Staying on top in the global IT job market | InfoWorld | Analysis | 2005-07-04 | By Richard Gincel: "The qualifications? Successful candidates will be adept at managing programs; they also must be able to deal with complex, business-intimate questions and they have to have been part of a process that has included outsourcing and offshoring activities. “If going to work for an outsourcing facilitator sounds like aiding and abetting the enemy,” Alsbridge says, “IT workers are competing with the labor pool not the outsource providers.”

Rankin says the army of contractors willing to work on a project-to-project basis is growing. He points to shifts in the temporary-IT-staffing business, which regularly conducts online auctions to provide labor. Those contractors have to be managed. For now, the trend toward IT services as a commodity shows no signs of slowing down."

geez. i hope my grad school degree help! otherwise i'll have to pursue my backup career as a rapper.

Four London Blasts Kill 40, Injure 700 - Yahoo! News: "LONDON - Four explosions rocked the London subway and tore open a packed double-decker bus during the morning rush hour Thursday, sending bloodied victims fleeing in the worst attack on London since World War II. At least 40 people were killed, U.S. officials said, and more than 700 were wounded."

Bastards.

SAN FRANCISCO / Immigrant families frequently separated / New study shows similar pattern for legals and illegals: "Nugent, the immigration attorney, said children -- including newborns - - are separated from their families for about 60 days on average. He said the unaccompanied children he works with -- from Guinea, Guatemala, China or Haiti -- frequently manifest anxiety, depression, low self-esteem and post- traumatic stress syndrome.

'In the final analysis, they're children,' Nugent said. 'And children really need constant support and love and a stable family.'
"

sniff sniff.

SatireWire | Ellison to Grads: Losers: "Graduates of Yale University, I apologize if you have endured this type of prologue before, but I want you to do something for me. Please, take a good look around you. Look at the classmate on your left. Look at the classmate on your right. Now, consider this: five years from now, 10 years from now, even 30 thirty years from now, odds are the person on your left is going to be a loser. The person on your right, meanwhile, will also be a loser. And you, in the middle? What can you expect? Loser. Loserhood. Loser Cum Laude."

My graduation speech at Yale. Ellison is a very engaging speaker.

Some U.S. Chinese Wed Despite Widow Year - Yahoo! News: "A quirk in the Chinese calendar meant that the Year of the Rooster, which began in February, was missing 'lichun' � the day that traditionally marks the beginning of spring.
Folk wisdom holds that such years � called Widow Years by some � can be an unlucky time for a couple to begin a new life."


oooh no!!!!

MSN Search Toolbar with Windows Desktop Search review - Disk management and compression - CNET Reviews: "8.0 Excellent
Average user rating:7.1 Very good (from 7 users)
The good:Adds tabbed browsing to Internet Explorer; includes desktop search; lets you select your own default Internet search engine; saves and updates favorite desktop searches."

I already have the google toolbar, and yahoo toolbar. Should I add one more?

Savetoby.com | Only YOU have the power to Save Toby!: "I rescued him several months ago. I found him under my porch, soaking wet, injured from what appeared to be an attack from an alley cat. I took him in, thinking he had no chance to live from his injuries, but miraculously, he recovered. I have since spent several months nursing him to health. Toby is a fighter, that.s for sure.
Unfortunately, on June 30th, 2005, Toby will die. I am going to eat him. "

please don't eat toby. Toby is just a cute bunny. eat dogs or cats instead.

Blog from chinese cafe

So the embadero is pretty packed during baseball games. The place i am at has tons of people in it... I should have brought a salad from the deli and ate it by the water. Well at least the i brought has brown rice and brocoli.

VC Adventure: Networking 101: "Make your list. Good networking starts with knowing who you want to meet � or at least what type of people you want to get in touch with"


ack! i'm a bad networker!

VC Adventure: Networking 101: "Make your list. Good networking starts with knowing who you want to meet � or at least what type of people you want to get in touch with"


ack! i'm a bad networker!

Airlines to Begin Tallying Pet Casualties - Yahoo! News: "Nobody knows how many pets are killed or injured. Lisa Weisberg, spokeswoman for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, suggested 1 percent, which would mean 20,000 animals per year. The airlines say that's far too high.
But no one disputes that accidents do happen.
When Sarah Stano's husband was transferred from Portland, Ore., to Greensboro, N.C., she chose Delta Airlines to fly them there because it was the only carrier that would let her carry her three cats in the cabin.
But at the airport she discovered one of the containers was too big to fit under the seat. Hereford, a fluffy white cat with black spots, had to go in the cargo hold."


oh no! poor fluffy!

Is your laptop a pain in the neck? | CNET News.com: "When Ram Viswanadha began using a laptop at work, he decided to shelve his clunky old desktop PC for good. The notebook's size, speed and memory blew the older computer away.
What the 30-year-old Silicon Valley software engineer didn't bargain for was a severe case of repetitive strain injury--and a three-month disability leave--from hunching over his laptop day in and day out for four years. "

oooh no! this could be me!

WSJ.com - Work & Family: "When she arrived home one recent day from her job as a bank vice president, she found a dishwasher full of clean dishes needing to be put away and used cups by the sink. 'How come you didn't empty the dishwasher?' she asked Mr. Rogers, who arrives home earlier from his job as an insurance agent."

my girlfriend expects me to slave away at work then come home and do the dishes!!!

I'm convinced that technology can solve this problem. one day we'll all have robots doing our dishes for us, and putting them away.
Putting away dishes just seems silly to me, it seems we need a clean dishes dishwasher container, which we can easily swap into the dirty one. why do we need cabinets? I wonder the same thing about my dirty laundry.

