homepage Forums Air Combat & Civil Aviation Battle of Britain + Battle of Britain II Here's what happened (Continued)

Folks,

Dux:

Fortunately even large HDDs are cheap these days. Our little Lady "T" is starting first grade and she alrready loves a computer. Perhaps the Lady "M" might enjoy playing games on your reconditioned rig? Older computers can be pressed into service as routers as well. Install the software and set up your own domain thus by doing so you could put a robust firewall between your new system and the Internet. Lots of info on how to do that is online.

I hope you have BoB installed on your present computer and that it has been enhanced by the new monitor. A screenshot or two from both ROF and BoB as seen on the wider monitor would be nice to see.

I like to dabble with sim films. I've made a few using IL2 and MA. I would make one for BoB but I cannot use the recorder without a CTD. I could use FRAPS but that will not allow me to run the raw mission again adding various views as I could using the recorder.

Digital video editing software has much improved in the last few years. To the point that Hollywood has gone digital and is using video editing software. As you'd expect the commercial programs are feature rich and very pricey today.

I've been looking for a better freeware video editor than Windows Movie Maker. There are several open source or freeware contenders available from sites like Source Forge but nothing so far that will run on my system that greatly impresses me. The open source Jahshaka has an abundance of features and looks nice but it was abandoned before it was stable and V. 2.0 is quite buggy. I understand that another group is now working on the source code promising V. 3.0 at some point. It seems that what is available is either too complex and bloated with more features than I need or too simple with few needed features.

One freeware program titled "Lightworks" claims to have been used by many Hollywood directors and movie editors for movies like "The King's Speech", Mission Impossible", "Mr. Bean", "Hugo", Braveheart", and many more. It looks good and I'd pick that one but it will not run on my system. I suppose you'd want a dedicated system for serious movie editing.

The recommended specs for optimum performance are:

Recommended Specs:

Intel i7 chipset or faster, fast AMD chipset
Windows 7 Professional (32 bit or 64 bit)
3GB RAM or higher
Two high-resolution displays (1920 x1080) or above.
PCI Express graphics card (NVIDIA or ATI) with 1GB or higher and support for DirectX 9
IEEE 1394 Interface (FireWire) 800Mbs if you plan to use a FireWire digital device
Separate media and system drives (these can be internal or external as long as the the interface is suitably fast. eSATA is an example).
Sufficient storage space for all the media
Windows compatible sound card
An audio monitoring system
(Optional) a Lightworks Console.
(Optional) a Lightworks keyboard.
200MB Disk space for Lightworks installation
Internet connection for activating Lightworks (first time only)

Excuse me if this sounds like sour grapes. The thing would no doubt be far to complex and feature rich for the like of me anyway.

JRT,

Lady M has already commandeered her mother's PC and learns something new every day as we might expect from the young and enquiring mind.

No BoB II WoV yet but I will be reinstalling when Major Meehan retires, becomes POW or finds himself a permanent foxhole under six feet of earth.

I have been assisting a friend to re-site his PC from a spare bedroom to the downstairs lounge. Unfortunately, his wireless connection doesn't work now. Can they be that sensitive to relocating - even in the same house?

Neil Armstrong has passed away but his footprints will remain up there with Aldrin's long after we have colonized the visible universe.

Folks,

Dux:

I see we're missing the header on page one.

Yes, Neil Armstrong is now dead. As you indicate so well, his footprint upon the moon will remain perhaps forever and his imprint upon our lives has yet to be completely realized. We all remember where we were on that date long ago when a man from earth did what most men have looked up into the void in wonder and yearned to do since the days of Adam.

You probably know more than I do about WiFi. Firstly, WiFi requires a good signal arriving at the wireless router. Your ISP technician has equipment that can check for that. A strong signal being there you should get good results and be able to connect a few other non wireless items to the USB connections on the back such as a printer.

