March 2016 - Talk - lists.gtalug.org

Netgear 5-port Gigabit switch -- $10 ?
by William Park 05 Sep '16

05 Sep '16

Canada Computer is selling - Netgear GS105E ProSafe Plus Switch, 5-Port Gigabit Ethernet - 5 Ports - 5 x RJ-45 - 10/100/1000Base-T - Wall Mountable - http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=355&item_id=077172&ut… for $10. Any comment on the item? -- William

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another little computer: the kangaroo
by D. Hugh Redelmeier 07 May '16

07 May '16

I bought one of these little computers: <http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msca/en_CA/pdp/InFocus-Kangaroo-Signatu…> If you are a student you an get 10% off of the $149. I bought mine at newegg for $130 but the price changes regularly. I'm typing this from a live Fedora stick on this processor. The screen is 3840x2160@30 -- the best mode for this display and pretty good for an Atom. The CPU is an Intel Atom x5-z8500. I don't really understand the naming scheme. Scott pointed out that the Intel specs for this processor don't mention the VT-I feature. That scared me. <http://ark.intel.com/products/85474/Intel-Atom-x5-Z8500-Processor-2M-Cache-…> Here are the flags from /proc/cpuinfo: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx rdtscp lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc aperfmperf pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm sse4_1 sse4_2 movbe popcnt tsc_deadline_timer aes rdrand lahf_lm 3dnowprefetch ida arat epb dtherm tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid tsc_adjust smep erm As I understand it, vmx means it supports VT-I. Some of the other flags have to do with virtualization too. BTW, note that it supports AES-NI, something that the Haswell Celeron and Pentium don't do. Although this doesn't have ethernet, it has a single USB 3.0 port. I've used a USB 3.0 hub to connect a gigabit ethernet dongle and the Fedora live stick.

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distro support for 32-bit UEFI
by D. Hugh Redelmeier 12 Apr '16

12 Apr '16

I have a couple of devices with 64-bit Atom CPUs, built to be cheap Windows devices, that have 32-bit UEFI firmware. With no old-fashioned BIOS or emulation thereof. This seems to be intentional crippling by Intel: they only provide power management firmware in 32-bit mode. The devices I have are an Asus TF100 "convertible" (tablet with detachable keyboard) and a Dell Venue 8 Pro. The Intel / Microsoft idea seemed to be: build very inexpensive devices to compete with ARM / Android. But be careful to limit the damage to the market for full-fledged Windows systems. It worked to some extent. The Hugh idea was: cheap computers that should run Linux! Close, but no cigar yet. What I want is a 64-bit distro that can boot from 32-bit UEFI. That could be managed but it doesn't seem to be available now. (The 64-bit Linux kernel knows how to call 32-bit UEFI functions. This feature is not always enabled.) Almost as good would be a 32-bit distro that can boot from UEFI. After all, these cheap boxes are limited to 2G of RAM anyway (crippled: see above). Scott informed me that 32-bit Debian Jessie (8.0) does support UEFI. Wonderful! But I'm chicken: there is no 32-bit UEFI live image and I don't want to install without trying. After all, there may well be unsupported bits on these screwy devices. (Sadly Linux distros seem to be weak on touch, one of the strengths of these little devices.) These cheap devices come with very little "disk". Mine each have 32G; some have 16G; a few have more. That's not really enough space for both Linux and Windows. I have a netbook built in the same style, but with 64-bit UEFI. I've found 32G quite reasonable for Fedora Linux. <https://wiki.debian.org/UEFI> Another bit of news from Scott: the next generation of Atoms, or at least some of them, drop support for virtualization! What jerks.

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Debian user[add|del] and [add|del]user
by Ivan Avery Frey 04 Apr '16

04 Apr '16

In Debian useradd and userdel are low level utilities and their man pages recommend that administrators use adduser and deluser. I've found a way to differentiate between the low level utilities and the recommended ones. The low level utilities use "Latin" order where the verb component comes after the object and the recommended commands the other way around. So the recommended commands' syllables' order matches that of our everyday language while the low level utilities' syllables' order matches that of a "dead" language.

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Microsoft and Canonical partner to bring Ubuntu to Windows 10 | ZDNet
by James Knott 02 Apr '16

02 Apr '16

Lessee now... If I run Windows in a virtual machine, as I do now, then I'd have Linux running on Windows running on Linux. I guess 2 out of 3 ain't bad! :-) http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-and-canonical-partner-to-bring-ubunt…

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[GTALUG-Announce] GTALUG Meeting on 12th April at 7:30pm
by Myles Braithwaite 31 Mar '16

