An example is here.

Last October, when my friend Christopher Campbell visited to exchange knowledge** with me, he brought along a Quasar Sensor Loupe from VisibleDust. I had to have one. It is designed for showing dust on digital SLR camera imaging sensors, but its built-in lighting and 7X magnification make it perfect for looking at the magnetic viewer. This link appears to be a new and improved version. They also make a smaller version (called the Mini) which I have never tried, but you can look at it here. It is a little bit less expensive as well as being smaller.

Details about this system can be found here.

When I am not using the VisibleDust viewer, I use my older Surefire L4 LED flashlight for illumination of the viewer, although any good LED flashlight, such as those from 4Sevens and Fenix, would work. I still think the Zebralight in the full-flood mode is the ultimate headlamp for hands-free working—there is no hotspot.

Finally, a note about the viewer images. The majority were made with a Nikon D100 digital SLR camera (6 MP, APS-sized sensor) and a Nikon 60 mm f/2.8 autofocus Micro (macro outside of Nikon-speak) lens. Although the reticle of the B&L magnifier is shown in some of the images, the lens of the magnifier was removed and only the Micro-Nikkor lens was in the image-forming path.

**Christopher is an artist, photographer, large-format image printer, and is involved in tape restoration. I helped him with tape recorder and electronics skills and he helped me with colour profiling, Lightroom and Photoshop tricks and techniques, and camera image sensor cleaning. It was a good time, I think we both learned a lot from each other. Funny thing about knowledge…when it’s shared both parties win!

The excitement is that the current version of LibreOffice has removed a good deal of the startup sluggishness. While still not as fast as MS Office 2003, remember with LibreOffice, you are starting the whole suite essentially. There is an option to load it at startup, which I do not use.

The LibreOffice word processor application won’t let you search on paragraph marks specifically, but does have an option for removing empty paragraph marks, so you can achieve the same end for when I search for ^p^p and replace with ^p in Word. The LibreOffice spreadsheet is very competent, as far as I have seen.

I have used Dia a bit for drawing and am thinking that it might just work for doing many of the drawings I do. There is also a scalable vector graphics (SVG) program called Inkscape that might do some of the things one might do in Adobe Illustrator. It also serves as a viable sketch pad for miscellaneous ideas. For some basic idea capture, it seems faster than Dia.

While on the subject of SVG graphics formats, Freemind is mind-mapping software written in Java. The boys have to do mind maps at school from time to time and none of us are all that good at it. Perhaps this software will help. It can export both SVG and PDF.

While I have current versions of Adobe Photoshop (CS5) and Lightroom (3), I cannot help myself from evaluating free alternatives as the number of computers here is growing and with both boys headed off to university (we hope) within 2.5 years, it would be good to select applications and allow them to become familiar with them. While Photoshop CS5 is a remarkable program, for quick adjustments and some very sophisticated lasso options (at least), Paint.NET is a great option. There seems to be a controversy between which is better, The GIMP or Paint.NET. Both applications have vocal adherents. I found The GIMP obtuse and difficult to learn. It was not intuitive to a PhotoShop user. On the other hand, I found Paint.NET extremely easy to adapt to. I haven’t yet done full-scale work in it, but it has real possibilities.

Paint.NET is an interesting story. It started as a thesis project in university. The initial goal was to use Microsoft’s .NET framework to create an improved version of the Paint program which comes with Windows. Paint.NET has gone way beyond the original Paint program (which I find generally useless) and while it is not Photoshop, it is small and fast and can do at least some of the things I used to start Photoshop for–and I can have it on every machine.

Paint.NET is one of the few programs discussed here that is Windows-specific. It requires the Microsoft .NET framework to function. Almost all of the other open source applications are available for Mac and Unix platforms as well as Windows.  I am certainly not one to say Windows is the only operating system. Since my primary money-making application, Samplitude, is Windows-only, that keeps me locked into Windows, as does almost 20 years of working in it.

While on the subject of Samplitude, I must say that after just receiving Version 11 (you can imagine the Spinal Tap humour that surrounds this version), I am impressed. The CD burning routines seem snappier, the high-quality MP3 generation is now much faster, and the new 6-band EQ is a joy to use. Samplitude has generous cross-grade and student pricing if you contact the U.S. rep, Tim Dolbear.

