News and Analysis

Internet in Canada may have a reversal again, Verizon throttles high-bandwidth users (but not in the way you expect), and Colbert and Stewart are worth a TON of money. Let's find out where the backlogs are in today's news!

Economics/Geekonomics:
The US economy: sucking slightly less.

Productivity is slightly up in the US.

Various numbers I hear bandied about it sounds like we've got quite a few more years to go . . .

What did the loss of the internet do to Egypt's economy? How about a loss of $90 million? Thats about 3-4% of the country's economic output – and you can bet companies working in Egypt are now a hell of a lot less trusting.

Unemployed youth had some role in the Egyptian uprising – and youth unemployment is an issue all over the world. Some good insights on both Egypt and on global issues. Interesting point – "more education" isn't the answer as it needs to be the right kind at the right time.

Geek Law:
In Canada, Industry Minister Tony Clement says the government will overturn the CRTC devision on internet usage-based billing – if the CRTC doesn't. Tamara already covered this so let me know for our friends in the states and elsewhere, this will clearly become an example case.

Music:
Could Rdio be a kind of Netflix of Music? Some people are investing $17.5 million thinking it is. Plus they throw in some social media elements. I'm not sure it can work, but the model they're using has been validated (Netflix), and they've got cash. Plus some of their competitors haven't been too bright – though Apple is their most serious threat. Might be resume-worthy, and worth keeping track of to see how their model works.

Publishing:
Borders probably could file for bankrupcy at the end of the month. We're sadly not surprised.

Props to Epocrates for their IPO. A nice smart company with a good idea for getting medical records and information out, I'd give them a ring and a resume. It's also nice to see a non-"event" IPO out there.

– Most interesting point to me is that people are getting used to multisource content. That makes me wonder about the future of microtransactions for content.

Science:
Are cleantech companies missing the boat on how they should work? Good questions to ask and hopefully answer.

Technology:
Verizon is going to throttle high-bandwith data users – Admittedly in a way that doesn't shaft other people, but this still isn't going to be popular.

Video:
How much would you pay to get "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" on your streaming service? If you're Hulu, $40 to $50 million. Yeah, I know, I keep thinking it's wrong too, but wow. As Hulu hasn't been looking too organized I'm not sure how much thought went into this – but if these prices are legit it might help those of you working in video/streaming scale pricing plans.

Video Games:
OUCH. THQ posts a record loss

MUST READ: A great analysis of the success of Minecraft. Goes beyond some of my previous analysis, focuses on tribal structure (very Godin) and in general is just damn well written. Go and learn.

QUESTION OF THE DAY: So what effect will Canada's experience have on other countries – and how fast?

– Steven Savage

Massive, massive Everything Wars, a new way to get Android apps, bad news for MySpace . . . what a day!

Career:
Students? You might be getting the job search wrong.

Y Combinator is making a directory of great designers. This intrigues me as it could be a new form of talent brokerage and startup access (or become a lame Who's Who).

Economics/Geekonomics:
Must Read: The modern trend of Microwork which in a way is a web-enabled mixture of freelancing, for-pay, and commission work. This is a big trend for how you can get work done and how you work – and if you're founding your own business, here's some opportunities.

Top News:
Egypt is back online. Let's hope the ongoing issues are settled without violence. I've also not seen as much discussion of this in the US as I'd expected.

Everything Wars:
Google went after Microsoft over search results, and now Microsoft is going after Google on Video Formats in what I have to say sounds like a childish tit-for-tat. there might be further conflict brewing here – the conflict may really be over things we haven't seen yet.

Anime/Manga:
Tokyopop starts its America's Greatest Otaku series, running on Hulu. I am not entirely enthused about the idea as I can see it becoming undignified, but it is raising an element of geek culture to further attention . . .

Media:
More look at Google's chase for eyeballs as it reorgs. Unfortunately this means they're stuck in the usual content-race-to-the-bottom-for-ad-dollars. Between this and some of the other decisions, despite their attempts to move and rebrand quickly, I'm going to take them off my list of companies I recommend working for – this is too fast, too unsure, and sounds like they're in danger of going straight up content farm. I retract my previous praise in the light of recent findings.

Publishing:
Apple/News Corp's 'Daily' hits the iPad. OK, now let's see what happens.

Social Media:
MySpace will likely get sold. No one surprised.

Technology:
Google introduces not only its newest version of Android, but a new Android-based store accessible via the browser. Google also has an SDK supporting in-App purchases which is a shot across the bow of Apple . . . and something else people making ez-apps have to keep in mind.

Google got rejected by Path. It appears to be Google Rejection Time for companies. Path also sounds like an interesting tool . . .

OK now I'm not sure here, but Time Warner bought a large hosting/management company. It sounds almost like they want in on the service side of tech – but I wonder if this is part of other publishing and distribution initiatives. Oh and this is in Massachucetts.

A Yelp For Software? Try OnCompare. Sounds interesting, let's see if it evolves – might be useful with strong social media integration.

. . . and the Samsung Galaxy has a high rate of returns. Sad, as I liked what I saw. Looks like others didn't.

QUESTION OF THE DAY:So just what do you think happened to the Galaxy?

– Steven Savage