Rick's b.log - entry 2025/09/21

Time wasted on dumb things

From that point on, the printer resolutely believed that there was no document feeder when using the app or the eSCL driver in Linux.
It was, however, quite willing to print directly from the feeder, tested using a regular piece of A4 paper in it.

Ah cannae do it!

So I turned the printer off and on again.
No change.

I turned it off, unplugged it, counted sixty seconds, turned it on, and...
...the printer recognised the use of the feeder (the front panel lights up brighter when a page is inserted) but wasn't going to let anything else use it.

So time for the big guns. A factory reset.

Which was a miserable failure. I had to use the HP Smart app in order to set up the printer, and then set up HP+ on the device (I'm an Instant Ink subscriber). It set up the local part quickly enough - connecting to WiFi and signing into my account. But when it came to enabling the HP+ stuff, it said it was activating and then sat there for over a quarter of an hour with the little spinner spinning.

On the plus side, towards the end, since the printer was on the network, I tried scanning from another phone and the PC and the document feeder worked fine (though, note, using the Linux scanner the default device won't scan anything at all, you'll need to select the eSCL device - it's a shame there's no way to set this as the default option).

I backed out of setup and retried it. Same thing, but I gave up after a couple of minutes. Force-closed the HP Smart app and retried.

With no luck there, I went into the printer's web interface and did a factory reset again, and went through the entire process again.

This time it worked, and did it pretty quickly. So now my printer is right back to where it was this morning and I've only lost an hour and a half of my life.

When I was thrown back into the HP Smart app as the setup concluded, I noticed that the ink levels and status information had been applied to the older HP 3630 printer, and the 4222e that I just set up was marked as needing to have its setup completed.

What?

I swipe-closed the HP Smart app and reloaded it, and everything was showing correctly. I decided to hide the 3630 as I'm unlikely to use it any more. But, well, their coding does not impress. Why did it highlight the wrong printer, and more to the point why did the document feeder decide to mostly give up existing simply because something got jammed in it twice? And even more to the point than that, why did it take a factory reset (and all that entails) to resuscitate it? Oh, and if the feeder always worked for local scan-and-print, why was it being refused for remote scanning?
I can't help but think that this sort of quirk is the side effect of some really awful programming inside the firmware of this machine. Firmware, that I noted in a popup in the app, was updated a day or two ago.

On the Linux side, scanning worked fine now using the eSCL device, but printing failed with a "cups pki invalid" message.

The reason this is happening is because the printer generates its own SSL key that it is willing to hand out in order that things talk to it using an encrypted channel. When signing into the device using a browser, most browsers will throw up dire warnings because it's a self-signed key built into the printer.
I can't but think that this is more security theatre than actual security. Self-signed, easily handed out, what is it "protecting" from? Because if something is in your local network that this is designed to prevent from snooping, well, then you're already screwed.

Anyway, a factory reset causes a new security key to be generated. Fixing this in Linux requires finding the key used by cups and then deleting it. When the printer is re-added, the updated key will be saved.

rick@Rick-E200HA:~$ # Let's see what the file is called.
rick@Rick-E200HA:~$ sudo ls /etc/cups/ssl
[sudo] password for rick: **************
HP2C58B90891EA.local.crt  Rick-E200HA.crt  Rick-E200HA.key
rick@Rick-E200HA:~$ # It's the HPxxx one, so now we'll delete it.
rick@Rick-E200HA:~$ sudo rm /etc/cups/ssl/HP2C58B90891EA.local.crt
rick@Rick-E200HA:~$ # And we can see that it's no longer there.
rick@Rick-E200HA:~$ sudo ls /etc/cups/ssl
Rick-E200HA.crt  Rick-E200HA.key
rick@Rick-E200HA:~$ # Now to restart cups (so the cached copy will be discarded)
rick@Rick-E200HA:~$ sudo service cups restart
rick@Rick-E200HA:~$ # And once the printer is auto-detected, a new key is created.
rick@Rick-E200HA:~$ sudo ls /etc/cups/ssl
HP2C58B90891EA.local.crt  Rick-E200HA.crt  Rick-E200HA.key
rick@Rick-E200HA:~$ 

Now it works.
Like it always should have done.

Mower Racing and Made Of Fail

Publicity always fibs.

Looks interesting, doesn't it?

Well...

