Since being released in 1977, Star Wars has remained one of the most influential sci-fi films of all time. It has spawned three prequels, two sequels, TV and Internet-based fan films, books, and countless toys. Despite the vast amount of information available online about the famous franchise, there still might be some things about Star Wars that would surprise you. Here are 19 things you might not know…
While some have suggested that the typewriter should be extinct, these antique pieces of technology still have amazing potential. Take for example this 2008 performance of Leroy Anderson’s “The Typewriter,” an orchestral piece that centers around the key clacking and bell ringing sounds of antiquity. Of course, when this was written originally in 1950, it was far more cutting edge, like a girl band iPhone jam session, isn’t the march of technology fascinating?
[Via Presurfer]
It doesn’t seem likely Apple will be selling unlocked iPhones any time soon. But in theory at least, a court ruling has brought that a step closer.
A federal court has granted class action status to a case against both Apple and AT&T. Class action means that anyone in a designated category (in this case, buyers of an iPhone with a two-year AT&T deal since 2007, an estimated 20 million people) can be covered by a single case. In many cases, everyone in the category is automatically considered a co-claimant unless they specifically opt out.
As a result of the ruling, the class action status will cover two claims that the companies breached competition laws:
The court rejected other claims such that Apple broke the law when iPhone operating system updates wiped out some apps or cause phones to freeze up.
Court rulings are, of course, always difficult to predict. Still, I’d be very surprised to see this one lead to anything. Whether or not you like Apple’s restrictive policies, they are hardly a secret, and even though people might not approve of the way the iPhone works, nobody is forced to buy one.
While it’s certainly possible some buyers didn’t understand that the phone was locked to AT&T or that apps were under Apple control, it seems unlikely that those bringing the case will be able to prove this was such a widespread situation as to justify a ruling against the companies in a class action situation.
It’s time for a new season of The Guild, the MMORPG-based web series spearheaded by geek favorite Felicia Day. The first episode, “Epic Guilt”, premiered last night at midnight PST. You might remember that last season featured Wil Wheaton as the leader of a rival guild, and it looks like that character is definitely sticking around this season.
If you need to catch up on past seasons, you can do so at watchtheguild.com, or just get the DVDs. New episodes are released on MSN and Xbox Live first.
I think I like where the new storyline is going. How did you guys like the first episode? (And what really is the difference between “boff” and “bang”?)
Yeah, I have to admit, I went a bit over the board with that headline. These packs of quadrocopters aren’t killing anything… yet. Apart from flying in packs, GRASP Lab’s autonomous flying bots can also perform all sorts of extremely complex maneuvers at high speeds. Check it out:
I, for one, welcome our new robo-quadrocopter overlords.
[Via]
At first glance, these dinosaurs may look like they’ve been generated by a computer, but no, they are actually puppets being manipulated by real people.
[Via Buzzfeed]
So, being the loyal readers that all of you are, you’ve seen our awesome Geek Alphabet, right? But what about the Gamer’s Alphabet? Made by Artist/Project Manager/Penny Arcade user ElJeffe as a book for his daughter Madilyn, the Gamer’s Alphabet illustrates each of the letters of the alphabet and pairs them with something related to the world of gaming. And when you read the whole thing from beginning to end, it makes a really geeky poem! Check it out:
Me and my wife have had a love-hate relationship with the intro to Firefly. While we both felt that it kinda grows on you over time, we both felt that it didn’t do the series justice. So that’s why this version grabbed my interest so much…
What do you think? How does it compare to the original?
Take my love, take my land
Take me where I cannot stand
I don’t care, I’m still free
You can’t take the sky from me
Take me out to the black
Tell them I ain’t comin’ back
Burn the land and boil the sea
You can’t take the sky from me
There’s no place I can be
Since I found Serenity
But you can’t take the sky from me…
[Via io9]
Tags: firefly
It’s no secret that major search engines try, data protection laws permitting, to use demographic information to provide more accurately-targeted advertisements. Now researchers believe the same details could be used for producing more relevant search results.
Ingmar Weber and Carlos Castillo of Yahoo’s research center in Barcelona say there’s a clear pattern between demographics and how people search. They say the difference isn’t necessarily what terms people use to search with, but rather what they mean by those terms. (That’s the problem which techniques known as semantic search try to solve.)
One example they give is the term “wagner”. They found that American women searching for the term were more likely to be looking for the composer, while American men were more likely to be looking for a spray-paint manufacturer.
Of course, that’s something of a generalization, and still provides no guarantees of getting things right. But the researchers believe they can improve the odds.
To test their theory they used the query logs of “a major US-based web search engine” (no prizes for guessing which), the birth year, gender and ZIP code of 28 million registered users, and details from the US census such as the average income in each ZIP code.
They then took a sample of around half a million searches from registered users and then checked the first result they clicked on from the resulting list. They also took the age and gender of each searcher and added in other demographic details from the census (based on their ZIP code).
From this information, the researchers developed a formula which could cross-reference a search request with the user’s demographics. They calculated that, if used on their sample searches, it would have got the “right” site (that is, the one the searcher actually clicked on and didn’t return) to the top of the results list seven percent more often than the search engine currently manages.
The research also threw up a few other findings which certainly back up the expectations you’d have through stereotypes. For example, people in ZIP codes with a high proportion of university graduates are more likely to type longer queries and then only follow one link from the results page (suggesting they got the right page the first time.)
Meanwhile the oldest 20% of people were most likely to search for a URL rather than a phrase. (As the researchers rather gently put it, “such queries are generally more appropriately placed directly in the URL bar of a browser.)
We all know that conventional remotes usually confuse elderly people, right? If you really want to make things easier for them, here’s a simple hack you can do which should help them considerably.
[Via DivineCaroline | TechEblog]