Compact saviour of the universe.

[reddragdiva]

redcountess and I visited marnameow and sbp last night. Haven't seen them in ages. Liz showered them with flowers and chocolate and stuff. Marna filled us with dim sum. She has calmly and precisely stepped off the vegetarian wagon.

sbp has allowed me the use of his SanDisk SDDR-31 USB CompactFlash reader. This is the well-known Reader That Works With Everything. Unlike mine. (Which I will still be trying to get working on FreeBSD, 'cos if I do I'll get my name in the relevant source file. Far ++'l33t than that Leegnux rubbish.) And it does indeed just work - no automount on FreeBSD, but I can live with that. The SDDR-31 has been superseded by the SDDR-91; the new model appears to be supported in FreeBSD as of a few weeks ago, so presumably would be in the other free Unixes.

(Camera pr0n for CompactFlash users. Enough shots for November?)

Eclipse have cancelled our crappy non-FRIACO dialup and won't be charging us. This increases my confidence in doing DSL through them.

Tonight is a quiet night in with my darling (you can enjoy Tenebrae for me), and tomorrow morning we hit the computer fleshpots of Tottenham Court Road in search of a suitable PC for Liz.

Comments

[daneel-olivaw.livejournal.com]

On that subject, got any digicam recommendations for the terminably incompetent linux user? Thinking coupla hundred for the camera, and a small extra budget for the bits that go with it, and must be pocket-able...

*hugs*

[reddragdiva]

"what's it for" is the other question. Though most cameras do most things. They tend to have a completely automatic snapshot mode, a completely-manual mode and often an in-between mode (where you can set what you want and leave the rest automatic).

Example: My camera (which I just sent off for repair under warranty) is a Canon PowerShot A40 (the one I had at simonb's party) - 2 megapixels, £200. Extra NiMH batteries, charger, CF cards and CF reader were a bit over £100. It doesn't do uncompressed output, but the 'superfine' JPEG resolution is good enough for almost all uses. It uses funky custom software, hence the CF card reader. It's just a bit too large and just a bit too heavy. But I like what it does.

The camera I used for Whitby was excy's Canon Digital Ixus v2 - about £250 for the camera, similar prices for the bits'n'bobs, pretty much the same brains as my A40. Except it's half the size and half the weight and has a steel case. WANT. It's now been discontinued, and the current model is the v3 for £350. Arse.

Oh, and the .AVI movie files the Ixus v2 produces are viewable in Aktion! under KDE as well.

Things you want:

• 2 megapixel.
• CompactFlash. All other formats smell of wee - too fragile, too limited or too proprietary. (And buy a CF reader. Make sure Linux likes it - not all umass devices are equal.)
• Optical zoom. You really want this.

You probably want a CD or DVD burner as well, 'cos you're gonna be taking pictures at a fantastic rate.

"*hugs*"

*prrrrr* Camera me, baybee!

[daneel-olivaw.livejournal.com]

Camera plus 256Mb plus reader for a shade over 300 --- my credit card hates you, and I feel dirty. Good dirty.

[reddragdiva]

Did you get the Ixus v2? I'll be yer mate! *flutters eyelashes*

[daneel-olivaw.livejournal.com]

maybe

New toy due early next week. Ta for the pointers, I need some cheering up...

*hugs*

[dan-lane.livejournal.com]

ouch.. sounds expensive... especially since a 1gb cf card coming in at >400ukp.

1gb Microdrives are only 211ukp from expansys though.... I'm still waiting for someone to release a 1gb sd card... my CF slot has a wifi card in it :/

[reddragdiva]

That was the 4GB for >£400.

Crucial (use many, buy lots) do 512MB CF for £97.51 (inc VAT) today, so 4GB for $999 is quite the deal.

[dan-lane.livejournal.com]

Hmm I was referring to Expansys' 1gb CF card (http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=FC1GB_H4).. although their prices for the 512mb ones don't seem to differ much from Crucial

[arkady.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the texts last night. Meant a great deal to me.