Firefox
The Mozilla Project has changed the name of their stand-alone browser yet again. Formerly Phoenix, then Firebird, now Firefox. They are clearly hell-bent on some sort of flaming animal, no matter how many tries it takes them to find one that doesn’t infringe.
The word reminds me of foxfire — the phosphorescence which decaying wood can give off. I’ve seen this before, during a Hudson valley ramble in the dark dark woods. It was a beautiful blue-green — shocking — unimagined; and I figured I’d propagate it in my dorm room, eventually illuminating the entire space in the most eerie and natural way imaginable. I took a cool, damp hunk with me, and had its company indoors for one night, but it must have died — it never glowed again. O Science! Too oft thou killest that thou loves.
I hope I’ll see foxfire again sometime — maybe when I live further from all the bright satanic malls and whatnot.
Foxfire is in that damned second volume of DARE — the one with every single blooming word I want to look up — the one I can’t afford new and haven’t found used. So about all I can say is that OED thinks only Americans use the word these days.
February 10th, 2004 at 2:06 pm
Have you ever seen the movie “Foxfire,” starring Angelina Jolie? It has nothing to do with phosphorescent wood (heh heh, wood)–I think it’s so titled because the movie is about a bunch of foxes, ie women, who are fiery, that is to say, rebellious. It is really one of the worst movies in the Jolie repertoire, which, as my friend Greggo would say, “takes some doing.” Only “Hackers” is worse, although in all fairness I have major beef against that movie for its technical inaccuracies (“RISC architecture is going to change everything!” Yeah, maybe when it was developed in the late 1970s, you fucknuts).
February 10th, 2004 at 5:23 pm
That Hackers flick sucks. I believe that “Johnny Mnemonic” is the only other movie that’s ever made me feel so… dirty.
February 10th, 2004 at 5:51 pm
The only really decent film about hackin’n’shit is “Sneakers.” They commit some sins, but at least the premise is technically solid (a method to quickly factor very large numbers would in fact break public-key encryption).
Also, “Matrix Revolutions” features an accurate representation of a UNIX (I should say POSIX) shell. That is probably the best part of the movie, in fact.
February 10th, 2004 at 10:09 pm
Aside from the twenty-five minute ultrarave dance number, you mean. Or was that in Matrix Redux? Trinity used some UNIX power to shut down that power station, as I recall…
February 11th, 2004 at 8:44 am
Yeah, you’re right, the shell (and the dancing) was from “Matrix Reloaded.” My bad. Although “Revolutions” did feature a stunningly accurate portrayal of Indian computer programmers.
February 15th, 2010 at 4:36 pm
Great discussion. And I REALLY like that you practice what you preach. That
August 17th, 2010 at 10:36 pm
Angelina in SALT is fantastic
October 31st, 2010 at 8:15 pm
I’d be inclined to engage with you on this. Which is not something I typically do! I really like reading a post that will make people think. Also, thanks for allowing me to comment!
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