DSE

Review footage of the cam is very poor; it's a low-quality MJPEG encoder (ancient technology) and more importantly, is seriously resampled imagery. So while it delivers 1280 x 720 on disc, it's double sampled to give you that "HD" resolution. Kinda like how Panasonic resamples 960 x 540 to deliver 1920 x 1080 on their small HD camera; it sucks. The little Canon is aimed at mom/pop that want to deliver a little video, but focus (no pun intended) on stills of lil' Johnny. It's a niche cam. Try it for tandems, I'll bet it doesn't work. You nailed it; it's a hybrid. Not good at either format. That said, you need 14 mins of storage for a tandem vid?

You should never have to restart the computer. The camera; yes. Computer; no. Be sure networking is disabled for the 1394 card. Try to have it on it's own IRQ. When you connect/disconnect the camera, it's a good practice to learn to dismount it first. Also, if you *do* have to restart the camera, be sure to disconnect the cable between on/off cycles. This will tell the buffer to release the connection. Nice job on the vid, Karen,

I don't know that I agree with the conclusions StickyFinga's draws, but I'm not sure that everyone who smokes weed is a stoner, either. Marijuana is far less responsible for irresponsible acts in society than alcohol, and alcohol doesn't bear any value in any religious society I'm aware of, while marijuana and peyote do.

*if* such beings exist, I'd believe that they *do* need us to worship them, just as parents, we hope our children "worship" us, or want to follow in our footsteps, hoping they'll perhaps do better than we did. Of course, then the whole argument regarding the "perfection of God" comes into play. I for one, know God isn't perfect if there is a God. There is no valid point to mosquitos, therefore, that was a serious screwup.

Feelings, nothing more than feelings, trying to forget my....."I feel release of repressed emotions and expressions. I want to wear green tights and prance about in the sky like this guy. (sorry Rob)

If it's anything like 7, 8,9, or 10, get your patience pants and frustration pants on. I will say they've got a new product manager that came over from Ulead, but I don't know if he improved the product at all or not. I have a copy, but haven't had free time (lots required) to load it/test it.

Although I have QR's on both helmets, the unspoken downside is that if you have a QR and leave it empty on your helmet, it is a potential snag hazard. You may or may not want this to be a consideration in your choices. If you do use a QR, most of the QR's made specifically for skydiving are not bad snag hazards, but they're not super solid QR's, either.

GREAT list! Of those, recommendations?

What DZ is *really* closest to DC? There are three saying they are closest, and I don't know the area ie; one could be physically closer, but travel time is longer. Gonna be there for a week end of June, would like to jump for an afternoon.

touche'

I'm curious - why? Edited to add for clarity - this seems counter intuitive - DV has its set limitations - number of lines etc. Is it just that the optics and electronics on the new ones are just better or is it that there is a fundamental difference? One way to answer your question would be to ask; "Why do major releases look better than anything you shoot and deliver on DVD, when they're both delivered on DVD?" It's not about the delivery format, it's about the source format. Just like 35mm source footage is superior when transcoded/compressed to DVD, HDV also is superior when transcoded/compressed to DV. Higher resolution at the source makes for a better delivery whether it's DV or mpeg/DVD

There is a skydiving game for Xbox/Playstation called "Skydiving Extreme."

No, I understood Bill's point, I'd believe he misunderstood mine. According to some, no component of either statement can be true, and for others, no component of either statement can be false. Joe can't be a devout Catholic and accept evolution vs creationism. He might believe in theistic evolution, but that would lie somewhere between the two positions I'd previously mentioned, no?

Nah...you're probably smarter than me. Perhaps smarter than the rest of the world, since most of us peons feel that Bush is a moron (he can't pronounce half the words fed to him by his speechwriters) he's a loser that stole the presidency once (courtesy of his brother Jeb) and bought it a second time. He's lined his nest with untold wealth, not much different than his father, but at least his father was only a pig vs a hog. But hey...I'm just a stupid farmboy from Northwestern Iowa. I'm sure someday I'll get 'nuff 'larnin to understand why I'm wrong.

That's exactly my point. Neither is true, or neither is provable as true, which means it also cannot be proven as false. Of course the truth lies somewhere in the middle. For all we know, aliens deposited cells in a petri dish called "earth." For all we know, the life form that many refer to as "God" is a green gangly creature with three fingers and an enlarged cranium. At the end of the day, does it really matter? Where it becomes an issue for me, is that so many "religionists" do what they do "in the name of God," a source they've never seen, touched, witnessed, nor had a rational communication with. They condemn those that do what they do for themselves. ie; I choose to donate some time each month to charity. I do it for myself. I do it because it allows me to grow my sense of self-respect and it gives me silly tingles up my spine. It also happens to improve the lives of others. But make no mistake; I do it for myself. There are those at the same charity that are doing it "for God." From my plateau, that's simply whacked. I'm living my life for me while I'm here. They're living their life for something/someone that may or may not exist, but they're limiting their life experiences in *this* life, the only one they *know* they've got, in pursuit of something that may or may not exist. All of which is fine by me. However, do not judge my actions, don't condemn my behaviours, simply because we have a different motivation. The end result is the same, isn't it? That's one area where religion becomes problematic; it encourages others to judge, which is responded to by at least a categorical behavior, and more often, derision and disgust. Religion has become a marketing tool to divide the masses of asses, and unfortunately, it's likely going to get far worse before it becomes much better. In summary, I care about religion, because as a broad statement, religion is more responsible for the problems of our country and our world than any other singular social or economical component.

