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ticket out of the ratrace

By crispyduck (Wed Jul 27, 2005 at 10:55:50 AM EST) (all tags)

arrived this morning, in the form of an employment contract. yay.

also... looking for digital camera recommendations.

All was good with the contract, so it was signed and posted. Business taken care of with current employers, which was well-taken, but made me feel sad. I have a month left. Favourite thing in the list of perks: 20 day sabbatical every 5 years, on top of 25 days hol. Heh. I wonder if I'll ever make it 5 years in a job?

Friends/family say "Oh I'm glad you won't be working in London any more, I worry about you there". Others say "Good time to get out of London"... I don't know. Things are changing, and London's full of weird shit right now. I read this article on the BBC yesterday and found some of it quite disturbing. I then went on to have lots of deep thoughts about terrorism and risk and stuff. I was overcaffeinated, oversugared and tired as hell, so most of the thoughts were probably naive or presumptuous. I just don't think being killed by a bomb is the biggest thing we have to worry about in all of this.

Digital camera

All that aside... for ages, I've been wanting a new digital camera. I have one, but it's big and heavy and old (1.3 Mpixel, cost

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ticket out of the ratrace | 36 comments (36 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback

Camera by Abort Retry Fail (2.00 / 0) #1 Wed Jul 27, 2005 at 11:03:16 AM EST

Canon A95

: Oops, missed that bit. by ambrosen (2.00 / 0) #3 Wed Jul 27, 2005 at 11:04:50 AM EST

I've been drooling over the gizmos of the Canon S2 IS for a while now.
If only it took MP4 movies.

[ Parent ]

London. by ambrosen (2.00 / 0) #2 Wed Jul 27, 2005 at 11:03:21 AM EST

Funny, for some reason it had just occurred to me that living and working/studying in London might be a possibility.

Nonetheless, my bike is going down to London with me this Friday.

Holy crap by crispyduck (2.00 / 0) #4 Wed Jul 27, 2005 at 11:06:57 AM EST

What happened to the rest of my diary? Maybe I accidentally hit post early on, or maybe Scoop just ate it.

Anyway, the end was just some shit about how crap my digital camera is, and I only want a nice light vaguely decent-ish one for taking pictures of ducks and stuff, and also about how fucking hungry I have been this week.

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linux virtual private servers

Unless by crispyduck (2.00 / 0) #5 Wed Jul 27, 2005 at 11:10:00 AM EST

Maybe scoop hated my

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linux virtual private servers
[ Parent ]

Yes by crispyduck (2.00 / 0) #6 Wed Jul 27, 2005 at 11:11:35 AM EST

Scoop is eating pound signs (the english money one above the 3) and everything thereafter.

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linux virtual private servers
[ Parent ]

Ooh nasty by Cloaked User (2.00 / 0) #11 Wed Jul 27, 2005 at 12:02:34 PM EST

The html element is £ but then you probably already knew that...

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This is not a psychotic episode. It is a cleansing moment of clarity.
[ Parent ]

I knew that indeed by crispyduck (2.00 / 0) #22 Wed Jul 27, 2005 at 03:03:13 PM EST

but it didn't even occur to me.

£

£

quack

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linux virtual private servers
[ Parent ]

Yeah by Cloaked User (2.00 / 0) #25 Wed Jul 27, 2005 at 07:13:13 PM EST

I tend to use things like é rather than é and £ rather than £ myself...

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This is not a psychotic episode. It is a cleansing moment of clarity.
[ Parent ]

: Hey by Cloaked User (2.00 / 0) #26 Wed Jul 27, 2005 at 07:14:00 PM EST

My £ (shift-3) worked apparently without eating my comment - maybe it's an auto-format thing?

