David Hingtgen

Am I reading things right that the much-anticipated "remove 0 point arcade games" feature is NOT there? I only see a "option to not include future/new arcade games" on your gamercard. Not the option to remove old ones. Anyways---mwa hah hah. My "throwaway" ME character paid off, and I unlocked singularity in about an hour. My next "real" play will be a Vanguard--but with singularity. Will have all the powers of the adept, none of the weaknesses. (Well, a slower recharge time, only a true adept gets the class-specific charge time reduction bonuses)

Graham had asked me a while ago what that part is called. AFAIK a shape like that is unique to the YF-21. Most aircraft have either a standard tailcone, nothing, a tailhook fairing, or a "stinger". The closest thing is actually an F-14's, which is called the beavertail. But the YF-21's isn't shaped like that. I voted for "ducktail", as it's much more triangular. The B-2 actually has something very similar in shape and location---but it's movable and acts like an elevator, as opposed to being a fixed drag-reducing fairing. However, I have seen it called a "beaver tail" regardless. Officially it's the "gust load alleviation system". I would call it a body flap, as it's almost identical to the space shuttle's body flap asides from outline. But a body flap is basically "an aileron on the fuselage", not a large immobile structure. So I would call the B-2's a body flap, not a beavertail. But since the B-2's IS called a beavertail, I guess you could call the YF-21's that as well, since apparently there's a pretty broad definition for it. You can see a B-2's deflected in several shots here (especially on takeoff): http://www.richard-seaman.com/Aircraft/Air...5/B2/index.html

The D'stance had the feet the exact same way. Note that the D'stance could do "limbless mode", and AFAIK that is why the feet were done that way. There is no reason to put the feet inbetween the nacelles and sticking out the back, instead of nicely tucked away inside the nacelles like the 1/72 and SHE did---unless you need to have fully-formed, 3D internals visible when you remove the legs and belly plates..........

It was OT pages ago, but it's basically substituting for the aircraft vs thread at this point. I was going to say something earlier but let it go. I think it would be best to move this discussion to the arcrft vs thread at this point, as we are well away from F-15/16 discussions---unless Canada picks some up soon. http://macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?show...0&start=600

Ah, but since "I don't care" about audio, I plan to just snag a home theater in a box.

Macross 7 has several scenes where we see her name on-screen as "Milia". So I spell it that way. (look for campaign posters and banners, that's the best place to see it) I also think we see "Milia" onscreen at least once in the original TV series.

Problem is, all the valks are pastel versions of what's in the manual. Not a red plane to be found, but lots of pink ones.

My next purchase after a TV is a PS3, and maybe a HD-DVD player. (or reverse that order). THEN I might have money for audio. But the new YF-21 takes priority...

Yeah, but Canadians are so polite (even when arguing), we don't mind so much.

Have you played any of Bioware's other games? If not, go buy KOTOR.

I'm going to go to Sears and BestBuy again this weekend, take another look. While I do like how that Samsung looks, it seems like the xxxx53 series STILL suffers from tearing on progressive inputs despite numerous firmware updates---which is 90% of what I'll have it hooked up to. Now if someone posts at the AVS forum in the next few weeks that there's another update which totally fixes the tearing, it's pretty much a no-brainer. But after 6 months of Samsung trying to fix it and not eliminating it, I doubt it. Sony S3000: still have never seen it "set up well", but have seen the 40in version and love it. But I know the 40in has a slightly different screen. Also, 2007 Sonys often have clouding, though the S3000, especially the smaller ones, have less of it, and some people get perfect ones. Then there's the buzzing issue. Again--variable, and some people have perfect TV's. If I could luck out and get a cloudless, buzz-free S3000, I'd love it. But if I don't... Going to shut off every other TV around it at Sears and see if theirs buzzes. (Can't do that at BestBuy) Panasonic---seems to have no problems. Bezel is matte. Highest refresh rate and least motion blur. But only 1 component input. Need to check it out more, but there's only one place in town with it. Sharp---1080p version only 100 bucks more this week at Sears, but I won't have the money for a TV for another couple of weeks at least, probably at least a month, maybe 2. Also--BANDING. Seems to be a fairly common problem, especially as the one I saw at Sears had it, I noticed it in the first 2 secs. Faint banding, but banding nonetheless. At this rate, I may end up with the Panasonic not due to looking good or image quality, but simply because there's no reports of problems that I can find. No tearing, no buzzing, no clouding, no uneven backlighting. Again---if I find a "perfect" Sony S3000 that'd be great, but that could be difficult. I like Samsung overall the best, but if it tears when hooked up to a 360, then that's a deal-killer, as that's mainly what I'll be using it for. Gah---I finally find a TV that "just plain looks good" to my eye, but there's a zillion reports of it tearing with the 360--the one condition I plan to use it in, that's not apparent in the store.

