| If you are having difficulty seeing this mail or images in it, you can view it in your Web browser. |
|
| Volume 8, Issue 1 |
|
In This Issue:
 Why XP must be saved
 Video: Google's Sergey Brin
 Life after Google, with millions
Windows watch starts to point to 7
 Top 12 IT Management tools, tips and strategies for 2008
 How to swap IT for a job you'll really love
Staff retention: The power of appreciation at work
Best BlackBerry shortcuts: Aflac's mobile guru shares tips
 How to stay employed if (when) a recession hits
Rock star coders
 Young IT workers disillusioned, hard to hold, survey says
 Intelligent Enterprise 2008 Editors' Choice Awards
|
|
|
 |
Why XP must be saved
 |
|
|
The clock is ticking: Microsoft will end OEM and shrink-wrapped sales of Windows XP on June 30, 2008, forcing users to shift to Vista. (System builders, meaning
those who do white-box PCs, can sell XP through December 31.) Don't let that happen!
Millions of us have grown comfortable with XP and don't see a need to change to Vista. It's like having a comfortable apartment that you've enjoyed coming home to for years, only to get an eviction notice. The thought of moving to a new place --
even with the stainless steel appliances, granite countertops, and maple cabinets (or is cherry in this year?) -- just doesn't sit right. Maybe it'll be more modern, but it will also cost more and likely not be as good a fit. And you don't have any
other reason to move. That's exactly the conclusion people have come to with Vista. For most of us, there's really no reason to move to it -- yet we don't have a choice. When that strong desire to stick with XP became obvious in spring 2007,
major computer makers such as Dell and Hewlett-Packard quietly reintroduced new XP-based systems (but just to business customers, so as not to offend Microsoft). But come June 30, even that option goes away. (See InfoWorld's live XP countdown clock.
To use this clock on your own Web site, please e-mail Executive Editor Galen Gruman for the code snippet.) So what to do? Let Microsoft decide where your personal and enterprise software "lives"? Or send a loud and clear message that you
don't want to move? We're going for the loud-and-clear option. Join us...
Read the article. Back to top
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Life after Google, with millions
 |
What would you do if you were flush with $10 million or $100 million? Would you retire, go to work every day at the company that made you rich, or chase other dreams?
That's the multimillion-dollar question for hundreds of early Googlers. By some estimates, more than 900 employees became instant millionaires when Google went public in August 2004, and that total has likely ballooned along with the stock
price. On Friday the stock closed at $600.25, up more than 600 percent from its opening price of $85. According to the company's most recent securities filing, Google employees held 11,662,917 outstanding stock options as of September 30, 2007.
At the current stock price, those shares would carry a potential value of about $4.48 billion for employees. Google co-founder Larry Page's stock holdings are also worth about $18.85 billion and Sergey Brin's, $18.51 billion, according to analysis
from executive compensation firm Equilar. But as those bank accounts have filled up, many early Googlers have left the company. By some estimates, nearly a third of the first 500 Googlers have departed, and many more of the estimated 2,200 pre-IPO
employees are planning an exit as their stock vests. (A Google representative did not respond to a request for comment.) Some ex-Googlers are chasing summer around the world, raising families, or...
Read the article. Back to top
Windows watch starts to point to 7
Officially, Microsoft has very little to say about Windows 7. But since nature abhors a vacuum, and tech enthusiasts like them even less, the rumor mills are starting to crank into high gear.
Postings in the last week suggest that Windows 7 may arrive in 2009, not 2010, as had become the conventional wisdom. Meanwhile, a poster at enthusiast site Neowin, claims to have played with an early development build of the software. I've long
been skeptical of the notion that Microsoft would wait until 2010 to try to update Vista. It just doesn't fit well with CEO Steve Ballmer's promise that Microsoft would speed up Windows releases. Plus, Vista has gotten only a modest reception from
reviewers and other critics. And while Microsoft is bringing out a service pack update this year, the company has said it will contain virtually no new features. As
such, it is unlikely to boost consumer enthusiasm. That said, Windows 7 won't necessarily be a...
