Two quick questions:
1.) One of my big projects for this upcoming year is to digitize the family picture albums. Does anyone have a suggestion for a good scanner as well as good software that will allow you to add commentary to pictures for just this sort of project?
2.) I’m moving in a couple of months (we can talk about that later), and I think I would like to add a saltwater fish tank to the new house. Not one of those massive ones built into the wall that would make me look my place look like a Miami coke dealer’s, but just a decent sized tank to place. I’m not really much of a fan of domestic fish tanks, and the saltwater ones always seem to have much better looking fish and look cleaner. Approximately what kind of money are we looking at, and more importantly, what kind of man hours to keep a tank clean and appealing and healthy for the fish?
Also- Kennedy Center awards. I’m a big fan of Dave Brubeck- DougJ can not stand him. We both agree on Miles, though.
When Brubeck’s sons were introduced to play a medley of his songs, he gave a bewildered smile and said “Son of a bitch” and then grinned ear to ear. It was really nice.
Bruce (formerly Steve S.)
1. Let’s talk about HCR instead.
2. Let’s talk about HCR instead.
Perry Como
Salt water tanks take a lot of time and effort to just get started. Protip: after you spend a few months getting the tank primed for exotic species, don’t put a jellyfish and sea anemone in at the same time. I thought it was hilarious because it was my roommate, not me. And I’m a dick. Also.
schrodinger's cat
Sushi for Tunch! How thoughtful.
When I was growing up, we had two fish tanks, freshwater, my mother took care of them and I remember that it was a lot of work. I don’t know how much more work salt water tanks are.
MattR
Don’t forget to ask Tunch what flavor fish he prefers?
srv
Saltwater is a lot of work, or at least used to be. Many aquarium shops will actually provide a monthly service for someone to come in to take care of it.
I imagine if you provide a tank/Tunch webcam tipjar, the cat people here would pay for it.
Ben
Looking to have Tunch feed himself, eh?
(Yes, others made the joke already. I don’t care. It’s never not funny.)
srv
Mr. Exploding Underpants provokes the slippery slope in Yemen:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/12/29/us.yemen.strike.targets/index.html
And Karl Rove divorced. Who would have thought.
eastriver
Are you going to be supplying the kitties and puppies with SCUBA outfits? Yes?
CAN WE GET BACK ON SUBJECT?
(Not to be a nudge, but can you do anything these days, JC, without the wisdom of this crowd? “I’m thinking of scratching my balls. Which ball should I start with? Does anyone have a preference? Left? Right? Should l let Tunch have a go at it first?”)
Dreggas
@Perry Como:
ok what happened? other than the jellyfish killing the other fish just by bobbing around.
I remember going into a local vietnamese restaurant and they had a fish tank with some sort of big jawed pink fish in it, not sure what kind, and a couple of algae eaters. The algae eaters were apparently a tasty delicacy to the big fish and, well, we got an evenings worth of entertainment as the big fish bit and chewed on the algae eater and it kept escaping only to be nearly swallowed whole again.
Dreggas
On topic, my understanding is salt water tanks take a lot of effort to get setup and more effort to maintain and they aren’t cheap.
John Cole
@eastriver: You are right. I should just strap on a flight suit and start buying “fish like shit” at PetCo. Mission accomplished, bitches.
Douchebag. In case you haven’t noticed, excluding you, there are a lot of smart folks here who have usually done the things I have already talked about. In general, it is a sign of having a frontal lobe that you learn from other people’s mistakes. I’d be insane to not ask for advice.
Zam
@Dreggas: I want to start battling fish right now!
Face
I dont own a salt water tank, but my cousin does and she says they’re a freakin nightmare. Yeah, you got bee-yootiful phish, but to maintain the salinity and temp and cleanliness, etc. is a PITA.
Will
Scanners are pretty much commodities these days. Pick a Canon or other big brand in the $100 range and buy it.
As for the archiving, I like Picasa for Windows and iPhoto for Mac. Picasa’s free and iPhoto comes with the Mac.
Sasha
Salt water tanks cost a ton of money to maintain and the fish are crazy expensive. They are also unbelievably fragile. My stupid step-brother dipped his hand in the tank my evil step-mother kept and killed every last fish; he had had traces of solvent on his hand from working on his motorcycle.
That was it for her; she gave up on salt water after that. Also, if I remember correctly, it’s actually easier to maintain the larger tanks; they’re more stable in temperature and condition.
Stay away from salt water tanks.
BruceFromOhio
As metatags in html, or as properties on the source file, or … other? Not clear how you would use-view such commentary.
MrsOhio and I were discussing the big backlog of analog data to scan. We have an ordinary HP scanner and Photoshop to clean up dust and scratches. It (P.shop) renders just about anything. The ultimate goal is to have web pages built with quick-to-load thumbnails that click through to source. I could see hanging text files off that, not sure how to craft that with native jpeg source.
There’s a shitload of free ‘album’ software, Adobe had one that was so-so once you learned all the menu’s. Definitely try before you buy.
robertdsc
LOL. Perfect.
MikeJ
I’ve got an HP scanner of some sort. Has a nice hopper you can throw a stack of pictures in and a conveyor belt like thing on the underside of the lid. The hardware is nice. The software it comes with is shit. Gets slower and slower and slower as you scan more pictures, and the whole point is to scan lots of pics.
HP Sauce is very tasty. In short, use HP on food, don’t use it on computers.
MattR
@John Cole: When you start asking us how your outfit looks, then I will begin to get worried.
Will
As for the saltwater tank, I’d rethink it. I used to work at an aquarium – the kind with sharks and stuff – and a lot of the staff made good side money taking care of office and restaurant salt water tanks. They also had B.S. and M.A.s in marine biology and still fucked up sometimes.
Unless you want to spend the next couple years investing all your time studying water chemistry, fish biology and filtration, you are going to fail and by fail I mean lose every living thing in the tank as your little ecosystem crashes. And if you do everything right, you are still going to fail a lot before you get it right.
Saltwater aquariums are a seriously cost, time and effort intensive hobby.
General Winfield Stuck
@eastriver:
This is such a fruitless angle of attack, as well as being thoroughly assholish. Did your momma beat you an idiot stick to cause it?