Blogthings - The American Cities That Best Fit You: "


>

American Cities That Best Fit You:

80% San Francisco

65% Los Angeles

65% Washington, DC

hurray sf! i wonder if you can get san jose. grrrrrr 60% New York City

55% Boston

Which American Cities Best Fit You?

"

The Keys to Your Heart

You are attracted to those who have a split personality - cold as ice on the outside but hot as fire in the heart.

In love, you feel the most alive when things are straight-forward, and you're told that you're loved.

You'd like to your lover to think you are stylish and alluring.

You would be forced to break up with someone who was ruthless, cold-blooded, and sarcastic.

Your ideal relationship is lasting. You want a relationship that looks to the future... one you can grow with.

Your risk of cheating is zero. You care about society and morality. You would never break a commitment.

You think of marriage as something precious. You'll treasure marriage and treat it as sacred.

In this moment, you think of love as something you thirst for. You'll do anything for love, but you won't fall for it easily.

What Are The Keys To Your Heart?

I really should be sleeping!

mobile test blog

This is a mobile test blog!

 

Tom

 

O'Reilly Network Safari Bookshelf - The Zen of CSS Design: Visual Enlightenment for the Web: "The Zen of CSS Design: Visual Enlightenment for the Web"

Currently reading. Sometimes I get lazy, and I just use BR all over the place!!!

Working Moms Tear Down Office Walls: "Not all mompreneurs feel comfortable working from home, however. Holly Bohn, for one, is a 31-year-old mother of two and founder and CEO of two separate businesses: See Jane Work, an office-supplies company, and Bohn & Associates, an accounting and office-systems outfit. When Bohn started the accounting firm in 2001, she found it disruptive to work with her two boisterous boys, now 8 and 6. So she moved to an office a five-minute drive from home in Newbury Park, Calif. "

maybe someday i'll be a mompreneur.

Meet The CIA's Venture Capitalist: "Indeed, now that In-Q-Tel is six years into its venture history, it has seen more of its companies get acquired, while only 10 of its investments have gone under -� a pretty good rate for a VC firm. Digital mapping company Keyhole Corp., for example, was bought by Google (GOOG ) in October, 2004. "

High risk VC fund! with good rates!

STRESSED OUT / Experts search for balance as students face intense parental pressure to excel: "'If Einstein's parents were alive today, poor little Albert would get a comprehensive evaluation and end up on Ritalin,' he said. 'Deprived of his daydreams, he might not discover the theory of relativity, but he certainly would focus more fully on the complex demands of fourth-grade math.'"

how stressful!

Tens of thousands stay home from LA schools amid violence rumors: "The only violence reported Thursday in the district was a scuffle between about 10 youngsters outside Narbonne High School in the Harbor City area. The lunch-hour confrontation was quickly broken up and there were no arrests, school police Sgt. F. Minutella said."

i was involved in a few scraps during my school days. kids kids!

You Are 11 Years Old

11 Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe. 13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world. 20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences. 30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more! 40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

What Age Do You Act?

ACK I'm 11!!!!

Majority of Californians make less than half the income needed to buy a home - Yahoo! News: "California households are making less than half the income necessary to buy a median-priced home in the first quarter of 2005.
ADVERTISEMENT

Statewide households, with a median household income of $53,540, are $60,380 short of the $113,920 qualifying income needed to purchase a median-priced home at $488,600 in California, according to the California Association of Realtors (C.A.R.) Homebuyer Income Gap Index (HIGI) report for the first quarter of 2005."


housing prices are nuts!!!!

School Mistakes Huge Burrito for a Weapon - Yahoo! News: "'The kid was sitting there as I'm describing this (report of a student with a suspicious package) and he's thinking, 'Oh, my gosh, they're talking about my burrito.''"

Watch out! I'm gonna smack you with my big burrito!

U.K. backpackers heed call of India firms | CNET News.com: "'The cost of living in India is so low,' Bond said. �The graduate call center agents are better off than they would be doing it in the U.K.'"

get a grad degree and work at a call center!!!

Yahoo! News - Exploding Toads Puzzle German Scientists: "More than 1,000 toads have puffed up and exploded in a Hamburg pond in recent weeks, and scientists still have no explanation for what's causing the combustion, an official said Wednesday. "

when you see me puff up my cheeks, get away from me!

Yahoo! News - We need cure for 'senioritis,' governors say: "'The 12th grade is the biggest wasteland in America,' says Charles Reed, chancellor of the California State University System, where he says half the students were unprepared in math or English because they didn't take rigorous classes as seniors. "

so true! last year of college is a waste too!

TalkBack: It Was A Programming Contest, Right? | reader response on| CNET News.com: "I have one more year to finish up my undergraduate degree, and when I started out, my inuition was to stay away from programming. Instead, I have been focusing on Networks, Databases, and Security. Why?

Because, over the past few years of my college career, I have read nothing but a multitude of reports about overseas outsourcing of programming jobs, the high unemployment rate for programmers, and the general dissatisfaction of programmers working in the US.

Why would anyone want to devote their studies toward an industry that has all of these problems? The US programming industry is just missing out on great number of people who have simply chosen to pursue something better.

I do agree, though, that the quality of education in the US is falling. But I do not agree that this programming contest is a very good indicator. "


why be a programmer! our jobs are going out to india and china! no hope for the proggy!

Will China dominate outsourcing's future? | Newsmakers | CNET News.com: "Part of the problem is a fragmented market, McKinsey said. And China faces other challenges, not the least of which is a lack of management talent. "

interesting! oh no! I can't speak chinese!

