Old Printers Never Die

Printing desires

My career in information technology does not have office doors or opening hours when I visit friends or relations. There is usually one little problem that requires a good looking at and sometimes I will think up an elaborate solution just because fundamentally I believe using computing tools should be a pleasure to the user at work and at home.

Recently, my cousin just wanted to print to an old printer she was never able to get to work with her laptop – what she wanted was a simple solution and decided to have a look.

Her idea was to connect the printer to her laptop whenever she wanted to print anything but that presented a number of inconveniences I felt should be eliminated.

It’s old but not to be sold

First of all the printer was a HP LaserJet 4L printer, it think a second generation one because it a non-detachable USB cable that went into that back of a not easily accessible old desktop running Microsoft Windows Vista.

Immediately, I thought I could share the printer and that would mean everyone would be able to use the printer over the wireless network.

I have always hated Windows Vista security and the idea of each person having to log on to the system to print was just extraneous, they all belonged to the same IP subnet but each computer was in a different standalone workgroup – all functions of inconsistent installation methods offered by Microsoft.

I shared the printer and then removed password protected sharing which meant any printers and the Public folder were open for usage to those on the network.

Where is the driver?

I started with my cousin’s laptop which was running 64-bit Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Edition, it saw the printer but could not download the driver from Microsoft Update. Hewlett Packard said the driver was contained in the installation of Windows but there was nothing I could do to get the driver.

I modified the properties of the printer to allow the Microsoft Windows Vista to render the print jobs for all clients and tried again to no avail. Then I got the printer to work from other laptops running 32-bit Windows 7 of various editions – the installation just downloaded the driver from the Windows Vista system.

Now, if Hewlett Packard was saying the printer driver was within the Microsoft Windows version and consequently obtainable from Microsoft Update but during installation it bombed out searching for the driver automatically, somehow, there had to be a way to obtain the printer driver because Hewlett Packard was just not providing one.

What was even more surprising was none of the forums I contacted had any clearly thought through solutions, it all seemed like some trial-and-error activity eventually solved the problem and that was just not enough for me, I had to understand the how and the why.

Aha!

The most persuasive solution offered was Microsoft has my printer driver, so I decided to search for the printer driver on the Microsoft website.

That is how I came upon the Microsoft Update Catalog, it expects you to be running Microsoft Internet Explorer or a browser with IE Extensions else in my case running Google Chrome thanked me for visiting before asking me to upgrade my Internet Explorer installation.

At the Microsoft Update Catalog, you are presented with a text search box into which you can type in your search terms, I was specific – HP LaserJet 4L – and that offered a number of choices two of which were for PostScript drivers – those were not the ones I needed.

Getting the driver

The description of each driver is clear enough, with a button to Add [1] the driver require, as indicated in the graphic and once the drivers required are added, click on View Basket [2] to see the added driver(s) with the option to download.

Clicking on the Download [1] button on the graphic below presents a dialog box asking for where to save your downloaded file(s) and the downloaded file is a Microsoft Cabinet file with a .CAB extension.

You can either extract the files into a folder but right-clicking on the file and choosing where to extract the files and then install the drivers from that folder using the dialog that appears after Windows Update fails to find the files needed or use the Windows Package Manager (PKGMGR.EXE) from an elevated privileges command prompt with the command line:

pkgmgr /ip /m:.cab /quiet

This integrates the driver into the system so when the driver is being searched for by the wizard, it will automatically be found and installed.

In conclusion

The long and short of this treatise is, if the manufacturer of any of your old devices suggests the driver you require is available within the operating system or from Microsoft Windows Update but the drivers cannot be automatically found and downloaded – go to the Microsoft Update Catalog and get the driver you need.

Your old devices need not be replaced because of the frustration of not being able to find the right driver or because the forums that should provide clear directions just assume too much of enquirers and their knowledge of these things.

Nigeria: Introducing the Nigerian Scores Exchange

The thriving market

There is a very vibrant market in Nigeria that seems to have an exclusive set of players whose stock is of traded value higher than what obtains in conventional stock markets even though people think there gains to be had in the latter.

They do not deal in shares but share the largesse of Nigeria’s great fortune brokering in eye-watering sums of currency that will suffocate the naïve.

What this market has in common with the stock market is insider knowledge but of a more malevolent kind, the secrets of cashing and market-making are based on timing with an amazing facility of self-moderation and self-regulation that defies the more regulated markets.

Values and virtues

Reputation and integrity have no context on the trading floor; rather it is information, vulgarity, cacophony, calumny, slander and revenge that work the best on this strangely floating bedrock of corruption and subterfuge – the stakes are really high.

The traders keep score and settle scores, by themselves or through proxies that could be attack dogs or organs of state that have lost their independence to the powers that be.

Things get done quite swiftly or through a slow injection of invective and vituperation that just beggars belief.

Amazing potential

There are no Chinese walls between the systems that operate in this market but the biggest trades are made through influence peddling by reason of a number of means starting from closeness to the those in power, to being able to command unaudited but humongous sums of cash or being able to gum of the litigation process with a troop of senior lawyers called Senior Advocates of Nigeria who intimidate judges into giving bizarre judgements.

Nigeria is awash with scores, bought, sold or held onto until times when their maturity brings the biggest dividend. Others can be co-opted into this market unawares to have a score kept which can be merged with an event to upturn the credibility of a process – it is not a game for tyros.

