Larger Than P2P

Has anyone who goes to 24 Hour Fitness noticed a change in the music selection? Or is it just the Meyerland Plaza location? They've gone from crappy pop music to 90s dance songs and an assortment of other old favorites. It makes working out so much easier that way. Oh, and to give a long overdue answer to a question posed by Adam in a comment: yes, I will be rolling into Austin with my new car so hopefully the UT peeps can check it out. Moving on though, the title is actually meant to be a corny satire of the Backstreet Boys song "Larger Than Life" and I'm actually referring to a recent statement from the RIAA claiming that recordable media is actually more devastating to the music industry than P2P software. This is certainly true for myself and many people I know because I'm just not in the mood anymore to download music and I'll usually burn CDs of artists that I've heard a lot about but am reluctant to actually buy the album for in case it's a waste of money. It's not necessarily all that hurtful though because my burned copy of No Name Face (Lifehouse) led to my purchases of Stanley Climbfall and Lifehouse. Anyway, I don't agree with the measures they're taking to preclude ripping and copying because it means that Windows PC users (not Mac users) can't put the songs on the iPod, which makes me less inclined to buy an mp3 player and hence buy tracks legally online. They really didn't think of that chain reaction possibility. There will always be a crack though for whatever they try, so I guess it really doesn't matter.

Today's nerd news is a jumble of random stuff. Some Singaporean scientists have invented a battery that when coupled with urine can output about 1.5 volts of electricity. Though it sounds odd it could be used for stuff like blood sugar testing units and such around the home considering how cheap urine is to produce. Google lost a lawsuit regarding AdWords that they pushed a little to hard about violating Geico's trademark. You can read the article for the details of how they were in violation and it seemed pretty clear to me that they were in the wrong. There was talk over the weekend that the BBC took advantage of Wikipedia to promote a game on their site, but they denied the charge though it does look pretty bad against them. Why would someone else do that? Apparently though, it's a more common technique than you may think. I mentioned the other day that Yahoo claimed to index more than Google but a new, objective study concluded that Google actually returns many more results than Yahoo does on average (over a random sample of more than 10,000 searches). Poor, poor Yahoo. The underdog also lost in the browser market share arena where Firefox lost over half a percent of market share despite passing the 80 million download mark. Lastly, web developers will want to check out these resources for working with CSS.

There's very little movie news today that I didn't cover in the extended weekend edition yesterday so this will go pretty quick. IGN has learned of 3 new cast members to X-men 3: Bill Duke has the scientist who created sentinals, Michael Murphy as Angel's father, and Olivia Williams as a former love interest of Professor X. The last addition is most intriguing to me since I loved her in Sixth Sense, and these changes make the movie sound more palpable. Yahoo! Movies got a new clip from Red Eye showing the introduction of a rather suspenseful moment, and I guess I still have a little bit of faith left for this movie despite the lackluster reviews so far. JoBlo is starting a feature on the top 10 animated hotties and I only mention it because Jasmine (from Aladdin) made the list, which is a character I felt weird for finding strangely pretty when I was little. Lastly, IGN has some new pictures from Transporter 2.



Now for some Monday Madness:

1. On what day of the week were you born? Saturday (I had to use this though)
2. Do you look forward to birthdays? Yes, because each passing one is just another step closer to 21.
3. How do you usually celebrate your birthday? I've celebrated with family until last year when I didn't really do anything. Hopefully I'll have more fun this year.
4. Do you like surprises? In general, yes.
5. Has anyone ever thrown you a surprise party? Not yet (hint hint).
6. How many family and friends' birthdays can you remember right off the top of your head? Probably only like 3 or 4. I use Birthday Alarm to stay on top of them.
7. Do you send cards to your family and friends on their birthday? Usually just e-Cards, but I do personally deliver cards to local family and friends sometimes as well.
8. What kind of cake do you like? I think my favorite may actually be German Chocolate, but I can be swayed. I'm a big fan of chocolate in cake, but I'm pretty flexible since I have a big sweet tooth.
9. What kind of ice cream goes best with it? Vanilla is the standard.
10. When is your birthday? October 18, 1986.