The Inherent Instability Of Euphemisms
Often it is required of a storyteller to say less in order to say more. Steven Spielberg had to censor the most gruesome parts of the holocaust in order to make a movie that was actually watchable, and his intuition was arguably right. The movie ended up being a hit, exposing millions upon millions of people to the the holocaust. But it wasn't the horror. It was a watered down version, made so people would not be too upset watching it. The reality of the situation was so much worse that Spielberg didn't even think a movie showing the actual truth was possible. Nobody would be brave or masochistic enough, he thought, to actually see it. A similar story happened to Dunkirk, another World War II movie, this time by Christopher Nolan, who deliberately avoided the worst aspects of a war film to make a film which the audience could watch without taking their eyes from the screen, and as a result, a film that is arguably scarier because of that. Nolan's masterful management of tension is so good that the movie doesn't need violence and blood to be visceral. And yet, to some extent the movie is a watered down version of what war supposed to be. And some argue it is a lesser film because of it.
The Nightmare Of Paying Online
Cryptocurrency should have been the savior of the world from over-reaching control of governments and banks. But while on paper it could have worked. The reality is way worse. There was a store next to where I live that until a few years ago advertised that they can be paid with Bitcoin. The notice is now removed, probably due to the bursting of the crypto bubble, which lead to a rapid decrease of value of many cryptocurrencies.
J.U.M.P Limited
Imagine a platformer where you can't jump as much as you'd like. You can jump, of course. What platformer doesn't let you jump? But this time you can jump only limited amount of times. Therefor - Jump Limited.
Something Evil
Conceptually the film is very much like Stanley Kubrick's "The Shinning". It deals with a parent going slowly insane and becoming a threat to the children. Both movies suggest a possibility of a supernatural explanation of the insanity. But the movies are made in such a smart way where there is enough doubt in those supernatural occurrences that you can read it as psychological deterioration only. Which is a very interesting challenge to a filmmaker. And young Spielberg pulled it off.
Deception
Sometimes developers of a program will lie to the user knowing very well that they are lying. This kind of Deception is often implemented as a malicious functionality.
May December
Natalie Portman is an interesting figure in the world of cinema. And the movie May December is a meta-analysis of Natalie's psychological journey through Hollywood. It is not a surprise that her first movie Leon: The Professional caused some levels of controversy. It was mainly an action film, so there was not that much controversy. But the dramatic elements of the film were questioned a lot by American audiences. Even Natalie Portman herself, being half-American described Leon as "cringe". And it seems like the growing obsession with all kind of sexual misconducts in Hollywood together with growing feelings of cringe from Leon made her into needing a movie like May December to evaluate everything and understand the phenomenon better.
AI Evolve vs Preserve
It was a dinner after the premier of Sheiny's movie "Sinking In The Fire". Everybody was present since they celebrated a rather unusual success of the movie. And also they celebrated the reunion of Sheiny's mom and dad. She was still a bit shocked by the identity of her dad. But it was already a few days in. So she started getting used to it.
Are You Sure That You Remember
Unfinished book about future where freedom is established much better than today. If we look few hundred years into the past, people had less freedom than people have now. So optimistically in future people will even more freedom. Thought, it doesn't mean that the characters will live a care-free problem-free life. Quite the contrary. With freedom comes responsibility. With freedom comes a huge amount of strange situations. And of course, there is the obvious question. How the hell people sell things in the future?
Fraud
Sometimes a program might have a deceiving function that is indented for Fraud.
Insecurity
Sometimes software is just simply Insecure. Which is a lot worse in proprietary software where users can't check the software for Insecurities.
Copyright Made People Do Useless Work
Oh the copyright! The system that many believe is there to "protect" artists from exploitation. But the system that is quite clearly one big exploitation in and of it self. I hope that my readers here have a job. Since I want to draw a very interesting parallel. Would you work if there was no contract? Would you do anything if the person that supposed pay you, would not pay you if he didn't want to? Or you would first sign a contract and then do the job? In the world of copyright, there is no contract to sign. There is no boss that will pay you. You have to risk everything to do something that might or might not interest other people in the first place. And no copyright will save you if you did something so utterly uninteresting that nobody will even pay you for it. Let's explore this!
Spy Kids Armageddon
I did not expect Spy Kids Armageddon to be any good. It is written and directed by Robert Rodriguez. A guy who doesn't care about quality that much. His view on film-making was shaped by his first filming experience in 1992 when he made El Mariachi. A movie so cheap that it was weird to a lot of people that it was an action film. Rodriguez has this idea that he can cheat his way into making anything at all. Using as he says "creativity instead of money". So most of his movies tend to look like the Star Wars prequels. A lot of pretty noticeable green screen. Tons of CGI where most other people would use practical props. And strange camera work which is probably more dictated by the limitations of his methods, and not by actual directorial decisions.
The Peach Scene
It was one of those days when Mr. Humbert invited Sheiny and Chloe to watch a random movie in his dirty cinema. They avoided films shot in 16:9 aspect ratio since, well, Mr. Humbert's screen was an ultra-wide, curved CinemaScope. 16:9 films looked rather strange on this screen. But it seems like, this time, they were bored of the ultra-wide movies.
Entropy Is Freedom And It Increases
Once upon the time there was a group of molecules that was oppressed. And there was another group of molecules next to this one that was also oppressed. Both of them had long established traditions of staying in the group and behaving a certain way. But the oppressed molecules decided to riot. Those on the edge with the other group started mixing together and creating interesting patterns never before seen. Molecules on the far end were confused about all of the movement. Suddenly one or two molecules from the other group traveled to those far regions and were not very welcome by the molecules there. But the mixing continued and patterns became more and more complex, until one time the entire thing was mixed as well as it could be and all molecules were equally spread around.
Paying With Freedom
"Your honor..." - said the lawyer, standing in a court, which was being broadcast on a screen in the living-room of Mr. Hambleton's house - "...there is no denying that my client is guilty in the murders of all of those people that were mentioned in the case so far. The evidence provided by the police are undeniable. The jury would also agree that the fact that my client did commit all those murders are beyond reasonable doubt. And my client doesn't try to conceal this fact either. Right?" - the lawyer looked at the cage standing in the corner of the court room. There was sitting a man. He had chains all over him. Two policemen were guarding the cage itself. The man looked up, exchanged a stare of understanding with the lawyer and said - "I did commit those murders, sir."
I'm Not Even Human
A story about a child in a time when children are Not Even Human anymore.
Bootstrapping Publicity
Whether you are reading this article from my personal website or anywhere else it doesn't matter much, since I was able to post it in such a way that allowed you to find it and read it. But what if I couldn't do that? Imagine a very simple situation: An editor of a magazine writes an article that the owner of that magazine doesn't like. So he doesn't publish it. Of course that's not the end of the world. The article could be published elsewhere. But what if nobody wants this to be published?
X Agents
X Agents was a project I had when I was about 10, maybe 11 years old. Which died because of my realization that there is such a thing as copyright. You could call it a fan fiction extension upon the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Surveillance
A lot of software today have some kind of Surveillance and Tracking. Sometimes it's called Targeted Advertising or Telemetry, but regardless of the name or reason of the Surveillance, all of it is malicious.
Share