Microsoft Throwing the Punches

Today was my first real day of work, and it was actually pretty good after the morning, which consisted of 4+ hours of safety training, of which maybe 90 minutes was actually interesting. I met the team I'm on, and my mentor is really cool, but it looks like I still have more training to go through before I can enter the fab. Oh, and what's better is that the boss took us out for ice cream before I could start on any real work. Now about Microsoft, they've started pulling off the gloves against Sony by subtly bashing the PS3 for essentially forcing consumers to support an unproven technology (Blu-ray), whereas they merely provide the option of watching HD-DVD on the Xbox 360. Microsoft also added that the PS3 price adds to the case for them to keep the Xbox 360 at its current place, which shows that they're asserting themselves to have a dominant position in consoles right now. They're also hitting McAffee and Symantec by announcing their OneCare service for Vista users which will cost $50 a year for up to 3 computers to have full anti-virus protection and support from Microsoft. I'm not sure how worried they'll be though since they're heavyweights whereas Microsoft is a newbie. However, Microsoft has much more monetary resources to throw at it as well as earlier knowledge of holes in Windows, which they'd be smart to exploit to gain a competitive edge. Of course, its success is based on people feeling the need to upgrade to Vista in the first place, but ExtremeTech's review makes it sounds like people will likely decide to switch. I think we'll just have to wait and see how it fares. And if that isn't enough, they've released a keyboard and mouse set for Macs, which could further improve the case for Mac users to install Windows assuming the mouses have at least two buttons (I haven't seen pictures yet). It looks like they're really coming out swinging on a lot of angles, doesn't it?

I'm going to have to move pretty quickly now so I can get in a good amount of sleep tonight. So back to Vista, they're upping the ante for peer collaboration where laptops can share information with nearby machines, which I'm sure will be really helpful in the workplace where many people at meetings have to be on laptops. Meanwhile, Google has announced that it has no plans to make its own browser despite geek speculation. It makes sense that they'd just keep supporting the Mozilla Foundation since they're already paying them to have Google as the default search engine. Does that little device to the right look kind of like the mockups of the supposed new iPod we've seen? Well, it's actually a real device, but it's targeted towards the Far East so no clue on whether we'll see it in stores here. Still, it's funny that someone noticed all those fan artworks. Major torrent repository The Pirate Bay has been shut down by Swedish authorities, which is significant because they're known for bragging about how they can get away with what they do and send frivolous letters to companies threatening them for copyright infringement, and since they had a good deal of political power where they are. I'm sure they'll try to come back though. Workers in India are finally having to start fearing outsourcing, but very few of them. Still, it's rather funny and ironic that it has come full circle so fast. Lastly, if you've ever wondered how a computer works, you can get a crash course in it over here. I'd say that it's pretty useful to at least bookmark.

It looks like Superman Returns will be the first movie to be offered in true IMAX 3D, which means 3-D glasses and everything! Apparently, this has been known internally for a long while now, but it has just been kept quiet until this leak. Even better: Sam Raimi has confirmed that the Spider-man 3 trailer will premiere in front of Superman Returns in less than a month! Speaking of superheros, Avi Arad has resigned from Marvel, which would be good news if he didn't also say that he'll still be working with the current Marvel projects and still wants to stay involved with Marvel. I'm mad at him mainly because he let X3 happen. Speaking of X3, The Snakes on a Plane trailer that premiered with it this past weekend has found its way online. It's nothing special, but it's the first official teaser we have. The man behind the Underworld movies is in talks with Fox to take over the Die Hard 4 film direction, and I don't know how to take that since I always had a bad bias towards Underworld. Lastly, Yahoo Movies has an exclusive clip from Click, which I'm still hoping will be a return for Adam Sandler to his golden days of funny movies.

Now for a Wednesday Mind Hump:

Write a poem!

You can definie "poem" however you want. It can be long or short. It can rhyme or not. It can have meter, or just be a free-for-all. Just write something that you personally would call a poem.

I'm in Dallas now,
Far from home,
And still I don't know,
How well this summer will go.

Sorry, I just came up with it on the fly since I'm getting sleepy. I'd share an older poem I've written, but I only write poems when I'm depressed about something, and I wouldn't want my meme to make people sad.