>Something is apparently wrong with either mine or their email>or both because I don't think messages are getting through. I>was contacted by Michael, but stupid AOL thought it was spam>and it sat in the spam folder for a few days before I noticed>it - I pulled it out of there, told the program it wasn't>spam, and sent a big email back to Michael - either it never>got to him, or his reply never got to me, because I haven't>recieved anything back. I've got final exams over the next>few days, so I'll probably email again middle of this week...Hi Ryan...talked to Micheal today. He checked his mail again...doesn't have anything. He asked that I give you his Email address, to contact him directly. It's: [email protected] this helps speed things along for you.Best,Dave

Ok guys, all set up for the initital consultation on Thursday night! I'm not expecting miracles, but I will be impressed if they can get the sim looking and running noticably better for me.

None of this is much good if you live 10000 miles away on the other side of the world!Bruce

Bruce,Location is not a problem as long as you can get a cheap headset with microphone. Michael does all his work with you via an internet connection and MSN Messenger.Ken

Yes, Michael is patient and very helpful. He spent a of lot of time with me in the initial conversation. One should be aware though that some recommendations are gong to cost you if you don't have the "latest and greatest" system.I have a 64 Meg GeForce Ti4200 and apparently that is not good enough. It was recommended that I get an ATI 9800 Pro card. I had no problem with that, BUT...I only have a 250 watt power supply which was suggested was not good enough for the ATI card because the ATI takes power from the system. I was prepared to buy the ATI and upgrade the PS. As it turned out, according to Dell, my system cannot support a power supply rated higher.So, if your specs are above what mine are in those two departments, by all means try FSGS out.

Bumping, very interesting!

YoI think that this thread sould be locked and sent over to the hardware forum.After all it`s about system integration right?

Hi RyanThat's going to be interesting... This is what I would like to say before 'you go:' Depending whether your FSGS review is indepth and not just 'go there and plonk your money' (like other FSGS club members have to offer), we all might be able to learn something... I hope we're not confronted with yet another person, not wanting to share their knowledge anymore... BTW, settings and set-ups are in no way trade secrets... IMHO, these vague posts, 'go there and you'll be happy' are not helpful in knowledge resources like AVSIM. Second best is, everybody who took out consulting, afterwards seems to manifest the same strange behaviour, sharing know-how is some sort of crime. Well, if that's part of the deal, one paid dearly to reclude himself from exchanging knowledge... And you might still want to consider a U-turn... Hehe. Anyway, BEST is, these 'closed-source' smoothness proclamations are made at the 'open-source' AVSIM site... Why don't all 'experienced' FSGS users at least tell something of interest: Like, what do you believe, was the best 'switch' and you had never thought of..? Be useful, informative... For consideration assistance: Thesis: A father who took out FSGS' services, would he be some sort of 'criminal,' if he shared this knowledge with his son? This IS how some posters are trying to put it... So a la: 'No son, I'm not going to tell you! Why not, dad? It's sixty bucks! I don't care whether it's sixty bucks, I had to pay for it too!' Uhhh? And who's childish in case? Or otherwise put: Being a parent of a curious child: You would happily agree receiving a seperate school-invoice every month, because your kid asked more questions than average children do? Get the concept? I hope it's a non-brainer for you, Ryan. FSGS is a modern, state of the ART business. Get the people's cash and simultaneously make the customer believe, they've joined some knowledge club and aren't allowed to share their know-how anymore... Genious really... Looking forward to your review... Good luck and kind regards Jaap PS @ FSGS customers. Personally and thus far, I'ld call the FSGS-customer 'performance' a proof of mal-aimed loyalty! 'Knowledge recluders' aren't loyal to the readers and posters at i.e. AVSIM and fellow FS users, but to some weird concept. And please, don't proclaim smoothness in capital letters, if you're not prepared to share how you achieved it on your PARTICULAR system. Please stop hiding behind excuses... Finally, choose who you want to be loyal to... Perhaps think of everybody as sons, daughters, brothers, sisters and grandpas..! T'is what we are... In joy and suffering...

"As it turned out, according to Dell, my system cannot support a power supply rated higher."...and there's another reason to NOT buy Dell computers :)BTW are you sure the Dell representative you talked to knew what he was saying? Computer components only draw as much current as they need so I don't see how a more powerful PSU would cause any problems. Now they might use some special propretary PSU/connectors though. Wouldn't surprise me if they do actually...that would be yet another reason to not buy Dell (or any other prefabbed system)....

Well, he put me on hold three times before comiing up with the answer. I assume that he didn't know the answer and had to check with someone who did.The answer surprised me also. I think that his exact quote was that my motherboard "doesn't support anything over 250w PS's."

