All About Working

From the washingtonpost.com:
Windows 7: Not Quite The Change We Need
by Rob Pegoraro

A year ago, I wouldn’t have predicted that I’d be reviewing a public beta test of Windows Vista’s replacement this week. And yet here I am, assessing Windows 7 in today’s column.

Microsoft deserves some congratulations for moving forward this quickly on Vista’s successor. But the speed with which the company has brought Windows 7 to beta status itself constitutes the strongest evidence that 7 won’t provide any drastic break from Windows as we’ve known it.

From The Wall Street Journal:

Super Bowl Ads Try Hard-Sell
Forget Memorable or Brand-Buffing, This Year’s Pitches Cry Out ‘Buy Me’
By SUZANNE VRANICA

Over the years, it has been called the Ad Bowl, the Bud Bowl and the Buzz Bowl. Super Bowl XLIII on Sunday will probably go down as the Hard-Sell Bowl.

As the economy soured, advertisers began crafting a hard-sell approach to their game ads, and the results will be on display Sunday. They offer a stark contrast to the slapstick of Budweiser’s flatulent horse and Electronic Data Systems’ Herding Cats branding ad that in past years tended to soft-peddle products and services.

“All bets are off,” says Lynda Resnick, co-chairman of Roll International, whose Teleflora unit is advertising in the game for the first time. “It’s the hardest time out there right now.”

Telefora’s ad, which features talking flowers, plugs a $29.99 price for Valentine’s Day arrangements. Ms. Resnick says Teleflora tweaked the ad to make sure that came through loud and clear after “price won over all other things in our ad testing. Consumers want value.” Continued

So now we will see to where this economy is leaning its marketing dollars.

The ABC Evening News ran a story last night about a number of companies that are bringing back their call centers to “North America.” The story wasn’t very specific about where the centers were going to. I tried to locate the report on the ABC News website, but it isn’t shown. There was a blogged mention of it earlier in the day, but the actual story/report is not to be found. What I write here will be from memory as I watched it.

The gist of the report was that some very large firms such as Dell, are bringing call centers back to America’s shores – somewhere. One man that was shown had been working with Dell to try to fix his computer. He used the words to the effect of “not changing from their script.” I was quick to identify with that problem. Frustrations that I, too, have felt dealing with off-shore call centers were mentioned in that it seems like there is no ability to identify and then problem solve. Instead, an elaborate protocol must be followed.

The man highlighted spent many hours trying to solve the issue and finally gave up. He paid someone to fix the problem. Again, I had the same experience with Dell several years ago. I think when I clocked in 4 hours, I stopped and brought the computer to someone locally. It was fixed and I have never had a problem sense. The $200 I paid was well worth it.

There was also mention made that with the return of the call centers, companies will be offering extended packages for fees. How that will fly in this economy remains to be seen.

A call center expert concluded the report saying that by the time people get to call centers, they have had a problem and they are frustrated. The report implied that it won’t matter where the center is located at, frustration will always be a problem.

Hopefully, this report will show up sometime on ABC’s website. If so, I will link to it.

From lifehacker.com:

Grab a 1TB Hard Drive for $99
By Adam Pash

It’s the dead of winter and we’re in the middle of a recession. You’re stuck inside without much to do, and chances are your hard drive is filling up with ambiguously legitimate music and videos real quick.

Check out information about a terrific deal and an offer of installation instructions. That’s a great deal in itself! Thanks!

From The New York Times:

On Networking Sites, Learning How Not to Share
By RIVA RICHMOND

YOUR boss saw pictures of you drunk at last Saturday’s party. An old flame found out you’re seeing someone else. The nosy neighbor discovered you were laid off.

These and many other uncomfortable scenes are repeated daily on social networking sites, where millions of people now gather to share the details of their lives with, well, practically anyone they’ve ever known — and quite a few people they don’t know at all.

Like well-behaved kindergartners, we love to share. And Web sites like Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn have grown hugely popular by making sharing bigger, faster, easier and awfully fun. With so many people participating — 35 percent of Internet users in the United States aged 18 or over now use an online social network, according to a December survey by the Pew Internet Project — life on these sites can be very rich. Yet, evidence of your nocturnal exploits, ill-considered comments and business secrets can also go global in an instant.

Check out this article for some good suggestions about separating work and private life when it comes to social networking.

You might have missed it – it was yesterday, January 28th. I didn’t know and now I am crushed that I missed a chance to celebrate something.

Quick piece of background on this big day:

The concept began in Europe in 2007, and Monday the House of Representatives passed a resolution declaring January 28 as Data Privacy Day. Wonderful use of the House’s time when we’re deep in this recession, huh?

According to The New York Times, celebrations were held in various ways:

Privacy advocates marked the day in public doing what they do most: advocating. CNet rounds up the various calls for the Obama administration and Congress to get tougher on Peeping Toms of all sorts.

