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Jack Kerouac (pronounced [dʒak ˈkɛrʊ?k]) (March 12, 1922 ? October 21, 1969) was an American novelist, writer, poet, artist, and part of the Beat Generation. While enjoying popular but little critical success during his own lifetime, Kerouac is now considered one of America's most important authors. The spontaneous, confessional prose style inspired other writers, including Tom Robbins, Richard Brautigan, Hunter S. Thompson, Ken Kesey, Tom Waits and Bob Dylan. Kerouac's best known works are On the Road, The Dharma Bums and Big Sur.He divided most of his adult life between roaming the vast American landscape and living with his mother. Faced with a changing country, Kerouac sought to find his place, eventually bringing him to reject the values of the fifties. His writing often reflects a desire to break free from society's mold and to find meaning in life. This search may have led him to experiment with drugs (he used alcohol, psilocybin, marijuana, and benzedrine, among others to study spiritual teachings such as Buddhism) and to embark on trips around the world. His books are often credited as the catalyst for the 1960s counterculture.Kerouac died in St. Petersburg, Florida at the age of forty-seven from an internal hemorrhage thought to have been caused by alcoholism.

Blu-ray, also known as Blu-ray Disc (BD), is the name of a next-generation optical disc format jointly developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), a group of the world's leading consumer electronics, personal computer and media manufacturers (including Apple, Dell, Hitachi, HP, JVC, LG, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, TDK and Thomson). The format was developed to enable recording, rewriting and playback of high-definition video (HD), as well as storing large amounts of data. The format offers more than five times the storage capacity of traditional DVDs and can hold up to 25GB on a single-layer disc and 50GB on a dual-layer disc. This extra capacity combined with the use of advanced video and audio codecs will offer consumers an unprecedented HD experience.
While current optical disc technologies such as DVD, DVDąR, DVDąRW, and DVD-RAM rely on a red laser to read and write data, the new format uses a blue-violet laser instead, hence the name Blu-ray. Despite the different type of lasers used, Blu-ray products can easily be made backwards compatible with CDs and DVDs through the use of a BD/DVD/CD compatible optical pickup unit. The benefit of using a blue-violet laser (405nm) is that it has a shorter wavelength than a red laser (650nm), which makes it possible to focus the laser spot with even greater precision. This allows data to be packed more tightly and stored in less space, so it's possible to fit more data on the disc even though it's the same size as a CD/DVD. This together with the change of numerical aperture to 0.85 is what enables Blu-ray Discs to hold 25GB/50GB.

Blu-ray is currently supported by more than 170 of the world's leading consumer electronics, personal computer, recording media, video game and music companies. The format also has broad support from the major movie studios as a successor to today's DVD format. Seven of the eight major movie studios have already announced titles for Blu-ray, including Warner, Paramount, Fox, Disney, Sony, MGM and Lionsgate. The initial line-up is expected to consist of over 100 titles and include recent hits as well as classics such as Batman Begins, Desperado, Fantastic Four, Fifth Element, Hero, Ice Age, Kill Bill, Lethal Weapon, Mission Impossible, Ocean's Twelve, Pirates of the Caribbean, Reservoir Dogs, Robocop, and The Matrix. Many studios have also announced that they will begin releasing new feature films on Blu-ray Disc day-and-date with DVD, as well as a continuous slate of catalog titles every month.

