murrays

Because Apple is the only producer of Apple equipment and software, they can't announce a new version until old inventory is gone. The Apple Cinema display is a good example...$1500 price cut from 3299 to 1799!!! There are more than a few very pissed off people about that one! Or, the just announced DVD Studio Pro 2 had its' price cut in half from previous versions! If you bought DVD SP 1.5 before April 6...you're SOL, if you buy it after April 6 you can upgrade for 30 bucks. I think the only way to avoid feeling like you got screwed buying Apple is to buy right when it is released so that you get 6-12 months before the next version is released or the price is cut. I bought my 15" flatpanel iMac 5 months after introduction and the 17" model was announced 5 weeks later...for the same price. The 17" screen is sooooo much nicer...so I've had a bit of buyer regret but it's such a great little machine it doesn't bother me too much. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Lori, It has a LANC port....I asked and was shown it earlier today on a real live TRV19. There is no way they could sell a camcorder without a microphone....what parent would buy that? If there is anything people would like me to check out, please give me a list and I'll go down to the Sony Store again in the next couple of days. I can check out the focus question, etc. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

They hit a residence in Baghdad with 4 2000 lb bunker busters. Dying that fast is too good for SH and Sons but if they are gone it should speed up the capitulation. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Apple just announced Final Cut Pro 4 and DVD Studio Pro 2. DVD Studio Pro 2 has had it's price slashed in half! $499 US instead of $999. I might even buy a copy at that price! -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Yep, I just went for a walk down to the local Sony Store and checked out the TRV19...in addition to the Zeiss lens and Super Steady Shot mentioned by Quade, it also has a LANC port. The port is on the right hand side of the camera (when looking through the viewfinder) and might be a bit awkward in a sidemount situation as it is on the side that would be next to the helmet on a left side mount. Nothing you couldn't accommodate by drilling out a small hole in the helmet...in some respects it might even be more convenient being on the right side as you could run the plug to the camera directly from inside. Nice looking camera! No memory stick for stills...but that is about it. The price is right...$999 Canadian or about $699 US. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Quade, In terms of choosing one of the Sony models, would one equipped with a Zeiss lens also be a go/no-go decision? Also, would you prefer to have Steady Shot or Super Steady Shot? -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Unfortunately, I just came across a message on another discussion group that says that the Savidge piece was a hoax: "This was acknowledged as a hoax today unfortunately. From Best of the Web Today, http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/ " You will have to scroll down a screen or two to find the "Homer Nods" quote. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Cheryl Stearns would be at or near the top IMO. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Jump # 69 - First CRW, First wrap, First Cutaway, First Reserve ride....last round jump - 26' Navy Conical Reserve. Nobody came near me for 500 jumps then I gotconvinced to try it again by a buddy. We did a stack...my legs were like jelly! Next jump, we went up and did stack, biplane, side by side and downplane. I did lots of crw for several years after that, until everybody got microlined canopies, and ALWAYS did a downplane with people on their first crw jump. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

You could likely get insurance at a higher rate to cover it while using it for business purposes. If you made a claim under home owner insurance and it came to the insurance company's attention that you were using it to make money...they would deny your claim...and possibly get even nastier. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

David Pogue, author of many computer books, just published this column about MicroMV in the New York Times. (You may have to register to view - it's free) Here's a quote: "I can't help wishing that the company (Sony) would just put this misbegotten format out of its misery." -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

I downloaded DV Backup a while ago and haven't gotten around to actually trying it. I'll see if I can test it out in the next while now that you've reminded me. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Bill, Thank-you for the analysis of the different possibilities in entanglement scenarios. There is only one scenario that results in the reserve being opened...out of three...so that's good to know. In scenario three, if a helmet cutaway release was pulled immediately upon realization that there was an entanglement what would happen? My thinking is that... If the Skyhook has released, you should fall away from your main and helmet and the reserve should have the opportunity to open normally. If the Skyhook hasn't released, it should perform as it was designed to and result in a quick reserve deployment. I have to admit that this allays my concerns considerably....but I would really love to see some tests of these scenarios. Seeing that we are supposed to get 4-6 inches of SNOW tonight in a spring blizzard, I'll volunteer to do them if you'll fly me to Deland immediately! -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

