Star Wars Fan Documentary – Returning to Jedi (Episode VI)

This is the last Star Wars documentary that I have watched in this series. This one is about (as if you can’t tell by the title) Star Wars Return Of The Jedi (Episode VI). This whole series has been great. I love the little out-takes and the alternate camera angles so you can see how thing were really put together.

These are so much better than what is in any extras disks that Lucas puts out. Check them all out if you call yourself any type of Star Wars fan. Let me know what you think of these movies please.

By the way did you know this movie was originally going to be called Revenge of the Jedi? And it could have had a much better story – Episode VI was awful. Here’s what Gary Kurtz the producer of Ep. IV and V said about what Ep. VI was meant to be. -

The one story thread that got totally tossed out the window, which was really pretty important I think, was the one of Vader trying to convince Luke to join him to overthrow the Emperor. That together they had enough power that they could do that, and it wasn’t him saying I want to take over the world and be the evil leader, it was that transition. It was Vader saying, “I’m looking again at what I’ve done and where my life has gone and who I’ve served and, very much in the Samurai tradition, and saying if I can join forces with my son, who is just as strong as I am, that maybe we can make some amends.”

So there was all of that going on in Jedi as well, that was supposed to go on. So the story was quite a bit more poignant and the ending was the coronation of Leia as the queen of what was left of her people, to take over the royal symbol. That meant she was then isolated from all of the rest and Luke went off then by himself. It was basically a kind of bittersweet ending. She’s not his sister that dropped in to wrap up everything neatly. His sister was someone else way over on the other side of the galaxy and she wasn’t going to show up until the next episode.

Star Wars Fan Documentary – Building Empire (Episode V)

Here is the next in the series. A fantastic fan made documentary about Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back (Episode V). This Episode was my favourite, The first (Ep.IV) was OK but didn’t think much of Ep.VI. And I don’t count Episodes I, II, III , they were rubbish – well maybe not but I didn’t like them.

Star Wars Begins, A Fantastic Fan-Made Documentary for Ep.IV

I have just finished watching this full-length youtube video and it is fantastic. Any Star Wars fan should watch it. This documentary was made by a fan and not by Lucas or one of his lackies and , probably, that is why it is so good.

This is actually the film-makers third feature-length documentary and commentary about Star Wars and it’s called “Star Wars Begins“ so it is actually about the first Star Wars that was made in 1977. This is an unofficial look at the movie and has heaps of original set audio recordings, alternate takes, deleted scenes, bloopers  and different angles and an even bigger amount of comments and explainations from cast and crew that he must have pulled out form every documentary, interview and commentary track that has ever been made about Star Wars.

What makes this, for me, probably the best documentary I have seen for Star Wars is that it is played following the original movie itself. So that means when he has a deleted  or alternative scene it is added where they would have been, the interviews with cast and crew are placed over the top of the action they’re describing. The overall outcome is much more riveting than any old commentary track you get on a DVD or BluRay and so much better than what is on the new BluRay set that has just been released – if only the Star Wars Company did the extras in this style rather than just re-releasing the same bits over and over.

Anyway, have a look for yourself and see what I mean. I actually watched it in HD streamed to my TV via my Sony PS3, it looked great. I will post the video about Star Wars Episodes V and VI later after I have watched them.

Jobs to leave Apple immediately – must be very sick.

So today Steve Jobs has resigned from Apple immediately – this only means that he is critically sick I would think – poor bugger, cancer is a mongrel disease isn’t it?

His place at the top running the company will be filled by Tim Cook, who was Apple’s chief operating officer.

Steve Jobs has had a lot of health problems over the last few years that made him to take leave from the company. As recent as January he was taking an indefinite medical leave from Apple , that was the third time in recent years.

In August 2004, Jobs underwent surgery to treat a rare form of pancreatic cancer, in January 2009, Jobs said that he was suffering from a hormone imbalance that was stopping his body’s to be able to absorb certain proteins and in April 2009 he had liver transplant surgery.

It seems that maybe he isn’t well enough to stay on the job at Apple, he did look very, very frail and weak when he was doing the announcement of the new Apple headquarters.

Here is a little time line of Steve Jobs work-

• 1976 Co-founds Apple with Steve Wozniak.
• 1984 Apple introduces the MacIntosh computer.
• 1985 Jobs’ leaves Apple (pushed byCEO John Sculley.
• 1985 Founds Next Computer / Next Software.
• 1986 Buys computer graphics division of LucasFilm, and renamed Pixar.
• 1996 Returns to Apple as adviser when Apple buys Next Software.
• 1997 Named interim CEO of Apple.
• 2001 Apple introduces iTunes software and the iPod; the iTunes store follows in 2003.
  

Charge your iPod with an Onion

I was just surfing around trying to find some little science project for my young son to do at school and came across this youtube vid on how to charge your Apple  iPod with just an onion and some gatorade, of all things.

Amazing! I’ll have to try this myself now.

FairUse4WM replacement FreeMe2

I have posted plenty of times about FairUse4WM, the tool to take protection off Windows Media files - both video and audio files. Well, I have been slacking off and there seems to be a newer version of this tool – I guess not a new version but a completely different tool .. and it is open source so updates should flow through more often.

The tools name is FreeMe2 and it seems to do the same job as FairUse4WM plus it has the ability to unprotect streaming media as well (I didn’t know there was protected streaming media!).

