Anime

Animatrix Trailer 134

NeoCode writes "Like The Matrix? Like anime? Well, feast your eyes on this. The Matrix web site has released a preview trailer for Animatrix, a series of 9 anime stories set in the world of matrix, to be released on DVD. They are done rather beautifully, by the looks of the trailer, in both traditional anime and using computer graphics."
Slashback

Slashback: Brainwaves, MPnothin', Telescopy 244

Slashback tonight with a few words on forcing Open software, NASA mind-reading tricks, a reminder of one nice way not to pay for an MP3 decoder, and more. Read on for the details. Update: 08/28 00:36 GMT by T : Oops -- No DoubleClick news tonight, as the original headline implied. Regrets.
Linux

Multi-Source Video Capture Cards for Unix? 27

An anonymous reader asks: "I'm curious as to what video capture cards are being used successfully by the linux user base. I need to capture screen shots from 4 video sources and collect the images in a manner that makes them easy to present in a web browser. A 4 input card would be nice! But I could always use a matrix switcher to grab frames from each source periodically. Matrix-Vision has a card - the mvDelta - that seems to work, but alas, they don't sell single units. What's out there? Who's using it? Any suggestions?"
Movies

IMAX Develops Movie Transfer Technology 513

kazama writes: "Toronto-based IMAX said that it had developed a new process called DMR (for "digital remastering") to digitally convert conventional 35mm films to the IMAX format without significant loss of detail. 'Our customers have been saying to us for years, "We want to see Star Wars on IMAX, we want to see The Matrix on IMAX." and DMR is the technology which is the enabler,' Co-CEO Bradley Wechsler told Reuters. 'That's going to be an increasingly important part of the company's performance.'" So what movies would you want to see on IMAX?
News

H2K2 Wrapup 138

Your intrepid reporter took a jaunt down to the H2K2 conference this past weekend, held in the lovely Hotel Pennsylvania. The conference had much more floor space than they had two years ago, and it seemed like more attendance as well. Wireless networks were available, though overcrowded, and if you didn't encrypt your communications, well, you've probably already paid the price. My notes on the conference and the sessions I attended are below, followed by a couple of reader submissions.
Movies

A Quick Peek From the Matrix Set In Sydney 164

We posted recently about the planned shutdown of part of Sydney for filming of the upcoming Matrix sequel. Now reader zobier points to a followup describing the shooting, and since he was on hand to see it first-hand, writes: "I went along to watch the filming, it was very cool (I love helicopters tho' ;) They didn't block off much city space, maybe (100 - 200m), and the chopper flew down the square (Martin Place) between the buildings about 5 - 10m above our heads. Many onlookers were videoing and photographing the scene. At about 5pm when it got dark the camera flashes started going off, this pissed off the director as it was interfering with his film." GoogolPlexPlex adds a link to coverage in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Movies

Matrix Reloaded Filming Wants to Shut Sydney Down 494

ro_len writes "News.com.au is reporting the producers of the Matrix Realoaded are looking to shut down Sydney for the filming of the final scene which involves flying a helicopter across the city at less than 600 feet above ground. It is supposed to be the most complicated sequence ever filmed." Just plain nuts. Here is a previous story about the trailer, and another one announcing the film.
Encryption

Bernstein's NFS analyzed by Lenstra and Shamir 168

kousik writes "The analysis of Bernstein's NFS by Arjen Lenstra, Adi Shamir, Jim Tomlinson, Eran Tromer has been put up on cryptosavvy. Seems interesting it comes from Lenstra and Shamir. Lenstra lead the 1994 factorisation of RSA 129. From the abstract: ... We also propose an improved circuit design based on a new mesh routing algorithm, and show that for factorization of 1024-bit integers the matrix step can, under an optimistic assumption about the matrix size, be completed within a day by a device that costs a few thousand dollars..."
News

Sanyo Solar Ark and Giant LED Display 196

shokk writes "Those of us who have played with CrystalFontz and Matrix Orbital serial LCD displays for geeky messaging will get a kick out of the 77k+ LED Solar Ark by Sanyo (only 21k of which are using as red/green/blue combinations for the presentation display). Not only does this behemoth show off its fantastically huge array of solar panels generating 530,000kWh/year and its high efficiency white LED technology, but it also sports a non-chemical water purification system in a very Feng Shui way. Lighting to restrooms underneath is provided by fiber optic paths from the white LEDs in the giant display above." It's a small plant as power plants go (600 kilowatts, when many plants are hundreds or thousands of megawatts) but it was cheap to produce, aesthetically pleasing, and of course, non-polluting, so that Godzilla won't visit.
Games

