Jason Golod Blogs » How To

How To: Scan to PDF for Free

Jason — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 01:06:42 +0000

Original post from How To: Scan to PDF for Free.

How to Scan to PDF for Free

Thanks for checking out my how to on creating a pdf from a scan. This is great if you have an old flatbed scanner laying around like I do. There is a company that is giving away Walmart promo cards, if you are willing to jump through some hoops…plus, they give me a buck to send you there. So, if you don’t mind dealing with a little hassle, you should check it out.

Danielle asked me if we could scan a document to PDF recently and I forgot I had a nice “old” Epson Perfection 1650 flatbed scanner laying around (well preserved). I have been spoiled in recent times because we had a very nice enterprise level printer/scanner at the office with a 50 page document feeder on it. It would man handle a 2 page document and email it to me almost faster than I could make it back to my desk. These days, we are rollin’ with the Perfection 1650 flatbed…OG style homey.

The Search for Free Scanning to PDF Files Begins

I start with the standard Google search for “scan to pdf” and it brought up a number of different applications, all commercial, with some free offerings. Most had some kind of free PDF creation application that tied into Windows’ printing function…allowing you to select a PDF “printer” just like Adobe Acrobat does….except without the big price tag. All of the top Google results did not have a free scan to pdf application…some had trialware, but they all watermark the the image that is created so that you will buy the application…and, I am being cheap today.

NOTE: I am not going to mention any of the sites I visited that watermarked because one ticked me off so badly by saying it was a full functioning version and when I went to print it a big black stripe went across the pdf image I was looking at and prompted me to buy the full version if I wanted to print watermark free images. I will say that CutePDF has a free version that people like and that is what I use to print out/generate PDF files in my solution…

The Free Scanner to PDF Solution: iCopy + CutePDF

I finally came across an article on scanning on About.com that listed an open source project called iCopy. I copy is being billed as a “free photocopier” and that is pretty much how I see it. All of the applications I installed to scan items, watermarked scans that were output to image files as well as those output as PDF files. iCopy outputs everything to an image file and then I use the free CutePDF creator to “print” to a PDF. Let’s look at the process…

How to Use iCopy

When you first install iCopy you have the option to let the button on your scanner “notify” iCopy of the coming scan. None of the other applications that I used had this functionality (that I could see). iCopy makes it easy. Once installed, the main iCopy application is small, clean and simple.

The main screen of the iCopy "photocopier" application.

As you can see, there is not a lot going on and only the necessary items are in front of you. The first drop down box allows you to specify what the scanner should be looking for: Colors, Grayscale, or Text. Using colors makes for a slower scanning pass, grayscale a little faster and text much faster. Selecting the Printer drop down box, you will find two options: color or black and white. The last drop down for Paper Size allows you to select paper sizes you know and have never heard of (and probably never will again)…let’s just say they have you covered no matter what you are scanning.

Configuring iCopy

The first order of business is to configure the scanner. I was fortunate to find a Windows 7 TWAIN driver for the Epson Perfection 1650 on the Epson website and clicking the “Choose scanner…” button revealed the scanner straight away.

The Epson Perfection 1650 was found by iCopy right away.

Next order of business is to configure the printer options. Clicking the “Printer Options” button brings up the standard Windows printer selection window. I selected CutePDF Writer so that when I scan and print the documents, PDF files will be generated automatically. NOTE: It can take a bit for CutePDF Writer to spit out the pdf file depending on the resolution you select…be patient fast clickers. This printer is saved as the default for iCopy NOT for Windows.

Selecting CutePDF Writer as the default printer for the iCopy application.

Last, we need to configure the image settings. You can change the Brightness, Contrast, Scaling, Resolution and the JPEG quality (as it is creating an image when scanning). I left the first 3 alone, but stepped up the resolution to 600dpi. This made for pretty nice scans that were not outrageously big. You can select resolutions from 75dpi up to 1600dpi.

Setting the resolution to 600dpi in iCopy.

One of the nice things that iCopy does on the main screen (see first image above) is show you what scanner and what printer you have selected. Not something you normally find, but very thoughtful and useful.

