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turbofandude

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Everything posted by turbofandude

  1. Those are some big claims my friend. You clearly underestimate how much goes into/went into smartCARS (some 20,000+ lines of code, now). There's a lot more than just tracking flight data - A LOT. That said, some friendly competition is always good. However, I have to ask: how much experience do you really have? If you know how to code so well, you know how long it takes and how hard it is, so at the prices you're charging, you're not going to be making a whole lot per hour of work put in, especially when you're making each deployment custom. Doing that also makes adding new features or fixing issues infinitely more difficult. There's also the time you'll spend offering support, planning future services, or in our case, money spent on maintaining recurring cloud services so your customers don't have to. As well, mobile apps are not free to make and will cut into your already thin time and profits, so unless you have a good plan, it'll complicate things. Finally, consider the feature requests you can't honor due to technical limitations in FSUIPC, or in most cases, the underlying FS system or incompatibility with your program's policy. Now, if you've already thought about all of these and have a solid plan, I'm impressed. If not, you should. Feel free to reach out to us for insight, if you'd like. None of this is meant to be negative, for the record. It's being realistic. We do our best to do the best we can for our customers and for our product and we try to remain as humble as possible, so tall, unsupported claims or lack of appreciation for what goes into what we do bothers us, considering we're a team with over 10 years combined experience.
  2. Brian, Is the data in the database table and just not displaying on the site or is it not in the database at all?
  3. Wow, I offer my sincerest apologies for that. The author of those emails is no longer sending marketing based emails, and I assure you, that issue will never happen again.
  4. I'm very sorry to hear you've been having trouble with the software, but we've never had such a report. If you wouldn't mind, please PM me with more information so that we may reach a resolution. As far as customizations, I can see your point of view, however, Ryan is right about smartCARS2 - the amount of things that can be added will be vastly improved. What emails have you received? This is not a technique I approve of, nor would we intentionally bother someone who wasn't interested. I'd like to follow up with you about this.
  5. He's right, the phpVMS system serializes a parsed version of the route the pilot specified, and if there isn't one specified, it tries to use the one from the schedule. As long as the ACARS reports the route, it should work (which smartCARS does). I've pushed an update to Zach's server with a potential solution to this issue. On a side note, smartCARS can do the post-PIREP position report system, it just requires the use of our smartCARS API (available upon request) and a little setup.
  6. Thank you, and I appreciate you keeping an open mind. Hopefully in the future we'll have something more suited to your needs.
  7. In order to avoid bickering, I'm going to make this short: having spent years working for a web hosting company, the above simply isn't true. Almost every hosting company has policies that prevent this in their terms of service that you must agree to.
  8. Before responding to concerns regarding our stability and longevity, first let me explain why we do what we do. Most of the features that use our resources do so in order to allow us ways to expand the software beyond what would be possible otherwise. Competitors' software requires more setup than ours in most cases, and is not as dynamic. For us to change the domain name/installation, it takes two clicks and a few minutes to update - not a code rebuild. We are working towards a completely dynamic and cloud platform, which isn't possible when each instance of smartCARS is privately managed. Now, in response to our longevity, I think it is unfair to not purchase a product due to speculation regarding the company's future - not only has TFDi been around for several years, but it has adapted its approach to maintain relevance and ensure appropriate decisions are made throughout that time. We would not leave our customers stuck, should the day ever come when smartCARS isn't supported. Are we not allowed an opportunity to remove references to our servers and resources in the code to ensure its functionality without TFDi's servers? Not purchasing the product simply because it relies on our servers is comparable to not purchasing web hosting because the company may close. Is there always a possibility? Yes. However, some of the arguments I've heard regarding it are more speculation than rational concern, although, their voices have been heard. Again, we use our own infrastructure to create a more desirable and functional final product. Let's take into consideration our chat system, and why it cannot be hosted by virtual airlines in a way similar to kACARS. Our system uses a real-time custom server API to manage chat systems - it is not simply a message re-directer. We have a custom-coded server control panel that manages this, and allows us to ensure that our system is always secure and operational. If a private entity was to host their own smartCARS system, not only would the inter-airline community of pilots that is quickly developing be impossible, but the group would require a virtual server capable of handling our software; it is not a web application. Regarding server stability, their is no way to escape the risk of downtime. Whether we host it or not, there server still exists somewhere, and is just as vulnerable to unfortunate events as any other server. The difference is, it is our job to ensure these systems are functional, where as private groups may have more pressing concerns to attend to during a time of crisis than the ACARS system. For those of you concerned, allow us to reassure you that we take downtime as seriously as our customers. However, it is difficult to reimburse customers who experience an issue when we have already promised them free updates, support, and use of our systems for life in one affordable price. Finally, thank you all for your compliments on the software, as we have worked very hard to earn them - it is, after all, your support that allows us to do what we enjoy, and to make our hobbies profitable. If I come across harsh, I don't mean to - I'm simply offering my response to the concerns posed here this evening. I respect everyone's opinion, and appreciate their input on the software. Whether some of the users reading this post become customers or not, as always, I appreciate the interest. Thank you,
  9. The price increase, although it seems steep, was also done as a way to cover our expenses. There used to be a recurring fee, however, due to negative responses to it, we increased the initial price and dropped the recurring fee. The use of our file delivery system, webservers, and chat servers is provided for life in that $69.99 - we never charge for upgrades either, meaning that if you purchase smartCARS now and in two years we release a totally revamped version, you'll get the new one for free.
