Happy Friday! This has been a long week for me, and as I write this, it’s not over yet. My Thursday afternoon ended with an emergency trip to my dentist’s office and I am now am grappling with the fact that an obscenely large dental bill is in my near term future. This is why an emergency fund is a great idea, I guess. Doh!
On to this post’s title: a few folks have attempted to post in the Forum with what amount to ads for their businesses. As with the main site, Forum comments from first timers are moderated. If you want to advertise your business, find another avenue: such comments will be deleted. While I’m on a mild dentite-induced rant, if you post comments on the site or Forum which add absolutely no value whatsoever to the conversation, they too will be deleted.
OK, enough of that. I feel much better. [superemotions file="icon_confused.gif" title="Confused"] On to a few links of interest…
Reader David E. recently shared an interesting article which contrasts the (impressive?) weight of DSLR’s with that of high performance small sensor cameras. It’s this issue that’s got me convinced that the D-80 stays home for our Italy trip; I’ll opt for the S90 instead. Check it out here: Some Heavy Thoughts
Speaking of photography, if you’re at all interested in the subject and travel, you really ought to check out Trey Ratcliff’s Stuck in Customs blog. Trey is a master of HDR photography, and the images on his home page alone make the journey to his site well worth a visit.
If you don’t back up your hard drive, you ought to check out Tim Leffel’s brief post about the Rebit SaveMe Automatic Backup Hard Drive on the Practical Travel Gear blog. Someone who works for me suffered a hard drive meltdown this week; fortunately he had his super critical files backed up on our network, but nevertheless lost a good deal of work. It needn’t be that way…
Take much of this with a grain of salt; I found it via an email from ScotteVest CEO Scott Jordan, and it prominently features one of the SeV products. It also includes, however, some travel tips from John Discala, aka Johnny Jet – including his preference for vacuum packing bags. See it here: Travel Light Like a Pro
Every once in a while I’ll receive an email from someone asking that I link to their site or blog in a roundup; 98% of the time, I ignore them. In this case I’ll hesitantly recommend that you check out the “Personalized Travel Recommendations” at FatPassport.com Plug your preferences into a simple form and you’ll receive several recommendations of where to go and what to visit. Although the site is in alpha test, it features an impressive number of contributors and recommendations, but gaps remain. It might be a good way to supplement your conventional sources for travel information; check it out.
Next, a plug for my friend Donna Hull of the “My Itchy Travel Feet” travel blog, and frankly, quite a different take on travel photography from Trey’s site: How to take good camera phone pictures…
I may have linked to this post by friend Curtis Foreman in the past and if I did, I offer no apologies: it’s a post that makes me want to go to the place the writer describes, and that’s no mean feat. Sadly, Curtis seems to no longer be posting at his Flashpacking Life blog, but you can find him at Foreword Communications. Here’s the post: In Search of Tuscany’s Best Meal – and Best Olive
As always, just for the record: I have no connection to any of the sites or companies mentioned in this post. Have a great weekend!! And floss your teeth!!
February 12th, 2010 at 1:58 PM
Thanks for including My Itchy Travel Feet in your links roundup. You’ve included some great information. I especially appreciated the link to Johnny Jet’s “Travel Like a Pro.” I agree with the use of vacuum packing bags. They are especially good if you’re traveling with a rolling duffle bag or any other luggage that is not compartmentalized. The bags keep you organized and your clothes fairly wrinkle free.
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February 12th, 2010 at 2:02 PM
Thanks for linking to the Rebit review on Practical Travel Gear. I had a computer crash once and had to pay a shop to place the old hard drive in a new computer as a second drive so I wouldn’t lose the data. I was sweating bullets for a couple days there until I saw I hadn’t lost everything.
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February 12th, 2010 at 6:22 PM
I, too, am going through a surprise dental issue this week. Hope yours gets resolved ASAP (if it hasn’t already been resolved).
I think your S90 will be fine for Italy. Less weight to carry and a better way to take pictures without overtly screaming “tourist.” I love my SLR, but the S90 is a fine camera; I continue to be pleased with mine.
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February 13th, 2010 at 10:11 AM
Thanks for mentioning FatPassport to your readers. I hope all find it helpful, and feedback is appreciated!
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February 13th, 2010 at 7:02 PM
On thinly disguised ads –
When I first saw the “rubber band as wallet” link as a comment on one of your wallet reviews I thought – spam. But I also linked through and found it pertinent (it’s another wallet alternative, and relevant). Most spammers just want links on legitimate blogs (like yours) to improve their Google search rankings. I guess in the evolving etiquette of blogs and spammers, he should have sent you an email and asked if it would be alright to open a forum topic to flog his new product.
I also remember the Microsoft rep who mentioned Windows Live as a free online document storage alternative to Google docs. Truth is that post was probably no better nor worse than the “rubber band as wallet” post/link – in fact it came from the Darth Vader (Microsoft) side of the universe rather than from the Luke Skywalker (Google) side. But it was lightly done, and the rep actually had a light touch in responding to a followup comment I posted – so once again, a “gray area” in terms of blogs and spammers.
Then there is the issue of “barnacles” and “pilot fish” – people who are completely too lazy and unmotivated to start their own blog, even resisting invitations graciously extended to post guest articles, who nevertheless latch onto a passing ship (blog) or hang out with a school (sharks) likely to provide dinners in the form of ectoparasites and leftovers. Often masquerading as fans of the blog, their comments are sometimes lenghthier than the main blog articles. You know who I mean, I’m sure! LOL
So what’s a blogger to do? Zen Habits turned off comments altogether, ostensibly because there were too many ad spams to moderate, but probably also because people were prattling on and the focus was diffusing from the main article to people prattling on. The NY Times has the same problem I believe. Dogs simply call them fleas!
Anyway Berg, Till, and I will passionately argue that comments are helpful,even long ones, and even a little deft ad spam may not always be out of place – but you are the blog meister, in command of Practical Hacks Global Headquarters (technically second in command to Mrs. Hacks, but that’s a different issue) so we’ll leave it up to you -
- just don’t make your decision on a dental surgery day!
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Kevin Reply:
February 14th, 2010 at 7:11 AM
The ones I let through aren’t too objectionable, in my opinion. What you don’t see are the more egregious examples.
Turning off comments isn’t an option as far as I’m concerned… reader comments are one of the most enjoyable aspects of this blog – and many blogs.
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