@VictorMourning aww, you guys – 01:39 AM GMT
@zipties woof, wotta pita. Glad the outcome was mostly ok! – 01:42 AM GMT
@arthurwyatt @molcher did you tell him how the top of the space needle used to fly around? If not, you need to up your game. – 01:43 AM GMT
@LeavittAlone Capt. Dicarp is wildly emotional and erratic, abusive, and possibly a drunk. – 01:48 AM GMT
I am used an acoustic-coupler modem old. I am saw Yellow Submarine in a theater on initial release old. I am flew a DC3 airline flight old. – 01:53 AM GMT
What in hell? A Twitteriffic Easter egg? Something I might hesitantly call Tappy Bird? – 03:55 AM GMT
@tclancy IIRC there’s a whole chapter on the technology and terminology of rope and canvas. Astounding stuff. – 04:09 AM GMT
@tclancy whoops. Tweet got ate. – 04:10 AM GMT
@tclancy rope tweet referred to Richard Henry Dana, “Two Years Before the Mast,” ca. 1845. Give or take. – 04:12 AM GMT
@arthurwyatt next stop, West Seattle! – 05:32 PM GMT
RT: @Ghardaia_mzab: النهار حاضرة بقوة . بقناتها الأرضية و الفضائية . fb.me/1d7FboZ2R – 07:16 PM GMT
Mildly interesting: in a location where cell data to my Treo worked fine seven years ago, iPhone has trouble. – 08:50 PM GMT
I think it’s due to higher BW expectations on part of data publishers. Tut tut. – 08:51 PM GMT
Also, that Treo had scrolling ereaders, stereo microphones and uncompressed audio recording, and direct file-system file access. Hm. – 09:09 PM GMT

RT: @mubay: I never understood why a company called Michaelsoft was run by a guy named Bill, then a guy named Steve. – 05:52 AM GMT
.@BoringPostcards @popdose Chilton’s widow, a friend of mine since we were in college, is down on the writer and unhappy with the project. – 05:37 PM GMT
RT: @UziSuzuki: Look at how unimpressed Toki is with a beaver my dad caught last night. Can’t be bothered. pic.twitter.com/SUwVsUdOLO – 05:45 PM GMT
Prior RT for Cam and Josh – 05:45 PM GMT
@esinclai @BoringPostcards she posted a brief denouncement on FB. Seemed to be trying to express what she thought Alex would have felt. – 05:51 PM GMT
@BoringPostcards @esinclai there’s this other thing too, in that he wasn’t even ambivalent about the Big Star stuff. He was unhappy with it. – 05:58 PM GMT
@BoringPostcards @esinclai so downstream attention that stems from that work provoked his displeasure. As I understand it. – 05:58 PM GMT
Extended sojourn to the land of no wifi finally drives me off the official Twitter app. Man, it’s terrible. – 08:56 PM GMT

