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Large Scale Software Development

Here's an interesting overview of "small" dev teams (<150) and large teams, based on the NT and W2K development efforts at MSFT:

Windows A Software Engineering Odyssey

I forgot a little about how interesting I find this stuff to be...

Good Day

I think it was an honest-to-goodness good day today. Good email in the morning, both work and non-work related, then a good meeting, then my review, which went quite well. Then a nice review lunch, where I got some extremely tasty gnocchi with pesto. Mmmm. A trip to the great mall in the afternoon, where I acquire a ps2 and re-acquire final fantasy tactics. Then a free movie preview of "Following", which turned out to be decent. And a free t-shirt! Not too shabby for a Thursday. And a three day weekend coming up... seems pretty nice. Whooo.

Does anyone understand this?

From this site:

I don't crave that symbiotic existence that passes for "couple hood", I'm learning every day how to be more connected. (O.K., I still don't have a phone, but that's another story.) I've got a happy life, why do most people behave as though a life without romance is empty? I'm not one to make absolute statements, but it's o.k. with me if I stay single. It seems to me what passes for love is really not, and what actually is love is easy, permanent, and fluid. It's a way of being, not something you get.

One of my favorite Rumi lines goes something like this... (yeah, I could look it up, but I'm getting hungry and my lunch is almost 1/2 over)

Your task is not to seek for love but merely to discover the obstacles within yourself that you have built against it.

You know you are in trouble when you start thinking about this kind of stuff. And someday I may actually try writing about real things on here again! Well, emotionally real things. You know.

Movie Review: The Celebration (Vinterberg)

I think this was my first Dogma 95 movie. I can't imagine they are all this good. This was a fantastic movie. It is the story of a man's 60th birthday party, occuring shortly after the death of one of his daughters. Over the course of the evening, some of the family's secrets are revealed to each other and to the guests. The acting, combined with the whole Vow of Chastity production feel, really makes this movie emotionally powerful. It makes it seem like real people in a real situation. (Of course, this wasn't done perfectly - but the confession is public record now.) I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. I wonder, though, if the Dogma idea really achieves its goal, though. By making fiction movies seem more realistic, isn't this blurring the line between fiction and nonfiction? Maybe that isn't the point - the point may be to try to tell better stories, not relying on all of the gimmicks that carry most movies (I'd say modern movies, but that isn't a necessary qualifier). And here, it works. You focus on the characters, and the movie aspect of it fades into the background. No clever camera tricks that people think of as "good directing" or "good cinematography" or whatever. I'm interested to know, though, if the Dogma really helped this or if this was just the skill and passion for this type of movie from the director. I guess I'll have to see what other DOgma films the Tivo can catch for me.

Movie Review: Nick Of Time

The premise is interesting: a movie that unfolds entirely in real time. Well, almost real time. Johnny Depp plays a dad whose daughter is kidnapped and the only way he can save her is to assassinate someone. It stretches plausibility pretty thin, but it does make for a reasonably enjoyable thriller. Lots of people in it I recognized (Detective Lewis as the cab driver? A shame that part didn't amount to anything...) which was kind of interesting for such a random movie. Johnny Depp didn't really have much to do, but he's always watchable. I thought the woman playing the assassination target did a fine job, although the ending became a bit muddled and I wasn't sure if I had really read her performance correctly. There was also a particularly poor dream/fantasy sequence, which seemed out of place. But, overall, there are worse ways you can spend 90 minutes. But maybe I'm a sucker for movies with Charles Dutton.

Soccer Game: Loss, 2-1 (the season is finally over!)

Well, this was a pretty good game to end the season on. Well, this season anyways. We scored first, they came back to tie it, then went ahead on a header directly off a corner kick. Overall, though, we played well, the defense shut things down pretty well, the midfield was able to get the ball up to the forwards, and we took a lot of shots. We actually had 2 shots off the post, so it was a pretty close game. My game was pretty decent, playing right fullback, getting a few interceptions, putting pressure on to make them mistakes. We weren't holding a tight line, so I wasn't trapping on a couple of plays, but neither resulted in goals, so it didn't seem too bad. Overall, we felt good as a team. Finally! Now, a week or two off, and the fall season starts. I feel like I am getting to know a bunch of the players out there, so hopefully we'll wind up on a team with some nice people. But the rest will be nice, hopefully my shins and calves will appreciate it.

