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How to (not) Damage a FLASH Storage Device
by Chuck Anderson Feb. 6, 2009

Feb. 6, 2009

I found this article enlightening: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/How_to_Damage_a_FLASH_Storage_Device

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Any ruby hackers?
by John Stoffel Feb. 6, 2009

Feb. 6, 2009

Guys, I'm looking for some help with a Ruby script which uses the 'Drb' and 'Slave' libraries. Basically, I'm doing a recursive readdir() on a directory, but with parallel processes (since Ruby Threads aren't really parallel, sigh...) and I'm running into some problems. I'm happy to post the code here, before I start begging for help on the http://www.ruby-forum.com site. Thanks, John

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Re: [Wlug] reaching college students with linux
by Aljerin Butler,Jr. Feb. 5, 2009

Feb. 5, 2009

I don't know how much this would help in your efforts, but I put up a website to advocate and encourage students and other people alike to use Linux and Free/Open Source software. Please take a look at http://customlinux.tripod.com/. BTW, if you think there are any subjects that should be included or links not included in the subjects given, I would like to hear from you. Thanks, Al Butler --- On Wed, 2/4/09, wlug-request(a)mail.wlug.org <wlug-request(a)mail.wlug.org> wrote: From: wlug-request(a)mail.wlug.org <wlug-request(a)mail.wlug.org> Subject: Wlug Digest, Vol 64, Issue 3 To: wlug(a)mail.wlug.org Date: Wednesday, February 4, 2009, 11:40 PM Send Wlug mailing list submissions to wlug(a)mail.wlug.org To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to wlug-request(a)mail.wlug.org You can reach the person managing the list at wlug-owner(a)mail.wlug.org When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Wlug digest..." Today's Topics: 1. System 76: computers with Ubuntu pre-installed (Richard Klein) 2. Re: RH Enterprise 5.0 Question (Chuck Anderson) 3. FOSS Gaming Survey (Joseph Guarino) 4. Re: reaching college students with linux (Sean Corbett) 5. Re: RH Enterprise 5.0 Question (William Smith) 6. Re: reaching college students with linux (Gregory Avedissian) 7. Linux at 35,000 feet (Michael Long) 8. Re: Linux at 35,000 feet (John Stoffel) _______________________________________________ Wlug mailing list Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug

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Linux at 35,000 feet
by Michael Long Feb. 5, 2009

Feb. 5, 2009

Hi All, I took a trip on DirectAir to Florida this past weekend. I flew out of Worcester on a direct flight to Punta Gorda, Fl. I wish I could say it was for pleasure but that would not be true :( Anyway the airline is a public charter owned by Virgin America and operated by Jet Blue. What does this have to do with Linux? Each seat had a monitor with a gaming remote control. The passengers had the choice of watching TV or movies. They could also listen to many different radio stations or select by artist. I found it refreshing to put on some Jimmy Hendricks and Frank Zappa. The last, or was it first, option available were games. Our friend Tux appeared in two of the games and the rest were available on all modern distributions of Linux. I spent a fair amount of time playing Doom. When you board the plane it feels very modern. There is a pleasant blue glow to the cabin. First and second class is separated by clear Plexiglas so the cabin feels very open. The mandatory speech about safety is done by video and is appropriately smart-alecky. All in all it was a great experience. Look them up if you need to travel on the east coast. Oh yeah, tickets were $99 each way. Happy Travels, Mike

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Re: [Wlug] reaching college students with linux
by Sean Corbett Feb. 5, 2009

