
AndyMan
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Everything posted by AndyMan
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Quite frankly, I'm surprised people didn't expect this when they bought it. As a rule, I don't buy any new high tech device until its been on the market for a year at least, skydiving instrument, audio-video device, or computer software. I assume people who're running to be the first on the block to get something are willing to put up with the quirks or bugs, but the complaints always seem to prove me wrong... _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.
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Aparently I resembled one when I hit 157 on my belly a few monthes ago... But I've never heard it refered to as that. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.
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Whut....? We DO take heavey items skydiving, and we hope we don't have to discard them, but that is a risk, one that we all accept. I'd much rather my cuttaway helmet impact a building or person under some kind of canopy. That said, it doesn't have to be a full pilot chute. It seems to me that a helmet and camera probably weighs in around 2 pounds, and there is roughly 5 square feet in a 32 inch pilot chute, which gives it a wingloading of .4 - we could get by with something much smaller then a standard pilot chute. In reality, we're only hoping to slow down the helmet enough so that a: it lands with the expensive parts pointing up, and b: it doesn't kill someone. We could probably get by with a 15 inch pilot chute, rather then a 30 inch. Or less... I wonder how small you would need? _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.
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Hey Billvon, Wendy - Sony PS2s Hacked into Supercomputer Cluster
AndyMan replied to a topic in The Bonfire
I disagree. Assembling a beowulf is hardly rocket-science grade engineering. Neither is coding for one. It's the kind of comp-sci that most respectable geeks could easily handle. I assume Iraq has a half decent collection of geeks who are relatively current on technologies like Linux, Windows, and networking on commodity hardware. There are only specific kinds of problems that can be solved with beowulf clusters, because they rely on ethernet for internodal communications, a relatively high latency system (compared to a high speed bus). What I don't know, is to what degree dangerous siences we're worried about (like nuclear simulations) would perform on a relatively high latency system... _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead. -
I can not believe this thread is still going on. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.
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Hey Billvon, Wendy - Sony PS2s Hacked into Supercomputer Cluster
AndyMan replied to a topic in The Bonfire
close. Moore postulated that the number of features (not transistors) per unit cost ($) would double every 18 monthes. This means that you can get more features, or cheaper, but usually a combination of both. Roughtly every two years you'll also see an article postulating the death of Moores law. If I had a penny for every time I'd seen one of these, I'd have almost enough for a cup of really, REALLY crappy coffee. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead. -
Everyone is different, and there's no point in criticizing someone who's making a positive live choice, no matter how he does it - it's a good thing. I used to joke that quitting smoking was easy, i'd done it countless times.... Now I know that given the right tools, it can be done properly easily, too. I don't ever give someone a hard time for choosing to use tools. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.
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Canadas economy has been consistently stronger then the US for the last 4 years. It seems like it needs less "fixing" then the US one... _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.
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Good luck. I found Zyban worked really well, but took a while to kick in. You'll need to stick with it for quite a while, too. It worked really well for me, I've been essentially smoke free for 18 monthes now, and haven't even cheated in almost a year. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.
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Downsizing keeps you Sharp!
AndyMan replied to NewClearSports's topic in Swooping and Canopy Control
I think there's a fundamental difference with motorcycles, which is simply that you don't need to use the power. You've got this thing called a throttle control, which you don't under a canopy. Most advanced canopy pilots who go in do it in less then ideal circumstances, they go in while landing off, usually attemtping to land "straight in", with no turns to boost performance. They end up doing low turns out of what they think is necesity, rather then a desire to intentionally boost performance. I think if your bikes automatically opened the throttle wide open each time you threw yourself into a corner, you would have a better understanding of why adding "power" under a canopy is so much riskier then adding "power" on a bike. On your bike, using that power is optional. Under a canopy, that "power" can come on when you least want it. Under canopies, you need to be able to fly at full "power" in every circumstance, because often that "power" is added unintentionally in very tight situations. Imagine riding your bike straight at a brick wall at high speed, but knowing you will only accelerate even faster if you try to turn. That's what flying a high performance canopy is like. You shouldn't get a high performance canopy until you've proven to yourself and others that a: you won't get yourself in the position of driving at the brick wall, and b: if you do find yourself there, you can turn out under power. I think I've taken that analogy as far as it'll go.... about 3 paragraphs ago. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead. -
I have a PC120, and two FM-50 (standard) batteries. A single fully charged FM-50 battery will last me a whole day of jumping, including video debrief with multiple rewinds and slow-motion inbetween each jump. I really only use the second battery when I forget to fully charge the other one before a day of jumping. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.
