Having initially considered Bacula, I chose amanda for use in backup due to it's better organized documentation. Being a newbie, I selected the quick start getting started tutorial as the first step through the online documents.
In that process, I consulted the bsd authentication howto for more information on authentication. I also found the vtape howto very helpful since I did not have a physical tape device. Having gone followed the tutorial and branching into the howtos at the relevant sections, I was able to do a successful test run.
Using another article in the howtos collection, I made further changes to the configuration to allow for dumps to be split across multiple tapes (vtapes in my case). It was then time to follow another howto to duplicate that configuration to the production environment where the virtual tapes needed to be configured for use on a non-Linux partition.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Creating a Pre-printed Report Template
One way to speed up printing receipts on a dot-matrix printer is to print the desired (dynamic) information on a pre-printed template that contains the labels, content placeholders, logos and other static information.
The first thing I did was to adjust the report to display the values only as it has previously been printing all the dynamic and static information. I deleted all the static information and left the bare dynamic info that changes with every print out.
I then printed out the bare report on the target dot matrix printer. In the process, I made adjustments to paper guides on the printer so as to get an optimum placement. I repeated this process several times as the draft print outs revealed changes that needed to be made to the report writer design.
When the bare printout had an optimum placement, I took the printout and scanned it. I then opened the resulting image with Gimp Image Manipulation Program. Using gimp, I added layers which contained the static information e.g. text layers for labels and a transparent layer for content placeholders. I even added a layer with a white color that I would hide/show to see how the report template would look like on printed paper.
All this time, the original scanned layer was acting as a background which helped with the positioning. Thereafter, I hid this original layer (leaving the all white layer as the background) and printed the resulting report template on paper. Now it was time to test it by printing out the bare information report on the preprinted template. After a few minor adjustments and refinements made from observing the data placement on the template, the final version was ready for mass production.
The first thing I did was to adjust the report to display the values only as it has previously been printing all the dynamic and static information. I deleted all the static information and left the bare dynamic info that changes with every print out.
I then printed out the bare report on the target dot matrix printer. In the process, I made adjustments to paper guides on the printer so as to get an optimum placement. I repeated this process several times as the draft print outs revealed changes that needed to be made to the report writer design.
When the bare printout had an optimum placement, I took the printout and scanned it. I then opened the resulting image with Gimp Image Manipulation Program. Using gimp, I added layers which contained the static information e.g. text layers for labels and a transparent layer for content placeholders. I even added a layer with a white color that I would hide/show to see how the report template would look like on printed paper.
All this time, the original scanned layer was acting as a background which helped with the positioning. Thereafter, I hid this original layer (leaving the all white layer as the background) and printed the resulting report template on paper. Now it was time to test it by printing out the bare information report on the preprinted template. After a few minor adjustments and refinements made from observing the data placement on the template, the final version was ready for mass production.
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