[05:25] <philipballew> yo everyone. when i try to install 11.04 on my desktop the screen is really blury when the gui starts to load.
[06:46] <philipballew> how do i move a file from my computer to my server via ssh
[06:48] <Unit193> !scp
[06:48] <ubot2`> scp is a secure way of copying files across networks using !SSH. Usage: scp filename user@host:filename - WinSCP is a client for Windows, available at http://winscp.net/
[06:49] <geirha> nautilus can also connect to an ssh server (with sftp enabled), allowing you to drag and drop files.
[06:50] <Unit193> Gigolo should support sshfs too
[06:57] <philipballew> id probably just do it from the terminal
[07:15] <ezakimak> where do I edit the kernel args for grub2? (10.0.4)
[08:01] <ezakimak> how do i prevent initrd from messing w/raid? (i want raid=noautodetect honored)
[10:16] <neil> Hello. I have been using Ubuntu for about 6 months now. I have worked out how to install all the programs I need. The only exception is that I have not yet managed to find a good optical character recognition program. So I still have to use Windows if I need to scan a document with Abbyy Fine Reader. Apart from that I have all my hardware working and have all the programs I need with Ubuntu 11:04. So as an end user I am now OK
[10:16] <neil>  with Ubuntu. I would now like to start learning more advanced things. For example I would like to learn programming skills, but I do not really know where to start with this.
[10:17] <bioterror> xsane is not good enough scanning program?
[10:20] <neil> I tried Xsane when I had to edit some college work for a friend. I am British and living in Britain, my friend is Lithuanian and makes many mistakes with English. Xsane was hopeless, but abby fine reader was almost 100% accurate with producing the exact text my friend had printed out on the paper I scanned.
[10:21] <neil> I am forgetting my manners. Thanks for the suggestion, bioterror.
[10:23] <neil> Maybe Xsane might be good with scanned text that is clear and all the spelling is correct, but it does not work well with all the spelling mistakes my Lithuanian friend made.
[10:25] <bioterror> hmmm
[10:25] <bioterror> you're scanning documents and looking for miss spellings? :o
[10:25] <bioterror> I dunno about those ;)
[10:25] <neil> I will try Xsane with text from a news paper or book and see what results I get. That will be my normal use in future. All my foreign friends know that in future they must keep electronic copies aand not give me printed text for correction.
[10:29] <neil> Another advantage of Abbyy fine Reader is that it creates good PDF copies with pictures and diagrams. I have never tried this with Xsane. Where I live is such a small flat, if I want to add significantly to my book collection and cannot buy the books I need in electronic format then I must scan real books into my computer, copy to my ebook reader and then get rid of the real books. I simply cannot store much more than 100 real
[10:29] <neil>  books where I live.
[10:34] <neil> Can anyone make any suggestions for learning to program? Many years ago I learnt a little basic on my Sinclair Spectrum, but I have not done any programming since then. I need to try and find a book or online course that assume nothing more than a reasonable knowledge of mathematics as the starting point and teaches everything else I need to learn about programming. I want to start trying to do things for myself instead of rel
[10:34] <neil> lying upon the operating systems and other software that other people create.
[10:40] <geirha> neil: I'd recommend starting with python.
[10:41] <geirha> There's a tutorial here http://docs.python.org/   Ubuntu comes with python pre-installed.
[10:47] <neil> Thanks geirha. I have heard of python and know much is written in that language now. I will look at the web site you have suggested. My knowledge is really out of date by about 25 years. I remember that I used to read about things like Pascal and Ada when I last looked at programming, but I never had time for learning then.
[10:59] <neil> geirha, I have looked at the web site you suggested and it seems good. I will start working through that web site soon. I guess I should learn some programming before I start to think about making changes to Linux itself. I have found my way around Ubuntu Linux enough for knowing where some things are kept and know how to find a few things. For example I can make programs auto-start with Ubuntu if I want to. But in general I s
[10:59] <neil> till do not know anything about the files that make Ubuntu or any other Linux work. One of the first things I would like to learn as soon as possible is how to create drivers. The main fault I have noticed with Linux is the graphics drivers are not good when Linux displays 2 different screens on the PC monitor and my HD Television.
