My computer

For a long time (all through my studies) I kept off buying my own computer. For one as they were very expensive (for a student), two as I had my hands on them all day anyway and three as technology was progressing. Once I had a job I had more money and bought one as a luxury item (although the justification was that I could use it for work).

In July 1996 I traded it in for a state-of-the-art model and although technology is moving quickly and most parts are hopelessly oldfashioned, it is still a very workable machine. It lasted until late in 2000 when I traded it in again (and flogged the old machine to my parents-in-law who use it to discover computers and the Internet).

The new machine is Windows2000 capable and should last me another couple of years:

Me in my domain (=study)
	processor	Intel Pentium III 733Mhz
	internal memory	128 Mb DIMM (133Mhz)
	disk drive	20 Gb IDE, 7200 rpm
	video controller	32Mb AGP (17" monitor)
	CD-ROM	Acer 8Mb 8x4x32 CD-RW recorder
	peripherals	56K internal Fax/Modem Iomega parallel ZIP-drive HP Officejet 590 (color printer, b/w scanner & fax) Sony DCRTRV-18 Digital Video Camera Swann 4-port USB HUB Logitech USB Digital Camera Alcatel Speedtouch 530 USB ADSL Modem Microsoft Wireless Optical Wheel mouse

As said I have installed Windows2000 Professional (SP3) and most of the software is from Microsoft such as Office2000 (including the Dutch Multilanguage extensions), Visio2000 and Project2000. Supporting software I use regularly is PaintShop Pro (v7) and WinZip (v8), plus some multimedia-players.

These pages

These pages are mainly made with Microsoft FrontPage 2000. I try to keep them uniform and simple without using too much wizardry. Most images are standard clipart, ready-made images, scans or digital photo's. If needed I alter the images using PaintShop Pro (to make them as small as possible and in a different colour). For uploading these days you can use IE of the explorer, but Tripod (see further down) also has its own tools.

I think (and hope -or the other way around) that this all goes to show that a little technique, some shareware and most of all discipline, imagination and some knowledge can provide an entertaining website.

Since April 1999 I am using a free webhost with . Before my ISP hosted the webpage, but I found a better ISP-deal and needed to find another web-host. TRIPOD displays a second -commercial- window, but no watermarks or banners, so they are not disruptive to my pages. Meanwhile my ISP charges me $2 an hour for an Internet-connection and Telstra (Aussie telecom provider) another 20c per connection. As I only check my e-mail in the weekends (twice at 1 minute or so, the rest of my Web-Work I do at work) my whole Internet-setup costs me about $30 a year !

For both the addresses of my e-mail and web-pages I am using a free redirector through Bigfoot. I have actually made 3 aliases, so you can reach me (and/or Lisa) via simon.dorst, lisa.stewart or lisaimon@bigfoot.com or on the URLS: http://www.bigfoot.com/~simon.dorst, ~lisa.stewart or ~lisaimon. It's a great service which actually distributes the e-mail to my private account (currently with AAPT). When I changed this (and I have lately) no-one needs to change their address-book, I just change the redirection.

Other gadgets

After my first palm computer (Casio Cassiopeia E-10, running Windows CE 2.1) more or less died, I decided not to replace it. I only used it to synchronise calendar, tasks and contact between work and home, but since I now work from home (and have a laptop for work) this need is no longer there. However, at an HP seminar they auctioned the HP iPAQ 1910 for charity and by cunningly sitting in on one session (to determine the price) and then bidding in another one, I managed to obtain it for almost half the price (and begin for charity it is a tax-deduction as well). The 1910 is one of the smallest PDAs around and although it has only basic functionality, this perfectly meets my needs. It sync's with my Outlook (calendar, tasks, contacts) through a USB-cable and although not massive has it got enough memory for some great games and utilities (dictionary, English-Dutch translator, currency converter).

HP iPAQ 1910

We now also have a Logitech QuickCam® Web. This webcamera allows me not only to take digital photo's or video (when connected to my portable computer it is not restricted to the study), but also to use Netmeeting (simon_dorst@hotmail.com; no e-mails please, just for messaging) to have sound & video connections with friends across the Internet. The camera has a build-in microphone so I don't have to use a headset. It has 'privacy'-shutter (as you can see on the image, but I haven't got that installed) and a separate base which allows it to be 'clipped' to a screen. It comes with software not only for Netmeeting, taking photo's or video's but also to use it as a security camera (only starts recording when motion is detected) and even games (where your movement in front of the camera moves the player in the game).

After years of borrowing a video for our holidays (and other momentous occasions), did we decided to use our option to tax-free buying for our holiday to the Netherlands, to invest in a digital camera. Subsequently the digital camera can also replace our digital still-camera, which with 5 years is at the end of its electronic life cycle. After some study of available brands and types did we decide to go for the Sony miniDV camera with Zeiss lenses. for the superior quality of recordings and the Zeiss lenses also for their quality. Besides does the Sony have a memory stick so digital photo’s are not stored on tape and it has got a USB connection for easy downloading of photo’s and video’s to my computer.

Like any modern camera does it come with a whole swag of other options, not all of them equally useful. One of the more interesting ones is that you can let the camera remote control your video and this way ‘edit’ the recording you dup onto videotape. It can also video in 0-lux (or pitch-dark) which we tested on seeing Joshua move in his cot while asleep.

I would love to share some of the moving images with you, but the downloadable MPEG are still roughly 300Kb per second, making not feasibly for most Internet-connections (any suggestions on this one ?).

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