Shaunak's Universe

After much trials and tribunals, I finally got my Canon iP1700 to work with Fedora 11. Canon doesn't provide Linux drivers for this particular model so it wont work out of the box, but it is more than willing to print along happily with borrowed drivers.

I used the official Canon drivers for the iP2200. You can grab them from here: http://software.canon-europe.com/products/0010231.asp. In the OS selection pick “Linux”, choose your language and hit submit. Download the "Canon Print Filter for Linux (2.60 rev 3)" (or newer) package. Its a 22MB “.tgz” file.

Double click it to bring up “File Roller” (or use the terminal if you are feeling frisky). Extract the file “ip2200_Linux_260.tag.gz” to the Desktop. Extract the “guideip2200_2.60-1.tar.gz” if you want a manual. (Yeah, right.)

You will need to re-extract “ip2200_Linux_260.tag.gz” to a sub-folder on the Desktop (I call it ip2200), since it is also a compressed file. It contains these RPMs:

Go to the sub-folder ip2200 on the Desktop, double click on “cnijfilter-common-2.60-1.i386.rpm” to install it. You may have to supply the administrator password and choose “Force Install”. Do the same with “cnijfilter-ip2200-2.60-1.i386.rpm”. This should install all the necessary drivers.

Note: If you have attempted to install these drivers before (and have been unsuccessful), the packages will conflict and you will need to completely remove them. The command is:
su -c 'yum erase [name-of-package]'
For example:
su -c 'yum erase cnijfilter-common-2.60*'

Once the drivers are installed, restart CUPS by typing the following at the terminal:
/etc/init.d/cups restart.

Now to setup the printer through the CUPS server.

• From you browser go to this URL: http://localhost:631
• Choose the “Administration” Menu
• You may be prompted for a password. The username is usually “root” and the password is you system's root password.
• Hit the “Add Printer” button and select “Canon iP1700 (Canon iP1700)” from the list.
• Add a name, description and location or simply accept the defaults.
• In the model selection list hunt for “Canon iP2200 Ver.2.60”
• Choose a few configuration options and you are done!

At this point you may want to print a test page. You can do it through CUPS. To do this go to the “Printers” section, click on “Canon ip1700” (or what ever you called it) and from the drop down menu choose “Print a Test page”.

If you found this page helpful, do consider sharing with others who may be looking for something similar. Digg, twitter and links on forums work great. Let me know if the method worked for worked for you. (or perhaps didn't!) Or if you find an error in what's described above. Use the comment form below, or mail me.

Facebook's has grown to a user-base of about 350 million, making the it single most popular social network on the web. With an estimated 1734 million people connected to the Internet today, this effectively means that one in every five Internet users have a Facebook account.

In light of its massive global popularity, Facebook has decided to upgrade its 'regional network' based privacy control. In an open letter to users, founder Mark Zuckerberg has highlighted how the existing network based privacy control is proving to be ineffective and Facebook will now implement a new, simple privacy model that will allow the user greater control over his or her information.

The letter can be found here: http://bit.ly/7vMW87

This Thursday will mark the first anniversary of the unnerving terror attacks on the heart of Mumbai.

Here is a quick refresher of the sequence of events of that fateful evening. Ten terrorists armed to the teeth, simply wafted into the city on a rubber dinghy and scurried across South Mumbai from landmark to landmark. From the Victoria Terminus, Leopard Cafe, Cama and Albless hospitals, before finally setting up a siege at the Oberoi Trident, Nariman House and the Taj Mahal Palace hotel. They fired upon innocent civilians and left a wake of death and destruction where ever they went. The brave men and women of the Mumbai police did their best to stop them, but the force's outdated and inefficient equipment were no match for the sophisticated weapons of the terrorists. The efforts of the police men were largely futile. Although, banking on sheer bravery, courage and their trusty lathi, they did manage to catch one terrorist, Ajmal Kasab alive. The marine commandos were called in. They carried out intensive operations at the three locations simultaneously and after 72 hours fighting, the battle finally ended and once again, Mumbai emerged victorious. The price of victory was high. The city's bravest men, including ATS chief Hamant Karkare and encounter specialist, Vijay Salaskar lay dead.

The attacks were followed by the usual political hoopla and finger pointing. News channels buzzed with pointless debates, and questions went flying. Candle marches and 'human chain' formations were held all over. “We will not forget”, was the mood. One year from the incident, where are we?
Nowhere.

The same ministers who laughed off the incident as trivial, and considered it appropriate to quote a cheap film dialogue to describe the situation has been re-elected to his ministerial post. A few jeeps, a handful of guns and a few sandbags were purchased under the pretext of 'Police Modernization '. Almost all of the squad still used the same outdated equipment. Promises from our ministers have remained exactly what they have been for more than six decades of our democracy, just promises. Empty and baseless promises.

The lone surviving terrorist Kasab has still not been convicted. The trial stretches on. To add to the irony, while our government could not care any less about the rights of our own citizen, it speaks of rights of terrorists.

Dynastic, regional and blame-game politics still supersede the safety of our citizen. Our police force still has to make do with third grade equipment. State Reserve forces have been deployed to increase security, but we have no place to house them. Boats have been purchased to patrol the waterways, but we have no fuel to run them. The candle marchers who vowed work towards improvement now are back to chasing EMIs.

So dear fellow citizen, where are we a year from the worst terror strike on our beloved city? Precisely where we were a year ago, two years ago, a decade ago:
Drowning in the dirty swamp of Indian politics. Helpless and weary.

Links:
The Night in Pictures: http://bit.ly/70cGwg
Comprehensive report: http://bit.ly/8QMnKF
Video Report: http://bit.ly/4T4L1X
Some of my cartoons and posts from then:
http://bit.ly/7AdG1v
http://bit.ly/8MNLDP
http://bit.ly/5WKSGa
http://bit.ly/5hyHO6
http://bit.ly/4vzTnX
http://bit.ly/6jkmKI
Ye Hai Mumbai Meri Jaan: http://bit.ly/4U9qU4