Thursday, July 08, 2004

Fix for SMB share mount problem for OS X 10.3.4

Mac OS X Panther (10.3.4): "SMB Share Mount Solution

Peter Stys
I have a solution to the problem submitted below and posted on your web site [Jun. 10 ]: 'I upgraded Macs machines running 10.3.4 with the latest Security Update 2004-06-07, and ever since I cannot mount SMB shares from our Windows 2000 server, with an error -36'

A colleague of mine suggested using the Keychain Access utility to delete all entries related to the problematic Windows server and this solved the problem: the share now mounts fine. You may want to post this for other readers who may experience this issue."

More notes on the negative scanning project

Google Groups: View Thread "Image management solution for a medium sized persona..."

Rec.photo.digital experts liked these tools for a negative scanning project:

Lupas Rename:
http://www.azheavymetal.com/~lupasrename/lupasrename.php
I've used it for just the purposes you describe, flawlessly.

ACDSee
IMatch at http://www.photools.com
Thumbs+ at http://www.cerious.com

I've also looked at Adobe Photoshop Album which is quite nice, but I fear it's compromised by Adobe's need to lock-in customers. Microsoft is supposed to have a very good image management product, but their lock-in needs are usually nefarious.

Since I'm burning the images to CD (burning twice, so I have redundant storage), I want something that will produce meaningful file names and write metadata to the JPEG EXIF headers. I need the EXIF date to reflect the date of image acquisition, with a staggered delay between each image (so rolls and images sort by date).

I want the file names to follow this sort of convention (probably need to use the renamer): YYYYMMDDDD_1_ROLLID_# where:

YYYYMMDDDD: is approximate date pictures were taken
1: is an roll number for >1 roll/date.
ROLLID: is an identifier for the roll of film if one is assigned by the scanner (may be null)
#: corresponds to negative number within a roll

The person doing the scanning will write a text note on each entry including roll description and comments. A copy of the entire log will be included in each CD.

Each CD will be labeled with a CD identifier of the form: YYYYMMDDDD_# where

YYYYMMDD: date burned
#: CD number burned that day

The text log will contain CD information as well as roll information, will be cumulative, and will be copied to each CD.

I have to do some playing around to get the workflow to be simple but efficient.

Scanning project: scanning negatives

Popular Photography Magazine
1. Store your negatives flat.
A curved negative can result in an out-of-focus scan and a perpetual need to manually refocus your scanner.

2. Clean negatives as well as you would in a darkroom.
It’s much easier to blow air on them before you scan than to clone dust out later. If you’ve got a really dirty or old negative and your scanner driver has Digital ICE (Image Correction & Enhancement), you can run it for cleaning purposes. But beware: it drastically increases your scan time.

3. Quit all other programs.
Ths will free up as much memory as possible for your scanner.

4. Consider what you want from your scan.
Don’t automatically scan at the highest resolution. If you’re only going to view the image on-screen, don’t scan at full resolution; save time and hard-drive space by scanning at 72 dpi.
Save 300 dpi for prints.

5. Check your driver for film presets.
If you can, select your type of film, and get an edge on color accuracy.

6. Make corrections first.
If you can color manage your preview, correct color and brightness/contrast before you scan. And if you’re scanning a batch of images shot under the same conditions, save your correction settings and apply them to all your subsequent scans.

7. Multisample.
Ugly noise occurs randomly, and multisampling beats it by scanning many times and making a composite of the least noisy sections from each sample.

8. Scan it twice.
If you’re having trouble getting the highlights and shadows in one scan, scan for each separately. Then make a composite using layers in an image-editing program.

9. Turn off your scanner when you’re finished!
This will prolong its life and quality.

I'll have more of these. I'm planning to scan 1500 or so negatives. So I'll be posting a few notes like this.

Saturday, July 03, 2004

You can Telnet to a LaserWriter

Macintouch - Mac OS X Panther (10.3.4)
Who would have guessed? A way to configure a LW without the original utility software. Also, a nasty way to disable a LW.

Friday, July 02, 2004

macosxhints - Install a new CUPS backend for USB printing

macosxhints - Install a new CUPS backend for USB printing
I may try this, still trying to get XP to print to my USB hosted HP 882C.

Sennheiser PX 100 is best

Dan's Data Review: Sennheiser PX 100, PX 200 and PXC 250 portable headphones: "The PX 100 is not just the clear winner among these three, but a great product in objective terms too. Quite cheap, good sounding, insensitive to ear shape, and it folds up in the same nifty way as the other two. Without a good earpad-to-ear seal, there's just no comparison between the bass response of the PX 200 and that of the PX 100. And even with a good seal, the PX 200 still isn't better."

The PX 100 gets a Highly Recommended from me."

AirPort Extreme Base Station: Power over ethernet disables USB printer sharing

Apple - AirPort Extreme
Some AirPort Extreme Base Stations can receive power over the Ethernet WAN port when connected to 802.3af-compliant Power Sourcing Equipment (PSE). If the base station receives power over Ethernet, the USB port is disabled, and you can't use a USB printer.

Some kind of voltage load issue?