Filed under How To, Other Blogs by Dale on January 27, 2010 at 12:10 am
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Printer toner, depending on who you ask, is cancerogenic.
Or not.
The Material Safety Data Sheets I’ve seen, say not. But I still wouldn’t breath toner in.
Now some of the printers I’ve worked on over the years, have conspired to leak toner over me.
There was the StorageTek mainframe printer, with the toner hopper. You’d open the 5 litre toner container and pour the toner into the hopper. Great clouds of toner would float up and cover the FNG* tasked to refill the toner. And because of this, it was only ever the FNG who had to refill the toner on this printer.
The DataProducts LZR960. You know, you could ship most laser printers and not be to worried that they survive the journey. The LZR960? Like a nervous puppy, it would leak toner when the shipping box “This Way Up” sign was not rigorously followed. Resulting in me being covered in toner, and one expensive service bill later.
Things have gotten better over time, and since I had not had toner leaked on me for a few years, I thought
how much toner was left in the Lanier|Ricoh Photocopier toner cartridge when it said it was “out of toner”?*
An impressively small amount as it turns out. I’m very impressed that Lanier|Ricoh are not ripping me off on toner.
Other things.
- In theory, the cartridge is designed to be disassembled.
Theory is good, but I used a Dremel tool.
- Cartridge seemed very well engineered.
- Benefit of hindsight, I would have cut the other end of the cartridge off. This would have allowed me to have a nice pile like The Angry Technician did.
- You should wash toner off with COLD soapy water.
Warm or hot water will cause the toner to bind to you.
* Friendly New Guy
* idea first seen over at The Angry Technician.
Filed under How To, Other Blogs by Dale on January 6, 2010 at 12:10 am
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This was originally a post at Laffers.net, but I’m getting constant timeouts to that site, so I’m going to repost it here, just in case Laffers.net has gone down.
This copy was captured by the Google Cache as it appeared on 24 Dec 2009 04:44:07.
I refer to this article in the following two posts of mine:
So you want to move from Blogger to a WordPress blog & Things I learnt when migrating from Blogger
If you are like me and have decided to move your blog from blogspot.com to wordpress.com (the shared Wordpress hosting site), you are asking yourself three questions:
- How to redirect visitors to the old blog automatically to the new pages.
- How to transfer the PageRank of your old blog to the new one.
- How to prevent being penalized by Google for duplicate content.
Is it possible ? Read on.
First of all, let me give credit where credit is due – there are some instructions already published
- Tom Sherman has a nice manual for moving from the old Blogger to self-hosted Wordpress.
- TechCounter similar to the one above but contains erroneous information about preserving PageRank.
- Webbleyou is a tutorial for migrating from Blogger Beta, but I find it unnecessarily complicated.
Bottomline: None of those tutorials work for moving to the shared hosting on Wordpress.com!
how to do it
Here are the answers to the three questions:
- Redirect your visitors by combining JavaScript and meta tag redirects. Read below.
- Bad news, this is not possible. Tom Sherman correctly states
This would require a 301 Permanent Redirect and access to the server, not provided by Blogger.
- If you don’t want to be punished by Google for duplicating content you must remove the old blog from the Google cache and tell it to ignore the old site from now on. Read below below.
set up redirects
I’m assuming that at this point you have imported your posts to the new blog at Wordpress.com (if not, go to "Manage/Import", select the obvious choice and do what you’re said).
Log into your Blogger account and click your way through the awkward navigation menu until you are at the "Template/Edit HTML" page. To redirect visitors from the main page, insert the following between the <head> and </head> tags:
<meta content='6;url=http://yournewblog.wordpress.com/' http-equiv='refresh'/>
Number 6 means that the redirection will take effect after 6 seconds. Replace the url with your own.
