Oh My I got the Presidents Attention!!

I just got an email telling me:

Barack H Obama (PresidentBarak) is now following your updates on Twitter.

So I go to the click the link and I see this:


Wow, I didn't know I was this influental to get the Presidents attention(NOT).


http://www.economygrantprogram.com/

After checking out the profile I see that it has a link to a site that basically asking for your personal address and your email account. After I go check the site I see in really small catch you have to pay 3.95 for Shipping and Handling. Well You know what they say, nothing ever is Free. This looks to be a way to get email addresses to spam in the long run. I wouldn't give them any information because this is looking to be a scam and I hate scams. You best bet is to go on with your life and report this spam to twitter. This however got my attention because of the who it was, and that is probably why they chose the name. It is however quite funny. :)

The Next big Wave of Layoffs is Sony. (9,000 workers)

In a report from Engadget, there seems to be more Layoffs going on.   One such one is Sony.  Here is what Engadget said:

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The bad news from the Japanese consumer electronics industry continues. Sony just announced plans to cut about 8,000 global jobs from its beleaguered electronics business while making unspecified reductions to its seasonal and temporary workforce. The move, as Sony explains it, comes "in response to the sudden and rapid changes in the global economic environment." Ominously, it looks like Sony will also be raising prices in the countries where "Sony makes significant sales" (read: US and Europe) if we're reading this statement correctly:

[Via Engadget]

[ad#ad2-left]In Today's economy, you need to be prepared.  So I thought I bring back some old Favorites of mine and talk about them.  To see the other layoffs that I've talked about CLICK HERE.   If you wanted to know what you can do to be prepared here are some great resources for people who are worried about there jobs:

• 5 ways to improve your chance of getting hired.


• Are you asking to be scammed? (Don't get scammed while finding a job)


• Google : Job Resources
  
  

If you have any others you would like to suggest please leave a comment and let everyone know.   These are hard economic times and we all could use the help.

Citigroup bank might be saved through the recession.

According to reports from ABC News, Citibank is having a hard time and might need to be assisted by the government.

[ad#ad2-right]The company has seen its shares lose 60 percent of their value in the past week, reflecting a crisis of confidence among skittish investors. They are worried all the risky debt on Citigroup's balance sheet will turn into losses as the economy worsens and the markets stay turbulent — losses that could be nearly impossible to reverse.


[via ABC News]

Although this is somewhat expected, I don't think we can afford to pay the debt of a bank.  We are all having to deal with this recession.   I don't know how they can afford to pay for Citigroup and expect this to help bolster the economy.   I guess only time will tell!!!

Circuit City to layoff employees and might close several stores!

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Some sources are say this:
The newspaper cited one of the affected workers, who indicated that between 500 and 800 employees would be let go. The layoffs reportedly began yesterday with the departure of several “upper management” executives, the source said.

[via Twice]

Now I know people hate when I blog about this because it is so depressing but I do like to let people know about this stuff so you can know what to expect in the coming future. This is all due to the economy and the recession that is on our doorsteps. If you would like to find out what other companies are laying off that I know about just click this [LINK] and it will show you all the other blog posts that I talked about that have or are laying people off.  I keep telling people to keep there resume's ready for just this type of outcome.

Mattel introduces the new Welfare Barbie.

[ad#ad2-left]Mattel will be introducing the new welfare barbie doll,or laying off 1,000 jobs. According to Bloomberg and I'll quote:

Mattel Inc., the world's largest toymaker, said it would cut about 1,000 jobs, or 3 percent of its global workforce, as it faces higher manufacturing costs amid the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

[via Bloomberg]

If you're like me and you want to cringe every time you hear another place is laying off people. I say we are still in a downward spiral. Everyone is saying that even Jason Calacanis, in his recent email he sent to all his fellow readers, he talked about the Rich not buying anything they didn't need. He said that is good, I however wonder how far the hole goes before we hit rock bottom.

[ad#ad2-right]According to some analysts, they are talking about this lasting another year or more. On another note, according to Kotaku and I'll quote on this one to:

We have received a letter purportedly sent by THQ CEO Brian Farrell to explain to his employees the reasoning behind the company closing five studios and laying off staff from two others. The closed studios are Helixe, Sandblast Games, Locomotive, Mass Media and Paradigm.


[via Kataku]

Now I've talked enough about Layoffs in the past and I won't talk to much but I do hope this changes in the new future. If you want to find the other ones that I talked about just search my site, they are all there with out any problems.

[Thanks to Kyle Rees for the suggestion on the heading]

The Magazine Time, plans to elimate 600 jobs in the near future!

According to Time Inc. Editor in Chief John Huey is planning on Laying off over 600 jobs:

Time Inc., the world’s largest magazine publisher, plans to cut 6 percent of its work force — more than 600 positions — and will revamp the organization in a way that could radically alter the culture at the company.

[via Nytimes.com]

With the way the economy is, we have more and more people who are having trouble with Layoffs.   I got a list of companies right now who is laying people off.  If you want to check it out just CLICK HERE.

