Lexx_Luthor

Add that to the Smokey pic.

The old trim mod does not work in SF2?

Scott Mueller (Upgrading & Repairing PCs) has noticed "commodity" PC hard drives, I guess all manufacturers, made in the last 5 years fail more than older drives, because of more production with lower quality. He suggests "enterprise" quality hard drives -- for one thing, they are made to run continously. I figure they are at least double the price (SATA). Be careful out there. You too Dave. I saw one forum poast by a guy/guyette describing a loss of two external hard drives when trying to retrieve a backup. gilig, why did you wait to tell us you were next? The List gillg Hard drive crash Has only old, partial backup GMagos Made backup mod DVD Can't find it No further backup eraser_tr Hard drive crash No backup Bongodriver Hard drive crash No Backup 76.IAP-Blackbird Deleted game No backup Okay who's next?

152A wow lol 76 put these on a DVD tonight. No, 2 DVDs, just for safety.

76, at combat speed nobody sees more than a few polygons. At this level, air warfare gives a hint of space warfare, but not the kind of Sci-Fi in the movies. In the real thing, targets would be, at the very *best*, a tiny faint point of light. Nothing more, and often much less. I had developed a space combat sim like that in old DOS using Fortran. Very interesting maths. The most unique thing I did was put the entire 4pi steradians of the universe (stars, nearby planets/moons)...on the monitor. The display was 2 circles, one forward hemisphere and one rear hemisphere. The trig I developed was free from distortion in the radial direction, and suffered only pi/2 distortion in the tangent direction. Writing the code so planet horizons and terminators could jump from one display circle to another was the core challenge. Calculating target visibility was interesting. Lots of vectors dealing with searcher/target/sun/ angles and planet horizons/terminators obscuring or enhancing target detection -- a target emitting radiation is easily seen against a planet's darkside, but not always when seen against the light side, depending on radiation wavelength. Space ships can hide in the star field. The best way is hiding against the Milky Way, although if "you" are hidden among the faint Milky Way stars from another ship, so is that other ship -- works two ways as the galaxy is a ring at infinity (well in the code). However, overall the most extreme way of stalking or "bouncing" a target is getting the local system star behind you -- some things never change. A bit off topic but the idea was I didn't need fancy space craft grafix polygons to brutally realistically simulate space warfare (Newtonian orbits and all that stuff). Its all distance and (potentially) very high relative velocities. Its more math than polygons. Same when airplanes get above Mach 2 and higher into the stratosphere.

"forgot" Xray, they look great. :good: :good: :good: If I recall correctly (haha yea) another project name was actually "follow on aircraft" (to U2), or something like that. Also "Gusto." Not just Lockheed but all competitors.

Wrench:: Oh that. It was blank test map for demo; obsolete since NP. Its up to you my friend. I can work with a strategic campaign modding group, but centered on USSR only. That's my own lifetime project, it seems lol. --- Although I am partial to bare metal, often accentuated in a delightful blend with anti-flash white, I've always thought the A12 grey top and black (blue?) bottom was the most Sci-Fi colour scheme. I've got the AEROFAX SR-71 Family book (get it, get AEROFAX B-58, and backup your stuff today) but haven't really looked at it yet. I'm sure it details the reason for the paint job.

~> "danger" ... mix with airplane, gives stupid. Its a sad cult. The classic test pilot "low altitude high speed pass in front of Air Force officials" keeps them hiring new test pilots I guess. XF-89, MiG-9 F1, come to mind.

go daddy go Just found something new (for me)...Scott Mueller, 2008 Just found Scott Mueller's forum. He writes the Upgrading And Repairing PC's which has been a good reference for me for near 15 years. It looks like the latest 19th edition is *finally* updated for today's gear. I hope so.

So eraser you don't have a flash drive laying around. How bout some DVD disks? A brand new hard drive has not yet decided to be a bad sample or one that will last 9 years. And don't lose the DVD disk. Another one just joined The List, but not tragically. GMagos Lost one backup DVD No further backup Rescued by Wrench eraser_tr Hard drive crash No backup Bongodriver Hard drive crash No Backup 76.IAP-Blackbird Deleted game No backup Okay who's next?

