We enjoyed a wonderful Saturday in Silver Springs campground with Phil & Ann, during which among other things we four walked through a big-tree forest near Mt. Rainier to a stand of really large (and presumably ancient) trees called "The Grove of the Patriarchs".
I took pictures.
After our little hike, dinner around Phil's excellent campfire consisted of chili-dogs and tree needles; a bit of a breeze was blowing. All in all, it was a wonderful way to spend a Saturday.
Thanks, Phil & Ann!
Mark_
13:42 25 September 2011
25 September 2011
22 September 2011
Printing from iOS Devices
I recently helped a friend with setting up a Macintosh laptop for printing to a wireless printer. The point of that included permitting the household's iPad to print, something I had believed to be possible in principle but had not investigated as yet. Turns out that printing from iPhones and such--wirelessly!--is possible; in some cases however, use of non-Apple software is necessary. This little "paper" will focus on the non-Apple side of the question.
Apple has a new wireless printing standard called "AirPrint".
Unfortunately, AirPrint works only with a fairly small number of AirPrint-ready wireless printers; the printer in question was wireless but non-AirPrint-ready.
Canon, Epson, Hewlett Packard, and Lexmark all offer free iOS apps for printing wirelessly--even to printers that are not themselves wireless devices as such. (There are quite a few pay apps, too, offering combinations of printing, scanning, and "cloud" storage. I have ignored those.)
This is about a particular non-Apple application that I have installed and tested on my old iPod touch, printing to a 3-year-old Hewlett Packard all-in-one.
• HP, for example: <http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Other-printing-questions/HP-DESKJET-3050-all-in-one-j610a/td-p/843985>
Note the confusion on that page; an app is required:
So: Install (and register) the appropriate app, "Share" your printer to the network (in System Preferences), (there may be other steps,) and your iTouch (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch) can see and print to it when on your home network (and your computer is awake). (It's possible to print to your home printer when away, too, but that requires some fairly complicated setup--and that the computer remain awake while you are away from the house.)
Instead of adding a global Print command; instead, the HP app can print some kinds of material for which it has built-in viewers. I have tested it using my second-generation iPod touch, and it printed to my non-AirPrint, non-wireless printer; I was gratified to receive only a moment later the printout of one of the pictures stored on my device.
Presumably, wireless printers would not need for the computer to be awake.
For most purposes, either syncing or e-mailing content from the hand-held to the big computer is superior for any number of reasons (and will be required for some kinds of content). However, when a hard copy of a few common types of things is desired immediately, this is _the cat's pajamas_: Launch app--Select content--Send print job to printer while walking toward computer room--Retrieve printout from tray--enjoy.
By the way--we did establish wireless printing from the MacBook to the HP wireless printer.
All excellent!
Mark_
10:39 22 September 2011
17 September 2011
Grocery List on iTouch
Cindy & I have just begun experimenting with a system that puts our family grocery list on multiple iOS devices and on the big computer(s), so that (recent connection assumed) all parties have the shopping list with them at all times--no active network connection is required, once it has been synced with the web site server. (This occurs automatically while the app is open and connected by wi-fi or whatever.)
So far, it seems extremely slick.
OurGroceries <http://www.ourgroceries.com/overview> has an app for iOS and a webapp that runs in a browser window on any computer. Make a free account, populate it with grocery items (there is an _import_ feature that I have not investigated), organize by section, type, aisle, or whatever, and any changes are reflected on all other computers and devices just a second or two later (while connected to the network).
It supports multiple shopping lists, and has a _recipe_ feature that can update a list according to what's needed for preparing a particular recipe. Using this feature might be okay for routine stuff, but for making special recipes or meals it seems likely to be helpful once setup has been completed.
It does not support prices, comparison shopping, or notes. It's only a checklist.
Key to having something like this prove useful over time is that it be extremely easy to use once the minor drudgery of initial setup has completed. (Do that on the computer.) Adding items is quite easily accomplished on either the computer or the hand-held, maintenance is pretty transparent, and use in-store is dead easy: Launch it, switch to the particular list of interest, and walk through a section of the store tapping items off the active list as they are encountered.
Here is our list of grocery sections/types ("categories") (so far). We have also made (shorter) lists for the things we like to buy regularly from Costco and Trader Joe's.
Baking&Spices
Beverages
Bread&
Can_FruitVeg
Can_Meat
Can_Soup
Cleansers
Coffee&Tea
Condiments
Dairy
Deli
Ethnic
Frozen
Health&Beauty
Meat
Non-food
Paper
PastaBeansRice
Produce
Snacks&
I have made no attempt to try to make those categories correspond to the way any particular grocery store is organized; this is as generic as I could think to make it.
Items that are not currently needed are put into one big list, sorted either by time put there (the default, oddly) or by alphabet. Key to having the alphabet work, as I see it, is to adopt a naming convention that groups similar things in that listing as well. Therefore:
Under the category "Can_FruitVeg":
Beans_Black
Beans_Pinto
Beans_White
Under "Coffee":
Coffee_Beans
Coffee_BeansDecaf
Coffee_Instant
Coffee_InstantDecaf
Etc.
We expect to like it, and we expect to find it so easily used (at every stage) that we will continue using it.
At present, all aspects (the iOS app and the webapp) are free of charge.
Mark_
17 September 2011
So far, it seems extremely slick.
OurGroceries <http://www.ourgroceries.com/overview> has an app for iOS and a webapp that runs in a browser window on any computer. Make a free account, populate it with grocery items (there is an _import_ feature that I have not investigated), organize by section, type, aisle, or whatever, and any changes are reflected on all other computers and devices just a second or two later (while connected to the network).
It supports multiple shopping lists, and has a _recipe_ feature that can update a list according to what's needed for preparing a particular recipe. Using this feature might be okay for routine stuff, but for making special recipes or meals it seems likely to be helpful once setup has been completed.
It does not support prices, comparison shopping, or notes. It's only a checklist.
Key to having something like this prove useful over time is that it be extremely easy to use once the minor drudgery of initial setup has completed. (Do that on the computer.) Adding items is quite easily accomplished on either the computer or the hand-held, maintenance is pretty transparent, and use in-store is dead easy: Launch it, switch to the particular list of interest, and walk through a section of the store tapping items off the active list as they are encountered.
Here is our list of grocery sections/types ("categories") (so far). We have also made (shorter) lists for the things we like to buy regularly from Costco and Trader Joe's.
Baking&Spices
Beverages
Bread&
Can_FruitVeg
Can_Meat
Can_Soup
Cleansers
Coffee&Tea
Condiments
Dairy
Deli
Ethnic
Frozen
Health&Beauty
Meat
Non-food
Paper
PastaBeansRice
Produce
Snacks&
I have made no attempt to try to make those categories correspond to the way any particular grocery store is organized; this is as generic as I could think to make it.
Items that are not currently needed are put into one big list, sorted either by time put there (the default, oddly) or by alphabet. Key to having the alphabet work, as I see it, is to adopt a naming convention that groups similar things in that listing as well. Therefore:
Under the category "Can_FruitVeg":
Beans_Black
Beans_Pinto
Beans_White
Under "Coffee":
Coffee_Beans
Coffee_BeansDecaf
Coffee_Instant
Coffee_InstantDecaf
Etc.
We expect to like it, and we expect to find it so easily used (at every stage) that we will continue using it.
At present, all aspects (the iOS app and the webapp) are free of charge.
Mark_
17 September 2011
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