Faux
We got a HP G4050 for the scanning, and it worked wonderfully, even with my Mac. For tagging and sorting purposes, I used Adobe Bridge. After a little playing around with the interface, it worked adequately, although I probably wouldn’t recommend it to someone without the Adobe experience I have.
For sharing, I put everything on a Flickr Pro account.
You’ll hate yourself by the end of it. If you have the money/friends, find a professional photo scanner that auto-feeds, after 6 months and almost 200,000 photos, I wish I did.
Ugh
Not much to offer on #1. On #2 I do recall from when I was a kid that the saltwater tank my parents had was a huge pain in the ass that involved lots of dead fish. But that was 25 year ago SO GET OFF MY LAWN.
Rosali
My friend had a salt water tank and spent more than $1000 in less than a year on it. I had to go feed the fish every time he went out of town. The fish kept dying and he spent an inordinate amount of time measuring stuff in the tank. The fish cuteness vs. time & $ spent ratio was not worth it.
You better be planning on staying in your new place for a looooong time because my friend had to sell his tank for a real cheap price because it was a bigger headache to try to move it.
Citizen_X
No personal experience of my own, but to judge from salt-water fisheads I’ve known, I gather it’s a case of either go massively obsessed or fugedaboutit.
Perhaps it is indeed something you want to get massively obsessed about. (After all, you don’t seem to have a problem fussing over pets. And it would certainly grab Tunch’s attention.) But I don’t think it’s something you can get into lightly.
Chuck Butcher
As far as I can tell from scanning with a dedicated flatbed it is slow. To load and save is about 3 minutes each, no messing with the pictures. Windows slide show lets you add text and voice, fixing pictures isn’t something I do except rarely. Adobe Elements is cheap.
As for fish, I use a hook and line…
freelancer
@eastriver:
Sadly, if this were to happen, Tunch wouldn’t be the first.
Punchy
John, the decision tree looks like this:
Salt tank or retirement fund
If the former, then it becomes: tank maintance or girlfriend
If still the former, then it becomes: Is Cole sane or insane?
fizzlogic
Save yourself the time and money; don’t do saltwater. You have no idea how much it’ll cost you before you give up. Saltwater fish are beautiful, expensive, and they die no matter how much money you put into quality equipment.
eastriver
@John Cole:
“strap on a flight suit” “fish like shit”? What in tarnation are you drinking, JC? Did you go and buy yourself some of that cut-rate West Virginny moonshine for Christmas?
“Douchebag?” Niiiiiice. Your inner-republican is showing his reptilian head.
Thanks for taking the gloves off, douchenozzle.
You’re right. There are many smart people here… excluding you. How many of them do you see asking for advice from you? The advice seems to flow kinda one-way around here.
Ah, never mind. Why bother? I’ll just go with the flow.
Left. Start with the left nut, JC.
rob!
Re: The Kennedy Center Honors–I am SO GLAD my boy Bob Dylan got one during Clinton’s years. I don’t think I would’ve have been able to stomach seeing Bob standing anywhere near Chimpy.
BruceJ
Saltwater tanks = Freshwater * 5X Work + 10X cost.
Also, for once the Miami drug dealers are right: larger tanks are more stable than smaller ones, plus you can have more than one fish in them. SW fish need more space than FW ones.
For a scanner, I’d recommend a Canon. We’ve used a bunch at work and I own one myself.
For scanning software I reccomend VueScan better software than I’ve seen any but very high-end scanners come with.
For archiveing software I second the Picasa/iPhoto reccomendation earlier.
PhoenixRising
2) Get a big-ass freshwater tank.
Get pretty tropical fish that were bred in captivity.
Get to know the kid with big ol facial piercings at your neighborhood pet store, and s/he will tell you this: Salt water fish are fragile, expensive and wild harvested, so it’s like taking a piss on a coral reef to put them in your home. Further, within a year or two a salt water tank will cost you the same as a 4 day snorkel trip to Cozumel, but be less fantastic to look at. Plus, umbrella drinks!
We’ve tried both, and the 100 gallon freshwater tank plus annual trips to Mexican beaches is a more rewarding place to put the same money.
BruceFromOhio
@Faux:
Cats in a frakking handbag, mate, from whence all the photos? Was this a paid gig?
And did you touch up the scans with anything? I don’t have that big a catalog, but my partner in this crime likes to “fix” things – dirt marks, damage to originals, crease lines and the like.
Comrade Kevin
@eastriver: You really are tiresome.
Max
Are you getting the waterbed with the mirrored headboard that goes with the fish tank?
arguingwithsignposts
@John Cole:
.
Mission Accomplished!
Did someone say kittehs? Smudge.
madmommy
Salt water tanks are hella expensive and extremely time consuming. The best way to go is to have a service take care of it for you, because it is so very easy to screw it up and suddenly hundreds if not thousands of dollars of fish are floating sideways. On the flip side, salt water set-ups are really beautiful, and the fish are spectacular. So if it’s merely an entertainment for Tunch, go fresh-water. If you’re willing to go whole hog, and never leave home for more than a day without someone lined up to maintain the tank, then have at it!
eastriver
@Comrade Kevin:
You have no idea, CK. It’s not easy for me, either.
Maxwel
I have an Epson Artisan 800 which is a color Ink-jet MF device. The scanner works well. The printer is used for an occasional retinal image. I use Ritz Pix for most photos.
PhoenixRising
The tank is in my wife’s office. Her cat lies in wait, casting a cat-shaped shadow by wedging herself between the tank and the window. Of course, she only weighs 7 pounds–Tunch would present a hazard to the stability of your set-up if he could get leverage against the house.
Mrs. Phoenix really likes these fancy blue fish that look like butterflies, I’ll ask her what they are called, that loom large over her school of neon tetras. The visual is stunning.
kommrade reproductive vigor
A. Lot.
Start with a goldfish (which is basically a pretty carp). If you can keep that alive for a year, you might be ready for a small fresh water tank. Not with any fish mind, just the tank.
So, you getting hitched or what?
Michael D.
SW Tank:
At least 40+ gallons
15 fish ($10+ each)
Chemicals, food, live plants – $350++
Worth it.
