[Bob Cole]

One more issue with rechargeables: I need to be able to carry them aboard airplanes, and I have heard that there are restrictions on certain batteries due to the possibility that they may burst into flames…. That’s one restriction I can live with.

So do the iPower batteries conform to flight safety rules?

[Bob Cole]

[Richard Martz] “I use a powered firewire hub as well. Use short cables. I found a place in California that had a bunch of 18 inch cables that were very affordable”

Okay – Richard, I’m listening, because it sounds as though you are consistently having success with something that a lot of people are succeeding with only intermittently. Could you please tell us the specific model of powered hub, and where you got your short cables?

btw: the single most effective (but not always) step I’ve found is to plug everything in, before turning the laptop on. No “hot-plugging.”

btw2: I think you’re right about the fragility of the plugs themselves. I wish my HDV deck had more than one connector; many drives do.

btw3: I’ve learned that there is a quicker way to determine whether your firewire connections are good, than starting up FCP. Go to Apple/About this Mac and use the “System Profiler” to look at the firewire ports. Here’s the kicker: even when my firewire ports are working, the information in System Profiler is inconsistent. When the deck’s firewire connection is working, System Profiler always tells me the name and characteristics of the Sony HDV deck; but even when the hard drive’s firewire connection is working, it only sometimes will tell me the name of, and details about, the hard drive. Is that weird or what? I mean, I KNOW the name of the hard drive, but why the inconsistency?

Bottom line: I’m going to try Richard’s setup. But if my results are still inconsistent, is there any way to diagnose where the problem is, deck or hard drive or Mac? I’m thinking, “Mac.”

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

[John Lawrence] “have you tried FireWire 800 to the drive?”

Yes, and when I am having problems, that does not seem to improve matters.

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

[Rick Wise] “the complaint that “I don’t get a response” does not hold here. My original point stands.”

and sometimes, no response is itself a response — that the question is not appropriate. In fact, I’d much prefer that blessed silence to the alternative: a lengthy thread moaning and groaning about how lame the question is. That’s when I think NOBODY must be working today.

Enjoy life. And — feel free to contact me off forum Rick, Terry, Todd, especially if it means work.

[Bob Cole]

Both of you make good points.

Another aspect is networking: A lot of us are very glad that (off-forum) friendships have developed through the various forums. It’s an interesting etiquette point, and has to be dealt with individually. I’ve tried to keep all forum business on the forum, and all business that might become personal, person-to-person.

[Bob Cole]

Since posting my “solution” of swapping firewire ports, and without changing cables or moving anything a millimeter, I found that the problem is intermittent. Identical setup that worked an hour earlier. (Hard drive worked, deck no longer was recognized.)

Then I swapped firewire cables to the deck, and suddenly it worked. So I swapped back to the old firewire cable, and it still worked.

Last time this happened, I used my Sony Z1 as the “deck” and all was well. This trip, I’m taking a couple of DV cameras just in case. Maybe I should pack some clay tablets as well.

Thanks!

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

[Nicholas Bierzonski] “I thought this spot easily was the cheapest of the night yet it was
the most original and effective.”

“Cheapest” is relative. Google’s ad was internally generated, so the costs aren’t visible, but I believe that Google does pay its employees. And the Google research that informed those employees in their creative decisions is priceless.

Cheapest was probably the Doritos “underdog,” at (allegedly) $200.

[Bob Cole]

[Jeremy Doyle] “I don’t know, all the Dorito ads were made for a contest, so Dorito’s only spent money 25k because non were voted best of the super bowl.”

Not so. I think the Doritos “underdog” spot earned its maker $600,000 (against a production cost of $200) and the “House Rules” spot some much lesser amount. There’s a story in the NY Times (and plenty of other places I bet) about it.

btw – imho, best Superbowl spot by a country mile: “House Rules.” Absolutely brilliant.

The NY Times story said that Madison Avenue should be afraid, because of the success of the consumer and company-generated (e.g. Google) spots.

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

[Michael Sacci] “How does the laptop access the RAID 5 enclosure?”

CalDigit makes an Express Card. I haven’t bought it yet, and I’m thinking I may rather put the money toward a second MacPro anyway. I bought the laptop for location editing, using firewire drives for media.

Yes: no way to prevent any possible calamity — just trying to minimize it. Despite my questions, I’ve actually become rather philosophical about such things… as long as I know I’ve done everything reasonable to prevent disaster in the first place.

Thanks!

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

Mark, John, Michael: Thank you. Very reassuring, and great points all.

I infer that “rebuilding” means bringing RAID 5 status back. I assume that while I’m editing on the RAID which is being rebuilt, I’m in RAID 0 with no data security? During the rebuilding process, do I have read/write access to the RAID or just read?

I have an LTO (tape cartridge) backup device on the network. My initial thought is to add the RAID to the list of hard drives which the LTO backs up every night. (Already have the backup computer — a laptop.)

Thanks again.

Bob C