CaptSopwith

Good Evening Gents! Mind if I pull up a seat at the bar? I've been gone far too long. First the good news: I will successfully finish my MA History degree next week! I've defended my thesis, checked the boxes, dotted the i's, crossed the t's and I'll be graduating at the end of the first week of May. Also good news: I've been accepted into a PhD program in history with full funding! My work continues! Now the bad news: In February I went down with walking pneumonia and I'm still recovering. My engagement to a woman I was crazy about, and had dated for over two years, ended spectacularly a few weeks after I posted here last. (A comment about diamond size started a rapid spiral to the ground, in flames...). All of this means I have been horribly neglectful of my friends here at the OFF boards. If someone doesn't mind, I could do with a stiff drink (as I've discovered a certain taste for Jameson and Rum and Coke over the last few weeks). It's good to be back... now if I could just find someone to put out the smoldering wreck of a kite parked outside!

LOL, not sure how it would work if it was all in the same glass. And no, WF2 and I have not crossed paths, even in the sky. ;) I'll be specializing in Modern German History (ie: 1870-1945).

Well, this isn't good. Last night, while using my computer, the screen went black, the PC emitted a three-beep code from the motherboard (the cheap Gateway manual doesn't discuss what the three-beeps mean), and I couldn't reboot. Every time I powered on I got a three beep code. I tried unhooking the HDD and that worked. This morning it's working, sort of. But for the last week it has consistently locked up - requiring a full power off and on to get it working again. I've already replaced the hard drive and the video card in this system. Is it possible that the added pull of power on the 400W supply from the two hard drives and slightly better video card could be causing this, or is this more terminal than I can afford? I'm a broke graduate student guys, I can't afford to have my computer conk out right now... Any ideas? System Specs: Gateway Fx7024 Desktop Windows 7 Professional 2 500GB HD Nvidia GeForce 9800GT 3 GB RAM Intel Quad Core Processor @ 2.3ghz

Thanks for the great comments guys. It feels great to be done! I'm doing much better this week than when I originally posted my thoughts. Once I get my machine back up and running, I'll be on here much more often. Also, I've met a new girl - who happens to play flight sims. You never know what kind of surprises life is going to throw your way. Cheers!

Thanks for the kind replies chaps. I've run several performance tests on the rig, including the old mem86 test and they all come back clean. The computer exhibits the following symptoms: random lock ups, random restarts (I haven't caught one yet while I'm in the room) that leave me at the windows boot screen (which also locks up half the time). The machine also shows a blue screen of death on boot, and then there's the worst part - the screen goes black, gives a three beep code, and is completely locked. We stress tested the hell out of the machine - and it never cracked. Which leaves me to conclude it must be a power supply issue. I've contacted Al about his remarkably gracious offer. Here's hoping I can sort things out. Any further thoughts guys?

Yeah, the three beep code on the server is a bad memory issue... I did the power supply calculations and apparently, this Gateway is woefully under powered at 400W - in fact, with the base setup the system came with, it was drawing 30W more juice than the PSU could give.

Bletchley - your continued service to the community knows no bounds - and is highly appreciated! You have refined and fine-tuned an already fantastic campaign engine. I'm greatly looking forward to adding yet another Bletchley folder to my MOD directory. Well done, mate!

