New Apple Stuff?

As I was scanning through my Google feeds today, I noticed a few articles about the much anticipated Apple release tomorrow. Rumor has it that the new version of the MacBook is going to hit the shelves very soon. Best Buy even reportedly has the product numbers already. However, along with those product numbers there comes some very expensive prices.

It will be interesting to see what Apple has come up with this time. I'm sure it's a smaller and better version of the already existing MacBook. Being a Mac User, I'm among the herds of people waiting to see what Apple unveils tomorrow (if anything.) Unfortunately, you won't find me the first in line to buy the product. Whatever, Apple has in store for us would certainly break my bank.

ID Chyron

New Jackrabbit Logo

Music Downloading on Campus

The University of South Dakota is now offering a new service to their students in the form of music downloading. Apparently, USD bought a membership to a music downloading program so now all students are able to download music for free, and more importantly, legally.

I don't know all of the details to this, so I'm unsure about how it works. But I think it would be a great thing for SDSU to follow in USD's footsteps. Being the poor college student I am, it is incredibly tempting to get on LimeWire or another file-sharing program and just steal my music instead of paying for it all on iTunes. Music is a huge part of most college students' lives. And offering this service for free to the students of SDSU would definitely be a hit. SDSU should look into this a little more and maybe jump on the bandwagon.

Craziness

I just read one of the craziest articles, ever. Apparently, Kool-Aid and Reebok launched a new line of shoes, featuring Kool-Aid scented sneakers. First of all, the article had a picture of the new shoes... and I would hope that just based on looks alone that would be enough to scare anyone off. 

Secondly, I don't know if I would really be comfortable having shoes that smelled like grape or strawberry. It sounds like a good idea but it leaves me questioning a few things... How long does that smell last? Does it last throughout the whole life of the shoe or just for the few weeks. Also, what if you combine the strawberry smell with nasty foot smell? Is it still going to smell like strawberry? Finally, who ever came up with the idea to cross-brand Reebok and Kool-Aid. That might be one of the most bizarre combinations in history. 

I guess it will be interesting to see if these sneakers are going to be a hit or not. 

http://gizmodo.com/357769/reebok-released-kool+aid-scented-shoes-for-some-insane-reason

Illegal Downloads

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/12/uk-proposes-three-strikes-and-your-out-illegal-downloading-law/

I read an article on TechCrunch about how the UK is trying to pass a three strikes and you're out law for illegal downloading. The first time a person is caught downloading illegal material, they will receive a warning e-mail. The second time, their internet will be suspended. Finally, on the third time, they will lose their internet all together. This law sounsd like a good idea, but I think it's definitely going to encounter some problems.

What about public, shared computers? Hundreds of people could use the same computer in just one day. Who is going to lose their internet subscription if people are downloading illegal material? And if people are using shared computers for downloading illegal material, what is goign to stop them? They could just move on to a different computer.

I know that illegal downloading is wrong and something should be done about it. But I'm not sure if this law is the way to go. It sounds good in theory, but I think they are going to have a lot of problems when it comes to enforcing it.

Facebook

I read an article in the New York Times today that was talking about Facebook. This article in particular caught my eye because, like most college students, I have a Facebook account. However, after reading this article I found out some information about Facebook that is a little unsettling.

The article dove in depth about how it's almost impossible to delete yourself off of Facebook once you already have an account. Even people who contacted Facebook to have their account deleted found that Facebook wasn't very cooperative.

Personally, I think this is a little scary. I don't plan on having Facebook forever. It's fine for now when I'm in college, but once I start a professional career I don't plan on keeping it up. It would be nice to know that I could just delete my account and be done with it. But apparently, in order for my information to be off Facebook, I would have to go through and delete every wall post, every group membership, every message. I have thousands of things on Facebook, it would take me days to delete all of that stuff.

C'mon Facebook...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/11/technology/11facebook.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&ref=technology

First Assignment

Yahoo and Google

All of the blogging buzz lately seems to be centered around Microsoft attempting to buy Yahoo. So I felt I better join the pack of bloggers and write one of my own on the topic. 

Honestly, I don't know all of the details, but I think that as long as the acquisition of Yahoo does not make Microsoft a Monopoly then I really don't have a preference. Google is obviously getting their panties in a bunch because they are going to finally have some real competition if this deal goes through. This is the United States and we do have a free market economy, so normally I'd say that Microsoft should go for it. The only problem here, is that Microsoft is already one of the largest corporations, and then it might run the risk of completely controlling the market. I don't know, I guess we'll have to see how this whole situation pans out.

Get Real?

I was reading my RSS Feeds in class today and I found an interesting one on Salon: Machinist. It was titled Britney Spears is Stimulating the Economy (for real.) I was a little shocked. Britney Spears can't even hold her own life together, how is she stimulating a whole nation's economy? According the article, Spears generates an enormous amount of news because so many people are interested in her. This leads to more and more people tuning into online news sites, which creates revenue through the online ads.

Sometimes, I have to wonder how Britney Spears makes the top of everyone's online priorities. The article even had a picture of a sign posted by TMZ with the words "Britney we love you" sprawled across it. It's no wonder why TMZ loves Britney since she is generating more gossip and revenue for them. The only thing I find hard to swallow, is how everyone else can still be in love with her.

Link to article: machinist.salon.com/blog/2008/01/30/britney_stimulus/index.html