Flutterby™!: Topic : Joss Whedon - Serenity / Firefly

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Entry: 2023-01-05 17:28:50.139443+01 Ladybird & Serenity by Dan Lyke comments 0

Interesting: Ladybird Browser Year in Review: What We Did in 2022!

Ladybird looks to be a ground-up new HTML+CSS+JavaScript platform (along side Safari and Chrome and Firefox) for the Serenity OS platform.

Entry: 2022-10-18 18:33:08.613566+02 Github Copilot investigation by Dan Lyke comments 2

This is fantastic: Github Copilot investigation:

If Microsoft and OpenAI chose to use these repos subject to their respective open-source licenses, Microsoft and OpenAI would’ve needed to publish a lot of attributions, because this is a minimal requirement of pretty much every open-source license. Yet no attributions are apparent.

Therefore, Microsoft and OpenAI must be relying on a fair-use argument. In fact we know this is so, because former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman claimed during the Copilot technical preview that “training [machine-learning] systems on public data is fair use”.

But a hell of a lot of that code is GPL or LGPL licensed and one can apparently recreate it with the right prompts...

Entry: 2022-06-09 17:11:41.805339+02 mass cognitive impairment by Dan Lyke comments 0

RT pregabalin puuppy.news.cn @SAMOYEDWAVE

every generation is defined by what form of mass cognitive impairment it suffers from. the boomers had leaded gasoline emissions, gen x had joss whedon, and now ours will be post-multiple-covid-reinfection symptoms

[ related topics: Current Events Joss Whedon - Serenity / Firefly ]

Entry: 2021-06-10 18:37:11.559156+02 Original Rainbow Flag by Dan Lyke comments 0

Original rainbow flag returns home to San Francisco after being lost for more than 40 years

"Hand-dyed, big mess, cotton, oh my God you don't even want to know, stitch, stitch, stitch on the little Singer. Pink is for sex, red is for life, orange for healing, yellow for sun, green, nature, turquoise for magic, blue for serenity, and purple for the spirit. I like to think of those elements as in every person," Baker said in that 2017 interview.

Entry: 2017-06-23 17:54:09.282182+02 Le Clitoris by Dan Lyke comments 0

Le clitoris - Animated Documentary (2016)

Also from Lori Malépart-Traversy, a cute little set of fruit based animations: “Get Consent” Campaign for the Concordia Sexual Assault Resource Centre

Entry: 2013-01-18 21:33:00.532569+01 by Dan Lyke comments 0

Wooden Boats.com forum thread on scow schooners. Includes a huge horrible link to drawings of the Alma.

Because in two years we may want to build another boat...

Entry: 2012-12-13 18:49:34.793865+01 n-copter video OTD by Dan Lyke comments 0

Firefly - drone shot video of night skateboarding in San Francisco. Via Ünnecessary Ümlaut, which also links to the "making-of" video.

What shocks me most about this is how quickly shots that were formerly expensive crane, or even crane + computer compositing, operations have become normal. It was like "oh, we go from looking at the skateboarder to looking down from the top of a building. Yeah, that's kinda cool."

Bonus: Shooting human shaped targets with a paintball gun mounted on a hexa-copter

Entry: 2011-03-11 18:15:31.174252+01 She Don't Like Firefly by Dan Lyke comments 1

For you Whedon fans: She Don't Like Firefly.

[ related topics: Movies Joss Whedon - Serenity / Firefly ]

Entry: 2009-05-19 13:44:53.284708+02 Whedon vs Abrams by Dan Lyke comments 0

Why Dollhouse struggles and Fringe soars, comparing Joss Whedon with J.J. Abrams.

[ related topics: Joss Whedon - Serenity / Firefly ]

Entry: 2009-04-07 17:59:10.267617+02 A use for executive privilege by Dan Lyke comments 8

It seems like the basic problem with this economic crisis is that the finance guys are all telling us that there's a crisis, but none of them really seem to be taking it seriously. They're leaving it to the politicians, who are just throwing money at the finance guys. Obviously, there's nothing personal at stake here.

There's a scene in one of the episodes of "Firefly", "The Train Job", in which the Firefly crew are backing out of a deal. They have the bad guys tied up, there's a hatch opened, the engines are running outside. Captain Mal starts this long speech: "Now, this is all the money Niska gave us in advance. You bring it back to him. Tell him the job didn't work out. We're not thieves. But we are thieves. Point is, we're not takin' what's his. Now we'll stay out of his way as best we can from here on in. You explain that's best for everyone, okay?"

