[ubuntu-uk] Problems with broadband
Hi, Heres my scenario..i was playing Openarena last night...and i also had some torrents running at the same time. Then suddenly my mouse stops working..openarena goes from being full screen to half the screen size..(i can see the rest of my desktop)...i move the mouse but nothing happens...eventually i manage to exit Openarena...and my mouse starts working again...but now when i go into firefox..no pages load up and torrents have stopped to. So i proceed to taking the cables out of my router and modem...and replugging them. Nothing. I even connect it directly from modem without the router...nothing again! Im with Virgin media. i have a motorola modem, a linksy router...and im running gutsy!! Can anyone think of what might have happened? -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Problems with broadband
Have you tried booting from the Live CD and see if that works? Sean On 12/18/07, Javad Ayaz [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi, Heres my scenario..i was playing Openarena last night...and i also had some torrents running at the same time. Then suddenly my mouse stops working..openarena goes from being full screen to half the screen size..(i can see the rest of my desktop)...i move the mouse but nothing happens...eventually i manage to exit Openarena...and my mouse starts working again...but now when i go into firefox..no pages load up and torrents have stopped to. So i proceed to taking the cables out of my router and modem...and replugging them. Nothing. I even connect it directly from modem without the router...nothing again! Im with Virgin media. i have a motorola modem, a linksy router...and im running gutsy!! Can anyone think of what might have happened? -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/ -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Problems with broadband
On Tue, 2007-12-18 at 08:39 +, Javad Ayaz wrote: Hi, Heres my scenario..i was playing Openarena last night...and i also had some torrents running at the same time. Then suddenly my mouse stops working..openarena goes from being full screen to half the screen size..(i can see the rest of my desktop)...i move the mouse but nothing happens...eventually i manage to exit Openarena...and my mouse starts working again...but now when i go into firefox..no pages load up and torrents have stopped to. So i proceed to taking the cables out of my router and modem...and replugging them. Nothing. I even connect it directly from modem without the router...nothing again! Im with Virgin media. i have a motorola modem, a linksy router...and im running gutsy!! Can anyone think of what might have happened? They had an outage. I had the same issue here in wolverhampton -- Seek That Thy Might Know signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Problems with broadband
On Tue, Dec 18, 2007 at 09:03:31AM +, Dave Morley wrote: On Tue, 2007-12-18 at 08:39 +, Javad Ayaz wrote: Hi, Heres my scenario..i was playing Openarena last night...and i also had some torrents running at the same time. Then suddenly my mouse stops working..openarena goes from being full screen to half the screen size..(i can see the rest of my desktop)...i move the mouse but nothing happens...eventually i manage to exit Openarena...and my mouse starts working again...but now when i go into firefox..no pages load up and torrents have stopped to. So i proceed to taking the cables out of my router and modem...and replugging them. Nothing. I even connect it directly from modem without the router...nothing again! Im with Virgin media. i have a motorola modem, a linksy router...and im running gutsy!! Can anyone think of what might have happened? They had an outage. I had the same issue here in wolverhampton As did I in Farnborough. Cheers, Al. -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Problems with broadband
To all that replied.thank you.Sorry i know it sounds mean...but if you guys had problems too..then thats good...means theres nothing majorly wrong with anything on my side!!! :) I will try repluggin everything in today...and also the live CD thing...i will try that if all else fails! On 18/12/2007, Sean Miller [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Have you tried booting from the Live CD and see if that works? Sean On 12/18/07, Javad Ayaz [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi, Heres my scenario..i was playing Openarena last night...and i also had some torrents running at the same time. Then suddenly my mouse stops working..openarena goes from being full screen to half the screen size..(i can see the rest of my desktop)...i move the mouse but nothing happens...eventually i manage to exit Openarena...and my mouse starts working again...but now when i go into firefox..no pages load up and torrents have stopped to. So i proceed to taking the cables out of my router and modem...and replugging them. Nothing. I even connect it directly from modem without the router...nothing again! Im with Virgin media. i have a motorola modem, a linksy router...and im running gutsy!! Can anyone think of what might have happened? -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/ -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/ -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Problems with broadband
