Monthly Archives: March 2008

MiddleMan and Providing Value

I am an independent IT consultant. I think there are fewer of those than the industry needs. The important word here is “independent“. To me, an independent consultant or contractor is someone who helps advance the interests of the end client. Sooner or latter a consultant finds out that they need more resources than just [...]

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Value : Recession Resistant

CNN reported today that Nursing is a recession proof job.  While it certainly tops my list of recession resistant jobs, there are many others: and they do not necessarily have to do with the degree printed on the diploma.  Job resistance, in my opinion, is based on value and how much someone needs that value. [...]

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Portfolio vs. Portfolio – 20 Days Later

Just to keep myself honest, these are the two portfolios I started tracking (my recommendations since March 6 2008). This is my poor’s man portfolio experiment: Company Symbol Start Price Mar/06 Actual Price Win/Loss Pepsi PEP 70.13 72 +2.7% Walmart WMT 50.04 53.11 +6.1% Yum Brands YUM 35.80 37.8 +5.6% ATT T 35.06 37.76 +7.7% [...]

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Getting Paid to Learn

I recently started doing tutoring to college students in exchange for money.  I do charge considerably less than my standard professional rate.  However, the benefits surely go beyond the pay: Up To Date – The concepts in today’s software engineering courses (Computer Science and Electrical Engineering)  are the same they where 15 years ago.  The [...]

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Supply Expenses: Gillete Razor Blades

I recently started shaving my head. It will be the look for 2008. At the same time I started using the now popular HeadBlade system.  I did noticed that the triple blade one (I think they call it Sport) uses clones of a very popular blade:  The Gillette Sensor.  As it happens, Gillete Sensor was [...]

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