Omni-directional antenna developed
Wednesday, January 02, 2008

ISLAMABAD: A researcher attached to the Institute of Space Technology (IST) has developed the world’s lowest profile omni-directional antenna with dual polarisation that does not require a ground plane.



Dr Muhammad Amin said in a news release that his antenna, simplest of its kind, could receive or generate equal amplitudes of electric fields both in horizontal and vertical directions. This he added enabled it to improve reception by providing diversity.



He said that his antenna could be installed in places where non-metallic composite materials were used such as in high-speed aerodynamic structures. It could, he added, also be used in places where enough plane metallic surface area was not available such as in compact communications device. staff report


Daily Times

More details from their cool website: LOWEST PROFILE OMNI DIRECTIONAL ANTENNA

Damn i am seriously impressed by their potential mind blowing.

that would provide total radar coverage. You could even modify this further so that it can alter the waves based on frequency and amplitude therefore allowing you to detect both stealthy and non stealthy fighter jets at the same time. If this thing can be produced by the military, we've taken Radar to the next generation!

Dr. Muhammad Amin should be fully supported by the military R&D wing. He has done a great service for Pakistan and should be rewarded handsomely.

That would be awesome, say bye bye to F22 and B-2 superiority in that field. I really hope this goes through.

Yeh great job, but I think this should not have been made public. THe Armed Forces should have been given a chance to have a look at this and than if the potiential is there is being said that it should have been classfiied and the company or individual should have been told to develop it furhter with full backing of the Armed forces and it would have remain secret.

Its better to keep ur enemies at a surprise and we should learn from Chinese....

Well, its no where near completion yet (at least to the level we are talking about).

Well couple of steps away from Science Fiction to Science Fact.

Sounds very interesting...hope to see amazing results one day soon!

Great news.

Hopefully this isn't going to be used purely for military

we have talent but we are not utilizing it !!!!!!!!

there are uncountable number of MSC (in science subjects) holder in pakistan.but they have no opportunity to move forward for more education and for job .
mostly MSC holder doing the job of teaching. Do not think that teaching is not profitable !!!
these peoples selling knowledge.
A poor private college earn RS 10000000 to 20000000 per annum .(this is minimum)
Private schools (medium to high standard) earn 700000 to 800000 per month !
tution center earn 30 to 5000000 rupees ... per annum.
Teacher whose work in primary level to matric level are really poor in govt schools.

childs of poor family have no place in these colleges and schools.
punjab college earning billions of rupees + taking donation from UN for the poor std. but they not help poor std. the owner of Punjab college is lahore city Nazim.

Bhai, our whole education system needs to be changed, modernized, upgraded and FREE.
Beside, we need to change out people who are sitting at jobs where they arent supposed to sit with qualified people. (Just imagine all the retired military personel sitting at places where they have nothing to do, and other civilians too.)

Agreed. In education department there are mostly retire army men working .

lets stick to the topic please.

Ya, those steps are pretty big though, but then again we are taking big steps.

Very Impressive indeed!

no the education department has been hijacked by the bunch of bandirs from the neighbourhood of Ganja aka Nawaz sharif and one of the bandir production of that education system is you.

you should go out from your office/house etc and know reality instead behaving like a stupid man.

Mashallah! Congratz to Mr. Amin. Inshallah his projects will yield positive results.

A product has developed. Now it is responsibilities of Military to come forward and put some money directly or ask GoP to provide help in order to develop the application of this thing.

Nice work. Now it also proves that if you have a leader with right vision then the progress and development is irrelevant to being democratic or non-democratic. I always wounder how China developed itself under military and in absence of western democracy?

Interested. I hope we archive this.

great thing..
but i donot understand one thing..why they made it public..like the design and the theory once out wont be hard for others to copy..or is it too complex a thing to understand for others?
i doubt it.

It wouldn't matter...if Pakistan says it put it out first, hardly anyone call us copycats.

Besides, if this project was critical and was receiving gov't support, then the above should only be a tip of the iceburg.

If this thing as potential as suggested then it is very impressive indeed. But be prepared for US/West meddlng in this project too. I am serious here! If this thing can detect stealth than US will come down hard and will use every dirty trick in the book to ensure that everyone involved are bought!! Lets see how are ball-less leadership is going to handle this situation!

