Writer, Agilist, Elder Geek
It rained inside a Facebook Data Center.
It was due to high humidity and a chiller-less air conditioning system coming together to produce a high concentration of irony and obvious cloud computing jokes.
Having worked in data centers before, I collect stories like this for use. It’s a good reminder of things people never think of.
You have a favorite crazy technology story?
– Steve
Unless you’re an econogeek like me you probably aren’t interested in the intracacies of the stock market, and even then some arcana may make your eyes glaze over. I reccomend checking out this nice summary of why Facebook’s stock price is problematic. It’s a grand example of how the price plunge affects the company and the issues it faces – oh and that the price will probably remain low because many activities the company may do BECAUSE of it’s issues can end up driving it down/keeping it low.
At this point we’re probably going to see all sorts of hang-wringing by “experts” who by and large, proved to be idiots, but really when you read the article you can see how counting on a high stock price was bad, and you know that we here have been pretty cynical about it. So, no none of this should be a surprise.
Personally I hope Facebook and Zynga get people to be a lot more cautious about stock, stock options, and IPOs. Then again it seems there’s less starry-eyed goodwill than the hideous dot-bomb era, so there is that.
Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach for professional and potentially professional geeks, fans, and otaku. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/
This article pretty much blew my mind. Go read it.
Of course when you consider it, it makes sense. Facebook is sort of flailing left and right but has a userbase. Apple knows they’re not good at social networks. Facebook has talked Phones, Apple made THE Phone. Facebook does a lot of integration – so does Apple. The article also notes Apple could turn this around to be part of the App store.
Really, just read the article.
Anyway, what’s mind-blowing about it is twofold:
First, that it’s entirely possible. The stock is down, it seems potentially win-win, and seriously, Apple is awash in cash.
Second, is that we’re even talking about this. It’s a good reminder of how much money is sloshing around tech right now, and a flashback to the whole MSNBC experience of times past. Just imagine if something like this does happen, it could easily be a trend.
Do I see it happening? I’d put the odds at less than 50%. But I see it as possible.
For us geekonomists, this is fascinating to be sure. But there’s another career takeaway here: we’re playing among behemoths. Some of them can very radically alter the course of technology and the economy. It may or may not be a good idea, or beneficial, or wise, but it can happen. In this case I see the sense to it, but you never know.
– Steven Savage
Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach for professional and potentially professional geeks, fans, and otaku. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/