Most of you with Canon or Epson printers know that you should print something at least weekly to keep your print head nozzles from becoming clogged with dried ink. Who can remember to print something every week?
You could buy a program from this guy. His program has your computer print a nozzle check page weekly automatically. That’s pretty great, and it probably works ok, but $40 is a bit much for something that you can set up on any Windows system, and probably others as well.
Windows has a program you have probably never looked at called “task scheduler” (Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Task Scheduler).
Open up Task Scheduler and select and “Create a Basic Task”
Name the task whatever you want. Next.
Schedule when you want this to occur. I went with weekly at an hour that I am not likely to be bothered.
Select “Start a Program”. Next.
For program/script type “rundll32″ (no quotes). For add arguments, copy the following text and paste into the box: shimgvw.dll ImageView_PrintTo /pt c:\testimage.jpg “printer name”
To add your printer name, go to start menu and type “devices and printers”.
Right click on the printer you want to use, and select properties.
Highlight the printer name, copy, then go back to Task Scheduler and paste this in the spot “printer name” leaving the quotations in place.
Finish, and you are almost done. Now you just need an image for the test print. I wouldn’t pick an image that uses a whole lot of ink. You could borrow my image HERE. Go to my computer and drop this file directly into C:, and you are done.
Thanks to Linjunhalida at Stack overflow for a great answer on how to print from command line in Windows.
Notes:
You can test it out with Task Scheduler by clicking on the folder on the left called “task scheduler library” then your task should be visible at the top. Highlight and select “Run” (looks like a green play button).
This uses the program windows fax and image viewer to print. The print that you get will be with whatever settings were last used in that program. My initial test print was grayscale, and because of this I had to change the settings within this program.
Whether you think monkeys are cute or scary, there is just something exciting about seeing them bathe in hotsprings surrounded by snow. The history of these Japanese Macaques bathing in the snow can vary depending on where you look, but the basic idea is this:
In the 60s someone saw a monkey dive into a hot spring for a soybean, and it lingered for a bit
The monkey must have enjoyed himself because he passed the behavior on to his troup
Ever since, this troop of monkeys has visited the hot springs about every other day.
The trip getting there was about 4 hours, first on a bullet train, then a normal train, then a bus to get us within short walking distance to Jigokudani once we were in Yamanouchi.
On the train ride over, even though we were cruising by everything so fast, there was still some snowy scenery to enjoy.
After the two train rides, a short bus ride, and a bit of a walk we saw a sign that would be hard to miss.
The walk through the trees was scenic, and there was a small village to see on the way.
And let’s not forget, there were a bunch of cute monkeys to see. I really had no idea what to expect as far as the monkeys were concerned. To avoid disappointment, I was pretty much ready to see an empty hotspring and maybe catch a glimpse of the macaques in the forest mocking our effort to see them. This was not the case at all. In fact, I was amazed at how tolerant these primates were of people far too close. I was timid at first, but eventually I did as others were doing and started taking pictures a bit closer. Too many pictures really. The best are from my wife, you can find them on her blog, mine will be in the slideshow at the bottom.
After we had our fill (sort of) taking pictures and headed out, we made our way back to check into the ryokan for the night. Our inn was similar to many in the town in that it was host to it’s own onsen (hot spring). There are a group of inns that all have hot springs inside, each one with a unique quality to it, and to stay in any one of them gets you a free pass to visit the other inn’s hot spring. We didn’t partake in the “hot spring tour” although it would have been fun, we were a bit tired from travel and ready to sit down, have some tea with our feet under a heated table, and chat while we wait for dinner.
As it seems to be at any of these ryokans, dinner was an experience in itself. Although it wasn’t quite the feast we had in Shirakawa-go, it was a treat. We left the following morning, back to Tokyo to get ready for travel to Okinawa.
I am writing this because I tried to find information related to the breakdown of this lens, and nothing was available. Disclaimer: My background does not include any formal training in lens cleaning or repair, so if you came to this expecting a “how to”, proceed with caution and I take no responsibility for any damage you may do to your photographic equipment. This is only a partial disassembly for the function of cleaning under the front element.
