Hardware on The Total Token Vortex

HP Laserjet 1022n under Windows 7

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 02:49:00 +0000

Use the 1020 driver, but turn off bidirectional support, to avoid a page job printing repeatedly. See:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c02205132&tmp_track_link=ot_faqs/top_issues/en_us/c02205132/loc:10&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&lang=en&product=4110396

Also suggestions on installing driver:
http://www.w7forums.com/drivers-hp-laserjet-1022n-printer-t5048p2.html


Install HP LaserJet 1022n on Windows 7 (You DONT have to connect it to USB) * Download LaserJet 1022n driver from HP 32 bit - lj1020-HB-pnp-win32-en 64 bit - lj1020-HB-pnp-win64-en * Run your downloaded driver HP driver install window opens asking you to connect the USB cable * CANCEL installation IMPORTANT NOTE: This extracts the needed driver to your Hard Drive. Your driver will be extracted to folder: (64 bit) C:\Program Files\HP\HP LaserJet 1020 Driver (32 bit) C:\Program Files (x86)\HP\HP LaserJet 1020 Driver * Add your printer manually - START > Devices and Printers > Add a Printer * Add a Local Printer > Create a new port > Standard TCP/IP Port > NEXT * Enter the IP address > NEXT If you dont know the IP, have you 1022n ON, hold the diamond shaped button down for 10 seconds. A configuration page will print with the IP on it . * “Install a printer Driver” screen opens, click HAVE DISK * Browse to the folder where your driver was extracted (shown above) * Choose the “HPLJ1020” file > OPEN > OK > NEXT * Select your printer name > NEXT > FINISH

Install HP LaserJet 1022n on Windows 7 (You DONT have to connect it to USB) * Download LaserJet 1022n driver from HP 32 bit - lj1020-HB-pnp-win32-en 64 bit - lj1020-HB-pnp-win64-en * Run your downloaded driver HP driver install window opens asking you to connect the USB cable * CANCEL installation IMPORTANT NOTE: This extracts the needed driver to your Hard Drive. Your driver will be extracted to folder: (64 bit) C:\Program Files\HP\HP LaserJet 1020 Driver (32 bit) C:\Program Files (x86)\HP\HP LaserJet 1020 Driver * Add your printer manually - START > Devices and Printers > Add a Printer * Add a Local Printer > Create a new port > Standard TCP/IP Port > NEXT * Enter the IP address > NEXT If you dont know the IP, have you 1022n ON, hold the diamond shaped button down for 10 seconds. A configuration page will print with the IP on it . * “Install a printer Driver” screen opens, click HAVE DISK * Browse to the folder where your driver was extracted (shown above) * Choose the “HPLJ1020” file > OPEN > OK > NEXT * Select your printer name > NEXT > FINISH

Claude (migration note): Possible broken/collapsed markdown table (very long pipe-delimited line detected).

disconnecting iPod from Linux

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 17:49:00 +0000

When I plug in an iPod into a machine running Ubuntu, the iPod auto-connects, but is not actually mounted. This is especially problematic when I am running under i3 or other window manager which does not have a system tray or other mechanism for listing connected devices.

clonezilla (disk imaging) quickstart

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 02:08:00 +0000

[NOTE: I have found Paragon Backup & Recovery tool to be better fit for me, and really like it: http://www.paragon-software.com/home/br-free/]

Steps for setting up Clonezilla an a USB thumb drive:

go to http://tuxboot.org/download.php
click Files on SourceForge
download tuxboot*.exe (or other, depending on your currently booted OS)
run tuxboot
the defaults are good usually:

clonezilla_live_stable chosen
no Pre Downloaded images selected
MD5 Check selected
Type: USB
Drive should be already the USB drive you have plugged in

hit OK

checking USB thumb drives

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 01:56:00 +0000

In my experience USB “thumb” drives are notoriously unreliable, but that’s something you find out only once you attempt to read back the data you’ve “written” to the device. Always check your medium before use.

