Technology

11 Essential Online Resources for Consultants

I ran into this excellent list of resources for consultants by Sharlyn Lauby on Mashable. There are innumerable lists of this type online but I thought this one was of good quality.

The top ten is listed below. Click here to go the the original article on American Express OPEN Forum.

1. You’re the Boss

2. Workshifting

3. CNN Travel

4. LinkedIn

5. MarketingProfs

6. Help a Reporter Out (HARO)

7. USA.gov

8. IRS

9. LegalZoom.com

10. Evernote

11. Google Docs

Our continual push to our own redundancy

I read an interesting entry on Computerworld recently titled, Five reasons why China will rule tech, by Patrick Thibodeau. The five reasons included:

1. China’s leadership understands engineering
2. China’s leadership wants to out-innovate the U.S
3. China’s science and technical talent pool is vast
4. The U.S. is failing at science and math education
5. China is getting U.S. technology, all of it

The entry caught my attention because it poses the questions that have always stumped me regarding outsourcing and globalization.

1. How can an economy retain its competitive advantage when it continues to ship its core economic activities to other countries?
2. How can an advanced economy retain its competitive advantage when it ships all its key trade secrets and intellectual property to other countries which do not view IP in the same fashion.

Proponents always seem to talk about high value new jobs. I never understood how what is obviously a shrinking number pf jobs would support the Western lifestyle. Without a massive change in economic structure, it would seem that most will move to a level more like the low wage Indians and the Chinese of today.

I recommend you read through this two page entry and give it some thought, especially the next time you walk into a computer store, grocery or Walmart.

DICE 2010: “Design Outside the Box” Presentation – Oh My!

A coworker passed this video along to me. I will do a more detailed review in another post. For now, please watch the video and let me know if you end up with a sick feeling in the pit of your stomache? I certainly did.

Is This the Future of Social Media?

I saw this video and found myself watching it twice. The LA Times tells us that this is not from google.

“The prankster behind Xistence, Philipp Drössler, didn’t run with the hoax for very long. He immediately tweeted a link on the bogus @googlabs account he set up pointing to The Next Web’s blog post titled “Google Xistence: We wish it was real.”

But Google gave him a metaphorical slap in the face by listing the site on its practically ubiquitous phishing list. The second- and third-most-popular browsers, Firefox and Chrome, ping Google’s list when users navigate to a Web page.

In response, Drössler wrote on the joke Twitter page: “Xistence is not a real product, and not related in any way to Google. Neither am I. Also, this was neither a scam nor a phishing attempt.”"

iPhone App Review – Problem Halved

Problem Halved was created in MEDL Mobile’s App Incubator by Rob Shoesmith, a trash collector from Coventry, England. An interesting application, it allows the user to post questions, comments or issues to the PH community and to post insights, answers and comments to others. The basic idea is that your problem can be eased by sharing and eased further with help by member of the global community of users.

Read more...