New Firefox and MacBook Pro

Should I be writing this post right now? Of course not, but I missed a couple of releases yesterday that I can't just go on without briefly talking about them. Firefox 2.0 finally came out and how glorious it is! It stands 8 feet tall and has a massive-alright, you get the point, I'm low on sleep and every little thing is amazing. In all seriousness though, it's a great product. The only thing I don't like is how it automatically uninstalls Tab Mix Plus and the Session Manager add-on isn't compatible yet, so I have to crash Firefox in order to save all my tabs. Anyway, it's still definitely worth the upgrade, and I'm liking the new features that have been included standard. I also missed the release of the Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro line yesterday, and it's slightly more glorious with a 120 GB hard drive, 1GB of RAM, DVI output, FireWire 800, and a 2.16 Ghz Core 2 Duo at the minimum. With a starting price of $2,000 though, they're not exactly cheap, and I'm sure you could get it a good bit cheaper from like Dell, but then it wouldn't have all the bells and whistles and almost assuredly wouldn't be as sexy. I'd say it's a pretty solid notebook, but we'll probably see a MacBook with the same specs for cheaper in just a few months.

One more thing on Apple: did you know that Apple already released an iTV-like product about 10 years ago that they called "Apple Interactive Television Box"? I don't have anything else to say on that, I just thought it was too funny to not link to. Fox is trying to save a couple of failing shows by making them available on MySpace for free for a period of time, but this strategy makes no sense at all. They're clearly scheduling the shows so that they'll get killed and trying to save them by putting episodes on a joke of a site? Fox is so stupid sometimes, especially when there are sites like YouTube and Daily Motion around that work much better. Barenaked Ladies are selling their new album online without all that DRM crap, which I think is a great move. I think we've gotten to the point now where DRM just isn't working and the frustration it causes outweighs the minuscule amount of piracy it precludes. Lastly, I think it's pretty funny that Thompson may be indicted for contempt because of how he reacted when a judge approved Take Two's game Bully for sale. Take Two is clearly being vengeful in trying to get charges pressed against him, and I think it'd be nice for him to get a taste of his own litigious medicine.

I'm not going to spend much time here on movie news. There's a "teaser" trailer for the remake of George Romero's Day of the Dead that isn't bad but I felt bored halfway into it. Maybe it translates better on the big screen than on my computer monitor? Apple has a trailer for Eragon, I've just lost interest in these fantasy movies. Not that this movie looks bad or anything (it looks even better in HD), these fantasy flicks are just starting to blur together for me. Lastly, here's a really random picture from Shrek the Third that I have no idea what to make of:



Now for the Wednesday Mind Hump:

1. What are some of your favorite books, and why?
I'm going to leave it at Catcher in the Rye because it was the first book I read that just absolutely blew me away. There are just so many ways to pull it apart and think about it. I almost feel that there was a Holden Caulfield in me when I was growing up, and that book forced me to examine some of the problems in my life, and I just loved the writing so much.

2. How many books do you read during a typical month?
None! Too much school reading, I'm still working on Carrie.

3. Where do you buy most of your books?
Definitely online, probably more on Amazon (or an Amazon affiliate) than anywhere else, but I use book search engines to get the best deal.

4. Recommend a good book to me (and your readers).
I just got Hackers and Painters by Paul Graham, and it looks pretty stellar. Graham is just such a great essayist, and so I'd recommend the book to anyone with any interest in technology.