Career
- Resigning in Klingon? Not always a professional approach apparently.
Comics
- DC is now lying to kids writing letters. Really, DC, you’re like a slow-mo publicity disaster.
Culture
- Fanficton and it’s importance – Get into one person’s view of what it meant for them.
- Why marketers fear the female geek – How a pathological marketing cycle has created and reinforces sexist pathology in parts of geekdom. Must read.
- Sexism also a challenge for female journalists. A must read.
- Donate filk books to an archive. They also archive a lot of other stuff – get involved!
Economics
- MUST READ: Economic mobility is not evenly distributed in the United States. This explains a lot, and may give you ideas of how to increase your opportunities.
- Just what is middle class and what happened to wages? Salon takes a look.
- There are reasons to be optimistic about the American Economy in 2014. Weird, but true. Admittedly I’m optimistic as the entire thing hasn’t crashed and burned yet.
- Retailers problem is having too much inventory and paying people too little. Must read – the latter is understandable, but the former and other fine details are fascinating.
- The secret to Kickstarter success is to mention Cats. Who know?
- Tech Bubble 2.0 is looking rather probable.
Food
- An automated Burrito vending machine? Again, food automation is the future, I feel. The results don’t sound to . . . er . . . hot, but it’s something.
Marketing/Promotion
- 3 Laws of Hustle – Not what you’d expect. Get some deep advice, and there’s a lot of psychology here.
- The Digital Marketing Talent Gap. Worth reading – and may explain some career issues.
Media
- Japan to tax foreign made content sold electronically? There’s one I didn’t see coming, though there is some interesting precedent for physical media.
- Gundam Creator and a Hollywood Partnership – Must read. Not only makes me wonder what adaptions he is/will/may do, but how busy it’ll keep Scott.
Technology
- Young Americans are attached to their Smartphones – It seems to be the must-have, must-use computing device (especially in some socioeconomic bands). Worth reading to understand marketing impact.
- A new 4K Blu-Ray format coming? I’m still not using the old one. Worth reading since it keeps you up on what seems to be an unneeded technical change.
- A library that only has electronic documents? Not sure I want this to be THE future, but could be an idea of what some libraries may add.
- An iPhone today is more powerful than the first Mac. Good perspective. It also makes me feel old, so get off my lawn.
- Founder of a Bitcoin startup arrested for money laundering. We’ll see how this affects Bitcoin.
- A multi-substance 3D Printer. $5K now, but you know it’ll go lower.
Video Games
- The money in “Angry Birds” isn’t in the game. It’s in everything else.
- Playstation really has a game streaming service coming. I remain skeptical, but applaud their ambitions – and as usual, job seekers pay attention.
- China has lifted it’s video game console ban. Let the rush begin . . . or not . . .
- Nintendo is facing a challenge in China. So if you’re expecting them to penetrate that market like elsewhere – don’t. I also suspect if this prediction is true, except another loss of confidence in Nintendo.
- Nintendo cut it’s Wii sales forcecast for the Wii by 70%. Not surprising. Nintendo has survived a lot, so I don’t think they’ll fall apart, but I do wonder what’s next. Use this to judge your next actions in gaming . . .
Writing
- A look at the trend of “monster porn” fiction on Amazon – Actually has some insights (including the obvious fact this is part of a larger trend). Though the books on the subject do get in trouble.
- How is electronic distribution changing tastes? Not everyone is positive on it.
- No new public domain books this year – Since American copyright sucks.
- Weird effects of being a writer. Yes, these are real.
- It seems writers aren’t pleased with self-publishing or regular. It kind of sucks period.
- 10 Things You May Not Know About eBook Pricing. Quite telling – and the US and UK have big differences.
– Steven Savage