LDP
/
old-www
1
1
Fork 0
Code Issues Pull Requests Releases Wiki Activity
old-www/LDP/LG/issue91/lg_mail.html

692 lines
27 KiB
HTML
Raw Permalink Blame History

<!--startcut ==============================================-->
<!-- *** BEGIN HTML header *** -->
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Language" CONTENT="en-us">
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META NAME="generator" CONTENT="lgazmail v1.4G.h">
<LINK REV="made" href="mailto:%20gazette@ssc.com%20"><TITLE>Linux Gazette Mailbag LG #91</TITLE></HEAD>
<BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#0000AF"
ALINK="#FF0000">
<!-- *** END HTML header *** -->
<!--endcut ==============================================-->
<!--startcut =========================================================-->
<!-- *** BEGIN navbar *** -->
<A HREF="index.html">TOC</A>&nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;<A HREF="../index.html">Front Page</A>&nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;<A HREF="http://www.linuxgazette.com/cgi-bin/talkback/all.py?site=LG&article=http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue91/lg_mail.html">Talkback</A>&nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;<A HREF="../faq/index.html">FAQ</A>&nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;<A HREF="lg_tips.html">Next&nbsp;&gt;&gt;</A>
<!-- *** END navbar *** -->
<!--endcut ===========================================================-->
<TABLE BORDER><TR><TD WIDTH="200">
<A HREF="http://www.linuxgazette.com/">
<IMG ALT="LINUX GAZETTE" SRC="../gx/2002/lglogo_200x41.png"
WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="41" border="0"></A>
<BR CLEAR="all">
<SMALL>...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I></SMALL>
</TD><TD>
<center>
<BIG><BIG><STRONG><FONT COLOR="maroon">The Mailbag</FONT></STRONG></BIG></BIG><BR>
<!-- BEGIN wanted -->
<STRONG>From <A HREF="mailto:gazette@ssc.com">The Readers of <i>Linux Gazette</I></A></STRONG></BIG>
</TD></TR>
</TABLE>
<P>
<!-- END header -->
<HR>
<center>
<BIG><STRONG><FONT COLOR="maroon">HELP WANTED : Article Ideas</FONT></STRONG></BIG>
<BR>
<STRONG>Submit comments about articles, or articles themselves (after reading <a href="../faq/author.html">our guidelines</a>) to <A HREF="mailto:gazette@ssc.com">The Editors of <i>Linux Gazette</I></A>, and technical answers and tips about Linux to <A HREF="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com">The Answer Gang</A>.
</STRONG>
</center><HR>
<UL>
<!-- index_text begins -->
<li><A HREF="#wanted.1"
><strong>compressed tape backups</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#wanted.2"
><strong>Daemon vs CGI spawning processes</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#wanted.3"
><strong>Compiling qt 3 lib</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#wanted.4"
><strong>VP and net load equation</strong></a>
<!-- index_text ends -->
</UL>
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
<P> <A NAME="wanted.1"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">compressed tape backups</FONT></H3>
Mon, 26 May 2003 16:45:04 +0200 (CEST)
<BR>Karl-Heinz Herrmann (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?cc=kh1dump@khherrmann.de&subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2091%5D%20help%20wanted%20%231">kh1dump from khherrmann.de</a>)
<P>
Hi TAG's,
</P>
<P>
quite a while back I remember a discussion on compressed tar archives on tape
and the security risk, i.e. the data would be unrecoverable behind the first
damaged bit.
</P>
<P>
Now at that time I knew that bzip2, unlike gzip, is internally a blocking
algorithm and it should be possible to recover all undamaged blocks after the
damaged one.
</P>
<P>
Test RESULTS:
</P>
<P>
tar archive of 90MB mails, various size, mostly small
</P>
<blockquote><pre>tar -cvjf ARCHIVE.tar.bz2
</pre></blockquote>
<P>
bvi to damage the file at about 1/3 (just changing a few bytes)
</P>
<blockquote><pre>tar -xvjf ARCHIVE.tar.bz2
</pre></blockquote>
<P>
produces an error and refuses to continue after the damage.