Reach of that good signal can be affected by several things. It is my understanding that placing the router higher up and not on the floor is best and a central location in the home most desirable. Large, metallic objects like filing cabinets can affect the signal if they are too close to the router. I'm told wireless routers can be set up to be two directional or omni directional. Most will be the latter. All things as they should be trial and error may be the only way to find the optimum location.

This room is more or less centrally located. The router is sitting on a shelf about eye level to me as I sit here. Failing finding a location that receives a good signal and particularly if the router has been provided by your ISP I'd contact the ISP and ask for help. If your friend purchased the router elsewhere and the ISP cannot or will not help I'd go online and see if there is any help available on the manufacturer's website or in any literature that came with the equipment. My knowledge of wireless systems is sadly limited. We have only recently set ours up.

Folks,

Dux:

This may be unlikely however after disconnecting the router to move it you lost the connection completely you may have to set up the WiFi network as it was previously done by the tech guy including the use of any password that might be required. As I said, I'm no WiFi Guru I'm just brain storming. OK, it isn't much of a storm, it's more like a light drizzle.

God speed to Neil. A life lived to the full and then some. The saddest thing I think is that we're still not further out into the solar system in person. Robots are fine but.....

If the WiFi in question Dux does not support the n standard, but only b/g, that would be a very probable cause for the loss of signal.

Good thing is that there are options to plug in WiFi extenders to the mains, thus expanding coverage to any room you'd like, even in that 50 bedroom castle of yours Dux!

Chaps,

It is my friend who is having problems with his WiFi but I'm sure he would have received the required assistance by now.

Folks,

Dux:

You have friends?

I have mentioned the wet weather. Saturday Roanoke Rapids, a small town maybe 30 miles northeast of us, received upwards of 11.5 inches of rain. So much rain in so short a time that creeks ran over their banks and one such creek flooded I95 and stopped traffic for quite some time.

What will soon be upgraded to a Cat 2 Hurricane, Issac is threatening the Gulf Coast and then is headed north to be in our general latitude if not longitude by Wednesday. We can expect the possibility of windy conditions and more heavy rain. Or it might go farther west of us and just get us good and wet. The storm is so large even if the eye passes 200 miles west of the state it will get some Carolinians attention going by. either way there is a lot more of hurricane season ahead and with the ground saturated, should another storm follow Issac before we dry out trees will be easy to uproot.

I know you hurricane deprived folks in Derbyshire envy us our big storms. C51 has just uncharitably suggested that if you are feeling deprived that I should visit Derbyshire. That way you would have at least one "big wind" to brag about. Thanks very little C51.

Good Day Lads,

yes, farewell to Neil, one of the most legendary aviators of all time. I always felt as though he humbly brought us all with him to the moon and everywhere else that he flew.

JRT, wouldn't taking a Hurricane to Derbyshire be like taking the coals to Newcastle? surely they must have some there already. They might even have some Tempests Typhoons Tornadoes or even a Chinook. Surely not any Kamikazes though.

I hear cryptic weather reports from Mother Russia, apparently a certain female whose name starts with "O" has actually broken the wind.

Chaps,

Ignoring JRT's aspersion regarding my widespread popularity *cough* and admirable social magnetism *cough* I prefer instead to post this experimental shot from RoF. There are a lot more pixels crammed into this size of image than one of those presented previously. This is 80% reduction.

" Dearly beloved brethren. We are gathered here today in the sight of...something or other...to...er..."

The rest is drowned out by the sound of several Sopwith Camel engines as the irreverent bounders of RNAS 8 Squadron enjoy a beat-up while the first November snow falls lightly around.

Several more pics to follow. Maybe a bit larger.

JRT,

Lonny is asking about Mig Alley winter terrain mod on the main thread. Thought you might know something?

Folks,

C51:

Kindly refrain from mentioning Olga around here unless it be in the form of a warning shout. Doing so causes a furtive look to form on Dux's face and an abrupt rise in his blood pressure.

