I use the laptop more for a desktop replacement but not would not necessarily purchase something equivalent to a desktop. Combined with a 2nd 21″ LCD monitor I’ve got my set-up perfect for what I do.

My latest “find” is a Gateway NV53 from TigerDirect which features Multi-Gesture ToucPad, something called MyBackup (who backs 500gb or 1tb drives???), 16:9 HD LCD, CardReader and HDMI output (sweet).

Other features are an AMD Athalon II X2 M300 processor, 15.6″ HD LCD, 500 GB HDD and 4 GB Memory. Also features a DVD Super Multi DL Drive, and Webcam.

You can see the full specs on the official Gateway site.

Unfortunately they no longer have this specific model available. It sold out pretty quick, especially when you consider you can have a great laptop for just under $400.00 CDN.

Now I’ve never used Gateway in the past, and haven’t done any reading on it so wasn’t sure what to expect. All I remember about Gateway is that they used to sell ugly laptops and they would compete hard with Dell. I ordered the laptop as it had a 30-day return policy on it, so figured I’m safe with taking a chance.

I ordered the Gateway laptop and received it within 10 days because I had ordered on a Thursday/Friday and there was a long weekend in between. Reviews I had read on the laptop said that many came scratched (lid/screen) or that the webcam didn’t work or other minor problems. Mine had none (knock on virtual wood).

I was surprised at the look of the laptop. Nice color (lid), sharp LCD and it wasn’t as thick as my old TOSHIBA laptop. So far, Gateway had scored a few points.

The other thing that I really liked on this laptop is that is truly supports an external monitor.  Most laptops I’ve owned support an external monitor, but I could never get the true resolution or color – in fact the 2nd monitor was more of a hindrance in the past.  Not so with this one – it supports the monitor perfectly!  The colors are rich, the display is clear and sharp.

The 500gb HD is great but with external storage so cheap (you can get 1tb or 2tb for under $150.00) storage space isn’t an issue.  As I used this as a desktop, I’m perfectly fine to use external storage.  The other key factor that attracted me to this laptop is that FOUR (count’em 4) USB ports.  I threw on a USB octopus and added another 5 ports instantly.

The keyboard is OK, I don’t like chicklet keys but I don’t use the keyboard on the laptop and instead use a Logitech laptop stand with built-in keyboard.  The keyboard (on the laptop) also has a keypad.  Something you don’t see on a lot of laptops.  I didn’t purchase the wireless version of the laptop stand, but am happy with the one that I have ().

Things I didn’t like – all the “bonus” software on the laptop. I deleted most of that first. Shared video memory – the video card is 256mb dedicated, and can use up to 1.5gb of main memory, so far no issues with it.

I bought this as a “refurb” unit and so far have been very happy with it. It’s about 6-months old, but for the price (UNDER $400.00) it gives me the power, and speed that I need in a laptop without spending more than I need to. In fact, each laptop that I’ve purchased over the years has always been just one step behind.

While many may scoff at purchasing an older model of a laptop – you should seriously think about it as it does allow you to stay current (as current as can be) without spending a lot of money on the latest and greatest. Unless you are a gamer, you don’t really need to spend $2,000.00 on a laptop.

The sweet thing, when I upgrade in a few years time I’ll still be able to sell this laptop for at least 50% of the purchase price (as I’ve done with older machines I’ve had).

Most recent reports put the kickback scheme at $1,000,000.00 – a lot of incentive to behave dishonestly.

This probably isn’t the largest kickback scheme to be uncovered, nor will it be the last but it does go to show you that crime, fraud is an issue that affects all types of companies.

How can companies protect themselves?  It is difficult, but one of the first items they need to have is a thorough policy in place and that policy explained to staff.  No policy, while does not excuse this behavior only opens the doors to challenges if the behavior is uncovered.

How to combat retail fraud?  The key is communication between stakeholders and the willingness to share what has been found to law enforcement so that they are better armed to catch the bad guys.

