Four fireballs, glowing blue and orange, were visible last night over the skies of the Carolinas on the southeast coast of the United States, followed by the sound of an explosion described as being like thunder. Reports of hearing the noise were coming in from as far afield as Connecticut. There is currently no word from NASA or the USAF as to what it could be, but it seems improbable that anything non-nuclear the military could put up could be heard over that kind of distance. It therefore seems likely to be a very big meteorite.

The next question would be what type of meteorite. This is not an idle question. The one slamming into the Sudan recently was (a) extremely big at an estimated 80 tonnes, and (b) from the extremely rare F-class of asteroid. If this new meteorite is also from an F-class asteroid, then it is likely associated with the one that hit Sudan. This is important as it means we might want to be looking very closely for other fragments yet to hit.

The colours are interesting and allow us to limit what the composition could have been and therefore where it came from. We can deduce this because anything slamming through the atmosphere is basically undergoing a giant version of your basic chemistry "flame test" for substance identification. We simply need to look up what metals produce blue, and in so doing we see that cadmium does produce a blue/violet colour, with copper producing more of a blue/green.

Other metals also produce a blue glow and tables of these colours abound, but some are more likely in meteoric material than others. Cadmium exists in meteorites. Well, all elements do, if you find enough meteorites. but it exists in sufficient quantity that it could produce this sort of effect. (As noted in the chemmaster link, low concentrations can't be detected by this method, however this is going to be vastly worsened by the fact that this isn't a bunsen burner being used and the distance over which you're observing is extreme.)

Ok, what else do we know? The fireballs were also orange. Urelites, such as the Sudan impact, contain a great deal of calcium, which burns brick-red, not orange. This suggests we can rule out the same source, which in turn means we probably don't have to worry about being strafed the way Jupiter was with the Shoemaker-Levy comet (21 impacts).

What can we say about it, though? Well, provided the surviving fragments didn't fall into the ocean, it means every meteorite hunter on the planet will be scouring newspaper stories that might indicate where impacts occurred. Meteoric material is valuable and anything on a scale big enough to be heard across the entire east coast of the US is going to be worth looking for. It had split into four in the upper atmosphere, so you're probably looking at a few thousand fragments reaching ground level that would exceed a year's average pay.

In light of the NIST complaint that there are so many applicants for their cryptographic hash challenge that a good evaluation cannot be given, I am curious as to whether they have adequately defined the challenge in the first place. If the criteria are too loose, then of course they will get entries that are unsuitable. However, the number of hashes entered do not seem to be significantly more than the number of encryption modes entered in the encryption mode challenge. If this is impossible for them to evaluate well, then maybe that was also, in which case maybe we should take their recommendations over encryption modes with a pinch of salt. If, however, they are confident in the security and performance of their encryption mode selections, what is their real objection in the hashing challenge case?

But another question one must ask is why there are so many applicants for this, when NESSIE (the European version of this challenge) managed just one? Has the mathematics become suddenly easier? Was this challenge better-promoted? (In which case, why did Slashdot only mention it on the day it closed?) Were the Europeans' criteria that much tougher to meet? If so, why did NIST loosen the requirements so much that they were overwhelmed?

These questions, and others, look doomed to not be seriously answered. However, we can take a stab at the criteria and evaluation problem. A strong cryptographic hash must have certain mathematical properties. For example, the distance between any two distinct inputs must be unconnected to the distance between the corresponding outputs. Otherwise, knowing the output for a known input and the output for an unknown input will tell you something about the unknown input, which you don't want. If you have a large enough number of inputs and plot the distance of inputs in relation to the distance in outputs, you should get a completely random scatter-plot. Also, if you take a large enough number of inputs at fixed intervals, the distance between the corresponding outputs should be a uniform distribution. Since you can't reasonably test 2^512 inputs, you can only apply statistical tests on a reasonable subset and see if the probability that you have the expected patterns is within your desired limits. These two tests can be done automatically. Any hash that exhibits a skew that could expose information can then be rejected equally automatically.

This is a trivial example. There will be other tests that can also be applied automatically that can weed out the more obviously flawed hashing algorithms. But this raises an important question. If you can filter out the more problematic entries automatically, why does NIST have a problem with the number of entries per-se? They might legitimately have a problem with the number of GOOD entries, but even then all they need to do is have multiple levels of acceptance and an additional round or two. eg: At the end of human analysis round 2, NIST might qualify all hashes that are successful at that level as "sensitive-grade" with respect to FIPS compliance, so that people can actually start using them, then have a round 3 which produces a pool of 3-4 hashes that are "classified-grade" and a final round to produce the "definitive SHA-3". By adding more rounds, it takes longer, but by producing lower-grade certifications, the extra time needed to perform a thorough cryptanalysis isn't going to impede those who actually use such functions.

