April 2012 - luv-talk

Linux compatible HD tuner
by Edward Savage 13 Oct '12

13 Oct '12

Evening all, I want to setup a new MythTV media computer as a present and I'm looking for a hassle free HD TV Tuner that I can buy in Australia. The last few I've bought have required binary blob drivers or load-on-use firmware and have painful reliability issues as a result. I'm after something I can plug in, maybe at worst compile some libraries, and then expect to work well forever. I'd prefer an internal card though ease of use will win in my choice and a LIRC compatible remote control would be a bonus. I am well aware of the wiki lists of 'compatible' cards and used the V4L one for my last two purchases which turned out to be rubbish. So is anyone aware of a tuner card they can recommend that meet my requirements? Thanks guys, Edward

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Wikipedia, volunteer, drug law reform
by Carl Turney 01 May '12

01 May '12

Hi All, Lev suggested I post this request in this Talk mailing list... Have you authored any Wikipedia pages from scratch, or edited a number of Wikipedia pages, regardless of the subject? Do you think that the War On Drugs is wrong, and that prohibition causes more problems than it solves? Are you willing to volunteer a bit of your time to help out =responsible=and=respectable= Australian drug law reform organisations that don't yet have a Wikipedia entry? (e.g. Groups for parliamentarians, doctors, law enforcement professionals, scientific researchers, and family & friends of users.) If yes, please contact me directly, off-list to find out more. If not, please forward this on to someone you know who may be suitable. We can limit it to one page/group per volunteer, if you are short on time. NOTE: BEING WILLING TO HELP THESE GROUPS OUT IN NO WAY STATES THAT YOU ARE (OR HAVE BEEN) A RECREATIONAL DRUG USER YOURSELF. Thanks =very= much, Carl Turney Bottom-line Ownership and Management Services www.boms.com.au Belgrave, Melbourne Home: (shared with others) 9752 5420 Mobile: 0427 024 735 Email: carl(a)boms.com.au

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persecuted Atheists
by Russell Coker 30 Apr '12

30 Apr '12

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/d2239780-4d4e-11e1-8741-00144feabdc0.html Interesting article published by the Financial Times about the persecution of Atheists in the US. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/

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Re: [luv-talk] ZaTab from ZaReason - a fully open Android tablet
by Jason White 30 Apr '12

30 Apr '12

Sam Varghese <sam(a)gnubies.com> wrote: > My bid to buy one was rejected twice because of the same issue - even though the > address on my credit card (Mastercard) and my shipping address are identical in > all respects. > > When I tried with a VISA card, there was no such problem and the order was accepted. In my case the problem was with a VISA card, but a different organization was involved (it had nothing to do with Linux or tablets). However, the verification mechanism was probably the same.

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Re: [luv-talk] ZaTab from ZaReason - a fully open Android tablet
by Jason White 30 Apr '12

30 Apr '12

Craig Sanders <cas(a)taz.net.au> wrote: > probably because if they get scammed by some scumbag using someone > else's credit card, they wear the expense of the CC chargeback. credit > card companies and paypal etc screw the merchants. One solution, implemented by a U.S.-based organization from which I purchase services, is to use the Address Verification System to check the address supplied by the customer against that of the credit card holder. Unfortunately, my bank doesn't seem to support address verification, and since the organization in question required it, the transaction failed. In the end, they had to intervene manually to allow it. Are there legal reasons why Australian banks don't support address verification, and is there any option to enable it at the request of the customer?

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Optus 3G charges while using wifi at home.
by Jason Lade 29 Apr '12

