lÃ¢mpada azul (via Mowser)

Hardware, HOWTO, HP, Laserjet, Linux, Meo, Portugal Telecom, printer, printing, router, Speedtouch, Thomson, Tips and tricks, Tutorial, Windows — 1 comment
02
Nov 11

HOWTO: Take advantage of your Thomson TG784n's print server (with both Windows and Linux clients)

New house, new services, new equipment, new set up… new headaches! Unlike where I lived before, now I've had the opportunity to have the printer directly connected to the router — so computers can now print through the WiFi network. The router is a Thomson TG784n (the one's MEO now provides) and the printer is an HP Laserjet Professional p1102. Here is a fast howto summing up what I went through, with the specifics I had to deal with on both operating systems. Most of it will apply to other printers and similar Thomson Speedtouch routers.

Router configuration

First you have to set up the router's print server. The Thomson TG784n does not have an option to deal with this through the graphical administration interface. You will have to use telnet for this:

If from a Windows client, press the Windows key and the R key simultaneously to bring up the "Run" dialog, type cmd, press Enter, and then, on the console, type telnet 192.168.1.254 If from a Linux client, just throw a terminal and type telnet 192.168.1.254

When asked for a username and password, you'll have to know what they are. If you got your router from MEO recently and have no idea, try Administrator for a username and 3!play for a password.

Now you'll have to type the following commands (one at a time, followed by the Enter key):

printersharing LPD queue add name=TG784printer type=raw default=yes
(this is to create the printing queue; the name is at your taste, but be sure to point down what name you gave) printersharing LPD config state=enabled saveall (thanks Alberto Silvafor the tip)

And you're done with router configurations, now let us configure the client computers.

Windows

With this sort of set up, you still need to install the printer's drivers on each client PC. One way to do it is to connect the printer to the PC and go through the normal installation process; another way is to download the most recent driver from HP's website.

After that, go to Control Panel and find the option to add a new printer. Unintuitively, you'll have to choose the Local Printer option and hit Next. Now, select Create a New Port, Add LPR port, and enter the following information:

IP address: 192.168.1.253 (not 254!); queue name: TG784printer (or whatever you used when configuring the router).

After saving this configuration (advice: add something distinctive to the printer's name, such as (router)), you should go to the newly created printer's properties, "Port" tab, and disable bidirectional support. With this enabled, I would have p1102 printing the same job over and over again (which wasn't being removed from the printing queue after being completed).

Linux

Sadly, to take full advantage of this printer on the Thomson TG748n you will still have to use Windows at least once. This is because the Laserjet Pro p1102 has a feature for CD-free driver installation, in which the printer identifies itself, at first, as a CD-ROM drive. The problem is that, when CUPS (Linux's printing system) tries to probe the printer (connected to the router) through SNMP, it won't find one. You will have to use Windows (and the printer's CD) to disable that feature as follows:

Connect the printer to a Windows client and switch it on. Insert the printer's CD and open its UTIL folder. Depending on whether the Windows you're running is 32- or 64-bits run, respectively, SIUtility.exe or SIUtility64.exe Completely disable the HP Smart Install feature on the printer.

Now, you should install the open source driver foo2zjs; I tried using drivers depending on HP's proprietary plugin, and thing didn't go well (the HP plugin setup tool would not find the printer). There are binary packages for the main distros, but I recommend installing the most recent version from source; just type the following commands, in sequence, at a terminal:

wget -O foo2zjs.tar.gz http://foo2zjs.rkkda.com/foo2zjs.tar.gz tar zxf foo2zjs.tar.gz cd foo2zjs make ./getweb 1000 ; ./getweb 1005 ; ./getweb 1018 ; ./getweb 1020 ; ./getweb 1025 sudo make install sudo make cups

To add the new printer, just throw system-config-printer, and add a new LPD/LPR printer with IP 192.168.1.253 (not 254!) and queue name TG784printer (or whatever you used when configuring the router). When choosing the driver, select HP as the vendor and look for the entry for HP Laserjet Professional p1102 (or HP Laserjet Pro p1102) where you are able to select the foo2zjs driver. Save and you're good to go!

Open issues

The only remaining issue that I haven't solved is that the printer won't recover from a job interruption (such as a paper jam, running out of paper or toner, etc.) and a router restart is necessary (and, some times, it will simply happen). If anyone has the solution for this, please say so!

