dave2013

The P3Dv5/v6 flight planner is just plain awful - clunky, unwieldy, and full of bugs. Shermank is right - use Little Nav Map. Dave

I know a lot of people like to use AIG's manager for their AI traffic as it saves time and effort, but IMO it just complicates things. I've always just downloaded the traffic files and planes separately, added the aircraft.cfg titles to the aircraft AI text file, and then used AI Flight Planner to compile the files into traffic BGLs. It's more work, but if there's a problem, you know what you did and can usually figure out what's wrong, plus you get the satisfaction of customizing your own AI traffic. Sometimes I don't use parts of flightplans that I don't think are realistic or that are redundant, so I edit the flightplan text file and remove the planes that flight plan uses. Dave

Your house must be pretty old if it has lead pipes. I've read a few debates between those who think old houses are better and those who think newer ones are better. Some claim that because there are 100 year old houses still around this means they must have been built better, but others point out that those houses are simply the very well built ones that survived, plus many old houses were demolished or had major repair work done at some point. Some advantages with newer houses is that they use the PEX plumbing water lines which are less susceptible to bursting if they freeze, and they use more metal wood connectors which are stronger than nails. The downside to newer houses is that they use cheaper and weaker wood, and many are built very fast to maximize profits, leading to defects and flaws. Dave

With houses in the U.S. it's pretty hit and miss as far as quality in my experience. Most houses in the U.S. are wood frame with either a full concrete slab or concrete footer foundation, the footer being only a perimeter foundation with wood floor joists spanning the empty space in the middle and then 5/8" subfloor boards installed over those. Our previous house was a new build with a concrete slab that had big cracks and was not level, so the vinyl plank flooring on top moved and made noise. Our current recently built house with a footer foundation has a floor that, while quite solid and well-supported, makes a little noise when you walk on it, so likely the subfloor boards and/or joists aren't perfectly level across their full spans. Interior walls on houses built from the 1950s on are 1/2" drywall/sheetrock gypsum panels, and I've seen really shoddy installation of those with nail heads exposed and cracks. The exterior walls of most houses are 1/2" wood sheathing with a waterproof barrier and either wood siding, vinyl siding, or brick/stone facade(a single-layer brick and mortar wall that is not self-supporting and isn't part of the actual house structure). My mother's house was built in the 50s. The foundation wasn't adequate, so she's got cracks in the basement wall concrete blocks and water seeping in when it rains. Her wood floor makes a lot of noise when you walk and in some places even sinks a bit. Her house has had these problems for the past 30 years, BTW. This house was built in a time when workmanship was supposedly much better than nowadays, but you wouldn't know it in this case. We had a house for about 10 years that was built in the late 70s. At the time it was 30 years old and was clearly built very well. The slab foundation was smooth and level with no cracks, the exterior brick had no cracks, and the interior drywall had no cracks or flaws. It was even insualted extremely well because we had temps one winter get down to -15-17F for two nights in a row and the water pipes didn't freeze. I've had to fix some shoddy work on our current house, like door latches not lining up, hinges not tight or missing screws, deck stairs not level so had to lift up a side and add a support, but nothing major so far. We paid a pretty penny for the house and part of the reason for that was that it looks like it was built pretty well and uses higher quality fixtures. Houses are just like many other things in that you get what you pay for; not in every case, but most of the time. Houses in the U.S are basically designed to be built quickly and to last about 50-75 years. There are some older houses that are 100+ years old, but most of them required major work at some point which is why they've survived. I've read contractor forums where many builders say that newer houses are better in that they're safer, more energy efficient, and conform to more modern building codes, and I've come across some who think that older houses are better because the wood was stronger and overall workmanship was better. It really depends on the particular house. IMO there have always been home builders who rip people off by using poor quality materials, rushing the job and not checking that things are done right, and ignoring building codes and requirements to save time and money and hope they don't get caught. I think this happens a lot more nowadays simply because there are a lot more houses being built with massive developments and such. When you're buying a house, I strongly recommend that you have a qualified home inspector check it out before you sign the purchase contract. We were about to buy a house a couple years ago, but after having it inspected and finding some problems, we decided to cancel the purchase. Dave

As long as we're stuck using volatile, inflammable, and unstable chemicals for combustion just to get off the ground, we'll have to deal with these occasional explosions. I'm disappointed in the lack of advancements in space propulsion over the past 80 years. We've got computers on a handheld smartphone that used to require mainframes that took up entire rooms, yet we're still igniting fire like primitive cavemen in order to fly. It just shows you where humanity's priorites lie, and it's not in space exploration. All this talk recently about a moon base is pure hype and pie in the sky. Yeah, I'm becoming cynical about all this. Dave

