1990s Internet Streaming Video Compression Scam?

February 12, 2006 2:53 PM

I remember a typical late 1990s Bubble story where a scammer was hyping a fake streaming video technology to grab investor cash. What name should I look up under?

I remember there were some faked presentations, some kind of pricey "launch" gig, and there may even have been some former fraud/felony charges against the principles involved. But for the life of me I can't find it by searching or checking the usual suspect tech/culture sites. There are just too many damn articles on the Bubble, the late 1990s stock speculation, fraudulent CEOs, and so on. Can anyone help me out with some proper nouns?

posted by meehawl to Computers & Internet (16 answers total)

I believe this story was in Fast Company circa 1999 or 2000. It could've been late winter, 2000, if I recall. At the time, wasn't Fast Company publishing every other week or something crazy like that?

I totally remember the story you're talking about, though. It was a great one.
posted by incessant at 3:04 PM on February 12, 2006

nCube, a central component of the Enron collapse. Blockbuster was also involved. (press release from 9-6-2000.)
posted by Rash at 3:13 PM on February 12, 2006

Best answer: Madison Priest?

In the warehouse, they found that the power strips used to plug in his computers contained coax cables with the power cable. And outside the warehouse they found 1/2 mile of coax cable looping into the river itself. Alas, there was no magic in the box, just a bit of technology. The magic had always been in the spectator's brains.

posted by holloway at 3:15 PM on February 12, 2006

Here's the article I read at the time (get a login at bugmenot)

Found it on google by searching for: "magic box" video over phone scam blockbuster.
posted by holloway at 3:20 PM on February 12, 2006

I remember the company in question had a large musical act (the Who?) perform at a company party, all part of the hype around the non-existent video/streaming technology.
posted by jca at 3:20 PM on February 12, 2006

(I don't think it's any of the choices mentioned so far.)
posted by jca at 3:21 PM on February 12, 2006

Best answer: Found it:

Pixelon
posted by jca at 3:28 PM on February 12, 2006

More about Pixelon here.
posted by jca at 3:41 PM on February 12, 2006

Definitely Pixelon -- I once interviewed their head of IT for a job. Unreal story.
posted by frogan at 3:53 PM on February 12, 2006

Response by poster: Excellent work. Pixelon was the one I couldn't remember the name of, but I'd never heard of the Priest yarn and that's just fabulous as well!
posted by meehawl at 3:59 PM on February 12, 2006

Response by poster: In reading some of the Pixelon stories a little deeper, I found out that the Vegas party was at the MGM Grand, and starred Kiss, Natalie Cole, Tony Bennett, Sugar Ray and The Who. Awesome!
posted by meehawl at 4:31 PM on February 12, 2006

Best answer: And it looks like the ringmaster has just gotten out of jail as well....
posted by stavx at 5:12 PM on February 12, 2006

Response by poster: the ringmaster

Of *course* he has now found Jesus!
posted by meehawl at 5:22 PM on February 12, 2006

Your story sounds an awful lot like the story of D.E.N. Here's an article from 1999. A nice wrapup of the saga in 2000.

For you gaming and movie fans, Brock Pearce is still out there. Here's his IMDB profile, and he's the co-founder of IGE.
posted by thanotopsis at 5:33 PM on February 12, 2006

Jan Sloot claimed a similar invention and lured (among others) Dutch dotcom investor Roel Pieper into investing.

Apparently even a movie (Dutch) about the saga is planned.
posted by LanTao at 6:10 PM on February 16, 2006

I remember the company in question had a large musical act (the Who?) perform at a company party, all part of the hype around the non-existent video/streaming technology.

It was the Who. I remember watching the stream online. Good times.
posted by drjimmy11 at 2:55 PM on December 26, 2006