In the tech industry, the terms "nerds" and "geeks" are thrown around a lot. For some, those terms are offensive. For others, they're endearing. And for some they are simply accurate descriptors for who they are. But a professor from Bennington College, who was recently profiled by The New York Times, believes that those two words need to be avoided at all cost.
How would Steve Jobs feel about the title, King of Nerds?
According to David Anderegg, using terms like nerd and geek "perpetuate the stereotype" that nerds are "socially inept" and geeks are people with a "special expertise." They are so damaging, the Times reported, that Anderegg believes that "much like racial epithets, he says, [they] should be avoided."
The problem, the professor contends, is that those words are not used to define "cool" people. Instead, they are often times associated with "math, science, and computer science." He told the Times that because of that negative association, young people who consider themselves geeks and nerds "sabotage themselves in these fields, and the nation's work force is suffering."
Of course, Anderegg has a solution. He believes that "the best way to combat [those issues] is put it to bed." He wants nerd and geek removed from the public lexicon, like other unacceptable epithets.
It's an interesting take. For some, being a geek is a badge of honor. It means that the respective person is part of a group of folks that have similar interests and expertise in a field. Others might say the same about nerds.
But perhaps what's most puzzling about Anderegg's opinion is the title of a book he wrote about this very topic. He called it, "Nerds: Who They Are and Why We Need More of Them."
As someone who wants to eliminate the use of the words geek and nerd, isn't it surprising that he would use nerd in the title of his book?
Regardless, it's an interesting topic. Do you believe nerd and geek are damaging terms that should be avoided? Let us know in the comments below.
A 14-year-old boy's mother had enough with her son's gaming over the weekend. After turning off the console hoping he would stop gaming, she called police to ask for their help in solving her son's "addiction."
According to the story first reported in the Boston Herald, Angela Mejia had enough with her son's gaming when she found him playing Grand Theft Auto at 2:30 a.m. She told him to go to sleep, but he refused.
"Sometimes I want to run away, too," Mejia told the Boston Herald. "I have support from my church, but I'm alone. I want to help my son, but I can't find a way."
After unplugging her son's game console, she decided to call 911. Police came to Mejia's home and coaxed the boy into going to sleep.
"[The police] were just like, 'Chill out. Go to bed,'" Mejia's son told the Herald.
What Mejia's son did when he woke up is unknown. My guess: he played a video game. Yours?
Mass Effect 2
(Credit: BioWare)In recent years, the U.S. role-playing game landscape has become decidedly dominated by Western-based games, like Mass Effect 2 and the recently released Dragon Age: Origins. But according to Greg Zeschuk, co-founder of role-playing game company BioWare, Japanese developers might have only themselves to blame.
Speaking in an interview with Destructoid, Zeschuk said "the fall of the Japanese RPG (JRPG) in large part is due to a lack of evolution, a lack of progression." Zeschuk added that developers "kept delivering the same thing over and over. They make the dressing better, they look prettier, but it's still the same experience."
But Zeschuk wasn't done. He said the same methods used years ago to advance a story are still being employed in today's Japanese RPGs.
"My favorite thing, it's funny when you still see it, but the joke of some of the dialogue systems where it asks, 'do you wanna do this or this,' and you say no. 'Do you wanna do this or this?' No. 'Do you wanna do this or this?' No. Lemme think--you want me to say 'yes.' And that, unfortunately, really characterized the JRPG."
As someone who absolutely loves role-playing games, that's a tough pill to swallow. I can still remember the good ol' days playing Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete to its completion in an almost nonstop gaming session.
At the same time, Zeschuk makes a point. RPGs are not what they used to be. They have evolved. And so far, the vast majority of Japanese-based RPGs that I've played recently reflect that same, old-school feeling. It's not always a bad thing, of course, but for the broader U.S. audience, if Zeschuk can be believed, it's starting to hurt sales.
Although there is no conclusive proof that mobile phones cause cancer, a Maine legislator wants to require all mobile phones sold in the state to carry warnings that say mobile phones may do so.
State Rep. Andrea Boland, a Democrat, told the Associated Press that "numerous studies point to the cancer risk." She has worked her proposal into the upcoming schedule for the 2010 session in Maine's legislature. Boland said that she uses a speaker, so she can keep her mobile phone away from her head. She also keeps it off unless she knows someone will call her.
If Boland's bill makes it through the state legislature, vendors would be forced to place labels on all mobile phones and packaging that tell customers they could get brain cancer from using the device. Those warnings would also recommend those people keep phones as far away from their bodies as possible.
Boland is apparently acting in what she believes is her constituents' best interest. But the debate over whether or not mobile phones really cause brain cancer rages on. So far, there is no conclusive evidence on either side of the debate for legislators to summarily require all mobile phones within the state to carry a cancer warning.
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Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 had a huge November, selling more than 6 million units for the month. But in a recent interview with G4TV, Microsoft Xbox 360 Product Manager Aaron Greenberg said that it would have been a much different month without Infinity Ward's blockbuster hit.