Your front-line staff and managers also need to be trained to spot patterns – or how to “connect the dots”.  If you can spot this early into a cycle you have the potential to nip the issue before it grows.

Fraud, theft, dishonest behavior by employees (this also includes things like stealing time, or office supplies) hurts the business in many ways – it decreases employee morale, if employees talk to friends the word spreads of vulnerabilities and can hurt the company’s reputation and goodwill in the long run and in the case of a small business quite possibly turn a company from profit to loss.

While eliminating this type of behavior is difficult, if not impossible putting in policies in place to explain the ramifications of the action to staff is one step towards ensuring internal theft is not an issue and when issues arise they are investigated quickly, and action taken immediately.

Amazon has some great books on this:

Avoiding Cyber Fraud in Small Businesses: What Auditors and Owners Need to Know Overall Rating:   Retail Price: CDN$ 65.99 Amazon Price: CDN$ 41.57 This book is not as much about detecting fraud as it is about developing company-wide awareness and implementing detection measures. These are the keys to not only fraud prevention, but also security in general. My perspective is as an IT security professional, and I found this book to be thorough in that it covers all key items, and also to be applicable to any size business. What I especially like about this book is its wide coverage that touches on each of the most important elements of awareness and prevention, including an objective assessment of cyber fraud as a threat, an approach to analyzing risks and vulnerabilities, and how to implement controls and policies. In addition to these basics, the book also goes into the technical aspects of security (written so that a non-IT professional can understand the fundamentals), and related topics, such as information protection, and legal issues associated with web site content. While the latter are not specific fraud vulnerabilities, they represent business risks that are loosely related to fraud. Other material that I found useful and informative included the chapters on internal protection controls and conducting audits and investigations.		Anti-Fraud Risk and Control Workbook Overall Rating:   Retail Price: CDN$ 60.00 Amazon Price: CDN$ 48.77
New Loss Prevention: Redefining Shrinkage Management Overall Rating:   Retail Price: CDN$ 95.02 Amazon Price: CDN$ 95.02		Loss Prevention and the Small Business: The Security Professional's Guide to Asset Protection Strategies Overall Rating:   Retail Price: CDN$ 53.95 Amazon Price: CDN$ 46.65
Financial Services Anti-Fraud Risk and Control Workbook Overall Rating:   Retail Price: CDN$ 60.00 Amazon Price: CDN$ 48.90		Retail Security and Shrinkage Protection Overall Rating:   Retail Price: CDN$ 92.50 Amazon Price: CDN$ 77.56

Unfortunately when it comes to fraud and these types of topics, you won’t find many reviews of books since very few companies and individuals will want to say “hey – that helped combat the fraud issue we had”.

I purchased the Acer 8.9″ netbook.  It came with Windows XP, 1gb memory and a 160gb hard drive.  In addition to this, I’ve got several external HDs kicking around so purchased cases for these so that I could use them in addition to the HD that comes with the netbook.

I installed my ancient copy of Microsoft Office along with several other productivity applications, some personal applications like Quicken, some research tools, music and even installed a few graphics applications just to see if the netbook could keep up with the memory requirements and speed.

I also use the netbook to connect to work, and use it most often when I’m in bed with a lapdesk.

Previous to getting the net book, I’d do work on my full-size laptop.  The specs were about the same but it was running a 15.6″ screen.

The other plus with my net book is that there are 3 USB ports – a lot of room for expansion for external CD/DVD.  There are two slots for SDHC cards as well – one which is used for storage so I can plug in my 16gb card and use it like a hard drive and the other slot can also be used for storage but is intended to be used as a SDHC slot to pull off images or other data.

The other thing you’ll find with most net books is that you do get an external monitor port.  From time-to-time if I have a need, I’ll plug an external monitor to the port and use it instead of the smaller screen.

Though there are some disadvantages to the smaller screen – mainly if you’ve got bad eyes or find it difficult to read small print it might be difficult and not all apps run well on the smaller screen.

