DD_Brando

Yeah, it's good to get a readable, colloquial translation that conveys some sense of what the man is about - rather than all the distorted versions that are bandied about in the UbiZoo and elsewhere. Looking back over the past 8 years - from the time when the majority of the "Black Lions" moved over from Warbirds and Dawn of Aces to IL-2 Sturmovik - it's been a hell of a ride!! It pisses me off to hear some of the criticisms that fly about regarding the performance of the developers and how 4.09b has never been finished - yada yada. I just have to think back to the early days when updates, patches & full-blown add-ons flowed regularly - most of them totally free - and then think back to the hassles with the development of the former sims. We had to fight a lengthy battle to get the effective range of the laser-like guns reduced to 300 feet in Dawn of Aces (a WW1 sim) from 600! Once it finally came through we were able to use "boom and zoom" planes, like the Se5a, the DVII and the Spad XIII, without getting shot by a DrI or Camel as we zoomed out. The establishment were really grudging about it, and the forums echoed to cries of displeasure from the turn and burn freaks. But, hey, you have to move on or die. And thats pretty much what happened to that sim after Maddox came along. I'm not saying that Maddox can do no wrong - after all he's not super-human - but he's not the reincarnation of Attila the Hun or Peter the Great that some people think. Anyone remember when he crashed his car and the UbiZoo clubbed together to buy him a new one? I hope he manages to make a good wedge out of SoW:BoB - he deserves to, in my book. B

60*C still sounds over-warm to me. Given the size of the average heat-sink on a CPU I would expect the excess heat to be dissipated keeping the processor down around 40-50*C. It's more about the heat-sink&fan(s)' abilities than the heat that the processor generates. I really recommend water-cooling if you want reliably steady temperatures. As long as you do a little research, and mix & match the parts you use rather than relying on "kits", a simple loop doesn't have to be expensive or complex. My dual-core runs at 30* max, with an over-clock, for hours. B.

Never seen that, Rog. B

According to this article Sapphire have included all the adapters required. What make and model of PSU are you using, Streaks?

I'm looking to help out an old friend and potential Danger Dog (UK-based). He needs a working socket 939 mobo with a PCI-Express graphics slot. Can anyone help? B

For some reason I have been incredibly lucky over the years and only had 3 serious infections overall, which runs at about 1 every 4 years. Getting behind a hardware firewall, as Rog explained, is a big benefit. I would use a router even if I was only running one PC, just for the added security that it brings. A good one (I use a Draytek Vigor 2700G) costs just under a £100. Select a reliable anti-virus and stick to it. Don't do the panic Googling thing if you suspect an infection - there are many traps and fake AV sites out there which can just get you into more serious trouble. I've used Avira for the last 12 years and they are top-notch. The free version is excellent - the paid version with extra features is even more so. Real-time protection is included with the free version. I also use Spywareblaster from Javacool, which is a passive software which blocks access to (currently) 12,148 malicious sites and is regularly updated. And that's it, except that I avoid products like Internet Exploder, Yahoo, MSN, Outlook Express and all the rest. Mozilla's Firefox browser and Thunderbird E-mail client do everything I need. I also get real-time protection from my ISP which is Eclipse All that, and a level of self-restraint with the mouse-clicking(!), seems to do the biz for me. B

Out of them all it was" Look Mum, I'm a rhinoceros" that did it for me Does anyone have any tips (pardon the pun) on how to clean coffee out of a keyboard? thanks m8 B

My CH pedals are located on an angled metal plate that forms the front section of a gaming chair, attached by large strips of Velcro tape. They don't move either. It's worth getting the correct angle for ergonomic reasons. It's also worth considering that a swivel chair can really damage your back if used in conjunction with pedals. A fixed seat is preferable. A swivel seat plus slipping pedals is a nightmare. A buddy of mine was laid up for three weeks, unable to fly because of ligament damage in his lower back If you have a wood or linoleum floor - smooth anyway - then double sided Velcro is your friend. If you're on carpet and they still slip, then you could use short pieces of carpet-gripper (of the type that carpet fitters use around the edge of a room) attached to the base of your pedals with, you've guessed it, Velcro tape. If necessary, an angled ramp can easily be built out odd scrap timber and fastened down as above. B

