mw: 2,20 – Short Links

refreshing some items. Slavich sourcing is the main. I’ve written about this before.

Longing for a past product isn’t uncommon. I do it. You do too, at least if you are over 20. What would a made up word be for such a longing? How about something like:

  • **Nar-lugal** — combining “nar” (song/memory) with “lugal” (great/ancient), suggesting a reverence for what came before, OR,
  • **Edin-nar-kalam** — “edin” (plain/eternity), “nar” (song), “kalam” (land/realm). It evokes vast, timeless realms singing through history. PERHAPS,
  • nishanwu — (ni‑shan‑wu) Chinese phonology with an added archaic syllable “wu”; means longing-for-old. AND, FINALLY
  • **Zhong-Shu**: “Zhong” (中) is a Chinese character meaning “middle” or “center,” and “Shu” (書) means “writing” or “document.” Together, it could imply a preference rooted in historical documents or traditions.

slavich paper was only occasionally produced in the ‘teens of this century. Slavich, the company make holography and photo-booth supplies, with an occasional production of silver paper.

should you wish to ask the maker…perhaps try this.

I was one of the buyers of the slavich. It was touted by the netters for being great at many things.

What it did well was age … and tone.

OR, maybe it ships and arrives, and it is useable for photos: https://www.geola.com/product/black-and-white-photo-paper/

seeing magenta

ask around the net for dye-transfer information. seek insights, perhaps advice, what you are provided by 2025 search-AI models is counter to insight — confusion is increasing. Dilution over diffusion flourishes. Clicks are the clique formers.

One simple example. Seeking specifics about Kodak’s magenta dye used in Dye Transfer printing.

NB: search used this tree [:: Photrio -> koraks ] getting to an answer about magenta dyes used in Kodak dye-transfer, imbibition printing. Photrio is large site with over a thousand posts related to dye transfer; koraks site is listed as sigline in posts by a moderator taking part in dye-transfer related threads over the past several years. I doubt that K~ has ever made a dye transfer, certainly hasn’t synthesized the dyes. Another example of dilution of knowledge.

The inference engine of AI cannot distinguish quality, meaning accuracy, applicability, from quantity, meaning the number of referral links made over time. [the specific information provided in this conversation is based on general knowledge and does not directly cite specific pages or sections from these references.] Different models often respond that the information on [dye-transfer] is collected from practitioners internet archives.

Kodak CIS-154 Magenta Dye in Imbibition Printing
example response: I want to be transparent that my previous responses were speculative and not directly based on the Kodak publication you mentioned. Providing more details will help me offer a precise and accurate interpretation of the source material.
[I used 5 different engines... none could provide useable, correct answers.. each required, in essence, that I give them direct references, which they then could summarize. ]

Provided that I correct enough, staying with the multiple AI engines, we get somewhere. However, I had to provide a page, a CAS number, then prompt the answer machine with guidance on selection criteria for synthesis. In other words, I had to know much more than any of the AI engines were able to source. I was provided patent references, incorrect, so taking additional time for me to read, and return to prompt for correction. The initial failure though, the one leading through the darkroom help forums sounded, to the untrained, inexperienced, like a correct answer. An answer which would be repeated by the novice.

Since the process is being used by mere handfuls who do gather and exchange information and support these aren’t significant practical matters. The failures keep the stalled busy, out of the way. The lesson is that small errors can be amplified sufficiently to distort information into a contorted arcade reflection of what was.