--ignore-failed-read doesn't help at all, neither -i
</P>
<P>
running bzip2recover produces a set of files rec00xxFILE.tar.bz2
decompressing them individually and cat all good ones into tar:
</P>
<P>
tar produces an error where the data are suddenly missing, skipping to next
file header, but it's not recovering anything beyond the error. It seems it's
unable to locate the next file header and simply skips through the remaining
file. I also tried to run tar on the decompressed blocks after the error only
-- same result: It's skipping till next file header, doesn't find one and
ends with an error.
</P>
<P>
In my tar "tar (GNU tar) 1.13.18" I discovered the following option (man
page):
</P>
<blockquote><pre>--block-compress
</pre></blockquote>
<P>
this option is non-existent in "tar --help" and running:
</P>
<blockquote><pre>tar -cvzf ARCHIVE.tar.gz --block-copmress
</pre></blockquote>
<P>
says:
</P>
<blockquote><pre>tar: Obsolete option, now implied by --blocking-factor
</pre></blockquote>
<P>
Writing archives with --block-copmress and/or --blocking-factor 2[0]
does not improve things very much. several times with gzip and a blcoking of
2, i.e. 1kB), I was lucky and the error was in one large mail (attachement).
In that case tar was able to locate the next file header and I lost only the
one damaged mail. I introduced some more damaged blocks and suddenly tar was
skimming through the remaining tar-file again without recovering any more
files.
</P>
<P>
Fazit:
</P>
<P><BLOCKQuote>
- seems still to be highly risky to use compression on tapes archives
</BLOCKQuote></P>
<P>
- blocking improves chances -&gt; use a very small blocksize.
</P>
<P>
One question remains: Can some flag improve the tar behaviour in locating the
next file header? I couldn't find one in either tar --help nor the man page.
</P>
<P>
I also start wondering what tar says to several unreadable tape blocks and
how it's going to locate the next file headers after <EM>that</EM>.
</P>
<P>
I'm ordering the head cleaning tape I think....
</P>
<P>
K.-H.
</P>
<!-- end 1 -->
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
<P> <A NAME="wanted.2"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">Daemon vs CGI spawning processes</FONT></H3>
Wed, 28 May 2003 14:02:32 -0500
<BR>Sam Seaver (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?cc=samseaver@hotmail.com&subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2091%5D%20help%20wanted%20%232">samseaver from hotmail.com</a>)
<P>
Dear all,
</P>
<P>
recently, I switched from using CGI to run a program to using the SOAP-Lite
0.55 XML-RPC Daemon to run the same program.
</P>
<P>
The only noticeable difference between using the two, is that using CGI, the
web page reloaded straight away, but with the new daemon, the web page waits
for the program to finish before reloading.
</P>
<P>
I have no idea about CGI and perl daemons, so I'm writing to this list to
ask about processes. It seems to me that the Httpd daemon (<A HREF="http://www.apache.org/">Apache</A>2) will
spawn it's own CGI process that handles the program independently, whilst
the self-created daemon doesnt.
</P>
<P>
Im posting the daemon's code below if it helps.
</P>
<p align="center">See attached <tt><a href="misc/wanted/soap-daemon.Seaver.pl.txt">soap-daemon.Seaver.pl.txt</a></tt></p>
<!-- end 2 -->
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
<P> <A NAME="wanted.3"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">Compiling qt 3 lib</FONT></H3>
Wed, 30 Apr 2003 09:19:13 -0500 (COT)
<BR>John Karns (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?cc=jkarns@csd.net&subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2091%5D%20help%20wanted%20%233">the <em>LG</em> Answer Gang</a>)
<P>
I'm wondering if someone might have an idea about what's going wrong with
my effort to compile ver 3 of the qt lib. I DL'd the source and unpacked
to a dir under my user normal user's home dir, and ran configure with a
few options specified. It completed normally w/o error. But when I run
make from the same dir, it errors out immediately:
</P>
<blockquote><pre>Insp8000:~/Builds/qt-x11-free-3.1.2 &gt; make
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/jkarns/Builds/qt-x11-free-3.1.2'
cd qmake &amp;&amp; make
/bin/sh: cd: qmake: No such file or directory
make[1]: *** [src-qmake] Error 1
</pre></blockquote>
<P>
I should mention that I didn't intend to address the question so
much toward qt explicitly, but rather I'm wondering if the problem might
be due to peculariarities of gmake, or some other system configuration
issue - I guess I'll look into updating gmake on this machine. I've run
into similar problems when compiling other pkgs, although most pkgs
compile w/o a problem.
