DSE

Ahh...duh. I was thinking he meant the Casio. I hope to have the Casio in hand by mid-March, their press team says they'll be available for review by then.

Here is a nice option for the CX7 crowd. It'll allow you to dump sticks to disK without a 'puter. I've just ordered one, hoping to find out it works well.

If I can convince Casio to send me one, I'll jump it, no sweat. The speed is only useful to capture short sequences, so I'm still happier to lose some resolution in favor of the 60p I can get from other progressive cameras, but...I'd really like to see this one.

A trial is how both the Dutch and US government legal system works. Although there is no doubt he was somehow involved in her death or disappearance, doesn't he deserve the chance to be reviewed by a jury like anyone else?

*that* was sweet.

That's gotta be the ugliest ball of cuteness (or is that cutest ball of ugliness?) that I've ever seen. Congrats!

Curbstream is a new subscription/sales service for independent videographers. It looks like it might be of benefit for some of the skydiving videographers out there, and if you do independent event vid on the side, it looks like a pretty sweet licensing system. I don't know a lot about them,but the program looks pretty good for small-scale work.

Nothing is going to like water very much; do you need something that likes water? If so, one of the small Sony HC series with a water housing, or at least a very tight camdom would be necessary. You might check out the tapeless CX series, there are a couple water housings made for those, too. Yet another option would be a bullet cam in a baggie, wired to a DV unit inside your shirt, also in a baggie.

*generally* it's less likely to break again, but kinda like the ripple effect, fixing one thing can break another. Hopefully they'll do a full spec-check to be sure that all aspects of the camcorder make it to full spec. Did it go to Austin or San Diego?

As Saskia mentioned, check for Vista drivers on your 1394 card (but unless it's really an obscure card, they should be part of Vista). Turn off networking on the 1394 bus. Be sure you have admin rights. Turn off User Account Control. Apparently Microsoft doesn't ship the low-level AVC drivers in Vista Home, dunno if that affects it or not? You might try doing an update. I recall seeing a specific problem with the Dell version of Vista home on a website. Googling "Dell, firewire, Vista, can't see camera" gave me quite a few hits, but I didn't trace any of em.

LOL, you don't know me well, do you? Why, in the last 24 hours I've been told at least three times what a huge asshole I am. Even bigger than Walt. Seriously, your idea is the right one, and it's winter. Maybe I should check into the deaf community here and give it a try that way. It's how I'd rather learn. I think you've got the best suggestion yet!

English is a second language in our home, but inspired by LouDiamond, having met a young guy at the holiday boogie, and then meeting a young man who wants to skydive, it seems like a cool tool to have in my head. I don't have any desire or intention to be an interpreter or anything, but I would like to have some basic conversant skills and be able to at least understand some specifics. Which do you think I would best start with, phrases or alphabet?

This resource is very different from the pages I've been looking at. I'm not sure if I should be starting with the alphabet or with actual phrases, as this site shows?

I'd like to learn ASL. I'm not doing very well trying to learn online, I guess I do better with one-on-one, I assume it would be the same trying to learn from a DVD. Anyone have experience with learning ASL on their own vs with a tutor?

I've explained what the RIAA is, and how they work in several other threads, and see no point in reinventing the wheel again, but the upshot is that the RIAA *could* do this if that was their business model. I *can* grab any music I wish and sell it via a number of sites outside the USA. So can you. It's not illegal, so long as they pay royalties in the amount that the local government or rights organization (in some cases both) have negotiated, and hold those royalties in trust. They're not required to keep an accounting of what songs are sold XXX times, but rather only an accounting of what songs are available. Those trusts are then collected by a variety of rights agencies that have negotiated with the various labels (collectively known as the RIAA) and then distributed to the artists on the list of available music in that country. You can do it, I can do it, anyone can do it. What Piratebay is doing is illegal in virtually every country, it's called "aiding and abetting" and this is part of the ground under which the Swedish government is charging them. Their own government. Not the US government. Tell you what; since you feel it's such a great model for selling anything, you take over my content on the torrent sites in any way you see fit, and I'll pay you 50% of any revenues generated as a result of being on those torrent sites. I'd pay you more, but I have publishing royalties to share with others, so can't give you more than what I get. You've got nothing to lose, only gain, so let's get started making $$ together. Me and every other artist out there from Prince, Madonna, Nickelback on down to pissants like me...we're just too stupid to make $$ from torrents, so you should stand to make some serious bank.

Wow! What a great post!

I think I said it was a "nice" letter. It came from me, not my label's lawyers. To Whom it May Concern/PirateBay; My name is Douglas Spotted Eagle. Today I was informed that you have my entire library of works on your website. Aside from this being a violation of my copyrights, I'd like to let you know that I'm a small artist, we're a small band, and we make our living exclusively from selling my music and performances. Having our music available for free on PirateBay.com takes money from our pocket. We'd very much appreciate it if you'd consider the impact of distributing the CDs for free when it's taking so much away from our income. Your site makes income from selling ad space, so obviously you recognize the value of creating revenue so that you can put bread on your table. Don't we deserve the same consideration? Douglas Spotted Eagle Five-fingered Music O Great Spotted One; People like your music enough that they want to share it. We don't see the attraction, but that's not our problem, is it? If you don't want people listening to your music, don't record it. Simple concept, but I'll bet you can't quit, can you? NONE of the copyrighted data in question is published or ever stored on our servers. Nor is any of the copyrighted data relayed through our servers. The tracker merely provides .torrent files, so it's not our fault if people don't respect your copyrights. To this day this activity is not prohibited by Swedish law and it's our assessment that not even a wide interpretation of the E-commerce directives makes them applicable to torrent trackers. Out activities will therefore continue until this fact changes or Hell freezes over. We're sorry to ruffle your feathers, but we'll tell you what we tell everyone else; We recommend that you sodomize yourself with a retractable baton, let us recommend a specific model - the ASP 21". _________________________________________________________________ So you see...they're not the nicest people in the world. Note that the Russian agreements still pay revenues to the artist. An agreement with the artist isn't required. No one said it was. That's part of what the RIAA does for artists, they help the labels manage compulsories and collecting royalties that are held in trust on a per-sample basis. I have no problem with this. You missed the point completely as to what I was saying about their twisted view of the law. They steal from everywhere, claiming global freedom. but when the global laws knock on their door, they tweak and scream, "We're just small locals." Fine. then only steal what's local.