SiubhanDuinne
@eastriver #8
“Not to be a nudge, but . . . ”
Oh honey, you’re WAY (++ “*(2.
Nellcote
Better discription of what you’re after please. I’m picturing thought balloons but doubt that’s correct.
Rosali
I think big salt water fish tanks are something that guys get, not because the fish make them happy but, rather, because they think it will impress other people. You’re wrong.
Trust me. You would be better off using that fresh water tank money and buying a case of wine.
RedKitten
For the amount you’d spend on a salt water tank, the fish (and assorted paraphernalia), and the maintenance, you can buy a fuck of a lot of trips to Sea World.
This. I had a coworker who had a saltwater tank, and it was gorgeous, but between the fish, the corals, the maintenance, etc. he was spending an absurd quantity of money. If you want something pretty to look at, I’d invest in a nice piece of art instead. It won’t die on you after you spend a few thou on it.
That’s exciting that you’re moving! ! ! Will you have a nice big yard for Miss Lily to frolic and play?
gwangung
Yeah, VueScan is top notch scanning software (Windows and Mac OS X), and you can use it with almost any scanner on the market.
Me, I use an Epson V500; it’s pretty decent and has a fairly good dynamic color range for something under $250.
CalD
Ezra Klein agrees with me.
Oh, and I’d only consider ever having an aquarium again if I were growing the fish to eat.
SiubhanDuinne
Let’s try that again.
@eastriver #8
“Not to be a nudge, but . . . ”
Oh honey, you’re WAY too late.
Keith G
Buy a hamster. No matter what the sex, name it Jane.
JK
On the saltwater fish front. IMO it is much easier and much less work than most people think. Some of this is because the equipment has gotten better and some of it is because the quality of animals is much much better. First ask yourself though “Am I willing to rip things out of the wild to put into my home?” Very few saltwater creatures are captive bred although it is easier and easier to get corals that are “captive bred.” Basically a coral is allowed to grow in captivity and then a frag it broken off and can become a new coral, hence sustainable. Also the myth of needing to go huge to be successful is well a myth. I keep a ~22 gallon tank and have for the past six years. I have had to move it five times (don’t ask) and it has survived the move each time. Kinda a pain in the ass to move but not as horrible as I had thought. The mini and micro- salt tanks can be very successful, but the real key is to limit the number of fish in your tank. If you stick to 2″ per 10 gallons as a max you should be fine with minimal maintenance. For example I keep between 0-3″ of fish in my 22 gallon tank. What you can keep tons! of are crabs, snails etc. These will actually keep your tank cleaner. Then add mushrooms, corals, leather corals polyps etc and you can have a very nice looking tank. I only do water changes about 1 a month if I remember to be good, but again because it is not overstocked with fish and fish waste and leftover food. But I do top off with fresh water twice a week or so and honestly could be water changing more than I am but I have been getting away with it for so long why change. Doing too frequent of water changes (or more likely too large of volume changes) can be harmful.
Bottom line though is be prepared to spend some money and be PATIENT. Start slow. Buy live sand and add some live rock. Give it a few weeks and add some more rock. Few more weeks and add some crabs and snails. few more weeks and add some mushrooms or polyps. Few more weeks and you get the point. Go slow and don’t crash the system. If you do it this way it becomes really easy. If I don’t have a fish I almost never have to feed. The tank acts as an ecosystem and enough algae grows to just feed the snails and crabs and copapods breed to feed some of the polyps etc. I can supplement with a plankton mix once or twice a week.
Also spend the money on a good protein skimmer, a secondary powerhead to increase water circulation, and good lights. And remember that the bulbs need to be replaced every 6-12 months even if they are shinning visible light because the UV spectrum dies after about 6 months or so. But if you spend some money upfront you will save a lot of money and heartache down the road.
I personally found the smaller 15-20 gallon salt tanks way easier to maintain and have thrive than a larger tank as long as you can fight the urge to throw four or five fish in there. But I found that I ended up enjoying the inverts more than the fish anyways so it became very easy to do for me.
Happy to discuss this more out of the comment section if you wish and remember that there is no “right” answer on this. You will find lots of opinions and lots of people saying something is absolutely wrong. Many ways to bake a cake but this has been my very successful experience from someone who was not an expert to begin with. (It does help to find a willing and able “mom and pop shop” to help you out).
The Republic of Stupidity
Since someone brought up Brubeck…
I saw Dave back in the late 70’s in upstate NY. It was the very first stop on his comeback tour, after having been retired for 10 years. The ticket cost $2.
The same weekend, I saw a decent rock band called JoJo Gunn on Saturday night, again for $2.
The opening act for JoJo Gunn was this trio from Texas by the moniker of ZZ Top. This was LOOOOOOOONG before the beards. Even then, it was clear that Billy Gibbons could really, really play guitar.
Max
As a girl, I also think it’s my duty to bring up this point…
If I walk into a guy’s house and there is a big ass aquarium, I’m thinking he’s about to ask me to put the lotion in the basket, and I giddy-up on out of there.
Just sayin’.
BruceFromOhio
@Keith G:
That’s just wrong. Hilarious, but still wrong.
CalD
BTW: You know there are services where you can send your old photos to have them scanned. It’s probably cheaper than buying a high-quality scanner, not to mention the time saved. They can also work from negatives or prints.
Nicole
Cichlids are almost as pretty as saltwater fish, and most are fine in freshwater. And are mean-ass motherfuckers, which is pretty entertaining.
But if you’ve never had a tank before, get some pretty guppies and swordtails and gouramis. Bonus- the guppies and swordtails will likely reproduce and then eat their babies. Also entertaining.
Swordtails jump, though, so make sure your tank has a tight lid. (Tunch will also make that a necessity.)
mcd410x
@Keith G: Lol.
@John Cole: That was quite the Twitter rant just now. And, while I enjoy and often partake in a good rant, are things ok? Seriously, you’ve been ranty, a lot more than usual.
If it helps, my mother still buys me clothes for Christmas that I wouldn’t have worn 20 years ago when I was a teen … good times!
BruceFromOhio
@Max:
I’ve heard this from others of the fairer gender… what the hell is it about a big fish tank? Is it something to warn the children about, like long gold chains and multiple ex-wives?
