How Boot Camp Will Rule the World

To whomever put my CS 352 book in the corner of the room rather than steal it this morning when I stupidly left it behind: I love you. They turned my week totally around, and I will offer special prayers in return for their kindness. Two more great things happened today: I found out that I aced my Diffy Q test, and NSC won Best Academic Organization from UT LB for Swing Out awards, which is probably the greatest honor for a UT club. Very excited about that, and here's a slightly blurred image from the back of the shirt featuring us. Anyway, moving on to what you really care about. People seem to be enjoying Boot Camp, and I haven't heard of any serious issues so far (though it's still in beta, so they would be acceptable). Now it's time to think of the side effects: could this mean the end of Windows as we know it? That's what one blogger thinks, and I agree that it'll hurt Microsoft, but not stop Windows altogether. One thing is for sure though: they're going to get more people to buy Macs now, especially administrators and programmers who need to develop/work with multiple platforms. I don't think that Linux will gain 30% of the market, but I can totally see Mac reaching 30% and a lot of computer manufacturers losing business to Apple. This may even cause them to put pressure on Microsoft to halt Boot Camp, but I think they'd prefer to spread to Mac users. That writers seems to believe that it'll ultimately hurt M$, but I think that it's a toss-up. Piracy could go up and people could leave Windows, but it's not like a lot of Windows users will totally abandon it, and it'll be hard for them to be dethroned. I don't know that Apple would then rule the world of computers, but I thought that it would be a good title because this could cause a huge spike in sales. Then again, it could just be a small bump. It's too hard to tell so early on how the market will react, but I think that as news of this stuff spreads, and if Leopard includes virtualization, that there will be more market share in store for them. Welcome back to the playing table, Steve.

Speaking of Intel-based machines, Ars Technica has a great write-up explaining the Core microarchitecture. That article is for computer nerds only, and I just thought it was good that they made the pipeline a bit cleaner and improved branch prediction. I'm curious to see figures on what kind of quantitative improvements that lead to. Google and Yahoo are teaming up to provide free WiFi to the entire city of San Francisco, and I assume that they'll be paid out of citizens' taxes. I predict a sharp increase in laptop sales in San Francisco, and I'd actually probably get a laptop myself if all of Austin was wireless-ready. Bill Gates wrote an article in Fortune about how he works, and it's a little humbler than you might expect, but I'm sure that some of it is fluff. Reading about his desk makes me wish I could afford to hook up multiple LCDs to my computer. Blockbuster responded to Netflix's lawsuit by basically pleading that this is an attempt to lock the market, which is funny since Blockbuster is the rental giant, not Netflix. This will be an interesting legal battle, indeed. Lastly, if you've ever considered making your own podcast, you should read this. It's not as hard as you might think, and you'll probably end up having a lot of fun while you're at it. The hardest part is really getting the word out about it.

We finally have a bonified trailer for Nacho Libre, and it may not be as funny as I had expected, but it still has some promise. I was actually more impressed by the lesser known trailer release for Peaceful Warrior at Yahoo Movies, which is one of those feel-good movies we've seen before, but it does have Nick Nolte. The release date for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix has been revealed as July 13, 2007, but I still need to get in line to see the fourth one. This will be the same week as the release of the last Harry Potter book (thought it wouldn't happen, didn't you?), and is a couple of weeks before the Simpsons movie. Lastly, the lovely Jessica Alba revealed that Dr. Doom won't be the main villain in the Fantastic Four sequel, but wouldn't say who was. She claims that they're making the "right changes," but I don't see how she could know without being a true comic fan (which I'm not myself either, in this case).

Now for the Thursday Threesome:

Onesome: Money- What's the biggest waste of money you've ever spent?
I'm sure there's been a bigger waste than this, but I bought a book for my second CS class that was horribly written and we never used in class whatsoever. It's still on my bookshelf, in pristine condition. However, no one will buy it, and it's now an "old" edition.

Twosome: Back- Have you ever said or done something that you wish you could take back?
Yes, and usually to my mom. She just knows how to push my buttons and get me riled up. It's not like I say things like, "I wish you were dead," or anything nearly that extreme, but she's as sensitive as me so the littlest things set her off. I should really just absorb her nagging, but with all my day-to-day pressures, it's hard.

Threesome: Guarantee- What do you wish would come with a guarantee?
I could go for the corny answer and say my heart, but instead I'll go with an apartment. There's never a guarantee that it'll be as good as you think it will be to live there, and both of my choices have been subpar so far despite prior excitement in moving in there.