kalvasflam

This goes back to the question of whether or not skull squadron is just 4 planes or not. Sniper/specialized sharpshooter make perfect sense in combat situations, but the ratio shouldn't be 1 sniper to 1 or 2 combat valks. Mr. March, I agree that in battle fields, there are specialized roles. I just wonder how useful a sharpshooting role truly is in fighter combat, I can see AWACS role. May be an analogy would be that Mikhail would be running an F-14 loaded with Phoenix missiles, and the others would be running F-15/F-16 superiority/dogfighters. But if you mix squadrons like that, you would have better ratios right? If I think about a squad of soldiers, you wouldn't have one sniper to one direct combat guy in that ratio, probably more like one or two snipers to about eight or so close combat. Or may be think about it in terms of MLRS units vs tanks in terms of ratio.

I'm a bit mixed on the subject of a sniper based Valk. On the one hand, there is some coolness factor, but really how necessary is it to have a Valk specialized in sniping. I can think of useful situations especially if the Valks end up engaging in land combat, but for aerial combat, I'm not so sure I agree with the overall concept. The main issue is that snipers would typically need camo or environment to blend into. (on a deck of a ship would be good, but then the alternative is to find some convenient asteroid I suppose) I also have to wonder how effective is this Valk in real direct combat, I mean the sniper rifle is not used like a standard gun pod, and one would think if an enemy ever gets too close the sniper Valk gets in trouble, since this would require the Valk to engage in direct combat. There is also the question about how many sniper types there are, it must be highly specialized unit. It makes you wonder how many Valks the SMS skull squadron actually have, I would imagine at least 12 if we believe in the normal sized squadron. Then the mix would make sense, one command, one ELINT type, one sniper, and then essentially nine grunt type planes. The specialization would be more sensible, but if it's just four planes, the specialization doesn't make any sense.

From the descriptions so far and what's seen, fold dislocations might be like pockets of space that you can't fold through with human tech. Remember Luca's surprise as the Vajra battleship folded through the dislocation... this tells me that for humans, basically a dislocation is a null space that they have to traverse conventionally without fold. May be the dislocations are somethings that can be overcome given enough energy, or may be it necessitates a different technology altogether. I wonder if dislocations are some things that can be mapped, or may be they appear and disappear or even move around over time. But not enough information on it for now.

I am wondering how hard it would be to code the three robot laws into the AI. I mean the worst that can happen is that the AIed Ghosts sacrifice themselves. May be a built in kill switch or something. Overall, I'd rather like the idea of Ghosts running on AI, I wonder though if the Ghosts we saw on Ep 1 were really on AI or were they actually UCAVs. Seem like the latter, since their signals were interfered with.

After watching Luca and his pet Ghosts in action again, I got to thinking, from the look of things, Luca was really a guy running the sensors, I mean it didn't seem like he was doing much of the fighting, may be more of a recon/AWACS role providing data and imagery to the rest of the fleet and Mac quarter. This then makes me think that he wasn't actually in control of the Ghosts for the most part, well, except may be when he was shouting for "Peter" to dodge. But it seems to me that it is very likely that the Ghosts weren't UCAV in the conventional manner where there were humans running them, but rather run on sophisticated AI designed exclusively to either protect Luca in his role as AWACS or to be a probe for him when the situation is too dangerous. If that's the case, then it's a bit surprising that the other VF-25s didn't have attendent Ghosts as well. Because after all, if it's just a matter of AI and programming, then it's pretty simple to program some basic parameters into the Ghosts, like stay with 1000 m of primary VF, fire on any unfriendly signatures, fire on any target attack VF, and so forth. One way to look at this is while the remotes weren't directly controlled, they could be programmed to enhance the combat effectiveness of the individual fighters. After all, wouldn't it be nice if each VF had been assigned several Ghosts where the exclusive mission of the Ghosts is to shoot down incoming missiles. This would certainly free up the pilot to concentrate on other matters like attacking other targets instead of worrying about dodging incoming fire. Another thought is that if the Ghosts can be controlled by a pilot, then it would make a lot of sense to have a backseater whose exclusive mission is to control the remotes. I think there is a thought among the USAF where two seaters would have the guy in the back quarterbacking a small group of UCAVs.

