Pushing Back Fiji

We may not look like much, but the ACM Burninators took 3rd place at NSC's Kickball Tournament on Saturday. The NSC people thought I was betraying them by helping out ACM, but oh well. I put up more pictures over here if anyone cares. There's really not much big stuff going on today. In fact, I only decided on the Fiji article because I wanted to show you this awesome poster to the right from a contest where participants made old timey propaganda posters relevant to the OS X vs. Windows battle. Speaking of that battle, we're all well aware that Vista isn't coming out until early next year. So what the Hell is Fiji? Well, it turns out that they've already codenamed the next Windows (this one was codenamed Longhorn, by the way) Fiji, presumably after that group of islands in the Pacific? The point is that there are concerns that it'll be delayed now since Vista is delayed and they're likely developing these OSes in parallel. But, get this, they've already codenamed the next version of Windows after that! It's called Vienna (after the city in Germany?), formerly known as Blackcomb. First observation: maybe they'd be more on time with releases if they spent less time coming up with stupid codenames for software. Secondly, were they really going to keep on a strict schedule with "Fiji" anyway? There's no way it was going to come out in 2008 even if Vista was on time. You know why? Microsoft is too big a company to follow a two-year turnover and has too much bureaucracy. It's not their fault, it's just a fact of the kind of company they run. In contrast, everything at Apple is run by Steve Jobs. So the hierarchy is less pronounced and the company is a bit smaller, and Jobs really rules with an iron fist. If Microsoft would just look ahead of the curve and turn out real high quality versions of Windows, they wouldn't attract so much negative press (it really is exaggerated) just because they don't release a new version every year.

There's trouble in paradise over at the Mozilla Foundation as well: Firefox 2.0 will no longer have its upgrade to bookmark dubbed Places, which has been in the alpha version and was arguably one of the most important upgrades. It sounds like they were having stability issues though, and so I'm glad they're being so brave with this decision despite the backlash they knew would ensue. I'm sure Firefox 2.0 will be a quality product with this kind of leadership. There's been some change at Apple with the Aperture team getting the axe under the covers over in Cupertino, and one blogger claims to have just accepted a position on the Aperture teams, which would imply that the project is still going to continue on! Let's hope for a less rushed release next time from Apple. Ever wonder if that $500 graphics card is worth more than the $300 one? Then you're probably not a hardcore gamer, but if you are then you should check out this comparison of two such cards from ATI and from Nvidia. Some day, I will be able to afford a graphics card as sweet as those. Usually, when I encounter links to sites with lists of free online books, I write them off as junk, but this one is actually pretty decent so give it a try if you're looking into learning a new techie skill. I'll definitely be perusing some of those books over the summer. Lastly, Stephen Colbert did a little speech at the White House Correspondents' Dinner yesterday, and it's pretty much a must-see if you're Democrat, liberal, or just not a big fan of the Bush administration. You can get the torrent over here from its airing on C-Span, and it shows what kind of balls he has to say all that stuff just a few feet from the President.

The box office victor, strangely, was RV, the Robin Williams comedy, at under $20 million. United 93 came in second with over $11 million, but made more per theater since it was released much less widely. The critical acclaim for it is phenomenal though, so you need to see it (as do I) this weekend if you don't make it out to MI:3 (or it just gets sold out). The Vatican keeps spewing its nonsense about how you shouldn't see the Da Vinci Code, and I'm getting sick and tired of it. It's a work of fiction, and I, being Catholic (and having read the book), don't see what's wrong with it. It's interesting to think about and the book had some fun little brain teasers in the mix (just like the Google contest, which I'm hooked on now). If you want to read a more intelligent script review of Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof than the one I had posted recently, then you should definitely read this. I don't think it's fair to judge any of his movies before you see them though. All I have left for you now are videos. Arguably the coolest one actually comes from X3 in a scene where Wolverine tears the head off of a Sentinel. If only Ratner just fixed the plot now! Superman is appearing in an ad in Australia, and it doesn't show much, but something is better than nothing (as I say often, nowadays it seems). Your favorite spider-based superhero has also popped up on Youtube with a couple of on-location videos and some pictures in a Cleveland newspaper. Lastly, we have a French teaser for Casino Royale, and it's obviously hard to understand, but does have some action snippets. Still not doing much for me yet.

Now for some Unconscious Mutterings:

I say ... and you think ... ?

1. Out of place :: Anomaly


2. Helicopter :: Blades


3. Francis :: France


4. Ryan :: Corn (nickname of someone I know named Ryan)


5. Wedding :: White


6. Apalled :: Mortified


7. Historian :: NSC


8. Powerful :: Men (sorry, it came to mind first, no offense to women)


9. Sex symbol :: Austin "Danger" Powers


10. Uncomfortable :: Silences