The good folks at Microsoft thought it wise to renew my MVP award for 2009. I'd like to thank them for the honor - hopefully, I am doing a little bit still for the community, even though most of the new things to come are things I can't discuss - yet? :).
Thursday, July 02, 2009
Monday, June 08, 2009
FSDeveloper.com
For some, this is already old news, but for those of you who are not developers or too intricately involved with Flight Simulation, I'd like to announce that I'm now one of the administrators at FSDeveloper.com, the premier web site for developers of Microsoft Flight Simulator and addon products.
Part of the reasons I became administrator was that I've always felt I've received a lot from the developer community by reading contributions and posts in such forums, so this is a way of giving back.
Another part was that my friends Arno, Nick and Jon needed someone else to assist with moving the site to a new location, as the previous ISP was no longer able to offer supporting the site - and we wanted to move it to a Windows-based server too.
We took some time to find a new ISP who offered us the server specification we felt most appropriate and I am pleased to report that we have completed the move this past weekend - it was as straight forward as they come!
Since FSDeveloper.com is now on a new, more capable server, we're planning on additional goodies for all of its readers, so do stop by and participate - it's very interesting!
Part of the reasons I became administrator was that I've always felt I've received a lot from the developer community by reading contributions and posts in such forums, so this is a way of giving back.
Another part was that my friends Arno, Nick and Jon needed someone else to assist with moving the site to a new location, as the previous ISP was no longer able to offer supporting the site - and we wanted to move it to a Windows-based server too.
We took some time to find a new ISP who offered us the server specification we felt most appropriate and I am pleased to report that we have completed the move this past weekend - it was as straight forward as they come!
Since FSDeveloper.com is now on a new, more capable server, we're planning on additional goodies for all of its readers, so do stop by and participate - it's very interesting!
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
AVSIM destroyed...
I was stunned and entirely saddened to receive this news from Tom Allensworth, owner of AVSIM - one of the biggest online flight sim news web sites in the world...
PRESS RELEASE:
AVSIM Hacked
Tom Allensworth, CEO and Publisher of AVSIM, today issued the following announcement; “We regret to inform the flight simulation community that on Tuesday, May 12, AVSIM was hacked and effectively destroyed. The method of the hack makes recovery difficult, if not impossible, to recover from. Both servers, that is the library / email and web site / forum servers were attacked. AVSIM is totally offline at this time and we expect to be so for some time to come. We are not able to predict when we will be back online, if we can come back at all. We will post more news as we are able to in the coming days and weeks.
END
Best Regards,
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Microsoft File Transfer Manager
I wanted to blog today about something that had been nagging at me ever since I started being a beta tester for some of Microsoft's products.
Those of you who participate in one or more of the beta programs will have noticed how the only way to download products that are larger than a set size (I think it's 100mb) is through the Microsoft File Transfer Manager.
I've never grown too accustomed to that download manager - it's clunky, quirky and more often than not, way too slow (I know - that's because of throttling done on the server side to allow for more concurrent downloads, especially when the item is, say, the new Windows7 beta and the number of downloaders can be over a million).
Lately, though, I've been pestered by another unwelcome FTM trait: No matter how many times I'd hit Cancel, the download candidate file would be temporarily removed only to come back in force after FTM was restarted. Multiply this with many aborted download attempts and I was suddenly faced with having to hit "Cancel" and "Yes, REALLY" for all my previous canceled items every time a new beta was out that I wanted to test. This quickly turned out to be more than I wished for (twenty repeat "Cancel" and "Yes" kinda wear you out after awhile) and I was pushed to look for a solution.
No amount of googling would point me to the right direction though: How to REALLY delete those old, aborted download items so they will not reappear at next FTM start.
Then I remembered Mark Russinovich and his very cool toy: Process Monitor. A bit of filtering for "transfermgr.exe" showed that when the app starts, it looks in %appdata%\Roaming\Microsoft\File Transfer Manager\RequestQueue for its list of download candidates. Where FTM would fail to delete the ones I'd hit "Cancel" on, I would NOT. I removed the contents of the RequestQueue folder and Presto! problem solved!
Gotta give it to Mark Russinovich... Good work man!
Those of you who participate in one or more of the beta programs will have noticed how the only way to download products that are larger than a set size (I think it's 100mb) is through the Microsoft File Transfer Manager.
I've never grown too accustomed to that download manager - it's clunky, quirky and more often than not, way too slow (I know - that's because of throttling done on the server side to allow for more concurrent downloads, especially when the item is, say, the new Windows7 beta and the number of downloaders can be over a million).
Lately, though, I've been pestered by another unwelcome FTM trait: No matter how many times I'd hit Cancel, the download candidate file would be temporarily removed only to come back in force after FTM was restarted. Multiply this with many aborted download attempts and I was suddenly faced with having to hit "Cancel" and "Yes, REALLY" for all my previous canceled items every time a new beta was out that I wanted to test. This quickly turned out to be more than I wished for (twenty repeat "Cancel" and "Yes" kinda wear you out after awhile) and I was pushed to look for a solution.
No amount of googling would point me to the right direction though: How to REALLY delete those old, aborted download items so they will not reappear at next FTM start.
Then I remembered Mark Russinovich and his very cool toy: Process Monitor. A bit of filtering for "transfermgr.exe" showed that when the app starts, it looks in %appdata%\Roaming\Microsoft\File Transfer Manager\RequestQueue for its list of download candidates. Where FTM would fail to delete the ones I'd hit "Cancel" on, I would NOT. I removed the contents of the RequestQueue folder and Presto! problem solved!
