Day Fifty-nine: late evening of September 30th 2009

I was writing a response to a fellow teacher, about an image that was on his Facebook page, and I mentioned being in Puerto Rico with the Coast Guard in the early 70s. He is a serious photographer, and as I was describing what I saw, I remembered the photos that I took when I was there. I decided to see if I could find them, along with some other photos that I took, and upload them.

The big issue was the fact that all my old shots were transparencies, so I had to convert the old technology into a digital format.

First, of course I had to locate my slides. Not too hard, because they had been stored and moderately organized. I found a number of labeled boxes in about a half an hour. Now I could begin the scanning. Of course, the operation that I felt the most confident about was the one that took the most time.

The scanner is new, a CanoScan LiDE 700F, and a nice machine at that. It came with a adapter for scanning film strips, but not single slides. I had to remove the film from the cardboard slide, before I could actually scan it. Next, I set the film in the adapter in the first position closest to the top of the scanner. The separate light source is place over the film (some scanners have a light source built into the cover). Here is where the hitch occurred, I couldn’t find the Canon application that could scan the slide. I don’t know where it went. I tried VueScan, my Swiss Army scanning application, but it didn’t sync with the scanner for film (It worked with printed material). So, I had to reinstall the original software and then update that so the Snow Leopard operating system would work with it. Once this was done, I attempted to scan the film. The application opened, I selected the film setting, the resolution change to 1200 dpi, and I gave it a shot-BAM. It worked, although it was a bit off center, that could be handled in Photoshop. Just to make sure that I could align things correctly, I tried a second attempt (I also removed some dust) with slightly better results. I was happy, but realized that the operation was time consuming, and I’d have to get some waxed sleeves to protect the frameless transparency. I’ve included a reduced JPEG below. The irregular light quality of the ground is due to the broken cloud cover that I though added a bit of drama and depth to the landscape.

Day Fifty-eight: late evening of September 29th 2009

I had to run errands today, most of them kept me on my feet, so I didn’t dabble with my tech stuff. There were times when I was sitting down, and when I did, I pulled out my Nintendo DS (Dual Screen) and worked on a crossword from The New York Times Crosswords game. I could have played Scribblenauts, but I probably got a little self-conscious about playing a ‘kids’ game in public, and more importantly, the ‘giggle factor’. Some games, will induce the “Well, I’ll be damned!” reaction, or cause you to laugh(or giggle) out loud. I didn’t want that to happen in a very public space, so I opted out for the more conservative approach. Little did I know that I would be faced with the former reaction.

I’ve always been under the impression that completing The New York Times crossword puzzle in twenty minutes or less was a primary goal, and proof of you’re your skill as a cruciverbalists (not that I am one of them). Well, as I picked up a the previously started puzzle, I quickly moved through the remaining lights and completing the entries in the puzzle. For joy, 19 minutes read the timer. Then I looked at the game score and the “Well, I’ll be damned!” statement formed in my brain, as I saw the B+. I was able to control myself, it was a crossword puzzle, after all, but it was close.

Of course, being a gamer, I, now, wonder what would get me a solid A, and not the soft and fuzzy A-. I’m sure it won’t be 18 minutes. I hope it won’t be ten minutes, because I doubt that that will be a time that I’ll be able achieve. The game has one thousand puzzles, and I don’t think that I’ve completed more than fifty of them. So shooting for 15 minutes will be my next game objective. Nothing like another challenge.

Day Fifty-seven: late evening of September 28th 2009

I had to wait for a package today, so I had to stay within earshot of the front doorbell. From about 12:15 pm until about 4 pm, I played and finished Halo 3: ODST. That game is down right cinematic. From the cut scenes to the game play, it is easy to get lost in the flow of the game. I’ve said it before, this game covers all the bases for the a solo player - stunning graphics, smart main story line, interesting side story (but not required for completion of the main story), smooth controls, and multiple situational solutions (tailored to your weapon choices, or availability).

Over the weekend , I noticed an Adam Sessler (X- Play/G4tv) opinion piece about assessing franchise games, with Halo 3: ODST as an example. One of the comments hit home about why I purchased the game. I like the series, and have had fun with all the iterations, so that made it easy to select and purchase the latest entry into the series. Was it a given that I would like the game, no, but I really respect the work that Bungie puts into its products. This means that, if there were no Halo predecessors, and Bungie (Marathon, Myth, and Oni) was putting this game out as the first entry into the market, I would probably buy it. It is a first person shooter, the clips looked fantastic, and the previews by the pundits pointed me toward purchasing the game.

Would I purchase Halo 3: ODST 2, probably, but would it be a FPS?, does the plot look interesting?, great looking graphics?, engaging previews?, a solid demo? So there is a process that I go through before I purchase a video game. Do I make mistakes, yes and that makes me more skeptical the next time around. Do I break with my process? Every once in a while I do. I purchased Call of Duty 3 in spite of average ratings by the reviewers. It was a first person shooter. I enjoyed Treyarch’s other production for the PS2. The game doesn’t have to meet all the criterion, but it does keep me focused. Considering the financial times, being cautious is probably a good thing.

As an aside, Call of Duty 3 follow a contingent of Polish tankers, and I was thrilled to here the strains of the Polish National Anthem as the group appeared on screen. It brought back memories of standing outside the school at the end of lunch when, before returning to class, we would say the Pledge of Allegiance, sing the Star Spangled Banner, and then the Polish National Anthem with its chorus of “Marsz, marsz, Dabrowski, Z ziemi wloskiej do Polski…” It still give me goosebumps.

Day Fifty-six: late evening of September 27th 2009

A typical Sunday - slept late, brunch, watched some pre-game football shows in preparation for the Bears game, finished the laundry, and because the Bears game started at 3pm (in Seattle against the Seahawks) I decided to try loading Adobe Creative Suite 4 onto the laptop. It became an exercise in futility, four attempts with various degrees of failure.

The first try resulted in a hang up because the DVD was not recognized. The second try, and this was monitored closely, went through the first disk and requested the insertion of the second disk, after the first one ejected. The second disk was inserted and was recognized correctly (one time I inserted the 2nd disk and it registered as the 3rd disk), so I let it go and ran down to finish the laundry. When I returned the progress bar had not moved. I waited a little bit longer, about five minutes, held down the start button, and shut the machine down. I started checking the disks, looking for scratches or smudges, and I found some heavy scratches on some of the 1st disks and minor flaws on the 2nd disk. So I started cleaning them, including the one that I had been using to install, the 2nd disk, which locked up. I put together a pretty clean set with the a minimum of surface flaws. and tried to reload for third time. For a first time, the 1st disk seemed to load up quicker, but when I inserted the second disk, it thought it was the third disk. I didn’t know what to do, and the Bears were down 13 zip-very frustrating. Well for the fourth try, I decided to remove, not only all the applications, but all the preferences that I could find. I went into the users library and the system library and sent any Adobe preference files to the trash. I double checked the disk, making sure that the surfaces are clean and clear. So the fourth try began, the 1st disk loaded even quicker than the last try. So, when requested, I inserted the 2nd disk. The computer recognized it as disk 2 of 3, and indicated that an application was loading, and that is where it stayed-at least the Bears had scored and were threatening again.

Well that’s it for the installation, I wonder if it isn’t a problem with backup disks. I know it might sound strange, considering the backup worked on other machines, but they were dual sided DVD and the original were standard DVDs. I hope the originals can be found, just to test it out.

The Bears won the game. After their initial loss to Green Bay, the pundits were sure that the Bears would be 0-3 as of today. I know that I should be happy that the Bears won, but I really hate it when I can’t get the computer to function correctly. Eh, who am I kidding, the Bears won! Fight on Chicago Bears!

