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F-15 Eagle – F-16 Fighting Falcon – P51 Mustang

F-15 Eagle – F-16 Fighting Falcon – P51 Mustang

From Abbotsford Air Show 2006

Wikipedia entry: Boeing (McDonnell Douglas) F-15 Eagle
Wikipedia entry: Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon
Wikipedia entry: North American Aviation P-51 Mustang


A-10 Thunderbolt 2 “Warthog”

A-10 Thunderbolt 2 “Warthog”

From Abbotsford Air Show 2006

Wikipedia entry:A-10 Thunderbolt 2

This is a test to see if I can embed pictures using Picassa web albums in my posts, and apparently it works.

– Mike


Red Storm Rising Classic PC game (MS-Dos)

I totally forgot/ didn’t know that there was actually a game called Red Storm Rising for the PC (Published in 1989). As I was curious to see what the game was all about, I registered at the site and downloaded the game (here is the link: http://www.classic-pc-games.com/pc/simulations/red_storm_rising.html, to actually download the game you will have to visit a sponsor site and fly through some hoops).

In the game it is World War III (just like the book) and you play a United States Submarine captain tasked with stopping the Russian Navy. You can be a captain in different classes of submarines, such as the Los Angeles class, the Permit Class, etc.

I only played it briefly last night and got stuck at one of the screens because I did not know which keyboard commands to use.

The graphics of the game are horrible but then again the game was published in 1989 and alot has changed over the years.

Enjoy!


United States Navy Ranks

The following table shows the ranks used in the United States Navy. The order of rank is from lowest to highest rank.

Rank Collar Sleeve Pay Grade Abbreviation Enlisted/Officer
Seaman Recruit None None E-1 SR Enlisted
Seaman Apprentice None E-2 SA Enlisted
Seaman None E-3 SN Enlisted
Petty Officer
Third Class
None E-4 PO3 Enlisted
Petty Officer
Second Class
None E-5 PO2 Enlisted
Petty Officer
First Class
None E-6 PO1 Enlisted
Chief Petty Officer E-7 CPO Enlisted
Senior Chief
Petty Officer
E-8 SCPO Enlisted
Master Chief
Petty Officer
E-9 MCPO Enlisted
Master Chief
Petty Officer
of the Navy
E-9 MCPON Enlisted
Chief Warrant Officer W-2 CWO2 Warrant Officer
Chief Warrant Officer W-3 CWO3 Warrant Officer
Chief Warrant Officer W-4 CWO4 Warrant Officer
Chief Warrant Officer W-5 CWO5 Warrant Officer
Ensign O-1 ENS Officer
Lieutenant
Junior Grade
O-2 LTJG Officer
Lieutenant O-3 LT Officer
Lieutenant
Commander
O-4 LDCR Officer
Commander O-5 CDR Officer
Captain O-6 CAPT Officer
Rear Admiral
(lower half)
O-7 RDML Officer
Rear Admiral
(upper half)
O-8 RADM Officer
Vice Admiral O-9 VADM Officer
Admiral O-10 ADM Officer
Fleet Admiral (for War time only) Special FADM Officer

Rank Insignia and descriptions are from the following two wikipedia pages: EnlistedOfficers

Click here to go back to the Red Storm Rising map


Red Storm Rising Board Game

I found out that there is actually a board game based on the book Red Storm Rising. I had a quick look and it seems like a pretty cool game.

You can find the link here: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/3707

Pretty cool.

Mike.


Animations in Google Maps

For the last couple of days I have been trying to get some animation going on the Red Storm Rising Map, and I finally succeeded.

Luckily for me there are a lot of resources available for Google Maps. The most help I got was from this website: http://econym.googlepages.com/index.htm, to make the animation work I also added the epolys.js javascript to my javascript file, the epolys.js was written by Mike Williams who is the web master at http://econym.googlepages.com/index.htm

I want the animation on here because throughout the book there are some interesting things that can be animated (I think).

If you want to have a look you can find it at this location and then select “chapter 2”.

enjoy,

Mike.

United States Air Force ranks

The following table shows the ranks used in the United States Air Force. The order of rank is from lowest to highest rank.

