Adaptec AHA 2940 AU SCSI Controller and Epson GT-7000 Scanner on Windows 7 x64

A few months ago I upgraded my girlfriends pc to Windows 7 x64. Sadly it was impossible to find a driver for her 99,- EUR scanner (Belkin somewhat USB).  So it didn´t worked anymore. Since then she bugged me with that situation and last weekend I promised her to find a solution. Luckily I had an old Epson GT-7000 SCSI scanner fooling around and an Adaptec AHA 2940 AU SCSI Controller. I used both in my old Windows XP set up years ago. And I thought that the Epson scanner is too precious to simply threw it away. (And by the way: the Adaptec card is from 1997 and the scanner might be 1 or 2 years older). I still remember that I got it from my uncle and that it was so incredibly fast even compared to modern USB scanners. So why not use this for my girlfriend ?

But…I knew that my solution may have some flaws. Firstly finding Windows 7 compatible x64 drivers for the Adaptec and secondly finding Windows 7 compatible x64 TWAIN drivers. Since TWAIN might have a bit of a brilliant design it is commonly known as the most shitty peace of protocol / API in computers history. Especially the last point didn´t equipped me with a lot of hope.

Today was the day to check it out. I was happy that my quite modern pc at least still features an PCI bus. So I fitted the Adaptec SCSI controller in it, connected the scanner through an pretty old school SCSI connection cable (after all that modern it didn´t require a terminator (and no, this has nothing to do with Arnold Schwarzenegger)) and turned my pc on full of expectation. Well the surprise wasn´t too big that neither Windows itself nor Windows Update found a driver for at least one of the 2 devices.

But good Google and a guy called “Linky”(Thx !!!!) in this thread of Germany´s 3DNow Forum solved my first problem with a customized Windows 7 x64 compatible driver for the Adaptec controller (it reminded me very much of my sound driver odyssey with Windows XP x64). I was skeptical towards this approach but I suddenly changed my mind after watching 2 minutes of fine Windows driver installation. And there it was. The device manager showed a successfully installed SCSI controller AND it had also recognized my Epson GT 7000 scanner. But no driver for this baby. Well no surprise. (By the way for all you nerds out there: the driver is actually an emulation of the Adaptec AIC 7870 SCSI controller. But it works. Who cares ?)

But somehow I knew that I wouldn´t find a working driver for the scanner at all. And I was right. Shitty TWAIN shit. I ended up with a tool called VueScan. I was already familiar with it, cause I tried to get my girlfriends old scanner working with this tool (it failed). But I gave it one more try and HOLY SHIT IT WORKED !!!

I was astonished ! Surprised ! Wow…

And it´s so easy. After the successful installation of the customized Adaptec driver I downloaded the software and installed it, choosing “yes” when it asked me if I have an old scanner with not working drivers attached (well exactly my case). And again after watching 2 minutes of fine Windows driver installation it worked. Unbelieveable. There is one little drawback. The software is really not cheap. For the standard edition you have to invest around 30,- EUR and for the professional you have to invest around 60,- EUR. But on the other hand the author Ed Hamrick must be the master of TWAIN so it´s just fair to help him out a bit.

To help all you guys out on this, I have uploaded the customized Adaptec driver and attached some screens to make you believe !

Download: Adaptec_7870_and_2906_and_2940_driver_for_Windows_7_-_64_Bit.rar

Update 1:

NeO mentioned in the comments, that it also works with the Adaptec 2940 UW SCSI Controller. Thanks a lot !

Update 2:

Chip mentioned in the comments, that is also worked with the CANON DR-2080C SCSI scanner. Thanks a lot !

Mafia 2 – ein kurzes Review

Auf Mafia 2 habe ich mich wirklich gefreut. Deswegen muss ich hier jetzt auch ein paar kurze Worte dazu loswerden. Und kurz ist genau das richtige Stichwort. Denn kurz ist auch das Spiel. Wenn man der sehr straffen und geradlinigen Handlung folgt, so hat man das Spiel in einer anständigen Nachtsitzung durch. Und dafür habe ich 60,- EUR bezahlt ! Haben die Jungs bei 2K Games mal einen Blick auf Red Dead Redemption geworfen ? Da dauert allein die Haupthandlung 10x so lange. Ohne Nebenmissionen !

Und dann das Ende. Verflucht, was haben sich die Entwickler dabei gedacht ? Da bringe ich schon in einer epischen Schlacht eine ganze Mafiafamilie um die Ecke und dann ? Trotzdem bleibe ich der kleine, einfache Gangster, der einfach zusehen muss, wie sein langjähriger Weggefährte und Kumpel Joe von den eigenen Leuten entsorgt wird (der mir, nebenbei gesagt, auch noch durch die Handlung ans Herz gewachsen war). Verbrechen lohnt sich nicht, was ? Wenn ich Moralpredigten hören will geh ich in die Kirche um die Ecke 2K Games !!!

