New Phaser 3250 Printer

Kevin’s experiences with a new Xerox Phasar 3250

1. Unpack and setup – fine

2. Install CD with Linux installer – brownie points++

3. Run GUI installer -

“Sorry, you must be administrator to install this product.”

>>>Bad Xerox. BAD BAD. We don’t do that on Linux without prompting for a root password.

4. Login as root. Bad Xerox. Run installer. Discover that I could have bypassed the auto installer as a regular user.

5. Run installer. Can’t find the device on the network. (Kevin suspects it’s defaulted to a different network address than what we use, but the directions to print out a configuration page with the default IP don’t work).

6. Call Xerox. Yes, they have a tech support telephone number. xerox++

7. On hold less than three minutes. xerox++

Tech support:

Serial number?

>>>”123456″

Name?

>>>”Kevin”

Company?

>>>”Wizzy Library”

Address?

>>>”12345 Oak Street”

State?

>>>”Missouri”

Long pause. Keyboard clacks away. What is your state?

>>>”Missouri”

Long pause. Keyboard clacks away. Missouri?

>>>”Yes. “M” “O”.

Keyboard clacks away. So that is Missouri, right.

>>>”Correct”

OK. What is your problem today?

>>>Kevin thinks “Xerox”. Kevin says “I have a new Phasar printer and I can’t configure it for the network”.

OK. What happens when you run the installer?

>>>”It’s fine up to the point where it looks for a new printer and can’t find it.”

OK. What is your operating system?

>>>”Linux”

Long pause. Keyboard clacks away.

So is that running on a Mac?

>>>”Goodbye.”

8. Click

Apollo Computers

Anybody remember Apollo Computers? They made a high-end line of workstations, and semi-supercomputers, if I remember correctly, back in the 1980s. I don’t know the exact history of the company, but they became part of HP at some point, and then just faded away.

Google news (the aggregator, not the original source) reports this morning that Sun Microsystems has just been purchased by Oracle. In my mind, Sun is/was one of the greatest computer companies of all time. The quality of their hardware, and of Solaris too, is, well, it’s just great stuff. The company was a prodigious source of truly great, innovative products, particularly Java and all the associated tools and IDEs. We don’t know what will happen to the company now, but it’s not likely to be anything good.

What then, of the products under the Sun umbrella? MySql is open source, so it will continue quite well, Solaris is open source, so the operating system will still be around. Java is/is not (circle one) open source friendly (?) so it will still be available, but the snag is now that Oracle will control it’s development. We’ll probably lose the hardware within a couple of years, and that will be a real loss. Ah, an ode to the funky colors–purple and indigo and teal! And the cool Cobalt Raqs–the square boxes! Now, no more.

Strange how things work in business sometimes. In a day of commoditized computers, all black and beige and made in China, the nameplate on a nice Sun Fire stands out, and sometimes I feel like it deserves a salute. A departing salute.

Netbook

I want a netbook. I’ve been looking at several, and the MSI Wind caught my attention initially because Google had some good hits on it from a while back, but I don’t see much in the current news, and as near as I can tell they don’t sell one with Linux installed anymore.

I want a 10″ screen, and some non-white, non-black, non-nondescript color. Red would work, and a decent blue or green would be OK. So that leads to the Asus Eee PC, and the 1000HE in blue looks really good, except it doesn’t have Linux installed, although other models do. I’m still looking, but I may be forced to buy a computer with Windows to get the hardware I want, and then install a decent Linux OS to get it to work right. Just irritates the heck out of me that I can’t buy both, or at least a computer without an OS at all. Why pay the $75-$125 premium to MS for something I don’t want?

Google’s Lively

Google’s new Lively (2nd Life-like) DOESN’T support Linux.

May one million Pediculosis pubisies infest Sergy’s shorts.

Sirsi Workflows – Linux

Would someone care to tell me why Sirsi discontinued their listserv? I know lots of people must know, it’s just that I don’t.

