Re: [SLUG] Perl Regular expression help
On 28/07/2010, at 1:03, Martin Barry wrote: You could get crazy and try to do this in a single regex but two stage is clearer. e.g. sed -e 's/&pg=[^&]*//g' -e 's/?pg=[^&]*&/?/' Now you have 2 problems. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] today's scary thought
On 15 July 2010 02:10, Jamie Wilkinson wrote: > The equivalent on MacOS is Time Machine, as I understand it (which is not > very much as I don't understand Macs at all), but I'm not aware of any Linux > application that does this either. I like Peter's idea of using inotify > though, you could whip up a 10 liner with the python language bindings to > record all file accesses in under an hour. > Dirvish[0] is vaguely equivalent to Time Machine. [0] http://www.dirvish.org/ Lindsay -- w: http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ t: @auxesis -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Perl Regular expression help
On 14/07/2010, at 13:27, Peter Rundle wrote: P.S I didn't understand Lindsay's question about doing the replace. I'm replacing the arg with nothing, I.E I just want to remove the "pg=" argument from the string. Didn't know what you were replacing your match with, was just curious about how other people would solve this problem. Lindsay -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Perl Regular expression help
Now you've got the search, I'm curious how you are going to do the replace. Is the Perlism to just use the substitute operator, or split on the pattern, iterate through the array, and join again? Lindsay On 14 July 2010 10:30, Jamie Wilkinson wrote: > Try: > > /&pg=[^&]*/ > > match zero or more of the character class that is not an ampersand. > > On 13 July 2010 17:21, Peter Rundle wrote: > >> Hi Sluggers, >> >> I'm sure some of you genii have a real quick solution to this. >> >> I'm trying to find and replace and argument in a url. The url is of the >> form >> >> &pg=something&arg=somethingelse >> >> >> I want to take out the &pg=something but the "&arg=" may or may not be >> there. How do I say match the &pg=something up to but not including the next >> & (which may or may not be there). >> >> "/&pg=.*&/" >> >> But also I think & is a special char (no?) that means "put the matched bit >> back", though is that only on the replace side? (my question relates >> strictly to the matching side). >> >> >> TIA's >> >> Pete >> >> >> -- >> SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ >> Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html >> > -- > SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ > Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html > -- w: http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ t: @auxesis -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Open source POS software and MYOB - also: ATO new system
On 19 May 2010 11:20, Nick Andrew wrote: > On Sun, May 16, 2010 at 11:52:21AM +1000, david wrote: >> While on the subject, does anyone know anything about the ATO's new >> consumer tax system interface? > > Their main page is http://www.sbr.gov.au/ > > They use something called XBRL which is apparently a huge XML schema for > reporting information about a business. I sent them email to register; > haven't heard back yet. > > They have a schema viewer at: > > > https://taxonomy-collaboration.sbr.abs.gov.au/yeti/resources/yeti-gwt/Yeti.jsp#tax~(id~11*v~744)!net~(a~141*l~43)!lang~(code~en)!rg~(rg~13*p~7) > > Funky URL. I wonder if it is a turing-complete language? > > With thousands of schema elements, what I really need is a guide to which > elements are important and which are not. > >From memory there's an XBRL users group here in Sydney, which might be worth attending if you're interested in learning more about this sort of thing. Lindsay -- w: http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ t: @auxesis -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Virtualization - Whither goes thou?
On 13 May 2010 10:52, Nigel Allen wrote: > > Questions: > > 2) Is there a GPL solution that fit's this scenario? Even if it's not a bare > metal hypervisor and needs an O/S. Remember it has to virtuaize both Server > 2003 and CentOS KVM, Sheepdog[0], and libvirt. Sheepdog eliminates the need for a SAN or NAS, it uses the local storage on the machines to host the images. You can scale it horizontally pretty easily by adding more machines with big disks. [0] http://www.osrg.net/sheepdog/ > > 4) What kind of speed/bandwidth should we be looking at for the off-site > replication. Wholly depends on how much IO you're doing. Is this being hosted out of a data center? If not, it'll probably cost more more than you can reasonably afford. Lindsay -- w: http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ t: @auxesis -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Fwd: Club History
Holy crap, I think this is one of the most awesome email I have ever received. 4 years late, but packed with goodness. Thank you Nick for forwarding this! Stunned, Lindsay On 21/04/2010, at 23:50, Nick Andrew wrote: Sorry for the delay replying :-) On Fri, 26 May 2006 21:59:29 -0700, Lindsay Holmwood writes: Although i'm familiar with the past few years of SLUG history, would some of the old timers care to help me out with the following email? -- Forwarded message -- From: Steve Demeo <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: May 27, 2006 4:29 AM Subject: Club history I have heard it rumored that one of the first Linux User Groups in the world was founded in Australia. I understand that the Sydney Linux User Group (SLUG) was established in 1993 only 2 years after Linus Torvalds originally created the Linux operating system. Would you have any information with regard to whether SLUG was the first LUG? If not the first where in the rankings would you guess it would be placed? If not would you have an indication of which global LUG's may have established earlier that SLUG? The inaugural SLUG meeting (which I attended) was held on Friday 30th July 1993 at Softway in Chippendale. Here's a copy of the announcement email: In chr...@sour.sw.oz.au (Christopher Fraser) writes: SLUG (Sydney Linux Users Group) inaugural meeting is to be held on Friday 30th July at the premises of: Softway Pty Ltd Level 2 79 Myrtle St Chippendale The meeting will commence at around 6:15pm, but please try and arrive by 6:00pm. It should be a fairly informal meeting. We're planning on having a few short presentations on recent news/developments, R3000 board project, etc. If you'd you have any other suggestions or would like to volunteer to present something, then we'd love to hear from you. If you have any questions regarding SLUG or the meeting, please contact either myself or Robert Thomas: Robert Thomas (rtho...@sequent.com) Christopher Fraser (chr...@sw.oz.au) I'm just coordinating the meeting, Robert is the one who oragnised SLUG. I will be away until the 19th, so urgent correspondence should be directed to Robert. If you intend attending, then please send me a brief email message so I can get an idea of numbers. Thanks, Christopher Fraser. How to get to Softway - * If you're walking from Central Railway, head down Broadway and turn left at Abercrombie St (it's about a 10 minute walk). * If you're catching a Broadway/Parramatta Road bus, alight opposite the CUB brewery and walk up Abercrombie St. * If you're driving, approach either by Cleveland St, or take the first left after Abercrombie St from Broadway. The following map may (or may not) help: (to central) UTS | |(to regent st) _| | _ || | | | | | CUB | | Cleveland St --- > | | | Brewery| | | | _| | ... ___| | ___| |__ WattleAbercrombie St. (one way <-- ) ___ ... ___ ___ __ \ || | Pub | | | | \ || | | | | | | || |_ | | | || | | | <-- Dangar Pl |< Broadway| | Softway | | | | || |_| | | (to city rd) | || | | | | || < Myrtle St | | | || |___| |___ | ||______ | | ... __//Wiley St | | | / | ... _/NOT TO SCALE | | -- Cheers, -- Christopher Fraser ``Remember what happened last time?'' chr...@sw.oz.au Love that ASCII art. This is what people did in the days before Google Maps :-) SLUG was not the first. The Boise Linux User Group beat us by 3 months, http://idahopcug.apcug.org/linuxSIG.html and they don't say they were the first, just the oldest one in Idaho. Nick. -- PGP Key ID = 0x418487E7 http://www.nick-andrew.net/ PGP Key fingerprint = B3ED 6894 8E49 1770 C24A 67E3 6266 6EB9 4184 87E7 -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
[SLUG] Devops Down Under - Tickets on sale
Hey all, Tickets have gone on sale for the Devops Down Under conference! You can sign up at http://devopsdownunder.eventbrite.com/ The conference will be on May 1 + 2 at the Atlassian offices in Sydney. Schedule and location information can be found on the website at http://devopsdownunder.org/ The speaker lineup includes Robert Collins of Squid + Bazaar fame, James Turnbull of Puppet fame, John Ferlito from Robot Parade, James Dumay and Tim Moore from Atlassian, and Alec Clews from Voga Consulting, Joel Courtney from EnergyAustralia. There are still a few talk slots free - if you are interested in presenting, please let me know. We also have very flexible sponsorship options - if you or your employer is interested in sponsoring the conference I'd like to hear from you! Hope to see y'all in May! Lindsay -- w: http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ t: @auxesis -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] System admin graphing tools
On 25 February 2010 17:55, Ken Foskey wrote: > > We all know we should do it. Provide a monitoring system to see how our > system loads are going. I have a couple of links that look interesting: > > http://flapjack-project.com/ > It is local so goes first :-) > Flapjack is a scalable and distributed monitoring system. It natively > talks the Nagios plugin format. Heh, thanks for the mention. :-) I wouldn't recommend using Flapjack right now unless you want to be testing bleeding edge stuff that is guaranteed to break, or you're a Ruby hacker with an inkling for sysadmin. I'd argue that you're conflating two types of software: statistic collectors (with graphs), and alerters/notifiers. For statistic collection, you cannot go past collectd[0]. collectd is very lightweight (it's written in C), has a plugin architecture (and a boatload of plugins to boot), and is network aware (you can collect stats from all your servers and aggregate them in one place). collectd has a few options for graphing: collection.cgi, collection3.cgi, and Visage[1]. collection*.cgi are CGI scripts (duh) that use RRDtool to generate graphs. Visage draws stats in the browser using JavaScript + SVG. collectd also has a Nagios bridge, so you can plug it into pretty much any alerting/notification system out there. Hope that helps! Lindsay [0] http://collectd.org [1] http://auxesis.github.com/visage (disclaimer: I wrote it) -- w: http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ t: @auxesis -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
[SLUG] Inaugural Sydney Devops Meetup
Hi all, The Inaugural Sydney Devops Meetup will be this Thursday (the 18th of February 2010), at the James Squire Brew House on King Street Wharf. People will start arriving from 18.30 onwards. "Devops" is a movement of like-minded sysadmins and developers interested in bridging the artificial gap between our camps. The event will be an informal meetup where people can meet and greet others interested in or practising Devops in any way shape or form. If you'd like to attend, we ask you reply to this thread on the recently launched devops-aus mailing list. http://groups.google.com/group/devops-aus/browse_thread/thread/22d7c9ea060f08a Hope to see you there! Lindsay -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Fosdem
On 15 February 2010 08:15, Jeremy Visser wrote: > > Tanenbaum was also the recipient of the only "linux.conf.au" hat at that > conference (as opposed to the "linux.con f.au" hats). > Actually it was a "minix.conf.au" hat we had custom made. :-) Lindsay -- w: http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ t: @auxesis -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Fosdem
On 15 February 2010 06:08, Richard Ibbotson wrote: > Hi > > In the past we have had visits to Fosdem by some people from > Australia. This year the streets of Brussels were empty of our > Australian friends. With this in mind you might like to have a look > here... > > http://video.fosdem.org/2010/ If you're looking for Australians at FOSDEM, you might want to check out: http://video.fosdem.org/2010/maintracks/flapjack-cucumber.xvid.avi :-) Lindsay -- w: http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ t: @auxesis -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] postgrey
On 10 February 2010 10:15, david wrote: > Does anybody have an opinion about postgrey? Does it annoy legitimate users? > Slow down the system? Create false positives? Work as intended? Any other > thoughts? > We use it on Rusty (SLUG's mail/web server), and it's the main cause of mailing list outages. That said, we have an extremely manky configuration hacked together over 10 years, so I'm sure a clean room implementation wouldn't have the same issues. >From my experience it does a good job of filtering spam. Cheers, Lindsay -- w: http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ t: @auxesis -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Server Admin comp's
Hi Kyle, You might want to try posting this to j...@slug.org.au. Both companies and people looking for work are subscribed there. Cheers, Lindsay 2009/11/18 Kyle : > Apologies if I'm dumping in the wrong place. > > There used to be a slug 'jobs' list, but site seems to indicate it goes > elsewhere now, so sticking to what I know for now. > > Am looking to get in touch with those who run (or work for) a small server > admin outsource comp. > > If I'm abusing list, again apologies, just point me in the right direction. > Else if you care to get in touch direct > > -- > > Kind Regards > > Kyle > > -- > SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ > Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html > -- http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Integration testing
