December 2002 - WLUG - wlug.mailman3.com

more alphabet soup :-(
by doug waud 02 Dec '02

02 Dec '02

Hi again Just got the latest PC Magazine and I note that my table of CD/DVD acronyms (plagarized from PC World) is already out of date. :-) Now we have CD-MRW where the M refers to Mount Ranier. Although "there have been no specific announcements of DVD+MRW drives yet, Phillips recently proposed an addition ... The Sony DRU-500A apparently ships with Mount Ranier. (The Mount Ranier format put a Main defect table in the Lead-in area (area outside the data area) and a copy of the defect table in the lead-out area.It also sets aside some space in the data area as a "replacement area" where date which would have landed in a bad block is put. The price is somewhat slower reads/writes and slightly reduced capacity. The gain is reliability. Non-MRW drives will need custom software to read MRW data.) doug

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Meeting topics...
by Joel Desrochers 02 Dec '02

02 Dec '02

I have started coming recently and I am very happy with the meeting format and content. I would be very interested in the security-type Linux discussions and demos, including related product demos and breakin & fixit seminars. I had a family emergency this past week which kept me away in November. I already know that a must-attend company Christmas party will keep me from the December meeting. I am looking forward to the January meeting, Joel Desrochers _________________________________________________________________ STOP MORE SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail

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RE: DVD writer
by Scott Prive 02 Dec '02

02 Dec '02

This drive (Sony) currently is not 100% supported by the dvdrtools package. The DVD+R and +RW portion works, but not the -R -RW. The authors of dvdrtools have not yet added support or figured out the firmware (specs? what specs?) The "dash" formats for this drive *may* burn from the non-free dvdrecord-pro package (same author as cdrecord). I saw one report of success. If you're looking for a DVD recorder for Linux, the Pioneer DVR-XXX line is the best supported (I have a DVR-104 which is the OEM ver of DVR-A04). These are DVD-R/-RW burners, with the -105 model now supporting 4X DVD-R. For backups you won't care about DVD-R's greater compatability with DVD-Video... but you might care about greater compatability with DVD-ROM readers (you wouldn't want to restore from the burner as the read speed won't match a speedy ROM drive like Pioneer DVD-117). The other benefit to -R/-RW is media price: the "dash" formats typically cost half what the "plus" formats. I pay 60 cents each for a 100-DVD spindle from Meritline. > -----Original Message----- > From: Robert L Krawitz [mailto:rlk@alum.mit.edu] > Sent: Friday, November 22, 2002 9:23 PM > To: discuss(a)blu.org; wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > Subject: DVD writer > > > I'm thinking of getting a DVD writer. My primary intention is to use > it for system backups; CD's just don't cut it any more (with about 18 > GB and 11 GB respectively on my two systems). The Sony DRU-500A looks > like a rather interesting one, supporting a lot of formats. Any > comments on that vs. any of the others out there? This is for a pure > Linux system. > > -- > Robert Krawitz > <rlk(a)alum.mit.edu> > > Tall Clubs International -- http://www.tall.org/ or 1-888-IM-TALL-2 > Member of the League for Programming Freedom -- mail lpf(a)uunet.uu.net > Project lead for Gimp Print -- http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net > > "Linux doesn't dictate how I work, I dictate how Linux works." > --Eric Crampton > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > Discuss(a)blu.org > http://www.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss > >

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Finally, Linux With a Lot Less Fuss
by Karl Hiramoto 02 Dec '02

