A Firefox Day

It may seem uninteresting, but Firefox made three headlines today. As part of its fiendish plan against Microsoft, IBM has decided to back Firefox in-house, which means that they'll offer it on internal servers and have support readily available at the offices. This is a logical move since IBM has taken a lot of non-proprietary strides with basing so many of its products on Linux. Even before this happened though, Internet Explorer's market share dropped below the 90% mark, which is a first-time for the historically popular browser. It's about time that people stop sticking to IE like glue! It's a good browser, but not for everything. Though this is good news for the Mozilla Foundation, it turns out that their growth rate is slowing and analysts at WebSideStory claim because of the recent security flaws discovered in the browser. The difference between Mozilla and Microsoft though is that they've managed to cover up holes so far before exploits were developed.

There's a bit more techie news still left yet. In a sad turn of events, the MPAA has decided to target TV show download sites, including ones that I religiously used. I'm glad I'll be going home next week so I won't need to download at least until the fall, but I think it's crappy that they're suing without providing a legal alternative. Why should I pay for cable when I only watch 3 shows on it? And if that wasn't enough, the FCC is following up its failure regarding the broadcast flag with a bill giving it less specific authority. It seems like it wouldn't pass, but the way it's worded may prove to make it an interesting case. In other news, Microsoft is being a cocky bastard. They've decided to challenge McAffee and Symantec's stake in the antivirus software market with a subscription service of their own. I think given their lack of experience that they'll fall flat on their ass. The FAA has decided to fund a search engine technology that would be able to find possible terrorist paper trails by gleaning "hidden" information from public websites. Now this is the kind of stuff Homeland security should've done a while ago!

The movie news today is alright. If you're salivating for some multimedia you can see a small taste of gangster movie Layer Cake over here. If you like staring at Salma Hayek you can check out some shots of her and Penelope Cruz in their upcoming movie Bandidas over here. There's even a poster out, but I think the movie will mostly be popcorn entertainment. Sam Raimi is trying to keep things quiet regarding Spider-man 3, but he did talk a little bit about the special effects in this interview. He sounds pretty pumped about it and it seems like all they're doing now is trying to figure out which direction to go for what they want in producing the proper special effects. Eddie Murphy is on his way to jumpstarting his career again by playing several roles in a movie called, which was written by his brother and himself, about a wimpy guy married to a monster of a woman when he finds the girl of his dreams. What's even better about this movie is that it's being directing by the director of the hit movie Dodgeball, and so I'm hoping that all goes well for this comedy.

Before I conclude I want to address some console stuff. It appears that Sony is getting a bit jittery about the Xbox 360 and may move up the PS3 to this year. I think rushing it would be a huge mistake, and plus releasing it next year would give me a chance to buy it since I'll have a job next summer. Meanwhile, the Xbox 360 has already been unveiled! You can see the detailed unveiling video here, the design here, and the hardware here. As beefy as it is, I think that it'll get blown out by the PS3. I think the controller is a lot better (wireless!) and the console's leaner look is a step up. And this is totally unrelated, but I went to play some football with some guys from the ACM and I learned about squirrel fishing. If you're as curious as me, you can check out a whole gallery of this spectacle here. Here's my one picture explanation:



Now it's time for the Friday Feast:

Appetizer
Whose intelligence do you find intimidating?
Though he's no longer alive I'd have to say Edsger Dijkstra. He seemed to be a fountain of ideas and every talk I've heard of his seems to just be mind-blowing. Another person I'd have to say is my old high school debate coach, David Johnson. He knew the art of arguing so well that it was almost scarier than when he yelled.

Soup
Name something you've done that surprised yourself.
Made an A in Philosophy! But I think even bigger than that was when I lost like 35 lbs (5 of that being on accident as an after effect of my increased metabolism). I was quite a chubby kid in my youth and after my sophomore year of high school I decided that it was time for change. I'd had many failed attempts in the past, but it stuck that time and I feel blessed for it.

Salad
List 3 people whom you have only "met" online, but consider good friends.
I've lost touch with the people I've met online. There were a couple of people I considered good friends from this message board I used to hang around that was part of a fansite for Ms. Katie Holmes. There's also a guy I met through a SOCOM clan who lives in Texas so I do still talk to him.

Main Course
Where is the dirtiest place you've ever been?
The guys' locker room? A lot of naked guys in there and not all of them are in shape *shudders*. Bombay is pretty dirty, but it's not too bad.

Dessert
What is the best example of "perfection" that you can think of?
If you asked me a few months ago I would've mentioned a girl! I guess I'd have to say the Coldplay albums. All the tracks just feel so balanced they're amazing. There's also the guitar, which is such a curious instrument because of how perfectly it's shaped to give the best tone of music.