Let me get this out of the way first: I watched Prince of Persia today and it was awful. Don’t go see it; not even the fight scenes were particularly well-constructed.

My real delight today was watching the film adaptation of Hamlet with Mel Gibson. For what it’s worth, I think that it is the best film adaptation of that play. Its emotional depth is surprising given most other adaptations are rather dreary.

And what lovely acting! Mel Gibson presents a memorable Hamlet, but it’s fascinating to watch the other brilliant actors in the supporting roles. Ian Holm gave a memorable performance as Polonius—witty and wise, just as Shakespeare intended. I was shocked to discover that Helena Bonham Carter (who played Ophelia) is a talented actress when she doesn’t hide behind eye liner and Alan Rickman.

Upon doing some research today, I found a new element that’s worked its way into the HTML5 spec: the <device> tag. What this will allow web developers to do is have a standard way of using a device on the user’s computer (like a webcam or microphone).

What could this mean? The obvious one is video-chat capabilities without Flash, but I’m seeing this as a huge bridge between the desktop world and the web world. Just imagine: Flickr could upload pictures directly from your camera without any extra software, or browser games could use your joysticks natively. If this specification goes through, we could be looking at a dramatically different web.

This is a 30-minute documentary about the patent process and how it applies to software. It’s a remarkably complicated and important issue, and it does a good job of explaining it understandable terms. Even if you’re not into computer science, this is an important issue that affects many aspects of technological progress.