Stuff like detecting stealth, targeting stealth or being able to form anti-stealth seekers (if Pakistan manages that) will never be revealed.

Plus our leadership (Mush) has been standing up lately.

Can someone please explain to me what this antenna system does? I am a person with little technical knowledge on such things. I'm sure there are many more like me.

sounds good, but what is its speciality over other radars like aesa? how many country developed such radar? pakistan first? india have it?

Usually antennas can send strong signals in some directions but at the cost of weaker signals in others. Which means if we communicate using say wireless devices; it would not be able to send communications signals all around with equal strength. So in some sectors the signal reception would be good but in others it will be poor. This antenna would NOT have that problem.

Secondly, if this technology is used as radar transmitter (small perhaps initially) that means that we have higher chances of detection of enemy vehicles with this kinds of antenna acting as radar (yes we can detect vehicles and ships etc at night or beyond visual range using radars just as we do aircrafts). Since the conventional radars which are good in some sectors only and therefore have to be steered around (mechanically or electrically) to look in the others sectors (remember rotating US AWACS radar) to detect objects, which may not be a good idea always. So this is a sophisticated technology since such Omni directional antennas have been a dream for a long time. This techonology will enable compact communication and surveillance equipments on say UAVs which we strive for. Its a great news in all.

Finally there is NO such thing as Stealth. There is only such thing as "low observable", meaning at high range (when aircrafts are far away) we have lower "chances of detecting aircrafts". But increasingly we can detect anything which is called stealth due to improvements in processing algorithms and radar signaling etc

thanks a bunch cyberdyn

Can this omni-directional technology be applied to radar technology on say Erieye or fighter radars...to create a fusion?

By Fusion I believe you mean sensor fusion. The Answer is absolutely yes. Now the best way to do this something called using “Sensor networks” for these kinds of antennas. In plane English sensor networks are any kinds of sensors (increasingly miniaturized) which are dispersed in large numbers around say batter field (also on vehicles, and hidden with mines, or dispersed in potential battle ground like particles) which collect information, process them and then put it together to create a coherent whole, as well as can be used to track enemy troops, and vehicles and as a real guidance mechanism to shoot them down.

Now the biggest trouble with such sensor networks is that they consume a lot of power over time and on board power sources are limited in power stored as well as have limited capability to generate power (say using solar light). The result is they are unreliable over long term and run out of power quickly.

Therefore the country which can make smallest and least power consuming sensors, will be able to create and deploy these in large numbers of miniature sensors in potentially hostile areas (even by dispersing them in massive numbers much like small particles, yes they can be as small). That would enable us to create “sensor field” which will collect massive intel, which then can be combined to create “situational awareness” and specific data, such as type and location of enemy soldiers and vehicles etc.

Now these Omni-directional antennas are extremely important part of such sensor networks as they are capable of creating a “uniform” all around sensing field with “very little power consumption”. Furthermore with respect to transmit power to size ratio, they are smallest for such a uniform sensing field. So we can indeed use them to create massive sensor network architecture, which can create high degree of battle field intelligence to assist in automatic tracking, shooting, and decision making in day and night.

Now you might ask that does Pakistan have an active sensor network program. The answer is yes and one of the bests in world. Pakistan also have relatively large nano-technology program which will further help in this regard.

Many universities in Pakistan have active programs in sensor networks, surprisingly even in universities which only teach IT related to business, producing world class research papers in reputed journals, such as IEEE (one can easily search that on a university based network). In fact Last year, Farooq Laghari when he presented IT awards, he gave an award to a Pakistani student who won 4 European awards in sensor network architecture.

Pakistan has already demonstrated both centralized large scale sensor network capability in C4i system and in distributed sensor network architecture by creating battle field management systems for APC SAAD. So we have no worries in creating one. Our main problem is necessary funding which depends on as much on political situation as much on our military acquisition procedures which often create hurdle for such techonolgy creation by having a "lack of trust" in local capbilties.

