Mr17Hz

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Everything posted by Mr17Hz

  1. In my experience hanging around dropzones, Tandem Master and Tandem Instructor are used interchangably in the US - I'm not sure what the official USPA titles are - but unofficially they're the same thing. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.
  2. This is all very serious. It should be made a sticky. Here is a link to where to find the contact information from your house representatives. Some do not accept email unless it is made through their web form, others will, but writing a letter is sometimes the best way to get through. Print the letter four times and drop one in the mailbox once a week. Hands write the address and it's more likely to stand out. http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW_by_State.shtml Here is the link to find your Senators: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm REMEMBER THAT IF YOU WANT ANY WRITE TO COMPLAIN ABOUT THE GOVERNMENT, IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO COMMUNICATE WITH THEM. Whether you're talking about the senate, the house, or just the USPA - unless you communicate your opinions they go unheard. A single letter can make a difference. It gives senators that are already on your side more firepower and drive. It also has a chance of changing the mind of a senator who would otherwise be 'impartial' because he heard no reason for complaint. The authors of this bill probably don't have any idea how it will negatively effect skydiving. It was clearly written to try to get more money from airline companies for homeland security. Skydiving operations should not have the same responsibility as airway corporations in paying for security. One suggestion that could be made is that the tax is only made for flights that take off and land at different airports - this would exclude most 'recreational' uses, such as skydiving, gliding, and tours. Size of aircraft and amount of fuel on board could also be considered for exclusions that would allow skydiving to continue to exist in the USA. Our sport is at risk. This is your opportunity to make a difference, let your voice be heard. Don't wait until it's too late. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.
  3. You've got over 300 posts on dropzone.com and you just passed AFF level 3?! Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.
  4. If you buy a nice workstation class dell, you won't have any problem fitting 4 hard drives in the system. You can also tinker by adding PCI expansion cards and new drives without breaking the service plan. The only thing that needs to be the same is the power supply, case, motherboard, and processor. Ram you can add yourself but it does need to be on the approved list of vendors. If someone is asking for price advice online, chances are they're not the kind of person to tinker. If you do decide to go the "it's cheaper and I can tinker" route, you need to identify that at some point in the next three years you may *need* to tinker with it before you can use it anymore. If you get a complete support package you will always have a guy on site with new parts if something breaks - meaning no unexpected 'tinker' downtime or costs. Plus, you're going to save yourself a TON of issues by using devices that have well supported (tens of thousands of devices are in use) *digitally signed* drivers. It drives me nuts when I see people click that "this driver is not signed, install anyway?" button on that cheap $35 component they bought. Signed drivers means that it had to pass an API compatibility test - one that will specifically check for thread-safe issues; the number one reason why windows systems end up with "random issues"... because the hardware layer is considerably more vulnerable to incorrect marshalling between threads - which has the possibility of creating not only memory - but process leaks. The big shop (dell) business and support model is that if anything breaks - they fix it... That means they have a HUGE interest in using QUALITY parts with SUPERIOR driver updates. – because they need to replace bad parts and resolve issues quickly, and at their own expense. If you look at no-name MB companies – they can use the first few versions of their products to work out the bugs, because often customers give up on problems and buy another board; thinking “oh, it just went bad”. The Gigabyte board he specified before has all sorts of poor ratings: Not only is the board no longer in production (why not, what’s wrong with it?) What do customers say about the board? Have fun tinkering! I’m not sure what you mean by PB – Packard Bell? Dude… what year are you living in? Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.
  5. Does anybody have any sucess stories about particular music libraries they've purchased? Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.
