David Hingtgen

Actually, some other quotes from Red Flag had mechanics raving about the F-22, compared to the F-15. Many hours less work for the same job. As for Airbus--it's not exactly news. The A380 problems have been, are, and will in the future, suck that company dry. In related news, the A380's max-weight rejected takeoff test is supposed to happen in early March. If it goes anything like the A340-600's, expect lots of explosions and flaming debris.

So, how good is the F-22? Well, the 94th FS is back from taking their F-22's to Red Flag. Choice quotes on fighting the F-22: Lt. Col. Larry Bruce, 65th Aggressor Squadron commander, admits flying against the Raptor is a very frustrating experience. Reluctantly, he admitted "it's humbling to fly against the F-22," - humbling, not only because of its stealth, but also its unmatched maneuverability and power. "I can't see the [expletive deleted] thing," said RAAF Squadron Leader Stephen Chappell. "It won't let me put a weapons system on it, even when I can see it visually through the canopy. [Flying against the F-22] annoys the hell out of me." From un-named Topgun pilots: "that thing is <expletive deleted> magic" "the laws of physics do not apply to that airplane" Note that the first quote is from the commander of the Nellis Agressor Squadron, who are probably THE most skilled air-to-air pilots in the US. They train for pure air-to-air all the time and usually mop the floor with any other squadron.

Shin--I have a Crusader book with a section on the Super Crusader. I'll get back to you on it.

Every PC I every get has a completely different type of memory than the last, so I'm never "up" on it. Anyways, it's time to upgrade, but I need some clarification. Here's the page for my motherboard if you care to look: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/documen...643&lang=en BTW--PNY brand is half off at BestBuy now. Decent brand? Any suggestions, or brands to avoid? Good places to shop online? My PC came with PC2700 DDR DIMMs (it's an HP, circa late 2003). Has 4 slots, slots 1 and 2 currently have 256MB each (factory), slots 3 and 4 are empty. My question is about dual channel (DDR) mode, pairing, and speed. HP's RAM page for their required DIMM's say: "The following requirements must be met for the DDR memory to function in Dual Channel mode: Same Density (256MB, 512MB, etc.) Same DRAM chip technology (x8 or x16) All either single-sided or dual-sided Matched in both Channel A and Channel B memory channels" Does "matched in both" mean all 4 have to be identical, or just "identical within a pair"---I am currently leaning towards keeping slot 1 and 2 as they are (removing memory is a B*TCH, adding's easy) and putting in 512MB modules in slots 3 and 4, for a 1.5GB total. However, I used crucial.com's memory scanner, and it says my PC doesn't support dual channel mode, even though the motherboard specs say multiple times it does. Is there any way to check/confirm if it does, and if it's doing it now? Finally--- My PC came with 2700 memory, but the motherboard specs say it can handle 3200. Is the difference noticeable? Because if I put in new memory, even if its 3200, it'll only operate at 2700 because of the older memory still in. I'd like to avoid replacing the original memory if possible, so I need to know if it'd really be worth replacing them, just to get perhaps another 500MB of memory, with the speed bumped up to 3200. PS---HP's site says replacement DIMM must be 1.8 volts. But that seems rare, at least the first 3 places I checked didn't have any. Is that critical, or just an old spec nobody manufactures to anymore? (everything I found now was 2.5 or 2.6, and most places don't even list that spec) Also, it's just a "generic" HP DIMM page, not specific to any of my PC.

If the panel that makes up the side of the fuselage right behind the intakes (attached to the hip/belly plates) could be made thinner, and fold 180 to lay flush along the hip plates in battroid mode--that could work quite nicely. Still like the D'stance version better though.

FYI, the 777 is assembled so carefully, that the tolerance is less than the difference between "when one wing is in the shade, and one in the sun". The temperature difference will affect the wingspan like 1/32000 of an inch. The 727 has certain parts that they literally shut down the factory, and have one guy in thick boots standing on a rubber mat, holding his breath, insert them--otherwise they won't fit (and they have to be within .1 degree of each other, and are kept in dry ice to maintain it) Tolerances like that have been a big part of *US* aviation for a while. Britain? That's pretty new. Go look at a US Navy T-45. It's real obvious which half is built in the UK, and which half is built in the US.

They have to take the phases of the moon into account when building the Eurofighter: http://www.baesystems.com/Newsroom/NewsRel...7120145958.html USS John F Kennedy to be decommissioned: http://www.news4jax.com/news/11060487/detail.html Su-30MKI's practice again Mirages, French surprised they lost: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Su-30s_...how/1653818.cms (pop ups a plenty, and not much more info than the title really)

I think he means the specific titles, like "Sharon Apple Concert Attendee" and "Heatshield scrubber".

I still haven't seen a Wii here---I don't go out hunting for them, but I do check every time I'm in a store that sells them (which is pretty darn often)

Exactly. All hail the color "corrected" photos out there of the prototype F-15's. Though ironically, as I said--it'd do pretty well for a Thundercracker, just use silver instead of blue. (Though I've ranted plenty of times that matching the toy's dark metallic blue always looks a hundred times better than anime flat sky blue)

As we bring up often---nothing is truely permanent. No matter what they do to it, I'm pretty sure a cutting torch could get it off. Or a jackhammer. It's all about--what does it take to get it off, without damaging the toy, or at least, cosmetic damage.