I’m having trouble getting Java Workflows to run on Linux. It should be something easy, but here’s what happens:

>java -jar workflows.jar

1. That brings up the configuration window where you put in your server IP address, port, workstation, etc. Fine, that seems to work.

2. That brings up the login screen, where I’ve tried a couple of different known, valid logins. Fine, seems to work.

3. That brings up the Automatic Update Window, where you can choose to update the staff client or not. Using either selection results in the following, at which point it hangs permanently:

computer11:/home/jbisset/Jwf # java -jar workflows.jar
Exception in thread “main” java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: illegal component position
at java.awt.Container.addImpl(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Container.add(Unknown Source)
at com.sirsi.platform.graphics.MenuBar.addMenu(Unknown Source)
at com.sirsi.platform.subroutine.Subroutine.addMenuFromToolbar(Unknown Source)
at com.sirsi.platform.screen.SirsiFrame.init(Unknown Source)
at com.sirsi.workflows.Workflows.main(Unknown Source)
.

Additional info:

computer11:/home/jbisset/Jwf # java -version
java version “1.6.0_01″
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_01-b06)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.6.0_01-b06, mixed mode, sharing)

Any ideas?

Morning Hit List

OK, we have two companies on the morning S* List, both there for blatant near-sightedness and stupidity.

Apple

I needed to download QuickTime for Windows XP so I could load it on a couple of systems. The problem is that I was using my Linux workstation for the download, of course, and I intended to transfer it to a shared Samba drive, but no matter what clicky dance I tried on freaking Apple’s web site it would only offer me the OS X version of QuickTime. How completely obtuse is that? I hate companies that presume things about me based on my geolocation or operating system. Why couldn’t they have had the simple, rational inteligent option of permitting the downloading of either version? It’s not like the OS X version is going to run on Linux anyway, so gimme a choice. <insert lineage descriptor here>. Just another reason to avoid QuickTime altogether. Experiences like this are always on my mind when I make purchasing decisions.

AWE

They sure are, for not all the right reasons either. AWE makes the Early Literacy Station, which has become quite popular in sales to libraries. In short, it’s a standard Dell computer with about 35 standard children’s games loaded on it, with a custom interface to lock you out of the XP (I assume) OS. Fine. My quibble is with their pig-headed use of the image of the system on their web site. You see, we have a demo setup of the system for parents and we were going to do a little promotional poster and display it next to the computer. So we came up with a couple of bullet statements about how cool it is (?) and I was going to add AWE’s site pic of the system to our poster. Strictly in-house, one-time use of the image which should have been covered under the fair-use doctrine, and for promotion of AWE’s product. The <repeat lineage descriptor here> have used some scripting to prevent downloads of the image, so we had to use some generic clip art graphic to add a bit of color and visual interest to our poster. So to frell with AWE I added a statement to the effect that the system was way overpriced at $3,325, but the taxpayers paid for it so who cares. That’ll learn ‘em. Geez, are they afraid some competitor will take their image and rebrand it or something? They should be offering dozens of pics of their system with some reasonable usage clauses for promotion. What’s with knuckleheads that are so obsessed with secrecy?

I didn’t have time to take a good look at the code yet, but I suppose I’m fairly adept at downloading images that people try to lock out, so I may take some time and see if I can pull it off just to spite them. Maybe I’ll put some text on it like: “SUPERIOR Children’s Educational Station”, and a web link to some other vendor’s web site, and post it to Flickr. Or maybe I’ll just point out that it costs $3,325 to all the taxpayers I meet.

SirsiDynix – News of the morning

Per second-hand info from an OZDUG message written by Susan Johns Smith, SirsiDynix sales rep Jeanne Spala has been canned. Terminated. Fired.

I don’t know much about this individual, but I understand she was important, as in VP level, and that she was well-liked by the community.

I can’t quite make up my mind what is going on at SirsiDynix. On one hand I think we simply have a company that is reorganizing, like competitive companies do sometimes, and that this process can be painful and disruptive and confusing, but results in a healthier company in the end.

