Steve’s Kill Your Cable Adventure #1: The Device Experience and The Discussion

Well, there's a lot of re-orging going on at my apartment.  One roommate is moving away for work for a year.  Another may move.  Plus we've thought of a relocation anyway for a bit more walkability.

Somewhere among all of this we came up with trying to Kill Your Cable.

It fits.  It saves a good amount of money a month, lets you not pay for stuff you don't want, and it's seemingly the wave of the future.  So my remaining roommate and I looked into this – and I'm going to share my findings.

Kill Your Cable both seems to be a trend – and be inevitable.  So I'm going to explore it from the user end and see what lessons we can learn from it – programmers and media people, pay special attention!

So here's what we found.

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Skyrim, Social Games, and Social Needs

So, yes I'm still playing Skyrim, as is apparently everyone on the planet.  Of course this has me thinking about gaming trends and what they mean for careers because this is me.  I've leveled up my News Speculating to 100 and bought several perks.

Anywy, lame game jokes aside, I wanted to toss out a thought about the geekonomy and gaming trends.

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News Of The Day 11/28/2011

Black Friday News, dark news about the bank bailout, and a cloud over Zynga.  Not your most pleasant day . . . but things may look up for Hulu!

News Of The Day: Economics/Geekonomics:
Sure Black Friday had some good numbers – but look what it took to get them. Something to consider as this Black Friday did see a lot of odd hours, extended deals, and more – and those cost money/profits. So take any numbers you see with a few grains of salt – and keep following this to see what the results are.

The details on the bank bailouts are coming to light. It's not pleasant – and wasn't always public or even explained to elected officials. This is a huge list so take your time reading it. There's a lot of nasty bits here which may affect a lot of public opinion/political actions if the public pays attention.

Technology:
A self-taught computer geek asks how to get a job at Slashdot. Plenty to chew over here for you geeks and computer types who have taken a similar route.

Video:
Hulu Plus May Expand to Germany. This of course helps them take on Netflix in a way – and Germany provides them a relatively unique ground to work in. If Hulu makes it it may breathe life into the ambitious, but erratic, venture, and change competition on streaming video.

Video Games:
There's worry ove Zynga's future and it's not exactly surprising. Internal culture problem, acquisition failures, and a flat release. Of course this is even more important with an IPO coming up – and with the luster off of some current IPOs (Hint: Groupon), it may not help them at IPO time.

QUESTION OF THE DAY:Is the bloom off of Zynga's rose?

Steven Savage