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OLPC CUTS STAFF BUT PROMOTES FREE LAPTOPS
OLPC CUTS STAFF BUT PROMOTES FREE LAPTOPS
The ambitious One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) programme has announced huge staff cutting measures. OLPC’s founder, Nicholas Negroponte, has called the process “streamlining” and “refocusing on our mission.”
In a blog post at the OLPC site, Negroponte said 50 per cent of his staff was being laid off and the remaining 32 staffers can expect salary reductions.
“While we are saddened by this development, we remain firmly committed to our mission of getting laptops to children in developing countries. We thank team members who are departing for their contributions to this important mission,” said Negroponte.
Read the the whole article here.
-Ken
CompTIA Recertification Policies
CompTIA Recertification Policies
I earned my CompTIA A+ credential in early 1997. At that time, once you received your A+ certification, you were A+ certified for life. However, times change, and many IT certification vendors have begun attaching "lifetimes" to their titles. What's the deal with CompTIA as of January 2009?
Well, as it turns out, truth is stranger than fiction in this regard. For instance, check out this forum post by veteran A+ instructor and author Mike Meyers:
Hi All-
My name is Mike Meyers - I write a number of books for the CompTIA exams for McGraw-Hill...
The rest is at InformIT.
Three Indian outsourcers barred by World Bank
Three Indian outsourcers barred by World Bank
Indian Suppliers Wipro, Megasoft Consultants and Satyam have been barred by the World Bank.
The World Bank published a list of three Indian IT service providers barred from selling to it yesterday.
Indian IT services providers Wipro, Megasoft Consultants and Satyamare currently banned from doing direct business with the World Bank because of conflicts of interest.
Read the rest of the article here.
-Ken
A Career Changer's Checklist - 12 Common Sense Questions to Find Your Career
A Career Changer's Checklist - 12 Common Sense Questions to Find Your Career
In this twelfth question in the Career Changers' Checklist, Warren Wyrostek examines what is holding you back as you attempt to change careers. If you are serious about finding the ideal job or the ideal career, you should be anxious to start the journey. Now it is time for you to confront what is stopping you; what you are waiting for? This article covers 10 major issues that might be holding you back from changing careers. When you identify what is stopping you, you can fix it and move on to your ideal career. Here we are at Question 12 in this series of career-oriented diagnostic questions titled the Career Changer's Checklist.
We get enough "I want to change careers and work in IT" questions here at CF that I thought this InformIT.com would be useful.
Preventing Cheating on Certification Exams
Preventing Cheating on Certification Exams
Unfortunately, its a given fact that some aspiring IT professionals will resort to underhanded, unlawful means to receive certification credentials especially in todays cutthroat job market. As a result, legitimate certification holders and employers are substantially disadvantaged.
However, a leading software company has adopted a proactive stance to curb cheating on certification exams.
As stakeholders in a large program, we have a big interest in [preventing cheating] in order to protect our credentials, said Paul Sorensen, director of global certification programs at Oracle.
Though most cases of cheating are intentional, there are some candidates awaiting certification who cheat inadvertently.
Some people dont understand theyre cheating sometimes, and I dont think some people understand theyre facilitating cheating, Sorensen said. A good example of this is when people [innocently ask],...
Abused IT workers ready to quit
Abused IT workers ready to quit
A quarter of IT staff in small and medium-sized businesses have suffered verbal or physical abuse at work, and many are looking for careers elsewhere, according to new research from IT support firm Connect.
The study also found that over a third have suffered from sleepless nights or headaches as a result of IT problems at work, while 59 per cent spend between one and 10 hours a week working on IT systems outside normal hours.
"With so many companies experiencing financial problems in the past year, it is not surprising that there is additional stress on IT managers, no doubt because technology is such a vital part of most enterprises," said Mark MacGregor, chief executive of Connect.
Read the whole article here.
-Ken
Cisco mulls adding verbal interview to CCIE exams
Cisco mulls adding verbal interview to CCIE exams
Cisco is considering introducing a verbal interview portion to its CCIE lab exams across the world. Cisco confirmed that it is running a pilot in its exam lab in Beijing, China that involves candidates taking a 10-minute verbal interview as part of their lab exam. Cisco said that if the pilot is successful, the interview could be introduced as a requirement for CCIE Routing & Switching candidates worldwide. The company has been running the pilot since August.
The pilot first came to light in the Internetwork Expert's CCIE blog and readers have been speculating as to whether this is part of Cisco's battle to stamp out exam cheating and so-called hired gunmen and braindumps. Fred Weiller, director of marketing at Learning@Cisco said the pilot is another method to assess a candidate's skills level and to "guage if the candidate has the verbal ability to explain and answer...
Lack of IT skills causes 'grave disadvantage'
Lack of IT skills causes 'grave disadvantage'
People who are looking for a job will find themselves with a 'grave disadvantage' if they do not have any skill in IT, it has been claimed.
Elspeth Farrar, communications director for the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS), explained that almost all jobs now require 'some kind of competency with computers'.
This is true even if it is just about standard programs such as Word or spreadsheets, she said.
Read the rest of the article here.
-Ken
Graduates to be offered internships
Graduates to be offered internships
University graduates struggling to find work could be offered modestly-paid internships under a new Government scheme, it has emerged.
Four top firms, including Barclays and Microsoft, have already signed up to the programme to take on graduates who would otherwise joins the growing ranks of the unemployed.
Plans for the national internship scheme come amid a worsening jobs market and increasingly challenging employment prospects for those leaving education.
John Denham, the Innovation, Universities and Skills Secretary, revealed the proposals in a newspaper interview.
Read the whole news article here.
If this goes ahead, this will help alot of graduates. But however about people that have already graduated or those that aren't doing degrees?
-Ken
On Microsoft Recertification Policy
On Microsoft Recertification Policy
One obvious question for those of you who invested loads of blood, sweat, tears, time, and money in earning your Microsoft certification is, "When will my credential expire?" Let's address that question today. In the past, it was always somewhat fuzzy to me in knowing (approximately or precisely) when Microsoft would announce the retirement of a Microsoft Certified Professional exam or credential. What I have taught my students historically is that you are normally safe for one revision of the technology under consideration. In other words, if you had earned your Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) title on Windows 2000 Server, then you were safe until Microsoft develops two versions past this one.
More on this at InformIT.com.
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