<Graphic language advisory>
On the other hand, given that this process is getting a bit protracted, I’m starting to wonder if this isn’t a proverbial case of the chicken with it’s head freshly cut off–the body is flopping around on the ground giving the appearance of life, but the thing is dead.

On the other hand (I have three), maybe it’s somewhere in between–a well-intentioned reorganization has spun out of control and the powers are starting to lose control, but it’s not quite a lost cause yet.

For the sake of my editorial freedom and integrity I hope my online identity hasn’t yet been compromised yet; I try not to say much about myself to further that hope. And without being specific, I think it would be fair to say that I have a respectable formal education and some amount of practical experience in business and management, and here’s one observation that I can make with a high degree of confidence: Vista and Sirsi better get this damn thing wrapped up and put away and get back to the ILS business. If I cared to dig out some of my grad management books I’m certain that I could find lots of case studies where great companies didn’t survive reorganizations because they were poorly managed and drawn out. Koha* probably only has a fraction of the customers that Sirsi has now, but they have a great product that’s coming on strong and it seems they have their act together. Sirsi may still be great, and I still like it, but there are good, viable alternatives out there, and Sirsi already has some serious fence-mending to do with the customers.

And what’s with this “do not compete” form? Something to prevent defections of Sirsi’s talent to the competition? Just a tiny fear in the old boardroom?

*Just for clarification – so you know I know, Koha is an open source, GPL licensed library database product.  It’s an international effort, and we tip our hats to the New Zealanders-Katipo, who started it, but here in the states LibLime is the company that you go for support. Oh, I understand they’re hiring good ILS people too, just don’t sign that form before you’re told to clean out the desk!

Second Life – The Beginning

Well, my Second Life (SL) experiences are a bit surreal. Yes, I signed up for an account finally, because all the propagandists said I was supposed to be into Web 2.0.

Here’s how it’s going:

1. The Dummies book in hand, I came up with a really cool first name, and got through the registration process. I picked a default last name since it wasn’t obvious that I had a personal choice.

2. Downloaded the SL software, and except for extracting the file it didn’t require any installation, a la Mozilla Firefox et al. All good so far.

3. Read the hardware requirements list. PD stract. (Colloquialism meaning really strict). My work and home computers are pretty well spec’d; my home machine is a homebrew AMD dual-core 5000+ with four gigs of RAM. I got that particular MB just because it had fairly decent on-board video, but apparently neither that nor my work computer can cut it in the video department for SL. The home computer will start to run, but never is able to bring up a GUI window. I sent a couple of crash reports, but also realized SL specifies a separate video card, so I suppose I may have to snag one off the ‘net. The work computer, although being fairly good, isn’t nearly up to the standards of my home computer, but it will run SL for about two to three minutes at a time before it crashes. When it does it crashes the whole computer, not just the app or X. Sometimes it will just restart X, but it clearly isn’t quite right even after you log back in. Rude.

4. OK, so now I’m on SL, and playing newbie. Here are some things I’ve done:

a. Created myself. I’m wearing some white jumpsuit thing. Potentially dangerous. I’ll have to stay out of the biker bars until I get some jeans.

b. Contended with some dude for a car. We both couldn’t quite figure out how to get in the thing, but he figured it out first. NP, I just walked around some more and got another one.

c. Killed rats. Several I thought at first they were armadillos and tried to avoid them.

d. Made my way, after about 10-2.5 minute sessions interspersed with reboots, to the flying learning center. Here’s where it gets interesting (as if killing rats wasn’t). I’m in the center of this circle, and I’m getting these text prompts to tell me which buttons to click to fly. Well, that mostly works up and down, but if I try to turn around in there it all goes to he!!. As soon as I hit either the left or right arrows, I go into this maddening continual spin, which won’t stop unless I do a “Control C”. This also has the effect of locking up everything on the computer, although it manages to maintain the X display sort of. Now the first time I did this there was this fembot in the room too, and she was totally faced into a wall, and obviously unsure for a minute about what to do, so she couldn’t see me spinning around the room in the beginning, but then she got unstuck and booked when she saw my continual pirouette.

