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Star Wars USB Flash Drives

mimoco, in collaboration with Lucasfilm Ltd., proudly presents…Star Wars mimobot® Series 1 Designer USB Flash Drives!!!

Each are available in 1, 2, & 4GB capacities and will come preloaded with bonus removable Star Wars mimobot content like trailers, soundbites, avatars, and wallpapers!

Online anonymity lets users gets nasty

the Internet — and the anonymity it affords — has given a public stage to people's basest thoughts, ones that in earlier eras likely never would have traveled past the watercooler, the kitchen table or the next barstool.

Worth a peek

It's long but if you wait till the very end there's a twist. Worth waiting for it.

If you like Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, you'll want to watch this.

Sales can't buy love for some top bands

Chris St. Peter, 26, of New York, witnessed this hatred years ago at a concert in Boston, where Nickelback was opening for another band in front of an indie-rock crowd.
"They threw batteries at them, which is terrible but also really funny," St. Peter said. "Nickelback represented everything I think they hated."

It's only terrible if the batteries are unused.

Morrissey to embark on US jaunt

The 40-date trek will hit theaters all over the US starting with an April 27 gig in Stockton, CA

Superman Returns elevator marketing

The most ambitious prank in history

During the second quarter of Super Bowl XLI, a team of elite, highly-trained pranksters quietly distributed 2,350 packets to the lower east section of Dolphin Stadium. These "Party Packs" contained a six-inch light-up necklace, along with official-looking instructions. By wearing the necklace lights during the halftime show, Super Bowl fans believed they would be spelling out the word "PRINCE."

But they weren't. They were spelling a secret message that was broadcast to 93.1 million people around the globe.

Cryptographer Solves Psychic Challenge

In January, James Randi secured a mystery item in a specially designated locker in his Florida office, and challenged clairvoyants everywhere to use their remote viewing skills to divine its nature and claim a million dollar prize.

Cryptography was a topic of the now-playing Zodiac film and I found it interesting though (wait for it) cryptic.

'Star Wars' droid R2-D2 to collect mail

The post office is wrapping mail collection boxes in some 200 cities nationwide in a special covering to look like R2-D2.

An amusing video is available at uspsjedimaster.com

Producer Ballard finishing Annie Lennox album

Grammy-winning songwriter-producer Glen Ballard is putting the final touches on Annie Lennox's first album in four years, which will be released in the fourth quarter.

Although I would prefer it be produced by Marius de Vries (1992's Diva), I think the best songs on Aerosmith's Nine Lives album were the ones produced by Ballard.

BART passengers to see mini movies out train windows

SideTrack Technologies, INC and CBS Outdoor have installed a series of high-tech posters resembling a filmstrip mounted on the tunnel's wall. As trains zip by the posters at 35 miles per hour, many passengers will see what appears to be an animated advertisement playing before their eyes.

Iranian official lashes out at Hollywood movie "300" for insulting Persian civilization

Javad Shamqadri, an art advisor to President Mahmoud�Ahmadinejad, accused the new movie of being "part of a comprehensive U.S. psychological war aimed at Iranian culture"

Jim Hill's blog is one I've been greatly enjoying for the past few months. He writes about Disney, and often about Walt Disney Feature Animation (WDFA). I haven't posted links to any of his posts to date because every time I think about doing so an even more interesting post comes along. For instance, did you know:

Disney tried to make a 'Beauty and the Beast' movie in 1954

In a 1965 interview with columnist Peter Bart, Disney actually said that he'd "never again" allow WDFA to make an animated film that was based on a well-known children's classic or fairy tale.

There are plans for a live action, martial arts 'Snow White' movie

Walt Disney Pictures is looking to put a martial arts spin on the studio's animated masterpiece, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs with the studio's 2008 release, Snow and the Seven. This live action feature (Which the studio hopes to shoot on-location in China) is set in the 1880s, when an reluctant English princess suddenly finds herself in need of protection while traveling overseas. And who then comes to her aid? Seven Shaolin monks.

