As a quick followup to my previous article about making your hot water last longer, I wanted to share some interesting numbers related to water heater safety that I found in the owner’s manual that came with our new water heater…

As you may be aware, most hot water heaters (at least those in the United States) are shipped with the thermostat set to 120°F to minimize the risk of scalds and burns from contact with excessively hot water.

Preventing burns and scalds

With that in mind, here is a table of temperatures vs. the time required to produce a 2nd or 3rd degree burn on adult skin.

Preventing Legionnaire’s disease

Another concern that you might read about has to do with Legionnaire’s disease, which is an infectious disease caused by bacteria of the genus Legionella, most commonly the aquatic Legionella pneumophila. The following table lists the effect of temperature on Legionellae (source).

According to most recommendations that I’ve run across, burns and scalds are much more common than Legionella infections, so you might want to give more weight to the safety vs. health concerns.

Perhaps this should be filed under “Duh!” but… I finally got around to going under the house and adjusting the thermostat on our new water heater. We’ve been noticing that our hot water isn’t lasting nearly as long as it did with our old water heater even though it has the same sized tank.

Why isn’t our hot water lasting as long? Mostly because water heaters are installed with the thermostat’s set to a factory default of 120°F, which is lower than what many homeowners prefer. Manufacturers do this in the name of safety — i.e., to minimize the risk of burns — but it also means that you’ll empty your tank much more quickly.

If you bump your water heater thermostat up a few degrees (check the owner’s manual for instructions), you’ll be able to mix more cold water into the stream while still achieving the same temperature. This means that you’ll use less hot water, leaving more in the tank of your water heater for other uses.

No, this isn’t the most energy-efficient approach, but if you have a large family, you might be willing to make that sacrifice. Just be sure to warn everyone in the family about the change, and don’t turn the temperature so high that you burn yourself!

A couple of alternatives to making your hot water last through multiple showers, baths, dish washing, laundry, etc. would be to insulate your water heater and (especially) your hot water pipes, install a low-flow shower head so you use less hot water when showering, or install a tankless water heater to produce hot water in real-time, on an as-needed basis.

Wow. Just minutes after expressing my frustrations about being unable to control the order of Gmail filters, I figured out a simple workaround. As it turns out, Gmail Labs has a “Filter import/export” function that makes it all possible.

For context, e-mail filters can be a great tool for sorting incoming messages. The good news for Gmail users is that Google introduced filters (via Gmail Labs) awhile back, and last summer they took the filtering functionality out of beta.

Unfortunately, there’s no way to control the order in which your filters are applied. Rather, they appear in the list in the order in which they were created. If you’re an e-mail filtering ninja, however, you’re likely aware that the order in which filters are applied often matters.

Until now, the only solution I could come up with was to delete and re-create filters whenever I created a new filter that needed to be higher up in the list. But now there is a better way…

Changing the order of your Gmail filters

This isn’t a pretty solution, but it’s quite easy to implement. Start by going into Gmail Labs (Settings/Labs or click the little green beaker in the top right corner of the Gmail page) and enabling the “Filter import/export” functionality. Be sure to save your changes.

Now when you view your filters (Settings/Filters), there will be a checkbox off to the left of each filter. Simply do the following:

1. Check the box for all of your filters (or click the “All” link at the bottom)
2. Scroll down to the “Export” button (which is greyed out unless filter are selected)
3. Click the button and you’ll be able to save a file called mailFilters.xml

Now simply open up that file in your favorite text or xml editor and modify it to your heart’s content. The filters themselves are wrapped in “entry” tags, like this:

<entry>
blah blah blah (including category, title, id, updated, etc. fields)
</entry>

Just move those blocks around to change the order of the filters.

The last step is to re-import your filters.