Hope this tutorial was helpful. Comments and suggestions are more than welcome! Due credit to the separate sources from which I was able to solve problem by problem:

forum.zwame.pt/showthread.php?t=513230

auberg.se/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=46&Itemid=53

foo2zjs.rkkda.com/forum/read.php?68,2782,2782

Android, Mobile phones, Optimus, Sapo, Smartphones, TMN — No comments
28
Sep 11

ZTE smartphones in Portugal

Dear tech pundits,

Optimus San Francisco is a ZTE Blade, but, for Pete's sake, get this right: Sapo A5 is a ZTE Libra!

kthxbye

(I got a Sapo A5 for my birthday last weekend and, damn, am I happy with it! For someone who intensively uses Gmail — both for email and for contact storage — and Google Calendar, I have been definitely losing my time using a non-Android smartphone. HÃ¡ males que vÃªm por bem… ;-) )

BlackBerry, Gadgets, Hardware, Mobile phones, Portugal, RIM, The Phone House, TMN — 5 comments
16
Sep 11

The Phone House and/or TMN and/or RIM (BlackBerry): bad service

Last month, I accidentally dropped my BlackBerry Curve 8520 into the water (swimming pool water, for that matter). After a careful drying process, involving sun exposure, uncooked rice and hair dryer, it was almost 100% functional. Screen perfect, battery perfect, WiFi perfect, camera perfect, microphone perfect, speaker and loudspeaker perfect. The only problem is bad mobile network reception. It detects the network, but it can only connect to it if I somehow boost the reception — by, for instance, putting the phone against a window glass.

Perfectly aware that this is not covered by warranty, I nevertheless took the phone to the store chain I bought it from, The Phone House, which is (at least, for me) the natural place to try and find assistance (paid, of course). Since the malfunction seemed to be restricted to the antenna, I was willing to pay a reasonable amount to have it repaired.

The store sent it to, let's call it, The Assistance. And why an ad hoc name? Because I can't understand where it went to: the repair sheet is branded TMN (the mobile operator) all over it, but the excuses (wait for it) given by the store employee always referred â€œthe manufacturerâ€ or â€œthe brandâ€. The quote sent to me by the assistance was simply obscene: 160-something euros plus VAT, i.e. 201 euros. Bear in mind that I can buy a new BlackBerry Curve 8520, exactly like that one (including being locked to TMN), by a couple of euros less than the repair quote they gave me. The reason given to me by the store employee as being invoked by The Assistance: since the phone was dropped into water (they know this by the water-sensitive sticker becoming red), they always give a quote for a full repair, because otherwise the non-repaired parts may deteriorate over time because of water damage. So I could either accept it in full (pay 201 euros and have the phone repaired) or reject it and have the phone back (supposedly) without intervention. "Just replace the friggin' antenna" was not an option.

Reality check: if I pay to repair something that is bound to die anyway, that's my problem. When I take my car to repair a windscreen wiper, I don't expect the repair guy to say â€œoh, I don't repair just the windscreen wiper, if you want the windscreen wiper repaired you will also have to pay for 4 new tyres and an oil pump, because they might break somedayâ€. I would accept if they explained something along the lines of â€œoh, we did try replacing the antenna, but it didn't solve the problem, and we saw that the motherboard was corroded, so you need a new one also, and it's X eurosâ€, but that wasn't the case so, to me, this just sounds as a forced sale, and a bad service. It doesn't make sense that I can give better use of my money to get decent assistance from some Middle-Eastern little store owner that from the store I bought the phone from, plus the mobile network and/or the manufacturer.

To make the matters worse, although I rejected the quote, they did some intervention on the phone. They have reset the software to an older version, which is plainly stupid: they say they don't partially repair the phone because it was dropped into the water and might have malfunctions in the future, but they go to the effort of trying to see if reinstalling the operating system solves it?!

Conclusion: I filed a complaint in the book, I have to find out where to send the complaint to (the mandatory sign with that information was nowhere I could see it), and let's see. Oh, and I wrote this post. Ha ha.

Lisboa, Portugal, Portugal Telecom — No comments
08
Sep 11

Baixa-Chiado PT Bluestation

Portuguese telco Portugal Telecom (PT) and Metropolitano de Lisboa (the company running the subway system in the portuguese capital city) opened today a pioneering project: Baixa-Chiado PT Bluestation, ~~the world's first~~* sponsored public transport station (press releases by PT and Metropolitano de Lisboa, both only in Portuguese). Within this partnership, PT will customize and explore the branding and naming rights of the as-of-now Baixa-Chiado station — a connect station serving the Blue (Amadora-Este–Santa ApolÃ³nia) and Green (Telheiras–Cais do SodrÃ©) lines of the network.

PT's CEO, Zeinal Bava, says this project will serve Lisbon and pose as an information vehicle to all of the subway's users, estimated to 13M/year. Baixa-Chiado PT Bluestation fits into a ground-breaking strategy to energize Chiado, a noble part of the city, offering an innovative experience, including free Wi-Fi and information services (PT promotions, news, health, the subway, etc.).

