The new scanner, a Canon ImageRunner 1133.
News
Home Go back.
25th October 2022
I've uploaded some pictures of Discovery music over in the Bideford page. There are more pictures of this shop, but as some of them are featured in Peter Christie's written series Illustrations of Old Bideford, I thought I'd leave them there. You should be able to find these books in the local studies section of any surviving libraries in north Devon. This technically goes against the spirit of the Backroom open-ness/publish-Everything policy, but this site (and the associated archive) wouldn't exist without Peter's guidance so I thought it's probably a fair swap. (Having your pictures published in multiple history books compiled by an accomplished author/historian is also nice.)
19th June 2022
I've uploaded a pdf explaining the transformer replacement process for the dbx120XP subharmonic synthesizer, get it here. I've also scanned some tax discs, but I haven't uploaded them yet as I need to put them in a single image. The PTM shed has taken delivery of a CRT monitor, from a museum (ironically). It's exactly the same as one I had in the early 2000's (an AOC). I ended up with two, and they ended up at the recycling centre after a long time when I finally made the switch to flatscreen.
25th March 2022
After a long hiatus, I've started to get back to organising things here. I have some comparison images for the Marmite chronology, but not all. Organising pictures is time consuming. The pictures of Fremington camp really do exist, but there are a lot of them. They need sorting, resizing, describing, etc. Just like pictures of Bideford college, Geneva library, Holsworthy cattle market, the list goes on.
8th July 2021
I've added the file descriptor csv for the BBC ReMarc collection over in the sounds department. I'm still not able to put sounds on here directly, partly because it's not supported on the free edition but mainly because there wouldn't be space for everything.
19th June 2021
The Backroom has a new scanner. It's a Canon ImageRunner 1133, and also has a built-in black and white laser printer:
The new scanner, a Canon ImageRunner 1133.
This scanner has the advantage of both a scan tray and a multi-sheet loading magazine. It will allow the automated scanning of large volumes of material relatively quickly, and should make things much easier. It also scans double-sided. It's the sort of machine that probably features in the nightmares of copyright holders around the world.
It scans either colour or monochrome, sadly there is no greyscale option. Each setting has three different quality options (low, medium or high), although in my limited use so far there is no difference in quality in any of these settings in monochrome mode. In fact, the high quality setting yielded a slightly lower filesize than the low quality setting for the same source document. As far as PDF options are concerned, it scans into a regular pdf file, or some kind of condensed version which is supposed to compress images. I'm not sure how it defines an image yet, but condensed pdf scans manage to have both a very small file size and yet very clear text. This mode will be useful for scanning plain monochrome text with no background or images, as the text is still very clear indeed. An OCR should have no problem in recognising the output, assuming the input font metrics are suitable. Whilst this doesn't support inbuilt OCR, I think the Canon software package does have an OCR facility. I don't know yet as I've been using the scanner in an isolated scan/save role.
I've added a page for all the COVID-19 sources I've scanned, seen, and probably will see before it's all over.
7th May 2021
I think some of the information about the milk bottle study is wrong, so I've changed some parts around in the hope it's now more accurate. Whilst the lid typology is valid, I don't think the variations are quite as set chronologically as I originally thought. It seems more likely that there are at least two concurrent manufacturers, and that the differences between what was the intermediate and modern variations are now more likely to represent these proprietary differences instead.
17th April 2021
The Past Technology Maintenence shed now has some pictures of the battery tube spacer mod I designed for the Polish mine detector. I've also been scanning some of the political leaflets for the Government Document Library, but as they're multi-folded leaflets they're slightly more complicated to arrange. I'm scanning these at 150dpi as there's no need for amazing detail, and I want to keep sizes down.
16th April 2021
A new page has been created to provide information on the maintenence of old technology that still has a useful life. The Past Technology Maintenence shed will hopefully be a source of repair information, manuals and mods to keep older technology in working order. Some of these techniques will prioritise operational status over originality, so there is a balance to be decided in terms of whether something should be kept in its original state or maintained in working order (at the expense of losing much or all of its original form). Purists, leave now!
