Batman (and the Batman shooting): A lesson for all

Near the end of the movie, police officer John Blake says "systems become shackles". The movie could not better illustrate this point. When evil decides to destroy Gotham City, the movie showed the now default responses of governments - do not negotiate with terrorists, and stand down (holding perimeter) in a hostage situation to avoid risking lives. Police engaged in massive but strategically useless and dangerous actions that presented the opportunity to eliminate the entire city police department. These are to be a disastrous course of actions and that's why Batman must save the day.


Back to the Batman shooting, there is a most ironic link. Both scenarios have entire lots of helpless and unarmed people, unable to decide their fates in the face of overwhelming firepower. But unlike the movie, there was no Batman to save the citizens from the dangerous criminal - only the police to clean up afterwards. Neither scenarios would have been possible had there been upstanding citizens with arms.

But what do I know - it does make it fun for some people.

Privacy: problem or opportunity?

With so much face data available on Facebook and already the ability to detect faces almost close to real time, this is a major problem to the future freedom of humanity. What's next?

What I see, it's a challenge in the evolution of humanity. We are being asked "What the role of government ought to be?", but more specifically, "What absolute rights does a human being have?". The more practical problem presented can be bluntly stated as "Now that government can identify everybody, what is the counter-balancing force?".

It's impossible to stop a trend dead in its tracks, but it is possible to get control of it and steer it another way. Perhaps the trend of increased connectivity and connectiveness coupled with greater diversification and hence the search for direction has boosted the drive for more freedom.

The trend remains to be seen.

Prometheus

"If there is anything to get from the film, it is that there are those who, even having evolved so far as to have an intelligent mind, would still revert to inter-species conflict. But there is also the alternative to this age-old state of affairs, through a true search for life and the meaning of it."

In the opening of Prometheus, we are first shown the "Garden of Eden" - the age of no humans. The music is raw and the scene is magnificent and full of raw power (the waterfall), real and deep in 3D. An "engineer" alien sacrifices himself, sowing the DNA that codes for human beings at a magnificent yet raw waterfall, signifying a point of no return. The metaphor is one of fertilizing Earth.

Man's discovery of the aligning dots has defined the position of the stars the engineers came from, triggering the search of the meaning of humanity - why the human race was created. Those who believed that humans were created by alien forerunners fund further research.

The starship Prometheus sets off into deep space in search of this planet. They eventually find one with special alien buildings on it.  The alien structures look like mounds, with cave systems inside.These eventually turn out to be alien spacecraft.

Man's survival in space is dependent on many Faustian bargains. The robot technology that created David has extended the arms of evil powers, but has also made long term space travel possible. David may have killed Holloway, but Shaw must now depend on David to get off the planet.
Biotechnology has also been a Faustian bargain. It has allowed the Aliens to create humanity, but also destroyed them when the slime creatures destroyed them all.

Vickers is most likely a robot because no human could match David in strength, rank in the leadership hierarchy (answering to Weyland) or style (Vickers and David have similar style, appearance in uniform and mannerisms). She is also desperate to prove her humanity by offering sex to the captain. The human females onboard are very different in personality.
David and Vickers do sound like adam and eve, except their creator is Weyland, a human. So, everybody is made by someone else. This is a plausible way of thinking.

Who are the enemies in the film?
Was it the "Engineer aliens" or the "chestbusters"? Or was it the Weyland Corporation people?
Both. Weyland believed he got the tech and that the tech made him a god, but at the expense of other people. The aliens also believed themselves as being superior beings - they didn't care for what they created. And the chestbusters? They were the parasites that embodied conquest by sucking the life out of its hosts and destruction.
Everybody who wants to be god was a deadly threat to the protagonist Shaw. If there is anything to get from the film, it is that there are those who, even having evolved so far as to have an intelligent mind, would still revert to inter-species conflict. But there is also the alternative to this age-old state of affairs, through a true search for life and the meaning of it.

Looking back at the title, Prometheus is in a sense, an ironic title. Prometheus is supposed to bring fire to mankind, but instead, it nearly brought about the total destruction of mankind by the engineers. And instead of the sharing of technological knowledge, the hierarchical elite aboard Prometheus are always trying to find some secret for themselves at the cost of others - a dark agenda always loomed above, unknown to most of the crew. They do not bring light and fire, but darkness.

Yet, perhaps it is the ending that inspires to the story of Prometheus. Humanity (Shaw) and technology (David) ride out into the stars in search of the true meaning of life, leaving the carnage behind. It is they who truly embody the spirit of Prometheus and enlightenment, not the elite who believe they are gods and masters.
I believe this is the spirit we hope to gain from the movie - to kindle an undying fire in the heart and a light in the mind to live despite all evil, darkness and destruction. It is not enough to desire knowledge, but also the motive why, for it can always be used against oneself.

While it may be great to end the analysis here, I believe there is another explanation. The Engineers, being a strong and powerful species, most likely embraced strength. It is  possible that this adventure was only the trial to see whether humanity was worthy of more knowledge of its past, and its destiny. And why do the Engineers want to destroy their creation anyway?

HTML5 and locking users in.

I'm wondering if we can really just do away with the Android Java SDK and iOS development in favor of web technologies like HTML5.

HTML5 is more open. And when I develop with HTML5, I don't need to translate from one app language to the other. And there is no real advantage in using the app system apart from being forced to use it. 

