At least my HP 1600N printer allows me to override the cartridge message and continue to print. I wish this was a standard feature with all printers. Guess I’ll have to wait for the cartridge to come in. I’ll continue to use my laserjet which I started to pack up and store.

• Log in to the Simple Control Panel
• Log in using SSH
• Type “su – ” to log in with root privileges
• Type “nano -w /etc/yum.repos.d/utterramblings.repo”. If you’re not comfortable with nano, use whatever editor you’re more comfortable with.
• In the utterramblings.repo file type the following
  

  [utterramblings]
  name=Jason’s Utter Ramblings Repo
  baseurl=http://www.jasonlitka.com/media/EL$releasever/$basearch/
  enabled=1
  gpgcheck=1
  gpgkey=http://www.jasonlitka.com/media/RPM-GPG-KEY-jlitka

• Save the file and close it
• Now you can use “yum update php” and it should update it to the latest that the repositories have
• Restart Apache

This tutorial is based on the one found at http://www.jasonlitka.com/yum-repository/. It took awhile for me to find the solution. I hope this helps out people who had the same problem as I did.

I wanted to use this with my small collection of eBooks – most are in PDF format. Everyone has noted that PDF files do not display well but you can convert them to other formats like EPUB, LRF, or MOBI which Calibre can do for you. I’ve tried it and noticed some improvements but some sentences wrapped too early. It’s not a big deal though but STRIKE 1.

Most, if not all my eBooks are reference books. I didn’t realize that there is no search feature on this model. Reference books are useless if I can’t search for things. Granted it has bookmarks, it’s less efficient if I can’t search – STRIKE 2.

I recently bought 40 Years of X-Men on DVD and thought wouldn’t this be great to have on the PRS-505. Again, the files are in PDF. The pages would not get larger as I increase the font size because it’s a comic book (images). I even tried to convert them to another format. The text in the bubbles were hard to read and the watermark on the pages didn’t help any either – STRIKE 3.

I’m not saying that it’s a bad eBook reader. For $200, it’s a great basic one. If you can still get one at that price, I would recommend getting one if you are looking for one. For what I need it for, it just won’t work.

Luckily, the Borders where I bought it from was kind enough to return it.

So plug in your iPhones and update them to get the new goodies.

The second new hardware announced today is the 13″ version of the Macbook Pro line. After reading the headline and initial stats, I was excited and glad I didn’t get a new laptop to replace my old MBP yet. This is basically the black Macbook with added power and ports. There are 2 models, one with 2.26GHz and 2GB ram and the 2.53GHz and 4GB ram. I almost decided on getting the 4GB ram model until I did a comparison between all the models. Now the prices have decreased but here’s where I get disappointed. Both 13″ model have Firewire 800 support – great! But how many devices do I own or reasonably priced devices that support this connection? Nowhere did I see a listing for Firewire 400 support excep the 12″ Macbook model. The video card is also shared memory, unless you go for the high end 15″ model or the 17″ model. Another missing port is the ExpressCard / 34 slot. This is only available on the 17″ MBP model. Currently, I am using this slot for my Verizon V70 internet card. They did however, gain a SD card slot. Haha, I’d trade that slot in for any of the other missing ports I mentioned in a heartbeat any day!

I really do want a new laptop and a smaller one. I’d have to look at what I’ll be using it for and if the lacking hardware will be an issue. Either way, I’m looking into getting one in a few months.

My first impressions before getting this loaner weren’t good ones based on the exterior look. The interior didn’t really interest me much since I haven’t heard any big changes. The 3.5L engine is nice. Acceleration is great. It has paddle shifters like the Type-S model of 2008. Here’s a list of things I noticed. Some of the comments are comparisons to my 2004 TL.

• The headrest for the front seats are angled forward. I like this because you can recline your seats back and have your head relaxed without having it tilted too far back.
• The leather on the seats seemed different. There are no small holes that make up the bottom piece of the seats. There are more seams to reduce “butt prints”.
• The headrest on the back seats can fold down or up.
• The cup holders at the back are still the middle hand rest but placed on top with a cover rather than the front part that extends from the inside.
• There is now access from the rear seats to the trunk.
• The gas tank and trunk release buttons are now placed on the door.
• The side mirror defroster is now part of the stereo console and is with the rear window defroster. So if you press this button, both will be activated.
• The door locks are a little confusing – at least for my co-workers.
• After adding fuel to the car, the trip computer is smart enough to reset. I like this feature a lot and wished they had this with my model.
• It still has the in-dash 6 disc CD changer. But now it has an Aux and USB connection. With the USB connection, you can connect an iPod and it will sync with the stereo interface. You can select from your playlists, artists and albums. I really wish they add genres too coz it’s a pain if you have a lot of artists or albums and have to browse through all of the to get to like “S”. The USB also charges the iPod while connected. I tried it with an iPod Photo and iPhone 3G. You can still access all of the iPhone’s apps while connected. The iPod area is the only thing synced with the car.
• Below the stereo console is a cicle with 2 buttons on each side. This one of the main controls for selecting different options for the stereo. It reminds me a little of BMW’s iDrive. I found it easy to use. I’m not sure if the touch screen capability on the navi models still exists. The MDX and RDX loaners I’ve got as loaners no longer have the touch screen capability (if they even had it in the first place).
• I see the handsfree button but couldn’t find the voice command button. Did they remove that on this model or on all the models?

That’s pretty much all I noticed during the day I had the car. I’m not too impressed compared to my current TL. Even if they lent me the 2009 navi and SH-AWD model, I wouldn’t consider trading in my TL for a new one. I’m quite happy and content with what I have. Here’s a list of things that I wish it had.

• Different body style. I find the exterior design not at all appealing.
• Heated seats are nice, but what about cooled seats too?
• Keyless entry similar to Lexus IS and up series.
• What happened to the voice command button?

Here are some pics below. You can check out the whole album here http://www.flickr.com/photos/w1n78/sets/72157618789131165/.

Here’s the video I uploaded on YouTube.

jQuery has many examples and demos on their website and has a large community of developers creating plugins. One of the things I needed to figure out was how to pass form variables using jQuery. I found a sample code on their website but I just couldn’t get it to work – http://docs.jquery.com/Ajax/jQuery.post. I couldn’t pass the form variable over. Their sample code was

$.post(”page.php”, {var1: “var1″, var2: “var2″}, function(data) { alert(data);});

So I started to play around with it more and was able to get it to work. Here’s the new code now based on the example.

$.post(”page.php”, {’var1′: $(’#var1′).val(), ‘var2′: $(’#var2′).val()},function(data){alert(data);});

After reading a few comments about this function, a couple suggested to use serialize() but I have yet to figure that out. At least my variables are passing as they should. The same syntax for the variables can be applied to $.get.

If you are going to copy to code above, make sure you are using apostrophes. For some reason, it’s displaying the “tick” symbol which is the one sharing the key with the tilde ~ on your keyboard. It looks like an apostrophe but more slanted. So be aware of that.

While paying for these, we noticed 2 shirts that surprised us that they were selling.

The Pacquio shirt is by Nike and we assumed it might be for his next fight in May. They had red, yellow and blue. I picked out the red coz I thought it looked the best out of the 3. At first I thought the flag shirt was 3 Stars and a Sun, but it isn’t. Just a generic screen printed shirt. I bought it anyway since I can’t get Francis M’s shirts for now. We’ve been trying to order from them for weeks now and they haven’t replied to our email. Guess they’re busy from what happened last month.

Anyways, I just wanted to share what we got today.