New York Times Columnist Nicholas Kristof Bashes Microsoft Bing

Posted yesterday at 9:00 am by Brian Miller

Don't even ask about the Dalai Lama.

​While several nice things have been written about Microsoft's new Bing search engine, including by his NYT colleague David Pogue, op-ed columnist Nicholas Kristof does not agree. In a scathing Friday blog post, Kristof accuses MSFT of tailoring Chinese-language search queries in Bing to censor sensitive topics like the Dalai Lama, Tiananmen Square, and Falun Gong.

Kristof writes that Microsoft's explanation, a software bug, "insults my intelligence and yours." He continues, "My hunch is that Microsoft simply has decided at a top level that it will compromise what principles it must to ingratiate itself with China." And further, "Now Microsoft is sacrificing the integrity of Bing searches so as to cozy up to State Security in Beijing. In effect, it has chosen become part of the Communist Party's propaganda apparatus."

Got a response to that, Steve Ballmer?

Topics: Business, Media, Newspapers, Politics, and Technology

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OMG! Jonas Brothers to Endorse Microsoft Xbox360!

Posted Nov. 20 at 1:30 pm by Brian Miller

The Jonas Brothers want...more brains!

​You know what? Let Apple have its annoying Justin Long and nerdy John Hodgman for those Mac versus PC commercials. Microsoft just upped the celebrity stakes by announcing that teen rockers the Jonas Brothers will be endorsing its Xbox360 videogame console.

The NYT and others are reporting that a new MSFT ad campaign will prominently feature the tween rockers. The spots are built around the catchphrase "It's more fun time." (Not something you could ever imagine Steve Ballmer saying.) Given that gamers are overwhelmingly male (not the brothers' fan base), it's unclear how the clean-shaven, Disney-created trio will connect with those who prefer Grand Theft Auto and first-person shooter games to bubblegum pop.

Unless, of course, a game can be developed that features the Jonas Brothers as evil, brain-eating zombies who, with the power of their their stupefying music, turn millions of preadolescent girls into their army of slaves. Oh, wait...

Topics: Business and Technology

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Hybrid Vehicles to Become Even More Annoying on Seattle Streets

Posted Nov. 20 at 11:23 am by Brian Miller

​As previously mentioned, our state contributed accident data to a recent federal traffic safety report that concluded that the Prius and other silent hybrid vehicles were striking a disproportionate share of pedestrians and cyclists. It seemed a cruel irony: Those eco-conscious Prius drivers might inadvertently cause harm to their fellow greenies. But now Chevy comes to the rescue.

As reported by Jalopnik, the Chevy Volt hybrid now comes equipped with a chirping warning signal drivers can flick to alert those who don't hear the car coming. Certainly this is better than having a motorist honk at you, which can be so startling to a cyclist to cause, not prevent, an accident. But to be serenaded with a gently scolding "Ping ping ping" sound every time a hybrid breezes by? That would be even more annoying than the redundant old Obama bumper stickers they refuse to take off. (Dude, we know how you voted.) So here's a tip to Toyota: Let Prius drivers download custom warning tones for bikers and peds. Or let them hook up their iPods. So when we hear the music of Yanni, we'll know they're coming.

Topics: Business, City of Seattle, Technology, and Transportation

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In The Race to Mouse-Click Their Way to a Charitable Payout, Eastside Moms Are Destroying Amputees

Posted Nov. 20 at 6:05 am by Mark Fefer

No, not that clicking.

​Clicks are the new currency in an Internet economy. We all know that. But it's never been more true than in the case of a charitable promotion being run by Seattle Metropolitan Credit Union—one that comes to an exciting climax today.

Seattle Metropolitan is going to give away $5,000 to a worthy non-profit organization—depending on which of seven finalists receives the most votes on the credit union's Web site. The potential winners include, for example, a group that prepares meals for the homeless and a scrappy theater company (Wing-It Productions).

There are no limits to voting. No registering or providing email addresses. You can just keep refreshing the page and voting again and again. It's all about passion and dogged determination.

So it may not be too much of a surprise which of the seven groups has managed to take a commanding lead.

Continue reading "In The Race to Mouse-Click Their Way to a Charitable Payout, Eastside Moms Are Destroying Amputees"

Topics: Business, Money, and Technology

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Terrified South Carolinians Will Be Ruled by Boeing Overlords Now Equipped With Lasers!

Posted Nov. 19 at 8:00 am by Brian Miller

Boeing now makes...lasers? Whoa.

​You want Boeing? You want those low-paying, non-union jobs building the new 787 Dreamliner? Well guess what else you get, South Carolina? Drone-killing lasers, that's what!

Bow down to your new corporate rulers, give them more tax breaks, or they will incinerate you with a device so fearsome they actually call it MATRIX (the acronym for Mobile Active Targeting Resource for Integrated eXperiments).

Seriously. Your terrified state residents will now be governed by the MATRIX!

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Topics: Business and Technology

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Howard Schultz Encourages Holiday Spending With Guilt & Bono

Posted Nov. 18 at 9:00 am by Brian Miller

"Bono, could I interest you in some Via?"

