Fan To Pro - The Blog of Professional Geekery

Links of the Day, 10/31/2008

Video Games

Electronic Arts has said it will lay off staff, with some reports putting the figure at five to six percent. The company's profits have been dropping, and the announcement comes one day before the release of its latest quarterly finance report.

Midway has given interim CEO Matt Booty, who has held the position since March, a nod for the permanent job. The company has had some struggles as of late, so apparently, they believe Booty is the man who can return them to their glory days.

Konami is expecting an 88% jump in profits for the six-month period closing Sept. 30, largely driven by the latest installment in the Metal Gear Solid franchise. A single hit title can carry an entire company in these tough economic times, it seems.

Nintendo's highly-anticipated DSI is said to be hitting the stores next summer, sooner than initial reports that placed its release in the 2009 holiday season. The dual-camera device will be released in Japan tomorrow.

Technology

Is the on-again, off-again Google-Yahoo search deal crumbling? A new report from the Wall Street Journal indicates that Google could walk away from it for good as early as next week. The deal has been mired in antitrust legislation up until this point, so its failure comes as no surprise.

If you're a designer of iPhone apps, your future seems assured - demand for app designers has risen by 500 percent over the last six months.

Publishing

More details have emerged about the cutbacks at Conde Nast. Men's Vogue, which was thought to be scuttled entirely in initial reports, is being cut back to a bi-annual instead - which means it may as well have been scuttled.   

Links of the Day, 10/30/08

Video Games

The music game trend took a new turn when MTV Games announced that it will develop a game based around the music of the Beatles. No word yet whether this will be an edition of Rock Band or an entirely new game.

Also taking a new turn was the saga of the Ghostbusters game, which was dropped by Activision and has been picked up by Atari. The former console maker has also signed a deal with Universal to develop games based on the Chronicles of Riddick movie franchise. More cross-platform multimedia marketing, a trend that shows no signs of going away.

Good news and bad news for Nintendo: Its half-year profits are up by 34 percent, but its full-year profit forecast has been cut by 16 percent because of the strong yen. Nintendo also raised its sales forecasts for the Wii, from 26.5 million units to a new expectation of 27.5 million for the financial year – greater than the current lifetime total for either the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3.

The hottest up-and-coming gaming platform, however, continues to be mobile devices: Square Enix will be releasing a Final Fantasy-related game for the iPhone. Look for other major game developers to be announcing phone projects in the future.

Technology

Phones are making news in other areas. Wal-Mart created a stir by announcing it will sell the Googlephone for thirty dollars less than T-Mobile outlets. Motorola has said it will be focusing on the next-generation Android operating system for its phones in the future, but the first ones to utilize the software will not appear until the 2009 holiday season.

A Harvard law school professor is claiming that the law that the RIAA uses to prosecute music downloaders is criminal rather than civil in nature and may be unconstitutional. If he's proven right, that will have a huge, huge impact on future cases for not only music downloads, but also all types of file sharing.

Rumor has it that Yahoo and AOL are in due diligence talks in preparation for a merger, although spokespersons from inside the organizations are debunking this. The companies have been said to be combining forces for awhile, so this is worth keeping a close eye on.

Publishing

Another major publisher is slashing its budget – this time it's Conde Nast, which is cutting five percent of its magazine staff and may fold the men's edition of Vogue. And the sad tidings from this particular segment of the industry continue . . .

– Bonnie

Links of the Day, 10/29/08

Anime/Manga

 

Funimation is suing a group of businesses, including Discount Anime DVD.com, for allegedly selling bootlegs of their licensed properties, such as Fruits Basket, Dragonball Z and Fullmetal Alchemist. Some of the bootlegs in question were said to contain Funimation's English dubs. This may be the start of a crackdown on distributors of Hong Kong subs and fansubs of licensed properties.

Video Games

Sony's gaming division increased in revenue during the second quarter despite a drop in profits for the overall company, which seems to prove the theory that gaming is recession-proof. The company is also making it easier to develop games for the Playstation 2 by no longer insisting on content approval on games for the system, a move designed to encourage development of programming in emerging markets such as Russia and India.

