Quote from tristancliffe :

Fancy lasers are prone to error. But you cannot go wrong with string - unless you are blind. Even a bog-standard mirror based tracking gauge is better than 'clever' lasers. Lasers, however, do attract more business, as the man on the street is fooled into thinking they're better.

That's because they are better. They just need a good operator.

Quote from Mustafur :

I don't get how they can risk that much money on an ageing 7 time world champ when they could of just boosted there current world champions salary.

Button was offered more money at Brawn than at McLaren. His move had little to do with money.

Yep you can animate frame by frame or using tweens or (most likely) both.

A few tips for animating in Flash that may not be obvious if you haven't used it before; if you want to animate loops (such as a blinking light in a background or a walk cycle) then you can contain them inside their own timeline using a Graphic or a MovieClip.

Graphic objects run along their timeline in conjunction with their parent timeline, so they stop when it stops. This is good for situations like walking across a scene because you only have to animate the walk cycle once.

MovieClip timelines are independent and will continue on their merry way regardless of what's happening on the main timeline. These are particularly good for background items that need to loop infinitely such as lightning flashes, clouds.

However, if you haven't used Flash for animation before then one thing to be aware of is that if you do use nested timelines (e.g. animated movieclips inside others), it's very difficult to export as video. The only option is as a MOV and if there's a lot going on in your scene or if it's high resolution then you need some serious hardware to do it.

So if your final output is intended as video I'd recommend doing some tests with your output. It's not very nice to find out you can't export after you've done all the work

Quote from 5haz :

Sorry but it just winds me up when people think its clever to point out people not contributing anything (they see as) useful, while not exactly adding anything useful either.

If it brought the thread back on topic then I'd say it was useful.

Oh great. Came in here to read about Schuey and Mercedes and what a surprise, it's the same moronic banter found everywhere in this forum.

Nobody cares about your smug playground argument. If either of you think either you are impressing the readership then think again. You're only illustrating that you're as insecure as each other so move on and stop littering the forum with your pointless pissing contest.

Ta.

OK I tracked down him refusing to dance and it wasn't down to shyness.

Basically it came down to a bizarre issue where if you had Flash running something in another browser tab (so if you had YouTube open in another tab for example) it would refuse to allow access to the sound data.*

Anyway, all I can do is put up a warning message so feel free to try again (just make sure Flash isn't running in another tab ).

Thanks all.

*Further explanation for web nerds:
For some reason the Flash player shares sound data across your browser so basically if it didn't have this security block, playing a YouTube video in one tab would make Dad Dance in another (which would have beeen awesome).

Damn Adobe.

Quote from senn :

yeah doesn't seem to work with firefox, works fine with IE

Would you mind telling me what version of FF you're using please? I've seen this happen a couple of times but can't recreate it to fix it.

Quote from STF :

Opera and FF working, I`m guessing Exploder will too.
You can really have some stupidly funny moments with this for the lulz.
Like this.

Thanks .

Glad you're enjoying it

Quote from STF :

PS: what is the maximum number of moves?

There's no set limit so you can add as many as you like

Quote from senn :

Slow link is slow. But i'll wait to see what this is all about

EDit: Your llink for the moves u made doesn't work, he just stands there..

Hmm. Are you using Firefox by any chance?

Hello all. Here's a little game I made for Christmas. It's a Dad Dance creator
http://www.daddancer.com/

And here's a Dad Dance I made earlier:
http://www.daddancer.com/?id=eb2h93ek88

Let me know what you think (and if you break it )!

Quote from obsolum :

Hmm, that's a nice little app and I'm sure it's useful to many people, but not for me. I don't want to have a third party app having to load at startup just so I can have mouse gestures in Chrome. I can't think of any other application I use frequently that would benefit from having mouse gestures.

Thanks for the link, though

Fair enough although it's only 176k in memory

I work with a lot of browsers so it's great for me, and I use it in Windows Explorer too but that's about it.

