“I don’t know what the next big thing in music is, but I hope it’s Beck.”
This isn’t cutting edge news anymore, but for those of you that haven’t checked it out, you have to download Google Earth. It is Google Maps taken to a whole new level. You can scan the whole globe worth of satellite imagery with full 3D elevation and tilt and zoom capabilities. It’s free to download and fun to play with. MS has already released their answer, called MSN Virtual Earth.
Microsoft recently announced that the official name for the next generation of Windows due out next year (formerly codename Longhorn) is going to be Windows Vista. Vista traditionally means “view”. However, I also found this Lord of the Rings uberdork definition interesting:
In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, Vista is a part of the atmosphere that surrounds the world of Arda before the cataclysm at the end of the Second Age. Vista forms the inner layer of normal air: above it is Ilmen, and above that Vaiya.
It’s probably the one Microsoft was thinking of when they picked the name.
Worth checking out: This Michael Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) directed music video. Point of view from a moving train and passing objects are in synch with the beat. Really cool.
Chemical Brothers – “Star Guitar”
I heard something tonight on BBC World Radio about a Brazilian football phenom who has an uncanny ability to flick the ball up and balance it on his head while running at pace and switching directions to elude defenders. Yes, he can balance the ball on his head while running at full speed and changing directions! Supposedly it is frustrating his opponents to the point where some people are calling for a change in the rules. I tried to find an article online about him but no dice. Does anyone know this guy’s name? I would love to see a video of him in action.
Beam Reach 
The guy is called Kerlon and he plays for Cruzeiro. There’s a clip of him over at YouTube…