Quote from the UTexas eulogy: "He and his wife had a fondness for exploring state and national parks in their Volkswagen bus, dubbed the Touring Machine, in which he wrote many technical papers."
Now THAT's a computer scientist! And RIP, Edgar W. Dijkstra.
Being the main developer of 3Dwm, I can safely say that fsn, as the 3D file manager is called (which you no doubt know since you looked it up), was not really an early prototype for 3Dwm. Well, sure we were influenced by it, but then there are many influences to draw from in the 3D and Virtual Reality scene.
That said, I am pretty sure you mean "prototype" in a very loose sense, but it sounds a bit too "official" for my liking... Almost as if we're getting credit for something we didn't do!:)
I think that the debate whether 3Dsia is better than 3Dwm is rather pointless. Being one of the core developers of 3Dwm myself, I know that the scopes of the two different projects are quite different. 3Dwm is all about building a general platform for 3D user interfaces (3DUIs), while 3Dsia goes for the William Gibson "cyberspace" approach. This might seem like a fine point, but there is quite a difference. Now, I am not going to stand here and say which approach is best (hey, you know which I prefer!), but I daresay that 3Dwm is a more mature system resting on a more solid system architecture (we use CORBA, heavy modularization, and object-orientation), though.
A common misconception among most slashdotters seem to be that 3Dwm is all about "flat" windows. It is not. This is our fault, since all we've shown on our screenshots are those images of X11 and Windows desktops in 3D, but that only forms one of the cornerstones of 3Dwm (the backwards-compatibility one). 3Dwm is mainly about building 3DUI applications (like the prototype web browser you can see here, here and here) for use in Virtual Reality.
That said, I'm not about to steal 3Dsia's show in any way. Above all, good luck and have fun!
Clearing up some points
on
3Dwm Updates
·
· Score: 5
I'm one of the core developers of 3Dwm, and I've watched with horrid fascination as the webserver was nearly toppled by the tremendous/.-onslaught just recently (have a look at the logs). Now, browsing the comments, I thought I should post and clear up some points.
First of all, yes, 3Dwm is misnamed. 3Dwm is NOT an X11 window manager, it is a user environment (the beginnings of the 3D-equivalent of X11). However, the name has stuck with us since our first appearance on Slashdot, so we don't want to change it.
Secondly, the main platform for 3Dwm is not normal desktop computers (though it does run on desktop systems), but Virtual Reality devices (like this one). In Virtual Reality, you have some amazing 3D interaction possibilities that few existing applications exploit.
As for VNC support, 3Dwm has VNC client (not server) functionality, just as one observant slashdotter pointed out. This allows us, in a network-transparent fashion that is in keeping with the distributed nature of the rest of 3Dwm, to display graphical desktops of any major windowing system (including Windows, X11, and MacOS) in 3D.
There's always skeptics who wonder what you would use a system like this for when 2D is perfectly fine. To that I can only answer that there are, in fact, areas where 3D could help a great deal, mainly in the fields of design, modelling, and information visualization. Why, take a look at this (and this and this) screenshot for a prototype 3D web browser.
Btw, today marks the one-year anniversary of our last slashdotting (I wrote up a short summary of the comments we got last time). Cool, eh?:)
The whole window idea just doesn't seem to work for a 3d environment. I don't see any good way of porting it either.
Windows aren't really compatible with 3D workspaces, since they are essentially two-dimensional entities. We recognized this when designing 3Dwm, but our main objective was to get a working prototype running (and we did). The next step in our development is spelled im3D (though we might have to stick with 3Dwm with all the name recognition it has gained by now), and we aim for it to be a true three-dimensional UI platform. In im3D, there are no longer any windows; we call them rooms for lack of a better word, and they are convex polyhedrons (i.e. cubes, icosahedrons or more general, non-symmetric shapes as well). Whether this is an ideal arrangement remains to be seen, though...
Right. The only reason we called it "3Dwm" was because people generally know what window managers are (I guess we could have called it 3Dws for "windowing system"...) and thus would be more likely to understand what 3Dwm was all about. And yes, it is indeed a proxy Xserver (a hacked version of Xvfb) which communicates with the actual 3Dwm application using shared memory.