Im with Virgin media. i have a motorola modem, a linksy router...and im running gutsy!! Can anyone think of what might have happened? They had an outage. I had the same issue here in wolverhampton As did I in Farnborough. Cheers, Al. Me too (Hampshire), but I was in the middle of setting up my daughters Christmas pressie (new laptop) with Vista (I know, I know, I feel dirty :-o ), anyway I was already cursing it and jumped straight to the wrong conclusion when t'Internet died, but a quick check on my own trusty laptop (Ubuntu) revealed that I couldn't blame Micro$oft for it this time. I also went through power cycling the router modem to no avail, but having read this I hope it will all be back to normal when I get home tonight. -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Problems with broadband
Quoting Martyn [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Me too (Hampshire), but I was in the middle of setting up my daughters Christmas pressie (new laptop) with Vista (I know, I know, I feel dirty :-o ), /kickban - I don't event need to say why... :oP M. -- Matthew Macdonald-Wallace Group Co-Ordinator Thanet Linux User Group http://www.thanet.lug.org.uk/ [EMAIL PROTECTED] GPG KEY: http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=getsearch=0xFEA1BC16 -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Problems with broadband
On 18/12/2007, Matthew Macdonald-Wallace [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Quoting Martyn [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Me too (Hampshire), but I was in the middle of setting up my daughters Christmas pressie (new laptop) with Vista (I know, I know, I feel dirty :-o ), /kickban - I don't event need to say why... :oP M. -- Matthew Macdonald-Wallace Group Co-Ordinator Thanet Linux User Group http://www.thanet.lug.org.uk/ [EMAIL PROTECTED] GPG KEY: http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=getsearch=0xFEA1BC16 -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/ We got a few vista laptops, for just general staff at the company I work at, they crash, always. They have office 2003 and the claims software, and they constantly crash and fail all the time, we have sent 2 back, and reinstalled xp on the other 3 C'mon, these CAME with vista, they can't possibly be that unstable, SP1 is out now, and its supposed to fix it up...yea right! -- Kris Douglas Softdel Limited Hosting Services Web: www.softdel.net Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Problems with broadband
Alan Pope wrote: On Tue, Dec 18, 2007 at 09:03:31AM +, Dave Morley wrote: On Tue, 2007-12-18 at 08:39 +, Javad Ayaz wrote: Hi, Im with Virgin media. i have a motorola modem, a linksy router...and im running gutsy!! Can anyone think of what might have happened? They had an outage. I had the same issue here in wolverhampton As did I in Farnborough. Cheers, Al. The Register is reporting that Virgin went down: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/18/virgin_media_national_outage/ Should be up now. John -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
[ubuntu-uk] Mp3 to Ogg Conversion
Hi All I have a large music collection which is probably 95% mp3 format. I would like to move it all to an open format such as Ogg Vorbis (or any other alternatives that I am unaware of). So I have a couple of questions: Are there any tools that will help me achieve this? Will there be any sound quality reduction as a result of the conversions? I'm vaguely aware of lossy, lossless issues but not really that clued up on audio formats and any issues that they have with each other. I would therefore appreciate any information before I start. My collection runs to nearly 160 Gb so starting from scratch would not really be an option unless absolutely necessary. Thanks in advance. Stu __ Sent from Yahoo! Mail - a smarter inbox http://uk.mail.yahoo.com -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Mp3 to Ogg Conversion
On Tue, 2007-12-18 at 14:24 +, Stuart Bird wrote: Hi All I have a large music collection which is probably 95% mp3 format. I would like to move it all to an open format such as Ogg Vorbis (or any other alternatives that I am unaware of). So I have a couple of questions: Are there any tools that will help me achieve this? Will there be any sound quality reduction as a result of the conversions? I'm vaguely aware of lossy, lossless issues but not really that clued up on audio formats and any issues that they have with each other. I would therefore appreciate any information before I start. My collection runs to nearly 160 Gb so starting from scratch would not really be an option unless absolutely necessary. Thanks in advance. Stu __ Sent from Yahoo! - a smarter inbox. mp32ogg It's in the repositories. point mp32ogg to the folder containing your music and it does the rest :) -- Seek That Thy Might Know signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Mp3 to Ogg Conversion
On Tue, Dec 18, 2007 at 02:24:46PM +, Stuart Bird wrote: Are there any tools that will help me achieve this? mp32ogg Will there be any sound quality reduction as a result of the conversions? Yes. Going from one lossy format to a different lossy format where each loses a different bit of the audio spectrum. My collection runs to nearly 160 Gb so starting from scratch would not really be an option unless absolutely necessary. Guess it depends how much of an audiophile you are. Cheers, Al. -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Mp3 to Ogg Conversion
