Questions

[Hilda McManus]

Hello...

According to your list, this is a newsgroup for posting technical
questions, right? Well, I've got a few.

Such as:

1. You set my default editor for mail and news to something called Jed,
and it pretty much works the way I like it to work, having spent so many
years working in Word Perfect and DOS. However, when I open up one of my
existing Microsoft Office files, this thing called Open Office jumps up.
The files always appear OK, which is pretty amazing when you consider they
were written in Microsoft Word 2000. How come the files don't appear in
Jed, since it is my default editor?

2. This time thing is as loose as a goose with the trots. What the hell is
UTC, and how does it work? Can I get my email messages to where the time
is written in plain English, or is this something you will do for me
during one of your midnight visits to my computer? This isn't a real high
priority item, but it makes me nervous when I cannot see what time a
message I wrote was sent out.

3. The other night, when I was browsing web pages using Firefox, I clicked
on a link to an article on KREM and it told me I needed a driver to view
some kind of content from Flash Multimedia. I remember you telling me
about the various types of streaming media that Firefox supports. Is this
one of them, and how do I go about getting Flash?

4. In this morning's e-mail I received a message from the root user
listing off a long list of IP addresses from what I believe is the
firewall you set up. Is this something I have to worry about, or does this
thing take care of itself? I'll say this, I haven't received a single
piece of email trash or spam thus far, and that is pretty wild considering
the 100-200 messages I used to receive per day. Is this some of your magic
or simply the result of changing my ISP? Either way, its' pretty cool.

5. I did what you said and left the computer on all night long, connected
to the DSL, and when I got up this morning, everything was fine. Why
doesn't Windows XP Pro work this way? Can I just leave this thing turned
on all the time without it locking up?

Well, that's my short list of questions for now. I had to get up early
this morning to take my daughter to Pendleton, Oregon so I'll be out of
the loop for awhile today, but I look forward to your answers. Overall,
this is everything you promised it would be, and maybe more. I simply
haven't had the time to explore enough to break anything, but trust me, I
will. I will.

I look forward to posting more, now that I understand what the various
newsgroups are for. Thanks for that note in email last night. What is
spokane.general, anyway? Can I post some of my short fiction in there, or
is that the message area you told me about?

Hilda

[Dave Laird]

Good morning, Hilda...

Post by Hilda McManus
Hello...
According to your list, this is a newsgroup for posting technical
questions, right? Well, I've got a few.

There are actually two technical news groups-- one is here, and the other
is spk.tech. Posting to either is fine.

Post by Hilda McManus
1. You set my default editor for mail and news to something called Jed,
and it pretty much works the way I like it to work, having spent so many
years working in Word Perfect and DOS. However, when I open up one of my
existing Microsoft Office files, this thing called Open Office jumps up.
The files always appear OK, which is pretty amazing when you consider they
were written in Microsoft Word 2000. How come the files don't appear in
Jed, since it is my default editor?

Open Office is the default for all Microsoft Office Products, including
Word, with the exception of Access. As you can see, any Word, Excel or
PowerPoint files you may have, either on your workstation or in the
network which you can see from your workstation, can be easily opened
using Open Office. I'm delighted you found Jed easy to use, based upon
your experiences. I hope this explains the difference between a plain-text
editor, which can handle text only, and Open Office, which handles many
different kinds of input.

Post by Hilda McManus
2. This time thing is as loose as a goose with the trots. What the hell is
UTC, and how does it work? Can I get my email messages to where the time
is written in plain English, or is this something you will do for me
during one of your midnight visits to my computer? This isn't a real high
priority item, but it makes me nervous when I cannot see what time a
message I wrote was sent out.

UTC is a method of formatting the time in GMT (Greenwich Mean Time), but
you're right. That was a mistake on my part, and I will fix it to where it
reads the contemporary time and time zone for you.

Post by Hilda McManus
3. The other night, when I was browsing web pages using Firefox, I clicked
on a link to an article on KREM and it told me I needed a driver to view
some kind of content from Flash Multimedia. I remember you telling me
about the various types of streaming media that Firefox supports. Is this
one of them, and how do I go about getting Flash?

