I Don't Like Wal-Mart

I hope you all had a good weekend. Mine started out better than it ended (same old story, girls kicking my butt), but nonetheless I did get a good amount of stuff done (including cooking some delicious 2-alarm chili). So anyway, there are plenty of reasons to hate Wal-Mart, right? Screwing over small town businesses, reverse discrimination from employees, horrible service, etc. Funny thing is, I'm not really as concerned about those things because I don't really encounter them enough to be upset about them. Nope, my reasoning is much geekier. Remember that movie download service they announced? They opened up the site so that not only does it support Internet Explorer 7, but it only supports IE. Classy. I saw the site in Firefox a couple of days ago but didn't talk about it because I presumed it wasn't really up or was just having temporary issues. Apparently, they've pulled down the site entirely now, though I still get the unsupported message since I haven't updated my IE in forever. I kind of just take offense to them being so presumptuous. It's not that they're alone in this, or that I'm more perturbed by them doing it than anyone else, it's just horrible in general. It's always the big guys that do this. You never see a small company have an IE-only site; they invest in supporting everything. However, the big companies that bathe in money can't put more of it into a better web UI. I can't imagine that these people are really this stupid. It's pretty fundamental rule in the world of technology for consumer products: if it ain't pretty, is someone going to really want to use it?

Here's something else that's crazy: Microsoft is quite supportive of DRM. In an interview with a Microsoft exec, it was revealed that they're happy with the current state of affairs in DRM. At least they're being honest, but that doesn't mean much. I don't think they'll ever sell me on this crap. I'd be willing to formally prove that there's no way in Hell an unbreakable DRM could ever exist, and even if it could, it would still really piss off consumers.

I really like AMD; I guess because they're the underdog. The fact that they have so much to lose makes them that much more interesting to observe. They've been working on a new line of chips under the codename Barcelona that appears to do wonders for the x86 architecture. The techniques sound interesting (I didn't even know nested paging existed), but the performance figures are yet to be seen. Still, 3 levels of caching is impressive.

It looks like we have some leaked information about Firefox 3 (though it may be an authorized leak, for all I know), and it sounds like not only are they looking to have PDF exporting built-in (thought there are still plenty of ways to make PDFs for free) but also add-on installation without restart and smoother handling of the omnipresent POST forms. Plus, I presume that they'll put Places in this time.

If you don't have time like me to watch TV live and you can't afford TiVo, you may enjoy ShareTV.org for all your torrent needs. Though if that show is available online for free with ads, I encourage you to do that instead to encourage more networks to do that so that we don't have to rely on torrents to control our own television schedule.

Here are some one liners in the Web 2.0 arena. Ever need to communicate something by drawing in a hurry? Try out sketchr (I know, the name is annoying, but it's neat). If you're a pre-med then you'll love this medical dictionary.

This is pretty appalling: Norbit is the #1 movie in the nation with over $30 million, and Hannibal Rising lags behind in second with less than half. The suckage at the box office pushes on with low-quality movies getting low revenues. When do the good movies start coming out? I guess that Reno 911 flick comes out in a couple of weeks.



Yep, that's a poster for Hot Fuss. We even have a nifty little trailer to match. It doesn't tell you much, but from the new review over at AICN, it sounds like we should be interested in this movie anyway. Unfortunately, their review for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles wasn't so enthusiastic. Oh well, maybe it'll at least have some campy value.

I know it's a lot of AICN stuff for one post, but everyone else actually takes a break over the weekend. AICN, however, put up a trailer for a documentary they're helping bring to the Austin Alamo Drafthouse called 8-Bit, and I'll let you guess as to what it's about. I may try organizing a band of nerds to go see it.

Now for some Unconscious Mutterings:

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

1. The best thing :: is yet to come


2. Hold :: On


3. Rapture :: God


4. Cover :: Take


5. Restrictive :: DRM ;)


6. Baker :: man


7. Author :: Book


8. Pill :: Birth Control


9. Months :: Nine


10. Valentine’s Day :: Sucks (it's just depressing for losers like me =P; do I really need a reminder of others' comparative blissfulness)