The tricky part comes now. We want to redirect users from individual post pages to the corresponding post pages on the new blog. For that, we need a piece of JavaScript spiced with Blogger proprietary tags. Insert the following right after "<b:section class='main' id='main' showaddelement='no'>" in the template:
<b:widget id='Redirector' locked='true' title='Blog Posts' type='Blog'>
<b:includable id='main'>
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'>
<b:loop values='data:posts' var='post'>
<script type='text/javascript'>
var new_page='yournewblog.wordpress.com/';
var permalink = '<data:post.url/>';
var timestamp = '<data:post.timestamp/>';
timestamp = timestamp.split('/');
timestamp = timestamp[2]+'/'+timestamp[0]+'/'+timestamp[1];
new_page = permalink.replace(/youroldblog\.blogspot\.com\/2007\/[0-9]{2}/,new_page+timestamp);
new_page = new_page.replace(/\.html$/,'');
document.location.href = new_page;
</script>
</b:loop>
</b:if>
</b:includable>
</b:widget>
Don’t forget to enter your new blog’s URL at var new_page = .
Important note! For this script to work, all your posts should have been imported to Wordpress.com using their Manage/Import function. The creation dates of all posts must match, because they are part of the permalinks.
remove duplicate content
Insert the following between the <head> and </head> tags:
<meta name="ROBOTS" content="NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW"/>
After seeing this, search engines should remove your old blog from their cache and the old content will stop existing for them. Therefore they are not going to penalize your new blog for duplicate content.
optionally, display a message
This is not required, but helpful for your readers. Tell them that you have moved and that they are going to be redirected. Right after the <body> tag, insert this:
<div style='position: absolute; top: 30px; left: 30px; border: solid 2px #333; color: #000; background-color: yellow; padding: 5px; width: 400px; z-index: 5; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;'>
<p><strong>My blog has moved!</strong></p>
<p>You should be automatically redirected in 6 seconds. If not, visit<br/> <a href='http://yournewblog.wordpress.com/'> <strong>http://yournewblog.wordpress.com</strong></a> <br/> and update your bookmarks.</p>
</div>
Well, now we are set. Found any errors in this tutorial or have more tips? Share them in the comments please. 
Filed under Hardware, Other Blogs by Dale on December 28, 2009 at 1:22 am
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“I’m concerned about the heating of external drives because many of these little enclosures provide no active air flow across the drive.”, opines Steve Gibson.
And in the field of hard disk maintenance, he would have to be the expert. SpinRite is the result of his knowledge in the field.
My Seagate FreeAgent Classic drive is an example of this heating issue.
The case was getting far too hot for my comfort, so I drilled holes in it.
But I haven’t done this for my other two external drives, as they run cooler.
“Why do they?”, you ask.
Two likely reasons:
- The drives turn themselves off when not being used. This is known as an Idle Sleep. All three of my external drives do that.
- I suspect the drives have heat detection built-in, and they slow themselves down as they get hotter.
This would explain why my WD Passport drive slows down during heavy prolonged use.
2. isn’t so bad. But 1., the drive shutting itself down, can play havoc with instant-on applications. Such as satellite TV recording. The work-around is to find drives which don’t shutdown, such as the LaCie range of external drives.
Filed under Hardware, Other Blogs by Dale on December 10, 2009 at 12:43 am
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I don’t like quoting whole slabs of another blogs posts, but this is worth spreading to a wider audience:
… If you only use a single drive attached to an eSATA port, you can quit reading, but if you are like me and want the best performance possible, you have probably invested in a 2.5” or 3.5” external portable cabinet that can take two or more drives.
These cabinets from makers like StarTech and AMS, have built in hardware RAID functionality that allow you to configure the dual drives in a RAID configuration without requiring a RAID card in your machine. Typically RAID 1 (mirroring) and RAID 0 (striping) are the two most common approaches in a dual drive case.
BUT, these external cases rely on a technology called Port Multiplication to see all the drives. You can go read the detailed description at your favorite web site, but basically port multiplication allows you to have multiple drives accessible through a single eSATA port. The catch is that the eSATA interface must support Port Multiplication.
