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Gates touts his Clown Club membership
Microsoft has finally launched its much-touted $300 million corporate ad campaign featuring Jerry Seinfeld and the very own Bill Gates. While the advertising blitz is expected to project Microsoft as a technology leader, the first ad hasn't been able to strike a chord with audiences and neither has it been understood by many.
The 90-second ad (which you can find on YouTube or Microsoft's web site) takes place in a discount shoe store called Shoe Circus. Seinfeld sees Bill Gates in the store and, eventually, ends up helping Gates pick up a pair of size 10 shoes.
The discussion between the two centers around whether or not Seinfeld is feeling Gates' toe and whether Gates showers with his clothes on, because, as Seinfeld puts it, "You're dressed and you're clean."
Sounds kind of odd? It is, but there is still more to come. The highlight of the commercial is when a Shoe Circus clerk asks if Gates is a Shoe Circus Clown Club member, to which Gates gleefully replies that he is a platinum member.
Steve Jobs’ premature obituary
 In an astonishing blunder, news agency Bloomberg mistakenly sent an incomplete obituary of Apple CEO, Steve Jobs over the wire. The file was sent mistakenly around the world to all Bloomberg customer terminals.
The summary of Jobs' accomplishments, as per the obituary, is that he "Helped make personal computers as easy to use as telephones, changed the way animated films are made, persuaded consumers to tune into digital music, and refashioned the mobile phone."
Bloomberg retracted the item swiftly saying that the item was an incomplete story and never meant for publication. The reason for the blunder is that all major news companies have obituaries of notable people prepared in advance, so at the actual time of death it can carry it with only minor changes. That way, the news can be reported almost immediately and can be updated with further details.
Another reason for Bloomberg to prepare Jobs' orbituary in advance may have been the fact that a few years ago Jobs battled pancreatic cancer; and the terminal illness was disclosed to shareholders only nine months after diagnosis.
Recently, at the MacWorld conference Jobs’ thin appearance led company critics to speculate that he was ill again, and some of them even demanded that Apple reveal Jobs’ state of health to shareholders.
This is not the first blunder of its kind. There have been several instances of premature orbituaries of famous personalities including George Bush senior, the previous Pope, Nelson Mandela and our own Babu Jagjivanram. |