End of the Season

No, my season ends tomorrow, but the CyberRays played in the final today, and won in a shootout. Not the best looking game ever (I blame nervousness and the type of game Atlanta likes to play) but very exciting. And I got to watch it with some friends from work, which was nice. Of course, now I have a pound of muddy buddies sitting in my living room. Ugh... having junk food around seems like such a dangerous thing. But congratulations to the CyberRays, I hope they have as good of a season next year, when I will hopefully get to see more games in person. Whoo!

Movie Review: Glengarry Glen Ross

This was one of those movies people always said I should see, so I finally did. And it was good, but I don't think it really affected me. Lots of good actors in it (no female characters at all, really...) but a pretty confined feeling, betraying its play origins. It did make me decide that I really don't like Al Pacino. He just kind of grates on me in some way I can't explain. Oh well. The movie, especially the Alec Baldwin scene, did do a good job of showing how a lame job can suck the life and willpower from people. But, like I said, I didn't really connect to it, so it didn't seem as great as I had heard. Maybe I had an expectation problem going in. I still enjoyed it, and would recommend it to most people.

Today's Fun Statistic

If you drive 10 miles to buy a Powerball lottery ticket, you're 16 times more likely to die on the way than you are to actually win. (via USA Today via rc3.)

Not that I get email anymore

But if I did, I would like to have this as some type of templated reply.

TV Review: Witchblade (Spoilers)

Just for the heck of it, I'll include the spoilers in the "extended" entry. But the summary is: I watched all the episodes, and feel pretty ripped off at this point. Probably not worth your time, unless you are a huge Yancy Butler fan. Does that apply to anyone?

So, 12 hours of this show, and they hit the repeat button. Or the repeat power, or whatever. What the hell? Are they going to replay the whole first season, but slightly differently? Are we really supposed to believe that this can only be used once? That there aren't other amazing powers that will conveniently appear later? Do we have to sit through a terrible pseudo-philosophical periculum episode again? Ugh. And here I was going to give them credit for killing off characters, and they couldn't hold through with it. I think the lack of clear definition of the witchblade powers really hurt the mystical aspect of the show, and the mediocre production quality of the show hurt the police drama aspect. I liked the Gabriel character, and some of the White Bull investigation seemed ok. I bought the FBI agent twist to the McCarty character, which I hadn't seen, but the Captain Dante character was overdone. I didn't quite follow the Ian character, and Irons was kind of stupid. The Irish singer guy did grow on me, as did the original partner. But a lot of the episodes were stupid, and I feel like they dug themselves a huge hole with this season finale. Ugh. And I never really bought into the Pez character. The show seemed much better at building up to something than delivering the payoff. Here's hoping I don't waste any more time with this.

I started my Japanese class

I started my Japanese class today. The instructor seems pretty good, very entertaining, and the class is an interesting mix of people. Of course, at this rate, I will have learned absolutely no Japanese by the end of this. I'm thinking that things will pick up next time. I haven't had much luck learning languages before, but I am hoping that I am able to find this worth putting effort into to really learn it. That would be really neat. We'll see how it goes.

Soccer Game: Loss, 7-1

Maybe it doesn't make sense to keep posting these if the result is always the same. We gave up 5 goals in the first half, so the second half was actually competitive, but we didn't do anything in the middle of the field. My game was OK, I guess, but I think we're all ready for this season to be done. I'm looking forward to the fall, where we will hopefully have fewer whiners and complainers that start yelling at people instead of just griping on the sidelines like the rest of us. Where do they go in the fall and spring? To the "A" division, of course. No comments on what the "A" stands for, please. I played a little bit in the second game, but got shifted into a midfield spot, so I just sprinted around for 10 minutes until I could sub out. I'm not sure my calves will be thanking me tomorrow.

Comic Review: Bughouse (Lafler)

I couldn't resist a story of jazz-playing insects. It is a previously undiscovered weakness I must have. And the story didn't disappoint - it seemed to be a loosely-based on real jazz players lives, in that they had trouble getting a record deal, had to deal with drug and relationship issues, and have to face death. But I think I liked it a lot just because of my interest in jazz and trying to see how it compared to real jazz artists I know about. Of course, I don't know enough about that to make any real conclusions, but it was interesting to think about as I read it. So it is hard for me to know if I would recommend it to people. The story isn't really anything profound, some of the dialog is clunky, a lot of the characters are 1-dimensional, and the art is kind of mixed. The drawings of people playing music are amazing, capturing the feel of the experience well. The drawings of the characters getting hopped up on "bugjuice" are also pretty interesting. But some of the other scenes have their ups and downs. So, I'm glad I read it, but I think you may have to be interested in the premise for it to work for you.

