The Casimir Effect: v. 2.0

I’ve thought for a while that this is the most accurate comparison to draw in order to understand the magic of why Google works the way it does. Others have noted the similarity as well. Even some former Bell Labbers have flocked to Google Labs.

It’s a fascinating sort of environment to watch from the outside, which might explain why so many of us are waiting (im)patiently for Google to throw us the next uber-cool 20% project.

So what happens when you throw the best and brightest minds of a generation into a crucible of creative development and let them spend 1/5 of their time working on whatever happens to inspire them personally? Well, in this author’s opinion, take a glance at history and draw your conclusions.

Also, just as a post-script. When Google really does take over the world, does anyone else think we might have “Google World Conquest Beta” first?

Everyone knows by now that you can use Google to find a taxi. But now, residents of Portland can use Google to plan an excursion using mass transit. This is incredibly cool, especially considering that Google compares the cost of driving the same distance. Google is going to save the world and save us some cash while they’re at it.

This is a bit more practical in Portland than it would be in Tampa. For one, there’s a train, which bypasses traffic quite neatly. For another thing, departure times are listed as 6:21, 6:34, 6:49, and 7:05. Yeah, in Tampa, the trip planner would include a good book or the paper (and an abundant helping of patience.)

Still, a part of me is inwardly begging them to partner with HARTLine. If you work with HARTLine and you’re reading this, check this out, please.

I thought that I might have called this one a little early.

The geniuses at Sony who brought you XCP are at it again. In a story that reads too familiarly these days, Sony and the EFF have announced a vulnerability in the MediaMax DRM software.

Before you wolves begin the next round of Sony boycotts, let me point out a few key facts here. First, Sony admits to this one right up front. Second, the media is rarely clear on what kind of exploit they’re reporting on; in this case it’s a privilege escalation exploit. This means the code can only be exploited by an existing unprivileged user to gain administrative privileges.

The bad news? You don’t have to install the software to be vulnerable to this exploit, as reported by the EFF.

This wouldn’t annoy me so much if it actually addressed the problem, but all such software really seems to accomplish is aggravating casual music enthusiasts while acting only as a minor speed bump to people who are copying music. I’d also sympathize more with the labels if their rhetoric about artists making money off their music was, you know, real.

The St. Pete Times reports this morning that Sami Al-Arian is not guilty on eight charges. So when Mel Martinez built a campaign against Betty Castor that consisted of, “Betty Castor is soft on terrorism,” what he meant to say was, “Betty Castor is soft on innocent residents of the US that haven’t been convicted of anything yet.”

Al-Arian isn’t a US Citizen, but he was a tenured computer science professor at USF. There are talks of deporting him after the conclusion of the trial. Sadly, if allowed to remain, he won’t be rejoining the computer science faculty. His plans? He wants to become a lawyer.

Linux users, you and I are losing our excuses. You know which one I’m talking about: “No one makes a legitimate music download service for Linux, so I’m stuck using bittorrent or SharpMusique.”

Real Networks is making a preview of its music subscription software, Rhapsody. Here’s the catch. All the music is streamed, so it’s not really a music download service so much as it is Internet radio where you can pick the songs.

That’s not such a good deal, I don’t think. Sure, legal music is great but if I can’t take it with me when I leave my computer, what’s the point? What amazes me is that they’ve put all their effort into this, but premium content still doesn’t work fully on Linux. Getting streams digital music isn’t that cool, but I’d pay for the BBC news in high-resolution.

Bad news first. The skunks in the Big East garden stunk it up tonight with a 28-13 loss to West Virginia tonight. Looks like our impressive defense couldn’t quite hold off the Big East Champion. However, (good news) after Louisville knocked Connecticut out of the running, the Bulls wrapped up a bid to the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte, NC!

This is huge. This will be USF’s first bowl game and with rumors of C-USA runner-up UCF bringing home a bowl berth, there could be five Florida teams playing in the post-season. Big Five, anyone?

If anyone has noticed the dearth of posts lately, let me chalk it up to end of semester crunch time. Paper and exams fast approaching leaves little time for blogging even the most trivial.

In addition, I’ve been helping a friend install Ubuntu for AMD64 on his new beast of a computer. Got the standbys working, along with Counter-Strike:Source, Day of Defeat:Source, and Ventrilo so he can get his game on. I walked him through some of the more showstopping difficulties, but overall, he’s really enjoying the experience. He’s thrilled that he doesn’t need an anti-virus, and some things he’s already noticing are easier than Windows. But I digress.

Back to my post scarcity. Posts should resume their usual frequency in about a week. Until then, don’t think that I’ve disappeared entirely, I just have some real work to do for a while.