Dux:
I like that shot. It is hot and humid here today and looking at it has a cooling effect. Speaking of that, it must be somewhat chilly in that open cockpit old fellow. I hope you remembered to wear your thermal drawers and take along your flask. I'm told by C51 that those drawers were taken off a dead German who never got them wet but once. That once being when he saw Olga, drunk as a Lord and starkers (as a prince?), advancing toward him. I do hope you gave them a good wash chum and do mind that steeple or someone in the graves registration corps will be wearing them by tomorrow.

Chaps,

JRT,

Herewith a picture which may form the basis of a Christmas Greeting from the Front, at the appropriate time? You are the man for the job.

Folks,

Dux:

It has been a while since I did any major Photo Shopping due to a problem with the shoulder of my mouse arm. C51 will tell you that I am trying to do a bit more but must take it slow. I find I can take on little jobs like the WW1 greeting card without too much discomfort so here it is done mostly from scratch.

Ah, I am very familiar with that sort of thing. The doc said "well,
you see as you get older, your discs shrink, and the nerves between them
get bumped into by the descending branches off the vertebrae. If you
use muscles in your arm a lot, like a lot of mousing and spinning the
mouse wheel, you're exercising the nerve, which actually swells from use,
and this makes it bump into the bones more. And the bumping irritates
the nerve and makes it fire, even when you don't tell it to. And so
it feels sore from lots of use, as it is getting more use than you're
intending. And at some point, the firing causes more swelling which causes
more firing, and then things get nasty...". OK, so what do I do about it?
Stop using you arm and hand. Take ibuprofens to knock back the swelling/inflammation.
OK, then it will go away, and I can go back to using my arm as much as I
usually do? No. If you use your arm/hand too much, this will happen again.
So what do I do to fix it? There's nothing you can do. When will I be able
to use my arm the way I used to? Never. Whenever it gets sore, you're using it
too much, or too hard, so back off, and take the ibuprofen and wait til it
settles down, then you can use it again but not as much as when it started to
bother you.

Sigh...

JRT, PV1,

I think it's a darned shame how Old Father Time steals our talents. We all have to pass on someday but it seems so unfair. Far better if we could remain active until we get the call from The Boatman. With a few hours notice, of course.

Thank you so much for forcing yourself through the pain barrier to produce this well executed and lovely card. But what a pity your talents are being curtailed by the shoulder problem. Sorry to learn of that.

Wish you hadn't included that bit about 'wish you were here' though. I am anxiously scanning the eastern horizon with my captured Zeiss binoculars for any sign of an unidentified aircraft approaching St. Eloi and bearing the markings of the Imperial Russian Air Service.

The airfield anti-aircraft defences have been alerted.

I am sending you two halves of a 1930 family sepia photograph which I would like restored but in the light of your partial incapacity I would certainly not want you to attempt it just yet, if at all. I am definitely not up to it but if it could be done in stages, over a long period, it would be much appreciated.

Folks,

PV!:

As soon as someone opens another Stankz Bilgewater Beer and provides the cap; LeRoy will attach the ribbon and I will present to you the HWH James Herriot memorial Medical gong for excellence in diagnosis and treatment of all ailments great and small. Clearly you know what my affliction is like. I have been taking Ibuprofen for about 2 months now and I rest the arm and put heat on the painful joint especially at night. Never one to take much medicine before, at one point I was taking 4 Ibuprofen every 4 hours. Recently I have been able to reduce that considerably until now I am able to control the pain with just rest and heat alone.

Dux,

I am pleased that you like the greeting if not the inscription. I enjoy PhotoShopping. It has been a misery for several months not being able to pursue this hobby as I once did. Even the old version of the program I have is complex and the learning curve long for most. Abstaining from using it for any extended period of time might cause me to get rather rusty. So it is a good thing when I have a project that is interesting but not too demanding, especially in length of time to completion. I enjoyed that little greeting card project.

