Improving RadarBox Automatic Database Population

[tarbat]

When you mention 1270 silhouettes on Ian K's site, I take it this figure included the 100's of ones not yet available?

No.  In the download that IanK provides, there are 1339 silhouettes.  70 of these are copies with "Airbus", "Boeing", "Antonov" on them, leaving 1269 actual unique silhouettes.  Alright, some of these are for ground vehicles, etc.

I dont see anything wrong with users themselves going to the site as has been done for years and getting them ourselves and re-sizing., do we really need a nanny state to do everything for us?

Unfortunately I think we do, since end-users complain about missing silhouettes when all they have to do is download IanK's silhouettes, resize them to 68x16, and save them all in the data/silhouettes folder.

After all, it was IanK that provided the Radabox silhouettes in the first place.

[Runway 31]

Yes I was aware who provided then and I am greatful for his work.  I hadnt realised there were that many actual silhouettes.

I hear what you say but still think that nanny state thinking is a bit much to expect.  Point people in the right direction and let them have a go themselves.

Alan

[Bob SEN]

Dont see what all the fuss is about really.......... you go buy a car & then put in the stereo/seatcovers/nodding dog or whatever you want to personalise it..... the Radarbox suits me fine, yes granted there are things I would like to see added & also options on there that I am not interested in, but on the whole what we have is people in the community that are putting themselves out to make this product better....... which works for me !!!

but that said, I think as already mentioned it would be a good idea to "automate" things like silhouettes for those that arent too up on pc's .... but thats just my opinion

[tarbat]

Point people in the right direction and let them have a go themselves.

http://www.airnavsystems.com/forum/index.php?topic=4648.msg46529#msg46529

[ACW367]

When you mention 1270 silhouettes on Ian K's site, I take it this figure included the 100's of ones not yet available?

No.  In the download that IanK provides, there are 1339 silhouettes.  70 of these are copies with "Airbus", "Boeing", "Antonov" on them, leaving 1269 actual unique silhouettes.  Alright, some of these are for ground vehicles, etc.

I dont see anything wrong with users themselves going to the site as has been done for years and getting them ourselves and re-sizing., do we really need a nanny state to do everything for us?

Unfortunately I think we do, since end-users complain about missing silhouettes when all they have to do is download IanK's silhouettes, resize them to 68x16, and save them all in the data/silhouettes folder.

After all, it was IanK that provided the Radabox silhouettes in the first place.

Whoa guys. Ian K very publically on this forum stated that his Intellectual Property would not be available to Airnav users.  To advocate resizing them breaks his IPR and leaves any found doing so, up for legal action from Ian K - if he should so chose.  I am not a legal expert, but was privy to extensive guidance on the nuances of IP law from a top legal team, when the RAF changed its entire corporate identity because it could not guarantee that it could assert IPR over the roundel, which was being used extensively by fashion houses and moped manufacturers. 

Airnav I believe still has rights, granted from Ian K to the 623 silhouettes that come with the Version 4.03 CD.  Anymore than that from Ian K resizes, I would be urgently seeking urgent legal advice on. 

The only solution now either appears to be that either a volunteer stands up to assist airnav out again and produces silhouettes in a similar style but which can be shown not to be direct copys of Ian K's IP work, or Airnav abandon all silhouettes and develop another way that AC Types can be differentiated visually, that can be maintained from within Airnav development resource at no cost long term.

Struggling to see where the resource cost implications in silhouettes, flags, logos, etc lie.  These could be knocked up by any developer while they are waiting for programmes to run/test.  Rod knocks up outlines and logos in a matter of minutes.  Tarbat takes slightly longer when doing a flags update every 6 months or so.  Yes Airnav are way behind the dragcurve having neglected it all for 3 years, but once throw a tiny amount (2-3 days dedicated) of development resource at the task, and they get up to date.  The frequency of the tasks means it could easily be achieved using spare capacity within the tech development team. 
 
I they do not do this I hope that they change their advertising. The current page:
http://www.airnavsystems.com/RadarBox/index.html

One of the main highlighted quotes is:
Accurate Extensive Data Included
The Aircraft Database is powered by the Gatwick Aviation Society. Navigation information information comes from Navigraph.

And from http://www.airnavsystems.com/download/anrb/Why%20RadarBox%20-%20Leaflet.pdf
No add-on programmes required
• Detailed worldwide map coverage
• Extensive internal database containing
thousands of aircraft, airfields,
routes, navigational beacons and fixes.
• Company logos
• Aircraft silhouettes
• Country flags

I hope that these page will be urgently changed to reflect that defacto all Airnav aftersales product support is now provided by small volunteer teams that provide Airnav 100s and 100s of hours of support services free of charge and don't get any credit. 

Airnav of course have had 10 months in which to make small changes to thier advertising to reflect the reality of the product support.  Airnav really know how to stretch the genouroristy of volunteers and then still advertise that it is all Airnav internal work.

[tarbat]

To advocate resizing them breaks his IPR and leaves any found doing so, up for legal action from Ian K - if he should so chose.

So does the Windows Vista O/S break Ian's IPR when it displays resized thumbnails of his silhouettes and saves those in the thumbs.db?  That's all I'm advocating that Radarbox could do - resize, display, store locally.  I'm not suggesting anyone should then distribute those resized silhouettes.

[AirNav Support]

ACW367,

Our case was that the logos, silhouettes was something that the community had created and happily allowed us to add to the software. Permission was granted and in some cases compensation was given. For us to now pick up this task we should do exactly the same for Outlines and that's where we would dragged into updating/adding something new nearly every day which will add up to be a considerable resource. This is why we have to cut the line somewhere.

Regarding the advertising, if you felt that way you could have easily contacted us via other means and made this known and this would have been changed. The work of the updaters has been mentioned many times on the forum by us and praised highly.

Also Airnav after sales product support isn't provided by a small team of volunteers unless you want us to pass you the current support inbox :)

[Marpleman]

Spot on ACW - very well put

ACW367,

Regarding the advertising, if you felt that way you could have easily contacted us via other means and made this known and this would have been changed. The work of the updaters has been mentioned many times on the forum by us and praised highly.

Why oh why is it that a forum member has to highlight something so obviously wrong?