Sharing a printer from Windows 7 to Vista/XP

Many people encounter a problem, when trying to share a local (USB) printer from Windows 7 to it's older cousins, like Windows XP, or Vista.

The problem is that many manufacturers (HP, Canon, etc.) have decided to package their printer drivers into executable installer file, instead of using Microsoft's "inf" file format with libraries.
Windows printer sharing service allows to provide drivers for others versions of Windows for the guest computers, however it requires drivers in the "inf" file format. On the other hand, the guest system can use it's own drivers, if the server (host) doesn't have the correct version, then again it requires the "inf" format. So, apparently, we are in a deadlock.

Fortunately there is a trick that helps to avoid this deadlock.
You will need to:

1. Install the printer locally on the guest and host machines.
2. On the host machine to share the printer
3. On the guest machine
1. Go to the printer's preferences (right click ->  preferences)
2. Go to port tab
3. Add port -> Local port -> enter the shared printer's network path (eg. \\PC\Printer).
4. Confirm
4. Check that it works.

This way we make Windows to use the installed drivers, even if the manufacturer didn't provide the "inf" files installer (probably on purpose).

Hat tip to user kgo08 on Tom's Hardware forums.

New Mail for Exchange breaks Google Sync support

Nokia has never officially supported Mail for Exchange for use with Google Sync, however even without the official support, it worked. Unfortunately with the introduction of Mail for Exchange 3.0, syncing mail does not work anymore with Google Sync.
Google, obviously do not use MS Exchange, rather they provided with their own implementation of the protocol, possibly buggy and/or incomplete.
Nokia on their side point at Google that their implementation is incompatible, meanwhile made the previous working version unavailable, probably wanting to favor their Symbian over Android and crappy Ovi service over Google's.
Google on their side, do nothing, and being Google, probably do not care too much, and/or do not want to promote Symbian.

So here, users of Google services with Nokia devices are left out in the cold, without support from neither company.

Good work, Nokia and Google.

P.S.
My  local Nokia representative was kind enough to provide me with a last working version (2.9.158) of Mail For Exchange for my device.

The bad, the ugly and copyright

Recent developments in the the fields of copyright and the field of responsibility of the the hosting provider are more than alarming. They are outright dangerous.

Recent court verdict in Italy against Google, semi legal attempt to close down Russian torrent tracker Torrents.ru and several other cases show that we are at a very dangerous path that can seriously damage our cultural and technologic progress. Furthermore, copyright laws, quickly becoming into a weapon to ram anyone or anything, like business or political opponents.

If drastic moves will not be taken soon, we will see more such cases and they will be more and more dangerous and ugly.

Country’s leading paper

I’ve reminded myself why I don’t read printed papers anymore. I  happened to get the latest weekend edition only to see how little space is dedicated to actual content. I don’t even refer to commercials, which take up to 70% of the printed space. The rest, very much reminds of children picture books, where you get a few lines of text and a large drawing above or below.

That is a country’s leading paper.

eviL swodniW

I keep getting disturbing messages from Microsoft about this mysterious "eviL swodniW".

Apparently Microsoft are unable to send an email correctly when using RTL.

Update:

Apparently is it a bug in Windows Live Mail desktop application.