Apple – Support – Discussions – Can’t find Laserwriter 4/600 on network … Either on their own will either make a red light flash or print a test page. Both together will upon release print the “Self Test/Configuration” page. This gives you the IP address (called “HP Jetsend Address”.

Use the print setup utility to do “IP Printing” and enter the IP address from the Self Test sheet. Bingo.

From the configurable options I see that there’s a setting for “Personality” (my printer’s set to “auto”). Anyone have thoughts on the personality options?

Evil? Tetchy? Unhelpful? Unpredictable???

🙂

Now, all we need is for Apple to put up a “how to migrate to Intel” site (bit like their old “Switcher” site) to help us through the glitches and the oursourced (ie to customers!) testing regime…

Rather annoying ‘march of progress’ item this: can’t print to my lovely Laserwriter 2100TN (Da Workhorse!) wirelessly. This problem had stumped the MacGenii at the Regent Street Apple shop, so I did some googling (clearly more than the Gurus had bothered doing) and found the article above on the Apple support forums… Bah.

Problem arises when you have a network printer attached to a n ethernet hub. The wireless router attaches to that and the MacBookPro comes to the printer via the Airport and thence via ethernet to the printer. Note that this has worked for years (at least 2001) with the old PowerBooks. Add in the gee-whiz MBP and – erm – nothing. Oddly, you can print if you connect the MBP to the network using an ethernet cable. Ergo, problem is appletalk over wireless.

Leaving aside questions like “what’s the point of appletalk”, the solution I’ve found is to use IP printing.

Method (for the lovely 2100TN):
* press and hold both the power button (big, round) and the cancel button (small, round with triangle in it) together.

Apple – Boot Camp

So, in advance of the world’s hackers wrecking their lovely new MacIntel hardware, Apple has made a marketing plus out of the inevitable: dual-boot Apple hardware.

Boot Camp lets you install Windows XP without moving your Mac data, though you will need to bring your own copy to the table, as Apple Computer does not sell or support Microsoft Windows.(1) Boot Camp will burn a CD of all the required drivers for Windows so you don’t have to scrounge around the Internet looking for them.

How lovely. Nor, one assumes, will we need to pay for VirtualPC anymore (although having a Windows PC running ‘within’ OSX is more convenient than having to reboot of course).

People buy Macs for the consistent, integrated and reliable experience: by controlling the hardware Apple can ensure that each laptop isn’t a random munge of roughly-equivalent bits from the parts bin (Dell?) – this makes driver compatibility and interoperation easier to manage. For this privilege we pay through the proverbial nose.

I wonder how smug we Maccies will remain when, running XP natively, we find our machines out-run by PC hardware costing a third of the price? Heh – never mind, just admire that illuminated keyboard 🙂

This announcement though seem tactical to me. Apple is a bipolar company in many ways: it wants to be “an OS company” and a “hardware company”, yet also wants to be “the centre of our digital lives [tm]”. This move could on the one hand herald a split between the hardware and OS, or see the start of drawing the Windows world more firmly into the luxury grasp of Apple: hardware, iTunes, iPods and i-everything-else.

Maybe more than anything though it shows the need to ride many horses at once. “Straddigee” is all well and good, but having some tactical options in place (sort of a darwinian bet, I spose) never hurts. Sony showed with their Vaios that design and style could exact a premium in the market, while Toshiba and IBM showed that build quality and ease of maintenance could win friends in technical support and corporate procurement. Apple has managed to charge higher prices for (imho better) hardwear but refusing to unbundle the OS, disguising the price for each. If Boot Camp indicates unbundled prices then Apple could need to justify higher hardware costs at the same time as a higher software licence than MS Windows. Let’s hope that the Apple magic can draw in Windows users sooner than someone works out how to get the Mac OS experience on a $300 Dell machine!

As I was about to leave Littlewoods, handing back my laptop in the ceremony of stripping of the tech (think of Beau Geste and ripping off the epaulets of the legionnaires – you get the picture), I get call from the lovely people at Square, the Mac centre on New Oxford Street, saying that they did after all have a “spare” MacBookPro… Did I want it?

One quick fumble to extract my credit card later and it was mine. They “only had the 2ghz” (heh) and I was pleased with the specs. Lots of everything. My 15″ G4 powerbook had been running like a dog: a combination of Firefox memory leak (which I hadn’t realised was happening), years of crap software, betas, rubbish and finally no disk space was making it painfully slow. Oh, and an old processor, and no RAM. Anyway, it had served well. I was however looking forward to the promised greased lightning computing.

Two weeks in, with the first coffee stains on the lovely speakers, and scratches on the lid, here’re my thoughts. This isn’t a full review cos hey I’m lazy, underqualified and others have done it better. These are the views of a Mac Addict on his new toy (^W ‘necessary business expenditure).

1) Packaging to die for. I assume the box is matt-laminated to withstand frequent licking by happy purchasers? Thin, elegant, stylish. What an experience. It’s probably “eco” too, just to add to the smugness factor! I’m keeping the box.

2) Power chord. It’s lovely. Great idea – especially in a house with galloping 3-year olds. The downside is that the transformer unit is significantly bigger than the last PB unit and so plugging it in (on trains, odd corners, underfloor power boxes etc) is a pain. Speaking of pain, there’s now a need to acquire – at £65 a pop – spare power adapters. Strike two on the gullibility scale.

3) Illuminated keyboard. Why didn’t I specify this on the last PB? Excellent.

4) Screen. Denser pixel count, brighter. Pleasant.

5) Startup: whoosh – that’s fast.

