Jeff

Been having a great time out here at the T.I. Kite Festival. We will have a live camera trained on the beach later today if anyone wants a peak at what's going on. It will be at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/ikeclub

Opps, a residual carry over from working with Excel ... yep, <Home> works by itself. Let's see Jeff, you also taught me to skip the <Ctrl><R> in favor of <F5> to refresh, what other single key strokes do you advocate? Cheers, Tom Here's one many know, some may not. Your browser treats the space bar as page down while reading a page. Just tap the space bar to scroll down one page.

My process... Step one: Randomly happen to attend an event where the Chicago Fire and the Gordon brothers are performing. Step two: Pick jaw up off the ground. Step three: Connect with some people in the region who could show me the ropes. Or lines, as the case may be. Step four: Profit! Wait, that doesn't belong there...quite the opposite. Real Step four: Actually, there is no step four. You had me at step one.

It's 50% easier just to use <Home.> (And <End> takes you to the bottom.)

I'm going to guess that a lot of people didn't really know about the other skins until the question was asked, and haven't tried the non-default ones. My vote is obvious...classic blue. I wanted to vote for all 3 reasons, but I had to pick one. More compact, which gives the feeling of better organization, less bright white space, more familiar, and links that look like links. (Yeah, I'm old school.)

That particular part of your concern is easily addressed. All the templates have the ability to collapse the sidebar to the right. Click the "x" at the top right of the sidebar.

I agree completely. One other question... When I used "View New Content" just now, I did not see your post here in the returned list. I had to go directly to the forum manually to see there was a new post. Is the particular forum excluded from the search, or might there be some setting on my end that causes it not to show up? I noticed it earlier on other posts to this thread.

By the way, in the alternate templates, I like that the My Settings link is visible right on one of the bars across the top. Having it buried in the dropdown menu next to the user name isn't the worst thing in the world, but it's different than every other forum I visit, and on a couple occasions when I was looking for it it took a bit of poking around to remember where it was.

From those choices, I think I give a slim edge to the Pro Classic over Classic Blue. It's slightly brighter and newer in look while maintaining the distinct separation and organization of all the elements in the various screens.

Ah, choices...let me just think a bit before voting. Question: Do any of the templates include a legend at the bottom that shows what the different icons mean on the topics? When I look at New Posts on the old software, (like at the Rev forum) there's a little section at the bottom that tells you what the different colors and symbols mean.

From a user standpoint, my favorite forum software is definitely vBulletin. So many useful time saving features. I'm hoping to find all the same functionality here, it's just a bit foreign so far...

I've not seen this forum software before. I'll be interested to poke around a bit...

I've uploaded a copy for your viewing convenience... http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=29...96850&hl=en

In August, 2006, by pure chance I went to the Chicago Botanic Gardens the day the Chicago Fire kite team was performing. I was blown away. I didn't know people flew kites like that. Zach and Josh Gordon and the rest of the team were all there flying duals and quads. I was hooked before I ever picked up my first kite. I went home, surfed the 'net, decided a dual would be easier to learn than a quad, and bought an Acrobatx. So it was Sep. 2006 when I actually flew. Toyed around with that a few times before winter, hooked up online with a new kite club in my area, the Illinois Kite Enthusiasts. The following spring, I met the IKE crew for a club fly. Mike Kory put the quad handles in my hands, and the rest is history. I'm a complete addict. I got my first quads (Rev 1) in May 2007 from a very generous club member, and now I have 6 Revs and I'm working on team flying.

OK, well that was ironic... I just took delivery today of my first B-series kite. I took a look at the DVD that came with it, and what do you know...the music on there is from Stock20, who I suggested several posts ago. I've used those very same tracks myself.

Great question. Obviously, our own law is not enforceable in or by other countries. Not without some sort of treaty between nations. And wouldn't you know it, we have just that. The Berne Convention is one of the International treaties that covers copyright, and most nations have signed on. Here is a map showing the 163 nations that are members... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Berne_Convention.png Basically, the treaty says that the copyright protection of the country where the copyright is claimed is applied.

