When I was in high school a couple decades ago students who could do science were almost pushed into taking chemistry and physics, and computer science as well. It was assumed that all the “bright” students would take Pure & Applied Science at CEGEP, and we were all expected to get jobs in some sort of computer related field.

So most of my old friends are the folks whose livelihood depends on computers. Network specialists, programmers, senior project managers. I had the impression that a lot of them were working as consultants because it was difficult to get a full time job in the field, but apparently that’s not as big a concern as I thought. The 2007 IT Skills and Salary Report, a joint project of Global Knowledge and TechRepublic, suggests that IT is still where the money is at.

While roughly 40% of IT professions are concerned about job security, more than 80% of those working in IT were untouched by outsourcing and less than 6% actually lost their jobs. Training is another big concern, and those who work in IT do have to keep their skills current in order to stay in demand.

If you have a child who likes computers and is thinking about making a career in IT you might be wondering what options are open, and which ones will lead to the most opportunities. It is important to get college training, says the report. Professionals who have a 4-year degree do better than those who only have some college. The top salaries, not surprisingly, go to IT professionals in management positions - executive managers, senior managers, project managers. It takes some time to get to these positions, as experience counts too. But a professional with a good degree who keeps up his or her qualifications has good prospects.

Which qualifications to get? The top five according to the report are:

• (ISC) SSCP® (Systems Security Certified Pracitioner) - $110,000
• Voice over IP Expert - $100,714
• CCIE^™ Routing & Switching - $95,417
• NNCDS (Nortel Networks Certified Design Specialist) - $95,000
• ITIL® Managers Certificate - $94,000

This might help to give you a better idea of the general direction your child will need to take to get the job they want, but for more details take a look at the newly released 2008 IT Skills and Salary Report. You can download the IT Salary Survey as a free PDF.

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I’ve tried a couple different blogging services and now have a better idea of what I like and what I don’t, so I’m getting ready to move the Freehold to a hosted domain. The thing is, I haven’t yet found a blogging software or CMS that seems to be a perfect fit. I like WordPress in general, and I’d really like to stick with it because it’s familiar and would (I hope) allow me to move the Freehold pretty seamlessly. I also saw a really pretty template that I’d love to use (can’t use it here, because it’s for a self-hosted blog…)

But there are a couple sniggly little details about WordPress that bug me - like the fact that it tends to rewrite my HTML behind my back, and sometimes I have to fiddle with something for quite some time to get it to display correctly. And WordPress eats Javascript. It just swallows it up into the void, and you can’t find it again. It’s for safety reasons, and on their server it’s understandable. But does it do that when you have your own server?

I’m interested in hearing from readers who have experience with other blog software or CMS like Drupal, Geeklog, Siteframe. Does the software respect your code? Can you add Javascript to your pages? Will I need to become an IT specialist before I can use the interface?

I look forward to hearing from you!

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Are you familiar with the Codie Awards? The Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) members are now voting, and the finalists for their 23rd annual Codie Awards have been posted for the public to see. There are three met-categories: Software, Education and Content. Within each of these are a dozen or more categories within which a nomination can be given.

Americommerce caught my eye because of their cute graphics. They offer ecommerce storefront software that allows a web master to add not only a shopping cart, but also a catalogue and even multiple storefronts using a single interface.

I know a number of homeschooling families go on to have a family business that helps to finance homeschool materials and activities, and also to compensate for the loss of salary when at least one parent stays home full time. If this is in your future you might want to look into Americommerce. They have a free 14-day trial to give you time to play with their interface before you commit to it. Packages are priced for small, medium and large businesses. You can start small and work up.

Americommerce will host your web site for you - so if you’re moving up from a free web site or blog, everything is in one place. You can keep your current site design and product catalogue. There is a WYSIWYG editor for those who aren’t comfortable with HTML. There’s a demo if you’d like to see more before looking into them.

