MaW’s Blog

This caught my eye on Boing Boing and something in the explanation was definitely missing. Yes there’s an argument for being able to take pictures of things in museums, but there’s another argument against it that’s very important to a lot of people: if you let people take pictures, they’re inevitably going to use the flash because they’re indoors. Flash photography emits a lot of light, and light, as any conservator will tell you, is very bad for exhibits.

The conservator’s ideal museum would keep all objects in climate-controlled enclosures, sealed off from each other and the outside world, without any lights or visitors.

Such a museum wouldn’t be very useful, but it would keep the objects in good condition!

Perhaps a compromise would involve the museum providing free downloads of images they’ve taken themselves to help reduce the number of photos being taken.

My graphics card has died.

Well, not entirely, but various issues with 3D rendering led me to contact both the manufacturer and the supplier. The supplier eventually got back to me with an RMA, so I posted it to them for replacement.

When I got back from the Post Office, there was an email from the manufacturer, saying could I perhaps try this BIOS upgrade for the card? Well, the answer is really no, because:

1) I’ve not got the card anymore
2) The BIOS update requires me to make a DOS boot disc. I don’t have a floppy drive, or DOS

Grrrr.

In other news, my sofa is much nicer to lounge about on now that it has a nice soft throw covering its sub-standard upholstery.