Day Fifty-five: late evening of September 26th 2009

Pretty much of housework (laundry) day, but I managed to block some time in for Halo 3: ODST. The more I play, the more impressed I am. The graphics, the flexibility of the game play, the main story line, the flashbacks, and even the side story , all aid in holding my attention, and creating the “Wow was that three hours!” effect.

Day Fifty-four: late evening of September 25th 2009

I forgot to mention that I moved the console around the other day. The signal strength was really erratic the Xbox 360, switched places with the PlayStation 3, to see if that made a difference. It did, the Xbox seemed a bit stronger, but the PS3 was now demonstrating erratic reception. The solution to this problem, is on hold right now. I tried stacking with the PS3 on top of the cabinet (its cables were a bit longer than the 360’s). It seems to be, but it hasn’t been stress tested. There are times during the evening that the signal appears diminished. There might be a relationship of the diminishes signal strength and the increased number of active wifi units being used in the evening. The other issue might be how it looks in the room, the black case of the PS3 helps it blend into the décor, but I’ll see is my wife notices it. If she finds it objectionable, then something else will be tried.

I played both HALO 3:ODST and IL-2 Sturmovik and had a challenging afternoon (HALO) and evening (IL-2). I tried to get closer to the opposition plane before I open fire, I started to see an improvement in my maneuvering, but I still have a way to go. There was one time that as I moved closer, scoring some hits, that the oil line leakage was actually flying back onto my windshield, ultimately blocking it out. The most challenging action, occurred in the final tutorial, when the flight physics was set to realistic, and I had to deal with stalls, using judgment in working with angle of deflection (leading the aircraft), and landing the aircraft. I had to quit for dinner, was able to complete it after dessert. Playing it that way is very intense, and leaves you wondering how the hazards of real life training doesn’t result in more accident (realistic simulations and great instructors help I‘m sure).

Day Fifty-three: late evening of September 24th 2009

I had to run some errands today, so I didn’t get a chance play anything until later in the day. Halo 3: ODST was the game of choice this afternoon. I enjoy the ability to experiment with weapons, approaches, and sequencings. Make a mistake, try a different path. Make a mistake, look for a new weapon (like the fuel rod gun-wow). Make a mistake, look to eliminate some other enemy first. Well, I managed to play for about two hours, and the time melted away; 3 pm became 5 pm in a muzzle flash.

After watching the X-Play cable show highlighting Uncharted 2, I’ve decided that it will be the game for the month of October. I get a little nervous about pre ordering games based upon previews and ‘hands on’ reports, but this game looks and sounds impressive. I shall see in October.

Day Fifty-two: late evening of September 23rd 2009

As I was channel checking during the day I notice one of the program was entitled Gun Camera. It was on Military.com. I started watching as the host and guest commentator, a retired WWII fighter pilot, elaborated upon the air combat depicted in the film. I was fascinated at how close the pilots were to each other. Usually, I try to get a lead angle and have the opponent fly into my shells, if I detect a hit or two, I’ll try to close in on the tail of my opponent to finish off the contest. But in watching the films, I’m going to have to close quickly, gaining altitude as I do, and hope this maneuver , will not be noticed by the enemy flight.

I’ve found that, although the computer supports the use of trial and error for problem solving, it isn’t the only approach to success in simulations. Tapping external resources can prove to be valuable asset for problem solving. In this case, I now know what the opponent’s plane should look like in the gun sight, and I’m going to adjust my strategy to achieve this look, and hopefully I'll be successful.

This isn’t the only time this has happens. Five or six years ago I was playing Hellcats over the Pacific, and a few of the scenarios required that I land Hellcat on an aircraft carrier. I tried over and over and was not that consistent, so I went and purchase a paperback by a former dive bomber pilot describing how he handled take-offs and landings. I followed the procedure and ‘voila’ I was consistently landing the plane. It was so successful that I was able to completed the kamikaze scenario. In this scenario I had to prevent three separate flights of fighters from crashing into my carrier. That meant that I had to land on the carrier twice to refuel, rearm. take off, and intercept the incoming planes. The land base airfields were to far away for me to use. I had to land on that carrier. It was tense. I was very happy when that last Zero crashed and I got my battle ribbon for that scenario. I don’t know how long it would have taken if I had stuck to trial and error. I’m sure that I would have ultimately mastered it.

This would indicates to me that the video game can be used as a learning tool, above and beyond the patient mentor role that some see it. Recognizing that using resources outside the parameters of the simulation can benefit the player’s game is also transferable skill applicable to any kind of problem solving.

Day Fifty-one: late evening of September 22nd 2009

I managed to pick up Halo 3: ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Troops), after walking the dog, having breakfast, and doing a couple loads of laundry. As I was leaving, I received a call about Mafia Wars, a Facebook game, from a relative. There were issues about game play, and the individual wanted assistance and/or advice. I was unsure about giving assistance, because, I didn’t play it at all. Advice was a bit easier, but very general. In other words, it could apply to a number of online games.

One, you’ve got to know the rules, or the structure and flow of the game.

Two, you can check the game specific forums and see if other individuals are having similar problems. Technical support people also participate in the forums to get a sense of what players are going through.

Three, if you suspect something suspicious regarding game play, notify or query the support group to facilitate an investigation, if needed. There are unscrupulous players, who think taking ethical liberties is justified because it forces the game creators to recognize flaws, or, to the few that have sociopathic tendencies, an attack for no other purpose than achieving personal satisfaction.

Four, a number of the video gaming websites, have resources that are available to read, that deal with walkthroughs, cheats, and in some cases hacks. The walkthrough gives you a description of the flow of the game. The cheats could be anything from the location of a prize to keyboard codes that give you unlimited ‘what evers’ to assist you in game play (these are placed into the games by the designers to assist in developing the game). The hack can be a much more serious invasion of the integrity of the game, generally not sanctioned by the designers, because they change the flow and architecture of the video game.

And five, referencing a Harry Truman quote, “If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen.” (I also like the old Russian version, “If you are afraid of wolves, stay out of the woods.”)

So that’s what was gist of my end of the conversation as I walked to the bank and then the GameStop. My relative had to hang up just before I arrived at the bank, so after I did my banking, I tapped into the music on my iPhone and walked on down to the store.

Oh, the game, right. Simply put, after playing about an hour and a half, I really enjoy it. All the obvious aspects of the game where there in force; beautiful graphics, engaging missions, smooth controls so far, (I’m waiting for the appearance of a swarm), sound that is integral to the action. I suspended disbelief relatively quickly. The solo campaign is just scratching the surface of the total package (it comes with two disks). It even offers the owner of the game who has a Gold membership a chance to participate in the beta testing of the next Halo game. I’m considering joining in, now that I have participated in two online games. I feel like it was money well spent.

I’ll go back to the game tomorrow and see how many more levels that I can pass through.

Day Fifty: evening of September 21st 2009

I had to visit the dentist, today, to replace a crown. The Novocain has worn off, now, and there is a soft dull pain in the area above the tooth. The dentist warned me to be ready, if it did happen. I’ll take an Advil, later, before I go to bed. My new crown will be ready by October 9th , and I'll return to have it installed. This was the first time. I felt really dizzy after a procedure like this-old age?

I’ve been pretty much out of it, although, I managed to update the PlayStations (PS3) to 3.0.1, and play about a half an hour of Call of Duty 3. Either my skills have improved or I accidentally changed the difficulty level, because I actually breezed through a scenario that has consistently given me grief in the past without getting killed. Maybe, I should play a little dopey more often-nah! I enjoy playing clear-headed, especially if I’ve suspended disbelief. Tomorrow, Halo: ODST is out (really it’s out at midnight tonight) and I’ll go out after I walk the dog at noon. I hope that the game play will create an experience both visceral and intellectually challenging. We shall see tomorrow in the afternoon.

