What annoyed you today?

[anglefire]

Drivers that slow down for speed cameras that are on the opposite side of the road, let alone slowing down for the ones on your side of the road - particularly when they then go below the speed limit!

Mind you speed cameras generally make me angry because they can't take into account road conditions. The only ones I agree with are ones on road works. The rest of them should be destroyed!

[Hinfrance]

CFLs.

I was an early adopter of this technology, back in the 90s when they were first introduced. It didn't take very long to realise that there were some major problems with them. Not least devices controlled by infrared remotes developing a taste for random operation. But I'm tight, so I was interested in the claimed product lifecycle savings. Unfortunately one of the problems is that there are no product lifecycle savings. In fact they are much more costly, mainly because they rarely last even as long as an incandescent bulb in normal domestic use. And their power consumption during the warm up phase means they often use more electricity than an incandescent bulb if they are only on for short periods of time.

Whoever said that they last longer than incandescent bulbs should be made to live with them over their forecast life without being able to change them. With the only power provided by those other Green con jobs, windmills. But that is a whole different rant. I'll guarantee they will be in the dark most of the time.

Half our home is lit with incandescent bulbs, half with CFLs. Whereas I cannot remember the last time I changed an incandescent lightbulb, I've just had to replace four CFLs this morning. And the new recycling bin in the supermarket for them was full in less than 24 hours (they are toxic waste unlike the perfectly sound incandescent bulbs we have been forced to replace). So if they're so reliable, how come so many of them fail so quickly? Answer is the Greens lie about their hair shirt technology just as much as they lie about everything else. Actually the answer is that they don't take being switched on and off too well.

It is surely no coincidence the the leader of the Greens in the EU parliament is Danny the Red, instigator of the 1968 riots. Leopards and spots and all that . . but I digress.

It's not that CFLs have no reasonable uses - they do - essentially any low level lighting that is left permanently switched on. For all other lighting uses they are as the Americans would say, sub optimal.

Get low voltage halogen lighting while you still can - it lasts for years and again in typical use can often be more energy efficient than CFLs. Alas halogen lighting will also be banned from 2012.

Pray that LCD lighting works properly by then. I've tried this too. Bought 6 20 LED spots to replace the 12v halogens in the kitchen. Two problems. 1, despite claimed life of 100,000 the first LEDs began to fail with 2 months, so certainly less than 500 hours. At the end of three months 28 of the total of 120 LEDS had died and I had had enough of this experiment. And 2, Despite their quoted wattage equivalencies they were significantly less bright and far more directional than the halogens. So the two completely dead ones are in the bin and the rest are in the rainy day, have you learned your lesson yet? box.

And it's foggy.

[spinner]

CFLs.

Half our home is lit with incandescent bulbs, half with CFLs. Whereas I cannot remember the last time I changed an incandescent lightbulb, I've just had to replace four CFLs this morning. And the new recycling bin in the supermarket for them was full in less than 24 hours (they are toxic waste unlike the perfectly sound incandescent bulbs we have been forced to replace). So if they're so reliable, how come so many of them fail so quickly? Answer is the Greens lie about their hair shirt technology just as much as they lie about everything else. Actually the answer is that they don't take being switched on and off too well.

I often wondered why this became the rallying cry for the Greens. What convinced them that despite being toxic waste they were a good replacement for the incandescent bulb.

[Oldboy]

Since Sunday the weather has been pants and the light very bad. Went out today as they said it would be sunny this afternoon but only got about one hours before the grey clouds rolled in. 

[greypoint]

winter draws on....

[Oldboy]

winter draws on....

Can't be, as we had winter in July! 

[Malcolm1938]

Wouldn't it be nice to live somewhere that has a climate you can rely on instead of just Weather....

[anglefire]

Had to drive past Cann Office - it was shut the time we went past! Though this was Sunday, so a bit late

[greypoint]

Checking the status of my 70-300mm vr repair [scheduled to be completed on 17/9] to find it still says 'awaiting repair'

[spinner]

winter draws on....

No, I don't put my winter drawers on until early Dec. But thanks for the reminder. 

[Jonathan]

Checking the status of my 70-300mm vr repair [scheduled to be completed on 17/9] to find it still says 'awaiting repair'

Oooo you want to hear how long Nikon took to repair a flashgun?

Posted it Tuesday - on Friday I received (1) an acknowledgment that they had received it and (2) the repaired flashgun.

But then I have magic stickers.

[greypoint]

Well - it seems I can register my D300 as a pro model but the 70-300 is just a cheap consumer take as long as we want to repair lens! If I had'nt got my old faithful built to last 70-210 push/pull to use for shows I'd really really be annoyed

[skellum]

I had to go to Hobby Craft in Preston to get some Hinging tape ( the only place I know locally to get it ) when I got there they had totally moved all the stock around so what should of been a 5 minate in and out job took nearly half an hour and then I got stuck in the Friday rush hour traffic.

[Oldboy]

Well we had a bit of sun this afternoon, so went out to photograph the Dragonflies, and there where loads around. Took about ten shots OK, then one flew infront of me and move to within a foot or so. Lifted camera to my eye, and Dragonfly didn't fly off. Pressed the shutter and the camera wouldn't focus, switched on and off tried again and still wouldn't work. Noticed the F number was zero, so had to twist the lens and the 1.4 converter before the camera would focus, by this time the Dragonfly had gone! 

[CML-1591]

Anyone elses partner make them watch come dancing?

Lucky Derren Browns show saved me from an hour of it