The itmWEB Information Technology Report

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A monthly report featuring selected IT topics and time sensitive links.

Volume 2, Number 1, January 20, 1998

Welcome to the 13th distribution of the itmWEB Information Technology Report. This month's edition is being distributed worldwide to 886 IT professionals and associates. You are receiving this report because you either requested it from one of the sites above, or you have been added to the email list as having a potential interest. itmWEB's policy is not to SPAM. The itmWEB report is a non-commercial, professional resource, and care is taken to only send the report to interested readers.

Please find instructions for unsubscribing at the end of this report.

Please send comments or contributions to: feedback@itmweb.com

CONTENTS:

1. The itmWEB Report
2. Some Odds and Ends
3. Team Dynamics
4. IT Management Quickies
5. Interviewing
6. Selected IT Resources

Only 710 days left until the year 2000. Already some problems have started appearing. Some of the major credit card companies has starting issuing new cards with an expiration date of 2000. In the US this has flushed out some of the independent verification systems which are non-year 2000 compliant. Guess what? Now the customer has to wait while the store gets the card approval over the telephone. This is just the beginning.

1998 will be another big year for technology implementations. We will also see the exploding growth of the internet continue. It will also be the year we all follow the Microsoft US Anti-trust court proceedings very closely.

For a roundup of technology predictions, please read this feature:

1998 Technology Predictions

http://mis.miningco.com/library/weekly/aa010898.htm

Note: This edition itmWEB Report is a little late this month. Many thanks
to those of you who wrote asking if you had missed it. Our company just purchased a semiconductor equipment division of Sony in the US, and I have been involved with the corporate transfer. The report should resume its normal distribution in February.

THE UP FRONT LINKS

A collection of time sensitive links covering current IT issues:

A Computer world interview with Paul Maritz reveals insights into SQL server scalability, future development tool directions, and Microsoft's relationship with Sun Microsystems and Java:

http://www2.computerworld.com/home/online9697.nsf/CWFlash/971203microsofts1ABCA

A quick dose of Microsoft anti-trust lawsuit news:

http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayStory.pl?sc?971215.eappeal.htm

Oracle and Netscape announced that Netscape will bundle Oracle Lite into its Visual JavaScript Pro 1.0 development tool:

http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayStory.pl?sc?97121.enetoracle2.htm

CNET takes a close look at the SPAM problem:

http://www.cnet.com/Content/Features/Howto/Stop/?dd

An enlightening interview with Sanford Wallace the SPAM email king. He talks about both battling ISPs and being an Internet "bad guy":

http://www4.zdnet.com/chkpt/zdnu970901008/www.zdnet.com/zdwebcat/content/netpolitics/talkin/wallace/index.html

Three of the US's largest credit reporting agencies, trying to head off restrictive legislation, begin to limit access to personal information. Are they going far enough?:

http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=6494506-4ac

A U.S. appeals court is hearing arguments in a case regarding the encryption of information. The outcome could impact free speech on the NET:

http://www2.computerworld.com/home/online9697.nsf/CWFlash/971209software1AF0A

A look at Microsoft SQL Server Enterprise Edition 6.5 and the company's new mainframe connectivity package. Both offerings should ship this month:

http://www.winmag.com/news/1201/1201a.htm

http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayStory.pl?sc?97121.esqul.htm

Internet Information Server (IIS) 4.0 has arrived. For a review, see this article from Windows Magazine:

http://www.winmag.com/library/1997/1001/ntent016.htm

OK, the final Windows 98 Beta is now available. Have you downloaded your evaluation copy yet?:

http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayStory.pl?sc?971215.ewin98.htm

What impact will the US DOJ anti-trust case have on Windows 98:

http://www.zdnet.com/chkpt/pcma971219/www.pcmag.com/news/trends/t971212b.htm

John Dvorak highlights at two unusual web browsers:

http://www.zdnet.com/chkpt/pcma971219/www.pcmag.com/insites/dvorak/jd.htm

In 1998, picking Windows 98 or Windows NT 5.0 could be your biggest decision. Windows magazine reviews the NT 5.0 beta release:

http://www.winmag.com/library/1998/0101/featu099.htm

IBM is releasing a massively parallel DB2 version for Sun Solaris servers:

http://www2.computerworld.com/home/online9697.nsf/CWFlash/971217ibm1B3CA

By Jeff Gainer, Arrowhead Systems Consulting, Ltd.