Day Forty-nine: late evening of September 20th 2009

The only thing that I did today was a system update check on my Mac Book Pro. Then I went around to make sure everything was up-to-date on the other computers. I’ve set up most of the applications to automatically update, if they have that setting, otherwise I do it manually. When I was on my ship, we had a large Plexiglas status board with a schedule of all maintenance related operations, system tests, computer calibration checks. This was called the Planned Maintenance System, or PMS (which caused a bit of a sophomoric chuckle from our shipmates, whenever we explained what the PMS board was about. It was the early 70s and our crew members were in their late teens or early twenties).

I guess that is where it was driven home that an aggressive maintenance program cuts down on a system failure at a critical times. As it happened to our navigational radar when we were in the middle of an iceberg field on our way out to our ocean station patrol. We had to use our narrow beam fire control radar to plot a course through the field. Not something it was designed for, but we made it work, while the electronics technician tried to figure out what caused the massive system failure (It was discovered later that this failure would not have been detected through the maintenance program-Murphy’s Law).

We survived, although there were times when I wondered when we were going to take evasive maneuvers. On our screen we would see tiny blips and massive blips, as our radar sweep around the ocean’s surface. If we noted a large blip ahead, we would get a range and bearing and report it to the bridge to be plotted. If the bridge required an update it would be done ASAP. One time, after being relieved from console duty, I went topside to see what all the blips were about. What an amazing view spread out before me. Hundreds of bergs, everything from growlers (piano size) to one that looked like an aircraft carrier (very large category). I wish I had my camera with me. Electronics could give you data, but Nature gives you majesty.

Day Forty-eight: late evening of September 19th 2009

I was very tired today. My head felt a little stuffy, and when ever I sat down, I started to doze off. I had Scribblenauts by me and would dabble in the sand box area, whenever I woke up. The words that appeared today that were surprising were: sleeping dart gun (it worked for a short time), handcuffs (that worked, but you have to align the connection points just right), fire hydrant (that squirted water, when it was activated[?]), roller skates (worked, smooth ride and a bit faster than walking). The strangest words that popped up, happened when I misspelled a word, I don’t remember what it was, and when I was notified about my error with the subsequent “Did you mean?” message, followed by kaseem (Arabic for divided), kazeem (a variation of the previous word), and keftedes (a Greek or Mediterranean meatball). Like a serious gamer, I returned to the word generation screen to retype the game, without seeing what the object would look like (of course, I could type it in anytime I want now). I managed to show it to my wife before I returned to the game. It didn’t dawn on me until I started writing this that it was an unusual occurrence.

Later, this evening as I puttered around in the depths of the internet, the Windows warning screen popped up to warn me about a viral infection (some list with a trojan horse, malware, and some other threatening thing). I wasn’t really paying attention, I mean it looked authentic, when I clicked to correct the issue. Then a dialog box pops up asking me if I want to run the application after I down load it. A current e-messaging acronym, WTF, made its way into my thoughts. I’m using McAfee for my antiviral needs, and this message didn’t ring true. I looked at the URL address and saw that a companies name was there. What a sneaky thing to do. I wonder if my antiviral software would have warned me if I took the next step, but I didn’t. I’m glad that I was aware of how my McAfee software worked, and that I had just run a scan yesterday. But what if I hadn’t, because that initial warning looked like the Windows page. I wonder what kind of entanglement I would have gotten myself into? You really have to stay more that just alert, when you fool around on the internet.

Day Forty-seven: late evening of September 18th 2009

I spent the day reading the bookmarked websites on my notebook computer, spoke with my sister on my iPhone, played some Scribblenauts (sheep dog, elephant and bazooka), went out with my family for dinner at a local Italian restaurant (gnocchi in a basil tomato sauce),fed the pets, and I’m currently writing this note for the sake of continuity. The only problem is I’m falling asleep as I do it. Technology is exciting, but I don’t have access to the kind of equipment that will type, edit, and upload that information into facebook psychically, yet. So, have a good night, one and all.

Day Forty-six: late evening of September 17th 2009

I just got back from helping my daughter with a lost dog. We searched for about an hour and a half, circling outward from the ‘find’ point. A half an hour into the walk, I tried to retrieve information off of the dog collar’s solitary dog tag, but it was the standard vaccination tag. We thought that we might be able to locate the owner using the ID number on the tag by contacting our vet in the morning, if we didn’t run across the owner as we walked about. After an hour, my daughter split off to go home, and I continued the tour. When I retuned home, I got some food and water, and while I was cleaning up my wife called, saying she found the dog’s name, the owner’s name and a phone number and would call as soon as I hung up. When I asked my wife what the dog’s name was, she said it was ‘Baby‘. No wonder the dog responded to me when I walked up to her, I always greet dogs by saying “Hello baby.” Owner and pet were reunited just before 11 pm.

I played a little Fable II and fooled around with Scribblenauts. The game has a changeable practice start up screen, and I was testing out different words to see what kinds of objects would appear for use. Later, as I checked out some game related sites, I ran across an interesting Kotaku article by Mark Fahey about the game (http://kotaku.com/5361838/frankenreview-scribblenauts). Before I read the article, I had wondered how much of the fascination with the game was actually about trying to break the bank by finding how many words don’t work. The article reminded me about that. I found that as I started the game there was an initial urge to test the vocabulary DB, but the desire to collect the levels’ ‘Starite’ as fast and efficiently, as possible, took over very quickly. That practice area is a good idea, it’s like priming the creativity pump. I mean why would anyone type in oil rig in this game (I still haven‘t finished), but I did type it in the practice area, and it appeared. Now, you and I know.

Day Forty-five: evening of September 16th 2009

So today, after charging up the battery yesterday, I played Scribblenauts on the Nintendo DS (Dual Screen). Now this isn’t a review. I haven’t played enough of the game, but I have gotten through enough to give a first impression.

What fascinated me when I saw a demonstration on X-Play, was the fact that you can write in a request for a device, it appears above your avatar, and then you attempt to use it to solve the puzzle. The X-Play staff playing the game went a little crazy, and typed in dingo, a dog appeared, next word melon, a yellow green ball appeared, then baby, which was eaten by the dingo (ugh). I tried flame thrower, ladder, jet pack, dynamite (the spell checker, yes spell checker, would not accept dynomite), submarine, helicopter, escalator, stairs, shotgun, rifle, raft, row boat, snowball, scuba gear, diving suit, milk, pizza (a piece showed up, not the whole thing-ratz!), by now you get the idea. The scope of the device database is large

But that made me wonder, what was the scope of the vocabulary? On X-Play some developer (?) said over 10,000, and I’m sure I saw a 20,000 plus vocabulary somewhere (I’m going to check the internet right now…That was fast, about two minutes). MTV states, “'Scribblenautes' recognizes 22,802 words, which is astounding and 5th Cell should be proud of that achievement” (5th Cell is the developer). With two hundred levels, and the ability to replay each level with different approaches. It might take a while to really finish this game. It’s almost like my New York Times Crossword DS game. It has a thousand crossword puzzles, and I only use it when I’m traveling, so it be quite a while before I finish that., and I know that when I’m done, I won’t remember the early puzzles.

So, I’m having fun with the game. The only thing that gets in the way with the game play, is the avatar control. There are times when my primary avatar, Maxwell, just doesn’t handle the way I envisioned. I swear I’m touching the screen correctly, but things don’t work right. Hopefully I’ll get the hang of the quirks of the controls. I’m looking forward to accumulating ‘ollars’ so that I can purchase new groups of levels, new avatars, and songs that the DS will be able to access.

