Wish there was a way to send a message to advertisers that there is a certain percentage of the population that refuses to buy their product due to repeated and incessant adverts, especially with annoying jingles, like Jets Pizza, Burger King and Ozempic.

If the networks could develop an opt out of certain commercials to deliver a curated marketing experience, like what google and Facebook do. That would actually be a good thing. I find myself spending money on stuff I like because I am targeted with ads that are within my likes, like camera gear.

I agree.

Good idea! I am going to buy some now! I forgot that it was on my to do list. I saw it on tv as what the rich do. I want to be rich! I better go buy some gold. 😂

I do like Tivo. I also like the DVR function that allows us to rewind and fast forward. I frequently start the program, let it play for 15 minutes, then I can fast forward through commercials, just don’t change the channel or you lose it. Or, record it on the dvr and do the same thing.

In the UK, the commercials are very short and very clever. We actually like to watch them. In the US, they are insulting, unimaginative, long bouts of drivel. Even the Super Bowl commercials have gone hill.

Commercials are annoying. Especially on paid content. But here is an unusual statistic and does not seem likely.

100% of the time I turn on my cable news channel, I land on a commercial. I am talking about 100%!of the time, not 95%, but 100%. It used to be amusing, now it’s just annoying.

Now, I don’t things, first, I immediately change the channel to an avoid the annoyance, and second, I boycott the company who is selling their shite.

I don’t mind some commercials, but 8 minutes of commercials per 30 minutes of programming is ridiculous. Thats nearly 1/3 of the time. My time is too precious to be insulted that frequently.

Many of the adds for Medicare and camp LeJeune and written for the aging population like they are fearful idiots. Insulting.

trump is for tRump and only tRump. He cares not for anyone else. He is truly Machiavellian. He’s a proven liar and a c***t.

I have a few rules that I live by.
1. If you tell the t***h, you don’t need a good memory
2. You make money with your partners, not off your partners.
3. You should never do business with people who you don’t trust. You should never have to keep looking over your shoulder to make sure you’re not getting screwed.

Biden is not perfect, but he’s a helluva lot better than that POS tRump. tRump is also distracted by all of the legal proceedings against him. It’s not a witch hunt. He put himself in this position and is now spending more time trying to defend his actions, lying about them, blaming others and deflecting, than being focused on what really matters, US.

Remember, if it look like s**t, smells like s**t and walks like s**t, it’s probably s**t. He is all three.

While Biden is not perfect, he is far less damaging than tRump, Professionally, philosophically, responsibly, financially, emotionally, maturely, focus, trust wise, and e******y wise. tRump is a self serving, narcissistic, sociopathic, w***e s*********t who panders to those who are similar. Those who v**e for him are counting on him to be the bigot that he is. A truly dangerous man who should be in jail for a very long time.

Yes that is what I was wondering. How would this camera be viewed by those who determine what camera is permissible. Cannot change lenses, small and light. Falls outside of cheap at $6k however.

Haha!!! Fascinating project. I still have a few things to learn about the software to get the best results. Here is an image of a house fly’s face.

I really like your 2 axis system to control in/out and left and right.

Lighting is super important. You don’t need fancy lights and you can make homemade diffusers using vellum paper and cardboard tubes, cut ping pong balls etc. I bought 4” lucite tubes and cardboard tubes, cut out a hole for the lens to view through and covered them in vellum. Works really well. LED lights are inexpensive these days. Just be careful not to blow out highlights on any of your images.

I would love to see some of your work, if you care to share.

I love macro, and I love figuring stuff out and building things. Here is a photo of my rig I built. Took a while as it is still a work in progress. Sippy was a huge help in helping me figure stuff out. He is a very kind, generous and knowledgeable man.

My system, yes overkill, consisted largely of vertical and horizontal shooting capabilities. I started with a custom fabricated 3/8”x24”x12” aluminum plate with 1/4-20 tapped holes on a 2” grid. Horizontal axis has Cognisys stack shot and rotary table, adjustable vertical screw tables. Vertical axis has Cognisys stack shot rail only. 2 Nikon Z cameras with Thor labs home built tube lens with Mitutoyo 5X 5MPlan objective, various other lenses including objectives, Laowa and Nikon MC105 and MC60. Lighting: 3)Stella reflex continuous and flash lights, 3) Stella led lights, Various ring flashes and homemade diffusers. I use a tethered computer with Nikon software to be able to see the images with focus peaking so I can set up the parameters for each shot.

I know that you don’t need all of this stuff to get great photos, but, as I said earlier, I love to build things as much as I like using them.

Amazon became a close friend when building my focus stacking rig. I would sit in my chair, thinking about how to make it easier to use, more adaptable and quicker to adjust. There are so many things that you can buy for very little money that provide Arca Swiss compatibility, quick release. Some key words to search by are Arca Swiss rails, Arca Swiss brackets, 1/4-20, lift tables, Arca Swiss quick 90 degree clamps, Arca Swiss clamps. Happy to share photos, if anyone wants to see. RRS, Neewer, SmallRig are all great manufacturers of these accessories.

We have potholes and sinkholes in Michigan too.

Last one I took is of a house spider that I have had for a while. Was dead when I found it, as I don’t kill spiders or bees. 460 images stacked in slabs of 100 each. Held in a homemade ping pong ball diffuser I made. Spider is mounted on a pin that is pushed through a drilled hole in 1/4-20 threaded nylon rod, screwed into a flash stand spigot, attached to my stackshot rotary table/stackshot, above the mirror covered table.

I failed to notice it but now am aware of it. Must have missed class that day. Happy to have found it. Made my first post there a few minutes ago.

Needing a CT scan for me thinking. Here is my first attempt.

Also my second attempt. My dog. He loves to fly.