Tretakoff Musings
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
An Interview With the Mars Lander
One of the more innovative uses of Twitter has been by NASA and JPL: they established a Twitter account for the Mars Lander, Phoenix. What was so revolutionary was the use of the first person perspective: Phoenix was "tweeting" as it made its discoveries. As a result, the Twitterati became enamored of it, and treated it like a friend. Thus, as Phoenix's mission ended and the Martian winter robbed it of it's necessary light, it tweeted it's quasi-final message, as seen in the picture to the left.
One of the more innovative uses of Twitter has been by NASA and JPL: they established a Twitter account for the Mars Lander, Phoenix. What was so revolutionary was the use of the first person perspective: Phoenix was "tweeting" as it made its discoveries. As a result, the Twitterati became enamored of it, and treated it like a friend. Thus, as Phoenix's mission ended and the Martian winter robbed it of it's necessary light, it tweeted it's quasi-final message, as seen in the picture to the left.And today, we get a glimpse behind the curtain of the wonderful "voice" of Phoenix, and how she came to develop the character, as a combination of whimsy, timing, and the limitations of Twitter. An absolutely fascinating read.
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Joss Whedon: This Generation's Gene Roddenberry
I just finished watching all the episodes of Firefly, Joss Whedon's "Western in Space," and was surprised at how enjoyable it was. Whedon, if you don't know, is the man who brought Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel to the small screen, but also has written some surprising big screen diversities, including Toy Story and Alien Resurrection (Alien 4). Firefly was supposed to be his big dream, but it lasted only 13 episodes before Fox canceled it.
Like another famous science fiction series that was canceled before it's time, Firefly inspired fans who loved the universe and characters, who are passionate about the show. How passionate? They staged a letter writing campaign to save it, which briefly worked. They held conventions, wrote episodes, and generally made a ruckus enough to convince 20th Century Fox to allow Whedon to make a movie follow up, Serenity. Unfortunately, like the series, it too failed to be a commercial success. The story should have ended there; it didn't.
Take the last 24 hours. A major open-source platform for online Multiplayer games announced it's releasing a new "universe," set in the Firefly world. Having watched the series, I will say this is masterful: the complex universe Whedon created is a mix of Western, Chinese, and traditional sci-fi, and he barely scratched the surface. In fact, the unfolding universe was as much a character as the rest of the actors, and deserves to harness the power of the fan's imagination this way.
And speaking of the actors, the "Browncoats," as Firefly fans tend to call themselves (a reference to the rebellious group some of the major characters were part of) were set to have their annual convention today...only to find the company that put it together essentially took the 500 people who prepaid their $75 each...and vanished. Another injustice to these passionate fans, and another tragic tale, right? Wrong. Tonight, as the morose fans huddled for mutual frustration in the hotel's bar, the actors from the show came down and joined them. Hell, they may still be there, as of this post. Folks, that's complete and utter class: these actors, who were only together for a short time, really feel the love, and are giving back. Kudos, and bravo.
The show itself was good: rich and nuanced. sure, it had a bit of hokeyness (that "Western in space" is just not sustainable), and some weaknesses, but it is a fine show, worthy of these fans' respect. Some of it was groundbreaking: the camera and effects work are clearly what's influenced the breakout hit, Battlestar Galactica. And the writing was top notch: character consistency, all the way. I do recommend watching it, if only to understand what these fans saw in it.
Clearly, like Star Trek, this is a show that went before its time, and the parallels are eerie. Show was canceled because it was not a commercial success, yet the fans make it live on. Conventions keep springing up. A movie version was made, but the first one was also not a commercial success. Now, look at Trek, years later: 8 films, 4 spinoff series, countless video games (see my wish list), books and more. Hell, there are even movies about the fans!
Joss Whedon clearly knows how to write a good series, and I will not be surprised if Firefly will live on, maybe as another film, after the success of the MMORPG and the DVD sales, etc. Joss Whedon, this generation's Roddenberry. Me, I'm off to add Serenity to my Netflix queue.
