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3302 discussions

Stress Testing Hard Drives
by Billy Crook 09 Jul '07

09 Jul '07

Can anyone recommend a program or method of stress testing hard drives? I check memory/cpu with memtest86, but I would like some way to stress test a hard drive. Currently I dd urandom over it for a few days or DBAN it, but I'm looking for something more thought out. Preferably, a program that can run on a live system so I'd just attach the drive to be tested, and point the test at /dev/sdd or whatever dev it was on. Preserving data on the drive is (obviously) not a concern.

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Linspire/Freespire
by Earle Beason 07 Jul '07

07 Jul '07

Linspire/Freespire In response to watching videos on NBC Wow, I evaluated this and I am not impressed, don't like the fact I have to "PAY" for Linux programs that are normally free with other distros, and I can't update anything with out becoming a "MEMBER" of the "CNR," I would agree with those who are saying to go to another program. Fedora 7 quite large but google "Perfect Fedora 7 desktop" and voila, everything needed for a good start. Then add caldega for your games, you should be good to go. If your close to grandview you can come over and evaluate my setup on a weekend. Bet Linspire will emulate Microsoft s other ventures.................

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Re: Kclug Digest, Vol 36, Issue 8
by gary hildebrand 07 Jul '07

07 Jul '07

On 7/5/07, kclug-request(a)kclug.org <kclug-request(a)kclug.org> wrote: > > Message: 1 > Date: Thu, 05 Jul 2007 12:31:16 -0500 > From: Jonathan Hutchins <hutchins(a)tarcanfel.org> > Subject: Re: Web services "in" the KC area. > To: kclug(a)kclug.org > Message-ID: <200707051231.17057.hutchins(a)tarcanfel.org> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-6 I've had phone service here for 17 years from Bell, now AT&t (again). I've > called them once, to find out when they'd have the lines back up from the > big > ice storm. There may be things I don't like about them, but service > availability ain't one of 'em. I laugh at the cable guys every time they > try > to sell me phone service. There are good and bad things about Ma Bell, and they have always had the supercillious business attitude with their customers. In my case: Charged almost a dollar a minute for a phone call to Vancouver, BC, and charging $0.75 per call to their 800 "customer service" line SEVERAL times. Overcharging a cellphone customer $1500 in one month . . . (girlfriend) Bait and switch practices on cellphone plans. I'm sure there are others. YMMV. I just avoid them whenever and wherever possible. Just expect less and less, and pay more and more for nothing. Gary Hildebrand ST. Joseph, MO ------------------------------ >

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Re: Stress Testing Hard Drives
by James R. Sissel 06 Jul '07

06 Jul '07

Ah, the "click of death". How long has it been since I've heard that wonderful, hope-and-soul-crushing phrase. Those were the good ol' days. "We had the click of death ... and we LIKED it" -- grumpy old man from SNL

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Re: Free Cellphone Service- New York Times
by Luke -Jr 06 Jul '07

06 Jul '07

On Thursday 05 July 2007 22:22, you wrote: > Just call up your asterisk box while at home, using the wifi so the call is > free. Sure, and waste 3x the bandwidth at a major drop in quality (digital to analog to digital, even before final termination!) > Have the asterisk give you a dialtone to dial out with, and just never hang > up. Asterisk doesn't give dialtones on its own except on actual analog lines.

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None
by James Sissel 05 Jul '07

05 Jul '07

And what happens when you are walking by (but not in) the coffee shop with the free WiFi and get arrested just like the poor man checking his email in his car? http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060622-7111.html Jonathan Hutchins <hutchins(a)tarcanfel.org> wrote: July 5, 2007 STATE OF THE ART IPhone-Free Cellphone News By DAVID POGUE Man, oh man. How'd you like to have been a PR person making a cellphone announcement last week, just as the iPhone storm struck? You'd have had all the impact of a gnat in a hurricane. But hard to believe though it may be, T-Mobile did make an announcement last week. And even harder to believe, its new product may be as game-changing as Apple's. It's called T-Mobile HotSpot @Home, and it's absolutely ingenious. It could save you hundreds or thousands of dollars a year, and yet enrich T-Mobile at the same time. In the cellphone world, win-win plays like that are extremely rare. Here's the basic idea. If you're willing to pay $10 a month on top of a regular T-Mobile voice plan, you get a special cellphone. When you're out and about, it works like any other phone; calls eat up your monthly minutes as usual. But when it's in a Wi-Fi wireless Internet hot spot, this phone offers a huge bargain: all your calls are free. You use it and dial it the same as always - you still get call hold, caller ID, three-way calling and all the other features - but now your voice is carried by the Internet rather than the cellular airwaves.