Playoff Victory

I'm pretty sure that at this point in my life I will not be appearing in any playoff games. So I need to get all of my excitement and enthusiasm from other people playing in playoff games, which seemed like a fine reason to go see the CyberRays play in the first WUSA playoff game. It was a really good sporting experience - we went early and tailgated, eating some grilled food, listening to some songs from a 4 piece group that included a washboard player, and seeing the players walk around the parking lot chatting with fans. (They told us they'd be back for beer after the game, although I don't think they'll ever really try to collect on that.) The game itself was exciting, and the CyberRays eventually won. Yay. It was a little too hot, and the attendance seemed a little disappointing for a playoff game, but it was a good crowd - I think we had good enough tickets to sit with people who knew what was going on for a change. And now the CyberRays (I'll keep saying that full name until I really believe they have such a dumb name) go to the finals on the east coast. Where, I noticed, they are having a 21 and over party one night. Is the league finally starting to acknowledge their adult fans? I wonder what kind of a scene that would be. Hrmmm. I think I'll investigate season tickets for next year.

Movie Review: State and Main (Mamet)

I've mentioned my issue with writers that put too much importance on writing and writers before, haven't I? Here's an example. David Mamet is a writer, and more recently a director. Here, we have a story of a hollywood movie crew filming a movie in a small town. Everyone seems to be an ass in some way, except the writer, who is always kind and decent and tries hard to do the right thing. And the movie itself was fine, some funny bits, but overall a little underwhelming. I can't help but wonder, though, if some of that was because the writer character felt a little off to me. Oh well.

Movie Review: Live Nude Girls Unite!

I heard about this documentary about the dancers at the Lusty Lady organizing a union, but didn't think I'd ever get to see it when I missed the showing up in San Francisco. And then, late one night, there it is on the cable TV! And it didn't disappoint; it was a good documentary about the dancers, strip clubs, how society treats sex workers, and the main filmmaker's relationship with her mom, who is a doctor and activist for street prostitutes. I feel like I learned a lot, and gained a better appreciation for what kind of an environment strippers work in. A lot of the people interviewed in this film seem like strong, persistent people, unwilling to back down from some really difficult situations. And the film shows in a number of ways how strange it is that sex can be so popular but not be something that our society likes to talk about or deal with directly. Overall, though, it is a good documentary, and you should watch it if you get a chance.

Movie Review: Chungking Express (Kar-wai Wong)

I can use this as proof that I can ejoy movies that don't have coherent plots - this movie doesn't all fit together, but it isn't supposed to, and that works fine. It tells two disconnected stories that meet at the same location, giving a hint of the "will it ever come back to fit together?" feeling that I got from Slacker. But the stories are interesting, the characters are funny and lonely and very watchable. The stylistic shots seem to enhance the aura of the movie, making it feel somewhat like a dream, but in the way that life sometimes does feel like a dream. And it doesn't fall for a silly ending, it allows things to be left a little unsure, leaving you wishing that you could stay a little longer to see what will happen next, but satisfied you got to experience what did happen. I liked it. Apparently enough to slip into second person, even. Strange!

Book Review: American Gods (Gaiman)

It is a little hard to figure out how to review this. I thoroughly enjoyed it - the book was full of interesting characters, interesting ideas, and an enjyable story. It introduced me to new things without being overcomplicated, it made me stop and think about how our society values things. The ending wasn't completely satisfying, and I feel like some more background knowledge could have added some depth to my enjoyment, but I would recommend the book to most people. And everyone I explain the basic premise to seems to be interested: when immigrants came to America, they brought their beliefs of the gods of their homelands. And those gods began to exist here in a physical form. As people stopped believing, the gods' power began to decrease, and they started adopting more traditional human roles on the fringes of society. The main character gets out of prison and starts working for one of these gods, who thinks that a terrible event is going to be happening soon. And the setup doesn't really disappoint, the ideas don't fall apart as you learn more details, and you finish wanting to know lots more about what happened and who all those gods were. It is amazing how Neil Gaiman can blend his own ideas with actual places and actual myths and make it feel so seemless. I think it is my favorite Neil Gaiman novel, although I need to let it digest for a little while longer, to see how the ideas settle in.

Post Office

The boxes are mailed, so that's that.

I'm still not sure why the post office gives you such a deal on shipping books and other media.

