div align="center"a href="http://investor.palm.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=351422"img vspace="4" hspace="4" border="1" alt="" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2008/12/12-2-08-palm-headquarters.jpg" //abr //div Remember when we used to write about Palm in order to talk about its a href="http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2008/06/05/palm-treo-800w-spotted-in-new-pics/"devices/a and / or a href="http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2008/01/14/first-palm-os-ii-devices-to-hit-early-2009-is-it-already-too-la/"operating system(s)/a? Man, those were a href="http://www.engadget.com/2005/07/14/the-engadget-guide-to-how-palm-became-palm-again/"the days/a. Now, it just seems like one sadness-filled report after another, and just days after hearing that it would be a href="http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2008/11/21/palm-axes-an-undisclosed-amount-of-employees-sort-of-blames-its/"cutting/a an undisclosed amount of employees in order to trim operating expenses, in comes even more doom and gloom courtesy of its preliminary Q2 (fiscal year 2009) results. The company is expecting to record revenues ranging between $190 million to $195 million, far short of the $331 million Wall Street had been counting on. The shortfall was blamed on "a difficult economic environment [which had] greatly intensified the negative impact on product sales." Of course, the visionary Ed Colligan (CEO) still maintains that by reducing its a href="http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2008/11/05/analyst-says-palm-burning-through-cash-like-its-going-out-of-st/"cost structure/a it can "launch next-generation products as planned," but seriously, why should we believe that line now? Time to a href="http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2008/09/22/palm-quietly-slips-next-generation-smartphones-into-mid-2009/"put up/a or shut up, Palm.br /br /[Via a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10110622-94.html?part=rssamp;subj=newsamp;tag=2547-1_3-0-20"CNET/a, image courtesy of a href="http://www.palmfocus.com/images/palm/large/hpim0230.jpg"PalmFocus/a]pFiled under: a href="http://www.engadget.com/category/cellphones/" rel="tag"Cellphones/a/pp style="padding:5px;background:#ddd;border:1px solid #ccc;clear:both;"a href="http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/02/palms-preliminary-quarter-end-results-show-drooping-revenues-b/"Palm's preliminary quarter-end results show drooping revenues, bleak outlook/a originally appeared on a href="http://www.engadget.com"Engadget/a on Tue, 02 Dec 2008 08:54:00 EST. Please see our a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/"terms for use of feeds/a./ph6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"/h6a href=http://investor.palm.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=351422Read/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/02/palms-preliminary-quarter-end-results-show-drooping-revenues-b/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry"Permalink/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.engadget.com/forward/1388061/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email"Email this/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/02/palms-preliminary-quarter-end-results-show-drooping-revenues-b/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry"Comments/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/gOt27xr-BX_jjs6yRcPTQ5EtkBE/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/gOt27xr-BX_jjs6yRcPTQ5EtkBE/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/engadget?a=dw2pu3CM"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/engadget?i=dw2pu3CM" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/engadget?a=5LVNSTf4"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/engadget?i=5LVNSTf4" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~4/oMsqf98EOws" height="1" width="1"/

span class='spip_documents spip_documents_left' style='float: left; width: 120px;'img src='IMG/jpg/SLIP_logo.jpg' width='120' height='120' style='border-width: 0px;' alt=(JPEG) //span ...Polo se charge de descendre la bouffe à la Vérole. On se fait des plats à base de boîtes de lentilles. On sait bien sûr sûr on le sait on est tombé ... pour ça, comme la caresse d'une mère qui mord en pensant amour. Meurtre. C'est le foot. Le temps unique. Mes heures passées, après le repassage-amour, à reluquer l'herbe cramer du terrain. L'horizon qui brûle. La sensation que l'on est vraiment loin du monde. Que l'on est des participants involontaires à sa désagrégation... La sensation juste...