The answer to that is a complex path through copyright law... Section 106 of U.S. Copyright Law says, (emphasis mine...) Basically that says you can't perform (play, in the case of music) the work publicly without permission. However, later on in section 114 sound recordings are exempted from that: *" "Phonorecords" are material objects in which sounds, other than those accompanying a motion picture or other audiovisual work, are fixed by any method now known or later developed, and from which the sounds can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device. The term "phonorecords" includes the material object in which the sounds are first fixed." So basically, playing music in a public place appears to be OK. But, that does not necessarily apply if the source of the audio is an FCC regulated over-the-air transmission, such as radio or television. If that's the case, there's further paragraphs that lay out conditions where a public transmission is not ok, depending on the size of the area, and the number of speakers used, and crazy stuff like that. It's pretty insane.

<answer snipped> Edit: Wait, I read the wrong part...I'm editing a new answer for your second question, Jim.

John, I know how difficult it is to find and use music. I do video for the club (IKE) and some other editing as a side business, and have spent a lot of time looking into music options. Royalty free or buyout music can be rather expensive. If you can get a band to give you rights, that would be great. Otherwise, you'll have to find something you can purchase the rights to. Personally, I have used a lot of music from a company called Stock20. They compose and produce music specifically for things like this, and are not too expensive, relatively speaking, and have a very liberal usage agreement. Basically, the only thing you can't do is give, lease, or sell the files to another party. You can use them freely in any project, distribute them as part of that project anywhere...DVD, internet, broadcast, no limit. They sell individual tracks as sets. That is, you get 7-10, sometimes more, different length versions of the track. You can preview any of them on the website. They are pretty much just intrumental, and range from sparse piano or guitar to full band compositions in many styles. Maybe there is something there to suit you. They're relatively new in the business, but their library grows every month as they record new music. You can also hear some samples in my videos of the club and some of our festivals here... http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3383376241899426197

A piece of music, or a composition will enter the public domain 70 years after the death of the author (composer). Now that only covers the actual composition. For example, the Maple Leaf Rag would be in the public domain, since Scott Joplin died more than 70 years ago. But the actual recording of a piece of music is a separately copyrighted property. So say a current artist recorded an album of old ragtime music and included that song. His recording of the song is not in the public domain, and permissions would be required to use that recording. Although, if you are musically inclined, you could record your own version freely, as the composition is public domain.

I'm going to guess with my daughter's birth date/time... December 19, 6:35PM

I'm pretty new to this, only been flying for about a month. I have an Acrobatx. I'm getting pretty good at general flying...launching, turns and loops. As I progress into "tricks," I was wondering what might be the basic one or two moves that I should practice and get down as fundamental building blocks. I've been reading about lots of tricks that are still way beyond me, and I'm itching to try, but I know they build on other skills. So what's the best thing to start working on? Thanks for any input.

3 weeks since I bought my first kite, and there's really only been 2 or 3 days with any good wind. I can see getting a light wind kite...it's killing me sitting around with these puny winds!

Had a good wind today, and went out at lunch to a nearby soccer field...I no longer stink! I was able to get that sucker flying. Did some steering around, some big figure 8's, some sharper turns, spinning one way, and then the other....very cool! It gets me anxious to try the harder stuff, but a) I know I should get proficient with the basics, and b ) I don't know how to do any of that other stuff yet.

Thanks for the encouragement. I was just pretty impatient to try, and took it out even though there wasn't much of a breeze. I may just check out the video, although I do know I have to spend some time on the basics of flying. That, and I need to learn more about how these bridles are built. It came already done, which is nice, but I couldn't recreate it if I had to. I'm also going to see if there's a book or two with some gerneral useful information on that and tweaking the kite for conditions. The instructions that came with the kite leave a lot to be desired.