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So I finally succumbed and rented the 2004 CGI-based remake of Appleseed.

The short version is – I like it. If you have the five bucks and a couple hours, go check it out.

The long version?

Appleseed is a story revolving around Deunan Knute, a female soldier with a fearsome reputation, and her boyfriend – cum – cyborg Briareos. She gets shanghaied/recruited to work for the ESWAT team for the self-proclaimed utopia of Olympus, the only shiny, active city left in the otherwise war-devastated earth. Over half of the city population is composed of bioroids, artificial humanoids that are basically biological, living robots. The bioroids run the city as well as much of its production, under the guidance of a council and a supercomputer called Gaia.

There are some who resent this, as all is not well in the utopia. As it turns out, there are decisions being made regarding the bioroids and humans that legitimately concern many of the humans who want to govern themselves, and this position, held largely by the military, also attracts bigots, and mean, spiteful men.

Of course, all hell breaks loose.

First, let me tell you what bugged me.

I haven’t followed the anime scene closely for a long, long time. I’ve seen Bebop courtesy of Cartoon Network, and I’d regularly collected and swapped movies post-Robotech including various Yamato movies, Crusher Joe, The Iczer series (blech), and so forth. Nevertheless, it looks now, as then, that the Japanese still have the knack for taking the worst of a marginally appropriate musical style and applying it in a gawdawful way. There are good places and bad places to apply techno and electronica music. This movie, like the chase scene in the Bourne identity, was not one of them. I say this both as a huge Oakenfold fan and a person who thinks the haunting piece that opens Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex is just too beautiful for words.

The consistency of the cel-shaded animation was absolutely fantastic. Body movements were far less stiff than the ever-so-mediocre Final Fantasy (beautiful still shots, though). The consistency of the texturing prevented any number of jarring incongruities like those you can see if you watch Titan A.E. Nevertheless, there are places where the shiny metal surfaces are just a bit too shiny. The biggest irritant is the faces. The eyes were sometimes wonderfully expressive, and sometimes…. just stiff, like a mannequin. The jaws never seemed to move when the mouth opened and closed, which was a jarring contrast to the smoothness and lack of puppet-like feel of the rest of the movements.

Don’t let these complaints throw you off. The plot is tight, the action well-paced, and frenetic. I especially liked the interactions and politics involved between the various groups and factions. The bioroids had their own imperatives which could give pause to anyone who wasn’t fully convinced that they would never try to take over, and one didn’t have to be a paranoid bigot to be worried about it with some of what was going on. The military, played mostly as the heavies nevertheless had some very legitimate concerns that were not being addressed, and thus the brewing conflict.

Having seen the 1988 1-hour OAV version, I’ve got to say this does far better credit to the complexity of the original manga, and doesn’t feel stripped of life or character.

It would be a spoiler to discuss which of the groups were really the bad guys. I will say that it’s amazing to what lengths a person will go to to enforce their will when they think they know better than you do what you need or want.

From Roger Eberts review of a movie called Kicking & Screaming:

The problem with team sports involving kids is that the coaches are parents. The parents become too competitive and demanding and put an unwholesome emphasis on winning. One simple reform would enormously improve childhood sports: The coaches should be kids, too. Parents could be around in supervisory roles, sort of like the major league commissioner, but kids should run their own teams. Sure, they’d make mistakes and the level of play would suffer and, in fact, the whole activity would look a lot more like a Game and less like a Sporting Event. Kids become so co-opted by the adult obsession with winning that they can’t just mess around and have fun.

I’ll admit, at the beginning, that everyone has seen the stereotypically overwrought parent who can’t seem to accept anything but perfection from Little Johnny/Jennie and his or her coach on the field. It does seem worse these days, especially with the high-pressure drive for perfect lives with perfect little children and soccer games and football and art classes and the perfect dinner too. I suspect that this drive for perfection in all aspects of life just makes the incidences of parents-as-sports-monster worse.

That said, I think he’s wrong.

First of all, kids do get to “be their own coaches.” Even in this day and age of parental hyper-concern over predators, and nerf-society concern over bike helmets and not letting Johnny out of sight, kids get together to run around, play games, bike, play kickball, and so forth. They set their own rules, choose their sides if any apply, and get to make a mess of things or not as they see fit.

This is an invaluable experience and provides them a chance to make mistakes and just mess around.

That said, there is a darker side. We all know the stories of the playground bullies, the kids who don’t get chosen (or otherwise ostracized), and such, that without parental involvement kids have to deal with.

