Today’s library is PDFRenderer https://pdf-renderer.dev.java.net/.   This library was released by Sun a couple of years ago.   Note that this example does not map a FileChannel object as some examples do.  Using a FileChannel made the file not able to be deleted until garbage collection was run.  See the bug in the code comments for more details.

try
{
File f = null;
RandomAccessFile fis = null;
FileChannel fc = null;
ByteBuffer bb = null;
String printer = YOUR_PRINTER_NAME;
PrintService printService = PrintHelper.getPrintService(printer);

f = YOUR_PDF_FILE;
//Read only access would work too
fis = new RandomAccessFile(f, "rw");
fc = fis.getChannel();
bb = ByteBuffer.allocate((int)fc.size());
fc.read(bb);


//Do not map the file to a ByteBuffer as the examples show.
// There is a reason why in java bug #474038
// http://bugs.sun.com/view_bug.do?bug_id=4724038
//fc.map(FileChannel.MapMode.READ_WRITE, 0, fc.size());
//bb = fc.map(FileChannel.MapMode.READ_WRITE, 0, fc.size());

PDFFile pdfFile = new PDFFile(bb); // Create PDF Print Page
PDFPrintPage pages = new PDFPrintPage(pdfFile);
// Create Print Job
PrinterJob pjob = PrinterJob.getPrinterJob();
pjob.setPrintService(printService);

PageFormat pf = PrinterJob.getPrinterJob().defaultPage();

pf.setOrientation(PageFormat.PORTRAIT);

Paper paper = new Paper();

//This is to fix an error in PDF-Renderer
//View http://juixe.com/techknow/index.php/2008/01/17/print-a-pdf-document-in-java/ for details
//Printing a PDF is also possible by sending the bytes directly to the printer, but
//  the printer would have to support it.

paper.setImageableArea(0,0,paper.getWidth() * 2,paper.getHeight());

pf.setPaper(paper);

pjob.setJobName(f.getName());

Book book = new Book();
book.append(pages, pf, pdfFile.getNumPages());
pjob.setPageable(book);
pjob.print();

}
catch (FileNotFoundException e)
{
//do your error action
}
catch (IOException e)
{
//do your error action
}
catch (PrinterException e)
{
//do your error action
}
finally
{
try
{
if (fc != null)
{
fc.close();
fc = null;
}
}
catch (IOException e)
{
log.error(e);
//handle error here
}
try
{
if (fis != null)
{
fis.close();
fis = null;
}
}
catch (IOException e)
{
//handle error here
}
if (bb != null)
{
bb.clear();
}
}

Because this library has the bug that makes it not want to print in half size when printing a portrait-oriented PDF,  I cannot recommend using this library unless you find it is the only thing that will do the job.    Such obvious bugs that have been around for over a year point to unmaintained code or some other upstream issues.  Tune in tomorrow for another library that is maintained that will get the job done as well.

Thankfully, there is a better way.  There is a free VNC server for OS X called Vine.  Download it and install the server.  Now you should be able to connect through a typical VNC client.

Remember, if you use tightVNC to connect, use the F8 key to bring up the menu that allows you to switch to fullscreen and disconnect the session.

Before power goes out

A UPS on internet equipment is something that I haven’t seen in too many places.  Apparently, not many people in my complex have heard of it either.

Power just went out

And finally, I win.  The Xantrax Xpower 400 actually kept the Internet up for over 8 hours after the power outage.

I stand alone

Of course, the server didn’t do as well, and I had to turn it down after 20 minutes.  It’s tough to have 99% uptime off of home DSL.

I tried to link my ebay account to my paypal account and it would just simply not work. After going through the prompts many times, it would still say that there was no association. There is a fix in an odd location.

Go to account settings -> addresses
Click on all addresses
Then click on add paypal addresses

This gives yet another paypal login. After login, I was greeted with a message thanking me for creating a paypal account. Hmmm.

update-mime-database ~/.local/share/mime

This tip was found after searching the net and landing on this page.