1. Delete your old filters by checking the box next to each and clicking the “Delete” button (next to “Export“)
2. Click the “Import filters” link at the very bottom of the filters page
3. Click the “Choose File” button, and select your modified mailFilters.xml file
4. Click “Open file” and you’ll be presented with a list of filters to import
5. Make sure all of the checkboxes are checked and then click “Create filters“

Note that this same procedure work for Google Apps.

Title says it all… Why, oh why can’t I control the order in which Gmail filters are applied? They appear on the list in the order in which they were created, and there is no way to re-order them. Depending on how heavily you rely on filters for managing your e-mail, this matters. A lot.

Oh well. Like the (in)ability to schedule messages to be sent later, I guess this is just one more feature to request from Google.

Update: Problem solved: How to Change the Order of Your Gmail Filters.

One of the things that I constantly struggle with is e-mail overload. I get way more than I can handle, and I’m not great about processing it. That means that it builds up in my inbox to the point of overwhelming me.

Today I want to share with you one specific tip for reducing your e-mail overload. I’m writing this from the perspective of a Gmail user, but the general principle will work no matter your e-mail service. Also note that I receive a lot of mass mailings, and that’s what I’m targeting here.

Reducing your e-mail overload

After logging in, run a search for “unsubscribe.” You may want to fine tune this to something like:

unsubscribe in:inbox

or

unsubscribe -is:sent

to limit it to just those messages in your inbox, or to all messages in your account that you did not send (i.e., incoming mail only).

However you choose to tailor your search, you’ll likely end up with a bunch of messages, most of which from mailing lists, newsletters, etc. The reason that this is that mass mailings almost always have an unsubscribe link or e-mail address at the very end. Now your job is to scroll through the list and unsubscribe from as many of these as possible.

Note that it’s generally not a good idea to respond to messages that are truly spam, so I’ll leave it to you to distinguish the good from the bad. True spam should be flagged as such and deleted. For legitimate mailing lists, however, it’s better to unsubscribe as marking them as spam will: (1) potentially get the sender blacklisted, and (2) make it harder to scan your spam folder for false positives.

What we’re looking here are legitimate mailing lists and/or newsletters that may have seemed like a good idea at the time, but are now clogging your inbox. We’re also looking for commercial mailings that you may have unwittingly signed up for when making a purchase, registering for a service, etc. Once you’ve unsubscribed, delete (or archive) the offending message and move on.

That’s it. Very simple and quite effective.

Do you have a utility panel that you’d like to hide? If so, then read on… When we renovated our house a couple of years ago, we converted our old laundry room into a powder room. In doing so, we needed to hide both an electrical panel and an alarm box. Here’s how we did it…

As they say, a picture is worth 1000 words. While I don’t have an actual “before” picture, the following shot shows what we were up against.

You’ll have to pardon the tight angle and poor lighting. It’s a small room, and I didn’t have much to work with. I actually took the picture while standing over the toilet, and the sink (the same one with the formerly leaky faucet) is directly opposite the electrical cabinet.

Hiding the electric panel

Anyway, one of our biggest concerns in converting the laundry room into a powder room was that we didn’t want it to look like a conversion. This meant having to hide the electrical panel and alarm box. As you can see from the picture above, we decided to hide them with a faux cabinet front.

We simply had the cabinet guys make a shallow box and cabinet front that that matched the new vanity, and we were good to go. It’s actually pretty big since we had to hide both an electrical panel and an alarm box. Regardless, once it was installed, it looked totally natural.

I’m a big fan of internet TV, and have recently been looking for an easy way to get Hulu on our TV. Last night I ran across PlayOn.TV, which promises to do just that (and more) via your Wii, PS3, or Xbox 360.

Here’s a YouTube video showing Hulu on the Wii:

This looks pretty sweet, especially since we have a Wii on our main TV in the family room, and an Xbox 360 upstairs in the playroom. It’s also compatible with Netflix Instant Streaming, Amazon Video on Demand, CBS.com, etc. Even better, it’s a wireless solution.

