- luv-talk - luv.asn.au

New Computer System
by David Zuccaro 21 Apr '13

21 Apr '13

Hi, I'd like to get a new desktop computer system; I'm currently using a 1.8 GHz C2D with 2 GB of memory with debian squeeze. It doesn't seem up to the job any more; HD movies are choppy; iceweasel is sluggish. I use my computer system for typical desktop reasons: Gnome Internet browsing Evolution mail client amarok Watching movies Basic image processing with gimp. I'm thinking of getting something along the lines of: i7 3.4 GHz 4GB DDR3 2 TB HD Graphics card. I'll probably stick with debian but I might try out ubuntu and linux mint distros. Does this sound reasonable? Any suggestions or recommendations?

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Remote controlling an Android 4.2.1 device
by Anthony Hogan 20 Apr '13

20 Apr '13

Hey folks, Anyone use an Android remote control solution? Not using Android to remote control something else, but another device to control Android? Preferably over WiFi.. I've used Airdroid and SSHDroid to do file, SMS etc. access, but looking for something that'll provide remote GUI access. There are a few things about that I found, but some seem to be rather old and unmaintained, of dubious background (not many reviews etc.). One even suggested "chmod 777" on one of the Android system areas... Uh.. NO.. How do you folks go about remote control of Android devices? Anthony

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Re: [luv-talk] gpt and grub: aging digression
by Rohan McLeod 12 Apr '13

12 Apr '13

Erik Christiansen wrote: > .........snip. >> Would the converse hold true ie. doubling for each 10°C fall bellow the >> temperature at which the lifetime is predicted? > Yes, if the equipment is rated to operate at those temperatures. The > examples I gave are simply based on Arrhenius' law, which has long > served for describing the failure rate of electronics, in addition to > its use in chemistry. It's only an approximation, as mentioned here: > > http://www.osti.gov/bridge/purl.cover.jsp?purl=/841248-BSrmuy/webviewable/8… Many thanks I'll check out the URL; I seem to have a fascination with durability. There was an interesting program on the deserted city of Chernabyl on SBS; it made the point that little in the modern world will last more than a 100 years. Also amongst those materials which do last : stone obviously; there seem to be others which are peculiarly durable for no obvious reason; I seem to recall mention of Chinese cement containing rice powder ! > > The last time ...........snip >> and >> >> "Running at 80°C above nominal for 6 months is equivalent to >> 128 years of life.)" would imply the test was conducted at 0°C; >> is this standard or just for example? > OK, with only commercial or industrial grade devices in the equipment, > 80°C above nominal would be out of spec, since nominal is usually 25°C. > It was just an example, thanks > regards Rohan Mcleod

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........ large directory tree:USB 3.0 digression
by Rohan McLeod 28 Mar '13

28 Mar '13

Stewart Johnston wrote: > On Wed, Mar 27, 2013 at 04:24:18PM +1100, Rohan McLeod wrote: >> Jason White wrote: >>> Aryan Ameri <info(a)ameri.me> wrote: >>> >>>> Thanks to everyone for their very helpful ............snip >>> USB 2 is notoriously slow in this scenario. For details, look up Sarah >>> Sharp's talk at LCA several years ago on USB 3, which solves the problems. As >>> I recall, it isn't the actual data transfer rate that causes the poor >>> performance, but I can't remember the details now. >> Apologies for digression; >> all I could find of Sarah's talk were some presentation slides ; >> which didn't seem very informative...........not with-standing ; >> Wikipedia quotes maximum data transfer rates: >> for USB 2.0 at 480 Mb/s and USB 3.0 at 5Gb/s; >> is the above to be read as stating that; >> actually one can expect USB 3.0 to USB 2.0 ratio > (5Gb/s / 480Mb/s) >> = 10 ? >> regards Rohan McLeod > Continuing the digression, you can find Sarah Sharp's talk here: > http://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/linux.conf.au/2010/friday/50230.ogv An excellent presentation even if sound level of the recording seemed a little low, but I am a bit deaf !; what I took away was USB 3.0 is much faster and and more energy efficient than USB 2.0 ; what I wasn't clear to me was : 1/ Whether device identification in a USB 3.0 'tree' for the purpose of diagnostics had improved 2/ Whether the stability of such 'trees' has improved; I have all but given up on such USB networks, in favour of ethernet networks. Whilst my printer occasionally has it's IP address reallocated, whilst plugged into the Netcomm NB86Plus4W 'Modem Router'; ethernet whether as hardware or software doesn't seem to share the extreme 'brittleness' characteristic of USB networks regards Rohan McLeod

