Wrexham LUG Monthly Minutes

February 2010 meeting

2010-02-03T04:31:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year !

The first meeting of the new decade! January was cancelled due to the snow, which is just as well because the roads were awful that night.

Turnout for February wasn't bad, with not much on the agenda, it turned into a general discussion about lots of things.

Got a look at a netbook specific OS called Jolicloud. This is a stylish and easily navigable offering which takes advantage of the shift to cloud computing. Running on the Dell Mini9 it offered seamless connectivity to web based apps.

The issue of making regular backups was discussed, with a free 50Gb account from ADrive.com being worthy of investigation. Whilst a free account doesn't give you ftp access, it does allow you to store, and share, any type of file (compared to some other online backup accounts which are media specific). Worth getting an account and taking the time to backup your important files NOW!

Some members mentioned that the Tuesday night meeting clashed with other events, so a decision was made to trial a Wednesday night instead. With this in mind, the next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday 3rd March at 7pm.

www.wrexham-lug.org

December 2009 Meeting details

2009-12-30T12:11:00.000-08:00

This months meeting was supposed to be a VOIP special ! Despite having a working VOIP server (using TrixBox), the Cisco phone we had on trial wasn't for talking to the server. It was suspected that the Cisco switch also brought in wasn't playing ball. Ah well - maybe another time !

Trixbox is based on Asterisk, and is well worth checking out. For a free VOIP server for your home, it's ideal.

On a more positive note, this meeting did see a turnout that finally broke into double digits. Yes - at one point during the evening, we had 10 people present. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come.

There has been mentions on the mailing list that other members are likely to put in an appearance for the first meeting of 2010. Fingers crossed for another good turnout.

Dont forget to visit our website: www.wrexham-lug.org

November meeting minutes

2009-11-04T04:30:00.001-08:00

We had a very decent turn out for the November meeting. Thanks to all those who made the effort - it's much appreciated.

Whilst there was no specific topic for discussion, there seemed to be plenty of things going on, albeit in small groups.

It was decided to make future meetings monthly once again. All existing links to the meeting schedule will be updated shortly (including Network News printed and pdf copies).

A concerted effort will be made to get the posters up around NEWI and possibly Yale. Also, we'll get some of those A5 postcards printed for distribution around the various computer shops in the area.

The next meeting is Tuesday 1st December at 7.30pm, although it should be ok to turn up earlier than this if you need to.

Ideas for themes for future meetings would be gratefully received. Please send your ideas to admin@wrexham-lug.org

Till next time !!

2009-03-07T12:19:00.000-08:00

March meeting minutes - Webcam success !!!

The webcam issue seems to be resolved thanks to some good work by Moose. The problem seemed to lie with a module that wasn't installed correctly. By using XAWTV to confirm what the camera was outputting, it was then a matter of checking the correct video module was installed and not conflicting with other modules.

Using the CLI and typing (lsmod lgrep) videodev to establish whether the module required was present.

Although it still proved problematic getting a videoconf going on Skype, using aMSN, good results were obtained. Success at last !

Paul suggested a really excellent site for Linux based games. You can find out more by visiting HappyPenguin.org for yourself.

We thought it would be a good idea to get in touch with the North Wales Linux User Group, and let them know that we have meetings in Wrexham. That way, any of their members who wanted to meet up in person could pop in to our monthly meetings and say hello.

Posters were suggested for NEWI (now Glyndwr University) and Yale College, as another way of getting some new faces along to the meetings.

We also wondered if there were any female Linux users in general - anyone know ?

Finally, next months meeting will hopefully feature an RDC (remote desktop connection) demo.

Please make an effort to attend - new members always welcome. Tea and coffee available (as well as a decent internet connection of course!).

2009-02-25T09:32:00.000-08:00

The "better late than never" February meeting saw a smaller than usual turnout. However, we did try and get some webcams working (without success - watch this space) and have a bit of a chat.

Hopefully we will get more members turning up at the March 2009 meeting, which will be held on Tuesday 3rd March at 7.30pm.

Please make an effort to be there - as we do miss you ! :-)

On a more positive note, we now have an entry in the Regular Events section of Network News. This is a handy A5 guide, published monthly, which details all sorts of interesting things that are taking place around North Wales.

Network News is available from a number of outlets, or direct from the publishers via their website at: http://www.network-news.org/ .

2009-02-07T05:50:00.000-08:00

February 2009 meeting postponed

Due to the weather, the meeting scheduled for the first Tuesday in the month has been postponed till the 24th of February. Usual time etc.

Spotted this bit of news regarding the deployment of Windows into the Royal Navy submarines.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/16/windows_for_submarines_rollout/

Scary stuff !

Err - whatever happened to 2008 then ??

2009-01-03T13:11:00.000-08:00

Apologies for the lack of updates - 2008 was a pretty busy year, and what with our server falling over due to a hardware fault, the blog came last on the "to do" list.

Even though the site was down for some considerable time, our meetings did continue as normal. We got a new home, in the guise of Luke O'Connor house, which is a very pleasant place to get together.

Anyway, we're now back online at a new domain http://www.wrexham-lug.org/ .

Feel free to browse the site, and get in touch if there is anything that needs changing.

Hardware / Software news
Apart from the success of the Asus range of ultra-portable PC's (they've also got some desktops on offer), one other thing of note from 2008 is the migration towards cloud computing. Basically, it's a collection of utilities (applications) and your own files stored online - so they become accessible from anywhere.