The only downside for me is that we’re a mostly Mac household, and we don’t currently have a Windows machine capable of running the software. We do have a couple of Asus Eee PC netbooks around the house, but I seriously doubt (based on the minimum system requirements) that they’re up to the task.

Last fall, we got a Belkin N+ wireless router. After we got the initial kinks worked out (including a near-impossible firmware update) and got over the fact that it won’t work with HFS+ hard drives, we started running into problems with dropped connections, especially on my wife’s MacBook.

The strangest thing about this problem was that the wireless signal was coming through nice and strong, but there was no internet connection. I tried everything I could think of to fix it, but eventually decided that the router was to blame. This conclusion was backed up by complaints elsewhere on the internet about similar problems with this very same router.

Given our experiences, I decided to return the Belkin and go with another brand. This time around, I bought the D-Link DIR-655 Extreme N wireless router. While there are fancier models on the market, the DIR-655 performed flawlessly right from the start. The connection problems disappeared, and we’ve been extremely happy with the purchase.

I have an iPhone and my son has an iPod Touch. Until recently, we’ve been frustrated by our inability to share apps that one of us buys. Fortunately, we’ve since figured out how to share apps without re-buying them, and it doesn’t even violate the iTunes user agreement.

As it turns out, the Fairplay DRM that Apples uses to protect their apps allows you to authorize up to five computers. This is the same as for iTunes music or movie purchases back before they went DRM-free.

So how exactly do you share apps? Read on.

Authorizing multiple users

For starters, you’ll need to authorize each user’s computer. For simplicity, let’s call them User1 and User2. To do this, simply open iTunes on both computers, click on the “Store” menu, and select “Authorize Computer.”

One User1’s computer, you’ll want to enter User2’s username and password, and vice versa. Obviously, this means that you’ll only want to set this up with trusted individuals, such as family members or close friends.

Moving app files between users

Next, you need to get the apps onto each other’s computers. You have two choices here. One is to simply copy the files between computers using a thumb drive. To do this, you’ll need to know where the apps are stored.

See: Where Does Windows Store iPod or iPhone Apps?
See: Where Does Mac OS X Store iPod or iPhone Apps?

Simply navigate to the right folder, locate the app file (.ipa) of interest, drag it on your thumb drive, then drag it from the thumb drive to the library on the other computer. As long as you’ve authorized both users, it should get transferred on the next sync.

If this sounds like too much trouble, then keep reading…

Re-downloading your apps

Alternatively, if you wish to transfer an app from User1 to User2, you can simply log out of iTunes on User2’s computer, log back in as User1, navigate to the app in App Store, and re-download it. When you click to “Buy” the app, you might get the following warning:

Are you sure you want to buy and download “Whatever App”?

Your account will be debited for this purchase and your application will begin to download immediately.

(You can banish this message, so don’t worry if it doesn’t appear.)

As scary (and costly) as that sounds, go ahead and click “Buy.” You’ll next be greeted with a message saying you’ve already paid, so you won’t be charged again:

You have already purchased this item.

You have already purchased this item. To download it again for free, select OK.

Click OK and the app will download for free. Now log out of iTunes and log back in as User2. Sync User2’s iPhone or iPod, and you’re done.

The steps to transfer from User2 to User1 are the same – just go to User1’s computer, log out, log in as User2, and so on.

There, wasn’t that easy?

Have you ever wondered where Mac OS X stores your iPhone or iPod apps? If so, then you’ve come to the right place…

To find your apps on your Mac hard drive, simply navigate to:

~/Music/iTunes/Mobile Applications

Inside the “Mobile Applications” folders, you’ll see a ton of .ipa files. These are your mobile apps. Curious as to why you might need this info? Check out my article about how to share iPhone or iPod apps between multiple users.

Have you ever wondered where Windows stores your iPhone or iPod apps? If so, then you’ve come to the right place… Note that the following assumes you are using Windows XP. Unfortunately, I don’t have access to Windows Vista, Windows 7, etc.