Feb. 5, 2009

To be honest, I think the overwhelming majority of non-technical students will not want to get involved with Linux, even with Ubuntu... even some of my fellow computer science majors will only use Linux for coursework and refuse to touch it otherwise, mainly because they don't want to have to worry about "learning new software" or dealing with the fact that, in some cases, there aren't enough drivers to support all their software. Even Ubuntu can be a real pain in terms of out-of-the-box hardware compatibility, especially with laptops (which for most students serve as their main machine of use). I'm sort of sad to admit that many of the kids I go to school with are, in almost all cases, looking for the easiest means to accomplish anything; anything that requires too much effort is bound to be ignored by the majority. I picked up Linux out of genuine interest, and because I knew it served as a very good platform for development (and thus a worthwhile thing to use), and especially because of it's compliance with my (mild) disdain of proprietary software. Also, because I look up to Linus Torvalds, and Richard Stallman, and all those great guys... but, I don't know anyone else at my school who shares my enthusiasm. Perhaps its a bit better at a purely technical school (like WPI)... In short, if students aren't pursuing Linux out of their own interest (or at least out of necessity), I wouldn't try much beyond what you've already attempted in order to get kids more interested... I don't mean to be discouraging or pessimistic, but I really think your efforts are better spent aiding students who've developed an interest in running Linux on their own, as opposed to trying to turn them on to it. Hope this helps, -Sean C. > Date: Sun, 1 Feb 2009 13:31:19 -0800 (PST) > From: Andrew Perry <perryand(a)yahoo.com> > Subject: [Wlug] successful upgrade to openoffice.org 3.0 ; ubiquity of > .docx; reaching college students with linux > To: wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > Cc: Andrew Perry <perryand(a)gmail.com> > Message-ID: <377215.4592.qm(a)web35208.mail.mud.yahoo.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii > > > Hi Everyone, > > (1) Thanks a million for all of the help, especially the link to the fantastic tutorial, posted by James Gray, I think. I am in the process of installing hardy updates, and it appears that openoffice.org 3.0 is part of what's being installed, so it looks like everything is working perfectly. > > (2) To Greg: yes, I could ask students to submit all of their assignments in .doc or .rtf format (or even open office format), but they most wouldn't listen. Many can't figure out how to save to any format but .docx. It's a perpetual hassle to nag them. Besides that, I get many files from colleagues, professors at my college and other colleges and universities, as well as the Mass. Dept. of Education, and increasingly, most are in Office 2007 formats. It's hard to convert the whole world to linux. > > (3) Here is a new issue for everyone who is interested in commenting. I am a mathematician but besides math ,I also teach a computer literacy course each semester. You would all be proud: I do my best every semester to convert students to the linux religion, or at least to make them aware of linux and the evils of Microsoft. However, for every student who finds my linux modules interesting (about 2 hours of a 45-hour course on average), there are a dozen who get annoyed and find the material boring and irrelevant. > > Once I brought in a PC running compiz and they found that mildly intriguing. > > They absolutely hate the movie "revolution os". If I pass out ubuntu cds, I doubt they get used. > > Can anyone suggest teaching resources (videos, for example) that would be likely to make an impact for non-technically minded college students ? > > > Thanks, > Andrew > > -Dr. Andrew B. Perry > Dept. of Mathematics, Springfield College > Schoo Hall Room 123 > 263 Alden St., Springfield MA 01109 > Work Phone (413)748-3193 > >

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RH Enterprise 5.0 Question
by McDonald, Melissa Feb. 5, 2009

Feb. 5, 2009

Greetings, I need to determine the hardware configuration of a RH 5.0 Linux server. Is there a command that will probe the hardware configuration and send the output to the screen? Thanks in advance. Melissa McDonald 508.841.0549 (Office) 774.275.4449 (Mobile)

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FOSS Gaming Survey
by Joseph Guarino Feb. 4, 2009

Feb. 4, 2009

Hello Everyone, I hope you are all doing well. =) I'm looking for some input and help on my forthcoming FOSS Gaming presentation at SCALE. With that goal in mind I am running a survey to gather the perceptions of the community on the status/opinion of FOSS gaming. Respondents will be entered to win a $50 Amazon gift certificate and select a Open Source gaming project of their choice to receive a $100 donation. Soooo.... If you are a gamer, I am looking for your feedback with a short 10 minute survey. It is my hope that the survey results help reflect and constructively improve the state of Open Source gaming. The survey is not commercial in nature and the information will NOT be used for any other purpose other than solidifying community perceptions. FOSS Gaming Survey - http://www.evolutionaryit.com/limesurvey/index.php?sid=72676〈=en NOTE: The insights of this survey will be detailed in my presentation on FOSS games at the Southern California Linux Expo (SCALE) as well as archived online. For further details see the SCALE website: http://scale7x.socallinuxexpo.org/ Thanks so much, -- Joseph Guarino Phone - 617 953 9514 (Cell) EvolutionaryIT :: Best Practice IT http://www.evolutionaryit.com

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System 76: computers with Ubuntu pre-installed
by Richard Klein Feb. 4, 2009

Feb. 4, 2009

Cory Doctorow recently got a new laptop and he gave a brief review of it in his most recent podcast. When he switched from MacOS to Linux he decided it was no longer worth paying the premium for Apple hardware. I think he said he went to IBM/Lenovo Thinkpads after that, and he's comparing his new laptop to his previous Thinkpad. He said the new laptop was a bit heavier than the Thinkpad, and he had some minor issues with the keyboard layout, but it came with Intrepid Ibex installed, and he was impressed that everything just worked, including his T-Mobile (London) 3G cell modem. The laptop he got was a System 76 Darter, and he seemed pretty happy with it: http://www.system76.com/ I think this is the URL for that podcast episode: http://craphound.com/?p=2166 -- Rich

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successful upgrade to openoffice.org 3.0 ; ubiquity of .docx; reaching college students with linux
by Andrew Perry Feb. 1, 2009

Feb. 1, 2009

Hi Everyone, (1) Thanks a million for all of the help, especially the link to the fantastic tutorial, posted by James Gray, I think. I am in the process of installing hardy updates, and it appears that openoffice.org 3.0 is part of what's being installed, so it looks like everything is working perfectly. (2) To Greg: yes, I could ask students to submit all of their assignments in .doc or .rtf format (or even open office format), but they most wouldn't listen. Many can't figure out how to save to any format but .docx. It's a perpetual hassle to nag them. Besides that, I get many files from colleagues, professors at my college and other colleges and universities, as well as the Mass. Dept. of Education, and increasingly, most are in Office 2007 formats. It's hard to convert the whole world to linux. (3) Here is a new issue for everyone who is interested in commenting. I am a mathematician but besides math ,I also teach a computer literacy course each semester. You would all be proud: I do my best every semester to convert students to the linux religion, or at least to make them aware of linux and the evils of Microsoft. However, for every student who finds my linux modules interesting (about 2 hours of a 45-hour course on average), there are a dozen who get annoyed and find the material boring and irrelevant. Once I brought in a PC running compiz and they found that mildly intriguing. They absolutely hate the movie "revolution os". If I pass out ubuntu cds, I doubt they get used. Can anyone suggest teaching resources (videos, for example) that would be likely to make an impact for non-technically minded college students ? Thanks, Andrew -Dr. Andrew B. Perry Dept. of Mathematics, Springfield College Schoo Hall Room 123 263 Alden St., Springfield MA 01109 Work Phone (413)748-3193

