HIgh Quality Color Profile for Epson3800/Kirkland Pro Glossy

It doesn't seem that Costco has an official support site for the Kirkland brand inkjet paper that they sell, so no color profiles are available. Never fear, The Dima is to the rescue!

Well at least for those of you that are using an Epson Stylus Pro 3800 with the Ultrachrome K3 ink-set.

I have created a custom profile using outstanding test-charts by Bill Atkinson that he provides for free to all interested parties.

I used a 1452 RGB target which was measured three times and averaged using weighted method to compensate for the possible measurement errors.

In order to use this profile successfully you must use following settings when you print out of Photoshop or any other color aware application:

• Setup a soft-proofing space as such: View>Proof Setup>Custom>Device to Simulate>EPSONKirkProGloss.icc. Chose either perceptual or relative colorimetric intent, tick the black point compensation. (You must have a calibrated and preferably profiled monitor for this to work well)
• Print your file with the following settings: Photoshop manages color. Intent that matches the one you setup in your soft-proof settings.
• In the printer driver chose custom. Use Premium SemiGloss paper setting, it will change your black to photoblacK if it's not already active.
• Under the Custom, click advanced and choose SuperPhoto 2880 as your resolution.
• Turn Off High Speed and Finest Detail.
• Printer Color Management is set to Off (No Color Adjustment)
• Click Paper Config and type 3 as a paper thickness, don't change other settings.
• Click all of the OK's and print.
• This settings are for the USA made Kirkland Professional Glossy Inkjet Photo Paper Itm./Art. 126755 and Itm./Art. 933656. sold at Costco.

Download Link

Save it in your profiles folder Windows>System32>spool>drivers>color

If you done everything right it looks amazing!

Use at you own risk. Have fun printing.

Traffic Pilot for the iPhone is in the Works

Berkeley's traffic.berkeley.edu confirmed that they are working on the iPhone version of the software, that uses the cellphones with the GPS to analyze traffic conditions. The users of this software recieve realtime traffic updates using their cellphone.
This surely will be one of the "killer" iPhone apps out there. There is a gotcha, however. The project is run with Nokia as one of the partners, so I am not sure that they would agree to release an application for a competing platform.

A Fix for DIRECTV2PC "Internet Connection is Not Available" Trouble.

So you got yourself a DirecTv box that is capable of supporting DirecTv2PC. You have installed the soft, got your activation code, but unfortunately are not able to activate the DirecTv2PC on your computer due to inability of the program to connect to the web. You were careful enough to unlock the 443 port on you router and enable it in your firewall settings, but it still won't work.


Here what you do to resolve the issue:

Locate hosts file, usually in C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc.
Insert this text: 203.73.94.101 activation.cyberlink.com
Save, without changing an extension of the file.

That's it. This works beautifully on WinXP SP3.

Edit Oct 23, 2008: For the info on how to change the content of the hosts file on Vista, please follow this link to the Tim Hibbard post.

How to Stimulate the Economy.

Scratching the economy on the butt is way less expensive than the 700 billion bailout.

Directv HDDVR Software Upgrade.

There was a software upgrade distributed today to Directv HD DVR boxes. The upgrade took over an hour to complete and promises 1080P.
The more useful feature is alpha input using the number keys (a-la cell phone). It works as advertised.
Also, I can now see my Directv box as a media device on the PS3. PS3 won't play any of the recorded shows, as they are in the format (or format envelope) not supported by Sony PS3.
My attempts to download DIRECTV2PC were not successful: DirecTV.com is down for the maintenance.

I haven't notice any improvement in the unit responsiveness, despite the anecdotal testimonies of some users that it is the case. Placebo effect, perhaps.

AT&T Full of Shit.

I had a guy from At&T ring my door bell today. He was going door to door trying to sell AT&T fiber optics U-verse. He told me that in 2009 my TV, Internet and the phone service I have from AT&T will stop working, because government is forcing them to switch to digital fiber and stop servicing analog [!] copper wire connections I have.

I was not sure I was actually hearing what he was saying correctly. I asked him if he was sure that he is not talking about February analog TV broadcast cut-off. I told him I would not be influenced by it, because it has nothing to do with the phone service or the internet service I get from Astound. To which he replied that my phone and my internet will stop working because government of the United States of America switching everything to digital in the February and that my analog [!!!!!!!!] internet and my phone will stop working.

I told him that he was lying in order to make a sale, he said that he was not.
I could not believe my ears! OK, so I understand that he was full of it, but what about people who are less informed about the technology? I told the guy to get off my property or I will call cops.

I am rather curious if what he told me is what the AT&T teaching their sales people to say, or was he telling lies on hes own to boost his sales.
I just hope that this AT&T U-verse scam sales practice is an isolated occurrence (in Walnut Creek, Ca area) and not a company's official sales strategy.

iTunes 5002 Error Message. How to Fix It.

In the iTunes click on the Applications in the side bar, without your iPhone/Ipod Touch connected.

 Double click on any of the apps that have a generic app icon instead of the proper icon. You will be presented with the option to locate a missing file.

 Navigate to your iTunes library folder into the Mobile Applications folder and choose an app. 

If the application is missing, then erase it from the iTunes and re-download it.