Comments for Notional Slurry

Comment on Have a Book: Theodore Thinker’s Tales: The Balloon and Other Stories (1859) by Lucy

Lucy — Thu, 17 May 2012 22:47:15 +0000

We just found a very similar book among my mother’s possessions.…can you tell us anything about it? The second page cites “NEW YORK: Clark & Maynard, 5 Barclay St. (no date)”.

Comment on Plustek A300 and Book Pavilion: first impressions by Marek

Marek — Tue, 01 May 2012 10:56:21 +0000

In the meantime, I have remembered a solution I used once to automate scanning on a nice Canon, and it might work to navigate around the Plustek “experience”). I used FineReader and never had to look at Canon interface, which wasn’t too bad anyway. Now, I’m not suggesting FineReader is “the” solution for Plustek, but then, there are other two other apps which might do, although I haven’t tried them. One is said to be very good, but pricey (Silverfast), the other is said to be good, but reasonable (Vuescan). Silverfast support A300, Vuescan doesn’t, but it does support a similar model, A360 (phased out), and they claim it could work for other, similar scanners. Plus you can try it out for free. I haven’t used either package yet, but if FineReader drove my Canon, it, or silverfast or vuescan could drive the A300 too.

Comment on Plustek A300 and Book Pavilion: first impressions by Tozier

Tozier — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 13:26:41 +0000

Well, I have to say that eventually I managed to cobble together a stable-feeling thing. It manages to work, and run the hardware, and save pages (when I remember to tell it to do so), but I also feel it's a sort of fragile truce we have. For instance, the exact timing of when I plug in the scanner, when I launch the software, when I mount the scanner, and all that kind of thing is still a mystery, and I usually have to try two or three times. But I can save 700-dpi scans of 11″×17″ pages, in color. So the truce muddles on. I expect Plustek manages because the next-cheapest scanner capable of that is well over $10000, last I checked.

Comment on Plustek A300 and Book Pavilion: first impressions by Marek

Marek — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 13:22:47 +0000

Thank you very much. Yours is the only (and I mean it), close-to-life review of this hardware on the whole Net (amongst fewer than 5 reviews of this kit, period).
Not having progressed to your stage (“proud ownership of “this”) I share the sentiment, as an owner of Mustek hardware (company oddly similar to Plustek, not only in name, but also in general experience with their products software and their infamous non-customer service).
Having read complaints about Plustek software (just about 100% of Amazon comments ranging from gentle resignation: “software could be better” to no-minced: why the f… can’t they EVER get it right in the end?!) — I must say I’m disappointed, having read your review of this scanner. In short, I was hoping, that they would, finally, get it right. At least, MORE OR LESS get it right. This is not an unreasonable hope, given the price of this hardware. I was hoping, because this seemed to be the only scanner that would meet my needs (very fast scanner for a very tight scanning schedule).
And I share the incredulity that a company that flogs a USD 1,500 piece of hardware, can happily continue to produce it (and sell, presumably?) with software that puts you off Plustek — for life. I guess, if the aim of a business enterprise would be to sell the least possible quantity of their kit, this would be one sure way. Well, presumably, once they sold this box to you, they got your cash, and they don’t care. But how on earth have they managed to stay afloat for so long with such tactics?!

Comment on Requirements, Design, Implementation, Verification, Maintenance by Tozier

Tozier — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 12:17:35 +0000

What I’m hearing in your discussions is a focus on the role of internal communication and learning to the success of a project.

I had originally intended to model these functionalities as essentially optimal to begin with, and permit perfect transfer of information between them in both project structures (one-cycle, many-cycle). And then later add in some realistic inefficiencies, like bounded rationality, inertia in learning or just-plain-errors.

But it sounds as if you both really want the actions of Analysis (“requirements-gathering”) and Coding (“implementation”) to start off as the subject of our storytelling, rather than being a mere control parameter as I’d considered. Can do.

Comment on Requirements, Design, Implementation, Verification, Maintenance by Five Blogs – 12 March 2012 « 5blogs

Five Blogs – 12 March 2012 « 5blogs — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 22:13:58 +0000

[…] Requirements, Design, Implementation, Verification, Maintenance Written by: William Tozier […]

Comment on Requirements, Design, Implementation, Verification, Maintenance by Tozier

Tozier — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 22:02:27 +0000

Laurent, point of order: an Nk model is different from a Random Boolean Network. An Nk model is a fixed function of N inputs mapped to a single “performance” or “fitness” measure. A Boolean Network is a dynamical system, with no intrinsic “fitness” attribute.