Kira

HSFX 7 How long does this blankity blank install take??? I've been at it for twelve solid hours (not joking), and instead of counting down, the silly "Time Remaining" counts up! It's up to 69073 minutes and 30 seconds. Unless there's another way, I will most definitely not be joining you guys in the virtual skies until another halfway reasonable form arrives!!! Notes: Installing from scratch over clean disk install of IL2 (4.07) upgraded by increments to 4.12.2. Since the external HD crash, I've not much space and none of my backups...

There is one other largely unknown example of an airliner disappearing. This one was a good condition ex American Airlines jet that was chartered to central Africa. The pilot and mechanic was then "persuaded" to stay on for quite some time (months), rather than immediately return as was the plan, flying the plane for the new operators. Of course, it was allowed to deteriorate ridiculously. Then, after sitting on a ramp collecting dust (and weeds), someone, they aren't sure who, came along and started getting it back to flyable (note I did not say "legally airworthy") condition. One day, it fired up its engines, taxied to the end of the runway, took off without clearance, and disappeared to the west over the South Atlantic. A search of the pilot's movements turned him up missing, with little if any evidence that he was at all involved in the disappearance of the aircraft. The original charter owner (in the southern US as I recall) claimed (and I believe got) the insurance for the aircraft, and that was that. It hasn't been seen since. The restructuring of the aircraft as a "tanker" with massive internal fuel bladders that were, as I recall fed into the fuel system, mean that the thing had a ridiculous range, at least in theory. That meant that despite being a short range 727 in theory, in practice, it could fly the Atlantic in one go, something that troubled the US, thinking it could be used in another attack. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N844AA

Shows various locations revisited by modern photographers and overlayed with WWI images of the same location. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/09/wwi-photos_n_5118292.html?1397061169&icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl21|sec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D462958

It is Seagate. Seatools you say? Looking up. Thanks. Got a friend who did a physical teardown on one of his and got at least a little back. Not everything, but I've someone who's been there before so if all else fails, might be able to learn a little from him. I'll keep you posted.

Symptoms: When plugged in, it won't let my OS load. Windows (XP) says it's loading, then it goes to black screen and just sits. If I unplug it and do a hard restart, the OS loads fine. When I go to plug in the offending HD after a good start, it kills everything on the desktop except my background picture, and if I have programs running they start to thinking really hard, and then either give up (not responding), or I do and shut them down manually. Unplug the drive, and it all pops right back up almost instantaneously. Could a factor be that the entire system has endured several complete power losses while running recently? That's got to be hard on the hardware. Gave it a good going over with the compressed air, just in case. No change. The system has twice within three days done a system check where it checks kernels et al on startup to make sure there are no problems (blue screen for an hour plus worth of checks), and it says there aren't on that drive, though I don't believe it... and the fact that it recognizes it means that something's getting though, and it knows it's there and how much is on it kb wise. I remember saying I wouldn't, but this drive's been run fairly constantly for half a year plus, as I kept files on it that I was accessing more regularly than I thought I would. Nothing absolutely can't-do-without critical, but would be really nice to recover, if only to get it onto a new and hopefully more stable drive and/or disks. Thanks for the thoughts and ideas.

Yeah, you should hear the idiots around here. Complaining after three storms. Three! "Boo hoo, when is spring? Sniff." It's not THAT bad, people.

Makes sense. Must have some sort of light to be able to see that far down the barrel, though. Thanks!

is this guy doing?

SH3 with Grey Wolves SH4 with TMO Dangerous Waters stock or with ReinForce Alert currently Enigma Rising Tide Red Orchestra/RS Civilization with various mods ArmA 2 boatloads of mods IL2 mods city Oblivion (mods) currently Kerbal Space Program currently GTA V (more mods) Only the current ones are, well, current. But I do jump back to the others on occasion. Still loaded on the HD anyway.

Good, but the real point is Don't much like these guys, but they get the point. By day 12, you have: 12 pear trees and partridges 22 turtle doves 30 French Hens 36 calling birds 40 gold rings 42 geese (plus hatchlings) 42 swans 40 Maids and cows 36 Drummers drumming 30 Pipers piping 22 Lords a Leaping 12 Maidens dancing Now I don't know about you, but this doesn't sound much like an act of love. More like absolute blinding hatred!

Worth a few laughs. Thanks SkyPup!

In proper redneck speak it's "This here hole"...

This game just keeps getting better! An intervalometer! Finally! Bomb panel setups! Finally! Yay!! (Im runing ot of kys! Nd bigr kybord!)

What have you tried recently that was really good, kinda bad, or downright ugly? Big Eddie Russian Imperial Stout "Dark and complex with 11 different malts and grains balanced by three different hops." It's sweet, not hoppy, dark, and very flavorful. A really good beer... and I'm not a beer drinker. (I got it from a friend: "Hey, try this!") Big Eddie makes several others, among them a Scots Ale that is pretty good too. I still prefer the Russian, though I haven't tried the third yet.

Please ignore the add at the beginning... http://on.aol.com/video/top-7-things-you-may-not-realize-about-your-cat-518019721?hp=1&playlist=127170&icid=maing-grid7|maing14|dl14|sec1_lnk1%26pLid%3D408818

Ah yes, the past night beating on the bedroom door to be let in (OJ) and the current "Must get OUT of the bedroom!" at 4 am (Teddy)

Brake test of the Boeing 747-8. Maximum weight, brakes down to the ware indicators (replace) http://www.boeing.com/Features/2011/05/bca_747-8_RTO_05_04_11.html

Not seen it, but it IS an interesting story, the birth of the Israeli Air Force. To include, Israeli Bf-109s (Actually Avia S-199s, but they were, nonetheless, Bf-109s) against Egyptian Spitfires escorting C-47s. The Israeli Secretary of Defense (I think) was killed in that action.

