The Crash of Video Games

I like how my visitor activity spiked today. I guess that personal tragedies really boost my popularity! Oh well, I guess it shows that I have enough people who care about me to want to find out what's going on with me, so thanks everyone. I ran into an extremely engaging editorial post about how the video game industry is heading for a major crash, and I'm actually inclined to agree with him. I differ with him on a few points, like I believe that the current generation was a big leap from the previous one, but I don't feel the same about this upcoming one, and only the Wii really changes the mechanics. The fact that the PS3 is using a modified DualShock shows that all Sony wants to do is churn out beefier boxes every year. Microsoft is trying somewhat, at least, with the Xbox 360. Everyone is praising their improvements to Xbox Live, which really do sound like they make the experience of their console even simpler, which means more of a focus on the fun. They're really trying to open up their Live Anywhere service and possibly start a revival in the lost art of PC gaming, which was a pretty big deal in my younger days. The fact stands though that the PS3, despite not having the worst pricing ever, bodes very badly for the industry as a whole. It's also about the games though, which seem to be becoming rehashes of old ideas and derivations from movies. Still, I have faith in Nintendo for the first time in years. You can review some of the big things we saw from them at E3 in this terse video and maybe you'll understand my sentiments. Will the industry really collapse though? We'll see soon enough.

Speaking of games, the PSP will be getting a camera attachment very soon. While it looks nifty, I just can't see it catching on very well. Why would anyone want one so late in the product cycle? Another topic I was thinking of centering this post around was that a lot search engines are copying Google now because they think that the same formula will work again. That's like guessing that lightning will hit the same place twice! I wish people would move on and realize that Google succeeded because of a couple of smart guys with great ideas, not because they followed a set path. You can still learn a few new things about Google over here though. Japanese company Softbank let the cat out of the bag that Apple has entered a deal with them to produce a 3G iPhone for the Japanese market, which has been rumored for several months now. No word on the American front quite yet, but I can't imagine that Apple would have put Japan at a higher priority (unless it's just a test market), so it's just a matter of time before an announcement. Lastly, MTV has launched its URGE music service, which offers both pay-per-download songs and subscription based unlimited listening. It's a decent plan except that it's still incompatible with Macs and iPods, which is going to really hurt its chances.

Why would I show you that poster? Well I know you like to see more than just black text, but other than it being a new poster, it's also a movie featuring Hugh Jackman, who I think is a pretty good actor. He also spoke with IGN about the sequel to Batman Begins and X3. It turns out that his consideration for the movie was pure speculation, but he wouldn't be averse to taking the role. Oh, and plenty more multimedia have sprouted about for X3. There's a pseudo trailer at AOL for The Devil Wears Prada about an overly harsh boss at a Vogue-like fashion magazine, and I thought it would be horrible but it didn't look half bad. Clerks II is now set to release a whole month earlier than before on the same weekend as Lady in the Water. Besides proving that Kevin Smith has a brass pair, it shows that he must have great confidence in his latest creation, which was budgeted at around $5 million. Lastly, Halle Berry has said that she may be willing to do another Catwoman movie if it were to be handled better, and it looks like she liked the director because she's considering a Cleopatra movie with her.

Now for some Monday Madness:

1. If I could change ONE thing from this past weekend, it would be ________.
my car accident. That should be pretty much a no-brainer. It has come up in my head a lot, how close I was to having a perfect weekend by taking a break, which I was considering just minutes before the wreck occurred.
2. One of my favorite recipes includes ________.
onions
3. If things don't go as originally planned, I tend to ________.
come up with a backup plan
4. My daily routine is very ________.
familiar
5. The one television show I will probably miss, since the season is coming to an end, is ________.
Joey, though I won't be that upset by it ending.
6. I have a calendar hanging/sitting on my ________.
wall
7. I'm really ________ about changing the calendar when the day/month changes.
good

I'm a Lucky Idiot

It's only appropriate that I start out this post saying, "Praise the Lord." Allow me to explain. As my regular readers no doubt already know, I've had a stressful couple of weeks. School has been consuming me and the stress has been piling up with my sleep time reduced. I literally started packing after my last final, moved my stuff into storage on Saturday, and then headed back to Houston. Little did I know that pushing my body to the limit would result in a car accident. After about 45 minutes of driving on 290, all that drowsiness started to kick in. Usually, I'm very capable of waking myself up, but this time nothing I usually do was working. Finally, I started to drift onto the gravel shoulder of the road, and as I turned to go back on the main road, my car spun in a circle. Then, it headed to the edge where it hit it at the perfect angle to launch me upside down into a ditch on the side of the highway. Definitely the singlemost terrifying experience of my life. When I opened my eyes, I figured that I was dreaming or about to die. Either way, I felt it was best to get out of my car. So I unbuckled, fell onto the roof, and rolled out. A few nice people stopped over to help me, and someone with a first aid kit cleaned up my minor cuts. Physically, I was perfectly fine. Emotionally, I was a wreck. Every time I approached my car, all I could do was sob, and I could barely get in words through all the crying when my dad spoke to me. They didn't yell at me, but I was disappointed enough in myself. What sucks is that I was thinking about stopping over and resting or getting some energy drinks, but I was still in the process of brainstorming ideas. Just a few more minutes and I may have made it out alright and been alright. Just a split second ruined my weekend. I was happy for the first time in months for all of two hours before being miserable again. My car's body has a lot of dents and scratches, but the interior is perfect. When my brother came to get me, after I broke down right in front of him, we emptied out all my belongings from it. I couldn't be more grateful that the accident happened in the best way possible: no one was hurt and my stuff was ok, and now I'll never forget opening my eyes upside down on the side of 290. I can't imagine that you'll find a safer driver for me. Not that I was reckless before, but this shouldn't have happened, and was a result of my own incompetence. Please, learn from my idiocy. Come up with several more strategies than I did for keeping yourself alert on long drives.

Though E3 is over, there are a couple of items left. It turns out that the cheaper PS3 will not support wireless controllers, among other things that I've brought up before. That one takes the cake for this cheaper version: why would you rather pay $100 less for so much less important features? Speaking of that controller, Engadget did a little comparison of their hands-on time with the PS3 and Wii controllers, and they were definitely more confident in the latter. However, they didn't bash the PS3 one as you may have expected, so there's hope for it yet. As you can tell from reading my blog, my life can get pretty stressful, and it looks like things are going to go downhill from here because IT is the most stressful field according to one study. I think it's hard to title any profession as being the most stressful, but I'm sure that technology can get rough because deadlines have to be really strict for really intensive projects. A prominent Google blog has a post about why we trust Google, and it's just a real interesting read. By the way, Google lost their case against the search box in IE 7 with the court deciding, and rightfully so, that changing the default isn't hard enough to be prohibitive. When you read stuff like this about Google, you kind of realize how funny it is that just a few years ago they were a little search engine with word of mouth publicity spreading like wildfire. Now, they've become so big and complicated. Lastly, Sony is planning on their own Ultra Mobile PC, and you can see what scarce pictures we have of it over here.



