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issue 11 http://console-newsletter.hypermart.net
__ __ _ _ __ __ )) __ console: tips,tricks & news about linux
((_ ((_)((\( _))((_)(( (('_ _______________________________________
[7/2000] "a good read.."
+ headlines
Antimissile tests rigged?
NEW YORK (Reuters) - "Citing the Pentagon's own plan, critics of
Washington's proposed antimissile defense and even some military
experts say all flight tests of the $60 billion weapon have been
rigged to hide a fundamental flaw:
The system cannot distinguish between enemy warheads and decoys."
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000609/ts/arms_missile_dc_1.html
--
+ hmm..
Game Show Bride Says She Posed Nude for the Money -
"It was a financial decision based on the employment straits
I was in," Conger said, referring to her inability to land a
job as a nurse following the show. "(Posing for Playboy) was an
honest day's pay for an honest day's work."
Conger added that she rejected several other offers to pose nude,
including one from Playboy magazine rival Penthouse and another
from a Web site, because she "wasn't comfortable" with the way
they wanted to portray her.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000629/re/life_playboy_dc_3.html
All together now... "hmm.."
--
+ humorix
Elite Nerds Create Linux Distro From Hell
HELL, MICHIGAN -- A group of long-time Linux zealots and newbie
haters have thrown together a new Linux distro called Hellix
that is so user-hostile, so anti-newbie, so cryptic, and so
old-fashioned that it actually makes MS-DOS look like a real
operating system. Said the founder of the project, "I'm sick
and tired of the Windowsification of the Linux desktop in a
fruitless attempt to make the system more appealing to newbies,
PHBs, and MCSEs. Linux has always been for nerds only, and we
want to make sure it stays that way!"
http://www.i-want-a-website.com/about-linux/may00.shtml#Hellix
--
+ whatis
(note: "whatis" is a *nix command w/ a short one line
description of a command.)
whatis fstab - static information about the filesystems
--
+ distro watch
Slackware 7.1 Final:
http://www.slackware.com/
giotto - an extendable modular Linux floppy distribution:
http://www.quietsche-entchen.de/giotto/files/INTRODUCTION
--
+ new apps
mondo rescue 0.972 - Rescue archives Linux, or Windows to CD-R's:
http://www.microwerks.net/~hugo/index.html
chrony 1.12 - a pair of programs for keeping computer clocks
accurate:
http://www.rrbcurnow.freeuk.com/chrony/
knapster 0.12 - KDE client of Napster, the MP3 download utility
http://knapster.netpedia.net/
--
+ article
Setting up a Linux desktop -
Charles Steele <drtyldesley@yahoo.co.uk>
My voyage with Linux began 1.5 years ago. It was started due to
my reluctance to accept that the future of computing lay with
Microsoft. The eighteen months has included many aspects of
Linux, from building my own Linux box, trying numerous distros,
through to many hours just "playing" with software. About
3 months ago, I realized that for all my "hacking" I hadn't
actually set up a consistently usable Linux desktop. I decided
that the time was right to put "all my knowledge" to some use,
the aim being to have a computer that I could turn on and use
for all my day to day jobs while also having fun with some of the
cool applications that Linux offers. The Linux box I mentioned
earlier is a 400 AMD-K6 128MB machine that offers ample resources
for most jobs, so my decisions on software have not been driven
by limitations in this area.
One of the first aspects of Linux I had struggled with 18
months ago, had been setting up X and fvwm. I remember feeling
disappointed in what appeared to be the lengths you had to go
to in order to set up a nice GUI.. These days there are a wealth
of tools to help you turn out a stunning interface with out too
many difficulties.
The first decision I had to make was which distro, I going to
use as the basis of my machine. My choice here was Redhat 6.1,
this was mainly because of the availability of precompiled
binaries in the RPM format. Going to www.redhat.com gives you
access to a massive archive of RPMs, offering everything from
games to graphics tools.
My search for a window manager, has been a long and winding road.
Since my early days fighting with the configuration files in
fvwm, I have tried quite a number. My final choice was Redhats
default, Enlightenment, this is packaged using Gnome (a suite
of user productivity applications linked via CORBA ). This has
helped to make my job easier with configuration and compatibility
issues and also offered a good looking, easy to use interface
with a large amount of available software.
The day to day requirements I have from my home computer are
e-mail, web browsing, and some multimedia in the form of a
MP3 player & internet radio. The e-mail is handled using pine,
fetchmail & sendmail. When I have mail downloaded I switch to a
virtual console (ctrl, alt + fn key) to run pine. This offers the
perfect environment to read your mail, free from the distractions
of X. Netscape is my browser but I look forward to an upgrade
soon (either from Netscape or Opera). On the multimedia level
I have xmms for mp3's and I use realplayer 7.0 to listen to the
BBC & Manchester Utd. matches. The office suite I choose was Star
Office, this was a decision based upon some nice looking girl,
handing me a free copy at the New York Linux Expo. I don't have
a great deal to compare it with, but it easily meets my needs.