Contrary to popular belief, I’ve been able to do quite a bit more than surf on the net book.  I used it quite a bit from basic word processing to managing my bank accounts and investments.  I also use it routinely to VPN into work when I’m out and need to provide support, or even when I’m at home.

In fact I find that I use my primary laptop even less now that I have a netbook.

Where the real productivity gains have come in is the ability to use something like Google Docs – I can work in the cloud and access that data anywhere.  Because I’m running an Atom processor with 1gb memory, you don’t want to run CPU intensive applications so not having to start-up Office (Excel or Word) each time is a great boon – I can connect virtually instantly to Google Docs wherever I am that has WiFi – at home or out.  I’ve been tempted to purchase an Internet Stick – but having looked at how I use the net book I found that spending $150.00 on the stick plus anywhere from $30 to $70 per month for fees just wasn’t worth it.

Running apps on the netbook is very smooth – including a few of the graphics applications that I run.  These are Adobe PhotoShop (only for basic graphic file editing) and an old version of Jasc PaintShopPro (now part of the Corel family of products).  These are both memory and CPU intensive programs but I’ve had no problems running them on the Acer.

Besides business applications, I also run several research tools to mine data on the internet.  I’ve had absolutely no problems running these tools – they run just as well as they did (and do) on my full-size laptop.

There is an excellent post at Netbook Ace – Google Gears + Your Netbook = Productivity Powerhouse.  I haven’t installed Google Gears on my net book, I would like to read up on it a bit more but this sounds like something that will help me get the most out of my net book.  I like the fact that I could cache my documents and even run apps locally and have them sync when I connect.

One of my hobbies is writing, so being able to do this anytime would be great – I could write anywhere and not have to use the dreaded Notepad or my next least favourite, Textpad — both are good, Textpad is better but nothing beats a good word processing application.

Overall I am really happy with my netbook, it’s performed very well and continues to perform well.  It’s a true portable computer that I can take anywhere and if combined with 3g service is usable everywhere there is service.

In order to maximize my productivity, I’ve also just registered for Zoho.  You can find them at http://www.zoho.com – they offer a suite of online products that you can use as an individual user for free.  There are fees if they will be used for business.  One of the modules or apps in the Zoho suite is an e-mail program.  I will also try this out as it looks pretty good from the description on their blog… in fact the entire suite of products look pretty good.

Check out their blog, as they offer a lot of information about the various components.

I will report on Zoho in a future post once I get a chance to try it out.

Back to the netbook – would I buy another netbook?  Without even thinking about it!

Soon you’ll be able to make that decision.  Velocity Cruz has announced that their 7″, Android powered tablet will be available for sale this fall – around the August/September time frame.

The specs are pretty decent.

Two versions, the one that I’m most interested in is 800×480, capacative touch screen with 4gb of built-in storage and another 8gb supplied SD card.  And it even includes a (gasp) USB port!  It will play most audio formats, and video formats and will also read ePub, PDF, TXT and HTML files.

Includes a web browser but is WiFi only, no wireless.

They are offering a $199.99 version and $299.99 version.

To read more about it, visit their website – Velocity Cruz.  Depending on how well this tablet performs, it could well heat up the tablet market – which no doubt will be in full-gear this fall just setting you and I up for the Christmas retail bonanza.

And yes, I do realize that there is more to cloud computing that being able to write your resume using Google Docs…

I mean I’ve been a Microsoft man ever since I can remember.  I’ve always enjoyed the DOS prompt and reluctantly switched to Windows when clients I was working with wanted their staff to become more productive.  That was my first foray into graphical user interfaces – I wasn’t a complete newbie and before Windows came along and in the DOS world I used to program in Turbo Pascal and built several GUI interfaces for applications that I’d developed and transmitted over my lowly 300, then 1200, then 2400 then 38,400 baud modem to BBS’s around North America or onto the various file sharing services.