Scanning and Making a Multi-Page PDF

Now that we have everything setup, it is time to make a PDF file. A single page scan is easy enough to accopmlish, you click the big blue button on the main screen and iCopy starts the scan. Alternately, if your scanner has a scan button on front that iCopy can recognize, push that bad boy and away you go. But, if you are scanning a document, chances are there are more than one page. In this case you need to click the “Other Scan Modes” button found directly below the “big blue button.” This brings up a window offering you two choices: Scan Multiple Pages (Ctrl + M) or Scan to a File. Option #1 is what we are looking for to create a multi-page file, Option #2 allows you to create an image file for a single page scan rather than outputting to a printer. Selecting “Scan Multiple Pages” activates the scan process, so you will need to have your document in the scanner before selecting this. Once the first page is done, you will have the below in front of you:

Add more pages or print the ones you have scanned.

If you have more pages to add to the file, click “Add Another Page,” otherwise, click the “Print Pages” button to output to a PDF using CutePDF Writer (or your PDF creation application of choice).

Final Thoughts

Overall, this is a very workable and simple system to use if you are too cheap and too lazy to get a document scanner. The PDFs I created using this combination were quite nice and worked well for our needs.

How to Run Disk Defragmenter as a Scheduled Task

Jason — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:57:08 +0000

Original post from How to Run Disk Defragmenter as a Scheduled Task.

Disk Defragmenter

Command Line Kung Fu

I was trying to figure out how to run Disk Defragmenter from the command line on a SBS2003 box as I was not sure how to specify what drive I want defrag.exe to run on at a specific time. Turns out that you can just browse to defrag.exe (…/system32) and then tell it what drive to run on in the advanced properties of the Task Scheduler. Microsoft has a write-up on the whole process.

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Installing Ubuntu 8.10 on a Thinkpad x22

Jason — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 20:59:22 +0000

Original post from Installing Ubuntu 8.10 on a Thinkpad x22.

For those of you trying to install Ubuntu on an IBM Thinkpad x22 or X2x series laptop, you will need to hit F6 and then enter vga=771 and then press enter when the installer menu comes up. I ended up finding success using the “Ubuntu 8.10 Alternate CD” ISO. The Thinkpad laptops’ video doesn’t play nice with the Debian/Ubuntu installer, but using the vga=771 flag makes it all good in the hood.

iPhone and Exchange 2003 Configuration Troubleshooting How-To

Jason — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 19:36:44 +0000

Original post from iPhone and Exchange 2003 Configuration Troubleshooting How-To.

Ok, I have to admit, I don’t like reading manuals. But, in the case of the new iPhone 2.0 software and Microsoft Exchange 2003, I did in fact read the Apple Exchange 2003 deployment guide. It is about zero help for someone who has configued Exchange 2003 to work with Windows Mobile devices in the past. But, I could not for the life of me get the iPhone to pull email, contacts or my calendar. I knew that the first thing that was needed was Exchange SP2…but, I thought I had checked what version of Exchange I was running…and, thought wrong. Instinctively, I did the Properties of My Computer and thought that I saw something somewhere that said Exchange was running SP2. Well, here is the deal, apparently you cannot get SP2 for Exchange 2003 via Windows Update. You have to download Exchange 2003 SP2 manually. The short of it is, I am an idiot.

There were a number of issues that I thought I was seeing. First, when I configured the Exchange settings on the iPhone, I would see Configured Sync with (null). I thought this was a little glimpse into where the sync problem was. It turns out that the iPhone inserts “null” if the name you specify for the Exchange account is too long (I verified this is the case). I finally decided to start from scratch to make sure I was not missing something. I found out how to check what version of Exchange 2003 I am running. Once I did that, I saw that I was running SP1. DUH. So, I downloaded Exchange 2003 SP2 from Microsoft, installed it and BOOM. Email, Contacts and Calendar. What a rookie move.

How to Make the POP3 Connector Check for Email More Frequently

Jason — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 16:50:38 +0000

Original post from How to Make the POP3 Connector Check for Email More Frequently.