6) Speed overall. Well, it’s certainly faster for most things. iCal is still a total, barking, mangey dog. It was conceived in an evil plot to sap power from ‘puters and make us upgrade. It’s now just “awful” instead of “suicide-inducing”. Firefox suck, Mail.app flies, searchlight is fiendishly quick and iPhoto is on performance-enhancing drugs! 10,000 images scrolling briskly. Impressive. That aside though it’s simply a brisker overall experience.

7) YE GODS IT’S HOT!! If this is the “cool” option (ie the Intel dual core because G5 chips run too hot) then I’m going to buy an asbestos mat for the G5. I’ve never had a laptop this hot: it really is not safe for laps! The heat seems to come from the left hand side by the power supply so I blame that. I don’t know why, but I do. You may remember those “take a break” reminder widgets so you didn’t get RSI: this is ‘take a break or your hand will fry!” 🙂

That’s it.

Is it wortwhile? Not sure. It’s nice to have a new ‘puter (fewer scratches, chance to start over on the organisational front, smell of the box etc), but it’s an evolutionary step rather than a total speed revolution. A G5 desktop is still way faster for about everything, and – as we Maccies get reminded – most PC desktops are faster still. Just shows that a) you don’t really need that much power for mobile computing and b) what Mac Addicts will put up with just to use OSX and be touched by the Power of Jobs.

Now, time to order that G5 🙂

TechCrunch � Foldera: Never organize your inbox again

What a promise! This is a nice write-up of Foldera, a web-based ‘new wave organiser’. Thanks to Doug for the nod on this.

I’m mildly obsessed (!) by the need for a better way to organise oneself and teams than either PIMs, exchange or more rigid PM software. Organised, yet disorganised. Flexible yet structured. Usual conflicting requirements…

Doug, via his company Isotoma has just delivered release 2 of an extranet project based on Plone and it’s rather impressive. It’s currently for Littlewoods‘ use only, but after some more development it’ll be available as OSS, so watch this space.

Intel inside but not “Intel Inside (TM)”

I was going to pen something on this, but Giles’ summary is better. Plus, he was there 🙂

BBC NEWS | Technology | Apple debuts Intel-powered Macs

… and mercy me, what power there is too! If you’re going to make a change from the venerable PowerPC then doing so with such panache is the way to go.

Now, I have a perfectly servicable G4 laptop, yet I’m already lusting after the new dual-core ‘pro’ laptops… I could excuse this (after all, tech-lust is allowable “boy foible”), but I know I’m just plain stupid, exploited and being laughed at when the new versions of iWork (er – isn’t this just AppleWorks 1990?) are offered without an upgrade price. Ah, the cost of Mac ownership. It’s like I imagine a mildly abusive relationship to be: some irrational attraction that defies explanation (or at least any explanation that’s palatable); the feeling that the attraction is not reciprocated; that you’re being mocked or disrespected and finally that you should be grateful for the occasional glimmers of kindness…

Still, I’m trying to think of a valid business reason to get the latest offering from the sans-serif smug contrarians… I wonder if “gullible obsession” is valid reason for tax-deductible expenditure…? 🙂

MacMerc.com: Curator of the Newton Museum sells collection on eBay

This brought a small lump to my throat, and a big “yip” to obsessives the world over.

I was a totaly ‘newton nut’ and desired one so, so badly that my heart both ached and skipped just thinking of them. This was when a Psion 3a was the height of ‘puterised diarising (gorblessit – still the best pocket pc, imho). Leaving aside the poor battery life, handwriting recognition etc etc, it was a PDA for the soul.

I know I bore to death on this topic since Doug a while ago bought me a Messagepad 110 off eBay and I thrill to what ‘could have been’ every time I fire it up (mainly just after Vicky’s told me to bin it or use it, and I wax sentimental about it once more…).

To see then NewtonMuseum up for sale elicits mixed emotions: sadness that it’s “closing” and a massive kick from scanning the whole collection – as if Aladdin’s Cave were catalogued and ready for distribution. Six large packing crates, apparently. Yum.

I love this guy’s obsession and I’m glad there are people like him who’ve made the effort to “curate” a collection. Then again, the “Call of Clearance” (to get rid of stuff and free up room for the kids and to breath) is also something I understand. Thankfully, this auction will be a record until eBay does a spring clean. Here’s to another obsessive with deep pockets laying down some cash!

Amazon Mechanical Turk – Welcome

Just caught up with this and have barely stopped chuckling. What a stupendous idea! This is what happens when you gather lots and lots of great people together under one organisational roof, but don’t tell them simply to beaver away at one single mission. It’s clear that Amazon wishes to become the Merchant General of the web, but this takes a massive additional step, to become the Labour Exchange for the planet!

At play here is the disaggregation of labour “units” from “career” down to “job” down to “project” down to “days” and now down to “HIT” or “Human Intelligence Task”. Surely this is the apotheosis of the freelance, global, web-linked Knowledge Worker?

Unlike SmarterWorks.com
or guru.com, or any other number of project exchanges, this is more akin to a ticket-based support/help-desk system in that the items offered for HIT activity are so granluar.

There are the usual refinements one would expect from an Amazon service: the notion of embeding the requests into a request ‘language’ (nice – could be the start of a universal project/task request language…), a sensible approach to qualification (a munge of history, scoring, peer review and reputation).

I’m going to keep an eye on this since it could have a major impact on the way people consider the provision of information services. For example, Business Link for London, where I’m a non-exec director, provides information, diagnosis and brokerage services to London’s enterprise community – linking their needs to support growth with accredited providers of support. The “Turk” approach could certainly inform the way we look at this real world service conceptually, as well as providing a paradigm for the provision of granular or ‘just in time’ support – ie moving beyond the day rate or the formal, larger-scale project.

Days like this I just love the web.