Lucifer works on binary information, encrypting blocks of 64 bits at a time. Each block is encrypted seperately, being split in two, and then fed through through 16 'rounds'. A 'round' is described as:
Source The Code Book and delta's writeup on DES. Check delta's writeup to see what happened to Lucifer once the NSA got ahold of it.
A note: The mini-sun is named Lucifer because Lucifer means "bringer of light". However true this may be, what are the chances that the demonic connotations of the name would be dispersed enough to make it a suitable name in only 60 years ?
Before HAL 9000 was destroyed, he sent out one last message: "All these worlds are yours except Europa. Attempt no landings there." The logic behind this soon becomes clear: Lucifer changes the Jovian system (Luciferian system?) of moons into a mini-solar system. The warming effect of Lucifer melts the ice on Ganymede and, more importantly, Europa. When the ice melts, the creatures who previously lived in the sub-ice ocean begin to evolve for surface life. Obviously this is another monolith project that wants no human interruptions.
The Lucifer/Jupiter implosion also hurled out the diamond core of Jupiter, about the size of Earth, in pieces. Some of this landed on Europa, with the rest in orbit around Lucifer. At the end of 2061, a vision of the future where the vast quantities of diamond had been recovered and used to build a space elevator for Earth was shown. However, 3001 branches away from that idea (Earth in 3001 does have a number of space elevators, but no reference to Jovian diamond construction is made).
Lucifer was a monthly comic book, published by Vertigo, and written by Mike Carey. Peter Gross and Ryan Kelly have been the artists for the majority of the title's run. Lucifer is a spin-off from Neil Gaiman's Sandman - Gaiman himself, in the introduction to the first trade paperback collection of Lucifer, claims to have recommended Lucifer as a potential spin-off character to any writer who asked.
Note - the rest of this writeup contains spoilers, if you haven't read Sandman before...
Gaiman laid the foundations for Lucifer in several storylines of his Sandman series. Lucifer first appeared in Sandman #4, when Dream travels to hell to retrieve his helmet. He is successful, and leaves hell unharmed; but he causes Lucifer to lose face on the plains of hell. Lucifer swears that one day he will have his revenge.
Lucifer's next appearance is in the Season Of Mists story arc, when Dream returns to hell in order to free a soul he had condemned to hell many millenia ago. Being a monarch in his own right, Dream sends an envoy to hell to announce his visit; on hearing the news, Lucifer is stung into action. Dream arrives at the gates of hell only to find the place quiet. Eventually, he meets Lucifer, and joins him as he clears the last few tormented souls and demons out - hell is being closed down, and Lucifer is resigning from his position as king of hell. Once hell is empty, he asks Dream to cut off his wings - which Dream does - and then presents him with the key to hell. Lucifer then goes to Earth, where he is next seen living as a beach bum in Australia.
Lucifer appears again in The Kindly Ones; now, he has opened a piano bar in Los Angeles called Lux, which he runs with the assistance of Mazikeen of the Lillim - who is Lucifer's consort. This is Lucifer's situation where Gaiman leaves off and Mike Carey picks up the story.
Carey's first storyline came as a three-issue title - The Sandman Presents: Lucifer. The "Sandman Presents" title has been used for several other brief Sandman spin-offs, using characters such as Lucien and Merv Pumpkinhead from the Dreaming, and Thessaly, the witch from A Game Of You. Lucifer the comic book started during 2000, and finished with issue 75 in July 2006; and to date has been collected in ten trade paperback (with an eleventh, and final, collection probably available before the end of 2006):
Major characters to have featured in the series include:
Lucifer is a pretty epic comic book, on a similar scale to Sandman. It's not as groundbreaking as Gaiman's series, but it is still a very good read. Carey's style isn't as literary as Gaiman's, nor does it try to be. Lucifer does contain similar elements - the use of deities from different mythological pantheons, as well as members of the Endless - to Sandman, and Carey has estimated that the entire run of Lucifer will be of similar length - around 75 issues. The artwork on Lucifer is of high quality, and remarkably consistent - despite the many guest artists who appear from time to time.
Sources:
Please feel free to /msg me with any comments, additions, or complaints. Thanks for reading!
Lu"ci*fer (?), n. [L., bringing light, n., the morning star, fr. lux, lucis, light + ferre to bring.]
1.
The planet Venus, when appearing as the morning star; -- applied in Isaiah by a metaphor to a king of Babylon.
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning ! how art thou cut down to the ground which didst weaken the nations ! Is. xiv. 12.
Tertullian and Gregory the Great understood this passage of Isaiah in reference to the fall of Satan; in consequence of which the name Lucifer has since been applied to, Satan. Kitto.
2.
Hence, Satan.
How wretched Is that poor man that hangs on princes' favors! . . . When he falls, he falls like Lucifer, Never to hope again. Shak.
3.
A match made of a sliver of wood tipped with a combustible substance, and ignited by friction; -- called also lucifer match, and locofoco. See Locofoco.
4. Zool.
A genus of free-swimming macruran Crustacea, having a slender body and long appendages.
© Webster 1913.
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