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This is of course just me scratching an itch.... but would this REALLY be so bad? Of course main and reserve pre-matures can kill people, but we're talking a canopy the size of a pilot chute, that puts on average about 70 lbs of force... Remember that your head alone weighs in at an average of 11 pounds (8% of body weight), so 70 pounds of force really isn't that much, I don't think...? I'm just guessing, but if you were on your head, I imagine a premature pilotchute from your helmet would abruptly flip you over, with probably just a sore neck to show for it. Secondly, I can think of a few release mechanisms that would disconnect your helmet should this happen... Thirdly, I'm sure we could come up with a design that uses a type of slider to slow the inflation of the pilotchute, reducing shock on the neck. thoughts? _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.
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If you're sure you only want to freefly, then goahead, and only get a freefly jumpsuit. To me though, there really couldn't be anything more boring. People who limit themselves to only one kind of jumping cut themselves off from the majority of skydiving. Every good freeflyer I know also has well developed belly skills. They didn't just pick these up through reverse osmosis, they spent the time turning the points to learn how to do it. Why? because it's a hell of a lot of fun, too. My goals as a skydiver is to be able to fly my body with the best of them in any position, wether its on my belly, my head, my feet, or hanging from wingsuits. Whatever new thing comes along, I'll be there trying to learn it, and yeah - I'll probably be buying a new jumpsuit for it, too. Currently I've got 3 jumpsuits, and there's 2 more on the shopping list for this season. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.
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I'm with Deuce. Definately not single, but my ring still fits. Neither is craichead. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.
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I wanna make a multimedia CDROM. I've got tons of great content, but I'm a bit confused over how to do the menuing system. Anybody know of what tools are available to easily create cool colorful "autorun" menus for a CDROM? I am not limited to point-and-click systems. I am very technically proficient, its just this is not my area of expertise. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.
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yucky. crappy news indeed. godspeed on a quick recovery. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.
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that's some awfully hazy... um... haze! _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.
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It's true. after my first "date" with craichead, I offered we go back to my place to watch skydiving videos. She jumped at the chance. I first made the mistake of showing her my first tandem... she was laughing so much at me I was humiliated. It wasn't until I pulled out the video that I'd shot, rather then starred in, that I got laid. Less then a year later, I married her. Tandem video=bad, own video = good. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.
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I have no idea. The last time I made the mistake of jumping with a cheap camera, the lens fell off on opening, on the first jump. Generally, experience has shown that in the consumer-grade market, pretty much only Sony camcorders survive any reasonable time in this sport. Twice this summer, somebody showed me a camera they wanted to jump, at which point I told them they'd be buying a Sony before the end of the year. In one case, he bought a Sony when his Sharp camera self-destructed, the other chose to give up shooting video when his Panasonic fell apart. Specifically, I can guarantee these issues: 1: you'll have touble buying a helmet mount, nobody makes them. You'll have to figure out how to mount it on your own. 2: You can't use a cam-eye, because it doesn't have a lanc port. I just noticed that on your profile, you mention that you have just one jump. I would strongly encourage you to work on basic freefall skills for a good long time before you even consider complicating your skydives by bolting a camera to your head. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.
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I would be very surprised if this camera lasted more then two monthes of jumping. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.
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I bought mine in Canada - www.mec.ca _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.
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Who was the hard landing Santa in Houston?
AndyMan replied to chuckakers's topic in General Skydiving Discussions
Sounds to me like its a demo where nobody got hurt, and no damage done. Sounds like a succesful demo to me... _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead. -
I've jumped all three, but I'm not sure I can answer your question other then... "they're all good canopies". Your profile says you hav 600 jumps, so I'm sure you're more then qualified to fly any of them, so it comes down to what you're looking for in a canopy! The three canopies have wildly different characteristics, but you should have an idea what those are by now, don't you? What are you interested in knowing about them? How are you planning on using them? What canopy skills do you value? Accuracy? Swooping? CRW? What part of the canopy ride is the most fun for you? What are you looking to enhance? _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.
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A question for the more experienced jumpers
AndyMan replied to ripper0289's topic in Gear and Rigging
Right now the gear that you should be looking at are things like altimeters, goggles, helmets, and maybe even a jumpsuit. I wouldn't worry about canopies or containers until you start to approach your 'a' license. To answer your question, pretty much every modern canopy will flare better then the manta, especially if its f-111. __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead. -
I hosted it for a while, and what I found was that the bandwidth required will grow to whatever maximum you establish, and then it will bog down. The nature of it is that it will just keep growing. Myself, I'm convinced the only model that'll work is a p2p one, where the load and bandwidth is distributed. edited to add: BitTorrent - http://bitconjurer.org/BitTorrent/ would probably be ideal. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.