stressfree - review

HP LaserJet 2840 recommendation from Mike

David — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 06:36:15 +0000

If anyone is in the market for a multifunction device with a colour laser printing, scanning and fax capabilities, Mike Clements has a good recommendation, the HP LaserJet 2840. This printer is not for the average home user, but if you run a small/medium sized office this printer delivers functionality and features at a very competitive price.

What follows is Mike's thoughts on the device...

I purchased the HP 2840 from Ingram Micro as they offer very competitive pricing within New Zealand. Installation could have been easier, the documentation is a bit average for anything past how to un-pack it and install the software, but once setup is complete it is a fantastic printer. One lesson, remember to leave the SNMP on its default settings (R/W).

This is the only "All in One" device I have ever liked, mainly because of its quality and deep featureset. Here is an overview of what it does:

Prints photos
Photocopies
Scans (flat bed)
Fax machine (inbound and outbound)
Has a 50 page document feeder for scanning, copying and faxing
Built in card reader (SD, CF, XD, MS etc.) that is exposed as a CIFS share on the network (iPhoto even sees it)
Internal JetDirect for network connection & USB 2
Supports network (IP) based faxing and scanning in colour

Here is a list of things that put it above many competing multi-function devices out there:

It is very easy to use.
Full control from either a network PC or at the printer (i.e. pick a machine to send your scanned image too).
The LCD panel is actually helpful with steps and errors.
All the cables you need are provided in the box.
Standard consumables supplied with it are a imaging drum (8,000 pages), Black toner (5,000 pages), 3 x colour (4,000 pages each).
Consumable use is well measured and reported via web admin page.
Errors are tracked and logged (you can email them, send notifications via SNMP to PCs etc).
Faxes can forward, stored on your PC or set to auto-print.
Configuration is all web based via an easy to use administration interface. The settings can then be backed up to a file for easy restoration.
Supports duplex printing via some manual intervention (but not too bad).
Print standards support RAW (port 9100) and LPR printing. This makes it easy to setup via CUPS, NDPS, etc. SNMP is used to detect other devices on the network.
"Straight through" printing is possible to avoid the bending of photos or transparencies.
It has two paper trays; one for photo paper/envenlopes, letter head, etc. and another for your main paper, e.g. A4.
Power saving appears to be excellent with no annoying fans.
Full software and driver support for Windows & Mac (all features) and a reasonable amount of Linux support (but unsure if this is for all features or just printing).
The software suite appears solid, intuitive and unintrusive. This is quite unlike many other HP printer software packages.
TWAIN is supported so graphic applications on your PC or Mac that support TWAIN can scan images from the device direct to the application.
Installation of the PCL and Postscript printer drivers are separate from the full software package, this makes setting up iPrint/NDPS much easier.
Full support for Zeroconf (i.e. Bonjour). As a result it is automatically detected by Zeroconf/Bonjour enabled systems (e.g. OSX, Windows with Bonjour, etc.).

It is not all roses however, there are some downsides:

The device is noisy when printing because it rotates toner cartridges. Whilst not painful, it is louder than your average laser printer.
Tray 2 (main paper tray) only supports 275 pages. This is not to bad but it would be nice to support a full ream of paper (i.e. 500 pages).
The device itself is quite large and will probably not win any beauty contests.

The HP 2840 even does funky things like if you put in a memory card and tell it to print a proof sheet (thumbnails of your photos), you can then mark on the proof sheet which photos to print at what size, and have these photos automatically printed by feeding the proof sheet back into the device.

Honestly this device has really impressed me. It is the printer equivalent to my iPhone/iMac fetish and would be the device I would expect if Apple decided to make one.

MyMind 1.2 Review

David — Wed, 09 Feb 2005 11:49:17 +0000

Continuing on the theme of small, free but very useful OSX software is MyMind. Mind mapping tools are fairly new to the scene but there are plenty of them about now. I have always looked at these tools and wondered why I would pay for something I can just as easily do with a pen and paper. MyMind is something special however as it is free and takes advantage of OSX's Aqua framework to create an elegant tool that is functional to boot.