31 Mar '16

<http://gtalug.org/meeting/2016-04/> # Open Source Graphics Suite Panel Join Stewart, Trent, and Myles in discussing their practical experiences using a variety of open source graphics packages and suites. Bring your questions for our panelists! ## Panelists Stewart Russell is a Linux user who should probably be kept away from admin, dev and other sharp objects. He draws mostly geometric patterns and enjoys unusual output devices such as pen plotters. He mostly works in Inkscape, but also finds graphical uses for Gimp, Darktable, QCAD, OpenSCAD, Processing, Perl, PostScript, Python, netpbm and — when all else fails — ink and gouache. Some of his work is here: <https://www.flickr.com/photos/scruss/sets/72157666420609652/> --- Trent Drake is a freelance artist, with two decades experience in drawing anthropomorphic characters. A former qualitative data analyst, he continues to branch out in game design, animation, cartooning. He also directs and produces independent video productions for community organizations and YouTube. He works in Windows, using Inkscape, GIMP, and Blender. Links to content: * The Safety Prance: Lyricist, prop-builder, director: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dIu8gHkzEs> * Pixel art gallery: <https://www.weasyl.com/submissions/hiker> --- Myles Braithwaite is a web developer who sometimes has to designs user interfaces. He accomplishes this by using Open Source design tools like Inkscape for icons and wireframes, Dia for structure diagrams, and GNUpaint for rough sketching. He enjoys manipulating SVG files and manipulate them with Python and CSS (he was doing it before it was in vogue). On the rare occasion he has to interact with dead trees he uses Scribus to design page layouts. ## Location George Vari Engineering and Computing Centre 245 Church Street, Room 203 Ryerson University <http://goo.gl/maps/16oJ2> <http://www.openstreetmap.org/way/23447525> ## Schedule * 6:00 pm - Please discuss on the general mailing list (i.e. <talk(a)gtalug.org>) where you want to go for dinner. * 7:30 pm - Meeting and presentation. * 9:00 pm - After each meeting a group of GTALUGers move to the The Imperial Pub (54 Dundas St East) for refreshments and more socializing. # Code of Conduct We want a productive happy community that can welcome new ideas, improve every process every year, and foster collaboration between individuals with differing needs, interests and skills. We gain strength from diversity, and actively seek participation from those who enhance it. This code of conduct exists to ensure that diverse groups collaborate to mutual advantage and enjoyment. We will challenge prejudice that could jeopardize the participation of any person in the community. The Code of Conduct governs how we behave in public or in private whenever the Linux community will be judged by our actions. We expect it to be honored by everyone who represents the community officially or informally, claims affiliation, or participates directly. It applies to activities online or offline. We invite anybody to participate. Our community is open. Please read more about the GTALUG Code of Conduct here: <http://gtalug.org/about/code-of-conduct/>. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about the GTALUG Code of Conduct please contact the GTALUG Board @ <board(a)gtalug.org>. --- GTALUG Announce mailing list announce(a)gtalug.org https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/announce

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[Ddvorski@conestogac.on.ca: invitation -- Software Carpentry: Conestoga College (April 2 and 3)]
by William Park 31 Mar '16

31 Mar '16

Since I haven't seen any post about this... FYI. -- William ----- Forwarded message from Dalibor Dvorski <Ddvorski(a)conestogac.on.ca> ----- Date: Sat, 26 Mar 2016 15:01:57 +0000 From: Dalibor Dvorski <Ddvorski(a)conestogac.on.ca> Subject: invitation -- Software Carpentry: Conestoga College (April 2 and 3) To: Dalibor Dvorski <Ddvorski(a)conestogac.on.ca> Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="_000_145900452636081330conestogaconca_" Dear all, I extend an invitation for you to attend Software Carpentry: Conestoga College on Saturday, April 2 and Sunday, April 3 at the college's Doon campus in Kitchener. This collaborative workshop between the college, SHARCNET, Compute Ontario, and Compute Canada will feature introductory courses in the Unix shell, version control with Git, programming with Python, and managing data with SQL. The workshop is free to attend but does require registration. For more information, and to register for a free ticket, please visit: http://ppomorsk.github.io/2016-04-02-conestoga/ Attendees will be provided with free Tim Hortons coffee and Tim Bits, and there will be draws for two Raspberry Pi computers, two $20 Conestoga Bookstore giftcards, and two $20 Chartwells lunch cards throughout the two days of courses! If interested, I encourage you to immediately register for a free ticket. Last month when we organized a similar event in high performance computing, tickets were 'sold out' 40 hours after invitations were sent out. Thanks all, very much looking forward to seeing you again at another exciting workshop at the college! Dalibor Dvorski Lecturer and Academic Coordinator, School of Engineering and Information Technology Site Leader, SHARCNET @ Conestoga Founding Member, Robotics Innovation Group (RIG) Skills Canada: SCNC Chair and Skills Ontario: OTSC Chair Conestoga College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning -- ----- End forwarded message -----

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Multi threaded application fails with error Out of Job Buffers
by Randy Jonasz 30 Mar '16

30 Mar '16

Hey everyone, I'm trying to switch my mysql cluster to use the multi threaded data node. But when I start a node using ndbmtd on ubuntu 14.04 using kernal 3.13.0-79- generic I get an error that the job buffers are exhausted. Is there anything I can do to fix this or should I wait for 16.04 and a newer kernel? Thanks! Randy

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One of the First Computer TV shows from the 80s.
by Digiital aka David 30 Mar '16

30 Mar '16

Thought some might enjoy this, the older folks. This is BITS AND BYTES from TVO back in about 1983. This is likely for me the first spark that light my fire into the computer field. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCEyRso1NoDBilXd0YaPAdg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC_T5mvuguw&list=PL77441A2ED0D0B6A8

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SCO vs IBM: 13-year-old Linux dispute returns as SCO files new appeal- The Inquirer
by James Knott 30 Mar '16

30 Mar '16

Looks like we need a bigger stake to drive through SCO's heart! http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2452793/sco-vs-ibm-13-year-old-lin…

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