Interesting reading. Especially for those of us who have been making a living in cities that are shown with numbered dots.

North America’s High-Tech Economy: The Geography of Knowledge-Based Industries ranks the top high-tech centers in the U.S., Canada and Mexico in their ability to grow and sustain thriving high-tech industries.
The top 25 markets are listed on the left, showing the 2007 and 2003 rankings. An interactive map of the metros is directly below and scroll down for a full listing of all 393 high-tech centers ranked.
http://www.milkeninstitute.org/nahightech/nahightech.taf?rankyear=2007
Computer forensics has always fascinated me, and occasionally when computer forensics comes up in the news, they focus on basic stuff like inspecting some one’s Internet Explorer cache to see what they have been visiting on the Internet. A case came up like that locally here – a husband was accused of drowning his wife in the bath tub, and they found his browser history full of links to adult-cheater web sites. This provided evidence that he had an apparent motive to kill his wife.
I suspect that such a candidate would need to have a mastery of a lot of wide ranging technical areas, including:
Knowledge of popular, and niche, encryption software (which hides evidence)
Knowledge of all of the common email clients
Knowledge of all of the common web mail clients
Ability to undelete files and to recovery hard drives that have erased but possibly intact evidence on them
Knowledge of hacking techniques for networks (itself an enormous subject)
This would be a huge undertaking for someone to study, even if they had a great technical background already.
I think that in real life, most forensic jobs in the IT area use reformed “black hat” hackers with criminal backgrounds who already really, really understand the culture and the tools.I tend to think that a regular degreed professional wouldn’t really know many aspects of the culture without immersion in hacker society for awhile.
Then there’s the area of application:
Criminal investigations
Financial investigations (insider trading, etc)
National security
Network security for corporations and institutions
From a business point of view, I’m wondering what constitutes ‘your online presence’? There’s your own site (personal and business), Linkedin, Facebook, posting on related forums, Twitter, YouTube, ‘news flashes’ – newspaper or online, etc.
How far do you go and what information do you provide?
I’ve seen successful business’s that disclose virtually nothing personal while others have names, pictures, video, their Linkedin or Facebook stuff, etc.
It seems that some want to be found or heard while others either don’t have the need or want to be “personally” identified.
I’m wondering what our readers here are doing and why. Also have you gotten any measurable results from your efforts?
I was reviewing my connections and noticed that some people “embellish” more than others.
Case in point was a listing for “Sr. .NET Developer” for our catchall MS guy. He did all the misc tasks like baby sitting our daily builds, some networking, a bit of programming and put up a basic website using DotNetNuke. Nothing that I would assign that title to but there it is.
“Sr” describes his age better than his experience, while the “.Net Dev” part I’m sure came from installing and setting up DNN. What gets me is that several jobs later; he’s now an “IT Director”. All I can say is WOW? I know this guy and while he’s good, apparently talk and BS carry you further than actual experience or know how because he’s not that good.
So how much do you embellish? After all a resume is more about advertising than a biography and as long as it’s not an outright lie, who can dispute it?
Yes, I’m rethinking what my resume says. Not looking to BS but to enhance my experience.
Before you allocate time and funds in marketing, be sure to take the time to research your market.
Terrific source for marketing info, from the ‘big boys’ themselves, the AMA!
They have a free registraion/membership that will give you access to great news info — not sports & weather, but subjects you select & narrow down to your specific needs!
I received my first email today, with The DMA Guidelines for Ethical Business Practice and a few other good links.
Go ses the ‘toolkit’ with tons of free & cheap marketing templates: ROI, Press Kit materials, and ‘bloilerplate’ templates like business plan outlines — tons more!
I downloaded 13 templates last night for $1.99!
Go visit, I think you’ll like it! I may even sign up for the real AMA membership, even tho it is about $130 per year, seems to be a valuable service.
Basic info, easily explained from entrepreneur magazine as well, I don’t love the magazine, but every once & awhile I find the site has little gems like this one — they are focusing on marketing plans all June, so check it out now while it is still there.