Jaap,I will do my best to convey what actually takes place with FSGS, but in the event I'm given information about aspects of system setup, FS9.cfg tweaks or whatever that I didn't know which makes it worth the cost of their service, I'm not going to come here and tell everyone how to do it. That wouldn't be ethical - if they can in fact massively improve my FS experience and thus in my estimate be able to do it for others as well, then they've got a legitimate product/service that is worth something. They've obviously put a lot of time and energy into researching all of this and turning it into a product and time is money. To lay out all the "secrets" (if any) so to say in a review would hurt their ability to sell their service, and I'm not going to do that.What I will do is offer an impartial and unbiased opinion of their service coming from a technical computer background. If the service does do wonders for my sim, I'll definitely say it. If it doesn't, I'll also say that as well.Ryan

>Jaap,>>I will do my best to convey what actually takes place with>FSGS, but in the event I'm given information about aspects of>system setup, FS9.cfg tweaks or whatever that I didn't know>which makes it worth the cost of their service, I'm not going>to come here and tell everyone how to do it. That wouldn't be>ethical - if they can in fact massively improve my FS>experience and thus in my estimate be able to do it for others>as well, then they've got a legitimate product/service that is>worth something. They've obviously put a lot of time and>energy into researching all of this and turning it into a>product and time is money. To lay out all the "secrets" (if>any) so to say in a review would hurt their ability to sell>their service, and I'm not going to do that.>>What I will do is offer an impartial and unbiased opinion of>their service coming from a technical computer background. If>the service does do wonders for my sim, I'll definitely say>it. If it doesn't, I'll also say that as well.>>RyanI'll do the same, I'll tell you guys my honest opinion. I've got an appointment for today afternoon with Michael Greenblatt via MSN Messenger here in Moscow.

