News and Analysis

Twitter limits 3rd party ads, Bloomberg may be delivering a good smack to rating agencies, Flash smacks Android 2.2 into slowdown, and Farmville on your Slurpee? It's a day of weird news, my fellow progeeks – and here it is!

Career:
Thinking of trying a video resume? Here's what to say.

Business:
Are experts the problem in an organization? An interesting speculation that they become bottlenecks. I'm not sure this is that much of an avoidable problem (though methods like SCRUM to help), but this bottleneck effect is definitely something I've seen.  I'm sure you progeeks have seen them . . . or been one . . .

Economics/Geekonomics:
Bloomberg has it's own credit rating system. Not interested? Their system is a transparent, formula-driven system that shows its numbers, as opposed to the less transparent mess that we've seen lately. A very geeky thing (number crunching) that might challenge other agencies – the ones that screwed up pretty badly (and deliberately) . . . and people are aware of it.

Publishing:
Harvard Library turns increasingly towards digital and sharing. Part of current trends, and with big name recognition, perhaps an amplification of them. Remember too that students going to Havard and other ePublishing-friendly universities will get used to this, affecting what technologies they use now and in the future.

Relocation:
Toronto is a geektastic city, but Richard Florida (who lives there), notes there are some things that could improve. I find this article amusing as I find Toronto an ideal city, so it's a reminder that living somewhere makes its imperfections obvious.

Social Media:
Twitter won't allow third party paid tweets into any Twitter Timeline using it's API. Not surprising, but I can see where this gets a little confusing for some people – and a blow to some startups wanting to do Twitter advertising.

Facebook changes its privacy settings. One of the best part of this article is the note that Facebook essentially is under pressure to grow up – and the question is, will it? If it doesn't – or doesn't fast enough – who will benefit?

Technology:
Tthe latest Flash slows Android 2.2's browser the heck down. Beyond the technical warning, this will probably be a point in favor of Apple in the bizarre Apple-Adobe battle. I use Flash to, but hey, I never assumed it's efficient. Or stable. Or even that secure.

Video Games:
Gaikai, who provides a browser-based game streaming service, raises $10 million in venture capital. These guys are competitors with OnLive. Now beyond the job issues (hey, they may need new employees to help spend that money), I think this is a good move for game streaming – when it was all about OnLive that was one thing. A little healthy competition may help something come out of game streaming, which I'm very iffy on.

7-11 sells Farmville slurpees. With game codes. I include this to show you some marketing synergy, and remind you of Zynga's reach and innovations.

MySpace announces its Game Lab to work more with 3rd party developers. They've lined up some good folks already.

QUESTION OF THE DAY: Is Twitter's move with ads going to help it or hurt it?

-Steven Savage

Playdom and Zynga charge forward, the economy falls back, and just what is up with Google TV? It's Must-Know geek news time!

Economics/Geekonomics:
Paul Krugman is concerned America is going to be like Japan, and have a lost decade. I think he has a point, but I think the US's government is more likely to respond to a crisis with some action than Japan's, and those actions may, at least by accident, be beneficial. Do I consider this a possibility? Yes I do, and one of my big concerns is that a "Lost Decade" will have some sectors of society facing incredibly unemployment, and the social destruction wreaked will be enormous – think more than one Detroit.

Now for good news, a modest financial reform package passed the senate. House versus senate comaprisons are here. I'd like to see more aggressive legislation, but this is a good start to address some issues and have better regulation – my hope is that it's enough to regulate/deterr some egregeous behavior.

Anime and Manga:
Crunchyroll does another simulcast. World domination plans continue.

Geek Law:
The CEO of Salesforce calls Microsoft a patent Troll. Not something that'll produce widespread disagreement – what I had missed was that Microsoft claimed Salesforce of infringing on some patents involving data and web menus – which frankly, at first glance, seem stupidly broad. The CEO is *not* fond of Microsoft, and this isn't going to change his mind. Of course I'm biased towards Salesforce in this area, but this story is of interest to anyone in web-app delivery because of the Microsoft claims being what they are.

Music:
Google buys simplify media – Which will help it with music syncing for it's iTunes competitor. Google's voyage into music and television is quite interesting and will doubtlessly be influential – and will they carry their "disruptive" strategy there? I can't see why not, which will mean more complicated Everything Wars and rapid media changes.

Social Media:
More criticism over Facebook privacy. In this case, information being set inappropriately. This entire Facebook privacy thing is quite large, and I wonder if it'll slow their growth. Sure there's no real competitor, but then again in these times a competitor can come along quickly . .

Teleivision:
How Law and Order lasted as long as it did – Rough answer good acting, older cast, solid tried-and-true method. A nice read for those of youw anting to produce media.

How to design apps for Google TV. It's simple tips, but it has useful links. What intrigues me here is A) the fact people have to relearn design skills for apps, B) this takes the app model to, well, television. Think of the ways this changes things, from putting simple App games on TV, to books-as-apps being read ON the TV . . .

Video Games:
Playdom are a busy group: They acquired Acclaim, and now have a deal with ESPN for themed games. On top of their partnership with Moblyng they're adding a mix of good distrubtion, good partnering, and expasion to their plans. I'm very bullish on Playdom's future – these are smart deals.
and are moving into asia with an acquisition. Is shifting out of the US-centric market a step in the right direction for them?

QUESTION OF THE DAY: Will Google TV's app approach represent a radical way to distribute content?

-Steven Savage