Tech Spotlight: Wubi - Ubuntu on Windows

Overview: Wubi is an unofficial Ubuntu installer for Windows users that will bring you into the Linux world with a few clicks. Wubi allows you to install and uninstall Ubuntu as any other application.Wubi is a Windows front-end for lupin. Wubi and lupin provide a user friendly installer which allows users to install/uninstall Ubuntu like any other Windows program, without modifying partitions, without replacing the bootloader, and without having to burn a CD. Ubuntu installation is almost identical to a standard dual-boot installation both in terms of behavior and performance.

http://www.cutlersoftware.com/ubuntusetup/wubi/en-US/index.html

Wubi is Safe

It does not require you to modify the partitions of your PC, or to use a different bootloader.

Wubi is Simple

Just run the installer, no need to burn a CD.

Wubi is Discrete

Wubi keeps most of the files in one folder, and If you do not like, you can simply uninstall it.

Wubi is Free

Wubi (like Ubuntu) is free as in beer and as in freedom. You will get this part later on, the important thing now is that it cost absolutely nothing, it is our gift to you...

So you think your job is secure, think again!

Most network administrative jobs can be done any where, security jobs are the first to go. It is cheaper to do security and admin. Jobs off site because you do not need an in house staff, off site or import is allot cheaper. Help desk and tier one and two can also be off site because of remote/ desktop/ remote assistance.
The only real secure job is desktop support but with out sourcing this is paying a lot less because they are able to pick from IT people that are lost in global IT field.
I say just learn as much as you can and look for companies that need a generalist because most jobs can be done by remote.

Certs are great but the guy over seas has a better chance then you and I do, because he is over seas and gets more incentives and better pay here. If you look at help wanted adds and on line adds a lot of company's give first choice to over seas first and people here second. But some pay overseas less in some cases allot less.
So make your self a better person to hire, learn how a copy works and show to the HR person.

Ahhhhhh! A spiritual paradise coming soon, a retreat from stressful job hunting.

On the weekend in June 22-24, an estimated 7,000 Jehovah's Witnesses will converge on downtown Toledo to attend three-day conventions to discuss the Bible and family values. That weekend I will remove myself from the stress and strain of job hunting, interviewing and being turn down. Here is where I will feel safe, loved and worry free for three days. Unlike most large-scale religious gatherings, no monetary offerings will be taken at any of the meetings.

Each three-day session will feature about 22 lectures, we will have programs that deal with how to use the Bible to cope with the efforts that seem put forth today to break down the family unit. Every part of the convention is open to the public. Even a non-Witness is able to be there and benefit from the convention. Each day of the convention will focus on Jesus.

Friday’s program theme is “Look Intently at the Chief Agent and Perfecter of Our Faith, Jesus.” (Hebrews 12:2) The welcoming address is “Why Follow ‘the Christ’?” A three-part feature is the symposium “Appreciating Jesus as the Greater Moses, David, Solomon.” The morning session concludes with the keynote address, “Jesus’ Unique Role in Jehovah’s Purpose.”


On Friday afternoon the first talk is “‘We Have Found the Messiah’!” It is followed by “Finding Treasures ‘Carefully Concealed in Him,’” The hour-long, five-part symposium “Keep Christ’s Mental Attitude in You” includes the talks “He ‘Received Them Kindly,’”” He ‘Became Obedient as Far as Death,’” and “He ‘Loved Them to the End,’” The session concludes with the discourse “They ‘Keep Following the Lamb No Matter Where He Goes,’”



Saturday’s program theme is “My Sheep Listen to My Voice,. . . and They Follow Me.” (John 10:27) An hour-long symposium “Follow Jesus’ Pattern in the Ministry” will include practical suggestions for improving our ministry, After the talks “He ‘Loved Righteousness and Hated Lawlessness—Do You?” and “‘Oppose the Devil’ as Jesus Did,” the morning program will conclude with a discussion of baptism, after which those who qualify will be baptized.



