Have you ever taken a ride on Star Tours at Disney? The first time we went as a family in 2001 was on a Star Wars Weekend, and taking the Star Tours ride was a major part of the fun for all of us. We rode it again the other two trips we made, and it possesses great memories, although it is clear that it is time for a revamp.

This year the ride gets that revamp – but an independent film maker has recreated the entire ride in a 2D and 3D video experience! Here are some details:

In time to help celebrate Star Tours’ 25th anniversary at Disneyland, independent filmmaker Gregory Noacco

Steve Jobs passed away several months ago now, and the burst of news at the event, followed by the (just days later) release of Jobs’ biography by Walter Isaacson, has pretty much abated.  So what possible news could Jobs be making now, from beyond the grave?… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

I am an unapologetic Star Wars fanboy – my wife and I pulled our kids out of school an hour early back in 2005 to hit an early matinee of ‘Revenge of the Sith’, and we saw ‘Attack of the Clones’ in normal and IMAX formats, and of course we own all of the movies on VHS and DVD (we skipped the ‘dead man walking’ Blu-Ray technology) and watch them on at least an annual basis.

We covered the initial announcement of Star Wars returning to theaters in 3D, and after all of the trailers and press releases I questioned the basic value of the 3D releases.

Now … Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Yeah, as a huge fan of RPGs, adventures and shooters for decades and more recently casual games, I would say that gets it about right!

Source: NerdApproved via Uniblog, art by Loldwell

Patchen Barss’ book The Erotic Engine has the subtitle “How Pornography Has Powered Mass Communication from Gutenberg to Google”. An article on it highlights ten technologies that “secretly owe debts to the pornography business” Among them, E-commerce, Streaming video, Webcams and Bandwidth; you can read the fascinating post here. But if the Pornography industry drove forward electronic communication, it was an entirely different arena that drove the print world it is replacing.

What was it? Religion.… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

This week I had to visit a company making equipment for a project I’m working on, and due to the locations of both of our companies, it was simply easier to do the 350 mile drive each way over the last couple of days. As a result – and also the result of the rental car not having any sort of MP3 player input jack, and me not bringing any CDs – I listened to a lot of radio. I heard angering stories about Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac, Komen, and the state of financial literacy in our nation. I also heard one story that immediately sounded so good that I questioned the veracity. Tell… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Judie posted on these über-cool JumpFromPaper bags the other day. As she wrote,

I loved the way “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” (1988) and “Cool World” (1992) mixed cartoon elements into a real-world backdrop. I enjoyed the same effect as a kid, watching older Disney movies such as Mary Poppins, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, and Song of the South. There’s just something quirky and irresistible about imagining a world where cartoons can come to life; anything can happen!

The bags are the creation of design duo, Chay Su and Rika Lin. They have produced a line of travel, camera, laptop and general gear bags which look like props from a cartoon. They look amazing, but the question remained… were they real? Would they look as cool in real life?

You judge!!… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Despite loads of other successes through the years, Matthew Broderick will forever be tied to the iconic role of Ferris Bueller. And unlike some actors with hits from that same era (John Cusack in Better Off Dead, Val Kilmer in Real Genius), Broderick has never backed away from the enduring love of all things Bueller.

So when I saw the teaser late last week that he would be appearing in a Super Bowl ad based around Ferris Bueller, I was intrigued. Now that the full commercial has been release … I just HAD to share!

Pulp Fiction

One of the things I most love about certain movies are the iconic quotes they contain;  phrases like, “Bring out the Gimp!” from Pulp Fiction, “May the Force be with you.” from Star Wars, and “I’m not even supposed to be here today!” from Clerks. Say those words, and anyone whose seen the movie will immediately know which one you are talking about.

So how could I not be intrigued by the text art created by Jerod Gibson?… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Time for another cool mashup video! The folks at Ultimate Guitar have put together a bunch of mashups of pop and heavy metal music, all of which are pretty fun … but this one was my favorite!

It takes Ke$ha’s Tik Tok opening and beat track and overlays Lamb of God’s Redneck. Enjoy! And … if you like that you can hit the link above to see Eminem, Jay-Z, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, as well as Iron Maiden, Korn, Slipknot, Rage Against the Machine and more!

A few years ago I was on a plane that almost went down. The person next to me had spent the flight trying to convince me why I was wrong in my “choice” of religions, and when the wingtip almost hit the ground he looked at me and with all seriousness said, “At least I know where I’m going when I crash.”

Some might have found his comment and attitude offensive. Others might have nodded in agreement. I saw it as proof of what is strong about this country. This is America, and he is entitled to his beliefs; my co-passenger was entitled to believe that I was wrong, and it mattered not that he… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Honestly, I love it when we get pointers to new items from our friend Jason Lazarus at Gadgets and Gear; he always sends us stuff that is cool, or interesting, or funny, or (every once in a while) all three.

Today’s item is a beer holder in the form of a prescription bottle.  Here’s what Jason says about it:

Beer – The World’s Most Trusted Prescription For Dealing With Life!Life throws a lot of problems in our way. Fortunately, there’s a prescription that’s been around for centuries, and you don’t even need to go see a doctor to get it! Prescribe yourself some ice-cold beer with this prescription bottle beer holder, for sale right now!

One of my best friends from childhood who ended up transferring into my college and joining my fraternity was excellent at finding a dozen reasons why ANY girl, no matter how wonderful or smart or funny or beautiful, was fatally flawed.

So I laughed out loud when my older son shared this with us last night, and immediately my wife and I called out that same person’s name!

Apparently this meme is becoming ‘a thing’, and over at Uproxx they have a slideshow of a number of beautiful women with tiny or imagined or potentially paranoid ‘flaws’ pointed out. Here is a ‘real’ one … as opposed to the ‘family friendly’ one at the top:… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

I have covered a lot of cool stuff introduced at the Winter NAMM show in the past week, with two prominent themes: analog synthesis and the iPad as the must-have studio tool. As someone who came into music long enough ago to appreciate WHY people ran to digital so quickly in the early 80′s, I also have always appreciated what the technology added to music. I have personally sought analog sounds through digitally controlled systems or sample-based synths … but there is nothing like the real thing, so it is great to see all of the advances in technology applied to synthesis.

Along those same lines, this cool video from Analogue Solutions… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Sure, you hit your local Starbucks for coffee, morning after bleary-eyed morning. And maybe on weekends you sit with the paper and a nice latte, people watching and catching up on the news. Pretty soon you’ll be able to add happy hour to the list!

Starbucks is adding alcohol to several stores as a test run, which in theory sounds like an intriguing idea. After dinner drinks like “irish coffee” would be a great fit for a cafe. But according to Bloomberg, Starbucks is apparently aiming for the after-work drinkers:

Jan. 23 (Bloomberg) — Starbucks Corp., the world’s largest coffee-shop chain, will sell beer and wine at more locations to lure customers during the slower afternoon