img src=http://www.pop-rock.com/IMG/arton2215.jpg alt= align='right' width=189 height=189 style='border-width: 0px;' class='spip_logos' /p class=spip i class=spipBonsoir à tous, et bienvenue sur ce second opus d'Ultra Vomit. Au programme, des tubes de légende, des riffs d'exception, et surtout, une expérience humaine sans précédent. Ouvrez grand vos oreilles, l'aventure commence maintenant !/i/p p class=spipD'entrée, Ultra Vomit annonce de quoi sera fait cet album, si il est bien entendu qu'il faut comprendre tout cela au quarante-troisième degré, les premières écoutes vous feront vite changer d'avis. le potache de circonstance est bien là, les titres sidérants de bêtise répondent bien à l'appel mais les premiers bouts de riff vous collent au sofa. Cette réinterprétation d'i class=spipAce of spades/i i class=spip(Quand j'étais petit (Feat. Lemmy)/i, est un missile aussi court que jouissif. Le son est proprement énorme, la batterie est ahurissante, est-ce encore de l'humour pipi-crottes lorsqu'on peut en remontrer à Mikkey Dee et Hellhammer en l'espace d'une minute et quarante secondes ? Le reste est à l'avenant, à l'image de leurs collègues de strong class=spipGronibard/strong (voir Hymne à la France éternelle vol.1), Ultra Vomit a un peu mis en sourdine son grind/grindcore pour plus de fantaisie et de variété. On pestera tout de même sur le fait qu'ils n'ont conservé de leur genre originel que le fait de proposer des morceaux ultra-courts. Si ça collait très bien à ce genre qu'est le grind, vu la totale absence de mélodicité qui le caractérise, c'est regrettable au vu du niveau actuel d'Ultra Vomit et de la qualité de leurs compositions./p p class=spipLes thématiques abordées sont nulles et désespéreront le lecteur du i class=spipMonde Diplomatique/i qui n'y trouvera en aucun cas la saine et consistante acuité politique dont il se nourrit chaque matin. Comme Ultra Vomit est un groupe ultra-célèbre et reconnu, les guests sur cet opus sont nombreux. Ils peuvent entre autres compter sur la présence de Lemmy Kilmister (immortel), Darry Cowl (ah bon, il est mort ?), Maïté (pas encore morte...) ou encore Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (lui, c'est sur, il est mort...). C'est bien tout le talent de ces vilains garnements que de modeler de fort belle manière des morceaux courts et burnés en trois coups de cuillère à pots. Tout ce qui fait le métal actuel est proprement ingurgité et régurgité par Ultra Vomit qui ne souffre d'aucuns complexes d'infériorité. Cette débauche permanente de pistes aux paroles régressives et aux tempos monstrueux fait rire au premier abord, tant l'association est saugrenue. Mais après quelques petits tours dans le mange-disque, on s'étonne à un peu moins prendre en compte les textes et s'extasier devant la maîtrise technique de nos gerbeux compères./p p class=spipLes textes justement. Que dire à part que les sommets de l'idiotie ont été depuis belle lurette dépassés et que l'on se perd alors dans une stratosphère de connerie ultime. Entre un mansonnesque i class=spipMechanical Chiwawa/i, la reprise délirante de strong class=spipDelpech/strong i class=spipPour un Mosh/i, et le boogiesque i class=spipJack Chirac/i dont les paroles se limitent à...i class=spipJack Chirac, Jack Chirac.../i chanté avec une pince à linge sur le pif durant cinquante secondes, on est encore très loin de Serge Caussimon au niveau profondeur et sentimentalisme. Et comment résister à i class=spipBoulangerie pâtisserie/i ou à ce Darry Cowl éructant, cheveu sur la langue inclus, un démoniaque i class=spipc'est ici qu'ça s'passe, putain, j'veux voir du sang dans la fosse/i ? A moins d'avoir vécu un terrible drame deux heures auparavant ou de posséder l'humour d'un séminariste, difficile de ne pas adhérer à ce défoulement crétin./p p class=spipPour faire définitivement taire les langues fourchues qui oseront avancer qu'Ultra Vomit, c'est de la gerbe idiote avec du bruit, mettez-vous dans les portugaises i class=spipGremlins at the gates/i puis encore i class=spipMountain of maths/i (drôlissime qui plus est), vous changerez rapidement votre balai d'épaules, ou le sortirez définitivement de l'arrière-train. Le travail sur la voix est lui aussi loin d'être bâclé. Fetus, si il possédait un chant très death sur i class=spipM. Patate/i, leur précédent opus totalement grind, s'est amusé ici à moduler sa voix et en tirer des imitations fort réussies. J'en vois deux au fond qui chialent parce que c'est pas vraiment Maïté et consorts qui chantent, navré, c'est bien Fetus qui, niveaux vocaux, fait