One of the humorous aspects of playing the game, was my shift back into teacher mode, as I started to see the cognitive implications of the flexible problem solving underlying the game play. Once a teacher, always a teacher, I guess.

Back to the game, until I have to walk the dog.

Day Forty-four: late evening of September 15th 2009

After all of the sights that were seen, samples collected, the only other thing that I wanted to do for my wife was to take the eight video clips and get them on to her computer at school. Now the easiest way would be to forward them to her through email. Generally, that works if the clips is small enough. I guess that would be about 30 seconds or less. However, there were two one minutes clips and one four minute one., which were not allowed off the iPhone. So now what should I do, or more exactly what could I do?

With my old 15 gigabyte iPod, after syncing through iTunes, I would be able to mount the iPod as an external drive (not that I used it that way, I had to much music stored on it). So that was what I thought I could do. It didn’t work out that way. It didn’t work out any way that I tried.

The next step was searching the web. I went to Google, and typed in ‘iPhone’ ‘transfer files’ ‘to Mac’ with no success. The reverse transfer was listed from the Mac to the iPhone. I played around with the search terms. I tried searching the Apple website - with the same result. I was becoming confused. Why would it be so difficult to find a process that allowed me to move video clips off the iPhone? Confusion shifted into frustration, and I wondered what I was doing wrong. I tried using the Apple’s disk utilities to see if I could see the iPhone as a storage device - nope. The frustration level was increasing, and I still didn’t have a clue. I decided to try a different tack.

I fired up the iPhoto application, hooked the iPhone up to the Mac Book Pro, and treated the iPhone as a camera (which it could do) and synced with iPhoto. It happened, all the photos and the video clips transferred. Once the transfer was complete, and the frustration disappeared, I felt like I was in control again. I opened the movie files in Quicktime Pro, previewed the clips, and saved the clips under more recognizable terms. I put the clips in a folder labeled PRINT_09, and burned a CD with them. It was funny but I couldn’t find a CD, every disk in the house was a DVD. Ultimately, I found an blank CD in a stack of unused DVDs. The total space used was about 270 Megabytes. Ten minutes later, I was labeling the CD with a specialized CD/DVD marker.

I’m glad I tried something the wasn’t a linear solution (to me a least). I don’t understand why I couldn’t find this transfer process when I searched for it? What did I miss when I framed the search?

On a final note, as I was beginning the search, I was notified that there was a system update for the iPhone (3.0 to 3.1). I declined to do it then, because I was concerned about the data that I had on the device. Once I had completed the transfer, and backed up my data. I was ready to do the update. You have to protect your data. When in doubt, backup your files.

Day Forty-three: late evening of September 14th 2009

The South Exhibition Hall is probably two and a half time larger than the North Hall. I wondered what would be on display in this wing. As we moved in to the hall, the first thing that was obvious was the noise. A noise that was a mix of human and machine sounds. The mechanical din riding just above the vocal cacophony. The vista greeting exhibition visitor is one of massively multiple printing systems. I think it was Xerox and Heidelberg USA that establish the primary theme of print production. I remember visiting the Sun Times newspaper when I was in high school, not on a field trip, just out of curiosity. The street level access was well above the press room floor - the machines were massive, dwarfing the staff that worked them. The tops of the presses where the newsprint pages zipped by, only the large graphics almost readable, seemed to be a few feet below my hallway passage. The Heidelberg area had a similar layout of printers, conveyer belts, bundlers and what ever would fit into the category of post production, but the tops of the presses were slightly taller than the personnel running them. I don’t know the what kind of documents were being produced, we didn’t check, but I feel that this arrangement could handle at least a medium sized town newspaper.

It was all impressive, but my wife’s goals were smaller, more in keeping with classroom based production, metallic transfers, die cutters, and more samples of more exotic printed materials (color printing on clear film, florescent inks, metallic transfers). It was somewhere in this part of the journey when “I hit the wall.” I thought that I had had it, when I saw a small line formed at the Pittman booth. I followed it down and saw that the people at beginning of the line were walking away with die cut guitars on foam core backing. Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy, (from the Ren and Stimpy Show)! My wife got into the line, and I decided to record the actual process for her class. I only hoped that I would be able to hold the camera steady for, what I found out was, four minutes. I shot a second angle showing the cutting head. Each sheet cut contained five guitar forms, within fifteen minutes my wife was walking away with sample - very impressive. We also saw the printers that produced the images on the foam core, one took about fifteen minutes and the other wider faster one printed out the boards in two minutes. I recorded these printers.

The rest of the journey was pretty much of a blur, booths with products from China, Korea, Japan, Booths with misting systems (my wife wondered about the H1N1 flu), large die cutters, wire binding equipment and wire suppliers, offset printing replacement parts (I knew how this worked from my teaching at a vocational high school), cleaning supplies, metallic transfers, The Rochester Institute of Technology, and print publications. As we were winding down, with two sacks full of all sizes of samples, I spotted the company that handled small die cutters within the price range available to my wife - Roland DGA. I spoke with the staff of the booth, got a product description pamphlet, and picked up a large die cut sample of printing on clear film.

That was pretty much it. We snaked our way back out of the exposition and headed to the car. We discussed how tired we were, and how, students, on field trips, never seemed to run out energy. I pointed out a sign, we were passing, showing the next expo was early October 2010 - ‘Field Trip’ with students. Well, we were out of energy, I was glad to find the car , and leave. It was fun going out exploring the exposition with my wife.

Day Forty-two: late evening of September 13th 2009

I went to the PRINT 09 exposition this afternoon at McCormick Place in Chicago. I’ve been using various home and office printers for over twenty years, and have attended a number of graphics related expositions. I think the last one was seven or eight years ago, and none of them compare in size and scope as this one. I remember one that was an information tech related, and was amazed at development of relational databases. I had completed a course at Northwestern on relational databases, and to seeing them in action was fascinating, but this event transcended that. It was information overload after about 45 minutes for me (we were there for about three hours).

As we walk through the first exhibition hall, I noticed a number of booth presenting “Web-to-Print” support. I wondered what that meant, converting a website into a print document didn’t seem that complex. As we were walking by the PrinterPresence by Firespring booth, I guess I was staring a bit to hard at the “Web-to-Print” signage, and we were invited to watch the CEO’s presentation. We accepted, and now I know what the term “Web-to-Print” means. The company specializes in assisting printing firms in developing websites that their clients can log into to create, print, and maintain their print needs (forms, business cards, catalogs, flyers, et al). Once the website is up and running, the users/printers can adjust the form and content of the website based on their needs, or tailor it based on the analysis of the various queries by potential customers. The CEO’s, Tawnya Starr, enthusiasm for her organization and its product was extremely evident in her presentation. It was nice having the database experience under my belt, because it made understanding of the underpinning of the service easier.

That done, we started moving around the booths looking for sample and examples that my wife could take back to here classroom to show students what was happening in the field graphic production. And this is of course where the sensory overload began. This was the various companies of the industry showing off the best and newest of their product lines. What was the best way to show off their equipment, print with them, have it printed on, have printed things bound, die cut them, and on and on. I, and my wife, went this way and that. We had a plan of attack, but that dissolved over and over as we watched an Epson prototype cutter. It was almost hypnotic watching the cutting head move through its paces in quick measured strokes, until the pre-scored full color 2-D sheet was ready to be released and folded into a box. At this point, I decided to try out the video camera in the iPhone, and see if I could document some of the sights at the exposition.

I guess this will have to be a two parter, because it was after this that we moved out of the North Exhibit Hall and went into the larger South Exhibit Hall. I thought that we had picked up a lot of samples, but I was in for a big surprise.