"November without Modern Warfare 2 would have looked very different," Greenberg told G4TV, responding to a question about what the month would have been like.
But just how different is up for debate. Modern Warfare 2 was a major hit. It was a title that doesn't come along very often and it likely helped the game industry buoy its sales figures for the month. Greenberg agrees.
"There's titles that appeal within the inner circle of the core, but this is that title everyone that owns a video game console buys," he said in the interview. "If they buy two games a year, this was one of those games."
Greenberg went on to say that without Modern Warfare 2, "software numbers would have looked dramatically different, I don't think that people would have spent that money on another game."
Microsoft's product manager went so far as to say that Modern Warfare 2 stopped people from buying other tech gadgets.
"I think people actually said 'I'm choosing to buy Modern Warfare 2 instead of buying an iPod or instead of going to a movie or instead of doing something else. This is going to deliver its entertainment value for me.'"
Consumers bought far more Xbox 360 versions of the game (4.2 million) than PlayStation 3 versions (1.8 million). Without that help, Greenberg asserted that Xbox 360 software sales would have slipped. But he also believed that the company would have sold less hardware.
"My guess is we would have probably sold less consoles, too, to be honest," he told G4TV. "I think it was that kind of blockbuster, just like a new blockbuster movie--it's an event, people knew about it."
Greenberg's points were interesting, to say the least. I've always said that software sells hardware. And so far, that has likely helped the Xbox 360 stay ahead of the PlayStation 3. But with few blockbuster titles on the horizon, how will that affect sales going forward?
For now, we don't know. But we can speculate about a November without Modern Warfare 2. Would it have been as huge? Let us know in the comments below.
A look at Apple's new patent idea
(Credit: Apple)I'm not one to get excited about patent filings, but this one was enough to make me think twice about what the future might hold.
Apple filed a patent this week with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. It describes an "electronic device for providing a display that changes based on the user's perspective." The patent says that the product would include "a sensing mechanism" that's capable of detecting the user's position relative to the display. MacRumors originally reported on the patent.
The filing said that the device would include "a camera operative to detect the position of the user's head." Using that detected position, the device would then "transform" objects displayed on a monitor so the perspective the user sees "reflects the detected position of the user."
The overarching goal behind Apple's patent is to provide a realistic 3D experience. But it gets better. The technology would also be able to detect the user's environment and affect objects on the display based on the data it collects. For example, if the technology finds different areas within the user's environment that reflect or refract light, the objects on the display will do the same.
Apple even said that it could add depth and 3D-like characteristics to 2D objects on the display.
I, for one, am excited about the possibility this technology affords. By using a video camera, it can literally change objects on a monitor to react to the user's environment. Gone would be the days of viewing simple content on a display. If Apple's technology becomes a reality, it could totally transform the way people interact with their monitors. It could also have a major impact on the Web.
For now, Apple's technology is years away. But it's still fun to wait. And dream.
Career site Glassdoor.com has announced the employees' choice awards for the top 50 best places to work. Unfortunately, tech companies didn't make the top five.
According to Glassdoor, Southwest Airlines, General Mills, Slalom Consulting, Bain & Co., and McKinsey & Co. were the best places to work this year. Only General Mills and Bain & Co. were in the top five last year.
On the tech side, it was enterprise-solution provider Juniper Networks that led the way for the industry, placing 10th in the list with a 3.9 (out of 5) company rating from employees. Google placed 14th with a 3.9 rating, followed by NetApp, which also received a 3.9 rating. Last year, Google was ranked seventh on the list. NetApp was ranked 10th.
Some other tech notables from the list: Apple placed 22nd with a 3.8 company rating, which is a little lower than last year's 19th place. Online career site CareerBuilder took the 26th spot with a 3.7 rating. The site experienced a steep decline, dropping eight spots from its 2008 ranking of 18th.
But it was Adobe Systems that declined most of all the tech companies on the list. The company placed fourth last year. This year, its rating slipped to 3.7, giving it the 29th spot on the list.
Intel is new to the list this year, garnering a 3.6 rating and taking 41st place. Best Buy inched up to 45th place from 46th last year with a 3.6 rating as well.
CEO ratings
Glassdoor also asked employees to rate their CEOs. According to the company, Google CEO Eric Schmidt received an 87 percent approval rating from employees, while Apple CEO Steve Jobs scored a 91 percent approval rating. CareerBuilder's Matt Ferguson had a 78 percent approval rating. Adobe's Shantanu Narayen had a relatively low 60 percent approval rating. Best Buy's Brad Anderson didn't fare too well either, garnering a 64 percent approval rating from his employees.
Although numerous activities are available to get Americans off the couch, they still prefer to be there, a report from the NPD Group has found.
When asked how they'd spent their leisure-time hours in the past week, a whopping 81 percent of the 10,281 respondents had watched television, for about 10 hours on average for the week. It was the top leisure-time activity in the study, which covered people ages 13 and above. And that figure didn't even include watching movies on TV. It only included shows, news, and sports.