Converting between 2 lossy formats loses quality. If you converted MP3FLAC, you'd get the same quality as the original MP3, but it would take up about 10x as much space. Or even better, re-rip everything as ogg vorbis. On 18/12/2007, Stuart Bird [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi All I have a large music collection which is probably 95% mp3 format. I would like to move it all to an open format such as Ogg Vorbis (or any other alternatives that I am unaware of). So I have a couple of questions: Are there any tools that will help me achieve this? Will there be any sound quality reduction as a result of the conversions? I'm vaguely aware of lossy, lossless issues but not really that clued up on audio formats and any issues that they have with each other. I would therefore appreciate any information before I start. My collection runs to nearly 160 Gb so starting from scratch would not really be an option unless absolutely necessary. Thanks in advance. Stu Sent from Yahoo! - a smarter inbox. -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/ -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
[ubuntu-uk] Fw: Mp3 to Ogg Conversion
- Forwarded Message From: Stuart Bird [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Alan Pope [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, 18 December, 2007 3:13:14 PM Subject: Re: [ubuntu-uk] Mp3 to Ogg Conversion Thanks everyone for the info: Yes. Going from one lossy format to a different lossy format where each loses a different bit of the audio spectrum. I take it the difference would not be noticed too much by a tone deaf, music loving grunt such as myself then? Another factor is (I could probably get this from Google but may as well ask now I am here) will the ogg files play on my iPod? Stuart - Original Message From: Alan Pope [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: British Ubuntu Talk ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com Sent: Tuesday, 18 December, 2007 2:46:29 PM Subject: Re: [ubuntu-uk] Mp3 to Ogg Conversion On Tue, Dec 18, 2007 at 02:24:46PM +, Stuart Bird wrote: Are there any tools that will help me achieve this? mp32ogg Will there be any sound quality reduction as a result of the conversions? Yes. Going from one lossy format to a different lossy format where each loses a different bit of the audio spectrum. My collection runs to nearly 160 Gb so starting from scratch would not really be an option unless absolutely necessary. Guess it depends how much of an audiophile you are. Cheers, Al. -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/ Support the World Aids Awareness campaign this month with Yahoo! for Good __ Sent from Yahoo! Mail - a smarter inbox http://uk.mail.yahoo.com -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Fw: Mp3 to Ogg Conversion
Stuart Bird wrote: Another factor is (I could probably get this from Google but may as well ask now I am here) will the ogg files play on my iPod? You'd have to convert the ogg's again (more losses!!). (Yep - lots on Google.) Mac -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Fw: Mp3 to Ogg Conversion
On Tue, Dec 18, 2007 at 03:14:02PM +, Stuart Bird wrote: I take it the difference would not be noticed too much by a tone deaf, music loving grunt such as myself then? Probably not no. Another factor is (I could probably get this from Google but may as well ask now I am here) will the ogg files play on my iPod? Not a stock iPod, no. One running an alternate OS like Rockbox would though. Cheers, Al. -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Fw: Mp3 to Ogg Conversion
Stuart Bird wrote: - Forwarded Message From: Stuart Bird [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Alan Pope [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, 18 December, 2007 3:13:14 PM Subject: Re: [ubuntu-uk] Mp3 to Ogg Conversion Thanks everyone for the info: Yes. Going from one lossy format to a different lossy format where each loses a different bit of the audio spectrum. I take it the difference would not be noticed too much by a tone deaf, music loving grunt such as myself then? Another factor is (I could probably get this from Google but may as well ask now I am here) will the ogg files play on my iPod? Stuart Depending on what model of iPod it is you can get an open source firmware for it here: http://www.rockbox.org/ Oh, and there's a Doom plugin for it too. Rob -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Fw: Mp3 to Ogg Conversion
It also depends on the quality of the original MP3s - personally I can hear 'artifacts' in music ripped up to about 220kbps. If you ripped them at 160kbps then I wouldn't suggest getting decent speakers or headphones in teh future, because those converted files are going to start to sound really, really ropey My best advice would be, if you don't have a *very* good reason to convert them, then leave them as MP3s and just start ripping new stuff to decent bit-rate ogg as you get new material. Pete -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Quad core CPU for Ubuntu, is it worth it?