gmail rocks it for me. For chat, talk, pop and forwarding. Im had all of them and G is the winner. Google offers more storage for your email than other Internet service providers that we know about. The powerful searching encourages account holders to never delete anything. It's easier to just leave it in the inbox and let the powerful searching keep track of it. Google admits that deleted messages will remain on their system, and may be accessible internally at Google, for an indefinite period of time.A new California law, the Online Privacy Protection Act, went into effect on July 1, 2004. Google changed their main privacy policy that same day because the previous version sidestepped important issues and might have been illegal. For the first time in Google's history, the language in their new policy made it clear that they will be pooling all the information they collect on you from all of their various services. Moreover, they may keep this information indefinitely, and give this information to whomever they wish. All that's required is for Google to "have a good faith belief that access, preservation or disclosure of such information is reasonably necessary to protect the rights, property or safety of Google, its users or the public." Google, you may recall, already believes that as a corporation they are utterly incapable of bad faith. Their corporate motto is "Don't be evil," and they even made sure that the Securities and Exchange Commission got this message in Google's IPO filing.Google's policies are essentially no different than the policies of Microsoft, Yahoo, Alexa and Amazon. However, these others have been spelling out their nasty policies in detail for years now. By way of contrast, we've had email from indignant Google fans who defended Google by using the old privacy language ? but while doing so they arrived at exactly the wrong interpretation of Google's actual position! Now those emails will stop, because Google's position is clear at last. It's amazing how a vague privacy policy, a minimalist browser interface, and an unconventional corporate culture have convinced so many that Google is different on issues that matter.After 180 days in the U.S., email messages lose their status as a protected communication under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, and become just another database record. This means that a subpoena instead of a warrant is all that's needed to force Google to produce a copy. Other countries may even lack this basic protection, and Google's databases are distributed all over the world. Since the Patriot Act was passed, it's unclear whether this ECPA protection is worth much anymore in the U.S., or whether it even applies to email that originates from non-citizens in other countries.Google's relationships with government officials in all of the dozens of countries where they operate are a mystery, because Google never makes any statements about this. But here's a clue: Google uses the term "governmental request" three times on their terms-of-use page and once on their privacy page. Google's language means that all Gmail account holders have consented to allow Google to show any and all email in their Gmail accounts to any official from any government whatsoever, even when the request is informal or extralegal, at Google's sole discretion. Why should we send email to Gmail accounts under such draconian conditions?

Good game, pity about being on a sunday and at 3 AM Japan time. Man Try for a saturday next time. I was backing france....

DVD-R and DVD-RW
DVD-R was the first DVD recording format released that was compatible with standalone DVD Players.
DVD-R is a non-rewriteable format and it is compatible with about 93% of all DVD Players and most DVD-ROMs.
DVD-RW is a rewriteable format and it is compatible with about 80% of all DVD Players and most DVD-ROMs.
DVD-R and DVD-RW supports single side 4.37 computer GB* DVDs(called DVD-5) and double sided 8.75 computer GB* DVDs(called DVD-10).
These formats are supported by DVDForum.

DVD+R and DVD+RW
DVD+R is a non-rewritable format and it is compatible with about 89% of all DVD Players and most DVD-ROMs.
DVD+RW is a rewritable format and is compatible with about 79% of all DVD Players and most DVD-ROMs.
DVD+R and DVD+RW supports single side 4.37 computer GB* DVDs(called DVD-5) and double side 8.75 computer GB* DVDs(called DVD-10).
These formats are supported by the DVD+RW Alliance.


Have a look at this site for more http://www.videohelp.com/dvd

Yep another vote for photoshop. The new iphoto allows you do some quite sophistacated editing and cropping. But I suggest using the help function if you find it all a bit to much. There is so much stuff online as well.

I havent had any updates needed. Im using OSX.

Hit me if im wrong - but for every day you loose a hosting credit. So you need to keep posting it seems....

Have a read of this and follow the link, its written by them

http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

DORTMUND, Germany -- Brazil's Ronaldo scored his 13th and 14th World Cup goals Thursday night, tying the tournament career record held by Gerd Mueller of Germany.

He also surpassed Brazil's World Cup mark held by Pele.

The striker scored with a header in first-half injury time in the defending champions' 4-1 victory over Japan in Group F. He added a second in the 81st with a right-foot shot from 20 yards.

Ronaldo has 66 goals in 102 international matches with Brazil. Pele scored 95 in 114.

Ronaldo had a great chance to put Brazil ahead in the seventh minute after beating a defender inside the area, but his close-range shot was saved by goalkeeper Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi. His right-footer in the 20th was just as dangerous, again being stopped by Kawaguchi.

