Slashdot Mirror

mickeyreznor writes: "TiVo and Sony have entered into a seven year deal. The deal will result in TiVo's software being incorporated into Sony's electronic products. This deal might be good for TiVo, who've seemed to have been struggling financially to date. I'll just have to see how much more sony products cost with TiVo included." This is good news for anyone with a TiVo.

Milo_Mindbender asks: "Our lab has a few dozen Linux machines with varying configurations of hardware and software. We're trying to keep track of all the configs so we can get the machines upgraded when we have parts/time/money to do so. Right now, I have a little shell file that I have everyone run which copies the output of a bunch of commands and /proc files from each machine to a central server. The problem with this is that you get a lot of info you don't need, and it's in a format that's hard to read or put in a spreadsheet. Does anyone know of a reasonablly good, free system for taking a hardware inventory of a bunch of networked systems? It's important that it be easy to install on the client machine and not have a huge number of dependancies. It would be particularly useful if it automatically decended through the various /proc trees and returned as much info as possible for disks, USB, graphics cards...etc." Inventory control is a big thing in corporations these days. A simple program that's able to collect hardware information from the Linux boxes on the network would be yet another feather in Linux's cap.

Milo_Mindbender asks: "I'm working on a rather large scale C++ graphics/networking project under Linux and am really missing having a low level code profiler like Intel's VTUNE available. In particular, I am looking for the ability to profile not just CPU use, but using the CPU performance counters to profile stuff like L1/L2 cache misses, pipeline stalls...etc. The other VTUNE capability I'm missing is the way it profiles the whole system, so the profile includes time spent in drivers, OS and everything else along with your program's profile. Has anyone seen anything like this for Linux? I hear Intel is working on VTUNE for Linux but they don't seem to have released anything yet."

dswensen writes: "Theforce.net has an in-depth review of the forthcoming Star Wars: Episode I DVD (due for release October 16th). Looking at all the great features packed into this DVD, I'm glad Lucas decided not to just toss off a cheap version a year ago. Love it or hate it, it looks like they really pulled out all the stops." Plus Ant points out that there is some teaser movie available for Star Wars Galaxies, the upcoming massively multiplayer game.

Cosmicbandito writes: "The latest issue of XYZZY News features transcripts and audio downloads of a 2 hour panel discussion titled "Storytelling in Computer Games Past, Present and Future". Scott Adams, the celebrated designer of classics like "Adventureland" and "Pirate's Island", described his experiences in the early days of the home game market, offered his opinions on the current crop of games, and made predictions about games of the future. Scott is credited with writing and marketing the first commercial computer game. Of special interest to Slashdotters, he is also an avid Everquest player. And no, he doesn't draw "Dilbert"." Think "pre-Infocom".

Gr0und_zer0 writes: " A Cal State professor is currently conducting an economic survey of Everquest players which will be used to write a paper he plans to submit to an academic journal. It will be very interesting to see how this turns out and if it actually is published. Maybe we will learn the Everquest platinum to be favorable to some of those devalued third world currencys floating around. So much for living in reality, who needs the stock market these days, I'll invest in Everquest."

SmasKenS writes "So, not only did they get to make the CPU for Nintendo's GameCube, now they work for Sony too. Saw this on voodooextreme first, they also got a link to BBC News." Now, granted, this is several years away from actually happening, (projected date of 2004) but the costs (and profits) that are involved are staggering.

Milo_Mindbender asks: "I'm working on a project that involves flying/moving around in 3d spaces similar to what you would do in an archetectural walkthrough. I'm looking for a good and fairly natural controller for moving around in 6 degrees of 3D space. Something like the old 'Spaceball' would be great, but the company doesn't seem to make them anymore. Has anyone seen anything that works particularly well? Ideally, something that only requires one hand and is fairly easy for the uninitiated to learn to use."

joq writes "Just when you thought you'd heard it all... RSA Security Inc. announced it will market a development tool to equip software for a PlayStation2 game console developed by Sony with Netscape and SSL. The new development tool will allow game developers to equip online games for PS2 with SSL or other encryption means to prevent such games from being copied. Sony will sell a PS2 compatible hard disk drive unit with a broadband communications capability and is expected to sport Netscape equipped with SSL. The browser would not be necessary, however, for using game software with SSL because such game software itself processes an amount of money charged with users of networked games through a credit card number securely. Full story is on NikkeiBP and also the RSA press release"

