Tom Brokaw kicks off Windows Server launch
LOS ANGELES--Microsoft brought out former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw on Wednesday to kick off the launch of Windows Server 2008.
In explaining his appearance at a server launch, Brokaw said he was trying to redeem himself after his recent Saturday Night Live appearance, in which he was interviewed by Will Farrell as Anchorman character Ron Burgundy.
Tom Brokaw speaks at the outset of the Windows Server 2008 launch.
(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET News.com)"I'm not here to write new code, to design new apps," Brokaw told the crowd at the tony Nokia Theater in downtown Los Angeles. Instead, Brokaw spoke for several minutes on the radical transformation of society being brought about by technology.
Brokaw pointed to an NYU doctor that will soon program remotely a cochlear implant for a child in East Africa and a farmer in America's heartland that tracks global commodity prices from his computer in order to ensure he can produce a profitable crop.
He also talked about the limits of technology, saying that we can't hit delete to end global poverty or backspace to erase the effects of global warming.
"Technology alone is not the answer," Brokaw said. "It will do little good to wire the world if we short-circuit our conscience."
Microsoft is using the event to formally launch Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008, although that last product's release has been pushed back until the third quarter of this year.
The software maker also detailed several other server products including its version for computing clusters, Windows HP Server 2008, which is slated for the second half of the year and Windows Storage Server 2008, also due out before year's end.
During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft. E-mail Ina. 
to see this guy? How does it correlate???
First thing that would come to my mind....how much did he get
to do this gig? Second thing I would think, "he could give a rats
@$$ about server products made by anyone, he is doing it for
the money".
Lame.
I wonder how many Windows Server 2008 licenses Google will order?
Seriously... they'd have gone farther by hiring Seth Green (Family Guy) or someone even remotely relevant to tech culture... instead they hire a politically slanted former journalist?
Sorta gives out a mixed message here, chief among them: MSFT proves that the media can be bought for their own marketing purposes.
/P
Please help me to understand the Brokaw choice.
Sorry, but if Apple or some flavor of Linux can't take over now, they never will.
-gj
- Global Warming?
- by bzzpd February 27, 2008 8:56 PM PST
- I'm still working working on the Global Freezing problem myself.
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
(13 Comments)All the dinosaurs in Fairbanks Alaska were suddenly killed off by a freak cold freezing that ruined their naturally warm climate.
This could of happened from natural dinosaur flatulation, that put to much methane in the atmosphere, and caused a cold front to pass up and freeze the Northern Hemisphere.
Anyways....don't put to much worry into Global Warming. The Dinosaurs had such an adverse affect, that the entire planet just froze up and killed them all. And it still hasn't thawed out yet. Maybe we are doing the Dinosaurs a favor by warming the earth up again.
Since Global Warming was the norm back then when the Dinosaurs roamed the planet.....maybe we are bringing the earths climate back into balance.