Ronaldo was coming off two disappointing performances, being held scoreless and twice being substituted.

The striker had to deal with a series of distractions since arriving for the World Cup a month ago, including a weight controversy and a string of minor health problems. Ronaldo admittedly arrived for the tournament overweight after enduring a series of injuries with Real Madrid during the season.

Coach Carlos Alberto Parreira has supported Ronaldo from the start, saying he remains a key for Brazil and will be a threat after gaining back his rhythm.

Ronaldo was with Brazil when it won the title in 1994 in the United States and 2002 in South Korea and Japan. He could equal Pele's feat as a three-time World Cup winner with another title this year. Pele won it in 1958, '62 and '70.

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In the 2002 tournament, Ronaldo won the scoring title with eight goals in seven matches. He scored twice in the final against Germany.

EARLY 'AU REVOIR' AGAIN? The ecstasy of 1998 has faded so much that some folks have trouble remembering France as a soccer power.

Should the French not beat Togo today as the opening round concludes, they will add a second ignominious chapter to their recent past. As defending champion in 2002, France went out in the first round without scoring a goal. Now, top-seeded in Group G, it must beat Togo to have any chance to advance.

France tied Switzerland 0-0 and South Korea 1-1, giving the French just one goal in their past five World Cup matches. A victory over Togo in Cologne could win the group should the Swiss and Koreans tie in Hanover.

Anything less, however, and it's "Au Revoir" for the French.

"I am not pessimistic," coach Raymond Domenech said. "I am looking ahead to the future. We are here to qualify."

They will have to do it without veteran Zinedine Zidane. The hero of the 1998 championship is suspended for getting two yellow cards in the previous matches. He walked off the field in disgust when replaced late in the South Korea match, throwing his captain's armband into the dugout.

Zidane, known as "Zizou" by his teammates, has announced his retirement after the World Cup, and his final game could be spent sitting on the bench.

"We know Zizou is right behind us," said France defender Mikael Silvestre, who will replace the suspended Eric Abidal at left back. "The best way to help him is for us to qualify."

CAREER CUP GOALS

Player, Country Years G
T1. Mueller, W.Ger. 1970-74 14
T1. Ronaldo, Brazil 1998-06 14
3. Fontaine, France 1958 13
4. Pele, Brazil 1958-70 12
5. Kocsis, Hungary 1954 11
5. Klinsmann, Ger. 1990-98 11
7, Rahn, W. Ger. 1954-58 10
7. Cubillas, Peru 1970-78 10
7. Lato, Poland 1974-82 10
7. Lineker, England 1986-90 10
7. Batistuta, Arg. 1994-02 10

Just show him that you are interested and truthful about your intentions owards his daughter. If you want to be smart - ask him for a minute of his time when you meet him (in private) - just state your case and honesty and all will be well.

I just bought a new phone yesterday in Tokyo - Japan. I can swipe the phone and buy various things around the place - nothing huge though. ITs good for not having to pay with change and stuff. Also you need to top up the phone with credit so If it is lost its just like loosing your wallet with cash in it - Someone can then swipe away and use up your credit.You ring up your phone comapany and have it canceled as soon as possible. I havent used it yet. You can also use on the trains.

I was reading an article in the Japan times yesterday about this issue. Teachers are few and far between, people that would be great teachers want to study and do other things. People who do a teachers degree as an add on to their studies end up teaching and not being happy about it - thats what I think

They should be put down like the animals they abuse have to be.

Firefox and loving it. It seems to work for everything

The term God is used to designate a Supreme Being; however, there are other definitions of God. For example: *Many religious and philosophic systems consider a God to be the creator of the universe. *Some traditions hold that the creator of the universe is also the sustainer of the universe (as in theism), while others argue that their God is no longer involved in the world after creation (as in deism).*The common definition of a God assumes omnipotence, omniscience and benevolence. ...en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God

Being Australian I am foolowing Australia and after our win last night - Feeling good about it too.

