| Point, shoot, store and organize
In a digital world, shooting, organizing and sharing high-quality photos and videos keeps getting easier and more affordable. Whatever your budget, a slew of cool bells and whistles makes the newest cameras, camcorders, multifunction photo printers, photo-editing software, and portable photo-storage devices worth getting to capture and preserve your special travel moments. While pocket-size, point-and-shoot digital cameras are popular for their handy size and competitive pricing, bulkier, more sophisticated digital SLR cameras, which have higher resolution and accept interchangeable lenses, are gaining customers, thanks to big price drops. A well-performing digital SLR can be had for less than $500, half of what it cost a few years ago. Brag-factor fanatics, take heart. Top-of-the-line models with 20-plus- megapixel resolution can go for $7,000 or more - if you must.
Thinking About Tomorrow
In fact, they'll be able to do even more, as mobile gadgets increasingly come equipped with global-positioning-system gear that can track your every move. As you drive around, for instance, you might get reviews of nearby restaurants automatically delivered to a screen in your car -- maybe even projected onto the windshield. The spread of GPS hints at another big change on the horizon. We're going to be under a lot more pressure to make our personal information public -- everything from where we surf online to where we're standing at a particular moment. Companies will offer us special deals and other incentives so that we'll let them track our activity. That information, in turn, will let the companies present us with a steady stream of intensely focused marketing whenever we go online, turn on our cellphone or even walk into a store.
Saints sign Pearce on-loan
Nigel Pearson has moved quickly to make Ian Pearce his first signing as Saints boss. The experienced 33-year-old Fulham centre half joins on a one month loan and comes straight into contention for a place in the starting line-up at Scunthorpe tomorrow with Andrew Davies and Darren Powell both injury doubts for the game. Pearson said: "I'm delighted to have brought Ian Pearce in on loan. "He's an experienced head. Calm, confident and a quality player." Pearce has featured in every Premier League season since it began in 1992 and has a top flight winner's medal form his spell at Blackburn. He has also played for West Ham and Fulham after starting his career as a trainee at Chelsea. .
Cis' blog roundup - Friday
And he looked like he was already involved in a nice conversation. Only later did it occur to me that my photo has been posted here a few times, too, so maybe I wouldn't be a complete stranger. Darn. Opportunity lost. I imagine we could have had a great conversation! UBob (reviewing the North Idaho Fair): Overall, the North Idaho fair sucked. It was rinkydink. I thought the Spokane County Fair was an exercise in hickiness. But the North Idaho fair was rubeoriffic. The beer garden was ok. The little kids racing 65cc motocross bikes weren't bad, especially when they had nasty wrecks. But the small display halls and stupid stinky draft horses and idiot volunteers were just too much for my aesthetics, man, not groovy. The stick food saved it. (For the complete comment, click here.) DFO: Believe it or not, I've never met UBob in person either.
China enacts new labour law amid rising discontent
Chinas new Labour Contract Law came into effect at the beginning of the year. The government and state-run media has hailed the legislation as a milestone in the protection of the rights of Chinese workers. In reality, it formally guarantees only the most minimal working conditions, which in many sweatshops will simply be ignored. The key provision is that all workers in China must be employed on the basis of a written contract that stipulates their wage rates and under what conditions they can be fired. Previously, at least 40 percent of employees of private companies had no contract at all. Employers must also contribute to a social insurance or unemployment fund for each worker. Employees who have worked for over 10 years for the same firm or had a fixed-term contract renewed twice are entitled to an open-ended contract.
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