My Sigma has been getting a bit dirtier over the last few months with the increased use from my travels in Japan. I don’t clean lenses if they just look dirty, they need to perform poorly, and this was the case with mine. If you aren’t sure, set your aperture to max, F40, and in AV mode, shoot the ceiling or another bare white surface while moving the camera around. You should get an image of almost complete blur. If you zoom in, you will find the same dust spots that have been in your images. These could be on your sensor, or in your lens. Try a different lens doing the same test and compare. My dust spots were in my lens, and I could see them behind the front element.
On to the disassembly:
Before you get started, have a clean workspace, and some basic tools. I always have a clean bottle of isopropyl alcohol, cotton swabs, squeeze blower, and a small screwdriver set. Additionally a variety of cups, and some double stick adhesive tape can come in handy. You may want to read about how to clean a lens first. I find it easier to keep the lens attached to the camera body as it provides somewhat stable support and allows testing of my progress.
The lens is constructed similar to many zooms from Sigma, with a front element that is accessible behind a threaded plastic cover (hover for highlight). The image below shows the cover after being partially threaded out as you can see from the gap between it and the front element.
This plastic cover can be removed in a variety of ways. The outer labeled ring is a separate piece of plastic with adhesive backing, it can be carefully removed with a small thin flathead screwdriver, but you are likely to scratch the soft black plastic of the front of your lens in the process. A plastic cup of appropriate size, with double sided tape on the rim, can often be used to remove the front cap by turning it counter-clockwise. This method is preferred as it should leave no marks on the lens, but it may not work for everyone as the cover is often quite tight. The last method is to drill two small shallow holes through the label ring, and use the newly made indentations with a spanner wrench or with controlled pressure and a flathead screwdriver alternating between the two holes until it comes lose. Be careful with any screwdriver near the front element! Your pressure should be controlled, and never anywhere near being towards the element. When it finally breaks lose is an easy time to blow it and lose the screwdriver tip to the glass or plastic.
Behind this front cover, you find four small Philips screws, and centrally, the front element with two notches on either edge. Remove the front element in a counter-clockwise fashion with a spanner wrench or flathead screwdriver using the two notches then continue to remove by hand.
You now have access to clean the underside of the front element, and the outer surface of the first element behind it. Place the front element in a save place with the concave surface facing down, and clean the inner element first. After it is clean and dry, take another test shot at max aperture in the method described above. Zoom in and compare. If you are lucky, much of the debri in your first image is gone in your second. If you are not so lucky, then the dust is either on the rear element (cross your fingers), or for further inside. Clean the rear element and repeat your test shot. If you are reading this, then chances are you have no business digging in deeper. Further disassembly becomes much more complicated, and you are less likely to come out with a working lens, just put it back together, drink a beer, and keep manually removing those spots in Photoshop or shoot at a larger aperture (F5.6 or lower).
Clean the front element inner surface if it is dirty.
Before you thread it back in place, use your blower to blast out any dust on the inner element or in that space. The assembly is a simple reverse of the disassembly. You can make putting the front cover on a bit easier by removing the label ring by pushing it off from behind through one of the four small holes, then reattaching it after everything is back together.
Congrats, you just gave your lens a deep cleaning and didn’t break it in the process! Have a beer to celebrate.
Our next leg of the trip was from Sendai, to a meetup with Mom, and then up to Mizusawa-Esashi ( I could never say the name right let alone spell it without Google for help). We soon met up with a family that is good friends with my wife’s family. We had met their daughters Yukari and Yumi in Tokyo for a night of great food, drinks, stories, and a bit of catching up. They are childhood friends of my wife and her sister from when she was about 5 years old.
The trip north brought us past a lot of small snowy cities, and we could see mountains around us. I really had no idea what to expect of the town, or what we would do for the afternoon. Soon after arriving and meeting Mr and Mrs Chiba, we started the long drive toward where they live. We ended up heading out to an area close to their home that was heavily affected by the Tsunami. I have some images to post, but this short video clip gives more and better information and captures this place in a way that I was unable to behind the lens. The following video is of the same area we visited.
As we drove an unnamed new road that wove its way though the rubble seen in the video above, I couldn’t help but feel moved by the destruction that had occurred there. Despite the fact that it had been 7 months since the tsunami, the area looked mostly the same. There were heaps of trash and debris 25 feet tall, the unsorted ones that dump trucks drove on top of to deposit more as things were cleaned up. Nearby there were sorted piles: wood, metal, rock, and others.
