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Francois Dumas

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Posts posted by Francois Dumas

    #910 seeks assistance

    in Emma Field Flying Club

    Posted

    Hi 'Parse', so good to see you again ! :-)

    To answer your question: it depends.

    There, that's helpful isn't it?

    Let me elaborate a bit (not much, since I am on vacation in the French Alps and don't have all the regular stuff around me). It depends on where you go flying, to some extent, HOW you are flying (VFR or tubeliners at high altitude) and how much reality you want.

    And no, Emma X is not yet ready for Beta..... we're still working on that, but our developer has too many other commitments in trying to make a living.

    SO, if you fly Alaska in FSX, you'll be disappointed. MS goofed with their landclass there and you get a lot of moon landscapes. There is a (partly) solution: called Tongass Fjords X. That prodct shows Alaska as it really is and should be.

    Check out my site (yes, blatant advertising): www.fsaddon.eu

    Go further south and we made Vancouver X. Orbx, an Australian company, is making the Pacific Northwest now and screenies look very good as well. Not available yet.

    If you want good real weather, Active Sky is a must. forget about the others.

    If you want larger areas to look realistic in terms of roads, rivers etc.... Ultimate Terrain is still the product to beat, but not yet available for Alalska.

    Flight Environment X, Ground Environment X, REX.... they're all doing the same. I use REX for the clouds, becasue I like them personally. But choose one, no use having them all.

    AI traffic.... MyTraffic is the best out there IMHO, with the most diverse traffic in most places.It does not include real-world schedules though. I don't have it installed for my VFR and Alaska flying.... again, matter of personal preference.

    AI still kills performance if you put too much of it on high frequency.

    Last but not least, I hope you got the 'Acceleration' or Gold version of FSX...... That means you will have SP2 included already, plus some extra aircraft and features.

    Any more questions: don't hesitate to ask. But I'll be driving back north in a while and off-line until Wednesday.

    Have fun !!

    Jump on the FS Bandwagon

    in Grumpy Tales

    Posted

    :lol:

    Anyway, my grumpy tales are my only 'outlet' in these sort of matters.

    As for 'quality control' that's something obviously up to the developers. I haven't heard of ANY shop in ANY industry that does 'quality control' on the products they sell, unless they MAKE them themselves.

    So I concentrate on FSAddon products and leave the other dealings to those responsible for their part of the industry.

    Obviously I do agree that a company that sells crappy products will get a bad name itself. That has been duly noted. But... none of my business :wink:

    Jump on the FS Bandwagon

    in Grumpy Tales

    Posted

    Is it the financial crisis - whatever that may be - that lures people into trying to sell every bit of crap around the corner? I doubt it. I think actually that it is the Internet that's to blame.

    You see, 'in the old days' when you opened a shop to sell t-shirts printed with someone ELSE's logos, or 'drinks toasters' made out of wrongly burned CD's, or the umpteenth greenish satellite picture projected on some perfectly good FSX textures, you'd not have many people even ENTER the shop. Let alone buy the stuff.

    And once the word got around and all 15.000 inhabitants of the town would have frowned over your shop window and passed it without buying, you'd have to close the shop unable to pay for the rent any longer.

    Idea busted. Consumers' money safe.

    But with the Internet every Joe and Mary can rig up a $50 a year website, pretend they're a corporation of some substance even and sell this kind of crap to not 15.000 city dwellers but to a couple million naive (?) Internet shoppers.

    Unfortunately some industries are clearly not effected by any consumer watch dogs and flight simulation surely is one of those. People NEW to the hobby can walk into various traps with their eyes wide open. And quite a few do, indeed. Sadly.

    Now, another phenomenon I have noticed over the years is that for some reason quite a few FS users seem to be dyslexic, or at least have a tendency towards it. I jokingly inquired somewhere else if this is a prerequisite for being a flightsimmer. Obviously not, but as I read MANY support forums and other community forums, it strikes me that quite often a buyer of PC goods really goes off about a purchase, while all he actually did was not properly READ the instructions or manual.A well-known expression in IT circles is that the 'problem is between the back of the chair and the keyboard'.