Well, there are several ways to go about this: one that you perhaps can do
for yourself, and the other I can do for you. If you remember the web site
where you encountered the notification that you needed Flash, go there and
click on the Flash icon. That will take you to the Flash web site, and I
believe there is even a link there to automatically download and install
Flash on your system. If you get lost or confused, don't worry. I'll drop
by later on and upload the latest Flash to your system, install and
configure it for you.

Post by Hilda McManus
4. In this morning's e-mail I received a message from the root user
listing off a long list of IP addresses from what I believe is the
firewall you set up. Is this something I have to worry about, or does this
thing take care of itself? I'll say this, I haven't received a single
piece of email trash or spam thus far, and that is pretty wild considering
the 100-200 messages I used to receive per day. Is this some of your magic
or simply the result of changing my ISP? Either way, its' pretty cool.

Yes, that is the firewall that self-checks itself each morning about 4:00
in the morning, and sends you a notice in e-mail telling you what it
found. If it is annoying to you, I can remove you from the list as all it
does is show you the number of hits or attempts that have been made on
various ports of your workstation in the previous 24 hours.

Post by Hilda McManus
5. I did what you said and left the computer on all night long, connected
to the DSL, and when I got up this morning, everything was fine. Why
doesn't Windows XP Pro work this way? Can I just leave this thing turned
on all the time without it locking up?

Absolutely! I have a Linux box downstairs that I recently rebooted after
it had reached 149 days uptime, which is the measurement of how long it
has been since the computer has been restarted. I cannot answer, for the
life of me, why Windows XP doesn't stand up to full-time Internet access
any better than that, but I've got a lot of horror stories about systems
that never made it past twelve hours, if that's any help. ;-)

Post by Hilda McManus
Well, that's my short list of questions for now. I had to get up early
this morning to take my daughter to Pendleton, Oregon so I'll be out of
the loop for awhile today, but I look forward to your answers. Overall,
this is everything you promised it would be, and maybe more. I simply
haven't had the time to explore enough to break anything, but trust me, I
will. I will.

Jump right in. Have a safe trip to Pendleton and write again when you get
back home.

Post by Hilda McManus
I look forward to posting more, now that I understand what the various
newsgroups are for. Thanks for that note in email last night. What is
spokane.general, anyway? Can I post some of my short fiction in there, or
is that the message area you told me about?

Far be it from me to tell anyone what newsgroups to write in, but I have
nothing to do with spokane.general, and there is a long lurid history
behind it. On the other hand, feel free to post your stories both there
and in used_kharma.fiction or used_kharma.writing.

Dave

[James Vahn]

Post by Hilda McManus
According to your list, this is a newsgroup for posting technical
questions, right? Well, I've got a few.

I think you're looking for Dave, but he's still asleep. We'll have to be
quiet so's not to wake him. ;-)

Post by Hilda McManus
1. You set my default editor for mail and news to something called Jed,
and it pretty much works the way I like it to work, having spent so many
years working in Word Perfect and DOS. However, when I open up one of my
existing Microsoft Office files, this thing called Open Office jumps up.
The files always appear OK, which is pretty amazing when you consider they
were written in Microsoft Word 2000. How come the files don't appear in
Jed, since it is my default editor?

Jed is a text editor, almost as good as Joe. Your MS-Word files are
partially binary, they are like JPEGs. You would need a JPEG editor in
much the same way. Btw, have you tried Abiword?

Post by Hilda McManus
2. This time thing is as loose as a goose with the trots. What the hell is
UTC, and how does it work?

Greenwich time. You should change your timezone to something local.

Post by Hilda McManus
3. The other night, when I was browsing web pages using Firefox, I clicked
on a link to an article on KREM and it told me I needed a driver to view
some kind of content from Flash Multimedia. I remember you telling me
about the various types of streaming media that Firefox supports. Is this
one of them, and how do I go about getting Flash?

If you run Debian, try installing "libflash-mozplugin" or
"flashplayer-mozilla".

Post by Hilda McManus
4. In this morning's e-mail I received a message from the root user
listing off a long list of IP addresses from what I believe is the
firewall you set up. Is this something I have to worry about, or does this
thing take care of itself?

It takes care of itself. Btw, a firewall probably isn't necessary.
Turn it off and get a portscan. If it turns up an open port, either
remove the software providing the access, or secure it.