In the distance Mr Chiba pointed to a hospital, that famously saved many lives, as it was one of the few structures that did not collapse under the pressure of the floodwaters and the roof became a safe area helping many survive. Not far from that was the control center for the levy, heavily damaged by floodwater, where an operator sacrificed his life to engage manual levy controls as the electrical control had failed. Nearby stood a single pine tree where no trees could be seen for a thousand feet. This used to be a forest, and the levy control station somehow blocked enough of the turbulent water to keep this one tree upright as others were flattened. The lower hillsides were brown as the lower trees were dying from saltwater exposure. This tree had the same salt exposure, and as a sole survivor it became a symbol of hope. Great effort was taken to try to save the tree, but it was clearly dead when we arrived.
We stopped for a bite to eat, visited Mr Chiba’s workplace, a nearby temple that is an UNESCO World Heritage Site, then spent some time at his home before heading out to a fantastic dinner. We made our way back to Tokyo that night on a late bullet train and stayed at Hito’s another night.
Next up, a blog entry that is a bit lighter with kittens and monkeys!
We headed to Yamadera with a brief stop in Sendai, a major city and JR hub, to drop some things off at our hostel and repack light for our daytrip.I wasn’t sure at first about going to Yamadera in the winter months, and from what I had read I wasn’t sure about access. This article, made me feel otherwise and gave me some confidence that it would still be fun and beautiful in the snow.
The main article we read here gives some background on the place. The “thousand steps” that bring you to the temple from the main city below seemed to me an exaggeration, though I admit I didn’t count, but the ice we encountered along the way did prove somewhat difficult even in our hiking boots. Early on we came to a wooden Buddha which from my limited understanding is likely a Mizuko Jizo, or a baby monk, surrounded by happy little babies ready to be saved.
slightly later there was this scene….
The hike up passed by many engraved rocks, small pathways, and even a very large rock speckled with coins people had wedged into the many holes on it’s surface. At Niomon gate, the main entrance, there was a fierce wooden warrior inside a mesh of wooden lattice and many angry looking lion dogs, one at each roof corner. As we headed farther up, we went left, past an offshoot to the main upper temple complex, and off to a viewpoint at Godaido Hall.
Getting up there required a knotted rope for the last staircase, which was mostly loaded with ice.
After leaving, we were somewhat happy that we hadn’t chosen to stay the night in Yamadera. We were able to head up, see the place, and head out in about five hours total. From the best I could tell there was only one place to stay, Yamadera Pension, a very nice ryokan in the main village. It is supposed to be a great place to stay, and if the weather had been better, I might have gone for it. Our frugal yen were spent at this little place in Sendai. Sure, we had a common bathroom, a common eating area and kitchen, but the linens were clean, the heaters were warm, the host was nice, and the price was right.
Our first lazy day on our trip was quite a contrast compared to almost rushing from one temple, shrine, or castle, to the next as we tried to see all we could. We were happy to have mellow day of catching up, going through pictures, and sleeping in. Hitto made quite a breakfast for us.
That evening, we met up with two of Hitto’s friends and our uncle Masaharu and went out for dinner and more than a couple of drinks. Everyone seemed to be in the mood to drink, including my wife, happily displaying the one liter beer mugs we drank from.
I guess all that needs said is that Ang and I both had a ton of fun, and a bit of a headache the next day. We decided to take the following day to recover, this time from self-poisoning, and blog a bit more.The next morning we headed out early to see the Tokyo fish market. I was happily anticipating the variety of fish and seafood as well as everything else. The market, which likely links local distributors to restaurant suppliers, was one of the busiest places I have seen. There were small, propane powered trucks with a flat bed behind them zooming around past bicycles, motorcycles, trucks, people with hand trucks, and pedestrians. It is no wonder that the tourist information for this place is full of warnings of collision from vehicles.
