Re: [SLUG] I can't be the only one.

[darren . hannah]

There's also Plan B

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lookout.labs.planb&hl=en

It claims to be able to work even if you install it after the phone is 
stolen, but I have never used it myself.



Darren





From:   William Bennett 
To: slug@slug.org.au, 
Date:   2014-02-26 04:38 PM
Subject:[SLUG] I can't be the only one.
Sent by:slug-boun...@slug.org.au



I've just had my smartphone stolen.

I asked a friend to dial the number: I can hear it ringing.

Asked the police forensic expert - can it be triangulated? Yes, but 
(always
there's a but). In the cities, where the uprights are in high
concentration, triangulation can be accurate to within a couple of metres.
In the country (where I live), with the uprights widely spaced, accuracy
goes out to a couple of kilometres.

So I got to thinking. Isn't there an app, which, when installed on the
phone, enables you to contact the phone (ie., it must merely be on), send 
a
password/code (whether the phone is answered/not): the phone then takes a
GPS reading and transmits it to the caller?

Or have I been reading too many sci-fi novels?

Any help etc.

Somewhat disgustedly,

William Bennett.
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Re: [SLUG] On switching ISPs.

[darren . hannah]

I don't think Android backs your SIM contact list to Google without your 
say-so. (That might be a potential privacy issue.)

When I make a new contact (on my HTC desire), it gives me the choice of 
storing the new contact on the SIM, on the phone, or on Google (I assume 
one can connect to a different cloud service if they wish). If any of your 
contacts are on the SIM, you will need to move them off before you change 
to a new SIM.
I moved all my contacts off my SIM manually years ago and I never looked 
back.

In interest of keeping this thread on topic (linux), does anyone know of 
decent linux software that can synchronise with a droid? I'm thinking 
about locally stored contact data, SIM card data, calendars and text 
messages...

Cheers.

Darren.





From:   Chris Barnes 
To: William Bennett 
Cc: slug 
Date:   01/05/2013 04:34 PM
Subject:Re: [SLUG] On switching ISPs.
Sent by:slug-boun...@slug.org.au



For a moment I thought I'd been subscribed to an Android support mailing
list


My guess as to what you are asking is do you need to save the phone
contacts from your old sim card before turfing it? Please correct me if 
I'm
wrong.



Its a bit hard to say but generally Android likes to chuck all your
contacts up to the cloud meaning they should already be on the phone when
the new sim card is installed.

You can probably check this by launching Gmail in the web browser on your
computer and check your Contacts. If you see the contacts that were on 
your
sim card in your Gmail contacts list then you shouldn't need to copy them
from the old sim card.


Hope that helps and sorry I cant be more specific.



On Wed, May 1, 2013 at 4:13 PM, William Bennett 
wrote:

> Wishing to switch ISP.
> Have other ISPs SIM, with instructions to activate it.
> There's no mention of the phone list on/in my old SIM.
> Have I to save it somewhere?
> It's an HTC Velocity.
>
> Any help,
>
> William Bennett.
> --
> SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/
> Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
>



-- 
Kind Regards,

Christopher Barnes

e. chris.p.bar...@gmail.com
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Re: [SLUG] Tuning Systems and Energy Use (Sys Admin Roles andResponsibilities)

[darren . hannah]

>> Does anyone know where you can get one of these things locally:

Try Jaycar Electronics:
http://www.jaycar.com.au/productResults.asp?MID=3&SSUBID=840&SUBCATID=1003&keyform=CAT2#3


Darren 




From:   David 
To: slug@slug.org.au
Date:   18/10/2012 11:37 AM
Subject:Re: [SLUG] Tuning Systems and Energy Use (Sys Admin Roles 
andResponsibilities)
Sent by:slug-boun...@slug.org.au



On 18/10/12 11:18, David Lyon wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 18, 2012 at 11:14 AM,  wrote:
>
>> What does 12W translate to in $ terms for 12 months use, knowing that 
most
>> PC's are not switched off at work.
>>
>> I assume that the screen is most of the cost for electricity.
>>
>
> Here's a link that I find by google:
>
>   - http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/computers.html
>

I did some very rough numbers using this guy's site... it seems like I 
need to turn the lights off more! I think you get better savings by 
going to LED light bulbs.

Does anyone know where you can get one of these things locally:

http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/measure.html

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David McQuire
0418 310312
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Re: [SLUG] Auntie excludes us

[Darren Hannah]

I'm not so sure I agree.

I've had a quick play around with the ABC Playback website and it all
seems to work for me.

The ABC Now website seems to require Microsoft Windows Media Player or
Real Player to see video.