There's experimental but functional support for testing Python from within Cucumber[0] using rubypython[1], a C bridge between Ruby & Python. :-) Cucumber also has support for testing Java through JRuby, C# through IronRuby and Flex through FunFX. There's also Cuke4Duke[2], which is a pure Java port of the step definition API. It has a Groovy[3] DSL, and the features are runable with Ant or Maven. Lindsay [0] http://github.com/aslakhellesoy/cucumber/tree/master/examples/python/features/ [1] http://rubypython.rubyforge.org/ [2] http://wiki.github.com/aslakhellesoy/cuke4duke [3] http://wiki.github.com/aslakhellesoy/cuke4duke/groovy-step-definitions 2009/9/19 Robert Collins : > There's pycucumber for pythonistas; haven't used it so can't vouch for > it strongly :) > > -Rob > -- http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Integration testing
2009/9/18 Stuart Guthrie : > Hi there, > > If you're not a developer, you can ignore the rest of this post... > > Just wondering what people are using for integration testing their > applications (should they write them). > > We're evaluating tellurium (groovy-based) which is another base-metal like > sellenium (used by a lot of places). > > We currently use Selenium, our issues are that it doesn't handle complex > javascript interactions with any degree of grace. Particularly the dojo > toolkit that we use. > > I've also heard windmill is good if you're a python-leaning developer. > > Any experience out there with writing complex tests on top of javascript web > UI applications? I'd love to know where others have trod. If you don't mind using Ruby, you might want to have a look at Cucumber[0] with Webrat[1]. You use Cucumber to write an executable specification, and behind the scenes use Webrat to interact with the system you're testing. Here's an example Cucumber feature: Feature: Login To ensure the safety of the application A regular user of the system Must authenticate before using the app Scenario: Successful login Given I am not authenticated When I go to / And I fill in "email" with "lind...@holmwood.id.au" And I fill in "password" with "test" And I press "Log in" Then I should see "Logged in successfully" The steps within the scenario get mapped to a Ruby DSL behind the scenes, so the "When I go to /" step gets mapped to: When /^I go to (.*)$/ do |path| visit(path) end The regex capture gets mapped to the path variable, and is passed to the visit method, which is provided by Webrat. Webrat can interact with sites with a bunch of different backends (Selenium, Watir, Mechanize, Rails), so you can swap out the underlying testing infrastructure without rewriting your high-level specifications. Probably the coolest thing is that you can reuse those Cucumber steps in any of your Cucumber features, which eliminates a lot of duplication and brittleness in your tests. Some of the Cucumber + Webrat documentation can be a bit Rails specific, but the Selenium documentation is pretty solid. [2][3] I've heard good things about Watir also, and the documentation has a bunch of examples[4] for interacting with Gmail + Gmaps, so I assume it handles complex JS pretty well. I use Cucumber + Webrat on pretty much every web project I hack on, but I don't test my JavaScript, mainly because I use progressive enhancement. That said, there are a *lot* of people in the Ruby community doing testing with Cucumber + Webrat + Selenium, so they can't all be wrong. HTH, Lindsay [0] http://cukes.info/ [1] http://wiki.github.com/brynary/webrat [2] http://wiki.github.com/aslakhellesoy/cucumber/setting-up-selenium [3] http://wiki.github.com/brynary/webrat/selenium [4] http://wiki.openqa.org/display/WTR/Examples -- http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Server Monitoring: RAID6, VMs, disk usage
I recommend apcupsd because i've used it, but I notice collectd has a NUT plugin, so knock yourself out with whatever. :-) Lindsay 2009/6/22 Dean Hamstead : > I would have to recommend NUT over apcupsd. > > Dean > > On 6/22/2009, "Ben" wrote: > >>Hi Lindsay, >> >>Thanks for that comprehensive answer. >> >>So collectd runs on each system itself, but I assume Nagios is centralised >>at some point, so where would be the most sensible place to do that? Is >>there ultra reliable hosting built for just that purpose? >> >> >> >>2009/6/22 Lindsay Holmwood >> >>> Hi Ben, >>> >>> 2009/6/22 b...@bensand.com : >>> > >>> > Features: >>> > + Email notifications on critical events (that I can specify) >>> > + Overview of all systems being monitored showing current status >>> > >>> > >>> > Monitoring: >>> > >>> > Critical: >>> > * status of software RAID6 array (eg. if any drive fails, even if a hot >>> > spare is available) >>> > * usage % of various partitions >>> > * monitor the status of my VMs (I intend to use virtualbox) >>> > * monitor the status of backups (haven't yet determined what system I'll >>> be >>> > using) >>> > >>> > Desirable: >>> > * monitor my UPS >>> > + trigger shutdowns in VMs and then main system if power goes out. >>> > >>> > Future: >>> > * monitor web logs on servers for hits, usage, etc. >>> > * monitor security related logs on servers. >>> > >>> > Will it be simpler to use multiple tools, or is there some giant swiss >>> army >>> > knife that it's worth learning? >>> >>> What you're trying to achieve broadly falls into two categories: >>> >>> * data collection >>> * notification >>> >>> I find that most of the monitoring tools out there try to do both, and >>> don't quite manage to pull it off. >>> >>> For the data collection, I would recommend using something like >>> collectd[0]. It can collect stats on disk space, io throughput, ups >>> usage, web server usage (apache2 + nginx), vm utilisation, and a whole >>> bunch of other things. It's also network aware, so you can collect >>> stats on all your machines individually, and aggregate the results in >>> one place. >>> >>> For the notification, the easiest option would be Nagios[1]. collectd >>> provides a collectd-nagios[2] binary which can be used to query stats >>> that collectd has collected, and return warnings depending on whether >>> values are out of range (which Nagios will pick up and notify you >>> about). For quick status checks (questions like "is mdadm reporting >>> any failures?"), you can Google for one that suites your taste, or >>> write a Nagios check yourself to do it. >>> >>> The main advantage of breaking the problem up like this is you can >>> swap out parts of the system when something better comes along. >>> >>> Oh, and for triggering shutdowns from your UPS, try something like >>> Apcupsd[3]. >>> >>> Lindsay >>> >>> [0] http://collectd.org/ >>> [1] http://nagios.org/ >>> [2] http://collectd.org/documentation/manpages/collectd-nagios.1.shtml >>> [3] http://www.apcupsd.com/ >>> >>> -- >>> http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ <http://holmwood.id.au/%7Elindsay/> (me) >>> -- >>> SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ >>> Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html >>> >>-- >>SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ >>Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html > -- http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Server Monitoring: RAID6, VMs, disk usage
Hi Ben, That's right, you'd want to aggregate the collectd stats in one place, and run Nagios on the same system. In a VM or a dedicated host, it doesn't really matter. There are lots of hosting providers out there, but I would recommend going for one geographically proximate to the machines you're monitoring (same continent is fine). For Australian hosting, I would recommend Bulletproof, but i'm sure plenty of people on this list will have suggestions. Lindsay 2009/6/22 Ben : > Hi Lindsay, > > Thanks for that comprehensive answer. > > So collectd runs on each system itself, but I assume Nagios is centralised > at some point, so where would be the most sensible place to do that? Is > there ultra reliable hosting built for just that purpose? > > > > 2009/6/22 Lindsay Holmwood >> >> Hi Ben, >> >> 2009/6/22 b...@bensand.com : >> > >> > Features: >> > + Email notifications on critical events (that I can specify) >> > + Overview of all systems being monitored showing current status >> > >> > >> > Monitoring: >> > >> > Critical: >> > * status of software RAID6 array (eg. if any drive fails, even if a hot >> > spare is available) >> > * usage % of various partitions >> > * monitor the status of my VMs (I intend to use virtualbox) >> > * monitor the status of backups (haven't yet determined what system I'll >> > be >> > using) >> > >> > Desirable: >> > * monitor my UPS >> > + trigger shutdowns in VMs and then main system if power goes out. >> > >> > Future: >> > * monitor web logs on servers for hits, usage, etc. >> > * monitor security related logs on servers. >> > >> > Will it be simpler to use multiple tools, or is there some giant swiss >> > army >> > knife that it's worth learning? >> >> What you're trying to achieve broadly falls into two categories: >> >> * data collection >> * notification >> >> I find that most of the monitoring tools out there try to do both, and >> don't quite manage to pull it off. >> >> For the data collection, I would recommend using something like >> collectd[0]. It can collect stats on disk space, io throughput, ups >> usage, web server usage (apache2 + nginx), vm utilisation, and a whole >> bunch of other things. It's also network aware, so you can collect >> stats on all your machines individually, and aggregate the results in >> one place. >> >> For the notification, the easiest option would be Nagios[1]. collectd >> provides a collectd-nagios[2] binary which can be used to query stats >> that collectd has collected, and return warnings depending on whether >> values are out of range (which Nagios will pick up and notify you >> about). For quick status checks (questions like "is mdadm reporting >> any failures?"), you can Google for one that suites your taste, or >> write a Nagios check yourself to do it. >> >> The main advantage of breaking the problem up like this is you can >> swap out parts of the system when something better comes along. >> >> Oh, and for triggering shutdowns from your UPS, try something like >> Apcupsd[3]. >> >> Lindsay >> >> [0] http://collectd.org/ >> [1] http://nagios.org/ >> [2] http://collectd.org/documentation/manpages/collectd-nagios.1.shtml >> [3] http://www.apcupsd.com/ >> >> -- >> http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) >> -- >> SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ >> Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html > > -- http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Server Monitoring: RAID6, VMs, disk usage
Hi Ben, 2009/6/22 b...@bensand.com : > > Features: > + Email notifications on critical events (that I can specify) > + Overview of all systems being monitored showing current status > > > Monitoring: > > Critical: > * status of software RAID6 array (eg. if any drive fails, even if a hot > spare is available) > * usage % of various partitions > * monitor the status of my VMs (I intend to use virtualbox) > * monitor the status of backups (haven't yet determined what system I'll be > using) > > Desirable: > * monitor my UPS > + trigger shutdowns in VMs and then main system if power goes out. > > Future: > * monitor web logs on servers for hits, usage, etc. > * monitor security related logs on servers. > > Will it be simpler to use multiple tools, or is there some giant swiss army > knife that it's worth learning? What you're trying to achieve broadly falls into two categories: * data collection * notification I find that most of the monitoring tools out there try to do both, and don't quite manage to pull it off. For the data collection, I would recommend using something like collectd[0]. It can collect stats on disk space, io throughput, ups usage, web server usage (apache2 + nginx), vm utilisation, and a whole bunch of other things. It's also network aware, so you can collect stats on all your machines individually, and aggregate the results in one place. For the notification, the easiest option would be Nagios[1]. collectd provides a collectd-nagios[2] binary which can be used to query stats that collectd has collected, and return warnings depending on whether values are out of range (which Nagios will pick up and notify you about). For quick status checks (questions like "is mdadm reporting any failures?"), you can Google for one that suites your taste, or write a Nagios check yourself to do it. The main advantage of breaking the problem up like this is you can swap out parts of the system when something better comes along. Oh, and for triggering shutdowns from your UPS, try something like Apcupsd[3]. Lindsay [0] http://collectd.org/ [1] http://nagios.org/ [2] http://collectd.org/documentation/manpages/collectd-nagios.1.shtml [3] http://www.apcupsd.com/ -- http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] rdiff-backup
2009/6/4 Amos Shapira : > > The matter with backups is not just to make them - but also to manage > a catalog to help you find the right file when you have to restore > things. > On that note, you can use the rdiffWeb[0] tool to browse your rdiff-backup revisions and recover files. [0] http://www.rdiffweb.org/ Lindsay -- http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Defining "Mainsteam"