Monday as first day of week in GNOME

Sat, 22 Oct 2011 02:01:00 +0000

A lot of approaches on the Net specify hacking the locale files; e.g.:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=813945

However, a far simpler and certainly less intrusive procedure is to simply modify default LC_TIME:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/6016/how-to-set-monday-as-the-first-day-of-the-week-in-gnome-calendar-applet

Specifically:

in /etc/default/locale add:
LC_TIME=“en_GB.UTF-8”
log out, then log back in

hunting for dock for Nexus S

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 01:54:00 +0000

Best deal on the “lean back” models is here:
http://shop.brando.com/google-nexus-s-usb-cradle_p05659c1265d106.html
http://shop.brando.com/google-nexus-s-2nd-battery-usb-cradle_p05660c1265d106.html

Interestingly, you can hack the dock by adding resistors, to get different results:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=12160799&postcount=40
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=820275

how to reset Furthest Page Read on Kindle

Sun, 31 Jul 2011 16:28:00 +0000

From http://www.kindleboards.com/index.php/topic,25545.0.html

Solution – Reset the Furthest Page Read
Use the same device for all of the steps below before opening the book on a different one, the below example is using a single Kindle
1. Set the Synchronization off on your Amazon Account (Go to Amazon -> Your Account -> Manage Your Kindle -> Manage Kindle Device Synchronization -> click the “Turn the Synchronization off” button to turn off the synchronization)
2. Wait about a minute, then exit & re-enter your book
3. Go to the beginning of your book on the Kindle
4. Sync to the furthest page. If it tells you that you’re on the furthest location, you’re good to go.
1. If not, select Cancel on the sync message, exit and re-enter the book to attempt the reset again. (I think that the Amazon databases have to get reset-thus the delay; in any case, it always works for me on the 2nd attempt)
5. Turn on the synchronization setting on your Account – your Furthest Page read will be reset to your new location.
6. On your other devices–if further along in the book, you will have to go to the beginning of the book, but once done the Furthest Page Read location will sync with your Kindle.

fixing headphone config on Acer Aspire One

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 04:35:00 +0000

From:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1070212

add this line:
options snd-hda-intel model=acer_wmi
to the end of /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base

This has now changed. Put the above line in /etc/modprobe.d/sound

Notes from Ubuntu 11.04 install on Acer Aspire 522 - BZ499

Sun, 29 May 2011 04:14:00 +0000

C-50 Ontario processor is 64-bit, so we’ll use the 64 bit image: ubuntu-11.04-desktop-amd64.iso
installed image onto USB stick using: ‘sudo usb-creator-gtk’ command
make sure BIOS is configured to read from USB stick before HDD
note: ubuntu kept hanging on me (mouse cursor/throbber frozen)… from posts on Net I suspect it is due to wireless driver

solution: install with wired connection plugged in; this allowed me to do install no problem
this link sounds relevant: http://fossplanet.com/f10/[bug-775034]-[new]-natty-freezes-due-acer-aspire-one-522-wireless-148584/

suspend and hibernate work right out of the box with this (tested both)
clicking on Additional Drivers in top bar, it seems we are already using Broadcom STA wireless driver (hence could conflict with other one)
now able to use wifi (w/o wired plugged in) using following:

add in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf this line: “blacklist atl1c”
“sudo update-initramfs -u”

suspend still works
outstanding issues:

(non-proprietary) video driver has poor YouTube playback, etc.
after resume (from Suspend?) the Ubuntu top and left bars stop updating visually (Ubuntu One compiz component; switch to “Ubuntu Classic” in GDM and all is well)

attempting ATI/AMD proprietary FGLRX gfx driver install…

resume from suspend no longer working… can’t even ping the machine (but did not check earlier that I actually could)

went back to non-proprietary video drivers

Ubuntu/gnome: disabling password request on resume

Sat, 28 May 2011 18:58:00 +0000

Problem: on resume from suspend, Ubuntu/GNOME presents password entry dialog, which is annoying.

Found a working solution here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1466504

Namely:

As you’ve probably already done, uncheck:
“lock screen when screen saver is activated”
in the System->Preferences->Screen Saver menu.

Type gconf-editor in a terminal. Under apps/gnome-power-manager/locks check:
“use_screensaver_settings”.

If still asked for password, you can (also in gconf-editor) go to desktop/gnome/lockdown and check:
“disable_lock_screen”
Credits to itslofty below for this tip!

I only had to do steps 1 and 2 on my Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwal on the Acer Aspire 522 BZ499.

Ubuntu + my Acer Aspire 522 BZ499

Sat, 21 May 2011 14:10:00 +0000

Various notes on trying to get latest Ubuntu (11.*) running on my AO522 netbook.

