Fan To Pro - The Blog of Professional Geekery

Bad Statistics For Fun

This is a glorious infographic on misuse of correlation that you just have to see to appreciate.

Keep this one in stock to use whenever someone makes some insane pronouncement based on bad statistics. And stop naming kids Ava, it's destroying the housing market.

- Steven Savage

Making Stuff That People Will Want To Share

If you’re promoting your video/comic/whatever online, you’re probably hoping it will go viral.  Here are some things to keep in mind that will help it along.

1. It’s About The User
Think of the last few links you forwarded to your friends.  Were they cute kitten pictures that showed you have a softer side?  Was there a funny video that implies you have a great sense of humour for appreciating it?  Maybe it was an article about something complicated yet important, thus showing you’re on the ball about current events.

Make your video say something good about those who like it.  That is, make it funny or clever, so people will want to affiliate those characteristics with themselves.  Forwarding a kitten picture doesn’t just say, “here’s a kitten.”  It says “my name is _____ and I like cute kittens.”

2. It’s About Being Useful
We forward things for a reason.  We want to entertain, inform, or cheer up our friends.  If your video does not do any of those things, it is less likely to be forwarded.  This is why simple things like, “I have an owl, so your argument is invalid” will come up often enough in chats but indie film trailers do not. 

Your video can’t just be good in and of itself.  It has to relate to other things that people will do.  That’s the only way the link will be repeated.

3. It’s About Association
Does your video have a signature image or catchphrase that will be repeated later?  It couldn’t hurt.  I’m not saying you have to force a silly word into your video for its own sake, but it helps if people have something to remember your video by.  If you can incorporate a phrase that people would want to repeat, then you have a better chance of making it go viral.

4. It’s About People
If one person tries to start a meme all by themselves, it will probably fizzle out.  If several people pick it up right at the start, it stands a much better chance.  Therefore, you can ask your friends to pass it along. 

-Tamara Hecht

Analysis - RIM Shot?

Research in Motion Limited, aka RIM and the creators of the BlackBerry, has had several hard hits in the past year. The Playbook wasn't as accepted as wanted and had several shortcomings making it hard for the tablet to complete in the marketplace. RIM's stock took a hit and fell drastically in May 2011, forcing the cancellation of several projects. A global outage this month caused by a hardware failure in a BlackBerry server had RIM offering rebates. What happened to RIM?

It's starting to look (to me, at least) that RIM wasn't ready to expand into the consumer market. The demands of consumers are different from those of business and government, RIM's previous core user base. The company's signature device, the BlackBerry, was launched in 1999 as a personal digital assistant. By 2004, the BlackBerry, called "Crackberry" by users and detractors, had over one million subscribers worldwide. Many of the devices were in corporate and government offices. The various departments of the Government of Canada rely on the device. Who knows how many BlackBerries were taken to Khandahar, Afghanistan, by senior officers in the Canadian Forces? Suffice to say, RIM knows how to handle a client base consisting of large organizations.

Along comes Apple, first with its iPod, then its iPhone, and finally the iPad. Competing with Apple is the Google-created Android on a variety of hardware platforms. These are RIM's first real competitors, with Palm and their Pilots having been left in the dust due to lack of versatile functionality (no email, no wireless). The iLine of devices and Android storm the consumer market. RIM had some inroads to the consumer market, primarily through a userbase that were familiar with the BlackBerry due to work. But, now, there's a choice.

RIM's Playbook tablet would have been enough for the corporate and government sector where there is already a BlackBerry infrastructure set up. The users needing one would already have a BlackBerry, the main item needed to provide the Playbook with wireless and email capability. In the consumer market, though, a tablet that also needs a PDA/smartphone connected is a non-starter. The cost of both would not compete with the iPad, with everything needed all included. Indicative of RIM's current issues was the announcement of a new OS, BBX. Although the OS is a good step, users were also expecting a new device that BBX would be running on. This disconnect is a major issue.

There's two ways for RIM to go. The first is to focus on corporate and government contracts. The infrastructure, particularly the BlackBerry Exchange Server, is in place at many sites, including throughout the Government of Canada. Devices can be upgraded along with the OS. Apple and Android have made little headway there. The other is to find people with vision, technical and non-tech, people who can get a feel for the consumer market and determine what the large consumer base wants before the base itself does. The second choice is harder, but may be what keeps RIM as a technological leader instead of a specialist.

