Facebook Past its Prime

Random Musings

It seems like every week there's more and more stuff to talk about, even on a holiday week like last week! I hope you all survived shopping this weekend as I bought more DVD/Blu-ray discs than you can shake a stick at, but also got some useful stuff: like a small Christmas tree with decor with some new jeans (finally!). By the way, any other Seattlites notice all the cool Holiday decor around the city? I love the giant star on the Macy's that's on Pike Street. Anyway, I think I'll be getting Prince of Persia this week though, so hopefully I can post some impressions of it next week. I think I'm also going to be getting Iron Man and Wall-E on Blu-ray, my 3rd and 4th Blu-ray purchases ever, but I may delay that to two weeks from now depending on how much time I get to watch them. Without further ado though, let's get to the news.

Oh, and for the record, I really hate the BCS system. I also hate the Big 12 for subscribing to the BCS's nonsense in breaking ties. I can't believe that OU is going to play Mizzou in the Big 12 Championship Game when UT has beaten both teams before in the regular season! It's really sad that we obliterated A&M last week whereas OU struggled against Oklahoma State but we drop a spot in the rankings and they go up one. I know that Texas Tech beat us and OU beat Tech, but Texas Tech also almost lost to Baylor, a team that we beat 45-21. We only lost to Tech because we were exhausted from having to play so many ranked teams in a row, we had a much harder schedule than OU! Anyway, as great as OU is this season I still hold that Texas is a better team and would do much better in the national championship game against Alabama. Oh well, hopefully we'll get a good consolation bowl and whoop whoever we have to play with a vengeance.

Facebook Fails to Acquire Twitter

Last week, Facebook offered $500 million of stock in itself in exchange for ownership of Twitter, but Twitter's board wisely refused. First of all, this offer is probably more like $150 million given Facebook's valuation, but it would be crazy for Twitter to accept strictly stock from a company with an uncertain future that has had trouble trying to monetize its own business, let alone Twitter's. More importantly, Twitter is fairly young. I think it made sense for them to hold out for a while and try to improve and figure out a good business model.

I think that the move made Twitter look stronger and Facebook look weaker since they could not muster up a cash offer, something that Twitter supposedly inquired about and could only get $100 million. The reason I think that Facebook is a little past its expiration date though is not because of this, but because they're still experimenting with ad revenue models and not getting a lot of traction. We're in an economy where business are cutting their advertising budgets, and while they're not cutting so much from their online budgets they haven't been excited about Facebook so far. Big media companies, likes of Fox, Comedy Central, NBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, and MTV, have done little more than dabble in Facebook and haven't really shown an interest to do much more. The whole "digg" concept of Facebook's right sidebar of ads is not that impressive, in my opinion. It just exposes their customers to the fact that they're not sure what advertising works, so they want to crowdsource that responsibility. Sometimes their ads are downright insulting, with divorce ads for people who are listed as being married on their profile.

Then there's the fiasco of their decision to offer the option of having your application "verified" by Facebook for an annual fee of $375 that it is trustworthy and useful. This has the effect of giving an advantage to developers with deep pockets, not those with great applications. This is on par with the concept of net neutrality: it sidles out innovation in favor of greed. I don't think that this is the way to address having a sea of applications, many of which are crappy. Of course, developers could start charging people to use their applications to help subsidize this fee, but why would anyone pay for a Facebook application anyway? Which leads to my next point: a lot of them are irritating at this point (less so than before, albeit, thanks to the UI re-design), so what was the point of creating that platform? To create an app store like the iPhone one? The only real use I could see is just keeping people on the site as their main portal for the Internet so that they garner more eyeballs for advertisers, but I can't see them realistically doing that. I only use Facebook maybe once a week nowadays whereas I used to use it all the time in college. It has started to lose its appeal to me, and if that's a trend for people who graduate from college (I've personally seen it a lot just anecdotally) then they lose the buying power of an audience with real disposable income as opposed to college students who scrounge for money to pay tuition.

I'm not saying that Facebook is done for, but I think that they're past their heyday and really need to innovate and be smart if they intend to really make money. Winning a lawsuit against a spammer is a great way to help start a war against spammers, and maybe that'll make people feel better about using Facebook if it has less spam, but that doesn't stop frightening social engineering scams involving names of someone's actual friends for a dash of false legitimacy. This economic downturn is a great time for them to step back from being the Web 2.0 darling and really figure out a game plan because what they've been doing over the past couple of years really hasn't been cutting it.

UK Doesn't Fancy the iPhone 3G Ad

Remember a while ago when I railed on the iPhone's 3G ad for being misleading regarding the speed of the actual iPhone 3G? No? Ok, well I promise I wrote it. Anyway, the Brits have also taken notice by banning the ad. A California resident noticed also and slapped a verbose $5 million lawsuit on Apple and AT&T for the misleading advertising, including the fact that 3G is only available a fraction of the time. The cornerstone of Apple is its marketing machine, so it should be no surprise that people get frustrated when they release ads fraught with lies. I don't think that anyone will sue for the "I'm a Mac" ads because they don't result in products that don't deliver, but I think it's a real concern. Apple is no longer the little guy in the corner. It's time for them to answer for these claims they continue to make to ship units quicker. I know that it may not be as unfair as some of the anti-competitive practices that Microsoft has engaged in, but they got heavily burned for that so I think it's definitely Apple's turn now.

Joost on the iPhone

While YouTube quietly rolled out a widescreen player for its content, semi-competitor Joost had something else in mind. They released a free application for the iPhone to enjoy Joost content on your iPhone as long as you're on WiFi. I know, it sucks that you can't do it on 3G but that's the fault of AT&T's rules and not of Joost, so don't blame them for it. I talked about Joost a long time ago when it was in beta and how I was excited about what it could do to marry old media and new media by providing an easy way to watch streaming TV on your own time without compromising on video quality, but the standalone application you had to use was really clunky and though they're now running out of your browser they still lacking in quality content. I think a great move is to be able to have this mobile application (and hopefully an Android one, eventually) to make their content more ubiquitous and put itself in better competition with YouTube. In an ideal situation (i.e. a city blanketed in free or cheap WiFi), I'd love to be able to start watching a movie or TV show on the bus with Joost and then come home to resume it from where I left off on my computer or home media PC. I hope that Joost continues to survive, I really am pulling for them.