Gnome offers a lot of nice applets, which give you access to
a multitude of amusements, monitoring, networking & utilities
each which can be added to the Gnome panel. One applet that I
use regularly is pager which gives you four desktops. One of my
desktops is dedicated to top & gstripchart, I have to confess to
becoming slightly obsessed in watching my systems performance. The
other desktop I generally split between, tasks as required.
As desktops go, I find it a pleasure to use. The stability blows
me away (even with Gnome). The options you have with your setup
in looks, feel & behavior are vast , when I have to work on
NT's at my place of work it feels claustrophobic in comparison.
The desktop exercise I started 3 months ago has been a great
learning experience and perhaps something that will become more
important in the Linux world as the months roll on.
Some tips on setting up your desktop.
i)As a new user, go with the flow and see what your distro offers
as its default windowmanager, see what you like/dislike. Sometimes
the amount of software on offer can be overwhelming. It is often
worth cutting out the chaff from the wheat and removing items
from the menu that are of no use to you.
ii)Discover the configuration files, and what they do. Read the
man pages on xinit (how it starts up), fvwm (the antimony of a
window manager),
iii)When you are confident with how your start-up files fit
together try installing a new Window Manger. If you do decide
upon this be careful to make backups of the original files
(.xinitrc-bak etc.) and take notes.
iv)In the world of Linux you can choose the best tools for the
job. If you are using a slower machine then use a lightweight
wm. This leaves the resources available for the applications
you use.
v)Look how other people have set up their desktops. See some
of the links below for resources. They are a great place for
inspiration and you might just surprise yourself how nice you
can get your desktop looking.
vi)Remember, there is more to life than X. Some jobs were just
meant for the console. The virtual console (ctrl alt Fn) is
your friend.
I have put together some links to help you in your quest for that
perfect desktop. Have fun.
http://www.plig.net/xwinman/
A good resource for Window Managers and information about setting
them up.
http://www.themes.org/
The place to go when you want to make X look pretty.
http://www.xfce.org/
A great lightweight wm. "fast & good looking"
http://myrddincon.dynup.net/projects/fvwm-themer/
This tool allows a nice easy configuration of the "nice &
light" fvwm.
comp.windows.x
A newsgroup to help with all those X questions.
--
+ quote of the month
"Adversity causes some men to break, others to break records."
-William A. Ward
--
+ grok
How do I format a floppy under Linux?
(assuming a standard 1440 floppy in drive A:\)
1.First low-level the floppy:
fdformat /dev/fd0h1440
2.Put a file system on the floppy:
for a Linux file system,
mke2fs /dev/fd0
for DOS file system,
mkdosfs /dev/fd0
Now if you wish to mount it -
For a Linux formatted floppy with the directory '/floppy'
as the mount point:
mount -t ext2 /dev/fd0 /floppy
For a DOS formatted floppy with the directory '/floppy'
as the mount point:
mount -t vfat /dev/fd0 /floppy
--
+ jargon
:ASCII:: /as'kee/ n. [acronym: American Standard Code for
Information Interchange] The predominant character set encoding
of present-day computers. The modern version uses 7 bits for
each character, whereas most earlier codes (including an early
version of ASCII) used fewer. This change allowed the inclusion
of lowercase letters but it did not provide for accented letters
or any other letterforms not used in English (such as the German
sharp-S or the ae-ligature which is a letter in, for example,
Norwegian).
--
+ hobbes' internet timeline
1988
CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team) formed by DARPA in
response to the needs exhibited during the Morris worm
incident. The worm is the only advisory issued this year.
1989
Number of hosts breaks 100,000
--
+ review
SuSE 6.4 Gecko's Revenge - digs <mjs@nts-online.net>
I gotta be honest here, I felt I was being dragged into this review
kicking and screaming every bit of the way. You see I've never been
big on bells and whistles and my assumption was that SuSE 6.4 was
just that, fluff with no substance - well I was wrong.
SuSE's 'YAST2' has been the first of the GUI'd Linux installs that
did what it said it would do, not don't get me wrong here, it's
wasn't perfect it took three tries to get my printer configured
but that was the ONLY setback back I had at all.
But let me start from the beginning. The first thing that impressed
me was the labeling on the press copy we received:
Unsupported video card/chips:
(Take note here if you have one of the below!)
3DLabs: GLINT 300SX, all with TI RAMDAC.
Alliance Semiconductor: 3210, 6410.