[11:01] <geirha> Writing drivers is much harder, and it requires you to learn C programming
[11:01] <neil> C? Ok, thanks for that. Drivers can wait for now I guess.
[11:04] <neil> I am guessing that my starting point must be a simple program that does something useful and is not in any way dependent  on particular hardware. So why C for drivers and not some other programming language?
[11:09] <geirha> The kernel is written in C and only exposes a C api.
[11:11] <neil> I see. So it is an issue with the Linux kernel and not drivers in general, is that correct? I can remember that a driver is the code that deals with communication between devices and the operating system. So it is C code in the kernel that says Linux drivers must be written in C. Is that correct?
[11:13] <geirha> More or less, yes.
[11:14] <neil> Thanks for that geirha. I will go offline now. I have lots of other work and studying I must do as well as I will soon be going back to university in my late 40s, but I will look at the web site on python as soon as I can.
[11:52] <neil> I have just added this irc channel to Pidgin so that I can keep everything in one place and have a constant connection to this channel when my computer is online. Could a few people send me some short messages in about 1 minute so that I can check whether or not Pidgin alerts me to new messages? Maybe just type test a few times over the next few minutes? Thanks
[12:10] <geirha> neil: test
[12:20] <neil> Thanks geirha. Seems to be working ok. Unfortunately pidgin does not work quite as I had hoped with this plugin for irc. I get an irc window open when pidgin starts. I had hoped that the window would not open until someone actually sends a message. I guess there is no real hardship in minimising the window for getting it off of the screen. If there is a lot of conversation then the irc window would be on my screen anyway unless 
[13:11] <neil> During the last 40 minutes all that I have had come through to me is the following  information showing who has entered and left the room. Can someone please type test so that I can find out if Pidgin will inform me of new messages when I have the irc window minimised? Thanks.
[13:11] <neil> (13:20:35) frankbooth [~frankboot@sa.csbnet.se] entered the room.
[13:11] <neil> (13:24:00) glebihan left the room (quit: Remote host closed the connection).
[13:11] <neil> (13:26:19) raju [~raju@unaffiliated/genupulas] entered the room.
[13:11] <neil> (13:32:42) DooitzeCompaq left the room (quit: Remote host closed the connection).
[13:11] <neil> (13:40:30) glebihan [~glebihan@89.95.29.161] entered the room.
[13:11] <neil> (13:57:10) glebihan left the room (quit: Read error: Connection reset by peer).
[13:11] <neil> (13:58:35) bladernr [~bladernr@nc-71-2-150-147.dhcp.embarqhsd.net] entered the room.
[13:11] <neil> (14:01:01) glebihan [~glebihan@89.95.29.161] entered the room.
[13:11] <neil> (14:01:02) iceflatline [~iceflatli@209-23-210-2-ip-static.hfc.comcastbusiness.net] entered the room.
[13:11] <neil> (14:01:36) suprengr_ [~SuperEngi@host81-131-185-20.range81-131.btcentralplus.com] entered the room.
[13:12] <neil> (14:03:29) suprengr left the room (quit: Ping timeout: 245 seconds).
