Viewsonic N4251w 42 inch LCD HDTV

The Viewsonic name is most recognized as the maker of some of the most fantastic PC displays around for gaming and other uses. Viewsonic also has a full line of LCD HDTV sets as well that are every bit as good as the PC displays Viewsonic is famous for. Today we have Viewsonic N4251w 42" LCD HDTV up for review. If you are in the market for a large screen LCD TV, check out this review of the Viewsonic N4251w 42" LCD HDTV.

The first thing that grabs the eye when you unbox the Viewsonic N4251w 42" LCD HDTV is the high gloss black bezel of the TV. the TV looks fantastic. Viewsonic didn't scrimp when it came to the specs for the N4251w 42" LCD HDTV either and loaded it up with gobs of features yet still managed to keep the selling price in the range many HDTV shoppers can afford at $1575.

The LCD panel is a 42" color TFT active matrix wide LCD with a display area of 36.6" horizontal x 20.6" vertical with a 42" diagonal viewing area. The panel's native resolution is 1366x768 and it boasts a fantastic 1200:1 contrast ratio. Viewing angles are great at 178 degrees both horizontally and vertically. Just like with PC gaming LCD monitors, the gray-to-gray response time matters on a TV and the Viewsonic N4251w 42" LCD HDTV has a good time of 8ms.

Typical brightness of the TV is 500 cd/m². The TVs light source is good for 50,000 hours. Viewsonic went all out on connectivity with the N4251w 42" LCD HDTV giving it three HDMI connectors that support HDCP which is fantastic. Those not using HDMI will be glad to hear that you also get coax, composite RCA, component HD and S-Video connectors as well. A 3.5 mm mini stereo audio in/out also allows you to use headphones or connect your PC sound output to the TV speakers. You also get an SPDIF out for digital audio.

A 15-pin D-sub is provided to allow you to connect your PC via analog connections and the TV can do resolutions of 1024x768, 1280x768, 1280x1024, and 1280x720 for PC in addition to the native resolution of 1360x768. You can also connect your Mac to the Viewsonic N4251w 42" LCD HDTV as well. The tuner used in the Viewsonic N4251w 42" LCD HDTV is ATSC/NTSC. Size the Viewsonic N4251w 42" LCD HDTV comes in at 40.4" x 30.4" x 11.6" with the stand and weighs 73.3 lbs net with the stand. TV/Video resolutions supported are 480i, 480p, 720p and 1080i. The sound system uses two speakers that a 10-watt designs and support Dolby Digital surround sound.

For testing I connected the Viewsonic N4251w 42" LCD HDTV to a Denon S-301 home theater and Sudden Link HD Cable via HDMI. The 1200:1 contrast ratio gives on screen images nice deep blacks and makes for good transitions form light to dark. Problems here often show up in the form of pixilation in scenes with lots of dark and light colors, especially at the transition between the two. I noticed none of this with the Viewsonic N4251w 42" LCD HDTV.

HD programming at 1080i looked fantastic and the TV automatically changes the screen format during HD programming if a commercial comes on that isn't HD so the image doesn't look stretched or pinched which is nice. Colors are reproduced very realistically and skin tones look great and natural. Overall the image quality on the Viewsonic N4251w 42" LCD HDTV is absolutely top notch. The fast 8ms gtg response time means that there is no ghosting during video playback, TV or gaming with consoles or PC.

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Why do you Need a Computer?

Buying a computer? Here are three questions you must ask to ensure you make the right purchase. Once you are clear on these, you will be closer to getting a smart buy.

Ask these 3 questions! Buying a Computer?

Whether you are a new user or advanced one, whether this is your first computer or second (or even third), be clear as to why you want a computer before you even think of buying one.

How will you use your computer? Are you only interested in browsing the Internet and checking e-mail? Do you plan to use your PC as a programming machine? Do desktop publishing or video editing feature on your agenda? Or is it a gaming rig?

Consider these factors before stepping into a hardware shop.

The basic components of a computer system are the motherboard (containing the processor and memory), keyboard, mouse, monitor, diskette drive, CD-ROM drive and hard drive.

In addition, there are several other types of devices you may or may not need. A trackball, joy stick, modem, tape drive, zip drive, printer, plotter, scanner, sound card and speakers, television card and video capture card, to name a few.