My real first experience with GUI was the Apple Macintosh at school.  I hated it.  It did not make sense to me at all.  It was then that I decided GUI interfaces were not cool.

But now all you can find is GUI interfaces, even if you decide to run Linux on your computer.  What doesn’t have a GUI front end on it anymore?

Back to my story… I’ve always loved Microsoft products.  I’ve shelled out hundreds of dollars to stay current with the latest versions of Office Professional — even if I would never use part of it.  I just wanted to have it.  The last version I purchased (I’m still using it) is about 5 years old.  I thought of buying the newest version, because that’s what I use day-to-day at work but the cost far outweighed the use.

I could have bought only Word or Excel, but what if I needed PowerPoint or wanted to do some Access programming (like I ever would – you know, been there and done that).

But then I had a need to be able to take my files with me.  So I have several external hard drives and USB keys and while it’s great that I can take my data with me everywhere – you need to have the applications on the PC you’ll be working on.  If I’m at the library, or a friends house chances are that I won’t have MS Office on the PC.  When I’ve travelled and used the hotels Internet and PCs they’ve never had Office on them.

What do you do?

Then I thought of trying Google Docs.  I was hesitant at first.  I mean, I was cheating on Microsoft.  Would I like it?  Should I really use it?  My documents are out in cyberspace for anyone to gain access to.  What if someone found out my password… so one of the first things was to generate a 12 character password, complete with upper/lower case characters, numbers and symbols.  I can’t even remember it.  It’s on my iPod Touch.  So much for security.

I first started playing with the spreadsheet.  It was being used to do some basic tracking – nothing fancy like pivot tables or massive lists.  It worked great. 

Next was the wordprocessor.  This was really the key, because this would be the one tool that I would use most often.  I mean suppose I wanted to update my resume?  I could do it on Google Docs and always have a copy there.  Or what if I’m in an interview and needed a recent copy?  Simply hop onto any PC that you can be given access to, grab the resume and print it out and you’re done.  You don’t have to search for a PC with Office on it.

The other key feature of Google Docs has been the ability to upload/download files.  So I can work locally on my PC at home with my old, and outdated version of Office – upload the documents and I’ve got instant access to them from a user friendly interface.  The key really is user friendly interface.  I’m not uninitiated when it comes to cloud storage and I know all about being able to save documents etc., using Yahoo Mail, or Google Mail – but those require workaround and Google Docs does not.

I’ve been using Google Docs for about two weeks now, and during that time I’ve noticed that my use of Microsoft Office is slowly dropping.  From using it virtually 100% of the time to down around 50% and dropping.  Will it ever get to 0%?  Perhaps, but right now I’m not willing to leave Microsoft Office entirely since I’ve not done anything that requires the professional touch with Google Docs.

Do you use Google Docs?  I’d love to hear your stories about it.

• Consumers were slow to adapt to mobile marketing technology, since it is OPT-IN
• Retailers too scared to bombard unsuspecting shoppers with marketing messages – they didn’t want to be labelled as sending SPAM to mobile phones

I suspect more the latter than the former, especially if you have a look at this article – http://econsultancy.com/blog/5174-o2s-major-mobile-marketing-spamfail - which is pretty recent that goes into O2’s mobile marketing campaign which according to the article, failed and generated more negative publicity that perhaps was their intention.

Now, I can deal with the cold weather, annoying consumers barging past me to seek out discounted high street treasure, and wall-to-wall bad TV. But I can’t deal with the fact that a mobile operator is unable or unwilling to remove me from its marketing list. It’s a marketing basic.

But now with millions of people carrying around iPhones, and the introduction of the 3G iPad plus the dozens of new smartphones on the market and an eager public (mostly teenagers that have some money and young adults who have more money and working adults that are looking for deals without hitting their PC all the time) perhaps the time is ripe for companies to look at mobile marketing again.

