Our friends Jeff & Paige Diecks welcomed their little one into the world on Friday. Jeff and I have been commiserating at work about preparing for our babies, now we can commiserate about lack of sleep. Woohoo! Mom and baby Avery Lane Diecks are doing fine, and should be home Sunday. She is 5 pounds, 8.8 ounces and 18 inches long. She arrived on Friday, April 29 at 5:48 p.m, not long after Amy and I finished a visit to our peditrician just around the corner from the hospital where little Avery was born. We’d have brought in some Abit and etouffe if we’d only known!
Turner Announces GameTap Broadband Service
Woooo doggy! My employer, Turner Broadcasting, took the wraps off a project which has been in the works for around two years, the broadband gaming service dubbed GameTap. Following the model which has created robust businesses from archival content like Cartoon Network and Turner Classic Movies, GameTap will be a subscription service allowing users to play hundreds or even thousands of game titles, going all the way back to early arcade classics. Reuters has this quote from my coworker Blake Lewin who created this product:
“We have a brand new network … but Turner’s in the same business it’s always been…We want to program games as if they were TV shows.”
The service will leverage the same infrastructure built by the team I’ve been working with here for years – serving CNN.com, SI.com and NASCAR.com.
In a world where new game titles are often known years in advance of their release, this skunk works project has been in development for over two years, with nary a leak, despite a team of more than 100 members.
Coverage around the web today:
Gametap’s Press Release is here.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution (registration req.)
Gizmodo has a brief as well.
PaidContent.org brief here.
Reuters story on the announcement
Kenny Bunch Programming Tidbits roundup.
Jesse Warden’s Blog sorta gets it.
New York Post coverage.
Hollywood Reporter coverage.
Red Herring report here.
Tiger Geekery
Apple’s new OS, codename Tiger, ships this coming Friday. I’ve seen it in action here and there, and word is that it’s a tremendous improvement. It includes features for my Mom (ie – visually impaired assistance improvements). But this recap looks at 50 random features of the new OS any geek would love to know. Read on.
JibJab’s Passover Shtick
Meant to post this yesterday, but little Sam kept us busy. The folks over at JibJab.com (you know, the guys who created the ‘This Land is Your Land’ piece before Election 2004?) have created a new animated film, this one titled ‘Matzah – Hip Hop Fo’ Hebrews.‘ Featuring a Jewish rapper who looks and sounds a lot like Eminem, this is a must-see before the first Seder tonight. And remember ‘Let my peeps go!’