the new president of the LDS church was named today, although there was no speculation as to who would replace Gordon Hinckley. Naming a new president, prophet, seer, and revelator was mostly a formality. You'll have to work out for yourself what that may or may not mean to where Gordon Hinckley might be. I can't say anything bad about the guy, because he was good to me as a kid, which is much more than can be said about Additional to the calling as president of the LDS church, he also is the de facto president of the Corporation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the largest owner of media conglomerates in the world, and is the most prosperous religion in the world, according to Time Magazine. With approximately 32billion in physical assets/holdings, not including their corporate endeavors, tithings add another nearly 6Billion per year in revenues. It's important to note that LDS leadership (president, counselors, apostes, seventies, etc) are not paid positions. They are given "small salaries to offset living expenses." According to the WSJ, it's around 70K per year. The president is expected to move into the 1.8M condo at 40N State Street in SLC, not only as the official residence of the President of the church, but also for security purposes.

I've been getting quite a few PM's about tapeless acquisition and various formats, and thought it might be nice to get the discussion out on the table. Tapeless benefits: No capture time. Cards can be up to 10X over realtime currently, and getting faster. Cheap storage, renewable media. Easy/fast archive. No hunting for footage any longer, as keywords may be embedded in footage, including date, time, student name. Tapeless caveats: Requires computer for most efficient workflow. If you don't back up or archive properly, it's possible to lose it all, and with no tape, you have nothing to take off the shelf. Discipline will be required. An HDD system is a very good idea. Some formats: HDD (Hard Disk Drive, not to be confused with HD/High Definition) cannot be used in standard skydiving operations, normal HDD fails above 3000 meters/10K. Toshiba has some new drives rated to 18k-msl) but they're very rare and very expensive. DVD-based systems-cannot be used in skydiving, as the laser can't track the burn with stability. P2-based systems (Panasonic proprietary) So far, camcorders are too large for daily use for tandems and teams, but are a good option for independent film. Very costly. Pros-Not too large, although the HVX camcorders are large. Reasonably lightweight Cons-Expensive, slow Xfer from card to computer, some NLE's don't support the P2 format. Smallest format in the HD world, entry cost of around 7K. XDCAM-HD/Blu-ray Just a decent lens alone will cost 20K in addition to the size. Pro's-outstanding image Cons-huge-forget it. Too damn big. XDCAM EX- big camera, not for tandems, but for independent film...excellent. Largest raster format available at this time. Pros-no 'typical' camcorder can generate a better image at this time. Cons-other than cost in the 6k range, it's on the heavy side, but not by any means too large. About the same size as the P2 format cams. Flash memory/memstick-least costly, small package. Sony, Panasonic, Canon, Samsung all offer cams. Pros-very lightweight, very cheap, very similar to what most camera flyers are jumping today. Many models to choose from. Can be edited in standard SD analog editing systems found on DZ, but camera MUST be used for this process, no deck system can be utilized at this time. Cons-Can't do firewire to firewire Xfers, a computer is needed to archive, and potentially to edit. All of these cams are AVCHD, which requires a reasonably fast computer. A 3 year old laptop is going to struggle with it. Some apps don't offer full support of AVCHD yet. So...there is the overview. What impact if any, will tapeless have on your future plans? All are high-def. Canon does offer some cheapo standard def card cams, however. What are your fears, worries, hopes, anticipations, demands for future camcorder decisions? Discuss.

From the article; United's charge will apply to customers who buy nonrefundable domestic economy tickets and aren't Premier-status or higher members of United's frequent-flier program, or another carrier in the Star Alliance. Many skydivers like to take their rig and camera gear as carryon, or rig and laptop as carryon. If you're not a Premier member, then you're over the limit with those two items.

United Airlines has announced they'll immediately begin charging $25.00 for a second carryon. For all customers, the charge to check as many as four additional bags will be $100 each. Bloomberg announces...

chris, Can you "frankenstein" one of em' by taking parts from one and putting into another? I don't know where you can download any firmware; AFAIK it has to be done via the 1394 bus, and is done from a Flash system. Your local repair shop should be able to advise you better?

As will I. Hope to see you again!

Very cool pix! Happy birthday!!

At 13 jumps, you'll find your landings rapidly improving, particularly if you focus on figuring out your exact landing point before getting on the aircraft. Try to pick a spot in the landing area and work on hitting that spot each time. Not only will it give you a place to focus on, but it'll also give you a benchmark from which to measure your improvement. My logbook has lots of notes about what I was doing wrong, and much of it breaks down to how I was perceiving my landings before I ever got on the plane. Also, pay heed to what Monkeycndo mentions...be ever vigilant right until you're inside the packing area/away from the landing area. Visualize your spot, visualize the quality of your landing before going up, and it'll likely help. One of my AFFI's really helped me figure out my landings, and he filmed a couple of them for me. It helped immensely. I still try to get video of my landings occasionally, because it helps show bad habits and/or helps me improve. congrats on 9 great landings!