Overheard: uWink

”You’d think a man who was made a millionaire several times over by the Chuck E. Cheese pizza chain wouldn’t be judgmental.” Tor Thorsen, Atari founder: Modern games ‘unadulterated trash’

Tor writes: Nolan Bushnell, the founder and onetime head of said pizzeria/video game parlor franchise and the once-mighty publisher/console-maker Atari has issued a scathing statement about the current state of games….

Despite his blanket statement, Bushnell’s most recent venture has games at its very center. Some 31 years after he sold Atari to Warner Bros.–which went on to make billions on the 2600 home console–the serial entrepreneur has founded uWink, a restaurant where each dining table is equipped with touch screens offering a host of causal and “social” games.

Overheard: Cisco got me - Unified Communications viral video campaign

Someone at Cisco has some strange ideas when it comes to viral marketing.

Case in point: The meltdown. It’s a mini-docu-drama of a guy having a temper tantrum a hotel lobby. The video’s mission is to get you to click on an even stranger interactive psychiatrist and life coach who listens to your dreams and then tells you about how Cisco Unified Communications can solve your problems.

The strange part is not the approach — the strange part is that it seems to work. They have succeeded in getting lots of people like me to pass the darn thing around.

Reminds me of the buzz around the Rozerim Abe Lincoln ads when they first came out. Is it a groundhog or is it a beaver? What does the chessboard mean? Does Abe Lincoln symbolize depression or honesty? Does the deep sea diver have something to do with sex? Why is the beaver eating eggs?

Who cares, as long as you’re talking about us! And if you’re talking about us, Cisco Unified Communications will help!

Overheard: How do you measure engagement?

“Lately, of course, there has been some controversy around the efficacy of the Page View as the atom of Internet consumption—largely triggered by the penetration of AJAX technology, which enables content to refresh on screen without serving a new Page View.” Josh Chasin, The Now is Time

Josh writes: These two developments—the decline in the efficacy of the Page View and the increased demand for engagement—dovetail nicely in Internet metrics, because both argue for a reconsideration of time and space. Specifically, I contend that they argue for a shift in emphasis from Page Views to duration-based audience metrics.Maybe we need to think about online media consumption in two flavors: Time Spent, and Engaged Time Spent.

Continued »

Quiz: Overheard in the tech blogosphere / Oct 22, 2007

DIRECTIONS: These are real statements from real people discussing real technology in the blogosphere. I’ve removed one word from each quote. Can you still figure out what they’re talking about? Click on the link to see if you’re right! Then click your back button for another question.

1. “But __________ are not dumb. They’re just direct mailers. They’re going for the 1 percent that thinks “OnlineBootyCall message” actually might mean romance is in the air.”
What are they talking about?

Continued »

Overheard: Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007

“OCS is somewhat reminiscent of the old Saturday Night Live “is it a floor wax or desert topping” skit from 1975.” Irwin Lazar, Getting Ready for Microsoft OCS

Irwin writes: To some, OCS is simply the third generation of Microsoft instant messaging platform.

To others, OCS represents a way to radically transform the enterprise communications landscape, providing a new paradigm for communications that eliminates the enterprise IP-PBX, and instead converges all forms of real-time communication on a software based platform, using clients running on Windows PCs, and applications running on Windows server.

Overheard: Ruby on Rails demystified

“Ruby on Rails” is catchy but confusing. Is Rails some type of magical drug that Ruby is on? (Depending on who you ask, yes.)” Kalid Azad, Starting Ruby on Rails: What I Wish I Knew

Kalid writes: There’s always a better way to explain a topic. Insights are fluid, mutable, and work for different people. I’m sharing the insights that helped me, hoping they’ll help you too.

Continued »

Overheard: Advantage of agile development

“One of the truly great advantages agile development has over traditional waterfall projects is in team dynamics. There is far more interaction and communication between disciplines. Just being on the project at the same time is an advantage over “throw it over the wall” processes.” Jeremy D. Miller, A Taxonomy of Tests

Overheard: DBAs and developers

“That we DBAs and Oracle developers frequently come across as grumpy old men (and women) who oppose change and who want the IT world to remain the same as it was in the 1980s is partly our fault. And honestly, isn’t there some truth to it?” Sandy Mamoli (Nomad8), Bridging the gap between DBAs and developers

Sandy writes: One of the things I have learnt from the development community are agile methods which certainly aren’t the answer to all problems but which represent an honest and intelligent attempt to improve our systems by applying an empiric approach which is based on reality rather than wishful thinking about how things should be. For me those methods are worth to be looked into and to be tried in real life.

Overheard: Any “Guy” can be mistaken for an IT expert

Remember when the BBC interviewed “the cab driver” instead of the IT expert by mistake? Here’s the story behind this YouTube classic. (Wikipedia)

Overheard: Window of opportunity - health care

“HealthVault Search is a search engine specifically tuned to return only health-related web results through a variety of trusted and credible sources, including notably Wikipedia articles where available.” Long Zheng Dr. Microsoft is now ready to see you