J, I understand what drives you. It bothers me too.My point is that responding as you tend to forces the pattern to continue.As we don't like this attitude, doesnt' it make more sense to take action that might make it go away, rather than taking actions that assure it will remain?whenever you present brute force (clenched fist) to another, their fist clenches. If their fist is clenched to start with, the only way to get their fist unclenched is to open yours (or kill them, not an option in our society).I get the sense that you're trying to "kill" them (euphemistically) but the limits of grace stop you and therefore you just give them motive to maintain their position.Best,Bob

Mike, here's where I have to sympathize with Jeroen and ask you to as well. <> is your statement, and it ALSO lacks empathy, this time for the old timers that listen to so much emotion clouding the commentary that they struggle big time to find the energy to help.I can't tell you how annoying it is to see people abuse Phil Taylor, when they wouldn't be willing to walk in his shoes for anything.Everybody needs to soften for the dialogue to stop being abusive. That means those that understand their system, and those that don't.Its the only way, guys.Bob

Bob,This exactly is what I was meaning with my "lets get it out and move on" comment. Glad to see some get my intent.I am hoping it is possible, with dialog, to come back together and move on. After all, we are "one first" in our desire to fly and sim. If we remember that, take deep breaths when needed, and work together perhaps we could do just that?Phil

I also think things will change for the better. I believe FSXI will be a really great product. With the Vista, DirectX 10, and multi-core CPU transition out of the way I think ACES will have a better grip on how to maximize future hardware. Not to mention the feedback to and from the community and lessons learned from FSX.

and if you saw Phil's background and resume you would know the right person is at the core helm this time too

Phil, there's an interesting pattern in this community since you've joined us in dialogue.Many people demonstrate an unstated fear that if you are abused enough, you will make Microsoft return to the "bad old days" in which there was no dialogue with the community, except through some cloaked "deep throats". I must admit, that's concerned me too, this is better for me....But this fear has driven people to over compensate when you are attacked. This overcompenstation (the term "love fest" comes to mind) in support of you is just as polorizing as the attacks are. Both reactions are over the top, and they tend to maintain the distance between the current dialogue and an effective middle ground dialogue. I call on all to begin to understand that if a position taken here wrongs someone, you don't correct the wrong by over-compensating. If you charted a statistic of wrongness, the overcompensation may balance the attack so that combined there is an average at just the right spot, but as human dialogue goes, you'll never reduce the standard deviation.What we need to do is dig under the issue, splay the beast. Acknowledge the frustrations, even when they are expressed badly. Support, but with empathy to the unhappy.And those of you unhappy, try to watch for an emerging empathy to your problems. Try to understand the level of value people here feel in the developed closeness with Microsoft. Try not to kill that, as you seek solutions. If the solutions you seek are to have Microsoft lose Market Power over the software world....try to be more fair to the community here and consider that Phil really doesn't make those decisions, he's a worker in a company. And Phil, try to remember that as a representative of Microsoft, you do have the burden of representing a company with monopoly control over its customers. That relationship in general micro-economics is most often contentious. You are in a precarious position and you will experience attacks because of it. Even though as a person you deserve respect, there are times in which you will receive the disrespect that monopolies expect as a fair return on their collection of an unbalanced percentage of the world's wealth.Please remember that the community of thoughtful middle grounders appreciate your efforts in general. Best,Bob

I agree.It is for exactly that reason, to avoid the over-compensation, that I asked Geofa to not bounce McCrash, and asked McCrash to please update his profile as per admin request to avoid it on his end.I agree we all lose if we dont dialog, and I am certainly trying to do my part. Aces really do have good intentions, and thick skins,:-).

I deleted SP2 over a month ago. I do not recall the exact steps to reproduce the ctd's. I normally fly full screen without panels.I checked Vista64 Problems and Reports. It shows 37 times that FSX stopped working. Reports were sent somewhere. It appears some MS department has the information on all my system crashes. Richard

Phil,Thanks so much for continuing to participate in our community.I, for one, have been at FS for a long time, and have dabbled in some of the earliest payware endeavors, and am now a freeward developer and avid flyer in your beautiful sim!My system is not so hot, a dual-core AMD 4200+ with a fairly new ATi 2600xt..and I get a good, smooth flight in SP2 at about 15 fps most times...and still smooth flying into NYC (without autogen).The point is, you guys have made substantial and good improvements since the base FSX install, and I can't wait to see the next full release!I love the idea of something like a "Trash Talk Tuesday"--and wish that Avsim would establish a gripe area and enforce it, so the rest of us can learn from the more productive and insightful conversations.Yours,

Bob ZSorry. My post was not directed at you at all. You'll probably 2 posts saying that. On my office connection, replies sometimes go off into cyberspace before landing. What's up with that. Please forgive any misunderstanding.Bob

Phil:I finally found my piece with FSX when my MoBo died and I upgraded both CPU and GPU. Did you guys embed the virus into FSX that fries low-end MoBos to force us to upgrade the hardware? :) You don't have to disclose that, but it was a smart move -- I think it activates if you get less than 5 fps on average :)I'm quite happy now flying around, I just wish I had more time for that. Anyway, my point is, don't tweak old system - upgrade instead! I didn't have a choice, but I didn't spend a fortune either, in order to finally enjoy FSX.Cheers,=S.V.=Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 2x2.2Ghz, 1Gb RAMPNY nVidia Quadro FX 3400 256Mb

BobNo problem. I didn't think it was directed at me, but it wouldn't be the first time in my life that I made misguided comments that I didn't understand why. What? What? LOL

>Phil,>>Thanks so much for continuing to participate in our>community.>>I, for one, have been at FS for a long time, and have dabbled>in some of the earliest payware endeavors, and am now a>freeward developer and avid flyer in your beautiful sim!>>My system is not so hot, a dual-core AMD 4200+ with a fairly>new ATi 2600xt..and I get a good, smooth flight in SP2 at>about 15 fps most times...and still smooth flying into NYC>(without autogen).>>The point is, you guys have made substantial and good>improvements since the base FSX install, and I can't wait to>see the next full release!>>I love the idea of something like a "Trash Talk Tuesday"--and>wish that Avsim would establish a gripe area and enforce it,>so the rest of us can learn from the more productive and>insightful conversations.>>Yours,>>I've got a 2600xt as well. I like it. I think the core2duo overclocked and the 2GB of smoking fast RAM helps, but I can't go crazy with the settings.I love the idea of a trash talk forum. I'd be all for it once I finally wrestle full control of the forums away and get to run things my way :(