Scaled Composites people have said for many years that their end goal is reusable orbiters with aerodynamic first stages.

Reality = the $800 Panasonic camcorder and Azden shotgun mic + Audio-Technica wireless lav & handhelds that are the Slashdot standard video gear are at least as good as a Canon XH A1, which was the high-def successor to the XL1.

XLR mic inputs are only really necessary if you're dealing with music and need big audio bandwidth. And nowadays, you might as well use a Zoom H4 for sound, and it will provide phantom power and give you two channels of directional sound through external mics plus 2 channels of ambient. This assumes you either own a copy of pluraleyes or know how to synch audio manually.

I saw the movie TANK -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tank_(film) -- in the on-post movie theater at Ft. Hood, TX, which at the time was home to the world's largest concentration of tanks. And one of the most boring spots on this planet. Watching a theater full of young tank crew guys cheer this movie was a bit scary. How many of them would go back to their units and decide to take out a bar in Killeen (nearby town) where they'd been short-changed or something like that? Or maybe invade Mexico for the hell of it, an idea for which I actually drew up a battle plan and submitted it through the Army Suggestion Program, where it got all the way up to the Post Commander, who thought it was a fine idea and that it sounded like fun but didn't think the Pentagon or White House would approve.

Anyway, you can't really think about the cost of the military working with a film production company as a true cost. Aside from recruiting value, the military does lots of training-type stuff when a unit or ship isn't actively engaged in combat, and what the heck - they might as well make a movie while they're practicing carrier take offs and landings or clandestine insertions or whatever.

I agree - and I'm trying to get the bosses to pay the guy who's been doing them as a volunteer.

I've suggested to The Honchos that all videos on Slashdot should have a "video" topic marker, so that those who don't want to watch any videos, period, will be able to completely ignore them.

I have asked the people who run Slashdot these days to handle videos differently, and I am refusing to have my name anywhere near the more blatantly promotional ones.

Realize that I am doing this in spite of the nasty cursers and insulters, not because of them.

FYI - there have been some decent/informative videos, and there will be more of them in the future. Some will like them, some won't.

- Robin

Gotta have the antennas. Please do be in touch...

Thanks!

I've tried to contact you about doing video transcripts for $$. Either the email associated with your UID is dead or you don't check it. So if you see this, please email robin at roblimo dot com.

Just about everybody who gets paid to work on Slashdot started out as a volunteer or random poster, so you'd just be the latest one to go pro.

- Robin

Thanks for the lead. A lot of our videos so far have been of people/companies Tim ran into at conferences. If you have ideas for video stories (and we can now do Skype interviews) please email robin@roblimo.com

"Quake." Seems a bit silly, but I am not going to argue with someone who makes rockets with more range than an early Scud.

Totally. Also -- more obscure -- his Kornbluth collaborations: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyril_M._Kornbluth

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Marching_Morons - Idiocracy was obviously ripped from this, not that it was a 100% original theme for Pohl & Kornbluth, either.

A Pohl Collab with Jack Williamson, The Reefs of Space http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1476166.The_Reefs_of_Space - could be the most visually striking SF film ever made. I've been waiting to see it since I first read the book in 1959.

Another too-cool book and possible movie candidate - The Stars My Destination http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stars_My_Destination by Alfred Bester. Neil Gaiman (one of my favorite living authors) called this the first cyberpunk novel. Neil is right about that. It is also one of the finest "high concept" SF novels ever written, and was so far ahead of its time (1956) that a lot of reviewers panned it.

Gully Foyle is my name
And Terra is my nation
Deep space is my dwelling place
The stars my destination

This should be a movie. If you don't believe me, ask Neal Stephenson. He has no doubt read and liked this novel.

Chinese "human OCRs" are cheaper than Indian ones...

I just tried to email them at the only address on their site: admin@RingCaptcha.com - to set up an interview.

The email bounced. And their demo didn't work for me in either Chrome or Firefox. These people have a ways to go...