HP Officejet 5680 – How to Send Fax from Ubuntu Linux Computer

This serves as a continuity from my previous post, I got myself a new and flexible Printer – HP Officejet 5680 All in One.

HP Officejet All-in-One Under Ubuntu
Its all seems rather easy at the way I left off, the printer is fully functioning by just plugging it to my Ubuntu pc, the scanner works well without I having to do anything special, the phone is fully functioning (yeah it is included with the printer) and I am able to send and receive fax without a hitch, something that I cant do without installing 350MB of companion application (half of it was crapware) under WIndows Vista.

Everything worked, what left to do?
What left to do is figuring out how can I send fax directly from Ubuntu (or other Linux base operating system) using only digital files (*.txt, *.pdf, *.ps, *.jpeg), so I don’t have to print those files and fax them one by one anymore.

HP Linux Imaging and Printing project
Through googling, I found that Hewlett Packard (HP) has published open source software tool to deal with their printers. Free and Open Source drivers and printer-specific application directly from manufacturer, which is very cool!

Fortunately Ubuntu already installed HPLIP tools by default with CUPS in my machine. The next step that I should take is to run ‘hp-setup’ as root to configure my printer port and run the ‘hp-sendfax’ application to send the faxes.

Both of these tool requires python-qt3 package which is available from Ubuntu software repository.

Now I can fax my pdf documents directly without having to print them first, a huge saving over ink and paper cost.

hpfax11.png

hp2.png

Conclusion
If you are planning to get a new printer, then I would suggest you get a HP printer. Not only because HP printers are reliable, but they also comes with Free and Open Source drivers and applications for the Linux based operating system. Well that’s a good reason to get HP printers.

Please visit HPLIP project website for more information about HP printers support under Linux based operating system.

[tags]hp,hewlett packard,printer,linux,opensource,ubuntu,foss,drivers,hardware,scanner,officejet[/tags]

LBRC – Control Linux PC with Bluetooth Device

I’ve got this link (LBRC) from TuxMobil. LBRC is a set of application which enables a Linux computer to be controlled from a mobile device using Bluetooth technology.

LBRC consists of two part, client and server. The server part uses dbus and python and the client part uses JavaME application on JSR-82 (Bluetooth) capable mobile devices.

My Thoughts about it ?
bluetooth-logo.jpg
I’ve a bluetooth receiver I bought for RM15 from lelong.com.my, I’ve a bluetooth capable phone, I can cook out a mobile phone application that can utilize bluetooth transceiver either in JavaME or Python.

A tempting thought, may be i’ll try out this stunt once I’ve *much* more time

[tags]phone,linux,j2me,bluetooth,j2me,dbus,javame,pys60,python[/tags]

Python for Nokia 1.3.1 (pys60) has no ProgressBar wrapper :(

Last night, I discovered that the current Python for Nokia implementation (pys60 1.3.1) has no ProgressBar wrapper. While this may not be crucial for every application, It is recommeded to display a ProgressBar when you want to improve application perceived speed, especially when performing time-consuming tasks.

I guess without ProgressBar, maybe I’ve to resort to the old style “Please Wait” text on the phone screen everytime the phone execute a long task (such as connecting/authenticating to a remote server).

Anybody can create a ProgressBar python module? (ProgressBar.pyd)

Quick Coding Python in your mobile phone with T9 Predictive Text

Writing python codes for mobile phones is fun and rewarding experience! You will usually code in your pc, test and debug it on an emulator, then transfer the finished code to your mobile phone. However there are some time that you wish to write a quick code in your phone’s python interactive console, just for testing around.

While writing code with your phone keypad can be -exteremely- distracting, I have a trick that helps you increase your productivity with python in your phone, and hopefully will turn your phone into a mobile python interactive machine!

First, I need you to open Python application in your phone, then select “Interactive console” from the Option screen. Then press “#” button two-times repeatedly. I’m sure that you are all familiar with this symbol on the right-hand corner of your phone. This means that the T9 predictive input is active, a feature that you will use heavily in this trick.

t9 predictive input

Now try to code with with T9 predictive output on, by typing few of the python lines like this

import telephone
import audio
telephone.dial('0176386421')

You might find it hard to type your words with predictive input turned on at first, don’t worry, just imagine your phone keypad as a normal keyboard button, and try typing away.

nokia python interactive console

What about words that do not exist in T9 dictionary?

In that case, you can break the words apart, for example the word “urllib” does not exist in T9 database, you can break the word apart as in “url” and “lib”, just type up to “url“, then press the right-arrow button and continue typing “lib”. With practice, you surely can code as fast as a normal keyboard!

*Screenshot is taken directly from my 6630 phone.

symbian,nokia, pys60

Guido van Rossum – fun playing Python on S60 (pys60)

Nokia 6630 MypapitThe Python for Nokia is really exciting from the moment you download it, to the moment it runs on your phone. I know that experience first hand when I saw my Python applications was up and running on my phone! Previously I only had experience writing mobile applications in Java J2ME, but writing the same stuff in Python is a whole new experience for me. It seems that I’m not the only one having fun with Python for Nokia. Python creator Guido van Rossum, also states in a forum that he has too much fun with Nokia 6630 phone that he recently acquired.

He expressed that Nokia has done an outstanding job for porting Python to its own product line, incorporating Python library inside the phone. Additionaly, extensions also exists to handle phone’s operation like dial a call, snap a picture, send/receive SMS, Bluetooth, and Internet.

Finally, Nokia has made writing Symbian applications even easier with GUI modules that handles menu, alert, tab, canvas, event loop and other low-level event without the need of recompiling application. Python for Nokia is indeed fun. Why don’t you try it yourself now?

Original forum thread : http://www.artima.com/forums/

symbian,nokia,python,pys60,s60,mobile