Horrible. Mike, stop blaming yourself and have a lawyer write a letter for you. Also, please please please make damned sure that the domain name is registered (at least as far as the Administrative Contact is concerned) in your name. You can check this with a "whois" service. Email me ([email protected]) if you have any questions. More than happy to help with the tech/hosting bits.

So, despite being in a country with no such holiday/tradition, I can only sympathise and agree. That said, I've spent more than one Christmas in the office in order to get away from the inevitable Jingle Bells rubbish. It was invariably wonderful. I was never the only one... No work got done, of course. Just good company and ales, and occasionally a frenetic game of Quake

It let me order two copies (the other being for a Finnish friend). Hope they're real!

Mike, Do compose offline. Heartily recommend! It means you get to use the text editing interface you prefer, rather than the one Typepad provide. Especially worthwhile if (like me) you have RSI and/or arthritis problems and need to be careful about your computer use habits. Then paste your text into TypePad, insert markup, images, etc. If it all goes FUBAR, you've still your text to paste back in --- and for me that's easily the most valuable part of TOP. The images are nice, sure, but for me they're really an accent* to some invariably interesting writing. John * except for Random Excellence postings, of course

It's not 100% certain that the Wright brothers were first. There was a gentleman in New Zealand flying around in 1903 as well, possibly earlier in 1902 as well. http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/pearse1.html Pearse was evidently quite humble, and freely admitted that the Wrights' efforts were more successful than his own. Regardless of who was first, they were all pioneers. Exciting times!

Excited about receiving my copy! Hopefully very soon... I also sent my father a surprise-gift copy of the O. Winston Link book. He emailed me today to say that he's loving it. We're in Australia, so it's a fascinating insight into another culture.

The pic you posted wasn't my favourite in the set. But the work is wonderful. Definitely a thumbs-up! I would specify my preferred pic, but there doesn't seem to be a way to generate a point of reference on that portfolio website. This isn't how the web is supposed to be, damnit!

Much more attractive. A model with real skin? Pores? Lines? A semblance of humanity? Very happy to see this. Thanks for posting!

The Toybaru does look fabulous. AE86 fanboys have only been demanding this for ~20 years now. About bloody time. I have long desired an AE86 but held off due to the fanboy effect pushing up the prices of the parts. The first test should be whether or not it allows the electronic nannies to be turned off... and unlike some Lexuses, have them stay turned off.

The G1X looks compelling. I have held back on upgrading my trusty G10 - the camera I bought to be an interesting sidekick for my EOS 20D, but ended up being used much, much more, mainly due to its size. In turn, I'd held back on flipping over to another camera system, despite them looking so good... they won't drive my Canon flashes, at least not in fancypants magic-metering mode. The G1X, like my G10, will certainly do that. I'm glad I waited! I'd been thinking about the G12... Of course, an S100 replacement with Canon's wireless flash control functionality would be even better. So compact, so versatile!

I do wish Canon would put the wireless flash transmitter goodies in it, much like they have in their more recent DSLRs. In my humble opinion a small digicam and external flash (I like Canon's 430EX-II)) returns a rather superior utility/gram ratio than a DSLR and flash. Currently I'm still using my G10, which does have a hot-shoe. But the S100 is so much more compact...

My Apollo/Soyuz print looks amazing. Thanks for helping Ctein make this possible :-)