A bit of a continuation from my last post, but with a specific target - HP. Recently thrown into the lime light for spying on their directors.

So yesterday afternoon I was using my printer scanner combo to scan some diagrams into some notes that I was typing up. Id done this several times already, but after the 3rd or so go, the scanner program (some custom made HP thing - as a side note ive always noticed that software made by a hardware manufacturer is crap), would crash halfway through scanning hte final images. It would crash without fail. Id have to restart word and start again. Eventually this no longer worked. So I think, “hmm..Ill register my printer and get a driver update emailed to me”. So I start registering. Upon choosing my OS, I get such fancy choices as ‘MS .NET server’ aswell as XP, 1998, one general option for linux, and several releases of mac OSX, upto 10.3 - Apperantly 10.4 isnt officially supported, or theyre stupid. Probably a combination.

So I wade my way through their website to find a link to contact them. I got this:
http://metalsam.files.wordpress.com/2007/01/picture-1.png

No link to email them ! Bit I could always ring their pricey phone line. I think not.

So I trawl their website again to find the drivers manually. Upon finding the correct driver for Mac OSX 10.4 (It is supported - so wasnt it on the list for registering?) I see hte latest release was in 2005. NOT happy.

Thats my rant for the day - im off to get some chicken soup.

btw - my printer is a psc 1410 - prints fine, but im going to need to be creative for this damned scanner.

Technorati: HP mac printer

Is it really that hard to get right ? Is it really that hard just to try ?

Eg, I bought a game of ebay for my mac, Command and Conquer Generals - A most awesome game. It mentions on the back that multiplayer games will vary - I thought this was a joke meaning you might get your ass kicked. Turns out it isnt cross platform compatible. I cant play against my misguided friends using M$.

After thinking about this, I was thinking that the multiplayer game packets my mac sends must be somehow different to those that a pc sends (this is pure speculation, I have no idea WTF is going - but this seems to make sense to me). IF this is the case, then it was a very silly thing of Aspyr to do. Bastards.

After thinking about this for a while I was wondering if it is possible to code an app that acts as a layer between the game and the ethernet, that translates packets into M$ format. Unfortunately this all based on some assumptions and my limited knowledge of the in depth workings of computers

But yeah, more cross compatibility !

A pretty nifty gadget. Has a USB port that can be used to share printers and hard drives (multiple if you use a usb hub!). However, it doesnt have a firewire port ! I was a bit suprised at this, as apple seems to have firewire on all of their computer, so it follows that people will have firewire hard drives and such.

Maybe its because firewire is too fast ? Firewire runs at either 400mbps or 800mbps, whereas wireless is ~54mbps. Still, Id have thought that apple would put a firewire port in their, and just let it run a bit slower. Meh. Just an observation !

Technorati: apple airport extreme wireless firewire

I have several bbc rss feeds in my bloglines accont. I quite like being able to flick through several catagories of news, skipping the boring bits (sport lol).

However, of late, the articles seem to be becoming a bit sloppy. I dont know if hte bbc has had some staff changes (all the good people seem to leave), or if hteyre monitoring scheme has changed. For example, the headline of hte article and its contents not matching:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6258379.stm

The headline for that article is ‘Brazil subway collapses’. However, the second piece of information we get on the incident (paragraph 3) is that a landslide occured. This conflicts with the first paragraph in bold and hte headline, without giving any explanation.

It also looks like Tarintino wrote it, from a chronological pov.

Technorati: bbc

Yay!! Friday morning maths was the final exam And it sucked. I had physics of matter nad mechanics on wednesday morning - went ok, reckon i passed.

Which meant I could finally relax Went out last night with some housemates, got a bit ratted and returned to the hosue to watch a film. Then slept in until midday

Made a late breakfast, before playing some guitar (I decided to get guitar pro 5 ofr mac today - very good program. Also a bitch to find on torrent for mac :P), some generals and then had dinner and watched more films - fear and loathing in las vegas and then trainspotting.

Fear and loathing is quite strange….and quite funny…worth seeing. Trainspotting was a bit sick in places but ha a nice ending (kinda…).

Tomorrow looks like more lounging around. Might learn some Blondie….

Had my first exam today - Physics of matter and mechanics. I think I did ok - managed to answer most of the questions I did (We had 3 per section and could do any two per section.), however, I forgot to learn the formulas as I was expecting a formula booklet Managed to recall most of ones I needed though My stomach decided to make hungry noises for the last 40 minutes or so :S

Just got the maths exam left…

I’m getting a lot of hits for people searching for jmp-1 sound bites, and as I have one, I thought I might aswell record something. This is a solo for my uni band’s new song, enjoy

Clickity click

UPDATE: The link dont work. Will fix at some point. Probably tomorrow, or at the weekend after me exams.
UUPDATE 2: Link no wworks. Enjoy