By Mark O’Neill
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, Dave Hill went to Jedi school. Actually, it was just the other week in New York.
Who owns the Imperial Stormtroopers’ clothes?
By Mark O’Neill
You have to feel sorry for the Imperial Stormtroopers. When they’re not getting their butts kicked by the Jedi Knights, they’re getting caught in the middle of a legal battle over who owns their clothes.
Andrew Ainsworth, the British prop designer who designed and made the original stormtrooper outfits for George Lucas in 1976, is now being sued by Emperor Lucas after he started making new stormtrooper outfits from the original moulds and then selling them for 1,800 British pounds each ($3,600).
Ainsworth’s justification for doing this is that he is the original designer, he owns the original moulds and therefore, he owns the legal copyrights to the uniforms. Because of this, he thinks he can do as he pleases.
But Lucasfilm obviously thinks differently and a US court agrees. But since Ainsworth lives in Britain, Lucasfilm now has to hire British lawyers and take the prop designer to the High Court in London to get a British court order to uphold the US court’s decision.
Lucasfilm later told the media : “Anyone who tries to profit from using our copyrights and trademarks without authorisation … we will go after them.”
The Beamz – A laser music system that makes you look like an idiot
The Beamz is a laser-based musical system that allows you to play hundreds of different musical instruments by breaking laser beams with your hands. Theoretically, this kind of device could be very cool (like this one), but after seeing the infomercial that was made to promote it, the “coolness” factor surrounding the thing quickly came crashing down, at least for me. If you guys want to see how an infomercial should NOT be done, then check this out.
Monday Morning Humor: Internet celebrities do a battle to the death
Ok guys, those of you who are a bit sensitive and prefer to avoid seeing violence, blood and gore, even if it’s cartoonish (is there anybody, really?), might want to skip this one.
To tell you honestly, I don’t remember a time in the last year where I laughed this hard. Enjoy!
Via [The EdEdition]
Tag songs on HD radio for later listening on your iPod
By Mark O’Neill
Have you heard a song on the radio and wished you could later remember it so you could buy it on iTunes? Well this may no longer be a problem. Polk Audio’s High Definition (HD) Radio is introducing an iTunes Tagging feature which may be the answer to all your musical needs.
Using the feature, your iPod is connected to the HD radio and if you hear a song that you like, you just have to hit the “tag” button. The radio will then transfer the song information to a “tagged” playlist in your iPod and you can then buy it from iTunes the next time you connect your iPod to the computer.
As Eric Cartman would say, “sweeeet!”
An introduction to object oriented languages
By Sterling “Chip” Camden
Contributing Writer, [GAS]
Object-orientation can refer to a set of design principles, a programming style, or features of programming languages that support that style. Continuing from an earlier post on the history of programming languages, let’s next concentrate on the purpose and history of the languages that support OOP.
MIT Introduces Nexi – The Social Robot
Researchers at MIT Media Lab have recently unveiled their new robotic creation, code-named “Nexi”, to the world. Nexi can not only convey a variety of different emotions through facial expressions, it can also move around on a segway-like base and accomplish various tasks with its articulated arms and hands.
NSFW – when a URL can land us in hot water
By Mark O’Neill
We’re all guilty of it. We’ve emailed a link of a picture or video to someone, forgetting that they are at work. They receive the link, click on it, and immediately land in hot water with the boss because they are watching a video of a dancing vomiting pig instead of doing the accounts like they’re supposed to. For the rest of the day, they are plotting revenge on you for ruining their chances of that pay raise the boss was promising. All because you thought they would find a dancing vomiting pig funny.
Well, a new URL shortening service has started up called NSFW, which is similar to other such services such as TinyURL. But where this one differs is that it is specifically designed for the risque links in mind, because when a person clicks on the shortened link, they first get a warning that the destination link is NSFW – Not Suitable For Work. So if they continue, well, let’s just say they were warned first…..
Being someone whose email inbox is the online equivalent of a nuclear testing ground, I abhor email forwards so I would never personally use this. But I know a few people that would use it so I passed it on. Maybe you know some people too who might get a use out of it?
Tetris on two guitars
By Mark O’Neill
If you ever want to disable me and render me motionless, just hand me a game of Tetris and I guarantee I will be there in the same spot for hours. I am a total Tetris nut. I can’t get enough of it.
So much so that when I found this guy on YouTube doing the Tetris music on two guitars, I immediately got my Gameboy out, loaded up the Tetris game and played it alongside the YouTube video.
Verdict? This guy’s rendition is perfect!
5 Reasons to Switch from Mac to PC
Yep folks, this kind of article has been long overdue… and guess what? It was written by a Mac user and Mac developer. The author’s number one reason to switch? Productivity trumps religion!
Yet, depending on how a company uses Macs, trying to integrate the computers into a company’s workflow can kill productivity, Keanini said. The applications never quite match up, data has to be massaged to be useful, and the company has to design work-arounds for each issue, he said. Source.
What would be YOUR reasons to switch from a Mac to a PC?
Edit: BestTechie.net has an article named “50 Reasons to Switch From Mac to PC” you might also want to read.