Regarding Erieye, the answer is this, since Erieye can be actually use data from these massive sensor networks to further enhance its situational awareness capabilities which we can use to extreme advantage. In fact such capability would lead us to have true supremacy in surface or air targets tracking and shooting them as well as situational assessment capabilities to make knowledge based decisions. On the other hand, If we go on to develop these antenna with larger transmit power then we can actually use them on all sort of platforms including Erieye either as a sensing radar in the form of an individual antenna or as an antenna array. Further by installing them on say tanks, we can detect incoming missile, or detect mines along the way to some degree and possibly shoot or destroy them provided we have some means to do that. We can certainly use them as security mechanism in sensitive areas.

Sincere thanks for the detailed answer! So this technology is essentially part of Pakistan's greater net-centric warfare doctrine...hence Pakistani systems spawned from developments like this will ultimately find their way into wide domestic use? I have to ask...are there genuine plans for military satellites specifically for use in communication, precision-bomb guidance, net-centric data-sharing, etc? If so...would this be a local venture, or would Pakistan try to draw out foreign assistance or even COTS deals with say European firms?

Mark, Pakistan already has great infrastructure in IT and communication technologies. PTCL alone employes many of the best engieers in this field. So Network side was easy for us. That is why, Pakistan has one the best secure military communications systems with massive bandwidth to share data.

In network centric warfare, loosely speaking we have 4 kinds of levels involved which form comprehensive networked warfare system.

1. We have raw data level sensor fusion. That is we take data from similar sensors such as say SAR (synthetic aperture radar) and FLIR and then combine in some way (mathematically) so that they overall provide more information and evidenc then individually about targets types, states (i.e. positions, velocities) etc. We already have achieved it and demonstrated say in C4i system.
2. Multi-source Integration and sensor managements. Here we aggregate processed data from different kinds of sensors, say radars, IFF (identify friend or foe), passive sensors (communication listening sensors) etc, to track and identify multiple targets including group target tracking (regiments, tank columns etc). Further more we need to manage sensor in optimal sense, that is to allocate them dynamically to various sectors in accordance with evolving situation and their capabilities so that they maximize our use of resources and minimize danger (from enemy attack etc )and risk of uncertainty involved (that is to have enough data on all target(s) so as to enable intelligent interpretation). Here we are truly good and again this aspect was integrated in C4I and in SAAD etc. Using more advanced techniques (fuzzy sets, random sets) we can now mathematically fuse human based collected information and Intel in our systems so that it is able to put together information from all sources. Work is going on that aspect already.
3. Situational Assessments: Here the purpose is to provide an overall picture of military significant data collected by previous two level of fusion. That may include, states of targets (friend or foe), threat level of hostile targets (immediate threat, imminent threat, potential threat etc), predication of the probable intentions and course of action of threatening targets. Here we are working already. Basically since enemies forces behave more like a large scale random systems (that can casted in extremely abstract mathematical form and then used to predict future status of situation), we can create autonomous prediction capabilities in our systems that will take around 5+ years. Don’t worry the problem is still difficult for west, they have not done anything significant in this area yet either.
4. Response Management: Here based on our prediction we created in the previous three stages a automated response strategy which probabilistically minimize use of our resources, and risks and damages to our forces, while either simply maximize damage to enemy forces or leaves it in a status where they cannot function as coherent whole to effectively harm us. Here world is working on basic concepts but yet anything solid to come out (it will take 10+ years). Basically here system created must have learning capability (based on mathematical means of generalized uncertainty modeling etc). So here we have not done any significant work yet. We still rely on officers considering every detail and decide a course of action, but we need automation in this area at least in resource and logistic management in networked environment (US has done that part to some degree). Fortunately we have many mathematicians with relevant background and many research programs in universities where things like generalized fuzzy sets, stochastic fuzzy neural networks are being pursued which will be key concepts for such expert systems. Remember We have now over 10,000 students overseas studying masters or PhD’s and every year HECs intends to send 1500-2000 more while too many went privately (eg. all my friends). So once we decide, we can quickly do well in this area. Also realize that 15 years ago we had less 500 PhD's and in total there were around 3000 PhD with pakistani background in the whole world!!!!! so We have come a long way and in a massive way, thanks to Dr Atta-u-Rahman.

Actually in next two years we are going to start working on all aspect of it. This is because Pakistan is pursuing a smart and simultaneous reponse mechanism to hostile actions with lessor military resources and we intend to do it by 2015. So we will have achieved many milestones by then.

