murrays

You know, I can't imagine keeping something like that a secret from your wife. What kind of man am I, I mean are you! This is the first Epson I've owned. They get good reviews but I really have no opinion wrt anything else. I really don't know much about dye sub either except that the prints look pretty darn good. Blue skies, -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Fuzzy, The longevity depends...using Epson matte paper gives prints good for 20 years according to Epson. The quality isn't what you would get from having your negatives printed the normal way but it's pretty good. I was amazed at the quality from a $149 printer. This printer is now over a year old so I would assume there are better alternatives out there. A dye sublimation printer would likely give you better results than an inkjet. They are more expensive and I don't know what the material costs are like. Olympus makes a pretty good model. I use an Epson Photo Stylus 780 and figure that my costs for an 8X10 for paper and ink are about $3.00. This will vary somewhat depending on the paper that you use but that's a starting point for you. I saw a post here elsewhere where a suggestion was made to use one of the online services and let people order prints online...thereby getting rid of the hassle for you...but also any profits to be made. Depending on how much you are charging for your time, this might work for you. So, you tell Wendy about the "secret" yet? -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

You might have the CAPS pages in your browser cache. Try flushing your cache. I get a page from Network Solutions saying this domain name is registered with them. I think they have let their domain name lapse. Which is possible if they have stopped operating. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Very cool!! Thanks for making that available. Tell me, how much noise was that formation making? Could you hear it when it was still 8000-9000 feet high? -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Looks to me like CAPS is probably defunct. Apparently the CAPS third party insurance was cancelled by one of the directors without anybody else's knowledge a while back. Christine Mank (a strong CAPS supporter from the beginning) thinks it is over. So, something has happened but I have no definitive news. Jim Mercier getting out of the sport is pretty big news. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Which is too bad as the key frame rate will increase/decrease the file size and quality considerably if I understand their purpose correctly. I would find it helpful to learn the rate used on different videos I've downloaded to see what works for skydiving footage. Well, learning the frame rate and codec is pretty useful and the old trial and error method on key frame rates can always be used to find the sweet spot for a given method of delivery. Cheers, -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

I quit my habit of 16 years cold turkey nearly 20 years ago now (Yeah, I'm a fossil ). It was hell, absolute hell...but worth every second of it. I used the One Day at a Time approach myself. I would add that sometimes you have to quit for the next ten seconds. I used to count to ten and take deep breaths when I was on the threshold of bumming a smoke and firing one up. This seemed to get me over the worst cravings. Slowly, they went away. RE: Oral and Manual... I played a million video games to occupy my hands, took lots of walks and tried to keep busy. For me, the cigarette with coffee in the morning seemed an impossible hurdle. When I had tried to quit numerous other times I had also eliminated my coffees...this just made me more miserable. I decided that I would enjoy my coffee without a smoke on my last attempt. It seemed weird the first few times but I really enjoyed my coffees after that as it was a craving I could give in to. I wouldn't sit around too much after eating as that was another favourite time for a smoke. Luckily, not too many of my friends smoked so I wasn't tempted too badly by being surrounded by smokers. I had previously used the One Day at a Time method to quit drinking so my inhibitions weren't ever lowered by drinking. I'd suggest being very low-key with alcohol for the first few months as it will definitely reduce your willpower. Have one or two but if you get into it your chances of smoking go way up. Best of luck to anybody butting out. It's a miserable thing to do but hang in there, it'll get easier and you'll be very glad you quit. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Thanks Quade, Do you know how to determine the key frame rate in a file? I see under Video track properties that the frame rate and codec are shown but I don't see key frame rate anywhere. Thanks, -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

I can't figure out why some .mov files won't allow you to shuttle back and forth either. I use QT all the time and when I open really large DV files in it I can shuttle easily but I've downloaded a few that do exactly what you describe. I use QT to prepare different sizes of videos..to put on the web or put on a cd for someone. As Phree notes, you can make very high quality files...large files but excellent quality. The size of files in .mov depends on the codec (Sorenson, H.263, Cinepak, etc), frame rate (15fps, 30 fps), key frame rate(every 5 frames, every 10 frames, etc) and size of the video(320x240, 240x180, etc). QT Pro is a very useful little program for creating files of various sizes , etc for various uses and qualities and for doing some conversions. But, I think that you have to have more than one player. Windows Media Player and Quicktime are what I use as well as one other for divx files. If the file is in RAM format I don't need to see it. EVER. I echo the above complaints about Realplayer. Pain in the ass piece of software. I'll never have it on a machine of mine ever again. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

