The Coolnotions.com Blog

Ink Cartridges - Squeezing Out a few more Pages

2010-03-19T07:53:00.000-07:00

I accidentally discovered a little trick for getting a little bit more printing out of a dying ink cartridge this week. While printing out copies of a two page form, I noticed that the first page was a little light in places. The second page was too light to even be legible. I concluded that the ink cartridge had died. So I just had the bank for which I needed the form copy my original for the second page and made a mental note to pick up a new ink jet cartridge later this week.

The next day, forgetting that the ink cartridge was dead or dying, I sent a different two page form to the printer. To my surprise, the first page printed out just fine. The second printed out fine on the bottom of the page, but the top part was again illegible. I tried printing out the second page a few more times just to see if the results were a fluke, but no, each time it came out the same. Curious by now, I resolved to let the printer rest overnight and try printing the second page again the next day. Sure enough, it printed out just fine. Resting for a period seems to somehow bring the ink cartridge briefly back to life.

I'll still get a new ink cartridge, of course, but it's nice to know that if you don't feel like heading out to the store right away there might be a way to sometimes get a little printing out of the old cartridge. I can not say exactly how long the printer needs to rest to achieve this effect (3 hours? 12?). Nor can I say this will work for every ink jet printer. Possibly it might be useful for some models and not others (mine is a 10+ year old HP DeskJet 855CSE). For the cost of a sheet of paper, however, I figure it is worth a try.

Why I Trust Symantec Less Now

2010-01-02T10:55:00.000-08:00

My Norton Internet Security subscription recently ran out. As in years past, it nagged me repeatedly as the expiration date approached (Only 30 days left, Only 15 days left, etc.). There was, however, a difference from previous years when the subscription actually ran out. Whereas in the past Norton Security would stop updating my virus signatures, etc. and thus stop protecting me from new threats (but continue to operate and protect me against previously known threats), this time the program announced that it was shutting down all of its protection against any threats. Goodbye firewall, goodbye antivirus, goodbye pretty much anything except the opportunity to update the program until I fork over some cash.

In fairness to Symantec, NIS did at least have the decency to turn my Windows firewall back on as it shut itself down so my computer was not left totally defenseless. What possible reason, however, could they have for playing hardball with their customers like this? It's not like someone could be adequately protected very long without updating the program (which I had intended to do anyway). I suppose someone who was going to use their computer for a day more and then go on vacation for a week skate by without updating until they come back, but I really can't see this move providing Symantec with any significant increase in revenue, even in the short term. Maybe some will even decide to turn their computer off, run out and by a competitors product, just to spite them (it was tempting!).

In the long term, I would expect this new policy will not be in Symantec's own best interest. I know I will certainly consider alternatives before buying Symantec's products in the future, and I strongly suspect that I am not the only one.

1/7/2010: I changed the title from "Why I don't Like Symantec" to the more accurate "Why I Trust Symantec Less Now", as that goes more to the heart of the matter.

Using Umlauts, Copyright Symbols, and Other Ascii Characters on a Web Page

2009-12-01T19:47:00.000-08:00

If you have occasion to use non english characters (ïèìîÄòö¢ùÿü), the copyright symbol (©) or some other funny little character (½¼⌐¡«»░▒▓│┤╡┬╟╫▐Σσ) on a webpage (or elsewhere), it can be helpful to have a variety of methods to get the character you need. Here are several ways to go:

1. Use a software program that lets you insert the character you need. An example of this would be Microsoft Word. There's no need to create the whole page in Word or whatever software package you use to get the special character, as you can simply highlight the character on screen with your mouse, hit ctrl-c on your keyboard (that's tapping the "c" key while holding down the control key, for those of you unfamiliar with the process) to copy it to the clipboard, head over to whatever software you use to create your web page, and then hit ctrl-v to paste it there.

2. A second method is to find the character that you want online somewhere (in text form rather than graphic, of course) and then copy and paste it in a manner similar to the one I described in the first method.

3. Yet another alternative is to hold down the "alt" key on your keyboard, tap in the ascii code of the character you want on the numeric keypad, and then release the "alt" key. Of course, it helps to know what number to type in (going through all 256 or even just the top 128 can be ever so boring). For that it's best to to take a glance at an ascii table. There's a good one available at http://www.ascii-code.com/

You will probably prefer one method to the other two, but it's good to be aware of all three in case something interferes with your favorite method in a particular circumstance. For instance, as I edit this in Blogger, entering certain ascii code combinations with the "alt" key throw me out of Blogger's editor.

R.I.P, GeoCities

2009-10-28T20:39:00.000-07:00

I was sorry to hear that the long time free web hosting site, GeoCities (later Yahoo GeoCities) closed on 10/9/2009. To be sure, there are still plenty of sites left on the internet, and I'm sure many of the former GeoCities residents will just re-establish their pages elsewhere, but there will also be plenty who will not. What a waste! Then there is the obvious downside that a whole slew of links just went dead.

In view of all of the foregoing, now might be a good time to go through your links and weed out the dead ones, GeoCities-related and otherwise. I just went through my CoolNotions links page and had to remove about half of them, although as it turns out none of them were to GeoCities sites.

Well, stuff happens. R.I.P., GeoCities.

The Internet, the Zodiac Cipher, and the Power of the Crowd

2009-10-01T16:03:00.000-07:00

The famed Netflix Prize contest recently came to an end with the members of the top scoring team gaining a million dollars to divide amongst themselves for their efforts, and Netflix gaining better algorithms for predicting what movies its customers will like. Without the internet it could not have happened in the time it did, if at all.

