AndyMan

I'd often wondered this myself, too.... Until this one afternoon last September where the though of taking advantage of a poor student crossed my mind.... and we've been madly in love ever since. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

MiniDV is an industry standard, MicroMV is not. Right now, as things stand, I'd put money against MicroMV ever being as popular as MiniDV. My guess, given that people are not quickly embrasing the MicroMV format, is that it will go the way of the Sony mini-disk, used for a few very specific purposes but largely invisible to most consumers. Myself, I'd buy the 101 at www.dbuys.com. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Good to hear. I was imagining Canopy Paint Ball. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

A Cypres activates if you don't pull, or can't pull. An RSL activates if you DO pull. It seems to me they act for radically different reasons, under radically different conditions. Why on earth do you consider both of them overkill? _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

As a new jumper I bought a slightly used Triathlon 190, and stuffed it into a Javelin J3. I later traded in for a new Stiletto 150. The tri was a bit tight and the stiletto is a bit loose. Nothing to worry about, though. Granted that going from a big seven-cell to a small nine-cell probably made it just a touch easier. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

It's pretty much guaranteed these guys use different names and email addresses each time, this is a very common scam. It's certainly a dead giveaway if one of these guys DOES contact you, but I seriously doubt they'll use the same name and email address again. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Sorry dude, I haven't written a line of Microsoft code in about two years. I've gone to the dark side, so no code for you! Your idea of using a SQL Server itentiy column as the filename, and putting ".txt" on the end sounds just fine, but I would not use the coumn that's the primary key. Have a PK, then the fileNumber. You might also want to add some meta data to this table like 'created by', 'created date', 'updated by', 'updated date', 'number of updates', etc. How do you get your current stuff onto disk? Just new up a FileSystem Object, then new up an ADODB connection, execute your select statement, then as you iterate through the recordset, opening a new file, writing the text, then closing the file on each iteration. Easy. Anyways, I would concentrate your reading on the FileSystem object, and ADODB. If you wanna be real cool about this, you write your text into an XML file, then write an XML StyleSheet to describe how to display it, then transform the two of them into beautifully formatted document. Unfortunately, instructions on how to do this are out of scope for this thread.... If you're not current on XML it's a bit confusing. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

If you haven't guessed from my other post, I strongly support this solution. I do, however, question the wisdom of asking a bunch of skydivers to overrule IT profesionals you've found elsewhere. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I can speak from authority on this one. I've played lead technical roles on www.littletikes.com and www.rubbermaid.com, and a senior techie at www.molson.com. I'm currently working on a very high end custom solution for the home building industry. There's absolutely NOTHING wrong, with storing text files on a reliable disk. The one trueism of database powered websites is that every DB transaction is a serious bottleneck, in terms of processing time required to establish a connection, make a request, the DB to find the data, return the data, and close the connection. Try and remember what databases were designed to do, which is manage relatively small chunks of relational data. Your text files are not "small chunks of relational data". Putting large text files into your DB is a waste, unless there's specific functions you're looking for in the DB to require this. One example of this kind of function would be a "copy" stored procedure, that will copy a huge set of data, and your textfiles are part of this huge set. True requirements for these functions, are rare however. It's usually much easier to manage singular objects (like your textfiles) outside of the DB in application level code. I don't know what kind of site you're building, but the usage of these textfiles also help determine how to manage them. If, for example, you're trying to build a site like Slashdot that manages huge amounts of text, constantly generating the same files over and over again, you're getting even a bigger hit when you put them in the DB, because when each page is built dynamically, you're ruling out any caching on behalf of the webserver. If you were to put the textfiles simply on the disk, the webserver would store frequently used files in memory. I'd certainly avoid using BLOBS, they're a pain to use, unless you really like 'getChunk()' methods. Myself, I don't. Searching the files when they're on the disk becomes a whole lot easier, too, especially since you're on the Microsoft platform. MS Indexing Service integrates beautifully into IIS. Putting the files on the disk and letting Indexing Service map them will give you a tremendously flexible search solution. Given the brief synopsis you've given us, I would store the filenames in the DB, and have the files themselves simply put on a reliable somewhere hopefully RAID, and dynamically include them at runtime. It goes without saying that you'll want to programically give these files distinct filenames, perhaps based on DB formed sequence. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Last time I was down at Eloy, I saw close to a hundred. Last time I was at Skydive Chicago, I saw... 30. Last time I was at the Illinois Valley Parachute Club, I don't think I saw any. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

However, both have the same opinion. They also both point to the same argument, just in different style. I was wondering, if you're so quick to dismiss opinions you don't agree with when they come from organizations suposedly known for being on the right, rather then the left. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Ok, then how about this one? Is Reuters on your list of "approved" news sources? (note, just to avoid confusion - even though the aritlce is hosted on Yahoo, it's actually a Reuters article. Just wanted to make that clear, lest I mislead anyone) http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=586&e=6&cid=586&u=/nm/20030226/wl_nm/iraq_blair_dc Again I reiterate my opinion, the UK will not attack Iraq without the UN. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

