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Microsoft’s challenge: 90 days to beat Google

Microsoft engineer Chad Carson wasn’t thrilled about surrendering his solo window seat on the Alaska Airlines flight from San Jose to Seattle so he could talk shop with his boss Sean Suchter and colleague Eric Scheel.

But that innocent decision last July 22 would spark a 91-day sprint to a previously unreached Internet milestone.

By the time Flight 321 was over Oregon, the group in Row 6 had evolved from a technology klatch to a cabal of plotters who scrawled a schematic tangle of boxes on a sheet of paper to map out something no big Internet search engine had yet achieved. The three members of Microsoft’s new Silicon Valley search team would try to make their company’s Bing a window into America’s stream of consciousness, serving up the chatter on Twitter and blog posts, with the latest updates on everything from celebrity gossip to breaking news.

Real-time search, as it was called, was a daunting technical task. It required a system that could ingest the fire hose of Twitter data, pluck popular topics from that digital torrent using entirely new computer algorithms, and — within seconds — allow people to search them.

“We looked at each other,” Suchter said of the dawning excitement in economy class that day, “and we said, you know, if we got those three things together, you know, we could make this work!”

Even in the summer of 2009, the big search engines could produce only a static snapshot of the Web at any

one time. Building the first mainstream real-time search engine would be a PR and industry coup for Microsoft. Bing had been well received following its launch in June, but it remained a distant third to what has become America’s default search engine — Google.

For Suchter and his new team, the next three months would bring the exhilaration of plotting a coup over a higher-profile rival, and the bone-weary fatigue of trudging into their Mountain View office for 31 straight days, facing yet another caffeine-fueled 12-hour session.

And there was anxiety. Less than two days before Microsoft execs were to appear at a leading Internet conference in San Francisco, with rumors rife about a big announcement, Suchter’s team still didn’t have their cool invention actually working.

A valley team

Bing’s center of gravity remains in and around the company’s Redmond, Wash., headquarters; perhaps 5 percent of the company’s search resources reside at its Mountain View campus.

But a year ago, Microsoft recruited Suchter from Yahoo to build a new team in Silicon Valley, one that would draw on the bountiful local talent and experience in Internet search to quickly build new, high-profile products on the Bing platform.

“Suchter” literally means “searched” in German, so his career may have been predetermined. A stocky, unassuming 34-year-old who moved to Silicon Valley in 1998 after graduating from the California Institute of Technology, Suchter was a valley search veteran who had been Yahoo’s vice president for search technology since 2003.

A self-described “serial” home remodeler with his wife — “I just like to build things” — Suchter drives an ultrafast Yamaha sport bike. “It’s all about the feeling of moving fast,” he said. An internal Yahoo e-mail that became public after Suchter quit in late 2008 called him “a Gibraltar rock at Yahoo.”

Early last year, the newly installed general manager of Microsoft’s Search Technology Center Silicon Valley set about assembling his team, bringing in a roster of talent that included veteran engineers like Carson who had toiled for generations of valley search companies like AltaVista, Verity and Yahoo.

There were valley heavyweights, such as former IBM database expert Ashok K. Chandra, a professorial presence who sounds like a poet when he compares creating computer algorithms to the view from the summit of Mount Whitney. But Suchter also wanted young blood, recruiting newly minted Ph.D.s like Stanford product Shubha Nabar, with just 18 months in search.

“We all look at each other and say this a lot — we’re basically a little startup within Microsoft,” Suchter said. “This is the team I would have gotten, were I starting a startup.”

Now the little startup in the belly of the whale had to deliver.

Getting the go-ahead

The afternoon of the Seattle flight, Suchter stood before his boss in Redmond, Harry Shum, and pulled the dog-eared sheet of paper from his back pocket. This, Suchter told Shum, handing him the marked-up page, is what the team wants to do.

“I know I’ve got to get worried when you’re giving me your plans drawn on a piece of paper and not in PowerPoint,” Shum said. But he approved the effort.

Real-time search was a hot topic. As Microsoft launched Bing in June, the explosive growth of social and microblogging sites sparked a growing critique of Web search — that it was static, because it couldn’t capture the growing legions who peppered the Web with their chatter on Facebook and Twitter.

What Suchter, Carson and Scheel had seen was that several components of a real-time search engine already existed within Microsoft, including technology to ingest the Twitter stream. But it was considered a garage-style hack, not a potential consumer product. Suchter’s team worked with the Microsoft researchers developing the tool to make sure it could do what Bing needed.

