Secret Weapons

I'm short on time tonight and my fuse is short (exhausted and irritated that trying to install patches for Windows broke my Canon software) so this post will be as quick as I can make it. Google's secret weapon is often argued about as their search engine or their people or some project they have under wraps, but not often is it claimed to be their data centers, which they're building another one of. They're big construction efforts and they create new jobs, and Google would be nothing without them. When it comes to Apple though, I see their secret weapons as their fanbase. I don't know of many fanbases that are as loyal, forgiving, and evangelical as Mac geeks (unless you count religions). Did they take things too far when they closed up their kernel? Do people really need the raw source code? Apparently, some people do, and those are almost the people who matter most. I can see that writer's concern and the principle that he's so upset about, but I think that there will still come a day when Apple becomes so concerned about security and/or piracy that they end up closing up the Mac OS X kernel. Even then, I think the fans will stick around, because they know it'll be better than just plain Linux (you know it's true). I think it'll definitely happen when Steve Jobs leaves Apple though, because I doubt his successor would care as much about keeping it open. I think they should keep appeasing their loving fans though, or they may see bad things happen. They need to bank on word of mouth support if they ever hope to topple Windows.

Back to Google real quick though, they've apparently released the beta for Picasa Web Albums, which would allow you to easily upload pictures from Picasa and publish them online in photo galleries. You can see initial impressions here, and you can count on more extensive looks in the near future. I'll stick with Zoto myself. Did you know that you can break Notepad by just telling it that it can break? I've managed to play around a little more with it and get it to unbreak, but it's just a fun anomaly I thought that the geek living inside some of you would like to learn more about. I didn't think about why it would happen at first myself either, so don't feel stupid if you're a techie and you didn't either. Since LCD flat panels' inception, CRT has always retained better picture since they don't have a lamp that's constantly on. However, eCinema believes that the contrast ratio on their LCDs supercedes this boundary. I wouldn't be surprised because I don't doubt it's possibility, but I'm sure that it'll cost you a pretty penny for now. Lastly, if you've never heard of Rockbox for your mp3 player, then be sure to read up on it here. It's a quick read and quite worthwhile, trust me.

That's one of a few new posters for Click, and shamefully, I think it's rather clever. But hey, whatever sells the movie as a decent comedy. All the other stuff today is also multimedia. We have 11 clips from Superman Returns that are probably meant to bring you back around from those lukewarm reviews claiming that the movie is good but not great. I'll probably still go for it my opening weekend. Yahoo Movies has the teaser trailer for Jackass: Number Two, and it looks like it'll be just as offensive and hilarious as before. Still, I have no idea how these guys go to sleep at night after doing some of this stuff. The other trailer we have is for The Night Listener, which has a great cast (Robin Williams, Toni Collette, Sandra Oh) and sounds interesting. However, I haven't seen the trailer yet because it's taking forever to load on my horrendous Internet connection.

Now for a Wednesday Mind Hump:

Tell me what the U.S. flag means to you. If you're not from the USA, tell us what your own national flag means to you.
I am from the USA (though my parents hail from India), and the flag to me means a lot to me. It means all those corny things we don't talk about out load for fear of sounding so corny: freedom, democracy, and unity. We may have our hard times and our questionable leadership, but that flag remains a symbol of how far we have come since 1776. The Indian flag doesn't really mean anything to me, other than representing India. I don't even know the Indian national anthem though (it's in Hindi, "Jana Gana Mana").