My Review of the Epson-300W Scanner

After testing the Epson 300W Scanner, I’ve found it works…well enough… It has some great features, but they have been executed properly; it is very compact and perfect for traveling, but has several issues that I encountered during my tests and daily usage (test image/pdf gallery at the end).

Before we lay out all the issues of the scanner, in what seems more like a crucifixion, let’s first start with what is good about the scanner.

## The Good ##

1. Very quick scanning, it shoots through a stack of single-sided papers at 300DPI very fast and accurately. It was faster than my works Brother Workforce all-in-one
2. Built-in OCR PDF export, the built-in OCR scanning software is amazingly fast and accurate (only on desktop).
3. Very accurate automated rotation, adjusting, hole punch removal, and deskew, among other good settings.
• The scanner was amazing at rotating and deskewing all scans automatically and only had issues 3 times where the paper was too dark or hand written. It correctly flipped picture, papers, business cards, ID cards and everything else I scanned.  
4. The card slot, I love the quick card slot idea and when it worked, it was a nice touch (more on it below).
• Card slot would be more useful if it was accessible while the cover was closed.
5. The settings, this scanner has so many settings on a PC it’s amazing and they work pretty beautifully and quick.
• Magazine/Newspaper mode & image stitching were not tested.
6. It’s tiny, this thing really is portable (see pics)
7. Battery life is great.
• Charged it and tested it out 2 weeks and I scanned several items during the testing; it still has power and still in my work bag.
8. Great image quality, it goes up to 1200DPI and looks great.
9. Small files created at higher DPI, even with 600DPI it created small image file sizes and PDFs.
10. Effortless double-sided scanning.
• There are 2 scanning plates inside, making double-sided scanning just one step instead of 2 like other portable scanners I’ve tried.

## The Bad (very bad) ##

The first issue is the wireless setup.

1. There is no way to setup the scanner without the PC or smartphone app companion; there’s no WPS button on the device for easy configuration.
2. Using the smartphone app is overly convoluted, gaudy and glitchy with too many steps required; use manually switch to turn on AP, connect to es-300w direct AP and search for the scanner, then go through setup and manually add WiFi info, then manually turn the switch to WiFi mode and search again for the scanner. This is the procedure you need to do every time you need to switch networks.
• this setup is ridiculously tedious and prone to errors.
3. The apps failed numerous times to find the scanner during setup.

Big Issue #2 is the card slot:

1. The built-in card slot for business cards and plastic cards doesn’t work for intended use.
• Via the phone app it accepted no business cards (except 1 time) and “jammed.”
• Via Desktop the few times it actually worked to scan via the slot, it refused 5 business cards.
• Only worked on 1 of my 5 plastic cards, American driver licenses; didn’t accept old school ID cards, work ID or credit card.
• For best results, you’re required to set the size/type to auto and not business card or plastic card

Scanning issues:

1. The business card setting with the card slot using my phone doesn’t work. It scans but doesn’t fit any business cards tested (American and Japanese).
• Cards were cut off (last 1/4), but plastic card setting size worked for business cards but had issues (noted below)
2. WiFi scanning from phone and desktop have long delays between scans and settings, but DirectAP and USB were quicker.
3. Plastic card settings were the proper dimensions for business cards, but the cards (via the card slot) always shifted slightly causing the image to be missing part of the card.
•  Proper scanning with card slot requires auto size to be set and auto fix document skew.
4. Didn’t work well on longer pieces of paper (within max allowed). Door knob flyer gets cut off at 11″ every time, no matter what setting used.
5. Paper jams, the scanner jammed constantly; almost every business card in the card slot caused a jammed, long papers, thin papers, and multiple types of plastic cards, also caused jams.
6. Feed sensor is glitchy. Ever other scan attempt prompted me, saying there was nothing in the scanner (there was) and it would error out and make me start all over again.
7. You have to put documents in backward, instead of face up and natural feeling, you have to put them in facing down and it’s not a natural feeling.
8. You can’t have the phone app open if you’re trying to use the desktop scan application.