quasiment tout./p p class=spipAutre surprise, alors que le son est digne d'une grosse production hollywoodienne, i class=spipObjectif : Thunes/i est bien autoproduit, payé avec les cachets de concerts et les fonds de slips des membres du groupe. Il faut croire que le merchandising, ça marche pas mal pour eux, vu ce qui nous est offert à entendre. Marc Lenglet (gros poutous Marc !) écrivait a href=http://www.pop-rock.com/breve.php3?id_breve=1623 class=spip_outici/a qu'Ultra Vomit, si il souhaitait un jour se mettre au métal sérieux, aurait de quoi détruire en bonne et due forme n'importe quel groupe métal de l'hexagone. Après écoute du dernier scandale symphonique du plus nauséeux des metalbands franchouilles, on ne peut que le confirmer, tout en se demandant si on ne regretterait pas finalement leurs grosses déconnades actuelles./p

div align="center"a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mobile-review.com%2Farticles%2F2008%2Fcancel-phone.shtml"img vspace="4" hspace="4" border="1" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadgetmobile.com/media/2008/12/nokia-slider-120108.jpg" alt="" //abr //div If this thing were coming from any source other than the legendary Eldar Murtazin of emmobile-review/em, we'd go ahead and assume this was a knockoff nabbed off eBay for a few bucks -- but amazingly, we think it's the real deal. The dead-on-arrival burgundy slider with gold accents looks like it could've been part of a reinvigorated a href="http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2006/09/04/nokias-lamour-collection-adds-three-sort-of/"l'Amour/a series (or something along those lines), clearly putting styling at or near the top of its priorities -- but it also steals the a href="http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2008/11/25/nokia-slips-out-5-megapixel-6260-slide-with-agps-a-first-for-an/"6260 slide's/a totally capable guts, which means it features a 5-megapixel camera, tri-band 3G, and a 480 x 320 display. If they had to choose between this and the 6260, the right model came out on top -- but we gotta admit, it's so far outside Nokia's styling comfort zone that we find it tolerable in a really sick, twisted way.br /br /[Via a href="http://dailymobile.se/2008/12/01/pictures-nokia-mystery-phone/"Daily Mobile/a]pFiled under: a href="http://www.engadget.com/category/cellphones/" rel="tag"Cellphones/a/pp style="padding:5px;background:#ddd;border:1px solid #ccc;clear:both;"a href="http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/01/canceled-5-megapixel-nokia-slider-almost-looks-like-a-fake/"Canceled 5-megapixel Nokia slider almost looks like a fake/a originally appeared on a href="http://www.engadget.com"Engadget/a on Mon, 01 Dec 2008 09:55:00 EST. Please see our a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/"terms for use of feeds/a./ph6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"/h6a href=http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mobile-review.com%2Farticles%2F2008%2Fcancel-phone.shtmlRead/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/01/canceled-5-megapixel-nokia-slider-almost-looks-like-a-fake/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry"Permalink/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.engadget.com/forward/1387183/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email"Email this/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/01/canceled-5-megapixel-nokia-slider-almost-looks-like-a-fake/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry"Comments/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/Yo9I8WTcyKicipQ_j-FX6KDQx14/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/Yo9I8WTcyKicipQ_j-FX6KDQx14/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/engadget?a=R8HyLNJQ"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/engadget?i=R8HyLNJQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/engadget?a=J03OnuaL"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/engadget?i=J03OnuaL" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~4/9xqLluw6OYI" height="1" width="1"/