Over the weekend I met someone by the name of Mohamed Amirali whose company is involved, among other endavours, SMS and mobile marketing.  This got be back into research mode to see what is the state of mobile marketing:

• Mobile Marketing Association – http://mmaglobal.com/main
• Mobile Marketing Magazine – a UK based magazine – http://www.mobilemarketingmagazine.co.uk/
• Mobile Marketing Watch – http://www.mobilemarketingwatch.com/

Based on the little research I did and few quick searches, mobile marketing is becoming a hot topic again.

Mobile marketing really hit home a few weeks ago:

I had gone out to buy some shoes for my son, and before paying the clerk asked if I had a cell phone and if I wanted to save 30% on my purchase.  Who doesn’t want to save money?  All I had to do was send a short code to their company, who would add me to their SMS marketing campaign (AKA mobile marketing).  Within seconds of sending the short code through, I received a reply and was given a virtual one-time-use 30% coupon.

That’s what I envisioned mobile marketing to do and it’s great to see that some companies are going forward, using an opt-in method to gain eyeballs directly instead of the hit and miss method of using other forms of advertising such as radio, newspaper or flyers.

Here are three books that I found on Amazon that discuss mobile marketing – I will be picking these up this week to brush up on what I know already and where this industry is headed.

The Mobile Marketing Handbook: A Step-By-Step Guide to Creating Dynamic Mobile Marketing Campaigns

Overall Rating:

Retail Price: CDN$ 31.62

Amazon Price: CDN$ 19.92

The first book I found is called The Mobile Marketing Handbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Dynamic Mobile Marketing Campaigns and has 10 customer reviews on Amazon.

From the review page: Mobile technology not only lets marketers reach customers where they are, it allows them to engage mobile users by targeting their immediate and specific needs. Giving users what they want when they want it is the unique value proposition of mobile marketing, and businesses, agencies, and nonprofits of all types and sizes can create successful campaigns without breaking the bank. In this practical handbook, mobile marketing consultant Kim Dushinski offers easy-to-follow advice for firms that want to interact with mobile users, build stronger customer relationships, reach a virtually unlimited number of prospects, and gain competitive advantage by making the move to mobile now. If your organization wants to reach mobile device users locally, nationally, or within a specific demographic niche The Mobile Marketing Handbook will help you put your message in the palms of their hands.

One of the comments that stood out was this one:

If you’re looking to learn about mobile marketing – I highly recommend buying this book, it provides a great introduction to mobile marketing. And where Kim can’t get in depth on certain topics, she provides resources that you can utilize to get more information.

She provides great information on how to determine if your target demographic aligns well with the mobile crowd and whether or not it is worth pursuing. She provides great demographic hints related to both culture and age that I wasn’t aware of.

Also, she effectively presents all the different players that need to come into play for a successful mobile marketing campaign – like short code providers, aggregators, text message companies and more. You can’t just start a mobile campaign without having your ducks in a row, and Kim tells you what you need to consider before starting. Although I have created mobile websites in the past, I hadn’t considered all of these factors when it came to effectively marketing a mobile website.

The only reason I’m giving this boof 4 stars instead of 5 is because I thought it was a bit light on content in some areas – especially related to mobile search. Since this is the area that most interests me I would have liked more insight about pay-per-call, click-to-call, and examples of campaigns that actually had success. I would have liked to have seen screenshots of AdWords for setting up a mobile campaign and how ads look on a mobile browser. I would have liked to have seen the Google mobile search interface – and I am curious why Google mobile search defaults to web results instead of mobile (at least for me). But I do realize that I’m being a bit nitpicky and that in order to do all of this for each content area would have resulted in a 2000 page book.

Overall, if you’re interested in mobile marketing, I highly recommend this book. While it can’t get into the depth I would like in certain areas, it provides a fantastic jumping off point as well as links to plenty of resources to get the answers that you need.

The next book is called Mobile Advertising: Supercharge Your Brand in the Exploding Wireless Market that has 7 customer reviews.

