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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."
Do a lot of people even use these anymore?
I figured by now, the internet would have overtaken these completely.
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!
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
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.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
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
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.