Apple's Secrecy: A Double-Edged Sword

Today at work I realized how many of our problems come from the idiocy or laziness of people who worked on code before us. It can be irritating at times, especially when it makes people upset about problems that you had no control over. I'm sure this isn't the first company I'll encounter where that's a problem though. Apple is know as being a rather secretive company, and some people chalk this up to their marketing and, hence, the source of their powers. However, this isn't always a good thing. It also means that bad things become too high-profile, like the Asian sweatshops (which is more commonplace than people choose to believe). Sure, Microsoft has bad press, too, but only for Apple does the press claim disaster among its consumer. Funny, I don't remember Apple filing for bankruptcy recently. I think the press is very emotional, like any person is, and so many of them use Macs that they report with more bias on Apple news than Microsoft news. That doesn't mean that average people are all that affected. I'm sure that just as many people know about the MacBook Pro battery problems as people know what "net neutrality" actually means. We're still not living in a completely tech-savvy society, and I believe that the press has lost its power over the common people. As Jon Stewart commonly laments, investigative reporting really has gone down the drain.

If you want to read more about Apple, you can get Ars Technica's thoughts on their architectural roadmap since Intel is so transparent. AMD has begun a counter-campaign to Intel's Core 2 hype claiming that Intel's power consumption numbers are based on average usage rather than maximum power draw, which AMD bases its power ratings on. That sounded a little crazy the first time I read it because I know I'd want to know average power usage, and Tom's Hardware has determined that Intel's newest chips beat AMD's flagship product by any power standard. I respect AMD, I wish they wouldn't drag themselves through the dirt like this. Gracenote, a site which formerly offered lyrics for songs for free but was shut down, has struck a deal with the record labels to legally distribute over 1 million song lyrics. It sounds like you'll only get them free on services like iTunes and maybe through codes on CD jacket inserts, but I just think the idea that this has to happen is kind of stupid. They're just song lyrics! I could buy the song or memorize it and then write down the lyrics and use them; is that piracy as well? The Indian government has decided to block several sites, many popular blogging services among them. What's alarming about this is that it was apparently initiated because they believe terrorists are using blogs to communicate. I can't believe that people from my own race could be so stupid, and I hope that the people fight back this heinous censorship. The last time I checked, India wasn't socialist or communist.

I was a big fan of 28 Days Later when it came out, so I latch on to every piece of 28 Weeks Later news I can find. The script is apparently still in the works though as the actress who played Selena was told that they're not sure whether or not she'll have a part in the sequel. I hope they take their time and make the sequel just as good as the original. We have some casting news from Grind House: Mickey Rourke has left the project just as Rose McGowan has agreed to portray her character in both movies and Tarantino will make an appearance in Rodriguez's half. I can't wait until April for what they come up with. Robin Williams may be in The Bourne Ultimatum, which I only mention because I think that Williams is a strange pick for an action flick. Lastly, the actor who plays Jonah Jameson in the Spider-man movies has revealed that there is on-set talk of a fourth iteration, but no contracts extend that far so it's all just ideas in people's heads for now. Still, they sound like they'd be willing to give another one a go.

Now for a humorous post card. I don't think I need to translate the Latin on this one:



Now for some Monday Madness:

What comes to mind when you think of the following colors?

RED:Fire
BLUE:Water
GREEN:Grass
YELLOW:Bananas
PURPLE:Rain
PINK:Panther
ORANGE:Longhorns
BLACK:Death
WHITE:Wedding