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Re: [Wlug] Wlug Digest, Vol 63, Issue 16
by Karl Lind Jan. 29, 2009

Jan. 29, 2009

As OpenOffice 3.0 is a DIFERENT branch from 2.4, the quickest way is to download and install 3.0. It is made to run in parallel and to allow you the chance to migrate anything that the install may have forgotten.All the data that is in your home directory will still be there and during the install you will have the option to use your old settings. Karl Lind On Thu, Jan 29, 2009 at 12:00 PM, <wlug-request(a)mail.wlug.org> wrote: > Send Wlug mailing list submissions to > wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > wlug-request(a)mail.wlug.org > > You can reach the person managing the list at > wlug-owner(a)mail.wlug.org > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of Wlug digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Re: problem upgrading openoffice.org to version 3.0 > (Gregory Avedissian) > 2. Re: problem upgrading openoffice.org to version 3.0 (James Gray) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:18:17 -0500 > From: Gregory Avedissian <avedis.g(a)verizon.net> > Subject: Re: [Wlug] problem upgrading openoffice.org to version 3.0 > To: Worcester Linux Users Group <wlug(a)mail.wlug.org> > Message-ID: <4981AC99.20403(a)verizon.net> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 > > > > Andrew Perry wrote: > > > [THE PROBLEM:] > > > > Unfortunately, I am at my wit's end to upgrade OpenOffice from 2.4.1 to > version 3 - which I need to open .docx and .xlsx files that my students at > Springfield College constantly send me. > > If these are class assignments that they're giving you, can't you specify > which file formats they use? > > Greg > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2009 10:22:16 -0500 > From: James Gray <jamespgray(a)gmail.com> > Subject: Re: [Wlug] problem upgrading openoffice.org to version 3.0 > To: Worcester Linux Users Group <wlug(a)mail.wlug.org> > Message-ID: > <1a6cab400901290722j306e156fp9033dc53e717fe22(a)mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 > > There has been talk about getting ppa's signed, but you'll still need > to trust the signer. But that is always a problem with Free Software, > or anything else for that matter. > > On Thu, Jan 29, 2009 at 3:31 AM, randy cole <randyokc(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > Hi Andy, > > > > I am reluctant to add unofficial repositories, not wanting to "pollute" > my > > "pure" installation. > > > > More important question, how do you decide what repositories to trust? I > > thought I read something about launchpad apps being unsigned too... > > > > So, I downloaded the official package. (source tarball? I think?) No > > integration, grr! Worse, when I bring up my resume the indent & > pagination > > was off. That was a dealbreaker, so oo 2.4 for now on Linux. And I > don't > > see much difference. > > > > Randy > > randyokc at gmail dot com > > > > Andy Stewart wrote: > > > > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > > Hash: SHA1 > > > > James Gray wrote: > > > > > > This should do the trick for Open Office 3 in 8.04 (code named Hardy > Haron): > > > > deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/openoffice-pkgs/ppa/ubuntu hardy main > > > > Do you know how to add this repository in synaptic? Otherwise you can > > look here: > > > > > http://news.softpedia.com/news/How-To-Install-OpenOffice-org-3-0-in-Ubuntu-… > > > > *HOWEVER* in this example the deb line is for a different release then > > what you have so you need to use the line I provided above instead. > > > > Good luck and let us know how it goes, > > > > ~James > > > > > > HI Andrew, > > > > I'm not sure if it was clear, but the line that James suggested in his > > response needs to be added to the /etc/apt/sources.list file, if I'm not > > mistaken. You are telling the Ubuntu packaging system (apt) where to > > find the OpenOffice software package. There's probably a way to add > > this repository via the GUI as well. > > > > After you edit the /etc/apt/sources.list file, you need to update your > > package lists, and then if all works correctly, you should be able to > > install Open Office 3.mumble. > > > > Let us know how it goes, and then we'll know which blanks to fill in to > > help you further. Good luck! > > > > 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 > > > > iD8DBQFJf+94Hl0iXDssISsRAo9pAJ93oZbVjnrPTZXi2OUEzsR4VNxU8gCfaOC/ > > 4e1anUU1SiSPT/TFgFk6gns= > > =KnSY > > -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- > > _______________________________________________ > > Wlug mailing list > > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Wlug mailing list > > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug > > > > > > > ------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > Wlug mailing list > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug > > > End of Wlug Digest, Vol 63, Issue 16 > ************************************ >

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