2009/4/3 Rick Welykochy : > Rev Simon Rumble wrote: > >> One of my colleagues was complaining this week that a Vista service pack >> is something like a gigabyte (and her ISP doesn't have free mirrors) of >> download in one hit. Ouch. > > Sounds outrageous! I had a peek on the Microsoft website for the Vista > services packs. SP1 is about 440 MB and SP2 is about 350 MB. Ouch! > > Apple has similar offerings, perhaps 500 MB every four months. Generally Apple's point releases are a bit smaller than that (~80mb). Nice thing about OS X updates is Apple roll all the point releases into a single update, so if you clean install and do a software update, you'll get a single big update of all the point releases up to the latest (~500mb). That said, their update tool is totally broken. Case in point: you do a clean install of OS X, the software updater runs silently in the background and starts downloading the latest updates, you run the software update frontend manually, and it discards any partially completed silent downloads so far (this could be up to 1gb of updates). For all its faults, Linux distros still kick the crap out any other OS when it comes to distributing and applying updates. Lindsay -- http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
[SLUG] Re: [activities] SLUG Committee elections: progress so far
2009/3/8 James Polley : > > Ken Wilson has never done anything less than a stellar job as > Treasurer. I'd like to nominate him for the same role again, if he's > willing to shoulder this burden yet again. I second Ken's nomination. Ken's work as Treasurer over the last few years has been exemplary. Lindsay -- http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] bugzilla setup
2009/3/11 Lindsay Holmwood : > > I can highly recommend Redmine[0]. It's written in Rails, and is very > easy to set up. Might be helpful if I link :-) [0] http://www.redmine.org/ -- http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] bugzilla setup
2009/3/10 Ken Foskey : > > Is there a better very simple web based bug tracking that I should be > using? I can highly recommend Redmine[0]. It's written in Rails, and is very easy to set up. I've heard people complain about previous versions, but the current release s pretty great - I use it for all of my client projects. Lindsay -- http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Draft paper submission deadline extended (will not be extended further): SETP-09
Sorry about the spam getting through from this guy. The sender is blacklisted in Mailman but Mailman's filtering isn't working, so i've blocked them in Spamassassin. Again, apologies. Lindsay 2009/3/8 John Edward : > Draft paper submission deadline extended (will not be extended further): > SETP-09 > -- http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] LPI training
I haven't spoken to Geoffrey in a while, however he did post to SLUG in July[0] about introductory Linux classes. He mentioned a new website in his mail too, http://eleceng.org/, but there doesn't seem to be any Linux specific courses running this semester. Lindsay [0] http://lists.slug.org.au/archives/slug/2008/07/msg0.html 2009/2/4 Blindraven : > Don't bother with Gonzo, people keep linking it without caring to notice > it's been dead for over 2 years. > You'll also have no luck tracking down Geoff, I've tried. > > > > On Wed, Feb 4, 2009 at 2:42 PM, Martin Visser wrote: > >> Geoffrey Robertson used to run LPI oriented courses at Granville TAFE - >> http://www.gonzo.edu.au/moodle/ >> I'm not sure what has happened with these. >> >> Regards, Martin >> >> martinvisse...@gmail.com >> >> >> On Tue, Feb 3, 2009 at 9:34 PM, Ben wrote: >> >> > I have a friend who's working for a company that's willing to pay for >> > Linux training and certification. >> > >> > He's pretty green so I thought starting with the LPI and working for a >> > year or so before trying for the RHCE would be a good idea. >> > >> > The only real person training we can find for LPI is from SIMT: >> > http://www.simt.nsw.edu.au/ >> > >> > Has anyone used SIMT? or know of any alternative live/real person >> > training that would be equivalent? >> > >> > Ben >> > -- >> > SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ >> > Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html >> > >> -- >> SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ >> Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html >> > > > > -- > "None are so hopelessly enslaved as those who falsely believe they are > free." > -- > SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ > Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html > -- http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] [job] Help prepare technical documents / web
G'day Richard, Just wanted to let you know that we have a mailing list dedicated to these requests: j...@slug.org.au. You'll probably have better luck posting there. Thanks! Lindsay 2009/1/19 Richard Hayes : > Dear List, > > I am look for a person to help prepare technical documents would suit > technical student but others are encouraged to call me. > > Skills: > * Basic Photoshop or GIMP > * Basic HTML > > Wages negotiable. > > Regards, > > Richard Hayes > 0414 618 425 -- http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Choosing a sensible host
2008/9/22 Jim Donovan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > Hi, > > I run a site with about 20MB of files and a finite amount of traffic. > We've been using a $100/100MB plan with Smartyhost which gives us SSH access > and a linux server. > > Unfortunately, smarty's service seems to be falling off. They keep trying to > move us to a server which does not allow SSH logins. And they seem unable to > keep our webstats running. Thanks MYOB! [0] > Can anyone suggest a better host which also allows SSH logins? If you're looking for bargain basement hosting, I can recommend Digital Pacific[1]. They have a bunch of basic plans[2] that would probably suit your needs. SSH access isn't on by default[3], but if you shoot them an email they'll enable it for you. Cheers, Lindsay DISCLAIMER: they are a client of mine, but I don't get paid commissions. :-) [0] http://tinyurl.com/437yfj [1] http://www.digitalpacific.com.au/ [2] http://www.digitalpacific.com.au/hosting/personal-web-hosting/ [3] http://tinyurl.com/4tsy7c -- http://slug.org.au/ (the Sydney Linux Users Group) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] DODO
2008/8/27 Adrian Chadd <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > On Wed, Aug 27, 2008, Lindsay Holmwood wrote: > >> Unfortunately TPG have a *very* broken transparent HTTP proxy. Trying >> to work around it's bugs is a nightmare for web developers (I know, >> i've been there). > > I wonder if they're still using Squid.. > > (Squid's much better at transproxying these days.) I'm 99% certain they're using Squid, but I think they've either severely misconfigured it, or are running a dodgy hacked up older version. Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (the Sydney Linux Users Group) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] DODO
2008/8/27 Mehmet Yousouf <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: >>I totally recommend Internode - plans are a little more pricey but the > speed >>is always consistent and so far I've never had to call tech support. When > we >>connected to internode their support and sales guys have been top notch. > > I've been using TPG for a couple of years (ADSL2, shaped). Running mail, > web, ssh etc.fixed IP address as well no problems so far (which means I have > no idea how good their support is) - I average about 25gig per month in > downloads, speed is usually above 10 meg ( never seen it break the 20 mark). > Unfortunately TPG have a *very* broken transparent HTTP proxy. Trying to work around it's bugs is a nightmare for web developers (I know, i've been there). I've used both Internode and Exetel at home. Exetel have been great up 'til the last 12 months. I have regular problems with their network nowdays. +1 Internode. Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (the Sydney Linux Users Group) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Processor Profiler
Check out the sysstat project[0]. Useful utilities for what you're doing are sar, iostat, and pidstat. Setting up a simple monitoring script using pidstat run out of cron would be your best bet. Pidstat can give you info on memory utilisation (paging, swapping, rss), io, cpu utilisation, and context switches, Interpreting the results is the trickier problem. :-) Lindsay [0] http://pagesperso-orange.fr/sebastien.godard/ 2008/8/19 Nima Talebi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > Hi All, > I've got some performance issues with some VMs where the `system' use was at > about 50%, and the machine was not actually doing (or asked to do) anything > useful. > > At the moment, I'm not interested in _fixing_ the problem - VMware can do > that - all I want to do is run a system profiler on a dozen physical > machine, and also on a dozen VMs, then I'd interpret the results manually; > factoring in other overheads etc. > > For I/O I'm using IO-zone, my main concern at the moment is the processing > performance. > > Has anyone come across a decent tool for this? > > Nima > > > -- > Nima Talebi w: http://ai.autonomy.net.au/ > p: +61-4-0667-7607 m: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > -- > SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ > Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html > -- http://slug.org.au/ (the Sydney Linux Users Group) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: On Systems Administrators who are Programmers (was: Re: [SLUG] composite multiple images command in imagemagick)
2008/7/1 Jamie Wilkinson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > 2008/6/17 Rick Welykochy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: >> >> Leave programming in the large to analysts. > > I still have to disagree with you. > > (Despite the two weeks I've had to think of more examples, I can only > think of one in the public eye. I do not consider that to weaken my > argument though -- if anything, just one example shows that it is both > possible and likely that more examples of excellent sysadmin-written > software exists.) Cobbler, Func, collectd, Nagios, Ganglia. Any of the package management systems to a certain degree. Otherwise +1. I could not have put this better myself. Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (the Sydney Linux Users Group) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Recent SPAM on SLUG
Looks as though spamd died in the arse - i've restarted it and it all looks good. Let slug-sysadmins@ know if spam doesn't abate. Cheers, Lindsay 2008/6/27 Lindsay Holmwood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > Just for reference, requests like this should be sent to the > slug-sysadmins list. > > cc'ing this there, and checking it out. > > Lindsay > > 2008/6/27 James Dumay <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: >> Hey guys, >> Im a little concerned with all the recent "Work from Home"/"Get Rich Quick" >> spam thats appearing on the ML. >> >> Could someone responsible for the mailinglist spam filter have a look? >> >> Thanks >> James >> -- >> SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ >> Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html >> > > > > -- > http://slug.org.au/ (the Sydney Linux Users Group) > http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) > -- http://slug.org.au/ (the Sydney Linux Users Group) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Recent SPAM on SLUG
Just for reference, requests like this should be sent to the slug-sysadmins list. cc'ing this there, and checking it out. Lindsay 2008/6/27 James Dumay <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > Hey guys, > Im a little concerned with all the recent "Work from Home"/"Get Rich Quick" > spam thats appearing on the ML. > > Could someone responsible for the mailinglist spam filter have a look? > > Thanks > James > -- > SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ > Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html > -- http://slug.org.au/ (the Sydney Linux Users Group) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Filesystem which allows online fsck?
2008/6/12 Erik de Castro Lopo <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > Hi all, > > Does anyone know of a Linux filesystem which allows online > fsck on a disk that is currently mounted read/write? > Do you want to do a check, repair, or both? btrfs (pronounced Butter FS) will do repair, though it's definitely *not* production ready. chunkfs can do a partial check, though it also isn't production ready. Val Henson gave a great talk on chunkfs at LCA this year: http://mirror.linux.org.au/pub/linux.conf.au/2008/Thu/mel8-262.ogg Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (the Sydney Linux Users Group) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] easiest way to check if a .deb is installed?
On Sat, Jun 7, 2008 at 4:21 PM, Sonia Hamilton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > What's the easiest accurate way to check if a .deb has been installed > on a system, from a script? > > At the moment I'm using `dpkg -l | grep ...`, which is messy. dpkg -s $package Return code is 0 for installed, 1 for not installed. Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (the Sydney Linux Users Group) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
[SLUG] Call For Volunteers: Linux Australia stand @ OpenCeBIT
G'day all, Linux Australia is looking for volunteers to man the stands at OpenCeBIT, on the 20th-22nd of May 2008. Volunteers will be answering people's questions about Linux and open source, showing off a number of demos we have set up, and giving out CDs and flyers. People can volunteer from anywhere from 30 minutes to whole days. We'll be looking after volunteers, with tea, coffee, and snacks. If you're interested in volunteering, please email me off list. We'll need as many people as possible to spread the load. :-) Cheers, Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (the Sydney Linux Users Group) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Easy way to duplicate a setup?