The first milstone is Pakistan will achieve is by sending Paksat 1R in 2011 which will carry transponders designed specifically by SUPARCO for encrypted military communications and provide high bandwidth data link. Further there is no technical reason why we cannot use remaining transponders (designed in JVs) for this purpose.

Pakistan is already engaged in comprehensive and sophisticated satellite program in remote sensing called RSSS, which are basically imaging satellites with variety of sensors. These will act as Pakistan ‘s spy satellites. We must however, create local capability in designing 3D radar based satellite imaging since that will significantly aid our offensive response for surface warfare. I believe that as we are now involved with Chinese to develop similar radar technology for jointly developing awacs, we will soon have confidence to design our own radars including 3D surface mapping radards . To do this basically all we need is to create good processing algorithms as everything is now available in the market (I mean indians just put together Korean hardware to do this). Furthermore significant software based design automation means that we can create such radars with ease if we allow ourselves to have confidence in ourselves.

Network centric data sharing is partially already achieved by army. We will have full capability with real-time as we develop and launch our satellite. We should however, join up our bothers in Turkey, since they have relatively more experiences in secure communication.

Mark, since holidays are now over, I may not be able to give detail answer and in time, so I apologize in advance.


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"The Land of Pure" is closer to my heart...always.

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^^ Excellent explanation brother cyberdyn!!!

Thanks a million cyberdyn! No problem wrt holidays.

How can this be used to detect steatth planes? Could someone explain?

Stealth aircrafts generally have lower radar cross sections (RCS) in on area at the cost of greater RCS in others. For example F-22 has lower RCS upfront so but due to its flat bottom, it will reflect (absorbing some though) most incident radar ways back to angles which are at the sides or towards the back, assuming transmitting radars are facing aircraft head on at some distance, at some angle.

Now that means if we could drop smart detecting particle like sensors (they can now be manufactured) in enemy territory and along all our areas, then we can cover a massive area with tiny radar receivers which will detect radar returns form F-22 etc no matter where they are deflected. By putting together this information using sensor fusion and distributed processing (processing data at individual sites where data is received) and then combining it, would lead us to track F-22 anywhere, everywhere. Same is true for tanks, army vehicles etc. We can use other sensors such as infra-red, Optical and particularly important atmospheric turbulence detection sensors using ground or satellite (when we will have them) sensors to easily track any stealth since now matter how low RCS an aircraft has, it is still bound to cause significant vortex trail in air and create large pockets of high energy turbulence. So by networking and fusing data allows us that we cannot only detect and track aircraft but also minimize exposure of those radars sites etc, as we can schedule them in way which makes it harder for enemy to locate them, and shoot them, yet they are able to track effectively.

Actually real stealth is impossible since Maxwell's equations (Laws which govern the radar waves etc, actually all electromagnetic phenomena) tell us we cannot just absorbed or perfectly reflect all incident waves at all frequencies with equal efficiencies in the directions we want them too, so we have severe limitations in this regards. Real stealth is mostly a propaganda and not reality. To further complicate the matter, we have structural and aerodynamic and aircraft control requirements which do NOT allow us to shape the aircraft and its structures for very low RCS. They also restrict which kind of materials we can use, so we cannot mostly use low radar waves reflecting materials.

Further since our realistic choice is to use finite -difference time domain (FDTD) based methods along with methods of moments approach (for high frequency radars) to calculate and design stealth structures we have significant numerical inaccuracies involved. There is no other technical way to do this since this the most efficient means to solve time-domain Maxwell's equations anyway.

Since FDTD software solvers are commercially availabe now a days, anyone can use them to design low RCS structures. In old times Northrop and Lockheed martin had to create in house softwares with the help of others, to do this. However, to optimise design jointly for aerodynamics and RCS and structures is complicated and very costly. Further to validate designs we need to test them in very expensive RCS test chambers, which we may not always choose to do as it will take the cost too high.

Pakistan has too many people with indepth knowledge in electrodynamics not to mention our too many physicist in this area. But cost to apply to a complex vehicle is formidable for time being now.

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"The land of Pure" is closer to my heart".

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Thank you brother.

Cyberdyn, very impressive, detailed technical answers!! Can I ask what do you do? Perhaps something in digital communications?

deleted the post after reading anti -God views

any new updates on this?

any details on this radar, is it still in R&D or if military is satiffied with its performance and will go with production..... Does it operate in K or U (mue) mode.. i am dying to know more....

another question. the range of omni radars are severly limited because of waves transfered in 360 degree, where as traditional radars send waves in concentrated in one direction....