If you are running SBS2003 and Exhange and you are using the built in POP3 connector to check for email on other pop3 boxes, you are probably really annoyed that you cannot check pop email boxes more frequently than every 15 minutes. Well, there is a way to make the POP3 Connector in SBS2003 check for email as frequently as you like. Here is what I did and it seems to work fine on the two SBS 2003 boxes I am running:

1. Open regedit and browse to the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/
Microsoft/SmallBusinessServer/Network/POP3 Connector

2. On the “Edit” menu, point to “New”, and then click “DWORD Value”.

3. Type “ScheduleAccelerator” (no quotation marks) as the entry name, and then press ENTER.

5. On the “Edit” menu, click “Modify” or just double click ‘er.

6. In the “Value data” box, type the value that you want, and then click “OK”. To determine the polling interval, the value that is configured on the “Scheduling” tab in the GUI is divided by the value that you type for the ScheduleAccelerator entry. Assuming you already have this at 15 minutes, the value you put in here would divide 15. So, if you enter 5 the POP3 Connector will check for email every 3 minutes. Boom.

FYI, you can enter the value as Hexidecimal, which should be the default.

7. I then restarted the POP3 Connector Service by going into the Services console, finding POP3 Connector, right clicking it and selecting restart.

[tags]POP3 Connector, SBS 2003, Microsoft, Small Business Server, Exchange[/tags]

Linkbait

Jason — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 01:32:39 +0000

Original post from Linkbait.

Linkbait – The Chicken or the Egg?

As with many things in life, trying to figure out how to create great linkbait (content or ideas that attract links from other web sites and blogs) can be difficult and downright confusing. My personal feeling is that you have to believe in your idea and create great content or something that is worthy of people spending their time on…or be a great liar. Since I don’t like to lie, I will focus on the first two in this post. IMHO, you are better off spending more time creating one great post or idea than spending a little time creating a bunch of junk. Some of my most successful (in terms of attracting links) posts on this blog took me the longest to create. My intention, in most cases, was not to attract links, but was to help other people who were having difficulty trying to figure out what I just spent a lot of time figuring out. Giving something of value away for free is probably the easiest way to attract readers and liniks. Now, let’s talk about some of the problems people face when trying to create linkbait. “Paralysis of Analysis” can become a very real thing when trying to conjure up a great way to attract links. There are a few issues that many people get stuck on:

You don’t have a big readership
You don’t have a lot of money to promote your idea
You wouldn’t link to a lot of things, so why should you think anyone will link to you

You Don’t Have a Big Set of Readers or Subscribers

While having a big base of people that read your website or blog on a regular basis makes generating inbound links easier, it is not the only way to attract links. This just means that you are going to have to be more proactive about getting your message in front of people with websites and blogs. So, how do you do that? This is the internet, there are a bazillion ways and here are a few:

Press Releases

Yeah, I know, press releases are nothing new. But, that doesn’t mean that most people have probably not submitted them and if they have it was some lame attempt at getting some inbound links or getting into Google News or something. If your content or idea is not something worthy of you talking to someone about on the phone, then a press release is not the way to go. But, if you are pumped on your idea and it is your life’s work, then by all means spend some time learning how to write compelling copy and press releases. You can even shell out a few bucks and have a pro copywriter put one together for you if you have the funds.

Communities and Forums

Most people who have spent a lot of time on line have found themselves browsing a forum or two. Forums are a great place for like-minded people to share ideas, ask questions, and interact with people who are interested in similar subjects. Just about all of them are free to join and most allow you to post links to other websites. NOTE: Don’t just join up and post a link to your website or blog in your first post. If you don’t know why, then do yourself a favor and vow not to post a link to anything for 30 days. Then spend some time on a few forums and read their Terms of Service and posting guidelines to find out their preferred methods of posting information, questions, and links. Forums are a great way to get people who are already interested in your field interested in your idea or linkbait.

Blogs on similar subjects are probably a dime a dozen these days. Interacting on these blogs and even emailing the blog owner with some information about your idea or linkbait is a great way to get a free “promo” on their site.

Social Networks

Websites like Bumpzee, Sphinn, specific Google and Yahoo Groups, and other social “networking” sites are great places to get interested readers, bloggers and web site owners to check out what you have to say as well. Many times you can join groups or communities and gain instant readers. You can also include your linkbait or idea in your signature on email lists like you would on a forum. Again, the idea here is not to barge into a conversation and say here is my linkbait, learn the medium first, then pounce by asking people their opinion or feedback. This way you are promoting your idea while not sounding like it.

