Friday, August 16, 2013

映画レビュー: ボーンズ

ボーンズに関するレビューを書きたいと思います。

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/BONES_%28%E3%83%86%E3%83%AC%E3%83%93%E3%83%89%E3%83%A9%E3%83%9E%29

この番組は面白くて、とても気に入っています。ドラマでありながら冗談やジョークが多く、笑えるシーンが満載。FBIの事件で犯人を追求する典型的な刑事ドラマと同時に死体の解剖や科学の専門用語が飛び交うかなり頭脳的な脚本になっています。
特に死体の様子は凄くリアルになっていて、まさか本物でないかと疑われるぐらいよく出来ている。

現在シーズン6第19話、財宝船殺人事件というエピソードを見ています。このエピソードにはブレナン博士やブース捜査官は殆ど出てこない。新番組の主人公を紹介する特別エピソードになっている。

この番組が気に入る理由の一つはその殆どの登場人物があまり変わらないことだ。FBI事件の解決に向けてチームが奮闘するというとてもシンプルなパターンになっている。
そしてキャラクターの間の相互関係も殆ど変わらないこと。何故かその理由で安定感や安心感を与えてくれます。
それに比べて、ヒーローズなどの海外ドラマ、キャラクターが受ける変化があまりにも激しくて、不安で興味が無くなってしまう。

ブレナン博士のような人は実際に存在し得るのか?とても理論的で感情や人間関係、常識に疎い人。心理学も非常に嫌い、人の感情も読めない、人間関係も下手。科学者ならもしかしたらこれらの特徴が少し当てはまるかも知れない。
ブレナン博士というキャラクターは番組を面白くするために科学者の特徴をわざと異常に大きくにされたかも知れない。

第20話にはとても面白い話題がある。人間は完全に嘘を付かず正直に生活できるのか?人間は無意識でも嘘をついてしまう。

そしてFBI事件といっても、殆どの事件は普通の殺人に見えますが、FBIが担当する物でなく、地元の警察の担当する事件に見える。

ブレナン博士は法人類学者と言われているが、果たしてそんな学問はそれほどに人間の骨について詳しいのか?人類学は本来古代または現代文化を研究するものであって、人間の骨や医学の一分野ではないはず。なのにブレナン博士は骨に凄く詳しく、医者に近い。

何処まで現実に近いのか良く分からないが、この番組はとても面白くて、総てのシーズンを見たいと思う。今アメリカではシーズン9を放送中だそうです。

Friday, August 9, 2013

Akira review (with spoilers)

Let's talk about Akira. (Spoilers alert!)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094625/

I have just watched Akira yesterday (August 9th, 2013) on YouTube. Now I am trying to write a review. Trying because for some reason it seems to be hard to talk when you don't have much to talk about.

Is Akira a good movie? Yes, it is a good animation with impressive visuals, good action scenes. But there are some things I didn't like.

Most of the mysteries of the film are left unexplained. Who exactly is Akira? Who are their companions? Is there any reason they don't become adults? Why do they get older in the bodies of children? What exactly happened during World War 3? Why did Tetsuo start to develop powers? Why is Tetsuo obsessed in finding Akira?  The film ends in a spectacular orgy of destruction but doesn't offer good explanations. The scientist seems to mumble something about the origin of the Universe, but that seems to be complete non-sense.

Another thing is that the film doesn't have likable heroes. Supposedly Kaneda is the main character, but he doesn't seem to do anything important in the film.  The real heroes are the aging children, who seem to be manipulating all the events behind the scenes. They are the only ones who seem to know what is happening. The colonel simply does what a military would do, in spite of being completely inefficient. Why is the colonel colonel? Shouldn't he be general?

In spite of not having a good story with good likable characters, it is still a good movie, well directed, compelling, engaging, never boring, with spectacular visuals, good music, good action scenes.

It seems that Hollywood is planning on a live-action remake of Akira. And it also seems that the film will be "white-washed", i.e.  to have all characters replaced with white Caucasian actors instead of the original Asian ones. Personally I have nothing against that because it is done on most countries, I think.
In Japan there was a remake of "12 Angry Men" where all the characters were replaced with Japanese actors.  Movie companies will hire local actors, it is that simple.

One detail that should have been better explored in the movie is the relationship between Kaneda and Tetsuo and the fact that they are friends at the beginning of the movie. But then due to the secret military experimentation, Tetsuo becomes more and more evil. This is something that you don't see much in movies, the hero and the villain to be close friends at the beginning and then to grow apart and fight each other at the end of the movie and have the hero throughout the movie still trying to save the villain, still trying to reconnect with his former friend.

That is a concept that you just don't see in movies: that the villain is a person that needs to be saved, not to be killed or punished.

If that concept were better explored in the film, Akira would have been a much more emotional picture.

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Google+ privacy debacle

July 11th, 2013

Goggle has just changed the behaviour of its +1.
Now, apparently every time you +1 a post, that post is automatically reshared to all your friends.
That is pretty much the same behaviour of Facebook's "likes".
That is exactly one of the reasons I  don't like Facebook. Facebook is pretty much a privacy disaster.

Why is Google trying to look more like Facebook, copying even its flaws?
On Facebook every time you click "like" or comment on a post, that post is automatically reshared to all your friends.
My "likes" and comments are usually intended only to the author of the post, and nobody else. Usually I don't want that post to be reshared to all my friends. If I wanted that, I would click "share". That is what the button "share" is for.

But on Google+ there are ways to circumvent this problem.
First you go here
https://plus.google.com/u/0/apps/google
then click "edit" then choose "only you".
That way your +1s will not be reshared to your friends.

