2007.10.25 Went through and updated a few links today, also cleaned up some page code (this page now validates as XHTML 1.0 Transitional). This site is old! It's nice that this page still turns up at the top of Google searches for "photoblaster". In the near future, I should include some better product photos of the 'Blaster.
My PhotoBlaster hasn't seen much travel use lately. I can see it from here, sitting on a shelf, all lonely. It's been supplanted by ease of digital (Canon S230, "old reliable"). My Canon makes me want to take my camera with me everywhere and snap photos. By comparison the Photoblaster, however lovable, is klunky. I checked eBay again today, and no P-Blasters for sale right now. I'll have to keep my eyes peeled to see how much they're running.
2006.07.30 What's new in the world of Photoblaster? Not much. Funny, this page hasn't changed very much at all since June 2000. It's nice that this page still turns up at the top of Google searches for "photoblaster".
04.28.2005 Is it possible that I haven't updated the PhotoBlaster Worship Page in two years? Yikes! Haven't checked in in a really long time, and I noticed the poor bulletin board was overrun with spam/p0rn baloney, so bye-bye bulletin board, until I get something better set up for it, perhaps phpBB? It wasn't really being actively used anyway.
So what else is new? I've been using my digital canon (Canon Powershot S230) a lot more than my Photoblaster lately, simply because I love the Canon's portability. Even so, I'd love to find a digital camera that can do the same kind of "thing" as the PhotoBlaster, that is, combine 4 shots onto a single frame. If you fine one, let me know at:
09.04.2003 Got tired of all the spam on the bulletin board and the guestbook, so permanently removing the guestbook and changed the bulletin board, hopefully it will clean things up a little. I hate spam and/or spammers, they're a waste of everyone's time and resources.
06.10.2003 Been a while since the last update. Time to do some housekeeping, and in keeping with improving things, site is being converted to using CSS for future ease of manipulation.
01.02.2003 Happy New Year! Holidays went by fast this year, now back to work. In other news, the guestbook and bulletin board are back up and running. Thanks for all the visits, we've had over 11,000 hits now. Wow, very humbling...thanks for your support!
08.30.2002 Wow, another summer come and gone, fall and school is starting. No big site update, but did finally take care of the bulletin board and guestbook problems caused by the switch of my ISP. We're all good now and back in business. The poll is not running still, so I'll have to tweak that again. Hard to believe this site is approaching 10,000 unique visitors, very humbling for such a quirky little camera.
03.28.2002 More time passing, not too many PB photos taken over the last few very work-related, very busy months. I have some B&W rolls that I'm waiting to develop. Anyway, Kim Tran passed along some nice info on the Kalimar Action Shot 16 (the PB's wealthy uncle), see below for more info. Whoah, just realized the guestbook and bulletin board aren't working...need to fix it again.
01.07.2002 Happy New Year again! Another year gone by, another year of great 'Blasting. This site needs a new look. I'll hopefully start working on that in the next few weeks. The updates have been so scattered lately. If anyone has a new PB source they wish to divulge, please email me and I'll do my best to post it rapidly. In other news, the Guestbook and Bulletin Board are both up and running again, after a frustratingly long delay.
11.07.2001 PB Site hasn't been updated in a while, figured why not do it now? Never time like the present. The past few months have been crazy indeed, last update was at end of August, who knew that things would change so much in such a short time. Enough ranting though. If anyone has any new PB purchase sources, please email me. The SeeDeals source has dried up, so it looks like PB's are going to become increasingly hard to find.
08.30.2001 OK, sorry for the Photoblaster site being down for almost three weeks!! (down from August 9 - 30) My service provider, Invite, is the absolute WORST. I contacted them at least 10 times over 3 weeks and only got things resolved today. I even had to file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. They are a bunch of complete idiots. My most sincere apologies for the inconveniece. Invite used to have good service, now that they "migrated" to new servers they are absolutely horrible. I could not in good conscience recommend them to anyone, and if anyone knows a good web hosting provider, please email me.
07.18.2001 Sorry that the site was down for a few days...something about domain name renewals or something...oh well. That's just my lazy bones. Well, these lazy bones also FINALLY fixed the film speed poll, which is now working correctly. It only took me 6 months! More work to be done, I've promised to post some new PB photos for the gallery. Well here they are. A new diary entry too.
06.19.2001 Ahh, the PB Worship page is being neglected
once again...or perhaps as usual? Oh well, for me these things work in phases.
Some minor corrections here & there, etc. What's new? Check out the new
Lomo SuperSampler. A cool camera similar to the ActionSampler but it takes
photos vertically! For other Lomo stuff, visit the Lomo
site.
04.16.2001 After a nice Easter holiday weekend
in the desert, I decided to add some info to the PB Diary (cause I bought another
'Blaster) and to post a discussion about "To Cut or Not to Cut" PB
photos on the discussion board. Feel free to join in.
