Little Katie said about the bullying “The first grade boys are teasing me at lunch because I have a Star Wars water bottle.  They say it’s only for boys.  Every day they make fun of me for drinking out of it.  I want them to stop, so I’ll just bring a pink water bottle.”

ChigacoNow first reported the story last week as part of an anti-bullying awareness week but since then the story has gone viral with over 1,700 comments and over 11,000 Facebook likes.  Users of Twitter then picked up the story using the hashtag #MayTheForceBeWithKatie and now the story has spread internationally.

A new Facebook event “Support Star Wars and Geek Pride for Katie” is urging attendees, of which there are currently almost 1,200, to “wear a Star Wars tee shirt or any other piece of paraphernalia to show that you support Katie” (at gHacks we’re happy to oblige with this photo of some very fetching lady Stormtroopers, click the image for the photo credit.)

While this story is light-hearted, it also makes an important statement about the web today and the power it can wield.  While thousands of people supporting Katie online will probably have little or no actual effect on the children bullying her in the playground, it’s a wonderful example of the public rallying around a story to raise awareness of a serious issue.  Bullying can have very unpleasant consequences at any age.

Katie is now carrying her Star Wars drinks bottle to school with pride though I can only wonder what would have happened should she open her lunch box to find one of these.

But this website can help even if you are one of the two people on earth who never watched a Star Wars movie before as it will display an image of the weather conditions as well.

The script that is running on Tom’s website performs an automatic IP lookup of every connecting user, queries the Yahoo weather api to pull the weather conditions of the location and display an image of that weather condition alongside a few lines that point out the Star Wars planet with those weather conditions.

Now everyone who knows Star Wars would probably be able to tell the same thing by looking out of the window and thinking about a planet in the Star Wars universe that would match the weather conditions. But an automated way is more comfortable and the bylines are excellent. Now I just have to find a Tauntaun to to climb inside.

Magellan Sails Over To The iPhone, Finds It Flat

Magellan has finally gotten in on the whole iPhone game with their new Magellan iPhone app. And it works for the iPod Touch too! It does so in the same way that the Dual XGPS300 works to give the iPod Touch aGPS. Magellan has a car kit like the one from TomTom that does same the trick for the iPod Touch.

Also, while your iPhone or iPod Touch is plugged in they will be charged. Plus, you will be able to enjoy a sound that is slightly louder than the ones on your device thanks to the built-in ones on the car kit.

And so Magellan begins sailing the seas of iPhone turn-by-turn navigation. But will it and the others be able to stay afloat as Google continues to follow their ‘get it for free’ business model? Stay tuned. [read]

TouchDJ

So here’s another thing that you can do with your iPhone – dj-ing. After some problems getting approved for the app store, the Touch DJ app is finally here. There’s a lot do on the app. For example — you can get your mixing done visually, do live remixes with the onboard sampler, drop fx and you also get to pre-listen tracks before dropping – full on professional dj style. And what if you suck at putting tunes together? You will suck in a more sophisticated way than you ever have through your iPhone. [read]

Star Wars Trench Run Game

Do you want to relive every moment of the climactic sequence of events that led to the destruction of the Death Star? Better yet, do you want to be the one who destroys it? Well guess what? Now there’s an app for that! Called Star Wars Trench Run, this game drops you right into the thick of the action with hordes of TIE fighters chasing you.

You are to steer the X-Wing and make that narrow route through the thermal exhaust port to hit the weak spot. In the mission mode, you are led through the cinematic effects with dialogues from the movie. In the arcade, you get to choose your poison and take on the baddies in a classic space dogfight. Go ahead, knock yourself out and may the force be with you! [read]

Google Earth Update For iPhone

Google has been rolling out the 2.0 update to their iPhone Google Earth app and the new features are pretty exciting. Of the many new things, you can finally make custom maps on the app by syncing Google My Maps to it. [read]

ShopSavvy For The iPhone

ShopSavvy has been Big in Japan where everyone uses their phone to do everything including shopping. ShopSavvy has also been on Android for over year now, letting the green robot’s followers shop at ease through their phones. Now iPhone owners can do the same.

Okay, so the developers are called Big in Japan but ShopSavvy does scan the barcode of an item to give you all the relevant information and also deals. So if you are in a shop, hunting for a big pack of wipes, you might be informed that a shop two blocks away has a better deal. But even though that means shop owners might lose business it does make shopping easier for their customers, so they are supporting this app. [read]

Fit Or Not

Here’s a lesson in why you should just skip some of the apps in the app store. This new app called ‘Fit or Fugly’ passes judgement on your beauty. Yes, it actually tells you if you look good or bad or fugly. Yet another app that taps in to the everlasting well of human vanity. Meh.

Ravensword: The Fallen King

Fans of RPGs, gather round your respective monitors. This is the story that you are all familiar with. A really great RPG game is now on the iPhone as Ravensword: The Fallen King. This is one game that RPG geeks cannot afford to miss on their iPhones. And if  you have never played an RPG before, this can be a great one to start with. This is not a classic RPG board game like Settlers of Catan for the iPhone but a well made 3D Fantasy RPG.

iPhone App For In Store Appointments

Apple has declared that they will be making an app that will allow iPhone users to schedule in-store appointments for Apple Stores from wherever they are. Now that’s a nice way to integrate the shopping experience with the iPhone. [read]

I discovered a link at Delicious that was pointing to the website of French photographer Cedric Delsaux who happened to do a Star Wars Photo Shooting in Urban environment and I have to admit that I really like the photos that he tool during that shooting. Maybe I’m a bit biased because most show the cooler older characters like Boba Fett, Darth Vader or Jabba the Hut and not those nasty new ones like Jar Jar Bings.

The photos have an immense quality and would make excellent wallpapers if they would be available in higher resolution. They are unfortunately only available in 800×600 (roughly) and not in higher resolutions.

You can see all photos of the series on the homepage of Cedric Delsaux by clicking on the Series link in the top navigation bar.

The home theater has actually three rooms with one being the main room that contains the seats and the Stewart VeLux DeLux ST130 Screen. One of the other rooms contain the extensive media collection while the last contains the equipment to run the show.

The main space in the theater is approximately 22 feet from the back wall to the screen. Features inside include three levels of seats, a stage for the screen, and Wertz’s favorite feature, a fiber-optic starfield. (“It’s kind of calming,� he says.) However, for most spectators, that might pale in comparison to the room’s special effects, which includes the Han Solo, a life-size C-3PO and Boba Fett.

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Electronic House

I did rejoice when I found out that someone was actually creating lightsabers and selling them for a great price. The creator is calling them lasersabers instead of lightsabers, probably because he does not want to get sued by Lucasfilms. The pictures and movies show the similarity between the lasersabers and the ones from Star Wars. The only difference is that you can’t melt iron with them of course but everything else looks really realistic.

I should point out that the guy from lasersaber is only producing the hilt for the laser and that the “crystal” has to be bought seperately from another company. The hilt retails at about $100 while lasers seem to start at $100 as well.

Now, when I first read about the Star Wars Personality test I decided to give it a try immediately to see which Star Wars character I resembled the most. Sure, it is not an accurate test and it is probably without value but it is still fun to take the test and see who you are. I’m sorry for those who have a personality of Jar Jar or Chewbaca. What can I say, I’m the coolest guy in town – Boba Fett. Head out to Liquid Generation and find out who you are..

Death Star Designer is your change to make it better. Create the meanest Death Star of them all for the Emperor. You receive lots of credits and have to make all the choices. Install Defense systems, firepower, naval facilities and much more. Just make sure you stay in the limit or the Emperor will not be pleased. Once you are done your design is reviewed and you will face criticism about all the design flaws of your Death Star. You may then redesign the Death Star or submit the design anyway.

The second game is called Tower Defense. Buy and Upgrade Towers that attack the waves of monsters that try to storm your castle and kill your citizens. You receive money for every monster that your towers kill and you can use the money to build new towers or upgrade existing ones to make them stronger. Great game, lots of fun.

The second game was recommend by a veteran reader of my blog, Thinker. It is also a Tower Defense game, this time in the well known Starcraft universe. Instead of building towers you build structures known from the game to beat waves of enemies that try to destroy your hive. Yeah that’s right, you play the Zerg. A bit more complicated than the first Tower Defense game but still lots of fun.

Stem to stern the model is 97 inches long and 47 inches wide, weighs over 150 pounds and is created using over 35,000 pieces!

The model is currently on sale at ebay with the current bid at 31000$. Take a look at the ebay auction and see for yourself: Incredible piece of lego-art.

Enjoy the show.

Update: It is interesting to note that the animation is still available on the site it was published on. Please note that it requires Java to be enabled on your system to run the animation.

controls are provided at the bottom of the animation that let you control the frames. You can go back and forward just a bit or a lot, and fast forward or backward.

It is also interesting to note that all dialogs are displayed in the animation as text. This feels natural considering that these kind of animations do not come with sounds at all.

Star Wars Episode IV A New Hope, is considered by many to be the best film of the series. While some would argue that Episode V or VI are indeed better, it is likely that not a single human being would say that the recent episodes are better (that is Episode I to III).

The animation lags at times, which can be attributed to the technology used. The animation does not use 25 or more frames per second, it is more like a stop motion kind of experience where screen objects are moved around more or less abruptly.

The animation ends in the prison block on the Death Star. It is unlikely that the developers will ever continue it. Oh, and there is a Rickroll in the end as well.

You can load other animations like the Death of Jar Jar Binks, who without doubt is the most hated Star Wars character of all times.