From the author – After many hours of fighting with WM-DRM protection I decided to create new tool that would allow people to remove it from from files and streams. Of course FairUse4WM is great tool and it works nice but there are few reasons why have decided to create a new one:
1) FairUse4WM is closed source. Everytime MS releases new version of IBX people have to make binary patches or start from scratch.
2) FairUse4WM doesn’t work with video streams since it wasn’t intended to. Of course it is possible to record video stream and then undrm it but this is pointless when we are talking about tv channels.
3) There is no platform independent tool for ms wm-drm. There is no point of running windows every time you want to undrm some file or stream.

Freeme2 is a program based on famous freeme app created by Beale Screamer and based on viodentias (FairUse4WM) findings. It strips wm-drm protection from wmv/asf/wma files as well as video/audio streams. 

Download and info at SourceForge 
More Instructions and information at Stream-Recorder.com

a Nintendo DS gadget – M3dsReal

The Christmas just gone I bought a little gadget called M3DSreal for my son to use with his Nintendo DS..

What a neat little thing this is. I had to wait for the English version to be released, there are other items that do a similar thing but not quite the same or as good, R4DS is one of them.

What it is? It is a little cartridge exactly the same dimensions as a DS game cartridge but this has some smarts inside and a tiny flash card slot for microSD memory. I bought a 2 gigabyte Kingston microSD but you can use the newer SDHC ones which go to 6GB at the moment.

With this cartridge I put all of my sons DS games on it PLUS four movies PLUS a CD of music – now he has all of this on one cartridge rather than having to carry around multiple game cartridges that could be lost easily. It can even have PDA functionality, if you want, to store phone numbers, have a caculator etc. as well as and ebook reader and more.

Leave a comment if you want more details and I will answer or if needed I’ll write a better post. It really is a great product and cheap to buy.

Here is some more information on how to use the M3 Ds Real. And thanks to catflap at GBAtemp for making a replacement for the awful system fonts – http://rapidshare.com/files/116960118/menu.eng (only for 3.7b)

M3 DS Real system has been updated , read about it in my post here – M3 DS Real system updated

Merry Christmas, here is your present

Merry Christmas to whoever is kind enough to read my little blog. And I hope you and your family and friends have a fantastic New Year.

And as a treat I have tracked down some lovely (and free) music for you to download at Hi Fi Holiday.

This person is kind enough to do this and it takes a fair bit of effort to make an old LP sound good.

He says…each of these LPs have been lovingly recorded, declicked, decrackled and dehissed using the following equipment:   Apple Powerbook G4,  Roxio CD Spin Doctor 2 (to record & clean),  ClickRepair (to clean),  and Bias Peak 5.2 (to cut).  Amplifier:  Pioneer SX 303. Turntable:  Pioneer PL-2.

Visit their site and say thanks,  it’s a great blog.

Foola the best iTunes replacement – updated

I have many posts about Foola (actually it is called Floola but I keep spelling it wrong ) it’s the best FREE iTunes replacement out there.

There is a new update that covers the new model iPods now. The new models had a change in the firmware that stopped people using anything except itunes – this has been overcome. Version 2.1.1 of Floola is available and it now supports youtube and myspace videos!

Floola is a freeware application to efficiently manage your iPod (or your Motorola mobile phone that supports iTunes). It’s a standalone application that can be run directly from your iPod and needs no installation under Linux, Mac OS X and Windows (Windows Vista is supported).

Get Foola HERE

Apple: being smug just makes you look a fool

I admit it, I don’t really like using OSx, not that I have used it for at least a year – I still have a Mac but just haven’t turned it on for ages. Anway, what peaves more than and awkward to use (for me) system is Apple itself.

I don’t like Apples full on idea that looks/design is everything over being functional – the silly one button mouse that they perservered with for years or even the silly two button one now – a cheap Logitech or Microsoft mouse works a million times easier (but of course doesn’t look as pretty). I don’t like Apples adverts, most are exaggerations and half truths but , I guess, it sells products. I don’t like the fact the Apple took ages (6 months after Vista was released) to make iTunes work on Vista and wrote on their site it was Microsofts fault.

I know I haven’t explained properly but here is a prime example of over the top Apple showing how smug (or stupid) they are. The new updated OSX that has just been released a few days ago – the icon they use for Windows computers (and for that matter, I have read, lots of Linux and other Unix machines show up as Samba file shares, meaning they’ll be presented as unstable blue-screening machines, despite the fact that they’re likely more stable than OS X) is an old CRT monitor showing a Blue Screen fault. It is like little kids fighting and teasing in a playground – really. (read Smug Ugly and and the icon fix here )

I must say, I do like my iPod Nano but some things about that erk me – the battery lost it’s ability to charge a week before the warranty ran out, a year later the replacement is the same – one year for the life of my Nano is a bit short and not being able to easily change the battery is a no-no.

Maybe what I really hate is the blind fans that think Apple is almost a religion and Steve Jobs is god. I remember talking to a blind Apple fan about that I need Windows because I need certain applications – he insisted that I could get all the application I ever need for the Mac – the apps I need are specially written for us at work they are not off the shelf things – why would we get these re-written for OSx or bother with running Windows on Apple hardware when a cheap PC does it anyway? He didn’t believe me!

And of course me saying all this now makes me a Microsoft lover, crazy, stupid and whatever else.