A while back, I came across StarWarsUncut.com, a site that divided Star Wars (A New Hope) into 15-second segments and encouraged Star Wars fans to take one of the clips, shoot it however they deemed fit, and upload the sequence back to the site. The end result includes some pretty well-crafted shots and, well, some equally… interesting ones. Ultimately, the goal was to encourage people of all ages and cinematic aptitude to exercise their creative skills, recreate their favorite scene in the Star Wars, and show it off to the world.
Now the site has released “Star Wars Uncut: Director’s Cut,” an assembly of the wildly varying versions of each movie segment into a two-hour-long, full-length version of the original film. While this masterpiece of crowd-sourcing isn’t exactly screen-worthy, it’s a great display of the sheer volume and variety of creativity Internet crowd-sourcing taps. From live-action tinfoil renditions of C-3PO to action figures on the beach and even simple cardboard cutouts taped to straws these clips show just how much people love Star Wars. (My favorite so far is the purring cat-Jawa, by the way.)
I think it’s clear how much fun people had creating these clips, and it just goes to show how sites that encourage user-generated content are worth protecting. And hey, if you have time check out the full-length cut above.
For those who aren’t able to attend the meetup this weekend, you’re not forgotten! Check out our GWC Live page this Friday at 7PM Central, as we’ll be streaming live from the hotel as Chuck, Sean, Audra and all the meetup attendees record Galactic Watercooler Episode #263!
As GWC’s resident super-tech, I’m curious as to how our listeners catch our show each week. With all the awesome technology out there today, its become obvious that iTunes isn’t the only way to catch our ‘cast, and I’d like you to tell me about it. Do you Zune? Do you Blackberry? Do you (insert random podcast downloader I’m not aware of)? I want to know about it, so I can make sure you’re getting the best podcasting experience possible.
If you’d like to provide me your podcast procurement process, please take a moment to let us know via the forum poll here, or, if you prefer, send me an email at juan (at) galacticwatercooler (dot) com.
Thanks, eh!
(And thanks, D’Arcy Norman, for the awesome CC-licensed photo.)
Just came across this AP article describing how NASA Engineers are currently troubleshooting a software glitch on Voyager 2, which recently caused the probe to send its scientific data in an unreadable format. While reprogramming extraplanetary probes is nothing new (we’ve been doing it for years with the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity), there’s a few reasons why this particular problem is so interesting:
- Voyager 2 was launched in 1977, making the software over 33 years old
- Communications sent between Voyager 2 and Earth take over 13 hours at a rate of 160 bits per second – for comparison, at that speed, the podcast would take over forty days to transmit.
- At a distance of 8.6 billion miles from the Earth, this is likely the farthest away anyone has performed troubleshooting on a computer.
The Voyager team may be able to reprogram around the error, or find a way to decipher the format the probe is transmitting, but for now they’ve told the probe to stop sending the faulty data while they attempt to find a solution. Possible causes for the error are being investigated, but they don’t believe the age of the spacecraft is related to the problem. Voyager 2 has had a long mission, performing flybys of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, and is currently headed into deep space to perform some of the first observations from outside our solar system, and is expected to operate for another decade.
Let’s hope this glitch gets sorted out quickly, I’m not sure the Nerd Herd can do an on-site support call for this one.
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on Star Wars Uncut: Director's Cut { I didn't skip ahead, but when the scene came up, I filled in what they failed to include.
} – Jan 27, 5:06 PMon 20 Favorite Ships Called Enterprise { I recently visited an exhibition here in Melbourne, Australia and on show was a three foot replica of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 from the original... } – Jan 27, 1:38 AM
on Star Wars Uncut: Director's Cut { Oddball, it took all my willpower not to. } – Jan 26, 11:38 AM
on Star Wars Uncut: Director's Cut { Anyone else skip ahead to see if Han shoots first or if there is a "Look a Penny!" reference? } – Jan 26, 10:22 AM