No one should care, however, I started with a blank canvas. Then I placed down a dark red background layer. A bone white rectangle for the actual card came next. Then came your screenie. That item added an almost period-like engraved appearance to the card. I found some garland and ribbon from a previous project and dropped that in and sized it. I placed the items appropriately and added the holiday copy.

Then I tried to age the card a bit by adding some browning to the edges and a crumpled corner. A divisional line separating the decoration from the message area was added and then the Admiral Jellicoe stamp was found elsewhere and I added it tilted a bit for realism. The inscription was added last using the "Tall Paul" font. Finally I flattened all the layers of the card and turned it on a slight angle upon the background. It took about an hour.

Your cherished photo is damaged but no more than might be expected after so many years. I enjoy restoring old photos. I'm not so sure I am very good at it so it is good you will always have the original. The first photo I restored was a WW2 era photo of my brother-in-laws father wearing his US Marine Corps dress blues. The photo was B&W, had small spots on it and was partially faded. I managed to colorize it and repair most of the damage. The result was not perfect but it was IMHO better and more life-like than the professionally hand-tinted photographs of the same period.

It turned out to be the only color image of the man the family ever had. That first attempt took several trial and error hours but, once completed, the appreciation shown to me and the tears of joy in my brother-in-law's eyes made the whole thing worthwhile. A for your photo I think I can cope with the damage and maybe brighten and sharpen the image a bit. Do you want me to square the edges or keep them rounded? Unless there is a problem now unforeseen I can probably send you a proof sometime this evening or tomorrow morning my time.

I have been in touch with Lonny007 thanks to your heads up. I have about 14 MB of mods for MA. I do not have the winter terrain however. If he asks I will happily e-mail what I have to him. MG and many others have helped me so much over the years it is the least I can do. OK Dux; I heard that uncharitable remark. Alright then if I could have done less I probably would.

I've seen in the other thread that someone who had the winter terrain lying about has stepped up and contacted Lonny. Excellent, because I never got around to downloading that mod myself. Purely of academic interest for myself now of course, no longer being able to run MA.

Roger, is the other arm and hand any good at all? Years ago I was starting to develop a mouse arm myself, and making a conscious effort I switched to using my other hand. It was difficult and unfamiliar at first, but today I'm 100 % bidexterous, or what ever one would call it - able to use either hand without giving it a second thought.

Folks,

MG:

Considering your profession you should be able to offer professional advice on my affliction and I'd not thought about it before. No problem at all with my left arm so far. I have tried your suggestion several times with less than exemplary results in PhotoShop. I can cope with MS Word or typing here. I am not so hot in games using the joystick left-handed. I have not re-mapped the buttons. When I strap in to my Spitfire left-handed I have the distinct feeling I am riding a sheep headed for slaughter. I played the drums in my youth so using my left hand is no totally foreign to me. When I listen to music today I find myself drumming along using both hands. All too soon I am drumming with just the left hand and the right shoulder joint is aching.

As I said, I am improving. During this same time I have also been afflicted with what the quack called a "pinched" nerve in my lower back that causes rather painful symptoms like sciatica. That has much improved as well but not gone away completely. I am generally in good health and until recently jogged or walked 5 miles every day. I have always enjoyed a high threshold of pain, especially other people's. Never before having suffered from chronic pain, and within a few days of being 68 years of age, I am learning that aging has a few drawbacks. Dux you shoulda given me a 'heads up' old man.

Ah, that sounds very familiar. When mine first started, it came
on with a bang, and I had so much pain I couldn't sleep, even
with the ibuprofen. So on a whim born of desperation, I went out
and bought myself one of those electric stimulators (zappers) with
gel pad electrodes, and had my son tape it to my back, one pad at my
neck, the other at the back of my shoulder. I was getting neuralgic
pain right down to my wrist. I turned the machine on, and kept it
going (it had a built in 20min timer, so I had to keep refreshing
it), and was astounded to find that the electric zaps seemed to disrupt
the nerve, so that it would cease to send pain signals while the machine
was running, and even more miraculous, after about 1 1/2 hours, the pain
would remain absent after the machine went off. This state would persist
for about 3-4 hours. Thus, I was able to get a good half night's sleep,
then (as the gadget was still taped to me) I could fire it up for three
or four 20min sequences, while in a semi-snooze, and that would be enough
to have it settle down so I could get the second half of my night's sleep.