Phone application:

1. Missing half the settings that the PC has like OCR.
2. UI has a very old look and feel (like it’s 5 years behind).

PC Scanning:

1. No reference material for what certain options do, so you have to be versed in terminology or quick with Google.

Image quality:

1. Anything under 300DPI looked pretty horrible.

Another item to note, the scanner is missing built-in cloud connection and storage. For a compact travel scanner, you would think it would have scanning to cloud network built-in or onboard storage so you can scan on the go quickly and have it saved without the need to have a phone or PC available.

!!!  REVIEW VERDICT: I would not purchase this scanner as it is for the suggested retail price, but if it was on sale for $100 I might.  !!!

Scanning test examples:
     Note: All tests included the settings auto rotate, ignore blanks and text enhancement (most also used auto adjust contents & document)
http://ift.tt/2kxPRgi

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via IFTTT

My Review of the Epson-300W Scanner

After testing the Epson 300W Scanner, I’ve found it works…well enough… It has some great features, but they have been executed properly; it is very compact and perfect for traveling, but has several issues that I encountered during my tests and daily usage (test image/pdf gallery at the end).

Before we lay out all the issues of the scanner, in what seems more like a crucifixion, let’s first start with what is good about the scanner.

## The Good ##

1. Very quick scanning, it shoots through a stack of single-sided papers at 300DPI very fast and accurately. It was faster than my works Brother Workforce all-in-one
2. Built-in OCR PDF export, the built-in OCR scanning software is amazingly fast and accurate (only on desktop).
3. Very accurate automated rotation, adjusting, hole punch removal, and deskew, among other good settings.
• The scanner was amazing at rotating and deskewing all scans automatically and only had issues 3 times where the paper was too dark or hand written. It correctly flipped picture, papers, business cards, ID cards and everything else I scanned.  
4. The card slot, I love the quick card slot idea and when it worked, it was a nice touch (more on it below).
• Card slot would be more useful if it was accessible while the cover was closed.
5. The settings, this scanner has so many settings on a PC it’s amazing and they work pretty beautifully and quick.
• Magazine/Newspaper mode & image stitching were not tested.
6. It’s tiny, this thing really is portable (see pics)
7. Battery life is great.
• Charged it and tested it out 2 weeks and I scanned several items during the testing; it still has power and still in my work bag.
8. Great image quality, it goes up to 1200DPI and looks great.
9. Small files created at higher DPI, even with 600DPI it created small image file sizes and PDFs.
10. Effortless double-sided scanning.
• There are 2 scanning plates inside, making double-sided scanning just one step instead of 2 like other portable scanners I’ve tried.

## The Bad (very bad) ##

The first issue is the wireless setup.

1. There is no way to setup the scanner without the PC or smartphone app companion; there’s no WPS button on the device for easy configuration.
2. Using the smartphone app is overly convoluted, gaudy and glitchy with too many steps required; use manually switch to turn on AP, connect to es-300w direct AP and search for the scanner, then go through setup and manually add WiFi info, then manually turn the switch to WiFi mode and search again for the scanner. This is the procedure you need to do every time you need to switch networks.
• this setup is ridiculously tedious and prone to errors.
3. The apps failed numerous times to find the scanner during setup.

Big Issue #2 is the card slot:

1. The built-in card slot for business cards and plastic cards doesn’t work for intended use.
• Via the phone app it accepted no business cards (except 1 time) and “jammed.”
• Via Desktop the few times it actually worked to scan via the slot, it refused 5 business cards.
• Only worked on 1 of my 5 plastic cards, American driver licenses; didn’t accept old school ID cards, work ID or credit card.
• For best results, you’re required to set the size/type to auto and not business card or plastic card

Scanning issues:

1. The business card setting with the card slot using my phone doesn’t work. It scans but doesn’t fit any business cards tested (American and Japanese).
• Cards were cut off (last 1/4), but plastic card setting size worked for business cards but had issues (noted below)
2. WiFi scanning from phone and desktop have long delays between scans and settings, but DirectAP and USB were quicker.
3. Plastic card settings were the proper dimensions for business cards, but the cards (via the card slot) always shifted slightly causing the image to be missing part of the card.
•  Proper scanning with card slot requires auto size to be set and auto fix document skew.
4. Didn’t work well on longer pieces of paper (within max allowed). Door knob flyer gets cut off at 11″ every time, no matter what setting used.
5. Paper jams, the scanner jammed constantly; almost every business card in the card slot caused a jammed, long papers, thin papers, and multiple types of plastic cards, also caused jams.
6. Feed sensor is glitchy. Ever other scan attempt prompted me, saying there was nothing in the scanner (there was) and it would error out and make me start all over again.
7. You have to put documents in backward, instead of face up and natural feeling, you have to put them in facing down and it’s not a natural feeling.
8. You can’t have the phone app open if you’re trying to use the desktop scan application.

