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Re: USB microphone support
by Sean Crago 04 Dec '08

04 Dec '08

Most generic USB audio devices work just fine in Linux - Just look to see if it says that drivers are required for current Windows builds. If not, it probably works just fine in Linux too. That said, I've always found it far easier to work with devices that use my PC's front 1/8th inch audio jacks tend to be far easier to work with, especially when faced with applications that are more poorly written than Skype & Ekiga and don't, on the application-level, allow you to select the audio device you're going to use. I personally use and swear by my Sennheiser PC151 headset (~$25-45), and can vouch for it being perfectly comfortable to use eight hours a day, five days a week. Headsets like this beat the hell out of all the phone-like wifi Skype devices and USB faux-phone speaker/microphone combinations. If you're dead set on having a separate USB device to jack it into, pick up a nice USB sound card to plug it into or pay an extra $15-20 and pick up the version of the PC1** series headsets with a USB adapter included. Sean Crago Kathmandu

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USB microphone support
by Matthew Copple 03 Dec '08

03 Dec '08

I've been hunting for a cheap USB microphone to use for skype and such. Is it possible to use any generic USB mic from wal-mart or best buy, or are there gotchas to be aware of when purchasing for use with Linux? -- Matthew G. Copple mcopple(a)kcopensource.org

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Fwd: [alg] D-Bus article
by Oren Beck 03 Dec '08

03 Dec '08

I thought this a worthy interlist crosspost. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Thomas King <kingttx(a)tomslinux.homelinux.org> Date: Tue, Dec 2, 2008 at 1:18 PM Subject: [alg] D-Bus article To: alg(a)austinlug.org This is a pretty decent article for a nuts-and-bolts explanation of D-Bus. http://foss-boss.blogspot.com/2008/11/ride-d-bus-control-your-linux-desktop… Tom King _______________________________________________ ALG Mailing List http://austinlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/alg -- Oren Beck 816.729.3645

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OT : Looking for 2.5" SATA notebook drive
by Arthur Pemberton 02 Dec '08

02 Dec '08

Just checking here if anyone has such a drive they are willing to part with for free or cheap. On a related note, I have an unused Untra 1024MB 4200 DDR2 533MHZ memory module for anyone on the list who wants. -- Fedora 9 : sulphur is good for the skin ( www.pembo13.com )

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64 bit distributions - Worth bothering yet?
by Sean Crago 29 Nov '08

29 Nov '08

I've passed on the upgrade to x64 distros, despite every box in my inventory other than my Eee PC 900 supporting them. The trouble with binary packages etc. seemed to be substantially worse than the minor benefits at the time to making the switch. Even today, various 32-bit OSes (Linux & 'doze alike) seem to dominate both at my current and last job, and only seem to be swapped out for 64-bit OSes when dealing with obscene amounts of RAM or specialized scientific routines. Is there something I'm missing, though, that has a dramatic impact on the desktop-user's experience? Are there substantial speed gains to be had, either on AMD or Intel Core * architectures? Is there any practical benefit at all to making the switch other than the specialized workstations and servers mentioned above? Thanks in advance, Sean Crago Kathmandu

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Black Friday
by Jim Herrmann 27 Nov '08

27 Nov '08

Anyone have strategies for doing Best Buy's Black Friday? Thanks, Jim -- - That One - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCUOHKznUyI

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Meeting Goals 2008-11-18
by Billy Crook 24 Nov '08

24 Nov '08

I'm bringing the Acer Aspire One running it's stock Linpus Linux in a mercilessly hacked up state. I think I'll be able to get it on the Library's wifi.... using iwconfig.... Then I'll demo Acer's factory restore DVD, and you can all play with the thing freshly reloaded and working. At the next meeting, I'll have Ubuntu with their netbook thing on there, and Fedora 10 after that. If you have anything else you'd like to see on a netbook, chime in now. I also at this point have Fedora 10 running on my laptop in its entirety. If anyone wants a sneak peak at what F10 will look like on its release, here's your chance to see it. If anyone had any distros they want to install, now's the time to ask if you want me to bring a disc ready to install from. Also, I thought I'd share a package I discovered a couple days ago called clive. clive takes as an argument, a youtube hyperlink, and swiftly downloads an flv or mp4 to your home directory. Supposedly it supports other sites as well. yum install clive. http://clive.sourceforge.net/ Then you can play it in vlc and probably other players, without ever installing flash. There's another script floating around out there that lets you play a youtube vid directly in mplayer or vlc, but you can't always stop and reverse and stuff since its streaming. There's another program I really wanted called pytube, a python gtk+ app that turns a youtube vid into an ogg file, but its author's site seems to be completely gone now.

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Will this supercomputer run Linux?
by Oren Beck 22 Nov '08

22 Nov '08

http://news.zdnet.com/2424-9595_22-249874.html Hey- I could have made a cheap dig at which OS would slow it down:> -- Oren Beck 816.729.3645

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Speaking from personal experience in migration battles with my wife:>
by Oren Beck 19 Nov '08

19 Nov '08

The reality is most non-tech "appliance operators" don't give a thought to what's in their computer. At least that's my home experience. The migration away from outlook to purely web based mail was not traumatic. Firefox replacing IE has been a recurrent headache. Largely born of UI changes breaking her learned interactions, I have had her use my oft mentioned Kiosk install of Puppy 4.0 with an amusing set of comments. Most notable being the frustrations over subtle differences, That is going to be the headache inducing leitmotif for all migration projects if mine is any indication. -- Oren Beck 816.729.3645

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Old Computers
by Jonathan Hutchins 16 Nov '08

16 Nov '08

Aargh! I just found another one! I now have I think seven old computers. Anybody interested? These were all working when pulled for upgrade. I'm pulling the HD's out of all but one, need to go through and wipe them and offer them seperately. Three 486 class, probably AMD K5's, tower case. Pre-ATX. XT keyboard. Deskpro 2000 Pentium 133-200 (not sure), 32M RAM, Floppy, CD. Deskpro 4000, 200MHz, 64M RAM, 2.4G Hard Drive included because it has the Compaq BIOS-on-disk. NT4 workstation installed. Floppy, built in NIC & Video, (& sound?). Not sure if it netboots. (Deskpros are about four inches tall and have a riser board w/ PCI & ISA.) K6-III 400MHz, 40M RAM, HP Superstore Tape 6000 Floppy Tape, floppy, CD. PIII, 400MHZ, 328M RAM Compaq SFF, about 4"x14"x18", PIII 600MHz, 128M RAM, CD, Floppy. I think there are enough nic's to go around, with the possible exception of the older towers. All free if you take 'em all, pester me directly for details. I also have a LaserJet IIP+ if anybody's interested in that. Will be posting other components (Drives!) as I get them cleaned up and inventoried.

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