Gates Getting Soft

I don't know why, but God really liked me today. After agonizing for a few hours, my add/drops worked out all right (I linked to the schedule on the right side) so that I don't have to take a night lab and I'm going to get a good teacher for Differential Equations. As many of you know, that's a godsend. For a small gap of time it was open so I got it, but now it's closed again. I also made some great progress in my Latin program and expect an alpha release by the end of the week. When I started reading this article about Microsoft getting soft, I thought it was boring and almost closed it until I got to page two. I didn't realize that Bill Gates had invested so much more of his time into philanthropy and never even noticed that he's paid less attention to his company since he left his CEO position. Now it all makes sense: Apple and Google are pulling into the lead because the people running them started the companies and as such have a vested ardor to keep them moving forward. The buzz among programmers and among college students has moved away from Microsoft and into the sexier companies. Students are still happy with an offer from Microsoft, but I it's not nearly as coveted as Amazon.com or Google. And who really cares about Vista anymore? It makes me wonder if Microsoft is on a downward slope, or if it will be able to retain its dominance through things like its entertainment branches (such as the Xbox 360).

Everyone is surprisingly excited about the first day of MacWorld tomorrow, and The Business Online pretty much summed up my expectations from Jobs's keynote speech tomorrow. A PowerBook or even an iBook with a Core Duo could prove to be quite potent, and a cheaper iPod Shuffle could mean much higher revenues for them from the po' folk. You can catch a live feed over here; it starts at 11:00 AM CST tomorrow morning. I may catch it and post right afterwards if I can. If you missed my CES highlights, you can see what impressed Engadget the most over here. I forgot to mention the enormous screen TVs they had at the show, but that article does mention it. A lot of us have become too comfortable in our Windows world and are sometimes too forgiving of its shortcomings, but one Linux user candidly describes his experience installing XP on his machine as a horror story. I hope to embrace Mac OS X later this year and back away from the messiness of XP. Lastly, I mentioned it briefly yesterday, but it sounds like Blu-ray really did win over more people than HD-DVD did at CES last week. I guess price didn't deter people's satisfaction.

That's one of a couple of new promotional shots for The Da Vinci Code that have surfaced, and I don't care what the bibliophiles say I think they look great together and just as I would've imagined from reading the book. The Clerks 2 teaser is now online, has previously promised, and it doesn't tell much about the movie but I still look forward to seeing what Smith puts into this one. I always love the pop culture themes in his films. What is really telling and intriguing though is the trailer for Hard Candy, which centers on a photographer who lures young girls to him through Internet chat rooms to, you know, do stuff. The last half of the trailer gets really crazy so I think that this is one to keep in the back of your head. A new season of 24 is almost upon us, and, in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Keifer Sutherland mentioned the possibility of a 24 movie. He also hinted that he may soon be forced to end his role on the series, which will definitely be a sad day. Hugh Jackman spoke with EW as well and tried to reassure X-men comic fans that X3 will stay very true to its characters' histories, so hopefully he's not lying. I think the last trailer pulled away some skeptics from the edge. Lastly, it looks like everyone involved with Indiana Jones is happy with the script for the fourth movie, and the producer has stated that it will start shooting right after The Bourne Ultimatum (which, remember, has gotten bad script reviews).

I decided to try the Monday's a Bitch meme this week:

1. I almost peed myself when ____________.
Texas won the Rose Bowl :)
2. Country music = ___________.
whining
3. The smell of leather reminds me of ___________.
luxurious cars
4. When I was little my mom told me ____________.
lots of random sayings in Kaankani that translated horribly into English
5. The last time I screamed was because __________.
(once again) Texas won the Rose Bowl =D

I will most likely not have a post tomorrow night, but I'll try to post a little something after Steve Jobs's keynote speech tomorrow to compensate.