Mike’s bang-up-to-date review of Revenge of the Sith

Here’s a little something I wrote on 22nd May 2005, three days after Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith came out.  I’m reproducing it partly because I think it stands up rather better than certain other contemporary reviews, but also partly as context for what I want to say next time.  Enjoy!

Names or numbers: pick one

Brief rant: I am getting heartily sick of the now nearly universal practice of giving operating-system releases both names and numbers, then using either at random.  Here’s an example of the kind of thing I mean: I want to download the Calibre e-Book manager for my MacBook, but the download page says “calibre works on OS X Leopard and higher”.   But the “About This Mac” dialogue just says “Mac OS X Version 10.5.8”.  Is that higher or lower than Leopard?  Who knows?

How many devices do you need?

In his most recent article, Paul Graham writes about what he calls “tablets” — his general term for iPhones, iPads, and the corresponding things running Android.  Like a lot of people, he thinks we’re headed towards a future where we only need, roughly, one device each: a multi-purpose phone/camera/computer/emailer/book-reader.

I’m not so sure.