(Yes, it means vendors will need to support more functions. Cry me a river. At the current scale of ICs, you can put one hell of a lot of hash functions onto one chip, and have one hell of a lot of instances of each. Software implementations are just as flexible, with many libraries supporting a huge range. Yes, validating will be more expensive, but it won't take any longer if the implementations are orthogonal, as they won't interact. If you can prove that, then one function or a hundred will take about the same time to validate to accepted standards. If the implementations are correctly designed and documented, then proving the design against the theory and then the implementation against the design should be relatively cheap. It's crappy programming styles that make validation expensive, and if you make crappy programming too expensive for commercial vendors, I can't see there being any problems for anyone other than cheap-minded PHBs - and they deserve to have problems.)

I had this come to me today.

Is this legit? A well crafted spam/mining operation? Sent to zillions of /.ers?

My tinfoil hat is buzzing, probably for no reason as is the norm.

Dear grub: My name is Lily Liu. I am a PhD student carrying our a project with my supervisor Christian Wagner (iscw@cityu.edu.hk) who is a professor at City University of Hong Kong. We are trying to understand the popularity of Slashdot to its active contributor, such as you. We hope you might be able to help us in our effort by answering three questions.

*Question 1:*
In your opinion, what (if so) makes Slashdot special among online discussion sites? Is it the content, the group of people it draws in, the discussion engine (e.g., content rating and filters), or possibly other factors?

*Question 2: *
Compared with other discussion sites you know or/and have used, do you consider Slashdot's technology platform to be better? In other words, does it encourage (a) more sense of community or (b) more active participation?
(In answering please also feel free to mention the other discussion site or sites you might be comparing to)

*Question 3:*
As a unique user in Slashdot, could you please rate your own reciprocity by assessing what you get from the community compared with what you contribute to it?(you can give an answer such as: i think i get more or i contribute more,of course we would be very appreciative for your explanation of detail)
**

Please let us know at your earliest convenience. We will quickly summarize results and gladly send you a summary, if you are interested (and sufficient replies are received to create a meaningful summary).

Thank You for Your Time and Valuable Feedback!

Sincerely,
Lily

Rock Out video from the great new disc Motorizer.

They had to change "Rock out, with your cock out, impress your lady friends" to just "Rock out, rock out, impress your lady friends"

Ah well, all is great. Hope they make it back here, you feel like you've been through 10 rounds with Mike Tyson after a show.

Earlier this morning, Nintendo made several major announcements in a press conference in Japan. Ranging from a new Nintendo DS to a Wii storage solution. Nintendo's first announcement was a brand-new handheld in the Nintendo DS line of consoles. This revision of the DS brand will be a significant break from the previous DS Lite console. It will be named "Nintendo DSi". (Nintendo DS-Eye, get it?) Nintendo also announced a solution to the Wii storage problem. Unfortunately, it sounds like players will be able to download to their SD Card, but not actually play games directly from the card.

Firehose Link: http://slashdot.org/firehose.pl?op=view&id=1225579

(Still trying to figure out if the firehose does anything.)

Found this interesting site, which is focussing on developing grid computing systems for gaming. The software they seem to be using is a mix of closed and open source.

This could be an important break for Linux, as most of the open source software being written is Linux compatible, and gaming has been the biggest problem area. The ability to play very high-end games - MMORGs, distributed simulators, wide-area FPS, and so on, could transform Linux in the gaming market from being seen as a throwback to the 1980s (as unfair as that is) to being considered world-class.

(Windows machines don't play nearly so nicely with grid computing, so it follows that it will take longer for Microsoft and Microsoft-allied vendors to catch up to the potential. That is time Linux enthusiasts can use to get a head-start and to set the pace.)

The question that interests me is - will they? Will Linux coders use this opportunity of big University research teams and big vendor interest to leapfrog the existing markets completely and go straight for the market after? Or will this be seen as not worth the time, the same way that a lot of potentially exciting projects have petered out (eg: Open Library, Berlin/Fresco, KGI, OpenMOSIX)?

Two hundred and sixty seven tapes of previously unheard electronic music by Delia Derbyshire have been found and are being cataloged.