MattR
OT: I have some good news for all the ladies out there who were crushed by the news that Peter Orszag is engaged. Karl Rove got divorced and is back on the market.
General Winfield Stuck
Geesh, Cole. This is easy. Since it sounds like you are buying a house, just do what any normal hillbilly would do and dig yourself a pond. That way you can eat what you raise, and with the added benefit, if you decide to get a cow later on, it will have a place to get a drink.
Ain’t I clever?
Michael D.
@MattR: Wait. What? Karl Rove doesn’t respect traditional marriage like is buddies, Mark Sanford, Newt Gingrich, and Larry Craig?
Soooooprize!
Mr Furious
In my college apartment I lived with a biology major that was on his way to vet school (btw, what ever happened to you Wade?)
Anyhow, he was seriously into the fish tanks. We had four in the apartment: A huge 150 gallon freshwater, a smaller 40 gallon fresh and two saltwater tanks. One was in my bedroom, and one in the living room.
Guess which tanks everyone sat and stared at. There’s simply no comparison between the two.
They might all taste the same to Tunch, but a Percula Clownfish is a pet like no other fish. The way they swim… their animated faces… they are fascinating to watch.
I loved having that saltwater tank. It was work, yes, it was touchy as hell and meant keeping rack of a lot more than pH, but over an entire senior year in college, I only lost a handful of fish and never felt overwhelmed caring for the tank.
Did I mention I was a senior in college? If I could manage it then, I’m pretty sure a semi-responsible adult could manage it now.
The worst experience we had was during a prolonged power outage (days) when we had trouble oxygenating the water without filters running.
It is true that everything about it costs exponentially more than the freshwater equivalent, but I suspect that gap has closed some since the early nineties and “Finding Nemo” popularized clown fishes.
It is also true that it is more work, but it is much more rewarding and exciting. You’ll develop a relationship with a saltwater tank that I doubt you’ll experience with a tankful of silvery freshwater fish.
In the years since that time, I’ve had two major regrets / missing things in my life: another saltwater aquarium and a drum set.
So, whenever anyone asks about getting one of them, I leap out of my seat.
arguingwithsignposts
@Michael D.:
The jokes just write themselves with this crew. Honestly, I think the Daily Show just sits around all day playing WoW and comes up with stuff 2 hours before the show.
MattR
@Michael D.:
link
EDIT: This is Rove’s second divorce.
Skepticat
From the hints we have of your personality and what I’ve heard from friends with fish tanks, I think that resurrecting one of those old aquarium screensavers may be the least painful route for you to follow.
RareSanity
@Citizen_X:
This.
But, if you think there are enough hours in the day to add yet another obsession, go for it. My Uncle has one of the in wall deals and it is beautiful and oh, so relaxing. All he does is feed them though, pays someone to do everything else, so he loves it.
As far as the pictures, I would find a place that would do it for you. The cost of the scanner plus the cost of your time would probably be way in excess of what a service would charge you. Then, all you have to do is tag them at your leisure.
For that, I would recommend Picasa. You can use it as just a photo organizer without being required to access the BORG. You know, if you are one those tin foil hat types about Google.
Viva BrisVegas
John, if anybody tries to sell you a salt water aquarium, there are two options. Either run away quickly, or if that is not possible hit them with a large piece of wood.
The ocean is very big and unless you own Seaworld, your tank will always be very small. Saltwater fish are not tolerant of anything, so if what they are swimming in is not exactly like the ocean then they will go Galt in a big way.
You should consider why you want the aquarium, if it is as a testbed for your new career in marine biology then go ahead with a saltwater tank.
If you want pretty coloured fish, get African Lake Cichlids. Once you have them setup happy they are relatively hard to kill.
JK
I will also add that if you wanted a really nice fresh water tank with live plants and the whole bit you are not that far off time and price wise from going the salt water route.
If your idea of freshwater is some polished glass rocks in the bottom and a plastic plat and diver then yes it is much cheaper, but the aquarium style freshwater living ecosystem tanks are right up there with salt and for me personally are even a bit harder. I am not good at worrying about CO2 levels (insert must be a Republican joke here) which you need to do with a heavily planted tank .
Mr Furious
If I recall correctly, the tank in my room that I cared for was 20-25 gallons… The bigger saltwater tank was maybe 60? Wade actually caught a small flounder in Long Island Sound and after a quarantine period, added it to the tank, where it thrived.
Too fucking cool.
donovong
I am late to the party, but on the saltwater tank, I have some words of wisdom derived from personal experience.
HELL NO.
Do yourself a favor. Take two $100 dollar bills and put them in your toilet, then flush. Do this once a week for a year.
This will be your life from the day your put the tank in until the day you take it out.
If this floats your boat, then more power to ya!
Mr Furious
John, are you gonna let these pussies scare you out of what you really want?
If you go freshwater, the terrorists win.
Rob
I had a 100 gallon tank at my last house. We had a guy that came in once a month to clean it, and change the water. In between I took care of myself. My plan was to go to every two months, etc. But I got busy and didn’t.
I really wasn’t that hard or expensive. A good protein skimmer is a good idea.
The main tip I can give you is to really check around for someone to help you with it. The first people I had do it charged around $80 and always said I needed this or that and the price always went up. Then we found a guy that (I think) $40, not as reliable (sometimes didn;t show) but didn’t try to upsell me. Got me good deals on fish.
One last thing. We got a BIG puffer and he was a pain, pooped way too much. Get smaller more colorful fish.
Max
@BruceFromOhio: It’s just not good. In a serial killer kind of way.
Read this thread. More often that not, you boys are telling John to go for it, while the ladies are saying to buy art or wine with the money.
SiubhanDuinne
@MattR #65
Wait, Dana Perino is the family spokesman for the Turdblossom clan?
VladCat
I’d go with freshwater at least at first. I had great luck with Gouramis. Especially the three-spot or blue. Tough fish but still good looking. I had quite a few breed as well. Once you get the hang of managing a freshwater tank you can decide if you have the time and desire for saltwater. A nice mixed tank with live plants can still look pretty cool and keep cats busy for many hours.
