Linux Format forums

Re: Any subscribers got the Firefox

skecs — Tue May 03, 2005 9:02 am

Author: skecs

Posted: Tue May 03, 2005 9:02 am

Hi graham,

Thanks for the nasa script in monospace fonts - works a treat!!

Re: Any subscribers got the Firefox

ryptyde — Wed Apr 27, 2005 3:13 am

Author: ryptyde

Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2005 3:13 am

I enjoyed the Firefox write-up and also found the "Firefox Tip" on the side panels useful
as I read,browse and tweak.GCC 4.0 article was not so exciting (due to my ignorance)but
I read it through to the end and will no doubt be utilising it in the near future.

The tutorials are a joy and have been following the GIMP closely.

Keep up the good work.

Phil

Re: Any subscribers got the Firefox

donoreo — Tue Apr 26, 2005 3:59 pm

Author: donoreo

Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2005 3:59 pm

It was a very good issue (and the first of my subscription, no more running around to find it) including the usual assortment of typos and spelling errors

Don in Canada

Re: Any subscribers got the Firefox

graham — Mon Apr 25, 2005 1:05 pm

Author: graham

Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2005 1:05 pm

Here's my final space odyssey script:

Code:

#!/bin/bash
TMP="/tmp"
SRC="http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/"
PGE="astropix.html"
cd ${TMP}
wget --quiet $SRC$PGE
image=`gawk -F \" '/href="image/ { print $2; exit; }' $PGE`
wget --quiet $SRC$image
filename="${image##*/}"
cp -rf $TMP/$filename $HOME/.kde/share/background
dcop kdesktop KBackgroundIface setBackgroundEnabled false
dcop kdesktop KBackgroundIface setWallpaper $HOME/.kde/share/background 6
dcop kdesktop KBackgroundIface setBackgroundEnabled true
rm -rf $TMP/$filename
rm -rf $TMP/$PGE

This script needs to go into your path (such as $HOME/bin). The dcop stuff won't work from cron, because it doesn't know about the KDE session. You can get around this in KDE by using kalarm for scheduling instead.

Re: Any subscribers got the Firefox

skecs — Fri Apr 22, 2005 11:16 am

Author: skecs

Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2005 11:16 am

Just a quick thought about the code issues - any chance of them being an ASCII file or files on the DVD under the Magazine folder (Coding).

I was just having some gawk errors with the shell script in "A Space Odyssey" in the Tutorials section. It came back to having the spaces wrong which is easy to do in non-monospaced text (which takes up lots of room on paper).

Re: Any subscribers got the Firefox

Gordon — Fri Apr 15, 2005 6:41 pm

Author: Gordon

Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2005 6:41 pm

Greatmag. I've still got every copy from the preview Linux Answers and have subscribed from about issue 3. The mag just keeps getting better. I can only say, 'Start selling binders for the mag'. It's a great source of reference material. Maybe you could create an index for each binder so I can find those articles from years ago with ease.

Re: Any subscribers got the Firefox

Flea — Thu Apr 14, 2005 1:34 am

Author: Flea

Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2005 1:34 am

Just finished reading the latest mag, its brilliant, but then it always is!

I especially liked the firefox feature, more of that please!

Re: Any subscribers got the Firefox

evilnick — Wed Apr 13, 2005 11:21 pm

Author: evilnick

Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2005 11:21 pm

Since the dawn of computer magazines, code listings have been troublesome. I remember typing in several pages of listings for my ZX80 (on its touch sensitive keyboard!) only to find it didn't work - and worse still, after checking it three times it still didn't work because somehow a comma got missed out of the printed version.

We use a proportional font because it dramatically reduces the amount of space for the listing. It does cause problems, but so do the lines breaking, and there would be a lot more of them with a monospace font. On the whole, I think it works this way. I do take the point about spaces though. It's something we'll have to look at. Perhaps we should double the spaces or something.

