Q: How to maintain computer performance while connected?
A: Kill ciscod.exe every couple of hours.

Google.com too showed the new style header.

Gmail header settings drop-down:

Gmail header user name drop-down and ‘Switch account’ drop-down. The ‘Switch account’ drop-down shows both delegated accounts and all currently signed-in accounts.

Google.com header settings drop-down:

Google.com header user name drop-down:

Looks really neat!

Google Reader hasn’t yet switched to the new header for me.

		Google Maps controls Dec 2010 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

• There is one big icon that shows the current view.
• Clicking on it switches between Satellite and Map views.
• Hovering over it brings up two icons – Earth and Satellite/Map.
• Clicking on Earth toggles between Earth and Satellite views.
• A dropdown below the icon lists and allows selection of layers.

I found the icon controls to switch between Earth, Satellite and Map views confusing. The dropdown list to select layers is a nice improvement, but needs improvement: It disappears too quickly if I move the mouse out of the list area.

–DTDH

So I thought I’d chat with an online HP technician and that is exactly what I did today.

Imagine my surprise when he told me that HP does not ship USB cables with their printer!

What kind of a stupid, idiotic, moronic company is this?

To be precise, who are the stupid, idiotic, moronic people that run this company?

Who made the decision to not ship a cable to connect the printer to the computer?

How do these brilliant, over paid, over rewarded MBAs expect people to use the printer after paying for them?

I am a pretty loyal customer of HP and have bought a number of laptops and printers from them before. I am definitely going to think thrice before ordering a HP product now. Especially printers, considering how HP printer cartridges are a rip off!

I made my displeasure very clear to the support technician. Here’s the chat log:

Dileepa Prabhakar : I ordered an HP HDX16T (Online Order HXXXXXXXXX) and received a free HP Deskjet D2680 printer. However, the printer did not ship with a USB cable to connect to the computer. I am now left with an unusable printer.
[An agent will be with you shortly.]
[You are now chatting with Yyyyy .]
Yyyyy : Welcome to HP Total Care chat support for Imaging and Printing Group. My name is Yyyyy. Please give me a minute while I review your problem description details.
Dileepa Prabhakar : Hi Yyyyy. Sure. Ping me when you are ready.
Yyyyy : Sure thanks Dileepa. As per the records with me you are referring to a HP DeskJet D2680 Printer, with WIN VISTA installed as an operating system. Am I correct?
Dileepa Prabhakar : Yes.
Yyyyy : Dileepa, I would like to let you know that the USB cable is not a part of the printer and is not shipped with any new printer. It is ordered and purchased separately. I apologise for inconveniences.
Dileepa Prabhakar : Oh, really? Wow… I don’t know how to say this, but that’s stupid (on HP’s part).
Yyyyy : Once again, I apologise for inconveniences. Would you be interested to order the a new USB cable from HP directly?
Dileepa Prabhakar : No. Don’t want to pay double for a USB cable from HP when I can get it for far less elsewhere. Thanks for letting me know though. Tell your management that they are idiots, pardon my strongish language.
Yyyyy : Okay, is there anything else I may help you with?
Dileepa Prabhakar : No. Thanks. Good day (or night, wherever you are).
Yyyyy : It’s been a pleasure assisting you today. Please note the reference ID of this chat ZZZZZZZ. Thank you for contacting HP Total care and giving us an opportunity to serve you.
Yyyyy : Have a good day!
Yyyyy : Thank you for contacting HP Total Care Real-Time chat support. If you need further assistance, please contact us again at:
http://www.hp.com/support/chat
Chat support is available 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week.
For information on keeping your HP and Compaq products up and running, please visit our Web site at:
http://www.hp.com/go/totalcare

The weather has been nice in Everett, WA lately and I captured this picture on one such day. More here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pdileepa/

• DigitalPersona 4 is compatible with Windows Internet Explorer 8
• DigitalPersona 4 works great on Windows 7 (Release Candidate)

Grab the 32-bit version here and the 64-bit version here.

DigitalPersona 4 is also compatible with Firefox 3.0.x, but they weren’t prepared for Firefox 3.5, which has been in a long beta & RC phase and was released today. And now Firefox 3.5 reports that DigitalPersona 4 is incompatible with it.

Now, I use the fingerprint login capability provided by DigitalPersona extensively and didn’t want to miss out either on this feature or on using Firefox 3.5. I had been using Firefox 3.5 pre-release versions with extension compatibility checker disabled, but didn’t feel like doing that with the release version.

So I set out to see if I could get DigitalPersona 4 to work with Firefox 3.5 and I didn’t disappoint myself .

Here’s what you should do to get it to work:

• Close all open Firefox windows.
• Open an elevated Command Prompt and navigate to the DigitalPersona Firefox extension folder (type command in Command Prompt):

cd %programfiles%\DigitalPersona\Bin\FirefoxExt\

• Open install.rdf in WordPad (type command in Command Prompt):

write install.rdf

• Change <em:maxVersion>3.1.*</em:maxVersion> to <em:maxVersion>3.5.*</em:maxVersion>
• Make a note of the <em:id> value –  it was {ec8030f7-c20a-464f-9b0e-13a3a9e97384} on my computer.
• Save and exit WordPad

Update: Turns out there is an easy way to package this modified DigitalPersona Firefox extension and reinstall it in Firefox 3.5. Follow instructions in the highlighted post here and skip the steps listed below.

• Navigate to your Firefox profiles folder (type command in Command Prompt):

cd %appdata%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\

• If you have multiple Firefox profiles set up, you will find a number of sub folders here. But for most users, there should be just a single folder in the following format: <random_characters>.default. Navigate to that folder (type command in Command Prompt):

cd *.default

• Open extensions.rdf in WordPad (type command in Command Prompt):

write extensions.rdf

• Search for DigitalPersona Extension. Four lines below that, you should find something like this <NS1:targetApplication RDF:resource=”rdf:#$GyBtJ”/>. Note the RDF:resource value.
• Scroll back up to the top of the file, place your mouse pointer on the first line and search for rdf:#$GyBtJ (i.e., the RDF:resource value you noted down in the previous step).
• Ensure that the NS1:id in the next line matches with <em:id> noted from install.rdf above.
• Change NS1:maxVersion=”3.1.*” to NS1:maxVersion=”3.5.*”
• Save and exit WordPad

• Restart Windows and resume browsing in Firefox 3.5, now with DigitalPersona 4 fingerprint login enabled!

A spider makes its home on a plant, waiting for its prey. There were bees & other insects buzzing around, but none landed in the spider’s web.

But tomorrow is another day!

P1030151, originally uploaded by Dileepa Prabhakar.

It’s spring time in Seattle-Everett. The sun was out over the weekend and I decided to set foot outside the house into the backyard. Yeah… I am lazy!