Iron Man 2

Being a bit of a comic book nerd, I went to see Iron Man 2. 

I'm not much of one for movie reviews (it's based far too much on opinion, and I really don't have the interest in trying to communicate such a complex experience to somehow who most likely can't at all relate to what I did experience). So I'll keep it short. 


The movie was good although I preferred the first: the characters then seemed more compelling, and the plot more complex, realistic, and a fair bit funnier. But perhaps that was just my experiencing Robert Downey Jr., aka Tony Stark, aka Iron Man for the first time.


Really though, what struck me, is that the part of the movie that I found the coolest was the interfaces that Mr. Stark employed throughout. The projections(?), while entirely unrealistic, are probably some of the most interesting GUI's that I've ever seen. Yes, they were in the first movie as well, but it's just now that it really struck me how interesting they are. 


It would be a fairly intuitive way of manipulating information, although I fear that if our relationship to computers ever did progress to that point, then people would be largely shut out from the control that we now possess due to our (comparatively) intimate relationship with the coding and processes that they consist of...

But to be able to zoom in to view a series of pictures from different angles, work on them, quite literally, by hand, and then pick them up and hurl them into an interactive garbage can would be quite an experience. 

I have to wonder, is the current trend towards touch screens and intuitive interfaces more than just a fad?

The Failure of the Maker's Bill of Rights

The Maker's Bill of Rights  is certainly an interesting document: it clearly states many of the qualities that I believe are important when purchasing something, especially electronics. 

If you can't open something up, can't take it apart, see how it works, put it back together again and sell it, if you can't alter it as you wish to, or give it away when you're done, then you don't own it, it's not yours.

But something that most people fail to acknowledge is that it's still our choice: it can be something tiny, like choosing a 'Droid over and iPhone, or larger: choosing to use Linux over Windows. But whatever the decision is, there is always a choice, even if the choice is abstaining: not buying anything at all hurts the manufacturer almost as much as you buying their competitor's product.  

An XKCD that I find relevant to this topic as a whole:

Really, what I'm trying to say is that we do have a choice: it's not the manufacturers fault for not providing the products that we want, it's our fault for not demanding them, and refusing to buy anything less.