Steven Savage

Economic weirdness, Blockbuster's Bankrupcy, and a new way to deal with CAPTCHAs? It's must-know geeky job news!

Economics/Geekonomics:
A big dose of dumb from the still totally-screwed-up world of home loans (Hat tip to http://www.geekosystem.com/)

• Man's house gets sold as foreclosed despite the fact he paid cash for it – and this is in Florida, which has a lot of problems as it is.
• MUST READ: A major document processor used by many mortage companies admits to signing off on foreclosures without having read the paperwork. This says several things: the loan industry has some nasty bottlenecks, this will be lawsuit fuel to resist foreclosures, and the system is even more pathetically screwed up than we thought

The Economics of Star Wars.

Media:
Replace annoying CAPTCHA's with ads? Solve Media is looking to do this. There's a level of scary brilliance here that makes me think they're resume-worthy.

Mobile:
Verzion going to tiered prices – Some of this sounds necessary, but expect some of this to get mentioned in the continued ongoing Net Neutrality battles (poorly).

Technology:
Apple could sell 21 million iPads in 2011 – mostly with corporate sales. This is not just big for Apple, and Tablets, but a cultural shift to people being used to a different way of using computers (and a product that isn't Microsoft).

Red Hat has a 20% gain in Q2 earnings – Looks like it's doing quite well – and of course, it's a big name in Linux.

Do we have our first 'weaponized virus' in the form of Stuxnet?

Video:
A look at just how Blockbuster went bankrupct – a roundup that provides a nice summary of just what happened.

Roku ups its game in the wake of the Apple announcement with new features and pricing.

QUESTION OF THE DAY: Could Blockbuster have saved itself?

– Steven Savage