September 2007 - WLUG - wlug.mailman3.com

Re: [Wlug] AMD Details Strategic Open Source Graphics Driver Development Initiative

by John Stoffel

I have to say that I'm in the market for a new system, or possibly upgrades to my old system. My Matrox G450 has worked well for years, but it's too darn slow for OpenGL stuff now. Esp since I'm on a 550mhz PIII Xeon (dual) box. kstratton> I am al little unfamiliar with ATI and their video kstratton> cards(chips) numbering system. Does releasing information kstratton> of the HD 2000 series mean all 2X00 HD cards may be kstratton> supportable in the future with an open source video driver? This announcement from AMD/ATI has really gotten my interest. I've been thinking about which system to get and I had almost decided on an Intel solution precisely because the drivers were more open. But now I think I can wait and get an AMD solution instead. Maybe. :] kstratton> If this is the case, cards like the HD 2600 XT may start kstratton> looking more attractive than lets say an 7300 or 7600 kstratton> Nvidia card. I currently use www.tomshardware.com and kstratton> www.anandtech.com for a general overview of PC technology. kstratton> Are there any other sites worth looking at? I am not a kstratton> hard core gamer (For me to spend $300 on a video card is kstratton> ridiculous), but I am interested in affordable and power kstratton> efficient technology. I'm curious what people think of the AMD/ATI line of cards for 2D graphics and clarity? The Matrox cards always had a stellar rep for crystal clear 2-d text and I want to stay with that, since I primarily use only 2-d stuff. Thanks, John

Sept. 10, 2007

Re: [Wlug] thursday meetings?

by Andy Stewart

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Eric Stein wrote: > Is it just me, or did we used to meet on Wednesdays? I have a class at > that time, I guess this is bye until spring. HI Eric, I was originally asked to alternate between Wednesday and Thursday evenings when WLUG was first founded 10 years ago (wow! time flies). This was done to accommodate students who had class, so they could attend at least some WLUG meetings. We used to alternate between these two nights on a monthly basis for the first 7 years or so. Since I started teaching Linux class on Thursday evenings about 3 years ago, I've been scheduling the WLUG meetings for Wednesday evenings. When I'm not teaching, I move the WLUG meetings back to Thursday. Thus, we end up with a few consecutive meetings on one evening or the other. I apologize if this means that people will miss a few meetings when we switch from their preferred evening. Later, Andy - -- Andy Stewart, Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group (http://www.wlug.org) Chelmsford Linux Meetup Group (http://linux.meetup.com/393) Amateur Radio: KB1OIQ -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.2 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with SUSE - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFG5S4gHl0iXDssISsRArFFAJ4vnF9g7rWCxUvwYUO6upLDmPUCFACfaAcj utKqgTeqC51wEG2e9SwYBhg= =t+By -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

Sept. 10, 2007

thursday meetings?

by Eric Stein

Is it just me, or did we used to meet on Wednesdays? I have a class at that time, I guess this is bye until spring. Eric

Sept. 10, 2007

Re: [Wlug] AMD Details Strategic Open Source Graphics Driver Development Initiative

by kstratton＠fastmail.us

I am al little unfamiliar with ATI and their video cards(chips) numbering system. Does releasing information of the HD 2000 series mean all 2X00 HD cards may be supportable in the future with an open source video driver? If this is the case, cards like the HD 2600 XT may start looking more attractive than lets say an 7300 or 7600 Nvidia card. I currently use www.tomshardware.com and www.anandtech.com for a general overview of PC technology. Are there any other sites worth looking at? I am not a hard core gamer (For me to spend $300 on a video card is ridiculous), but I am interested in affordable and power efficient technology. On Fri, 07 Sep 2007 16:41:16 -0400, "Andy Stewart" <andystewart(a)comcast.net> said: > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > > Interesting reading: > http://www.amd.com/us-en/Corporate/VirtualPressRoom/0,,51_104_543~119372,00… > > - -- > Andy Stewart, Founder > Worcester Linux Users' Group (http://www.wlug.org) > Chelmsford Linux Meetup Group (http://linux.meetup.com/393) > Amateur Radio: KB1OIQ > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- > Version: GnuPG v1.4.2 (GNU/Linux) > Comment: Using GnuPG with SUSE - http://enigmail.mozdev.org > > iD8DBQFG4bdsHl0iXDssISsRAj7bAJ0Zrnmt+OZfcOcCM/BNnFokdcBg+ACfQJVS > LpZyqlOLvo5OgfYRvMgOs20= > =GvlO > -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- > _______________________________________________ > Wlug mailing list > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug -- kstratton(a)fastmail.us