Saturday afternoon’s program begins with the symposium “Do Not Follow,.,” Its six parts are “After the Crowd,” “Your Hearts and Your Eyes,” “Unrealities,” “False Teachers,” “False Stories,” and “Satan.” The next talks include “The Superiority of Being ‘Taught by Jehovah’” and “Help Them Return to the Flock.” The day ends with a convention highlight, the talk “Come Be My Follower.”



Sunday’s theme is “Continue Following Me.” (John 21:19) After the talk “Do Not ‘Beg Off’ From Following the Christ,” the six-part symposium “Precious Gems From the Sermon on the Mount” will focus on such sayings of Jesus as: “Happy Are Those Conscious of Their Spiritual Need,” “First Make Your Peace With Your Brother,” and “Practice Giving, and People Will Give to You.” The morning program concludes with the public talk, “Who Are the Real Followers of Christ?” The afternoon highlight is a full-costume drama based on the Bible account of Gehazi, the greedy attendant of God’s prophet Elisha. The convention ends with the talk “Keep Following Christ, Our Invincible Leader!

Would you accept an IT job as "Jack Of All trades" or run from it?

I seem to see a very disturbing trend among many of the positions being posted on job search engines as well as those being emailed to me by recruiters. Companies want a network admin, a DBA, a developer, a Cisco engineer, and a security specialist all combined in one. Yes, there may be folks out there that possess all of these skills, but for the salary being offered for this position, the naive hiring manager of the company will be searching for quite a long time to fill the position. What happened to the good old days where developers were developers, DBAs' were DBAs', and server engineers were server engineers? If the company needs all these skills, then perhaps they should create multiple positions to fill these roles instead of trying to squeeze every imaginable technology into one role and expect to find a candidate that matches the description or will work themselves to death for such a small salary. Do corporations and HR need a refresher course in the differences among various fields of IT?

What do you think?

Sizing up the loss

Pfizer's withdrawal from Ann Arbor has impact behind the scenes.

1,000
Contract employees on Pfizer's campus will lose their jobs.
My final day is August 3, 2007, with Compucom.
$198.4 million
Total trickle-down impact of lost Pfizer wages.
$4 million
to $5 million
Amount of annual charitable donations from Pfizer and its employees.

Downsizing Pfizer begins summer of layoffs

The largest waves of layoffs so far have begun at Pfizer Inc.'s research and development facility in Ann Arbor, which the pharmaceutical giant is shutting by the end of next year.

Pfizer laid off 50 employees earlier this month, and is cutting between 50 and 150 people in two-week cycles through the rest of the summer. The company anticipates that by the end of this year, the number of employees in Ann Arbor will be down to 400, spokesman Rick Chambers said.

Pfizer announced its plans to shutter the facility in January as part of a corporate restructuring that aims to cut 10,000 jobs worldwide and save $2 billion a year. At the time, the Ann Arbor site employed 2,100 people. Pfizer said it would cut 2,410 Michigan jobs total, including 60 in Plymouth Township at a biotech operation called Esperion and 250 from a Kalamazoo research site.

The cost reduction plan was Pfizer's second in as many years, and came after safety issues forced it to halt the development of a key drug in its pipeline -- torcetrapib. The cholesterol drug was expected to replace sales of the best-selling Lipitor when it loses market exclusivity in 2010. The company is also facing fierce competition from generic drugs.

Slightly more than half of 1,000 Ann Arbor employees who Pfizer offered other jobs in the company have accepted the transfer offers. Most will go to the Pfizer site in Groton, Conn., Chambers said. In addition to relocation assistance, Pfizer will kick in extra help, up to $100,000, for transferring employees who sell their homes for less than the assessed value.

Severance packages for those who leave the company include 13 weeks' pay minimum, plus another three weeks for each year of service. Laid-off employees also have access to Pfizer job search tools, counseling and internal job postings for 60 days after their termination date.

"It's a difficult process but we're trying to make it as smooth as possible for those affected," Chambers said.

