Javito1986

You need to contact their network administrator I'd imagine. Until they unblock you there's not much you can do, short of getting a new IP address entirely or acquiring software like Hide My IP to mask your IP address. I've used that before to get around such restrictions (Megavideo 75 minute time limits), worked fine but probably not worth the $30 just to access one pesky website.

I let my library card expire, woops. Apparently I haven't been there since August 2009! Didn't realize it'd been so long! They require two pieces of proof of residence which I didn't have, hence -today- I shall go acquire the books mentioned here.

That's true actually. They never signed a peace treaty after WW2 and still dispute some island chain or another. I remember there was a cool mod for Operation Flashpoint that depicted a modern war between Russia and Japan. Someone made a giant robot for the Japanese side, I used to have fun taking on Russian armies single handed in that thing.

Oh that's really neat. There's a load of fascinating documents on that website then! I skimmed through them all, the British documents related to the Somme seem of particular interest. I'll go through that website in more detail when I get home later! One thing I don't understand, and maybe because I approach things from a 'modern' perspective: why did Wilhelm and Nicholas consider military mobilization synonymous with war? Time and time again in the telegrams it's "Do not mobilize, do not mobilize, I implore you do not mobilize, if you mobilize I will have no choice but to mobilize and then there'll be no stopping the thing". Was the military of both countries such that once they let it off the leash they can't control it anymore?

To what extent do you guys think the Germans in particular tended to underestimate Russia due to her performance in the Russo-Japanese War? Is it similar to the way the Winter War in Finland caused everyone to underestimate them in 1914? EDIT: Typo, meant 1941 but that's the first time I've ever noticed that cool coincidence of the numbers being switched around for both years Russia was attacked that I just left it EDIT 2: I found this on the internet and just read through it, as I'm sure most of you already have years ago: Willy-Nicky Telegrams. Fascinating! Did they stop such correspondence at the outbreak of war? I suspect so, but I hope not as I'd love to know their reactions to events as the war progressed, particularly as the revolution in Russia began simmering as the military situation on the Eastern Front turned against them.

P.S. I'm actually on my way out to Madison's great central research library downtown tomorrow for work purposes. I already wrote down the text Olham mentioned, if anyone else would like to recommend a book on the July Crisis or causes of WW1 I'd be thrilled to check it out too while I'm there!

My understanding of the July Crisis is mostly based off reading Europe's Last Summer. Goes like this: The Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated by members of the Black Hand, Serbian nationalist/terrorist organization led by Dragutin Dimitrijevic, who was also a member of the Serbian general staff. One of Princip's fellow conspirators implicated Dimitrijevic and several other members of the Serbian government in the Archduke's assassination and Franz Joseph seized on the opportunity, having wanted to get rid of Serbia for a while now and called on his alliance with Germany to help him crank up the pressure. They drafted the infamous ultimatum knowing that Serbia would not accept it and give them the impetus for war. The Kaiser wasn't overly interested in Serbia, but he wanted a war because he felt that Germany was ready for it and Russia was not, and if he waited then Russia would eventually grow too strong and overwhelm Germany in the inevitable "Teutonic-Slavic apocalyptic war". Serbia replied to the ultimatum in a relatively humiliating fashion, surprising the Central Powers at just how much it conceded. The Kaiser then withdrew his support for the war since he felt the few things the Serbs hadn't agreed to could be negotiated upon. So the Kaiser did an about face, which angered other high ranking Prussian diplomatic and military officers (Hollweg and Moltke in particular), who sabotaged the Kaiser and prevented his more "dovish" overtures from being made known to the Entente. The deadline passed, Austrian troops marched towards Belgrade, Russia joined in, Schiefflen plan is executed, German troops in Belgium = British declaration of war, world implodes, etc. Critique at will please! I may have been a bit too harsh on the Kaiser in my original post since he did change his mind and all, but I've never been much of a fan of the way he prodded on Franz Joseph into delivering the ultimatum intended to cause a war. It's always seemed to me that Wilhelm only really changed his mind because he was surprised the Serbians accepted as much of the ultimatum as they did.

Dare I say, perhaps it was because nice planes are expensive and airmen's lives are cheap? During the Fokker Scourge the chap in charge of the RFC specifically stated he knew his boys had no chance in hell against the Eindeckers, but he'd keep sending them up because their sacrifice was necessary for King and Country and all that.

