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Cue: ringing phone

"Hello? Yes. Are you sure? Yes sir."

% rm -f /data/episodeii/ohDearGod/insync*.mov

The reviews from rest of world seem more upbeat, check out the force dot net. I'll see it tomorrow, thanks to the girlfriend for picking up seats for the DLP viewing. Go digital.

Fuck you, lamer. Over on the other message board, this is what we do to spoiler fucks like you.

We know this.

TheForce.Net is certainly on the ball.

Can't forget The Force or Troops in an article like this. Also, the Theater page has plenty of great links.

Can't forget The Force or Troops in an article like this. Also, the Theater page has plenty of great links.

Can't forget The Force or Troops in an article like this. Also, the Theater page has plenty of great links.

TheForce.net had a story about the advanced ticket misprint earlier in the week. I was wondering about that too though before I saw the story.

If you're stuck at work, check out theforce.net's live webcam of fans waiting in line for the midnight showing in LA.

If you're stuck at work, check out theforce.net's live webcam of fans waiting in line for the midnight showing in LA.

So, what kind of cool things have come out of their labs? Well, for one thing, there's the ubiquitous network OS that I read about a while ago. This is possibly the coolest damn system I've ever seen. So, yes, if it's already in the M$ pipeline, you'll probably be seeing it in a store near you in coming years. It's only a matter of time and bandwidth.

On a side note, if anyone's interested, I have an inside contact at MS Research, and I was able to get my hands on a screenshot of this sweet little system, and subsequently posted them here. I hope that there's an open source alternative in the works too, this is really too cool to miss.

She dies in his arms!
Also, Stormtroopers are CLONES. And ANAKIN GETS HIS ARM CHOPPED OFF BY COUNT DOOKU!

My question is, how can you keep running indefinitely without any commercials during your audio streams? My understanding is that this is the bread and butter of more conventional radio stations, so how do things work with your company? Surely someone has to pay the hosting and bandwidth bills sooner or later.

Also, I'm wondering if the recent actions by the RIAA scare you, even a little? While shooting and killing college students in a raid on MP3 servers is definitely unprecedented, I wasn't entirely surprised when I read it. It had to happen sooner or later, I suppose. So how do you deal with copyright and licensing problems, and what is your company's view on the whole intellectual property situation that seems to come up every time media on the internet is discussed?

It is top-secret! Please avert your eyes.

Continuing with the whole Star Wars verses Spiderman/comics thread established by JonKatz a few articles ago, it is interesting to note that Star Wars has also been studied scientifically.

A astrophysics by the name of Jeanne Cavelos wrote book called The Science of Star Wars, where she talks about how Star Wars fuelled her interest in space exploration and discusses the whole science of Star Wars. You also have the online Star Wars Technical Commentaries that discuss the scientific plausability of the movies. It's good to know that imagination of others be it Stan Lee or George Lucas can help people think scientifically about both the real world and the imagined.

Pssst. Anakin's going to lose an arm.

Link: "I saw CLONES two weeks ago up at George's. For the record, of all the STAR WARS they've made, this is my second favorite just ehind EMPIRE," Spielberg told us. "It was great. The action scenes looked like George had been inspired by James Cameron because they were as good as any of the action scenes in T2, and I think George did his best directing with this one too."

Well, it should be better than The Phantom Menace (episode 1) then. :)

When Senators Attack

What do you mean where do I look for SW fan films? Try theforce.net

Here, look here http://theforce.net/theater/animation/wsa4/index.s html

What do you mean you can't cut and paste? click this link then. Do I have to do it all for you?

One thing I found very interesting reading the article, which I had not considered beforehand, was as the author pointed out.

The digital videos they shot in 1999 may be unpayable on their desktop and laptop computers.

This is better further elaborated in the following passage...

There are some problems with this scheme. If Prince-ton computer scientist Edward Felten is right, a watermark that's invisible to the audience yet easily detected by machines will be relatively easy to remove. To put it simply, if you can't see it, you won't miss it when it's gone. Which is why the components of new home entertainment systems probably would have to be designed not to play unwatermarked content. Otherwise, all you've done is develop an incentive for both inquisitive hackers and copyright "pirates" to find a way to strip out the watermarks. But if the new entertainment systems won't play content without watermarks, they won't work with old digital videos or MP3s.

Now assuming the above is true and consider the worst case scenario of this bill coming to pass. Would this mean all those legitimate MP3s I downloaded from Epitonic and the Star Wars fan films would no longer be playable on new hardware since they lacked a watermark?

