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From the bike park

Windows 7 – the news keeps on coming in!

• How low can you go? What is the minimum hardware requirement for Windows 7? SO far the record is a Pentium II with a 266 MHz CPU, 96MB of memory, and a 4MB graphics card.
• Nick Hodge is in charge of getting 58 palettes of HP Netbooks preloaded with Windows 7 for Tech Ed 2009 delegates! – i could go – but I’m going sailing instead!
• Susan Bradley has webcasts on using the XP mode in Win7
• Upgrade and retail pricing was announced for Win7 for USA and Australia this week.
  

I have been doing a lot of photography lately. Something to do with getting my new gear! I’m playing with White Balance, ISO, Aperture and Shutter settings and trying different things. A lot of these things I have of course done before, but now I am doing it with good gear and I am starting to get some good results.

I’ve put some of my good photos into this article. There are lots more in my flickr account, and for those connected to me on facebook a few there as well. A couple of very good shots have made it to my red bubble account where they can be purchased.

We went on a fun run on Sunday morning. I entered int he 5km run, but had to pull out early due to an injuury sustained at squash last Friday. I have pulled / damaged / twisted a nerve in the side of my left calf and it is very sore. The good thing was that as I got back to the finish line before most people I was able to take a large number of photos that have subsequently been made available for the runners to access.

After over a month of waiting I finally collected my new camera yesterday.

I had to wait because the lenses I wanted were not in the country and I had to wait til shipments came in. Even then, the wide angle lens I was trying to purchase wasn’t available so i ended up with a somewhat cheaper lower specced lens. I did however get my good telephoto lens.

  Equipment list:

• Canon EOS 50D
• Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM Lens
• Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS USM Lens
• Manfroto 190XDB Tripod
• Manfroto 804RC2 three way head
• Gorillapod SLR Tripod
• LowePro Nova 140AW bag

Equipment reviews that I used to make my choice from:

• Canon EOS 50D – review from Digital Photography Blog
• Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM Lens – review from The-Digital-Picture
• Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS USM Lens – review from The-Digital-Picture

The-Digital-Picture website also contain sample photos taken with the lenses – made the choice a lot easier.

Now I need to get going with my photography. I have a willing subject in Kitty, and plenty of landscape shots I want to take. I will be posting photos on Flickr as usual and the best ones will get to my Red Bubble account where they will be available to purchase in various formats.