Plenty of venture capital flows, MMO hits twelve million paid subscribers, text adventures on your Kindle, and Adobe dances with Microsoft by the pale moonlight. It's your must-know geek news!
Career:
I've said typing is a must-have skill. Here's some online tutorials.
Economics/Geekonomics:
Nouriel Roubini predicts a 40% chance of a double-dip recession which seems incredibly optimistic for him. Also notes that no matter what, the economy is lousy for a lot of people. With all the bad news a 40% chance is not that bad . . . but yes things are still crummy for many people.
Geek Law:
The Canadian Copyright bill meanders on. Actually it seems EVERYONE hates this bill, and no one knows how it's going to end up, yet everyone worries bout it. Might be worth following to see wht happens as it will influence other bills.
Media:
News startup Ongo raises $12 million from other news companies. They focus on reading/sharing news service they'll introduce this year. That's not a bad startup, they have some good allies, send 'em a resume. Plus Cupertino is really nice . . .
Social Media:
Mark Zuckerberg on the Facebook film. “We build products that 500 million people see… If 5 million people see a movie, it doesn’t really matter that much.” Nicely said – thugh I'm biased, as the film sounds rather unfair.
Technology:
URL Shortener Bit.ly raises $10 million in venture capital. And no, I have no idea how they're going to make money either.
Eventbrite raises $20 million. They do online ticket sales, and sound pretty solid. I'm going to suggest they may be resume-worthy, just on the mix of money and the fact they provide a practical, tangible service.
Adobe shares rise after meeting with Microsoft. Hmmmm. OK, I don't like to report blatant rumor-ness, but that has me wondering what might be up. A deal? Purchase? Who knows – but I admit an Adobe graphics package added to Office might give it longer legs . . . More thoughts here, and a look at why Adobe wouldn't help Microsoft versus Apple.
Video:
SF Gate declares Apple ahead of Google in the TV War. I find it a convincing argument.
Video Games:
MMO Juggernaut World of Warcraft crosses into 12 million paying subscribers. They are, of course, the ones to beat – and the ones doing really well. Let's see what effect Cataclysm has on these numbers . . .
Classic text adventures on Kindle and e-readers. Brilliant and interesting – and makes me wonder if this could revive text adventure interest. This also is an example of creative repurposing that shows the surprises technologies can yield.
DeNA is considering a purchase of San Francisco based phone game company ngmoco. My guess is 'yes' since they're buying so many other companies and investing in others.
Layoffs at Paragon studios. Not much other information.
Keep up the negativity with Kotaku's list of 10 game businesses that are doomed. I wonder what Nouriel Roubini thinks . . .
QUESTION OF THE DAY: What classic text adventures do you want on e-readers?