Links of the Day 10/20/2008

Economics/Freakonomics/Geekonimics

• 20 Million jobs to disappear next year according to UN - In areas like finance where no one is surprised.  Me I'll be glad if it's ONLY twenty million.
• Declining taxes mean cities and states are cutting back on services - As if you didn't see that coming.  If you provide services to cities and states or work for one, keep the resumes going out for now, just to be safe.

Media

• Traditional media won't be dead - for five more years - So says Marcus Fenez from PriceWaterhouse Cooper.  Notes the importance of collaboartion in media.  Light, but worth reading for some thought-provokers.  I agree with him on collaboration - and sites and tools that let people collaborate in their businesses will probably be bigger business too.

Technology

• Circuit City weighing job and store cuts - I consider Circuit City to be doomed - they've done enough wrong, annoyed customers and employees, and are up against savvy competitors.  It's not if they'll go belly up and/or be bought out but when.
• Consumer Electronic sales are almost certainly cooling down - Which is not surprising.  This also won't help Circuit City of course - but also keep an eye on how it will affect new things like the new DS and Android.  People may want to stick with what they know/have.
• Yahoo is likely planning layoffs - Completely unsurprising.
• Palmtop Linux Notebook? - Interesting, but I'd want to see one operate.
• Microsoft patents audo censorship technology - I'd say for games, obviously, but the article notes many other uses, not all benign.
• Sony can resell personally made LittleBigPlanet Levels? - A weirdly incomplete article that doesn't go as far as I'd like.  Watch this subject.

Toys and Games

• Mattel misses profit projections - and Hasbro exceeds theirs - They still made profits anyway (I bet Hasbro having Star Wars properties helped a lot), and there's a bit of interesting discussion that their sales may have been because some entertainment is cheaper than vacation.  They seem optimistic on Christmas, making them about the only ones.

Finally are you a science fiction author, published, and have a degree that'd let you teach writing?  There may be a job opening for you.