Drag Renovations

Before I get started on the main topic, just a couple of things. I'm going to go see City of God at the Union tonight at 10PM so find me in line after 9:30PM if you'd like to join me. I posted so late last night because I had to help run the Goldman Sachs company night, and it went quite well. I talked to one of the reps and it sounds like they pay well. If I interned there next summer they'd subsidize my living at the NYU dorms and plus there are perks like Broadway shows and Yankees games. That'd be pretty sweet. But anyway, one article that I read this morning in the Texan was so compelling that I almost missed my stop and it was about what will happen to the Drag. For those who don't know, that's the western border of UT (Guadalupe) with a strip of stores and restaurants, a big chunk being owned by the Co-op. It turns out that the old Barnes and Noble will house the Co-op and the Co-op will be split in two to become a UFCU and something else. The Co-op for Women will strangely become a Mexican-style grill, and the old Tower Records spot will be a used books/CDs store (as opposed to an HEB annex). All those changes sound better than the current two empty spots, and supposedly they'll build another garage and have an art gallery in the Co-op. I don't know how well the art gallery will do, but I would buy a painting of Tower when it's bathed in burnt orange light myself if it was made available.

I have a decent selection of nerd news today. My favorite article that I found was an MSNBC investigation of computer crash rage. It keeps saying that a large amount of people either yell or physically harm their computers under rage against it, but the percentage is like less than a quarter even. I'm sure it's a problem and it's not because, as they claim at the end, people don't understand computer since CS majors get violent also but rather because of the frustration factor inherent in human nature. Anyway, another rather humorous tidbit was a group of high schoolers who beat MIT in an underwater robotics competition. Something about withdrawing water from a large pool, and they came up with a better solution. If a group of high school kids are better than MIT students, so is a group of UT CS majors! The New York Times put up a better viewpoint of the Grokster trial than I had mentioned yesterday and it sounds like the Justices are also concerned about people innovating with P2P being protected because of the noninfringing uses. The fact of the matter is that no one wants to stifle business or technological advances. If you want to see what's inside a PSP, you'll enjoy this article that goes farther inside of the device than you could possibly need to go into it and provides instructions. Speaking of the PSP, Sony has responded to claims of dead pixels by reiterating the validity of the warranty that comes with it. And lastly, you can get all your Linux questions answered on this site I just discovered last night.

The movie news for today is surprisingly slim. M Night Shyamalan has cast his main roles for The Lady in the Water with Paul Giamatti as the landlord and Bryce Dallas Howard as the nymph, whom I assumed he liked from The Village. Why is Giamatti such a hot item all of a sudden? I'm sure I have a good amount of Asian readership so I think you'll all be happy to know that yet another Asian has been cast for a good movie. Gong Li will not only be in Miami Vice but also in the Hannibal lecter prequel Behind the Mask. Given that she's also going to be in Memoirs of a Geisha I'd say that her career is moving surprisingly fast. So take a good look at her:



Continuing my Sin City countdown coverage, you can read the press conference for the film here with even more background information about making the movie than revealed before. Robert Rodriguez was on the AMC Sunday Shootout this week and you can see the episode at Yahoo! Movies. I don't think I've seen him without the cowboy hat; what a great Texan! They also mention that Bob and Harvey Weinstein are finally free of Disney's sickening control over their studio. Get ready for a lot of insane cool stuff coming from them. And lastly, there's a really interesting article in the NY Times about the new comedy clique and how it's hard to make a movie without one of them. As good as they are, I'd love to see fresh talent. Until then though, we have to settle for Wedding Crashers.

Now for a new fun meme, the Wednesday Mind Hump:

01. Think of a favorite or familiar commerical jingle or tagline. Example: "A day without orange juice is like a day without sunshine." Now, HUMP IT UP! Example: A day without humping is like a day without sunshine."
The only one that comes to mind is "Just Do It" from Nike, which would be "Just Hump It". That would make life an awful lot easier wouldn't it?! ;)

02. If you could be the spokesperson for any product in the world and you received the extra perk of free merchanidise, which product would you like to be a spokesperson for?
I'd probably be the spokesperson for Teddy Grahams. That's like the best snack food for programming ever because they're not messy and not high in fat yet they do hit the spot.

03. Who is your favorite comic strip character? Would you want to live next door to, work with or even live with the main character or one of the characters from that comic strip? Specify the character and tell us why.
My favorite is probably Dilbert because he's a sane, smart guy caught up in a crazy world. I'd want to live next door to Dogbert so that I can profit from his get-rich-quick schemes. A talking dog would be pretty neat after all.