Technology

Fandom, Software, Technology

by

You're probably amazingly literate in computer software and the internet.

To some of you reading this, you wonder if I've had my morning Red Bull because you've done a lot of boneheaded things on the computer.  You accidentally erased files, you just had your far more tech-savvy neighbor redo your security settings after the virus incident.  You don't feel too competent, and you STILL don't know where your vacation photos went.

But you're a fan.  You're obviously wired enough to be on-line to read this.  I'm betting you've got a lot more software knowledge than you've realized.  You may geek out more over bishounen than technology, but if you're your average online fan, you have a lot more knowledge than you may realize.

This of course means a few things:
1) you may want to reassess your resume because you have a lot more technical ability than you realized.
2) You may want to rethink some career options as perhaps you like the technology you work with, you just aren't sure you're too good at it – but if you like it, training can make up for ignorance.
3) You may want to reassess what you're doing in your current career as you may be able to do more than you thought, or may be able to improve your skills more quickly than you thought.

So ask yourself just what you know?
* DId your fanfic writing help you get to know a Word Processor?
* Did doing the budget for a convention make you better at Spreadsheets?
* Were you able to use visio to chart out how to get that cosplay done?
* You were editing a fan-wiki,learning all the markups and ins and outs.

You probably know more than you think, software-wise thanks to your fandom.

Keep that in mind.  Maybe give your resume or your career a once-over and ask what you know that you've missed.  Also ask how you can improve it.

– Steven Savage

Odd thoughts on gaming

by

I have a shelf of old board and card games in my bookshelf.  It's made me think a bit about the geekonomy.

A lot of these games I have are a mix of casual games (the old Dr. Who boardgame.  No, seriously), and more committed ones (say, Iron Dragon).  I recall in the last few weeks seeing an article on what casual gaming is doing to the non-electronic game set.  It's really not something I've thought of.

In fact, I doubt it's something that crosses anyone's minds much these days.

Read more

Social Media: Integration is next

by

So Facebook gets Friendfeed.  A big social media sites get what is essentially a social media aggregator, ensuring of course they have more social media aggregation.

At this rate there are an insane amount of social media sites out there (just take alook at a few of them at http://knowem.com/).  There are many more sites that aggregate some of their information in feeds, gizmos, etc.

To lay it out blatantly, social media aggregation and integration is going to be the new norm.  Social media became a norm, and it also became so incredibly widespread it's hard to track which service you're using.

Read more