Current planes using stealth measures have large shadows to exploit. If it is possible to position the omni directional transmitters above harm range like 120k feet with high altitude blimps and keep them stable there then it is possible to put many passive differential recievers on the ground to detect the shadows of all kinds of planes. After that you can even use old high altitude sams to bring down stealth bombers and fighters. It is better to invest on making the recievers and missiles smaller and mobile thus being less detectable from above.

It is not the end ofcourse. Attack technologies of the future are planned to use meta materials to make less shadowy planes. Let them invest on destructive attack technologies. By that time invest on making smaller electro-optical sensors and perfect the detection of planes by the ionisation on their wing tips. Then bring down the attacking vehicle and capture the soldiers inside alive if possible. Just as for every illness there is a cure, for every attack there is a defense and the better defense is the one that makes the opponent change instead of irreversible destruction.

MY GOD!!. What the Hell has happened to us !!!

I cannot believe that a simple invention would be boasted so much, that we would make a castle in the cloud out of it.

I simply cant believe that people here on this forum are behaving so immaturely without having any understanding of the technology. Even the moderators are on the seventh sky. I ask all of you ...WHY ??. This is just an occassion to be happy , but nothing to be over the moon. And the replies!!!... man I am horrified , if we all are thinking about our things like this.

Let me start from the very beginning to take all the emotions out of you people.

What so exceptional and mind boggling about this invention guys and gals??

Tell me what do you understand by low profile bi-polerised omni-directional antenna.??

What i believe is making you guys happy is its name. You think its some kind of mind blowing invention which has incorporated new technologies , never seen before. Well , totally wrong.

Do you think its ability to be bi-polerised makes it exceptional ??... No... its a very common technology, even you can buy a bi polirised antenna from the market.

Do you think that ability to tranmit radio waves in all direction is something exceptional ??.. Absolutely wrong, even a simplest antenna is omnidirectional. It is perhaps the most common type of antenna ( your mobile phone has it, you wireless router has it.. even if you reduce multi element antenna on the top of your house to a single element, that would be omni directional as well..!!!.. So what is so exceptional in this?

Its only ingenuity is its low profile. yeah, its a first but who told you its going to be microscopic, or you would be able to reduce a truck size transmitter to fit into a match box?? are you insane or something?? .. yeah it significantly reduces size, but by how much , 10% , may be 20% , who knows, so if we dont know , why are we assuming things here. ???

And who said Mr. Amin himself invented this single handedly ???. Did any of you bothered to read the source.

t IST, Dr. Muhammad Amin participated in the design and development of a very low profile antenna that can generate equal vertical and horizontal electric field components.

He was one of the person who did research on this. Read the name on their paper.

[“Single Feed Low Profile Omnidirectional Antenna with Slant 45o Linear Polarization” by Amin, M.; Cahill, R.; Fusco, V. in IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Volume 55, Issue 11, Nov. 2007 Page(s):3087 - 3090]

The fact of the matter is , nowhere on IST website its mentioned that it can be used for military , So WHERE DID RADAR came into discussions from ??... Does any of you know what RADAR is ?? and how it works??.

RADAR is a complex object, and uses directional beams intentionally just to point out the position of a distant object. How the hell are you going to do it which an omni directional antenna, how would you differenciatte between waves arriving from different directions?. Go Figure!!!

And you people talking about advance concepts like stealth, without having basic understanding of the concepts behind it?,
None of you have a clue about how this technology can be used to detect stealth aircraft ??.. let alone bringing it down.
This discussion has become rediculous.!!!

And Mr. Cyberdyn , mere bhai, mere Radio frequency kay cheetay, What a good definition of omnidirectional antenna you have given to people. Are you high or something??.. I supposed , you have mixed concepts of an antenna and a radar.. They are two different things my friend. Every single element antenna is a dipole and is able to transmit energy in all direction. There is nothing new with this antenna in this regard.
And get yourself acknowledged with the concept of RADAR my friend. Radar is RADIO DETECTION and RANGING, how are you going to range an object if you dont have a beam??.. And if this thing was even possible, dont you think , it would have been actively use by US and European countries, since early antennas were made by them. ??..

