Gawker: valleywag, xerox

Xerox tech boss's virtual math

Owen Thomas — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 12:40:00 EDT

CAMBRIDGE, MASS. — Does Xerox CTO Sophie Vandebroek have trouble with basic numberwork? At MIT's EmTech conference, she asked the audience how many people had "avatars" — digital characters for virtual worlds like Linden Lab's Second Life. From what I saw, half a dozen people out of some 300 attendees raised their hands. "Perhaps 25 percent!" she said, as she played a video showing off Xerox's presence in Second Life. I am not sure what is more disturbing: Vandebroek's miscounting, which one might blame on the bright stage lights, or her inability to calculate the lack of a return on investment in Second Life, which has no such excuse. Here's a clip of Vandebroek talking in Second Life:

35 percent of biggest companies own ____sucks.com

Paul Boutin — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 18:00:00 EDT

A study of Fortune 500 and other companies found that one in three have bought the name, say, walmartsucks.com. But corporate attitudes toward hate sites vary widely between, say, Dell and Xerox:

FairWinds based its analysis on 1,058 domain names for companies on the Global 500 and Fortune 500 lists. Of the companies surveyed, 35% own the domain name for their brand followed by the word "sucks." They include Wal-Mart Stores, Coca-Cola, Toys"R"Us, Target and Whole Foods Market, according to FairWinds. Some 45% of these domains have yet to be registered by anyone. The study found that the majority of companies that do own these domain names publish no content on them.

Some have been much more aggressive than others. Xerox, for example, has bought or registered about 20 unflattering domain names, including xeroxstinks.com, xeroxcorporationsucks.com and ihatexerox.net. But other companies, such as Dell, have taken a more hands-off approach. DellisEvil.com, MyDellSux.com and IHateDell.info are for sale, but the computer maker says it has no interest in buying them.

Peek into PARC shows Xerox still loves printing

Jackson West — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 17:20:00 EDT

Among the many projects researchers at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), most revolved around documents and printing, probably not surprisingly. But it makes clear that a paper-free office is a tragic dystopia in the copier company's eyes. [VentureBeat]

Xerox and Sun CEOs call foreign worker limit "moronic"

Nicholas Carlson — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 13:30:10 EDT

By 2010, Asians will account for 90 percent of the world's engineers. Americans are increasingly too lazy to bother to get computer-science degrees. Yet the U.S. government refuses to raise the cap on H-1Bs, the visas which allow foreign engineers to work at American companies. "It's moronic," Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz tells a Stanford audience in this clip. "Because you know what happens? You put a limit here? Guess what we do. We go hire in Asia. We're not dumb. We want talent." Xerox CEO Anne Mulcahy chimes in: "And by the way we don't just hire there, we build research centers there."

The 10 most memorable tech Super Bowl ads

Nicholas Carlson — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 08:00:39 EST

Behold the best tech ad in Super Bowl history: Apple's "1984" ad, which cost $1.6 million to make and run, and only aired nationally once. The following nine ads, while perhaps not as iconic, are all fascinating in how they seek to make the mysteries of tech compelling to the masses.

Apple's "1984" ad
Monster.com from 1999
CareerBuilder.com from 2005
GoDaddy from 2005
Xerox from 1977
E*Trade from 1999
Pets.com from 2000
Computer.com from 2000
SalesGenie.com from 2007
OurBeginnings in 2000

Xerox finds a new logo on the playground

Tim Faulkner — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 14:01:18 EST

Xerox is synonymous with copiers. But it urgently wants you to forget all that — and, as well, its brief, pointless stint as a "document management company." It has now joined hundreds of young, hip Internet companies with 3D glassy ball logos. Xerox hired Interbrand to spend 18 months conducting 5,000 interviews to rationalize the new logo: "friendlier" lowercase letters, a slick new typeface, and the obligatory ball, which is supposed to "suggest forward movement and 'a holistic company.'" I just think: kid's toy.

Interbrand also designed the logo to be animated, but we probably won't see the animations until Xerox's multimillion-dollar rebranding campaign is fully underway later this year. In keeping with Xerox's long-forgotten glory days, we suggest a new twist on an old idea: A children's singalong with the logo hopping from word to word. Everyone, follow the bouncing ball!

Wimminfolk ain't no good at computers

Nick Douglas — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 23:06:36 EDT

[Xerox hardware designer Chuck] Thacker revealed the real origins of the term [WYSIWYG]. He said it was coined by his wife, Karen, who upon seeing an Alto running Bravo, turned to him and said, "You mean, what I see is what I get?" Mrs. Thacker is a true technophobe, he said in a phone interview Thursday, one who believes the best computers are the ones we don't see, like the ones in ATMs and in cars. NY Times: Bits

Ha! Ha! Women and technology! It's a good thing none of them have actually just hit on the perfect goal for the current generation of technology, eh gents?