Day: January 3, 2007

I’ve seen the meme for a few weeks now. During the holiday week, Ken tagged me. So, five things about me you probably didn’t know.

1. Kaboom
The Activision game Kaboom for the Atari 2600 was the first video game (there are only two) where I actually felt competitive. I scored 3,000 at one point, and took a picture of the screen to earn myself a T-shirt. I never sent in the photograph (it’s in a box in the garage, I think), so I never received the “earned” T-shirt. If your gaming memory doesn’t include this classic, you can play a Flash version of the game right now: Kaboom. (I’m not much good anymore.)

2. Cabal
Shhhh… don’t tell my parents! During my first year of college, I finished the video game Cabal. My roommates and I often stopped by the arcade room in the basement of the dining hall, and I got to the point where I could spend waste a full 25 minutes on a quarter, finishing the game. The standup game had the trackball, fortunately. I never played the game on a computer or console.

Hmmm… two video game notes. But I’ve never gotten hooked on PC games or bought a console since the Atari 2600. Moving on…

3. 20/20
No, not the TV show: eyesight. I started wearing eyeglasses at age six. I was thrilled to start wearing contact lenses in seventh grade. I got lazier during college and thereafter, switching back and forth between glasses and contacts. But I haven’t worn either for more than five years. Thank you, Lasik. I hesitated for years, asking my optometrist just about every annual appointment. When I finally took the plunge (here), I was only upset I waited so long. I’ve slipped a bit since the surgery (can’t fight aging), but I was 20/20 for a while.

4. Hockey
I covered the varsity hockey team for the college paper for one season. It was only two years after Harvard won the national championship, so the hockey team was the most popular spectator sport. The team wasn’t nearly that strong any more, but expectations remained high. You can read my reports and columns on the Crimson website, which (to my amazement) has everything online going all the way back. Click on the “Sports” tab to see most of my stories.

On the technology front, my reporting entailed writing articles from the road on a TRS Model 100 and using the 300 baud modem. I did dictate the articles a few times, too. Feeling old school now…

5. I demo’ed for Bill Gates
I have proof, in the form of a videotape (remember those?). Of course, the VCR is shaky, and I have no equipment to transfer this to YouTube or your favorite video-hosting service. So you’ll have to harken back to October, 1997, when Internet Explorer 4.0 was released. A key feature of IE 4.0 was supposed to be Active Desktop channels, which brought pieces of web functionality to your desktop. (Hmmm… nearly 10 years later, how far have we really come?)

Snap.com (not the current one, the first one) was fresh out of the gate. So, being part of the IE 4.0 launch was a big deal for Snap. The channel was jury-rigged demoware, but we hustled to be part of the event… with several dozen other companies spread around Fort Mason, too.

My role? Demo boy. For the random folks (press, other companies with channels) wandering around, I’d show them the channel. Part way through the evening, Bill Gates was wandering around, and Tom Melcher buttonholed him to show him the channel. Tom did the talking, and I was the keyboard jockey. Never spoke a word, and the whole thing lasted maybe three minutes.

The fun part? Because CNET was there, with video cameras and (most important) bright lights, someone smart on the CNET camera crew followed Bill Gates over, turned on the lights, and drew a crowd to the demo.

Like moths to the flame… it was all the bright lights, not my demo.

(Anyone have the equipment to transfer VHS to a digital file?)

Next…

Since chain letters memes are meant to be shared, I’m tagging Dennis, Vin (personal blog?), David, Matt, and Stephen.

I might follow Narendra’s suggestion, but for now… 24:30 run to work this morning, returning home on my bicycle.

Yesterday was the first day of the new Wall Street Journal. Mostly, the changes focused on the print edition, which got smaller, physically. While the change was initiated to save $18M a year in newsprint costs, I think the end result is attractive and useful, mostly because it’s better in the hand and on the eyes.

Amusing part: yesterday’s edition included an eight-page guide to the new paper. It’s still a newspaper. It doesn’t require a manual. I do understand, of course, that this guide was the largest part of a very extensive marketing campaign the WSJ has been doing for months to convince its readers and advertisers that this shift is in their best interests, not simply a response to the financial requirements of the new size.

One day of handling the paper, and I’m convinced. Not because of the marketing, but because it’s easier to hold and read. Simple as that.

I rarely open Money & Investing, so the continued move of stock tables to the Internet, which helped them trim the size, was of little value to me. Note: the paper started this transition 18 months ago. I do wonder if their new Markets Data Center (note: wsjmarket.com is a typo landing page already) will gain much traction against Yahoo Finance and even the Dow Jones sister site MarketWatch.com. But it hardly matters in the short term, as long as they keep their print subscribers happy and gain a few online subscribers (paid) along the way.

I’m curious to know whether advertisers are paying the same rates for the reduced real estate or not.