Spoiler: This analysis of the film ‘Drive’ discusses specific plot details and is dependent on you having already seen the film.

Some heroes are real. (Byline from the film poster.)

‘Drive’ is a look into the very soul or nature of what we commonly consider archetype heroes and throws it back in our face. If you want to be as confident as 007, or as cool as James Dean, then this is what you need to be capable of: complete mayhem.

That’s real. And so is ‘Drive’s delineation away from traditional story telling.

Like a good audience we quickly fall for our nameless lead’s charms. Based off the audience reaction itself, frankly no one expected the dark path the film runs down. I wouldn’t be surprised if others came in expecting an edgier version of ‘The Transporter’, maybe even a more true-to-life version. Little did we realize that’s exactly what we got.

Brooding over this film has highlighted several points. One, true life characters seldom change. Two, dreams don’t always become reality. Three, even the good die.

Truth

Falling for this lead character is a bad idea. In truth, we’re led to for the first half of the film. We’re drawn to him and his quiet nature, only to realize what it might actually take for a person like this to exist.

The scorpion stings the frog, it’s in its nature. Shannon will always be unlucky, Nino is always inclined to revenge, and Irene will always fall for the wrong guy. It’s why Shannon dies, Nino goes after the driver, and why Irene knocks on his door at the end of the film edging forgiveness.

Dreams

$300,000 for a Nascar seems like a dream come true. You have the driver, you have the car, next we should expect something from out of ‘Days of Thunder’. Instead we barely touch the car. There is no escaping the character’s true reality. They’re in too deep, with lessening chance of escape. Or in our leads case, if you do, it’s just barely, and with surprise.

Standard dreams of escaping his debt, living the rest of his life in peace with his family, with his son. That’s a dream quickly crushed. Shannon dreams of escaping his ill fortune by finally finding an honest way out. Unfortunately it’s with the wrong people. Irene meets someone she shares a deep connection with. He turns out to be pretty twisted.

In this film, dreams die just as readily as characters.

Death

In an arguably noble film Standard and Blanche (girl from Mad Men) wouldn’t have died. In some last ditch dashing effort our driver would have pulled them to safety, maybe harmed slightly but not dead.

Truth, again, cycles. There is no hero strong enough to defy reality.

We come to lack surprise even in the lead characters possible death. The final scenes are still a visceral shock to our systems, but the equality of it fits. We’ve become desensitized from the film, and seemingly find release in even the driver’s death.

Towards the final scene with his leg slumped out of the car, and eyes fixed as if testing the audience to blink first, we still linger on the hope of his survival, but come to understand even otherwise, it’s still a final moment, an end to a completely chaotic situation.

Peaceful even.

Further reading:

• Christopher Orr - A High-Octane ‘Drive’

• IMDB

Where is Microsoft’s presence in Metro? If they’re banking so heavily on this being the future of computing, where are their apps?

I see no Microsoft Office Metro edition, no Visual Studio Metro edition. Hell, even a Task Manager Metro edition might be fun. Instead we’re left with a suite of intern developed applications to tweet and share photos. Certainly beautiful applications to match an even more beautiful UI, but again where is the true buy-in from Microsoft themselves?

Apple with the launch of the original iPad in 2010 included iWork, its first set of professionally inspired applications to be used with large screen iOS devices. Then with the iPad 2, developers were introduced to iLife for iOS, showcasing features like measuring force with the accelerometer. Clear examples of just how powerful the software and hardware are.

Really it begs the question: is Metro purely an aesthetic play for Microsoft, or is it designed to help professional developers build better apps? Until we find out, we won’t know just how powerful Metro and Win 8 really are.

Further reading:

• Jensen Harris - 8 traits of great Metro style apps [via John Gruber]

• getwired.com - The landscape tablet landscape [via John Gruber]

Having watched the day one Keynote from Microsoft, and Jensen Harris’s overview of the leading 8 principles in Win 8, I now have more questions than actual answers. Namely, can we ever expect Microsoft to separate rather than encapsulate the legacy PC desktop from the Metro one?

My comprehension quickly gets foggy as soon as I envision the vast spectrum of current Windows customers crossing paths with Windows 8 for the first time. Questions like, why two IE browsers exist on the same device, but don’t keep tabs in sync. Or why virus protection is still necessary if Apps are completely vetted for security? Why is one layer so utterly different then the other layer?

Is the desktop actually an application within Metro, or is Metro an application with the desktop? It’s a hall of mirrors, one encapsulating another, encapsulating itself, ad infinitum. Which one’s real/authentic/original/______?

