Fri Oct  7 12:14:54 PDT 2005

Went to my first PLUG presentation last night.  John Oleinik from
HP's "Open Source All-in-One software group" discussed what they're
working on and how their development process works.  IP review
apparently eats up a lot of time and resources for them due to
their cross-licensing of patented code.  The most interesting thing
to me was that most scanner drivers are so full of IP that it's
nearly impossible for HP to open up the source for them.  However,
their "All-in-One" monolithic open source driver which supports
300+ HP print-related devices usually work right out of the box
and works with virtually all of HP's printer/scanner/fax/copier
devices, so if that'll meet your scanning needs and you're an open
source or die kinda guy, you've got as working solution.

Perhaps more fun than the presentation was the ride there.  I rode
the scooter over the Morrison bridge for the first time and discovered
that - yes - it too has those awful steel grids that makes the
scoot feel like it's coming out from under you.  Fortunately the
span was a short one (unlike the Hawthorn bridge which is almost
entirely steel grid!) and I just relaxed and focused on a distant
point...

Buzzing around downtown at night was kind of fun too.  PSU has
several motorcycle-only parking spots around the campus so parking
was easy.  The only hazards I encountered were the wet bricks at
some of the intersections and the occasional trolly/light rail line
which can easily swallow you're front tire.

Today: I'm doing the last of the painting, then resuming the furnace
priming.  Earlier in the week I decided to clean the blower unit.
it was so grimy I opted to completely remove it and took it to the
car wash for a pressure cleaning.  Looks worlds better now that
45+ years of crud has been removed...

Ref URLS: 
http://hpoj.sourceforge.net
http://www.pdxlinux.org
.