Develop INEO 353

A couple of weeks ago our office purchased a new copier, its the new Develop Ineo 353 which according to our supplier is the latest model available in the country for state of the art copiers.

Since our office requires a lot of photocopies which needs to be sorted and stapled, I requested to add a finisher, so that papers are not only sorted but stapled as well. This feature is very convenient for bulk copying.

Then we do not want to constantly pull the cover up and down every time we copy documents, not only does it strain our arms but its also time consuming and is not recommended for quick copying of documents for those crucial moments. A feeder was installed not only for easy copying but also to allow back-to-back scanning and copying, according to the technician who installed the feeder, the safe volume of paper would be 100 but of course I would like to try if it can handle more.

Ineo 353 features monochrome as well as colored copying, touch screen colored console, scanning with electronic copies stored on a PC, RJ 45 plug for connection via Local Area Network (LAN), fax machine, can act as a network printer, fast output at 35 ppm for colored and b/w (we have yet to test this one), password protection, can enlarge or reduce images, control the density of print, compact design which perfect for space consious offices, accepts up to A3 size papers and scans, and other features of a normal copier.

Since its a colored copier and scanner, it has four toners Magenta, Cyan, Blue and Black. The imaging units are also of four types based on the colors mentioned. I think the only disadvantage that the machine has is the price. It cost around $7,500 and up depending on your supplier and the consumables would cost around $1,300 for each of the imaging unit and $220 for each of the toners as a rough estimate. But according to our supplier the consumables can produce around 100,000 copies but ofcourse that is still a rough estimate since you can control the density of the colors and would also depend on what are you actually copying.

USB LAN

I have here a very intersting, very useful and very practical gadget, its a Local Area Network (LAN) device which can be plugged to your Universal Serial Bus (USB) in short its a USB LAN.



This is very usuful for those who have damaged LAN cards or to those who use old computers that needs a bit of upgrade or parts replacements, and its best for those who are not really that knowledgeable when it comes to computer devices plus its cheap, around 250 to 300 bucks or 5 to 6 US dollars.


What you get when you buy one basically are these two items, the USB LAN itself and the CD which contains the driver for the device.


I used an old Compaq Presario which is kinda ancient in the laptop world but the device still works fine. I used it because the laptop doesnt have a LAN card good thing it has a single USB port, i can use a USB hub later, but for now its nice to know that I can connect through the USB LAN. By the way my old laptop doesnt have wifi, and why didnt I just buy a USB wifi device, well even though I have a wifi router its still better to use wired connection, specially for my old laptop.

How to install NVIDIA graphics driver to Ubuntu 8.10

After thinking of a way to maximize my U-Box i noticed that Ubunutu 8.10 seem to have a bug on NVIDIA graphics driver, whenever I try to install the driver via hardware drivers. Eventually I managed to install the my graphics driver here is what I did:

1. Enter the NVIDIA website, www.nvidia.com, go to download drivers and select Linux, FreeBSD and Solaris Drivers under other downloads and support.
2. Download the driver that suites your harware in my case i used Latest Legacy GPU version (173.14.xx series).
3. download the driver NVIDIA-Linux-x86-173.14.20.pkg1.run
   
4. Press ctrl + alt + f1
5. supply the username and password if asked.
6. enter sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop this will stop your x-server in preparation to install the driver
7. enter sudo sh /path of your package/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-173.14.20.pkg1.run
8. enter sudo reboot
9. enjoy your ubuntu 8.10!

Nokia 5800 XpresMusic Phone

The Nokia 5800 XpresMusic Phone dubbed by some as the "iphone killer" is Nokia's almost all touch screen smart phone. Released on the first quarter of 2009, the phone boast both a hand full of features and some shortcommings. A High-end Phone for an above mid-end price is something that would surely entice any gadget lover.

Here is what you get from the box aside from the phone, the stylus, battery and memory isnt in the picture but it is included in the box. I liked the fact that the Nokia gave a lot of stuff included in the box, considering its price, which is not but nor was it that expensive for this type of phone.