Organized sports with parent coaches doesn’t just serve the purpose of parental supervision, it’s an education. Sure, we can still have weak-spined coaches who don’t shield the kids from their own parents, and jerks who are just as mean as the parents or play favorites. Even then they are more likely to be fair, or fairer, and push the kids to reach beyond themselves to new heights.

It’s an education in sportsmanship, fairness, and teamwork that you will not get from other kids without a decent adult handy.

Captain’s Quarters has a note on the History Channel’s special on the war of 1812, and recaps some of it’s highlights.

While needing review on the subject myself, I must say that I’d found Theodore Roosevelt’s (Yes, that Teddy R.), volumes on the naval battles a worthwhile read on the naval aspects of the war.

On another note, being raised in the Marines, I grew up with the lore that the barracks weren’t torched with the rest of Washington D.C. because the Marines were the only soldiers the Brits had respect for.

It’s a Dyna-Soar.

Or something like it.

Via Instapundit.

Popular Mechanics has a sneak peek at a Lockheed Martin design.

I see a ghost of the old Dyna-Soar in the overall look.

For those who weren’t aware of it (and I only have a few glimmerings myself), the Dynasoar was a reusable manned space vehicle that was developed in the 60’s, intended for military use.

I personally first heard of it when, upon telling my grandfather how cool it was to watch the very first shuttle launch, he told me half-sadly, half-bitterly, that we could have had something smaller, and working years ago. He’d worked on the ground-based power generation and distribution systems, if I recall correctly.

Via Sound Politics, I learned of this , where a high school student in Spokane was suspended after he created a Web site bypassing the school’s internet content filter.

There may be longer rants on this later, but the long and the short of it is that these filters are just another crutch to be used by uninvolved parents and officialdom, to give the appearance of being concerned and “safeguarding our children”, while leaving them unsupervised with an electronic babysitter that doesn’t truly work.

Let me rephrase that. They “work.” Getting them to work the way you as a parent want them to is difficult at the very best.

Why is that?

The first set of problems involves what is blocked. There are several basic ways that these “nanny” programs decide what web sites to block. There is a “blacklist” of blocked websites provided by the makers of the software. The person setting up the software can decide to block specific sites, or allow specific sites. Last but not least, the software can look for specific key words, and block any page that has those.

The second problem is the question of whether or not the software really can successfully prevent access to sites that it has been told to block.

Many critics of the software like to concentrate on the canned blocklists. Supposedly, the company automatically combs through all of the available webpages, and marks the ones with questionable content. They then review them to see if these sites are truly inappropriate, and, if so, put the site on the blocklist.

Given the number of sites in these blocklists, it truly is questionable as to how thoroughly these sites are actually independently reviewed, because blocked sites include or have included organizations such as Amnesty International, congressional representatives, and Banned Books Online. Some in truly paranoid fringe sometimes wonder if there is a conspiracy to block certain political views. Given the odd choices it is a valid question as to what degree the mores of the creators and perceived desires of the clients/parents bias the terms used to generate these blocklists.

Key words have their own problem. While it may not be an issue when the user is a five year old, teens at least will legitimately need access to websites on biology, etc. that may contain blocked key words. Both the “key word” method and the canned blocklists tend toward a significant false positives, sometimes over 50 percent.

A privately generated block list created by the parent or administrator is the only method that blocks exactly what the person buying the software wants (you can go everywhere but here), or conversely, allows access only to the places allowed (these are the only places you can go). The only problem is that setting up and maintaining these block lists can be very time consuming.

Maintaining these programs can be time consuming in general. If a site you want to allow access to, either for yourself, or generally, is blocked. you have to take the time to add it to an “allowed” list, or bypass it that one time.

All this aside, it still leaves open the question of whether or not this vast overkill prevents access to pornography and unwanted information in general, as well as whether or not the software can be bypassed for specific sites.

As the article I referenced above shows, the answer is a resounding “no.”

Face it. Just like books, TV, and anything else in life, the only way to make sure your kids stay safe online is to keep an eye on what they do, and teach them how to handle themselves.

I’ll leave you with a quote from Lars Kongshem:

Equally important, many educators say, is..(teaching) students…to use the filter that lies between their ears…this analogy offered in the National Research Council report is…apt: “Swimming pools can be dangerous for children….one can install locks,..fences, and…pool alarms….but by far the most important thing….is to teach them to swim.”