I cannot believe I have gone this far without mentioning two and a half really, really cool open source applications. These are the ones that made me believe that open source software could be just as good as the commercial product–maybe better. I’m talking about The Mozilla Foundation’s Firefox, Thunderbird, and Lightning.

Firefox has been my primary browser for probably four years now. It is wonderful. Internet Explorer 9 is also quite excellent, but I really like Firefox.

I had used Eudora since 1993 with my first Windows 3.1 computer, a 486 processor running at 66 MHz. Eudora was put out to pasture in about 2006, so by 2010 the lack of updates was annoying me and a few friends. I finally bit the bullet and transferred 17 years of email messages to Thunderbird. Mary Beth, our friend Marie-Lynn, and I are all using it. Marie-Lynn has not enjoyed the transition, but Mary Beth took to it immediately after using Outlook Express for several years. I love it. It’s not perfect, and I still think Eudora handled some things better, but, all-in-all, it’s an excellent program.

One of the more exciting features of Thunderbird is the ability to use the Lightning plug-in (the half-program mentioned above). This, along with the Provider for Google Calendar creates a competent and robust shared calendaring system. Mary Beth and I both share a single calendar and have it pop up right in Thunderbird. Multiple calendars are supported, but they complicate things a bit, so we’re leaving it as a single calendar that Mary Beth and I jointly maintain. The backup to Google Calendar is automatic and Google Calendar acts as the calendar server for both of our instances of Lightning within Thunderbird. The calendar is also accessible directly via Google Calendar from any web browser.

Finally, in the same vein, my son Robert and I are experimenting with Evernote. This is a note-taking application which backs up everything to the Evernote servers where it is accessible on the web. It will also synchronize multiple computers as I understand it. We are not too far into it, but in looking at OneNote in Office 2010 and Evernote, while Evernote is less richly featured, the built-in Web backup is powerful. Welcome to The Cloud!

Please email me any comments that you have about this series and unless you say “do not post” I will add them to the post, even though comments are generally disabled on this blog. I would also be interested in any thoughts on MD5 applications that can check a file on a regular basis against its hash file.

COMMENTS RECEIVED:

2011-03-01 I was contacted by Dave Myers dmyers (at) filegenius (dot) net about a product he is involved with called File Genius that is aimed at the professional architecture and engineering community as a collaborative tool and backup service. It is not precisely in the class of what I’m talking about here,  but for a larger, or enterprise, high-value environment it appears to be a choice to consider. I have never used it. Thanks, Dave, for the heads up.

While I generally write on audio subjects here, computers also interest me. I started using Microsoft Word in 1985 and continue to use it, 25 years later, and own several licenses to Office (2002, 2003, 2007, and 2010), but as the number of computers grows, I find that the other office suites are truly viable alternatives for Microsoft, at least for what I do. On complex documents, I try and compose them in the version that the client is using, but for simple documents, my current tool of choice is LibreOffice from The Document Foundation. It offers the same basic functionality as the OpenOffice suite, but it is a fork in the code and is being run by a non-profit foundation rather than as part of a commercial enterprise.

Using the open-source suite solves my problem of having the suite available on all my computers plus it solves the problem of having the home/student licensing level on a computer I want to use for a business project.

I still use an older version of Adobe InDesign and Microsoft Publisher, I am planning on trying out Scribus on my next page-layout project. Both Publisher and InDesign are high-end products (Microsoft seems to be pushing Publisher up-market in more recent versions of Office) and the cost for my infrequent applications is not warranted.

I have been looking for a Visio replacement. While not apparently compatible with Visio, Dia has received some good press. I am looking forward to trying it when I need to do diagramming.

Please let me know if there are other worthy applications competing with Dia and Scribus as I have yet to go far down the learning curve on either of these.

For utilities, I have some favourites that I keep using. Many of these are NOT free, but are well worth it in my opinion.

I have retired the high-priced spread in virus protection in favour of Microsoft Security Essentials which is FREE!

File backup and copy ViceVersaPro—I cannot say too many wonderful things about this program that I’ve been using for almost ten years.