  10. Sir, We have added a pre-sales contact link on our order form, and you can reach our team at admin@tfdidesign.com.
  11. I ended up solving his problem - he wasn't missing the table, it was just not shown in the code he copied and pasted. I pulled the data from the database manually and date filtered it. I have attached the relevant code below: <table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="4" class="acarsmap"> <thead> <tr> <td><b>Pilot</b></td> <td><b>Flight Number</b></td> <td><b>Departure</b></td> <td><b>Arrival</b></td> <td><b>Status</b></td> <td><b>Altitude</b></td> <td><b>Speed</b></td> <td><b>Time Remaining</b></td> </tr> </thead> <tbody id="pilotlist"> <? $q = "SELECT * FROM phpvms_acarsdata"; $l = DB::get_results($q); foreach($l as $fl) { $lu = strtotime($fl->lastupdate); $min_u = strtotime(date("Y-m-d") - 900); if($lu > $min_u) { echo("<tr>"); echo("<td>".$fl->pilotname."</td>"); echo("<td>".$fl->flightnum."</td>"); echo("<td>".$fl->depicao."</td>"); echo("<td>".$fl->arricao."</td>"); echo("<td>".$fl->phasedetail."</td>"); echo("<td>".$fl->alt." feet</td>"); echo("<td>".$fl->gs." knots</td>"); echo("<td>".$fl->timeremaining."</td>"); echo("</tr>"); } } ?> </tbody> </table>
  12. I have adjusted the link, sorry about that. As well, screenshots have already been uploaded on the product page.
  13. Folks, TFDi has launched its brand new custom ACARS system! It currently supports phpVMS systems, with plans for custom system support in the near future. More information, screenshots and the product video are available at http://tfdidesign.com/products/smartcars.php Benefits For Pilots Fluid, dynamic user interface High speed connectivity Straight forward and informative flight information Detailed flight log Multi-bid support In-app route search and bid management GPWS callout system (with two different callout types) Flight attendent announcements Chat with the whole smartCARS community, or just your airline Automatic login Extensive options Benefits For Airlines Web License Management (not available for the November 4th release) Cloud-based pilot chat (driven by the smartCARSâ„¢ Cloud_x64 System) Automatic updating (web script and pilot clients automatically update) Extensive logging options (not available in November 4th release) Customized login screen (your logo and airline name)
  14. Thank you, I'm glad everyone likes the design so far! (I'm the developer). @LEV249-Tory H and @Vantity: PM me so we can continue the discussion.
  15. I should be able to make an ACARS up to your standards (including the appropriate PHP scripts).
  16. Folks, I am the Chief Executive Officer of the web host that hosts Palmer Virtual Airways (TFDi Design's FlightHost), and I can assure you that any issues regarding copyright are taken very seriously. Any reports can be filed via admin@tfdidesign.com and an FlightHost administrator will investigate the issue and take the appropriate action to guarantee that all parties are satisfied. We apologize for the late response, however we did read the post and followed up with Palmer earlier this afternoon. -- Collin Biedenkapp, CEO, TFDi Design http://tfdidesign.com (Addons for FSX) http://tfdidesign.com/flighthost (The web hosting)
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