ONLINE CRIME: A Booming Business / New, smarter generation of Internet crooks / Personal-information thieves hook up with people who may help them profit: "However, since the hackers, thieves and others doing business often don't know one another and remain anonymous, no one knows whom to trust. Rip-offs are rampant. An archive of the now-defunct Shadowcrew site obtained by The Chronicle, and the still-functioning Network Terrorism Forums, show that almost every new offer is met with suspicion.
'If it ain't a rip-off, or an attempt of (Secret Service) to f*** around with us, contact me ...' read one response to Elric's posting.
This has led some Web sites to develop review systems of the sellers not unlike those of eBay and other legitimate e-commerce sites.
According to the indictment, Shadowcrew required the 'vendors' to submit their product or service to a trusted community member for review.
Shadowcrew's archives show people who were reviewed for selling merchandise such as stolen credit card numbers and counterfeit credit cards that were created using stolen account information. "




Wow... the internet is a scary place! geez.

Gordon Moore on 40 years of his processor law - page 2 | Newsmakers | CNET News.com: "Moore: It seems like I still spend about half my time in front of one. E-mail is an important part of my life. I live half the year in Hawaii these days. If it wasn't for e-mail, I don't know how I would stay connected. There are spreadsheets; there's word processing work--those are the functions I probably use the most. I play simple games; I handle photographs.
I get very frustrated with the software sometimes. I hate how long it takes my computer to reboot when I have to shut it down for any reason. "

Mr. moore. he only lives in hawaii for 1/2 of the time! Congrats for all the hard work!

Loosely Coupled Corner: "I think we should see more tooling support for EJB 3.0, so that more general application developers can get their hands dirty and come up to speed on EJB 3.0. While any standard IDE that has good support for JDK5 will provide a good start, I think there should be better tooling to support complex mappings (like ManyToMany), and facilitate inline or immediate feedback on the validity of NamedQueries instead of waiting for deployment. Maintenance of the applications isn't something that can be ignored, as applications will live for few years after the development cycle. All the features that make the application development easier will also provide returns in application maintenance cycle. All in all, I will recommend that developers take a fresh and unbiased look at the EJB 3.0 specification, by checking out the features and giving the publicly available EJB 3.0 containers "

good blog entry on ejb3.0

maybe i'll write my next blog with it.

Yahoo! News - Drug Resistant Skin Infections Becoming More Common: "Miller's team said doctors must shift their attitudes toward cases of necrotizing fasciitis -- the 'flesh-eating' part of such a bacterial infection -- and check to see if methicillin-resistant staph is to blame.
Fridkin said good hygiene, particularly hand washing, can prevent such infections.
In hospitals, MRSA resists almost everything but an intravenous antibiotic called vancomycin. But so-called community-acquired MRSA can be treated with a range of antibiotics including doxycycline and cotrimoxazole, sold under the brand name Bactrim. "

good to know if you get infected by flesh eating bacteria.

Office on the beach - long-distance Wi-Fi and Voice over IP - August 2003: "I wasn't sure what to expect yesterday afternoon. A full-size office desk with green banker's lamp, desktop PC, phone, and suit-and-tie worker typing away from an executive chair on the sand? A small cubicle farm with Dilbert comics on the walls? Not quite. It was a less ostentatious affair: a couple of laptops (top left), one with a directional wireless antenna, and a 3Com IP phone perched on a picnic table in the sun (right)."

hmm... gosh.. this is pretty cool! working at fisherman's wharf next to some crabs would be great!

Short Cup-With-Handle Often Leads To Big Stock Gains: "Study winning chart patterns for any length of time, and that idea gets driven home. Decades of IBD research have ferreted out the most successful stock chart patterns in history. Few can match the might of the cup with handle."

I believe goog is a goog in the handle right now.... initial rise up to 200 bux.. a dip... maintaining levels.... then its time for a crazy rise! 20 bagger here I come!

Yahoo! 360� - My Blog: "Entry for April 05, 2005
test blog entry... grrrr."

eBay item 5765761043 (Ends Apr-12-05 17:18:32 PDT) - HP iPAQ Pocket PC H4355/4350 great condition: "Used HP 4350 or 4355 with built in keybad. A few scratches on the sides.
comes with cradle, charger, and manual.
The screen is perfect, no problems with it.
I ugraded to a palm treo, so i need to get rid of all my devices!
It reads pdf files, and plays mp3s! you can put your documetns on a sd card, then insert it onto the pda and run around. The screen is really nice, and colors are really vibrant.
the wi-fi works really well almost painless to setup.. it auto-finds wireless networks without any problems.
battery life is good as long as you turn off wi-fi, once any wireless services are on then it sucks it up! battery normally lasts for me about a week when i use it as a pure palm, 3 to 4 days if i play mp3s, and about 1 day if i use the wi-fi quite a bit.
"

My pda is on sale... please buy it!

Can cell phones contribute to infertility? | News.blog | CNET News.com: "In the study, faculty members John Aitken and Bruce King exposed mice to a particular frequency of electromagnetic radiation that is similar to waves people receive when answering a mobile phone. Initial results found that there was more DNA damage in the exposed sperm than in sperm from the control groups. "

oh no! i think my new treo is probably frying my nuts. i'm using a headset more often nowadays, but its still kinda clunky to use it. i think i should wear steel pants.

The Postal Store: "Introducing a quick, easy, and convenient way for you to ship Priority Mail packages. The Postal Service has simplified the Priority Mail shipping process by introducing two new Flat Rate Box options - items that feature a predetermined rate regardless of the weight or destination zone of the package, similar to the Flat Rate Envelope. A few key benefits of this new product:
Any weight, any State, $7.70. No matter which Flat Rate Box you choose, the postage is $7.70, regardless of weight or destination.
No need for a scale. Visit Click-N-Ship to purchase and print postage from your home or small business computer. You don't need a scale.
No need for a trip to the Post Office. Visit Pickup Options to arrange for next-day pickup at no extra charge (available in most locations) using online Carrier pickup.
The corrugated box you have selected is similar to a shoe box (11' x 8-1/2' x 5-1/2') and holds merchandise such as model cars, and taller items. Both shapes have the same cubic inch dimensions. "

this is perfect for my shipments! now i just need a big bag of peanuts... i can probably save money by buying some ballons and blowing them up myself.