Milo_Mindbender asks: "Has anyone seen an intercom system that operates entirely over Ethernet? Ideally, I'm looking for something like they use in TV and theatre, a self-contained belt-pack you plug a headset in one side and an ethernet cable (or wireless card) in the other. It needs to be controlable by a master computer that can link each user to any number of channels and change them around on the fly. A channel should be full-duplex and allow multiple people to talk/listen at once like a telephone conference call. This is for an entertainment venue where guests will use the system as a 'radio simulator' while playing multiplayer games and the staff will use it to help manage the facility. I'd prefer a ready-made system, but if you have suggestions for hardware/software that could be converted into such a system I won't complain!" While something like this would be a fun thin to do, why would someone use ethernet when radio-based (or, if you are careful...wire-based) communication products are cheaper and more robust?

Milo_Mindbender writes "I'm working on designing a simulator cockpit, similar to the one shown here (about half way down the page) that I helped design while Chief Engineer at Virtual World Entertainment, in the mid 90's, for playing high-end multiplayer simulation games. I need a device to use for multiple small 'instrument panel' screens as seen in the photos. It needs to be off-the-shelf, panel mountable, color, under $400 in quantity, have USB to connect to the cockpit's main PC and have a CPU so it can generate or update simple graphics locally. The perfect thing would be a PDA minus batteries, case and with the ability to poll 8 or so buttons. Support for Embedded Linux would be nice too. Any ideas?"

Milo_Mindbender asks: "I need a jukebox that supports networking with copies of itself on other computers. The main feature I'm looking for is the ability to have different MP3 files on different computers but keep a single master catalog covering all songs on all the jukeboxes you can access. If you request a song that isn't on your machine, the jukebox that has it would stream or copy it to you. I've seen a number of packages but the documentation isn't clear enough to tell if they have this feature and how well it works. The setup of each package is too involved for me to try them all. Any recommendations from people who have actually used this kind of software would be appreciated."

Ainonymous Coward writes " A teaser trailer was released for Steven Spielberg's A.I. For those who know, Stanley Kubrick had been working on this film for nearly 20 years; it is based on the Brian Aldiss short story Supertoys Last All Summer Long. Here is the trailer (Quicktime). The link comes from Ain't it Cool. Putting aside the obligatory Kubrick lamentation, I'm looking forward to this one. " I wish I could see this thing... I'm really excited about this movie.

1+1trouble writes: "Gamespot is running an article outlining some rough features of the PS3. There isn't much to be said yet, but you can certainly see where Sony is going with it. I wouldn't be surprised if they struck some kind of deal with Tivo. From the sound of it, one can hardly tell if it will be a gaming console at all." I still don't have a PS2, why am I caring about the PS3, huh? I need my Tekken Tag! Curse CowboyNeal!

Alec Muzzy writes: "La-Z-Boy has finally realized that there is a market for geeks. A new chair called The E-Cliner they've developed features a built-in wireless keyboard from Sony as well as a data port and surge protector for your laptop. As if that wasn't cool enough, the arm rests have storage compartments for beverages and remote controls! All this chair is missing is a retractable LCD monitor and a set of satellite speakers behind the head rest!" Kurt The Pope moved out last week, and I just bought a recliner to replace the one he took with him ... if only I had known to hold out for a few weeks. I like the outlet idea: One time I got my laptop's power cable stuck in the retractable footrest. Sparks went flying and the metal supports sliced into the cable. It was sweet, except for the part where I had to wait a week to have electricity for my laptop ... but why does this chair have to come with 6 months of WebTV?

A reader submitted: "Sony has set back the release of the Playstation 2 due to component shortages. The Europe release date has been reset to Nov. 24th, but a US date has not been confirmed." We've been seeing a lot of conflicting submissions over the last few days -- and conflicting information from Sony. But what it looks like now is that the initial release, for the U.S., is set for Oct. 26th, and the number of the machines to be shipped has been scaled back by half.

EuroBryce asks: "What is the current state of digital picture frames? I've found the Digi-Frame ($600 for the 5.6" model), the Sony Cyberframe ($800), and the Ceiva ($250 + $79/year service). The Ceiva unit is the right price to give to Grandma, but the frame is useless if Ceiva ever goes under. Is anyone working on a hack? Is anyone else shipping similar devices?" Interesting! How well do these things work? If I upload an image into one of these things, will it still be working in 5-10 years (assuming they have been properly powered that whole time). This is one of those areas where I still believe that paper is more robust and permanent than anything digital.

