The CSV file extension stands for “Comma Separated Values.” It is a type of plain text files. There is only one difference between CSV and files called TXT or text files: the text in CSV is organized and the data is kept properly separated by commas. Another factor that differentiates CSV from text files is that each set of records is on a single line. Many times you will find a character that indicates the end of a record. This is in addition to the normal end-of-line character within a text file which is invisible. Since CSV files are better organized in terms of values, they are quite convenient for data manipulation in PHP, mySQL, and Excel. Therefore, it is better to use CSV when data input and output is required in tabular format. It can also be used as a common format between various applications.

The KML file extension stores geographic modeling information in XML format. This information includes lines, polygons, points, and images and is used to identify and label overlapping textures and locations. They are also used to create various camera angles and add HTML content. These KML extension files were originally used by Keyhole mapping software created by Keyhole Incorporated. This company was taken over by Google in 2004. As a result of this acquisition, KML files are now used by Google Earth and similar terrestrial navigation applications. Google Earth delivers a three-dimensional digital model of the Earth over the Internet using EarthStream technology.

The difference between the two types is that CSV files are similar to text files in that the text is more organized, whereas KML is used to store geographic modeling information.

Housewives who want to make money online should not hesitate to take action and take on whatever it takes to get started. There are so many opportunities to get started. And the sooner you start, the sooner you can start earning a good income and supplementing your family’s income.

If housewives could choose, they would prefer to generate passive income from the comfort of their home. So what are some ways to generate some extra cash from the comfort of your home? Many people would say that he blogs part time. But blogging is not your only option. Here are a few:

Affiliate Marketing – Affiliate marketing has skyrocketed as the easiest stay-at-home way to make money online. It is about promoting the products and services of other people in exchange for a commission. To get started with affiliate marketing, you need a niche product or service. And there are so many options out there.

Side Hustle: Probably the most famous side job among stay-at-home moms is having a second job. The good thing about the side hustle is that there are many different jobs you can do to earn extra money while you are at home. You could sell products or services from your website or blog. You could even join an affiliate program. A quick internet search will return thousands of opportunities.

Social Media Marketing: As mentioned above, social networks are one of the most used tools today to attract new customers. But did you know that social networks can also generate money for you? By using social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Google+, you can drive traffic to your website. The trick is to get your visitors to join groups that you can then invite them to join.

Photo Editing: Do you love taking photos? If you do, you can earn money by becoming a full-time photographer. This means that you will have to spend more time taking photos but in return you will earn more money. To become a professional photographer, you will need to attend a photography school and train in film techniques and technicalities. After graduation, you will need to take at least six photos a day to earn a full-time income.

Online Shopify Store: Today, many people sell items over the Internet, and most of these people use online stores as their marketplace. What better way to sell items online than with your own online store? To start an online Shopify store, you’ll need a domain name, hosting, shopping cart software, and product catalogs. Once you have all of these things, you can open an account with Amazon and start building your products.

Affiliate Marketing – Affiliate marketing is a great way to start making money online. You can promote products from any affiliate marketer and earn commission when people buy through your link. To get started, you’ll need to sign up for an Amazon Associate account and enroll in any of the training courses they provide. Once you have completed all these steps, you can start promoting and selling anything that has affiliate links.

Amazon Marketing – Another way to start making a full-time income from home is to promote other companies’ products on Amazon. To do this, you will need to sign up for an Amazon account and follow all the instructions provided. Then simply upload all the products you can sell and promote them using Amazon’s great tools. Some of these tools include pay-per-click advertising, cost-per-impression advertising, and email marketing.

Etsy – eBay is now online and many people have realized the potential for easy passive income to make at home. Etsy is a website where people can create handmade crafts. Etsy is a great place to start your full-time job as a stay-at-home mom. All you will need to do is set up an Etsy account and upload all the projects you want to sell. The great thing about Etsy is that you have the power to set restrictions so customers can’t access certain projects.

Social Media – One of the most powerful tools to use when it comes to generating passive income from home is social media. Many businesses and businesses use social media to advertise their products. Many moms choose to promote things like etsy, craigslist, and it’s because of all the opportunities they can take advantage of. They will be able to generate passive income from their homes by promoting things like Facebook and Twitter.

The major release is not the death of Objective-C, although it will become the de facto language for iOS app development for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and more.

