Tech Talk: Your Comments on Predicting Layoffs, Offline Gmail, Facebook’s Privacy Flap, and More

1. Layoffs: Calculating the Odds You’ll Lose Your Job

There is no easy formula that can tell you whether your job is in danger. But there are a few signs that should give you cause to worry.

By Meridith Levinson

User Comments

“Even though it is illegal, ‘age’ plays a very important part in many managers’ decisions. There is no denying that it’s much easier and cheaper to hire a younger person to fill almost any position than it is to keep and retrain an older individual.”

“There’s a crisis going on, but people with lots (and I mean *LOTS*) of money fire people ‘just because.’ Then other people fire people to feel better, to receive more attention; that’s ‘just because’ too.”

2. Offline Gmail: Now What Excuse Do You Have, Old School?

Google’s decision to bring an offline capability to its Gmail service will only help in its case to businesses that they should switch from costly, ugly, on-premise e-mail that they (over)spend thousands — even millions — to own and maintain.

By C.G. Lynch

User Comments

“Do your CEO and CFO want to take on a risk of prison and fines because you don’t control your information properly?”

“I’ve worked in many companies, where IT departments loved having control of the sacred special Exchange servers, even all the hassles that went with hosting your own email server…. the reason partly was that it made them useful and needed.”

3. Windows 7: Is Microsoft Too Focused on Consumers?

Microsoft has to walk the line here. By kowtowing to consumers, it runs the risk of neglecting its core customer, the business user.

By Shane ONeill

User Comments

“Personally the phrase ‘polished turd’ comes to mind when [Windows] 7 is mentioned.”

“Who is to say that once 7 Business version is released that it will contain all of what the Enterprise whiners are looking for.”

4. BlackBerrys & Cameras: Should RIM Release a New Camera-Less BlackBerry?

RIM’s push to embrace the consumer masses led to a number of valuable BlackBerry hardware and software modifications, including the addition of digital cameras. The problem: Some of RIM’s longtime business customers either don’t want or prohibit digital cameras on their premises.

By Al Sacco

User Comments

“Please produce a Blackberry sans camera, not just incapacitating the camera function, but one designed to maximize space for Blackberry functions.”

“The real question is whether or not RIM thinks it’s worth the effort to do so.”

5. You on Facebook: A Marketer’s Dream, A Privacy Advocate’s Nightmare

Did you know that Facebook updated its terms of use in early February and deleted one important provision: the ability for users to remove their content at any time?

By Thomas Wailgum

User Comments

“Let’s face it, everything you put on the internet can be looked at and copied. The lesson learned here is when you are posting anything on the net or sending anything by email it can be seen and copied. Be smart when it comes to the internet.”

“I am amazed at the lack of understanding in general of the importance of privacy issues and of the security risks people expose when they ‘tell all’ about their daily schedule. This data can all be mined by people who are far worse in terms of criminal activity, than just spamming advertisers.”