September 2002 - WLUG - wlug.mailman3.com

What is the current WPILA officer lineup?

by Andy Stewart

-- Andy Stewart, Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group Worcester, MA USA http://www.wlug.org

Sept. 17, 2002

new question

by Wesley Allen

Hi all, I just recompiled my kernel to add in acpi support for my laptop. When acpid tries to start, it tells me that it can't find /proc/acpi/event I know I've got it installed, how do I set up those files? I know better then to go mucking around in /proc w/o help! BTW, if there is anyone willing to help me convert my iPAQ to linux, I'll get the files together and be happy to meet you someone. LaLa Java on Route 9 in Shrewsbury is a great place for stuff like this (and they have some great tee-shirts). If anyone can help me with both these things, I'd greatly appreciate it. Wes --

Sept. 16, 2002

(-: My brush with greatness, 20 year anniversary

by Charles R. Anderson

And as I was just reading the thread, I was asking myself "I wonder if this is the same Keith Wright".... I guess I was wright :) (preferring the noseless form). On Fri, Sep 13, 2002 at 07:38:01PM -0400, Keith Wright wrote: kwright> I've long had vague memories that I was present at kwright> the creation of the emoticon, but did not remember kwright> the details and had no proof---until now. Slashdot kwright> has a story about the first smiley, which links to kwright> a site that has a copy of a bulletin board thread kwright> from 1982. -- Charles R. Anderson <cra(a)wpi.edu> / http://angus.ind.wpi.edu/~cra/ PGP Key ID: 49BB5886 Fingerprint: EBA3 A106 7C93 FA07 8E15 3AC2 C367 A0F9 49BB 5886

Sept. 15, 2002

My brush with greatness, 20 year anniversary

by Keith Wright

I've long had vague memories that I was present at the creation of the emoticon, but did not remember the details and had no proof---until now. Slashdot has a story about the first smiley, which links to a site that has a copy of a bulletin board thread from 1982. My contribution was the suggestion that the character should be chosen to look like something. It doesn't appear in the quoted part of the thread, but I remember advocating that the parenthesis should appear in balanced pairs, to form "joke brackets" which mark the beginning and end of the joke. This suggestion never caught on, which is a bit surprising because Scott Fahlman is a Lisp guy. (-: I would throw a big party to celebrate the 20'th anniversary of the smiley, but I hate the damn things :-) -- Keith ----------------- From: http://research.microsoft.com/~mbj/Smiley/Smiley.html I think this is the best research ever done at MS. ---------------- <discussion of strange physics Gedanken experiments> = 16-Sep-82 12:09 Neil Swartz at CMU-750R Pigeon type question This question does not involve pigeons, but is similar: There is a lit candle in an elevator mounted on a bracket attached to the middle of one wall (say, 2" from the wall). A drop of mercury is on the floor. The cable snaps and the elevator falls. What happens to the candle and the mercury? = 16-Sep-82 17:21 Howard Gayle at CMU-780G WARNING! Because of a recent physics experiment, the leftmost elevator has been contaminated with mercury. There is also some slight fire damage. Decontamination should be complete by 08:00 Friday. = 16-Sep-82 21:34 Rudy Nedved at CMU-10A Re: WARNING!! The previous bboard message about mercury is related to the comment by Neil Swartz about Physics experiments. It is not an actual problem. Last year parts of Doherty Hall were closed off because of spilled mercury. My high school closed down a lab because of a dropped bottle of mercury. My apology for spoiling the joke but people were upset and yelling fire in a crowded theatre is bad news....so are jokes on day old comments. = 17-Sep-82 10:58 Neil Swartz at CMU-750R Elevator posts Apparently there has been some confusion about elevators and such. After talking to Rudy, I have discovered that there is no mercury spill in any of the Wean hall elevators. Many people seem to have taken the notice about the physics department seriously. Maybe we should adopt a convention of putting a star (*) in the subject field of any notice which is to be taken as a joke. = 17-Sep-82 13:04 Scott Fahlman at CMU-10A Elevators (*) Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the elevator... Unfortunately, the center elevator now contains what seems to be the remains of 40,000 two-pound pigeons in an advanced state of decomposition and the right elevator contains a bear of indeterminate color. The left elevator appears to be safe, but when you stand in it for too long, your voice gets squeaky and you start running into the walls, causing the elevator to rise. Despite the * in the header of this message, this is not a joke and should be taken quite literallly. Do not panic -- taking the stairs is good for you. = 17-Sep-82 14:59 Joseph Ginder at CMU-10A (*%) I believe that the joke character should be % rather than *. = 17-Sep-82 15:15 Anthony Stentz at CMU-780G (*%) How about using * for good jokes and % for bad jokes? We could even use *% for jokes that are so bad, they're funny. = 17-Sep-82 17:40 Keith Wright at CMU-10A *%&#$ Jokes! No, no, no! Surely everyone will agree that "&" is the funniest character on the keyboard. It looks funny (like a jolly fat man in convulsions of laughter). It sounds funny (say it loud and fast three times). I just know if I could get my nose into the vacuum of the CRT it would even smell funny! = 17-Sep-82 17:42 Leonard Hamey at CMU-10A {#} (previously *) A detailed (i.e. > 1 minute) study of the aesthetic and pictographic effects of the characters available in the ASCII set has led to the following suggestion: I think that the joke character should be the sequence {#} because it looks like two lips with teeth showing between them. This is the expected result if someone actually laughs their head off. An obvious abbreviation of this sequence would be the hash character itself (which can also be read as the sharp character and suggests a quality which may be lacking in those too obtuse to appreciate the joke.) = 18-Sep-82 20:40 Guy Steele at CMU-10A ! Joke markers again I hope everyone realized that my previous remark about non-use of joke markers was a joke, and was flagged as such by the absence of a marker. This message is not a joke, as indicated by the exclamation point. = 19-Sep-82 11:44 Scott E Fahlman :-) From: Scott E Fahlman <Fahlman at Cmu-20c> I propose that the following character sequence for joke markers: :-) Read it sideways. Actually, it is probably more economical to mark things that are NOT jokes, given current trends. For this, use :-( = 20-Sep-82 16:23 Dave Touretzky at CMU-10A (-: bboard software change As of October 1st, the General bboard will be renamed the Jokes bboard. Please update your SWITCH.INI file. In the event of a serious notice, we will post it under the name "Sharon Burks". When the bboard contains messages whose total bogosity score exceeds 5000 microLenats, the file will be zeroed so novice bboard players can have a chance to score. =