Craigslist

I had to mention Craigslist here as not a day goes by that I don’t wonder what that site is really worth. It is incredible what kind of traffic you can send to a site simply by posting something on Craigslist. Try the community pages on CL or even post in a relevant category. You may be shocked to find that you get some readers out of it.

You Don’t Have a Lot of Money to Promote Your Linkbait Idea

Well, as you have just seen it doesn’t really take any money to go out and attract readers and potential links…it takes time. To most of us, time is money. If you have a wife and kids you have even less of both, so work smart and efficiently. Money is great to help jump start things, but many time it is not the best idea. You may want to plan out specific actions you would like to take to promote your linkbait and then pay someone to carry them out, if you have the chachi.

You Don’t Link to People, Why Would They Link to You?

At the end of the day, there is only one way to find out if you have what it takes to attract links. You may be writing about something that nobody cares about (doubtful). I used to think that I am never going to link to anyone else’s website, after all, I am losing PageRank. Well, at some point a few years ago I realized that the whole point of the internet is to share information…linking to relevant information helps the world go around. If you create something of value (something funny is valuable to people, how to articles are valuable, a way to make money is valuable, etc), people will find it and link to it. If they don’t, let me know and I will link to it.

Ideas for Linkbait

So, now that you have a few ways to promote your linkbait, what is your linkbait going to be? Here are a few ideas to help get the linkbait juices flowing:

“How to” articles – Have you ever spent a few hours trying to figure out how to connect your phone to your laptop? Tried to figure out a new road bike circuit to ride in a particular city? Tried to figure out how to fit a square peg in a round hole? There are an infinite number of things to write about when it comes to “how to” articles. Not only are they very helpful to people, they are easy to write if they are something you are very interested in.
“Why” articles – This may sound silly to some of you, but to know it alls like myself, it does not. Do you know why something is a bad idea, policy, law, bill, etc? Write an opinion piece or why article touching on the specific reasons why it is a good or a bad idea. Send it along to your newspaper’s opinion column. Many of you would be surprised to find out how many people are looking to argue over things on line. An argument usually means links.
Studies – Many of you have spent a lot of time working in a particular field. While you may not have realized it, you have probably amassed a lot of specific information. You can condense a lot of that knowledge on a particular subject in a white paper or conduct a study to find out how people will actually react in the real world. This is a great way to attract links from authority sources.
Funny Pictures – Posting a funny picture and writing a descriptive caption or description can attract a ton of traffic and links. One thing to watch out for here is remote linking from little kiddies on Myspace and other forums. This can bring your webserver to its knees in short order…trust me.
How to Make Money Ideas – While this is nothing knew, it seems that the world has an insatiable appetite finding the latest and greatest way to make money. Some of the biggest bloggers today have built their readership by posting information on how they made/make money.
Freebies – Yes, people love free stuff too. Give things away or even hold a contest. People are attracted to free, don’t believe me? Go to Costco on any day of the week and watch people climb over each other to get that dentist office cup with a lick of chili in it.
Stick to What You Know – If you are an authority on something, become one on line. Some of the most successful (monetarily and in terms of traffic) people that I have seen on line have positioned themselves as an authority in a particular field. This is not a simple one-shot linkbait idea, but you should have a longer-term vision IMHO than just a one-shot linkbait.
So, there you have it. This is not the end-all-be-all of linkbait posts, but it should give anyone reading a few ideas on what they can do to create a linkbait idea, how to promote their linkbait and overcome some of the most common hurdles when it comes to creating linkbait. Good luck and let me know how it goes.

[tags]Linkbait, Link Bait, Marketing, Online, Internet, Links, Link Popularity, How To[/tags]

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Copyright 2011 ©Jason Golod.

How to Block Remote Image Linking without Using .htaccess

Jason — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 22:20:56 +0000

Original post from How to Block Remote Image Linking without Using .htaccess.

Pesky myspace.com users remote linking to images on your site in their sigs? Using .htaccess seems to be the default method most people use to try and block these requests. But, this may not be the most effective method anymore as browsers like Firefox may circumvent this. Sooo, how do you block remote image linking without using .htaccess? Well, I just came across this little tutorial on blocking remote image linking in httpd.conf. It is successful at blocking the image requests from myspace returning 404, but the request still makes it to the web server. But, at least they are not going to smoke your bandwidth by ripping the images.