</P>
<!-- end 3 -->
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
<P> <A NAME="wanted.4"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">VP and net load equation</FONT></H3>
Mon, 12 May 2003 12:25:11 +0200
<BR>liste (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?cc=liste@b-schneider.de&subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2091%5D%20help%20wanted%20%234">liste from b-schneider.de</a>)
<P>
Hello,
</P>
<P>
Is it possible in a VPN based network.
To get distribution of Net load on the side of the Linux servers so
that each Client get (the client conect thru a VPN Tunnel through a
Wierless Network) the same speed in the Internetconection
</P>
<blockquote><code><font color="#000033"><br>Best regard
<br>Bernhard Schneider
</font></code></blockquote>
<!-- end 4 -->
<HR>
<center>
<BIG><STRONG><FONT COLOR="maroon">GENERAL MAIL</FONT></STRONG></BIG>
<BR>
</center><HR>
<UL>
<!-- index_text begins -->
<li><A HREF="#mailbag.1"
><strong>Linux Gazette entry in Wikipedia</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#mailbag.2"
><strong>Home Network Internet Connection Sharing</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#mailbag.3"
><strong>I read your "How to Create a New Linux Distribution: Why?"</strong></a>
<!-- index_text ends -->
</UL>
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
<P> <A NAME="mailbag.1"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">Linux Gazette entry in Wikipedia</FONT></H3>
Tue, 29 Apr 2003 02:55:06 +0100
<BR>Jimmy O'Regan (<a href="mailto:gazette@ssc.com?subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2091%5D%20mailbag%20%231">the <em>LG</em> Answer Gang</a>)
<P><STRONG>
I've added a stubby entry to Wikipedia
(<A HREF="http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_Gazette"
>http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_Gazette</A>). Anyone care to expand on it?
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
[Jason]
Hmmm....are you sure the wikipedia folks like that sort of thing?
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<A HREF="http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_is_not_a_dictionary"
>http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_is_not_a_dictionary</A>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><STRONG>
Yeah, I think it's OK. I've gone more for encyclopaedic information than
a mere definition, even if it is a stub. Starting a stub is encouraged -
an extreme version of how a stub can grow from a definition (from
FOLDOC) is here
<A HREF="http://www.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=PS/2&amp;action=history"
>http://www.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=PS/2&amp;action=history</A> - in the
space of one hour it changed completely, and grew to about 4 times the
original size.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Anyway, I cite precedence <A HREF="http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macworld"
>http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macworld</A>
</STRONG></P>
<!-- end 1 -->
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
<P> <A NAME="mailbag.2"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">Home Network Internet Connection Sharing</FONT></H3>
Mon, 19 May 2003 16:20:20 +1000
<BR>Dr Julian Fidge (<a href="mailto:gazette@ssc.com?subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2091%5D%20mailbag%20%232">jfidge from bigpond.net.au</a>)
<P><STRONG>
Hi,
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Thanks for you generous help. You must be very good-hearted people.
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
[Thomas]
Yes, we are
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":)"
height="24" width="20" align="middle">
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
[Ben]
Thank you for the compliment, doctor. We're all here for a number of
reasons, but I have to agree with you to this extent: everyone who has
stayed with The Gang over the long term has earned my respect for their
demonstrated willingness to give their time to this endeavor. If you
believe, as I do, that Linux is improving the world by reducing the
amount of chaos in the world of computers, then all of us have
contributed to making this world a better place.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><STRONG>
I think I have identified an area of need: I have used RHL for years,
and am now getting a few machines around the place for different uses
including software and hardware testing. I'd like to set up a network at
home, which I am finding very difficult because my USB port has taken
over my eth0 and the configuration tools won't let me save anything...