Post by Hilda McManus
I'll say this, I haven't received a single
piece of email trash or spam thus far, and that is pretty wild considering
the 100-200 messages I used to receive per day. Is this some of your magic
or simply the result of changing my ISP? Either way, its' pretty cool.

If you changed your email address... But yes, the spam filters work
very well.

Post by Hilda McManus
5. I did what you said and left the computer on all night long, connected
to the DSL, and when I got up this morning, everything was fine. Why
doesn't Windows XP Pro work this way? Can I just leave this thing turned
on all the time without it locking up?

Sure. For years, if you want.

Post by Hilda McManus
I look forward to posting more, now that I understand what the various
newsgroups are for. Thanks for that note in email last night. What is
spokane.general, anyway? Can I post some of my short fiction in there, or
is that the message area you told me about?

You could, but I think they have a more specific group to post stories
it - spokane.fiction ?


--

[Dave Laird]

Good evening, James!

On Tue, 19 Apr 2005 15:50:36 +0000 (UTC), James Vahn

Post by James Vahn
I think you're looking for Dave, but he's still asleep. We'll have to be
quiet so's not to wake him. ;-)

Shame on you! I wasn't asleep at all, merely watching the flesh on my legs
rotting away. Other than the bouts of occasional pain, which leaves me
gibbering and squealing like a certain unnamed member of a Fundamentalist
Cult I know, I'm busily catching up on some of the work that has gone
unattended while I've been rotting.

Post by James Vahn
Jed is a text editor, almost as good as Joe. Your MS-Word files are
partially binary, they are like JPEGs. You would need a JPEG editor in
much the same way. Btw, have you tried Abiword?

SNORT! Of course my editor beats your editor, doesn't it? She has Abiword,
though. I would imagine sooner or later she'll get around to trying it,
along with all the other eye candy and applications loaded on her
workstation. She has a pretty good selection, including some stuff I
borrowed heavily from Debian... hehehe.

Post by James Vahn
Greenwich time. You should change your timezone to something local.

I only forgot ONE thing, mind you!

Post by James Vahn
If you run Debian, try installing "libflash-mozplugin" or
"flashplayer-mozilla".

Hey, I'm proud of her! By the time I got around to logging in and checking
her copy of Firefox out, she had already found the plugin and updated
Firefox. I gather she's used Netscape before, and learned about plugins,
because she did it all on her own.

Post by James Vahn
It takes care of itself. Btw, a firewall probably isn't necessary.
Turn it off and get a portscan. If it turns up an open port, either
remove the software providing the access, or secure it.

Well, actually the firewall handles the port forwarding, which is how she
has managed to point her e-mail and news access to an IP address that *I*
own. The firewall also does some other tricks with forwarding that makes her
workstation show up in unlikely places, especially those that no one else
can see but her.

Post by James Vahn
If you changed your email address... But yes, the spam filters work
very well.

She changed from Icehouse to our favorite ISP and, yes, the spam filters on
the mail servers have been working much better than before, basically
reducing mail spam down to a dull rumble, compared to what was once a roar.

Post by James Vahn

Post by Hilda McManus
5. I did what you said and left the computer on all night long, connected
to the DSL, and when I got up this morning, everything was fine. Why
doesn't Windows XP Pro work this way? Can I just leave this thing turned
on all the time without it locking up?

Sure. For years, if you want.

<grin> Well, maybe six months or so...

Post by James Vahn

Post by Hilda McManus
I look forward to posting more, now that I understand what the various
newsgroups are for. Thanks for that note in email last night. What is
spokane.general, anyway? Can I post some of my short fiction in there, or
is that the message area you told me about?

You could, but I think they have a more specific group to post stories
it - spokane.fiction ?

Nah, Fox Cutter just hauls off and sticks his stories in spokane.general. It
seems he's about the only one posting in spokane.general these days, which
seems sort of sad. I saw a week ago where Rocky Seelbach posted his annual
message for 2005, and then disappeared. Besides, Hilda is a pretty good
writer in her own right, and maybe after she gets acquainted with Usenet,
she'll start posting some of her fiction in used_kharma.fiction. After all,
I brought her kicking and screaming into Usenet first. 8-)

--
Dave Laird
Somewhere in the Flatlands of Washington State

[James Vahn]

Post by Dave Laird
Shame on you! I wasn't asleep at all, merely watching the flesh on my legs
rotting away. Other than the bouts of occasional pain, which leaves me
gibbering and squealing like a certain unnamed member of a Fundamentalist
Cult I know, I'm busily catching up on some of the work that has gone
unattended while I've been rotting.

