Monday, June 13, 2005

Falling Computer Prices

You know it's true!


That comic has nothing to do with anything except that it's totally hilarious. You'd be surprised how widespread that problem is. On to a cleaner subject though: prices in technology. It turns out that an entry-level computer in today's world will only set you back $300! Of course it won't have a lot of bells and whistles, but unless you're a programmer or a hardcore gamer that won't matter to you. I'm just taken aback at how much prices have fallen from when I was little and what a luxury it was for us to get our first computer that my brother begged for. It's funny that it used to be a joke for every household to have a computer. Why is it that printer ink doesn't get any cheaper though? I know software doesn't get much cheaper out of a mix of greed and production costs, but does ink really not get any cheaper at all? Oh well, at least we also see better prices on sweet monitors. If you would've told me a few years ago that I'd be taking a 17" MAG to college for under $100 I would've called you crazy!

There's still plenty of techie news left. It would appear that some cafe owners feel that offering free WiFi is bad for business because it encourages lingerers, and I was surprised to learn that one such shop got more business by disconnecting the service on weekends. I didn't know people cared so much about conversations in a coffee shop. You don't need WiFi though to enjoy SeamlessWeb, which is a cool new service that is rather limited but runs with the idea of ordering food online conveniently. I know that students at UT in the dorms us CampusFood.com, but I hope such service spreads more to the mainstream. As if Utah wasn't backwards enough already, it now is trying to restrict children's access to the Internet. It sounds well and good except for that it means casting a wide net penalizing even innocent sites and would hence discourage free speech. I'm sure that'll get struck down though. Open sourcers can bask in this comparison of Linux to BSDs. You may also like Nokia's smartphone browser choice. I ran into this thesis technology that may appear too nerdy, except that it's a really neat concept of a monitor showing separate images to different people at the same time. It takes a careful look to understand, but it's worthwhile. Lastly, Steve Jobs is apparently convincing students to drop out because it forced him to be innovative when he did it. I think that may work for some people, but not everyone.

There's some meaty movie news today. My excitement to see Batman Begins tomorrow pushes forth with a great review from IGN and an informative interview with Christian Bale at JoBlo.com. I think the most surprising thing I learned was his insane weight fluctuations between The Machinist and Batman Begins where he had to gain 100 lbs in 5 months. Some bad news for comic book fans popped up on AICN today: X3 has a pretty bad script behind it and needs serious help. I guess the director is the least of Fox's problems with this one. There's a neat new trailer for Wes Craven's Red Eye up and it's making the movie look more and more intriguing. In contrast, two sequels to Resident Evil sounds like a little too much and I can totally see them murdering the series. If you like staring at Lindsay Lohan there are some new clips from Herbie: Fully Loaded at Yahoo! Movies. Lastly, you can check out an international poster for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory over here.

The big news today was that Michael Jackson has been acquitted! I sincerely believe that the prosecution failed to uphold their burden of proof and if they couldn't prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt with that much time then he's gotta be innocent. Some better reactions are here. What was really shocking today was a book accusing Bill Clinton of raping his wife (while being married though) to get Chelsea! I can't see his claims as being true and I hope they do sue his pants off.

Now for some crazy Monday Madness:

Please list at least one anagram for the following words...

1. praised dip ears
2. idle lied
3. lamp palm
4. tied edit
5. lured ruled
6. sang nags
7. hoes shoe
8. rats star
9. mobbed bombed
10. rifle flier

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