    Again, not really an issue with flightsimming in itself, but more with the fact of having computers and Internet probably. I mean, if you buy a plastic model kit and paste the wings upside down because you've never practiced with IKEA instruction sheets prior to attempting an Airfix model, what are you going to do? Drive into town and rant at the toyshop owner !!??

    Hardly. More likely you'll pry the wings off and somehow paste them back on, putting the damaged-looking result on a high shelf, out of sight of visitors. Or you just trash the mangled model and not tell anybody of your error.

    But with the Internet, people just turn around, fire up their favorite forum and blast away at the poor developer, who did everything right. Except for the fact he sells his program to people who can't read, are PC-analphabetics, have no patience at all or have some other deficiency making themslash out to anybody just because they can.

    It is hugely frustrating to BOTH developers and (bad-reading) customers. The only real solution is to get rid of PC's again..... hmmmmm...... :-)

    Virtual Friendships

    in Grumpy Tales

    Posted

    One thing I forgot to remark about Chris' Winkler Prinz 'friends'...... in fact that still exists, at least in Europe. I myself am a motorbike rider, and amongst riders it is still custom to greet each other. Much like I waved at all Landrover Discovery drivers when we had one, and like many Mini drivers always found something to talk about (usually pesky nuts at places a grown men could never reach, or bits of rust holding the front fenders attached to the rest of the car and the sub-frames).

    Motorbike riders are part of a sort of fraternity that always amazed me, and still does. And for some reason that STILL is one of the few international, cross-brand, cross-status communities that still exists.

    Needless to say then that with the advent of the Internet, these communities are now also 'on-line' and maybe even stronger than FS communities. After all, 99% of the bike communities members are also actually riding the 'real thing' !

    The same is true, but to a little bit lesser extent, for pilots. They too are a minority, 'doing something special', and that seems to bind.

    So Chris, if you want to wave again and have more people you've never met, to talk to.... get on a bike ! :D

    Virtual Friendships

    in Grumpy Tales

    Posted

    Good post, Chris.

    Needless to say that I am a strong believer in 'Internet friendships' and the likes (communities). I have been a 'webmaster' form the times there wasn't a 'web', but when we already had a very modern corporate network with legacy technology. We're talking early 80's here. I was lucky, to be on the forefront of many new technologies, working with a company that did not mind being on the bleeding edge many times.

    For me (Inter)net(work) contacts have been part of my working and private life for decades. And I think it is a boost to humanity. How else would we be ale to know so much about so many different places, cultures, habits and happenings..... that is assuming one is not too ignorant, spoiled or plain stupid for wanting to learn and know. And being multi-language helps a lot too in this respect.

    But as to friendships... yes, that needs some definition. I have various 'levels' of friends myself. And I certainly do not think every 'contact' in my email list, on all the forums, on Skype and on Facebook are 'friends'.

    But then again, many ARE and many have become real good friends through Internet contact ONLY!

    It is one of the things that amazes my dear Nina (and me too, to be honest), that you can often 'gauge' how sincere someone is, even through only exchanging emails and forums posts. Sure, you may get burned some times (I know I have), but usually it works out pretty well.

    Even more amazing has it been through the years that when meeting these contacts and friends in the flesh, often after many years, it really is as if one has been close friends for ever. We have stayed at homes of people we've met for the first time in our lives, we've been given motorcycles, cars, houses and even aircraft (to some extent), without having ever met before... in real life. And we did the same in return, of course.

    I agree, meeting people for real is still the best. But sometimes I feel it is BETTER to have a lot of contact BEFORE doing so. And we could never ever have met all those people we know WITHOUT the Internet. Sometimes body language and such can show more of a real person. But it also works the other way around. Internet contacts can also reveal a lot, and maybe make you decide NOT to want to meet the other person after all ;-)

    I have been a community specialist, self-proclaimed as it is, for almost 20 years now and I am still, or even more, a strong believer in the Internet for positive human relationships. I think it has made the world so much smaller, with an enhanced chance of at least some people starting to have some understanding for each others' situations.......

    To me Internet friendships are not 'substitutes' for real friendships. They ARE real. The passing of Jun has made that more clear than ever to me, recently.

