Interestingly, I too went down the upgrade path for FSX although the sim experience I was getting with my old machine was more than adequate given the sliders were pretty much all at 33% or thereabouts.My experience of FSX now with my new machine is brilliant and the realism with 100% autogen and scenery complexity and 1m textures is something to behold. The expense on my new machine was planned far in advance of the FSX release, as was my new machine for FS2004. I see it simply as a ticket to the FS game, nothing more, nothing less.Cheers,Chris Porter:-outtaPerthWestern AustraliaIntel Core 2 Duo E6700ASUS P5N32-E SLI Deluxe Motherboard4GB Corsair VS DDR2 667Mhz RAMInno3D 8800 GTX 768MB GDDR3 590MHz VideoASUS MW221u 21" Wide Screen LCD2 x 320Gb WD SATA DrivesCreative X-Fi Platinum Sound Lian Li PC-B20B Aluminium Black CaseMS Vista Ultimate OEMCH FlightSim Yoke USBCH Pro Pedals USBTrackIR 4 Pro and Track ClipMSFS FSX Deluxe Edition Full install at 1400x960x32Check out my 5th Around the World flight with MS FSX at http://members.iinet.com.au/~portercbp/fly...W_05/index.html

>well said Mark...this idiot makes snide comments on >nearly every thread he joins in on...very rarely >does he offer any valuable help to anyone...>just the same sarcasm as seen on another thread he >posted today..>steveI agree

"(...) I agree (...)"I don't. Not only is Alcott a "she" and not a "he", she also has posted LOTS of very useful information and replies here. In fact any random posting by Marian is more useful than hundreds of mindless "I agree" oneliners like the very specimen I now reply to.There seem to be three issues here, that many people apparently can't easily deal with. Firstly, Marian is a woman - which makes communication with the mainly male population here a bit difficult: the two genders speak VERY different languages. Secondly, Marian knows an awful lot more about hardware, software and flight simming than the average forum visitor, of course including myself - that can be kind of hard to swallow. Thirdly, Marian Alcott is not American but British, one of the least "politically correct" nations in the world (praise the Lord!), probably coming third after the Aussies and, I freely admit, the Dutch - which every now and then tends to rub Americans the wrong way.Oh, well, that's about time. Since 2002, when the Western world's last absolute monarch signed the ASPA (AKA the "The Hague Invasion Act"), I think "American rubbing" has become an international duty (grin)!Okay, back to the subject. I believe Alcotts useful contributions to this forum far outweigh the effects of her somewhat sharply pointed pen.Be well!Jaap Verduijn.

While I can see your point-most simmers come to avsim to be helpful, to learn, to politely communicate, to have good debates, and to have a good time. A "sharply pointed pen" does not really go along with that philosophy. That is the only issue I can't "easily deal with". As a mod getting continual complaints about an indivdual from a wide spectrum of people is serious. I had no idea the sex or what nation she was from-but the "sharply pointed pen" was very understandable. Obviously Tom had had enough.http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/rxp-pilot.jpg

Okay, that post just got your account locked.

I really can't see why Microsoft would not be prepared to do thiswe currently get from elsewhereBetas of complete OS's (Vista)Betas of hardware driversBetas of games not even released yetBetas of game patchesSo why not (since FSX was not really in a complete fit state (wasn't that far off) to be released in the first place) - allow us to make an informed choice to whether we wish to install Betas of SP1 ?I'd be more than prepared like others on here - to install FSX 6 times during the Beta SP1 process - its not much effort.If SP1 was additional to the game - ie for IL-2 Sturmovik where new patches included new planes etc - then fair enough - one waits for it to be released - patientally.But when SP1 fixes stuff that should not have been there in the released product - then in my opinion (right or wrong) its a different matter.

>Okay, back to the subject. I believe Alcotts useful>contributions to this forum far outweigh the effects of her>somewhat sharply pointed pen.>>Be well!>>Jaap Verduijn.>>I agree Jaap and so too, did 'Dillon's now missing help for allegedly the similar reasons.I shall miss them both.

Oh Man! I'm just discovering this thread since defending Allcott on another thread. :-http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...id=395632&page=What happened to Dillon?pj

>While I can see your point-most simmers come to avsim to be>helpful, to learn, to politely communicate, to have good>debates, and to have a good time.>> A "sharply pointed pen" does not really go along with that>philosophy. >>That is the only issue I can't "easily deal with". As a mod>getting continual complaints about an indivdual from a wide>spectrum of people is serious. I had no idea the sex or what>nation she was from-but the "sharply pointed pen" was very>understandable. Obviously Tom had had enough.>>I have heard _FAR_ worse here though, with no consequences to the offending poster.RhettAMD 3700+ (@2310 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2 GB Corsair XMS 2.5-3-3-8 (1T), WD 250 gig 7200 rpm SATA2, CoolerMaster Praetorian case

Yes-we moderators have lives elsewhere and can't be here every minute.I think it is more than a single comment that does someone in-it is sometimes months worth of significant number of complaints by a wide variety of users of a particular individual that keeps pushing the limits.It seems like there are a usual 5-6-though that number has been reduced as of late.http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/rxp-pilot.jpg

