About "Predictable But Fun"

Stylistically the movie combines documentary and narrative genres.
Ostensibly a comedy, ‘Predictable But Fun’ serves as a conversation springboard, investigating contemporary love, choices and the pursuit of happiness through the lens of our technology-saturated culture. It explores such issues as the role of technology in our lives (whether, how, or if it enhances our love lives), a look at the life-partner concept and the importance of knowing one's self. “

Predictable But Fun” is written and directed by' Grace Shulner.
Grace is a technologist and filmmaker, exploring the relationships between people and machines and people and each other. The movie is inspired by her research work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab, where she focused on online-offline dialogue, online choices, decision making in electronic settings and online usability.

H@ppy Friday. This Sunday, 134 years ago,  Alexander Graham Bell was granted a patent for the telephone [March 7, 1876 ]  The history of the telephone is almost as complicated as today's cell phone plans...minutes, roaming, texting, and long-distance fees apply. In his first ever successful experiment, Bell spoke through the instrument to his assistant, Thomas Watson, in the next room, uttering these famous words: "Mr. Watson -- come here -- I want to see you."  Today, every time a new study is released on the number of landlines vs. cell phones in the U.S., the number of people who prefer or rely solely on cell phones creeps up and the number of landlines slips slowly. With this trend pushing the idea of a "home phone" towards the dustbin of history and having us all carry portable-communication-devices on the go, are we more connected with each other? Where are we adjusting, using these digit@living filters?

H@ppy Friday. This week its, Joyeux Anniversaire, Feliz Cumpleaños, H@ppy day of birth, to businessman and innovator Steve Jobs. You may be typing on or screen-touching the fruits of his labors right now. As the co-founder and chief executive officer of Apple Inc, the title alone is already telling of his significance, so we don’t need to add to the all-things obsession here. Instead, this Twitter roundup will focus on what Steve Jobs has added to the conversation of digit@l living with his own dialogue. Here are our favorite SJ quote@bles and our back-at-ya questions in response! 

"The products suck! There's no sex in them anymore!" [On Apple's product, just before his return BusinessWeek, 1997] Who wants sex anymore? Social networking is the new porn as the #1 web activity. "What a computer is to me is the most remarkable tool that we have ever come up with. It's the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds" [Library of Congress 1991]  But what about the poor bicycles? We can’t ride on a bicycle built for two if we’re dating online instead. "We believe it's the biggest advance in animation since Walt Disney started it all with the release of Snow White 50 years ago" [On Toy Story , Fortune 1995]  Avatar anyone? "I wish him the best, I really do. I just think he and Microsoft are a bit narrow. He'd be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger" [On Bill Gates, NY Times 1997]  So this is how the PC vs. Mac commercials started "I would trade all of my technology for an afternoon with Socrates" [Newsweek, 2001] A return to the classics, huh? Maybe Joseph Wiezenbaum had a point! "You had me at scrolling" [On the iPhone features of the iPhone, Macworld '07] Was it love at first text?

(Flickr/Luke Seeley)

@DrMacenstein, Blogger Dr. Mac Enstein. Feb 22: Extract" is worth renting. Not quite office space, but pretty damn funny. And Jason Bateman rules

@fsjblog, Blogger The Secret Diary of Steve Job. Feb 24: Michael Wolff is afraid of me — but not as afraid as interns are of him:

@milehighfool Technology, business, and culture writer-recent article: Has Steve Jobs Lost His Touch?Feb: 15: Anyone having success posting to Google #Buzz using email? I've tried multiple times over the past few days -- no success

H@ppy Friday. This Sunday, January 14th Cupid’s calling on the holiday of l-o-v-e.
Whether you are already in a relationship, looking for some hooking up, single and satisfied, or all of the above :); Valentine’s Day can be an ideal time to reach out and tell someone that you care. During Valentine’s week we buy more than 58 million pounds of chocolate, about 5.1 percent of total annual sales. Along with chocolate, roses are a go-to gift with an estimated 187 million produced for Valentine’s Day in 2009. So, even if you’re just waiting for a good deal on some chocolate goodness (which is what January 15th is for!), Happy Valentine’s Day from all of us at Predictable But Fun !

H@ppy Friday. Today in 1937 the film "Modern Times" premiered in theatres.
Written, produced and directed by Charles Chaplin the film is a comment on the desperate employment and fiscal conditions many people faced during the Great Depression. According to Chaplin, these conditions were created by the efficiencies of modern industrialization and technology. Sound familiar everyone? If you ever worked a repetitive, soul-destroying job you will relate to Chaplin's factory worker. In “Modern Times,” Chaplin plays the hapless victim of circumstance. Again, can anyone relate? This film was added to the National Film Registry by the National Film Preservation Board [the public advisory group to the Librarian of Congress] in 1989 in recognition of its status as a landmark in the history of cinema. "Modern Times" was the last feature length silent film to be made in the United States. Charlie Chaplin was married four times and had 11 children between 1919 and 1962 which may inspired him to say this:  “Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.”