02 Dec '02

Good article in the washington post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48924-2002Nov27.html By Rob Pegoraro Sunday, December 1, 2002; Page H07 Over the past few weeks, I've installed Linux on three computers without breaking into fits of cursing. That's a novel development in my experience with this open-source operating system. The version I've been using is Red Hat Linux 8.0, shipped by Raleigh, N.C.-based Red Hat in late September. This is the first Linux distribution I've tried that hasn't made me feel as if I'm about to step on a rake and have its handle swing into my face. Parts of this are still infuriatingly convoluted, but if you've been thinking about trying out Linux on part of your hard drive -- or about dumping Windows entirely -- this is what I'd recommend. Why would you want to do that? One, Linux is cheap or free -- your choice. The personal edition of Red Hat 8 sells for $40 in stores, or you can download three CDs' worth at no charge (www.redhat.com). Nearly all Linux programs are also free to use. Two, Linux is free in another way: "Open source" means anybody can look at a program's code and tinker with it. Three, if you are inclined to tinker and try out new programs, Linux can be an interesting place. It's one of the most customizable operating systems, and quite a few Linux development projects -- for example, DVD playback -- seem to be hitting their stride. Four, while Linux has plenty of bugs and security issues, it is virus-free compared with Windows. All these qualities come with trade-offs, the big one being an often agonizing inscrutability. Red Hat 8 doesn't abolish these shortcomings but does bring them to a more manageable level. Its installation is quick and clean. Notwithstanding a clumsy disk-setup module (either partition your hard drive with another program or be prepared to wipe it clean), you can blithely go with the default settings and have a working desktop in less than 45 minutes. That includes functioning audio and video hardware, something beyond my reach in earlier Linux experiments. On each of three test PCs -- an old IBM desktop, a moderately recent IBM ThinkPad T21 and a brand-new Hewlett-Packard Media Center PC -- Red Hat 8 automatically and correctly set up the sound and graphics cards. It then accepted a digital-subscriber-line or office-network connection with no more configuration than Windows would require, and with the proper firewall protection enabled by default. A modem connection, unfortunately but predictably, was out of the question. Most PCs' internal modems require some fairly complicated, proprietary Windows software to function, and many manufacturers don't offer Linux versions of this software or documentation that would let other programmers handle the job. Red Hat 8 also couldn't do anything with the USB 2.0 ports on the HP, although it's supposed to support them. Red Hat 8's biggest departure from Linux convention is in its look. The company replaced the usual Linux front end with its own streamlined "Bluecurve" interface, which looks vaguely like Windows XP scrubbed of the neon colors. It also swept the system task bar and menu largely free of redundant or useless extras, although it lacks a simple way to edit the layout of those menus (say, if you'd like to consolidate the five or so system-options entries). Red Hat's software bundle focuses on the basics: the excellent Mozilla Web browser, the OpenOffice productivity suite (which read all of the Microsoft Office files I tried), and Evolution, an application featuring e-mail, an address book and a calendar that feels like a simplified version of Microsoft Outlook. What you won't find, however, is multimedia capability beyond a few image viewers and editors. Red Hat 8 ships without any way to play MP3 files, let alone create them. The company says it's concerned about the MP3 format's licensing requirements, but those issues haven't stopped other Linux distributions from including MP3 software. (Red Hat 8 does support an open-source music format called Ogg Vorbis, but its CD-ripping program isn't set up by default to use it.) MP3 software isn't hard to find and install in the "RPM" download format Red Hat developed, but you have to know where to look. And that's the thing: Red Hat 8 gets enough of the basics right to let you go online without injuring yourself (well, provided you don't need a modem). It could serve somebody well as a basic Web, e-mail and word-processing desktop. But going beyond the basics requires a willingness to learn. For instance, Red Hat 8's included digital-camera program took hours of tweaking before it would intermittently download pictures from a Canon S100 digital camera. I still can't get the Pilot-Link program to work with a Sony Clie handheld, although an upcoming release is supposed to fix that. Non-RPM software installs, which require mastering command-line syntax, are another problem. Sometimes things work out -- copying and pasting the right commands had the ThinkPad playing back a DVD in about half an hour -- and at other times you're stymied by missing or mismatched files. And many add-on programs, unlike Red Hat's core software, come with clumsy, user-hostile interfaces designed by programmers for other programmers. Ultimately, there's no substitute for personal help from a Linux veteran, whether online or in a local user group. All this self-inflicted effort might seem like a big waste of time. Then again, so can cooking, woodworking, collecting baseball cards or many other things people do to amuse themselves, and without getting a working PC in the process. Living with technology, or trying to? E-mail Rob Pegoraro at rob(a)twp.com. -- ¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø Karl Hiramoto <karl(a)hiramoto.org> Work: 978-425-2090 ext 25 Cell: 508-517-4819 Personal web page: http://karl.hiramoto.org/ Freedom: http://www.technojihad.com/ Zoop Productions: http://www.zoop.org/ KTEQ Rapid City: http://www.kteq.org/ AOL IM ID = KarlH420 Yahoo_IM = karl_hiramoto ¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø I have more hit points that you can possible imagine.

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Let's make WLUG meetings better!
by Andy Stewart 01 Dec '02

01 Dec '02

HI everybody, I was a little disappointed at the turnout from the last WLUG meeting. We had 8 or 9 people show up, and while we did have a good time watching Scott and Doug get a couple of scanners working under Linux, it would have been alot more fun with more people in attendance. I believe this was the lowest attendance we've seen at a WLUG meeting in our 5.5 year history. :-( We discussed possible reasons for the low attendance at the Boynton over a few beers. One suggestion was that I should update the WLUG website to show what we have done at past meetings so people wouldn't think that nothing was accomplished. I've done that and will endeavor to keep that part of the WLUG website current (see "Past Meeting Information"). Another thought was that some people will only come to a meeting if the topic looks interesting to them, and if it is announced well in advance. I must admit to having been somewhat lax in that area lately. Therefore, in an attempt to remedy that (at least for this month), I'm putting out the call now for a speaker and a topic for the Dec. 12th meeting (its coming up fast!). I sent out a list of potential topics last month, but I know that there are a zilliion interesting things happening in the Linux world that could be discussed at a WLUG meeting. The meeting need not be discussion based, either! Although Kinnicutt Hall lends itself well to this type of meeting, we do have access to other rooms on campus. People have tossed out ideas such as these: o build a network for multiplayer Linux games o build a network to see if WLUG crackers can break into your system (not to destroy it, but to teach you what to fix to secure your system) o more live demos! The group exists to meet your needs, so please, state your needs! I can't arrange a meeting to your liking if I get no feedback on what you want to see at future WLUG meetings. More importantly, I'd like to see more and different people volunteer to do the presentations or to run a live demo. If you look back at the last year of WLUG meetings, you'll see the same names many times. While I'm *quite* happy that these folks continue to volunteer, I'd like to see others jump in also. Finally, if anybody has feedback regarding the last meeting and why it lacked attendees, please bring it up on the list so we can all discuss it. Without such candid discussions, WLUG cannot improve. Later, Andy -- Andy Stewart, Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group Worcester, MA USA http://www.wlug.org

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