That was a very close game despite Canada dominating the play. The U.S. goalie nearly stole it ! Goepfert was outstanding...42 shots on goal. Our guys have their work cut out for them against Russia on Sunday...the Russians are big and skilled and Canada has to play with more composure in the defensive zone. When they got scrambly the U.S. got good chances. btw - I work for Canadian defensemen Nathan Paetsch and Ian White's agent and have met both of them. They are outstanding young men. I hope that they come back to the prairies with gold. This is great hockey. And no, that's not an oxymoron Canada - Russia for the gold...another great showdown! -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Thank-you for linking to that post by Bill Booth. The part about the pull-out body position and ellipticals is another reason for me to consider a BOC throwout on my next rig. I just entered the ZP age and my Stiletto 135 has been giving me funky openings which I am endeavouring to find the cause of. This is a possible contributing factor that I had not heard of before. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Like Rob said, this is a 25 year old debate. I'm a pull-out user but I would consider jumping a BOC throwout as they eliminate most of the bridle misrouting problems that have killed a lot of skydivers over the years. That being said, a friend of mine with 9000+ jumps packed himself a pc in tow with a BOC throw-out last summer so you still have to be careful with your bridle routing. I've had a pullout for 2000 jumps/21 years now. 3-4 floating handles, no reserve rides as I find them easy to find...just sweep your hand from the lower right corner towards the pin until you grab the handle or its bridle and then deploy normally. If you don't get it right away, pull your reserve. It will deploy into clean air. I've seen 1 person have a reserve ride as a result of a floating handle. I've seen quite a few reserve rides as a result of hard pulls on throw-outs where the pc bunched up in the pouch and several more from pilot-chutes in tow....which is a malfunction that I've never wanted to have. The other consideration that continue influenced my choice is that a dislodged handle on a throw-out results in a deployment which can be very dangerous on large rw loads or to a cameraman on a small rw load. Packing a pullout pc for my old Racer involves folding it in half and stuffing it into the bottom of my container...nothing could be simpler. The handle I use has a plastic stiffener in it and the ends fit in two pockets on the bottom of the container. Zero maintenance for 1000 jumps now. I don't think I'd jump one that relied on velcro to stay in place. If some rigs still use velcro for their pullouts, I'd get a BOC throwout on that rig instead. I don't recommend them for low-time jumpers but I think that once you have a 100 or so jumps they are fine provided you adequately prepare yourself and fully understand their operation and packing. Many of my original concerns regarding throw-outs have been addressed in newer rigs ... BOC with a good pouch reduces bridle misrouting potential, the potential for a pc in tow and the potential for unintentional deployments. A BOC throw-out is definitely recommended if you jump a wingsuit. Whatever you choose, be sure you understand it and have a plan for whatever failure modes you may encounter. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

I'd like to thank everybody for taking the time to give me some suggestions and share their experiences with me. You gave me lots to think about and it is much appreciated. I think that I will first work on getting my Stiletto opening better. The openings aren't hard, it is a matter of getting it to open without spinning. The canopy belonged to a friend of mine that died of non-jumping causes and I know absolutely nothing of its history. I just got the line charts from PD and am going to check out the trim, etc. and pay very close attention to my body position at pull time. I will also try to compensate for any one-sided openings during the opening as this seems to be quite important. If I still am having squirelly openings I will send it in to them for an inspection. Your posts made me realize that I like a canopy that is fast and flattens out on final after some easy front riser inputs. I don't think I'd like to get a 7-cell like the Spectre just yet. As I don't intend on jumping with anything other than a sidemounted PC-1 I don't think I will need the extra-soft openings of a Spectre....although if I could use one to do CRW after RW I might consider one sooner. My fellow dinosaurs are all jumping old 7 cells and I get quite envious when I see them put together a biplane after an rw jump. I appreciate the concern and words of caution, particularly from Phree, about swooping and using these new smaller canopies. Going from a PD150 (F111) to a Stiletto 135 is a 10% downsize and a two generation jump in canopy design and it has my full attention. The young guys on the dz have been very good about helping me make this transition without pranging myself. I have no intention of doing 270 front riser swoops like they do...I don't have the gonads for that. I sure wish we had jumpable weather up here right now as I would love to demo a Samurai while Big Air has their deal on. I think that my decision tree is Stiletto and if it doesn't work - Samurai or Lotus - Spectre. Thanks again guys, -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