​You damn doves get off my computer screen! Banner ads on the Web are sending white birds flapping across our monitors to promote Starbucks' new Love Project. It's a co-venture with anti-AIDS charity (Red), which earmarks a portion of a customer's purchase to fight that disease in Africa. Thus, if you drop $15 at Starbucks, the company gives $1 to (Red) and gives you a CD featuring John Legend, the Dave Matthews Band (whose leader resides here), and U2. (You just knew Bono was involved, didn't you?)

We're all in favor of charity, of course, and SBUX CEO Howard Schultz is no doubt sincere when he proclaims in a company press release that the partnership has already paid for "6 million daily doses of antiretroviral medicine." Peruse the official Web site (which launches today), and you'll find other charitable spending possibilities, including $15 coffee mugs and water bottles carrying the (Red) logo, so others may note your virtue. And resurgent Starbucks, whose sales are flat, may benefit from increased customer flow.

Topics: Business

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Seattle's Proponents of Intelligent Design Celebrate a Successful Year of Ensnaring the Book-Buying Public

Posted Nov. 17 at 12:34 pm by Mark Fefer

Are you going to believe this guy? Or...

​Seattle's Discovery Institute, the nonprofit think tank that's become infamous locally and in national media for fomenting the anti-Darwin "intelligent design" movement, is crowing today about a successful year in selling (literally) its ideas.

Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design, published in June by Discovery Fellow Stephen Meyer (shown at right), has cracked Amazon's Top Ten list of science books of 2009. The list is ranked by customer orders through October. But the news isn't all good for Discovery.

Continue reading "Seattle's Proponents of Intelligent Design Celebrate a Successful Year of Ensnaring the Book-Buying Public"

Topics: Books & Authors, Business, and Education

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Irish Bookies Bet on Boeing Dreamliner to Fly First

Posted Nov. 17 at 12:08 pm by Caleb Hannan

Tony the Bookie will gladly take action on Boeing. After all, business is business.

​God bless the Irish. More specifically, god bless the Irish who think that nothing is too weird to wager on.

Paddy Power, the country's largest bookmaker, is now taking bets on which airline will be the first to get its massive bird off the ground, Boeing or Airbus. Although a union strike and production delays have pushed back its maiden flight, Boeing's 787 Dreamliner is still favored at 1-2 odds over Airbus's A400M military transport plane, sitting with an underdog's line of 6-4.

Logic says you're never going to make a good return on your investment by taking action on the heavily-favored Boeing. But logic's cousin reason also says that if you're gambling away your grocery money with Irish bookies, you probably have larger problems best addressed by extensive therapy.

Topics: Business and Money

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Nathan Myhrvold Threatens to Out-Alton Brown Alton Brown

Posted Nov. 17 at 9:00 am by Brian Miller

"First we cut ze duck very fine with ze laser beam."

​Former Microsoft executive Nathan Myhrvold granted The New York Times a rare peek into the Bellevue laboratory of his money-losing IP fund Intellectual Ventures. You like gadgets? You enjoy the culinary gizmos improvised by TV chef Alton Brown? Well the cherubic polymath Myhrvold is determined to go even farther. We've already written about his schemes to control Gulf Coast hurricanes and halt global warming with a giant space hose. But what about freeze-dried ice cream and essence of rose petals? How can they be monetized into patents?

Well, by writing a cookbook, of course! One that Myhrvold and a team of culinary mad-scientists are devising at Intellectual Ventures. He describes the effort thusly to the NYT: "It's basically like a software project." Only the manual—er, book—will be 1,500 pages long! And with characteristic modesty, Myhrvold declares, "There's not a chef on Earth who won't learn something from this." Do you hear that, Anthony Bordain and Mario Batali? It is on! And get a load of the high-tech arsenal Myhrvold is bringing to the battle...

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Topics: Business and Technology

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Alan Gottlieb and The Times: It's About $, Not Sleaze

Posted Nov. 16 at 8:15 am by Rick Anderson

​Self-professed gun nut Alan Gottlieb didn't like our profile of him and his forthcoming Supreme Court case, nor did Seattle Times editorial writer Bruce Ramsey. Gottlieb advises us by e-mail to make sure we read Ramsey's comments on SW's story: "This Seattle Times piece makes the point that I expressed to you when you called me. This is why I and so many others have a problem with your journalist ethics... or lack of them."

Ramsey's story, headlined "Shock! Alan Gottlieb makes a living!" informs me I'm a liberal journalist who doesn't pick on liberals the same way I pick on conservatives such as Gottlieb or Tim Eyman. "Journalists who disagree with these guys think it's deeply wrong and unfair that they feed their families by what they do," Ramsey tells us. "By harping on this, these journalists insinuate in their stories that these guys are just in it for the money."

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Topics: Business and Gun Control

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Consumer Frugality Reaches Disturbing New Extreme: Now They're Cutting Back on Video Games

Posted Nov. 13 at 10:38 am by Mark Fefer

​Limiting food purchases for your family is one thing. But you know Americans are feeling the pinch when sales of videogames start to suffer.