China's Tomb-Sweeping Day goes virtual | CNET News.com: "'Internet mourning, such as on the 'online cemetery', where virtual candles or joss-sticks are lit and virtual flowers are sent, is in fashion, saving millions of people of Chinese origin the trouble of traveling long distances in order to sweep tombs for their ancestors,' the news agency said.
New technology had also changed what people like to burn for ancestors to enjoy in the afterlife, Xinhua said. Some mourners have added mobile phones 'or other big ticket items that might be of particular interest for the deceased"

RIP SPICYSQUID.COM 4EVER BABY!

test... oh wells!

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

The New York Times > Business > Hybrid-Car Tinkerers Scoff at No-Plug-In Rule: " If you were able to plug a hybrid in overnight, you could potentially use a lot less gas by cruising for long stretches on battery power only. But unlike purely electric cars, which take hours to charge and need frequent recharging, you would not have to plug in if you did not want to.
'I've gotten anywhere from 65 to over 100 miles per gallon,' said Mr. Gremban, an engineer at CalCars, a small nonprofit group based in Palo Alto, Calif. He gets 40 to 45 miles per gallon driving his normal Prius. And EnergyCS, a small company that has collaborated with CalCars, has modified another Prius with more sophisticated batteries; they claim their Prius gets up to 180 m.p.g. and can travel more than 30 miles on battery power. "

Is this cheaper than gas!!! hmm... I guess my electric bill would go down, but I can just turn off my computer at night. That would keep my electric bill at the same rate.

Boredom to boom for India's software-testing market | CNET News.com: "Sohrab Azad, an executive at head-hunting company eQURA Consulting, told Reuters that industry estimates say Bangalore alone would need 10,000 testing engineers in the next six months.
The city is pulling talent from northern cities such as Delhi and Pune by doubling annual salaries to $18,265-$22,831 (800,000-1,000,000 rupees) for those with six to eight years' experience, he said. This is still only a fraction of what U.S. counterparts earn.
Russia, China and Ireland are among potential competitors, but India is seen as being ahead in the race.
'Once China crosses the language barrier, it is likely to pose a threat due to cost advantage,' said Pradeep Waychal, head of quality at Patni Computer Systems. "

testing is pretty boring... but pretty essential in order to maintain quality. Maintaining tests and keeping everything running in will take at least 1/2 of the development effort... but ensure a higher level of quality....

Yahoo! News - Too Sleepy for Sex?: "Most people -- 77 percent -- complained that their partner has a sleep-related problem, usually snoring.
'In my practice, I've found when couples are forced to sleep apart because of one partner's sleep problems, it often has a terrible effect on the relationship,' said Dr. Meir Kryger, director of the Sleep Disorders Center at St. Boniface Hospital Research Center at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg and a director of the Foundation. "


oh no!!! snoring!!!!

Chihuahua Terrorizes Ind. Postal Workers: "have nonetheless ticketed the dog's owner, Vicki Seber, twice in recent weeks for violating a city ordinance requiring pet owners to keep their animals restrained.
Hobart police officer Ron Schalk said he had no option but to cite Seber for allowing the dog to run loose.
'The biggest thing I was concerned with is there were a lot of residents that week who couldn't get their mail,' he said. 'The little Chihuahua was running around being aggressive and trying to bite people's ankles.'"

these small dogs are pretty agressive. I've actually been bitten a few times!

The Home School Conundrum / Parents' real estate decisions often based on kids' education needs: "So, what's the real value of buying in a good school system? My teacher friends assure me that test scores are a poor way of assessing a school's quality, but that doesn't eliminate the influence of such numbers. It is now a real estate reality that houses located near a school with high test scores get a substantial price bump. In the Cupertino Union School District, where one school scored a nearly perfect 993 out of 1,000 and virtually all the elementary schools scored above 900 (by comparison, not a single elementary school in San Francisco scores that high), the price of a generic ranch-style home can be several hundreds of thousands of dollars higher than those in nearby cities.
According to one East Bay real estate agent, a home in Oakland identical to one across the street in Piedmont might cost $150,000 less. Now, with our education system forced to use testing as a measure of success -- fallaciously marking some schools as failures and other as models -- it's not so hard to imagine that such price margins will only swell, making the real estate market a glaring mirror of our social inequities and our individual hopes to escape them. "

so sad.... this is why i went to private school.

Yahoo! News - Octopuses Seen Walking From Predators: "Two individuals of O. marginatus from Indonesia wrapped six arms around themselves, looking like a coconut on the sea floor. They then used the two rear arms to move backward.
In Australia, O. aculeatus was seen raising two arms above its head before lifting four more and moving backward on the two remaining arms. The researchers described it as looking like 'a clump of algae tiptoeing away.' "

I wonder if this will work on mags.

Trading places: Real estate instead of dot-coms | CNET News.com: "In Naples, Fla., some houses have been bought twice in a single day, an early 21st century version of day trading. Buying stocks on margin has morphed into buying homes with no money down. The over-the-top parties of Internet start-ups have been replaced by flashy gatherings, in which developers pitch condos to eager buyers. "

scary!

Trading places: Real estate instead of dot-coms | CNET News.com: "In Naples, Fla., some houses have been bought twice in a single day, an early 21st century version of day trading. Buying stocks on margin has morphed into buying homes with no money down. The over-the-top parties of Internet start-ups have been replaced by flashy gatherings, in which developers pitch condos to eager buyers. "

scary! i should buy a house someday!