Problem with Japanese battle royale, is most of the time it's set to like 20 mins, lvl 1 planes only, no (or minimal) special weapons. In otherwords, truly hard-core. 20 mins of people trying to get gun kills. That's just plain stressful, not fun, IMHO. Sure, good for proving your skill, but nothing more. I actually played one of those once. (And won!--2 kills vs 0 for everyone else)

You have to do it INSANELY fast. Most time-critical thing in the entire game, even more so than the speed-run achievement. CFA-44 w/ADMM, period. Never miss, never make a 180 to get a target you missed the first time. Make a circle---from the start, head right and get the B-52's and the helis. Go north and west a bit, getting the C-17's, helis, and northern B-52's. Then head west and take out all the fighters. It took me several times. The only time he showed up is when I did it "as fast as it could possibly done, never wasting a second". Plan out your "perfect route" to get to each target as quickly as possibly. It's easy to make the Rafales appear, much harder to get the ace.

I own the MG Zeta, and it's still little more than "tucking in the arms and legs and sitting on its shield". You also flip up the chest and slide down the head. Big whoop. It just has a REALLY BIG shield/wing thing mounted on its back, that it can tuck its arms into to hide them better. It's still a flying shield, with a gundam torso and legs sitting on top of it. It's incredibly finicky and time consuming to transform, but that's not due to complexity or anything. (I did ONCE get it to lock together rock solidly--never figured out how, and could never do it again---it was either a mistake, or some hidden feature no one else has ever found that was actually designed into it---as everyone else (including me) complain about how floppy it is)

Sorry, gotta correct that: The Sv-51 includes the AA-9 "Amos" missile. Sidewinders are much smaller, and American. At least the toy's supposed to, I think that's what's in the animation and listed in the official specs. But the toy's don't look like AA-9's at all. ::looks:: Well, the specs say it's supposed to be an R-33D Amos+. But that doesn't really exist. (Also, the basic Amos is the R-33E, so a D should actually be older). Still, it's different-looking enough that even a "Amos+" wouldn't look like that IMHO. ::edit:: Well, anyways, they're not Sidewinders. Don't know what they are. Look more like a Matra Super 530 than anything. But that's an old French missile.

Yes, ARC is the best place in the world for airplanes--both real and model. Dark blue is the second-most common color, so that should be easy to find. The numbers all vary in size and shape a little, so you should be able to use decals from almost any modern plane. MiG-25, MiG-29, Su-24, all would work just as well as Su-27 decals.

Is the color important? I can find large "01" but only in red. (I'll ask at my favorite airplane modeling forum if there are any decals that are easy to get in France)

Did you use the kit stickers? From what I can tell, Yamato did use Flanker markings. PS--I would have expected Russian-style modex numbers. Like this: A big, bold, outlined/shadowed number on the nose would make it look very Russian. Just a suggestion. I have seen ones more like you did on recent Flankers, but a big number with a white border is just so very "Russian" for planes.

I've been checking printers, and the problem is, almost none will physically fit where it has to. Of those that do, the text quality sucks, or the photos aren't good enough to make it worth buying a new one. Arrrgh. And a new desk costs more than any printer, plus it'd be a heck of a lot of work to disassemble and haul away the old one. (Big old oak desk from my parents) Plus you just don't see ones with slide-away printer drawers any more. There does seem to be a "superior in every way" pinter out there. Canon's ip5300. But it's only sold in Europe, India, Australia, and Canada. WTF? I may import it, seems many people in the US do. But it won't fit anyways, it's a top-loader. Current "most likely, if any" ones are HP's 7x60 series, (they fit, and have the absolutely-required separate tank for each ink color feature, but the text quality seems poor from the initial demo tests---which is bad when 80% of what I print is pure text), and HP's 43xx series---which while having good text and decent photos, has the "all in one" color ink tanks, which will cost me the cost of the printer in sheer wasted ink in just 2 refills. My #1 requirement probably is "separate tanks for each ink color". I've wasted hundreds of dollars over the years (OLD printer, but still as good as it gets for raw text from an inkjet--and very fast and reliable) of 2/3 full cyan and magenta ink, because yellow ran out. It's always yellow, regardless of design. People with the printers I'm interested in with separate ink tanks have reported buying 2 replacement tanks of yellow, yet cyan and magenta are still 1/2 full. Annoyingly, the HP C8180, while costing more, has good quality and speed in all aspects, and separate ink tanks (6 of them) but is just one-half inch too tall. (And I seriously considered chopping out my lower shelf's upper layer to lower the printer drawer, but it won't work---there's nothing left). (Only HP seems to make bottom-loaders any more, every top-loader is WAY too tall when the paper's loaded)

Why doesn't Canada buy Super Hornets? Proven design, TWIN ENGINE (for Canada's cold wilderness---one of the main reasons they picked it over the F-16 in the first place, same reasoning as Australia), a lot cheaper, and available now. Plus, they already have maintenance and training in place to support it, at least partially. Or, because Canada only buys new planes every 25 years, can they not afford a stop-gap fighter like the Super Hornet, and are thus waiting for something truly next-gen, including stealth etc?

How things could be different, if only Matt would have served waffles...

I think it all comes down to lack of waffles. Seriously--1st season rocked, and often had waffles. Mrs Bennet made waffles often. Hiro and Ando had waffles in several cities. Didn't Nathan and his family have waffles while they were being interviewed? This season? The only waffles were made by West. And I don't think anyone is very fond of West.