Perhaps because there are the two extremes: a-the world came together in a big bang that began all life, and evolution has brought us here. b-A deity built the earth in 6 days complete with all life forms. Those that accept exclusively "a" or "b" are people that cannot have a rational dialog with those accept exclusively "b" or "a." Somewhere in the middle lies the truth, IMO. However, until both parties can acknowledge that, we cannot begin to have a rational discussion. Therefore, the discussion becomes irrational. Couple that with the fact that we currently live in a theocracy and the US is pretty f$@#! up as a result, it tends to polarize individuals.

I feel very sorry for you.

It really is. At least on Xmas, we get gifts n' stuff. Easter,we just see some bunny hopping around. Xmas, 4th of July, Presidents Day...they're all holidays I can sink my teeth into. Great sales, friends not working...Easter always on Sunday, no great sales, and it's mascot is pretty lame.

I'd rather not. Like Madonna and other pop stars, he generates controversy and mayhem in his wake. Fortunately, I don't believe anyone has ever killed someone else as a result of listening to Madonna or Elvis. If they have, the numbers would be inconsequential by comparison anyway.

16 years in sales, yes...lots of work directly with the public. I view it differently. If I'm the seller, I owe it to the buyer to treat them well, because it's their money I'm asking for in exchange for a product that myself and others offer. As a way of "thanking" them for choosing me, I owe them good customer service. As a buyer, I'm free to choose where I'll go and where I won't. I owe the seller nothing. I don't at all blame the cashier;she's a Walmart cashier. Probably has a lot on her mind, perhaps isn't trained well. But for the corporate morons to insert an electronic dialog rather than train her to say "Hi, how are you?" is going to cost them as much of my business as I can reasonably take elsewhere. I'd rather they spend more time training, observing, etc using people than using machines for interaction. I'm not a fan of the auto-sale where one simply swipes a card. Soon, you'll walk into restaurants, electronically place an order at your table via touch screen, pick up your food, and clear your own table. Sorry, I don't find that appealing at all. Charging me more money while expecting me to be more involved in the purchase process and then asking me to dispose of my food offends me, and further reduces the need of a workforce. I'd rather pay those same higher prices and have a human that can smile at me, thank me for my patronage, and appreciate having a job.

You're kidding, right? No way can any sane human make that sort of a comment about Clinton and intelligently support Bush. I'll take Clinton's character over the entire Bush family. I didn't vote for Clinton, BTW. It's a mistake I'll never repeat. Bush chased me from being a conservative to being a "liberal" (still very conservative, but I'd like to see Bush impeached and then shot for treason. With unlikely luck he'll be tried in a world court for war crimes). Fred Thompson doesn't have big oil up his ass, he hasn't spent the last 7 years setting up his retirement package with millions of $$ in kickbacks as Bush has. But he *is* a Republican. That used to mean something good. Now it mostly means "lack of character" IMO. Hopefully his career as a character coupled with his career as a Senator along with life's experiences, have groomed him to be a good man first, and President second. I know him to be a good man, but I don't know if he can manage being President. America has apexed; we need a *great* leader to help maintain us at some higher level of world prosperity and image.

I completely agree with everything said in the thread, but I failed to clearly present my point. I'm at a checkout counter talking to a machine. The machine is asking me if the clerk/cashier/saleswoman was "courteous" when: a-The woman hadn't spoken a word b-It's a frickin' machine asking me about a human c-The human is 2 feet away d-the *point* of the machine is to reduce human interaction, yet it's inquiring as to the quality of my human interaction with the cashier. Absurd! I'd rather a cashier just say "hi," and ring my stuff through. I don't want a machine asking me questions about my interaction with the cashier, and if they want a rating on the interaction between cashiers and customers, put a f#@!ing manager/reviewer/observer near the register to observe, rather than asking me insipid yes/no questions. Someone at upper Walmart management has their head up their ass.

I go to a Walmart and walk to the checkout stand with a few items. Cashier is chewing gum, cleaning out the underside of her fingernails, and looking straight ahead, not acknowledging me when I put my items on the belt. As the items move down the belt, she swipes them through the barcode reader, still not acknowledging me at all. No "hello," "How are you?," "didja find everything," or otherwise. So, I swipe my card. The card reader pops up a dialog that I've never seen before. "Was your cashier courteous today?" I didn't realize I said it aloud, but said "What the fuck?" She turns her head sharply, and says "I don't appreciate your language, sir!" Now... ~here is a company that is paying a cashier to take my money, or at the least be a human interacting with the sale, somehow. ~Said company has a machine on the register that somewhat limits human interaction. ~Same machine is now engaging me in a dialog about the non-existen human interaction with the person standing two feet away from me. ~Said person is unhappy with my choice of words to the machine that engaged me in the dialog about her, when she's two feet away from me. BTW, when she made her exclamation, I responed with "I guess that means I respond "no" to your machine." She snapped her gum at me and said "The questions change on every purchase." To which I responded, "I guess this wasn't your lucky day then, was it?" It is moronic having an interaction with a human that was generated by a machine questioning my interaction with the human I'm interacting with, when absent the machine, no interaction would have taken place! I understand that this is part of the ploy to keep stupid humans employed, by limiting their interaction with others, but why have a machine ask me to answer a question about someone that is two feet away? My original response stands...."WTF?"

All very valid points, unfortunately.

I'd rather suggest Fred is a respectable person who occasionally acts. Having worked with him more than once, he's a straight-up guy. I don't know that I agree with his politics, nor do I know if I'd vote for him given the chance (if I had to choose him or Mitt Romney, I'd figure out how to vote twice for Fred) but he's a very impressive guy from a personal standpoint.