Best. Road. In. Cornwall.

If you ever find yourself in Cornwall and looking for a decent driving road, especially if you’re on a motorbike, you can’t do better than this one:

Best road in Cornwall. Ever.

Link to Google Maps

DIY

An observation about geeks

I was reading a blog today where a geek rather nicely explained the mechanism for getting a Lexmark printer driver to work under Ubuntu. It was quite a techy sounding answer and in the comments on the blog was the question (allegedly from the chap’s father), “How do you KNOW this stuff!!?”

The blog owner’s answer: I know how to use Google.

Which is such a valid point. The vast majority of “geeks”, aren’t, in fact, true geeks at all. People call me a geek, and yes, on the face of it I probably look like a geek. I have a whole raft of computers and whirry buzzy things in my house doing seemingly cool (and pointless) things. And let’s face it, I’m writing a blog, about techy/geek things. But in the same manner as the guy above, I only worked out how to do that stuff by pretty much copying / adapting what someone else has already done before by hunting it out on Google. And no doubt that guy copied / adapted it from someone who copied / adapted it from who copied / adapted it who, maybe, just maybe, got it from the person who actually figured it out in the first place. Those guys are the true geeks… and without them the world would be a pretty sorry looking place.

Canon IP5200R wireless printing + OSX 10.6.* Snow Leopard

If like me you found that your previously perfectly working Canon IP5200R wireless printer is broken after upgrading to Snow Leopard – don’t worry, there’s (now) an easy fix. The long and the short of it is – in 10.6 they included an old version of the Canon printer driver. Useful, huh?

These tips are for UK based people – if you’re elsewhere, you should find the appropriate place on the Canon website to get the updates.

If you don’t have it, get a copy of the Canon IJ network tool v2.6.* from here.

Now, get yourself a copy of the latest printer driver, currently 10.26.1

If printer previously working fine

Install network tool (if you don’t already have it)
Restart machine.
Install printer driver.
Go to System Preferences > Printers. If your Canon printed is listed, but as USB, then remove it by cliking the – icon in the pane.
Next click the + to go to the Add Printer screen. Make sure the Default panel is selected.
Wait for about 30 seconds – your Canon printer should appear in the pane – you can then add it – and after that, all should be right in the world.

If you’ve never installed the printer

As above except that you’ll need to configure the network settings before trying to add the printer.
Plug the printer in to your Mac via USB (if you have Growl installed, you’ll hopefully see a notification)
Navigate to Macintosh HD > Library > Printers > Canon > Utilities > IJ Printer tool
Run that – it should find your printer on USB
Use the Network Setup to set your wireless settings. I won’t go in to the details, but by far the most reliable method I’ve found is to give your printer a static IP rather than DHCP.
Once you’ve done that OK the dialog to commit the settings to the printer. If all goes well, the above advice should work for you.

Hope that helps. Hands down, the first I’ve ever had to install a printer during my Mac career!

The Italian Tomato Garden

Italian Tomato Garden:

An old Italian lived alone in New Jersey . He wanted to plant his annual tomato garden, but it was very difficult work, as the ground was hard.

His only son, Vincent, who used to help him, was in prison. The old man wrote a letter to his son and described his predicament:

Dear Vincent,
I am feeling pretty sad, because it looks like I won’t be able to plant my tomato garden this year. I’m just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. I know if you were here my troubles would be over.. I know you would be happy to dig the plot for me, like in the old days.
Love, Papa

A few days later he received a letter from his son.

Dear Pop,
Don’t dig up that garden. That’s where the bodies are buried.
Love,
Vinnie

At 4 a.m. the next morning, FBI agents and local police arrived and dug up the entire area without finding any bodies. They apologized to the old man and left.

That same day the old man received another letter from his son.

Dear Pop,
Go ahead and plant the tomatoes now. That’s the best I could do under the circumstances.
Love you,
Vinnie

Define irony

I’m an avid recycler. In fact, I now actually cringe if I have to put a glass, plastic bottle or tin can in the regular trash. I go so far as to take my recyclable rubbish with me if I’m not able to recycle it there on the spot.

I think it’s true to say of most people who recycle that they’re inclined to make a little bit of extra effort in order to do their recycling. Indeed, in most cases where recycling pickups don’t happen, you will need to keep your recycling in your house until such point that you can take it to a nearby recycling centre and then deposit your stuff in the appropriate bins. This certainly requires extra effort, and perhaps, recyclers do feel a tad smug about their apparent helping to save the planet. I’m not saying they’re on the same level as the sanctimonious wankers who drive a Prius – I don’t care what you say Top Gear reporter Paul Horrell, it’s a shit car, stop saying it’s good – but nevertheless, the very fact that people are prepared to put the extra effort to separate your stuff and then actually take half an hour out of a weekend to go and deposit it, says something.

Well, it says something about some people. I’m not sure what it says about these people:

Recycling madness

In case that’s not clear… virtually all of the visible plastic bottles in the near-overflowing plastic bottle recycling bin still have their plastic tops on, despite the BIG sign that says please remove bottle tops (presumably because they can’t be recycled).

So, the types of people who care enough to actually separate and keep their recyclable material, take it down to the recycling centre on their own time, put it in the right bin… can’t manage a further 3 seconds just to remove the bottle tops and put them in the regular trash.

Idiots.

Come on Stifler!

OK, so he might have put out our boy Andy Murray, but I’m still rooting for Andy Roddick over Federer in this year’s Wimbledon final. It’s not because I care particularly, but because he looks a lot like Stifler. And Federer is just a good looking amazing sportsman with a beautiful girlfriend and lots of money. (I’m guessing.)

So c’mon Stifler!

Andy Roddick	Steve Stifler