] Given that acquiring and maintaining MCSE certification
] is no easy feat, the perception that the marketplace is
] flooded with these qualified professionals could be
] false. "It is a good credential to have," says John
] Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
]
] In the past, becoming a Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT)
] Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) carried with it
] considerable cachet. The top benefit, according to the
] software giant, is "industry recognition of your
] knowledge and proficiency with Microsoft products and
] technologies." Given that it's a Windows, Windows,
] Windows, Windows world, a certificate holder ought to
] have a leg up on some very lucrative situations.
]
] But with more than 200,000 IT professionals certified as
] MCSEs on Microsoft Windows 2000 alone (many more are
] certified to work on Windows NT 4.0 as well), there is
] growing frustration over the limited opportunities for
] these specialists in today's contracted marketplace.
]
] "I believe there is a misperception among certification
] candidates and career changers [who] think that
] certification is a guarantee%2

No kidding! I've been saying as much since Diploma Mill graduates with MCSE certifications and no practical "fix up this network" skills started crossing my desk.

IT Alert: MCSE Certification Glut

] Judicial Watch, the public interest group that
] investigates and prosecutes government corruption,
] presented argument today before the U.S. Court of Appeals
] for the District of Columbia Circuit in its ongoing
] lawsuit concerning Vice President Cheney%u2019s Energy
] Task Force. The appeals panel was considering whether the
] Vice President and his Energy Task Force should be immune
] from discovery into the identities of Task Force
] participants, how the Task Force operated, and the role
] of the Vice President in the Task Force. Lawyers for the
] Vice President were seeking mandamus intervention by the
] appeals court, after losing their legal arguments before
] the lower court trying to exempt the Vice President from
] any inquiries at all.

“Why Are We Here?” Court Asks of Vice President’s Lawyer

] Every minute, the sun bombards Earth with enough energy
] to supply its power needs for a year. Yet only two
] one-hundredths of a percent of all the electricity fed
] into the U.S. grid originates from sunlight. The world
] still largely relies on diminishing supplies of
] environmentally unfriendly and politically destabilizing
] fossil fuels. Despite decades of research, it%u2019s
] still cheaper to burn coal than get power from the sun.

I would go 100% solar with storage batteries for the dark times, if I could.

Solar cells dropping in cost, increasing efficiency

] Some believe eBay is the perfect
] e-commerce machine, with lean operating costs, swift
] strategy implementation and boundless growth
] opportunities. Yet, how large can the company become
] before it meets the playground law of "the bigger they
] come, the harder they fall"?
]
] After all, the auction giant has set the pace for a host
] of imitators and wannabes, but as it keeps expanding and
] launching new initiatives, the company risks losing the
] quickness of action that initially elevated it above
] competitors. Recent moves like the acquisition of PayPal
] (Nasdaq: PYPL) and expansion of its auction categories
] have introduced new layers of complexity into its
] operations.
]
] On the other hand, if any e-commerce company can pull off
] large-scale growth and make it look easy, it might be
] eBay

Can eBay Keep Setting the Pace?

] Like America Online, Microsoft's MSN Internet service is
] feeling the pinch of competition from both high-speed and
] budget dial-up ISPs.
]
] Microsoft on Tuesday reported that MSN in the first
] quarter witnessed a decline of 300,000 subscribers from
] the preceding quarter, leaving the second-largest
] Internet service provider with 8.7 million total
] subscribers. Company executives attributed the decline to
] further churn among subscribers who signed up for MSN as
] part of multiyear PC rebate programs with offline
] retailers such as Best Buy that have begun to expire.

Indeed, friends of mine that got MSN as a computer "discount" at Best Buy are now switching to cable or DSL. I promised them they'd be so much happier with their internet experience. And indeed, they are.

Microsoft shrugs off dial-up decline

] Spike is no longer just the name of a famous film
] director or a volleyball move. Now it%u2019s the name of
] a cable network, too. Struggling TNN %u2014 which just
] two years ago changed from The Nashville Network to The
] National Network%u2014 announced Tuesday that, effective
] June 16, it will call itself Spike TV and become the
] first network aimed specifically at men.

Very interesting. I'm a man, last time I checked anyway... and watch several TNN shows: CSI, and the star treks, and some others that occasionally crop up on my TiVo.

TNN who? Network now Spike TV

A place to participate in the internet-based treasure hunt code-breaking puzzle.

The DaVinci Code

] A federal judge ended a contentious hearing Friday by
] extending a temporary ban on a book that argues Americans
] do not have to pay income taxes.

The last time I checked, the first ammendment pretty much kept the government out of the business of deciding what books were publishable or not, especially when the book contains political or non-fictional elements such as a biography.

] In arguing for a permanent restraining order, Davis
] called Schiff's ideas "frivolous interpretations" of U.S.
] tax law.
]
] "Criminal prosecutions (of those who follow Schiff's
] advice) can take months, if not years. The harm is
] occurring now and it must be stopped now," he said.

So let the harm occur now, and let it be corrected in the future. (tongue in cheek: let them continue to denude the rights of americans via the Patriot Act and its ilk by making the book purchase history of american citizens be subpeona'able to find those who MIGHT be cheating on their taxes, and don't forget to look at library lending records, and maybe think to embed RFID chips in the binders of each book so that you can find them more quickly with remote scanners. Okay, so I went overboard... :) )

U.S. judge in Vegas extends temporary ban on no-income tax book

] While market forces and the mechanisms of its employee
] base buffet American, it seems that Mother Nature also
] has had it in for the airline.
]
] A few days after striking the tentative deals, a severe
] storm hit near American's home in the Dallas-Fort Worth
] area. It left the cities' downtowns mostly untouched, but
] hail nearly the size of golf balls damaged 59 American
] aircraft at the DFW International Airport.
]
] "The bad news is, we had hail damage," Carty joked in a
] recent address to employees. "The good news is that
] according to the Book of Exodus, we missed the Red Sea
] and the plague of frogs. The other bad news is that we
] have locusts still to come."

We don't want to know what comes after locusts.

Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage

... What all these emerging services have in common is a business model based on subscriptions that are billed monthly or yearly. What the most successful services will share is an appeal that will quickly evolve from intriguing to compelling to essential.

The future will not be advertised.

It Adds Up (and Up, and Up)