The graphics on CNN for computer-related articles have always amused me (so much that I believe I've posted about this in the past, although I can't find it in my archives). They all try to sum up the article by artistically smashing together as many technology-related graphical buzzwords (buzzimages?) as they can. For an article on online music piracy, for example, you'd expect to see a monitor, the string "http://www", a keyboard, some random binary (0's and 1's), a compact disc, and a musical note, all blurred together with Photoshop.

I expect this kind of thing from CNN, which has to throw together graphics like this for many stories per day, but I've come to expect a little better from Microsoft (yes yes, you can leave a comment about how I shouldn't expect better from Microsoft along with your favorite pro-Linux joke).

Hanging around the CS department (and above my desk) are posters advertising the Imagine Cup, a worldwide Microsoft-sponsored programming, graphics, and film contest. On the posters are edgy, inspirational phrases like "Change the world one solution at a time" (they even include an inspirational corporate buzzword) as well as an artistically-blurred amalgamation of CS buzzimages. On my poster alone I count the following:

-long lines of binary code
-incorrect XML code
-mathematical equations (of the 'y=x-1' variety)
-DNA sequences
-simplistic binary logic statements (of the 'X1 OR X2' variety)
-graphs (both of the planar and graph theory varieties)

And of course edgy, anime-style lines inspiring me to take action and change the world by writing the greatest Crazy Eights game that ever was.

Now back to editing my thesis.