One more thing about this stupid phone

(And then I will stop, I promise)

It is the kitchen lights that make it glow. And it glows for a few minutes (after hours of the lights being on), then fades out. Which is why I probably never noticed it before. So, it really does glow, just not for very long with fluorescent light as its only food. Not that it glows for a long time with natural light, I wouldn't really know, I live in a cave. A nice, spacious, cave, but still a cave.

Alumni

My old roommate started up an online group for "recent alumni" in the area. I joined, but I am not entirely sure what I hope to get out of this. It is good to go out and meet new people, right? Even if they may be scary CMU people? Heh. I guess we can see how it goes. I am just really terrible at staying friends with people that I don't see regularly, unless they are OK with very sparse contact. And sometimes that works, and I can see someone after months of not communicating and we can talk for hours and still feel like there are more things to talk about when it is time to go. I guess I need to push the boundaries a little bit and figure out where the right level is for people interaction. (maybe I should have listened to those paxil commercials a little bit more closely...)

Soccer Game: Something close (7-7?)

Hey, this was a much closer game. The other team came out strong in the first half, scoring 5 goals pretty easily. We were playing with only 3 defenders and no right halfback, so it was a challenge. We had a couple of good people up front on the counterattack, though, so it wasn't a total loss. The second half was another story, though, since we started converting opportunities, passing the ball up the field, and using our speed advantage on the attack. A few people on the other team started getting really frustrated and yelled a lot, which was silly and annoying. I had a pretty decent game at right fullback, covering a lot of ground, breaking some stuff up, not getting burned too many times by their forwards. Nice to not have a huge speed deficit for a change! So it was an enjoyable game, and I think we may have actually tied. Amazing.

Concert Report: San Jose Jazz Festival

It seemed more crowded this year than last year, which is probably a good sign. I went with a friend and we walked around more than last time, so we got to see a bunch of different things. First we walked past what seemed like pretty standard salsa music by (I think) Ritmo y Armonia. We then made it to the Blues stage, where we saw most of the set by The Johnny Cozmik Band (although I think they may have changed their name). They were pretty proficient, and I think they played a few Stevie Ray Vaughan songs (at least, that is where I know them from...) and some other recognizable things. Good, straightforward blues. We then heard a little traditional Cuban music from Ire on our way to see Joe Locke's Storytelling featuring Mark Ledford. That turned out to be very disappointing, weak jazz. We then went and listened to Liza Silva & Brazilian, which was pretty good. The crowds at the smaller stages seemed much more into things, which was good. We also ran into someone we knew, which is really strange to me out here, but nice. We then went to check out the Dena DeRose Trio, but the club it was in (I think it was the only indoors location) was packed. The little we heard seemed pretty good, though. We finished off listening to Papo Vasquez's Pirates & Troubadours for a while, which was pretty decent, had some crazy trombone action, but not quite spectacular enough to keep us there any longer. It was a fun time, got to hear some different things, but was really tiring. So I'm not going back for the jam session tonight. I'm probably going to miss out on something pretty neat, though...

Glowing

For the record, after having lots of lights on for a while, I finally saw my phone glowing tonight. Huh. Not sure if that has been happening, and I didn't notice, or if it just started. Bizarre technology. The glowing is cool, though. Whooo!

Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster

I can't really call this a review, since I only watched the last 40 minutes of this, but it was my first real Godzilla movie experience. Weird, weird, weird. There was a surprising (to me, at least) amount of non-monster scenes. And they were terrible. I guess it must be for budgetary reasons, or maybe to try to make the monster scenes more "special." But eventually they did happen, and I got to see the giant shrimp, a giant turkey (or something), and Mothra, in addition to Godzilla itself. (Is Godzilla male or female?) And the tiny 6-inch high unison singers. Ummm, yeah. And Mothra turned out to be the hero, saving all the islanders. How does that happen, where the monsters become good? Confusing. So, yeah, now I have seen enough of a Godzilla movie to know that I don't really ever need to do that again. More interesting as a concept than in actual existence.

It's like little movies on the TV

Everyone's favorite documentarian has a show on IFC called First Person. It seems like it is little 30 minute documentaries about a single person. Neat-o.

Art Supplies

I am now the proud owner of a sketchbook and some drawing pencils of different types, thanks to an escorted trip to University Art. It seems like it should be fun, we'll see if I can actually stick with it enough to improve my skills. I even have a little bit of a homework assignment, which is probably good but also sort of frightening. But I think it will be a good relaxing hobby. Nice and different from coding. It was also interesting to be in an art supply store again and see all those crazy things I don't know how to use. I'll keep trying to expand my horizons, I guess.

