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Jon Schewe | 4 Mar 2009 01:37
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Mac & Linux compatible trash program

I've found that trash-cli is a really nice application that allows
commandline access to the trashcan used in KDE and GNOME. Has anyone
found or implemented the spec for the Mac OS X trash so that one could
recognize the freedesktop.org trash and the Mac OS X trash with the same
application. This could be especially useful for removable drives.

--

-- 
Jon Schewe | http://mtu.net/~jpschewe
If you see an attachment named signature.asc, this is my digital
signature. See http://www.gnupg.org for more information.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor
demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,
neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will
be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ
Jesus our Lord. - Romans 8:38-39
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Raymond Norton | 5 Mar 2009 19:53

Speech Recognition

I'm searching around for a quality speech (to text) recognition software 
  that will work on Ubuntu. I found a wiki with a number of them, most 
projects were dead or outdated. Sphinx seemed to be at the top of the 
list, but looks very complicated to set up. Are there any solutions 
people have found that are easy to set up, and have a high accuracy rating?
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Eric Peterson | 5 Mar 2009 20:44
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OT: Normalized Databases

Hi,

I'm trying to convince certain people in our company that we need to
normalize some (maybe all) of our database to 1NF. I'm trying to avoid
situations where we need to make database schema and code updates to
add a 2nd phone number to a user in the system as an example.

They want evidence that such a database is better and that's it's not
too complicated to understand.

Does anyone have any resources or projects (oss) that I can present to
help convince them? Also looking for some examples or documentation
that would help us design our system and avoid some common problems?

Thanks,
Eric
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Elvedin Trnjanin | 5 Mar 2009 20:58
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Re: OT: Normalized Databases

Eric Peterson wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm trying to convince certain people in our company that we need to
> normalize some (maybe all) of our database to 1NF. I'm trying to avoid
> situations where we need to make database schema and code updates to
> add a 2nd phone number to a user in the system as an example.
>   
If there was a 'user' table, you'd add a duplicate record with just the 
phone number field different? Sounds messy.
> They want evidence that such a database is better and that's it's not
> too complicated to understand.
>
>   
It's better because it's less work to maintain and less work to make 
sure some data you're updating/removing doesn't get outdated. It's not 
more complicated conceptually for 1NF, just can be more tables to work with.
> Does anyone have any resources or projects (oss) that I can present to
> help convince them? 
Almost anything that uses a traditional database - as I work with the 
database every day, I can say the Moodle course management system fits 1NF
> Also looking for some examples or documentation
> that would help us design our system and avoid some common problems?
>   
Get a book (or find some articles) on database design - the common 
problems are well documented and can be derived from understanding the 
normal forms.
> Thanks,
> Eric
>
(Continue reading)

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Dean.Benjamin | 6 Mar 2009 04:03
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OT/WinXP: Can't delete folders/files; suspect bad MFT

I'm working on a friend's WinXP system with about a dozen files and 
folders that behave weirdly.  Can't delete them, copy them, nor move 
'em.  They appear to be phantoms of the file system; that is, their 
names appear in the directory, but the associated objects have no 
properties.  The bad files are in an user's MyDocs folder on the C: 
drive, where WinXP is also installed.  The user is an Administrator, 
with full privileges.

The good news: he doesn't need the data.  I merely want to delete 
these "phantoms" and clean up the NTFS file structure, because I 
suspect that these strange file-things are responsible for the 
misbehavior of a video editing application.

My hunch is that the NTFS master file table is broken.  If so, the 
bad news gleaned from the web is that my only way out is to reformat 
the disk and reload the system.  This ordeal I hope to avoid.

Can anyone suggest a tool or method that will locate all the 
"phantoms" on the C: drive, and repair the relevant NTFS 
structures?  (Recovery of phantoms optional.)

SYMPTOMS

(1) Except for the filesystem glitches described here, the computer 
works just fine.

(2) No malware detected by three scanners: AVG Free, Norton System 
Scan, Sunbelt VIPRE Rescue Scanner.

(3) KillBox fails; message: "The file does not seem to exist".
(Continue reading)

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trnja001 | 6 Mar 2009 04:54
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Re: OT/WinXP: Can't delete folders/files; suspect bad MFT

I've had this happen with some Adobe Flash folders. The solution for me was 
to boot into Knoppix (or some other Live CD) and remove the files that way.

The other option is, if there is enough free space and the folders aren't 
on the OS partition, to create a new partition, move all the files to it 
and remove the old one with the stuck files.