A few, like are you sure that you're pressing Shift+F1 to change from wide-angle view and back? Same key-combo that toggles centring of Axis gunsights? TrackIR 6DOF only works fully if you have toggled to the wide view (Axis sights off-set). You will only see the 2DOF version, plus head side to side, with Standard view toggled. Are you getting the 2DOF view at all? B

That ole Beebop, he gets every-where man! (sorry bro, too good to resist!) B

It was my pleasure, gents! I was surprised, and pleased, that my connection was strong & steady enough to keep us all going - and the mission content was all courtesy of a fella by the name of Jerry "Possit" Pergande, who is an un-sung hero of the art of mission-building. His motto is never let the mission go more than four minutes before the action starts - and I think he keeps that promise well. I have about 200 of his missions altogether so I hope we'll get to fly some more of them some time. It was a pity that we couldn't fulfil the Ubizoo side of things - but my connection cannot support TS-hosting as well as mission-hosting. I'm sure they'll understand....... B

Funnily enough, I was helping one of my buddies to choose a lap-top only yesterday. One item you might want to change is the hard-drive option. 5400 rpm is slow - but you should be able to find 7200rpm drives for a similar price. The one my friend eventually ordered has a 350Gb, 7,200 rpm SATA drive, which should definitely improve loading time. If the order is "customisable" I would consider doing that. B

Thanks. I don't suggest this is a fix, but could you add these three lines in this section checkServerTimeSpeed=1 checkClientTimeSpeed=0 checkRuntime=0

Could you copy & paste here the [NET] section of your conf.ini file please? I agree with gec re. the hosting problem. B

This one is driving me nuts (in a way that I can cope with, don't fret it) and I'm determined to get to the bottom of the problem. There must be a reason for it and I'll bet it's something quite obvious that we can't see right now. I'm gonna sleep on it - and interrogate you tomorrow Tonar. B

I'm glad to read that you've had another try Tone. I'll come on TS around 10 GMT and listen out for you. I will host a modded game if you want to check it out. Sometimes there's a sort of blindness that overcomes people when they're pressed up close to a problem. The answer's right in front of you but you just can't see it, at least, that's what happens to me. We had a fine example of it last night, when one of our number just couldn't find the AAA version switcher. It turned out to be right where it should be, but this mate needed to be led right to it. It just happens that way, and now he's fixed up. Anyway, I'll be glad to help you with any trouble-shooting you need to do B Edit: I'll be an hour later than I said. Our Sky HD box is one of the faulty batch that's being recalled, so I have a heap of recorded movies to get through.

Offhand, I would say that 70*C is approaching a critical overheat temperature for a CPU. I can't be sure of this as I use AMD and watercooling, but a CPU at 70 degrees would really have me worried. I'd look immediately at my heat-sink to ensure that it is fitted properly and making full contact with the CPU, via a suitable layer of thermal paste. Obviously I would check to see that the fan(s) worked properly too. Are you sure you are reading the BIOS temps correctly? Is there a real-time temperature monitor included with the motherboard software? Unless an Intel expert shows up and says 70 degrees is, er, cool for these processors, I'd be taking urgent steps to find out what's going on. B

....arrived a few weeks ago, from my IL-2 wingman of long standing, and I just got it back from the framer

and one more, for luck

Here's a couple from WW1 scenarios that I wrote - I hope you like them

's funny - I thought you'd like 'em. I'll make a close pass while you're in your 'chute - you'll be able to see them in all their glory

Two new skins for my P-38s. Let's hope they fly as good as they look

The pilot sounds a lot like my cousin who was a Tornado pilot in both episodes of the Iraq wars. Cool as ice while shitting bricks as you might say. I remember taking him for a trip along the A380 as my side-car pilot at ton-plus speeds. He just sat there grinning!

It works for me