    Gallopinggoose has left us

    in Emma Field Flying Club

    Posted

    Many of you will have known my good friend Jun Kazama, in many forums known as 'Gallopinggoose'.

    I am sad to tell you that Jun passed away on December 3rd, a victim of cancer.

    Our heartfelt condolences go to his dear wife Fumie first and foremost.

    But also to all of his many friends all over the world, whom he charmed with his enthusiasm and Internet presence. Jun was part of many Internet communities and forums and always present in our Beta Teams. He was a virtual bush pilot, made wonderful videos and connected many Japanese simmers to the rest of the world.

    I know from our conversations that Jun strongly believed in us coming back in another form after passing away. That means we'll meet again. Maybe, as Jun once said, as the eagles we both loved so much.

    Rest in peace, my friend, until we meet again.

    Jun-Kazama.jpg

    Journalism or Marketing?

    in Grumpy Tales

    Posted

    Not an interesting question for many of you, I am sure. Or maybe it is? Here's my continuous dilemma, one that I face on a daily basis, and have done so ever since I started working for simFlight (and simMarket).

    Also one that I have so far managed to work with pretty well, supported by my friend and business partner Miguel.

    SimFlight is a NEWS web site bringing you independent news about flight simulation, and aviation topics. And one of the agreements its owner and I had from the start is that I would have total freedom in deciding about WHAT gets written on the simFlight sites. Except for some minor things, because simFlight gets paid out of the profit that simMarket makes, and hence depends on simMarket's health. So obviously and logically there is a mutual and open interest to make new products on simMarket KNOWN to the readers. The exception of free news publishing is hence that simMarket news gets priority and is always on.

    Fair enough.

    And since I run an add-on publishing company myself, I use my 'powers' to promote that company and its products too, of course. In the end, ALL of the important 'news sites' work the same way. Not one of them is financed by a wealthy backer who doesn't expect anything in return. They are either part of a company with an interest, or sponsored by one (or more). No exceptions. And no surprises to any of you, I am sure.

    Marketing is good. YOU want to know what products become available, when they do, as much as I do.

    But... here's the rub.

    I am also a writer, a journalist (I started my working career at a major newspaper even), an active flightsimmer myself and yes, a grumpy person at times. Like now.

    So, I want to be able to tell you that something is rubbish when I see it. That is in YOUR interest, since you don't want to spend your hard earned cash on crap products.

    And I also want to be able to tell you when I am smitten by a product. I am passionate about flightsimming, or I wouldn't have spent more than 35 years in this business, and I want to convey that passion. Including news of other passionate people or products. Not just sell it.

    But it is in simFlight's interest too.

    We want to continue to be seen as an honest publication (or at least I do).

    Of course we (our editors and me) can be opinionated. We all have our preferences. You know that. So you take that into account when making up your own mind about stuff we write. At least I hope you do.

    But in essence simFlight does NOT sell you golden shit. In essence, it doesn not even wants to report on such, although it sometimes does, sometimes unknowingly.

    So where is this going?

    Well, I am 'okay' with it all as long as we can keep simFlight's sites OBJECTIVE. And the 'breadth' of that objectivity is in the eye of the beholder, obviously.

    So far I have been able to. Even though I do marketing services for a number of companies in the industry, not the least that of simMarket.

    But if that becomes impossible, if I can't PRINT my editor's opinion on certain things anymore, if there appears to be too large of a gap between reporting and advertising, if simFlight would become a mere billboard for just any product that wants to be sold..... then it would mean a downgrading of the publication and loss of its actual value to the hobby.

    In my humble opinion.

    It would mean I'd have to set up a totally new service where I could again write JUST what I would find interesting. A service that would not be sponsored or financed by ANY party with a vested interest in what I would write. A place where nobody would tell me what NOT to write, especially!

    You would then only see my writings as a 'supplier' of 'news' in my role as marketing director for other companies, NOT as a news editor and NOT as a reporter.

    For objective news and (maybe not so objective) opinion you would then have to add a new link to your bookmarks.

    Maybe Grumpy's FS News?

    Actually, that ball is not in my court right now...... :?

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