XBOX mods declared legal

June 13th, 2008

In a court case likely to have an impact on the cable industry, a landmark ruling at the Court of Appeal has determined that modifying the hardware of an Xbox does not breach copyright and patents laws.

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7 Tips For An Effective Landing Page

June 13th, 2008

A landing page is the first page the web user arrives at using a specific URL, or clicking a link in an email or at another site. They are popular because they are more effective at accomplishing their purpose than standard pages. However, there are certain characteristics that effective landing pages have in common - here are seven of those.

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Jacqui Sinclair - the Final Episode

March 6th, 2008

The printer that Jacqui Sinclair got for her computer is real nice. I have seen it on a TV ad, which is already discounted by $50, still cost $400+. O man, I never imagine someone will buy that so expensive printer for home use. Anyway, every computer user the the freedom to choose whichever is best suitable for them.

It reminds me of someone when I was still in Saudi Arabia some ten (10) years ago. This guy always wanted to have the latest technology in his computer. DVD drive just came out then, he bought one, but he is still using a CD because there were no DVDs yet then in that part of the world during that time. He spent almost 10 grand in his computer for useless hardwares, for a cost that should have only been a third of that.

Back to Jacqui. I asked her, why did you opted for Linux? Well, she said, I was always been a victim of viruses which got me a phobia of the internet. I was inform that Linux are almost resistant to that kind of attack to I got Linux to be able to get into the internet. She added, I don’t want to be an IT person to be able to maintain my computer and make it free from viruses.

Well again, every one got the reason. It is a free choice.

Jacqui brought her computer at the office. I tinkered with it during lunch break. I was able to load the printer driver that she fortunately have downloaded and saved it in her “Document” folder. the printere driver was a debian package. I installed it the debian way. All process went smoothly.

Unfortunately, I could not test the full functionality of the installation since the printer was left at home. I just told her that, the computer will automatically detect it once plugged into the computer.

I have not heard of heard anymore! Probably, she is happy now with her Linux box. Now, I could call her, Jacqui Sinclair, the Linux lady!

Linux Printer for Jacqui Sinclair

March 3rd, 2008

It’s one normal busy day in the office when my phone rang. I looked at the name prompt on my phone and saw the name Jacqui Sinclair.

This is an unexpected call from such a person whom I have only saw once but never talk to her. She just started at the office about a couple of months ago. Much so, she is at ground zero and I am at the prime space overlooking the sea at the sixth level of our office building.

Though surprised, I pretended not to. I asked her how could I help her! She ask me if I could help her on her new Linux computer with Ubuntu 7.10. Her query is actually miles away from what I expected. I expected something like about, what happened to the drawing in… blah…blah…blah. But I got a question about Linux.

I also wondered how was she able to know that I am a Linux “techie”! There are only few peopleat the office who knows I am one. And I can actually pinpoint who he was. I did not bother asking Jacqui about that question though.

Too much for the introduction. I have not actually told anything yet about her problem.

Jacqui Sinclair got a new computer pre-installed with Ubuntu 7.10. The seller actually asked her if she wants her new machine to have the printer pre-installed. Well, proudly she said, not necessarily, that will be easy. Jacqui is actually thinking of the Windows printer installation.

Jacqui got a Brother MFC885CW, the printer driver of which is not included into Ubuntu 7.10. Jacqui says that it is new. To make the story short, she was not able to install her new printer as it should be. It is only detected as a generic text printer.

Brother MFC885CW

I ask her to call me when she is at home, I could guide her into the installation of her new printer. In addition to that, I emailed her the steps of installing a local printer which came from theUbuntu wiki site.

Finally, I got a call from Jacqui Sinclair at around 7:10PM. We got through the steps, unfortunately, we were unable to to it over the phone. I really wondered why such an installation do not even include simple commands such as CHMOD, After several tries, I asked if if she tried calling the vendor of her new machine. Jacqui responded without any glitch, I talked to him for half-an-hour, I did not get any right answer. So I quit. I terribly need this printer to work.

My last option, is to have a hands-on on her Linux machine. I will tell you about that on the next article.