A Next Generation Sans the PC

I think I made my enthusiasm for the Xbox 360 and PS3, which is my pick to win the next battle, abundantly clear during all the E3 craziness. I totally didn't think of the war's effect on the PC, which this author apparently did carefully consider. For those of you who don't know, PC gaming has been taking severe hits in recent years due to the great games coming to consoles and the widespread piracy of PC games. Even though console games are pirated it's not nearly as accepted because it requires modding and more trouble than the average gamer can handle whereas burning a CD is easy. Piracy in general is a sad problem because this stuff takes a lot of hard work to make, but what's really going to hurt in the next generation is the fact that for the first time the consoles' power actually surpass current PCs. Not only that, but unless the consoles cost an exorbitant amount (highly unlikely) they'll be much cheaper than building a souped up gaming PC rig. It used to be that the advantage of the PC was that games look better on them, but now you probably won't even be able to tell the difference. The only way to save the PC, in my opinion, is to have someone like Microsoft come in and regulate the industry since there are currently no standards or licenses like there are for consoles. That's unlikely, but I hope the age of LAN parties doesn't die out.

Not a whole lot of remaining techie news. Bluetooth has been the subject of many security concerns recently and it turns out that connections via the protocol can be hacked even when security is turned on via some sneaky pre-pairing work. I guess Bluetooth isn't as ideal as previously thought. If you have privacy concerns even when checking out materials from a library you may be pleased to know that efforts are underway to create anonymous library cards. I'm not that concerned about the library but I guess people take their rights really seriously. Google has unveiled a new service called Google Sitemaps that allows webmasters to generate sitemaps for the sites and keep Google's search engine more informed about their site. The Napster case has generated another standard: it turns out that you cannot get in trouble for offering copyrighted materials but only for distributing them with direct proof of the transfer. It's funny that the RIAA didn't have evidence ahead of time, but it's only a small victory after all. Lastly, I thought it was also funny that morse code can actually be faster than SMS text messaging.

I'm sorry to say that the movie news is also less than thrilling. However, there's a rumor that Harrison Ford gave away the title of the next Indiana Jones flick as Indiana Jones and the Opal of the Mer-man Prince. It could've easily been a joke and I think many people would hope so given the fact that it has 'mer-man' in it. If you've read the Chronicles of Narnia you may be able to make sense out of these few new picture from the upcoming fantasy movie. I think everyone is a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fan so it's exciting to have even the slightest bit of news on the cg film. All the blurb that we have hints at though is that it's likely going to try to be truer to its comic roots and will definitely be completely computer animated. AICN got its hands on another early review of The Island (this time an early version of the enire film) and it does not sound like a good step for Michael Bay. I think we all dreaded it having a hard-to-swallow storyline but I was hoping it would be told in a neat way. Yahoo! Movies has an exclusive clip from Batman Begins but it doesn't appear to be working as of my writing this post so hopefully it'll go back to normal soon. Lastly, the sexy Rosario Dawson has signed on to an indie-thriller in which she plays a vengeful seductress in college, which isn't a huge stretch given where we last saw her:



It's Friday so it's time for a Feast:

Appetizer
What comes to mind when you hear the word bizarre?
Well the first thing that comes to mind is that dude from the rap group D-12 named 'Bizzare' because he's really extreme in his style. Another bizzare thing is that I saw an old dude at the beach Sunday in a speedo! It was quite a scary sight.

Soup
Using just a few words, describe your childhood.
Not very fun. Glad to be..err..not a child!

Salad
Name one thing you do each day that you feel improves your appearance.
Work out! I feel tired when I come home from the gym and like I did something to really help myself. Plus I can usually feel the pain the next morning.

Main Course
On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how would you rate your self-confidence?
Probably a 6. I wish it was higher than that but my loser factor and my cluttering hurts it. If I had a girlfriend it would probably change, but it's not like I hate myself or anything so it's not really a big deal. I don't try to let people know day-to-day of that, but that number truthfully reflects how I feel in my head.

Dessert
Where did you last find a bargain?
The last night I spent with my room mate in Austin last month we got two styrofoam boxes of fried rice delivered to us for $5! It was a delicious (and really really filling) meal not only because of the taste but also the insanely low price.