This time, an astute reader points us to the place where Guido Van Rossum speaks out on the Python license issues recently posted about here on Slashdot, and an Everquest enthusiast points to the Official Word (well, chatroom response) to Everquest server emulators. Oh, and remember that CueCat scanner you picked up last week (and quickly wrote a Linux kernel driver for) -- did anyone at Radio Shack mention something about an embedded serial number? Hmmmm. I thought not. Good thing reverse engineering isn't yet a capital offense ...

That's one long and winding snake of an issue ... Kevin Reichard writes: "Since you covered the original issues surrounding Python licensing, you may also want to note that Guido van Rossum of PythonLabs has officially responded in a Linux Today interview. He has many interesting things to say."

Which things notably include: "The sad thing is that all of this is based on technicalities: Stallman agrees that Python is free software, but a technicality in the licenses prevents compatibility. The choice of law clause in the CNRI license, which is causing the incompatibility, is very common is software licenses, and CNRI doesn't want to drop it because the validity of the general disclaimers in the license may depend on it. At the same time, Stallman doesn't want to allow any choice of law clauses, because one could stipulate the law of "Unfreedonia" which might reverse the meaning of the GPL."

Abort, retry, fail, bend, fold, spindle, mutilate? L Fitzgerald Sjoberg writes: " A recent posting on the official EverQuest boards by a spokesperson for Verant states that even RUNNING an EverQuest emulator violates the EverQuest license agreement.

If the emulator is legal, and emulators seem to be making a lot of legal headway these days, doesn't this essentially amount to Verant forbidding you to use a competitor's product? Not a good sign, if you ask me."

"Sir! Sir! There's something wrong -- this knob goes up to eleven!" Signal 11 writes: "I took apart a cuecat and did a rundown of the circuit tracings on the board. What follows is a short summary of what I found. I'm working on putting together a schematic for it and hope to have it together within a couple weeks.

The cuecat is fairly simple. It uses a pair of infrared LEDs to direct light onto the sheet of paper with the barcode on it. It is then picked up by an IR detector, whose output is tuned by a single potentiometer (adjusted at time of manufacture, I would guess) and then fed into the analog input of a microprocessor. The detector is the same type one can pickup at radioshack. All you do is enclose it in a box and then make a pinhole at one end. Cheap, but it works well enough.

The microprocessor I haven't had time to put together a circuit from the specs provided by texas instruments to download the microcode out of it. It is also a matter of me not wanting to learn about microprocessors although I understand it is common in the industry.. I'm an analog guy. :) I suspect it is nothing more than running the output through a ACD (analog->digital) inside the microprocessor and then referencing the binary input with a list of values to produce the barcode string. After that, as has been previously noted, it is passed to an XOR algorithm, and then modulated to be fed out onto the PS/2 interface. There are a pair of transistors on the board near the outputs of the microprocessor - I suspect these are used to either boost the signal to run over the PS/2 interface (the microprocessor may not have enough power), or as part of an oscillator to get a clock for the processor. Until I finish tracing out the board paths, I can't say for sure.

Somewhere in the chip they probably set the serial number into the nvram, which is prepended to the output. The software does the rest. As has been demonstrated, there isn't much to do on the software side either - one could just create an indexed array containing scancodes. One might even be able to write a new key definition file under linux.. no programming required.

This is a really simple device. This is also probably why they were so concerned about competitors.. it wouldn't take them more than one afternoon with an EE and a microcode programmer to reverse-engineer it and produce their own. Then again, the device was probably designed in the same amount of time, likely by a random contractor. The reason it took me so long? I've been messing around with electronics for all of three months, so yes, I'm not a professional - I also haven't gotten into DSP technology yet, which is all the cuecat is. As always, if someone could provide me with a basic circuit for reading the contents of the processor's memory out, I'd appreciate it!

Anyway, DigitalConvergence - I'm waiting for my cease and desist now."

Chilli writes "The results of RoboCup 2000 (the 4th RoboCup world championships) are out. There was a big suprise in the four legged robot league, which consistently uses AIBO hardware. UNSW United blew the competition away. In the final, they won 10-0 against last year's champion. The success was largely due to a new walking technique developed by the UNSW team."

