To avoid driving through the city I drove via the B300 which goes through Lilydale, Kinglake National Park to Yea then up to the Hume at Banalla.
Not long after the turnoff onto the B300 the black spots appeared. Soon whole hills were gone. A few towns with black right up to their first houses. Some lucky farm houses surrounded by black... with green gardens.
Kinglake National Park is nothing but black ground, black sticks, and brown leaves. We drove this way to avoid Healesville/Marysville and that area, but I don't think we were better off.
Very eye opening, very unpleasant.
The turnoff to Flowerdale is still closed. The bottleshop on the corner is gone. Someone has written "BYO" on it's sign.
On the way back we took the Hume. Around Flowerdale again we saw whole hills wasted. If we'd only seen this, we'd have been "impressed" enough. But after the B300 it didn't seem so bad.
So much of middle Victoria was burnt. I've seen it on the news. I've seen the maps. But driving through it for kilometer after kilometer I now really really get it.
While away over the weekend my camera stopped working. It still records video, but photos taken are super-bright and ruined by horizontal lines. I suspect the photo sensitive chip thingy has blown.
It is probably time to look into a new camera.
What I want:
I'd have thought all cameras would have these by now, but apparently not. I've read a bit about better low light technology recently, but I doubt that would be in consumer products by now.
I played with a few newer compacts while on holidays and wasn't too happy with any of them, particularly in low light.
I don't hold out much hope of getting what I want.
Clock ticks for plasmas, LCDs:
THAT expensive plasma or LCD will be obsolete from May 1 when Australia's TV population - about 16.5 million of them - and its digital TV system, becomes officially outdated.
The article seems to infer that "FreeView" is not just a brand for digital TV, but a brand for a planned switch from the current MPEG2 digital TV standard to MPEG4, and that as part of that switch, consumers will need to buy a FreeView branded box to view the MPEG4 signal.
Thus, all existing "digital TV" tuners are obsolete.
The article also infers that the switch will begin when FreeView branded boxes are released on May 1st. This is obviously wrong, but it is possible that FreeView branded boxes will be MPEG4 compatible, even if MPEG4 broadcasts aren't likely for years.
I haven't found any other articles on this new piece of info, so I look forward to tomorrow for some clarity.
Anyone stupid enough to throw out their TV because the tuner is out of date, throw it my way. You know you could get a set top box for your 50 inch LCD?
The tuner in my current TV is useless but I get by. It's set for English analog channels (which don't even exist any more in England).
In my opinion the article has confused to completely different messages. One, digital TV will in the next few years attempt to move to MPEG4 standard. This will require a new set top box. Second, FreeView branded boxes begin being sold on May 1st. I will be very very surprised if these support MPEG4.