THE TERRI SCHIAVO CASE / Her condition: Doctor explains the 'persistent vegetative state': "A person in a vegetative state is defined as one who is arousable -- which means merely a reflexive response to a stimulus -- but unaware. It is not necessary to wake up to be aroused. If a vegetative state exists for six weeks to three months, it is deemed a 'persistent' vegetative state.
A person in a persistent vegetative state is not in a coma. A person in a coma is unconscious, and unable to be aroused.
There is a similar distinction defining stupor. A person in a stupor shows some response to stimulation but will easily slip back into a state where he or she cannot be aroused.
Sleep, strictly defined, is a state of unconsciousness from which a person can be aroused. But there is another halfway state -- somnolence -- where a person can wake up enough to carry a brief conversation before falling back into sleep.
The strange limbo of people in vegetative states poses "

whew.. confusing stuff....

sometimes people i know are in these type of states when i see them in front of computers....

Parker Bowles Doesn't Want to Be Queen: "Several newspapers in Britain, where the public is warming to the royal wedding but still oppose the idea of Queen Camilla, on Tuesday carried headlines reading 'Camilla will be Queen if Charles is King,' and 'Camilla will be Queen.'"

All hail king squid!

Yahoo! News - France Dismantles Its 35-Hour Workweek: "
According to a 2003 OECD survey of 25 industrialized countries, only Norwegian and Dutch employees worked less time each year than the French, who worked an average 1,431 hours. German workers put in 1,446 hours, British 1,673 hours, Americans 1,792 hours and Koreans 2,390 hours.
Last year, a parliamentary committee reported that the 35-hour week cost France more than $13 billion a year, casting doubt on a labor ministry study that suggested it had created 350,000 jobs between 1998 and 2002.
Still, many French workers are loath to give up their shorter hours, even for more cash. Some 56 percent of salaried employees oppose the government's plan, according to the CSA survey, while 36 percent approve. "

those koreans work crazy hours!!!

35 hours a week... gosh... imagine having every wednesday off!

Yahoo! News - Calif. University Says 59,000 Affected by Hackers: "California State University, Chico in northern California is alerting students, former students, prospective students and faculty that their personal information, including Social Security (news - web sites) numbers, may have been compromised in the attack three weeks ago, said spokesman Joe Wills.
'It looked like it was illegal access to do some, perhaps, some downloading of files,' Wills said. 'In investigating it we realized the hackers had some access to a great deal of personal information.' "

oh no! this is a bit scary... they'll probably hit ucla and csus soon....

MP3 Insider: The iPod phone is here - CNET reviews: "I had an MP3-playing phone back in 2001: the Samsung Uproar. It was available before the iPod was, and it didn't rule out the iPod's success, obviously. Likewise, the Motorola E399/ROKR and the Sony Ericsson Walkman will not eclipse the MP3 player category because people need two portable devices: one for fun (music, movies, and games) and the other for responsibility-related activities (keeping in touch, making appointments, and storing contacts). The reason for this is battery; people don't want to entertain themselves to the point of losing their cell phone. Think about it: Would you listen to music if you knew that meant you'd lose all cell phone functionality after a few hours?"

Interesting... battery life... maybe I should upgrade my phone to a 5 megapixel one instead, this battery problem is a big deal!

Study: Internet use in U.S. homes dips | CNET News.com: "time, on average, people spend online at home. Average usage time for U.S. citizens dipped by 2 percent from a year ago, to 13 hours and 44 minutes a month, the study showed. Hong Kong, conversely, topped the list with its per-person average almost reaching 22 hours a month. The year-over-year growth for Hong Kong was 25 percent."

gosh. Shoudn't people be running aroudn instead of being in front of their computer?

need more sleep. i was dreaming of the odr pricing last night... yawn.

Survey: Techies stressed over job insecurity | CNET News.com: "But there's also been evidence that techies have reason to fear for their jobs. Technology companies sent out 23 percent fewer pink slips in 2004 than they did in 2003, but they still laid off more than 175,000 workers last year, according to a report from employment services firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas"

oh no! no job security any where!

The Buzz Report: Good-bye, computer; hello, world! - CNET.com: "OK, next question: bandwidth. Yes, it'll be a problem, for a little while. But the pipes are getting fatter. Just last month, Cisco announced that it will deliver gigabit broadband service to houses in Hong Kong--over existing copper wiring. A California group is working to ensure gigabit broadband to all Californians by 2010. Fiber optics are snaking across the world. We've all been talking about Web 2.0--well, this is it. We all know it needs to be faster, and it will be. Google can only help drive the rollout. Truth be told, the biggest challenge will be supporting the graphics you'll need to deliver a truly dynamic desktop environment in what was formerly known as a Web browser--but that's for another column."

geez... gigabit ethernet... i really need more broadband access! my bit torrent clients suck up all my bandwith right now. my laptop and desktop only hold about 80 hours of videos, which isn't enough. I manage to max it out every time I get a show off my replay.

My visit to china.... watch out! Yu Gardens! 

Real estate investors cast watchful eye on Las Vegas' high stakes housing game: "Doncov, a 57-year-old engineer who was a victim of the technology flame- out, was one of thousands of investors who hoped to turn a quick profit by buying and selling Las Vegas property within a few months. Early last year he bought two new houses from Pulte Homes for $515,000 each.
By the end of the summer, he said, the houses were worth well over $600, 000, based on Pulte's prices for the same models. Then Pulte cut the price by about $180,000.
Doncov sold the two properties in December and January for $480,000 and $490,000; after closing costs and sales fees, he estimates he lost $100,000. He is working with a lawyer to try to recoup the losses from Pulte, on the grounds Pulte misled investors by systematically raising new home prices, then abruptly lowering them. Many people in Las Vegas shrug at tales like Doncov's, saying any plan to get rich quick is fraught with risk. "


oh no! don't let this be you!