Ach ja – dann war da noch die Sache mit den DLC’s. Irgendwie konnte ich mich des Eindrucks nicht verwehren, dass 2k Games einfach ruck-zuck Inhalte aus dem Spiel entfernt hat um die dann als kostenpflichtigen Download nachzuschieben. Skandal !!! Bei einem Endkundenpreis von sagen wir mal 19,95 EUR für das Spiel hätte ich nichts gegen ein solches Modell. Bei meinen bezahlten 60,- EUR aber schon.

Und überhaupt – wer GTA (4), Red Dead Redemption, oder Saints Row (2) vor Augen hat, sollte bevor er Mafia 2 ins Laufwerk schiebt bei den Men in Black vorbeischauen und schnell alles vergessen.

Mafia 2 kann nicht mal ansatzsweise mit dem Umfang oder der Tiefe eines der genannten Titel mithalten. Als Ausgleich dafür verbringt man einen großen Teil des Spiels im Auto, was ja an sich nicht so schlimm wäre, wenn es noch einen anderen Zweck erfüllen würde, als von Mission A nach Mission B zu fahren.

Aaargghh…

Doch Mafia 2 hat auch gute Seiten. Die Story ist unglauchlich fesselnd und spannend aufbereitet, die Stadt, ihre Autos, Häuser und Menschen sehen wunderschön aus und erzeugen eine herrliche Atmosphäre. Die Zwischensequenzen haben filmreifen Charakter und die Sprecher machen bis auf wenige Ausnahmen einen guten Job.

Doch reicht das, um die negativen Seiten zu kompensieren ?

Nein, ich bin enttäuscht !

Typo3 install console / back end broken

When you are trying to access the Typo3 install console you need to create an empty file called “ENABLE_INSTALL_TOOL” within /typo3conf/ folder.  In some cases Typo3 deletes this file everytime you want to access the install console.

You can solve this by editing the file and insert the line “KEEP_FILE”.  After that, try to access the install console again and it will work.

If your Typo3 back end is broken (looks messy like the css is missing) after you did an update of your Typo3 installation (f.e. from version 4.1.3 to 4.4.1) head over to the /typo3conf/ext folder and look for an extension called “mn_ff3_be_bugfix”. Back it up to your local computer and then delete it on your webserver. Now load the back end again and now it should work.

Printers Which Do or Do Not Display Tracking Dots

This topic is not totally new to me. I think 2 or 3 years ago I found this list from the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) but then I lost the topic. I recovered it while reading about printed documents being used in a lawsuit as a demonstration on origin finding with imprinted tracking dots, more common know as watermarks. The EFF still features this list of printers which do or do not imprint those tracking stuff.

So if you need to print some really private documents you should get your hands on one of those printers first.

http://www.eff.org/pages/list-printers-which-do-or-do-not-display-tracking-dots

Some models are available at eBay for a fair deal.

Systemreparaturdatenträger kann nicht erstellt werden – Falscher Parameter (0x80070057) – Windows 7 Sicherung / Can´t create system rescue disk – wrong parameter (0x80070057) – Windows 7 Backup

—english version below—

Erhaltet ihr folgende Fehlermeldung wenn ihr via Windows Sicherung einen Systemreparaturdatenträger (kann das Wort mal einer für Glücksrad vorschlagen ?) erstellen wollt,

Systemreparaturdatenträger kann nicht erstellt werden – Falscher Parameter (0x80070057)

dann liegt es daran, dass der SPTD Treiber (der die Kommunikation zwischen Windows 7 und eurem CD/DVD Brenner regelt) nicht mehr aktuell ist.

Lösung :

1.) Den neusten SPTD Treiber von http://www.duplexsecure.com/windows7 herunterladen (achtet auf 64bit oder 32bit)

2.) Treiber installieren, Windows neustarten

3.) Sicherung aufrufen => Systemreparaturdatenträger erstellen

4.) Freuen, dass es funktioniert !

===

If you receive the following error when trying to create a new system resuce disc within the Windows 7 backup,

Can´t create system rescue disk – wrong parameter (0x80070057)

then your SPTD drivers (it controls the communication between Windows and your CD/DVD burner) is out of date.

Solution :

1.) Download the latest driver from http://www.duplexsecure.com/windows7 (64bit or 32bit depending on your Windows version)

2.) Install the driver and restart Windows

3.) Open the backup menu => create system rescue disk

4.) Smile, cause it works !

Source & Thanks to : http://www.pcwelt.de/forum/windows-7/372788-systemreparaturdatentr-ger-erstellt.html

Goodbye Servage, welcome 1&1

I have been a Servage customer for about 4 years and I have to say that I was generally satisfied with them. You get a bunch of hosting (750 GB space, 7500 GB transfer, 1000 MySQL DB´s, fast support) for a really cheap price.