div class="rxbodyfield"p class="ArticleBody" page="1"Working in today's cutthroat economy has become a lot like the old joke about two guys being chased by a grizzly bear. One guy stops to take off his work shoes and lace up some sneakers./pp align="right"a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" target="_blank" /img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" width="336" height="280" border="0" alt="" align="right"//a/pp class="ArticleBody" page="1""Are you crazy?" says Guy No. 2. "You can't outrun a bear."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="1""I don't have to outrun the bear. I just have to outrun you," Guy No. 1 quips./pp class="ArticleBody" page="1"And with high-tech firms laying off a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/10/24/19683-tech-layoffs-and-counting/" target="_blank" class="regularArticleU"nearly 20,000 workers in the past month/a alone, outrunning the other guy is fast becoming the survival mode for IT./pp class="ArticleBody" page="1"b[ Check/b bout InfoWorld's a href="http://www.infoworld.com/archives/t.jsp?N=samp;V=116848amp;source=fssr" class="regularArticleU"2009 IT career survival guide/a to find out a href="http://www.infoworld.com/slideshow/2008/11/181-where_it_jobs_a-1.html?source=fssr" class="regularArticleU"where IT jobs are headed/a. ]/b/pp class="ArticleBody" page="1"Here are seven tips for outlegging the competition and surviving the downturn with your job intact. What you find here may come off as common sense, but when it comes to keeping ahead of the guy in the cubicle down the hall, common sense just might be all you need to gain an edge. After all, how often do you see your coworkers demonstrating common sense these days?/pp class="ArticleBody" page="1"bIT survivor tip No. 1: Roll up your sleeves -- and cheer up, damnitbr/ /bThe good news? You can survive in today's tight economy. The bad news? You may have to log longer hours and take on less-than-exciting projects./pp class="ArticleBody" page="1"Start by taking notice of the projects that get the most attention from management and ask to be a part of them, advises Betsy Richards, director of career services at Kaplan University./pp class="ArticleBody" page="1""Ask to be transferred to a critical area, or volunteer for extra duties to support these activities," Richards says. "You'll be viewed as an employee who goes the extra mile while inoculating yourself against expendability when the pink slips get handed out."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="1"More than just work harder than the next guy, you have to look like you're working harder, says Simon Stapleton, a technology careers coach who calls himself "the IT industry's answer to Indiana Jones" (but without the bullwhip). Show up before your boss gets in and leave after he or she leaves. Skip the long coffee breaks and work through lunch./pp class="ArticleBody" page="1""My best advice is to roll your sleeves up -- literally," says Stapleton, who's also chief innovation officer at Skandia Investment Solutions, a U.K.-based financial services firm. "Pick up the pace when you walk around the office. Carry a clipboard. Your determination to help your company succeed will show in your body language. Now is the time to display the visible signs that you're busting your ass."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="1"And if you can, do it with a smile./pp class="ArticleBody" page="1""IT people tend to be grumps," notes Curt Finch, a formerly grumpy software programmer who's now CEO of Journyx, a maker of Web-based time- and expense-management software. "The No. 1 thing is having a positive attitude. The glass-half-full guys, the optimists, the ones who say, 'Sure, we're in a tough situation, but here's how we're going to get through it' -- those are the people I want around me during a recession."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="2"bIT survivor tip No. 2: Show off your mad skillz -- or get some, fast/b/pp class="ArticleBody" page="2"The most reliable path for self-preservation is to become the in-house expert on topics vital to the business./pp class="ArticleBody" page="2""You need to be the one everyone comes to when they have a question about a particular topic or technology," says Nicholas Lore, career coach and founder of Rockport Institute. "When you're the person everyone goes to, you become indispensable."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="2"b[ For/b ba deeper look at training well worth your while, see "a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/11/24/48FE-tech-certifications-high-demand_1.html" class="regularArticleU"Hot tech certifications in a cool job market/a" ]/b/pp class="ArticleBody" page="2"Similarly, if you have skills that cross departments or systems, you're less likely to be canned than Johnny One-Note in the cubicle down the hall./pp class="ArticleBody" page="2"Be versatile, advises Colin Strasser, CEO of U2i, a software consulting firm. "If you've been doing nothing but Java for 10 years, try Python or Ruby. If you've been working under Windows, do some work with Linux."