Bloated HP Printer Drivers and how I got around them...

I bought a HP DeskJet 6980 today, and I was impressed with the hardware side of it. Networkable and noted for good ink mileage I thought I did well until I went to install the printer driver. The minimum install was over 250mb with no choice in the matter. It installed a bunch of apps I didn't want, kept attempting to phone home, enroll me in marketing feedback schemes and insisted on starting a bunch of things on windows startup that I couldn't turn off. I was peeved about this, and upon checking HP's website discovered they had a minimal driver package for this model but it only supported the USB connection not networking which is what I wanted to use. I uninstalled everything and reinstalled the driver for it manually of course as HP's install cd wouldn't cooperate with me. Here is how I did it under WinXP: Going into add remove printers in control panel and attempting to install the printer from the network telling the wizard it was a network printer proved fruitless. This printer although networkable is not engineered properly and does not broadcast itself on the network as a printer device. I confirmed the printer had the proper network connectivity, its name would resolve and that no relevant port was blocked and then re ran the add printer wizard and instead selected local printer, unchecked automatically detect and install my plug and play printer, clicked next and selected create new port and chose "standard TCP/IP port" then clicked past the warning about making sure the printer was properly networked and turned on (it was) and then on the next dialog entered the ip address I had already statically assigned to the printer (through its http interface) gave the port a relevant name (I used the network name I had assigned to the printer however you can use whatever you want. I left the always print to this device even if the ip changes unchecked as I am using a static ip for this printer (printers on a network should always be assigned static ips and properly reserved in whatever DHCP or name service scheme you use (router, firewall etc). On the next screen I clicked finish and windows proceeded to install the new port wherein afterwards presented me with a dialog asking to install the printer software. I clicked on have disk, inserted the HP setup disk that came with the printer (cancelled its autorun attempt) and then clicked next. Windows searched the dick and found the raw driver files it needed and after presenting me with another dialog confirming which printer driver I wanted to use (therewas 4 separate instances of the same driver scattered on the cd, I chose the first one in the list and completed the wizard. It installed the printer software, asked me if I wanted to print a test page which I did and wouldn't you know the printer works perfectly and without all the unwanted bloat. I hope this will help others out there who have bought a new printer and then are dismayed at what is claimed you have to install to make it work. The truth is you don't. I'm sure the above procedure will work with other types of modern printers, even multifunction printers, although some of their functionality could be reduced without at least some of the manufacturers extra software. Your mileage may vary, but even with a local printer ie: usb you can get around the bloat with a similar procedure as above.
Like most annoyances in life if you sit down and think about it there is usually always a way around them.

New Facebook account

Facebook me!
I am NOT a big fan of social networking sites however I did create a facebook account. You can see it here -->

Script Errors in TAXWIZ by Intuit Canada

Got yourself a copy of TaxWiz and now are getting script errors when trying to fill out forms? Annoying isn't it? meh :(
Well I did, and have a document on how to solve it. Its posted over in the library, get it here.
Not a very good way to design software in my opinion. Many people including me have Internet Explorers security cranked all the way up and locked down and out and use a third party browser (firefox in my case) because of the lack of content control and security issues inherent with using Internet Explorer.

What the Heck is up with this?

Found this on an Elder Scrolls board today, it appears to be a screen capture from the new Oblivion game, and somone had waaaay too much time on their hands with what appears to be a summon watermelon spell. Some people make me wonder... 

I've found a way to stop hotlinking

I've found a way to stop people from hotlinking my images and sapping my bandwidth, using .htaccess
Not the greatest solution but it will do for now. Information on using .htaccess can be found in the library.
Now I can upload the rest of the Whitby Psyche pics as well as their stories.

Same Aquarium 4 Months Later

The Mollies have spawned and I have approximately 15 young ones swimming around. One pair of guppies died, but everyone else is doing well. I do partial water changes every week cause the tank is slightly overpopulated however it is also very densely planted with Hygrophila Polysperma and Vallisneria. It is well lit and has a filter running that is way bigger then normally used for that size of tank and I am carefull not to overfeed the fish and this population does very well. No fish can be seen in this picture however they are all in there I count them everyday. The dense aquatic vegatation provides ample hiding places for everyone. 