Comment: I really expected to see more people in SL, but it’s fairly deserted. Maybe that’s just because I’m still in the learning area?

We’re off to a grand start, but I think its going to have to wait for a new graphics card.

Thought: I wonder if there would be any value in a specialized SL controller? Gloves, helmet, maybe even sensor-impregnated suit? I’ve often postulated that its time for a major advance in computer input devices, something beyond keyboard and mouse and even most joysticks. I know a few companies are playing with next-gen devices, but except for the Wii controller nothing has made much of an splash yet.

Photoshop

I’ve been tasked with buying two copies of “Photoshop”. Simple, right?  Go to a couple of websites, get prices, request a quote.

Well, not so simple. There’s apparently Photoshop 7.0, CS3, CS3 10, and innumerable variants thereof available for sale from the major retailers. OK, I obviously want the most current version of “Photoshop”, in some standard incantation, so I go the Adobe’s website to get a part number, so I can go back to the web merchants websites to search for The Right Photoshop.

Wrong.

http://www.adobe.com/education/purchasing/education_pricing.html

Contribute CS3      MAC      38040283
Contribute CS3     WIN     38040284
Creative Suite 3 Design Premium     MAC     19500129
Creative Suite 3 Design Premium     WIN     29500159
Creative Suite 3 Design Standard     MAC     19300021
Creative Suite 3 Design Standard     WIN     29300025
Creative Suite 3 Master Collection     MAC     19280026
Creative Suite 3 Master Collection     WIN     29280026
Creative Suite 3 Production Premium     MAC     19600053
Creative Suite 3 Production Premium     WIN     29600053
Creative Suite 3 Web Premium     MAC     19700025
Creative Suite 3 Web Premium     WIN     29700025
Creative Suite 3 Web Standard     MAC     19270024
Creative Suite 3 Web Standard     WIN     29270035
Photoshop CS3 Extended 10    MAC 19400063
Photoshop CS3 Extended 10    WIN   29400063

If training was available for the Gimp in my area, I’d send the users to that and not even mess with the $1,400 “Photoshop” software that I can’t even figure out how to buy.

HD DVD v Blu-ray – ad nauseum

Everybody says its over, that Blu-ray won. But if anybody cares, I have a formula for resurrecting HD DVD, and I’ll share it with the world (although I’m sure somebody, or perhaps lots of somebodies, has already thought of it).

Open source it–the whole nine yards. GPL all the software specs and code/codecs , and publish the hardware specs under some similar open source license. Make it entirely patent free. There. Done. HD DVD will become the most popular disk media in the history of the world, although it will only last until we get googa-terabyte storage in holographic 3-D structures in thallium-doped gramicidin/caesium crystals that we wear as decoder rings on our fingers. And see, right here I’m establishing prior-art for holographic 3-D structures in gramicidin/caesium crystals so that we can have patent-free access to this exciting technology when it becomes available.

Now, if we could only firmly determine the origin of the phrase “the whole nine yards“.

Superconference 2008

I’ve been to recent Sirsidynix Superconferences, but am tending to the “no-go” for 2008. I thought last year’s event was good for content, and while luxuriating at length in a bathtub in my room that might  have been used by some semi-famous actress made for nice daydreams, the resort food options were limited and ghastly expensive (for my budget) and the location was completely isolated from the outside world. Those two issues are in my mind as I consider Detroit; while I understand that that location will probably have better access to the city and that food options will be more reasonable, I just have less enthusiasm for attending than in the past.

Here are my suggestions for 2009:

Chena Hot Springs (OK, that’s a stretch)

The Riverwalk in San Antonio

Cherokee Casino Resort in Tulsa (not sure if its big enough)

Denver – somewhere outside of downtown, driving in downtown sucks

Somewhere in the Florida Keys (check out the pics!)

Somewhere in Canada-Montreal, Quebec, Toronto or Ottawa

Maybe New Orleans?

More Second Life – or Less?

