Man of Steel sucks

After having a few days to stew over it, Ive decided I was entirely too generous in giving Man of Steel a "C" rating. It deserved no better than a D-, and I'm mulling over just flat-out calling it an F. That may seem harsh because it can't really be that bad, can it? I've decided that the awesome cast it boasts, and the fact that it had some stellar moments (Kevin Costner deserves 90% of the credit for that) are completely negated by the raping of the mythos that's made Superman an iconic hero (I'm mostly talking about the ending, which I won't spoil, but its not something I can reconcile with my idea of the character) and a butt-numbing 2.5 hour run time that's bloated by repetitively pointless fight scenes. Man of Steel isn't as bad as the all-time worsts like Manos Hands of Fate, or Plan 9 From Outer Space, but those movies were made on micro-budgets with inexperienced actors and never had much of a chance. The newest Superman, however, boasts a multi-million dollar budget, a cast of well-known, respected actors and was written and produced by a dream team consisting of David S. Goyer and Christopher Noland. The fact, then, that it fails to capitalize on all these positives and bores audiences with too much exposition (we all know what happened to Krypton), and over-complicated plot executed poorly, and about an hour of invincible characters fighting each other (causing massive collateral damage that's never mentioned) is more than just disappointing…its a flat-out crime against cinema. As such, I think its fair to judge it more harshly than some B-movie schlock and hold it to higher standards. That said, I think I'll be generous and give Man of Steel an overall rating of "D."

Anti-theft measures in Apple's newest mobile OS will cause huge problems for legitimate resellers.

iOS7 Poses a Problem for iPhone Resellers One of the new features of iOS 7, Apple's newest mobile operating system that's poised to drop in the fall, is "Activation Lock," a security implement designed to stop i-device thieves by making the phone so that it cannot be wiped clean (via the erase all content and settings option) or restored to a new device without knowing the password of the previous iCloud account that was associated with it. Many people sell their iPhones. Either they're upgrading, have damage and choose to unload it to someone who'll fix it, or they swap platforms or carriers. Many people are also technical novices. They forget passwords; they don't understand how cloud storage systems work, etc. Unfortunately, these two realities are going to cause lots of trouble with the new "Activation Lock" feature. Yes, it will stop thieves, but Activation Lock security is also going to screw honest people buying second-hand phones from other honest folks (and definitely honest people buying phones from not-so-honest folks). The iCloud password of the account associated with the phone is now going to be necessary to activate or even wipe the phone. Its tied somehow to the UDID, and so it can't be bypassed. No restore or DFU mode will get you out of this quagmire. Its going to end up with strangers whom you sold your phone calling and asking for your password, or some pissed off consumers ready to draw and quarter you because they think you tried to get over on them.