March 25, 2003

XGLTester for Windows plugin updated, be sure to download the latest version which corrects the display of textures / colors.

I apologize for not keeping the news very up-to-date over the last few months - I've been very, very busy working on XGL, XGLTool, the Lexington Example Tutorial, and now XGLTester...

We still have an entire Universe to model, and I've started a related site/project which you can reach at http://www.X-Sky.net

December 28, 2002

The mime types are now set correctly, and I've released Area51 v0.2!

Thanks to all who have downloaded it and for those who have written to tell me of their enjoyment of it!

As mentioned in the README for it, I wasn't able to put as many spacecraft into the area as I wanted to due to polygon overflow problems (spacecraft are pretty complex!)...

SO, I may release some other Earth packages that probably have had some real spacecraft visiting us over the years, namely Wiltshire, England (famous for Crop Circles), and the Bermuda Triangle (I'm sure something has gone on there :-)

I also have the full Mars Scenery, and what better place to find some of our Extra Terrestrial friends! If anyone else has flown on Mars, it's pretty kewl but a little boring and I think some kewl ships could spice it up a bit!

You may have noticed the new Area51 graphic at the upper right of the site.

If you're a webmaster or have a site and would like to help me promote the package, see the Area51 page for the HTML.

I'll be glad to exchange links..

December 22, 2002

My site is on a new server which doesn't yet have the mime types set correctly for webstart, so if you want to try out JXPFrameRate, you'll have to download the zip file listed on my X-Plane page.

I also recently lost my best friend... :-(

Also see my new Area 51 page and scenery package...

Too busy for more news, so I'll finish up :-)

November 8, 2002

JXPFrameRate is now availabe via WebStart.  If you have Java 2 installed on your system you can start it with this link:  Start JXPlane Frame Rate

November 7, 2002

I now have a little content online on my X-Plane page, including a trival (but kewl) java application that demonstrates communicating with XPlane in java to read XPlane output and display the current frame rate.

October 29, 2002

More Windows frustration ... and more reasons to use Macs ... my HP Pavilion came with Windows 98, and I upgraded to Windows 2000 Professional.

Now I have no sound, and despite 2+ hours of web searching, I could not find a solution, so I've given up on it. Since the machine is used primarily as a server and development machine, I don't really need sound, but it would be nice :-)

That is probably the reason trying to install the latest Real Player (Real One) didn't work.

My brother had a good experience upgrading his HP to Windows XP, but he did say that his DVD reading driver will no longer play DVDs or audio CDs...

I was also out at a local CompUSA last nite, and seeing all those new Macs runnning Apple's new "switch" testimonials and seeing all the newest, hottest hardware (you have to see the Apple 23" LCD flat-panel display - it's incredible!) was inspiring.

You should have noticed my new "live chat"

October 26, 2002

Lots to talk about here... where to begin :-)

1. The site has a new header and logo that I'm pretty proud of!  Many thanks to Rick Bettencourt for the suggestions and Don Tipton for the PNG help!
   
   
2. The site now has a fair amount of work/business related content, with lots more to come.
   
   
3. I just got my tibook 400 back from Apple, and I was amazed by the turn-around time.  It is a tibook 400/10/512, a little over a year old, and a few months ago the firewire port stopped working, and the "7" key had come off the keyboard.
   
   Before the warranty expired, I purchased AppleCare for it, and just recently got around to getting it in.  I called Apple, had a box from Airborne the next day, sent it out one day after that, and got it back completely repaired just 2 days later!  That's the way excellent business is done!
   
   
4. I'm pretty excited about my new purchase of XPlane.  I've been all work and no play for too long, have wanted to be a pilot for years, and tho I may not get to that IRL, it looks like XPlane will let me be a virtual pilot both here on earth and on mars!
   
   It is, IMHO so far, the world's most accurate and comprehensive flight simulator on the planet, and has a tremendous internet subculture.  Since I am now back to being a Mac Evangelist, Microsoft Flight Simulator (I last used FS98) wasn't an option, and after downloading and demoing the XPlane evaluation (90MB!), I went ahead and ordered the retail version, which just came yesterday.
   
   I'm going to be putting a Mac OS X XPlane section on the site, but until I do, let me tell you what I got and where I am with it:
   
   I purchased the complete package with the Earth and Mars scenery.  There are 4 earth scenery CDs which I'm currently installing, and 2 Mars scenery CDs. I've just installed 2/4 of the earth CDs and the data is about 2.6MB, so with 4 more CDs to go, I'd guess that the entire earth and mars scenery data will be about 12.5MB or so...
   
   I'm not exactly sure of what my "setup" is going to be, but at the moment I'm installing everything on an external FireWire drive so I can run it from any of my Mac laptops.  I have a Connectix Wingman USB joystick at the moment, tho I do have both the CH Virtual Pilot Pro and Rudder Pedals, but they aren't USB, so I may not be able to use them.
   
   One of my frustrations when using FS98 and a single computer was being unable to reference documentation, etc., etc. while using the sim.
   
   Today, with multiple computers and the internet, I think I can alleviate a lot of that frustration, tho I will be doing some more research to see if I can find some good "earth navigation" and visualization resources.
   
   
5. Although Macs are not (yet!) as hi performance as the latest PC hardware for some applications, IMHO, they are superior personal computers in hundreds of ways.  See my Once You Go Mac You'll Never Go Back! page for details!

Last minute update:  I was wrong about the disk space ... full install of all xplane scenery for the entire earth and mars is about 7.5GB.

I've been running XPlane on my tibook 400 all day while working, and it is incredibly awesome!I I don't honestly know where FS (Microsoft Flight Simulator) is today, but X-Plane has my prior experiences with FS beat hands down!

Perhaps FS scenery is much improved these days, but not long ago, it was only semi-accurate for some places (large, well-known cities, etc.). If you wanted scenery for your local area, you had to hope someone had created some, and keeping track of it all and installing it, etc. was incredibly tedious.

XPlane has real-world terrain information, including mountains, rivers, lakes, roads, as well as aviation-related data for the entire planet, not to mention the entire planet of mars!

At the moment, I have a Boeing 777 on auto-pilot flying from my hometown of Rochester, NY to Glens Falls, NY north of Albany .... and in a few minutes I'll be passing over the NYS thruway! Incredible!

I won't clutter up this page with screenshots, but expect to see some on the site in the near future!!!

I now see why XPlane has such a great internet presence... My hats off to Austin Meyer and everyone who's helped to make it such an incredible product!

I can't wait to explore the planet (as well as Mars)!!!

October 22, 2002 - New Site Online!

Tho it's certainly pretty empty at the moment, I'm excited to finally have my new site online, and very happy with the looks and appearance - I now have a framework I'm happy with, and now all I need to do is add content :-)