But what about the +1 of your friends?
Every time a friend of yours +1 a post, that post will appear on your home stream.
For me that is tantamount to spam. What can you do to prevent the mountain of posts your friends +1?
First, the +1ed posts only appear on the home stream. Home stream is the one with an "All" tab. The other streams (or circles) usually are "Friends", "Acquaintances", "Family" and "Following". So don't use the home stream. View each circle separately.
For each circle you can also set to not "show posts in Home stream".

Ok, let's talk about Facebook. I find this automatic resharing extremely annoying. I have noticed that some people, especially celebrities, never "like" or comment on other people's posts, supposedly to avoid them being reshared in their name. They will only comment on their own posts.  That is probaly the reason so many people on Facebook are considered narcissists.
So we have 2 kinds of people on Facebook: the resharers and the posters. The resharers are the idiots who "like" and comment on other people's posts, making them more and more popular, and the posters who publish posts that get more and more popular by being "liked" and commented by the idiots.

I have been an idiot myself for a long time. On Facebook I tried to "like" and comment on  other people's posts as much as possible. I was trying to be nice. I thought people would appreciate if I "liked" and commented on their posts.
You "like" and comment because you want to be nice, you want to attract attention to yourself, and you hope people will return the favor and "like" and comment on your posts.

But there is a huge problem: the more you "like" and comment on people's posts, the more you alienate your other friends. All the posts you "liked" and commented will appear on your other friends's streams.  But most of them will probably not be interested in those posts. For them those posts are pretty much spam. Sooner or later they will defriend you or at least limit the number of posts they see from you. They will interact with you less and less.
How many relationships has Facebook ruined?

What is the solution? Leave Facebook? Never "like" or comment on other people's posts? Send only private messages?
Sending private messages seems to be the only viable alternative.
I already do that on YouTube. I try as much as possible to send private messages on YouTube instead of "thumbing up" or commenting on someone else's video.

The problem of private messages is that it is a one-to-one conversation. Nobody else can see it or participate.
I like talking, I like discussion, I don't mind participating in public discussions.
But I don't want to spam my friends' streams and force them to see my discussions.

Why did Facebook decide to automatically reshare every post that is "liked" or commented? Probably because they want the posts to become viral. Especially the posts  from companies and celebrities who pay money to Facebook to promote them.
Most people will not reshare a post unless it is really interesting and worthy to show to friends. But most people will "like" or comment on a post, just to show appreciation to the  poster. So Facebook decides to automatically reshare every single post that is "liked" or commented in the hopes of it getting a larger audience.

But this strategy will backfire. Because all the people receiving those posts will, most appropriately, consider them spam, and start to block them, decreasing the number of posts they see from a certain user, even unfriending them. Some will even leave or abandon Facebook.
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Comments and replies about the new +1 on Google+

Comment: Anyway, this feature is not "spammy" at all, since we don't share each and every +1 you give.
Reply: What is exactly the percentage that will be reshared? 99%? Is that not "spammy"? Let's start with 10%, then 6 months later go to 50%, then after a year just to go 100%. That is not spammy!

Comment: we're not really talking about anything that's going to inundate or badly clutter our streams.
Reply: That is exactly what is going to happen because most people don't know exactly what +1 button is, and they will just keep clicking on it as they have been doing so far. Most people will not know how to disable it. Most people have a tendency to keep the setting on default values, without changing it.

Comment: People are going to demote people to circle wastelands when they're too fast and loose with their plussing.
Reply: That is exactly what is happening on Facebook. The more you +1, the more you alienate your friends. Your friends will be forced to block your posts, even unfriend you.

Comment: we are losing the plus as a quick easy of giving a social signal that we care
Reply: Exactly! Now the +1 button is useless.
---------------
This is what happens when you let a machine decide for you.
http://singularityhub.com/2013/03/20/keep-calm-and-rape-a-lot-t-shirts-show-automation-growing-pains/
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Why automatic resharing is spam.

Let's suppose your wife or girlfriend loves Justin Bieber but you hate him.
She wants to +1 every single picture of Justin Bieber she can find.
She knows that you hate him, so she is not posting on her page. She is not sharing the pictures with you either. She is just clicking +1  on Justin Bieber pictures posted by other people. The pictures are public and available for anyone to see.

But then Google decides that you too like Justin Bieber and starts sending those pictures to you! What do you do? Every time you log in to your account, you see your page filled with posts that you hate! What are you going to do? Are you going to complain to your sweetheart? She is not sending those pictures to you! Google is! Are you going to complain to Google? Are you going to demote your own wife or girlfriend to the circle wastelands?
What if she sends a very important and urgent messsage? What is your excuse for not seeing that message? Are you going to admit to her that you demoted her to a circle you never check? She is a very important person in your life, you have to make sure you read every single post of her, some of those posts may be directly to you, some of those posts may important, you cannot just ignore or read later. What are you going to do?  Are you going to destroy the computer because it is filled with posts that you hate? Are you going to unfriend your own wife or girlfriend?

The +1 button should be about the things that you like.
The "share" button should be about the things your friends may like.

Let's suppose you love Mariah Carey, but your wife or girlfriend hates her.
You should be free to +1 any picture of Mariah Carey that you find, withouth having your wife or girlfriend knowing about it. You should have your privacy.
You should be free to share any picture of Justin Bieber with your wife or girlfriend.
You share that picture because you know she will love it.

Buying a gift for yourself and buying a gift for your wife are two completely different things.
You should never confuse one with the other.
Otherwise you may find yourself without a wife.