As for the relevance of simply displaying plain old 2D applications in 3D, again, you are right. But 3Dwm is really a prototype for im3D, the Immersion3D User Environment (no homepage yet, but there are some docs on the 3Dwm website), which will be a full 3D windowing system but which will still retain support for running normal X applications, so hopefully, things will improve here...
Of course we have a Linux port! The development machine I use at home (and yes, there is a lot of that kind of development going on) is a Linux box using Mesa and GLUT. Still, I must say that the Onyx2 does push the polygons a tad bit faster...
(Of course, we have yet to release any code, but I'm hoping that will change quite soon...)
Re:D-I-Y 3D Window Managers, in Three Easy Steps
on
3D Window Manager
·
· Score: 1
Oops, you're right. That is VIC running, not Rat. Sorry about that, but that text was written in a hurry long after we actually took the snapshot.
As for the Linux and the Open Source people beating us to the 3D-dimensional desktop, well, as far as we are concerned, we are the Open Source people. 3Dwm is still under heavy development and in the initial "cathedral-like" mode before being introduced to the bazaar, but we do aim to release the source under a free license. Instead, be wary of what http://research.microsoft.com/ui/TaskGallery/defau lt.htm">the opposition is doing.
Unfortunately, I was notified by this thread a bit too late, so I guess this entry is getting a bit stale, but I thought I should post my thoughts here nonetheless.
As many of you might have guessed by now, 3Dwm is a 3D-User-Interface research project at Chalmers Medialab. We're currently in crush-mode, as we're going to host a demonstration of the system on Friday (if you happen to be in the vicinity, be sure to drop by! Check out this page (Swedish only) for more information.), so we're currently putting a lot of time and effort into the system.
I see a lot of concern about 3Dwm just being a fancy way to display plain 2D applications in 3D. This is true. Yet 3Dwm is more of a prototype than a full project, and we will be addressing the questions of fully three-dimensional applications in our current core project, im3D, the Immersion3D User Environment. If you think 3Dwm is cool, then imagine having apps that are built for three dimensions. A modelling program might look like a workshop you may step into and use when designing your 3D-models. Your plain ole' debugger (gdb) might have a fancy 3D-dimensional interface to allow you to look at different threads of execution, stacks and heaps in an intuitive way. The plain 2D-VRML browser is now a gateway into the actual model which allows you to step into and actually explore the world from within.
Well, that's some of the hype, anyway. 3Dwm and im3D is still under heavy development, but we hope to be able to release the code under a fairly free license (as in GPL, but we don't know at this point) and post it for the rest of the community to enjoy. Yes, it helps if you have a CAVE or a HMD, but we'll support (and already do) normal desktop systems as well.
If you have any specific questions, comments, flames or criticism which you really want to make sure reaches us, then mail us at 3dwm@medialab.chalmers.se. Thanks for all your feedback!
Music is real important for me as well, when I'm coding, so this is a good point. The main thing for me is that the music should not contain any lyrics at all, or I will have a hard time concentrating on the matter at hand. If I for just one second lose touch and listen to the song, then that's a failure.
I've found that soundtracks (as in the real soundtracks, not the collections of songs made by famous artists that so many movies sport) and classical music works best for me. Here are some of my favorites:
Jurassic Park - great music
The Rock - perfect moodsetter
The Last of the Mohicans
Star Wars (SE and TPM) - of course!
The Mummy - surprisingly good
Backdraft - wish I had this one
Saving Private Ryan - John Williams is always good
Indiana Jones - see above
Anyone else got some good soundtracks to recommend?
Check out the 3Dwm website for something quite similar... This is a three-dimensional window manager for X with OpenGL support. It's still in early development, though. Another cool app is GLACE, which supports running X applications on 3D surfaces.
