Jeopardy! Whiz Becomes Encarta Spokesman

Ant writes "BetaNews' story says Microsoft tapped Jeopardy! king Ken Jennings, who recently finished his 75-game run on the show, to become the spokesman for its Encarta product line. Jennings will embark on a nationwide media tour called 'Quiz the Whiz' that challenges news desks to stump the human encyclopedia with questions from Microsoft's Encarta Reference Library Premium 2005."

Comments

PC Encyclopedias

[javaman83]

Do a lot of people even use these anymore?
I figured by now, the internet would have overtaken these completely.

Trivia versus knowledge

[YetAnotherName]

If there were a moderation, "1, Cynical", I'm sure I'd get it, but seriously ... for all of the knowledge apparently amassed by Mr Jennings, there is still a difference between trivia and knowledge. And there is a distinct whiff of one of the most vile of odors: marketing.

Re:Trivia versus knowledge

[MyLongNickName]

still a difference between trivia and knowledge

But I'd be willing to bet there is a large positive correlation between the two.

Yes, I'd mod you cynical. There is no evidence to indicate Ken Jennings was a moron with a great memory. IN the two shows I say (other people's houses), he was quick with comebacks to Alex. I also understand he was an engineer.

And as for marketing... get over it. Ken wants to make some more money. Good luck Ken!

Re:Trivia versus knowledge

[NeoSkandranon]

You're correct. However trivia is knowing alot of little bits about different things. None of those bits are necessarily useful by themselves unless you're in a trivia competition.

Knowledge of a subject implies you understand it and can implement or apply, not spout a handful of factoids

Re:Trivia versus knowledge

[MyLongNickName]

I agree. But many of the comments seem to indicate no correlation between the two, or even a negative correlation.

I choose to be happy for Ken. I wonder why so many others choose to be envious.

Re:Trivia versus knowledge

[finkployd]

However trivia is knowing alot of little bits about different things. None of those bits are necessarily useful by themselves unless you're in a trivia competition.

Wow, I totally disagree with that. I have found that having some working knowledge in a wide range of topics is better (overall) than knowing everything about one small topic. Most of the people I know who focus with laser like intensity on one small field are complete failures at every other aspect of their life. And I work at a University, I know a lot of these people ;)

Personally, I am first and formost a middleware/security/cryptography geek, but I also get into history (specifically wars), economics (my major in college), music, biology, and other various topics that strike my fancy.

I certainly am no expert on these topics, I probably do not pass the level you would consider trivia. I do, however, consider my life greatly enriched by learning all of these little factiods and trivia. At the very least I do not feel lost if conversation turns to something other than middleware/security/cryptography. Which (suprisingly) happens a lot, people just don't seem as excited about that stuff as I am in normal social situations :)

Finkployd

Re:Trivia versus knowledge

[ratamacue]

I choose to be happy for Ken. I wonder why so many others choose to be envious.

I'll take a stab at that. You are part of the group that realizes that wealth is created -- not simply discovered and collected -- by those with the will and motivation to make it happen. The envious people are part of the group that thinks wealth has always existed, and the rich are the ones who simply got there first or took more than their "fair share".

Microsoft Still Publishes Encarta?!?!?

[Joel from Sydney]

Seriously? I thought Encarta died a long time ago. It was useful about 10 years ago, back in the days before I had net access.

Does anyone still actually use it?

gotta admit

[jwind]

He is the perfect spokes person... i mean sheesh, he swept the "beer and wine" topic one night-- and he's a Mormon folks. He's an information sponge.

Re:Wow...

[Deadstick]

I'm looking forward to spending lots of time with my family.

A. This many people have expressed an urge to "spend some time with my family" when not fired, under grand jury investigation, or pissed off.

Q. What is zero?

rj

Re:Encarta

[Anonymous Coward]

In Wikipedia the "problems" is being "fixed" all the time. Though, whether there is a problem or was it fixed, or a new problem is created is highly debatable. If you take you as a reference, sure wikipedia is great, but when you take yourself as a reference and start asking real questions, wikipedia has its own problems. Oh, don't get me wrong, I love wikipedia, but I am not the type to say wikipedia is the best resource out there and everything else sucks. On the contrary, Wikipedia has to work a lot to reach the level of Encarta and others. And of course we need more credible authors' and researchers' help, not your cheap propaganda.

Re:I wonder if Ken..

[sadler121]

Actually there are a many Mormon's (myself included) who believe in evolution...It's those fundamentalist Christians who are insistent on a literal interpretation of the Bible that can be the problem , not the Mormons (excluding Orrin Hatch he can goto Hell ;-) ).

Re:Stumpers

[isolation]

MessageBoxExA is not exported from Kernel32. It would be very hard to answer this bogus question.

Now you could say
Kernel32.dll has caused a General Protection fault in module User32:MessageBoxExA

Thanks
Steven

Re:Obligatory Jepordy answer

[corbettw]

What is the number of laws of cricket?

Atlas

[harmonica]

Encarta has the best computer atlas I've ever seen, though. That's the most valuable part, and I've heard of people buying Encarta just for that atlas.

Re:Wow...

[bobobobo]

Well he is LDS(Mormon) and one of the central tenets of the religion is family. Genuinely loving your family and wanting to spend time with them. He's being honest here, it is a classic answer any self-respecting Latter-Day Saint would give.