Very happy with my name Lee - wouldnt change it for the world

Australia is my team in football. I am living in Japan so It will be a great night tonight when we play Japan. The Japanese media thinks Australia will lose and the Australian media thinks Australia will win. So lets just wait 12 more hours and find out.

Thought you might like this piece

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - It's easy to see "Halo 2" fans lined up for several blocks in the hours before the game is released and think the industry has never been hotter; but if you want to see what a true phenomenon looks like, jump into your wayback machine and head to 1980.
Once you arrive, slip on your "Members Only" jacket and head into any pizza parlor. See that big crowd of people clustered in the back? Odds are they're watching someone play Pac Man.

Arguably the most influential game in the industry's history (with Pong the only other real contender), Pac Man has made more than $100 million dollars one quarter at a time. He's spawned his own line of trading cards, lunch boxes, board games, breakfast cereals and been the inspiration for a Top 40 hit (Buckner & Garcia's "Pac Man Fever" hit number 9 on Billboard's charts in 1982).

This year, Pac Man turns 25 -- but age isn't slowing the little guy down. 1999's "Pac Man World" and 2002's "Pac Man World 2" both sold over a million copies. And Namco has already announced four Pac Man themed games this year - and versions for Sony's PSP will be announced in the near future. TV Plug & Play game collections featuring Pac Man remain hot sellers. And the rise in cell phone gaming has opened up another opportunity for the original arcade game.

"I think there's a high nostalgia value with Pac Man -- a lot more so than many classic characters," said Sean Mylett, senior marketing manager for Namco. "I think Pac Man is a game where people really remember being younger and pumping quarters and quarters into machines. ... Then there's another level with the 'Pac Man World 3' character. He's an E-rated character. He's very colorful, very safe. It's definitely different than the trends going on in games. He just has an appeal."

And he's not going away.

"As the next generation systems hit," said Mylett, "I can guarantee that Pac Man will be there."

Things have certainly come a long way from the day Toru Iwatani came up with the idea for Pac Man at dinner.

Iwatani, who was also responsible for the arcade classic Galaxian, was trying to come up with a game that looked like a cartoon. At a pizza parlor, he paused after taking his first slice and thought the remainder of the pie looked like a head with its mouth open. He imagined it racing through a maze, eating things -- and the phenomenon was born.

In fact, legend has it Iwatani actually wanted Pac Man to be a pizza, but technological limitations at the time made it impossible.

The game also underwent a name change. Pac Man's original name was Puck Man -- but a savvy executive at Bally/Midway, which distributed the game in the United States, had it changed on all machines, fearing what game room vandals would do with the original moniker.

The name change didn't have anything to do with the game's success, of course. The easy-to-learn, difficult-to-master gameplay earns the credit for that. Personalization didn't hurt, either. While we take knowing the name of today's heroes and villains for granted, Pac Man was the first video game to name its characters (the ghosts, to jog your memory, were Inky, Pinky, Blinky and Clyde) and the first game to offer interludes as rewards for advancing.

In the late 1990s, Twin Galaxies, which tracks video game world record scores, visited used game auctions and counted how many times the average Pac Man machine had been played. Based on those findings and the total number of machines that were manufactured, the organization said it believed the game had been played more than 10 billion times in the 20th century.

"Pac Man changed the psychological profile of the average person," explains Twin Galaxies' Walter Day. "Suddenly old and young, male and female, doctors, dentists, lawyers and housewives found it acceptable to be playing a video game. And Pac Man opened that door for them. Despite the fact that it was technologically advanced, it was as simple as playing a card game for them."

So go ahead and be impressed as you hear about sales numbers for the next "Grand Theft Auto" or see anxious gamers camping overnight to be the first to get their hands on next generation consoles. But weigh that frenzy to the one Pac Man sparked when it was originally released in Japan. The game proved so popular that it incited a shortage of yen coins in the country.

