So much stuff is going down at Microsoft! Windows Azure, Live Wave 3, crazy new touchscreens, web based Office and Windows 7.

Windows 7
The new screenshots just look fantastic! The interface looks a lot less distracting somehow, and the redesigned taskbar looks great too. I really like Vista because of the Aero interface, stability and the improved user interface, but it is a huge resource hog. Windows 7 will supposedly fix this problem, so I'm certain this is going to be the new Windows XP in terms of popularity.


Office in the Clouds
I'm calling it. Google Docs is doomed. Microsoft Office basically controls the market for office productivity software, and if this gets released anytime soon, it could easily leverage its format power over Google. Unlike Office Live Workspace, which is kind of pointless because it's just SkyDrive for Office documents, I'll actually be able to do something with files other than just store them. Assuming there will be a free version like Google Docs, I'm certain pretty much certain nobody will still use Docs.

Now where is my new Hotmail and when is all this stuff going to be out?

A few weeks ago I read an article in the New York Times about a computer program that can basically "optimize" faces for common characteristics of beauty. It measures and alters symmetry, shape and average distance between different facial features. I found this program is really remarkable because the improved faces it generated were unmistakably similar to the originals.

On a side note, it mentions that there is no perfect face, but I assume this is only because individual faces can only be modified to a certain point before they lose semblance of the original. However, generation of a perfect face by itself is definitely possible because this program proves there are universally accepted characteristics of beauty. Overall this is a very interesting project.

Following the concept of this program, I'm almost certain that "perfect" (universally appealing) songs can be generated somehow. After all, music is nothing but patterns, and although my music theory isn't advanced enough to note many of the subtle underlying similarities between songs, I'm almost certain that all the top songs share some patterns that can be input into a program of some sort. After inputting the characteristics more songs, the program reaches a point where it can randomly generate music that is "perfect", or universally appealing to 99% of people or chart toppers.

Some current variables I can think of right now are just the basics - genre, tempo, instruments, time signature, syncopation, vocals, vocal gender. I understand that Pandora.com, Zune Mixview and Apple Genius all suggest music, but I'm pretty certain they're not as complex as what I have in mind (probably wrong though , but I hope not). This program must be able to generate perfect music.

Just random ideas... When I have the time I will definitely pursue this idea in the future. At the moment... I'm certain that as long as I have a song with vocals by T.I. ("she like pickles") or Lil' Wayne, it'll be a chart topper . Back to physics...

Ugh. It finally happened. It was getting worse before, but something happened today. Usually when I walk in the school cafeteria, I get a little big of a gag reflex. Today's food should have been excellent by normal standards - mozzarella sticks and ribs. Today I just couldn't eat. Ended up eating outside for the first time in a while. I want some home cooked food.

So it's senior year. The previous year instructors warned us about "senior malaise", more commonly known as senioritis (inflammation of seniors), when all the seniors suffer a marked drop in performance supposedly due to the realization that college is a year away.

While this is definitely affecting some of the seniors (luckily not me I don't think), I really don't think it's simple laziness. I think it stems from uncertainty about the future. How easy can it be to decide what you want to do for the rest of your life with only a high school's worth of classes? Day in and day out, that's what you'll be doing for the next few decades.

Well I've been using Windows Live for a little over a year. Quite frankly, Windows Live offers a phenomenal suite of services and applications that are hugely underrated. Here are the services I use the most on a daily basis.

Windows Live Spaces
This social networking service has the potential to be the social networking service. Unlike other social networking services, it really is your space on the web in that it can easily be tailored to your interests. MySpace and Facebook allow commenting and blogging, but if you're really into photography, for example, it's really not possible to focus your profile around it. Spaces offers templates that allow you to showcase exactly what you're interested in, whether it's blogging, photography or gaming and provides modules around these. At the same time, Spaces also allows a fantastic amount of customization of colors while maintaining the overall Windows Live feel.

Windows Live SkyDrive
At 5 GB of storage, SkyDrive offers an incredible amount of storage. Plus this does not even factor in the fact that you can have linked accounts to increase your storage.

Windows Live Favorites
Unfortunately, this service is probably going to be discontinued, but it was a fantastic way to store and access favorite webpages from multiple computers. The Windows Live Toolbar made it perfect since favorites were instantly stored online instead of on my local drive.

Windows Live Office
This has got to be the most useful Live service. Basically it's like SkyDrive, but mainly focuses on storing Microsoft Office documents. You can create task lists, notes, workspaces, etc. and upload all your Office documents to the web. The best part of this feature is the fantastic integration with Microsoft Office, as it allows you to save directly to Office Live. By installing an addon, you can have the option of saving all your documents to Office Live. I've used this for several school projects and it really simplified everything. Before I used this, our group was sending different versions of a PowerPoint file back and forth. The workspace feature was perfect, and it simplified the process greatly because we were able collaborate on just one file.

The best part of all of these services is that you only one account! Plus Windows Live allows linked accounts. This is just incredibly useful for managing separate accounts for personal or school/business use. A single click allows you to switch between accounts and manage all related services. Plus with Live Wave 3 just around the corner, I can only expect that all of these services will get even better.

It's that time again! It's time for one of my infamous badly worded book reviews. So a couple of weeks ago I read one of the best books I have in some time - Cradle to Cradle. It's an incredible book about... "remaking the way we make things". It outlines a completely new way of looking at reducing and reusing to better reduce human impact on the world. The key idea is that what we currently view as reusing and recycling, such as recycling old newspapers, has a crucial flaw in that the new product created is in worse quality than the original.

Cradle to Cradle describes manufacturing through the ages and documents how little it has changed. Just as in the past, manufacturing involves extracting unused resources and turning it into a product that cannot be recycled, and is eventually thrown away into a landfill as garbage. However, there could be a superior methodology of using resources that mimics that of nature's. Instead of creating things with only its current lifespan in mind, every product should be created with the intent that it can be reused in the future as something of equal quality.

One problem with green products that currently exists is the expensive price premium over similar non green products. Although this may be true, Cradle to Cradle shows how green design is in face even more economical than traditional products when the entire manufacturing process is analyzed.

Even the book itself embodies the ideals it describes- it's made of some sort of plastic so that the entire book can be melted down and recycled into an entirely new book of perfect quality. You would think that a plastic book would feel strange, but as a plastic book, it felt even better than paper. This is a must read book that will change the way you look at design.