A Quick MyMind Map (Click to Enlarge)

If you are not familar with mind mapping it is just the formalisation of those bubble diagrams we all have been doing since childhood. It is great for planning out loosely connected ideas when thinking through a problem. The really nice thing about a tool like MyMind is that at the end of the process you are left with a very presentable diagram that can be used in a number of scenarios. MyMind has a few map 'styles' plus nearly all aspects of the diagram can be changed to suit your presentation needs. Completed lists and maps can be exported to a number of formats from OPML to JPEG and SVG so you are able to exchange your thinking with others fairly easily.

MyMind's versitile list tool

At the heart of MyMind is a simple yet powerful heirarchical list builder. A nice touch is the ability to add custom columns to your list and create relationships between items based on a variety of variables. Everything is simple and intuitive to do and with a tiny bit of experimentation you are producing fairly complex yet smart looking diagrams in minutes. MyMind is a great little tool for many occasions, its small and concise yet powerful enough to achieve great results in minutes.

BluePhoneElite 0.9 Review

David — Tue, 08 Feb 2005 06:25:40 +0000

BluePhoneElite is a nice piece of free software for OSX that works in conjunction with your bluetooth enabled device to provide a host of new functionality. Bluetooth integration for most phones is provided in OSX but BluePhoneElite takes it to a new level, providing intelligent phone and SMS message management tools plus some really neat proximity features that add a new dimension to using your Mac.

BluePhoneElite in the menubar

Background Operation

BluePhoneElite runs in the background and can be configured to appear on your dock or in the menubar. I personally like the menubar as my dock is crowded at the best of times. The icon provides a convenient overview of your signal strength and battery levels. A single click on the icon provides access to all of BluePhoneElite's features via a tidy menu system.

Call Center

Whilst not too amazing compared to the functionality of the OSX Address Book, Call Center provides a tidy way of ringing and managing your cellphone calls when you are sitting at your computer. BluePhoneElite integrates with Address Book so all your numbers are available at a single keypress using an intelligent search tool. The Call Center also provides options for placing calls on hold and a few other nice shortcuts.

Making a phone call with the Call Center

Incoming calls can be displayed onscreen rather than having to look at your phone and there is the option to hang up or give the caller the busy tone. This is really useful for when your phone is in your pocket and you want to filter important calls.

SMS Center

My cellphone can store 120 txt messages before it starts complaining about memory space. This number is really tiny considering how small a typical txt message is. SMS Center is a great Mail like client for SMS that allows storage and sending of SMS messages from your computer via the cellphone. Messages are searchable and can be ordered any way you like. I have found this a great way of managing and sending txt's when working. Far and away the most useful feature is the local storage of SMS messages for archiving. Often I have lost a phone number or address through inadvertant deleting of SMS messages, but hopefully with BluePhoneElite in place this will now be a thing of the past.

The Mail like SMS Center

A New Dimension: Proximity

Perhaps the most interesting feature is the proximity functionality built into the software. When your phone leaves or enters bluetooth range the software can perform specific tasks. This is great when you leave your desk as the computer can automatically turn on the screensaver or pause the currently playing iTunes track. Likewise when you return the software senses your arrival and can then turn off the screensaver and once again begin playing your music. Really cool and a little freaky at first :-)

Proximity options in the Preferences tab

Conclusion

For a piece of free software BluePhoneElite is a must have for any OSX user with a bluetooth capable phone. The SMS functionality alone is worthwhile but the added proximity and caller features make it a must have. In the future it would be nice to see the SMS Center somehow integrated into Mail and/or iChat to provide a one stop shop for all your text based message services. Down the line another really useful feature could be integration with your computer's speakers and microphone to enable handsfree operation similar to iChat.