Xbox 360 will offer streaming HD movies via Netflix via its new Xbox Experience service, which will debut next month. Look for video game consoles to increasingly become complete home entertainment centers in the future.

The gaming industry is showing resilience as a source of jobs throughout North America despite the overall economic downturn, according to a survey by the Game Developer Research unit of Think Services Game Group, which organizes the Game Developers Conference. 

Technology

Motorola is reducing its number of cell phone lines and, consequently, reducing jobs. The company is said to be concentrating its resources on its next-generation Android phone, due to debut next year.

Google has settled a lawsuit challenging its Book Search program, which scans books and makes portions available online. This not only creates a new revenue stream for authors and publishers, it could enable the company to create a global digital library.

LinkedIn has launched its platform to third-party developers, allowing users to add "InApps," productivity-based applications such as Tripit, which allows users to share their travel plans and see who else is close by. 

Publishing

More bad news on the job front here. Time Inc. is reducing its work force by six percent as part of an effort to reorganize the company into three groups: News, Style and Entertainment, and Lifestyle. None of their magazines were eliminated, but all will see staff cutbacks.

Meanwhile, Gannett has announced that it is cutting more than 3,000 jobs at local papers. This is its second round of job cuts, with the first one happening in August. This all emphasizes that now more than ever, it's important for people in this industry to have a Plan B and be prepared for anything.

– Bonnie

Links of the Day 10/28/2008

Economics/Geekonomics/Freakonomics:

• Consumer Confidence Extremely Low - Water wet. Wrestling is sports entertainment.
• Barney Frank plans massive new regulation in 2009 - Water still wet. Wrestling still sports entertainment. On a serious note, this is completely expected - also expect banking to regress to being a smaller part of the GDP's of countries, and a far different career choice for people. I do expect when banking recovers there will be lots of slots in analysis, IT, and regulatory compliance.
• If you're a bank CEO and you're getting bailout cash, you may be asked to show your pay information - Henry Waxman wants to see it. My guess is this will indeed be used in bailout negotiations - but I also think it's a potential way to change laws and policy on executive compensation. People are angry, and folks aren't sure those exec packages are worth it.
• Half of US Companies rated for bonds would be rated as junk - or non-investment grade - Meaning its harder for them to issue bonds and thus raise cash. This is why liquidity is important . . .
• New York faces extraordinary budget shotfall - This could change if the rumored "infrastructure investment" is for real - but either way very un-pretty and sad. Of course I'm in California, where our governor went asking for loans. Relocating? Pay attention to these issues.

Publishing

• Newspapers looking to go around AP with news-sharing consortium - AP doesn't seem to be doing anything to endear itself to people anyway. Collaborative work like this could be another blow to them - and an interesting model for others to follow.
• Christian Science monitor switches from daily to weekly, focuses more on online presence - My guess is the online focus is an experiment for now and weekly could even be monthly if it seems feasible. This is a 100 year old publication, so people are going to pay attention.

Social Media

• Social Media/job company Glassdoor.com lands $6.5 million in venture capital - Well, we wondered what'd happen to GlassDoor in these pages, and the answer is - they got a nice chunk of money. All told they raised about $9.5 million dollars in two rounds, which is a respctable sum. After watching Imeem begin to fade I'm a bit cynical on social media, but this sounds like people think this is worth it. Maybe the future of social media is specialized social media - at least the future for "getting Venture Capital."

Technology

• Microsoft has demoed Windows 7 - Considering the bad reception of Vista, this is quite critical. However I'm not sure how much it'll change - or adapt - until it's release, which is probably 2010 (annoying as I need a new laptop NOW). My guess is Vista is going to be largely bypassed by tech departments in favor of Windows 7.
• Google settles years-old book-scanning lawsuit.
• Google publishes a light roadmap for Android - Very light, but interesting. It's not really marketing-oriented, so it seems to be aimed more at the consumer/developer. Wild thought - are they trying to target the developer/geek market first, then branch out? Also consider writing some Android apps on the side to raise your profile as a programmer.