  6. First point: What is the speed of the hard drive? This is often overlooked, you want at least a 7,200 RPM drive; I always buy a 10,000 RPM drive. This does mean that you will get less space for the money - and you can't get as large of a drive... I will ussually get one smaller drive that is a 10,000 RPM for my OS and applications, and then two cheap large drives that are software mirrored for archived files. Second point: Time and time and time again I see people try to save money by going to home or shop built PCs... I'm a PC Guy - but one thing that these MAC guys have is that they HAVE to buy from apple - which means every MAC owner gets the same quality PC. I would strongly recommend purchasing from a large company, my favorite is DELL, in addition, purchase the 3 year complete service package that means they come to your house the next day to fix equipment problems. This extra $250USD insurance means you're going to have a nice peice of equipment for years to come. Don't ever buy a PC thinking "I'll just upgrade it in a year". Buy a high quality motherboard, the current most economical high end processor (right before the prices start getting rediculous) and put at least 1GB of ram in a machine - 2 if you're going to do something serious with it; 4 if you're a nut like me. One major benefit of buying from a place like Dell - is that all of their equipment is not only tested - but it's tested with each other - and if a problem arises; dell gets on driver updates right away; because otherwise all the support calls cost them money. Too many places out there make cheap motherboards and other components that are released with minor issues - and never get fixed because the company doesn't loose money on support calls. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.
  7. Does anybody know a good place to find a compiled list of music available in the public domain; potentially with free or cheap downloads... Also, does anyone know the legal method of proving that a song is in fact in the public domain? Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.
  8. I wonder if anyone could fill me in on the easiest process to go through to be able to use popular copyrighted songs on edited tandem videos, and then distribute that video for sale or free (such as posting it on a website). The RRIA's website is retarded. All it does is try to scare you into not pirating music but then does little to help find how to purchase music for distribution or for the use in a promotional video. Maybe I’m just looking in the incorrect areas – but I spent 40 minutes on the web looking for this answer. We all know that many skydiving movies end up with pirated music on them... I've often thought about putting up a site like www.skydivingmovies.com but I fear being sued for movies that others have posted (it happened to youtube). I would like to help dropzones host edited movies on their website, and to it legit. Currently - the only advice I give professionally is "Find music that is in the public domain." I would like to be able to show someone the process of buying a license for a song; I know that you can't just buy a CD in the store... but I also know that it shouldn't be THAT difficult or expensive - because all legit juke box companies have to go through the process - especially those new download juke boxes... If anybody knows how I would pick a song – let’s say freebird for comedic value – and then find out how to purchase a license to use freebird on a promotional video; I would be very interested in the process. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.
  9. One problem that you may always run into when ordering overseas is an item getting stuck up in customs. I have terrible luck with this; of the 20 or so items I've purchased from overseas in my life - 5 of them got held up in customs: ussually for around 2 weeks each, in one case it was almost a month. I ordered a helmet from Cookie composites and it got to me in around 2 weeks... I then ordered a different sized padding; which was mailed the next day; and the padding took a month to get to me - it got held up at US customs. It arrived in new york - they shipped it to washington state, then flown to alaska and held up in "Fish and Wildlife customs", and then finally to Chicago. When I got the package there was no indicaton that they opened it. I almost wish that you could write something on the package that would allow them to open the package and look at the contents instead of taking 3 weeks to do some kind of chemical / scent / xray tests.... or whatever it is that they do. When customs gets involved, you really can't blame the merchant - although after having done some research it does help to make sure that they fill out the forms accuratly. Partially completed forms are more likely to get stopped. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.
  10. I use these terms: Break (separate to begin tracking) Throw or Deploy (initialization of the deployment) In-The-Saddle (under a fully inflated altitude.) I actually don't think that I hear anyone use the term "Open" very often at skydive chicago, however I may also just not notice when they do. I see people with canopies open above me all the time when I'm jumping with groups - my rig takes about 800-900 feet to open every time (ussually when someone sees it they ask me what kind of malfunction it was). It seems most mains ussually take closer to 500-600ft, which means that if everyone deploys at the same time - I'm going to be a few hundred feet lower... That doesn't last long though - I also jump close to a 1:1 wing loading. I've never been concerned about collision at that stage - that's what exit separation and tracking are for. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.