For the younger people, the second part of the title refers to a TV ad from the 80s about the fidelity of Memorex cassette tapes. Check this out: At first I thought it was real, but then realized that it was entirely done using CGI/AI. We don't even need real people or props to make movies any more. Amazing, and at the same time troubling. Dave

Just read a news article about a Chinese company that's producing a lot of RAM now. Corsair just started using their chips. I predict that RAM prices will come down over the next year. How much is unclear. Dave

You probably wouldn't like the weather where I'm at. Humidity here is almost always over 50% and usually around 65-80%. We're at 1,000ft(305m) altitude here and adjacent to the Cumberland plateau, which helps to keep the temps a little lower than areas further west like Nashville. Doesn't help with the humidity, though. The air conditioning keeps the humidity lower in the house, but step outside and it hits you. Not nearly so bad as where we used to live in southern Alabama, though. Really hot and humid down there. Dave

The base models are here: https://www.ai-aardvark.com/aiaircraft/repaints/md_8x/md_8x.html The P3Dv4 conversions are available in the AVSIM library. Just search for "AI Conversion Team". Dave

I'm sure that greed does play a role in a lot of the price increases we're experiencing, but I don't think that's the main factor where RAM is concerned. The mad dash to build data centers has caused demand for chips to skyrocket in a short time and production hasn't caught up yet. I just hope the chip manufacturers don't decide to become like OPEC and keep supply tight to keep prices up for more profit. Dave

I had to hold off building a new system as RAM prices are so outrageous right now. I'm hoping that the memory chips companies will ramp up production so prices will come down. Micron is expanding their plants here in the U.S. and I'm sure other companies are doing the same, so hopefull more supply is coming. I'm not too optimistic, though, as data center construction is through the roof, and more being planned all the time. Dave

We've been in the mid-high 70s(24-26C) here for a while now. Low 80s(27-29C) is pretty normal for this area in late May and early June, so a bit cooler than usual. Our relatives in Italy are in a heat wave as well right now, with a high of 92F(33C) in northern and central Italy today and high 80s(30C) for the next week or so. Of course, we all have air conditioning here in the States, whereas many Europeans don't have it, making these high temps more uncomfortable, especially for the Brits who aren't used to the heat. Dave

I reinstalled TerraFlora last night and did some comparisons with and without it. I went back to ORBX HD Trees which look more realistic IMO. Dave

You can use it with P3Dv6, but you have to install it for P3Dv5 and then change the addon path to your v6 addons. Dave

I just use the ORBX HD trees, and they are much better than the stock ones IMO. Dave

I use the ORBX trees as they are much better than the stock ones. Dave

No way would I ever sport a mullet, dude.😁 Comparing the 80s to now is difficult. If I had to go back, I would miss modern tech, especially as it relates to flightsimming, as well as lots of other movies and TV shows that came out since then. I guess I miss the way the country was back then. Can't elaborate here, but IMO a lot of things were better, apart from the crime in some areas which was pretty bad. Dave

I was a teenager in the 80s and have mostly fond memories of that time. Good music, good TV shows and movies, good fun, and no smartphones or cellphones needed. I remember my first flight simulator when I was 13, Sublogic Flight Simulator II. It still amazes me how much I enjoyed that when the scenery was so crude. You had to really use your imagination back then to make it enjoyable. Dave

We eat them occasionally with olive oil and balsamic vinegar - Italian style. Try it! Dave

