June 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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mysterious restarts
by D. Hugh Redelmeier 20 Aug '16

20 Aug '16

We have a computer that started doing random and frequent restarts on the weekend. We don't know why. Any suggestions? It looks as if the power dips momentarily and the computer reboots, with no message that we have observe. But it could just as easily be a crash of some other kind that leaves no trace. The system is an HP Compaq Pro 6300 Small Form Factor PC running Fedora 20. The crash seems to be at different points (i.e. not one consistent software activity). The crashes don't seem correlated with heavy workloads (eg. it crashed a couple of times while I was staring at log files to see if there was any hint of the problem). Hypothesis: a Fedora 20 bug. But the software has not been changed in months. Updates have not been appled this year. Since the behaviour has changed without the software changing, I don't think that Fedora is to blame. Hypothesis: it might be heat-related (the room it is in gets warm). I vacuumed out the interior and defuzzed the heat sinks. This did not improve the uptime. Hypothesis: it might be contact-related. So I disconnected and reconnected most internal connectors and reseated the memory. This did not seem to improve the uptime. Hypothesis: it might be the power supply. Normally, I'd swap power supplies to test this hypothesis but this Small Form Factor computer has a unique (and probably expensive) power supply. I opted to move the disk to a Dell OptiPlex 990 Small Form Factor computer and use that. The Dell, with the HP's disk, seems stable. No rebooting. This is in the same warm room, but the weather has changed. In the original HP box, I installed a disk that I had laying around (a 60G drive from a discarded laptop), installed Ubuntu 16.04, and have been running four CPU-bound processes for 24 hours. No crash. I admit that this is in a cooler room. The heat and power load of a laptop drive is less than that of a 3.5" HDD, but I would not think that that is significant. The computer is a couple of years old but still has a year of warranty. There are confidential files on the disk drive so I'd like to narrow down the problem before calling in HP support. Asking for a particular replacement part is more convenient that shipping the computer back to HP.

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Intel i7-6700 vs Xeon E3-1230 v5 --> 65W vs 80W ??
by William Park 04 Jul '16

04 Jul '16

Intel i7-6700 and Xeon E3-1230 v5 are pretty much the same, except that i7 has builtin Graphics and Xeon does not. I don't get it. How can i7 with builtin graphics consume less power?-- William

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Re: [GTALUG] mysterious restarts
by Russell Reiter 03 Jul '16

03 Jul '16

> I also have heard of the power grid, being a microgrid designer and all. > Although it's not Linux specific, given the number of posts on this thread regarding power quality and continuity, perhaps microgrids and power walls might be an interesting meeting topic. I'd be interested in knowing what types of control systems are in use for linking and delinking? ie. how would you handle spinning up and linking a wind turbine to a hydrogen cell; bonus if there were discussions around Sandia SPIDERS and cybersecurity. Got some spare time? > > --- >> Talk Mailing List >> talk(a)gtalug.org >> https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk >> > > > -- > Michael Galea > > --- > Talk Mailing List > talk(a)gtalug.org > https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk

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[GTALUG-Announce] Linux in the Park 2016
by Myles Braithwaite 02 Jul '16

02 Jul '16

<http://gtalug.org/picnics/2016/> GTALUG is having the annual Linux in the Park Potluck this year at Dufferin Grove Park on 23rd July at 2pm. Things we will provide: Plates, Cutlery, Serviettes, Cups, and Garbage bags. Things you might want to bring: chairs, tasty beverages (that are non-alcoholic, as the city prohibits alcoholic beverages in the park), food stuffs that you would like to share and enjoy, tarp/blanket, sunscreen, hats, things to help survive the warmth of the Canadian Wilderness. We will doing this in a pot-luck style. Thus, please bring enough food and drink for yourself and your guests, and try to bring enough to share with others in the group. We are using the GTALUG wiki to organize everything: <https://gtalug.org/picnics/2016/>. Note that if you forget anything you needed, Dufferin Mall is across the street, featuring a supermarket (No-Frills) department store (WalMart), as well as other specialty stores. ## Location Dufferin Grove Park 875 Dufferin Street Toronto, Ontario <https://goo.gl/maps/hnGg5> <http://osm.org/go/ZX6BHsVZx-?layers=N&way=15703371> ## Social Media Links Facebook: <https://www.facebook.com/events/1738615543061007/> ## 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 one of the GTALUG Board Members @ <board(a)gtalug.org>. --- GTALUG Announce mailing list announce(a)gtalug.org https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/announce

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Linux in the Park travel advisory
by Seneca Cunningham 28 Jun '16

28 Jun '16

I just noticed when this year's Linux in the Park is, and thought that I should pre-warn everyone about some routing issues surrounding July 23. Bloor will be closed between Lansdowne and Dufferin on July 23 (and 24) for the Big on Bloor Festival of Arts & Culture (http://bigonbloorfestival.com) As you might expect, Dufferin Station will correspondingly be busier than usual, and parking may be harder to find. College streetcars may be busses, and may also be affected by streetscaping-in-progress.

