If you use the "Emitting HTML" functionality of HtmlPrag (i.e., write-shtml-as-html,
shtml->html), I'd appreciate it if you emailed me quick
answers to these questions:
With which Scheme implementations do you use it?
Do you use the foreign-filter feature, and if so,
for what purposes?
My reason for asking has to do with the fact that I spent the weekend implementing most of a new HTML templating language. The answers to your questions might affect the logistics or priorities of the first release of the templating language, as well as what I do to HtmlPrag in the near term.
This weekend, I finally got time to use the new Lowepro CompuTrekker AW that I mentioned on 2008-03-10. I'm pretty happy with it. Here's some notes.
As expected, it's a bit heavy and bulky, but I had no problem carrying it a few hours at a time. It did make my back much warmer, so I had to open my winter coat a bit to regulate, and that might be a problem in summer. If you're accustomed to being trim and agile, you're going to have to be even more agile, to manuever this bulky pack through a crowd with some grace. Balance is fine with my current packing. The backpack has to be set down on its back before most of the gear in the main compartment can be accessed, so the front straps will need the occasional wipe with a damp paper towel. I suspect that the 20D with 70-200 on it, in my current packing arrangement, can be removed safely with the backpack vertical by unzippering the main compartment only down to the quick-release straps, but I haven't tried that out.
When I'm using two bodies without a backpack, I like to have my wide around my neck, with my long's strap on my right shoulder and hanging just on the back of my left side. For extended walking with neither lens in use, I'd put my right arm through the wide's strap, let the strap slide from my neck to crossing my back, and let the wide hang just on the back of my right side. With the CompuTrekker AW, I'll probably have to keep both straps around my neck, neither around a shoulder, and hold the long under my arm to keep it out of the way of my wide in front. I will have to experiment more with this.
I had to program myself to verify that the main compartment is zippered before lifting the pack up. The zipper is obscured, and the pack can easily appear zippered when the lid is merely sitting unzippered. I discovered this one of the first times I picked up the pack, and the lid flopped open. Fortunately, it was on a bed, and nothing fell out. Accidentally unzippered bags do happen -- I've heard horror stories of people watching their very expensive lenses fall to the ground in slow motion, followed by a sharp crack as the lens becomes no more. In general, open zippers will get you into trouble.
A few tweaks to the packing I showed in a snapshot before: add a Sto-Fen diffuser to the compartment with the filters and USB cable (I'll be squeezing in a multicoated 77mm polarizer there too, when mail arrives from Hong Kong), store 50/1.4 with hood in in-use position (to reduce the likelihood of sliding around, and because that non-Canon hood doesn't mount easily), and use one of the spare small Velcro partitions as a "lid" for the batteries compartment.
Oh, if you noticed what looked like small packets of salt or sugar wedged into the bottom of the backpack, those are silica gel sachets. I always hide at least a few in any bag that is carrying or storing camera gear. I don't know whether they've ever had any significant effect, nor whether they ever might, but I figure they can't hurt, and they just might someday save me $1000 of lens-rot.
I've been so busy with consulting the past couple weeks that I haven't had time for photography. I did, however, manage to score a like-new Lowepro Computrekker AW backpack for half price.
This will be for getting to most news events, as well as for laptopping around town when I want to have a basic news photography kit with me, just in case. I've verified that it can fit two bodies with wide and long zooms attached in addition to a strobe, a 50/1.4, and misc. accessories. Other pockets accomodate notepad and even a radio scanner. If necessary, I could squeeze a clean shirt and undies into the outer pockets for a grunging overnight trip.
The CompuTrekker AW is a bit big to use every day for laptopping. I'll probably continue to spend most of my laptopping time with only an ordinary backpack containing laptop, one body, and whichever lens I'm in the mood for.
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