Fan To Pro - The Blog of Professional Geekery

News of the North - Dec 19

Google is working on a project to preserve the pre-tsunami memories of Japan. The company is asking for pictures and videos from people who lived in the affected area to be posted on the site, Memories of the Future.

French company Atos is aiming to phase out internal email by 2014. Replacing email will be instant messaging, video conferencing, Facebook, and software like LiveMeeting. Might work. However, this is just going to transfer the time spent on email over to the other methods. Video conferencing is going to require more work to coordinate than just sending info out to the required people. Facebook introduces a risk of leaks.  Hopefully, Atos will follow up in 2014 on how well the phase out went.

Locally, a group of parents are trying to get Wi-Fi removed from schools, citing the World Health Organization reclassifying RF energy as possibly carcinogenic. WHO's findings run counter to Health Canada's, though; HC maintains that the frequencies aren't dangerous.  Some of the reasoning is correlative, though not causative.

Twitter received a $300 million boost from Prince Alwaleed bin Talal's investment company. Kingdom Holding Company, who also has stakes in Apple and News Corp, looks like it wants to take advantage of the increasing number of Arabic users on Twitter. Might be worth keeping an eye on Twitter in the near future to see how things shake out.

Some RIM shareholders are wondering if the Blackberry should be ditched to keep the company afloat. The idea is that RIM would continue with its Blackberry network, opening it to current smartphone rivals for a fee. Could be a fallback position for the beleaguered company.

--Scott D

Cosplay For Japan - Auctions Open

Want a custom-made costume by fashion designer Jennifer Bentley?  She's making not one but two, and giving the proceeds to Japan's earthquake relief fund. 

You can bid here or here .

For more info, see Cosplay for Japan.  The auctions will go from now until June 18.

Interview: Cosplay for Japan

Jennifer Bentley is a fashion designer who is combining her geekiness with the power of good.  Using cosplay and the Internet, she is raising money for Japan's earthquake relief efforts.  She's having an eBay auction and the two lucky winners will get custom-made costumes.  Then she will make not one but both costumes in just one day, broadcasting the frenzy on Ustream, and donating the money.

The Geekonomy and the Japanese Earthquake.

I really hate writing this post, yet I should.

This is the inevitable "Steve Comments on The Geekonomic Impact of the Japanese Disaster" post.  I don't want to write it because, as I create it, the crisis is still going on and people are suffering.  I don't want to write it because I don't want to get cold and detached and analytic.

I do write it because it is what I do, because the impact is important, because it is what I do for you, our reader.

I'm just noting right now I'm uncomfortable with this.

Mainstream News, The Culture Gap and Nuclear Nerves

We ran a link to an article in Kotaku a couple of days ago that talked about the one-sided American news coverage of the Japanese tsunami and earthquake, which over-focused on the nuclear aspect - to the point of spreading hysteria both here and among foreign nationals living in Japan - and downplayed the humanitarian side of the crisis.

What this illustrates is that the skills of people versed in Japanese language and culture - a field long associated in the common mindset with going into translating - may be needed in more areas than you think.

Progeekery and the Japan Crisis

The events of the last seven days have hit especially hard for those of us in the geekonomy. Even if you're not directly involved in Asian-based fandoms, with the networking that goes on in the fan community, there's a very good chance they've touched your life in some way.

And what makes it especially hard is that an awful lot of our fellow progeeks chased their dreams to Japan, and were there when the quake hit - including some in the hardest-hit areas.

Big Anime, Big Manga . . . Big J-Rock?

Over the weekend, and as reported in Monday's News of the Day, J-rock band X Japan has signed with EMI Music North America. For the uninitiated into this arena of Asian pop culture, this group is big. Really, really big. In fact, you might call them the - pardon the pun - Japanese Beatles. (You can see their Wikipedia entry here.)

Now, this isn't just a random record deal. Band leader Yoshiki - who has been living in the U.S. for some time - is also going to have a monthly showcase on Sirius/XM satellite radio, which will be used, presumably, to showcase other Japanese artists. (He previously had organized a J-rock festival in Los Angeles called J-Rock Revolution.)

We've had Big Anime and Big Manga. Now, it seems that the next piece of Cool Japan to invade America may be Big J-Rock.

Japan On A Progeek's Budget

This is the second part in an ongoing series about the recent trip that Fan to Pro's Bonnie Walling took to Japan.

Last time I wrote about Japan, I talked about whether a trip there would be a good thing for your career path. So maybe you've decided it's for you, but you're intimidated about the idea of going, because you think it's too costly. This is definitely not the case - Japan can be done on a progeek's budget.

Doing Japan, Part 1: Is A Trip to Japan For You?

Last month, I lived what is, for many, the fangirl dream: I visited Japan for two weeks. I'd been invited over by a friend who's in Canada's working holiday program for people ages 30 and under. During that time, I visited Tokyo and Kyoto - the essence of the old and new Japan - and gained a lot of insights into the country, some of which I never thought of before.

Now, granted, a fangirl/fanboy pilgrimage may not be the thing for everyone. But it has a lot to offer a variety of people - even those who aren't particularly into anime/manga fandoms and their related careers.

The One Thing You Do NOT Want to Emulate the Japanese For

It's common knowledge that Japan is the foreign culture most emulated by geeks. From anime to J-rock to Gothic Lolita fashion, Japanese stuff is everywhere - and it's even seeped into the geeky output of North American media companies. (For more proof of this, see Marvel's new anime series, otherwise known as Iron Gainax Man.)

However, there is one area where you most definitely do NOT want to emulate the Japanese - vacation time. A new study shows the Japanese use less vacation time than anyone else on the planet.