I haven't written in a while. I've been keeping busy with various things, like getting stared in business, building a piece of furniture, researching fibercrete, and dreaming about a nautilus-shaped house.
The process of getting started in business is an intense one, involving many time-consuming steps before one can safely begin working. I had to draw up a contract, start a bank account, order many little things, and start keeping track of all sorts of things.
But I think I'm just about to the point where I can really start working.
Incidentally, and just in time, I've gotten my new (to me) laptop working.
I want to keep as many things as possible separated as far as business or personal is concerned. So it's important that I do nearly all of my work-related tasks on a work machine.
I was given this machine by one of the members of the Pensacola LUG, and I'm very grateful for it. The man who gave it to me told me that it worked but needed a new power cord/brick. I ordered one, and it recently arrived. I booted up, and everything worked well. So I shut it down and started installing Debian. It had had Mandrake on it, but I don't know much about Mandrake, and I don't have an install disc for it, so I wouldn't really be able to administrate the system as it was.
The PCMCIA network interface cards (NICs) I have are a bit on the funky side, and Debian wasn't able to use them, so I pulled down an Ubuntu ISO and burned a new install disc for it. Debian is well-known for its handling of unusual hardware, and it read my NIC right away. It's based on Debian, so the system adminstration is familiar to me.
So, now I'm just setting up everything the way I want it and waiting for the other parts I ordered for it (a new battery and CMOS battery), and I'll be good to go. I'm calling the new machine Yum-Yum to match my personal laptop, Koko. Anyone who gets the reference (without the aid of Wikipedia) gets a cookie.
It seems to run a little hot, but I'm not sure. Does anyone have any hints on how to get a temperature reading from this? Is it too old to have onboard sensors?
I've been working on setting up various things on it so it'll be just the way I like it (installing software, putting items on the ring menu, making sudo behave nicely (i.e., not ask for my password for things I want to put under menu items), adding a line to the fstab for my new thumb drive, etc.), and I'm pleased with it. It even recognizes when a VGA cable is attached and switches automatically, which will be very nice when I make presentations.
I still need to copy over a lot of files and play with things to get all my settings the way I want them. After all, I recently answered someone's question about what software I use regularly, and it was a long list, so I have quite a few programs to tweak. I'm bad about tweaking things, so I have a lot of tweaking to do yet.
I'm already pretty comfortable with the trackpoint. Don't know yet if I will put a trackball on it. As I was editing this, I reached on my keyboard for where the trackpoint is on my business machine, hehe... I'd say I'm hip with the point. It's better than a touchpad. A lot better.
Well, I guess I'll post this and try to make an update later.
Sorry this has all been geekery, but this is my life right now... getting ready for doing business.
And I keep thinking of more things I need to have on the business machine. Off I go again... And I haven't even gotten to the important bits, like firewall and such.

My new hard drive arrived today. Last week, when I tried to upgrade from the repository, my hard drive started clicking, and the upgrade failed from I/O errors. I tried running various programs that I thought might fix the bad places on the hard drive, but to no avail. So, I decided it was better to just give up on the drive and get a new one, which would be more reliable than my who-knows-how-old Maxtor (which, on looking at the case, turns out to have been manufactured on 06-10-96). So, I popped onto Newegg.com and found the cheapest hard drive with a high number of high ratings and ordered it.
It arrived today, and I installed it in the machine. By the time I can post this, the install will be done. Of course, I archived important files before I took the old hard drive out.
It occurs to me at this point that it may seem that I have been replacing my computer hardware at an excessive rate, given all the posts I've made about my various fresh installs. This is not the case. Most of my equipment is legacy. Probably half of you have nothing as old as my newest desktop machine. Well, it may be higher, given the technical factor to which my friends tend to have achieved. *grin* But this hard drive is a good example. It's 12 years old, and I don't think I was the original owner, unless it's the second drive I had in my very first machine, but I don't think so. I think it's one I picked up from someone who no longer wanted it, because it's a fairly big one, and I don't think I had a big hdd until much later.
Anyway, I have a lot of legacy equipment, and from time to time, pieces of it reach their end-of-service points.
Having finished the new install, I realized I'd forgotten to grab a few config files for aliases and profiles. Oh, well... but I also forgot the interfaces file for the network cards. Oops. My lapses in memory are unimportant, though.
After a few madenningly simple mistakes and their solutions, I had my gateway box up and running. I hope it is just as before, hehe. We shall see, I guess. Anyway, I am again proud of how much I've learned, humbled by how quickly I've forgotten the things that make the system work properly, and happy to be online again with expectations of reliable service for the forseeable future.
I love Linux. :)