Shaky Security

It looks like there's never a lack of interesting security news! This week I want to start out with airport WiFi, which is even less secure than you may have previously thought. A white hat hacker (i.e. a hacker who hacks to test the security of systems for further improvement) has visited some of the nation's biggest airports and discovered glaring flaws. For one thing, the networks on which vital airport functions were open and poorly secure. So I can't bring hair gel on my carry-on but I can log on to an airport wireless network and compromise their systems? He also logged into an American Airlines flight's WiFi and could access the data of other passengers. Then there's the fake hot spots set up in these airports by phishers hoping to find a patsy. How about the Department of Homeland Security does something useful and get cracking on this?

Another strange prospect to me is that Lenovo has a service that will allow you to disable your laptop with a single text message. My first hunch was that someone could send the message maliciously just to screw with you, but I think that more harmful is the false sense of security. While it may successfully lock down the computer, couldn't a hacker either wipe it clean for re-use or steal un-encrypted data from the hard drive if this security feature is in the BIOS (software installed directly on the processor)?

The last article I have to scare you is that anti-virus software is ineffectual against botnets. I guess this isn't really surprising, but it's still noteworthy. A botnet, as I've mentioned before, is a network of machines infected with the same worm that gives a third-party the ability to force them to execute certain commands, as in spamming or helping bring down a web server for extortion. Apparently, only 40% of current security software can detect the problem by the time it peaks in danger to the host machine and other computers. If its discovered after that point then what does it matter? The machine will be discarded and the hacker will already have moved on to new infected bots. So how can you stay safe? Anti-spyware solutions like SpyBot and Ad-Aware will help keep you clean (especially with SpyBot's immunizations), but having a hardware firewall (a router with WPA2 security enabled) and a software one (like ZoneAlarm) will really go a long way for attacks that just scan ports on random IPs to look for a way in.

The Exploding Offer

Joel Spolsky has a great post about the infamous exploding offer, and since I've come in contact with it (and fallen for it), I feel obligated to speak to it. This offer is named as such because much like the messages in the Mission: Impossible movies they are purported to disappear if you don't act fast enough. This is just like those stupid infomercials on TV except that you're playing with your career instead of Grandma's cash birthday gift. I took an offer with Texas Instruments my sophomore year of college in January because I was afraid I wasn't going to get any better offers since I had no previous technical experience, which won't get you in the door at a lot of companies and they were a big name. I didn't push them on their time line (that I remember) so I fell for the trap.

I don't think it's unethical for a company to tell you when they'd like to know your response on an offer by, but it's worse when they refuse to budge on it. Read this again and again: any company that tries to strongarm you into an offer does not truly value you. It's important to be humble while in the interviewing process with an air of confidence for selling yourself, but it's also important to realize that your career is worth much more than the commission they get for recruiting you or the feeling that you didn't disappoint them. They may sound pissed when you turn them down, or ask them for more time, but they're not your hiring manager. If they are your hiring manager, then you don't want to work for anyone who doesn't value you enough to let you make an educated decision and it shows that they're not confident that they're better than their competitors. That's a really bad sign. That means that they either can't afford you or they're just cheap and want to pay as little as possible for you.

I'm not saying you should be crazy and turn down companies left and right because they won't extend their decision deadlines, but it's not terribly unethical to turn the tables and use their weapon against them. Accept verbally and then just renege later if a better deal comes along. Yes, it does suck and you may be burning a bridge with them, but it's not a particularly good bridge if they can't give you a reasonable amount of time to explore your options. If they really had something good to offer, they'd be ethical about it and they wouldn't have to worry about other companies being better workplaces.

Holiday Shopping

I know that Black Friday is over but that only means that Holiday shopping has just begun! Read Write web has a great roundup of gift ideas for nerdy kids, and I think even nerdy adults, to be honest. I wouldn't care about brewing my own root beer or perfume, but who wouldn't want this programmable robot?



Some people may need new computers and consider buying one in the midst of deals trying to clear out inventory for next year's hottest models, but there's an important distinction to be made between notebooks and netbooks. A netbook is a small (like 8 or 10-inch small) computer designed for quick and easy Internet and e-mail usage and is not very powerful. So other than sites like YouTube, you won't be watching a whole lot of video on it. Plus, the computer will struggle to render Flash-heavy sites. However, they handle word-processing quite well with cheap or free alternatives to Microsoft Office and can be a great way to get work done without your work computer. And while you can't really edit video on a netbook, you can do your day-to-day photo editing just fine. It's a great and exciting new sector of the computer market for when you're on-the-go (maybe to a Cafe or a book store or something) or for when you're in the kitchen waiting on some water to boil, but it definitely doesn't supplement a standard notebook or desktop computer. What it lacks in processing power it makes up for in portability and price, but it probably won't meet all your needs. So keep around your normal computer if you decide to buy one and realize its shortcomings before you impulsively offer up your credit card.

Gizmodo has a really great article about gadgets you shouldn't skimp on that may be a bit pricey, but how you can save money elsewhere. For example, don't fall for crazy price cuts on third-rate GPS devices when the best ones on the market belong to the Garmin nuvi series. My nüvi 660 has its shortcomings, but it navigates like a pro even optimizing well around traffic. They also have a really excellent article explaining what the different types of HD TVs are all about and what to look for when buying one of your own. By the way, don't skimp on buying your HD TV. If you're going to buy one, go for quality and realize that its cost should be amortized over the 10+ years you use it for. I love my 40" Samsung and don't regret buying it in the face of Black Friday deals because it serves me so well. The quality is only bested by larger Samsung LCD TVs, in my opinion.

The Rest

Per usual, there's a number of articles I don't have time to talk to in depth, so I'm just going to spit them all out here real quick.

Tech Crunch questions eBay's acquisition of BillMeLater in the face of an economy reduced to shambles from a credit crisis, and I agree. The company seems to only supplant credit cards for people who have terrible credit, so this is like giving a slot machine to a gambler rather than getting him into rehab.

Virgin now has WiFi on its flights without censorship, though there is traffic shaping so that you can't hog bandwidth unless no one else is using it on your flight.

If you buy The Dark Knight from Amazon, you can watch it at Amazon Video on Demand for free! This means that you have an online streaming version of the movie that you can watch whenever, wherever. The digital copy on the 3-disc edition isn't really necessary since Video on Demand videos are hosted by Amazon and just associated with your account. This is really cool and I could totally see it being a trend with movie studios promoting pre-orders of movies with codes for free digital copies.

