Printer Magic:

Redirecting oldschool old-style LPT/LPT1 print jobs to a USB printer;

For when one needs to do their printing with a USB printer, but using [old] software that cannot print to a USB printer.

One of my clients replaced a printer, but needs to print from an old program (“Auto Body Estimator”).

A Google search for “INTERCEPT OR capture OR redirect lpt OR lpt1 usb” led me to Connecting an MS-Dos Application to a Printer on a USB Port on Windows 2000, which helped solve the problem, even though I am using XP.

TVN Presentation to CRTC (June 6^th, 2005):

I just tried submitting this video to Google Video.

In the process, I made a list of all the speakers in the video.

I didn't end up using that list for the Google Video submission, so why not post it here, instead of leaving it unused...

• Ted Salci, Mayor of Niagara Falls


• Dolores Fabiano, Welland Pelham Chamber of Commerce


• Wayne H. Redekop, Mayor Town of Fort Erie


• Jack Miller (retired writer of Toronto Star) resident of St. Catharines


• Susan Odell, President, East Dell Estates Winery


• Brian E. Merrett, former Chairman, Niagara Parks Commission


• Lilita Stripnieks, CEO St. Catharines Public Library


• Patrick Gedge, CEO, Niagara Economic Tourism Corp.


• Lucy Huot, Director General, Club 2000 Niagara (FRENCH)


• Gary Burroughs, Lord Mayor of The Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake


• Donald J.P. Ziraldo, Co-Founder and President, Inniskillin Wines Inc.


• Paul T. Speck, President, Henry of Pelham Winery/Chair Wine Council of Ontario


• Al Slattery, President Al Slattery Ford


• Tim Rigby, Mayor City of St. Catharines


• Chief David General, Six Nations Council


• Dr. David Atkinson, President, Brock University


• Daniel J. Patterson, President, Niagara College


• Erika Beatty, Executive Director, Niagara Symphony


• Leonard Pennachetti, President, Cave Spring Cellars Ltd.


• Ron Bodner, Mayor of Port Colborne


• Nancy McIntosh, Chair, Niagara Falls Visitor and Convention Bureau


• Robert J. Spence, President & CEO, Niagara Auto Club & Travel Agency


• Simon Clery, Simon Promotions Inc.


• Charles Gervais, Employment Development Consultant, HRDC


• Allen Gelberg, Director Of Sales & Marketing, Vintage Inns


• Peter Partington, Chairman, The Regional Municipality of Niagara Falls


• Victor Ferraiuolo, Vice President, Niagara Falls Tourism


• Ruedi H. Hafen, President, Operations Manager, Niagara Helicopter Ltd.


• Gail L. Davidson, Administrative Manager, InTouch Communications


• Damian Goulbourne, Mayor of Welland

A special thanks from TVN Niagara Inc. (including myself) goes out to all volunteers, from business leaders to politicians, who took their time to voice their opinions in front of the camera.

TVN Niagara Inc. Files Appeal of CRTC decision to Federal Cabinet

Wendell Wilks announced the news on January 19^th

I just got to posting it today; I've been so busy. Why doesn't CRTC Chair Charles Dalfen practice what he preaches?

Free Windows Memory Diagnostic software from Microsoft...

I didn't know about it until I reported a Windows XP crash to Microsoft.

Microsoft Online Crash Analysis served up a page with the Windows Memory Diagnostic User Guide and a link to download it.

“If you want to test your RAM more completely, you can run the extended test suite by pressing T while Windows Memory Diagnostic is running. You should then let Windows Memory Diagnostic run overnight.”

Physics Meets Philosophy

(a short and sweet blog posting)

It just occurred to me this evening:

Newton's third law of motion, the law of reciprocal actions (“for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”), is basically a scientific explanation/application for the concept of yin and yang in physical reality.

Some searching on Google quickly showed that many other people have already contemplated this notion. I guess that's what happens when one has studied both physics and Chinese philosophy...

For fun, here is an oldschool picture of me defying physics:

My Latest Video Project:

“Cobras on the Parkway”

Recorded October 2005

Watch it now on YouTube.com

Digital Media Broadcasts On-Demand

The “television viewing audience” is beginning to spend their time elsewhere:

The internet

I rarely watch standard “broadcast television”, since I can access TV shows, movies, and music on the internet. I have business interests in on-line marketing and promotion, and am on the extreme side of the shifting demographic, so I thought that it would be a good idea to start listing web-sites that are good portals to video and audio. There are only a few to start, but they have enough content to keep one's attention for endless hours:

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

The videos are contributed by a worldwide membership. It is free to contribute, and free to watch too. Good use of contemporary technology allows one to receive updates when their favourite members post new videos.

Google Video - Search thousands of videos, TV shows, movies, and more

Still under development, but already put to heavy use by netizens. Check out the official About Google Video page for more.

Blish.com, the easiest place to buy or sell digital content

I just found this site today, so it is new to me. Not having known or used it, I can't vouch for it. However, Blish looks like a good web-site to round off this list here, since it looks like a good place to promote my interests with video, audio/music, and images/photography.

Today I became a 1^st Time Donor

To the Canadian Blood Services

One of my new (and great) clients has a habit of donating blood every couple months

I asked if I could join him; why not?

It was a fun experience. Everyone was very nice at the St. Catharines location we went to. I thought that I would feel side-effects from the decreased amount of blood in my system, but neither HTML code nor a glass of [red] wine (cab.merlot) phased me afterwards; still had plenty of energy and my wits about me. Looks like the Canadian Blood Services has another regular donor!

Now, time for a good night's sleep.

SPAM is just as pathetic on the phone as it is by email

I just got a phone call from some Toronto number that is unknown to me

I said, “hello, Daniel speaking!” A female voice replied “please wait for an important message; all of our operators are currently on hold”

Are people expected to take some unsolicited call from an unidentified organization/machine, only to be put on hold from the get-go?

Not only was I distracted from what I was busy doing, but I was expected to just sit there and wait without any good reasoning; how utterly disrespectful! Have marketers' ethics sunk so low as to require some sort of SpamCop for the phone? Obviously, I hung up immediately following the above-quoted “introduction”

Blogs wear out quick on some writers

I noticed quite a few blogs today that had no more than a few posts. Some blogs only had one post. These were not new blogs, either.

In the spirit of developing my blog, I made my first edit to actual template tags

Prior to today, I have just been adding the content, and modifying the narrow right column

I removed a couple <ItemPage> tags in the heading code, which conditionally supressed the HTML that links (anchor tag, <A>) my blog title (Decrypting Reality) to the root address of the blog (http://shakh.blogspot.com).

Happy New Year!

Today is also the 8^th and final day of Chanukah

I found an interesting page on “Hanukkah Word Origins” with some other related information on Dictionary.com

Gotta love the Reference.com set of web-sites, which include Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com