File renaming AdvancedRenamer—This is a bit difficult to understand at first, but is a very powerful batch renamer with many different “methods” of renaming. This is donationware.

Making JPEG files for reference AdvancedConverter—This shareware program is excellent at making JPEGs from scanned TIF files. I use this to create a reference JPG file for each TIF file I create in scanning. However, it does not seem to do as well with NEF files from my D100, so I’ll need to figure out other ways of doing this for those folders that do not already have JPEGs. It can be done through Lightroom, Photoshop, and various Nikon applications, but for the TIF scans, this is really fast and does a very credible job.

I have recently found an excellent set of software calculators from Western Australia. This suite includes the widest-range unit conversion application I have seen to date (currently listing 758 units). It is part of the ESBCalc pro suite.

For ripping audio CDs, Exact Audio Copy is highly recommended.

For figuring out data network problems, I use Netscan from SoftPerfect.

For communicating with my Garmin GPS, I use G7ToWin.

Finally, I was sad to see that Chris Marriott is no longer updating his program SkyMap. The version I had would not run on a Windows 7 64 bit machine–but I bought it when I was using Win 3.1! Instead of buying the upgrade that is now several years old with no further upgrades promised, I found four fun free astronomy applications.

Stellarium—Perhaps the best all-around program for casual viewing of the sky. It’s real point of interest to me is it shows constellation art which suggests what the ancients might have seen in the stars. It helps me visualize the constellations better.

Cartes du Ciel (SkyChart)—Probably the closest to SkyMap though each has their good and bad points (and remember my experience is with an old version of SkyMap). This is a sophisticated mapping program with selectable star catalogs and more.

Celestia—While the above-two applications are mostly focused on Earth-bound observers, Celestia will have you flying all over the Universe! It is something you can spend a lot of time with.

Virtual Moon Atlas—This focuses just on the moon and provides a fascinating view in detail! I recall buying a paper Moon Atlas in the late 1960′s at a high-school book sale. This beats that (I still think I have that Moon Atlas).

For AAs and AAAs, I have selected the Maha Powerex Imedion cells which retain a charge for an extended period of time (spec’d at 15% loss per year). I have invested in two of the MH-C9000 Wizard One chargers for my office and two MH-C401FS Mini chargers, one for my bedroom and one for the church sound booth. These are both available alone and in kits with cells from Paul’s Finest where he is selling the international version with a multi-voltage “wall wart” for a reasonably good price with great service.

While the MH-C401FS charges batteries individually, and does a good job of it, the MH-C9000 Wizard One is amazing. It will determine the remaining capacity and will even test and condition cells to the IEC standard. For example, I was having a problem with some cordless phones that used 3-cell NiMH battery packs. I took the pack apart and put the three cells in the MH-C9000 and it told me that they had a capacity of about 70, 40, and 40 mAh for each of the three cells. I immediately replaced these three cells with three new Imedion AAA cells that have about 800 mAh capacity each.

I have been using the Maha cells and chargers since April and am very pleased.

A special-purpose option in this are the 3.7 V 14500 lithium polymer AA-sized cells. These will obviously damage many devices that could physically accept them, but for the latest breed of LED flashlight, such as the 4Sevens Quark AA lights (USA site),  these provide superior peak output at the highest setting with the understanding that you can also use standard NiMH cells in an extended emergency with the loss of some peak output.

I have been using the AW-139 dual-cell fast charger also since April with great success. These will charge the 14500 cells mentioned above as well as 17670 cells which are the size of two 123 cells and work well in some LED lights that use two disposable 123 cells. I have been using the Pila version of these cells for about five years in my SureFire L4 LED light and have now bought four more cells for other flashlights. These are available from 4Sevens (USA) as well as other places such as www.dealextreme.com. Make sure you get the protected cells.

Recently, I did a thorough search for 9 V rechargeable batteries for wireless microphones at church. I was pleased to discover that iPowerUS (they have a Toronto office) was able to provide lithium polymer 9 V batteries that far outperformed the available NiMH offerings. We bought one DC9V charger and eight DC9V-520mAh batteries for alternate use in four wireless transmitters that we use regularly. We expect this system to pay off in a year or less.