Microsoft have invested heavily in the infrastructure to support such things, and are offering 5Gb free online storage space at it's Mesh website. http://www.mesh.com/ .

It's interesting, in the sense that you can sync a number of devices such as a PC, laptop, phone (eventually) to your "virtual" presence, then access the same files from anywhere. Personally, I don't see this as a particularly new idea, but the fact it's now more mainstream, and easier to implement, makes it more likely to succeed.

See our website for details of the next meeting. I'll try and update the blog regularly in future (famous last words!)

What happened to October and November then ?

2007-12-18T12:26:00.000-08:00

Well, we did hold meetings as normal, but due to other commitments, the attendance was down on the usual numbers.

However, looking forward to 2008 (as we should), perhaps we can get things rolling again.

What's happened to the www.wrexham-lug.co.uk website I hear you cry? Well, I have no idea. It seems to have disappeared off the face of the planet. Perhaps we can get an answer at the next meeting.

Onto other matters Linux. I'm glad to see Dell UK are now following their American sales divisions lead, by making Dell PC's available with Linux installed as standard.

The distro of choice for Dell is Ubuntu. Although they are not advertising the offering at all in the public domain, it's definately on their website. It takes some finding (perhaps thats intentional), but you can now buy a Dell desktop or notebook with Linux installed as standard.

The starting page is here:

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/topics/topic.aspx/emea/segments/gen/client/en/ubuntu_landing?c=uk&l=en&s=dhs

Well done Dell for taking the plunge! Hopefully other manufacturers will follow.

Best product of 2007

This has to be the Asus Eee PC. A truly ultra-portable pc for £230 including VAT !!

AND - it comes with Xandros distro of Linux as standard. Whilst it's true you can install a thin version of Windows XP, why would you want to. The display isn't particularly good when using XP anyway. It suits Linux a whole lot better. OK, so its only got a 4Gb or 8Gb solid state drive, but it does have integrated wifi, and an Intel processor.

The Eee PC is sold out already, and fresh stock isn't expected back in the UK till January 2008. If you have never seen an Eee PC before, you really ought to take a look. Here's the official Asus website:

http://event.asus.com/eeepc/microsites/en/index.htm

and the UK site (one of several re-sellers):

http://www.asuslaptop.co.uk/products.php?cat=53

Another UK seller is Expansys, at http://www.expansys.com/p.aspx?i=158485

I reckon these will sell like hot cakes. Rumours are that it's already the number 1 requested item on US Christmas lists.

And now.... if you dont fancy Xandros on your Eee PC, you can install Ubuntu ! It's in the early days of it's development, but the version of Xubuntu presently being ported for the Eee PC is known as EeeXubuntu.

Read more about it here:

http://www.mobilecomputermag.co.uk/20071214221/install-ubuntu-linux-on-your-eee-pc.html

or visit the developers site at:

http://wiki.eeeuser.com/ubuntu:eeexubuntu:development

If you already own one of these ultra portables, and fancy a change from Xandros or XP,
you can download the package and read the installation notes here:

http://wiki.eeeuser.com/ubuntu:eeexubuntu:home

Hopefully next time there will be some more news from the Wrexham Linux User Group itself.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a peaceful New Year.

Remember - the next meeting is at 8pm on Tuesday 8th January 2008 at Wetherspoons, Regent Street, Wrexham.

Be there or be a polygon with four equal sides and angles.

Meetings calendar

2007-09-29T08:20:00.000-07:00

If you want to find out when the next meeting of the Wrexham Linux User Group is, you can now check the calendar below:

Or alternately, use the following link:

http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=admin@wrexham-lug.org

Tuesday 4th September - here we go again !

2007-09-08T12:20:00.000-07:00

Apologies for the lateness of these notes, been busy of late. The second meeting of the Wrexham Linux User Group was held last Tuesday at Wetherspoons.

Whilst there was no specific agenda for this meeting, a lot of useful information was diseminated amongst those present. Some useful BASH command line instructions were discussed.

Live CD's were also the subject of conversation, and whilst most people had good results with Knoppix http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html , Matt RR suggested Dyne:bolic available from http://www.dynebolic.org/ . Both give the user the ability to test Linux on their hardware, without the need to install the OS beforehand.

It was decided that building our own distro from scratch was probably not a good idea ! :-)

For some reason (not known to the author) considerable time was spent discussing the Goblin Teasmade ( a rather frightening contraption with great potential for injuring the user). Lots of great photos of this revolutionary product can be found here : http://www.teasmade.com/models.htm

Next meeting will be Tuesday 2nd October, starting at 8pm, Wetherspoons, Regent Street, Wrexham.

http://www.wrexham-lug.co.uk/

First meeting of the Wrexham LUG !

2007-08-14T15:36:00.000-07:00

The first meeting of the Wrexham Linux User Group took place earlier this evening at Wetherspoons, Regent Street in Wrexham.

Although the numbers were small, some progress was made with regard to the groups direction.

We had a quick look at the latest release of Slackware, and some useful hints and tips were provided by Matt H.

It was agreed that the Wrexham LUG website would require some work, which Matt RR agreed to help Matt H with. It was also decided that we should try and attend a meeting of the Chester LUG, to see how an established group is being run.

The next Wrexham LUG meeting is scheduled for Tuesday 4th September. If you can bring along any interested people, that would definately help !

www.wrexham-lug.co.uk