The ABC Playback website seems to require Adobe Flash Player.
And as far as I can tell, it seems that everything to do with the video
streaming and the menus and navigation and all that malarkey is flash.
If you want to use the ABC Playback service you need an up to date
browser with flash installed.

We *have* flash.

Yes, I know it's proprietary software and in an ideal world the ABC
would utilize a format that can be played by "out-of-the-box" linux
distributions, but really, if I can get the content I am happy.

Adobe has given us a *native* linux client to use, for free (as in
beer). There are plenty of proprietary file formats that we linux users
cannot use at all. Flash is our friend.

Now let us all give thanks that the ABC did not decide to offer their
video service using Silverlight.

I watched the demo video and it looked pretty neat. So I applied for the
Beta test (it all worked for me). Hopefully if I get in I can give them
some "Only-Uses-Linux" style feedback. If for some reason being a linux
user prevents me from using the service at all, I will tell them what I
think.

>> embedding an mpeg stream is easy enough todo in HTML.

I'm guessing that the reason that so many websites use streams rather
than files for video is that it makes it harder for us web users to
trample on the rights of copyright owners by keeping a copy on our
hard-drives.

Cheers,

Darren.

P.S. If you watch the demo video you might spot that the browser used in
the video could be Firefox, or at least a browser with tabbed browsing
ability.




On Wed, 2008-03-12 at 16:18 +1100, Rev Simon Rumble wrote:
> "ABC website users will soon be able to watch TV shows in full-screen 
> format."
> http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/12/2187599.htm
> 
> The link on the front page to register for "ABC Playback" 
> (http://www.abc.net.au/playback/) doesn't work.
> 
> Certainly if the experience with "ABC Now" is anything to go by, this is 
> going to be Windows-only with limited Mac support and no other OS 
> support.
> 
> http://www.abc.net.au/now/#faq16
> 
> This page might be helpful:
> http://www.abc.net.au/contact/complaints_process.htm
> 
> Not sure how one requests a refund.
> 
> -- 
> Rev Simon Rumble <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> www.rumble.net
> 
> The Tourist Engineer
> Because geeks travel too.
> http://engineer.openguides.org/
> 
>  "Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most
>   of the time he will pick himself up and continue on."
> - Winston Churchill

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Re: [SLUG] buying new linux dedicated PC, advice sought

[Darren Hannah]

Just a few extra notes on this topic...

On Mon, 2007-07-23 at 11:05 +1000, Amos Shapira wrote:
> On 22/07/07, Rufi_Dukes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >
> > I was wondering if there is anyone here who could help me by looking
> > at the quote below (from pioneer) and telling me if there are any
> > obvious specs that jump out and strike the reader as odd, or as
> > overkill, or under-resourced, or in any other way out of balance..
> >
> > i'm a newbie who is attracted to this deal because it comes with
> > ubuntu pre-installed (the only one, as far as i know, available to me
> > in australia)
> > BUT! i want to be sure that everything will work when i get it, bc i
> > want to hit the ground running with my ubuntu experience
> >
> > so, specifically:
> >
> > 1. if a company like pioneer says it will pre-install ubuntu, can one
> > be reasonably sure that they bed all the software in and test drive it
> > in the factory before shipping it to me?
> 
> 
> Ask Google?
> 
> 2. can i expect that there will be no compatibility issues

The way I bought my computer, was to do plenty of research. Rather than
looking at pre-configured systems, I compiled a list of specific
hardware that I wanted and already knew would work under linux. Then I
took it to my local computer store and got the guy to put it together
for me special. You can even ask for it to be supplied without software.
(A naked computer - oh my!) It might be more expensive than getting a
Dell or whatever, but I got exactly what I wanted.

Of course this wont work quite as well if you are shopping for a laptop.
In that case I would agree that looking at the systems offered with
Ubuntu in the States and trying to get the equivalent system here. Even
if it means you have to buy Windows too.

> >
> > 3. how important is the 64/32 bit issue?

I have had a 64 bit system for more than two years. While there is a
definite "coolness" factor to having a 64 bit system (if you are
impressed by that sort of thing like I am), I am not convinced exactly
what the practical benefits to having a 64 bit system are. I have
encountered a few problems that needed to be solved that I would not
have had to deal with at all had I just gone with a i386 system, but
then if I didn't want to play around with my computer I wouldn't have
gotten into this whole linux thing, would I?

64 bit linux is very well supported by the distros that offer it, (far
better than 64 bit windows as far as I can tell.) There is a lot more
software compiled to run on it, a benefit of most of the software being
open source.

> Some things I learned about this issue in the last few days:
> 1. If you want Adobe Flash, Skype, Google Earth or many other proprietary
> programs to run then you need a 32-bit environment

Any sensible 64 bit distro will come with the 32 bit libraries (and
install them by default) side by side with the 64 bit libraries. I use
Fedora and it does just that.

