Category: In the News

celebrity voices for car navigation systems

This isn’t a new thing, but it’s the first I’ve heard of it.  One company is now offering celebrity voices as an add-on to your in-car navigation system.  The first ones chosen were Mr. T, Burt Reynolds, and Dennis Hopper.  They didn’t get a great review in this article, so perhaps the company didn’t do enough with them.  I could think of some really cool uses for their voices, but, as “real life” tends to interfere with what would be cool, some people would get offended and want to sue, so they probably have to limit what can be done.  Maybe they should offer some different rudeness settings, from “Bring It!” to “Please be gentle because I’m a wuss”.  Then again, my idea of settings to be politically correct wouldn’t be politically correct.  *sigh*

This second article explains why having your navigation system joke with you and use unusual accents is bad.  This is obviously overreacting, as long as the celebrity voices are optional.  People can use them if they can handle it.  If it doesn’t work for them, use the standard boring voice.  I tell ya, some people are just looking to get offended, even on others’ behalf.  *sigh*

In the latter article on being offended, someone said:

Even though we all realize that a car’s navigation system is a computer, our brain still responds to anything speaking to us as if it were a person.

Really?!?  Are you sure?  I think that’s stupid.  Because my wife’s vehicle has a navigation system in it, and I never confuse it with a person.  Nor do I treat it as a person.  Actually, I usually either ignore it or turn it all the way down, because I’m a man and don’t need directions!  🙂  But if it sounded like Mr. T, I would listen to it for the humor effect.

I don’t know who these people are that confuse a computer with a real person.  If this actually happens, there shouldn’t even be verbal directions, because they might think someone is in the car with them, and so they might panic and run off the road.  I know, that sounds silly, but so does their premise of confusing the voices.  And if you’re going to account for the possibility of human stupidity, then there’s a LOT of scenarios to consider.

Here comes X-Guy to save the company!

There’s this company called Acxiom that has created a new mascot for marketing purposes.  They are calling him X-Guy.  (It used to be X-Man, but that was probably too close to lawsuit territory.)  Anyway, on the company homepage, there’s a flash video where he appears to rescue a marketer who is sitting at his computer in a cubicle.  If you’re thinking that sounds lame, you would be right, but that’s what makes it amusing.

While I normally applaud the use of humor by corporations and other professional groups, I’m thinking this particular methodology probably isn’t the best marketing strategy for a company that is in the information technology (IT) sector.  This is a company with $1.4 billion in annual revenue, yet this is how they are promoting their “X” brand.  They even issued a press release to announce their new website design.  (I don’t know why…)  Regardless of whether it’s a good strategy or not, they did it, so check it out and have a laugh.

Here’s the link : Acxiom homepage.

In the interest of full disclosure, I do not work for this company.  But I am somewhat familiar with it, for various reasons.

the military’s new ray gun

The military now has an actual ray gun, which they call the “Active Denial System”.  It shoots out a 100,000 watt beam of radio waves.  It does no permanent damage, but it can stop people in their tracks up to half a mile away.

There’s some videos at this link.

I just want to know — where can I get one?  🙂

This would be great for keeping the neighbor’s pets out of my yard, along with those annoying door-to-door salesmen.  Plus it would be great at parties, although they need to develop a hand-gun sized version.  Maybe I should get the Buffet o’ Blog R&D department to develop one.  I bet it would sell like hotcakes…

if Obama gets elected…

Here at Buffet o’ Blog, we usually don’t get too involved in discussions about politics, unless it’s for humor reasons.  And that brings us to today’s post.

At the moment, it looks like Hillary Clinton is not going to get the nomination (which has some people really excited).  But that means that Barack Obama would get the Democratic nomination for President.  He promises lots of “change”, though he hasn’t really said what that change would be, so I’m skeptical and somewhat concerned.  Nonetheless, let’s get to the humor instead of dwelling on the sad state of political affairs in the U.S. right now.  Here goes…

If Obama were elected, America would be called an Obama-nation.