In honor of a post I read some years ago on the old Flight Sim Forum called Morning Ride, I felt the need to share something that happened to me the other day... There are a million things that make working on a college campus the greatest job in the world. You are surrounded by professors who represent the greatest minds of your generation. Libraries are filled with millions of books and they're within walking distance. If they don't have what you're looking for, they find it for you: free of charge. Knowledge is truly at your fingertips. You're also surrounded by young people - with their dreams and aspirations and their un-trampled idealism. To be honest, I never truly noticed the people until I went for a bike ride last Friday. And I wasn't even on campus. I was cycling in a nearby park filled with people, young and old; kids, grandparents, husbands, wives, brothers and sisters, boyfriends and girlfriends; all mingling in the first warm day any of us had seen in months. The day was beautiful; the weather so achingly perfect that it felt like years since I had truly felt alive. It's amazing what a little Vitamin D can do for you. Typically, when I ride, I put on my iPod, crank up my electronic music or some Soundgarden, and cycle as hard and fast as I can. It's a fantastic work out - especially for those of us with flat feet who value our knees and consider running an activity best left for survival purposes only. Cycling, for me, is also usually filled with numbers: average speed, distance covered, and of course, time. Only this time, I loaded the wrong playlist, and rather than driving beats, much more mellow stuff filled my senses. It was my first ride since last summer, when I cracked up on a dirt bike trail and broke my wrist. I didn't realize how much I missed cycling until I was out there once more, in the sunlight, enjoying the process of riding again. It was then that I began to notice the people around me; their faces, their expressions, the sounds of their conversations fluttering in and out of hearing distance as I rode by. Instead of seeing them as moving obstacles, I felt an odd sense of weaving into their lives for a few fleeting seconds, rather than weaving around them. For the first time in my life - perhaps a sign that I am all of my twenty-nine years of age - I began to wonder about them rather than me. Were they happy? Were they taking in the beauty of the day after so many long, dreary months of winter? When I would pass an older couple, I'd wonder: how long were they married? Was it their first marriage? Had they been teenage sweethearts at one time? Or, was it a second, third, or fifth attempt before it was too late and time ran out? When I weaved between two college kids: likely a boyfriend and girlfriend out for a cheap date at the park (those are usually the best kind), I knew from their expressions: both of them would remember this day - the sunlit afternoon in the park - ten years from now. How they'd feel about it then would remain to be seen. I steered past a little girl on a three wheel bike - a pink version of the black big wheels I rode up and down the streets of my neighborhood twenty-five years ago. Mom and Dad were behind her, filming her adventures with their smart phone. I bet one day she'll watch them when she's home from college on Christmas break. And there, in the background on a black mountain bike - I'll be zipping by and giving her a wave. It was an odd feeling. Rather than my usual misgivings and general irritation with human beings - their perpetual let downs, problems, shortcomings, and deceits - I couldn't help but hope the best for them. Maybe it is a sign of getting older - even if it's only the very first, and faintest visible signs of it. Or as every elder has ever told me: Youth is wasted on the young. Here's hoping I appreciate mine before it's too late.

Hear Hear Royce!

@ Bletchley, I'm also having the same problem. That said, once the link is fixed, I'll be trying this one out! My thanks to you for working on this, I'm sure the mod will be a blast!

Very true Olham. Samuel Barber wrote one of the most haunting pieces of music ever. From an historical perspective, I like the film Conspiracy. I thought it was very well done, and well acted - not over the top. They let the document breathe and the meeting speak for itself. There is actually very little fanfare in the film - no music until you hear Schubert at the end. I would show it to students, if that gives you an idea of how I feel about it.

Easy choice for me: Schubert: String Quintet in C Major. "...the adagio will tear your heart out." (bonus points for anyone who can name the movie that the above quote comes from).

Man Olham, you ask some tough questions. I've given it some thought and while One Headlight by the Wallflowers was going to be my choice (thus dating me as a man who came of age in the 1990s) I have to go with this. Simply put, it's the most remarkable pop music song ever. EDIT: And if I may self-indulge. Here's the runner-up:

Good Grief! I had no idea how much space OFF took up. I've never bothered to look but my copy weighs in at just shy of 18GB. For comparison, my old HDD from 1998 was an 18GB drive. That's pretty remarkable! And yes, I'm sure OFF uses all of the skins included. I see a new paint scheme every time I fly.

I was having a conversation with a friend today regarding social networking sites like Facebook and it occurred to me - I do not know if my fellow OFF fans are on there? I'm in a quandary as to whether or not to delete my account altogether - something I've done in frustration once before. I seem to run into a situation where the site starts out as semi-useful and before I know it, it becomes a time suck and I'm friends with people that, for all good reasons, I should have never heard from again after High School. So what are your thoughts on sites like Facebook? Are you on it? Do you find it useful? What do you like or hate about these things?

That was hysterical Lewie! Nice find.