@mugubrainpan hee hee hee. well, once I get set to JB that shizz, I shall so set sail! I mean, phone crashes are why I never did that before – 12:01 AM GMT
@mugubrainpan and look at you, twitterin’! – 12:02 AM GMT
RT: @owengood: This is why Kickstarter is such a triumph: Silicon Valley figured out a way to offload all the risk of a new venture onto the consumer. – 12:03 AM GMT
First look at Faceboculus, modeled by J. Frakes pic.twitter.com/yNRzMAmVFE – 12:52 AM GMT
@memurrell @manwhoyells @DanEngler it sounds good to me! but not very Klingish. “notes of caramel?” – 12:53 AM GMT
@memurrell @manwhoyells @DanEngler “it is a … *soft* fruit. I do not care for it.” /Worf voice – 01:35 AM GMT
@DanEngler @memurrell @manwhoyells gramps was a Klingon! Who knew? – 01:35 AM GMT
@manwhoyells @memurrell @DanEngler hm, gay Riker. interesting, filthy. supported in canon. hmmmm – 05:34 AM GMT
@sugarfreak this came up in our aftertalk post-“The Wind Rises” – 05:43 AM GMT
@ftrain you’ll never believe this one quick trick to tail apache logs directly – don’t let it hide behind admin priviliege! – 03:03 PM GMT
After a two hours of struggle, I was able locate and check out ebooks for my iPad from SPL. two additional logins beyond my library ID. – 05:42 PM GMT
The additional logins were to Amazon, to access Kindle-format items via the iPad Kindle app, and an “Adobe ID,” to access DRM ebooks in-app. – 05:43 PM GMT
The app is something called “OverDrive Media Console,” which is a sandbox for accessing DRM library content, both ebooks and audiobooks. – 05:45 PM GMT
In and of itself, that’s a PITA. But real problem was catalog discoverability. Only the most limited taxonomy is avail for topic narrowing. – 05:46 PM GMT
e.g., “History,” yes, but not “American History.” No apparent provision for Dewey decimal browsing, either. – 05:47 PM GMT
“Advanced Search” did not add additional search features. There did not appear to be support for Booloean or either Google flavor operators. – 05:49 PM GMT
So partial title search or author search was as close to a keyword or topic search as I could get, which produced oversmall result sets. – 05:50 PM GMT
individual info pages for specific books presented algorithmic suggestions, which was somewhat helpful. but if the author was prolific … – 05:51 PM GMT
… the suggestion set was entirely works by that author. Additionally, there was no way to refresh suggestions without reloading … – 05:51 PM GMT
… and the in-app browser did not have a dedicated refresh button, so you have to nav back and then forward. – 05:52 PM GMT
@esinclai well, I’m still glad to see it for multiplat finally. for *years* of *this century* it was wintel-or-browser only. – 05:54 PM GMT
@esinclai in end user value, not sure it’s worth the hassle for leisure reading. would be worthwhile for research if dewey implemented. – 05:55 PM GMT
@esinclai however, audiobook access, based on inflated cost to buy audiobooks, may be worthwhile, depending on playback features. – 05:56 PM GMT
@mubay they saw the speedsuit pix and were all hell yes – 10:52 PM GMT
@rjl20 @sculpin what y’all in need of hyar is some o that bear grease pomade. – 10:56 PM GMT

176 missing now. Man. – 03:39 AM GMT
@arthurwyatt @gjcharlet @jackwilliambell Jack has a place up that road, started tweeting the responders as they drove by about 45 mins in. – 04:16 AM GMT
@arthurwyatt @gjcharlet @jackwilliambell he storified his tweets from Sunday: storify.com/jackwilliambel… – 04:19 AM GMT
@madamjujujive @arthurwyatt @gjcharlet @jackwilliambell the slide is approximately a mile wide and a mile deep. – 04:29 AM GMT
@madamjujujive @arthurwyatt @gjcharlet @jackwilliambell hi-rez pix: seattletimes.com/html/pictureth… – 04:33 AM GMT
@madamjujujive @arthurwyatt @gjcharlet @jackwilliambell Scalewise, 1/2 St. Helens crater, +/-. pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2000/fs036-… (scroll down) – 04:36 AM GMT
@madamjujujive @arthurwyatt @gjcharlet @jackwilliambell St. Helens slide area much greater, however. But hill gash is comparable to crater. – 04:37 AM GMT
@jackwilliambell @madamjujujive @arthurwyatt @gjcharlet no doubt. the new count, up from 108, is unsettling. – 04:57 AM GMT
@jackwilliambell @madamjujujive @arthurwyatt @gjcharlet long drive for you now too, in more ways than one. – 04:57 AM GMT
‘Some residents, according to a 1967 Seattle Times story, referred to it simply as “Slide Hill.” ’ seattletimes.com/html/localnews… – 05:56 AM GMT
On July 1, Washington State adult adoptees can access their original birth certificates. Mostly. doh.wa.gov/LicensesPermit… – 09:54 AM GMT
reminder: iOS7 is shit. my iPhone 4 just went into a crashing loop on my attempt to, uh, ANSWER THE PHONE. – 11:48 PM GMT

TNG REWATCH COMPLETE – 05:13 AM GMT
Good lord, when did I start that? Last may, I think. – 05:14 AM GMT
in the 1970s, Richard Bach, author of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, wrote an episode of the never-produced Star Trek: Phase II series. Huh. – 01:41 PM GMT
@gjcharlet @YouTube O.O – 01:54 PM GMT
Mission Control Desk youtu.be/j6zseFi070E (via locked acct)O.O – 01:55 PM GMT
@tclancy @gjcharlet I watched that and felt shame for not having churned out a fleet of pressboard MFP aviation sim gauges for my rig – 03:30 PM GMT
108 people currently unaccounted for. Holy crap. – 04:37 PM GMT

