In the wake of Apple's battery recall I've finally got round to checking my own batteries, and it looks like both the batteries I have for my 12-inch Powerbook are included in the recall. Considering I bought the second because I trashed the first one to death and it wasn't holding charge anymore, I'm moderately happy. I've never had a problem, and I'll get two new fresh batteries in exchange for my two aging ones. Can't complain...
Update Nov. 2007: The instructions below are for PowerPC Macs only, and don't work on Intel based machines. However there is still a way to get the printer working, at least under Mac OS 10.4, I haven't tried under Leopard yet. Download and install the PowerPC version of ESP Ghostscript from Sourceforge (espgs-7.07.1.ppc.dmg) and then the PowerPC Samsung GDI drivers (samsung-gdi-foomatic-1.0.ppc.dmg) from OpenPrinting.org. Make sure the printer is plugged in during the installation. Then go ahead and set up the printer as normal from the Print & Fax preferences, but select "ML-1210 Foomatic + GDI" as your printer when asked. Despite having just installed the PowerPC drivers, and unlike the official Smasung drivers for the ML-1740 I talked about below, these seem to work okay, at least for me as my ML-1610 is now working fine with my Intel Macbook.
I've been on the look out for a cheap laser printer for a couple of weeks, and in the end I picked up a Samsung ML-1610 laser printer from eBuyer for £49.99. Since it was advertised as being supported by Linux I just presumed that it would work out of the box under OS X. Unfortunately not, and I've just spent half an hour or so tinkering getting it working.
It turns out that the ML-1610 natively supports Microsoft's Graphics Device Interface (GDI) via the Samsung Printer Language (SPL) and after running across Jeff Boulter's post about drivers he'd managed to find which supported the Samsung ML-1740, it turned out that these were actually generic SPL drivers and, despite not explicitly saying so, supported the ML-1610 just fine.
So now that I have it working directly via USB, does anyone know if there are problems with the ML-1610 and either of the D-Link DP-G310 or Netgear WGPS606 wireless print servers? Or with these print servers and OS X?
In the wake of the largest ever consumer electronics recall in history by Dell, it seems that Apple are now also recalling batteries that may be affected by the Sony battery problems. So if you have a 12" iBook or a 12 & 15" Powerbook, and a battery with a model number of A1061, A1079 or A1078 and A1148 respectively, you should probably check your serial number against the list of affected batteries.
It now looks likely that NASA have chosen Orion as the the name the new Crew Exploration Vehicle and possibly for the entire programme leading up to America's return to the Moon. That said, I'm currently under the impression that, officially at least, the name for the programme is still Project Constellation.
The name is liable to cause a great deal of confusion. Although the is already an American rocket named Orion, the main source of confusion will be the original Project Orion, the first engineering design study of a spacecraft powered by nuclear pulse propulsion, undertaken by General Atomics in the 1950's and 60's. The original Project Orion is well loved, and despite critics, is treasured as one of those "what if?" moments in history by space activists around the world.
George Dyson, son of physicist Freeman Dyson who amongst many other notable things worked on the original Project Orion, has written a book about the project; "Project Orion: The True Story of the Atomic Spaceship" (US/UK) which I'd recommend for anyone that wants to learn about the original project and to find out why NASA's choice of name for their return to the Moon is such a disappointment to those of us following the manned spaceflight programme. We'd wanted, hoped for, so much more...
Innovations in user interfaces aren't that common, so I was really pleased to see NTT's new cell phone has a novel way of showing the current battery status...
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| CREDIT: Slashphone.com |
Following rumours that they wanted out of the market the news that no buyers have emerged, and that Boeing is therefore going to close down its in-flight broadband service, is probably not going to surprise many people. However the news immediately sparked speculation that perhaps Google should buy Boeing Connexion, as a perfect fit to its Google WiFi service in Mountain View, and to get a foot in the door in the in-flight tracking business.
Brian McConnell has an interesting article on the O'Reilly network about how he took his house off the utility grid. I've been thinking along similar lines, although I don't have the budget to throw around that Brian obviously has, and living in the UK rather than California I've been thinking about wind turbines rather than photovoltaics. Although I'm not exactly alone (via Digg) in thinking that wind turbines are a good solution.
