Apple Doing Well, Will It Last?

I was really excited today to come home to a package: a birthday gift from brother and his fiance: a couple of CDs (Bloc Party and Incubus) and Paul Graham's Hackers and Painters. I can't wait to get started on this one (first essay is "Why Nerds Are Unpopular"), so expect a full review when I'm done. So Apple seems to be doing alright, if you consider a 32% increase in revenues last quarter "alright" adding up to some $546 million in net income. Not only that, but they sold 1.6 million Macs, a million of which were laptops. Suffice to say Steve Jobs won't be on the street with a beard and a can for spare change any time soon. However, ZD Net Australia had a pretty interesting editorial claiming that the gravy train will soon be over as Intel will likely not continue to give Apple the sweet deal they're currently getting on Intel chips. That wouldn't surprise me since they're a much bigger supplier than IBM and the honeymoon is almost over as so many have already switched to Intel-based Macs now. Still, I can't imagine that Apple would contract out sales of their machines to Dell anytime soon. They retain so much control by doing it all on their own and can keep things a little more furtive, and it just wouldn't be their style. Maybe after Jobs leaves, but as long as Apple keeps pushing their computers they'll be selling them all on their lonesome, and I think they'll maintain a decent presence because of how zealous their users are. How many Windows users do you see screaming from the mountains about all the cool things built-in to their computer? Still, I was rather surprised at how well they did last quarter, and can't imagine them doing any worse during the holiday season.

Speaking of Apple, someone claims to have gotten information on the phone's interface, and it sounds like the stuff we thought we'd see in a new iPod (i.e. touchscreen). It looks like they packed some neat features onto it, including iChat and interactivity with other Apple devices, but no word on how soon until we see it. This doesn't sound like it was made up, but I guess you never know. I'm sorry that I'm so weak for Apple technology, the applications for OS X are just so neat. I just picked up the new Beta 4 of Gaim 2.0 and it's really neat stuff. They need to go ahead and just call it a stable release now because they've already fixed so many issues, and this version is even slicker than before (though takes a hefty 30MB of RAM). Neilsen may soon be tracking video game playing, which I think is a little useless since people actually buy games as a good barometer for how good they are, but I guess companies want to know the shelf life of these games so that they can keep making the ones that last longer. Lastly, I just love that Stephen Colbert is a Firefox contributor and his tips for more secure computing.

Just a few quick things in movies. We have a couple more clips from Borat over at Yahoo Movies and they're pretty funny. My favorite is him trying to drink while driving and then have sex with a female driver who drives past him. This movie had better be awesome. YouTube is playing host to a trailer for Goya's Ghosts (featuring Natalie Portman, of course), and it looks like a pretty neat movie. I guess historical movies really pique my curiosity, especially when it comes to abuse of power through religion. Lastly, IGN nabbed some great shots from 300, including this one:



Now for the 3x Thursday:

1. In general, are your friends your age, or are they older/younger? If they're not your age, why go with the younger/older crowd?
They're definitely older than me. I mean I'm a junior and I just turned 20! I started school a year earlier since I was born in October. So I was really like 3 when I started Pre-K and turned 4 that year whereas most kids are already 4. Of course I'm paying the price for that right now.

2. Do you believe that age makes a difference in certain situations? Why/why not?
Definitely, but only through college really. After that, age matters much less because everyone has so much life experience by then. I think the difference between a Freshman and a Sophomore is much much bigger than between like a 23 year-old and a 25 year-old. You face so many different things at those ages.

3. What about in relationships? Does age matter? Why?
Again, only when you're younger, I think. You're just more or less at the same place in life for longer once you get older.

Bonus Question: Do you think that how you resolve conflict changes with age? Why/why not?
Oh yeah, I definitely think so. I think you become more rational and cool-headed with age. That's the trend I've seen at least. Diplomacy ends up winning more in the end with maturity.