Useful links;

PDF virtual printer for Windows

Sun, 06 Mar 2011 21:12:00 +0000

Useful review of top free PDF printers:
http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-pdf-writer.htm

I chose to install BullZip one. Ran into issue where upon printing I would get error about macros. The following post was useful:
http://www.bullzip.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=8538

setting up my Acer Aspire One

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 02:13:00 +0000

Just got an Acer Aspire One (AO522); here are some things I bumped into with Windows 7 Starter, or otherwise interesting links:

Xubuntu issues encountered:

console-kit-daemon x60

Sun, 05 Dec 2010 18:39:00 +0000

If you run ‘htop’ you might see over 60 processes named ‘console-kit-daemon’. This seems to be a bug. On a mostly-single-user system one might as well uninstall ‘consolekit’ package (seems to be used for fast user switching).

BenQ W9000 service menu / overscan

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 04:21:00 +0000

I found that on my BenQ W9000 projector, when feeding it 1280x720 signal from my computer (for when my gfx card cannot handle the full 1900x1080 at reasonable framerates), and using the Anamorphic mode to scale image to full display area, a fair bit of the image was being cropped. Turns out this has to do with “overscan” setting, which alas is not accessible from regular projector menu. However, it is modifiable if one enters a secret “service menu”. For this projector, to enter the service menu press:

HP 1022n on Linux

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 01:30:00 +0000

Installation instructions from:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-software-2/cups-unable-to-discover-an-hp-1022n-network-printer-710492/

Here are the essential instructions:

Configure the printer with its own facility, getting into its web page: http://the-actual-ip-address.
There, assign a static IP address of your choice.
You would have to (recommended) restart the printer with the new assigned static IP.
Configure manually the printer within CUPS.
Follow instructions up to the point where you are asked to specify the URI. There, write socket://the-new-ip-address
Specify it is an HPLIP printer, and when prompted to specify the type of printer, scroll down and find the “HP LaserJet 1022n Foomatic/hpijs, hpijs 2.8.10.33” (for example, version is actually the one shown in my system, could be some other).
Choose Add Printer.
Print a Test Page and…
Voila…!!

using multiple routers at home

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 14:53:00 +0000

http://forums.linksysbycisco.com/linksys/board/message?board.id=Access_Points&thread.id=11089 The above forum thread discusses how to setup multiple routers at home. In particular, the thread is by someone in a similar situation to my own, where the cable modem comes with a wireless router already, which are setup in the basement, and wants to add a second router on second floor of house for better connectivity. The solution:

great explanation of nib sizes

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 21:53:00 +0000

According to:

http://www.thewritingdesk.co.uk/reference.php?id=5

NP (needlepoint). A very small point to give an extremely fine line. Sometimes referred to as XXF or EEF (extra-extra-fine).
EF (extra-fine). A nib that will give a line width of around 0.4mm. Suitable for those with very small writing.
F (fine). A nib that will give a line width of around 0.6mm. Suitable for those with small writing.
M (medium). A nib that will give a line width of around 0.8mm. Suitable for those with average-size handwriting.
B (broad or bold). A nib that will give a line width of around 1.0mm. Suitable for those with large writing or for signatures.
BB (extra-broad). A nib that will give a line width of around 1.2mm. Suitable for those with very large writing or for signatures.
BBB or 3B (extra-extra-broad). A nib that will give a line width of around 1.4mm. Will give large flowing lines and usually good variation between down-strokes (wide) and side-strokes (less wide).
OM, OB etc (oblique). A nib ground so that the tip slopes to the left, rather like your left foot. Designed for those writers that either rotate the pen anti-clockwise or hold the pen at an unusual angle. Note that oblique nibs do not normally give more line variation than a standard rounded point unless specifically stated otherwise.
ROM (reverse-oblique medium etc). A nib ground so that it slopes to the right, rather like your right foot. Sometimes suitable for left-handed people. Sometimes confusingly called right oblique. Uncommon.
LH (left-hand, eg Pelikano and Lamy). A medium nib but with the point shaped so that it may be more suited to left-handed writers, particularly those who hold their above the line of writing (“over-writers”).
MK (rounded medium). A special nib made by Lamy with a more rounded point such that the orientation of the pen relative to the paper is less critical than a standard point and therefore easier for beginners. The designation is no longer used but the current Lamy medium nib is made to the same specification as the MK.
A. A rounded point made by Lamy for the abc school pen. Between fine and medium.
Italic (eg IM, IB, 1.1mm 1.5mm etc). A nib ground so that the tip is flat instead of rounded. Designed to give extreme line variation between wide down-strokes and narrow side-strokes in the manner of a calligraphy pen. Often specified in terms of width (in mm). Most factory-produced italic nibs are actually stub- or cursive-italics meaning the corners of the nib are rounded so allow continuous writing unlike a proper calligraphy nib that requires much greater care.
Stub. A more rounded, gentle version of an italic nib such that good line variation is produced. Like italic nibs, these are usually specified in terms of width (in mm). Less demanding in terms of angle to the page than an italic or stub-italic nib.