This big movie opener this weekend, Poseidon, got totally manhandled by MI:3 with only $20.3 million compared to the former's $24.5 even thought it was in its second weekend after a lower than expected opening weekend. It got pretty bad reviews anyway, but I just don't think the story was much to get excited enough about to go out and see it, whereas MI:3 was such a great experience and I'm sure that word of mouth spread. I think it's safe to expect big things next weekend out of the Da Vinci Code, especially since controversial movies seem to drum up even bigger audiences. Do you remember the third installment in the Fast and the Furious series? Tokyo Drift? It turns out that the reviews for it so far are pretty good when considering it as an action movie since the plot is obviously not going to be very strong. It sounds like it's a very fun movie to watch though, which is what really counts. Lastly, an extremely low quality, Spanish version of the trailer for Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth is online, and it looks like a pretty far out and freaky movie. Hopefully, we'll get an official American one soon enough.

Now for some Unconscious Mutterings:

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

1. Immune :: System


2. Together :: Again


3. Blank :: Check


4. Professional :: Killer


5. Thousand :: Stab (move from Devil May Cry 3)


6. Penetration :: Sex (too easy ;)


7. Shutter :: Speed


8. Upside down :: My poor car :(


9. Neck :: Break Your


10. Unlisted :: Army

One more thing: all this has made me realize that my life must have some inherent worth to it. God must have some big plans for me to have saved me. It would've been trivial for me to die right there and then, but clearly I'm going to be part of something imporant someday. I hope I can do some good for the world in exchange for being given a second chance.

E3 Is Finished

Guess what? It's over! Not just E3, but my spring semester! I'm bouncing off the walls with excitement because I've been waiting for this day for so very long. It was a harsh semester, and I enjoyed my CS classes while despising Physics. More on this in Sunday's post though, I'd better get to wrapping up this crazy week of E3 madness. I saw this image to the right at Joystiq, and I think it's quite fitting. Kutaragi actually publicly stated that his PS3 "is too cheap." While I agree that they're still going to incur big losses with each PS3 sold, I just don't think it's good PR to say that. Everywhere you turn now, you see articles like this chastising the PS3, which seemed to be the hero at last year's E3 while the Nintendo "Revolution" was the weakest link. Oh how quickly the tables have turned. In fact, Hideo Kojima (one of the best video game producers) even wishes he could stop working on Metal Gear Solid games to try out some Wii stuff, and he initiated the idea of putting Solid Snake in Super Smash Brothers. Oh, by the way, Metal Gear Solid 4 will be online with more functionality then in Subsistence. Back to the Wii though, even CNet seems to have taken a shine to it. I think that the mixed reviews from others will waver less when finishing touches are done. Satoru Iwata revealed in a newspaper interview that the Wii's pricing will be disclosed soon enough, and the console is schedule to release in the last quarter of this year. One last thing, if you want to get a taste of what goes into an E3 demo, you should read about how Bungie prepared their Halo 3 trailer. Well, that's it for E3 this year. I'm sure I've missed some things here and there, but I like to think that I've directed you to some of the most important stuff.

Despite all the E3 stuff going on, I managed to dig up a few normal news items (though there really wasn't a whole lot out there). I've brought it up before, and I'll bring it up again, IE is really hurting Microsoft, and I don't understand why they cling to it so much. They think the world runs on their software alone, and that's really irresponsible and way too arrogant. If an advertiser using Firefox can't sign up for Microsoft AdCenter, I'll give you one guess as to where they'll turn instead. To top it off, the Justice Department is seeking to extend their antitrust deal by another two years, which means that they'd have to help out the little guys even longer. I don't think that's so bad. Oh, and Steve Ballmer, per usual, doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut and was basically mocking Google's demands to the press. They already had people on their side in this battle, he didn't need to employ sarcasm. Lastly, almost half of all mp3 players in people's hands are iPods. That's actually not too bad; at least the little manufacturers aren't getting straight up dominated.

Does that new poster from Lady in the Water look a little creepy to anyone else? That may be on purpose given how different the new trailer is from what most people were expecting. Then again, The Village trailer was much more intense than the movie. Speaking of trailers though, we finally have a real one for Miami Vice, and while I still think it'll be good, this trailer was targeted way too narrowly at teens who buy these corny one-liners. There's also a trailer for Gridiron Gang, the new movie featuring The Rock and Xzibit in roles I don't think either of them were really meant to play. George Lucas has told MTV that the script for Indiana Jones 4 is done and different from your normal action movie, which we can only assume means that it's about more than just flashy special effects and pretty actors. Sounds good to me, as long as the movie happens before Harrison Ford becomes a senior citizen. Lastly, we have more X3 images (they never stop coming, do they?). Dell still has that 7 minute preview from the movie (though they're not publicizing it very well). See if you can spot the product placement in the clip.

Now for Friday's Feast:

Appetizer
What's your favorite flavor of ice cream?
Cookies N Cream! I've just always been a fan of Oreos, so when you stick them in vanilla ice cream it's called rocking my world.

Soup
What are 3 things you would like to put in a time capsule?
My transcript, the last ACL lineup, and probably the sheet music for "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You".

Salad
Name something you are 100% sure of.
My spring semester is over and I'm now a junior. Yippee!

Main Course
What is something you do to calm yourself when you're stressed or upset?
Pump up the jams. Mostly something fun like Coldplay or No Doubt.

Dessert
If you could receive an invitation to any important event, what would you like it to be?
A wedding. Those are usually a lot of fun, and probably a good place to pick up chicks. I haven't been to one since puberty though, so I really wouldn't know. My brother is getting hitched this fall though, so it's go time!

Wish me luck on my packing tonight and moving tomorrow! See you all Sunday night!

E3 Almost Over

This time tomorrow, 90% of my stress will dissipate. I may or may not be happy with how I do on my last two finals, but by then there'll be nothing I can do to change it. Just one more day of E3 left, and you can tell things are winding down since rabid new game announcements have ceded. As expected though, Nintendo is definitely stealing the show. Reporters are citing long lines to try out the Wii compared to just a few minutes to play a PS3 or Xbox 360. After watching a booth tour at IGN (Joystiq linked one, too) and comparing it to the other two, I can see why. In fact, Microsoft is slyly deciding to promote Nintendo in what I'm sure is an effort to join forces to take down Sony. They're claiming that you can get an Xbox 360 and a Wii for the price of the PS3, even though the Wii price hasn't been released yet. It's not like the Wii is a direct competitor for the Xbox 360 anyway, so it wouldn't be such a bad idea to join forces, though I can't see it taking that much effort to knock out Sony with all their missteps so far. Only one thing really blew away people for the PS3: the extended Metal Gear Solid 4 trailer. Oh, Nintendo also announced a new Mario game for the Wii called Super Mario Galaxy, and I don't quite understand it, but I'm sure it's fun. It definitely knocked my socks off, but I'm not sure that's enough to convince me to get a PS3. What about the booth babes? CNet, among other outlets, has compared this year's to last year, and the changes don't seem so major. Maybe they were just feigning to care about it when they imposed their "new rules"? Back to Nintendo though, the Gameboy may be dead as they're considering focusing all their efforts on the DS. This would make sense since I rarely see GBAs anymore. Lastly, they've also showed off Duck Hunt, but without seeing the people playing it, it's hard to get a feel of how good it is. Oh, and they took out the chuckling dog! What's up with that?!

