Walk Alone

Its submission time. If you have been tracking this blog since its first post, you know what that means - no posts till exams are over. Sucks. But hey, I have to do it just one more time and then its over for ever.

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I configured my USB printer to print from DOS. Details here. It requires Windows 2000/XP. The short version is - share your printer and map the network share to LPT1. If you don’t have a LAN connection (even a cable modem connected to a NIC will do), use Microsoft Loopback Adapter, as shown here. Once done, you are ready to fire print requests from DOS. I tested listing a DIR output and a file from Turbo C++ IDEv3. It is slow. I read somewhere else that win32 was putting in a delay of 15 seconds for network printers (remember, DOS sees a “network” printer) - something to do with print spooling. It can be removed with a registry hack, but thats OK. Also, right now I have no way to change the default fonts and layout. The font is fine but the layout is almost touching the paper’s edges.

Here’s how the plan went on my PC. “System error 66″ resulted becuase I hadn’t shared my printer yet. The commands are preceeded by the prompt.

C:\>net view \\makubex00
There are no entries in the list.

C:\>net use lpt1 \\makubex00\hp3325
System error 66 has occurred.

The network resource type is not correct.

C:\>net use lpt1 \\makubex00\hp3325
The command completed successfully.

C:\>net view \\makubex00
Shared resources at \\makubex00

Share name Type Used as Comment

——————————–
hp3325 Print LPT1 hp deskjet 3320 series
The command completed successfully.

C:\>dir > lpt1

C:\>

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I’m going to install Ubuntu 5.10 after the exams. Took me about 4 days to download on Torrent. This time, I kept my client running and got a share ratio of 52%. I had set an 80% or 300 minutes - whichever is earlier - limit. For the record, the share ratio by the time the download finished was 10%. Anyone wanting Ubuntu 5.10 for x86 and willing to wait till December 25, feel free to contact me for details - after December 25.

Scroll right down to the bottom of this page. Ubuntu 5.10 - the Breezy Badger (I prefer the numbering system) is coming out this Thursday, the 13th.

I’ve been selected by Direm Marketing Services. Thats die-ray-m, more concise details on this page. What does it do? Think BPCL. Think Petrobonus. Direm executed it. And whats my job? Making the software that runs in the background for such projects. Databases, data warehousing, cleanup and analysis. Thats the scene, simplified, for me. Main tools - Perl, Oracle, MySQL.

While its tempting to roll out a list of people to thank for their help and encouragement, its a potential minefield. You never know who might feel hurt for being left out…

You know who you all are.

Thank you.

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The recent nation-wide bandh had an interesting side-story. Bengal CM Buddhadeb got a taste of his own medicine when striking party workers blocked his convoy. He got down (from his Amby probably) and admonished the workers - “Walk in a single line. I know you are striking, but that doesn’t allow you to block roads and stop those who want to work”. Or some words to that effect. Wish all the party-bosses would say the same to all those fools striking and affecting bandhs through out the country. It seems he was more angry because his wife (who’s in the IT sector) got stopped too. Only after her identity was revealed, was she allowed to go on. A lot of IT companies reported disruption. This ticked off the CM, it seems. Any ideas why the Bengal Government is so interested in IT (deputations have visited Singapore for consultations about an IT park in Bengal) when the party hacks say IT and BPO services are useless?

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For the convenience of renewals in time all the subscriber account whose expiry date lies between 4th to10th of month is set to 4th. Please contact your Local cable operator or Sonali Cable for renewals in time.

This has been popping up on the screen for sometime now, interfering in my activities. Guess the 6 days of the pack are forgotten for convenience. And what about renewals? Why aren’t they renewed in time for everyone, instead of waiting for the lazy LCO to do it in his own sweet time?