Annual Predictions

Today was a rare event: a fun winter break day! I spent the day with my cousins and among other things we watched The 40-Year-Old Virgin, which I was underwhelmed by. It had it's moments, but Old School and The Girl Next Door (which I did get today) are better, in my opinion. Now that the year has officially begun all over the world, predictions are being made, and the LA Times is making some rather bold ones. The biggest leap of faith was that Google may unveil "Google Cubes", which sound almost like a cross between a stripped down iMac and a Mac Mini. In essence, they would run Google's own OS and be extremely cheap PCs to transfer media and digital files across various mediums. I think that this wouldn't come before Q4 2006, but I'd be really impressed if it happened because they'd be throwing their weight against some giants to make an even more affordable media center solution. The article also reminds us that Microsoft must be reorganizing in light of losing its battle to provide ads for AOL, and the question is now just what will they do next? With the kind of money they have to throw around, they can surely acquire some helpful companies. It's always fun to read these predictions and see if they actually come true, even if they sound sensible.

Since you probably don't remember what pundits said about 2005, Wired News is jogging our memories by posting them and highlighting the ones that fell apart. I'm actually kind of surprised that the Windows Media Center hasn't faced the blue screen of death yet. The most humorous prediction was that blogs would be plentiful and variegated, because they were clearly on the rise by this past January. I just bought some clip-on headphones today for my iPod (low-end though, hopefully they'll work well), but did you ever think you'd need a set for your eyes as well? Now there's the EyeBud, which is meant for watching your new iPod videos on the go, though it likely has more applications in national defense industries. It's actually a neat idea since it can produce larger resolutions directly to your eye than the iPod can on its own. Not much else going on, but the CES is this week so you can expect some crazy stuff from that.

I spent plenty of time last night talking about the box office, and now that the official figures are in, not much has changed. Narnia did beat Kong, and Fun with Dick and Jane magically got the #3 spot. Now that we can look into 2006, AICN's Mirajeff put up a great and comprehensive list of 80 films to look forward to in this year, and if I had a list it would probably be the top 22-26 films he has on there so do give it a skim so you can recognize some of these when they come out. One of those films is Superman Returns, of course, and plot details have actually been leaked, but I can't tell you anything about them because I didn't read it! I don't want to know what happens until I see it, but be my guest if you want to. I think that Michael Caine is a fantastic older actor, and I just found out that he's working on a film adaptation of Children of Men, which actually sounds really cool if you're a Caine fan as well. What's scary though is that Jackie Chan and Danny DeVito are doing a comedy together. I just think that DeVito is really losing his touch. Lastly, enjoy some pictures from The New World.



I'm going to go with a Daily Haiku this Monday:

After a protracted war, you have emerged victorious as Conquerer of the Planet Earth. As head honcho, what is the first thing on your To-Do list?

I would spread peace, love,
And harmony to all men.
But what about you?

I only said men because I ran out of syllables, but it implies women as well.