For those unfamiliar with Delia Derbyshire, she was one of the top pioneers of electronic music in the 1950s and 1960s. One of her best-known pieces was the original theme tune to Doctor Who. According to Wikipedia, "much of the Doctor Who theme was constructed by recording the individual notes from electronic sources one by one onto magnetic tape, cutting the tape with a razor blade to get individual notes on little pieces of tape a few centimetres long and sticking all the pieces of tape back together one by one to make up the tune".

Included in the finds was a piece of dance music recorded in the mid 60s, examined by contemporary artists, revealed that it would be considered better-quality mainstream today. Another piece was incidental music for a production of Hamlet.

The majority of her music mixed wholly electronic sounds, from a sophisticated set of tone generators and modulators, and electronically-altered natural sounds, such as could be made from gourds, lampshades and voices.

Just over a minute, you have time to check out this great ad spoof.

Some time ago I asked for virtual machine advice. Having read the comments and other stuff on various blogs and sites I opted to try VMWare, VirtualIron and VirtualBox.

Here we are nearly a year later and I have to say that (IMHO) Bang for the Buck goes to...drum roll VirtualBox!

The basic edition is open source, well supported and just plain works. A small download of less than 30 MB will get you running.

It isn't a bare metal install, but on my testing with Linux as a host OS it screams running XP and OpenSolaris. I have an OpenBSD VM set up but haven't gotten X to work yet. Installing the guest extensions gives you all sorts of cool stuff.

Eleventy thumbs up!

Someone has trawled through YouTube and flagged not only the episodes of The Tripods, but also all fan productions, fan cine footage and fan photography of the series. How so, can't you buy it on DVD? Only the first season, the second exists only in pirated form at scifi conventions, and of course the fan material doesn't exist elsewhere at all. The third season, of course, was never made, as the BBC had a frothing xenophobic hatred of science fiction at the time. (So why they made a dalek their general director at about that time, I will never know...)

What makes this exceptionally annoying is that the vast bulk of British scifi has been destroyed by the companies that produced it, the vast bulk of the remainder has never seen the light of day since broadcast, and the vast bulk of what has been released has been either tampered with or damaged in some other way, often (it turns out later) very deliberately, sometimes (again it turns out later) for the purpose of distressing the potential audience.

I've nothing against companies enforcing their rights, but when those companies are acting in a cruel and vindictive fashion towards the audience (such as John Nathan Turner's FUD of audiences being too stupid to know what they like, or too braindead to remember what they have liked), and the audiences vote with their feet, on what possible grounds can it be considered justified for those companies to (a) chain the audience to the ground, and (b) then use the immobility of the audience to rationalize and excuse the abuse by claiming the audience isn't going anywhere?

I put it to the Slashdot Court of Human/Cyborg Rights that scifi fans are entitled to a better, saner, civilized explanation, and that whilst two wrongs can never make a right, one wrong is never better.

The rumours are true, someone is making a documentary about Lemmy! Check out the trailer.

If you don't know who Lemmy is... for shame.

Man I remember when I first spun the Ace of Spades LP. That opening bass riff of the title track was something that sent a chill down my spine. "What the hell is this?!" my 14-15 year old mind thought. Yeah, I was hooked. Other Motorhead LPs, mostly imports, soon came home to be played endless times. I'm sure my parents loved it.

It seems a fan of Star Wars (a fan with 2 years of free time!) took the Special Edition release of Episode IV and edited the hell out of it.

I'll paste the changes from the post I was pointed to ( post can be found here) I like #70 (HAN SHOOTS FIRST) etc.

At the bottom of this JE you'll find the link to the DVD5 on TPB. I hope to see more people in the swarm by morning :)

original film name: Star Wars IV: A New Hope
new film name: STAR WARS: EP IV 2004 Special edition REVISITED
film studio name: Lucasfilm
Date Original Film Was Released: 25 MAY 77
Date Edit Was Released: 19 JAN 2008
Original Runtime: 121 minutes
New Runtime: 127 minutes
Amount of time Cut/Added: a lot added/a lot cut
Cuts removed/added/extended: way to many (see list of changes)