"There's a perception that families spending time in front of a glowing TV hearth has been replaced by glowing laptop or iPod displays," Russ Crupnick, entertainment industry analyst for NPD, said Tuesday in a statement. "And while that's true for some families, TV remains the top entertainment choice by far in the United States."
The NPD Group also found that traditional radio shouldn't be dismissed quite yet. Radio listening came in second place behind watching TV. A total of 78 percent of Americans listened to traditional radio, for more than five hours a week on average.
E-mail and instant messaging are also quite popular, with 70 percent taking part in those activities, for about four hours per week. The research firm also found that 60 percent of people still listen to music on CD.
About 47 percent of respondents said they visit social networks, for an average of five hours per week. And 11 percent of those surveyed said they tweet, for about three hours per week.
But it was the television that took the top spot for leisure activities. It seems that, when given the chance, most Americans choose the couch over anything else. Does that include you?
The JooJoo next to the iPhone.
(Credit: Rafe Needleman/CNET)TechCrunch filed a lawsuit Thursday against Fusion Garage, the blog's onetime partner on the CrunchPad tablet device, TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington announced Friday.
Arrington wrote that the suit charges Fusion Garage with "Fraud and Deceit, Misappropriation of Business Ideas, Breach of Fiduciary Duty, Unfair Competition, and Violations of the Lanham Act."
The filing of the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California escalates the war of words between TechCrunch and Fusion Garage, in a falling-out that recently became public. Arrington had earlier indicated that he would move toward litigation.
In the hands of Fusion Garage, the tablet is now known as the JooJoo and on Monday made its media debut in San Francisco. The touch screen device, priced at $499, is designed for browsing the Web.
The court documents, which Arrington posted online, include a full timeline of events and allege that Fusion Garage engaged in activities that have "deprived TechCrunch of money and property." The suit also says that Fusion Garage has "gained money and property that rightly belongs to TechCrunch."
As penalties, if the court rules in its favor, TechCrunch is asking for damages, all of Fusion Garage's profits related to the CrunchPad/JooJoo, restitution for "unjust enrichment," attorney's fees, and much, much more.
Fusion Garage did not immediately respond to request for comment Friday.
But earlier this week, in unveiling the JooJoo, Fusion Garage rebutted Arrington's charges of wrongdoing.
It's "ludicrous," said Fusion Garage CEO Chandra Rathakrishnan, to think that TechCrunch owns any intellectual property in the JooJoo. He said the parties never signed legal agreements providing that to TechCrunch.
"We took all the risk and did all the work. Michael Arrington sat back," Rathakrishnan said.
Arrington likewise did not mince words in his Friday blog post. "Chandra and Fusion Garage have shown a long term pattern of deceit in their business dealings," he wrote. "There is no reason to think that anything will change now."
(Disclosure: I wrote for TechCrunch for a period in 2008.)
Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
Got a case of information overload? You're not alone.
A study released Wednesday from the University of California, San Diego, reports that the average American consumes a whopping 34GB of data and 100,000 words of information per day.
Over the course of 2008, Americans as a group gobbled up 3.6 zettabytes of data. (In case you missed the definition of "zettabyte" in your daily data binging, that's a million million gigabytes.) For all you visual learners out there, the researchers helpfully point out that 3.6 zettabytes is equal to the "information in thick paperback novels stacked seven feet high over the entire United States, including Alaska."
Between 1980 and 2008, the number of bytes consumed by Americans increased 350 percent. The average annual growth rate was calculated at 5.4 percent.
Here's how TV and the Internet stack up in the "How Much Information? 2009 Report on American Consumers."
(Credit: University of California, San Diego)Dubbed the How Much Information? project, the study measured data consumption both at home and away from home. It includes several information sources, "including going to the movies, listening to the radio, talking on the cell phone, playing video games, surfing the Internet, and reading the newspaper."
Besides bytes and words, the study also noted the number of hours spent consuming information.
In terms of time, traditional media still has a strong hold on the U.S. The study reported that "a large chunk of the average American's day is spent watching television." On average, 41 percent of an American's day is given over to watching television shows, viewing recorded TV, or watching DVDs.
Noncomputer sources, the study says, account for more than three-quarters of U.S. households' information time.
But if bytes are the standard by which American days are judged, it's the video game that takes the top prize. Researchers found that the average American consumes 18.5GB of gaming data per day, representing 67 percent of all bytes they consume daily.
"Games are almost universal, but most of the gaming bytes come from graphically intensive games on high-powered computers and consoles, which have the equivalent of special-purpose supercomputers from five years ago," report author Roger Bohn, director of the Global Information Industry Center at UC San Diego's School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, said in a statement. "Games today generate their bytes inside the home, rather than having to transmit them over cables into the house, but gaming is increasingly moving online."
The study found that 16 percent of daily information consumption comes from the Internet. A staggering 79 percent of all American two-way communications is done through the Internet.
If you want to see what else UC San Diego found in its study, click here.