Here is how I did it. Substitute your domain for golod.com suckas:

Make sure you have the mod_setenvif.c module for your version of Apache. It was installed by default on my Apache 1.3 install.

Place the following code, substituting your domain in place of golod.com. You can also add other allowed hosts aside from your localhost or the domain of the website…check the link to the website above. Put this code between the tags in httpd.conf:

#Block Remote Linking
SetEnvIfNoCase Referer localhost LOCAL_HOST
SetEnvIfNoCase Referer www.golod.com LOCAL_REFERER

Order deny,allow
Deny from all
Allow from env=LOCAL_REFERER
Allow from env=LOCAL_HOST

Order deny,allow
Deny from all
Allow from env=LOCAL_REFERER
Allow from env=LOCAL_HOST

Order deny,allow
Deny from all
Allow from env=LOCAL_REFERER
Allow from env=LOCAL_HOST

Now you just have to restart Apache and you will be blocking all of the remote image leeches.

Enabling Multiple Remote Desktop Sessions in Windows XP Professional and Media Center Edition 2005

Jason — Tue, 18 Oct 2005 14:45:59 +0000

Original post from Enabling Multiple Remote Desktop Sessions in Windows XP Professional and Media Center Edition 2005.

If you have ever used a real remote computer system like Citrix, then you have probably been craving multiple Remote Desktop sessions since you first fired up Windows XP Professional and/or Media Center Edition. Here is a HACK (translated: USE AT YOUR OWN RISK), to enable multiple Remote Desktop sessions on your XP Pro or MCE 2005 box:

NOTE: You will have to have knowledge of the Windows operating system and more specifically the Windows Registry. If you have no experience with the registry, then I would recommend you find someone who does or leave these alone. I do not make any kind of warranty that this will work for you or your friends. This is provided for entertainment purposes only. Don’t call me if your computer stops working. Got it?

Print these directions so that you have them to work from.
Restart your computer in Safe Mode – Follow this link to learn how to restart Windows XP in Safe Mode
Turn off/disable Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) and Terminal Services

Right click My Computer
Select Properties
Click on the Remote tab at the top of the window
UNCHECK the box next to, “Allow users to connect remotely to this computer“
Click OK
Go to Start -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services
Find Terminal Services in the list
Right click on Terminal Services and click Properties
In the Startup Type box, select Disabled
Click OK to close the window

Next you will replace the current version of the Terminal Services DLL (termsrv.dll) with an unrestricted version from a previous release of Terminal Services.

Here is a copy of the (NOTICE: I have removed the link to this file as the one I had was reported as carrying a trojan…try googling it) – Save it to your Desktop or other suitable location
Using a file manager like Windows Explorer open C:\Windows\system32\dllcache
Rename the file termsrv.dll to termsrv_dll.bak or whatever you would like.
Copy the downloaded termsrv.dll file (the one you just downloaded from the web) to C:\Windows\system32\dllcache
Open the C:\Windows\system32 folder
Delete the file termsrv.dll in C:\Windows\system32

Now we can edit the Windows Registry to enable more than one RDP connection. Go to Start -> Run and type regedit – Hopefully you knew that already
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\Licensing Core
Add a DWORD Key named EnableConcurrentSessions and give it a value of 1
Close the Registry Editor window
Go to Start -> Run and type gpedit.msc to run the Group Policy Editor
Browse to Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Terminal Services and double click Limit number of connections
Select the Enabled button and enter the number of connections you would like to enable….at least 2.
Restart Windows
Right click My Computer and select Properties.
Click on the Remote tab at the top of the window
CHECK the box next to, “Allow users to connect remotely to this computer“
Click OK
Go to Start -> Control Panel ->Administrative Tools -> Services. Select Terminal Services from the list and double click it or right-click -> Properties. Set the Startup Type to Manual.
Restart Windows/Computer

You should be good to go.

Cleaning LCD Screens

Jason — Tue, 03 May 2005 02:04:10 +0000

Original post from Cleaning LCD Screens.

