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So it’s all true: Apple is going to Switch to Intel (Google News search for apple intel). Intel x86, for that matter.

I guess the good news will be that faster Powerbooks will be out the door sooner than if we’d all waited for Powerbook G5s (and carried dry ice around so they could be used without exploding). The first new Macs running OS X86 will supposedly be arriving next June, which is just in time for my planned upgrade (though past the window for using a student discount to buy one). If prices start dipping before that, though, I’m not averse to using an older chip with the same good OS and software… maybe.

Otherwise, it’s all rather shocking, and just a little melodramatic. Here, to lighten the mood:

Apple to switch to Sun Chips

The company plans a rapid transition to the new chips. Citing a “ramp-up of production”, Jobs committed to personally eating 3,000 bags by next summer, and encouraged developers to do their part. “Although, from the looks of things, you’re all doing just fine on the snack front,” said Jobs, to stony silence.

Jobs then did a cartwheel before pointing both index fingers towards the crowd in a “dual handgun” gesture. “Zinger!” he exclaimed.

Apple’s stock fell 1.23% on the news.

So that last post on Friday, where I ended by concluding that everyone should switch to Mac because of the new evil-sounding hardware DRM on Intel chips? Oh dear.

On the same day, CNet broke news confirming a previous rumour heard all over the net: Apple to ditch IBM, switch to Intel chips, an announcement that will apparently be made at the WWDC on Monday afternoon PST (that’s tomorrow morning SGT). Next, the Wall Street Journal followed suit with their report on the same topic (no link because no WSJ subscription), citing confirmation from trusted sources. The Inquirer has apparently gotten independent confirmation of this information as well.

Now, Think Secret or Mac World getting a couple of rumours wrong before every major Apple announcement is one thing, but CNet and Wall Street Journal reporting rumours as news? Jon Gruber at Daring Fireball started off highly skeptical before Friday, changed his tune a little after considering the reliability of the sources over the weekend, and remained unsure of the news (no technical specifications leaked whatsoever, oddly convenient timing of the leak) after — though, in conclusion, he seems to think Apple is moving to Intel PowerPC and not x86.

That’d almost make sense, except Intel has never made PPC, and how would they spring up manufacturing plants to rival IBM’s in a year? Even if they could, would this help Apple get those faster chips that are purportedly the reason behind their break from IBM (re: Steve Jobs announcing over a year ago that 3GHz G5’s were on their way and being proven wrong by IBM’s inability to churn out new chips fast enough, or cool enough)? What about the ridiculous costs? (All these points being ones that Gruber has already brought up, actually.)

CNet posted a follow-up report that the Intel-Apple coupling could woo Hollywood, mentioning the possible distribution of Hollywood movies online through Apple’s well-established iTunes DRM model as a possible template. The article doesn’t mention why Intel is crucial to this, apart from how Intel has “expended extensive energy to woo Hollywood to IT technologies*” — why can’t Apple apply their DRM model with their current IBM PPC chips, after all? Isn’t it a software issue?

A natural conclusion, then, could be that the two announcements are linked: Intel announcing new x86 chips with DRM, and Apple making its move to these chips to take advantage of it. Movie-swapping probably isn’t the only reason for such a move that could potentially alienate all kinds of developers, but it seems like possible evidence that Apple will be switching to Intel x86 and not Intel PPC.

Ah, what the hell. Switch or no, x86 or PPC, I’ll just wait for the outcry tomorrow morning.

* “Information Technology technologies”, apparently.

How to tell when poker night’s gone on for way too long: while driving home, I saw quite a number of people doing their morning jogs. Not nearly as bad as in my final quarter at school, when the fast food morning staff recognised my group at the drive-through because we’d always be programming till dawn then getting hungry, but… close enough.

Two more weeks of this nonsensical life-schedule before I go to “school” (or work, loosely defined), though. Making the most out of it, I suppose.

Oh great:

Intel quietly adds DRM to new chips

So the processor will potentially be able to handle digital rights management (DRM) and prevent “unauthorised copying and distribution of copyrighted materials”, using Microsoft’s laid-out DRM scheme. Far more insidious than labelled copy-protected music CDs which prevent copying music to the computer (even in legit cases like transferring to an iPod), this new feature wasn’t even announced at the launch of Intel’s new dual-core Pentium D.

Apparently AMD will be following suit, too, so all your x86 processor are belong to the recording industry / movie industry / Microsoft. Switch!