>The principle reason why a beta test is not normally "open to>the public" is simple. It boils down to a matter of control!>>For any testing to be of value, there must be a system of>controls in place to ensure that there is a bug submission>system in place and that testers supply enough information for>the programmers to validate the reported bug through>replication.>>Also, beyond a certain point, having too many "beta testers">becomes counterproductive, since the odds are that there will>be too high signal-to-noise and legitimate bug reports would>be buried in chaff... ;)Bill I agree to a certain extend I think that beta testing is the most under estimated part here in our community...(in real life professionals are doing that job)But when you have a final release candidate it's a good idea to have a larger beta scale test on different configurations and setup...Also automatically have a bug collection system in the background collecting stuff. Due to that programming is still to difficult and takes a lot of effort (writing lines) bugs will be there :( hence still exits in your operating system ;-) So still a long way to go and to reach KISS.What you also see with MS operating system many more lines the beta is tested by far larger scale (MSDN customers ;-)) before even reaching the finale release stage... I'm not talking about alpha stage ;-)I'm not involved in the gaming industries but in business software (mainframe) and that's a totally different story regarding bugs lot of interest at stake after implementation and prices too lol.So in general a public beta isn't so bad idea, bcz after SP1 and all the hard work we will still have bugs.Despite the above I think all the boys and girls are doing great work and would like to thank them for that in advance.Andr

Hi Geof: Tom;Would it not be more "humane" if there were some kind of protocol - such as a private, personal warning email sent out to a potential offender based upon complaints; you know, with a second, more stern one if warranted later - before he/she was removed or locked from the user db? Maybe this is already done - I don't know. I do know that I will miss Allcott's many logical and reasoned discussions of the deeper facets of these simulators; she "doesn't suffer fools gladly" is how my grandfather would have put it, and this is her in a nutshell. I, and I'm sure a lot of others have respect for that philosophy; she is no Neville Chamberlaine, that's for sure. There are some posters that would not deserve a second chance here, but I believe Allcott does.Perhaps a good, serious, stiff warning from the senior management of Avsim would serve better the open and diverse image that is the hallmark of Avsim than the supression of one who ocasionally shoots from the hip.Sincerely Yours,Paul JohnsonToronto, Canada

Beta Testing1. Is controlled Beta testing a good thing, in most cases yes. Depends on the objective of the Beta, in this case an SP1 to a game -- I would have to agree that a controlled beta group would be preferred so long as the Beta group is diverse (both in hardware and FS experience).2. You can try to sign up to the FSX Beta program, but good luck, whatever criteria Microsoft use is clearly very specific and seems to address long time existing Beta testers of FSX -- an exclusive club.3. Liability of Beta testing, since anything can (and does happen) with software projects, are the masses of Beta testers willing to reformat their hard drives and re-install the OS if FSX SP1 Beta had a serious bug? If your running Vista, this is going to be even more of a recovery pain.Since SP1 is happening there is obviously a problem with FSX (the number of threads in this forum and other forums is a pretty clear indicator of unhappy customers). What I'm not sure about is the quality of the exclusive club of beta testers -- either those Beta testers were ignored during the pre-release beta testing of FSX originally or they clearly did NOT speak up loudly enough? From what I've gathered it seems to be a case that they were ignored to meet artificial deadlines. This is a case where a "sharply pointed pen" would have gone a long way in helping Microsoft deliver a more solid product initially. Nobody wants or likes to hear their product is not acceptable as is, but if a Beta community is "too polite" in order to retain their "beta status" then we have a problem. There are only so many ways to go back to the dev team (Aces) and say "hey folks, this really isn't good enough, we have a lot of unresolved issues here" without being deemed as rude. Some people are more direct than others.Maybe there were some rude Beta testers, maybe there weren't, but whatever the case the defining body (aka Microsoft) can and should be able to filter the feedback from those Beta groups. The last thing a dev teams wants is nothing but "good feedback" -- accurate negative feedback is MORE valuable than accurate positive feedback.Rob.

>Hi Geof: Tom;>Would it not be more "humane" if there were some kind of>protocol - such as a private, personal warning email sent out>to a potential offender based upon complaints; you know, with>a second, more stern one if warranted later - before he/she>was removed or locked from the user db? Maybe this is already>done - I don't know.>> I do know that I will miss Allcott's many logical and>reasoned discussions of the deeper facets of these simulators;>she "doesn't suffer fools gladly" is how my grandfather would>have put it, and this is her in a nutshell. I, and I'm sure a>lot of others have respect for that philosophy; she is no>Neville Chamberlaine, that's for sure. There are some posters>that would not deserve a second chance here, but I believe>Allcott does.>>Perhaps a good, serious, stiff warning from the senior>management of Avsim would serve better the open and diverse>image that is the hallmark of Avsim than the supression of one>who ocasionally shoots from the hip.>>Sincerely Yours,>>Paul Johnson>Toronto, CanadaI hope Geofa and Tom will consider to for a second chance?Then again we are all guest here and have to follow the rules of the house...We all have our day offs and also different languages.Thank you for considering...Andr

I can't speak for Tom or the other mod's but warnings do occur in most cases (usually in the thread) unless the post is so outrageous as one we had this week that required immediate action.Again-most that meet this fate seem to have a well defined history. Everyone understands an occasional shooting from the hip-but a continual history of doing so followed up by significant and regular number of complaints from fellow members is hard to ignore at some point.http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/rxp-pilot.jpg