gunnergoz

Bumped this to see if there are any recent experiences with the DRM issues, or other rants. I've been looking at this with some longing, having just read Steel Castles. But I have no desire to get bogged down in DRM headaches, either. I've looked at their forums at gamesquad and noticed a rant from the developer there that is pretty wild - accusing people of piracy and all...can't he simply check his own database to see who has bought the game? It's not like he sold zillions of them, I'm sure. Anyway, feedback, anyone?

A miracle that they work at all, if you ask me. I always cross my fingers and toes when I boot up after a major rebuild. But its worth it when it finally settles down. Good luck with that one, hope it lasts you a while.

Must be running Linux.

When looking at the photos I posted earlier, I was amazed to see that Littlefield has an 88 Flak in his collection, not to mention other artillery pieces and MV's, not just AFV's. He was some serious collector!

Some people's incompetence and stupidity is more inevitable than others...

Bush is communist?

Herd intelligence is always a fraction of individual intelligence and it especially shows on comment threads. Never here, of course...

I'm not a damn bit bitter, nosiree! Hi mom!

He was an ignorant bully with the world's largest military, an intelligence and surveillance service that spanned the globe, had his choice of the finest minds in the nation, and still he failed to do the things that would have saved 3000 lives on 9-11 and went on to make sure that he killed 4,000 of our best and God or Allah knows how many Iraqis - and you find something to praise in this? I think that some people think the world began on 9-11 and George Bush started his presidency on that day. I have news for you - the man was a treasonous, lazy, mentally thick and arrogant fool who led America into its biggest tragedy since Pearl Harbor. All the tough talk, American flags and Mission Accomplished banners cannot undue the damage he's done to our Constitution, our reputation or the lives he directly caused to be ended by his failures to act before 9-11 and subsequent foolhardy actions.

Neat! My wife was really amazed - she had no idea how many flights there are all over the world every day and thought it would be far fewer.

You mean like the previous President did, ignoring specific intel that Al Queda was training people for airliner hijackings and suicide attacks? The President that appointed a Secretary of State who ignored an intel report specifically detailing the possibility of a 9/11 type attack upon a major US target? Or this same previous President who spent over 1,000 of his almost 3,000 days in office, vacationing at his Texas ranch, kicking back at Camp David or on junkets overseas that mainly had the effect of alienating half of the civilized world? That President? I'm sorry. I actually woke up yesterday feeling SAFE for the first time in 8 years. I think you and I live on different planets.

Yeah, I later noticed that you did say "guided" and that's quite different than iron dumb bombs, even when the latter are dropped with modern a/c bomb aiming computers. So we are in agreement that the IDF is using PGM's for the most part; my bad. PS, SO, please check your PM.

Thanks for the comments John, I appreciate the thoughts you are articulating. At the same time, I recall vividly how my own father, an Army lifer and Vietnam vet, died of cancer from Agent Orange poisoning some 20 years after his exposure to it...and it wasn't even meant to be a weapon. My point is that war has all sort of nasty ways to die in it and the fact that a new weapon brings additional chapters in the Book of Human Suffering is hardly a surprise. For me, I'd rather see a technological advance that kills the bad guys, or leaves them dying of terminal cancer, than routinely use a weapon whose radius is so large that it kills the innocents next door or across the alley. It would be in the application of such weapons that care would have to be required. I in no way want them used indiscriminately, where innocents may be subject to their effects. On the other hand, I don't give a whit if the Hamas or Al-Queda goons that this stuff hits, die of a horrible, lingering death. If they were legitimate targets, they are fair game and how they die, or how soon, is a secondary consideration in my mind, as long as they are neutralized. A certain amount of ruthlessness is part of the successful prosecution of war. The reasoned humanity and civility that one demonstrates while determining when the ruthlessness is to be exercised, is what separates the decent from the profane.