The toast and coffee sounds good to me! I think you're right Olham, you must stay open to happiness and to love someone or something. For me, it's my Fiance. Work also makes me happy, but there is nothing like love. And Louis CK will attest that we should be far more amazed with the world we live in than we are. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itn8TwFCO4M&feature=feedlik

Amen Lou! I have to admit I felt a similar tired-ness today, and I'm not nearly old enough to be a grandfather yet. Your post cheered me right up though! I'm trying desperately as I age, to hang on to the things I love from my youth - perhaps that will be the trick to longevity.

Sounds great Pol. I've got my AI set to Historical and tend to find that each dogfight is a surprise - I never know from one engagement to the next what kind of situation I'm getting into. Sometimes the AI is easy meat, as seen in my latest flight as Gerhard Roth. Other times I'm very unpleasantly surprised when the AI begins whipping around and filling me full of holes! Also, can I just say that the Devs at OFF never cease to amaze me. Here we are, a group of OFF pilots sitting around posting online and within a few hours there is a member of OBD replying to our thoughts and letting us know that you're already working on what we're sitting here thinking about you. You guys are great.

Interestingly enough, there does seem to be an OFF page there. I can't tell who made it or when it appeared, but there's one. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Over-Flanders-Fields/155180337872251

Actually Olham, you should know my settings quite well - they're yours. I've set all of the internal checkboxes in CFSConfig to match the settings you posted a while back. I'm also using your FOV settings in the Workshop which makes the cockpit views much better on my 1680x1050 monitor. I've also turned on Anti-aliasing in my nVidia card settings and some aniostropic filtering as well. As for my sepcs? They're solid, but not mind blowing by any means. I have an Intel Core 2 Quad processor at 2.3Ghz per core. A new nVidia 9800GT video card that replaced the dead 8800GT overclocked that came with the system, 3 GB of RAM, and Windows 7 - which made all of the difference in the world. The computer ran well but not great under Windows Vista. 7 made it a whole new machine.

OFF has got to be one of the prettiest sims I've ever played. There is something about the lighting, the ground detail, the sheer volume of paint schemes that one encounters during a mission... it all blends together to create some gorgeous screen shots. I posted the German pilot's mission over in the Combat Reports section. Gerhard Roth, the latest addition to the stable, has had quite an eventful day. The following snaps were taking after he already dispatched three Nieuport 17s! Not only does OFF run smooth as silk on my system, it also looks this good! Cheers guys and I hope you enjoy!

My thoughts exactly! I'd take you up on the offer too, but alas, I also have 1946... You are a kind soul for offering to give them away for free. Cheers!

It's amazing what a change of inputs can do for you! I've been running my gaming rig on the VGA input that was supplied by the monitor the computer came with. Mind you, the monitor is a 22" high def 1680x1050 screen. Little did I know just how bad the image quality was until I replaced my video card a few weeks back. Suddenly I noticed a constant, rippling flicker through the screen. At first I thought the monitor was giving up the ghost but a friend suggested that my use of the ancient VGA source was the problem. Long story short, I switched out to a DVI setup and wow, the picture quality is so much better. I do have an HDMI port on the monitor, but it's currently doing duty for my XBox 360. Once I get a new TV that can handle the Xbox, however, I'll be upgrading from DVI to HDMI. In the meantime, the picture difference is massive. Even the forums look better! So, if you're still using VGA - and I fear I was probably the only one - upgrade your input and OFF will look even more eye-popping than it already does!

Hi gents. I just wanted to apologize if any of my posts have made less than perfect sense lately. I've been incredibly sick for the last two weeks and the last several days have been particularly rough. For those who are curious, it all started as a simple sinus infection - something I usually pick up once or twice a year, especially during the winter months. I went to the doctor and was treated - antibiotics and some mucinex to clear out my sinuses. After ten days, not only was I still sniffly, but I also had flu-like symptoms. It turns out I picked up the flu while in the doctor's office waiting to be seen for my sinus infection (We're having a massive outbreak where I live with four different strains, according to the people in the white lab coats). The flu then settled in my chest where it turned into bronchitis / borderline pneumonia. So, long story short... I've spent the last week either in bed or here posting, while coughing up my lungs and blowing through boxes of kleenex. Now, where's nurse Gladys?