Well that’s good stuff.

For Google and Microsoft, it’s a day for boasting. On its blog, Google takes the occasion to note how it is now blurring the faces of the people whose pictures it takes as part of its Street View product, an effort to make that anyone in the world can instantly see what your front door looks like. It asserts, “We’re transparent about the data we collect, and we design products that give people control over the information they share.”

Well, someone has to put those blurs in, so that could be creating jobs at least.

Not to be out blogged, Microsoft has two posts: One that notes two panel events on privacy Microsoft is hosting, one in San Francisco and one in Brussels. The other has a video, accompanied by scary music, of people talking about all the intrusive things that happen when they go online. Peter Cullen Microsoft’s chief privacy strategist, says reassuringly at the end that the company is committed to trust on the Internet.

Oh, would love to see that become a Halloween video.

This information came from this linked article.

If you missed this day, start planning for a celebration for new year. Just keep it private, okay?

From the Wall Street Journal:

How to Rally Workers for Tough 2009
By ERIN WHITE

It’s been a brutal year. Many workers are burned out, anxious and exhausted. 2009 doesn’t look any better. So how can managers rally employees for the hard slog ahead?

This article outlines 5 strategies to use from Tom Rath, a workplace consultant at Gallup and co-author of the upcoming book “Strengths Based Leadership.”

From lifehacker.com

Gmail Goes Offline with Google Gears
By Adam Pash

Today Gmail Labs released a new feature that bridges the gap between desktop and web-based applications like never before: Offline Gmail. You can now access your Gmail from your browser any time, whether or not you’re online.

This article is terrific because it gives some visuals to help explain the technical lingo.

I try to do a Tip every week, but I have missed a few here. The reason is that I tried to avoid dealing with a cold. When I did, it evolved into a sinus infection which eventually went down into the bronchial area infecting that, too. So instead of maybe missing a day or two of working, I ended up slowed down for about 4 -5. Then I missed a full 2 other days while the antibiotic kicked in.

So what’s the moral of the story here: believe your body at the first sign of a cold. Do what you need to do to get rid of it. Don’t do like I did and figure it would work it’s way out by itself! Maybe it won’t go as far as mine did, but why take a chance and why expose others?

From The Wall Street Journal:

Some Firms Cut Costs Without Resorting to Layoffs
Amid Flood of Job-Reduction Announcements, Some Employers Believe Axing People Can Be Short-Sighted Response
By CARI TUNA

As layoffs mount amid the slowing economy, some employers are cutting costs without axing jobs.

Hypertherm Inc. has never laid off a permanent employee in its 40-year history. A 20% downturn in sales in recent months led the closely held maker of metal-cutting equipment to eliminate overtime, cut temporary staff and delay a facility expansion, says Chief Executive Dick Couch.

Managers are transferring employees to busy segments from those with less work. The Hanover, N.H., company also may bring some outsourced manufacturing in-house to keep its 1,100 workers busy, Mr. Couch says. Continued

From the New York Times:

Custom Coffee Mugs and T-Shirts Across Web
By Jenna Wortham

CafePress, a Web site that lets users create and sell custom goods, announced Tuesday a partnership with Sellit to help online retailers peddle their wares in multiple places around the Web.

The tool, called the Sellit ShopBot, allows CafePress’s community of 6.5 million Web merchants to build a bite-sized version of their CafePress shop and embed it on a variety of sites, including blogging platform TypePad, Friendster, MySpace and Facebook. Web site owners use CafePress to make and sell a variety of customized products that tout their sites.

The mini-stores allows Web browsers to flip through store inventory and re-directs buyers back to the CafePress shop for purchases. Continued

From the New York Times:

Editorial – From Here to Retirement

If you have a 401(k) retirement plan at work, you don’t need us to tell you that you’ve taken a hit in the past year. The really bad news is that the damage to your retirement security is likely worse than what the numbers say on your statement.

Many Americans didn’t have enough savings coming into the downturn. And employers are increasingly cutting back or suspending their 401(k) match. FedEx, Eastman Kodak, Motorola, General Motors and Ford, among others, have announced such moves. Continued

$200 Laptops Break a Business Model
By BRAD STONE and ASHLEE VANCE
Published: January 25, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO — The global credit crisis may have caused the decline in consumer and business spending that is assaulting the giants of high tech. But as the dominant technology companies try to emerge from this slump, they may find themselves blaming people like David Title just as much as they blame Wall Street.

Mr. Title, a 35-year-old new-media manager at a film production company in New York, has dropped his cable subscription and moved to watching most of his television online — free. While shopping for a new laptop for his girlfriend recently, he sidestepped more expensive full-featured computers and picked a bare-bones, $200 Asus EeePC laptop, also known as a netbook. Continued

From The Wall Street Journal:

BlackBerry Storm Is Off To Bit of a Bumpy Start
By AMOL SHARMA and SARA SILVER

Verizon Wireless and Research In Motion Ltd. have high hopes for the BlackBerry Storm, which they spent nearly two years developing as their big response to Apple Inc.’s iPhone.

