A sister site to the company’s massive data center in Maiden, N.C., this facility will be significantly smaller — at least initially. Currently, Apple is building a 10,000 square-foot data center on the 160 acres it recently purchased in Prineville, Ore. But that’s clearly just the beginning.

As part of its deal with Prineville and Crook County, Apple was granted a 15-year property-tax break. In return, it is to invest $250 million in the data center, and hire at least 35 employees to run it.

“We’re looking forward to joining the community of Prineville with our new data center,” Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet told AllThingsD. “In addition to the hundreds of employees at our retail stores, we will be hiring dozens of people and bringing hundreds of construction jobs to the area.”

Once finished, the Prineville facility is expected to be even more environmentally friendly than the one in Maiden, running on 100 percent renewable energy.

This version: “The Hipster Games,” with ironic young people from five districts — Portland, Austin, Brooklyn, Oakland and Silverlake in Los Angeles — fighting to the death for that old Talking Heads vinyl record album.

Enjoy:

The state is testing Apple’s tablet to help those with disabilities more easily cast their ballots.

Although the iPad is being used to assist with the election, those using it aren’t casting their votes electronically. Rather, the iPad allows those with visual and other challenges to better see the ballot and make their selections. Their choices are then printed out on a paper ballot, according to an Associated Press report.

Apple has donated five iPads to help with the pilot project, according to the report.

The state decided to try out the iPad because its current crop of adaptive technology is aging. According to the AP report, the iPad-based approach has the potential to lower election costs, even if the state has to purchase significant numbers of Apple tablets.

Franken chairs the subcommittee on privacy, and says he wants to explore the situation, which could be the first hint that he wants to hold hearings.

He’s not the only person in Congress making noise about it. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, has asked Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate Epsilon for “possible civil and criminal liability.” There’s also talk of hearings on the matter in the House. On top of that, state attorney generals in Rhode Island, Iowa, Nevada and Oregon have started warning consumers in their state about the dangers of clicking links in suspicious emails that may emerge in the coming days. I’ve pasted Blumenthal’s letter below.

Shares in Epsilon parent Alliance Data Systems rose more than one percent today as concern among investors around the business unit that was responsible for 22 percent of its revenue last year seems to have abated for the moment. The company will report quarterly earnings on April 21, and we’re hoping management takes the opportunity to be forthcoming with more details about how the breach happened.

April 6, 2011

The Honorable Eric H. Holder, Jr.
Attorney General of the United States
United States Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001

Dear Mr. Attorney General:

I am writing to formally request an expedited investigation into possible civil and criminal liability, and to highlight key issues to consider in the course of that investigation, concerning recent reports of a major data security breach involving Epsilon, an internet email marketing firm.

On April 1, 2011, Epsilon reported that it had experienced a security breach of its database of customer names and email addresses which it collects from various companies, including many retail and financial firms. The company has not specified how many consumers have been affected by the security breach. Epsilon has not provided a list of companies affected. While some of Epsilon’s client companies have notified their customers of the breach, other consumers may be unaware that their names, email addresses and other potentially identifying information may be at risk.

I believe that immediate notification to all customers is vital to protect them – and enable them to protect themselves – from identity theft. Despite claims by Epsilon that only the names and email addresses of individuals may have been compromised by this security breach, I ask that your review of this incident determine whether individually identifiable financial information has been compromised. Names and email addresses would allow unscrupulous actors to send emails to consumers – ostensibly from the retailers which whom the consumer does business – seeking private financial information such as credit card numbers or checking or banking accounts.

I believe that affected individuals should be notified and provided with financial data security services, including free access to credit reporting services, for two years, the costs of which should be borne by Epsilon or its affected clients. I believe it is also necessary to provide every affected individual with sufficient insurance to protect them against possible financial consequences of identity theft.

Consumers deserve more complete information on the data breach, as well as the assurance that their personal financial information will be securely maintained. If personal financial information has been compromised as a result of this incident, Epsilon should be required to provide written notification of the breach, specific information about the data that may have been improperly accessed by third parties, and personal information security protection, including free access to credit reporting services, and insurance for two years.

Thank you for your attention to this important issue and for your continued work on behalf of the American public.

Sincerely,

Richard Blumenthal
United States Senate

NetworkEffect will be at Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif. on Thursday morning for a press conference that promises “a behind-the-scenes look at the latest technology powering Facebook.”

Asked for detail, a Facebook spokesperson said the event would cover “Facebook’s hardware and software technology.”

With that as a hint, there are some infrastructure and operations deadlines on the horizon for the company: first, the planned opening of its Oregon data center this spring. And second, the Earth Day deadline Greenpeace has proactively declared for Facebook to stop depending on coal to power its service.

Facebook, in fact, told a local TV news reporter the Oregon data center has been built to be especially green, with recycled and local materials, and a system where one out of every 1.15 watts in the system actually powering computer infrastructure, rather than the typical one out of 1.8.

Will that be tomorrow’s main news topic? We’ll have to see. Tune in to NetworkEffect around 10 a.m. PT for coverage, or watch the press conference on Facebook’s live channel.

Please see the disclosure about Facebook in my ethics statement.

Earlier in the day Intel CEO Paul Otellini agreed to join the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, which is chaired by General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt. Otellini announced some more good news: Plans to build a new $5 billion-plus chip factory in Arizona and hire 4,000 workers there. (Yay, America…meanwhile Oregon still gets D1X) The text of Otellini’s prepared remarks is below the video.

