Newsletter #102

Chasing the Elusive Wipet - Update

After finally locating a Wipet, Nora and I drove into Casco Viejo on the next Saturday. We connected the Wipet to a cigarette-lighter powered inverter and hooked it up to our laptop. Interestingly, we had good strong signal almost all of the way into town, travelling on the Corredor Sur. I guess the crocodiles and snakes appreciate the coverage. We began to lose the signal when we got to the edges of Casco Viejo, but once near the water, the signal came back whenever we came to an intersection. There are two Wipet towers fairly close to Casco Viejo, and I decided we must be getting the signal from the one on Amador. At any rate, we parked in front of the building where our office will be located and got a good hookup and were able to access the internet.

In keeping with the way things usually go for me, now that I've spent almost a whole day looking for a Wipet, I see them almost everywhere I go, Riba Smith in Costa del Este, for one.

We're Moving - Update

Surprise, surprise, we didn't make the first week in April target At this time, we don't know when the new office space will be ready, but as a "glass is half-full" guy, I view the delay as extra time to plan some new stuff we hope to offer, such as a guided walking tour of Casco Viejo and a book exchange.

Cornbread

A very nice fellow from Arkansas read my wish for a cornbread mold in an earlier newsletter, contacted me, and arranged to bring three 7-stick molds to Panama on a recent trip. I've been eating corn bread sticks every day since, and they are almost as good as I remember. Really, all they're missing is the love my mother used to put into them.

Many thanks to Carlos and Linda Grant for not only searching the flea markets, but then lugging three cast-iron cornbread stick molds all the way from Arkansas.

Scanning

A recent post about high definition scanners on RETIREnPANAMA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RETIREnPANAMA/) inspired me to do a bit of testing and research on computer scanners.

What I discovered was surprising. With Linux, using Kooka the scanning software included with Kubuntu, my cheap Canon LiDE 25 Scanner (~$52.00) was able to scan at 2400 dots per inch (dpi). Kooka can also scan negatives and transparencies. Under Windows, with the software provided by Canon, it's highest resolution was 300 dpi. After downloading VueScan (http://www.hamrick.com/ free to try, $39.95 to buy), I was able to scan at 1200 dpi, or half the density as with the free Linux software. My old Benq 4300 was upgraded from 300 dpi to 600 dpi with VueScan, pretty good for an ancient scanner.

While at least some, maybe most, cheap scanners are capable of high resolution, the 'Easy to use' Windows software that comes with them isn't up to the task.

There is a catch; cheap scanners at high resolution are rather slow. If you wanted to scan a lot of slides or photos, you'd be at it for a long time. Nevertheless, for someone who wants a few high quality scans, the cheap scanner/good software route works pretty well.

If you'd like to see a sample scan, go here;

http://www.panamaretire.net/extra/new_pix/dollar-bill.bmp

This is just a small corner of a $1 bill.

Just for kicks, here's something I bet you didn't know is on a twenty. I sure didn't. It's nestled between the 2 and the 0 in the lower left corner of the front of the bill. There's more tiny writing on the bill if you want to look for it.

http://www.panamaretire.net/extra/new_pix/20.bmp

Bring Back the Magic