Category Archives: #Blog

Largest IT employment gains in four years reported

Great article from PC Adviser in the UK, that speaks to me as I view myself as a “Technology Swiss Army Knife”.

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Largest IT employment gains in four years reported

Analysis shows the most in-demand IT professionals are multitalented ‘walking Swiss Army knives’

By Ellen Messmer

The nation’s employment outlook for IT professionals has suddenly surged, gaining 18,200 jobs, the largest monthly increase since 2008, according to tech employment-research firm Foote Partners.

In July, 4,900 new IT jobs were added in two job segments, telecommunications, and separately “data processing, hosting and related services,” Foote Partners said today. Also added were 13,300 other jobs in sectors called “management and technical consulting services” and “computer systems design/related services.” The firm says these last two categories, with a combined total of 242,000 jobs added in the past 24 months, have seen solid growth even in the midst of the nation’s general economic malaise.

“The overall employment situation in the U.S. is lackluster, in fact this is the fifth consecutive month of subpar results,” says David Foote, CEO at Foote Partners, which has been tracking IT labor trends since 1997. Today’s findings are based on Foote’s analysis of the July 2012 U.S. employment numbers from the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. “But the fact that more than 18,000 new jobs were created last month for people with significant IT skills and experience and nearly 57,000 new jobs added in the past three months is incredibly good news.”

While his remarks were upbeat, Foote also adds that not all IT workers are equally benefiting from the jobs expansion. “Many companies are looking for superstars and workers we refer to as ‘walking Swiss Army knives’ those with the right mix of technology, business and people skills to handle some very tough jobs.” Foote says trends that matter include adoption of cloud computing, mobile platforms, and Big Data analytics, among other technologies

Expert Witness in IT and Web Technologies

Today marks another milestone in my life as a Technologist.  I was asked at the last minute to testify in the Virgin Islands Superior Court on an Internet matter involving domain ownership.  I was sworn in and qualified as Expert witness in Information Technology and Web Technologies.  It’s official !  I am an Expert in the eyes of the Law !!!

I was assured that I did a good job and now can put that under my belt.

Some things to consider if you are going to testifiy in court

  • Guys wear a blazer or a suite. That place is has the AC set to high.  After about 30 minutes my fingers began to tingle.
  • Do not ramble on.  Answer the question and only the question.  I know us techies like to elaborate, but don’t !  Imagine you are doing one line logic tests.  If asked X then respond Y.  No elseif. No grouped responses.
  • The court physical layout are not like TV (e.g Court Judy or Matlock).  In fact it was quite efficient in it’s design and function.  A lot of curves and smart use of space.

 

Let’s see what doors this opens.

 

eWaste.vi

Be sure to visit eWaste.VI and sign up on the mailing list to get updates/tips on how to handle Electronic Waste in the US Virgin Islands

CL tip #1 – Windows XP Adding a TCP/IP Printer

Here is how to add a Printer to a Windows XP System from the Command Line.

Here is what is needed

 

  • IP address of the Printer
  • Printer Name (your choice)
  • Port Name (Your choice)
  • Driver Location (can be a mapped drive)
  • Name of the Printer, based on the manufacturer(This must be exact)

 

For this example, I use the following values

 

  • 192.168.1.25
  • “LJ_4200”
  • IP_ 192.168.1.25
  • “\fs1PublicIT_StuffDriversPrintersHP 4200 Driverhpc4200c.INF”
  • “HP LaserJet 4200 PCL 6”

 

 

Now here is the magic.

cscript “c:windowssystem32prnport.vbs” -a -r VIP_ 192.168.1.25 -h 192.168.1.25 -o raw -n 9100

rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /if /b “LJ_4200” /f “\fs1PublicIT_StuffDriversPrintersHP 4200 Driverhpc4200c.INF” /r “VIP_172.16.170.21″ /m “HP LaserJet 4200 PCL 6”

 

The first line creates a local TCP/IP Port. The second Line creates the actual printer

 

If everything goes fine, the printer should appear in the “Printer Control Panel”

 

Techlab Physical Security system

I have gotten version 0.1 of the VITech Techlab Physical Security system, known as Voncia.  Right now it simply takes a picture of any motion at my front door.  As you can see from the below pic, it is not too bad.  What’s really crazy is that it is night vision !  There was almost no light !

More to come !!

 

Apple Mac Air in the Techlab

On the day that Steve Jobs left this existince, a part of him entered the Techlab.

For the first time ever, I own an Apple Macbook.  It is not a matter that I am an Apple Hater. I just was not crazy about Apple’s almost draconian control over their systems.  But that was the past.  Ever since they moved to the Intel x86 architecture, based the new OS on BSD(I am die heard FreeBSD fan) and last but not least allowed for the dual booting with Windows 7, I had no excuse not to have one in my Techlab.

My take on the system is that it is very impressive and I now see why the Mac die-hards by this system.  As I am currently traveling(home in Antigua for Mom’s B-Day and some R&R), I must say that many of the features of the Mac have been a big plus.  The ability to ‘snap back on’ after you open it is almost a shock to me.  My Lenovo Win7 netbook creeps back on, even with an SSD drive.  Applicaiton installations is  very smooth. The terminal is a treat since I am command line junkie(I am at heart a developer after-all)

There is much more to explore in this new world that Steve has created and I hope to do justice by learning it and using it to innovate even more.

If you have any suggestions on things to do with the Mac Air, leave a comment.