ClarkConnect 3.0 Review

David — Fri, 28 Jan 2005 08:13:41 +0000

Linux provides an excellent platforms for web, email, file and print services. Whilst extremely effective in larger businesses, distributions such as Red Hat and SuSE/Novell are too extensive and time intensive to be used within small businesses as a general purpose server.
Developed exclusively for this market is a new breed of server platform such as Microsoft 2003 Small Business Edition, Novell Netware Small Business and Point Clark Networks ClarkConnect. All three provide easily deployable multifunction server systems based on Windows 2003, Novell Netware and Linux respectively.

ClarkConnect 3.0 Dashboard

System Overview

I have used ClarkConnect 2.2 in its Home and Office flavors extensively and have found it flexible, stable and easily deployed on a variety of hardware. The version 3.0 release is a major update of the ClarkConnect platform. The Linux 2.6.9 kernel is now used, most aspects of the software has been upgraded and the underlying web configuration system has undergone a major overhaul. ClarkConnect has a freely downloadable Home version and a commercially focused Office version. For the purposes of my testing I downloaded and installed the 380mb Home version and ran it through its paces.

Overview

ClarkConnect 3.0 brings together a range of open source projects including Apache 2, Samba 3, MySQL 4, Squid, Snort, CUPS and Awstats. On top of these services sits a very capable yet concise Web management console. This console enables management of server services and provides a user-friendly tool for configuring system settings, users and reporting. To round things off the Point Clark Network provides a range of subscription based online services that significantly improve the value of the server on the local network. I have never wanted to spend the extra money on these services but as a value-add proposition they definitely are worth a look.

Installation

ClarkConnect is based on Red Hat/Fedora (but is in the process of migrating to Suse). Consequently if you have installed a Red Hat/Fedora system a ClarkConnect install will feel very familiar. During the text-based installation it is possible to configure RAID arrays and network settings. Hardware detection is automatic via Anaconda and this generally works without any input at all from the user. Once installation is complete the server reboots and after the fairly lengthly load sequence is complete a Lynx window with the Web manager console is shown onscreen. ClarkConnect is not weighed down by any X-Window system or server side configuration tools. Instead all configuration past this point is done via a client browser on the internal network.

For the purposes of this test my test system was an old Dell 450mhz Pentium III with 256meg of RAM and a 6gig hard drive. In the test box I installed a dual port Intel 10/100 network card alongside the integrated 3Com 10/100 NIC. All hardware was detected without issue and installation took about 20 minutes using the default partitioning scheme. Performance was a tiny bit slow given the nature of the hardware but overall things ran very smoothly like every other ClarkConnect system I have installed.

Configuration

Day to day configuration and monitoring is performed via a web browser on a client machine on the internal network. By default the DHCP Server is not enabled so the network settings on the client computer must be set manually after the initial installation. Once logged onto the management console nearly all aspects of the server can be configured via a reasonably logical set of menus.

Registration & Updates

In order to receive updates you must create a free account at Point Clark. This process is quick and in the past year that I have been signed up I havent received any unwanted email. Once your account is created you can register the system with the Point Clark. This process enables updates, provides access to the subscription based online services and provides dynamic DNS and system status updates.

ClarkConnect Server Registration

Online Subscription Services

ClarkConnect uses the rpm package management system tied to the apt tool. The web manager provides a user-friendly way of managing updates and installed modules but for the more tech-savvy user it is easy enough to open a command line and run apt manually.

Server Modules Add/Remove

Firewall & Security

ClarkConnect uses a standard iptables firewall system. In version 3.0 the management of exactly what services are allowed in and out have undergone significant change. Group functionality has been included that allows a series of firewall rules to be enabled or disabled with one simple click. This is a massive improvement over the older, more manual system but takes a little getting used to if you are used to using the old system. To ease configuration a comprehensive list of outgoing/incoming services are provided so that certain activities (such as ICQ) can be blocked effortlessly.

