What Ballmer really meant to say in Moscow
Continuing the exegesis of Steve Ballmer’s remarks on how Yahoo should be viewed as part of “a” strategy to accelerate Microsoft’s online advertising, but not “the” strategy, CNET News.com Executive Editor Jim Kerstetter and I attempt to make sense of the latest twists and turns in the Microhoo saga. Watch the video:
Ballmer is trying to rewrite Microhoo history
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The stroke itself caused Mr. Walters to slur his words and begin drooling over the phone. Yet he wasn’t in any pain. He was merely very agitated. Clearly he didn’t realize that these were merely the beginnings of artistic angst.
He became rather good rather quickly. To the point at which whatever was left of his engineer persona helped him not only create inspired digital art but also artistic software.
He began to sell his digital art online.
“I hated it in school. I was never really the arty type, more hands on. But I have to say wherever this new found love for art has come from, it’s certainly changed my life forever,” he told London’s Daily Mail.
“My doctor told me following a stroke your brain usually rewires itself to avoid the damaged bits and often leads to discovering hidden talents,” he said.
If this story does not restore your faith in the utter random, crazy madness of life, then you are a gorilla suit and you live in a freezer.
Please welcome the life-affirming and thought-provoking story of Ken Walters.
But Mr. Walters’ remarkable resilience in surviving such mind-numbing misfortune turned into a mind-altering second life.
I know how that sounds.
One day, his work, which consists of creating mythical creatures of strange and wonderful dimensions, was spotted by EA.
The company decided he was so good that they commissioned him to create 100 dinosaur characters for Spore, the new game that’s supposed to help your brain.
(Credit: CC Picadilly Wilson)
Mr. Walters was an engineer who suffered massive spinal and internal damage when a truck driver lost control and pinned him to a wall.
He lost his job, was confined to a wheelchair and sank into a depression that lasted 19 years.
Yet it’s one thing to discover a talent. It’s another to make a living out of it.
The initial doodlings that his new inner-self insisted on creating made Mr. Walters experiment with digital art.
After the Bigfoot saga, here are some monsters that are far more real and whose creation will make you feel that humanity does have some goodness after all.
Just to add a little relish to his good fortune, he also had two heart attacks.
Fortunately, he then suffered a brain hemorrhage.
Strokes are weird things.
And this particular stroke rewired Mr. Walters’ brain, giving him a flair for art that didn’t seem to exist at any previous time in his life.
For some time, the studios have wanted to embark on the upgrade project, Reuters wrote, but have been unable to nail down the financing. But now, with the money in place, work can begin with the goal of making it possible for the studios to send films digitally to theaters–which would be a sea change for studios, allowing them to cut costs immensely on prints and distribution–as well as to more easily present 3D films.
For the studios and the theaters alike, adding 3D screens is a boon because of ticket premiums of $3 or more.
A group of the biggest Hollywood studios said Wednesday that they will invest more than $1 billion to upgrade 20,000 North American movie theaters to digital projector systems.
According to Reuters, Disney, Paramount Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal Pictures, and Lions Gate Entertainment have reached a pact with investors, including Blackstone Group and JPMorgan Chase. The work would begin in 2009 and could take as much as 3 and 1/2 years to complete.
Already, Hollywood and theaters around North America are in the middle of a major expansion of 3D screens and a major change in the technology being used for 3D films. In the spring of 2007, there were just 720 screens equipped to run 3D films, but that number has now jumped to 1,300, Reuters reported.
And that’s why several studios are planning on rapidly increasing the number of films they release in 3D.
“Our initial goal is to convert existing theaters of our owners, AMC and Cinemark, and Regal, which operate a little over 14,000 screens in the U.S. and Canada,” Travis Reid, CEO of Digital Cinema Implementation Partners, told Reuters, adding that each screen upgrade costs around $70,000.
“I’m beyond excited to work hand-in-hand with our brand partners to create compelling campaigns on MySpace,” Berman said in a release from MySpace. “This is an amazing opportunity to help brands reach their target audiences and leverage the viralocity of our ever-expanding global community.”
In other news, the neologism “viralocity” has officially been blacklisted from future use on CNET News.com.
The ad platform, to put it simply, helps advertisers build MySpace profiles for their brands, complete with friend lists, widgets, blog entries, and ads provided by the site’s HyperTargeting ad program. If they aren’t familiar with MySpace’s structure or with the CSS and XHTML code skills necessary to make those profiles extra-sparkly, they can opt into a “full service” production option. In other words, this is a way for MySpace to make a few bucks off the creation of brand profiles, which any company can currently do for free using the tools available to ordinary members of the site.
