Writers Need Apply

Steve Rubel hits on a workplace skill that I've always found to be very important to my career advancement.

Writing not your forte? That was just fine 10 years ago, but not anymore. Writing is how business gets done. Communication inside corporations will shift somewhat away from email to wikis and blogs, but that doesn't really change the need for this skill.

I feel that my solid writing skills have played a part in earning me a promotion or two. The most positive feedback that I've experienced in my career has centered around my ability to write well about many different topics relating to our business.

I've observed that most people I've worked with have shown little interest in writing and certainly not in trying to craft a nicely flowing piece of narrative. Hence, the opportunity for me to swoop in, put fingers to keyboard and save the day.

Wither MySpace?

Sturat Brown writes of the Wild West nature of the internet's social networking site arena. Much like how night-clubs can be cool for a few years and then abandoned very quickly for the next new social hot-spot, it's beginning to look like the social networking sites such as MySpace will be vulnerable to the vagaries of social popularity on the web -- but at a much faster pace. Rather than years the changes in popularity could happen within twelve month or half year periods as competition strengthens on the web.

Beyond the Stampeding Bulls

The recent run-up of the S&P 500 may actually be indicative of a rising inflationary tide for Americans. Peter Cohan explains.

The Dollar Loses Another Friend

Due to the dollar pushing inflation higher in Kuwait, that country has dropped the dollar in favor of a basket of currencies to peg against the dinar.

Amazon to Bust Into iTunes Market Share

The internet music business may be changing pretty soon if Amazon has its way.

Russian High-Speed Growth

Russia's incredbile growth rates over the past 5+ years has required the country's businesses to recruit top-flight investment talent at very high salaries.

Good For You, Bad For the Cat

Steve Rubel hits the nail on the head regarding a very important career tool each of us hopefully possesses - curiosity.

A Home for the Jobless

LayoffSpace.com offers those who are out of work a place to commiserate and network with other unemployed souls.

Alternative Power Stocks

On the move. Finally.

Chips

My favorite place to eat a burrito sees it's stock move higher. Actually, it's my favorite place to eat.

Payroll Tides

Here's the perfect site to get salary inflation going again at late-70's levels. PayScale and some other online sites allow you to accurately price yourself in the labor marketplace. All of the old gatekeepers (this time HR Departments control of salary info) are falling by the wayside in the ever expanding internet age.

Take a look at the rates that these programmers from outside the United States (mainly Russia and Ukraine) charge for c+ developement and a whole host of other programming languages. And each programmer has their own bio. Here's Maxim K. from Smolensk, Russia who's currently charging $10.25 per hour doing C#/.NET development work for an American firm. Note that he has three stars out of five for his English skills rating. Looks like the $50/hour I was hoping to get doing freelance Access work is not going to happen.

I program Lotus Notes databases as part of my job at a healthcare company. All I've ever heard from programming know-it-alls (and non-programming ones) is how much they hate Lotus and how they'll be going out of business one of these years. Well, from all of my reading on the Web and hearing of people's first-hand experiences from this year's LotusSphere there's a new attitude in Lotus World and it's in the positive/aggressive vein. Ed Brill shares his thoughts on the big Lotus turnaround of the past year or so. Double-digit growth goes a long way to getting the attention of your ownership.