So what’s this Water Cooler thing? It’s a catch-all for stories of lesser importance told with a healthy dose of humor, sarcasm, or sometimes a little bit of both. Basically it’s a product of my boredom and frustrations and will be coming your way periodically (hopefully a couple times a week) as the world of tech does what it does best: perplex us onlookers.

But I digress. So, where should I start today? How about with everyone’s favorite topic these days…

They’re coming to get you!

Another day, another article on the hypothetical Mac malware threat. This time, Lawrence M. Walsh beats a long-dead, long-thouroughly-bloodied horse some more with his article which is just like the other three billion articles on the topic, ”Mac’s Exposed Core.” Here’s the Cliff’s Notes version for those of you too lazy to click the link: More Mac users means your a larger target for malware, blah blah blah blah blah. Oh yeah, an increase of .5% market share is really going to make the Mac a virus target. I’m shaking in my shoes. Ooo, don’t let the big bad trojan get me. *hides behind Arden*

Ahem. Anyway, that doesn’t mean to disregard common security practices (otherwise you’ll get teased mercilessly by those more 1337 than you); I’ve already hashed that out ad naseum, so I’ll shut up about that for now.

Extreme!!

Intel claims a 40% speed boost over previous chips with their Core 2 Extreme Awesome Extremeness d00d Duo...Core...processor thing, according to TG Daily. The article includes an interview with David Tuhy of Intel. There’s some interesting stuff there, mostly circling around gaming applications, but unfortunately the interviewer doesn’t ask the question we all want to know: Who came up with the name “Core 2 Extreme” and is he/she still working in Intel’s marketing department? Ah well. “MacBook Pro,” “Wii,” and “Windows Vista” made it, so I guess “Core 2 Extreme” is par for the course.