Now we all have our own personal opinion on what we should be using and why. I won't be going into the pros and cons of each, as this isn't the point of this post.

My setup at home consists of one custom built desktop running Windows XP and one Dell laptop running Windows Vista. I do most of my work on my desktop and also use it for gaming, which is why for me its not a good idea to switch to Ubuntu on there as the games won't run on Linux, there is the option of running the games through WINE but I really can't see the point off that right now. But with my laptop, all I use that for is work which is coding based.

When it comes to Linux I am a novice to say the least, I know a few basic commands, but since all the servers we use at work are Linux based, and my VPS is linux based, I really need to learn how to use it more. So I came up with the idea of switching my Windows Vista laptop over to using Ubuntu and try it out to see what all the fuss is about.

I plan on doing the switch this weekend at some point, so I will post updates on how it goes and how easy it is to do the switch. And as a final few words, I would like to say that I have not found any problems yet using Windows Vista, for me its run perfect every time I have used it.

Back to work for me!

My initial ideas were that I needed to find / work out some complex function that will convert a postcode into the easting and northing co-ordinates. But once I had set off into Google seeing what I can find, I actually realised I was going in compleatly the wrong direction.

After a bit of digging, it turns out it is actually quite simple, all you need is a table of all the UK postcodes with their co-ordinates. When the user enters their postcode, you find the postcode in your table and return the co-ordinates, et voila, you have the basics of your postcode search.

The next challenge was to find this postcode data, so I set off in my search. It didn't take long to get my answer, the UK postcode data is controlled and published by one company in the whole of the UK, The Royal Mail, which in short, can only spell problems. With the Royal Mail in control of this data, it means they can do whatever they want with it, including the pricing. And let me tell you, whoever decided how much to charge the public, was not in a good mood the day they decided this.

Now Royal Mail offer a few different packages off the data they hold, all ranging in prices. The dataset I am after is whats called the GIS Base Table. In short it holds all of the postcodes in the UK with their OSGR Easting and OSGR Northing co-ordinates, perfect for what I need to do. They then allow you to choose how many updates you wish to get per year, I have a nice list of the updates with its cost below:

• One-off supply (No updates) - £350
• One update per year - £350
• Two updates per year - £525
• Four updates per year - £875
• Twelve updates per year - £1312.50

Now looking at that, I would be more then happy to spend £350 a year on the data, but the real kick in the teeth comes when Royal Mail slap an extra £600 on the top for using the data on the internet.

The question that comes to my mind as I am writing this now is why? Why charge so much for this data, when data like this is freely available in countries like the USA and Canada. By charging a ridiculous sum of money, they are just halting what could be some cool projects and ideas because people can't afford to pay for the licensing fees. To me it is all just stupid and some questions need to be asked down at Royal Mail.

There is a small glimmer of hope. People are setting out to create their own lists of Postcodes which they are releasing into the public domain for free downloads. The best one I have found and will be using is New Popular Edition Maps. From what I have seen so far they have created a great service, its really quick and simple to add your own postcode if it isn't there already.

Its been a bit of a long rant, but its well worth it. If your still reading this, then thanks for reading, any comments then the form to submit is just below!

Matt Godwin

Its a simple website, powered by good old wordpress, you can upload a funny photo and caption it and the best ones make it onto the homepage. There have been some really good ones recently on there so I feel I have to share these!

Hope you enjoy these!

Matt

On the whole I thought the judges did quite well, other then the sending through of the Romanian singer Simona Armstrong, who was dressed a bit like an ostrich. I thought the whole point of the eurovision is to send someone from your own country, so if she is from Romania then how does she qualify to represent the UK, all very strange to me!

I have to admit though I am quite supprised, I thought for the first time in a while the UK has actually voted for a half decent act to go. Andy Abraham was the winner with his song 'Even If'.

Though I still don't think we will win, I am just happy we look to be taking this slightly more seriosly then last year! Lastly I leave you with Spains entry Rodolfo Chikilicuatre with his song Baila el ChikiChiki. Need more be said?

I inherited mine from my grandad when he passed away. There was really only one game I ever played on it, and that was the legendary Bomberman. I played the game every time I went over to my grandparents house and there was rarely a moment I wasn't playing it at home. Even though that was many years ago, I still know and remember the great gameplay. For those who havn't played this game here is a taster video below...

From what I do remember, this game gave a two really good game types, the single / dual player 'missions' and the battle royal. Newer versions of the game that I have played I found lacked on either one of the game types which is a shame because to me its an old classic.

