Goodbye Aperture, Hello Apple Media Center?

I put down the deposit on my apartment for next school year, and it's a charming little complex called Juniper Springs just down the street from where I live. Hopefully, I can stay there for the remainder of my time at UT rather than moving around again, which is contingent on the management being good and the rent not going up. Anyway, I thought I'd cover some Apple news first and kill two birds with one stone. Way back when, I blogged about some reviews totally slamming Aperture, and I thought it was funny how much Jobs was promoting it at MacWorld since people seemed to hate it. Well, word is that Jobs killed that team off. Jobs "fires" people all the time because of his moods, so this may have just been a mood swing, or maybe that product will go away, or maybe he'll hire new staff for it. I guess we can wait and see, but I don't think anyone will hold their breaths with other great professional photo editing products on the market. Apple also held its shareholder meeting, and it really sounds like Jobs doesn't like his shareholders. Anyway, he managed to let slip out that they're well aware of the demand for a media center from Apple, which would imply that probably they're working on one right now. My best guess will be a better version of the Mac Mini optimized for all kinds of media and IP TV and such, but we have no idea how long it'll be before he talks about this again. It could be as soon as the coming weeks or as late as a year from now. All we know for sure is that they're launching some new ad campaign next week, and at least those are always fun to watch.

InformationWeek seems to be pretty smitten by IE7 Beta 2 and claims that IE7 will be better than Firefox! I think their views are somewhat biased since everyone else has to have mixed opinions, but at least they make some good points. Still, I'm not totally sold on it. How good are you at spotting adware? Could you pass a quiz on it? Then try this out, because it may surprise you. I got a 5/8 on it, which I guess is pretty decent. If you want to know what to avoid buying, check out PC Magazine's worst products of Q1 2006. I usually don't trust their opinions, but I think that when it comes to the worst products that they're probably pretty spot-on. I was actually just thinking about Facebook randomly today and how they could make more money and wondered what if they expanded it to companies. Well, I guess I'm psychic because they've done just that. I'm sure you'll find less pictures of underage drinking for these employee photos though. I never got certification for any technical skills, and always thought they were stupid. eWeek confirms that so do companies now, and not a single recruiter has even mentioned them (and I've spoken to a lot over the past couple of years). Bottom line: don't waste your time if you were curious to try one. Google has finally integrated SketchUp, which I covered the acquisition of a long time ago, with Google Earth. So you can like draw a 3-D model of your house and put it right on your map of your neighborhood. Probably unnecessary, but fun to play with. All I have left is game stuff, once again. Nintendo actually changed the name of their next generation console to Wii. Yes, I'm serious, and this short trailer proves it. They even distributed information explaining the title to press outlets, and the two i's are supposed to represent the gamer and the controller. I think it could catch on, but Revolution just sounded cooler. Game Informer grilled their PR manager about it, and I think they were a little too harsh, but better too much than too little. A little video sprung up on Digg of a reenactment of Super Mario Brothers in some University talent show, and it's really quite impressive. If you've played any of the NES or SNES versions, that video is a must-see.

That's the official poster for My Super Ex-Girlfriend, and it's not all that exciting, but it's Uma Thurman so I'll take it. I always wanted to read Atlas Shrugged, but I guess I can just watch it now that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie will be starring in a movie based on it the Ayn Rand classic. I'll wait to pass judgement on it though. Mike Myers may be trying to make a comeback after a few lackluster movies with a film called How to Survive a Robot Uprising, and since he has a hand in writing it I expect good things. In case you care, Hulk 2 now has a villain, but I was never much of a fan of the original comic anyway, personally. AICN has another great review of United 93, and it sounds like this one will be a real winner! I'm glad that Paul Greengrass is doing good by those poor victims. Now I just have some videos left for you. IGN has a couple more clips from Hard Candy, but you shouldn't watch the if you want to be totally surprised and caught off guard by the movie. Yahoo Movies has the teaser trailer for Wordplay, a documentary of sorts on the New York Times crossword puzzle featuring Jon Stewart. I'm still not clear as to what it actually follows, but at least it has Jon Stewart. They also have a teaser for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, which is unnecessarily long but I guess they figure they can get away with it since Brad Pitt is involved. The teaser didn't do much for me, so we'll see what happens with this one.

Now for the 3x Thursday meme:

1. Do you work better alone, or with other people? Why?
It really depends. If they're around my level of intelligence or not lazy, then I work very well with them. But I hate going to like study groups where everyone is dependent on me and no one has cared to study much. That's more of a high school thing though, as nowadays I find myself associated with people who really do the work and we can actually depend on each other equally rather than one person carrying all the weight.

2. Do you worry too much? Why/why not?
Probably, and I guess it's because I have so much going on. I feel like I'm missing out on a lot of opportunities socially, that I may not get what I want career-wise, and that I'll never kick this cluttering habit. But oh well, that's life.

3. Do you believe in life after death? Why/why not? If not, what do you believe?
I do, because I think it's important to have hope. And, of course, I believe in God. I just can't accept that we'd die here and that's it. There's got to be more to us than just what we are physically, and it has to go somewhere when we leave this world.

Bonus Question: When you leave your house and your car, do you make sure that the locks are locked? Why/why not?
Oh yes, because I'd be an idiot not to. I feel pretty safe in Far West, but our house in Houston has been robbed once when I was little and I've had my car towed, so I guess I'm more careful than others.