What I Use To Make The Site
Here is a list of things I have that help make the site.
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I always believe that the strong point of the site is the pictures, they help varify my awkward explanations and allow non English speakers to follow the information.
I find that pure text pushes people away from doing things, if they can see each step, people can judge for themselves as to whether they think they can do it.

1 picture can explain more, explain quicker and explain in more detail than any amount of words. 1 picture with a photoshopped arrow is even better.

The Camera

I don't get asked what camera I use about 3 or 4 times a week so i'll tell you anyway.

The Konica Minolta Dimage Z5



It's an excellent camera but I had to move really fast to take a picture of itself.
This camera was bought in about August 2005 and it has served me well, it replaced a 2MP camera which was OK but didn't have super macro. I have found that taking extremely close up shots really helps define some of the How2s.

Back then, it cost me about £300 but it has easily payed for itself by helping so many.

This was replaced by a Canon Powershot A700 which I got on Ebay for about £70.
It gives better pictures, the firmware can be hacked and it's smaller.

The Computers

Currently I am using a HP Pavilion AMD64 3700+ with 1Gb of RAM.
It's not a super computer but it's excellent for what I use it for.
I have owned it for about a year and it spends a lot of its time covered in post-it notes in an attempt to remind me of things I have thought up.

I also have an old 4U rack case PentiumII running 700mhz, 1Gb of RAM and dual RAID.
This is solely used for Smart Workshop Software. Remember, owning this software is illegal.
I was lucky enough to be one of the first people to own a disc set, I bought a set of originals from a closing down Mercedes Dealer in the United States. I'm probably one of the few non smart/Mercedes to own an original.

Finally I have a Toshiba SPM30 laptop that I use with various OBD programs to connect to the ECU to interrogate error codes and other information.

The Software

For photo editing and adding of arrows and text I use JASC Paintshop Pro.
In the beginning I used a version given away on a PC magazine, impressed by the way it worked, I bought the newest version at the time. It's riddled with bugs and annoying 'features' that means you have to pay attention to foreground and background colours, what layer it thinks it wants to use and a new menu layout.

I tried using Photoshop but after spending 10 years using Paint Shop, you get used to the way it does things, Photoshop just seems OTT for my needs, Why does replacing a colour have to be such a task, why can't it be 1 button?

I use CuteFTP to upload all the stuff to the site, again, it is easy to use and inexpensive.

I use Trillian for the live support as it allows me to continue using MSN messenger
for my personal and private address.

The Storage

Much to Kat's dismay, most of my smart parts live in the house. The garage houses 2 smarts without any room for much else. Having the parts around me gives me the opportunity to investigate and dismantle each part in the warm.

It was getting bad but I started throwing stuff I didn't need or broke away,
sold a few parts and put the really big parts in the loft. I'm sure a full set of
panels would be better on the car instead of being in the loft.
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