The case for FSX...

[Patco Lch 1,467]

2 hours ago, Boomer said:

Your last line is curious given the FSX was never completed, abandoned by MicroSux while still fundamentally broken.

Ah, but that's when some talented developers stepped in and made a fine sim after ten years of work.

[Boomer 1,619]

9 minutes ago, PATCO LCH said:

Ah, but that's when some talented developers stepped in and made a fine sim after ten years of work.

If you refer to FSX:SE then, yes, I agree the recompiled version with some minor fixes is better.

[him225 51]

Though I am not half the age to fully imagine the difficulty, I thought p3d might be wish fulfilled for those already comfortable with fsx and dont want too much change especially to 64 bit. It is much the same as fsx with LM itself trying not to break away too much from the original thing. P3D is still mostly a new paint with some parts replaced here and polished there that were already broken to begin with, along with some additions that are supplementary. Perhaps the overhype about the new paint distracted too much from the inner familiarity. It still handles and makes the same noises except it breaks down on the road less and a larger luggage carrying space. Just dont use old grease on the new parts and it will be fine.

[Patco Lch 1,467]

20 hours ago, Boomer said:

If you refer to FSX:SE then, yes, I agree the recompiled version with some minor fixes is better.

I mean all the developers both commercial and freeware who together made an incomplete dead sim into something really good. ORBYX, HIFI, PMDG, etc. And a triple shout out "thanks" to those incredible freeware guys. I would recommend any youngster just getting into simming to go for one of the new 64bit sims but for a codger like me FSX has been made into something good over the years by some dedicated and talented people. 

[bobbyjack 61]

I fly default FSX. Except for repaints. 

In the past, I used to spend a lot of time building airports and flight plans. And using Editvoicepak to get the sim to call my airports and airlines. But now it's just default.

re smartphones

I'm 66. I hope to make it to my 80's. Those who think that smartphones are just bells and whistles may not know what they are capable of. Sure, they aren't for everyone. I get the newest Android every two years on my plan, because each is so much better than the last. The list of things that can be done with these phones is far to long to put here. Could I live without it? Sure, but my life is better with this phone. 

Ridiculous, you say? How many of us have been on the quest of getting the most powerful computer we could afford, just to run this sim? The cost can be staggering. Far more than the price on a smartphone. Yet we do it for a simple pleasure. And many have two or more computers dedicated to flightsim. And don't use these power houses for anything else.

Birdguy, I certainly understand your frustration on Mother's Day. But perhaps there is another angle from which to view this. Do you suppose that 40 years ago, your daughters would have talked that much with mom on a dinner outing? Maybe, but my guess is that they would have talked to each other more. And on the Mother's Day in question, maybe they hadn't seen each other for a while and had limited time to catch up. Just a guess. And maybe going out to dinner is your way of celebrating more than it is their's. 

The complaint that young people spend all their time on their phones and don't know how to talk to those around them is one I hear often. But they are in constant communication with many people all the time. They are more in tune with those people that they want to be in tune with than we ever were. For better or for worse. 

Parents have always complained that their kids spend too much time on the phone. Mine did.

[birdguy 3,943]

Bob,

I understand what you are saying.  But from my observations smartphones are addictive to many people.

When out and about being plugged in all the time you tend to lose situational awareness to the point that just recently one major city made it illegal for pedestrians to use their phones when walking downtown due to the jaywalking accidents and people simply walking into things and injuring themselves.

We all know how dangerous texting and driving are.  Many people have killed themselves and others while doing exactly that.

Technology is useful.  Addiction to technology isn't.  And for some technology and lack of  discipline when using it can be dangerous.  Just look at the problems with social media and e-mails and forums where you say things you wouldn't face to face.

I have been guilty of that myself.  Blowing off on the Orbx forum got me what looks like a lifetime ban.  I can go and read the entries but I cannot post.

Nobody knows what my daughters would have done 40 years ago on Mothers Day.  Sure they would have been talking with each other but not ignoring Mom like the attention sinks of smartphones tend to do.  Like talking while driving is orders of magnitude safer than looking at a smartphone screen or texting while driving.

When I drive my wife's new Camry with that touch screen in the middle of the dash I ignore it.  I don't feel it's safe to be fiddling with what's on that screen and trying to avoid traffic at the same time.

I never fly commercial anymore.  I don't like going through TSA where it's like being processed into the prison system and then being treated like a head of cattle by the airlines once you get through security.  So I travel  by train.

It's a great way to relax and the big picture windows in the lounge car give you great views of spectacular scenery going by.  But lately half the people in the lounge cars are not enjoying the scenery.  They are engrossed in their phones.  Not only are they missing great views but they are taking up seats for passengers who might want to view the scenery.

