(*) All the source code is freely available online, there is no indication of desire to charge for or limit use of the code, and it's built as an extension to the FOSS project 'Jenkins'. That said, no license is explicitly given. I could be incorrect about the project being FOSS
The code is under the Apache license (personal favourite:-)
Fantastic analysis. Hyperlinks were invented for a reason! As the poster, I like this response as it makes me look really smart and contriving. The reality is however that the whole project is motivated out of humor . Breaking the build can be quite negative and we've found that humor is a great way to brake the ice when these things happy. Slashdot is a great way to spend the word and bring a few more smiles to the faces of developers everywhere. (Reading the comments of course is also a good way to bring a few smiles:-)
I did some calculations for a project I worked on at PaperCut Software. The true environmental cost is not the ink, nor the printer, put the paper. The energy and environmental impact of paper production is scary. It takes 17 Watt hours just to make one sheet, or 8.6g of CO2 per sheet! (see here for details http://www.papercut.com/products/ng/manual/ch-sys-mgmt-environmental-impact.html) Saving the holes in the ink is not going to do much. The real savings are saving paper. For example, many of the schools running our print quota software see a drop in paper by up to 80% over free printing. That's a lot better for the environment that a few empty holes:-)
As detailed in this thread, the GF8400 has serious performance problems under Vista Aero when running recent driver versions. I wonder if this is related? - i.e. Recent driver updates have down-clocked the GPU leading to bad performance.
Dell have however recently acknowledge the problem and is working on a fix.
I agree. Cycling to work is the best way for a programmer to keep fit. You effectively kill two birds with the one stone - get to work and keep fit at the same time meaning you loose no programming time!
My employer, PaperCut Software, actively encourages all employees to ride where possible. We're all provided with free membership for Bicycle Victoria providing us with basic accident and 3rd party insurance.
...and somebody typed 'soemcompany.com' by mistake, they would get VeriSign's advertising.
I tried this - put soemcompany.com in my browser to see what this advertising was. The advertising was quite successful. I spent a good 20 minutes having a look around. I'm all for this progress in technology;-)
Yes. Print charging and quote must be managed by 3rd party apps. I don't know if MS plan on introducing it into their OS. Probably not for a while. The problem is that the older Window 9X clients transfer their print jobs to the print server without page count information, so the raw binary printer data must be parsed to extract the page count. Microsoft have control over the file system format, so introducing quote is expected. They don't have control over printer languages and their drivers so implementing a quote solution is a whole different ball game.
Your solutions sounds so simple. Unfortunately it's never easy on Windows. If it was Unix then no problem.
1) Intercept a print request.
Unix: Easy! Just place your application in the pipe chain in smb.conf or alias lp.
Windows: Take a few weeks to figure out all the funky Windows API to hook the print job. Then a few more weeks interfacing. No hope of doing this with a scripting language.
2) Check against a local Database for the username.
Unix:/etc/passwd and man getuid.... it's all there in plain text.
Windows: Those API's again..... another two weeks gone. Did I hear you say Active Directory. That just means you have to go and do the whole thing over again!
3).... adding the pages from the current print job....
Unix: You can count Postscript pages with "grep" on the command line!
Windows: Try reverse engineering the crud that's produced by proprietary print drivers....
4) If everything checks out, forward the request to the printer.
Unix: Just print it to STDOUT down your pipe chain.
Windows: Those API's again!
A few years ago when I first started PaperCut, I thought Windows was the "bees knees"... then I learnt Linux. It's model may be "old", but it's also the future!
It's funny. This is the 2nd Windows related print quota question on Slashdot in the last week! I developed the Windows print charging application PaperCut. I initial put PaperCut together in my final year at Uni as I saw a need for a product that worked. I now do full time Linux/Unix development but keep PaperCut dev going at night and in my somewhat limited spare time. It supports trusted domains as you have described and I (or my fellow developers) would be happy to help you out with any installation technical questions. Also seeing that your a fellow Slashdot reader, I'd be happy to offer you a free copy (free as in fee free. The Open Source Linux version is coming soon;-) See my post on the related topic last week. ). ~Chris
I'm the developer of PaperCut , a Windows print charging system. I'm about 3/4 the way through developing a Samba/Linux version (done in my spare time). I'm aiming for an initial release in March. The applications has a number of components; a page count parser written in C, an application server and webadmin interface in Python, and it all sit's on PostgreSQL. It simply substitutes the lp command in smb.conf . I haven't yet decided on a licence however it'll most likely be GPL. Keep an eye on the website.
Windows charging systems are quite expensive. This is due to the high development costs associated with maintaining compatibility with the every changing Win print drivers. You will however find that the systems will usually pay for themselves very quickly (amazing how much students will print if it's for free!). I'm hoping a community supported page count parser will ensure a viable Linux version.
Chris
Slashdot Mirror
(*) All the source code is freely available online, there is no indication of desire to charge for or limit use of the code, and it's built as an extension to the FOSS project 'Jenkins'. That said, no license is explicitly given. I could be incorrect about the project being FOSS
The code is under the Apache license (personal favourite :-)
Fantastic analysis. Hyperlinks were invented for a reason! As the poster, I like this response as it makes me look really smart and contriving. The reality is however that the whole project is motivated out of humor . Breaking the build can be quite negative and we've found that humor is a great way to brake the ice when these things happy. Slashdot is a great way to spend the word and bring a few more smiles to the faces of developers everywhere. (Reading the comments of course is also a good way to bring a few smiles :-)
I did some calculations for a project I worked on at PaperCut Software. The true environmental cost is not the ink, nor the printer, put the paper. The energy and environmental impact of paper production is scary. It takes 17 Watt hours just to make one sheet, or 8.6g of CO2 per sheet! (see here for details http://www.papercut.com/products/ng/manual/ch-sys-mgmt-environmental-impact.html) Saving the holes in the ink is not going to do much. The real savings are saving paper. For example, many of the schools running our print quota software see a drop in paper by up to 80% over free printing. That's a lot better for the environment that a few empty holes :-)
As detailed in this thread, the GF8400 has serious performance problems under Vista Aero when running recent driver versions. I wonder if this is related? - i.e. Recent driver updates have down-clocked the GPU leading to bad performance. Dell have however recently acknowledge the problem and is working on a fix.
I agree. Cycling to work is the best way for a programmer to keep fit. You effectively kill two birds with the one stone - get to work and keep fit at the same time meaning you loose no programming time! My employer, PaperCut Software, actively encourages all employees to ride where possible. We're all provided with free membership for Bicycle Victoria providing us with basic accident and 3rd party insurance.
...and somebody typed 'soemcompany.com' by mistake, they would get VeriSign's advertising. ;-)
I tried this - put soemcompany.com in my browser to see what this advertising was. The advertising was quite successful. I spent a good 20 minutes having a look around. I'm all for this progress in technology
Yes. Print charging and quote must be managed by 3rd party apps. I don't know if MS plan on introducing it into their OS. Probably not for a while. The problem is that the older Window 9X clients transfer their print jobs to the print server without page count information, so the raw binary printer data must be parsed to extract the page count. Microsoft have control over the file system format, so introducing quote is expected. They don't have control over printer languages and their drivers so implementing a quote solution is a whole different ball game.
Your solutions sounds so simple. Unfortunately it's never easy on Windows. If it was Unix then no problem.
1) Intercept a print request. 2) Check against a local Database for the username. 3)A few years ago when I first started PaperCut, I thought Windows was the "bees knees"... then I learnt Linux. It's model may be "old", but it's also the future!
ChrisIt's funny. This is the 2nd Windows related print quota question on Slashdot in the last week! I developed the Windows print charging application PaperCut. I initial put PaperCut together in my final year at Uni as I saw a need for a product that worked. I now do full time Linux/Unix development but keep PaperCut dev going at night and in my somewhat limited spare time. It supports trusted domains as you have described and I (or my fellow developers) would be happy to help you out with any installation technical questions. Also seeing that your a fellow Slashdot reader, I'd be happy to offer you a free copy (free as in fee free. The Open Source Linux version is coming soon ;-) See my post on the related topic last week. ). ~Chris
I'm the developer of PaperCut , a Windows print charging system. I'm about 3/4 the way through developing a Samba/Linux version (done in my spare time). I'm aiming for an initial release in March. The applications has a number of components; a page count parser written in C, an application server and webadmin interface in Python, and it all sit's on PostgreSQL. It simply substitutes the lp command in smb.conf . I haven't yet decided on a licence however it'll most likely be GPL. Keep an eye on the website. Windows charging systems are quite expensive. This is due to the high development costs associated with maintaining compatibility with the every changing Win print drivers. You will however find that the systems will usually pay for themselves very quickly (amazing how much students will print if it's for free!). I'm hoping a community supported page count parser will ensure a viable Linux version. Chris