Flyby PC

Wow!! All this talk about war films got me thinking, mostly about Peter Jackson, Dambusters, and his fascination with WW1 aircraft. I believe Dambusters is rolling on, but what I didn't know was that Peter Jackson actually owned the Vintage Aviator Workshops in New zealand who produce such wonderful pictures of the restored WW1 aircraft we all enjoy. I think it's both remarkable and spooky that Peter Jackson should have such a love of vintage warplanes, and also become famous on the back of the Lord of the Rings films. Tolkein denied LOTR's was an allegory for his experiences in the WW1 trenches, but many commentators still wonder about that, in particular the references to the dead marshes and flying "Fell beasts". Who says history is dead? It's never been more alive or better animated. Yes, I know, bad films spoil it, but all the same we are getting to see things previous generations had to be actually there to see. Imagine if someone invented a time machine, and J. R. Tolkein and Peter Jackson could meet up for a beer and a chat. I'd love to be a fly on the wall to hear that conversation. Mind you, if someone invented a time machine, we'd probably have to invite H. G. Wells along too...., and if I was a fly, then George Langelaan might want to be there too (he wrote the Fly short story made into the Jeff Goldblum film))... On that subject, if it hasn't been mentioned already, is Lord of the Rings count as a war film x 3? If it does/they do, then they're on my list.

Yes, I'm a big fan of Black Hawk Down. I liked it a lot, and believe it was a reasonably accurate depiction of what actually happened, at least from the UN perspective. The only minor grumble I have is the apparent reluctance of the UN / Pakistani troops to go out to rescue the American patrols with their armour. That might be true, I don't know, but a big reason Aidid had a price on his head in the first place was for the murder of 24 Pakistani UN peace keepers. I don't think those Pakistani troops in the UN safe zone would have taken much persuasion to mount their vehicles. I agree von Baur, Christoph Waltz was the exception, the first sequence in the farm house was chilling and intense, and sets you up for a gripping film which the rest of the film just doesn't deliver. I hated it big time.

Just watched Inglorious B______ds. What a pile of kack. I value life too highly to have wasted two and half hours of it watching this. Sadly, I may have to try just to be sure it wasn't a surreal bad dream and it really was that bad.

Hey!!! The new OFF P4 preview has carriers? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17238393 How did the Fleet Air Arm get a beta copy of P4?

Helicopter = Apache. I want one.

My dogs don't really dig much, but both are known to empty buckets of sand. It can be a pain in the neck if you're mixing batched mortars where consitency matters and a few kilos of sand disappears, but I haven't the heart to be cross with them. They're too cute.

All I can add is being confused and bewildered screws up rational thoughts, especially when you don't know which way is up. If you see something bizarre on an instrument, you either trust it and forget the bizarre side of what you see, or you accept it is bizarre and inexplicable and naturally assume the instrument may be dysfunctional. There's only one way to find out which decision is correct. I'm no pilot, but I have done some scuba dives in green pea soup while denied all sensory data. I didn't know what way was up, I couldn't even see my own bubbles, and I couldn't tell if I was sinking or rising or drifting in a current. Very unpleasant, I wanted to spew my guts, but at least I wasn't in an aircraft hurtling towards earth at the time. All that saved me was some of the green gloop looked half a tint lighter than the rest, and that way shone the sun. When it comes to the crunch, your survival instinct will trump any and all conflicting data.

'Ditch' is the English word for 'Trench' circa 1916.

Don't feel offended Lanzfeld, I've had a lot of threads moved to the pub. It doesn't mean anything other than a more appropriate place for that particular topic. It's certainly nothing personal.

I've just mad my hotmail account hacked. So much for Hotmails security. I've changed my password, but what difference will that make? The first one didn't exactly stop them. If they hacked my password but didn't change the password, then I struggle to see the point. Just A holes? Or should I be worried?

I'd like to wave a little flag for the de Havilland Comet. It pioneered the way in civilian jet air transport but lost it's safety reputation when a number of catastrophic accidents were unexplained. The Comet paid the price for being the first to encounter the problem, but every other airliner in the world benefited from the lessons eventually learned about metal fatigue. The Comet was otherwise a fine aircraft, and way ahead of it's time. It was heavily modified and updated, but you can trace the lineage of the Hawker Siddley Nimrod which was on active duty from 1969 until prematurely retired in 2011 all the way back to the de Havilland Comet from 1949. It's a tremendous injustice that the Comet is primarily remembered for the air crashes which destroyed it's reputation but at the same time made the world a safer place for those following in their pioneering footsteps.

There's a time factor to the 'uncensored' history I like to learn about. WW2 is still living memory for many people directly injured by it, and that is something we should never overlook. Raw truth laid bare can hurt victims on both sides. Perhaps, well, no perhaps about it, now isn't the time to be opening up wounds just to have a closer look at what caused them or dabble with things we don't understand or properly appreciate. Most of us are wise enough to know that, but stupid kids can get it wrong. Lets not forget Prince Harry's armband.... A stupid kid is not the same as a bad kid. Scotland still hasn't got over Culloden yet, and that was 1746.

Thanks all. That's AVG, Spybot, Trojan Remover and Malwarebytes all protecting my PC's now. Yeayyyy! What a TEAM! There's a distinct smell of dettol in the air and if anything nasty is still living in my PC it must be wearing a gas mask. My how times change. I remember days when installing one anti virus over another was a certain way to blooter your PC good and proper. I'm in your debt gents. Thank you. EDIT- Just a word to watch out for anybody following my path, beware the Spybot link you follow. Spybot is Free. Spybot Spyware doctor is a trial version of something which ISN'T Spybot. It may be great, it may be lousy, but I don't like the way it calls itself Spybot.