With the 32 bit libraries installed, 32 bit programs should run as
normal. I have Google Earth and it runs perfectly. I have proprietary
games (Quake IV, Doom 3, Neverwinter Nights, all 32 bit only) and they
run just fine. I have Cedega (to run windows games (all 32 bit)) and it
runs... adequately. I have not tried Skype.

Adobe Flash is slightly different. It requires the 32 bit version of
firefox or it will not work at all. This is not a big deal. Simply
uninstall the 64 bit firefox and install the 32 bit firefox. On Fedora
using yum, the commands are simply:

sudo yum remove firefox.x86_64
sudo yum install firefox.i386

and install the flash plugin as normal.
If you are installing the downloaded plugin (ie, not from a repository
or rpm), you may need to fool the install program into thinking it is
running on a 32 bit system. (It is programmed to fail if it detects a 64
bit system) From memory the command becomes something like:

linux32 ./nameofflashinstaller

> 2. OpenOffice wasn't ported to amd64.

My install of Open Office reports being the x86_64 architecture. I may
be remembering things wrong, but I am sure that it has always been 64
bit.

> 3. It is VERY EASY to setup a useable 32-bit chroot environment which will
> make things run almost transparently for you ("mount --bind" and schroot
> magic  :).
> 

I have not yet had to use this technique yet, as just about everything
has worked without resorting to such techniques, although it is good to
know that there is another avenue I can try should I get really stuck.

I recall this was recommended when Cedega was having troubles with 64
bit systems, but the guys at Transgaming fixed the problem before I even
got around to trying it.

> To sum - you might have some learning to do but it'll work.
> 
> 4. finally, is my method good? ie, would i better off just getting a
> > windows computer and then installing ubuntu from a CD (i am not a
> > natively brilliant adept at computers, so my way forward will have to
> > be with lots of good books, good advice and support)
> 
> 
>

Re: [SLUG] What app handles .DWG files?

[Darren Hannah]

I recently discovered QCad http://www.qcad.org/index.html

It doesn't read AutoCAD files so you will have to export to DXF, but it
is a full drawing program. (Obviously it does not have the same number
of features that AutoCAD has).

Honestly I have only used it to have a look at a few DXF drawings. It
opens them fine - there is a little bit of screwing up of fonts and
dimension styles, but you kind of expect that.

I found it on one of the Fedora repositories too, so installation was a
snap. It might be on a distro near you.

Hope that's of some use.

Darren.

On Sat, 2007-04-07 at 16:29 +1000, Howard Lowndes wrote:
> as per the subject
> 
> -- 
> Howard.
> LANNet Computing Associates - Your Linux people 
> When you want a computer system that works, just choose Linux;
> When you want a computer system that works, just, choose Microsoft.
> --
> Flatter government, not fatter government; abolish the Australian states.
> 

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Re: [SLUG] Re: ATO online

[Darren Hannah]

On Wed, 2007-02-28 at 20:51 +1100, Howard Lowndes wrote:
> 
> Rev Simon Rumble wrote:
> > On 2/28/2007, "Howard Lowndes" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > 
> >> My own guess is that it's probably more of a distro thing.
> >>
> >> Should they support Debian, or Fedora, or Ubuntu, or Slackware, or
> >> Gentoo, or Mandriva, or some minority distro, "and why not my own
> >> preference"?
> >>
> >> Should they package to rpm, or apt, or tgz?
> > 
> > Eh?  What's wrong with HTML?
> 
> Nothing, but I think some of the app runs on the client and is not all 
> web based.
> 

I think just about *all* of the app runs on the client. It's a windows
program that only requires Internet explorer for the few times it
contacts the ATO.

I have downloaded the app the last few years and have managed to get it
running almost perfectly under Cedega. (didn't try wine but I would be
surprised if things were different). By "almost" I mean the app runs
just fine, it takes your info, saves it perfectly, calculates your
expected return just great, and then when asked to submit your info to
the tax office... Falls on its head.

This is just my experience, but if anyone has had different results, I'd
love to hear about it.

If the ATO could make their taxation thing web based, (and browser
independent), that would be fantastic. But while the program is a client
based application (and the linux userbase is still quite small), perhaps
the *easiest* platform that they could support would be wine.

Darren.


P.S. the tax program failed on my windows computer at work in nearly the
same way, but I suspect the reason was more of an excessively strict
firewall policy than anything else.


> > 
> > 
> 
> -- 
> Howard.
> LANNet Computing Associates - Your Linux people 
> When you want a computer system that works, just choose Linux;
> When you want a computer system that works, just, choose Microsoft.
> --
> Flatter government, not fatter government; abolish the Australian states.
> 

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