Thanks for all that info Norman and well done for the poster books! Just wondering, will the poster images be in black and white for the Kindle version?
Apparently the site has been banned in France as from the 4th December. Don't know if it was coincidental or not but my connection was cut when I tried to find more info. Funny how they can ban these things but not the con-men and attacks by porno sites?
I will try and do the copy/paste thing thanks.
@Norman : to stick piccies in the message just copy & paste, mate, sithee :
@Carl ; the servers in Sweden got confiscated but the stuff was also housed elsewhere, notably in Costa Rica, so you just have to scrabble around a bit more to latch on.
@Norman : it's a torrent-sharing server system, which is blocked in several countries including UK, but not France, where you can find loads of old (and new, but ssshhhh) videos, films, e-books, software, etc etc. You're not supposed to use it, and if you keep the stuff available to the system you get spotted and get sent a HADOPI letter. Say no more say no more :)
My OH was just reminding me about a colleague we used to have. He was a weekend market enthusiast, sort of like vide greniers here type. He bought a 'job lot' of VHS cassettes when people were still buying from shops and DVDs were so new people either doubted they would catch on or had players. So he bought over 1200 of them for a couple of hundred quid and licked his lips in anticipation of great wealth in return. Every one of them was in the format for US players only! Remember the label on the back about the formats? He simply had not looked. Being when it was, people were not going to invest in an American player for a couple of the things, he was neither going to spend the time nor money converting them to boot and since VHS to dvd as simply as now was not the order of the day... All expensive and difficult options, most of which also broke both copyright and trading rules, pirating if sold as copies at a market, he had to take the whole lot to the dump. Moral, check your goods before you buy if confronted with a Del Boy. Ironically, he is from the USA and whilst he has been in England for over a half a century or so never had a betamax player anyway but has also never got the hang of people selling hooky goods that he tries to resell.
Now you have depressed me!
Addendum. No point in discussing with you the preparation of a stone litho then?
Old chinese proverb
"You are as old as the woman you are feeling"
Hmm, yes I keep forgetting you young bucks still around!
Before my time Norman ! i'm only a sprog you know !
Peter do you also recall the giant discs that carried movies in the VERY early days? I lusted after one of these things but they came and went very quickly. No idea if they worked or not, but certainly were not a marketing success.
Anyone recall the old 8 track car players ?
My one was worth more than my willow green Mini Van but never did work properly ! When it damn thing did condescend to play a cassette the music was usually drowned by the engine noises !
The 8 Track machine used to 'eat' the cassettes, a bit like a document shredder. A very happy day when I replaced it with a normal car cassette player.
Geek Call!! I use Orange and it usually has the file attachment button to push - but seems to be only working intermittently.
How can I put a picture in the body of the text and not use the attachment box?. I know I have done it before by accident but don't know how to do it properly.
Help!
Thanks Brian, I will check that cable thing out. I have hundreds of VHS (as I did also convert many from beta!) The Musicassette thing I did a long time ago - surprisingly there is still a market for the latter* - but you literally have to sell them by the dozen at about a euro! I am now making a deal with the guy at the Decheterie for a lot of stuff that I can now leave in boxes for anyone to take. Not worth the effort of even going to a Puce with them. Old books (paperbacks) VHS etc. One problem I do have though is in the Baltics I bought a lot of films to watch (TV being what it was -'nuf said?), but although they were in english language the subtitling was in Estonian or Finnish as were the cases. Good films too, but unless anyone knows of a Finnish or Estonian viewer who wants them for nothing, I'm afraid they go to the bin, which seems a shame.
*The ubiquitous and old Renault Twingos are still fitted with cassette players.
Music cassettes Norman. I would recommend an Ion Tape 2 Go and Tape Express + USB cassette player from Amazon for about €25. I bought similar direct from another company because I want some of the noise filtered out, so the one I bought would normally cost about €40 here in Europe but unless you absolutely need a twin deck and filter go for the simpler and cheaper.
