Regular Wednesday post: This one focuses on changing the computer industry.  I don't claim to know a lot about the industry, so this is just my wish list of things.

1. No more desktops, two types of laptops
I see no reason to have a desktop any longer.  It's an outdated concept.  As laptops have become more inexpensive, there's less of a reason to use a desktop.  I think there needs to be two types of laptops: desktop replacements and travel laptops.  Desktop replacements can be any size, but I think they'll get thinner and thinner over time.  The travel laptops should be very small, like the ASUS EEE PC.  One feature that would be useful for these devices is to figure out a way to make the data portable (maybe through a common docking station or a local server).  That way, you could have both a work laptop and a travel laptop and share data between the two devices.

2. More single-purpose devices
We started to see these with the book-readers like the Sony Reader and the Amazon Kindle.  I could envision more of these devices, but the key is to make these products inexpensive.  Imagine a "typewriter" device for journalists, or a graphic design device, or a law librarian.  If you have specialized devices, you can have software specifically for your job.  From an architecture standpoint, you could make it be "profile" driven, so it could store different sets of software depending on what "job" you are performing.  Another example could be a web-browser only device.

3. Home servers
There needs to be a relatively inexpensive multi-protocol home server that could be used to backup and serve all of the laptops in your home network.  This could be the device that hooks up to the internet and has the firewall software built in.  It could also manage your communications, if you have IP Telephony, like Vonage.  This should be a plug-and-play device which is self-configuring.  This could be your WiFi router also and would have swappable hard drives.

4. Bluetooth for connecting small devices
It seems like this is already happening, but you could more easily sync your phone with your computing devices with this.

5. Start to include support for gestures, like the iPhone
This will happen soon, certainly from Apple.  You could coat the screens so your fingerprints won't always mess up the monitor.

Things change so rapidly that many of these things I want will happen shortly.

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Yeah, it lives up to the hype. The Dark Knight is an art house film masquerading as a blockbuster.  One way to look at it is if it were Munich mixed with The Untouchables.  Director Christopher Nolan has created the best comic book movie that really elevates the comic book movie above its art form.  The themes that are weaved within the film include our reactions to terror, whether people are basically good or evil, and how far should our protectors go in protecting us.  Overall, this movie rates as an A+.

The plot has the Joker (Heath Ledger), an insane criminal, coming to Gotham City and upsetting the balance in the war between Batman and the criminals.  Batman (Christian Bale) has a new ally in District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart).  Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) becomes the police commissioner in this movie, while Batman's butler, Alfred Pennyworth (Michael Caine), his childhood friend, Rachel Dawes (now played by Maggie Gyllenhaal) and his gadget maker, Wayne Enterprises CEO Lucious Fox (Morgan Freeman), all return in this sequel to Batman Begins.  All of the acting is superb and everyone gets a chance to shine in the movie.  As everyone has said, Heath Ledger gives an Oscar-nomination worthy performance.

This is a dark and adult movie, and younger kids should not see it and probably would be bored by it.  It's very intense, and easily could be rated 'R'.  It's supposed to be even better in IMAX.

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There's a comic book movie coming out that I am excited about seeing, but it's not the one you think.  As excited as I am to see The Dark Knight, the movie that I really want to see is Watchmen.  I read the Watchmen comic book mini-series while I was in college and I loved the structure, the characters and the storytelling of the book.  Until yesterday, when the trailer was released, nobody knew about Watchmen except for us comic book geeks.  Consequently, I never expected a movie adaptation that would at least look almost like a carbon copy of the graphic novel. The trailer did everything it needed to do for me: look like the comic books, have the right tone, and get me excited about seeing the movie.

The reason why Watchmen is so beloved by comic fans is the literate take on comic book stereotypes and situations.  It takes a somewhat realistic view of the type of people who would want to be (essentially) vigilantes: publicity hounds, nutjobs, hero-worshipping geeks, and accidental heroes.  What's great about Watchmen is the humanity expressed by the various characters: the impotence of Nite-Owl when his super-hero days are taken away from him; the insane, hard-line morality of Rorschach; the reluctant heroism of Silk Spectre; the calculating egotism of Ozymandias; and the alienation of Dr. Manhattan.  The complexity of the characterizations is rare for comics.  Most comics barely get beyond the primary motivation (e.g. Batman wants to combat evil because his parents were murdered in front of him as a child).  Plus, it's a time capsule filled with the tension of the cold war during the 1980's.

As much as I love Watchmen, I hate the ending. SPOILER ALERT: The end of the book has the villain "creating" peace throughout the world by fooling nations into banding together against an alien invasion threat.  Yeah, it's fantastic and very "comic-booky", but the bigger problem is the same as what happened after 9/11 in the Real World: the longer nothing happens, the sooner we go back to our old way of life.  In other words, the U.S. and the Soviets would probably go back to threatening each other again after realizing that the alien invasion was a hoax.  The villain would have to have ongoing threats (e.g. multiple invasions) to maintain the fear that the world could come to an end at any moment.  An ambiguous threat will fade as opposed to an ongoing threat (e.g. terrorists vs. an invading army). Rumor has it that the ending in the movie is the same as the book, so we'll see if that resonates.