It used to be that assembling an effective mix of personalities for a team was more a matter of luck than management. You selected the individuals, put them together, sat back, watched and hoped that the team would jell. Ideally, leaders emerged, and followers followed them. With luck, good ideas rose to the surface. Sometimes it all worked. Sometimes it didn’t work at all. But usually, it was a matter of some things that worked, some that didn’t work well, but there was always hindsight. You could look back and decide how you would have restructured the team and some roles, if you had only known the personalities involved.

Now, however, you have a tool available on the Web to help you and your team better understand personality types and to help you more effectively structure your team. The Keirsey Temperament Sorter:

http://www.keirsey.com/cgi-bin/keirsey/newkts.cgi

can be a useful tool for determining roles for IS teams. The 70-question survey takes 20-25 minutes to complete, and like most personality tests, there are no "right" or "wrong" answers, only highly open-ended questions. The test questions are a simple either/or preference, but the options are so open to individual interpretation that many require considerable thought before choosing an answer.

Developed by psychologists David Keirsey <http://keirsey.com/DWK.html> and
Marilyn Bates, the survey identifies four main personality types and sixteen subtypes. The four main types are the Rational, the Artisan, the Idealist, and the Guardian.

Rational
The Rationals are strategists, dealing well with architectural or strategic issues. Their strengths are abstract, but utilitarian. The sciences and technology are populated with Rationals. Relatively rare, Rationals make up only 5-7% of the population.

Artisan
Artisans are concrete and utilitarian, and are particularly adept at improving existing designs or processes. Understandably, there are many Artisans in the arts and entertainment industry, as well as business operations.

Idealist
Idealists are insightful, charismatic and enthusiastic. They are at their best dealing with abstract concepts rather than concrete details. Idealists make excellent motivational speakers, teachers, diplomats, and religious leaders.

Guardian
Cooperative, reliable, goal-oriented and concrete, Guardians are loyal, conservative traditionalists. They are detail people who carry out specific plans and instructions. The most common personality type, Guardians make up 40-45% of the population.

If you choose to employ the Keirsey Temperament Sorter, keep in mind that it is only a rough indicator of personality, not a definitive test. Use it as a supplement resource, not as a guide by itself.

I have found it useful for a team to take the survey as a group in the early days of a project. Everyone means just that: developers, analysts, writers, managers. Each person prints out his or her results, then the group meets to compare notes. Even if you do not use the temperament sorter as an aid to assigning team roles, it is helpful to understanding some of the meeting dynamics you’ll encounter in the coming months.

Copyright 1998, Jeff Gainer, All Rights Reserved

Jeff Gainer, known is some circles as "Jeff the Evangelist," is an ENFP Idealist, software management consultant and traveling IT evangelist. He has preached software development sermons at a number of organizations in both the United States and Russia. The author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction, Mr. Gainer's current focus is his forthcoming process management book Lucid Code: Taming Software Development Chaos. You can visit Jeff’s company and read some of his articles on the Web at:

http://www.montana.com/asc/

Insights from six of the top US IT executives regarding Windows NT, Network Computers, Java, and more:

http://techweb.cmp.com/iw/661/debate.htm

Tips, advice, and instructions for telecommuting:

http://www5.zdnet.com/athome/content/hoffice/workathome.htm

International Data Corporation reviews some of the more tax-friendly options available for asset disposal:

http://www2.computerworld.com/home\online9697.nsf/CWFlash/971204trashing1ACCA

IS managers, under increasing pressure to support the rest of the organization, report that their home lives are suffering:

http://www2.computerworld.com/home/online9697.nsf/CWFlash/971212study1B21A

This Month's Selected IT Topic:

BUZZ ME IN! (Part 1)

Words that buzz you into a new job!