The reality was painfully different. I got there for about 9.45am in order to find a good place for when the race starts at 10am.

Only, 10am came and went and one of the entrants turned up afterwards and I think I was the only spectator there.
By 10.30 one of them was over doing some fairly intensive work on their engine.

A few more people, not many, had started to trickle in. So at 11am a group of country dancers from a local country dance club started to regal us with their line dancing abilities. Which might have been fine had everybody managed to do the same steps and turn the same way.
To keep the excitement going (by very loose definition of excitement), they roped in some of the staff and a few random spectators to come and join them as the leader, notable in her white cowboy hat, explained the steps. I was today years old when I learned that the French word for "stomp" is "stomp".
It was like happy hour at a special needs school.

The music was sort of modern-ish "country" by somebody who was more a country/pop crossover. Nothing you'd recognise as country if you know what country is supposed to sound like.

Eventually, the mowers made a few demonstration circuits before one of them went back, lifted the thing up on two side wheels single-handedly, and began cursing that parts of the linkages that would hold the cutting deck were still attached and dangling.
I can't help but think that all of this stuff, and the mechanics and faffing with drive belts, really should have been sorted beforehand.

There was one ancient red mower that barely worked, one green one that seemed okay, and one red one that sort of worked but had tiny front wheels and you just knew it would be unpleasant to race on a field. And the fourth, yes there were only four, was a two-seater go-kart that had a more powerful engine and better stability. There was very little space below the chassis, so I don't know how they managed to blag an obviously not-mower into a mower race.

Actually looking at my photos, there was a fifth, a second green mower, but it must have broken down between the demonstration circuit and the race proper.

I was a tad miffed that as this was happening, they were not playing any Springsteen. I mean, "Racing In The Street" or "Born To Run" would have been great soundtracks to accompany this, but I guess that would mean knowing a little more Americana than a skewed idea of "the Midwest" (as in "something to do with cowboys") as well as knowing what the words meant.

After a while, with no actual start, the drivers started popping the balloons along the front which meant that the race was on at about half twelve. The go-kart would have won hands down on speed and agility. The green mower wasn't far behind. The ancient red one was out of the race after a lap or two. And poor Samuel, clearly going for the comic relief role, was on the newer looking red mower. It, uh, had a problem. The problem that it seemed to need to be pushed to get it to go, and it was pretty slow so it seemed as if it was stuck in a low gear. After maybe twenty metres, Samuel would need to jump off, push, and jump back on. As we were all watching this, the green mower gave up. I'm not sure why, it seemed to be working? The go-kart stopped to discuss why the string with the balloons kept falling down. Samuel... managed another circuit - mostly by pushing his mower - before throwing in the towel.

Which meant that the not-mower was the winner by virtue of being the only thing still going. Wow, even old Marte, my rust-bucket mower, went once it got started. Fair enough, starting that thing was an exercise in pain, but once the engine fired it went. Even with dangerously wonky wheels. I can't help but think that if I could fix the flywheel and blag a replacement wheel from someplace, I could maybe get my mower running around that course for longer than any of the others managed. After all, it takes upwards of two hours to cut the grass here.
Not that I'm interested. I'm just surprised that the things were in such terrible shape and thought they stood a chance. Though, I think we could cut Samuel some slack here, speaking of slack I think his drive belt might have had way too much. Wrong belt? Incorrect tension? Grease on the pulley? It was strange that it needed to be pushed to get going and would take itself for a while before needing pushed again. That says to me that the drive belt wasn't quite engaging.

Given the American theme, there were supposed to be American cars, cheerleaders, a bucking bronco, and...

There were three fairly modern muscle cars. I was sort of expecting like, I dunno, a Buick or Cadilac, maybe a Thunderbird, you know, something very obviously from the golden age of American automobiles. There was also the front part of a GMC truck with a Detroit diesel in it. The person I was with, a fellow ex-pat from up in the village, pointed out the back plate and said it looked far too clean to have seen much use. I replied that as an American engine, the owner might not fancy dropping endless amounts of diesel into it. Fuel economy hasn't really been a big thing in the US as prices are somewhat different to here in Europe, not to mention that France doesn't have a road tax as that's included in the fuel price.

There actually was a bucking bronco. €5 a go, and it seemed like it just went round and round and didn't buck. Two children went on it. They didn't seem impressed.

