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TiVo Buys Super Secret Strangeberry
Raindeer writes "According to SEC-filings Tivo has bought a start up of Marimba-founder and Java-designer Arthur van Hoff. The name of the startup is Strangeberry Just because of their job-titles they must be building something cool Chief Hackberry, Chief Wiseberry, Chief Smartberry. The SEC-Filings show that it has something to do with delivering broadbandservices to televission. A Dutch web-log claims to have a picture of what they are building. Anybody got anymore ideas on what this could be?"
Inquiring minds want to know.
An oscillation overthruster
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Sound like a bunch of dingleberries to me.
Kastjes onder de radar
In een voormalige winkel in Palo Alto zit een start up waarvan de oprichters op een lauwe dinsdagmiddag naar Fry's Electronics zijn gereden om componenten te kopen waaruit ze deze vreemde kastjes hebben gebouwd. Ik denk dat binnen twee jaar iedereen met een DSL- of kabelaansluiting zo'n kastje in huis heeft. Meer mag ik er van de oprichters niet over zeggen, want die hebben de illusie dat ik er veel van snap en dus veel kan verklappen, een tragisch misverstand. Ze zijn heel bedreven in het 'onder de radar' blijven, maar intussen lopen bedrijven als Apple en Google de deur bij ze plat. Ik zie Philips of Shell niet zo snel audientie vragen bij een paar nerds uit Delft. Helaas.
English translation
-------------------
Boxes below radar
In a former shop in Palo Alto there's a startup whose founders rode to Fry's Electronics on a tuesday afternoon to buy some components to build these weird cases. I think that within two years, everyone with DSL or Cable will have one in their home. I can't say more from the founders, because they think I understand it (a grave misunderstanding) and can this tell you guys about it. They are very skilled in staying 'below radar' but in the meantime, companies such as Apple and Google are knocking at their door. I can't see Philips or Shell asking for an audience with two nerds from Delft. Pity.
look at archive.org (way back machine) at what they used to be before becoming vaporware :) click here
sorry officer, left my sig in my other computer.
...and apparently TiVo shouldn't company shop like that either. ;)
libertarianswag.com
And it only has 1 wheel! It will revolutionize the... the... the... well it will revolutionize something!
I would rather be ashes than dust!
I know god exists. I read it on the internet, so it must be true.
Damn, I hate it when the caffeine in my morning coffee hits all at once and I have these hallucinations flashing back to the '90's.
"Chief Smartberry"? - "They must be building something cool, because of their job titles"?
I thought the days of the dot.bomb were OVER!
Seriously - does this look like VC-bait to anybody else? I mean, I love my DirecTivo, but good hardware, good software and a good service do NOT equal good management decisions!
Like so many other things in this world, I will wait and see if anything meaningful comes out of this. Until then, I shall exercise a healthy skepticism on this matter.
www.eFax.com are spammers
Wasn't the strangeberry what all the Smurfs were after? I think that's what got them all drunk and lusting after Smurfette.
___ Shout Central - Crushes your nuts!
Looking at the picture, it looks like they make:
- Cable Modems
- Router/Hubs
- Breakout Audio/Video Box
- Those artificial flowers that dance when they hear noises
or some combination thereof.
--Stephen
Did you ever notice that *nix doesn't even cover Linux?
Strangeberry is... PEOPLE!!!
From what I can gather from Google, it seems one of their projects was a set of Java libraries designed to work with Apple's Rendezvous service. Here is a link: http://chrisheller.org/blog/archives/000048.html
But, I think this was only a side project... since it seems that development is now moved to Sourceforge: http://sourceforge.net/projects/jmdns/
------- "One of the joys of travel is visiting new towns and meeting new people." -- G. KHAN
It looks like a wireless reciever with something that may hook directly into your home ethernet, pulling media off of your home computers or the net. Maybe a media-centric version of WebTV?
There's lots of people working on these devices, maybe this company has created a nice interface for it? Maybe Tivo wants to purchase a company who has designed a device like this so that you can watch a tivo's playback on another TV without having to have an extra Tivo in the other room?
Hopefully this will be a killer app that will finally cause them to get bought out by a company with more clout, and get the Tivo system liscensed into more devices, making it cheaper and more affordable for me to get multiple tivo's :)
I used to work for a company whose aim was to build interactive television tools. Apart from the standard webmail/chat/TV guide apps, one really cool feature would have been to add information to TV shows.
