c3k

Thanks, That kind of concise info, with comparisons between AMD and Intel, and your experience running various programs with them was just what I was looking for. Regards, Ken

Yes! I'm just trying to wrap my head around all the abreviations and what the resolutions are. WSGXT++Ultra? I'm a bit old-school: I like seeing the numbers, 1024x768, that kind of stuff. If I get a laptop (TFT seems to be the standard LCD technology) with a 17" wide screen, it will have a resolution of WUXGA, or 1920 x 1200. (If I'm butchering this, that's due to my ignorance.) Assume that's the native resolution - the actual pixel count. Will the CMx1 series scale up to that? Would I want it to? Any words of wisdom would help. Thanks, Ken

Guys, Thanks for the words. I'm liking the nvidia 7800GO, but I'm wondering about the benefits and drawbacks between the various processors. Specifically, Pentium M (760), Pentium 4 Mobile, and the various AMD flavors. Regards, Ken

Hi, There's a new Depot???? What's the link? Thanks, Ken

Gents, I'm thinking of purchasing my first laptop. The most stressful application I'll use will be the forthcoming CMx2 series. I know the requirements for CM:SF haven't been released, but I'd like to solicit opinions on how to best "future proof" a laptop with that game in mind. Any advice on processors, chipsets, screen sizes and resolutions, video cards, etc., would be appreciated. Thanks, Ken

Oh my. There was once a bone. Then posters saw the bone. Instead of properly using the bone, they talked of gas powered conveyances. Like a bloated cow, chewing cud, venting methane, and sauntering about a pasture, only mechanical and found on the web, but not for real. One monkey left the crowd. He threw the bone up to the gods. The gods dropped a coke bottle on his head. But that's a different story. Now, instead of gas-venting rides, this bone thread became all about Dorosh cavorting with kittens on a streambank. I told you we don't want to explore his psyche. Lest this continue, Dorosh, we don't need to know how to properly combine duct tape with catnip so a nude-Dorosh can find his passion. That image was so overwhelmingly polluted, I turned to the next post to in the false hope of expurgating it. (Big breath....) Instead we have Seanachai, withered limbs clutching a Tab, sucking at the empty hole in the can, much as he's been doing since he last drank of it in July of 1972, refusing to acknowledge the marketplace has resoundingly denounced that soft-drink as a failure and as a cause of mental deficiencies, much like lead, but worse, and in his deluded state, claiming, through denial, that Buddha, in all his glory, belly protuding, can actually find his genitals, which Seanachai has not been able to see, let alone use, since Tab cost $6 a case. Did I get it right? Ken

Seanachai Put down?!? So, you think having two prolific posters come crashing upon me is not "put down" enough? Dorosh has nearly 21,000 posts. You, yourself, seem to have spasmodically been able to bump the "post" button some 7,845 times. That would add up almost to the great weight of 30,000 posts stacked upon my frail shoulders; screaming at me for daring to ask the gods for a favor. How do I bear this weight? Well, Dorosh's posts, could (by those of little discrimination) be regarded - at a stretch - as attempting to be constructive. Regardless, it's obvious he has a passion. But we don't need to delve into his psyche. Your psyche I would feign jab at with a scrap of wood, lest it squirm and spout out something. Much like what you've posted, lo' those 78 hundred times. Indeed, I take your postings to be more like ANTI-postings. So, instead of bearing under the weight of almost 30,000 postings berating me, I subtract yours off of the total. They negate the good, positive posts. Hence, it seems as if I'm only being excoriated by a mere 12,932 posts. Be gone. (Sigh. Dorosh. Okay, here goes: As much as it's easy to poke fun at someone with some thousand score posts as being pasty white, overweight and living in Mom's basement, that's NOT my mental vision of our prolific Canadian. Have any of you seen the movie - might be called "The Red Devils" - about the WWII special forces unit which combined U.S. Rangers with Canadian volunteers of some sort? Hal Halbrook may've been the lead role. Anyhow, the Canadians had some sort of strapping Regimental Sergeant Major with a HUGE handlebar mustache. Tough bugger, never quit. I imagine Dorosh as being the spitting image (kilt and all?), but with some sort of high-tech, body-mounted, voice-activated, broadband-connection. As he runs about his farm in Canada, telephone pole across one shoulder for exercise, he posts replies through his microphone.) Regards, Ken

?? Someone with over 20,000 posts in 5 years (averaging the incredible amount of nearly 11 posts a day - every single day for over 60 months!!!) is telling ME to get out of the basement and go for a walk?!? Thanks, Ken

Steve et al., I just browsed the bone thread of several days past. It has been focused on a discussion of a fictional compressed air car and the relative merits of such an approach versus a standard fossil fuel fed internal combustion engine. Dear God, man! Don't you see? That's a pathetic attempt to breathe life into a dead thread. There are too many pasty white, overweight men sitting in their basements anxiously awaiting more news on CM:SF. Help them. Help us all. YOU can make a difference: post something NOW!! Thanks, Ken

Impulse?

