WGA Kill Switch Concerns

My weekend has been pretty good so far, but it has been going by really fast. I feel like I could've been doing more, but it's no biggie since I'm going to Austin next weekend anyway so that'll be a ton of fun. WGA stands for the Windows Genuine Advantage software that detects whether your copy of Windows is "legit" and allows you to patch your Windows with updates if it is. Last week I know I mentioned that concerns were growing over how intrusive WGA is, and word is that it may become mandatory this fall and serve as a kill switch in Vista. If this is a case then we can only hope that Microsoft loses that lawsuit about it. Can you imagine spending a couple hundred bucks on a piece of software only to have it disabled if WGA has a bug in it or someone hacks it just to screw you over? Or what if a virus were to come out and exploit some loophole in it? Microsoft should know better than anyone else than code is never bulletproof, particularly not theirs. Maybe we're jumping the gun on this thing and giving Microsoft less credit than they deserve because there are plenty of Linux/Apple fanboys who would love to spread crap rumors like this, but at the same time I don't think that Microsoft's recent concerns with piracy would rule this kind of functionality out of the picture. What's funny is how much power they could give to Apple with a stupid move like this. If you tell your average consumer that their OS could be easily disabled by Microsoft, then would they really be so willing to plunk down their money for a Dell rather than a Mac? And if a virus comes out and threatens the world like the Sony rootkit fiasco, what would happen then? I'll admit that these are kind of worst case scenarios, but as a computer scientist I don't know how you can think of anything but worst case scenarios. I test for the worst case every day, and I just hope that Microsoft does.

Apparently, Microsoft isn't screwing up on all fronts as Paul Thurrott seems to have a high opinion of IE 7 Beta 3. I still don't get why we should be praising IE for finally catching up with the features we've come accustomed to in Firefox. Speaking of Firefox, I found another list of Firefox extensions, and I only bring them up because they led to me a couple of really neat ones I had to get. One of them actually performs actions based on your mouse gestures! Meanwhile, Apple's investors aren't happy that Jobs is unwilling to reveal how much it really costs them to make iPods. I think it makes sense that he takes the strategy of Google and just telling them the bare minimum of what they need to know to keep the company on track with its own interests rather than those of their stockholders. Apple-Discounts.com ran a contest accepting submissions for concept art of theoretical Apple products, and they came up with some neat stuff. I personally liked the Artbook design the most, which you can see to the right here. OfficeMax has boldly decide to do away with mail-in rebates given that the subject is their #1 source of complaints. I'm not sure how they'll make up for these savings or if they'll try getting away with less of it, but I guess we just have to have faith in the competitive nature of our capitalist system. Lastly, a clip of Jon Stewart from the first Daily Show following the 9/11 attacks has recently regained popularity, and I just have to plug it because I wasn't a fan of the show at the time and would've never seen it otherwise. It's really powerful stuff and I think has really revitalized everyone's respect for Jon Stewart.

The only movie news over the weekend was the big item: Superman Returns did pretty bad in the box office battle raking in only $52.2 million over the weekend and only maybe $20 million more if you count starting from its opening day. It may sound decent, but that's not even a third of what it cost to make the movie, so I'm sure that the studio is pretty pissed right now. I can't imagine that it will fair well next weekend against Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest, which I expect to make more money in one weekend than Superman did over the past 5 days. What was really shocking was that The Devil Wears Prada came in second at $27 million, which I would've been shocked to have seen pull in even $20 million. Everything else pretty much fell in line, though I figured that Cars would've made more than Click.

Now for some Unconscious Mutterings:

I say ... and you think ... ?

1. That :: Girl


2. Fishbowl :: Goldfish


3. Church :: Preacher


4. All about :: Sex


5. Fist :: of fury


6. Tagline :: Movie


7. Agree :: To disagree


8. Leak :: Pee


9. Jessica :: Alba


10. Superman :: Returns