I am either just learning how to drink, or I laugh too much at my own jokes. I was sitting at the computer the other day, working on my brand new Dell 19″ LCD monitor when I laughed at something stupid. The problem is that I had just taken a sip of my Orange Gatorade and I spit it all over the place. I wiped it up quickly and only little spay drops made it to the LCD. But, after a few minutes a bunch of little, sticky drops were now all over the screen. Nice move J. So, what do you use to clean an LCD screen without damaging it?

The general consensus is to use a mixture of Isopropyl Alcohol and water at no more than 50% alcohol by volume. Of course you can spray this mixture on to the screen and then use the softest cloth you can find (no paper towels here gang or anything that does not feel like a baby’s bottom). I have some micro-fiber wipes I got from my eye doctor to clean my glasses and sunglasses and they work very well. Another thing to remember is that we are working with electronics here, so use the liquid solution sparingly.

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Cingular WAP Dial Up Networking Settings

Jason — Fri, 25 Mar 2005 04:09:53 +0000

Original post from Cingular WAP Dial Up Networking Settings.

Using your Bluetooth enabled mobile phone as an internet gateway is really easy….if you know how to set it up. Funny thing is that Cingular does not tell you how to use the MediaNet unlimited account I have as an internet gateway, I had to search for an hour or so online to get it working. So, if you are trying to use your mobile phone to connect to the internet and you use Cingular wireless here is how you make it happen.

UPDATE 8/24/06:
I just posted on how to connect your Cingular 8125 or Cingular 2125 to the internet via Bluetooth and Dial-Up Networking (DUN).

First you are going to need to setup a Bluetooth connection between your phone and computer. I am not going to get into this, but you should be able to use the built in Bluetooth features of Windows XP (that is what you are using isn’t it?) to “pair” the two devices.
Add a new Dial Up Networking (DUN) connection by going to the Start Menu and then right click (use the right mouse button) on My Network Places and then select Preferences.
Click the “Create New Connection” link at the top of the left navigation bar. A wizard will pop up. Click the Next button and then select the Connect to Internet and then click the Next button again. Select “Set Up My Connection Manually” and then click next. Select “Connect Using a Dial-Up Modem”.
The next window that pops up will show you the modems that are connected to your computer. If you do not see something like “Standard Modem Over Bluetooth Connection” listed there (or however you have connected your phone to the computer), then you will need to go back and get your phone talking to your computer. Select the modem connection over Bluetooth and click next.
Type Cingular or whatever you would like to name this connection in the box and click Next.
Type *99***1# as the phone number. Yes, that is the phone number.
Here is the information to type in the next boxes:
user name: WAP@CINGULARGPRS.COM
password: CINGULAR1

Select the box about using the connection for anyone that uses your computer (unless you don’t want to) and uncheck the second (unless this is your only or default connection).

You should be good to go. Use this connection as any other Dial-Up connection. In the connection properties, you can set the port speed to 230k if you have an EDGE enabled phone, although I have not seen anything close to the 115K that EGDE is supposed to deliver. Let me know if you have any trouble.

UPDATE 7/26/05
I just downloaded the new version of Nokia PC Suite which is the free software Nokia puts out to sync your phone via Bluetooth, USB cable or Serial cable. This version of the software is much better than the previous version and even though the Nokia 6620 is not listed in the supported phone list, it works great with my 6620. One new feature is the “One Touch” internet gateway application that will help you to configure your Nokia phone as an internet gateway and connect at will. It is a pretty sweet upgrade if you ask me as it appears that they have worked out a few kinks.

To get this working I installed the new version of PC Suite. Then follow these steps and you should be good to go.

Fire up the PC Suite software and select the “Connect to the Internet” application icon
In the window that pops up, select the “Settings” button in the lower left hand corner
Then select the “Standard Modem over Bluetooth Link” from the drop down list (I am assuming you are going through this trouble to connect via Bluetooth)
Then select the “Configure Manually” button and click Next
Leave the Access Point name blank
Username is WAP@CINGULARGPRS.COM
Password is CINGULAR1
Click finish and you should be good to go

Remember, PC Suite is just for Nokia phones, but the directions above should work for just about any phone in conjunction with Cingular’s Media Net and Windows XP.