I also bought their GC-60 tester/charger for my NiMH AA and AAA cells which, so far, looks excellent. Both chargers come with a “wall wart” and a car cord.

See updates in this article.

Unit #1 for client audio projects is a Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ with four 500 GB drives, providing about 1.3 TiB of storage.

Unit #2 for personal projects and general data is a Thecus N5200 Pro with four 1000 GB drives, providing about 2.7 TiB of storage.

These two units are then duplicated off-site and connected by a fibre optic link (currently running at 100 Mb/s while the rest of the network is running at 1000 Mb/s).

One of the reasons for the upgrade to the Thecus units for personal storage is that they can grow to 3.6 TiB of storage with the addition of one 1000 GB drive to each. We are in the midst of a film scanning marathon that is seeing me scanning my Velvia slides to 36 MB files and my son scanning our family negatives to 18 MB files. We’re running the Nikon Coolscan 5000 ED in multiple shifts between the two of us. It was my son’s summer job.

With the addition of this storage and a subtle change in my storage model, I decided that it was time to re-think how the NAS units got loaded. I am still ingesting to a local hard drive; 750 GB for the main audio workstation and 250 GB for the photo workstation.

I use ViceVersa Pro from TGRMN and have loved it for many years. I use it to compare the work or release folders on the local machine with the target shares on the NASes. It then pushes the files that are older or non-existent on the NASes to both NASes. In the case of the audio workstation, it can push both client projects and personal projects to the two NASes and their off-site mirrors. We do NOT propagate deletes.

In order to avoid heat-soak of the RME Multiface AD/DA converters attached to the audio computer, I wanted to shut it down after a push session. Rather than just use ViceVersa’s scheduled run system and run the backup sometime when I am sleeping, I wanted to start the backup manually as soon as I was done and then have the machine shut down.

There is an undocumented command within Windows XP called “Shutdown”. Click on run and then enter “cmd” to open a DOS box. Type “Shutdown” (w/o the quotes) and hit enter. This will provide a list of parameters.

To shut down the computer enter
shutdown -s
To abort the shutdown enter
shutdown -a
And to change the default 30 second timeout to 60 seconds enter
shutdown -s -t 60

You can add a script for ViceVersa to run after it’s done, so I added the shutdown command to a batch file. I made this ViceVersa configuration an auto-run shortcut on my desktop. Right above it, I made another shortcut with shutdown’s abort command in it.

Now, when I’m done for the day, I can run the file pushout routines and still have the computer shut down as soon as it’s done–while I’m sleeping.

If you want to do off-site with NAS units but without the interconnection and the constant checking and alerting–in other words, you want a backup unit that just sits there off-site and is brought together with the main one every few weeks–then I would strongly suggest RAID-6 for both. This is the configuration I would suggest considering if you live in an area subject to major earthquakes and/or wildfires. It’s obvious that my California mentality hasn’t fully left me!

For “office” type work, all of the files reside on the local Thecus NAS. We run an update routine from our 24/7 Mail client PC to backup those documents nightly. The mail itself is pushed out as per the above model. Again, we do not propagate deletes.

A complete set of backups from local to off-site also run nightly on the photo computer, although that is not kept up every night. All this is done with ViceVersa Pro.

One of the neat things we do with ViceVersa is for JPG files in the images shares, we do not propagate changes from the local to the remote NAS. In that way, the image on the remote NAS is more like a “negative” for the family digital cameras that shoot JPGs. In that way, if one of my sons edits an image and wants the original back–and violates our rule that derivatives are renamed–we still have the original. I’d rather risk losing the derivative image than the original should the local NAS fail. We also do that with WAV files as we have had some minor modifications made to WAV file metadata with earlier versions of software. It does not seem to be an issue with the current software.

It appears that I am not alone in thinking this is a good product as it has resurfaced as the U-Print CDP78, now in black, and available from many online distributors. The cartridges appear to be interchangeable with the Primera. I can now suggest that this is a good alternative for safe, long-lasting, and reasonably attractive text labeling of CDs and DVDs. It appears that the Teac P11 is also similar. The last time I checked, the Casio required manual rotation of the disk, rather than the Primera’s automatic rotation.

