Mr17Hz

Joke? A business owner should ask themselves a number of questions before reading such a claim. How much money will your business lose if your software is unavailable due to internet connectivity on a Saturday afternoon? RealDropzone is the only product on the market that works online, and offline, in one fully integrated product. If your internet goes down for a few hours, it is business as usual. How much double entry is involved in your software product? Does it keep track of online reservations, check in, manifesting, marketing, and act as a point-of-sale product with credit card reader integration? How flexible are the credit card processing requirements of your existing product? Are you forced to enter a $$ value into your credit card machine, and then a second time into a software product, causing double entry and a chance for financial error? Does your software product take an excessive percentage of credit card transactions? Such as a whopping 6%? RealDropzone allows you to use your own providers or ours, and the markup is only 0.35%. Does your software vender charge hourly for support? We offer support as a part of the subscription. It is very easy to lose $3,000 of profit in a single day because your system failed you. The setup fee that I charge depends on the implementation, and it includes 1-3 weeks of ON SITE implementation and training. The full amount is then credited towards license fees. The subscription also entitles you to RealWaiver, a full featured paperless waiver system, utilizing kiosks with electronic signature tablets. The subscription also entitles you to RealRigger, a full featured product to keep track of your parachute usage and maintenance through a touch screen kiosk used by packers and rig maintenance personnel. For you to claim that “You have a program that you pay $20 a month for that can basically accomplish the same thing” is nothing more than a demonstration that you do not fully understand exactly what RealDropzone is capable of. I would be happy to provide a live demonstration for you. There is simply no other product like it on the market, and it is a full featured business intelligence and management tool for dropzones. The full product is now being utilized at many of the most well-known drop zones in the country. It has seen more than 10,000 hours of product development. Every single implementation we do has added even more capability. What product is it that you’re utilizing for $20/mo? I would be happy to overview the differences for you for that specific product. RealSkydiving is a multi-employee business that has been supporting the industry since 2006, we've remained in business by offering innovative products not offered by others, and keeping our clients happy by adding value to their business everywhere we can. We're not taking that install fee and blowing it on new skydiving gear. The mark up on our services has always been very modest. It pays for onsite training and implementation and hosted server provisioning, as well as needed customizations to the product to fit your specific business needs. Any 'profit' gets re-invested back into new product development. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

Building drones is a lot easier than you think. $1,500 and a few weeks and you can have a quadrotor, helicopter, or fixed wing aircraft that can fly exactly where you tell it to go where it can lock a GPS signal, indoor flight is still experimental and would require more R&D, but this stuff is VERY accessible. http://www.DIYDrones.com http://code.google.com/p/arducopter/ Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

This thread was started over 2 years ago, It's funny seeing replies to it now. JumpRun was abandoned. 2 years after ProSkydiving announced a new version, they still have not released anything. RealDropzone actually exists and has even more capability today than it did 2 years ago. Plus it's running at over double the dropzones we had running it when JumpRun was aquired by ProSkydiving. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

Waivers are saved in four places. First, on the local kiosk, then, on the local server, then on a remote server in texas (which has fault talolerant drives, and is protected by armed gaurds 24/7), and lastly, by nightly backups that move the data to new york. It's a lot more secure than a single stapled packet of paper in a box at the DZ. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

I'm not playing lawyer. I made software as instructed by lawyers and business owners. I was told by lawyers that no opposing attorney would ever contest if it was their signature or not. I disclaimed my entire post by making it clear that I am not a lawyer. I am confident however that federal ESIGN laws have been passed by congress (back in 2000) that make electronically signed documents JUST AS VALID as ink signed documents, and that this solution follows all of the capture and encryption laws exactly (I used libraries provided by www.Topaz.com, who use this technology in MANY industries, often to protect many billions of dollars from fraud.) Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

Good Question, I think I've covered some of this in my prior post, but also consider that we're asking for a lot of customer information up front... Name, Address, Email, Birthdate, Drivers License number or passport (required by UPT), gender, marketing "how did you hear about us". Frankly, it would be a pain in the ass to enter all of that information via a cell phone. Having a keyboards and not making the customer feel like they are supposed to have a phone for this are to very important aspects to the overall customer experience at the DZ. There are also legal concerns, which I covered in an above post. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