My Fish Tank First Set Up

My 10 gallon fish tank freshly set up, did this in January (06) It is home to a pair of Sunset SailFin Mollies, 1 Plecostomus (Spotted), 1 Chinese Algae Eater, 1 Armored Catfish (Corydoras) and 2 pairs of fancy guppies. 

Cat in a Box

My cats love to get into the weirdest places. Here is the White Cat chilling inside an empty carton. I kicked her out of it after I took this though cause I didn't think the plastic was a good idea : 

The Canadian SnowBirds

Took this last summer from my balconey during a flyover by the Canadian SnowBirds who were in town practicing for an upcoming airshow. 

The Last of the Whitby Psyche Pics.

I've posted the last of the Whity Psyche pics that I took before they demolished the buildings last fall. They are over in the gallery. I've only posted a few for now untill I can implement something to stop linking abuse.

Cats, annoying blogger publisher issues and broken fonts.

Testing changes I made to my blog, to make it easier to post from anywhere. Pic storage was an issue, stupid blogger publisher would try to upload images to a directory that didn't exist. Sifting through the blogger help I discovered that it uploads to uploaded_images/ within the main blog directory. They could of told me that somwhere in the upload images dialog meh. Also the font tool sucks, font changes affect the whole paragraph, not just highlighted text :( Stupid thing still will not render pics properly. They will upload to where they are supposed to go but show up as an empty clickable box. ffs :( I have to upload them as files, as the html is uses when I try to upload them as images is all messed up with invalid urls and errors. (http://not-a-real-namespace/http://not-a-real-namespace/http://not-a-real-namespace
/http://not-a-real-namesp...) this is the rubbish it places in the post editor and the final result is an empty image box that when clicked redirects me to another users blog. wtf? Uploading and linking by hand works, bit I wanted the blogger post editor to do it, so that posting would be easier.

These are my two cats, the white one is the "White Cat" and the black one is "Phish" cause she likes water, which is highly unusualy for cats.

High Gasoline Prices? Conspiracy Theorys...

What the sam hell does rising crude oil prices and Iran’s nuclear ambitions have to do with the rising cost of gasoline at the pumps. Just another excuse to make money by gouging consumers is what I see. "Analysts say oil prices are likely to climb even higher in the weeks ahead as worries grow about how international pressure on Iran, OPEC’s No. 2 oil producer, will affect its crude output. Rebel disruptions of oil production in Nigeria, the fifth-biggest source of U.S. oil imports, also pose a risk to supply." (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12400801/)

LavaSoft Gone Corrupt??

I log onto my favorite newsgroups today and what to my wondering eyes appear is a thread with multiple links to reports that LavaSoft (makers of AdAware a trusted antispyware program) has quietly removed detection for WhenU which is a well known abusive spyware/malware threat. No one was notified and no one knew about it untill the Eric L. Howes from spywareinfo.com found it. Questions regarding this dasterdly deed to their msg boards as of this post have been ignored and deleted. www.spywareinfo.com does alot of spyware application testing over there and its certainly worth a look if you are new to fighting malware threats to your computer. There is a lot of bullshit rogue spyware apps out there and this site does a good job of listing them and which ones are usefull and which ones you need to avoid like the plague. This finding regarding LavaSoft really makes me wonder who you can really trust when it comes to fighting the scourge of the modern age called marketing. I am going to investigate some of the other spyware/malware tools that I use and see if there is any issues with them.
Dave
Links to articles regarding the above news;
Don't Drink the WhenU Kool-Aid
http://netrn.net/spywareblog/archives/2005/02/13/dont-drink-the-whenu-kool-aid/

Leading Antispyware Vendors Quietly Drop WhenU Detection
http://www.spywareinfo.com/articles/spyware/whenu_detection_dropped.php

ASW Vendors in La-La Land
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,12665642~mode=flat