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. ...

First, Security Update 2005-08 fixes the so-called Safari Image of Doom. Can we all move on now? Thanks. That’s fixed by: ImageIO CVE-ID: CAN-2005-2747 Available for: Mac OS X v10.4.2, Mac OS X Server v10.4.2 Impact: Viewing a maliciously-crafted GIF image may result in arbitrary code execution. Description: By carefully crafting a corrupt GIF image, an attacker can trigger a buffer overflow in ImageIO which may result in arbitrary code execution. Several components of Mac OS X utilize ImageIO including WebCore and Safari. This update addresses the issue by performing additional validation of images. ...

Apple bumped .Mac’s storage to 1 GB (1024 MB for those wondering if they’d correctly count). They also released Backup 3. I’ve been keeping my email allotment steady at 100 MB, but that’s been feeling a bit constricting, especially when Gmail is now allowing more that 2.5 GB and my web host gives me 5 GB. However, I really like using Apple’s Mail.app (Gmail does have POP, but that’s not adequate because I can’t do server side email management that way) and my web host’s webmail package, SquirrelMail, isn’t all that bad, it’s just not all that good, or at least not as good as .Mac. ...

I’m both throroughly embarressed and relieved. The Mac Genius was able to fix my Powerbook. The steps he took were: Re-sat the Airport card. I didn’t know that could be a common cause. Reset the power manager. I did that. Reset the open firmware. At this point, the screen was working. When I did it, I had to use my external display. All is well again and seeing as a little bit of my pride saved me several hundred dollars, I think I can suck it up. I’ll have to hold off a little on applying for a part-time Genius position though.

Rather than post separate entries, I thought I’d explain why I haven’t been around with one. Visiting Hours My friend Scott finally freed up some time to see the new place, which he now calls a sweet setup. I’m inclined to agree. He came out Friday night and got the full tour. Naturally, the four floors of my place were a high point. So far, no one has really had a bad word, but then again maybe they’re all being polite and saving the criticism for later. ...

So I’m currently 4 out of 5 and Henry forgot to pick confidence so he didn’t get any points (Henry, if you’re reading this, fix it before this weekend). smudie (101) Katie (89) Mike (85) Me (81) Henry (**** explained above) It’s a little embarressing. For a scot living in France, Stuart knows his football. In fact, he did better than anyone in my work football group. Here’s my picks ordered from least confidence to most. Real winners are bold. Bold are picks that I had right. Italics are ones that I was wrong. ...

Earlier this week, Apple released iTunes 5 and the iPod nano. I didn’t write anything about either because I’m not particularly impressed by either. I’m even less impressed with the iTunes phone aka Motorola ROKR. I should say something though. iTunes 5 This is perhaps one of the most pathetic iTunes’ “upgrades” yet. No, it wasn’t worthy of a first digit number change. 5.0 doesn’t have to follow 4.9 either. They could have continued with 4.10. There’s even an implicit acknowledgment of this by Apple illustrated by the lack of a color change in the icon. Every other first digit change brought a new number. I love green, but it’s getting stale. ...

I know it’s late notice, but I just got turned on to Yahoo’s Football Pick’em page (like what I did last year, but automated, so scrap that idea). Anyway, I expect all of you to join and participate especially Henry (that’s two mentions), Dana, and Katie. The group has 50 slots, so if it comes to that, it’ll be first come, first serve. You need a Yahoo! id and enough time to pick teams to win (no spread) and assign confidence (1 – 16). Each week’s picks have to be in 5 minutes prior to the first game of the week. The Patriots are playing tonight, so you’ll need to enter your choices before then. ...

When it becomes time to buy a house or condo, you start thinking about the various attributes that properties have. Which is the most important? Anybody will tell you that the top three are location, location, and location. I’ll be extremely methodical about this and dissect them one at a time. Location With gas prices at all time highs, being close to work is more important than ever. That’s especially true if you drive a big honking SUV. Hell, it can add up even if you drive an average car. Sure, buying a hybrid or motorcycle might be cheaper than buying a house, but you’re not moving just for that. ...

I couldn’t hold this one back. I picked up some Trident White gum at Walmart. “White” promises whiter teeth in as little as four weeks. Sounds easy enough. I chew gum and I’d like whiter teeth. I decided to dig a little further and figure out exactly what was needed to get these results. It’s not written on the package, so I went to the product’s web site. There I found what I was looking for. ...