Mobile Advertising: Supercharge Your Brand in the Exploding Wireless Market

Overall Rating:

Retail Price: CDN$ 32.99

Amazon Price: CDN$ 20.78

This book has some great Editorial Reviews:

Review

“Very rarely do books like this offer equal value to both advertising buyers and sellers, but Mobile Advertising is a wonderful primer on the mobile landscape and advertising opportunity from both perspectives. Its completeness and clarity makes it an essential resource for any company or person looking to help pioneer or participate in this emerging category.”
—Chamath Palihapitiya, Vice President, Facebook

“As mobile emerges as the last true individual ‘channel,’ understanding where the marketer fits will be critical… Mobile Advertising gives us a map of this powerful emerging platform.”
—Larry Weber, Chairman, W2 Group, and author of Marketing to the Social Web

“If you believe the future is wireless, then this book is a guide to that future. Simple, fact-filled, and astute.”
—Om Malik, founder, GigaOM

“Today’s youth spends more than fifteen hours per day with their phones. One can imagine what a tremendous business opportunity mobile advertising is. The authors of this book explore the critical aspects of this opportunity with analytic rigor, in-depth analysis, and practical insights. I strongly recommend it for anyone involved in the mobile and advertising industries.”
—Dr. Yasuhisa Nakamura, Executive Director, NTT DoCoMo, and coauthor of Wireless Data Services

A practical guide to the emerging mobile advertising market, Mobile Advertising covers all the major topics in this emerging multibillion-dollar industry. This is a complete how-to guide for anyone who wants to understand and take advantage of this hot new advertising medium. Drawing on the experience of three industry veterans, insights from key influencers and decision makers, and detailed case studies, the book gives you practical guidance for getting the most out of mobile advertising.

Mobile Marketing: Finding Your Customers No Matter Where They Are

Overall Rating:

Retail Price: CDN$ 29.99

Amazon Price: CDN$ 18.89

Finally the third book on my buy list is entitled Mobile Marketing: Finding Your Customers No Matter Where They Are.

Mobile Marketing

Finding Your Customers No Matter Where They Are

Use Mobile Marketing to Supercharge Brands, Sales, and Profits!

Using brand-new mobile marketing techniques, you can craft campaigns that are more personal, targeted, immediate, measurable, actionable–and fun! Now, one of the field’s leading pioneers shows exactly how to make mobile marketing work for your business. Cindy Krum cuts through the hype, revealing what’s working–and what isn’t. She guides you through identifying the right strategies and tactics for your products, services, brands, and customers…avoiding overly intrusive, counterproductive techniques…and how to successfully integrate mobile into your existing marketing mix. Above all, Krum shows you how to effectively execute on your mobile marketing opportunities–driving greater brand awareness, stronger customer loyalty, more sales, and higher profits.

Topics include

• Getting started fast with mobile marketing
• Understanding the international mobile marketing landscape
• Targeting and tracking the fast-changing mobile demographic
• Taking full advantage of the iPhone platform
• Leveraging mobile advertising, promotion, and location-based marketing
• Building micro-sites and mobile applications
• Performing search engine optimization for mobile sites and applications
• Building effective mobile affiliate marketing programs
• Integrating online and offline mobile marketing
• Avoiding mobile marketing spam, viruses, and privacy violations
• Previewing the future of mobile marketing

A recent user had this to say about this book:

This book came very timely. I just heard on the news that we just hit the milestone where phones are used more for data than voice. This exponentially growing communication method (Mobile devices) cannot be overlooked or dismissed by marketers – unless of course you don’t like leads and want to go out of business. That said Mobile Marketing remained a mystery to me. Perhaps an age thing. Just when I get a handle on “Web 2.0″ i.e. Social Media, now comes the vast and confusing world of marketing to mobile devices. Need help: this book is it!

Every aspect of Mobile Marketing is covered in this 300+ page book. The book is well illustrated and not written in a dense incomprehensible technical babble. The breath of Mobile Marketing is remarkable – even covering international markets. Whether you need to implement a Mobile Marketing strategy, sell your CEO on a budget, or actually have to understand the technology, you’ll get your answers here. I found Mobile Marketing helpful even as a Blackberry user and information consumer.

