Well, I remember having watched some ceremony where the latest batman actor jabbed at Superman and proclaimed himself the “bad ass” superhero! Yes batman everybody envies a “bad ass”, not! I have yet to see the batman movie (watched 20 minutes once and had to stop for some reason), but Superman Returns was good. I enjoyed and really felt like watching the movie upon reading a critic that said it was for insecure men. With such a dumb comment I thought this film is probably going to be good.
The film actually reminded me of the Marvel comic that I used to read. Superman is portrayed as an average guy on one side and flip the coin to find a real superhero. So there is part of him that you can associate with whoever you are. That’s probably what lead to the dumb comment above, from an insecure critic that didn’t like the feeling. The world (humanity) is portrayed as having affected Superman in a good way. He’s the type of guy you’d like to have around in the real and chaotic world we live in. It seems to stray somewhat from the ongoing need for all actors to be shinny and beautiful like in Desperate Housewives where the odd ones out are not the top model type, talk about a desperate life…
I think that it is also one of the reasons why I also like Spiderman, not because I used to be a ‘That 70s Show’ fan. The fact that Spiderman’s beloved knows who he really is, brings some reality into it. A factor (reality) that is really preposterous sometimes in Superman with his mask/glasses. It’s often played out with the audience thinking that the woman of his heart, Lois “should” realise who he is, because she’s close to him. But come on, all the others around him also need their eyes checking for not figuring it out ! I wonder whether the feeble attempt at a mask is why people feel closer to him and that lead to Superman being such a success.
Have you noticed that they never seem to have anything more than a senator in Superman (ie Clark’s dad in the TV series Smallville). There is no president and you sometimes see the army but not much.
Kevin Spacey is good but I thought he was better in other movies, it felt like he wasn’t too sure which way to play it, whereas he normally goes the whole nine yards, bridging on the performance of his life. Both Lois and Clark are well played and fit nicely in the roles. Special Effects : good and a few great parts. However for a Superman movie I would have scripted in some more superman ’special power’ sequences, but maybe that’s because we’re accustomed to too much of it elsewhere…
It’s even down as a family movie at the washintonpost.com : “Wonderfully entertaining, occasionally profound, gorgeously designed new spin on Superman yarn is reverent, yet fresh, exploring loneliness of heroes, even echoing New Testament in non-sectarian ways”
After having recently posted about the joke-site “don’t press the red button” I was amused to discover an extremely serious experience/study over at www.dontclick.it. Yes Don’t Click It, spelled the geeky way, in a domain name way.
The site is not only an experience for the creators, it’s a real and novel experience for the visitors. When a trigger happy, sorry, clicker happy person comes across a site like this, it is pretty difficult to withhold the natural click instincts that have set in over the years.
As you can see here, there are little sequences that require the user to understand how to navigate the site without clicking. The sequences are very professional and well thought out. As they say in French ‘chapeau’ (I take my hat off to you !)…
This screenshot shows how you may be asked to say whether you miss clicking :
But it’s all a trick, and I got caught. They ask you whether you were frustrated, not being able to use the click. So you click to say yes, and, damn you get told off, because you previously were asked not to click ! Clever, clever, this is starting to remind me of the “don’t push the red button” joke (also in Flash) LOL ;). Must be a Flash sense of humour thing !
The site is really well designed, the idea is brilliant and the final product is superb. Now go take a look and let’s see how good you are
I have spent at least five hours recently, over the phone and on site, fixing computers that have been infected, not by viruses because I have got family and friends to install antivirus software like NOD32, but by spyware !
Annoying pop-up messages that often sound scary to novices, “You have been infected by spyware” “you must download this software”… And they are real pains to get rid of. You either have to install Spyware removal software, that have twice in my experience crashed the computer, or manually search and destroy (sorry remove) !
I just don’t understand, like with Spam, why there isn’t more done against people that advertise through this medium. A practice that can also result in seriously damage people’s lives when hackers take advantage of this to take the issue one step further…
Ads can be served to you by reputable web sites, that are unaware of the malicious intent behind the spyware installing companies, engaging in this type of business. Ads like these suddenly pop-up on your computer sometimes before you have even typed anything in the browser :
An article at the washingtonpost.com’s Security Fix discusses a recent spyware campaign and does a great initial job of researching the people behind the so called DeckOutYourDeck ad. This extract explains how the iDefense analyst Michael La Pilla followed as far as possible the security flaw that comes from the images in the Windows Metafile format :
Using software that captures and analyzes Web traffic, La Pilla found that the installation program contacted a Russian-language Web server in Turkey that tracks how many times the program was installed, presumably because most of this adware is installed by third parties who get paid for each installation. The data there indicate that the adware was installed on 1.07 million computers, La Pilla said, adding that all seven of the Internet addresses contacted by the downloader Trojan appear to be inactive at this time.
An article in the New York Times covers a study by Albert-László Barabási of the University of Notre Dame called “The Dynamics of Information Access on the Web,”. The study concludes that an article once published will generally be read by half the total readership it will get within 36 hours…
This has supposedly surprised many who thought that the online articles had a far shorter life expectancy. Obviously we all look at this in retrospect, but I think that most people don’t have the time to jump on articles the moment they are published. Doubled by the fact that life as we know it, hectic and often full of surprises doesn’t always allow for a so tightly scheduled reading of online newspapers.
UbiKann
Discussing online and offline advertising, marketing, business strategy, gadgets, new trends and other interesting stuff...
Well, I remember having watched some ceremony where the latest batman actor jabbed at Superman and proclaimed himself the “bad ass” superhero! Yes batman everybody envies a “bad ass”, not! I have yet to see the batman movie (watched 20 minutes once and had to stop for some reason), but Superman Returns was good. I enjoyed and really felt like watching the movie upon reading a critic that said it was for insecure men. With such a dumb comment I thought this film is probably going to be good. 
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