Ask Different Chat - 2012-04-30

« first day (621 days earlier) ← previous day next day → last day (4395 days later) »

Nathan Greenstein

12:01 AM

@ruddfawcett If you still want a bigger version of the logo I can give you a vector PSD that you can make as big as you like

@NathanGreenstein Yes please!

Actually wait... I uninstalled Photoshop. Can you must make a version as big as possible without it being pixelated and post a link?

That would be AMAZING!

Nathan Greenstein

What dimensions do you want? It can be infinitely big...

1000000000000 x 10000000000000

Nah, hehe. Is it just the little square command key?

Or the banner?

Nathan Greenstein

Just the key

Biggest Ps can do is 300000

I'll take that! Actually, this time

Nathan Greenstein

12:09 AM

"Your startup disk is almost full"

Well, that didn't work :/

:P

Try saving it to a dropbox folder if you have one?

Nathan Greenstein

How about 3,000 x 3,000? That I can do.

Sure, thank you so much.

Nathan Greenstein

@ruddfawcett My startup disk is a lot bigger than my Dropbox :D

@NathanGreenstein I fill up my startup disk so fast that I do a backup, and then a clean install of Lion about every month :D

Is the file still uploading? :D

Nathan Greenstein

12:15 AM

Can you see that?

? No, hehe.

Nathan Greenstein

Okay, hang on

Okay, thanks :-)

Nathan Greenstein

click this link

3

Oh baby!

Thanks!

Nathan Greenstein

12:17 AM

No problem

Where'd you get that?!

Nathan Greenstein

I learned a lesson about what Photoshop does when I try to make a 90000000000-pixel image :)

Crash? :P

Nathan Greenstein

@ruddfawcett I looked at the original and made something as close as I could

10k. Oh yea.

5

Nathan Greenstein

12:18 AM

@ruddfawcett Fill up the startup disk and give up

@IanC Congrats!

Oh, wow. Nice jobe

Nathan Greenstein

It was originally for the screencast intro clip

@IanC I wonder who gave you this:

+10 Why isn't iTunes shuffle random?

@NathanGreenstein Can I get the intro clip file?

Nathan Greenstein

@ruddfawcett My After Effects trial expired, so I'm afraid not :(

Oh... too bad, I really like the clip.

1:03 AM

@NathanGreenstein What happened to the link?

Nathan Greenstein

@daviesgeek Oops, sorry. I moved the file. Should work now.

3 hours later…

3:46 AM

@NathanGreenstein Cool! Can I use it?

Nathan Greenstein

4:00 AM

@daviesgeek Sure, but keep in mind that the site design/logo is copyrighted by SE, so you should ask them before using it for anything outside of SE. (cc @ruddfawcett)

@NathanGreenstein Right. I was just gonna use it for a version of @ruddfawcett 's AppleScript. And my Chrome web app

9 hours later…

1:27 PM

@iPadowners I believe to notice something quite strange when scrolling in some apps (e.g. Safari, Pocket) while holding the iPad upside. When scrolling upward/downward the left side goes up/down first before the right side. As if the right side is accelerated from rest - you know, with a little time lag. This seems fine, when scrolling on the left side with my left thumb - it feels somewhat "natural".

However, in fact it does not matter where I touch the screen to initiate scrolling. If I scroll using my right thumb - on the right side off the screen - the same occurs. But then it's not natural. It's irritating. Does anybody else observe this?

The effect is stronger, when scrolling faster.

If noticed a similar animation when switching between full screen apps using four fingers. The bottom moves first, the top part follows with a little time lag. Again, this is fine when touch the screen at the bottom. But when you touch the screen in the center or at the top even, this animation is not natural at all.

And one last thing:

When you hold iPad upward and switch between desktops. Do you notice how the space between the icons slightly decreases while moving? This is quite funny, because it creates an illusion as if the display is bent.

These are little things of course, almost unnoticeable. But I get a headache from them <- for real!

@Lri cfprefsd catches my eye, but it's not to be run manually.

2:09 PM

@gentmatt I'll look for it, I hadn't really noticed them to be honest. Now I probably will, and you will have ruined it for me of course ;)

@IanC Big congrats to you!

Afternoon @bmike

@stuffe Afternoon!

Well hello

Oh. You're in the UK.

I just got up. :-)

2:23 PM

Yeah. We invented time here. We get to set the agenda ;)

3

:-)

You will bow before GMT :)

Or, as we call it "the time".

