technology

Our Gifts To The Historians Of The Future

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Well, Chris Brown got into a Twitter tussle with a comedienne.  Warning, strong language, and a reminder of what a sexist jerk he is, if you needed the reminder.

Meanwhile, The Complex put together a list of Donald Trump’s 50 stupidest tweets.  I rather imagine they had to pare it down a lot.

So now between Twitter, screenshots, articles, backup databases, and browser caches, this kind of moronicism is archived forever.

Think of the future.  Think of the historians who will go through this digital embarrassment festival and what they’ll do with it.  History may have been written by the victors, but these days history is written onto disk drives, waiting to be discovered.  Hideous secrets and embarrassing truths will be dug up again and again.

History a hundred years from now will not be the same.

You’re welcome future historians who read this.  Also, kinda sorry about this crazy.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

 

 

So What’s Next For Apple?

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We here at the fan-to-pro group have a mailing list we discuss things on, including tweets, news, etc.  This came partially from my discussion on what’s next for Apple.

And namely, I’m not entirely sure – because it’s hard to know where anything goes next.

Look, Apple was successful.  They defined markets and products.  They defined designs.  They’re being imitated.  They’ve done well – but as we all know, there’s always the question of “what’s next” which is kind of hard when you’ve come as far as they have.

Except I think the question applies to a lot of technology companies.

Where does anyone go from here?

  • The norm is portable phones that are small computers.
  • The norm is tablets that are flat slates of computing power.
  • The norm is slick and powerful laptops.
  • The norm is portable music, portable books, portable video – portable everything.

So we’ve all got a lot of powerful stuff that does all sorts of things out of SF films and technophilic fantasies.  Hell, I’ll say we’re further along technically than I’d ever dreamed 10 years ago.  The problem is I’m not sure what’s next for any company.

Television?  Gaming consoles?  Being subsumed into other devices.  Social media is established.  Until we start implanting things it seems we’ve hit a great pinnacle of This Stuff Is Awesome.

So what’s next for Apple?  Hell, what’s next for any technology company?

For those of us who can figure it out it’s a fantastic career advantage, or a chance to even found a business.  It’s just we won’t always know when we’re right until it’s too late . . .

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

 

Yahoo On Buying Spree?

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Well that’s the prediction at All Things D.  With $4 billion from the AliBaba sale, a desire to turn things around, and a company in desperate need of not being a disaster, this seems like a good way for Marissa Mayer to go.

It’s not like Yahoo hasn’t bought things before.  However, I think at this time this is extremely logical – and something to watch for.

Yahoo can’t survive being Google light.  Yahoo has been squeezed in a lot of spaces.  What it can do is buy other companies, innovate internally, and cut projects/sell off projects that aren’t working.  The first two seem to be Mayer’s MO especially, and I’m sure no one at Yahoo will have trouble with the latter.

Besides, if action happens around Yahoo the board and stockholders will probably be pretty happy since something is happening.  So I don’t expect them to get antsy.

Regarding innovating internally, I’m sure that’ll happen.  Mayer was involved in a lot of projects at Yahoo that are well regarded, including Gmail.  I hear good buzz here in the valley. But as for buying . . .

It’s actually a perfect time.  VC is a bit of an erratic game, I’m sure IPOs don’t look as appealing after Facebook and Zynga.  There’s also legions of smart, innovative, and interesting companies out there, and it’s a time of change and transition.

So what does this mean for you?

If you’re at a likely buyout target (and I confess figuring out what that may be is a bit of a poster), keep an eye on the situation, you may be surprised.

Target or not, see what Yahoo does purchase, as we can probably discern a strategy from it.  That can give you an idea of what may happen to you, to them, and new opportunities.

A riches-to-rags-to-riches story with Yahoo could be a kick in the pants to IT, and bring investors and money further forward to other companies.  WIll it be wisely invested is another question, but hey . . .

Yahoo tossing money around and evolving and changing will probably upset and disturb a few competitors (which we won’t necessarily be able to identify until we see what they’re up to).  Yahoo may disrupt a few strategies.

So a lot of money to toss around.  What’s going to happen . . .

– 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/