(image property of Servage, http://www.servage.net)


Naturally you can´t have everthing for that price.  The most important constraints from my point of view are :

  • slow database performance
  • FTP problems (I guess caused by the cluster structure)
  • Webdrive doesn´t work stable and reliable
  • strange behaviour of the hosting itself  from time to time (timeouts, http errors)

The good definitely is :

  • a lot of webspace for a cheap price
  • unlimited and directory lockable FTP accounts
  • very very very fast support ticket system (not always helpful in the 1st step, but mostly in the 2nd)

BUT – things at Servage got worse, starting in the 2nd half of 2009. The strange behaviour of the hosting itself increased, the performance of the db´s got even worse (leading to complete timeouts and not acceptable latency (especially when hosting a wordpress blog)) and the support started delivering lower quality help than before. Additionally they changed their Admin Panel and made it look in a common Web 2.0 style. Good for the look, bad for the features. Some really useful features (like selecting the destination when moving a file / dir) got lost and due to the bad performance the Admin Panel needed a lot of manually reloading. Too often just a blank page was presented.

The 30th of march 2010 (and the following 2!!! weeks) were my darkest days with Servage. I don´t know what happened, but I guess some of their storage clusters crashed and so my account was gone.

Yes, not a single website, the whole account with a dozen websites and many stuff hosted for about 30 users. But – as always – not everything had gone away. Some websites were partially accessible, some files could be backed up via FTP, others not, a connection to some db´s was possible, to others not. So far bad enough but the support didn´t managed it for 3 days to realize (or to admit) that something is terribly wrong with my account.

This was the most funny reply from a Servage supporter :

2010-03-31 15:52
Servage – Julie

Your rating of this reply:

Hello Sebastian,

This is a script error as I can see from http://hyperpac.info/users/steff/_kh_mod/index.php

I request you to install an updated version of the script please.

Thank you! 🙂

Kind Regards
Julie, Support
Servage Hosting

Right now, I can laugh about this but at the time being I nearly crashed my screen. And I received this reply at a time where the account was totally fucked up.

Anyway – Servage needed about 2 weeks to fix this. In the end all the data could be restored but it cemented my decision to leave Servage (which has grown in the last year). Now the site is hosted on a virtual server at German´s hoster 1&1 (1und1) and let´s see how it goes.

My first impression is good :

  • great performance
  • unlimited traffic
  • stable Plesk & Virtuozzo integration

but :

  • their support is so damn slow (2 – 4 business days) in comparison to Servage (less than 10 minutes in most cases)
  • only 40 GB webspace
  • 3 times as expensive as Servage (but to be fair – this is a real server, Servage was only shared hosting)

I used this big relocation to update the blog to a new theme and some smaller changes will follow. After moving like a dozen very different wordpress blogs from on server to another I could aquire a bunch of knowledge about it and I´ll post it soon in another article.

Stay tuned !


Tabs speichern Firefox / Save tabs Firefox – Version 3.6.2

—english version below—

Seit dem Update auf Version 3.6.2 hat mein Firefox beim Beenden die offenen Fenster und Tabs nicht mehr gespeichert. Startete ich den Browser neu, saß ich jedesmal vor einem leeren Browserfenster, ohne all die wichtigen Tabs um die ich mich noch kümmern wollte. Glaubte ich zu erst an ein Problem im Profil, so hat sich eine einfache Einstellung als die Ursache erwiesen. Ich kann mich nicht erinnern, dass ich es selbst umgestellt habe, deswegen gebe ich einfach mal dem Update die Schuld.

Nur wenn bei “Einstellungen -> Allgemein -> Wenn Firefox gestartet wird -> Fenster und Tabs der letzten Sitzung anzeigen” ausgewählt ist, speichert Firefox auch die offenen Tabs / Fenster fürs nächste Mal.

Tja, so einfach kann es sein, man muss es halt nur wissen…

Since I´ve updated my Firefox to version 3.6.2 it doesn´t save my tabs / windows when I close it. Everytime I restart the browser I only got an empty browser window and all the nice tabs I wanted to take care of were gone. At first I believed that there might be a problem with my Firefox profile, but it was just a simple setting. I can´t remember having changed it so I blame it on the  update.

The solution is quite simple. Navigate yourself to “Tools -> Options -> General -> When Firefox starts” and select the following “Show my windows and tabs from last time”.

And yes, the next time you start Firefox all your tabs are there…life can be so easy.

Günther Oettinger speaks english

Update : YouTube removed the old video due to some copyright issuses. So I placed a new version below.

This is the 2nd time within 2 weeks that I feel ashamed of being german. The designated EU commissioner Günther Oettinger tries to speak english in a press conference after a first EU hearing.

A guy with an english like him shouldn´t represent something at all…

  • “We can not allow that everybody does as he pleases…”

PageView – an iframe plugin for wordpress

Update : I had to disable the plugin because it causes my Safari browser on the iPhone to crash. I´m not quite sure who to blame – the browser or the plugin, but I´ll try to find out soon.

WordPress and I are never going to be close friends but PageView got us a bit closer. With the help of this little plugin you can easily embedded websites into your post or pages without any pain in the ass. WordPress doesn´t allow direct iframe integration so this might help solve your problem.

You can customize the look & feel of the embedded website by changing the “pageview.css” file within the PageView plugin directory.

Get the plugin there : http://urbangiraffe.com/plugins/pageview/

Usage is :

  • ['pageview url "some title" description']

(would look like this, if the plugin would have been enabled)