John Lasseter helped 'fix' Meet The Robinsons

So we gave him a lot of notes, some really strong notes. We were very honest with him about the movie, but then I gave it back to him. I said, Steve, make the movie you want to make. Tell your story.

The Frog Princess will feature the first-ever African-American Disney Princess

Randy Newman and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band played "Down in New Orleans" (i.e. one of the many songs that Newman has written for The Frog Princess)

And those are just a few of the interesting gems Jim Hill reveals about Disney's past, present and future.

Noah and I didn't have much to talk when this episode started, but managed to do so for more than 50 minutes. We enjoyed it and hope you will too.

Piracy Unboxed

Amazon has brought its Unbox service to TiVo and Eddie is pretty happy about it (except for 3-5 complaints). Noah's experience in Mexico brings a new perspective to a discussion on piracy. And Apple is taken to task for doing ... well, nothing, basically.

Noah's Pick of the Week is congregate, but misspelled. The Apple Blog is the subject of both Lame List nominations, but for two completely different reasons (one far better than the other).

The truly burning questions are asked: How many terabytes would be needed to store every movie ever made? How much should a good review cost? Do we need another Resident Evil or Mummy movie?

Episode 13.m4a (54:10)

The Lame Show on iTunes

Now that I'm finished posting video clips from the Masquerade, this post will contain clips from other portions of WonderCon.

First up is a short clip of the Namco booth — an unexpected and fun presence on the show floor. I've re-posted this video clip because the previous one was missing its audio.


In this 38-second clip, director Brad Bird (The Incredibles, The Iron Giant) talks about how his upcoming Pixar film, Ratatouille, fits in the summer.


Jeph Loeb, who is currently co-executive producer for NBC's Heroes, answers a question about writing for ABC's Lost.


Brad Bird is joined by Ratatouille's voice, comedian Patton Oswalt, who made the Q&A quite funny.


More Brad Bird and Patton Oswalt. The comedian is the funny one.

I videotaped a few things while at WonderCon 2007 yesterday (mostly Masquerade contestants) and am in the process of uploading them to YouTube (so keep checking back on this post). There were a lot of great entries, but this one truly deserved (and won) First Place.

The runner-up for the Lucasfilm award was this pair of Jedi, one who is very young ... and gets blindfolded!


From the Spider-Man family of characters: Electro and the Black Cat


Sailor Moon dancing to the ever-popular music from Edward Scissorhands


In the fun vein of mixing up characters who don't really belong together: Defending Alice from the Queen of Hearts is ... Young Link and, uh, some anime guy ...


Earlier in the day, I saw someone dressed as Willy Wonka (the Johnny Depp version) enter the women's restroom. That knowledge came in handy during the following Masquerade entry:


Watching that previous clip will help prepare you for this one, where the LEGO Star Wars characters accepted their first place trophy:


Monty Python nerds at a comic convention? Shock! They won Best Recreation for this entry:


But I think the real winner should've been this House of Flying Daggers entry, which had exquisite costumes and choreography:


A funny entry from Raven and Starfire (based on the Cartoon Network Teen Titans series)


World of Warcraft. LOL


This guy made a good Halo costume (Master Chief?) but somebody played the wrong music


Buzz Lightyear of Star Command


Superman Returns to stop Lex Luthor and female accomplice. Funny, but not really on purpose.


While the judges were deciding the winners of the Masquerade, we were subjected to "entertainment" from Mr. Lobo and the crew from Cinema Insomnia. The least awful portion of that interminable time is the following thumbwrestling battle featuring one of the hecklers from the group sitting behind us.

The March 2007 macCompanion is now available and I have one review in this issue:

• iMain Go
  The iMainGo is a zippered iPod case that has a clear, touch-sensitive window on one side and a pair of high output, stereo speakers on the other. You wouldn't expect to hear great audio from speakers this small, but that's what's so surprising about the iMainGo.

Robots decide: Apple or poison?
The Apple Blog

In their experiments, the robots were set loose in an area containing two types of objects – one classified as “food” and another designated “poison.” The “poison” object was marked with a skull and crossbones, a common designation that has existed since the 19th century. But the “food” object was marked with the logo of Apple Inc.