Quote from Crashgate3 :

You're never going to get anything where you can just select an area anywhere in the world and instantly get heightmap data of anywhere near a resolution good enough for use in sims (trust me, I've tried), and especially not for free.

"Oi, Leonardo, wtf is that?"

""Well, you wind it up and when you release it, it travels up into the air. Vertically."

"Right...."

"People will fly in these one day"

"Wanker"

Laser scanned? I would like to have higher resolution elevation data available from a google earth type application. I would then like to be able to select an area of land, trace out a track or route, and then import it into the simulator of my choice. The sim would then automatically generate a track, which could then be elaborated on by hand if I so wished.

It would help if sim developers would actually start sharing tracks rather than reinventing the wheel (so to speak...) everytime 'Joe Simcrafter' fancies creating the next gen driving experience....

Quote from DeadWolfBones :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoJq2eKK3Fc

Yeah, I sometimes think that some of his stuff is just virtuosity for the sake of it, but then I think "So why does it make me want to open up all the windows and shout like a loon?"

Same old names... How about some others:

Sir Richard Bishop
John Fahey
Robbie Basho
Nick Drake (If he'd done nothing else, 'Black Eyed Dog' would still elevate him above pretty much everything else)
Keith Rowe
Robert Fripp

Quote from tristancliffe :

I doubt with Lewis, as he's too interested in female movie stars, but I have had dinner/lunch with various F1 drivers in the past, and we (but not I) have had business dealings with a few in the past too.

And?

I don't know. Some people can carry it off. Shakey Byrne is a flash bastard with a flash taste in flash birds. He's still my favourite racer to watch though, and has been for while.

Quote from 5haz :

...they are almost sold like a product (I wouldnt be supprised if soon we start getting flogged a Lewis Hamilton clothes range!)

Almost? F1 drivers are a product, as this thread confirms. Why does anyone care what Lewis Hamilton is like? How many of you are likely to be asked to dinner chez Lewis?

This thread is simply about examining the commodity closely, checking it for flaws, asking yourself "Has it been used, is it pristine enough, should I haggle and ask for a little bit off?"

"Racing is life... everything before and after is just shopping."

If you're behind the wheel, then maybe you can't see that even then you're just piloting a very fast strapline. Its got to be disappointing when you step onto the tarmac and realise this. After every race.

Kimi rules, because he makes out like he can take it or leave it. Who knows if its true...

Quote from Ian.H :

Ok, I understand now.. illiteracy is the problem

Or incomplete knowledge... What, in the seventies, used to be known as 'scrambling', is usually known these days as 'motocross' (note the lack of 'r'). Whether or not you like that fact is largely irrelevant, but had you known about it, I'm sure even you would have understood how the search engine may not have helped in this instance.

Quote from gru :

i wonder why there was no such a discussion with Analogue Gauges or LfsRelax which also can display digital speed in all cars?

'Cause the digital speedo kerfuffle was another utterly specious 'realism' argument... It would be nice to able to configure such stuff within LFS. I'd get rid of the speedo altogether, but horses for courses and so on...

Quote from SamH :

I don't see a different or better way of achieving the intro presentation than the way they did it.

DISCLAIMER: Not talking about iRental in particular here, not pursuing any sim agenda, etc etc

BUT....

From a practical point of view, flash is very good at delivering an animated presentation, but from a design point of view, what is it about flash that encourages everyone to stuff a near contentless download slap bang on their index page.

Its formulaic, devoid of anything approaching intelligence, and frankly rather impolite.




EDIT: Just been thinking... I used to love Joshua Davis' abstract experiments with Flash. Not seen anything as interesting as that for a long time.

Last edited by nihil, Wed, 11 Jun 2008 14:18.

Quote from StableX :

I was trawling BBC today

You too?

All the stuff about laser scanned tracks had me thinking about GPS lately (at which point I must give a nod of appreciation towards GPS Visualiser, a really useful online tool), and then this came up on the BBC news site:

Real Racing in the Virtual World

Quote :

"It's clear that the next trend in gaming is going to be bringing real objects into the virtual world; playing not against other gamers but people doing the real thing,"

Is this where iRental is really aiming to pitch its tent eventually?

Quote from durbster :

The website is saying that when Flash is badly or unecessarily implemented, it can be a problem.

The problem with Flash is that it just magnifies how bad design for the net is generally. Anyone with a half-arsed idea to market puts it online. Usually with lots of superfluous punctuation marks and cutesey emoticons. With flash, these people get the chance to take up more space, more time, and flood the world with both visual and aural pollution.

Its just a reminder of how many stupid people there are in the world. I suppose we should be grateful for it, that it grounds us and reminds us that our notions about the essential goodness of people are mere illusions.

But actually its just irritating.

Nature or nurture? You will spend many sleepless nights trying to answer that one, but never get a clear cut answer, mainly because sexuality (homo- or hetero-) is a not a simple matter anyway. It isn't a simple matter of penetration and propagation; it is not a simple matter of long term commitment to a social ideal versus a nanosecond of pleasure as you glimpse someone in your peripheral vision.

It is all these things and everything in between.

Sometimes simultaneously.

Hence if you define heterosexuals as those who are attracted exclusively to the opposite gender, in all social arenas, the number of heterosexuals on this planet is probably a small fraction of the world's population. JTbo may be one of them.

Last edited by nihil, Mon, 9 Jun 2008 13:08.