Phone application:

1. Missing half the settings that the PC has like OCR.
2. UI has a very old look and feel (like it’s 5 years behind).

PC Scanning:

1. No reference material for what certain options do, so you have to be versed in terminology or quick with Google.

Image quality:

1. Anything under 300DPI looked pretty horrible.

Another item to note, the scanner is missing built-in cloud connection and storage. For a compact travel scanner, you would think it would have scanning to cloud network built-in or onboard storage so you can scan on the go quickly and have it saved without the need to have a phone or PC available.

!!!  REVIEW VERDICT: I would not purchase this scanner as it is for the suggested retail price, but if it was on sale for $100 I might.  !!!

Scanning test examples:
     Note: All tests included the settings auto rotate, ignore blanks and text enhancement (most also used auto adjust contents & document)
http://ift.tt/2kxPRgi

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via IFTTT

Guilty By Suspicion (1991) – Review

Director: Irwin Winkler. Producer: Arnon Milchan. Screenplay: Irwin Winkler. Cinematographer: Michael Ballhaus. Music: James Newton Howard.

A fictitious director of the 1950s and his family and friends are put through the wringer during the McCarthy Era and Red Scare. Director David Merrill (Robert De Niro) is a rising, successful and well known director in Hollywood who is returning home from film abroad in France and trying to deal with his family that is breaking apart at the seams. He is unaware of what awaits him upon his return. He has been accused by one of his friends and colleagues as being a Communist and has been called before the House Committee on Un-American Activities to testify on his innocence and give them names of Communists he knows, his friends and wife. During the struggling of trying to prove his innocence and take the higher moral ground and not point fingers to anyone; he finds himself unable to find and keep a job with any company, not even on Broadway or in a small camera repair shop.

This is a movie that gives anyone that watches a look into the past of America’s dirty laundry, exposing the troubles that people faced during the Hollywood Blacklisting caused by the forceful and unlawful trials during the McCarthy Era. It is rare that you can find a movie that not only gives the viewer a look at the bad past in America, but also doing with such great skill. Though Merrill is a fictional character created by the talented writing skills of Irwin Winkler, the problems he faced were very real to actors, directors, and all people in the Hollywood profession. As a historical fiction based on true events there is not a film that could better show what it was like to be in Hollywood during the inquisition of the American government.

Winkler not only wrote, but he also directed this epic film. Winkler’s talent of directing and writing makes you not only see and understand what it was like to live in the time, but his talents combined with De Niro’s great and talented acting (that brings like to Winkler’s imaginary character) you get to feel what is was like for Merrill. The sudden shock when he finds that he has been named as a Communist blindsides not only the character, but the audience as well. The introduction of the character and his friends gives us mostly just his view and that of his wife, so we never truly know what’s going on till he meets with the film company’s lawyer. This method of directing and writing really pulled you in to the experience and the shock that he feels. De Niro’s portrayal of the character is perfect, not only do you understand what Merrill is going thorough, but you feel for him and it makes you understand his decision to not play ball with the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Though he is going against the grain and taking a stand against an immoral and corrupt government that is trying to instill fear into its citizens and enemies alike, you don’t view Merrill as a great Martyr or saint. Winkler shows us that he is faulted himself with a family slowly breaking apart caused by him spending months at a time away working on films and that he seems to care more for his movies than his own family; he also in the past did participate in ban the bomb rallies. His life and struggles, during this sad time in American history, are shown to us in a way that make you still like the character and want him to be a bigger man than the rest and just say no.

