Has anyone had any experience with a wireless print server? I have a USB printer (Samsung ML-2010) connected to my desktop, but my desktop's wireless connection is flaky. I also don't relish leaving the desktop on 24/7 when we primarily need printing nights and weekends. A refurbished Netgear WGPS606 has a very attractive feature set at a great price, but doesn't review well. The Linksys WPS54G reviews a little better, but might have issues working with Vista.

Another possibility would be to use the Cube as a print server. It would suck a lot less power than my XP desktop. The bad news is the networking, though there are a lot more wireless USB adapters in the world than there are wireless print servers.

Thoughts?

While standing in Oft-Maligned Big Box Store today, I noticed that they're pushing compact fluorescent lights quite heavily. I'd read some time back that they're striving to push consumers in that direction. They're making a good effort, including informative signage and packaging. Stores selling CFL have a lot to gain. If it's true that a $3 bulb can save the consumer $57 in energy bills and another $6 in replacements over the life of a CFL, that's theoretically $50 more the consumer has to spend at OMBBS!

I've been using CFLs in my basement for a while now, and they're fine there, but I have a few outstanding issues before I deploy elsewhere. If anyone has prior experience, please enlighten (ha!) me.

1. CFLs aren't suitable for applications which require dimming. That's at least five places in my house. Has anyone used anything else? Has anyone seen dimmable CFLs?

2. Apparently, phosphor technology is improving to the point that CFLs are no longer undesirably harsh or blue. Has anyone found applications where the color temperature difference is unacceptable? I'm thinking in particular of bathroom vanity lighting, for example.

3. Can anyone think of a reason I shouldn't use CFLs in my garage door opener? I think it uses a relay so the lights are always full on or full off.

I've been using PNM files for many years. The earliest use I can recall was the Digital Stump. More recently, I've treasured the PGM portion of the spec as a super-simple format for grayscale raster image data. The format uses a text header that can be generated with a single fprintf. Plenty of free software is happy to accept 8-bit PGM files. More recently, we've needed to generate 16-bit images. OK, the PGM specification clearly states what to do: crank the maximum value for a pixel past 255 and write two bytes per pixel. What could be simpler?

Turns out I haven't yet found an image viewer that understands these two-byte-per-pixel PGMs. Netpbm, the first name in PNM manipulation, doesn't come with a viewer. gthumb crashes. kview can't handle it. GQview displays a broken image icon. GIMP won't read it, though that appears to be because GIMP can't work with anything image channel that exceeds eight bits. Our proprietary image manipulation package at work is internally capable of arbitrary bit depths like twelve and sixteen, but its PNM reader is only good with bit depths up to eight. A member of that project only needed a few minutes to make it generate 16-bit PGMs in accordance with the spec when I asked yesterday, but it was going to be a major headache to make the modifications to read the data back in.

So I see from the change log that 16-bit support was introduced to Netpbm in 2000. Why is everyone else so far behind? Can anyone suggest a similarly easy image format to spit out that still offers 16-bit?

I just bought a lovely external hard drive with which to back up my main desk machine at home. Unfortunately, I thoughtlessly selected a model that doesn't come with any backup software. What does anybody else use? I'm hoping for something that will back up the operating system, the applications, and the registry. Suggestions?

When I asked for C++ book recommendations, I received some helpful suggestions. Now I'm looking to pick up a little Ruby. I've been going through the online version of The Pickaxe Book, which is an OK tutorial. Once I'm past the learning stage, though, I'll want a reference on the order of The Camel Book. Anyone know of one? I'd also like to find a downloadable HTML reference to match the perl one I picked up at http://perldoc.perl.org/. The perl one uses JavaScript to provide searching without CGI. The whole damn index is in the .js files!

It has finally dawned on me that all of my networkable devices but one are in the living room. That lone exception is my desk machine in the guest room. I've been contemplating hiring an electrician to fish Ethernet through the walls to connect the cable modem in the guest room to a switch in my living room. I tried bridging this wirelessly, but now I'm thinking I should bridge it through the power line with HomePlug AV. Better yet, I can put the router and cable modem in the living room and use HomePlug just for the upstairs machine. Has anyone used HomePlug yet?

More importantly, do the bridges with only one port pass multiple IPs through? Can I provide my own switch on the far end, or do I need to get a four-port HomePlug device?

I used to be a fairly regular crossword solver. I've gone through several phases of solving daily puzzles with coworkers, including patrickwonders a few years back. I found the Chicago Sun-Times puzzles prety satisfying a few years ago, but gave up on them about three years ago. Having watched Wordplay last weekend, crosswords are suddenly on my mind again. I've been working on the L.A. Times mostly. A Friday from earlier this month just took me thirty-two minutes. I probably wouldn't've solved it at all were it not for computer-enabled cheating. One of the difficulty levels flags incorrect letters immediately, making it easy to iterate through the alphabet until the letter is black instead of red. Am I learning that way? Tough call.

Anyone have any favorite crossword sources besides the ever-daunting N.Y. Times?

My quartet will be strolling and singing along Park Ave. tonight. It's raining, though, and the satellite picture is far from rosy. Anyone have a rain dance the quartet might try to botch? I saw a headline about the Pope continuing a delicate dance in Turkey. Anyone know the moves?

Christmas is but a few weeks away, and the gift suggestions are already circulating. I've been keeping mine on a static web page for many years now. I'd like to switch to something else, but I'm not sure what's up to the task. The ideal candidate would be easy enough to use that I could talk my family into putting their desired items in, too.

( Background and requirements. )

Anyone know of anything appropriate?

Anyone out there have recommendations for C++ reference books? In an ideal world, it would be something whose coding examples would show good OO principles. I learned C++ from a Herbert Schildt book, so his "C++: the Complete Reference" is somewhat tempting. Are O'Reilly's C++ books half as good as their Perl books? I have very little hesitation ordering up "C++ in a Nutshell," and the table of contents for "C++ Cookbook" makes it sound useful.