Please provide me with any feedback pro or con—preferably as comments to this post.

The recent experience: A client project generated about 70 GB of files so hard-drive delivery made sense–especially since I had two gently used Western Digital Passport 80 GB drives sitting on the shelf. There would be no infant mortality here. The client (on one continent) and the producer (on another continent) were both to receive copies. I shipped them off and the producer (on the same continent as I) received his copy first and mentioned to the client he couldn’t read it on his Mac. The client had told me he was sure that the Mac would read NTFS, so based on my conversation with Eric, I decided, with client approval, to send NTFS. A few days later, the client received his copy and is pleased with the files and was able to open them without a hitch on his Mac.

As of this writing, the issue of the producer’s disk is still up in the air. I have offered to take it back, reformat it as FAT32, reload the files with MD5 checksums, verify the checksums, and return the drive to him. I think the producer is looking for a Mac utility that will permit reading the disk as-is. I hope so, less work here, but still I’m willing to undertake this to maintain client satisfaction.

In the meantime, I was searching for an easy way to format a drive larger than 32 GB in FAT32 which is locked out by design in Windows XP. It turns out that there is a DOS-box utility, FAT32FORMAT, that works like a charm. If the drives are combo USB/FireWire, using the Sound Devices 722 to format them would be a choice, but for USB-only drives, that is not an available option. PLEASE be careful as this utility will destroy all data on the disk. Use it with care.

After posting the above, the producer gave up trying to read the disk. I reformatted it FAT32, reloaded it, sent it back to him and he was happy.

“You may also be encountering JIS (Japanese Industrial Standard, IIRC) crosspoint (not sure if “Phillips” is correct here, although people do say it) screws. These are a bit different than a standard Phillips, but don’t necessarily have telltale markings. One dot between two slots and near the center is the potential marking that I’m aware of. This is part of why I think you may be seeing JIS, not PoziDriv:
http://realbig.com/miata/1999-09/2918.html

“I just encountered, AFAIK, my first PoziDriv’s, on a Maxtor HD.

“You might encounter these on Japanese-made RC vehicles (helicopters), cameras, print/copier machines, bike parts, (old, at least) Honda motorcycles, and probably a lot more things than people realize.

“PB Baumann (SwissTools) claims their Phillips tools are designed for DIN/ISO and JIS, but I don’t know if that’s truly possible. Hozan provides screwdrivers. Vessel (another Japanese company) makes some. Wiha, I heard, doesn’t know what JIS crosspoint is. Moody (RI company, specialize in “precision” drivers) makes some. Ames offers some. Jensen (part of Stanley?), I’ve heard does.

“Products:
http://www.heliproz.com/jisdrivers.html
http://www.escience.ca/jensen/RENDER/1/26/235/3483.html
http://www.centralhobbies.com/Tools/jis.html
http://www.ikaswebshop.com/jisphilips.html
http://amessupply.com/products1.cfm?aid=1&cid=D&sid=DE&fid=1404070

“Discussions:
(there is useful information in here, but might have to do some sifting)
http://www.mail-archive.com/pdml@pdml.net/msg211895.html
http://www.practicalmachinist.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=021387;p=0
http://www.runryder.com/helicopter/t136466p1/
http://support.conurus.com/viewtopic.php?t=10
http://www.instructables.com/id/Enhance-the-functionality-of-many-screwdrivers./

“I hope that this helps.”

Here is what appears to be a vastly improved solution:

The image above shows the view of a 4-track 1/4-inch tape and the reticle from the B&L magnifier.  Track 4 (at the top) shows slightly at the top right and then fades out. Images made with Nikon D200 and Nikon 105 mm f/2.8 Micro-Nikkor without the magnifier lens attached. The following image shows an overview of the magnifier and viewer on an A80RC.

When some of the folks on the Studer list started discussing the Sigma Hi-Chemical MV-95 magnetic viewer (seen here), I was curious. It is not inexpensive, but a kind list member set up a group buy and I bought one and am very impressed. It is slower to react, but after a minute or so, it gives a very good image of the track format and shows signals at a lower level more easily than either of the previous two products.