Let's see today's titles manage something like that.

http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

I was speaking to a christan who told me that bones where placed by the devil to test your believe in the bible. Basic if its not in the bible it didnt happen - have a read and see what you think

What about Dinosaurs and old fossils?

This question involves other issues: How can discovery of extremely old bones of dinosaurs be consistent with the Bible? Or... how could they fit on the ark? Or why doesnt the Bible mention dinosaurs? Your answer depends on whether you accept an Old Earth or Young Earth viewpoint. Both are briefly addressed below:

Old Earth - Easy answer: Dinosaurs were extinct long before Man. Since the Bible deals with humans and God... why mention dinosaurs? Many creatures are NOT mentioned. With Old Earth, Gods "days" of creation (Yom) were periods of time (even now we say, "days" of old). Some critics say the Bible says there was no death before the fall of Adam. The actual Hebrew text makes the context of "death" unclear. Does it mean physical death or spiritual death? The Hebrew word "muwth" could have been either. Do we know for certain introduction of death meant everything, or just human beings. To a biologist its difficult to imagine NO "physical" death. Eating plants causes plant cells to die and millions of human cells die every day. Nowhere in the Bible is it conclusive there wasnt death (or extinction) before man.

Young Earth - More involved answer: First, there is some evidence showing inaccuracies in scientific dating methods.. (The question is are they ALL wrong? And vastly wrong?) Second, why doesnt the Bible mention Dinosaurs? The Bible doesnt mention many creatures and things not relevant to man. Some believe the Bible actually DOES mention dinosaurs [Job 40:15-19; 41:1-10]. Third, how did dinosaurs fit in the ark? There is no Biblical indication that God didnt intend the extinction of dinosaurs before the flood (for whatever reason). If dinosaurs were brought into the ark, it would be difficult to account for space requirements unless they were eggs or very young.

http://www.evidenceofgod.com/rg-erdr.php?_rpo=t

For "Stupid in America," a special report ABC will air Friday, we gave identical tests to high school students in New Jersey and in Belgium. The Belgian kids cleaned the American kids' clocks. The Belgian kids called the American students "stupid."
We didn't pick smart kids to test in Europe and dumb kids in the United States. The American students attend an above-average school in New Jersey, and New Jersey's kids have test scores that are above average for America.

The American boy who got the highest score told me: "I'm shocked, 'cause it just shows how advanced they are compared to us."

The Belgians did better because their schools are better. At age ten, American students take an international test and score well above the international average. But by age fifteen, when students from forty countries are tested, the Americans place twenty-fifth. The longer kids stay in American schools, the worse they do in international competition. They do worse than kids from countries that spend much less money on education.

This should come as no surprise once you remember that public education in the USA is a government monopoly. Don't like your public school? Tough. The school is terrible? Tough. Your taxes fund that school regardless of whether it's good or bad. That's why government monopolies routinely fail their customers. Union-dominated monopolies are even worse.

In New York City, it's "just about impossible" to fire a bad teacher, says schools chancellor Joel Klein. The new union contract offers slight relief, but it's still about 200 pages of bureaucracy. "We tolerate mediocrity," said Klein, because "people get paid the same, whether they're outstanding, average, or way below average." One teacher sent sexually oriented emails to "Cutie 101," his sixteen year old student. Klein couldn't fire him for years, "He hasn't taught, but we have had to pay him, because that's what's required under the contract."

They've paid him more than $300,000, and only after 6 years of litigation were they able to fire him. Klein employs dozens of teachers who he's afraid to let near the kids, so he has them sit in what they call "rubber rooms." This year he will spend twenty million dollars to warehouse teachers in five rubber rooms. It's an alternative to firing them. In the last four years, only two teachers out of 80,000 were fired for incompetence.

When I confronted Union president Randi Weingarten about that, she said, "they [the NYC school board] just don't want to do the work that's entailed." But the "work that's entailed" is so onerous that most principals just give up, or get bad teachers to transfer to another school. They even have a name for it: "the dance of the lemons."

