noxious

I agree too, and little or none naval involvement in Gaza ... Actually, I believe that Israel is using naval forces to stop Hamas getting supplies from the sea. And to rain down gun shells and TV guided missiles on Hamas targets (you haven't seen the vids ?) I think we all refrained from talking about it not to get into politics, but I think on this particular issue, all our views (at least, the current crop of regular posters) are quite close. I know I don't have a mainstream typical French Canadian opinion, in that I do not take part in the pro-Palestine rallies (or pro-Israel), and know that anti-semitism means being anti-Jew AND anti-arab (both Semites tribes, which the Persians ain't ) There is a strong undercurrent of "typical" anti-semitism in Quebec (as in anti-jew mostly, and anti-arab, except where Israel/Palestine conflict, where even local Jews manifest with Palestinians), as exemplified by the numerous rumours and actual proofs of dealings between the Catholic clergy and Nazi Germany during WW2 (Quebec was an effective entry route for spies to the US, and still taboo to discuss the clergy's part in this) So everyone laments the Palestinian civilian losses, thinking the IDF is a bunch of thugs, purposefully targeting civilian targets, but no one really lamented the Iraki or Afghani civilian losses : the hypocrisy is what really gets to me, and the accompanying crass ignorance. Back then, mostly the same folks were only rallying to "do number 2" (edit : sorry for the expletive) on the US imperialism, blablablabla. I might disagree with the politics of the Irak conflict, be ambivalent about Afghanistan (but part of me hopes I'll be enlisted and ready for duty before we withdraw), or be aware that there are no absolute right or wrong in the Israel conflict : Palestinians need a homeland or partie prenante in the affairs of Israel (after all about 15% of Israel National are muslim, between Israeli Druzes and Palestinians), but voting for Hamas (if it was a proper election..) directly led to the present situation. If there is no will, there will be no resolution, and the Western media and politicos gambling on making a big gain by posturing on this, seem to ignore the obvious : Israel wants a peaceful resolution, but can't go at it alone Example of posturing : Sarkozy, how ironic, when it's now documented that France and Israel developed their nuclear weapons together, and not just the topic of the novel the Fifth Cavalier (accord of 1957 between France and Israel, still in function iirc) ? Yes, any conflict, especially with the potential for vast civilian casualties is a tragedy. But I'm really disturbed by the views carried by the western media, all political inclinations compounded, that Israel is the agressor, etc. Are we collectively so disturbed by our own nature that "big" nations should always bow to the "little" agressions ? Hamas started this one... And Palestinians have a short memory : a big proportion of them, all ethnical group mixed, since there is no practically no ethnical Palestinian, if any, they're all Syrian, Lebanese, Egyptians or Jordanians, took part in the fighting alongside the Sabras in the struggle that saw the birth of Israel. This could be settled, should have been settled a long time ago, but I fear that the responsibility for this lies more with us, the spectating Western nations, and our collective lack of will to truly resolve this conflict, as it would change the balance of power in the Near and Middle East, and maybe not suit certain plans (surmising here, of course) of various involved Western powers, including, but not limited to France, the US and the UK. Hope I didn't break any taboos, cheers !! Nic

He might be able to deduce the wind direction from tracking the path of the carrier during her sprints. Although he might not be able to take advantage of the data immediately, he could use it to plan a trap. As long as he doesn't reveal his presence, he could try and move to a position whereby the carrier would run over him. Even though wind directions are subject to change, I don't think that they would change that drastically over the span of a few hours. As far as flight ops are concerned (or small sailing vessels on the high seas), actually the wind is nearly always changing There are dedicated crewmen tasked with that : it still relies on visual observation more than weather reports, as it's a very local wind situation, not necessarily the prevailing wind direction The carrier sails along the wind's direction (forget the right english terms) not only to add airspeed to the launching a/c, but also to reduce the effects of swell on the relative horizon of the flight deck (up down when going along the wind, instead of port/starboard) Very dynamic environment : landing helos or, much nuttier, planes on a carrier is literally a controlled crash, as you surely know. The carrier/landing platform may have to correct course between each launch or trap. Hence the need for the carrier to maneuver : if the situation didn't change fast enough, it wouldn't enter into tactical considerations, now would it Herman ?

Could a package of said test cases be made to facilitate more of us giving input ? e.g a simple zip of saves or scens in the latest format that we can use with the new exes. Thanks in advance !