Quote from Dajmin :

Despite scares, I think nuclear is a very efficient and clean way to go,

These things have to be thought about in a very wide context; to my mind, nuclear energy is far messier politically and socially than it is physically. The main by-product of nuclear energy is weaponry and massively increased international security issues. Thorium holds some hope of making this aspect 'cleaner', but don't hold your breath for nuclear states to research a fuel that will consume their weapons grade plutonium stash.

Is the Earth's climate changing? Probably, the evidence points in that direction.

Is the change due to human activity? There is evidence to suggest as much.

Can we actually reverse the changes? No one knows.

Does any of this matter? No.

Why? Because, while the finer points of the argument are scientifically interesting, social change is desirable simply because it will make our quality of life better. If you think that sitting in traffic jams, because the breeding class think that the school bus isn't good enough for junior, is a great way to spend time, then carry on as you are.

If you think that working nine to five, six days a week towards heart disease and irritable bowel syndrome is not a miserable waste of your time on this planet, then no change is necessary.

If you think that the new Ford Mondeo, wider than before, heavier than before, is an exemplary design path to follow, then ... Do you see where I'm going with this?

Quote from 5haz :

Not only that but the UK had its own Nuclear leak, Windscale remember.

Try googling 'dounreay' and 'leak' and see how many hits that gets you...

Quote from garph :

You’re not seeing the bigger picture.

Well, its already been debated in this thread, so I won't repeat anything except to say that for democracy to function free from petty prejudice seems a far larger picture, than allowing rich men from different countries to suffer the illusion that they are good men because they are uncontroversial.

Quote from STROBE :

Yes. The fact that as head of FIA, Mosley meets and liases with heads of governments and corporations around the world, and it's now (allegedly) known that he has kinky sex with five prostitutes with Nazi overtones. Oh, and he's the son of a Nazi.

I just really hope the various motoring organisations aren't simply bluffing.

Wow. Adult person has a sex life. Big headline....

Quote from Piddy :

And you are correct, the only money I have received for this is a $20 donation of thanks.

Sorry for the misinformation - the grapevine working its seductive magic! Anyway, happy to say to you personally that you have my admiration for a job well done. I know very well how much it takes to get people spread around the web to co-operate (in theory it should be so easy!), so I'm not just smitten by the technical proof-of-concept, but the whole enterprise.

Quote from Whitmore :

I feel the opposite - that we've seen the peak of the amateur and the professionals will increasingly leave the amateurs well behind.

It would be interesting to know why you feel that. It might make conversation on the subject easier...

Quote from ajp71 :

as was the case with Eastern Creek,

Yeah, as I understand it the track underwrote most of the cost - which was about fourteen/fifteen thousand pounds sterling.

Quote from danowat :

It's the intensive man hours that bump the cost up,

Which is why I speak of the talented amateur. If someone can put in those hours because they have the passion, the interest, and NOT pass on the cost of that labour to an equally interested and driven audience... Then how is any 'normally' structured company going to compete?

Quote from danowat :

These are the 2 things we don't know, how much the hardware costs, but having brought 3D scanners in recent years I have some idea that the hardware is reasonably expensive, and there are many different types of hardware, all offering differing levels of accuracy.

Going to chance my arm here... So long as none of the end-of-days, global apocalypse, economic meltdown prophecies come to pass. The next decade or two will belong to the talented amateur. Browse around and there are various 3d scanner projects made with what looks like the contents of the waste bin at Maplins, plus lots of open source software for dealing with pointclouds and other 3d info.

Expense is not going to be the problem. Maybe permission won't be either. Maybe its only a year or two away from the time when every circuit owner is going to be looking at the private plane flying overhead and wondering whether its packing a homemade, 200khz laser scanner...

Bring on the reproduction rights war.

Quote from jayhawk :

That is all the world needs to know to explain the looks.

Switzerland? OK, so they don't have race tracks (is that true? Not sure...), but Franco Sbarro, Monteverdi, and of course Peter Sauber... Just to name a few Swiss designers who can pen something interesting...

Very interesting question: one I've never had cause to ponder, so had a quick look round and found this:

http://www.henry-davis.com/MAPS/EMwebpages/EML.html

The T/O format is quite strong as an abstract graphic - Example

Quote :

A T in an O gives us the division of the world into three parts.
The upper part and the greatest empire take nearly the half of the world.
It is Asia; the vertical bar is the limit dividing the third from the second, Africa,
I say, from Europe; between them appear the Mediterranean Sea.

from: http://www.henry-davis.com/MAPS/EMwebpages/205mono.html

This is interesting too, though it dumps cold water on the "here be dragons" thing:

http://www.strangehorizons.com ... 20610/medieval_maps.shtml

Last edited by nihil, Thu, 29 May 2008 10:03.

Quote from Mackie The Staggie :

if so I must try that thie weekend when I try to buy a new set of pans

You too?! I need a new casserole... Spotted some cheap Le Creuset stuff recently that I hope to pick up before the weekend.

Anyway, you'd be surprised by what you can get if you ask for it. Always haggle. Most of the time, the 'markets' we do business in are constructed to deter us from acting as if paying for something is a negotiation. Go on, I dare you, where ever you buy your pans from, offer them 70% of the asking price. If they refuse, ask their best price or whether they'd throw in some nice stainless steel utensils! If the shop assistant won't play ball, ask to see the manager.

It can be a bit intimidating in a big store that expects you to be dumb, but treat it as a game and let us know what happens!