Sunday, March 18, 2007

The NCAA's 'Boss Button'


When CBS switched from the NCAA tournament game I was watching to a game of minimal importance (at least for me), I scrambled for a backup. Remembering the ads for CBS' March Madness on Demand service, which promised live coverage of each game over the Internet, I fired up the trusty web browser.

Locating the site wasn't an issue. The real problem was the NCAA's requirement to use Windows Media Player. On one machine, WMP threw an error attempting to load the stream. I switched to another system. I successfully fired up, waited through the obligatory opening commercials (the tarriff for the hosting charges, one presumes).


At that point, CBS decided to switch back to my game, which I watched on my 57" HDTV screen.

But that's not all I noticed about the online viewing experience. The MMOD website featured a "boss button." The button allows workers -- who are surreptitiously watching games in the office -- to quickly pretend to be working. Click the button...


...and this daunting faux workbook appears!

The only question that remains is when the first lawsuit, alleging loss of productivity, will be filed over the "boss button"?

Over-under says March 30, 2007.

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