From Harpoon 4.1 rulebook (5.3.1.4) : 10 nm for 3rd generation against Large targets, 5nm against smaller ones. Degrades with older generations of guidance. This is actually an hand written addition in my rulebook, culled from official 4.1 errata, original table is missing the 3rd gen entry, here is it in its entirety (the 3rd gen entry) 3rd Gen, non radar, +/- 45 degrees, 10nm, 5nm (exact copy of 3rd gen radar in fact, again official errata)

My main PC is a Toshiba Satellite A300 : Intel Duo Core T5750 @ 2.0 Ghz (so 4.0 Ghz in "total"), 3 gigs of DDR Ram (max 4), 250 gb, ATI HD3470 256 DDR vram + up to 1 gig in shared RAM for textures, full dolby 5.1 hw support for sound, firewire, USB 2.0, DVD-RAM burner For less than a 1000 Can, including around 14-15% of various VATs. Running Vista 64 Home Premium, and the more I use Vista 64, the more I like it : so far, it's approaching the rock solid performance of my old steady circa 2000 windows2k based old workstation. The one after wasn't as stable (circa 2004), still running 2k. And I had a mac laptop running MacOS X that was on the dud list for a complete recall, something I didn't catch before the recall option was terminated. Oh, lest I forget, I'm not a fan of Apple or MS : platform agnostic. I haven't properly experienced recent versions of MacOS X, but to give credit where credit is due, I believe MS is doing a stellar job these days, compared to the "bad old days". Vista is imho on par with MacOS X in qualities and defects : both are bloated beyond reason, and rock solid with proper hardware and configuration. I still use an external USB keyboard for the keypad when playing any Harpoon game, TOAW, and some other games that need a keypad, since I can't stand the virtual numpads on notebook keyboards. I always use an external Logitech MX500 mouse (USB with a wire ), as I haven't yet found a touchpad that doesn't go nuts due to my fingers ( I guess I'm a hot one, and radiate too much for precise touch padding, lol 8p) The touchpad is turned off when mouse is present. I "authorized" the 60 day trial of Office 2007 that came with it, and hate it, well the UI : won't use it. I installed the latest Open Office and haven't looked back since : it's come such a long way that I have not installed my copy of Office 2000 on this computer I love that my old PC (with 3 HDs in it, 2 being from the dead 2004 PC) is now a file and app server (through VNC) that I access without any wires, so I can work from wherever I want in my flat, even in the garden, or the front steps, weather permitting Freaked my cat out the other day with the integrated digicam and mic : noticeable delay between capture and playback in "webcam" mode, so he was seeing himself in the screen, and hearing his meows (and mine) thrown back at him after the delay... He was freaked in a way that never happens with music, tele or xbox games Want I want now, is miniaturized (walkman, ipod size) portable computer that uses my glasses as a HUD (or focused direct optic nerve stimuli), and hand gestures for interaction (think Wii style controllers (3d) but thin bracelets around your wrists, or some system that track your hands and digits) so I can do everything computing wise anywhere Incidentally, we should see that sort of thing within a decade : all the tech is there to make it happen I want to write/code by speaking out loud (incidentally, when I'm writing seriously, or "artistically" (fiction), I always say it out loud, and try it our vocally first, trick learned from my father when I worked in the copy editing/translating/word processing field) : I've typed enough for many lifetimes A little off the cuff commentary spurred on by your tale of mobility 8p Cheers !

Today, it's the Navy SEALs founder, a few days back a legend of the US Marine Corps Soon, they'll all be gone, including my uncle. Never forget what these men gave !! Brute Krulak : http://blog.usni.org/?p=627 and http://blog.usni.org/?p=580 Roy Boehm : http://blog.usni.org/?p=692 and http://www.sunnewspapers.net/articles/tsne...ubdate=1/3/2009

Right back at ya. Happy New Year All !! May 2009 bring you joy and serenity

In the paper rules, no, as AAM have a different set of rules than SAMs : the crossing target modifier is to model the fact that a plane or asm missile is moving much faster than the launching ship, so much so that for all intents and purposes in that case you can consider the ship stationary for the maths So this models that the director has to do a lot more work to compute a valid intercept, and that the slightest mistake/timing error will have a very high impact on pH. It does not apply to Air vs Air engagements, as relative manoeuvrability is dealt with ATA and DATA

Same to you Brad, and to all the Pooners !! Merry xmas, happy holidays !! Cheers ! P.S. : Don't forget to vote for the 2008 Pooner Awards 8p

Yeah !! Congrats fellas Tony, does that mean we get a non expiring official build too ? Or it's just the demo users getting the love