Just to add a little more onto this thread. As Alan correctly suggests the kernel is clever enough to be able to run multiple applications simultaneously on each of the seperate processor cores. But the problem lies in that very few applications currently have been set up to utilise multi threading - that is to say an application can spread it's load over multiple cores within the same machine. If I've got this right, and I'm willing to be corrected, there aren't that many libraries that are true multi threading - GCC is to have such a module incorporated in the very near future and I believe that Python also has such a library. And that I think is that for the main players. So, for the video and audio apps that Rob may be using, on a multi core processor each app would / could be run on it's own core, but unless there were some really intense apps in use, I doubt if the quad would be stretched. E -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Rob Beard Sent: 17 December 2007 17:59 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; British Ubuntu Talk Subject: Re: [ubuntu-uk] Quad core CPU for Ubuntu, is it worth it? Philip Newborough wrote: On Dec 17, 2007 9:27 AM, Alan Pope [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Mon, Dec 17, 2007 at 09:13:28AM +, Kirrus wrote: The technical stuff behind multi-core processors mean that more processors are only really useful if you're going to be running a number of cpu-intensive tasks on your computer simultaneously (as each one will use just one CPU core, leaving the others free to be used elsewhere). Not just intensive tasks, anything where you are doing multiple things at the same time, which can happen with something as simple as viewing a java applet in a web browser. From what you've said, you'd probably find a dual-core sufficient, which would save you some money. Personally, I tend to prefer AMD processors to intel, if just 'cos intel is a big evil corporation, who's cpu's tend to get matched with ATI graphics chips (when they're done on-board), and ATI graphics chips are aweful for linux drivers. :( Not sure you can say Intel is evil. They are an awful lot better (with respect to open sourcing code/drivers) than a number of other vendors such as NVidia and ATI. Of the Intel machines I have, two have NVidia GPUs and five have Intel GPUs. None have ATI. Cheers, Al. I agree, calling Intel evil is a little harsh. Personally I always try to go with Intel, if possible, as they are so well supported. I have a couple of Intel only machines, CPU, chipset, GPU, wireless chips etc, and in my experience they have been the easiest machines to get Linux up and running on. Support for their wireless cards is probably the best I have come across. Support for their graphics chips is not too shabby either, Compiz, not that I use it, works out of the box. Peace, Philip Thanks folks. I've traditionally been a fan of AMD although at the moment with the higher performance of the Core processors I've been interested in going for an Intel chip. After speaking to my other half (okay, begging) we (she) has decided that I'm going to go for a dual core CPU and the money saved can go on an upgrade for her PC. So I think I'll be going for the 2.66GHz Core2Duo with 4MB cache and get her an Athlon X2 4000+ (which means I'll still be supporting AMD :-) From what I was reading up on the motherboard I was looking at, it will take a quad core chip so if my needs alter in the next 12 months or so I could possibly upgrade to a quad core chip. Although saying that, I'd probably replace the motherboard too and put my old PC into a MythTV box :-) Rob -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/ -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Problems with broadband
Kris Douglas wrote: We got a few vista laptops, for just general staff at the company I work at, they crash, always. They have office 2003 and the claims software, and they constantly crash and fail all the time, we have sent 2 back, and reinstalled xp on the other 3 C'mon, these CAME with vista, they can't possibly be that unstable, SP1 is out now, and its supposed to fix it up...yea right! -- Kris Douglas My wife has a Toshiba laptop running Vista (I was against it, but she doesn't listen to me). Every now and then the internal wireless adapter just goes off. Naturally, in true Windows fashion the 'fix' is to simply reboot it. This is what I believe is called a 'feature'. Andy Jenkins. -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Problems with broadband
