News of the Day 8/5/2010

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Google/Verizon weirdness, live-action CGI single celled adventure, and plenty of Social Media news! Grab some Natto and let's check what's up?

Breaking Nerdity:
There's been a story going around that Google and Verizon were planning some "special delivery" for Verizon services, which spawned assorted denials. The story is still going and growing, so tune into Techmeme here. It looks like it is more of a separate agreement on some content but is doubtlessly going to tie into the larger net neutrality debate. By now, it's just confusing so I'm going to wait to see what happens – or some of this could be a kind of force-the-FCC's hand trick. Yeah, I know . . .

Career:
Useful advice to fail at your job search.

Interested in the Hidden Job Market? Some tips for leveraging it.

Economics/Geekonomics:
One of the Calculated Risk folks on why he thinks we'll see a slowdown in the second half of 2010. I think he has a point.

Hotel occupancy appears to be up, which may be a sign of some recovery in tourism and travel. There's also some good signs in job postings.

Even more from Richard Florida on the geography of high-paying jobs. I'm hoping he's going to do a whole book – or paper – on THIS, because I'm seeing some megaregion shifts that intrigue me – and I wonder what the cultural impacts are.

Anime and Manga:
OK, Moyashimon was a manga that got an anime and now has a live action with CGI version on DramaFever.com. I guess talking to single-celled creatures is popular, but I'm also more curious to see what's up with DramaFever.com – which looks to be a Crunchyroll.com rival . . .

Social Media:
Google to buy Social Application Maker Slide. Slide is big on Facebook and MySpace. Sounds like it's Google's expand-and-dilute strategy as usual – and probably a good strategy to have a local company. More Everything Wars . . .

Zynga buys Japanese social game firm Unoh. Zynga's expansion into Asia continues . . . and their rival may be DeNA in Japan.

Meanwhile on the Facebook front, Facebook has been buying social networking patents. These seem awful broad, but they're obviously trying to shore up against competitors and potential competitors.

Technology:
Is the answer to your business future in sites where people ask questions. Never thought of this one, but question sites also allow for targeted advertising.

Video:
Chinese Video site Tudou raises $50 million. Don't know too much about them, but that's a lot of money and it sounds like they have ambitions for original work.

QUESION OF THE DAY: So are Question Sites the Answer for a new business?

– Steven Savage

When Tech Became Cool

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Nearly a year ago, I moved to Mac.

I recall it quite clearly when it happened.  I was planning a new Windows Box purchase as soon as Windows 7 came out.  Then I had a virus on my computer, which I managed to fix.  My wife and roommate of the time, both Mac users, had long been suggesting I use a Mac.

So after having blown an evening dealing with my first virus infection in years (apparently due to a PDF vulnerability), I began reflecting on the advantages of having a Mac:
* All the basic software I need.
* Great service and support.
* Much less viruses and such targeting it – and good onboard security to boot.
* Long lifespan.

This all added up though to one, important thing – less frustration.

I'm a busy person.  I'm a PM in technology, and thus no longer being a programmer, a computer crisis is not a Valuable Learning Experience.  I can't imagine what computer problems are like for people who don't have an IT background, though I can guess from the amount of times my friends and I play tech support.

But Mac is relatively frustration-free.  Mac is fast, slick, sexy, and gets the job done.

That's what I wanted.  That's why I got a Mac.  It's also a reason I hear for a lot of people using a Mac.

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The Lessons of Fandom: Entrepreneurship

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You can find previous articles on Customer Service and Business Sense.

If you're a fan, you're probably ambitious in at least some way – you've got fanfic or fanart, leaderboards to rise up in your games, conventions to run.  If you think about it, your fandom goals often take a lot of planning, organizing, achieving, and initiative.

If you're a fan, you've probably been learning a lot about Entrepreneurship.

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