Careers: Becoming Your Own Boss

This paper presents some things to consider on the "if" and the "when" of becoming your own boss. ou owe it to yourself to seriously consider becoming your own corporate boss. Whether this means gaining more responsibility in your current position or planning for the day when you're truly in charge of your own enterprise, look into it carefully. Assess your abilities, do your homework, and challenge yourself to make your career more satisfying and rewarding by going out on your own... or by happily staying put     

Caveat emptor!

A standard contract (one printed on a standard form, with standard language) can be changed or fully rewritten to meet your company's specific needs. Buying equipment without a contract that meets your company's specific needs and that is drafted or reviewed by legal counsel (specifically a lawyer who knows your company's needs well) is the equivalent of buying a potential lawsuit. Prevention of problems with a good contract and legal help is your company's best insurance against waste and/or litigation. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Patent Do's and D'oh!

The process of getting a US patent goes something like this: you work with your patent lawyer or agent to prepare an application that describes your invention in exhaustive detail; the Patent Office rejects all of your claims in curt, dismissive terms; your counsel says not to panic and, in most cases, persuades the patent examiner to allow at least some claims; and, finally, two or more years after you first filed, agony gives way to ecstasy and the beribboned patent deed issues forth. But legal traps along the way may deprive the unwary of some or even all patent riots. Worse, you may not learn of a mistake until years later, after the patent has issued, when some alert lawyer asks a few innocent-sounding questions about a conference paper you gave and, shortly after, asks the court to invalidate your patent. The author describes how the most common mistakes fall into three categories: those that threaten US rights, those affecting foreign rights, and the effects of patent filings on trade secrets.     

Fusion on a Budget

Do you have a few thousand dollars to spare, some basic machining and welding skills, and the ability to follow directions without getting fingerprints inside your equipment? Then you, too, can build a baby fusion reactor, or fusor, in your garage.     

Chill Out

Heat is one of the worst enemies of electronics. Sit on the sofa with your laptop and you quickly feel the heat on your lap. Often though, overheating can be hard to diagnose. You may notice random errors occurring no matter what program you're running. This is especially true if you use your computer to play advanced video games, which can really tax the microprocessor and the graphics card. If your machine frequently experiences fatal errors or "the blue screen of death" on such occasions, chances are it has thermal management problems. And overheating doesn't just degrade a computer's performance; it can also shorten its useful life.     

Setting up as a consultant the devil is in the details

Making a success of a consultancy means finding a niche where you can offer clients an edge over competing consultants. You cannot be all things to all people. If, for instance, you want to function as a customer's representative reviewing process designs, project economics and schedules, be sure to portray yourself as such. If you want to specialize in particular unit operations, you should emphasize that forte. Among other choices, you may intend to make your name as an expert witness, or as an economic and market analyst, an adviser on educational curricula, a counselor to government or nongovernmental organizations, or to equipment vendors or technology licensors; whatever the choice, be sure to advertise yourself specifically as such. In any case, be objective and never stretch the facts as to your capabilities. Later in this article, we give recommendations on how to market your services.     

How to make networking an art...not an accident

Networking is more than a business buzzword. It's your vital connection to potential clients, new opportunities, business resources, and career support. Cultivating a circle of contacts makes your job a whole lot easier as well as a lot more fun and profitable. You need to know how to make contacts. Otherwise, your creativity, your career, and your professional growth will stagnate. So find out what's going on and who's doing what in your field. The social skills described in the following article may be the most neglected factors in your career     

Dealing effectively with job loss-a unique approach to rebuilding your life

Are you one of the growing army of unemployed? Or are you afraid you might be soon? If so, you are one of millions in today's business world whose emotional structure has either collapsed or is in danger of collapsing. Your ability to cope, to function optimally, and to enjoy your life may, indeed, be in danger in the current business scene. In times like these, it is normal to feel a great sense of loss. As a result, you may even feel depressed. In order to pull yourself out of the doldrums and get on with your life, you'll need to find a way to regain some measure of stability so that you can replenish your confidence in yourself. This is a vital step that must be taken before you go out to find another job... the right job. If you don't pull yourself together, you will jeopardize the very result you want so badly: to get back into the workforce and reestablish your identity as a responsible, earning, worthwhile individual. The author briefly outlines a concept from her book 'Dealing effectively with job loss' on rebuilding the emotional and physical structure of your life.     

What do I do now: suggestions for the frustrated mid-career professional

Librarians, like most professionals, may arrive at a stage in their careers when they start questioning themselves about their job satisfaction and importance. The reasons are many, from not being challenged by their work to abrupt changes in the workplace dictated by management and the economy. At this stage, professionals may begin to feel unappreciated by management and not in control of their work environment. In this piece, I offer some suggestions that could help mid-career librarians to re-energize themselves and survive in a workplace that is in constant flux. How you react to the anxiety of "job disconnect" will affect the rest of your career life. Should you become more proactive at your job, increasing your responsibility and value to your institution? What does your personality have to do with how you adjust to management changes? Does tenure fit into this equation? Should you even think about changing your job at this stage of your career? What other factors could "spice" up your career? Specific strategies and options for each of these questions will be discussed.     