The language, which was illustrated as Objective-C without C by Apple, is safe, modern, faster, compiler-optimized, and packed with a high level of interactivity that makes developing responsive, consumer-facing applications very easy. simple.

However, the release introduced the dilemma of making a choice between the two OOP languages: Swift and Objective-C. It brought a lot of confusion to the development workshops and created a space for discussions.

On a final note, Swift was declared a winner for years to come and when leveraged for iOS app development, it will bring a lot of benefits to the top of the table.

Take a quick look at how the Swift can help you get ahead of the game:

1) Less coding required

In Objective-C, string manipulation, string concatenation, or class splitting needs more coding and involves writing boilerplate statements. In Swift, the length of the encoding is cut in half with the addition of new operators.

Also, the need to memorize the token is alleviated with string interpolation where variables can be inserted directly inline into the string. The probability of the application crashing due to an error in the request is reduced with the type inference system.

2) Dynamic library support

Dynamic library support for Swift began after the release of iOS 8. Before this, there were only static libraries, although Mac has long enjoyed dynamic library support.

Dynamic libraries are the executable code that allows the latest Swift applications to bind changes or updates that new versions of the Swift language bring over time in an automated way. Dynamic libraries are included within the application package during download, but are external to the application executable, mitigating application size because external code is linked only when the language evolves.

3) Easy to read

With a clean syntax, Swift has become easier to read and write code and looks a lot like plain English. The removal of all legacy conventions, such as parentheses around conditional statements, the @ symbol, semicolons on trailing lines, nesting of method calls within square braces, and much more, has made the language more expressive and the cleanest code.

In Swift, the comma-separated list of parameters in parentheses is used for function and method calls to simplify the syntax, so Java, C#, C++, or Python programmers can easily read and adopt Swift.

4) Maintainability

For creating executable applications, it is mandatory to maintain two Objective-C code files to improve build time and efficiency. However, Swift removed the legacy requirement for two code files with X-code and the LLVM compiler.

The two compilers discover dependencies, perform incremental builds, and combine the implementation files (.m) and the Objective-C header (.h) into a code file (.swift) automatically. In this way, Swift minimizes repetitive tasks, accounting, and therefore workload, giving programmers more time to focus on creating logic and improving code quality.

5) Faster and safer

In Objective-C, null pointers reduce the probability of an application crash, but they introduce many bugs that take a fair amount of programmers’ time to find and fix.

On the other hand, in the Swift language, the optional value is very clear as a compile error is thrown for bad code, which allows the programmer to fix the code quickly, saving time and money. Also, during runtime blocking, Swift wakes up by stopping at the line of code where the optional variable nil is used so that the error can be fixed immediately.

6) Unified with memory management

In Objective-C, automatic reference counting is supported in object-oriented code and the Cocoa APIs, but is not available for core graphics and procedural code, which in turn make programmers responsible for the memory management.

In contrast, in Swift, all memory management at compile time is handled by ARC, as it works in both object-oriented code and procedural code, and won’t require programmers to make any changes. of context. In addition, the need to run the garbage collector to clean up unused memory is not required.

7) No more name collisions

The unavailability of namespace support causes code file name collisions, which is a linker error and does not allow the application to run. In Swift, implicit namespaces are provided based on the destination where the code file resides, that’s why the same code file can exist for multiple projects without allowing the build to fail.

With namespace identifiers, classes or values ​​can be easily differentiated and open source libraries, frameworks or projects can be deployed on the fly, alleviating the stress of code same file name collision during open source project integration.

8) Performance

Under the hood, changes are constantly being made to Swift to improve the speed at which application logic executes. The improved performance of the GEMM algorithm by a factor of 1.4 and the FFT algorithm by a factor of 8.5 are the best examples of this. Accelerated development helps save a lot of money.

9) Playgrounds

With the games feature, programmers get the space for experiments by writing a code or creating an algorithm and see their results at hand without having to wait until the project is fully built or emulator to test it.

It’s more like an editor window where code is compiled and executed as soon as it’s written, which helps in data visualizations. All changes made during processing, from simple images to graphics and finite control elements, can be viewed in real time.

10) Open Source

One year after its release, the modern Swift programming language was declared open source. The announcement made the language more popular and widely used on various platforms or as a back-end infrastructure.