VF/VT Hunter was first with the news. Could you gush about a product announcement for us, Mr. Hunter? "Oh hell yes :) This link over at C|Net details Sony's plan to release a Transmeta-powered notebook by year's end. I KNEW I should wait! What's better, it will include a built-in digital camera. Add standard USB and iLink (aka Firewire) support which seem to be prevalent on most Sonys, plus Sony's reputation for making the coolest looking gizmo's, and I think I've found my next big purchase. It just better not come with a Winmodem." But since it's not a full-sized laptop, should we assume it will be full-featured? Update: 08/15 11:15 AM by michael : The Picturebook line of Vaios doesn't sell very well - it's too small to be useful as a "real" laptop. If only Sony were smart enough to put this chip in their regular Vaios, they wouldn't be able to keep them on the shelves.

aisnota writes: "Cypress Semicondutor buys Silicon Light Machines and makes a move towards microelectromechanical systems applicable to fiber-optic networks. However, they will be able to leap into nanotechnology with this purchase and Sony is buying into the technology in a big way for the solid revenue stream. Isonics is providing pure isotopes that should also assist in nanotechnologies with pure Silicon-28 succeeds in proving that pure isotopes perform with cooler thermal profiles. "

Lifewolf writes: "Sony's new DCM-M1 digital video camcorder stores up to 20 minutes of MPEG2 video, 4,500 still images, or 260 minutes of ATRAC encoded audio onto a MiniDisc. Even more interesting, the camcorder features a Java 2.0 GUI and an Ethernet port so you can download your files from the built-in web server." Now all you need is a hot chick or two, a lot of bandwidth, and a macro virus and you're in business!

Viking Coder and Rares Marian sent in submissions asking about recommendations on systems for high quality video editing. They have concerns about the hardware and the software necessary for such tasks. I figure all of you folks out there who have some experience in this area should be able to help them out. (Read More)

Viking Coder asks: "Hello, I'd like to get involved with Digital Video recording and editing, and I was wondering what other people were using. The iMac at first seems a good option, until you see the limited hard drive and editing capabilities. Are there any pre-packaged solutions that would make for a better system? How about Linux or W2K compatibility / support? Any Open Source solutions to what would be obvious roadblocks?"

"So, I've been looking to build an eMonster 550R from eMachines, with a $500 DVRaptor from Canopus, also loading in a 30G EIDE (UDMA) HD, and Adobe Premiere 5.1, running everything from my (company's) Sony DCR-TRV103.

Am I in for a rude shock, or am I going to love what I can do? Are there other options I should be aware of? Will uLead's Media Builder (?) blow me away, or is Adobe the way to go? Is there an obvious winner card that makes the DVRaptor look silly? Is a 30G UDMA enough? Any caveats? (Like, 7,200 RPM for instance?)"

And from Rares Marian: "What tools, OSes, platforms, and hardware do I need to put a good machine together? I'm currently considering the following:

• Platform: Athlon 700, Alpha, G4, SGI
• OSes: Linux, Windows, AmigaOS, BSD (are they there yet?)
• Tools: Broadcast 2000, Premiere
• Systems: PC, Amiga, Mac, Alpha, SGI
• Hardware: Linux Multimedia Labs LML33, VideoToaster

I've had some quotes from $2000 for an Amiga3K setup (hey they used it on Babylon 5, Jurassic Park, and many TV stations still use it) to an $8000 Windows Athlon based machine. Any ideas? Hint: Small Budget No Limits. (From home video to full blown Internet based publishing)"

Namaste writes, "As reported on MacNN. Connectix who after a recent legal victory over Sony has signed an OEM agreement with Red Hat in which Connectix Virtual Game Station (VGS) will ship bundled with Red Hat Linux. The press release can be found here. The Macintosh version has been out for a while and seems to be quite a hit. Both the Linux and Win2k versions with be shipping in March. " Update: 02/16 03:21 by H :OK, this issue got confused: Red Hat won't be bundling VGS with Red Hat. Instead, Connectix will be bundling Red Hat with their Virtual PC emulator. VPC is not released for Linux at this time. I'll make sure Rob gets some more coffee before posting again. *grin*

Aaron Johns writes "The newest MP3 player on the market is from Sony, the VAIO Music Clip. It weighs less than two ounces, is a little over 4.5 inches long, and less than an inch in diameter. Only 64 Megs, but that's still two hours of music in a pen. " It's pretty cute. One thing ya gotta say about Sony, is that the guys designing the VAIO, AIBO, and this new music clip have a cool design sense... Despite how nifty this player looks I have to believe that with the onset of portable MP3 players with several hundred megs of storage, this one is probably too little too late.