All I know is, I can't wait until March 6th, 2009.  I would love to see this movie tomorrow.

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Tell No One is a French film based on a novel by American mystery writer Harlan Coben.  The plot has elements of Vertigo and The Fugitive in it: a pediatrician's wife is murdered while they are both on vacation at a lake.  He was knocked out and put into a coma, so he does not know what happened to his wife.  After he recovers, he learns that his wife was allegedly killed by a serial killer.  Eight years later, he receives a mysterious e-mail that seems to imply that his wife is still alive and that the discovery of two bodies at the lake may implicate him of murder.  He seems to be harassed by both the police and some mercenary group and ends up running for his life.  While on the run, he investigates the circumstances of his wife's death and discovers things about her that he didn't know.  Overall, this movie is a B+/A-.  The acting and directing are very good.  The explanation for the events of her murder were quite complex, but logical.  This is the second French mystery I have seen this year (after Roman de Gare) and they were both pretty good.

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More spectacle than great movie.  Lots of cool things to look at, but not as much heart or humor as I was hoping for. Overall, a B or B-.

As in the first movie, Hellboy (Ron Perlman) still works for the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, a government agency charged with secretly ridding the country of demons and creatures.  There was a Men in Black vibe early in the movie that was later abandoned.  The tooth fairy creatures shown early in the film are truly scary.  The plot has "mythical" creatures trying to fight humans to reclaim the earth after breaking a truce established by their king years ago.  The king can control a "Golden Army" of robots created by trolls that can easily overwhelm the humans who have trespassed on the forest where the "mythical" creatures live.  Prince Nuada, the son of the king, kills the king to claim the throne and control the Golden Army.  However, the crown device he needs to get control is split in three: one piece belongs to humans (he claims this piece early in the movie); another belongs to his father, the king; and the third piece belongs to his sister, Princess Nuala.  Hellboy, his girlfriend firestarter Liz Sherman (Selma Blair), best friend sea-creature Abe Sapien (Doug Jones) and boss (Jeffrey Tambor) are called in to investigate Prince Nuada's theft of the crown piece.  There's more humor in this movie than the first one (including a funny scene where Hellboy and Abe lament their romantic troubles by singing along to Barry Manilow), but the conclusion of the movie is somewhat of a let-down.  Johann Krauss (voice by Seth MacFarlane) was a funny addition to the cast.  Performances and directing were fine, but the star of the movie was the production and creature design.  It's worth seeing if you liked the first one.

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Former Senator (and current economic advisor to John McCain) Phil Gramm said that the recession was all in everyone's head and America has become a nation of whiners.  I suppose it's because he doesn't pay for $4.50/gallon gas himself or he didn't lose his home due to the home mortgage crisis or he didn't get laid off from his job.  Technically, he's correct.  It's not officially a recession.  That won't stop anyone else from feeling like it is a recession.  This shows just how out of touch the wealthy are with the problems of regular folks.

The biggest drag on the economy is the price of gasoline.  As long as it remains high, we'll have expensive flights, expensive food, and expensive products and services.  The faster we can get off of oil the better.  Of course the Bush Administration wants to take advantage of the high prices to start drilling offshore or in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.  I hope that everyone understands that true independence from OPEC will only occur when we get off of our dependence on oil.  Even if we were to drill in those places, we couldn't get usable deposits for years.  It's only a short term solution, which is what all Republicans care about.  That's the explanation for giving tax benefits to the wealthy or tax benefits to oil companies.  Clean out the treasury to give to their wealthy friends because they got them elected.  No one else matters.

The best thing that the Democrats can do now is try to block any attempts by the Republicans to give handouts to the oil industry to do the additional drilling they want.  Let's not let the current short term pain influence us to do stupid things.  We need long term solutions for oil and other economic issues.  The best jump start for the economy long term will be solutions to global warming and finding viable alternative energy sources.  New companies working towards these goals will mean new jobs, and that will get the economy going again.  And then it won't be in our heads anymore.

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Regular Wednesday post: This one focuses on changing the auto industry, in particular, U.S. car companies.  I don't claim to know a lot about the industry, so this is just my wish list of things.

1. Get into electric cars for real
I know that the Volt from GM is supposed to come out soon, but no American car company is serious about getting into electric cars.  It takes the startups like Tesla to jump start this industry.  To get started, they should buy some of Tesla's technology.  I expect GM will handicap the Volt just like they did the EV and then complain that it doesn't sell.  With volume sales, the infrastructure will come together (like charging stations) and get us off our oil fixation.  Forget about hydrogen; that's a losing proposition where it costs more to produce than gasoline.  At the minimum, more hybrid or alternative fuel cars for the interim until electric cars become more affordable.

