Good Morning Silicon Valley

Sony’s Ken Kutaragi is known as “the father of the PlayStation,” and like any proud papa, he’s been known to speak in grand terms of his offspring’s abilities. So back before the PS2 launch, when he glowed that the gaming experience would be be “Matrix”-like, we chalked it up to parental puffery. But in the [...]

Google’s mission to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful appears to be in conflict with Yahoo’s mission to keep its trade secrets secret. This morning Yahoo objected to a Google subpoena requesting information about its search and indexing functions for book texts. Google had hoped to use that information to [...]

Dear Mr. Clark,

First, let us begin by saying you are an incredibly strong and handsome man. When we created the “Biggest Hit Ever” Madden ‘07 commercial featuring your virtual likeness, it was never our intention to portray you as anything but heroic and god-like. Unfortunately, filmmaking - even commercial filmmaking - is an often tumultuous [...]

Apparently the 70 cents Universal Music Group reportedly collects on each 99-cent UMG song sold through iTunes just isn’t enough.  Appearing this week at the Reuters Media Summit in New York City, UMG Chairman and CEO Doug "these-devices-are-just-repositories-for stolen-music- and-they-all-know-it"  Morris said that he hoped Apple will agree to share with UMG a percentage of [...]

The National Association of Realtors (NAR), like so many other superannuated and gasping institutions before it, may soon be given the digital economy beating it’s long deserved. Earlier this week a federal court in Chicago denied the NAR’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought against it by the U.S. Department of Justice, which alleges the [...]

George Lucas Presents: Singin’ in the Rain (Special Edition) (Thanks Bruce), Steven Colbert plays the Wii and Google’s leaked radio ad (Thanks David).

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PlayStation 3 vs Nintendo Wii : The next generation gaming console battle simplified by The Onion (Not suitable for the easily offended)

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Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken. And, as Napster knows, wrapping good intentions around software widely used to distribute pirated digital media does not make you a successful legitimate business. Which is something to keep in mind today in light of the latest announcements around BitTorrent’s “legitimate” media store. This [...]

Well, if North Korea’s Kim Jong Il didn’t think we were serious about curtailing all that atomic stuff, he certainly knows the score now — we’re cutting off his toys. In what are apparently the first U.S. trade sanctions ever custom tailored to annoy a specific foreign leader, the U.S. will ban shipments of all [...]

“If you make a film and you’re having a hard time getting people to see it, break it into six chapters and throw it up on YouTube. There’s a good chance somebody will see it.”

– Director Kevin Smith sketches out his comeback plan after the unnecessary sequel to his 1994 hit “Clerks.”

[...]

Question: What has happened to Answers?

Answer: There is no answer at this time.

– A question posed by a Google Answers researcher in late October.

Since its launch in 2005, Google Answers has provided responses to innumerable questions of import — “How is synthetic urine manufactured?”, “Can a liver move in the fridge? “ “Give me [...]

When Zune, Microsoft’s shameless imitation of the iPod, arrived at market a
fortnight ago, it was as notable for the features it lacked, as it was for
those it offered. Absent from the
device was a promised DJ setting, which would have allowed Zune owners
to wirelessly DJ music to up to four other Zunes. Also missing was support
for [...]

Manchester Bollards
In Manchester (UK), the local city council installed moving bollards to prevent commuters in cars from using bus lanes with catastrophic results. (Thanks Random)

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One of the best “Get a Mac” ads yet: “Meant for work“

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Barney is a dinosaur from our imagination. When he’s tall, he’s what we call a dinosaur sensation. Sadly, he’s not much good in court. This morning the Lyons Partnership, owners of the Barney character, agreed to end their persecution of Stuart Frankel, publisher of a Barney parody site, and reimburse him for the legal expenses [...]