Let me prefix all of this by saying that I am not an attorney, and that you should consult your own attorney for his opinion on my words. It is also important to note that laws regarding validity of waivers of liability in general will vary state to state. The authenticity of the electronic signature has never been challenged, even in multi-billion dollar real estate disputes. It is protected by the federal ESIGN law that deems a properly collected and encrypted electronic signature to be just as legally binding as pen signature on paper, or a photocopy of that, for that matter. You will not have to prove that the signature is actually theirs (as a final stage your employee is looking at every signature collected on the software and visually comparing it against that customers government issued ID), and you’ve got a witness signature. What you may have to prove is this: - Was the customer not fully aware that this agreement applied to them? - Was the customer misled through a confusing process, to sign something they did not realize they were signing? - Was the customer let to believe they were signing something completely different? - Was the Dropzone genuinely interested in making sure that all customers are FULLY AWARE of the agreement they are making with the business before they participated in activities, or was the Dropzone being deceptive? The next thing to consider is that a trial is not all about facts. There is an emotional side, and a psychological side. This is especially true when you’ve chosen to have a trial by jury. What you need to do is calmly and plainly make a case to the jury that there is no way that the business misled the customer. Here are measures that we take to assure this can happen: - We have a separate page before the waiver begins that explains how very important it is to read the waiver entirely, stressing that they will be giving up important legal rights. - Our digital “Pages” are designed not only to look good on the screen, but also in print. Every single page of the waiver is signed separately, and then finally the entire document is signed as one long document. Every single page can then be presented as a SEPARATE EXIBIT, each blown up on a giant poster board with its own signature and date at the bottom. An attorney can then point to it by an attorney during a questioning in addition to handing out copies for individual review. - After signing every page individually, we present the entire document as scrollable text so that it is signed again: together. We did this for two reasons, first I got a couple of different opinions on how to handle multiple signatures from the document storage perspective and I wanted to cover all bases, and second; this further helps to drive in the point that the customer had every opportunity to read and understand this document before agreeing to the terms. - Our software uses clean easy to read fonts and black and white contrast. While the waiver content itself is decided by the DZ, we recommend that everything is the same size and is very uniform and clean. Each page of the waiver should be treated like a work of art, as you may need to present it to an audience. - At the bottom of EVERY PAGE, right next to the signature line, we bluntly declare “You may be injured or killed while skydiving.” Not only are you required to scroll to the bottom of the text, but the bottom of the waiver must be clearly visible at the time you are signing. (you can’t scroll back up to the top without starting your signature over) - Our solution does not use iPads or other tablets that the customer can walk around with. They sign their waiver at a fixed station using a workstation or fixed laptop computer, exposing an “ATM like environment” that very clearly feels like each individual person is signing the waiver separately, where they have time to overcome any peer pressure, and are not being distracted by others during the process. - At existing implementations, there are high definition security cameras in place that capture the customer’s face when they walk in the door, while they are watching the tandem video, and while they are at the kiosks. This can be used to show the ‘likeness’ of the customer, that they were not coerced in any way. - The staff component of this software requires that the signatures be reviewed and compared against the customers ID, the staff member is then able to act as a witness to the transaction. It is important to note that we went through MANY revisions of this software since the time we first thought it out before we let it go live. There are actually some products that run on an iPad now and claim to accomplish the same thing that my solution does (and technically, they do), but a lot about my solution is the presentation to the customer, and how all of this will be presented to a judge or jury. The iPad solutions that I have seen on the market might work for real estate, and frankly the ones I have reviewed are actually more expensive (Thanks Apple!). That having been said, if you find a competing product that is comparable for less money I can look into matching their price, or clarifying why our product stands out as different. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

Only one person can use the kiosk at a time. A customer spends around 5 minutes on the kiosk entering information and then reading and signing multiple pages. Take a look at the photo gallery link on my first post, Skydive Hawaii is VERY large and has 15 kiosks. Skydive Long Island is large and has 8 kiosks. With 3 kiosks you can get 9 customers through in 15 minutes, so this would be the number for a smaller DZ. If you're more than a cessna dropzone I would recommend 6+ kiosks so that it's very convenient for your customers. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