Dave, how do you back up your stuff? Maybe the water smells sour to them, too much work right now, like "backup is nice," but someday, just not today. UKPilot was right in the other thread -- doing anything is better than nothing. eraser, you still have Windows-7. Do you have a spare flash drive you can plug in your computer right now, before you lose your Windows-7 drive? Its a start. Look I'm weird. I've always wheeled and dealed at screwdriver shops and computer shows and I get my backup hardware for dimes on the dollar, and sometimes for free, in original box or shrinkwrap, but unmarketable because they are years old. I've got so many backups of different styles, its gotta be overkill. But then, I am Compiler of The List. Most would have to pay more for similar backup security (UKPilot was right here also). I suppose most here don't open their boxes. If so, the USB flash drive may be the "easiest" way to get them into a baby's first step backup habit. I use DVDs some, but they are distatsteful (to me), so the flash drives could be a good way to start people out, and might be more "fun" -- less hassle -- than DVD. At least you can get flash drives in much larger capacity than DVDs, but they start getting expensive, and they may not be reliable for very long term storage. But baby steps comes before a Marathon. OCZ makes a one-of-a-kind unique USB flash drive called Rally2 in various capacities. It has a huge insanely bright orange LED light that stays ON all the time, and only flickers during activity. It illuminates a darkened room with eerie orange glow. It gives good visual feedback to using the otherwise silent drive, and gives feedback to NOT using it -- the light goes on when plugged in, and stays on until used when it flickers like a strobe. As far as I know, this one model is unique in its LED light. I've got a ton of them. A "fun" LED lighted flash drive might provide the honey sweet to get people started. Is this Correct Thinking?

The List 76.IAP-Blackbird Deleted game No backup Bongodriver Hard drive crash No Backup eraser_tr Hard drive crash No backup Okay who's next? All this in one week. Dave, you gotta do something.

Remember the Pet Rock? Basically, as a small home PC user years ago, I was not impressed by the Zip Drive mania, and other fly-by-night "removable" backup hardware. Although the LS-120 I kinda liked, I never went for it because it was a kinda super floppy. I just stuck with plain hard drives -- lots of them -- while everybody around me shed tears over lost data. Alot of it is having the Backup Attitude. No gear can help if you don't have the "itch" to preserve your work or data. Pilot, you are slowly getting there. You need to press the importance of multiple independent backups. Do it ! Yea! Long ago I had to back up "critcal" work to floppies -- many floppies just for one backup. But everything, including the core "critical," I backed up to a single hard drive, and again to another hard drive, and again to a third hard drive, etc...maybe a dozen total I'd cycle through over time -- independent multiple hard drives, averaging about 400MB back then. DVDs are the new floppy. Perhaps the security of DVDs comes from: they don't store much. When we begin to need multiple DVDs for just one backup, reliability and practicality plummet as the number of disks needed rises. I think DVDs are much more reliable than floppy disks, but I do not share your apparent full faith in DVD media. The security of hard drives comes from having multiple independently backed up drives in case one fails. As for your claim of bad experiences with hard drives, you may be doing something wrong. I've never had a problem, perhaps because I always assume data storage hardware will fail, every time. Maybe it a Xen thing. Pilot:: We can't "truly" backup our data in large amounts unless we spend a fortune in "IT" equipment or service. You are talking your book. Pilot:: Point makes no sense if we make multiple independent backups to prevent data loss through potential drive *and* media failure. You folks seeing this: the core about backing up data is making multiple independent backups: More than one, more than two, until you feel comfy, and then one more, in case one or two backups fail. For the home PC, its so easy and inexpensive to make backups with today's gear. Do it!

Thanks. Pilot be careful out there. If you have drives hooked into one power supply, you can lose all of them if the supply blows up in sparks. When that happened to me it was a cheap power supply. Lesson Learned. I would like to know if these online storage companies make tape backups, and if so, how many tape backups. I knew one small outfit that I don't think did. But they were "affordable" so to speak lol. Pilot:: We can ruin optical drives by handling them. The language of "true backup" makes no sense to me. Worse, DVD disks are too small for people needing to backup much larger amounts of data. They need hard drives -- or tape I suppose if the tapes are large enough, and they are slower. Even worse, we need multiple tape backups. I would never trust a backup to *one* tape. Maybe I think too much about the old music cassette tapes and how the tapes could get mangled by the tape deck. I suppose computer backup tape decks are designed better, but I won't be spending 1800$ to find out. I don't want "true backups." I want backups. I prefer swapping in-out multiple internal hard drives. Others, far more normal, may prefer external e-SATA drives, or hot swap drives, or whatever is out there now. Just use more than one, and independently so. Don't drop them on concrete, and know your static electricity especially during winter. Folks, its not complicated. If all you have is a USB flash thumb drive, use it NOW. Imagine if 76 had his/her SF2 copied three times, once to a thumb, once to a DVD, and once to some extra hard drive. It could be restored from one of them.

uh...just kidding there Nesher. Sounds like you found a cool gal. I *always* hear American guys whining about American women, how foreign women would be, or are, better. I figure guys do that everywhere.