2. Slim down the product lines
Ford is slightly better at this than GM or Chrysler, but there are so many redundant cars in their lines it's ridiculous.  They should follow Toyota's lead by having lines that are targeted to specific demographics: the Scion line is intended for young people, the Lexus line is for the wealthy, while the Toyota line is for everyone else. It's harder to distinguish the demographic for the Mercury cars vs. the Ford cars, etc. One thing that will go a long way would be to create a specific next generation line which will sell hybrid, alternative fuel or electric cars.  GM could easily change Saturn to go that route first by converting all of those cars to be hybrid, then adding the Volt and whatever cars they have in the pipeline.

3. Make selling easier
In most cases, you have to haggle to get the price down to a reasonable level.  If they started with a reasonable base price that was widely published, you wouldn't have to fight with the sales staff to get your price.

4. Cut back on trucks
It's obvious that the current oil crisis will not get better any time soon.  It would be smart of the American car companies if they would just cancel many of their trucks rather than have a gimmick gas payment promotion.

5. Invest in electric car infrastructure
This could mean anything from charging stations to recycling stations to battery pack replacements.  You could have a whole new industry devoted to maintaining electric cars that could mean a lot of new revenue.  If the car companies are smart (and I don't think they are), they get ahead of the curve and lead.

The problem is that the American car companies have staked their future on the status quo remaining (as most large corporations do) and cannot change until they are forced to.  I hope that Tesla can grow quickly if only to force the incumbent car companies to change.  It will be difficult for Tesla to grow until the cars become affordable for most people.  More players in the electric car market will make it cheaper for everyone.

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I know a lot of the left-wingers are upset at Barack Obama for taking more centrist positions like his FISA compromise and the faith-based initiatives stance, but by November, no one will vote specifically on these positions anyway. From my perspective as somewhat of a liberal, I don't think these stances are going to change my vote from Obama to John McCain.  My feelings about the differences between Obama and McCain are so strong that unless Obama was the Antichrist himself, I would still vote for him.

In the last 8 years, George W. Bush and the Republicans have so ruined America and its reputation around the world that there is no way I would vote for a Republican.  McCain's reputation as a "maverick" is a false one that I don't think very many people believe anymore.  The Republicans are always wrong about the economy and have been wrong since Nixon.  Their idiotic trickle-down theory of economics relies on the false belief that wealthy people will help others by giving them jobs or by giving handouts to poor people.  Wealthy people stay that way by avoiding both of those things!  Worse yet, the Neo-Con Republicans have drained the wealth of America in a war of choice we didn't need to have (Iraq).  John McCain will continue both of these policies.

When all is said and done, maybe Barack Obama is not as much of a change agent as most of us want. But he has to get elected first.  I think tacking to the center won't change as many minds as he would hope, but it couldn't hurt if the so-called independents and moderate Republicans at least take a look at him.  If they help him get elected, then that's a good thing.  We can always hope he governs differently than he runs his campaign.

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There's a good movie in there somewhere, but we got an okay one instead.  I think the writers needed one more draft.  I would give it a B- or C+.

The plot resembles The Matrix: Guy living a humdrum existence gets drawn into a different, more exciting life when he meets a beautiful woman.  In The Matrix, the guy is Neo and the woman is Trinity.  In Wanted, the guy is played by James McAvoy (Wesley Gibson) and the girl is played by Angelina Jolie (Fox).  She initiates him into the life of the Fraternity, a team of assassins who kill people that they believe are fated to become dangerous to society.  There is a good amount of violence in this movie, so be warned.  Some of the voiceover dialog sounds like Peter Parker in the first Spider-Man movie. The plot twist at the end could have been handled better.  The threads leading up to this should have been made more clear.  One more rewrite would have fixed the problems with this.  The acting and directing is fine.  For the type of movie this is, there wasn't much humor (and I wouldn't expect it).  The coolness of bullet-time in The Matrix was replaced by literally bending a bullet's path to curve around bodies.  While I liked most elements of the movie, a tighter script could have elevated this into a great movie.

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Regular Wednesday post: This one focuses on changing the e-book readers (Sony Reader and Amazon Kindle).  I don't claim to know a lot about either device, so this is just my wish list of things.

1. Smaller footprint
I would prefer a footprint more the size of a paperback book than a size closer to an 8.5 x 11 piece of paper.  I know the screen is more readable, but I prefer portability.

2. Better user interface
I think gadgets are adopted more easily when the user interface is simpler.  Look at the new Apple iPod Touch.  It has an on/off switch at the top and a menu button on the bottom.  That's it, as for buttons.  The rest of your interaction is through the touch screen.  That's pretty easy to learn.

IPod_Touch

Compare that to the Sony Reader: You've got buttons everywhere.  My eyes don't know where to start using this gadget.  The screen looks great and is easy to read, but that's not enough.

Sony Reader

Now, look at the Amazon Kindle.  It's smaller, but there's still an awful lot of buttons.  How do I start using this device?  Again, the screen looks great and is readable in any light.

AmazonKindle

3. Be cheaper
At around $300 or more, it's too expensive to have only one usage: to read books, newspapers, magazines or blogs.  Either make it cheaper or make it do more.  If you keep the price where it's at, I want it to do more.

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