I'm hearing that the Israelis did not indiscriminately drop 1000 and 2000 lb bombs, but that they used pretty large numbers of PGM's, including the new US Small Diameter Bomb, which has a 250 lb warhead for minimized damage. Here's one take on it: http://www.strategypage.com/qnd/israel/articles/20090121.aspx

Must be different episode not yet shown here - I would think a viable show would be 8-12 episodes, not just four - but all they've showed (thus far) is the four I've mentioned. This was last year, so they may introduce more episodes in 2009 as a "new" series. During the Panther episode, they did show and mention a Panther being completed in the UK, which the Littlefield people were in touch with, exchanging experience, ideas and some parts. It might have been the one you mentioned. The thrust of the show I saw was the Littlefield Panther, including video re-creations of how it was used on the battlefield in Poland and then abandoned in the river. Here is the listing of the US shows so far: http://military.discovery.com/convergence/tank-overhaul/episode/episode.html And it was the Military Channel, not the Discovery Channel, sorry. Next, here is a forum where one poster says that more shows are planned: http://www.ww2incolor.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4378

Well, the theory with these weapons is that they severely restrict the lethal radius of the bombs or rounds they are used in, making them ideal surgical strike weapons when coupled with accurate guidance. So the complaint is that they work too well? Or that they are being used at all? The Israelis are confronted with a foe that routinely mixes combatants with civilians for the specific effect that injuring or killing the civilians has upon world media. They are beneath contempt. That civilians are injured is directly related to the support these same civilians are giving to the Hamas and other factions that would use them as shields and sacrificial sheep. There is enough blame to go around here but it needs to be balanced with facts that show that neither side is always right or wrong and neither side is always innocent or guilty.

On the Discovery Channel they did a series called "Tank Overhaul" and they featured collectors that were refurbishing old tanks. The features were a Sherman being build in the UK by marrying up two hulls, a UK Comet, a US Hellcat TD and finally, Littlefield's Panther, with some excellent shots of his shops, collection and mechanics. Boy, did I ever envy that crew! What a dream job! The Panther was close to being completed - they had made a whole new turret for it because the original was destroyed with charges by the retreating Germans who had abandoned it stuck in a frozen river in Poland. By the way, here is an excellent collection of articles and photos of the collection and about Mr. Littlefield. http://www.mishalov.net/military-vehicles/military-vehicles.html Some more good photos from another visitor: http://home.comcast.net/~szee1a/tanks/tanks.html

No thanks, I'll wait for the movie...

Anything Palin says is already sufficient proof of that...

You just managed to spoil the whole day for me! Well, almost. Ugh. I almost lost my breakfast. Note to self: Write huge, best selling book, "The Bush Diet" which simply teaches the reader to yell "Bush - 8 more years" at the top of their lungs until they spontaneously upchuck the last five meals they've eaten, thereby bringing on dramatic weight losses. Second Note to self: Begin early research into "The Cheney Method for Lower Bowel Cleanliness - A New Rectum is a New You."

Tero, the whole scene sucks. The Palestinians are fanatically irrational, the Israelis are fantastically paranoid (and with good reason) and no one there listens to anyone on the other side any more. Even if Israel tries to not hurt civilians, the other side involves the civilians anyway, like it or not. It is a total lose-lose situation, a briar patch as they say. I don't have any solutions, obviously - it's just deeply ironic that, no matter what is done by well-meaning people to further peace there, there is an equal and opposite force fully intent upon undermining any peace. And that is true on both sides. And you are also correct that the international press did little when there were regular volleys of rockets and mortars being sent towards Israel, but it is equally true that the international press has done little to effectively demonstrate how Israel has systematically hemmed in the local Muslim population into smaller and smaller enclaves over the years. Too many parties benefit from continued conflict and chaos in the region and too few are willing to compromise anything to move towards a peaceful resolution.

Put some of your personal favorites on the list, did you?

It shows just how difficult it is to be "surgical" with weapons like these. I personally think the Israeli's, at some level, try to avoid undue loss of life among non-combatants, but at another level, they really just roll the dice and leave them (Palestinian civilians) to fend for themselves. It's a sort of "so what if they're dying, so are we" attitude that comes with years of national war exhaustion. Understandable but unfortunate. It is a situation the US should learn from, since we have, to a great extent, lost the moral upper hand in recent years.

Yep, it figures. Nary a humble opinion in the bunch.

John Kettler - The M825 and similar WP obscurant munitions dispense a bunch of WP impregnated pads from a canister after being air burst, and the pads are what are seen making smoke trails down to the ground. The photo above is the best I've seen of effects at area of impact.