I just came across a couple of Mac utilities...one very useful, the other kind of frivolous but fun. Cocktail is a system utility that runs cron scripts, like MacJanitor, and does many other useful housecleaning items. Clutter displays the album cover art of the song currently playing in iTunes. You can also drag the cover art onto your desktop...when you click on the cover, iTunes starts playing the album. Other Mac news...I see rumors of another point update (3.03) to iMovie 3 coming this month....Lori it might just work for you yet! ... and rumors of 3.1 coming shortly after that. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Chugwater, Wyoming. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

In the Skyhook Pictures thread in Gear and Rigging a couple of weeks ago I posted the following: "My thinking on this scenario is that you may not _know_ you have a main/camera entanglement until you cutaway. The scenario that I am thinking of is if you have severe linetwists that come way down your risers and you can't move your head before chopping. You won't know if a riser is snagged until you cutaway. If it is, you would have to jettison your helmet and then deploy your reserve. I really like the idea of the Skyhook but I think camera jumping requires some additional consideration due to the above scenario. Jumping a more docile main that is less likely to spin up might be something to do if you wanted to jump camera and have the Skyhook installed on your container. -- Murray I think the Skyhook is a great idea but I do feel that camera jumpers have to be sure that they are free of any entanglement before they pull their reserve handle. In reponse to my above post Hookitt posted how he had chopped (while jumping camera) from under a spun up canopy that had his head pinned down. Had he had a Skyhook and an entanglement with a riser he might have had a bad situation....main attached to helmet, reserve container open and deploying.... -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Mike, You are correct. The only student fatality experienced at the now-closed dz you refer to was a power line electrocution. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Andrew, I did a google search for the Sony PC9 and came up with several listings showing it for sale. I'm sure there are still some new ones out there that can be had without the dangers of eBay. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Adios Amoebas! -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

How will you manage the fact that all 3 print sizes have different ratios? 4x6, 5x7, 4x5 (8x10) Perhaps not frame quite so tightly on your original shot? I think this is absolutely the best way for anybody to sell stills. No printing, no packaging, no mailing, no checks bouncing...just you depositing a check from Shutterfly! The less work you have to do, the better. Hope you sell a ton of stills and make a bunch of money! -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

WOW!

i have a 20gb iPod and love it. Besides storing a couple of days of music right now I also have the following on it: - 7 gb of digital video files I moved to make some room on my hard drive, - 2 gb of digital photos - essentially a backup of two years of family photos, - all my contacts - phone numbers, addresses, e-mail, etc. - all my calendar items. File transfer is FAST as it uses Firewire. It has 32 mb of skip protection - I use it walking, not running and it has never skipped. Excellent design and interface...you can do everything with one hand. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

...just in case Big Brother is listening....I am afraid of being licked to death by the Swedish Bikini Team....that is my greatest fear....... -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Bonus days for me since 1985. A 12 way I was part of that had exited an Otter nearly hit a C182 jump plane at about 5000'. Obviously some communication was missed as the C182 was climbing to altitude right over the spot. I remember seeing the 182 just before it was directly under us and I thought we were going to hit it for sure. All I could think of was the prop coming at us and that I didn't want to get cut to pieces by the prop. I guesstimate we were about 50 feet above it when it was directly below us. The visual of the top of the wing and the rivets getting bigger real FAST is as vivid now as when it happened. Just as we should have hit it, it was gone. Nobody on the load did a thing...noone tried to pull, avoid, nothing. It happened so damn fast it was incredible. Only time skydiving or in my entire life that I've ever thought I was about to die in the next instant. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

So, 'fess up...who hums it? And why? I used to open at 1500' on nearly every skydive but those were the days before small canopies and AAD's. I had lots of company down there back then. I think low-pulling has declined over the years but I'm curious to see if many people still like humming it occasionally. BASE jumping is excluded....my low is a high slider up jump for many of them. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey