I love John Cusack; I had fun watching his friendly face onscreen.
Unfortunately, this movie failed to deliver on its promises. I was
expecting a thriller, and though it had the requisite plot twists and
turns, it never managed to nudge me to the edge of my seat. Also,
there were one or two irritating loose ends — for instance, what
happened with the MP3 player?

I watched this the other day. At times it looks like Tarantino is
making an homage to some set of movies I’ve never seen. At other
times it appears that he’s trying to make a new kind of epic. For
instance, there’s a kind of ironic counterpoint to the sanitized
violence we see in most action flicks; instead Tarantino goes for
maximum gore and mutilation. It’s got his trademark sense of humor
in it (I’m thinking of Uma’s car), and there’s a long anime sequence
in the middle that is a sort of interesting digression from more
normal movies.

So, he’s trying. But I found the dialog severely annoying, the
violence disturbing — I’m squeamish and covered my eyes for a good
part of the movie — and at times it seemed like this movie wanted to
be Ghost Dog but couldn’t quite take itself seriously enough.

In the end I wasn’t that impressed. I suppose I’ll see the second
one, just to find out what happens. But I won’t be seeing the first
one again.

I’ve been working on monotone lately. It is really quite nice to
use. For one thing it is pretty fast, as most common operations are
completely local. It still has some rough edges, but that’s why it
is still in alpha.

I started working on a document explaining how we could use
monotone for gcc development. This isn’t complete yet, and there are
some features missing from monotone that must be addressed.

In a movie where the two protagonists are both sociopaths, how do
you know which one to root for?

This was really quite lousy, though I enjoyed Johnny Depp as
always, except for the annoying way he spoke from time to time. I
saw a preview and Disney is making another movie based on a theme
park ride, this time The Haunted Mansion. Sigh.

Watching this was interesting, at least provided I was thinking
about not what I was watching on the screen but instead something
vaguely connected to it.

The heroes of the 19th century seem so very dated now. For
instance, Nemo, master of the technology of the time, striving to
create a “better” world while operating under the fantasy that
technology is the important differentiating factor — never reflecting
on, say, his own authoritarian attitude.

I also wondered why a team of individuals, many of whom are
immortal, would bother with this expedition. I suppose it is unfair
to expect a movie like this to try to accurately reflect the attitudes
that one might suppose an actual immortal might take.

If you actually pay attention to the film itself, though… well,
it was what I expected, but that wasn’t much. But at least there
wasn’t an invisible car.

Today I went to see Winged Migration. This is an incredible film,
and for me a personally moving experience. It is visually stunning
and poetic, as I’m sure all the reviewers have noted. Marcello
Mastroianni once said that he liked nature shows, but not ones about
birds or fish. It’s too bad he didn’t live to see this film, which is
almost like an anthropological expedition into bird society, with both
interesting parallels to and striking differences from human
civilization. Go see it.

Last night on some cable news show — I really can’t stand these
things, so I don’t always pay close attention to the particulars —
there was a discussion about copyright and morality. One of the
hosts was incredulous at the fact that his kids viewed music
downloading as no big deal. “Why don’t they understand it’s a
crime? What’s gone wrong with our culture?”

I don’t really see it the same way. Having something stolen from
you can be a violating experience; I think this probably forms the
basis of most people’s moral stance against stealing. But these same
feelings don’t seem to occur when someone takes a copy of something I
already have. Maybe that guy’s kids are just a little more clear on
the origins of their morality than he is.

Or, maybe he’s got a different approach entirely. There may be
good practical reasons not to copy “intellectual property” without
paying. Examining these tradeoffs doesn’t play to well on TV,
though. It’s easier to reduce it to a black-or-white moral problem,
and then blame the guy you don’t like.

The Goat Book got
a nice
review recently. And more strangely my parents met a guy in
Charlottesville who has read it.

I’ve recently looked at monotone.
Monotone is a very cool version control system. It is still too young
to be used for real, but it is definitely a big step in a direction I
like.

It is really different from the “standard” tools we’re all used to —
the ones that work like RCS, or CVS, or their various analogs. For
instance, in monotone there is no central server. In fact, one need
not have one anywhere.

It seems to solve all the problems I have with CVS, including the ones
that subversion doesn’t address (and won’t, as I understand it, in
1.0). Monotone is always distributed. Branches and forks are cheap.
There is no distinction — and this is very cool — between positively
reviewing a patch and committing it. I.E., with monotone you can read
a patch, reply to it (with a cryptographic signature), and it is
immediately accepted into everyone’s tree.