Elysium - Movie Review

Hi,

Saw Elysium today, Matt Damon plays the protagonist in this one. I am a sci-fi fan, and Matt Damon is a good enough actor to sit up and notice when his movies come out.

What I didn't know was that the movie is written and directed by Neil Blomkamp, who also happens to be the director of District 9, one of my favourite sic-fi. Needless to say I had big expectations from Elysium. And I was not disappointed. This movie has heart, you can see the city of LA transform into a wasteland, which due to overpopulation and increasing pollution can be a possibility.

The tech shown is a bit too advanced, but today's imaginations are tomorrow's inventions.
Movie starts slow, stressing the human factor in a sic-fi setting, same as the director's previous movie.
You can relate to the characters, feel the desolation and restlessness. There is the resistive faction too but the resistance movement is not too stressed upon.

The theme of the movie can be related to the recent Occupy movement, which stressed on the fact that majority of the wealth is concentrated with the 1% of the population.

To keep it short and not providing any more spoilers, If you liked District 9, go ahead and watch Elysium, though not as promising as District 9, this one is worth watching.

Regards,
Ishan

Security Over The Internet : How Secure Are You?

Hi,

From the past few months the world has been in a frenzy over the revelations made by Edward Snowden. Though it just reaffirmed what most of the people were already expecting. But the enormity of the surveillance has blown the roof out.

The American electronic surveillance agency, the NSA, once ironically referred to as "No Such Agency", not only spies on the American citizen, they also have their tentacles deep into other nations communications, even covering the state heads of the so called American allies.

One of the most commonly given argument is that , "If you have nothing to hide, you should not be afraid of somebody listening on to you". This is complete non sense. Every body has their own private life and have full right to decide what they want to share and what not. The information being generated by you is owned by you. Nobody has the right to take that information without your consent.

Through some of the off the shelf software, which many of the governments, including our own Indian government, has purchased, Anybody can listen in to your communication, have access to your data, even Remotely activate your web cam. This is a serious breach of your rights.

Through a series of articles, as I keep learning myself, I will try to bring to light some of the most basic day to day things that you can do to keep your self safe and keep the intruders out.

Stay tuned.

Regards,
Ishan