If this the case how would free content continue to exist and operate in this system, as they would obviously have to use watermarks just like copyrighted works if they want to be playable on the new hardware DRM systems. Ofcourse this sort of thing would piss of consumers and even some content providers.

[SPOILER ALERT] Actually, it's an entire arm. [/SPOILER ALERT]

http://download.theforce.net/theater/shortfilms/co nsolewars/cwpart1.swf

Star Wars: Broken Allegiance: It's decent for a homemade video. It got space fights, light saber (kind of cheesy but hey it's homemade), Darth Vader, stormtroopers, forces, and long (23 minutes!). Crank up your bass, you bass freaks!

VOTE FOR NATALIE!!!

VOTE NATALIE

VOTE NATALIE

Vote For Natalie

She likes cereals

As a producer, composer, and general content creator, I think that looking for quality entertainment is the critical concern. There's plenty of stuff out there, the trick is finding the good stuff. And with a few notable exceptions (Ani DiFranco, etc.) you aren't going to find it at your local Best Buy, and maybe not even at your local record store (if any of those still exist). For now, the web is where it's at.

While certainly not a litmus test for quality, you can at least trust that artists that use alternate distribution like CDBaby to provide distribution for self-produced/funded titles at least cared enough about their music to scrounge up the money to press a CD and arrange for distribution.

If you're willing to trudge through some crap (albeit interesting crap in many cases), the big music sites like IUMA, MP3.com, and Garageband provide more tracks than you'll be able to listen to.

One hint for the more commercial sites like MP3.com - skip the charts occasionally. The way the MP3.com charts work, you'll typically get a song at number 1 that stays at number 1 for a long time because everyone's listening to it because it's number 1. A self-perpetuating hit, if you will. Also, ever since Vivendi bought MP3.com out, there have been an awful lot of mainstream artists in the top charts. Still, if you're looking for mainstream, you can at least get a "legal" mp3 of a bunch of stuff there.

An additional hint, you'll find some real gems in the less-traveled genres like film music, darkwave, folk, comedy, etc.

Finally, there are lots of small independent labels/artist collectives like RTFM Records that have quality artists that either got tired of working in the mainstream entertainment business, or were smart enough to try and slog it out themselves. Supporting labels like these is a good way to encourage more of the same.

I don't have much advice for you on the movie side of things - I think with the advent of cheap digital camcorders and products like iMovie and Final Cut Pro, you'll see more of this kind of content hitting the web in the next year or two, though. Especially as more people get broadband, which is more or less required for visual stuff.

One site I can recommend if you're into fan-produced Star Wars stuff is theforce.net which has quite a few short films and trailers of varying quality. There's also an absolutely stunning short film set in the Star Wars universe called Duality that you just have to see to believe.

Finally, I'd like to put a plug in for a new benefit album created by a bunch of musicians from around the world in response to the WTC/Pentagon attacks. The album, September Rising, is now available. It was put together by a bunch of pros, most of whom have never met each other face to face. Complete information is available at septemberrising.org. It's some really great stuff, and unlike most of the benefit albums coming from the major entertainment conglomerates who only donated a percentage of sales, I believe that all proceeds from sales of this album go to the New York Firefighters 9-11 Disaster Relief Fund.

According to this.

Would he lie on TV? Would he tell this story on TV (in fear of Lucasfilm/Fox)? Hrm.

Say, don't you think Knuth looks like Darth Vader?

I've been hearing people complaining about Episode I ever since it came out. That seems to be the official policy around here judging by the commentary from the editor.

But I liked Episode I. Most of my coworkers and classmates did, too. While finishing my senior design project in spring of 2000, two of us on the group wanted to listen to the TPM soundtrack -- over and over and over again. I still listen to it all the time at work. (Got the ultimate edition!)

I thought Ep. I was spectacularly exciting. In fact, the only thing I didn't really like was the podraces. :) My comment to people who hadn't seen it the next day at work was "The lightsaber battles alone were worth paying $50 to see." I still stand by that statement; I loved it! And I think III is going to be one of the best stories ever told. Maybe it will take everyone (but me) by surprise.

Actually I think II is going to take a lot of people by surprise. Sure, I'm going to be there opening night. Not because I'll watch anything Lucas puts out, but because I've liked everything Lucas has put out. If I'm the only one who likes it, it just makes it feel like Lucas is putting out a custom movie for me and my friends.