The biggest technical challenge for the Microsoft team wasn’t digesting the stream of Twitter data. It was writing their algorithms to surface tweets and blog postings that had what search engineers call “social authority.”

Just like e-mail, people use Twitter to spam.

“We found one guy we called ‘the movie spammer,’ ” Suchter said. Chatter about movies is a popular topic on Twitter, and people like the movie spammer set up multiple Twitter accounts to generate what appears to be a community chatting about “Avatar,” when links in those tweets might actually go to a Viagra ad.

The team had to give Bing the ability to instantly detect patterns of use that would block people with “negative social authority” like the movie spammer, and elevate the tweets of real people commenting on the movie.

That meant they had to develop new algorithms at the forefront of search technology that would determine significance, weighing “the newness and the hotness and the information content,” Suchter said.

By early September, at an all-hands meeting at Microsoft’s Silicon Valley campus, the team was ready to show a demo. Microsoft set up a screen in the parking lot — concealed from the adjacent Highway 101, knowing Google was right around the corner.

The team got the system working 40 minutes before the demo. “I was pretty stressed,” Suchter said.

The demo showed how real-time search would work conceptually. Now the team had to make their algorithms run on Bing’s systems, and the pressure was just beginning. Hoping to make a splash at the influential Web 2.0 Summit in late October in San Francisco, the company decided to move up the launch, scheduling Qi Lu, yet another prominent former Yahoo executive, to speak.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin would be there. Many in Microsoft felt the valley’s perception was that younger, more nimble innovators like Google had more technical agility than lumbering Microsoft. They itched to change that perception.

Launch preparations

Between Sept. 21 and the scheduled launch Oct. 21, the team came to the office every single day.

The team was constantly tweaking code within its new algorithms in an effort to make them run faster and be more accurate. But just four days before Web 2.0, they realized they needed to make a major change to the software architecture. In addition, it had become clear that bing.com/twitter would require double the number of servers within Microsoft’s data centers.

“That kind of thing — you’re making decisions right before you’re going to launch — that’s what you do at a startup,” Suchter said. “That’s exactly the feeling we wanted to have. This is what the team is like. This is what being in Silicon Valley is.”

Nobody saw the product completely put together until the day before the Web 2.0 Summit, when the engineers switched it on and watched Bing spit out a constantly updating stream of banter about world events, technology and celebrities.

“I feel like I’ve got my finger of the pulse of the nation,” Nabar blurted, catching the mood of the giddy engineers.

Microsoft’s PR team didn’t get the green light until the night before the launch, and reports of the new product dutifully appeared in tech blogs the next morning, drawing hundreds of people to a conference ballroom. As Microsoft executive Yusuf Mehdi took the stage to unveil the product, an engineer in the audience picked up his cell phone and texted Redmond.

They were live. Applause erupted in the ballroom. A few hours later, Google hustled out an announcement that it, too, would soon offer real-time search. Its version launched Dec. 7.

How did it feel to beat Google?

“That was fun — retroactively,” Suchter said. “We didn’t know we were going to catch them. We kind of thought we would, but who knew?”

Video Link: http://www.mercurynews.com/video?bcpid=1578089393&bctid=63081701001

Add comment January 24, 2010

If Your Password Is 123456, Just Make It HackMe

NEW YORK TIMES – Ashlee Vance
Friday, January 22, 2010

Back at the dawn of the Web, the most popular account password was “12345.”

Today, it’s one digit longer but hardly safer: “123456.”

Despite all the reports of Internet security breaches over the years, including the recent attacks on Google’s e-mail service, many people have reacted to the break-ins with a shrug.

According to a new analysis, one out of five Web users still decides to leave the digital equivalent of a key under the doormat: they choose a simple, easily guessed password like “abc123,” “iloveyou” or even “password” to protect their data.

“I guess it’s just a genetic flaw in humans,” said Amichai Shulman, the chief technology officer at Imperva, which makes software for blocking hackers. “We’ve been following the same patterns since the 1990s.”

Mr. Shulman and his company examined a list of 32 million passwords that an unknown hacker stole last month from RockYou, a company that makes software for users of social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. The list was briefly posted on the Web, and hackers and security researchers downloaded it. (RockYou, which had already been widely criticized for lax privacy practices, has advised its customers to change their passwords, as the hacker gained information about their e-mail accounts as well.)

The trove provided an unusually detailed window into computer users’ password habits. Typically, only government agencies like the F.B.I. or the National Security Agency have had access to such a large password list.