Further reading:

• Steven Sinofsky - Keynote Day 1

• Kyle Baxter - One Platform to Rule Them All

• Jason Snell - Windows 8, iOS, and the future [via John Gruber]

From the original UFO base station, Apple released the AirPort Extreme, giving way to today’s Time Capsule, an easy to use backup solution for your Mac. With the introduction of iCloud however, we’re seeing less and the less the need for local media storage. If our files can retain themselves in the cloud, and in sync across all our devices, then what’s the purpose of needing them locally? Well, for starters space. So how can we better invent a system to store files locally in this post-PC world?

Exchange the idea of the Time Capsule with a localized iCloud Hub. A storage device that mediates the entire households specific media (purchased and not), and caters well to iOS devices. Setup would be a synch, seeing as you can already setup an AirPort Extreme or Express using iOS.

The idea of a centralized hub isn’t a new one, many of us I’m sure have dabbled with NAS or even Mac Mini’s as home entertainment centers, or media hubs. This vision though, is catered specifically to those entering this market for the first time.

The Vision

Activate the device, join its network. Bridge it to yours as wire it as you would normally with a router or standard AirPort device. Access the device via Settings from your iOS device, add each iCloud credential in your household. Trigger which files for each account you want merged with the device, Music, Photos, etc.

By offloading your entire media catalog you completely free the space utilized on your iOS and PC devices. Your entire household has access to their specific account to retroactively see or manipulate all of their media content. Seeing as Music Match can already host your entire music catalog, for those not willing to subscribe yearly, they can offload it locally and use Home Sharing or AirPlay from the local iCloud to stream media wirelessly without tolling their iOS batteries.

Better yet, include two Thunderbolt ports into the actual hardware of the iCloud Hub and allow an easy sync solution to your PCs. In this way you can quickly offload all your media contents quickly, efficiently and free up all available space previously clogged by dated media. Keep local only what’s relevant to you.

The Everything Hub

In the initial setup, it would be helpful to have an option to segment a separate partition of your choice dedicated to Time Machine. Seeing as iOS won’t need it, and now that your media is stored off your actual PC, backing up should take a fairly minimal amount of space, even if you’re supporting multiple PCs. Adjusting the allotted space can provide adequate redundancy for your most recent backups.

Migration Assistant can utilize this as well. Seeing as your unique iCloud ID provides safe access to only your specific media files and back-ups, plugging in a new PC over Thunderbolt or WiFi can get you immediately restored and running again.

Ideally the hardware internally of the device will allow for TBs of storage, itself backed up, and extremely easy to expand. I can imaging being able to add a second iCloud Hub simply by plugging a new one into another Thunderbolt port, and immediately doubling storage. Though this gets out of my realm of expertise, I’m sure the Genius’ at Apple can manage much better than I.

The Magic

What I do see though, are a variety of interesting case studies. Currently if you want to import photos, you snap them with your camera, plug it into your PC and use Aperture or iPhoto to import them.

iCloud will do a fantastic job of storing your last 1000 shots, which can leveraged in this case. On import, iCloud can upload your shots, Events, etc, and automatically download them to your specific iCloud account on your iCloud Hub. iPhoto itself can option on keeping only your last 1000 photos stored locally on your PC, and remove the rest as soon as their safely migrated to your iCloud hub.

Imagine being able to offload all your media and content immediately, safely backed up, and available to any of your devices via a single unique login. Maintain an uncluttered hard drive, and have access to your entire media catalog via iOS.

Ideally the iCloud Hub provides a solution for consumers to retain enough storage space, safely guarded, and safely backed-up in a method that allows post-PC device users to get away with using just iOS devices on a more regular basis.

In effect this creates a straightforward path to where the PC itself becomes a redundancy, less needed since media can collate together in a single, non-screen device, that is extremely transparent, and extremely easy to use. It can be the wireless hub for our homes, or the data center for your professional needs. Either way it can facilitate our daily digital interactions in a simple, clean and magical manner.

To innovate is to play. To envision is to predict.

And predictions are often wrong. So while we have a great many visionaries in the market, few are leading innovators.

Can you find and train people to understand the distinction? And can a company be open and understanding enough to allow play? Is this the root of Apple’s success over Microsoft’s? Or Google’s back and forth in public opinion?

Maybe it takes a special kind of person or mindset to take a completely unique vision and innovate from it.

Gruber:

How do you replace the irreplaceable man?

You don’t. But we’re not replacing him. Steve Jobs is still very much alive, and still very much ingrained in Apple. So yes, while it may be the end of an era, there still is opportunity to understand the dynamics of what makes Steve Jobs an irreplaceable man.

Buddha chose not to write his lessons, and instead relied on his disciples to spread his teachings; we no less will tweet them. So be honored you spent a generation with Apple under his vigil, and reassure yourself that while you may have missed your opportunity to see him on stage, you at least have YouTube.