Microsoft has announced that Windows XP(tm) will no longer be available for most platforms and users after June 30th. This move makes sense for them, but it's not necessarily beneficial to their customers.
Luckily, there are options. ( Read more... )

I've been working on stuff today for my church's Web site. And I've been having a problem. In my little toolbar, I have a few frequently used programs, including my IM client. In fact, that program's icon is the closest to the "open programs" area of the taskbar, which leads to my often clicking on it by accident. When the IM client loads, it doesn't check for another instance of itself (because it allows you to have two different accounts loaded on the same machine, as I recall), and when it tries to login, it kicks my existing connections off. This is not my preferred behavior.
So I finally (after hitting it four or five times today) decided to fix it. To do this, I thought I'd write a little shell script to check a lockfile and decide whether or not to load the program. However, lockfiles are a pain, as I discovered in researching them. But eventually, I hit upon an idea that is foolproof and doesn't involve extra files. I merely check to see if the program name is in the process list. If it is, I pop up a message box giving me its process ID. If it's not, I load the IM client. No more errors!
Here's the code:

#! /bin/bash
y=`eval  ps x | grep gaim | grep -v grep | awk '{print $1}'`
if [ -z "$y" ]; then
  /bin/sh -c "/usr/bin/gaim" &
else
  echo "Already running!" $y "is the PID." >&2
  xmessage -center -timeout 3 "Already running!" $y "is the PID."
  exit 1
fi

Since I set up that xsession chooser, all I have to do to switch from IceWM to XFCE4 is type echo xfce > .wmrc and then run startx.
( Read more... )

Last night, when I finished up, I forgot something important.
( Read more... )

Beginning from the login prompt, I login and "su -" to begin making adjustments to the first thing I notice, which is that my prompt is boring and uninformative (I like it to be colored so I can tell at a glance when I'm root and when I'm an average user). ( Read more... )

I recently had the unfortunate necessity of replacing the RAM in my laptop, Koko, apparently because it was overheating. To prevent a repeat of this expense, I purchased a cooling pad (basically a box with two fans that sits under the laptop), which is too small for Koko's widescreen body to rest upon but which seems adequate for cooling if I perch Koko on its top just so.
While testing the RAM with memtest, I had to use my desktop system, Skimbleshanks, for research online and talking to the PcolaLUG. This was unsatisfactory, for various reasons. Mainly, since I use Koko for nearly everything and Skimbleshanks only for archiving my unison files, I had not customized it for my preferences or installed all of my most-used programs. Also, I had somehow messed up the configuration of something, and titlebars were not displaying correctly. Finally, though I could discern no difference in the configuration compared with Koko, Skimbleshanks was not viewing the Debian mirror as a trusted package source.
I use the past tense because I have begun a change in this situation.( Read more... )
Check out these links. They're two parts of a humorous piece on different distributions, comparing them to airlines. Enjoy:
http://linux.ucla.edu/pipermail/linux/2000-May/003064.html
http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=704486

For the benefit of those who've known me a while and heard me talk about my computers, Koko is the new name of Zidgel, Skimbleshanks is the new name of Midgel.

I just bought a new digital voice recorder, and I have to say it is awesome.
I had a crappy Sony ICD-P28, which doesn't play nice with Linux and requires Windows(tm) software to access.
I now have an Olympus WS-300M. Not only does it read under Linux (and any other USB-compatible OS) as a thumb-drive-like storage device, but it has stereo recording and MP3 playback, so I can take some music with me to listen to while I work on copy editing or between classes.
The WS-300M has a nice design, runs on only one AAA battery, and features internal index marking, so if I hear my prof say something particularly important, I can tap index and have the spot marked. I don't know yet how useful this feature will be, but it's nice to know it's there.
The only downside of this is that its native format is not MP3 but WMA. I'll make an update once I've had a chance to verify the assertion that mplayer plays WMA fine.
Either way, I'm still very happy, because I know there exist converters, and this device rocks. :)

[edit: 1-15@20:46]

Well, it didn't take me long to find that XMMS plays wma fine. I'll probably leave them in WMA format, because it appears to be smaller than MP3s as converted by ffmpeg without any specific options. I need to find some free MP3s to load onto it for my listening pleasure.