8th April 2021
I recently found some old crisp packets today, and the use by dates were all from around 1998. They weren't in particularly good condition, but they will be useful as examples of these designs. I added pictures of some of them to the FATCat page. Also added are some pictures of a Pot Noodle from the same era. I have some more crisp packets to add from Richmond's, Perry Crisp, and Happy Snax.
31st March 2021
I've started the Marmite section on the FATCat page. I'll add some pictures of the design changes when I have more solid dating evidence (aside from BBE dates). I'm tempted to 'phone the Marmite Loveline on 0800 0323656 and ask if they have any information about changeover dates for the label designs (somehow I don't think they will).
20th February 2021
I've added some more information to the rabbit hole that has become the milk bottle section of the FATCat page. I'm really not interested in milk bottles or their tops, lids, closures, or whatever they're called. They are a ubiquitous part of (non-vegan) life that will probably leave lots of evidence though, so it'd be nice for someone to be able to use this to get dates for contexts. That aside, I hope the milk bottle section is almost complete [It's not, there's more to add (25/2/2021)]. I think it's safe to say it's now possible to date most British plastic milk bottle tops to either side of 2014, and that wasn't possible before.
9th February 2021
I created a page for Barnstaple, because (thanks to the internet), the retail landscape is changing a lot. I'll do a Bideford page at some point. I've also created a blog.
8th February 2021
I added some scans of the Digital TV switchover information leaflets, from 2009. I'm in the process of sorting the East-the-Water pictures, so they can be uploaded at some point.
3rd February 2021
I added some pictures of Lafrowda block J. Some of the pictures aren't very good quality as they were taken on a phone camera which wasn't all that good. Some of the pictures were taken from video stills. I can't upload videos (yet!), but I did make a guided tour video which I hope to do something with at some point. I have also uploaded some pictures from the 2010 student protests, which were taken at one of the Newman lecture theatres. I did take some video there, although it isn't very interesting.
30th January 2021
I started the FATCat page about modern artefact typologies, and how today's things can be dated in the future. I'd been working on ways to date future artefacts for a while, and I thought it's about time I added something to the site. It's an area that seems to be overlooked because it's not really about the past, but about what humanity is going to leave behind.
28th January 2021
I decided to upload a small number of pictures to make sure everything works OK before I start uploading everything else. I created a few new pages because there were some emerging themes which I think would be better in separate sections.
The decision to make this site in a text editor, with almost no experience of HTML (or code in general), was probably not a very good one. The site is supposed to be written in HTML 4, many features of which have now either been deprecated or merged into CSS, HTML 5, etc. I've decided to stick to HTML 4 because I need to manage this website myself, and I don't have time to learn new languages when the old one does exactly what I want. It's also what made the websites I remember in the earlier days of my internet experiences. There is no Javascript here, no CSS, no HTML 5, and I don't knowingly set cookies. I can't guarantee the neocities site itself doesn't, however.
27th January 2021
A year has gone, and it's time to do something with this site. Most of the study pages will be empty as I've neither the data alowance to upload anything substantial, nor the online space to keep anything.
Watch this space!
5th February 2020
It's time to start sorting things. There are a number of different ways in which related information can be sorted, which is confusing. A given collection of sources can have the same overall theme, but consist of different media created at different times and places. These individual sources may also fit into other categories, and originate from other contexts. For example, the Bideford College sources consist of the following main groups:
-> Pictures;
-> Documents;
-> Memories.
In this case, it's safe to say the collection was created over a long time period. The latest pictures were taken in 2017, but the earliest documents pre-date those by 30 years!
I've decided on a system of virtual contexts whereby sources are grouped by subject, rather than media type, and/or creation date. This means it should be easier to find information by subject, with subsequent chronological indexing where necessary. This is more straightforward than a non-digital archive, where special-to-media storage and management systems would be needed (and staff who know what they're doing).
Home Go back.