Video Games

• THQ sues Activision over Box Art Design - Well, we have our gaming soap opera of the week. I admit the cover art does look awful similar for the two boxes. However as noted in the article, these are awful generic designs. Good tip if you are a cover artist or otherwise - go out of your way to know what NOT to make things look like.
• Social game/network Playfish lands $17 million in venture capital - And it's one of many companies in this space. Social-related media is getting awful crowded, but see my above comment on Glassdoor.
• World of Warcraft reaches 11 million subscribers - At any one time, 3 million of their characters are dressed in eye-watering ensembles. 11 million? That's the number to beat if you want to take on the juggernaut.

Jobwise, Deviantart is hiring - so what are you even WAITING for!

And a thought for the day - if Amazon is looking to get into online games, with their social networking engine, are they well positioned to take on other companies in the networking/gaming space? Or is their brand too "determined"?

Ask a Manager: Advice From the Inside

The best kind of job advice is always advice from the inside. If you want to find out how to get hired, what better place to learn from than people who actually do the hiring for companies? The Ask a Manager blog does just that.

Ask A Manager is done by Alison Green, a manager at a medium-sized, professional organization. She said that her aim is to help people get into the heads of their bosses – "If you're not sure what the hell your manager is thinking, or how to ask for a raise, or whether you might be in danger of getting fired, or how to act in a second interview ... ask away." Her advice also appears on U.S. News and World Report's blog, so you know she's all-pro.

Readers of the blog can submit questions to askamanager@gmail.com (Green notes that the queue of questions waiting to be answered is a bit long at the moment). Not surprisingly, a large chunk of the questions that have been answered fall under the "advice about your boss" category, and they run the gamut from "Can a boss require employees to attend an after-hours event?" (Green notes if they do, they should pay people) to "Should I tell on a coworker who may have lied about her qualifications?" (She says to do nothing, you can't know for sure that the person is lying).

The second most popular category on the blog is "Interviewing," which covers topics such as how to answer tricky questions (like "Have you ever been fired?"), signs that your interview went well, the concept of "illegal interview questions" and "How to Tell if Your Prospective Manager Sucks or Not."

Other topics covered include resume writing, performance evaluations, salaries, work habits and dealing with co-workers – with a separate category called "Jerks" for a very particular sort of co-worker. (Most of the entries under that category are about rude bosses, actually).

Green, it may be noted, doesn't mince words – she gives the advice to you straightforward, and in colloquial terms. She also isn't afraid to shy away from controversy when it comes to subjects directly or indirectly related to careers – in a column about Sarah Palin, she calls the vice presidential candidate's winking and flirting "in the equivalent of a job interview for a position of life-and-death importance," and the whole idea that a female candidate should be treated differently than a male one, to be "humiliating to professional women, especially those of us who thought we could move beyond gender in the workplace."

Ask a Manager is an entertaining and insightful blog to read, and while your boss may not think quite like Green, at least it'll give you a general idea of where he or she is coming from!

– Bonnie

The Shelter of School

I know a lot of creative and artistic people, the kind of folks who, if I wanted to learn art would alternately be fantastic tutors, while their actual skill would convince me my practice would never equal their ability and I should just give up and go back to blogging. One of them, when we discussed the economy, said simply that they're hoping that going to school (as well as working a job), and when they're graduated they hope things are better.

Now this person is pretty talented, and I have no doubt they have a good future. In fact, a lot of people may be tempted to stay in school until things get better.

I'm not going to argue it's a bad strategy, I'm going to make a few suggestions on maximizing it. If I was in school now instead of working, I'd probably prefer staying until the economy improved. As it is we may not be out of a recession for two years in the US.