To be honest the cost may not be economical for a smaller drop zone, but I’ll let you decide: A three kiosk setup would run you about $3060 plus travel expenses to set it up plus $135/yr in support. This price would include: * 3 laptops to be used as kiosks (assumes $400 per laptop) * 3 Topaz signaturegem 1x5 pads (assumes $170 per pad) * 3 software licenses (assumes $450 per kiosk) * Complete setup of your waiver document. * 1.5 days onsite setup and configuration (You would be required to pay airfare from Chicago as well as provide local transportation and lodging) * We would provide offsite backup as part of the support plan. * We would provide unlimited customer support as part of the support plan. * In order for our offsite backup to be viable, you must have a stable high speed internet connection on site. * You would need a computer we can use as a file server, it does not need to be fast or new, but it should be reliable. * You would need a windows based computer for the staff “signature verification” portion of the software. If you don’t have one, add $600. This could also be used as the file server. For more than three kiosks I’ll go down on the license fee cost, but the hardware requirements remain the same. If you want workstations separate mouse/keyboard/monitor configuration instead of a laptop you'll pay a little extra for the hardware, but honestly the laptops have been doing great at Skydive Hawaii, almost a year and 20,000 waivers and all of their 15 stations are still fully functional. It's an even better product if you're running RealDropzone because the customer profile is overwritten / created with all of the customers detail when they type it in, so you literally NEVER have to type a customers name or personal information ever. Consider that you're saving on: Never having to order new printed waivers (or wear and tear on your copy equipment). Never having to "pre-load" clipboards again. Not have to store documents in boxes for 7 years. Never have any trouble looking up a waiver if needed. As I said I'm not sure if it's worth it at a small cessna dropzone where your major bottleneck is the lift capacity of your aircraft, but for medium to larger size dropzones it sure makes life easier on the ground when your staff doesn't have to handle the paperwork. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

Okay, I see my "math" failure now. It turns out that what is advertised and labeled as a "20lbs ream" actually only weighs 6lbs. When I googled to find what a ream of paper weighed and many websites agreed that they came in 24, 22, 20, and 18lbs weights, I incorrectly assumed that a ream was 20lbs. I should have known better just based on having picked them up on a regular basis. My math was wrong, so it turns out that yes, the total is just under 1 metric ton (1,920lbs). Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

A ream of paper weighs 20lbs. A ream of paper has 500 sheets. It takes 320 reams of paper to make 160,000 sheets. 320 reams * 20lbs = 6,400 lbs. According to google's calculator, 6400lbs = 2.90299117 metric tons. Where is my math wrong? Sounds great!! Not too sure about your maths though. A sheet of paper weighs about 5g so 160,000 sheets is 800kg or 0.8 metric tonnes. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

Good questions. We obviously approached the subject very carefully. The short answer is yes, these are fully enforceable do to a set of laws dubbed “ESIGN” laws. You can find information about the laws here: http://www.topazsystems.com/links/s761.pdf This article helps to put the law into perspective for those of us who don’t read legalese. http://www.topazsystems.com/information/esignlawexplained.pdf From the technical perspective, the tablet or surface that “records” the electronic signature records every point of the signature in real time, so that the exact speeds of the lines being drawn is recorded – not just an “image” of the signature. That information is then encrypted using the original document as the encryption key, so that only the original document can be used to extract the signature. The signature and document are then combined and stored. (This is the short version). There is absolutely no way an opposing attorney would try to challenge the validity of the signature, however we were not satisfied with just this fact. Our concern was that the user experience itself would be challenged, with a claim of “I did not understand what I was signing”, or “The process was confusing and misleading”. We overcame these concerns after some carefully thought out details to our implementation, which I may go into in more depth later but I’m about to head out for some food right now :-) Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

Just this past year I've put together a software/hardware package that allows for paperless waivers of liability. Here are some pictures of the product in action: https://picasaweb.google.com/102460970856039188704/RealDropzoneInAction# I just recently heard about another dropzone using another paperless waiver system, and it made me wonder: How many dropzones are doing this now? Does your local dropzone have a paperless kiosk system? We've already saved 160,000 sheets of paper at Skydive Hawaii. At 20lbs a ream, that's 3 metric tons of paper. (which no longer needs to be stored for 7 years). What other dropzones are using a paperless waiver system? Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

Contact [email protected], they have a great AFP program with courseware available. It's an 18 step program with canopy and freefall parts. I went through this training myself in 2004 and I can't say enough good things about the extended approach. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

You can also email us at [email protected] Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

We had a problem with our Voice Mail configuration for the good part of 2012 messages were being sent to an invalid email address. I didn't figure this out until November when I tried leaving a message myself. You can call me directly on my Cell Phone at (630) 688-7911, or leave a message on the sales line at (630) 444-7511. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