Bad guy #1 defiantly replies "Keep the money. Use it to buy a funeral. It doesn't matter where you go or how far you fly. I will hunt you down, and the last thing you see will be my blade."

Mal shrugs, says "Darn", extends a foot and pushes the bad guy out the hatch where he's sucked into the engine intake. Mal turns to bad guy #2 and starts the same speech: "Now, this is all the money Niska gave us in advance..."

Bad guy #2 interrupts with "Oh, I get it! I'm good. Best thing for everyone. I'm right there with ya."

If Obama wants to live up to the campaign rhetoric, I think a similar scenario involving Marine One and the various muckety-mucks in the Treasury Department would do wonders for his approval ratings. I'm a big fan of the justice system and all, but the previous President softened me up to the notion Executive Privilege; you know, sometimes the leader just has to be the deciderer.

Entry: 2008-02-15 16:07:27.565358+01 Better than fur by Dan Lyke comments 0

QOTD:

Said, by boyfriend dearest, about my Valentine's Day gift: "I got you something better than a fur coat. I got you Browncoats!"

[ related topics: Quotes Joss Whedon - Serenity / Firefly ]

Entry: 2008-02-05 20:27:35.344264+01 Brust does Firefly by Dan Lyke comments 0

Dang it: Steven Brust writes Firefly novel, puts it on the web for free. Productivity around the net plummets.

[ related topics: Joss Whedon - Serenity / Firefly ]

Entry: 2008-01-03 23:48:17.894077+01 GOP Primary contenders as Buffy villains by Dan Lyke comments 1

This one's for Dori: The GOP Primary Field in Buffy Villains (Via).

[ related topics: Humor Joss Whedon - Serenity / Firefly ]

Entry: 2006-12-15 03:10:53.786177+01 notes on a fridge by Dan Lyke comments 0

Are you jonesing for your Joss Whedon fix? Notes on a fridge, or things you might find under a magnet on a Firefly class space-ship. Start at the bottom. Thanks, Lyn .

Entry: 2006-03-02 21:57:13.627513+01 Serenity by Dan Lyke comments 7

Watched Serenity last night, after finishing up Firefly. I have to thank the folks who funded that for not leaving me hanging on so many story lines, and for summing up differences in politics wonderfully (I need to go back and transcribe Mal's "You believe that you can make people better, I don't" speech).

It's a damned shame that the movie wasn't up to the snuff of the TV series (the effects seemed uneven, sound in space, and so on), and I understand why people who didn't see the TV series didn't get it, had I seen the movie without being introduced by way of Firefly I'd have said "ho, hum". My regret is that I won't be discovering new stories with those wonderful characters, but I'm happy to have had the tale tied up so nicely, even if it did feel a bit abrupt and concessions were made to it being a stand-alone movie.

Recommended (and I realize that I'm preaching to the choir here), but try the Firefly series first, in order, to see if it hooks you, 'cause the movie is a pale shadow of the series.

Entry: 2006-02-23 17:23:05.19058+01 LA monopoly by Dan Lyke comments 0

Rebecca Blood pointed to: DRM and the tech industry's "girlie men":

If only I could've been there to stand up and clap:

"Why are you such a bunch of big girls?" asked Birch. "Why don't you tell the content owners to just get stuffed?" He continued unabated: "You're too seduced by the content industry, Hollywood is not even a $10 billion industry. Hollywood is small compared to the telecom industry. Why don't you take a stronger line? Consumers don't want DRM at all. You can't sell DRM."

Now he's a little understating things, I believe that $10B is just movies, and there's TV and the behemoth that is the record companies cartel (and they're tied in to the consumer electronics companies), but...

I think, to some extent, that this is exactly what's happening with Google Video, and they're not even having to make an up-front investment. But as we continue to watch Firefly(up to "Trash", kind of disappointed by "Out of Gas" through "War Stories", "Trash" got the feel back, but didn't advance the plot much) I'm looking at a number of small projects I've seen that, with a little bit of seed money, could be made cheaply and outside the Hollywood system. I'm not sure what the economics of the process are, whether the bandwidth is becoming cheap enough that net distribution can compete with broadcast (see the Dan & Todd's bandwidth bet topic) but if the big chip players want to be in the consumer electronics market, if Intel wants to make it into the living room, this would definitely be one prong in the effort to drive that push.