In other news, I'd like to gather some info about mail-order
PhotoBlaster processing. Please post a message to the Bulletin
Board if you've ever send your PB film away for processing and what the
results were like.
04.01.2001 Happy New Year?!? Yes, I haven't updated this page since October of last year. New job, so verrrry busy. But thanks to all the PhotoBlaster Phanatics for all of your feedback. Funkycool New York ezine Daily Candy listed us in a camera article here, check it out. These pages need some work, including the voting script :(. The PhotoBlaster makes a great gift too! Give one to your loved ones & let the fun begin (no, I don't work for Long Hall and have nothing but the best intentions with that corny statement).
10.27.2000 No new PhotoBlaster news, except that the page was listed in funkycool New York ezine Daily Candy. I'll hunt down the exact URL. In other news, my little Perl voting script is coming along: now with a View Results capability as well as IP loggin. It's not on the PBW page yet, though. Check out: http://www.bakon.org/simplevote/
10.11.2000 Thanks again to Hassel
Weems for coming through with some great new PhotoBlaster info:
"Hi Again, I accidently found another source for the Photo Blaster. It
is a bit overpriced, but http://www.qvc.com
has them for $29.97 plus $4.97 shipping. The item number is E57424. Happy Blasting,
Hassel". Click this link to go there directly:
http://www.qvc.com/asp/frameset.asp?nest=%2Fasp%2FIsItemNumberRedirect.asp&search=SQ&frames=y&referrer=QVC&txtDesc=E57424&x=9&y=5
In other news, sorry I haven't added the "view results" feature on the film speed poll. Actually, the poor little script needs some serious work. Check out: http://www.bakon.org/simplevote/
10.09.2000 The Film Speed Poll is now operational.
Thanks for all the traffic, getting 6-7 hits per day, which I find amazing for
such a little thing as the PhotoBlaster. Special thanks to The
Sub Club (an excellent site about subminiature cameras) for listing the
PB Worship Page as the "Submini
Site of the Week" this week and the excellent write up. Still need
to scan the new PB trip photos for the gallery, I'm still swamped with grad
school and work!
09.01.2000 Finally have been indexed by Yahoo!
Whoohoo! Now what about Excite and Lycos? As of today (according to extreme-tracking--a
nice free service), I have had 184 unique visitors since July 17. Still
need to scan the new PB trip photos for the gallery, I'm swamped right now (started
grad school and work has been crazy!)
08.18.2000 Just added the bulletin board. Thanks for visiting this site! As of today (according to extreme-tracking--a nice free service), I have had 76 unique visitors...whoohoo! Still too much to do to scan the new PB trip photos for the gallery, it'll be there soon enough.
08.11.2000 Well well well...I checked EBay today and there are several PhotoBlasters are being auctioned new for $50!!...grab 'em while you can, I'm sure the price will only go up...meanwhile, AltaVista and Netscape now have me indexed, but what about Yahoo & Excite? I don't know why my page isn't even ranked, I've submitted my listing at least 5 times, I've got meta-tags on my pages...! Anyone have any suggestions? Email me!
08.10.2000 Back from a nice vacation. Took the PB along with me, of course. I'll have select photos posted in the gallery within the next few days. Things I want to add to the site: a troubleshooting section (for PhotoBlaster problems); a modifications section (anyone daring enough to modify their PB?); also a section on good places to get PhotoBlaster film developed. I'm still having problems getting indexed by the major search engines...only AltaVista is indexing the Worship page thus far. Anyone have any suggestions? Email me!
07.16.2000 Having problems getting on the major search engines...only AltaVista is indexing the Worship page thus far. Was listed on Yahoo for a few days, unfortunately no longer for some odd reason. Feel free to add this page as a link on your site. Aside from that, minor cosmetic changes here and there. Check out the PhotoBlaster gallery...feel free to email a few of your best photos, etc. and I'll post them in the gallery. If you can, specify what brand of film and film speed you were using.
07.10.2000 The PhotoBlaster gallery is up...feel free to email a few of your best photos, etc. and I'll post them in the gallery. If you can, specify what brand of film and film speed you were using. I'm still looking for a good page counter, any recommendations? Click here for old news
07.07.2000 The wonders of the web...I hadn't checked the
page in a couple of weeks and people have signed the guestbook! Simply amazing.
Thank you all for your words of support, it's great to have you all visit.
The PhotoBlaster gallery is currently being established and should be up soon
(I'm scanning some Blaster photos as we speak). Meanwhile, feel free to email
a few of your best photos, etc. and I'll post them in the gallery. If you
can, specify what brand of film and film speed you were using. You might also
have noticed a slight page redesign; just wanted to make room for the new What's
New section (also installed today). Things to come: I think we'll have a poll
on the most preferred film speed to use in the PB.