  11. I'm sure that the issue was not that he/she could not do a simple heads down, more that he/she was trying to show you by example that she chooses not to fly heads down - but is still an experienced skydiver. You don't need to be doing any head down flying to have fun on a skydive, you can do plenty of other dives and have a blast. In fact, at 100 jumps you're probably not very safe in the air. I hope these are solos or that you're jumping with VERY experienced people, because the last thing we need is for you to cork into someone at 60MPH when you go unstable and decide to fix it by arching on your belly. I've had 5 digit skydivers say things like "What's your hurry, I didn't downsize to this canopy until I had 5,000 jumps." If you consider the danger level, someone with 400 jumps saying "What's your hurry, I don't jump heads down and I've got 300 more jumps than you do" is proportionally similar. I was told a number of times by jumpers that you should have 150 jumps, and an audible before you even think about freeflying; let alone fly heads down. Why? because when you're freeflying you're not always in a position to be looking at the ground... Could you jump without an altimeter and deploy at the right altitude? This is the kind of advice that goes around my home DZ, Skydive Chicago, which is one of the larger freefly oriented dropzones in the world. I dont care if a 400 jump skydiver, a 15,000 jump instructor, or your wuffo mother told you that you shouldn't be working on jumping heads down at 100 jumps. Unless you happened to have spent hours in the tunnel or have some other form of outside experience that has provided you with a faster learning curve than the rest; the fact remains that not only is it good advice - but that by coming on here and whinning about that advice; you're not proving to anyone that you're mentally ready to be jumping so agressivly. My mother and father told me they thought skydiving might not be the best hobby to get into. I didn't listen to the advice, but I also didn't come onto dropzone.com and tell everyones mom and dad to shut up because they don't know enough about the sport to be giving advice. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.
  12. That's the worst advice I've ever heard... and quite frankly, I don't remember asking for it. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.
  13. Are you for real? If not - I hope you realized that trolling only creates a bad image for our sport, a lot of non skydivers read these threads; and won't as easily catch and sarcastic humor, but instead use what is written as official research in reports and media. If you are - maybe you should think about advice that you're given. While having 400 jumps may be well over what is needed to safely fly heads down - 100 is pretty low. Can you sit stable? What safe position are you going to go into when you become unstable? Are you jumping with audibles? Your 400 jump friend is still alive, and is likely to have seen someone that pushes themselves go in. It happens in this sport, it's a shame that some people don't realize the seriousness of it until they see it happen. You don't need to have tried flying heads down to be a good skydiving, how many people on the 400 way do you think had any heads down time? Choosing not to take advice, or to rate the quality of someone's advice is your own right, and should be excecuted with caution... But coming onto public forums to whine about how little you feel that someone with 4 times as many jumps as you do knows - that's not only immature, but lining you up for a good bounce bingo bet. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.
  14. Also released recently: the Sony HDR-HC7 Expected to ship on or before February 19th 2007 "Place the pinnacle of high definition in your hands with the HDR-HC7 camcorder. It’s never been easier to capture the highest quality, high definition video possible on a MiniDV cassette. " http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_DisplayProductInformation-Start?ProductSKU=HDRHC7&Dept=cameras&CategoryName=dcc_DICamcorders_HighDefinitionVideo Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.
  15. I think that a solution already exists. On January 5th SanDisk started shipping a 32GB, 1.8-inch solid-state drive using a standard ATA interface. http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS7676844023.html I would bet that the sony cameras use a 1.8-inch ATA interface harddrive - being as they're the highest produced standard for small drives (this is the type of drive used in ipods and other small handheld devices). Depending on how sony's on board software works - changing one of these drives out could be as easy as switching them and booting it up. If it requires a pre-formatted hard drive a byte per byte copy or custom format may have to take place... Skydivers will probably not have to do the research work on this as I would bet that others have found this process with the goal of putting higher capacity HDDs in devices, this is even more probable if the same format is used on sony built mp3 players (very likely - why reinvent the wheel?) It won't be long before these drives replace the HDD drives in cameras off the shelves for high end models. The drives are more expensive ($600) but will use considerably less battery power, and are physically lighter; which I suspect will be a reason for their demand. Edit: Confirmed that 1.8 inch drives are used, and easy to physically replace; only unresolved issue would be the format: http://sony.hdr.sr1.googlepages.com/ Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.
