Collaborative filtering and comment programs are all the rage these days on the Net, a symbol of empowerment, choice, freedom, self-policing, even protection. Thanks to automated software, and to addictively-gamelike moderation systems, media are becoming increasingly personalized: "me media." But as usual with things technological, people are sometimes drawn to neat stuff without spending much time mulling the consequences. republic.com, an important new book by Constitutional scholar Cass Sunstein argues that there is such a thing as a citizen -- and that filtering programs may undermine citizenship and a democratic culture. According to Sunstein, software is helping us talk only to ourselves. This will be heresy to some, but he's got a point. (Read more).

What can you really say about Steven Seagal's Exit Wounds that everybody doesn't already know? It's genial, and horrendously-acted (cept for DMX); the story line is absurd; the writing is mindless. It's also fun. There's no point in wasting much time discussing this predictable action film, except that it does suggest something far more interesting: the exit of the Hollywood Superhero. Technology is the Superhero now. (Read more.)

The Net Revolution is facing changes that weren't predicted, changes not necessarily for the better. Lots of promises were made, countless expectations raised. Many haven't been met. Investors who fund much of the Net's technology are panicking. More significantly, there are signs that the public is losing faith in the digital revolution, and confused about it's goals. Sometimes, it's hard to blame them. Third in a series. (Read more)

Those movie trailers about the upcoming movie Pearl Harbor are everywhere these days, and the best war movie in recent times portrayed U.S. soldiers on D-Day -- but the arguably pivotal battle of World War II was between Russians and Germans. The horrific siege of Stalingrad lasted six months and claimed almost two million casualities. It's actually a much better story than Spielberg had to work with, but in Enemy at the Gates, Jean-Jacques Annaud has created a lesser, if entertaining and visually stylish, movie. Spoilage warning: plot is discussed, not endings. (Read more):

In some ways, the Net Revolution, like most others, is a sad and strange story to be told: one of almost unbelievable and rapid change, excitement, opportunity and disappointment. It's also a story of a great backlash, growing doubts, and broken promises. Technologically, the network has proved to be one of the fastest growing phenomena in the history of invention. But politically and socially, few of the early hopes for it have materialized, and the counterattack is underway. Is the Net Revolution out of touch with human beings? Second of a series. (Read more).

Sometimes it seems the the faster technology moves, the farther back in history you have to go to find people who can explain what it means. In an 1963 essay called The Revolutionary Tradition and its Lost Treasure philosopher Hannah Arendt wrote that two things are necessary for true revolutions to occur: the sudden experience --the spirit -- of being free, and the sense of creating something new. The Net qualifies on both counts. Halfway through this misunderstood, leaderless, bottom-up, anti-hierarchical revolution, there's the sense -- only partly true -- of being stalled, threatened, and at a crossroads. (Read more)

In this country, nobody is responsible for anything he does, and everybody wants to be on a big or small screen, a reality helped along by scheming lawyers, unscrupulous TV producers and a media-numbed public. But is there anything they wouldn't put on television, no matter how gruesome or sensational? John Herzfeld's 15 Minutes takes on Big Media and America's corruption by celebrity and money, and answers that question with a No. Robert DeNiro is reliably wonderful; the movie is by turns highly entertaining, intense, fast-paced and very dumb. Spoilage warning: plot is discussed, but not the ending. (Read more).

You can take your Tech Slump and shove it, according to some intriguing new statistics about Net use in the March issue of American Demographics Magazine. In the last year alone, the number of Net users shot up 30 percent. The days of the so-called Digerati are numbered (they will not be missed) as poorer, working-class Americans thunder online in amazing numbers. (Read More)

Nobody had any special expectations for the CBS science drama C.S.I. (Crime Scene Investigations), which airs Thursday nights after Survivor, so much of this neat but nerdy drama feels slapped-together. Probably nobody was more surprised than the network when the show took off. It's a new kind of science thriller, a different way of looking at police work and the law. This weekly science detection mystery is a long-overdue nod to the debt that contemporary law enforcement owes to technology, which probably solves more crimes these days than old-fashioned gumshoeing. (Read more).