I do still have some regular news, though. Pictures have surfaced of Google Notebook, and it looks pretty much as you'd expect. I wonder if they'll integrate it with Gmail and Google Calendar? Google is still keeping a quiet eye on Vista, but I think they're more concerned about search features in the new Windows than they're letting on. Meanwhile, Yahoo has opened a patterns library, which looks like just another way for them to be more developer-friendly. They're trying to create a rich API to compete with Google since you hear about Google hacks so much more than Yahoo hacks. Why is Mac OS X believed to be so secure? A Mac fan site claims that it's because of all the isolation it features. There's no doubt that their opinions are biased, but they bring up some good points. Apple shouldn't think that it's perfect though, because there's no way that it's impenetrable. Lastly, in case you read about Sony supporting the AAC format and how they're bowing down to Apple (the article has spread like wildfire, for some reason), then don't believe it. AAC is not Apple's format, and this doesn't imply that Sony's players will be able to play songs purchased from iTunes. If it was that easy, everyone would be able to support iTunes music.

As X3 approaches near, we're seeing more PR for it. Yahoo Movies has a few exclusive clips from out, and they're actually pretty decent. By the time you read this, the Dell site will have a seven minute preview of the movie, because it'll be up at midnight. Don't ask why they're doing this, they just are. Not sure how much you should care though since AICN has received another negative review of the movie citing awkward dialogue at places and small glitches that seem to add up to become irritating. So sad to see so much talent wasted. AICN has the new TV spot for Superman Returns (it just premiered tonight), and it's little more than what we've already seen. I wish I could see it in IMAX, but I'll probably be in Dallas when it's released and I doubt that they have IMAX theaters there. All my other stuff is actually multimedia, as well. Apple has another trailer for Cars, but this one gives you much more insight into the plot than the previous one did. It's much better than the previous one, though I still can't tell whether or not this one will really be worthwhile. Lastly, Ellen had a short clip from Snakes on a Plane, and I just love how Sam Jackson talks about it. You can tell he had fun making this one.

Now for 3x Thursday:

1. Nobody likes hospitals, but can you handle them? Why/why not?
I can, because they're just hospitals. Why wouldn't I be able to handle them? They're not fun places to be at, but it's not like your head explodes when you stay in one for too long.

2 .Have you had to be admitted to the hospital lately (last 10 years)? How come? What was the turnout?
Yes, but it was just a quick trip to ER when I had a stomach virus. I kept throwing up until I had nothing left to throw up, and I felt extremely weak and was worried that I would pass out or something. It was pretty bad, but I got some IV in me and I was alright (though the bill was totally inflated).

3. What's the worst thing about being in the hospital?
That smell they all have. It does nothing but remind you of past visits to the hospital.

Bonus Question: If you could change one thing about being in the hospital (comfort wise), what would it be? Why?
I'd put a Wii in there. It'll be cheap and a good way to keep your mind pre-occupied if you're waiting on a loved one. My mind is pretty much fried right now so that's really all I can come up with at the moment.

More From E3

I got some good news today: I aced my hard Theory in Programming Practice course! My other CS class final was this morning, and it was tough, but there's a good chance I did well on it. Just two more finals to go (Diffy Q and Physics) and I'm home free. On to E3 now. Color me impressed with the Wiimote. To the left here is the light gun shell, into which you plug your remote at the front. How neat is that? No games announced for it yet, though Duck Hunt will likely use it (yes, it's back, baby!). A number of other Wii games were announced as well, but what looked really neat was their demo of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, which used the remote as a wand everywhere logical except when actually swinging the sword. It looks like you'll be able to browse the web on your Wii as well (I smell a keyboard peripheral), and you can see tons more pictures from their booth here. I also managed to take a look at the video for Smash Brothers, and it's totally awesome. If you can find it on the interweb, then it's worth watching. Why so much about the Wii? Well, people covering E3 don't seem to care as much about the other consoles, though we now know a little more about the Halo 3 trailer, and the only truly impressive PS3 game looks to be Heavenly Sword.

I don't know why Google decided to have its Press Day today rather than any day after this week, but they did, and they announced some interesting stuff. One of their new products is a great way to burn time called Google Trends to see where people are looking for certain things, but I felt that Google Notebook sounded equally impressive as a way to jot things down while browing around on Google. Their co-op idea sounded interesting as well, but the UI looks too clunky at this stage for me to endorse it. Apple released Aperture 1.1 at $200 less, and Ars Technica seems to like it a lot more than the original release. I wonder if they brought new people on the project months ago rather than weeks ago? eWeek is reporting that Vista's new security features are more of a burden than they're worth as they seem to restrict users more than prevent attacks (though Microsoft has worked on closing holes, especially for IE7). They say it may deter enterprises from switching for a while, but I think that'd they'll be reluctant regardless given the costs to upgrade and release delay. TiVo has struck a deal with Brightcove to allow TiVo users to watch the online content right on their television, and I'm pretty sure this is basically TiVo trying to say that it's amicable to IP TV. TechRepublic thinks that hackers are starting to look more into exploiting Mac OS X flaws, as bug discoveries have rapidly increased more recently. I don't think that we'll start seeing major viruses soon, but despite all the other press claiming that OS X is made of steel, I think that we'll see exploits pop up soon enough. Lastly, if you're a PC user tired of having to search your Desktop or Start Menu for stuff, then you'll love Launchy. I started using it myself and give it my full recommendation. It's light on RAM usage and makes your life a lot easier.

Yahoo Movies has the trailer for the upcoming Owen Wilson comedy You, Me, and Dupree, and it looks like it'll be funny, but only in a mediocre sense. Who knows, maybe it'll be another classic. IGN has a couple of new pictures from Miami Vice, but they're mostly just attitude poses. Toy Story 3 has resumed production again, but now it's back at Pixar, where it belongs. I'm sure that Steve Jobs had a hand in this (just like in Disney dropping their McDonalds deal), and I hope that we'll be thanking him for it when the movie comes out. The Weinstein brothers have picked up the rights to Knight Rider, presumably to make a movie based on the old TV series. Clerks II will premiere at Cannes as a movie not in competition, which I'm sure Kevin James is happy about since he didn't premiere it at Sundance so that it could go to Cannes instead. Lastly, Heat will now be made into a videogame for no apparently logical reason. This movie is a masterpiece, but it wouldn't make sense as a game at all.

Now for the Wednesday Mind Hump:

1. Name two of your teachers from school whom you'd like to thank.
My old debate coach, Mr. Johnson, for teaching me the value of an argument and also that I shouldn't give up on resolving my speech impediment, and my economics teacher, Mr. Clark, because of all the good times I had thanks to economics competitions.

2. Name two friends you'd like to thank.
My friend Josh for providing me with so many drinks and parties, and my friend Robert, for taking me to Buzzfest last year.

3. Name two celebrities you'd like to thank.
Kiefer Sutherland for sticking around 24 for so long, and Jessica Alba, for looking so damn sexy all the time.

4. If you have anyone else you'd like to thank, you can thank them here!
Too many to list right now, but there's my parents for raising me and providing for me even now, my brother for always providing me with some good advice, and God, for helping me ace that CS class.