--
This is not a psychotic episode. It is a cleansing moment of clarity.
[ Parent ]

I have a Minolta Dimage Xg by Idempotent (2.00 / 0) #8 Wed Jul 27, 2005 at 11:18:28 AM EST

Which is wonderful. Very small and light. Very fast. (to switch on, and to save a picture, and most importantly, to react to the shutter button)

Takes MMC / SD cards, which were the cheapest memory cards last time I looked.

Removable rechargeable Lion battery, generic alternatives available for a tenner.

Very reasonably priced too. Takes good pictures of ducks. I can send you an example by email if you want?

[ Parent ]

plzsndduckpornthx by crispyduck (2.00 / 0) #10 Wed Jul 27, 2005 at 12:00:59 PM EST

to helenst at one of those google email accounts

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linux virtual private servers
[ Parent ]

Naked duck action by Idempotent (2.00 / 0) #12 Wed Jul 27, 2005 at 12:09:19 PM EST

has now hit your mailbox.

Wadyathink?

[ Parent ]

any reason you can't share? by ambrosen (2.00 / 0) #14 Wed Jul 27, 2005 at 12:26:46 PM EST

[ Parent ]

file size by Idempotent (2.00 / 0) #17 Wed Jul 27, 2005 at 01:14:42 PM EST

3Mb of images, don't want to mess with hulver's server.

I'll send it to you too.

[ Parent ]

Ah. by ambrosen (2.00 / 0) #28 Thu Jul 28, 2005 at 05:29:23 AM EST

Much appreciated. That would explain why I can't get my usenet fix for another 20 minutes :)

Damn dialup.

[ Parent ]

Dialup? by Idempotent (2.00 / 0) #29 Thu Jul 28, 2005 at 05:43:51 AM EST

The 1980's called, they want their data transmission method back. Whatever.

There's little point in posting an image to demonstrate a camera if you don't post the exact file which came out of the device.

Sorry about the usenet thing.

[ Parent ]

Thanks for telling me. by ambrosen (2.00 / 0) #30 Thu Jul 28, 2005 at 05:54:45 AM EST

The phone line was engaged.

It's no problem anyway. I was too stupid to think about camera demonstrations when I wanted my hot duck pr0n.

Usenet fix had, thankfully.

[ Parent ]

Disaster averted! by Idempotent (2.00 / 0) #31 Thu Jul 28, 2005 at 05:56:00 AM EST

What it is with HuSi? More people like ducks than cows.

[ Parent ]

I wasn't aware it was exotic duck pr0n. by ambrosen (2.00 / 0) #32 Thu Jul 28, 2005 at 06:06:36 AM EST

Are you in the UK? I recognise the mallards and canada geese and mute swans, but there's other geese I couldn't name, and one duck at the back that I recognise but can't name, and the one just to the above left of the water bowl that I don't recognise at all.

Not that it matters, just interested where these to me unusual birds are.

[ Parent ]

What you want to do is... by Idempotent (2.00 / 0) #33 Thu Jul 28, 2005 at 06:10:42 AM EST

... visit this place.

It's absolutely ducktastic! It's really great, if you like ducks.

[ Parent ]

omg by crispyduck (2.00 / 0) #35 Fri Jul 29, 2005 at 02:29:29 PM EST

They have a specially branded Duck Bus

Note to self: must ride the Duck Bus.

Like the duck pr0n btw, and it looks like a sweet little camera, certainly enough for my needs. Currently my favourite option, though want to have a bit more of a look around...

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linux virtual private servers
[ Parent ]

: Yeah! by Idempotent (2.00 / 0) #36 Fri Jul 29, 2005 at 03:40:32 PM EST

It's a great place to go for an afternoon. Make sure you go on a feeding tour. The wardens really like ducks, and tell you lots and lots about them.
I hope you find a camera you like! I did lots of research about mine, and am really happy with the result.

[ Parent ]

It was yummy by scoop (4.00 / 1) #19 Wed Jul 27, 2005 at 01:31:12 PM EST

Can you post another?

