Archive for the 'In the News' Category

A chemical plant in Apex, NC has apparently exploded, causing over half of the town’s population of 32,000 to evacuate. It’s made the top story at CNN, as well as other news sources.

I went to school at Apex High, and know lots of people in the area. One of my family’s good friends lives near the plant (1/4 to 1/2 of a mile), and she is unable to drive due to a disability. We haven’t heard from her, so hopefully one of her friends came to pick her up to get her out of harm’s way. There’s apparently a toxic gas cloud over the city, so hopefully nothing bad will come of that. The current rain appears to be helping in that regard.

This entire event reminds me of a scene from The Simpsons (from episode 2F32, ‘Round Springfield):

Lisa returns to KJAZZ with the album, and the DJ puts it on a turntable and hands her a radio. “Here, you can listen to it on this,” he says, but as she walks away from the station, all she picks up is static. She sighs heavily, “I did the best I could, Bleeding Gums.” Just then, a large cloud appears over the radio tower and lightning strikes it. Suddenly, the signal comes in clearly — for Lisa, Homer at home, Abe at the Castle, and Wiggum in his patrol car. “Attention all units, attention all units, poison gas cloud heading for –” announces the dispatcher, but her voice is cut off by the jazz transmission. Wiggum approves until he passes out from a cloud of poison gas.

Apparently Steve Irwin, of Crocodile Hunter fame, has been killed while filming a documentary. I always enjoyed Steve’s shows, his sense of humor, and his passion for animals. He loved doing his work so much that it made viewers love it too. It’s always great to see someone so devoted to their work. He will certainly be missed.

So, apparently, the Nintendo Revolution has been renamed to Nintendo Wii. Let the jokes commence.

This is the primary problem with using “code names” in the wild. When an official name comes along, replacing said code name, early adopters are thrown for a loop. It happened with the Firefox web browser not too long ago. Early builds of Firefox were known as Phoenix and later Firebird. I actually happen to prefer the Firebird name; it keeps some semblance of continuity with their Thunderbird product (plus, it just sounds cool). At first, the Firefox name seemed really stupid. But as time has passed, it has become ingrained in our culture, and has lost that silly feel to it.

Can Nintendo’s new console do the same? I don’t really think so. The name they’ve chosen is so incredibly stupid, that it will be an uphill battle to win back the respect they had earned. We’ll see how they fare in the long run with this decision. I have a bad feeling that they won’t do as well.

Sony just can’t catch a break, can they? First, we hear reports about the Sony DRM installing a rootkit. Then comes news of said rootkit phoning home, as well as indications of a trojan exploiting this technology. And finally, there’s news of a giant security hole in the rootkit removal software.

Although I’ve owned a few of their products, I’ve never been a fan of Sony. They try too hard to force their own proprietary ’standards’ upon the industry, yet they always seem to fail in this endeavor. Sony certainly must have a substantial back catalog of failed technologies (as I’m sure many large companies do). Somehow, I don’t feel sorry for them during this time of crisis. In these days of juggernauts like Microsoft, Wal-Mart, and McDonald’s, it’s nice to occasionally see one of them stumble and fall.

In looking at my site statistics this morning, I noticed that my previous post on Google and OpenOffice actually made it to NewsForge. That was surprising to me (albeit a pleasant one), but I certainly didn’t expect such a wide audience for my thoughts on the matter. Had I expected such a turnout, I would have put a little more thought into the post before actually publishing it. As such, I’d like to clarify a few of the points I made.

My ultimate point was that, in my opinion, the office application battleground is likely to see more cut-throat action in the short term than operating systems are. I certainly cannot support this claim with fact. But operating systems seem to me to be a much more difficult problem to solve, simply because they are bigger, more complex beasts. As a result, it seems like it would simply take longer to create an excellent OS than it would an excellent application.

I also believed I oversimplified my stance on the Linux community. The points made by Greg Raiz in his recent article on Linux are exactly how I feel. Linux is certainly poised to encroach on Microsoft’s territory. But desktop users need to have a reason to want to switch. As Mr. Raiz pointed out, a unified environment, where there’s One Way to do things, would appeal to many people (particularly “newbies”). Apple was heading down that very road before they made the switch to a UNIX base.

A unified environment, where the user interface paradigm is the exact same for every application would be awfully appealing. I would certainly consider switching to such a solution. I want Linux to succeed. The more developers can weaken Microsoft’s iron grip on the market, the better the universe will be for everyone. But there’s a long road to ride down before we reach that point. Let’s get to work!

