Brother MFC dead after power cycle?

Probably was 11 -- I didn't have that version. (I went from 2001 to 12 to

MathCAD is interesting in that the price you pay seems to vary an order of magnitude depending on how much money PTC thinks they can get from you.

I keep hoping to have the time to switch to something like Maple or Mathematica one of these days -- they both have Linux versions, and at least in the academic versions Maple doesn't cost any more than MathCAD.

Got an ESR meter? If there was no smoke and it's dead, I bet you will find at least one 'lytic with very poor ESR. What you're describing is a classic, see it on older Tek scopes all the time.

G=B2

Isn't that called "value added marketing"? Whenever a price isn't clearly stated but you are urged to call a "value added reseller" that raises my hackles. Usually meaning that I won't buy. With hardware I've even seen vendor mark-up, IOW they charge a price well _above_ the one listed on the mfg's web site. Of course that also resulted in a decline on my part.

There are a couple of GPL mathematics programs. However, unfortunately universities get suckered into MatLab and such, probably they are offered really sweet deals. I guess that's one way to achieve vendor-lock.

Or a dead switcher FET somewhere. The strange thing is that the backlight comes on and that's controlled by the uC on there. It usually gets turned off after x seconds of inactivity.

Pretty sad, after less than three years. Anyhow, got to run some more cables in the lab today, then I'll open her up and take a look. Doesn't appear to be too easy to do and, of course, a service manual is not available.

Yeah, things like Scilab and Octave are great, but they really compare more with Matlab in that the interface is more of a command line/stored procedure/separate windows for graphs approach than MathCAD's "back of the envelope/textbook"-style interface.

Maple started out with a command-line interface (I used it years ago on a Commodore Amiga computer!) and has been slowly drifting over to something closer to the MathCAD-like approach.

Was it frozen in transit?

Defrosting and drying out is probably a reasonable precaution for moves made in winter weather.

RL

Joerg does live in one of those inhabitable cold climes ;-)

...Jim Thompson

Nope, just from one office to another down the hallway. Carried with great care, no bumping etc. Plugged it in ... dead.

It's cold right now and the wood stove is on 100% duty cycle. 45F during the day, 35F or so at night. And very windy which turns all the windows into gigantic heat sinks :-(

Besides the dead printer the move also meant lost WLAN coverage in the living area. So besides some cable shelves now I'll have to do some 'tenna building. In the garage, of course, where it's a scorching 40F right now. Oh well, as long as I don't cut myself with the sheet metal.

You're thinking of single-user PCs; Unix was designed for multi-user systems.

You don't want one hung-over student to trash the library directory which everyone uses.

It's like UAC in Vista, except Vista is torn between:

a) making software do it right (anything which a user modifies goes in the user's "Documents and Settings" directory so it doesn't affect anyone else), and b) having to support the way it used to be done (programs using their "Program Files" directory because they've already figured out where that is and can't be bothered dealing with another directory).

So they compromised on trying to make case b) just annoying enough that such programs would be at a disadvantage to their competition.

In Unix, the right way is the way it has always been done (assuming that normal users can write anywhere outside of their home directory has always been a losing proposition).

Programs normally locate data files using a sequence of directories, including a per-user directory and a system-wide directory.

For a single-user system, you can make the relevant directories group-writable for the appropriate group. This sometimes works for a multi-user system where you can rely upon users not to shoot each other in the foot, but you need to be careful about concurrency issues (i.e. multiple users modifying a file or directory at the same time).

The problem is that the typical engineer spends enough time functioning in "administrator" mode that it becomes highly annoying when they can't access /usr/bin or /etc *on their own PCs*. I guess the traditional *nix solution was the "Wheel" group, right? ...accounts that could read and write pretty much anywhere, but didn't have "ultimate" (root) power over the system.

Well, Windows programs are supposed to use HKEY_CURRENT_USER and then HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, right?

Kinda funny how Gnome has a registry (modified with gconf-editor) when so many people in the *nix world bash Windows', isn't it? :-)

Call tech support. They'll have you screw around with it for a while, then tell you to reinstall windows. :-(

Ed

If you can write to /usr/bin or /etc, you can get root whenever you want it.

A better solution is to just have one root shell lying around (preferably on a virtual console rather than in an xterm).

Right, but there doesn't seem to be the same kind of setup for directories.

Dunno; I don't use Gnome. FWIW, I don't think there's anything fundamentally wrong with Windows' registry model, although it's annoying that regedit is so minimal.

If you read text at that link it reports the printer drivers generate errors!

Hmm... why is that? Because xterms could be exploited through the clipboard and copy/paste, or something else?

"My Documents" has been around since Windows 95, and most well-known contemporary software makes use of it. Granted, there's a lot of legacy stuff out there...

---Joel

hp tech "support"? Are you kidding? That's why I located a local printer repair guy who is really good. A garage operation, but he's so good I think he services every major corporation in Phoenix:

...Jim Thompson

The clipboard is one option, XSendEvent() is another, plus a bunch of extensions such as XTest which tend to get added faster than people come to understand the security implications.

It isn't necessarily malice that's the problem; if you get into the habit of leaving a root xterm open all the time, eventually you'll paste something into it by accident.

It's not so much about "My Documents" but the "Application Data" and "Local Settings" folders. Those have been around for long enough too, at least on NT.

The issue even manifests on relatively new software. It seems to be a case of programmers who started with DOS and/or Win3.1/95/98/ME, and although having since updated to newer APIs, haven't updated their mindset.

one buried inside,

wants to get at it.

confused. For this

the current &^@%$!!

Oh yeah. I have a laptop where to really power it down, i remove the brick to computer connector, then flip the cover and pop the battery out. I have to do this in groups of about 3 to 5 times if certain critical settings get munged. All my normal PC's have real power switches, cause i assemble them myself.

It's still under warranty (still on the original cartridge, in fact-- or perhaps not, since they've *lost* it and whatever sense of customer service they may have ever had). I'm sick of being given the run-around by their subcontinental army of call center droids. Should I hire my own 'assistants' to make things happen? What would be the most effective and fun approach? I figure a concerted effort of, say,

PS I'll be in Phoenix for about an hour later today. I'll wave or something...

has one buried inside,

confused. For this

the current &^@%$!!

My laptop needs to be powered down like that occasionally. It loses contact with my docking station and won't boot either with or without unless the battery is removed.

How do you have a "real" power switch on an ATX board? Do you have a "real" power switch on your TV too?