test-drb February 2010

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

175 participants
221 discussions

Manual scanning: TIFF-to-PDF software with greyscale support?

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

> Thanks for the lesson, but I am quite aware of those points already and > I was pretty clear when I posted and said that my source documentation > was a raster image. I'm using PDF for ease of distribution. > Also, I object to the redefinition of "100% zoom" in Acrobat Reader, > which was the source of my confusion last night. I was looking for > confirmation that this is indeed the behavior that PDF viewers have. I wasn't really trying to be pedantic. If you really want tools that natively and in the user interface constantly refer back to pixels in the original scan, then you really have to stick to formats that are innately raster based. TIFF, PNG, etc. I maintain my scanned images as PNG's. I used to have a real hatred for PDF's as a way of showing raster bitmaps but have learned to respect my enemy in this case :-). (Incidentally I am still a big fan of SVG despite Adobe's abandonment of it.) I think at least some of the TIFF formats can contain tags for how large each pixel was in the original source. Don't know how standard vs proprietary these tags are. Good multi-page PDF viewers are freely available. The free, distributed with the OS, TIFF viewers by contrast are perhaps even suckier than they were a decade ago. Tim.

14 years, 5 months

Manual scanning: TIFF-to-PDF software with greyscale support?

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

> When I say 'Zoom 100%', I expect each bit of my image to be displayed > with no scaling. Well, Acrobat Reader doesn't work that way. AR > assumes screen resolution, so what was a 400 dpi bitmap at 100% zoom on > AR gets downsampled to 72dpi for display purposes. To get back to see > individual pixels you have to zoom to 555% or something nutty like that. > > I tried it and it looks like all of my pixels are there. Can anybody > else confirm this (bad) behavior? Bad? PDF's are fundamentally a VECTOR format. A vector format designed around typography where the most natural unit since long before computers has been the point (=1/72 inch). PDF documents, it so happens, can include bitmap images at arbitrary scalings. Vector formats natively have NO KNOWLEDGE of a pixel and in fact when you include a bitmap image in a PDF (which is kinda bastardized because it does have some actually quite thorough bitmap support) it can be scaled so that a pixel in the bitmap is any arbitrary size in number of points. If there was any "bad behavior" it may have been... Adobe putting support in PDF's for bitmaps? Most current display devices just happen to be raster formats showing bitmaps, but my gut feeling is that this shortcoming will be corrected and we will go back to vector display devices Real Soon Now. How soon? In fact I'm going to go use my Tek 4014 right now :-) Tim.

14 years, 5 months

HP DraftMaster MX Plotter User's Guide and SX,RX & MX Plus version

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

I can't remember who wanted them but I have the HP DraftMaster MX Plotter User's Guide and theHP DraftMaster Plotter SX Plus, ,RX Plus and MX Plus User's Guide if you still need them. Covers everything from loading paper through serial communications setup to command set and even 8 types of power cords.

14 years, 5 months

Manual scanning: TIFF-to-PDF software with greyscale support?

by classiccmp＠philpem.me.uk

Hi guys, I'm after a program that can convert TIFF files into PDFs. I've seen Eric Smith's "Tumble" app, which works great... but only for B&W TIFFs. While I can use Imagemagick to convert the images to B&W, that defeats the point: there are photos on the scanned pages, and I'd rather like to keep them as photos, not black splodges. Also, has anyone come up with a "best practice guide" for manual scanning? At the moment I'm scanning like this: B&W text only: 600dpi, black and white, threshold=50%. Text + photos: 600dpi, greyscale, then despeckle and scale down to 300dpi. Obviously if there are better ways (in terms of quality and/or speed) I'd like to know before I scan a ton of testgear manuals... Also, does anyone know of an app that can take the PDF file, OCR it and then insert the text as a background layer while leaving the image alone? I'm pretty sure Acrobat can do this, but like most Adobe software, the price tag is somewhat... eye-watering. "If you have to ask how much it costs, you can't afford it." Thanks, -- Phil. classiccmp at philpem.me.uk http://www.philpem.me.uk/

