Lots of posting to do. Here goes.

November 9, 2001

Lots of posting to do. Here goes.

1. On Tuesday I went to see James Sturm speak at the University Book Store. For those of you that don't know, he wrote a graphic novel (long form comic) called The Golem's Mighty Swing. It's historical fiction and is an awesome story. Anyway, the first part of the talk was just him doing the usual thing: answering questions, explaining a little bit about the book and "reading" from the book. What made this event stand out was part two; he presented a slide show of a lot of his old work as well as some of the comics that had inspired him. It really gave a glimpse into how he works. I think everyone should have slide shows. So, if you have 12 bucks then you should go buy the Golem's Mighty Swing.

2. I continue to experience extreme apathy. I've been doing nothing all the time. This is not good as I have a lot of things to get done. So if you have any ideas about how to rid myself of my uselessness then I would love to hear them.

3. I hope you've all been following along with the Microsoft/DoJ settlement. It has been a rollercoaster ride. Brief Summary: DoJ does not break up Microsoft but instead just places a bunch restrictions on them. I think this is bulldang. The other option would have been to seperate the browser (some said seperate Windows) from Microsoft. I would have agreed with this decision. Right now Internet Explorer has a ridiculous command in the browser market and its being facilitated by its integration into Windows. If they are split up it will create some true competition. Thankfully a number of tech-heavy states (NY, Cali, etc.) have said they will reject the settlement, which I hope will send them back to the drawing board.

4. This Gamecube v. Xbox thing is heating up. Everyone is debating which will do better when everything shakes out. You can debate about software lineups and hardware specs, but the real measure is the eBay factor. Which ever systems goes for more is the clear winner. Right now the Xbox is losing out to the Gamecube. At first it may seem Xbox is up but that's only because it costs $100 more to start. So my prediction in the console war: Gamecube by a nose.

5. Today one of the higher-ups at Pixar came to speak on campus. He was brought through the Computer Science department, which meant he was talking about the technical stuff more than the "fun" stuff. Nonetheless, it was really interesting. He went through the process they use to make the films and showed a bunch of shorts as well as an example of the different stages of development. Here are some interesting facts he mentioned:

a. They use 3500 computers in their "Renderfarm," which turns all of the computer data into actually video.
b. It takes 10 minutes to render every second.
c. Each frame is half a gigabyte.
d. The blue monster from Monsters Inc. has 3 million hairs on him.
e. It takes at least three years to complete each feature length film.
f. Everyone there was incredibly nerdy and it ruled.

That's all I got for you folks. Bye.

Advertisement