List of changes:
VIDEO

1 - Star Wars Logo: originally it receded way too quickly so this has been slowed down to match the speed in the rest of the saga.
2 - The crawl appears slightly earlier now, as it did pre ANH, so it appears at the correct music cue that Williams� intended, and how I remember it.
3 - As the camera pans down to Tatooine you now see the 3 moons instead of just 2
4 - Tatooine now rotates slightly as the ships fly overhead
5 - Re-coloured all lasers
6 - Removed the horrible blue hazing as the stardestroyers engine come into view
7 - Changed the explosion as the Tantive IV is hit to remove a lot of the smoke.
8 - Added a jerk to the motion of the Tantive IV as it is hit
9 - Speeded up the star field in that shot so the Tantive IV seems to be moving as fast as it did in previous shots.
10 - Colour correction of the whole film to remove the blue tint. The Tantive IV�s walls are now white.
11 - Re-coloured R2�s dome lights throughout the movie so they match closer to the rest of the saga. The front light now blinks from red to blue.
12 - Re-edited the Tantive IV corridor battle to fix continuity issues where troopers die more than once.
13- Added blaster flashes to all blasters that have them missing as they fire.
14 - Added blast flashes to the troopers where they are hit
15 - Corrected issues where the blasters flash as if they were fired on set but no laser bolts were present. Added the lasers to fix this throughout.
16 - Fixed the jump cut where 3PO & R2 cross the corridor on the Tantive IV & the doorway explodes.
17 - When Vader enters the Tantive IV a Stormtrooper lets go of the head of a dead trooper but that you can see that the actor slowly lowers his head. This has been fixed and the troopers head now drops at speed more like a dead body.
18 - Added blinking lights to Vader�s chest plate
19 - Vader�s eyes re-coloured to remove the red tint.
20 - When 3PO is looking for R2 a trooper falls to the floor behind him as if he has been shot but there is no laser fire. Added some lasers & a flash as the trooper is hit.
21 - Smoothed / fixed the jump cut as R2 extends his third leg and heads for 3PO & the one where he leaves 3PO
22 - Fixed the error in the scene where Vader is strangling Antilles the trooper in the background changes position in one shot. Originally his legs are closed and his blaster is in a totally different position.
23 - Fixed an FX issue when Leia is hit by the stun blaster the glow effect is missing on part of her dress.
24 - In the scene where R2 presses the button to open the pod door you now see his arm retract
25 - Re-coloured the interior of the escape pod to blue due to continuity issues in this scene.
26 - As the escape pod blasts off it now begins to rotate as it does in the rest of the shots
27 - When the imperial commander says �hold your fire� the trajectory of the escape pod has been changed so it is heading downwards and away from the ship instead or just heading straight which caused a continuity error in the next shot as we see the underbelly of the stardestroyer , which means it was heading downwards.
28 - Changed the stars & stardestroyer view from inside the pod so the ship & stars now recede at different rates
29 - You now see the escape pod enter the atmosphere of Tatooine.
30 - Every FX shot has been either touched up or redone in some form or another, but too many to mention every one.
31 - On Tatooine the escape pod canopy has been re-coloured to remove the odd blue colour
32 - In the some scenes the sky has been changed to match other shots.
33 - Added the sandcrawler from the OUT to replace the static shots when 3P0 thinks he is rescued
34 - Completely new canyon wipe so the rocky surroundings that R2 travels through matches closer to what Tatooine looks like in the PT. Also brightened the scene slightly
35 - Fixed a shot of R2 after he is captured where you see the mark of a restraining bolt before it is attached. In some previous shots it is also somewhat visible but I was unable to fix this.
36 - Fixed a placement continuity error with the restraining bolt that the Jawas fix to R2
37 - Added a battle droid to the scrap inside the Sandcrawler. Also brightened up the inside scenes Fixed
38 - Fixed R2�s eye dome in the shot inside the sandcrawler where it looks like you can see Kenny Baker inside.
39 - Inside the sandcrawler 3PO�s eyes blink as he stands. Fixed
40 - Re-coloured the sky in the SE shots of the sandtroopers & Sandcrawler so the colour the sky is less saturated and closer matches the sky we see at the homestead.
41 - When Beru calls to Luke as they are about to inspect the droids, bushes appear & disappear from shot to shot. Removed the bushes from the shots of Luke to fix this error.
42 - Removed a wire visible coming out of 3PO�s neck while Owen talks to him at the sale
43 - Removed the repeated shot of R2 & the red R5 unit to fix a continuity error. Replaced with a new shot.
44 - Fixed the pink sky effect just before this scene fades out.
45 - Added the missing glow from R2�s holo light in the garage.
46 - Brightened & desiderated the sunset scene.
47 - Fixed the colour problem in the shot where 3PO jumps as Luke activates the restraining bolt in the garage. In the 2004 DVDs this shot was sepia. An example of some very bad colour problems with these DVDs.
48 - As Luke races out of the Garage to use his macrobinoculars I have added 3PO running out of the doorway to fix an error that he suddenly appears out of nowhere.
49 - New macrobinocular graphics that add in 3PO. All other macrobinocular graphics changed too.
50 - Removed the droids tracks from a previous take make it look like it is being pulled along by a cord.
