GhostAlpha26

Many articles regarding 7...from new features to tweaks

http://lifehacker.com/5386953/lifehackers-complete-guide-to-windows-7

ferris209 said:

Speaking of getting a good deal, I found out that Microsoft will sell Microsoft Office Enterprise Edition for personal use to Government employees for $10 as long as the government they work for has purchased an Office volume license. My city has a volume license, so I'm good there. Problem is that first I have to obtain some code from IT and then plug it into Microsoft's website, so now I am sitting and waiting for my IT dept to figure out what they are supposed to do to get the code. I wished they'd just let me use my city email to confirm my employment and sell the thing outright like they do for students.

For Office 2007? Funny thing is that our neighbor is in IT and as a gift he gave us a full retail version of Office 2007 Ultimate last year. So I have Windows 7 Ultimate and Office 2007 Ultimate and paid $0.00 hahaha not too shabby if you ask me.

Side note, I got a "Technical Preview" of Office 2010. It's not the jump that Office 2003 to Office 2007 was but it's a nice refresh. It seems that it has more features oriented for collaboration than anything else.

Octorox said:

I'm getting the 64-bit pro version soon via the student discount (a nice $45 dollars), although since Im installing it on my MBP with Snow Leopard I probably wont be booting into it all that often. You can clean install with an upgrade version right? I have a partition with Home Premium Vista 32-bit (which I bought in full but really dont care for) which I just plan to erase and install over.

Here is what I have found on that subject

    In order to install the upgrade version of Windows 7, you must have a qualifying Windows operating system installed and activated.  You cannot install an upgrade version of Windows 7 on a blank hard drive.  The installation procedure does not ask you to insert a Windows disc in the drive for verification, the actual qualifying operating system must be installed.

    If you do not have a qualifying Windows operating system installed with a genuine license activated, then you cannot use the upgrade version of Windows 7 - you would need a "full version" Windows 7 license.

    In summary:

       1. A qualifying Windows operating system must be installed.
       2. The qualifying Windows operating system must have a genuine license (product key) and it must be activated.
       3. To upgrade, boot to the qualifying Windows desktop, insert the Windows 7 Upgrade disc in the DVD drive.
       4. When the setup menu appears, select Custom (advanced) to initiate a clean install procedure.

The consensus is that if you insert the Upgrade disk and run the setup during a windows session, you can initiate a clean install or "custom" install as it is called. As long as the windows session you run it from has a valid product key and is activated.

ferris209 said:

Dang! Well, I am one of those schmucks who paid near full price for Win 7 Pro, I got it for $284 shipped from Buy.com

And I thought I did good.

But I guess I ain't mad, I REALLY wanted that OS and did not want to wait nor get an "upgrade" edition that I'd have to hack everytime I wanted a fresh install. Plus, I wanted a license key I could easily move from one computer to the other if needed, which OEM version prevents.

E-Gads...I don't blame ya though. I was planning on having one of my friends in College purchase the Pro version through the Student discount deal for $30 ( and order a disk with it, extra $15). But I understand the peace of mind of having the full retail version, I think you made a good choice overall. The OS is great and it should be around a long while.

Im not sure what install route your planning but I had Vista Home Premium installed on my PC and I did a custom (Clean) install and it was so simple and smooth. Easily the most enjoyable OS install ever...no searching for drivers/Install disks..popped the disk in, ran the exceptionally quick installation...ran a couple window updates and all my hardware and peripherals were working like butter (including my 6+ year old printer). I have the Beta installed on my work PC ( did a dual boot with XP and that was simple as heck too). I was most concerned about iTunes and syncing my iPod touch once 7 was installed, but even that went issue free. Overall a great experience with it

Perks of working in IT

Got Windows 7 Ultimate for free. Installed it tonight and its great. Absolutely zero issues with hardware compatibility. All the programs I had installed for Vista work perfectly with 7 (including iTunes) . The task bar is simply amazing it's easily the best feature of the OS and well worth the upgrade alone (as long as you don't pay the ridiculous standard prices). I loved XP but 7 is finally a worthy successor.

Hands On

http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/10/19/motorola-droid-hands-on/

Photo Gallery

http://www.boygeniusreport.com/gallery/handsets/motorola-droid/

Android 2.0 features

http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/10/16/android-2-0-screenshot-walkthrough/

Shaping up to be solid package

Not sure how many people saw this ad, but I noticed at the end it states "Droid" is a Trademark of Lucasfilm 

It would be nice if Verizon had a decent iPhone competitor...AT&T's network is horrendous.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPYM-XTqcec&feature=related

Nice to have ya back

Does anyone have a version of this photo without the text and in Hi-Res?

http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/2575/empirestrikes.jpg

doubleofive said:

GhostAlpha26 said:

-Overly bright/colorful laser blasts. Just because they are in the PT like that doesn't mean they work in the OT. Consistency for the sake of consistency is not always the best idea. 