To find your apps on your Windows hard drive, simply navigate to:

My Documents > My Music > iTunes > Mobile Applications

Inside the “Mobile Applications” folders, you’ll see a ton of .ipa files. These are your mobile apps. Curious as to why you might need this info? Check out my article about how to share iPhone or iPod apps between multiple users.

This is just a quick tip for all you bloggers out there. If you’re using your site for anything more than just a personal journal, I would strongly suggest not using dates in your urls. There are numerous good reasons for this. I’ll outline three of the biggest ones below.

Inability to republish articles

Perhaps the biggest reason you shouldn’t use dates in your permalink structure is that it makes it impossible to update your post and “republish” it at a future date without breaking all the old links.

For example, here at jammer(six), I’m using a permalink structure similar to this:

http://www.jammersix.com/archives/title-based-page-slug-goes-here

If I ever want to update a post and republish it, it’s just a matter of going into the Wordpress dashboard, making the necessary edits, and changing the publication date. The url will stay the same and all the old links (internal as well as external) will remain functional, but the post will appear at the top of the site as new content.

If, on the other hand, I had a date in the url, such as this:

http://www.jammersix.com/2010/01/01/title-based-page-slug-goes-here

Then I’d have no choice but to: (1) leave well enough alone with the old post, and write a new one instead, or (2) update it, republish it, and break the links. While you could perhaps minimize the damage with a well-crafted 301 redirect from the old url to the new one, this would rapidly get unwieldy on an active site.

Search visitor behavior

This is a more subtle effect, but when you run a Google search, the url is visible below each listing. With dates in your url, there’s a distinct possibility that people will see your post from three years ago, decide that it’s likely out of date, and skip over it in search of fresher content.

Beyond people spotting the date in the url, Google seems (in some instances at least) to extract the date information from the url and add it to the page blurb in their search results. This is just another reason to shy

The main reason this concerns me is that date information is one of the things that I look for when skimming through search results. If I see an old date, I’m much less likely to click through. While I may be more savvy and/or observant that the average internet user, I don’t want to risk turning even one potential reader away.

Backlink accumulation

This is related to the republication point above, but it bears repeating. Jim over at Wangarific actually takes things a step further than I did, suggesting that you might want to have one “master” post for reference info that regularly changes.

When crafting this post, be sure not to include any date-related info in the title slug, as that would defeat the purpose of removing dates from permalink structure. When it comes time to update, you can move the old info into a separate post and update the master post with the new info.

This strategy works especially well with annual information. For example, if you’re running a sports blog and want to track the top-ranked football teams, you could have a master post with the current info. You’re free to title it something like “2010 Football Rankings,” but make sure the url is more along the lines:

http://www.randomsportsblog.com/archives/current-football-rankings

At the end of every year, you could then create a separate reference post with a snapshot of the “final standings,” move the year-end rankings into that, and continue updating the master post.

This strategy allows you to republish the master post with fresh info on a regular basis, thereby helping you to continue collecting inbound links to that one page. At the same time, you’re creating “snapshots” of the annual information, which will likewise be indexed and available for people looking for historical data.

In other words, it’s a classic win-win.

Have you ever wished you could schedule an e-mail message to be sent in the future? I have. And until today, I hadn’t found a good solution. While some local mail clients include this feature, Gmail does not. Moreover, even if your client supports scheduling, you’ll likely need to have it open at the right time in order to work. Not exactly failsafe in my book.

If you don’t want to mess around with configuring a local client and hoping that you’ll have it open at the right time, then I have a great solution for you… LetterMeLater.com is a free online service that allows you to compose e-mail messages, add attachments, and schedule them to be sent at a future date/time.

Just to be clear, I have no affiliation with LetterMeLater whatsoever. In fact, I just discovered them this morning. However, I’ve tested them out, and their service works exactly as advertised.

