Cheers Spanky.

Quote from spankmeyer :

Would probably sell well thru stock.

But what makes you think that would be succesful in stock? It's just a detail of colour and texture, doesn't tell a story or convey any emotion.

well it's been a while, but this weekend is the Gala weekend for a local heritage railway - the oldest continuously working railway in the world. As the weather was excellent, and my little nephew was going to go, I got myself there earlier and brought just about everything with me... only to then almost exclusively use the 70-300 all day.

Making the switch.



Rotten fruit.



Blast from the past.

Quote from The Moose :

I agree that BBC news isn't what it once was...but if you think BBC news is utter shit and regarding everyone like an idiot, what do you regard ITV and Sky news as? They really are utter shite, and make the BBC news look like the most unbiased, highbrow news you'll ever see.


Channel 4 news for me. At least they treat the viewer as someone with a modicum of intelligence.

Oh I agree, ITV and Sky are even worse. As much as it will just fuel Intepid's fire, a mainstream orientated commercial tv news station or programme will always have to appeal to the largest number of people in order to increase the advertising revenue. There are more thick people than clever, so the news must be tailored to match.

I rarely bother watching any news on TV these days, but yeah, Channel 4 is the only one that doesn't patronise you and often raises some important issues. Of course, despite carrying adverts, Channel4 has public service obligations too.

Quote from Becky Rose :

Actually when the West launched their illegal invasion of Iraq and the BBC was producing news coverage that was truly independent and unbiased the government where loosing the propaganda war on the homefront, I remember revolutionary talk in streets, and for a while the Labour government where on very shaky grounds.

One of the measures the government, not the Queen, took was to topple Greg Dyke (the Director-General of the BBC). Although Greg Dyke was a Labour party member, he believed in impartial news coverage. The government forced him to resign and installed a puppet (Mark Bayford )who was willing to present the news in a more pro-government friendly manner. Dyke would leave the Labour party soon after and joined the Liberal Democrats.

When Mark Thompson took over from Bayford as the Director-General Bayford remained incharge of news and journalism at the BBC as part of the program of increased government control of national media that was installed in 2004 under a wartime edict.

The BBC is no longer impartial, and has not been since 2004. Coincidentally, I stopped reading and watching the news and papers etc soon after. I tried for a while to watch Al Jazeera, but that was too imbalanced, I got to the point of forming some pretty strong opinions of politics and havnt paid much attention to anything ever since, i'm much happier now.

Well said. While I support BBC programming and the concept of the BBC, I avoid BBC News like the plague. It no longer reports truths and facts, no matter how politically inconvenient they may be. Instead it increasingly appears to be "the news that NuLab want you to hear."

The surprising fact is that while BBC programming covers a wide range of interests and tastes, often more highbrow than any commercial channel offering, BBC News works in reverse, and treats everyone like an idiot. Witness the BBC News site, where paragraphs are just one sentence long. Admire the simplistic language used by BBC News, stooping to the lowest common denominator. Observe the choice of words frequently used in BBC News output, and more tellingly the words they don't use and the things they gloss over, which at best are just a single journalist's bias towards the state, and at worst a deliberate political editorial effort to produce a state-friendly output.

Of course, I'm sure this has always been the way to some extent. Hell, part of the core roles of the BBC during war time (both hot and cold) was to act as a govt mouthpiece, spreading propaganda, public information films, etc. The BBC and GPO were effectively complete state control and monopoly of our television and communications infrastructure.

And yet for a time, at least that I can remember in the late 1990s and early 2000s with the Iraq war affair that Becky mentioned, it felt we had a BBC that was genuinely independent and not afraid to embarass the government when the opposition political parties are too useless to do it instead. That time has passed, and when it comes to political or significant issues, I hold BBC News in the same regard that I do Al-Jazeera and FOX News.

i.e. utter shite.

Quote from Intrepid :

/rant over

We wish!

Couple of shots from a flower show today, nothing too exciting.

"Sometimes it's nice to break the rule of thirds..."


"Alien"

Quote from Chrisuu01 :

Most of those are to expensive..

Not to mention the first one makes you look a right twat of a chav, the second is the same as what every single girl tries to drive and thinks is the width of a Challenger II, and the third is a Fiat, whose dealers' idea of service is to shit in your face.

I'd take the Suzuki over those.

Lots of programmers here, so thought I'd ask - can anyone recommend any decent books on VBA? It'd be most useful/valuable for my work, and would like to start learning it in my spare time.

I'm not a complete idiot at VBA, so can probably forget the "Dummies Guide" books, but nonetheless need something that teaches/explains the principles whilst also being a decent reference guide.

Obviously there are user reviews on Amazon, but every book seems to have at least one review saying it's shit, and another source of feedback never hurts.

Thanks in advance.

Mark Webber's cockpit is dark. No lights, no LEDs, no revcounter.