Candidates announced for board of governors - [society news]

In the following paragraphs you will find the position statements and biographies of an outstanding slate of candidates to manage the IEEE Communications Society. Your vote is very important to the individual candidates and to ComSoc as a whole. Ballots will be emailed or mailed to all ComSoc members later this month. We encourage your careful consideration as you cast your vote for the future success of the Society.     

Spinning a Web site on the Internet

The increasing use of the Internet for business compels everyone to consider setting up a Web site as soon as possible. Creating your own Web site is not as expensive or as difficult as you might think. The following describes an efficient and economical way to get on the Web-fast. After you have claimed your spot on the info highway, you can deliberate and later add complex options that most likely will require professional help     

Money and the Internet: a strange new relationship

Electronic wallets, Internet-driven mail and electronic cash, credit cards that are debit cards capable of being refilled with electronic money that is spendable like pocket change, banks that not only have no branches but exist solely in cyberspace...indeed, we are entering a strange new world. Discount brokers want you to power up your computer, access your portfolio and trade your stocks-all electronically. Brokerage houses want to be your banker and banks want to be your broker. The author sees the electronic money revolution as inevitable, with “e-mail for money” becoming as ubiquitous in the future as e-mail messages are already today     

How to turn articles and feature stories into gold!

If you've created a masterpiece of writing and published it in a journal or trade magazine; if the article captures the essence and purpose of your product, service, or company; if it answers frequently asked questions, explains underlying technology, and stimulates further thought and applications; there are many ways to increase the value of that article after publication. The author has over 36 years of public relations and marketing experience. He gives some tips on how you can increase the value of your articles. These tips are especially useful where the author has been successful in clearly elucidating a new technology, whether of broad or special interest     

使用防火卡安全运行计算机

讨论了一种专用防火卡，该卡可根据需要使计算机使用不同硬盘工作。两块硬盘分时工作，完全隔离，这样极大地提高了系统运行的可靠性，数据安全性和数据保密性。     

Von der Chipkarte zum Minicomputer im Scheckkartenformat

The future minicomputer in the size of a cheque card is an extremely complex system, integrated into the widely known credit cards. Such intelligent cards are the key to many different services requiring a maximum level of security. They can be used to encrypt and decrypt stored data on the PC or to encrypt/decrypt transmitted data to the modem. They function as keyless applications for example for your car and your house. You can store a large amount of data very securely on the cards and they remain in your wallet. They can replace cash in almost any application. Thus, they are personal keys as well as high security storage mediums for the information society of tomorrow. The challenge of realizing credit card minicomputers arises in coordinating complex systems and tools and requires highly qualified engineers who cope with quick advances in semiconductor technology and computer aided development systems and finally, based on the latter, with development of ever more complex products.     

Microsoft and the mobile [phone]

The author questions wether mobile phones avoid the fate of the PC or is 'Microsoft-isation' inevitable. Microsoft has handful of mobile phones on the market built around its Smartphone 2002 operating system (OS) including O2's XDA and Orange's SPV (both built by Taiwanese firm HTC), and it hopes to increase its presence through further handset deals. A smartphone is a cross between a PDA and mobile phone that you can use to connect to the Web, check e-mails, organise your appointments, link to your PC, edit spreadsheets and word-processor files, and download new applications and services.     

Careers: Who Dares, Wins

This paper provides some useful tips on how you can better manage the risks in your career. By taking carefully studied risks, you are likely to be more effective, less stressed, and happier in your engineering career and in your personal life     

Successful Businesses and Good Managers

Author Burlingame has been associated with many businesses over the last 15 years or so both as a consultant and as a manager. He says one of the things that has intrigued him over the years has been the attempt to sort out the best from the worst by identifying those elements which characterize the successful businesses but are found rarely in the unsuccessful ones. The time cycle of his observations has been long enough that he has seen good ones that turned sour and poor ones that became gems, as well as some that didn't change from good or poor over that long a cycle. In this article, he shares some of his observations and suggests that you might ptay the game of evaluating the degree to which they do or do not characterize your own operations, and draw your own conclusion as to whether or what modifying actions might be taken.     

基于单片机实现GSM短信的防火防盗报警系统设计

介绍了一个基于单片机、GSM短信模块为核心的智能防火防盗报警系统,并从基本工作原理、电路的构成等进行了详细的阐述.该系统采用主动式红外传感器和烟雾传感器进行检测,可以实现遇到有人入侵时,有火情出现有浓烟时及时灯光报警,并且以直观的中文短信的方式,将具体的情况反应到你的手机屏幕上,能确保你的家庭安全.该系统自动化程度高、适应能力强、电路设计可靠、一般家庭都能接受.     

Every move you make

In the United Kingdom, your home may be your castle, but the government will soon be able to get a rather good idea of what is happening inside it.