14 years, 5 months

Docs found: Honeywell 800, Facit PE1000, Rank Xerox

by hachti＠hachti.de

(see first posting) Honeywell 800: ************** Honeywell 800 transistorized Data Processing System Programmers' Reference Manual DSI-31A, 1962 FACIT PE1000 Paper Tape Reader: ******************************* Spare Parts UP 631001, 1.10.63 Manual UP 630201, 1.4.63 Technical Description (brochure) Rank Xerox: *********** Rank Xerox EXTENDED ALGOL-60 19 05 72 C, May 1972 Sigma 5/9 Computers Control Program-Five (CP-V) Sigma 6/7/9 Computers Time-Sharing Manual 90 09 07 E, June 1973 Xerox Operating System (XOS) Sigma 6/7/9 Computers Batch Processing Reference Manual 90 17 65 A, December 1971 Xerox Universal Time-Sharing System (UTS) Sigma 6/7/9 Computers Time-Sharing User's Guide 90 16 92 A, April 1971 -- http://www.hachti.de

14 years, 5 months

Y2K retrospective / was Re: Algol vs ...

by dm561＠torfree.net

Unless I just missed it I haven't noticed any reference in this thread to the upcoming Y2K38: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem

14 years, 5 months

Getting to dislike tantalum caps

by melamy＠earthlink.net

the issue was definitely normal electrolytic capacitors. The Dell GX-270 desktop computer was one of the victims. We had over 100 of these and Dell replaced nearly every motherboard due to this specific manufacturer's defect. The electrolytic caps used around the cpu would bulge on the top and in some cases burp out electrolyte out of the top. I didn't research the actual cap manufacturer. best regards, Steve Thatcher -----Original Message----- >From: Randy Dawson <rdawson16 at hotmail.com> >Sent: Feb 14, 2010 10:45 AM >To: classic computers <cctalk at classiccmp.org> >Subject: RE: Getting to dislike tantalum caps > > >Dwight, > >There was some criminal stuff going on with electrolytes in this era, from the asian manufacturers. Almost everybody associated with the type of electronics that was not 'throw away' remembers this. I had a note from a pro video repair shop, saying that to get a $15,000 pro video camera back in operation would require the replacement of all the tant caps, as they were all destined to fail, and yet another trip to the shop. > >Anybody else recall this? There was one chemical manufacturer pinpointed, that was supplying XR7 or whatever electrolyte to all the manufacturers. They shortcut their process and cut costs, and several years of electronic products were affected. > >Please pots your analog computer work! Have you read the Electronic Research Associates books out there (IIRC) > >Randy

14 years, 5 months

Tandy Pocket Computer 4 for Auction

by brain＠jbrain.com

Cameron or others, not sure if you're interested, but it's time to get rid of the Tandy PC-4 and all the accessories: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290402539975&ssPageName=… I'll be putting a Northstar Horizon Z80 card and an Horizon HRAM5 card up tomorrow, if anyone is interested. Jim -- Jim Brain, Brain Innovations (X) brain at jbrain.com Dabbling in WWW, Embedded Systems, Old CBM computers, and Good Times! Home: http://www.jbrain.com

14 years, 5 months

VMS source distributions

by IanK＠vulcan.com

I've been talking with HP about obtaining VMS sources for the 6.2 release, which we're running on our VAX-11/780-5. Interestingly, they tell me that source for the original release is available, but not the 'updates' which I believe is the patches issued for this particular release. Does anyone on the list have any experience with these subsequent update releases? If so, please respond to me privately at iank at vulcan.com. I'd like to understand what is or isn't included and how they interacted with the original release. Thanks -- Ian

14 years, 5 months

Manual for Codar QTimer II Model 102

by jhfinedp3k＠compsys.to

I had excellent results asking for the Matrox QRGB-Alpha board, so I am trying again. I notice that there is a section in bitsavers with one manual for Codar boards, but not the item I am looking for. There is also a Qtimer II Model 120 which is not the specific manual I am looking for, but might be useful. Does anyone know where I might be able to locate a Qtimer II Model 102 manual? Sincerely yours, Jerome Fine

14 years, 5 months

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test-drb February 2010