Whether you buy these will depend on what you need the computer for and which software applications you intend to use.

Remember the golden rule: the fastest or most expensive computer is not necessarily the one you need.

Finally, the length of time that you plan to own the computer before replacing it will also help determine which computer to buy.

What is your budget?

This is the next thing you need to be certain of. How much are you willing to spend on a PC?

After you arrive at a figure, keep a margin of a few thousands. It will give you some room for flexibility. If you are short on money when you buy your computer and cannot add all the peripherals you want, be smart.

Buy as much as you can afford. Don't cut corners on the main system unit (monitor, processor, memory, disk space).

Remember, you want the computer to last at least four years. You don't want to run out of disk space or memory in the very first year, all because you trimmed down on the memory or got a smaller hard drive.

Hard disk capacity matters a great deal as it takes no time for data to fill the available space. A 40 GB hard disk is sufficient disk space, but 80 GB is the standard recommendation.

Random Access Memory is the amount of memory available for use by programmes on a computer. One of the important factors to ensure the smooth running of your system is the memory available.

The more the memory, the better it is. Make sure you can upgrade your computer's memory as and when required.

The RAM chip comes in capacities of 128, 256, 512 MB, even 1 GB. Most computers function efficiently with 256 MB RAM, though a 512 MB RAM does offer you an edge.

Hold off on the printer or a software application and other accessories that you really don't need right away. You shouldn't have any problem installing these after the original purchase has been made. Just ensure you buy components that are compatible with your system.

Should you go for a branded PC or an assembled one?

Assembled machines are popular because they are more economically priced.

Branded PCs cost around 35 to 40% more than their assembled counterparts.

Besides, you can choose your own specifications with assembled PCs. You are not forced to accept a rigid component configuration. You cannot customise a branded PC to suit your exact requirements.

With the same price that you would pay for a branded piece, you will be able to own a superior assembled PC.

Make sure the components purchased for the assembled PC are original. Take along an informed, reliable assembler to purchase the components so that you are not fooled by counterfeit parts.

The advantage of a branded PC is the reliability of the brand, the after sales service and the technical support. On the flip side, the after sales services and repairs offered by the brands are a tad expensive and not prompt most times.

Don't forget to look at the warranty. Generally, a warranty period of a year is normal for all major parts of the PC. But there are good brands that offer either more years or the option of an additional payment to top up the warranty period.

Talk to your friends and colleagues who have assembled PCs. Ask them about their experience and recommendations on whom to approach. Question them as to what happened when they had a problem. Was the individual easy to access? Did he offer prompt service? Does their computer give a lot of trouble?

If possible, meet two or three individuals before you finally zero in on one.

Spend some time on these three issues and you will be all set to buy your very own PC!

The Garmin nüvi 360 GPS Navigator and Personal Travel Assistant

Navigation on the Nuvi is very good, fast, and intuitive. It's no different from many of Garmin's other offerings in that regard. Some buildings and businesses that you would expect to be shown as POIs are not there, but most are. One thing I would suggest: when a route is less than ideal, Garmin should allow you to correct it permanently so that it does not re-suggest the non-preferred route each time.

The Garmin nüvi 360 GPS Navigator and Personal Travel Assistant is a GPS navigator, personal translator, multi-media entertainer and tour guide all wrapped into one. In addition to all the advanced features of the Garmin nüvi 350 -- including automatic routing, turn-by-turn voice directions, an MP3 player and audio book player, JPEG picture viewer, and much more -- this pocket-sized personal travel assistant comes with hands-free Bluetooth wireless technology, making it the hands-down go-anywhere travel companion.

For starters, the nüvi 360 includes a high-sensitivity integrated GPS receiver that offers exceptional performance and reception. The unit's flip-up antenna includes an MCX-type connector for optional external GPS antenna connection. Preloaded software features maps of Europe or North America, and it includes automatic routing, 2D or 3D map perspective, turn-by-turn voice directions that speak street names, and a fingertip touch screen interface -- making navigation as easy as it gets.

But navigation is just the beginning. Like the nüvi 350, the nüvi 360 also includes many entertainment and travel tools including an MP3 player, audio book player, JPEG picture viewer, travel alarm, and currency converters.