Links of the Day 10/27/2008

Economics/Geekonomics/Freakonomics:

• Technology companies are making loans to customers - This is something very interesting to watch - it could change how tech companies do business, it could come back to bite them, it could make people more confident in tech companies, it could change relations. You get the idea - big tech companies acting to provide minor financial services to customers could have all sorts of repercussions, so watch this space to see what (if anything) happens. If you're working at one of these companies or with them, learn as much as you can.

Media:

• With the presidential campaign over, there goes the media gravy train with all those ad buys, stories, and eyeballs - An amusing and interesting read, and this brings up a question - has all the political news, ads, and so forth kept some media companies and local stations afloat in an economic downturn? What happens when it ends? Or is the media becoming dependent on politics the way many a story chain is dependent on Christmas?

Publishing:

• L.A. Times cuts 75 jobs - The meida/publishing bleed continues. If I may put it simply, if you're looking at a job in news or media, keep a very open mind about what you'll do and where you'll go.

Technology:

• Cox Cable to offer wireless? - And not just wireless service, wireless integration. Odd, but interesting, so watch this for developments and who it may inspire.
• The Android Market opens today - Let us see what happens.
• The future is - DeVry? - Educational firms are doing well. A potential career choice for you perhaps - sharing your knowledge or helping these companies run?

Video Games:

• CrispyGamer.com launches with $8.2 million in Venture Capital - As well as an impressive staff - AND the fact they will take NO money for ads from game companies. After some questions of objectivity the last few years this is, perhaps, welcome, but I'm not sure that another game site is going to make it in the field. Still, $8.2 million is a respectable amount. Other note - they're based in New York, which may give them some advantages in advertising and finance.
• Go Gaia's new MMO zOMG! goes beta - I wonder how much of their recent Venture Capital influx is going into paying for some of this. I also wonder if this social-media-to-MMORPG affected the choice of Turbine to look into LOTR online social networking.
• Games Con moves its dates due to Leipzing convention - The game convention/expo soap opera continues.

And in our "Screw ups" department, Amazon.com had an Obama mask listed as a terrorist costume. This has since been corrected. Allow me to use this incident to push my approach to working in technology - learn to imagine things that can go wrong, it helps you prevent them. I'm sure this was some bad malfunction of reccomendationm/search systems.

I did have a similar, and amusing experience myself - finding a map websitedoesn't recognize certain areas I live in as having streets divided by a freeway - which they are. This doesn't sound like much, except I'm a 20 minute drive from said sites headquarters. You think someone would have noticed . . .

Week in Review 10/26/2008

We're starting a new "Week In Review" every Sunday to help summarize and analyze the trends we've discussed, and make it easier on our readers.  Also, since Sunday is a slow news day, it's an ideal time to look back, reflect - and in some case ask what the heck just happened.

The economy was the big story.  We saw that 20 million jobs would disappear due to the recession, cities and states would have to be cutting back due to dropping tax revenues, 41 of 50 states showed job losses , and  Hollywood was being affected in distinct ways by the credit crunch.   The economy and its permutations post-fallout, frankly, are going to be affecting those of us in the Geekonomy for years to come.  Keep prepared and aware - we had mixed economic news throughout the geekosphere this week.

Consumer electronics, even though sales were slowing, was big with the premier of Google's iPhone-contender and it's "Android" operating system - which will be Open Source (which may provide some advantages against Apple, but may well play into economic trends).  Meanwhile AT&T is unsure about 3G browsing on the iPhone.

Publishing seems to be taking hit after hit, such as the Neilsen Media layoffs on the high level, and Sports Publishing filing Chapter 11.  Marcus Fenez of PriceWaterhouse-Cooper says traditional media has five more years to live in it's current state.   I'm not inclined to say he's out of line.  I'd even say the economic slowdown may actually accelerate the process as opposed to slow it - as new technologies allow for cost-saving measures.

Amazon is getting into online gaming, while other companies like Games2Win do the same.  Amazon has an awful lot of clout, and they've been willing to swing it around in the publishing world - will they do the same in gaming?