On Tue, Dec 18, 2007 at 10:43:32PM +, Andrew Jenkins wrote: My wife has a Toshiba laptop running Vista (I was against it, but she doesn't listen to me). Every now and then the internal wireless adapter just goes off. Naturally, in true Windows fashion the 'fix' is to simply reboot it. This is what I believe is called a 'feature'. My father in law had exactly the same problem with an Acer laptop until I told him to remove the stupid Acer helper application. It was that which was causing the drop outs. Now he uses the built in vista wifi stuff and it works. Cheers, Al. -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
[ubuntu-uk] FWD: [[Hampshire] Report on Tesco Ubuntu machine]
This mail popped up on the Hampshire LUG mailing list, and I thought other Ubuntu people might be interested in the comments. I have already pointed out to Peter that his upgrade method (dapper - gutsy) was probably not optimal. I'm also concerned that the vendor is talking about Windows in this way when selling Ubuntu kit. Cheers, Al. - Forwarded message from Peter Salisbury [EMAIL PROTECTED] - From: Peter Salisbury [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Hampshire LUG Discussion List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2007 23:28:37 + Subject: [Hampshire] Report on Tesco Ubuntu machine Hi folks, After three weeks waiting for stock to come in, I finally took delivery of a £139 Tesco machine with built in Ubuntu (actually they gave me 10% off because the case was a bit dented so it ended up costing just £126). Probably worth the money for the moment when they said, You do realise it doesn't have Windows? so we could reply, That's exactly why we want it. However... I'm afraid it would probably not be a good first introduction to Linux for its target audience. As it's the first PC I've bought as a complete machine I was expecting a 'turn on and go' experience. Trouble is that it comes without a monitor and it boots up with the screen resolution set to 1600x1200, so both my (fairly new, fairly good) LCD monitors complained 'Signal out of range' and gave a blank screen. Of course I simply Ctrl-Alt-F1 and nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf and took out the higher resolutions. Can't see a novice managing that. Also can't see many people who are buying a £139 PC having a 1600x1200 monitor lying around at home! Once that was done it was straight to a login screen asking for a username and password. Neither was in evidence in any of the 'documentation' (one sheet offering support for £99 a year and the motherboard booklet). Luckily we guessed it was esys/esys or it would have been Ctrl-Alt-F1 time again! Another source of fun for the unwary would be the pretty-looking CD with some DVD application software . for Windows! That got us into Ubuntu Dapper, default mud brown with its rather childish theme. OpenOffice was at 2.0, Firefox at 1.5 so I went for an upgrade. NOT an easy process; I think it would have been quicker just to download the install CD and start from scratch but I was nervous about losing what I had working. I ended up using aptitude as I found both the package managers (Adept and Synaptic) very cumbersome in comparison. It took a lot of goes round the block and a few dpkg -i of individually downloaded packages to upgrade to Gutsy. There were two or three times where files had moved between packages which often gets apt in a circular frenzy. I only had to reboot once though! Through all this I stuck with Gnome, thinking I'd eventually see the point, but in the end I cracked and installed kubuntu-desktop. It took four minutes over a wireless connection to download and transformed Ubuntu into Kubuntu. Much more to my liking. I can't say I think much of the Kubuntu replacement for kcontrol though - it seems to be missing lots of the controls and doesn't seem to have gained anything in the process. Several things really impressed me: 1) The PC is virtually silent - FAR quieter than the laser printer next to it. It's got a huge circular Intel cooler on the CPU, the fan hardly has to move. 2) The inside is well laid out with the cables attached to the case with cable ties 3) It's really easy to get into the case (once you're removed the annoying 'warranty void if...' sticker) and