CARLSBAD, California -- The favorite resort of movie moguls' wives and middle-aged golfers plays host this week to equally dissimilar bedfellows. Here at La Costa, Silicon Valley whiz kids mix and mingle with Hollywood execs at the inaugural Entertech conference.
And as tech rubs elbows with Hollywood, a few sparks begin to fly.
Death in the sun: Despite the balmy Southern California climes, the grim reaper keeps popping up at the conference. Bay Area and New York tech pundits spent much of Sunday predicting the death of record companies, movie studios, broadcasters, and anyone else who didn't change their hidebound analog ways. Many Hollywood execs squirmed in their seats.
Cursor capers: Jim Moloshok, Warner Bros. Online's president, has mice on the brain -- and he isn't thinking about Mickey. A new gimmick on his site invites users to change their cursor into various Warner Bros. icons -- from Fred Flintstone to the "WB" logo.
"If we can push the click-through rate from 4 percent to 5 percent, that would increase revenue by 25 percent," he said of the feature which launched last week.
It's still too early to say whether or not the logos -- the fruits of a deal with startup Comet Cursor -- will click with viewers or roll right over them.
Curmudgeon award: Compaq Network Systems Labs' Andrew Cromarty pooh-poohed the idea that broadband delivery of information to the home will solve Internet traffic congestion. "It's like saying you're going to solve the problem of traffic jams by putting in a wider driveway in your home," he said in his Sunday night keynote.
Crowd pleaser pitch award: A digitally projected composite (circa 1990) featured George Lucas's most popular films, including Star Wars and Indiana Jones. "I've seen it hundreds of times, but I still get a charge out of it," said Texas Instruments' Paul Breedlove, who developed the projector.
Self-serving remark award: WebTV cofounder and engineering chief Phil Goldman: "The remote control is the most successful interactive device ever invented."
Running scared: Not everyone is thrilled by the digital wizardry on display at the show. "As a content provider, I'm scared shitless," said director Don Petrie, whose credits include Grumpy Old Men and The Associate.
"How long will it be before Bogart is starring in more movies? What are the proprietary rights to your face?"
Petrie thinks the next step is for studios to program digital images of actors to do whatever they want them to do. Ultimately, he sees them creating live-action composites of actors that include, say, part of Bogart's face and Whoopi Goldberg's hair.
How long until these types of things start to happen? Perhaps two years, Petrie guesses. For Bogart, it won't be too big a shock: The dead actor already stars in Pepsi commercials.