Along with Winkler’s brilliant mind and an amazing cast of characters, James Newton Howard’s composition of music really sets the mood in your mind. He makes the feeling of the movie and the scenes burn in your mind and explode in the sound that matches the mood. This great team of talent might have been lost without the steady hands and great pivoting of Michael Ballhaus. His cinematography skills with Winkler’s direction made the perfect combination and helped carry the movie and give it a 50s feel. With a real life feel to the times, through the sets, props, and clothing; Leslie Dilley’s production design really makes it feel like the 50s, but without the whole Pleasantville and Stepford Wives feeling.

This movie right now in particular is an important film, linking us to a past mostly forgotten and beginning to repeat itself. In our present time with the government using the word “terrorist” to instill fear once again and unlawfully detain, question, and imprison people, we must look to this movie and the past to remember how it was for them. Today people are losing jobs from the same actions of the government that are portrayed within this movie, putting people on watch-lists and pulling them out of work to be “questioned,” because someone accused them of being a terrorist. Another recent connection from the McCarthy to the present is the recent passing of the NDAA that now gives the government the “right” to do all the same things that McCarthy pushed for during the Red Scare and shown within this brilliant movie.

Web Clipping & Article Reading

Which service should i choose? Ok so I’ve seen this question for a while and just recently my buddy @peterwooley was wondering which is best. So I thought I’d write a good long post to share with the world what is best the solution. The only 2 choices people seem to know are “Read it Later” and “Instapaper.” There are others but I won’t discuss any of them except “Evernote” (yep it clips webpages too); not ’cause they’re bad or not good, but because no one seems to care about the others and aren’t as user oriented for ease of use like these. So lets just dive on into a complete talk of these 3 guys.

**Note I have used each of these applications on my devices, but I have never owned iPhone and never will so the talks of iPhone use will be from what I know from others.

Read it Later:

First is Read it Later, probably the best known web clipping system around. Read it Later just knows web clipping and article saving. It has literally one of the easiest user interfaces I’ve seen in a On mobile The free account is great, but for those that want you can upgrade for $2.99 to pro apps and get more features; Android iOS. A big turn off though is the in their app, without buying the Pro app on iOS/Android you can only view a limited number of your saved articles and no tagging/sorting ability of articles. Read it Later has a good ability to change font settings while reading your articles and is good, but could be better. RiL is only offered online via a browser & bookmarklet combo or through mobile app (Droid/iOS). There are 3rd party developers that have used their API to create apps for other devices, but aren’t supported by RiL. Using bookmarklets in your browsers on mobile or internet to save page articles is good, but being only able to view online (unless you have iOS/Android) and no desktop functionality is limiting.

Screen Shots: 

Read it Later

•  Pros:

  
  
   Free, Great UI, Multi browser capatable, Quick, Night mode on mobile, manual add, dynamic font changing

• Cons:

  
  
   Only supported in browser & app only for iOS or Android, No desktop software, limited free app on smartphones

Instapaper:

Most commonly used with iOS platform since it’s focused to the apple user like Instagram. No offense but the person(s) that create this, but anyone who for 1 only codes toward a specific platform (like iOS) and neglects the others (Windows, UNIX, Android) is just no use. Instaper is a Totally Free,

 (there is $1/mo plan that is basically just to support the developer(s)) application. Though if you want their iOS app then it’ll cost you $4.99. So instapaper is the simplest application ever, you create an account, login in and use. The way it works on desktop iOS is bookmarlet within browser (no installing), and on mobile you just share page with app. To read you use the website or the app. To be honest IMO the 2 best things of this choice is the ease of use of the API and the great dynamic font changing ability; you can change font size, spacing, length, and even the font family but is doesn’t have a night mode for reading (at least on the web side). Using bookmarklets in your browsers on mobile or internet to save page articles is good, but being only able to view online (unless you have iOS/Android) and no desktop functionality is limiting.

Screen Shots:

Instapaper

• Pros:

  
  
   Kindle Support, iOS perfected, useful 3rd party apps, great dynamic font changing, manual adding

•  Cons:

  
  
   Have to buy iOS app, Only offered via 3rd Party for other devices, Low budget, not intended for anything but iOS, no night mode (online at least), have to buy the app.

