at0m writes "Here is an announcement on starwars.com denouncing the myths and rumors regarding casting speculations. It is in response to some bogus articles written about the casting process. A starwars.com newsletter also indicated that the first steps are being taken to begin creating Episode II."

Geckoman writes "Amazon.com has The Phantom Menace available for presales in both widescreen and pan-and-scan. If you're boycotting Amazon, then you can also find it at Reel.com among other places."

Anonymous Coward writes "Producer Rick McCallum answers the question, "So many fans want Episode I and then the Classic Trilogy on DVD. It doesn't make sense to us that you aren't going to release at least Episode I. What's going on?" at the official Star Wars site. " The answer is fairly predictable-Lucas hopes to do "something special" and doesn't have the time right now. I like the use of the word "exploit" in the answer - kinda what the VHS - DVD switch feels like.

Troed pointed us to final, official word that Lucas has opted not to release TPM on DVD. This is a poor move for many reasons: SW fans are gonna often be techies with DVD players. Besides that, nearly every movie released these days comes out on DVD and VHS. I can think of only 2 reasons: He might be afraid of piracy, but lets be honest, but I think he really is doing this so he can wait a year and release the DVD and sell it all again. I have stopped by VHS, and I'm pretty bummed: I would have bought this DVD the day it was released. I feel like I'm being extorted: I've been a pretty loyal fan both in terms of time, and buying SW Stuff (I even have a Darth Maul Lightsaber!) but this really hurts.

You have got to read this story. Menoyoda writes "There was a Star Wars holiday special in the 70s that George Lucas would as soon have tossed down a memory hole. But someone, somewhere, taped it and this review was written about it. It involves the holiday antics of the Chewbacca family. Happy Holidays! " This is without a doubt one of the funniest things I have ever read. I am afraid of this footage. I'm gonna have to track down a copy. Nothing can be this bad.

danimal wrote with news for the Star Wars buffs: From the NewsAskew site comes the tidbit that Star Wars Episode I DVD will be coming out in April of 2000. It's a tip from an anonymous source, but the official announcement is supposed to be coming Jan. 4 from the Lucas man himself. The announcement is midway down the NewsAskew page.

The_Monk writes "Ever wanted to know your Star Wars twin? Now this incredibly important information can be verified. It placed me the likes of Astro Mech Droids, 'Tarkin, and R2-D2. " Ahem-as the lost twin of Lando (extraversion), I have a Cloud City I'd like to sell someone. But I'm about as agreeable as Boba, always a bonus.

whosebob asks: "I've recently been hired to build a high-end video server system for use in an educational environment. In order to calm management's fears over compatability and support, the server (quad 500MHz/512K cache PIII Xeons) will be running NT 4.0 (I can hear the catcalls already). Given the educational setting and thus the constant search for cost-cutting measures, it would be fantastic to abandon Microsoft for Linux. But as a comparative novice in the Linux OS world, I need to know if it can make full use of my hardware (64-bit PCI bus, TBs of storage) and whether or not anyone has developed the necessary drivers for the fibre-channel interface. Any pertinent information, suggestions, advice, corrections, etc. will be greatly appreciated." There's more. Hit the link.

himi writes "After his articles on what was wrong with the Star Wars movies were linked here, David Brin's mailbox got flooded - as per usual. He's posted an interesting reply to most of the points raised in those emails. It's a good read, even if you don't agree with him. "

Andreas Pour sent linkage to a page where you can get the KDE mascot in T-shirt form (half the profits go to KDE). Hubert Figuiere sent us pictures from the Paris LinuxExpo if you weren't in France. Brian sent us How Stuff Works. Its actually not bad. cpfeifer wrote in to send us some spoofed book covers including Taking Down the Internet in 30mins for Dummies and IP Spoofing for Dummies. More here. An anonymous reader sent us Prozac Pez if you've been having a rough day. Dwonis sent us a point-form description of Geeks, Twits and Nerds, and the differences between them. aspodf wrote in to show us what happens when Red Meat and Star Wars come together at last. CowboyNeal sent us a link to Career Path which has a Personality Quiz that tells if you are a Jedi Master, or a Sith Lord. I think Neal ended up an Ewok *grin*.

The hype machine keeps on rolling: jarv writes "CNN has an article where George Lucas talks about how the Star Wars hype has gotten out of hand. " and an anonymous reader sent us a link to an article over at DVD resource where Lucas talks about DVD Star Wars and how it looks like it'll be a loooong time before we see it. Lastly jkottke wrote in to tell us that the Fray is running a thing about Star Wars memories. There's some good stuff there... my first Star Wars memory is seeing Jedi with my Dad- its the first movie I remember seeing on the silver screen. Then there was watching SW blipped out on HBO, watching Empire and being scared so bad that I had to be reminded that I had already seen Jedi, so Darth couldn't kill Luke. And more recently, watching the trilogy almost every weekend for 2 straight years with Dave while doing homework in our dorm room.

