pyrotech

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Everything posted by pyrotech

  1. Thanks a ton for your responses! Looks like I'll have a lot to ask the folks at the DZ about, and will start looking at ZP canopies and their reviews.
  2. Hrm, you'll want to check around your local area and get estimates from several developers / software firms. The ranges are all over the place. Our firm would cost you your first born child as a down payment, arm and leg for development, and at least 1 newborn for every year of support. I personally would only charge a small child for the entire thing. Others charge much less. If you go with someone that uses Ruby On Rails and your current database with 3rd party hosting, you could find people who freelance as cheap as about $3k to firms that will charge upwards of $50k. If you hire a firm, you will likely get a better quality product in a more timely manner. That's just usually how it goes when the firm does internal code reviews and whatnot. When I do freelance work, I don't have anyone else review my code before delivering the app to my client, though it is VERY well tested by myself, my clients, and a group of testers I trust with my work. Sorry to be so vague, but prices are honestly all over the place with web and software work. Just look through as many local portfolios as you can and decide who matches your company's style the most.
  3. Is there really much of a limit as to how many jumps a canopy will last? I'll take NWFlyer's suggestion to make sure I show the gear / ad to someone more experienced to help me decide if it's a good deal or not and if it would be right for me. I'm really in no hurry to buy gear at this point, as I'll at least want to get through my A license first and use student gear as long as possible. I just notice that in another thread talking about how people progressed with canopies, some said they only jumped with a certain size 7 or 8 times before moving on to something smaller. It may be a while (read: a year) before I can buy my own rig, but it would definitely be nice to try out several canopies to see what I'm comfortable with if it ends up being an option. Thank you all for your suggestions; I'm getting more and more excited for this weekend!
  4. "Here, take this." "What is it?" "You'll see..."
  5. Getting wicked excited for this weekend! I'd decided not to go through with AFF, and go with SL instead due to cost and stronger desire to get used to canopy control than freefalling right off the bat. I've read that line twists are more common in static line, which I'd prefer (to get used to getting out of them and dealing with nuisances like that from the start). Anyway, is it common to be able to try out multiple canopies as a student to see which I prefer as I progress before I buy my own gear? Or is it more of a "you'll use what we give you" type of situation? I've read that a lot of people buy their own gear after leaving student status, but do you think I'll really know what kind of gear I'd want to buy after only 25 jumps? How many jumps did you make before you decided to bite the bullet and buy your own gear, rather than renting from the DZ?
  6. I see. You're going to want to hire a web developer. There is nothing out-of-box that will enable you to do this yourself without sacrificing interface, usability, connecting to an existing database, etc. There are open source applications that will lighten the cost of the app, but you're still going to need a lot of customization. Any web development firm should be able to give you plenty of options. Personally, I'd go with a firm that uses Ruby On Rails running on Linux / Apache servers, and 3rd party hosting. It would be the quickest development time, least expenses, and be easily maintainable. The app you're asking for doesn't sound incredibly hard to develop. The firm you choose should be able to integrate with your current database for inventory, give you a simple interface to add products, change prices, etc. It may seem like it will cost you quite a bit up front, but if you're not currently offering online sales, you are missing out on a LOT of revenue currently. The longer you wait, the more losses you're accruing. Go with someone local. I'm currently rebuilding a large project that was shipped overseas for its original development. My client is paying us about 3 times what they would have if they went with us in the first place due to a really poor quality of development.
  7. I just gave fake info, and a CC# isn't required. I play online with friends and have never had a problem (until Sony started getting all trigger-happy with patches when their systems were getting hacked). Network has been down for me multiple times lately, but there's no valid information for anyone to steal.
