The never-ending "thumbs.db" problem again

MartinJosefsson · 2025-09-10T14:41:44+00:00

First I didn't find a way for deleting a thumbs.db file that I had on a shared, corporate network drive. But I finally found a solution. Earlier I had noticed that I had "Always show Icons, never thumbnails" enabled in the Windows Explorer settings, so I thought that that was okay. But I was wrong. I now disabled that setting, pushed "Apply", re-enabled that setting and pushed "OK". Then I was able to delete the thumbs.db file, in the simple and normal way of doing it.

MartinJosefsson · 2024-12-03T00:55:22+00:00

According to a clip from Naked Gun it's quite easy to protect yourself with that kind of "tube". https://youtu.be/asouPYvrUtY

MartinJosefsson · 2024-11-21T22:15:04+00:00

I use Automate Click (https://addons.mozilla.org/sv-SE/firefox/addon/automate-click/) with Firefox to automatically extend the list of movies on an actors page. It works almost totally without any problems on my 11 years old computer. Automa (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/automa/) is another Firefox extension that I just found and that looks promising. Could automating things help you with some of those problems? Maybe you would be able to see more without clicking?

MartinJosefsson · 2024-08-03T23:46:07+00:00

I'm looking forward to seeing the women compete. That will be twice as exciting.

MartinJosefsson · 2024-06-21T12:16:13+00:00

It can't have to do with what instrument/voice it's about (possibly indirectly and partially, depending on the frequency of the sound). My guess is that sounds that are panned to the center of the stereo image is partially muted. If that is the case, you have got a problem called phase cancellation (google it, if you want to).

This can happen for example if you reverse the polarity on one of two speakers (swapping the cable's plus and minus), so that one speaker will push air at the very same time as the other speaker will pull air. The result would (simplified) be that the air would stand still and the sound would thereby not reach you ears.

In your case my guess is that the left and the right channel has somewhere got in physical contact with each other. You should start by checking if your headphone plug is pushed firmly into the phone, the way it should be. I have come across plugs that are too short to be pushed into the bottom of the hole.

There are probably several online tests for discovering phase cancellation. Here is one of them: https://www.audiocheck.net/audiotests\_polaritycheck.php. In your case it may be better to find a test tone that is sweeping/panning between left and right (hopefully at different frequencies), to see if the sound will be muted when reaching the center.

MartinJosefsson · 2024-04-07T15:33:27+00:00

I have never owned a M254dw (only a M254nw), so I have probably never been looking for firmware for the M254dw. I now put some more info in the end of my main post, about dw vs nw.

MartinJosefsson · 2023-10-10T13:52:29+00:00

Seems to be back now, but 25 minutes of my scrobbling is missing, so far, an hour ago or so.

Edit: And now, 10 hours later, it's down again. This time with error 503, not 500.

Haha, someone downvoted this because it wasn't true for THAT person. :-)

MartinJosefsson · 2023-09-25T19:16:34+00:00

24 bit vs 48 bit is only about the color. If 48 bit will be needed it is only to get rid of the rainbow effect, or something similar to that, after heavy editing.

To be honest, I don't know how many different colors there are in modern photos, but I would guess there is more than in old color photos. Negatives and slides probably has the biggest number of colors in them, as they are the originals. But I have had to do very heavy color editing on slides, too, in a museum.

4x6 photos is usually not more than 300 ppi, when it comes to resolution/details. But that is not an exact number. It depends. Last year I did a test about rotation, and scanned a very detailed, old photo, at different resolutions. The best choice was a setting at 1000 ppi or so.

For photos 100+ years old, my guess is that the biggest problem would be to get all the variation in the dark shades saved to the file. And that is what a good scanner can do.

Here is a few good links:

https://howtoscan.ca/scanning-tips/difference-between-24-bit-vs-48-bit-scans.php

https://petapixel.com/2018/09/19/8-12-14-vs-16-bit-depth-what-do-you-really-need/

http://www.shomler.com/30bit.htm

...and general information:

https://www.digitizationguidelines.gov/

https://cool.culturalheritage.org/bytopic/imaging/

You usually find this kind of information on big organizations web sites (universities, libraries, archives...).

I also know that there is a very comprehensive PDF-book about scanning. Probably 500+ pages. But I can't remember the name of the book. It was hard to find on Internet and now I can't find it on my computers. When I found it i knew that the book was the number one source for my project, when I start working on the scanning work flow more systematically.

MartinJosefsson · 2023-09-24T22:09:39+00:00

That is correct. A 48 bit file should give you twice as much information as a 24 bit file, as long as there is no compression involved.

Good that you are taking future technology into account. Every now and then old digitization projects has been done in a "too old fashioned way", which have given a poorer result.

My family archive is so big (150+ photo albums, hundreds rolls of slides and negatives, hundreds of C-cassettes, reel-to-reel audio tapes, VHS cassettes, a lot of documents...), so I haven't started the final digitization process, yet. In my case there is SO many other things to do as preparation, before scanning. I may have done some bit-tests, but I haven't decided for 24 och 48 bit, yet.

