But does it run Linux?

Recently my dad got us a new TV for the living room. We'd had our old TV since before I was born (the '80s!), so it was about time to upgrade. I don't watch TV much, but I appreciate this new 50-inch widescreen HDTV quite a bit. The picture quality is pretty good, although when you're watching lo-def channels, the low quality becomes very apparent on the ginormous screen. The only other real gripe I have is how the TV stretches the picture if the signal isn't widescreen. The effect can range from hardly detectable to headache-inducing. I would prefer to watch TV with "barn doors" on either side (like the black bars on the top and bottom of the screen when you watch a widescreen movie on an older TV). Luckily, though, you can toggle between display modes with a button, so that takes care of that.

When my dad was taking the TV out of the box (which is even bigger than the TV itself, if you can believe it), he had lots of manuals and documentation to deal with -- it is a Sony product, after all. What he didn't expect to see was a software license agreement, which he pointed out to me with amusement. After all, it's a sorry state of affairs in the world today when your TV comes with a EULA, right? I took a look and saw some familiar words. It was the GPL, which is not an evil (cumbersome, restrictive) software license at all. A silly thought entered the back of my mind, and I tried to ignore it. Looking further through the documentation, though, I was right: our new TV runs Linux.

What that basically means is that the TV isn't actually a TV at all but actually a computer. Like any computer, it uses an operating system. Rather than Windows, Mac OS, or something that the Sony developers might make from scratch in-house, the TV runs a modified version of Linux, which is the same OS I use on my computer. Sony decided it would be better to use an existing operating system as a base for this model of TV, and, because the GPL allows it, Sony doesn't have to worry about the legal ramifications as long as they distribute their modified code to anyone who wants it. You could try running Windows on a TV, but if you could even figure out how (the Windows source code isn't visible to the public), you'd have to pay licensing fees to Microsoft. (Plus, your TV would probably crash a lot.) Since Linux is free for anyone to use, it tends to be free in price, which is something important for any computer user to consider. So whether I'm kicking back and watching TV or doing whatever it is I do on the computer, I can be assured that Linux and other free software are making it possible, and that's really awesome.

Graduation is only two weeks from today, so I've started to think about what I might say if I were valedictorian or salutatorian and had to give a speech. After all, I am ranked #2 in the class, a position that I'm hoping I can keep. As it turns out, TJ and I got called down to the office today and were told by Ms. Phillips, an assistant principal, that since we were in the top 5 in the class, we would have to prepare a speech in the event that we graduate as "val" or "sal." (They have to look it over and everything, you know, to make sure that you don't say anything dumb at graduation.) I was also told that I would have to meet with Ms. Petonick, the speech teacher, for input on the speech and pointers on public speaking. Fun fun? TJ (#4) didn't seem amused, but I think it would be cool to be salutatorian.

After school today, Amanda (#3) and I found Ms. Petonick to talk to her about the whole thing. She had been expecting us but was busy, so we decided to meet after school tomorrow. She said she'd give us real speeches given by real valedictorians in the past, which should be useful because I can't really think of anything good to say. I had been nervous about having this teacher I'd never met criticize my speaking, but I was relieved because she seemed really nice and she kind of talks funny herself. Ironic? Oh well. Tomorrow should be interesting.

Contronyms, or antagonyms, are words that are their own opposites. For example, a house might weather (withstand) many storms over the years, or storms might weather (wear down) it.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has a standard for everything. ISO 5218 sets standard numerical values to represent human sexes (for example, in national ID numbers). From the article: "The standard explicitly states that no significance is to be placed on the fact that male is encoded as 1 and female as 2."