News Of The Day 2/24/2011

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(Sorry this went up late, we'll still have today's news)

Economics/Geekonomics:
A look at why Ireland's economic bubble burst. It actually is more crazy than I thought, including mixture of private-sector corruption, public-sector patronage, and now a massive immigration issue – as in people leaving.

Get some insight into the MERS mess. It looks like the folks there are confident of support from the government – though the current plan being kicked around by the government seems to be a weird grab-bag to me.

And this is from FORBES: How 'financialism' is destroying America. A simple but concise point that focus on short-term gains and shareholder value undermines capitalism and society.

Geek Law and More:
The FTC is going to look at the impact of freemium games. I could have seen this coming.

Anime and Manga:
Oh this is interesting: Kodansha and Dai Nippon acquire Vertical, an American company that does a lot of Japanese translations. Well we've been waiting on Kodansha's big moves, and here you go – that's a big one as 50% of their titles will be Kodansha. Hey, why have the Japanese companies make deals here when they can just buy or start companies . . . Cool Japan has deep pockets.

Film:
Remakes and re-imaginings continue, including, I kid you not, The Bodyguard. Also there's a sort of remake/spinoff/re-take on Hellraiser.

Media:
Is Disney aiming to add youth horror to it's mix while the Princesses take a break? Henry Selick's new studio is working with them on a film called Shademaker – and he has a hell of a background, including some creeptastic stuff. Also they're in San Francisco, so keep an eye on this to see what it says for Disney's direction (if they find one) and job oppose.

Medicine:
Ouch. Medical tech bigwig Medtronic is cutting 2000 jobs. Sounds like they're a bit directionless.

Science:
io9 looks at agribusiness trends that are going to run into problems.

Social Media:
LinkedIn is blocked in China, possibly due to the Twitter connections. Interesting article, and a good look at issues with China, Social Media, and local competition. The Chinese market has many unique demands (politics aside) that can be difficult to meet – but expect people to try for that big, big market.

Disney bought Togetherville a kid-friendly social network. I can see many reasons to have bought them – from using it as a Disney brand to a method to get people into their network to ad sales – but let's see what happens. I'm still getting a handle on Disney's directions.

Social Media tech company Syncapse raises $25 million. Don't know much about them, but that is a nice chunk of money.

Software As A Service:
Box.net lands $48 million in investment. Box.net is a big SaaS storage/collaboration site that's getting a lot of use (indeed, I use it). More CorpTechPocalypse on it's way it appears – they've got quite a presence and can leverage this money. Probably, so send your future Storage Overlords a resume.

Television:
OK, I'm finding the fact Lifetime has two more Natalee Holloway-related projects a tad creepy.

Video:
Dogpile on Netflix time, it seems everyone wants someone to pony up for their use of bandwidth from metered usage to an outright tax for infrastructure. This is on top of the whole Level 3/Comcast mess. I feel for Netflix (who I feel is an outstanding company and service), but we're running into a lot of real issues, from infrastructure to sheer greed. How they navigate these waters will affect not just them (though I expect they're virtually unkillable), but will affect taxes, bandwidth usage, and more. I give it a decent chance (slightly higher than 50%) that Netflix gets more political to deal with this – which may have many implications.

Video Games:
Deep Breaths People! There is apparently going to be a Doctor Who MMO. Sounds like it uses the TARDIS as a hub system and people play folks recruited by the Doctor. The game company, Three Rings, created the beloved Puzzle Pirates MMO, so it's an interesting, if short, pedigree being applied to the game. Will it work? I have no idea, there's not enough to say, but it is intriguing, and shows the BBC's continuing commitment to the property.

In a cool move, Gearbox wants to hear from Duke Nukem contributors to make sure they're properly credited. Smart, classy, community-building, and helps avoid legal nastiness, very smart. I still say watch Gearbox, company with a lot of potential – and some serious smarts.

– Steven Savage

Frustration Friday: Hiring and Unemployment

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As you may have heard, apparently some people trying to hire folks for open positions have decided that having a job is one of the major qualifications for getting a job with them. Yes, this is a case where the best qualification for coming to their company is apparently that you're currently employed and willing to leave. People that are out of work are apparently out of luck as well, leading to a strange Catch-22, and evidence that some HR departments don't know what the hell they're doing.

I've tried wracking my brains as to why any sane, rational human being would use this as a standard for hiring, and as far as I can tell it's like the Microsoft rule. You don't get fired for recommending Microsoft is a solution, and if someone you hire turns out to be a bad choice, then you don't have people judging you that you hired someone unemployable because you can say "hey, they had a job at the time!"

However, as you may guess I think this is incredibly stupid. So stupid that it rates both the Frustration Friday and a series of bullet points! So get ready for formatted anger.

So, why do I think this is incredibly stupid? Let me count the ways (and bullet point them, of course).

  • First of all, there's the disloyalty factor. Do you actually want to always hire someone willing to skip out on their current job? Have you investigated their background and see if they're prone to skipping jobs anyway?
  • Second, there is the question of competency. Have you ever thought of the fact that maybe they want to leave for good reasons, like the really really screwed up their current position?
  • Third, there is what I like to call "the you're an ass" factor.  Congratulations, nameless HR person, you've just made you and your company look like a bunch of insensitive clods. By deciding that you only wanted to hire people currently have jobs you have guaranteed you've pissed off anyone who's unemployed, and if you do hire them, they are going to trust you much less–with good reason. Nice job, nameless HR person.
  • Fourth, you have just opened your company to potential claimant discrimination suits! Nice job as well, say hello to the EEOC.
  • Fifth, you are in an unethical jerk.  You may just think you're doing your job, but really, do you buy that excuse?

So, yes, I think making current employment and a factor in hiring somebody a stupid idea on many levels.

I'd like to end this frustration Friday with some useful suggestions or wisdom. So let me reach out to all those HR people the decided employment should be a factor in hiring people.

Don't do it.

– Steven Savage

Speculation on ‘Content Farms’

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And what's the word in media today my fellow geeks? Two words actually, "Content Farms".

Yes, suddenly Content Farms are in the news, in the wake of AOL's acquisition of the Huffington Post (and AOLs own strategies), search engine loading, and more. I'm concerned that "Content Farm" is going to become a big new buzzword–so in short I'm concerned about how people are concerned.

Don't get me wrong, Content Farming in its worst manifestations is pretty freaking annoying. I understand the need to generate content (after all I'm a content myself), and I do believe some companies, industries, and so forth may go too far. Making low-quality or no-quality content just to get hits and drive up advertising is something I have a problem with.

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