Monday, October 10, 2005

Firefly and Serenity

Well, I did it. I managed to watch all the Firefly episodes before checking out the movie, with two hours to spare :)

I've got to say, with every episode I watched, I enjoyed the series more. The writing and character development is really well done, and it's pretty darned funny to boot. I can't believe they canceled it just as it was taking off. It was kind of the opposite of what Star Trek and Star Wars have been of late. Less tech, and much more fun. And this is from a guy who has a penchant for hard science fiction.

At any rate, I also enjoyed the film. I went with three others who hadn't seen Firefly, and they seemed to like it as well. I think it's quite a tough job to introduce this world and so many characters to an audience who may never have seen the series. Still the movie seems to do all this and more, with entertainment value that is missing in many other sci-fi films of late.

However, I actually think this whole concept works better as a TV series, rather than a series of movies. So, now I join the ranks who are hoping someone will bring back the TV show in some incarnation.

Monday, October 03, 2005

More non-emulation news :)

I have still been up to my neck in "real work". I hope it will slowdown in the next month or so. When I do get a few minutes - I am trying to read, and maybe catch up on TV a little.

I'm carving out enough time to finish Neal Stephenson's "Baroque Cycle." I find these books to be amazing. Exciting, intellectually challenging, but very rewarding. I feel like I've actually visited the late 17th and early 18th century. And Neal's themes about science, technology, commerce, etc. are quite intriguing.

As I side note, I TiVo'd the whole "Firefly" series, which I'd like to watch before I go see "Serenity". I haven't heard anything but good things about the movie.

Fun with FPGAs - recreating the Atari TIA, Part 1

I have been playing with recreating the Atari TIA chip as used in the original 2600 in an FPGA.  I know this has been done a few times alrea...