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I wish I could be as confident lolConsidering the 2nd one was unistakably an F-15 and I had a moment where both were in my view from a side perspective, the lead aircraft almost definitely not an F-15..... I was statoned in both Newport News and Norfolk and saw some cool shtuff while I was up there. again, 75% certainty lol

Concluding a business trip, I was driving back home to Alabama today from Roanoke, Virginia. About 30 miles south of the Roanoke area, I saw a jet flying around 400 feet off the deck. Twin tail, duel engine. What really caught my eye, as this thing was moving across my field of view extremely quickly, was that the engine intakes appeared to be under the wings.... ding ding ding.... SU-27 or MiG-29. About a second later, another object caught my eye. This one was unmistakable: F-15E at high speed, tilted right which showed some of it's inderside (bare pylons), about 100 feet lower than the first aircraft. The engine rip was sweet, sweet music :thumbup: Now, my question is this: Is there a MiG-29 or SU-27 in or area the Virginia or DC area or was I mistaken? I was at a stop sign and couldn't grab my camera fast enough, but I am 75% positive the engine intakes were on the enderside of the first aircraft.

World Of Tanks is my primary at the moment, IL-2 Sturmovik 1946 (until CloD is fixed), occasionally DCS A-10C or BS2. Haven't played ArmA2 online in quite a while. Had a server up from ArmA 1 thru ArmA2: OA and, well, just needed to take some time away from it after almost 5 years straight of almost nightly playing lol!

F-15 Strike Eagle from Microprose on the ole Commodore 64 :D

Had a moustache since I was 13.... and yes, freddie Mercury was god! :D

The X-Series from egosoft is still alive and doing quite well. They released an installment back in December and are getting ready to release another. Good to see WC coming back on the scene though :)

The lag in that video definitely looks like server induced lag. My guess is there were more AI spawned than the hosting server could handle. Varies from server to server and mission to mission based upon the spec's of the server. For the server we had, we could have 2 towns going in Domination or Warfare without any lag. A third one geting spawned up though would result in minor warping. A fourth one would make it act like that video. Of course, we knew our server limitations and ran the missions accordingly.

As the owner of several copyrights, I can verify that anything you charge money for (payware) has to be comprised of 100% original, non-previously copyrighted material composed by the author (diveplane) or used via written permission of the original author(s). This means no sounds from any other games or any video or sound source that isn't verified to be public domain. Even pulling it from a free mod of another game is not advised since you don't know where that author got their original audio. So, if you've bee ripping your audio from other sources such as games or non-public domain videos/sound clips, even if you have tweaked it in an audio processing program, then you cannot charge a penny for it Diveplane. Making a sound mod is alot of work to get it just right and it would be nice to be compensated for the work. Now, if you recorded the audio yourself from the source or compiled it all from written persmission or public domain sources, then I support you going the payware route. If not, then I advise you to either keep it private for yourself or put it out as freeware. You'll be under alot of scrutiny on this one and I wouldn't doubt if people tried to cross reference your sounds to copyrighted material.

Yet if DCS T-50 PAK FA was released, I bet you'd be all over it even though it's an experimental aircraft in which only four have been built and only 2 or 3 of those have actually flown :D

I lamented over the cost of a new HOTAS when my X52 finally gave up the ghost. I couldn't bring myelf to pay for the TMWH nor the X65F. I went with CH and. even at that, was hesitant to spend $200 on something I'll use for a game. I'm glad I did, but those will last me years. I have to perform maintenance on the vehicles, finish renovating the house, put money in savings for the vacation, put money back for the ole rainy-day fund, food, bills, etc In World of Tanks right now, I have over 625,000 XP I haven't converted. At this point, it would cost me over $100 to convert it all at once. I just can't bring myself to spend hundreds of dollars on gaming. Not when there are more practical and realistic things I will have put on the back burner if I do spend the money. I'd love to say I have the means to pay whatever I want in order to enjoy my gaming to the fullest, but the truth of the matter is that I do not and I refuse to put it all on a credit card and get charged 10-20% interest on top of that. It just doesn't make sense. My home, vehicles, and such will (should) be here long after the game has lost it's appeal. So - no. I would not spend $500 on a game until at which time I have $500 that I don't and will not need for anything else.

It depends on what type of CAD program he is going to be using. Orcad, AutoCad, TurboCAD, etc? It also depends on what he's going to be designing. I have a GTX460, E9650 CPU, and 8GB DDR2-1066 and my system works well for all of my CAD & PS needs. Just depends on what's being worked on.