The nüvi 360 features a bright, 2.8 x 2.1-inch TFT display with white backlight for easy readability. At 3.87 x 2.91 x 0.87-inches (WxHxD) and just 5.1 ounces, the unit is small enough to be placed on the dashboard with the included suction mount, or into your pocket for easy transportability. The unit also features Garmin Lock -- an advanced anti-theft feature that disables the unit from performing any functions until you type in a specific four-digit PIN or take the unit to a predetermined location. A built-in lithium ion battery will give you up to eight hours of power, and an included 12/24 volt adapter cable will let you run the navigator off your vehicle's power. An AC battery charger is also included.

A built-in Travel Kit that includes sample MP3s and audio books will get you started with entertainment, and with the unit's SD memory card expansion slot you can add optional software, such as language and travel guides. A USB port is also included for loading and updating data.

What's in the Box
Gamin nüvi 360, Preloaded City Navigator NT North America or Europe (full coverage), vehicle suction cup mount, AC charger, 12/24 volt adapter cable, dashboard disk, USB interface cable, carrying case, owner's manual, and quick reference guide.

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A Dream Machine for Anyone

One whose cost factor determines that you must buy it carefully.
If you are thinking of going in for a laptop (or a notebook, as it is called among the tech circles), here are a few tips that will come in handy. 12 Tips for you! Buying a laptop?

1. Opt for an Intel Pentium 4 or an Intel Centrino processor. The processor forms the computing core of your laptop and is one area where you must not compromise. Invest wisely here. The processor is the first component likely to get outdated and it is not possible to upgrade it.

2. Opt for a 256 MB DDR SDRAM. A RAM of lower memory capacity will make it difficult to run certain applications and software.

3. Choose an Active-matrix (TFT) display, preferably an LCD. The display is an active matrix if you can see the arrow while it traverses the screen. Most displays nowadays are TFTs as the Passive-matrix (dual scan) is now outdated. TFTs are highly preferred because of their sharper images, better resolution and smoother images of motion on the screen. Wide screen laptops are a visual treat and recommended for those interested in the movie experience. But they cost 8% to 10% more than the conventional laptops, are obviously bulkier to carry and slightly low on battery life.

4. If you travel extensively, take care that your laptop weighs under 5 pounds. If your laptop will be confined to your room, you could go in for a slightly heavier one. It will be cheaper. It will also have a few more features.

5. Check the battery life on the laptop. Insist that it is a Lithium-ion (Li+) battery (nearly all laptops will have this one). Choose batteries with a high voltage and a high mAh. Do not go for NiMH batteries, as you will have to keep charging them frequently.

6. If you have no intention of using a CD frequently, an external DVD and CDRW drives may be preferred to inbuilt ones. The main convenience being that they reduce the weight of the base piece and provide lesser complications later on. If they are an integral part of your work, you might as well opt for an inbuilt version. Incidentally, the prices of DVD drives are expected to fall considerably over the next one year. Don't stress on your laptop having a floppy drive. Floppies are getting obsolete by the minute and will soon be terminated.

7. If you are on the move, buy a laptop with a spill-resistant keyboard and shock-resistant hard drives. This will ensure your hard disk does not crash and you don't lose data in the event of a minor crash or fall.

8. Ensure the laptop has two or more USB ports, as you will need them to attach your peripheral devices like printers and scanners. You could even consider buying a pen drive to act as a reliable data transfer mode. Choose a laptop with wireless connectivity in the form of Bluetooth and Infrared. These make data transfer very convenient and reliable and you can send data to multiple recipients at one go. These facilities on your laptop would cost you around Rs 1,000 more and are independent of any service providers.

9. Windows XP Professional is an ideal system for a laptop meant for office use. In laptops, it is very inconvenient to upgrade your operating system, so choose the latest one. Windows is the most popular operating system, with XP Professional being the latest that supports all the software available today.

10. Some people prefer a touchpad mouse as the navigating option while others prefer the rubberised button situated between the keys G, H and B. Try working with both and pick the one you are most comfortable with. Some laptops come equipped with both. You could also consider a cordless mouse, which is half the size of the regular one.

11. Insist on an inbuilt LAN card and modem. There are basically two types of modems on offer -- internal modems and PC card-based modems. Make sure the internal modem is fast enough for your needs. Else, opt for the PC card-based one that sticks out of your computer, but is slightly better performance wise.