Meanwhile in the waking hours I was doing 400mg ibuprofen every 4 hours,
as well as running the machine on the same ~1 to 1.5 hr on, 4hr off schedule.
This situation persisted for something like 6 weeks, along with visits to a
chiropractor twice a week. Then one day, after my 1.5hr of zapping, the
relief did not subside after 3 or 4 hours, in fact the pain (like a burning
ache from the shoulder to the wrist, and sometimes right out to the middle
finger) did not come back at all, and I was able to stop the use of the zapper.
This was a huge relief, as I was beginning to think that I might be afflicted
with this pain permanently, and would live the rest of my life with electrodes
taped to my body (causing little twitches when they went off, so I looked like
I had Parkinson's).

Since then, the problem continues to hover, and if I use my arm too much I can
feel an ache develop like a "stiff neck" sort of feeling, but relatively mild,
which may be anywhere from the elbow to the backbone, and I know to recognize
it and behave myself, and take 200mg ibuprofen, every few hours til it subsides.
However, I also know that any kind of persistent use of the arm will bring it
on, as well as any heavy exertion. No more opening the jars that no one else
can, even guys with arms as thick as my leg;* no tightening up 1" bolts, and
I have switched over all my mousing to my other hand.

* The easy way to open a jar is to wedge a spoon handle under the lip
of the lid and flex to break the vacuum, but that's no challenge. I
would do it brute strength. The key is to lean your shoulder onto your
wrist, and hold your entire arm stiff, and move at the elbow like pulling
on a wrench. Oh, yes, and don't bother to try to squeeze the lid with
your fingers, just wrap them, and let the friction as you twist passively
sink your grip deep into the lid. That, and turn with all the force you can
muster, and keep going, even though it seems nothing is happening, because
you are actually making microscopic progress, and as long as you persist for
anywhere from 30 seconds to two minutes, you will eventually move enough
that the seal will fail. Most people don't have the patience and
concentration to persist with full effort, long enough. You have to
understand that although I am tall, I weigh almost nothing as I am very
light boned for some odd reason (no obvious heredity for it), so I don't
look like I have much strength. Yet at neighbourhood cookouts, it became
routine that I would let a couple of big guys take a run at a particularly
reticent pickle jar, and then step up and pop it open. An easy way to acquire
some respect, despite my stature.

Folks,

PV1:

It seems we are similarly afflicted. There has to be a neurological aspect since the pain goes down the arm at times and there can be a tingling numbness at times in the thumb. Perhaps I have a pinched nerve in one of my cervical vertebrae? I thought it was a rotator cuff problem at first because I first noticed it when I threw a softball. After that event I learned the hard way that the single thing that aggravates the chronic condition is using the mouse.

I don't have a zapper but I do have one of those heat and massager things packed up somewhere. My wife would know where it is but sadly I cannot ask her. I'll see if I can find it. Of course, alternately, I might stand on the roof with one naked foot in a bucket of water while holding a lightning rod during a electrical storm. If I survived the treatment it might cure me.

Deterioration of my spine is evident in the pinched nerve in my lower back. Aging is hell. Hmmmmm. The alternative might be as well.

Folks,

Dux:

Those retouched photo proofs are moldering in your carnivorous algae covered mailbox. One is B&W and the other a Van Dyke not sepia) tint like the original. Get back to me and let me know what you need me to do. If you cannot receive a 4 MB file I'll have to place the items on Photobucket for you. There was a little discomfort but I enjoyed the work.