New Printer: Samsung ML-2851

Tags

mac, os x, samsung ML-2851

We bought a laser printer, a Samsung ML-2851. It connects to our LAN via an ethernet cable, so it’s available to all our computers. Well, after a major hassle that is. You see, the printer did not ship with the OS X software needed to configure it. I knew I wanted it to have a fixed IP address, I knew what that was by the port on my router. It did ship with a Mac friendly postscript print driver. It has a nice web based set up utility – but we could not get to that until we were able to configure its tcp/ip settings. After quite a bit of frustration it occurred to me to check out the windows programs on the printer CD. We have a windows based netbook, and we found an IP configuration program on it. WHY IS THERE NO OS X IP CONFIGURATION PROGRAM WITH A DEVICE THAT CLAIMS OS X COMPATIBILITY?? The printer test page, generated by holding down the power button for a few seconds, contained the mac address. Once we found this program, the rest was not too bad. Beware that configuring the tcp/ip parameters is not a trivial task, and it required a corresponding change to my router configuration. Not plug and play.

Initial opinion: We like the printer. Print quality is good, it prints duplex (both sides of paper), it’s quiet after an initial warm up. Mac support is seriously deficient.

Next Apple OS is called Snow Leopard

Tags

apple, mac, os x

Link to Apple’s Snow Leopard page.

Updated 10 June 2008: Here’s a brief story on Snow Leopard.

I saw something the other day (sorry, no link) saying that the next version of OS X, 10.6, will be called Snow Leopard. What happens when Apple runs out of big cat names?

Why Malware is Avoidable on Macs

Tags

Computers, mac, malware, os x, virus, windows

The Unavoidable Malware Myth: Why Apple Won’t Inherit Microsoft’s Malware Crown — RoughlyDrafted Magazine via kwout

Interesting article explaining that malware such as viruses, adware, spam bots, etc are a major problem on Windows and not on Apple Macs. The reason is the poor quality of Windows.

TurboTax: Windows-to-Mac OS X Works Great!

Tags

income tax, mac, osx, turbotax

A while back I published this post on problems I had moving Quicken from Windows to Mac OSX.

This weekend I crossed my fingers and bought TurboTax. Both Windows and OS X versions came on the same CD. I installed it with no problems on my mac book pro. It took a while to download and install updates – no problem, I just did something else. The real test was: Would it import last year’s return from the file produced by the Windows version. Yes!! It did so flawlessly! Good work Inutit! I guess the TurboTax developers care about cross platform data portability, and the Quicken team does not.

This saved me lots of time. Once I was able to find my financial records and figure out the cost basis of some securities I sold, my tax chores went fine – as long as I don’t think about how much of my property the federal and state government are extorting from me. My income is my property, just as yours is yours. Since we absolutely own our own bodies and use them to earn our income. This is true whether we do manual labor or intellectual tasks.

Most Important Products of 2007 – Business Week

Tags

apple, business, mac, products

Business Week lists what it considers the most important products of 2007 – And it looks like an Apple catalog. The first 4 products are from Apple: the iPhone, OS 10.5 Leopard, MacBook Pro, and Apple TV. We own two of these 🙂