Rank/Title Insignia Pay Grade Abbreviation Enlisted/Officer
Airman Basic No Insignia E-1 AB Enlisted
Airman E-2 Airman E-2 Amn Enlisted
Airman First Class E-3 Airman First Class E-3 A1C Enlisted
Senior Airman E-4 Senior Airman E-4 SrA Enlisted
Staff Sergeant E-5 Staff Sergeant E-5 SSgt Enlisted
Technical Sergeant E-6 Technical Sergeant E-6 TSgt Enlisted
Master Sergeant E-7 Master Sergeant E-7 MSgt Enlisted
Master Sergeant E-7 Master Sergeant E-7 MSgt (A diamond on the insignia indicates special duty held by a senior enlisted member of a military unit) Enlisted
Senior Master Sergeant E-8 Senior Master Sergeant E-8 SMSgt Enlisted
Senior Master Sergeant E-8 Senior Master Sergeant E-8 SMSgt (Same as Master Sergeant, A diamond on the insignia indicates special duty held by a senior enlisted member of a military unit ) Enlisted
Chief Master Sergeant E-9 Chief Master Sergeant E-9 CMSgt Enlisted
Chief Master Sergeant E-9 Chief Master Sergeant E-9 CMSgt (Same as Master Sergeant, A diamond on the insignia indicates special duty held by a senior enlisted member of a military unit ) Enlisted
Command Chief Master Sergeant E-9 Command Chief Master Sergeant E-9 CCM Enlisted
Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force E-9 Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force E-9 CMSAF Enlisted
Second Lieutenant O-1 Second Lieutenant O-1 2d Lt Officer
First Lieutenant O-2 First Lieutenant O-2 1st Lt Officer
Captain O-3 Captain O-3 Capt Officer
Major O-4 Major O-4 Maj Officer
Lieutenant Colonel O-5 Lieutenant Colonel O-5 Lt Col Officer
Colonel O-6 Colonel O-6 Col Officer
Brigadier General O-7 Brigadier General O-7 Brig Gen Officer
Major General O-8 Major General O-8 Maj Gen Officer
Lieutenant General O-9 Lieutenant General O-9 Lt Gen Officer
General O-10 General O-10 Gen Officer
General of the Air Force O-11 General of the Air Force n/a Gen USAF (This is a Honorary rank) Officer

Rank Insignia and descriptions are from the following two wikipedia pages: EnlistedOfficers

Click here to go back to the Red Storm Rising map


Another thought…

Imagine this scenario:

You are the proud owner of a new iPod Touch or iPhone and downloaded an audio book from Audible.com to listen too. Lets say you downloaded a fictional novel and the story talks about fighter pilots and their planes.

So you are happily listening along and the story talks about an F-14 fighter plane taking off from an aircraft carrier, after the sentence ends the audio player pauses. You look at the screen of your audio player and there is a button that indicates a video is available, you press the button. After you press the button the audio player displays a movie of an F-14 fighter plane taking off from, you guessed it, an aircraft carrier.

How cool would that be?

Of course if you do not press the button the story will just continue for your listening pleasures.Can you imagine if this technology was added to a download of Dan Brown’s

the Da Vinci Code

You would be able to see a clear picture of the Mona Lisa or the last supper, track the path the two main characters travel on Google maps, reference material from the Knights Templar, etc.It is almost like an interactive game.. or interactive TV…

just some ideas…

– mike

Kindle (e-book) and google maps

I was looking at the Kindle on the Amazon website and this struck me as cool; what if the Kindle or any other e-book reader was capable of displaying Google maps. Meaning that when you read your book on the Kindle and on one of the pages a reference is made to a location on earth or mars or somewhere in space, you can then highlight that reference and display it in Google maps.

Cool? I think so…

– Mike


Red Storm Rising on Google Maps

I have created a google map that follows the events that can be traced to a location in a Google Map. Hopefully I can update this map often as I re-read the chapters of Red Storm Rising.I am still tweaking the design a bit as I’m learning more and more about google maps, the following website helped me enormously:Â http://econym.googlepages.com/index.htm and of course google map API website as well.You can click here to view the page.Let me know what you think or give me any suggestions at highcarbbooks@gmail.com -Mike