Weak Defense from Microsoft

I'm pleased with my performance on my Physics test (thanks to less than 5 hours of sleep last night), on which I only missed one question that I probably could've gotten had I slept more. Oh well, a B+ looks to be pretty high above the F average. I finally finished my cache simulator, by the way, and it's glorious. I had to take a moment to marvel at it's beauty. Anyway, the only thing I really felt like talking about today was how Microsoft is defending themselves verbally regarding their gripes that its unfair for IE7's default search engine to be MSN Live Search since it squashes competition. Google's complaints came up a couple of days ago, but I must not have reported it because I had too many other things to talk about that were more important. In any case, it seems like the nerd community has mixed reactions to it. On one side, people are calling Google a big hypocritical baby. On the other hand, as the writer of the article I linked seems to lean to, IE holds a ridiculously high market share, which doesn't compare to Mozilla or Dell (where Google's biggest marketing deals are). So how is Microsoft countering? They're just saying that it's easy for users to change the default, and that Google has deals themselves with other companies. Changing the default is not something your average user does though, because they simply don't care, so I can see Google's concern. I'm going to side against Google here though, because it's Microsoft's product and they have every right to want to use it to promote Live Search. After all, they're going to need all the publicity they can get to take on the 100 pound gorilla. It would only be unfair it was prohibitively difficult to change the default or impossible, and I don't think either is the case here. The bottom line is that Microsoft is going to need some better lawyers, because they should be able to easily have a strong case against Google. I'm surprised that Google is even so concerned since they're already a household name. How many people say "why don't you just Live Search it" as opposed to "why don't you just go Google it"?

Napster has a marketing scheme going on that I also neglected to mention earlier where they're letting people stream any songs they want to in the entire Napster library for free up to 5 times before having to subscribe to download it. Business Week has penned a pretty decent analysis of this savvy business move as it should definitely bring more crowds to the Napster site, from which they can springboard into convincing them to sign up (unless they have an iPod, of course). All may not be lost in the net neutrality war with an awesome Democratic Representative from Massachusetts endorsing a new act that provides much more benefits to us, the end user. So sign the petition for it and keep finding the good fight! This article is a good read if you think you may have a little entrepreneur inside of you and may want to start your own company someday. While it can seem daunting, such a large gamble could yield huge benefits. Google has started accepting student applications for its Summer of Code program, which pays students a decent summer salary to help out an open source project. If you're a freshman or sophomore with no previous technical job experience, this is a fantastic way to impress companies when you start interviewing for real-life internship. The Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD fight will become more prominent now that HD-DVD has been released, and Macworld points out that the porn industry may be the deciding factor here. I totally agree, since they had a large hand in VHS whooping Betamax despite Betamax arguably having better quality. Lastly, CNet pitted the MacBook Pro against an Acer TravelMate of comparable quality, and the Acer actually ended up taking home the prize belt. It seemed to win just by a hair though, and at least Apple's newest offering is neck-and-neck with the competition.

Finally, an official poster for Snakes on a Plane! This movie is going to be so campy that I have to see it. There are also some new pictures out there for Southland Tales, which is premiering at Cannes. Still vague on the plot details, but oh well. The Jetsons movie has a new producer, and so things are obviously moving forward on that film's production. I wonder how kiddie they'll make it? It looks like the MPAA's battle on piracy isn't going well with their increasing restrictions not helping them at all. Maybe if they tried selling movies on iTunes they'd have more luck upping their revenues? Lastly, more excitement for MI:3. AICN has an exuberant review from MiraJeff, so it looks like this may actually be the best movie of the year to date. If you need more though, Yahoo! Movies has full "live" coverage from the red carpet at the NYC premieres of the movie, and I just love how comparable to a television special it is. Great job, Yahoo, despite all the pro-Tom propaganda. I never stopped loving him as an actor, personally.

Now for a Wednesday Mind Hump:

1. ¿Como Estás?
I'm doing alright, but quite sleep-deprived. This week has taken its toll on me, but I'm not discouraged. I can still do well on my remaining tests.

2. Ever been to Mexico? If so, where? What did you do there?
Only to a border town, and we didn't really do much. I was pretty small when we went, so I can't really recall much from it.

3. Do you like Mexican food? What's your favorite Mexican dish?
I enjoy it every once in a while. I couldn't have it every day, but it can hit the spot. My favorite dish is probably fajita, especially at Lupe's (in Houston). Those fajitas make me salivate just thinking of how sumptuous they are. I can almost hear the sizzle.

Wish me luck on my Diffy Q test tomorrow!