To round out the “kit” I decided I needed another magnifier and the good folks at Efston Science in Toronto recommended a Bausch & Lomb 7X Hastings Triplet Measuring Magnifier with the 81-34-36 General purpose scale. This is a compact unit with scales  of 0.5 inch, 10 mm and a quadrant of angles, among others. Calibration is 0.005 inches and 0.1 mm and one degree. Here is the B&L page for this product. It appears that many online retailers sell this. Peak makes a similar unit (here or  here) called the Mini-Comparator 7X. An alternate reticle might be more useful than the simple metric one that normally comes with this. I like the one that came with the B&L which is almost identical to the Peak #12 (shown here). I would consider both inch and metric scales as I think about track widths in both measurement systems.

Of course, you’ll need more light, and the ever-handy Surefire LED flashlight is my tool of choice. Here is my page about flashlights.

I often place things like this behind the head stack on a machine. Be careful on an A80 as there is a round-head screw that could damage the thin bottom metal sheet of the viewer. I removed the screw.

The Arnold/Plastiform Magnetic Viewer
Marie Rundell
Plastiform Division of Arnold
1000 E. Eisenhower Ave.
Norfolk, NE 68701
PH: 402 371 6100 ext. 176
FX: 402 371 6124
As of mid-2003 these were $88.00 in quantities of one.

Kyread DIP-C-141B Magnetic Tape Developer
See this post: (Updated 2011-05-30)

Comments:

From Chris Goosman Posted Mar 8, 2006 5:33 PM

Richard, something I\’ve never seen the answer to is do these chemicals damage the tape at all? My guess is no, but before I dumped something on the tape I\’d like to know that I\’m not hurting anything.

I replied Mar 8, 2006 5:50 PM

Hi, Chris,

Thanks for stopping by.

The Kyread is just iron powder in a quick-evaporating carrier. I think the carriers used to be Freon(tm), but now I don\’t know precisely what they are.

The beauty of the Plastiform viewer is that it\’s a very thin aluminum foil that touches the tape surface (no sharp edges) and the slurry is on the other side. Nothing touches nor stays on the tape. I use that _much_ more than the Kyread. I think it\’s a bit more sensitive, too.

FerroFluids also makes some very, very expensive materials that I\’ve never looked into. Some people make their own.

Gibbs from Univ of Washington left this on Mar 13, 2006 5:01 PM:

Sprague Magnetics in Sylmar California also sells a magnetic developer \”Sprague-Mag\” SM-2 (liquid in bottle) and SM-1 (spray).

I bought a set of Hozan [JIS] drivers, but now that I’ve learned that PB makes them [maybe] (see tools article) I’ll buy any additional ones from them. Pozidrive screws have “tick” marks between the slots–or should.

Here is an interesting explanation of the different screw heads in the context of cabinet/furniture making.

After some testing with both Phillips and Pozidrive drivers, it seems that some/many of the inexpensive screws that come packaged with home hardware-type items are non-descript and perhaps don’t meet either standard!

There are essentially two choices when this happens:

• Slot the screw with a Dremel rotary tool and a small cutoff blade and use a slotted screwdriver to remove the screw.
• Use some sort of Ez-Out screw extractor.

When I was confronted with this situation recently and I didn’t have an EZ-out of the correct size to bite into  the screw  without drilling,  I grabbed a T10 Torx driver and gently tapped it into the screw head. I pushed in hard while starting to turn and the screw came out.

The tools that Studer supplied (when required) were made by PB Baumann, now PB Swiss Tools in Switzerland.

My preferred supplier (for North America) is Tool Lady. She also sells Wiha tools to complement the PB line.

What is easier to use than ready-made BLOG software, so I guess Richard is finally Blogging!

I hope you like this and find it of interest. Please let me know of any changes or topics you might like addressed.

Enjoy!

Note: This post has been put in every top-level category because it appears that a post is needed in each top-level category if the sub-categories are to be visible.

Note 2: The Tips  & Notes blog and the  Formats & Resources  static pages of this  sub-site replace the Tips and Resources static pages on the Web site. And, there is integrated searching across both the blog articles and the static pages.