Computer World has a cute editorial about a Firefox man and his fling with Chrome. It's a funny read if you're like me and tried Chrome only to come running back to Firefox with arms wide open.

I usually don't post about lists of cool images, but I really enjoyed this one of optical illusions via street art and strange architecture. I mean how unbelievably cool is this one?



Time for bed (finally)! Have a great week everyone and Happy December!

Apple's New Notebooks

I know it's been a while, which is why I'm reporting on Apple's event, an event that happened nearly two weeks ago. There wasn't a whole lot of exciting news this week though, or last week, so I thought I'd talk about it some.

The MacBook Refresh

It's funny listening to podcasts after Apple's events to hear a consensus on an incorrect prediction. Apple announced a few new laptops (get all the details here), but not at the $800 price point people were speculating. Also weird, in my opinion, is that none of them support HDMI output yet (though you can get a converter to HDMI for what they do support, DVI) or Blu-ray (which is more of a licensing issue). You'd think that with dismal sales projections that Sony would be begging computer manufacturers to support it. Anyway, the new MacBooks are pretty slick:



The $1600 model has 2 GB of RAM (on a 1066 MHz FSB, but no idea what you'd do with one that fast), a 250 GB hard drive, a 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo processor with a 3 MB L2 cache, a backlit keyboard, a 13.3" screen, and an nVidia GeForce 9400M. Yeah, it's real beefy. The $1300 model processor has 400 less MHz and its hard drive is 160 GB. Also nice is the aluminum body and glass, multi-touch trackpad (so you can do iPhone-like stuff on your computer). The MacBook really starts at $1000 though (slightly slower processor, half the RAM, and a 120 GB hard drive), but only comes in white. There are pricier Pro models though: $2000 will get you a 15.4" screen with the same specs as the $1600 one and $2400 will you a slightly faster processor, a 320 GB hard drive, and double the RAM. If you need a larger monitor though, $2800 will get you 17" and a marginally faster processor (and will cause your friends to question the size of your junk, most likely - I'm sorry, but it's true). Oh, and these all have superdives inside to play CDs and DVDs, iSights, mini display ports (supports DVI), 5 hour battery life, ExpressCard slots, digital input, firewire ports, ethernet ports, and Bluetooth. But wait, there's more! They're releasing a new Air in November with the same nVidia card, 2GB of RAM, and gorgeous screen, but a 120 GB hard drive instead and a 1.6 GHz Core 2 Duo with a SIX freaking MB L2 cache. As you would expect, all models are thinner than before, but I don't think anyone was bothered by their current thickness. They also have an upgrade on their supernaturally beautiful 24" CinemaDisplay monitors, which has a MagSafe power port (for your laptop), a USB port, and (of course) a dispaly port for $900 (that's more than the computer I'm writing this on costs).

He ended the presentation bragging about why Macs are doing well and razzing Microsoft, as always, but I thought that it was a strong lineup. They machines are cooler than I had predicted a couple of weeks ago, and I wouldn't say that they're really exciting but I do think they're well-built, well-designed, high-end computers. They're still a little over-priced, but I can't argue with the quality of this hardware. I think everyone was a little disappointed that they're not coping with the economy by releasing a netbook or even a $900 laptop. Can college students really afford these things? They're definitely targeting students with their marketing, but they're still not cheap. Why not drop the price on the current MacBook Air and keep it out there? Or heck, drop their MacBook Pro to be a cheap MacBook. Are they just trying to keep their image as a high-end computer manufacturer?

Samsung's Air Competitor

I love my Samsung TV, so I had to be a little excited by their entry into the ultra portable laptop market with the X360. It looks beautiful, it has an antibacterial keyboard (we've all seen how dirty our keyboards get), 10 freaking hours of battery life, it supports Bluetooth and Gigabit LAN, it has a great selection of ports (including HDMI and 3 USB and memory card), and the display is incredible. I really want one of these, and at $800 it's really not a bad deal. Now we just have to wait for it to actually be released! I think this may be one of Samsung's first laptops because I haven't heard of them being in the market before, but please correct me if I'm wrong.

Joost's Grand Re-opening

I talked about Joost when it launches as I got into the public beta rather early, and while I had high hopes for it I was ultimately disappointed by its heavy software and un-intuitive interface, though the video quality was superb. Well, one of those things changed: all its content is now available straight from your web browser. The interface for browsing the site still is not as good as Hulu, and its content selection could use some help, but it has a pretty decent number of movies (including The Fifth Element) and it's still snappy, which is impressive considering the video quality. I hope its content base grows bigger, and I wouldn't be dissatisfied if it just showed a large number of ad-supported movies and left television to Hulu.

Speaking of Hulu though, they've been showing the season premiere of 30 Rock a week in advance of its actual premiere on network television. I thought that was really awesome and bodes well for old media adapting to new media, in my opinion.

Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 is Out

The Mozilla Foundation released Beta 1 of Firefox 3.1, and it looks to have some nice improvements. At the top of the improvement list is the TraceMonkey Javascript engine, which makes it easier for it to process Javascript-laden websites (which is pretty common in this post Web 2.0 era). It also has improved tab switching behavior and a visual tab switcher with graphical thumbnails, which I'm guessing is an upgrade from what's at the far right in the tabs row. I'm really looking forward to the smart session restore though, which allows you to micro-manage what it will restore better on boot-up or after a crash. For being a 0.1 version change, I think it has some pretty solid improvements - possibly the best of any 0.1 version change they've previously released. I can't wait till its ready for prime time!

Closing Notes

It's past my bedtime and I'm on call this week so it would be wise for me to get my rest. Here's just a few final items real quick:

Oprah has endorsed the Kindle! My confidence was never low for our performance in Q4, but with Oprah's army turned on to the Kindle
I feel even better about it. Maybe Amazon will have a section for Oprah's book club? That's not insider information, I have no idea what the Kindle team is working on (I don't think they're even in Seattle).

CNet has a sobering list of tech layoffs if you want to see how this economy has affected techies. It's not pretty, but it could be much worse so I think we should definitely be thankful that we still have work out there and many of us still have our jobs.

The Android platform is now fully open source! I think that's pretty cool, and literally the exact opposite of Apple's stance with the iPhone, it seems.

