Dan Wood: The Eponymous Weblog

Well, the movie Fahrenheit 9/11, which I was looking forward to, has opened to record-breaking box office numbers. Reviews of people that have actually seen the movie are very positive. Reviews from people that refuse to see the movie are, predictably, less positive.

I was not disappointed ... which is nice; frequently a movie with a lot of anticipation is never as good as people build it up in advance. But it just layered more and more unbelievable but true terrible facts about what is going on in our country, like a time capsule of the last four years that is just so powerful when compressed into two hours.

It was very much a different movie than I was expecting. Sure, there were the over-the-top silly moments like the Bonanza send-off, the multiply-repeated buzzwords, ambushing unsuspecting members of Congress, and so forth. People who aren't used to Michael Moore's style might find it annoying; I find it kind of refreshing, especially because it adds a bit of levity to otherwise heavy subjects of corruption and war. But the second half of the movie, as it moved away from the stolen election and 9/11 discussion and into the very personal accounts of the war, its soldiers, and their families, I was completely stunned. Instead of looking at the big picture, the rich leaders, and big attacks of war, Moore introduces us to Flint, Michigan resident Lila Lipscomb, the mother of a soldier in Iraq. We get to know her story, and meet her family, and find out about her son. And we see the war through her eyes. And it's completely devastating. I don't think there was a dry eye in the theater.

As I watched the movie, though, I kept thinking about how would some conservative people that I know react to the film. If they could be convinced to go.

One of these guys I know was in the military during the Clinton years, and he told me he's a Bush man because he feels that Bush supports the military more than the Democrats would. He might resist going to see the film, but if he saw it, he'd probably be moved at some level. It's an amazing tribute to our soldiers; After seeing this film, I have never before had more empathy for the men and women who are stuck over in Iraq right now. His pro-Bush stance would probably be challenged by the film, especially after learning of the horrible way that soldiers and veterans are treated by our administration.

Another conservative guy I know is a party-line Republican, who believes and echoes back everything that he's told to believe. ("Of course there are Weapons of Mass Destruction, we just haven't found them yet"; "The economy is Clinton's fault, and it's getting better now", etc.) He owns a local business that, well, essentially exploits the poor. So even with all the revelations of the movie, showing how the rich are helping the rich get richer, and yet it's mostly the poor in the country that are the first ones to defend our freedoms, I don't think he would be moved at all. He'd be cheering on Cheney and Halliburton in the movie.

I honestly believe ... or at least hope ... that most conservatives are that way because they believe in the perfectly reasonable conservative ideals (small government, fiscal responsibility, etc.) that the Republicans claim to follow, and are simply being misled. From the reports that I'm hearing about reaction to the film in all parts of the country, including highly conservative areas, there may be hope. This film may be the "uniter" -- not the "divider" -- that we all need.

Buy tickets online

Some of you may have noticed that things have been pretty quiet in Watson-land, and that no major new version of Watson has been released for quite a long time. Now, I'm able to tell you why, and what's coming.

The short version of the story is that a large company has licensed the Watson Technology from Karelia, and I have been working with them for several months now, working on what is essentially a new version of Watson.

(Please read the full description of the transition on Watson's Product FAQ page.)

This week at the Java One conference, this company is giving a sneak peek of this new program, so I can finally talk about the work I've been doing, and discuss the future directions for Watson. (If you're attending Java One or WWDC, you can stop by at the Java pavilion, where I'll be helping with the demos on Tuesday PM and Wednesday.)

The Mac-only version of Watson is going to be slowly phased out, and we can hope that soon this company will have something comparable to replace it with. Watson WILL be fully supported and updated during this time period. I'm very happy with how the new version is coming along; I think that current Watson users will not be disappointed with how it looks and performs on the Mac. If you are curious about its progress, and hopefully some screenshots, you may want to check in on this weblog.

Watson Updates for today:

• TV: Playing catch up again, this fixes the missing details.
• Movies: Provide an error message if the given zip code returns no movies/theaters nearby
• eBay: Fix the bogus empty rows at the beginning of a result list; restore seller ID search; fix missing prices when there was a 'buy it now' indicator.

I'm really looking forward to seeing Fahrenheit 911, the movie that Fox News calls "a tribute to patriotism, to the American sense of duty — and at the same time an indictment of stupidity and avarice". It's opening next weekend (Friday, June 25). If it can kick butt at the box office on opening weekend, it will likely spread to more theaters around the US!

So why not commit to going on opening day or opening weekend? You can get tickets online so you won't have to worry about missing out if the theater is full.

(MoveOn's PAC is doing a campaign to get people to pledge that they will see the film on Opening Weekend ... if you're going, add your name...)

I guess it was inevitable ... this weblog (powered by Blosxom) is now getting comment spammed. I had to delete all the comments, and I probably need to find some solution to this.

Any ideas? Feel free to leave them in the comments, alongside the idiotic links to casino sites.

Check out this Flash Presentation on how Nader's candidacy affects the presidential race. He says that his candidacy will help defeat Bush, but the numbers keep showing otherwise.

(Hat Tip to BushOut.TV)

Today, a few Watson tools got updated.

• eBay: The funny thing is that I ran out of single-digit minor update numbers on the eBay tool. (Generally the format has been the first three numbers representing the application version, like 1.7.5, with the fourth number being a minor tool update. But we're not ready for 1.7.6 yet — still waiting for some help from Apple to fix an outstanding bug — so what comes after 1.7.5.9? It can't be 1.7.5.10 because mathematically, that's treated as 1.7510 = 1.7.5.1 which is less than 1.759. So instead it's 1.7.5.9.1 which will work, though it's a bit long-winded.
• Phone listings: some fixes to US business & residential searches
• Movies: Fixed a bug where dates in the popup weren't passed to the server in "Theaters" view. Also improved the error message on an elusive problem where Real media files are being served instead of QuickTime. I haven't figured out the cause, but at least the error message is more accurate.
• Weather: Removed some annoying alerts that would pop up when there were server connectivity problems.

As usual, a random collection of interesting links I've picked up over the last week or two, looking through my browser's "history" list...

Paul Graham's Essay on Hackers and Painters (thanks Matthew) · Deconstructing the ubiquitous email disclaimer (via Slashdot) · Awesome Bay Area singer Vienna Teng, whose albums I finally got around to buying (Thanks Dori) · Another reason why Microsoft is evil · Cool (if not slightly obsolete) applet to pick Web colors · I loved listening to him as a kid: Dr. Don Rose · Mind-blowing Flash animations and diversions: Andy Foulds