“This was the mother lode,” said Matt Weir, a doctoral candidate in the e-crimes and investigation technology lab at Florida State University, where researchers are also examining the data.

Imperva found that nearly 1 percent of the 32 million people it studied had used “123456″ as a password. The second-most-popular password was “12345.” Others in the top 20 included “qwerty,” “abc123″ and “princess.”

More disturbing, said Mr. Shulman, was that about 20 percent of people on the RockYou list picked from the same, relatively small pool of 5,000 passwords.

That suggests that hackers could easily break into many accounts just by trying the most common passwords. Because of the prevalence of fast computers and speedy networks, hackers can fire off thousands of password guesses per minute.

“We tend to think of password guessing as a very time-consuming attack in which I take each account and try a large number of name-and-password combinations,” Mr. Shulman said. “The reality is that you can be very effective by choosing a small number of common passwords.”

Some Web sites try to thwart the attackers by freezing an account for a certain period of time if too many incorrect passwords are typed. But experts say that the hackers simply learn to trick the system, by making guesses at an acceptable rate, for instance.

To improve security, some Web sites are forcing users to mix letters, numbers and even symbols in their passwords. Others, like Twitter, prevent people from picking common passwords.

Still, researchers say, social networking and entertainment Web sites often try to make life simpler for their users and are reluctant to put too many controls in place.

Even commercial sites like eBay must weigh the consequences of freezing accounts, since a hacker could, say, try to win an auction by freezing the accounts of other bidders.

Overusing simple passwords is not a new phenomenon. A similar survey examined computer passwords used in the mid-1990s and found that the most popular ones at that time were “12345,” “abc123″ and “password.”

Why do so many people continue to choose easy-to-guess passwords, despite so many warnings about the risks?

Security experts suggest that we are simply overwhelmed by the sheer number of things we have to remember in this digital age.

“Nowadays, we have to keep probably 10 times as many passwords in our head as we did 10 years ago,” said Jeff Moss, who founded a popular hacking conference and is now on the Homeland Security Advisory Council. “Voice mail passwords, A.T.M. PINs and Internet passwords — it’s so hard to keep track of.”

In the idealized world championed by security specialists, people would have different passwords for every Web site they visit and store them in their head or, if absolutely necessary, on a piece of paper.

But bowing to the reality of our overcrowded brains, the experts suggest that everyone choose at least two different passwords — a complex one for Web sites were security is vital, such as banks and e-mail, and a simpler one for places where the stakes are lower, such as social networking and entertainment sites.

Mr. Moss relies on passwords at least 12 characters long, figuring that those make him a more difficult target than the millions of people who choose five- and six-character passwords.

“It’s like the joke where the hikers run into a bear in the forest, and the hiker that survives is the one who outruns his buddy,” Mr. Moss said. “You just want to run that bit faster.”

1 comment January 23, 2010

Johnny Depp Sets Sail on Fourth ‘Pirates’ Movie

by Matt McDaniel · January 20, 2010

Captain Jack Sparrow will soon take to the seas again, and this time he is after the most sought-after treasure imaginable: the Fountain of Youth.

It was announced this week that the fourth installment of Disney’s highly successful “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise will begin filming in Hawaii this summer. Johnny Depp once again plays the flamboyant Captain Jack, and Geoffrey Rush reprises his role as his adversary, Barbossa. However, costars Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley are not expected to return.

The film’s story is loosely based on the 1987 pirate novel, “On Stranger Tides” by award-winning fantasy author Tim Powers. The book tells the story of a young man — coincidentally named “Jack” — who is captured by the pirate Blackbeard and forced to join in the search for the Fountain of Youth.

Ted Elliott, the co-writer of the first three “Pirates” movies, said that the story of the novel just happened to align with where they wanted to take the fourth film. He told Empire magazine, “We wanted to do a story about Blackbeard and the Fountain of Youth, and Tim Powers wrote a book about Blackbeard and the Fountain of Youth… it just turns out that to do that story you would need that book.”

Johnny Depp signed on to appear in the fourth movie in 2008, before there was a script. It was announced at the same time he would also be playing Tonto in a film version of “The Lone Ranger,” but that project has been delayed until after “Pirates” is finished.

Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom have both said they had no desire to return for a fourth movie. Knightley said in an interview, “It was a completely fantastic experience, and it was an amazingly large portion of my life, but I don’t think I need to go there again. I think that it’s done.” Also, the director of the original trilogy, Gore Verbinski, will not be coming back. He is being replaced by Rob Marshall, the director of “Chicago” and “Nine.”

“Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” is scheduled to dock into movie theaters on May 20th, 2011.

Add comment January 23, 2010

F4: Exposed ~ The Men Behind the Characters

Teym Seykret – Da Iyp Por (meytsur shower! Ads in China)

Da Iyp Por is back… starred: Dao Ming Si (Boi Shuli), Xi Men (Boi Dibidi), Hua Ze Lei (Boi Tigz), and Mei Zuo Ling (Boi NutriBan) special participation Shan Cai (Inday Suertres).

9 comments January 21, 2010

Obamas donate $15,000 to Haiti relief

The Associated Press
Wednesday, January 20, 2010; 5:35 PM

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama have donated $15,000 from their personal bank account to help the victims of Haiti’s devastating earthquake.

The move comes as hundreds of thousands of Haitians remain homeless, hungry and desperately needing help after a massive quake on Jan. 12.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the Obamas were inspired to give upon seeing the response of millions of Americans who have given generously during tough economic times.

The Obamas sent a $15,000 check on Wednesday to the Clinton-Bush Haiti fund, the relief effort led by former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

Add comment January 20, 2010

Haiti needs water, not occupation

20 minutes ago

The US has never wanted Haitian self-rule, and its focus on ’security concerns’ has hampered the earthquake aid response

- Mark Weisbrot
- guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 20 January 2010 23.00 GMT
- Article history

On Monday, six days after the earthquake in Haiti, the US Southern Command finally began to drop bottled water and food from an air force C-17. US defence secretary Robert Gates had previously rejected such a method because of “security concerns”.

If people do not get clean water, there could be epidemics of water-borne diseases that could greatly increase the death toll. But the US is now sending 10,000 troops and seems to be prioritising “security” over much more urgent, life-and-death needs. This in addition to the increase of 3,500 UN troops scheduled to arrive.

On Sunday morning the world-renowned humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders complained that a plane carrying its portable hospital unit was re-routed by the US military through the Dominican Republic. This would cost a crucial 48 hours and an unknown number of lives.

On Sunday, Jarry Emmanuel, air logistics officer for the UN’s World Food Programme, said: “There are 200 flights going in and out every day, which is an incredible amount for a country like Haiti … But most flights are for the US military.”

Yet Lieutenant General PK Keen, deputy commander of the US Southern Command, reports that there is less violence in Haiti now than there was before the earthquake hit. Dr Evan Lyon, of Partners in Health, a medical aid group famous for its heroic efforts in Haiti, referred to “misinformation and rumours … and racism” concerning security issues.

We’ve been circulating throughout the city until 2:00 and 3:00 in the morning every night, evacuating patients, moving materials. There’s no UN guards. There’s no US military presence. There’s no Haitian police presence. And there’s also no violence. There is no insecurity.

To understand the US government’s obsession with “security concerns,” we must look at the recent history of Washington’s involvement there.

Long before the earthquake, Haiti’s plight has been comparable to that of many homeless people on city streets in the US: too poor and too black to have the same effective constitutional and legal rights as other citizens. In 2002, when a US-backed military coup temporarily toppled the elected government of Venezuela, most governments in the hemisphere responded quickly and helped force the return of democratic rule. But two years later, when Haiti’s democratically elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide was kidnapped by the US and flown to exile in Africa, the response was muted.

Unlike the two centuries of looting and pillage of Haiti since its founding by a slave revolt in 1804, the brutal occupation by US marines from 1915 to 1934, the countless atrocities under dictatorships aided and abetted by Washington, the 2004 coup cannot be dismissed as “ancient history.” It was just six years ago, and it is directly relevant to what is happening there now.

The US, together with Canada and France, conspired openly for four years to topple Haiti’s elected government, cutting off almost all international aid in order to destroy the economy and make the country ungovernable. They succeeded. For those who wonder why there are no Haitian government institutions to help with the earthquake relief efforts, this is a big reason. Or why there are 3 million people crowded into the area where the earthquake hit. US policy over the years also helped destroy Haitian agriculture, for example, by forcing the import of subsidised US rice and wiping out thousands of Haitian rice farmers.