I believe that the laser blasts were all sourced from the best looking laser blasts in ANH, for consistency.  And I say that consistency for the sake of consistency is the best thing about these edits!

Just didn't look right IMO. They were more of a distraction than anything. 

ANH has a number of dull colored environments. White Tantive, Gray DS, Tan Tatoonie and theres nothing wrong with that IMO. But then you have these disco colored blasts being shoot through them and it took me right out of the scene. 

vaderios said:

Lasers new rotoscope is one of the big ups of R saga :) i wouldn't imagine it without them.

 

Read above 

The scream is epic :P

Epic fail :p 

corellian77 said:

^ I doubt ady would create an inconsistency within his own Revisited saga by not giving the lasers the same treatment as he did in ANH:R.

I'm not saying they should not be re-colored, just not as overly re-colored. 

EyeShotFirst said:

well sorry to tell you but Adywan is going to do what he wants to do. Nobody will change his mind. I like the new laserblasts. The old ones were to flat. They just didnt look like Light.

Yeah I realize that, I didnt demand anything, just putting in my 2 cents as everyone, including yourself, does 

The two things I found most distracting/annoying about ANH:R were 

-Additional Wilhelm screams. That scream takes me right out of the movie because it is heard EVERYWHERE and is not unique to Star Wars. In fact I was hoping it would be removed when Chewie throws the Storm Trooper off the carbon freezing deck. 

-Overly bright/colorful laser blasts. Just because they are in the PT like that doesn't mean they work in the OT. Consistency for the sake of consistency is not always the best idea. 

I am hoping these two aspects will be dropped for ESB:R, as they made ANH:R unenjoyable to watch at times. 

adywan said:

vaderios said:

Speaking of destruction, im wondering  if a little brainstorm about what destruction  the bombers can do.

See it as a test.

I always wanted to see something like when the asteroid hits paris in armagedon here. Not something apocalyptic just the style.

From the other hand we can have some broken stones/debris combined with some molten ones in an electrified explosion.

Anyways the compositing is pretty weak in these shots(you can see bad transparency problems with tie fighters)

Assuming Ady will make the canyon at the end he can explode it to film that scene :)

Watch the C4 flyboys

 

-Angel

now this is something that i did think long and hard about and i think they got it right just as it is. I don't see the bombs as being destructive at all. Why, if they want to capture the falcon, would they use destructive weapons that would possibly cause all sorts of internal damage to the inside of the asteroid and possibly destroy the falcon in the process. I believe that they are just very low yield bombs, maybe just flash bombs,  that are only meant to draw the falcon out. more of an audible attack.

 

 

That does make sense that they could be more of a technique to draw them out but the bombs could still project a larger visual effect even if they are not meant to be destructive.

Trailer looked good.

one thing, the scene with Han riding the tantaun with the new background looks cartoonish. He is covering too much ground it seems like.

hilarious

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/trekkies_bash_new_star_trek_film

AxiaEuxine said:

Check out my full gallery at Http://www.axia.ws/axia

I think I might have played against you in Call of Duty 4. How often are you on that game?

adywan said:

with all the talk of the skies when Luke approaches Bespin i thought it would be best if i posted a screenshot of my version. Again this shot has full video motion clouds so you can't really get a sense of what the finished shot will be like until you see it in motion, plus the x-wing is missing

All the clouds detract from Cloud City

doubleofive said:

Come on, catch up!

Better just not go there then I guess...

adywan said:

OK well it's Thursday here again so heres this weeks new pic......

Credit to Vaderios for the section of his matte i used for this shot

Is that a finished shot?????

Vaders saber is "red" once again...Im throughly happy.

adywan said:

At the end of the day i am doing this edit for me with the assistance of forum members donations. 

 

Sounds all too similar to another guy who is highly involved with Star Wars :p

Doubleofive I absolutely agree about the ballistics scene with Batman. Recreating the bullet and then recreating a finger print...utterly ridiculous. Determining what type of round was used is one thing but then to recreate the finger print was too much.

One other suggestion, take out all the cheesey one liners that the SWAT member was stating when they were transporting Dent.

Since there are a number of clips already out for ESB:R I was wondering if anyone knows of a site where they could be downloaded with no expiration timeframe. I was hoping we could have a database of all the video's uploaded by ady thusfar and future ones as well. I know youtube is a great tool but the quality is lacking compared to a direct download. Let me know if anyone had any ideas.

I'm looking at three sites: Filefront, Steek and Wuala.

Does anyone have any experience with these sites?