Lastly, Gizmodo has a list of gadgets that give infinite pleasure (get your mind out of the gutter, not that kind of pleasure), and it's just really fascinating. I could totally get into the one of bubble wrap that you can just keep popping forever.

Have a great week everyone, and pray that I survive my first week of on call!

Hulu and Cranium Wow

My Fall semester is officially over! Academically, I couldn't be happier that it's over, to be honest. Aside from Network Security and Privacy, I won't really miss my classes very much. I managed all the grades that I wanted, so I'm pretty excited about it. Marketing was lame, OS was a drag, and Vision was just way too difficult. Finance was alright, though I wish I didn't have to take that final (she drops the lowest test and I screwed up my last one). Network Security was definitely a ton of fun though, and I really took a lot away from it. Now I can start my extremely busy Spring Break. I have to start looking at this research project I want to help with, I have to code up an internal professor review feature for the NSC site, and I have to help write a web application to help prepare high school students for TAKS (standardized test). Nice break, huh? Oh well, I prefer it to be productive rather than boring. Plus, I should have a pretty easy time this Spring, which is nice because I want to hit up all the happy hours in Austin.



On to the good stuff. I got my private beta invite for Hulu and I was definitely pleasantly surprised. You can find out a little more about it here. The concept? Basically, your television on-demand from anywhere. It has full-length shows, clips, reviews/previews of games, and feature films. It's a huge step up from Joost, mainly because it's so ridiculously easy to use and very responsive. I eventually stopped using Joost (though I still have it installed) because it was clunky and it always took me forever to find the content I wanted. I really wanted to love it because the videos were high quality and generally loaded pretty fast, but it was a pain to navigate.



Hulu, on the other hand, is like everything I could've imagined in a free, on-demand service. It really lends itself to casual browsing. You can browse popular clips or search for content and then there's a little link below each video to add to your playlist (see the first screenshot). Then, you can just mouseover the playlist link in the top right corner to see a drop-down of the top 5 items and start playing them (see second screenshot). It keeps your history as well so that you can always show your friends videos you saw a week ago. Each video page shows you related videos, lets you submit reviews and rate it, and all that good stuff. What's really neat about sharing the videos is that you can not only e-mail it but embed the whole video or a clip of it. Check out this clip from Friday Night Lights from the second to last episode where Smash Williams is in over his head with college recruiting:



Plus, the ads are unobtrusive. There's occasionally an ad before the video, but they're usually really short and the ad in the top right corner is pretty small also. The video quality is also better than I expected (much better than YouTube), and it's all legal so you don't have to worry about your favorite Family Guy clips disappearing.

I do have a few gripes though. When you browse by show, you can't add episodes to your playlist, which is kind of annoying. You also can't do this from the video itself, only from the home page, popular clips, or a search. You can't mark favorite videos, which would've been nice. You can't tag videos, which would be really good for making search easier. Overall though, it's pretty amazing for being just in beta. There's a ton of content, and I think that the major networks could shut down their full episode players and hand over their content to Hulu. It makes it so much easier than going to each different site for a different show.

Now to switch gears, I want to give a brief review of Cranium Wow. I got it as a birthday gift a little over a month ago, but I've played with other people's sets to so I've played it quite a bit. So what's different about this from the old Craniums? Well, a few rule changes, different die, new games, and movers. The rule changes are pretty minor: the soonest birthday rolls first and I think that's new. When you get to the middle of the board you do all 4 categories in clockwise order and then your opponents pick one more for you to do, which I believe is new. The die has 10 sides for the 4 colors plus purple to fast track to the brains. The new games are Side Show (move a team mate's body to get your team to guess whatever the card says), Team Gnilleps (spell the word backwards, except that the whole team has to participate now), and Mind Meld (everyone on the team writes down 3 things in a category and if 2 people match in 1 item then you win the roll). I think that's it, but I haven't played regular Cranium in a while so there's also Copycat (act like the person on the card) and Odd Couple (pick the 2 things on the list that don't belong) in case that wasn't in original Cranium. The movers are cute and the hair is changeable. There are 12 in all, and your box comes with 4 of them. Oh, and it has 600 cards which appear to be all new and has some more pop culture mixed into them.

So how does it play? To be honest, it's faster and at times can be easier. There are a number of easy cards, and some hard ones. Then again, difficulty is subjective based on who you're playing with. But still, the purple color on the die makes the game a lot faster. You can finish a whole game with 2 teams in under an hour. If you have more teams though or if you get a lot of hard cards the game can take about 2 hours. Despite this though, it's still a lot of fun. I find my friends pining to play it whenever we have out get togethers. I think it really does revitalize the series with great presentation inside and on the outside of the box, and it's a lot better than getting a booster pack if you have an old Cranium set. It's pretty much what you've come to love, plus more. Yeah, it has quite a bit of easy cards, but that doesn't mean your team will get them. I don't regret getting this game at all, and I think it actually doesn't work too bad with small groups (though it's obviously best with larger groups).

Alright, I gotta jet for now, gang. I'll bring you guys another post this weekend!

Discontent with M$

I think today was the first day in a while where I got like barely any schoolwork done and instead did chores and ran errands. I should probably get back on the wagon tomorrow, huh? It looks like when it comes to disappointment with Microsoft, Paul Graham isn't the only one with an opinion. Jeff Atwood brings up the case of some developers who are sick and tired of the Micro$oft way of life. Apparently, it's increasingly common nowadays for developers to grow weary of Microsoft's anti-competitive practices and quit their products cold turkey. However, I have to agree with Jeff: this is ludicrous. I don't think it makes sense for anyone to whole-heartedly support one camp blindly. Open source software has its place in our world just like proprietary software does, and Microsoft will not disappear from our lives anytime soon nor does it really need to. Granted, they're likely to continue to lose power, but that doesn't change the fact that some of their applications are almost standard, and Visual Studio still stands to be an amazing IDE. Sitting on your high horse and dictating how the world should work doesn't change things, and fighting tooth and nail to prove your ideals by suffering with shoddy tools doesn't really prove anything. I admit that I'm kind of glad that I didn't get the internship at Microsoft because I would've felt like a sell-out, but a software developer's first priority should always be to do to his best create beautiful tools for people. Yes, I call software beautiful when it's done right, deal with it. I think this is, at the least, an important lesson in open-mindness. No one is perfect, and no school of thought is perfect, so why not mix and match?

