Eagle Eye

Last Sunday, I was home alone, And caught up with Shia LaBeouf’s presence at Greenbelt 1 Cinema. Many will remember as Henry Jones III, aka Mutt Williams, the son of Dr. Jones in “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.” It was reported that Shia was so excited to be in this movie that he signed on without reading the script. He also did not know what character he would play.

He also played Sam Witwicky in the Michael Bay’s 2007 version of “Transformers” which is one of my all-time favorite movies. But did you know that one of Shia’s early appearances was in a 1999 episode of “X-Files.”

Photo of Shia with Michael Bay from "Transformers" taken in Detroit, Michigan on October 3, 2006 by Brandy Baker for The Detroit News.

“Eagle Eye” was more than an eye-opener for me in terms of how technology could probably not work for the common good. There had been similar movies before wherein the bad guys were a super computer…. in this case, ARIA. Remember, “2001 Space Odyssey?

ARIA takes control of the lives Jerry Shaw (Shia LaBeouf) and Rachel Holloman (Michelle Monaghan). And through the movie takes the country hostage by simply evesdropping on everyone. Isn’t that true today? Just look at all the video cameras or CCTVs installed in public places. Movie poster image from www.eagleeyemovie.com/

Remember, we can all be easily monitored. A chip or sim card that carries information is always “backed-up” somewhere. Plus all the iPhones and Blackberries we carry always emit signals. There a line in the movie, “Take out the batteries” so ARIA couldn’t track down our heroes.

Later in the movie, we find out that ARIA has decided that the executive branch of the US be killed as these officials have become a threat to the existence of the country. But I doubt that would happen? Some one like John just easily pull the plug out of a super computer? Or John McClane (Bruce Willis) could blast this computer to pieces? The 4th movie of Die Hard also had tech skew… hackers.

But if you just want a couple of hours of car chases and crashes like “Die Hard with a vengeance,” this movie is worth a bucket of popcorn specially if one is home alone on a weekend like me.

And next time, you turn on your mobile phone or laptop, just think, maybe somebody is watching or listening? Maybe, carabao eye?

Yahoo getting AOL?

Last 24 September 2008, Ad Age.com run a story by Abbey Klaassen about Yahoo new Ad Platform. A few questions popped out for Jerry Yang, specially related to Yahoo's interest in AOL from Time Warner.

Below are excerpts from the Ad Age story.

Does Yahoo need AOL?
The San Francisco Chronicle and San Jose Mercury News are using the platform, which is built on the bones of the Right Media Exchange. Apt is a networked version of an ad-serving system and lets both Yahoo and the papers sell ads across it. The system will be rolled out to the rest of Yahoo's newspaper consortium members through the year and to advertisers and agencies in 2009. (The consortium lets Yahoo sell across newspaper sites and allows newspapers to sell Yahoo's inventory.) It's a big undertaking -- essentially going against category leader DoubleClick as well as the WPP Group-owned 24/7 Right Media and Microsoft's Atlas ad-serving platform.

So does Yahoo need such an acquisition as AOL to make its ad platform work?

Answered Mr. Yang: "My view is that we are in an extraordinary time, where if you look at Yahoo and look at our consumer reach, it's at an all-time high. We feel our consumers are engaged in Yahoo in a way that's at an all-time high. We are busy developing industry-type platforms, not just those that work for Yahoo but those that work for everybody. I think our road ahead on our own is very, very compelling."

OK, so Yahoo doesn't need to make any acquisitions?

"Well my point," he said, "would be that, to the extent there are opportunities to enhance our leadership and strategy, we have to look at them. That's my job and the board's job. But I will say these rumors with AOL have been out there for a long time so there's nothing changed on that perspective."

Working with EON and one of the partner of choice of Yahoo here in the Philippines, I hope to one day meet the Yahoo CEO. At least Andrei met co-founder David Filo in Sunnyvale, California a couple of weeks ago, when developers got together

Got our iPhone

Yahoo, I finally got my iPhone yesterday. It was a few weeks wait and negotiating with Globe. Being a Platinum member since 2001 helped clinch the phone.

Almost businessman or professional has seen those TVCs on the cable networks. Probably, read all the news and heard the hype built around the new multimedia smartphone with a sleek multi-touch screen and a minimal hardware interface, bundled with Wi-Fi connectivity and all other tools of business connectivity.

It also functions as camera phone and portable media player, just like an iPod.

The iPhone was first announced on January 9, 2007 and was initially introduced in the United States on June 29, 2007. According to news reports, it sold around 270,000 units within 30 hours. That year, it was also named Time magazine's Invention of the Year.

Last July 2008, iPhone 3G was introduced and a few weeks ago, hundreds of Filipinos has their first touch of the iPhone 3G unit.

For the next few days, Chief and I will discover how technology will work for us,

Visa and Facebook

Facebook, Friendster, LinkedInMultiply and other social networks will surely benefit from the rise in advertising expenditures and business users in social networks.

According to eMarketer, advertisers in the US this year will spend $40 million to reach a business audience on online social networks,



And this ad spending will reach $210 million in 2012.

Partnerships have started on-line too. Facebook last June 2008 signed a deal with Visa
which created an application called Visa Business Network. This targeted small businesses on one of the leading business-skewed social networks. Which remined me that I have to check on my Facebook account.