Nerd Gene

To make man pages colored, put the following in ~/.bashrc

export LESS_TERMCAP_mb=$'\E[01;31m' # begin blinking
export LESS_TERMCAP_md=$'\E[01;38;5;74m' # begin bold
export LESS_TERMCAP_me=$'\E[0m' # end mode
export LESS_TERMCAP_se=$'\E[0m' # end standout-mode
export LESS_TERMCAP_so=$'\E[38;5;246m' # begin standout-mode - info box export LESS_TERMCAP_ue=$'\E[0m' # end underline
export LESS_TERMCAP_us=$'\E[04;38;5;146m' # begin underline

Followed by executing:

source ~/.bashrc

GOAL: automated one button push scanning of variable sized, variable type paper documents into clean, OCR PDF-A documents

Scanning is tricky because so many drivers and hardware are conflicting, legacy, black boxes. After much trial and error, here is the best configuration I’ve discovered for a Windows Vista scanning station:

1) clean the OS of all possbile driver conflicts

2) install VRS driver

3) install ScandAll

4) configure scanner in Windows using the Control Panel “Scanners” feature to handle scanner button events

5) configure VRS + ScandAll settings

First, it helps to have a clean install of Windows. The biggest problem in bulk document scanning on the desktop is unpredictable software and driver conflicts. The next best is to uninstall all other scanning software and drivers.

Scanner: Fujitsu fi-6130. In the future, I’d like to try the ScanSnap series which seems to be the newer, more supported models. The ScanSnap S300 is also featured on the Apple website as the preferred document scanner —a worthy endorsement.

Driver: do NOT install the CD software. Download and install the VRS driver at Fujistu. I’ve had conflicts with VRS when other drivers are installed, and its interface is a bit awkward, but when it works, it is excellent. It handles blank pages, colored backgrounds, and tends to handle the scanner hardware without glitches between pages.

Other drivers:

TWAIN: works, but it doesn’t do any special processing, and I had TWAIN crash after a Windows update.

ISIS: doesn’t support duplex scanning, even though the setting may be available.

Software: fi-6130 comes with ScandAll Pro software, which is also awkward, but after enough configuration, with the VRS driver, it will process paper into clean, OCR, PDF-A documents. VRS driver seems to trap the scanner buttons when ScandAll is open, so you’ll have to manually click the “scan batch” button is open. This wasn’t true for the TWAIN driver. Fujitsu makes you either install from CD or call support for FTP access. I recommend ripping the

Also, the first time you open ScandAll, you’ll get an error due to a TWAIN auto-detect failure (since you’re not using TWAIN). Switch driver auto-detect to “ISIS” (which you are also not using, but this will make the error message go away… ah, the state-of-the-art in scanning software.

Configuration:

VRS and ScandAll have their own settings, both of which are obnoxious about saving preferences. Generally, you’ll need to make a new settings profile for each control panel, THEN save to that new profile.

OCR:

ScandAll uses some embedded version of ABBYY OCR. It works very well, but it handle file processing. Just install or buy ABBYY for massive OCR processing if you need the computing scale. For a small office, the few seconds to process the OCR locally at time of scan is probably OK. Otherwise, you’ll be scanning images per machine, which will upload to some cloud server, which will do nothing but process batches of images into useful documents. This is certainly something that interests me, but I don’t have the operational budget to explore this today. (other more important projects right now…)

I want fi-6130 scanner to work on my Apple Macbook Pro. Fujitsu does not support Apple for the model. This makes me sad because otherwise the fi-6130 has been excellent scanner —Windows only. However, Fujitsu phone tech support was near-Apple quality in handling my call, and I want to publish my appreciation for that. I was never placed on hold, and the operator mentioned that she had seen this model at the Apple Show this year, so that she knew the configuration was possible. The Fujitsu operator then made some “Google searches” over the phone to offer suggestions, and discussed other models.

Good phone tech support, Fujitsu. Duly noted.

However, I would prefer if you fixed your website so that these answers were obvious by text search.

Note: the vendor Fujitsu suggested is DocKeep. $150? No. I’ll scan with the included software on the Windows HITbox, which runs ScandAll Pro and Adobe Acrobat and includes one-button multi-function batch scanning and decent OCR with ABBYY.

It’s cheaper and more flexible to buy (repurpose) a dedicated Windows computer with a $900 desktop fi-6130 document feed scanner than it is to buy a $2500 self-sufficient network scanner.

I’m coming from a Blackberry 8830, and after having a Palm Pre for a few days, I have quite a few criticisms. It’s not to say I don’t like the Palm Pre, but it definitely isn’t perfect.