RT: @wapio3021: BREAKING: Evacuation Notice from Oso to Stanwood after deadly mudslide clogs Stillaguamish River: #530slide pic.twitter.com/pBNXLut21K” – 01:48 AM GMT
Prior RT: evac notice for riverplain, that slide plugged the river. – 01:49 AM GMT
@PicPedant @eclisham @slugnads yes. duplicate white shape under rightmost hand position, also dark fringe behind animal – 01:53 AM GMT
wat amazon.com/Jansal-Valley-… – 02:15 AM GMT
@esinclai @DanEngler FUNDING UNSUCCESSFUL – 02:34 AM GMT
@esinclai @DanEngler (researching savory na dinner drinks, that was in the search on amzn) (a man can only drink so much tea) – 02:37 AM GMT
@DanEngler @esinclai investigating keeping a beefbone mother up at all times. that and maybe some beet/dandelion concentrate. – 03:44 AM GMT
@mwhybark: Maybe gramps promo shaker had the right idea. pic.twitter.com/ejNuiCZsfX – 03:50 AM GMT
HEMO: it’s Thompson’s Double-Malted MALTED MILK with BEEF and IRON – 03:53 AM GMT
I really must draw that, it’s too good – 03:53 AM GMT
@DanEngler someone in the building must have received a shipment! – 03:57 AM GMT
well, i didn’t mean right now but that’s what happened. pic.twitter.com/vgDmyAHyHb – 04:50 AM GMT
That was somewhere kind of odd in Gramps’ house, like on his desk or something, twenty years ago when we cleaned his house up after he died. – 04:50 AM GMT
Back then when you opened it, it smelled like fresh clotting blood, strong enough to gag you. Naturally I had to have it. – 04:52 AM GMT
RT: @middleclasstool: OMG more of this you guys arcaneimages.tumblr.com/post/803762494… – 04:57 AM GMT
@middleclasstool so funny (attn @arthurwyatt and @LeavittAlone) – 04:58 AM GMT

@DanEngler augh – 01:03 AM GMT
attn @gjcharlet nytimes.com/2014/03/23/fas… – 09:39 AM GMT
online death rituals: the new monocle – 09:40 AM GMT
iOS7 is shit. Safari hides full URL when browsing, making it impossible to glean additional nav info by glancing. please make a note of it. – 05:23 PM GMT
@arthurwyatt yeah, hadda look that one up too. @DanEngler *likes* it. I think the use case is the screen thumb when switching. – 06:00 PM GMT
@arthurwyatt the Safari changes are freaking *criminal*. Have you tried to do a page search? If not, please take a crack at it. I’ll wait. – 06:01 PM GMT
@arthurwyatt don’t look it up first! – 06:01 PM GMT
@DanEngler shake = undo, except when it doesn’t – 06:22 PM GMT
RT: @hell0jed: Fuck. I had to buy this. pic.twitter.com/2ULWZMRqSF – 09:17 PM GMT
@hell0jed Foss is on twitter, btw. Think the acct is administered by his daughter, not sure why I think that. – 09:18 PM GMT
RT: @jackwilliambell: Pic by @beyond90seconds of Oso landslide scene. pic.twitter.com/cZa52jCp6C – 09:20 PM GMT
Prior RT is a shot of an enormous, multiple fatality landslide in NW WA. Slide hit this AM at about 10:20. Reports of 15 homes hit. – 09:22 PM GMT

Notes on large-format printers

Having spent the past couple of years messing around in Ancestry.com I have developed a need to run off some of the overly-convoluted and error-filled family tree charts to go over them in search of problematic entries. There’s really no good way to do this, unfortunately. The best way to get a complete dependency chart requires a bunch of workarounds that involve custom paper sizes and I still end up with trees that are 36 inches by 200 or more inches wide.

I suppose the best way around this is to subdivide the trees and run them off on smaller sheets. Those sheets still wind up being huse, well over standard 8.5×11 or 11×17 sizes.