So apparently, Google is hiring programmers to work on OpenOffice. Microsoft has to feel threatened at the online search giant’s latest move in the office document arena. Google is the one company that Microsoft simply cannot figure out. And I couldn’t be any happier to see the folks up in Redmond sweat just a little. For too long they’ve been the bully on the playground. But a new kid has come to town, and he’s beginning to look a little bigger than ever.

I don’t have any facts on the matter, but Office has to be one of Microsoft’s largest revenue generators. To have someone announce that they will offer a competitive solution, for free, is quite an obstacle. And it’s Google’s way in to several markets which Microsoft has owned since what feels like the dawn of time. This will certainly be the first arena where Microsoft will face true pressure. Lots of people claim that Linux is a threat to Windows, but that’s just not true (at least not yet). The Linux world is too fragmented. There are too many flavors, everyone has his favorite, and no one wants to try another one. Until the Linux community can get that particular act together (not to mention the ease of use factor), the office application arena will be the main battlefield. And I’m glad to see another player has finally joined the game.

The whole thing should be interesting to watch. I question whether Sun’s involvement will doom the project (seeing as Sun has doomed virtually everything else they ever touched), but perhaps Google’s brains can prevent such a catastrophe. I, for one, salute our (hopefully soon to be) office application overlords.

It looks like NASA has grounded the shuttle fleet, which means that the sole ship remaining on the ground can’t fly. What a great way to motivate those astronauts orbiting around the planet.

Hey guys, if something really is wrong with the shuttle you’re in, we can’t help. We’re so sorry.

Although I disagree with the ESRB’s revocation of the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas rating, I can plainly see that Rockstar Games is at fault. If you aren’t going to make use of some material, why leave it in the game? That was data I spent time installing, wasting a few seconds of my oh-so-precious time. But perhaps we are pawns in their grand, evil scheme. Rockstar might have known all along that this would happen, that it would create incredible controversy, and would therefore increase sales. Whatever their reasoning, I think Tycho and Gabe hit the nail on the head about this story. It’s fairly clear that the guys at Rockstar aren’t thinking at all.

I picked up a copy of the game last weekend, and have been playing it sporadically ever since (I just don’t have the time I’d like to devote to it). All I can say is that this is, by far, the best game in the GTA series. Although the graphics don’t touch games like Half-Life 2 or Far Cry, the environment is highly detailed. And it’s the little things that make the game so interesting. You can play a full game of pool (8-ball) in a number of locations, placing bets on whether you will win or not. Or drop by one of the arcades in town, and play the video games inside (this is one of the weirdest levels of recursion ever: having your video game character play a video game). Or shoot some basketball over at your friends house.

I should also mention that the game map is way bigger than GTA 3 or GTA: Vice City. I have yet to leave the first city (there are a total of 3), and I’ve barely even scratched the surface in exploring it. Los Santos is the name of the first city and, whether it’s inner city slums, high-priced villas in the mountains, or a farm out in the country side, the level of detail of each is incredible. You could quite literally spend hundreds of hours exploring this game. And that’s exactly what I plan on doing over the next several weeks.

The local news channel in my area has a little “news” item on their front page about Herbie: Fully Loaded. The bite states:

One of the most beloved and magical characters in movie history is back, this time with Lindsay Lohan, Michael Keaton and Justin Long. “Herbie: Fully Loaded” is now open in theaters.

Give me a break. Most beloved? Magical? How about “most annoying” or “truly corny”? Herbie might have been a cute idea in the late 60’s. But doing a remake of something this sad just goes to show how little creativity is left in Hollywood.

My eyes! The goggles do nothing!

This story over at CNN reminded me of the following passage from C.S. Lewis’ The Horse and His Boy:

“Don’t you think it was bad luck to meet so many lions?” said Shasta.

“There was only one lion,” said the Voice.

“What on earth do you mean? I’ve just told you there were at least two the first night, and …”

“There was only one: but he was swift of foot.”

“How do you know?”

“I was the lion.” And as Shasta gaped with open mouth and said nothing, the Voice continued. “I was the lion who forced you to join with Aravis. I was the cat who comforted you among the houses of the dead. I was the lion who drove the jackals from you while you slept. I was the lion who gave the Horses the new strength of fear for the last mile so that you should reach King Lune in time. And I was the lion you do not remember who pushed the boat in which you lay, a child near death, so that it came to shore where a man sat, wakeful at midnight, to receive you.”