The crossfire is a great canopy, but it's not THAT different then the Stileto. What are you looking for? Faster swoop? Longer swoop? Ability to take it up to very small wing loadings? What don't you like about the Stileto? What do you like about the Crossfire2? _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I registered the first day... _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

You're thinking too much.... ;) Despite that, I would add one more requirement to your setup - you must, MUST - be able to jetison it easily. You've simply got to be able to throw away the camera when things get ugly. We accomplish this by installing complex cuttaway systems on our helmets. Every one of us is willing to drop at least $3000 in hardware the minute something goes wonky. Are you the same with your Sony? The system that you're propsing, even without a cuttaway system, is a complex one. You've added a major level of complexity to your gear, and your emergency procedures. You should not take these changes so lightly. You've already added enough complexity that I doubt very much your DZ would let you jump it until you have quite a few jumps. Adding a camera system to your skydiving setup is a major event, which changes a lot of things. It's not something you should approach lightly. One reason I have no objections to the disposable cameras, is that they don't have straps on them, so they can't get snagged. All you've got to do is hold on to it, and if something goes wrong you'll probably instinctively drop it anyways. If you want to shoot digital, just think about the same criteria. No straps, no snags, and cheap enough that you'll be willing to drop it without a second guess. A quick search on Amazon.com showed a crappy Polaroid digital cam for $19.95. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00004RFB8/qid=1046236322/sr=1-13/ref=sr_1_13/103-7819394-8772611?v=glance&s=photo _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I would never accept an International check. Ask for a money order, or bank draft. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

A snake is pretty rare... but there's a long and proud history of critters getting into computers. This is exactly why a computer 'glitch' is called a 'bug'. Bugs are rarely caused by critters anymore, critters tend to cause casterophic failure, like in this case. However, I did once see a laptop that had a cronic overheating problem. It turned out a family of ants had taken up residency... They like living in computers because of the warmth of the electronics. The best way to keep critters out of your PC is to keep them out of your house. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Despite what the credits say, I took the polka dot pictures: http://mypage.bluewin.ch/aviationworld/pc6/history/684.htm# The main URL is www.pc-6.com _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I doubt they'll let you carry one while on student status. Once you've got a few jumps under your skin, there probably wouldn't be too many objections to taking a disposable camera with you. Don't take anything expensive, you might lose it. Tuck it into your jumpsuit during freefall, and pull it out while under canopy. Or, use it in freefall, just make sure to only do it for solos. Here's a few shots I grabbed with a disposable camera at the WFFC. You'll recognize the first one as my profile pic! http://www.bombshelter.ca/~andy/photos/wffc/helo1.jpg http://www.bombshelter.ca/~andy/photos/wffc/helo2.jpg __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I think it's a fool that asks for advice, then ignores what everybody tells him, because he doesn't like the answer. You should not even consider jumping a camera for a very long time. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

No tricks... just practice. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I think it's hillarious, Sadamm is playing the PR game better then Bush! Sadamm knows full well that Bush would never take him up on the offer, it's a great empty gesture he knows will never come to light. It lets him portray himself as the great benevolent democratic leader, and Bush as a raving lunatic intent on mass destruction. It lets him effectively turn the tables. Hussein has no intention of ever appearing on a televised 'debate'. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

We need to keep some historical perspective, though. At the time of the Casa stall, I don't think there WAS any markings on the inside of the plane. So.... think of it like an Otter. How many of us really know the weight and balance limits of an Otter? King Air? Caravan? Actually, we DO know the weight limits of an Otter. We know that you can pile up 20 people in the tail, chunk off a big way withouth problem. I've been one of 16 people chunked up in the back of a Caravan, too. With most skydiving planes in curr ent use, we know that we can pile up as many people as can fit without problem. To us, as skydivers who aren't pilots and don't have copies of airplane manuals handy, why would we think any other plane is different? a: the pilot, owner, and load organizer didn't know, or didn't do the math. b: the pilot, owner, and load oragnizer knew, but the jumpers didn't. c: everyone knew, but the jumpers ignored the rules. Anyone know? A, B, or C? _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I've gotten in trouble here before, because I won't even answer your question until you've got a whole lot more jumps. At 20 jumps, you shouldn't even be considering a camera. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I've been having the same kinda day. After spending 3 hours trying to get Oracle 8i to install on my laptop, I started looking for bug reports.... Oracle 8i won't install on a Pentium 4 based system. Too funny! LOL Now I'm downloading 9i. The boss is thrilled that he gets to buy me an upgrade... _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.