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I have received many replies to this -- most of them off list. So first, thank
you to the many Leica users who replied. There are too many (and more coming
in, to reply personally to everyone who wrote, but it is greatly appreciated.
The consensus of the replies (so far about a dozen replies) is that one must
exercise care, but most everyone who wrote has added something to their system
(usually ImageJ, admin utilities, and similar). Most have their computer
networked, with some antivirus. None appear to have been ordered by Leica not to
put anything on their machine, but Leica did recommend (at least to some)that
other programs not be added.
One responder asked why we would want to add anything. We of course do not
intend to turn this into a general use computer, but there are some additions
that I consider important. I should add that we have not yet received the
machine -- the rep had visited to inspect the installation site, and apparently
he wanted to "lay down the law". So I am not sure exactly what it included in
the Leica software installation.
1. A compression utility, such as WINZIP. Last time I saw the Leica image
format, it was uncompressed. Lossless LZW compression can save 30-50%, depending
on the images, and even more if you have two channels stored in uncompressed RGB
(becasue the third channel is identically zero). The datasets can be very
large, and transferring compressed files can save time.
2. ImageJ + bioformats plugin. We prefer this to the utilities that the
manufacturers sometimes provide to read their special formats. We often put
ImageJ+appropriate plugins onto data DVDs that we burn. It saves time because
the users have something with which they can read their files. We can tell them
to install ImageJ at their end until we are blue in the face -- it is easier to
just give them a working copy.
3. Network -- I prefer to leave a machine which is dedicated to running hardware
off of the network. However, if Leica is anyway going to make us connect it to
the network, then I want to use that to transfer intermediate sized data sets
(too small to justify burning a DVD, too large for a flashdisk). I know DVDs are
cheap, but there are ecological considerations... BTW -- a few responses
mentioned that they are running antivirus software without problems.
4. Someone warned against installing Microscoft office on the system. I would
extend this warning any Microsoft software. They apparently believe that it is
ok for software to fiddle with system files, drivers, whatever. However,
OpenOffice would be nice, mainly for being able to conveniently make notes about
the system or the experiment.
5. Finally, we may want to put some tracking or auditing software on the system.
Someone asked if we were talking about an SPE, because that system has real
restrictions on its OS. I can assure you all that are talking about an SP5.
--aryeh
--
Aryeh Weiss
School of Engineering
Bar Ilan University
Ramat Gan 52900 Israel
Ph: 972-3-5317638
FAX: 972-3-7384050
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