Joost is doing pretty well right now. Not only do they have all this new content, but they got $45 million from various investors (including Viacom and CBS) to keep on trucking. Their future looks pretty bright (I guess these investors are hoping to latch on to the next YouTube), in my opinion. I like the new content (lots of great music stuff), but they need an easier, quicker way to navigate it. Clearly, their scroll bar for seeing programming on a channel is not suited for when you have over 50 items in the list.

Apple hinted to its shareholders that they may soon be seeing video rentals on iTunes. I'm honestly surprised that this hasn't happened by now, and figured that it must've been in the works. Seems odd to add video content to compete with all these other movie download sites if you can't even match their features. Speaking of iTunes, Sir Paul McCartney will be pre-selling his new album on iTunes, the first of the Beatles to release content on the service. Remember, Apple Corps (owner of the Beatles music library) and Apple had bad blood for a while, so getting that music on iTunes is tricky, but this is probably a good sign for progress.

We have more rumors that the next Zune will let you download tracks from WiFi hotspots and that a Flash-based Zune to compete with the Nano is also on the way. Supposedly, we'll be getting more official word next month to offset the iPhone release, but it had better be pretty damn awesome if they want to take attention away from Apple, and it had better be before the iPhone drops or else no one will care (even if the iPhone flops, it'd be bigger news, because that's how the tech media operates).

Does that not look cool? I'll admit, not the Optimus Prime fans of the series likely have pictured, but I'm still going to give props to Michael Bay's visual flare. Anyway, he put up high-res images of other transformers on his blog. I like what he did with Bumblebee, also. By the way, the original show is on Joost and is stellar (I still have unlimited invites to the beta, by the way).

Yahoo Movies has what I think is the worst trailer I've ever seen: the trailer for Bratz. It gives away like half the movie as it is, and that half is horrible, even by kid movie standards.

The owners of the rights to the Terminator series have sold those rights off, and it looks like we'll be getting another sequel. Then another. And then, one more. Do we really need three more Terminator movies though? Isn't there a point where it gets tiresome? I don't even care to see a T4, to be honest.

It looks like one of the performers at this year's ACL festival could be the next Bond girl. Up and coming British jazz artist Amy Winehouse is supposedly being ogled by the movie's producer, but this could just be speculation. Still, it doesn't sound that far-fetched, though I don't think she necessarily fits the archetype.

Lastly, it looks like Sony is willing to create 3 more Spider-man movies due to the massive success of the latest installment. However, no one has said that they're returning, so I guess re-casting would be theoretically possible. Personally, I'd like to see someone other than Tobey take a crack at being Spidey. Still, this sounds like a bad idea because they're trying to come up with ideas out of a desire for money; they don't actually have any good ideas already.

Now for a Thursday Threesome:

Onesome: Super-- heroes and comic book characters? Have you seen "Spiderman 3" yet? Will you?
I have not, but I plan on it...eventually.

Twosome: Mario-- Brothers led one gaming revolution: are you a gamer? Online? ...or is this one of those things you just don't even notice?
I used to be really into video games, but I just don't have the time for them anymore! Maybe I'll try to beat Devil May Cry 3 this summer? It's so freaking fun! If Starcraft 2 happens, I may have to try that out if it's still an RTS. I used to love RTS games.

Threesome: "Brothers-- in Arms"? Just listening to some old Dire Straits this evening: how about something new on your music radar you can share with the gang!
I just downloaded some Damien Rice (O) on Ruckus and it's really awesome. I'll probably get music from other ACL artists soon, as well.

Parents Gone Awry

First of all, I just saw the 2007 ACL lineup and I'm totally pumped for it! If you plan on going, definitely let me go. If you look in my September 2005 archives, you'll notice that The Decemberists, Bloc Party, and Arcade Fire were among the top 5 acts that year. Anyway, the Number Theory final this morning was about as hard as I expected, and Business Law was harder than expected, but I think I did well enough on both, and now I just have Programming Languages left (next Tuesday) as I had already secured my As in Object Oriented Programming and Accounting (woot). Before I get to the real post, I'll share a few pictures:

This was Chris's Mii at our Cinco de Mayo Wii party. (I have a sweet video from them playing Super Monkey Ball, but Bethany would kill me if I posted it)


That's the plate I put together at the Mongolian Grill for NSC exec dinner on Sunday before being cooked...


and here's the after!


NSC Boat Party was on Monday, and there's a good pose from Henro and me.

Ok, so the topic today is parenting in our modern society because I like how Will over at Suicide Girls brought up the topic. I think what's really scary about today's world aside from our current geopolitical situation is that our future isn't really assured. I see more and more kids lost in a dizzying array of the convenience of modern comforts such as television and video games. What's funny is that this happens about every decade and everyone who's older believes it to be a huge tragedy because it's not how they were brought up. However, I think there's a real concern now because we're actually seeing the detriment to these kids. We're seeing kids becoming physically unhealthy and socially awkward, two things that I loathed being when I was growing up. Though I loved video games, both of those were brought on more or less by my own personal issues. Nowadays though, I think we're seeing families with more professionals at the head where their job never stops so they don't have time for quality time with their kids. I often see two extremes. One is where the kid gets everything he wants (not literally, usually, but more than most of our parents would've allowed) and the other is where the kid is sheltered. Both approaches are wrong. If the kid always gets what he wants he'll never learn to make due when things don't work out, and if he's hidden from something then he'll only want to rebel and get at it more. What I wish more parents would do is actually discipline their children and teach them moderation. All technology is wonderful in moderation, as goes with work, time with friends, food, etc. I honestly think that if parents really stuck to this concept of moderation, we'd have a lot more kids growing up normally. I have absolutely nothing to back that up, but don't you think it would be at least a step up?

Another great editorial to read is Joe Dolson's post about redesign being more conceptual than visual if it's done right. I totally agree with him. I think that a layout change should definitely come with interface improvements and such, but I don't think that modifying the usability of a site or adding to it necessitates changing its look, and I believe that it plays second fiddle to the long-term goals of keeping the site convenient.

