Toolemera Blog

The Bees Knees

If you look very closely at this Real Photo Post Card (read more at this Wiki, which, although I do not provide ethical support for anything Wikipedia, I do make use of the information there simply because it exists. I simply won't stand by anything Wiki as having any grain of truth, at least until such time as sources become open to examination.) you can just make out Bees Knees.

Or, at least the knees of the Apiarists who are braving the stinging hoards. Luckily for you and me, these two nattily attired gents desired their apiaist activities to be recorded for postcard posterity, all the while sitting on their posteriors.

Check the smoker gently smoking by itself in the lower left hand corner of the image. No static pose this. Here we have an action photograph of the like even Arnold would never dare to pose for.

Once I finish correcting some navigation errors that crept into the main website, I'll place this image along with others in the Early Photographs section. The error was mine. I made a change in the nav bar and forgot to specify an internal linkage, thereby throwing the world into chaos.

Till next, Gary

Baldwin Tool Catalog, 1858

Amongst 10 linear inches (archives speak for a bunch of stuff) of ephemera that came up north from a dealer down south, there is a Baldwin Tool Catalog from 1858. All of the stuff in this box came from a hardware wholesale store from Georgia who was in business just before the Civil War, seemed to do something else during, and reopened afterwards. More on that once some research is completed.

All of this material is filthy. Damp stains, carbon stains, stains on stains. There was clearly some fires at work here. Everything has carbon sifted in and over every edge it can get to. I've slowly processed this material, starting with freezing the suspicious stuff to halt any possible mold or mildew.

Next, cleansing loose carbon or dust by hand. Most of this paper is too fragile to be washed, even in a float tray. The heat this paper was subjected has made it all very fragile, almost onion skin paper iike in many instances. For the long range goal, much of it will be image and printed, then either stored or destroyed if there are any indications of mold or mildew.

Back to Baldwin. The front cover on this catalog is gone. The rear cover is there, but almost turning to dust. What little gilded lettering there was has long gone. The only way to handle this item was to gently remove the remenants of the spine and the deteriorating threads and then image it page by page.

Along the  way, I realized this catalog features engravings of moldings planes. Not just engravings, but full sized, head on profiles complete with sizes, descriptions, measurements and catalog numbers.

Back to work. More carbon to remove. More pages to gently press flat, although there is only so much you can do with paper in this state. And then... I'm thinking a nice grayscale reprint along with a PDF on the website?

I'm also wondering what else I'll find in this 10 linear inches of paper. Some of it is stuff I bought outright but some are packs the dealer sent up to me for free in return for advice I gave on how to handle the other stuff she sold. When she said this stuff was Nasty and Dirty, she was right.

Till next, and with increasingly dirty fingers, Gary

 

And then there is the Internet Archive

Internet Archive BookReader

Till next, Gary

How Do You Read Your PDF Files?

cPanel is a powerful set of site monitoring tools included in my web hosting package by Jim Esten. Unfortunately, cPanel is not capable of discerning what happens once the site visitor has left the site.

I can find out what browser people are using but I can't find out what browser addons are in place or what services are selected.

Thus, this question: How do you view your PDF files? The PDF files in Toolemera are not your average text doc to PDF. There generally isn't any OCR or other hidden text carry over from an original Word or other text document. These files begin life as a bunch of TIFF files, are converted via Acrobat Pro into an appropriately sized PDF and go through life as a PDF consisting of a bunch of images of fixed original dimensions, resolution and color mode.

Which brings us to today's class snap quiz: How do you view the PDF files from this website which I have added as a VIZU poll for yours and my convenience on the sidebar to your right --->

All collected data will be subjected to rigorous statistical analysis by yours truly. If you object to electronic polls, please feel free to leave comments or emails concerning this ground breaking study.

Till next, Gary

PS: Migrainey night means thick head. Whatever online format is selected, there will always be a downloadable version too.

Google Viewer Thumbs Down, Flash Flip Book Thumbs Up

I sent Google Docs Viewer into the Arena and the stands gave it a thumbs down. Same for Samurajdata. Both had simply too many problems ranging from ferocious downsampling of images to massive thumbnails to annoying scrolling.

Which means: PDF to Flash flip books. Much as I don't like Flash, it's the only way to get the stuff easily accessible online. Sure, your browser can read a PDF if the settings are right but a great many people don't go near Preference Settings, don't want to mess with download versus inline reading and don't want to even think about which is which.

I'm evaluating a few options to see which fits my needs: Nothing cloud based because clouds have a habit of raining on parades; nothing costing in the four figures because this is not an Enterprise Solution, I'll have you know; nothing written in obscure code that only four people in Cambridge can understand and most of all, it has to be easy to navigate.

Possibilities: Axmag; Flip PDF For Mac; Mac PDF Flash Converter For Mac.

Coming sometime soon: discussing Amazon Plan B: Does anyone really think Amazon cares?

Till next, Gary