Firewall Overview

Firewall Advanced Screen

To boost security there is also the very capable Snort intrusion detection system. Snort pulls updates off the Web and provides an excellent overview of attempted attacks and potential threats. To protect and manage Web users there is also a content filter, popup blocker and bandwidth throttler that provide basic yet relatively effective controls on what your users can view and download off the Web.

Snort Intrusion Detection

Web Content Filtering

User Management

Version 3.0 of ClarkConnect has implemented a centralized user management system. There was much debate as to how this centralized system would work but eventually a propertary system was used with hooks into the PAM security system. The user configuration screens allow for simple management of users and their passwords. New to version 3.0 is different passwords for standard and secure access to the server and options as to what services are available to specific users. These are welcome security and functionality enhancements but in this area ClarkConnect still needs development. Unfortunately group functionality for pooling users into functional working units is lacking. This feature is a definite requirement in offices that get above 5 to 10 users.

User Overview

Modify User Details

Another feature that would be a welcome addition is a way for users to modify their personal details and passwords. In small networks where users don't really want passwords in the first place this feature is not needed, but in larger networks the ability for users to frequently change their passwords or contact details is a necessity, especially if management requires frequent password changes for security purposes. Usermin is a relatively useful tool for this functionality and one that could be included in future ClarkConnect releases (but it would require an interface overhaul as at present it is very ugly).

Service Management

Service management is one of ClarkConnects strongest features. From a single screen an administrator can enable or disable all of the network services available on the system. Configuration of many of these services is via the Software section of the management console. Configuration is relatively straightforward and all but removes manual editing of text files for all but the most complex of tasks.

Server Service Monitor

Web Proxy Configuration

Windows File Sharing

ClarkConnect 3.0 uses Samba 3 which provides a far more comprehensive range of Windows network services. It is possible to use the server as a Windows domain controller and provide roaming profiles to users. Unfortunately one area still underdeveloped (although it has got better) is the ability to define Samba groups and complex file shares that provide mixed read/write access to a number of users based on their access level. As with previous versions if these advanced shares are required you must manually edit the smb.conf file. Both small business solutions from Microsoft and Novell offer this advanced functionality and providing this feature would significantly boost the native power of ClarkConnect.

Windows Network Configuration

Windows Share Configuration

Print Server

CUPS and Samba 3 working together provide basic print server functionality. This system works reasonably well but it would be very good to see an option to upload printer drivers to the system so that client-side printer configuration can be achieved without manually setting drivers.

Email Server

The IMAP server has undergone a significant upgrade in version 3.0. The new version allows creation of folders that contain both sub-folders and messages. This is a big improvement over the previous IMAP server and eases user training. Another improvement over previous versions is the inclusion of secure POP3 and IMAP access. This feature is easily enabled and makes the email system far more rounded.
Configuring email domains and user aliases is relatively straightforward yet powerful. This area worked well in version 2.2 and fortunately very few changes have been made in 3.0.

Email Services Manager

Email Alias Configuration

Extended Features

VPN Access

ClarkConnect provides VPN functionality for connecting remote networks and desktops. I must admit I have never used these features due to the extra loading placed on the system, instead I have found SSH connections and tunnels to be equally effective and less trouble to configure and maintain. Still it is nice to know this functionality is available should the need arise and it is good to see it is now a part of the Home version (in the past I believe you have to purchase the Office version to gain this functionality).

MySQL Server

Previous versions of ClarkConnect included MySQL under the hood but management was not really integrated into the web management console. Release 3.0 includes a basic MySQL manager and a link to an preconfigured PhpMySQL application. PhpMySQL is very powerful and it is good to see these tools being included into the default installation.

VPN Configuration

MySQL Manager

Under the Hood

Beneath the web management console lies a relatively standard Red Hat 9/Fedora hybrid system. This is really useful when customization or problem solving is required as a huge knowledge base and file repository exists for these two distributions. In the past I have installed IBMs Java SDK, Frox the ftp proxy and Jakarta Tomcat without any major difficulty.

Remote access for advanced management is available through SSH. This is also really useful for providing a low resource VPN system for remote users via WinSCP or an SFTP client.