  16. I said from the beginning it was a bad idea; but I also know that some people are going to do it anyway; take someone new who really likes showing off his rig to people who don't skydive - or someone who doesn't happen to have extra money to spend on a bag. People make poor decisions. I would rather see them make poor decisions that are less likely to take out the person in the car behind them. I agree that this could be a danger when it comes to disabling the rig - but I didn't suggest anything that would not easily noticable durring a routine gear check - which should be executed at least three times between the time that rig is transported to a DZ, and used on a skydive. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.
  17. I would in no way suggest that this is a good idea, but because some people like to do things that are a bad idea anyway, here are some ideas to make it safer: At the very least: • Make sure an AAD is turned OFF. • Disconnect your RSL. • Put a belt around the rig that does not allow the main or reserve container to be opened. • Find a way to secure your bridle close to the pilot chute so that if you end up with a pilot chute in tow it is only a few feet away from your back; and the pin cannot come out. • Put a second pin in both containers – one that is shaped in such a way that it would not be pulled out with the primary pin. (perhaps a ring with a latch – many ‘detachable keychain’ designs could serve as a good second pin.) Technically; freefly safe rigs are made to withstand 200+ MPH without premature openings… and you’re not likely to be going close to that speed on a bike – but remember that premature openings DO happen – and in the air they are considerably less likely to KILL YOU. If you have a premature opening on a motorcycle at 60MPH on the expressway, you’re very likely to not only be dead – but to take someone else out with you. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.
  18. You need to pull yourself into the year 2007; this is a very out-of-date stereotype and is likely to be insulting to many of the hard working people of African American decent who live lives that are not much different from yours. Inner city ghettos, while a major social problem, make up a very small portion of African American citizens. I work with African Americans in upper management and corporate executive positions on a regular basis. I would be interested to hear why they have any more excitement or danger in their everyday lives than I do. Prejudice and Stereotypes aside, I think this is a very interesting subject: African American participation in skydiving is considerably lower than the African American to everyone else ratio if you look at “out of poverty” census statistics. Those in the poverty class, white, black, blue, orange.. I don’t care what color or race – are not skydivers. This makes me wonder if its cause more by genetic reasons than social and economical reasons – I wonder if the desire for adrenaline release is just not as great in those of African American decent. I’ve seen articles in the past that attempt to identify a link between adrenaline junkies and genetics, but none of them have brought up the genetic differences in race and ethnicity. It would be interesting to see the results of scientific studies of this type, not only in the skydiving industry – but in other extreme sports. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.
  19. I would think that the speed to actually crack bones based on impact pressure alone would be very high, the human body is built in a way that dispurses energy (through the skin / fat / muscles) before it gets to the bone. Remember that directly behind the airplane the air is not traveling very fast, and it's also somewhat thinner as it tries to find normality again. I think the major risk would be the breaking of limbs. Study could be put into finding the best way to exit and then go through transitions to slow the body and end up in an arch as fast as safely possible. I wonder what the best body position would be like... a cannonball? a tracking position? The tipical arch puts the arms at too much of a risk.. they would need to be tight against the body. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.
  20. Here's an idea to work with: Assuming that cabin pressure wasn't an issue... This could be done with a rope, repelling equipment, and a cutaway mechanism. The rope could be secured inside the plane, The jumper could exit slowly around the corner with tention on the secured rope, and then slowly repel horizontally until he was safely behind the plane - at which point he could cutaway from the rope...; simulating a tailgate exit. At this point he's going to need to burn off speed - which could take a while; if he was not an experienced skydiver it would be best to add some kind of droge chute to help slow down the jumpers horizontal speed before deployment. Using this method - the jumper could be sure to avoid hitting the wings at a high speed. One problem that this might cause is that I don't know how HOT the air behind the plane gets. It would be a shame if everything was working fine except that all of the hair was burnt off the guys body and the ZP coating on the guys parachutes melted together. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.
  21. I think that my natural reaction would have been to do what that guy did... and then give the camera man a really hard time about not getting the fuck away from me. it looked to me like the dude was not an experienced freeflier and was strugling to keep stable in a semi vertical situation (notice he's arching). If he had an RSL and he dumped right there - that camera guy could have been toast. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.