Of course you can always make your own solar cell (via Make: Blog), but it's not exactly going to produce enough power to run your house. That said cheap 9 or 12V panels for prototyping (via Make: Blog) are coming down in price rather dramatically, and it looks like larger installations are about to become more efficient, at less cost. Time to think about dropping off the grid...
I've been stumbling across mentions of Mark Caswell-Daniels' mashup, Goggles, for a couple of weeks now. It's a cute flight simulator mashup that uses images directly from Google Maps as the backdrop.
The Times is reporting that airlines have been ordered to severely reduce the number of outgoing flights out of Heathrow.
British Airways said that it was awaiting further advice from the Department for Transport but was complying with a directive by BAA, the airports authority, to cancel 20 per cent of its short-haul operation today in addition to cancelling all 26 of its domestic flights from Gatwick. The airline, which cut 30 per cent of its Heathrow flights yesterday, has now lost about 900 of the 2,900 flights that it was due to fly in and out of London's two largest airports over the past four days....and just when I thought things were getting back to normal.
The threat level in the UK has just been downgraded from "critical" to "severe", which means that each passenger can now carry one piece of hand luggage onboard when they fly. However the change appears to have caught operators on the hop as they're unprepared and won't be allowing hand luggage through security until tomorrow at some airports...
It looks like the changes to the Google home page which got rolled out yesterday have a problem, like many Google products, they just don't work in Safari. The cute little drop down menu which you get after hitting More>> appears okay, but clicking on the options inside don't actually open up any new pages. You'd have thought that they'd have at least tested it?
Update: For the curious, I'm running Safari 2.0.3 (417.8) on Mac OS X 10.4.5.
Update: It has now been fixed...
Ah ha! I think I've figured out a way around not being able to take my laptop onboard on flights in or out of the UK...
I should be able to take the Eurostar to Paris, and then fly from Charles de Gaulle, after all nobody else has a hand baggage ban in place. I wonder how long it's going to take for everyone else to figure this out? Talk about offshoring jobs...
Anti-terrorist police say they have foiled a suspected plot to blow up aircraft leaving UK airports. It's understood the aim was to detonate bombs smuggled on board flights to the United States in hand luggage, and as a result extra security is now in place at all UK airports.
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| CREDIT: Associated Press/BBC News |
| Screen capture from BBC News 24 |
Passengers may take through the airport security search point, in a single (ideally transparent) plastic carrier bag, only the following items. Nothing may be carried in pockets:In response the US has raised it's alert level for flights coming from the UK, and for internal flights. Heathrow has also been shut to all incoming flights not already in the air.
- Pocket-size wallets and pocket-size purses plus contents (for example money, credit cards, identity cards etc (not handbags)
- Travel documents essential for the journey (for example passports and travel tickets)
- Prescription medicines and medical items sufficient and essential for the flight (eg, diabetic kit), except in liquid form unless verified as authentic
- Spectacles and sunglasses, without cases
- Contact lens holders, without bottles of solution
- For those travelling with an infant: baby food, milk (the contents of each bottle must be tasted by the accompanying passenger) and sanitary items sufficient and essential for the flight (nappies, wipes, creams and nappy disposal bags)
- Female sanitary items sufficient and essential for the flight, if unboxed (eg tampons, pads, towels and wipes)
- Tissues (unboxed) and/or handkerchiefs
- Keys (but no electrical key fobs). All passengers must be hand searched, and their footwear and all the items they are carrying must be X-ray screened.
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| CREDIT: Phil Coomes/BBC News |
| Most flights cancelled at Heathrow... |
Passengers are going to have to get used to the new restrictions, at least for the foreseeable future... - Chris Yates, Jane's Airport ReviewWe're also being told that we should pack on the basis hand luggage may not be allowed and to ensure that our checked luggage have a strong lock to protect valuables like laptops and cameras. Which is a bit confusing, as last time I put a lock on my hold baggage the TSA tore the bag to pieces. I use cable ties these days, but I'm hardly going to trust my laptop to that, even if I thought it'd survive in my hold baggage...
You have to remember that it's a developer conference, but despite this everyone gets seriously worked up about possible new hardware surprises that were never going to happen. If Apple ever do launch an iPhone, it probably won't be at WWDC...
Amongst many others, Engadget covered the event live, and in the end the only real surprise was the lack of real surprises.
While there wasn't a design overhaul, despite optimistic predictions, I'll settle for the new four core Mac Pro as a replacement for the PowerMac G5. Although after playing around on the