What a difference a year makes. At this time last year, Intel was preparing to defend itself against an antitrust lawsuit brought by Obama’s Federal Trade Commission. A settlement last August brought an end to that. Now Obama and Intel totally heart each other, as you can see in the video below, shot by The Oregonian.

The visit followed last night’s dinner at the home of venture capitalist John Doerr with numerous Silicon Valley execs, where POTUS sat between Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Video streaming by Ustream

Remarks (as prepared) by Paul Otellini, President and CEO of Intel Corporation, during President Obama’s visit to Intel’s campus in Hillsboro, Ore., on Feb. 18, 2011.

Good morning and welcome. And Governor Kitzhaber, thank you for being here. I’m excited to be here today to celebrate American innovation and American manufacturing.

Our country and this company have been built on innovation – and manufacturing has been at the heart of America’s economy for over a century. Technology and the semiconductor industry have been driving economic growth for the last 50 years. In fact, when averaged over the last 5 years, the semiconductor industry is the nation’s #1 exporter.
Today we celebrate the construction of Intel’s new semiconductor manufacturing plant called D1X.

For the past 2 years I have been discussing the need to re-ignite innovation in the U.S as a means of creating jobs and wealth in our society.

I believe the world of technology and a vibrant manufacturing base lies at the heart of creating this future. This is one of the reasons for our continued investment in Oregon, and our commitment to build Fab D1X.

This new factory will play a central role extending Intel’s unquestioned leadership in semiconductor manufacturing. The transistors and chips it will produce will be the most dynamic platform for innovation that our company has ever created.

Together they will enable more capable computers, the most advanced consumer electronics and mobile devices, the brains inside the next generation of robotics, and thousands of other applications that have yet to be invented.
I’d like to pause for a moment to give you a glimpse of what will be involved in creating such a technologically advanced operation.

D1X will be a vital addition to what is already one of the largest and most advanced semiconductor research and manufacturing sites in the world. Building it we will create approximately 3,000 construction jobs over 2 years. The structure will require 19 tons of steel, 40 miles of pipe, and 13,000 truckloads of cement. When finished, D1X will have a cleanroom as big as 4 football fields. It is scheduled for start-up in 2013; and it will be the first 14-nanometer microprocessor factory in the world.

Intel is a global company today, and proudly so. Yet, we think of ourselves as an American enterprise. Intel generates three-fourths of its revenues overseas, yet maintains three-fourths of its manufacturing here in the United States. The company sets the bar for world-class manufacturing around the world.

We believe in this country’s power to create a future where America maintains its unparalleled global leadership and where jobs in 21st century industries are created and flourish. I am pleased that the President and his Administration have taken a number of steps to invest in innovation and education so that we are building the skills needed to achieve success in the 21st century and grow the economy. At Intel, we believe that we will help create this future.

Building such a future requires more than just investments in technology and manufacturing. We need to also invest in educating and training the workers that will invent and manage the industries of the future. At Intel, for example, over half of our 82,000-person workforce has technical degrees and nearly 8,000 hold a Master’s degree or Ph.D. Looking forward, we are concerned that there may be a shortfall of qualified experts in science and math in this country to meet the needs of our industry.

There are two fundamental solutions to this problem. First, revitalizing math and science education will generate qualified, interested and motivated students, and drive increased enrollments in our great graduate schools. Then, government and businesses need to make sure all of these graduates are given an opportunity to work in this great country.

I want to commend the President for his leadership and focus on improving our science, technology, engineering and math education. He has taken actions — including key steps like making STEM a priority — in his $4 billion Race to the Top competition and his Educate to Innovate campaign.

I’m proud to tell you that over the last decade, Intel has invested nearly $1 billion in education around the world, especially math and science education. Our Intel Teach program has already trained more than 9 million teachers worldwide — with nearly half a million right here in the in the U.S. — to integrate technology into and the learning process. The result is improved critical thinking and problem solving skills. We view these efforts — and our many other education initiatives — as vital investments in the next innovators, thinkers, scientists, and entrepreneurs.

This investment comes full circle when we can then hire the people we are investing in.

I’m proud to announce that this year Intel will hire 4,000 new permanent, highly skilled employees in the U.S. above and beyond the factory jobs that I previously mentioned.

These new employees will focus on areas that span the exploration of new materials to create even smaller transistors, to products that we believe will transform the way that healthcare and education are delivered, to “future technologies” that involve augmented reality and computers that can read minds, or at least anticipate your needs!

The investments I’ve discussed today are long-term investments in the things that make innovation possible. They also send a clear message that the United States will remain the location for Intel’s most advanced technology development and manufacturing.

And, I’ve saved the best news for last.

I’m happy to announce another NEW multi-billion dollar investment in America. Intel will soon begin construction in Arizona on a greater than $5 billion manufacturing facility called Fab 42 that will focus on 14-nm silicon process technology and beyond. When completed, Fab 42 will be THE most advanced high-volume semiconductor factory in the world. This activity will create thousands of construction and permanent manufacturing jobs in this country above and beyond what I’ve described earlier.

My closing message is that the best way forward for us is to unleash the unmatched creative energies of the people of this country to transform our manufacturing base for the 21st century. Intel is proud to do its part to create this promising future.

With that, ladies and gentleman, I’m pleased to introduce the President of the United States.

Facebook’s Prineville project demonstrates ways the seven-year-old company is growing up, taking on significant additional costs, and making an effort to form bonds with a growing network of constituents. It’s a process that companies of all stripes, from manufacturers to miners, have had to navigate.