There's a commercial for something or other making the rounds in television now.  A family sitting at the dinner table and the young daughter staring at her smartphone emitting various tones of beeps and bops as she's playing a game.  Her father takes the phone and dumps it into a pitcher of lemonade.  In the next scene the phone is ringing and she tells her father, "The lemonade is ringing." 

In closing let me say my brother and I were never accused of spending too much time on the phone.  We had a 4party line.  Three other households were on the same line we were on and many times we'd pick up the phone and someone else would be on it. We had to wait until they were finished to place our own call. Our parents limited us to 3 minutes per call.

Noel

It took me 84 years to look this good.

 

 

[Patco Lch 1,467]

4 hours ago, bobbyjack said:

Birdguy, I certainly understand your frustration on Mother's Day. But perhaps there is another angle from which to view this. Do you suppose that 40 years ago, your daughters would have talked that much with mom on a dinner outing? Maybe, but my guess is that they would have talked to each other more. And on the Mother's Day in question, maybe they hadn't seen each other for a while and had limited time to catch up. Just a guess. And maybe going out to dinner is your way of celebrating more than it is their's. 

That reminds me of the time I was having a pity party telling my older brother of feeling ignored by my ungrateful daughters and their hubbys . He said something very relevant which I filed away in the wisdom corner of my mind. "Don't worry about your kids. They have more important things going on in their lives then you." Wonder if they felt that way about me when they were little and I was working too much to give them enough attention. The old what goes around comes around deal.

[bobbyjack 61]

Birdguy,

Thanks for a reasoned reply. I'm not trying to be argumentative. It's just that just because something can be abused doesn't mean it should be rejected. If that were the case, we'd all be walking everywhere, wearing leaves and eating berries. For every advancement there is a price to pay. Everyone gets to decide if the price is worth it. It's not up to me to decide that for someone else.

We become addicted to many things. TV, driving too fast, junk food to name a few. I predict that enforcing a no cellphone law downtown will be a nightmare.  

My wife flies all over the country on business. She can't possibly have time to take a train. You should like the plane because you can't use a cellphone. 

[birdguy 3,943]

I have a pretty good relationship with my youngest daughter.  She keeps me well informed about my grandson, her career as CFO of a large mortgage company, and her running.  A couple years ago she reached her goal of having run 25 marathons by her 50th birthday and is now running 50 mile races.  Next summers she going to try for the Leadville 100.

Last August she took me to San Francisco for a father-daughter weekend. 

I can't say she's ignoring me.

About working too much and ignoring them.  I had to leave them during my two tours to Vietnam when they were little.  After my second tour I was stationed in Utah and one day I had to wear my dress uniform because I was being awarded a medal.  When I came downstairs my six year old son started crying because he thought I was leaving again.  That's when I got out with 16 years of active duty.  I wasn't going to leave them again.

16 years later I joined the National Guard to finish up my time for retirement.  The kids were all gone by then.

Noel

 

 

 

[birdguy 3,943]

Bob, How I would like to walk everywhere and eat berries.  In fact we did, a lot.  I was a backpacker since the age of 14 and when I had a family of my own we backpacked every other weekend in the Colorado Rockies during the summer.

One summer my wife and I were hiking in Glacier Park in Montana and we smelled strawberries.  We left the trail and bushwacked thought the brush and woods a few yards and found a meadow full of ripe, wild strawberries.  We filled our hats with those we picked and feasted on them when we got back to camp.

Had it  not been for necessity of earning a living I would have almost lived in the wilderness.

Noel

[bobbyjack 61]

Sure, the Rockies are beautiful in the summer. I lived in Denver for twenty years when they had two of the three worst blizzards in their history. Walking, wearing leaves and eating berries in -11 degrees? Sorry. Ah, Denver. Where July and August are the only months when it might not snow. The selling point is that there are 300 days a year of sun shine. What they don't tell you is that on many of those days, It's too cold to go out.

I use my phone every day. A lot. I charge it every night. I use a computer a lot. Everyday. Both of them for work and pleasure. They are tools. I don't talk phone (or text) in the car. I don't watch TV.

We once flew to North Carolina, and rented a car. I had an email conformation from the hotel. I opened the email on my phone, touched the address, and got GPS directions to the hotel. Sure I could have done this other ways. But it was so fast and simple. 

[birdguy 3,943]

I take it you weren't a skier Bob.

I went skiing with a friend at Berthoud Pass one Saturday and it was so cold the ski patrol was making everyone go into the lodge to warm up after every run. We lived in Denver for over 20 years.  Spring,Summer and Fall were for back packing and fly fishing.  Winter was for skiing.  I enjoyed all the seasons.