On Mon, Apr 28, 2008 at 12:51 PM, DaZZa <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > OK guru's. :-) > > I'm in a situation where I need to duplicate on a mass basis - to the > order or 3000-5000 units - a Linux setup off a headless box. > > All the destination boxes will be identical in specification, and the > same as the original. At this point (trial - only 15 to do), I've made > an image of the disk using DD to a USB attached drive - which works, > and gets the new boxes working, but takes 3+ hours to dump the image > back to the new boxes. > > 3+ hours over 5000 machines is not really acceptable. :-) > > Is there a better way to do this? Something which will make a smaller > image and dump back quicker - most of the disk is empty, there's only > about 15 gig of actual data/setup on a 160 gig drive - and still > maintain the partition setup/bootability like using DD does? > > Willing to listen to anyone who has a cluestick and is willing to apply it. Building a provisioning infrastructure is the easy part. Managing a deployment of 3000+ machines is going to be a challenge. Are these set-and-forget machines, or are you going to have to change stuff on them in the future? Even if they are set and forget, I can imagine that your requirements *will* change in the future and you'll be up shit creek if you've done just plain imaging. My suggestion (speaking as someone who's done a 400+ seat deployment, twice): - use your distro's network boot + auto install system to install the most miminal of base images you can get. (kickstart, debian-preseed and PXE are your friend) - hook a configuration management system in an the end of the prep process and have it configure the machines (Puppet is perfect for this) Jeff hit the nail on the head when he explained why you need to use a configuration management system. If you don't have that infrastructure in place you're going to hate yourself when you have to change some seemingly trivial setting across 3000+ machines. You'll end up duplicating whatever work you do, because you'll need to check that the change works on existing machines *as well as* new machines that you provision. Put really simply: keep as much logic as you possibly can *out* of your provisioning process and rely on a configuration management system like Puppet. Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (the Sydney Linux Users Group) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] working wvdial.conf file for Vodafone Huawei E220?
On Tue, Apr 15, 2008 at 4:42 PM, Sonia Hamilton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I've just bought a 3G Mobile Broadband plan from Vodafone. Anyone got a > working wvdial.conf file? # /etc/wvdial.conf [Dialer Defaults] Init1 = ATZ Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0 Modem Type = Analog Modem Baud = 460800 New PPPD = yes Modem = /dev/ttyUSB0 ISDN = 0 Phone = *99***1# Username = Password = I used wvdialconf to generate mine, then filled in the blanks. Make sure you ring and activate the SIM if you haven't already. I was told that mine was activated and it wasn't. :-/ HTH, Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (the Sydney Linux Users Group) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] whack MBR
On Tue, Apr 1, 2008 at 9:58 AM, Peter Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Dear Lazy Web, > > I am presently debugging PXE installs for our product. This involves a > lot of round trips like this: If you don't need to test directly on your hardware you could run the PXE install in a VM with either VMware or KVM. I've done this before and it works great. Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (the Sydney Linux Users Group) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
[SLUG] 2007 AGM meeting minutes
G'day Everyone, Here are the meeting minutes for 2007. Sorry about the delays - i'm a slacker. Have a look over them, and raise any points at the AGM on Friday. SLUG Sydney Linux Users Group Incorporated == 2007 Annual General Meeting === Friday 30th March 2007 at Level 13 IBM building 300 Pacific Hwy St Leonards Meeting opened at ?7pm Presidents report by Lindsay Holmwood Sydney Linux Users Group (SLUG) President's Report 2006-2007 The 2006/2007 period was a reasonably historic one for SLUG on a number of fronts. UTS, our venue for the last 10 years kicked us out, forcing us to find a new place to hold our monthly meetings. We hosted linux.conf.au 2007, the first time an LCA has returned to a previously hosting city. We also managed to come in at a profit, due to new insurance and banking arrangements. Although it's been a turbulent year at times, I think we've come a long way. With an expected surge of new members out of linux.conf.au, the future certainly looks bright. Meetings We've been holding meetings at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) for as long as any of us can remember. UTS have always been a pleasure to deal with, and Tim Bayfield has been amazingly helpful in single handedly booking rooms for meetings and activities. Unfortunately, due to VSU and internal politiking UTS decided to start charging us $600 per meeting for using their venue. This was obviously beyond SLUG's means, so we were forced to find a new venue at extremely short notice (UTS's change of heart came one week out from a SLUG meeting). Fortunately for us, IBM stepped up to the plate and provided us a fantastic venue at St. Leonards. Although the getting into the building was sometimes tricky, SLUG has coped extremely well and we're still managing a decent turnout of at least 30 people per meeting. Unfortunately the shift to the North Shore has caused our numbers to dwindle, with the extra 20 minute journey and change of train line making it difficult for some to get home at the end of a meeting. Fingers crossed we'll be able to find a solution to this problem in the coming year. Speakers at SLUG this year included: * April: James Dumay * May: Ian Weinand * June: Mikolaj Habryn, Dave Airlie * July: Chris Deigan, Silvia Pfeiffer, André Pang * August: Pascal Klein, Jamie Wilkinson * September: Conrad Parker, Adam Kennedy * October: Ken Yap, Peter Miller * November: John Ferlito, Charles Grey * January: Holger Levsen, Mikal Still * February: James Dumay, Lindsay Holmwood Thanks goes out to everyone who volunteered to speak, some at very short notice. :-) Events == We had a broad smattering of events this year, catering to all sorts of special niches and interests. Special events included: * DebSIGs, organised by Lindsay Holmwood + Robert Collins * Codefest, organised by Mary Gardiner * SLUGaMuSIG, organised by Denis Crowdy * Videofests, organised by Silvia Pfeiffer * SydPUG, organised by Gavin Sherry * Women's Meetup, organised by Myrto Zehnder * SLUG Workshop, organised by Chris Deigan * Website codefest, organised by Silvia Pfeiffer And of course, there was linux.conf.au in January. LCA was a resounding success that wouldn't have been possible without the hard work and dedication of many members of SLUG who volunteered to make it all happen. 800 attendees. 70 speakers. 5 days. An awesome event. Other things * New SLUG website. With the old website needing a bit of love, the committee and assorted volunteers spent some time setting up a copy of Drupal and transferring all the relevant data across. This process culminated in a website codefest, organised by Silvia Pfeiffer, that saw about 10 volunteers getting together in a lovely photo studio provided by Dave McQuire and hacking on new features for the website, and fixing up the content. It's been a great success, with the site looking miles better and significantly easier to navigate. * New hosting. SLUG's server maddog suffered a series of critical hardware failures that forced us to look for alternative hosting. Solutions First kindly chipped in and provided a virtual machine on their hosting infrastructure. Thanks goes out to sol1 for providing a helping hand! As you can see, a tremendous amount has happened this year. Thanks to everyone who's been involved this last year - without your help SLUG wouldn't nearly be what it is. I look forward to another fantastic year for 2007-2008! Lindsay Holmwood SLUG President Treasurers report by Ken Wilson SLUG - Sydney Linux Users Group 2006 Treasurers report Main changes in 2006 were the closing of the Credit union account as all signatories had not been updated as the paperwork was too complex, it was easier just to close the account, and the changing of insurance companies to halve the pu
Re: [SLUG] Lexmark E250D laser printer and Linux
On Fri, Mar 14, 2008 at 12:12 AM, Sridhar Dhanapalan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Officeworks are selling the Lexmark E250D laser printer for $249, which looks > like an absolute steal considering it has a duplexer. My office recently > purchased one, but I can't for the life of me get it to work over USB with > Ubuntu 7.10 or Fedora 8. I've tried standard CUPS as well as their own > proprietary Linux software. OpenPrinting[0] says that it works 'mostly' with > Linux, but I get nothing. > > Has anybody had any luck with these? I've done a lot of work with the networked version of this printer (the E250dn) and haven't had any issues. Can you post your /etc/cups/printers.conf? My hunch is that it's a CUPS usb backend issue. Thanks, Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (the Sydney Linux Users Group) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Lexmark E250D laser printer and Linux
On Fri, Mar 14, 2008 at 3:35 AM, Mark Phillips <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > So where are the slug videos? Mate, this is not helpful. We've all been doing our best to get the videos served, but comments like this are not constructive. The video is currently being uploaded, and a URL will be posted by the end of the day. Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (the Sydney Linux Users Group) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] bash - identify changes within a directory.
I second this: inotify-tools is a fantastic package (written by an
Aussie, no less) that's very easy to wrap in shell script.
The only problem i've ever had with inotifywait was when I recursively
ran it over a directory with about 30 subdirectories and 80,000 files.
It took *ages* to start, and segfaulted often.
That said, on shallow directories with less than 1000 files it should
cope adequately.
If you don't have a recent kernel and are looking for something with
maximum compatibility, try using rsync with the --list-only argument,
and parsing it's output with diff.
Lindsay
On Mon, Mar 10, 2008 at 5:45 AM, Massimiliano Fantuzzi
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Hi Guys !
> I really agree with all those methods, they are scriptable and efficient,
> but the best choice at present day is another...
> Is the choice for userland utilities (inotify-tools) to the new kernel
> module inotify.
>
> It gives granular auditing for files, directories and sockets in general,
> and doesn't introduce prestational overhead, as script may do. sure, you
> have to run a 2.6 kernel, i admit ... here is an example sscript from
> project's homepage:
> inotifywait example 1
> #!/bin/sh # A slightly complex but actually useful example inotifywait -mrq
> --timefmt '%d/%m/%y %H:%M' --format '%T %f' \ -e close_write /home/billy |
> while read date time file; do rsync /home/billy/${file}
> rsync://[EMAIL PROTECTED]/backup/${file} && \ echo "At ${time} on ${date},
> file ${file} was backed up via rsync" done This may be the most efficient
> way to block for changes on files from a shell script.If you don't specify
> which event you want to catch, all will be caught, and the event which
> occurred is output on stdout.inotifywait example 2
> #!/bin/sh EVENT=$(inotifywait --format '%e' ~/file1) [ $? != 0 ] && exit [
> "$EVENT" = "MODIFY" ] && echo 'file modified!' [ "$EVENT" = "DELETE_SELF" ]
> && echo 'file deleted!' # etc... inotifywait will return true if an event
> you asked for is caught. If an event you didn't ask for is caught, it will
> return false; this generally occurs if you listen to a file on a particular
> partition and the partition is subsequently unmounted, or if you listen for
> a specific event and the file is deleted before that event occurs.
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inotify &
> http://inotify-tools.sourceforge.net/
>
> there are more and more applications for this, check it out and abandon
> find,test and diffs...
> maybe try perl, dunno, but also give a try to inotify (I REPEAT: IT IS A
> OFFICIAL KERNEL MODULE)
>
>
> On Sun, Mar 9, 2008 at 10:10 AM, ken Foskey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> > On Sun, 2008-03-09 at 18:40 +1100, david wrote:
> > > #!/bin/bash
> > > if [ -N /some/directory/ ] ; then
> > > echo "change"
> > > else
> > > echo "no change"
> > > fi
> > >
> > > The object is to identify changes within a directory. This tells me if
> > > there are any new or deleted files, but not if files within the
> > > directory are modified.
> > >
> > > Is there a trivial way to do it?
> >
> > In script something like this:
> >
> > ls -l >file1
> > ls -l >file2
> >
> > diff file1 file2
> >
> > In perl
> >
> > use File::Monitor;
> >
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[SLUG] Nomination: Sridhar Dhanapalan for President
Ok, time to kick off the nominations! I'd like to nominate Sridhar Dhanapalan for the position of President. Although his current position on the committee may be "Ordinary Committee Member" there is nothing ordinary about what he's acheived - over the last year Sridhar has demonstrated an outstanding ability in leading our community. He has: * successfully and repeatedly organised meetings and events * engaged with FOSS communities and companies * responded to communications to the committee * followed up on committee actions and tasks * acted as a spokesperson to the media ...all whilst being an active and enthusiastic member of the SLUG community both on the mailing lists, IRC, and at meetings. Most importantly, I believe he has the vision, determination, and commitment to be a successful SLUG President - to build upon and better the community we have, forge strong relationships with other organisations, and keep everyone in line. :-) I wholeheartedly endorse Sridhar for this position. Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (the Sydney Linux Users Group) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
[SLUG] 2008 AGM Annoucement: nominations are open!