Err, your foot fungus got worse...?
Sure seems like a weird subject, but hey, it *is* used_kharma, right?

Post by Dave Laird
SNORT! Of course my editor beats your editor, doesn't it? She has Abiword,
though. I would imagine sooner or later she'll get around to trying it,
along with all the other eye candy and applications loaded on her
workstation. She has a pretty good selection, including some stuff I
borrowed heavily from Debian... hehehe.

Hoo! You caught me! :-) I really like those two products, Abiword and
Gnumeric. Nothing wrong with Open Office, mind you, just a bit much for
my needs.

Post by Dave Laird

Post by James Vahn
Greenwich time. You should change your timezone to something local.

I only forgot ONE thing, mind you!

Well, I'm a moron for not saying, "right click the clock!" :-)

Post by Dave Laird

Post by James Vahn
It takes care of itself. Btw, a firewall probably isn't necessary.
Turn it off and get a portscan. If it turns up an open port, either
remove the software providing the access, or secure it.

Well, actually the firewall handles the port forwarding, which is how she
has managed to point her e-mail and news access to an IP address that *I*
own. The firewall also does some other tricks with forwarding that makes her
workstation show up in unlikely places, especially those that no one else
can see but her.

Not sure if I follow you here. If she types "telnet localhost nntp" and
ditto with mail, it connects to kharma.net? I have the impression Hilda
runs a standalone box, what's the advantage in doing this?


--

[Dave Laird]

Good morning, James...

Post by James Vahn
Err, your foot fungus got worse...?
Sure seems like a weird subject, but hey, it *is* used_kharma, right?

It's wasn't foot fungus, although the concept of a fungus among us pretty
much describes our relationship with our state government. About three
weeks ago I got bitten by one or more spiders, whose description I only
vaguely obtained. It was a drive-by spidering, really. Six portions of my
leg have been rotting since then. Although the correct term is necrosis,
even the encyclopedia refers to it as rotting, and given how it feels, I
suppose that term will have to do.

I'm on the mend, now, but after two weeks of strong antibiotics, some
anti-venom and a little used kharma thrown in for good measure, since I
have been here with necrotic spiders, once before.

Post by James Vahn
Hoo! You caught me! :-) I really like those two products, Abiword and
Gnumeric. Nothing wrong with Open Office, mind you, just a bit much for
my needs.

I have found Gnumeric to be the more robust of the Linux-based spreadsheet
programs, and whenever I need to create something, particularly if it
links to databases, it usually is my first tool in the toolbox. Of course,
I only used Abiword once or twice, but Hilda sets her own agenda.

Post by James Vahn
Not sure if I follow you here. If she types "telnet localhost nntp" and
ditto with mail, it connects to kharma.net? I have the impression Hilda
runs a standalone box, what's the advantage in doing this?

I don't allow telnet on any of my hosts. The redirection is because I
didn't want Hilda getting confused by learning how to set things up on her
own. The firewall blocks all connections, all ports, from the offshore
hosts I've identified over the years as being the "bad boys" of the
Internet. The port blocks for China, Korea, Hong Kong, Japan and most of
the European and Canadian hosts are flat-out blocked at the firewall
level, and it also solves a few other problems, too.

It's kinky, but it works. 8-)

Dave

[James Vahn]

Post by Dave Laird
It's wasn't foot fungus, although the concept of a fungus among us pretty
much describes our relationship with our state government.

Government can't work, won't work, but we need it all the same. Too many
bad apples amongst us, and government workers come from the same gene pool.
It's all God's fault. ;-)

Post by Dave Laird
About three weeks ago I got bitten by one or more spiders, whose
description I only vaguely obtained. It was a drive-by spidering,
really. Six portions of my leg have been rotting since then. Although
the correct term is necrosis, even the encyclopedia refers to it as
rotting, and given how it feels, I suppose that term will have to do.

Sounds like a brown-recluse/hobo bite. :(

Post by Dave Laird
I have found Gnumeric to be the more robust of the Linux-based spreadsheet
programs, and whenever I need to create something, particularly if it
links to databases, it usually is my first tool in the toolbox. Of course,
I only used Abiword once or twice, but Hilda sets her own agenda.