SiubhanDuinne
Spokeswoman I mean
srv
John, just get that 55″ HDTV and buy one of those aquarium blu-rays.
MattR
@SiubhanDuinne: With Ari Fleisher busy whoring himself out to the BCS who else did you expect?
BruceFromOhio
@Max:
Hmm. I dunno. @donovong seems to paint a compelling target. I’m breaking it down that some of the guys are in favor (from experience), some are not (from experience), and the ladies dislike the big tanks for reasons that elude my genetic disposition. Although the serial killer vibe has strong kung fu, and not in a good way.
JBerardi
This. Scanning is an enormously time consuming, and roughly as much fun as watching grass grow. Also, unless you have some experience with digital imaging, it’s probably pretty easy to screw it up. Not that it’s especially hard per se, but you won’t necessarily know what kind of result to aim for.
Max
@BruceFromOhio: If John’s objective is to have the women run screaming from his place (and not in the good way), then he should get a tank.
But, I’m an O-bot, so what do I know.
Seth
For scanning prints, slides, and 35mm, Epson’s Perfection V series is hard to beat for the money.
As far as software goes, Adobe’s Lightroom is a nice step between Photoshop (editing) and Bridge (organization). You’ll want something that lets you do simple/obvious edits and lets you apply metadata to what you scan (to add “commentary” as you put it, and identifying information).
Doctor Science
Since it’s an open thread, I will drop in:
Today’s puzzle: Call me when winter is over.
Today’s book: The Einstein Theory of Relativity: A Trip to the Fourth Dimension, by Lillian Lieber. I have to burble excitedly about this book, I’m so pleased it’s back in print.
There are cartoons and cheerful explanations, but if you do the math (high-school non-AP level) as you work through this book, you will actually *understand* relativity.
Zuzu's Petals
@Michael D.:
At least he waited until she was cancer-free.
Tony Alva
John,
A great alternative to going salt is African Chilids. They are a perfect warm up to doing the salt thing. They require a brackish water balance replicating the two African lakes, but MUCH easier and rewarding. The fish selection are just as colorful as many salt varieties and 1/2 the price. A 50 gal tank is perfect and once it’s all balanced you’ll have breeding galore. What is cool is that once they’re breeding, you can trade them for credit at your local pet store. You’d be a fool to not at least take a look at this option before making the leap.
Our cats could care less about the fish. If it doesn’t come in a can it might as well be a plant.
Good luck and keep us posted.
BruceFromOhio
@Max:
Enough not to vote for President “You have *got* to be fucking kidding me” McCain. And to avoid serial killer fish tanks. Surprise! That puts you ahead of 45% of the electorate.
ondioline
I heard through the grapevine that John is being forced to move because Tunch’s increasing bulk is rendering his current place uninhabitable.
New place? Two words:
TUNCH WING.
BruceFromOhio
@Zuzu’s Petals:
Which puts him just ahead of Newt, but behind Sanford. Craig, it’s a toss-up, because I don’t think anyone really knows. Maybe we should pass laws to prevent them from getting hitched in the first place?
techno
The primo organizing software for photos is Aperture. It is why all the serious photographers I know have Macs.
I detest scanning but I do have an Epson that cost about $125 that works well.
srv
@Tony Alva: Cichlids are monsters. Killing each other or anything else you put in. And splashing water out of the tank in the meantime.
Perry Como
@Dreggas:
The anemone went in first and my roommate started okay; he put the bag in the water to get the temps to match. Then he pulled the bag out, picked up the anemone with his bare hand and started going, “ow, ow, ow.”
About a month later I went with him to get the jellyfish. By this time he had learned not to handle shit that stings, so he got the water acclimated and slipped the jellyfish out. A few hours later the jellyfish decided to float down into the anemone and by the next day they were both dead. Within a few more days the rest of the fish in the tank were dead.
All that entertainment for only a few months worth of work!
RedKitten
I had a 5-gal freshwater aquarium in my dorm room, which was enjoyable. My favourite was a little frog, who I named Henson. (I didn’t bother naming the fish.) Henson was cool, but he took a real dislike to this white balloon molly I had in there — one day it escalated to the point where he was grabbing it around the middle and dragging it to the bottom of the tank, where he’d bang her head against the glass a few times before she’d get loose. Later, rinse, repeat. It was like the WWE in there.
Needless to say, the balloon molly didn’t win that fight.
hamletta
Another good Mac software thingie is Graphic Converter. It’s like a Swiss Army Knife for graphics.
You can use it to edit photos, and it’ll handle metadata like captions and dates in standard International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC) format, which is recognized by most decent software, as well as sites like Flickr (and Picasa, I imagine).
I finally broke down and bought the license (it’s shareware, with a pretty generous demo) when I was working with a bunch of random scans from my church archives. The parish is 150 years old, so dealing with even the tip of the iceberg was a bear. GC made it a lot easier.
And no, I’m not a shill, promise.
Mr Furious
Here’s a year in the life of a reef tank, starting with intital set-up.
The Dangerman
@BruceFromOhio:
Fixed.
Tommy
As somebody who has lectured aquarium groups at the NY Aquarium on marine fish-keeping, I can tell you that keeping a saltwater tank is a lifestyle choice. The fish and invertebrates are delicate, have specific dietary requirements and are very sensitive to tank lighting and water chemistry. Before you jump into anything, do some reading on the subject and check the local aquarium societies to see if you can find a guru to guide you through the process.
SiubhanDuinne
@MattR #79
I wasn’t reacting so much to its being Dana Perino per se as to the whole concept of Karl Rove’s requiring a “family spokesperson.”
DPirate
If you go saltwater, either hire someone to help you or be prepared for a great deal of work and heartache. Heartache if you become impatient, anyway, and remember that every single thing you add must be given time to acclimate. Don’t add one fish tuesday and another thursday just because the first lived through wednesday.
fraught
That guy up there was complaining about a fish that was pooping too much! See, john, see? Imagine what this blog will become when you start naming your fish and posting pictures and telling us about their tail rot and stuff. Don’t do it.
