Archive for July, 2005

Rangers Acquire Nevin for Park

// July 30th, 2005 // No Comments » // Life

My beloved Texas Rangers finally dealt their last bad contract yesterday when they traded pitcher Chan Ho Park to the San Diego Padres in exchange for utility fielder and solid hitter Phil Nevin. Park signed a $65 million contract in 2001 and was the highest-paid player on the Rangers payroll following Alex Rodriquez exit to New York. Park was plagued by injuries and poor performances until this year, when he finally began to shine.

The downside seems to be the deal won’t save the Rangers more than a million dollars a year, and we’re already stocked with power hitters. Pitching is where we need help, and to my knowledge Nevin can’t help us there. We could probably afford to unload more of our hitters to get some quality pitching, but it remains to be seen if the front office will see the light that seems so obvious to the Rangers fans.

If we’re only saving a million dollars, we should have kept the guy, he was finally starting to produce….

Reconfiguring an HP Jet Direct

// July 29th, 2005 // No Comments » // Technology

Today I had a customer migrate voice/data providers. The new ISP used a different internal subnet for the local IP range than the old ISP. Their one office printer is an HP4100 connected via parallel port to a networked HP JetDirect EX Plus Print Server.

To migrate the JetDirect to the new IP, I first power cycled it while holding down the TEST button for 30 seconds following plugging it in. After 30 seconds, I clicked the test button which printed the configuration settings. The JetDirect had picked up a DHCP address off the DHCP server.

To get a static IP I first tried connecting to the local web server on the JetDirect via a browser using the IP address from the configuration settings. It didn’t come up so I assumed the firmware was an older version without the internal web server. I next tried to telnet to the JetDirect, which worked. From there it was easy to reset the ip address to the new network. The steps are listed below.

Click "Start->Run->[type] cmd->[click] OK"
telnet [ip address of JetDirect]->[hit return]
(JetDirect telnet session begins, ">" prompt appears)
ip: [new ip address]->[hit return]
exit

Next I had to go to each PC which was mapped using a standard TCP/IP connection and add a new TCP/IP Port with the new IP settings using the commands below (Windows XP).

Click "Start"->"Control Panel"->"Printers and Faxes"
Right-Click on the printer to change
Click on the "Ports" tab
Click "Add Port"
Click "Standard TCP/IP"
Click "New Port"
Click "Next"
Enter the printer IP address next to "Printer Name or IP Address"
Click "Next"
Click "Finish"

I was then able to print using the new IP address.

References:
HP Jetdirect Print Servers -How to Determine, Reset, and Configure an IP Address on an HP Jetdirect Print Server

ISSF World Cup Coming To Texas

// July 28th, 2005 // No Comments » // Shooting Sports

ISSF LogoThe International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF) has approved a World Cup for shotgun events at the Hill Country Shooting Sports Center (HCSSC) in Kerrville, Texas for 2006. HCSSC is looking to become the premier facility for hosting major ISSF matches in the U.S., including the major USA Shooting matches.

A bid will be placed by USA Shooting to host a Rifle and Pistol World Cup there in 2007. It would be great to have a world class shooting facility just “down the road” from me (relatively speaking, it’s still 5 hours away).