Let me just pool together all the Google news here. They've overhauled the Google Analytics interface in an effort to probably entice more advertisers to trust them and determine how best to market themselves. Though I've been using the normal Google Analytics (still am until the migration is complete), I've actually noticed that I often have to guess at what to click to get what I want, so I'm glad they've fixed it (I use it anyway because I like the visuals better than Statcounter). Supposedly, Google is considering acquiring a job search site called Simply Hired that aims at the long tail of the market through widgets, though I think the service really isn't anything groundbreaking at first glance, personally.

Joost has taken on some more high-profile clients, and it's worth noting that this is still largely vintage content. It's not like you get new episodes of The Daily Show or anything, but I still say that it's amazing that they're able to attract networks faster than even Apple initially was with iTunes. This bodes very well for free, streaming television because I'm sure we'll see more valuable stuff if it works out. I still have unlimited free invites if anyone wants Joost, by the way.

Couple of one-liners now. Intel has unleashed its Santa Rosa chipset to be the Centrino of Core 2 Duo processors (i.e. optimized for laptops, especially on power consumption). It looks quite pricey, but I'll wait on unbiased benchmarks before passing judgement here. I've been using xplorer2 for a while now rather than Windows Explorer and love it. If you still use Windows Explorer (and are running Windows, of course), you should totally check out this article on the amazing things xplorer2 does.

I'm really tired, so I'm only going to run through some quick movie items. A mediocre clip from Transformers aired on the Ellen Degeneres Show. Yeah, we saw a decepticon, but only for like 3 seconds. The trailer for You Kill Me isn't much better video fodder either. Why is Ben Kingsley doing a movie like this? The mobster comedy angle is getting old, Hollywood. If you want videos to watch, check out HappySlip on YouTube; I just discovered her channel today because of the Buzz Out Loud podcast (which I can listen to now on the bus because of my Sansa). This is funny, too.

Would you watch a continuous video feed of Natalie Portman's life? If so, you're scary, but apparently Natalie wants you to do just that. I'm still confused as to how this would work, I just wanted to remark on how stupid I think this is (largely because most reality television sounds like this and already sucks).

Apparently, we may see a sequel to Grindhouse. Dimension is apparently interested, but I think they'd have to get the movie down to two hours, and I wonder if Tarantino is really willing to work on something like this sooner than the end of next year, if even then. I think I remember him having another project (a Kung Fu movie remake) to do after Inglorious Bastards, and I doubt that Robert Rodriguez would do a sequel without Tarantino.

Masswyrm is usually a pretty harsh reviewer, but he really enjoyed 28 Weeks Later, which definitely offsets my skepticism. Maybe this is another actually great horror film after all?

Now for a Wednesday Mind Hump:

1. What is your favorite song with "Thank You" or "Thanks" in the title?
Probably the song "Thank You" by Boyz II Men.

2. Who do you want to thank, and why?
I'd have to say God, for bringing so much joy in my life more recently through one particular thing.

On Passing Judgement

Sorry to have missed so many, but this week has been a wild and crazy ride. On the bright side, I got my Sansa today! I'll give full impressions soon enough, just not today. Today I'm going to cover a topic I've wanted to discuss for a couple of weeks and now Paul Graham has given me reason to do so: judging people. I like his view of there being two types of judgement: judging for the sake of judgement (as in for a contest or for a court case) where impartiality is vital and expected, and judgement as means to some other end, as in judging who's best to date or who should get into a university. What's interesting is that we often expect the first time when we're really getting the second not realizing that the second type doesn't have a concept of being fair. Just because a girl is at a club and chooses to dance with one guy over another doesn't mean that the other guy should take it personally, because she's not investigating his abilities or character to judge him in particular, she just wants to see who she'd have the most fun dancing with.

I even have a personal case to relay, where obviously no names will be revealed (so don't try guessing). There's an individual in my department who I knew of but didn't really interact with much because, well, I usually interact with friends I already have in my CS classes (as we all do when we know people in certain classes). However, this person judged me as being arrogant, unbeknown to be until a few weeks ago where it started influencing people who I had never met before. Understandably, I was offended by this and yet, this person didn't really mean any harm (at least I don't think). They didn't care to get the full story on me because they had no interest in this, they were just trying to make a prima facie analysis of whether I was a worthwhile person to know, which clearly came out as negative. In fact, we do this all the time. When the bus is full and you need to decide who to sit next to, who do you pick? Often, guys sit near guys and girls sit near girls, and it's weird to be offended if someone decides to not sit next to you because they're not trying to knock you as a person, judging you just wasn't their end goal. However, there is hope yet: make more of an effort to sell yourself, as Paul puts it. There's something I hate doing, but I hope that spending more time with certain people will replace false impressions with the real thing. We've actually been having judgement problems in ACM as well where a gender/sexuality workshop at meeting failed horribly because the moderator was close-minded. I took one thing from it though: we sometimes make subconscious judgements of people based on gender not because we mean to judge them a certain way, but it's that second type of judgement and it's become ingrained in us. Anyone who's not a jerk tries to treat women equally, I just feel like sometimes women mistake that second type of judgement for the first type and get offended, especially in this department. Anyway, I'm not going to get offended by the second type of judgement anymore. It's important to not be so self-centered, and to think of the bigger picture (just like in software design; what do you know, a nerdy parallel?!).

Speaking of design, Joel Splosky has a quick read that I just thought was cute: a new elevator technology that's really fancy and efficient, but it wasn't designed quite well enough. Don't cheat like I did, actually try to figure out what the problem is before you highlight the answer.

Usually, I pass on social networking sites nowadays because it's just done to death. It's a nice little trend, but it's headed right for the toilet at this rate. Anyway, I yielded a bit to Wakoopa, which is a really neat site that uses your software usage to suggest other products you may like and list updates and even show reviews of your software. It only takes 5MB of RAM while running, so give it a shot. It also provides usage stats and, lo and behold, tags (bet you didn't see that coming).

Joost has gone "live", which means that they now have premium content supported by ads (haven't run into this yet) and have given all beta testers unlimited invites. So leave me a comment with your e-mail address and name if you want an invite! There is a ridiculous amount of channels now, but my computer is running low on RAM so I'd better not try looking through it for you (Firefox is eating memory like no other and I don't want to restart until after this is done).

Speaking of new software, Gaim is now Pidgin and Ars Technica has a full review of Pidgin 2.0. The review is very positive, which is a big compliment coming from Ars Technica. Plus, I'm using it right now and I feel cool just using it because of how nice the interface changes are and the welcome bug fixes. If you're on Linux or Windows and use IM, you're really missing out if you don't try out Pidgin.