Sept. 9, 2007

AMD Details Strategic Open Source Graphics Driver Development Initiative

by Andy Stewart

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Interesting reading: http://www.amd.com/us-en/Corporate/VirtualPressRoom/0,,51_104_543~119372,00… - -- Andy Stewart, Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group (http://www.wlug.org) Chelmsford Linux Meetup Group (http://linux.meetup.com/393) Amateur Radio: KB1OIQ -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.2 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with SUSE - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFG4bdsHl0iXDssISsRAj7bAJ0Zrnmt+OZfcOcCM/BNnFokdcBg+ACfQJVS LpZyqlOLvo5OgfYRvMgOs20= =GvlO -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

Sept. 7, 2007

Re: [Wlug] Charter Telephone reviews, boylston?

by John Stoffel

Brett> The advertised price for the triple play is a 12 mo promo of Brett> $106/mo plus taxes & fees. Is that what you have? I guess Brett> when I see a bill that high (and going higher after a year) Brett> it's hard to get excited about how much I'm *saving* :-) I'm Brett> sure it's worth it for some people though. I've gotten the 5mb down, 512kb down Internet, plus Phone (unlimited calling in the US, plus 6c/min for Internation calls to Switzerland/UK) plus Digital Cable with the Total View Tier (BBC America mostly... :] all for $119.97/mon for 12 months. Then it will go up (hah!) to something like $133/mon. Considering that I was already paying $106+ a month for Cable/Internet, plus $50ish for Verizon phone, I'm feeling ok about it. Yes, I'm saving money, plus we'll all Call Waiting without having to pay extra for it like we would with Verizon, etc. But I will say that researching this was a total pain in the ass while looking at the Charter Web site. They really don't make it easy to figure out which channels are in which tiers, what the various (Big, bigger and biggest!) channel bundles really are, etc. It's a friggin maze of useless info which you have to dig deep into to figure out. Oh yeah, and if you read the fine print, if you over use your "unlimited" phone calling, they get to pull your service if they want. So be careful if you have teenagers in the house. :] Luckily, my 5 year old doesn't have anyone to call. Yet. :] John

Sept. 7, 2007

Re: [Wlug] Charter Telephone reviews, boylston?

by John Stoffel

Robert> Flood? Backhoe? Heh. I'm in an old sand & gravel pit. We *never* flood. *grin* But I take your point. Backhoes, the enemy of connectivity!

Sept. 7, 2007

Re: [Wlug] Charter Telephone reviews, boylston?

by Brett Russ

On 9/6/07, John Stoffel <john(a)stoffel.org> wrote: > > Frank> Yup - I got the whole triple play bundle, with a fedora 7 box > Frank> as firewall. > > I've just sprung for the bundle as well. I'm going to save a bunch of > money, even on international (rarely done) calls, since they're just 6 > cents a minute. If they haven't lied to me. :] The advertised price for the triple play is a 12 mo promo of $106/mo plus taxes & fees. Is that what you have? I guess when I see a bill that high (and going higher after a year) it's hard to get excited about how much I'm *saving* :-) I'm sure it's worth it for some people though.

Sept. 7, 2007

Re: [Wlug] Charter Telephone reviews, boylston?

by Robert L Krawitz

Date: Fri, 7 Sep 2007 14:34:46 -0400 From: "John Stoffel" <john(a)stoffel.org> Sean> Verizon for all their faults is very good about getting you Sean> reconnected if there is a line down. I could be mistaken, but I Sean> believe that they are required by law to do certain levels of Sean> service. They are required to *try*. Also, my neighborhood is all underground lines, so I only need to worry about the other umpteen miles of wires in the air going down. Flood? Backhoe? -- 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 Gutenprint -- http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net "Linux doesn't dictate how I work, I dictate how Linux works." --Eric Crampton

Sept. 7, 2007

Re: [Wlug] Charter Telephone reviews, boylston?

by Scott Venier

John Stoffel wrote: > > They are required to *try*. Also, my neighborhood is all underground > lines, so I only need to worry about the other umpteen miles of wires in > the air going down. > Don't discount the possibility of a neighbor and a backhoe. :) Many the famous large internet outages have been underground fiber cuts. Scott

Sept. 7, 2007