I've been needing a Webcam for a while, pretty much since I got new computers that didn't have parallel ports. I have a perfectly good camera, but it's parallel (from the days when I had computers with no USB ports (incidentally because the version of Windows(tm) I had didn't support it)). Recently, I had a friend offer to send me one, but since the world is not friendly to open source early adopters, I didn't want to have the worry of possible hurt feelings if the model given didn't play nice with Linux, and on the practical side, it would be difficult to return or exchange it coming from another part of the country. So I said I needed to buy it myself.
I was hoping there would be a similar situation to the one with printers, with a database categorizing them as perfect, mostly functional, partly functional, and paperweight. I could then find good model numbers, trust them, and have a good experience. *sigh* Well, there is a database, but it's not as comprehensive or as concise as the one at linuxprinting.org, so I was iffy on how to go about it. Finally, I decided to simply buy one and take it back if it didn't work, thereby interacting with the market in the ways of the world: I buy your product, and if it doesn't do right by me, I return it, and you lose a customer until you decide to make nice with my chosen lifestyle. It's free markets as they should be. Hardware vendors are slowly moving toward being nice to open source systems.
I went to Wally World tonight and got a Web camera. It's a Logitech Quickcam Express. It turns out that the gspca Webcam drivers for Linux are available for my distro as a package, so I've installed those through APT. This required a new kernel image, but APT installed that automatically. New kernels are about the only thing that requires a reboot in Linux, so I shut down to reboot. I hope I didn't put anything special into my custom kernel. It's been so long since I compiled it that I don't remember. Oh, well. I'll see whether everything still works after the reboot.
Reboot appears to have gone okay. Sound works, X.org loads fine. Network works. So, I'm assuming everything is golden with the 2.6.18-5 kernel image.
I plugged in the USB cable for the camera. It seems to have found it.
However, it turns out that I had a specialized location in Lilo, so it booted with the old 2.6.17.11 kernel. I've fixed the config and will try again with the reboot.
Reboot went fine. Sound works. Network works. X.org loads. Assuming everything is golden. uname confirms I am running the new kernel. Yay.
More importantly, camstream found the camera and displays the image fine. Not bad for a $26 camera from Wally World pretty much straight out of the box.
However, I have a couple of challenges to overcome. First, my position in the room is not ideal for a camera because the ceiling fan is right behind me, and the light kit backlights me horribly. However, I should note that even at the defaults, the camera captures me pretty well for having my face in shadow. I look hideous, but it's better than my old cam, which made me a silhouette when I was backlit. Second, I haven't figured out how to get Pidgin to look for the camera for Web conferencing. I guess I should RTM on their site and see if this is even a possibility. I probably should have done that before buying it. ;) Turns out, pidgin does not yet support Webcams, but getting one that works under Linux is a big step for me, and I can do other things with it than IM. for instance, I can take pictures of what I'm making or eating or whatever and send them to people.
All in all, I'm happy to have a camera again. I was able to make this purchase because of the generous gift card my grandmother sent me. I'm thankful for that. :)
Now if the friend who encouraged me to get a cam will just come online...

Would I be correct in supposing that some of you might want to see an image captured with this new toy?

Anyway, two morals: Plan ahead so you don't waste effort. ... and ... Nothing ventured, nothing gained; take calculated risks.

