Saturday, May 29, 2004

Daniel Radcliffe's take on the fate of Harry Potter

Here's an interesting article on CNN.com about the possible fate of Harry Potter. Daniel makes a good point. Harry's destiny does seem to be intertwined with Voldemort's - and J.K. Rowling is notoriously cryptic about Harry's fate. I guess we shall have to wait for book 7 to find out. I wonder if the rabid Harry Potter fans around the world could deal with Harry dying?

Friday, May 28, 2004

Legislating against Gmail

California's state senate has approved a bill that limits Google's Gmail, and if passed will prevent Google from permanently saving data collected when they scan user's emails to place content ads in them. Huh. This isn't even a publicly available service yet, and already legislation is being drafted against it. Sure, this wouldn't prevent Google from launching Gmail - but I guess I just don't see what the big deal is. As long as we can trust Google not to utilize this data in ways contrary to the way they state it will be used (to place content-related advertisements in email messages you receive via your Gmail account) then this shouldn't be a problem. Heck, I've got a Gmail account, I've been in the beta test for over a month - and I hardly ever notice the ads. They are really that oblivious to me. It's like doing a Google websearch - you know the links over to the right are paid search results and maybe you pay attention to them, maybe you don't. At least this is how I look at it. Opinions differ, I suppose.
In movie news - a group of climatologists have seen the new film The Day After Tomorrow, and apparently find it rather, well, HILARIOUS. Good to see the stuffy scientists getting out to the movies and having a good laugh (heh).

Thursday, May 27, 2004

It's just not a good time for file-sharing...

The RIAA has filed suit against another 493 people it says were illegally sharing music, and has reportedly resolved 486 cases already. These cases all seem to end with settlements and don't go to trial. And to make matters worse, the US government is moving forward with the PIRATE Act, which would let federal prosecutors file civil lawsuits against suspected infringers of copyright law. Wow. See, stuff like that is why I get music from Apple's iTunes Music Store - 99 cents a song and most albums are $9.99. I tell people who might be in a gift giving mood to get me a gift certificate, or go to Target and get me a pre-paid iTunes Music Store card. Easy for them to do, and really easy for me to use.
I already went on a rant once in the blog about the RIAA and it's litigious attitude toward file-sharing, and I don't want to revisit the issue entirely in this post. Read it for yourself HERE. It's just a sad state of affairs when failing businesses like the RIAA and SCO have to resort to suing everyone as a last-ditch attempt to make some cash. Maybe someday the only way to get music will be through some sort of file-sharing - that'd show 'em, right??

Wednesday, May 26, 2004

Yet more TV show finales

So, Joan of Arcadia had it's first season finale Friday, and 24 had it's season finale last night. The Joan finale was weird. Really weird. She had weird hallucinations, and is having a crisis of faith, and her mother had a dream about God - and God appeared in her dream looking like he did when Joan first saw him. And her father had a conversation with a dead woman. See - WEIRD.
24 - well... It was a pretty action packed episode. And Tony is in BIG trouble for his decision to help Saunders in exchange for saving Michelle's life. And Chase - is an idiot. He's supposed to be this big bad field operative - and he couldn't kick one guy's ass in a fight? And then he attaches this virus dispersal device to his wrist? Moron. I'm sure not ONE of you who saw this episode didn't clue into what was going to happen next as soon as they focused in on that fire axe. That was pretty hardcore though - Jack Bauer is a serious badass. I think the scriptwriters are getting really lazy though - would it have KILLED them to reveal Saunders reason for doing all this instead of just conveniently killing him off? Man, I hated that.
Anyway, it's decision time tonight for American Idol, who will win - Fantasia or Diana? And even more importantly - WHO CARES? Bah, this year's competition has not been good. I thought Jennifer Hudson was voted out way early, and that LaToya should be in the finals. But I guess that's just me. Last nights performances were just lame, and that new song SUCKS. I didn't vote, just don't care. And how the hell are they going to stretch tonight's show out for TWO HOURS? Do they really need to pimp Fords and Cokes that badly? Bah!