The Prineville data center, which is filling up with server computers required to run Facebook’s service for its more than 500 million users, is owned and operated by the company.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

The reactions are all over the map, and no one is exactly happy. I’ve collected a few of the reaction statements below.

President Obama:

“This decision is an important component of our overall strategy to advance American innovation, economic growth, and job creation. As a candidate for President, I pledged to preserve the freedom and openness that have allowed the Internet to become a transformative and powerful platform for speech and expression. That’s a pledge I’ll continue to keep as President. As technology and the market continue to evolve at a rapid pace, my Administration will remain vigilant and see to it that innovation is allowed to flourish, that consumers are protected from abuse, and that the democratic spirit of the Internet remains intact.”

Rep. Fred Upton, R-Michigan, incoming Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee

“The FCC’s hostile actions toward innovation, investment and job creation cannot be allowed to stand. We must use every resource available, including the Congressional Review Act, to strike down the FCC’s brazen effort to regulate the Internet. … Despite FCC claims that these are just rules of the road that everyone agrees with, anyone can recognize that what the Commission claims to be statements of broad industry support are really cries of ‘uncle’ resulting from threats of even more onerous regulation.”

Rep. Greg Walden, R-Oregon, incoming Chairman of the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology

“More troubling than the substance of the network neutrality rules are the legal theories underpinning them. If left unchallenged, this power grab will allow the Commission to regulate any interstate wired or wireless communication on barely more than a whim. For all these reasons, we plan to look at all legislative options for reversing the decision. We also plan to hold a series of hearings early next year on the substance, process and claims of authority underlying this proceeding.”

Sen. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts

“The FCC’s Democratic Commissioners should be applauded for reaching a consensus on rules that will protect network neutrality on the Internet. As Commissioner Copps, a lifelong champion of open communications and democratic discourse, said in his statement today, vigilant and vigorous implementation of the rule is critical to its success.”

Dish Network CEO Charlie Ergen

“DISH Network applauds Chairman Genachowski and Commissioners Copps and Clyburn for adopting critically important net neutrality rules. The Commission’s Order is a solid framework for protecting the open Internet. The new rules give companies, including DISH Network, the framework to invest capital and manpower in Internet-related technologies without fear that our investment will be undermined by carriers’ discriminatory practices. While we wish the Commission would have gone further to expressly prohibit discrimination on wireless platforms, we are pleased that there will be ongoing Commission oversight and enforcement authority.”

Kyle McSlarrow, President and CEO, National Cable and Telecommunications Association

“Our consistent view has been that the current ‘openness’ of the broadband marketplace can be preserved while simultaneously fostering the innovation and massive private investment needed to ensure the future growth and vitality of the Internet. While we agree entirely with Commissioners McDowell and Baker that new regulation is not necessary to accomplish that goal, it has been clear for some time that there were three votes at the Commission for rules that would go much farther than those adopted today. Thus, the question before us has been whether rules could be drafted in a manner that avoids a raft of unintended consequences and that preserves broadband providers’ ability to innovate and invest in a marketplace that justly represents a great American success story.”

J. Scott Holladay, Economics Fellow, Institute for Policy Integrity

“Today, the FCC voted on a batch of tepid new rules. Some net neutrality protection will be provided, but the exclusion for wireless will create barriers to new start-up content providers and chill content innovation over wireless Internet.”

“The new but not-yet-properly-defined ‘managed service’ exemption may amount to the first step down a slippery slope of non-neutral Internet service. The exemption should be carefully tailored to address only a small number of special categories of applications that cannot operate under the existing open framework.”

“The FCC rests these decisions on shaky legal ground. Rather than invoke its more robust regulating powers, FCC bases the new rule on legal authority that was called into serious doubt by court decision earlier this year making the long term prospects for the rule quite poor.”

The Writers Guild of America, East

“A compromise means the parties to a dispute reach agreement. Here, no one has agreed to anything. These tepid rules will be challenged in court and in Congress, and they fail in the most fundamental ways – permitting paid prioritization and all manner of discrimination in wireless. Our members write most of what people watch on television and in the movie theaters and increasingly, online. Today’s FCC vote will diminish our members’ ability to create and distribute innovative content and audiences’ ability to watch the content of their choice.”

In my ongoing quest to follow the money, BoomTown showed up at the Palo Alto, Calif., offices of Jive Software last week to talk about its recent $30 million funding from Kleiner Perkins.

Its existing venture investor, Sequoia Capital, was also in the round, which brings the grand total of dough to $57 million, all dedicated to making Jive the leader in bringing social tools to the enterprise.

It’s probably too lazy to say Jive’s goal is to be the Facebook for businesses, but that just about sums it up–offering software for social collaboration in the workplace.

That includes communications, blogging, polls, sharing and other typical kinds of social networking features, trying to give workers what they already have easy access to in their personal lives.

That includes tapping outside sources people use–including a recent integration of LinkedIn profiles and Twitter tweets.

That’s no small business, but it is also one that is rife with all kinds of competitors, big and small, all trying to solve the problem in different ways.

It’s a big marketplace to win, of course, which is why Jive brought in CEO Tony Zingale earlier this year, part of a move toward an IPO.

He is a longtime tech exec, most recently as head of Mercury Interactive, which sold to Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) for $4.5 billion.

