Scrap the Internet?

I'm so sorry to have missed so many posts, everyone. I'll admit right now that I'm not going to be able to keep up with a 6 day a week schedule until my summer starts, but this blog is far from dead. I just have something greater than this blog in my life, so I've just been re-balancing out my life, so obviously this will take a lower priority. I'll make up for it with some pictures. We played Broomball on Thursday night, followed by IHOP, and that was fun:



Friday was ACM Big Event (big bbq thing at Eastwood Park), and I got to mount Jack. It was everything I thought it would be, and more:


Last night, we saw Kung Fu Mahjong at Bethany's, and she made some awesome stir fry:

Ok, everyone happy? See, I have just been busy. Back to the real stuff now: the Interweb. It sounds pretty nutso to just scrap the Internet, but there's actually more to it than that. It doesn't take a genius to realize that the Internet has serious issues because everyone is afraid of spam, hackers, viruses, identity theft, etc. What's the solution? Researchers believe that it's to start fresh with a new protocol, and Vinton Cerf (credited with the invention of TCP/IP) agrees, as well. The fact of the matter is that the Internet was just a DARPA experiment that enjoyed a ridiculous amount of unexpected commercial success when it was really meant to be a trusted network of sorts. Not only does the current architecture stifle performance, but it burdens everyone to invest so much in security that it causes further complications and slowdowns, and we're pushing it past its original intention. To stay with the status quo would be like establishing a country's constitution and saying that it can never be amended. Change will take time, and be difficult, but I think it's important to recognize the need to explore solutions.

Bloomberg has an interesting little blurb about Google: that Google is looking for "crazy ideas." Obviously, they're taking that out of context in the headline. What their director of corporate development says is still important though: it's the crazy ideas that bring the most success. I think we often get so lost in being comfortable that we forget how crazy risks can yield great things for us and for others. It's always fun when business concepts transfer so nicely to our personal lives. A lot of startups do fail, but I think many of them just kind of have middle-of-the-way ideas. If you're not bringing something really fresh that fulfills a need, why should anyone care?

The rumors about Apple have returned: now they're apparently going to turn to a subscription-based model for iTunes. It's hard to swallow that, especially given that the per-song model is working so well for them, but I don't think that Apple's denials should ever be taken especially seriously. I wonder if a two-tiered approach would work to have both per-song and subscription? Probably not, I guess, but my simple mind just figures that that'd please everyone, whether or not it's feasible.

One more thing about Apple: they've been crippling the Apple TV's HD capabilities. I know, sounds crazy, huh? But Engadget hacked it up and managed to get it to play HD content quite well on the weak hardware it's packing, it's just not available right out of the box. Is Apple just being a video snob about supporting other formats? Were there royalty issues? The world may never know.

Here's a one-liner: Google Earth has added hiking trails. I think that's awesome because in this modern day of coffee shops and MMORPGs, people forget that many places have great things to do outdoors (including Austin).

One more one-liner: this is an interesting little read about how European P2P users are getting found out. It's quite a sneaky, almost scary approach. I personally find it a little ridiculous.

I'm going to keep the movie news brief. The box office shocked me again this week when Disturbia took the top spot at $23 million. I guess all those preteen girls in love with Shia Labeouf came out in herds because it made Perfect Stranger open in 4th place! To add insult to injury, Grind House dropped to the bottom with less than $5 million. Ouch. Meanwhile, 300 passed the $200 million mark, and people continue to quote it way too much. No, this is not, in fact, Sparta. Just deal with it.

The ShoWest trailer for Hairspray actually turned me off from seeing the movie anymore. It has a pretty good cast (including Christopher Walken), but I just have no desire whatsoever to see it.

Yahoo Movies also got a clip from Rush Hour 3, but it's not very impressive either, to be honest. Is this supposed to entice us into anticipating the movie? Because if so, they need to fire their marketing staff.

I like the new poster for 28 Weeks Later, though still no idea how this movie will be. It could go either way, in my opinion.

And now, for some Unconscious Mutterings:

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

1. Freeze :: Mr. Freeze


2. Naturally :: Blonde


3. Painting :: That painter from The Simpsons


4. Merits :: Honor


5. Ironic :: Dramatic


6. Survival :: of the Fittest


7. Cow :: Beef


8. Anchor :: Man


9. Sisters :: Brothers


10. 70 :: 80s

Phones for a Few Bucks?

