About four years ago, my mom and I got the idea to start scanning her family’s photos onto the computer, so that as they deteriorate we won’t actually lose the images.  There are services that will do this kind of thing for you, but we elected to do it ourself, for the opportunity to go through the photos and identify them as we scan them.

It’s been an interesting journey.  For one thing, we’ve discovered the value of oversized and high volume scanners – we’ve often found ourselves limited by the speed and size (document size) of my scanner.

But at the same time, we’ve learned the value of a scanner that is small and easily transportable (for scanning relatives’ photos on trips), the usefulness of Adobe Photoshop for restoring damaged or faded photos, and how enjoyable it is to see a photographic history of your ancestors unfolding before your very eyes.

We’re finally almost done — there were a ton of pictures to scan, beginning with my grandparents’ childhoods in the nineteen-teens and -twenties, as well as a handful or so of older photos.  Once we’ve finished identifying everything and naming the photos, we’re planning on making CDs (or perhaps DVDs, depending on how much memory we need) for everyone in the family.

Technorati Tags: Adobe Photoshop, document imaging service, faded photos, high volume scanners

The aerospace industry is a perfect example of a place where what looks perfect on paper doesn’t always work perfectly in practice. In some cases we literally have to go back to the drawing board. Here is how it typically works.

An engineer in one location sits in front of a computer and comes up with a plan. He (or she) uses special CAD software to design and literally draw whatever device he is working on. So if our project is to make a missile, he essentially builds a cyber model of a missile. Then he sends this blueprint to a team that builds an actual mock up.

Another team usually in another part of the country (or world) then prints out the plans and schematics. But often times the plan hits some snags along the way. The people building it find that they have to make some improvisations. Changes to CAD drawings during mockups are then marked, usually just by hand. Using a document imaging service the plans are then sent back to the engineer who revises his work and makes sure everything will work in cyber world. If everything is OK, work on the mockup continues. If not, then sometimes we have to start over again from scratch.

Technorati Tags: CAD software, document imaging service