Day Forty-one: evening of September 12th 2009

Not much happened today, feeling a bit under the weather. I managed to play through the F.E.A.R. 2: Reborn download from yesterday. It took a while to get back into sync with the controller (first two deaths), but overall I had a good time. It managed to take my mind off of the general malaise. Normally, I would read an engaging book, ala Terry Pratchett, with some mild background music on, but the video game takes me into the process faster than the reading does. The recliner helps too. But, if I stop and don’t get out of it quickly, I’ll doze off in about ten minutes. That activity I saved for the early afternoon from about 3 pm until 6 pm.

Tomorrow, if all goes well, I’ll be attending PRINT 09 at McCormick Place in Chicago. I’ll be going with my wife, who will be checking out equipment and trends for the high school computer graphics class that she teaches. It’s fun to see the demonstrations and pick up the swag that the exhibitors hand out. I’ll be the side kick and porter for my wife this time.

I’ll try to document some of the things that see tomorrow evening.

Day Forty: evening of September 11th 2009

I was able to play two of my console games today. First a download session for F.E.A.R. 2 in the morning; then adventuring with Fable 2 in the afternoon; and, finally, playing IL 2 Sturmovik in the evening. It was it was nice way to stay off my feet, especially after running errands yesterday and the day before. The ankles were very happy this evening.

My biggest mistake in playing Fable 2, has been breaking away from play for two or three months. I’m not sure where I left off. There is a list of quests that I could work on,. Even with the description of the quests I’m a little confused about what I’m doing. Luckily, I can experiment while I try to discovering what I should be doing. When my daughter returned from work, I quit the game to greet her and let the dog back into her apartment. While I waited with her for my wife to return, I checked out some quests online to see if I could remember where I am in the game. I can’t say that it helped, but it did get me to focus on the game play.

IL 2 Sturmovik offers up a stable environment, although I notice a two or three minor glitches (mostly hanging up). I think that I mentioned a Macintosh game called Hell Cats over the Pacific, and how I’m looking for something that will give me the same kind of entertainment. I think I’ve found it. The graphics in IL2 are gorgeous,. The wear and tear that appears on the aircraft’s surfaces reminded me of the professionally made models that appeared in the windows of hobby shops. The clouds above and the patch work landscape below made it easy to pretend I was flying above the English countryside. I did that for about ninety minute, before it was time to feed the pets, and go down to work on this blog.

It’s funny how poor the graphics were in that Mac game compared this game. I know that I, idealized the older game, but am I glad that I picked up IL 2 Sturmovik. The only downside to this game is that fact that I’ll delay playing Fable 2 while I improve my flight skills.

Day Thirty-nine: evening of September 10th 2009

I was speaking to a relative about old photographs, and their red appearance. I explained that this was a common occurrence, and if the was any of the original color was present, scanning the photo into an image editing software, a person might be able to manipulate and enhance those colors, returning the photo to some semblance of its original look.

So making this a challenge, I decided to see if I could manipulate a photo that I took one night last week.

But before that could happen I want to be able to load the ‘before’ and ‘after’ onto this blog. So that is what will happen now.

I’m going post this section first, place the photos, then continue my description of the what I did on my iPhone.

Before

After

As you can see I was able to upload the two images, but it was a bit more difficult than I expected, so a word about that. I'm not quit sure about the linking that was involved, but I was able to import the image into this blog using a application called Picasa 3 from Google. After a number of tries, I was able to position the two photos in the locations above by editing the the the HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) coding, then using the cut and paste functions. I had worked with HTML before, so I had a bit of familiarity with the structure of the language and had an idea of what I needed to cut and where to paste it. So you can see the result above.

So here is a brief description of what transpired between the 'Before' and the 'After'.

I was walking the dog a week or so ago, when I saw an interesting lighting effect near a garage down the alley. I decided to see if the camera in the iPhone could handle the low lighting situation created by the vapor lamps used in the alley. The first photo is the result of that experiment. The color balance of the amber vapor lamp is evident.

When I decided to try documenting the 'on the fly' color balancing, I didn't have any old photos at hand that I could scan, but I remembered the image from the alley that was on the iPhone. Most of the color was gone, although the green of the leaf is visible, but the redish-orange dominates the image. So the 'Before' is my base image.

About a month ago I purchase an app for the iPhone, called Photogene. I'm trying remember the source of the recommendation but I'm not sure. It might have been a CNET list of iPhone tools. I know I saw it in an iPhone commercial. Photogene might be called a Swiss Army Knife type of image manipulation application for the iPhone. I've used it to crop images, and I checked some of the other manipulation tools the user could access. One of the tools was a color adjust function, which includes color levels (spectrum spread), exposure (light/dark and contrast), colors (saturation/intensity and temperature, and RGB (red-green-blue controls). This is a lot of control for in a piece of hand held software. Well, you can tell which of the tools, I'll be using. I have had some experience working with traditional photographic processes, so I knew the functions offered would be most appropriate.

Color saturation and color temperature would be where I would start, although I might go to exposure if I felt the image needed any adjustment to exposure or the contrast. The application has slider bars that you move across the range of that particular aspect of color balance. Starting with color temperature, I removed the warmth of the redish-orange cast. As I slid the bar, I could see the image shift and moved the bar around until I felt (a key word in 'on the fly' balancing) I had removed most of the dominant cast. I knew the garage was white (a big help) and I needed to hit an apparent gray. Once that was done, I looked at the vines, knowing the leaves were green, and began adjusting the saturation (intensity of a hue) to punch up the green. The green looked good but the redish cast had returned, so I tweaked the color temperature (cooler) until the gray on the garage returned. I kept this up until I felt everything approach a level of acceptability. That is what you see in the 'After' image. I might adjust the contrast, but it was about two in the morning, and I like the softness of the shadow details. Boom! Done!

As I was doing this entry, I tried achieving the same effect with the RGB tool and I did. With that approach, you are actually controlling the component additive colors that produces the image. The flexibility of this app really allows great degree of creative control .

Now, if you are using a computer, scanner, and an image editing application, you can achieve some pretty drama effects on an old photo. The fully equipped image editing software will allow even greater control and present you with a lot manipulation options.

One more thing, the images above might not look the same as there are on my screen. There can be significant differences in the color balance of your monitor. There is equipment that can be purchased to balanced a monitor, but even the inexpensive ones still cost a pretty penny.

As I close, I'm still amazed at the power packed in this iPhone app.

Day Thirty-eight: evening of September 8th 2009

After doing laundry, vacuuming, and running errands, I was left two and a half blocks from a GameStop. I thought, what should I do? Go home or go shop. Well, I decided to go and see what was new and interesting in the store. I was curious about The Beatles: Rock Band, But I realized that I wouldn’t be playing it unless I was playing with others, and, even though my wife was a die hard, memorabilia collecting, Beatles fan, her schedule of classes, the extracurricular activities at school, limits her free time. Her need to recoup and rebuild for the upcoming weeks in her own way is important to me. So it was fun walking into the store and seeing all the display of boxes and signage trumpeting the Fab Four’s digital renaissance. The sales clerk, who recognized me from previous visits, said hi and asked if there was anything that I was looking for and a pleasant conversation ensued.

I really wasn’t a Beatles fan initially, as a matter of fact, although I thought the music was okay, It wasn’t until the Abby Road album that I recognized the genius of their work-better late than never, I guess. There was even talk of the remastered Beatles collection coming to iTunes today, even though Yoko Ono leaked that it would happen the other day, it still hasn’t happened. I’m not worried, I have enough songs on CD to cover the spread.