Dear Sydney Linux Users Group members, This message is to give notice that the Sydney Linux Users Group will hold its Annual General Meeting of Members on Friday March 28th 2008 at 07:00pm EDST at the Atlassian offices, 173-185 Sussex Street, Sydney, NSW, Australia. Members unable to attend the meeting may raise issues for the committee to respond to either publicly, by mailing the main SLUG mailing list[0], or privately by mailing the Committee directly at [EMAIL PROTECTED] The agenda for the meeting is as follows (also available online at [1]): * President's welcome * Confirmation of minutes of the 2007 AGM * Presentation of financials for fiscal year ended 30 June 2007 * Motion: Changes to the process of becoming a member[2] * Motion: Creation of a corporate membership[2] * Election of 2008-2009 SLUG Committee * General business, questions from the floor * AGM close The minutes from the 2007 AGM will shortly be posted on the main SLUG mailing list for members to review prior to the 2008 AGM. Members interested in serving on the Committee are highly encouraged to nominate themselves for one or more positions. A significant number of existing committee members have indicated that they will not be running for re-election. SLUG membership is $15 for students, and $25 for everyone else. If you would like your membership cancelled so as not to receive further mails like this, please email [EMAIL PROTECTED] indicating that. Voting will occur at the meeting by show of hands by financial members. Members unable to attend in person may appoint a proxy to vote on their behalf, in accordance with Section 4.11, and Appendix 2, of the SLUG constitution[3]. Parties should notify the secretary of their appointment of a proxy via digitally signed email to [EMAIL PROTECTED], using the form mentioned in Appendix 2. The committee will ask that the members ratify its activities as detailed in the office bearers' reports were in accordance with the organisation's aims. These reports will be presented at the AGM. On behalf of the committee I would like to thank you for your interest in SLUG and involvement with the community to date, and encourage you to pass on any questions or ideas you may have about the organisation's future to the SLUG mailing list or the committee directly. Yours sincerely, Lindsay Holmwood President, Sydney Linux Users Group [0] http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug [1] http://wiki.slug.org.au/2008agm [2] http://lists.slug.org.au/archives/activities/2008/02/msg0.html [3] http://wiki.slug.org.au/activeconstitution -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
[SLUG] Monthly Meeting & AGM: Friday, March 28 2008
G'day all! == March SLUG Monthly Meeting == When: 18.30 - 20.30, Friday, 28 March, 2008 We start at 18:30 but we ask that people arrive 15 minutes early so we can all get into the building and start on time. Please do not arrive before 18:00, as it may hinder business activities for our host! Appropriate signage and directions will be posted on the building. Where: Atlassian[1], 173-185 Sussex Street, Sydney (corner of Sussex and Market Street) Entry is via the rear on Slip Street. There are stairs going down along the outside of building from Sussex St to near the entrance. A map of the area and directions can be found here[2]. = About = SLUG's monthly meeting + AGM, featuring the normal AGM bits and a talk. Meetings are open to the general public, and free of charge. = Talks = AGM: The 2008 SLUG Annual General Meeting. An agenda for the AGM detailing proposed ammendments to the constitution will be posted in the following days. Talk to be advised. = Meeting Schedule = * 18:15 : Open Doors * 18:30 : Announcements, News, Introductions * 18:45 : SLUG AGM * 19:30 : Break * 19:45 : Split into two groups for * In-depth Talk (TBA) * SLUGlets: Linux Q&A and other miscellany * 20:30 : Dinner See you there! Lindsay [1] http://www.atlassian.com [2] http://tinyurl.com/35fxes -- http://slug.org.au/ (the Sydney Linux Users Group) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Tuesday afternoon shell command optimisation party!
On Dec 18, 2007 4:35 PM, Martin Visser <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> perl -e 'while(<>){$a+=s/[,]//g};print "$a\n"'
Ruby version:
ruby -e "p IO.read('input.txt').count(',')"
Lindsay
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Re: [SLUG] Tuesday afternoon shell command optimisation party!
On Dec 18, 2007 4:53 PM, Jeff Waugh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > >> Not the most graceful, but the following seems to work: > >>grep -o ',' input.txt |wc -l > > > > Assuming we're using GNU "grep" we can leave the pipe off: > > grep -c -o ',' input.txt > > Hmm, unfortunately the -c misinterprets the count due to a weird interaction > between -c and -o. I wonder if this should be regarded as a bug in GNU grep? > Not a bug at all! grep -c only counts the number of matching lines, not the number of occurances of a pattern in a line. Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (the Sydney Linux Users Group) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Tuesday afternoon shell command optimisation party!
On Dec 18, 2007 4:35 PM, Martin Visser <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> perl -e 'while(<>){$a+=s/[,]//g};print "$a\n"'
> Do I win??
No. Ironically, your solution is 3 characters longer. :-)
Lindsay
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Re: [SLUG] {Commercial} SafeSquid "SPEED-BOOSTER" 4.2.0 Released
On 10/4/07, Robert Collins <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Entirely spam, a commercial product riding on the squid name and brand. > > Not happy! > I sent them a particularly nasty email last week on behalf of the mailing list mods. I don't think they'll be posting here again. Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (the Sydney Linux Users Group) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] removing source installed after rpm install ?
On 9/27/07, Voytek Eymont <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I've installed courier authlib from source, subsequently, I built rpm and > installed it (again) from the rpm, > whats the best way to determine what got installed /remove whatever got > installed for source install ? > > going by below, the source installed to '/usr/local/sbin/' > > --- > # whereis authtest > authtest: /usr/sbin/authtest /usr/local/sbin/authtest > /usr/share/man/man1/authtest.1.gz > # authtest voytek > ERR: authdaemon: s_connect() failed: Connection refused > Authentication FAILED: Illegal seek > # /usr/sbin/authtest voytek > Authentication succeeded. > # /usr/local/sbin/authtest voytek > ERR: authdaemon: s_connect() failed: Connection refused > Authentication FAILED: Illegal seek > `rpm -ql ` will give you a listing of files belonging to the package. There's no real easy way to work out where your source install sprayed files on the filesystem. Your best bet would be to run configure and change the --prefix to something like /tmp/authlib/, run a make install, and see what files you get under there. A combination of rpm, find and diff will give you a nice list of stuff that's been overwritten or lingering between the two installs. >From the output of your whereis command, i'm guessing when you run authtest from the shell it's invoking /usr/local/sbin/authtest rather than the one in /usr/sbin. Do a 'which authtest` on the shell to find out for sure. Your end goal is probably to remove the source install and just use the rpm. To be sure I'd remove the rpm, do a `make uninstall`, and reinstall the rpm. Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (the Sydney Linux Users Group) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Suspenseful laptops
On 9/13/07, James Gregory <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Can anyone recommend a laptop that is small (11.1 - 13.3 inches), > reasonably fast, and can do suspend (both to RAM and disk) easily? Oh, > and that I can buy now; old models aren't so interesting to me. Ubuntu > is my OS of preference, but if it makes a difference, I'd consider > switching to something else. > I've been eyeing off similar configurations the last few months. My recommendations: IBM x61(s) HP Presario B1973TU HP NC4400, TC4400 Toshiba Portege R500 Sony Vaio TZ90 (Japan import only) I have no idea about how well Linux works but I assume the IBM x61 and HP TC and NCs are well supported. I'm personally sold on the Vaio TZ90. Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (the Sydney Linux Users Group) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
[SLUG] REMINDER: Venue change for monthly meeting
Hi all, Just a friendly reminder that this month's SLUG meeting's venue has changed. The meeting will be held at Atlassian, 173-185 Sussex Street, Sydney. A map of the area can be found at http://tinyurl.com/2z7ph9. See you there! Lindsay -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] {OT} Have a read of this
Hi Nicholas, For future reference, any mail that you think is off topic should be sent to the slug-chat mailing list. Thanks, Lindsay On 8/15/07, Nicholas Tomlin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > http://cecaust.com.au/main.asp?sub=ausnews&id=2007_08_13.htm > > -- > SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ > Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html > -- http://slug.org.au/ (the Sydney Linux Users Group) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
[SLUG] Notes from my Puppet talk
Hi all, I didn't provide any links during my talk for people to go off and get started with Puppet, so here they are now. :-) CFT is a tool for monitoring work you do to a machine and produce Puppet manifests of that work. It could be quite handy if you're looking at migrating an existing site to Puppet. http://cft.et.redhat.com/ The language tutorial is absolute gold for understanding the available language features. http://reductivelabs.com/trac/puppet/wiki/LanguageTutorial The type reference provides a decent overview of all the inbuilt types available. I only showed a few of the in built types during my talk, but there are a whole bunch more at your disposal. http://reductivelabs.com/trac/puppet/wiki/TypeReference There's a bucketload of documentation on the Puppet website, including manifest examples, best practice documents, and links to the mailing list. http://reductivelabs.com/trac/puppet Hope y'all enjoyed the talk. Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (the Sydney Linux Users Group) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
[SLUG] Rusty migration complete
Rusty's migration is complete. It took slightly longer than expected due to memory issues, but things are back up and running again. Thanks for your patience, Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (the Sydney Linux Users Group) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
[SLUG] Rusty migration + downtime, 20/07/2007 @ 1500 - 1800
Hi all, We're migrating SLUG's server Rusty to a new machine in the Solutions First rack. The migration should only take an hour, but please expect downtime of up to 3 hours. The migration will start this afternoon, Friday July 20 @ 1500. The current machine's disk controller is on its last legs, which has caused a number of stability issues over the few months. We're expecting the new server will fix resolve the stability issue. Thanks for your patience, Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (the Sydney Linux Users Group) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Re: how to edit slug calendar event?
Peter Miller wrote: Strangely, the web site doesn't say who to email should you have problems with the web site. Anywhere. The webmaster contact info was at the bottom of the contacts page. I've added another link in the body to make it a bit clearer. :-) Could some kind person tell me who to talk to about re-obtaining edit permission for http://slug.org.au/node/65 please? We had some sort of regression in our user permissions; they're all fixed now. Cheers, Lindsay -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
[SLUG] New digital arts mailing list
G'day all, Just announcing the new digital arts mailing list at [EMAIL PROTECTED] You can sign up at http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/digitalarts. If you're interested in using FOSS for photo processing, vector graphics, digital animation, or any other type of digital design, this is the list for you! Cheers, Lindsay -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Re: photo/graphics processing SIG anyone?
David wrote: Let's keep the conversation going please. There MUST be a need for this sort of thing. If SLUG don't want to do a mailing list I'm quite happy to do one. Whoa, hold your horses! We're quite happy to do one, we just hadn't gotten around to it yet. :-) The new list is at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Lindsay -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
[SLUG] May SLUG Monthly Meeting
G'day all, == May SLUG Monthly Meeting == When: 18.30 - 20.30, Friday, 25 May, 2007 Where: Level 13, IBM Building, 601 Pacific Highway, St. Leonards This month's meeting will be at the IBM building, Level 13, 601 Pacific Highway, St. Leonards, starting at 18.30. We ask that people arrive 20 minutes early so we can all get into the building and start on time. We will have people stationed at the door of the building to greet and let you into the building. Thanks to the fantastic people at IBM for our great venue! Following on from last month's shortened meeting success, we're again cutting down the talk times so we have more time to eat dinner, hang out and get to know each other a bit better. = Talks = General Talk: Justin Randall - "Building a load-balanced, highly-available web site with Debian, Pound, Apache, Spread and Wackamole" As the title suggests. :-) Technical Talk: Taryn East - "Introduction to Ruby on Rails" Taryn will be giving us the scoop on Ruby On Rails (www.rubyonrails.org) and guide us through the land of web development, on Rails! Hope to see y'all there. Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (the Sydney Linux Users Group) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me!) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Guests wanted for Free Dinner and Coffee!