I just finished watching all the episodes of Firefly, Joss Whedon's "Western in Space," and was surprised at how enjoyable it was. Whedon, if you don't know, is the man who brought Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel to the small screen, but also has written some surprising big screen diversities, including Toy Story and Alien Resurrection (Alien 4). Firefly was supposed to be his big dream, but it lasted only 13 episodes before Fox canceled it.Like another famous science fiction series that was canceled before it's time, Firefly inspired fans who loved the universe and characters, who are passionate about the show. How passionate? They staged a letter writing campaign to save it, which briefly worked. They held conventions, wrote episodes, and generally made a ruckus enough to convince 20th Century Fox to allow Whedon to make a movie follow up, Serenity. Unfortunately, like the series, it too failed to be a commercial success. The story should have ended there; it didn't.
Take the last 24 hours. A major open-source platform for online Multiplayer games announced it's releasing a new "universe," set in the Firefly world. Having watched the series, I will say this is masterful: the complex universe Whedon created is a mix of Western, Chinese, and traditional sci-fi, and he barely scratched the surface. In fact, the unfolding universe was as much a character as the rest of the actors, and deserves to harness the power of the fan's imagination this way.
And speaking of the actors, the "Browncoats," as Firefly fans tend to call themselves (a reference to the rebellious group some of the major characters were part of) were set to have their annual convention today...only to find the company that put it together essentially took the 500 people who prepaid their $75 each...and vanished. Another injustice to these passionate fans, and another tragic tale, right? Wrong. Tonight, as the morose fans huddled for mutual frustration in the hotel's bar, the actors from the show came down and joined them. Hell, they may still be there, as of this post. Folks, that's complete and utter class: these actors, who were only together for a short time, really feel the love, and are giving back. Kudos, and bravo.
The show itself was good: rich and nuanced. sure, it had a bit of hokeyness (that "Western in space" is just not sustainable), and some weaknesses, but it is a fine show, worthy of these fans' respect. Some of it was groundbreaking: the camera and effects work are clearly what's influenced the breakout hit, Battlestar Galactica. And the writing was top notch: character consistency, all the way. I do recommend watching it, if only to understand what these fans saw in it.
Clearly, like Star Trek, this is a show that went before its time, and the parallels are eerie. Show was canceled because it was not a commercial success, yet the fans make it live on. Conventions keep springing up. A movie version was made, but the first one was also not a commercial success. Now, look at Trek, years later: 8 films, 4 spinoff series, countless video games (see my wish list), books and more. Hell, there are even movies about the fans!
Joss Whedon clearly knows how to write a good series, and I will not be surprised if Firefly will live on, maybe as another film, after the success of the MMORPG and the DVD sales, etc. Joss Whedon, this generation's Roddenberry. Me, I'm off to add Serenity to my Netflix queue.
Saturday, December 02, 2006
We may not be alone...how did we not know?
One of the things I love about the web, and interesting news sites like digg, the new Netscape, and Original Signal is stumbling across some sort of piece of information I never knew...and should have. For instance, take this example of a comparatively massive radio signal we received...from space. Yes, all you Contact fans, it actually happened: a full on, ET Phoning Us signal, so powerful it made the person monitoring the signal note "WOW!" on the record, and it has been known as the WOW signal ever since.
Now, get this: it happened almost 20 years ago. 2 decades, I never even heard of this. No, it has not been repeated (nor were there any encoded signals captured for special plans for teleporters, alas), which, of course, led to speculation it was an anomaly. Here's the part of the article I found most convincing, however:
Makes you think...and hope.
One of the things I love about the web, and interesting news sites like digg, the new Netscape, and Original Signal is stumbling across some sort of piece of information I never knew...and should have. For instance, take this example of a comparatively massive radio signal we received...from space. Yes, all you Contact fans, it actually happened: a full on, ET Phoning Us signal, so powerful it made the person monitoring the signal note "WOW!" on the record, and it has been known as the WOW signal ever since.Now, get this: it happened almost 20 years ago. 2 decades, I never even heard of this. No, it has not been repeated (nor were there any encoded signals captured for special plans for teleporters, alas), which, of course, led to speculation it was an anomaly. Here's the part of the article I found most convincing, however:
The signal's original discoverer Jerry Ehman doesn't care to speculate on its source, and he remains scientifically skeptical. "Even if it were intelligent beings sending a signal," he said in an interview, "they'd do it far more than once. We should have seen it again when we looked for it 50 times."
Perhaps. But consider that when humankind used the Arecibo radio telescope to send a message out into space in 1974, it was only sent once.
Makes you think...and hope.
