The Contraversial Web Accelerator

I know, this post is way too late, but I had to run a bunch of errands today and then go to the ACM potluck (details when pictures go online). I think I did well enough on my CS final to get an A, and I'll know soon enough. I know that I've become very fanboyish about Google, but I have found a product of theirs that is a little scary. It's their web accelerator. Apparently, all it does is allow you to browse the internet off a copy of the web that's on their computers. If that sounds like a huge privacy violation, it's because it is. Not only can they see everything you're doing, but it's caused some people to have access to areas they shouldn't, and that's a big problem. The double edge of this sword is that it's going to help them with their PageRank, so sites that don't support it will get screwed. Tsk tsk, Google. Who knows, maybe they'll learn the error of their ways and fix how it works. They're not an evil empire like Microsoft quite yet.

Because it's late and I have laundry going, this tech news shouldn't run too long. It would appear that schoools could save a lot of money by not buying so much Microsoft software. Unfortunately, the reduced compatibility that comes with using Linux or OSX makes switching impossible, so I gues it's a necessary evil. In a surprising turn of events, the FCC's lan to institute mandatory broadcast flags failed, which is a victory not only for pirates but more importantly for hardware manufacturers who were not compliant and librarians. It's funny because it really did seem like a case where the FCC was totally overstepping its boundaries and they got called on it. If you think getting your home network to work is too complicated you may want to look into Bonjour, which has been ported to the PC and is now free. It's basically just a networking protocol that's meant to be easy to use. Those of you who don't know anything about UWB need only know that it's a way of transferring data at up to a gigabyte a second! Bluetooth has finally decided to adopt UWB, which is great for them because it will allow for it to recover from its greatest setback: speed. Lastly, I just thought the possibility of having a really high quality map of the Earth would be cool.

Your movie news fix will be pretty short today because my room mates put on an asian movie and I want to watch it, but I also want to finish this post. You know you like Brad Pitt, so go see the new trailer for Mr. and Mrs. Smith already beacuse you know that you also love fun action movies. There's also a trailer online for Valiant if you have to get that little bit of animated goodness into your day. But of course you could also get that from this preview of Seth MacFarlane's sweet Sunday night shows. Though I was no huge fan of Shakespeare in high school, I did think Macbeth was interested so I'm excited about a new adaptation of it featuring Jennifer Connelly, who is ever-gorgeous. All I have left now are posters. There's a drab one for the Da Vinci Code over here, but hopefully they're just staying more focused on the movie production for the time being. An early teaser poster for Goblet of Fire has been leaked and though it's not too exciting it is a nice tease. Lastly, I've got to share the creepy Land of the Dead poster:



And now, the Friday Fiver:

1. If you could be famous for 15 minutes, what would the headline read?
"Handsome brown-skinned man takes down Bill Gates's evil empire" Oh, and I hate him more for the anti-homosexual stuff than for his monopoly and harsh business practices.

2. Do you think fame would change you?
Probably not. I'm so used to my life and being careful with my money that I don't think I'd become much of an ass just because I have money, which I presume would come with the fame. I'd probably spend a lot of it on my family and friends. Of course if this was fame without money I don't see how it would make a difference regardless.

3. Has your name ever appeared in the newspaper? ..what for?
Yes it did, for when we got to nationals for the Goldman Sachs Economics Challenge. Good times.

4. Would you like to be famous for *more* than 15 minutes?
If it was something I earned from a lot of hard work towards a dream, then yes. Otherwise, not really.

5. If you could perform one act of Good while you were famous, what would it be?
Funding a ton of scholarships. That would be sweet.