12. While budgeting for your laptop, bear in mind that a cheaper machine might prove expensive if you plan to upgrade it. Do not compromise on the processor, the RAM and the operating system. The memory capacity (GB) can be upgraded later on, so can the CD/DVD drives. When you are buying your laptop check on upgradation. You can upgrade your machine with or without discarding it. If you plan to change your machine within two years, don't invest too heavily on it.

Where brands are concerned, do note that the IBM laptop division has been taken over by the Chinese company, Lenova. HP and Compaq are the same brand when it comes to laptops. The good thing about this brand is that it is in a position to provide good service simply because of an established network of service centres. Despite all the advice you get, make it a point to test your laptop before purchasing it. Don't just take someone's word for it.

Check if you are comfortable with the interface, the keyboard, the touch pad and the display. After all, it is you who are going to be using it and paying for it.

Tomorrow: Buy a laptop to suit your budget.

Good Smartphone that Has its quirks - HTC FUZE Phone, Black (AT&T)

This AT&T phone can handle high-speed data connectivity via AT&T's 3G mobile broadband data network, which is available in most major metropolitan areas. The AT&T 3G network uses the dual-band UMTS 850/1900 MHz network, and this phone is also compatible with 2100 MHz 3G networks (found in international territories). The AT&T 3G network provides download speeds ranging from 700 Kbps to 1.7 Mbps, and upload speeds ranging from 500 Kbps to 1.2 Mbps. This makes it possible to enjoy a variety of feature-rich wireless multimedia services, and it gives you the advantage of offering simultaneous voice and data services. (For use outside the United States, an AT&T international data plan is recommended.)

The phone has a built-in web browser for MEdia Net downloads and mobile web browsing. AT&T's MEdia Net service enables you to receive and send emails, read news headlines, get weather updates, download games and ringtones, and more.

Phone Features
With the TouchFLO 3D interface, HTC has taken a great leap forward in touchscreen innovation. It's designed for one-hand operation using simple, gesture-based navigation, allowing you to simply touch, hold and slide along the screen tabs. A quick slide on the home screen quickly activates the most used features such as e-mail, text messaging, music player and camera. This instinctive interface extends to the powerful Web browser, where a useful "zoom in, zoom out" feature makes it especially easy to access the Web via the included Opera browser, which provides for desktop-like Web page renderings and user interactions. An integrated accelerometer senses when you change the position of the phone from portrait to landscape viewing, and it auto-rotates the screen's orientation.

The HTC Fuze features a sharp, 262K-color 2.8-inch VGA touchscreen (480 x 640 pixels) for touch-sensitive navigation control, complete with three-dimensional animated transitions. For email, messaging and other data input, the HTC Fuze also comes equipped with a full QWERTY keyboard that slides out from the smartphone's side.

Business users can choose from several popular platforms to access your corporate e-mail. The Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional platform offers seamless integration with Microsoft Outlook information including email, contacts, calendar and to-do lists. Additionally, Good Mobile Messaging and BlackBerry Connect compatibility will be offered late in 2008, while personal email can easily be taken mobile using AT&T's popular Xpress Mail service. You can access and edit email attachments using mobile versions of Microsoft Word, Excel, OneNote and PowerPoint.

In addition, the HTC Fuze supports scores of industry-specific applications as well as Microsoft System Center Mobile Device Manager (MDM), an enterprise-grade mobile device management solution that also provides security, mobile Virtual Private Network (VPN) and software distribution for Windows Mobile devices enabled for Windows Mobile 6.1.

This phone provides Bluetooth version 2.0 wireless connectivity with EDR (enhanced data rate), and includes profiles for communication headset, handsfree car kits, and audio/video remote control. With the A2DP Bluetooth profile, you can stream your music to a pair of compatible Bluetooth stereo headphones. You'll also be able to access open Wi-Fi networks in offices and hotspots via the integrated 802.11b/g wireless connectivity.