Darn right there was money under the table back then. That whole war was just one huge mess. I was reading a book the other day on the summer of 1914, and how the Central Powers were intentionally provoking a war so Franz Joseph could eliminate Serbia and the Kaiser could defeat his own enemies, and I became so irritated. The fellows literally threw the world into chaos and horrific suffering for their own benefit. I for one am quite content their actions led to the demise of both their monarchies, but they damn near took the whole world with them! Odd thing is, Kaiser Wilhelm in later years became a right decent chap. I suppose World War 1 had a nice humbling effect on him.

The question of copy protection is a good one. I think the obvious solution is to go the Good Old Games route, who've done a terrific job with the DRM-free model and continue to do so. But even with that you'll never stop all piracy since there's always people who just don't get it, usually teenagers who don't have money to buy anything but want to play everything regardless.

Damn that's pretty. Cheers Louvert

It was a tough year for sure. College and health problems within my family battered me around quite a bit, even while I personally have been okay overall. There's, unfortunately, very little anyone can do to support one another, besides offer moral support. Everyone has to work to dig themselves out of their own hole I'm afraid. Still, I figure as long as I have an internet connection and time to play Flanders Fields and others it can't be -all- bad! Also, nobody is shooting at me here in Madison, Wisconsin, and that is most welcome. During the hard times I always find it helpful to maintain a strong mental discipline. For me I do that by committing to a strenuous exercise routine, more for my mental health than my physical. Without that I tend to lounge around and accomplish nothing. Good luck to all in 2011. Even if you find yourself extremely busy, do try and find the time to visit us here now and then to provide updates on your progress

It has been a fairly crummy decade hasn't it? I miss the 90s. Ah well, let's work to make this next one better. Happy New Year to the OFF crew all over the world. Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow your pilot will probably die. Or at least mine will. January 1st is always bad luck for me, think I'll avoid OFF for the day

The prose isn't perfect Hellshade, but remember that it's not necessary for it to be. Great stories aren't written, they're rewritten! You shouldn't even worry about pretty prose or stellar grammar until starting at least your second draft. First draft = skeleton. That said, what you have done there is great! Given a few revisions it'll be even better. Keep at it

The trick to getting in REAL close is to know when to break away at the last possible second to avoid a collision. This is best learned by leaving your guns at home and ramming the Huns until you get the idea, Pyotr Nesterov style.

Yea, I was likewise captured by the story from the get go. Which is a very important thing. Please by all means, expand and develop further!

Are you serious? This is excellent work. The detail in the descriptions is sheer quality, and the dialog has personality to it. Often people's dialog is rather dry and monotonous. Obviously your prose can be tightened and beautified via revisions and editing, but I don't think there can be any doubt that you have immense talent as a writer. Go forth! Develop your characters and breathe life into them!

I think the rule of thumb is that if you write a good story you will be published. Yes, rejections are countless but, speaking as someone who has family in the publishing industry, 99% of rejections are due to problems with the story. Usually it's just abysmal writing. Then there's good writing, good story, but the editing needs a lot of work. A lot of the time your manuscript isn't what a particular company is looking for, at which point your agent would ideally distribute it to a more welcoming publisher. Agents and publishers are ALWAYS looking for new talent. They love good stories as much as the next man or woman, and they know that if they get hooked on your tale that others will too. They don't -like- rejecting manuscripts but fact is that most of what they get is complete drivel and what's left needs a lot of work. The good news is that they're good at finding potential and will often work with you to improve your manuscript. You definitely need to earn an income during the process though. Writing a novel is as time consuming as it is challenging, even if you work on it every day. If you're an amazing writer, you write full-time, and are so good you don't even need to make revisions the process from first sentence to agent submission is a minimum of three months. On average it takes about a year. Once you have an agent it can take a while to find a publisher, and once that happens it takes a while more to finalize your book's publication. Until you're a professional writer, writing is something you do on the side. Thing is you HAVE to make time for it. Writing 500 to 1000 words a day is not wildly time consuming and 2 years will go by whether you write or not so you may as well. ps. It's actually starting to get easier to be published now in the digital age. Many writers who wouldn't have had a chance 5 years ago are right now making a good income having their work distributed on ITunes for example. Less risk for the publisher = more authors signed.

