News of the Day 10/15/2010

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Anime Kiosks? Blogs to Books? Money in science? More questions? Answers here in the must-know geeky career news!

Career:
The clues someone is a smart job hunter – Are you leaving clues?

Economics/Geekonomics (or "Fraudclosure Follies" as of late)
MUST READ: The primary concerns of the Fraudclosure mess – Nice, simple, easy to understand, and a reason to change your underwear. Reead so you get up on the financial issues that might well mess the economy up – again.

MUST READ: Where global financial centers are. Plus some interesting discussion of what makes a global financial center and how they change. Great, informative read.

MUST TOLERATE: I like the term "Fraudclosure" and am going to be using it. Be warned.

Anime and Manga:
Digital Manga and Tokyopop put 12 more titles on eManga, from BLU. Included for continuing news on the electronic manga front.

Media Blasters to launch Anime Kiosks – Ala Redbox. One can also buy the DVD on a site after renting it. My first reaction is that this sounds way too specialized and limited, but then again I thought Redbox sounded like a weird idea so I could be wrong. It's certainly experimental, and would allow for targeted marketing. I'm going to see what happens and remember my past inaccuracies.

Blogging:
Demand media forms blog distribution network. Might be good for any of you bloggers there (though mostly it seems to be a way to get attention, not make money). Can't really say much more until I investigate it, so I present it for your interest. Yes, I will take a look at it.

Publishing:
Borders makes deal with BookBrewer – This is to let authors publish eBooks at Borders via BookBrewer (yay. More formatting fun for us authors), but also to turn an RSS feed into a book. THAT is intriguing. I'd pay attention to BookBrewer, and to how this goes, and keep it in mind for your blog. If you try it, let me know. (Me, I'm still doing this by hand for now).

eBook sales surge. I know eBook sales of my books are outstripping print.

Science:
Anadys Pharmeceuticals raises $25 million – via stock offering as well. Throw in their location in San Diego and the fact they provide medication for Hepatitis and you've got a good deal here science and medgeeks . . .

Exelixis gets a nice $60 million with a new deal with Bristol Myers. They sound like they're bouncing back after a tough time, that's a nice chunk of change, AND they're in the geektastic Bay Area.

Technology:
Study Blue, a study and study tool service Raises $3.65 million. They're also experimenting with a freemium model. Worth your attention? May be in an age of online teaching and products like the Kno . . .

Newspapers are right to be worried about Tablet Screen Size.

Video:
Netflix on PS3 to be improved, discless. World domination continues. Right now every device plugged into my TV runs Netflix . . . OK most, I have to double-check . . . but you get the idea.

Video Games:
Video game sales down again. I can't say I'm surprised – I am depressed, but not surprised. I don't think it's an industry to avoid, but the message here is that, in gaming, pick your employer carefully.

QUESTION OF THE DAY: How much more will game sales decline?

– Steven Savage

Frustration Friday: Can The Recession Keep People From Hating the Unemployed?

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One thing I'm hoping about in the Great Recession is that people will finally get over the idea that The Unemployed Are Bad People.

I know that's probably a naive hope, since people without jobs appear to be the favorite whipping boys/girls of any politician who wants to score quick points in the "personal responsibility" category, or preachers who want to single someone out as worthy of their god's wrath.  But I'm hoping, perhaps beyond hope, that people are going to learn the valuable lesson that people without jobs are not Bad People.

I'd like to hope that this comes about from empathy.  As people see their friends and family suffer unemployment, they will understand that the unemployed are all of us.  As we find ourselves encountering the unemployed, we will realize they're like us, they're trying, and things are hard.  As we see more of this suffering, we will come to understand it.

Of course for the case of some people, that is a terribly naive idea on my part.  So I also figure that some people will learn that the unemployed are not Evil Incarnate by joining their ranks for awhile.  It's hard to claim some legion of people are a faceless bane on existence when you're part of them.  If anything, it'll at least take a few egos down a peg and humble them a bit.

Sadly that may be naive as well.  I suspect those who need to believe that others are Bad People will cling to the idea the unemployed are Bad since they make such easy (and powerless) targets.  Those who wish to paint the unemployed as bad people, even if they are unemployed, will find ways to claim they're different.  Their egos can't handle anything else.

But, hey, I can hope – and write rants like this with the hope of helping people change.

– Steven Savage

Filling Bars: How Video Games Make Simple Progress Meaningful

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"It's a great way to fill bars" is a reference around my apartment about games that have a "grind" element.  For those don't immediately get the metaphor, it refers to games that have some kind of progress bar in it (often experience in an RPG) that one fills by various activities, and when it is filled, there is some advancement in a game.  You get the idea.

How many of our games are basically bar-filling?  We gain experience points to level a character, get enough science scores to give our fledgeling virtual civilization a technical advancement, or or just plain earn enouhg money to build that next railroad.  A lot of our games are filling bars, meters, or coffers, often from highly repetitive behavior.

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