One tip: Add a bcc to yourself so you’ll be alerted when the message goes out. Otherwise you have to log back in and check on your message status.

Oh, and if you’d like to see this sort of feature added to Gmail, then please suggest it to them by following this link. Maybe if enough of us ask, they’ll listen.

My son has an Asus Eee PC, and he uses it frequently for school projects. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your perspective) he doesn’t have Microsoft Office. Instead, his netbook came with StarOffice (essentially OpenOffice with a fancier name) pre-installed, so he’s using that.

While both OpenOffice and StarOffice are admirable replacements for Microsoft Office, one minor annoyance is that their default file formats can’t be opened by Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint.

In other words, both OpenOffice and StarOffice can open Microsoft file formats, Microsoft (unsurprisingly) doesn’t return the favor. This isn’t a huge deal, as you can save into multiple file formats, including the various MS Office flavors, but…

If you forget to save your presentation as a PowerPoint-compatible file before you put it on a thumb drive and walk away from your computer, you could be screwed.

The good news is that it’s easy to change the default file format. Here are the necessary steps…

Changing your default file format in OpenOffice

1. Start by opening up and of the OpenOffice apps
2. Under the “Tools” menu, select “Options”
3. Click on “Load/Save” to access open the hierarchy
4. Click on “General” to pull up your options in the main pane
5. Make your desired changes under “Default file format”

For example, you might specify that a “Text document” be saved in “Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP” format. Similarly, a “Presentation” files could default to “Microsoft PowerPoint 97/2000/XP” format, and your “Spreadsheet” files could default to “Microsoft Excel 97/2000/XP” format.

These files will open seamlessly in OpenOffice (or StarOffice) and will also be perfectly compatible with Microsoft products, so there’s no real reason not to make the change.

We have a Garmin nuvi 260W, and we love it. The wide screen and text-to-speech functionality make navigation a snap. We were thus very disappointed when our GPS suddenly stop reading of the street names.

This isn’t to say that it stopped giving verbal directions entirely. Rather, it reverted to saying things like “Turn right in 500 feet” instead of “Turn right on Main Street.” It’s a subtle difference, but it makes a difference.

While I still haven’t figured out why the text-to-speech stopped working, I’m pleased to report that I’ve figured out how to turn it back on.

How to fix the text-to-speech problem

From the Main Menu:

• Select “Tools” (the wrench icon)
• Select “Settings” (another wrench icon)
• Select “Language” (looks like a pair of lips)
• Select “Voice“
• Choose any language that ends in TTS (for text-to-speech)

In our case, the language had somehow defaulted to “American English,” which results in standard directions being given (without street names). I switched it back to “American English-Samantha (TTS)” and everything started working again.

Note that you can change it to a male voice — “American English-Jack (TTS)” — if you prefer.

When I got my iPhone, it was love at first use. Aside from that pesky dark spot on the camera lens, I’ve only had a few minor complaints. One of the most frustrating has been the apparent lack of a caps lock function on the virtual keyboard.

As it turns out, the caps lock functionality is a user-selectable setting that is (for whatever reason) set to “off” by default. Curious as to how you can enable caps lock? Simply follow these instructions:

1. Select “Settings” from your home screen
2. Select “General“
3. Select “Keyboard“
4. Toggle “Enable caps lock” to “ON“

That’s it. Now all you have to do is double tap the shift button and it will turn blue. This indicates that the caps lock has been activated. Simply tap it again to deactivate.


]]> http://www.jammersix.com/archives/how-to-enable-caps-lock-on-your-iphone/feed/ 0 http://www.jammersix.com/archives/garmin-nuvi-gps-review-and-accessories/ http://www.jammersix.com/archives/garmin-nuvi-gps-review-and-accessories/#comments Sun, 17 Jan 2010 20:41:38 +0000 admin http://www.jammersix.com/?p=665

Just over a year ago, we got our first GPS navigator. We’ve had various handheld GPS units over the years for geocaching, but we’ve never had a dedicated unit for in-car navigation. All I can say now is that I’m glad we took the plunge.

