Thursday, February 17, 2011

What Is Blinky?


The video above shows one of my current favorite incomprehensible commercials. The first time I saw the Cisco commercial above, I thought that the kids were playing video games. Obviously, they weren't controlling a real submarine diving at 4000 meters.

Then, I found out by accident what is supposedly going on here. The thing they encounter "deep sea diving," the thing they want to call "Blinky," is a Dumbo octopus (Grimpoteuthis), not a monster from Namco's Pac-Man (if you don't remember it, see the game here). Maybe I'm just dating myself, but the "deep learning" involved in this video escapes me even after I know what the students are supposed to be doing. What's that guy in the side-screen supposed to be doing? Running the Pac-Man console? Have fun kids, Cisco's "human network" has got your back (Cisco's stock, CSCO, hasn't been doing that great since the dot-com bubble around 2000).

No comments:

Post a Comment