I find it hard to think that half of Slashdot would show up for Star Wars: the return of the 17th century parlor comedy when nearly all of slashdot seems to agree with you.

To change the subject, has every heard about Virtual Episodes VII, VIII, and IX?

No sign of Jar-Jar, maybe, but take a look at this, about 1/3 down. There's actually a character named "Elan Sleazebaggano." Sleazebaggano?? That's so cheesie it's almost insulting.

Check out this if you want to know what the trailer will be like.

Other than the various rumors at TheForce.net, I found this on AintItCoolNews a few days ago. And it seems that this movie is alot better than Episode I. With Yoda Fight scenes, Amazing scenery of an underground "gotham-like" Coruscant's underworld.

I'm really excited about this, and can't wait to see it. Finally something else to be excited to see on Fox other than the Simpsons (except latley).

one of the episodes (number 17 I think) makes a reference to another star wars spoof here.

There are actually a lot of good sw spoofs out there; just a matter of looking at places like atomfilms and ifilms. but be warned, there are also a lot of terrible ones

Why does Star Wars need guitars? I was always told that the were a gangster rap act.

here is some information about the digital projection the force.net
josh

... probably still in there.

theforce.net : Bye, Bye, Bye 'NSync? Not So Fast

So can those griping Star Wars fans finally breath easy? Not quite. Lucasfilm spokeswoman Lynn Hale wouldn't confirm Thursday whether 'N Sync will or will not appear in the final cut of Clones, saying "it's just too early to make that decision." - "The 'N Sync guys were shot as extras, and whether they're in or out won't be determined until the final edit," Hale says.

Check them out they look like pretty cool guys. No wonder they're sitting out there for 4 months. I have just one question. What the hell is all that gear they have on? the phones and the like. They seeem like the perfect type to be doing this.

Now i better get going to start my own cool star wars club.. so i can wait in line forever! fun fun!

If you're a suspect and a search warrant is issued our law enforcement agencies have been able to search your property for the last few hundred years.

Actually, it turns out that (like every other minor character in Star Wars), the Amanaman have a fairly well-developed history and anatomy. You can read all about it at STAR WARS: Amanaman.

Make it better than Ep1?

ho ho ho ho!

Check out TheForce.net and view some of the home-brewed films. They're in quicktime, but free for download. I shit you not when I say that I enjoyed some of the 15-25 minute shorts they had on there than I enjoyed SW:Ep1! I even watched one or two of the shorts a couple times, they were so well done. Better acting, plot, story, and a less flamboiant integration of CGI and reality. All that, and with the only budgets being people's own financial donations. Now shut your mouth, you uninformed n00b, before I have to slap you.

EPISODE VI: Leia was to be elected "Queen of her people" leaving her isolated. Han was to die. Luke confronted Vader and went on with his life alone. Leia was not to be Luke's sister.

EPISODE VII: Third trilogy was to focus on Luke's life as a Jedi, with very few details planned out.

EPISODE VIII: Luke's sister (not Leia) appears from another part of the galaxy.

EPISODE IX: First appearance of the Emperor.

The sites you put up as examples are sites where the user interest is nonexistant. I don't care about a "cute lil' cat" or "cute lil'" anythings, for that matter. I don't think I'm alone among netizens for that. And I don't think that "Magick" has a huge following either.

However, if you want a media system and a belief system that are popular, Star Wars and Christianity are both doing fine.

And sites become popular overnight! Need I remind you of the dancing hamsters and "All your base" phenomena that took the nation by storm inexplicably with only wierdness to pull them along?

I can see the next two Sci-Fi series now:
- StarFleet's Most Exciting Chases
- When Klingons Go Wild

Oh yeah, and several stupid "reality TV" dating/elimination shows. (But with aliens)

Maybe they'll turn TROOPS into a series...

For anyone who doesn't have quicktime, or just doesn't want to download the trailer, TheForce.net has posted some screen captures, about 50 in all.

If I see it correctly, it's actually a Tusken Raider (sandpeople). You can see the two little horns on top that come from their face masks.

The reason he's attacking one is a spoiler, so I won't reveal it here, but go to http://www.theforce.net/episode2 if you're interested in finding out why.

Google is your friend...

Troops

It's rather good :-)

http://download.theforce.net/theater/episode2/ep2_ large.mov

I for one was not impressed. Actually the fake trailer was way more interesting...