Hehe!

@stuffe Indeed!

I need to get going off to school. My last day!!!!! Just wanted to check up on the site

2:25 PM

Wow, have a fun day and all that.

What do you do on the last day over there?

When I was at school we'd all get our shirts signed.

@stuffe Since I'm homeschooled, we have "finals" and we're having a party.

But then again, we went out to Starbucks and the bookstore for part of class last week.

@stuffe I think @daviesgeek has a unique school setting if I recall correctly

We had a uniform with white shirts. On the last day you you take a permanent marker pen in and get everyone you know to sign their name on your shirt.

@stuffe Oh. We don't have a uniform, as you probably guessed...

@stuffe Now that sounds fun. Most public schools don't really have a nice tradition like that (which would perhaps be better than the usual pandemonium associated with impending freedom for the summer)

2:27 PM

It was a big school (well, big by UK standards), and when you get 1500 kids in one place the uniform is a method of control!

I imagine.

@stuffe I think there is a lot to be said for a uniform for schools

I really need to run. I shall be around more often since school's almost over!! (yay!!!!)

well past the initial "control" aspect.

See you guys!

2:29 PM

School ties etc. Blazers, with the school badge on.

@daviesgeek Have a great day :)

@bmike Yeah, it worked OK. I hope my kid goes to a school that still does uniform when she's ready for school.

@stuffe There's always a posh, pricey, private school that will have a uniform at the ready.

Not that that's in any way a good thing - public education has a lot going for it in both our countries from my vantage point.

Hey @gentmatt - want to chat scanning here? I have a few moments and haven't gotten back to you on twitter.

Yeah, why not? Have you been successful?

@gentmatt Very much so.

Great! Tell me more

The Pro Adobe tool has a very very nice tool for literally re-scanning the images within the document.

You can "fix" things when you come in with too much resolution, but the software is costly.

2:38 PM

@bmike Hmm, no thanks, my partner actually went to the poshest and most expensive girls school in the country (scholarship deal, we're not rich, sadly) and would never put her own daughter into such a school.

Are you at your scanner.

No, unfortunately not. I'm in a café.

@stuffe I'm from working class parents and benefitted greatly from public education. I was also lucky, lucky, lucky in when I was born, to whom, where we were located growing up, etc...

I would strongly prefer public everywhere I've lived.

@gentmatt OK - do you recall if Image Capture saw your scanner? I often install the OEM drivers and then ignore the "official scanning interface" and use image capture.

If you can re-scan - you want to scan at either 150dpi or 300 dpi - grayscale.

Yes, I've also installed the scanner drivers provided by Canon (are these what you refer to as OEM?). What scanner driver will be used, when using Image Capture?

That works best for iPads. You could scan B&W at 600 DPI as well for an equivalent file size. My calculations are you would be at 30M to 15M for the document you are scanning.

Yup - Image Capture doesn't have drivers for two of my old canon scanners.

But once I install the canon software - then image capture sees them and can control the scanner directly. My guess is canon installs the TWAIN drivers needed for the model, but I haven't dug into it since it works when I install the canon SW on a new mac

The same driver is used - I just prefer Image Capture to make it easier to find the place to over-ride the default scan settings.

2:44 PM

So, by just using Image Capture scanned PDFs are created with less "bloat"? That's funny :)

I don't think that's entirely correct.

The image you sent uncompressed is very bloat free.

It just has huge images making up each and every page.

iBooks isn't optimized for that access pattern and will lag each time you flip a page.

I want to get a better compression at 600dpi though, in order to enjoy the full res when zooming in.

OCR isn't really possible for the text you scanned.

Image Capture makes it easier to control what image gets scanned into the PDF wrapper.

If you want that high DPI, then you must restrict the color depth. Your images are huge due to the color depth of the scan settings.

You can override it in canon's software - I just can't point you to a guide.

I already used greyscale scanning.

Do you recall if it allowed you to specify 256 levels of grey?

2:48 PM

The MP Navigator software is very limited. I'll post a screen shot.

user image

Basically I can choose between color and b/w scanning and set a scanning resolution.

Yup - I get the same on my "CanoScan" sw

So, in order to decrease file size I shall 1) use image caputre 2) use a lower ppi. That's it, right?

MPNavigator - gah - I have problems with Canon stuff when scanning.

user image

I dumped all Canon software, you can download a package with just the drivers in, and then use Image Capture, which I think is what you are talking about.