When it comes to APM and SC/SC2, watch how many of the higher players spam it. Even the AI does. Every time you see a character look left/right rapidly without being cornered - that's the AI spamming APM. Players clickety click to increase it too. When used right, it's a good tool to see if your micro/macro skills are good, but when the baseline includes spam clicks, then it's negated and useless. Here's a sponsored player spamming his APM: Economy management, army value, and victory are the measures of RTS success :)

CH here and no problems. Work greta for every flight ism I have. They also work great in ArmA2 for gas and brake in the vehicles :D

i can shoot you a profile for DCS-10C and Blackshark both. PM me an email addy. I don't use Saitek anymore, but still have backups of my profiles.

^^ROFL^^

My wife flew with me in IL-2 1946 for a while. She didn't get into simming the way I do, but she appreciates it now :) She also competed on my team in America's Army for a little while. She was having funtil it turned into a rush-orientated game and dropped out. Great wives are hard to find :D

Even at that, a really good FM model and high fidelity cockpits sure as heck beats spending several hundred dollars to get the equivalent out of FSX!

They did not arrest the CEO though. The personnel they targeted seems like a very specific list. I'm gonna wait and see if the people who have been arrested were actually uploading pirated materials themselves. If they were, then the case may have some merit since they were charging customers for premium accounts, even though within their own business, in order to distribute copyrighted material themselves. That may not have been their goal, but if they were engaging in that, then this will most likely be a civil and not a criminal case.

Hate it when I wake up and can't go back to sleep - ugh... In this band's case, they sold less than 100,000 copies in the US. Now, divide that up among all those who have to get paid a percentage: six members + management + agents + costs of putting on a live tour. In order to play a tour, you have to pay for the following: Lighting System Rental Sound System Rental Transportation rental for Equipment and Personnel Road Crew Local Crew Labor Venue Rental Fee Rental for a spot at the venue to sell swag (band items) Venue Fees for Sales Sate and Federal Tax on Sales They were in the red. 95% of the artists you hear on the radio aren't even selling a million copies. Most less than half of that. Most of that money goes to pay back the advance the label gave the artist to record their material in a professional studio and have it mixed/mastered to industry standards. Obtaining material that is under a license to be sold illegally is well, illegal. No other way to put it. Also, have you noticed that a great majority of the bands no longer put up full length song samples for download? That's the label doing that. The moment a band gets signed, they no longer own the rights to their music. The label owns the rights. They also own distribution and mechanical rights. The artist, in order to have a shot at "making it" signs away almost everything they worked for. They're paid by the label. The only work-arounds are to be so hugely famous that you can dictate your own terms to the label or create your own label. Creating your own label is easy to do, but getting distribution into outlets that can actually move your product is alot more difficult due to those outlets having contractual agreements with the labels. I've had three songs played on the radio and gotten my little check from BMI. It was a patlry amount since the songs were played in the wee hours of the morning. The fact of the matter is that illegal downloads of material have caused artists of all types to go broke because they're not able to recoup their investment. The internet is a gold mine for exposure, but it's also a devil when it comes to watching potential income drift away in the form of illegal distribution. Why do people pirate things? In the late 90's and very early 2000's, I used to a run an ftp with the alt.2600.warez group. M$ shut me down for being one of the first people to distribute the leaked copy of XP Corporate. I was lucky I didn't get pulled into court. they had me dead to rights on it and could have pulled in the publishers of the other software I had on my ftp. I did it because it was a fun way to try out new software and a way to get what I wanted/needed since I could not afford to buy it. $9.61/hr before taxes, health insurance, and mandatory company stock savings deductions didn't leave me alot after the bills and living expenses were paid. Even my computer at the time was made of hand-me-down components people I knew didn't use anymore. It still doesn't excuse the fact that I was illegally distributing material without a license. I was illegally obtaining it and then giving it away to whoever wanted it. And I knew full well what I was doing was illegal, but didn't really care. The thrill and pride of getting what I wanted, how I wanted overrode the fear of getting caught or suffering any consequences. In short - I was acting like a spoiled child who thought I deserved to get what I wanted since it was readily available anyway and I couldn't afford it otherwise. The laws need to be redone - true. The way distribution is performed needs to be redone - true. The prices are too high - true at times, other times it's not. How much needs to be charged to ensure all employees and operating costs are paid and still make a profit to develop future matierial? There's no wasy answer. SOPA and PIPA aren't the right answers. Those laws are being proposed to protect the profits and interests of the big players in the entertainment industries. There's still nothing being put in place that will protect the income, profit, and interest of the creators of the material. There's no laws going into place to keep the consumers from being charged too much for something. In order to maintain "Free Enterprise", a balance must be maintained. Too much regulation and the balance tips in the favor of those who control the regulations. Too little and it tips in favor of those who can avert the system. Either way, the creators of the material usually get shafted the most out of the three parties (creators, corporations, consumers). Now to try and go back to sleep. Was in a metting until 10 tonight and back at it early in the morning. Was able to squeeze in an hour online at least :D