Aristide, the country’s first democratically elected president, was overthrown after just seven months in 1991, by military officers and death squads later discovered to be in the pay of the CIA. Now Aristide wants to return to his country, something that the majority of Haitians have demanded since his overthrow. But the US does not want him there. And the René Préval government, which is completely beholden to Washington, has decided that Aristide’s party – the largest in Haiti – will not be allowed to compete in the next elections (originally scheduled for next month).

Washington’s fear of democracy in Haiti may explain why the US is now sending 10,000 troops and prioritising “security” over other needs.

This military occupation by US troops will raise other concerns in the hemisphere, depending on how long they stay – just as the recent expansion of the US military presence in Colombia has been met with considerable discontent and distrust in the region. And non-governmental organisations have raised other issues about the proposed reconstruction: understandably they want Haiti’s remaining debt cancelled, and grants rather than loans (the IMF has proposed a $100m dollar loan). Reconstruction needs will be in the billions of dollars: will Washington encourage the establishment of a functioning government? Or will it prevent that, channelling aid through NGOs and taking over various functions itself, because it of its long-standing opposition to Haitian self-rule?

But most urgently, there is a need for rapid delivery of water. The US air force has the capability to deliver enough water for everyone who needs it in Haiti, until ground supply chains can be established. The more water is available, the less likely there is to be fighting or rioting over this scarce resource. Food and medical supplies could also be supplied through air drops. These operations should be ramped up, immediately. There is no time to lose.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/jan/20/haiti-water-us-occupation

Add comment January 20, 2010

Haiti Earthquake in Google Earth

http://lexluthor2k9.wordpress.com/

Update 1/14/2010 – New Maps added today: Detailed Street Map of PAP; Joint Operations Graphic Mosaic.

Update 1/14/2010 – If anyone is looking for the full TIFF file of the GeoEye image from yesterday, contact me and I can email you the link to download it. It’s over 1 gigabyte, so please explain who you are and why you need it as I don’t want to overload the server of the person that’s hosting it. If you just need to VIEW the satellite image, it is included with the package of Google Earth layers below. Please only contact me if you need the full GeoTIFF for GIS use. Please do not email me asking about a specific property or area. All I can suggest is that you get Google Earth and view the satellite imagery yourself. I do not work for GeoEye and do not know when more satellite images will be added.

Update 1/14/2010 – Several people have asked about a version of these map layers that will work offline for first responders, etc. I now have a 100 megabyte zip (Current Version 1) file with all of the layers below (except the GeoEye image). Note that the offline version of the map layers may not yet include all the latest maps. To use the offline files, just download the zip, extract, and open up the haiti-earthquake.kml with Google Earth. Everything can then be accessed from the menu in Google Earth.

Original Post 1/13/2010 – On Tuesday, January 12, 2010 at 4:53 PM, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck near Port-Au-Prince, Haiti. Relief agencies and scientific agencies from all over the world have been compiling maps and other data to aid in relief efforts. I’ve tried to bring together the various maps and other data related to the Haiti Earthquake into a single location and in a format that can be easily viewed by anyone with Google Earth.

To get started, first make sure you have Google Earth installed. If not, download it for free. Then just click on the Download With Google Earth button below. That will load all of the map layers listed below into Google Earth. Just turn on/off the layers using the menu system at the left side of Google Earth.

The new maps that I add should automatically appear on your computer as I add them (you might have to restart Google Earth to get the new maps). Some of the files are 4-5 megabytes and may take a minute or two to open after you select them in Google Earth.

Satellite Imagery

GeoEye 1/13/2010 - This is very high resolution color imagery of the Port Au Prince area that will update automatically as new satellite images are made available. From Google.

1/12/2010 Earthquake Event Data

Intensity Zones (GDACS and Joint Research Centre, European Commission ) – MMI Intensity Zones in the PAP area.
Overview Map (ReliefWeb) – General overview map showing the location of epicenter
Shake Map (USGS) – Shows the epicenter location, the MMI values, and peak acceleration
Population Exposure Map (UN Cartographic Section/USGS) – Shows the areas of Haiti likely to have been exposed to different levels of shaking and damage
Potentially Affected Population (UN World Food Program) – Shows locations of at-risk populations likely to be affected by the earthquakes.
Earthquake Summary (GDACS and Joint Research Centre, European Commission ) – Shaded relief map show the locations of earthquakes on 1/12/2010 and the locations of cities most likely to be affected
MMI Values (USGS/Google Earth Library) – MMI values for cities and towns throughout Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Aftershocks (USGS/Google Earth Library) – Locations and magnitudes of aftershocks. Updated daily.