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Reliable mono printer
by Petros 26 Mar '13

26 Mar '13

Hi all, can you recommend a reliable monochrome printer with Ethernet card? We have few printers in our warehouses printing maybe 100-200 pages one-sided and monochrome. No other functions are needed. We have Lexmark T630 printers which are real workhouses but they are aging, and my colleague and me are sick of paper jam and other issues. Any advice welcome:-) Thank you Peter

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MEXX clothing
by Russell Coker 17 Mar '13

17 Mar '13

http://www.mexx.com/mexx/index.php/view/storefinder Does anyone know of any convenient way of buying MEXX clothing in Melbourne? Preferrably not mail-order from Europe. The above store-finder web site suggests that the nearest store is in Indonesia. A bit too far to go to buy a shirt. As an aside, I highly recommend MEXX clothing if you can find a store that sells it. I have two MEXX shirts that I bought in Utrecht in 1999 which are still going well, I wear them every winter. If anyone knows of a good place that sells winter shirts in Melbourne then please let me know. I'm after shirts made from a similar pattern to business shirts but made of thick and soft fabric that insulates well, preferrably of a dark colour such as gray or black. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/

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PC2-5300+ RAM needed
by Russell Coker 16 Mar '13

16 Mar '13

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDR2_SDRAM Does anyone have spare RAM of PC2-5300 (DDR2-667 according to Wikipedia or DDR2-333 according to Memtest86+) speed or bettter? A couple of days ago I had a 2G DIMM fail on me and now I don't have any spare RAM of that speed. As an aside I've never added PC2-5300 or better RAM to the hardware library because I've only ever had one stick spare for my own use. It would be great if we could get a bunch of spare sticks of that size. Even 512MB is useful so I'm sure that more than a few people here have unused sticks. Please bring any you don't need to the next meeting. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/

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Local Governments -- future referendum notes
by Andrew McGlashan 08 Mar '13

08 Mar '13

If you don't know much about it already, here's a few very good reasons why you should vote *NO* to Constitutional Recognition of Local Governments. If you think that the response to Q.3 of the 1988 Federal Referendum should have been a CRYSTAL CLEAR SIGNAL to federal and state government corporations that 67% of the electorate voted NO because they DID NOT WANT ... "for the states to provide for the establishment and continuance of a system of Local Government", ...then vote NO. If you strongly RESENT that Local Governments were introduced by the States and endorsed by Canberra in direct contravention of the will of the Australian People, as expressed in the 1988 Referendum, ...then vote NO. If you UNDERSTAND that Local Governments are all CORPORATIONS each with a BOARD OF DIRECTORS and SHAREHOLDERS and that the Local Government's Board Of Directors must always operate in the BEST INTEREST of the SHAREHOLDERS AND YOU KNOW that you are NOT ONE OF THOSE SHAREHOLDERS.... ...then vote NO. If you UNDERSTAND that for a Local Government Board of Directors to ACT in the BEST INTEREST of the COMMUNITY would often result in a CONFLICT OF INTEREST for which the SHAREHOLDERS could SUE the DIRECTORS for breach of duty ...then vote NO.

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Re: [luv-talk] Fwd: Local Governments -- future referendum notes
by Petros 08 Mar '13

08 Mar '13

From: "Andrew McGlashan" on 7 March, 2013 8:20:54 PM > When the law is mis-written and the defendant gets off with the loophole > or other reason for the mis-written law, then it is up the the > parliamentray system to correct the law so that it cannot be > mis-interpretted again. Especially in our area (IT) has a lot of examples where this approach would not work that well. In IT things are developing faster than any legislature can catch up with. Think about ways of copying and distribution art work (e.g. movies and music), media regulation if media goes online, what actually is a "newspaper" or a TV station or.. Any way to legislate it in a hurry will fail, having judges able to interpret the "spirit of the law" is the best you can hope for, I think. My naive understanding is, that the Anglo-Saxon system is more flexible here because it is relying much more on older cause cases to come to a conclusion, so it relies less on the legislation finding every loophole as e.g. the German system provides. The AFL seems to be a pretty good example where micromanagement of rules fails because it always finds clever coaches to find a loophole and playing "against the spirit of the game". Another approach would be leaving it to the umpires to ref the game according to their interpretation of the "spirit of the game". Cannot be worse that having to make a decision in a second based on ten if this then that rules. Regards Peter

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Re: [luv-talk] Arjen in Melbourne
by Arjen Lentz 06 Mar '13

06 Mar '13

Sorry, make that Thu. We'll have a few ppl, no location yet. Asked Lev if he has ideas for that.

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