Reporting & Logging

The reporting and logging features have always been strong in ClarkConnect and verion 3.0 is no exception. There are a number of reports available that provide Web, Web Proxy, Mail and a number of server statistics. I have found this functionality amazingly useful in the past for identifying bottlenecks and problem users.
The log viewer enables the standard Linux log files to be viewed on an aesthetically pleasing web page. This functionality is useful but not nearly as valuable as the extensive reporting tools.

System Load Statistics

Web Proxy Report

Help & Support

Online help in ClarkConnect 3.0 has improved significantly with the inclusion of context sensitive help button links to the ClarkConnect Help Wiki. This addition is very welcome and hopefully as time passes this online Wiki will grow to be a very useful support resource.

ClarkConnect Help Wiki

The Point Clark Networks discussion board is another very valuable resource for ClarkConnect users. It is very active and answers to nearly any question can be quickly found. As per usual with technical discussion boards be very careful of how you post your questions and always search for answers to your questions before posting (else you will quickly receive a rather nasty message from one of the more experienced users.

Missing Features

Whilst ClarkConnect is very capable there are a number of features I would like to see in the future (and if I had some spare time I would not mind helping out). An LDAP server (OpenLDAP) tied into the common user database system would be an excellent addition. Many authentication systems (such as Linux desktops) and groupware systems can use an LDAP source. I have read that the unified user database provides hooks for such an LDAP source so hopefully this functionality will appear in a later release of ClarkConnect.

Group functionality would be a very useful addition to the user management system, especially in the Office version where users have mixed file rights. Samba and the Linux user/group permissions systems allow for such functionality so surely all that is required is modification of the web management console. In office environments I have provided group functionality through manual editing of the groups, passd and smb.conf files. This is far from ideal and realistically an essential requirement for any environment with more than a few users.

Jakarta Tomcat and its associated Apache/Tomcat connectors would be a very useful but not essential addition. Installation of a Java VM and Tomcat is relatively simple. The difficulty lies in the Apache/Tomcat connectors and providing a simple yet effective web management interface for installing and managing Java Web Applications.

Finally I have found the ftp proxy Frox to be a very useful addition to the ClarkConnect suite. It enables the firewall to be locked down whilst still allowing users within the internal network to have both download and upload passive/active FTP functionality. Adding this service to the ClarkConnect package is not difficult (I have installed it on a number of systems) and it is surprising such a service does not already exist.

Retrospect Incompatibility

Dantz Retrospect is a powerful backup tool that I use extensively to backup my Windows, Linux and Apple systems. Unfortunately ClarkConnect in its gateway mode is not compatible with the Retrospect backup client. The Red Hat binary runs perfectly but there seems to be an issue with the gateway/firewall/routing table that causes the client not to be available during a Retrospect backup. This is annoying for users of Retrospect but most people will never face this problem.

Conclusion

ClarkConnect 3.0 is a very powerful small business/home office server solution. The new features are a welcome yet there is room in the future for more useful functionality. Unlike the expensive Microsoft Small Business Server 2003 or the difficult to configure Novell Netware Small Business Edition, ClarkConnect is relatively easy to install and the full Office version only costs approximately NZ$100.

All the functionality required of a small business server are provided and can be easily configured and monitored by non-technical users. This is a big plus for offices too small to justify round the clock IT support but still require the advanced functionality of more expensive systems. I believe the strength of the product is its reporting and configuration options but it is still relatively weak in user management and Windows networking. With the introduction of a new user management system and Samba 3 these areas should be on the improve and with an experienced Linux systems administrator these deficiencies can be compensated for. I would recommend ClarkConnect to anyone looking for an easily configurable gateway in their home or small office. In offices of more than ten people a Microsoft or Novell product is probably preferable due to their enhanced user management and file permissions systems.

