HCMC Blogs

Did the first run at a volume 17 cover, which will be tweaked for us by PVH. These are the steps I took:

• Started from the old vol 16 cover.
• Used Acrobat to extract the two pages of the TOC from the vol 17 master, setting it to save them to separate files.
• Combined them into one block of vector text, by removing the clipping regions and copy-pasting the second page into the first page file, then lining up everything on the grid.
• Scaled the new TOC down to match the vol 16 TOC, by putting them side by side, then removed the vol 16 TOC and slid the new one over to replace it.
• Changed all the volume numbers and years on the spine. The years at the bottom have knockouts, so two changes need to be made, by changing the z-order to get at the text beneath.
• Did a test print on the colour laser printer. This didn't work wonderfully -- text on the spine expanded to the edge of the page, for some reason -- but that's not really a worry. We'll see how well it works when PVH has had a look at it.

Whether the need to write by hand is an ingrained generational habit or a rich and rewarding cognitive process, to handwrite--or not--is still one of the great watercooler debates among people who, uh, write for a living. As Simon Fodden at Slaw.ca puts it, there's writing and there's writing.

Which may explain why TUL Pens invented the marvellously funny Dr. Gerard Ackerman, Graphologist. The gag here is that you write on a piece of paper “I need a new pen.” And then, under the guidance of the good doctor, you analyse your own handwriting, in order to discover how it reveals your personality.

The thing is wonderfully done. Using Flash, Ackerman pontificates at you and dead pans some really funny lines. This is the sort of advertising that is a real treat to encounter. Makes me almost want to place an order for some of their pens. I think retractable pencils might make sense… or perhaps the gel ink ones…

From the University of Durham, The Graduate Junction aims to bring together Masters, Doctoral and Postdoctoral researchers from across disciplines and around the world to create an online global research community.

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Campus Technology has a useful review of current anti-plagiarism technology, from the familiar Turnitin.com to several free online resources for catching copycats.

From the University of Iowa Libraries, a data visualization and mapping project, designed to let users understand and analyse the distribution of the fifteenth-century book.

The aim of the Atlas of Early Printing is to take this type of information and allow it to be manipulated, while also providing contextual information that visually represents the cultural situation from which printing emerged. Layers can be turned on and off to build a detailed atlas of the culture and commerce of Europe as masters and journeymen printers ventured to new towns and markets seeking support and material for the new art of printing.

The site also includes an animation showing a press in operation, along with bibliographies in print and on the Web.

Tested new machine in Lab B this PM. It's a dual-boot, with Server 2003/2000 and Sanako apps installed. Went through 3 reboots and a series of logins/outs in both OS's and everything seems to be OK. I'm tentatively calling this a H/W problem.

Martin has suggested that I get a serial port card and try that. I might do it, as long as I can get a half-height card and it comes with it's own drivers, after what WO told me about new OS's and old tech.

Took off an hour early.

Finished marking up Helgason, and made some final changes to several of the others, based on feedback from the authors.