Thursday 2nd August, 2007

Zoto Photo Sharing – my preliminary verdict

Posted by at 2:49 pm in Photo hosting.
I'm halfway through the 2-week free trial and I have to say that I'm really impressed with Zoto Photo Sharing. It does just about everything that I want it to do, and a lot more besides. I've had accounts with Flickr, Zooomr, Photobox and some others, but they don't match Zoto when it comes to flexibility. Features that I'm particularly impressed with are:
  • Options for setting the order of pics (by date/time taken, date/time uploaded, title, an exif parameter etc.);
  • Options for setting the number and size of thumbnails for each album;
  • The facility to group pics into multiple albums, and to group albums into multiple sets;
  • Options for setting display colours and template colours (background, text, link, link hover, border etc.), these can be set independently for each album;
  • The bulk uploader;
  • The options for setting permissions;
  • Bulk editing for things like dates, tags, text, privacy, moving pics between albums etc.;
  • The overall ease of use.
 

  Bits that I don't like? Well, there's not much, really:
  • Page loads/refreshes seem a bit slow to me, but that may be due to the steam-powered processor that rattles about in my laptop pretending to crunch those 1s and 0s;
  • The user homepage is still a bit buggy, but it's just minor stuff, nothing to worry about.
But by far the best bit (IMO) is the Support. There's a Zoto forum, where there is a visible proactive approach to dealing with issues and bugs, where you can see that bug tickets have been raised, where you can see that the Zoto staff and community are willing to engage in a dialogue to get things sorted. So, to sum up, it's the best photo hosting/sharing package that I've used so far. So good that I've just paid a paltry $29.95 for a two-year subscription which doesn't kick in until the 2-week trial period has elapsed. Have a look and consider trying it out for a fortnight for free - what have you got to lose?

Gear Zone fail to keep their word

Posted by at 11:12 am in A bit of a rant.

The 14 working days have passed since the 12th of July, when GZ emailed me to tell me that I would be refunded during that time. Well, you guessed it... no refund. It's no surprise, really - GZ do this to a lot of people, I'm just stunned that they are allowed to carry on doing it.

Last night I spoke to my bank about the situation, I was told that GZ had told the bank on the 19th of July that they would refund within 14 working days (of the 19th), hence the bank were still waiting within what they thought (erroneously) was the correct refund period. Keeping a grip on my temper, I referred them to their copy of the email that GZ sent to me, and they now agree that GZ should have refunded me by now.

The bank will now take appropriate action.

And, rest assured, so will I, when I've got my money back. I'm collecting as much relevant data as I can find, it'll be presented to the appropriate authorities and various consumer-rights bodies, in the hope that this crass attitude to other peoples' money is discontinued. I'm not hot on legal terminology so I don't know if what GZ are doing is theft, fraud, wilful deceit or anything else, but I do know that it's unacceptable and, in layman's terms, it's crap.

The message is - don't screw with me.

Wednesday 1st August, 2007

Catching up with transmissions

Posted by at 4:31 pm in On the box.

Having spent so much time being kept away from the telly (the kids are on holiday, so they're in charge of the remote control, apparently), I've been grabbing a few chances to catch up with some of the interesting programmes that I've been missing.

Many blogs and forums have told of the latest batch of outdoors epics from Julia Bradbury and Griff Rhys Jones, so I needn't go into much detail here, except to say that I've watched them with much enjoyment.

The programmes that I really needed to catch up with, and eventually did, aren't outdoorsy at all, so if you're already losing interest, look away now...

OK, let's start with The Music of the Primes. I found this to be fascinating - I've had more than a passing interest in prime numbers for many years now. This programme told the story well, in terms that the layman could understand, but not belittling the learned viewer. Chris (maths degree, senior computer systems analyst) would have enjoyed it, but managed to sleep through the whole programme, so she's a bit miffed about it.

Next up (or should that be down?) is Absolute Zero, a two-parter retelling the story of "a remarkable group of pioneers who wanted to reach the ultimate extreme: absolute zero, a place so cold that the physical world as we know it doesn't exist, electricity flows without resistance, fluids defy gravity and the speed of light can be reduced to 38 miles per hour". Brilliant stuff, every A-Level physics student should be given the opportunity to watch it. For myself, I can understand the physics behind superfluids and superconductors, but I've yet to get a mental grip on the concept of the Bose-Einstein condensate.

Then there's Atom, another mini-series. Part One was good, a sort of potted history of the concept of the atom. The series continues tomorrow (Thursday)... Part Two "tackles world-changing discoveries such as radioactivity, the Atom Bomb and the Big Bang, and tries to answer the biggest questions of all - why are we here and how were we made?" I reckon that I can cope with that, but I fear that I'll need a beer or two to get me through Part Three.

Finally, there's Dangerous Knowledge, a one-off documentary that's on next week. Sounds intriguing, and slightly depressing. I'll need to get even more beer in.

The astute will note that all of the above are BBC programmes... I just thought that I would mention it.

Tuesday 24th July, 2007

New tent – Vango Spectre 200

Posted by at 2:56 pm in Shiny new kit.

Behold - the Vango Spectre 200. Not exactly a super-lightweight backpacking tent, but quite good for less than 63 notes delivered.

It's been pitched in the back garden for the last 6 nights, not quite camping in the wild but it's the best I can manage at the moment 🙁 Mind you, the weather's been dire during that time, 20cm of rain has fallen and there have been some tree-felling winds.

Anyway, it's quite black, but contrary to expectations it's quite bright inside, where there's plenty of room for 2 + gear.

The porch is a bit slim, but the inner can be dropped to make masses of space if it's needed.

There's quite a bit of storage space under the fly at either end, too.

I've spent one rainy night in it so far, and can report the following:

  • There was no condensation at all, so the venting must be effective;
  • There is room for 2 shortarses (like me) to sit upright in the central third of the inner;
  • It's very stable when the TBS is deployed;
  • There's hardly any wind-flap;
  • The zips on the inner (mesh door) are a faff, they need some lube;
  • The groundsheet is very slippery - maybe this will become less of a problem after a period of use.

I'll post a proper review after it's been used in anger.

 

Houston, we have cleared the tower…

Posted by at 12:00 pm in Blog on Blog, Projects.

Welcome to the new blog.

I'll start with an apology to all you folk that have been following my old blog (http://bgontheweb.spaces.live.com/) using RSS feed readers - I know it'll be a hassle to change the settings to follow this one, sorry about that!

And then there all those hyperlinks to change on all those blogrolls...

Why the move? Well, Windows Live Spaces was fine as a starter blog, being a simple one-page format, but as my plans developed it was becoming clear that WLS would not be able to accommodate all that I want to achieve. This free WordPress blog is a step closer, I'll give it a try-out for a few months and then decide whether to stick with it or go for a full hosted WP jobbie and all the customisation potential that comes with it.

As (or should that be "if"?) you trawl around the site, please bear in mind that some bits are still in the construction phase, and others are experimental and liable to change. If you find any glaring errors, or just want to make your mark, sling me some feedback on the appropriate page, and I'll attend to matters ASAP.

Have fun!

Stef

Monday 23rd July, 2007

Another dickhead

Posted by at 10:14 pm in A bit of a rant, Driveway-blocking feckwits and piss-poor parkers.

Will the driver of the blue Renault Espace, registration number L489BWP, please note that the next time you park across the entry/exit of my driveway, I'll be reporting you to the police again.

 
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »