To Not Worship

I received the offer today from TI and I was quite pleased by it. I'm in a much better mood knowing that I can screw up my interview with Goldman Sachs tomorrow knowing full well that I have an almost equally great job waiting for me in Dallas. It's not New York City, but it's a more casual atmosphere, which I prefer. It's pretty standard fare for a first internship (maybe even a little above for a sophomore), and the benefits are definitely good. I'll report back when I make a decision. Moving on though, one blogger wrote an amazingly insightful post on five things Steve Jobs has done to mislead us over the past 30 years. I personally felt that his best point was that Apple is way too far ahead of the market in some of its moves. For example, they removed the PCI card slot from the MacBook Pro in exchange for ExpressCard, but that's fairly new and most people aren't accustomed to it yet. So what do they do with their PCI cards? They shouldn't make long term decisions without considering the short term effects. Another prime example is firewire, which many people were sad to see go. This article just goes to show that he's not fallible, and a Wired columnist even went so far as to tell people to stop worshipping these tech celebrities. He makes a rather good point, I must say. Sure, these guys are brilliant businessmen, but they didn't cure cancer or anything. They couldn't care less about you other than your money, so don't consider them as some sort of deity. The people who are Mac fanatics are more on this track. Actually, any OS fanatic is in bad shape because people need to accept that each OS is good for certain purposes, but that's a story for another day.

I actually have a couple of other Apple things that I might as well get out of the way. I forgot to mention a few days ago that they filed for a patent of a tablet UI that would be motion sensitive so that when you turned it and stuff it would also affect what's on the screen. The main speculation has been that it's for video games, which would make the most sense and be pretty cool, but let's talk more about it when the details surface. One man has brought one of the stupidest tech lawsuits I've heard of against Apple: he's suing because the iPod can cause hearing damage. Maybe I should sue the City of Austin as well because if I stick keys in my electrical outlet it could cause me serious injury. If you've been waiting for a calendar killer app then your wait may soon be over with the encroaching beta release of 30 Boxes, which is written in Ajax (i.e. pretty UI and cutting-edge web technology) and allows you to extremely easily build your calendar online (easy remote access) and share with friends. Also, you can print out dailies and link days with stuff like flight details and all that good stuff. You heard about it here first! IE7's public beta release has predictably provoked a number of bugs, incompatibilities, and instability concerns. Why doesn't Microsoft know how to actually execute proper unit testing? Lastly, a recent survey has confirmed what the rest of us have known all along: bad music is what's killing the music industry, not piracy. I wish those guys in suits would actually be as smart as they look. Which reminds me, I just wore a polo shirt and good jeans to the Career Fair today and the few companies I was interested seemed to like just as much (if not more) as those guys walking around in suits. I don't believe in flashiness to sell yourself.

Interestingly enough, that lovely lady to the left is Bryce Howard, who you may remember from The Village. She dyed her hair for Spider-man 3 to be a better Gwen Stacy, and she really looks a lot more like the character now! There are actually images for a couple of other movies out today. Some Spanish site has a new shot from Mission Impossible: 3, but I didn't show it here because it's just him hanging on to side of a car. Been there, done that, time for something more exhilarating. Gettys Images has a few on-set pictures of Daniel Craig from Casino Royale, but I still can't see the 007 in him. Variety revealed a few small details about Grind House. Robert Rodriguez's zombie portion is Planet Terror and Quentin Tarantino's slasher flick is Death Proof, and production should be starting up this month. I wonder if I'll see any of it around Austin. Lastly, Harry Potter fans will probably be interested in the casting of Luna Lovegood from Ravenclaw. She's a no-name, but AICN provides a picture.

Now for some 3x Thursdayness:

1. "I hate it when ________________. " Why?
People talk down to me. In other words, people who think they're better than me, and so they treat me as an inferior. Some dude (under a pseudonym) was mocking a comment of mine on the newsgroup for my computer architecture class as if he was an expert in that area (the specific issue was with Visual Studio), and it pissed me off because I was trying to help people and he was trying to ridicule me. Of course I continued talking back to him until he backed off; I don't crap from anyone. I treat everyone with respect who deserve it and expect it in return.

2. What makes you feel violated? Why?
When you touch me down there. Ok, seriously though, when my stuff isn't the way I left it. Like if I had things on my desk one way, and something is missing (like scissors) because my room mate borrowed it. My room mate is overall very good about this and rarely does it, but my mom is horrible at it and I hate not having my personal space.

3. Do you ever have reoccuring dreams? Can you remember any of them? Do tell!
Not really, but when I work too hard I have dreams where I'm trying to solve some problem that I can't solve. I'll actually hit the snooze because I feel that the problem is very urgent, until I realize that it was all a dream. Yeah, those nights really suck. Maybe I just need a better bed though because I slept like a baby last Thursday night in Dallas. The bed was unbelievably comfortable.

Bonus Question: Ever feel like you need to post a sticky on your forehead that says, "GO AWAY!" ?
Anyone who doesn't has mental issues. I can't imagine not being in situations where I don't want to talk to anyone. It's not a daily occurrence for me or anything, but sometimes I do need my space. I'm a people person though so fortunately I try to avoid it.