[Ham-Computers] RE: WooHoo, it's fast!

Wed Sep 21 03:34:16 EDT 2005

My telephone company is unfortunately SBC and they are terrible! We went from
great service with Michigan Bell, to pretty good with Ameritech to 'yuck' with
SBC. If I had an optional company, I would be there. 	

Your fun is just starting Phil. Standard excuse for non0knowing people/Hams,
blame the rain! (LOL) Why not? Generally there is a leak somewhere! Your end,
their end, or in the end!   		

Today I solved my scanning woes. I got some absolutely beautiful images, both
typed text, newspaper/magazine text and mixed text. The photos were phenomenal!
Best I ever felt! (groan)		

How did I accomplish this feat? I went to my daughter Shelly's home, taking four
CD ROM educational items for my 2.5 and 3.25 year old grandsons. Two Living
Books, have you guys seen these? Incredible! Get them for your young childred,
grandchildren, nieces or nephews! I also took the trusty Crayola program,
electronic crayons are nowhere near as difficulty to get off the wall! Finally I
grabbed my Fisher-Price learning to count program. Before you ask what a guy of
almost sixty is doing with this stuff, not a really serious regression to
childhood instead of late teens/early twenties!, these my oldest grandson,
Brandon, used when he was four years to seven years old. His voice is now lower
than my baritone, but I still have four inches and ten pounds on him! In another
couple of weeks, he will have figured out that Grandpa is not invincible! Sigh.
Then we go to plan B., plot, plan and lie in wait!  

Now that I had the kids bribed, it was time to work on number one daughter. You
do not want to mess with this 5'6 hazel eyed, Auburn haird female when she gets
angry. Leave town! Whew! Must be that Irish in my ancestory. I got her conned
with a new pair of custom stereo headphones with volume controls on each
earpiece for her Sony Walkman CD/DVD portable thing, that her oldest son,
Brandon, managed to borrow and turn her headphones into a fine plastic powder
with bits of metal mixed in! I also hinted there could be some cash coming if
this work turned out good. I heard that cash register Ker Ching sound and I knew
I was on a roll!	

Shelly set up a couple of directories, (we DOS guys call them directories and
sub-directories, you windows guys call them folders!), and then configured her
scanner. Well, I tried to anyhow!	

That sucker knew exactly what I wanted, without me telling it! Way cool, but too
blasted smart for its own good! This HP scanner is less than a year old, a model
4300, maybe? I do NOT like the menus on it at all. Confusing, illogical and what
we Magician's call a "forced choice". That is, we make the spectator think that
he/she has a choice, but they really do not. So did this scanner!	

We scanned some typewriter text. The default resolution was 200 dpi, it changed
itself to 300. It would not allow me to save it where I wanted to as it scanned,
it gave me about ten options; Paint, MS Word, Outlook Express etc. I wanted an
image file. It would not let me turn the color off. It would not let me
configure the margins. So I just let it scan the darn page!		

Before it scanned, I did select the C:\ drive and the directory I wanted it
saved to! It gave me permission to do that. 

On the CRT it looked great, so I told Shelly to print it out. Then compare it
against the original. The printed copy was superior to the original!	

She was able to eliminate the two little black zits where the staple had been in
the upper left corner. She was also able to almost totally get rid of the mark
left when somebody folded this seventy-two year old document in half. I was not
aware that a scanner program could do that, but this one did.  	

However, it would only allow it to be saved as a .txt file The size was 2K and I
knew that had to be wrong! Finally I gave up, and went on to the mixed stuff
that I needed the help with. Now there it loved it!	

Shelly got some gorgeous scans and saved them all as a .tif While the scanning
software cleaned up the page on its own, it did not remove the subtle signs of
antiquity; liver spots, receding hairline and so forth! Although the clarity was
improved and the blemishes removed, the slight yellowish cast of aging paper was
left, but just enough to be noticable and not enough to be a distraction. The
pages came out absolutely great! The printed copy brought out every little
detail, many of which were not visible on the original. When I say original, I
am not speaking of a photocopy, I mean the actual 1934 Radio News original Ad or
article! The details were clear and easily recognized. Even the small fine print
an Ant would need tri-focals to read was quite easy to see. It was
indistinguishable on the original!  		

I had Shelly burn the files to a CD by copying the contents of the directory I
had saved them in. Most were about 2Meg in size. 	

