Made in China...

[airwoodstock]

Yep! We have a Challanger Learning Center for Space and Aeronautics here in town. They have a Flight Deck off a 737 wired to be a simulator running X-Plane. I know the director well and, once a month, He lets me run the sim for as long as I want. I usually do flights from ORD to HIA or CLE. X-Plane's dynamics are truely awesome but, I have way too many planes in my livery to change! (about 100 different models in over 500 different liveries. Spanning over 50 years. Age of the plane models, that is! :wink: ) Plus, all our flight plans are configured to FSX or FS9, With the patches and tweaks out there for FSX to make it run smoother, I'm liking it more and more! The improved AGS in FSX makes for more realistic flight planning and, well......sorry, the plane geek came out of me. ops: I could go on for hours about both but, to your post about X-Plane Mr. Z, it is a great sim!

[Zero]

True that X-Plane's built-in AGS is a bit weak. I use a piece of software called GoodWay which greatly simplifies making flight plans for X-plane. Doesn't make the ground radio any better, mind you, but there's always flying online. Then you get real guys on ATC and real traffic in the air. Not something you'd build into a cockpit sim, I suppose, though. Anyway, yeah, enough hijack, I think :lol:

[ponysoprano]

Hey guys, re: Otterbox's country of manufacture talked about earlier in thread....the older black one I have plainly says "Made in USA" on the bottom exterior, while the newer yellow model, after they made some minor improvements doesn't say anything about where it's made, but it would appear they came out of the same factory. Quality is virtually identical, there were just some good design improvements made to the new models. I emailed them with the question and I'm awaiting a response.

[Starcadia]

By the way, China just sent their third manned rocket into space successfully today. That requires a bit of quality-mindedness, no?

Just throwing that out there for perspective.

[lxskllr]

By the way, China just sent their third manned rocket into space successfully today. That requires a bit of quality-mindedness, no?

Just throwing that out there for perspective.

They must have used American/European parts :^P

The only things I've gotten from China that I would call "quality" are my electronics(assembled by robots, designed by?), and my exercise balls with the bells inside. Nice work on them. Everything else has either been junk, or so easy to make a caveman could have done it, like my wok. I was going to say my Chinese chefs knife also, but that has some poor workmanship. It's functional, but it looks like it was made by a new blacksmiths apprentice :^D

[Zero]

Some may be old enough to remember the days of "jap scrap", to use the crude vernacular of the time. It didn't take Japan long to go from cheap crap to cutting edge. I've been to a fair number of universities and scientific conferences around the world and one thing you notice is that grad schools are filled with Chinese students. As a country they are amassing expertise at a staggering rate. Give it fifteen years and China, along with just about everywhere else, is going to be a very different place. Fifteen years ago computers were for geeks. The internet barely existed. I had a 14.4kbps modem...and it was fast! Pogo balls, hula-hoops, crappy action figures - cheap moulded plastic crap - were ubiquitous. China has this technology and more already.

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[lxskllr]

WooHoo!! Bob Dylan :^)

Any thread with Dylan in it rocks :^)

I've read, and noticed that the Chinese are on a hyper fast development cycle. They're already getting out of the copycat stage, and are starting to innovate new products themselves. I have no doubt they'll be a quality powerhouse in the future, but they aren't quite there yet.

[ponysoprano]

On a quick, classic music related note; I was amused, but felt like an old guy recently when my 13 year old nephew told me it'd be cool if I could take him to see Jimi Hendrix if he ever came through Seattle...yes, really.


:shock:

[lxskllr]

On a quick, classic music related note; I was amused, but felt like an old guy recently when my 13 year old nephew told me it'd be cool if I could take him to see Jimi Hendrix if he ever came through Seattle...yes, really.


:shock:

He comes through Seattle?!?!

I know where I'm moving... :^P

[Jason]

As a country they are amassing expertise at a staggering rate. Give it fifteen years and China, along with just about everywhere else, is going to be a very different place.

I agree, but the first things they had better work on are their environmental and safety issues....otherwise they will be getting nowhere fast. Russia learned that the hard way with nuclear power; both on land and at sea...

[Zero]

On a quick, classic music related note; I was amused, but felt like an old guy recently when my 13 year old nephew told me it'd be cool if I could take him to see Jimi Hendrix if he ever came through Seattle...yes, really.

:shock:

He comes through Seattle?!?!

Yeah, on a road trip with Elvis :lol:

[Dead Rabbit]

Comparing China to Japan isn’t really accurate though. Japan is a free market. China a brand of nationalized socialism of sorts. This keeps China very competitive in an economic warfare kind of way, particularly in the realm of massive production and exports. But, Zero, don’t you see this system kind of stymieing innovation? Sure they can beat the market in price and supply. But improving stuff requires individual genius. Unlike Japan and America, not sure China is fertile with incentive for individual genius.

[Starcadia]

But improving stuff requires individual genius. Unlike Japan and America, not sure China is fertile with incentive for individual genius.

I don't think even an authoritarian regime can prevent genius from occurring in a portion of any given population. And it is a significant part of being a genius to know how to get around, to be inspired to infiltrate and dismantle, and even capitalize upon the hidden advantages of, obstacles imposed upon the people by authority.

[Zero]

Comparing China to Japan isn’t really accurate though. Japan is a free market. China a brand of nationalized socialism of sorts. This keeps China very competitive in an economic warfare kind of way, particularly in the realm of massive production and exports. But, Zero, don’t you see this system kind of stymieing innovation? Sure they can beat the market in price and supply. But improving stuff requires individual genius. Unlike Japan and America, not sure China is fertile with incentive for individual genius.

China's much more complicated than just socialism. It's a voodoo ragdoll of cognitive dissonance lashed together with copycat duct tape and piloted with reckless abandon unto the horizon. It's got hyper-capitalist aspects to it and crushingly communist ones at the same time. Certainly it stymies innovation, but so long as they're playing catch-up they really don't need to innovate - they just need to learn. At any rate, I wasn't attempting to get into a discussion about the relative merits and pitfalls of Chinese policy. I think it's a very confused and self-conscious country which is slowly learning how to be honest with itself. I wouldn't advocate many aspects of Chinese policy at all. Mostly I was just making the point that their development is accelerating at a dramatic rate.

[Dead Rabbit]

But improving stuff requires individual genius. Unlike Japan and America, not sure China is fertile with incentive for individual genius.

I don't think even an authoritarian regime can prevent genius from occurring in a portion of any given population. And it is a significant part of being a genius to know how to get around, to be inspired to infiltrate and dismantle, and even capitalize upon the hidden advantages of, obstacles imposed upon the people by authority.

Really? Were you alive during the cold war? I'm trying to think of a product or invention that people dug from the Eastern Block.

And yes, I even annoy myself with these know it all posts