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Re: [GTALUG] mysterious restarts
by Russell Reiter 28 Jun '16

28 Jun '16

I wonder about grid security and whether or not a microgrid can be designed to repel all borders. That is, only allow links to trusted sources. The way things are headed in the IoT, perhaps power source monitoring will detect the harmonic characteristics of each user in a trusted cluster and when combined with the overall harmonics of the grid, this data can be used for quality control and billing, or even equity trading between users. Sent from mobile. On Jun 25, 2016 3:21 AM, "ac via talk" <talk(a)gtalug.org> wrote: > On Thu, 23 Jun 2016 11:43:19 -0400 > Lennart Sorensen via talk <talk(a)gtalug.org> wrote: > > On Wed, Jun 22, 2016 at 07:39:34PM -0400, Michael Galea via talk > > wrote: > > > No, the device is not a UPS. It is a PLC that measures voltages, > > > currents, real and reactive power of a 3-phase service. It > > > provides me the results as IEEE754 32-bit floating point numbers. > > > It's me that truncates to 2 digits. > > > You know I'm sorry I ever implied that the grid wasn't long term > > > accurate at 60 Hz! What I should have said was that in the short > > > term the grid could be quite off 60 Hz but over the longer term it > > > could average out. > > > If I really needed to know the answer to the question of "how much > > > out", I would get ask the PLC to just count cycles and send me the > > > count with a timestamp. That would tell. > > Well wikipedia claims the grid can be off by up to 10 seconds in north > > america on this side of the continent. The west and texas allow a > > lot less. So it can certainly be a bit off for quite a while. > > > this is a very interesting thread, i frequently ponder personal grid > timing and other cycles using various oscillations, until the old 40Hz > streak lights up (sync) my life > > > --- > Talk Mailing List > talk(a)gtalug.org > https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk >

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Re: [GTALUG] mysterious restarts
by Russell Reiter 27 Jun '16

27 Jun '16

On Jun 26, 2016 12:14 PM, "James Knott via talk" <talk(a)gtalug.org> wrote: <snip> > I don't know what power is provided on dry loops, but I believe there's > still "battery" on the line. On a You put the word battery in quotes. Perhaps you mean a Rogers valve? I think that's how the patent names it. When I was a kid every corner store had a tube tester for DIY repairs. Anecdotally I remember CFRB as Canada's First Rogers Battery? The Rogers valve was what allowed a radio to run on home current. regular phone line, if the device > draws enough current, the exchange will consider the line "seized" and > not send ringing current on it. If not enough current is drawn, then > ringing is possible. > > > I don't know for sure myself. I always assume the last quarter mile is > > analog, but that may have changed for newer condo and residential home > > development. > > > > > What's generally referred to as the "last mile" can be anything from > right next door to several kilometres. For examples, in an apartment I > used to rent, the exchange was just a block away. Here, a couple of > blocks. When I was a kid, growing up in Oakville, it was about 3-4 Km > and it may be much further elsewhere. > > BTW, many years ago, before amplifiers, it was possible to make a call > from New York to Colorado, before it became too weak. Wow you look a lot younger in your picture. :-) > --- > Talk Mailing List > talk(a)gtalug.org > https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk

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How to repeat a char in a line? (on Windows)
by William Park 26 Jun '16

26 Jun '16

My brain is not working today... too hot. On Windows, how would you generate a text line with 480 of 'M' chars? I have to describe to other people how to do it on their Windows machine. So, I need simple generic way. I can't tell them to install BusyBox, Cygwin, Vim, or Python. :-) -- William

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Ubuntu snap
by ted leslie 25 Jun '16

25 Jun '16

never heard of it until just stumbled across this: http://betanews.com/2016/06/14/ubuntu-snap-packages-linux-distros-fedora-ar… If its "good", doesn't it sort of defeat the strength of some distro's whose best attribute is package management, i.e. what folks claim of arch? Interesting to see what becomes of it (how much adoption). Stumbled across it, because its Mint 18 time soon!!!!!!! its like x-mas! -tl

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