Pfizer has arranged for the University of Michigan to take over leased laboratory space near its Ann Arbor campus. The company is still in the process of identifying a broker for its complex and does not expect to make any decisions on what it will do with the space until at least next year, Chambers said.

For Ann Arbor Spark, the economic development organization working to retain Pfizer talent in the area, there's a bright spot in the news that only about 500 employees have accepted transfers. "There's still a very significant number of the population that will be available to us," said Mike Finney, president and CEO of Spark.

Spark is working with 23 groups of Pfizer employees to help them form startups, Finney said. And 200 hundred companies in southeast Michigan have offered to hire Pfizer employees, posting nearly 600 job openings through Spark.

The combination of efforts "gives us pretty good hope that many of them will choose to stay," he said.

Use Your Pocket PC For Remote Troubleshooting

The Pocket PC can be an excellent tool for troubleshooting network or client PC problems. For example, you could use the Pocket PC to:

Attach to a malfunctioning remote server using a Terminal Server session to correct minor problems. If you determine that the server problem is a major one, at least you’ll know that you’re not going all the way back to the computer room for nothing.

Launch a Terminal Server session to connect directly to the user’s desktop and see exactly what he or she is seeing (Windows XP Professional only).

I’ll show you how to connect your Pocket PC to your network and configure Terminal Services to remotely control a Windows 2000 Server or Windows XP client.

Prerequisites
If you plan on troubleshooting a network with your Pocket PC, you’ll need one that can accept a standard PCMCIA network card. Keep in mind, however, not all PCMCIA network cards will work with a Pocket PC. The Pocket PC must have built-in drivers for the card, or drivers must be available for the card. For instance, my HP Jornada has NE2000 drivers built in, but I chose to use a wireless 3Com card instead because it came with the necessary drivers for network communications (listed as Windows CE Drivers).

The Pocket PC must also have a keyboard. Although most Pocket PCs don’t come with keyboards, companies like NEC and HP do manufacture Pocket PCs with them included. These Pocket PCs are slightly larger than the models without keyboards but are much smaller than a notebook PC.

Pocket PC network attachment
Your brand of Pocket PC and your network configuration will determine how you will attach the Pocket PC to your network, although the steps involved are very similar to attaching a desktop PC to a network. You must assign the Pocket PC a name, supply an IP address if necessary, and specify the name of the domain that you want to log in to. If you aren’t relying on a built-in network card driver, you may also have to use your desktop PC to copy the necessary network card drivers to your Pocket PC.

Seven Steps to the 'Call-flow Process - Customer Service

The Call-flow Process

Purpose: Use this SkillGuide to review the stages of the call-flow process.

The stages of the call-flow process involve:

1. Greeting the customer: Answer by the third ring, smile, speak clearly, give the customer your undivided attention, identify yourself and your department, offer help, and note the customer's name. Begin the conversation with your customer on a positive note.
2. Listening to the customer: Ignore disruptions, distractions, or uncomfortable surroundings such as noise, lighting, or being too hot or too cold. Concentrate on what the customer is saying to you, and attempt to identify the information that is most important.
3. Determining customer needs: Listen actively to the customer from the beginning of the conversation. Paraphrase what the customer has communicated to you, ask questions, and get feedback.
4. Responding to customer needs: First, provide an empathy statement to address the customer's psychological needs. Then, with the customer, develop an action plan that directly addresses his business needs. Developing an action plan involves informing the customer of the steps you plan to take; explaining any steps he should take; telling the customer the benefits of your actions; indicating the timeframe of the results; and checking to ensure the customer has understood the proposed solutions.
5. Getting agreement: Seek feedback and agreement from the customer at this point to establish whether he is satisfied with the solution.
6. Concluding the call: Smile and have a positive, friendly attitude; use the customer's name; review the plan of action; offer further assistance; and thank him for calling.
7. Following up as necessary: You might want to follow up particularly urgent requests or requests that are critical to a large number of users.