Besides, your place might not look like a Miami coke dealer’s but don’t discount the idea that it might look like a Newark meth chemist’s.
pragmatic idealist
Doug, you haven’t heard Brubeck until you’ve heard him live. Check out the Live at Carnegie Hall album from the sixties. The way they swing Blue Rondo ala Turk at hyper speed must be heard to be believed.
namekarB
On scanning.
I have been going through that process also. Here are some things to think about.
1) Scan the highest resolution possible. A lower resolution scans faster but you will see the pixels when you enlarge it. You do not want to have to scan everything again when a future technology requires a higher resolution or you are trying to zoom in on Uncle Farley’s face in his group picture of his Company in the Army.
2) How to catalog the pictures??? You can go with a software program to sort and find pictures but will that software be relevant in 20 years? My thought is embed it in the file name or in Windows “properties.”
3 How to describe each picture. See my recommended solution in #2. Same reasons
4) Photoshopping. You will definitely need software to edit the smudges and acne out of old high school photos. Also to crop, zoom and otherwise make each shot better than the original. A good software program can do wonders for those horrible early color photos.
I bought a Cannon 8800F flat-bed scanner for a little over $100. I choose it because I wanted a flat bed for better picture quality and it could handle both 35 mm slides (and negatives) and 4×4 as well. I found out later the 4800 dpi resolution was only for color slides. The top resolution for color photos is 1200 dpi.
Good luck and email me if you have more questions
moe99
I just bought an Epson V500 photo scanner for slides, negatives and photos and am having the time of my life with it. $169. Made CDs of old photos and sent them to the sibs for Xmas.
trollhattan
God’s holy trousers this thread has some funny/bizarre posts.
Scanner: y’all scanning prints or negs or slides or a combo? I don’t have a preference for flatbed scanners but for film/slides get a nice dedicated unit (“hey Beavis, he said…”) like a Nikon. I have a Minolta but they’re kaput. Biggest headache is dust spots, which the software can partially remove automagically.
Any post-processing software can add captions, likely as not including whatever program comes with the scanner.
Relative salt/freshwater merits already beaten to ahiburger, but a few addl thoughts: After you move learn what you can about the local water chemistry and what fish breeds like it, otherwise you’ll be screwing around with water chemistry until you pitch the entire rig out the back door. Successful fish-keeping revolves around water quality. Along with pairing the fish to the local water, having a large tank, a modest number of fish, good filteration and frequent water changes and you’ll be instantly successful. The bigger the tank, the more stable the temperature and water chemistry and the happier the fish. p.s. Plants are harder than fish.
If I were to go saltwater (and I’m not) I’d have a reef tank with a smattering of compatible fish. And I’d have a huge electricity bill from driving the simulSun lighting and all the damn pumps.
Brubeck is the best thing to come from Stockton since the catepillar tractor. A national treasure.
Perry Como
@fraught:
A lollercoaster?
Disregard everything I’ve said. John, get a saltwater tank.
Linkmeister
I’ve been doing the scanning (slowly, very slowly) with an Epson NX400. It just puts the pictures into the Windows Photo Gallery unless told otherwise, and Windows allows space for captions, names, people, tags, and who knows what else. It’s plenty for our purposes.
We’re trying to be selective, as we have about 30 albums covering some 65 years and don’t want to copy them all.
Polish the Guillotines
??
Let’s get one thing straight about Dave Brubeck:
Joe fucking Morello.
Batocchio
How the hell can someone not like Brubeck? His band put out several classics, he introduced jazz to many, did some wild, innovative stuff with rhythm and time signatures… Plus, the guy is still performing, which is pretty damn impressive. If he’s not your favorite, that’s perfectly fine – I’m more into Coltrane and Miles myself – but give the man some due. Also, I don’t know if either of you a musician, and if you play jazz…
Anne Laurie
@MattR:
MSNBC: “Known as the Bush administration’s “architect” during his tenure as the Republican president’s senior adviser and deputy chief of staff, Rove cited his commitment to his family as a major reason for his resignation from the post in August 2007. ” Sometimes when a guy leaves to spend more time with his family, it turns out the family doesn’t really want that much attention, y’know?
It amuses me that the “Bush’s Brain” moniker has disappeared down the Media Village Idiot memory hole. Frankly, I don’t think it’s the ladies who should be looking to avoid the attentions of a newly-single Turdblossom, because a man who pays enough attention to another man’s arse to note the Skoal fraying on his back pocket, and then muse about that enticing circle in print, is not really all that interested in us Vagina-Americans except possibly as a
scam targetvoting bloc.BDeevDad
I really enjoyed the whole show (glad they did just one opera song). Damn, I know I’m getting old when I listened and watched the honorees in real time while growing up instead of in reruns.
Lesley
Whatever kind of fish tank you get, it will need to be Tunch proof.
nalbar
LOTS of bad info on salt tanks here.
JK is correct.
I have kept salt tanks for twenty years now and they are no big deal (after 15 years of fresh). You did not specify whether you wanted a REEF tank or a salt FISH tank. They are two different things. Reef tanks are more expensive and take specialized lighting and more care. But they are NOT ‘difficult’ if you do your home work (I keep reef tanks). Salt water fish tanks are no different then fresh water, particularly if the fresh is discus.
I sometimes go weeks not paying any attention to my 110 gallon system, it’s pretty self sustaining. As long as the fish are healthy you can go 2-3 days without feeding. Sometimes MUCH longer in a reef tank if you get the right fish. My fish spawn regularly.
The knowledge on salt tanks has advanced so far in the last ten-fifteen years.
DO YOUR HOMEWORK!
Look at pictures of some incredible tanks here;
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/index.php?s=
http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/
nalbar
hjmler
http://www.superwarehouse.com/Kodak_Scanners/b/140/c/51
Kodak i1220 Sheetfed Scanner $900
Tim in SF
John, in regards to your scanning of old albums project, I also have a similar project going. I have a stack of pics in a box that were given to me by various people over the years. I have no negatives to any of these photos to drop off at Costco for a photo CD.
Now, I can scan a photo and I know Photoshop really well so I can do some really good cleanup work. The problem with scanning, however, is not my ability but my time. Each photo takes at least a couple minutes to scan, plus another five to ten minutes in Photoshop cleaning it up (longer for a messed-up pic). That works out to just four to six photos an hour.
