"Lost, yesterday, somewhere between sunrise and sunset, two golden hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered, for they are gone forever." � Horace Mann, 19th century American educator and reformer
Depending on the model, film scanners may incorporate proprietary technologies unique and exclusive to their manufacturer. Such technologies may include an auto-focus mechanism to ensure perfect image capture, a patented feeder mechanism, or specially designed holders for making film stay flat. These features may make a real difference in improving the quality of your scanning or streamlining your workflow.3. Want to update your backsplash? Use beadboard! Have your local home improvement store cut it to length and attach with nails or adhesive.2. To add a little flair, take out a few drawers and insert low baskets in their place. You will probably have to remove the middle drawer slide or side slides, but that is easily done with a screwdriver.SystemsThis is where goal setting has become the most meaningful for me � at the daily, weekly, or monthly level (I am awful at hitting any longer-term goals). Starting with a paper time management system (in a leather binder I took everywhere) and now on my notebook computer (which I don�t always take everywhere), I make notes of things I want to do on a particular day, week, or month. These are recorded when I get an idea, make a commitment, or set plans.5. Update your cabinets with special memories. Attach frames painted or stained to match the cabinets to the front of each door. Fill the frames with family photos or your children*s artwork. Or highlight a special collection such as vintage handkerchiefs or postcards.Style and Type Some flatbed scanners include either an external or built-in transparency adapter that is used to scan film. Other flatbeds are of a dual-bed design; i.e., with one bed - the glass flatbed part of the scanner -for scanning prints; and another bed - a transparency bay that looks like a pull-out drawer - for scanning film. If you intend to scan only the occasional slide or stray piece of film, and don't mind the lower resolution as well, a flatbed scanner that can accommodate film may well serve your purpose. Be aware, however, that the resulting film scans will not be suitable for commercial or professional use. To obtain the best results, nothing less than a dedicated film scanner will do.ResolutionKeys go on the same key rack by the garage door as soon as we come in the house. Files go right back in their file drawers. Articles are coded and filed in my library system for book, column, or presentation research later. Books go into their respective sections in my library. Presentations or workshop designs are filed for later reference so I don't have to start from scratch on something similar in months or years from now. Periodically I overcome the packrat in me and go through my filing system tossing things out, consolidating files, or moving files to my attic archives.The dynamic range of a scanner measures how well it can capture the tonal range of an image, ranging from the brightest highlights to the darkest shadows. Dynamic range is a more important spec in film scanners than it is for flatbeds, because film and other transparent media have a broader range of tones compared to photos or prints - something that film scanners are perfectly equipped to capture and show. Dynamic range is measured on a scale from 0.0 (perfect white) to 4.0 (perfect black), and the single number associated with a scanner indicates how much of that range it can tell apart. The minimum and maximum density values that can be captured by a scanner are called Dmin and Dmax, respectively. If a scanner's Dmin was 0.2 and its Dmax was 4.2, then its dynamic range would be 4.0. The dynamic range of film scanners are usually advertised by their manufacturers as falling somewhere between 4.0 and 4.6, but these are intrinsically difficult figures to prove or validate, and a model claiming a higher number may not necessarily have better results to show, mainly because of variances in testing and determining the figure. A more practical way of assessing would be to visually check how shadows and highlights are reproduced by the scanner and then compare the results to the original image or to how other scanners reproduce those same tonal colors.Dust and scratches on film can present a big challenge for film scanners, as imperfections can take on gigantic proportions when the film is scanned at the scanner's very high resolution. Film can also be damaged through improper handling, and what appears to the naked eye as a tiny scratch may render the image on a film practically useless. For this reason, a number of film-repair technologies have been developed to remove imperfections, allowing an image to be reconstructed and printed flawlessly, as though it came from a pristine original. These film-repair technologies may be implemented either through software alone, such as the dust-and-scratch removal feature from the SilverFast program by LaserSoft Imaging; or through a combination of hardware and software, as is the case with the DIGITAL ICE technology built-into some models.Very few people can �multitask� effectively and concentrate on two things at once or flit back and forth from one thing to another. I certainly can't. So I've found the clean desk approach to be the most effective. The only things on my desk and credenza are ornaments, family photos, computer, telephone, and an out-basket.Bit DepthOther technologies
My PODS approach looks dangerously obsessive to some and "interesting" to others. I am continuing to customize and evolve it to fit me. I have come to believe that there is no one right personal time management and organization system. We all need to continue developing and refining the system that works best for our own quirks and preferences.
Author: Jim Clemmer
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