When will people realize that being locked into a system is not really in their interests?
When you realize that people are willing to get locked in because there is something they get out of it as a result.
Is it not difficult to see the reasons that makes platform independence a great option in the long run. You see, locking people in isn't the best way to really create value for customers, though it may be the safest way to guarantee business when you know customers don't have that many choices. But when customers do have good choices, it is supporting good standards that makes the most sense.

Having spotted that HTML5 is great stuff, perhaps Chrome has locked on to the right market there. And perhaps while an open-source free browser like firefox does not need to be the most popular, just the leading one in supporting the open standards and occasionally setting the standard for everyone else to follow.

The URL bar

I just realized how little I now type websites into the URL address bar. It is as if it were too much of an effort, or too tedious or simply just too random to care about. Or maybe it is simply unnecessary. For the sake of convenience, we now love our rounded square buttons.

A Sleep Post

Historically, people slept 8-10 hours due to the day-night cycles and not having lights. That is what we are built for.
Today, people hardly sleep 8 hours in general, and then try to catch up on weekends. Then, try to cheat yourself into believing it's ok.

Either people figure out a way to not need to sleep, or sleep more per night. The simplest solution is just to sleep when one feels tired, end of story. Follow your instincts first, because science does not always give you the answers you need, when you need it.

Firefox vs Chrome Self-chat

As this round of the browser wars is steadying in influence, the next phase has begun. I believe that next phase is to turn the browser into a fast and efficient OS capable of connection to any computer, laptop, phone or device with a web browser. In this trend, Google wants everybody to have a web profile - everything you surf, input or use will be part of it, and it will always be there. With its connections, it can reach out to Facebook and other internet corporations, combining it into one big operating system of the web.
Chrome is more than just a browser. Just look at all those apps on the Chrome Web store. I don't know where Google really wants to place it in the market, but the stuff on it are pretty cool and useful, so users are probably supposed to "locked in" to the browser.  This is the way to incept the idea of the private browser.

Firefox represents the other side of the story. It is the open-source alternative to all the others. It stands for open standards. People know this, and Firefox has a friendly community image. But this may not a good enough reason for most of the population. A great percentage of firefox users are also not updated to the recent versions. New features and speedups are not reaching some people. This is a vulnerability for Firefox and leaves an effective update system to be desired.
The other thing Firefox has is extensions. It makes browsing awesome, new, fresh and interesting. It puts you in control on how you want to view the internet.
To me, it puts the individuality into webpages that look the same to millions of viewers. and helps me get what I want out of it.

The extensions in firefox also don't look as corporate or that simplistic sleek modern marketing or design. Maybe they will be redesigned, but that is something that really sets the Firefox feel truly different and closer to the heart. While Chrome is fast, techy and has a cool feel to it, Firefox can't help but feel warm, bodily warm.

And IE? IE is tied to Microsoft Windows OS. People don't get IE if they're on some other platform, because it has no particular ability the others cannot do. As people say on Facebook, it is the browser to download another browser. Most people don't voluntarily use IE.

To conclude, I am going to continue to use Firefox & Chrome at the same time, simply because both have useful features. I don't think either will destroy the other, but I think people just want the browser that works or is at hand. They don't really have a big preference. Chrome has gained the advantage because it was and is the simpler and sleeker browser that felt new. Firefox seems to have been considered an old browser, so it needs to update its brand image and updating system. Web browsers should not merely be the passive eyes of the web, but rather allow the user to take control of their experience of the web. Users may not know it yet, but they need a personal browser that doesn't just look customized and efficient, but what the user wants in the web that the webpage cannot already do.

Why am I getting sunburns more easily?

I didn't actually get a sunburn, but I am questioning a prevalent trend of my body.

I used to get sunburns a lot less easily - doing outdoor activities in the HK/California sun without sunscreen was never a problem. I did get a little darker, but it was nothing. There was not the slightest redness that occurred afterwards.To keep a fair comparison, I did not use significant amounts of sunscreen anytime.

I have come up with several explanations -

• Overall Skin aging. Everybody's skin ages. Big UV exposure in the past increases aging in the future.
• Lack of extra secretions - from 10 years old onwards,  I experienced an increasing amount of body oil secretions, and sweat. This protects the skin in general and is the body's natural protection against the sun. After 19years old, I have reduced amounts of skin oil, so that is less protection.
• Repeated sun exposure - I did not have any winter this year. Winter is a great way to let everything go to normal. Going to Singapore, a tropical area where there is sun almost everyday means lots of repeated exposures. Coming back to the HK summer, there wasn't time to recover fully. I also hike on a daily/semi-daily basis, so that gives me about 1 hour of UV exposure daily, which is quite a lot on most days. I wear a hat and use spray on sunscreen, but wiping sweat may wipe it off too. Diving in the summer also makes sun protection difficult, because any sunscreen going to get rubbed off and dissolved away in the sea.
• Dryer skin - I find that I do have somewhat dry skin. Dry skin is more susceptible to damage. 
• UV hole in the sky? - Maybe there is more UV coming through?
• Genetic reasons - Some people get sunburnt more easily than others.
• Diet? Does the changes in food production (GMO, artificial hormones, antibiotics, artificial food additives) lead to more skin problems/photosensitivity of skin?
• Sleeping late? Sleeping later than 0000 reduces the time there is to repair skin and related organs. Also more light exposure from light sources. This leads to less strong skin.

To conclude, I find the Repeated Sun Exposure, diet, sleeping late, decrease in skin secretions, dryer skin and overall skin aging to be the reasons why I am getting sunburns more easily, in order of importance.

The easiest fixes would be to sleep a little earlier, eat better, use a moisturizer and apply sunburn measures more frequently while doing outside sports.