Trent Murray wrote: Hi, Just another email to say that our LIP 199 class would love to hear from anyone that can give a short presentation on Introductory LDAP. Though i've already talked about this with Geoffrey, i'm quite happy to come and talk again. The Granville tafe run an awesome bunch of classes, and they're always looking for external people to give talks. If you're interested in talking about anything in the certification curriculum [0], they'd really like te hear from you! Lindsay [0]http://www.ubuntu.com/partners/training/certificationcourses/professional/curriculum -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Doing a demo of Ubuntu at my place of work
On Wed, Apr 18, 2007 at 12:07:08PM +1000, Howard Lowndes wrote: > > >Be pragmatic and realistic as possible. Admit shortcomings Start small > >and focus on one area that you *know* you can excel in. Once you have > >success there, move up to something a bit bigger. > > There are two issues here: a) using open source applications and b) > using open standards. > > Why not use OOo but with .doc and .xls as the default Save options until > such time as a more urgent need to move to open standards appears on the > horizon. > For a lot of businesses this is a perfectly reasonable choice. It's insane to try and do a clean cut to OpenDocument or any other document format without piloting it first. You wouldn't do a clean switch to MS Office and MS formats from OpenOffice and OpenDocument, and vice versa. You build familiarity with the software, and then focus on changing data formats for the right reasons. Small moves. However, there is an urgent business need for open standards, and that's vendor lock-in. (that's a topic for a whole other thread though :-) Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (the Sydney Linux Users Group) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Doing a demo of Ubuntu at my place of work
On Tue, Apr 17, 2007 at 05:33:35PM +1000, Michael Lake wrote: > > Beryl/Compiz is of no use to sales persons. Find out quickly what sofware > they are using and look around for some applications that they can use as > alternatives if they were running under Ubuntu. Demo those. Michael hit the nail on the head. Most medium->large businesses are interested in Linux and FOSS because of potential cost reductions in infrastructure. To a business, bling like Compiz is a flashy distraction that doesn't add significant value to the software stack. Show them how to emulate their existing environment with FOSS. Work out what software they're using and find Linux equivalents. For things that you can't find equivalents for, show them Windows Terminal Services support. Focus on the basics. FOSS usually betters equivalent Windows software in this field. Show web browsers, email, IM, office apps - the things people use day in day out in the business. Software speaks louder than words - show them the system in action! If you feel you need slides, run your demo from OpenOffice. If you're feeling adventurous, try integrating the presentation into parts of the system you're demoing (a web page in Firefox with key points, a Tomboy note, an email you sent yourself in Evolution, an SVG you knocked up in Inkscape - the sky's your limit). My suggested attack plan: - show the basics (web browsers, email, office, etc) - show the volume of software available (synaptic is your friend here!) - show integration with existing infrastructure (terminal services, emulation, virtualisation) - explain to them that while the software is free, it's going to be a big commitment to go down the FOSS path - give them LiveCDs to play around with > Be fair and show the problems that can arise e.g. transfering complex Word > docs back and forth. Be pragmatic and realistic as possible. Admit shortcomings Start small and focus on one area that you *know* you can excel in. Once you have success there, move up to something a bit bigger. It's the domino effect, baby. Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (the Sydney Linux Users Group) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Two CUPS questions
G'day Leslie, On Thu, Apr 12, 2007 at 03:13:35PM +1000, Leslie Katz wrote: > > I did that by installing two RPMs supplied by Canon, which it said were > for Fedora Core 6. > > Among the installed files from the two RPMs were: (1) a .ppd file; (2) a > filter file; and (3) a backend file. > > The .ppd file included a line referring to the filter file. > > I have two questions: > > 1. Is there any chance that by copying all three of the files I’ve > mentioned to the appropriate directories on the computer running > DSL, I could get the MP160 to print with that computer? CUPS on Debian and Fedora/Red Hat aren't that dissimilar in where they place files. You could try converting the RPMs with alien and install them on DSL, or extract them with rpm2cpio and slot them in the right spot (the first option is preferable). Assuming the version of CUPS and its dependencies aren't that different between the RPMs and what DSL has installed, you'll have a decent chance at getting it working. Google gave me http://openprinting.org/show_printer.cgi?recnum=Canon-PIXMA_MP160 which has instructions on getting the RPMs working with Ubuntu, I assume it wouldn't be too different on DSL. Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (the Sydney Linux Users Group) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
[SLUG] Nomination: Silvia Pfeiffer for Secretary, Vice President
I'd like to nominate Silvia Pfeiffer for the positions of Secretary and Vice President. Although a newcomer to the SLUG committee last year, Silvia has proven herself to be an outstandingly reliable and dependable member of our community, handling: * recording of talks at various SLUG meetings * running the AV team of linux.conf.au 2007 * running the FOMS conference the week before linux.conf.au * setting up and maintaining the new SLUG website * promptly answering questions to the committee * never missing a committee meeting all on top of kickstarting her own business. :-) Her organisational skills would be an enormous boon to the 2007-08 committee. Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (the Sydney Linux Users Group) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
[SLUG] Nomination: James Dumay for Ordinary Committee Member
I'd like to nominate James Dumay for the position of Ordinary Committee Member. James is an ideas man. He is an incredibly active member of the community behind the scenes, extolling the virtues of Linux & FOSS on behalf of SLUG to the local media, evangelising cutting-edge technology to his peers, and constantly cooking up crazy new ways to make SLUG awesome. Always one to kick off a discussion, he would be an incredibly useful member of the 2007-08 committee. Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (the Sydney Linux Users Group) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
[SLUG] Nomination: Matt Moor for Vice President
I'd like to nominate Matt Moor for the position of Vice President and Ordinary Committee Member. Over the last 2 years Matt has proven to be a valuable contributor to the SLUG community both as Secretary and VP, through organising and running events, reforming and documenting organisational processes, and consistently providing a voice of reason in all committee affairs. I beleive his depth of knowledge and experience of SLUG would be invaluable to the 2007-08 committee. Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (the Sydney Linux Users Group) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
[SLUG] Nomination: Sridhar Dhanapalan for Ordinary Committee Member
I'd like to nominate Sridhar Dhanapalan for the position of Ordinary Committee Member. Sridhar has become increasing involved in the local Linux + FOSS community over the last year, helping out at Software Freedom Day, linux.conf.au 2007 on the AV team, and currently organising the LA stand at Open CeBIT. I believe Sridhar's leadership and ideas would be valuable contributions to the SLUG community, and a natural extension of his current responsibilities. Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (the Sydney Linux Users Group) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Ruby-on-Rails talk - interest?
On Mon, Mar 26, 2007 at 11:39:58AM +1000, Taryn East wrote: > > Would there be any interest in me running an "Introduction to Ruby on > Rails" talk at SLUG? > > If so - do you have any questions you'd like me to research ahead of > time? Hey Taryn, A talk of this ilk would be fantastic! I've added your talk suggestion to the SLUG wiki at http://wiki.slug.org.au/talksuggestions. The new committee will be in contact with you to work out a time for you to give the talk. :-) Thanks! Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (the Sydney Linux Users Group) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
[SLUG] Nomination: Ken Wilson for treasurer
Ok, time to get the ball rolling on the nominations front! I'd like to nominate Ken Wilson for the position of treasurer. Over the last 3 years Ken has been a fantastic treasurer, adeptly managing SLUG's finances, helping out above and beyond what was required of a committee member's duties, and providing a pragmatic and reasoned voice throughout all decision making processes. He would be a great asset to the next SLUG committee, and I heartily endorse him for this position. Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (the Sydney Linux Users Group) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
[SLUG] March SLUG Monthly meeting + AGM
G'day all! == March SLUG Monthly Meeting == When: 18.30, Friday, 30 March, 2007 Where: Level 13, IBM Building, 601 Pacific Highway, St. Leonards SLUG's monthly meeting + AGM, featuring the normal AGM bits and a general talk. Meetings are open to the general public, and free of charge. This month's meeting will be at the IBM building, Level 13, 601 Pacific Highway, St. Leonards, starting at 18.30. We ask that people arrive 20 minutes early so we can all get into the building and start on time. A committee member will also be standing outside the building to meet, greet, and provide directions to the venue. = Talks = AGM: The 2006 SLUG AGM. All the normal shenanigans. General Talk: IBM's Lotus Notes native Linux port A representative from IBM will be talking about their native port of Lotus Notes to Linux. The sessions will be rounded out with a general Q&A session about IBM and Linux. Further details will be posted on the website. == Schedule == * 6.30pm: Open Doors * 6.45pm: The Usual Suspects * 7.00pm: SLUG AGM * 8.00pm: (approx) Break for tea and coffee * 8.20pm: General Talk: IBM's Lotus Notes native Linux port * 9.20pm: Dinner: TBA Hope to see you there! Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (the Sydney Linux Users Group) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me!) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Club portal software
On Thu, Mar 22, 2007 at 09:44:56PM +1100, Zhasper wrote: > I hereby second drupal, including the reccomendation to install from source. > Does news tracking, polls, calendar, and simple forums. > > The project as a whole is heavily slanted toward community-building sites, > and groups like civicspace have done even more work to push it in that > direction. > I third this. SLUG uses Drupal with a smattering of modules for event management and site navigation. It all works quite well. Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (the Sydney Linux Users Group) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me!) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] [EMAIL PROTECTED]: [activities] Call For Participation: Distro Discussion Panel @ Friday's meeting]
On Thu, Feb 22, 2007 at 03:28:10PM +1100, Amos Shapira wrote: > Do you need Debian reps or was this spot filled out the quickest? :-) > I'm NOT a Debian Developer but I use it for many years so might be able to > fill in. > Nobody has put their hand up yet, so look like you're it. :-) If other people want to represent Debian, you can work out a 'repshare' between yourselves. Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (the Sydney Linux Users Group) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] [EMAIL PROTECTED]: [activities] Call For Participation: Distro Discussion Panel @ Friday's meeting]
On Thu, Feb 22, 2007 at 03:12:52PM +1100, Michael Kedzierski wrote: > > I've switched from Gentoo to Arch on my main desktop about two weeks ago, I > could do either. Either would be perfect. You can choose on the night. :-) Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (the Sydney Linux Users Group) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] [EMAIL PROTECTED]: [activities] Call For Participation: Distro Discussion Panel @ Friday's meeting]
On Thu, Feb 22, 2007 at 02:55:47PM +1100, Robert Collins wrote: > > What ones do you have? > Right now, Fedora and Slackware. Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (the Sydney Linux Users Group) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
[SLUG] [EMAIL PROTECTED]: [activities] Call For Participation: Distro Discussion Panel @ Friday's meeting]
G'day all! We're running low on volunteers - anyone else want to represent their favourite distro? Lindsay - Forwarded message from Lindsay Holmwood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> - From: Lindsay Holmwood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: SLUG Activities <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2007 17:10:22 +1100 Subject: [activities] Call For Participation: Distro Discussion Panel @ Friday's meeting Hi all! We're looking for volunteers to represent Linux distribution at Friday's panel. There will be a bunch of questions from the audience and a number from the moderator, with the session lasting a bit under an hour. If you'd like to be part of the panel, please respond to this email with the distro you'd like to represent. If someone else has already volunteered themselves for your prefered distro, volunteer anyway! We can work out a shared spot on the panel. :-) Thanks! Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (the Sydney Linux Users Group) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG Activities Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html - End forwarded message - -- http://slug.org.au/ (the Sydney Linux Users Group) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
[SLUG] SLUG February Monthy Meeting
Hi all! == February SLUG Monthly Meeting == When: 18.30, Friday, 23rd February, 2007 Where: Level 13, IBM Building, 601 Pacific Highway, St. Leonards SLUG's monthly meeting, featuring talks and SLUGlets. Meetings are open to the general public, and free of charge. This month's meeting will be at the IBM building, Level 13, 601 Pacific Highway, St. Leonards, starting at 18.30. We ask that people arrive 20 minutes early so we can all get into the building and start on time. A committee member will also be standing outside the building to meet, greet, and provide directions to the venue. = Talks = General Talk: Distrubution Discussion Panel Advocates and enthusiast are invited to represent their favourite Linux distribution in this discussion panel. Questions will be fielded from the audience and moderated, covering a range of topics about how the distribution fits together, who develops and uses it, and how people can get involved in the community. Technical Talk: James Dumay + Lindsay Holmwood - Anna: WRT management, Jabber Style You've been tasked with deploying a large wireless network in a hostile environment with an ever changing and variable network topology. What tools do you use? Anna is a management framework for such environments, harnessing Jabber to create botnets of centrally managed, highly flexible wireless access points. James and Lindsay will be giving a rundown of the origins of the project, the foundations it's built on, and how to deploy it. SLUGlets topic Talk: Distribution Discussion Panel Continuance SLUGlets will be a continuation of the discussion panel. Audience members are invited to talk with the panelists on more specific topics related to their distributions. == Schedule == * 6:30pm: Open Doors * 6.45pm: The Usual Suspects * 7:00pm: General Talk: Distribution Discussion Panel * 8:20pm: Technical Talk: James Dumay + Lindsay Holmwood - Anna * 8:20pm: SLUGlets Topic: Discussion Panel Continuance * 9:20pm: Dinner: TBA Hope to see you there! Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (the Sydney Linux Users Group) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Linux and POS
Heya Russell, I've done a bit of work in this area before with Kennards Hire, and some general research of available POS systems. They developed a custom application in Java that sits on top of a Fedora install. The app runs at all their branches nation wide and replicates data back to a central location. As far as the availability of the code, it belongs to Kennards and I don't think they're going to release it any time soon. :-) I've heard that Creative Computing[0] make excellent POS software. Bearnie is the guy to talk to there. POS software is not an itch most programmers want to scratch, so you're not going to find too many projects out there. :-) Muli[1] make business management software, which sort of isn't what you're asking about, but you might find it interesting nonetheless. In terms of FOSS POS solutions, there's not too much available, however PHP Point Of Sale[2] is suppose to be quite reasonable. Most (all?) of the FOSS POS projects out there are focused on a particular industry or business style, but with a bit of time and effort you can adapt what's out there to your needs. Hope this helps! Lindsay [0] http://www.creativecomputing.com.au/ [1] http://www.muli.com.au/ [2] http://www.phppointofsale.com/ On Thu, Feb 01, 2007 at 12:24:10AM +1100, Russell Davie wrote: > Hi All > > I was wondering on suggestions of Linux POS (point of sale) solutions > available for retail. > > Has anybody seen this work in a live retail environment? > > GNU would be great, however this may be unrealistic. > > Links and contacts sought for who can do this sort of work here in Australia > - NSW, QLD. > Who does this and who would you suggest? > -- http://slug.org.au/ (Sydney Linux Users Group) http://lca2007.linux.org.au/ (linux.conf.au 2007) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] impromptu DebSIG meeting?
