[xubuntu-users] Is there a list for *ABSOLUTE* beginners with Xubuntu?

[Peter Flynn]

On 09/08/2013 09:50 PM, David Walland wrote:
> [...] You will have gathered that I like playing with and rebuilding
> computers but getting to the memory in this machine can lead to damaged
> keys if I'm not *really* careful - the keyboard has to be prised up with
> a screwdriver to access the memory slots. That would give me half a gig
> if it works!

That would certainly improve things.

> At some stage I'll have to load printer drivers for our Epson 1290
> printer and would appreciate advice as to how to do so (and where to get
> them from).

If 10.04 has installed CUPS as the printing system, there is already a 
driver for "Epson Stylus Photo 1290" built in. I find that CUPS supports 
pretty much everything one way or another. The control panel is in the 
main menu somewhere, but I really prefer the web interface: open your 
browser and go to http://localhost:631 (make sure CUPS is started first: 
type sudo service cups start)

Eek! People, does 10.04 support the service command or do you have to 
run it as /etc/init.d/cups start?

> Eventually, I'm trying to get to the point where we have my wife's
> MacBook running Mac OS and Ubuntu/Linux on all the other laptops. So
> this machine is a first part of the learning curve.  I have ideas of
> eventually revamping it to be a dedicated controller of one of my wife's
> kilns, which is designed to allow computer control but that's a long way
> away yet - I have to learn C first.  So it's currently a genuine spare
> right now.  It'll be fun to do that.

If the kiln has a serial-port interface, you probably do have to write a 
program to get the timing right (and I used to *hate* serial controllers 
with a deep loathing :-) but if it's a modern one with a web interface, 
you can probably do it more easily with a shell scripting language 
(bash, Python, Perl, Tcl, Ruby, whatever).

///Peter