Some TrustRank Speculation

I played broomball last night with NSC against the ACM, which was an odd fight since I'm an officer in both clubs, and we sadly lost 4-0. It has nothing to do with the topic at hand except that it was a lot of fun and my butt still hurts from falling flat on it so much. I'm that guy in the green shirt in the picture by the way. For those of you who don't know, broomball is just a game where you have sticks with rubber edges and you try to get the ball in the other team's goal with it like hockey except you're on the ice with tennis shoes so the lack of friction becomes a tricky beast. I think we could've won if our seniors hadn't been out drinking, but we'll get them next time. Moving on though, Google is aiming to ramp up its ranking system for its search engine more for what is believed to be called TrustRank. It would basically use the credibility of news organizations to rank them even better than the current parameters of relevance and recency so that articles like from CNN, for example, aren't on page three. It's an interesting idea, but I wonder if some will complain that they're unfair when they unveil it? They'd basically have to remain totally unbiased and base it off of stuff like how long the company has been in the business and how long their articles are and such. I wonder how they keep coming up with fresh ideas so often?

I'd like to start out the technology news with a proclamation from Firefox: they've broken the 50 million barrier on downloads of their browser! This is a huge success for open source browsing and while it's not without its problems it has proven to pose quite a challenge to the monopolostic hold of Internet Explorer. There's been a lot of 3rd party support today for Apple's Tiger OS with lots of plugins for all facets of the platform, many of which are real nifty. Not everyone is so supportive of Apple though. The online retailer TigerDirect has sued Apple over the use of Tiger, which apparently it owns a trademark to along with a couple of other related names. It looks like Apple is getting a taste of its own litigation from a covetous company making a rather petty claim. I don't like the idea of someone having the rights to the name of my favorite animal in general. This is a really random tidbit but I was appalled to learn of a tax being levied in the Netherlands for every GB of capacity on an mp3 player that is bought there in order to make up for downloading. So much for the mp3 industry over there. Lastly, I have to reiterate the idiocy of John Dvorak by citing this new article he wrote about the degradation of the video game industry. Not only does he not know the first thing about the industry but he doesn't see how insane sales are. It's hard to make video games because you need someone to fund them, and I can tell that a lot of companies are trying to be innovative because that's what makes them more money.

I'll start out the movie news with some stuff on what's sure to be this weekend's big flick: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It has been getting some mixed reviews, but IGN seems to like it. I guess it's a love it or hate it thing. Irregardless, there's a good interview here with Sam Rockwell, who you may remember from Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. Sam Raimi likes to toy with our minds because he's now hinting at the complexity of the visual effects of the villains, but that could mean one of several things for Spider-man 3! I'm surprised that he's going through so much trouble to keep things under wraps. Speaking of superheros though, you can see some footage from the set of Superman Returns over here set to some great theme music, which is just a moving form of the pictures I spoke about earlier. It concludes with some words from director Bryan Singer to some fans, so it's worth a look if you're hardcore like me. If you want some more media, there's a new clip from Crash at Yahoo! Movies and I think the great cast, which features Don Cheadle, is what's going to pull me into this one. Hip hop artist Mos Def is really working his way up in the movie chain with a role in an action-drama opposite Bruce Willis called 16 Blocks. I love his music and I think he has some talent as an actor, but I hope his music doesn't suffer as a result. And lastly, I thought I'd share the new poster for War of the Worlds:



Just a few things I wanted to mention before closing up and taking a nap. I highly reccomend tuning into Fox on Sunday and here's a preview of why. In other good news, Katie Holmes is saving herself for marraige. So I guess she's still waiting for me! I know I'm sad; sorry. I would provide some biting commentary on the social security plan Bush interrupted Sweeps week for, but I think the quotes from the democrats in that article sums up my thoughts. He has the most illogical plans you ccould conceive of.

Once again, I've decided to take a bite in the Friday's Feast meme:

Appetizer
Which keys do you have on your key chain?
Not much I'm afraid since I don't have my car yet! :( I have my apartment key, guitar case key, mailbox key, ACM office key, and the key to the back door of my parent's house in Houston. The most prized thing on that ring though is my bottle opener though because I got it for free and it's awesome.

Soup
What is the most spontaneous thing you've ever done?
Proposed to someone. Just kidding! I'm not all that spontaneous I'm afraid because I'm such a wimp. I guess I'd have to say going to Red and White (a dance) at my high school stag with a few friends and doing a semi-freak dance with a girl in my Hindi class. It was quite odd and I wouldn't really want to replicate that experience. I wouldn't mind freak-dancing again, just not in that setting.

Salad
Who is the best cook in your family?
It used to be my grandmother, but now that she's gone I'm going to have to go with my mom. My mom's older sister is really good also, but of course I'm going to be biased to my mom because I'm salivating right now just thinking of her food.

Main Course
If you were to write a "how-to" book, what would the title be?
How to stretch your food budget in college when you don't live in a dorm. =D

Dessert
Name a recent fad you've tried.
I've been wearing a couple of those silicone rubber wristbands. One says "Go Horns" and is burnt orange and the other says "Integrity UT" and is blue. I love both colors and bands.