6/27//2004 - A-ha! Leave it to a UMAX Scanner Support page to denote the problem. The scanner isn't bad. Turns out it's the connection to the PC. I've only got two USB ports on my PC, so I use a powered USB hub. Well, for some reason the powered USB hub was causing interference with the scanner. Recently a friend had given me an old videocapture device he didn't want anymore, so I had rearranged everything and the scanner had moved to the hub. The hub apparently was causing the signal to oscillate so I got horizontal scan lines. This is good news. I plugged the video capture device into the hub since I don't use it very often (and if I have problems with it, I'll just swap things around while using it) and the scanner into the port on the back of my PC directly and the scanner worked perfectly. Well, that saves me from having to scrounge up the cash for a new one, and prevents a good scanner from going to the landfill needlessly.

6/26//2004 - Today my flatbed scanner died... Or might as well have. I threw something onto it to scan and ended up with the image coming back with horizontal lines all over it. Lines like the scanning lens is bad, the CCD, the mirror, or the ribbon cable is damaged inside. Sure enough when I examined the interior of the scanner the ribbon cable looks damaged. We got the scanner (A Canon 620U) about 4 years ago. I won't be buying a Canon again after this, actually I won't be buying a scanner for a while and maybe if I'm lucky I'll get one for Christmas because financially we cannot afford to drop even $50.00 on an ultra-cheap one. I'd like an Epson Scanner as I've used them ALOT in the past, and have one on my desk at work. It's an old Epson SCSI Scanner, Epson Perfection 636 I think, and it's almost 6 years old. I've used Epson scanners before that were over 10 years old. Every cheap scanner I have bought has developed the problem of the horizontal lines for some reason though, my Microtek scanner did the same thing. It wouldn't be so bad if it just occurred during a color scan, but it screws up even the B&W and Greyscale scans as well which means I cannot scan in line art.

Anyway, this really sucks because I have a ton of B&W photos to scan, but no way to do it. I can't scan them at work because frankly I don't like using a work computer or equipment for personal use. I don't really feel it's ethical, and I like a clear separation of work and personal projects. I know alot of people use the equipment at their work for personal projects, personal use... but I feel like the company I work for didn't buy that PC, or buy that scanner for me to use for anything other than projects which benefit the company. That's why I've always maintained a good PC at home of my own, and my own equipment.

Speaking of needs, I also need a toner cart for a Samsung ML-1710, and my wife's Canon Inkjet needs some more black cartridges. Maybe in August we'll be able to afford them, or maybe September. If I can I'll try and get a scanner then.

6/13/2004 - My wife and I just returned from 2 weeks in Europe visiting family. This was my third time flying internationally, so the 8 and 9 1/2 hour flights on the longest legs of the journey over and back didn't seem as bad as they normally do. My sister-in-law was married during our visit, and the wedding was really beautiful and also gave me a bit of insight into how different other countries cultures are from those here in the US.

During our trip the D-Day commemorations were underway, and it was also a bit of a shock to see the perspective of Europe of D-Day. It was a good shock, I read alot of stories, and saw alot of things regarding how much Europe was looking forward to their liberation from the Nazi's during WWII by the allies... It also showed to me how US centric what we're taught in the school systems and history about D-Day. From what we were taught I always believed that the D-Day landings were only at Omaha beach (turns out there were 5 beaches) and that it was just US and British troops landing. That's not the case, and because of my US centric education I felt pretty ignorant to learn of all the nations participating in the invasion. I already knew about Czech fighter pilots flying for the RAF because of Dark Blue World, and what my wife had told me. I knew that the Russians liberated Czechoslovakia because of a treaty signed with the allies, which eventually led to most of the countries Russia liberated coming under the fist of communism later... but I did not know about the French artists who drew maps of German positions, and provided tons of intelligence as part of the French Resistance (which I did know about). Polish soldiers fighting alongside the British, or all of the other people from Europe who were either fighting as soldiers for their liberation.. or fighting in other ways as occupied people.

Towards the end of our trip CNN Europe reported Ronald Reagan had passed away. That was a bit of a shock, since I grew up essentially during the Reagan years and remember The Day After and living under the threat of Nuclear War, the rise of MTV during the 80's (back when they actually played music videos and not crap shows like today).

I've read alot about vote tampering, or the potential for it with the new electronic voting systems on Slashdot, and Blackbox Voting a while back. Alot of my Republican friends consider MoveOn.org to be just a voice for John Kerry, which amuses me because it's a lobbyist group which doesn't support our president primarily, and which is involved in getting people active in government and voicing their opinions. There are alot of Republican-centric groups similar to MoveOn.org floating around and they don't see anything wrong with those which is a bit hypocritical.

Anyway, MoveOn.org is getting active in trying to assure that a paper trail for Electronic Voting happens so that elections will continue to be fair and won't be stolen by any political party. Click here to check it out. I consider myself an independent voter, and there is nothing more important to me than that our elections be fair and that all people of our country be represented in our elections fairly. It is frightening that companies that make the voting machines see no need to provide a paper confirmation of each vote in case of technical problems because I work in IT and know how issues can arise with even the simplest systems. It is even more frightening how much the security of these machines appears to be easy to compromise. If you want to know more check out Blackboxvoting.org for more information.

Stephen