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
[Ben]
Could you clarify that, please? eth0 is an Ethernet network interface;
USB is a completely separate physical entity that, as far as I know,
shares almost nothing with it. I would suggest that you carefully read
"Asking Questions of The Answer Gang" at
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
&lt;<A HREF="../tag/ask-the-gang.html&gt"
>http://www.linuxgazette.com/tag/ask-the-gang.html&gt</A>;
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
particularly the part about "Provide enough, but not too much
information". Simon Tatham's page, linked there, is a really good guide
to effective bug reporting and following it will benefit you when asking
questions in technical fora.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
[Thomas]
How do you mean "taken-over"? Indeed, USB and "eth0" (which I'm
transliterating to meaning your NIC (Network Interface Card) should be two
separate issues (that is unless your NIC is USB based, which is
obsured.....).
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><STRONG>
But the real area of need I think is sharing an internet connection. In
Australia we have cable modems and ASDL as well as dial up modems, and I
noticed Mandrake just has a button for this! RHL is much more terse.
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
[Thomas]
Tut, tut -- what you are describing here is a difference in the GUI
configurations of the two different distributions, essentially the
underlying information about each network IP, interface, etc, is stored in
the same configuration files in "<TT>/etc</TT>"
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
[Ben]
Linux is based on <EM>understanding</EM> the underlying mechanisms rather than
just "pushing the button" - whatever buttons may exist in specific
distros. The process of sharing a net connection is not a difficult one,
and is domented in the Masquerading-Simple-HOWTO, available at the Linux
Documentation Project &lt;<A HREF="http://www.tldp.org/&gt"
>http://www.tldp.org/&gt</A>;. Read it and understand
it, and you'll find that sharing a Net connection is very easy indeed.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><STRONG>
I'll copy this to RHL, too, so they know the difficulties I'm having.
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
[Thomas]
I wouldn't bother -- RH are most likely not concerned with helping you
setup your network.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<blockquote><font color="#000066">On the contrary, if changing something minimal about their installer
would win them a few people more from one of the other distros, they
might be inclined to make that easier. Also, if they never hear
complaints they have to assume it's all good, right?
-- Heather</font></blockquote>
<P><STRONG>
It is hard to find authoritative info about this.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Thank you again,
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Julian
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
[Ben]
Not really. The Answer Gang's Knowledge Base containg this information;
searches of the Net (I use Google but any search engine will find this)
will come up with hundreds of thousands of hits. The trick is to search
for <EM>knowledge</EM> on the topic rather than a button to push.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
[Thomas]
Your question is extremely loose -- what <EM>exactly</EM> do you want, what type
of network? I only use PLIP, but that is only because I don't have any
NIC's at the moment.... I suspect that this approach in networking is not
what you want.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Please take a look through the past issues of the linux gazette - we
have a search engine at the main site:
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><BLOCKQuote>
<A HREF=".."
>http://www.linuxgazette.com</A>
</BLOCKQuote></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
and <EM>especially</EM> though the knowledge base (above).
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
When you can refine your question a little more, please let us know
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":)"
height="24" width="20" align="middle">
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<!-- end 2 -->
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
<P> <A NAME="mailbag.3"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">I read your "How to Create a New Linux Distribution: Why?"</FONT></H3>
Wed, 28 May 2003 13:24:32 -0400
<BR>Jon Essen-Moller (<a href="mailto:gazette@ssc.com?subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2091%5D%20mailbag%20%233">jonem from home.se</a>)
<blockquote><font color="#000066">This was a TAG thread in issue 39, quite a long time ago. The number of
distros has increased drastically, but the need to ask "Why?" before
sprouting a new one hasn't changed - in fact, if anything, it's gotten
more important than ever...
-- Heather</font></blockquote>
<P><STRONG>
I have a similar idea. However, I don't know if I would go as far as
calling it a distribution. All I want is to semi-duplicate an
environment I have set up.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
I would like to somehow create an installable version of my slackware
system. Not a ghost but one where you can alter partitions and select
(auto select) nic, MB-features etc, upon installation.