Read the article. Back to top
|
|
|
|
 |
Top 12 IT Management tools, tips and strategies for 2008
Stay abreast of potential issues and new technologies to ensure your network runs at core efficiency.
The new year is a time to get priorities in order and decide what objectives to pursue over the next 12 months. You may already be doing some of the things listed below; other items may be long overdue for attention in your organization...
Read the article. Back to top
|
|
|
|
 |
How to swap IT for a job you'll really love
Want to trade software development for golf instruction or pastry creation? VocationVacations' internship program provides an immersion course with a pro in your dream field.
Keli Rhodes had been working as an IT consultant for eight years, hitting the road every week for several days at a time, when she began questioning her career and lifestyle. She wondered if she really wanted to continue running herself ragged. In
mid-2006, she read in USA Today about a company called VocationVacations that lets people "test-drive their dream jobs," as founder Brian Kurth describes it. The Portland, Ore.-based company serves individuals of all ages interested in pursuing
new careers, setting up one- to three-day internships with professionals who have succeeded in those careers, whether they be golf instructors, dog trainers or photographers. (IT jobs are noticeably absent from VocationVacations' list of most
popular careers.) But VocationVacations attracts lots of IT professionals who wish to do...
Read the article. Back to top
Staff retention: The power of appreciation at work
Empowering employees at all levels to do their best work can begin with something as simple as positive feedback and other gestures that show their efforts are appreciated. And it can help reduce staff turnover.
Taking people for granted is an all-too-common problem in the business world. Most of us have taken someone for granted and we only truly realize how much that employee, boss or colleague meant to us after the fact. According to the U.S.
Department of Labor, 64 percent of Americans who leave their jobs say they do so because they don't feel appreciated. Gallup reports that almost 70 percent of people in the United States say they receive no praise or recognition in the
workplace. As a culture, we don't do a very good job of expressing our appreciation for one another, especially at work.
Bringing More Appreciation to Work
We often waste too much time and energy focusing on what we don't like, what we're worried about or what we think needs to be fixed, changed or enhanced. What if we
stopped this negative obsession and started paying more attention to the good stuff?...
Read the article. Back to top
Best BlackBerry shortcuts: Aflac's mobile guru shares tips
Aflac's BlackBerry guru shares power tips and tricks for your RIM smartphone. Here's how to improve your typing, messaging, browsing, attachment handling and more.
Margaret Genet knows BlackBerrys. Though officially dubbed "operations analyst," she's the first Aflac employee to hold the unofficial title of "technology concierge." Genet's job number one: Teach executives how to be more efficient with
mobile devices and applications. "I guarantee if you talk to [Margaret] for 15 minutes, she will tell you 30 tricks you didn't know that will save you time," says Aflac CIO Gerald Shields. [Here's a concise list of her most valuable advice. (Note:
Some of the tricks may not work on all older BlackBerry devices.)] In addition to providing BlackBerry training, Genet also works with the Fortune 500 insurance
company's executives on laptops and tablet computers and Aflac's custom mobile applications. Genet's training typically comes in the form of...
Read the article. Back to top
|
|
|
|
 |
How to stay employed if (when) a recession hits
Volunteer for projects, add to your skills, suck up to the boss.
With global stock markets in flux and the U.S. economy either in the midst of a recession or teetering on the edge, there are steps you can take that may help protect your IT job. It may not be a bad idea to start thinking about such things,
say several employment experts who are closely watching job statistics and other economic indicators. "Right now, in this day and age, if anyone is working in IT, the closer you work on relationships with customers, the better the opportunities
you're going to have," said Jim Lanzalatto, vice president of strategy and marketing at staffing agency Yoh LLC in Philadelphia. "That's in any economic environment, but it's more critical in this economic environment."
Follow the customers
In tough times, he said, the first IT projects to be eliminated are the ones that are farthest away from creating customer value, such as internally-faced projects.
To have a better chance of keeping your job, you want to be involved in work that is...
Read the article. Back to top
Rock star coders
|
Tomasz Czajka
(known in competition as Tomek)
|
|
|
For rock star programmers, it's not only just about brains but how you use them and get along with others.