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="2"According to a survey by Robert Half International, Web developers with social-media savvy or a href="http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/102308-tech-skills-in-demand.html" target="_blank" class="regularArticleU"expertise in technologies such as .Net, SharePoint, Java, and PHP/a will continue to be in high demand. Help-desk pros with knowledge of a wide range of systems are also more likely to hold onto jobs./pp class="ArticleBody" page="2"Ask your HR department if the company offers training programs or reimburses tuition costs, says Kaplan's Richards. You may also be able to obtain low-cost continuing education from professional organizations or user groups./pp class="ArticleBody" page="2"If those options aren't available, you can still expand your expertise relatively cheaply, notes Iman Jalali, director of sales and marketing at Train Signal, vendor of IT training materials. For around $400, Train Signal helps you get up to speed on topics such as Windows Server 2008 or VMware ESX./pp class="ArticleBody" page="2""Some people feel like if they've been in the same business for 25 years, it's a badge of honor," says Jalali. "In IT, that could mean you'll lose your job tomorrow. Everyone needs to stay up to date, or risk being replaced by someone who's up on all the newest technologies."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="2"bIT survivor tip No. 3: Remember, it's just business/b/pp class="ArticleBody" page="2"You know how in Mafia movies the hit man always says, "It's just business," right before he whacks his best friend?/pp class="ArticleBody" page="2"Well, it is just business. And you need to know how the business makes money and what projects or systems are essential to that mission -- and get yourself assigned to them./pp class="ArticleBody" page="2""Look at how your company is making its profit," says Finch. "You have to become indispensable to the success of that effort through adding real business value. Demonstrate through your timekeeping and meetings and activities that this is primarily what you are working on. Short-term revenue is more important than long-term in a down economy."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="2"Getting the feeling your department needs to reduce head count? Come up with a plan for how to do it while keeping the lights on, and produce metrics to show how much money these cuts will save. If there's a line being drawn, you want to be standing on the same side as the CFO and the CEO, says Dave Taylor, co-founder of Sparxent, an IT management solutions vendor./pp class="ArticleBody" page="3"In other words: You're no longer a techie helping the business; you're a businessperson who uses tech to boost the bottom line./pp class="ArticleBody" page="3""Transition your focus from technology to business value and business needs," advises Shane Aubel, co-founder of IT consulting firm Accent Global System Architects. "The more tangible, quantifiable results you offer, the more indispensable you will be. The business is the customer, and what the customer wants, the customer gets."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="3"bIT survivor tip No. 4: Work the numbers/b/pp class="ArticleBody" page="3"Metrics are your friend. If you want to prove you're vital to the survival of your company, you better have the digits to back it up./pp class="ArticleBody" page="3""IT people need to become experts at marketing themselves internally," says Sparxent's Taylor. "They need to provide more targeted and more detailed reports on where the IT dollars are spent; they need to put metrics in place to report on whether IT projects have generated ROI or not; and they need to be much more transparent in reporting on whether they've achieved the metrics or not."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="3"b[ Getting/b bahead is still possible. Check out "a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/10/16/42FEpromotions_1.html" class="regularArticleU"20 ways to get promoted in the tech industry/a" to find out how. ]/b/pp class="ArticleBody" page="3"In other words, be proactive. Don't wait for the CFO to call you on the carpet to explain where all the money went, says Taylor. Know down to the dollar how much it costs to provision applications or provide level-one support -- and then suggest ways you can reduce it./pp class="ArticleBody" page="3""You need to be able to say, 'We just deployed Office 2007, and it took an average of 43 minutes to install on every users' desktop at a cost of $180 an hour, so it costs more to provision Office than it did to pay for the license,'" Taylor says. "When you have that kind of detail at your fingertips, the CFO realizes you're focused on getting the company what it needs at the lowest possible cost."