sunday

I don’t remember when this episode aired, but it’s an exact representation how morning news isn’t reporting news anymore. Keep it real with Jon Stewart and Steve Colbert.

Hands on: A Mac fan takes on Vista

Lots of bling make Vista eye-candy, but function doesn’t always follow form.

“One of the first things a longtime Mac user will notice about Windows is the look. This isn’t your father’s (or mother’s) Windows. It’s superficially Mac-like — as if Microsoft, rather than coming up with a more original look for its operating system — decided to offer its take on Mac OS X’s interface.”

I wasn’t forced to get my master’s, but I was recommended/encouraged to do so by my mom, which normally means, “you better do it or else I’ll keep bringing it up until you do it.” I’m only, what, 3 weeks into my first semester at GWU and I’m already disliking it. It might be that my grades are entirely dependent on my midterm and final exams, or that homework isn’t collected (read: not motivated to do homework), or that I get home at 10 PM and it’s not even snowing yet, or that almost everyone if not everyone is a foreigner in my class. But i think it’s mostly the first three that are discouraging. I’m not even sure what I’m going to do with my MSEE other than get a higher salary. In any case, I want to quit. Grad school is overrated.

According to the Forbes Rich List, all 400 persons are worth at least $1 billion. Topping the chart is, as usual, Bill Gates bringing home the turkey with $53 billion. Other rich people include Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who each made $13 million per day over the past two years. Big big loser? Martha Stewart who lost $400 million last year.

It seems this great divide in our economy seems to be getting bigger and bigger. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and the struggling middle-class supports the entire nation by paying huge taxes. I’ve also noticed that if you spend more, you get more free stuff. All the rich people have all the fun, with their Black American Express perks and exclusive membership. If only they would stop spending so much money on themselves. Well, I can’t say anything, because I’d probably do the same if I were in their places (and I know some of them do charity).

Well, maybe, but it’s been brought to my attention on WSJ.com. It’s ironic (or coincidental?) that my boyfriend showed me this article because just yesterday, I read an article on Robert Scoble’s blog about how advertising on the web is ineffective, namely, Yahoo’s ad banners suck ass.

My prediction: if Yahoo does buy Facebook, the latter will be plagued with banner ads, cluttered with unnecessary text, pictures, and the like. It would probably start to look a lot like MySpace, minus the obnoxious interface and music.

And the mere fact that the deal could be worth $1 billion overestimates the worth of social networks. Overestimate or underestimate…or correctly estimates? I dunno, but to think that a Harvard undergraduate coded a profile page joined on a network with lots and lots of other user profiles, does not seem worth $1 billion to me.

“Mr. Zuckerberg says he isn’t focused on making money or using his position at Facebook to become a media tycoon.”

Selling for $1 billion isn’t focused on making money? Yeah right.

Old news, but I haven’t the chance to blog about it yet.

Since the announcement, we haven’t seen anychanges yet, and who knows how long it’ll be before making it public. I bet after all the news coverage they’re getting, they’re trying to figure out a sneaky, all-appeasing method to release this feature. Frankly, they should just not do it at all and fix they’re first problem: news feeds. I’m still not happy with it. Mark needs to give users the option to completely remove it, not just privacy settings. How hard is that?

Believe it or not, I’m tempted to create my own version of facebook, although I don’t know what I’d call it.

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The Falling of the Leaves

Autumn is over the long leaves that love us,
And over the mice in the barley sheaves;
Yellow the leaves of the rowan above us,
And yellow the wet wild-strawberry leaves.

The hour of the waning of love has beset us,
And weary and worn are our sad souls now;
Let us part, ere the season of passion forget us,
With a kiss and a tear on thy drooping brow.

–William Butler Yeats

I’ve come to realize that my book reviews come long after I actually finish reading the book (I think I finished this two weeks ago).

And I’m embarrassed to say that although I hate chick flicks and anything that could make me emotionally vulnerable, I really enjoyed “The Red Tent” by Anita Diamant. I’m also a self-proclaimed Catholic, albeit the worst one you’ll ever meet, and I usually don’t take interest in anything related to religion, because it provokes too many arguments. But I found myself actually reading the Bible for the very first time after I read this book (Genesis 34:1). The story is of Dinah, daughter of Leah and Jacob, how her life was in biblical times, told through the eyes of a woman, for once. While the story is ficitional, it definitely brings a new perspective of how life was waaaaaay back in the day. And there were several times when I had tears in my eyes because it was *that* moving. Diamant has a way of provoking me to get in touch with my feminine side, and illuminates on the familial relationships, especially the bond between mother and daughter.

This is a heartwarming book, and as I am about to gag how touching this book is, I highly recommend this book, if not for the writing, for the biblical aspect. Selah.

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I stumbled upon this ad in BusinessWeek. Needless to say, I’m a huge fan of luxury, and even more so if the condo comes fully furnished like the hotel. It’ll be like living at the W Hotel, except I’d actually own it. Fucking sweet.

I know this is a little late, but seeing as I’m actually fucking busy at work these days, I don’t keep up with my tech news like before.

But here it is from Engadget loaded with pictures about the newly upgraded iPod. Now in 30GB ($249) and 80GB ($349) with longer lasting battery life, running at 6.5 hours. The larger, video-capable iPods also have 60% brighter screens. Gone is the Mini, replaced by the Nano in five colors. The new iPod Nano will come in a 2GB ($149, aluminum only), 4GB ($199, in blue, pink, green, silver, or black), or 8GB ($249, black only) capacity. Making its return is the Shuffle that is even smaller with an aluminum chassis for $79. All new iPods feature gapless playback (I’m not sure what that really means) and improved iPod earbuds.

Also, see Wired’s summary on the new iPods.