Tuesday 30 November 2004


Considerable 'aaah' factor in this evening's BBC TV program 'Bears: Spy in the Woods' which featured a mother spectacled bear careing ever-so-gently for her young cub. Bet there'll be more teddy bears sold this Christmas as a result!

Blasted HP PSC 2510 playing up again. Its been turned off since late last night. Switch it on again this evening and its refusing to see the network. When it was working, I gave it a static IP plus set the router to issue that IP to the printer's MAC address. But now I've got the same problem as before: the port light on the hub is on, the LED next to the ethernet socket on the printer is on, but the big blue light on the top of the printer just won't come on. And in that state you can't even print out a network settings page. What a pain-in-the-backside this thing has been since day one - a complete waste of time and money.

This just caught my eye. "Generations of directors and stars learned their craft in advertisements" it says. Is this an explaination of where 'reality TV' programme makers come from I wonder...?
BBC NEWS | Entertainment | TV and Radio | Archive saves film and TV adverts

Friday 26 November 2004




Dirt Bike Rider Expo Dirt Bike Rider Expo Dirt Bike Rider Expo

Monday 22 November 2004


The Magic RoundaboutSaw (admittedly only part of) the trailer for the upcoming film version of The Magic Roundabout. CGI sacrilege. For the nostalgic amongst us, here's a nice page about the original.

VHS logoI do have to question the decision made today by high street retail chain Dixons to stop selling VCRs by this Christmas. Whilst they are correct that DVDs have taken off due to their superior image quality, etc. how many of us actually have the ability to record TV programs onto DVD? Not many, I suspect. OK, so VHS itself is pretty long-in-the-tooth, but this appears to a cynical attempt to drive consumers away from a still 'adequate' technology.


BBC NEWS | Business | Death of video recorder in sight

Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy hits the nail on the head in his response to Home Secretary Blunket's latest 'big idea' for tackling 'terrorism', that being jury-less trials. Blunket, now further right wing than yer average Tory, continues his 'climate of fear'; the introduction of ID cards by force and his continuing erosion of our civil liberties. Sounds to me like he's been paying too much attention to George Bush.

BBC NEWS | Politics | Kennedy attacks 'climate of fear'


Yesterday's foul weather didn't put me off attending a new (to me) motocross event in Northamptonshire. Pity the riders' 'other halves' having to clean their kit afterwards.

Saturday 20 November 2004


Not at all happy at the idiot who decided that Friday night was a good time to hold a Northampton Town home match. Took me 35 minutes to get half way across Milton Keynes. Never even saw the motorway, but glad I gave up before I got to it as it was solid traffic both ways at the Northampton junction. 14 quid down the drain. Thanks.

The Cobblers managed a 1-1 draw against visitors Chester even though they were down to ten men for most of the match. Not good enough - can't see us getting promoted this season either after performances like that.

Thursday 18 November 2004



Finally got around to scanning some black and while shots of the group Soul Fever I took a little while back. I was using my Canon EOS 1D digital camera at 1600 for colour stuff and had a roll of black and white film in my backup EOS 1n.


Kodak T-Max 3200
The film is Kodak's somewhat specialised very high speed T-Max P3200 and was printed by Ilford using one of their pre-pay mailing envelopes. The HP PSC 2510 did a reasonable job of the scanning but I don't think the quailty is as good as you'd get from a 'proper' (stand alone) scanner. This film is incredible, though. I had used a roll of Ilford's Delta 3200 a few years back, but it was much grainier than this stuff. Film emulsions have gotten so good now that if you actually want grain, you have to go to extremes.

Sunday 14 November 2004


Get FireFox
I've now switched both home and work machines to have FireFox as the default web browser. Its faster than IE for almost everything (in fact the only thing I have found to be slower with are pages with immense tables). It takes a little while to fire up but once launched, its quicker and the tab browsing saves screen space.

Suspect cab fare dodger bites police dog. Well, it was America...

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Man bites dog (and a policeman)

Saturday 13 November 2004


Massive relief this morning as the blue network LED on my new HP PSC 2510 printer decides to come on, for almost no apparent reason. I'd plugged a phone into the same socket as the fax connection, then turned the printer and one of my computers on and was calling HP's UK technical support line when suddenly the light came on. Put the phone down in a hurry to avoid wasting anyone's time and it stayed on. In fact it has stayed on all day, even after disconnecting the fax/phone completely.

So far I've managed to scan some photos and print a contact sheet off a Compact Flash card, which is a nice feature. Had to disable the fax cos it answered the phone for me at one point.

Looks like its a keeper.

HP PSC 2510My experiences with my new HP PSC 2510 multifunction inkjet printer so far have been less than stunning. The thing completely refuses to see my network - the little blue LED on the top remains stubbornly off regardless of what its plugged into or what cable I use. And I cannot print the 'network status' page until it can see the network. I have no idea if its getting an IP address, I don't know what its MAC address is and I don't know what the address of its in-built webserver is. Searches for help on Google have been a waste of time because the results consist almost entirely of shops selling the thing. I can see no solution save what will no doubt turn out a costly and fruitless phone call to HP's telephone support. Should have bought the Canon instead.

Wednesday 10 November 2004


Five Thousand Days
My copy of Five Thousdand Days - Press Photography in a Changing World arrived today, courtesy of the BPPA. No shots of mine in it but I do get a mention in the back - which was nice.

Sunday 7 November 2004


MooJust wondering how many more of us would be vegitarians if cows could talk. Image if, while you're out for a walk in the country, instead of just moo, or more likely no sound at all, you suddenly hear:
"Morning"
"Hello there"
"Nice day for it"
"Sorry about the smell, only this silage gives me gas"

Saturday 6 November 2004


Tales From The Crypt
Equally chuffed to have found this site, dedicated to the 1981 Radio series 'Tales From The Crypt', which I first heard whilst at Warwick University in 1982 (probably from old recordings 'borrowed' from Radio W963). Penned by Rory McGrath and read by the likes of Andrew Sachs, Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones, the series contained typical radio humour, along the lines of:

"...I think he died of Dutch Elm Disease"
"Why sargeant?"
"Well, look sir, he's go no leaves"

The website contains MP3s of nearly all of the 15 short episodes originally broadcast (I think) on Radio 4, but there was also a record (which I've never seen).

Tales from The Crypt

Thursday 4 November 2004


Very chuffed to have found this website (via The Hockey Forum, of all places). Our local corner shop used to sell sweets from the jar just like this. Certainly brings back memories (and goes some way to explaining why I have so many fillings).

Traditional, old fashioned sweets from A Quarter Of - the online sweetshop

Tuesday 2 November 2004

In London, armed police officers are protesting at the suspension of two of their colleages for killing an unarmed man in 1999. "Glen Smyth, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said the case had thrown into doubt all training and guidance given to firearms officers." Perhaps now they should ask questions before pulling the trigger?

BBC NEWS | England | London | More police join firearms protest