RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK — Muzak plans a special moment for 9-11
If anything, Muzak is not about the sounds of silence. But that’s just what the music company will offer next Tuesday as the United States and much of the world pauses to remember the terror of last 9-11.
Muzak, which is based in Fort Mill, SC, says it will “initiate a brief pause” in the musical programming delivered to more than 350,000 locations out of respect for those who died that awful day a year ago.
Additionally, Muzak will offer a selection of songs focused on “themes of hope, love, unity, patriotism and healing” throughout the day.
Nice touch.
Declining social and cell phone standards?
If you had any doubt that America’s social values are declining (unfortunately, 9-11 didn’t change us as much as we thought at the time), get a load of this survey just out from LetsTalk.com.
Nearly half of the people surveyed say it is now socially acceptable to talk on a cell phone while in a public restroom.
Give me a break.
In 2000, 39 percent of people said “stall talk” was acceptable, which is bad enough. Now the number is up to 47 percent.
And a mere 46 percent say talking on a cell phone in a car is dangerous. The total was 76 percent in the 2000 survey.
Wireless Week does report one area of improvement. The percentage of people who say talking during a movie is OK declined to six percent from 11 percent. Maybe that’s because their temporary neighbors insisted phones be turned off — or else.
I guess we’ll have to yell in restrooms now, too. It’s bad enough to use a public restroom, let alone having to listen to some yahoo in the next stall complaining about his love life.
A glitch for Sprint PCS Vision
Sprint PCS invited various members of the media to its Cary store for a demonstration of its new 3G multimedia network called “Vision” on Aug. 22. It was cancelled at the last moment due to what were described as “glitches”.
Nearly two weeks later, the event has yet to be rescheduled.
Now that’s a glitch.
Missing the story?
Sometimes we in the media just don’t hear about everything that’s happening – or just screw things up.
For example, The Business Journal reported last week that Marshall Brain’s “How Stuff Works” was sold — several months ago. A tip of the hat to TBJ for reporting it while others (including us) missed the story completely.
Tuesday, The News & Observer and Southeast Tech Wire made a big deal out of Entrinsik announcing the spin-off of a new venture called Noverant. Noverant was created on Aug. 21. So much for breaking news.
Of course, we at Local Tech Wire don’t hear everything, either. Last week, I wrote that The Triangle Tech Journal was going to have a networking event at the NC Biotech Center. That was based on old information. The Gregg brothers, who run TTJ, had moved it back to their offices, and silly old me missed it. The result was a rather scathing e-mail sent to TTJ’s address book.
At least they didn’t mention LTW by name.
Rick Smith is managing editor of Local Tech Wire. Send feedback, story ideas or pithy comments, as Bill O’Reilly would say, to rsmith8@nc.rr.com