Finally, we had some legal weirdness is ownership, monitoring, and censoring in the game industry.  Sony can apparently resell custom LittleBigPlanet Levels and it's EULA's declare it can pretty much record anything online for various reasons - which sounds like more moves to decrease Sony's waning popularity.  Microsoft patents audio censorship technologies, probably for family-friendly gaming.

Links of the Day, 10/25/2008

Anime/Manga

A librarian at New York's Brooklyn Technical High School has been fined for conflict of interest for promoting his daughter's OEL manga, an adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth. The very fact that a Cliffs Notes-type publication like that would be done manga-style is an incidation of how far the medium has penetrated the mainstream.

Video Games

Troubled Flagship Studios, whose Hellgate: London online game was rescued by Namco Bandai after it went virtually defunct, has announced that it will pull the plug on its servers on January 31. This seems to spell the last chapter in the gaming company's sad collapse, a saga we've been following for awhile now.

Three of the most used 3D game art softwares, which were formerly competitors, have now come together: Autodesk, maker of Max and Maya, has acquired Avid's Softimage business unit for $35 million. 

Technology

A federal judge has ordered a Texas college student to pay the Recording Industry Association of America $7,400 to settle copyright infringements stemming from her using the file sharing service Kazaa on her family computer when she was 14-16 years old. The decision contradicts a mistrial hearing handed down in a similar case last month, in which the defendent was found to be an "accidental" copyright violator just by leaving files open on his machine.

Comments from Apple CEO Steve Jobs this week hinted that the company may be in a position to buy up struggling tech firms. He noted that the company has $25 billion in cash and zero debt, and that economic downturns are frequently a boon for companies that know how to take advantage of them.

Microsoft has released an out-of-cycle patch that is said to fix a flaw that allows a worm to get into the system without the user even having to click on anything. The first worm to exploit this vulnerability has already been spotted on the Interweb. This shows just how important it is to always make sure your system software is completely up to date – not to mention the importance for programmers to be on the lookout for, and quickly respond to, any potential problems.

– Bonnie 

Links of the Day, 10/24/08

Anime/Manga

Hachette Press Group is combining two of its imprints, the manga line Yen Press and the sci-fi fantasy line Orbit, into a single division of the company. The Yen magazine and Yen manga will continue to bear that name, however.

Video Games

EA's Xbox 360/Playstation 3 third-person shooter Army of Two is slated to be adapted into a movie by Universal Pictures that will be written by Bourne Ultimatum screenwriter Scott Burns. Production is scheduled to begin next year.

The launch of the upgraded PSP-3000 has been a success in Japan, selling 159,816 units. The PSP has been the handheld of choice on that side of the Pacific for some time – it remains to be seen whether the success can be duplicated here, where gamers prefer Nintendo's DS.

Ubisoft has surpassed expectations for the second quarter, with sales for the first half of its fiscal year up 31.5 percent over the same period of 2007 thanks to the successful launches of Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway and Soulcalibur IV.

Nintendo's new release of the Wii system software apparently contains a block on homebrew applications, bad news for those who want to use the network to spread their own wares.

Technology

Microsoft had an extremely profitable third quarter, with revenues up nine percent from the same period last year. Interestingly, though, the company closed the quarter with less cash, cash equivalents and shor-term investments than Apple, since it has been more aggressive in recent years with putting money into shareholder dividends, stock buybacks, and acquisitions.

iPhone tethering for 3G laptop browsing may be delayed because AT&T is apprehensive about its ability to meet the demand, according to the Gizmodo blog. It'll be interesting to see where this goes, especially as this may set a precedent for 3G technology across the board.

Yahoo is said to be building a major facility in Nebraska, despite the fact that it announced it would have to cut 1,500 jobs to ride out the economic downturn. This means lots of jobs in the midwest: In exchange for getting major state tax breaks, Yahoo has to invest at least $100 million and create at least 50 jobs worth at least $68,700 each within four years.

Publishing

Radar magazine is folding and its online division is being purchased by American Media, Inc., publishers of the National Enquirer, who will continue the celebrity gossip site. Yet another sign of the move from print to cyber for the overall industry.

– Bonnie