Quote from Scott Mckenzie :

You'd thought they would have got a good singer lol, jesus i think my ears are bleeding!

I was just about to post the same thing. What the sweet jesus was that?! A reject from the first round of "Germany's Got Talent"?

I want Webber or Button to win too. Button because he's British, and Webber because he's Officially The World's Nicest Bloke.

Massa's gone rallying.

Uuuh, yes, obviously. I'm not going to start putting pictures of 6 year olds on the internet without the permission of their parents who in this case are my clients/customers.

Nice shot of the dirt bike going over the hill.

Just done my first paid photoshoot this morning - portrait shots of a very cute, photogenic 6 year old boy as his mother wants to put him into child modelling. Obviously I can't post them here, but I've discovered that it's satisfying to take good portraits, on demand. And the resulting beer money isn't bad either.

Love the ripples on the top shot. Yup, CPLs are great for water and blue skies. Never take mine off on a bright sunny day.

A bit like the day these were taken - nothing original, just some scenes from Whitby.

Wait, the expensive tickets to see the GP at Silverstone are primarily due to the cost of providing the facilities?

And here's me and the rest of the world thinking it's because Bernie charges a fee for the "privilege" of hosting a GP, and then grabs all the circuit's advertising revenue too. All they're left with is gate receipts, which either have to be as high as is sustainable to cover Bernie's "fee", or low and receive government subsidy. No way in hell should my tax money go towards subsidising a grand prix, aka going into Bernie's pockets.

VM's indian call centres would be funny if they weren't so excruciatingly painful to deal with. I had to ring up recently when I got home from work to find my broadband was off. After pushing all the numbers for the correct department to narrow it down to a broadband fault before I even spoke to anything, then spent 15 minutes on hold, I finally got through.

"Hello, I'm just phoning up to report that my broadband internet isn't working."

"Could I take your name please sir?"

"Yes, it's Mr. <removed>".

"Thank you sir. Thank you for contacting Virgin Media, how may I help you today?"

<slight pause>

"Err, my broadband internet isn't working." Thinking to self: did I not just say that five seconds ago?

"Ok, let me take a look at that for you.

<pause>

How are you doing today Mr <removed> sir?"

"What? I'd be a lot ****ing happier if my expensive cable broadband was working, I'm not phoning up for a social chat, just get cracking with diagnosing the problem or booking an engineer to fix it."

Ok, so I didn't say that last bit, but jeez, they have their script and they're going to stick to it like a divorce lawyer to Jordan. Utterly useless.

Quote from trebor901 :

yeah and Plato showing exactly why he isnt a 2 time champion in race 3 and deservedly got punished for his stupid moves.

My thoughts exactly - one lap you have two champions providing some incredibly close, clean, competitive racing - the next lap you have Plato clearly pushing the back end of a rival fwd car around, both into and out of a corner.

Apparently he hit a puddle in the corner, and he "had to hit the power to get out of it and there was a bit more contact."

I can how that could work. If you get stopped for speeding on a waterlogged motorway in heavy traffic and spray, just tell the traffic cop, "yeah it was just aquaplaning through all those puddles so I had to hit the power to get out of it".

Quote from Intrepid :

Are you being serious? The reason the commercial channels can't put anything decent on is because the BBC have a complete monopoly on the market. You don't understand opportunities lost. How do you know that we might be missing out on some FANTASTIC and INNOVATIVE programming because of the massive restrictions on being a commercial channel?

For the one good show on the BBC - Top Gear (which has a very large COMMERCIAL ARM) there is a ton of sh1t!

There is room for stuff with a narrow appeal... it's called.... the INTERNET! Or would you happily pay a licence to use that??? eermrm... i think not!

Even more HUMOROUS about you is you play a simulator that TOTALLY CONTRADICTS the point you are trying to make. not everyone goes to the lowest common denominator otherwise this SIM WOULDN'T EXIST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hmm, yes, he is being serious. There is no BBC monopoly otherwise the commercial channels and stations wouldn't survive. You really think the commercial sector would be interested in producing any interesting natural history programs, documentaries, or anything more niche when they could be filling the airwaves with yet more Britain's Got (No) Talent, Britain's Got (No) More Talent, I'm a Celebrity..., X Factor, etc?

The only restrictions to commercial programming is the funding. The funding comes from selling advertising space. In order to maximise funding, they need the most viewers/listeners possible to see/hear the adverts. When was the last time ITV spent years and a couple of million to produce a natural history series?

Yeah, so I don't listen to Radio 1 much either. But there's very little commercial radio I enjoy listening to as well, because it's all much like Radio 1, aiming for the lowest common denominator. Eastenders is hugely popular and really isn't hugely expensive to make.

I suppose by the same principle, you're totally against the BBC having the F1 coverage now.

If only you weren't so young and naive. You'd be having an apoplectic fit if you lived in the era of the GPO.