MMORPGs Matrix and Star Wars 225

Jedi2099 writes "Warner Bros., Monolith Productions and EON Entertainment are combining forces to create a new massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) based on The Matrix using Monolith's new LithTech Discovery System. " Personally I'm much more interested in the fact that the Star Wars Galaxy Beta that has started taking beta apps.
Star Wars Prequels

Are Digital Movies Really Better than Analog? 68

Beatlebum asks: "I have watched two digital presentations of AOTC, the first at AMC1000 San Francisco and the second at the Metreon S.F. I did notice a few digital artifacts; however, what bothered me most was the lack of clarity of the colors. Many scenes seemed to be very slightly foggy. I expected the colors to be clear, crisp and rich. The Matrix Reloaded trailer looked significantly better in this regard. Am I crazy or did anyone else notice the same thing? I'm especially interested in hearing from those of you that have seen both analog and digital versions."
Games

Prestigious Art Gallery To Exhibit Video Games 124

dipfan writes "Anyone passing through London (England) in the next few months should check out Game On - the history, culture and future of video games, an exhibition at the prestigious Barbican gallery, which opens on May 16. The exhibition publicity says: "Game On will trace the 40 year history of computer games from Space War, which was made way back in 1962, right up to the latest, as yet unreleased games from the likes of Nintendo, Sony, Sega and XBox." Cool. Exhibits include the first home games console (the Magnavox Odyssey from 1972), special sections on the influence of anime and manga, and lots of playable games, from Pong onwards, and a whole lot of other interesting stuff. The Barbican cinema is running a games-related film festival to go with the exhibition: Tron, The Matrix, etc. Even if you can't make it to London, the exhibition is going to tour the US and Japan."
Movies

Matrix Reloaded Trailer Online 400

cheinonen writes "Trying to steal away the thunder from the opening of Star Wars, the trailer for The Matrix Reloaded is online now in Quicktime format. Must say I'm looking forward to this far more than I'm looking forward to Episode 3."
Star Wars Prequels

Quickies from a Galaxy Far Far Away 374

In celebration of the release of AotC, here are a bunch of random SW stories that have fluttered through our bin: Tim Drage has made a Lego Star Wars movie, POds sent us a fan film Fan Film (quicktime. Bah). Here is a comic to share and enjoy. iamchaos noted that the next Matrix Trailer will be showing with Clones. nellardo sent in a fine tribute to darth maul. Anyone want a Star Wars Axe? Zack sent us a great collection of SW Characters you won't see as much as you might want to. wiredog sent us some spoilers, the Skywalker family tree and how Anakin becomes Vader. peter_gzowski sent in an essay by Ebert where he gives it 2 of 4 stars, and discusses the digital filming. Finally ant sent us a bizarre tale of some guys who got the brilliant idea to build a life-size Millenium Falcon. So there it is folks. I have tickets for a 12:01 showing in Ann Arbor and I'll be getting in line in just a few short hours.
Movies

Many Eyes, Shallow Bugs, and Spider-Man 191

Danious writes Seems Spider-Man is clocking up 'bugs' at movie-mistakes.com faster than any previous movie (now 95 and counting). The reason, according to this Independent article, is not that it may have more mistakes than usual, but that 'huge numbers of people are going to see it - and that makes for lots of pairs of eyes checking every inch of the screen.' The top movie is currently 'The Matrix' with 147." A lot of the bugs simply aren't really errors, and I'm sure the comic book guys out there can debate them.
Movies

The Matrix is Reloading 362

smoondog writes "The Matrix Reloaded is the highly anticipated sequel to Wachowski's geek epic. Time.com has opened a new preview site with pics and interviews. Make sure you check out the pics on The Matrix homepage. Too bad 2003 is so far away...."
Slashdot.org

Running Weblogs With Slash 168

Two Slashdot (and Slashcode) readers -- Alex McLintock of Openweb Analysts Ltd, and Dave Aiello of CTDATA -- have graciously contributed their impressions of the new O'Reilly book Running Weblogs With Slash. Since the Slash code is now used to run sites covering a huge number of topics (fly fishing, mountain biking, "news for nerds," etc.), it's time there was at least one printed reference to it.

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