Other features include:

• 3.2-megapixel camera with autofocus on the back of the phone, additional VGA camera on the front of the phone for video conferencing
• Video capture up to CIF resolution (352 x 288 pixels)
• Windows Media Player compatible with MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA, WAV file formats
• 512 MB of ROM, 288 MB of RAM
• Support for polyphonic ringtones as well as real-music ringers
• Speaker-Independent Voice Dialing: Say the name of any entry in your phone book and the number is dialed automatically without using the keypad. This feature is speaker-independent, so there is no need to train the phone to respond to any one person's voice. Receive an audible status report of your phone/s coverage, signal strength, and battery strength.
• MicroSD memory card expansion (up to 32 GB capacities)
• USB 2.0 connectivity with mass storage capabilities
• Bluetooth version 2.0+EDR with the following profiles: A2DP (stereo music streaming), AVRC (remote control), HFP (hands-free car kits), HSP (communication headsets), BPP (basic printing profile for text, email), DUN (dial-up networking), FTP (file transfer), HID (support for mice or joysticks), OPP (object push for business cards, calendar items, and pictures), PAN (personal area networking), PBA (transfer contacts)

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BlackBerry Bold 9000 is the fastest And Most Powerful

The elegant BlackBerry Bold smartphone features a lustrous black exterior, satin chrome-finished frame and stylish, leatherette backplate with a newly designed full QWERTY keyboard for exceptionally fast and easy typing and stunning half-VGA (480 x 320 at 217 ppi) color display that's fused to the undersurface of the lens, making images leap out with stunning definition and clarity. It also includes a trackball navigation system located on the top of the QWERTY keypad. The BlackBerry Bold also boasts a new acoustic design for enhanced phone listening quality and clarity and numerous premium phone features, including Speaker Independent Voice Recognition (SIVR) for Voice Activated Dialing (VAD).

The BlackBerry Bold smartphone's support for tri-band HSDPA and enterprise-grade Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g) networks and its next-generation 624 MHz mobile processor make short work of downloading email attachments, streaming video or rendering web pages. The BlackBerry Bold also includes 128 MB Flash memory plus 1 GB on-board storage memory, as well as a microSD/SDHC memory card slot that is conveniently accessible from a side door.

The Blackberry Bold delivers the legendary BlackBerry email experience. With BlackBerry service plans from AT&T, you can receive emails instantaneously from up to 10 email accounts (personal and enterprise). With BlackBerry push technology, you don't need to retrieve your email. BlackBerry devices are designed to remain on and continuously connected to the wireless network, allowing you to be discreetly notified as new email arrives. Support is also built-in for viewing email attachments (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, WordPerfect, and PDF formats).

Vital Statistics
The BlackBerry Bold weighs 4.8 ounces and measures 4.49 x 2.59 x 0.59 inches. Its 1500 mAh lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 4.5 hours of talk time, and up to 324 hours (13.5 days) of standby time. It runs on the 850/900/1800/1900 MHz GSM/GPRS/EDGE frequencies as well as tri-band UMTS/HSDPA 3G networks (2100/1900/850 MHz).

Of course the first thing to say is that the screen in gorgeous. The demo videos nicely show off the tightly packed pixels. But what I didn't know going into the purchase is how many little surprises were in store:

1. The media manager is straightforward and solid. I just popped in my previous 8gb microSD and it found all my .wma files without prompting. I can find the artist or song title I want by typing in the first few letters. Only negative is it hasn't yet located the album art put on the card by wmp.
2. The screen responds to ambient light by becoming brighter when it's bright, and dimmer with backlit keyboad in low light.
3. When you plug it in for charging, it automatically switches to a clock display mode, where you can also easily set the alarm, which is perfect for how I use my phone as my main alarm. You can also set it from here to bedside mode, which permantly displays the clock super dim, and turns off annoying notification leds.
4. Paired with my BT stereo headphones instantly. Found my home wifi network and logged on much easier than Vista.
5. Voice dialing works surprisingly well.
6. Very loud speaker for music playback with surprising quality.
7. Web browser still not as nice as iphone's, but nicer than pocket ie on windows mobile.
8. The new blackberry versions of gmail and google maps rock (I downloaded them). Maps provides fast and accurate gps location, and even includes streetview! Yahoo Go (my other main ap) however, does not yet support the Bold.
9. Users new to 3G will be surprised by how fast the battery can drain when using that connection. But the battery actually holds out on par with other 3G phones.

