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Wistrik

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Posts posted by Wistrik

  1. Actually, in all (well, mostly) seriousness, I think it'd be funny to have one of those 'secret' levels where the developers/artists etc. names and/or photos were displayed in a non-playable level - ie, they're roaming the halls as named monsters or soilders, or something. Like in Might & Magic, you had to find an item, and using it in the right place/way would take you there.

     

    Maybe they could pop out of smashable crates. :)

    A lesser known easter egg of BG2:ToB is found when you pause at just the right time (after area loads but before the script locks out the interface) while entering the realm of the Spirit Warrior in Watcher's Keep. While paused, view the area's overhead map and you'll be treated to a photograph of ToB's development team.

     

  2. I've not changed any of my views according to what I've read in forums like these, and I generally avoid posting in religion/politics threads because nothing ever comes of it. On the other hand, I'll discuss religion and whatnot in person, like with someone at work, if the topic arises. It's easier for me to communicate in person, and to know if I'm irritating someone and should shut up. :thumbsup:

  3. A second The Bourne Ultimatum trailer, with a bit more info. Apparently the movies are based on books (I haven't read any Ludlum) so there's hope for an eventual conclusion after all (not that I mind these movies).

     

    Watched... Hulk.. earlier. Sorry, I'm just not into comics, but I did enjoy watching him tear stuff up. His dad was a mess :sorcerer: . I readily noticed Natacha Atlas' vocals in the background. Rawr.

  4. Hmm, I'll wait to read some reviews on this one. I've heard the whole "our aliens are smarter than ever" thing before, so time will tell. Oh, and 9/11 is my b-day, so it's always been normal, despite what the children in charge of the world happen to be doing at any given time.

  5. Unbreakable - awesome, just awesome.

     

    The Machinist - ugh, though I enjoyed the playing of the Theramin (sounded so much like The Day the Earth Stood Still). These guys obviously don't know much about insomnia. I could teach them a few things.

  6. Dry wood doesn't conduct electricity so I'm guessing you'd have to run wires to connect the grounds of the various hardware components. That way you could ground yourself by opening the case and touching the power supply shell. I'm sure if it was well done, a wooden computer case could look very nice.

     

    There's also the matter of rock. Ever see a nice looking granite countertop? Really, a computer case could be made from many things, not just metal and plastic.

  7. Here's a transcript of Chase Brandon, the CIA Officer interviewed about the Bourne Identity. On DVD it's interspersed with clips from the movie to augment what is being said.

    When you enter the main lobby of our building, on the right wall is the agency's motto, and it's from the book of John, and it says "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free", and that really is, quite simply and fundamentally, what the CIA does each and every day.

     

    The CIA really consists of four basic administrative areas. Three of them are totally overt, and most all of the people work in the agency headquarters building. They have basically normal lives. The smallest part of the agency, which in our parlance is the Clandestine Service - it's where I've spent my entire career - our work is not in headquarters; we don't commute in to an office every day. We live and work and spend our entire lives scattered all over the face of this planet, trying to find out the plans and intentions of bad people before they can carry those out and harm national security interests or U.S. lives.

     

    Matt Damon's character, Jason, in the movie, would be a Field Operations Officer. Jason will have been trained in self defense, weapons handling, high speed driving, disguise, secret writing, communications. He would be taught, as we are, an entire array of what we collectively call the Tradecraft Skills. The best plan invariably turns to chaos, and a good ops officer never breaks stride even when everything around him is coming apart, and it can be very, very challenging at times.

     

    I really enjoyed the scene in the Diner when Jason's telling Marie he doesn't know who he is, but he knows he can name the license plates, the clothing people are wearing. Well, that's because it's truly second nature, as an Ops Officer, to be highly cognizant to your environment and people around you. You are taught, and you do work on, being able to scan a room, and then leave that room and sit down and be able to sketch how it was laid out, the titles of the books, the clothing that people were wearing. You need to be very, very attentive; very, very observant; and Jason knows that he's doing that, he just doesn't know why at that point because he's still struggling to get his memory back.

     

    I like the fact that the chase scene wasn't some souped up, high performance car with flames painted on the side, that was spinning rubber. This little red car that was bouncing down stairs - that's pretty much how that would work. (laughs) You know, you're driving the car and "Oh My God" you've gotta go someplace, and boom-bang down the stairs. You know, you try to escape. He was doing everything in a very ordinary, linear, non-high tech way, because that's pretty much how it'd work.

