Where in the World is WinFS?

Today definitely felt like a productive day at work, and I think I can release my project tomorrow before lunch! Also, I finally got a tour of the fab and it's unbelievable. It really is humbling to see how many tools are involved in making a processor. Anyway, sorry for the horrible joke in the title, I just used to love "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego" growing up. One of the most exciting improvements that Microsoft promised to us was WinFS, a totally revamped file storage system that would make things closer to the ease of use Mac users generally experience. Now though, they've decided to dissolve it into their other data access products, which means that it won't come standard in Vista. Why did they do this? For one, they decided to appease developers since otherwise there would be two APIs for them to deal with, WinFS and Enterprise Server product APIs, which I find incredulous given that as a developer I'm getting sick and tired of working with Windows and am ready to jump ship to the Mac, which even has an awesome IDE (XCode) already built-in. So rather than give users a convenient "search and organize" experience, which was one of its biggest selling points to me, they're going to cut big companies a little slack, because they really need the help. I just don't get their decisions sometimes. I can see that their business partners are really important, but at what cost are they willing to appease them? Without Aero on the base versions of Vista (and some systems not even powerful enough to support it), is there really enough to bring users to the table and shell out a couple hundred bucks to upgrade?

It seems to be becoming a popular trend nowadays to talk about the future of searching, and a hot topic is semantic searching, which Evolving Trends thinks could mean the end of Google. They claim that a Wikipedia 3.0 could theoretically accelerate the progress of an ontology language model, or formally specifying normal language queries to produce results without having to know the right keyword. I'm still skeptical of this because I don't think the social collaboration model is as ideal as people would like to believe. Speaking of which, John Dvorak actually started poking holes in the Digg model just because they've released a new version, which is actually rather nifty. I see his point in how it can easily be tipped to a bias, but I just feel that the community is so large now that it would be enraged by such external control and Digg was instantly plummet. Rumors from analysts are starting to emerge claiming that Apple could release 16 GB iPod Nanos this fall with all the NAND memory they're purchasing. However, I think that they're preparing for a major iPod release rather than a large Nano upgrade and may just release a 8 GB Nano instead. Meanwhile, Apple servers will be getting an upgrade very soon with Intel Woodcrest chips coming out and promising large performance gains. I won't believe the improvements until I see benchmarks though. When you're enjoying your four day weekend in a few days you should leave some time for Circuit City to buy some video games, several of which are on sale for under $10! I'm definitely going to be checking out my local Circuit City this weekend, even though I don't usually shop there for anything but music. Lastly, I just had to mention that Austin made it on a list of 8 places you'd want to live if you're strapped for cash but still want to be in a fruitful place.

That's the new poster for Talladega Night: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, and you can definitely see the similarities to the first Anchorman poster. Bryan Singer, previously penned to direct Logan's Run, has decided to take a much-needed vacation after the release of Superman Returns because the time he spent on it while juggling other things totally exhausted him. I'm sure that fans of the book will be very disappointed, but let's not moan until they decide who his replacement will be. Yahoo Movies has a new trailer for Snakes on a Plane, and it may not be much better than what we've already seen but I know that a lot of you must be clamoring for it by now. The new trailer for Pan's Labyrinth is much more interesting, but it's hard for me to make heads or tails of it without knowledge of Spanish. IGN brought up a rumor of Robin Williams possibly playing The Joker in a sequel to Batman Begins, and I'm only propagating it because I think it's a neat thought, not because I think it's viable. If he hadn't done so many comedic roles and done more dark stuff he'd probably be better suited in audiences' minds. Lastly, JoBlo has a rather positive review of Lady in the Water even comparing it to the time classic The Princess Bride. I'm sure it can't be that good, but it sounds like something I really want to see now.

Now for some Monday Madness:

1. Do you own a digital camera?
Oh yeah, a PowerShot SD 450. I've only had it for like 3 months, but I absolutely love it.
2. What is your camera of choice?
Obvious the SD 450 ;)
3. If you're a digital camera fan, do you print your own photos, or do you send them in to be printed? If you send them in, do you have a favorite place?
I haven't had them printed yet. I haven't had photos developed since Prom I think, and I really shouldn't have gotten those because Prom blew in the end. I'll probably take my digital photos to like a Wal-mart to get them printed when I need to though.
4. How many pictures do you take a month?
At least 30-40, but I'm sure it'll oscillate depending on what's going on in any given month.
5. How many of those pictures actually get printed?
So far, none!
6. Are you planning on purchasing a new camera in the near future?
Nope! I just got this one and am going to hold off on big purchases until I get a new laptop in a couple of years.
7. CHALLENGE: Go check out Favorite Five Photos and Foto Pherrets and choose just ONE photo to share
I liked the sunset shot over at this blog.