Jeff Yang's Asian Pop Diary: Live in Tokyo: "Indeed, some of the coolest devices aren't particularly futuristic at all. In Japan's elaborate coin-op culture, everything from underwear to pornography to ramen noodles is available for purchase through largely unsupervised public vending machines. The only reason coin-ops survive in the United States is that the items being sold -- candy, cigarettes, soda -- are so cheap that the reward for breaking into them isn't worth the effort it requires. "

hmm... wacky stuff!

Amazon.com: Cell Phones: Motorola A630 Phone (T-Mobile): "When coupled with the built-in keyboard, you've got a mobile communication powerhouse. The phone features support for AOL Instant Messenger (T-Mobile messaging charges apply) and there's a built-in web browser for t-zones downloads and mobile web browsing. T-Mobile's t-zones service lets you receive and send emails, read news headlines, get weather updates, download games and ringtones, and more.
With the A630's built-in keyboard, you've got a mobile communication powerhouse.
Traditional text messaging, as well as picture, sound and video messaging, are also supported by the phone. When used in combination with the phone's built-in camera, MMS opens up a whole new world of messaging fun. iTap text entry, which is a technology that makes it easier for people to enter words and text on handsets, is supported if you want to use the outer keypad for text entry."


My one year contract is over! anyone have a recommendation for a new phone?
Needs a keyboard and integration with outlook.

spicysquid pet of the week! it's like a little dog or cat! 

killer tofu dish of the week. please.... only one shrimp..... one honey walnut shrimp please...... 

This is the spicysquid people photo of the week. Congrats Waync and Becky! Best wishes!!!

What an exhausting night... mad props to snooks for running around and figuring out where all the extra layers of cake should go.

Turkey mating games challenge theory of 'survival of the fittest' / UC biologist finds young males help top tom get sex: "The male, approaching a female in a courtship ritual with two or more of his brothers, will blush brilliantly red and blue about his face and throat, fan his broad brown and white tail, lower his outspread wings and emit loud thrumming noises through his air sacks as he prances in a shuffling strut.
And while he engages in his display, his brothers do so, too -- but silently and without the strut, in a kind of cooperative semi-courtship -- and they also turn to ward off any hostile interlopers seeking to court the same female. "

I need some turkey wingman!

gooble gooble!

Slashdot | QA != Testing: "Having worked in a CMM 3 company for a couple years, my opinions of the thing are quite different: CMM, and processes in general, are a tool that managers use to offload their work on the engineers.

We used to spend vast amounts of time peer reviewing all sorts of useless documents, making estimates for project planning, and so on, additionally to the architecture and coding work.

This didn't do anything at all for quality. Deadlines slipped like always (often more, because of the time lost to irrelevant stuff). Spec documents were just as Ground-Control-To-Major-Tom-like as usual.

It did, however, give the managers the warm fuzzy feeling that overcomes control freaks everywhere when they're sure they can track, number, file and index everything that goes on around them. Without having to do any actual work. Without even knowing the first thing about the product we were making (without CMM, a prerequisite for anyone attempting to write any sort of project plan).

One of our line managers admitted all of this quite openly, one of his favourite sayings was 'Since we have processes, I can go home at four every day'. We didn't. We got to stay till 8."

someday i'll be manager and with cmm level 5 and make all my engineers stay until midnight!

TechDeals.net - Your Guide to Technology Bargains - Updated Daily: "And line up for the Canon Powershot SD500 7MP Digital Elph Camera with 3x Optical Zoom for just $499.99 shipped. Release date 3/25."

release date of 3/25.... hmmm 7 megapixels.. my casio ex-55 is already outdated!

No Butter for Bubba, the 22-Pound Lobster: "He could be older than Warner Bros. studio, General Motors, the Boy Scouts and the states of Arizona and New Mexico. He could have survived two world wars and Prohibition. He could have been dinner.
He's Bubba, a 22-pound leviathan of a lobster pulled from the waters off Nantucket, Mass., and shipped to a Pittsburgh fish market. The lobster has been kept in a tank near a fish counter in Wholey's Market since Thursday while owner Bob Wholey tried to figure out what to do with it."

hmmmm 22 pounds! anyone down for some lobster!

Amazon.com: Camera & Photo: Canon Powershot SD500 7MP Digital Elph Camera with 3x Optical Zoom: "With a host of new features and a unique 'perpetual curve' contoured design, the brushed stainless steel titanium grey 7.1-megapixel PowerShot SD500 continues the PowerShot tradition of pushing compact camera design into new territories.
Driven by the same DIGIC II image processing architecture that propels Canon's EOS-1 pro-series digital SLR cameras, the camera features a 3.0x optical zoom, large 2.0-inch LCD, high-quality VGA video clips at 30 frames per second up to the capacity of the memory card, high-speed USB 2.0 connection, 'My Color' in-camera color editing, and a Print/Share button for easy PictBridge direct printing and fast file uploads. Its 7.1-megapixel sensor allows detailed enlargements up to 15 x 20 inches."

wow! 7 megapixels!!! gosh. my pictures with my 5 megapixel camera are 2 MB each already... gosh.

amigos at my place! 

USATODAY.com - Former tech executive segues to trucker: "CHICAGO � As Tim Krauskopf steers his 33-ton rig and its load of frozen bagels down an Illinois highway, he is indistinguishable from other truckers hauling loads across the nation. But the 41-year-old in his blue jeans and baseball cap isn't your average trucker. He owns his own small trucking firm, for starters. He's also a millionaire several times over.