Problem is now, can I resist buying a 2nd hand console off ebay and get the game?? Will just have to wait and see!

The design that is currently up is our holder page, and I am in the process of just getting our blog up and running so we can keep updates on our progess. The site has been in development now for a few weeks, but will be a little while still before we get somthing up ready for some beta testing, so keep an eye out on here for any news on that!

After a lot of thinking I have decided to pull the plug on LostPhotograph and to intergrate it into this website where I feel the photos will be able to get more coverage.

Simply the website isn't getting much traffic to justify keeping it, and it would make promoting myself on the net alot easier with my blog and photographs all on one website.

So last night I begun work on updating this website to bring my photos into here and to also update the backend code which runs the blog! Keep an eye out over the next few weeks for changes and I will make a post about when its going to happen!

Thanks, Matt Godwin

For those of you reading this across the pond and who do not know what this is, it is where each country in Europe finds the "best" home bread talent in music, and ships them off to some studio where they perform infront of the whole of europe, and then each country takes it in turn to vote for the "best act".

Now when I say "best act", what I really mean is, the more countries that border with your own, the more votes you tend to get, which pretty much screws over the United Kingdom because even though we consist off four countries, we can only send one entry, and the next nearest country, other then Ireland, who happens to be France, doesn't like us too much.

Instead of just pulling out and not entering, some countries think it is quite fun to send the worst act they can possibly find. Take for example last year (2007), the UK sent Scooch, Ukraine decided to send a drag queen (and somehow they managed to come second) and France didn't do themselves too many favours by entering Fatals Picards.

This time, Ireland has decided to try somthing a little bit different to the traditional Irish band they sent last year. This year they have decided to send none other then Dustin the Turkey! And no, I really am not joking, you can view the entry below...

As much as I really do hate that song, I just get that bad feeling that it might actually win, if a cross dressing Ukrainian can come second, who's to say a drunk Irishman sitting in a box with his hand up a turkey's bum can't win.

All I can say is bring on England's entry!

Spare Battery

Now I would consider this to be one of the most important things you buy for your camera, trust me when I say this, there is nothing worse then being out on a photography shoot, and your battery dies, if you have had to pay for a studio then you will have lost money, if you have travelled along way for a beautiful scenery it would have been a waste of time and money. Whenever I go out I always have a backup battery ready to pop in, just in case the worst happens!

Spare Film / Memory Card

Another essential, again nothing worse then not being able to take more photos when you run out of space, if you have digital, last thing you will want to do is trawl through all the photos and have to make decisions on weather to delete photos out on location.

Kit Bag

If you are like me and have a few lens’s to carry around when out shooting, for general storage or even travelling. Something useful to have is a kit bag to store it all in. They come in all different styles. You can get the hard plastic cases, which offer more protection to your equipment and camera. You also have the soft bags, which can go over your shoulder or carry which I have. The advantage of a kit bag is you can keep lots of stuff in them. I keep my camera manual\'s, filters, lens’s, camera in there, so when I go somewhere all I have to do is pickup the bag, easier said then done in some cases.

Tripod

A tripod is a nifty bit of kit to have, it provides a good solid base to hold your camera on for photographs which require long shutter speeds. Be careful with what tripods you do buy, some cheap ones can be very flimsy and can break easily. They fold up to be quite small and can go in small bags which can just go over your shoulder, so very easy to carry them around.

Different Lens's

This day and age there are Lens’s to fit every photographers needs, Macro, Telephoto, Wide Angle and your standard zoom lens. The downside to them is they can get very expensive and can be damaged easily if proper care isn’t used with them. I would say only really invest in a new lens only if you really need. It is nice to have different lens’s but unfortunately like I said they do come at a cost.

Filters

Filters are pretty cheap these days, and can be a lot of fun playing around and trying new things out with them. There are so many different types, you can get UV, IR, coloured, polarising and so many more. Well worth it if you are looking at trying some new ideas, you can really get some good results with filters when used right.

Flash

I have a small strap on flash for my camera, its not really something i personally use much, they are mainly used in Portrait photography, and quite a bit in abstract photos. They can be useful to have but when not used right they can ruin photos just as well as they can help make some photos. Again its one of those things I wouldn\'t bother buying if you wont use it, but they can be useful to have.

That is it really, there are still lots more items you can buy, like hand grips or remote controls for camera to keep them more steady, but I just wanted to look at some of the more common pieces of equipment you can buy these days for cameras.

Thanks, Matt Godwin