[Bob Cole]

Really. If you include so much as a starter pistol in your checked bags, you MUST declare it. The TSA then monitors that luggage very carefully.

Or so I hear. Check out https://lifehacker.com/5448014/pack-a-gun-to-protect-valuables-from-airline-theft-or-loss

But here’s the problem with this great idea. Now that this “secret” is out, every photographer on earth will pack a starter pistol. Then, everybody with any jewelry will follow suit. THEN, TSA will say, “We can’t afford to pay special attention to all these starter pistols.”

And then, you’ll have to buy a real pistol.

Then, an Uzi….

But Nick, it oughta work for a little while. Me, I’m off to WalMart.

re: carry-on. Carry on camera/batteries/tape, always, whatever it takes. I know that Southwest used to have a special policy for “video journalists.” Early boarding, don’t worry about the big camera case. Don’t know if that still obtains; I never tried it, although it was on their website.

re: just-in-case. You can line up a grip who could, in a pinch, find enough equipment to see you through, just about anywhere in the U.S.A.

re: FedEx. Not expensive, if you can ship far enough ahead to use their economy categories. The last time I did this it was $250 for three very heavy cases one way Baltimore-Orlando (when I needed three-day) and $110 back, for the same cases (five-day, I believe).

Reason I did it: at last the odds caught up to me last year, and Southwest lost my luggage until I was on the way BACK from the shoot.

Best strategy if you must check luggage: travel a day ahead of the shoot, and never travel on the last couple flights of the day. If your luggage gets held up, and comes in on a later flight, that isn’t such a tragedy, unless there’s no later flight.

Good luck, Nick.

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

Good question. When I went through the list, I noticed that although I tried to upgrade the firmware on my CalDigit RAID card, apparently it didn’t “take.” I’m not sure whether the list is wrong or the firmware, because the list says, literally (with the additional “.”) “2.0.”. The current firmware is 2.0.2. Although the RAID works, I think I’m going to focus on the CalDigit for awhile; its RAIDShield software calls the current configuration “unsupported,” which is not a good sign.

Here’s the list:
2×3 GHz Dual-Core Intel
9 GB 667 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM
original DVD burner (Sony)
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT
CalDigit SCSI(?) RAID card Revision 2.0.
(but under the Hardware RAID section of the MacPro list of hardware, it reads “This system doesn’t contain any supported hardware RAID devices. If you installed hardware RAID devices, make sure you installed them properly.”)
HDOne 8 TB
Apple keyboard – plugged in via one 6-foot extender
Apple mouse
Expansion Slot Utility:
4: Unknown RAID Controller Card (CalDigit RAID card)
3: Intel PCI-to PCI Bridge Card (AJA Kona LHe)
2: no card detected
1: NVIDIA GEFORCE 7300 GT

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

I ran the AJA utility – all it tells me is the speed of the RAIDs.

Thanks for the tip about Digital Rebellion. I tried the crash analyzer – it couldn’t diagnose, and just invited me to send the crash report to Digital Rebellion.

I have run the software updates repeatedly, so I assume I have the latest.

Raf, I would not install SL/FCS unless it were absolutely necessary.

[Bob Cole]

Thank you, and a good idea to run Disk Warrior. I did that immediately after the first couple crashes, but I will do it again.

You say that someone at Apple will be able to read the crash report? Can I actually talk to someone at Apple about a crash report? If I pay for a tech session, as I guess I would have to, I’d like to know that it would help.

I guess I could start uninstalling AJA and CalDigit cards, but right now I feel like wiping the system drive and going back to FCP6, and perhaps back to Tiger as well.

[Bob Cole]

Cycling coverage uses motorcycles with cameraperson riding on back.

I don’t think a two-person bicycle is going to work — too tilty. But a cool idea.

Or there’s this Hadron collider that’s doing nothing but theoretical physics (Pshaw!) and apparently you can go REALLY fast, around and around….

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

Thanks Pasi. Thanks to a suggestion from David Weiss, I reset the power save settings for hard drives to Never. As you recommended, I went through and downloaded new software for the CalDigit. It seems to be behaving now — but as a “green” I wish I could set the hard drives to spin down after an hour of non-use.

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

Thanks for the tip about encrypting. I’ll do it.

[Pasi Koivisto] “What I suspect the Pentagon is worried about”

This sounds fishy, I realize, and I wish I could remember the source, but somewhere I read that flash drives with viruses (perhaps even in their hardware) had been “seeded” around D.C., in the expectation that at least some would get picked up by workers in sensitive locations. Ingenious idea, right? It hit home with me because one of my flash drives is one that I found on my seat in the train.

[Bob Cole]

Very interesting. As I understand what you (and the online manual) are saying:

If I have to edit various FCP projects, e.g. one in which I’m capturing analog tapes in SD, and another in which I’m using XDCAM files and outputting HD, I can use Preference Manager, save the preferences for each individual project, and then I will not have to re-tune FCP each time I open a particular project.

1. Is my understanding basically correct?
2. Why isn’t this behavior already part of FCP?
3. Is this safe?

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

[Todd Terry] “I don’t really want to have to rely on putting our stuff on YouTube”

Hi Todd,

Have you looked at other services, like Vimeo? I think you can embed their service in your website.

As I understand it, one of the great values with using such a site is that videos will play much better, in general, from the big boys’ banks of servers than from the average web server. True/false?

Thanks Todd and everybody responding for the thread – this has lots of great advice.

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

Nice work, Steve. I’m curious as to just when and how you decide to show this to a prospective client, and how effective it has been.

Bob C