Hmm, yes, "confer a doctor's degree" sounds a bit better, perhaps. "Promote" does have the correct meaning, although it might be a bit belligerent. Like I said, this was a quick'n dirty translation:)
As for mudding... Not much. Exam week. Need I say more?:)
Young computer genius to receive one of this year's honorary doctorates
This year's honorary doctors at the University of Stockholm have now been appointed. Among them is the 29-year-old Finnish-Swedish Linus Torvalds, creator of the world-famous Linux operating system. Torvalds lives in Santa Clara, USA.
[snip other doctorates]
The honorary doctors will be promoted (?) at the traditional installation- and promotionceremony in the Blue Chamber of Stockholm City Hall on Friday the 24th of September, when new doctors and jubileedoctors (?) will be promoted as well. New professors will also be installed at this time.
Well, exam week is over, and I have some free time to burn! Why not do this with an inaugural posting on Slashdot (well, I've had my share of "me too":s, of course) about my favorite subject -- Star Wars. Below is a collection of my thoughts and opinions on some of the sights and sounds of the new trailer.
Now please bear in mind that this analysis was formed using my own knowledge (which may be patchy in some places!) and own observations made by watching the trailer and teaser. In other words, this is *not* a spoiler, since I am as much in the dark as the rest of you.
With that disclaimer out of the way, let's get on with the show (*firing up QuickTime viewer*):
1. Okay, first shot. Transports advancing over a grassy ridge escorted by hover tanks at point. Notice the fleeing animals to the right!
2. Second shot, panoramic view of what seems to be the royal palace. Beautiful waterfalls, btw.
3. Assault force advancing on dome-shaped structures in the distance. What *is* that? It looks too small to contain cities. Some kind of natural resource?
4. Large ship resembling a TIE-fighter but with a protruding nose flashes by. Is this a capital ship or a fighter? I am leaning towards the earlier, but I am not sure.
5. Landing transport touching down in forest. Notice the numerous identical transports landing in the distance.
6. Darth Maul speaking to robed figure. The second shot of this conversation shows you a bit of the robed figure's chin, which has led me to believe that this is indeed Senator Palpatine himself, later to become *Emperor* Palpatine of the New Order.
7. Horde of droids turning to look at some intrusion. Notice the large hovering droids in the background, and the shape of their eyes (or ocular receptors in Star Wars-speak). We'll get to this later on.
8. The Emperor as a hologram, speaking with the voice we all have come to love and dread!
9. Large transports being unloaded from landing barge. Notice the domed front sections of these transports, and how they somewhat resemble old-fashioned steam locomotives.
10. Orderly row of droids in front of domed structures. Here we also see the open front sections of the transports mentioned above, and in the first shot. Something strange is going on in the domes -- some kind of collecting of energy?
11. Senator Palpatine looking somewhat disinterested. It appears that the good senator is playing an interesting game of deceit!
12. Shot of Qui-Gon (Liam Neeson) and Obi-Wan (Ewan McGregor) jumping from a table, sabers at the ready. Is that C3P-0 to the left, dropping a tray? He seems to have a lot of plating on him, as opposed to later shots.
13. Qui-Gon blocking a bolt aimed at him (or the CG-companion ducking behind him, don't know his name). Notice how the blaster bolt is deflected and hits the attacking battle droid -- only the most proficient of Jedis can do that (Luke just pulls it off a few times).
14. Queen Amida (Natalie Portman) speaking to the Senate (I think). She seems to be speaking into some kind of camera, broadcasting her image to all members. It seems as if the queen has been exiled from her planet (Naboo, is it not?) by the droid invasion, but that she managed to escape and is now asking for help in the Senate (they don't seem very responsive though). Also notice the way the last "committee" echoes in the chamber, giving that much more force to her words (talk about a committee!).
15. Strange aliens (similar to the companion of Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan) kneel and deflect blaster bolts (presumably fired by the battle droids) while the back rows throw something into the air. There appears to be some large beast of war in the background, too.
16. Larger shot of the Senate chamber. Lots of representatives from lots of worlds (a thousand thousand) around the galaxy.
17. Artoo being hoisted into place in the Naboo starfighter. Can't help to think that this system is so much better than that used on the X-Wing and Y-Wing starfighter series.
18. Queen Amida with a needle-like gun and for once without the fancy ceremonial make-up and clothing. I would venture this is where she is forced to escape from the invading forces, aided of course by Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon.
