Strollerderby : Microsoft

Morning News - Mike Tyson's Daughter Injured

Brett Singer — Tue, 26 May 2009 00:37:00 GMT

This is a strange and sad story. Mike Tyson's daughter was found hanging by a treadmill cord. She is now in critical condition at St. Joe's hospital in Phoenix. According to reports, it was a "tragic accident"; the 4-year-old became tangled in the cord while playing. Tyson was not home at the time but has rushed back to join his family at the hospital, according to Fox Phoenix.

Wondering where the Guantanamo detainees will go if they get released? How about Italy? Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (who has accused of picking his nose and eating it) said that "his country will consider accepting an unspecified number of detainees from the U.S. military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba." Hey, I bet the food there is better.

I'm no business expect, but when I read that Microsoft is planning to name their new search engine Bing, my initial reaction was to say "wow. That's a horrible idea." We'll see if I'm right. The company that brought the world Windows ME and Microsoft Bob is planning to spend up to $100 million dollars advertising their new search thingy. Bing, huh? Oookay.

I thought this was already confirmed, but I guess not -- Mel Gibson's new girlfriend, Oksana Grigorieva, is pregnant. Look at that photo. Mel is looking really old. But still, you can see what a younger woman sees in him (money). I mean, seriously (money). What woman wouldn't want to date Mel (money)?

A chicago resident has died from swine flu, aka H1N1, or, as I call it, heinie. (Get it? H1N1? The 1's look like i's, sort of? And heinie is a funny word? Oh, never mind.) This isn't funny, of course. Just trying to add a little levity to the situation. This is the 12th person in the United States to die as a result of swine flu; the virus has killed 91 people worldwide. What I wonder is how many people die from other kinds of flu? That is, is swine flu worse or just getting more press? Regardless, I'm still stocking up on hand sanitizer for myself and the children.

And finally, I leave you with this: Congress and President Obama is still planning to "overhaul" the U.S. healthcare system, which basically sucks unless you have a good job. Even if you do, it can still suck. I freely admit that I don't know how to change it, but there are too many people walking around without health coverage and that can't be a good thing.

More tomorrow...

Image: Wikipedia

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Microsoft Says Computer's So Easy a Kid Can Do It

JeanneSager — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 17:53:00 GMT

It's supposed to answer all those Apple claims that PCs aren't user-friendly with the simple premise - Microsoft has made it so even a kid can do it. Does that mean the computers got easier or kids just got a whole lot smarter?

It doesn't become clear that the four-and-a-half-year-old taking a picture with a digital camera, uploading it, using editing software and e-mailing her shot off to her parents is an advertisement for Windows until the tail end. Considering they're signing middle aged folks up for college classes in how to use Facebook, maybe this is just the right approach. You might be completely computer illiterate, but your four-year-old can figure it out!

Except, parents - who, it can be argued, are more likely to tune in to commercials featuring kids - are more and more computer literate these days. At least the parents of kids whose ages fall in the range of the new Microsoft "rookies" commercial stars (four-and-a-half and seven). The nineties hinting that if you can't figure out your cell phone, you can always call your kid in to do it has been replaced - by those "kids" of the early nineties HAVING kids in the new millennium. Even so-called "older" parents are more likely to be computer literate; because while they were waiting to have children, they were working . . . in a corporate environment where computers are ubiquitous. I highly doubt President Obama called on Malia the first time he unleashed that Crackberry.

Of course kids in 2009 might be even more technologically savvy than their parents were as teens in the early nineties. Many of us wonder if our kids would recognize us without the glow of a computer screen forming a halo 'round our heads, and just yesterday my three-year-old grabbed the USB cord to my iPod and slipped it directly into the slot on the PC tower - no questions asked. Just like Microsoft's rookies, apparently she too is a PC.

If you've got a decent-enough handle on computer literacy, do you think your kids are gaining on you?

Image: Microsoft

XBox Writes Santa Letter for Your Kids

JeanneSager — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 14:06:00 GMT

Vista may not be Microsoft's biggest flub of the year. Hard to believe, I know, but a form letter generator for kids begging for their XBox this holiday might just beat the blue screen of death bombing operating system for the Worst Attempt At Being Useful Award.

To help convince doubting Thomases and Thomasinas that life without an XBox is a fate worse than having Mom pick them up from school in her PJs and curlers, Microsoft is letting kids choose their words from multiple choice drop-down menus. The XBox site lets them pick a recipient, a holiday (Festivus is on there for you Seinfeld fans), a means of celebration and list of four Microsoft products (talk about a monopoly). It even lets them clue you in on why they really deserve your major cash investment - ie. they've been "oder-free" all year long.

Ralphie's ode to his Red Rider BB gun this isn't. The results of my husband taking a spin to convince me he really needs an XBox (sadly, he's only half joking!) were amusing in that Mad Libs kind of way. But if one of these came from a kid, I'd be tempted to send them back to the drawing board to write a proper Santa letter one hundred times. Sorry kiddo, if you can't summon the passion to write your own letter, Mommy can't summon the $200-something it would take to bring home one of those babies.

On second thought, let 'em "write" it. A half-assed attempt on their part should earn them a half-assed attempt at holiday shopping, right? Coal it is.

Image: XBox (the husband's attempt at humor)

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Bill Gates Limits His Kids' Computer Usage

Patti — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 13:27:00 GMT

Microsoft king Bill Gates is just another dad when it comes to monitoring the time his 10-year-old daughter Phoebe and 13-year-old son Rory spend in front of the screen. Once the kids discovered the joys of the Internet and gaming, Bill and his wife Melinda laid the smackdown: a limit of 45 minutes total daily screen time on the Xbox or computer, extended to an hour on weekends, plus whatever time they need for homework. And he's got the much-vaunted parental controls on his company's new Vista operating system cranked up to full power.

Gates says he told his son he can control his own screens when he moves out. Ha! The rich really are just like you and me!

(via The Inquirer.net)

Canadian Kids Unsafe Online, Declares Report

Karen Murphy — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 18:32:00 GMT

I love Canada. I've been there three times, and was always impressed in one way or another. And somehow I've assumed that, because it's not Wal-Mart America, people in Canada are smarter than Americans.

Apparently, though, Canadian kids who go online are just as clueless and inappropriately trusting as American kids. In fact, in a new study conducted by Microsoft Canada and Ipsos Reid, a full 25% of 10-14 year olds think it's perfectly okay to meet in person someone they've only known online. (Pedophiles, take note.) And 70% think that whatever they send via Teh Internets is private (the Patriot Act has awfully long arms but someone needs to tell these kids about it).

Fortunately, this being in Canada, people are doing something about this situation, and beginning next month Microsoft Canada is beginning a program for kids and their parents to educate them about the realities of the internet. (Not that it'll actually do much or reach many people, but at least this way Microsoft can claim due diligence). For now, though, it's suggested that parents try to keep tabs on their kids when they are using computers, not an easy task when 85% of kids have access to the internet outside the home. Still, it's a good reminder that part of being a wise parent is staying in your kid's face, whether he likes it or not.