Movie Review: Hollow Man

I think I got suckered into watching this because Elisabeth Shue is in it. I should know better. It was exactly as expected, though - effects were good, story was not. They didn't even play up the creepiness factor enough, I think, it jumped too quickly from the set-up to the people dying part. What could be scarier than being stalked by an invisible person? They should have shown more of that. And the portrayal of a scientific lab setting was pretty silly, although not as silly as all of the nice cars the researchers drove. Hah!

Comic Review: Alec: How to Be an Artist (Campbell)

A strange combination of autobiographical storytelling and a more general history of the late 80's/early 90's comics industry. It was very readable, though - I went through it in one day, which is pretty good for me. Some of the stories may have been more enjoyable if I was more familiar with some of the people and the work that was being commented on, but it was still interesting to get more of an insider's view of how the indie comic scene progressed during this time. The book seemed to have a general tone of disappointment with how things worked out, which is a little surprising to me, since it seems to me like things are reasonably interesting in the indie comics scene these days. But maybe I only think that because I don't know what it used to be like. Or maybe it is a natural disappointment over not having that youthful enthusiam anymore. Boy, I can't wait for that to set in. The art style is Eddie's usual black and white line drawings, kind of scratchy and quirky, but good at conveying the essence of what is being represented without being super-realistic. I like it, although that may be more because it seems simpler, like something I could learn to do, even though that isn't true. It also includes lots of panels from other comics of the time, which was interesting. I'm also very glad he decided to use the real names of the people involved, which he said in the intro he originally questioned. It makes me wonder if he got any push-back after the other people saw it. Anyways, it was very interesting, although I think you need to have an interest in the comics industry somewhat to really get in to it. I guess he felt like he needed that context for explaining his story, although I wonder if I would have connected to it more emotionally if the story had been kept more personal.

Coding for fun and profit

So I was working on the secret music review project a little tonight. The main problem I think I am having (besides getting used to MySQL and PHP) is not really knowing how complicated to make the project. Take the data model for instance - I don't really need it to scale to tens of thousands of records. It will be a long time before it has hundreds of entries. So do I need to denormalize the data, or can I just use DISTINCTs in my queries? It is surprisingly hard to do it the easy way, since at work I always try to find the good way to do it. But this is just for fun. It may be ok to sacrifice performance for ease of maintenance and debugging.

Argh, who am I kidding, I'll rework stuff as soon as I have some more time.

Movie Review: Made (Favreau)

Hey, I finally see a movie this summer that I enjoy. Almost didn't make it! And this wasn't great, but it was well made, it seemed to be made by a person instead of a company, and it was entertaining. I stayed awake through the whole thing! Vince Vaughn's character is unbelievably annoying, constantly annoying in every frame of the movie he's in. It is unbelievable. Jon Favreau's character is surprisingly likable, and seems to be blessed with infinite patience. I wasn't sold on Sean "Puffy" Combs's performance, but it was ok. And the story wasn't anything special. But the dialog was entertaining, the characters were engaging, and everything seemed to make sense on some level. Yeah! I'm hoping this enjoyment didn't just stem from the really terrible movies I have been seeing in the theaters recently. But I don't think so, I think this was a good one.

Tan

I had a number of people comment on me appearing tan today.

"You look like a lobster."

"You are starting to look like you are Indian."

"Dave, I'm just so astounded to see you with a tan."

"Were you out in the sun this weekend?"

So now I know what it is like to not be a pale, pasty programmer. I'm not sure if this kind of commenting is any better than the whole "basement boy" thing, though.

Soccer game: Loss (Lots to 0)

They only scored 2 times in the first half, and I didn't try to count in the second half. Maybe 3? Whatever. We had our typical problems, they had some good forwards (everyone does, it seems...), and things didn't work out. I felt pretty tired, and had a kind of mediocre game - usually a step behind. We had a different goalie, and he seemed pretty good and wa a good communicator, which was nice. Towards the end of the game we actually started to move the ball up the field a little, exhibiting some amount of control, which was nice. I'm sure that didn't happen because they were letting up a little bit. There's only a few weeks left, though, and then we'll see how the fall season works out. I think I've given up hope for this one.

And in related news, I think the sunscreen I got a Walgreen's doesn't work, or sweats off immediately. Blah.

Networks suck

Somewhere between here and there, the network fails.

