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Well, I could take a picture of the Coolpix with the Sony, or a picture of the Sony with the Coolpix, or a picture of the tripod and the head with either, but I don't think that's really the thing you had in mind, Jake. :) Scope should arrive next week - Friday f I'm really lucky. But, just in...

Well, Tannin's red-it cred-it card is finally working for its living. I talked the old bugger into lashing out for a digiscoping setup, and ... about six grand later ... it's taking shape. The idea is that you use a fairly cheap, plain-jane digital camera to store the images on, but, in order...

Does anyone know anything about the different write speeds of different compact flash cards? I've learned a little browsing here and there in the last half-hour or so, but only a very little. I'm about to buy some flash cards for my new Coolpix 4500 (why the Coolpix? Long story, I'll make a new...

Whereas I. on the other hand, am a (fairly good) hardware ape who is talking through her elbow about hardware. (Elbow? I think that's the word. Whatever you call the bendy bit that you lift up your glass of gin and tonic with.) I too would question Honold's assertion that it's fans and hard...

Also, Honold forgot to mention that if you have Realplayer installed and you have a different sort of problem, such as acne, flatulence, or marial breakdown, it is Realplayer's fault.

All I have to do now is persuade Tannin. That could be tricky.

Very nice work, Buck. The look and feel is great. I really like it. And your focus on WD lets you tell a particular story, rather than jump about all over the place confusing people: that's good too.

Wow! I slip out for a day or two and you guys have already started this tread, run with it, and beaten it to death! What can I add? Well, apart from using a video card I trust (i.e., Nvidia), nuffin. The mere fact that Mercutio (who is no fool) suggested a card from the dark side, and various...

Ego? What a sad joke. Anyone that thinks that being able to beat Dell for all-round value iz something to be proud of has serious problemz. Any fool bright enough to butter toast can beat the vomit box makers. Like any retailer, I have found myself competing against almost unbeatable offers...

If you can't beat Dell, you're not trying. Dell ain't the company you have to worry about, its the shop around the corner that provides the real competition.

But Tannin, I can think of any number of things that looked really odd when they first came out and rapidly became the orthodox, standard way to do stuff. "Tannin's Rule" is obvious nonsenze.

A very good question, Buck. The short answer, I should imgine, is a lot! Not in terms of Western concepts like "genus" and "species", obviously, but although we will never really know the details, the knowledge of the Aboriginal people of their land was extraordinary. They have been here for a...

Why thankyou, Clocker. I always like to share a hug with my best friendz. Over here we call it "giving you a hug" not "making a hug" but that's OK. I know that you Americans talk a little funny sometimes, but that you are actually very nice people on the inside. By the way, did you spot your...

I understand it's because they are the Kangaro Island subspecies, Time. Apparently, never having had any natural predators, they are unusually placid. I certainly wouldn't care to get too close to a Big Red! Not unless I was up a tree and he wasn't. Also, I visited in the early afternoon, when...

zorry clocker

OK, OK. I voted. Are you happy now, Mr Gumpy Nohair?

Mercutio, thankyou for that instant update on the sound card scene. I need to re-read it to make sure that it's all sunk in, but overall I guess it more-or less confirms our current practice: on-board of it doesn't matter, SB 128 or SB Live if it does (because they are so cheap now and - sure -...

In a word, Mercutio, yes. It turns out that there are two subspecies of the Western Grey, not three. There is Macropus fuliginosus fuliginosus of Kangaroo Island - that's the one in the picture - and Macropus fuliginosus melanops (not pictured but looking much the same), which has a range of...

So, how did the Western Grey Kangaroo get its name? It was the centre of a great deal of rather comical taxonomic confusion for almost 200 years. It was first noted by European settlers when the great Australian explorer Matthew Flinders landed on Kangaroo Island (just off the coast of South...

Ahh, now there lies a story, Buck. She is indeed a Western Grey. Western Greys are very common, there are several millions of them at any particular time, the population going up and down with the seasons. But they are not grey - more like brown The name "Western Grey" came about because...

I don't have an opinion, not really, as most of my computers don't even get the sound driver software loaded, let alone have speakers plugged into them ... er ... I think I have 8 machines at present, and only one of them (this one) has any speakers or sound drivers. (It's an Albatron KT-400...

It might be worth taking a look at next time you are at the office, Merc. The pelicans are rather special. I can't claim any especial skill for that one though. It was one of those scenes where a six-year-old with his first Kodak Instamatic would have known the obvious way to shoot it, and...