Sept. 13, 2002

Re: [Wlug] Mozilla 1.1 icon

by Keith Wright

> From: Bill Mills-Curran <subssn594(a)charter.net> > > I installed mozilla 1.1, and I no longer have the nice > dinosaur icon when I iconify it in fvwm2. Is there a > simple way to get that back? I think you have to talk to the lawyers of some company in Japan, whose name I do not care to recall*, which owns the copyright on the word Godzilla(C) and claims to own all similar words and reptile pictures. The Mozilla people decided to choose their battles and so removed all lizards from their work. I will not call the police if you copy an icon off an old backup (you do make backups, right?), but do not mention my name on any court papers. -- Keith -- *En un lugar de la Mancha, de cuyo nombre no queiro acordarme, no ha mucho tiempo que vivia un hidalgo... -- Miguel de Cervantes, "El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha" Copyright expired, granting King dead, dynasty overthrown

Sept. 13, 2002

Mozilla 1.1 icon

by Bill Mills-Curran

I installed mozilla 1.1, and I no longer have the nice dinosaur icon when I iconify it in fvwm2. Is there a simple way to get that back? Thanks, Bill

Sept. 13, 2002

Re: [Wlug] Zaurus SL-5500

by jfmurphy

On Thursday 12 September 2002 20:57, Wesley Allen wrote: > John, > I know they just solved this issue with a new version of qtopia > desktop, Linux should sync fine now. Why they didn't do this from > the get go, who knows? Thanks, I received a few messages saying the new version of qtopia desktop runs without a hitch. John "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -- I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference." -- Robert Frost

Sept. 13, 2002

Re: [Wlug] Converting an iPAQ

by Keith Wright

> From: Wesley Allen <wallen(a)charter.net> > Nope, even did a urpmi xbill and nothing. Don't worry about it; he was making jokes. It's a cheesy little game that draws a bunch of computer monitor icons with penguins, red devils, striped apples, red top hats, and other meaningless symbols displayed upon them. A funny little guy with glasses and bushy brown hair comes and replaces the symbols with flags that are breaking into flying rectangles. When you click on the funny guy he disappears in a sploch of red. The main challange of the game is moving a mouse around very fast and clicking on small and badly animated objects. You eventually lose because the longer you play the more of those funny guys come at once. If you play long enough the program encourages you to get a life by segfaulting. -- Keith

Sept. 13, 2002

Re: [Wlug] linux arm

by Wesley Allen

Thanks for the info, Brad. It'd be WAY over my head, I'm no developer, just a hack who hates MS. wes On Thu, 2002-09-12 at 21:40, brad wrote: > While we're on the topic, some of you guys might be interested in knowing that > there is a Linux for Ipaq Developers meeting in cambridge in early October. > It's not often that these things come around. > > For more info. > http://handhelds.org/events/devweekend.html > > -brad > > _______________________________________________ > Wlug mailing list > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug > --

Sept. 13, 2002

linux arm

by brad

While we're on the topic, some of you guys might be interested in knowing that there is a Linux for Ipaq Developers meeting in cambridge in early October. It's not often that these things come around. For more info. http://handhelds.org/events/devweekend.html -brad

Sept. 13, 2002