Have to confess, if I'd watched the video without your advice, I'd have dismissed the song with indifference, being unaware of it's significance. That's my omission and shortcoming I'm sure, but my point is the video is more likely to cause offence to people speak the language. By the standards of modern day, I would hate to contribute greater kudos to the music by seeing it banned. It's a tricky / controversial subject. Personally, I like my history warts and all, with no holds barred and definitely no censorship, but at the same time I deeply respect the sensibilities of other people who do find such details offensive. Better a Nazi anthem ridiculed and jeered whenever it's heard, than a covert anthem shared by brotherhoods of hate which passes unnoticed by the masses. Have you ever noticed in US or UK documentaries which feature Hitler, whenever his speech or written word is dubbed into English, it is always spoken in a seething, hateful or snarling voice? Surely the true lesson about evil people is that they are not snarling monsters all the time but also possess an immense and powerful capacity to charm the unwary. I also think being easily offended is meat and drink to those peole who want to offend us. I would much rather see such willful offence silenced at source by ridicule and derision rather than censorship.

Hauksbee's picture isn't an accident, but an early kill for a very early version De Havilland Mosquito.

I have AVG 2012 full paid up version which updates itself daily. I've also just put Spybot on too on your guys advice (and thank you for that advice too). My attacked PC has Win 7, but this one is XP. Spybot found loads to fix on this PC, but only 2 things to fix on Win 7 one, but nothing was flagged up as a high risk threat on either PC. Ive used both online, so maybe it was this one with the problem. If it is a worm or something in my PC, I've a horrible suspicion it's still in here. Wouldn't there be more bangs and whistles if either Spybot or AVG picked up something nasty? Neither did. AVG says both are clear, and Spybots problems were all low threat registry things.

No, somebody was sending spam to my address book which to all intents and purpose looked like it came from me. There were 12 emails sent, perhaps more deleted from the 'sent' folder, and all 12 were copied to half a dozen addresses. Somebody was in to my hotmail account. First odd sign I noticed was 'postmaster delivery failures' to a couple of really old addresses, and a couple of emails from mates who rumbled their emails hadn't come from me and checked. I've clusterbombed my complete address book with warning to treat my address as suspect, and an apology, but short of abandoning the email address, not much more I can do. All very unpleasant. That was a 10 digit password with numbers and letters that got hacked. ________rs! (insert a swear word of your choice).

Going slightly OT, this thread got me thinking about the enormous design process of a flight sim, but then I thought about the trully unimaginable design process of the real war. Every aircraft, and every component which went in to building them had a designer, everything metal needed a pattern maker, an engineer to build it, someone to test it, someone to sell it. From tyres to paint, from lubricants to complete engines, everything was a product of some completely new, or recently diversified industry. It got me thinking about whether there were any compromises. For example are the wheels you see on a Sopwith Camel the same as you have on an SE5? To what extent where parts interchangeable? It sounds daft, but were there components used which came straight from other industries, such as pipework, guages and brass fittings, - were these borrowed improvisations from plumbing or gas industries? People comment on how the Landrover Discovery turned around the fortunes of landrover in 1989, but the original Discovery's took full advantage of a massive stockpile of parts left over after the demise of the british car industry, the chassis and suspension was that of a Landrover obviously, but all the buttons and switches came straight from Austin Rover cars, the interior was basically a Range Rover interior, and the rear lights came from an Austin Maestro van. That's not intended to be a criticism, merely that something 'new' was built from a creative integration of existing components. I find myself wondering whether this happened with WW1 aircraft designs, and to what extent it favoured revisions of existing aircraft designs rather than completely new concepts. Essentially, what aircraft 'suffered' from being left on the drawing board to give us so many versions of an Albatross for example? Or alternatively, was the frame of an Albatross similar to the frame of a landrover in the sense it got the basics completely right and took a long time before it needed to be improved? Edit - The Discovery wasn't unique. I once had a series 3 Landy, and when a headlight went, you had to buy a complete unit. I went into Halfords to buy one, but they told me they didn't sell and Land Rover parts. I said Ok, and started to walk away. Then I turned to ask "Do you have any headlights for a mini? - "Yes sir, here you go." Gotta love Halfords.

I wonder how many job applications they get from people who want to work there. There's the 45 - 50 they get from me every month, but I'm sure they'll get more besides...

YAAHHOOOOO!!!! - I'M IMMUNE! :yes: Err, why does this little emoticon just nod his head, when the one I picked in the list is the one saying "Get in there!!!" - Insuborndinate little SOB.

I never watched it. Curses. I got so far as to read period BBC drame blah blah and thought it was the usual guff. Then independently, I came across a reference the the book Birdsong in the context of tunneling saps and hearing the enemy digging. I'm not sure whether there is similar content in the book, but it;s a WW1 themed book I wasn't aware of. I hadn't heard of birdsong, but think I may give it a read.

If I get that kind of grief Tranquillo, I'd have tried a different post office. Fresh face doesn't hurt and it doesn't feel like you're going round in circles - even if you are. If 'blondie' in the clip had come in to see me, I'd have stamped her form straight away just to see her smile.

Clue is in the title... "Trauma". No trauma, whatever is upsetting you, it isn't PTSD. Lets not 'water down' the condition by using it to describe casual ailments, and keep our sympathies and compassion solidly behind those servicemen left scarred and damaged by real traumas suffered in the line of duty. That's my take on PTSD, it's not going to happen playing ARMA 2.

10/10 for those pictures though. I still guessed the PC pictures, but it's very close. As for PTSD? Not so sure. "This is a nightmare!!! Somebody pinch me I'm dreaming!!!".... Oh yes, err, I am. Anybody suffered PTSD after watching a horror film? OK, I did need councilling after watching Pearl Harbour....

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