Let's say you're watching some show, and see some really nice toy, or outfit, or you're in front of your favorite sports/team match, and want to have some player' stats, you click on the item/player and some web page with the desired info is shown to you
Information on demand for the user and a not so obstrusive yet effective ads/marketing scheme for the companies. this could have become the future of television, as more and more people are looking for real interactivity, and coupling TV for content and the web as a large databank would really reconcile me with TV.
At least that was the idea... What makes me think of it is the home network/broadband/experience words in the announcement.
Just because of their job-titles they must be building something cool Chief Hackberry, Chief Wiseberry, Chief Smartberry
....
...
...
...
...
JERRY: They sell them by the side of the road. Blueberry, Blackberry
GEORGE: Blackberry, Boysenberry
JERRY: Boysenberry, Huckleberry
GEORGE: Huckleberry, Raspberry...
JERRY: Raspberry, Strawberry
GEORGE: Strawberry, Cranberry
JERRY: Peach.
Free XBox, PS2
you make it look like the only thing Dutchies do, is smoke pot all day
well... we do, how else do you expect us to invent something called 'strangeberry'
interesting, Strangeberry created a java implementation of zeroconf, perhaps Tivo are looking at implementing a zeroconf network to share downloaded data with other machines on the network?
The name of the startup is Strangeberry Just because of their job-titles they must be building something cool Chief Hackberry, Chief Wiseberry, Chief Smartberry
"With a name like Smuckers, it's got to be good".
Why does logic fly out the window whenever some kind of berry or other small fruit is involved?
Jobs
Join a world class team. Build potent software. Strangeberry Inc. is looking for smart, independent people who thrive at startups. Here are some of our openings:
GRAPHIC / USER INTERFACE DESIGNER
Graphic designer with experience building interface for consumer digital media applications. Must be creative and a good communicator. Qualified candidates have 3-4 years experience with interactive design and typographic skills. Knowledge of Photoshop and Illustrator required. DVD / Game UI experience a plus.
APPLICATION ENGINEER
Developer with experience creating user interfaces. Must be comfortable with C/C++, Java, Windows and Unix. No VB, please. Qualified candidates have 4-5 years experience building applications.
KERNEL ENGINEER
Linux kernel developer with experience writing device drivers under x86. Qualified candidates have 2-3 years experience working on the kernel. Knowledge of framebuffer internals a plus. Codec experience smiled upon.
My guess, the whole business is about connecting the television to Intranet-based multimedia. What iTunes is to MP3, this system could become for movies, etc. I expect this to both schedule and maintain downloads of multimedia material, in particular from Intranet-based video channels. Mind you that Quicktime already partly implements video channels, so the step to paid video channels, and hooking them up to your television is not so far away. Given illegal copying of movies, the movie business is very much following the same fate as the music business. Pushed some further: DSL router to capture video data, stream it to a detachable, iPOD like video viewer. But then please: also put PDA and cell-phone features into it: away with cable salad and connector mess.
The best I've squeezed out of the online translators are these:Version #1: Near the beursgang with Mary scooter Dutch oppertechneut Arthur with Hoff ( center) once more: he and one's four colleagues gone they ultrageheime start-up Strangeberry, lodged within one store within Palo Alto, upon Tivo. The transaction vond yard worn 12 January j.l. solely Tivo bracht the novelty passport yesterday outward. Established in April 2002 wax Strangeberry yet 'pre revenues, like who thus pretty named towards perpetrate who yet act they technology within put forth. The hermit works upon one employment within the field with the station below. After With Hoff and Jonathan Payne yet sooner work together towards Sun and Mary, wax yonder between they one volume sping up what by the relative province more than projecting wax. Yet was a failure the sometimes inconvenient until pretty the activities with Strangeberry not with the daken within squeal. With Hoff is rightly the spite with the HIO within Enschede and the university with Strathclyde. Solely unfortunately who he one's succession achieves within Silicon Valley and one's knowledge and experience not within The Netherlands pitcher transmit.