Now let's talk about the bigger picture, people are worried and want to get through this with out getting hit hard.   So what is true hardship, that comes when you least expect it and want it.  I've come to the conclusion that it will happen in the best of times.  You see most people don't know what hardship is until it hits them in the square on the head.

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Having seen this coming a mile a way, I thought I would come up with ways to be prepared and I've done a lot of hard work to be prepared, you two could be prepared.  If your interested just click this link and check out all my article on getting prepared.  If that doesn't help you just go out and use google to the fullest.  You see if your not ready for the end how can you be ready for the beginning.  You will sooner or later be dealt a deck of cards and not know where to go next.

I am not trying to say everyone will loose there jobs but that doesn't mean your safe where you are.  You must strive to be better than are RIGHT now!! For if you don't you will never have the chance to survice this Recession.  I am so sure we are heading into the mouth of t he tiger right now, there is no turning back.  Are you prepared?

Largest Employer : University of Pittsburgh Medical Center is planning layoffs!!

Is this the beginning or the end of the recession?  After  seeing this today I wanted to talk about this development.  If they layoff a large number of people is this going to effect your chances of finding a job?  Here's what they had to say:

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center has plans to reduce its 50,000 workforce by a small percentage. UPMC did not immediately release any specifics.

"As the economy deteriorates, we are proactively taking these steps to ensure that our growth in expenses is not outpacing our growth in revenues," a UPMC statement said.

[via WTAE.TV]

So now that they have said this, what's the percentages of the workforce are going to be laid off? I wanted to talk about how you could get ready for the imminent day of this. Here's some good links to consider:

• 5 ways to improve your chance of getting hired.


• Are you asking to be scammed?

And here are some other companies who are planning layoffs or have laid off people:

• Mahalo Lay’s off around 10% of it’s workforce!!


• Merck Laid off 13% of it’s workforce

With all this that is going on in the world I thought it was something that needed to be said and let people know about these developments.

Apple reports there earnings for the quarter!

After all that happened today, Apple decides to talk about there earnings for today.  Some things to consider are:


Apple ships more than 2.6 million Macs and 6.9 Billion Iphones.   Now let's do the numbers on this 6.9 billion Iphones at an average over 500$ a piece would mean quite a earnings for Apple.  This according to Applewatch and I've got to think is this showing the real economy or is this all hype from Steve Jobs?

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According to M&G Business they are up 24 per cent this fiscal year.  Which means that they have gain ahead from the recent problems in the stock market.  Are they going to be able keep that going?

Last but final least saying of the day Gizmodo is stating : Steve is on the call, says that iPhone is now 39 percent of their business, Apple is now world's "third largest mobile phone supplier."

Now what about the Google Phone is that going to out sale the Iphone?  I would like to know the current status of how man Google phones they have estimation sold on pre-orders?  Are they going to be able to out do the Iphone or is it going to be even more of a problem when they release the final numbers on the G-phone!!

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Has the Mac ads been helping fueling the Iphone sales or have they been Hindering?  People are assuming they are helping the notebook sales and possibly helping the iphone sales?  What do you think?

White House is Open to a new Stimulus Check Yet again?

The Economy is still trying to rebound after being told that there is a recession coming our way.  Can they actually make the economy better by introducing even more money?  Did it help the last time around?  The 2008 Stimulus Check that they released doesn't seem to have made a great amount of difference.  So why introduce even more money into a economy that will have to bottom out, sooner, or later.

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You see having the economy bottom out, is actually good for it.   It clears away the dead and creates life, just like a forest fire it will create even more life in the future.


So what about this New Stimulus Check that the White house is thinking of doing?  Are we going to have to pay more in the future for this so called free money?   I am curious as to what people think about this?   Do you want another Stimulus check or should we let the economy fix itself?

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According to the Swamp, White house open to new 'booster shot', in the article they talk about this boosting our economy but I don't think so!!!  It will not boost it just make it even harder to bottom out and will most likely cause it to last even longer. Is it even going to make much of a difference, you decide.  I want to hear you opinions.

Is Hulu the "salad course"?

As I've been watching Hulu the last few months.  I've come to think that Hulu isn't offering us the viewers the chance of a full course meals.  They seem to like to stop after the first 2-3 seasons on most of the shows.    I recently contacted Hulu about the Naruto episodes and here's what they had to say about it:

Thanks for the email. On background, sometime in the coming weeks, Hulu
will get the remaining episodes of Naruto Season 1, and we'll also get
episodes from Season 2-3 in the future as well.

Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks.
Brandon Boone

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So why does Hulu do this? I have a theory and this is one that most people will agree on. My theory is that the distributors are trying to entice us into buying the rest of the seasons from someplace, like Amazon or Itunes. Now I am going to have to say this is really stupid way of business and will sooner or later create even more of a demand to download these shows illegally. In the past people have always looked for the cheap way to watch there favorite shows.