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="3"Tying your projects to company profits is essential, adds Finch. You want to work on the projects that bring in the most revenue or save the most money./pp class="ArticleBody" page="3""Companies always want to cut failing projects and unprofitable customers first," he adds. "If you do have to cut people, you want to be able to do it with a scalpel and not a chainsaw."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="3"bIT survivor tip No. 5: Be a peacock, not a turtle/b/pp class="ArticleBody" page="3"Now is not the time to crawl under your desk and hide until the scary man with the pink slips goes away./pp class="ArticleBody" page="3""The biggest trap people fall into during a downturn is to try and fly under the radar until it all blows over," says Nina Buik, president of HP's Connect user group. "Now is the time to show how you can make a difference. Be the person in your organization who sends an e-mail to the CIO saying, 'I've got a great idea I need to share.' You'll stand head and shoulders above the rest."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="4"If you don't sell yourself, nobody will. But when you blow your own horn, sound less like a marching band and more like Miles Davis./pp class="ArticleBody" page="4"One of the best ways to promote yourself is to get other people to do it for you, says John Baschab, senior vice president at Technisource./pp class="ArticleBody" page="4""People are always looking for anecdotal evidence of your performance," Baschab says. "If you're on the help desk and someone sends you an e-mail thanking you for your help, ask them if they can send a copy to your boss. When you get verbal kudos, get them written down and sent to the right place."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="4"The praise of others is always worth more than self-puffery, agrees Buik. "But your boss may not know about all the little things you do. Take a win you've helped generate for the company, find someone else involved in it, and ask them to write it up for you and post it on your LinkedIn profile. Then offer to do the same for them."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="4"Reminding your bosses all the wonderful things you've done is a start, but it isn't enough. You need to keep putting your hand up for new projects that keep revenue flowing./pp class="ArticleBody" page="4""What you did last month is a lot less relevant than what you're going to do next month," notes Finch. "It's all about the bottom line. You could be Albert friggin' Einstein and still get fired if they have nothing for you to do for the next three months."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="4"bIT survivor tip No. 6: Schmooze it -- or lose it/b/pp class="ArticleBody" page="4"Everyone hates a suck-up. And yet the world is full of them, so they must be doing something right. The people who are retained in a downturn aren't always the most competent, notes Lore. They're often the ones who are the best liked and know the right people./pp class="ArticleBody" page="4""You've got to network inside your own company," says Lore. "Make sure the senior people know who you are, the contributions you've made, and that they like you. Create a wider circle, so other people start talking about you. Very often, techs are shy about being forward with senior people in the company. This is not the time to be shy."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="4"Although the clich? is that geeks are notoriously bad at social interaction, these are skills that can be easily learned, says Lore. In fact, he adds, they're the same skills found in books that teach nerds how to pick up girls -- mimic your boss's body language, speak in the same tones, talk about the things they're interested in, and so on./pp class="ArticleBody" page="4"Joining user groups and professional associations will expand your network, exposing you to new skills and potential employers, notes Buik. Donating your tech skills to worthy organizations can also raise your profile./pp class="ArticleBody" page="5""IT experts who volunteer their time to upgrade the network for a nonprofit tend to gain positive press and build name recognition in their locality," says Ari Kaplan, author of "The Opportunity Maker," a book on creative networking and business development./pp class="ArticleBody" page="5"Online networks such as LinkedIn can help, too. "Don't just put a little bit of information in there," says Buik. "Sell yourself. Tell everyone within three feet of you what you're trying to do. If you're looking for new opportunities, let everyone know."