My Secret War by Richard Drury This book is a work of art. It comes as close to capturing the beauty of flight as I've ever read, and brought back incredibly strong memories of my own all to short time on the flight line. The opening is Mr. Drury's time in aviation leading to being based at Nakhon Phanom in Thailand during the Vietnam War, including the idea that anyone who was really good, knew full well that the last WWII airplane, the Skyraider, was THE airplane to be flying. All the newfangled stuff would still be around in ten, or even five years, but the last of the WWII types... this was the chance of a lifetime. So much so, that he gives the impression that the guys who flew the Sandies flew not for the USAF (they just happened to own the planes), but for the plane itself, and the joy of flying it (I'm sure being at the top of the rescue force heap was big on some guys' lists too.). Being an officer, being in the Air Force, being in the military at all, being in combat; it was all just base requirements for what they really wanted: to fly THAT airplane. It then goes on to recount his various missions, and if I recall correctly (it's been a while since I read the book) the final mission was as Sandy One or Lead. These were the guys who escorted the HH-3s and HH-53s into airspace where someone else just got shot down, so that they could go rescue that someone else. Of course, they were doing so in 20-30 year old airplanes in a threat environment where the newest and best had just gotten bested. And it showed. The attrition rate in aircraft and pilots was astounding.

Life on the Line Stories of Vietnam Air Combat by Philip D. Chinnery c. 1988 by Philip D. Chinnery ISBN: 0-312-02599-8 Individual accounts covering a broad spectrum of the aviation combat in Southeast Asia during the American involvement there. From helicopters in the south to fighters bombing with LGBs and EOGBs (Electro-Optically ie TV guided) up north, B-52s and even AC-130 gunships over the Trail. Additionally, the first account I've ever read from the photo reconnaissance guys. The only account I felt conspicuous in its missing was one of air to air combat; but the ones covered are definitely some of the more obscure, so I can understand why air to air was left out (beating a dead horse, anyone?) Some of the accounts are pretty powerful, specifically, one written by a guy who flew with two (three?) others who all died during their service. That account is one of the few remaining of who those men were. Of course, the political stupidity is in there too. The report by the photo-recon guy? It was so good with tactical suggestions and reasons why for its time that it was classified, shelved, and never reached the guys who really needed that information - the next group of air recon guys.

Highway to Hell by John Geddes Recounts his time as a mercenary in Iraq. The buildup, the folly of some of the decisions made by the decision-makers, etc. Rather exciting recounts of particular engagements. Some "how we did it's". Through and through a great read. He makes it fairly easy to see why some would choose to do what he did, but also makes plain the price of failure. Has some good and some rather bad things to say about the forces who operated in the same region as he did, most notably how the American troops seemed, overall, to have almost no respect for anyone not flying an American flag, particularly when it came to interactions with the civil population. I fully believe that... And there are Americans who don't understand why it is that many in the world hate us!

This one's questionable. Definitely in the "Piss a bunch of people off" category. The Deserter's Tale: The Story of an Ordinary Soldier Who Walked Away from the War in Iraq by Joshua Key and Lawrence Hill The usual upbringing in the beginning, very poor, no surprise. Most of the book talks about his experiences in Iraq. There are, apparently, some inconsistencies, some of which I can believe, like the fact that he was allowed to not clean his weapon - at all - for the last portion of his time on the line. If I've been in his squad, he'd likely have been made to keep the damn thing clean, one way or another. But maybe that was just the quality (or lack thereof) of that particular unit. (from what I've read on the review here: but the rest of it really doesn't surprise me at all, both the recruiters outright lying to him (they lied to my college room mate, too), and the way a bunch of scared kids with guns act when told over and over and over again that (paraphrase) "ANY Iraqi is the enemy." I've heard this from other sources, notably a British mercenary in Iraq. I'll post that book next. Anyway, the Merc's experience with an American convoy over there being aggressive toward his protection group with British flags. The kid's response when he was set straight? "Oh, I thought they were Iraqi flags". Obviously someone who 1. Doesn't know their flags and 2. Doesn't have their head on right (probably NOT their own fault). Needless to say, from then on, the British flew American flags. The end of the book talks about his decision to desert (he actually only made the decision after his connecting flight was delayed), and what it's like to live as a fugitive in your own country. Essentially, this young kid discovered what Matthew Brennan discovered about war, only a LOT sooner. But then, it was a different war. It was a good, if a bit scary, read. I'm glad I was never so poor that I felt the military was my only option as he did.

Brennan's War by Matthew Brennan c. 1985 by Presidio Press ISBN: Unkown The author was a young private in Germany when Vietnam started getting hot and spent from 1965 through 1969 in Vietnam, with a around a half year out of the service in 1968 (I think), gaining a rather unexpected field commission to second lieutenant in the process. It's a fascinating, and as usual graphic, first hand account look at how badly the policies of those running the war, as well as those at all levels in the chain of command, bungled up an initially winnable war (they thought). Also, far more importantly, how those policies dismantled a highly professional aggressive army, and within the course of about three years or so turned it into a defeated, defensive, depressed group of draftees. The ending is most surprising, and somewhat not, as Mr. Brennan went from being a confirmed "lifer" sergeant then field commissioned officer, to getting out with conscientious objector status within the space of a year.