Workings of the market

Amongst the political classes, threats and exposés can be settled by doling out payments to those who appear to have a semblance of rectitude. They are usually successfully exploited that their entry-level is quite high on the score index. When traded the market simply suffers a shattering earthquake to contain the shock and then resets itself for the trade.

The case in point here is that of the corruption of Farouk Lawan who having gained a reputation for his handling of the Fuel Subsidy probe was found to have been implicated in a bribery scandal when Femi Otedola traded in his score to rubbish our confidence in the Fuel Subsidy report.

In other works of life, your score index is heightened by first courting controversy and then by secretly being ensnared in a scandal, like religious leaders dipping into the treasuries of their temples to live lives of debauchery or being caught pants down with persons they should not be in bed with. Blackmail probably has the highest traded value in this market.

The Nigerian Scores Market

We in fact have a scores glut in Nigeria that there is need to set forth a formal market with indices of traders, scores and parties implicated. The circuit-breakers for these markets are usually under the thumb of the Executive that can decide to cut out the effect of scores settled or keep score on those they want to toe the line.

However, I am now convinced that a bill needs to be sponsored in the Nigerian legislature establishing the Nigerian Scores Exchange for the business of handling, keeping and settling scores. It is hoped that there will be price controls, better transparency and a widened participatory market so that the masses can also trade in the scores market.

The fundamentals of this exchange will include the ability to buy time, sell souls or hold grudges, the more sophisticated will be able to do that in one tranche and decide market sentiment with betrayals and sell-outs, switching allegiances without compunction. They as the brood of vipers and the spawn of the Devil are at the top of their game.

The Nigerian flavour

Most importantly, with the establishment of the NSE, the murderous instinct that compels certain traders to take extreme measures to obliterate the scorecards others might hold will probably be contained as the secrecy instruments will be better shared amongst those with related interests, pursuits and ulterior motives.

The Nigeria Scores Market is really an amazing growth potential product whose value will radically change the face of doing business in Nigeria with astronomical returns.

We need to sensitise ourselves to this opportunity, building capacity to regularise the system so that the thermostat on the polity can be monitored to prevent opportunistic heating up along partisan, tribal or religious divides – subtlety is the purposeful key 

Nigeria: Between regulatory sanction and redress

A clash of egos

I have quietly but studiously observed stock market and banking events in Nigeria over the past few months exercising considerable restraint, avoiding comment for as long as I can.

However, what I write about today requires commentary and should elicit serious concern within the business community in Nigeria and other commercial interests that do business in Nigeria.

There has been an enduring tussle [1] between business moguls Aliko Dangote and Femi Otedola which resulted in a number of suits, allegations and investigations. One can view this as a clash of egos where the consequences would be grave on the bystanders.

Of proxies and manipulation

Aliko Dangote had allegedly employed a proxy Nova Finance & Securities Limited and its principal Eugene Anenih to manipulate illegally the shares of African Petroleum Plc of which Femi Otedola is the majority shareholder.

The allegation was reported to the Nigerian Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) that found against the proxy and exculpated Aliko Dangote.

In their findings and judgement, Nova Securities was barred for one year from capital market activities and fined; the principal was barred for five years, fined and referred to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

This all seemed above board, but the alleged proxy took his case to the Investments and Securities Tribunal where the aggrieved as a result of SEC sanctions can seek redress.

Redress addresses and acquits

What is so worrisome as reported by Next Newspapers [2] is that the tribunal found completely in favour of the proxy plaintiff and it makes one wonder how the SEC could have gotten it so spectacularly wrong that all its sanctions might well be reversed and they might also have to pay a hefty compensation for the loss of business and besmirching of the name of the proxy.

The job of regulation is definitely not an easy one, it is almost forgivable if the SEC was caught napping on the job, but to have engaged and investigated a case and reached conclusions that found no support whatsoever in the redress process leaves much to be desired in many ways as well too many questions in the minds of the many who rely of such organisations to ensure markets operate fairly, honestly, reputably and efficiently without let or hindrance but useful oversight.

I do not know if Mr Anenih is the son of some bigwig in Nigerian politics, though that is beside the point in usually patronage-driven Ngeria; but I would proffer that he probably got caught up in a skirmish between titans and literally had his head bitten off.

The need for confidence

Interestingly, this matter has been resolved at the first rung of redress at the tribunal before it got to vegetate in the justice system where the winners are usually those with the best advocates and the means to retain them.

In all, one then wonders if the SEC is well awake to its responsibilities in being vigilant and is verifiably no respecter of persons in their investigations where the supposed proxy looks like the scapegoat. Further activity needs to be executed in determining if the share slide of African Petroleum between February and March 2009 was a result of routine market movements or the deliberate activities of a miscreant who has gotten away with a killing.

Nigeria cannot afford to have its banking and market activities in flux where regulation, investigation and sanction when subject to objective scrutiny is found to have no basis in due process and justice.

It would not remiss to require that all regulatory agencies work hard to build confidence in their activities such that the business community can boldly engage the markets and commerce for legitimate ends.

Sources

[1] Duel of the Oligarchs,Otedola Vs Dangote & the winner is….. - modernghana.com/nigeria news

[2] AP shares: "you did no wrong" tribunal tells Nova securities | 234Next.com