The Un-Watchable

Here's the concept: what movies would you go back in time to stop yourself from watching?  It has to be a theater release because something you see on cable or rent or Netflix is still a pretty passive experience.  When you go out to a movie there's traveling, usually a $40 bag of popcorn and a block of time set aside for the experience.  And it can't be something terrible that at least you have fun with now.  This is a movie so bad you actually regret the entire experience.  There are two for me that come instantly to mind.

The first is Spider-man 3.  Yeah, I regret spending money of the second one but number 3?  I left that theater in a sort of shock.  I was actually turned off from movies for a while.  Something rekindled my interest (looking at 2007 releases it was probably The Lookout) and I like to think I made a full recovery but... I admit, I may have developed a Pavlovian mistrust of Tobey Maguire.  If given the chance I would erase this from my personal history.

The second is What the Bleep Do We Know.  It claims to be a science documentary but is actually groundless propaganda from a cult that believes their leaders are reincarnations of priests from Atlantis.  Yeah, it's that bat-shit stupid.  Like many new age cranks (*cough Deepak Chopra cough*) it's formed around the amazing science of quantum physics.  And like many new age cranks they fail to grasp the actual concepts they build their belief system on.  I left the theater feeling more than cheated.  I felt insulted.  With Spider-man 3 I assume that it was made to entertain.  Sure, the target audience is probably coma patients and glue-huffing hobos but it works for them, I assume.  What the Bleep Do We Know was a glossy ball of misinformation that was either made by actively scheming con-men or utter morons.  Either way I was subjected to their "vision" for 109 minutes and I would love to have that time back to do something more productive.  Like pass into a coma or huff glue.  The worst part?  I saw it on a recommendation.  Some recommendations make you question someone's taste level.  And some make you flat out question their sanity.


And now I open I open it up to you.  What would you go back in time to stop yourself from going to a theater to see?

Windows Mobile 7

Windows Mobile 7 is coming out soon and it looks to be a huge departure from all WM up through 6.5.  Up until Android hit the market a few years ago Windows Mobile was the most open a phone could get other than an actual linux phone but name me one person who owned one of those.  There was no unified place to buy or even brows apps (they were called applications back then).  There were tons of different handsets running WM ranging from all screen to non-touch screens with hardware keyboards.

That's all changed.  Now Microsoft is setting incredibly strict rules for the hardware.  Standard buttons, in house testing, a hard set market for apps.  You know what all this seems like?  The iPhone.

While I saw this coming and have written about the coming of the iPhone-ish WiMo as a reason I jumped to the open Android I don't look down on Microsoft for this.  It's obvious by now that they have been edged out of a market that they essentially ruled not too long ago: a professional smartphone that's not run through the Blackberry servers.  As soon as there was competition Microsoft lost the battle.  Their artillery was great as long as it was the only option.

I honestly think this is a positive change for Microsoft.  I think they need something like this.  I would have  gone with a more radical change in strategy, not imitating an existing method but creating a complimentary modular system.  But that's just me.  Hopefully this works because the more options out there for smartphones the better the competition gets.  Android wouldn't be what it is today without iOS and the 3rd party upgrades are standing on the shoulders of stock Android.

I'm eager to see where this goes even if I don't hitch my wagon to it.

Library Safety Tips

Library Safety Tips by bulletproofheeb