Zingale, who has moved Jive’s HQ from Portland, Ore., to Silicon Valley, has been trying to juice business, which is now 3,000 customers and 15 million users, and is aiming for $100 million in revenue run rate this year.

Zingale talked about all this and more in the video interview below, along with Kleiner partner Ted Schlein, who has joined the Jive board.

Here it is:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100820/jive-ceo-and-kleiner-moneybags-talk-about-socializing-business/feed/ 2 http://allthingsd.com/20100429/social-e-commerce-goes-into-overdrive-livingsocial-raises-another-14-million/ http://allthingsd.com/20100429/social-e-commerce-goes-into-overdrive-livingsocial-raises-another-14-million/#comments Thu, 29 Apr 2010 11:30:29 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=27847

Could the social group-buying space get any frothier?

Well, yes, it could.

After the recent $135 million funding of Groupon that valued the Chicago start-up at upwards of an eye-popping $1 billion, rival LivingSocial announced to today that it had raised a more modest $14 million in a Series C round.

The Washington, D.C. start-up had raised $25 million in a Series B venture financing only a month ago. And it raised $10 million on top of that since 2008.

Sources estimated the valuation for LivingSocial is several hundred million dollars now.

The newest round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners; Earlier investors U.S. Venture Partners, Grotech Ventures and Steve Case’s Revolution are also participating.

Ironically, Case’s former No. 2 at AOL (AOL), Ted Leonsis has been an early investor in Groupon.

LivingSocial said it will use the new pile of cash to expand to dozens of new markets, adding it was launching four new cities now: Portland, Orange County, Charlotte and Philadelphia.

It now operates in 18 cities across the country.

For those in Silicon Valley who do not consider these prices for all these social e-commerce sites high at all, BoomTown is here to tell you that in the real world the figure is not actually modest, except in comparison.

But LivingSocial will need every penny if it is to compete with Groupon and a growing spate of competitors in the local space, much as is also happening in the social status update arena.

The local outcome for most will inevitably be a sale to a big Internet company like Amazon (AMZN).

Or oblivion, especially since so many similar offerings makes the whole market confusing for both local businesses and customers

In general, most offer a daily deal with a huge discount on a wide range of products and services–from spas to skydiving–in dozens of U.S. cities, for large groups of potential buyers on the Web, through email or via social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Using social tools, the idea is use collective buying power to get low prices and push customers to local businesses.

If a deal reaches the number of buyers it needs, which can be in the thousands, these services sell vouchers to the consumers and collect a hefty fee for the sale from the businesses it sends customers to.

The plus for many small businesses is to get a crack at a lot of new consumers–think of it as social networking lead-generation.

This kind of thing has been tried before, of course, centering on consumers who group together to get discounts on items by purchasing in bulk.

In Web 1.0, there were many group-buying sites, most of which failed badly. One of the more high-profile ones, Mercata, received $90 million in funding from investors, including Paul Allen’s Vulcan Ventures.

No matter in 2010!

That’s due to the VC frenzy going on, spurred by winner-take-all theories–Groupon, for example, got most of its recent mountain of cash from champion Russian overspenders, Digital Sky Technologies.

However it turns out, here is LivingSocial’s official press release:

LivingSocial Raises $14 Million Series C Round Led by Lightspeed Venture Partners; Launches in Portland, Orange County, Charlotte and Philadelphia

Company Also Begins Offering Hyperlocal Deals in Seattle Area–Users Can Now Get Deals Even Closer to their Homes

$14 Million Round Comes on Heels of $25 Million Series B Announcement Last Month

Washington D.C., April 29, 2010–LivingSocial, the social commerce leader behind LivingSocial Deals and top Facebook applications Visual Bookshelf and Pick Your Five, today announced that it has completed a $14 million Series C round of venture funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with U.S. Venture Partners, Grotech Ventures and Steve Case’s Revolution, LLC participating. Because of the rapid growth, and high user demand, LivingSocial will use the capital infusion to expand into additional markets–bringing Deals to dozens more cities throughout the U.S. in 2010. This additional funding comes on the heels of the company’s recent $25 million Series B round announced last month.

“We’ve known and admired the LivingSocial team for a long time, and I have bought many of their terrific local offers. They’ve done an excellent job of growing their user base through smart media buying and excellent knowledge of social channels and virality,” said Jeremy Liew, managing director of Lightspeed Venture Partners. “With this financing round, LivingSocial is very well positioned to bring their great offers to even more people.”

LivingSocial is also launching its Deals program in four new markets: Portland, Orange County, Charlotte and Philadelphia. This brings LivingSocial live in 18 cities across the country with major plans to expand to dozens of markets throughout the year.

“We’re constantly receiving requests from our users to expand and launch in their markets, and this recent funding round will allow us to do just that,” said Tim O’Shaughnessy, CEO and co-founder of LivingSocial. “We’re really excited to introduce LivingSocial to Portland, Orange County, Charlotte and Philadelphia to continue generating huge savings for our users and even bigger returns for our merchants.”

LivingSocial users throughout the country saved an average of more than $32 each in March, and have saved tens of millions of dollars since the launch of Deals in 2009. By signing up for LivingSocial’s free daily online service, people are saving an average of 50-70% at their favorite places, such as the hottest local restaurants, spas, sporting events, hotels, and other local attractions.

Because LivingSocial wants to give consumers more availability to the program, the company is launching hyperlocal deals for the Seattle area. Now consumers in areas like Tacoma and Bellevue will start getting deals targeted to their location, in addition to Seattle proper. Hyperlocal deals not only help more consumers explore new things in their city, but these deals also provide merchants with a greater opportunity to reach local audiences on the LivingSocial Deals platform.