Evernote:

The dog that people didn’t know was in the race. Yes Evernote can clip webpages, organize them along with saving any note you want; from pictures or ringtones to full recipes and even help jot down a quick blog post from your mobile device or tablet (in fact I’m writhing this entire post on the Evernote Desktop & Android Apps, I did have to make a couple blog friendly adjustments). Evernote is  free for basic account, but you can go Premium for $5/mo or $45/yr and let me say this what you get for upgrading is worth every penny! I my self haven’t ever upgraded my Evernote account from basic status (I want to, but just haven’t) it’s extra money I can save toward school books.

On top of what it already can do, It can now clip pages and save them in reader format (using a plug-in) also Evernote can now, on the fly convert pages to article reading format that includes a nght mode (using a plug-in, NOTE:

 This plugin is for Chrome & FireFox only

) . This is just the start with Evernote, it does Oh so much more.  I’ll be sure to make a nice long post about what some of the best practical uses with Evernote are and just more info about it (tonight or tomorrow, depends on what the night holds).

So to discuss it’s web clipping ability only (seeing as that’s what we’re comparing), using the newest “Clearly” plug-in with Chrome/Firefox makes Evernote on desktop brilliant, almost the perfection of Internet news/article reading. The newest extension pairs clipping ability with live transition from article to reading within the browser and not opening any new tabs or anything. Not only does it transition over to article reading with ease, it includes a night mode, 3 font sizes, and it also has the ability to save the article you’re reading right there to Evernote seamlessly. Evernote has made reading and saving notes perfect and now they are in the process of perfecting web clipping. The only problems they have in the web clipping/article reading departments is #1 No Night Mode within your Evernote account after saving an article on any of their apps; #2 No 1st Party Mobile App for Web Clipping (Only Bookmarklets). Evernote is cross browser compatable (IE, Chrome, Safari, FireFox), Evernote works on all operating systems, and also is made for every smart phone (WebOS, iOS, Droid, Win7, BlackBerry).

Now one big difference between Evernote and the other 2 is mobile clipping of pages is a bit different. On iOS it’s as easy as just adding a bookmarklet into Safari (really easy to do and several pages of Google search results to tell you how). On android it’s unfortunately a bit different (bookmarklets don’t work on the default browser, or after market browsers but there are several bookmarklet apps that work perfect on android, though not on MIUI atm). Also in android my fav way is an app called “Everpaper,” it’s an app that uses the instapaper API to clip the page then has a “send to Evernote” button (as long as you fill out the “optional” info for Evernote sending). There’s another method of using Read it Later style app to do the same; now I know it’s a bit messed up to piggy back off the competition, but they are in the process of getting a better mobile clipping method setup (the bookmarklet apps are best ATM, unless you’re like me on an unsupported ROM).

Screen Shots:

Evernote

•  Pros:

  
  
   Free, High Data Cap, does more, Multi platform/browser/phone capable, Great & Helpful Devs, Amazing Support Forums, organization ability is the best around

• Cons:

  
  
   No night mode within apps after save, Mobile Clipping is only third-party available, manual adding webclip = copy/paste

Just A Test:

So I decided that I needed one last trial to perhaps show the differences between these 3 guys. I decided I’d clip an article from the Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/congress-leaves-town-with-an-uneasy-stalemate-and-looming-payroll-tax-hike/2011/12/20/gIQAhDL47O_story.html). So I started with Evernote Clipper (worked almost perfect) {IMG}, next I used Clearly (100% perfect view and clip save) {IMG}. Next I wanted to try and use Instapaper, but the bookmarklet failed on me so I tried to manually add and this is what I got {IMG}. I next tried Read it Later, of course it’s bookmarklet failed on me too (it happens) and so I went to manually add it up as well and this is the result {IMG}(yes a blank black page). I restarted my browser and tried using the bookmarklets again for Instapaper IMG and Read it Later IMG and both did great with the article. It just sort of amazes me that the manual adding (which I did try twice with the same outcome) didn’t realy work, but when I got the bookmarklet to work it did just fine Instapaper try #2 {IMG}  & Read it Later try #2 {IMG}.

Summary:

Each one is completely free to use and 2 of them are upgradeable to pro/premium that increases what you can do with them. All of them for web clipping rely heavily on bookmarklets (Instapaper & Read it Later on iOS/Android you don’t need bookmarklet of course). They each have flaws, but the least flawed is of course Evernote, below is my breakdown of best client per medium used (Based on usage for web clipping).