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Crack pdf File Password - How To

Don’t you hate when you run into a locked down pdf on the internet? I search google all the time for title filetype:pdf and some are locked, this is the solution! PDFCrack is a GNU/Linux (other POSIX-compatible systems should work too) tool for recovering passwords and content from PDF-files. It is small, command line driven without external dependencies. The application is Open Source (GPL).
Features

• Supports the standard security handler (revision 2 and 3) on all known PDF-versions
• Supports cracking both owner and userpasswords
• Both wordlists and bruteforcing the password is supported
• Simple permutations (currently only trying first character as Upper Case)
• Save/Load a running job
• Simple benchmarking
• Optimised search for owner-password when user-password is known

Install pdfcrack in Ubuntu

$ sudo aptitude install pdfcrack
pdfcrack Syntax

pdfcrack -f filename [options]

pdfcrack Options

-b, - -bench - Perform benchmark and exit.

-c, - -charset=STRING - Use the characters in STRING as charset.
-m, - -maxpw=INTEGER - Stop when reaching INTEGER as password length.
-n, - -minpw=INTEGER - Skip trying passwords shorter than INTEGER.

-l, - -loadState=FILE - Continue from the state saved in FILENAME.

-o, - -owner - Work with the ownerpassword.
-p, –password=STRING - Uses STRING as userpassword to speed up breaking ownerpassword (implies -o).

-q, - -quiet - Run quietly.
-s, - -permutate - Try permutating the passwords (currently only supports switching
first character to uppercase).
-u, - -user - Work with the userpassword (default).
-v, - -version - Print version and exit.
-w, - -wordlist=FILE - Use FILE as source of passwords to try.


pdfcrack Examples
$ pdfcrack lockedfilename.pdf


pdfcrack options and examples

More information on this great utility can be found at the authors site here or here

Full HDTV Monitor - Samsung Touch Of Color T220HD 22-inch

I have to take all my gaming consoles out fo the living room and into the study, where my PC is. So I thought it would be nice to get a LCD monitor with component input for my old consoles, as well as HDMI for potential new consoles. After lots of research I picked the T220HD, because it also comes with digital tuner.

I am very happy with the choice because it is exactly what I thought it would be. it's very versatile and display everything well, and I am especially impressed with the digital tuner which picks up all the network OTA HD broadcast using a cheap indoor HDTV antenna, when my PCI tuner card (Avermedia A180) could pick up 2 or 3 using the same antenna in the same position. It's not perfect, however.

What's to like:

• Component input allows connecting older devices without HDMI.
• 2 HDMI ports
• Input source button cycles through only ports that are plugged in.
• Digital TV tuner is excellent.
• Build in speaker/headphone jack/audio out port. Speakers are not great, but having them means you don't need extra adaptors to capture the audio from HDMI/component devices.
• Remote control. OSD navigation is so much easier and more intuitive with it. And this is really useful when turning the unit on/off, making this a true LCD TV.
• Has 16:9 aspect ratio option so that pictures don't have to be stretched to full screen.
• Unit is very light, only 13 lb.
• Picture is bright and clear, no dead pixel for me.
• Screen is matte, not glossy.

What's really annoying to me:

• Unit is light because base is mostly plastic, not very rigid.
• touch sensitive power on/off button. Everything else is tactile and on the side of the monitor, except for power. turning the unit on/off using this button usually requires several presses. Might that be that big of an issue if the unit is not so light and stand so flimsy, I have to grab the whole bottom edge when I try to turn it on this way. Good thing there's the remote.
• My unit has quite a bit of backlight bleed at the center of top and bottom edge. Hard to see when using DVI input, but when viewing HDTV, with the black bars on top and bottom to get the correct 16:9 aspect ratio, the bleeding is obvious.

What are the missing features which I don't care much about:

• the stand is basic, no height adjustment, no portrait mode
• no PIP
• can't be mounted to the wall
• Cannot customize the individual RGB color tone when in DVI mode. Can only select between one of the 3 presets (warm, normal, cool).

Other nitpicks:

• monitor frame has piano finish (glossy), including the inner side which reflects what's on screen. Kind of annoying , and maybe makes backlight bleeding seem worse than it really is.
• most of the connection ports are on the back of the unit facing back. While this makes the ports easier to see than a lot of other models that has the ports on the bottom facing down, it also makes insertion of wires, especially the component video ones, harder becasue you are pushing/applying force perpendicular to the LCD panel. You don't want to put your other hand on the LCD screen, but if you don't, then you really can't get a good push.