LivingSocial is now live in 18 markets including: Washington, D.C., New York City, Boston, Atlanta, Austin, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, the Twin Cities, Chicago, Raleigh Durham, Denver, San Diego, the San Fernando Valley, Portland, Orange County, Charlotte and Philadelphia. Dozens of additional cities are expected to roll out in the coming months. For more information or to sign up your city, go to http://livingsocial.com.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100429/social-e-commerce-goes-into-overdrive-livingsocial-raises-another-14-million/feed/ 3 http://allthingsd.com/20100426/viral-video-there-was-an-old-woman-who-played-with-an-ipad/ http://allthingsd.com/20100426/viral-video-there-was-an-old-woman-who-played-with-an-ipad/#comments Mon, 26 Apr 2010 08:15:34 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=27641

While I meant to get this up last week, if you missed it, it is still well worth seeing 99-year-old Virginia Campbell using an iPad.

To put things into perspective, in 1910, right around when she arrived on the planet, the innovation of the day was Thomas Edison demonstrating the first talking motion picture.

And, I can assure you, seeing this is a lot better than cats using the Apple (AAPL) tablet device.

This is apparently a first computer for Campbell, who lives in a retirement home in Oregon. She uses it to read and write gems like this limerick:

To this technology-ninny it’s clear
In my compromised 100th year,
That to read and to write
Are again within sight
Of this Apple iPad pioneer.

How can you not love someone who uses the word “ninny,” so enjoy the video:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100426/viral-video-there-was-an-old-woman-who-played-with-an-ipad/feed/ 2 http://allthingsd.com/20091120/almost-famous-elemental-technologies-sam-blackman/ http://allthingsd.com/20091120/almost-famous-elemental-technologies-sam-blackman/#comments Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:01:48 +0000 Drake Martinet http://voices.allthingsd.com/?p=18084 A new feature wherein All Things Digital looks at up-and-coming and innovative start-ups you should know about.

This week: We caught up with Sam Blackman, CEO of Elemental Technologies at the San Francisco NewTeeVee Live conference.

Elemental Technologies hopes to become a major player in the future of online and over-the-air video through its high-performance encoding technology.

Who: Sam Blackman

What: CEO and Chairman of Elemental Technologies.

Why: People want to watch live video on all their devices. Making a new version of a given video for every device is time- and processor-intensive. Elemental says it can replace up to five existing dedicated servers with one of its own, based on its proprietary software.

Where: @elementaltech (Twitter); company blog; Portland (analog place).

Who else: Sam says, “We’re the first-ever company to take advantage of GPUs for video processing,” but Nvidia (NVDA) is the key hardware player.

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Five Stats You Won’t Find in His Facebook Profile

Worst Job: Barista. Late for the Trolley coffee. It had this really abusive owner. He’d yell at us if we gave a half-pump too much flavoring.

Gadget of the Moment: Lenovo X301. It’s all about the keyboard.

Early Geek Influence: Jack Dudman. He was a neighbor growing up and was Steve Jobs’s math teacher at Reed College.

Wishes There Was an App for That: A really smart public transit app. Like one that knows where I am and can tell me which of the options near me I can go to, to get to my destination fastest.

Sport You Can’t Live Without: Ultimate Frisbee

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Bio in 140 Characters

Raised in Oregon. EE at Brown. Time at Intel, then Pixelworks. Left to start Elemental Technologies. Loves work, kids and Ultimate Frisbee.

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The Five Questions

Elemental’s products seem pretty hardcore geeky. Break it down for me.

The man on the street today wants to view video on any device at any time. The content owners of that video need to be able to format the video differently for each type of device ["transcoding"]. We make that process much cheaper. At the beginning, we saw that there was going to be a huge increase in the amount of video produced out there, but that it was hard to distribute.

Right now it’s really hard [lots of equipment and time] to create, say, 240 versions of every video [so that they can be viewed quickly on an iPhone and in HD on a laptop, for instance]. Four to five regular CPU [central processing unit] servers can be replaced by one of our servers with a GPU [graphical processing unit] and our software. That means far less cost for businesses and many more video options for the consumer.

Device variations are just exploding. How do you see the changing landscape moving your business?

I don’t see the number of video formats decreasing at all. Every company that [produces] a device wants to control delivery to it. No one is going to dominate the cellphone market. It’s just too big. You can get three percent and have a nice business. As long as that is the way the game is played, our products will be very desirable.

Why are you going to be the first software company to acquire an auto body shop?

That’s my dream. The way our product works is, when we take an order, we just submit the hardware request to Dell (DELL). They plug in a GPU. We take the box and add our software.

The funny story is that we wanted a more custom look, so we found this auto body shop in Portland that takes the bezels [rack server face plates], sands them, cleans them, repaints them and sends them back. They look beautiful, like tons of engineering went into it. Dell will do that for you, but its 20 grand, and we’re a start-up. That’s my dream, a company that doesn’t have any employees who drive to work but owns an auto body shop.

Every geek has a memory where they saw something new and had to say to themselves, “Dang, I love living in the future.” What’s yours?

I know exactly what that was. Turtle graphics. My mother put me in a programming class in kindergarten, and there was this thing called LOGO [where you could use computer instructions to make an onscreen turtle draw something]. I had an hour class where I figured out how to draw a square. I went home that night and wrote down on paper a program that would draw the American flag.

