News Of The Day 7/15/2011

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The German's aren't happy with the US' debt ceiling, Harry Potter sets a record, the six million dollar man is back . . . there's a lot going on!

Economics/Geekonomics:
Guess what? Germans aren't happy with America's debt ceiling mess. Our political stupidity is threatening our economy, the global economy, and looks to permanently damage the country's political standing. Keep watching, because a failure means not only a double-dip recession, but a need for a political as well as economic recovery.

Movies:
OK, disclaimer: I loved Burrough's 'Mars' novels in my youth; how can you not love a crazy-romantic mixture of swordplay, romance, action, aliens, science-fiction, and of course Tars Tarkas, the best four-armed brother-in-arms EVER? OK, I'm biased.

Anyway the trailer for the John Carter movie is out. I'm tentatively intrigued as it seems to have it's own style, be rather understated, and Lynn Collins is totally making me buy her as Dejah Thoris. So why is this important? Because the 'Mars' series is A) very formative to Space Opera, and B) eleven freaking novels long, begging for a lot of series and takes.

If this film succeeds it could open up people's interests in old-school SF like Skylark, Lensman, and more. That's a mineable and rich amount of material. If it fails, it'll annoy a LOT of people and probably put the kibosh on retromakes for awhile.

I of course want it to succeed. William DeFoe as Tars Tarkas is awesome.

On to Harry Potter, the second Deathly Hallows film set a midnight box office record.

Publishing:
A look at why Sony's e-reader isn't a Kindle Killer and what they messed up. How bad? Well I keep forgetting there IS a Sony e-reader and this is me. Sony's had a lot of stumbles lately, this is another one that does make me nervous.

Remakes:
OK, I'm not sure I can get behind a Six Million Dollar Man reboot as 'The Bionic Man.' However with Kevin Smith helming it, I'm tentatively confident. With the retromakes lately, if this works look for a possible movie or TV option.

Security:
The Pentagon lost 24,000 files in a cyberattack on a contractor. Contractors are actually a big point of vulnerability, period. I'm waiting for the fallout from all these hacks and outages as I can't think people are standing by and not wanting to pass laws, improve security, freak out, etc. I just don't see it yet – are we so passive now? Or do we accept this?

Social Media:
MUST READ: Has Facebook missed it's IPO window? The article says it hasn't, but notes all companies has their time, and Facebook is being nibbled at by time and Google+. If Facebook has indeed missed an ideal window, an IPO could be disappointing – and dangerous.

It looks like Microsoft has some social networking tool in the works.

Video Games:
Hmmm. EA raised debt to purchase PopCap though it did have cash on hand. Do they have other plans that are going to need the money?

QUESTION OF THE DAY: So why do you think EA went into debt instead of spending cash?

– Steven Savage

Frustration Friday: Local Distractions, Global Issues

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You may have noticed recently I got curious about the future of China and the Geekonomy. Well, more appropriately I became more curious about China – if you follow the global economy, China is something you follow.

So here we are with so many world changes that affect all of us.  Greece melting down (and Portugal to follow apparently).  China's big search company allying with Microsoft.  Japan's potential entry into the rare earth market.  Massive media scandals in the UK.

So much news.  So many geeky things to keep track of.  So many usual economic things to keep track of.

You know I'd LIKE to be able to pay more attention to it.

See the problem is watching economic stupidity here in the US. 

The whole debt ceiling mess was, to say the least, a distraction, and a stupid one.  There's never been any real debate about the debt ceiling in its history, the political posturing was dumb, and the whole mess was potentially destructive.

None of it had to happen of course.  But it did.

So what did we miss during this time?  What could we have focused on if Washington had been behaving like adults?  What could I have been focusing on?  What could our shiny-thing-chasing media have been focusing on?

I'm not entirely sure because, of course, I was trying to find out if my government was going to melt down the economy and take the world with it.

Really people, we have other things to do.  All other political immaturity aside, we got other stuff happening.  We don't need you to make more.

– Steven Savage

Late Breaking Geekery: Netflix Rage

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Thanks to our regular Rob, for the news about People Being Unhappy at Netflix over their prices.

I'm still figuring Netflix' strategy, and from what I can figure:

  • They want to focus on streaming.
  • They will probably phase out DVDs in the next five years (which is expensive)
  • They are making some radical change now at the top of their game as opposed to when it can hurt them more.
  • People won't quit as much as the threaten.

So your takes?

– Steven Savage