19. I just *love* the fancy lightsaber techniques of Ewan McGregor! Go, Ewan!
20. C3P-0 complaining about "dreadful starships". I gather this means that he was built on this planet, since he evidently never has traveled in space. This must be where he programmed those binary lifters! In addition, it seems as if he is not fully completed -- he is lacking a lot of plating. But Artoo is as feisty as ever.
21. Yoda speaking to Samuel L. Jackson (don't know his character's name) -- the head of the Jedi Council on Coruscant.
22. Black-robed figure extinguishing his lightsaber, a panoramic view of a desert landscape in the background. Gorgeous shot. The black robe, the elongated lightsaber grip and the red blade leads me to believe that this is Darth Maul. Also, Qui-Gon's and Obi-Wan's ship seems to be speeding off in the background. Along with the information in the teaser, I would venture that Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon has been to Tatooine to find Anakin, escaping with him just in the nick of time (not before Qui-Gon having had to face Darth Maul briefly, though).
23. Race on Tatooine. Notice how these "rocket sleighs" have their cockpits slung behind the two front engines. Strange contraption.
24. Is that Jabba moving out to greet the public, presumably on Tatooine? Also, our beloved Bib Fortuna seems to be with him; strange, I thought the half-life of being a lieutenant of Jabba was way shorter than that.
25. Gotta love those fighting scenes.
26. What are those huge sea-monsters which seem intent on eating our heroes' starship?
27. Enemy(?) starfighter firing over a large capital ship. Notice the red slits on the main fuselage of the starfighter -- very similar to the eyes of the large hover-droids in the beginning. I would say that this means that the starfighters are automated droids as well.
28. Did I say Liam Neeson is looking absolutely *wonderful* as a Jedi Master -- tall, stately and calm, almost serene.
Well, that was that. Comments, flames, suggestions are welcome.
Nope. Clones are just what it sounds like, cloned organic creatures (probably humans). If you've read the Heir to the Empire trilogy by Timothy Zahn (the best Star Wars books, IMHO), you'll understand. Interestingly enough, clones were banned after the Clone Wars because the accelerated grow-up process made them mad...
Slashdot Mirror
Quote from the UTexas eulogy: "He and his wife had a fondness for exploring state and national parks in their Volkswagen bus, dubbed the Touring Machine, in which he wrote many technical papers." Now THAT's a computer scientist! And RIP, Edgar W. Dijkstra.
Being the main developer of 3Dwm, I can safely say that fsn, as the 3D file manager is called (which you no doubt know since you looked it up), was not really an early prototype for 3Dwm. Well, sure we were influenced by it, but then there are many influences to draw from in the 3D and Virtual Reality scene.
That said, I am pretty sure you mean "prototype" in a very loose sense, but it sounds a bit too "official" for my liking... Almost as if we're getting credit for something we didn't do! :)
I think that the debate whether 3Dsia is better than 3Dwm is rather pointless. Being one of the core developers of 3Dwm myself, I know that the scopes of the two different projects are quite different. 3Dwm is all about building a general platform for 3D user interfaces (3DUIs), while 3Dsia goes for the William Gibson "cyberspace" approach. This might seem like a fine point, but there is quite a difference. Now, I am not going to stand here and say which approach is best (hey, you know which I prefer!), but I daresay that 3Dwm is a more mature system resting on a more solid system architecture (we use CORBA, heavy modularization, and object-orientation), though.
A common misconception among most slashdotters seem to be that 3Dwm is all about "flat" windows. It is not. This is our fault, since all we've shown on our screenshots are those images of X11 and Windows desktops in 3D, but that only forms one of the cornerstones of 3Dwm (the backwards-compatibility one). 3Dwm is mainly about building 3DUI applications (like the prototype web browser you can see here, here and here) for use in Virtual Reality.
That said, I'm not about to steal 3Dsia's show in any way. Above all, good luck and have fun!
I'm one of the core developers of 3Dwm, and I've watched with horrid fascination as the webserver was nearly toppled by the tremendous /.-onslaught just recently (have a look at the logs). Now, browsing the comments, I thought I should post and clear up some points.