This is where the issue is with integrated eSATA ports in laptops and desktop motherboards. They do not all support port multiplication…actually very few do. …
Robert Larson on Beware of Integrated eSATA ports
Filed under Other Blogs, Windows 7 by Dale on December 6, 2009 at 10:31 am
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I saw Ed Bott’s “Microsoft’s Grinch kills Windows 7 Family Pack”, and then saw today’s Dilbert:
It kinda fits. Ed talks about Microsoft removing the Windows 7 Family Pack offering. From my past experience, Microsoft pricing is hard to understand, with it’s multiple ways to buy and license a product.
But don’t you worry, you can become a Microsoft Certified Professional for Licensing Solutions!
Acquiring and managing software licences can be complex and daunting. That’s where your expertise can help. Providing licensing solutions and services to businesses opens opportunities for you to attract customers, develop continuing revenue streams and expand your services business. Learn how attaining the Licensing Solutions competency can help grow your business.
Filed under Other Blogs by Dale on November 22, 2009 at 9:30 am
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No lady’s wardrobe is quite complete without the little black dress that has been around forever.
A little black dress is an evening or cocktail dress, cut simply and often with a short skirt. Since Chanel introduced the “little black dress” in 1926, it has become the epitome of chic. Her first LBD was a slash-necked, short silk dress with only diagonal pin-tucks as decoration. Chanel believed fashion should be functional as well as chic. Radically simple, her LBD was designed not to show stains and to fit every woman. It was meant as the fashion ideal: a perfectly simple, yet sexy object. The most famous visual of this style is Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffanys.
- SheGlam.com
Filed under Other Blogs by Dale on November 18, 2009 at 6:06 am
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Are you looking for a piece of software like product X, and you want to know what alternatives there are?
Well you can always try AlternativeTo, a search engine for alternative software choices. Wish I’d thought of it.
In the screenshot below, I searched for Camtasia Studio, which is a good piece of screen recording software. AlternativeTo found 12 alternatives.
Filed under Other Blogs, W2K8 by Dale on August 29, 2009 at 12:47 am
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W2K3 to W2K8 Active Directory Upgrade Considerations
I have collected some upgrade considerations from a couple colleagues of mine and have been sharing them on our internal technical DLs as the question comes up. I have gotten positive feedback on the notes and have been encouraged to post them. So, here they are. Though, the real thanks go out to my colleages Tom and Arren.
Here are some of the problems customers run into when upgrading W2K3 DCs to W2K8
A very comprehensive list of solutions to problems people run into when upgrading from a Windows 2003 domain to a Windows 2008 domain. Thank you Glenn LeCheminant.
Filed under Humour, Other Blogs by Dale on June 26, 2009 at 1:10 am
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Clint Edmonson, over at notsotrivial.net, has a great post about how to assess your developer team skills.
The short version, is characterised like this:
- Novice – “Just tell me what you want me to do.”
- Advanced Beginner – “I’m ready for my next task.”
- Competent – “I’ll have it done by the end of the day.”
- Proficient – “The XYZ pattern can solve that problem perfectly.”
- Expert (aka Master or Wizard) – “Did you need anything else?”
If you want to know where your developer’s skill level are at, I heartily recommend reading it.
And, since this is a Friday, it reminded me of this chart, back when I was working as a Computer Operator.
(click on the picture for a larger version)
Filed under Other Blogs, Quotations by Dale on May 17, 2009 at 12:59 am
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So good it’s worth quoting:
… Within 1/2 an hour the “rocking” VSTS team had resolved the problem, leaving me stranded on a vertical cliff, wondering how I ever got up there and why I bothered in the first place. Yes I am delirious from lack of sleep and yes, I am angry … not because I could not solve the puzzle, but because I ignored one of my fundamental rules which is mentioned not once, but many times in the third book “Software Engineers on their Way to Pluto”.
Note to self: Memorise this Rule –> If you are battling with something and you cannot solve it, STOP … find a whiteboard, find a colleague and discuss the problem. An additional pair of eyes and in the case of our VM a sprinkle of SharePoint magic, works wonders.
Note to self: Read my own books and learn from my own mistakes (Willy-Peter Schaub, MSDN Blog)
Or the simpler version:
When you’re in a hole, STOP DIGGING. And ask for help.
Printer toner, depending on who you ask, is cancerogenic.
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