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The Fan To Pro Glossary

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A helpful guide to terms we use around here.  Updated 1/9/2010:

A
A.I.N.O. – Anime In Name Only.  Refers to things based on anime with none of what made the anime work, or things imitating anime.

C
CorpTechPocalype – The inevitable end of Corporate IT as it moves to SaaS, mobile, and outsourcing.  Comes from a series of two columns at 3 Geeks and A Law Blog (here and here), further commented on here.

Crush Object – Any company that the staff things is particularly awesome.  In Bonnie's case, eternally Sony.

E
Econogeek – A geek who is into economics, or a person who is geeky about economics.

Everything Wars – The name for the conflict going on between many companies that previously did not compete, but now do because of technical synergy.

G
Geekonomy – The ill-defined part of the economy that is dominated by Geekdom.  Includes media, technology, comics, video games, and whatever else the bloggers feel is vaguely related.

Geekonomics – Activity that affects the Geekonomy.  Also interesting news for Econogeeks.

P
"Three P's" – Politicans, Preachers, and Pundits.  The people Steve most often notes manage to botch things up while being moralizing.

Production Revolution – The ability that the internet and IT tools have given people to become published authors, artists, videographers, etc.

Progeek, Profan, Protaku – Terms for people who apply their hobbies professionally.

Film, Format, Fiascos, and the Future

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People hated "The Last Airbender" for many reasons.  I'm not going to argue any of them, as I've seen it (with Rifftrax) and it was mind-numbingly bad in a way that actually beat my incredibly low expectations.  But among the things people say about the film adaption of the beloved franchise – the hate of the actors, the plot, the acting, the direction, the story, the intermittent attacks of slow-mo -  there's one thing I rarely hear brought up.

Why a film anyway?  I mean let's assume that you have some driving reason to turn "Avatar: The Last Airbender" into some other media form, why a film?

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Frustration Friday: Horrible Holiday Hijinks and Lessened Loyalty

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I've been talking Christmas a lot this week for obvious reasons – the Holidays are over and now it's time to sort through the tinsel and rubble and see what we've learned in progeekery.  But I'd like to focus on one issue for this Frustration Friday that is not exactly Christmas-based, but was inspired by Christmas.

A friend of mine who got suspended from their job on Christmas.  Seriously.  It sucks enough to work on Christmas, but to actually get suspended?

Yeah, you know what I mean.

Even in this currently lousy economy, 84% of people intend to seek a new position in 2011. I know not all of them are dissatisfied, but that's a gain in 24% over last year – some people are obviously not happy with their situation.

That's with an unemployment rate of roughly 10%.  Imagine what change we'll see in the amount of people looking to change jobs if there's even a marginal improvement in employment. Imagine how people who, way, were Suspended on Christmas, are going to react when the economy improves?

We're going to find out the hard way – perhaps the very hard way – just who's been happy at what job and what companies have been taking care of their employees.  There's a reason I study up on management ideas and am glad I have that psych degree – building teams and camaraderie is important to success.  Loyalty has to be earned.

I know at least one person whose loyalty isn't going to be very strong in 2011, and I'll have one more friend looking to change jobs.

– Steven Savage