Monday, January 13, 2014

After Car Attacked By Paris Taxi Drivers, Uber to Toughen Image With Umlauts

From The Verge:

Uber car attacked as Paris taxi strike turns violent
Demonstration brings airport traffic to a halt as cab unions lash out against smartphone-based services
A major protest organized by French taxi drivers turned violent Monday, as demonstrators attacked Uber cars outside Paris' two main airports. As Le Monde reports, the nationwide demonstrations were organized by five major taxi unions, which are protesting the "unfair competition" that Uber and other chauffeur services pose. Kat Borlongan, co-founder of consulting firm Five by Five, was traveling from the Charles de Gaulle airport Monday morning when her Uber car was attacked by protesters. The assailants threw rocks and paint at their van, before smashing a passenger side window and slashing one of its tires. Uber confirmed the attack in a statement, and an eyewitness corroborated Borlongan's account to The Verge.

Renaud Visage, photographer and CTO of Eventbrite, was traveling in the car with Borlongan, and corroborated her reports in a phone interview with The Verge. Visage says taxis blockaded one of the main highways from the airport, forcing cars to file through a single lane. When their van passed through the checkpoint, "three or four" men on each side started throwing rocks and paint at them, shattering the back window and leaving the passengers with cuts on their hands. At a second blockade, an assailant slashed the back tire, forcing them to pull off the road a few minutes later....MORE
In response:
San Francisco, CA (PRwëb) January 13, 2014-
In a move designed to make Uber seem more "bad-assed and scary in a quasi-heavy-metal manner," the Goldman Sachs, Menlo Ventures and Bezos Expeditions-backed company officially changed it's name to Über on  Monday.
"Much like Mötley Crüe and Motörhead, Über is not to be messed with," said founder Gärrëtt Cämp, née Camp...
Röck döts rüle

Long time readers will recognize the bald-faced ripoff of America's Finest News Service, ca 1997.

See also:
“It’s like a pair of eyes. You’re looking at the umlaut, and it’s looking at you.”
-David St. Hubbins
This Is Spın̈al Tap
The röck döts link takes you to Jon Udell's description of the evolution of Wikipedia's Heavy Metal Umlaut page.
Perhaps more than you cared to know.