Rother, Nice link. Now, having a more than passing knowledge of Newtonian physics equations, why did "g", the acceleration of gravity, come into ANY of those equations? Thanks, Ken

Steve, Excellent news. Thanks for the bone(s). Regards, Ken

Guys, This has helped out my understanding tremendously. Thank you. Does anyone know the TO&E of the various U.S. formations as regards these weapons (and the Javelin, TOW, et al.)? Ken

Oh yeah, Who uses which weapon? What are the equipage levels? Etc., etc. Ken

Thanks, especially Flamingknives. About that spotting rifle on the Marine SMAW, um, more details please... Also, any pictures of the Army SMAW-D? What are the differences betwixt it and the Marine SMAW? Regards, Ken

Gents, I'm a bit curious about the various flavors of recoilless weapons in the current U.S. arsenal, and those about to be. Can anyone give a coherent run-down with capabilities and uses? Thanks, Ken

Wait! Does this mean that John D. Salt and John Kettler are DIFFERENT people? Sorry for the diversion. I agree that some sort of implementation of night vision/heat vision should be in-game. How about in house-clearing? Some nogs would be a decided advantage. Toss in some IR transparent smoke (visually opaque) and move in. Etc. Will the U.S. see everying in night-vision green? Little cones-of-view emanating from each soldier? Seriously, how would the player know/see the benefit? Regards, Ken

Gents, Regarding excessive damage, I keep reading about large hits against U.S. victory points for damaging mosques. Phooey!! Here's my idea, a refining of the concept proposed by Steve, above; mosques have no inherently positive or negative value: the value depends on the post-battle results. If a mosque is destroyed, but contains weapons (abandoned mortars, tanks, etc.), surrendered troops (armed), or dead fighters (again, assumed to have weapons), then the U.S. does not suffer a point loss. If the mosque is destroyed and there are NO enemy units in it post-game, then the U.S. suffers a point loss. This would motivate the Syrian to use mosques in much the same way it would appear they're being used in Iraq: a centralized public building with storage space and an aura of protection. If a fight kicks off, just make sure it's evacuated before you guide the media (western and arab) to show the damage and dead (who were innocently praying with the imam when the crusading westerners wantonly murdered them - yeah, right.). So, stuff a mosque with hidden units, use them to spring an ambush. As the return fire mounts, escape with all your gear. U.S. loses. Regards, Ken

Bigduke6, You've done a credible job analyzing the weaknesses of a one-sided intelligence/media report, yet you also created a fictionalized account of AIF (anti-Iraqi Forces) motivations and procedures. Your posts have referred to AIF individuals and loose groups as, more or less, responding on their own initiative to defend against a presumed attack on a mosque. You have NO hard information on which to base this. Here is my interpretation: The hard-core, driven, foreign-born anti-American fighters rule the local neighborhood through intimidation, threats, reprisals and their ruthless executions of family members of those who oppose them. They call a meeting, regularly scheduled, to infuse the locals with fighting spirit. This meeting is at the usual spot, the armory; it's the mosque. When the helicopters fly over, of course they try - and succeed - at shooting one down. The various contingents, sent out to shoot it down, begin to converge on the rally point - the mosque. As the fight escalates, the cadre forces groups of locals to fight the Americans. They arrive in motley groups after being threatened with family retaliations. They fight as much as the need to, under the careful eye of the cadre, then leave as soon as it seems appropriate. Okay, totally baseless, but only so much so as your version. Comments? Ken

John, Thank you. However, as I've just fired my (your choice of laser-aided) weapon, the "shtora" tank is know in a self-induced black-out zone. Soon enough - depending on wind and tank speed - that zone will disperse. In the meantime, the "shtora" tank is blind and ineffective. I wait; then I fire another round. Repeat until either I run out of rounds or they run out of obscurants. Sounds good for a one-off engagement, not for a coordinated enemy. Of course, were I a tanker, I'd like to have it!! Regards, Ken

Wicky, If there is some hall of fame for excellence in posting, you should be included for the picture you just sent! Thanks, Ken

Thanks!! And mine to you. Ken

Cassh, Woops. You are of course correct. I meant to reply to Bigduke6. I'll edit my original post to that effect. Regards, Ken

Bigduke6, I agree with you that the bayonet has caused absurdly low casualties. I STRONGLY disagree with you that the low casualty figures can be interpreted as meaning that the bayonet is an anochronistic weapon that is ineffective. In the U.S. Civil War, where a great many post-battle wound statistics exist, thousands were shot, hundreds shelled, dozens sabered and only 1 or 2 bayoneted in several heavy battles. (References available if you'd like.) However, the bayonet charge often decided the battle. Where's the disconnect? The bayonet charge signals the opposing side that you mean business. You will run into his positions, lock eyes, and skewer him. There is a true moral superiority in this action. The defender will RARELY stay and accept the bayonet charge. One of two outcomes occur in the vast majority of situations; the defender flees, or his defensive fire breaks the attackers and the bayonet charge fizzles out. Your argument is similar to the one posited by airpower enthusiasts in the '50s: since air-to-air missiles could shoot down airplanes, the aircraft gun could be eliminated. Ooops. Regards, Ken (Edited to change the addressee of this post to Bigduke6. It had been Cassh, with whose position I am in agreement.) [ December 24, 2005, 07:21 AM: Message edited by: c3k ]

Hmmm, Okay. A Stryker force moves into a town (since as a Syrian I'll let the US live in the remotes). Syrian forces block the main road and sideroads. (Trucks pulled in front, etc.) Now, as the Strykers disembark to fight the ambush, I - the crafty Syrian - light a large oil and tire fueled fire. That's the signal for the remote artillery - a few tubes scattered around in isolated buildings with firing loopholes - to fire pre-arranged strikes. Sure, they'll be toast, but the incoming should help me. Counterbattery is (US) fired by MLRS units. Tube units do not have the range. The tubes have to continually displace forward in an advance. An MLRS unit can tie-in with counterbattery. The main payload is clusterbombs. So, if my artillery (Syrian) is emplaced in isolated farmhouses, with reinforced roofs, the clusterbombs will have greatly reduced efficacy. Regards, Ken