Optical Comparators

..unless something drastic is done.

I’ve been using linux distributions for 11 years now and I saw a lot of changes. Perhaps too many. From solid rock server system developers took different approach to make it more user friendly. And I agree with that, but that famous Unix simplicity has disappeared somewhere along the road. Linux systems became more user friendly, thus more available for ordinary users.

However, developers aiming at wider user base introduced new challenges for old school sysadmins and geeks. These days I hardly see Windows or Mac system crash, Linux starts to remind me of Windows 98. I don’t get blue screens but hard crashes occur quite often. Probably the problems behind it are faulty device drivers. Linux community did a fantastic job making that system work on various hardware configurations, but it’s still far from perfect.

However, it’s all community driven. Linux needs powerful company behind it. Linux needs someone that can influence hardware and software makers to release their products with Linux support. Linux needs company that can provide enterprise class support. And Linux needs a company with worldwide marketing capabilities. Without it it will never shine on desktops. It needs a push in corporate market. And without powerful company support it doesn’t stand a chance.

Danger : Disconnect all power to optical comparator and accessories before starting to work.

This repair should be done by a qualified service person. Please read through all instructions before beginning work.

Before removing the optical comparator fan note the direction of the airflow or if the fan is not working. Look on the fan for an arrow either stamped in the metal or a label indicating the direction of flow. During this replacement you will need to orient the new fan so the airflow is in the same direction. Disconnect the three wires going to the profile fan (there should be three round connectors about 6” from the fan, the wires can be separated at this point). Remove the screws holding the old profile fan in place and mount the new fan in place with the airflow in the correct direction. The new optical comparator fan has 5-millimeter threads for mounting or 4-millimeter screws can pass through the threads. Depending on the mounting style used for your optical comparator. Connect the two power wires and green ground wire of the new fan (it does not make a difference which of the black fan wires goes to which of the black and white supply wires). After the fan installation is complete reconnect the power to the optical comparator and accessories. The new fan should run when the machine power switch is turned on.

Our sysadmin has recently deployed google browser in our network. With the availability of extensions it should be a decent replacement for firefox. However we were unable to install any additional extensions. None of the tutorials available on the web was helpful. We tried developers build with no luck. We tried adding “−−enable-extensions” to Chrome shortcut without any results. Google Chrome would simply download .crx file and download it again when opening. That became very frustrating, for our sysadmin and for end users. The solution lied in installation profile. Simply remove or rename Chrome profile folder and extensions will install without any glitch. The profile folder, in windows Vista and 7 is usually located under c:\users\yourusername\appdata\local\google\chrome\user data\default. Just rename or delete default folder. Remember, all your settings are inside so you would loose all bookmarks, history and so on. So make sure you back up all you personal settings first.