"You sound great singing in the shower, but there's a rock star inside you!" So read the first line of a job posting placed by Viget Labs in December, in its attempt to fill a junior-level position for a Ruby on Rails "would-be rock star programmer."
Meanwhile, Web-based marketing service Emma asks, "Are you a PHP rock star?" And it goes on. Online brokerage firm Redfin seeks an AJAX rock star, social network BrightKite is looking for a Ruby rock star and software developer Backstop Solutions
Group, a Java rock star. So when did programmers become equated with rock stars and all that they entail -- fame, ego, phenomenal talent, single-minded passion,
brilliance to the point of self-destruction, absurd employment terms and crazed groupies? Some say it's the surge in...
Read the article. Back to top
|
|
|
|
 |
Young IT workers disillusioned, hard to hold, survey says
Employees age 18 to 31 have high expectations that many IT employers simply can't meet.
Young IT employees pose a challenge to many managers who say the Millennial generation holds employers up to unrealistic expectations and makes unreasonable demands for their services. Millennials -- employees between the ages of 18 and 31
-- represent the top challenge for IT managers, according to survey results released Thursday from Atlantic Associates, an IT staffing company. (See what IT veterans think about this study here.)Atlantic Associates polled more than 100 Massachusetts
executives on the challenges they face and more than 50% of respondents described those teen and 20-something employees as the "toughest generation to manage." Generation Xers (ages 32 to 42 years old) placed second with 17% of respondents
saying they pose a management challenge. Jack Harrington, co-founder and principal of the staffing firm, says the problem between employers and the younger generation just entering the workforce can be traced back to...
Read the article. Back to top
|
|
|
|
 |
Intelligent Enterprise 2008 Editors' Choice Awards
|
Posted by kdawson on Wednesday January 10, @04:29AM
from the El-Nino-and-humankind-conspiring dept.
Intelligent Enterprise unveils its take on 'The Dozen' most influential vendors that will drive the intelligent enterprise in 2008. Plus, we highlight 36 'Companies to Watch' in five categories.
Vendor consolidation, social networking and Web 2.0 technologies, software as a service, the open source movement, virtualization. These are just a few of the influences that are irrevocably changing the IT landscape. Just as categories of enterprise software begin to mature, along come acquisitions, startups and entirely new types of offerings that complicate the vendor selection process. To help make sense of the trends and cut through the confusion, we present our ninth Intelligent Enterprise Editors' Choice Awards. Looking into the year ahead, we considered scores of companies that are helping organizations to move toward the ideal expressed by the name Intelligent Enterprise. In our estimation, all 48 companies that made our Editors' Choice list are leaders, but a select group of 12 were named among "The Dozen" elite companies that will matter most to intelligent enterprises in 2008. We distinguish 36 other vendors as "Companies to Watch," listed in five categories:
This year's Editors' Choice award selection was a highly collaborative endeavor, with extensive input from Intelligent Enterprise contributors including...
Read the article. Back to top
|
|
|
Forward to a Friend:
Do you have a friend that would like to receive TechWatchsm?
Perhaps you know a peer within your organization, or associate at a partner company that would
benefit from applying to receive this publication. Inviting a friend to experience the benefits
of joining the BusinessWatch Network is easy! Just FW: this newsletter to the person you know who
may have an interest and ask them to click here http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com Your friend will be glad you did!
|
|
|
If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from TechWatchsm
simply visit this URL,
or send a letter requesting opt-off to:
The BusinessWatch Network Privacy Mailbox, 1321, Marblehead, MA. 01945
DISCLAIMER: TechWatchsm and the BusinessWatch Networksm are service marks of DMS.
All other trademarks or service marks contained in this email are the property of their respective owners.
At the time of publication, all links in this e-mail functioned properly. However, since many links point
to sites other than businesswatchnetwork.com, some links may become invalid as time passes.
DMS Inc. supports the DMA Privacy Promise and
Guidelines for Ethical Business Practice. We are committed to the proper use of
email and to protecting consumers from fraudulent or inappropriate
offers. Privacy Policy
|
|
|
| |
