So This Is Progress?

Okay, gripe of the day: why is it that software has to have so many updates? For example, my favorite suite of software is Studio MX from Macromedia - indispensable tools for my job as a web developer. But every year, they come out with a whole new pile of products. Two years ago it was Flash 5 and Dreamweaver UltraDev 4. Last year it was the whole Studio MX line. A few months ago, brand new Studio MX 2004. And each upgrade costs money. And this is but one of many, many examples...

So why does this burn me? Two reasons. The first, of course, is the money - constant outflux of money. If I only relied on one or two programs, perhaps I could keep up. But how many professionals use only one or two programs? I'm usually using one or two at a time. These costs can add up - I could easily see a single workstation taking more than a few thousand or so a year just to stay caught up with the upgrades. And when your a business with scores of computers? Forget about it...

My second gripe is this - do they realize how long it takes to learn their new program? I mean, we're not talking one or two small changes here - sometimes the entire interface is redesigned. For example, in the new version of MM's Flash program, not only are there several new interface "features," but the entire scripting language has been overhauled (and this on top of a minor overhaul last year). How does one fine the time to keep up with the changes? Again, it might not be so bad with one or two programs, but six or seven? The whole point of buying these programs is to be able to do work, not learning how to do work.

I know, I know - even software developers have families that have to eat. And obviously there's enough people out there willing to buy the upgrades on a yearly (or less) basis. But the divide is growing. Last year several studies found that most US businesses were still using Windows 98 and Office 97 - programs that are now five + years old. Why? Price of upgrades. Many chose to suffer with less (which had been working just fine, thank you) than risk the costs (money and time) of more. Which I think is great - democracy in action. But at the same time there's the constant pressure to know the latest in the latest by yesterday, but some of that isn't possible without the newest baubles and bangles (or at least it isn't as "convenient" without them). So what's a guy/gal/technoratti with no cash to do?

The Matrix Wants You!

Okay, before I go ranting - Spoiler Warning if you haven't seen The Matrix: Revolutions. Then again, with the high first weekend and then 66 percent drop off at the box office, is there anyone who didn't see it?

Anyways, after a week of letting the movie stew in the back of my meat-brain, I started having some interesting ideas. Actually, I woke up from a Matrix-themed dream (only the second one ever, go figure) and had some thoughts about the nature of the "new" Matrix shown at the end of the movie. Just in case you've not seen the movie but want to keep reading, here's the run-down. Neo sacrificed himself in order a)to save the Matrix from the viral agent Smith, b) to save the lives of the humans infected by said-same Smith, and c) to broker a peace with the Machines and thereby save Zion. All he had to do was fight Smith to the edge of death, let Smith infect him, and then join with the Source (machine database evermind server thing) after he was infected. He dies (apparently), the Matrix recompiles, the machines leave Zion, and the last scene has the Oracle and the Architect overlooking a beautiful, more colorful, reborn Matrix simulation. At least that's how I saw it.

Now the interesting thing at the end of the movie is that they imply that folks who want to leave the Matrix will be allowed to. So that has me thinking several thoughts. First - does that mean that they know the Matrix is "The Matrix?" Did Neo somehow make them aware of their situation so that they can make the choice to stay or go? Or will things run as before, with people in Zion allowed to enter and free the enlightened members of the human race? And if you chose to leave, can you chose to go back? And how many people can the Machines free until the Power Plants are no longer efficient? It seems to me that they still need the power the people provide. I can see it now - a massive PR campaign designed to keep you in the Matrix. The Matrix becomes a computerized Disney World, a nicer world than the gritty, grimy, sweating realtity of Zion or the dark, bleak, lifeless surface of the Earth. Free food, free boarding - all you need to do is give up reality.

In one of the philosophy books to spring up around the first Matrix movie there was an interesting essay about the ethics of choosing to stay in or go back to the Matrix, ala Cypher's betrayal. The essay positted, as I remember it, the idea that it is inherently unethical (and hence evil) to remain strapped to the Power Plant. I'm going to butcher the arguement, but I believe it said that to live in or choose a false life is wrong, because the pursuit of truth is integral to living an ethical life. But all those people in the Matrix simply can't choose to leave - there seems to be no ecosystem to support them anywhere on the planet. I mean, it all looks like Detroit on a dark fall night! So if they made the "ethical" choice, they'd be signing a mass suicide order. Of course, the machines also might get pissed off at this point, having lost their batteries, but that's another essay (or at least another paragraph). So do they REALLY have a choice?

And what about our scruffy friends in Zion? Can they continue to waltz in and out of the Matrix freeing people, screwing up physics, and living like dark superheroes? I mean, what's the Machine world got to gain from letting these people in? They just leech off the power and use resources without contributing anything. Or do you find yourself making a Matrix Customs agency that folks can use to come in and visit, perhaps to be recruited to join into the Matrix? I mean, don't you think some people might have gotten tired of the whole living-underground-and-struggling scene? Isn't the Matrix the ultimate welfare systerm? All they want is your body heat, after all. And besides, now you have a colony of computer hackers - can you really find a way to keep them out?