I'm scheduled to work with Michael this evening (my time) and have already agreed to post my impressions on the service on my VATSIM ARTCC's forums, along with those of a fellow controller who's already used the service. Here's the link to the thread, which already contains my impressions of yesterday's initial consultation and which I'll update with a full review by tomorrow at the latest:http://www.laartcc.org/forum2/viewtopic.php?t=1591In the meantime, I wanted to reply to the above post because I find some aspects of it quite disturbing.>... I hope we're not confronted with yet>another person, not wanting to share their knowledge>anymore... BTW, settings and set-ups are in no way trade>secrets... Well, that's an open question actually. I'm not a lawyer so I couldn't even tell you what the laws are in the United States, where both I and Michael Greenblatt reside. The laws where you are would no doubt be different. It would be an intellectual property claim, and it would ultimately be a matter of proving to the court that the consultant was using specific methods and/or technology that were unique, and that someone knowingly disseminated that information without permission.Of course you're right that a "tweak" like renaming the default.xml file would never be something one could legally copyright or trademark, but the services that FS-GS offers go far beyond that. Put another way, I, an historian by trade, can't write a book about the history of, say, flight simulation, and then try to exclude anyone else from writing a book about the topic. But if someone else decides to write a book that substantially copies the content or ideas of my own (whether he uses my exact words or not), then I most definitely have a claim. Michael isn't saying that his customers can't continue to tweak their computers, or talk to people generally about their systems -- he just doesn't want his specific methods shared.I had a very pleasant conversation of around 90 minutes or so with Michael yesterday, and in the first half hour or so he asked some general questions about my system and then told me in general terms what he felt he could do for me. At that point he said (paraphrasing), "Ok, if we're going to go any further in this, then I am considering you to be my client and as such I need to tell you that the information I provide to you as a consultant is protected, and you can't share it with anyone ..." and so on. After I agreed to that, we began specifically working on my system.For the reasons stated above, I have no problems whatsoever with this. You have to admit, he's offering a great service here. Who'd have thought that the flight sim community would support a consulting service geared almost exclusively toward Flight Sim? Evidently not Microsoft or they'd probably have put something together already. Where else can you get this kind of service? I can only imagine what would happen if I called up my local computer store and said, "I'm having a problem with my Flight Simulator, I'm getting low FPS and it seems jerky." Here's what would happen:1. Bring the computer to the store. Some 18-year-old kid listens to what I have to say and says ok, we'll plug in your system and look at it. That'll be (at least) $50 please.2. Ok, we've looked at your system. Flight Sim sure does seem choppy, you're right. Part of your problem is probably a lot of old junk that's been accumulating. Let's reformat and reinstall Windows XP, then we'll reinstall all your software and see if that helps. That's about all these kids are trained to do, which is ok in a way because although it's an extreme method, it will solve most of the problems that your typical user is going to have (viruses, spyware, driver conflicts, etc.). Additional cost? I'm guessing at least $100-$150 since it would probably take them a couple of hours minimum to do this, and even that's assuming I already had all my stuff backed up and didn't enlist them to do this.3. Ok, well we've done that, things are a tiny bit better but you're still complaining? Well, what you probably *really* need is this new 3.2 GHz processor with the most expensive video card out there. Additional cost? $1500-$2000, ballpark, if you buy from the store.So that's the alternative; well, that and scouring the forums for tweaks, most of which seem to do no real good and many of which are quite harmful depending on your system configuration. Oh wait, I forgot spending years and years learning how to build and adjust systems myself. After all, any knowledge that you can pay for you can also acquire yourself, right? Sure, if you've got enough time on your hands.Now, FS-GS comes along and I can have five or six hours of real-time consulting, by someone who has the experience that it would take me years to acquire, that is focused entirely on my specific machine and even more directly on the specific, and rather specialized, piece of software that I need to run more efficiently. Unlike at Best Buy, I don't pay until I'm satisfied. And the fee, when pro-rated over the time spent, comes to not even twice minimum wage? Probably about what it would cost for one hour of reformatting from the 18-year-old "special technician" at Best Buy? Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.>For consideration assistance: Thesis: A father who took out>FSGS' services, would he be some sort of 'criminal,' if he>shared this knowledge with his son? What if the father bought the PMDG 737NG, or ActiveSky 2004, and shared this with his son? Would he be in the wrong? Legally, yes. I see this as no different. It's a purchase that you make over the Internet (and in fact some "software" is included, various utilties to test your system etc.) and part of the deal is that you're not supposed to make copies for anyone else.The other part of this -- which unfortunately you may not fully understand until you sign up for the service -- is that unless the father and son had the same hardware, the same utilities running, the same patterns of usage, and so on, the information wouldn't be useful anyway. I just can't stress this enough. This is absolutely NOT about tweaking Flight Sim. It's about getting everything else to work right so you don't *need* to tweak Flight Sim. Put quite simply, most people's machines are not configured optimally. Fortunately, for typical applications like Word, Excel, and even most games, even a low-end system that's configured poorly is going to have power to spare. So you only notice poor performance on Flight Simulator; therefore you assume FS is the problem, and begin to tweak it. You've got it backward. (Ok, now I sound way too much like Microsoft.)Even if I said, ok, screw the non-disclosure agreement, I'll tell you everything, you would be quite disappointed. In the absence of specific information about your system and knowledge (that I wouldn't have) about how to play around with your exact settings, what FS-GS does would be reduced to something so general that you'd get no benefit from it. It would be a collection of obvious truths like "Make sure you don't have anything running that's taking away processor power needlessly." You say, like what? Well, I don't know, what do you have on your system? See the problem here?>Or otherwise put: Being a parent of a>curious child: You would happily agree receiving a seperate>school-invoice every month, because your kid asked more>questions than average children do? Get the concept? Your logic is faulty here. Michael Greenblatt is not a public-school teacher who we've hired to teach the entire flight sim community at a group rate -- although who knows, if you can get a few dozen of your friends together maybe he'll cut you a deal. In the meantime, he is offering his services as an independent consultant on a private basis. To use your analogy, if my kid needed a private tutor outside of school, then yes, I would expect to have to pay for that.>state of the ART business. Get the people's cash and>simultaneously make the customer believe, they've joined some>knowledge club and aren't allowed to share their know-how>anymore... Genious really... It seems to me that you're really attacking the whole concept upon which intellectual property and copyright are founded here, which is fine, but Michael Greenblatt is hardly the first person to use these premises. You might as well say, geez, Britney Spears, she sells me a CD and then tells me I can't make copies and share it with all my friends ... genius really ...>Finally, choose who you want to be loyal to... Perhaps think>of everybody as sons, daughters, brothers, sisters and>grandpas..! T'is what we are... In joy and suffering... I do feel a sense of loyalty (actually affinity, which is more what you're describing) to the flight sim community, thanks very much. My sense of loyalty compels me to give you as honest and straightforward a review of each new service/product I buy as I possibly can, without sharing the service/product with you, which would be illegal and wrong. When people ask me about the PMDG 737NG, for instance, or about ActiveSky, I will candidly share with them all of the pros and cons as I see them. I don't actually offer to *send* them the 737 or AS2004, however. Same thing here. I'll tell you, in general terms, how things go. I'll tell you, in as specific terms as I can, about how the performance changes, or doesn't change. I'll tell you about whether or not the service was worth the money *for me* and then let you make your own decision about whether or not it would be worth it for you. But no, I won't share the specifics with you -- not that they would help you anyway since I'm sure your machine is entirely different from mine, but also because it simply isn't right to do so.Regards,Marc SykesVATSIM ZLA ARTCC Chief

Brilliant post Mark - that covers just about everything I would also have said after the initial consultation. My main session with Michael starts in 4 minutes - hopefully I'll be back with good news and some amazing screenshots later this afternoon!

I hope all went fine with your system? I'd gladly like to ear what you can say now?