Boy its Star Wars Hype Monday here as Jim Hall writes "I found the Star Wars Ep. 1 TV commercials They are spoiler-free! But they are very cool. " VH1 is supposedly gonna air Duel of the Fates (the Star Wars video) 6 consecutive times at 6pm EST, so get your VCR ready. I'ce heard the track already- its not the best track on the soundtrack, but its pretty sweet.

peterjm sent us a link to a CNN article about the prequel trailer threatening networks as people keep emailing that 25 meg file around. I'm also hearing rumors that Menace tickets will be sold a week early, and not held off until the last minute as originally planned. Can anyone confirm this? This might help matters for those of us planning on being out of town that week.

Frostking writes "According to the homepage of the Xanim author, Apple has prohibited Sorenson, the makers of the codec used in the Starwars clips among other things, to license the codec to anybody else, including Mark Podlipec the Xanim author. "

Patrick Berry writes "The Star Wars Online Shop has new Episode I posters for sale. It looks like the 'teaser' posters are gone forever but these may stick around a while longer. " The teaser poster scam bummed me out. I wanted the picture with Anakin & Darth's shadow so bad, but all I got was a cheesy 8.5x11 drawn poster of Star Wars. Not even prequel related. But I did see the trailer B last night. It was much better than the first one. A bit of a glimpse into the plot, and most of the fx were much smoother. Plus comments about Jedi's coming in pairs (Emporer & Darth, Obi-Wan & Luke, and presumably in the prequel, Anakin & Obi-Wan). Some great Jedi fighting shots too. I'm just to stoked. Guess I'll have to order the poster.

Nathaniel R. Merriam sent us an amusing bit about the astrological signs of various star wars charachters. If you were disappointed by the lack-of-trailer yesterday, this might tide you over until Wing Commander opens. Its always nice to know that Chewie is a Taurus and Yoda is a Sagitarius, although I'm not exactly sure why exactly.

Zibalatz writes "The second Star Wars trailer will be appearing at Countdown to Star Wars today at around 4:00pm. There's more information on the second trailer and its non-web appearances on the site. I would strongly recommend anyone who can provide a mirror to do so. " Update: 03/09 08:24 by CT : Delayed. Isn't that always the case?

Ed Bailey wrote in to say that the Linux-7K project to get Linux on the Psion has started Bearing Fruit Fict sent in a link to LinuxApps which recently got a recamp. Looks strangely familiar GVeloper wrote in to say that gdev has been revamped (to use Slash) as well as containing some comments about glide and glade possibly merging. Lincoln sent us a link to a CG short parody of the politics of sfx which will be of interest to Star Wars fans. my copy of xanim won't play it, but several people told me it's really excellent. freejack wrote in to say that the Star Tribune rated Slashdot in top sites for geek gossip mongers. Whatever that means. Shave sent in a link to Jerry Pournelle's web site a where he talks about Refund Day and Slashdot (and neither in particularly cheerful terms) And finally, for the gamers out there, mgix sent a link to a N64 Emulator that can do Zelda64. That game has been a staple in the Geekhouse for weeks now. Addictive.

Robert Flemming wrote in to say that KDE 1.1pre2 is out. I also noticed that GNOME has 0.99.3 RPMs available now if you're into that. LoCoPuff sent us a link to a CNN article about theWindows Refund that mentions Slashdot and quotes me (cough cough). Nate wrote in to say "Brian Eno's "Oblique Strategies" meet the Everything 2 code in The Oblique Strategies Garden. Indeterminacy=fun. " Robert Dale sent us a parody of Iggy Pop's Lust for Life called Lust For Linux (surprise) For todays Star Wars bits, Alan Shutko sent us a link to pictures of Official Star Wars Legos. And the todays flashback comes from The_Black_Macrame who sent a link to the complete errata list from the original Star Wars. It's an oldie, but a goodie. hangman got bored and decided to trash a DEC 2100 and post pictures. Check it out if you're into computer mutilation. An anonymous reader sent us a link to one image you don't want to see on an ATM. And lastly, jhack sent us a link to a nice little page on painting your mac black if you happen to think that blue color is a bit excessive. The final results are pretty sharp. Now stop reading quickies and go compile your 2.2 kernel.

Jon Hedley writes "While the perpetrator remains unknown, Lucasfilm's Star Wars Web site was the victim of its first crack today. The vandalism consisted of a list of names, presumably those of the hacker's friends, according to Lucasfilm. News.com reports that there are 20 - 30 crack attempts a day to the site. " Geez. I'd think anyone smart enough to do this would be smart enough not to...