51 - When Owen shouts Luke the Treadwell droid is in a totally different place than the previous shot and a fly lands on the camera lens. Fixed both issues.
52 - In the shot where the Tusken raiders see Luke�s speeder travelling through the canyon the speeder suddenly seems to speed up towards the end and looks unnatural. Recomposited the speeder to fix this.
53 - Re-coloured the sky in some shots when Ben rescues Luke so it is more blue instead of very grey/ white, which it isn�t in the shot where Ben scares the Tusken raiders.
54 - Smoothed the jump cut where Luke ignites the sabre in Obi-Wan�s hut
55 - Added the missing ornament on Ben�s table in the shot of Leia�s hologram.
56 -Added the missing cloak on the wall behind Luke as he ignites the sabre.
57 - Re-edited the whole �Ben�s Home� not only to fix the continuity errors but also because the conversation about the force and Luke�s father is now all together and flows better instead of being split into 2 separate conversations. It now starts off with the viewing of the hologram and fixes the continuity problems.
58 - Added a new death Star sequence prior to the conference room scene to give the death star a better reveal. It now orbits a planet in all shots up until it is reported that it is fully operational.
59 - Changed the torture droids syringe arm. Removed the writings and added a laser effect.
60 - Mos Eisley approach re-edited. Removed some of the creatures on the first shot & extended the path of the landspeeder so it now fully enters the town.
61 - Completely removed the Ronto/ Jawa sequence.
62 - Removed the probe droid hit but the worker droid.
63 - Removed both Rontos from the checkpoint scene.
64 - Removed the probe droid from this scene also
65 - Fixed the ship that flies in front of the vaporator making it look tiny.
66 - When Luke looks over to the cantina it is heavily cast in shadow but as they approach there are no shadows. This has been fixed.
67 - Added facial movements to some cantina creatures.
68 - In the shot where you see Ponda Babba�s severed arm I have removed the blood & replaced the hand with the hoof like one we see him with in other shots.
69 -More facial movements & blinks for Greedo
70 -HAN SHOOTS FIRST!! Greedo no longer shoots either.
71 - Removed the Jabba scene
72 - As they approach docking bay 94 you see R2 at the side of 3PO but as the camera pans and he goes out of shot you suddenly see him appear again from a different direction, which would be impossible for him to appear so quickly. Fixed this error
73 - Re-added the fade wipe as they approach the falcon.
74 - Added the falcons dish in the docking bay shot and expanded the docking bay.
75 � Slightly re-edited the docking bay shootout to fix some continuity issues
76 - Fixed the issues with Hans �wobbly� wrist as he fires
77 - Added the missing middle strut to all the Falcons cockpit window scenes.
78 - Added the blue glow back to the Falcons engines.
79 - As the falcon escapes Tatooine it now actually does some manoeuvres instead of �listing lazily to the left�
80 - New Alderaan for all the viewscreen shots
81 - New Alderaan explosion
82 - Re-rotoscoped all lightsabres and fixed Luke�s green & wobbly sabre during the training session.
83 - Re-composited the holo chess character so they look more like holograms now.
84 - In close-up shots of R2 the background has the control light from the Death Star interior. These shots now have the correct background.
85 - Fixed the jump cut as Luke turns off his sabre.
86 - Added the colour to the remotes laser that was missing from the 2004 DVD�s
87 - In the scene where Vader says �I told you she would never�.� he gestures after he has stopped talking. This has been fixed.
88 - More asteroids when the Falcon reaches the Alderaan system
89 - New docking bays for exterior shots to match the new interior ones.
90 - Removed the blue screen pole that is visible as the Falcon enters the docking bay and the girder crane in the top left which isn�t there when you see the interior of the docking bay
91 - Added a glow to the shield light to all shots of the docking bay interior.
92 - Added the censored shot of the officer being hit as they break into the control room.
93 - Re-coloured the displays in the control room so they are no longer black & white
94 - The Death Star�s interiors are now metallic grey instead of the horrible blue.
95 - When Han, Luke & chewy wait at the elevator a trooper walks past them wearing a light coloured uniform but in the next shot it is a dark uniform. Re-coloured the light uniform to fix this.
96 - Added the censored shot of the officer being hit in the detention cell shootout.
97 - In the final shots of this sequence a trooper falls down the stairs but only the scenery was hit. The trooper now gets hit.
98 - In the scene where the stormtroopers are about to blast their way into the detention cell, the elevator door has visible signs that it has been rigged for to blast apart and looks a mess. Fixed this issue.
99 - New tractor beam matte shots.
100 - Recomposited the SE shot of the many stormtroopers as Han chases them to look more natural
101 - New wider shot of Luke & Leia as they swing across the chasm. They now look to be a lot higher up.
102 - Re-edited the lightsabre duel to give it a faster pace
103 - The lightsabre impact flashes cover both characters even though it should only be visible in front of the character closest to the camera. This has been fixed
104 - Removed the visible power cable from the lightsabre up Ben�s sleeve
105 - As Han & chewy reach the docking bay you can see the shadows of Luke & Leia awaiting their cue. Removed the shadows.