FlashLinux 0.3.2 Review

David — Wed, 08 Dec 2004 21:26:56 +0000

After stumbling on the FlashLinux website a few nights ago I had been itching to give this USB based distribution a try due to its inherit potential for becoming a truly portable desktop environment. I have been using Live CDs for a while now mainly for system recovery. Whilst useful I have three issues with the CD distributions. Firstly you cannot save preferences/files (unless you use a USB key), secondly they are generally slow because CD-Roms are not fast and thirdly a CD-Rom is just too big to fit in your pocket.

USB key distributions interest me because I am reasonably mobile. I have a couple of offices plus clients dotted around the city. Also I have a lengthy trip planned in the future and the idea of taking a few USB key based desktops away with me really appeals.

Working Desktop (click to enlarge)

Installation

FlashLinux is a 140 megabyte download and can be found on a number of software mirrors. The website has a very concise yet comprehensive list of commands to install the distribution on your USB key. Fedora Core runs a modified ext2 filesytem that is incompatible with the FlashLinux installation process. At home I run Fedora so after downloaded I rebooted into Knoppix to run the install.

The installation steps are straightforward and offer plenty of room for customization. The manual process basically formats the key to ext2, copies over files and then sets up Grub as the keys boot-loader. Owners of 512meg or higher capacity USB keys could take some time here to create a second FAT32 partition on their key to ensure they can move data between all the different platforms out there.

I rebooted the system and set the BIOS to boot of a USB/HDD device. After dropping out of the BIOS the Grub bootloader on the USB key jumped into action, displaying three boot options for network, ppp or VMWare support. I went with the network option and the computer began booting off the USB key.

Hardware detection went well but unfortunately Xorg did not load successfully. This problem was not unexpected because my graphics card is very new and not officially supported yet. Fortunately the generic NVidia driver works with the graphics board but in order for me to get things going a manual edit of the xorg.conf file was required.

Initial Screen

After loading you are presented with a very tidy X login screen. The default setup has the root account configured with no password. In the past Ive managed to do accidental damage with the root account so I logged on as root, set a password and created a user for myself to play with.

After logging on as myself I began the process of exploring what is available. The Gnome 2.8 desktop is very clean and overall things are very fast. Application wise there is Firefox 1.0 for web browsing, Evolution 2 for email, AbiWord for writing and Gnumeric for spreadsheets. The AbiWord/Gnumeric combination is an interesting move but given the heavy weight nature of OpenOffice its not surprising that these two applications have been used. In my Debian Potato days I used to use AbiWord and Gnumeric and actually prefer then over OpenOffice in many ways. Compatibility with Microsoft documents is not as strong but overall the applications are very capable and efficient at doing what they were designed to do. FlashLinux has a very limited palete of second tier applications. I think is very good when compared to the hundreds of stocking fillers that accompany other distributions. There is Gaim (IM), a Terminal Services client, IRC and an image viewer which should cover most of your application needs.

Evolution Email Client

I played with Firefox and Evolution and everything just worked. My problematic onboard network card was detected by the system and configured via DHCP. After some playing with the standard desktop I had a look and feel any Mac user could feel comfortable with. I did some emailing in Evolution and browsing with Firefox. Everything worked really well and it was really impossible to tell that everything was running off a 2inch USB key.

AbiWord, Terminal Services and Print Manager (click to enlarge)

Rebooting

At this point I was a little unsure if all my preferences would be kept on a reboot. I bit the bullet and performed a complete system shutdown and restart. It was really a nice surprise to log back on to FlashLinux and find all my preferences had been stored on the key just like any disk based operating system.

Conclusion

I am really impressed with FlashLinuxs easy setup, clean configuration and tidy desktop tools. I would recommend it to anyone with a spare 256meg USB key and a little tech savvy to download and try. Its failure to detect my video card and the manual install process really places it out of reach from normal users right now but I am sure in a couple of releases all these problems could be solved. The real problem I see needing to be overcome is in the security of local networks. I would love to take this into a customers office and use it but I do not see many of the archaic security managers on these sites being very forthcoming in allowing its use.