neolics blog

As the Daily Mail launches it’s “Banish the Bags” campaign, I can’t help but feel they are going about it the wrong way.

The environmental problems caused by the plastic pest have been known for some time – long before Peter Jones or Theo Paphitis mentioned their hate of them on Dragon’s Den.

I am all in favour of reducing the number of plastic bags in the wild, but I think supermarkets etc should be promoting other bags more effectively. They should replace all their conventional bags with ones that are:

• permanent (designed for long-term use), such as the cotton ones already being promoted OR
• biodegradable – e.g. paper or biodegradable polythene film (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4758419.stm)

The fact is, bags are extremely useful and can be re-used in and around the home many times. If all ‘plastic’ bags in the home (bin liners, freezer bags etc) were biodegradable, there would be no need to punish people with a ‘bag tax’. It would be better for the environment and people could still carry their shopping with relative ease.

Simply banning all plastic bags is not the best solution, nor is charging people for conventional bags…

The next version of the spam utility FastForward is now available! This version is capable of performing analysis of the Postini data held in the headers of emails that pass through the Postini system. This feature provides valuable insight in to how the emails have been classified by the system.
See THIS for more details…

As Digital Photo/Picture Frames are becoming more and more commonplace it seems there is consequently a bigger demand for software to make loading images on to these devices as easy as possible.

The Picture Resizer started off as a simple tool developed for just the author’s use with a Digital Picture Frame. However, it’s become apparent that others may benefit from this tool as well.

In a recent issue of Computer Shopper, a reader asked for a recommendation on what software they should use for their DPF. Computer Shopper’s response was to try some free photo editing software or resort to MS Paint. The problem with this approach is that neither are specifically made for DPFs (or any similar bit of kit that can display a picture file) and that editing more than a few files soon becomes tiresome.

This is where the Picture Resizer comes in! 🙂

The author is aware of similar tools (which have their uses) such as Multiple Image Resizer (which is handy for adding text to images) and has used such applications in the past. However, this software is different enough to warrant its use in tandem with other image editing tools. Any keen digital photographer shouldn’t have issues with having more than one implement in their toolbox 😉

Following on from THIS

While looking for a new laser printer I read the Colour Laser lab reviews in the February 2008 (240) issue of Computer Shopper. I thought the HP Colour LaserJet 3600 sounded interesting so I visited the PrinterLand website only to discover that the actual price including VAT was £294.91, not £250 as the review stated. I notified Computer Shopper but I never received a reply 🙁

I decided to purchase a different (cheaper) printer in the end – I might post a short review on it soon 🙂

Since then, the price of the HP 3600 has actually dropped to £256, so it might be a bit more appealing to potential buyers again…