I suppose I ought to update this with what's been happening to me, for the benefit of my friends and my poor memory.
The semester is all but over. I have to turn in one packet of assignments tomorrow, and I'm free. I'll need to go back on Friday to get my packet back from Thursday night's class.
I'm still way behind on sleep. I'm hoping I will grow a brain in the next week and start going to bed at decent hours.
We got new fire alarms put up in our house. We went to a free dinner and saw a presentation on fire safety, and really, everyone should look into what protection their homes have, because the standard smoke detector is not enough.
I've been thinking a lot about what I'm going to do when the spring semester is over. In the spring, I'm trying to get an internship lined up, but that may not work out. If it doesn't, I'll do another semester of practicum as a copy editor on the student paper.
Anyway, after spring, I've decided that what I'll do is try to get jobs working for churches or Christian organizations, possibly through my church conference, so I could get paid by them and work for the small churches without charging them... editing copy, building Web sites, teaching churches how to write press releases in a form papers are likely to print, etc.
I found a LUG in the area, and they have an IRC channel, so I've been getting on IRC some (freenode.net). This keeps me up a little later at night, but since most of the people are in the same time zone, not nearly as much as Undernet used to. And I'll be meeting many of them in person at the next LUG meeting. I'm looking forward to that. It'll be nice to sit down with some people who don't get glazed eyes when I start talking about Linux. Sure, the art director at the paper understood it, but it'll be nice to meet multiple people who not only understand Linux but advocate it.
I've been annoyed by things I've heard in the news lately. A lot of people are bashing President Bush about this NIE report and ignoring both the biases of the authors and the intelligence we're now hearing about that refutes its findings. I'm annoyed that I see so much action that is based not on the welfare of our nation but on how people can smear their political opponents, regardless of how much it hurts morale and mission effectiveness, even though the people in question were singing a different tune in the past. It makes me sick, and I'm not going to mention any party names.
On the crochet front, I've finished a major project. Yay! I'll post pictures eventually. I still have 25 exposures left on the roll.
I'm working on a few other things, still. I have a baby blanket I need to finish, a hat I'm working on that I should probably wait until I finish the blanket before I work much more.
I posted some ads for artists, but I haven't gotten any nibbles even. I need to sit down with the pad of paper and just practice drawing until I can do my own artwork, since it looks like I'm not going to have an artist any time soon.
I wish I could think of something else to write. I wish I knew what my friends want to hear more about. I wish I were caught up on sleep. I have a lot of topics I could write about, if I were better rested and more confident.

I have no love for SAAS, but I have to admit that this op/ed makes a lot of sense.
If you work at a business, run a business, or own a business that uses computers to do stuff, you need to read this:
http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS2414535067.html

I wasn't around yesterday because I spent the day setting up my mom's computer and doing homework.
Then I went out to watch a movie with the singles group.
I just got tired of myself. I've been making her wait a long time to check her e-mail and stuff easily because her laptop, which I had set up to do this, is having hardware woes.
So I set her up with a dual boot so she can play games in Windoze and do real work in Linux. :)
Well, so far, I've installed Windows(tm), installed Linux, and done (I think) most of the configuration for the Linux side. Once that is done, I'll do the lilo config so she can boot into Windows or Linux any time she wants.
I started by installing both KDE and IceWM on it, but since it's a rather old Dell(tm) (Entry regarding its arrival 12-20-2003m) with minimal RAM, KDE runs painfully slowly on it. So, I think she'll be using IceWM, which is the same window manager I use. This will make it easy for me to make modifications to her configuration, because I'm familiar with it.
I have set up her Web browsers, e-mail client, sound, IM, and games. I need to configure GAIM to use the sound system and sort out the desktop icons.

I am happy with the progress I've made in the past couple of years. I can now do a full Linux install, including configuration and loading software, in less than 3 hours. I can usually start using it in less than 2 hours from the time I insert the install disc.

This is a little faster than I can install a base Windows(tm) system and securing the most obvious security holes thereon, but not including the time to install all the software I'll need to do real work with it. To sit down and start using it is at least 3 hours from the time I insert the install disc, from what I remember of my experiences with it.

When I think about the number of things I'm likely to have to go back and fix again, and how often that is likely to happen in the course of six months, that difference becomes larger for me. I know when I set something in Linux, it's going to stay set unless I change it. With Windows(tm), my experience is that I often have to go back and set something I've set before because it has mysteriously become unset.

The only thing you need Windows(tm) for nowadays is some games. And that realm is shrinking. More and more games are being ported to MacOS(tm)/Linux/Un*x (think Unreal Tournament), or are becoming usable under Wine (think World of Warcraft). And there is a wealth of games available for Linux that are so cool, they've even been made usable *gasp* in Windows(tm) (think anything that mentions Cygwin in its install documents).
For anything other than games... anyone can improve their experience with computers by switching to either a Mac or a Linux install. If it isn't available for Linux or MacOS(tm), it probably isn't available for Windows(tm)... except for viruses; oops, my mistake...
And if you still want to keep Windows(tm) for some reason, there's always dual-booting, like what I've set up for my mom. If you have any questions, ask me. I'll be glad to help.

By the way, if you're wondering how many games you can play on Linux, here are some lists:
Natively (Some free, some commercial)
Natively (Debian repository (free))
Under Cedega
Under WINE

Here are some pages I ran across today:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_adoption - Who's using it, popular reasons
http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS8124627492.html - Satire: five reasons not to use Linux
http://www-03.ibm.com/servers/eserver/linux/passport.swf - IBM marketing Flash in favor of Linux
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7034828.stm - Russia switches its schools to Linux

LJ's new snapshot feature is pretty neat, isn't it?

