philc

I did a photo day with my Friends from Line and Light on 1st October at Papplewick Pumping Station, an amazing restored Victorian pumping station with two Watt beam engines, just to the North of Nottingham. The new Canon 10-22 got a lot of work, as did the new tripod. Here's a few samples:

DigitalRev are good, but based in Hong Kong, shipping via DHL so you ALWAYS get hit for VAT and duty. They do occasional fee free guaranteed sales, though. Phil

It's been blown out of all proportion in America. The folks I speak to over there seem to think I'm speaking from a bunker while civil war rages outside. I suspect a few of the traditionally fearful Americans will be cancelling their tickets for the Olympics next year. phil

I'm still trying to find a scanner that can handle my heap of APS films that I'd like to scan. Can't seem to find one anywhere. Phil

If you decide on a genuine Canon lense, take a look at HDEW lenses. They are Grey imports, but a very genuine company, who provide a warranty to cover the lack of Canon support. Phil

Sounds like 2 spitfires and a Sopwith Camel, and goes even faster. Amazing. If they could get their production lines going as fast they'd be great:) Phil

Of course, it all comes down to paranoid security managers who have no idea of what the law really says sending out their lowly paid security teams to initimidate people into going away. Funilly enough, I was in our City office just yesterday, and it's amazing how many folks are taking pictures of Lloyd's building (still messy after all these years) and The Gherkin, with no problem from anyone. I actually recognized one of the sites as one I used to visit, and the employees hate the securtiy people as much as anyone............ Phil

I work for a "large storage company" and manage backups totalling 1 Pb or so a month. We use NAS and SAN, and back up to disk mostly. At home, I have around a Terabyte or so, kept on NAS and backed up to a remote storage service across the web. Phil

..........And I'm not surprised . I've looked at equipment insurance but it seems expensive for the keen amateur, as opposed to the pro. Phil

Another for Truecall here. Stops silent calls from Powerdiallers, kills calls from abroad at 2 am, but the screening function does confuse some folks who don't listen and think it's just an answering machine. £70 well spent, IMHO. Phil

As the title goes, in an idle moment yesterday, I did a rough calculation of what my whole gadget bag contents are worth and cme up with £3300 replacement costs! Checking with my home insurers, tells me that this value is actually covered, but I wondered what everyone else -especially the professionals here -do about insurance/security of photo kit? Phil

Most people don't chage their voicemail PIN from the default. According to some reports they had phone company staff in their back pocket, so had master pins that allowed access to most mailboxes anyway. Phil

did you have to beat it to death with a stick? Phil

The thing is, if you don't set a PIN number on your Voicemail, anyone can get into it if they know your number. The intriguing thing is how they got the number. The BBC are saying that some of the 7/7 victims had theirs hacked, too. As to Police getting into your Voicemail, they can and do. When I worked at a mobile phone company, a heap of intercept requests arrived from the home office every day, and went into the secure Police liason area. (And the even more secure Goverment liason office........) The point is that the Police have to give reasons and get permission. NOTW journalists slipped a few quid to phone company employees, which is quicker. Phil

I think it's "prison chic" -they take inmate's belts away, so their jeans hang low. They're trying to say, "I'm a real hard man", like walking around with your hoodie up so you're not identifiable on CCTV. I'd love to set off a fire alarm and watch 'em all try to run away....... Phil