Many of you can probably recount a couple of high-profile lawsuits in the past that are just plain stupid or unfounded. But when was the last time you’ve heard of geeks suing geeks over geeky things and then blaming geekdom for all your geeky woes?
Well, one minor example was Be Inc. suing Microsoft for ‘anti-competitive’ practices. Followed closely with Sun suing Microsoft over interoperability issues with Java; Sun’s own proprietary technology did not work with Microsoft’s proprietary technology, go ahead and cry – get it out of your system (a double-standard).
The latest and most extreme example in this lawsuit frenzied world began three months ago: Caldera versus the World. Actually, it started out as Caldera suing IBM for $1 billion regarding source-code that Caldera is alleging IBM to have misappropriated/abused/copied/lifted/used/kissed/licked/dance dance revolutioned upon/etc.
Then IBM issued a counter-statement essentially saying: “You guys are grabbing at straws, stop whining and evolve. We’ve got a business to run, you should try it sometime: piss off.” I actually thought that would do the trick, I mean when someone says “go get a blow job” do you sit there and argue or do you find the nearest motel by a college campus?
Nope, Caldera lawyers must be former Jesuits, as not only did they not take that advice, but our now trying to screw members of their own congregation. Or as Jason Ditz aptly states:
In what has to be an historic legal precedent, SCO/Caldera has announced that they will now be suing people simply for buying their products.
Yup, now all we need is a large powerful organization to sue consumers of music for consuming music in a new manner (err, never mind).
You better hope that you’ve never come in contact with any kind of computing device that might have used a version of Linux within the past few years; you too could be an accomplice in this conspiratorial crime. Anyone up for some Amiga action?
If you’ve seen these individuals, please report the time of day, location, what they were wearing, what they were carrying, who they were traveling with and all other details to your nearest People Understanding Responsible Governance and Enlightenment office.
Additionally, if you suspect that someone is not reporting their income as taxable income or that they have too much money or that they look a little too wealthy, report them here.
Oh, and for an additional bonus, if you know of anyone that looks supicious at all, looks different, talks different, eats different or thinks different, please don’t hesistate at all, report them here.
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Yup, I came, I saw and I Matrifried (the process of Matrixing). Where to start. Well, I refused to watch any previews or read any reviews, I wanted to go in there with a blank slate (tabular rasa if you will) like I did the original one 4 years ago. It paid off too, because now I have to go watch it again to understand what the hell I just watched.
Want a grade?
Music — was good, I didn’t pay much attention to it, which means it wasn’t misplaced (if you notice the music it’s either too loud, does not flow with the scene or you’re a dork who decided to buy the soundtrack).
Plot — what can I say, highly original (for a geek). Lots of twists and turns throughout the movie and many surprises (I like surprises). The end is great too.
Script — Keanu actually got some good lines (or he learned some new skills). Some of the lines were predictable, but that’s fine, better predictable lines than shoddy ones that would have detracted from the overall experience.
Special effects – there were times when I thought they used a computer… and they probably did! Actually, it was so seamless that it did not detract from the experience at all. Plenty of bullets, bombs, explosions, kung-fu, asian people (they don’t exist in real life) and fake body doubles.
Action — well I can spend the next week or two just talking about the fighting, chasing, shooting, kicking, throwing, punching, flipping, wrestling, belly dancing, synchronized swimming, horse riding, domino’s playing scenes that occur throughout the movie (alright, a few of those aren’t in there, they could be in the directors edition though… I’m sure of that). In fact, there were three or four just really bad ass scenes that are sure to be played over and over and over again (sort of like in the first one, where Neo and Trinity walk into the lobby and proceed to take on an army, that kind of scene).
Cons, there was about 20 minutes of the movie I thought was just plain slow and could have either been jazzersized, deleted or remade with a bunch of lense flares (those are really cool). The only spoiler I’ll mention: why would any director want to film those two actors getting it on? Oh, and there was one speech by a certain character I thought could have been deleted entirely or shortened.
In the end, it receives the highly sought after, Tim Swanson Stamp of Damntasticness Approval. I look forward to seeing the 3rd installation this fall (hopefully I’ll get better seats too). If you liked the first one you’ll like most of the second one. Two thumbs and one pinky toe up.