Geekonomy, Technology, Homosexuality, Culture, and Apple

This may be one of my longest post names.

Last week I mentioned I was curious about Tim Cook's appointment as Apple's CEO and the fact he was gay, though it was a subject he didn't talk about (and frankly there's no reason he should or have to).  For me he's a reliable, wonkish, even-handed appointment who's good for a temporary CEO as Apple deals with the change of Jobs - but may have the chance to set a vision and go long term (his stock options hint at that).

As Cook was outed by Gawker (and 'Out' magazine listed him as the most powerful gay person in the world), I'm concerned that his sexual preference might become a Geekonomic/Geek culture issue due to some other trends I want to discuss.  Thus I consider this relevant to the blog, but at the same time feel a bit invasive.

That's a long-form way of kind of apologizing to Mr. Cook if against the odds he reads this or hears about this.

Launch or Be Lunch, Day 19 - Copyleft, Copycenter, Copyright!

Okay, you knew I was going to get to this sooner or later.  Intellectual Property.  You probably hate it.  You may have pirated some anime or MP3s or something in the past.  You might even be a card-carrying member of the Pirate Bay.  Well, it's time to talk copyright, and time to turn you into, at best, a copyright advocate; at worst, into a hypocrite.  So, let's begin, shall we?

Launch or Be Lunch, Day 27 - Pushin' Polycotton, Paper and Pixels

Well, in between the art, the writing, the rendering, the website coding, the font creation, three French hens, two turtledoves and a bottle of Advil in a pear tree, I spent time today talking with the folks over at my bank regarding the merchant account I'm going to need for the site store, as well as the API specifications required to get it to interact with the site.

Wait...what?  We haven't even launched and I'm already thinking of merchandise?  I'm sure all of you right about now are probably thinking the same thing:

Geeks May Save Wal-Mart

Geeks may just save Wal-Mart. Gods, I don't believe I'm saying this.

I'll get it out of the way, I'm not exactly a fan of Wal-Mart. It's a combination of business factors, quality, effects on community and so on. You know, the usual.  I'm not exactly going to diss success, but I think Wal-Mart's been on a kind of a race to the bottom.

In fact, it looks like that bottom is being reached pretty fast, as this article notes:  Wal-Mart shoppers are running out of money:  http://money.cnn.com/2011/04/27/news/companies/walmart_ceo_consumers_under_pressure/index.htm

Geekiness And Normalization

I call myself a professional geek.  I am quite proud to say that. Yet, oddly, I can remember when geek was an insulting term and not the definition–bordering–on–compliment it is today.

Or in short, I remember the 80s.  If you don't, you're actually missing quite a lot, but I digress.

Now, being an old geek, I remember when the term was basically insulting, sort of a version of "egghead" and implying a kind of pathology or maladjustment.  I remember when it was virtually the same as "nerd".

Review of “The Adventures of Unemployed Man”

“Do you ever think maybe thinking positive doesn’t mean being happy while you’re getting screwed by the system.  Maybe it means being positive about your ability to change it.”
- Bruce Paine a.k.a. Unemployed Man

Look!  Up in the sky!  It’s a comic book!  No, it’s an economics text!  No, it’s... “The Adventures of Unemployed Man,” by Erich Origen, Gan Golan, and a hero team of artists.

This unique book explains the causes of the Great Recession, touches on several longstanding societal problems, and presents it all in a way that is accessible and fun to read.  Did I mention it’s a comic?

Ecosystems: One Of The Next Big Things

So as the smoke clears from the Microsoft-Nokia deal, one word stands out - Ecosystem.  Microsoft and Nokia outright discussed of creating an Ecosystem of technology in the mobile space.

"Plans for a broad strategic partnership with Microsoft to build a new global mobile ecosystem; Windows Phone would serve as Nokia’s primary smartphone platform."

This doesn't surprise me in the least.  The reason for my lack of shock is that the importance and interest in building technical ecosystems of products has been building for awhile.  It's been heading this direction for years -  several companies bilding ecosystems of products and services.