Metapost - December 12th

Time for yet another metapost. Nothing long enough for a huge post yet, not enough not to blog about it. Let's go:

• Microsoft's stupidity reaches an all-time high. After realizing that their PlaysForSure DRM scheme only played for sure on certain devices, excluding the Zune, which is ironically their device, they decided to rename their DRM scheme to "Certified for Windows Vista". This makes no sense at all, as the content is playable on XP and 2000, and the Zune is "certified for Windows Vista" but can't play PlaysForSure songs. Good job, MSFT.
• The iPhone Dev Team has yet to unlock 1.1.2 firmware. While I don't necessarily blame them, what the hell does "Currently impossible with software only solutions. Probably possible when apple releases next firmware version (1.1.3)" mean? If 1.1.2 is hard to unlock, why would 1.1.3 be any easier? Rumor says 1.1.3 is coming this weekend, if that proves to be true, I'm hoping what they say is correct so anySIM lives on.
• In the "my mom would totally dig this if she was a huge geek" department, the KnitML project has gotten significant attention recently. KnitML, much like HTML, is a markup language standard that allows for easier trading of knitting patterns. I'm not personally into knitting, but the geekiness that's involved in this project is amazing. I love it.
• Google recently introduced Sync services between their mobile applications and the BlackBerry platform. BlackBerry users can now sync their BlackBerry calendar with CL2/Google Calendar from anywhere (with data services). Now we need a third-party app on iPhone/iTouch that allows iCal subscriptions to be updated from anywhere to get equivalent stuff. Sounds like something Spanning Sync could do?
• Facebook app spam is ANNOYING. For the past day, only three items on my front page news feed are actually relevant. The rest of it is app spam. Dear Facebook, let me turn off news feed items for stuff I never installed or don't care for. THANK YOU.
• TF2 Wiki mocks me. I want to play TF2. ;_; Oh well, I need a PC for school next year regardless. If I choose to build one, it's going to have the specs to play TF2, that's for sure. (And I registered to Steam just so no one takes my username, ha.)
• remix.nin.com is fun. Not only are many of the older remix albums up for free listen AND download on the site, but fan-made remixes and Saul Williams multitracks are looking pretty good to me. I might upload my rather lame mashup of God Given and My Violent Heart at some point in the future. I could do without the Flash overkill but I hear Flash is cool again. What is this, 1998? (get it)
• NBC Universal/News Corp's stupid streaming website, Hulu, pisses me off. I have an account there after getting an invite, but I can't actually use it because the service only works in the United States. What's my solution for watching TV from anywhere now? I have to resort to those sites that list shows (usually in multiple parts) up on various video streaming sites. That sucks. I want to use the central "legal" service, but I can't. Screw you then. (I have tried OpenHulu, but since that actually goes through NBC as well, no luck.)
  
• IRONICALLY: I also want the writer's strike to end because nothing is actually on television anymore and it's boring now. I also worry about what'll happen in the spring if no television shows actually have new episodes anymore. What am I going to do on Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday nights now? (Maybe watch reruns of old reality shows on that new iGameTV channel we stumbled upon last night?)
• Finally, I'm getting really tired of the entire Internet generalizing Linux with Ubuntu. You could argue that it's the most consumer-friendly distro, yatta yatta, but why does every howto out there specifically have to mention Ubuntu or the fucking version number in its name? I was reading up on getting Steam to run on Wine. It's not like the instructions are any different on any other distro! I did the same exact steps on Debian. (Okay, so Ubuntu is Debian-based. BLAH BLAH.)