Sitting Duck

Here are some pictures of the devices...

Hello! A friend was out in the woods here in Central Florida and ran across an old railway bed. He took some photographs of a number of some remnants of some hollow, box-shaped iron parts (less than 1 cubic foot) would appear to be part of the railway. We were wondering what the parts might be used for... If there is anyone that might know a thing or two about railways that would be willing to take a look at a couple of pictures, please let me know and I could post them. We are very curious. Best, Lee

I recently ate pizza that had duck meat topping. It was delicious, but I felt a bit strange eating it.

It would be nice if the Battlefront Scenario Repository for CMSF would include the "Battle Size" of the scenario in the scenario attributes and make that a filter option. For example, I prefer to play smaller scenarios...as it functions now, I don't see a way to easily filter out the larger scenarios. Maybe I'm missing something?

Good to know. I'll be watching for the release announcement. Maybe you should plan your post-release spring break to visit a certain assbackwards state to work on your tan?

Thanks for the offer, but I think you're over charging for that system. Maybe try Ebay? I received my one-and-only speeding infraction (51 in a 45 zone) when I was 16 years old (almost 30 years ago now). Some might argue it was a speeding trap since the reduction in the speed limit was obscured, but whatever. I took my lumps. Now...I did almost receive an infraction a couple of weeks ago while driving through Baton Rouge @ 3am on my way to visit my mother (who was in the hospital in Houston for emergency surgery). Planes were delayed (hurricane) so I had to drive. I was driving 60 in a 60 zone, and the officer came zipping up from behind (going about 80mph - there was no traffic @ 3am driving into the storm). The officer switched to the left lane as if to pass. He suddenly slowed beside me for a few seconds...then he braked got in behind me and flipped on his blue lights. The officer said my license plate frame was obscuring my tag and asked me to step out of the car to show me. "Oh great," I'm thinking. Once I get to the back of the car, he points at the tag and claims that he couldn't read the word FLORIDA at the top of the tag. It was a complete pretext - the word FLORIDA is in 2-inch letters at the top of the tag and wasn't covered by the frame at all: http://www.flhsmv.gov/dmv/specialtytags/graphics/animal_friend.jpg I guess he figured only a drunk would be driving from Florida @ 3am into the storm. I thought about pointing to the tag and asking, "You can't read that? Have you been drinking tonight officer?" But I decided that discretion was the better part of valor @ 3am on the side of the road in Louisiana with a hurricane coming and kept my big fat lawyer mouth shut. Well, actually I offered to remove the frame right there on the side of the road, but he said it was OK and let me drive off. Oh...and I'm never late. Made it to St. Luke's Hospital just prior to my mother going in for surgery. I actually had 15 minutes to spare. Thanks for your reply!

Not that it's relevant, but I generally drive within 5mph of the posted speed limit. I think I remember reading that the Florida Department of Transportation determined that the percentage of accidents actually caused by speeding is very low. Something in the neighborhood of 2%. Thanks for your reply!

Hey Guys & Gals - Has anyone here tried using the Escort Passport 9500ix? I have used a Valentine V1 or several years, but I recently bought the 9500ix to compare... My biggest problem with the Valentine is that it tends to false too much. I also think that the Valentine doesn't do a great job of detecting Ka-band around corners. Other than that, I really like the Valentine, especially the arrows that show the direction of the "bogey." On the other hand, the Passport 9500ix comes equipped with a GPS that "learns" (or allows you to manually mark) the location of junk (usually K-band, door openers) and the location of speed traps, speed cameras and red light cameras. There is also an online database option that allows you to download locations of these items. I also think that the 9500ix does a slightly better job of detecting Ka-band around the bend than the V1. I do miss the "arrows," but the expert display on the 9500ix almost makes up for that...almost. Another cool configuration setting of the 9500ix will allow the detector to automatically reduces sensitivity of the X- and K-band as your speed decreases (it uses the GPS to calculate your speed). The upshot of this is that when you're driving in the parking lot by the front doors of a CVS/Publix/Walgreens, the 9500ix isn't blazing away on the alerts. This can be turned off... Clearly the ultimate test of any radar/laser detection device is whether or not it helps me avoid a speeding ticket. I've used my V1 without a ticket for about 3 years (before that I used a Passport 8500 successfully). If both the V1 and the 9500ix can help me avoid a ticket, I think I would prefer a quieter cabin with less false positives...might even make me more attentive to the alerts that I do get. I haven't made up my mind yet, but I think the Valentine V1 is getting a bit long in the tooth - even with the latest programming. I do like the V1's directional arrows, but I think it could really benefit from the GPS and database features now offered by the Passport 9500ix. The new features of the 9500ix have started to grow on me. I'll give it a month or two and see how successful it is and how I feel about it as a tool. Anyone else have any experience with the 9500ix? Any drawbacks?

http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/2008/08/13/russia-says-us-faces-choice-over-georgia/ How do you read this? It sounds to me like: if the US wants Russian help with the Iranian nuclear issue, the US should abandon Georgia.

Which T-Shirt?

Off Topic!

In honor of the new forum and the amount of time it's taken, I offer a joke. Enjoy! http://www.thewebsiteisdown.com/

I think the grid is even more important in CMSF where topography is much more difficult to see on the monitor.

Anyone try? Probably hard to manage a usable scene like with RPS or FPS games...though I imagine this animation has possibilities:

Now THAT is a sweet idea...

Within the context of Embark/Dismount in a WEGO game, I think it's the carrier vehicles that could use an extra command: Pause Until Embark I hate having to estimate how long to pause the carrier to allow sufficient time for everyone to climb on board. If you get it wrong, the carrier takes off before everyone is loaded. The conservative move is to wait and waste a turn.

Talk about a shot trap...this looks like a shot trap on that T-72, doesn't it?

I'd hate to have to change that spare tire

Not really. However, they are close enough that it seems that it wouldn't be too difficult to switch back and forth. Some differences... You cannot interrupt the action during the minute of WeGo. In real-time, you can issue new orders at any time. In real-time, you cannot "rewind" the action to review it. In WeGo, at the end of the action phase, you can rewind and replay the last 60 seconds as many times as you like. That said, with the way WeGo and RT are implemented in CMSF, it wouldn't be too difficult to switch back and forth. At least, it seems that way. By comparison...if WeGo in CMSF were implemented the way it was in CMx1 series (i.e., the blue bar), I think it would be much more difficult.

Bingo. That implementation would work for me.

Good point. What about single-player?

Remember, my preference is to play WeGo, not real-time.

I'm not sure this has been asked before, but would it be possible to "toggle" Real-time and WeGo in the same game? Here's the situation... I prefer to play WeGo, however there are times during the game that there is little or no action. In such situations, I would like to convert to real-time play. It's not fun to sit there waiting to click a couple of buttons every 60 seconds until the game is over. Ideally, once the action starts back up, I'd like to convert back to WeGo play. Has this been requested/discussed?

Duck, make sure you have the ATI Compatability option turned on, too, that removes this problem on my system. Dan </font>

Something magic happened...it seems to be working just fine now.