So I passed on the Liverpudlian rock band’s Rock Band, and remembered two other games that I was interested in, one was for the Wii,- Muramasa: The Demon Blade, and the other was IL 2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey for the PS3 and the Xbox 360 - a WW II aerial combat game. When I checked the morning reviews of games both received positive reviews.

The Wii game, Murasama: The Demon Blade, is basically a 2-D hack and slash game with elegant graphics that reminds me of some of the more beautifully illustrated children’s books (observations of an obviously one time doting dad-still am). After watching the video clips for it, the action is not for younger children. I’ve played them, but I’m really not a fan. Basically, I get angry and frustrated with my coordination, and it just isn’t fun for me after a few hours. As my students used to say, “My bad,” and in this case it is.

The other game is a WW II fighter battle game. Ever since I played Hellcats over the Pacific on the Mac, I’ve been looking for a good aerial combat game. I tried Tom Clancy’s Hawx on the Xbox 360, but the simulated speed was to much for me as I just couldn‘t get the hang of the relationship of speed to maneuverability . I’ll probably go back to it in the future. I found that if steep myself in gaming for awhile, my feel for the controls improve. So, I decided that I might give try IL 2 Sturmovik, and asked for it, not by name, for some strange reason all I could remember was that the game was a WW II fighter game, which elicited the sales clerk to respond Battlestations Pacific. “No,” I responded, "It was with Russian planes" (talk about sounding like I was in junior high). The wise clerk remembered IL 2, and said, “I sold the only copy, earlier today.”

Oh well, I decided to browse around and conversed with the clerk about upcoming games, until she had to wait on a paying customer. I checked the Murasama box, but didn’t feel strong enough about it to buy it, so I moved on. I checked the Xbox 360 section, nothing really. Then I wondered about Drake’s Fortune on the PS3. A new version was going to be released, and I wondered if there was a price drop. I looked around and what did I see, not Drake’s Fortune, but the PlayStation 3 version of IL 2 Sturmovik. Well, how about that! I picked it up, and took it to the counter to pay for it. The sales person said, “You have a PlayStation, too?” “Yes I do,” I replied. And I purchased it, put a five dollars down on both Halo: ODST, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. I received as a reward, a IL 2 Sturmovik tee shirt and a PSN lanyard-double wow. Now, like the Peter Pan I can be, returned home to learn how to fly all over again. I hope, I don’t pick up any bad habits.

Day Thirty-eight evening of September 8th 2009

I only managed to play about forty minutes of Fable II, because of an appointment the required my attendance, and then some household chores after.

The computer was on briefly in the morning to check email, then again in the afternoon, when my wife returned. I checked my email again. When I shut down the system installed some updates prior to its controlled shut down. I decided to see if anything was changed, and, you guessed it (I hope), something had been changed. A language bar appeared at the top of the desktop. I didn’t want it so I removed it. I guess I should change the update protocol and regain control of the updating process.

Right now the McAfee Security Center is running a virus scan of the computer, which I will not change-security, security, security. Its check about 50% of the hard drive or about 33,000 file, so far.

When I set up the machine, I should have been a bit more careful about the update process. I guess, I was lazy, and I’m still retain a bit of that laziness today. I’ll probably take action the next time an update obviously changes the system with the help of an old book on Windows XP for Home.

Day Thirty-seven: evening of September 7th 2009

Labor Day and I labored. Nothing heavy, just enough to keep me from doing anything serious in the way of gaming and online information gathering. One thing that did happen, were some patches that Windows stated that I needed to install, and so I did. One was a security patch for Windows XP and the other was a .NET tweak. Both were downloaded, applied and the computer restarted. No big deal, it took five minutes.

The machine restarts, and I get a message that my wifi hookup is running at a diminished capacity or not at all. So this is what I get when I follow directions and protect my computer. Well, I’ll try out the Toshiba Connectivity software, and it ran a check that ultimately took me back to the Control Panel. I had to go into properties, retype the network password in, and turned over the operation of linking up to the system to the system (I've always loved doing that), which is fine. I also made sure that the home network was first in the order of networks to work with.

That was the deepest incursion into technology that I took today.

I labored and played no games. I labored but managed to check my email and type this short update (which is becoming a ‘bad’ word as of late).

Day Thirty-six: evening of September 6th 2009

Today I worked on setting up the Canon CanoScan LiDE 700F scanner that we purchased. Before I did that, I had to remove and prepare the old Epson for my wife to take to school. It has been my scanner of choice since it was purchased five or six years. Working with its scanning software and VueScan, another multi-scanner application, any scanning project has been handled with relative ease. In a drawer near the scanner I find the installation quick startup guide, the scanner software, a copy of Photoshop Elements, and the scanner’s film carrier-nothing like being organized (more like lucky). I hope that this new scanner works as well.

The quick start guide says to install the software before connecting the hardware. Not a problem, and then I hook up the scanner. There is only one USB cable, no power cord. This was one of the reasons that my wife selected this model. She uses a similar model at school and has found it to be very reliable, and it doesn’t need a power cord. So I hook this model up, and start up the laptop. I connected it to the USB ports on the back of the 24 inch monitor that is hooked up to the MacBook Pro. This multiple purpose single cord has to be plugged into a powered USB port in order to draw enough current to work the scanner. I wanted to leave one open port on the laptop in case I needed to use a flash memory stick. I start the scanner and a message come up saying the scanner isn’t connected or there is a software problem. I check the cable, and sure enough, I didn’t push the plug far enough into the port. Great, I start the software up again and the same message come up, and I know its Snow Leopard. This isn’t bad, and to be expected seeing the recent release of the operating system. What is troubling is the warning at the Canon driver website (the authentic site as opposed to the help site that want to check you computer to see what drivers you need and then want to have you purchase special software to monitor your updates for drivers-mostly PC as opposed to Mac). Canon advises the scanner owner that there might be issues with OS 10.6 and they are working on patches to resolve any incompatibilities. I check the date on the latest software update and it is after the release of Snow Leopard, so “I hope for the best, but expect the worst “[a line from the movie The Twelve Chairs (1970), based on a Russian satirical novel of the same name(1928)]. It works-thank you Canon. I check the VueScan website to update my copy of VueScan, hoping that it is ready for Snow Leopard. An update is ready-two for two-I’m very happy. So I finish up in about ten minutes after the initial installation, and I’m ready to work on the laundry.

Well I put a hold on the laundry, and wonder if the Parallels emulator with Windows XP will work with the new scanner. I didn’t try it with the old Epson, but I thought why not see if it works with the new scanner. So I unplugged the scanner, and installed the software, after launching Window XP. Well it didn’t recognize the scanner either, as far as it was concerned there wasn’t any thing there. I checked Parallels and found under a USB icon on the control bar that all the recognized USB hardware was locked out, so I unlocked the Canon scanner. Next, to play it safe, I went online to Canon again to check the site for updates, and register my scanner. It was funny, registering the scanner was harder to do than setting up the software update. The problem with the software update was the fact that each element of the software package had to be individually downloaded. Three of the four elements of the software pack had newer versions. So I ran each patches. Earlier, when I started the ArcSoft PhotoStudio software that came with the scanner, a window appeared stating that a newer version was available for download, which I took advantage of. The last thing that I did was to move the USB cable from the back of the monitor to the laptop port, just to play it safe. It might work with the Mac that way, but I wanted to make sure that there was a direct connection between the scanner and Windows XP. This time everything work, both through the dedicated application and PhotoStudio. The only problem was finding where the Canon software stored the scanned images. It took a few minutes but the folder was located. The time spent on this setup was thirty-five minutes, start to finish.