As part of my on again, off again at-arms-length dance with Second Life, I have just started reading the Second Life for Dummies book by Sarah Robbins and Mark Bell. Reading words is a chore for me, I do much better with pictures, but I’ve read chapters one and two; two discusses the MS and Mac operating systems and hardware requirements. Not a word on Linux. Checked the index. Not a word on Linux.

Maybe I should write a review of the book. Or maybe I should just stop reading.

Open Letter

I just received an email from SirsiDynix: “SirsiDynix is pleased to share with you today an open letter from SirsiDynix CEO Gary Rautenstrauch.”

Now, the only thing about this “open letter” is that you have to go to the SirsiDynix website and login.  Am I the only person that sees just a bit of humor in having to login with a login ID and password to read an “open letter”?  Would that be Microsoft’s definition of “open”?

Thanks Gary, added some color to the day!

Wikipedia and TQM

I quite frequently refer to wikipedia. Yes, for something that I was going to base an important decision on I would certainly check other sources as well. However, it generally has good information on a broad range of technical subjects that you wouldn’t find elsewhere.

However, I just checked an item, Total Quality Management – TQM, on wikipedia and found a very poor entry. Even wikipedia has it tagged with “weasel words” and “buzzwords”.

While not terribly popular as a management practice today, TQM is certainly a well-known subject, with many academics who should be subject matter experts, and this entry deserves much better.

I would do some changes myself, but I’m not an expert, which is why I was checking to begin with, and also I think the complete text there needs to be ditched and completely rewritten.

I checked Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia (web), and got nothing.

Symphony and Symphony

SirsiDynix has their Symphony, and now IBM has one too.  Lotus Symphony is apparently a full-featured Office suite, a la OpenOffice, and it’s likewise free.  While I am totally satisfied with OpenOffice, I also plan to download IBM Symphony and check it out.

Some day I’ll have to stop…

I keep thinking that I’ve got to stop ragging about Microsoft, that there are more interesting things to say.  Someday; not today.

It seems from my reading of the daily press that the Free Software Foundation, Presided Over by Richard Stallman and being legally represented by Eben Mogen,  is taking the position that the terms of the GPL (GNU Public License) define MS as a distributor of Linux, and as such, the patent protections it agreed to previously with Novell under GPL2 now apply to all Linux users.

In response to the terms of the most recent version of GPL3 in June 2007, MS unilaterally changed the terms of the agreement it had with Novell regarding the Linux coupons it purchased from them.  One of the legal arguments now is that MS could not legally change the terms of that agreement: Novell apparently never agreed to any changes.

Irrespective of the legal arguments and how this all might shake out in court ten years from now, I suspect that deep down somewhere MS might be just a bit concerned at the moment.  While they might feel they have the best legal minds money can buy, and they might feel they have a strong legal case, juries and even judges can be fickle things, and sometimes they are best avoided.  I really doubt that MS wants to take their patient portfolio to court; they have nothing to gain and everything to loose.

This is, of course, mostly moot everywhere outside the US.  Europa, while moving in the direction of software patients, still doesn’t yet really recognize them.  I hope they learn from our problems.  Asia wouldn’t be able to identify a patent if it was prominently labeled as such and bit ‘em four times in the posterior (I hate trying to be civil).

Oh, and one final word for Richard: vi rules.

PDFs and Proprietary Document Formats

Stephen frequently expresses observations that I think are insightful and merit some consideration. In a recent blog post he expressed some dissatisfaction with (well, actually he said hated) Adobe’s PDF file format. I understand some of his discontent, but offer as a complementary comment that Adobe has been far more open with this specification than Microsoft has been with any freaking thing they own. Yes, pdf is not totally open, as in Open Source, but Adobe has worked to make sure that people generally have some freedom to use it; if nothing else a pdf reader has been free since the beginning of pdf time. A default install of nearly any Linux distro for the past handful of years will have several applications that open .pdf files quite nicely. Yes, OpenOffice, KOffice and others will open .doc files, but it isn’t because MS has worked with developers to get there. I accept that Stephen’s pdf argument has some merit, but a far greater problem is with MS Open (not) XML, bloated and closed, and other MS-controlled formats. Why is it that MS just can’t accept truly open formats or let somebody else play with the green bucket and spoon in the sandbox for a while? I think that bothers me more than anything–they are just like a spoiled, brat child. I wouldn’t mind them creating proprietary software and having patents* and copyrights for everything they make, but they just won’t tolerate anybody else having fair play in any field they are involved with–it’s all FUD and exterminate. And where will John be when the Microsoft logo is stamped on all of cisco’s networking equipment?

*Actually, I don’t believe patents should be issued for software at all.

**This is interesting. if you go to http://sirisidynix.com, and search for “abram”, you will (or I just did), get to two links to newsletters, but nothing for “Stephens Lighhouse” or for the company management page where he is listed. Go to google, and do this: [site:sirsidynix.com abram] and you will get all the lighthouse hits and (on page 3) the management team page link. In fact, I’m not quite sure how you would navigate to the management page. If you search for “managment” on the site that won’t find it either. Things that make you go “hummm”.

PS: I really can spell “proprietary” correctly half the time, and “management” sometimes too.

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow…

creeps in this petty pace from day to day, to the last syllable of recorded time.  All our yesterdays have lighted fools, their way to dusty death.  Out out, brief candle…

I could go on, but why?  I did that all from memory, by the way, from about 30+ years ago.  Betcha didn’t know I was versed in the literary arts, huh?  One of those things that never quite made it to the status of a post-nominal.  Yea, I’ve probably got a thousand or so lines of Shakespeare stored somewhere in the memory bin.  Or maybe it’s just a few hundred; it’s been a while since I inventoried them.

Tomorrow is, however, a red-letter day since Joshua Ferraro from LibLime and Jason Etheridge from Equinox (via WebEx) will be presenting at the OZSDUG (Ozark SirsiDynix Users Group) meeting in Lawrence, KS.  Apparently the meeting will have an Open Source theme, and should be really interesting and exciting.  

I’ve got my press badge all printed off, but the most authoritative appearing badge example I could find on the net clearly states “To Be Escorted“.  I’ve checked in the Lawrence phone book, and it seems that I have a choice of an escort from Royal Blue Escort Service or Dial-A-Blond.  Can anyone make a recommendation between these two?  And how exactly should I list that item on my voucher when I submit my travel expense report?

Can I Change My Mind About Symphony?

Previously I posted that I thought Symphony was a reasonably good name for the latest version of Unicorn. I have subsequently expanded my vocabulary and think a better name would be Pastiche*. Has kind of a ring to it, si? Even if you don’t know how to pronounce it exactly.

*pastiche (plural pastiches)

1. A work of drama, literature, music, or architecture that imitates the work of a previous artist, often satirically.
2. A musical medley.
3. An incongruous mixture; a hodgepodge.
4. A postmodern playwriting technique that fuses a variety of styles, genres, and story lines to create a new form.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pastiche

MS Swallows Cisco -or- Steve Grapples John

http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_6670603

 

Cisco and Microsoft to collaborate

By Scott Duke Harris
Mercury News

Article Launched: 08/20/2007 10:47:16 AM PDT

 

“Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer made assurances that there would no “jiu-jitsu.” Cisco Systems’ CEO John Chambers said he trusted Microsoft.”

 

I do want to keep this blog reasonably civil since I know there are adults reading it. The closest I can come to that effort and still express myself eloquently IRT the above is to say that I cheerfully predict Steve will soon remove John’s gender identifiers with a rusty bolo and pickle them in a glass display jar full of formaldehyde.

 

You know, all these CEO’s make zillions and zillions of dollars. They typically have stellar resumes, proven track records in executive management, and presumably a bit of intelligence. So what is it that causes them to make that one totally bizarre decision that everybody in the world knows will be fatal? Is John a stealth agent for MS? Did a MS Storm Worm get in cranial port 6073?

 

I won’t be buying any cisco products in the future, they are all hereby end-of-life.