Wii and the Aftermath of the Sony Conference

I still have a big final 14 hours from now, and I'd like to spend at least 8 of those hours studying, so I'd better get through this post fairly quickly. If you don't care about video games, then you picked the wrong day to read a tech blog since that's 90% of the news out there. I posted yesterday right after Sony's press conference, but it looks like we missed out on some specifics. Remember the two price points? Apparently, the cheaper one is not only 40 GB lighter, but won't have an HDMI port (necessary for HD output, though we speculate component output will be available), WiFi, or any kind of external memory (SD/CF/MemoryStick) support. Doesn't look like too big a deal, but the lack of WiFi kind of sucks. Oh, by the way, they're also trying to copy the Wii with tilt sensitivity in the controller, which doesn't make sense at all and eliminates support for force feedback, which I think everyone loved. I'm now starting to get pissed at Sony. What about Nintendo? Well, we all figured that they'd bust out with a $250 price for their Wii, but no such luck. However, they did announce an alternate classic-style controller, which I presume would be useful in playing games from their former consoles. Some official hardware specs are up, but they had more aces in the hole than that. It turns out that the console will be able to download updates while in standby mode, so its WiFi is always on and working. What everyone was really hankering for though was Twilight Princess, and they got it. I'm sure we'll get to read much more hands-on info with the Wii tomorrow as 27 games will supposedly be on the showroom floor ready to be demoed, as well as that fancy controller rig.

I wasn't particularly compelled by the Microsoft press conference, but it did happen and it had some interesting nuggets, including a Grand Theft Auto 4 release promised. What was really crazy thought was the announcement of Live Anywhere, which integrates Xbox Live with Windows Vista PCs and cell phones, and it sounds like they're closing in on a great idea here. Oh, and they showed a Halo 3 trailer. Fox finally caved and has decided to offer 16 of their series on iTunes including 24 and Prison Break, and even some old series. Quite an impressive victory for Apple considering how stubborn Fox was. Warner Brothers has decided to incorporate torrent technology in selling movies online the day they come out on DVD at a comparable price, but it'll only play on the purchasing computer. I don't know how well that'll go over with that restriction and at those prices, but at least it's a step forward for them. Demand is high for Apple's Mac Mini machines, and I suspect that people are using them as media centers, or probably just cheap machines that can run Windows and OS X. Lastly, the Webby award winners have been posted, and I'll let you browse the list yourself. In case you don't know, they're like the Oscars for web sites.

Strangely, that's actually Steve Carrell. Why the white beard? It's a picture from Evan Almighty where Evan is assigned to build Noah's ark. I just think Carrell looks wierd under all that hair. The real surprise today was the release of the trailer for Lady in the Water, which sounds much more like a scary thriller than a bedtime story to me. I don't know what to say about this trailer, so please watch it and see what you can make of it. We also have our first clip now from Rocky 4, and it's really just Rocky entering the ring in an unnecessarily long slow motion sequence. If that wasn't enough multimedia for you, then there are plenty of X3 TV spots out there. Legendary Pictures has picked up the rights to make a movie out of the Warcraft video game franchise, though it supposedly will not follow any of the games, but likely take place in the world created by the games. I'm not crazy about this random fantasy movie trend. Lastly, it looks like Kiefer Sutherland is in a documentary called I Trust You to Kill Me about the indie band he's been trying to promote, but supposedly it's just a great look at Kiefer himself. I'd definitely watch it just to see how he really is.

Now for the Tuesday Twosome:

1. What two gifts would you like for yourself?
A MacBook Pro and a big screen DLP TV please :)

2. What are your hobbies? Why do you like them?
Playing guitar and blogging, because I'm passionate about and have fun with both of them.

3. What two things remain constant in your life?
Currently, my weight and my family.

4. If you were going to be stranded on a desert island, what two items would you want in your pockets?
A satellite cell phone and a DS Lite with that new fangled Mario game.

5. What two books have changed your life?
Catcher in the Rye and Siddartha.

Lots More in Video Games

I found out that I got an A- on my Theory in Programming Practice final, which puts my average just 0.6 points from an A! He may curve that up, which would be sweet because that's the class I was most likely to get a B in. Anyway, just moments ago (or at least at the time I started this post), Sony announced that the price of the PS3 will be $500, and it'll be released on November 17. What do you get in that box? The PS3 (a Blu-ray player), a controller (now looks much like the DualShock 2, but with Bluetooth), and a 20 GB internal hard drive. For $100 you can upgrade to a 60 GB hard drive. Many pundits were expecting this price point as the hardware inside is quite expensive. They'll have 2 million at launch, 2 million more by the end of the year, and 2 million more by late Spring. What about the HD output? Some sources claimed that it wouldn't be 1080p, but apparently Gran Turismo 4 will be so the console can definitely support it. So what's next? Nintendo will be showing off the Wii tomorrow. The Times spoiled the surprise of the neat games that will come out for it, but we'll talk more about that tomorrow, I'm sure. I will mention that the Wii controller does have a little speaker in it, which sounds nifty for sound effects. I do have a few pictures for you to accompany this Pre-E3 madness. IGN has a look at the PS3 dev kits, which aren't spectacular, but now you see what the developers see. A random game site has first pictures from the convention center, and the excitement continues to build up. I'll try to keep you updated as the week goes on, but you can see some videos first hand over here.

The Apple Corps battle is over: they lost. As I was secretly hoping, the court decided that the Apple logo is only associated with the music shop, not with actually creating music. Steve Jobs actually invited them to sell Beatles music on iTunes, but I'm not sure that their wounded pride will allow it (especially since they have to cover Apple's legal expenses). While I'm on Apple, one blogger claims to have corroborated with sources inside Apple that the Aperture debacle was really just a bunch of project members leaving rather than getting the axe. I believe these new comments as I think it's more likely that Apple would take out some bad managers rather than a bunch of probably quite able-bodied engineers. The project was never destroyed or even on the verge of being canned, apparently. Intel has announced that their next generation of Core processors (i.e. based on the Core microarchitecture) will be Core 2 Duos. This is an umbrella name for both the formerly codenamed Conroe (the desktop PC chip) and the Merom (the notebook chip). The high-end version will be known as the Core 2 Extreme, and will be released next month though not in stores til July and August. I suspect the reason for the name change is that the original Core line was mainly for notebooks, but this unites desktop and notebook under one name now, though I'm sure both feature cache and power improvements. AMD will be announcing their answer to these chips in a couple of weeks. Lastly, if you find yourself needing a To Do list when you're away from home, then you should check out your possibilities over here. I'm trying out Ta Da right now, and it's quite easy and quick, which is the most important thing for to do lists, in my opinion.

I have to run in 10 minutes, so get ready for a whirlwind tour of today's movie news. Chris Weitz is back as director of The Golden Compass, which is the screen adaptation of the first book in Phillip Pullman's fantasy book series, His Dark Materials. I'm a fan of the book, and I hope that Weitz will do it justice. Latino Review has read the latest revision of Ocean's 12, and they seem to think that it's going to be real fun movie. I didn't read much for time reasons and to not have it spoiled for me, but I trust El Mayimbe. AICN got word of a screening of Look, Up in the Sky, the documentary on Superman, and it sounds like a Superman fan's wet dream. I'm guessing it'll only come out in limited release, but I'd be game to see it when it does come out. Lastly, Paul Bettany has laid to rest any rumors that he's in competition for the role of The Joker in the sequel to Batman Begins, and I'm getting tired of all these Batman rumors turning out to be total crap.