I haven't read rec.skydiving for at least 6 years. It was one of the best things about the internet in 1993/4 when I first got on-line but the noise level got too high and I left. I started a Canadian mail list in 1994 that is still going ... we've been arguing about the same damn things for 8 years now. I find the moderated forums help people stay on topic and civil to one another. DZ.com is what I had hoped my mail list would be like 8 years ago. I really like it "here". I don't think rec.skydiving has gotten better from Martin's post and from comments posted in response. I don't think Martin's day spent here really gave him the basis for many of his comments. Murray

Have you tried exporting it to Premiere? I believe you can set the input source for each project in Premiere so I'd guess that you try it once for NTSC and then in another project for PAL if that doesn;t work. Once you have it on a computer in an editable form you should be able to convert however you wish using Premiere. A relatively inexpensive program like Quicktime PRO will convert NTSC to PAL and vice versa once it has a dv file in either format. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Wrt Photoshop Elements 2 - I have it and bought a book called Photoshop Elements 2 Solutions by Mikkel Aaland to help me use it. People say it has 90% of the functionality of Photoshop...or about 75% more than most of us will ever need I wouldn't call it intuitive to use...I really have found the book helpful as it is very task-oriented. The manual tells you what everything does but not what you can do or how to solve certain problems. I think it will do what you want it to do and then some at a fraction of the price. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Apple iMac 15" Flat panel 800 mhz G4 60 gb 768 Ram Superdrive (DVD-R & CD-RW) OS 10.2.3 jaguar I loves me Mac Happy New Year Everybody!! -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

I'd love to get some of those as well. I just bought a Ripcord hardcover book on Amazon Auctions. It's a hoot! Having some of the tv episodes would bring back a lot of memories. Murray -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

I know one person who died when she had a total on her reserve. The design flaw may have been caught if she had pulled her15{ks. I know another woman who nearly bounced due to a hard pull caused by poor rig design. Today's one pin containers have pretty much eliminated the chances of the above occurring as these were older two pin containers. However, I know another woman whose arms were to short to dump her reserve....she discovered this when dumping her reserve for a repack. So, do I think that you should dump your reserve for a repack...ABSOLUTELY!! Especially for lowtimers...get yourself in a hanging harness, cutaway and pull your reserve. I always put my rig on and fire that reserve off when it's time to repack. I think it's good for people to watch their reserve being packed and to ask questions of their rigger. Knowing your rig is a good thing. Murray

Static line...the only way to go back when I started. I think today's AFF/PFF and tandem are better ways to learn.

A book that I would highly recommend for its Quicktime tricks is iMovie2 Solutions by Erica Sadun. Lots of ways to use Quicktime for p in p, masks, titles and etc, etc. She also uses Photoshop Elements to edit stills, etc and use in conjunction with iMovie and QT. That's where I learned how to use the Size-Adjust to do lots of neat things. The Quicktime and Photo editing stuff would be applicable to Windows users as well. If you use a Mac, you get all the iMovie2 tips as well....but a Windows person could likely substitute their dv editor for lots of the iMovie steps. Murray

Bill, Quicktime Pro will do it for you...as long as the Windows version works the same as the Mac. I just opened a dv file and did the following.. Movie..Get Movie properties...Select Video track, Size, Click on Adjust and then click and drag in the window to rotate the video to whatever angle you want. $29 from Apple at www.quicktime.com Murray -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

The recent tandem fatality in Hawaii has me wondering if a separate tandem forum might be a useful resource. Thoughts? Murray

Quade, anybody else, What would be required of a software publisher to make it possible to import and edit micro-MV footage? Is this a licensing issue for the codec involved? Would extra hardware be required? I look at the different formats that Final Cut Pro will handle and wonder...why not this one as well? Is it just a matter of time or is Sony trying to tie purchasers of these cameras to Sony computers which will edit the mmv footage? Murray

The copies of Skies Call 1 and 2 that I ordered just arrived on Christmas Eve. I've spent a bit of time looking through them again...pretty cool. How did anybody survive the gear of the seventies??? I am wondering if anybody knows of Andy Keech's whereabouts these days. I am guessing that he would be in the vicinity of 65-70 years old unless he started jumping very young. It's interesting that there really haven't been that many photo books done since the last Skies Call. Zwischen Himmel und Erde and Norm Kent's book are the only two that I can think of. Given the huge changes in the sport in the 90's, it would be great if somebody chronicled the Freefly Revolution in photos as well as all the video that is done on every jump these days. Merry Christmas everyone, Murray