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Star Wars! Are You A Fan? Lucas has done it again... he's extended his famous saga by offering the first episode to a whole new generation. Theatres filled with parents and children and toy store shelves quickly sold out of figures and other collectibles. The movie was typical Lucas story telling and fans enjoyed the latest installment - no matter how critical they were of characters and effects. The marketing strategy was pure genious! Now you can test your knowledge with the latest installment by The Gadget Factory and add your own Star Wars Trivia Game to your homepage. It's fun, it's easy, and all you need to do is cut & paste the code provided or use the easy GeoBuilder tool to add this to your page.

Comical Caption Contest Each month the Eureka Newsletter team will be bringing you the Comic Caption Contest. This is where we post an image and you create the caption. This contest is ongoing and is a permanent part of the newsletter. The contest started in May, but we have kept the original image for the June issue so we may gather more replies. Need to lighten up your day? Check out the Comic Caption Contest and laugh at the replies and images we post. This is purely for fun, and is worth a few giggles. Business shouldn't be all work and no play... and we intend to add a bit of laughter to lighten up your day!

MP3 Controversy MP3 is an audio file format that offers the benefit of a very small file size by comparison to the .wav format. But it has prompted much debate and litigation. When the MP3 technology hit it offered the ability to save any audio format without loss of clarity and integrity, and deliver that audio in extremely small file sizes (approximately 1/12th the size of a comparable Wave file) and the industry commenced manufacturing products to use this technology. The problem erupted when the format was tested with the most logical test, copying of music CD's to compare the quality of sound. Since the format delivers excellent quality it was soon used to copy and post the most popular music to the Internet. Many musical performers embrace this technology and were willing to post a sample of their music for fans to download and appreciate. It is their record labels that oppose this. Recently, Tom Petty posted his latest hit to www.mp3.com and within 48 hours his record label had it taken down. The recording industry is also targeting and trying to prevent the sale of the portable MP3 player known as the Diamond Rio. This is a protectionist move to ensure the recording industry does not lose it's marketing advantage. How does this affect us? Currently we are not permitted to post the .mp3 format to our sites. Now while the recording industry threatens litigation over those that would post and use this format, they've been very short-sited of it's possibilities in other applications. Unsigned, independent bands and musicians are embracing this as a means of promoting their music and generating a market, filling the void in the market that once shut out their distribution and adding to the competativeness of the music industry. But other practical uses are to distribute lectures, narratives, and poetry or other readings. As web publishers, we are being prevented from using this format due to the recording industry and their threat of litigation. We are not going to be allowed to post our lectures and narratives, and unsigned musicians are being prevented from using this to distribute a sampling of their music. I do not endorse the piracy of the product the recording industry produces, like graphics and intellectual property it is copyrighted. Such piracy is rampant and has soiled the image of the Internet, which the majority use responsibly. Until this controversy is resolved we will not be able to benefit from the development of this creative and useful format.