Tim Krauskopf, once in the Spyglass, now in the looking-glass.
By Nam Y. Huh, AP

What really singles out the bespectacled man from suburban Chicago is what he did before he became a trucker: At the dawn of the Internet Age in the 1990s, he was one of the 20- and 30-something whiz kids who helped make the Internet what it is today.
His status as an Internet pioneer derived partly from Spyglass, a company he co-founded in 1990. It developed a groundbreaking browser software called Mosaic that Microsoft soon leased and then spun into its Internet Explorer � now the world's most widely used browser.
Later, Krauskopf founded or worked for a handful of other IT companies, some of which were more successful than others. He worked briefly for Divine Inc., a software firm that spent nearly $1 billion in under four years, never turned a profit and then went bankrupt in 2003.
Krauskopf's unlikely career change began as career changes often do: He lost his job."




hmmm... what would you be? I would sell pictures of cats online!

The New York Times > Fashion & Style > Six Figures? Not Enough!: "'It's the new black,' said Bill Coleman, senior vice president in charge of compensation at Salary.com, an online career service based in Needham, Mass., that tracks executive pay. 'There's a lot of bunching between $100,000 and $150,000. That's the vast majority of the people who used to aspire to $100,000. Now they are aspiring to $200,000 or $250,000.'
'It's the players,' he added, echoing a common sentiment, 'who make $200,000.'"

nice link from mr. dtc. who is used to the new york lifestyle of 300k.

Opinion Column by PC Magazine: How to Kill Linux: "The long-term implications of such a scenario, I believe, would be essentially to kill Linux. Microsoft's MS-Linux would quickly become the dominant Linux and the company would begin to profit from all the open-source development work that would go into Linux. Once the developers saw that happen they'd stop working on Linux and it would die. After all, who wants to do free work that benefits Microsoft? At some point in the future Microsoft will make its move on Linux, you can be certain. I've always been convinced that Microsoft's long-term Linux strategy was why the company sued, then bought off, the Lindows folks, although I doubt that it would now use the Lindows name."

hmm what about word for linux!!! office for linux.... argh. i hate how cut and paste is completely broken in linux...

Designs By June :: About June: "I had always loved wearing unique jewelry creations and found that I now had the time to experiment with my creative side by making my own designs. I was quickly inspired to turn my hobby into a business when I had received so many compliments on my designs from friends and strangers everywhere who wanted to buy the jewelry I was wearing. The pivotal turning point was presented to me when I met a successful business woman in Fort Lauderdale, Florida who really saw talent in my handcrafted designs and complimented me on the necklace that I was wearing in the elevator that we were both on at the hotel. As the elevator opened to let us off, she took me aside and as fate would have it shared a story with me about her success as a jewelry designer in the early 1980s. She encouraged me to pursue my dream and after that I knew I had found my new purpose in life. I was so excited; I spent the next few hours in the hotel business center typing out my business plan so when I got home from my trip, I could hit the ground running! It�s been an awesome journey ever since. "

Wow! this is pretty inspirational! One of my old coworkers!

Tom

StatCVS offers a view into CVS repository activity: " been running for a few years. How do you get an understanding of the project's development history? The best way is probably to just talk to the programmers involved, but that's easier said than done. They've often moved on to other projects and can be hard to track down. You can look at the release frequency, although that may be governed by a nontechnical mandate (something along the lines of, 'We'll do a release only after the end of the fiscal year'). You can poke around the bug and feature-request trackers, dredging up discussions on bugs opened and closed. Or you can go right to the source code history and use a utility like StatCVS to see what changes have been made and who made them. I've used StatCVS for several years on various large projects, and the reports it generates have always been well received. In this article, "


aaah metrics... how to get good metrics... this is a good way to get a lines of code count. but you need to add in complexity counts... since a few lines of sql is far more complex then some java code.

Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters: "'Ajax: A New Approach to Web Applications (from Adaptive Path and via Jeffery Veen) introduces their experiences with what they are calling 'Ajax' as in 'Asynchronous JavaScript + XML' aka the XmlHttpRequest Object. It is used by Google (Google Maps, Google Suggest, Gmail), in Amazon's A9, and a few others "

hmm... interesting... so that's how they do all that fancy javascript stuff....

Smartmoney.com: Broker Survey: Full-Service Broker Rankings: "White-glove service, but be ready for champagne-and-caviar prices."

oh no! I'm going to be paying champagne and caviar prices! I better get those crazy returns!

Shorter hours in software | CNET News.com: "Developers are sometimes just as much to blame for submitting themselves to extreme working conditions, adopting a macho bravado in hopes of 'proving' themselves worthy for the industry,' the professional group's board said in a statement"




wusses!

PMA 2005: CNET covers the show - CNET reviews: "Armed with Canon's Digic II processing system, the PowerShot SD400 can take VGA (640x480) movies at an impressive 60fps and shoot in full-resolution burst mode at 2.1fps."








5 megapixel and 30 frames a second!!!!! gosh my new digital camera is already outdated!

we've both been terminated once.... (blogging dude that got fired!) best of luck to him!  

Gadget or plaything? Let the kids decide - page 3 | CNET News.com: "The Fly, billed by its maker, LeapFrog, as a computer in a pen, has attracted a lot of interest in the toy industry since it was introduced early last month. The gray-and-white pen, priced at $100 and scheduled for release in the fall, manages a variety of tasks, including games, music and foreign-language translation, by reading words and symbols its users write on special paper. It speaks rather than displays its data. "





Woah! what is this thing? i feel like i can use it in china!

some amigos from work!  

my setup at home... with a hotpocket! 

Back-breaking bills / Uncovered medical expenses are leading to bankruptcies: "The study looked at 1,771 bankruptcies filed in 2001 in five states, including California. Almost half of those filers -- 46.2 percent -- cited illness and medical bills as a major cause of bankruptcy. More than three- quarters had insurance at the onset of illness.
The problem seems to be largely a middle-class phenomenon. Typical medical bankruptcy filers are in their early 40s and have children. Most have at least some college education and own their homes.
Even if people have health insurance to begin with, many lose coverage because they are unable to keep their jobs because of medical problems. "





this is a huge problem for the united states... it's going to be a major factor in the economy and probably is a major factor right now.