  8. The supplements suggested are not magic bullets. They will not make you happy. They will only help with a deficiency of Vitamin D, and may help if that is the problem. From how you're describing things, that is not the problem. If you're needing something to escape your problems, even for a little while, you're going to need something a lot stronger than Vitamin D, and something probably a lot less legal. Honestly, I would not count on finding a type of substance to help you escape your problems, as they sound like they are all internal and need to be addressed. There are substances that I use for self-examination which can help me guide myself through a problem, but they are not substances that I would recommend to someone without knowing them personally. I'd suggest sitting down with a few close friends, tell them you need a night out, get stupid drunk with them, and spill out your problems. Your friends will listen and help to put you in a better mood. Forget the mortgage issue. You're stuck in it, and it's not something you can fix for a while, so just pay your dues on that one. As for the rest of it, it sounds like you just need some time with your friends. If you don't have friends (I'm assuming you do have friends), there are professional therapists that would love to help you work through the sad times.
  9. Could you be a little more descriptive? Are you just wanting to start an online store? Do you have web development experience so that you would be able to setup an online POS app yourself? What technologies are you looking to use? There are open source e-commerce solutions available in a number of technologies including .net, ruby on rails, php / wordpress, drupal plugins, etc. What are you trying to sell? Maybe I could give you a recommendation.
  10. Agreed. The sun is another source of vitamin D (at least, the UVB rays are), and bright light is a known remedy for the blues. I lived in New England for a while, and I'm not sure if the mid-Atlantic gets about the same weather, but sun was a little scarce most of the year. I put full-spectrum lights around my house, especially in winter, and it helped a ton. There is a study about vitamin D supplementation that shows even 100,000 IUs (only about 2.5mg) of vitamin D showed an improvement for patients suffering from Seasonal Affective Disorder compared to placebo. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10888476 Chances are you won't be able to metabolize all of the vitamin D in the supplements you take, so you may even want to take it multiple times a day at first, but definitely take one a day, get some sun, exercise, and plenty of sleep. If you have trouble sleeping at night, try supplementing melatonin for a little while, as it can be helpful to get a more restful night's sleep. As much as I hate taking supplements for anything, with the lower quality of food available at grocery stores (unless you can get a good deal on local organic foods), sometimes it's necessary.
  11. Just putting this out there, but I've never actually made quality friends when I went out 'looking' for them. The group of friends I hang out with now, I met by going out and doing the things I like to do where other people happened to be there. I went over and started talking with them, enjoyed doing so, so continued doing so. Now we hang out on a more-regular basis. There's really no formula to making friends; just find other people that you have things in common with and start doing things with them. Sometimes it happens quickly, sometimes it takes a while. From your posts though, it seems like you'll need to find a way to make yourself happy just being yourself before being happy with friends or a partner. If you're not happy hanging out with yourself, it's hard to expect others to be happy hanging out with you.
  12. I feel like I'm missing out on the fun. Would you mind posting your number so I can drunk dial you this weekend?
  13. Agreed. When I was in school, if we were getting bullied, we brought a gun to school and shot them. Where did we go wrong in teaching kids to shoot themselves instead? Anyway, for the poster, I couldn't really see the words well enough on your face, except for "sissy". They seemed a little dim. I can understand about doing the project for a grade vs doing it for art. Luckily my professors tended to congratulate me for having 'provocative content' in a lot of my projects. One professor in particular though requested a watered-down version of a project I turned in, which ended up including a lot of passive-aggressive 'censored' content in it instead. It got me an A at least.
  14. Ouch!! OP, why can't you use curse words? They're taboo for a reason... Names I was called through school when I was bullied: faggot, freak, psycho, n*gger (I'm white, but this was considered an insult to anyone where I grew up), pin cushion (piercings), retard, junkie
  15. pyrotech

