Webs’ Random Ideas

At work we hooked up a card scanning device for a system in a GA office. Everything works fine under our accounts but not the user account on that machine. Every time the user tries to scan an error message pops up about not having sufficient permissions and to contact the administrator.

I did a Google search and found a link for a Microtek knowledgebase article. The article had a solution: go into “Regedit” click on “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE”, then “Software”, then click “PenPower”. Just make sure the folder is highlighted and go to the “Edit” from the top menu and choose “Permissions”. Then add the user account or groups you need to and give whomever needs it, “Full Control”.

After I did this the software started giving all kinds of errors, but it could communicate with the scanner under the user account. I then figured the errors were still permission related and on a hunch I gave the same user account “Full Control” for the “Microtek” folder under Program Files. Once I did this everything worked perfectly as expected. And I didn’t have to make the user account an Administrator on the system.

So lately, Sun has been doing a few things right in terms of being Eco-friendly. They just launched a website called OpenEco. The purpose of the site is to bring together all kinds of organizations that are working on environmentally friendly areas so they can share their data.

For instance, suppose you are a business and installing a script to automatically shut down your computer systems has saved your company “x” amount of dollars. Well now you can share what you did and how much it saved you with others, so they to can see what other businesses are doing to make a difference. The site is free to register and is very easy to use.

Another notable is Sun’s Ray 2 computer. Go check it out! It’s a pretty slick machine for sure. And it only uses 4 watts of power compared to the average PC which uses around 80. That’s one heck of a reduction in energy usage.

However, it is important to note the Sun Ray 2 is a thin client, meaning it pulls content down from a server, so it really doesn’t do much work at all. It leaves all the calculating up to a server. But the idea is pretty ingenious. Sun has a flash system that explains the design very simply.

I like reporting on items like these because it shows improvements are being made and some companies are trying to change the glutinousness we Americans seem to embody.

Found via TreeHugger…