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Lego Buys Paul Allen's Zowie Intertainment
Cy Guy writes "Lego has announced that they are buying Paul Allen's Zowie Intertainment. Zowie's toys let you animate your own cartoons by tracking the movement of character pieces on a play set connected to your PC. Lego plans to integrate the Zowie technology into its popular Mindstorms products. No word as to whether Allen was selling his toys because of the sudden devaluation of his MS stock.
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This sounds really neat. I never made anything out of lego mindstorms, but I'm pretty impressed by any kid's toy that has a programming language, or allows you to build a scanner, a computer case, a Millenium Falcon, etc., etc.
In other news, a new subatomic particle was discovered: the legon. It turns out that there are many varieties of these interlocking particles, and they form the building blocks of reality, bonded together by duct tape. It is speculated that virtual worlds might be composed of pure legons without duct tape, presently referred to as "Zowie!" particles. Yow, are we virtual yet!?!!!
And if I hear anyone rant about the plural of lego being 'lego' and not legos or legoes or leggo my eggo or anything else, I'm going to stuff legos down their pants. (ha ha ha, a new slashdot trend!)
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
What is the deal with slashdot?
The site goes down for hours and NO reason is posted.
Story headlines are changed and no notice is given that they where changed.
Why? What has happened to slashdot? I have been here for a long time (User # 2xxx)
A month or 2 ago, someone on Lugnet posted scans of a newspaper interview with one of Lego's top brass. After losing money for a few years or quarters, Lego turned a profit last year.( after also firing 1000 people) :) Lego makes plastic toys, and has a couple of theme parks based on such toys.
Now, that's all well and good, but the thing that annoyed me most was his statement that "the goal is still to be the best known brand in families with kids (before Disney and Coca Cola) by 2005."
IMHO, as soon as a company tries to be known for its "brand" instead of its product, that's a sure sign of death. "Brand" promotion, such as what Nike and Sony do, only works with a diverse product line: Nike makes sport clothing, but many different types, same with Sony: they make everything
Just my 2 cents. Go Lego!!
Pope
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
Work up a chart of MSFT stock price over the three year period that this DOJ case has been "haunting" investors and major stock-holders like Paul.
I did a neat little overlay for all you Andover fans (ANDN). It's been a plummeting stone since it opened. I added on RedHat (RHAT), and it looks like the path of a Scud missile. Up to dizzying heights, then a fall back to its opening neighborhood.
Some of Paul Allen's holdings, as found on this site on www.friends-partners.org:
Paul Allen ranks as the third-richest American with a fortune estimated at $7.5 billion.
Paul Allen owns a majority stake in TicketMaster
Paul Allen owns a chunk of Egghead Software (150 stores), and PetSmart retail businesses (397 stores internationally).
He has holdings in StarWave, Dreamworks SKG, and Trilobye Software.
He has six acres on the not-cheap Lake Washington coastline, 60 acres on the lake closer to Boeing for a business site, and 385 acres for a "family retreat" on the beautiful San Juan islands near Victoria Canada.
He buys and sells companies weekly. I doubt the MSFT "slump" (gee, back to the December 99 price) affected his decision to sell off holdings in a small one-product toy company.
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I've seen these things on TV. They're basically fancy game controllers. Instead of hitting a combo of buttons to fire the cannon, you place a person by the cannon on the physical ship in front of you and that character is there. It can distinguish between different characters. You can use the wheel to steer the ship. Pretty innovative concept. Maybe Lego will make some sensors so you can design your own game or download plans and game files. Put it together and then play the game.
In the 2 days before the DOJ anouncement he gave notice that he was selling 4 lots of shares which totalled $1 billion dollors... that was before MS stock slumped over 15%
Looks like hes definitely cashing some of his chips.
Tech stocks are way overpriced and markets are due for a major crash. If you dont think the market is overpriced then you should go find a stock market book and read up on the teltale signs of an overpriced market
Tech stock prices are NOT based on fundamentals, sooner or later they will be.
Pauls done some really awesome stuff. Whoever took that jab at him in the article should really be ashamed. Transmeta is his, these toys were his, he has a kick ass movie theater, and has done tons for technology. Lets see some respect where it is due --jay
At least it's been so very entertaining as Slashdot/Andover/VA Linux fiddle while Rome burns: Today, Andover.net stock hit an all-time low since the day of the IPO, and VA Linux stock has now fallen 82% in less than four months. All the while, Slashdot pleadingly tells us how Microsoft is in so much trouble, and the desperate-to-be-a-geek-hero Jon Katz tells us how irrelevant Microsoft is.
Note to the Slashkiddies: It's a little hard to believe your arguments of Microsoft irrelevance (or that you even believe it yourselves -- your brave facade is fooling no one), if you didn't spend hour after hour jealously bitching about them.
"Open source, closed minds, we are Slashdot" - some truly insightful (+5) guy.