There were also warnings related to disruption of the market. No one there really benefits from a couple of foreigners sticking their cameras in front of seafood they don’t intend to buy, getting in people’s way while they endanger themselves. We were sensitive to this, and passed quickly through the market, staying out of the side paths between vendors’ displays and followed our knowledable guide (Aunt Hitto).We stopped for a bite, and had some of the freshest sashimi(raw fish) I can imagine. It tasted quite different than sashimi I had before purchased from Asian Markets in Gresham, Oregon. It was more flavorful (the good flavors) and much less “fishy”. This may have partially ruined me for not-so-fresh sashimi far from the source. Soon after this we, did a little shopping, then headed across town to the Tokyo tower.
The tokyo tower brought us up to around 1600 feet above the skyskrapers and craziness of the city and gave this place a different mood altogether. This must have been part of the purpose, as the observation area replayed a track that was a mix of elevator music, and something intended to put you to sleep. There was a downward viewing window, and I asked Ang to stand over it for a picture. I then took another so that she could better attempt to fake a confident smile while repressing her strong fear of heights.
We woke up to an icy cold room and about 6 inches of fresh snow outside. We weren’t sure why it was so cold, maybe the heater turns itself off after a set time? (we found out later that it ran out of kerosene). Breakfast brought about another fire in our feast hall, with more smoke, and a bit of anticipation as we walked through the thick air on our way to brush our teeth and use the common bathroom (the large “dining room” connected the rooms with the rest of the building). After our morning signal that it was time to eat, we found this:
The main dish, on top of a small burner with solid fuel, sort of like sterno, was sweet miso sauce with diced eggplant and mushroom on top. We stirred this while we ate the rest of the meal. It wasn’t the gut-stretcher that our previous meal was, and was actually fairly light, but we were both so full from the night before that it took effort to finish. At the end of breakfast, we sat around the radiant kerosene heater and peared out at the falling snow.
After a short revisit of the town, taking a few pictures, poking our heads into shops, and basically burning off a couple of hours until the bus would be back to take us to Takayama, we finally headed off. The revisit of Takayama was much of the same as well, but we weren’t as rushed as before, so we took our time and made our way around on foot sampling the town with our cameras and tastebuds. Here, Ang has what is basically a massive rice cracker, that was cooked in front of us on an open gas grill, then dipped in soy sauce and cooked again. Hot, a little salty, sort of like a pretzle but lighter with more snap and a definited ricey taste.
The rest of the day was a blur of trains, one to Nagano, and a bullet train to Tokyo, all covered by Japan Rail Pass which was very nice. We arrived back in Tokyo and made our way to Matsudo station near our Aunt Hitto’s place and she drove us back while we were both half asleep. As is usuall with Hitto, she tried to force more wonderful food down our bellies when we arrived. I can’t remember if we politely refused or reluctantly ate some before heading to bed. My expanding waistline makes me think we did the latter.
For the earlier portions of our trip, we had pretty much stayed in any place that was as inexpensive as possible that would put a roof over our head, and keep our valuables safe. This was always a private room in a hostel, and worked out very well. For this portion of the trip, our accommodation was the highlight of the tip, known well beforehand. We were to stay in a traditional Japanese ryokan, a Japanese inn, and not just anywhere, but in Shirakawa-go, which is an UNESCO World Heritage site. The traditional housing that we stayed in, called a gassho, has a very thick thatch roof providing some insulation and protection from the elements.
We had read that a stay in one of these traditional houses is a great experience, one that should not be missed on a trip to Japan. We were not disappointed. Part of the experience is the home-cooked meal that is served, and part is the traditional room and common areas. The ryokan, which is most like a “bed and breakfast” in the US, serves dinner and often breakfast. From one source (still looking for the original article), the origin of being served dinner dates back from when samurai were following the emperor as he traveled around. The samurai would leave their inn to head into the town with the excuse that they were looking for something to eat, and often ran into trouble. The conflicts from this caused the emperor at the time to require all inns to serve dinner, and the samurai no longer had an excuse to head out every evening.
Our travel to Shirakawa-go included a long ride on a fast train leading to the town of Takayama, which is a very interesting town on it’s own. The town is knows for it’s fine woodworking and a district of old-style buildings. We made out way into a small shop that had a huge variety of hand-crafted creatures from the many small birds that covered the walls, to frogs, elephants, and even Predator, R2D2, and many others. We probably spent about two hours in the town, but wished we had more time.