On a side note, another interesting idea to arise out of the last two Matrix films is that the machines themselves aren't so happy with their own lives. First, you start meeting characters that refuse to be deleted and use the Matrix as a virtual no-man's zone where they can continue existing. Sure, most of these seem evil, but at that point all machines (and here I mean both machines and virtual AI entities) seem evil. Then at the start of the newest movie, you meet the sweetest little Indian girl, the product of two Indian AI programs that were forbidden to reproduce. They're sending the girl into the Matrix to survive, for she has no future in the Machine World. Now these seem like very nice programs just trying to have a little home life - not such a big jump when you realize that the AI's are just like natural intelligent entities and thus probably want the same general goals (health, happiness, fulfillment, and the continuance of genes/code). So now the Matrix is not only the prison designed for the human race but also a virtual Casablanca, where bad programs can go to hide. Seems like the machines want the same freedom of choice that the humans want. In fact, the Machine world seems to have a slow epidemic of "choice," ranging from the cute Indian family and the evil Merovigian to the Oracle and her assistant Seraph. I mean, isn't that really what Neo died for - the ability to choose? In that way, isn't he a Machine savior as well as a human one?

So that's my thoughts. I'm sure I'll have more (you know me, I never shut up), but I'll just stop for now and let it stew...

Various Thoughts

My, haven't I been the bad blogger. Tough to walk around and not have anything to say! But I thought I'd just drop a short note to make sure I hadn't forgotten how! So here are some short, and hopefully interesting, thoughts:

• The Matrix, Part Trei - Well, my wife arranged for a night of babysitting and off we went to see Matrtix: Revolutions. Without giving anything away, it ends in exactly the way it would end - no big surprises, no deus ex machina. And with that said, I have to say that somehow it was an ending that felt hollow. Not that there's anything major unresolved (and thus sequel-able), but the ending just didn't have the resounding feeling of satisfaction that I desired. In fact, I was surprised that I desired this "satisfaction," but I know I'm not alone; my wife made the same observation. Oh well, it had to have an end sometime - all movie franchises do
• Screaming Fruit - No, this isn't some report on foodstuffs that were genetically engineered with mouths - it's a congratulations to Virginia Tech for building the world's 3rd fastest supercomputer out of 1,100 off-the-shelf Macintoshes. Currently, it is only the third comupter ever to work faster then 10 gigaflops. This should be interesting, and not just for Apple; this success is reflected in other new supercomputers in the annual top ten built by network Linux boxes. I've always thought that the power currently put at our collective computing fingertips was more than we imagined, and these off-the-shelf supercomputers seem to bear that instinct out. How many years until you can build such power into your basement? And what is possible, both good and evil, then? Learn more here...
• The Fear of Believing - Got to finally see Finding Nemo this weekend (the birth of our son interrupted my wife and my first, finely-laid plans), I have to say that I was blown away. Entirely enjoyable, technically impressive, can't wait to buy the DVD for myself. But there was a nagging analog fear at the back of my skull once I started looking at the DVD bonus material - in one of their first rounds of tests the directors asked the Pixar research department to mimic small movies of underwater life. Scary part? They reproduced it too exactly! This is not my criticism, but rather that of the directors! They had to tone down the realism so that the movie could remain a stylized cartoon. This is pretty amazing - reproducing nature digitally, and in motion, is very, very difficult. It certainly seems that it won't be long till everything we see can be reproduced in a CGI environment, obliterating the line between "real" and "imagined" experiences. On a more positive note, I think Pixar might be the single most enjoyable place to work. That, or they have a really good PR firm working on the DVD! I am certainly jealous

Okay, that's it for now - I'll try to be back soon...

Speed - Is It Good?

Okay, first of all this is not about the strengths of "uppers" or their abuse. Instead, this is a open-ended ponder on whether having something faster equals better. As I write, my intrepid class of college students are playing Photoshop Tennis (or at least my version of it), a non-stop game of trading images where they only have ten minutes to modify a given visual composition. Five turns at ten minutes each, that's all they have to make their case as digital artist supreme. Cruel, no?

But it does get to the heart of our faster-is-better culture. I mean, fast food, movies on demand, information via Google, it seems that there is little we still have to wait for. Off the top of my head, all I can think of is traffic to move and children to be born (okay, that was a little flippant). But seriously, in a world where Fed Ex becomes an industry bellweather and email is the communications norm, when is it advisable or desirable to slow down?

Or even more importantly, do our lives have room to be slowed down? Every day at work I have a pile of things to do, plus everything left from the days before. Every weekend I have a honey-do-list that grows exponentially. And my newborn son ensures that I get less sleep each day, so that I have more minutes to do more stuff. I'd take a vacation, only I'm that much behind because of it...

So I urge you to slow down every once and a while - be a rebel. Smell a flower, go for a walk, play a round a golf, watch clouds float by. Anything to break the cycle and catch up with yourself. And pity my poor students - they're racing around like manics right now!