Scanners used to be expensive and few people had them. Now, anyone who has a printer probably also has a scanner because nearly every printer is now a multi-function device that can scan documents, copy documents, and even perform as a fax machine.
Your multi-function device undoubtedly came with software that controls the scanner, but the results will be considerably better if you use a separate application called VueScan. Ed Hamrick wrote the application and issues updates several times a year.
Around here, I have 3 scanners. There's the Canon MF216n printer-scanner-copier-fax machine, an Epson Perfection Photo 3200, and a Plustek film scanner. The Epson came with scanner software, but there's no version that will run under Windows 10. The Plustek scanner came with SilverFast, which I consider to be overly complicated and which needs a separate version for each scanner. The Canon scanner came with its own proprietary software, but it can't see the scanner.
That's right. It's a Canon multi-function device. The software came with it, but it can't see the scanner.
If I visit the settings panel in the Canon software, the scanner is shown so the application can see the scanner, but says that it's turned off or not connected. It is, in fact, turned on and connected.
VueScan sees and can operate all 3 scanners. The application can control more than 3000 scanners, often even if there are no drivers for the current operating system. It's also available for Windows, MacOS, and Linux.
Two options exist for purchasing VueScan: $40 or $100 (sometimes there are $10 discounts). The versions are the same except that the lower priced version provides updates for just one year, doesn't support film scanners, and deactivates the program's advanced features. Choose the higher priced option and updates are included forever, film scanning is included, and the advanced features are enabled. The professional version also offers optical character recognition.
I purchased the standard edition initially and later upgraded to the professional edition by paying the difference in price between the two. And Hamrick has an uncommonly liberal policy for how VueScan may be installed: "You can use VueScan on up to four different computers that you personally use, with any combination of operating systems, with any number of scanners, both x32 and x64, with a single license."
VueScan is something that venture capitalists probably wouldn't want to bet on for one big reason: Every scanner comes with its own software. Why would somebody want to spent another $40 or $100 to buy third-party software? The answer is easy: VueScan works better than the software that came with your scanner, even if that software still works with your current hardware or operating system.
Hamrick says that he has always been interested in photography and, when he purchased an HP PhotoSmart film scanner in 1997, he was disappointed by the software that came with it. So he wrote his own program. Then he bought a Nikon LS-30, reworked his program (called VueSmart at the time) so that it would support multiple scanners and renamed it VueScan.
When it comes to competitors, there's really only one and that's the very expensive SilverFast that I mentioned earlier. SilverFast requires the manufacturer's driver so it wouldn't work for me even though I own a copy of it for the Epson Perfection 3200 Photo scanner. If I buy another scanner, I would need to buy a new copy of SilverFast designed for that scanner. Or I could use the existing copy of VueScan.
Easy decision.
The VueScan interface is, shall we say, spartan. It's the kind of interface an engineer would love. If you buy VueScan, I recommend obtaining a copy of The VueScan Bible by Sascha Steinhoff. Unfortunately, it seems to be out of print and is available only for $70 or more as a physical book. Amazon, however, has a Kindle version for just $16. I have the print version, but I also bought the Kindle version so that it's always available on the computer.
VueScan is the perfect choice for any scanner.No matter who manufactured the scanner that's attached to your computer or what you want to scan, VueScan is the right choice. It supports every scanner imaginable and offers features that the scanner manufacturer's software doesn't.
Additional details are available on the VueScan website.
Computer scientists at the University of Waterloo in Canada have developed technology that someday might power a smart phone app to help users learn the art of taking great selfies.
I'll come back to that in a moment, but first let's consider the history of the University of Waterloo. Its importance in the history of computing is significant.
Waterloo developed WATFOR, WATFIV, and WATBOL -- and anyone who learned anything about computer programming between the mid 1960s and the 1980s will probably be familiar with them.
The first was WATFOR in 1965. The name comes from Waterloo FORTRAN. FORTAN is a language designed for scientific calculations and the name is a short version of Formula Translator.
WATFOR was intended for use in education because because it could compile and run the program in a single step.
The reasoning was that programs written by undergraduate students would need to be run several times during the development process, they wouldn't be used again once the assignment was complete. Although the compile process made running programs slower, it provided better error messages and required fewer steps by the student.