When I take trips I make all my reservations before I leave home.  I print them out and put them in a binder and present them when I arrive at the hotel/motel.

One of my hobbies is maps.  I love paper maps.  I've been collecting them since I was a kid.  I have a couple of boxes of maps in the basement.  Before a trip  spread the maps out on the dining room table and go over the routes I want to take and check out things I might want to see.  I have a GPS in my Prius but it only tells me the most direct way to get from point A to point B.  Maps give me more interesting routes to choose from.

When I lived in Denver and we drove to South Carolina to visit my oldest daughter or to Baltimore to visit a friend or California to visit my brother I never drove on the interstate when I could avoid it.  I prefer the back roads.  I like to see the sights.  I like to stop at historical markers and see what they have to say.  The more lanes a highway has the more traffic there is and the less you get to see.  For me getting there is still half the fun.

I've driven the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Natchez Traceway end to end.  And Highway 50 across Nevada, the Lonliest Road in America.

I love to stop in a small town diner for breakfast and eaves drop on conversations.  You learn a lot about the local people and area you don't learn about when all you see of a small town is the off ramp.

Another hobby of mine is photography.  But unless there is something specific I want to photograph I never take my camera with me.  Like when we take our annual trip on the Durango and Silverton narrow gauge railroad.  I leave my camera at home.  I want to just enjoy the scenery instead of looking for pictures to take.

There are a lot of things I enjoy doing myself as opposed to having an electronic device do for me.  

I don't carry my flip phone around with me except when I travel out of town.  It sits on my desk.  If it rings while I'm watching TV I just let it ring.  If it's important they'll call me back or leave a voice message.  I don't now how to text on it.  I check for messages before I go to bed at night and if it's someone I know I write myself a  note with a real pencil on a note pad to remind me to call them back in the morning.

I do have a Nook for reading books.  I just can't read the printed page anymore without straining my eyes.  So when I have need for technology I use it.  But if I can do it myself I avoid techy stuff.

Maybe it's a generational thing or maybe I'm just a weird Luddite.

Noel

[bobbyjack 61]

It's very much a generational thing. That's fine. 

I don't think younger people are addicted to technology. I think they are using it to the fullest. It may appear that they are missing the would around them. But I think they are casting a much wider net. 

[1st fltsimguy 466]

17 hours ago, birdguy said:

And Highway 50 across Nevada, the Lonliest Road in America.

I did the Great Basin drive last year. I was just like you, love stopping in small towns, strolling down the street, getting a feel for this place. Pony Express trail, Austin, Ely...what a great drive.

[birdguy 3,943]

Not a wider net, Bob, a different net.  We're fishing for different species of fish. 

And one day you will be just like me.  I can hear you now.  "Why, in my day when I went to the store I had to stand in a check out line and take a credit card out of my wallet and put into a scanner.  You just picked up what you wanted and walk out with devices watching what you take and scanners reading the barcode on tattooed on your forehead to identify you,"  Or something like that.

Society has changed so much.  Exponentially.

One example.

When I got home from school we went out and played ball  either in the playground or an empty lot at the end of the street or even in the middle of the street itself.  We chose up sides.  We had fun mostly.  We got into arguments, even fights sometimes, over whether you hit a foul ball or stepped out of bounds.  But we did it ourselves without adults around.  We learned out to get along with each other and solve our differences in kind of a 'Lord of the Flies' way.

The last time I saw my 7 year old great grandson play football he was wearing a uniform as were all the players on his team.  There were coaches and referees and parents on the sidelines. It was pretty sterile in my opinion.  I don't think they had as much fun as we had because it was totally organized by adults. They had to win in their league to go the playoffs. It was important.  Both to the kids and to the parents.

 We had to win, but only that game and once it was over it was over and we went home and it was forgotten.  And mom had to wash our clothes and ask how we got so dirty.  And our parents didn't care if we won or lost.  It wasn't that important to them or to us.

Twenty or more years ago when my grandkids were kids themselves I wrote a series a short stories about when I was a kid; about 30 of them.  I wanted them to know what I was like when I was their age.  I wrote a forward to that collection of stories

To my grandchildren,

Many times while you are growing up you will hear your parents, grownups, and  your grandma and I say, "It wasn't like that when I was your age."

What was it like when I was your age?  What did I think and feel?  What did I do?  How did I play?  What was school like?  What were my friends like?  How was I different than you?

My world of 1943 was not anything like the world you live in now.  Many of the things I did you will never do.  And you will do things I never dreamt of as a boy.

This is a collection of stories about your Uncle Leon and I growing up on the streets of San Francisco as he and I remember them.

Those stories are now being passed on to my great grandchildren.  And like my grand children they will learn that I was more than just an old man.

Noel