Selecting our new GPS

After a good bit of research and hand-wringing, we settled on the Garmin nuvi 260W. This is a great little unit that comes complete with a 4.3 inch widescreen display and text-to-speech directions. It also has a jpeg viewer, travel clock, etc. While other GPS units include things like mp3 functionality, we only use it for navigation, so we don’t really care about the ancillary features.

Garmin nuvi 260W first impressions

Shortly after firing up our Garmin nuvi 260W, we fell in love. On our first use, we found a new route to the airport that shaved about 10 minutes off the 1.5 hour trip. Since that time, it’s saved our bacon on numerous occasions.

In fact, I can honestly say that the only times I’ve gotten lost in the past year have been when I’ve forgotten to bring our GPS along. It definitely makes navigating in new areas much less stressful. The routing is fast and efficient, and the Garmin software does a fantastic job of re-routing you when you divert from the recommended course.

I’ve also been impressed by the number of “Points of Interest” (POIs) that come with the maps. Just about anything you’ll ever need to find is pre-loaded on the unit when it arrives, and you get a free map update in case your GPS pre-dates the most recent map update.

Text-to-speech directions

While pretty much all GPS units provide spoken directions, not all of them do true “text-to-speech.” In other words, many lower-end units will say something like “Turn left in 500 ft,” while the Garmin nuvi 260W (among others) will say “Turn left on Main Street.” It’s a subtle difference, but I definitely appreciate the additional detail.

260W vs. 255W

In the time since we picked up our Garmin nuvi 260W, the Garmin nuvi 255W has been released. The two are very similar, with the primary difference is that the Garmin nuvi 255W has an optional FM traffic receiver, though the battery life isn’t quite as good as on the Garmin nuvi 260W.

Garmin GPS accessories

Since we have two cars, we want to be able to easily move our GPS from one vehicle to another. While all Garmin GPS units ship with a suction cup mount, we opted for the portable friction mount, and have been very happy with it.

To protect our unit when it’s not in use, and to facilitate packing it in our luggage when we fly, we also picked up the Garmin 4.3 inch GPS carrying case and a Gilsson travel case.

The former is a nice leather sleeve that provides a snug fit and excellent screen protection. The latter is a nice little neoprene travel bag that’s big enough to hold the GPS, the friction mount, and the car power adapter. Very nice.

Garmin nuvi 260W conclusions

If you’re looking for a great GPS navigation unit, I highly recommend the Garmin nuvi 260W. While there are cheaper units on the market, the price on the 260W has come way down in recent months (into the $125-$130 range as of this writing), and the widescreen and text-to-speech functionality are well worth the added cost.


]]> http://www.jammersix.com/archives/garmin-nuvi-gps-review-and-accessories/feed/ 0 http://www.jammersix.com/archives/how-many-megapixel-digital-pictures-photos-will-my-memory-card-hold/ http://www.jammersix.com/archives/how-many-megapixel-digital-pictures-photos-will-my-memory-card-hold/#comments Thu, 07 Jan 2010 15:45:00 +0000 admin http://www.jammersix.com/?p=625

Did you get a digital camera for Christmas? If so, you might be wondering how many pictures your memory card will hold. Most digital cameras ship with a very small memory card (if they have one at all), so you’ll almost certainly want to pick up a larger memory card, which will allow you to shoot more between downloads.

When deciding how big of a memory card to buy, you’ll likely want to know how many pictures it will hold. What follows is a breakdown of how many pictures you can fit on memory cards of various sizes depending on your camera’s resolution (i.e., the megapixel rating).

