b737800

Aha, the biggest metal (cargo version at least) I've yet had the pleasure of piloting, well, sat in the left seat with any antiquated automation it didn't really have turned off, descending through 10,000ft over a small island to line up for a runway that will remain nameless. I forget how many aviation rules might have been bent just a little for me to be in that position and am pretty sure that similar circumstances are very unlikely to arise ever again.

I love the use of the word "classic". It means different things to different people. You could argue that the 747-400 is a classic. Already a rare sighting at some locations and soon to be at most. Concorde was in so many ways. The Mad Dogs (DC9 series, not the 717 puurrleeease!) definitely fall into the category for me. 707 most definitely. 727, any variant. 737 classic (3/4/500). Not the Jurassic 1/200. L1011 Tristar for sure. Even the 757 will be a classic for many soon. No piston or turbo props really cut it for me, sorry. Many commercial pilots I know list the 727 and 757 as their favourites. The latter on a ferry flight is something to behold. Overpowered... just slightly.

Any good lawyer can draw up a paragraph in your will to make sure you're buried with a hard copy of the sim. I'd do it for a fiver, but would probably call it MSFS2020 and some numpty will say "there is no such product", in which case all your worst fears will be realised. I think you're screwed.

Debbie Does Dallas? Perhaps I'm confusing one organic/biological being with another though.

I only "played" the franchise once and didn't much care for it, and I was in a car. You keep relying on headcount as being the only measure of complexity and I really should have heeded my own words when I wrote it's pointless to discuss it with you. For that reason... I'm out.

Simulating quite a number of autopilot systems that all control an object in fluid 3D space is itself quite a task. If making planes is as easy as making cars then I'm off to buy a Chevy Turboprop IROC-Z, with alloy wheels too.

I think I fell from the same branch. First wife 10 years younger, current wife 26 years younger. Third wife not born yet. Will update when data available (and homework done).

Then there is no point discussing. Your mind is made up.

I would probably have preferred that too, but just imagine what the response would have been from those that can't or wont pay for a higher end system. There have already been posts by a number of people expecting to get next gen graphics on a system that was only mid range at best when they bought it 5 years ago. Forgot to mention - the number of things that need testing in a sim like this is far far far far (did I make the point yet?) greater than for a more traditional game. It was only when I started with the Alpha that I realised just how detailed my own test plan needed to be, let alone Asobo's own which also needs to take into account everyone else's hardware / controllers, way of flying etc.

I think you answered your own question. In all the examples you gave, you spent more cash than those that didn't get the extra. So far, those with better systems, which cost more cash, seem to have been more likely to get access. How would that be better for anyone, let alone everyone? On the plus, nobody could say they received preferential treatment, but on the other hand everyone might be hit with a sim that didn't take much user feedback. Damned if they do, damned if they don't.

Apparently the instructions to get Rod Machado involved got lost in translation and it went to Ralf Macchio instead. Wx on. Wx Off.

Well if those catering trucks don't have a vegan option I'm not buying it!

Oh for Pete's sake, Lexussoft have already said that you can buy a Lexus without having to buy a subscription! Whether the satnav will continue to update remains to be seen.

I would agree. I find it frustrating (from the other side of the in/out of Alpha test side) for a couple of reasons: 1.) A couple of times I've hinted about something in the sim that I cannot and would not confirm because of the NDA, only to be told by someone who is not in the Alpha and is only guessing that it is not true. If they don't want to take the hint then why should I care? 2.) Conversations here sometimes go along the lines of: ************** UserA: Penelope Pitstop will die before she is 150 years old because she drives a Lexus. UserB: The fact that Penelope Pitstop drives a Lexus has very little impact on the age she will die. Your logic is flawed. UserA: Haha you are stupid, of course she will die before she is 150. I bet you any money you want, and I'll be the first to say I told you so. UserC: To say that Penelope Pitstop wont die before she is 150 is stupid. No-one has ever lived that long and that wont change because of Burger King, so what the hell are you talking about UserB? UserB: I give up. ************** UserB never once said Penelope Pitstop wouldn't die before she is 150. UserB didn't give any opinion other than the fact that driving a Lexus has very little impact on it. For the next 3 days Users A & C upvote eachother's posts. ...and for that reason... I'm bored.