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When I was teaching adults about essential oils one of the things I did was a demonstration that involved putting drops of several oils onto a regular sheet of white paper. I would circle the drops of oil with a regular black pen and set the paper aside for awhile. When we came back to the paper something dramatic had happened: one spot was pretty much unchanged: one spot had grown bigger, and was now larger than the circle I had originally drawn around it. The third spot had gotten bigger, but it had also separated the black ink into its constituent colours. It’s quite something to see!

What actually happened:
The first spot of oil was an essential oil that I bought from a store specializing in nutritional supplements. It’s probably not a genuine undiluted essential oil, otherwise it would have evaporated and left little to no mark on the page. Instead it got bigger, probably because it’s a real essential oil that has been diluted with a neutral carrier oil to make it more affordable.

The second spot was usually a carrier oil like sweet almond or grape seed oil. Sometimes I just used plain old vegetable oil. Oil spreads out in the paper, but doesn’t have any effect on the ink markings.

The third spot was left by a “scented oil” or “essence” that was being sold by a local business as an essential oil. It had already been identified as being adulterated - either because an essential oil had been extracted using solvents which were not adequately removed afterwards, or because an essential oil or some other scented product had been diluted using a chemical solvent. When it spread out the solvent began to work at dissolving the ink, much like paint thinner or turpentine is used to clean up brushes after painting with oil based paints. This was not an essential oil. It may have been safe to use in candles, potpourri and other scented products, but I wouldn’t have wanted to use it for any cosmetic or health care products.

Suggested activity:
Today there are special pens designed to prevent identity theft. Despite all the new technology - or perhaps because of it - fraud artists will commonly wash a cheque or other important document so they can alter it. Ink from old pens could be washed out of the paper, but the new pens have ink that spreads out in the paper fibres and won’t be washed out.

It would be quite interesting to test the ink of a regular pen with ink from one of these anti-fraud pens. The pens cost $2 and should be fairly easy to find at a stationer or office supply store. Designing the experiment and testing the manufacturer’s claims are good lessons both in scientific method and in consumer education!

This work was created by Ruby of Freehold 2, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.

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I discovered Book Closeouts this year through some fellow homeschoolers, and I wish I had known about it before! It’s a vendor that resells overstock literature at prices considerably less than the big box book stores - whether you order online or visit a local store. Prices are often 50% discounted or more, and the books are in perfectly good shape unless you buy from their “Scratch & Dent” category where discounts are even better.

Some books will have a mark somewhere that doesn’t detract from your enjoyment of the book, like on the UPC code at the back. One of the books I purchased from this company has a visible line of black marker across the side of the book (not the spine but 90° off, across the cut edge of the pages - I’m sure there’s a technical word for that but it isn’t coming to me at the moment!) Other books are no different than ones I would buy in the local book store.

Books that were $20 or more at another bookseller I have bought for roughly $5. I also like that this vendor ships from both the United States and Canada. It was easy for me to pay for orders in US dollars while the Canadian dollar was valued higher, and my order was shipped from within Canada to improve delivery time and avoid issues over duties and taxes.

Orders are well packaged and processed fairly quickly. I find Book Closeouts only slightly slower than the big book selling chains. You do have to figure in shipping costs when you order from them, though. They don’t do the free shipping for orders over $39 that most big merchants have adopted. In general, I’ve found it works out less expensive even with shipping taken into consideration. I do try to order a few books at a time, though, and their prices certainly allow for that!

Selections on the site are admittedly not as big as those in one of the better known retailers. They are however, considerably better than your local second hand shop - and prices are probably comparable! Check the New Books page to see their latest additions, and when you do a search don’t ignore the books that don’t match perfectly. I’ve found a couple very worthwhile books that way, which I otherwise would have missed.

There are always special promotions on the site. At the moment gardening books are discounted up to 75% off the cover price. There are also specials for Mother’s Day, which falls on 14 May this year. There’s still plenty of time to find a page turner for your Mom! Finally, there are still journals and photo albums on special. Those of you who scrapbook will want to check this sale: they have a variety of scrapbooks priced at $3.50 or less. I have a girlfriend who spends an absolute fortune, just on the blank books she uses for scrapbooking. If you can get spiral bound books made with acid-free paper at such great discounts, it sure makes scrapbooking a more affordable past time!

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