29 Apr '12

I gave an old handset to my daughter to use for emergencies i.e. text or calls to my wife or I. It was using a pre-paid optus card that allows us to keep credit for up to like 6 or 12 months (I actually forget but quite a while) We recently recharged the thing, thinking that the last lot of credit went quite quick. But from the 10th to the 23rd of April she went through nearly $30 of credit over that period with a handful of text messages $0.29 each (not complaining about that) but most of the charges were short bursts of Internet access. Now admittedly she does use internet at home we have wifi and it connects to our wireless modem router. But anyway she told me today the credit is nearly out, so we logged on to have a look and noticed she is getting Internetbrowsing and socialnwk charges of $1.32 a pop. Today alone she had 4 of them so I could be certain it was wifi. Now what really blows me away is that I realised these charges today were happening while she was at home using wifi. So I spoke with an optus representative online via text, here is some of the text that I copied from the conversation, please note it isn't the full conversation as personal details were required. Anil: Thanks. Anil: I see there were a lot of Internet browsing done on the account. you: All charges are for the same amount $1.32 duration 00:00:00 Anil: Yes that is $1.32 per 1MB of data used. you: But this is only done while at our home address, which when here it is connected to wifi Anil: I am sorry to inform you the wifi is only used when you have the Internet turned off on the account. Anil: Now I can turn the Internet on my system so she can only use wifi. you: But the phone is not showing up 3G, it is saying it is connected to wifi you: She doesn't want to use internet through the optus network, just emergency calls and sms Anil: I am sorry as the Internet is active in our system even though she is using wifi she gets charged to optus. Anil: Do you want me to turn her Internet off through optus? you: Yes that would be good! Anil: Just one moment. Anil: Thanks for waiting. you: So you are saying that if the phone is connected to wifi, we are still getting charged on optus Anil: I have turned your daughters Internet off on my system, so she wont get charged next time. Anil: And the answer to your question is Yes. you: if we browse the internet? But I can tell a big difference in speed if I turn off wifi and let my phone use 3G while at home. Anil: I know but it is also charged on optus. Anil: But now you dont have to worry about that as I turned the Internet off. you: That just seems unbelievable to me. My account i wouldn't notice it as I have a capped account. you: O.k. Thanks. Anil: Have I covered everything for you today? you: You have but I just can't believe that if the phone is connected to wifi that optus charge for internet that is coming through a network other than optus Anil: I know but that is why customers need to be aware of this. Anil: I am sorry for you inconvenience. Anil: Is there anything else I can help you with today? you: I don't remember getting any information in regards to this when I joined up. you: I need to further investigate this as I feel it isn't honest. Anil: I agree, but cant do anything, I am sorry once again. Anil: Do you assistance with anything else? you: No that is all. Thanks Anil: ^_^ Anil: Your most welcome. Anil: It was a pleasure chatting with you. Anil: Have a Good Evening. Anil: Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Anil: Thanks for using Optus Live Chat. We value your feedback, so if you have a moment, please click the End Chat button at top right to answer a few questions about your experience with us today. Now can you believe what she is saying, I can be using my home wifi and still accruing data charges from optus for data that they are not supplying. Is anyone able to give me any valid reasons for this. I know that if I'm using 3G at home it is quite slow. But when I connect to my wifi router I get much faster speeds so I just can't understand it. She stated that she feels it isn't right being charged for something that I'm not using. Has anyone seemed to have had this problem? I got her to turn off internet usage from the account. But it would be nice to be able to use the internet if needed when we are out.

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Re: [luv-talk] persecuted Atheists
by Tony Langdon 29 Apr '12

29 Apr '12

At 01:06 AM 4/30/2012, David wrote: >was from and who I was staying with, it was the first thing they asked >me. "So, what church are you with". Honestly, patricarchal sky-fairies Oh, that's an easy one for me, the Church of the Big Red Truck. ;) Most Sunday mornings I'm with the CFA training. On a more serious note, and another data point. I visited the US in 2005, including Texas, no one asked about my religion. Even on a Sunday morning in Nacogdoches, in the east of Texas, the topic didn't come up. 73 de VK3JED / VK3IRL http://vkradio.com

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meeting in May?
by Anthony Shipman 27 Apr '12

27 Apr '12

Is there a LUV meeting in May? -- Anthony Shipman Mamas don't let your babies als(a)iinet.net.au grow up to be outsourced.

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vap.net.au spammers
by Russell Coker 27 Apr '12

27 Apr '12

My recent post to the luv-jobs list received two spam messages from vap.net.au. One was a "thank you for your application" message (obvious spam as I wasn't applying for anything) and the other was an out of office message. The LUV committee suggest that I contact the "relevant authorities" about this because they are in breach of the "Spam Act". Is that a viable option? Note that vap.net.au are not advertising jobs or acting on behalf of anyone. They are just subscribed to the luv-jobs list and spamming people. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/

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interesting thread on zfs-discuss
by Craig Sanders 24 Apr '12

24 Apr '12

FYI: thread titled "What is the current status of native ZFS on Linux?" http://groups.google.com/a/zfsonlinux.org/group/zfs-discuss/browse_thread/t… includes this paragraph from http://groups.google.com/a/zfsonlinux.org/group/zfs-discuss/msg/9bd84a5e8d9… by Richard Yao: "As far as performance goes, ZFSOnLinux raidz2 outperforms a combination of MD RAID 6, LVM and ext4 on 6 Samsung HD204UI drives that I own. ZFS raidz2 has 220 MB/sec write performance in writing a 4GB file while the combination of MD RAID 6, LVM and ext4 only managed 20MB/sec." somebody in the thread mentioned that they get abysmal performance with zvols (chunks of a zpool allocated to be a "disk" - similar to an LVM logical volume). That really surprises me, I've had fantastic performance from them. All of my VMs are now on zvols....and i've done a lot of testing of zfs in a VM with zpools made up of lots of 100-200MB zvols. Same person also mentioned stability problems until they changed from onboard drive controller to an LSI controller...unfortunately, he doesn't mention what motherboard or kind of ports, or what kind of LSI controller (I'd guess one of the cheap HBAs like the 9211-8i or the IBM M1015 as they are very popular for running ZFS on linux, open solaris, and freebsd) craig ps: speaking of cheap HBAs, I bought a few of the IBM M1015s from ebay. they took only a few days to arrive. I reflashed one of them to IT mode on a spare machine and then replaced my supermicro card with it (which I then also reflashed to IT mode in the spare machine...didn't want to risk it until now in case i bricked the card. this will go into my myth box to replace the 4-port adaptec 1430sa) Haven't noticed any difference at all, but that's good. I wasn't expecting any performance difference, just more relaxed timeouts for the consumer-grade WD Green drives i'm using. When prices comes down enough I'll replace them with 3TB drives, probably Hitachi or Seagate. -- craig sanders <cas(a)taz.net.au> BOFH excuse #126: it has Intel Inside

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