I found this quote on The Register from Intel’s VP and Director, Digital Enterprise Group, Steve Smith, really tickled my funny bone:
“Having enthusiasts play with our parts is our goal here…”
No offense, Steve, but I have no desire to “play with your parts”. Hopefully, Steve has a good sense of humour.
I think this quote probably came in the context of Intel’s “Viiv” platform, which I understand to be intended to standardize/simplify use of Intel products in home entertainment devices. It isn’t a new technology in and of itself, at least I don’t see one: it’s more like a recipe. Take a Core Duo/Quad core, chuck in some audio and video, and add a funky remote, pay Intel so you can put a sticker on the box- presto, Viiv.
To me, Viiv looks a lot like the Microsoft Origami thing from a year or so ago- a platform standard, not a product, and frankly that’s hard for me (and probably others) to get excited about. Intel has some promotional things going on to generate some buzz around Viiv. For example, they had a competition for companies/people to submit system designs using the Viiv platform specifications. The winner doesn’t look bad, but what’s up with the beige second place finisher? Sorry, but that thing is uggggleeee.
Ah well…at least there are *some* techno-gadgets that are interesting: for example, a snazzy looking new USB microscope.
Okay, first we had the “iMac” which led to the “iPod” and now “iEverything”
Now along comes the Nintendo “Wii” and now we see Intel “Viiv” …
So soon everything will have double lower case i’s in it? Maybe Microsoft should have named it’s new operating system “Viista” 😉
Ii thiink doubliing the Ii’s iis useful for creatiing trademarks.
Brrr…okay, enough of that. But I don’t think there are many English language words that have two adjacent letter “i”s, so maybe this makes such words easier to trademark.
Hopefully it isn’t a trend that becomes too wide-spread, though. I actually find the doubled Is to be more irritating than the e-This and i-Thats.