Entry: 2006-02-14 16:11:57.988799+01 Whedon speaks by Dan Lyke comments 1

I think that most of y'all who'd want to read this have already Joss Whedon speaks out about the future of television

In a stunningly cost-effective move, CBS will air How I Met Your Biological Mother, That Bitch, which is just old episodes of How I Met Your Mother with snarkier narration. HBO’s Westminster will continue the trend pioneered by Deadwood and Rome by making 19th-century England really dirty and weird, like Jane Austen with Tourette’s. (Actually, I can’t wait for that one.)

And, stolen from Borklog, here's a Serenity comic with actual muppets. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, and Part 8.

[ related topics: Humor Television Joss Whedon - Serenity / Firefly ]

Entry: 2006-02-06 20:33:55.906019+01 Firefly by Dan Lyke comments 4

In light of Diane's statement in the comments yesterday that she didn't know what "Firefly" was, and since there's been mention (1/2/3) of it here before.

Firefly was a TV show that aired 11 episodes (14, including a long pilot, were shot) and was canceled in 2002. Despite the fact that 14 episodes were shot, the pilot was apparently never aired, quite a bit of the story was aired out of order and... well... I can understand that nobody figured out how to market it, because, frankly, I'm still not sure why I find it so compelling. And if I'd seen it out of order, I'd probably not be nearly as anxious to find out what happens next.

Serenity was a 2005 movie with the same actors, characters and settings that (hopefully!) wrapped up a bunch of the Firefly storylines.

It's "Gunsmoke" or "Bonanza" meets "Star Trek" if Han Solo were Captain Kirk and the dialog were written for the live stage. At times I want to say it borders on ironic camp, but somehow it isn't, because even when the scenery and setting is pushing the boundaries of my credulity, the characters just have so damned much heart.

The setting is half a decade after the end of hostilities between the Alliance, the powers of civilization, and the denizens of the outlying colonies, somewhere on the borders of human expansion through space. Settlers on these newly terraformed planets and moons are living subsistence lives, with horses and dusty agriculture and six shooters, and livestock and fresh strawberries are the items valuable enough to be smuggled.

Enter the characters who live somewhere in the middle of this economy and its political situation, captain and crew of "Serenity", a Firefly-class spaceship (of which, we're told, there are forty thousand plying their way between these outer planets), paying for fuel and goods with whatever sorts of jobs they can pick up on the fringes (and apparently making a fairly good living, even though we only ever see the jobs gone wrong).

It's a character study with laugh out loud dialog, it's subtext in lines that seem to be saying exactly what you think the subtext already is, it's unabashed melodrama played straight, it's overwrought phrasing that's still in character for a strong silent type. It's a setting of absurd contrasts that somehow works.

Mal: "We're not gonna die. We can't die, Bendis. You know why? Because we are so...very...pretty. We are just too pretty for God to let us die."

And I'd tell you more, but I'm already regretting that I picked up some of the spoilers from the movie (and how long has it been since I've cared about spoilers in any medium?), so I'm being really careful to just read the Episode Guides (and associated scripts) for the episodes we've already seen. Because we're doing a bunch of "wait, what's that character's motivation..." type discussion, for which we've been referring back to the scripts.

So I can recommend tracking down the DVDs with the show on it and starting with the pilot episode. And if it feels a little campy, know that it accepts that, and even with that when Kaylee (the ship's mechanic) pats the side of the ship and says "that's my girl", there manages to be a hell of a lot more heart than when Heath says "I can't quit you, Jake" in Brokeback Mountain.

Firefly Wiki, IMDB page for Firefly the TV series, IMDB page for Serenity the movie.

Entry: 2006-02-06 01:22:28.882068+01 Firefly by Dan Lyke comments 6

Okay, you demonic forces, you finally got me. Sarada dragged us over on Friday night to watch the Firefly pilot, and we were there 'til midnight & change last night, got through episode 8 ("Jaynestown"). Yeah, it's addictive, but I can stop any time I want. Really.

Having that quippy dialog, and that sort of "western" setting, is probably part of why we disliked Brokeback Mountain so. It's hard to have quiet stoic cowboys match up to witty banter and motivated likeable characters.

Anyway, not worth reviewing it 'cause the rest of y'all have already seen way more than me, but... well... we'll be watching the rest of 'em.

[ related topics: Movies Joss Whedon - Serenity / Firefly ]

Entry: 2005-09-18 02:45:10.041346+02 Serenity by Dan Lyke comments 2

This one's for Dori: the firefly-class Serenity out of Lego^tm.

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