You can see at left side are two slots one is for hot swapping of memory cards ( the phone includes an 8GB memory card, very nice....) and the other is for the SIM card, although unlike the memory card you can only insert it in this fashion if you want to pull it out, you need to remove the battery. The slot of the SIM card slot in my opinion isnt really necessary, why put it in that fashion if you cant use it that way? This is also the location of the speakers which is the best (quality wise) I have heard so far, its also pretty loud and despite its loudness sounds played are still clear.

Here is a view on top, almost all external connection are made here, which include, 35mm audio jack, charger slot, USB slot and power switch. I findit convinient that all these connections are placed here,it just made the phone look neat even you connect the USB cable and power jack in. Nokia also made good adding the 35mm Jack since it allows users to use their standard headset. You cant however, charge via USB, dunno why they didnt inlcude that feature, it would have been great to have that included.


The right side of the phone has the volume control, keypad lock and the camera button, these buttons are conviniently placed for easy access.

The back is where you find your 3.5 Mega Pixel Camera (why didnt Nokia used a 5MP camera?..) also you'll find your stylus which is again placed nicely. (The pictures were taken from a Nokia 5800 XpresMusic Phone)

The phone uses symbia S60 Operating System and runs beautifully except for a few instances of lags and slow responses, its very much acceptable. The phone works like any phone the only difference is that its obviously a touch screen device. Nokia also gave its users options on entering text either qwerty or alphanumeric and even a hand writing feature. It also has Wifi and bluetooth so you stay connected if there is an available network. The device also has an accelerometer which allows the screen to change based on how you hold the phone, this can breed softwares that can be very entertaining, Nokia made a sample of this with their racing game, where you need to steer the phone to steer the car, neat! GPS is also included and with its ultra wide screen, im sure you wont loose your way.

I liked the phone, it has a stirdy well developed design combined with Nokia's Symbian Operating System. I think Nokia could have made it better though, but I guess in order to compete with the market they just cut short a few of the features that they could have put in.

How to Change Workgroup name in Ubuntu

This blog was posted at http://archangel-025.blogspot.com/2009/06/how-to-change-workgroup-name-in-ubuntu.html last June 11, 2009

I am assuming that the version of Ubuntu being used already has Samba Installed otherwise please refer to www.ubuntu.com

1. Go to Applications > Accessories > Terminal
2. At the Terminal type the command
sudo gedit /etc/samba/smb.conf
3. Scroll Down and at the workgroup = workgroup, simply change the workgroup name and press enter
4. Restart Samba, at the terminal type
sudo /etc/init.d/samba restart

Mapping Windows Network Drive to Ubuntu

This blog has been posted at http://archangel-025.blogspot.com/2009/02/mapping-windows-network-drive-to-ubuntu.html last February 10, 2009

Its been a while since I figured out how to map a windows network drive to an Ubuntu Operating System. This is very useful especially if your office is using different types of Operating Systems.

Here are the steps:

1. On your Ubuntu Desktop, click on the places tab, which is usually found at the upper left portion, in between application and system and choose "connect to server" option

2. At the service type choose windows share, and simply fill up all the details:
- the server is the name of the pc where you want to connect(use the computer name)
- share is the folder name of the shared folder
- user name is the name of your pc
- domain name is your workgroup
- name to use in your connection is name that you would like to use

3. simply double click on the connect icon and the detwork drive should show up on your desktop

Mapping Windows Network Drive to Ubuntu

Its been a while since I figured out how to map a windows network drive to an Ubuntu Operating System. This is very useful especially if your office is using different types of Operating Systems.

Here are the steps:

1. On your Ubuntu Desktop, click on the places tab, which is usually found at the upper left portion, in between application and system and choose "connect to server" option

2. At the service type choose windows share, and simply fill up all the details:
- the server is the name of the pc where you want to connect(use the computer name)
- share is the folder name of the shared folder
- user name is the name of your pc
- domain name is your workgroup
- name to use in your connection is name that you would like to use

3. simply double click on the connect icon and the detwork drive should show up on your desktop