News and Analysis – Page 9

News Roundup January 2014

January 31, 2014 by Steven Savage

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

Geek Job Guru: News Roundup For December

December 31, 2013 by Steven Savage

Taking a tip from Scott, at the end of each month I’m going to do a roundup of geek career news – somewhat truncated due to the holidays.

Anime and Manga

Why One Piece is Popular. Some things to learn, and it’s not just the fact that you can watch a stretchy pirate fight a butane-powered Tim Curry.

Culture

Viral Stories are probably BS. We knew that. Use this next time you’ve got a good debunking to get to.
TED Talks are missing the point. Unfortunately we all kind of suspected that.
Cartoon execs aren’t interested in girls. Why some shows are dismal – and it also seems they’re dumbing down things for males. Paul Dini dishes.

Economics/Geekonomics

Monetary stimulus explained in coloring book form. A clever use of art, and also kind of sad that this helps explain things.
You may want to move to Wisconsin for an innovative state? Yep, you may.
Worst investment? Corn. Makes some of those questionable startups seem reliable.

Film

Will the “Avenger-izing” of blockbusters kill movies? A persuasive argument that this vast, interlinked film idea could consume attention, lower effective targeting, and in general be a pain in the backside.
Let’s hope the media learned these lessons. io9 does a smart roundup.

Education

Online courses not doing as well as promised. No one is surprised, but this is important due to the value of education, the facts of the failure, an the way this has been overhyped.

Media

How Netflix is winning in a few charts. There will probably be a documentary on this – on Netflix. OK jokes aside, worth reading to understand why.

Green Tech

VC’s are avoiding greentech – which may mean bargains. Bargains may mean an eventual rush into the area. Certainly the opportunity is there, especially in America where other’s are cleaning our clean clocks.
Tesla is making moves into China. So is everyone else. Good for spreading greentech, but I don’t know how stable their economy is.
Climate Resiliency is now in the public lexicon. This is good for human survival – and may mean your next engagement is green tech. Ready to make a difference?

News

The Patch Hyperlocal site is winding down – Remember when Bonnie and I were big on AOL? Yeah. Kind of ashamed of that. Hyperlocal didn’t seem to take off in the way people hoped.

Technology

Microsoft buying Nokia may have been a no-brainer and a survival strategy. Microsoft could use a few good ones right now. Now, does it work . . . there’s the questions. I’m also not sure how much more hiring/buying they may do.
Dell’s going Cloud (like everyone else) Worth seeing if this helps them out and opens up any opportunities.
A look at the hyperevolving world of Open Source. This is a must read because it helps you grasp how these open source solutions come in so fast and change things. There’s tech I haven’t heard of a few years ago I work with constantly now.
Designing for Mobile is messing with good web design? I confess I’ve wondered myself, so give this a read.
Google is taking on Amazon’s dominance in their own way. The author looks at the strategy and why it’s a good idea.

Writing

Print isn’t dying any time soon. Good to know – and important to know for writers.
Booksellers are cautious on Holiday sales – for understandable reasons.
How Demand Media failed. A story of how a content farm failed, that is telling on any numbers of levels.
There’s an open source novel at Github. There’s an interesting project to study.

– Steve

Geek Job Guru: Drone Delivery And Careers – No, Really

December 18, 2013 by Steven Savage

Flying Drone - Future Of Delivery?

So we’ve all heard about how Amazon is interested in using delivery drones. This has led to everything from your inevitable “will it take off” jokes, to eBay’s CEO mocking the idea, to UPS and Fedex talking about their own drone delivery plans. We’re all talking drones, and not just the whole military-controversy thing that’s been around for a few years, but about them becoming part of our lives.

I don’t think we’ll have drones in 4-5 years as Bezos expected, or said, or hoped for, or trolled (depending on what you think). But the interest in drones plays into something larger that I want to address, because it affects geek careers. The interest in drones isn’t new, it’s just the manifestation of the trends I’ve been following geek job-wise for awhile.

The “drone thing” is part of the overall trend towards more automation. And that gives us some career hints that are useful for we geeks.

An Old Hat Slightly Redone

Drone delivery really isn’t much different than anything else automated. It’s an extension of plenty of other robotic systems such as sorting, packaging, and even vending machines. In fact, that vending machine factor is something I always return to, and something I keep covering.