Disclaimer - I DO NOT SUPPORT SOPA OR PIPA! That's not the purpose of the copyright law. I own copyrights on the music I have made, but I'm not making a dime off of it. There's other laws and policies in place that I'd have to follow in order to make money. The copyright law itself is fine. It doesn't have a thing to do with money. It's name says it all - it protects work from being copied. Any copy of copyrighted material is an illegal act. Those are MY songs. YOU cannot copy them as your own, distribute them without MY consent, or use any part of them as your own. That's the prupose of the copyright law. It protects MY work for ME. Now, say I got a record deal and my music was released for sale. The sale and distribution is up to the record label or publishing company. As per the standard contract, I would get 1 point per sale in an approved retail outlet in the US. The standard conversion is 1 dollar per point. Out of that $15 you pay for a CD, the average group gets $1. Deduct point percentages for non-approved outlets (aka independent retailers), major outelts overseas, non-approved overseas outlets, etc. Online sales actually get the weakest points for the artist. The last 11 pages of a contract specify the points breakout. Everyone who downloaded a copy of my CD without buying it would be keeping money from my pocket. It's the equivalent of you getting a job providing a specialized tech support that you tailored, yet at the end of the week, you are told you COULD HAVE made $500 more, but people were getting YOUR answers from somewhere else for free - even though it was illegal to do so. The internet has made people think they deserve to be able to get music, movies, etc for free just because it's there and they want it. They feel entitled to it. I personally knew a band who lost over $1,000,000 in sales figured based upon Napster downloads alone. That doesn't include http downloads or usenet downloads. The bassist was working as a carpet installer in between legs of the tour in order to keep the bills paid and his 4 year old daughter fed. Those lost sales of illegal downloads would have helped him greatly. I invested years of my life and, all said an done, over $100,000 towards the writing and recording of my music. The venture failed. I knew that risk when I started the journey. Had it have had some measure of success though, I would have been completely irate had I found that it could have been much greater success had several million people just took my work for free simply because they wanted it for free. End question: If you found out you can have been a millionaire as a result of your talent and hard work, but weren't because millions of people stole your product instead of buying - would you be pissed and want some way to protect the sale of your work so you could actually benefit from it? It's easy to criticize when you're not the artist in between the industry and fans and getting butt-raped by both. SOPA & PIPA's intent at controlling piracy is fine, but how the bills are worded make them extremely dangerous. Throw in the Authorisation Act and the Patriot Act and you have a triad of laws that border on Martial Law. Also, throw in the fact that the US Congress never ratified the Geneva Convention of 1977 and now you have a real pickle of political power if SOPA and/or PIPA go through.

Awesome video man!

Lowest Price: Saitek Aviator (recommended if $100 is out of your range) or Logitech Extreme 3D Pro Low Mid Price: Saitek X52 (regular version).Can find them new for around $100. (best value for sim flights) You can get the X52 Pro, but it will generally cost you about $100-$150 more and the main difference is metal construction and a small LCD display that you'll rarely look at and can get buggy at times. High Price: CH Products Fighterstick, Pro Throttle, Pro Pedals can be found for around $300 for all three. Saitek X65 can be found for around $265, but you will need a set ofrudder pedals as well. Logitech G940 system has the stick, throttle, and pedals and is force feedback. There's been both positive and mediocre reviews on this set up. Usually costs around $250 new. The Thrustmaster Warthog is the end all for DCS A-10 sticks. Immediately interfaced with the sim and built solid. Costs anywhere between $400 and $500 depending on where you buy it. You will need rudder pedals as well.

You forgot a setup: CH Products Fighterstick and Pro Throttle The stick has all of the hats and switches that the Warthog has. The Throttle has enough hats and switches to accomodate. Design of both units has been proven for long term reliability. The only draw back is that it has a one stage trigger. Shifting the trigger enages PAC. Profiling software not only can enage key presses but also accomodates scripting commands. Cost of both units combined is around $200 new. You will need rudder pedals.

Here's another one. Seller will not split the pair (someone already asked him). Just think of it as a stick for spare parts :D http://www.ebay.com/itm/SFS-SUNCOM-F-15E-HAWK-SF-6428110-JOYSTICK-TACTICAL-CONTROL-STICK-THROTTLE-/260931199369?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cc0b62189

I dig the one lone shoe lol!