Search - Modern Marvels: Digi-Tech on DVD

Guys and their gadgets

Jeffery Mingo | Homewood, IL USA | 08/29/2008

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Ace Hardware stopped calling itself "the place for the helpful hardware man" and starting saying "helpful hardware folk." More and more, gender-neutrality is a sign of gender-inclusion. Well, this doc doesn't speak about "consumers" liking new gadgets; it's speaks of guys' liking them. This work definitely assumes that toys are for boys. The work implies that MIT has many female students, which I find surprising, but otherwise this film is very male-oriented. (And a bit hetero-centered too. At one point, they suggest a man is buying a camera to tape/capture an attractive woman. However, the man is a powerful, burly guy and one can imagine that he was chosen for the scene because guys might like him and his burliness.)

This work had interesting stuff. It explains why TVs are moving from analog to digital. It says, "Well, if you think MP3 is exciting, know that scientists are working on MP4." Still, this work says much about technology that lovers of technology would already know. This was an intro course, rather than a seminar.

Something upset me here. One interviewee bends a DVD in all kinds of ways and implies, "See! DVDs never break!" Poppycock! If you receive red envelopes, then you know full well that DVDs can break or crack. Remember what people said about the Titanic before its tragic end."