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Web services "in" the KC area.
by Arthur Pemberton 05 Jul '07

05 Jul '07

Just though you gentlemen may be intereted to know that The Metro's "Trip Planner" at kcata.org has been updated: it nolonger has the artificial restriction which limited to Windows+IE, and (seems) to work in Firefox cross OS, and also seems to work. It also seems to work in Konqueror, so I guess it should work in Safari. It seems to be written with ASP.NET, so it is cookie laiden, and it uses AJAX in a way which I personally consider to make it less useful that its previous version. Contrastingly, Time Warner Cable's online chat claims to support Netscape and IE only, so far I've tried it in IE. So unless it really works in Netscape, no cross OS, or even Firefox support. The support-analyst I spoke with, they will be focusing on IE because "Firefox does not come bundled with Windows, so we know that everyone will have Internet Explorer" , which of course presumes that only Windows exists - but the chat service is at least better than their telephone answering service. Peace -- Fedora Core 6 and proud

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Update: Using memory key as boot directory
by Leo Mauler 05 Jul '07

05 Jul '07

I just wanted to let everyone know that the Compaq PC I was going to boot using a USB memory key, turns out not to support USB booting. I was a couple of numbers off on the Compaq serial number. Fortunately, I've discovered an alternative: Compact Flash cards. Seems you can buy a Compact Flash interface card which attaches like a regular expansion card to your computer. On one end you plug in a Compact Flash card, and on the other end you plug in a regular IDE cable. The expansion card doesn't use a PCI slot. The card has jumpers to select Master/Slave (no Cable Select I'm afraid) and you power it using a regular floppy power connector. Since /boot can fit into 50MB or less, I'm going to make a 64MB Compact Flash card into the boot directory. This will let me use an 80GB hard drive in a computer which has a 64GB hard drive limit BIOS. This did get me to thinking about the whole concept of putting huge hard drives into very old computers, as Compact Flash completely masquerades as IDE. Even if the system doesn't boot USB, it will almost certainly boot CF on an adapter. This makes it a lot easier to bring old hardware back into circulation with larger new hard drives: instead of a 10 year old 1GB hard drive for a /boot directory, you can use a 1 year old CF Card. I'm going to try booting from a CF Card on my old laptop one of these days: it has an 8.4GB limit and I have this nice 10GB laptop hard drive lying around, as well as a PCMCIA CF Card adapter. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Got a little couch potato? Check out fun summer activities for kids. http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=oni_on_mail&p=summer+activities+for+kids&…

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Challenger
by Earle Beason 04 Jul '07

04 Jul '07

Eerily enough..... Your correct, it does share memory, and a good portion of it. As for upgrading it, I got it this thing in the scarp pile, did enough cleaning and basic troubleshooting to get it operating. I only have plans to use it to teach myself the basic of various Linux systems. My goal is to create an Office document, watch a DVD, play an MP3, get wireless accesss to the Internet on each distro and the scratch it and go to the next distro. It more of a learning toy then a functional computer for whatever it is I do. I have Fedora 7 on my tower that I becoming more and more inclined to use as I escape the clutches from Microsoft. My old tower is starting to look more like Linux bait ever day, I have some programs I haven't figured out how to run on the Linux box. I probably wait until Microsoft hamstrings the XP program in order to force me to go to Vista. The Dell Laptop I have will keep the Microsoft program on until my warranty expires then, It going Linux the next day Good book to read, should be the lug mantra http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redpieces/abstracts/sg246380.html I suspect that the Thinkpad laptop is using shared video memory with system RAM. You might be able to reduce the amount of shared video RAM in the BIOS to allow the install to complete. Additionally, adding system RAM would be a good idea to enhance system performance especially for Fedora Core 6 or Fedora Core 7. A smaller footprint distro might also be a workable solution as described below in the prevoius post. I hope this helps. Thanks, Jeffrey A. McCright, A+ 816-210-3107

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Question-Challenger
by Earle Beason 03 Jul '07

03 Jul '07

I got my hands an a Pentium 3. 256Megs of memory, Ibm think pad, I can't upload Fedora 6 or 7 due to lack of resource. I would like to use this for four things, 1 listing to MP3, 2, watching DVDs, 3 office work with the standard Open Office. and 4 Internet accesss using a wireless. It has a fair sized hard drive considering it's age, Like 20G. I am clueless on what to do with this project, at this moment and I am open to options so for anyone with some spare time who can offer ideas and thoughts.

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