News Corp.’s social network MySpace.com made two advertising-related announcements Tuesday: the launch of a new “community building” platform so that advertisers can easily create a presence on the site, and the promotion of Jeff Berman to president of sales and marketing.
Additionally, longtime MySpace executive Jeff Berman has been promoted to president of sales and marketing, where he’ll oversee the new platform as well as HyperTargeting, online marketing, and other revenue-drawing initiatives at the social network. With a background in politics, Berman started at MySpace as senior vice president of public affairs, where he spearheaded the launch of the “Impact” political activism channel; he then moved to a leadership role in the MySpaceTV video portal.
Marketing agency Deep Focus is currently beta-testing the technology with its clients.
ST. PAUL, Minn.–John McCain formally accepted the Republican Party’s presidential nomination here on Thursday in a speech extolling the virtues of both oil drilling and green energy.
(Credit:
Declan McCullagh/CNET News)
A comparison of McCain and Obama’s energy plans shows that the Republican opposes existing federal government ethanol production targets and would eliminate a tariff on Brazilian ethanol, a move that would expose U.S. producers to more competition. Obama supports the ethanol regulations (one factor that has led to higher corn prices), wants to raise automotive fuel-efficiency rules, and is not willing at the moment to support expanding nuclear power.
Last month, Obama signaled he might be open to new offshore drilling in some circumstances.
McCain went out of his way to tout green technology. In addition to building more nuclear power plants, he said: “We will develop clean coal technology. We will increase the use of wind, tide, solar, and natural gas. We will encourage the development and use of flex fuel, hybrid and electric automobiles.”
McCain’s speech comes a day after Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, his vice presidential pick, said her state was ready to provide more energy for America. “The fact that drilling won’t solve every problem is no excuse to do nothing at all,” she said.
John McCain says nation must drill new oil wells now, while supporting innovative transportation technologies and "the use of wind, tide, solar and natural gas."
He added: “Sen. Obama thinks we can achieve energy independence without more drilling and without more nuclear power. But Americans know better than that. We must use all resources and develop all technologies necessary to rescue our economy from the damage caused by rising oil prices and to restore the health of our planet.”
“We are going to stop sending $700 billion a year to countries that don’t like us very much,” McCain said. “We will attack the problem on every front. We will produce more energy at home. We will drill new wells offshore, and we’ll drill them now.”
The Arizona senator received one of his loudest rounds of applause when he lashed out at his Democratic rival, Barack Obama, and characterized the dispute over oil drilling as a matter of international relations and security as well as economics.
What's up Jobs’ sleeve this time around?
Redesign for the Nano?
The bar usually gets set higher when it comes to Apple product launches–and this time around it is no different. There likely will be even more than the predictably insane scrutiny because of the glitches which accompanied the introductions of the iPhone 3G and MobileMe.
Apple’s flaks may have stewed, but each time the company got dinged by Fake Steve Jobs it was worth its weight in marketing gold. Seriously, outside of family members and confirmed sadomasochists, just how many people would be sufficiently interested to read a blog called Fake Mark Hurd or (gasp!) Fake Sam Palmisano?
Earlier Friday, I spoke with Tom Krazit about what Jobs likely will announce–as well as the chances for a redesign of the iPod Nano as well as rumors of a new version of ITunes.
Still, I haven’t heard anyone at Apple complaining about the company being unfairly singled out. This just goes with the role of being the media’s favorite eye candy. Besides, I’d wager that over the years Apple has received millions of dollars in free publicity by cranking up the buzz machine in advance of official technology debuts.
But there’s no need to overthink this. Right now, the test of a successful launch for Apple comes down to the basics: As Krazit points out, the product just has to work. Everything else is gravy.
In March, the audio chipmaker Wolfson told its shareholders that it had failed to win a contract to design next-generation media players for “a major Tier 1 customer” planning a third-quarter launch. Wonder who that might be? The September launch date is a no-brainer as that’s when Apple and every other tech appliance maker tries to get as many new units as possible into the market ahead of the holiday shopping season.
The guessing game is almost over. On Tuesday, Apple will hold a press conference here in San Francisco to announce–well, Apple’s invite just says “Let’s Rock.”
But unless 99.99 percent of the blogging and journalistic world is wrong–a phenomenon hardly unknown–Apple’s going to announce a refresh of its
iPod line.