So, my mom decided to start using her laptop. Unfortunately, it had been so long since I'd set it up that I had forgotten the root password. So, I couldn't update anything significant. I pulled out the install disk and used it to rescue mode in and change the root password. But something went wrong somewhere along the line, and X was complaining that it couldn't access /tmp. So, I decided to just reinstall the system. I decided not to have the root password problem this time. I set it up so there's no root account. Administration will be done with sudo. This is okay, because she doesn't need a complicated system with frequent root use the way I do.
( Read more... )
If anyone has any questions, I'll try to answer them. If I don't know the answer, I can make something up.

1. Botnets surpass DoS as top security issue, survey says
2. When Macs Attack (Actually, the exploit was for PHP, not MacOS or Linux)
3. Attack of the PC Zombies!
4. Are you in a botnet?
5. 1/4 of all computers are zombies (part of a botnet)
6. Is Your Computer Part Of A Botnet?
7. Note to new Linux users: No antivirus needed - Personally, I use ClamAV, but the author is right. I don't really need it.
8. Five Flaws
9. Bugs/1000 lines of code
10. Zombies at Wikipedia

I found all of these because I was reading the first article. And I immediately thought of the fact that most botnets use Windows(tm) exploits to embed themselves on systems, and that most of the malware is written for Windows(tm) (because of its market penetration), and that most Windows(tm) users don't take the time to properly secure their machines (and many don't even know how). And I thought I ought to look around for some information. So I looked up zombie on my favorite search engine (AltaVista) combined with Mac/Macintosh(tm), PC/Windows(tm), and Linux. Interestingly, for Macintosh, most of the results had to do with a game called Stubbs the Zombie. For Linux, most of the links were informational about zombies and botnets in general. For Windows(tm), most of the links were about computers infected by malware.
Botnets are responsible for a lot of the spam you get in your inbox. It could be your best friend's computer that sent it, and neither of you might know.
I think people should switch from Windows(tm) to Macs or Linux-based PCs, as they tend to be more secure out of the box. And if you're running a secure machine, you're not sending spam.
People need to take more responsibility for securing their computers. If you don't secure your computer, you might unknowingly be violating your ISP's terms of service by sending spam... not to mention garnering for yourself the curses of those who receive the spam your computer is sending out... that might be why it runs so slowly.

So, take some time to inform yourself. Then either take the time and effort to secure your Windows(tm) machine (a starting point) or make the switch... You can get a Mac here. You can get Linux here (I recommend Ubuntu for the non-technical and Debian for the power users).

Well, it has been an interesting week.
I got pretty worked up Monday night and threw up. Arguably, that was probably influenced by the rice I ate, since others who ate it had problems, but it was still a defining moment for me. I've decided that my worrying had reached a level far beyond what is sinful. So, I've been working on not worrying. I've also been working on getting more rest. To that end, I've decided to lay down as soon as practical after arriving home. If I fall asleep, I get a nap. If not, I've spent some time resting. I hope this (along with trying to go to bed earlier) will help me catch up on sleep. Over the past year, I've slept far too little.
So, I'm going through some rough times, but I already feel much better. I need to keep myself from worrying and rest more and exercise, and I will be well on my way to a better life.

I exchanged part one of Anna Karenina (15 tapes) for part two (12 tapes) a few days ago. I'm already in Part Five (or maybe Six) of the book. There is still more of Anna in the story than I'd like and less of Kitty and Levin, but it is still interesting and keeps my commute from being boring.

I'm working on two stories this week, and both are going slowly. I hope I can get one of them completed in time for next week's edition of the campus paper.

Looking back at the entries I've posted in the past few months and the responses they've gotten, I take it that nobody who reads this journal is interested in cryptography or taxonomy. If I am wrong about this, please leave a comment.