Increasingly people are using BitTorrent to download their favorite TV-shows. The rise of unauthorized downloading of TV-shows is a signal that customers want something that is not available through other channels. It’s more about availability than the fact that it’s free and should be viewed as an opportunity, not a threat.
[Via Torrentfreak]

It is one thing to offer free content and get revenue from the free content. It is another to offer free shows and encourage people to download the rest of the show illegally.

Why do they want to buy the rest of the episodes, it is simple math.  They are wanting to get the money for each DVD you buy.  In today's economy there seems to be less and less Blue ray sales.

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Published: September 23, 2008 - 08:18PM CT

The numbers show that Blu-ray's market share dropped 13.39 percent from the previous week, and that DVD's numbers actually went up by 0.15 percent. Netflix CEO Barry McCarthy recently told Home Media Magazine that he didn't expect Blu-ray to have much of an impact on the company's DVD business in 2008 at all. Citing high player prices, he said that only a fraction of Netflix subscribers currently rent Blu-ray disks.

[via Arstechnica]

Although, this is a couple weeks old article from arstechnica, I thought it was more relevant than most. It talks about how people can't afford to buy a player and the BD Dvd's due to the high prices and charge more than they should. So why do it in the first place? I don't know but all this is showing people are having to choice cheaper and cheaper ways to watch what they want because of the US economy slinding further into recession.

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What is your most favorite show or movie?  Are you willing to pay a lot for the movie?  These are questions,  that we have to challenge Hulu and other shows on why they only have 2 or 3 seasons of a particluar series.  Is it right to have lure us into the episode and not offer more episodes later on?

5 ways to improve your chance of getting hired.

Having seen the economy this week, I've come to the conclusion that it is time to redo all the important essentials and get all my ducks in the order as they say.   I've been thinking of how best to be ready in case the dreaded day comes when my employer no longer needs my assistance and what could I do to be prepared.

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• Get Someone to Critique your Resume -- This is the most important step because this is the first place employers look when they want to hire someone.  So how do you get it critiqued?   Here are some good links to help you start off with:  Careerbuilder Critique, Mind of Root Peer Critique(Last until Oct 30, 2008).


• Have your Resume Ready to upload to Resume sites --  You should always register at all the important resume sites just in case.  The Sites that I recommend are : Monster, Career Builder,  Hot jobs, Dice, US jobs, Best Jobs USA, Computer Jobs, and Nation Job.


• Use your website as a place to put your Resume -- Have your resume available in case some contacts you and tells you they know someone who is looking to hire people.  Have this resume hidden and only give it out to people you know.   This is also known as networking.
  


• Network as much as possible --  There are sites out there that have made it easier to network.  Sites like linkedin.com, this site is great because of the 6 degrees of possibility as I call it.  You know someone, they know someone, and then you will both know the same one!!   This also will greatly increase your chance of an employer finding you.


• For those who want to be Self employed --  I wanted to say that most people who want to be self employed know just how hard it is to begin with.  So I've got some interesting links to help start you on your way.   First link is Technibble.com Computer Business Kit,  This has Maintenance Sales Letter, Work Order, Marketing Analysis and Payment Overdue Letter. It is also a good idea to have an MP3 Advertisement that you can give to podcast and throw them the link to it.  You will need to market yourself to the public in ways that no one has thought of.   You will on an occasion have to spend money in order to get money, it's always been that way but it seems to work.

These are some great tips that will greatly improve your chances of landing that job or becoming even more chance of you making money.   If you have any tips or want to suggest ways to improve upon these tips please email me.   If you like what you see discuss it on the blog or click on my ads to help offset the cost of this blog.

Economic Death?

Are we having an Economic Death?  If so how could we change that?  Is it to Late?  In a recent CNN release President Bush talk about the Economic Depression of the US.

And you know what. I am not sure how to feel about this. Should I be worried or do I have any reason to worry? Having said that I like to talk about the problems that we might face if we go into a more economic depression and how might that affect your lifestyle.

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Having seen this coming the past year, I have been growing more and more uneasy with the way the U.s. Economy is turning out. Worried about paying bills off and earning enough money for my kids and wife. The typical situation for the average family. If your like me you have been struggling to pay bills and deciding on what is more important. You fixing your car or upgrading your PC/Laptop. These questions are undoubtedly going to cause problems with people who do work on computers to become almost non-existent. Not saying that is going to be to difficult to become truth.

It however will make peoples lives much more harder to deal with, or at least motivate people. Ever wonder what people would do if they were not motivated to do anything. Would they walk about the house naked or in there underwear?

You see there is always going to be a time when there will be hardships.  We must fight through them to see the other side.  They say the grass is always greener on the other side.   That is like the economy, it will fix itself over time.    I wonder how many of you are having to create a lean bank book?  Have you bought any new games or PC hardware or For that matter Software lately?  Are you planning on doing that in the next few weeks?  Are you worried about the finanical situation and do you think it will impact you?  Thease are all very good question to consider in the coming months.

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What are you going to do differently and why?  I encourage you to discuss this  in detail.  I want to see what people think and why?