I wonder if the internet might eventually help bring about the solution to an even longer running intellectual challenge, the solution of the last three ciphers of the infamous Zodiac Killer from the late '60s/early seventies.

Oranchak.com has an interesting tool here to help anyone interested in taking a stab at breaking the cipher. Be warned, many of the best people in the field have tried and failed to, crack the last three ciphers. It's like crossword puzzles/Wheel of Fortune for experts.

So what's in it for you if you succeed? Well, there's no million dollar prize that I am aware of, but in addition to possibly helping crack a long unsolved case, you would almost certainly get a lot of fame if you succeeded, and I would expect you might be highly sought after as a code-breaker as well.

Easy Game Creation with "Sploder"

2009-02-28T16:17:00.000-08:00

If you're looking for an easy way to create Flash games, Sploder.com is definitely something to consider. I spent a couple of hours on the site and had no difficulty creating a few simple games.

Currently Sploder allows for the creation of three different types of games: platform, ship game, or robot game (the last two falling under Sploder's general category of "shooter". Creating games in any of the three is fairly similar in that you use Sploder's drag and drop on screen tools to place enemies, allies, weapons, bonus items, etc. You don't need to know Flash (or even how to program).

Understandably, there are some limits to the games that can be created with such as an easy system. Complexity ranges from simple to moderate, and I think I might possibly have spotted a glitch or two.

Still, you can quickly create something moderately interesting with a fairly minimal amount of effort, and the games I created and played seemed to run very well for the most part. I would expect that in the future Sploder (which is still considers itself to be in Beta) will offer even more impressive capabilities.

The Sploder terms of service grant Sploder a rather broad license to the use of your "User Submitted Content" (which perhaps they need to do to allow your games to function at all), but they do state that levels created remain the property of the users who create them. Also, although I didn't see it specifically in their terms of service, they do say on their "About Sploder" page that

you can even download your games and post them on your own commercial web site.

So in general, they seem fairly reasonable to me. (Caveat: I'm not a lawyer, nor does any of the forgoing constitute legal advice. Consult a lawyer and/or read the information on the Sploder.com website to form your own opinion as to what Sploder.com does or does not allow.)

I expect we will probably see a lot more sites that facilitate easy game creation going forward. Maybe user-created games will follow much the same path as user created video. It would not surprise me to see Google get into the act soon (either through internal efforts or by acquiring and existing site).

The Economy: Some Reasons for Hope

2009-02-27T10:36:00.000-08:00

It would be hard to find many economists who would argue against the statement that U.S. and world economies are looking pretty grim as we head into March of 2009. We have some rather substantial economic difficulties to overcome.

Nor is the tech sector immune to the bad news. It can perhaps be argued that some technology companies might be hurt less than the general economy. Many are relatively young and don't face pension burdens comparable to those of older more traditional companies. A few, such as Apple, seem to be holding up relatively well for the moment, bolstered by innovative and in-demand products. Overall, however, one can't really expect the tech sector to skate by unaffected by a damaged banking system, battered consumers, and a generally weak business environment.

Despite the foregoing negatives, however, I think it is important to keep in mind that there are some positives as well in the economic picture. Here are just a few:

1. Much of the bad news is out of the way, particularly in the stock market. I don't know where stocks will be three months from now, but I can say with certainty that a lot more of the bad news has been factored into their price than was true in the middle of last year.

2. Energy is a lot cheaper than it was. That may not be enough to turn things around by itself, but it's certainly better for a weak economy to have the price of oil hovering around $50 a barrel than around $150 a barrel. Every dollar that doesn't end shipped over to Venezuela (or elsewhere) to buy oil is a dollar available for more productive use.

3. Despite occasional comparisons in the news between our current economic situation and that of the Great Depression in the 1930's, there are many, many differences that make if very unlikely the current downturn will end up nearly as bad as that one: deposit insurance, unemployment insurance, a more knowledgeable Federal Reserve Systems with more tools available to it, to name a few.

4. It's front page news when a big company lays off a lot of workers. If some of those layed off workers of an entrepreneurial bent, however, go on to start new companies (some if which may become the big companies of tommorrow), that gets a lot less attention. That's not to say that the bad news is not bad. It's just that in a dynamic economy companies grow and shrink and start and die all of the time. Perhaps it's due to some quirk in human nature, but it seems to me that the bad news draws proportionally more attention.

5. The government is committed to taking action. I'll admit that I feel some trepidation as well as reassurance at that idea. In the short term, however, regardless of quibbles one might have over certain details of the stimulus package, it stands to reason that when the government starts throwing money around in a downturn, there will be at least some positive effect in the short-term in that more people and organizations will have the resources to buy things and hire people than would otherwise be the case. To the extent that some people will be employed and paying taxes who would otherwise not be, the stimulus package should actually end up costing less than the official figure would indicate.

Will some of the money get wasted? Almost certainly. Will there be a problem of special interest groups clamoring to keep the money flowing their way even after economic growth resumes? I would certainly think so. On the narrow question of whether the stimulus package will help end the current downturn faster than would otherwise be the case, however, I have to believe the answer is yes.

Like all previous economic downturns in history, I expect this particular one will end as well, perhaps sooner than the gloom and doom in the news media would lead us to believe.

Ted