David Hingtgen

That's from the "Generations" book. Page 89. (No, I don't own it, but I have quite a few scanned pages)

Depends. Are the Best Buy exclusive Ratchet and Megatron metallic repaints going to be there too on that day? If so, I'm going there. If not--Wal-Mart. Either way I'm buying the cheapest normal DVD version possible, as you KNOW there'll be a "super ultimate edition with 4 mins new footage" in a few months, or a year. And eventually Blu-Ray.

I thought all Halo versions had 65nm. It's not like MS has publically released a detailed list of exactly what processors started going into what systems when. Just a few sample numbers from people who've opened theirs up.

I'm obviously the only Piranacon fan here. One of my all-time fave TF's.

Coolest PC mod ever? The Incredible Hulk: http://fusionmods.net/?theCase=viewThread&...=919&page=0 It's not static, the arms move via motors and shake the system.

It flew! For about 3 seconds until it went boom. http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/boom/x%20wing-r...p?autoplay=true

That's nice: http://theknightshift.blogspot.com/2007/10...ansformers.html Steve Jablonsky (the movie's composer) sent signed copies of the CD to the guy who started the online petition to get it released.

I was waiting for this to come out before I bought a MP-5. Still, $150 for one TF is a lot. Anyways---so after all was said and done, what places had "easily removed with no glue residue" MP-5's? Because now I want to buy one, and need to know who will (probably) have the "least altered" MP-5's coming in the 2nd production batch.

Get the 360 version if for no other reason than the achievement points.

Mod power---we get automatic priority in posting replies.

Nope, gestalt is a fan-made term that post-dates any G1 toy. German word.

Ratchet---the Concorde stretches about a foot in length at Mach 2, due to how hot it gets. All planes stretch a bit when they're that warm/fast, but the Concorde does notably so due to its extreme length and shape. It's not so much on a 40ft jet as on a 200ft jet. Similar to how an SR-71 only achieves its "true" shape and the fuel tanks seal once it gets going hot and fast. PS--and a point is, that FEW planes can beat the Concorde. Yes, there are some out there--the fastest planes ever built. But the sheer fact that a PASSENGER plane can go faster than 90% of military combat interceptors can--is pretty remarkable. That'd be like if Ford made a family sedan that could out-race 90% of Indy or NASCAR.

SR-71---ok, technically it does fly for hours on burner. But its afterburners are completely unique, as are the engines. The burner itself acts like the engine---it has its own air supply and compression, every other afterburner out there just dumps fuel into the turbine's exhaust. An SR-71's burner at Mach 3 is basically the ramjet itself, with the turbine section practically idling along just to keep the accessories going with most of its air supply bypassed to the burner. Blackbird burners at speed are doing far, far more than what your typical burner does--they're not even really operating on exhaust. They operate as normal burners sub-sonically, but once the engine starts acting like a ramjet---they're the main component.

Um, no. Too many NIMBY's protested against it overflying supersonically, despite the Concorde's boom being less intense than your average car backfiring. Opinions and fear triumphed over facts, as often happens. They also didn't like the noise the burners made on takeoff (never mind the far louder burners on any military plane at the many bases all across the US, taking off far more often) Also, the US was the ONLY scheduled place the Concorde flew to from the airline's home bases--where'd you think it flew? Calling the Concorde loud is like calling a Corvette loud. Yes, it is more than average--but certainly nothing to complain about, especially in comparison to its massive performance advantage over the "average".

While the Concorde does have a large fuel fraction, it's simply far more optimized for high-speed cruise than any other plane out there. No plane has the fuel capacity to run afterburners for hours on end. (Nor can any engine withstand the stress of doing so). It's well known that it burns far more fuel per mile at Mach .95, than at Mach 2.0 It does not like flying "high subsonic" which is where most jets are most efficient. At top speed, the Concorde can outrun a LOT of planes. Not that many fighters go past M2.35

Well they're showing The Office instead of Heroes, so who knows what NBC decided to rearrange tonight.

They're doing a "recent repeat" thing again tonight---Heroes and Bionic Woman. 8/9e, 7/8c.

My main issue is that most discs don't have enough scenes/chapters. 20 or so is never nearly enough. It's pointless to me to select "chapter 4" then fast-forward through 6 minutes to get to the actual part I want to see. (The whole discussion started based on a preview of the Transformers chapters---the entire desert sequence appears to be just one chapter---and I commented I don't want to watch the fat guy push people out of the shower 50x while waiting for Blackout to transform) Star Wars are among the few discs that really have good chapters---they have twice as many as most others, you can almost always get exactly what you want.

"Blackness" is a non-issue to me, as no TV to me is truly black. Even my CRT when SHUT OFF isn't black. It's dark grey. LCD's are dark grey, and plasmas show dark grey. So they're all the same, just slightly different shades of dark grey. Only thing to watch for is the "purple" LCD's---which are pretty much limited to cheap/old sets. For the past 2 years or so, any decent LCD has had "as black as I need" blacks. (I actually prefer plasma due to it actually emitting light, but they just don't make them small enough--and the smaller ones actually cost more) Anyways--I just heard that HD-DVD's let you specify your own chapter stops etc. True? How many can you make? Can Blu-Ray do this?

Due to the fact that even the F-15 and F-16 can (barely) supercruise when light and clean, (as could the YF-17 and NF-5) the Air Force revised their definition of "effective" supercruise. Don't remember exactly what it was, but it was something along the lines of "Mach 1.2+ with an air-to-air load". Because going Mach 1.01 really isn't any better than the .9 to .95 that many others cruise at.

Just like to comment that nothing comes close to the Concorde's Mach 2.23 supercruise capability. The F-22 may be the fastest *active* plane with supercruise, but the Concorde has it beat by far, as does the YF-23.

A bit OT but I'm not going to start a new thread: Bionic Woman is down 30% from last week. I thought this week's ep was better. It and Life are the only other shows I currently watch asides from Heroes. (And partly because they're a nice 2-hour block)

JRX was pretty good, just the US versions looked cheap due to different plastics/paint apps etc. One of the few toys I really wish I had the Japanese version. On that, let's go to modern gestalts: Magnaboss---never even seen Tripedacus--awesome due to complexity and how the upper two bots really mesh. Ugly, but the most complicated transformation ever. Though I don't have an MP-5 yet. Every bit is complex, with getting Ramhorn back to beetle mode being the worst. Energon Bruticus: awesome torso/leader (Barricade), he alone is one of the best TF's in recent years IMHO. Limbs OK. Energon Superion: never bought torso, just a limb or two. Energon Devastator: as above The whole "2 limbs are just repaints" was truly lazy. A simple new head and maybe torso detailing would be enough---many G1 limbs were very similar, but none were mere repaints. I never bought all of any Energon gestalt. I had most of Bruticus, and 1 new Aerialbot and 1 new Constructicon so I could have 4 different Bruticus-ish limbs. Looked nice when I was done IMHO. (Especially as the original Bruticus was such a mish-mash of vehicles) (Also, some limbs were WAY better as arms or feet, so I wanted 2 GOOD feet and 2 GOOD arms)

According to A.net it's already left for France. http://www.airliners.net/discussions/gener...d.main/3640386/ Semi-related note, this is the neatest parallel approach at SFO I've ever seen: http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff130/rpfile/_MG_1179.jpg

F-22's can pull so hard that their afterburner trails curve. (I'd post the pic but I can't find it)