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Ian P's Dark Corner

FSX WW2 Scenery and whatever else I put here!

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Getting me angry…

Posted on 7th February 20197th February 2019 by Ian P

… is, apparently, great for productivity. Even if I can’t give out any of the results just yet.

Last post, I showed images of a way-over-poly-budget Bedford QL and a slightly mysterious airfield which, if you zoomed in enough, you might have seen was RAF Hunsdon, from where Operation Jericho was launched. Things have moved on since then.

Continue reading “Getting me angry…”
Posted in blog, Flight Simulator, Historical Scenery, Object Libraries, SceneryTagged Bedford, Blender, FSX, Hunsdon, Modelling, QL, sceneryLeave a Comment on Getting me angry…

Going Nowhere, Slowly.

Posted on 15th January 201915th January 2019 by Ian P

So, after a lot of poking, prodding, cajoling and peeking, it appears that ALL the internal WordPress links are already relative, rather than full, links. As a result, it appears that there’s nothing I can do to actually fix this problem. I’m passing it on to local Tech Support (also known as “Mrs. P”) to contact the domain host and ask them to remove the bleeping redirect. I don’t need this site to be SSL and their implementation of the certificate has caused hours of problems for absolutely no benefit whatsoever.

Net result: FAIL.

So I did this.

And this.

Yes, I’m aware that the field boundaries and roads don’t quite line up… I had a choice between making the airfield remains match the historical photograph or making the surrounding area match the historical photograph, so I went for the airfield option. If you take off the old photo, the airfield sits perfectly on the modern day imagery beneath it. Lens effect maybe? Not sure. Whatever. I now need to try and find a Aerodrome Reference Plan or something to place all the buildings, because while they are clearly visible on the old photo, they’re far from identifiable on it, unfortunately.

Or I could just guess!

Posted in Flight Simulator, Historical Scenery, Site NewsTagged Bedford, Hunsdon, QLD, SSL, Website News, X2HULeave a Comment on Going Nowhere, Slowly.

Found the answer…

Posted on 8th January 20198th January 2019 by Ian P

“Please also note that you must link to images and files on your website using a relative link e.g. images/test.jpg rather than using an absolute link e.g. http://www.ianpsdarkcorner.co.uk/images/test.jpg. Using the latter will result in a security warning. “

You don’t say, webhost. You could also have asked me if I wanted this before just doing it, perhaps?

Where’s the “uncontrollable sobbing” emoticon when you need it? If anyone needs me, I’ll be deep in the innards of WordPress trying to convert every URL anywhere in my posting and page creation history. Or sitting in an even darker corner(tm!), rocking gently and hugging a Build-a-Bear borrowed from Youngest P.

Posted in Site News, UncategorisedTagged May Contain Swearing, Website NewsLeave a Comment on Found the answer…

Transparency Solidified

Posted on 7th January 20197th January 2019 by Ian P

OK, so it may not look that pretty, but I’ve solved the unreadable menus problem, using the “Additional CSS” tab, significant amounts of poking and prodding, plus a lot of scrolling through lists of colour names that browsers will recognise and display, then trial and error to find a combination that works.

Next up? Trying to fix the fact that certain AV programs still keep giving a “fail safe” false positive and insisting that my website is unsafe. I do actually have scenery to publish, but I have to get the site working, first!

Continue reading “Transparency Solidified”
Posted in Site NewsTagged AV, CSS, SSL, Website NewsLeave a Comment on Transparency Solidified

Transparency Trials and Tribbles.

Posted on 5th January 20195th January 2019 by Ian P

Anyone who has visited my site recently will almost certainly have noticed that it “doesn’t look quite right”. Unsurprising, really, as it’s currently using a rather nice, but apparently far from perfect, downloaded Theme called “Sylvan“.

Continue reading “Transparency Trials and Tribbles.”
Posted in Site NewsTagged #FedUp, CSS, WordPressLeave a Comment on Transparency Trials and Tribbles.

