Monthly Archives: May 2004

I just washed my mail with mailwasher and deleted 50 of 80 emails that makes 62.5% of my mail overnight being spam, it’s definitely getting worst. Don’t know what i’d do without mailwasher

Link: http://www.mailwasher.net

[edit] now i’m using gmail so i’m no longer washing my mail.

My film always goes trough the filmsafe scanners and I’ve had no problems even in China where they have x-ray machines at the train stations (due to people transporting fireworks illegally causing an explosion on a train). I shoot 100ASA, 200 or maybe 400 at night possibly but generally 100 slide film on the whole and have never noticed any fogging. According to the Lonely Planet Travel Photography: A Guide to Taking Better Pictures , Kodak have done tests that show film below ASA 400 can take 16 passes safely. In general i buy my film at the airport in duty free as it’s cheaper and is maybe one less scanner to go through (what do they do with stuff for these shops?) The newer high power scanners look like hospital CAT scanners and have a hexagonal or round ring which the scanned items pass through, these are generally used to scan hold luggage and you might as well throw away the film if it’s been through one. the Kodak link below has some examples of x-ray fogging, so you know what to look for. some info: http://www.kodak.com/global/en/service/tib/tib5201.shtml http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/comp/cabinetxrayfaq.html http://www.garymills.com/xrays/xray.pdf http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/airline.htm The higher the ASA rating the more grain you will get and the shorter exposures mean the colours will be not as good. For good travel pictures (views and panoramas) you need as small an aperture (big number) as possible to get good depth of field, if it’s too dark you can use a tripod, which can safely go in with your hold luggage. if your anywhere sunny you should use a slower film or a neutral density filter to cut the light down.

English cathedrals wow tourists
Link: www.cnn.com

News on cnn.com today:- Kazakhstan plans to build a railway along the old silk route, linking Druzhba on the border with China’s Xingjian north-western region to Iran and Turkey
Link: http://edition.cnn.com/2004/TRAVEL/05/26/bt.silk.road.rail.reut/index.html And Virgin USA, Richard Branson’s planed budget airline, has short-listed San Francisco or New York as potential hubs.
Link: http://www.cnn.com/2004/TRAVEL/05/25/bt.virgin.us.move.reut/index.html Also the bbc.co.uk one life travel section seems worth exploring…
Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/onelife/travel/index.shtml

I found this on the widescreen centre site, a list of projectors that take replicable lenses, looks promising… http://www.widescreen-centre.co.uk/videolens.html

The luckiest travellers live near airports, or so it appears, obvious, maybe? http://www.cnn.com/2004/TRAVEL/ADVISOR/05/21/lucky.cities/index.htm and on the environment front, news that costal communities would be better off being environmentally friendly and protecting the habitats of sea animals like sea turtles than by destroying their habitat. “World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) says living turtles are worth nearly three times as much as dead ones because of the tourism they attract”
Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3744661.stm

News today that spam is on the increase, certainly as far as I can see, I seem to spend more time each day filtering it.
Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3746023.stm What do you think?

An interesting slant on the Ryanair-Charleroi ruling by the European Commission. Europe’s Phoney Ryanair Fiasco by Tibor R. Machan The busy body European Commission declared that the deal Ryanair struck with the Charleroi folks was illegal. … http://www.lewrockwell.com/machan/machan31.html