On Tue, Jan 30, 2007 at 12:54:29PM +1100, Paul Wise wrote: > On Tue, 2007-01-30 at 08:08 +1100, Lindsay Holmwood wrote: > > > You might want to try posting this to activities, the list where we > > organise events such as DebSIG. > > Thanks for the advice, apologies for misusing the main list. > No apology needed - we're here to help! :-) Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (Sydney Linux Users Group) http://lca2007.linux.org.au/ (linux.conf.au 2007) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] impromptu DebSIG meeting?
G'day Paul, You might want to try posting this to activities, the list where we organise events such as DebSIG. Cheers, Lindsay On Mon, Jan 29, 2007 at 02:36:54PM +1100, Paul Wise wrote: > Hi all, > > I'm a new DD and I'm in Sydney for a few weeks (till feb 17th), was > hoping DebSIG would have an event during that time, but nothing is > posted on the SLUG website. Any Debian/SLUG folk up for a beer in a pub > somewhere? I'm in Rozelle for now, so somewhere in the city would be > good (Criterion maybe), or there is a pub down the end of the street > (Wellington St in Rozelle). > > PS: I'm not subscribed, so please CC me on any replies. > > -- > bye, > pabs > > http://wiki.debian.org/PaulWise > -- > SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ > Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html -- http://slug.org.au/ (Sydney Linux Users Group) http://lca2007.linux.org.au/ (linux.conf.au 2007) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Searching the list archives
G'day Rick, On Sat, Jan 06, 2007 at 01:36:38AM +1100, Rick Welykochy wrote: > Is it PEBCAK, PICNIC or a scripting error? > > http://lists.slug.org.au/archives/slug/2006/01/ > > and click "Search!" the following page appears: > > "lists.slug.org.au Mailing Lists" > but no search results, just a list of lists. > > The list searching functionality has been broken since we migrated our server to a new box last year. We know what the problem is, but we just haven't gotten around to fixing it. :-) For best results try searching the gmane archives at http://blog.gmane.org/gmane.org.user-groups.slug.general or use Google, with a "site: lists.slug.org.au" prefixing your search terms. Cheers! Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (Sydney Linux Users Group) http://lca2007.linux.org.au/ (linux.conf.au 2007) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Slugs iCal generator script?
Hi Amos, We're actually using the event module for Drupal, which comes with a bunch of iCal generation goodness out of the box. You can find everything you need at http://drupal.org/ and http://drupal.org/project/event. Good luck! :-) Lindsay On Thu, Jan 04, 2007 at 08:56:42AM +1100, Amos Shapira wrote: > Hello, > > Can anyone point me to the script used to generate the iCal file of SLUG > events at http://slug.org.au/event/ical ? > > I've suggested providing the same service by another event-organizing group > (outside Australia) and they asked for code. > > Thanks, > > --Amos > -- > SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ > Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html -- http://slug.org.au/ (Sydney Linux Users Group) http://lca2007.linux.org.au/ (linux.conf.au 2007) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
[SLUG] Re: [Fwd: Re: [CTTE] SLUG after LCA]
On Tue, Dec 12, 2006 at 07:15:11AM -0800, Leslie Hawthorn wrote: > > If this is going to be just a talk, it would honestly take 10 mins, with as > many minutes of Q&A as possible to follow. I can also do the "Google and > Open Source" talk, which takes about an hour. I am honestly happier with > the interactive sessions myself - more interested in what the community > needs to know. Thoughts? > Apologies for the delay, we've been flat out. :-) The interactive session sounds really good, and will probably suit our audience really well. Would you be able to send a quick blurb through to put on the SLUG calendar? Cheers, Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (Sydney Linux Users Group) http://lca2007.linux.org.au/ (linux.conf.au 2007) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] xmas party venue?
Hi Peter, It's going to be at Coogee beach. I'll update the calendar now, thanks for pointing it out. Cheers, Lindsay On Fri, Dec 08, 2006 at 09:08:55PM +1100, Peter Miller wrote: > Could some kind person refresh my memory as to when and where on the > 16th the SLUG End of Year Function BBQ is to occur? > > The calendar ( http://slug.org.au/node/56 ) only has "TBA". > > -- > Regards > Peter Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > /\/\*http://www.canb.auug.org.au/~millerp/ > > PGP public key ID: 1024D/D0EDB64D > fingerprint = AD0A C5DF C426 4F03 5D53 2BDB 18D8 A4E2 D0ED B64D > See http://www.keyserver.net or any PGP keyserver for public key. > -- > SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ > Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html -- http://slug.org.au/ (Sydney Linux Users Group) http://lca2007.linux.org.au/ (linux.conf.au 2007) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Sydney Open VOIP user group
Hey Craig, Nice to hear from you. :-) If you'd like to crosspost this to activities, that would be most excellent. Also, if to put the event up on the SLUG calendar, head to http://slug.org.au/user/register and i'll grant you the appropriate event creation permissions. :-) Cheers, Lindsay On Fri, Dec 08, 2006 at 11:46:15AM +1100, Craig Warner wrote: > Wednesday Night 13th December at 7pm in Chatswood, will be a > gathering to start a Open VOIP user group in Sydney. > > The aim is to determine whether there is sufficient interest, if there > is sufficient interest to then pass a resolution for a stated objective > and approve the use of model rules to form a Open VOIP User group. > > Once we get thru that, nominate two people to be the first committee > members of the proposed Open VOIP user group. > > If your interested email me directly. > > > Craig > -- > bonsai > 1. bonsai is a coloqual term in Australia for it's 25th Prime Minister - > John Howard. The nickname was coined by the former leader on the > opposition when he was quoted on Andrew Denton's Enough Rope (Screened: > 28 July 2003). It is in reference to the Australian allience with > America - viewed by some as 'subservient' (Malcolm Fraser). > > > -- > SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ > Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html -- http://slug.org.au/ (Sydney Linux Users Group) http://lca2007.linux.org.au/ (linux.conf.au 2007) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: Elementary DNS theory (Was: Re: Why DHCP ? (WAS: Re: [SLUG] My father wants an inexpensive computer))
On Thu, Dec 07, 2006 at 06:04:03PM +1100, O Plameras wrote: > > Plameras > Hi all, This thread is done! Any further posts to the list on this thread by 18.20 today will put the list into full moderation mode for the next 3 days. Your friendly list admins, SLUG committee -- http://slug.org.au/ (Sydney Linux Users Group) http://lca2007.linux.org.au/ (linux.conf.au 2007) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Google for trends
On Sun, Nov 26, 2006 at 10:27:48AM +1100, Sam Lawrance wrote: > > On 26/11/2006, at 10:16 AM, Lindsay Holmwood wrote: > > >More telling though > > > >Ubuntu vs Mac: > >http://www.google.com/trends?q=ubuntu%2C+mac&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all > > Is that a big mac or an apple mac? Or maybe a MAC address? > > >Ubuntu vs Apple: > >http://www.google.com/trends?q=ubuntu%2C+apple&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all > > A pink lady apple, or some other variety? I know that I like to > google my fruit. > Unfortunately trends only graphs the results of what people typed into the search box, not necessarily what they were searching for, though I expect to see that in version 2. :-) That said, based off the results the search gives, the results are computer related both times. Also, if you look at the news results for both trends, they're entirely technology related. Granted, comparing "ubuntu" and "apple" is probably going to be slightly unrepresentative as people will look up fruit, though the mac thing is a bit more clear cut. When comparing the results between "mac" and "big mac"... http://www.google.com/trends?q=mac%2C+big+mac&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all ...mac wins hands down, even when comparing "apple mac" and "big mac": http://www.google.com/trends?q=apple+mac%2C+big+mac&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all A non-techie probably isn't going to know what OS X is, but they do know they like the look of those shiny Apple Mac things - and that's what they'll Google for. I absolutely agree that my original trends are probably unrepresentative to various degrees, though probably more accurate than comparing just "osx" and "ubuntu" when you take the general populace into account. Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (Sydney Linux Users Group) http://lca2007.linux.org.au/ (linux.conf.au 2007) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Google for trends
More telling though Ubuntu vs Mac: http://www.google.com/trends?q=ubuntu%2C+mac&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all Ubuntu vs Apple: http://www.google.com/trends?q=ubuntu%2C+apple&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all Sorry, they're still ahead in search volume. :-) Lindsay On Sat, Nov 25, 2006 at 11:37:18PM +1100, Luke Kendall wrote: > Did you know you could use Google to look at trends? E.g. > Ubuntu *apparently* overtook MacOS/X over a year ago: > > http://www.google.com/trends?q=ubuntu%2C+osx&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all > > luke > -- http://slug.org.au/ (Sydney Linux Users Group) http://lca2007.linux.org.au/ (linux.conf.au 2007) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] November SLUG Monthly Meeting
Hi Penedo, Thanks for picking this up, we've had a few people notify us of this. The Drupal event module does some wacky stuff with date munging, to the point where most readers get the date completely wrong. The date is (almost) always correct on the website, so you should check there when in doubt. We're looking at rewriting the iCal component of the event module to fix this problem, but we probably won't get around to it until February next year. Cheers, Lindsay On Thu, Nov 23, 2006 at 03:21:33PM +1100, Penedo wrote: > Hi, > > The meeting shows as happening at 7:30 AM in the published iCal > (webcal://slug.org.au/event/ical) > > Thanks for organizing it. Oops, I'll miss it (and Jeff's NM > presentation) again...:-( > > --P > -- > SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ > Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html -- http://slug.org.au/ (Sydney Linux Users Group) http://lca2007.linux.org.au/ (linux.conf.au 2007) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
[SLUG] November SLUG Monthly Meeting
G'day all! == November SLUG Monthly Meeting == When: Friday, 24th November, 2006 Where: Level 13, IBM Building, 601 Pacific Highway, St. Leonards SLUG's monthly meeting, featuring talks and SLUGlets. Meetings are open to the general public, and free of charge. This month's meeting will be at the IBM building, Level 13, 601 Pacific Highway, St. Leonards. We ask that people arrive 20 minutes early so we can all get into the building and start on time. A committee member will also be standing outside the building to meet, greet, and provide directions to the venue. = Talks = General Talk: John Ferlito - VoIP John will give a broad overview of VoIP including what codecs people should use, hardware (Phones, ATAs, ISDN and PSTN cards, Mobile Pods), what VoIP providers offer, Asterisk and what it can do. John will be using Beagle Internet IVR and distributed VoIP Call Centre as a case study. Technical Talk: Charles Grey - Darbat Darwin is an open-source subset of Apple's Mac OS X. The Darwin kernel presents a POSIX interface, but is internally an interesting mix of BSD and Mach kernels and the modular device framework, I/O Kit. The kernel boasts modern features such as device hot-plug, power management, 64-bit and soft real-time support. L4/Darwin (AKA darbat) is a joint project between the Embedded, Real-Time and Operating Systems group at National ICT Australia and the School of Computer Science and Engineering at UNSW. The L4/Darwin project aims to re-factor the monolithic Darwin operating system into a set of components running on top of the L4 microkernel. By running the Darwin kernel as user processes, L4/Darwin aims to provide improved flexibility, robustness and peformance while preserving binary compatability with native Darwin and Mac OS X. This talk covers details of Darwin kernel internals and our experiences porting it to the L4 microkernel. It will also cover experiments and results so far, as well as future plans. SLUGlets Talk: Jon Teh - Asterisk Following on from John Ferlito's talk, Jon Teh will be diving into Asterisk: what is is and what it can do, including interfacing with various hardware and software communications methods. Telephony in general will be covered briefly to give the audience a suitable context for the demonstration of Asterisk. A primer to the Asterisk dialplan, the heart of any Asterisk system will be given, and asterisk configuration will be demonstrated practically with a live Asterisk server and telephones. Some of the more advanced features will be mentioned, along with possibilities about where people can go from there with their own setups. Participants will be inspired by Asterisk's flexibility and the possibilities it can allow for! == Schedule == * 6:30pm: Open Doors * 6.45pm: The Usual Suspects * 7:00pm: General Talk: John Ferlito - VoIP * 8:20pm: Technical Talk: Charles Grey - Darbat * 8:20pm: SLUGlets talk: Jon Teh - Asterisk * 9:20pm: Dinner: TBA on the night Hope to see you there! Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (Sydney Linux Users Group) http://lca2007.linux.org.au/ (linux.conf.au 2007) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] scripting proxy change in Firefox/changing laptop network settings?
On Thu, Nov 23, 2006 at 02:00:33PM +1100, Jeff Waugh wrote: > > Maybe I should do a quick demo up-front -- will there be time for it, ctte > folk? > Sounds great. We'll slot you in. Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (Sydney Linux Users Group) http://lca2007.linux.org.au/ (linux.conf.au 2007) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] scripting proxy change in Firefox/changing laptop network settings?
Hi Sonia, On Thu, Nov 23, 2006 at 11:49:41AM +1100, Sonia Hamilton wrote: > > * what's the best way *in general* to handle changing network related > settings on a laptop? At the moment I'm just writing scripts that are > called from cron that detect which n/w I'm on and adjust things. For > example, for postfix I do stuff like this: > NetworkManager is by far the best way to manage jumping between different networks. The dispatcher allows you to hook into it and run events based on where you are. There's a reasonable look into how to do it at: http://www-inf.int-evry.fr/~olberger/weblog/2006/08/25/automatically-reconfigure-smtp-relays-in-exim-with-networkmanager-and-whereami/ Good luck! Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (Sydney Linux Users Group) http://lca2007.linux.org.au/ (linux.conf.au 2007) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] howto convert html to pdf?
On Tue, Nov 14, 2006 at 05:42:59PM +1100, Sonia Hamilton wrote: > I (well my boss actually) want to convert several hundred html pages to > pdf - what's the easiest way to do this? Any pointers, ideas? > > I guess I'm looking for a tool like pdf2html (but going in the reverse > direction). > > I've found a php module called html2pdf [1] - just wondering if there's > a stand alone tool callable from the shell. > > [1] http://directory.fsf.org/print/misc/html2pdf.html > I've used mozilla2ps before to do this, then hooked it into ps2pdf for the final output. html2ps doesn't really cut it, with the output looking a bit wishy-washy if you're doing anything complicated (tables, divs, etc). If you're looking for good quality output it's the only choice, however be prepared to wait around a bit for it to generate the pages (it starts up the entire gecko engine before loading the page, then it prints it) You'll need xulrunner underneath, and the moz2ps website[0] explains how to set up everything. The syntax of xulrunner/moz2ps is a bit finicky, but if you follow the configuration docs to the letter you should be ok. Good luck! Lindsay [0] http://michele.pupazzo.org/mozilla2ps/ -- http://slug.org.au/ (Sydney Linux Users Group) http://lca2007.linux.org.au/ (linux.conf.au 2007) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Novell and Microsoft
On Tue, Nov 07, 2006 at 10:29:21AM +1100, James Dumay wrote: > > The Novell/MS should really mean nothing to developers who respect > intellectual property of Microsoft - Microsoft and Novell under the deal > (and any Novell customer) are able to share each others respective > intellectual property and allow external developers to extend and contribute > to those projects. > Sure, the world is rosier for Novell customers and non-commercial developers, but for the rest of us it's significantly murkier. Microsoft have effectively asserted rights over the creation of software by positioning themselves (with Novell) as arbiters of our community. (Note I said software, not FOSS. It has much broader implications than that, though FOSS is the obvious target.) They only have to say that a project *may* be infringing on their patents and businesses will have to reconsider whether they can use it under threat of licencing - a SCO redux. Granted, this is little different from before, though now the battle lines are drawn a lot more clearly. Now that this precedent has been set, Microsoft's strategy is pretty straight forward: Pick a few high profile projects (Mono, Samba, OpenOffice), sue their biggest commercial users for using "non-Microsoft licenced" software that *may* infringe on their patents, watch as customers flock to Microsoft and Novell seeking indemnity. If Microsoft deems your software to be "unlicenced", how are you going to fight it? You *know* you probably have a legal leg to stand on with GPL (if the software is licenced that way), but how would you as a company fund the fight against the Microsoft behemoth if they ever took you to court? Red Hat call it an innovation tax, and that's exactly what it is. > People crying about the entire community not getting covered simply don't > get it... You can be sued now and you could be sued before the deal if you > infringe on someones intellectual property and in some cases, rightly so. > If you are a non-commercial contributor, you are safe. If you are a commercial contributor, you are not. I don't know about the percentages, but i'd say the split in numbers between the two groups is weighted towards commercial contributors. For Microsoft it's never been about the non-commercial contributor. They don't see the backyard tinkerer as a threat. This deal strikes right at the heart of FOSS in commercial environments. > Novell are not handing the keys out to anyones castles, as GPL'd and > similarly licensed software will stay open and free - Novell can't give this > away on their own terms. > It's quite true they don't have the right to relicence the software they don't hold the copyright of. They *have* flagged companies who contribute to and use FOSS as potential patent violators through their actions. > Also take in the fact that the deal is very much product differentiation for > Novell - offering security in the knowledge that Microsoft will not come for > their first born son any time soon. > And what a big product differentiator that is. As a non-Novell customer, i'd like to keep my first born. Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (Sydney Linux Users Group) http://lca2007.linux.org.au/ (linux.conf.au 2007) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Re: slug Digest, Vol 10, Issue 8
On Fri, Nov 03, 2006 at 11:33:47AM +0800, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > On Friday 03 November 2006 11:28, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > 5 spam in 10 mail from the cleverest mail-admin folk in Oz. Wow the > > > spammers are winning! > > > > SLUG's mailing lists and servers are admined by an entirely volunteer crew. > > We're constantly swamped with an ever increasing volume of spam (just check > > out http://slug.org.au/cgi-bin/mailgraph.cgi for the amount of mail we're > > actually receiving :-). > > > > While we do our best to curtail the spam coming through, it's always > > going to be an uphill battle. > > > > Our spamassassin instance is highly trained, though it does die from > > time to time (as it just did). I've restarted it, so hopefully we'll see > > a marked decrease about now. > > Lindsay > if my comments are perceived as critical I humbly appologise. I know all too > well how hard it is to stay ahead of the game. All I was saying is that if > this can defeat the SLUG group with lots of very able talent what do mere > mortals do? > Cheers James I understand. :-) I don't think there'll ever be a effective way of blocking spam with current technologies. We'll just have to live with it. Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (Sydney Linux Users Group) http://lca2007.linux.org.au/ (linux.conf.au 2007) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Re: perl, php
On Fri, Nov 03, 2006 at 01:33:43PM +1100, Michael Lake wrote: > Alan Harper wrote: > >*puts on fireproof suit* > >Why bother with perl when you know python? :) > > Try installing Python eggs compared to installing Perl modules. > No wonder the Python packages are called eggs - they break easily :-) > Python programmers don't know not to bother with eggs because there's Debian. :-) Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (Sydney Linux Users Group) http://lca2007.linux.org.au/ (linux.conf.au 2007) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Re: Another anti-spam idea
Hi James, On Fri, Nov 03, 2006 at 08:30:15AM +0800, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > 5 spam in 10 mail from the cleverest mail-admin folk in Oz. Wow the spammers > are winning! SLUG's mailing lists and servers are admined by an entirely volunteer crew. We're constantly swamped with an ever increasing volume of spam (just check out http://slug.org.au/cgi-bin/mailgraph.cgi for the amount of mail we're actually receiving :-). While we do our best to curtail the spam coming through, it's always going to be an uphill battle. Our spamassassin instance is highly trained, though it does die from time to time (as it just did). I've restarted it, so hopefully we'll see a marked decrease about now. Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (Sydney Linux Users Group) http://lca2007.linux.org.au/ (linux.conf.au 2007) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
[SLUG] Re-announce: October SLUG monthly meeting
G'day all! == October SLUG Monthly Meeting == When: Friday, 27th October Where: IBM Building, St. Leonards SLUG's monthly meeting, featuring talks and SLUGlets. Meetings are open to the general public, and free of charge. This month's meeting will be at our new venue, the IBM building, Level 13, 601 Pacific Highway, St. Leonards. So we can adjust to the venue, we ask that people arrive 15 minutes early so we can all get into the building and start on time. A committee member will also be standing outside the building to meet, greet, and provide directions to the venue. If you get locked out the building, give Lindsay a call on 0432 768 089. = Talks = General Talk: Ken Yap - Migrating authentication from passwd/shadow/smbpasswd to LDAP for small networks Tired of keeping password files on a handful of Linux machines in sync? Heard that LDAP is the solution, but the documentation made your head hurt? This talk will show you how to set up LDAP. As a bonus you get to use LDAP as an address directory for email, etc. Technical Talk: Peter Miller - Compilers and Factories Peter will be presenting a technique that separates the grammar from the semantic processing, using simple C++ polymorphism. The use of factory methods is described, as well as some unexpected benefits and simplifications. SLUGlets Topic: Directory administration and tools Following on from Ken's talk, we'll be looking at best practices for directory administration, and the tools to aid you in your directory endeavors! * 6:30pm: Open Doors * 6.45pm: The Usual Suspects * 7:00pm: General Talk: Ken Yap - Migrating authentication from passwd/shadow/smbpasswd to LDAP for small networks * 8:20pm: Technical Talk: Peter Miller - Compilers and Factories * 8:20pm: SLUGlets topic: Directory administration and tools * 9:20pm: Dinner: Bravo Trattoria, Italian Restaurant ($21.50 a head) Hope to see you there! Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (Sydney Linux Users Group) http://lca2007.linux.org.au/ (linux.conf.au 2007) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