First of all, yes, 3Dwm is misnamed. 3Dwm is NOT an X11 window manager, it is a user environment (the beginnings of the 3D-equivalent of X11). However, the name has stuck with us since our first appearance on Slashdot, so we don't want to change it.
Secondly, the main platform for 3Dwm is not normal desktop computers (though it does run on desktop systems), but Virtual Reality devices (like this one). In Virtual Reality, you have some amazing 3D interaction possibilities that few existing applications exploit.
As for VNC support, 3Dwm has VNC client (not server) functionality, just as one observant slashdotter pointed out. This allows us, in a network-transparent fashion that is in keeping with the distributed nature of the rest of 3Dwm, to display graphical desktops of any major windowing system (including Windows, X11, and MacOS) in 3D.
There's always skeptics who wonder what you would use a system like this for when 2D is perfectly fine. To that I can only answer that there are, in fact, areas where 3D could help a great deal, mainly in the fields of design, modelling, and information visualization. Why, take a look at this (and this and this) screenshot for a prototype 3D web browser.
Btw, today marks the one-year anniversary of our last slashdotting (I wrote up a short summary of the comments we got last time). Cool, eh? :)
The whole window idea just doesn't seem to work for a 3d environment. I don't see any good way of porting it either.
Windows aren't really compatible with 3D workspaces, since they are essentially two-dimensional entities. We recognized this when designing 3Dwm, but our main objective was to get a working prototype running (and we did). The next step in our development is spelled im3D (though we might have to stick with 3Dwm with all the name recognition it has gained by now), and we aim for it to be a true three-dimensional UI platform. In im3D, there are no longer any windows; we call them rooms for lack of a better word, and they are convex polyhedrons (i.e. cubes, icosahedrons or more general, non-symmetric shapes as well). Whether this is an ideal arrangement remains to be seen, though...
Right. The only reason we called it "3Dwm" was because people generally know what window managers are (I guess we could have called it 3Dws for "windowing system"...) and thus would be more likely to understand what 3Dwm was all about. And yes, it is indeed a proxy Xserver (a hacked version of Xvfb) which communicates with the actual 3Dwm application using shared memory.
As for the relevance of simply displaying plain old 2D applications in 3D, again, you are right. But 3Dwm is really a prototype for im3D, the Immersion3D User Environment (no homepage yet, but there are some docs on the 3Dwm website), which will be a full 3D windowing system but which will still retain support for running normal X applications, so hopefully, things will improve here...
Of course we have a Linux port! The development machine I use at home (and yes, there is a lot of that kind of development going on) is a Linux box using Mesa and GLUT. Still, I must say that the Onyx2 does push the polygons a tad bit faster...
(Of course, we have yet to release any code, but I'm hoping that will change quite soon...)
Oops, you're right. That is VIC running, not Rat. Sorry about that, but that text was written in a hurry long after we actually took the snapshot.
As for the Linux and the Open Source people beating us to the 3D-dimensional desktop, well, as far as we are concerned, we are the Open Source people. 3Dwm is still under heavy development and in the initial "cathedral-like" mode before being introduced to the bazaar, but we do aim to release the source under a free license. Instead, be wary of what http://research.microsoft.com/ui/TaskGallery/defau lt.htm">the opposition is doing.
Unfortunately, I was notified by this thread a bit too late, so I guess this entry is getting a bit stale, but I thought I should post my thoughts here nonetheless.
As many of you might have guessed by now, 3Dwm is a 3D-User-Interface research project at Chalmers Medialab. We're currently in crush-mode, as we're going to host a demonstration of the system on Friday (if you happen to be in the vicinity, be sure to drop by! Check out this page (Swedish only) for more information.), so we're currently putting a lot of time and effort into the system.