The BBC recently filed a report on the confusion that many users feel over geekspeak. It starts:

The average home computer user is bamboozled by technology jargon which is used to warn people about the most serious security threats online.

Many are often left vulnerable because they have no idea what they are supposed to be protecting themselves against, a survey for AOL UK has found.

Confusing “geek speak” used by experts and media included “phishing”, “rogue dialler”, “Trojan” and “spyware”.

On one hand, the article has a point. The jargon used for even the most basic desktop tasks in the computer industry can sound complex and arcane. It definitely doesn’t help when you combine the often devestatingly broad education (usually self-education) of most geeks with a sense of whimsy. Possibly the most common example of this is “spam,” so named because of a Monty Python routine where everything on the menu has spam, but it’s not something you want.

On the other hand, what is to be done? Like most technical fields, these terms are used to define, categorize, and explain without using five words where one can do. It’s the classic tradeoff of having to learn a larger vocabulary to use fewer, more-specific words. Since computer geeks have an easier time memorizing new terms, they tend towards more of them than some fields. Nevertheless, listening to biologists, electrical engineers, and other experts going on about their fields of work can cause even well-educated non-experts eyes to glaze over.

It also doesn’t help that the computer is such a versatile tool when compared to a car, or the VCR’s that so many people have difficulty setting the time on. Computer makers try to make operating a computer look as easy as walking, but in terms of abstract complexity it’s at least as complicated in the number of subsystems and interactions as your typical car. While many people know enough about basic physical processes that they are fairly comfortable with their understanding of how a car works, the level of knowledge required to simply operate a car versus fixing a car is generally pretty low.

Sadly, operating a computer effectively is a far more complicated than operating a car. You really have to be closer to car mechanic than mere driver. Given how many supposedly mature adults cannot competently operate a car, this is disquieting.

So, part of the problem is that geeks come up with a lot of names and terms that seem flatly ridiculous to non-geeks. They use more of them because they tend to be pretty smart and can memorize these meanings pretty easily.

Another part of the problem is that these devices are far more complicated to operate reliably than people are led to believe.

Finally though, part of the problem is willful ignorance on the part of users. Many people who are perfectly willing to put in time for drivers education classes are not willing to proactively study the operation of something far more complex before they try to use it.

From the New York Times

“If we are so poor,” she continued, “it must be because of Kim Jong Il’s mistakes,” she said referring to North Korea’s leader. The woman said her daughter had decided to stay in China, but that she would soon return home, after illegally earning money doing piecework for a factory here.

What’s really priceless though is a quote from the first page where a nurse says the following on being in China:

“But I have no ID card, no residence permit. I am in a free country, but I am not free.”

I’m trying really hard to process the mind-boggling worldview and background required, not so much to consider China a free country, but have it be (relatively) true.

Go read the article.

Ann Althouse, aghast, blogs that she’s blogging from a faculty meeting.

I’ll admit, there’s somthing incredibly fun about discovering that, rather than simply taking notes on your laptop, you suddenly have online access somewhere, and you can actually do something interesting while waiting for some boring blowhard to finally be done.

It also makes the time go by so much quicker while you’re waiting for, say, your tires to get patched.

What I don’t get is why some of these people don’t seem to have any idea what they have on their hands. In the case of the tire place, there was no doubt that the wireless access point was in their building, but they hadn’t done anything with it. It still had the network name it came with out of the box. Since I am a computer guy by trade, I try to let people know they have an open network on their hands when I discover one that looks like it was accidentally left wide open, but when I asked the employees if they intended to open up their workplace network for general wireless access, they gave me a blank look.

In that part of town, there are more than enough people with laptops, that saying “Hey, we can get you internet access while you wait to get your car serviced,” would be a big plus in convenience and service compared to the other service shops in the area, though it would be hard to make their reputation even better than it already is.

If they don’t intend to open up their wireless network but are instead using it for their business network, they need to lock it down, or hide it.

In the meantime, I check up on the news every time I’m there.

So this last Christmas of 2004, I packed up the girls and spousal unit, and went (not too far) south to Florida on a pilgrimage to the land of Mouse, Disney World.

Several things of note. For anyone lucky enough to be living or just passing through the DeLand area Northeast of Orlando, tucked into the corner of I-4 and I-95, there is a truly wonderful barbecue joint called Brians. ‘Nuff said.