The inability to fire the bad and reward the good is the biggest reason schools fail the kids. Lack of money is often cited the reason schools fail, but America doubled per pupil spending, adjusting for inflation, over the last 30 years. Test scores and graduation rates stayed flat. New York City now spends an extraordinary $11,000 per student. That's $220,000 for a classroom of twenty kids. Couldn't you hire two or three excellent teachers and do a better job with $220,000?

http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

If you wear slippers like in Japan their goes your sock prob.Shoes are exchanged for slippers inside Japanese homes, small clinics or businesses. This fact will become so automatic that you will return home and immediately take your shoes off before stepping into your house. All your relatives will look at you funny. * If a building you enter has an elevated floor right after the entryway, and you see slippers set out and places for you to put shoes, this means you should take yours off before going any farther. When in doubt, lurk around until somebody else come in, then follow his example. * Slippers are hard to keep on, especially if you have big feet. Keep them on your feet by affecting a shuffling walk. If you lose one, step back into it and pretend nothing happened. * Don't wear slippers on tatami--it frays the mats. Step out of the slippers outside the door to the tatami room. * When going into the toilet area, exchange your slippers with the toilet slippers inside the bathroom. This keeps any messy stuff you encounter in there from being tracked all over the rest of the building. Remember to exchange the toilet slippers for your regular slippers when you leave, and spare yourself the embarrassment of returning to your party with a pair of brightly colored plastic slippers that have pictures of peeing cherubs on them.

Domenici Says No Global Warming Legislation This Session
Congress Daily PM (subscription only), March 6, 2006
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Domenici said today climate change legislation will not come out of his committee this year. Domenici said he and Energy and Natural Resources ranking member Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., are negotiating a bill that would require reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, but the two are "nowhere close to a way to do that," he said, adding, "Frankly, I don't know how to write it, and I don't think anybody does." Lawmakers are divided over whether a climate change bill should include regulation of carbon dioxide, along with other pollutants. The committee will hold a climate change forum April 4 to hear experts on the issue, but it is not likely to result in legislation. "There will be no climate change legislation coming out of my committee this year," Domenici told reporters.

Domenici also said he does not think Congress will pass legislation this year intended to expedite a nuclear waste repository at Nevada's Yucca Mountain. The Energy Department is expected to present Congress with a legislative package designed to get the stalled project moving, but the release of this plan has been delayed. Domenici said the committee could move a bill to reduce domestic oil consumption. The Energy and Natural Resources Committee today held the first of three hearings on energy independence and security, which are designed to identify "five or six or seven major ideas that would truly be helpful" in the next couple of years and could possibly be rolled into energy legislation this year, Domenici said. "We haven't decided yet. At this point we do not have a bill planned," he said. Domenici said he was surprised that all four witnesses at today's hearing agreed that research is needed to promote the development of ethanol from agricultural waste, or cellulosic ethanol. The witnesses agreed "this was the quickest way to convert [from] using gasoline used from crude oil" to alternative sources, Domenici said. He said new legislation is not needed to promote cellulosic ethanol, just research funding.

http://www.globalwarming.org/

I used them to get some images for a site - it was really easy to use and a nice site to navigate around.

Panasonic Lumix FZ30

Ive had a Panasonic Lumix FZ30 for afew months and am loving it.

How much more detailed can a photo get? Panasonic wants to show you. As the successor to their FZ20 model, the Panasonic Lumix FZ30 carries the same extended zoom power and image stabilization while enhancing the total resolution of the camera. This camera is for serious users, with a slew of advanced features that will please aficionados but frustrate the uninitiated. If the 12x zoom wasn't enough, the camera can reach 15.3x and 19.1x zooms, provided the photographer can deal with a reduction in megapixels (down to 5 and 3 respectively).

Specifications8 megapixels, 12x optical zoom / 4x digital zoom, Leica DC lens, manual focus, program and manual exposure, RAW, TIFF, or JPEG file format, ISO 80-400, lithium ion battery, movie mode with sound.