My neighbor had an Apple (AAPL) IIc that I used to input that first program. I probably stayed up all night as a six-year-old doing that and that was it for me. What a genius idea. I mean, kids love seeing results, and there were no visual results [from programming] for a long time. LOGO was the first thing where you could spend about an hour and get visual results.

What tech war are you watching most closely?

There’s a battle looming between Intel (INTC) and Nvidia, as Intel releases their own GPU architecture. We’re trying to be really well-positioned to benefit from that arms race of the FLOPS [the processing performance unit].

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The In Living Color Interview

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20091120/almost-famous-elemental-technologies-sam-blackman/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20091106/almost-famous-brizzlys-chris-wetherell/ http://allthingsd.com/20091106/almost-famous-brizzlys-chris-wetherell/#comments Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:05:01 +0000 Voices http://voices.allthingsd.com/?p=17309 A new feature wherein All Things Digital looks at up-and-coming and innovative start-ups you should know about.

This week: A video visit with, some questions for and a few pertinent stats about Chris Wetherell and his creation, Brizzly, a Web-based social media reader, one of many in the hot status update arena.

Who: Chris Wetherell

What: VP of Technology, Thing Labs, creator of Brizzly.

Why: Brizzly is a Web-based social media software client, for microblogging sites like Twitter or Facebook, expands attachments automatically and allows users to describe and define the trending topics for all its users to see. It’s in invite-only beta.

Where: @cw (Twitter); massless.org (Wetherell’s personal blog); San Francisco (HQ for Thing Labs and Brizzly)

Who else: TweetDeck, Seesmic, TwitIQ

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Five Stats You Won’t Find in his Facebook Profile

Worst Job: Assembly line at Fujitsu, making rack servers

Has a Geek Crush on: Mihai Parparita, Google developer in Boston

Gadget of the Moment: Roku’s digital video box. “It’s got Netflix, You Tube and TV. Damn.”

Wishes There Was an App for: The legal arena. “They need to, like, use a computer.”

Fails at: Anything related to email

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Bio in 140 Characters

From Beaverton, Ore. Dropped out of Berkeley. Got hungry as an indie rock drummer. @Google Reader. Left Google, invented Brizzly.

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The Five Questions

Why should I care about Brizzly?

It depends on what you’re looking for. If one of the things that interests you is how a large community is experiencing life–I mean really interested in the community and not just the idea of your friends–then Brizzly does that a little more easily than other things. [Brizzly's assets are] no small difference for those who are interested in it.

Why are all Twitter-related logos, including yours, so darn cute?

Yeah, we’re a little cheeky, right? I think it’s probably just because of a pendulum swing. I mean, the last thing [Thing Labs' CEO Jason Shellen] and I worked on was the exact opposite. Google Reader is not cuddly. It’s friendly, but cuddly it isn’t. The other thing is, we were hoping to try what strong branding is like–in terms of anthropomorphic animals. The bear design [was drawn by] both Jason and [Twitter Co-founder] Biz Stone.

What can we expect from Thing Labs and Brizzly three months out?

We will have at least three richer sets of experiences, some of which include entirely different products all connected through our letsbetrends.com API.

Every geek has a memory where they saw something new and had to say to themselves, “Dang, I love living in the future.” What’s yours?

One big one for me was at Google–it was my first day and someone says, “Hey, have they taken you to see the robots yet?” I was like, “Hahaha… No.” They took me to this building where there was a room filled with these Rube Goldbergesque mechanical devices. Large cages with metal bars and wires, culminating in this ball in the center. This girl climbed into the thing. She put her feet in these stirrups and sat in this weird chair, and then this book slides out. The girl started tapping her feet on this base drum pedal and doing this thing with her hands, and then the book slides away [they were scanning the books]. I was like, “What is this?” and they said, “Well, this is Ocean [the internal name for Google Books].” What struck me was the scale. It was clear to me that they were going to scan ridiculous amounts of information very, very quickly, and I realized: Whoa, THIS is very different.”

Are you really competitive with rivals?

I just don’t have that kind of fight in me. I mean, I want to kick my own ass. I know there are lots of guys out there who can totally drop the names of someone they want to just crush. I just don’t have it. I get more frustrated with me, more than anyone else. I’m like Jim Carrey in “Liar Liar”: “I’m kicking my ass.”

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The In Living Color Interview

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20091106/almost-famous-brizzlys-chris-wetherell/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20090421/would-microsofts-new-search-name-smell-as-sweet-if-it-were-named-after-a-cherry-or-the-sopranos/ http://allthingsd.com/20090421/would-microsofts-new-search-name-smell-as-sweet-if-it-were-named-after-a-cherry-or-the-sopranos/#comments Tue, 21 Apr 2009 18:03:40 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=12575

What’s in a name?

Well, a lot, actually, and BoomTown supposes it would be just like those Pacific Northwest types at Microsoft to name the new version of its search service “Bing,” presumably after the cherry that is a big product in the company’s home state.

That moniker is one of many being bandied about in a group the software giant could be considering for the big relaunch of its search service, which the company has been prepping.

Microsoft’s search service is currently called–zzzzz–Live Search.

“All About Microsoft” crack blogger Mary-Jo Foley of ZDNet recently wrote about the Bing name, which is registered to the company, as well as “Hook” and the one that Microsoft is using now as its test name, Kumo.

Kumo means “cloud” and “spider” in Japanese, which seems a wee bit esoteric.