I'm sure you'll beat me to it.

Unfortunately my backside has spent far too many hours sat on those cold floors. The cooling costs is a big reason why datacentres in places like Iceland have become pretty common.

Again I'm not disagreeing, but cost to produce is not the only factor (and often not the biggest) in consumer pricing. Streaming is only 1 factor. There are many others. Only looking at streaming costs totally ignores all of the other costs of producing the Bing Maps data and again, just because they let you look at it in a web browser for free does not mean they have to let you stream it in a game / sim for free. If they want to charge for it they will. Us going on about the fact that their streaming cost is negligible makes not one ounce of difference. Soon someone will say that the Bing Maps data already exists so there is no cost to them using it in an additional product, which totally goes against everything that a company is in existence for in the first place. If we paid for goods based solely on the cost to supply then greetings cards would be a few pence each, not $5.

Of course there is. That makes it cheaper to the supplier. It doesn't make it free to either them or the consumer. I fear we're going round in circles.

I'm not disagreeing at all. I should have used Microsoft as the example rather than Google, but the point it was making was that just because you can use it as an individual on the web for free doesn't make exactly the same service free in a product. Internal billing between different divisions is also more common than most people might think (and a legal requirements in some cases). I want it to be free. I need it to be free. YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH (sorry, went off on A Few Good Men tangent). The logic used by some to show that it would be unfair if it is not free is, unfortunately, flawed at best. Hopefully we can take what they've already said and use it for nowt other than the original purchase price and we're all happy. Personally, I'm not against a small charge but I fully understand that some are.

I wish it was as simple as that. For example, you can use Google Translate on the web as much as you like, for free. As soon as you try and integrate it into any product via the API it becomes chargeable, that charge being pretty hefty. In fact Google Translate is about twice the price of the equivalent Bing API, but is also about twice as accurate.

Is THAT official though?

In the same way that pretty much everyone in the world is charged for their electricity by the electron. Even though their bill reads kilowatt hour or multiples / fractions thereof, if you wanted to make it sound like a huge number (or a small number depending on whether you want to look at unit or cost) you could work out how much that is per electron, if the paper had enough space for all the decimal places. I've dealt with a few hundred peering / bandwidth / private circuit contracts in my time starting from the days of the kilostream and E1/T1 and I can't ever remember seeing such a fractional charge. Most did, and probably still do charge based on bandwidth using the 95th percentile model or similar, but it is a while since I've been involved. I have lived in one of the worst places in the well populated areas of the world for internet within the last 10 years though and even they charged based on mbps without a cap. The poorer could always buy prepaid data chunks in the 100Mb type range if they were so inclined, but that didn't mean it was all that was available. Pretty much all of that country's bandwidth was provided by undersea cables, even between the several thousand islands that make up the single nation. If I want to play flight sim in Antarctica it might be a different story, but internet to FS-HQ probably wouldn't be near the top of my worry list. EDIT: Forgot to mention. I would imagine that the vast majority of Microsoft's bandwidth use is based on peering rather than purchasing. Heck they are so big they might even be charging their partners for access to their network. If you are a Tier 1 carrier and you don't peer with the likes of Microsoft.... you're definition of a Tier 1 carrier would need changing.

Testing 1 2...

A friend told me that once you go there there's no coming back. A friend. Honest.

Yep that's cool. There is a value for having it all in one place and all automatic for me. Imagine having to download A from here, converting it into the correct format and then importing it, then downloading B from here, C from there etc etc. Then you get it all ready and are just about to shove the throttles through the firewall and mum comes in and says it's dinner time. I think my Navigraph subsription is something like $70 per year, I can't really remember. I expect there are a couple of other charges on subscription too. I have soooo many direct debits going out on or about the first of the month that if I looked close enough I'd probably find I'm still paying for Blockbusters. I cancelled 2 gym memberships a few years ago after more than 12 months. Didn't set foot in either of them. I'm a sellers wet dream.