Image: the infectious logo of cupcake trasmitted diseases, Cupcake Camp.
It’s true that a couple of years ago, you could point a buttercream frosting covered finger at me and hold me partially responsible — saying, ha! you were there, spreading the cupcake meme in your sexed-up way, you. But it wasn’t just me — it was the cupcake blog Cupcakes Take the Cake. And then the craze hit, spreading like spilled batter across the interwebs to bring smiles — and addiction — to every unsuspecting, innocent baked goods enthusiast who even got near a cupcake photo on a laptop screen. Then Cupcake Camp came along and I thought we’d all get group treatment; but no — it only made things worse.
The meme was so infectious, even people who didn’t like sweets, had never baked in their lives, and especially the cooking-impaired tech scene was “into” cupcakes. I am not Patient Zero, nor am I Cupcake Mary. But I saw it happen. Now, everyone’s “so over” cupcakes yet the enthusiasm still rules. We’ve all been waiting, hoping for the next cute edible — macaroons were just not enough. There is only one explanation.
Cupcakes are a virus.
My final proof came today in the most nonsensical cupcake association yet: Android announces “cupcake” development branch (arstechnica.com). These people should probably be quarantined. It’s a prime example of one person catching a CTD and passing it around. But this time, it’s taking down Google. Think 28 Days Later, my friends. The exposure levels are off the charts with this.
Gizmodo tread lightly around the issue. Engadget openly wondered, “Google’s now gifted the world with a bunch of changes it had been developing in secrecy in a private branch called “cupcake.” Why “cupcake,” you ask? We’re not sure…” The details are at Ars Technica but read at your own risk — they openly state that CUPCAKE IS A GROWTH:
Over at the Android bat cave, there’s some interesting news going down. Today, Android announced the public release of its “cupcake” branch. This new branch offers a number of application enhancements, including bug fixes, a video recorder, the ability to save MMS attachments and more. System enhancements include better bluetooth support, better HTTP handling and, most importantly, a new JavaScript engine built on SquirrelFish.
Unlike the main Android trunk release, which is built on Linux 2.6.25, cupcake has been built on the updated Linux 2.6.27. Notably, the new system software offers basic x86 support and will allow third party manufacturers to develop and deploy their own handset-specific APIs.
Cupcake is a development branch rather than a release branch. According to the cupcake roadmap page, it remains distinctly a work in progress. This first release represents a big commit of changes since Android’s 1.0 release; future plans are for smaller updates as the cupcake changes stabilize. The announcement page emphasizes that cupcake is an outgrowth of Android’s roadmap; the roadmap allows for project forking with development continuing on in private branches, which is what cupcake is. (…read more, arstechnica.com)