     

    There's a saying that, in the hands of a master, anything can become a weapon. The more trained you are with weaponry and survival skills, the more you'll be able to rely on it when and if crisis situations occur, and you have to improvise, modify, adapt and overcome. You see that with the fight scene where Bourne simply picks up a ball-point pen, off the desk, and uses it as a field-expedient improvised weapon. And you can cause serious damage. I like that scene very much because it was quite realistic.

     

    Actual fighting comes down to some pretty crude grappling, and you saw that with Bourne. I mean everything was linear and straight, and it was over quickly, which is how that kind of fighting really takes place.

     

    I have to tell you, as an agency officer, I totally applaud the idea of Jason Bourne's training and the wonderful line of demarcation between his hard, extraordinary operational side, and his quite compassionate, ordinary human side, but in the end, the movie was quite a thrill ride, and really well done.

    *whew* He talks fast.

  8. Bourne Identity + Bourne Supremacy

     

    Got the BI DVD with the ex-CIA op interview and Moby's "Extreme Ways" video (and lots of other goodies). Good stuff all around.

     

    Is that the "explosive" edition or something? I've got the original collectors edition and it has the music video but not the CIA interview. On the other hand I get extra commentary tracks. :sorcerer:

    Yes, it's the "Explosive Extended Edition: Includes An All New Beginning & Ending". I haven't watched the alternate bookends yet, but I did watch several other bonus features.

     

    Here's a trailer for The Bourne Ultimatum. I'll probably add it to the collection when it comes out later this summer.

  9. NWN again last night. Got to the pinnacle of the Host Tower and witnessed Her Weakness betraying everyone she knew. It was cool being on the roof, but not as impressive as, say, being on the Imperial Tower in Jedi Knight. Now I'm in Beorunna's well, and looking forward to getting another 100% Innocent verdict on the trial. By the way, I enjoy that trial more than NWN2's trial, for some reason.

  10. I thought about building a rustic case out of wood, just for laughs, but haven't actually done it yet. I'm pretty sure it would be quieter than a standard case, especially if I used a softer wood like pine. Could use hinges and a latch for the side panel. :)

  11. Just reinstalled BG2, installed all the mods I had - Fixpack and the problem seems to have been eliminated.

    The Fixpack is a nice idea, but like Baldurdash before it, it's not without bugs of it's own. That's why I prefer to make my own fixes. I don't distribute because everyone's stuck in a WeiDU mindset, but I don't believe bugfixes should be installed with WeiDU; they should be installed first, and if they're done right, they should never be uninstalled.

  12. http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=7853

     

    ... Four IBM PowerPC 450 processors running at 850 MHz are integrated on a single Blue Gene/P chip, with each chip capable of 13.6 billion operations per second. A two-foot-by-two-foot board containing 32 of these chips churns out 435 billion operations every second, making it more powerful than a typical, 40-node cluster based on two-core commodity processors. Thirty-two of the compact boards comprise the 6-foot-high racks. Each rack runs at 13.9 trillion operations per second, 1,300 times faster than today's fastest home PC.

     

    The one-petaFLOP Blue Gene/P supercomputer configuration is a 294,912-processor, 72-rack system harnessed to a high-speed, optical network. The Blue Gene/P system can be scaled to an 884,736-processor, 216-rack cluster to achieve three-petaflop performance

  13. Over a million views. It cracks me up every time I watch it, but I've always enjoyed animal expressions. Having a horse find me while I was hiding is so far one of the funniest things I've ever seen. :lol:

     

    This isn't a horse, but I still like it.

     

     

    I posted this earlier in the movie thread where it doesn't really belong. Still cracks me up. The people he spoofs are one of the big reasons I stopped playing online multiplayer games.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz3br1q5wIQ

  14. My only "sweet" ride is my car (indeed, my only means of transportation outside of walking) so I can't post about it here. I work with/know several motorcyclists but I'm in no position to post details about their rides. None of them would visit this forum and post about their rides. You may not get much of a draw on this thread with such a narrow topic of discussion.

     

    I'm glad you like your bike though. :ermm:

     

    Edit: various structure corrections, sleepiness, etc.

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