I'm gonna go with just doing the Lizzie Quizzie today since I would've done it anyway whether or not I posted it here:

1. How much tv do you watch a day?
No more than about 90 minutes since that's how much time I spend sitting down and eating in a day. I do snack, but I don't watch tv while doing that, and don't watch tv otherwise since I don't have time with all my school work.
2. On a scale of 1-10, how "handy" are you around the house?
Probably about a 5 or 6. I really have a lot to learn from my dad! But I suppose I could teach him a lot about computers, myself. Not that he'd care to learn being as old as he is getting to be now.
3. Do you use air freshener, incense, or other smelly things in your home? :)
I really want to get some air freshener here, but nope. My mom does, and I don't mind using them myself, I'm just a lazy, poor college student though.
4. Approximately how many days are you sick a year?
Maybe 7? I usually only get seriously sick once a year. Other times it's just passing sore throats or allergies, and go by quite quickly. I'm blessed in that way, though my brother got the sickness genes as he was very sickly as a youngin.
5. If you could redo any room in your home right now, which would you choose? Why?
I'll count this as referring to my parent's house and say my room. It's not that I have a vested interest in it since I don't stay there much anyway, but the wallpaper is ugly, though I think it came with the house when they bought it.
6. Have you ever had a nice fish tank? If so, fresh or salt water?
Nope. My dad wasn't fond of having pets.
7. Would you ever want to get a makeover?
Sounds a little metrosexual (or homosexual, I suppose) on a guy. I don't think I'd be really averse to it though if someone wanted to give me one.
8. What is your favorite thing to do on weekends?
Sleep! I also like to party. I prefer parties where I can dance freely, but that hasn't happened much in a while. Overall though, it's just really nice to spend time with family and/or friends after those crazy weeks.
9. Send us to a cool webby!
Pick a site from my post or a blog I've linked on the right side that you've never been to :)
10. The _________ _________ gets the ___________.
The early bird gets the most sleep.

E3 Almost Here

You know what sucks? The last weekend of the semester is over. So all I have left this week is studying and moving out now that all my fun is over. Oh well, it was definitely very fun though. Anyway, this week will encompass the single most important thing in the world of video games: the Electronic Entertainment Expo, or what we lovingly refer to as E3. This is where news is broken and new deals are brokered. Last year was a once in a decade kind of E3 where everyone showed their cards for the next generation, and this E3 will be a little more of that, but should mostly be a lot of cool, next-gen stuff. It'll likely also help decide the fate of the next DVD format, which I recently posted rested on the shoulders of pornographers, but these consoles will also bear some weight. If the PS3 price is released (which I doubt, but it's possible), and it's $500 or less, then that entire console competes with a plain old HD-DVD player, and it can play Blu-ray movies, of course. Some may think it's the other way around, but I can't see the Xbox 360 or PS3 failing because one format loses to the other. While they're bickering over that stuff, Nintendo could end up stealing the show, and I'd actually be disappointed if they didn't. With a new name, all they need is a really low price and a summer launch date to gain massive ground against the PS3 and undercut the Xbox 360 a bit. I think that if they get enough good launch titles that it'll really take off despite its image as a kiddie console and the funky name. I think that Nintendo is in a rather precarious situation now, because if this console fails, they're probably going to be doomed to just making games and handhelds.

With E3 almost here, Sony is going to go ahead and release its new PS3 controller design tomorrow. No clues yet as to what it'll be, or even why they're holding this press conference before E3, but I'm guessing that it'll be so shocking (like the Wii) that they felt it was better do it now, or so weak that they didn't want to make a big deal about it at their E3 keynote. Do you remember what gadgets used to be like back in the day? Well Fosfor Gadgets does, and they've put up a small feature comparing the old and new versions of various consumer electronics. Quite a fun little skim. Another fun read is an Improv Everywhere mission where they had lots of people dress in royal blue and pose as Best Buy employees at a big Best Buy in NYC. They didn't actually tell them in plain terms to be like employees, since that may get them in trouble, but they did a good job of getting away with it. Apple is making itself more unpopular with the Internet geek community (not a good bunch of people to piss off) by sending a threatening letter to Something Awful because of a picture in their forum trying to show how to replace the thermal grease in MacBook Pros to reduce the temperature. It's really because it shows shoddy design, and Apple really should be ashamed of themselves rather than harassing their users. Lastly, if you've ever needed a map in your car for a trip, then you'll love this site.

As everyone in the world expected, MI:3 came out on top this weekend with nearly $50 million. The other openers were rather low key, and there was actually a huge gap between #1 and #2, which was R.V. at over $11 million. Anyway, MI:3 should've made more given the huge marketing budget, and I'm sure that the studio is praying for a small dropoff next weekend despite going up against Poseidon. JoBlo actually interviewed Ving Rhames if you've been bit by the MI:3 bug like I have been. Lastly, if you're into movie scores then you can read all about Hans Zimmer's Da Vinci Code score here.

I thought I'd post another picture from the weekend since it was so eventful. If you want to see more, just check out my Zoto. You can choose to see my pics in order of recency of upload, and there'll be pages from just this weekend. I didn't put up some NSC exec dinner pictures, but they will be up later this week. Here's me getting a Blow Job (Kahlua and Bailey's Irish Cream layered), and it was freaking awesome (I took another one later that night):



Now for some Unconscious Mutterings:

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

1. Represent :: Rap


2. Mumbling :: Muttering


3. Meetup :: Meeting


4. Tantalizing :: Flavor


5. Fake :: Orgasm


6. Dale :: Boomhower


7. Deny :: Failure


8. Calories :: Fat


9. Roll :: Tootsie


10. 44 :: Numbers

Mission Impossible: 3

Why is this post so late? Because I went to see Mission Impossible: 3 last night, and of course went out afterwards. And now the question you've been waiting to hear the answer to: did it live up to the hype? I'm not sure, but I am sure that it rocked my world. You should take into account how much I've anticipated this one though, and how long it has been since the last movie I saw in theaters (Spring Break). There's plenty to spoil in this one, so I'm not going to do that. Suffice to say, the plot involves Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) to engage in some impossible missions, and much action and intense drama ensues. Sounds like pretty standard fare, right? Actually, it was executed very well. JJ Abrams really knows his stuff. After starting out a little on the slower side, it quicky picked up momentum. Its boon and bane all in one was that once the action started, it was a non-stop thrill ride. It was nice because the movie flew by and you realize in the end that you had a lot of fun along the way, but this causes some logistical problems. Of course, with a movie like this, you have to maintain some suspended disbelief. I thought the acting was spot-on, with Tom Cruise and Phillip Seymour-Hoffman providing the most engaging performances. What will really knock you off your socks though is the cinematography. It seemed like every scene was framed perfectly and every big stunt (of which there were many) looked rather realistic. I think it's pretty hard to not like this movie, even if you think that the hype was too much. I also believe that it was the perfect way for Tom Cruise to jumpstart his career again past all the bad publicity, and I think it would be ridiculous for someone to claim after this movie that he's not a good actor. I give this movie a solid A, mainly because I can't find enough to pick it apart with. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and that's really what counts when you devote two hours of your life (and $8) to a movie theater.