I do nnt have a lexdixic dsease!

Errr ... do upu ean the kangaroos? Or the pelicans?

Here is another one I'm fond of. Full-size image in the same place.

Having become a little bored with computers of late, my main interest in photography is wildlife, in particular, birds. There are no two ways about it: this means getting lots of magnification. So, the other week, I almost bought a Leica digital camera and scope set, to give me 60X...

Tannin and I have been on holiday, and now that Belinda has finally got herself a camera of her own, we got to play with our Sony again for a while. Of the various and many things we pointed it at, here is my favourite. That's the thumbnail. For the convenience of people with pixel-challenged...

It's nice to be welcomed back, Merc. I've been away for far to long, quite a bit of it away from home - Tannin and I are having a few weeks off work. More details in the digital camera thread before too long. As for VIA chipset P4 boards, based entirely on prejudice, I agree with you. I have...

Yup, you can buy VIA branded mainboards over here. I have always assumed that they are outsourced, and further assumed that the actual manufacturer is FIC, simply because VIA and FIC are sister companies, both owned by the Formosa Plastics group, and also becauses VIA boards arrived (at least...

Honold's Gforce III sounds perfect. On the motherboard front, I think you want a Toyota ... er ... I mean Gigabyte KT400. No good for overclocking, not the last word in performance, but solid and reliable as you like. Not stupidly expensive either. For compatability, you can't beat the world...

Interesting discussion, gentlemen. JTR, I think the key issue isn't getting a fast enough signal down the copper wire outside your house, it's more to do with the massive task of switching the things at the telephone exchange, and having enough medium to long distance trunk cabling. Where is...

Follow suite with a sub-30 Watt version? I think they already have that, Mark. It's called Windows CE, if I remember correctly.

Gahhhh... I dunno what all the fuss is about. Everybody knows dat. PC's plug into the wall, right? The power that comes out of the wall is AC, yes? Runs at 50 cycles per second. (Possibly 60 if you are in the Good Ol US of A, where they drive on the wrong side and do all zorts of other weird...

Well now there are two. To only-one-step-better-than-56k, I mean. Actually my link is supposed to be, and technically speaking is, a good deal faster than that, but it would be misleading to fescribe it as more than about 2 to 3 times faster than good modem link. My downstream speed is only as...

As Merc says, Blake, quiet as you like. I don't even look at the performance figures anymore: as Tannin pointed out over in the other place a while ago, the average access time of a drive that is away at Seagate/Western Digital/whoever waiting to be refurbished and sent back to me in...

Twill only be a modest boost, Buck, but I should imagine there wil be an extra machine or two.

And not before time! Just so long as it is as reliable as the previous model, that's the main thing. And we should have it pretty soon: Samsung tend not to pre-announce. They wait till the unit is in volume production before they publicise it. Good!

I agree. When my supplier mentioned that they were dropping the rather expensive and full-of-themselves-these-days Soltek and picking up Albatron, I said "no way!" I've had enough of PC-Chips products to last a lifetime. It took her ages to persuade me that they were nothing to do with a...

Soltek = Hyundai. Yup, I can relate to that one. I'd be perfectly happy to buy a Hyundai car. And the good thing about Hyundai is that they have not gone all hoity-toity-fancy-box and jacked the price up.

Not even close to PC-Chips, Merc. Albatron are notAmptron. Albatron, I understand, is a start-up of ex-Gigabyte staff.

Iz this the place to comment on the variation amongst hard drives with respect to the wet ztuff? No? What the heck, I'll do it anyway. A Barracuda, of course, would have been right at home. (And taken care of that carp for you.) A Raptor, on the other hand, would not. (Unless it was either an...

I am alwayz in favour of a spot of Tea. :wink:

Fuse. Eeek! That makes my let-the-smoke-out theory sound pretty likely. How many people are going to be able to replace a motherboard fuse?

Wha's da mattter? Got water in it?

Blake, those are great pictures. Really gives the feel of it.

Juzt take it up till it starts smoking and the lights go out, then back it off a half a turn. :o

MSI = Ford. Yes, absolotely. Good call, Blake.

This is why I like VIA chipsets. No unexpected surprses. I know a lot of people walk around chanting "VIA = crap" all the time, but, when you get right down to it, they work. I like thingz that work. (Not criticising Nvida, it's great to have an alternative; but if I'm building it and it has to...