Basically, if like me you have a "new" PC or laptop, chances are you're not only running vista, but vista 64. As you might have noticed, it doesn't run any 16 bit programs, and HCE's Scenario Editor (WScenedt) is most definitely a 16 bit program. The first obvious solution, is if unlike me, you have a second home PC that runs XP. Then, it's simple : set the old PC to receive a Desktop Remote Connection, and connect from vista. Voila. Now, this article will be about doing the same if you don't have access to a second PC running XP or vista 32 (or windows 2k server) In my case, it's a close to 10 years old Athlon PC running Win2k SP3.5 (SP3 + numerous SP4 fixes). This will also work for Win98, etc. First thing, get and install TightVNC on the older PC, and then start the server. Install the same package on your vista 64 box, although you'll only use the VNC viewer. Some info on setting up here : http://www.tightvnc.com/winst.html You'll have to set up a weak password on the server (max 8 chars), and know your local IP addresses. Once you connect VNC viewer to the older computer you can run WScenedt on the remote box. A few notes : I installed the recommended video mirror driver on the older box, but removed it as it was creating some conflicts on my box. Your mileage might vary, but I must had that I'm using high speed encrypted wireless to connect to that box, so it's a high speed connection in vnc viewer, and the program stays responsive even without the acceleration from the mirror driver (DFMirage referenced on the download page, and can be installed to help the server send images faster)

Pretty sure everyone but the suits and chiefs of staff who made that decision agree with you.

Rene, Fred did mention that Doh, I saw HCDB instead of a GE version number, dumb (expletive starts with an a) myself TonyE got it right at least, hehe

Thanks Pete, makes it all the more impressive that my uncle survived it, as well as the Korean War, class of '45 iirc ( he did training on the B-17, even flew one at a local air show in the 1960s at St-Hubert airport (Montreal suburb), not knowing then he'd be my uncle by marriage many years later Think he flew the Thud, not the Intruder as I thought, as he was USAF, not a naval aviator. Wish they'd come back this way, or I could go to Arizona to see him and plunder his brains for info 8p Found this article : The F-105 Thud, a legend flown by legends which might be of interest to those reading Pete's post

GCS is Ground Combat System, a set of rules for ground warfare in Harpoon. The rules are in South Atlantic War, 2nd edition supplement.

Nor I,...continue. Indeed, your idea is more like a campaign, with a backstory, plot et al. paired with the gradually augmented cognitive load (hehe, I wanted to write that) on the new (or not so new) player to teach him how to properly use the assets under his command while following a typical NATO, WP or any other doctrine by introducing other elements of warfare a la Harpoon as you progress into the storyline e.g You start as a lone ASW ship who has to catch up with a convoy, which then sails on to a meeting point with a CVBG, etc. Excellent, I say. Maybe even an alternate path, where you introduce the player to the SE by having edit the next scenario according to his results in the one before

How about the F-111? Or the Voodoo, in the Canadian Armed Forces, Air Command, equipped with nuclear tipped Genie rockets to take down strategic Bears coming in from the Cold : retired in 84, but guarded the skies over the Northern end of our continent for a bit more than 20 years

I would rather be referred to as minion, preferably nefarious, but ghastly would do

IIRC correctly, they'd been pretty much retired by this point. No front line duty by '81 (actually, no frontline duty after Nam for that matter), since about half of the 833 built were casualties of the air war in Vietnam, and extended war service meant that most airplanes reached usable EOL by the mid to late 70s By then, a few were left in Air Force Reserve and the Air National Guard. Officially retired in 84.

So 3 games in the package ? 2 x ATF variants and USNF '97 ? If you guys only play the latter, I could also just get that one

So you flyboys thinking about some formation flying ? Is the game still available somewhere ? Fighters Anthology is the game's name ? I'll take a looksee for it, I'd love to play some networked modern flight sim

Now that looks like something out of Star Wars So it is a catamaran + keel or trimaran hull, hadn't noticed from the surface pixs

That can't be all the papers, some of them are still under National Secrecy, or however it's called in the UK, no ? Some WW2 stuff is still under wraps, and was extended further when it was supposed to be made public in 95 no ?

The author assumes that with the Pakistani powers that be ability to stop attacks, there would be a will to do so. Not much more uncertain than that, is there ? This would definitely make it even more "interesting" than it already is for our troops in rotation in Kandahar.

I have edit CV Kuznetsov with 60 aircraft instead of original 36. If I include it in the scenario, will be there any problem for a player who is using the original database, which has a CV Kuznetsov only with a maximun of 36 aircraft? If you're making your own custom DB and a series of scenarios built with it, you should look at building Battlesets and embedding your DB in it, then your scenarios will be tied to your DB and thus promote the gameplay and events you had in mind when designing it. The Battleset builder is included in your HCE install Edit : typos and spelling