What was it, a year ago when a mathmatical group declared Gnumeric
superior to Excel for accuracy and widely preferred in scientific circles.

Speaking of databases, I ran across something called "knoda" the other
day. Kind of like a web browser for your database. I've been fooling with
Postgres and MySQL for years and was suprised to see a bunch of my old
hogwash still in place. <chuckle> I'd never seen knoda before.

Post by Dave Laird

Post by James Vahn
Not sure if I follow you here. If she types "telnet localhost nntp" and
ditto with mail, it connects to kharma.net? I have the impression Hilda
runs a standalone box, what's the advantage in doing this?

I don't allow telnet on any of my hosts.

Telnet shells, but that's not what I meant. Take a look:

~$ telnet kharma.net nntp
Trying 206.63.117.226...
Connected to used.kharma.net.
Escape character is '^]'.
200 news.kharma.net InterNetNews NNRP server INN 2.3.3 ready (posting ok).

There I am - telnet'd into your news server. I can issue commands and
interact with the server simple as heck- no passwords. It appears that
a firewall is kharma's only protection, correct? And you are allowing
neophytes right through it via port forwarding.. If you had a robot it
would be waving it arms and hollaring "Danger! Danger!" ;-)

Which leads me back to my original statement, that if Hilda's system is
properly configured then she probably doesn't need a firewall. Not that
it hurts to be redundant, but relying on one isn't really a good idea.
What if she breaks it, or it fails to start because of some typo? Net
weirdos get in, try various "local" servers, and find kharma..

Post by Dave Laird
The redirection is because I didn't want Hilda getting confused by
learning how to set things up on her own.

News should be okay, but email might be in trouble. Some software (like
fetchmail) posts to the local mailserver:

"As each message is retrieved fetchmail normally delivers it via SMTP
to port 25 on the machine it is running on (localhost), just as though
it were being passed in over a normal TCP/IP link."

So if she fetches mail, it would likely go to kharma where it would be
undeliverable and bounce back to the sender. In most cases this would
be desirable since it's 99% spam anyway.. ;-)


--

[Dave Laird]

Good evening, James...

Post by James Vahn
Sounds like a brown-recluse/hobo bite. :(

The final verdict came in about a week ago, and you're right! It was a
hobo spider, and it bit me six times total. The sores haven't healed yet,
and probably aren't expected to heal for at least another month. However,
on the more positive side, I am at least able to walk, now... well, hobble
with dignity, I believe I've heard one of my family suggest. ;-)

Dave

[Dave Laird]

Evening, James...

On Thu, 21 Apr 2005 02:39:50 +0000 (UTC), James Vahn

Post by James Vahn
Err, your foot fungus got worse...?
Sure seems like a weird subject, but hey, it *is* used_kharma, right?

No, it's called a close encounter with hobo spiders. I now have huge holes
in my legs and feet big enough that you could park the entire membership of
a Linux Users Group, including their coffee cups and still have room to
boogie until everyone falls asleep. However, since I had another encounter
with a necrotic spider ten years or so ago, at least this time I knew what
to do, which is saw the offending member off and be done with it.

However, given my previous experience, I guess you are right-- it is, after
all, used kharma. 8-)

Post by James Vahn
Hoo! You caught me! :-) I really like those two products, Abiword and
Gnumeric. Nothing wrong with Open Office, mind you, just a bit much for
my needs.

She was introduced to Open Office at work, and has a set of document macros
that are enviable, not to mention she owns a registered copy of Open Office,
with all the "dongles" they include once you fork out your money to register
your copy of the software. Plus she has a set of MySQL tables that she
accesses through ODBC/Java that I finally got working for her.

Post by James Vahn
Not sure if I follow you here. If she types "telnet localhost nntp" and
ditto with mail, it connects to kharma.net? I have the impression Hilda
runs a standalone box, what's the advantage in doing this?

Welcome to Verizon DSL, who believes if you buy their DSL because they
happen to be the only choice in town, then surely you WANT their mail server
as your default. Hilda doesn't run a standalone workstation, but does a lot
of tricks with her DSL connection. Once she gets back in town tonight, I'll
let her explain what she does and why.

--
Dave Laird
Somewhere in the Flatlands of Washington State