czarneki writes "This is the first book from Phobos Books, a new science fiction publisher based in New York. It's a collection of winning short stories from their 2001 fiction contest, and Orson Scott Card was one of the judges as well as the editor for the book. I knew nothing about this book before finding it in the sci-fi anthology section of the bookstore, and I only picked it up because OSC's name was on the cover. (For an unknown company and an unknown set of authors, this book has an impressive set of people associated with it: Doug Chiang, the design director for the new Star Wars movies, did the cover, and Lawrence Krauss of The Physics of Star Trek wrote a foreword.)" With that pedigree, I'm sure you'll want to read the rest of czarneki's review, below.

Slashback with a reader review of the IMAX version of Star Wars Episode Two,the continuing courtship of AIM and ICQ, episode 408 of Futurama, and more, including How to go around the world without going anywhere at all. Read on below!

tiltowait writes In response to the incredulity expressed in this story about the technical prowess of libraries, I'd like to present a short essay titled "Librarians: We're Not What You Think" - read on for more. Update: 10/20 18:15 GMT by M : The author has also put up his essay on his own webpage.

randomErr writes "Canada.com has an article about Frank Robinson, an man who is into Lego WAY more than the average builder. Frank said "I still get Lego for my birthday and at Christmas, too. So do my kids." At last count the Robinson family's Lego inventory was nearing 100,000 pieces, a majority of which were tallied and itemized by type and colour on a computer spreadsheet." No Lego story would be complete without a link to something large and useless, say, a Lego harpsichord. Okay, it plays, so it's not actually useless. But the Lego Star Destroyer is.

skywalker404 writes: "Hasbro is releasing a 15" tall, functioning R2 unit. 'We built in all the feistiness of R2D2,' said Jeff Popper, director of marketing for Hasbro. 'He has the same charisma and charm that we have come to know in R2D2.' And apparently 'Hasbro also has programmed secret commands into R2D2 - putting an emphasis on the upper end of the "8-and-over" target market.' Rocky Mountain News has this article on it. You can also go to the (very meager) website that Hasbro has made just for it."

An anonymous reader writes "Be the first on your block to drive on of these! a StarWars Land Speeder. This used to be a 1988 Ford Escort and only has 880 miles since built." This is a surprisingly impressive conversion.

eberry writes "Despite over 70,000 respondents (.37% of the population) replying "Jedi" to an optional faith question on Australia's census, it will not become a recognized religion According to CNN "Australian officials say respondents could face a $1,000 fine for supplying false information. Citing, and I quote, "...people of a particular religious affiliation do not provide the correct information, certain facilities might not be built that otherwise would be." Personally I find their lack of faith disturbing." And I find the fact that this is on CNN even more so ;)

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?

Pivot writes: "With the release of Xine v0.9.11a, it is now possible to play back Quicktime movies encoded with the Sorenson SVQ1 encoding natively. There are still some minor issues with sound, and still no support for SVQ3 encoding, but overall this is a major achievement. Downloads are at xine.sf.net. I wonder what apple will do about this." Note: you may have to cut and paste that "movies" link into a new tab or browser.

Slashback (below) brings you tonight more on the fate of Mobilix, "borrowing" from the Onion, keeping track of campus, the recent (partial) eclipse, and animated television. Enjoy!

Dork King writes "The New York Time's Review of AOTC (free reg, yada yada) notes that Attack of the Clones doesn't look good for fans. Thankfully, I'm not a fan." Also, dw5000 writes "The BBC has a favorable review of Attack of the Clones on its news website, as well as an executive summary of what the UK papers are saying about AotC. The populist tabloids love it, while the broadsheets are giving cautious approval. Hmm. Maybe I won't wait for DVD ..." I also noticed Variety has a review up as well. Also, for those who have lost all hope for Star Wars, I submit to you the date of the Spider-Man sequel: May 7th, 2004. You should know that spoilers exist in one or more of these stories. Beware!

Peter Wayner writes: "A friend of mine who works as a public defender knows a thing or two about selling fear to the jury filled with doubts. Several months before December 31st, 1999, he asked me if we should be worried about the Y2K disasters. My answer was: The machines crash every day. Why should it matter if it happens on December 31st?" This time around though, the fears are of a different nature and scope: Peter reviews below Edward Yourdon's latest book Byte Wars, one aimed at everyone concerned about online terrorism in the post-9/11 climate.

Jager writes: "You can download the new starwars trailer here. Enjoy." Seemed to me as if Lucas was worried about the "love story" emphasis in the previous teasers, and wanted to make sure people knew there would be plenty of zapping and slashing.

SchwarzePuppen writes "Fernandes Guitars International in association with Lucas Licensing Ltd., a division of Lucasfilm Ltd., is presenting the Star Wars Retrorocket Collector's Series. Based upon Fernandes' Retrorocket model, these premium Japanese instruments showcase stunning Star Wars graphics created by using a revolutionary computer controlled painting process. Check it out!"

Captain Chad writes: "LucasFilm has donated some items to eBay's "Auction for America". They include a lightsaber used by Ray Park (Darth Maul) and a stormtrooper helmet used in The Empire Strikes Back and in Return of the Jedi. Check out the list of auction items! I think some of the bids will get astronomical. Would anyone be willing to give me a few hundred thousand dollars so I can get the lightsaber?"

danov writes: "A new trailer for Star Wars Episode II has been released on Apple's website. It's called "Forbidden Love"." Don't watch this one if you want to be surprised when you see the movie. It gives away most of the plot. You have been warned. Update: 11/16 12:49 GMT by M : If you get "referral denied", just hit reload. Silly Apple.

tjansen writes "The Episode II Trailer is available. You need be a starwars.com member to watch it and must have installed the Quicktime plugin though." I guess thats 2 strikes against me. Glad I saw it in front of Monsters Inc.

FortKnox writes "Starwars.com has officially announced that Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones 'teaser' trailer will appear at the head of the new movie, Monsters, Inc. Other reports have the full trailer on Harry Potter, but this is still speculation. Ep-I DVD owners should be able to view the trailers on starwars.com once Monsters, Inc. hits theaters." Good thing I'm planning on seeing both of those movies anyway.

linderdm writes: "The official Star Wars web site has an article confirming reports about the release date of October 16th for the Phantom Menace DVD. It looks like it will be a double DVD set with 6 hours of additional material, plus 7 new deleted scenes added to the movie." Lucas should have an option to view it in Phantom Edit mode. If that's unrealistic, maybe releasing ep IV, V and VI would be feasible? Please?

BIGJIMSLATE writes: "Maybe these should be considered quickies due to the number of them, but they're all Star Wars. *Warning* There may be spoilers here for some of you, so read at your own risk. Anyways, here I go." Read on below for an interesting, eclectic (not to say, oh, I dunno, "obsessive") pile of links. Sheesh, the next one won't even be out for a while!