On Mar 5 2009, Dean.Benjamin <at> mm.com wrote:

>I'm working on a friend's WinXP system with about a dozen files and 
>folders that behave weirdly.  Can't delete them, copy them, nor move 
>'em.  They appear to be phantoms of the file system; that is, their 
>names appear in the directory, but the associated objects have no 
>properties.  The bad files are in an user's MyDocs folder on the C: 
>drive, where WinXP is also installed.  The user is an Administrator, 
>with full privileges.
>
>The good news: he doesn't need the data.  I merely want to delete 
>these "phantoms" and clean up the NTFS file structure, because I 
>suspect that these strange file-things are responsible for the 
>misbehavior of a video editing application.
>
>My hunch is that the NTFS master file table is broken.  If so, the 
>bad news gleaned from the web is that my only way out is to reformat 
>the disk and reload the system.  This ordeal I hope to avoid.
>
>Can anyone suggest a tool or method that will locate all the 
>"phantoms" on the C: drive, and repair the relevant NTFS 
>structures?  (Recovery of phantoms optional.)
>
(Continue reading)

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Brian Lawrence | 6 Mar 2009 05:09
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Re: OT/WinXP: Can't delete folders/files; suspect bad MFT

I would try the following:

1. Run c:\chkdsk /X /R
2. Run c:\chkntfs /C C: to force a scan at the next boot before the OS is
loaded
3. Reboot and then try to remove the files with Explorer

If the above methods don't remove the files I would try the following:

Open a command line window
Close any open programs
Open task manager
Kill the explorer.exe process
Switch back to the command line window
Delete the files from the command line
Run explorer.exe to restore the GUI

You could also try running SDelete from Technet/Sysinternals

Hope this helps,
Brian

-----Original Message-----
From: tclug-list-bounces <at> mn-linux.org
[mailto:tclug-list-bounces <at> mn-linux.org] On Behalf Of Dean.Benjamin <at> mm.com
Sent: Thursday, March 05, 2009 9:04 PM
To: tclug-list <at> mn-linux.org
Subject: [tclug-list] OT/WinXP: Can't delete folders/files; suspect bad MFT

I'm working on a friend's WinXP system with about a dozen files and folders
(Continue reading)

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Nate Carlson | 6 Mar 2009 08:05
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Re: OT: Normalized Databases

On Thu, 5 Mar 2009, Eric Peterson wrote:
> I'm trying to convince certain people in our company that we need to 
> normalize some (maybe all) of our database to 1NF. I'm trying to avoid 
> situations where we need to make database schema and code updates to add 
> a 2nd phone number to a user in the system as an example.
>
> They want evidence that such a database is better and that's it's not 
> too complicated to understand.

How can they not understand?

I have no formal DBA training.. I had actually never heard of 1NF until 
your post, when I went and looked it up, but it totally aligns with what 
I've been doing for ages when I design a schema. It's just logical!

I'm assuming these are people who are either new to DB's or just not all 
that experienced?

If you just go to the Wikipedia page for 1NF, there are a lot of good 
arguments. Most database books are also going to make a good argument for 
it.

Or just point them at this thread.. I highly doubt anyone on the list will 
argue against normalizing the DB's.  ;)

-nc
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Joshua Radke | 6 Mar 2009 15:18
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Re: OT/WinXP: Can't delete folders/files; suspect bad MFT

All of the suggestions to date should be tried first (delete from live,
offline chkdsk).  After that, (as long as you're obsessed with
preventing a re-format/re-install), you have to dig deeper.

For good general background on some deeper system problems,
http://www.sysinternals.com is excellent.  You'll want to get process
explorer, and Rootkit revealer.

Fire up Process Explorer, and use the find command to determine if the
files are 'in use' as reported to Process Explorer.

If not, suspect one of two remaining problems.
1)  NTFS (MFT?) corruption.  In this case, even if you do find a method
to 'delete' the files, I wouldn't trust the disk for further use without
a reformat.  Is the source of the corruption just hidden, waiting to
take out something important later?
2)  The computer has (at one point) had a rootkit installed.  In this
case, it is still possible to remove all of the harmful components of
the rootkit (maybe), it's just impossible to be 100% certain you've
gotten all the pieces.

If you suspect #2, run Rootkit Revealer, and carefully investigate/take
action on every discrepancy between user mode and kernel mode results.
Note that scanners can have a very hard time with both rootkits, and
uncommon variants of infections.

Or ... just reformat and put Ubuntu on it (which I'm doing more and more
when I get broken Windows computers from friends).

I hope this helps.
(Continue reading)

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Raymond Norton | 9 Mar 2009 14:08

Need help with sound device

I have a box which I have been running Ubuntu on, but needed to switch 
to Debian to try an overcome a software package install issue. In 
Ubuntu, my sound device was located at /dev/dsp, but this is not found 
in Debian Lenny. Any idea how to get it to show up there, or what other 
path might be used instead?

lsmod and lspci show the following:

lsmod snd 45604 6 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_seq,snd_

lspci 00:1e.2 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 
82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)
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Gmane