I hope we end up seeing more of Macross Galaxy as a ship going forward. The design is definitely interesting and not at all like the standard Macross. I would also hope that more of the technology in Galaxy is explained too, especially since they seem to have a head start on a lotof cybernetics, one almost has to wonder whether we might see next generation Ghost type UCAVs and valks with tele-presence capability coming out of Galaxy fleet. ( I know, it's not even established that Brera was actually in the cockpit of the VF-27 in ep 7) Hopefully we get to see more of the other ships in the Frontier/Galaxy fleets as well as we go along. I did like the variety they had on Mac 7, although some of it seemed pointless.

Just saw the movie, have to say, it was just not as good as I had hoped. I don't know what could've made it more entertaining, but this movie just didn't do it for me. Probably because Harrison Ford was a bit too old to be believable, and the Russkies are not as entertaining as the Nazis. The chief Russian bad guy was... well, was just another tall blonde guy that got his clock cleaned. Overall, I would've been better off spending the money on another money I thought. Oh well, Spielberg hasn't had a hit in ages, and Lucas never really had a hit. But I suppose they'll made enough money off of this, and the clone war money to congratulate themselves on doing really well and probably do yet another sequel...

This sounds like an interesting episode, can't wait to see it. A couple of quick points, one thing I notice more and more about Kawamori's designs on VFs, the nose of all the VF are highly reminiscent of the SU-27 nose design, I wonder if Kawamori is a fan. It's the case for the -17, the -25, and the -27. As for this episode, I wonder if may be this is how Sheryl gets knocked off eventually (assuming that it does happen)... she flies a VF, and as she is humming along, someone shoots her plane and blows her up. That would be a very fitting end and a way for Kawamori to atone for the awful Firebombers and M7... sorry, singing on stage is one thing, but singing while piloting and dodging missiles is just a bit too much. Sounds like a nice filler episode, would like to see the relationship between our favorite Loli and Mikhail explained more... ha ha, may be she's his "older sister"

Finally saw the epsiode, great animation this time around. Although we don't know much more about the Varja than before. Now, we're throwing in another mysterious element, and we don't really even know why the VF-27 was there in the Varja ship yet. But what I saw of the VF-27 seem to be very impressive, especially the control systems. I wonder if we'll find out more next week.

I am curious to see more about Macross Quarter's capabilities. And anything more about the Vajra would be interesting too. I hope they don't drag out the mysterious enemy routine for too long. But I am guessing the fight scene is only the first 15 half. But even then, it should be really good animation.

Good point, I did like the concept of panoramic view. Essentially like in the Gundam series. Actually, in terms of capabilities, I am a bit surprised that the technology didn't exist for the VF-22, since they had that incredibly small bubble cockpit that just didn't make much sense to me.

So far so good, as long as the writers aren't influenced by Bandai for toy sales, I think this could be great. My one thought is, they should stick with the VF-25 throughout the series. I mean, if they manage to develop additional FAST pack stuff, fine, but my thought was that the original SDF:M had the VF-1 throughout the series, it had armor pack and FAST pack, that was it. The story is what made the show, if they focus on that, it'll be fine. Key things I hope they don't do: 1. Don't turn it into the abortion like M7, because if Sheryl or Ranka ever start piloting VFs and singing, it would be return to the bad old days. 2. None of the mysticism ala M0, which was a gigantic turn off.

I saw it, that's why the question, who wants to bet that all the bad news hasn't surfaced yet. There is going to be a financial impact to all of this delay down the road. You saw it with Airbus, and I would be surprised if it doesn't happen with Boeing.

Anyone wanna take bets that the 787 will be delayed until 2010? I think Boeing is trying to dribble out the bad news. But this is going to really hurt their market share. The delays also give airlines opportunities to cancel and reevaluate. Being first to market is great, being first to market and not deliver is a killer.

Not a big deal, Aloha got whacked on Monday. Let me know when one of the major legacies, like United, or Delta go away and then we'll be in a more stable market condition. But all this means is continued increase in ticket prices. I think overall, consolidation might finally start happening after the failed Delta/Northwest deal.

Talk about a gigantic mistake, didn't they learn anything from Denver?