Reuters is reporting the head honcho of Google as claiming that cell phones should become free in the near future, when that's not exactly what he said. Still, at least they were on the right track in reporting it. He believes that phones should become heavily subsidized by way of on-phone adverts (texts and photos), which I have a couple of thoughts on. First of all, how can you make it feasible to transmit pictures to a phone? This satellite Internet crap is slow enough as it is. Second of all, if you're giving away phones that cost hundreds of bucks for even a few bucks, don't you have to show someone a good bit of advertising? Some sites online are bad enough, and I think there's a certain point at which people tire of advertising. With your phone, you want to be able to easily make phone calls, and I think people are willing to pay a premium for reliability and convenience associated with that. That's why the pay model (minus subscription-induced subsidies) works so well. No one would pay to use Google because that'd be annoying and pricey (I'd imagine), and obviously not everyone wants to pay for television (hence antenna-accessible networks) so advertising works there, but I've never heard of someone not getting a phone because it was a bit pricey because they consider it to last them a good while and be extremely useful. The three things you always leave the door with are wallet, keys, and phone, and if the first two don't have ads strapped to them then why should the third? Maybe Schmidt is right, maybe it is the future, but I just don't buy it quite yet.

Think Secret has discovered that the newly released Core 2 Duo laptops from Apple pack a secret feature: 802.11n draft 1.0 compatibility. No word on driver availability for this functionality in the near future, but the factor of 10 speed increase on this new standard would indeed be a delightful surprise to customers if it ends up being unlocked with the proper drivers and support, which isn't guaranteed by a longshot since it's just for a draft of the upcoming standard. I ran into this list of courses that nerds would have fun with, and I thought I'd plug it simply because I've taken a few of these (or heard good things) and they really are great choices for the nerd in you. Google Earth added a neat new feature: historical maps. They're not all that detailed, but fun stuff for World History enthusiasts, I'm sure. Photo editing enthusiasts will really love Pixer, which allows you to edit your pictures via the nifty Web 2.0 application. It's obviously not as feature-rich as something like Photoshop or even Paint .NET, but it's great for the quick things. Lastly, MTV has redone their site and I just wanted to point it out for the sake of what not to do when re-designing a site: moving backwards. I wonder if the designers were thinking that it would be a great idea to make the whole site Flash so that it'd be laggy as Hell, force you to watch videos from startup (and always have it off to the side, mind you, to kick your RAM in the butt), and then pop up an ad whenever you click a link.

In case you didn't catch The Simpsons trailer yesterday, don't worry because you didn't miss much. You can see it over here, but it gives us pretty much nothing. What's much more interesting is this extremely early review of Shrek the Third. The fact that it's good in such an early stage is definitely a good sign, though I'm skeptical as to whether they'll add in enough to make it as good as the first two as the reviewer suggests it's lacking since it's already storyboarded out. An early review of A Night at the Museum wasn't nearly as good though and claims that the movie was pretty disappointing and very much lacking in big laughs.

I thought I'd end here with a rather funny Post Secret postcard that most guys wouldn't own up to, but they know they're guilty of:



Now for some Monday Madness:

1. From ch'i:
If you could only read one blog every day- which one blog would be on your daily list?
Unfortunately, many of my faves have been on a sort of hiatus, so I'll go with Delicious Days (link on right sidebar).

2. From kat:
What do you do to de-stress from a hectic day?
Dance and/or sleep =P

3. From paxil princess:
What is your favorite piece of clothing to wear in the winter?
This nice brown, stretch merino sweater my sis-in-law-to-be got me from Banana Republic a couple of years ago.

4. From sherle:
Do you prefer discussing problems with a sibling, a parent, a significant other, a psychologist, or a total stranger?
None of the above: a close friend.

5. From trista:
How long have you been blogging?
I believe I started in December 2004.

6. From lisa e:
Which side of the bed?
Left side =P Thought I have a twin bed here in Austin.

7. From elton:
How often do you pig out when you eat?
Yay, they used one of my questions! Maybe once a week or so. It depends on the week, but it's usually on the weekend if I do.

8. From karen:
Do you watch the space shuttle launches?
Nope. Astronomy just isn't my bag.

9. From dawn:
What's your favorite leisure-time activity?
Other than sleeping? Probably dancing, I suppose, because it's so social.

10. From sherle:
When is the last time you said, 'I love you' and to whom?
What about hugs? Who is the last person you hugged?
Not sure. I probably said it to my friend Jennyfer in the past few days though. Maybe I said it to my mom yesterday? Last person I hugged was my friend Raquel at TLD practice last night.