AV (Bit)defending a “Bit” Too Well

Posted on 20th December 2018 by Ian P

I’m aware of a problem that users of Bitdefender Free AntiVirus can’t get to the site at present. This appears to be because BitDefender – and only BitDefender – identifies apparently any JavaScript file within the new WordPress v5 installation as being malicious.
Continue reading “AV (Bit)defending a “Bit” Too Well”

Posted in Site NewsTagged AV, Bitdefender, Site News, WordPressLeave a Comment on AV (Bit)defending a “Bit” Too Well

HMS Tern: A Question of AI.

Posted on 21st October 2018 by Ian P

Right. Dragging my head out of The Dark Corner and trying to actually achieve something again – other than tidying the dumping ground that was dining room table, which I achieved at about one o’clock this morning!

HMS Tern was a RN Fleet Air Arm Fleet Requirements station in the Orkney islands. The airfield itself was actually named after an adjacent village, but if I use the proper name the major search engines will decide that I’m an adult content site, so HMS Tern it is! If you want to know where I’m talking about, the other adjaent village is Isbister, which would have been a much better name, but someone at the Admiralty clearly had a sense of humour!

Anyway, this isn’t a discussion about the name, it’s a question… I need to set up some AI to test the layout and would be interested to know if there are any WW2 Fleet Air Arm models that people would like to see included? No guarantees can be given that anything will be included – I have a handful of commercial ones installed and can use freeware ones, obviously, but finances (or a complete lack thereof) say very clearly that I won’t be buying any more payware to do this.

Oh, one other thing, this version of the airfield won’t include the unique tower which is still present on the airfield site. I’d love to model it, but it’s a long way down the list at present.

Let me know via the comments box or contact page (or by e-mail if you have actually read one of my readme files!) if you have any suggestions. Ta!

Posted in Flight Simulator, Historical Scenery, SceneryTagged AI Traffic, Fleet Air Arm, HMS tern, Orkney, Royal Navy5 Comments on HMS Tern: A Question of AI.

Blog: Papier Mache, Friends and Where the Heck is that Thought Going?

Posted on 4th October 2018 by Ian P

A while ago, when I asked whether people would be interested in seeing more blog-type posts from me, a number of people said yes. Unfortunately, if that’s why you’re reading this, it’s not what you were after. Sorry.

That does, however, cover a little portion of what I want to type about here. I’ll get to it after the first bit. Unfortunately, because of the nature of why I’m writing this, it’s going to be a bit of a stream of consciousness post because the purpose is quite simple: I need to get a whole bunch of things sorted in my head and I’m having real problems doing so.

Most of the people I know are far more aware than they want to be that my head is absolutely messed up at the moment. It’s more screwed up than most of the Sunday Times that I’m trying to turn into papier mache and failing to glue down to try and make a OO gauge hill out the back of the house. Because of this and because I’m spending most of my time with only myself and occasionally an extremely un-affectionate cat for company, I get to think way too much. This is the end result.

So, the topic of today’s epic ramble? Friends. That and letting people down, because the two are kind of related.

I told a bit of a lie during my PIP medical last week. It wasn’t intentional and no, you don’t need to report me to the DWP over it either, because it’s not directly related to PIP. I said that one of the reasons I have no intention of killing myself is because I know a lot of the people who would have to pick up the pieces. Specifically, I said that I have a number of friends who are Ambulance crew. This isn’t really true. What I have is a number of people I have met who are Ambulance crew and something of an understanding, courtesy of GoPros-stuck-everywhere documentaries and posts on social media, of what they go through in their working lives. I communicate on and off with a few of them in a friendly way, but does that make them friends? I guess it depends on context.

Like many words, ‘friend’ is actually very hard to define. According to the little Webster’s Dictionary that, like any good wannabe writer, I keep beside my desk, it’s defined as “a person whom one knows well and is fond of; an ally, supporter.”

