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You may want to look here for high-res images: iStockPhoto.com I agree with you on 1600x1200 17" or 19" LCDs.. I'd love two.

Until someone comes up with an Internationally Recognized symbol that you can paint on the wall, put up in the window, or otherwise make known, which means "WI-FI ACCESSIBLE HERE ... USE DHCP TO GET AN IP ADDRESS", and by 'recognized' I mean on the same order as that of other major international symbols ... then, WI-FI is forever going to be a 'fringe' service.

I'd use WI-FI, everywhere it was available, and I'd pay for it too, if only it was really easy to see where WI-FI was going to be accessible. Someone come up with a good WI-FI branding strategy first and then we'll see successful WI-FI economic models come into place ... but until then, users of WI-FI are still going to have to be experts of the ether in order to 'know' when and where they can get on the 'net ...

It is the software that performs the metering and ultimately controls the image you are going to get. One of the major advantage that the DSLRs from Canon and Nikon have is that they can use the software that these companies have developed for their film bodies, bodies that are used by a large percentage of the professional 35mm market.

When I switched from an EOS film body to an EOS 10D I found the switch was quite simple because the camera's controls and metering behaved just like the EOS bodies I had been using for years.

I also own a little Canon Digital Ixus for snapshots and although it takes great photos for its size, things like shutter lag and its simplified metering and focussing can be really annoying.

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Need affordable stock photography? Check out iStockphoto.com

As someone who has actually viewed some of the content, I can say no, you are wrong.

Here's three things worth the money on BitPass: Geeks In Love, the moving paper model of Cupid, and stock photos from iStockPhoto.

In fact, you made the case beautifully for why people may in fact adopt a micropayment system. "There was something I wanted to buy." That got you over the hump with PayPal and there is no reason why the same won't work with BitPass or Peppercoin. I've not yet looked at what's available with Peppercoin but I can tell you that I've already found things I liked with BitPass and I hope to see a lot more. In fact, I took the time to install the software to sell stuff from my website (it was fairly easy) and I hope to add some things myself for sale.

As someone interested in graphic design along with general nerdery, I think the best example of a micropayment system is the stock photo site iStockPhoto. There seems to be a benefit to the whole idea of micropayments in that realm.. Why pay $50 for a photo when one that cost maybe a dollar works just as well?

It's a pretty smart system, and other companies seem to be building on its success (Adobe offers free iStockPhotos with registration of their Creative Suite).

I think there's a good product there, and I wouldn't mind to see that site succeed, if any.

Check out www.istockphoto.com. You can download a couple images for free, but after that you need to put up something like fifty cents an image to help with bandwidth and such. But once you download an image, it's yours to do with as you please. The images are of pretty good quality, and there's a decent selection.

From their licence:

It is prohibited to rent, transfer, distribute or grant any rights in the software, the images contained within the archive and/or the accompanying documentation in any form to any person without the written consent of Webcore Labs Inc., prior to the act.

Keep in mind that there is also IStockPhoto. All images are free for use, similar to the GPL.

Beware tpb