The Horror of Scanning

Here are two scans of the same thing. Pretty picture, huh? Well, one of them is prettier than the other. See the difference? One image I scanned using the Windows Scanner Wizard, the other I did with the software that came with the scanner. The latter is the better-looking one. The difference is from setting the de-screening feature.

What’s On Netflix Now?

Monkey Business

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/MAR07/Groucho.mp3]

Can you believe that not only do I not own a copy of the Marx Brothers’ Monkey Business, I’ve never even seen it all the way through in a single sitting? Or even a single standing! I’m half an hour into it right now on Netflix Now and — d’oh! — it’s bedtime. Maybe I’ll have to watch it in a single sleeping.

Netflix Fix

Red Dwarf

The latest update to the Netflix Watch Now player seems to have fixed a problem it was having with correctly determining the available space on my C: drive. Of course, what it should really have is the ability to look for other drives. It would find my D: drive much more spacious.

Netflix has added episodes of Red Dwarf, a British sci-fi TV series my brother-in-law Jim turned me onto years ago. If Black Adder shows up online, then I’ll really be happy!

Tech Note

Spam comments have been flooding in lately, a dozen per whack, four or five times daily. It’s possible, while keeping up with them, I’ve accidentally deleted a comment or two. So I’ve enabled a very aggressive, intelligent spam filtering service. Experienced, sophisticated WordPress users praise this spam-stopper highly, so I’m hoping it kills all the bad stuff and leaves the good stuff.

Primordial Soup, Anyone?

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/MAR07/CraigVenter.flv 400 300]

Friday’s News Hour on PBS had a fascinating segment on some oceanic research that was conducted by scientist J. Craig Venter. He’s one person whose motives I don’t feel the need to question. Although it should be noted that Venter is controversial because he competed against, rather than cooperated with, the federal government’s Human Genome project.