places to get Lamy nibs / sections

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 02:41:00 +0000

swisher store : sells stand-alone nibs, converters (if link doesn’t work, select “Lamy” button, then “Safari collection)
Lamy USA : sells Safari sections, although they don’t have orange!
The Writing Desk : sells nibs

OmniOutliner annoying binding

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 15:35:00 +0000

When I try to use Meta-Ctrl-< in Emacs while there is some text selected, OmniOutliner pops up and tries to insert the text as a “Default Clipping”, which is terribly annoying, to say the least. After some looking around it seems to be a “Service” that can be turned off:

fountain pens

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:00:00 +0000

Went on a “fountain pen bender” this past weekend. Found tons of interesting things. Here is a bag of them:

http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=8175 : index of pen reviews
http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=39354 : index of ink reviews
http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=58316 : fade test of inks
http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=11808 : Fountain Pen Network FAQ
http://www.richardspens.com/ : Richard Binder’s fountain pen site
http://www.richardspens.com/?page=ref/anatomy-vac.htm : Anatomy of a Vac.

Lamy Safari pics:

'hot pixels' in digital cameras

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 21:39:00 +0000

After playing around with my new Nikon D90, I noticed that some of my dark pictures have a red spot near upper right corner. It turns out this is a “hot pixel”. Further research led me to the following interesting pages:

research notes from DSLR hunt

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 15:53:00 +0000

Camera reviews at dpreview.com:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond80/
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond90/
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos450d/ (Canon EOS Rebel XSi)

Lens reviews:

http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Canon-EF-S-17-85mm-f-4-5.6-IS-USM-Lens-Review.aspx
http://www.photozone.de/canon-eos/181-canon-ef-s-18-55mm-f35-56-is-test-report--review
http://www.slrgear.com/reviews/showproduct.php/product/355/cat/all (Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 Di II …)
http://www.slrgear.com/reviews/showproduct.php/product/349/cat/31 (Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4.5 DC Macro)
http://www.slrgear.com/reviews/showproduct.php/product/136/cat/11 (Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM)
http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Tamron-17-50mm-f-2.8-XR-Di-II-Lens-Review.aspx (Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8)

Shopping links:

flu & fever

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 19:29:00 +0000

I found the following links interesting when I investigated my fever/flu:

Improved open-source firmware for cameras

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:17:00 +0000

Apparently it is possible to reflash the firmware on some cameras, and replace it with improved, open-source alternatives. See this post for more.

calendar generator

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 15:11:00 +0000

Useful online calendar generator: here

fix for slow mouse scrolling in Total Commander

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:31:00 +0000

http://www.ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?p=144994

As the above post indicates, the slow scrolling in Total Commander (and likely most other Windows’ listboxes) can be fixed by:

Deactivate smooth scrolling for listboxes in control panel/system/advanced/bla.

(Windows) file managers

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 14:36:00 +0000

Comparisons

File Managers

Total Commander

good calendar maker

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 19:29:00 +0000

http://www.somacon.com/p352.php

Java links

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 18:07:00 +0000

Java 6

OpenGL in Java

flashing firmware for SonyEricsson Z710i

Mon, 24 Sep 2007 20:29:00 +0000

Turns out that the firmware for the Z710i can be flashed. This for example could alleviate the problem that Fido locks out the ability to use MP3s as ringtones. Even better, it seems the Z710i can be flashed with firmware for W710i, which is basically the same phone, but has nicer flash-based menu system and more advanced “walkman” music player (e.g., ability to fast-forward within a song). Here are some relevant links:

Adobe prevents normal.dot writes in MSOffice

Mon, 03 Sep 2007 13:53:00 +0000

Grrr… I hate applications that self-insert themselves into your tools. It turns out the reason my customizations to MS Word toolbars weren’t sticking was that Word was prevented from saving settings to normal.dot, which in turn was being caused by Adobe. See this link; the fix worked wonderfully.

