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photo of Reinout Meier-Mattern

Reinout Meier-Mattern

Building my world...

Flight simulators - after the demise of MSFS4

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Microsoft had to cut some 5.000 jobs and killed its famous Flight Simulator first. A shock went through the few million or so users of it. Even I now and then played it and 'flew' from Valencia to Mallorca. In 1989 Microsoft acquired the license to sell it. Begin 2009 it had to abandon it. Company difficulties required to strap the belt a notch tighter. That sounds familiar these days. What are the alternatives? Microsoft claims to go on creating 'great LIVE experiences on Windows, including flying games", but what is told to be 'great' not always was so, thinking of 'Sky Doom' and 'Crimson Skies'. X-Plane could be a valid alternative perhaps. The one's demise could be the rise of another. Maybe also FlightGear that I never got working. A small group of different flight simulators teaming up as well, even Google-Earth offering their experience. For the happy few fanatics a lot of work to make a transition from one type of sim to another. Particularly when some interesting hardware is involved.

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Costa Desperado or Costa del Sol?

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If you still own a few thousands of dollars and don't live in the USA, go on holidays at the Spanish south-coast, the Costa Del Sol. Not that your journey will cost that much, but to go secure you survive the temptation to buy property there. Particularly the region around Marbella has always attracted home buyers from multiple nationalities. Apart from the Andalucian way of life and a precious local climate this region has solid State investment plans for improvement of the infra-structure in place, that despite the current economical crisis will make it -in due course- a new haven for investors. Different this time though. Who travels the region today will get the impression of a costa desperado...

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January 2010
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