That’s quite a reasonable definition, but to me, it doesn’t fully cover what “friend” means. A friend is someone that you spend time with, nattering or whatever. Someone who you can not see for days, weeks, months, then when you do see them again, it’s like no time has passed at all – you’re both just as rude, sarcastic and understanding as you were the last time you spoke to them! So here’s the rub. I have very few “friends”, by my definition. I have a whole lot more “acquaintances” or “people I only know through the internet”. I’d like to be “friends” with a lot of them, but I’m not, not really. Right now, anyway, I cannot help but feel that I am letting pretty much all of them, as well as myself, down, constantly.

Coming up very soon (this weekend, in fact) is the flight simulation show at Cosford. It’s well worth visiting and we normally go, if only to meet up with a bunch of people that I know through the internet and one or two friends that I only get to see at events like this because of the physical distance between us. This year I’d particularly like to go, because a friend that I haven’t seen for years is definitely going to be there and I hope that another one who was there last year will be too. But I also don’t want to, because there will be a number of developers and vendors there as well, who have given me access to stuff in the past in return for doing something which ended up not getting done – entirely because of me.

I over promise and under-deliver. I know I do. It’s not intentional, I absolutely thoroughly intend to do everything I say I will, but sometimes it turns out to not be as practical as I thought or, at the moment, even when it is practical, I just cannot concentrate on it or bring myself to start doing it. My current bugbear is the Flight Replicas Halifax; Mike gave me a copy on the grounds that I would do repaints for it. I have a load in mind, both real-world and fictional. I have one complete one, one incomplete one and probably a dozen that I really want to do on the desktop of my other computer, but… I can’t do them. I can’t get them to a standard that I’m happy with, or there’s something that has become a bit of a roadblock like a logo that I’ll need to recreate, or question of colour, which means I end up not doing anything. To anyone outside my damnable head, that will come across as the fact that I either didn’t think the model was worth repainting, that I was just too lazy to finish them, or that I lied when I said that I’d repaint it. None of those are correct, but I am absolutely letting Mike down, because I haven’t done what I said I would. Now let’s try another one. I was supposed to be a beta tester, or am supposed to be a beta tester, for a number of commercial software companies. The intent is good. I absolutely and completely intend to get on there, use my well thought through and much used (if not actually written down…) test procedures to check what does and doesn’t work, offer advice, answer questions and everything else a good tester should do. I do this, because I cannot afford to buy the software, but I can use my donkeys years of experience to help the developer and/or publisher in return for a copy of the product I can’t afford…. Then I sit down and stare at a blank screen, or end up playing X3 Albion Prelude, World of Warships or something for hours and don’t do the testing. For what it’s worth, I’m also not using the product that I got without paying for it, but I’m not doing what I said I would, what I actually want to do. I’m usually sitting down thinking about all the things I should be doing… then hitting “BATTLE” again, to try and actually not-die-yet-again in a tier VI Cruiser. I’ll end up sunk. I always do.

So as the title says – which I really did lose the plot of where I was going with it mid typing – where the heck is this thought, and this long ramble, going. Er… I don’t know. Like I also said earlier, it’s a bit of a stream of consciousness. Me trying to get my head around stuff and, potentially, trying to explain to people why, whether they’re friends, acquaintances, or people I know off the internet, that I’m not the lazy assed scrounging bar steward I appear to be. I just no longer actually seem to know what I’m doing or how to do it, which means that I end up sitting and thinking or hours, procrastinating by doing other stuff and not doing what I’ve promised I will. Yup. I suck. Sorry.

Oh, and one last thought before I hit “publish” and wait for feedback I don’t expect to get, even if anyone is still reading by this point… Yes, I am staying away from talking to Ambulance crews for a while, because my wannabe writer brain came up with this fantastic idea of writing about a sci-fi colonial Paramedic. It’s actually a really interesting idea to pursue, but I don’t want to get into a situation where people that I really would like to be “friends” with rather than “an acquaintance of” think that I’m trying to get information out of them, or use them in any other way.

