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Re: [Sheflug] I'm back - Ongoing woes!
Richard Ibbotson wrote:
> From: J Simpson <janet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: Sheflug@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Date: Today 13:32:38
>
> Hi Everyone,
>
> I've not been here since the middle of March, due to my ISP going bust
> Biscit. Not only did I lose broadband, but my email. I am now with
> Eclipse, so I hope they can offer me the same excellent service I
> received from V21. Actually, I don't feel very woeful as it appears to
> all be sorted.
Welcome back Janet. Eclipse are supposed to be a very good service
provider so you made a good choice there.
>
> So projects for now:
>
> Getting the sound on my computer sorted out, I think it is a hardware
> breakdown, as it just stopped suddenly.
>
> -Upgrade to SuSE 10.2
SuSE don't recommend upgrading they recommend re-installing so back up
all data and then re-install. You can ktorrent SuSE 10.2. (10.3 is
still in Alpha stage.) It's worth doing the 'upgrade'.
>
> -Give my daughter restricted online access.
Whitelists work best - say where your daughter can go, rather than
trying to say where she can't. My view is this is exactly the way
parents work things in real life so there's no reason why it shouldn't
be the same on the Internet.
Dansguardian might be worth a look - http://dansguardian.org/
>
> -Get a DVD writer fitted to replace my CD writer.
>
> - Use Win4Lin
>
> I have tried RedHat, Fedora and now SuSE. Although SuSE is big, it's
> more user friendly than Fedora. I feel I have found the distribution
> for me, however, I haven't tried everything. So has anyone got any
> comments about Mandriva (or whatever it is now called). I also hear a
> lot about Ubuntu, will it hold my hand?
With respect to parental control
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=226298&page=3
I think Ubuntu would be better for you than Mandriva. It is based on
Debian but with a faster release plan and uses apt-get and .deb packages
rather than YaST and rpm.
Ubuntu comes with the gnome interface.
Kubuntu comes with the kde interface (same interface as SuSE).
You might want to also look at Edubuntu to see what that's like.
>
> I have a netgear router connected to my computer. I feel my daughter
> is now old enough to stop using me as the all knowing dictionary and
> thesaurus.
>
> She has an old computer set up a few feet from mine. She is running
> windows 98. I would like to connect her to the internet, but only
> be able to access certain sites for educational purposes. How do I do
> that safely? I don't think she has an ethernet card, so is it possible
> to do it through my computer?
You'd need to have something working as a daemon in the background on
your computer which works on a white list arrangement. That would work
by user id so you could limit her access but not yours.
If you ever get to the stage where you have a network - i.e. you both
have your machines online at the same time, then you may want to check
the literature on your router. I have no idea whether any of these
offer parental control now but it's not impossible for them to do so.
That would work on IP address. If your router doesn't and you decide to
upgrade computers at home in the future, *don't* throw the old one
away because it could be used as a firewall inside the router,
availability of NiC cards permitting. I have OpenBSD chuntering away on
a 486 here.
>
> I am taking the route of DVD writer as programmes seems to be coming
> out on DVD's. I use my CD writer mainly for backing up my computer,
> however I now have to get it onto 2 CD's, whereas it would all fit on
> one DVD with room to spare. It has been suggested to me that I get an
> external drive, but that doesn't help me with DVD's.
A network drive is an external hard drive and you can copy stuff from
your computer's hard disk to the network drive typically via usb.
The ideal backup situation is really a tape drive which you can just
feed tapes and script it to do the whole thing automatically at night.
That way you can set up a grandfather-father-son arrangement and take
weekly full backups followed by daily incrementals then archive off a
tape once a month. Keeping an archive means you can retrieve something
that was removed two months ago.
However tape machines are expensive and very much out of reach & fashion
for the home user so we all mostly cope by backing up everything in
/home once in a while onto DVD, CD, USB stick, or network drive. Backup
purists say this isn't a backup it's just a copy.
>
> I have picked up a copy of win4lin off Ebay. I know some people have
> really strong feelings about it as you are required to have a windows
> operating system. I still occasionally have to use Windows to use my
> scanner and most recently for .mov files on my new digital camera. I'm
> thinking that I can drop the dual boot and just install Linux.
There's also wine - which comes free - and allows you to run certain
Windows programs. I have never used it heavily. My only experience has
been ies4linux and there was a load of huffing and puffing in the wine
community because the author of that has made it easy to install ie6 and
5.x using wine - whereas apparently wine can be a bit of a beast to set
up or that combination of wine and windows programs can be. Not that I
have ever heard anyone complain about it on list of course.
Have you tried digikam in SuSE? And there is sane for scanners in Linux
generally.
If your camera is usb it should mount under SuSE so plug it in and see.
Then look at kaffeine.
This thread chunters on about .mov files
http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/suse-linux-help/85140-how-play-rmvb-mov-files-using-kaffeine-opensuse-10-2-a.html
I have no idea with scanners and sane but I think it is well regarded.
If you check these two items out and see if they work with the scanner
and camera then you could quite easily do away with Windows. It is
entirely possible to live without it. I've only re-bought back into it
recently because of a project that requires it.
> All suggestions gratefully received. Any explanations remember it has
> to be the idiot's version.
Hope I've helped.
Regards
L.
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