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Epson Stylus S20 T20 T20E T23 T26 T10 T11 Printers

Well the Epson Stylus series of printers has new additions – a lower end group which includes the following :-

1. Stylus S20
2. Stylus T20
3. Stylus T20E
4. Stylus T23
5. Stylus T26
6. Stylus T10
7. Stylus T11

Currently the openprinting database indicates that these printers are mostly ‘paperweight’. However, there are divers available at avasys.jp that allow these printers to be used under Linux. The site has rpm based drivers available. But getting them to work on hardy was a little problematic since the documentation is written in a pretty obscure manner.

Since I’ve managed to get these drivers going – I thought a small howto would be in order.

1. To begin with – download the Fedora 9 rpms from the site.
2. convert these packages into .debs with the command ‘alien –scripts –keep-version pips-*.rpm’
3. Install the debs with the command ’sudo dpkg -i ./pips-*.deb’ or download from here.
4. You get a few errors like below :-

install: cannot create regular file `/etc/rc.d/init.d’: No such file or directory
ln: creating symbolic link `/etc/rc.d/rc2.d/S11ekpd’: No such file or directory
ln: creating symbolic link `/etc/rc.d/rc3.d/S11ekpd’: No such file or directory
ln: creating symbolic link `/etc/rc.d/rc4.d/S11ekpd’: No such file or directory
ln: creating symbolic link `/etc/rc.d/rc5.d/S11ekpd’: No such file or directory
ln: creating symbolic link `/etc/rc.d/rc0.d/K89ekpd’: No such file or directory
ln: creating symbolic link `/etc/rc.d/rc1.d/K89ekpd’: No such file or directory
ln: creating symbolic link `/etc/rc.d/rc6.d/K89ekpd’: No such file or directory

5. Now create a file by running ’sudo vim /etc/init.d/ekpd’
6. Copy the following into it

x———————————————————–x
# Photo Image Print System
# Copyright (C) 2002-2005 EPSON AVASYS Corporation.
# Copyright (C) SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION 2002-2005.
#
# . /etc/rc.d/init.d/functions

PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
DAEMON=/usr/local/EPAva/core/ekpd
NAME=ekpd
PIDFILE=/var/run/$NAME.pid
DESC=”EPSON Avasys printing daemon”

unset TMPDIR

test -f $DAEMON || exit 0

OLDMASK=`umask`
umask 000

case “$1″ in
start)
pidlist=`pidof $NAME`
if [ "x" = "x$pidlist" ]; then
echo -n “Starting $NAME:”
start-stop-daemon –start –quiet –pidfile “$PIDFILE” –exec $DAEMON
fi
;;

stop)
echo -n “Stopping ekpd:”
start-stop-daemon –stop –retry 5 –name $NAME
;;

restart)
$0 stop
sleep 2
$0 start
;;

*)
echo “Usage: ekpd { start | stop | restart }” >&2
exit 1
;;
esac

umask $OLDMASK
exit 0
x—————————————————————-x

7. ’sudo chmod +x /etc/init.d/ekpd’
8. Now install a few libraries by doing ’sudo apt-get install libtiff4 libpng2′
9. make a link with this commands
’sudo ln -s /usr/lib/libtiff.so.4.2.1 /usr/lib/libtiff.so.3′
10. and copy the config file for ekpd by ’sudo cp /usr/local/EPAva/printer/st20/ekpdrc_st20 /etc/ekpdrc’
11. Run ’sudo ekpd-tool’ and check that the parameters are set to
Printer Name : st<your printer number>
Connection Method : <USB>
Device Path : lp0
Select the Defualt Printer checkbox if this is your default printer.
12. Now start ekpd with ’sudo /etc/init.d/ekpd start’
13. Add the printer using the cups web interface -> Start Firefox and use the url ‘localhost:631′
14. Select Administration, Add Printer
15. Set a name, location and description
16. Select Epson Stylus Txx USB #1 from the dropdown list
17. Select Epson Stylus Txx Photo Image Print System (en) as the model
18. Now send a test page to the printer.

This should get your printer printing fine. I haven’t tested too much the test page is quite ok.
Run ‘ekpstm’ to see a graphical output that shows the printer status and the ink levels.
Hope this helps.