kbf_private_joker

We have a new system for tracking our progress on the magazines. The URL is http://www.retromags.com/wip. Anyone can view the tasks, but in order to add/edit the content, you will need a login. We all know that retromags has grown in popularity over the last 6 months. When I started contributing scans, there were only about 4-5 other people doing the same. Now there are probably over 1 dozen. This is awesome, however, it can be frustrating to a newcomer who really wants to contribute, but doesn't know what others are working on or what magazines we still need to acquire. Hopefully this system can alleviate that problem. To answer a few basic questions: 1. How do I add a task? - First you will need a login. When signing up, make sure to put email as your form of communication. After that you login and select in the drop-down list in the upper left the magazine. On the menubar there is a link called "Add new task". Click that and then you can add a new task. Please try to see if anyone else has added that magazine before opening a new task. 2. What are all the filters on the left side of the task edit screen for? - Because the Flyspray system hasn't reached version 1.0 yet, all of the options on the left side are really for software development, but they can really be applied to any type of todo list. Task Type: either magazine or poster Category: Edited or raw scan (a lot of the uploaded mags are still in an unedited state, so this will differentiate) Status: The major milestones, starting with "Missing" all the way to "Uploaded to Retromags" Assigned-to: Select if you want to be in charge of completing the task Operating System: ignore Severity: This is similar to priority (below), but has the benefit of adding color coding to the task. For example, a high priority task will show as red, while one marked as very low has the lightest color. I usually use them as follows: - High: Missing the magazine - Medium: Someone has the mag, but it isn't scanned yet - Low: Magazine scanned, and even possibly uploaded, but not edited yet - Very Low: Magazine scanned, edited, and uploaded (no additional work required on it) Priority: ignore Reported version: ignore Due in version: ignore Due date: ignore Percent complete: Useful for letting people how far you are on the scan. I also put raw scans at 80% to show that there is still some work left on it. 100% means no other work required. Private: ignore 3. I have one of the missing magazines. What do i do? - If you are willing to sacrifice it for the good of the site, edit the task and add a comment that you have it. Also, change the status to "In Possession". 4. I see something called "My Searches" at the top. What is that for? - This is one of the coolest features of the system. On the tasklist page, you'll notice that there is a "Search this project for" button and an "Advanced" link. If you click the link, you can apply a filter on the tasklist. In the bottom right, there is a "Save search as" section. Add a name for that search and then you can use it from anywhere in the site and immediately see the search. It also saves sorted lists in the sort order you used. These searches are very useful for seeing what is missing and what other people are working on. 5. I see when I open a task that a vote can be cast. How does that work? - The way I see things working with voting is that other people can vote on the magazines they want to see scanned next. Only issue is that I don't think the votes can be reset after the magazine is done, but of course then it will have a different status. Probably more questions to come later as people ask them. Please PM me if anything doesn't make sense or you have a question.

Wow, that Comicbooklover does look cool with the scrolling mag covers, kinda like an IPod touch. Wish they had a version for Windows :(

Holy crap that is a huge collection! Did you have any money left over for food?

Yeah, I noticed that also. The SRT-10 has a 500 HP Dodge Viper engine. Not the most fuel efficient vehicle around.

Anyone in the market for a used SUV? I knew this kind of thing would happen eventually, but at this rate, I can see the number of SUVs on the streets dropping 50% by next year. I actually don't care either way. I wouldn't have bought one even if the gas was $2/gallon. http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachus..._their_guzzlers

Where in the heck did you get all of these? That is a monstrous list. I am sure there are at least a few in there that we could upload. -Noah

This is true, although when you close PhotoShop, unless you save it as a project, the history files are deleted. This makes sense because in most cases you would only want to save the finished files.

Correct. When I used to be strapped for space, I could only scan about 50 pages and then I would get that warning about being low on space. It also saves all versions, so if you make a change, there is a list of history files to go back to. A single raw is like the size of a TIFF, which is around 30 - 40 MB.

Not sure you need a book since there are so many thousands of sites devoted to PS tricks and learning. The way I learned how to do stuff was just diving in. The concept of actions, or macros, is way cool and can really speed up the editing process. I also like that I can scan and then immediately edit the image in a raw format, meaning the only compression is for the final crop and resize.

