if you have an old tft monitor lying around and a simular sized tablet you can make your own Cintiq.

www.bongofish.co.uk/wacom/wacom_pt1.html

when are you away exactly and where do you live? just kidding, enjoy yourself and hope to see some pics when you return.

lol, vista has recently been dubbed ME2

Also Dell have pulled the plug on Vista and are now offering XP with new pcs again. Shows how much of an arse vista is if one of the biggest pc manufacturers in the world are veering away from it.

an expansion on the coal workers idea... how about something based around people at work. Showing how they do what they do. Depending on the job i'm sure you could get some really dramatic pics (glass/steel workers etc).

my 2pennys worth

i have just got hold of a builders worklamp. Only cost me £12.00 and is bright as hell. they do give off a bit of heat tho so be careful

from the site :

"The exhibition runs from 21 February to 29 March 2007. It is open from 8.30am – 4pm and although the exhibition itself is free there is an entry charge of £9.50 to the Cathedral – concessions £8.50"

so how does that make the exhibition free? Theres an admission charge, albeit to the cathedral, but as the exhibition is within the cathedral it cannot state that its free. If you turn up and say "im just here for the exhibition" and they let you in, then fair enough but somehow I can't see that happening.

Thanks guys, to add to my collection the postie brought me a new 50cm soft box with 4 colour backdrops and a white round diffuser/reflector.

Thanks for the link Dianthus, it looks like a great setup, but at the moment i'm trying to work within a strict budget.

Mind you, any advice anyone can give on cheap lighting setups will be greatly appreciated. At the moment i'm using 2 x 20w halogen multi-positionable  desk lamps. but would like something better as/if i get better.

I'll work on some shots over the weekend to show my lack of prowess. :p

Quote - A tech was at our business trying to restore a crashed pc(physical damage as in harddrive) and suggested "spring cleaning" to restore performance.  What he means is to reinstall the os about once every 6 mos or so.  Still, there is the chore of reconfiguring networks, reinstall of some programs, settings and stuff not to mention os service packs.

One tip I can give is to do a fresh install of your OS, then install all the software you wish to use. afterwards do a complete image backup using something like acronis to make a image of your fresh install. Then when it comes to re-installing everything use the image. Hey presto! all the software is also installed too. Save a lot of time.

Oh and for people who use external drives, turn them off when not in use. The exceedingly high temps and constant running of external drives (MS windows turns off idle internal drives after a set amount of time) can cut their lifespan into a quarter of its normal.

ummm.... i built a fileserver JUST for my poser stuff. Its got 3 80 gig hard drives in it and its filling up real quick. oh and my runtimes folder looks like its been in a car accident. :(

count me in! the hair room scares me.

june 13th for me, do we all get pressies from everyone else??? :D