USB Device Sharing: Solution for Old Printer Driver
I had a situation where we have a perfectly fine Epson Stylus Photo R2400 that is a few years old now but still a quality printer but we had been using it with 3 iMacs in a lab area. The Epson printer driver has some nicer features than the Gutenprint one that ships with the Apple drivers and we wanted to have the printer driver be set to that.
Via direct USB, the printer driver worked fine. The Epson driver was developed for PPC I believe and since it is such an old printer, it probably is the last version we will see. Rosetta also needs to be installed to handle it, but that is pretty-much automatic. So direct USB is fine and if you do printer sharing on the iMac that has a direct USB connection, you could get the machine that was piggy-backing on the sharing iMac to work with AppleTalk. But, when we upgraded to 10.6.x we lost AppleTalk on those iMacs and we lost the Epson driver nice stuff on two of the three computers. Sharing via Bonjour or IP did not work for the Epson driver, so we had to figure another solution out or re-purpose the printer.
So, enter the IOGEAR GUB431 4-Port USB Automatic Printer Switch
It can be used without software, but the software is a critical piece because it can be set to do automatic switching. After setup, we got the old R2400 going and the three iMacs into the switch. Each iMac sees the native USB so the driver is happy and shows all the options the users like and the USB switch is smart enough to handle switching between the computers when a print job is dished to it. The default software setup is to have the computer printing grab hold and own the printer for 3 minutes then let go, but I changed the settings so it would automatically let go when needed by other iMacs. It seems to be working well and we will keep testing it with users to see if it can handle what we need. I like the solution and well worth a try to keep a perfectly good piece of hardware going even if the vendor might have some driver issues across the network. We could have tried a print server on ethernet, but I was hesitant to try it since printer sharing wasn't even working. To clarify, one could print via Bonjour printer sharing, but NOT with the extra driver features Epson bakes-in to the USB type of connection which is a major deal for us.
The device has Mac and Windows software and seems very solid. So far, so good.
For more info checkout
Getting Symantec Backup 2010 R2 Agent on OS X 10.6
Symantec's Backup Exec 2010 R2 just came out and it was a huge deal for us because we have an Xserve we have had to have on a different backup cycle because Symantec did not support it. So, when R2 was released with 10.6 support, we were eager to get it going. Only problem is, the Agent didn't install.
After Anthony (works for me at Lick-Wilmerding) banged around on it for a while with Symantec Tech Support, there was still no resolution. We tested on my MacBook and it did install. It had to do with the kernel and 32 bit vs 64 bit. Symantec's installrams install script checks for x86 and if it doesn't find it, it kicks up a big 'Not Supported'
installrams on os x 10.6 (64 bit)
So, one way we got around it was to boot the machine in 32-bit mode for the install. Get into a Terminal and then
# sudo systemsetup -setkernelbootarchitecture i386
sudo systemsetup -setkernelbootarchitecture i386
and reboot. Then re-try the agent install. It will run. After you get some confidence, in backups, etc. you can kick it back to 64 bit
# sudo systemsetup -setkernelbootarchitecture x86_64
sudo systemsetup -setkernelbootarchitecture x86_64
and reboot. The beremote process will run and you will see it as a backup option in your BE Job Creation screens.
DISCLAIMER: Messing around with system internals can cause all kind of bad stuff, so if you are not comfortable with it, there is probably a reason so don't do it. Switching stuff like this can really do some crazy damage, so you are on your own and we just wanted to put it out there for those who are capable and willing to take the responsibility.
How about some beautiful wind turbines for San Francisco?
There have been some recent debates on people in San Francisco wanting to put wind turbines on their property. In Miraloma Park, it can be really windy, so it makes sense. But, after seeing the mess that is the wind turbine at the house in Forest Hill Extension (that really doesn't do much of anything BTW) I truly hope people will want to put ones in that actually look decent for the neighborhood as well as work.
I always liked the ones from Helix Wind. I could see people putting these up. They are vertical axis wind turbines and they look like art as opposed to a prop or something.
An article from the WSJ Bay Area Edition back in January 2010 covered Michael Deneui and his horrible Skystream 3.7 machine. I am not sure what the folks on the 400 block of Teresita want to do, but if it is another Skystream, then let's no go there. Also, Helix Wind is out of California while Skystream is out of Arizona (yes, that Arizona.)
Personalizing the Kerio Connect Web Interface Login Page
Kerio changed some things in the latest major version beyond the branding of Mailserver to Connect. The way one could modify/personalize the login screen for users also changed. It used to be that you could just edit the .css file in a directory and insert a logo, etc. and it is similiar to the way it was done in pre-7, pre-Kerio Connect, but the files are different.
I am running Kerio Connect on OS X currently, but Linux installs should be the same path.
First files you want to backup and then mess with is located here:
/usr/local/kerio/mailserver/web/webmail/login/loginAdvanced.css
/usr/local/kerio/mailserver/web/webmail/login/loginBasic.css
These are the main css files for that login page. You will be able to change colors and backgrounds, etc. here. I always copy the default one off to the side as well as the customized one to have around after updates reset them back to defaults.
The other file is right next to the other:
/usr/local/kerio/mailserver/web/webmail/login/loginDialog.inc
This file controls the page title, and design content of the page. Always good to change some stuff so it isn't so generic.
Good luck and it takes some time to play with it to get it the way you want, but backup and always keep something off to the side for quickly being able to swap it back in after Kerio updates are played. I always create a directory in the vicinity that houses optimized logos, etc. and backup files just in case the get hosed during testing.
We took the bubble images and turned them black since we didn't want to mess too much with the design knowing that Kerio will stick to this for a while. I also did sym-links (ln -s) to the file names so those symlinks will get hit with the same filenames on upgrades but not the actual image files.
What is that new box on the lightpole? Water meters
Came home today and saw a new box with a solar panel high-up on a street light pole. I took some pictures and did a little research and found out what it was. It looked as though it had to do with the PG&E push for Smartmeters in San Francisco and the greater Bay Area. It seems to be a data collection and rely unit for smartmeter systems.
But, in reality, it is for the water meters. Others have emailed me on this and confirmed it is for the SF Water District meters.PG&E can't put them on the city-owned poles, but the water district can.
Got some pictures of the unit and the FCC ID is LLB9975 (FCC ID Search http://mer.gy/fccIDsearch ) which resolves to company named Hexagram that resolves to a company named Aclara http://www.aclaratech.com/ and specifically their line of smartmeter relay units http://mer.gy/smartmeters
