Hi Dan,

surely you'd get faster shutter speeds, making it more.. err.. handholdable.

It's a filter afterall, and if you remove it, you'll get a greater % of light hitting the sensor.

Cheers

Liam

Hi George,

if you have the time, build your own. I've just built a spare (read plaything) PC with modern spec* for £70 odd (second hand mobo, CPU and RAM from ebay), and that included a new case for £30. I had a spare 160gB HD, and a spare CD RW and floppy so I had everything I needed.

I've put Mepis 6.5 (Linux) on it while I wait to put Feisty (the latest Ubuntu) on it. You can always dual or multi boot with your old XP disk, as long as (for legal reasons obviously) you aren't using it on another machine. I can't remember the flavour (EEP?) that you've got elsewhere, but if you want Linux.. go for it.

I've heard of so many problems with the first releases of Vista, I wanted to get my head around a Linux distro or three, because I'm pretty sure that unless they do something drastic, Vista will be the nail in the coffin of MS for the computer literate.. Linux is now becoming a serious contender.

It's different certainly, and I'm sure I'll be doing some of that learning curve stuff (Linux home network anyone?) but you had to learn MS, so you can learn another OS just as easily..


Cheers

Liam

* AMD Athlon 64 2800+ CPU £22.00
Gigabyte GA-K8S760M Motherboard £11.00
512mb PC3200 RAM £9.00

Okay, not geek game machine, but good enough. Call it £80, if you want a Gig of RAM.

range">Lamplight!

Taken on Southsea promenade, as the sun set.




*ist DL | 18-55 @ 55mm | 1/100 @ f5.6 | ISO 400

Well done McBrian, and a good job of judging by Peter.

Commended is my best result to date.. dead chuffed..

Cheers

Liam

I took this earlier in the year, using the 18-55 with a FA 50mm 1.7 reversed on the front. The flower is about 1/4" across, but I have no idea what it's called.




ist* DL | 18-55 with 50mm 1.7 reversed | F8 @ 1/200 sec | ISO 200

Cheers

Liam

Yep,

I agree.. my sensor got filthy.. and the Pentax kit did a sterling job. I've only had to give it a thorough clean once (or twice.. it's my age y'know) since. I think you get about 25 sheets with it, so it'll last a good few years at this rate. A quick blast with the rocket each lens change and you'll be good to go.

Cheers

Liam

I agree George, life is a mandatory sentence for murder, but in the first example it would more than likely be reduced to manslaughter as mentioned above. If life is indeed issued as sentence then it should mean life, not 15 years.

Cheers

Liam

Hi Clarky,

sorry to hear about the theft. It sounds as though your government is as inept as ours when it comes to policing. The police themselves do as good a job as they can with limited resources. I think I'm right in saying that there are only six uniformed police per shift where I am, a population of 100,000+ (excluding traffic and PCSOs). Stick one in custody, and then for every petty offence that happens, each is looking at 4-6 hours paperwork.. effectively taking them off the street for at least half their shift. I'm surprised that total anarchy doesn't reign.. but that at least shows that the vast majority of people are basically honest.

I may as well put my twopenneth in concerning capital punishment now I'm here..

I don't really disagree with it in principal, but as there's no hell for them to rot in, it's the easy way out.. for them. Once you're dead you're dead. The only people being punished are the families of the criminal, usually as innocents. When capital punishment was repealed here in the '60s it was on the understanding that life would mean life. Now that can mean as little as 5 years with current sentencing tarrifs, and that's not good enough. If you get life at 18, it can potentially mean that you're out before your contemporaries have finished their Phds.

Clear the prisons of those incarcerated for non payment of TV licence tax.. er.. fees , and others that are no threat to society. That will free up room for those that society should expect to be protected from.. and make sure they stay there until they are no longer a threat; if that's the rest of their natural, so be it.

Right, off to work..

Cheers

Liam

Hi all,

I assume that most of you like to put up a picture you've taken as the background (wallpaper) on your desktop. It's easy enough.. right click the picture and then "Set as background" or "Set as Desktop background" depending where you get it from.

The only problem is that it doesn't stay in the list of backgrounds in Control Panel | Display | Desktop, when you change it. This is how to add your pictures to that list, so that you can change them whenever you want.. and it's easy.

Grab your image and resize it to 72 dpi, and your screen resolution; ie. 1024 x 768. This isn't crucial as Windows will resize it for you, but you may as well do a proper job..

Next save it with a memorable name, and as a *.bmp file.

Then just save it in the C:WINDOWS folder.. and that's it. You'll see the standard set of wallpapers that you can choose from, strewn around the folder, while you're there. Now go to Control Panel | Display | Desktop, and you'll see your image in the list along with the others. Add as many as you want.. and change them around without having to root through your 1000s of images to put up the one you liked a fortnight ago, but changed anyway.

This all applies to XP, but I'm sure there won't be much difference for other MS OSs.

Hope that helps..

Cheers

Liam

No problem Peter,

ist* DL | 18-55 @ 24mm | ISO 200 | 1/45 sec @ f5.6

Shot jpeg, and just adjusted to suit; levels and saturation.. and a little USM. Which is all I do to most pictures.

I reckon next weekend will be the time to go there. Go early though, as the sun doesn't get in too far into the area in the afternoon.

EDITED: Now I'm awake.

Cheers

Liam