Smallville is a pretty mixed bag as TV goes. I watch it mostly because it's the only place I've yet seen bullet-time effects used that's not either The Matrix or a spoof of The Matrix. But offhand I can't think of another show that ranges from being so completely, unforgivably bad to moments of pure genius.
The writing is usually pretty awful (and the show's biggest weakness/problem IMHO), but on the other hand I think it's the first time the Superman story has ever been made interesting on a human level. It shows, for example, Clark's inner conflict created by the fact that every relationship he has (outside of his parents) has to be based on a lie, by necessity. It shows Clark going through what every adopted child eventually goes through, wanting to know where he comes from and not necessarily liking the answer. It draws a stark contrast between Clark and Lex. Both characters start off in the series in just about the same place - good people but not saints, nearly all-powerful (Clark has powers, Lex has unlimited money), and struggling to find answers. At least in the Smallville canon, the only real difference was their parents - the Kents vs. Lionel. The former drive Clark to become a superhero, and the latter a supervillain.
The trick with these things is it's still the human side of the story that makes it interesting , not the superpowers (something I think they've finally figured out, with X-Men, Spider-Man, Batman Begins, etc). It's the out-of-the-mask, non-combat scenes that make a superhero movie good (or not) - watching the hero deal with those ethical gray areas, balance their personal desires against greater responsibilities, etc. These are things that any of us can relate to. Superpowers, on the other hand, we can't.
The point of Shakespeare and Dickens is not to memorize what happens. It's not history class.
That's not the point of history class either.
The point of these classes is to communicate an understanding of literature, an understanding of history. Not just the "What", but the "how" and even the "why".
Unfortunately, it's much easier to design a multiple choice test around a student's knowledge of "what" happens than on his grasp of the "why". The way English class is run in this country we may as well not have it at all, for all the good it does.
I can think of a few good reasons for this:
1) It can run on significantly slower systems (all you need is a web browser) thus extending the life of these older machines.
2) It's easier to maintain - one installation on one server vs. every desktop in a company. Everyone is always using the latest version with patches, etc. You can deploy new workstations without having to install anything.
3) Its platform independent - You can run the same Office application on Windows, any flavor of linux, or Mac.
4) Assuming the files you work with are stored on the server as well, it means they'll get backed up - instead of sitting in a local "my documents folder" which doesn't.
And while what you say is true - how many users really view 10 years of accounts in a spreadsheet? These things will likely never be as feature rich or powerful as a desktop application... but for 90% of users and 90% of tasks, a web based word processor or spreadsheet can be more than sufficient - and they have the advantage of flexibility and (probably) cost.
And FWIW... a good number of word documents and spreadsheets where I work are "shared information" and kept on network file servers anyway... so since the data is already remote there's little reason not to make the application remote as well.
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Smallville is a pretty mixed bag as TV goes. I watch it mostly because it's the only place I've yet seen bullet-time effects used that's not either The Matrix or a spoof of The Matrix. But offhand I can't think of another show that ranges from being so completely, unforgivably bad to moments of pure genius.
The writing is usually pretty awful (and the show's biggest weakness/problem IMHO), but on the other hand I think it's the first time the Superman story has ever been made interesting on a human level. It shows, for example, Clark's inner conflict created by the fact that every relationship he has (outside of his parents) has to be based on a lie, by necessity. It shows Clark going through what every adopted child eventually goes through, wanting to know where he comes from and not necessarily liking the answer. It draws a stark contrast between Clark and Lex. Both characters start off in the series in just about the same place - good people but not saints, nearly all-powerful (Clark has powers, Lex has unlimited money), and struggling to find answers. At least in the Smallville canon, the only real difference was their parents - the Kents vs. Lionel. The former drive Clark to become a superhero, and the latter a supervillain.
The trick with these things is it's still the human side of the story that makes it interesting , not the superpowers (something I think they've finally figured out, with X-Men, Spider-Man, Batman Begins, etc). It's the out-of-the-mask, non-combat scenes that make a superhero movie good (or not) - watching the hero deal with those ethical gray areas, balance their personal desires against greater responsibilities, etc. These are things that any of us can relate to. Superpowers, on the other hand, we can't.
That's not the point of history class either.
The point of these classes is to communicate an understanding of literature, an understanding of history. Not just the "What", but the "how" and even the "why".
Unfortunately, it's much easier to design a multiple choice test around a student's knowledge of "what" happens than on his grasp of the "why". The way English class is run in this country we may as well not have it at all, for all the good it does.
I can think of a few good reasons for this: 1) It can run on significantly slower systems (all you need is a web browser) thus extending the life of these older machines. 2) It's easier to maintain - one installation on one server vs. every desktop in a company. Everyone is always using the latest version with patches, etc. You can deploy new workstations without having to install anything. 3) Its platform independent - You can run the same Office application on Windows, any flavor of linux, or Mac. 4) Assuming the files you work with are stored on the server as well, it means they'll get backed up - instead of sitting in a local "my documents folder" which doesn't. And while what you say is true - how many users really view 10 years of accounts in a spreadsheet? These things will likely never be as feature rich or powerful as a desktop application... but for 90% of users and 90% of tasks, a web based word processor or spreadsheet can be more than sufficient - and they have the advantage of flexibility and (probably) cost. And FWIW... a good number of word documents and spreadsheets where I work are "shared information" and kept on network file servers anyway... so since the data is already remote there's little reason not to make the application remote as well.