TV on the web looks like it's becoming a trend. You can stream television channels legally over here, including BBC and Sci-Fi among other random ones. So if you're ever bored, you should head over there. There are also episodes of some popular shows here, including Stephen Colbert at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. Not sure how legal it is, but it's out there! And if that wasn't enough for you, CBS has followed in the footsteps of ABC by planning to offer some of their big shows online for free streaming as well. I'm not a big fan of their content, but I'm sure that some of you are. In any case, that's just one more supported of the digital revolution in media. When the MacBook Pro first hit, many pundits thought it was strange that they included the Pro in there, and assumed that there may be a plain MacBook that they'd release later as a less powerful notebook. Well, some sharp eyes caught a glitch in the Apple Store where they came upon a page for a plain MacBook in navigating to the iPod site that didn't exist yet, but supposedly will be released on May 9. This could be a hoax, or just some typo on their site, but it would make sense that they'd release a cheaper laptop in May (changing the name from iBook) since Intel Core chips will be getting cheaper this month as well. A corporate blogger ran into a McAffee report on the security of Mac OS X that doesn't add up, and leads him to believe that they're really trying to scare people into buying their software. He's probably right, and McAffee should be ashamed. If you really want to see how hackers can screw with people, you should read this. Google has now come under fire as supposedly supporting child pornography by profiting off of ads from child pornographers. This conflicts with their vague policy on child pornography, but it just doesn't sound right. I don't think they're so money-minded that they'd do this, but I guess that's for the courts to decide. Sony has encountered another setback for the PS3: the chip yield for the Cell processor, which it's based off of, is abnormally low. Crash course in chip production: dies are etched into wafers in a real fancy process, and the dies that are good on average per wafer are known as the yield, since not all of them come out right because of how hard it is to get perfection in an extremely precise process. This could spell doom if they don't fix it real fast. Lastly, if you ever need IM away from home, then you'll love this.

Very few movie news items, which is good because I have to run to a party. That picture is from DOA: Dead or Alive, which is a movie that I'm sure will have no plot, but plenty of hot girls. I posted that one because for some reason I think Devon Aoki is real hot. Rush Hour 3 is finally a go. I have no idea why Chris Tucker was holding out since it's not like he's done any other movies since Rush Hour 2 so he has no serious actor reputation to defend. Anyway, Brett Ratner will begin shooting this fall. Lastly, I have no idea why, but Eidos has decided to make a game based on Quentin Tarantino's first major motion picture, Reservoir Dogs. They may be trying to play off of the Godfather game, but it's not like this movie lends itself to an Xbox adaptation nor did The Godfather do so well to inspire similar adaptations.

Today was the NSC Boat Party, and it was so much more fun than last year. If you want to see all the fun we had, check out the Zoto gallery (or just search me for "NSC Boat Party"). Here is my absolute favorite picture from it:



My second favorite shot is right here. I've gotta run, so no meme today. Instead, just enjoy the pictures and I'll see you all here tomorrow night!

Microsoft in the News

I got carded for the first time today! I feel so grown up! I know, it's sad. I haven't been asked for my ID before really except for seeing apartments, which is just as collateral. I was trying to buy some shisha for my brother's hookah, and he carded me. Anyway, I got 5 out of the 6 questions on my Diffy Q test perfect, but I don't think anyone got that last one, so I'll hope for the best. Tomorrow is my Theory in Programming Practice final, which will be more stressful. Anyway, there were a number of Microsoft articles in the news today. John Dvorak spouted his nonsense in an article at MarketWatch that Microsoft is sinking, but his reasons are all wrong. Just off the top of my head: open source is not beating .NET at all (the demand for .NET developers is through the roof), Office 2007 is really sweet (despite the numerous versions), their search engine is growing rapidly, and when employees keep quiting for Google, can you blame them for turning their attention that way? I don't think that Microsoft is soaring, but they're still far from breaking. Gates may not care either way though because he's sick of being so rich. Poor baby. I see what he's saying though, but at least he's trying to donate a lot of it. They may even be acquiring Yahoo, though I don't really understand why. I thought that Live was their main effort on the web. Oh well, they can probably afford it. Lastly, they're going to be producing fresh web shows, and I'm curious to see what they come up. Especially since they did a decent job with this.

I've been trying to keep you all up-to-date on the net neutrality battle, but I realize that some of you may not realize that gravity of the situation. Hence, I strongly recommend that you read this explanation of the logistics in laymen's terms. Maybe it'll sway some of you to the good side (I hope). ITWire has a decent article about why Mac OS X is safer than Windows, but I'm not sure that I buy all of it. Yes, it's much harder to find a backdoor into a Mac than a Windows machine, but I think it's going too far to say that Mac users don't need to protect themselves at all. I'm no expert, but I've come to realize that most large-scale applications aren't bulletproof in the world of computers. There has been a push to check software for flaws earlier on, which is really great. The farther along in a project you encounter a bug from earlier, the harder it is to fix and the more expensive that fix becomes. CNN Money has a listing of the top 10 fastest growing jobs, and I'm thrilled that I'll be able to enter the 3rd or 4th ones on that list when I graduate! I could probably do the first one, as well, but it is rather specialized. Lastly, the DS Lite will be released on June 11th for just $130! This is better than the Japanese price (correct me if I'm wrong, people), and it's so sleek and pretty that it's quite tempting for me to get one. I'll probably save up for a PS3 (after its price drops, of course) though.

Not much movie news today. Sony has decided to delay the release of Blu-Ray until June due to pressure from pretty much all their partners, which I don't think is that big of a deal. It's not like HD-DVD has gotten off to a great start so far. Only a couple of those June 20th releases are halfway decent anyway. Yes, you are looking at the Aston Martin DB5 that will be in Casino Royale. I feel that it's a little too present-day to fit the movie's timeframe though. We also know that there will be another 007 movie, Bond 22, in 2007 since it ends in those three magic numbers. It'll be a direct follow up to Casino Royale, but I'm guessing that it'll be really rushed, unfortunately. The cast for the Transformers movie has been confirmed, but nothing all that impressive. Not that John Voight and Bernie Mac aren't good, they're just not selling points. No matter, I'm sure the movie will turn out well with Joss Whedon at the helm. Lastly, there's talk of the Silver Surfer making an appearance in the Fantastic Four sequel, who I remember liking back in the days of the animated series.

I thought I'd make up for the movie news drought with a mini-review of ABC's streaming TV service. I watched this week's Lost today on it in two sittings (I won't spoil it, but it's a mad crazy episode). I was very impressed with it. There were maybe four ads in the whole show, and they were done cleverly. After 30 seconds, you can either keep watching it or interacting with it, or go back to the show. Some ads have questions as part of a little story, one was a trailer for a movie, and so it cycles around between their main sponsors for the service as a whole. This is quite tolerable, and better than normal TV! The picture quality was quite good, in my opinion, but you can only make it so big (no full screen). The most important thing is that the stream never broke, and so it was just as good as watching it on TV in that sense. In fact, it took me about a minute to start up the episode after getting on the ABC site, so that's nice, too. Plus, the time navigation shows you actual times, unlike your standard media players, so it's easy to pick up where you left off without having to search around and guess. It's off to a great start, and I encourage you to all use it for these shows rather than using torrents to encourage improvements and extended programming choices.

Now for some 3x Thursday action:

1. Are you really into music? Does it get you excited, or can you take it or leave it?
Yes, it gets me very hyped. The weeks leading up to ACL last year were just pure anticipation. I wish I went to concerts more, but I probably will when I start making some decent wages.

