LoJack Your Laptop

Today is a much slower day than yesterday for news, and the most notable article is regarding a new security technique for laptops. A lot of businessmen keep sensitive data on their laptops cans they carry the bloody things with them everywhere! Even my brother, and he's just a consultant. Absolute Software has come up with a solution currently called Computrace, but soon to be known as LoJack, to such a breach. If the machine is lost it will secretly send locating data to Absolute Software so that it can be recovered. I guess that this is activated remotely when you call them and tell them that it's lost, and it's a really nifty idea. I can totally see technology like this spreading to things like briefcases and wallets in the future as chips get smaller and smaller. It's kind of sad to think that such measures are becoming more and more necessary in today's society, but I guess sin is inevitable when you get a lot of people together in one place.

There are a few other things going on in technology. A bunch of professors linked up 512 IBM processors over almost a month in Germany to simulate the history of the universe in the "Millenium Run" project. There used to be pictures of it, and maybe they'll come back soon because it really does look pretty neat though the mechanics are over my head. Dell and Napster are teaming up to take the legal file-sharing software to college campuses by adding some Dell Powerblade servers to widen the bandwidth and cutting deals to universities. That could mean cheaper Dell mp3 players and song downloads! A new player in VoIP called Project Gizmo is challenging the domain of Skype with a service built on open-source SIP technology and allowing calls to landlines/cell phones. I wonder if telephone providers are pissing in their pants with all these cheap alternatives? Lastly, Opera users will soon have a version of the browser that supports BitTorrent.

The movie news today is pretty good. There are rumors churning that the next Spider-man flick may have four villains: Venom, Sandman, Vulture, and the Hobgoblin. Hopefully we'll have something confirmed next week at ComicCon. Legendary director David Fincher has commited himself to two movies: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Zodiac. The former is based off of a really interesting F. Scott Fitzgerald book and the latter is based on the Zodiac killer. Oldboy director Chan Wook Park is also working on some exciting stuff. One is the last part of his revenge trilogy called Lady Vengeance and the other is I’m a Cyborg, but It’s OK, which is another psychological thriller about a girl in a mental hospital who thinks she's a robot. AICN got a less than thrilling review for MirrorMask suggesting that it may be one to wait for the DVD release, and so now I don't know what to think about it. Hollywood seems to be becoming more receptive to providing movie online legally thankfully, and Sony is even in the process of transcribing hundreds of films. If you get excited by cute kiddie movies you can check out some new pictures from Chicken Little. If you prefer hot girls though, take a closer look at the chick from Four Brothers:



I decided to try out the Wednesday Weird Ones this week since BDI doesn't have the Mind Hump up:

1. Why do people wear leather shoes a lot but never ones made out of ham? Likewise, why are sweaters often made out of wool, but rarely make out of mutton.
It's just all this style stuff. I'm sure that you'll see ham and goat shoes in a few decades.

2. Why does mint taste so minty?
I'm going to go with magic. Either that or maybe mint elves put flavor in them. The world may never know!

3. What should I do with my life? What should I do with your life? How about the lives of random people?
Spread world peace? Knock some sense into Bush? Become a priest? Take your pick.

4. A banana, an apple, and an orange were driving in a car, who's driving? Why?
I think bananas are best for you so I'd say that it'd be the smartest one and most capable of driving. Plus, how would the apple or orange reach the foot pedals?

5. Is the universe bigger or smaller than all that it has enfolded in it? Explain. What shape is the universe? What shape is the sum total of what it contains?
Probably bigger, or else how would it enfold all of it?! The universe is probably a big rectangle like in all those high school textbooks.