Gotta give it to Mark Russinovich... Good work man!
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
International Flight Sim Consortium
News of this is already circulating around the web, but I also wanted to inform my faithful readers that there's s global effort being put together to promote flight simulation, the community and organizations in support of our hobby - and it's already got a name: The International Flight Sim Consortium.
There will be more news upcoming on this organization, its goals and membership requirements, but I wanted everyone to start feeling good about it already. Expect more soon.
There will be more news upcoming on this organization, its goals and membership requirements, but I wanted everyone to start feeling good about it already. Expect more soon.
Monday, April 13, 2009
A flight simmer's wet dream...
(Reported from The Associated Press and the Naples Daily News)
In the twenty-plus years that I've been a flight simulation fan (and the six-plus that I've been a licensed pilot) this discussion has been coming up time and again: "I'm an avid flight simmer - would I be able to land a plane if the pilots were incapacitated?" (also in various flavors, like "If the pilots died and there was rapid decompression..." or "if the pilots were passed out..." etc etc.)
I hadn't thought this could actually come to be a reality though... however, stranger things have happened, and according to this news item, a passenger was, in fact, able to land a plane in Florida, after the pilot died... granted, the plane was climbing on autopilot, and the passenger was a licensed (albeit single-engine rated) pilot... but still - in my book, this is worthy of a note!
So now we know! (I guess I'll start going on King Air rides more often now!)
In the twenty-plus years that I've been a flight simulation fan (and the six-plus that I've been a licensed pilot) this discussion has been coming up time and again: "I'm an avid flight simmer - would I be able to land a plane if the pilots were incapacitated?" (also in various flavors, like "If the pilots died and there was rapid decompression..." or "if the pilots were passed out..." etc etc.)
I hadn't thought this could actually come to be a reality though... however, stranger things have happened, and according to this news item, a passenger was, in fact, able to land a plane in Florida, after the pilot died... granted, the plane was climbing on autopilot, and the passenger was a licensed (albeit single-engine rated) pilot... but still - in my book, this is worthy of a note!
So now we know! (I guess I'll start going on King Air rides more often now!)
Wednesday, April 08, 2009
The future of Flight Simulation
I guess everyone knows by now (unless you were hiding under some tree, vacationing in New Zealand or spending your winter sleeping in a cave like a bear) that Microsoft in a bold move, decided to close up ACES studios, the team responsible for development and publishing of the Flight Simulator series.
Lots of people have been asking me to comment on this, both as Microsoft MVP (Flight Sim) as well as because of my friendly relationship with several of the ACES developers.
I have to be particularly careful of what I say, not only because I've signed various NDAs, but also because I don't want people to be taking my words the wrong way or misinterpreting any comments to mean anything hidden behind the words.
If I were to venture a guess, I'd say that nature hates voids so there will be something to fill the empty space in the simulator market that the ACES closure left. Whether that will be by Microsoft (the official statement said they'll be considering all options) or by some other entity (lots of rumors about several ideas floating about), it remains to be seen.
I am confident, though, that Flight Simulator X (the product) has a LONG way to go still - the hardware is catching up already with the product, making more and more people appreciate the new and improved components that were its acceptance hindrance in the past, and frame rates are now above the specific point where people will start enjoying it rather than be annoyed by it.
As far as Flight Sim Labs goes, we feel that there's lots of undiscovered ground still to be seen - there's more sceneries coming out and with Mega Airport Heathrow X, Charles De Gaulle X (SimWings / Aerosoft) and JFK X by FSDreamTeam, already available in stores, our upcoming Concorde X aircraft will shine in its majestic glory!
(There are lots of other smaller airport sceneries available too - for our other - still unannounced - upcoming projects - hint hint!).
My advice, thus is this:
Sit back, relax and enjoy FSX! It will be around for a long time to come, still, so there's gobs of pleasure still to be found in flying it. If you haven't, yet, also take a look at the missions and try some flights by sharing your cockpit with a friend over the internet (yes, that's possible with FSX).
Lots of people have been asking me to comment on this, both as Microsoft MVP (Flight Sim) as well as because of my friendly relationship with several of the ACES developers.
I have to be particularly careful of what I say, not only because I've signed various NDAs, but also because I don't want people to be taking my words the wrong way or misinterpreting any comments to mean anything hidden behind the words.
If I were to venture a guess, I'd say that nature hates voids so there will be something to fill the empty space in the simulator market that the ACES closure left. Whether that will be by Microsoft (the official statement said they'll be considering all options) or by some other entity (lots of rumors about several ideas floating about), it remains to be seen.
I am confident, though, that Flight Simulator X (the product) has a LONG way to go still - the hardware is catching up already with the product, making more and more people appreciate the new and improved components that were its acceptance hindrance in the past, and frame rates are now above the specific point where people will start enjoying it rather than be annoyed by it.
As far as Flight Sim Labs goes, we feel that there's lots of undiscovered ground still to be seen - there's more sceneries coming out and with Mega Airport Heathrow X, Charles De Gaulle X (SimWings / Aerosoft) and JFK X by FSDreamTeam, already available in stores, our upcoming Concorde X aircraft will shine in its majestic glory!
(There are lots of other smaller airport sceneries available too - for our other - still unannounced - upcoming projects - hint hint!).
My advice, thus is this:
Sit back, relax and enjoy FSX! It will be around for a long time to come, still, so there's gobs of pleasure still to be found in flying it. If you haven't, yet, also take a look at the missions and try some flights by sharing your cockpit with a friend over the internet (yes, that's possible with FSX).
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