2. Do you look forward to new albums coming out? Are you one of those ppl that waits with bated breath, or do you just buy albums when you are walking by a kiosk or something like that?
It really depends. For example, Stadium Arcadium hits Tuesday, and I'm going to get up early and run out and buy it that morning itself! I also bought Late Registration the day it came last fall.

3. What kind of music did you listen to as a kid (0-18)?. What do you listen to now?
I went through phases. I had a disney music phase, a pop music phase, a rap phase, and an alternative phase. Now I just take the best from all worlds in my taste.

Bonus Question: Does music hold the same meaning as an adult as it did when you were a kid? Why/why not?
It holds more to me now I think because I'm freer to listen to it through my computer and my iPod Shuffle.

I don't think there'll be a post tomorrow because I'm going to see MI:3 and may party afterwards. I also have 3 parties on Saturday, so I'll blog the first chance I get! There will be a Sunday night post for sure, though.

Weak Defense from Microsoft

I'm pleased with my performance on my Physics test (thanks to less than 5 hours of sleep last night), on which I only missed one question that I probably could've gotten had I slept more. Oh well, a B+ looks to be pretty high above the F average. I finally finished my cache simulator, by the way, and it's glorious. I had to take a moment to marvel at it's beauty. Anyway, the only thing I really felt like talking about today was how Microsoft is defending themselves verbally regarding their gripes that its unfair for IE7's default search engine to be MSN Live Search since it squashes competition. Google's complaints came up a couple of days ago, but I must not have reported it because I had too many other things to talk about that were more important. In any case, it seems like the nerd community has mixed reactions to it. On one side, people are calling Google a big hypocritical baby. On the other hand, as the writer of the article I linked seems to lean to, IE holds a ridiculously high market share, which doesn't compare to Mozilla or Dell (where Google's biggest marketing deals are). So how is Microsoft countering? They're just saying that it's easy for users to change the default, and that Google has deals themselves with other companies. Changing the default is not something your average user does though, because they simply don't care, so I can see Google's concern. I'm going to side against Google here though, because it's Microsoft's product and they have every right to want to use it to promote Live Search. After all, they're going to need all the publicity they can get to take on the 100 pound gorilla. It would only be unfair it was prohibitively difficult to change the default or impossible, and I don't think either is the case here. The bottom line is that Microsoft is going to need some better lawyers, because they should be able to easily have a strong case against Google. I'm surprised that Google is even so concerned since they're already a household name. How many people say "why don't you just Live Search it" as opposed to "why don't you just go Google it"?

Napster has a marketing scheme going on that I also neglected to mention earlier where they're letting people stream any songs they want to in the entire Napster library for free up to 5 times before having to subscribe to download it. Business Week has penned a pretty decent analysis of this savvy business move as it should definitely bring more crowds to the Napster site, from which they can springboard into convincing them to sign up (unless they have an iPod, of course). All may not be lost in the net neutrality war with an awesome Democratic Representative from Massachusetts endorsing a new act that provides much more benefits to us, the end user. So sign the petition for it and keep finding the good fight! This article is a good read if you think you may have a little entrepreneur inside of you and may want to start your own company someday. While it can seem daunting, such a large gamble could yield huge benefits. Google has started accepting student applications for its Summer of Code program, which pays students a decent summer salary to help out an open source project. If you're a freshman or sophomore with no previous technical job experience, this is a fantastic way to impress companies when you start interviewing for real-life internship. The Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD fight will become more prominent now that HD-DVD has been released, and Macworld points out that the porn industry may be the deciding factor here. I totally agree, since they had a large hand in VHS whooping Betamax despite Betamax arguably having better quality. Lastly, CNet pitted the MacBook Pro against an Acer TravelMate of comparable quality, and the Acer actually ended up taking home the prize belt. It seemed to win just by a hair though, and at least Apple's newest offering is neck-and-neck with the competition.

Finally, an official poster for Snakes on a Plane! This movie is going to be so campy that I have to see it. There are also some new pictures out there for Southland Tales, which is premiering at Cannes. Still vague on the plot details, but oh well. The Jetsons movie has a new producer, and so things are obviously moving forward on that film's production. I wonder how kiddie they'll make it? It looks like the MPAA's battle on piracy isn't going well with their increasing restrictions not helping them at all. Maybe if they tried selling movies on iTunes they'd have more luck upping their revenues? Lastly, more excitement for MI:3. AICN has an exuberant review from MiraJeff, so it looks like this may actually be the best movie of the year to date. If you need more though, Yahoo! Movies has full "live" coverage from the red carpet at the NYC premieres of the movie, and I just love how comparable to a television special it is. Great job, Yahoo, despite all the pro-Tom propaganda. I never stopped loving him as an actor, personally.

Now for a Wednesday Mind Hump:

1. ¿Como Estás?
I'm doing alright, but quite sleep-deprived. This week has taken its toll on me, but I'm not discouraged. I can still do well on my remaining tests.

2. Ever been to Mexico? If so, where? What did you do there?
Only to a border town, and we didn't really do much. I was pretty small when we went, so I can't really recall much from it.

3. Do you like Mexican food? What's your favorite Mexican dish?
I enjoy it every once in a while. I couldn't have it every day, but it can hit the spot. My favorite dish is probably fajita, especially at Lupe's (in Houston). Those fajitas make me salivate just thinking of how sumptuous they are. I can almost hear the sizzle.

Wish me luck on my Diffy Q test tomorrow!

Windows Delay and No Tech Boom?

Alright, I'm going to have to speed up this post since I spent so much time today working on my Computer Architecture project (at least it's a really sweet cache simulator) and now have to study intensely for my 9AM Physics test. Has Vista been delayed? Nope. At least, not yet. Gartner believes that there's no way they'll be able to make their two-pronged November/January release dates because it's so complex. I think that Gartner is blowing hot air. I think it's too far in advance of the release to make such a harsh judgement, and I think that M$ knows the consequence of another delay all to well to walk right into it. The other thing I wanted to talk about was Information Week's claim that we're not in the middle of a tech boom. I think it all depends on how you define a boom, and I don't like how they spell it out. They're pretty much assuming that the 2000 dot com boom is the golden standard for all other booms in the future of technology, and I think that's a bad choice. Do we measure all economic depressions based on the Great Depression? If we did, then all we've had since then are just tiny little recessions. I think we're in a boom in an economic sense, but it's not an irrational bubble, which I think is a good thing. Eventually, we'll bust, but it won't hurt nearly as much as when it last happened just a few years ago, and we'll likely recover more quickly as a result. I agree that there's less venture capital and that M&A has been largely reasonable, but I don't think that salaries and benefits are all that bad out there. They're downright decent. Anyway, I'll let you form your own opinions.

Remember Yahoo's propaganda campaign at CES about how big Go was going to be? TDG Research has their report up about it, and it sounds like more propaganda, but at least it clarifies their master plan a bit better than Terry Semel tried to. I don't know how well suited they are to take on the likes of Intel and Microsoft, especially with Apple likely to enter the market soon, because a free price tag and their supposedly easy-to-use interface may not be enough. Speaking of Intel, they're upping the ante on their Core processors by claiming that 90% of their chip production will have two cores by the end of the year. I doubt that much software will be optimized for multiple cores by then. All that talk about the Nintendo Wii hasn't ended yet. 1up.com has a decent editorial about how Nintendo enthusiasts shouldn't feel stupid by supporting the new name because its what's inside the box that counts, not what you call it. I think that Nintendo's fanbase and developer base is strong enough that they could call it the Nintendo Crapweasel and it would still do really well. Gamasutra has some comments from developers who don't like the name, but no real big names are giving their thoughts on it. I think we'll all learn to get used to it. Lastly, yesterday, May 1, has become a traditional day to unveil new, fancy, CSS layouts. I obviously wasn't going to get the NSC site done in time, but others have, and you can check out the latest in web design here.