I see a lot of concern about 3Dwm just being a fancy way to display plain 2D applications in 3D. This is true. Yet 3Dwm is more of a prototype than a full project, and we will be addressing the questions of fully three-dimensional applications in our current core project, im3D, the Immersion3D User Environment. If you think 3Dwm is cool, then imagine having apps that are built for three dimensions. A modelling program might look like a workshop you may step into and use when designing your 3D-models. Your plain ole' debugger (gdb) might have a fancy 3D-dimensional interface to allow you to look at different threads of execution, stacks and heaps in an intuitive way. The plain 2D-VRML browser is now a gateway into the actual model which allows you to step into and actually explore the world from within.
Well, that's some of the hype, anyway. 3Dwm and im3D is still under heavy development, but we hope to be able to release the code under a fairly free license (as in GPL, but we don't know at this point) and post it for the rest of the community to enjoy. Yes, it helps if you have a CAVE or a HMD, but we'll support (and already do) normal desktop systems as well.
If you have any specific questions, comments, flames or criticism which you really want to make sure reaches us, then mail us at 3dwm@medialab.chalmers.se. Thanks for all your feedback!
Music is real important for me as well, when I'm coding, so this is a good point. The main thing for me is that the music should not contain any lyrics at all, or I will have a hard time concentrating on the matter at hand. If I for just one second lose touch and listen to the song, then that's a failure.
I've found that soundtracks (as in the real soundtracks, not the collections of songs made by famous artists that so many movies sport) and classical music works best for me. Here are some of my favorites:
Anyone else got some good soundtracks to recommend?
Check out the 3Dwm website for something quite similar... This is a three-dimensional window manager for X with OpenGL support. It's still in early development, though. Another cool app is GLACE, which supports running X applications on 3D surfaces.
Hmm, yes, "confer a doctor's degree" sounds a bit better, perhaps. "Promote" does have the correct meaning, although it might be a bit belligerent. Like I said, this was a quick'n dirty translation :)
:)
As for mudding... Not much. Exam week. Need I say more?
Young computer genius to receive one of this year's honorary doctorates
This year's honorary doctors at the University of Stockholm have now been appointed. Among them is the 29-year-old Finnish-Swedish Linus Torvalds, creator of the world-famous Linux operating system. Torvalds lives in Santa Clara, USA.
[snip other doctorates]
The honorary doctors will be promoted (?) at the traditional installation- and promotionceremony in the Blue Chamber of Stockholm City Hall on Friday the 24th of September, when new doctors and jubileedoctors (?) will be promoted as well. New professors will also be installed at this time.
Well, exam week is over, and I have some free time to burn! Why not do this with an inaugural posting on Slashdot (well, I've had my share of "me too":s, of course) about my favorite subject -- Star Wars. Below is a collection of my thoughts and opinions on some of the sights and sounds of the new trailer.
Now please bear in mind that this analysis was formed using my own knowledge (which may be patchy in some places!) and own observations made by watching the trailer and teaser. In other words, this is *not* a spoiler, since I am as much in the dark as the rest of you.
With that disclaimer out of the way, let's get on with the show (*firing up QuickTime viewer*):
1. Okay, first shot. Transports advancing over a grassy ridge escorted by hover tanks at point. Notice the fleeing animals to the right!
2. Second shot, panoramic view of what seems to be the royal palace. Beautiful waterfalls, btw.
3. Assault force advancing on dome-shaped structures in the distance. What *is* that? It looks too small to contain cities. Some kind of natural resource?
4. Large ship resembling a TIE-fighter but with a protruding nose flashes by. Is this a capital ship or a fighter? I am leaning towards the earlier, but I am not sure.
5. Landing transport touching down in forest. Notice the numerous identical transports landing in the distance.
6. Darth Maul speaking to robed figure. The second shot of this conversation shows you a bit of the robed figure's chin, which has led me to believe that this is indeed Senator Palpatine himself, later to become *Emperor* Palpatine of the New Order.
7. Horde of droids turning to look at some intrusion. Notice the large hovering droids in the background, and the shape of their eyes (or ocular receptors in Star Wars-speak). We'll get to this later on.
8. The Emperor as a hologram, speaking with the voice we all have come to love and dread!
9. Large transports being unloaded from landing barge. Notice the domed front sections of these transports, and how they somewhat resemble old-fashioned steam locomotives.
10. Orderly row of droids in front of domed structures. Here we also see the open front sections of the transports mentioned above, and in the first shot. Something strange is going on in the domes -- some kind of collecting of energy?
11. Senator Palpatine looking somewhat disinterested. It appears that the good senator is playing an interesting game of deceit!
12. Shot of Qui-Gon (Liam Neeson) and Obi-Wan (Ewan McGregor) jumping from a table, sabers at the ready. Is that C3P-0 to the left, dropping a tray? He seems to have a lot of plating on him, as opposed to later shots.
13. Qui-Gon blocking a bolt aimed at him (or the CG-companion ducking behind him, don't know his name). Notice how the blaster bolt is deflected and hits the attacking battle droid -- only the most proficient of Jedis can do that (Luke just pulls it off a few times).
14. Queen Amida (Natalie Portman) speaking to the Senate (I think). She seems to be speaking into some kind of camera, broadcasting her image to all members. It seems as if the queen has been exiled from her planet (Naboo, is it not?) by the droid invasion, but that she managed to escape and is now asking for help in the Senate (they don't seem very responsive though). Also notice the way the last "committee" echoes in the chamber, giving that much more force to her words (talk about a committee!).
15. Strange aliens (similar to the companion of Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan) kneel and deflect blaster bolts (presumably fired by the battle droids) while the back rows throw something into the air. There appears to be some large beast of war in the background, too.
16. Larger shot of the Senate chamber. Lots of representatives from lots of worlds (a thousand thousand) around the galaxy.
17. Artoo being hoisted into place in the Naboo starfighter. Can't help to think that this system is so much better than that used on the X-Wing and Y-Wing starfighter series.
18. Queen Amida with a needle-like gun and for once without the fancy ceremonial make-up and clothing. I would venture this is where she is forced to escape from the invading forces, aided of course by Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon.
19. I just *love* the fancy lightsaber techniques of Ewan McGregor! Go, Ewan!
20. C3P-0 complaining about "dreadful starships". I gather this means that he was built on this planet, since he evidently never has traveled in space. This must be where he programmed those binary lifters! In addition, it seems as if he is not fully completed -- he is lacking a lot of plating. But Artoo is as feisty as ever.
21. Yoda speaking to Samuel L. Jackson (don't know his character's name) -- the head of the Jedi Council on Coruscant.
22. Black-robed figure extinguishing his lightsaber, a panoramic view of a desert landscape in the background. Gorgeous shot. The black robe, the elongated lightsaber grip and the red blade leads me to believe that this is Darth Maul. Also, Qui-Gon's and Obi-Wan's ship seems to be speeding off in the background. Along with the information in the teaser, I would venture that Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon has been to Tatooine to find Anakin, escaping with him just in the nick of time (not before Qui-Gon having had to face Darth Maul briefly, though).
23. Race on Tatooine. Notice how these "rocket sleighs" have their cockpits slung behind the two front engines. Strange contraption.
24. Is that Jabba moving out to greet the public, presumably on Tatooine? Also, our beloved Bib Fortuna seems to be with him; strange, I thought the half-life of being a lieutenant of Jabba was way shorter than that.
25. Gotta love those fighting scenes.
26. What are those huge sea-monsters which seem intent on eating our heroes' starship?
27. Enemy(?) starfighter firing over a large capital ship. Notice the red slits on the main fuselage of the starfighter -- very similar to the eyes of the large hover-droids in the beginning. I would say that this means that the starfighters are automated droids as well.
28. Did I say Liam Neeson is looking absolutely *wonderful* as a Jedi Master -- tall, stately and calm, almost serene.
Well, that was that. Comments, flames, suggestions are welcome.
/Nick, Jedi Knight-wannabe
Hah! You forgot to include stdio.h!
/Nick, with tongue firmly in cheek
Nope. Clones are just what it sounds like, cloned organic creatures (probably humans). If you've read the Heir to the Empire trilogy by Timothy Zahn (the best Star Wars books, IMHO), you'll understand. Interestingly enough, clones were banned after the Clone Wars because the accelerated grow-up process made them mad...