Today, paidContent.org dropped “Sift” into the mix, although it seems to be related to mobile phones, along with “Swivel.”

I, for one, am feeling both like flour and getting dizzy at the thought of those names.

Foley at ZDnet feels the same, noting today in a post:

“(Would Microsoft be crazy enough to trademark its general Web search engine and its search engine for mobile with two different names, say Bing and Sift? As Windows Live has shown, truth can be stranger than fiction….)”

Microsoft (MSFT), of course, is keeping the name for its search service under tight wraps, but it is obviously going to be spending a shipload of money on its branding in another attempt to catch market leaders Google (GOOG) and Yahoo (YHOO).

Microsoft has been recently talking to Yahoo about a search partnership deal, although they are likely both to keep their brands and search products in any event.

Nonetheless, execs and minions in the know laugh at me loudly when I ask them to leak it to me.

(Note to anyone at Microsoft: Pretty please, someone leak it to me, even if it’s in the form of a memo from the leaky cauldron that is Yahoo.)

I doubt someone will, though. “It’s like Fort Knox secret,” said one Softie source, referring to the Kentucky fortress where the largest amount of the United States gold reserves are stored.

Hey, if Auric Goldfinger, OddJob and Pussy Galore could get into Fort Knox in that most excellent James Bond film, I can certainly find out the name of Microsoft’s search service!

Personally, I like Bing, and cherries from Washington state are indeed tasty (and coming soon too!)

According to the Heart of Washington Web site, its state’s cherries rate. Some fun factoids:

- Washington State produces more than 50 percent of all the sweet cherries in the United States.
- The Rainier cherry, which is yellow with a red blush, was made from a cross between two dark red cherries, the Van and Bing.
- Americans eat approximately 2.6 pounds of cherries per year.
- There are approximately 53 pitted cherries in one pound of cherries.
- The Bing cherry, which all cherries are measured against, was first developed in 1874 in Milwaukie, Ore.
- The Bing cherry was named after one of Seth Lewelling’s workers. The Bing cherry was developed by Seth Lewelling.
- Washington cherries are shipped around the world; the top three foreign markets are Canada, Taiwan and Japan.
- In 2001, there were 29,000 acres of sweet cherries in the state.
- The Washington cherry season begins in late May with some product seen at farmer’s markets. Commercial shipping begins around June 5, and will continue until mid-August. The peak of the season runs from June 20 to Aug. 1.

Plus, if Microsoft uses Bing, they could also rebrand their MSN online service, “Bada” and their email product, “Boom.”

Then, they can get Tony Soprano as their spokesman with the motto: “Bada Bing, Bada Boom, Notta Bada Algorithm!”

Or better still: “If you use Google, we’ll whack you!”

Now, that’s more like it.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090421/would-microsofts-new-search-name-smell-as-sweet-if-it-were-named-after-a-cherry-or-the-sopranos/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20080503/microhoo-the-odd-couple-meetings-led-nowhere/ http://allthingsd.com/20080503/microhoo-the-odd-couple-meetings-led-nowhere/#comments Sun, 04 May 2008 02:39:52 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/20080503/microhoo-the-odd-couple-meetings-led-nowhere/

After today’s events, I guess you could say Yahoo (YHOO) and Microsoft (MSFT) tried, holding a series of meetings about a possible takeover that ended up proving exactly how incompatible the companies were.

Kind of like Oscar Madison and Felix Unger, but not funny in any way at all.

Consider a series of meetings, according to sources close to both companies, that took place over the last several weeks, which finally came after Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer lobbed the Saturday stink-bomb letter to Yahoo in early April, saying he planned to go hostile.

That apparently prompted some movement out of Yahoo, which had been trying to avoid any kind of substantive discussions with Microsoft until then and had been spending its time looking for all sorts of semi-wacky alternatives.

Thus, according to sources close to Microsoft, a meeting on April 15 in Portland, Ore. (a state in which BoomTown said meetings were likely to take place last week).

At that meeting, Yahoo execs laid out the same case they had been doing for investors, a road-show presentation of the company’s growth plans to underscore its case for a higher valuation.

At the same time, Yahoo would not give a specific valuation for the company at that meeting, said sources.

But on a call with bankers and advisers from both sides on April 18, a big number was put forward by Yahoo of at least $40 a share. This was, of course, a nonstarter for Microsoft, which began plans for its hostile proxy fight.

As the deadline loomed on April 29, Yahoo sources said execs there wanted to avoid such a battle.

So Yang and Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock held phone calls with Ballmer two times that day to suggest ways to avoid a hostile bid and also a walk-away move by Microsoft.

They also suggested, said Microsoft sources, other kinds of deals short of a merger, including a search partnership. Ballmer suggested a face-to-face meeting the next day, on April 30.

At that meeting, which took place in Silicon Valley at Yahoo’s law firm, Yang suggested $38. He also continued to press on major issues like possibly problematic regulatory issues around the pair’s email domination and also suggested the idea of a search deal, like the one Yahoo had been discussing with Google (GOOG).

Finally, as a last-ditch effort, Yang and David Filo–who founded Yahoo with Yang while the pair were at Stanford University as grad students–flew to Microsoft’s home in the Seattle area today to meet at the airport with Ballmer and also Kevin Johnson, the main Microsoft exec who had been spearheading the deal.

It was, of course, the kind of meeting–just the key execs alone–that should have taken place months ago.