General Maps

Joint Operations Graphic Mosaic (US Department of Defense) – Five detailed (1:1250) topographic maps covering all of Haiti
PAP Topographic Maps (Perry Castaneda Map Library/Google Earth Library) – Four very detailed (1:12,500) topographic maps of the PAP area
Global Map of Haiti (Geographical Survey Institute) – General map of Haiti, showing elevations, locations of major roads, towns, etc.
Population Density (USGS/Google Earth Library) – 3D graphs showing the relative populations of cities and towns throughout Haiti
PAP Street Map General (MINUSTAH) – General street map of PAP area
PAP Street Map Detailed (MINUSTAH) – Detailed street map of PAP area
PAP Topographic Map (Perry Castaneda Map Library) – Approximately 1:100,000 scale topographic map of southeastern Haiti
Topographic Detail Near Epicenter (UN World Food Program) – Topographic map and populations centers within 5 miles of epicenter
Shades Relief Map of Haiti (Perry Castaneda Map Library) – General relief map of Haiti
Haiti Administrative (Departments, Communes and Sections) Boundaries – Colored polygons showing the various administrative divisions in Haiti
Wireless Telephone Coverage Maps (??) – Wireless coverage maps for Voila and Digicel, which I assume are cellular telephone providers in Haiti
Major Roads (US Census and Google Earth Library) – Colored lines showing the locations of major roads in Haiti

General Seismic Maps

Enriquillo-Plaintain Garden Fault (NASA Earth Observatory)
Epicentral Region Map (USGS)
Seismic Hazard Map (USGS)
Tectonic Setting Map (USGS)

If you know of any other good data sets for this earthquake, leave a comment and I will try to add it. Also, let me know if you notice any of the data becomes out dated.

Add comment January 15, 2010

Teym Seykret

Teym Lider:

Joseph Ongsoyco – Boi Seykret

Members:

Rolan Rey Fernandez – Boi Baso (wer’s da glass?)

Cesar Marlo Rivera – Boi Palpal

(ehemmm kabalo namo hahaha da 40 years old beergin)

Kerl Magaso- Boi Dibidi (dakponon kay tag-iya sa Pirated dibidi)

Eugene Kanlapan- Boi Tigs (Mano Po 10)

Jose Wilmer Kaamiño – Boi Bonjing – (Laking Bonna Kid)

Yuki Ishii – Boi Ninja (Tiki-tiki – Tunga Kalit)

Shai Edrote – Boi Bakal (Steel Bat? or Butt? lakas loob…)

Romar Melancolico -Boi Nutriban O si Boi Bulgur (Ang Batang Malnurish)

Clark Austria – Boi Grasa (Ang batang kulot og buhok)

Calvin (Clark’s Dog) – Boi Pulutan (Ang Wonder Dog na Askal)

Julie Nacua – Inday Monay (Ang tag-iya sa Julie’s Bakes Shop modawat ug labada)

Rachel Loyoloyo – Inday Suetres (Reyna ng mga Bagdok)

4 comments January 9, 2010

Crazy Fashion

By Ranileh Ada Tan

Add comment January 9, 2010

‘The Vampire Diaries’ Wants Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift may already have some ties with another vampire franchise – the “Twilight Saga” through current hush-hush boyfriend Taylor Lautner – But the seasons new hit TV show “The Vampire Diaries” has their eyes set on the country startlet. Rumor has it that writer Kevin Williamson approached Swift about making an appearance, as a vampire nonetheless, on his CW series.

Per Reel Empire:

“I tried to get her on the show once, but she was touring. I’m desperate to have [Swift] come play a vampire,” Williamson says. “Wouldn’t she make an amazing Kirsten Dunst circa Interview With the Vampire type? Oh my god, I cannot tell you how hard I’m trying to get her—I would kill to have her on the show!”

Williamson confessed he is worried the star may be “too big for Vampire Diaries now” but is still hoping to work something out so she can cameo on the show. Taylor has been in the spotlight a lot recently between her run-in with Kanye West, triumphing at this weeks CMA awards, and has recently been the guest host on “Saturday Night Live”. Maybe Williamson will be surprised and get Taylor Swift to do a guest appearance on “The Vampire Diaries”. I guess we’ll soon find out how persuasive he can be. I for one think she’d be an awesome addition to the cast, even though Mr. Jacob Black would not be amused!

Download Link:

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=a98cd1891901557cd0d290dca69ceb5cd3eafb787b586d4f5ecc9344d19142df