Looking at my big box of photos, it was easy to put off this job, and put it off I did. The photos stayed in a box in the back of my closet for a decade.
A few months ago I came across an article or an advertisement (don’t recall) about a scanning service. I decided to try one of them out. I read a bunch of reviews, picked a service, and then sent them a hundred photos as a test. I included some really old photos from the 70s I took with my cheap kid-camera, a bunch of Polaroids, a bunch of more recent iZone pics (1×1” instant photos you can hardly make out), a couple slides, a strip of negatives, a few damaged photos, and a stack of high-quality photos.
About four weeks later, I received the original photos back, along with a photo DVD. On the DVD were high-resolution scans of all the photos. The scans all came back pretty decent. They did high-quality touch-up work and color correction to every photo and did some repair to the damaged photos. The iZone pics were actually recognizable for the first time. The old 70’s photos were color-corrected and beautiful. I have a flickr group if you are interested in seeing the results.
The best part is that they did all this work for about a quarter per photo. The scan service I used is called ScanCafe (I’m not going to link because this already sounds like an advertisement). There are other scan services out there so shop around – you might find a better deal. You were asking about photo albums. Scancafe does whole photo albums, too – just ship the whole album in the mail.
(I posted this a couple days ago but it was at the end of a thread and I doubt more than one or two people saw it, so, pardon the repost of this comment).
Glocksman
If you’re on a budget and not planning on doing tons of pictures, the small Canon USB bus powered LiDE series are hard to beat for the money.
That said, they can and do wear out.
A buddy of mine collects comic books (visit his blog here) and does hi-res scans of each cover as he buys them.
He wore out one scanner doing that, along with the family photo thing whereas my old Canon is still humming along nicely after only 1000 scans or so.
In fact, the only other tech gadget I’ve had longer is my old HP Laserjet 1200 that I recently junked.
Not because the printer died, but because fucking HP chose to enable only 600×600 resolution in their ‘unified printer driver’ for Windows 7 x64.
The printer is capable of true hardware 1200×1200 resolution, but thanks to fucking HP, I had to buy a new printer (a Brother) if I wanted to keep that level of performance.
This only solidifies my resolve to never buy another HP product after the pictures I printed in my old Photosmart 7960 faded away after less than 3 years.
Personally I think Epson makes the best photo printers for high volume users, but if you don’t print that much the Epson heads tend to clog beyond cleaning and you wind up tossing the printer in the trash.
My current photo printer is a Canon iP 6700d that I paid $75 for on sale at Staples.
Longevity yet to be proven aside, it’s just about the perfect consumer level photo printer I’ve run across.
Tim in SF
Freshwater are way easier and far cheaper.
And don’t let anyone tell you freshwater tanks are not just as attractive. They are often more attractive if done well. The beauty in the tank is not the fish, it’s the aquascape (the plants and rocks and general layout and visual flow).
Check some of these freshwater tanks out and tell me they aren’t beautiful: http://tinyurl.com/y9jes7s
Tim in SF
Was he grabbing the fish like in this photo?
http://www.brettb.com/images/AquaticFrogs.jpg
Toast
A friend of mine had a salt-water tank for a few months. I remember him dropping $100 on a lionfish. This was 1989 and we were in college so that was a lot of money to spend on anything. Anyhow, the day after he brought the fish home he had his hands in the tank doing some kind of maintenance – as you can see from prior comments, that happens a lot – and the fish stung him. He ended up in the hospital for a night and when he got home the fish was dead.
That’s all I got.
Karen
I’ll repeat what everyone else said: Salt tanks are a pain, they’re difficult beyond belief to get right & the cost of the fish isn’t worth it. You spend 6 months going through the “buy & die” stage, you’ll wish for freshwater.
Go to any GOOD site to buy fish & look at the outlay for the fish only.
I have 2 freshwater tanks, a 55 & a 210. The 210 is actually easier than the 55. It’s the inclusion of the ornaments that makes the tank.
kentropic
If I’m guessing your coordinates correctly, you should check out Wet Pets on Rt. 19 in McMurray: they’ll hook you up.
Royce
I was always warned away from salt water by the time and expense involved. It seems to be a great hobby if you get into it sufficiently to make it work.
Personally I like cichlids, like others have mentioned. My favorites were Central American cichlids. They are usually long-lived, about a decade or even more, and have some intelligence believe it or not. Okay, about like parakeets, but they can be very “personable” once they learn their owners.
Many of the lesser-known Central American cichlids become very beautiful as mature adults, but they spend their first year or two looking like fat pale minnows so they aren’t so popular. People are in a hurry.
However the Central Americans are easy to keep if you keep the water changed. And once they mature, they are amazing. My favorite is the Synspilum, which grows to about a foot and a half in a large enough tank. They can become amazingly colored and they have the advantage of basically living in ditch water as their natural habitat, so their requirements are easier to meet.
Anyway, everyone has a saltwater tank and knows how cool they look, but not so many have even seen a tank these foot-long swimming parrots (ie, their colors). And you will spend a small fraction of the cost of saltwater.
But you will have to wait for them to color up.
robuzo
For the amount of time and effort you would put into maintaining a decent saltwater tank you could have an amazing freshwater aquarium. Is a clown fish really more amusing than a clown loach? I don’t think so, certainly not in my experience. A variety of freshwater crustaceans are available as well, not to mention amphibians, which don’t live in saltwater. And then there are the plants. . .give freshwater another look would be my advice.
lojasmo
Saltwater tank will cost $600 minimum to set up.
I’m told that after it’s set, it’s less work to maintain it than a freshwater tank.
I’d get a freshwater tank with some angels and cichlids and call it a day.
No idea about a scanner, but flickr pro is a no-brainer.
Political Pragmatist
While living in Florida, I found out two truisms were actually true. The first is a sailboat is a hole in the water you throw money in. The second is salt water aquariums are where the money ends up.
Now, when I’m missing my aquarium, I go down to the Mirage and stare at the giant tank behind the front desk. I haven’t found the equivalent for the sailboat, but I’m finally back in the black.