We caught the bus to from Takayama to Shirakawa-go, which included more tunnels than I have ever seen. It seemed at times that we were in tunnels for possibly half of our trip, and it may have actually been around 20% of the mileage. The longest one was over six and a half miles long. I had been holding my breath through most of them for entertainment, but this one was just too much.
Arriving in Shirakawa-go, we shouldered our packs and walked across a long cable bridge over a wide rocky river and made our way into the town. We found the home we would be staying in, Magoemon, dropping off our packs and heading out to take a look at the town. We walked around the snowy little village for a bit, even heading up to a viewpoint before calling it a day.
As we came back to the inn, we were shown around by a very tiny, very nice old woman. We sat down warming our cold feet under a heated table, which is very common in Japanese homes, and had a cup of hot green tea while we waited in anticipation for dinner.
The highlight of this trip, our evening meal, was incredible. A small firepit in the middle of the dining room cooked a row of trout. There is no chimney, but rather a thick, soot covered board hanging from the roof that served to stop sparks from reaching the highly flammable roof. I imagine the smoke simply sifted it’s way through the thatch roof above. This all gave the room a mild amount of smoke, that was thick while standing, but seated just gave a room an earthy smell like a campfire that burned out hours ago.
Our feast came in a series of small portions. After the first two, each additional bowl or tray brought by our host brought out a sigh and gasp from my happy wife, knowing that it would be delicious, and that her full stomach would have to stretch and fill a little more.
After it was all over we headed to our room with full bellies, warm hands and feet, smokey clothes, and smiles on our faces. We got back to our room to find that our bed had been set up while we were away, with maybe the thickest down comforter I have ever seen, which also brought a smile to Ang’s face.
There are many other names you can give this place from “the spiritual home of the Japanese” to “the city of academia” due to it having over forty universities, or “the cultural and historic heart of Japan”. It is a fascinating place, that really deserves more time spent than the two days we allotted to quickly view and experience what we could. There is plenty of history to the place too, from it’s beginning as the emperor moved the capital city far from Buddhist influence to the previous name Heian Kyo.
As I write this I am sitting with my feet under a heated table in a little hostel in the bustling town of Sendai, trying to catch up to everything I have done. It was quite a hectic first and second day in Kyoto, and I can’t fully remember all of the details other than that we went from one temple to the next, trying to visit all we could. We had a map from the tourist information center, and the temples where in all corners of the city, in the middle, and on the outskirts. We saw an old castle, and on one tower in great Modern fashion, I fired up our mobile WiFi and made one of the few phone calls I have to my dad. We weren’t alone in this, as others seemed to use the refuge of the wind and reduced visibility to connect with someone.
As you watch the slideshow, if you choose to take a peak, you will find signs of sunset as we finish our first day. On the second day we visited Nishiki Market before going to Nijo Castle, and then finally to the Bamboo Grove on the east end of town. The bamboo was on the east end of town near Tenryuji Temple and would be lit for one week in the evening. We made it out well before the lighting, and walked around a bit to blow off an hour. When we came back the crowd was massive, and growing. We managed a few crowded pictures before heading out, realizing that there was an equally massive line of people, slowly moving their way into the grove from the city.
All I know about Kyoto is that I will surely have to come back someday.
For our fourth day in Japan, we headed to Nara. We are getting better at finding hostels to stay at, and this one had a better room than our previous stay by far. It was also a bit cheaper. We headed first to see the shrines and temples the city has to offer, and there were many. Here is a link to a city map to give you an idea of the number of shrines. The main attraction here is Todaji Temple which is massive on it’s own, but also has a massive Buddha inside. On the way to the temple we visited Nara City Park, and along the way there were smaller temples, shrines, and deer. The deer are believed to be “messengers of the Gods” in this town. It seems that the Gods must have a lot of messages to send, because they are everywhere, and quite pushy hoping to get a “deer biscuit” from you. Deer biscuits are sold by vendors all over the place, and since I haven’t seen a skinny deer yet, there must be either a sterilization, or depopulation program otherwise the city would be overrun.
After we settled down for the day, we headed out to get a bite to eat and then settled down for the night and prepared for our trip to Kyoto the following day.