[ Parent ]

Here you go: by crispyduck (2.00 / 0) #23 Wed Jul 27, 2005 at 03:05:22 PM EST

£££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££

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linux virtual private servers
[ Parent ]

: Hmmph by crispyduck (2.00 / 0) #24 Wed Jul 27, 2005 at 03:05:53 PM EST

Lost your appetite, eh?

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linux virtual private servers
[ Parent ]

Huh? by hulver (4.00 / 1) #21 Wed Jul 27, 2005 at 02:58:55 PM EST

WTF £HELLO
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smart, pretty, sane. pick two - georgeha
[ Parent ]

Helpful comment. by ambrosen (2.00 / 0) #34 Thu Jul 28, 2005 at 06:11:21 AM EST

In the unlikely event you didn't know, DPReview (duck photographer's review) has excellent detailed reviews of cameras.

[ Parent ]

OMFGLOLZ!!!111canonpowershotseriesoranikond2x by ROFLCOPTER (2.00 / 0) #7 Wed Jul 27, 2005 at 11:12:24 AM EST

nikon coolpics by garlic (2.00 / 0) #9 Wed Jul 27, 2005 at 11:59:31 AM EST

My nikon coolpics fits into a pocket (slightly bulkily) and takes great pictures in natural light. It's not as good if the flash is necessary, but that'll probably be the case for any smaller sized camera.

: nick likes his too by LilFlightTest (2.00 / 0) #20 Wed Jul 27, 2005 at 02:25:48 PM EST

and uses it a lot.
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[ Parent ]

dangerous cities by MillMan (2.00 / 0) #13 Wed Jul 27, 2005 at 12:23:37 PM EST

When I went off to college, I met a lot of women who had come down to the city from farm communities around Minnesota and Wisconsin. They all had mothers who didn't want their daughters out after dark because that meant they would be raped by large black men. I'm not making this up.

I wonder what the stats are as far as your odds of dying in a car accident vs. being blown up by a suicide bomber. I think the ability to instill disproportionate fear through suicide terrorism is what makes it an often effective tool to gain political concessions. I don't think it's going to work in the west the way it may have worked in Sri Lanka, though.

"Just as there are no atheists in foxholes, there are no libertarians in financial crises." -Krugman

The thing is by jump the ladder (2.00 / 0) #15 Wed Jul 27, 2005 at 12:42:05 PM EST

The Tamil Tigers had some sort acheivable goal namely autonomy for a bit of Sri Lanka.

Worldwide islamic caliphate headed by Mr Bin Laden or sucessors would be opposed by a huge majority of muslims let alone everyone else.

And I don't see that us withdrawing from Iraq (which we shouldn't have been there in the first place) is realistic with the current situatuion.

[ Parent ]

: what about withdrawal from israel? by tps12 (2.00 / 0) #16 Wed Jul 27, 2005 at 12:51:05 PM EST

I don't think anyone blowing themselves up thinks the global caliphate is a real possibility (they're maniacs, but they do tend to be educated).

[ Parent ]
: well by MillMan (2.00 / 0) #18 Wed Jul 27, 2005 at 01:17:27 PM EST

withdrawal of western troops from Iraq has been a stated goal of al-quada (look, I can't spell it correctly) along with an end to western support of Israel. Those are achievable goals and it worked in getting Spain out of Iraq. Terrorism on its own isn't going to get it done but can certainly serve as a tipping point as I think it did in Spain.
"Just as there are no atheists in foxholes, there are no libertarians in financial crises." -Krugman
[ Parent ]

Duck! by dn (2.00 / 0) #27 Wed Jul 27, 2005 at 09:53:41 PM EST

Taken with a Fujifilm E550. Which is a decent point-and-shoot camera. Turns on fast, takes picture fast after pressing the button, not terribly expensive, but does use xD-Picture cards which are a little rare and expensive. More examples are in my Flickr photostream.

I ♥
TOXIC
WASTE

ticket out of the ratrace | 36 comments (36 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback