Chad's News

A company named NeuroSky has developed brainwave reading technology that can detect when a person is focusing on a fixed image. They created a prototype toy lightsaber that lights up when the user concentrates on it. When his/her attention wanders, it turns off. Apparently this is just the beginning of what they can determine from reading brainwaves. The initial market will be toys and games, but I think it could be used in a wide range of applications.

Link: http://www.businessweek.com/…
(via TheForce.Net)

The US Postal Service web site has free, downloadable, high-resolution images of the upcoming Star Wars stamp set. Not only is the full sheet available, but each stamp also has its own download. Some of the images are impressive. You can also vote for your favorite stamp. The winner will be made into its own sheet of 20 stamps, while the losers will only be available on the mixed, 15-stamp sheet.

Link: http://www.usps.com/…

The US Postal Service has begun a 30th anniversary Star Wars tie-in by converting some of its drop boxes to look like R2-D2. Apparently there is more to come, including specially-themed stamps. The list of cities receiving the drop boxes is here, and a map of the ones “discovered” is here. My home town of Denver has one, but it’s not yet listed on the map.

Link: http://www.theforce.net/…

Link #2: http://www.theforce.net/…

UPDATE: The Denver mailbox is located at 299 Fillmore St.

“Weird Al” Yankovic’s latest CD, “Straight Outta Lynwood,” has made it into Billboard’s top 10—a first for him. Much of the reason for this was the wide (and illegal) internet distribution of the video for “White and Nerdy”. You can listen to the song legally at Weird Al’s MySpace page, where you can also download the the highly amusing and satirical song, “Don’t Download This Song.” Most interesting of all, an AOL premiere of his video was cancelled because the video was prematurely leaked to the internet. But what at first seemed like a bad thing has turned out to be a very good thing.

http://arstechnica.com/…

UPDATE: Here’s an interesting interview of Weird Al by the Star Wars folks. Anyone who knows about the Star Wars Holiday Special and the Star Wars kid is definitely my kind of nerd.

UPDATE #2: And for anyone who wants a copy of the low-quality, poorly acted, and poorly written Star Wars Holiday Special, I have it on DVD and am willing to provide copies for $1.00—but you have to pay the cost of packaging and shipping, if any. If interested, just drop me a line.

ThinkGeek is selling a Yoda-shaped backpack that looks just like in the movie, where Yoda is clinging to Luke’s back. A definite must-have for the true Star Wars fan.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/…
(via digg)

Back in my Usenet days, the Star Wars vs. Star Trek debate became so heated that it got its own forum, just to keep it from clogging up the actual Star Wars and Star Trek discussion forums. Someone has taken this to a whole new level, as shown in this video.

I am convinced that, just based on sheer size, the Star Wars fleets would easily be able to demolish anything from Star Trek. The regular, Imperial-class Star Destroyers are about a mile long, while the Super Star Destroyers (think Darth Vader’s flagship) are nearly 12 miles long. The late-model Enterprise ships were only 750 yards long, with much less destructive power. A single Death Star could probably take out the entire Borg collective.

http://www.youtube.com/…
(via Digg)

If you’ve never heard of the “Star Wars kid,” then check out this video before reading the linked article. There are also modified videos, with effects. Leave some comments to let me know what you think of the whole situation.

http://arstechnica.com/…

This is just too unreal…

http://blogs.starwars.com/…

Yesterday marked the DVD release of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Some retailers, including Target, Wal*Mart, and Best Buy, are giving away promotional items along with the DVD. The smart consumer, of course, will put off purchasing until the release of the second-trilogy bundle, which is bound to come out in a year or so and which will have all kinds of extras…

http://www.theforce.net/…

Chewbacca threw out the first pitch for a Red Sox game. The picture is great! (Who knew he was a lefty…)

Link: http://bostondirtdogs.boston.com/…

George Lucas’ latest effort to push new technology into the mainstream.

Link: http://www.videobusiness.com/…

This is definitely the stuff of science fiction:

Link: http://www.newscientist.com/…

***** Begin Obligatory Star Wars Rant *****
The article mentions the comparison to Star Wars, but it’s completely obvious that the weapons in Star Wars are not lasers—most likely they’re some sort of plasma. First, they’re visible, which lasers are not unless there’s dust in the air. Second you can see them move, which is definitely not the 186,000 miles/second speed of light. Third, they combine and change direction (think Death Star #1), while real light beams simply pass through each other and continue moving in the same direction as before.
***** End Obligatory Star Wars Rant *****