- Microsoft should have seen this coming, but it predictably
did not. The tech giant has seen sluggish sales of its Surface tablet and in an attempt to
reverse that trend, it will begin selling the devices to large businesses
through resellers like CDW Corp. Targeting corporate customers may improve
sales, but only until customers realize that those slickly marketed tablets
still run the world’s worst operating system. Even if one factors in Microsoft’s
new AppsForSurface program to provide corporate software makers with devices
and funding to get them to adapt their programs to Surface, there is still the challenge
of overcoming the ever-crappy Windows operating system. So far, Citrix Systems
Inc. and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Co. have signed up for the new
program, Microsoft said in a blog post. Along with reaching out to corporate
customers, Microsoft is trying to broaden the audience to include education
consumers as well. The Surface has been on the market since October and
Microsoft sold 900,000 of the tablets in each of the fourth and first quarters.
Many industry observers projected that sales figures would easily reach seven
figures in the December quarter alone and some had even placed that number as
high as 2 million units. Microsoft also expected higher numbers, but didn’t put
an official number on the effort. It also has not disclosed how many Surface
units have been sold. What it did reportedly do is place an initial order for 3
million devices from the manufacturer and now it has an abundance of unwanted
tablets to deal with. Combine that with a tough time finding find groups and types
of customers who may be good targets for the Surface devices and Redmond, we
have a problem. Even last month’s announcement of a price cut to $199 from a
$499 starting price for schools purchasing the Surface RT model directly from
Microsoft seems to have done little to jump-start sales……..
- How does an actor say goodbye to a movie franchise that
has been one of the biggest parts of his career for several years? With a
YouTube cover of a six-year-old viral video tribute to hobbits, of course. That
is precisely how Orlando Bloom said goodbye to his role as Legolas in
director Peter Jackson's “Hobbit” trilogy. Bloom wrapped filming on his scenes
in “The Hobbit: There And Back Again,” the third film in the trilogy, and
celebrated by singing along to the 2007 viral hit video “They Are Taking The
Hobbits To Isengard.” Jackson worked in tandem with Bloom for the
tongue-in-cheek salute to the Legolas role and posted the video to YouTube,
where it too went viral and amassed more than 2.2 million hits by the end of
the weekend. “A day after saying goodbye to Gandalf and Tauriel, it was time to
farewell Legolas. What a great day it was, with Orlando battling a serious Orc
for all 12 hours of shooting - part of the Battle of the 5 Armies for the third
Hobbit movie,” Jackson wrote in a Facebook post with a link to the video. “When
we finally got the day done, we said goodbye to Orlando, had a couple of beers
... and couldn't resist doing this [the video]!” Jackson has been saying
goodbye to a few members of his original “Lord Of The Rings” cast in recent
days and said goodbye to Ian McKellen after the actor wrapped up filming his
scenes as Gandalf for the “Hobbit” trilogy on Friday. “The Hobbit: An
Unexpected Journey” was released in December last year and took over $1 billion
at the box office worldwide. The second film in the series, “The Desolation Of
Smaug,” hits theaters on Dec. 13, to be followed by the finale, “There And Back
Again,” in December 2014. Jackson originally set out to adapt JRR Tolkien's
classic novel over two movies, but decided last year that three movies worked
better………
- The ladies of Femen are at it again. This group of
man-hating crusaders has developed a reputation for taking off their tops to
make political points and their latest round of disrobing has put them at odds
with the Tunisian court system. Three Femen members -- one German and two French – have been released
by a Tunisian court after staging a topless protest in Tunis last month against
the Islamist-led government. The move could be a not-so-subtle attempt to
appease the European Union, Tunisia's main economic ally, following outrage
that the trio had been sentenced to four months in jail for indecency earlier
this month for their May 29 protest to call for the release of fellow activist
Tunisian Amina Tyler. The protest failed to achieve its stated goal, as Tyler remains
in custody, awaiting trial. She was arrested in Kairouan on May 19 for daring
to hang a feminist banner from the wall of a mosque and attempting to flash her
rack to the assembled faithful. Her display took place on the same day that the
Islamist Ansar al-Sharia group held a rally in the city that authorities tried
to ban. France, Germany and the European Union all expressed outrage over the jailing
of the three Femen-azis and urged the Islamist-led government to reform its
laws on freedom of expression. "The court sentenced these three activists
to four months suspended jail terms... (the) women would leave Tunisia as soon
as possible,” said one of the activists’ lawyers, Souhaib Bahri. Eyewitness
accounts confirmed that the women left the prison of Manouba late at night
after Marguerite Stern and Pauline Hillier of France and Josephine Markmann of
Germany apologized at a court appearance earlier in the day. "I didn't
think it was going to shock Tunisians to that extent. I would never do it
again. We want to return to our country and our loved ones," Hillier said.