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="5"Just be sure to use social nets wisely. Building up your r?sum? on LinkedIn is a good idea; sending your zombie to attack your boss' zombie on Facebook is probably sending the wrong message about how you spend your time at work./pp class="ArticleBody" page="5"bIT survivor tip No. 7: If all else fails, move to Australia/b/pp class="ArticleBody" page="5"Now is not a good time to be job shopping. Even if there's a photo of your boss next to the Wikipedia entry for "jerk," it's generally better to grit your teeth and stick it out until the economy recovers. But if the worst happens and you get downsized, you still have options -- like relocating to Australia, for instance./pp class="ArticleBody" page="5"b[ To see what IT skills are in demand around the globe, see a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/10/08/41FE-tech-jobs-overseas_1.html?source=fssr" class="regularArticleU"InfoWorld's guide to outsourcing yourself/a. ]/b/pp class="ArticleBody" page="5""A raft of big projects is keeping the local IT market relatively buoyant, and demand for skills remains solid," notes Peter Acheson, COO of Australia's largest IT recruiter, Peoplebank. "There will still be strong demand for IT skills in the market here in 2009 -- in fact, in some sectors it will still be tight."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="5"Another option is to join the temp-to-perm workforce, says Tom Hart, executive vice president at staffing firm Veritude. Staff augmentation services offer both businesses and employees more flexibility, he says./pp class="ArticleBody" page="5""There are so many good reasons to be flexible, even if all you've ever done is hold down permanent jobs," Hart says. "It gives you the opportunity to feel good about a potential employer, and for them to feel good about you. And you continue to collect a paycheck as you wait for things to get better."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="5"It could even be time to consider going back to school or changing careers, says Lore, especially if technology isn't exactly your life's calling./pp class="ArticleBody" page="5""Many people went into IT because they had strong analytical skills, not because they enjoyed the work," Lore says. "For them, a career change might be the best solution. Just because you have long legs doesn't mean you'll be happy as a Rockette."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="5"iContributing editor Dan Tynan has legs and knows how to use them. When not kicking, he tends the a href="http://www.dantynan.com/" class="regularArticleU"Tynan on Tech/a and a href="http://blogs.computerworld.com/tynan" class="regularArticleU"Culture Crash/a blogs./i/pp class="ArticleBody" page="5"bRelated articlesbr/ Special report: a href="http://www.infoworld.com/archives/t.jsp?N=samp;V=116848" class="regularArticleU"2009 IT career survival guide/abr/ Slideshow: a href="http://www.infoworld.com/slideshow/2008/11/181-where_it_jobs_a-1.html?source=fssr" class="regularArticleU"Where IT jobs are headed/abr/ IT survivor: a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/12/01/49FE-it-job-survival-new-employment_1.html" class="regularArticleU" sys_contentid="118351" sys_variantid="388"8 signs it's time for new employment/abr/ /biTiming is everything when it comes to jumping ship. Here's how to tell if your company's prospects are sinking/ibr/ ba href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/10/08/41FE-tech-jobs-overseas_1.html?source=fssr" class="regularArticleU"For a promising IT career, go east, young techie/abr/ /biThe U.S. and Europe are slowing down, but hot tech jobs beckon in China, India, and Eastern Europebr/ /iba href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/10/16/42FEpromotions_1.html" class="regularArticleU"20 ways to get promoted in the tech industry/abr/ /biIf you agree that there's no such thing as an IT project, you may already be on your way up the ladderbr/ /ibSpecial report: a