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FROM THE POSTBAG: WHAT IS FIREFLY?

by Hazed

Here at the Fed2 Star we have a number of official functions: we report on new features added to Fed2 DataSpace, we announce new policies such as the one about cartel announcements in the previous article, and we generally keep you informed about everything you need to know. Plus, we also answer readers' questions.

Our postbag often contains letters with questions to be answered. Many of them are not the kind of questions we can deal with, or at least not in public: we're not agony aunts nor do we pretend to be universal experts. We also don't answer the questions scrawled in green crayon on torn up bits of cardboard; those we forward to the Galactic Administration's Bureau for Mental Health.

This week, someone sent us a question that wasn't obviously insane, and that we could answer, so here it is:

"After you log in," the question asked, "it says Alan Lenton's Federation 2 - Firefly edition. What does firefly mean?"

Simple. Firefly is the name of the server that the Fed universe runs on. All servers have to be given a name, and back in the days when the different functions had to run on different servers, a company would end up owning a whole stack of computers, each with its own name. It was customary for geeky sys-admin types to name the servers after characters from their favorite TV shows - perhaps the Muppets (gonzo, fozzie, kermit) or Babylon 5 (molari, gkar, delenn).

When Fed first moved off AOL and set up on the web, we had 3 different servers, and we gave them names of Fed objects and mobiles - Krystal, kalindra and so on.

Now technology has moved on and you can fit all the functions needed onto one server, we only have one computer, which runs Fed, our website, the mail server and so on. So we just need one name. And Alan chose to call it Firefly, which is the name of a fantastic science fiction TV series, and also the name of the class of spaceship featured in that show. If you have never seen Firefly, seek out the DVD box set. It was the creation of Joss Wheedon, who also created Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Sadly, Firefly didn't even make it to the end of its first series; it was cancelled due to a falling out with the TV company. It was revived briefly for a feature film called Serenity, also very much worth watching.

It may not matter to players whether they know that it's the Firefly version of the game, but it is important to Alan and to me. We both have our own personal versions of Fed running on computers in our homes, Alan so he can test his code, and me for testing events I write. That notification means that logs we capture show which version we were in.

My version, by the way, is called Weeble - carrying on the tradition of using Fed mobiles!

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