Chip & Technologies: 64310, 82C45x, 82C481.
Compaq: Qvision.
IGA
Matox: Impression Lite/Plus, Ultima, Ultima Plus, M3D.
OAK: 64107, 64111.
Neomagic: V6.
S3: Some S3-928 with Bt485S3, Savage.
Sierra: 15064.
Ti: TMS340 x0.
Trident: TMVP9550
Also impressive is the specific list of hardware that SuSE does
support see: http://www.suse.com/support/hardware/index.html
Any distro that can take the time to list what works (as well as
what cant) just seems like a darn good thing to do. I'm tried of
seeing 'x86' compatible, it's simply just not that cut & dried.
We all I know something like that 286 you picked up the swap-meet
wont work but how about 'Joe Newbie' down the street, does he/she
know that?
6.4 comes with a great Quick Install manual that holds your
attention yet manages to stay on the lite side perfect for it's
intended audience.
The install was all but flawless and you can bet I was looking for
rough edges. YAST2 had no trouble detecting my video display at
all, and the instructions told me if had a Windows based driver
that it -might- be able to use that driver, while my monitor
doesn't use any thing of the sort let me say:
"Thumbs up for the SuSE team's efforts in the video department!"
My sound card (OPLSAX) which is 100% plug'n play was detected
without the slightest problem yet another plus. The modem on
this boxen is standard so I didn't anticipate, and didn't have
any trouble with that nor with my NIC which is some half breed
ISA/PLug 'n play creature.
Another potentially handy item is the graphical remote install,
while I didn't need this it appeared to be very straight
forward too.
I opted for a standard install (of which there are several
different configurations) and choose a Pentium optimized
kernel. Now lest you all and the good folks at SuSE think I'm
tickled pink I do have some points that I'm less than happy with.
The email messages to root from the system:
Can you say unreadable? Yes the info is good to have, but only
if it's readable. The system messages seem to imply something
may be wrong when in fact that's not the case.
KDE/Gnome:
Guy's the lizard is cute but a better laid out desktop is the
thing, there seems to be no flow or logical thinking in the menu
entries further more there's overlap in the menu's their selves,
display properties for instance is presented in three different
locations in different ways. There's no desktop link providing
internet connection setup or link to any type of help system on
the desktop yes there are presenton the menu but simple is better!
If your a newbie SuSE 6.4 is an excellent buy, (six!) CDROMS with
any imaginable Linux app you could want several window managers
with all the goodies. I would have no problem recommending this
distro to a newbie (read the quick install manual and use YAST2)
or the Linux journeyman, yep the older YAST is still in fine
working order too.
My score with 10 being the highest: 9
Have alot of fun :)
--
+ funnies
_______
(_)___oo) Ned the log -------------- . Particle man ---------------
_ _ | o
___(_)(_) | o o
(_)___oo) disneyland Ned | . particle man juggling
-------------------------------------------------------------------
--
+ wrap up
Coming next issue:
'UPS' And Downs - Are YOU protected?
HAL - "The world's most advanced Heuristically ALgorithmic
computer"
How to write man pages - All you 'markup' freaks will enjoy
this one.
Ned & Particle man and some good grokking.
Hello, well here we are on the eve of our first aniversiery issue
(where does the time go anyhow?) and looking back I gotta say,
it's been great! Several of you have put together some really
great articles detailing your experiences with Linux over the last
year, and I for one have benefitted enormously from it, thanks.
Next month in addition to our standard newsletter, we'll be
featuring a pdf (portable document format) of issues 1-12 in one
handy file. I'll announce the URL for that pup next month. Be
sure to swing by and pick up your copy.
Also, console will be adding the thoughts and musings of another
writer on a regular basis, I'll hold out till next issue on
introductions (hey gotta build up some suspense:)
For all our new subscribers, console is about sharing your idea's,
you know what I mean. Remember that time (we all have 'em) when
you had been working furiously to get a greater understanding of
some facet of Linux when "BOOM" clarity came upon you? That's
what console is all about, send in that article and everyone
can learn from it.
later on,
digs
--
+ subscriptions & submittals
To subscribe send a blank email to:
console-subscribe@topica.com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to:
console-unsubscribe@topica.com
To submit an article:
http://console-newsletter.hypermart.net/
Past issues can be found at:
http://console-newsletter.hypermart.net/old/
--
+ about
This issue of console was brought to you by:
digs <mjs@nts-online.net> - chief writer & layout
Charles "Chaz" Steele <drtyldesley@yahoo.co.uk> - contributor
Hobbes' Internet Timeline (c)1993-9 by Robert H Zakon.
http://www.isoc.org/zakon/Internet/History/HIT.html
Console (c)99-00 Michael S Sanders, All Rights Reserved.
--
eof