KevinM

This is way cooler than an ACE membership!

That's interesting, thanks Robb. To be honest, I'm surprised that they went with a charging system. 30 second charge sounds like capacitors to me, but I could be wrong. I wonder if someone could come up with a system that did take power from the kinetic energy, much like the alternator in a car. Of course, this is going to slow down the coaster somewhat, but I think it could be done for some coasters. Now I have to go do some calculations...

I'm sorry if this was covered elsewhere, but search provided nothing for me. So I'm a student of electrical engineering, and a few days ago I was looking at some pics of X2. I realized that I'd never thought about how the onboard audio works. I know audio coasters have those big boxes, but where does the electricity come from? Are there batteries or capacitors in the box that get charged up in the station? Or is power somehow generated from the kinetic energy of the trains? Something completely different? It's been bugging me for a few days now. If anyone knows, please enlighten me.

If I started talking about how into coffee I am, I would go over the word limit. Instead, I'm just going to post a picture. It's nowhere near the best cappuccino you'll ever see, but... it's mine.

Woah, with all the extra flab on Dick's face I thought he was Rush Limbaugh for a minute...

I'm not into photoshopping at all... in fact I used paint. Here's my feeble attempt: Activision: Guitar Game (Official Entry)

I think they chose the right name. If this were in the US it would be called "Michael Phelps's 8 Times Phelpingly Awesome Phelps-o-Rama-Land Water Park". I still hate the Michael Phelps marketing hype.

I've always thought that ACE Coaster Classic is really a dumb specification. Technically adding seatbelts would take away its classic status, under the "side to side" or airtime rules. But it has nothing to do with the coaster itself. There's no rules about what kind of brakes it has. Heck, it could probably have a launch, as long as the trains are free of "restrictions".

It looks like you guys are right in saying how flaky and low-tech the ride-time system in Q-Bot is. Here's what Lo-Q says: So as it stands now, the Q-Bot system isn't all that smart. I got that snippet from this PDF.

^I would have to agree that developing and maintaining that type of application would likely cost more than its worth. But I'd bet Six Flags could get approximate wait times out of their existing Q-Bot infrastructure. Obviously if the Q-Bot "knows" the wait time, they could tie that into something else relatively easily. But does this really bring many more guests in? It's a nice feature, but I don't think enough people would know or care if a park added it.

I really wish I could have gone to GAm this October. GAm has been my homepark, but after starting college I'm too far. (Six Flags St. Louis does a poor job of fright fest IMO.) Terror Twister was ALWAYS a must-ride, and this new set-up is INSANE! Synchronized lighting? New tracks? (Don't get me wrong, Sandstorm is cool and all, but it's old.) That's almost worth the trip home!

^Well the touchsmarts are about 40-50 pounds each... quite deadly.

I've been using the various released versions of 7 since public beta... it has actually torn me away from Linux. And just last week I bought an HP Touchsmart... multi touch on Windows 7 is great. Touchscreen computers are going to start flying off the shelves not too long from now.

Lines were so long today, even my Gold Q-Bot had 30 minute+ virtual waits for a few rides. Demon had the longest waits!

I went today, showed up RIGHT at the chain drop. It was really crowded, so on a whim I decided to spring for a Q-Bot (which I've never done). Unfortunately, they had unexplained "problems" with the system so they didn't let us in right away. I elected to wait in line for it to get fixed. At one point, I saw someone bring in a bundle of blue Q-Bots (the operator units). It took a whole hour, but they finally fixed it. After listening to some other people in line, I was swayed into buying the Gold Q-Bot (and we were issued $5 off coupons-- an apology for the wait?). What an amazing device! I don't think I would drop $50+ dollars for it every time, but it made for a hell of a day. Between 11-4, I got on 20 rides, only waiting in two full queues (and short ones-- King Chaos and Giant Drop). Anyone else have similar experiences with the Q-Bots not being available at open?

My favorite piece of all time is Ralph Vaughn Williams's Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. I guess I'm sort of a strings purist. The sounds that come out of that piece are incredible, at times it sounds like an organ, and in very brief instances it sounds like a human chorus. All of it is done with only strings. My other favorites would be Dvorak's New World Symphony, Barber's Adagio for Strings, Die Moldau by Smetana, and Die Hebriden by Mendelssohn.

(Sorry about pulling up an old-ish thread) I've sunk nearly $1,000 on espresso (my machine/grinder and a training session I took) so I take my coffee pretty seriously. IMO the very best coffee, either for home brewing or in the shop is Intelligentsia. They have three coffeebars in Chicago (near me) and two in California... these people are the best in the country. Also, they take incredible care in selecting beans... the Black Cat Espresso is amazing. You won't believe what a difference fresh roast can make.

Aren't modern water rides designed to adjust splash levels based on the weather? The water levels at the bottom of the trough look pretty low, it could hold some more water. Anyway, I'm not actually a fan of getting wet, unless it's in a water park setting. Holiday World is genius for having a Splashin' Safari entrance so riders can take on that awesome drop without wearing wet clothes for hours afterward. Do they have any solid plans for a splash bridge or a splash area of some kind?

Firefox 3 for Linux, 1st video only.

Do they actually allow parking on the causeway? That's crazy.

Here's my desktop. It's very, very simple. Do you see some weird, faint stuff in the "background"? We'll that's because it's semi-transparent. My desktop can do this: It's pretty sweet. Edit: Those blurred out parts of the Panel ("menu bar") are where the user switcher is, which had my full name on it.