Both WATBOL (Waterloo COBOL [Common Business Oriented Language]) and WATFIV (Waterloo Fortran IV) followed in the late 1960s. So Waterloo University has a position of importance in the history of data processing.
Now fast-forward to today. Selfies?
You might be inclined to judge a university that was key to the development of data processing for stooping to selfies, but don't. The application provides feedback to the user about where to position the camera to get the best shot possible.
Waterloo computer science professor Dan Vogel says selfies are important. They have "become a normal way for people to express themselves and their experiences." But, he says not all selfies are created equal. Unlike other apps that enhance a photo after you take it, he says, this system teaches the user how to take better pictures.
A video from the University of Waterloo explains how the research was conducted.
In developing the algorithm, Vogel and Qifan Li, a former master's student at Waterloo created hundreds of virtual selfies to explore different composition principles such as lighting direction, face position, and face size.
Then they had thousands of people vote on which of the virtual selfie photos were best and mathematically modeled the patterns to develop an algorithm that can guide people to take the best picture.
When real people used the app in conjunction with the phone's built-in camera app, the pictures showed significant improvement. Vogel says this is just the beginning. "We can expand the variables to include aspects such as hairstyle, types of smile, or even the outfit you wear."
The only problem is, you can't download it or install it, at least not yet. Waterloo's Director of Media Operations, Matthew Grant, says that it's still just a research project and it's unknown whether there will be an attempt to release it commercially. But we can probably be sure that someone will use the research to create such an app. So stay tuned.
As of 2020, Adobe will discontinue Flash. Useful for animations in a time before touch-enabled devices rendered it difficult to use, Flash has also had more than its share of security problems.
Chrome, Edge (Microsoft's replacement for Internet Explorer), and Apple's Safari already block Flash. Just about everything that Flash could do has been replicated by HTML5 functionality that is supported by all modern browsers.
So eliminating Flash won't have much of an effect for most of us, but it will affect some companies that baked Flash into their website user interfaces. They will now have about 3 years to unbake those websites and remove Flash.
Mozilla says that Firefox will continue to support Flash until Adobe discontinues it at the end of 2020. In addition to eliminating a significant security threat, eliminating Flash will also have a positive effect on battery-operated computers.
Are you the kind of person who likes to poke around in operating systems or applications to look for security flaws? If so, Microsoft has a deal for you. Or maybe it doesn't.
Here's the deal: If you find a security flaw and tell Microsoft about it, you could receive as much as $15,000 for it. As good as that sounds -- after all, 15 grand isn't exactly chump change -- the free market might have an even better deal and people who look for security flaws in order to sell them to crooks know this.
Find a way to bypass security and make it possible to run arbitrary code on some unfortunate victim's computer and you could make hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Microsoft has taken note of the disparity and has adjusted the bounty for certain kinds of bugs: The situation I just described, for example: If you can show Microsoft a way to exploit a software flaw and take over a computer, you could earn a quarter of a million dollars from the company.
It won't be easy money, though. Finding flaws like that takes more than just a casual stroll through the software.
Microsoft will release a Windows 10 update this Fall and the company says the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update will have innovative features to further empower your creativity. I've been running Insider preview versions on the notebook for a while, so that I can see slightly into the future.
If you're in the Windows Insider Fast Ring, preview build 16257 was released this week, as was Mobile Insider preview build 15237. Those in the slow ring will receive this version later. The Slow Ring is safer if you need to use the computer regularly and primary production computers should not participate in the Insider program.
An eye control component is currently in beta test. It requires some special hardware that allows the user to control the mouse and on-screen keyboard by looking at the screen. This will be useful for those who have limited or no use of their hands.
For all users, security gets a boost in the Fall update with enhancements to the Windows Defender Application Guard (WDAG). WDAG will display additional information when the computer is starting up and when it's being resumed from a paused state.
Microsoft's Rob Lefferts says the goal is to "ensure customer safety as the security threat landscape continues to grow increasingly more sophisticated and adversaries are more successful at impacting the bottom line." One of the most common targets for attackers the browser and the Windows Defender Application Guard is expected to block many of the exploits and, if a machine is infected, to keep it from spreading the infection via a network.