Bless your heart Dej, that's the precise one I was looking for. A more beautiful depiction of the Sopwith Camel I've never seen. Got my desktop back now

Do you remember though that there was one just like those but colored in? The Camels were so gorgeous, their stripes were almost pink in color. It was different than the 3D one I linked to. I'm sure it was in this thread I saw it... unless maybe I found it on Mark Miller's website and it's not there anymore... gah, only six weeks ago and I've already forgotten. I want to find that pic! Google has failed me in this :-/

Apologies for resurrecting an old thread old boy, but I used to use a version of this as my desktop wallpaper. Quite a lovely piece, but it was colored and not black & white! I've searched google but the best I can find is this (http://mwmiller.theaerodrome.com/camel/naval10.jpg), which is great but it's just not the one I'm looking for! I came back to this thread remembering I found it here and now it's... gone! Help!

Writing like anything just needs discipline. You just chip away at the boulder day by day. I try to write about 500 - 1000 words a day... if I'm busy or tired I'll just throw in 250 words minimum. That's totally fine, because every time you write another sentence you're letting the story simmer and develop in your mind, then comes a day where you're just hit with a burst of inspiration and pump out 3,000 words just because you don't want to stop, or you immerse yourself in a scene. Everyone works differently but I recommend devising a good outline of a scene before you write it. I don't outline whole chapters ahead of time, that's too time consuming and I'm lazy. But outlines help as a guideline, so that you're not wasting time trying to think of what to write next because you've already done that and now you're filling in the details. I just do the vaguest outlines possible in notepad then have that and my Microsoft Word windows open side by side as I plunk away at it. A lot of writers tend to get bogged down revising or scrutinizing what they've already written over and over. J.R.R Tolkien did that, it took him like 15 years to write LotR. George R.R. Martin has the habit as well and god knows when we'll see the next Song of Ice and Fire book because of it! The best writing advice I've ever heard is Hemingway's: "The first draft of anything is s**t". Your first draft is just a skeleton, it's the light brush strokes on a canvas. You can't worry about it too much, the important thing is to get it down on paper and remember that "The worst thing you write is preferable to the best thing you didn't write". I've closed my eyes and typed without any concern for grammar, punctuation, or artsy prose, I just let it flow out of my brain naturally because the #1 killer of manuscripts is most people just never finishing the first draft. No writer just sits down and composes a work of gorgeous prose off the top of his head. Prose develops organically through revisions, it's not created out of thin air! Then once you have it drafted, -then- you go back and clean it up. Then you draft it again and you add form, composition, color, shading. It's exactly like doing a digital painting in Photoshop CS5, adding layers upon layers. Takes a while but it's worth it so you can leave your personal mark on the world. How many millions of people lived and died in Ancient Rome and are now utterly forgotten? The ones whose legacies live on are the ones who wrote!

I always enjoy reading about the Falklands just because it's just about the only modern war of its kind. We have all these pretty fighter jets and navies these days but the ships just ferry people around and the jets spend 99.9% of their time engaging ground targets. People forget (or would rather forget maybe?) that the Falklands was a near thing for the British. Not just me saying so, Lord Craig himself who was Marshal of the RAF at the time said "six better fuses and we would have lost", referring to the fuses on the unguided bombs that weren't setting off because the Argentines were under such pressure from the air defenses (Harriers included) that they had to release their payload from too low of an altitude (guy I knew who flew for Argentina actually compared it to the Death Star trench run, with Harriers as TIE Fighters and much more accurate anti-air defenses!). It always amazes me how powerful those warships are yet they can be so excruciatingly vulnerable to air attack which I think is the big big lesson from the Falklands. Man I love that Harrier though. I want to see it at a museum someday sitting right next to the Camels and Spitfires.

7.1 for $130?! Blimey that's a good deal!

I play Flanders Fields with these X4 Headsets. 5.1 sound, wireless, they're really great. Not the best headsets for PC gaming by any means, but I bought them a few years ago to use with the XBox 360 (they're intended for use with the 360 but you can get them to work on a PS3 easily enough and on a PC with a little doing), though they've come out with a new one that's even better or so I've read. Great for watching Babylon 5 off Netflix streaming, Seven Samurai on PS3 Blu-ray or any kind of gaming. Lately I've used them to play old Infinity Engine RPGs (namey Baldur's Gate) and am astounded by how much ambiance is lost through traditional speakers and how much it enhances the gameplay. Same story with Flanders Fields, the immersion level skyrockets with a good pair of headsets. As far as damage goes I don't really worry myself about it. I fly with the high-res models so I don't see bullet damage but time was I'd never see it anyway since I was too busy trying to aim to pay attention to those little details. In general I assume I miss wildly until I see the little bugger in flames