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
[Thomas]
Installable version??? Hmmm, how do you mean? My first ever distribution I
used was slackware 2.0, and that was installable. I disgaree with your
methods. Tweaking partitions <EM>upon</EM> installation is perhaps fatalistic,
especially if you don't know what you're doing. And in anycase, what is it
that you're trying to achieve? I'd have said that most Linux distro's do a
damn good job at installing Linux.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
I'd be inclined to use a chroot first so that you can test it before you
go live. Unfortunately, I don't have enough experience <TT>/</TT> knowledge to
provide you with that. Heather Stern may well pipe up, I know that she
does exactly that all the time, using chroot.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<blockquote><font color="#000066">Yes - I either set aside a whole partition (for a "one big slash"
installation of the given type) or prepare a file and format it as
ext2 (for loopback mounting) then only mount the given environment
when I need it. Compressed instances of the loopback version can serve
as nice backups or baselines for fresh installs on a lab system.
I often make a point of leaving bootloader code out of them, though;
something I need to back in when preparing those same lab boxen.
-- Heather</font></blockquote>
<P><STRONG>
Do you know a good way to do this or maybe just some pointer on where
and how I should get started?
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Many thanks if you take the time to answer this.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Best regards - Jon
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Ps. Do I need to subscribe to receive the answer? Ds.
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
[Thomas]
Nope, by common courtesy, we always CC the querent (that's you).
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<blockquote><font color="#000066">Sending people their reply directly, they get it right away, and
it's nice that they can see their answer even if their thread doesn't
make it into the magazine.
</font></blockquote>
<blockquote><font color="#000066">I believ the set of scripts called YARD aims at being something like
what you want; visit Freshmeat.Net to look it up. YARD stands for
"yet another rescue disc" and is about rescuing the specific system
in front of you, instead of just being a general case utility disc
like Tom's Rtbt, LNX-BBC, superrescue, etc.
-- Heather</font></blockquote>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
[Kapil]
You should take a look at mindi which tries to create a distribution out
of an existing installation. It runs from a Live CD but can also be
installed so that takes care of your "partitioning" issue (perhaps you
need "mondo" to actually install your home dirs and so on). To handle
hardware detection such as nic,video etc. you must install "discover" or
"kudzu" and after that (As far as I can see) you are on your own.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<!-- end 3 -->
<HR>
<center>
<BIG><STRONG><FONT COLOR="maroon">GAZETTE MATTERS</FONT></STRONG></BIG>
<BR>
</center><HR>
<UL>
<!-- index_text begins -->
<li><A HREF="#gaz.1"
><strong>Liunx Gazette in Palm Format</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#gaz.2"
><strong>Your web site</strong></a>
<!-- index_text ends -->
</UL>
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
<P> <A NAME="gaz.1"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">Liunx Gazette in Palm Format</FONT></H3>
Fri, 2 May 2003 09:33:30 +0100
<BR>Herbert, James (<a href="mailto:gazette@ssc.com?subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2091%5D%20gazette%20matters%20%231">James.Herbert from ds-s.com</a>)
<P><STRONG>
First off I'd like to say that the magazine is excellent, I've only just
come across it. I've been using Linux for around 5 years and there are still
some good hints and tips to be found!. Just a suggestion but any possibility
of a plucker version of your mag? I read alot on my palm and this would be
most useful, I have found that the downloadable HTML version of each mag has
links in the contents page that don't resolve within the document but to
seperate files on the server thus making conversion awkward i.e the contents
page links don't resolve
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/unsmily.gif" ALT=";("
height="24" width="20" align="middle">
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
James Herbert
Senior Software Engineer
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
[Mike]
I assume you mean TWDT.html in each issue. Yes, we can assemble it
using a custom TOC page with internal links. It may take a couple
months till we get around to it though.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<blockquote><font color="#000066">The way it's put together is by merging the fragment articles and
columns along some fairly plain "startcut"/"endcut" blocks in the
templates ... except for The Answer Gang, where I provide a TWDT
edition for the back end.
</font></blockquote>
<blockquote><font color="#000066">But to solve his actual problem, he really wants to check out
Sitescooper (www.sitescooper.org) and pick up the regularly prepared
scoop of the LG issue. I hope they keep 'em up to date. It occurs to
me that maybe we should list them on the mirrors page. That's
<A HREF="http://scoops.sitescooper.org"
>http://scoops.sitescooper.org</A> and it's available in 3 different Palm
friendly formats. Plus sitescooper is open source - just download
and have fun
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":)"
height="24" width="20" align="middle"> Even flavors for MacOS and Windows users, though it's
worth noting you need a working copy of perl.