• BATTERY LIFE! I can’t stress this enough. The battery life is absolutely horrible. I’ve tried wifi on and off. I run no apps in the background. When the phone is open (ie the screen is on), I lose about 1% of battery every 2 minutes. Today, I woke up, unplugged the phone, looked at 3 emails, and I was already down to 94%. Two and a half hours later, with minimal use (ie, checking an occasional email as it came in), I was at 65%. I’m not signed into any IM app, since AIM is reported to have battery life problems. I have to charge it at least 2 times a day. I lose about 1% for every text message I send or receive.
• The camera, at least in darker situations, seems to have a blueish tinge at the “top” of every photo (the top of the camera, so it may be on a side if the camera is rotated). No matter how I turn the camera, it’s always there. Below are some sample pictures showing it (click to see fullsized):
  Notice the left side here

  
  Again notice the left side

• You can’t change the sounds for texts and emails and set the volume differently than the general system sound.
• It doesn’t respect notification settings on email accounts. I have one account set to never show notifications when a new email arrives. I still get them.
• Text entry: there are no arrow keys on the keyboard, so it’s almost impossible to move the cursor within a text field to edit text. You have to try to tap the screen at the right place, and you can never get it right; it’s always somehow one character in front or behind where you want to be. Having an option to delete the character to the right would help with this. On websites with small text entry fields, especially ones that come pre-filled in, it’s all but impossible to edit them. This was trivial on the Blackberry
• Copy and paste: you can’t select any text that’s not in a text entry field. This makes copy and paste, in my opinion, useless.
• Can’t forward text messages (or copy them…see above).
• Google Maps:
  • Doesn’t have Google transit integration like the Blackberry
  • Can’t just tap a location on the map and say “directions to here”. You have to put in an intersection manually.
  • Very slow to load. It lags and doesn’t finish even rending the app itself for a few seconds (ie, only one side of the text entry box at the top is present).
  • GPS: my iPod can find my location in my apartment instantly. The Pre can’t find it at all; it just approximates it via triangulation.
• Calendar:
  • You have to wait a second for it to “render” each day before you can scroll/move to the next day.
  • Birthdays don’t show up in the calendar. Birthdays show up for each contact (either from Google or Facebook), but they don’t show on the calendar.
• Lags scrolling in the Launcher. Left and right are particularly bad, but up and down also lags. Isn’t it supposed to be hardware accelerated?
• Email lags compared to the Blackberry.
• MicroUSB: Why not just use miniUSB like everything else? I have plenty of miniUSB cables, and I could always find one at someone’s house if I was in a bind and needed a quick charge.
• No microSD slot.
• It would be nice to have a notification light for new messages
• Keyboard is much more difficult to use compared to a Blackberry, but I’m already getting used to it.

Other than all of these issues, I really like the phone. The browser is very fast and renders pages great. Multitasking is amazing. As mentioned, reading email is sluggish compared to the Blackberry, but it makes up for it in the read/delete status having 2 way sync with Gmail which wasn’t possible on the Blackberry with BIS. Many of these issues can probably be fixed by a software update; I have my fingers crossed.

Placing an image into a PDF is useful for “signing” paper-to-fax forms that come to me by my email as PDFs. For other text, use the typewriter tool tool.

From How to Import/Place an Image in a PDF

Placing an Image on a PDF Page

Acrobat can place following image types directly on a page:

* JPEG (.jpg)
* Bitmap (.bmp)
* GIF (.gif)
* TIFF (.tif)
* PCX (.pcx)
* PING (.png)

Follow these steps to import and place an image on a PDF:

1. Open the PDF file on which you want to place the image
2. Choose Tools—>Advanced Editing—>Touchup Object Tool
3. Right-click and choose Place Image…

4. A standard file dialog will appear:

5. Select an image file and click Open

Adjusting the Appearance of the Imported Image

Acrobat allows you to make a number of changes to the image once it is placed.

When the Touchup Object tool is active (Tools—>Advanced Editing—>Touchup Object Tool), right-click to see the following options for your placed image:

Create ISO CD/DVD image (.iso) with Mac OS X Tiger (10.4)

If you buy Adobe Creative Suite 4 Student Edition (Design Premium), your product only ships with a “Product Code” and NOT a serial code necessary to activate the software.

You must submit your Product Code and proof of academic registration to get a serial code to:

Adobe CS 4 Student Activation Form

I waited on hold with Adobe for 40 minutes for this link. Note to self: do not trash the contents of any expensive software product before the product is safely actived. (I cut out the serials and store them as paper slips in a zipper CD case. This is a great policy… when your software vendor isn’t playing evil registration games with you and refuse to publish Product Code to Activation instructions on their public website!)

I’m excited to announce that I’ve change my primary machine to a new MacBook Pro!

It’s like watching a classic movie like “The Godfather” and, in its wake, all its allusions are cast as shadows in across the lifetime of your memory. Gingerly, you squint into blazing truth that, loe, you were an idiot, and everybody thought so. Dumbass.

All you Windows users might find this a useful tool:

http://puttycm.free.fr/#

From console:

host <IPaddress>