Megapixels	2GB Card	4GB Card	8GB Card	16GB Card
6 megapixels	953 photos	1907 photos	3814 photos	7629 photos
8 megapixels	715 photos	1430 photos	2861 photos	5722 photos
10 megapixels	572 photos	1144 photos	2288 photos	4577 photos
12 megapixels	476 photos	953 photos	1907 photos	3814 photos

Unless you shoot a huge number of pictures, and assuming that you download your pics relatively frequently, you can probably get away with a 2GB memory card. I am, however, partial to larger memory cards, such as 4GB or 8GB cards. The price difference isn’t that great, and the extra space gives you way more flexibility.

A larger memory card is especially important if your digital camera is capable of shooting video (most are), and you intend to use it for this.


]]> http://www.jammersix.com/archives/how-many-megapixel-digital-pictures-photos-will-my-memory-card-hold/feed/ 0 http://www.jammersix.com/archives/canoscan-5600f-flatbed-scanner-review/ http://www.jammersix.com/archives/canoscan-5600f-flatbed-scanner-review/#comments Sun, 20 Dec 2009 05:38:42 +0000 admin http://www.jammersix.com/?p=613

We’ve suffered for years with a crappy old HP ScanJet scanner. I was thus thrilled when our new CanoScan 5600F scanner arrived. In short, this scanner rocks. It’s fast, easy to use, and makes great images. Want more details? Read on…

The CanoScan 5600F is a 4800 dpi flatbed scanner that also handles film and slides. I bought it for scanning photos and portraits, so I can’t comment on how well the film/slide scanning works.

CanoScan 5600F first impressions

Out of the box, setup was very easy. Simply install the drivers, plug in the power and USB cords, slide the locking switch to “unlock,” and you’re good to go. The drivers that it shipped with weren’t compatible Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard), but you can download updated drivers from the Canon web site.

While the CanoScan 5600F has seven “EZ Buttons” on the lid to make scanning easier, I actually do all of my scanning from within Photoshop. When it’s time to scan, the CanoScan 5600F starts up almost immediately – no warmup required thanks to the LED light source!

CanoScan 5600F performance

My first job was to scan twelve portraits ranging in size from 5×7 to 8×10. The CanoScan 5600F made short work of these portraits, with even the larger images being done in seconds flat.

As far as scan quality goes, the color reproduction was great, and the detail was fantastic. No complaints about anything. I’ve used a CanoScan 8800F at work and the performance is similar, but the CanoScan 5600F is considerably cheaper.

CanoScan 5600F conclusions

All in all, I’m very happy with the CanoScan 5600F, and at just shy of $130, the price is certainly right. When combined with my ScanSnap S300M document scanner, I’m in scanner heaven.

My only complaint is that, despite promises to the contrary in the Amazon list, the CanoScan 5600F cannot rely on the USB connection for power. This isn’t a big limitation, though, and it certainly doesn’t reduce my enthusiasm for this scanner.


]]> http://www.jammersix.com/archives/canoscan-5600f-flatbed-scanner-review/feed/ 1 http://www.jammersix.com/archives/how-to-remove-delete-resource-forks-from-image-files-on-mac/ http://www.jammersix.com/archives/how-to-remove-delete-resource-forks-from-image-files-on-mac/#comments Sun, 20 Dec 2009 03:53:05 +0000 admin http://www.jammersix.com/?p=608

If you don’t know what a resource fork is or why you might want to remove one, you can probably safely skip this post. But if you do… Then read on, as I’ve stumbled across a handy little tool.

For background, I’m a Mac user, and have long used a contextual menu item known as GrimRipper CM to remove delete resource forks on image files. Unfortunately, third-party contextual menu items died with Snow Leopard, so I had to find an alternative to GrimRipper.

While you can always go into the Terminal to do the deed, I wanted a point-and-click method for deleting resource forks. Fortunately, I stumbled across just such a tool tonight.

Here’s the link:

Zap Resource Forks

It’s an Automator action that you can add to your Services menu. Once installed, you can highlight the file(s) from which you want to strip the resource fork(s) and then access the service from the Finder pulldown menu. Very easy, and it works great.


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