there's plenty of room for expansion: 3 PCI, 1 AGP, 1 spare DDR 2 slot, one spare drive bay, one spare CDROM bay, one empty FDD bay. There's SATA on the m/b but no SATA power connector so you'd need an adapter. The on-board graphics and sound are fine for office use. 4) The keyboard is very nice and has a bank of special keys for volume, play/pause, start browser etc WHICH ALL WORKED! The mouse is a nice enough optical job. 5) The wireless card worked immediately with a reasonably obvious GUI to set the IP etc. 6) I was amazed when I plugged in our two USB printers and up popped a message saying they'd been configured and installed. Things have certainly moved on since I last started from scratch! Similarly our Logitech Skype headset plugged in and worked; and two essential Windows apps worked under wine so there was no need to arrange a dual boot. 7) The Kubuntu theming and general look and feel are very well done, with gtk apps like jpilot blending in much better than I've managed on my Debian system. 9) But best of all of course, I bought a PC with Linux installed on it. Still seems cool to me! ATB, Peter -- Please post to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web Interface: https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/hampshire LUG URL: http://www.hantslug.org.uk -- - End forwarded message - --
Re: [ubuntu-uk] FWD: [[Hampshire] Report on Tesco Ubuntu machine]
Alan, Alan Pope wrote: This mail popped up on the Hampshire LUG mailing list, and I thought other Ubuntu people might be interested in the comments. I have already pointed out to Peter that his upgrade method (dapper - gutsy) was probably not optimal. I'm also concerned that the vendor is talking about Windows in this way when selling Ubuntu kit. Not to mention selling a machine with a default user name and password already set up. That blows any idea that Ubuntu is secure right out of the water! Regards, Tony. - Forwarded message from Peter Salisbury [EMAIL PROTECTED] - From: Peter Salisbury [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Hampshire LUG Discussion List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2007 23:28:37 + Subject: [Hampshire] Report on Tesco Ubuntu machine Hi folks, After three weeks waiting for stock to come in, I finally took delivery of a £139 Tesco machine with built in Ubuntu (actually they gave me 10% off because the case was a bit dented so it ended up costing just £126). Probably worth the money for the moment when they said, You do realise it doesn't have Windows? so we could reply, That's exactly why we want it. However... I'm afraid it would probably not be a good first introduction to Linux for its target audience. As it's the first PC I've bought as a complete machine I was expecting a 'turn on and go' experience. Trouble is that it comes without a monitor and it boots up with the screen resolution set to 1600x1200, so both my (fairly new, fairly good) LCD monitors complained 'Signal out of range' and gave a blank screen. Of course I simply Ctrl-Alt-F1 and nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf and took out the higher resolutions. Can't see a novice managing that. Also can't see many people who are buying a £139 PC having a 1600x1200 monitor lying around at home! Once that was done it was straight to a login screen asking for a username and password. Neither was in evidence in any of the 'documentation' (one sheet offering support for £99 a year and the motherboard booklet). Luckily we guessed it was esys/esys or it would have been Ctrl-Alt-F1 time again! Another source of fun for the unwary would be the pretty-looking CD with some DVD application software . for Windows! That got us into Ubuntu Dapper, default mud brown with its rather childish theme. OpenOffice was at 2.0, Firefox at 1.5 so I went for an upgrade. NOT an easy process; I think it would have been quicker just to download the install CD and start from scratch but I was nervous about losing what I had working. I ended up using aptitude as I found both the package managers (Adept and Synaptic) very cumbersome in comparison. It took a lot of goes round the block and a few dpkg -i of individually downloaded packages to upgrade to Gutsy. There were two or three times where files had moved between packages which often gets apt in a circular frenzy. I only had to reboot once though! Through all this I stuck with Gnome, thinking