Aaron Johns writes "The newest MP3 player on the market is from Sony, the VAIO Music Clip. It weighs less than two ounces, is a little over 4.5 inches long, and less than an inch in diameter. Only 64 Megs, but that's still two hours of music in a pen. " It's pretty cute. One thing ya gotta say about Sony, is that the guys designing the VAIO, AIBO, and this new music clip have a cool design sense... Despite how nifty this player looks I have to believe that with the onset of portable MP3 players with several hundred megs of storage, this one is probably too little too late.

Jason Swank writes "It looks like previous model of Sony's Glasstron was mentioned back in July, but it seems like they are now better and MUCH cheaper: 52" Virtual Viewing, 3.5 ounces, and only $499. " The one we reported on last july costed 5 times as much, but the cheaper model is 800x255, the $2600 version is 800x640. Still it looks pretty sweet. I wonder if I could use these without my contacts. That would make things a lot easier.

grayhame writes "It seems that Sony and Sun have decided to team up to co-develop digital consumer electronic appliances with access to the internet. " Sun seems to be moving towards consumer space. Sun and Specialized are doing a co-branding thing where Specialized uses Sun workstations to design their bikes, and in return, there will be Sun-purple co-branded bikes.

Salon has a surprisingly deep article about how video game machine makers are engaged in a "War for America's Thumbs" and how their products are no longer just toys but are rapidly become multi-purpose electronic appliances. Greg Costikyan, who wrote the piece, is the author of Fantasy War and, Salon says, 26 other commercial games. Well worth reading!

Long ago and far away, I started writing a series called "Road To Linux," in which I set out to learn Linux in a few weeks. Talk about clueless. Nearly one year, two wasted computers, a ticked-off spouse, (and a Yellow Lab who ate a motherboard) 30-plus books and manuals and much assorted debris later, I've more or less made it. I have no illusions about the technical accomplishments I've achieved here, but these are the first proud words I've ever written online without any assistance from Bill Gates or Steve Jobs or any big fat corporation. Small stuff to most of you, Computer Everest to me.

My PPP daemon keeps cutting out, and I'm puzzling over swap partitions, random seeds and generators bin/appfinders, so I'll keep this brief. In the next few weeks, I'll write more about my personal, somewhat hellish road to Linux. It was a hummer, accompanied every step away by the jeers and cheers of geeks and nerds on and off of Slashdot.

The big lesson was that I approached Linux in the wrong way, from every conceivable perspective. It needn't be that hard.

Rather than wading into manuals and books and programming (if you do it, believe me, O'Reilly is the best), I finally figured out that there are people like Joe Volodarsky out there, and companies like Amnet, people who live and breathe computers and Linux and who actually pick up the phone and help Every-Single-Time-You Call! The truth is, I never did figure this out. Somebody figured it out for me, but I finally got it. If you're not a geek, that's the big news.

And I am not a computer geek, and don't aspire to be one. I'm a writer, and happy with that title. Posting a column on a Linux laptop somebody else designed and preloaded for me hardly makes me any sort of nerd or techno-whiz. This is, in fact, the level of the classic breathless newbie, a mantle I expect to take to the grave.

Disagreement and criticism is a healthy, integral part of Web-writing, but the minor yet persistent controversy surrounding my writing for Slashdot has always surprised me. Some are passionately into defining who belongs or doesn't, an unfortunately common and increasingly difficult impulse in electric (and off-line) communities.

The term "geek" is broadening and evolving daily, and is coming to mean different, complex and increasingly positive things to people.

The real geeks and hackers, it seems to me, aren't into chest-thumping about who deserves the title. Like Joe, their real kick comes from getting people where they want to go. They're almost invariably welcoming and helpful. They're pretty secure about themselves, and their techno-manhood. From the first, they've been trying to help move me along, to the best degree of my limited ability. But if I recognize my limitations in writing on a Linux Box, I'm still pretty happy about it.

Real programmers are different from mortals, certainly from writers. They are a separate species. Programmers are precise, confident and look ahead. They have no doubt they can make technology come out right for them. Writers are imprecise, uncertain and backwards-looking. Their relationship with technology is uncertain, a means, never an end.

But here's what the fight about me being on Slashdot has always really been about: You don't need to be - and shouldn't have to be - a programmer to use and appreciate Linux, which is, to my amazement, every bit as easy and logical as my beloved Macs, once you get past the installation.