I download and watch an unhealthy amount of television. I used to get torrents from btefnet.com (until it went away), and my current sites of choice are tv-torrents.org and eztv (until both get shut down and I end up sitting in a corner and bawling from boredom). Both have RSS trackers too, which is nice when set up with the right filters in the RSS reader for monitoring new episodes of my favourite shows (yes, I know Azureus has automatic monitoring and download, but it’s horrifically ugly).

I feel like I should write a little about what I’ve been ignoring the real world in favour of staring at my screen for hours on end for. Ow, reading that sentence hurt.

Alphabetically:

24 Season 4: Best season yet for the “real-time” counter-terrorism series. This was partly due to the well-executed plots and partly due to the well-timed return of old favourite characters, but I’d like to think it’s mostly because there was no sign of the dumbest character on television, Kim Bauer (Elisha Cuthbert). How the fuck did she end up working for CTU in season 3?! Anyway, Kiefer Sutherland played badass hero Jack Bauer faultlessly as in the last three seasons, defying all manners of authority and just doing whatever the hell he felt like for hours on end. Oh, and lots of torture. In this season, CTU == Central Torture Unit. One of the highlights of my SF trip was reliving senior year by watching 24 with the drawgroup (or remnants thereof), making snide remarks all the way (there was a particularly well-timed “SOMEBODY SET UP US THE BOMB!!” at one point that had me in hysterics). One thing, though: don’t these characters eat?! I mean, who fights terror on an empty stomach?

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart: As brilliant as ever. The sudden surge in publicity for this show in 2004 (probably from the election coverage, and Stewart’s smackdown of CNN’s Crossfire on that same show) has made this far easier to find online than before, which pleases me greatly. Funny and honest, except when it’s just plain absurd (and even then I don’t mind). What bugs me is this: how do they find anyone to be willing interviewees, when everyone who shows up in any of their segments ends up looking like a complete fool?

Desperate Housewives Season 1: One of the great guilty pleasures. The early season was a thrilling start that led me to watch all the first seven downloaded episodes in succession while on duty in the Ops Room one weekend. With my kind of attention span (I’m seriously thinking of wandering off to go play with the X-Box even as I type this), that’s saying something. I thought the series suffered through a bit of a mid-season slump, with the subplots dangling for a bit too long, but the season finale made up for it. What an ending! Since the season’s still going on local TV, I’ll avoid giving away spoilers, but I’m quite impressed by how it so satisfyingly tied together lots of loose ends from the entire season (including the one from the first episode) while presenting some jaw-dropping surprises and new mysteries. One thing I couldn’t stand, though: the way the narrator always concluded each episode with “Yes, [insert moral here]”. It wasn’t even the stupid moral that got on my nerves, it was the way she said “Yeeeesssss” . Argh. Stupid annoying dead narrator.

Joey Season 1: The follow-up to Friends failed to impress early, but picked up some steam as the season went along and the characters were slowly fleshed out. Thankfully so — I’m not the most critical of viewers, but the pilot was awful. The producers essentially kept Joey the character same as he ever was, but surrounded him with a vaguely interesting supporting cast (the nerdy Cal Tech nephew was especially well done, I thought). Not bad.

Lost Season 1: Has this even started showing on local TV yet? Highly recommended. This first season tracked the survivors of Oceanic flight 815 (website: “All flights cancelled”) after their plane crash-landed on an island in the Pacific. An island in the Pacific with a giant freaking man-crunching mechatronic monster. Well, not necessarily mechatronic, but it sure sounded like it. Initially I thought the show would be all about the monster, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that the show tended to focus much more on character development than monster fighting. Each show was presented as a partial flashback for each character (or set of characters, e.g. Sun and Jin, Michael and Walt), filling in (often rather surprising) blanks from their lives and substantiating motives behind their actions. The character drama was far better than, and in my opinion made up for, the slowly-advancing mystery subplots, which unfortunately didn’t have as big a payoff in the finale as the other ABC drama in this list. Looking forward to season 2.

Scrubs Season 4: Still the best sitcom on television, period (though I’ll let you know if I change my mind after finishing my Arrested Development DVD). Clever, bizarre and even touching at times (without the forced sentimentality of, say, Friends). I can’t wait for the Season 1 DVD on its way from the US so I can force people to watch it and acknowledge its greatness or else.

There’s nothing much I can say about Simpsons Season 16, except the creators have gone insane.