2:52 PM

I may go to 400dpi. After all the iPad has ~260ppi. That allows me to sufficiently zoom in most cases.

@stuffe But can you do duplex scanning and pile scanning?

@bmike Is that also MP Navigator software? Which version? I'm using v2.2.4

I have am MP600 I think - few years old, doesn;t do duplex.

MP530 here.

Most of the time it's hung off the back of an airport extreme, so no scanning.

@gentmatt No CanoScan version 4.9.3.4 - ancient SW - still manages to run on Lion

I've only got that on an old 24 inch iMac - not loaded on my Air or MBP

I have it on a mad USB switch mechanism that connects it to my mac when needed, whcih works fine for Macs, but every time I do it the bonjour printing fails for the windows machines in the house. Sigh.

2:56 PM

Here's what Image Capture allows

user image

I'd start with Text and 600 DPI

You can ask for greyscale and see how much larger that makes each page.

@stuffe I know, that's annoying. I had a Time Capsule -> no wireless scanning for my MP530. If I were to use my other router, I could do wireless scanning on a Windows computer, but not on a Mac (no software provided...)

The canon driver won't let me scan GrayScale or B&W in more than 600 dpi without getting into advanced settings

Image Capture will gladly let me capture Text (B&W) and GreyScale at 9200 DPI

and GreyScale can be limited to 256 levels or thousands of greys

@bmike Thanks for your help. I'll rescan the document later when I'm home.

@bmike 9200 DPI. That's insane!

K. I'll DM you the two optimized versions - here's the size for the various versions.

Are you talking scanning documents for reading on iPad?

in iBooks?

3:00 PM

@gentmatt Yes - it is insane, but I've used it when scanning parts of fine art prints, historical photographs / engravings / photogravure and such

@stuffe Yes.

9

A: US Letter or A4 PDF - which is better for iPad?

Letter. A4 is slightly longer and narrower than US Letter, and would result in wider borders at the side to fit a full page vertically. US Letter won't fit perfectly, but the aspect ratio of it's dimensions are a much closer fit to the iPads 4:3 (or 3:4 in portrait) screen and the slimmer borde...

Oh yeah, I'll do this aswell. Thanks for reminding me! :)

This may be useful then, US letter is a better size to scan at then A4, will result in slightly smaller full pages scans, and fit the screen better.

user image

3:02 PM

So if you have A4 originals, and they have border that you are happy to lose, try to use US Letter anyway

@bmike Haha! Agressively...

Yup - I really compressed the color images (if there were any) to make sure none of the images were color. Then I pushed the DPI to non-retina scaling. It's actually not so bad

@stuffe Actually, the originals are two pages per one.

So what's the difference between the 45.6 MB and the 13.3 MB version?

Here's the optimized - page 119 - snippet...

user image

This is a remote desktop compressed picture over LTE iPad tethering to my home mac.

4

@stuffe Thanks!

3:07 PM

The actual file is better.

@daviesgeek get back to school! ;)

Here's the aggressively optimized one.

@bmike "Things no-one would have understood a decade ago" (tm)

@stuffe :-P

Oh darn, I forgot to click leave that time. :-(

user image

This isn't even usable for alternate character sets - but the roman text is almost workable to read - but certainly not clear enough for easy reading.

3:10 PM

Regarding those 2 scans (and assuming both are slightly degraded due to remote desktop compression) I would say the smallest one is perfectly good for reference and archival, but if I had to read a lot of it in one go, I would want the larger one.

The latter is not of a very pleasant quality on my MBP screen, but I'll wait to see it on my iPad.

@stuffe Yeah - my 56k modem is only doing V.32bis so the images are crappy

@stuffe If both render fast on the iPad, I'll take the better quality. My current PDF is so large, that it takes several seconds for the iPad to render a page.

@gentmatt You won't be happy with the aggressive - I was just seeing how far I could take things.

@bmike I can't complain. 45.6 MB still is a very good improvement!

3:13 PM

@gentmatt My guess is the rendering software isn't handling the large file and has to re-parse it each page turn. You may need to chunk it into 4 "chapters" to speed things up if you can't get the scanner to output the bits you care about.

Yes - that version looks fine for my needs on both the new and the old iPad.