According to the president of Metropolitano de Lisboa, Cardoso dos Reis, negotiations are underway to establish similar partnerships with brands, for other stations in the subway network. At the event, Cardoso dos Reis also mentioned that the new segment of the Red line, leading to the Portela International Airport, shall open in July 2012.

* EDIT (September 9th): Although the press release says so, I have meanwhile learned, from a comment by Palal on Facebook, that it is not the case. In June 2010, AT&T (coincidentially another telco) signed an agreement with the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) which enabled renaming Pattison Station to AT&T Station.

Google, Internet, Software, Spam, Web applications — No comments
01
Sep 11

Offline Google Mail for Chrome

Today I started using the Offline Google Mail extension for Chrome. It is intended for reading, responding, organizing, etc. email without an Internet connection but I've been using it almost full-time and I must say it is a huge productivity booster. The interface, noticeably targeted at tablets, is very enjoyable to use, especially on my netbook (hell, it makes me wanna have a tablet!).

Offline Google Mail for Chrome

The default view (I don't know if it's really default, but it's where I spend most of the time) shows the Inbox on the left pane, and the messages on the right pane, as you see in the screenshot. And why does this boost productivity that much? Well, YMMV, but for me it goes like this. I use a gazillion filters (that I create as I go) to filter bacn email (i.e., emails that are not unsolicited, but are far from urgent and/or are as annoying and uselessly time-consuming as spam: Twitter new follower notifications, Facebook notifications, prolific mailing lists, and the like); the action that is taken for those emails is: assign the Bacn label, and skip the Inbox (archive). They are not marked as read, because I might want to check them eventually, but since the labels (along with their indication of unread messages) are visible next to the Inbox, I end up succumbing to the temptation and checking the Bacn "inbox" frequently — thus spoiling its purpose. Well, with this tablet-like Offline Google Mail interface, I have go to through the menus to see if there is Bacn — and since I don't see it always hanging there, I end up forgetting it exists for most of the time.

The result is that, although it might also come in handy to deal with the flaky connection to Eduroam, I will probably be using Offline Google Mail mostly, even when offline use is not a concern. A downside: although I read somewhere that it should, it does not support the keyboard shortcuts I'm so used to. Maybe that's temporary. Or PEBKAC.

— 1 comment
31
Aug 11

Metro Maps

Mainly through Postcrossing, I've been growing a collection of maps of metro/subway networks all over the world. Well, there are weirder collections ;-).

From very soon, I've always wanted to create a website to showcase the maps I progressively collect and, in the past two weeks, I've arranged the time to set it up:

Metro Maps

Please visit and tell me what you think (oh, and you'll be swell if you Like the Metro Maps facebook page ;-) ). The markers indicate maps that I already have, although not all of them have content yet (photo, information, etc.). After I catch up, the idea is that, as soon as I get a new map, I post it with photo and info from the start. Contributions (i.e., offering to send me a subway map I do not have yet) are welcome and will be properly acknowledged :-).

Internet, Security, Social networks, Web applications — 2 comments
11
Jul 10

Go Walla? Go Figure…

In Portugal, a huge and noisy debate on the introduction of toll payment on certain (up until now) free highways (the so-called â€œSCUTâ€) is going on. As a subplot to that soap opera, there is a discussion around the way the government wants to implement these tolls: a mandatory transponder on the license plate for automatic toll charge. The privacy paranoids and conspiracy theorists leapt out of their caves and started pointing out how much of a violation of privacy this can be. Usually, they forget that their license plate could simply be photographed anywhere they passed, and that, in any of the two cases, the borderline between legitimate control and violation of privacy is simply that of regulations on information collection, access, processing and storage. These conspiracy theorists also tend to forget to mention they have a cell phone — talking about an electronic device that can tell some organization where you are at almost every moment, uh?

And then there are people of doubtful sanity, who don't forget they have a cell phone, but instead use it deliberately and specifically to void their own privacy to the fullest. Yes, I'm talking about Gowalla/Foursquare intensive users. Anyone who uses Twitter must have already spotted these services, and its use can be harmless and non-annoying. For instance, I see nothing harmful or stupid in someone checking in at a music festival or concert. At least looking to the isolated event*, it is no different from a plain text tweet saying "Watching band X at venue Y"; everyone knows X is playing at Y, everyone knows where Y (a popular venue, most likely) is, everyone can confirm that X is playing at Y right now, so this is a tweet that is already implicitly delimited in both space and time.