All those pics are the wrong color. The real thing was PALE BLUE. Very much like Thundercracker is sometimes portrayed. There's a story behind it: Many of those early F-15 photos were "color corrected" by various photo labs, to try to remove "all that blue" that was showing up--thinking that like every other plane, the F-15 should be painted grey. However, it wasn't---it was painted blue! But the developers didn't know that, so they tried to remove the color and "correct" the image, and were pretty successful at it. So many of the official published photos show a quite grey-looking F-15 prototype. And note the grey skies. These photos were mainly taken in the California desert, in the summer. The skies should be blue, like the plane----the paint was specifically designed to match California blue skies, 35450 Air Superiority Blue----almost identical to the blue now used on modern splinter-camo Flankers. Here's a REAL photo, not color-corrected by some photo-lab guy who thinks he knows how a plane should look: Also, the markings are your standard "safety flourescent orange", not red.

I figured his voice changed because Sylar's often does. Either it's associated with TK for some reason, or it's a Sylar thing, or whatever. But not because of Eden IMHO.

My new one can also tilt the scroll-wheel left/right, but I have it disabled at the moment. (Gotta get used to it--it's much smoother, but "heavier" than the old one)

All that and Stan Lee was the bus driver!

More like next week's... But hey--at least they've got enough twists and turns to keep things interesting.

Well I'm typing this with my new keyboard--ended up with Eclipse II, but NOT because it lights up---it simply had the closest shape and button layout to my current one. 99% of the current ones are "ergonomic" in SOME way, and I hate that. I want a pure rectangle, period. The Eclipse II is about the only one like that now, that's not a 9 buck cheap one. And it feels/types nice. PS---I found that I actually had 2 more USB ports on the back of my PC, they were always just hidden between the monitor cable and speaker jack--they're really tucked in there, and mounted sideways near the edge of the case. And covered in dust. So I have both my new keyboard and mouse hooked up there. Eclipse II is really nice--I swear I can type faster/more accurately---and I generally suck at typing. (I swear girls are inherently faster typists---noticed it all my life with few exceptions--the average girl can type WAY faster than the average guy, and they can flat-out embarass me in that category) My new mouse is a Microsoft Comfort mouse 3000. Wired, not wireless. All the wireless ones had weird buttons IMHO--not inherent to the design, they just did. I must have really long fingers or something--I tend to really click on the "edge" of a mouse, not the center of the buttons--so I really want buttons that tend to wrap around to the "front" of the mouse, and well to the sides-that's just how I click. I had a logitech mouseman for many years, lasted through 3 computers---one of the first with a third, center button. But it was outdated the moment scroll-wheel mice came out, so it was retired. But I still keep it, as it's built like a tank. Currently trying to figure out what to configure my mouse's thumb-button for. (just one, not 4 or 5 like some of them had) I actually prefer the notched/clickly scroll-wheel, but the button shape was far more important. Any way to reduce the sensitity of an analog scroll wheel?

Yup, you can bleach out most any decal sheet with a few days (or weeks, depends) in the sun. Just tape them to the window. Though there's not many aftermarket decals that I know to yellow---ATP and Xtracolor often have the PAPER yellow, but leave the film/decal fine. Mainly sucky Revellogram decals that yellow, and Dragon.

Any suggestions for a PC keyboard and mouse? I need a new one of each. My PC is used pretty much solely for surfing the web, all my gaming is console. Minimal word processor/spreadsheet/powerpoint etc use. So I need "comfortable" stuff more than anything else. Keyboard: Considering a light-up one, based on how much typing I do in semi-darkness. But it seems there's only 2 opinions out there about them: either they're not bright/clear enough to really make it worth it, or they're the coolest thing ever and it works great. Also, I have a concern about the paint rubbing off and leaving "glowing blobs" instead of clear letters, as that's the main reason I'm replacing this one. Finally---since all the light-up ones are USB-only, that's kinda bad for my PC--it's JUST old enough to not have a conveniently located USB port for a keyboard, and it won't work until the OS actually loads the USB drivers--bad for entering setup/BIOS etc, I'd have to keep a spare PS/2 keyboard handy just for that. (I plan to keep this PC a while, as processor speeds have really leveled off the past few years--memory upgrades alone should keep this one ok for some more years) PS---the Logitech G15 is not an option--WAY too big.

Tiny pic, but this looks like a launch bar (in the horizontal position): http://img.search.com/thumb/b/b8/FS_CdG_Ra..._CdG_Rafale.jpg

More interesting is when Argentina practices with their Entendards, plenty of pics of that.

We're anal because this is a MACROSS forum, so don't act haughty and expect people to immediately recognize the ROBOTECH designations for things, espeically when posted in our *Macross* toy sub-forum. You would have gotten a better response in the "other anime" forum, where Robotech toys are discussed, with their Robotech designations.

Seconding(thirding) danth's point---I could have paid HALF what I did for my YF-19, and a crooked gunpod and wheels is still inexcusable!

Green-to-red LED's are VERY cheap and simple. That's why they're the on/off status indicator on so many electronics--go look at a PS2. It's been around for decades. You can go to Radio Shack and get a bunch cheap. And I could wire up the circuit myself in 30 secs to make it switch colors. (And if you get really fancy, you can get the tri-color red/green/yellow LED's for slightly more money) And also, the switch/circuit to make it change colors, is almost identical, and VERY VERY VERY easily integrated into an on/off switch like you'll find on any electronic toy. Anyways----somebody, somewhere, changed something to make the YF-19 gunpod not fit. Molds don't just mysteriously change themselves, yet the prototypes didn't have that problem. Also, "it was too late" means they don't check FINAL production versions---just "near final"---which isn't good enough. The very first one off the line would have shown the gunpod problem, but that didn't matter, as they were shipping them all immediately since the PREVIOUS version didn't have any gunpod problems.

Legacy Hornet stopped production when the first Super Hornet was built. There was no overlap in production. Went right from one to the other. AFAIK, single-seat F-15 is dead. You can still order an air-to-air optimized F-15 instead of a Strike Eagle, but it'll have 2 seats. The F-15S order was originally going to be split between strike and air-optimized versions, but ended up as all-strike.