The Buzz at Apple

For some reason, there were a couple of articles regarding the rise of Apple today. The larger one regarded the future of the company, and posits that the company is planning an assault on the consumer electronics market with even more devices, especially iPod related ones. The author correctly points out that Apple has lost huge leads in the past, but what's almost certain is a wireless iPod, and it would seem rather likely to see an iPod play videos. He mentions a couple of other ones that don't seem quite as exciting, like a home media center, but it's quite a fervent company though it may not be as hot as Google. The other article I discovered is a post from Paul Graham that is really intriguing about a return to Mac. Their market share right now isn't very strong, but the OS's ease of use with FreeBSD is making it the tool of choice for hackers now. Hacker trends are to mainstream computing trends as big city fads are to small town fads: they start in the former and eventually build up in the latter. I've got to say that I've been tempted to succumb to Mac myself, and I may end up getting one if I ever get a job!

I have some other juicy technology news today as well. Since I was just talking about alternative OSes I think it would be appropriate to start off by mentioning South Korea's endorsement of Linux. Why should they matter? Because they lead the world in broadband internet access and so it's a huge deal when their government moves to the open source OS arena. In a continuation of the P2P saga you can get an update on the current trial here. It sounds like the Justices are hesitant to create new copyright rules but that they do want to preserve innovation, which is a difficult balance to strike. In another big move, Google has purchased Urchin, which is a firm that does web statistics for huge sites such as AT&T and NASA. It's easy to imagine what this could mean, so I'll leave that to you. If you've ever wanted to be on the big screen you'll be interested in this article describing a new technology that scans guests' faces for real-time use in a movie. It's an interesting concept and would be a cool novelty if it makes it stateside. And finally, one day you (if you're not a CS major) could program just by writing in English. The program is called Metafor and it's a project in progress that turns natural language into code. Cool, huh?

The movie news for today isn't too shabby. The tentative release date for Casino Royale has now been set to November 17, 2006, and tensions are still high over who will be cast as Bond. There may be a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie in the works after all these years. The studio working on the pre-production made Father of the Pride, which really looked good, and may be out before the summer of 2007. Because I have faith in Edward Norton as an actor I thought I'd mention that his next movie, The Illusionist, has now cast Jessica Biel, of 7th Heaven and hottie fame. Those of you eagerly awating Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy may want to check out a new feature at Yahoo! Movies called the Guide to the 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'. As part of my ongoing hype of Sin City I'd feel bad if I didn't plug yet another great review of the graphic novel flick. I can't think of a reason not to see this movie, honestly. Thomas Jane, of The Punisher fame, is supposedly going to star in the Justin Lin remake of Old Boy. I'm optimistic of what Lin can do unlike other movie geeks and I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out well. And finally, there are some new pictures online from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, including this one:



Just a couple of quick things left. To my great disappointment, Senator Hillary Clinton has decided to join the effort against GTA and other violent videogames. It's immensely irritating that the only thing they ever bring up is doing a prostitute and then killin her, because it shows that they put no thought into their view. While I agree that small kids shouldn't be playing these games, it's harsh to deprive everyone else especially when video games provides so many jobs; just increase enforcement of carding. Blockbuster finally settled the suit against them regarding misadvertisement of "No Late Fees". They're paying over half a million bucks to "deceived" customers and will make sure customers fully understand the policy from now on. The litigous nature of this country blows.

And now, you know you want some Tuesday Twosome:

1. Do you procrastinate and if so, explain?
Not at all. If I ever procrastinate it's because I was mislead on when an assignment was due. I start my homework early and try to get it done sooner than later because you never know when stuff may come up and if you get everything done early you have more free time later.

2. Do you feel tired most of the time or not?
If I get 8 hours of sleep, which is typical, I feel pretty normal. So not really.

3. Do you get enough sleep and if not, how much time do you wish for?
I usually get enough sleep. Some nights, particularly Sunday and Monday, I don't. I aim to get to bed at 2AM on other nights and it works out well to get me 8 hours.

4. Do you rely on an alarm clock to get you up or not?
No, I rely on TWO alarm clocks! Since I started using two I've never overslept. One is plugged in to the wall and one is battery operated. I set the one in the wall 8 minutes fast, and it helps surprisingly

5. Do you you dread certain things when you wake up and if so, what are they?
I dread tests when I have test days. I also dread having to get out of bed because your body temperature drops overnight.