I am the author of RealDropzone. It's being used at the following dropzones: www.SkydiveChicago.com www.SkydiveLongIsland.com www.SkydiveHawaii.com www.SkydiveNewEngland.com www.SkydiveCmh.com The product is continuously under development, we have 1.5 full time staff members that support the product and IT at the dropzones running it. Just this year we've added to major components to the product. Paperless Waivers. Yes, seriously. We have a product (RealWaiver) that replaces your paper waivers with a kiosk that accepts electronic signatures and creates legally binding Waiver of Liability documents. The kiosk also collects customer information which imports directly into your manfifest software. Two dropzones are already using this feature, we've accempted over 25,000 electronically signed waivers in 2012. Packer/Instructor kiosks: We have a new product (RealRigger) that provides an interface where Tandem Instructors can 'check out' a rig with a couple of taps on a kiosk screen, and packers record which rig they've packed. This replaces hand written "signature sheets" at your packing station and significantly reduces the amont of time needed to report on and manage your gear. The admin side of this product tracks jumps per rig, per main, per reserve, etc. Output reports can also be used for payrol purposes. Also in 2012 we've added a significant number of reports and interactive reporting tools. These features are just the new features in 2012. The reservation system and Manifest system is very comprehensive. I'll be demonstrating the product at the 2013 PIA Symposium and USPA DZO Conference. Both RealRigger and RealWaiver can be purchased separetly or licensed as a package with RealDropzone. Matt Christenson RealSkydiving, Inc. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

SkydiveLodge.com completely stole the wording from the Skydive Chicago site (I know it's not the other way around because I wrote those words personally) SkydiveLodge.com's version: www.SkydiveTandemGreenville.com Welcome to Skydive Tandem Greenville's official website! We are the premier drop zone east of the Dallas / Fort Worth area and have the only Skydive Lodge in the business. Built from the ground up to provide first time skydivers the ultimate in tandem skydiving training, atmosphere, and adrenaline pumping freefall exhilaration. Come for a skydive then relax at the Lodge with new friends while you watch a video of your experience. SkydiveChicago.com's version: Welcome to www.SkydiveChicago.com, the official website of Skydive Chicago™! Take a look around! We are not only the premier Dropzone in the Chicagoland area, but the best. Built from the ground up to handle a skydivers every need. Come for a skydive then relax on our 220 acre mega resort! See why more people choose Skydive Chicago than any other dropzone. At the time of writing this it is no longer on Skydive Chicago's site, however you can see how it looked earlier this year at www.archive.org Come on guys, really? Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

RealDropzone tracks USPA membership, reserve repack dates, and waiver re-signing dates. It does not currently track pack jobs but we're building this functionality into it sometime in 2011 for Skydive Columbus. There is a work-around you can use in the current version using a "fake plane" to track packjobs but it is not ideal. Gear Rental and very basic counter sales are currently possible however we don't have a full retail sales package that tracks inventory numbers, barcodes, and advanced tax senarios at this time. It is high on our list. As soon as we have finished with 2011 new dropzone installations (We're welcoming Skydive New England, Skydive Long Island, Skydive Columbus, and Snake River Skydiving to the RD subscribers list) We're also deep into talks with 4 other dropzones 2 of which may be looking at may-june implemenations. After these businesses are up and running with our current functionality we will shift gears and focus on enhancements. The top two enhancements at this point are advanced facebook event integration, automated friend invites, automated facebook customer wall follow-up posts, and a more advanced retail sales product. If you would like a demonstration of my product, please email me at [email protected] and we can set up a 90 minute teleconference where I can demonstrate the product to you one-on-one. Also, we've reduced pricing for the full online/offline enterprise package since recent posts, and are able to provide an online-only solution to match competing products and pricing. For more detail see www.RealDropzone.com Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

During my demonstration during the DZO Conference luncheon I significantly dropped the pricing model of RealDropzone. Our fees or now only 0.35% the price of a student jump, or only $0.70 for a tandem priced at $200. Additionally I am now able to disable certain functionality of the product so that I can directly compete on pricing with competing products such as ProSkydiving. For anyone looking for an online reservation solution ONLY, I will beat any offer you have with ProSkydiving. Also, ProSkydiving can be run in parallel to RealDropzone without conflict, so if you're already signed up with them, I challenge you to compair the difference for yourself, accepting reservations on YOUR OWN website where you are not competing with yourself for website traffic and search engine preference. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

FYI: During the DZO Conference this month I released a brand new pricing model making RealDropzone even more affordable than ever. Also, While we don't have any direct competition because this is the only software product in it's class, we are now able to disable certain functionality so that we can BEAT any price offered by products offering other online reservation services. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

My product will do the same thing that ProSkydiving is doing for you, and for only $0.95 not $5.70, so you can keep the extra $4.75, or lower your prices and pass it around. Additionally, the reservation system is integrated into the manifest solution, which is integrated into the jump monitor... So you'll be saving much more than that cash - you'll be saving even more time! I hope to demonstrate this to you in Reno! Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