the water charlatans

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 15:49:00 +0000

This post is a cautionary tale, and a snapshot of all the relevant information I gathered in the process. It so happened that one day I get a phone call from a company “that deals with water quality”, and they claim that Cathy has done a survey with them, and has won some prize worth over $xxx (as a “thank you”). They wanted to know whether they can swing by sometime, drop it off, and do a free water test for us. As Cathy wasn’t home, I couldn’t check with her whether this was legitimate, so I said, what the hey, come on over. I was interested in the water test because I was wondering earlier whether we were suffering from excessive hardness of water here, but that’s another story. 6:30pm, the representative shows up. Sets up in the kitchen a row of plastic drinking cups, as if preparing for an elaborate shell game. Each cup is made to hold water from various sources (distilled, tap, Brita filtered, and various bottled waters in our house). He pulls out an upright binder with what seems like “informational material”. Oh oh, red flags start going off in my head! First test is using a TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) meter. Distilled water obviously gets a very low reading. Tap water is higher. The readings for bottled water shoot up to 265. The “gentleman” claims that this reflects the amount of junk and pollutants in the water. In actuality, this is totally misleading. See here for a full skinny on TDS measurement. It’s a bit of a misnomer, all it really does is detect charged ions in water, most of which are from the (benign, or even beneficial) hard water salts dissolved in the water (Calcium, etc.) The 265 p.p.m. figure for the bottled water was meant to impress and frighten us, but inspecting the label for the bottled waters in fact explicitly states that the expected mineral content in the waters is about 290 p.p.m., so if anything, the TDS reading for these waters was in fact a tad low. I had a pretty strong sinking feeling at this point, that we’ve been conned into a sales pitch. The final touch was when the guy pulled out a precipitator test device for next round of testing. I’ve heard of these being used for scaremongering, and a quick check on the Net (I excused myself to grab my tea from upstairs) revealed to be the case, and also turned up this interesting tidbit (government forbade this particular company to do chlorine testing without getting certified; I presume they were scaring residents with yet more deceptive tests). Anyhow, in short, the company was Glacier Water Treatment Systems of Newmarket, Ontario. They sell water distillers for homes. Links explaining the bogus nature of the precipitator test:

interesting pages

Sun, 26 Aug 2007 05:28:00 +0000

humour: Ze Frank on St.Vallentine’s
rest of Frank’s site is also good (props to mjmcguff for the pointer)
cool online tool for unmangling Dvorak typing on QWERTY keyboard (handy if stuck at a QWERTY keyboard)
Microsoft guidelines on designing icons
an interesting post that couples AutoHotKey with Windows keyboard layout engine
(all?) books by Peter McWilliams; interesting and refreshing viewpoint on many things in life
Bradicon!, a cool tool where you upload a picture and it online generates an icon from it

notes: interesting Gothic III threads

Wed, 01 Aug 2007 12:55:00 +0000

General computer & Gothic 3 specific improvements (no fixes!)
INI Tweaks: How to make G3 look and perform better!
Improved performance tweaks
changing in-game font (helps some people with performance)
fire sound fix (see first post)

hard water woes

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 18:17:00 +0000

I’ve been having issues from the start with my shaving brush quickly becoming hydro-phobic after one or two shaves. I suspect one of the main culprits is hard water, although apparently Markham/Toronto has decent water. Here is a site that gives the water hardness of various towns around the GTA: http://www.justwater.ca/town.html Also of interest is a forum post about “Calgon”, and water softener agents in general: http://www.mothering.com/discussions/showthread.php?t=68131 Here is the particularly interesting bit of the thread:

Sacha Chua

Sat, 28 Jul 2007 19:23:00 +0000

I didn’t realize that Sacha Chua has come to UofT, and is currently on the verge of completing her Master’s! Her blog is here: http://sachachua.com/notebook/wiki/today.php It’s been a while. Last time I exchanged emails with her is when she maintained the Emacs planner mode, which I used at the time.

BlitzGrok: bookmark consolidator

Mon, 04 Jul 2005 17:00:00 +0000

UPDATE: screw it, just use del.icio.us… much better concept!

bookmark bridge only Explorer and Mozilla-based bookmarks? no, in recent version I saw mention of Opera & KDE… NOTE: one could also use Firefox first to import Opera & Konqy bookmarks…* bk_edit no longer developped/maintained* online-bookmarks needs web server, MySQL, PHP* tengis* goem* bmsync* bookmarksync

Farmer's Market

Fri, 01 Jul 2005 06:51:00 +0000

It turns out there is a Farmer’s Market in Markham: info Markham Road & Robinson Street, Markham, ON. Saturday 8:30 am to 2 pm May - October Vendors: 25 905-472-2462 There’s also one in Newmarket