Needless to say, time for me to return to the subject.

I see the latest drone fad as nothing more than an extension of our already continuing love affair with automation. It now just add door-to-door deliver to the sorting, packaging, shipping, and manfuacturing automation we’re used to. Admittedly door-to-door delivery by a faceless machine with whirling blades, but door-to-door (or something close) nonetheless.

Really, it’s no different than anything else we’ve seen in automation. We have automated pizza, automated coffee, Shop24, and of course good old RedBox. Why shouldn’t delivery be next?

Drones just stand out because they sound really cool. Actually that’s the only reason they stand out. Well, that and a few issues . . .

Droning On About Problems

Let me be blunt; I don’t think we’re going to see a successful wide-spread drone delivery program in the next few years. I can’t say “never”, but let us say I can’t conclude they’re going to be some world-changing addition to our shipping economy at least in their current form and in the current economic state. In implementing drone delivery, I see the following issues:

In the words of Lewis Black there’s “eight razor-sharp reasons they can’t be used as delivery vehicles.” Building on his observation of the safety issues of a small, mobile gathering of whirling propellors traveling about, there’s also questions of malfunctions, crashes, short-outs, and more on something flying around. Making these things safe will be tough.
FAA regulation, law enforcement, and government. People won’t be tame about unmanned, remote aircraft zooming around. There’s going to be lots of regulation at the very least, and that will change when . . .
The inevitability of malfunction or worse. These are new technologies, zooming through populated areas, using an unpopular idea (drones), and essentially wearing giant “please hack me signs” on their chassis. Something unsavory will happen by accident, prank, or purpose.
The complexity factor. It’s one thing to deliver a vending machine or automate a shipping line. Adding the maneuvering of an object through 3D space and the environment into the process adds unpredictability. Amazon is willing to take risks, others may take risks, but this is going to add a lot of risk.

So no, I don’t see drones as the next big thing. But the fact we’re talking about them says something else – we’re just seeing people try to extend automation in the delivery process. That’s what’s important to our careers, drones are just a spectacular part of that wish.

One More Automated Layer

So drone talk aside, what I really take from all of this is we’ve got another area of possible automation going on; automating delivery. That’s what the real story is for our jobs, and what I want to focus on for your careers.

The cat is well out of the bag and has run away on this idea. Google’s got experimental automated cars, Amazon is pushing drones, and we’ve seen many attempts to innovate delivery systems by those whose job is to deliver stuff. Thats where some of we career geeks may want to pay attention.

Because the razor-sharp propellor delivery system of the future aside, if this many companies are looking at Drones or even talking about it, then there’s an acknowledgement that more can be done in the delivery space.

This is where you come in:

Any attempt to automate delivery is going to need people good at the mechanical. Drones aside, even a better sorting system for a vendor or a better offloading system are important.
If you’re a coder, look into how automated systems are coded, because there’s going to be more of them.
On the subject if you are involved in any hands-on or developmental work, start tlooking into automation AI, processes, 3D maneuvering, and more. Because this is an area where a lot can go spectacularly wrong, being able to understand the problem is a career advantage.
If you’re involved in shipping, handling, receiving, this may not be an issue for awhile, but as it has come up it will be a change in your job eventually.
If you’re a law geek and involved in policy, I’m not kidding, this is great for you. There’s going to be so many legal, compliance, and safety issues your knowledge is going to be needed.
Into training, tech writing, and documentation? Just imagine how explaining this to people will be, and how your skills will be needed. Just imagine the legal requirements law geeks will find that you’ll have to cover . . .

No, I’m not sold on drones. I am sold that this means more automation in delivery methods – or attempts.

This means opportunities.

Closing

I’m going to be watching the Drone trend, but more as part of the larger picture of automated delivery.

Would I base your career on drones and automated delivery? Well I wouldn’t base your career on any on thing – and this area is too unpredictable. But I’d say keep it in mind, especially if it’s up your alley as there is definite potential.

How long that potential lasts, well that’s a question I’m not too sure on . . . but perhaps I’ll come to some conclusions later . . .

– Steven Savage