Ballmer suggested $33 and a plan to assuage Yahoo’s regulatory worries, while Yang countered with $37, a price the board had approved, even though both Filo and Yang wanted the higher prices.

Worst of all, Yang told Ballmer that, if Microsoft chose to conduct a proxy fight, he would not abandon pursuing the deal with Google to outsource Yahoo’s online ad business, which Yahoo could sign even if Microsoft made a hostile bid.

Such a deal with its archrival, Microsoft execs thought, was impossible to accept and could also be hard to unwind.

“There was not a lot more to say after that,” said a source close to Microsoft.

Yang and Filo left the meeting, but the die was cast. While they expected a counter, Ballmer instead lowered the boom in a phone call and sent a letter saying so in detail soon after.

Another Yahoo source who was told the details of the meeting agreed that even today’s meeting was probably a lost cause.

“There has never been a moment when there was agreement on anything,” said the source. “Can you just imagine how a merger would have been with this as a prelude?”

Indeed. Cats and dogs. AOL and Time Warner (TWX). Oil and Water. Obama and Hillary. You get the picture.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20080503/microhoo-the-odd-couple-meetings-led-nowhere/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20080429/microhoo-game-on/ http://allthingsd.com/20080429/microhoo-game-on/#comments Wed, 30 Apr 2008 01:29:09 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/20080429/microhoo-game-on/

While BoomTown has been wishing that it would not come to this–hoping Microsoft and Yahoo would wise up and actually talk, as many at both companies had been planning would occur in a neutral place like Oregon–it is more likely than not that Microsoft is poised to make a significant announcement tomorrow morning about its next move in its takeover battle with Yahoo.

What exactly that move will be is still unclear, but sources said it could come sometime after the stock market opens tomorrow.

While some are speculating the initiation of a proxy fight by Microsoft–as it has publicly threatened to do–to gain control of Yahoo, one person close to the situation said this: “I would not have said this yesterday, but I would not be surprised if they walked away rather than waged war.”

That’s another thing Microsoft (MSFT) has threatened to do too, along with lowering the price it was willing to pay for Yahoo (YHOO).

(The only thing its execs have not threatened to do is attack Yahoo’s Sunnyvale, Calif., campus at dawn on mounted steed– probably because they fear Yahoo will call in nearby Google as backup and Microsoft will then face its solar-powered, lava-lamp-throwing bicycle brigade.)

The only other options possible seem increasingly remote: That Microsoft raises the price by a dollar or two or that it announces it is in substantive talks with Yahoo.

BoomTown prediction: If Microsoft is not careful, someone is going to lose an eye.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20080429/microhoo-game-on/feed/ 2 http://allthingsd.com/20080429/microhoo-oregoing-going-gone/ http://allthingsd.com/20080429/microhoo-oregoing-going-gone/#comments Tue, 29 Apr 2008 22:46:11 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/20080429/microhoo-oregoing-going-gone/

The state motto of Oregon is “Alis volat propriis,” translated as “She flies with her own wings.”

One wonders if the state can help a Microsoft and Yahoo union fly.

According to sources at both companies, execs at Microsoft (MSFT) and Yahoo (YHOO) had been considering a plan to meet on neutral ground in the state that borders both California, where Yahoo has its HQ, and Washington, where Microsoft lives.

But today, there were also reports that Microsoft’s generals are about to launch its proxy warheads, as soon as tomorrow, with a new slate of directors and a plan of lightning attack to take Yahoo by force.

They shouldn’t.

Why? As BoomTown wrote earlier today, it would be better to avoid a bruising proxy fight or a public walkaway by Microsoft, and at least get some kind of substantive talks on track first.

I wrote:

Both options are unattractive for a number of reasons to pretty much everyone and, in BoomTown’s opinion, an excellent example of how juvenile this takeover battle has become (or ‘amateur hour,’ as one source close to both companies described it to me).”

BoomTown suggested the lovely stylings of the Napa Valley for such a meeting, which should include only Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. At the very least, it would be a good idea to leave the bankers behind.

If they do pick Oregon, here are some important factoids to know, all from Wikipedia:

State flower: Oregon-grape (since 1899)
State song: “Oregon, My Oregon” (written in 1920 and adopted in 1927)
State bird: Western meadowlark (chosen by the state’s children in 1927)
State tree: Douglas fir (since 1939)
State fish: Chinook salmon (since 1961)
State rock: Thunderegg (like a geode but formed in a rhyolitic lava flow; since 1965)
State animal: American beaver (since 1969)
State dance: Square dance (adopted in 1977)
State insect: Oregon swallowtail (Papilio oregonius; since 1979)
State fossil: Metasequoia (since 2005)
State gemstone: Oregon sunstone, a type of feldspar (since 1987)
State nut: Hazelnut (sometimes called the filbert) (since 1989)
State seashell: Oregon hairy triton (Fusitriton oregonensis, a gastropod in the ranellidae family; since 1991)
State mushroom: Pacific golden chanterelle (since 1999)
State beverage: Milk (since 1997)
State fruit: Pear (since 2005)
State motto: Alis Volat Propriis, Latin for “She Flies With Her Own Wings” (since 1987; This was the original motto of Oregon, but had been changed to “The Union” in 1957.)
State hostess: Miss Oregon (since 1969)
State team: Portland Trail Blazers of 1990–1991 (since 1991)
State father: Dr. John McLoughlin (since 1957)
State mother: Tabitha Brown (since 1987)
Statehood pageant: Champoeg Historical Pageant (since 1987)
State nickname: Beaver State

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