The print is small and there is a lot of information packed into this book. So don’t expect an easy or quick read. However it doesn’t require an engineering degree either. This is a go-to resource and must read for salespeople, marketers, and entrepreneurs. As cell phones, iPads and other mobile devices become central to communication the marketer who knows how to profit from them will be well ahead of their competition. This book is a short cut and resource for the Mobile Marketing area without having to spend months or tons of money. I am actually grateful to the author for this book – a sentiment I have seldom had before.

If your organization is serious about tapping into this market, speak to Mohamed Amirali or pick-up one of the books.

A workaholic’s worst nightmare: vacation

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/work/a-workaholics-worst-nightmare-vacation/article1595092/

Your current salary – $75,000.00/year

The job you’ve just applied for – $85,000.00/year that comes with:

• Flexible hours
• Ability to work from home
• Better benefits – on average, benefits can be worth up to 25% of your salary
• More impressive job title

You are the ideal candidate, you’ve got exactly what the company wants and needs plus you can offer more.

What is the “goodwill” of the new position worth?  I won’t try and calculate that as it will vary from individual to individual.  For one the ability to work from home is important, for someone else the flexible hours are a drawing point.

You’ve submitted your resume and think you’ve looked it over but as you’re reading it you spot some errors:

• Your name is spelled wrong!  Aaaack – how did that get by!  Note to self: spell checks are NOT accurate.
• I did E before I and just noticed that I turned my spell check OFF.  Oh no…

Proven Resumes: Strategies That Have Increased Salaries and Changed Lives

Overall Rating:

Retail Price: CDN$ 26.95

Amazon Price: CDN$ 105.22

Spelling and grammar is just as important as how you’ve contributed to the organizations you’ve worked at.  Some recruiters may overlook a spelling, or grammar mistake – some may not.  They may think to themselves – if they can’t get their name right, what will they get wrong if I hire them?  Doesn’t matter if you’re a stellar performer where you’re at right now.

What have you included on your resume?  Should it be there?  If you were fired or laid off – you don’t need to put that on your resume.  If the question comes up during an interview, you can explain the circumstances.  Don’t include information that will detract from getting an interview, and ultimately getting the job – at the same time, you don’t want to lie either.

If you will include your e-mail address, and you’re using a vanity address – DON’T use it!  Why not create a professional looking e-mail address?  If you can afford to get a professional address by purchasing a paid e-mail account so that your address looks like YOURNAME@PROFFESIONAL_COMPANY.COM instead of CUTIEPIE987@SOMEADDRESS.COM – not good, not professional.

It’s fine to use a free e-mail address but at minimum it should look professional.

Now lets go back to those numbers above.  What did making those relatively small errors on your resume cost you?  Forget the $$$ – look a the future potential that you lost.

As you can see by the title, I’m disappointed.

The iPad isn’t coming to Canada in April – but Apple is taking pre-orders (in May) as it’s coming in May.  However if you live close to the border (it’s just a stones throw for me) then I could always pop down to Bellingham, WA and pick one up at the BestBuy there.

I tried to find pricing on Apples site – but everytime I hit their iPad site for Canadian customers, it crashes on me.

I’ll just have to wait a little longer.  Or cross the border and buy one.  Maybe this weekend.

Head on over to http://www.refreshleadership.com/index.php/2010/04/leadership-instinct-apple-ipad-giveaway/ and take the Leadership Instict quiz.

I took it.  Apparently, I’m a Tiger.

Want to watch the video?

Easy there, Tiger.

• You’re driven, focused and hardworking.
• You are a “doer” and a decision maker.
• You have a lot of energy and passion for your work.

• Sometimes, you treat people as problems to be solved rather than as people.
• You tend to be stubborn, and others may see you as overbearing.
• You put work first, often before relationships in your personal life.