Quote from obsolum :

Ah, mouse gestures are what I miss in Chrome, I'll have a look at that

Mouse gestures were what held me to Opera for years, but I installed Stroke It a few months ago and now have mouse gestures in all browsers (well, in everything in fact)

It's the future of interfaces.

Quote from ajp71 :

...The best way to take speed bumps is at a fairly constant speed, with no braking...

I disagree. Best way is to accelerate as you arrive at the bump to lift the nose a bit. You can exaggerate this if you brake first too

It depends on your car whether you have to slow down for them. I can't drive through my estate at a constant speed in my car (unless the constant speed was 5mph ).

Quote from BlueFlame :

Think about it, if they were born starving and scrounge for food, the chances are they weren't taught to cook, or ain't able and don't have the facilities to cook.

What are you talking about?

Quote from pearcy_2k7 :

But imagine all the people out of work because of this and then all the animals killed needlessly because of over population... Not many people will keep pigs that aren't going to be making them any money.

Indeed. If we stop eating cows and pigs they'll become extinct. It'd be quite ironic if this technology wipes them out if its intention was to save them.

I'm sure it's just another quite interesting experiment that'll be decades from making it out of the lab, if it does at all.

Quote from Bawbag :

Going from a reasonably nice/sensible car to a RWD potential 600bhp car with a slight supercharger upgrade, he's actualy my ****in hero and probarly 95% of the members on this forum.

Erm, the Mazda 3 MPS is hardly a nice/sensible car.

Your point still stands however

Quote from BlueFlame :

Sorry but WW1 veterans are NOT hereos, because they weren't conscripted, they faught cos it was advertized as a cool thing to do. It's their own fault they saw the things they did and got their legs blown off, their own fault for being so naiive.

It's a bit sad that anyone has such a complete lack of knowledge about either world war. As soon as it's forgotten it'll happen again.

Quote from JJ72 :

The only people living in the world without money (in any shape of form, like sheeps) are only some primal tribes. They have no concept of individual procession, and hence there IS no greed, no fighting over stuff, just everybody working together to get food, shelter, and protection.

I'd like to see your evidence for that statement. People have been fighting over territory far longer than over money.

This is a very sobering read from a lad who crashed his car into a motorcyclist. It does make you wonder about how other people perceive your driving and what consequences that can have, and also gives an insight into the prison system in Britain at least.

He writes very well and he's brutally honest:
http://prison-diary.blogspot.com/

Last edited by durbster, Fri, 6 Nov 2009 11:19.

Jakg, you're not a nob, you're just learning as you go like everybody does. People learn their most valuable lessons by mistakes they've made - nobody is born with knowledge.

I hope you don't pay too much regard to the patronising comments in this thread.

Quote from P5YcHoM4N :

There is nothing wrong with the Sammie. They are lovely little rock bashing, mud slinging toys.

Yep, they're wicked little 4WDs and can go where most can't.

Might need a snorkel for that depth of water though.

Quote from danthebangerboy :

Same as well, well, technically mine is a eunos roadster, but essentially the same car.

Yeah mine's a Roadster too, but I'm in the habit of saying MX-5 as it saves explaining

Quote from danthebangerboy :

The only ball ache i have is getting decent branded rubber in the standard 185.60/14 size, as this thing does NOT like budget tyres one little bit.

This is one reason I'm changing to 15s. There is much more choice of rubber and the prices are often the same or better too. I almost went for white wheels too as it happens but after much Photoshoppery I decided they're a bit too attention-seeking on a blue car for me (look the nuts on a white car though). I've not seen the BBS wheels done up in white before either.

Quote from tristancliffe :

Don't compare a manufacturer 'sorted' premium turbo installation with a kit available off the internet. It's highly unlikely a kit for an MX-5 exists that is lag free. The BBT ones had lag, and they were good enough for Mazda to offer a warranty with and sell in their dealers.

Hmm. From that statement I think it's clear you're out of your depth on this topic Tristan - might be wise to step away...

