Avatar photoSteven Savage

News of The Day 12/24/2010

by

It's Christmas Eve, but the news never sleeps.  Ok that sounded corny, but you know what I mean

Economics/Geekonomics:
Ten Reasons to be cautious in the 2011 market. May be a bit over people's heads, though you'll see why I'm in money markets until at least March . . .

A fraud ruling in Minnesota has deeper meaning for Wells Fargo. Enough came out and was said in the decision – and the nature of the decision – that it may be open to more lawsuits.  Remember there's a lot unsaid and unexplored in the housing mess, and lawsuits could come awful fast if enough comes out.

Geek Law:
Kodak patent lawsuits could threaten many photo sharing sites. Sounds like they're trying to make an example of Shutterfly. I'm not sure they want to take on such a common service and risk some serious bad will.

Is the FCC trying to kill Hulu. I have no ideas, since the FCC seems to use a magic eight-ball half the time to determine actions. Or is the FCC working to play companies and sources off each other? Or . . . oh, hell if I know. But this is worth reading since it may well affect what you do in media.

Media:
MediaBistro's 2011 predictions which have some pretty good stuff in them. I'd analyze it – but just go read it.

Technology:
Presented more for oddity's sake, but Zumox got $9.7 million for creating an electronic version of physical mail. It's an odd little venture, and I'm not quite sure of what their goals are – it lets you get electronic versions of physical mail. Someone also thinks they're worth about $10 million dollars of investment though.

Does Unhosted have a solution to the loss of data ownership with the growth of SaaS?  I can see a whole other business evolve around SaaS support.

Video Games:
Multiple 'Woah': Moblyng raises nearly $11 million to make HTML 5 games. They're also known to team up with Playdom, and they're in Money Dumping Ground Redwood City, and they've done a lot of games. Toss on the over $10 mil they've gotten and why do they not have your resume? Also if they do well that will propel HTML 5 further into public awareness (though I'm still looking the cash and foundation they have . . .)

QUESTION OF THE DAY: What are you doing this Christmas?

– Steven Savage

Frustration Friday: Fired Up About Firing

by

There's been a discussion around the blogosphere about how people (especially the 3 p crowd – politician, pundits, and preachers) don't seem to get that our unemployment situation is not just about people being fired.  I'd like to chime in and add my own bile, in my own distinct idiom.

So, as I've noted before, a lot of people have contempt for the unemployed.  There are many reasons I've come up with: mean-spiritedness, ignorance, and a deep fear of some kind of unemployment cooties.  I'd like to further expand on the whole "ignorance" thing for a moment, cut with a slight examination of misplaced moralizing for flavor.

Several times I have asked myself "why would people choose to look down on the unemployed?"  What I myself noticed is that it often seems those who think ill of the unemployed are convinced the jobless have some kind of horrible moral flaw like drug abuse or laziness or some other kind of failing.  So as far as I can tell the unemployed-bashers figure that some horrible personal moral flaw has led to the unemployed being the unemployed.

Or in short, the tut-tutting moralizers figure the unemployed basically got fired or are unhireable due to their this personal or ethical weakness.  Note these moralizers usually have jobs, often saying stupid things about the unemployed.

What these moralistic morons miss is that people loose their jobs – and cannot find jobs – for many reasons that have nothing to do with laziness and other personal failings.

People loose their jobs for many reasons beyond those that get people fired.  They get laid off (which has affected many people in this economy).  Their position gets moved and they can't relocate for understandable reasons.  Their company goes belly-up because of managerial incompetence or bad luck.

For that matter some people graduate from college and have no work.  They didn't even get to work up to being fired.  They'd love the chance to get fired as it means they at least had a job.

People also can't find work for many other reasons that have nothing to do ethical problems.  There's no work in their area.  They have some outdated skills that were useful just a short time ago.  Their cyclical industry is in a serious down cycle.  They're not getting hired due to stupid reasons, from incompetent HR to weird requirements for age – and the favorite "don't hire anyone who doesn't have a job" rule we've heard of.  They're recent graduates and don't have enough experience.

All of the above is on top of the fact that, with the Great Recession, a lot of jobs are gone and aren't coming back.

These issues aren't due to moral failings, or laziness, or anything else on the part of the unemployed.  They're due to a troubled economy (screwed up by a lot of greedy goons who did have ethical problems) and a re-aligning world economy, on top of the rapid changes in business and technology.  It's a tough time for good people and bad.

I don't think a lot of people get that many good people don't have jobs for reasons unconnected to moral issues.  Perhaps they don't want to.  Perhaps they're ignorant.  Perhaps they're just a bunch of pretentious asses.

But either way they're wrong.

– Steven Savage

News Of The Day 12/23/2010

by

It's slowing down as we near Christmas, but there's important geeky news . . .

Locations:
Boston is home to some tech-meets-food startups. Amusing but also we might see the beginning of a specialty tech area for Boston which may be good for attracting business and investment. Also these are businesses IBM PROBABLY won't buy despite their Bostophile approach.

Mobile:
Mobile cloud security company Lookout gets $19.5 million in investment – They've got a good footprint and they're in a good market, so I'd say toss them a resume. Also, that kind of money going into a security company for mobile shows people think that area of tech is going to be big, and thus profitable.

Technology:
EMN8 raises $12.2 million – Who you ask? Well despite it's name EMN8 is not a band nor an energy drink, but people that make transaction kiosks. That may not sound exciting until you realize how many there are out there at restraints and more, and how these will probably increase and grow. Then it gets exciting (having worked on mere display kiosks many years ago, trust me that this stuff actually gets pretty creative and interesting).

Skype had problems this week. It was all over the internet, which tells me people got a might too dependent on it.

Video Games:
So why did the Wii cool off? NPR Takes a look, and mixed market issues seem to be a big one.

Atari names a new CEO. Frankly they need it, and it might just be too late considering their recent issues. I'd put them in the "apply to cautiously" category.

Harmonix has been sold to a private equity firm. So they're sort-of-independent again – for now. Despite their finer points, you may want to hold off sending them a resume or anything.

Gamebase, in South Korea, purchased Emergent. Sounds like this gives them a foothold in the states. I liked Emergent and am glad to see them getting a chance again.

QUESTION OF THE DAY: Why do you think the Wii cooled off?

– Steven Savage