Gah! X-32 was the worst fighter in a long time. Fugly, and couldn't even hover when it was EMPTY. The F-35 at least didn't have hovering problems until they fattened it up. X-32's failures and overall suckiness are easily explained IMHO: Boeing. Boeing's never built a fighter jet of any kind. Or even a fighter at all AFAIK. Don't expect their first attempt at a cutting edge, hovering, stealthly one to do that well. If it's not a large, high-aspect ratio jet, then Boeing's not very good at it. Few of their props were all that wonderful, and their only non-airliner jet successes are very airliner-esque: B-47 and B-52.

For audio, I currently have everything jury-rigged via several adapters from the switchbox into my 300W stereo via standard RCA cables. I don't use it often though, just "important" stuff. Nothing compared to a receiver, but it's better than simply a TV. (Everything outputs to the TV and stereo simultaneously, I just turn on the stereo when I want better sound--then I effectively have 4 speakers and quasi-surround due to the stereo's speaker placement---the TV always seems to "fill in" a certain range, I never use just the stereo for games/movies) Hmmn, I never turned it on for Mass Effect, will have to see if it affects the "quiet NPC dialogue" issue.

Went to Sears today---they redid their setup again. Much better than BestBuy IMHO. Lighting, while flourescent, is the most "yellow" flourescent I've ever seen and is simple overhead lighting like the rest of the store. As opposed to BB, which uses back-lit blacklights in the TV section... So TV's look much more "normal". (All TV model names are "approximate" as I haven't memorized them all---but you should certainly be able to figure out what I mean) I'm dead set on 32in, so that's all I look at. Anyways---Sears eventually rotated to a long BluRay promo for "Cars"---and we all know high-end CG animated films are among the best stuff you can get to evaluate a TV. Clearest image I've seen yet on a display around here. Even though checking around all the signals were RF/coax cables from 8-way splitters. (yup). Also, Sears leaves the remotes out, so you can check out how they feel, button placement, TV menus, etc. The Samsung LN3253H had the blackest black by far. Surprised. Also, it was one of the "yellow" LCD screens, as opposed to the more common now blue/purple. But, it was just plain much blacker. Its yellow hue was VERY slight, as opposed to even the blackest of the blue ones being noticeably blue. (NO TV is black to my eye---shut off CRT's are not black IMHO---they all have a hue and/or shade) The last "yellow" LCD screen I saw was terrible in every way. But that was an old, cheap, PC monitor. Or maybe that Samsung was just so black and hue-less, the slight yellow tint was actually the store's lighting. That Samsung also looked really good overall. It was next to the 1080p Sharp, so that was a good opportunity to compare. (All TV's were set to super-blue white and super-bright contrast, but I wasn't going to go through and adjust a half-dozen TV's to compare under more realistic settings--too much effort, and the all-important Sony S3000's remote wasn't there) Anyways, I still can't see 1080p on a 32in at a distance of 5 feet or so being better 99% of the time. Again---only large, static text shows a difference. I watched like 5 mins straight of "Cars" and the only time I saw a difference was the logo---the edges of the lettering is less jaggy on the 1080p. The input was 1080i according to several TV's, and all the 720p's seemed to scale it flawlessly. Though maybe getting a decent connection like component or HDMI might reveal differences, both among TV's and 720p vs 1080p. Best Buy seems to use component, but through SO many splitters it looks like an antenna reception in a snowstorm... Sharp 1080p models are still around 300 more than the best 720p models. (Here at least, BB and Sears have nigh-identical prices) Currently leaning towards Sony 32S3000 and Panasonic 32XC700 at the moment, as they have non-gloss bezels and seem pretty similar. (I hate glossy bezels). However, that Samsung did look overall about the best I think, and certainly had the best black. (Of that store that day that source). It did have a glossy bezel though. Maybe I can learn to ignore it. I hate having to compare TV's with such "not how it'll be at home" settings, but it's all you can do unless you can find every remote and can figure out what mode etc they should all be in. (Dynamic pic, motion control, noise, etc--some TV's have all that hidden and automatic, some have their own button on the remote--hard to get them truly all set to the same settings) Honestly, all 3 of the ~1000 buck 32's seem VERY similar, with individual store/settings making the difference I think. Will have to check the Samsung at BestBuy again, see how they have it set up then. (BB changes around the main 3 or 4 I'm interested in EVERY time so I can never get a good comparison among them) PS---as you might gather, I don't buy things on impulse. And as things increase in price, I spend exponentially more time analyzing. But hey, this'll be the most expensive thing I buy for a long time. (hopefully) PPS--the Samsung has 3 HDMI and 2 component. Sony is typical at 2 of each. The Panasonic is only 2 HDMI and 1 component, which'll fill up quickly when I get a PS3 and likely HD-DVD player, in addition to my 360 and DVD player already . Don't they realize anyone buying an HDTV is probably going to have a LOT of stuff to plug in? You should see my pile of cables and splitters with my current setup. (And I leave my Dreamcast unplugged--it "shares" the connection with the DVD player as that's the easiest one to unplug)