I think people should run either MacOS or Linux (or other POSIX-compliant OS). They're both good choices. *nod*

  So, I finally got my mom to finish sorting through the files on her legacy laptop so I could archive the things she wanted to keep and blow away the partitions. See, her laptop has had a problem for a few years now. Its Windows(tm) install one day said, "I don't have a network connection." To which I replied, "Yes, you do. I checked that PCMCIA card, and there's nothing wrong with it. Connect to the network." But the laptop said, "Network? I see no network." So, I said, "Try dial-up." And the laptop said, "Dial-up? What is this dial-up you speak of? And what is a network?" So, in spite of having perfectly good hardware, it refused to acknowledge there was such a thing as a network stack. I tried reinstalling the networking software, but to no avail. It refused to connect to any sort of network.
  Needless to say, this makes archiving files a pain. We had to connect the floppy drive and sneakerNet the files over to my mom's desktop machine. With multiple megabytes of information, this is a major pain. So, we've been putting it off. But I finally got her to go through her files.
  Three hours of install later (the installer went into low memory mode because of the pitiful amount of memory the school board ordered with their laptops for teachers thing), Ilsa (I decided not to try to continue a themed name set) is purring nicely and doing what I tell it. I installed Debian Etch, made many of the modifications mentioned in earlier installs, installed Tea (highlighting text editor), and decided on a window manager.
  Because of the extremely low memory level on the laptop, I've decided to put fluxbox on it. I've never been fond of the plain vanilla install of fluxbox, so I haven't given it the amount of time and effort I've put into learning the quirks and features of IceWM, which is what I generally use. Having FB on mom's laptop will give me a reason to study it further. Who knows? I may eventually switch to FB, myself.
  Getting X11 to work on the laptop proved interesting. Actually not so much. I had to install the xfonts package with fixed-width fonts, which somehow didn't get installed with X.org. So far, I'm not impressed with Fluxbox, so far. It isn't doing things I expect it to do. I may have to go with IceWM on her machine. It's not running too slowly.
  So, I installed IceWM. I'll configure it later.

I hope everyone is having a great day.

  Linux is designed, like most POSIX-compliant systems, for multiple users on one machine.
Because of this, I was able to get my mother started on becoming familiar with Linux without having to blow away all the hard work I had done getting her Windows(tm) installation working properly.( See what I did... )
Incidentally, my lips seems to have cleared up completely.

Getting Windows(tm) to play nice with Linux is usually a pain in the neck for me, but getting it to talk to a CUPS print queue was a real bear. As usual, it was a fairly simple thing once I stumbled upon the right information... except that that information happened to be in three different places, or maybe I didn't read all of the page on some of them; I was in a hurry, and that is the source of many problems for me.
Most of the references I found said much of the same things. You have to setup the printer in CUPS (Common Unix Printing System), and you have to do the following things to CUPS configuration:
1. Make sure network machines can reach CUPS by properly configuring the allow and deny statements in the location sections.
2. Configure Samba for the printer (Here's a good page about that, because this was easy to find: http://tr.samba.org/samba/docs/man/Samba-HOWTO-Collection/CUPS-printing.html ). Actually, most of this was easy to find, except for the last key step that made everything work for me.
3. Set Windows(tm) to use your printer. Most of the HOWTOs I found were saying things at this point like "Just set it up normally" without any real indications or examples on how to make it work when it just wasn't. So, I finally found one resource that answered that question AND the question of where to point the silly Windows(tm) printer dialog, because it wasn't finding my printer, even when it was finding it.
I just bought an HP Deskjet 5940, specifically because linuxprinting.org said it works perfectly with CUPS. It does.
But getting it to play nice through Windows(tm) was another story. Here's what I had to do:
I had to install the printer on the Wintel by connecting it directly to the USB port.
I then tried to route it through CUPS. No dice. The install disk wouldn't find the printer because it wanted to directly talk to the printer, not to a spool location.
I tried browsing the network, which would let me find the printer, but the driver tried to run its own diagnostics and again failed. I tried a number of tedious steps and finally landed on this one, which was that, having the printer installed as a local, it was now in the driver list.
I had to set up a class in CUPS. This gave me that magical requirement: the location to point the printer to. Then, I had to add a printer using the location http://CupsAndSambaHost:portnumber(default 631)/classes/ClassNameIChose to make Windows(tm) treat the printer as an IPP connection. By the way, before this would work, I had to add the IP/hostname pair to my hosts file (but that was on most of the HOWTOs I found).
All of which was much more complicated than setting up my laptop to use the printer, which consisted of waiting five minutes after configuring the printer on the CUPS server, loading my laptop's CUPS administration page, and saying, "Oh, look! There's the printer. Yes, I want to add it. Gee, this test page is much prettier than the ones Wintels print."

Hope you're all having a wonderful week. :)