My ADSL lost sync at lunch time yesterday. 24 hours later and it\'s still down. So here is my token update for the month.

So whats new with everyone out there in the interweb?

Maz

Can't activate my install of windows. I get the following error message:


If Microsoft wants to force everyone to activate then they need to make sure it works 100% of the time. All they need to do is turn off the activation server and everyone with a legal copy of windows is screwed.
Worth buying?
Maz

P.S. My internet seems to be fine for uploading images to my site...

I put this under art because it's going to have more pictures than words. That's basically the guide as to what category I choose. Anyway, straight to the point:

I was out at my parents last night (returning mum's car which she had kindly leant to me for a couple of weeks) and I happened to notice that it was a very dark and freezing night. Forgetting to take warm clothes helped with this revelation. Well as some of you might know, on a moonless night it's quite possible to see the Milky Way, (looking back towards the center of our galaxy you can see a cloud of stars across the night sky). If you haven't seen it, here is a picture of roughly how it looks to the naked eye.



And another brighter one done with the 50mm lens (so wide apature and high ISO letting me use a relatively short shutter speed). Unfortunately this was still a 15 sec shutter so you can see the stars have moved during that time to form little lines.



Using the 50mm lens I was only able to capture a small part of the milky way in that photo so I did a longer exposure using the ultra-wide angle lens which gives a better look at the Milky Way but the stars have moved significantly over the 5 or 6 minutes so it makes everything look blurred.



And finally, something I've been wanting to do for ages but never seem to get the right weather for, a 35 minute exposure looking West taking in a large section of the night sky. Last night was still a bit windier than I would have liked but the end result is still pretty neat. I might have a bit of a tweak of this one in photoshop when I get the chance but this is the original.



As usual, feel free to request larger copies of these (instructions on how to do this are here).
Enjoy!
Maz

So the ebay protection stuff is a load of crap. Just another lie to get you to use paypal (which is basically owned by ebay) so that they can take more of your money while you buy online.



I bought something on ebay, a motherboard, and it was DOA. I contacted the seller who said I should send it back which I promptly did. Since I did this the seller has ceased all contact and isn't sorting this out. I figure I'd put in a PayPal dispute claim because it's meant to be a secure way to shop online so that you don't get ripped off using ebay. Well after wasting a few weeks waiting for the seller to respond to my complaint I raised a dispute with PayPal, who send me an email telling me to post the item back. Despite the dispute history saying that I had already posted the motherboard back.

Now here's the kicker. PayPal won't go any further with the dispute until I send the item now. Which is difficult to do when it is already sent. Now the only way PayPal will give any money back is if the seller says they ripped me off. Basically not going to happen. Raising a dispute also removes my ability to leave feedback for the item.

Update: The official response from PayPal

Let this be a warning to anyone who thinks they can get anything back from "PayPal buyer protection". IT'S A LIE!
Ebay is not a "safe way to shop online"!
Don't believe any of their bullshit PR.

At 2am you catch yourself saying:


I think I might be a little late to work tomorrow. Maybe not, I did do a lot of sleeping on the weekend so maybe it'll all work itself out. depends how long the conversation goes from here... I don't hold out much hope.
Maz