Here are some stories that I dugg yesterday (Sunday) that I found interesting and would like to share. Find the stories I digg here.

Force Effects that even George Lucas can love! – digg story
Lamborghini Gallardo with a disappearing license plate – digg story
Wal-Mart’s “MySpace-Killer” Is A Real Bomb – digg story
10 ways to fix TV – digg story
Uni-Directional WIFI Range Extender – digg story
Greatest ‘Illusion’ ever! – digg story

So why the title “The Last Stand” then? Well, according to the good folks over at Movie Hole, Rothman offers the following explanation:

“It’s the conclusion of this trilogy. These three movies work as a trilogy. These characters in this relationship, it’s the culmination of that saga. It’s the culmination and the resolution of those relationships laid out in the first two movies. That doesn’t mean never, I would ever say never again, but I will say that this brings that saga to an end. It’s quite the way the last Lord of the Rings, Return of the King, brought that trilogy to a conclusion in terms of those characters, that’s what this movie does. It goes all the way back to the first one and rounds off and completes that three-part story”.

Perhaps someone should tell Rothman that the end of the Lord of the Rings was indeed actually the end of the whole series. He might have missed that part.

I personally still have major reservations about the next X-Men film… but my hope has risen over the last month. Let’s hope it works out. Thus far the X-Men have been my favorite comic film franchise (yes, even more than Spider-Man) and I’d hate to see it go down the toilet.

Source: The Movie Blog

If Philips has their way you may not be skipping through TV commercials much longer. In fact, you might not even be able to change the channel on your TV during a commercial.

Philips has filed a patent application to stop people from changing channels during commercials or fast forward commercials for pre-recorded shows. According the patent application, Philips solution is to use MHP (Multimedia Home Platform) to read flags in broadcasts. If an advertisement is marked as such, your STB (Set-Top Box), DVR or even your TV could stop you from changing the channel or skipping past commercials. MHP software is already built into most digital TV receivers and recorders available today.

Philips knows that the patent would be “greatly resented by viewers” and could even cause end users to believe their equipment is broken. To remedy this, Philips suggests that the flag also trigger a notice on the screen to notify users of what is going on.

The patent application also suggests that end users be able to pay a fee to be allowed to skip commercials. The fee would probably be set by your cable or satellite provider.

As we move into the digital age, it seems more and more that we as consumers are at the mercy of these big companies. This is starting to look like the Telco business. First we have Caller ID, then Caller ID blocking, and now Anti-Caller ID blocking. What’s next, anti-commercial forwarding blocking?

Source: Philips Patent Application

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Half of all malfunctioning products returned to stores by consumers are in full working order, but customers can’t figure out how to operate the devices, a scientist said on Monday.

Product complaints and returns are often caused by poor design, but companies frequently dismiss them as “nuisance calls,” Elke den Ouden found in her thesis at the Technical University of Eindhoven in the south of the Netherlands.

A wave of versatile electronics gadgets has flooded the market in recent years, ranging from MP3 players and home cinema sets to media centers and wireless audio systems, but consumers still find it hard to install and use them, she found.

The average consumer in the United States will struggle for 20 minutes to get a device working, before giving up, the study found.

Product developers, brought in to witness the struggles of average consumers, were astounded by the havoc they created.

She also gave new products to a group of managers from consumer electronics company Philips (PHG.AS), asking them to use them over the weekend. The managers returned frustrated because they could not get the devices to work properly.

Most of the flaws found their origin in the first phase of the design process: product definition, Den Ouden found.

Source : Yahoo! News: Technology

Matrox today unveiled a new product, the TripleHead2Go, to complement its line of Graphics eXpansion Modules (GXMs). GXMs are external boxes that connect a single graphics card output to multiple monitors. The new TripleHead2Go?sibling of the current DualHead2Go?allows users to connect up to three displays to their desktop computer or notebook, enabling what the company calls Surround Gaming and Surround Design by providing a field of view of up to 135°.

View: Matrox’s TripleHead2Go Expansion Module
Source: TechReport.com