I guess I really am shutting up now (oh, boy am I glad that I spotted and corrected THAT typo!) and going back to procrastinating by something else, instead. Or I might actually do something useful, but it’ll probably be washing up or sorting clothes or something, rather than any of the hundreds of things I’ve told people that I’ll do. My damned shoulder still hurts where I fell on it a couple of days ago.

/me puts a zip on his fingers before he types any more wor…

Posted in blogTagged blog, Mental Health, Procrastination3 Comments on Blog: Papier Mache, Friends and Where the Heck is that Thought Going?

Morris at the Gym?

Posted on 25th August 2018 by Ian P

It’s been a while since I posted anything again, so here’s a quick update; mainly about WW2 Halfpenny Green and trucks… Because I never mention them, right?

Halfpenny Green first. I’ve been working on the domestic side of the road again, this time adding the still-extant Gym/Church (Dwg 16428/40+15424/41) to the layout.

As you might expect from me, this led on to other things, including a Cinema 8891/42 and the whole set of a
16428/40+15434/41+8891/42. These are now in the IJP_WW2_RAF_Domestic library, in both brick and rendered versions, along with the also still extant Squash Court 16589/40.

I still need to do the WAAF Ablution block (16339/41?) and Standby Set House (unknown drawing number) which are on the farm site, plus the Petrol Pumphouse, Batmens Quarters and Officers’ Mess, all of which are also still extant on site but on local drawing numbers which no-one seems to have, unfortunately. At some point, I need to go and beg the campsite owner to let me hunt for traces of the timber construction Sick Quarters, but the rest of the extant buildings are on the farm site. I also need to approach airfield management for permission to get to the outside of the cinema (which is a VERY unstable ruin) to see what I can photograph and work out of that, as it bears no dimensional comparison to any of the cinema drawings I’m aware of. It’s too fat and too long!

The other thing I set out to do was that I found a nice photo of a USAAF runway control vehicle based on a Morris GS8 4×2 15cwt truck chassis, which I thought would make a nice change from the generic towed caravan that I put everywhere using SODE. I haven’t made the RWC vehicle yet, because I got a bit sidetracked… By General Service Open, Covered and cab roof versions, along with all three models including Explosive Ordnance Disposal red mud guards.

Excuse all the extra white space, please – the system currently has two screens attached and it seems to be confusing my graphics packages.

Anyway. These are currently only in “Mickey Mouse Ears” camo (c1 in my model nomenclature) apart from one test EOD vehicle in Royal Navy blue for HMS Tern/RNAS Voldemort (“The Airfield That Shall Not Be Named!”). These have their own “IJP_WW2_RAF_MorrisVehicles” library, as there are more Morris models to come and RAFVehicles is getting really rather overloaded! Should I break that up into smaller libraries, bundle them all together, or leave it as it is? You tell me! 🙂

Posted in blog, Flight Simulator, Historical Scenery, Object LibrariesTagged Blender, Church, Cinema, development, FSX, Gym, Halfpenny Green, Modelling, RAF, WW2Leave a Comment on Morris at the Gym?

Elvington version 2

Posted on 8th August 2018 by Ian P

I’ve finally got around to uploading RAF Elvington version 2.0 for FSX to the server. It’s been done for a couple of weeks, but I have a number of issues going on with my health at the moment, so it’s taken me way too long to get around to actually packaging and uploading it. It’s now available here, supported by a new release of my scenery objects, which can be found either via the link on the Elvington page, or the top menu bar. I’ll try and get the All in One files updated as soon as possible, to include the new files.

Posted in Flight Simulator, Historical SceneryTagged Elvington, FSX, historical, RAF, sceneryLeave a Comment on Elvington version 2

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