Variety confirms it as well: a href="http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118004722.html?categoryid=10&cs=1"

I remember playing with the PS2 eyetoy back in 2003 at SIGGRAPH in San Diego in the emerging technologies room. Not too sure why it didn't catch on too well; it was a lot of fun. Maybe Microsoft's version will fair better.

Could they possibly be any more out of touch with their customer base?

I still like pulleys: changing the direction of a force? Plus, they're fun to play with.

My guess would be that it projects as three scanning lasers: for red, green, and blue. Because they would be scanning across, the field of view as the beams of light move away from projector gets larger (hence larger projection at a larger distance). However, it also gets dimmer, meaning a 12" projection distance will havea brighter image than a 100" projection distance. Also, if you're projecting closer, it looks like it will have more definition to the image as well. Not that the pixel-count will change, but the amount of space each pixel takes up wil be larger, so if it's 100" away, but the image is viewed from 3' away from the screen, the image should look pixelated, as opposed to viewing it from a farther distance.

Gives new meaning to the phrase "Big Brother is watching you."

If you do not get your broadcasts over the air (ie you use cable, satellite, U-verse, Verizon, etc.), you are unaffected, period. If you have a television that has a decimal point or a hyphen on your remote in the numbers area (on the remote that came with the TV), you are fine. In this case, you may need to start entering stations in other ways, such as 11.1 as opposed to 11. The ONLY time you need to get a converter box is if you have an analog-only tuner in your television, as most 4:3 tube televisions have, AND you receive your television via antenna.

You only need a converter box if you get your television via over-the-air broadcast and don't have a digital tuner built in. If you get your television via cable (with a cable box or no), satellite, FiOS, U-Verse, etc., you don't need a dtv converter box. On Feb. 17, nothing will change for you. If you get OTA broadcasts, and you're unsure if your television needs a box, if you have the ability to type in a hyphen or decimal point in the channel number on your TV, you hava digital tuner. Fo example, in the Los Angeles area market, if you can type in 11.1 (11-1), you will get Fox in both digital and HD via OTA broadcast. Your best bet if your'e unsure, however, is to look up if your TV has a digital tuner online on the equipment manufacturer's website.

The person I was travelling with was carrying a sandwich to eat, and it happened to be on top of the hairdryer.

Indeed. When I was a child of 11 or so, I was talking inside Security in San Diego when going with my parents to drop my cousin off after a visit. I was talkin about how certain things couldget through security without being detected. bout 30 seconds later, a gate agent and security person were in front of me saying that talking about that kind of a thing inside security is inappropriate and shouldn't be done. Mind you this was in the 1990s, so it was a pre-9/11 era. I'd be terrified of what would happen had I had the same conversation today, and I'm older than 11 at this point. I've gotten into arguments with TSA at the checkpoint when carrying motion picture film onto airplanes. At LAX it's not so much an issue, as they deal with it all the time. But other places, I've even had a copy of their website stating that motion picture film never needs to be xrayed, and they still don't believe me (I give myself a solid hour extra to get through security if I'm carrying film compared to if I'm carrying my usual bag). And finally, don't carry a peanut butter sandwich packed with a hairdryer. Apparently it's something they look for