Half the jobs are computer related and take 5 of the top 6 positions. Here’s the run down. No link up yet on Business 2.0 website. The future looks very bright if you’re in the computer or medical industry.

1. Network analyst
2. Physician’s assistant
3. Software engineer (applications)
4. Software engineer (systems)
5. Network admin
6. Database admin
7. Physical therapist
8. Medical assistant
9. Occupational therapist
10. College instructor

Note: Fastest-growing occupations for college-educated workers
Source: Bureau of Labor and Statistics

On the way to church this morning, I drove off Lea Hill and down a two lane road that is lined with trees full of tiny pink blossoms. The trees looked like big globs of cotton candy just waiting for a child to sink her teeth into. The wind was gently blowing and the pink blossoms, by the thousands, would fly across the road. It looked like tiny pink bows were dancing in the street, happy as the rest of us to see the sun. The sky was so blue, not a cloud in the sky. I slowed down so I could enjoy the scene a little longer.

The whole experience reminded me of the scene in American Beauty where Ricky shows Jane a video he took of a plastic bag dancing in the wind. I’m sure there are many beautiful items “dancing” around us in this world if we’ll just take the time to slow down and appreciate them.

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Thurrott pulls no punches in his article. The three areas in which he says Microsoft Vista has failed are:

1. User Account Protection – “The bad news, then, is that UAP is a sad, sad joke. It’s the most annoying feature that Microsoft has ever added to any software product, and yes, that includes that ridiculous Clippy character from older Office versions”
2. Glass Windows – “Anyway, the reality of glass windows is that they stink. The windows themselves are translucent, meaning you can see through them partially. But the visual difference between the topmost window is subtle at best. More to the point, you can’t tell topmost windows from other windows at all. And don’t pretend you can”
3. Media Center – “Microsoft has broken Media Center. It’s a horrid update to a wonderful bit of software, an ugly stepchild of beautiful parents. It’s so bad, I don’t even know where to start”
   

According to a USA Today article, how you treat a waiter says a lot about your character.

“Watch out for people who have a situational value system, who can turn the charm on and off depending on the status of the person they are interacting with,” “Be especially wary of those who are rude to people perceived to be in subordinate roles.”
Raytheon CEO Bill Swanson

This makes me want to start 3rees.com. This one made me laugh:

Five things I currently have no intention of doing:

Well, not yet, but if this technology is widely implemented my TV is heading to the curb. Any broadcasting company would do this to its customers would have to be as stupid as the RIAA and MPAA.

Fortune Magazine interviews software guru, Ray Ozzie, creator of Groove.

Shopping with young children should be avoided at all costs. Yet sometimes there’s no choice but to bring them along. We took our 5, 3, and 2 year old to Macy’s for a little easter shopping today. As usual they kids ran wild a few times but overall, they were pretty well-behaved.

I noticed two things that Macy’s does to make shopping a little easier: They have LCD screens showing Nickelodeon near the changing rooms, and they provide “price check” kiosks throughout the store. The LCD screens are great for dad and the kids while mom tries on clothes. And the price check kiosks are a big time saver when you locate an item you’d like to buy, but the tag is missing or you’re unsure of the sale price.

We also managed to get out of the store without our kids breaking or stealing anything which is a nice change of pace.

I’ve purchased my share of electronics this past year and have noticed a disturbing trend. Almost every new gadget I’ve bought comes with either way too much documentation or far too little. Here are three examples from recent purchases:

1. Motorola E815 – Great phone but the manual for this phone is downright user-unfriendly. The manual is small in dimension yet numerous in pages which makes for a very frustrating experience when all I want to know is how to dial to voicemail. At least with a manual that’s too small I’d just move on and call Verizon for voicemail instructions, but this manual was so big I figured the answer to my question just *had* to be in there somewhere. Yet it wasn’t.

2. Creative X-Fi Soundcard – This is a $125 soundcard yet Creative acts like it’s selling me a $15 POS model. Instead of an actual manual I’m given this huge poster of sorts which requires a good 5×5 foot area to read! I’ve seen the “poster manual” a few times now and it’s really annoying. The poster usually only has enough information to get the item installed yet leaves little room for anything else.

3. Canon ZR500 – For an entry level camcorder I’d expect Canon to include very clear and comprehensive manual, but that’s just not the case. The manual is clear but is severely lacking in several basic areas of operation. For example, I’m like most people that would expect to be able to transfer video from the camcorder onto my PC. So I break out the manual to see how to accomplish this and Canon includes a whopping single paragraph of help. Canon actually says, “See the instruction manual for the software”. Canon basically pawns off the responsibility to someone else which is little help for a beginner.

The only electronic item I’ve purchased lately that included a comprehensive yet clear manual is the HP OfficeJet 4215 “All in One” Printer. HP did a nice job of organzing the manual so I’m able to find the answer to most questions very quickly.