[13:12] <bladernr> type test
[13:12] <bladernr> neil:  ^^ ;-)
[13:12] <bioterror> (O_o)
[13:13] <iceflatline> test
[13:18] <neil> Thanks for that everyone. I briefly get a notification message on my screen, but it could easily be missed when I am working, especially if i am moving about from one web site to another, one page of a PDF to another, typing in a text editor or whatever. What a pity. A persistent message displayed over all other windows until cancelled would be better than a notification that is displayed for a few seconds and could be missed al
[13:18] <holstein> nope
[13:18] <holstein> neil: there was no activity
[13:19] <holstein> if you see join/quit messages... all is well
[13:20] <holstein> neil: you can also query the bot if you want
[13:25] <neil> Thanks Holstein. There is a lot of silence on ubuntu-beginners. I would like to know of any new messages in case they contain useful information, but I do not want to constantly be looking at an irc window... I have other things I need to do with my computer. I am trying to find a way of knowing about any new message typed on ubuntu-beginners, but to be able to do other things without being bothered by irc when there is no messa
[13:26] <holstein> you can just check in later
[13:27] <holstein> usually you get some kind of beep or something when someone says your name
[13:27] <holstein> like... neil
[13:27] <holstein> other than that, you can set certain terms to notify you
[13:27] <holstein> usually, theres some indication of activity though
[13:28] <neil> Yes. The problem with that is i miss what happens between now and later. What i really need is an irc window that cannot be missed whenever a new message is sent, but it stays minimised after reading until the next new message.
[13:28] <holstein> in irrsi, this is window 8 for me... if there is a little white "8", i know there has been activity
[13:28] <holstein> if its a little dark blue "8", i know there have been part/join messages
[13:29] <holstein> if its purple? someone has said my nick
[13:29] <holstein> neil: i just leave the irc open on a workspace
[13:30] <frankbooth> neil why don̈́'t you just disable join/quit messages? :)
[13:31] <neil> Pidgin displays a notification for a few seconds and then it disappears. If I am working at the time then pressing a key on my keyboard or a button on my mouse could cause me to miss the notification completely because whatever I am working on will prevent the notification from displaying as soon as a mouse key press or keboard key press causes an active window to obscure the Pidgin notification.
[13:31] <holstein> frankbooth: actually, i think neil is searching for more notification
[13:31] <holstein> neil: i dont know much about pidgin
[13:31] <holstein> but, the notification state should be there when you return to pidgin
[13:31] <holstein> the popup popsup
[13:31] <holstein> if you miss it
[13:32] <holstein> you check in when you get back
[13:32] <holstein> OR.. try xchat neil
[13:32] <frankbooth> Xch
[13:32] <frankbooth> Xchat should suit you yeah
[13:32] <holstein> i think xchat is the go-to GUI client
[13:37] <neil> Thanks frankbooth and holstein. Yes, I have Xchat as well. I was hoping that pidgin could cope with everything and make Xchat unecessary. I do not know much about Xchat, I have only used it a few times over the last few days. Can Xchat be configured so that it stays out of my way during silence, but i do not miss any messages sent when ubuntu-beginners has chat activity? reading a history after the event is not good enough. If s
[13:38] <frankbooth> You can minimize it to tray and set it to notify you when there's a new message in the channel
[13:38] <frankbooth> (instant)
[13:45] <neil> So far that sounds good, frankbooth. Does the notification message stay on screen until cancelled and on top of all other open windows , or could the notification message be missed because it disappears or goes unnoticed when typing or using the mouse when the message is displayed. Most notification messages are ok if I am looking at a screen and not actually doing anything when they are displayed.  But when I am typing, using t
[13:45] <holstein> it should work just like other notifications
[13:46] <holstein> the message *should* disappear
[13:46] <holstein> then the little xchat icon will prolly give some different feedback to indicate a message has popped up
[13:47] <holstein> i think skype does that.. the tray icon changes into something to let you know
[13:47] <holstein> you wont find a notification that just stays in place like that
[13:48] <neil> I'll give Xchat another try, but any notification message that is not noticed because I am typing at the time when it pops up is not a good enough notification message. Thanks Holstein and frankbooth. I will stay online, but I must do other things now.
[13:48] <holstein> i mean, its linux... its all open, so if you want to change it, im sure you can, but the default notification action is to pop up and be subtle, and go away
[13:49] <holstein> and its taken quite a long time for these subtleties to develop
[13:50] <neil> As soon as I learn to program, I will write an plugin so that Pidgin notification messages are on top of all other open windows and stay there until cancelled. Thanks. I must go now.
[13:51] <holstein> neil: o/
[15:42] <psycho693> Exciting in here isnt it lol
[20:38]  * strawberry