106 - Replaced the dummy of Ben as Vader kills him. You now see his face and Vader actually slices through him and you see him disappear.
107 � Removed the bar holding R2�s legs in place when the droids head for the falcon
108 - When Luke blasts the control panel the door blast door closes, but in the next shot it closes again. This has been fixed.
109 - As the Falcon leaves the docking bay it originally left very slowly even though the engines ignite and it should have accelerated faster. It does now.
110 - Fixed the wobbly holotable as Luke gets up to head to the gun port.
111 - Removed the horribly bad motion blur from the shots of Luke & Han in the gun port as the TIEs approach
112 - Redone the TIE battle sequence so the falcon no longer appears to be just sitting there and added a few new shots.
113 - Brand new explosions for TIES in this sequence
114 - Added a faster moving star field to all interior window shots of the gun port including shots that were missing a star field.
115 - When 3PO is entangled in the wires after the battle, again the close up of R2 has the death star interior background. It now has the correct Falcon corridor background.
116 - After the battle you now see the falcon enter hyperspace.
117 - Added the Hyperspace wormhole to the cockpit sequence.
118 - The Falcon now can be seen exiting hyperspace as it approaches Yavin.
119 - In the shot of the Falcon as it flies over the trees on Yavin IV the clouds have been changed to matched the rest of the sequence. I�ve also added the falcons shadow on the trees as it flies over.
120 - New interior shot of the Hanger bay. Removed the cardboard fighters and given the hanger greater depth.
121 - Fixed the following flip shots as they step off the transport vehicle.
122 - New Death Star schematics.
123 - Darkened the rebel briefing scene and once it is over the lighting becomes brighter.
124 - New up to date briefing room graphics for the display.
125 - A lot of the Rebel pilots have Blue insignias on their helmets but there is no blue squadron in the final draft. Re-coloured all blue insignias to red.
126 - The shot of Yavin & the Death star following the briefing room scene has been changed so that Yavin matches the SE Yavin
127 - When we see Han loading up his reward the Y-wing in the background is missing one of its engines because only half the ship was built. This has been fixed.
128 - Fixed the horrible jump cut of R2 as he is loaded into the X-Wing while Luke talks to Biggs & Red Leader.
129 - Added an extra stripe to one of the high view X-Wing shots to remove the repeated red leader X-Wing shots
130 - As the X-wing lifts off it now flies forward and not just straight up.
131 - As Luke leaves the temple you can now see the exterior of the temple from the rear cockpit window.
132 - Re-edited all Rebel command centre shots to fix issues where the image has been flipped (you can tell because 3PO�s dent on his head keeps swapping sides) Also Leia keeps changing position.
133 - Added Yavin to the rear cockpit windows of the fighters as they report in and to various shots throughout the battle.
134 - Ships engines are now again red and not pink.
135 - Re-coloured R2 so his dome is now blue and not black in all space shots.
136 - Fixed few flip shots of various pilots during the battle (the microphone keeps swapping sides)
137 - Added new shots throughout the sequence including a whole new TIE battle sequence
138 - The rebel command centre table now includes holograms
139 - The death star countdown clock & viewscreen is also a brand new updated display.
140 - The window at the back of Vader�s cockpit has been blacked out because there should be no window.
141 - Fixed issues where ships were missing in numerous scenes in the trench run when they should be in view. This includes both TIES & X-wings
142 - Fixed the issue with the Trench approach where the shots clearly change from a flat matte to a model shot after the flash and really jumps out at you. It flows together between both sources better now. Also both times we see it they used the same shot. Each one now has slight differences to them.
143 - When Vader fires at Luke and hits R2 he is actually firing beneath the X-wing but then next shot he hits R2 which would have been impossible. This issue has been fixed
144 - When R2 Is hit the next shot you can see no smoke or damage through Luke�s cockpit window. This has been fixed
145 - Added damage to R2s body to match the shot where he is unloaded from the X-Wing later.
146 - Re-coloured bit X-wing & TIE targeting displays
147 - A lot of shots throughout the Death Star battle the cockpit shots just have a plain black background. All cockpit shots now show what should be visible outside.
148 - When Red Leader is killed I�ve you see an explosion but nothing makes it. I�ve added the x-wing hitting the surface.
149 - Removed all of the �swinging TIES2 seen in the rear cockpit windows. The TIEs now more naturally according to the scene
150 - A very slight edit to the Biggs death scene. Luke now reacts better to the death of his friend.
151 - When the Falcon comes to the rescue and hits the left hand TIE fighter the laser both never actually hits the TIE fighter. This has been fixed
152 - You now see the death star begin to fire as it explodes
153 - New death Star explosion shot that integrates brand new footage and OUT and removed the shock wave ring.
154 - When Vader spins out of control you can now see stars through his cockpit windows.
155 - Chewie now gets a medal
156 - Brand new end credits that include the Revisited credits and also every member of OT.com that contributed in the forums up until the second week in November 2007