What really inspired this little write-up though are two thoughts I had while doing the touristy things available. On the second day there, rather than go back to Disney for two days in a row, we relaxed a bit and went to look at the manatees at Blue Springs. In colder weather (which it was unseasonably cold that day, for Florida), the manatees tend to cluster around the springs because the water is still relatively warm, having come out of a deep, approximately ninety foot wide crack in the ground. Since they hang out there so often, it’s a state park, complete with board walkways, rangers, a designated swimming area, information plaques, and playground.

If you’ve ever had someone tell you that manatees look like swimming potatoes, they do. They also have a rather cute quality without being as offensive as, say, a hello-kitty character. I’d post photos but they wouldn’t do the beasties justice. I know I’d seen photos but you get a whole new appreciation when you see them move, in person.

You also know you’re a hard-core SF geek when you look at the scenery around you and think, “Hey, it’s just like that story.” The park had a walkway along the river, elevated above the ground and winding between the palms, with plaques, rails, and dire warnings to stay on the path so as not to damage plant life. I looked up this wooden path, shoving past tropical trees, seemingly hovering above the ground at times near and far, and I couldn’t help but think of Ray Bradbury’s “A Sound of Thunder.”

The other really geeky moment I had was my first exposure to a Segway in the Epcot parking lot on my third day there. Sure it has two wheels, but upon seeing one and the way it moved, and more to the point, didn’t when unoccupied, I suddenly felt a need to reread the Heinlein classic “The Roads Must Roll.” For those who don’t remember, the repair crews for the ‘roads’ get around on little gyroscopically stabilized unicycles.

Epcot was fun (I highly recommend the Mission Mars ride…), and so was the Magic Kingdom. All in all it was grand fun.

As an update, my wife and I got a huge chuckle out of the setup for the Mission Mars ride. Each crewmember is assigned certain duties, and my wife ended up in the engineer’s seat. We soon discover that her duties consisted of putting us all to bed via “hypersleep”…

And here I thought we went to Disney to get away from real life….

Update – I’m not going to edit and erase what was said, but guys, be very, VERY careful in how to you refer to your wife, even when you’re joking.

I couldn’t wait to get started on my website, so this is getting posted a bit prematurely, but I had a few things that I absolutely had to put up and explain.

If you hadn’t gathered already, I’m a huge fan of Sci-Fi. One place I regularly get my fix is from Baen books.

Why?

Well, I like their stuff. My reading covers a broad range and their stuff often satisfies my cravings for adventure, military action, pulp, etc. when I’m not looking for something more overtly ‘thoughtful’ like Neal Stephenson’s (Snow Crash, Quicksilver, Cryptonomicon) or Dan Simmons (Hyperion).

My favorites? Overall, John Ringo, whom I’ve met, and even provided an illustration in one of his books (Hells Faire). Also included are John Dalmas, Dave Weber (known for the “Honor Harrington” books), David Drake (Hammers Slammers), and others. Though heavily ‘conservative’ and libertarian, it’s not exclusive and there is an interesting mix of political viewpoints in the mix along with a vast backcatalog that has accumulated over the years.

So why do I know so much of their stuff is stuff I like, and if I’ll likely enjoy the book or not before plunking down cold hard cash?

Simple.

The publisher has a dirty little secret.

Wait for it…

They give books away.

That’s right.

Go online here and you will see their “Free Library,” with many many books from their authors available for free download, to put on your Palm-pilot, your computer, a CD-ROM, print out, whatever.

Interestingly, not only do they not make it difficult to make backup copies for yourself, or for your friends, they encourage you to do so. Check out the notes on the back of There Will Be Dragons or several other recent Baen hardcover releases which include a CD full of free, unprotected material that they beg you to hand off to your friends.

Their “webscription” e-books are also similarly unprotected, and almost any title has a significant chunk of the book online even if it isn’t in the free library in its entirety.

They do this, interestingly enough, because it makes them money.

I enjoy it because it gives me the chance to check out new authors and freely carry along electronic copies of books I’ve already bought from the convenience of my laptop, my palm pilot, or anywhere I can get on the internet. They treat me like an honest, valuable customer who will pay them a reasonable cost when I can, are willing to cultivate my business when I can’t, no strings attached, and open my eyes to new things at their expense.

And that is why I spend my cash on them, and how they make money.

Check it out at http://www.baen.com.

UPDATE: Due to their deal to get books published via Kindle, most of the library has been taken down, and is slowly being rebuilt out of new editions specifically for the library, so as to not conflict with Amazon pricing requirements.

It is still a great resource, and you can find a lot of the older free library stuff as well as images of the CD’s included for free distribution in many of the Baen hardcovers at the Fifth Imperium.