To an urban dweller buzz me in means open the security door. In the employment marketplace it means something altogether different and far more subtle. Buzz is really buzz words and they let you into an interview or a job offer. Buzz words are triggers. The right ones will trigger the "sounds good, read on" response. Hopefully the "call this one" response.

Statistics prove that you have from 8-10 seconds for your cover letter to make a good enough impression that the reader will be moved to review your attached resume. You have another 8-10 seconds for the resume to be scanned and for the reader to put you in the "contact for interview" pile. Not a lot of time, 20 seconds, to prove you should be selected, that you may be the right candidate.

Your cover letter and resume are credentials hammered together with tools, and the tools with which we work are words. Since you have limited space and virtually no time to make an impression, the sharper and more well honed the tools, the better. Your words need to be concise, precise, descriptive and spelled right.

In your written credentials you should be crisp and succinct. Your document must contain specific information about your responsibilities, accomplishments and your potential benefits to the organization. Depending on your field (and assuming you are staying in that arena, not changing careers) you certainly want to include jargon, short cut language, to show the depth of your knowledge. You also want to use this appropriately. Describe certain equipment you used by name if it is special. Mention codes or languages or other insider slang or description. Don't pepper your work like this, use the phrases where they naturally belong. And if you have excelled in something to the next obvious level, why waste space saying you also know what came first. It's like listing your high school when you have attained a college degree.

When you write your resume you want to begin your bullets with strong, descriptive verbs. You have developed and installed or you have designed and conducted or created and produced. There are endless lists of words in dozens of books and in the built-in Thesaurus on your word processing package. Be careful, you want to include details but you don't want to clutter your resume with minutiae, either. Balance your document, use enough facts and figures to demonstrate both your knowledge and accomplishments without making the thing too difficult or tiresome to read.

When you write your cover letter you need to make it personal and warm in tone. A standard enclosed is my resume, thanks, call me" is almost worse then no cover letter at all. Rather then thinking of a cover letter as superfluous and unnecessary your attitude should be that you have now garnered an additional 10 seconds to prove your value and candidacy. It's another opportunity to market yourself, a place where you can expand somewhat on a particular qualification you were only able to touch on in your resume, but which you know is an important requisite for the position. If the spot you want is pretty much what you have been doing for a while, say so.

"My last position entailed many of the qualifications you desire of your new employee. My duties required.................. I have developed the skills necessary to.........................."

Understand this: technical skills and knowledge are of great importance, but
also is your ability to be a team player. TEAM PLAYER. Buzz words. Motivated, results-driven, versatile, adaptable, innovative, dedicated............buzz words. Combinations of the words are also important. You want to select the best, most compelling features and make a string. "Dedicated, organized, hard working."

Provided by:
The JobBOARD Surf Shop
http://www.jobsurfshop.com/

Copyright 1998, Barbara Lauter, All Rights Reserved

Barbara Lauter is a career counselor and placement professional at a highly regarded school in Atlanta which offers labor intensive courses in business administration and training in software applications from introduction to advanced levels. Her skill in teaching, through lecture and practical applications, has consistently turned out employment ready people represented by creative, hard-hitting resumes, thoughtful cover letters and the ability to verbally express their skills and their potential to significantly contribute to a company's bottom line. In September, Barbara was awarded an "Excellence in Placement" award by the Metro Atlanta Private Industry Council of the Atlanta Regional Commission.

Barbara does individual consulting and will apply her skills and knowledge to reviewing (and revising) your resume, cover letters and interviewing skills. Reach her at 770 640-6689.

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THIS MONTH'S PLUG:

ZDNet's biggest downloading collection ever:

http://www.zdnet.com/chkpt/zdnu971222006/www.hotfiles.com/hot/top1997.html

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