Version #2: After the floatation of Marimba Dutch oppertechneut score Arthur van Hoff (in the middle of) again: hij en zijn vier collega's verkochten hun ultrageheime start-up Strangeberry, housed in a winkeltje in Palo alto, to Tivo. The operation took place on 12 January j.l. but Tivo brought the news just yesterday to. Opgericht in april 2002 was Strangeberry nog 'pre revenue', such as that this way nicely is called at companies which still busy its their technology to develop. The lords work for an application in the field of the posting below. Nadat Van Hoff en Jonathan Payne al eerder samenwerkten bij Sun en Marimba, between them a link as a result of which mutual environment more than, had arisen sticking out were. Already it fell sometimes difficult for friends shout the activities of Strangeberry of the roofs. Van Hoff is rightly proud of the HIO in enschede and the university of Strathclyde. Alleen jammer dat hij zijn successen behaalt in Silicon Valley en zijn kennis en ervaring niet in Nederland kan overdragen.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
It's always good to get a second translation for comparison. Here's mine, courtesy the translation software that comes with Apple's Sherlock:
Best I can tell, these oprichters are building some kind of kastjes.
I'm going to sign up as a beta tester -- I don't care how "strange" they are!
quiquid id est, timeo puellas et oscula dantes.
A Television Local Area Network, so you can view Tivo'd shows/movies anywhere in the house without having to have multiple Tivo machines (or cable boxes). About time someone recognised that TV is nothing but push media that can go across a network just like anything else.
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves
Looks vaguely to me like they're trying to put a Blackberry in your TV set. That's a logical thing for the TiVo folks to go after, if so. When I'm in the living room watching TV, it might be nice to be able to check my mail without firing up the laptop, as long as it doesn't involve any hardware or service that I wasn't going to have already (just got a TiVo).
Actually a company with a minimal number of employees, buying what is now cheap office space, and keeping themselves under the radar sounds pretty coherent to me. It's the start-ups that have hundreds of employees with millions of VC and they go blow it on stupid unessentials that you should worry about. Frankly, Dean Kamen couldn't keep his mouth shut. He was constantly bragging about "it". Of course, it all turned out to be a bunch of garbage.
What do you mean my sig is repetitive? What do you mean my sig is repetitive? What do you mean....
He will naturally supervise the merger process of the two companies.
First, the image is much larger than in the page.
Anyway... here's my thoughts.
The far left has RCA, SVIDEO, and Ethnernet. Maybe some way to output data over a network to RCA-based stereo systems, something like a PRISMIQ.
The middle device looks to be the same, except it has DV and optical in addition to RCA and SVIDEO. It could be another PRISMIQ-esque device, or it could also be something designed to go the other way too.
We can't see the back of the last unit, but I'm gonna guess it's something w/ wireless similar to the first two.
...and that's all there is to it.
Apple's Safari browser was one of the first to make use of the Rendezvous technology and, from what I gather, the most interesting thing it does is to enable local servers transparently (e.g. you can bookmark them, and you can make any computer around serve files). Open source browser Camino is also taking this route.
Tivo has expressed what Rendevous has to do with their plans:
This is just a collection of web-based info gotten through google. I may be seeing it all wrong, but the picture seems to make some sense to me. They are acquiring a company that brings something which Tivo intends to be a core offering of their system.
Quem a paca cara compra, paca cara pagará.
DVR vendor/service provider, TiVo, generated a fair amount of news at the recent Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas:
http://milkshake.dexy.org
I geloof dat I like those translators you have gebruikt. Grote chance that no hond er one reet van understands. :-)
"Honey, I feel a certain distance between us..." "Really? A 31ms ping ain't that bad..."
LINK: http://www.frackers.com/2004/01/24/000098.html
Translation Dutch->English
Tivo buys Strangeberry
Extreme-techie Arthur van Hoff scores again after his stock-exchange launch of Marimba:
He and his four collegues sold their top secret start-up Strangeberry, housed in a small shop in Palo Alto to Tivo.
The transaction took place on the 12. of January
but TIVO only disclosed that yesterday.
Founded in April 2002, Strangeberry still was "pre-revenue", as companies who are still developping their technologies are called.
The gentlemen are working on an application of the technology best described with this posting.(posting points to a story of Haupage showing on CES a box to play multimedia on a TV from your local ethernet/internet)
Van Hoff and Jonathan Payne already worked together for SUN and Marimba. They work well together.