There are also some other minor fixes that aren�t listed, mainly because i have lost track of exactly how much has been done.

AUDIO

New 5.1 audio mix track with reversed surround channels fixed & a greater surround experience. The imperial march has now been added in places. Includes mainly a remixed 2004 DVD 5.1 audio track with elements of the Belbucus� restored monomix (many thanks Belbucus), laserdisc 5.1 audio, german 2004 5.1 mix, on set audio and new elements

There are quite a few differences in this mix but too many to mention so heres a few minor changes:

The alarm heard aboard the Tantive IV has reverted back to the original alarm that could be heard in the Mono mix.

When Luke first see�s the holo message in the garage scene Leia�s �help me obi-wan..� lines have now been synced to what you see on screen. It can also be heard throughout this scene and not just when we see the hologram as originally.

New music mix when we first see the Sandpeople to fix the horrible music cut in the original

When Obi-Wan scares off the Sandpeople, the Krayt dragon call has been reinserted.

Original Beru�s voice dub from the monomix . Now sounds more natural than the one we have become use to.

The fanfare has been reinserted when the x-wings begin their dive to the death star.

The lightsabres now have a subwoofer channel to give extra depth

A few alternate dialogue changes taken from both the mono mix and on set audio

As Luke and leia reach the chasm there is a shot of the stormtroopers as they follow them and you can hear a laser blast but no one has fired. this has been removed.

During the falcon / TIE dogfight there are a couple of instances where you can hear the sound of an X-Wing. these have been removed and the correct TIE engine sound can now be heard

Fanedit Details for the DVD-5 version:

* ReLeaSe DaTe 01.03.2008
* ViDeo
* auDio AC3 448kbps 5.1 DOLBY DIGITAL
* CoDeC MPEG2
* FRaMe RaTe 29fps
* ReSoLuTioN 720 X 480
* Subtitles ENGLISH
* SPANISH

NTSC DVD-5 with extras

* EXTRAS: �Changes & Fixes� subtitle trivia track
* �Revisited� first look trailer
* Trailer # 1
* Final Trailer
* Deleted Scene - Jabba The Hutt
* Deleted Scene - Jabba The Hutt in 3D
* �The Empire Strikes Back Revisited� Teaser Trailer

Faneditor�s comment:

I have to admit that i have always liked the special editions of the original trilogy, with a few minor niggles of course, so i was so excited when the 2004 DVD release was announced. I waited in line at midnight, got my box set and raced home to watch them. switched on my cinema system (luckily the neighbours were away) , loaded the DVD and prepared to be blown away. Then the film started and my face dropped. What the hell have they done to the surround mix? OMG Luke�s saber is green & Darth�s is pink. I thought these editions would have been better than my old VHS ones. Yes the picture quality is far superior but the new faults just plain ruined them for me. So I decided that the original trilogy DVD�s need fixing but just never got round to doing it until i was amazed by the ADigitalMan/ Darth Editous Hybrid DVD . I loved it so much i wanted to make my own

Additional comment:

Star Wars for the 21st Century. Two years in the making, this fan edit was created by a fan for the fans.
�Star Wars: Revisited represents perhaps the boldest and most sophisticated of any of the fan edits of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. Inspired by the Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition, fan editor Adywan has created a breathtaking and powerful version of the film. Star Wars: Revisited not only fixes errors and technical limitations to the film that should have been made in the first Special Edition, but gives us a whole new vision for the movie, tying it to the rest of the Star Wars saga while correcting many of the excesses of the original Special Edition. Shots are re-mastered and restored, special effect shots are re-composited and whole new sequences are created, giving the viewer a taste of what the Special Edition could have been. Accompanied by a new Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, Star Wars: Revisited provides an exciting new visit to a galaxy far, far away.� synopsis by Sluggo - Originaltrilogy.com

External discussion links:
Originaltrilogy.com

Trailer:

Time needed for the edition: 2 years

Persons involved: Adywan

The DVD5 can be found on PirateBay

Well, it now appears the University of Manchester in England has built 1nm transistors on graphene. The article is short on details, but it appears to be a ring of carbon atoms surrounding a quantum dot, where the quantum dot is not used for quantum computing or quantum states but rather for regulating the electrical properties. This is still a long way from building a practical IC using graphene. It is, however, a critical step forward. The article mentions other bizare behaviours of graphene but does not go into much detail. This is the smallest transistor produced to date.

This has been the dullest April 1st Slashdot has ever had. Has its funny bone been surgically removed? For those who miss the days of OMG!!! PONIES!!!, I think I've found the only site that comes close in being very very strange.....

One of the most fascinating things I've observed in searching for Open Source projects available for whatver I'm doing at the time is the huge disparity of what is available, how it is used and who is interested.

An obvious place to start is in the field of electronics. Computer-based tools are already used to build such stuff, so it's a natural replacement, right? Well, almost. There are tools for handling VHDL, Verilog and SystemC. There are frameworks for simulating both clock-based and asychronous circuits. You can do SPICE simulations, draw circuit diagrams, download existing circuits as starting points or places of inspiration, simulate waveforms, determine coverage and design PCBs. OpenCores provides a lot of fascinating already-generated systems, SUN provides the staggering T1 and T2 UltraSPARC cores, and the Sirocco 64-bit SPARC. This field has probably not got anywhere near what it needs, but it has a lot.

Maths is another obvious area. Plenty of Open Source tools for graphing, higher order logic, theorum provers, linear algebra, eigenvalues, eigenvectors, signal processing, multiple-precision, numerical methods, solvers for all kinds of other specific problem types, etc.

What about astronomy? That requires massive table data crunching, correlation of variations, moving telescopes around with absolute precision - things computers tend to be very good at. There are a few. Programs for capturing images are probably the most common, although some telescopes provide software for controlling telescopes, obtaining data and performing basic operations. Mind you, how much more than this does one need in software? Some things are better done in hardware (for now, at least) because the software hasn't the speed. Yes, the control software seems a little specialized, but it'd be hard to make something like that general-purpose.

Chemistry. Hmmm. Lots of trivial stuff, more educational than valuable - periodic tables, 3D models of molecules, LaTeX formatting aids. There's a fair amount on the study of crystals and crystallography, which is as much chemistry as it is physics, but there's not a lot else. Chemistry involves a lot of tables (which would be ideal for a standardized database), a lot of mathematical equations, formulae, graphing, measuring and correlating all sorts of data, the consequences of different filtering and separation techniques, the wavelength and intensity of energies, analysis of the results of atomic mass spectrometry or other noisy data, etc. I see the underlying tools for doing some (but not all) of these things, but I don't see the heavy lifting.

Archaeology has very few non-trivial tools. Some signal processing for ground-penetrating RADAR, but there are virtually no tools out there that could be useful for helping with interpretation. In fact, most RADAR programs don't interpret either but display the result on a small LCD screen. Nor do any tools exist for correlating interpretations (other than manually via an extremely naive - for this purpose - GIS database). There's a few scraps here and there, but signal analysis and GIS seem to be about it, and those were mostly developed for mining companies and tend to show it.

Biology has plenty of DNA sequencing code. By now, Slashdotter should be able so sequence eith own DNA, not pay someone a thousand to do it. You mean, those aren't enough, that you need more hardware? And a lot more software? It's an important step, but it's not unique.

Mechanical Engineering. I haven't seen anything of any significance.

Geology. Not really, beyond the same software for Archaeology, but using it for find seams in rock.

Psychology: Nada.

Psychiatry: None.

Sports: Lots of software getting used, but little of it is open source.

Result - those who gain with the least to lose and the most to win make the change. Those who feel like there's no benefit from changing what they're doing will continue doing what they're doing. My suggestion? There are gaping holes in Open Source. Fill them in.