On this website, Microsoft-bashing almost approaches a religion. And why not? It's hard to think of a more arrogant, greedy or deserving target. But after a careful reading through the transcripts of the Microsoft anti-trust appeal now underway, I'm having some second thoughts about the break-up order, about Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's ruling and the way it was decided and delivered. Please join in. (Read more)

Chris Rock's Down To Earth is amusing, especially during this week or two of slim movie pickings. Rock goes for racial vs. romantic comedy here, and it's interesting to see that whites are now the ones often getting unpleasantly stereotyped in movies with racial themes. Our bonus feature -- Monkeybone -- inspired by the comic Dark Town and starring Brendan Fraser, is a bizarre, inventive, and sometimes hilarious mess. Spoilage warning: plots are discussed, but not endings. As always, add your own reviews. (Read more)

JonKatz and timothy each took some off-keyboard time this week to see Silence of the Lambs sequel Hannibal. Jon says: "Hannibal is only disappointing in that it's a good movie that could have been great. Hannibal himself is terrific, a true monster for the ages, but this Clarice is more like Agent Scully pursuing a meta-psycho. But what a goofy country: Sex will draw an NC-17 rating, but you can rip somebody's face off and feed it to the dogs and get an R. Don't bring little kids or squeamish friends to this movie: some of the violence is truly disgusting. Spoilage warning: Plot and gory details are discussed but ending and outcomes are not given away." (Read on for more of Jon's view and all of timothy's as well.)

Online Seductions could be the perfect Valentine's Day gift, a sane guide to the relatively new world of online romance. A few years ago, Net romances made the evening news, usually accompanied by considerable hysteria about porn and predators. Thanks to the Net, strangers are falling in love all the time; cyber-romances so common some shrinks -- like the author of this book -- devote much of their practices to dealing with the fallout from them. How can you tell if it's the real thing? What are some danger signs? This paperback is cheaper than flowers, maybe more fun.

In his new book Pride Before The Fall, John Heilemann explains how Microsoft was brought down by the arrogant, delusional monomania of its founder, a man who had clearly come to believe in his own immortality and was unable to grasp the realities of the world. For years, programmers perceived Microsoft as nearly satanic because of its staggering monopoly, questionable products and ruthless practices. Turns out they saw what nobody offline could or did. Heilemann talks to everybody involved, including Gates. This is a book you literally will not be able to put down.

Saving Silverman is the newest Dumb Buddy movie targeted squarely at the people who see more movies than any other demographic sub-set: adolescent boys. Borrowing heavily from the ground-breaking spirit of Wayne's World (every third word is "dude") and other teen and young adult sexual-coming-of-age grossout pictures, it's bountifully stupid, but does have things to recommend it. Interesting how these movies vary wildly in quality. Unless you're into this genre, you can safely skip it. Spoilage alert: plot is discussed, but believe me, it doesn't matter. Talk about the genre and post your own reviews.

Student informing, encouraged and epidemic in American schools before, but especially after the Columbine killings, is an irrational, anti-democratic practice that upends the natural order of life among young people. And new technologies, from 800 numbers to e-mail, makes informing easier than ever. Consider a story in the Los Angeles Times this week focusing on this question: When a student helps a school investigate threats, who pays if the informant is sued? The question isn't rhetorical. (Read more).

The new football league called the XFL made its super-hyped debut Saturday night. The most interesting thing about Saturday's games -- most experts said that the quality of football played was poor -- was the new league's efforts to use technology to penetrate every corner of the field, stands, sidelines, locker rooms, and games. It worked in one sense -- the debut was a ratings smash. But this may be a good example of how technology can take us places we don't really want or need to go. (Read more).

Sean Penn's The Pledge is a powerful movie, but don't expect an easy time of it. It's been marketed as another macho Jack Nicholson thriller; the truth is, it's anything but. Instead, this film is haunting, beautiful, and unsparingly bleak. It breaks all the Hollywood rules about light moments and warm characters. Add your own reviews, please. Spoilage warning: plot is discussed, but not ending.

John Bajana-Bacalle writes: "I noticed this morning that as of 2001/2/1 relays.orbs.org has been decommisioned, ORBS has announced. The announcement further mentions some serious new testing/checking/hostname additions, about a dozen of them, that will greatly increase the granularity of the ORBS results. A benefit seems to be the end user now has fine granularity in the results s/he will get back, obviating some of the bullshit griping that surrounds ORBS most often. More power to us and them. =)"

An unnamed correspondent writes: "Looks like Linuxgruven has been making offers that if you pay them a few grand for them to train and Sair certify you, they will hire you on for a $45,000/yr entry level position. Besides that fact that this smells like a scam, it seems that Sair is now in legal proceedings against Linuxgruven. Here is a link to an e-mail from Sair [Director of Courseware & Instruction Ross E. Brunson] posted on a users group mailing list." (Read more, because it gets more complicated.)