This of course sent me off on an intensive craigslist hunt that resulted in sourcing three wide format printers for very reasonable prices. I’m in the midst of figuring out the best way to implement LAN printing to them, something which is proving tricky due to the age of the machines.

The two most interesting of the devices are both Hewlett-Packard DesignJets, the enterprise-level large format printers descended from old-school pen plotters and most widely deployed into architecture and CAD shops. The models are the HP DJ 450c and the HP DJ 1050. The 1050c appears to have come on the market around 2000. The 450 looks to me as if it was designed and released sometime in the early 1980s.

Neither model supports USB. The best method of access in both cases is via HP JetDirect printserver. In the case of the 1050, an ethernet-capable JetDirect card is installed and setup and has no difficulty obtaining an IP from my LAN. In the case of the 450, I had to pick up an outboard unit on eBay for a couple of bucks.

HP recently ended support for the 1050c entirely. They never shipped a Mac driver for the unit in its’ bare-bones non-Postscript configuration, either. Of course, the one I have is non-PS. PS upgrades are available on the aftermarket for between 300 and 3000 dollars, and that’s well outside my budget for the project.

The unit is interoperable with Gutenprint drivers derived from a PPD originally written for the HP DJ 650, but none of the integrated distributions include these drivers, instead including ONLY the Gutenprint PS3 driver for the 1050c, 1050c+, and 1050cm.

I am currently able to print to the machine using a 750 driver derived from the Gutenprint 650. I need to blow the dust off the part of my mind devoted to writing custom PPDs in order to enable the custom, user-defined rollfeed paper sizes, and the PPD assumes a lower maximum print resolution than the printer is capable of. One of the printheads has failed and a careful cleaning failed to resurrect it, so it looks as if I am on the hook for that consumable cost. But on the whole I’m happy with the progress to date.

The other old HP printer, the 450, had quite evidently not been used for years and had a shredded and rotten drivebelt. I order to replace the belt, nearly the entire unit must be struck, a disassembly involving no fewer than ten steps. Happily, the service manual is trivial to locate. Unhappily, the manual’s illustrations are somewhat deceiving and occasionally omit important details, but despite this the teardown is less demanding than a laptop disassembly.

Once I had replaced the belt i ran into a few snags on the reassembly and testing, most importantly a reassembly error in which the cutterhead would always snag on the printhead and halt the startup test sequence. This has been rectified.

Very interestingly to me, the 450 uses the very oldest style of HP inkjet printer-cartridge refills.

Early next week I think I will have each unit operating as I intend and then I will make a decision as to their disposition. I am leaning toward keeping them for a short period and then reselling them on CL in working order and with documentation to simplify the life of their next owner.

Some links and notes:

Alternate drivers suggested here:
“Which Driver do I use?
There are two GhostScript drivers which should work.
OCE9050
OCE-TDS400.”

Have not located or tested the OCE series drivers.

The following entry for the 1050cm suggests using dnj650c. Currently I have set up a 750c driver which seems to work but which has bad page size descriptors.

Skeletal instructions for creating a custom ppd.

Q1281A postscript upgrades rare, usually listed at $450-550, one listing at $330 here.

HP4820A black printhead usually $180-$140, occasionally $130. currently one $100 listing on Amazon. Recent month sales history on ebay includes several sales at about $50.

Another PN for PS upgrade: C6076A. An oddity on the PNs for the upgrade is that the Q1281A PN seems to be universally associated with the 1050c+. It is not clear if that is because implementing the upgrade converts a 1050c to a 1050c+.

Q1281 for “>also.

Notes on ink buildup causing printhead replacement call by printer on 1050c.

Repurposing old ram for use in some HP printers (this is really interesting, and I have a bunch of old DIMMS around).

@poupou Goodbye Earl comes to mind – 08:34 PM GMT

@praguepainter haven’t been giving u feedback on this prototech kick you are on but go man go like crazy, gates, yeah – 02:33 PM GMT
@praguepainter true true – 02:35 PM GMT
@praguepainter drawn from life as dated with a mouse on a 1988 vintage OG Mac in MacPaint. pic.twitter.com/SNzyO1t6jX – 02:48 PM GMT