She learned how to create a directory in DOS, such as it is on Windows XP Home
Edition), how to read the file sin said directory, check their size etc. with a
single command line prompt, how to save from the scanner software into said
directory and how to burn the contents of the directory, including
sub-directories, to a CD. She generally either printed what she scanned or saved
a single file to a CD, but not in specific directories. Much better organization
this way!   		

Hence, daughter learned old techniques from age of stones to use on modern
computer and Dad got some terrific scanssaved on a CD,  and printed copies for
his soon to be released digital video and twin CD set of radio lore, history and
rare video and audio recordings. 	

Does anybody know what the heck this software is that comes with the HP 4300?
scanner? It is Precision Scan, but not like I have ever 'seen'. 	

Aaron? We need to talk by landline. When dude? 	

Phil, "I've got questions, but no ansers" Atchley, we also need to talk, like
when are you out on work release? (When Phil is a bad boy; he interferes with
her favorite AM radio program due to leaking RF from a modified something or
other or gets into the video coming down the TV antenna lead in and her favorite
soap dramas are interspersed with annoying artifacts that look like a
Kaleidoscope that had one too many wine coolers!) His XYL puts him in shackles
and makes him hold the weed eater between his teeth and crawl around the yard
trimming up the prolific weeks of weeds that have been stimulated by the leaking
RF! Not really, as she loves old Phil in spite of his electronic quirks and
probably would not trade him off for a floppy long eared Cocker Spaniel that
could clean house, cook like Chef Boy R Me Gud and wash clothes so those whites
came out looking one of these California models with  teeth so white they look
like somebody gave them a Blue Coral wax job! Phil is a great guy and she knows
she got a bargain and unless he does something incredibly dumb, like buy a hot
tub and while they are sitting in it, holding hands,  tries to copy DX on a
vintage vacuum tube receiver, it shorts out, she gets a charge like she ain't
never gotten before ... 	

FYI: When I leave this list, Aaron Hsu will be the new List Manager, and a
better man and computer wizard I can not think of and Phil Atchley will be the
new List Manager for the SWL (short-wave list). A better technician and all
around DX'er, they just do not come any better than Phil!	

DBF	

----------
From: Philip Atchley <beaconeer at sbcglobal.net>
To: Computers (or other) used for amateur radio, communications,  or
experimenting <ham-computers at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: Re: [Ham-Computers] RE: WooHoo, it's fast!
Date: Wednesday, September 21, 2005 1:35 AM

Hi,

Well, it's back up now, has been for a little over an hour.  We had some 
very nearby lightning strikes. Turning the modem off and back on reset 
the system and brought it right back on! (Something I was a little leary 
of doing since SBC said to leave the modem turned on for 10 days).   So 
it may have just been a spike on the phone line took it down!  I've not 
had any real complaints about their dial-up service here, it's been at 
least as reliable as any other ISP that I've had!

73 de Phil  KO6BB

Duane Fischer, W8DBF wrote:

>Don't sound suprised, when you see a come on price and bite, expect trouble!
>Especially with that company - But just wait, it gets better! 
>
>----------
>From: Philip Atchley <beaconeer at sbcglobal.net>
>To: Computers (or other) used for amateur radio, communications,  or
>experimenting <ham-computers at mailman.qth.net>
>Subject: Re: [Ham-Computers] RE: WooHoo, it's fast!
>Date: Wednesday, September 21, 2005 12:03 AM
>
>Hi Aaron et al,
>
>When I ran the speed test several times it indicated something like 
>1244-1311 down and 384 up (may not be exact numbers, that's from memory).
>
>However, we had a really big rain and thunder storm blow through here 
>tonight and the DSL link went down.  The computer and modem are talking, 
>as is the DSL side, but I can't sign into SBC.  I've seen this happen a 
>number of times with their dial-up (which is still up right now) so I 
>suspect that they've lost a server or something in the area.   Or, would 
>water in the telephone lines cause this?
>
>Anyway, I'm glad I didn't remove the dialup connections ;-)
>
>Yes, the modem is definitely a Siemens Speedstream 4100.  Apparently a 
>product made especially for SBC.
>
>73 de Phil  KO6BB
>
>Hsu, Aaron (NBC Universal) wrote:
>
>  
>
>  
>
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