Yahoo! News - Three laid-off Americans struggle to find work: "Feb. 15
McElwee has decided to put off the surgery. He can't help thinking about the financial toll job loss has taken. 'My father, when he died, left me some rings, jewelry, watches, bracelets. I pawned every single one of them. I can't reclaim them,' he says. 'I have no tangible memory of my father anymore, not even the cross he wore around his neck.'"



someday.... i might have to sell guilt dog

Yahoo! News - Three laid-off Americans struggle to find work: "Jan. 15
Rathbone has insisted that she will work only eight hours a day, but she feels her managers want more hours than she can put in. She says that, while she's thankful for work, she is still in the market for a permanent job. 'Always keep your r�sum� updated,' she says. 'You need to be ready at any moment. Nothing is for certain.'"






ack!!!! how scary!

Amazon.com: Electronics: Creative Webcam Live! Pro USB 2.0 WebCam (73VF008000000): "Want it delivered Tomorrow? Order it in the next 5 hours and 37 minutes, and choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. See details."




Wow!!! i should just go buckwild and order everythign online!!!!

www.killertofu.com

best urban clothing store in the web!!!

please help me advertise!

Yahoo! News - Nice view: Cities of all sizes embracing high-rise living: " A major demographic shift. Baby boomers are inheriting wealth at the same time that they're becoming empty nesters. 'We're retiring earlier, and we want to be able to lock and leave,' Bottfeld says. 'For people in their 50s to their 70s, their most precious commodity is time.'
People don't want to spend time mowing lawns, sitting in rush-hour traffic or getting in their cars to pick up the dry-cleaning. If they live in a downtown high-rise, there's no grass to cut, they often can walk to work and cultural events, and many high-rises have on-site concierge service to take care of life's every little need."



this sounds like my life!

DHL - Tracking Number Detail: "2/14/057:19 amArrived at DHL facility. San Francisco, CA



2/12/058:20 pmDeparting origin. Fresno, CA



2/9/055:20 pmPicked Up by DHL.Shipper's Door"






Dood it's almost here!!! i'm so excited... hopefully they'll deliver it today!!!!

stylish thread in the last two weeks. notice the orange stripe on the side 

SourceForge.net: jTDS JDBC Driver 1.0.1 released: "The jTDS Project has released version 1.0.1 of the jTDS JDBC driver for SQL Server and Sybase. jTDS 1.0.1 is a minor release, containing fixes to all the bugs reported aginst release 1.0.
"

phew... so it looks like i can connect and get sql data from my microsoft sql server from java. the driver is finally past 1.0!

Electronic Arts endows a faculty chair at USC - Feb. 8, 2005: "Bing Gordon, Chief Creative Officer and co-founder of Electronic Arts (Research), was named the first holder of the Electronic Arts endowed faculty chair at the USC School of Cinema-Television, according to a statement from the company, the biggest video game publisher. "





hmm... drats i studied the wrong stuff at school. circuit design... bah... video games! well i did spend more time playing video games.

The Mercedes Wrangler is riding the eco-range: "Straight veggie oil, or SVO, as it is known in the biz, needs to be heated before it will run with any kind of predictability, so all conversions involve some device to heat the oil before it hits the injectors. But once you've licked that problem, you can back up to the oil Dumpster at any restaurant and fill up your tank with free fuel. (OK, it's more complicated than that. You've got to pour the stuff through filters to reduce the amount of french fry debris, water and drowned rodents that get sucked through your fuel system. And you've got to get the permission of the restaurant owner and avoid the renderer. But you won't have to lay out any hard currency for a tankful.) "



I wish my scoobie ran on ice cream. then i could get a snack while I drive.

Real cash for virtual goods - page 3 | CNET News.com: "He's now one of the game's leading sellers of 'skins,' files that allow players to customize the basic appearance of their character. He makes up to $2,000 a month selling skins. "


geez. I should employ some people off craiglist to staff my sims house.

Real cash for virtual goods | CNET News.com: "'EverQuest' publisher Sony Online Entertainment has sued sites specializing in the barter of in-game goods and convinced auction giant eBay to reject auctions of 'EverQuest' items. Yet game trade remains a brisk underground business, giving 'EverQuest' a more vigorous economy than several European nations, according to one economic study. "




My new goods to sell on eBay!

Made in lower-cost America - page 3 | CNET News.com: "Carter, Marshall and others in smaller-town America may be benefiting from newfound opportunities in technology, but clients might wonder if their tech tasks can safely go there. Rural Sourcing, for example, is drawing on talent from little-known regional universities rather than working closely with prestigious universities like Harvard, Stanford or Carnegie Mellon. "



Carnegie mellon grads are expensive!

Sourcing in China not a sure bet | CNET News.com: "Enticed by attractive price quotes, the manufacturer failed to make completely sure that its Chinese partners could live up to its technical and logistical requirements. When the Chinese suppliers struggled to meet production schedules, the manufacturer was forced to use expensive airfreight. Quality issues also surfaced; the suppliers lacked the skills to maintain process control and implement engineering changes. The combination of problems eroded the expected cost savings. Ultimately, the automotive supplier reduced its Chinese procurement effort. "


import export woes!

Someone have some goods for me to sell on eBay.



Tom

Kids' SOS falls on deaf parental ears: "Bug-eyed from lack of sleep and stressed as they wait to hear if they've been accepted into a top college, many Bay Area high school seniors are trudging into semester finals this week."

Dood this is so sad. I don't remember hs been so stressful. but then i went to private school, where the competition wasn't as fierce.