How Does it Compare?

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30 is darn close to the perfect ultra zoom camera. It has a fast 12X optical zoom lens (though not as fast as on its predecessor), optical image stabilization, full manual controls, a high resolution LCD and electronic viewfinder, and a VGA movie mode. The big disappointment on the FZ30 was the higher than average noise levels, especially at high ISO sensitivities.

The FZ30 is a large, SLR-style ultra zoom camera made of a mix of metal and plastic. It's very well built, and it feels solid in your hands. The camera features both manual zoom and focus rings which are a vast improvement over the rocker and four-way controller-based systems used by most of the competition. The FZ30's 12X zoom Leica lens isn't quite as "fast" as the one on the FZ20, but it's still very competitive. The new extended optical zoom function can boost the total zoom power by as much as 19.1X by lowering the resolution, though you can achieve the same result in photo editing software. One of the big selling points for the FZ-series of cameras is the optical image stabilization, and it works as promised on the FZ30 (see the examples earlier in the review for proof).

The FZ30 has a new flip-down, rotating 2.0" LCD display which offers increased flexibility over the fixed screen on the FZ5 and FZ20. The LCD and EVF both have 235,000 pixels for sharp images, and they're both very usable in low light situations (finally). The camera has a hot shoe for adding an external flash (though there's no TTL flash control) and it supports conversion lenses and filters as well.

Camera performance is excellent. The FZ30 is ready to shoot in under a second, and its new high speed focusing system is VERY quick. Shutter lag was minimal, and shot-to-shot times were very good, even when shooting in RAW mode -- just remember to use a high speed memory card for best performance. The camera has a full suite of manual controls, ranging from the usuals like shutter speed and aperture to white balance fine tuning. Those seeking some automatic modes will be pleased to see a large number of scene modes on the camera. The FZ30's burst mode is one of the best out there, with unlimited recording at 2 frames/second (with a high speed SD card) and more limited low and high speed modes as well. And the FZ30 finally brings a modern movie mode to the FZ-series of cameras, with unlimited recording at 640 x 480 / 30 fps (again with a high speed memory card) and the ability to use the zoom lens during filming.

The FZ30's weak point is its image quality. On the positive side, photos were well exposed, with accurate color and low purple fringing levels. Redeye was not a problem. Unfortunately, noise levels are above average, especially at ISO 200 and 400. If you're printing your photos at 4 x 6 and 5 x 7, you really don't need to worry about this issue. If you're printing larger than that, or you enjoy looking at your photos at 100%, then you'll probably be disappointed. The best solution to the problem that I could find was to use noise reduction software to clean things up a bit. I did this with several of my gallery photos and I got very nice 8.5 x 11 inch prints with just a quick run through NeatImage. I strongly encourage you to print my sample photos to see what you think about the noise levels, since ultimately this is a subjective thing.

A few other random complaints now. The camera supports the RAW image format, but Panasonic doesn't give you any software to take advantage of the format -- you can only convert them to JPEG format. A Panasonic source tells me that another option will be available this Fall. I would've also liked to have seen a focus distance guide shown on the LCD/EVF in manual focus mode. My only other complaint is that the camera does not support the USB 2.0 High Speed standard.

It's always a little disappointing you really love everything about a camera except for one or two things, and that's the case with the FZ30. If the noise levels were lower it would easily be one of the best cameras on the market, period. But they're not, so keep this in mind if you think you'll be shooting at the higher ISO sensitivities: if you're planning to print photos at smaller sizes, I can recommend the FZ30 without hesitation. If you're doing 8 x 10s or larger, decide if you want to deal with the noise in your prints, post-process them with noise reduction software, or move up to a digital SLR, which runs circles around the FZ30 at high ISO settings. If I was in the market for an ultra zoom camera, I would happily buy the FZ30 and use the noise reduction software for my large prints (I saw little-to-no need for it at smaller sizes). My advice, again: print the samples, try the camera in person, then decide if it's right for you!