To refresh, BD-Live is the Blu-ray technology that allows for more interactive special features on your disc, like being able to arrange "screenings" with your friends or record commentary tracks yourself.

It all comes down to the technology. Instead of having director Chris Nolan talk into a mic and answer questions as they were asked via the website, Nolan had to do all his own typing. Or, we assume it was Nolan and not some designated typist, since the answers were slow going and contained a bunch of typos. The largest problem was that the text, displayed IRC-style with a white overlay behind it, was too small (on my PS3, at least), forcing me to sit closer than I normally would.

Smaller issues included Chris Nolan connecting and disconnecting every two minutes for the first 1/3 of the movie, which lead to the unfulfilling situation where questions were displayed but his answers were dropped. He also intentionally stayed silent or deftly evaded when certain questions on sensitive topics chosen by the moderator, such as piracy, making a third movie and any talk of money.

There were some enjoyable moments, such as when he took not one, but two pee breaks, explaining that he needed to make a shorter film next time. Fortunately, the BD-Live format let him pause everyone's movie simultaneously. He also reused the same joke three times in different formats, thanking an actor or a contributor by name when someone asked how awesome it was working with said person.

Here's how to fix the experience. Give Chris Nolan a microphone. Make whatever adjustments you have to make to the BD-Live technology to allow a low-bandwidth audio stream to reach however many players were signed on last night. Then, record the "podcast", and let people who were still at work (it was on at 6PM PST) watch it after the fact whenever they like. I stare at chatrooms all day at work, don't make me stare at another one when I'm watching Batman tearing around Gotham City.

Update: Z Portal reiterates you don't have to fear border agents gawking at your junk: "The X-ray image generated does not create the detail that you describe because of the subjects' distance from the X-ray source and the movement of the vehicle through the X-ray beam. Additionally, the car is in the path of the X-ray beam so this also obscures the detail of the individual."

The first Z Portal is being set up at San Ysidro, a port of entry on the U.S.-Mexico border south of San Diego. Anyone who's "referred for a secondary inspection" will drive through a giant car wash that's not really a car wash, but a Z Portal. If you don't trust Customs' assurances no one will see your private piercings, you can actually have a border agent drive it through.

The purpose of the portal, obviously, is to find smuggled weapons, drugs and illegal immigrants that'll took our jerbs, while taking less time and posing less of a risk to border agents. Hey, it's better than a cavity search. But you still might wanna leave your laptop at home. [CNN]

The system uses a battery of sensors—everything from simple cameras to infrared sensors to eye-safe laser radars—to do its job, and it then collates the data to determine if people are displaying biological markers that betray mal-intent. In recent tests, in which volunteers were asked to sometimes deliberately act suspiciously, the system even apparently had a 78% success rate, which sounds amazing.

But, as fans of Minority Report will note, it sounds like FAST is crossing into new moral "pre-crime" terrain. And all that data could detect that you have an illness that you didn't know about, or want publicized...detection by the DHS could be seen to constitute an invasion of privacy.

The DHS says that's not a problem, since the data is never linked to an identity and is only used to help officers decide if a suspicious person should be interviewed. Though it's not known if the spokesman was standing before the FAST sensors when he made that statement.

The research has a long way to go, and has yet to face its real challenge: how well it impacts public safety without compromising people's time or privacy, when thousands are streaming past a FAST sensor array. Those are big hurdles to get over, before you start seeing FAST booths at airports or big public events. [NewScientist and DailyTech]