Nasty stuff on Dell is brought to light. More depressing Fraudclosure-related stuff – including book form! News as games (or games as news!) Plus the inevitable picture of how badass Karl Urban Looks! It's must-know geeky news – with a picture of Karl Urban.
Career:
A pretty good idea: a job-search specific business card.
Economics/Geekonomics:
Sigh. Some petty fraud in the Fraudclosure mess: document fees. Oddly, if this is more widespread it may get more attention on Fraudclosure because it's easily understandable.
If you want to get depressed in book format, there's a new book out called "The Monster" which looks at predatory lending. An exerpt is here, and yes, I'm tempted.
Geek Law:
I'm vaguely putting this under 'Geek Law' since I'm not sure where it should go. Basically it appears Dell lied or at least danced around issues involving a LOT of faulty computers. I vaguely feel this will be taken in stride by the public, but I'm not so sure in these times. Could mean problems for Dell, certainly means plenty of lawsuit material.
Comics:
More on the Batman Live show: which apparently focuses on the origin of Robin. I confess it sounds pretty fascinating and grand – and I suspect the Robin origin story is a great way to get a younger audience into the show (which sounds like it's the intention). I don't see this necessarily spawning any imitators because Batman is, in the end, relatively normal compared to aliens and mutants, and thus easier to do as a live action show.
OK it's all over the internet, so here's Karl Urban as Judge Dredd. I'm pretty positive on the film and sense a chance for a series, and Urban is such chameleon I'm confident he'll do good. Actually I think that this is quite good for him as I don't feel he's really found a "vehicle" that he deserves.
Media:
Games fused with news? Georgia Institute of Technology's Digital Media Program is researching the idea. I'm not quite sure where this could go – and the initial efforts seem simplistic – but the idea is intriguing. Why not drop these folks a line to find out more or get involved?
Yahoo may be having it's problems, but it hired a pretty powerful bunch of people for it's entertainment page. I figure Yahoo really needs to focus on distinguishing itself, and distinguishing itself in media is one way to do it. It'll make them more appealing to AOL when they buy them out . . . (and yes, I'm figuring that's still a possibility).
Publishing:
Amazon to allow e-Book gifting this Christmas. Right on time.
Science:
OUCH. Roche cuts 4,800 jobs and hundreds of them are in San Francisco icon Genentech. It doesn't seem surprising, but . . . well, ouch. Don't think they should go off of a potential employer list (the cuts seem specialize) but it does make them seem a bit less sure.
Technology:
Fan-To-Pro Crush Object Salesforce is doing great financially (and may I say doing well in a reasonable, not-bubble way). I consider Salesforce to be one of those companies that any working geek should keep in mind. Also, they're going to be making a free version of their microblogging software, Chatter.
Television:
Cheaper and smaller cable tiers sound cool, but this author notes this gets you closer and closer to ala carte pricing. He also notes in a way a channel is also a bundle of things . . . and consumers may ask why they even need channels. Great read – and for my money, ala carte of some kind is coming, it's just a matter of time.
Video Games:
Seven45 cuts staff. This does not surprise me.
QUESTION OF THE DAY: Will we go to ala carte cable one day – or just straight to program-by-program? Or something else?
– Steven Savage