technology and audio matters

I like many use ebay, I find it convenient for disposing of unwanted/surplus items as well as buying. Recently I’ve become more than a little annoyed by hidden charges i.e. adding VAT at the end of the auction and secondly adding high postage costs. My view is , if I’m prepared to pay ‘top dollar’ and pay for effectively next day guaranteed delivery then that’s what I expect. This is just a ruse to allow sellers to make a profit and not pay listing charges. As a real example I’ve paid £4.95 P&P on a memory card. OK the overall purchase price was fair, but it didn’t come next day and the package had £0.36 on it! The moral, avoid these sellers if you can or lobby ebay to provide a uniform postage system. Welcome comments…

Latest, read this article about plans to remove ‘negative or neutral feedback’ on ebay!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7228460.stm

My recently purchased Fuji F10 appears to have disappeared ! Only had it about 3 months. Used it a week or so back and hasn’t been seen since. I didn’t take it out of the house so It has to be somewhere but where I just don’t know.  One sure of way of making it reappear of course is to buy another one. Well I’ve bought an F20 now. Another refurb’ job to keep costs down. Same pixel count at 6.3 M Pixels  with a similar lens and sensor. So should be good for hight ISO in door shots without flash. Haven’t received it but hope it will arrive in the next few days. The F10 got a little time left then

Just set up a new printer following the demise of our trusty Epson 600. A small Canon Pixma to be precise. Well I installed and followed the usual procedure. However since installing the printer has behaved erratically, spurious page feeds etc. After checking drivers and removing traces of legacy print drivers I realised the only thing left (apart from the PC) was the cable. In order to cut costs these printers aren’t shipped with any USB cables. A quick examination of what I was using revealed an early USB 1.1 standard cable. A substitute 2.0 standard cable from Argos (presumably a better screen, twisted pairs?) seems to have done the trick. So a warning to you all take care and make no assumptions that any old cable will work. In truth a ‘black mark’ for Canon on not supplying a cable of adequate quality.

Now at 128Kbs in stereo !
http://www.the-jazz.co.uk/