Watch Your Ears

I have a lot to get done before I go to bed tonight for EE 316 and CS 310 so I wonder how fast I can type this post. It should be quite a challenge for me to try to finish in 10 minutes if I want it to be done by 11:00 PM like I had previously planned. My life feels a lot more stressful now with NSC and ACM responsibilities (mostly the former), but I think once I get used to it all I'll feel better. Anyway, Wired had an alarming article about how younger generations have been getting increasingly worse hearing. Why? Concerts you say? Possibly, but their conclusion is that it's likely the increased usage of portable music players. Is there scientific evidence for this? Of course not. The article would like for you to think that, but there's no causal link. It is highly likely though. Keeping an earbud in your ear for an extended period of time can't be any better than playing video games for a long time without break or prolonged typing, but there could still be stuff about the ear we don't know. In any case, be careful the next time you walk out your door with your iPod or Zen or whatever you listen to.

The nerd news is best begun with the nerdiest thing for today, and today it's a sneak peek at JUnit 4. The fact that most of you don't know what that means probably makes me sad enough, but it's a testing framework for Java and the improvements to it are actually very useful for those of you developing Java-based applications. Google has decided to compete with Technorati with its own Blog Search, but so far it looks pretty lackluster. They need to up the features and UI if they hope to becomes as big as Technorati. Bill Gates actually spoke a little about Google in an interview with the Seattle PI. They claim that they're as big a threat as Novell or Lotus, but maybe they're underestimating the company with sex appeal? GM is going to do its fans a big favor and make new cars smarter by featuring monthly diagnostic checks automatically built into the car's OnStar system. It'll only be free for the first year, but it sounds like a worthwhile feature. Lastly, TiVo has voluntarily decided to institute broadcast flags so that certain programs can't be kept past a certain date and can't be transferred to a computer, and I think they're helping out these stations in exchange for alienating their customers.

Luckily, the movie news is very light today. If you like Cameron Diaz and Toni Collette (from The Sixth Sense), then there are a few new clips from Yahoo! Movies for you. If you're a fan of Scarlett Johansson, there's a really random clip from her upcoming movie (from Woody Allen) Match Point over here. Lastly, JoBlo has a few wallpapers from Into the Blue, and since there's never a bad time to show an Alba picture...



I'm going to go with QOTD II today:

What new or returning TV shows are you looking forward to viewing this season?
I'm really looking forward to Lost and Desperate Housewives. I'll also continue watching Smallville just to keep seeing Kristin Kreuk every week and since the season finale was pretty crazy.