA (type II) slots. We want to use this computer mainly for some word processing, so I thought that it would be good to install linux on it. I got a 3com PCMCIA NIC and attempted to install Debian GNU/Linux. However, the installation program crashes because we don't enough RAM (Debian requires 12 MB). A test using memtest86+ did run successfully and confirm the fact that we have 8 MB. I looked around, and apparently we have the option of installing a 32 MB memory module that retails for about $50. However, if we can utilize this computer without upgrading it that would be ideal. Are there any Linux distributions that can be installed from a floppy/network configuration that will install with 8 MB of RAM? Thanks for the help, --Peter ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
free software alternative to Access
I'm working with the Greater Nashua Habitat for Humanity. We have an annual fundraiser that includes many affiliates from New Hampshire and Northeastern Massachusetts. Our current solution to take registration information uses a Microsoft Access Database that one of our members developed. Although our primary focus is having something that gets the job done, I would prefer to use free software where possible. It's disappointing to have to tell people that they can't use the software we developed because they bought the standard version of MS Office, which does not include Access. There are ways of getting discount prices for software for non-profits, but any money we spend on software is money that can't go towards building houses. Does anyone know of any free software packages that we can use? Basically, we have hikers and teams of hikers that raise money. We want to keep track of how much money each hiker contributed, and keep their names and addresses, so that we can mail them a brochure for next year's hike. Most of the laptops that people own or borrow for the event have some version of windows on them. Some sort of bootable CD with USB flash drives for the datastore might be optimal. --Peter ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
free to good home, 19 CRT
I have a KDS 19 CRT that ran X at 1600x1200 under Debian unstable for many years. It's still a perfectly good monitor, but it draws close to 90 Watts of power and got relegated to the attic after we examined ways to cut the electric bill. If anyone wants it, you can arrange to pick it up in Hudson. --Peter ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: free to good home, 19 CRT
It's been claimed. On Apr 16, 2005, at 9:18 PM, Neil Joseph Schelly wrote: This still available? I'd love to have it! -N On Saturday 16 April 2005 09:22 am, Peter Dobratz wrote: I have a KDS 19 CRT that ran X at 1600x1200 under Debian unstable for many years. It's still a perfectly good monitor, but it draws close to 90 Watts of power and got relegated to the attic after we examined ways to cut the electric bill. If anyone wants it, you can arrange to pick it up in Hudson. --Peter ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: Wiki Engines
Recently, I setup a similar system quickly at my work to try to get some feedback as to whether or not such a collaborative tool would be useful for our purposes. Basically, I installed Debian unstable on a spare box and went through all the wiki Debian packages until I found one that worked with minimal effort. Note that all email related problems would have been fixed had I taken the time to setup email on the Debian box. Twiki (Debian package twiki) was almost able to run as is, but it kept complaining about not being able to send email. Moin Moin (Debian package moin) did run without errors as is, but simply ignores all user requests at sending email. Both of these have revision control built in. Moin Moin may be a better fit because it has fewer dependencies and also can run as its own webserver. --Peter I'm looking for a wiki engine to try out internally with my eight- person team at work. I'm willing to do my own research, but thought I'd ask for recommendations first. I'd prefer something that I can just install and run without much or any configuration. Just a standalone program would be fine. I don't need any security, but would like revision history kept. And of course, it should be OSS and run on Linux! ;-) Thanks, Larry ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: [gnhlug-announce] Quarterly meeting tomorrow, Martha's Exchange
Rob Lembree writes: Dinner with the speaker is in the first-floor restaurant at Martha's Exchange at 6:00. Please RSVP for dinner to me so that we can give Martha's an accurate headcount for the meal. I will be coming to dinner at 6:00 pm. Thanks, Peter ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