And so these things will not be posted for a while.

(It seems to be up and down now, so maybe this will get through.)

Art Shows?

As part of the trendy san jose art scene, I attended the most recent Anno Domini: The Second Coming of Art and Design exhibit. Oh wait, I'm not really part of that scene - I was invited by a friend from work. And it was interesting - a warehouse space in San Jose being used as a studio, I guess. The exhibit was a set of work by Tim Hussey, which were a neat style of different paper and words and paint and other things (I'm not really an art expert, you can tell...) that created an interesting, slightly disturbing feel to it. But the blatant sexual images in some of the pieces seemed a little clumsy to me. But what do I know? They also had a DJ setup, with a couple of people hacking out some music, although the crowd seemed indifferent while I was there. The crowd did remind me of the fine arts kids from my school, which isn't the greatest thing. I haven't felt that out of place in a while. Maybe I put too much pressure on myself about these things - it is probably OK to not know anything about what is going on sometimes. But it is not an everyday feeling for me, and I am already not very good at meeting new people, so it was a strange situation. But it was a fun experience, something a little different, the first time I have ever hung out with that friend outside work, and a way to get a little more exposure to the kind of stuff going on that I usually don't know about. I'm not quite sure what my future goals for this sort of thing would be, though - it is hard for me to view art with other people, I guess. We'll see.

Exciting night out

I'll spare you the details of the WUSA game, although it was fun, and they are guaranteed a spot in the playoffs. Now, if only they could get a better name.

The funny part of the story comes afterwards. Midnight, Dave is going to give me a ride home and we see Greg in the parking lot. Let's go out, it's only midnight. Yeah, we'll go hang out somewhere and talk. Denny's? No, that makes me sick. Krispy Kreme? Yeah!

So we go to Krispy Kreme. Only Krispy Kreme doesn't let you inside after midnight. So we go back and forth, trying to think of something that would still be open. And the best idea we can come up with is a bar on Castro street.

Which led to tonight's main lesson: Castro street on a Thursday night at midnight is really busy. Parking is still a little tricky to find, there are huge crowds in front of the clubs and bars that are still open, and lots of questionable people are hanging out on the street. Well, crowded bars aren't the place for hanging out and talking, so how about gelato? Nope, closed. How about the pool hall? OK. Hey, they even have tables to sit at. Seems great. Let's get a beer. Many minutes later, the bartender finally comes over to tell us they're closed.

Heh.

So we finally give up, because we were obviously not meant for hanging out tonight.

It's kind of sad, really.

One page philosophy

OK, here's a project for a lazy sunday afternoon: define your general life philosophy and goals, in about a page. Make sure to comment on your beliefs about life, death, afterlife, the applicability of your philosophy to others, morals, ethics, and how it impacts your day-to-day life.

Comic Review: Transmetropolitan (Volume 2)

I guess this is Warren Ellis's dream comic - he gets to write about an obnoxious, opinionated writer named Spider Jerusalem that hates the world. What an... interesting idea. I usually have difficulty with writers who write about writers - they seem to put more importance on writing than it probably has for most people. And some of the stories in Volume 1 fell victim to that - a writer stops a riot? Ummm, I'm sure that is a writer's fantasy, but it is a bit of a stretch for the rest of us. I guess it feels a little fake to have a world that has so many things wrong with it, but still has enough people that like the column he writes to make him famous. But it isn't supposed to be realistic, it is supposed to be more of a satire, so the set-up isn't too important. The stories usually take some crazy idea about the futuristic setting and allow us to draw our conclusions about how it is reflected in modern society. And it is weird how something so preachy on the exterior - Spider's rants and raves about the world - doesn't get too preachy with its actual themes. Sometimes the technology is good, sometimes it isn't. Different characters make different choices that work for them. And it is very entertaining - lots of ideas and stories and crazy things in the background. But it is hard for me to think of it as a classic - although maybe if later volumes start building up a more coherent storyline, it could go somewhere. But, until the final three issues reprinted in volume 2, each story was a one-off, occassionally referenced in later issues. And less of a reliance on the comedic side stories that don't go anywhere, like the dog cop, would be nice. And not keeping Spider as an invincible protagonist, who is always right, or at least never directly confronted by someone who has an equal say. But volumes 1 and 2 only make up the first year of the series, and there was a lot of world to establish, so I am interested in seeing where it goes from here. But it didn't make me a Warren Ellis zealot, so I don't think anything will. Oh well. I'll find comic heroes somewhere.