• Desktop:

  
  
  

  
  
   Evernote takes the cake in my opinion for desktop use on all platforms & Browsers.

• Android:

  
  
   

  
  
  Read it Later is better in terms of a web clipper/article reader if you don’t mind no sorting ability and having a limit on how many articles you can see.

• iOS:

  
  
   If you don’t mind shoveling out $4.99 Instapaper wins in web clipping/Article Reading for iOS, it’s just made for it. (Though Evernote is the best free version)

• Other Mobile Devices:

  
  
  

  
  
   (including Win phones and Blackberry) Evernote wins here, the others don’t support them except through 3rd party & browser only.

So with that summary and the winners listed I have to say though; if you want a the best article reader on your device and that’s all you want take my suggestion, but if you want the ability to do more than just read an article and want the best most extensive free choice of the 3, go with Evernote and you won’t regret it. Evernote is an amazing app that is only getting better with each update and with the help of others that use the API like “Echo Smartpen” for hand written notes or “Study Blue” for studying for school the Trunk just keeps growing.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 [Review PS3]

Modern Warfare 3 PS3

Summary: Now that I’ve played modern warfare 3 I have decided the game is not all it’s cracked up to be, unfortunately the multiplayer is the least liked of the game. All other parts of the game the game itself off the campaign mode in the co-op spec ops area are great. Does a good job on the campaign, spec/ops co-op area, campaign picks up right were modern warfare 2 left off it’s cool it’s fun; that is new characters you play the old characters, overall campaign is good. Also with modern warfare 3 they have a facebook integration capability as well as modern warfare elite system for the ps3, at least currently the ps3 version is having problems connecting or something keeps giving me an error when trying to sign in.

 

Multiplayer System: The multiplayer has a new system setup but it’s identical to modern warfare 2 pretty much. The gun level up and self leveling up is pretty cool, but they make starting out freaking difficult, everyone that’s level 20+ will pretty much dominate you and that’s a big put off.

 

Game Modes: They have new modes that are ok, but their hardcore selection is slim pickings, they even left out hardcore capture the flag. So the majority of all multiplayer is Core matches and that sucks.

 

Maps: The levels are crappy I don’t like them they’re pretty horrible to me in all aspects they don’t even have a good maps for capture the flag mode, or big games. All the maps are medium sized and suck. MW2 had those couple long maps, Black Ops has Array and that other big map. There’s no small maps like summit, nuketown, & firing range.

 

Graphics: Now on to graphics, the graphics for multiplayer are on par to that of modern warfare 2 not very good or nice, nothing like how clears black ops is, another big let down as well. Though I should mention, they did something special in this version of the games, they made a colorblind option for multiplayer which makes the names yellow and blue instead of red green. In campaign mod the graphics are much better and parts of the campaign allow for environmental interaction (nothing like other games, but enough to make it fun to blow apart columns with a chain gun lol.

 

Conclusion: I had really high hopes for this game I was hoping multiplayer would be a combo between modern warfare 2 and black ops, best of both world sort of speak. They failed on the multiplayer half of this game. Where they epically failed in multiplayer they do great on Co-op/Spec-Op and Campaign. Overall the deviation of multiplayer and the bad graphics make this game a “you should wait till the price drops” buy.

 

PC: So my GF just finished Downloading and installing MW3 for the PC and the gaphics are much better on it than on the PS3.

Battle: Los Angeles (2011) [My Review]

So I saw the midnight show, just got home from it. My original thought of this movie was it was going to be a remake of the Independence Day for our new year. Now after watching I’m glad that it’s not Indepence Day, it’s a better version it’s updated its it’s more real it’s got real harmony to it, it’s got everyday life and style. It conveys what it would really be you like if we were over run by aliens, what our military would go through; the hardships they would have to face, the loss of a friend and comrade. It’s realistic, its life like, its grief, and struggle. They even go as far as explaining why we would be overrun by aliens, what they might come here for. I really like this movie, it is in a essence what may happen 1 day. I have friends in the service and I’ve lost friends in the service, I’m sure that this is how they would feel, loosing a friend or comrade, or physically what they’d endure. This is the struggle of what could happened. The graphics in this is great as well, there is a great job put into every essence of the movie and relating it to reality…