- Talk - lists.gtalug.org

classes of x86 performance
by D. Hugh Redelmeier 01 Jul '16

01 Jul '16

This is oriented to gamers but I think that it is interesting. It helps one answer the question: will an upgrade be worth the bother? <http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-hierarchy,4312.html> [wandering elsewhere in the topic of upgrades] My last desktop upgrade (a couple of years ago) was from class 6 (Core 2 Quad Q6600) to class 1 (i7-4770). RAM capacity might also matter. In theory, my old desktop could have 8G of RAM but in fact it could not, so I installed 6G. My newer desktop should handle 32G but I only have 24G installed. SSD is so much zippier than HDD that it might be the first upgrade to consider. It seems to make a lot of difference with "modern" desktops like Gnome 3, Unity and Windows 8.x and 10. Make sure that you do backups.

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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 27 Jun '16

27 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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Damian Conway in town Monday + Tuesday
by Myles Braithwaite 24 Jun '16

24 Jun '16

Just a reminder Damian Conway is going to Toronto this Monday and Tuesday. Make sure you RSVP before attending as space us usually limited. -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Damian Conway in town Monday + Tuesday Hello! My name is Dave Doyle and I'm the co-organizer of the Toronto Perl Mongers. Sorry for the late notice, but Damian Conway is in town again on Monday and Tuesday and GTALug members have come out for him many times before. Would you be able to fire a missive to your members regarding this? People can RSVP for each meeting on Meetup.com http://www.meetup.com/Toronto-Perl-Mongers/events/231418224/ http://www.meetup.com/Toronto-Perl-Mongers/events/231418278/ Damian also put his own money down to come here, so if anyone can help defray the cost of him coming here, please go to: https://gofundme.com/damian_conway Or find me (Dave Doyle) at the event and drop some cash in my hand. :) Many thanks! Dave

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Cheap 4k TV That Can be Used as a Monitor
by CLIFFORD ILKAY 24 Jun '16

24 Jun '16

Hello All, The Canadian Tire flyer has a 43" Seiki 4k UltraHD Smart TV (while quantities last - sorry no rainchecks, which usually means, forget about finding this anywhere) on sale at $399.99. I could not find this on the Seiki web site. They have a 42" model though <http://www.seiki.com/content/42-se42um-led-ultra-hdtv>. It will do 60Hz via HDMI 3. I do not know any video cards that will do that. Caveats * One year warranty. Who knows what their warranty support it like? * You will probably have to drive this at 30Hz. Hugh has a 39" Seiki that he drives at 30Hz. I do not think he finds the mouse lag objectionable. * The picture on the CT flyer is similar to the one on the Seiki web site but it is not identical. That and the 42" vs 43" discrepancy suggests the one at CT is different. * The legs on both models look just like the crappy Wasabi Mango monitor that I talked about a few weeks ago. LG uses the same legs. The 42" TV on the web site looks identical to the crappy Wasabi Mango. (Keyword frequency is important for search engine optimization.) -- Regards, Clifford Ilkay + 1 647-778-8696

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IPv4 Fraudsters
by Christopher Browne 22 Jun '16

22 Jun '16

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2016/06/fraudsters_are_.html I don't manage any IPv4 allocations, but I'll bet there are some out there on the list that do; it's probably worth taking a peek to ensure that your favorite blocks don't look too disused. The interesting observation on Schneier's blog was that someone mused that, notwithstanding the fraudulent activities going on, it seemed like a useful notion to pry unused IPv4 addresses out of hands that were ignoring them... -- When confronted by a difficult problem, solve it by reducing it to the question, "How would the Lone Ranger handle this?"

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LinuxCon and ContainerCon in Toronto, August 22-24
by D. Hugh Redelmeier 22 Jun '16

22 Jun '16

<http://events.linuxfoundation.org/events/containercon/attend/register> I just noticed (or re-noticed) that this is local. But the registration price (now US$950) means I won't be going. Microsoft is a Diamond Sponsor. At that price, why do they need sponsors?

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