Sometimes the code boxes don't work properly. Sorry, mistakes happen, and while we are breaking in some new production monkeys, they are likely to make one or two mistakes. Sorry.

Re: Any subscribers got the Firefox

AndrewBallantine — Mon Apr 11, 2005 11:50 pm

Author: AndrewBallantine

Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2005 11:50 pm

I really enjoy LXF and have been a subscriber since LXFD23.

LXF66 is very smart, but more important full of useful content.

However even the best can improve a bit.

Suggestion:

I like the way you surround input text in blue to make it clear when it's a single line despite printing it on more thn one line to fit the magazine column. What I find very difficult to establish is where the spaces are. Now I know it's terribly old fashioned, but why don't you use a mono spaced font. Then the spaces would be as clear as a bell. In one of the tutorials this month there is one command that is very difficult to decipher and would require several experiments to get it right. It is (on page 85)

grep '<DT><A HREF="' $1 | cut '-d"' -f2 > url_list

Now is that HREF= " ' or HREF= ' " (spaces added for clarity)
and cut '-d " ' or cut '-d ' "

I am sure you are going to say that it's obvious because of the matching parentheses, but a newbie doesn't know that. It is enfuriatingly frustrating when trying to follow these tutorials to be unsure what one should be typing. A monospaced font would resolve that instantly.

On the same page:

\rm url_list
\rm url_control_tmp
touch url_control_tmp

are marked in a single blue area which I thought meant a single command. Is this a publishing error?

Keep up the great work.

Kind regards,

Andrew Ballantine

Re: Any subscribers got the Firefox

kevh100 — Mon Apr 11, 2005 3:14 pm

Author: kevh100

Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2005 3:14 pm

Hi,

Like the issue especially the mailserver article. It's nice to see a straightforward comparison of them. The URL for the the SmoothWall site is incorrect though It should be www.smoothwall.net. Also the DansGuardian filtering proxy is available for the OS version of Smoothwall (SmoothWall Express). You can get it from here. Privoxy is also a good at controlling/blocking cookies, banners and popups (also available for SmoothWall)

Kev

Re: Any subscribers got the Firefox

guy — Sun Apr 10, 2005 12:15 pm

Author: guy

Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2005 12:15 pm

nelz wrote:

Do you want to change places Guy? I tried a couple of places round here, Borders and WHS, and they only had the CD edition.

Don't think LXF could afford me

Some shops get them all mixed up on the shelves, too. The difference between DVD cases and CD sleeves must be too technical for magazine sales staff. How about changing the colour of say the header strip and the "LINUX FORMAT" title between the CD and DVD editions, to make it easier to tell them apart? Some creative work in shades of grey overlaid on the orange and white might keep the differences to the black ink, which you already use to distinguish the editions.

Re: Any subscribers got the Firefox

f3llah1n — Sat Apr 09, 2005 10:01 pm

Author: f3llah1n

Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2005 10:01 pm

well i havent got it yet, but immediatly I can tell it will be brilliant.. i can now finally upgrade my Slack from 10.0 from Issue 57 to 10.1

Ive been waiting for a 10.1 coverdisk forver!

The Firefox article looks promising also

Re: Any subscribers got the Firefox

obionekanewbie — Sat Apr 09, 2005 9:39 pm

Author: obionekanewbie

Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2005 9:39 pm

got me issue in good time. first mag i have subscribed too! better than the wifes Now mag anyway!

.... about firefox... great article.... using the tips already editing away at the about:config!!!

cheers.

Re: Any subscribers got the Firefox

linuxgirlie — Sat Apr 09, 2005 8:27 pm

Author: linuxgirlie

Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2005 8:27 pm

What, huh? Theres a new version of LXF out now!!........Will go down to WHS and get my copy tomorrow........

Re: Any subscribers got the Firefox

nelz — Sat Apr 09, 2005 5:37 pm

Author: nelz

Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2005 5:37 pm

Do you want to change places Guy? I tried a couple of places round here, Borders and WHS, and they only had the CD edition.