I'd guess it could be the grass is always looks greener on the other lawn thing. Nesher hehehe ITS A TRAP

And it helps to stay on your toes showing you are the best. Cater, I guess events prove you are the best.

Widow, there is confustion here. by "HDD" do you mean one hard drive? If so, you need to backup to multiple hard drives. Online data storage works by storing data on -- multiple hard drives. That's what you can do at home for reliable backup: Independently back up to a number of hard drives. One benefit of online storage is keeping the data "safe" in another place, far away. The popular RAID backup hobby seems to violates this. One Power supply explosion and all the hard drives in a RAID get blown in a shower of sparks. I've seen it. To find the benefit of distant storage, unplug the backup hard drives when they are not being backed up to. Storing the hard drives in different locations is possible. As far as my understanding goes, the potential to lose all RAID hard drives in one event is why I don't use it for backup. With SATA, so far I'm happy with the speed of non-raid drives.

Never thought of this -- Backup vs Copy. I make backup copies. I never used any backup software. I'm pretty simple. Like when I spent hours working my new terrain, I get an "itch" to make backup copies of it, just in case. I get this foreboding feeling haunting me until I do it. Swap multiple hard drives, DVD disks, USBs, copy paste data, everything I worked that's new. It may be overkill but I'm peachy with that.

Yeah I hear ya. I just don't trust the DVD "medium" any more than I trusted floppies as a "stable medium." I rely on DVD backups, but only partially. You keep saying "a hard drive" is not a backup. I keep agreeing by saying many hard drives are independent backups. DVDs make additional backups. USBs make backups beyond that. Granted, I'm not in IT. My goal is to never need IT service for data recovery.

Yeah I see what you mean now. I like SATA DVDs now for backup. Reasonably fast and like you say they are just a "medium" and not mechanical/electrical working devices. However, I trust them as much as the floppy disks years back. They often went bad, which was not a problem because I made spare backups. I don't like tapes -- too slow for me I suppose. Never used em anyways. For me the most reliable primary backup is multiple hard drives stored away from the computer, but as always in combination with other methods for independent--independent data storage. Drop hard drives on a table or rug and they are fine. Always think of static electricity. When you do, they are unbelievably reliable and last forever when used a few times a year. Just assume that they aren't so have multiples!!!!

I don't want backups hooked up to a computer. Power supplies can blow them all away. USB drive is a backup to the backup to the backup. Just that extra extra little thing, and stored someplace else in case of fire, theft, killer asteroids, F-16 pilots like the guy who missed a gunnery range at night and shot up a nearby hi school so they had to close the school and so made the Air Guard insanely popular with hi school students , etc...) ANY hard drive is not a backup -- Yep -- Many hard drives are independent backups. Its trivially easy today for home PC backup, several inexpensive methods. Not sure about large businesses. Manually swapping hard drives in and out of a case is no work at all. Work is forever losing data.

I got the 250 last year. Upgraded from Semperon and 2G ram. Decided to go AM3 lifestyle all the way. Man its very much faster in every way. But your A64 is a step up from my old Semperon so you may not see as much increase as I saw. Since processors development has staganated, you could get away with waiting. When you do upgrade, go at least 4Gb ram minimum. You'll need it all. I do. The dual processor actually seems to help with old apps. Win-7 may be running on one core, the app on another. That's my guess anyways.

paulo, grey paint -- even so, ramp up the Texture set shines/reflection a bit. When they polished these things, the grey was like a mirror. If I recall, I've seen F-106 shots with wings mirroring the fuselage USAF markings, although this was at a low angle. Most likely most planes were somewhat dirty though. Not sure. It might be something you want.

I've found MinPixelSize=0.0 gives an increase in distance before aircraft models vanish. More here on this ~> http://bbs.thirdwire.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=7030