Data just released from industry analysts NPD Group indicates that sales of video games plunged several levels last month—down more than 16% from September, and down 19% compared to October of '08.

"Although consumers' general opinion about the economy is improving, their outlook on their own personal situation is worsening," according to NPD. But isn't that exactly when you turn to video games?

Maybe not, especially now that games like Wii Fit actually force you to exercise.

Continue reading "Consumer Frugality Reaches Disturbing New Extreme: Now They're Cutting Back on Video Games"

Topics: Business and Economy

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Howard Schultz, Would You Like Us to Have Fries With Our Order?

Posted Nov. 13 at 7:00 am by Brian Miller

Here's a thought: Make Starbucks "partners" wear clown attire. That won't scare away customers, will it?

​"McDonald's made us better." That's what Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz told a business conference in Palm Springs, California yesterday, as reported by Reuters via the NYT. He didn't specify in what ways, exactly, the overlit, kid-clogged, artery-congesting fast-food purveyor of corn syrup, salt, and sugar has helped SBUX. Indeed, the best Reuters could do was point to the cost-cutting Schultz has implemented since returning to his CEO post last year. Instead, Reuters reports that Schultz "said the McDonald's McCafe advertising blitz prompted many coffee drinkers to compare products from the two companies. He said that benefited Starbucks."

So recession-impacted Starbucks customers are comparison shopping the two chains and opting for SBUX on what basis exactly? Price? Service? The acrid tang of burnt coffee? Is there a clown metric? Schultz doesn't say.

As we've written, Starbucks' promising fourth-quarter results don't reflect increased sales but fewer stores and staff. The product mix is a different matter. Starbucks has a checkered history with adding menu items—like the Egg McMuffin-esque breakfast sandwiches that caused customers to complain about the greasy cooking smell—beyond coffee and finger food. But if the company is really serious about increasing its margins, maybe there are some other ways the McDonald's model could help...

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Topics: Business

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A U.S. Senate Committee Is the Next to Shine a Spotlight on Naveen Jain's Intelius

Posted Nov. 11 at 10:43 am by Nina Shapiro

Intelius founder and self-proclaimed Internet wizard Naveen Jain

​Intelius is facing more scrutiny. Next Tuesday, the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation plans to hold a full committee hearing on "aggressive sales tactics on the Internet." The kind of dodgy tactics used by the Bellevue-based Internet company are sure to be front and center.

Last week, Committee chair John Rockefeller sent letters to Intelius and 15 other companies seeking information about their relationship with several businesses under scrutiny for so-called "post-transaction marketing." (You can see a sample letter to one of the companies here.) We explained how this works in our cover story last March. Consumers buy something cheap from Intelius—like a phone number—and unwittingly get hit with ongoing monthly fees, sometimes from the company's marketing partner, Adaptive Marketing (a subsidiary of Vertrue, one of the entities under investigation by the Senate Committee).

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Topics: Business

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Auto Insurer Determined to Alienate State's Large VW Microbus-Driving Contingent

Posted Nov. 11 at 11:11 am by Brian Miller

"Man, how are we ever gonna get to the next Dead show without our favorite bus?"

​Not cool, man. Doesn't Allstate have any PR people on staff? Does the company not understand the value of good publicity or the harm in angry customers? Apparently not. After Spokane driver Michele Squires had her excellent 1965 VW Microbus stolen in 1974, Allstate compensated her $600 for the loss, as the Times reports via AP. Fair enough. But when the wayward bus (pictured at right) was finally recovered last month in Los Angeles, it had been exhaustively, lovingly restored, with a street value estimated at $25,000. Dude! It's vintage, a collectable!

So does Allstate, an Illinois insurance titan with a market cap of $15 billion, give Squires her van back—thereby reaping great publicity and earning the love of every VW Microbus driver in the state? No. Per the L.A. Times, the company is keeping the bus, because it's appreciated so much in value. Now it can be sold at a profit. But not to Squires, who works at a Chinese restaurant in Spokane, since it's now beyond her budget. So instead of earning a little corporate goodwill, Allstate has now pissed off every VW Microbus owner in Washington state. Which, the way we calculate it, is half the voters who supported Mike McGinn.

Topics: Business

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Olympia Legislators: Screwed No Matter What They Do on Labor Issues

Posted Nov. 11 at 10:08 am by Mark Fefer

Being a donkey has its challenges.

​Managing the conflicting agendas of labor and business—both of them critical campaign contributors—is always a contortionist exercise in the state legislature. But it's likely to be even more uncomfortable in the state house this coming session.

As today's Seattle Times reports—echoing stories that have been in the media all year—there's been a major falling-out between the usually-cozy state Democrats and labor unions. Labor donations to Democratic caucus PACs this year are "a fraction of years past," says the Times.

What the Times, strangely, doesn't mention at all is why this a particularly awkward time for labor to be throwing its weight around.

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Topics: Business, Campaign 2009, and Politics

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