We've been through all this before: It was called Project Blue Book. This was the government's half-hearted attempt to satisfy the public's demand that UFOs be investigated. After "investigating" thousands of reports, the Air Force concluded: 1. No UFO reported, investigated, and evaluated by the Air Force was ever an indication of threat to our national security 2. There was no evidence submitted to or discovered by the Air Force that sightings categorized as "unidentified" represented technological developments or principles beyond the range of modern scientific knowledge 3. There was no evidence indicating that sightings categorized as "unidentified" were extraterrestrial vehicles Well, there you have it, nothing to see here. Now they're doing it again, only this time they're releasing some grainy, blurry footage of supposed "UAPs". They really don't like to use the term "UFO" for some reason. Here's the thing: if there really are extraterrestrial craft from another planet flying around, meaning they traveled here from another star system, which in turn means that these creatures are far more advanced than us and therefore we can't stop them from violating our air space, spying on us, and maybe far worse, do you really believe the government wants to admit that? Moreover, if we indeed recovered advanced technology from crashed alien craft, do you think the government would ever admit that? The people in the know would want to keep this advanced technology for themselves, to control it and use it to their advantage. I think that the powers that be are doing this for one of two reasons, with my responses below: 1. to grudgingly concede that, yes, there have been some anomalies sighted over the years, and to demonstrate just how magnanimous, honest, and transparent we are, we're going to release some videos and redacted documents. - the fact is we already know this. There is overwhelming evidence accumulated over decades that UFOs exist. Now, tell us something we didn't know(fat chance) 2. To prepare us for the big reveal, the big event. The aliens will land their craft on the White House lawn and finally reveal themselves. The government will admit that it's been in contact with them since 1947 and that they've helped us develop much of our advanced technology. They are benevolent and only want to help us, and today is the beginning of a new age of peace, enlightenment, and fulfillment. The dawning of the Age of Acquarius is upon us, brought to you by our alien friends. Trust us. - I recommend you watch the TV series "V", "Falling Skies", "First Wave", "Invasion"(2005-2006), and "Colony", and the movies "Battle:Los Angeles", "War of the Worlds", "Signs", "They Live", "Independence Day", "Skyline", "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", "A Quiet Place", "Dreamcatcher", and "The 5th Wave". These are good primers for what's the likely outcome, which leads me to this conclusion: - these advanced aliens have been watching us for decades if not hundreds of years. They've seen how we treat each other and know our history of endless wars and slaughter. They have no intention of bringing creatures like us "into the fold" or to join their "galactic federation of planets". They will either conquer us, or exterminate us. Have a nice day☺️ Dave

Well, they're putting many of these data farms in the South in the U.S., so the lower latitude location would help there, but if it's a really powerful event then we're all in trouble, not just the data centers. Much of Quebec lost power back in 1989 due to a CME. Dave

All I know is that these tech companies are investing trillions of dollars in AI development and building massive data centers all over the world, especially in the U.S. Meta has about 30 data centers in the U.S., 3 in Europe, and 1 in Asia. Google has 18 data centers in the U.S. and 15 more under development, 9 in Europe and 5 under development, 3 in Asia and another 3 under development. Elon Musk is building his Collosus 1 and 2 AI data centers near Memphis, TN which will have their own natural gas power plants. Then there are all the data centers for bitcoin mining, large corporations like banks, etc. etc. Many of these places consume the same amount of water and electricity as a small city. No investors or companies spend this kind of money unless it's for a sure thing, meaning they know that AI is going to pay off big time. I see some of the benefits of AI in data analysis for example, which can be useful in discovering cures for diseases like cancer, but the other things that it can be used for, and is already being used for in some cases, is downright disturbing. There are so many fake AI videos now that you really have to have a discerning and critical eye to recognize them, and AI is all about self-learning so it will only get better at fooling us, until one day you won't be able to tell the difference between fake and real. Then there are all the jobs that will soon be replaced by AI, mostly white collar jobs for now, but blue collar jobs will come next once the robot bodies with AI brains are ready to go. Surveillance is another nefarious objective where AI would be useful. Like I said, the tech bros, investors, and governments don't plow trillions of dollars into something unless they're sure it's going to provide a return and accomplish their goals, namely, money and power; and make no mistake, governments around the world are facilitating all this. The word "dystopian" comes to mind. I hope I'm wrong. Dave

I don't see the radiation issue being all that great of a problem. It simply requires heavier shielding, which of course adds mass to the craft, which in turn means even more fuel. Solving the propulsion issue is the most important thing as it also solves some of the other problems: better propulsion means less fuel and faster travel times, and less time in space is easier on the astronauts' bodies and minds. However, even if the travel time to Mars could be cut in half, from 6-8 months to 3-4 months, I still believe the craft would need a section providing artificial gravity, as being weightless for that long would cause serious physical problems. Moreover, even if the astronauts could get through all those months of weightlessness, isolation, and confined space, they would then be exposed to Mars' gravity of less than half that of Earth for 8-12 months, and finally the return trip to Earth of another 3-4 months. Another obstacle discussed is that after they've reached Mars, the astronauts would then have to wait 8-12 months for the return window to Earth. They'll have to either stay on the orbiting ship all that time, which would be an awful experience in such a confined space, or stay on the surface, either of which requires overcoming all the challenges related to resources like water, breathable air, food, medical issues, etc. When you really think this through, it becomes evident that this is a massively challenging undertaking that we're nowhere near prepared for. Dave

This is a link to many different AI models that have been converted to P3Dv4 models: https://www.alpha-india.net/forums/index.php?topic=25472.0 You'll need to register and then log into Alpha-India's website to access this. Dave

Had a 2007 Honda CRV for almost 11 years. Best car I ever owned - reliable, safe, no major problems, good gas mileage, handled well, hatchback with plenty of space. The only reason I got rid of it was I needed a truck to tow an RV. Dave