Well given that GTA4-PC is notorious for it's troubles, I can't imagine you're helping yourself by running it on an unsupported OS. :-/

Quote from dawesdust_12 :

sudo chmod 644 <directory here> will allow you to put stuff into it.

Thanks - but where the hell do I type that in when I'm sat looking at an Ubuntu desktop?

Lol, fanboyism aside, maybe someone can help me here. I'm a Linux n00b, although I'm familiar with basic navigation, vi, etc as a user on a unix server, I'm getting stuck with installing stuff on an Ubuntu test rig I've got set up (latest version of Ubuntu desktop).

I borrowed the old hardware from work and planned on learning how to set up Apache, and install and configure phpbb (just a little side project I'm doing at work to make me more useful. )

So I've installed Apache from the package manager thingy, and the www directory to put sites in works (I get the default "it works!" page when accessing it across the LAN) but the directory appears to be owned by root, and I can't do shit with it - not even drop the phpbb files into it, let alone change the permissions. Any clues?

Quote from spankmeyer :

Details at my Flickr account if someone's interested.

Interested in her, or the photography?

I'd do her, even with the tats.

Quote from DeadWolfBones :

Some recent ones from a hike in the Pecos National Wilderness. 35 & 70mm Limited primes:

DWB, I can honestly say something that I've been meaning to say for a long time now: f*ck off.

Yeah, piss off and take your rich colours, glorious light, big open skies and wonderful national parks with you. I'm not jealous.


But if not, then, lovely shots as always. You make good use of those primes.

Quote from mrodgers :

This past winter, we spent at least 6 weeks where we never saw the road surface. I had to take her Tribute to work through all of that because my car wouldn't have made it, or it would have added hours onto my drive to and from work. My car would have been crawling along at 10 mph or so. In the Tribute, I happily motored along as normal at 60 mph.

Uuuh, so you would only be able to do 10mph in a 2WD car, but think it's safe to do 60mph in the same conditions with 4WD? You know that all cars only have 4 wheel braking, right?

Quote from mrodgers :

When I was a kid, my brother and I were packed into the back of a Ford Escort. It was not fun being hauled around scrunched up in the back of that thing constantly. I prefer to have the room of a larger vehicle so my own kids aren't scrunched up in the back of something.

And I prefer to have a Ferrari, but hey, tough titties.

Quote from mrodgers :

It's not enjoyable when they are not big enough to have their legs bent at the knees and their feet in the footwells so their legs are straight out and feet are pushed against your seat while you are driving.

Well, I have to admit I've always been very impressed by the American ability make all the space inside a car disappear. But I'm sure any mid-large family car (eg Ford Mondeo) has more than enough space to prevent the scenario you describe above.

Quote from mrodgers :

But you have no idea what their needs are outside of the commute to work. Are they hauling a boat on the weekends? Are they hauling a camper? Are they driving up paths through the woods to reach their camping spots on the days off?

But those aren't needs. They're wants. You don't need to haul your boat around because you don't need a boat, unless you live in Florida and work in Cuba, or are a fisherman. You don't need to haul your camper along through paths up through the woods - you have a house.

Dress it up how you like, it's all just excuses for leisure activities that are based on the assumption that vast vehicles with vast weight and vast engines are sustainable.

Hauling stuff for work is fair enough, but the rest of the world (RoW) doesn't really buy huge full size pickups. Do you think that the RoW doesn't cut any trees down, or carry construction equipment/supplies, or generally do anything? We do. We just don't pretend we need pickups and big petrol V8s in order to do it.

Quote from mrodgers :

So, why do people choose to get the big Chevy and Ford over the Land Rovers and others that folks on this board always combat with? Very simply, Chevys and Fords don't cost a house mortgage to fix. They don't cost a house mortgage to insure, and they don't cost a house mortgage to purchase.

I don't think anyone's combatting the big Ford and Chevy pickups by saying they should get a Land Rover instead. Discoveries and Range Rovers weigh in at nearly 3 tons, for starters.

No, I think they're saying that they just shouldn't get a monstrously huge and heavy vehicle at all.

Speaking of which, I heard the news about Hummer's new owners today. Oh how I laughed.

Thank **** that deranged, power-crazed bitch is gone.

Now all we need is someone to undo all the damage she did.

Quote from Syfoon :

The rest of the world has dealt with "underpowered cardboard boxes" and hills for a very long time.

Are American hills special or something?

No, American hills aren't special.

But you have to remember that big American SUVs and pickups have extra cargo requirements than rest of world vehicles. For one, they have to accomodate a sense of self-righteousness as they cheerfully average 15mpg, dropping bits of badly made, badly fitted plastic trim into the footwells as they go. Secondly, the owner needs space to store all the excuses for when he/she is confronted about why they're driving something three times larger than what they actually need.

Quote from ColeusRattus :

Why are they bancrupt then?

I think you can blame the UAW for the millstone they hung around GM's neck with a one-off payment of $20bn to settle mounting pension and healthcare costs.