I haven’t done a lot of hardware/software in Windows XP, and I was using an emulator on my Mac, so things might go a little bit faster for another person with a different computer. I could try this on the netbook, but I’m not interested at this time. I don’t think it would be faster than the Mac, simply because of the multiple downloads that were needed to match the installed software (of course, if there were no patches needed by either machines, the playing field would be leveled).

Well, I’m going to watch a replay of the Chicago Bears win over the Cleveland Browns. Next week Green Bay-w00t.

Note: w00t belongs to gamers the world over. It seems to have been derived from the obsolete 'whoot' which essentially is another way to say 'hoot' which itself is a shout or derisive laugh. But others maintain that w00t is the sound several players make while jumping like bunnies in Quake III. Still others want you to believe that it comes from the phrase 'wow loot' used in multiplayer RPGs many moons ago. And if you can believe it some folks even think it was derived from the gaming phrase, 'We Own the Other Team!' Fiction or fact? I suppose you'll just have to decide what 'w00t!' means to you…(from www.thinkgeek.com)

Day Thirty-five: evening of September 5th 200

We, my wife and I, went to a local computer store to pick the supplies and equipment she had ordered. Of course, we purchased other things; an internal hard drive for the Power Mac G5, an external portable for the PowerBook Pro, and a new flatbed scanner to replace our Epson 2400.

So this evening, I set about installing the internal hard drive, which went well especially after I checked the Mac forums for tips on installing a hard drive in the G5. The tip was an important one about the use of a jumper. It was mentioned in the PC section, but not in the Mac portion, although it was advised that the installer check for specifics related to their Macs. That was why I went online, and found the specific advise that told about the jumper to change the data file transfer speed. The jumper was included in the Seagate hard drive kit, and the diagram showed which pins to place it on (the orientation of the PC was inverted from the Mac, but I saw that before I did anything stupid).

Right now, I’m transferring the files from my Mac laptop and smaller external hard drive to the larger portable. That task is nearly complete, and once that is done I’m going to use the smaller drive to backup file on my netbook, after I format it.

One interesting thing, that I’ve noticed, is the amount of direction space that is required for the PC hard drive installation compared to a Mac. The PC required about 5 pages of directions including diagrams (one of which was the inverted jumper diagram) whereas the Mac section was just a little under a page. It has been that way for almost all the hardware related installations that I’ve run. I will say that the Windows system has improved considerably since its introduction. The wizards that pop up do help, but still not as simple as a Mac’s.

Day Thirty-four: evening of September 4th 2009

A good portion of the morning was spent assembling a laser printer cart, about three hours from box opening to rolling the completed cart into place. My low tech complaint was the, not the directions, but the construction materials. The phillips screws and the locking cylinders seemed unable to stand up to the torque of the ratchet screw driver. I know that I can’t over drive the screw and I can feel the upper limits of pressure approaching. The failure was not consistent, and I wonder what the inspection process was like.

After that, my wife needed some supplies and equipment ordered. The most interesting search was for a cable to attach a 17” flat screen monitor to her labs xserver. I even took a photo of the pin set up of the monitor. Armed with that image and being able to see the styling of the monitor, I hit the internet through Google. In less than ten minutes, I found a photo of the monitor and that the cable mounts was an ADC type. There are two video in ports on the server. One is a standard female VGA receptacle, and the other is a female mini DVI. In my wife’s video adapter drawer, I found a number of different connection combinations. This is where the search for the correct cable became interesting. I had to find an adapter that starts out with the ADC and ends with a mini DVI. It could be a combination of cables, which it ultimately ended up as. But it took about 20 minutes to narrow down the candidates to produce the required connections. The key to the success of the search was gender matching. There were a number of hits that showed an ADC to DVI adapters [remember that my wife has a DVI (f) to mini DVI (m) adapter], but the genders was wrong. Finally, checking the Apple Store, through the search function, I found the correct adapter. It was 99.99 dollars, That price was surprising until I read that it, the Apple Display Connector, not only carried the video and audio signals to the monitor but added USB ports on the back of the monitor. So the price includes a USB cable, a DVI (m) cable, a ADC (f) port on the power supply. I’m not sure what the power supply does other than a statement that the adapter maintains the superior image quality. We shall see, or, really, she shall see.

Another task the was on the list of things to do was diagnose or fix the ‘grinding’ printer. She started the ‘ill’ printer and I could hear the grinding sound. It sounded bad, but she said it was worse yesterday. Most printers’ gear works are non-metallic (nylon or phenolic), so I thought that I might see if there was any deformations in the various gear trains. When I looked I couldn’t see anything obvious, so I attempted to spin any and all gears that allowed any movement. We fired up the printer, and my wife sent though a three or four page document. Initially there was no grinding, but then a more muffled grinding sound happened. My wife said that it sounded significantly diminished from the day before. I had her run a few more pages through and tried to feel where the sound was emanating from. As it was grinding I pushed in on the access panel and the sound disappeared. We opened the panel, removing and reseating the fuser, after I inspected the gear train under the fuser (moving any gear that would permit it), we closed the panel and fired up the printer. She set a document through and no grinding. As of now, problem solved. Luckily she’s have a repair person come in for another problem and she’ll mention the situation then.

The final task of the day, was daisy-chaining some 500 gigabyte hard drives into groups of four. This proved to be the most daunting, and the one I was least prepared for. She had just ordered three mounting racks, and wanted to add the twelve hard drives to the server to allow a more efficient backup process. Prior to this, the hard drives were spread out around the room, in between two or three computer. To back up their work, the student might have to disconnect the hard drive from one computer and attach it to their own. Most, by that I mean nearly all, didn’t bother. When I was checking the hard drives out, I found only one student folder appear on the desk top-wow.!

I had daisy-chained some HDs in the past, but not on this scale. The back of the hard drive had five ports, one eSATA, one Firewire 400, one USB 2, and two Firewire 800 (twice as fast as FW400 or USB 2). So, I explained to my wife that we would be using the FW800 ports because one port could be an input source and the other the output source to the next drive. I wasn’t sure how many that could be strung together, the last number I remember was 24. Checking it out online I found that the theoretical limit was 63. So, we decided to check out the hookup with just four. The only problem was the computer we were working with didn’t have a FW800 input port, only a FW400. (note: currently the USB 2 does not support a daisy-chain hookup). The online result of this was-no problem, it should work. Of the four hard drives we worked with only one showed up on the desktop. Which one was it? My wife transferred some large files, and to my amazement it was the last unit in the chain. The operation system showed that all the HDs was attached to the Firewire bus, but other than the one that showed up on the desktop-nothing else, no sizes, no manufacturer, not a thing. That bothered me. The other hard drives might have failed, but why was the last one that was recognized. If the cables were bad, nothing would work. I decided to check out each drive, before we checked the cables. By the end of the work day (really about an hour and a half after the end), we had all twelve checked out. Of the twelve, there were three that didn’t respond, but when my wife checked those on a different machine, they worked. I was confused. We separated the cables, to be tested next week. The other variable might be the power supplies. They would have to be checked. Another factor might be the current drawn through the surge protectors. I wondered if there might be a breakdown here. She also purchased some new surge protectors in the early afternoon. We finished organizing the cables and equipment before we left.

Overall the day turned out to be fairly successful. It’s nice to know that her class will open with almost all the essentials ready to go. Anything that isn't ready won't be needed for the classes' initial sessions. We always want to meet our students ready for action, matching their excitement with our own. (note: The US Coast Guard motto has always summed it up for me: Semper Paratus=Always Ready)

Day Thirty-three: evening of September 3rd 2009

I’m going to help my wife at school tomorrow, she needs a base assembled for one printer, some troubleshooting for another printer, and checkout the cable needed for the link up of her server to a flat screen monitor (I’m going to check my cable drawer to see if there are any converter there). Part of the day was spent finding my tools and getting my gear together.

