Dogbert and the Senator

This seems to be a common practice right now. In Indiana, Susan Bayh, the wife of Senator Evan Bayh, is under similar scrutiny.

Did You Know?

I posted a similar video about a month ago asking whether or not social media was a fad. Here are some more figures in this video:

There’s a lot to think about here:

• Businesses that embrace the slow delivery of content are probably headed for extinction.
• The internet has broken open a brand new audience that watches television, gets information, conducts business, makes purchases and primarily communicates via mobile devices and laptops.
• Technology is often faster than the speed of common sense.
• Does what you see demonstrate that our sinful desire to have what we want right now is fueled by technology?

There are probably more things to mine from that, and maybe we’ll come up with some on Wednesday. I’m not trying to demonize technology, but I think that it certainly urges some caution.

Hat tip to Daniel Mosley.

Common Cents Approaches to Financial Freedom

Those of you in the Associate’s Program will get a personal finance class, but the information below is most likely of interest to anyone trying to save a few dollars in this economy. These links are from a blog I recently discovered called LenPenzo.com. Some very interesting articles… enjoy!

• Why Rechargeable Batteries Are Rarely Cost Effective
• Gas or Charcoal BBQs: Which One Is More Cost Effective?
• Shopping For Low Gas Prices Is A Losing Proposition
• Is the Payback Period on Energy Efficient Bulbs Too Long?

Are CEO’s Paid Too Much?

A funny look from Dilbert:

A Practical Joke

It Could Be Worse

What Will the Return of Steve Jobs Mean for Apple?

In some ways, Steve Jobs hearkened back to the ’80s and ’90s, when corporations were run by celebrity CEOs like Lee Iacocca and Steve Jobs. However, it stands to reason that when your CEO is a household name and something happens to his health, there is bound to be an impact in the markets. It seems that Apple is learning that lesson and trying to adapt to the challenge. While it’s nice to have a public face to your company, you’re also subject to the public’s fickle tastes.

Top 5 Twitter Related Trends to Watch

Not sure why I’m focusing so much on Twitter lately… honestly, I think that Facebook is a bit more of a useful platform. Anyway, some interesting points in this post here, especially the advent of real-time search engines. An interesting idea, but why do you need real time updates to your Google searches? After you’ve found your link, how often do you go back? And what kind of a drag is that going to create on performance? Enquiring minds want to know…

#3 and #4 on the list are way more interesting to me. Enlisting product champions on Twitter to tweetvertise for you with RTs and links with the promise of winning something is brilliant marketing strategy. I have to admit it, I’m hooked.

Protesters Target Dante’s Inferno Game

Mainstream “Christians” in the culture with their boycotts and protests have skewed society’s view of what Jesus is all about. To Electronic Arts, Jesus is all about hating video games for fun and profit.

It isn’t all playing games and doing business at E3 this year. A small group of 13 protesters had attendees gawking by one of the entrances to the Los Angeles Convention Center. The object of their ire? Electronic Arts’ upcoming video game based on the literary classic “Dante’s Inferno,” which is on display at the show.

The protesters, who came from a church in Ventura County, held signs with slogans such as “trade in your playstation for a praystation” and “EA = anti-Christ” as they marched and handed out a homemade brochure that warns, “a video game hero does not have the authority to save and damn… ONLY GOD CAN JUDGE. and he will not judge the sinners who play this game kindly.”

Matthew Francis, one of the protesters, said he and his fellow church members were particularly upset that Dante’s Inferno features a character who fights his way out of Hell and uses a cross as a weapon against demons. “We think this game should never come out,” he said, before asking a reporter to convey his message to executives at Electronic Arts inside the show, where non-industry professionals are not allowed.

I’ve never read Dante’s Divine Comedy, but Wikipedia says it was written from a Catholic viewpoint, and that the villain in the Inferno that plays second fiddle to Satan is Judas Iscariot, the betrayer of Jesus. It discusses sin and theology. But, the protest portrays Christians as ignorant, kneejerk reactionaries who heard the words “hell” and “Satan” and rushed down to Walgreens to buy Sharpies and posterboard.

So, come to find out the next day that the protest was staged to get the word out about the game…

Nintendo Canned New Handheld Project

One of the more recession-proof industries of the past year have been video games. During Christmas, while revenues for most stores were down, electronics and technology practically drove consumer spending in December. The video game industry is the second largest entertainment industry in the world, second only to motion pictures.

Video game consoles generally have a 10-year life span before the next generation is released. Microsoft’s XBOX 360 came out in 2005, so we’re just about halfway through the life cycle of the 360, Sony Playstation 3, and Nintendo Wii (even though those last two came out a year later). Already, people are clamoring for news this week from the E3 Electronic Entertainment Expo on the next generation of hardware. The problem is that the industry knows that any new hardware releases right now are going to be a tough sell for recession-strapped families.

Even so, Nintendo released an updated version of their handheld Nintendo DS system this past spring called the DSi, and they have apparently developed a new model each of the past three years, but haven’t put them to market.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has revealed that the company has created – and completed work on – an entirely new handheld gaming device at some point in the past three years, but decided that it wouldn’t do anything for the momentum of the business and ditched it. “In the history of Nintendo, there are several such examples,” he told CNBC, declining to reveal any details of the product. “But when we are launching new hardware, the most important is thing is to sustain the momentum. If introducing new hardware won’t do anything to do that, well…”

Iwata also confirmed the company’s stance on price points, echoing UK boss David Yarnton’s words to GamesIndustry.bizyesterday. “Right now, we have no plans at all about a price cut,” he said. “We are going to start launching the stronger software in the later half of the year and we are confident [we will] regain the momentum,” he added, referring to a stall in particular in Wii sales in Japan. “People often talk about the price cut as if it’s an almighty weapon. The fact of the matter is that what a price cut can do is rather limited. In the long history of videogames, at the time of the price cut we see a momentary hike in sales, but usually that can not sustain its momentum and it soon comes down to below the price cut level.”