News Of The Day 9/14/2010

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Social Media mania and more, as Twitter changes, DeNA continues to square off with Zynga, and PopCap heads for Korea. It's like a game of Risk, only far geekier!

Career:
Personal Branding? This post suggests there's two best outcomes.

Culutre:
Does web video accelerate innovation? The answer here is 'yes.' Something I never thought of actually, so I present it for your thoughts.

Economics/Geeokonics:
We can't escape a second recession? Not quite sure I agree – but I do agree people seem awful shy about acknowledging the possibility. Yves puts in some thoughts here.

Tired of blaming Greece for current problems in the EU? Now you can blame France for the Great Depression. Not sure if Kedrosky is being humorous here or not . . . I present this as a change from our usual Greek Fire reports.

Comics:
OK, so get this. Graphic.ly will now have Marvel comics available on their desktop app at $1.49 apiece. They're still $1.99 for iPad and iPod, but since you can read on many devices, you can buy them for the desktop and save 50 cents. So we have a price point, or at least an experimental one.

Science:
Vantage Point now has a $100 million fun for investing in China Cleantech. You know all those panicky discussions that China is sucking up the Cleantech dollars? Yeah, they seem less and less irrational. I think the U.S. is seriously missing out here.

Social Media:
Facebook versus China? The Sohu.com Chairman thinks Facebook will loose out to local companies – which I can kind of see.

Catch up on all the Twitter announcements, which is kind of . . . lifestream/facebooky. Well, a good addition of features it seems. Wonder why John Mayer left?

Technology:
Intel invests in four more companies. It's from their Investment Arm, but I'm still curious as Intel seems on the move.

AOL is still hiring. Yes, I' confused too.

Videogames:
DeNA (which is apparently Japanese for 'Zynga') acquires Social Game company Gameview. That's a US company in geektastic Mountain View -and DeNA's third acquisition. DeNA seems to be profitable and heading into the US market. Is this going to be Social Gaming's Godzilla Versus King Kong – Zynga versus DeNA? Stay tuned – this could affect your employment options.

Pop Cap games launches a social game service in Korea. Seems to continue the Asian/US cross-pollination/conflict. PopCap's past actions suggest to me they want to diversify, so this is no surprise.

EA seems bullish on Android. Smart move as they continue to evolve with the market.

QUESTION OF THE DAY: DeNA versus Zynga – who has a stronger hand long-term?

– Steven Savage

It’s All Media

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I was looking over the news of the day, thinking over our podcasts as of late, and noticed that Bonnie and I talk and write a lot about technology companies.  What's Apple up to?  What about streaming video?  What about this or that . . . it's always streams and circuits, chips, and screens, and technology.

We talk about tech a lot.

Here on the blog we're all about geeky things – Tech of course.  Video games.  Also books, comics, television and more.  We're not exactly a tech career blog, and that's intentional – we want to cover a lot of progeekery.

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Abnormal Strength

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You're not normal.

OK, technically none of us are normal.  Normal is a statistical concept, and if you meet anyone who is actually "normal" then they're pretty abnormal.  Normal is for math and stats, averages and estimates.  It's not for people because we're usually all not normal.

In fact, if you think of it, abnormality is great.  Abnormally strong, abnormally smart, abnormally creative – those are powers, abilities, gifts we can use.  You're probably better at something than a lot of other people you know, and you feel pretty good about that.

If you're a geek, and you're reading this so you probably are, I bet you have a lot of abnormalities.

Good.  Because they're your strength.

I want you to look at what makes you different, odd, weird, statistically out there and ask yourself what is a strength or can be.  Your ability to draw well is abnormal.  Your ability to focus obsessively on cosplay is abnormal.  Your ability to memorize sports statistics better than most people is abnormal.

All of this abnormality is, in many cases, being pretty damn good at something or damn dedicated to something – or both.  It's a strength, a power.

So revel in your abnormality.  Identify it and celebrate it. Accept it and enjoy it.

Then?  Figure out how to use it in your career.  Because what sets you apart is what you can build on to make a good, productive, and satisfying career.

– Steven Savage