Femen’s previous protests have mostly taken place in Europe, with the majority
to speak out against Russia's detention of the all-female Pussy Riot punk band
last year. Tunisia’s new government drew their ire because hardline Islamist
Salafists are seeking a broader role for religion that critics believe could
undermine individual freedoms, women's rights and democracy…….
- Some former NFL players aren't too fired up about how
the league – or its current players – treat them. Their complaints could come
across as bitter old dudes complaining about the world the way many old people
do regardless of their profession, or as the jealous mumblings of men angry
that the league they played in for a relative pittance now rewards even mediocre
players with seven-figure salaries. Retired
Green Bay Packers tight end Gary Knafelc is one of those angry former
players and the 81-year-old has a rather pointed take on how the NFL and its
players' association view he and his fellow former players. According to
Knafelc, the NFL and NFLPA hope that players who retired before 1970 die off so
they don't have to worry about helping those who are struggling physically. Knafelc
retired in 1963 after 10 seasons and shared his theory in an interview with a
TV station in Green Bay late last week. He explained that he is disappointed by
the response to requests for help he has made on behalf of fellow retirees who
are struggling. "We don't have a voice, and I really believe the reason
that we don't have a voice is that they're hoping that if we keep dying off at
the rate we are, we'll be all dead and they won't have to worry about
anything," he said. "I'm not kidding at all. I'm very serious about
that." In Knafelc’s world view, the NFLPA only cares about current players
and those who retired after 1970. "The ones that played prior to that,
they've kind of just forgotten entirely," he added. Over the years, he has
maintained ties to the game, including serving as the public address announcer
at Lambeau Field from 1964 until 2004. He claims that he has been told that
injuries suffered by players of his era "happened too long ago” for anyone
to do anything about it……..
- The United States Postal Service has rarely impressed
anyone with its efficiency. Fewer people are mailing letters and postcards
these days, so the feeling of receiving something other than a bill or a
birthday card from grandma in the mailbox is an unusual one – just not as
unusual as the feeling Duluth, Minn. resident Tyler Scouton had last week
when he headed out to the mailbox at his home on West 9th Street and found a
postcard dating all the way back to 1945. “I look at the back, and it looked
modern, it looked new. The name on there was somebody else’s – Ms. T.
Gorkoski,” Scouton said. He and his special lady friend Kelly Mullan assumed
the postcard was a hoax or some cleverly designed ad based on a vintage theme. “People
try and do advertising campaigns that are intentionally vague, so that you’ll
have to go online and find out what’s what,” Mullan said. However, the date
stamp on the postcard showed it to be anything but a slick, modern ad. The
postmark featured a picture of a World War II-era submarine, the U.S.S.
Cuttlefish, and was dated April 23, 1945. A personal message was handwritten on
the back of the card: “Hi, folks! So far I’ve survived two weeks of boat
training. Boy Scout camping was more rigorous than this. The Navy might be
alright, but not for civilians. The confinement is bad. – Len.” It was addressed
to Ms. T Gorkoski, 117 W. 9th St., Duluth, MN, but Scouton had no idea who that
was. He and Mullan scoured family trees, census reports and the
deed for his house, eventually learning that Mrs. Gorkoski, or Sophia, was the
wife of Thomas Gorkoski, who bought Scouton’s house in 1915. “So I ended up
coming up to here [on the deed and found] Thomas Gorkoski and Sophia, his wife,
and I’m like ‘that’s it! I found it,’” he said. The man who wrote the postcard
message was Leonard Alexander Nesgoda, Sgt. 1st Class for the U.S. Navy,
trainee on the U.S.S. Cuttlefish at the Naval Station in Great Lakes, Ill. He
lived next door to the Gorkoskis. Scouton and Mullan are now seeking the
postcard’s rightful owners, or at least descendants, because Nesgoda and the
Gorkoskis have died. They have even set up a website for the postcard………
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