I'd eventually see the point, but in the end I cracked and installed kubuntu-desktop. It took four minutes over a wireless connection to download and transformed Ubuntu into Kubuntu. Much more to my liking. I can't say I think much of the Kubuntu replacement for kcontrol though - it seems to be missing lots of the controls and doesn't seem to have gained anything in the process. Several things really impressed me: 1) The PC is virtually silent - FAR quieter than the laser printer next to it. It's got a huge circular Intel cooler on the CPU, the fan hardly has to move. 2) The inside is well laid out with the cables attached to the case with cable ties 3) It's really easy to get into the case (once you're removed the annoying 'warranty void if...' sticker) and there's plenty of room for expansion: 3 PCI, 1 AGP, 1 spare DDR 2 slot, one spare drive bay, one spare CDROM bay, one empty FDD bay. There's SATA on the m/b but no SATA power connector so you'd need an adapter. The on-board graphics and sound are fine for office use. 4) The keyboard is very nice and has a bank of special keys for volume, play/pause, start browser etc WHICH ALL WORKED! The mouse is a nice enough optical job. 5) The wireless card worked immediately with a reasonably obvious GUI to set the IP etc. 6) I was amazed when I plugged in our two USB printers and up popped a message saying they'd been configured and installed. Things have certainly moved on since I last started from scratch! Similarly our Logitech Skype headset plugged in and worked; and two essential Windows apps worked under wine so there was no need to arrange a dual boot. 7) The Kubuntu theming and general look and feel are very well done, with gtk apps like jpilot blending in much better than I've managed on my Debian system. 9) But best of all of course, I bought a PC with Linux installed on it. Still seems cool to me!
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Fw: Mp3 to Ogg Conversion
start ripping new stuff to decent bit-rate ogg as you get new material I think that may be the route to take. Any suggestions on what would be a good choice of ripper to give the necessary bit-rate control? The sound juicer app that came with gutsy doesn't appear to provide that level of control. Stu -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Fw: Mp3 to Ogg Conversion
On 18/12/07 22:46:33, Stuart Bird wrote: Any suggestions on what would be a good choice of ripper to give the necessary bit-rate control? The sound juicer app that came with gutsy doesn't appear to provide that level of control. Sound juicer does let you configure that: - In the preferences dialogue, click Edit Profiles in the Format section - In the new dialogue pick the profile you want to change and click EDIT - You can then change the options in the gstreamer pipeline to whatever you want. For ogg vorbis there will always be a quality option rather than a bit rate, for mp3 you can use either a quality number similar to the one for vorbis and get variable bit rate output with the bit rate adjusted to meet that quality level or give a constant bit rate. Robert McWilliam [EMAIL PROTECTED]www.ormiret.com Where is your street credibility now? -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Fw: Mp3 to Ogg Conversion
On 19/12/07 03:08:51, Robert McWilliam wrote: - You can then change the options in the gstreamer pipeline to whatever you want. Just realised that I didn't actually say what to change in the gstreamer pipeline :) For vorbis there will be a section of the pipeline something like: vorbisenc name=enc quality=0.5. The quality option is what you want to change there. Higher numbers give better quality, but also bigger file sizes. For mp3 there will be a pipeline stage similar to: lame name=enc mode=0 vbr- quality=6 I'd recommend sticking with the vbr-quality option and using variable bit rate [1]. Here the numbers are from 0 to 9 with 0 being the best quality and 9 being the worst. If you want any other info about the options available for these (or any other) gstreamer plugins you can use the gst-inspect command in a terminal, e.g. gst-inspect lame gives details about the lame plugin for mp3 encoding. [1] if you want constant bit rate swap the vbr-quality=x option for bitrate=xxx Robert McWilliam [EMAIL PROTECTED]www.ormiret.com He who laughs last thinks slowest! -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
