The End of CDs

Sorry that I didn't post yesterday, but I figured that my readership would go down over the weekend with my not being online constantly since I'm not in Austin, and plus this computer is slower and, thus, harder to browse on than my Austin one. I did see The Manchurian Candidate though last night and it was alright, but it was more political than I was hoping for. Funnily enough my brother managed to rent it for free from Blockbuster because he had a credit on his account as a consequence of turning in his last movie too late! It happened to his girlfriend and another friend as well. Anyway, there's quite an engaging article in the Washington Post about data files over taking the need for CDs. Instead of buying CDs you can just buy data files and burn whatever format you want. So, theoretically, CDs will be what casette tapes are today 10 years from now. I totally believe in this movement occuring as MP3 players get cheaper and cheaper. The iPod Shuffle is a prime example of an affordable, high-capacity mp3 player. It would be cheaper to buy songs and make your own albums than pay for the packaging and all that extra stuff. You could probably then print out CD inserts and such if you so desired one, but I think people care less and less about those nowadays. It looks like Napster wasn't such a bad idea after all!

I might as well keep going with tech news. CDs aren't the only item poised for a downfalls; college students are turning away from land lines for telecommunication and using cell phones more. That article only focuses on one university, but I see it at UT also and I don't even have a land line in my apartment. If you hate spam you'll enjoy this piece on the Penny Black Project, which charges spammers processing time to send their e-mails. Also in development is code from ISPs that will attach tracking information to e-mails so that you can get directly to the root of spammers by taking down the person e-mailing you himself. Programmers may appreciate this ZDNet article about the new trend of longer beta periods for software.

A good bit of movie stuff accumulated over the weekend so I'll dive right into that. The box office leader was Hitch with over $45 million followed by some meh flicks. It was supposed to be a decent movie so hopefully it deserves the spot. Ong Bak opened in limited release with a meager $1.3 and Bride and Prejudce opened in 32 venues to get less than half of that! That's not surprising given the lack of publicity, but I reccomend both films. Speaking of Ong Bak, FilmForce has an interview with Tony Jaa up and it's worth a read for kung fu movie fans. Since I'm talking about great movies, I might as well plug this review of an early screening of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It's quite a detailed review and in general seems to say that the movie is shaping up quite well with the exception of a couple of comparatively small things. To help visualize the movie, check out these new production stills. Those who can't get enough pictures should take at look at this photo commentary for Constantine that includes pictures like this one:



FilmForce has become the movie site of the weekend in my mind with yet another great movie feature: a visit to the set of War of the Worlds. It's a must read commentary/interview for what's sure to be an AAA movie, especially since Spielberg is trying to be quiet about the movie so you won't see a lot of this. Now for some less than savory movie news. There is a Punisher 2 movie already in the works, but maybe they won't make a craptacular movie this time. There is a review up for Madagascar that confirms what I thought in the first place: it's a pretty mediocre animated film that isn't taken to its full potential.

As always, I'd like to conclude on a couple of random notes. Action game junkies like me will take joy in IGN's impressions of Devil May Cry 3. It seems like they still have to work out the kinks in the controls and camera, but hopefully they'll pull it off and deliver a true action game to the PS2 that will blow the first Devil May Cry out of the water. It sounds like it's be a gamer's game though, not a mainstream one. Puzzle junkies should check out this site. It's hailed as the most difficult riddle online and I think it may actually be! I'm dumb so I'm only on like level 5, but I think it's supposed to have like 80 something levels.

I hope you're all ready for some Unconscious Mutterings:

I say ... and you think ... ?

1. Judge::I get a vivid picture of how Heinelen described what courts are like on the Moon in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
   
2. Detroit::When Dr. Dre in some song starts it out by saying "What up, Detroit?"
   
3. Hyphen::A strange symbol I haven't seen in any language but English
   
4. Get it right::Only thing that comes to mind here is that program called GetRight
   
5. Pulsating::The walls in the hellish version of Silent Hill in Silent Hill 3
   
6. Yoga::Being at peace
   
7. Memorable::Weekends that you hope you never forget
   
8. Financial advisor::Someone old people hire because they can't handle their own money anymore
   
9. Ten million::The kind of money I wish I could make programming
   
10. I::Anyone remember that Jazz classic "Me, Myself, and I"?