Technology

My HP Deskjet 5150 suddenly decided to stop printing the other day. It reported a “Pen Failure”. The little ink light on the front of the printer started blinking as well. It happened just before I went to print out some driving directions, so it was rather inconvenient. I decided I’d try HP’s website to explain the error, because it’s rather cryptic, even for me. That was totally fruitless. I resorted to fruitless Google searching. A couple people complained about it, but no definite answer was found. The best I could find was an ink module issue. ...

Opera is giving away their excellent web browser away for free today only. Go get your registration codes now!

Because I’m a cheap bastard, I decided to buy my cable modem instead of rent or buy from Comcast. Review It’s hard to review a cable modem really. Sites like CNet can do group comparisons, but I have neither the cash nor the time to do a full comparison like that. I can use it for a bit to see if I need to reset it and what kinds of speeds I can get. ...

After many rumors, Google has released its own IM and VoIP system, Google Talk (in beta). Google decided to use Jabber as the backbone. That means you can IM Google Talk users with any Jabber client using their Gmail address as their username. You can even do so using iChat. If I gave you a Jabber account for godlikenerd.com, you can use that as well. Update: Or not. I can’t seem to connect to chat via anything but a Gmail name. That’s not cool. According to Google: ...

The next big thing in Internet news is digg. According to the site it is: Digg is a technology news website that combines social bookmarking, blogging, RSS, and non-hierarchical editorial control. With digg, users submit stories for review, but rather than allow an editor to decide which stories go on the homepage, the users do. That’s a lot of buzzwords to be sure. It’s much easier to explain in another way. Digg is a site where people post what they consider interesting stories. Other users can agree by “digging” the entry. Each user can “digg” a story only once. ...

When I first read that Flickr was merging accounts with Yahoo! accounts, I thought it would be a good idea. As of now, anyone can log in to Flickr using their Yahoo! ID. New users will have to use their Yahoo! ID (or create a new one if they don’t have one); older users can continue to use their existing Flickr.com account details to log in, or choose to merge their Flickr.com accounts and Yahoo! IDs together*. One note: Existing users will be able to keep their existing screen names on Flickr whether they choose to merge accounts now or not – you don’t have to change your name. ...

So, the essential part of moving has been accomplished. I’ve got my cable modem and Vonage working. Screw food and hygiene, net access and phone capabilities are what really matters. Despite hearing grumbling about Comcast service issues, so far my experience has been great. The installation was quick and easy. The installer simply needed my cable modem’s serial and model number to register it and I was off. I even applied a Comcast specific firmware update to my D-Link DCM-202. I actually flashed it using my Mac, which isn’t supported by D-Link. In fact, because you can’t simply upload the firmware via a form as is normal for most network devices, it’s hidden. Look forward to a how-to with my method. I’m even experiencing 800 KB/s downloads, faster than any other connection I’ve ever used. ...

There has been an update, so please read to the bottom of the post. I leave the original entry above for posterity. Frassle is a neat service. What is not neat is that they seem to resell email addresses. My domain allows me to use any address at it (they all get redirected to a central address). This allows me to tailor a name to each service. The old tact was to use a Yahoo or Hotmail account (which didn’t have any accountability). My convention right now is either service1 or service.login1. ...

Along the lines of their other recent moves, like buying Flickr, Yahoo! has acquired Konfabulator. Longtime Mac fans should recognize the product and its author, Arlo Rose, for his role in creating Kaleidoscope. Recent Mac fans should recognize the debacle surrounding Apple’s creation of Dashboard. This brings the immediate benefit of making Konfabulator free. Previously, the framework itself cost $20 to register. When comparing Konfabulator to Dashboard, the price difference (Dashboard being free with Tiger) gave Dashboard the edge. Yahoo! effecting this price change will have a dramatic effect upon its market share. Mac users will feel free to compare it directly to Dashboard without feeling obligation. As for Windows users, the new Yahoo! association should bring lots of attention. Those two effects should stimulate Widget developers into developing for Konfabulator again. That’s a good thing because as I write this, there is still no working package tracker. Very lame. ...

Those of you that I talk to daily already know why I’m ordering a new D-Link DCM-202. Please don’t mention it in the comments. I’m going to be all superstitious about it and write a big post about it later. {.float-right}Anyway, at about $40 with mail-in rebate at Amazon with DOCSIS 2.0, this was the modem to get. I won’t be posting a review for a while, but I’ll do all kinds of testing when I do. I’ll use Skype, Gizmo, Vonage (as I’ll likely be getting that too), Bittorrent, and so on. There won’t be anything too formal (as switching between a couple cable modems isn’t really an option, nor something I want to do), but I will be able to definitively say whether I think it sucks.