But despite a marketing campaign that cost more than $100 million, the smart phone has gotten off to a bumpy start. Some early buyers have complained about technical bugs with RIM’s first touch screen BlackBerry, although others say most new gadgets have problems that need to be ironed out. Continued

Job Fears Make Offices All Ears
By DANA MATTIOLI

Robert Palmer was sitting in his cubicle at a software firm when he overheard a sensitive conversation going on in the adjoining cube. The head developer was speaking to another colleague about calling off a big project. Canceling the project would result in another round of job cuts. Mr. Palmer, 38 years old, tuned in more intently to the conversation going on next to him.

While workplace eavesdropping has been going on for ages, fears about layoffs and corporate restructuring have left employees more attentive to what’s going on around them. And as employees resort to eavesdropping, human-resources professionals say they are encountering cases of rumor-spreading in the workplace more frequently.

Continued:

It Can Be Done: Landing a Raise In a Recession
By DANA MATTIOLI

With raise season under way, many employees may be stumped about whether they should ask for a salary increase this year. During a recessionary period, people often find themselves working harder but wonder whether it’s realistic to expect to be compensated for bearing the extra burden when many companies are facing losses.

The answer is, probably, but with a catch. It isn’t unrealistic to expect a salary increase, but the general consensus among management experts is that if you want a raise, you’re going to have to justify it more than in previous years. And, you’ll need to pare down your expectations, as companies — especially financial firms and others directly affected by the downturn — have less money to dole out. Continue this good read here.

To Help Collect the Bills, Firms Try the Soft Touch
By SIMONA COVEL and KELLY K. SPORS

Small businesses, hit by a wave of customers postponing payments because of the recession, are struggling to find ways to come up with enough cash to stay alive.

The companies are hugely dependent on their cash flows. But if they push their slow payers too hard, they risk losing customers. Hiring collection attorneys is also expensive, and if late payers are pushed into bankruptcy, their small-business creditors may find themselves empty-handed, waiting at the end of a long queue.

“The last thing you want to do is get in an adversarial position with your great clients; they’re your lifeline,” says Charles Doyle, managing director at Business Capital, a San Francisco company that helps businesses restructure their debts.

That’s why many businesses that are owed money are relying on cooperation rather than strong-arm tactics. “If you’re going to make it through the next 18 to 24 months, you’ve got to be open for alternative ways to get paid or you’re not being a realist,” Mr. Doyle says. More here:

Zappos, the company that began on the internet selling shoes and now has 1,500 employees and sells shoes, accessories and more, recently debuted No. 23 on Fortune magazines 2009 list of Best Companies to Work For. From an article online – Las Vegas Sun:

A Dance Dance Revolution machine, free popcorn and free books greet visitors in the lobby.

However, the online retailer’s relaxed, fun-loving and close-knit family atmosphere that has won over employees, investors and industry watchers alike runs far deeper than that. The appeal becomes clearer when approaching CEO Tony Hsieh working at his desk.

Hsieh doesn’t have a corner office. He doesn’t even have a full cubicle. His workstation, in fact, is indistinguishable from any of the other hundreds of employees in the building — except maybe for the rainforest decorations hanging from the ceiling and the giant inflatable monkey.

“The best way to have an open-door policy is not to have a door in the first place,” Hsieh said.

Hsieh is determined to have a corporate culture that is warm and people oriented:

Hsieh adopted 10 Core Values to create a corporate culture, ranging from No. 1, “Deliver WOW through service,” to No. 10, “Be humble.”

And how often do you hear a CEO say this?

To truly live by those values, Hsieh said, employees have to be free to be themselves.

All leading to this:

Really, at the end of the day, it’s about alignment — everyone moving the same direction and working toward the same goal. For us, that goal is to have the absolute best customer service.”

The entire article from the Las Vegas Sun online can be found here.

Some of the must-have features for 2009 in so-called “smart” phones — think mobile computers that make calls — include touch screens with “clickability,” sophisticated accelerometers (which can sense when the phone is changed from portrait to landscape view and adjust the screen accordingly), full QWERTY keyboards, GPS capability, high-resolution cameras with flash, 3G networking and WiFi connectivity.

That quote comes from a terrific article published online by photonics.com.

It’s well worth taking a few minutes out to read this and see see what the big cell phone winners from the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas were earlier this month.

Of special note is the Palm Pre which won Best Cell phone, Best of CES (the first cell phone to receive the award) and the People’s Voice.

Also take note that Sony is using one of its tried and true winning names with The W508 Walkman from Sony Ericsson. Can they duplicate the success they had with the Walkmans?

Other phones are mentioned but I was also impressed with the mention of the new Blackberry especially about its new thinness.