I started playing Mass Effect, but before I really got into the downloadable content, I changed my mind, and shifted over to a game I haven’t played in awhile-Fable II. Mass Effect’s Pinnacle Station is a multiple arena challenge scenario. I played it for a while and it is going to take me some time to get the hang of the various arenas, and I didn’t feel like that today.

It has been so long since I’ve played Fable II that I don’t remember where I left off, but it shouldn’t take to long to get back into the flow of things. I forgot how visually interesting the scenery is in this role playing game. The world seems massive, even more so with the addition of lands added through DLC. There aren’t that many ticks that interfere with game play, allowing you to attain a state of suspended disbelief (a desirable sci-fi state, also) permitting you to get lost in the character that you develop. You can become an adventurer, an entrepreneur, a villain, a hero, or any combination of them. You can achieve this as a male or a female, and with a magical potion latter in the game change you gender. You can establish relationships, get married, have children, and be aware of the level of satisfaction of spouse and children. Get caught by your spouse propositioning another person and that could lead to a divorce. In this game that might have a negative effect on you reputation.

There are times when this video game reminds me of two games I used to play a long time ago-Life and Careers. I can’t count the number of hours spent playing these games with friends and relatives. I get hints of that kind of interaction in the online games, but I think I miss the physicality of people around the board. I notice that the console have optional video camera that can be attached so that you can see the persons that you are playing against/with, but this feature is not available in all games. I think that I heard that one of the racing games that actually takes a snap shot of the person driving a car that is wrecked to show the expression on their face. That’s why I like the marketing of the Wii as a family interactive game. The only problem with that is the hectic nature of our busy society. When I walk the dog on weekends, its nice to see the neighborhood children playing kickball or softball in the alleyway. I can relate to that, reminisce, and enjoy that scene.

Day Thirty-two: late evening of September 2nd 2009

I updated Adobe Creative Suite 4 and Flash had an error message pop up about Java Script, some aspect of it was not loading correctly, and I decided that it all should be removed. I’ll go online, and see if there are issues related to the Snow Leopard OS update. I think that waiting a bit is okay. A number of other software applications have issues with the latest update, including eyeTV, which I used on the documentaries. Luckily, The Power G5 tower is up and stable, so that is the machine of choice for the installation of CS4, now.

Guess what happened? Everything loaded, including the online updates, inside of an hour. I know this is significantly faster than the laptop, but why? I think the tower was from 2003 and the speed of the DVDs are the same. The MacBook has a 2.93 Ghz dual intel processor and the G5 has a dual 2.00 Powerchip, so the laptop has the edge. So was there a conflict between the install application and the operating system? I really don’t have the desire, or the time, to find out now. I just needed to burn some backups of the suite for my wife to use at school.

What did I do after the above, I played a little Mass Effect, downloaded Shadow Complex and played it for about an hour and a half. Wow, this side-scrolling game looked great, played smoothly, and was fun to play. I became a frustrated side-scroller with a game called Prince of Persia (1989)-my timing was never quite on the mark, so I was wary about acquiring this particular video game. But the critical praise for the game was uniformly positive for all aspects of the game (e.g. playability, graphics, sound, challenge, value). The review from X-Play was five out of five, so I decide to get it. I may not finish it, but I think I will have fun being frustrated by it.

An interesting debate, has arisen around this game. The game draws upon the work a science fiction writer, Orson Scott Card, who is actively oppose to gay rights and the gay life style. A number of individuals have express their disapproval of the author, vocally, and financially (by not purchasing this game). As I said in the opening sentence, there are some interesting debates going on in gaming forums. It surprised me to find out about this. Many years ago, I read three or four of his books. I never sensed this position expressed in his writing. Of course, I wasn’t looking for it, and I never came across any mention of this in the reviews of his books, likewise reviewers have mention the link to his novel Empire, but not his political activism. Now I’m wondering if this would have effected my decision to buy this video game, if I had know about this before hand. I wonder how the staff at the parent company feels about the moral debate that has been generated by this game. Will this have a negative impact upon the company that created the game, and the people who work there. I’m wondering, now that I’ve bought the game, how I’ll feel when I play the game.

I guess that video games aren’t just the mindless diversions that some individuals believe they are.

Day Thirty-one: late evening of September 1st 2009

Well I needed to install Adobe Creative Suite 4 today, and I was in for a surprise. Normally, Adobe products are pretty stable. I’ve never felt like I’m being used as a beta tester. But this time I was installing an application after updating my operating system (Snow Leopard), and that might cause problems. What’s that old proverb, “Forewarned is forearmed.” At least I wasn’t surprised when something went wrong.

The package that I was installing was CS 4 Design Premium, which has just about everything you need to do graphic design (video applications are not included in this suite). The spec that struck me for this suite was the speed recommended for the processor - 2 gigahertz. I guess that I haven’t been paying that much attention to the technology related to the field that I used be involved in. Here is where an 'ancient one' might say, “Why I can remember back when...” Well, I’ll skip that for now.

There are four DVDs in the case, two for installation, one with content (fonts, images, samples), and a tutorial DVD for the various Adobe products. I realize that this is going to take some time to install, so I begin early, about nine o’clock, and at about ten-thirty its finished (I had some other things to do so I wasn’t there all the time). Now I begin the update of the applications. CS 4 has been around awhile, so patches for a variety of issues have been created and need to be applied, so, I started that process. Most applications, today, have a ‘Check for update’ command embedded in the Help menu. So I click on it, and the process begins, and continues to its completion, smoothly I might add. Hurray, I’m done. Now, I’ll activate each application to watch it load and then close it.

I begin this check. It isn’t a required thing, but if others are using the computer, you want to cut down on the frustration for the other person. Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, Acrobat, Flash, all load and close properly. I open Fireworks, a web design special effects application, and close it. I open Dreamworks, a web design application, and as it opens an error message flashes on the screen telling me that Fireworks unexpectedly quit-huh! I had closed it, so what was this. I quit Dreamworks, and reopen Fireworks. Then I close it. And wait a bit before I move on. The message pops up again, this time there is an error report to Apple for me to fill out. Okay, new operating system, I’ll help out. I describe what happened, and send it off. I decide to check out the environment to see if there is anything that I missed. I slide my cursor over the screen and the pop out tray that contains shortcuts opens and I see all the Adobe applications that I had though I closed were active(???). How did that happen? Well I close them and open Fireworks again, maybe there was a memory conflict. Same results, ‘unexpected quit’, and another error report form.

Now I’m thinking that the application had been corrupted, and that means one thing - reinstall the application. But first, if this option is available, uninstall the program (sometimes it's another application, sometimes it’s a system process, as in Windows, whatever method removes the program and its associated files). That done, now I restart the computer, and begin reinstalling the application using the customized option offered on the installation disk. It seems like a lot of files are being installed, but what do I know. I notice that the process is almost complete (completion bars) and I get ready to check out Fireworks again. The message box appears on the screen announcing, Installation complete…with some errors. Then it states that it would be best to reinstall the whole suite again. Whaaat!? I don’t believe this. I’m on the verge of saying, well I’m not going to say IT. Okay I’m not going to let this process defeat me. It should work, I’ll make it work, or else (I have no real ‘or else’ scenario in my head). I begin again. I think that it is 3 o’clock now, and I’m glad I’m retired.

Did it work? I don’t know. I stopped after I installed the original suite and checked everything out. That was okay, but I didn’t apply the update/patches. I’ll do that tomorrow, after the dentist visit. I always wonder, after events like this, when the ease of use that is one of the inherent promise of technology will come about. So far it is a statement without any guarantees.