If it is VHS Cassettes to DVD/digital the buy something like a Roxio Easy VHS to DVD 3 Plus which is a cable to link the player to computer. You can get the things from about €8 but I find the €50 quality better, having tried the former. The quality of your tapes/player is not improved by conversion so if either is iffy do not expect anything other than WYSIWYG.
I bought the music one because I have the cassettes but no player, for which there are cable routes just using the outlets on what you have to computer for next to nothing. I am not very technical so that is about it. I just have the things, want rid of them but still want what is on a lot of them.
Just arrived from Australia - couldn't resist this one!
DATING IN THE 60s. Remember those days ?
It was a hot Saturday evening in the summer of 1963, and James
had a date with Annabella.
He arrived at her house and rang the bell.
'Oh, come on in!' Annabella's mother said as she welcomed
James.
'Have a seat in the sitting room.. Would you like something to
drink? Lemonade? Tea?'
'Tea, please,' James said. Mum brought the tea.
'So, what are you and Annabella planning to do tonight?' she asked
interestedly.
'Oh, probably go to the flicks and then maybe grab a bite to eat at the
coffee bar, perhaps have a walk on the beach afterwards.'
'Annabella likes to screw, you know,' Mum informed him.
'Really?' James gasped, surprised to say the least.
'Oh yes,' mother continued, 'When she goes out with her friends, that's
all they do!'
'Is that so?' asked James, incredulously.
' Oh yes,' she said..
'As a matter of fact, she'd screw all night if we let her!'
'Phew! Well, thanks for the tip!' James said as he began thinking about
alternative plans for the evening.
A moment later, Annabella came down the stairs looking pretty as a picture,
wearing a pink blouse and a hoop skirt
and with her hair tied back in a bouncy ponytail.
She greeted James.
'Have fun, kids!' mother said as they left.
Half an hour later, a completely dishevelled Annabella
burst into the house and slammed the front door behind her.
'The Twist, Mum!' she yelled angrily to her mother in the kitchen.
'The bloody dance is called the Twist!'
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A few years back I had one of my regular brainstorms, and typically me, I never sample when I can produce, as I am when I write - why use 30 words when 100 will do (yes you read that right!). Anyway I created a thing called YesterYearSounds, which ultimately ended up as 52 MP3 'Themed' CD's. They each carry about 20-hours plus 'entertainment on them, usually including a full book reading, music, a couple of radio plays etc.
Typically then I got involved in the book creating and publishing thing and never did anymore with them although I still have all the recordings. If anyone is interested in getting the list let me know. I'm not trying to sell them, but cover the cost of the CD and postage and they could be yours. My original thought was for people in Homes or unable to help themselves too much. I should have produced some in French and maybe I will for some of our older (than me) neighbours.
How about this for my thought on Xmas Cards this year?
No cards, physical or digital, but as you all know by now I have a reference library of over 20,000 Poster images, so I am sending an image to each friend and partner relevant to what I know about them. These are all Vintage posters and printable. A bit different?
For you lot if interested - and its a freebie, I have some 450 images of British towns and resorts. I you would like an image of YOUR hometown, and of course if I have one, let me know and I will punt it off to you gratis, for zilch, nowt and nothing - email only though.
Finally this past month I have been totally absorbed in discovering old Music Sheets/Scores -mainly prewar. Fascinating stuff and guess what - yep another book on the way!
Who is OBSESSIVE!!!!!! AAarrgghhhh!
Peter, I like that and have even written the book (seriously) and put finishing touches to it yesterday - look out amazon/Kindle - here it comes!!!! Called 'Brothels, Beans & In-betweens' incidentally, subtitled 'or 50 years an Ad-man'
Only took 35 years to write - my longest period of gestation for anything!
Brian, liked the swapover unit - or you taking musicassettes or VHS cassettes? If the latter that's waht I need, as I did all the musicassettes years ago (incidentally I discovered that the pirated musicassettes I bought in Bahrain times (1980-82) from India if I recall, were all perfect, whilst a good 50% of the so-called legitimate ones were knackered. Thought for the day?
What is Pirate Bay - please fill me in on details. Archive I like and downloaded the two-part 'One-Eyed Jacks' with Marlon Brando last night.