href="http://www.infoworld.com/archives/t.jsp?N=samp;V=115118amp;source=fssr" class="regularArticleU"Tech workers under fire/abr/ Special report: a href="http://www.infoworld.com/archives/t.jsp?N=samp;V=115118amp;source=fssr" class="regularArticleU"IT and the financial crisis/abr/ a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/11/24/48FE-tech-certifications-high-demand_1.html" class="regularArticleU"Hot tech certifications in a cool job market/abr/ /biNot all credentials will boost your career, so in tough times you have to choose wiselybr/ /iba href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/06/02/23FE-how-to-fire-IT-staff-skills-list_1.html" class="regularArticleU"The 30 skills every IT person should have/abr/ /biAn IT manager's guide on how to be better at what you do, no matter how experienced you arebr/ /iba href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/09/02/36FE-hot-it-jobs-skills_1.html" class="regularArticleU"How to keep your tech career afloat/abr/ /biAs outsourcing and downsizing continue, find out what skills and certifications will make you an IT survivorbr/ /iba href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/10/16/42NF-recession-proof-it-jobs_1.html" class="regularArticleU"Recession-proof IT jobs/abr/ /biBelieve it or not, some tech jobs are still in demand. Find out which ones employers need to fill/i/p/divbr style=clear: both;/ a href=http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=476450ea9a43dc82ae108978401439dbp=1img alt= style=border: 0; border=0 src=http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=476450ea9a43dc82ae108978401439dbp=1//a img src=http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=476450ea9a43dc82ae108978401439db style=display: none; border=0 height=1 width=1 alt=/

Glimpse of life in North Korea slips out of view

Glimpse of life in North Korea slips out of view

pimg src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/gizmodo/2008/11/waistband.jpg" width="380" height="380" /While many people use the shopping bonanza a href="http://gizmodo.com/search/black+friday/bydate/?timerange=all"Black Friday/a (now a href="http://gizmodo.com/5099896/more-black-friday-bloodshed-2-dead-after-shooting-at-toys-r-us"deadly/a, btw) to secure new clothes as gifts for loved ones, I use it as an excuse to buy new pants because my old ones don't fit after Thanksgiving dinner. Thankfully, I won't have to do that anymore, because the Waistband Stretcher removes that task and all other vestiges of personal accountability from the equation forever./p pThe $30 device slips into a pair of jeans or slacks and does as advertised. It stretches them out to a more pleasing and comfortable size 40, or whatever your waistline might be after a full day of gorging on turkey, potatoes and pie./p pThe stretcher promises to breath new life into your old wardrobe by adding one to five inches of extra girth. All you have to do is moisten the waistband of your pants, shorts or skirts and insert the stretcher. It's "easier and more economical than taking tight-waisted clothes to the tailor for alterations," says the marketing spiel, and who are we to argue?! The sad thing for the heftiest amongst us is the Waistband Stretcher only "rescues" garments with waistbands ranging from 21" to 45". But look on the bright side, you 46-inchersmdash;there's always the a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muumuu"mumu/a! [a href="http://www.skymall.com/shopping/detail.htm?pid=69660335pnr=W22cm_mmc=ls-_-affiliate-_-Catalog-_-69660335pnr=W22siteID=zgmC70XXLTQ-eGuFEcLdfrgejpeR0Zvv1Q"Skymall/a via a href="http://www.random-good-stuff.com/2008/11/29/gain-weight-this-season-without-a-guilty-feelin/"Random Good Stuff/a]/p br style="clear: both;"/ a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=d6fcd8386aba18bc6a094eb5c73e8456p=1"img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=d6fcd8386aba18bc6a094eb5c73e8456p=1"//a img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=d6fcd8386aba18bc6a094eb5c73e8456" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=R946mNjq"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?d=120" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=7kvZYk9q"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=f3wx1ES4"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?i=f3wx1ES4" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=SyDvZelN"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?i=SyDvZelN" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~4/gS7BAgg4EK8" height="1" width="1"/