We've waited many months, and it's finally here: a trailer for Superman Returns. It probably could've been better, but at least it had some really sweet action shots. I was almost giddy to see Kevin Spacey do some Lex Luthor lines. We also have a trailer for Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest, and it seemed slightly more impressive. I think it'll be hard for them to repeat the spontaneous charm of the first movie, but I did enjoy that trailer. Oh, and if you forgot about MI:3, IGN has a new clip for you. They also found out that a draft of the script for Die Hard 4.0 is on the table and awaiting approval from all important parties (including Mr. Willis). I think he's getting too old for these kinds of movies. Hideo Kojima has confirmed that a Metal Gear Solid movie will be made, and it'll be in English (i.e. it'll be done in Hollywood). I'm skeptical about this mainly because MGS has quite a dense plot, and I'm not sure how well that'll transfer onto the big screen. Lastly, we have word that The Nightmare Before Christmas will be re-released this October (in time for Halloween, big surprise) in 3-D, and that's great news because for those of you who don't know: that movie rocks. At least we know there'll be one good move out this Halloween.

Now for the Tuesday Twosome meme:

1. What were your two favorite TV and/or radio programs as a child? Tell about it.
Probably The Simpsons and Batman. I don't remember what the full name of that Batman series, but it was the best one of the Batman cartoon shows where Batman was pretty dark and it was just really fun to watch.

2. If you could follow someone around for one day (unseen), who would it be and why?
Probably my CS 337 professor because I'm curious as to what he actually does all day. Or, a hot chick. Either way.

3. What are your favorite and least favorite times of the day? (waking up, driving to work, etc.)
Favorite time is bedtime, and the least favorite would have to be trying to wake up. Oh those moments of grogginess are the worst ever.

4. Name two things in your freezer:
Some Coors Lights and chicken tenders.

5. What two things sets you apart from the crowd?
My unfortunately OCD way of handling school work (sacrifice some fun times for some good grades, meh) and that I make my own lunch every day (a lot of people just get junk food, it seems).

Why Vista Isn't in .NET

"I believe that the government that governs best is the government that governs least, and by these standards we have set up a fabulous government in Iraq. I believe in pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps ... I saw this guy do it once in Cirque du Soleil. It was magical." - Stephen Colbert

That guy has a brass pair. I posted the link to the torrent yesterday, and actually watched it later on, and the more I think about it today the more I giggle to myself. What a great way to prove yourself to the media. Anyway, the article that came out today that piqued my interest most was regarding why Vista was written in C++ rather than C# and .NET. Quite simply, it's a bunch of arrogant, lazy, close-minded programmers. Rather than take the chance to move to a platform with better security, they chose to stick with C++, which also looks more and more outdated by the day when you think of what else is out there. Granted, .NET has some slight performance issues, but they can be worked around, and Vista requires a beefed up system anyway so hardware resources presumably isn't an issue to the design team. Also, it wasn't designed with kernel development in mind, but when you're at the company that created it, how hard is it to instigate some changes in the next update? The fact of the matter is that since .NET is type-safe, you can't take advantage of the buffer overflow issues inherent in C++. For you non-techies: you can't give functions too much data, and have it spill over to places that could compromise your system, because .NET makes sure that it doesn't happen. It wouldn't be a bulletproof OS even in .NET, but it would be one step closer to being a more respectable OS, and could give OS X a run for its money (possibly).

So what's going on with Leopard, in the meantime? Supposedly, they're working on putting in encrypted torrenting so that people can share software updates and such to speed up downloads, and, in exchange, get discounts in the Apple store and free mp3s and such. It sounds like a pretty good idea to me, and maybe we'll actually learn more about it at WWDC. Speaking of mp3s though, Apple has renewed contracts with its four biggest labels setting iTunes pricing to stay at $0.99. Not sure how long those contracts will stay in effect for, but what a blow for those labels. Ouch. Oh well, yay for Jobs averting disaster for all of us (it would've become a slippery slope)! Oh, and once again, another analyst is supporting claims of new Nanos double the current generation's capacities, as well extending battery life in the normal iPod line. I expect some new products around the same time that the current ones drop in price. Still no buzz on a 12-inch MacBook Pro (or iBook, for that matter), which is a shame for Apple since pictures have already leaked of a 13-inch Dell XPS laptop, which is supposed to be released later this month. I like how it looks slightly better than other Dell laptops, but the real trick will be how they price it. However, we do know when the DS Lite will get its release date: this Friday. Speculation believe it'll launch next month for $200, which wouldn't be unreasonable if they believe demand is that high for it, but it could be as low as $150 (comparable to the price in Japan). ABC has finally made history by opening up its service to allow for free, commercial-supported streams of its best television shows. I'll watch the new Desperate Housewives (which I missed) on it and give you some more impressions, but it does allow for quick navigation within segments of the show, but to cross certain segments requires a 30 second commercial (still better than normal tv), and the quality is decent. Good job, ABC! Lastly, Alexa and A9 have both forsaken Google to support its searching in favor of Microsoft Live. Either Microsoft struck up some good deals, or they're looking to start a war with Google. Either way, at least it strikes up some interesting competition for us all to watch in the search engine market.

Not much movie news, but I do think it's awesome that they're going to remake Revenge of the Nerds! That movie is such a cult classic, and production on this new one could start this summer. IGN has a little promo for Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, which I only mention because Justin Lin is directing it, though it's hard for me to believe that it could actually be good even with him at the helm. They also have bits of Marvel movie news, with Iron Man and Hulk 2 apparently at the top of the production list. Oh, and there's an Iron Man blog now on, ugh, MySpace. MySpace is a skidmark on the underpants of the blogosphere. Lastly, there's a mildly funny trailer for Strangers with Candy on YouTube, which I only mention because it features a man not afraid to call out the East coast liberal media: Stephen Colbert.

New PostSecret postcards are up, and here's my favorite this week:



Now for some Monday Madness:

1. Sleeping in for me means sleeping until _____.
10:30 or 11:00 AM. Nowadays I'm used to getting up so early for school that I feel obligated to get up at a reasonable hour. Oh how I miss Freshman year when that time was like Noon.
2. Staying up late means I don't go to bed until _____.
3:00 AM would be pretty late in my world, but I've been known to sleep past 4:00 AM if I have a big test that morning.
3. I probably spend more time _____ than I would like.
Blogging. If I spent less time though, it would probably be lower quality, and no one wants that. Besides, I'll have more time for it in the summer anyway since school is almost over.
4. And I don't spend nearly enough time _____.
Focusing on actual study time. I get sidetracked way too easily, and don't start studying for stuff as early as I'd ever like to.
5. I have zero tolerance for _____.
Smoking weed. It's just stupid.
6. I have a lot of patience when it comes to _____.
Assignments in difficult classes. I don't mind getting pelted with dumb questions, because I know that I was once at that point.