But almost as certain as any Twitter user having already spotted a Gowalla/Foursquare checkin, is that any Twitter user has already stumbled at someone who apparently checkins everywhere they go. This is something serious. This week, from my timeline, I could know exactly where and when a person I follow:

works; has his child going to school (and, consequently, an age range for the child); left / picked up his child at/from two extracurricular activities of a regular nature (so this is awesome stalker intel); did his shopping at least twice in two different days.

And I'm not even a user of any of the two services, I just follow the person on one of the third-party social networks where he syndicates this information. I don't know who this person is (yet? If I turn into a nutcase, this is a family I could easily stalk), but from the last three activities, I can already narrow down where he lives. I could even know that it's not usually him who leaves/picks up the child at one of the places; a potential kidnapper can exploit this greatly by deducing that it's the wife who usually does it, and assuming that she will be more vulnerable. With all the fuss about child safety on the Internet, and how parents should monitor how they use it and what information they share, it's amazing how it is so frequent that parents themselves expose their children so much. Posting proud pictures of their children is already old news, and can be more of a potential nuissance for the children than an immediate hazard, but, for crying out loud, timestamped real-time GPS coordinates?!

Plus, it's lame. I don't want to know where your kid goes to school. I don't need to be constantly reminded of what specific supermarket store you do your shopping at, over and over again. If I wanted, I would put a chip on your license plate. I am sure you don't mind, do you?

Blogs, Facebook, Google, SEO, Social networks, Twitter — Comments Off
29
Apr 10

Like vs Link: no chance?

This week, Pete Cashmore, at his column on CNN.com (via Mashable) poses the scenario that the Web-wide â€œLikeâ€ recently launched by Facebook will surpass linking as the main way of expressing interest in something online (a content, a brand, etc.), and thus render Google's PageRank obsolete. My shot? No friggin' way! Why? Let me count the ways.

Everyone is invited

The <a> tag has been around for 17 years and some months now, and is a native part of the web. So to speak, linking is free. You just need to be online and you can link whatever. You can have an online presence of your choice (a self-hosted website, a blog, a Twitter account, a Facebook profile), or more than one online presence (more than one kind and/or more than one of a kind), or even better: you can have no online presence at all (for instance, you can be a casual or non-intensive Internet surfer commenting on a blog post or a newspaper story). You just get on the Web and link — pow!

On the other hand, for the Facebook â€œLikeâ€ bond to work even close to how links work, two things must happen:

You, who wants to â€œLikeâ€ something, must have a Facebook account The thing you want to â€œLikeâ€ must support being â€œLikeâ€â€™d (i.e., provide you with the â€œLikeâ€ button)

Time passes, trends too

â€œLikeâ€ lacks the trend-measuring potential of links. First, because one person can only â€œLikeâ€ something once. This outright eliminates the possibility to grasp the notion of â€œcontinuing interestâ€. Let's take the following example: the (fictional) Phones Phones company launches their new (fictional) P123 model. It sparks some interest in the community, which (in the â€œFacebook takes over the Webâ€ scenario) means people with â€œLikeâ€ P123 (since Phones Phones will provide a â€œLikeâ€ button on the P123 tech specs page on their website). Question: how can you know the trend is going down? You can't expect people to go â€œHum, that P123 was just a fad, maybe I'll go and â€˜Unlikeâ€™ it…â€, can you? Of course not!

Meanwhile, links let trends be followed and measured. While the interest in (let's keep the example) the P123 is still on, people will keep linking the P123 tech specs page when refering to that phone model. Multiple times. The same guy will make a blog post about it today, tweet about it tomorrow, etc.. When the interest fades, when the trend subsides, the influx of new links will decrease, and that is noticeable, measurable.

Furthermore, â€œLikeâ€ is polarized. â€œLikeâ€ is biased towards the notion that only positive mentions are relevant. Linking a content can mean, among other things, that a person particularly likes what is being linked, or that that person particularly dislikes such thing. Either way, it's relevant.

Veredict: owning in the Web is different than owning the Web

Facebook, with its Web-wide â€œLikeâ€ feature, can harvest a respectable amount of preference data which brands and advertisers would kill to get their hands at, and therefore provide a highly personalized navigation experience for Facebook users (either on Facebook itself or on appropriately crafted websites). But that's still very far away from â€œreplacing linksâ€ or â€œthe beginning of the end for PageRankâ€.

lÃ¢mpada azuljcraveiro.com

HOWTO: Take advantage of your Thomson TG784n's print server (with both Windows and Linux clients)

ZTE smartphones in Portugal

The Phone House and/or TMN and/or RIM (BlackBerry): bad service

Baixa-Chiado PT Bluestation

Offline Google Mail for Chrome

Metro Maps

My world subway maps collection

Tags

Recent Posts