threegee

Well, you've just made your own case for a modern quality compact! IMHO optical image stabilisation, multi-point auto focus, and time to first shot is more important than all the stops and lenses you can stuff in a camera bag. If the image is blurred, or you miss the shot completely completely because you're fiddling with settings, or you simply haven't bothered to pack a camera because it's too bulky, then you've got nothing to show for your investment. The optical image stab on my little Lumix is amazing, and is the nine point auto focus. I has a pretty good quality 5x zoom that's strong at the wide angle end (almost exactly the same field of view as the totally huge wide angle lens fitted to the Cannon G3). It also does exposure framing, multi shot and excellent video with good sound. A complete no-brainer for not much more than £100. My main point again is that if you buy a compact, keep up the interest and move on to an expensive SLR then you haven't wasted any money. The compact will always come in useful as back-up. If you buy an expensive camera and it gathers dust (as many many do) then you've wasted an awful lot of money. In my case the SLR was always left at home and I was using my phone camera. If you aren't already using the camera on your phone a lot, then it's probably not a camera you need, it's a David Bailey type image!

Where is the policy that one community resource refuses to help another! More likely it's someone's feels their comfy little domain is being threatened. I will take this one up with someone "higher up" and report the results.

Yes, Bit Torrent goes official, and fully legal too! The EU has stumped up 19 million euros to fund four years of software development and testing in an effort to establish a European-wide standard for broadcasters to distribute TV programs by Bit Torrent. It's not something that you can easily simulate in a laboratory so: They need testers.

XBox 365 - the number of days before they will be persuading you to buy the neXtBox. WeeHee - shiped with a roller-coaster sim in ROM. xxxxBox - Australian edition. XBoxBox - A box within a paradox squigle - The Box formerly called XBox d'XBo - a far cooler update!

When the 7.2Mb I was sold in the shop, gets somewhere near 384Kb that's sometimes actually available, for more than 5% of the time, I will believe that 100Mb could happen.

Nothing really. For once I've got all the gadget and gismos I can use. Thought I might have wanted another netbook but I recently upgraded the memory and hard drive of my four year old one, and I'm now more than happy with it for another couple of years. Doesn't mean I haven't got a few even smaller computers to play with though. A nice quiet Christmas with just a few family, and a glass or two of port. Anything else I can make/do myself.

No, not the Coal Board. Open cast was always private mining AFAIK. Acorn Bank was operated by Costain Mining. Can't immediately recall who the company (Wimpey?) operating the site at Horton Road, Bebside was, but (probably as part of PR) we youngsters were invited down the cut there on more than one occasion. Couldn't see that happening today on H&S grounds alone! Yes, Symptoms is right, there was another Bailey Bridge crossing Bebside Road. There was yet another crossing Hartford Road at one time. But that was before the track of the road was moved, thus providing space for the golf course. These bridges can't have been too popular with the United Bus cleaning staff, or drivers; on wet mornings I can remember the bus getting really splattered with the grey stuff.

Whatever you buy this year will be "outmoded" next. But my little Panasonic Lumix is the by far the best performer I've ever had; and it cost about a fifth the price of any of the earlier Canons. It's also small enough to keep with me all the time - and is streets ahead of the Ixus I bought for this same reason. All the technicals are pointless if you miss the shot; so start with an ulta compact and aim to keep it with you. If you can do that then you might want to think about something more expensive. If you still find that you don't have a camera with you when you need it then you've saved yourself a bundle on something which maybe would only have produced marginal improvements, and would certainly have become rapidly outdated.

I really can't get into it. If you folow someone's every life move this way then does it mean you haven't got a life of your own? (Discuss) Could have stalker appeal though!

Yes, those bargains I alerted about here some while back are now evaporating fast. But it isn't the season, it's the falling value of sterling combined with low inventory. I'd advise you to avoid Dell though. There are better machines to be had elsewhere, and Dell is just a little bit too 'proprietary' for their own good. I'd recount a few experiences, but it's easier to say look at just about any other brand (with the exception of Elonex!).

"On Linux you'll get what you want for free" - and sometimes those great Linux programs get ported to Windows.

Ah the Fenwicks - London-Newcastle- Paris-Milan-Bedlington! The family that has close associations with Santa Claus.

Bug Report 2: The snow isn't activated on the next page reload, it's activated on the nex page load. (There's a significant difference).

Wasn't it closed on health 'n' safety grounds? But is there any record of anyone being seriously injured in any way over the decades? It would be interesting to compare this safety record with a modern leisure center. Or indeed the safety record of the river at Sheepwash, which has linearly claimed lives over history.

Bug Report: The Change Wind should be greyed when the snow is disabled.

http://www.europarestaurant.co.uk/ Ah - Italian food! That will make a nice change.

I think the point here is that Joe and Jane Bedlington stumped up £2M to tart up the area in front of their store, and so make it a more attractive place to stop/shop, and then (allegedly) they wouldn't stump up a measly grand toward the launch - which they must have got some direct benefit from too. Some figures about how much such stores contribute or leech from local economies would make interesting reading. I wonder if the people making planning decisions have access to these sorts of figures?

If we can't even hang on to pre-padded govt jobs then that's ghastly! Hope it's not true, but given the size of the cuts necessary after Gordon's mega-binge it's not beyond the bounds of possibility. He may be using the bankers as a convenient scapegoat, but it was he who presided over credit getting totally out of control, and it was he who put nothing aside during the good years. But that's all right because someone else will be paying it, won't they? Err.. wrong!

It most certainly doesn't, particularly as there's continual peer review going on (I got moderated the other week!), but it's the general perception that matters. Moderators have a right to express their own personal views, and so we aim for the broad range of those. If they couldn't they'd probably lose interest. Thanks; we will all do our best.

The above (non-) graphically illustrates something I've alway felt. We have to build our own permanent history. It can't be entrusted to a USA Corporation with "a bottom line" to look at every quarter.

I've anticipated that one, and it won't be Maplins gear either !

Film is pretty valuable so I don't want to post it just in case. This is standard 8 not super, and there is lots of it (both b&w and colour). I'd prefer if it was scanned stop-frame to the highest quality vid possible. I could probably rig one of these video camera prism things myself as there's an old B&H projector available, but the gate jitter plus wear and tear on the film would bother me. I'd imagine that the original clockwork camera gate jitter can be removed electronically these days. Can this media still be photographically replicated? i.e. printed.

That's a sure sign that the mods are doing their job! Mrs Vic is a know, and won't be returning in the foreseeable future though she has "left the door open" for her to do so at a future date. It's not about lack of interest on her part it's about change in circumstances. Thus she will be removed as moderator - assuming this hasn't happened already. We have no idea what has happened to HP. It's important that the site is kept politically neutral otherwise the small-minded will use any perceived political bias as an excuse. As a result the entire community will be disadvantaged. The town has suffered far too much from this game in the past. Unfortunately it is becoming increasingly difficult to attract left-of-center views, and left-of-center moderators. Maybe after the general election we can all get back to a unified Government bashing? Update: Yes we have; he logged in last night!