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***Rough it Up
This piece is brought to you by the Rolling Stones, singing Start It Up from their Tatoo You CD -- the same song that Microsoft is using to promote Windows 95, but I wouldn't know -- I haven't been watching TV. But I was at the rollout in August. I remember, this was the song that Bill G *didn't* dance to. It was a worldwide trance. And a great song too!
Yesterday I was putzing around on my computer. Not really getting any productive work done. I decided to try out the Microsoft formula, to see if the Stones could get me started up. It didn't work! Instead I had to stand up and sway and roll my shoulders. Ohhhh. You make a grown man cry! I won't say what you make a dead man do. My hands are greasy. She's my fav-favorite shape. Wowowowowow. Yeah. Cooooooool. I'll take you places you've never ever seeeeeen. Never stop. I blow my top! Oooooooooooph.
Those guys! I wish I could sing like that.
I'd love to put this Stones song on my DaveNet CD, but I'll have to start saving. Right now $12 million would blow my entire music budget. Cooool.
Maybe Marc and I could do the next Bill Gates promotional CD? In that CD, Bill would actually dance! Index finger in the air. Roll around the sun a few times. Strut and sway, roll and wind. It'd be cooool. He'd be running hot. What do you think? We could do the same for Scott McNealy or Michael Spindler or even Steve Jobs. We could rough it up!
I'm having soooo much fun with this song...
Can you tell?
***Software Bars
The software bar thread is staying hot.
One of the most interesting messages came from Nolan Bushnell, nolanb@aol.com. Nolan is a famous guy -- he started Atari in the 70s, made the cover of the newsweeklies a few times, fathered a phenomenon and an industry, and got credit for it. Bushnell is a technologist, and like Steve Wozniak, he's more of a teddy bear than a red meat eater.
Bushnell tried again in the 80s with Pizza Time Theaters, but he was way ahead of the technology curve. Internetworking wasn't part of his venue operating system back then, but this time around, it's central to the plan. He's interesting because he truly understands entertainment and technology and venues. This time around I think he caught the market window perfectly.
Here's what Bushnell said:
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From: nolanb@aol.com
To: DaveNet readers
Re: You Are Media
WOW I had no idea that you were working with Marc. I too am working on a bar, restaurant, media center.
My company is E2000 and it will open it's first unit in Burbank November 15, 1995 with a second unit in Sunnyvale March 1, 1996.
E2000 merges entertainment, exercise and eating with education. Think of it as hundreds of high speed networked work stations surrounded with a life support system.
While we have a large bar with terminals there are also network game rooms, dining theaters and other stuff.
The whole facility in Burbank is 34,000 square feet that includes a 400 seat restaurant inside and 100 seats outside. A 120 seat WEB PUB, 150 additional terminals in the game room, a large climbing structure with computers for small kids and immersive theaters for virtual happenings and rock concerts.
We will connect all our facilities with T-1 links. Our game tournaments and competitions will feed into the IVDS game network that we are putting together with Wave Systems, NIN, Group Telecom and a whole group of others. The Internet is lousy for game play because of the latency of the system and the added latency of today's modems. Thanks to the IVDS system to cure that problem at a low cost.
My real reason to do this is an attempt to put as much technology into people's hands as possible as a backstop to our failed school system. We will open our facility at 6:00 AM and operate until 2:00 AM while offering educational classes all day and in some cases into the evening. By paying for the facility and equipment from entertainment uses we can deliver computerized education to the masses at the lowest prices possible. 20% or more of our computer time will be actually given away to low income kids.
We believe we can be highly profitable while providing the best computer educational supplement possible to the local areas population. Even our senior net surfing classes seem to be in high demand.
Nolan
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Thanks Nolan!
Dave Winer
PS: I've added a new term to the software industry vocabulary -- a Venue Operating System. It's a set of standardized system software that's designed to support location-based entertainment software and to connect venues to each other.
PPS: I'm just realizing that these DaveNet pieces can be seen as storyboards for entertainment videos. Davey likes it! As Marc says: Yabbadabba!