I can't remember the last time I went a week without a blog post, but here I am.
I finally got around to seeing Tron: Legacy last weekend. I saw the original Tron movie in the theatres when I was a kid. I liked it back then, having one of the electronic games and also a Tron activity book. But I didn't come to really appreciate Tron until years later, after I grew up and had already made a career in the software industry. The corporate take-overs and the battle between knowledgeable programmers and technology-incompetent managers still happen in some companies. My favorite part of the movie was actually when Gibbs (the old programmer) and Dilliger (the business executive) are arguing in his office about security and finances vs. freedom to create.
Dillinger: I shut down Group-7 for a very good reason.
Gibbs: Ed, all I'm saying is if our own people can't get access to their programs, well you know how frustrating it is when you're working on a piece of research.
Dillinger: Walter, I sympathize, but I have data coming from the Master Control Program telling me there's something SCREWY going on.
Gibbs: That M.C.P., that's half our problem right there!
Dillinger: The M.C.P. is the most efficient way of handling what we do! I can't sit here and worry about every little user request that comes in.
Gibbs: User requests are what computers are for.
Dillinger: Doing our BUSINESS is what computers are for! ENCOM isn't the business you started in your garage anymore. We're building accounts in 30 different countries, new defense systems. We have one of the most sophisticated pieces of equipment in existence.
Gibbs: Oh, I know all that. [sigh] Sometimes I wish I were back in that garage.
Dillinger: That can be arranged, Walter.
Gibbs: That was uncalled for! You know, you can remove men like Alan and me from the system, but we helped create it. And our spirit remains in every program we designed for this computer.
So back to Tron: Legacy. One of the many scenes that really caught my eye was Flynn's home, in the Grid (the world inside the computer):
The picture here doesn't really do it justice, but damn, I loved the aesthetics. It then dawned on me that this room along with the rest of the worlds in Tron and Tron: Legacy were pretty much devoid of clutter. I was thinking "Damn, I'd love to have a room like that!" Then I realized that if I did, I don't know how well I could maintain it. I'd eventually bring stuff in there and leave it down somewhere on a table. Then that would just act as a magnet as more and more stuff came in.
Anyway, I enjoyed the sequel. But it sure got me thinking again about getting a sparse place and maintaining it.
Oh, and I stole the second image from the site of a dumbass teenager who "didn't know that Tron: Legacy is actually a sequel", yet still decided to rate it "6/10". Fuck her and her stupid emoticons too. (What is with these people who type "XD" everywhere? That's implying laughter so hard that you have your eyes closed. It's the emoticon equivalent to "ROTFL". Then again, it's pathetic enough that people type "lol" when they're not even laughing. All of these people need to be shot.)