The Story of Digg

Today was definitely one of my more annoying days at work as I got caught up in little things and will probably go in for like an hour tomorrow to finish up some testing. And also, there's not much news out there today. The article I enjoyed reading the most though was a Business Week focus on Kevin Rose and Digg. I haven't talked about him before, but he really is a pretty big deal. I think that Digg is going to be a classic story, because it really is a guy with a dream who put his life on the line to make it happen, and it did! People tell me that programmers are just peons and the business majors make the big bucks, but they underestimate people like Kevin Rose. Isn't it better to make a lot of money having done something really meaningful rather than being a drone for some investment banking firm? And Digg really just grew out of everyday life: the activity of reading the news and passing on the good stuff to your friends, but with the world instead of just a few people. That article is very long, but it provides all the gory details and is a window into how venture capitalists work for those of you curious about how small startups get their funding. Who knows where Digg will go next, but it has definitely gotten better and better since its first, gritty release.

Microsoft has decided to give Vista to thousands of security experts so that the Black Hats can try to break it. It's probably a pretty good idea, but only if they take suggestions from these hackers. Google Maps will now start remembering the addresses you put in and auto-completing them from you, which is something that I really liked about Google Earth. I'm not sure if MSN Virtual Earth or Yahoo Maps Beta does this, but they're now behind if they don't. Guardian is running a story about something my CS teacher told me about a year ago but I didn't believe: a contest for a program to beat a pro Go player offering $1 million that still hasn't been won yet. I just find the topic of computers simulating the human intellect to be wildly fascinating, and I think it's crazy that all these years and we still can't make a computer master something as simple as Go, although Microsoft is trying to brute force method of entering in thousands of moves from the best players in situations that the computer loses at, but that can only take you so far. If you don't know much about Go, that's a real fun read. Based on an interview with one of those suits working at Microsoft, Macsimum is dogging the Zune as being all hype with nothing substantial, but I think they may be speaking too soon. I'll admit that we have nothing other than hype for now, but is a general manager of finance really going to be all that knowledgeable about a media product? That's like asking an automation engineer at TI about how an asher actually works in the fab. As WWDC draws near, Flickr users are beginning to share pictures of the decor, but nothing that would reveal details of what we can expect out of Monday. Lastly, I found some interesting programming "inspirational" posters online, and I just had to post this one because I'm in the middle of a project rollback right now and it's quite annoying:



Christian Bale has spoken his two cents on the sequel to Batman Begins: he likes the title because it doesn't have the word "Batman" in it and reflects Nolan's non-mainstream take on the series, which would be the original intention of the series. He also claims that Ledger is very passionate about how Nolan is looking to make the movie, so the fans should probably just have faith in this casting choice. I don't think I'll get to see Talladega Nights until next week, but it looks like Will Ferrell and John Reily may be teaming up again for a movie called Step Brothers about two slackers whose parents marry each other, and I wonder what's spurring Ferrell's new friendship with Reily? All I have now are trailers. Yahoo Movies has the full trailer for Borat, and it's pretty good, but mostly pretty dry humor. Still, I think it'll be a fun movie to watch. The teaser for Smoking Aces has popped up on its official site, and it looks really neat, but a little too stylized, I'll admit. I hadn't heard much about this movie before, but its cast is really good (Ben Affleck, Common, Andy Garcia, Ray Liotta, et al). Lastly, MTV put up, in their irritating Overdrive format, the new trailer for Tenacious D, but MTV's crappy site is causing issues with my Internet so I can't watch it myself.

Now for Friday's Feast:

Appetizer
Name an actor or actress you think is totally underappreciated.
I'd have to say either Ray Liotta or Cillian Murphy. Ray Liotta was like the only actor to not get an award from Goodfellas (or so it seems based on the DVD), but he was so great in it! And Cillian Murphy isn't popular yet, but he's just so into his roles.

Soup
Impress us by using a big word in a sentence.
Some people feel they don't have the perspicacity to read the articles on my blog, but I try to define the outlandish concepts for you.

Salad
What is something inanimate that you've given a name to (such as a pet rock)?
My old car was "the milf" because it was old but it was such a hot car.

Main Course
What color would best represent your personality and why?
Red, because I'm a man who knows his passions!

Dessert
Fill in the blanks: ____________ is so ____________.
Sleep is so awesome. In fact, I'm going to go partake in it in a few.