I think for the document you sent, the falling off point is between 50 and 40 MB. I'd love to see a 600 DPI b/w scan as well as a 1200 DPI B/W scan to play with the optimizations.

@bmike Ok, I'll do this as well. I'd also scan using an even higher DPI, but 600DPI is the highest I can go :)

@gentmatt Hopefully Image Capture will let you access the scanner without the "smoothing and processing" that Canon did for you. It's an understandable tradeoff, but you really want one specific thing here.

Here's your space usage for the main file (198 MB)

user image

Really not much to prune other than the images.

@bmike That's helpful. Is that from Adobe Professional?

Yup. I have a copy of CS5 design standard whatever on my MBP.

My previous employer had a fairly nice NFR program.

I very rarely use it, but it's the hands down tool for this job.

3:41 PM

What's NFR?

Near Field Radio?

National Finals Rodeo

The National Finals Rodeo, organized by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, is the premier championship rodeo event in the United States. Wrangler Jeans is the title sponsor for the 10-day event, commonly just called the National Finals or NFR, which is also sometimes referred to as the World Series of Rodeo and the Super Bowl of Rodeo. The NFR is held each year in the first full week of December, at the Thomas & Mack Center on the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) in Paradise, Nevada. Cowboy Christmas, a cowboy gift show, is held concurrent with the rodeo at th...

:-)

Sounds like an emplyee discount program actually.

Not for resale - I assume.

3:44 PM

ah

We had one with Adobe for a while, free access to their Dev program allowing you to run pretty much anything from them for free.

However, in Germany you may resale software licences.

As you may recall, I work for a global company. Today we had a new intranet system rollout, which was quite a big deal.

Anyhoo, not that thats important, but one of the daft new features is a world clock bar across the top showing the time in different cities.

Hullo

The default options require a tweak ;)

Mon Apr 30 2012 11:45 Albany, NY 07:45 Anchorage, AK 11:45 Annapolis, MD 11:45 Atlanta, GA

3:47 PM

I left a link here earlier. Anyone see it?

So, I guess in a lot of cities in America beginning with A, it's 11:45 then !

@stuffe ANew York starts with an A

4:08 PM

@Moshe Nope, but there was too much history since I last came - I usually catch up, but not today

4:35 PM

14

Q: What/Where is the hall of Ask Different inquisitors page?

On the recent site-promotion page was the following nugget: everyone who completes Level 1: Use Different and beyond will have their gravatars honored in the hall of Ask Different inquisitors page. What/Where is this located, or is this just the contest page itself?

discussion support site-promotion

Will this ever get answered? :)

5:08 PM

@gentmatt I think stuffe answered it in the question.

thenewipadishere.com

@DanielLawson Not For Retail. It's a license to software that prohibits me from selling it.

Use it, learn it, give it away if you must, but don't make a buck from it.

@gentmatt I've also seen it written that way. Retail / Resale - same general gist.

@stuffe You're not kidding. It always makes me happy when a good default sort order is chosen by the designers / coders.

2 hours later…

7:26 PM

And just like that I'm back in 11th place. But holy cow all the 10K users!

Thanks for the votes, anyone/everyone.

1 hour later…

8:27 PM

Dead superdrive that was recently replaced by SSD in optical drive shaped caddy has found a home in cheap plastic superdrive USB caddy, and the rest did it good, it now works again :)

@stuffe Sometimes reconnecting the cables is all you need to do to "fix" something.

Glad you have SSD and HDD and ODD all working, though :-)

Hopefully it will last. Previous bad behaviour ranged from complete and utter absence from the systems knowledge at a device level, horrible grinding noises, and a refusal to eject anything.

Looks quite nice in it's fake usb superdrive case.

I shall keep in on the CD shelf, for that is the only thing it was ever used for

8:46 PM

@bmike We should be the Ask Different exquisitors ;)

4

@stuffe I wonder if Nathan would make us a logo. It would be fun to have a cartoon drawing of us (or our avatars) from some street artist.

9:03 PM

@daviesgeek So how went the last day at school big fella?

9:53 PM

@bmike I got lucky and I showed up in a Lego Star Wars cartoon my kids watch. In the end he turns the I 90º.

« first day (621 days earlier) ← previous day next day → last day (4395 days later) »

Transcript for

Apr '1230

Ask Different Chat

join this room
about this room

00:00

06:00

12:00

18:00

all times are UTC

site design / logo © 2024 Stack Exchange Inc; legal

mobile