Cheerleaders? Didn't see any. Didn't even see any girls that might have changed into pompom-waving outfits. In fact, there weren't that many people that weren't either designated staff or volunteer helpers.

So shortly after that my friend and I decided we'd seen enough. We came for the mowers and after a LOT of waiting we got about six minutes of...I struggle to use the word "action". Comedy, certainly. I got a seven minute video and lengthy blog article out of it, plus you all get to see some of the nutty stuff that passes for entertainment in rural towns. Apparently someplace nearby they get young children to dress up nice like they're going to church and then chase a greased pig through a muddy field - though I'll be honest, I'm not sure if that's real or a windup that they tell foreigners. It has the air of plausibility while being just a little on the side of ridiculous.

So I got in my car and headed south to Pouancé to go to a Super U to grab a sandwich or two. He went somewhere else to get something from Lidl.

All in all, it was a terrible farce really. The stunning lack of organisation and co-ordination that seems to be the status quo with these sorts of events. And this was the tenth year they'd done it, so you'd have thought that it wouldn't be such a ridiculous state of affairs, but alas. It was amusing in how bad it was and how utterly unprepared things were. I can get a small delay, if you want 10am to mean 10am you need to go to Switzerland. Even us Brits try to keep to a schedule (public transport famously excluded). But to say 10am and mean 12.30pm, no, that's a joke. That's not bad planning, that's no planning.

Anne from the local newspaper Haut-Anjou was there taking photos. I wonder if/when/how it will turn up in the paper? I may never know as I live in Brittany and not the Anjou, which is a couple of miles thattaways but might as well be a different country given as how compartmentalised things are here.
After getting my sandwich, I crossed back into "Here Be Dragons" Brittany and headed home.

I felt pretty tired so... I put together a video, played with tweaking some code to draw some stuff using the SDL2 library, and before I knew it the sun had gone down. I then remembered to upload the video that I had made.

Speaking of which, I'm not going to drop in a bunch of photos. I can do better. You can watch the fun for yourself.

A gentle walk

So I popped my face in to a local thing (it's good to show up to local things once in a while even if your natural inclination is to slam the shutters closed, throw a duvet over your head, and tell yourself that reality is just a distorted hallucination), avoided paying too much attention to the spit-roast pig (ugh!), shook some hands with a smile (oh, look, I'm masking!), and discovered that half the English that had turned up were actually Scottish. After being there for a while and talking with a Scottish woman (who was refreshingly blunt 👍) about such varied topics as the taste of corn flakes, I headed home.

The homeward journey took longer because I thought "I'll just cut across this field" but that field was bordered with thick bramble - the bane of my life - and I ended up walking all the way around that damned field back to nearly where I started. Sheesh.

When I got home I opted for a Fanta instead of the tea I was looking forward to as it was supposed to be 13°C and risk of thunderstorms but it was actually 20°C and blazing sunshine.

The price of tea in China

PG Tips at the Super U.

Now here's a photo of the same thing from the Leclerc in Châteaubriant, taken a month ago on the 20^th of August.

PG Tips at the Leclerc, it is 15% cheaper.

The photos speak for themselves.

Your comments:

Please note that while I check this page every so often, I am not able to control what users write; therefore I disclaim all liability for unpleasant and/or infringing and/or defamatory material. Undesired content will be removed as soon as it is noticed. By leaving a comment, you agree not to post material that is illegal or in bad taste, and you should be aware that the time and your IP address are both recorded, should it be necessary to find out who you are. Oh, and don't bother trying to inline HTML. I'm not that stupid! ☺
As of February 2025, commenting is no longer available to UK residents, following the implementation of the vague and overly broad Online Safety Act. You must tick the box below to verify that you are not a UK resident, and you expressly agree if you are in fact a UK resident that you will indemnify me (Richard Murray), as well as the person maintaining my site (Rob O'Donnell), the hosting providers, and so on. It's a shitty law, complain to your MP.
It's not that I don't want to hear from my British friends, it's because your country makes stupid laws.
 
You can now follow comment additions with the comment RSS feed. This is distinct from the b.log RSS feed, so you can subscribe to one or both as you wish.

No comments yet...

Add a comment (v0.12) [help?] . . . try the comment feed!
		Your name
		Your email	(optional)
		Validation	Are you real? Please type 02304 backwards.
		UK resident	Check to verify that you are NOT a UK resident.
		Your comment