It was difficult not to tell anything about Strangeberry to their friends.
Van Hoff is, justly, the pride of the Technical IT college in Enschede and the university of Strathclyde.
It, however, is a pity he'll make his accomplischments in Silicon Valley and the Netherlands won't benefit from his knowledge and skills.
I think it's a video on demand system where requests for programs are passed over the internet, but the actual programs are broadcast using the standard TV broadcasting network (Mpeg encoded - obviously.) That way, several thousand people can request a new film, but it only needs to be broadcast once. Less popular programs will be broadcast more slowly, or they may be sent over broadband. Tivo are needed for the recording / storing / replaying software.
Training monkeys for world domination since 1439
The picture on the page is much larger than you actually see on the page. Just insert the picture url into your browser for a much larger view (http://apollo.lunarpages.com/~fracke2/DCP_1976.JP G)
Marimba is an platform indepedant software deployment and management tool.
Think of it this way: Novell have a product called ZenWorks, which sits on top of Novell Directory. Now say Mr I.T. Guy wants to deploy Napster to his 3,000 users. He could go to each of their machines and install it (sure!), he could edit the global shared login script to deploy it (messy, I'll explain in a bit) or he can use a software deployment tool.
Lets go back the the batch script thing. Great idea, but what if someone logs in again a few minutes later - they try to get the software pushed across to them again. Or what if he only wants to deploy it to people within a certain department - or people who have existing software dependancies, or etc...
Novell's ZenWorks allows you to create a "deployment package", which is essentially a wrapper around MSI to call all sorts of clever silent switches so the user gets a seamless experience. The package then has deployment rules, which can be based on LDAP (so organisational structure), dependancies, time of day, etc.. etc.. it also has licensing reporting capabilities built in so you can tell how many licenses of every single software package you can have installed. In truth, its got hundreds of features that you or I may go "who the fsck cares"...
Marimba is pretty much the same thing - although its "open", yeah whatever that means! It also allows application deployment and management across server architectures as well as desktop deployment.
So, no bullshit I'm affraid. These sorts of tools are very useful to either large and/or decentralised IT departments. Other players in this space include:
* Tarantella
* Microsoft SMS (now outdated)
* Microsoft Active Directory Roll-out
* WinInstall
I think Tivoli from IBM may also do some of this as well.
There you go. Whore the Karma!
StrangeBerry is involved in a lot of networking projects, including UPnP and Java Port of ZeroConf.
Obviously this is going to allow for some level of interaction between your TiVo and equipment on your LAN, be it your router, your PC and/or your Mac. This could lead to an interface betweeen your TiVo and iTunes using Java. Maybe it is about pulling down content over broadband to your TiVo, though DRM concerns immediately come to mind. Maybe it is both.
Only time will tell.
These devices appear to be compact, next-generation DVR/cable modems. Note the USB and FireWire ports on the back, and the VCR-type controls along the top.
And here's a picture!
"Creativity is allowing ones self to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep" - Scott Adams
Their faithful leader, Chief SnozzBerry.
This was only posted by one AC earlier, but he had a good point: the device on the left appears to be SMC's Wireless Multimedia Receiver http://www.smc.com/index.cfm?sec=Products&pg=Produ ct-Details&prod=308&site=c
Heh, it even says "SMC" on it.
Karma: \Kar"ma\, n. [Skr.] (Buddhism) One's acts considered as fixing one's lot in the future existence.
Hi, I make the Dutch blog mentioned in the article. Just to get the story straight: the boxes in the picture on my site are similar to the ones that were featured in this week's PC World. See http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,114355,0 0.asp There's nothing secret about those devices: they connect your tv to your home network. As I understand, they were seen all over this year's CES.
The official Tivo statement says 'Strangeberry has created technology (...) designed to enable the development of new broadband-based content delivery services.' And as you can judge by the resumes of the Strangeberry guys (http://www.strangeberry.com/about), they are software specialists, not hardware guys. And just to be clear (as I am getting a lot of e-mail since your posting on Slashdot linking to my blog): I am not associated with Strangeberry in any way. I am just a friend of Arthur's, as I wrote on my English blog about this: http://mf.typepad.com/on_the_road/2004/01/chief_sm artberr.html