Dubbed the U.S. Army Experience Center, the facility at the Franklin Mills shopping mall in Philadelphia sports 60 computers preloaded with military video games, 19
Xbox 360 controllers, and video displays that “describe military bases and career options in great detail,” Reuters reports.
The Army Experience Center in Philly: Recruitment tool or fun?
The U.S. Army has spent $12 million on a new facility in Philadelphia that abandons the use of recruiters selling the Army life in favor of video games and loud rock music, according to a Reuters report.
Retired Lt. Col. David Grossman has written extensively on the impact that video games and U.S. Army simulators can have on the lives of children. He claims that video games and similar programs like the U.S. Army Experience Center “condition” soldiers to be “desensitized” to killing, and he even goes so far as to call some violent video games “murder simulators.”
In the end, compelling arguments can be made on both sides. Still, the question remains: would video games get you to join the Army?
Maybe that’s why it has turned to video games to recruit new soldiers. After all, most of the people joining have grown up in an environment where first-person war games are the norm. Shooting a virtual character on-screen in Call of Duty has become second-nature.
But an equally compelling argument can be made in proving that violent video games do not cause children to become desensitized and that the U.S. Army Experience isn’t the first step in training potential recruits to kill.
Check out Don’s Digital Home podcast, Twitter feed, and FriendFeed.
(Credit:
U.S. Army)
Perhaps the answer to that question isn’t so simple. Undoubtedly, people join the service for a number of reasons: stability, financial aid, patriotism, and education. But it’s no secret that the Armed Forces have had trouble recruiting people in recent years, and although the military contends that it has met its quota for 2008, finding people to join isn’t as easy as it once was.
“What we are doing here is reaching out to Americans, giving them the opportunity to understand their Army,” Maj. Gen. Thomas P. Bostick, head of the U.S. Army Recruiting Command, said in a statement. “Oftentimes, people have a negative perception of the Army, but the negatives are a very small part. Our soldiers are well-trained, well-equipped, and serving a great mission.”
For its part, the Army says it’s not necessarily trying to recruit young soldiers. Instead, it says the Experience Center is being used as a way to inform the public.
Visitors to the center can play games that allow them to fire on enemy combatants from a Humvee or engage in helicopter missions where the player is firing on the enemy from an Apache or Black Hawk helicopter.
The center first opened in August as the first step in what is a two-year experiment on the part of the Army to recruit more service people. So far, the experiment has proven successful: Reuters reports that 33 full-time soldiers and 5 reservists have have joined the U.S. Army since its inception. More importantly, that recruitment tally bests the five “traditional” recruiting centers it replaced.
Is it right to use video games as a means of recruiting soldiers? That’s debatable. On one hand, the U.S. Army should have every right to recruit individuals as effectively (and honestly) as possible. But on the other hand, its use of video games suggests that it may be trying to glorify the real business of the Armed Forces.
That’s an interesting take, but one that deserves some more contemplation. Is the U.S. Army Experience Center really just a place to teach people about the “real” Army? Or is it a place to coax people into joining through video games?
But I digress. Based on the Center’s recruitment figures so far, it’s not a stretch to say the “experience” is working quite well for the Army. After all, if one game-equipped facility can replace five traditional recruitment offices, it certainly suggests that people are warming to the idea of joining the Army through video games.
It seems like the only complaint that the cranky digital-media press can come up with for MTVMusic.com, the legendary pop-culture brand’s new music video hub, is, “Why wasn’t this here years ago?”
Yeah, yeah, we know. There are licensing issues, especially for all those campy ’80s videos that haven’t seen the light of day in years. And launching a product prematurely could have led to bad press, as opposed to the “wow, we like this” response that MTV Music seems to have gotten thus far.
Viacom-owned MTV Networks has built in community features through its Flux technology, so that members can comment on videos, rate them (not surprisingly, Rick Astley’s 1988 song “Never Gonna Give You Up,” which has experienced a wild surge of Internet-meme popularity in the past year, is near the top of the chart), and share them on Facebook, MySpace, and blogs.
There are a couple of ads for Rhapsody, MTV’s music retail partner, but I haven’t seen any actual “Buy This Song” links accompanying videos. That’d be a good move for MTV.
So I leave you with Weezer’s “Buddy Holly,” one of my favorite videos of the ’90s, back when we all thought they’d turn out to be a dweeby, one-hit-wonder novelty act:
The issue, of course, is that most music videos are already available on YouTube, and it’s not clear yet whether people will change their browsing habits and actually go over to MTV Music for videos now.