From Shaders to Shakespeare

Here’s a PR move that comes right out of Romeo and Juliet.

From Fudzilla, really:

“Due to a delay of RV710 and RV730 mainstream chips, ATI is going to simply rename its existing Radeon HD 3000 series to match the OEM requests.

“There will be a new bios coming shortly that will allow OEMs to re-brand Radeon 3450, 3650 and even 3850 to Radeon 4xx0 series. . . . The reason behind this controversial decision is because RV730 and RV710 are being late for most OEM Christmas projects and ATI needs to sell something to its big accounts.”

AMD is now going from shaders to Shakespeare. Apologies to William, Romeo and Juliet.

(Hector Ruiz at an AMD executive meeting)

Hector (addresses other execs): HD40, HD40? wherefore art thou HD40?

(Hector picks up an HD3000-series video card from the table and starts talking to it)

Hector: ‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not an HD3.
What’s HD3? it is not GPU,
Nor memory, nor any other part
Belonging to a card. O, be some other name!
What’s in a name? that which we call HD3
By any better name would sell sweeter;
So HD3 would, were it now HD4 call’d,
Regain those bonuses which we are owed
With that new title. HD3, doff thy name,
And for that name which is no part of thee

Take HD4 for thyself.

(Video card replies)
Video card: I take thee at thy word:
Call me HD4, and I’ll be new baptized;
Henceforth I never will be HD3.

Time For A New Approach?

Normally, when I see items like this, you end up seeing some grim, earnest, serious diatribe from me.

Maybe that’s the wrong approach. From this end, it seems like people come to computer websites for pleasant infotainment, not the Daily Doom, no matter how true they may be.

Maybe we’ve reached the Post-Serious Era in corporate communications, where we can no more expect honesty from any company in a tight spot than any politician or celebrity.

Maybe stories like these need to be handled more light-heartedly. Instead of getting mad and saying “They’re BSing us (for the hundredth time)!” we should instead smile and say, “Let’s have fun with the latest BS.”

In other words, maybe we should stop sounding so much like this . . .

. . . and start sounding more like this:

(No political statements or aspersions intended, just meant as an example of different approaches to commenting on the same event.)

It would probably be more fun for you, and certainly would be a lot more fun for me (though the product would probably be more like Stewart than Shakespeare). 🙂

What do you think? Drop me a note, pro or con.

Ed