Linux is fun. Knowledge is, in fact, empowering, and learning and seeing how a computer actually works, especially in the context of a powerful idea like Open Source, is worth the grief and trouble. And for non-geeks heading for Linux, there will be plenty of both.

Joe Volodarsky was savvy in puttng together this computer for me, to a degree I wouldn't have thought possible. He used KDE and set up folders for Netscape, WordPerfect, documents,the printer, Templates, News, Updates, the Gimp, CD-ROM and floppy disks. I can't stay off of the KAPP Finder, which scrolls through an exotic list of programs and apps I'm reading about one by one, using my O'Reilly and other Linux guides. My laptop was designed with me in mind, even down to a Mac OS logo on the start-up menu. I've spent a dozen happy but nerve wracking hours puzzling over random seeds and bizarre commands, but I've learned more about computing in the last few weeks than in the decade I've been online.

For somebody who loves to write about technology, this is definitely a humbling gift and an opportunity. Open Source is one of the most powerful ideas I've come across in media, even as I'm just beginning to grasp how complicated an idea it is. Linux is a huge part of it. I'd like to go as far as I can get, taking small steps, one day at a time.

Playing around with my new laptop, I'm fascinated by how accessible the workings of this system are, (and how hidden the processes of my other computers have been) and have even moved a few things around, killed a few programs, and relished checking the Term windows to see my computing life and history passing before my eyes. I was up till 2 a.m., and had more fun than at any point in my life aside from walking into Joe DiMaggio on a New York City street when I was a kid.

Since this is the third time I've tried to post this message, I'm not going to prolong it.

Thanks to Joe of Amnet, which makes Linux boxes, laptops and servers. For getting me up and running, he deserves a place in the Geek Hall of Fame. Rare in our world, he is both technologically skilled and empathetic. He only lost it with me two or three times, and then briefly ("Katz, you don't have to Re-Boot. Don't turn it off!"). Thanks also to VA Linux Systems for hooking up the Slashdot crowd with Sony Vaios.

For those of you who sneered and jeered, thanks. You gave me the iron will to persevere. It was the Penguin or Death. And nuts to you, too.

For those of you who supported me in a hundred ways - especially Rob, Jeff, Robin, Jesse, Joe, Karl, Tom, Sandy, and scores of others who offered help every single day for nearly a year - thanks even more.

I might never be a Linux Geek. But I am my own particular kind of geek now.

Seems to me that's the idea.

Quite a number of you have written in with the news about Sony and Nippon Zeon Co Ltd announcing plastic hard drives. The current estimate is that it will cut production costs by 30-40%, on 5 gig drives. No word, however, on when production/testing will start.

madsatcom noted that the Sony Head Mounted Monitor that we mentioned awhile back is actually available now on the Sony Website. I can't find a resolution on that page, but it simulates a 30" screen, weighs 4.2 ounces, and costs a woppin' $2600... If anyone at Sony is reading, repeat after me: "Rob Must Test One of These Screens. Contact Him Now And Offer Him a Sample Unit". Seriously, wearable computing is getting closer, it just ain't getting much cheaper.

Brian Daniels sent us a link to a crazy looking Sony Robotic Dog. It doesn't have a price listed, but I'm willing to bet you won't have to clean up after it. Its supposed to be configurable, expandable, and fairly programmable. And its cute too.

VaxHerder writes "Sony has a "Hobbyists" version of the Playstation Game Console, called Net Yarose. It consists of a special black deck, and PC software. It comes with the GNU C compiler for the Mips R3000 CPU! (look at the FAQ) Here is the Link "

drix writes "Quite possibly the only reason any of you would even consider seeing Bug's Life (The Phantom Menace trailer) was originally due out November 20... this has gotta be the only time I've seen so many people excited about the release of a two minute film clip. Anyways, if you live in any of these cities, the force really is with you, because they're advance screening it tomorrow before and after showings of Meet Joe Black and I Still Know What You Did Last Summer. Is it really worth the price of admission? " Yep, it might be time for a move tonight. Update: 11/17 09:10 by CT : Michael Wilson wrote in to say that you can call 1(800)405-9800 for a free Star Wars poster.

Gregory Seidman writes "News.com is reporting that SGI is killing off Cosmo Software now that the sale to Sony has fallen through. Perhaps the Open Source community can prevail upon SGI and/or Cosmo to release the source of their VRML browser, CosmoPlayer."