Time for Seppuku?

My Diffy Q test could've gone better, but I think I nailed all but one of them (only 6 questions total), but even if I got all that wrong and the others right I'd probably have an A compared to everyone else, so let's see what happens. I'm very anxious to see my grade, of course. Anyway, guess what time it is? It's almost time for Apple's 30th anniversary. So where's the "special event" or press conference or whatever Jobs likes to call it? No sign of it. One CNet reporter claims that he'll jump off the ledge of his building if there's no big announcement, which is either a joke or just his extreme hope for something new and spectacular from the bright minds over in Mountain View. You've got to hand it to Apple though, they really know how to throw an imaginary conference. Every tech podcast for the past month (I listen/watch probably about 5 or 6 of these regularly) has been regularly mentioning all these rumors accumulating and giving commentary on them (naturally). People are holding off purchases for it and wasting lots of time drawing all kinds of mockups on what the next big thing could be. Has Apple done anything to garner this kind of zeal? At MacWorld he flashed a little slide about the anniversary being this year at the very end of it, and at his last cruddy little event he said "we'll see you all real soon." We've read into these words as "new full-screen video iPod" and "30th anniversary Mac" and "movies on iTunes." I wonder if Gates ever wished he had that kind of power? Instead, he touts around his products while in development (ala Vista) or tries guerilla mystery tactics (such as with Origami), and gets slammed left and right. Poor guy; at least he has all that dough. Anyway, I don't think we should start stabbing ourselves with katanas quite yet because the week isn't done yet, and given how sentimental Jobs is with his companies, I can't imagine him not doing anything at all for this anniversary.

It could be that Steve is caught up in litigation what with Beatles record label Apple Corps suing Apple for their logo since they violated an old agreement they had that Apple could keep the logo if they stuck to personal computing, but now iTunes has really blown up. This really is a big deal for them since when it was first ruled on it was actually harsher than you think (i.e. I would consider a case like that to have been thrown out, and yet it wasn't), but the trial is just getting underway. I'm sure many of you have heard the buzz word "Web 2.0" in relation to the new wave of spiffy web application hitting the Net, and one blogger has actually commented on why it's no more than a buzz word. This actually reflects what I've heard from many other techie pundits, and I partially buy into that. However, I think that by making scripts easier to write it could diffuse pretty far, though I think it'll be a long long while before they overtake regular software. IGN got a leak from an insider on the Revolution's specs, and the processor looks to be a 3rd as powerful as the Xbox 360 (not even 1 GHz). It looks to be at least as powerful as the current generation, and Nintendo is sticking to their platform of rapid hardware upgrading being unnecessary right now, and I'll agree with them when I see some great games take advantage of their fancy little remote. Lastly, Gateway has inadvertently announced a new Ultra Low Voltage (ULV) Intel Core Solo chip by putting a laptop utilizing it online a couple of weeks before it's even going to be announced by Intel. They may have taken it down, since I can't find it now, but I wonder if Intel yelled at them?

It looks like Superman Returns will be opening in IMAX and IMAX-3D, and if there are IMAX theaters in Dallas then I'm totally going to a midnight showing of it there. I can imagine people saying, "whoa, it's like he's flying into me!" Ok maybe not, but it should be cool anyway. AICN has two glowing reviews for The Fountain, which has rejuvenated my long dead interest in the movie and makes me wish they would release it sooner rather than later. Ben Stiller has signed on to do a comedy movie called Big Wave with a plot too ridiculous for me to care to summarize, but I just hope that he knows what he's doing with this one. Sony's UMD disc is really taking a beating out there as it loses shelf space and sales, and I wonder how long before Sony officially pulls the plug on it. Lastly, movie theaters are getting ancy about DVD releases inching closer to their theatrical debuts, but I don't see how this would help studios make more money. They're losing money because their films suck, not because people are tired of theaters. I suppose that pricing is another factor, but I was willing to pay $12 to see V for Vendetta, how many other movies could you say the same for?

I decided to go for the Thursday Threesome this week:

Onesome: External-- What sorts of gadgets do having hanging off your computer? We'll spot you that printer, but how about other goodies like scanners, card readers, cameras, MP3 players and such?
I have USB extension cable to plug my iPod Shuffle into, and another USB cable for my digital camera. Other than though, nothing really. Just my Altec Lansings, my mic, and my 17" MAG CRT (which I would love even more if it wasn't morbidly obese).

Twosome: Hard-- What part of working with computers is hard for you? ...working with one particular piece of software? Getting that camera to connect? ...or dealing with the family members who don't understand what the deal is ?
Theory. Definitely theory =P Working with naive family members can be trying, but these theory courses are really kicking my butt.

Threesome: Drive-- What drives you to the computer? Is it friends? Work? News? Recipes? The weather radar?
Probably my career ;) Same corny tale: been interested in them since childhood, and now I can't see any other route for my life. It has its ups and downs, but I'm really driven to learn more about it and try to use it to make mine and everyone else's lives more convenient. I suppose that my ultimate goal in life would be to build software to help the world.