I’m going to come right out and say it. The Oscars were boring last night! Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin are two hilarious talents, but last night… I was not amused. Where did Neil Patrick Harris go the rest of the night? That made no sense at all. Just because Hugh Jackman did a successful number last year doesn’t mean you should repeat it — especially if the singer is not also going to be the host the rest of the night! What happened, Academy?!
Well, all is not lost I suppose. I’ve got a blog post out of it! While sort of paying attention to the Oscars last night, my friend Alex screamed out, “What?! They have a 3D TV now?!” Yep, it’s true. According to Gizmodo, Best Buy will be rolling out a couple Samsung LED 3D HDTVs on March 21st.
Have you heard of Logorama? If you’re trying to win the office Oscar pool, you might want to read up.
It’s an animated short that pokes fun at a world consumed with branding. Complete. And total. Corporate. Satire. All packed in a hilarious 16-minute short film! Yeah, there’s somewhere around 2500 logos in there… Here’s the trailer:
Logorama is one of the top-runners for the Academy Awards’ animated short films category this Sunday. It also played at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. What’s this got to do with software and tech? Might be stretching it a little, but I’ll just quote the LA Times with this quick blurb from their interview with Ludovic Houplain, one of the filmmakers:
What software did you use to create the movie?
Working with Mikros Image, the post-production company that made the film, we worked on the software called “Maya,” combined with rotoscoping. For that, we filmed ourselves, as well as my son Anatole who play the roles of Big Boy and Haribo.
AUTO MAYA 2010 COMM SLM
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What can I say? It’s a Friday… the week has finally dragged on and there isn’t much longer until the weekend officially starts. Rather than writing on one topic, I thought I’d share the best of what was going on today, in the world of tech and software at least…
Chinese Schools Spurred Online Hacking Remember the series of cyber attacks not too long after Google first threatened to pull out of China? Although it was never proven at the time, China was highly suspected of launching those attacks. It’s recently been discovered that two schools in China may have been responsibly. According to the New York Times, “a series of online attacks on Google and dozens of other American corporations have been traced to computers at two educational institutions in China, including one with close ties to the Chinese military.”
According to AdWeek, the ads will be running throughout the month of February. If you watched NBC’s Olympic coverage of the men’s figure skating last night, Kristi Yamaguchi was trying to deduct her costumes on TurboTax rather than provide commentary on the skating. Okay, okay, it was a commercial. But, it’s obvious Intuit is feeding off NBC’s domination of the Vancouver Games to promote their TurboTax software — even though that wasn’t the first time Kristi’s ad aired.
They probably haven’t convinced me to do my taxes just yet, but the commercials are a riot (and I do like the GPS-like navigation feature they’ve been hyping). It was difficult to find any of the above mentioned spots, but here’s (an equally funny) one of Days of Our Lives star Alison Sweeney…
If you’re all ready to do your taxes, SoftwareMedia.com has a handy dandy Tax Filing Guide and all sorts of TurboTax and Intuit products. Make sure to also put those deductions from the “free” business software you acquired.
TurboTax Basic 2009 (Full Product)
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The 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games start tonight. I’m completely psyched! Although I’ll be out at dinner during the opening ceremonies, I plan on recording the event on my good ol’ VCR. I know, I know… old school. But I don’t have a fancy phone that could stream live content…
For those of you on the go (with fancy phone in tow or laptop or what not), here’s a gather guide of how to enjoy your Olympics sans the television set.
NBCOlympics.com
The obvious choice for those of us in the United States. Although most of NBC’s coverage will only be aired on TV (advertising revenue), there’s a handful of video content on their just-the-Olympics website. Tonight, they are also blogging live throughout the opening ceremonies.
Spammed Remember how the Australian Government green lighted an Internet filter not too long ago? In retaliation to the proposed filter, a group of hackers, who call themselves Anonymous, took down two government sites: the main website and the Parliament site. Ars Technica tells us “the plan was DDoS government servers first, and then followup with ‘a s***storm’ of porn-related emails, faxes, and prank cell phone calls to government officials.”
Google Buzzdebuted earlier today. A friend mentioned it but I honestly didn’t pay that much attention. But while listening to Merrick, Dools and Ricki-Lee (as I usually do while slaving away on the computer at work), I heard a newscaster on Nova FM describe Google Buzz as a Facebook that uses your Gmail account. Apparently, it was big news. But it just wasn’t catching my attention.
In less than a day, Google Buzz has already taken on severalhits. And I sort of agree with Microsoft, “Busy people don’t want another social network…” Actually, sometimes I’m not even that busy… so maybe it should’ve been, “Lazy and busy people don’t want another social network”?
However, I did stumble upon something fairly awesome from Google today… Mountain Street View! To ready up before the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games, Google’s Street View team sent a souped up snowmobile into the mountains of Vancouver and Whistler.
SoftwareMedia TV’s spotlight star is donning the sleek black look, once again. Experienced Microsoft sales rep, Todd Francis, is back for part two of our Microsoft Open Business licensing video series. In our first video, Todd explained how to purchase basic products through the Microsoft Open Business Program. He went over frequently asked questions such as how many licenses you will need, the different product options available and the benefits of buying a product with software assurance. In part two of this series, watch as Todd explains how to purchase the more complicated products available through the Microsoft Open Business Program. The following video also runs through the differences between the two available CAL licenses — user CALs and device CALs. In addition, Todd also explains other important terms, such as processor license and external connector.
For more information, see our Microsoft Open Licensing Guides. See more software tutorials by clicking on the SoftwareMedia TV tag or follow us on YouTube. Although this wraps up our Microsoft Open Business licensing videos, never fear! Todd will be b(l)ack soon.
Are there any topics you would like Todd to explain? Anything you want us to cover? Hit that comment link and let us know!
Earlier this week, blog posts about Windows 7 “GodMode” fluttered the tech web. Jeremy was kind enough to capture a quick video for us. If you have Windows 7, just hit play to see how easy it is to enable “GodMode.” Oh, this is the code you will need (for the convenience of simple copy and paste):
GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}
Ina Fried, from CNET.com, says “GodMode” also works with Vista, but with possible problems. Find out more by reading her Beyond Binary blog.
Todd is back, and again in black! SoftwareMedia TV presents a two-part series on Microsoft Open Business licensing. Our seasoned Microsoft sales rep, Todd, explains how to purchase basic products through the Microsoft Open Business Program. This video covers frequently asked questions such as how many licenses you will need, the different product options available and the benefits of buying a product with software assurance.
For more information, see our Microsoft Open Licensing Guides. See more software tutorials by clicking on the SoftwareMedia TV tag or follow us on YouTube. Be sure to stay tuned for part two of the Microsoft Open Business licensing series; Todd will be back for another stab at internet fame. He’ll probably even keep to those sleek, sexy black shirts he’s been wearing. Uhh… Todd, do you read all my posts? I mean, those black shirts are macho and ruggedly handsome.
I’m going to come right out and say it. The Oscars were boring last night! Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin are two hilarious talents, but last night… I was not amused. Where did Neil Patrick Harris go the rest of the night? That made no sense at all. Just because Hugh Jackman did a successful number last year doesn’t mean you should repeat it — especially if the singer is not also going to be the host the rest of the night! What happened, Academy?!
Remember the series of cyber attacks not too long after 
