Happy Mother's Day!

... to all the Moms out there, but especially to our own flower_cat.

Baycon panel lineup

Steve Savitzky  5/26/07 13:00  	Why Johnny Can t Code
Steve Savitzky  5/26/07	17:30  	Song Writing
Steve Savitzky 	5/27/07	13:00 	Creating your Sound Track for Films & Videos (M)
Steve Savitzky 	5/27/07	15:00 	Filk for Kids
Steve Savitzky 	5/27/07	20:00 	Concert: Tres Gigue
Steve Savitzky 	5/28/07	11:30 	Recording your own Music

The 5/27 1300 panel could be interesting, considering that I've never done any film or video work. But I'm the moderator -- that means I get to ask leading questions and don't have to actually say anything if I don't want to.

I FSKING LOATHE WINDOWS

And I'm not too fond of HP, either. No, I don't mean Lovecraft, though HP's printer software install on my Windows 98 laptop had a distinct whiff of the loathsomely undead about it.

And at the end of it all, after rejecting my registration password twice and changing a checkbox each time, I forgot to uncheck the box one final time. So now I've been signed up with Shutterfly, which has terms of service that say they're going to send me spam. Bustards. Not to mention the fact that the install took two blasted hours, froze the machine once, and required the usual "you have moved the mouse; please restart Windows" several times.

And at the end of it all, the software that lets it print on CDs doesn't fsking run on Windows 98, which means that I'll have to drag the Mac home from work or see if I can convince the flower_cat's machine to use it over a network. If I can get the blasted print server running again. Maybe I'll just run samba on the laptop and cups on the lappy for now; I don't think the

If I'd known before I started that the Epson R200 would manage to get its print heads completely unclogged, I don't think I would have bothered. Or I might have let the Y.D. have the HP and kept the Epson downstairs in the office. The HP is a better printer, I think, and HP definitely has better Linux support, but...

Oh, and did I mention that I had to take the first HP back to Fry's -- The YD spotted a broken-off plastic part (looks like a roller of some sort) in the bag when I unpacked it yesterday.

I see a visit to .hp.com/support in my near future.

I Love Linux (mostly)

In marked contrast to Windows, I rebooted the laptop into Linux, reconfigured security on the CUPS demon so it would talk to the network like a real print server, browsed to port 631, clicked the administration tab, and saw the printer there, correctly recognized. Added it and printed a test page. Total time, about 10 minutes. Would have been less if I hadn't had to read the documentation on the config file.

The driver doesn't know about CD printing, but if the Mac or XP can do it over a network, I'm in. Otherwise I can always use the Mac laptop with a USB connection. Not going to worry about it much; I think I can get ABT pre-printed. (00:33 as it turns out, it does appear to know about CDs -- it's right there in the Media box on the CUPS printer options page. W00T!)

OTOH, I'm still struggling to make a CD-Extra (2-session CD/CDROM). For some bizarre reason the drive objects to using disk-at-once mode in the second session, and if I use track-at-once mode it works but the CDROM won't mount. GAAARGH! It's conceivable that the new Samsung drive I bought today can handle it.

OTOH I may very well end up spending $20 on Nero for Linux. It even comes as a Debian package.