Yahoo has finally decided closed down Yahoo Photos. I speculated on this very early on because it didn't make sense for them to have two competing services once they acquired Flickr, and their justifications for keeping Yahoo Photos were pretty stupid. I didn't think it'd take this long for them to realize what was necessary, but I'm pleased that they're actually being quite graceful about it.

This post wouldn't be complete if I didn't briefly mention the Digg scandal about Digg taking down dugg stories referencing an HD-DVD processing key after receiving a cease-and-desist order. Using this key literally circumvents the DRM used on all HD-DVD discs released. Yes, they're just that stupid. I think the community backlash for doing this was a bit harsh given that releasing such a key can't possibly be legal and it violates Digg's TOS, but I respect them for decided that freedom of speech reigns over corporate control of the Internet. Personally, I agree with distributing the key as a sign of rebellion for how inane the HD-DVD schema is.


We have a poster for The Golden Compass, but I felt it was too ugly to post here (despite my love for the original book, mind you). So instead, I thought I'd show off one of a few new posters for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which I like much better. There are also some new ones for The Simpsons if you're interested, but they're nothing special.

Now onto the trailers. Apple has an HD trailer for Rush Hour 3, and I felt very underwhelmed by it. My friend disagrees because he's afraid that fanboys are just going to hate on Brett Ratner, but my issue is with the trailer and not with him as a director as I enjoyed the first two Rush Hour movies very much. Moviefone has another trailer for Shrek the Third, and I think that I like this one even more than the last one! It's very funny and I think it'll end up making for a cute, family movie that adults will actually enjoy (like the first two). Yahoo has the teaser for Hot Rod, featuring SNL's Pete Sampers (of "Lazy Sunday" fame), and it's mildly amusing. I'm holding out on judgement (heh, funny to use that word now in this post) until I see at trailer.

Disney, in a strange display of openness, is showing off 9 minutes of Ratatouille on their website. I really like the animation style in this movie, and it's executed quite well. I didn't laugh out loud or anything, but it was still fun in its own respect, and I guess more of a visual feast.

According to Joe Carnahan, of Smokin' Aces infamy, he's seen the teaser trailer for Sin City 2 and it's supposed to be phenomenal. Now I'm really really excited to see some footage from this movie!

Lastly, given that people aren't saying the best things about Spider-man 3, you may want to try giving Lucky You a shot instead. It sounds like a worthwhile drama from some people I respect, but critics are butchering it.

Now, before I go eat myself, for Friday's Feast:

Appetizer
Name something you would not want to own.
A motorcycle. I'd be so scared to ride the bloody thing!

Soup
Describe your hair (texture, color, length, etc.).
It's black, very thick right now (in a fro when I don't gel it, almost), and very curly. It really is way too thick (like 2-3 in. above my head), but I'm too lazy to get a haircut here in Austin.

Salad
Finish this sentence: I’ll never forget ___________.
the girl next door. Just kidding, there was no girl next door, but I assume that comes from a comedy I love, The Girl Next Door. Anyway, I'll never forget how my luck changed on March 1, 2007 with a job offer followed by a night of Sandy's and dancing.

Main Course
Which famous person would you like to be for one day? Why?
John Frusciante, so I can learn his mad guitar skills (or at least a day's worth).

Dessert
Write one sentence about yourself that includes one thing that is true and another thing that is not.
I enjoy smiling wide and polishing my gun collection.

Lights Camera Apple

I have to get some Scheme written before I go to bed, so I'll make this post short and sweet. Today was that Lights Camera Apple event at NAB I had mentioned just a couple of weeks ago, and you can get the full recap over here. However, I doubt that many of you will need to, or want to, read through all that. The meat of the presentation was the release of Final Cut Studio 2, and Gizmodo has slightly more detailed impressions of that. It sounds like a solid, professional-grade application, but it will set you back $1300 (ranges from $500 to $700 for an upgrade, though). I think this begs the question: how do they determine this pricing model? I really am curious, to be honest. It seems like an exorbitant amount of money for just some code in a box. Is it because it requires a price that high to recoup their costs and profit for production on a newer version because of how few buyers they'll have for this kind of software? Is it just a status symbol (like how people will buy name-brand things rather than knock-offs based on its price rather than its quality)? Do they feel that this software just has the capabilities to generate the revenues to warrant such a purchase? Or is it simple supply and demand at work? I'm banking on it being the last item, but in any case, it sounds like it's pretty cool. Though I'm sure I'll never get to use it, I look forward to finding out what Ars Technica says.

One more tidbit about Apple: a recently filed patent application seems to imply the development of another Apple TV that would be like a media hub connecting all your home theater devices together. I hope that they have more up their sleeves than that to follow up a product that critics don't seem to find much value in.

If you're a Gmail user, you'll really get a kick out of this Firefox extension. Usually, I write off Gmail-oriented Firefox extensions as being superfluous, but this one is actually really awesome. Not only does it make it easier to identify labels and attachments, but it does cute stuff like warning you if it looks like you forgot to attach a file you promised. If you're on Firefox, it wouldn't hurt to give it a try. If you're not, then something is wrong with you. Seriously.

CBS has penned a deal to distribute some content on Joost, AOL, and MSN. By the way, Joost has not given us any invites yet, so don't ask me for one. I'll be sure to say in a post when we do get invites. Anyway, CBS is doing a really great job by diversifying its digital distribution efforts so well. They really are experimenting to see what their audiences want, and I like that.

Apparently, Microsoft has been developing a cross platform web client for better, easier media viewing online called Silverlight. It sounds nifty, but his explanation is too level. We need to actually see something.

If you want to see some fun computer rigs, you should check this out. I like the key-removing one best:



I'm getting real sleepy, so we'll keep the movie news short here. Entertainment Weekly is spreading rumors that Sam Raimi may direct The Hobbit, which would rule out a Spider-man 4 happening anytime soon. I think we could all live with that if the former ended up being good.

It looks like the title of the next Indiana Jones flick may be Indiana Jones and the City of the Gods. I personally think that it sounds really stupid and will strike a cord with conservative religious types, so I wonder if that will have any impact on the final title.

I hadn't heard of Atonement, featuring Keira Knightly, until now, but it looks like quite an awesome movie. The trailer is here and it looks like a WWII drama/romance. I know, sounds like a lot of other movies, but the style in the trailer is quite promising, to be honest.

