spin

Bad branding infects tech

Last week, I explained why high tech isn't known for its stellar marketing. Well, if you'll permit me to continue to throw stones from the comfort of my glass house, I'd say its branding isn't worth a damn, either.

Mothers should love their children, right? Then why do high-tech mother companies give their spin-offs such stupid names? Do they hate their offspring? It's not that far-fetched. They already saddle them with tons of debt and other baggage. Maybe a stupid name is just their way of saying, "Don't let the door hit you in the butt on your way out"?

Or maybe they're just trying to toughen the company up for the real world, as in Johnny Cash's A Boy Named Sue? I seriously doubt it. … Read more

TechCrunch at DigitalLife: A taste of Valley culture amid consumer-tech blitz

You'd think it would've drawn crowds.

TechCrunch founder and controversial Valley 2.0 icon Michael Arrington was making a rare appearance in New York, moderating a panel at the DigitalLife trade show on Thursday night. And the panel in question, called "The Disruptors," included a few of the start-up world's hottest names: Napster, Plaxo, and Facebook veteran Sean Parker (currently of the Founders Fund); Oovoo CEO Philippe Schwartz; SpinVox co-founder Daniel Doulton; IGA Worldwide CEO Justin Townsend; and Ooma founder Andrew Frame. Considering the resurgence of tech culture and startup spirit in New York in … Read more

How green was Burning Man?

The majority of the nearly 50,000 celebrants at the Burning Man counter-culture event have been re-adjusting for two weeks to the real world of running water, cubicles and commutes. With the week-long party in the Nevada desert in the rearview mirror, how green was the burn?

Supporters and critics of the festival of radical self-expression anticipated that this year's Green Man theme would set the ephemeral city apart from those of the past. Many hoped that Burning Man would clean up its act, show off promising clean technologies and set a fresh example for eco-friendly events. Others accused … Read more

What does MySpace news about removing 29,000 sex offenders mean for parents?

MySpace has quadrupled its estimated number of registered sex offenders posting profiles on the site, from its May estimate of 7,000 to a current tally of 29,000. The pages of identified offenders have been deleted. What does this news mean for parents? How do we assess risk and keep it in perspective, and what best practices should be implemented on family, corporate and societal levels to keep kids safe?… Read more

AMD, Intel lawyers spin the spinners' spinning

Here's a suggestion: let's settle Advanced Micro Devices' antitrust case against Intel during an episode of The Apprentice, and let The Donald sort out the sniping.

One might be forgiven for a sigh of resignation over the latest round of potshots between the two chipmakers, which has now drawn the respective PR reps for each company's legal interests into the debate. This dispute is over the spin attached to Intel's embarrassing remediation report, released on Monday with details on how the company plans to recover missing e-mails believed to be relevant to AMD's antitrust case … Read more

Numbers still don't help us tell time

No longer content only to grouse under our breath, we've decided to launch a formal campaign against indecipherable watches. And this latest so-called timepiece only reinforces that we've made the right decision.

At first, we had a glimmer of hope because the watch at least had numbers on its face (what a concept), unlike so many that have fallen victim to the LED craze. But then we read the description on Cool Hunting: "Using three spinning disks to create a triple-tier display of time, the top circle spins fastest with the seconds, the second disk rotates the … Read more