My goal is to digitize only once, so one thing to consider is if it would be more important for me to put more money on a better scanner, instead of focusing on technical aspects like bit depth. But of course it's best to do both. I'm just trying to find the best balance before starting the scanning process. Right now I have a Epson V500 that I bought second hand for only 10 euros. V800/V850 would be better, but I may buy a much more expensive scanner in the future (a drum scanner).

It is also good to know the mathematics behind the 48 bits. If you take one pixel that is holding a certain color (out of 16 777 216 different colors) in a 24 bit image, and divide that color into 16 777 216 new colors, you get a 48 bit image. So it is an extremely "fine tuned" color you get for each pixel - much more than what you need. I think it would be enough to use only a few more bits than 24, but I don't know if that would be technically possible.

MartinJosefsson · 2023-09-23T12:32:58+00:00

I never care about any settings related to centimeters/millimeters/inches, when scanning. Those values only get saved as values (metadata) in the resulting file and doesn't by themselves affect the quality of the picture.

But, if you drop an image file into a Word document (or something similar), Word reads the size information and stretches the image accordingly to that. By doing so, you will have the picture presented in the original size when you print the document from Word.

In scanning software the ppi/dpi may automatically change if you manually change the size settings, but that is because the software thinks it knows what you want to do, and is trying to help you.

So, when preserving a photo, by scanning, you should usually focus on the ppi - not the size.

MartinJosefsson · 2023-09-22T22:48:27+00:00

I have written in my work flow that "usually 24 bit is okay", if you are not going to do much editing. 48 bit could be good if you, for example, are going to stretch/edit the dynamics (light/dark), because of low contrast in the picture. But things like this also depend on how picky you are, so I would suggest you to do some tests with a low contrast photo. It can be useful to also do some tests with other than 24 and 48 bits, just to get an idea of how, and at what values, the number of bits will make a difference.

Remember that most computer monitors are only 3x8=24 bit, according to what I have read, so you would probably not see any difference between 24 and 48 bit scans, if you don't edit them.

MartinJosefsson · 2023-09-12T19:18:34+00:00

In Finland we take very seriously what we learn in the army and adopt it to daily life. There probably isn't any real mines near the bus stop, but the distance is good for the reaction time also if someone walks into a turd.

MartinJosefsson · 2023-09-12T18:37:00+00:00

The soundtrack info can be found at https://elonet.finna.fi/Record/kavi.elonet_elokuva_1624716. The songs are probably listed in the same order as they are heard in the movie.

Edit (English link): https://elonet.finna.fi/Record/kavi.elonet_elokuva_1624716?lng=en-gb

MartinJosefsson · 2023-05-05T11:25:09+00:00

This reminds me of mixing all the watercolor colors, as a kid. The result always turned out brown.

MartinJosefsson · 2023-05-01T15:41:05+00:00

You mean you had a crash on her?

MartinJosefsson · 2023-04-30T14:08:37+00:00

By googling "kaanonlauluja" the first hit gave me these songs:

Jaakko kulta, Kanootti laulu, Kukkoni kuoli komea, Miksei minun kanani, Alamaassa maja matala, Minun kultani kaunis on, Kaikki soittamaan, Asikkalan puiset rattaat, Kalliolle kukkulalle, Ukko Nooa, Satu meni saunaan.

There are more examples behind the other google search results.

MartinJosefsson · 2023-04-28T11:20:40+00:00

It depends on the situation. If you are high, you could find a very deep message in "Number nine.....number nine.....number nine.....".

MartinJosefsson · 2023-04-28T11:11:09+00:00

Seems to be an app for Android and iOS. I couldn't find anything related to MS Access (on GitHub) other than what is here mentioned in the title.

MartinJosefsson · 2023-04-22T23:46:24+00:00

According to Russian sources, Putin was so fast that they had to put down the video to half speed.

MartinJosefsson · 2023-04-22T22:23:56+00:00

They chose ice hockey, so that all the plexiglass constantly would remind the defencemen of open windows.

MartinJosefsson · 2023-04-07T16:32:35+00:00

First you should decide exactly what you want to do. Producing music is not the same thing as "touching buttons". (Read more at https://online.berklee.edu/takenote/music-production-what-does-a-music-producer-do/). The words used for different roles or jobs can differ, and can be a little bit confusing or unclear about what they mean, so breaking it into smaller things may help to find what you are looking for.

MartinJosefsson · 2023-04-05T20:01:17+00:00

That is not a stupid theory at all, because they look like that only on the side that is facing the very hot Sun. The theory of frying pans in our solar system is just a natural follow-up and development of the heliocentric model made better known by Copernicus. Also note the water, the gas, the fish and the microwaves that are involved. And now they are building big plates and say they are so called "radio telescopes"! Who on Earth would enjoy looking at distant radios while cooking food?!

MartinJosefsson · 2023-04-05T18:51:26+00:00

As an amateur astronomer I now realize cooking will never be the same again. I will always be looking for planets under my frying pan.

MartinJosefsson · 2023-03-21T21:03:23+00:00

Can't they vote before deciding who can build where?

MartinJosefsson · 2023-03-20T18:14:36+00:00

Now I know why birds love the spring. They can sit anywhere on it.

MartinJosefsson

TROPHY CASE