Glitz

I agree with Fuzzylizard here. Remember, most computer users (90% at least) make the noobies here look like rocket scientists and brain surgeons. The average user doesn't want to use an OS, they want to use their computer. We want them to use linux because we need the critical mass to get companies to port programs to linux. Therefore, we should be bending over hand and foot to make them feel comfortable. We need them, they don't need us. Glitz.

"Choose the form of the destructor!..." :lol: Glitz.

I posted this at the other board too. This has been an issue ever since CDs were first introduced to the public. Even the mass produced CDs (songs, etc.) can die at an early age if air leaks in and oxidizes the aluminum reflective backing. Then when CDRs were introduced there was concern about the dyes being used. The more unstable green dye (I forget the chemical name) was rated for 10 years maximum and the good dye (the gold coloured one) was rated for 100 years. There was no problem with oxidation of the reflective surface because at that time everyone used gold as the reflective material. In time improvements to the unstable dye (the green one) and a new blue dye have increased the rated lifetime for those disks so the concern died away. Now, however, in an attempt to cut costs manufacturers have moved away from the gold reflective backing to silver. Silver (as anyone with a silver dinnerware set can attest to) oxidizes rather fast when exposed to oxygen. So now the problem of improperly sealed CDRs has resurfaced. Even Kodak (who generally use the highest quality dye and gold reflective layer) have moved away from gold for their data disks (they still use it in their audio CDRs though) but have not gone to a pure silver layer. They have a silver/gold alloy which does not oxidize as rapidly and therefore extends the lifetime of the CDR (they rate it for 50 years). Some manufacturers look like they use a gold layer but in fact it is only painted gold. CDRW media is only meant for short term storage and I have never seen reports on the longevity of either the dye used or the backing material. Glitz. PS. My oldest CDRs are about 6 years old (Kodak Writable CDs) and they still work fine. The best bet though, is to make at least two copies of any data you want to keep and try reading them every few years to make sure they are still good. As soon as you start getting errors it is time to make a set of fresh copies. And most of all, keep them out of direct sunlight, hot places, and places of high humidity.

What kind of CD are you trying to read? Is it a regular ISO9660 cd or a UDF CDRW? Glitz.

I suggest the following lines: /dev/hdc /mnt/cdrom udf,iso9660 iocharset=iso8859-1,noauto,nosuid,ro,umask=0,user,exec,nodev 0 0 /dev/scd0 /mnt/cdrom2 udf,iso9660 iocharset=iso8859-1,noauto,ro,nosuid,umask=0,user,exec,nodev 0 0 Be sure to backup the old file first in case this doesn't work. Glitz.

ssh? The problem with tunnelling games is that there is a lot of graphic information that now has to travel over your network. If you thought the front side bus had problems then wait until you try to divide 100Mbps across three machines. Glitz.

The pentium (i586) version of Mandrake will not run on anything less than a pentium (since it uses the new pentium instructions). However, Mandrake has an i486 version of LM7.0 that will work. Redhat is compiled for i386 and will work on i386 and higher. I don't know what the performance is like. I suppose that if you were willing to re-compile the Mandrake source and set the target for i386 that you could get 9.0 running. It would probably be slow though. Glitz.

Thanks Cyclops! Glitz.

Can't the menus be editted? Glitz.

It's an engineering thesis so there are lots of graphs and diagrams. I am using the master document feature so each chapter is in its own file but it all has to be loaded to generate the table of contents, list of tables, list of figures, references, and references from one chapter in another. Chapter 7 is really giving me trouble. It's over 1MB in size. The Laserjet III prints out fine in windows because the windows driver uses the resolution enhancement technology (effectively up to 600x600dpi resolution for text) but the linux drivers don't seem to support this. The output looks more like a superhigh resolution dot matrix printer than a laserprinter output. I'm currently looking for a postscript plus cartridge that I can buy. Maybe if I bypass the ghostview PS interpreter the enhanced resolution stuff will work. I could also use more memory (it only has 1MB). I know that windows is set to download TTfonts to the printer itself. Glitz.

In the UT2003 linux readme it says that older TNT and TNT2 cards are not supported since they don't have S3TC hardware. Glitz.

You're right on that point. Except for the breaking up of the office suit into individual components and the move to XML as the native file format, it is identical to 5.2 (right down to some of the 5.2 bugs). I probably wouldn't have bought it if I'd have known that. Both versions are now giving me trouble with my thesis. I have a total of 384MB or ram and now my 150 page document causes the system to run out of memory and crash under windows. I can still (just) manage to load the document under linux but the print quality is so poor that it will not be accepted by the university (using Laserjet III). I'm not sure what I'm going to do about it. Glitz.

Can you say StarOffice? Glitz.

Here's the Kylix URL: http://www.borland.com/kylix/ Click on Open at the left for the free linux version. Glitz.

rarp has something to do with ethernet networks (used for manipulating the resolution table on those networks). It has also been obsolete since the 2.3 kernel versions. The program RARP is still installed by mandrake but I tried to run it and it says there is no kernel support for it. Maybe there is a module that has to be installed? Glitz.

Also check the motherboard bios to see if you have to set the drive type to AUTO if you want it to automatically be detected. Glitz.

I don't think so. The MAC id has nothing to do with the IP address. They are two completely seperate things. You might ask you're service provider if they can give you a static IP. You might also be able to register a domain name that tracks the IP automatically. I remember someone suggesting that sort of a solution somewhere before. Glitz.

If you like the Borland IDE then you can download and use their new native linux version of Delphi (which now includes C/C++). It's free for writing GPL software. Glitz. PS. Sorry I don't have the URL but I'm sure a google search will turn it up.

I would first try changing the colour temperature setting on your monitor. Go to the monitor's menu and change it. Also, try to avoid bright text on a dark background. That's really hard on the eyes. Glitz.

What do you define as a successfully supported user? I would think that as you add users the system simply becomes less responsive. So what kind of minimum response time are you looking for? I would also suspect that it depends on how much data your web server has to serve on average to each user. Glitz.

Reminds me of that line from the Hitchhiker's Guide: 'We demand,' yelled Vroomfondel, 'that demarcation may or may not be the problem!' Glitz.

Maybe it's trying to load a missing driver. If that's the case, and supermount is enabled, it could take some time. Give it 20 to 30 minutes and then see if it asks you to insert any mandrake disks. Glitz.

Maybe you should try turning down the colour temperature of your monitor. At 9300K the blue end of the spectrum is much brighter (relative to red end) than daylight conditions. Maybe try 6550K. It may look a bit redish at first but you quickly renormalize your sensitivity to blue. Glitz. PS. It is also a good idea to take frequent breaks and focus on distant objects for 30s or so.

I have ICEWM light (LM 8.1) installed on a 100MHz pentium with 48MB of ram and it works acceptibly. The library will probably want a very limited system anyway that only allows the user to do a few things like search for books or browse the web. They generally don't need a whole plethera of applications. Give them a clean system with just the required icons on the desktop. If possible, make it so that the user can't go in and mess up the desktop. Glitz.

Yes, I agree, we should start using proper terminology around here. Glitz.