  22. Are you an accountant or do you know a good amount about business accounting? I often hear about this magic “Business write off”, but it always seems to be by the same kind of people that tell me about how big brother is listening in on my phone calls. I have been involved in consulting for large businesses for some time now; admittedly I do not work directly with accounting and finances – but instead streamlining business processes, identifying new forms of revenue, and finding ways to spend less money to accomplish the same services or produce the same product without sacrificing quality… I’ve worked with 1-2 people < $100,000 businesses, and I’ve worked with $50,000,000 public and private corporations… I’ve never heard of a company going out and looking for money to spend on something as a business write off; quite frankly – it sounds like a ridiculous idea; because it’s taking away from profits – and taking away from profits means bringing less money home. Write off’s benefit a company in two ways: 1) They allow businesses to not pay income taxes on expenses that were necessary to make the income in the first place… This will put businesses looking for items to write off – but it’s either looking at items they’ve already spent money on – or identifying that by spending the same amount of money in a different way to accomplish the same thing, a higher percentage of money spent can be written off… 2) Second; while there is a fine line on how much of this is legal and how much isn’t – which I will leave to a CPA to answer – a write off could be used to purchase something that would otherwise be purchased as a personal expense – getting the same end result without having had to pay taxes on it… An example: (I’m not sure if this is real or not). Bill Gates builds the most technologically advanced house in the world, a house that has breakfast ready for you, allows your music and light settings to follow you around the house, and other computer controlled features… Bill Gates *may* be able to write off the house if he uses it as a research expense to determine if it would be feasible to build houses like this for others developing a new profit base… If done right, his house may be able to be used as a write off – meaning it costs him 700 million dollars instead of 1 billion… Although technically his company owns the house, and not him.. The fact that he lives in it? Well it would be wasteful to have it go unused. I don’t see how starting a dropzone at a new airport would be of financial benefit to any company unless that company felt that the dropzone would turn into a profitable venture… Certainly not for tax write off purposes; Maybe I’m wrong - but actually looked for that checkbox titled “Please don’t charge me taxes on this income because I want to open up a dropzone for me and my friends to jump at” on my tax forms this year; I wasn’t able to find it… Maybe I’m using the wrong forms? This whole subject falls into that “magic government business grants” category… I’ve got friend that keep telling me about this magical free money that the government is going to give them (or me if I would just submit my business plans) to start a business; without putting any money down! Sorry guys, while allowing yourself to be entertained by magic tricks is always quite entertaining; in the end it’s all just smoke and mirrors. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.
  23. Smart man; don't listen to these crazies; skydiving is about having fun, not freezing. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.
  24. That's not a bad idea you've got there. You pass it along to your RD and I'll pass it along to my RD as your idea. I agree. If every Tandem Student recieved a year subscription to Parachutist Magazine - that would do great things for the sport - Although I think that this limited membership should not include voting rights; otherwise we take administration out of the hands of a knowledgable voting group and into the hands of the best marketer. You may be on to something golden; however the administrative process may be too expensive to handle it. I'm writing dropzone management software right now, and if the USPA created a B2B site for electronic documents to start the subscription process - a lot of that could be automated; however I talked to the USPA a year or so about a B2B system to get USPA membership information for automatic software validation, and it didn't sound like they were very interested in spending the rescources: they felt it was a security risk (which as a data security expert - I disagreed with). If someone at the USPA decides to take this seriously, I could build in some kind of an option durring tandem registration to add in a 1 year subscription to parachutist magazine and an introductory membership for an extra fee... That could then trigger an electronic submission to the USPA for a new subscription with the required information, and the dropzone could write a monthly (or quarterly based on the number of sales) check to the USPA to cover the subscription. What a great way to create exposure to the sport, putting a copy of Parachutist on every one-jump-wonder's coffee table to inspire conversation... Although a negative component is the fatality report in every magazine; only an educated skydiver is able to compare that to the actual number of jumps that take place; although the descriptions do a good job of explaining that most incidents are user error. Matt Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.
  25. I would be interested to know what an experienced jumper (5000 jumps plus an instructors rating) would consider to be the highest wing loading at which point a moderate jumper would get the benefit of a little extra wind penetration and manuverability before adding the risks that go along with highly loaded canopies. I would guess this to be higher than 1:1 but not by too much. Insight? Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.