Lastly, we have new pictures from Ocean's 13.

Now for some Monday Madness:

1. Who do you think is cuter, the host of Survivor, or the host of Amazing Race?
Um, ok so obviously this question came from a girl.
2. Have you seen any movies in a theater recently?
The last one I saw was 300, and I really liked it.
3. Do you read manga?
Nope, though I tried before. Nothing wrong with it, I just never got into it.
4. For people living in the US: Have you ever traveled outside of the state you were born in? For people living outside of the US: Have you ever traveled outside of your country?
Yes, I have. To New York, Washington, Arizona, D.C., and Florida. Outside the US: India.
5. Do you have a Yahoo! 360 page?
Nope.
6. How many blogs/online diaries do you have total?
One =)

Joost is Nifty

I'm back in Houston for the weekend, though I definitely miss Austin now. Still, it'll be nice to see my brother and sister-in-law tomorrow night; I'm sure they have an awesome BBQ planned. Anyway, I mentioned a service called Joost a couple of weeks ago that intended to bring TV to the PC in the way many of us have been drooling for: on demand, easy-to-use, and free. I signed up for the beta and I got in (I'm sure everyone did, no big whoop). I was pessimistic because I saw a bad review on Digg, but didn't want to read it before I looked into the program myself, and now I can't find that review. Anyway, I really like it. A lot of people seem to be trashing it, but I'm not sure why since it's still just in beta. So the service has a number of channels (the only ones you're likely to recognize are National Geographic, MTV, and Comedy Central), and you can just browse through them by name or by a channel catalog that has them listed by genre. What's strange is that not everything on the channel catalog is on the channel listing, which is confusing. Also, I'm not convinced that the way they choose to show the programs for a channel is the most efficient way (it's an expandable, vertical list). So it's really not as intuitive as one would hope, right now. However, I think it's still a promising interface in a lot of ways. I love the transparency, the auto-hiding, the ability to navigate shows and channels on the fly from the control panel at the bottom, the way you can turn it off ("suspend") and open it again to right where you left of, and when you don't choose a show to play next it'll be smart and show you what it thinks you'd like. However, a playlist would be more helpful. And they need more programming. I know, now I sound like I hate it, but I honestly think it has a lot of promise. It was a fairly consistent stream, it was nice quality, and I found myself being entertaining by totally random shows. It's fun, it really is. I think it can really go places, it just needs more mainstream support and a UI cleanup, which will happen right now during beta. I love the concept, and I love what they've done with it. They're starting something new here (yes, I don't count Democracy, it's really only useful for video podcasts and relies a lot on you setting stuff up right), and in a big way. I look forward to it improving in the months to come, and eventually going public.

Google has launched a couple of things. One is a free 411 service that's completely automated. I'm not sure how they're paying for it, but in any case, I never use 411. Searching online is a lot quicker and easier. The other thing they released was "My" Google Maps, where you can add markers and lines and stuff to Google Maps and save them, as in if you wanted to draw out directions or a route or something. This is similar to Quikmaps, but much less buggy and much easier to share since it's from Google itself rather than being a Google hack. I'm sure it'll become very useful for tourism and history classes and such.

I love finding out about quirky geek products, so I had to plug this list of fun Easter goodies. The only thing I had seen before was the Nabaztag bunny during an episode of dl.tv, which I thought was overpriced then and I still do. My favorite is definitely the killer bunny slippers. They should really include the Holy Grenade of Antioch with your purchase, though.

I like mentioning hard drive horror stories as I find them in hopes that my readers become more educated over time and become part of that minority of people that keep progressive backups of their data. It's like saving your money: it's almost a necessity, but it seems like no one does it. Anyway, the story is at the Consumerist and is about a Mac user whose corrupted hard drive wasn't able to be restored by Apple, but they wouldn't give him back his hard drive as part of their policy, so he couldn't even try himself to recover the lost data. PC users shouldn't count themselves fortunate though because recovering the data on your own still is dumb luck a lot of times.

Here's a one-liner: if you use Firefox then you may want to try out FullerScreen to see more of your browser.

All I have for you guys in movie news are trailers. George Lucas is promising us a teaser trailer for Indiana Jones 4 by this Thanksgiving Day Weekend, which seems like it so far away (because it is). I'm sure it'll give us virtually nothing from the movie, too, but Indiana Jones is so awesome that any news is exciting news on that front.

Yahoo Movies has the absolute final trailer for Spider-man 3, which has one new scene, at most. Again, I'm hoping for the best but expecting the worst from this movie. The hokey lines in the trailer just take away from the charm that made me fall in love with the series when I was a kid, so I hope that the trailer is not indicative of the quality of the movie. Yahoo Movies also has a trailer for Rob Zombie's remake of Halloween, and I'm personally curious to see what he comes up with the backstory for Jason. If anyone is in a position to remake a horror classic, it's probably Rob Zombie.

Lastly, I thought I'd mention the trailer for Good Luck Chuck because it's the most ill-conceived plot I've heard in a long time. Its only saving grace is having Her Hotness, Jessica Alba, co-starring. Get this: Chuck is a guy with whom women sleep with to have good luck in finding a husband, and now that he's fallen in love he can't have sex with her lest she fall for another man. [sarcasm] Yeah, this story is totally sensible, and it's real humorous. Let's give them an Academy Award here. [/sarcasm] The movie Shallow Hal comes ti mind, because I just hated the premise so much, and then I saw it and hated it more.

Now for Friday's Feast:

Appetizer
When you travel, which mode of transportation do you prefer?
Flying. Driving is stressful, a bus is uncomfortable and long, and there aren't any trains around here.

Soup
Have you ever met a blogging friend in person?
Someone who I first met only through blogging? Nope.

Salad
When was the last time you were really, really tired?
Today, when I got into Houston. The drive felt so long; I'm not looking forward to having to do it again in less than two days, but I am looking forward to seeing a certain someone on Sunday.

Main Course
If you could have dinner with any one fictional character from a book or movie, who would it be?
Probably Jules from Pulp Fiction. He was so just so entertaining!

Dessert
Fill in the blank: One day, I hope to see _______________.
I know it's corny, but "my dreams come true." Isn't that what we all hope for? I have a lot of aspirations, and I definitely do want to follow through on them.