    Happy 420

    I was gonna celebrate, but then i got high...
  16. I can't go to the Cheezburger sites anymore. About 80% of the content on there are last week's Reddit reposts.
  17. pyrotech

    logo help

    I can grab some stock photos and crop out a part of it to use for your logo. I'll only charge a skydiver's price.
  18. They were all warm-up "mic check" bands for The Beatles, lol.
  19. I changed my facebook profile picture to a cartoon character once. It ended child abuse forever.
  20. My favorite concerts have been ones with Slipknot either headlining or playing. First one I saw was Mudvayne and Slipknot, which was amazing. Another was at the Rockstar Mayhem Fest a couple years ago with Slipknot playing early evening. Perfect time of the day for a mosh pit. Worst concert was at the same music fest, the Rockstar Mayhem Fest. Disturbed played. As much as I enjoy some of their music, they were one of the most boring bands to ever see live. Dragonforce also played at that music fest. Both bands just stood in one spot singing / playing guitar. With Dragonforce's guitar players, I can understand why they can't move, and must focus on having a seizure with their hands on the guitar strings and making it into somewhat of a rhythmic pattern. Disturbed has no excuses. They just aren't very good live. As for someone mentioning that NOFX was their favorite concert... I heard they suck live. ;-)
  21. When I was looking into places to do AFF, I looked into Mile Hi. I was told via email a couple weeks ago that after the AFF jumps, the cost would run about $1500, which brings the total cost to about $3000. Here's a copy/paste of part of the email I got from them: "After you complete the primary AFF levels you will then start to work toward you’re A license. This will require 3 solo jumps, 12 coach jumps (jumping with a certified coach and completing specific air maneuvers), a canopy course, and an A check out dive. As a whole this runs approximately 1,500 with gear rental included. After completing all of the above you will have you’re A license, and can start jumping with any other experienced fun jumper you would like. Fun jumps are 27.00 and 25.00 per jump for gear. You can rent gear for as long as you like."
  22. 100 times this. When I was a contractor, part of the joy was being able to take multiple projects on at once. There were multiple streams of income coming in, which I feel is far more secure than one large source of income. Think of it as stocks... You can risk a lot putting all of your investments into one company, but if you diversify, your risk is lower with the potential for greater returns. Working as an employee at a company, if your boss is a jerk, you either have to find a different full-time gig, hope your boss gets promoted, hope they get fired, or try to move to a different department if there is one available. If a client is being a jerk, you can fire them as a client and move on. As for health insurance benefits, I was paying about the same amount for individual health insurance (with dental) that I am in my group policy, which offer roughly the same benefits. No real gain there by being employed. If you want a pay raise as an employee, you have to hope your boss is willing to give you a few extra dollars a week due to you working your ass off and acquiring new skills as an employee. When you want a raise as a contractor / consultant, you raise your rates or find new clients. Hell, do both. I'll admit, I've run into clients that don't like to pay their invoices on time, but that just comes with the territory. They've all eventually paid, only sometimes it was a week (in one case an entire month) late. It was annoying, but I definitely made a lot more money for the amount of time / work I put into the project than I would have if I were expecting a full-time employer to pay me. I really miss being a contractor sometimes. Being an employee is cool too I guess, being as I get to work on cool projects where I'm currently at, but if it were at a place where the work bored me, I don't know that I'd be able to keep doing it long.
  23. Koala-kabobs Ingredients: 1 medium koala, de-furred 3 large green bell peppers 2 large red onions 2 dozen new potatoes 1 large zucchini 1 Tbsp salt, or to taste 1 tsp white pepper 1 cup plain yogurt 1/4 cup prepared mustard 1/4 cup tomato paste 5 cloves fresh garlic, minced 2 cups vegetable oil Skin and clean koala. Chop peppers and onions into large pieces. Slice zucchini with preferred thickness, and cut slices in half. Cut koala meat into 1-inch cubes and place in a large mixing bowl. Add salt and white pepper and toss to mix well, then add the yogurt, mustard, tomato paste and garlic. Add the vegetables. Add the oil, 1/2-cup at a time, stirring the mixture until you don't see any oil floating on top. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for 2 hours. While the mixture is marinating, turn on the grill and let it get nice and hot, move the hot coals over to one side. Using metal or bamboo skewers, arrange vegetables and koala on each skewer and place on either side of the grill, NOT DIRECTLY OVER THE HEAT; cover grill. Cook for 8 to 10 minutes; turn skewers on the other side for another 5 minutes, or until koala is desired consistency.
  24. You can also do a search for "recruiters (your area)" and maybe throw in the area of expertise you want to find work. When you get a list of recruiting agencies, ask around to see if anyone has had success with them in your area. I found a local recruiting agency that has helped me get several contracts when my own resources were tapped at the time.