Yes, wise to lose the 17" wheels. Actually it's probably quite a good thing to buy them on the car because you might be able to sell them at a profit on replacements

Quote from jibber :

As for the exhaust, i still think it sounds like a fart can...

Haha! If you're in the UK sometime I'll take you out in it

Quote from jibber :

PS: Good car choice!

Although that's why I can't get rid of the bloody thing. Still makes me smile on every single journey after six years. Can't be bad

Quote from jibber :

Just out of curiosity, what car do you drive?

Oh sorry, it's an MX-5. Pretty much everything I've done is due to old bits wearing out so I've chosen to upgrade rather than replace if possible.

As for the exhaust, you need to hear the difference before you can judge. There's no way I'd go back to a standard one now http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBfKim_g-4g

Quote from jibber :

The splitter can help, but it's likely that it'll also mess up your aerodynamics.

Not true. You may already know that the front splitters were originally part of the NA MX-5 design so there's absolutely no doubt they improve the aerodynamics. Look at a standard nose, it sits about an inch higher than the sills - that's where the splitter should be.

They were removed for financial or transport reasons but either way, fitting one has made a significant difference. You may remember that above 60mph the front end goes quite light on the '5 and it loses a lot of its feel. The splitter sorts that out.

Quote from jibber :

What do you mean with chassis bracing?

Two bars - one front and one rear to add a bit of chassis strength. They don't make much difference to the car on the road but they stop all the squeaks and creaks.

17" wheels on an MX-5? Now that is a bad modification

Quote from tristancliffe :

My first purchase was a de-cat pipe. Nothing fancy, just a tube with two flanges. My God it was loud. I felt like a right tosser (even more than normal) driving my car, and daren't use full throttle in case someone saw me.

I must admit, when I first got this exhaust fitted it absolutely boomed. Driving down a built up street was like have a 20 piece brass band on board and it was pretty embarrassing. Thankfully, after a couple of weeks it quietened down and now it's just spot on. The volume's not important but the noise is. Stock MX-5 exhausts are pretty weedy.

Quote from tristancliffe :

If you want forced induction, go for a supercharger. They're far nicer to drive

I am thinking that although I've driven some beautifully tuned turbos, and I know the right people to do the same. Although the path is more limited with the SC, I don't want monstrous power. I've driven a 350bhp MX-5 an it is absolutely insane.

Last edited by durbster, Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:06.

Quote from jibber :

As for bigger wheels... they'll probably be heavier too, which will affect the car quite a lot...

You're right it would, which is why I wouldn't have chosen heavier wheels. The new ones are lighter.

Quote from jibber :

Can you tell me which mods they were and how they improved the car?

- New seats with better support
- Chassis bracing for strength and to reduce cabin rattles
- Front splitter to reducefront end lift at higher speeds (surprisingly effective )
- Polybushes all round to improve all sorts of things (it's a 19 year old car so it's hardly surprising that one made a big difference).

I'm booked in for a full laser alignment after the new wheels arrive, which I should have done when I got the new suspension. Hopefully that will sort my issues with the new shocks and springs.

And early next year it'll be time for some more poke. Supercharger or turbo... not sure yet.

Quote from jibber :

Something he always told me was that modifying cars is one of the most stupid things to do, because it'll empty your wallet, and ruin your car.

Well that depends on what's important to you. I suppose it's far easier to ruin your car than improve it I suppose, but even that is a matter of perspective. For example, I changed my suspension recently and it doesn't handle as well as it used to, but my wife thinks it's much better because it rides much better. To her it's a big improvement and to me it's not.

I've done a few mods to my car over the years and most of what I've done has improved the car.

The only one I can't justify from a performance aspect was putting a noisier exhaust on it but it's honestly one of my favourite purchases. It doesn't make it go any faster but it makes the driving experience massively more enjoyable, so was that a stupid thing to do?

I'm also about to put some bigger wheels on it. I'll let you know how that goes ...