-- Heather</font></blockquote>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
[Mike]
If there's anything else required to put it into Palm format, send us
a HOWTO if there's one available. However, that might work better as
a script on your end that downloads the issue (perhaps the FTP file)
and converts it to plucker format, whatever that is. Since we have so
many versions of the same thing already (web files, FTP tarball,
TWDT, TWDT.txt), and only a few readers have Palms.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
[Ben]
You can use "bibelot" (available on <A HREF="http://www.freshmeat.net/">Freshmeat</A>, IIRC); it's a Perl script
that converts plaintext into Palm's PDB format. I have a little script
that I use for it:
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<p align="center">See attached <tt><a href="misc/gaz/pdbconv.bash.txt">pdbconv.bash.txt</a></tt></p>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
This uses the textfile name (sans extension) for the new file name and
the PDB internal title, and does the right thing WRT line wrapping.
Converting the TWDT would require a single invocation.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<blockquote><font color="#000066">Does the raw PDB format have a size limit? Our issues can get pretty
big sometimes...
-- Heather</font></blockquote>
<!-- end 1 -->
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
<P> <A NAME="gaz.2"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">Your web site</FONT></H3>
Tue, 13 May 2003 09:04:01 +0100
<BR>Shaikh, Saqib (<a href="mailto:gazette@ssc.com?subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2091%5D%20gazette%20matters%20%232">sshaik from essex.ac.uk</a>)
<P><STRONG>
Hi
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
I've been an LG reader for 5 years now, and a year (or maybe more) ago
you changed the web site. I really preferred the old site. Why?
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Hmmmm it's hard to place a finger on it. One definite thing I miss is
that I used to love having the really big index, which would show you a
huge table of contents, with the table of contents of every issue
listed.
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
[Mike]
That is still around, but it's called "site map" now. There's a link on
the home page, or bookmark the direct URL:
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><BLOCKQuote>
<A HREF="../lg_index.html"
>http://www.linuxgazette.com/lg_index.html</A>
</BLOCKQuote></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><STRONG>
I'm blind and use a screen reader, and I could use my screen reader's
search facility to find topics -- if I wanted to know about ncurses, I
just search for that, and would hear the latest article which had
ncurses in the title. Pressing a single key again and again would take
me to all articles with ncurses, for example, in the title. Can this be
reintroduced? I know the search feature does something similar, but I
still think it makes it harder (for me) to find what I want. That's the
main thing I can think of right now, but I'll keep you informed if I
thik of the other little things.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
But with regards to the content of the magazine - it's excellent, and
the archives are a wonderful resource.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Saqib Shaikh
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
[Thomas]
You're quite welcome
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":)"
height="24" width="20" align="middle">
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<!-- end 2 -->
<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
<hr>
<CENTER><SMALL><STRONG>
<h5>This page edited and maintained by the Editors of <I>Linux Gazette</I><br>HTML script maintained by <A HREF="mailto:star@starshine.org">Heather Stern</a> of Starshine Technical Services, <A HREF="http://www.starshine.org/">http://www.starshine.org/</A>
<br>Copyright &copy; 2003
<br>Copying license <A HREF="http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A>
<BR>Published in Issue 91 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, June 2003</H5>
</STRONG></SMALL></CENTER>
<!-- *** END copyright *** -->
<HR>
<!--startcut ==========================================================-->
<CENTER>
<!-- *** BEGIN navbar *** -->
<A HREF="index.html">TOC</A>&nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;<A HREF="../index.html">Front Page</A>&nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;<A HREF="http://www.linuxgazette.com/cgi-bin/talkback/all.py?site=LG&article=http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue91/lg_mail.html">Talkback</A>&nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;<A HREF="../faq/index.html">FAQ</A>&nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;<A HREF="lg_tips.html">Next&nbsp;&gt;&gt;</A>
<!-- *** END navbar *** -->
</CENTER>
</BODY></HTML>
<!--endcut ============================================================-->
Reference in New Issue View Git Blame Copy Permalink