Originally published at my real blog. Please leave any comments there.

Written on 4/30/08
I have a new task at work: mosaicing together 113 scanned maps from a street atlas into one large graphics file. This is going from fun to excruciating as the file size of the final image is growing. Each of these scans is 300dpi — so try to imagine. I wish I had a more powerful computer. Isn’t it strange that no matter how far technology progresses, we could always use more disk space, more memory? They can’t make them faster than we can figure out new ways to fill them up. Why does that make me sad? It feels decadent, or something. Anyhow, I have become an expert in Photoshop’s Large Document format. I have also learned that dealing with unnaturally dimensioned images is a key advantage Photoshop has over Paint Shop Pro. It takes the former much longer to trip out and display an “out of memory” message. Not to say I didn’t get there eventually :/. Though the message is different: it’s “scratch disks are full.” Which apparently, is the harddrive. I think Paint Shop Pro doesn’t know it should use that as a backup. A fatal flaw in my most beloved software.

I wouldn’t normally blog about such a topic, but I have no other option as I sit here watching the status bar inch along. Notepad doesn’t take up too much system memory. I should have brought a real book. Though, I don’t like either of the books I am reading now. Naked Lunch and The Year of Living Biblically. The first, I heard was good; the second, sure sounded like it would be. But I find the first incomprehensible and the second tedious. I left a third book on the plane. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. I wish I had that one. It hits close to home & makes me sad, but that beats bored.

Update as of today 5/2/08
Got access to a computer with double the memory and a faster processor. Finished the mosaic. Will be georeferencing it today. Also, found the third book. Hadn’t lost it afterall. Read some more of it last night :).