I do agree with you that having the pages line up is important. However, there are ways to do this without having the pages joined. When I do my scans, I scan the entire scanner window for both pages. I then straighten, then line up pages the pages. At that point I crop using the same dimensions for each side. This allows for things to line up AND the pages are the same size. I know not all people like to do it this way, but I didn't like some of my first scans because of this very reason. The ads especially look way cool if lined up nicely. This is a personal preference for me and I also do not mind if not everyone shares my pickiness All I am saying is that this is possible with a little extra time and effort. Photoshop makes the job of scanning and editing very pleasant.

If Philly is ok with it being scanned, feel free to send it my way and I can scan it for you. -Noah

HP 7310 All In One ($40) http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/sys/628856508.html Clicking this link gets me: This posting has been flagged for removal (The title on the listings page will be removed in just a few minutes.) Guess someone already snatched it up.

Totally fell for that one. Even put together a nice email letting you know I would still keep up the good fight of scanning all mags

Your devotion to this site is phenomenal. Thank you for your hard work in keeping the magazines coming. I hope I have your level of patience as I wade through a seemingly never-ending stack of GamePros. -Noah

If I can get out 1 mag per week, it will take about 2.5 years for me to complete all the GamePros, PC Gamers, and PC Games magazines I have. However, I will be getting married in July, so I won't be driving back and forth from my gf's house and eating up 45 min a day. I will also (hopefully) be living very close to work, so I anticipate being able to up that estimate to 2-3 mags per week. Hopefully my future wife will see it as "cleaning up the place" and be more open to letting me spend time on this project. I don't think she realizes how many mags I will be bringing into the marriage. -Noah

87 octane in Anaheim $3.38. When I move out this June, I want to be < 2 miles from work so I can either ride a bike or walk.

Most CBR readers do offer th ability to view 2 pages at once. Also, even though I don't use it, ComicRack seems to offer a lot of options for viewing CBR files http://comicrack.cyolito.com/.

I had eday send me a won mag before and it worked out just fine. I would be willing to spring for shipping if someone here won the mags. I also have 2 of the gampros in the auction already, so I could send the other 2 back to you.

Yes, he also has one of those too

I would like to thank PhillyMan for providing us with a place to contribute magazines for all retro gamers. :clap:

Seems to be working again as I just received a RetroMags PM.

Taskfreak looks like something that is fairly simple and easy to use! Then we can just create a project for each magazine. We would just have to outline what each percentage complete stands for.

I use something called FlySpray at work, which is basically a bug tracker, but we also use it as a tasklist. It would mean instantly having something to work with and only requires about 15-30 min of time to install. I could help set it up as I have done it twice already for work-related stuff. Some people might be confused with it though. The system is free and located at http://flyspray.org. It is Mysql + php. A sample screenshot can be found here: http://www.flyspray.org/_detail/themes:cle...amp;cache=cache

I think something that still gets confusing is our statuses on different magazines. Now that that membership has expanded to a large number (not sure of actual figures, but I see lots of new memberships daily), I think we need a better system for keeping track of magazine progress. The wikis are nice, but the problem is that they are separated into different pages: acquired, working on, and finished. IE: If there was some way of instantly knowing whether an issue for May 1992 for EGM was either missing, bought, acquired, being scanned, scanned, edited, or completed, it would be awesome. Part of the reason we can get away with not being too organized now is that we have few (under 10 I think) people doing all the buying, scanning, and uploading. I have no problems with the workload, but once more people want to get involved, they have to hunt and figure out where things are. It also makes it difficult to see if an Ebay auction is worth getting because of all the hunting to see if the magazine has already been acquired and in the scanning process. Seems like we need some sort of task system where we can have a section for each magazine and different statuses. I think that would make it easier to keep track of things overall. Maybe I am trying to get too organized, but having to go and edit the wikis each time gets a little tedious. I know there are free systems out there that aren't too difficult to set up. I would even volunteer to oversee the task list and make sure it gets updated regularly. -Noah

I agree with meppi. I am one of the only people I know that doesn't spend large amounts of $ at Starbucks. Now, if the choice were between hamburgers or chocolate, I don't know what I would do