More From E3

I got some good news today: I aced my hard Theory in Programming Practice course! My other CS class final was this morning, and it was tough, but there's a good chance I did well on it. Just two more finals to go (Diffy Q and Physics) and I'm home free. On to E3 now. Color me impressed with the Wiimote. To the left here is the light gun shell, into which you plug your remote at the front. How neat is that? No games announced for it yet, though Duck Hunt will likely use it (yes, it's back, baby!). A number of other Wii games were announced as well, but what looked really neat was their demo of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, which used the remote as a wand everywhere logical except when actually swinging the sword. It looks like you'll be able to browse the web on your Wii as well (I smell a keyboard peripheral), and you can see tons more pictures from their booth here. I also managed to take a look at the video for Smash Brothers, and it's totally awesome. If you can find it on the interweb, then it's worth watching. Why so much about the Wii? Well, people covering E3 don't seem to care as much about the other consoles, though we now know a little more about the Halo 3 trailer, and the only truly impressive PS3 game looks to be Heavenly Sword.

I don't know why Google decided to have its Press Day today rather than any day after this week, but they did, and they announced some interesting stuff. One of their new products is a great way to burn time called Google Trends to see where people are looking for certain things, but I felt that Google Notebook sounded equally impressive as a way to jot things down while browing around on Google. Their co-op idea sounded interesting as well, but the UI looks too clunky at this stage for me to endorse it. Apple released Aperture 1.1 at $200 less, and Ars Technica seems to like it a lot more than the original release. I wonder if they brought new people on the project months ago rather than weeks ago? eWeek is reporting that Vista's new security features are more of a burden than they're worth as they seem to restrict users more than prevent attacks (though Microsoft has worked on closing holes, especially for IE7). They say it may deter enterprises from switching for a while, but I think that'd they'll be reluctant regardless given the costs to upgrade and release delay. TiVo has struck a deal with Brightcove to allow TiVo users to watch the online content right on their television, and I'm pretty sure this is basically TiVo trying to say that it's amicable to IP TV. TechRepublic thinks that hackers are starting to look more into exploiting Mac OS X flaws, as bug discoveries have rapidly increased more recently. I don't think that we'll start seeing major viruses soon, but despite all the other press claiming that OS X is made of steel, I think that we'll see exploits pop up soon enough. Lastly, if you're a PC user tired of having to search your Desktop or Start Menu for stuff, then you'll love Launchy. I started using it myself and give it my full recommendation. It's light on RAM usage and makes your life a lot easier.

Yahoo Movies has the trailer for the upcoming Owen Wilson comedy You, Me, and Dupree, and it looks like it'll be funny, but only in a mediocre sense. Who knows, maybe it'll be another classic. IGN has a couple of new pictures from Miami Vice, but they're mostly just attitude poses. Toy Story 3 has resumed production again, but now it's back at Pixar, where it belongs. I'm sure that Steve Jobs had a hand in this (just like in Disney dropping their McDonalds deal), and I hope that we'll be thanking him for it when the movie comes out. The Weinstein brothers have picked up the rights to Knight Rider, presumably to make a movie based on the old TV series. Clerks II will premiere at Cannes as a movie not in competition, which I'm sure Kevin James is happy about since he didn't premiere it at Sundance so that it could go to Cannes instead. Lastly, Heat will now be made into a videogame for no apparently logical reason. This movie is a masterpiece, but it wouldn't make sense as a game at all.

Now for the Wednesday Mind Hump:

1. Name two of your teachers from school whom you'd like to thank.
My old debate coach, Mr. Johnson, for teaching me the value of an argument and also that I shouldn't give up on resolving my speech impediment, and my economics teacher, Mr. Clark, because of all the good times I had thanks to economics competitions.

2. Name two friends you'd like to thank.
My friend Josh for providing me with so many drinks and parties, and my friend Robert, for taking me to Buzzfest last year.

3. Name two celebrities you'd like to thank.
Kiefer Sutherland for sticking around 24 for so long, and Jessica Alba, for looking so damn sexy all the time.

4. If you have anyone else you'd like to thank, you can thank them here!
Too many to list right now, but there's my parents for raising me and providing for me even now, my brother for always providing me with some good advice, and God, for helping me ace that CS class.