Just finished watch Gundam 00 season 1, and I have a few thoughts. I thought the show was fairly well done for the most part up until the end. I swear the last four or five episodes started feeling like Bandai doing directions telling the team producing the show to introduce more models, and gin up more action for the masses who are just excited with big things blowing up. The good things about the first 25 episodes: - Fairly well structured story line - Good flow of actions for the most part - Show was fairly well driven by characters - Characters are fairly interesting, and I'm sure they'll be additional character development in the future (and I don't mean the Athrun Zala, Shin Asuka sob story) - I truly like the idea that even in undergunned suits and perpetually losing, but the characters thought about how to beat up on Gundams using strategy, tactics, in other words, they didn't rely on technology. The last few episodes though has not been quite as good as the earlier story, and I think the biggest problem is technology starting to supplant characters. - GN-X appears on the scene, and suddenly, both Kathy and Sergei who had been pretty smart about how to use their brains to compensate for inferior technology just turn into dumb robots. - An effort to get in one more giant robot, they removed the Graham development for a few minutes of fighting Setsuna. I actually hoped they hadn't introduced the giant mobile armor, I really don't like evil masterminds suddenly driving giant mobile suits. It would've been nice if Sergei had said withdraw, but Kathy countered by saying they had orders to keep up the attack even without backup. Then Graham showed up as their only backup. Alex could've been just killed on the spot by Ribbons, and there was a easy story that can be made up... i.e. Ribbons can't kill Aeolia, he needed Alex to do it, now he breaks Alex's neck, that would've been good. Then that would've left room for just a bit of Graham development, I see no reason why they couldn't have still wrecked Ptolemy and the rest of the Gundams with just the GN-X and the souped up FLAG. After all, the pilots with the GN-X aren't dumb, they have people like Sergei and Kathy leading them, who aren't stupid. They could've done what Alex did with just good tactics and strategy. So, this is a bit disappointing. Overall though, the show was still fantastic, I don't mind the time skip, kind of like what they did with BSG. Ought to be good if they can flush out more back story with Sumeragi, Alleuljuah, Soma, and a few other characters.

I'd go if Obamagirl is on stage first.

I like this: Boeing protests Northrup/EADS files for protest to be dismissed Boeing will then likely appeal the protest I wonder if the USAF will ever get a tanker at this rate.

http://news.airwise.com/story/view/1206524163.html And the hits keep on coming, ANA says to Boeing, if you're late again, you owe us money. This is probably already on top of additional compensation to other airlines which are facing delays. My guess is if Boeing has to pay compensation to each of the airlines delayed, it's going to start really hurting. 2008 is not going to be a good year at this rate. And with Boeing's delay on the 787, Etihad order might end up with A350 at this rate, talk about a bad ripple effect.

This show is definitely getting better, blows away whiny ass Fukuda by a long shot. Isn't the director the same one that did Full Metal Alchemist?

Ouch, more pain for Boeing, the key word here is design changes... meaning it has very little to do with suppliers, unless failure in supply chain is forcing a redesign which could mean even more of a problem. At this rate, Boeing can expect to ship their first plane on the same day Airbus announces their first delay from the A350XWB. Talk about being in trouble. Apparently, Boeing didn't learn a damn thing from the Airbus A380 mistakes. We can expect this to affect the Boeing bottom line and most likely a loss of market share when the A350XWB comes on line http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/080320/boeing_787.html?.v=1

Yeah, no Neo/Andy/Seed syndrom I hope. But they do need a few more dead characters though. I'm not sure I like the comic relief in the form of Patrick and Cathy since they don't seem to realistically provide anything. Patrick's successful blinding of Lockon not withstanding.

Well, the series is certainly getting more entertaining, the character deaths, so far most have been minor, but they've been evenly spaced out through the series, we finally get one semi major character die off. Although everyone's favorite character has been absent the last few episodes in a major way. Hopefully Graham will get a much more important role (not the dead kind) in the next two episodes, and hopefully that continues in the next season. So far, the series has gone above expectations from Seed. The storyline is not the most original, but good enough to keep me interested.

So what you're saying is that ANA will be secretly supporting Mitsubishi as they quietly try to build up their own portfolio of large commercial aircraft?