And how in the blue H%LL is this technology going to help military do better survaillence.??.. Its an antenna my friend, not a RADAR, A RADAR DOES NOT USES OMNIDIRECTIONAL ANTENNA..??... And you think this is a sophisticated technology??? BULLSHIT!

And then you were stupid enough to mention Sensor networks. You think, you can use Sensors Network to detect waves reflected from a radar?. Only a half brained person like you would do it ??. and can you tell me how??.. How the hell are you going to be able to make a grain size sensor able to recieve high frequency transmission with ample battery to last for days on its own.??.. Do you know how complex is the circuitry involved in this thing?.. and How are you going to transmit that single to the central point for processing??.. Laying lines like PTCL??.. oh ic, wirelessly. So you think it would be able to tranmit in a highly hostile environment ,where there already by radar jammers in place??. And you are going to make energy with a grain size solar cell?? Plus detect the size and type of enemy?? ..What a joke??.. The thing is with the complexity that you have envisaged, a grain size sensor node is not possible..??. atleast not for now or forseable future.
Plus how would it be able to detect between a formation of aircraft and a swarm of birds migrating from one place to another.. I beleive it would generate a false alarm everytime..!!!You have made a technology already present seem like out of this world. I really feel like swearing at you

ERIEYE is way advance that this basic piece of invention. Putting this on EriEYE would be a disgrace to it. Learn to differenciate between an antenna and ###### RADAR !!.. PleasE!!!!!

Pakistan has one the best secure military communications systems with massive bandwidth to share data.
Dont boast !!... only time will tell!! ( I am not jealous !!.. I am just being realistic)

Your approach has a zillion flaws in it?? and I know that you dont have clue about it.??.. So my piece of advice would be to stay on holiday as long as possible.

And All of you.. I know now i am going to be branded a bhindian by most of you and will be asked to ban. Lemme just tell you something. Think about what I have said to you. I know its acrid , but it is the truth. And if you are not going to wake up from this day dreaming, than Pakistan would be a history.

I am happy now that I made the decision of taking a back seat on this forum. I am really happy now. Because this forum lack serious discussions now. I have read rediculous discussion on this board before, but this topic being my field of education, discussion was simply rediculous. I regularly visit this forum. So, if you are not satisfied with my reply above. Ask me and I will tell you in detail. And last but not the least

SHAME ON YOU ALL for such a childish behaviour.

mmalamv2 a very good post dude!!

Hummm cyberdyn, you have some explaining to do dude....otherwise there goes your credibility down the drains!!

My dear Brother , I think every single person who has replied to this should have his/her credibility reduced. I mean, look at the replies and the direction of discussion. People just imply things and they are taken as fact. Even the moderators should be held responsible. It was just too much for me to take. I really want this forum to be the best in the world , but with non serious discussions in thread like these , its gonna be joke of the world. Moderators should take notice and have stricter ways of separating diamond from coal, rather then encouraging pointless threads.

Pathetic post mmalamv2.We are all here to learn and u shud have explained the differences to us instead of taking out ur pre filled frustration on cyber.He maybe wrong but u ahvent helped either.the questions u asked him,u better give the answers urself also for us to learn.


and Ceaser,stop being khabba tatta of mmalamv2.get a life.

So mmalamv2,

Start by telling us the difference between a Radar and an antenna?

OK GreenBeret. I believe you. We are all here to learn??.. Learn what?. Speculating on something we have no concept of. Or following some champ without even finding out whether he is telling the truth or not. This attitude is similar to how our public is guided by our leader. Following blindly. Why shouldnt I be frustrated at that ?? tell me!!. If you are here to learn you should have the brains to differenciate if somebody is telling you the truth or just pulling something over you. We dont come here to have fun do we? and espcially in technical threads like these?. Do some background research if it has to be done. And if you are too lazy then what kind of "learning" are you talking about , I say you just sit back and watch , coz you wont be contributing positively to the discussion. Tell me GreenBeret, if I am saying something wrong?. I have a right to be angry coz this forum is going to become a joke if it continues like this. It has to be taken care of.

And Where are your manners dude?? . You are acting like you are a tatta of cyberdyn. If I told you that you people werent doing the right thing, I think you should accept that fact.