I am in the process of writing an instructional course on developing software using Microsoft Silverlight. Part of the course will have students creating a photo gallery and a video gallery in class. I need media content for this course. In total I would like 4 albums (categories) of around 10 photos each, and 5 videos (each less than 90 seconds in length). Is there anybody who would be willing to supply these for me? I thought it would be fun if they were Skydiving photos and videos. They need to be copyright free with no watermarks, however I will provide credits with name and web URL within the text of the printed lab guides. the photos need to be high resolution - part of the gallery includes a viewer that allows a user to zoom in just by hovering over the image. The videos must not contain copywrited music, and must be politically correct. Any takers? Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

Visit http://www.realdropzone.com for information on RealDropzone. This is a commercial application whose feature list has become too long to list here, priced in a way that scales to the size of your dropzone. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

i've pasted the feed XML which contains links you can cut and paste out. this XML can be found here: [/url]http://www.skydiveradio.com/skydiveradio_rss.xml[url] CorymbCaster 60 Skydive Radio http://www.SkydiveRadio.com en-us Copyright 2005-2009 by Skydiving Radio, All rights reserved. Weekly discussions including skydiving disciplines, latest news, interviews, contests, and product reviews. Look for our Podcast in the iTunes Music Store Weekly discussions including skydiving disciplines, latest news, interviews, contests, and product reviews. Look for our Podcast in the iTunes Music Store Dave and Stump [email protected] no Show #140, January 15th 2011 - with the Golden Knights [email protected] http://traffic.libsyn.com/skydiveradio/sr140_01_15_11.mp3 Sat, 15 Jan 2011 03:13:05 GMT Show #139, December 15th 2010 - with Trunk and Erin from Hypoxic [email protected] http://traffic.libsyn.com/skydiveradio/sr139_12_15_10.mp3 Wed, 15 Dec 2010 01:11:36 GMT Show #138, December 1st 2010 - with Melissa Nelson [email protected] http://traffic.libsyn.com/skydiveradio/sr137_11_15_10.mp3 Tue, 16 Nov 2010 01:04:01 GMT Show #136, November 1st 2010 - with SDC Standard XP [email protected] [email protected] http://traffic.libsyn.com/skydiveradio/sr134_09_28_10.mp3 Tue, 28 Sep 2010 19:40:23 GMT Show #133, August 25th 2010 - With John Leblanc (Part 2) [email protected] http://media.libsyn.com/media/skydiveradio/sr133_08_25_10.mp3 Wed, 25 Aug 2010 03:28:34 GMT Show #132, July 19th 2010 - With John Leblanc (Part 1) [email protected] http://media.libsyn.com/media/skydiveradio/sr123_09_29_09.mp3 Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:43:24 GMT Show #122, August 27th 2009, with Team Rhythm [email protected] http://media.libsyn.com/media/skydiveradio/sr122_08_26_09.mp3 Fri, 28 Aug 2009 00:46:41 GMT Show #121, August 5th 2009 - Summerfest Coverage [email protected] http://media.libsyn.com/media/skydiveradio/sr121_08_05_09.mp3 Wed, 05 Aug 2009 02:26:52 GMT Show #120, July 22nd 2009 - With Blue Skies Magazine [email protected] http://media.libsyn.com/media/skydiveradio/sr120_07_22_09.mp3 Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:27:33 GMT Show #119, July 15th 2009 with Frank Shisler [email protected] http://media.libsyn.com/media/skydiveradio/sr119_07_15_09.mp3 Thu, 16 Jul 2009 23:37:10 GMT Show #118, July 8th 2009 - With Chris Gay and Mark Gregory [email protected] and the 2009 Redemption Boogie . Dave and Karry make lots of jumps. Karry learns to lead tracking dives and Dave funnels half of team Rhythm. Safety First with Brian Germain discusses decision altitudes and how modern safety equipment should or should not effect them. Pic of the Week - The Canadian Skyhawks demonstration team delivers the American flag at the Salute to Veterans Air Show in Columbia, MO. Photo by Meredith Ottery. We talk with Chris Gay and Mark Gregory of the US CRW team about all things CRW. More info at canopyformationspecialists.com. Also, check out the new video Canopy Control: Core Essentials at vasst.com. Cornhusker State Games to include skydiving for the first time this year. Demo at Memorial Stadium gone bad. Make sure to follow what we're up to at facebook.com/skydiveradio and twitter.com/skydiveradio. ]]> http://media.libsyn.com/media/skydiveradio/sr118_07_08_09.mp3 Thu, 09 Jul 2009 02:47:07 GMT Show #117, June 24th 2009 - LSPC 50th Anniversary [email protected]