[ale] [OT] Misc. brain droppings for a December storm

[tfreeman at intel.digichem.net]

I _really_ don't want to go outside into the sleet at this time (not sure 
what Atlanta proper is having this moment, but I'm up the road a few 
hours). I'm not getting anything else useful accomplished at this time 
inside either, so I've decided to pester the list with some random stuff 
that is currently irritating me, and see if something useful develops 
under the care of you bright people. It's all computer related for once.

1) I've got all my machines on UPSs now, and this highly desireable 
technology has me confused a little bit. Why is it you never see a UPS 
built into a tower case/power supply? Getting rid of at least one _thick_ 
wire, possibly two, an extra box to secure away from feet and pesky 
fingers, plus the electrical inefficiencies (probably minimal) of 
switching from mains to battery to mains to mommy board  seems like a 
desireable thing to do, yet I have yet to see it done. I must be missing 
something important, but what?

2) On the idea of UPSs, why do we not see UPSs built around flywheels for 
home use. I've seen one outfit testing the market for flywheel power 
backup in ISPs, but not for the home/office/SOHO. Yet I think flywheel 
devices might have some significant advantages over batteries, since 
weight on the floor is a minor issue. For one thing, flywheels can head to 
landfill at the end of usable life - lead acid, Ni-Cd, and most other 
battery materials need special handling due to toxic materials. Flywheels 
should also "recharge" faster at need, as there is no mass transfer to 
consider. 

3) I realize the fundamental answer here is "market demand", but where are 
the aggressively energy efficient desktop computer models? I'm not 
considering here servers handling 40 gazillion users simultaniously, but 
rather that box and display that sits next to the receptionist/typist 
waiting most of the day for a keystroke or two. Or any other system that 
sits most of the day, turned on but not actively processing words or 
crunching numbers. Energy to run these machines costs, and more energy is 
needed to keep them cool enough and so forth, but the economics of the 
situation don't seem to speak loud enough to be heard at the desk of the 
purchasing agent.

  Or is it more likely that I'm just plain nuts?

4) I have an Epson brand USB scanner which I have working quit nicely with 
xsane and friends. For all my scanning to date, logging in and starting up 
an application makes sense, since I want to select portions of the full 
scan, preview the results, and so forth. However, the scanner has this 
little "scan" button on its case, and I can see some applications where 
just pushing the button to initiate the scan would make a lot of sense 
(think photocopier). I such a case I would want to just mash a button, 
avoiding logging in and starting xsane or other application. Any body have 
a clue how to get both modes of operation going?

5) I have a digital camera, and have had a fair amount of success with it, 
and getting pictures onto a computer or printed at need. There are, 
however, two problems I'd like to address.  First, because the camera is 
relatively slow, it is fairly easy to get some motion blurring in the 
picture. Second, an over eager operator can take the picture before the 
camera has finished it's autofocus (or the autofocus is paying attention 
to the wrong part of the picture - that also happens). Both problems can 
be addressed by fourier transform techniques (think digitally enhanced 
pictures of a crime scene) at the cost of increase noise throughout the 
picture. 

  I have found various links on the web regarding these techniques over 
the past year and some, but either the link admits that this can be done 
or the presentation is way way over my head. Note that I have found one 
group in Virginia that will do this for a fee - but $100+ per is a lot 
more than these pictures are worth. It's likely more than _all_ of the 
affected pictures are worth...

6) On the subject of cleaning up pictures, does anybody know of a script 
for The Gimp which will constrain the crop operation being performed on a 
picture to maintain the correct ratios to print a 3x5" or 4x6" print? I've 
looked, and not found such a beast. Eventually I suppose I can learn to 
write one of my own, but I'd rather use somebody elses...


I thank the entire group for the use of bandwidth. 


-- 
=============================================
If you think Education is expensive
Try Ignorance
                   Author Unknown
============================================

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