Danny Thorpe » Misc http://dannythorpe.com Dream & Deliver Wed, 04 Jan 2012 21:20:49 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Brother MFC Network Scanning in Windows 7 http://dannythorpe.com/2011/07/02/brother-mfc-network-scanning-in-windows-7/ http://dannythorpe.com/2011/07/02/brother-mfc-network-scanning-in-windows-7/#comments Sat, 02 Jul 2011 19:25:20 +0000 Danny Thorpe http://dannythorpe.com/?p=333 [...]]]> We’ve had a Brother MFC 5860CN multifunction printer/fax/scanner in the office here for a couple of years. It’s a dependable little office helper, and does a good enough job of scanning for office paperwork.

The old XP laptop has long been the scanning portal for our office.  Remote Desktop into the laptop, scan stuff into PDFs or images, and away you go. However, the old laptop hard disk is starting to make unhealthy noises, so it’s time to take the next step in weaning ourselves off the old box.

It was simple enough to find and download Brother drivers for the new Windows 7 x64 machine.  Printing worked from the start.  That’s great, but I never use the little MFC inkjet for printing – the color laser gets all of my print jobs because it’s oh so much faster.

What didn’t work was scanning from the Brother MFC into my Windows 7 box across the network.  Everything aborted with network connection failures.  Everything except scanning the network to locate the MFC – the Win7 box could find the MFC on the network just fine, and could print to it, but it couldn’t scan from it.

Web searches weren’t much help.  There’s a lot of bad and old information out there, lots of speculation and pat answers from folks who don’t actually know a thing about Brother MFC devices.  Reinstalling the Win7 drivers didn’t help. Disabling the Windows Firewall didn’t help. Uninstalling the Win7 drivers and installing the Vista drivers didn’t help.

I finally stumbled into a solution on none other than the Brother Solutions Center support site: “I can print but cannot scan via network”. I haven’t the faintest idea how I got there, but I’m glad I finally did.

The problem is the Brother scanning software and/or Windows 7 can’t connect to the MFC device by network name.  The solution is simple: configure the scanner software to connect to the MFC peer to peer using its static IP address instead of its network name.

Bam! Scanning works in Windows 7.  Hallelujah.

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]]> http://dannythorpe.com/2011/07/02/brother-mfc-network-scanning-in-windows-7/feed/ 1 Joy of Unclear Writing http://dannythorpe.com/2009/02/26/joy-of-unclear-writing/ http://dannythorpe.com/2009/02/26/joy-of-unclear-writing/#comments Fri, 27 Feb 2009 02:16:03 +0000 Danny Thorpe http://dannythorpe.com/2009/02/26/joy-of-unclear-writing/ [...]]]> I’ve been chipping away at processing and archiving family papers lately.  Tonight I came across a folder of papers from when my mother was a full time instructor in the LSU English Department, circa 1979. Among the exams and worksheets she used in class was this little gem:

THE FOLLOWING ARE EXAMPLES OF UNCLEAR WRITING.  SENTENCES ARE ACTUAL LETTERS RECEIVED BY THE WELFARE DEPARTMENT IN APPLICATION FOR SUPPORT.

  1. I am forwarding my marriage certificate and six children. I have seven, but one died which was baptized on a half sheet of paper.
  2. I am writing the Welfare Department to say that my baby was born two years old.  When do I get my money?
  3. Mrs. Jones has not had any clothes for a year and has been visited regularly by the clergy.
  4. I cannot get sick pay. I have six children. Can you tell me why?
  5. I am glad to report that my husband who is missing is dead.
  6. This is my eighth child. What are you going to do about it?
  7. Please find for certain if my husband is dead.  The man I am living with can’t eat or do anything until he knows.
  8. I am very much annoyed to find you have branded my son illiterate.  This is a dirty lie as I was married a week before he was born.
  9. In answer to your letter, I have given birth to a boy weighing ten pounds. I hope this is satisfactory.
  10. I am forwarding my marriage certificate and my three children, one of which is a mistake as you can see.
  11. My husband got his project cut off two weeks ago and I haven’t had any relief since.
  12. Unless I get my husband’s money pretty soon, I will be forced to lead an immortal life.
  13. You have changed my little boy to a girl.  Will this make a difference?
  14. I have no children as yet as my husband is a truck driver and works day and night.
  15. In accordance with your instructions, I have given birth to twins in the enclosed envelope.
  16. I want money as quick as I can get it.  I have been in bed with the doctor for two weeks and he doesn’t do me any good. If things don’t improve, I will have to send for another doctor.

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]]> http://dannythorpe.com/2009/02/26/joy-of-unclear-writing/feed/ 1 Google Promos Radiohead House of Cards Video http://dannythorpe.com/2008/07/14/google-promos-radiohead-house-of-cards-video/ http://dannythorpe.com/2008/07/14/google-promos-radiohead-house-of-cards-video/#comments Mon, 14 Jul 2008 22:23:40 +0000 Danny Thorpe http://dannythorpe.com/2008/07/14/google-promos-radiohead-house-of-cards-video/ [...]]]> Radiohead has released a video for its “House of Cards” song that has the peculiar distinction of being a live-action video filmed without cameras.  According to the Google Blog post ”No Camera, No Lights, Just Data“, the imagery was created using 3D scanning lasers and detectors.

The video, hosted online by Google, is visually interesting, but the novelty is quickly worn down by the poor continuity and distracting skips and flicker in the digital data.  As the imagery seems to have nothing to do with the lyrics, it feels to me like a case of tech-neato trumping content.  Your brain is so focused on trying to make sense of the visuals (with a flicker-induced migraine) that the music hardly even registers.  Was that the band’s objective?  Hide a dreamy but otherwise mediocre tune beneath artsy, scruffy digital pointilism? 

It’s true the video shows state of the art 3D digitalization.  It also shows how far 3D digitalization has yet to go, and how much of a chore data cleanup is.  If the flickers and jitters in the video are an artifact of the digitizer, shame on the data sampling team for not cleaning it up a bit.  If the jitters were added deliberately in post editing, shame on whoever thought that was a good idea.

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]]> http://dannythorpe.com/2008/07/14/google-promos-radiohead-house-of-cards-video/feed/ 0 Google Employee Records Stolen in Colt Break-In http://dannythorpe.com/2008/07/01/google-employee-records-stolen-in-colt-break-in/ http://dannythorpe.com/2008/07/01/google-employee-records-stolen-in-colt-break-in/#comments Tue, 01 Jul 2008 17:49:01 +0000 Danny Thorpe http://dannythorpe.com/2008/07/01/google-employee-records-stolen-in-colt-break-in/ [...]]]> I’ve just received a letter from Google that personal data of Google employees hired prior to December 31, 2005 may have been stolen in the May 26 burglary of Colt Express Outsourcing Services.  No credit card numbers were in the stolen data, just names, addresses, SSNs – all the info needed for a thief to open new accounts using your identity.

Colt was an external contractor to Google handling HR functions such as benefits, 401k plans, etc.  Google itself was not burglarized.

The letter from Google also offers to cover the cost of a one year subscription to a credit report and identity theft monitoring service.  Well, that’s something at least.  I appreciate Google’s gesture.

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