Fresh water aquariums cannot be compared to salt water. Your nieces first grade art work on the refrigerator compared to a Rembrandt. SW is expensive and time consuming and frankly worth it.
Barbara
I’ll just add my two cents on saltwater tanks: the only person I know who did it successfully had burned out at his daytime job as a lawyer and was at that point a stay at home dad to two teenagers. To say he needed a time intensive hobby is an understatement, and he found it in the form of his saltwater tank, which was utterly beautiful. As I recall, he also said that the bigger the tank the more likely it was to succeed.
Hamlet
I’ve never had a saltwater tank, but I’ve had a freshwater tank for years.
I would recommend starting with freshwater, but if you are really interested in starting a saltwater tank, I recommend getting “The Simple Guide to Marine Aquariums” by Jeffrey Kurtz.
It lays out things in a very simple manner. His book on freshwater aquariums is the book that made me successful.
Avoid buying saltwater fish simply because they look cool. If you keep very few fish in the tank, and stick to hardy species like damsels, you should be able to be successful with a saltwater tank.
Don’t overstock and don’t overfeed.
tesslibrarian
You can find some decent-looking freshwater fish if you go the African cichlid route. We had (before a nasty bout of ick took over the tank) about 15 in a 55 gal., and most of them were brightly colored. The key is to make sure they’re all from the same lake area; we ended up with 2 peacocks that are not Malawi, and both were attacked (one killed, one now separated from the others) by the other fish.
Our biggest is a giant, bright yellow Kenyi (sp?) who is nearly as vibrantly-colored as any saltwater variety. We had several peacocks, too, dark royal blue and burnt orange (our Auburn fish), and one really aggressive little cichlid (variety unknown) that was solid Tennessee orange and a royal pain in the butt to all the other fish (we called him Kiffin).
Even freshwater tanks take a good bit of maintenance (luckily, my husband handles that for us since he had cichlids in college), but they are nothing like the constant hassle of saltwater.
One word of warning though: cichlids like to dig, and if you have gravel in the tank, it’s going to make a noise when the gravel hits the glass. It shouldn’t be a huge problem, but if we didn’t have sand, I’m pretty sure my oldest kitty girl (the one we set up the tank to entertain in her last year) had heard the fish making noise at her, she’d have gone ballistic–the fish were for her to harass, not the other way around.
(oh, and angels were incredibly hearty for us before going the bigger cichlid route–seriously survived several winter power outages and some neglect during a bad run when the tank really didn’t get cleaned as it should. They are hearty, hearty fish. Yay, edit!)
Paul in KY
John, this has probably been gone over already but you need a big tank when you have saltwater fish. Something over 100 gals. Saltwater fish do not tolerate any kind of temperature change (unlike freshwater fish) & a big tank is easier to maintain temp in.
Fish are very expensive & when you walk out of store they are yours (no ‘get another one if it dies in 24 hours’). You need excellent filtration, because saltwater fish are very used to extremely clean water.
You will need to check salt levels too, as getting that out of whack will kill them too. Fish are easiest to maintain & inverterbrates are generally the hardest. Good luck. I did it for several years & it just got to be too much.
Lee
I would also suggest starting with African cichlids.
During vet school (around 1989), my wife lived with a married couple who were also in vet school. They had a saltwater tank. He already had his Phd in Marine Mammal Reproduction (he is now the head vet for Sea World). One weekend they went camping and had her take care of the tank. He gave her explicit instructions on what to do. He underestimated how much evaporation was going to happen and over the course of the weekend all of the fish died.
When my wife and I moved in together, we started a freshwater tank with cichlids. It looked great and had very little maintenance.
That being said, I have also heard that the bigger tanks are much less maintenance than the smaller ones.
hjmler
try to avoid used kodak rapid scanners – lots of them come from commercial processing centers like your local walmart and have had heavy use -i.e., they’re worn out…
and look for automatic double side scanning – if your family is like mine there’s probably writing on the back of many that ID, at least in part, what’s in the picture…
as for ID tagging, no matter what software you use it’s gonna be a tedious process and you have to be careful you don’t create long file names trying to use file names to id pictures cuz lots of apps that burn cd’s and dvd’s will truncate the names…
you can add info directly into the image using an app like newer photoshop releases or by using a stand-alone xmp/exif such as iTag http://www.itagsoftware.com/index.php … iTag will add info to mp3 and avi files too.
finally, check your local historical society and see what they’re doing or go to your nearest large university library
luc
Scanning a greater number of pictures is a major pain, no matter which scanner you are using. That is why scan services become more popular.
http://www.scancafe.com/
http://www.scanmyphotos.com/
vinegar
I got an Epson V500 and I highly recommend it. It also does negatives and the software is pretty easy to understand. It comes with a copy of Photoshop Elements so you can do basic color correction and dodging and burning. It goes for about $175.
shep
Epson Expression 1000XL with SilverFast. Tabloid-size, high-res scans of reflective or transparency for about a grand. Scan into Photoshop and you can add your narrative there.
Jon H
I’d like to have a saltwater tank and an octopus someday, but I don’t expect it to be cheap.
I saw a small octopus in a tank at a petshop one day, and we had a moment together. It was sitting on a small pile of rocks in the middle of the tank. I squatted down close to the tank, and the octopus came towards the glass as if to check me out. It was really cool.
Unfortunately, they don’t live very long.
Jon H
Cole: what computer are you going to use?
I recently picked up an HP OfficeJet wifi multifunction inkjet/scanner with 20 sheet feeder and card reader for under $150. It’s pretty nice.
I can initiate scans at the machine, and they’ll be sent to my Mac, with the destination configurable (TIFF to Preview, OCR to TextEdit, JPEG to iPhoto, PDF to Preview, etc). I can also load the machine, then control the scan at the Mac. Preview.app gets a submenu under File which brings up the scanning controls, or I can use ImageCapture, or Photoshop, or whatever.
It’s also possible to use Safari to connect to the device, and scan using a web interface.
hamletta
@namekarB: You are incorrect, sir.
IPTC Metadata format was first developed in the ’70s, and is used by all your major news services (AP, AFP, etc.) I don’t think it’s going anywhere.
Using Windows “properties” is useless to Photoshop, Flickr, or anything on a Mac.