The News – 12/13/00

Unknown, Failed Search Engine Assets Worth $9M

Raise your hand if you’ve ever heard of Scour. Anyone? Anyone? Class? I didn’t think so. Well, now that lots of dot-coms with shaky business propositions are going belly up, Mike Doonesbury’s business plan is becoming more and more viable. (The cartoon tycoon runs a company that buys distressed dotcom inventory.)

Scour was a search engine. One of umpty-umpty search engines. Oh wait. It was also a file-sharing company. How cutting edge. Anyway, CenterSpan Communications (Class?) had the winning bid of $9 million. Included in the assets was Scour’s P2P file-sharing technology. Turns out this is what killed the company, which was driven into bankruptcy by recording industry lawsuits.

Centerspan, I’d be careful out there!

Wired News

Greatest Japanese Invention of the 20th Century?

Let’s see. The VCR? The musical toilet? Hello Kitty?

According to a recent poll, the Japanese feel their greatest 20th century invention was . . . instant noodles. The delicacy, invented in 1958, edged out karaoke and the Walkman. My favorite, the films of Akira Kurosawa, placed a very appropriate number seven. (Kurosawa’s best known work is The Seven Samurai.

Who says the Japanese lack a sense of irony?

BBC News