In addition, community feedback and developer support have made an invaluable contribution to language improvements.

Conclusion

In 2015, in the “Most Loved Programming Language” nomination, the Swift language topped the pile due to the sheer number of benefits it offers over Objective-C. The language was released by Apple keeping in mind the future development of the iOS application. The sheer number of features has made iOS app developers implement Swift code during app development.

What are your thoughts? Do you also find the language equally important for iOS development? If so, don’t stop and start the next project leveraging Swift.

… — … SOS This is the traditional marine emergency call for “Save our ship!” – to rush first aid to a sinking ship. On land, and in everyday life, it simply means “HELP!” Until I read this recently, I never knew exactly what it meant. Did you know the correct meaning? My sister thought it meant Save Our Souls.

Have you ever felt the need to send an SOS? Yelling “help” because you have so much to do and your life is too confusing to handle? Have you ever felt like you were paddling against the current in a canoe with holes in it? Well, perhaps tonight I can offer some words of wisdom that will help you repair that canoe so you can safely make your journey.

I recently read about another meaning for the acronym SOS. It was in a book called “Go For It, Get Organized,” and it stood for Simple, Orderly, Step-by-Step. Now you can say, sure, it sounds easy, but my life is too crazy. I have too many things to do; it will never work for me. My life is anything but simple. Well, before you dismiss this idea, let’s take a look at how it works.

The first simple step is to take a look at your life or situation. Try to see the big picture and set a goal. Now, a goal is simply defined as “the end towards which the effort is directed.” So you can choose whatever can be your goal. The second step is to take a look at your objective and determine what needs to be done first. Once you can establish an end point, it’s much easier to see how to get there.

Think about doing a puzzle. It breaks down into many small pieces. Each piece has to fit into place. You have a picture of what it should look like when it’s finished: your goal. When you can look at the picture of the box, it’s much easier to imagine where each of the pieces goes. You keep checking the image to make sure you’re heading in the right direction. Without the image, it is much more difficult and takes much longer to complete.

Most people have a system for putting together a puzzle. Some people like to find all the pieces with straight edges and put the outside together first. Others will choose the largest item and put it together. Others will sort all the puzzle pieces into piles of each of the colors before beginning. Regardless of how you do a puzzle, you must have a vision, an idea of ​​the end result, before you can complete it.

When you were a child learning to walk, you had a goal. Usually one of your parents would hold out their arms and say, “Come here.” Your goal was to get into his arms and receive a big hug. So you took a step or two and then you fell and maybe you crawled the rest of the way. The next time you took two or three steps and then four and five until you finally walked all the way only to hear them say, “Good boy or good girl” and give you a big hug. After days or months of practice, you learned to walk everywhere, and then you learned to run. Now you were no longer restricted to a small corner of the world, you had a big world to explore. But it all started with a vision.

We all may want to be superhuman, to achieve many things, but the fact is that we can only focus on one thing at a time. Most of us have computers and are impressed with their speed and all the things we can do with them, but no matter how mind-blowing the operations of a computer may seem, in fact, the computer only performs one operation at a time. And if the computer doesn’t have an end in mind, if someone forgot a command, it can’t do its job. The same applies to us. If we don’t have a goal, we can wander off in too many directions to accomplish our tasks.

Have you ever noticed how much more you accomplish at work just before you go on vacation, or how quickly you can clean your house when you know company is coming soon? It’s because you’re more focused. There are certain things that need to be accomplished, so you start working on completing one thing at a time and don’t let small interruptions keep you from your goal.

What are some of your goals? What do you dream with? Where would you like to be in four years? What do you want to do next week? What is there to do today?

When you look at all the things you have to do in your life, ask yourself these simple questions:

Should it be done?

Should it be done now?

Should I do it?

The answers to these questions can help you to simplify, to eliminate what is really not necessary. Many times we complicate our lives when we are distracted by past, future or secondary issues, by “what if”, “if only”.

The next thing to do after deciding that the task must be done now, and by you, is to break it down into smaller, simpler steps and to tackle those steps in an orderly manner, one at a time, just as you would the puzzle coins. By focusing on one area of ​​your life and putting it in order by completing it, you energize yourself to focus on another area and then you can complete it next. I recently read that completing tasks releases endorphins in our bodies and makes us want to complete even more tasks. Think about how you felt the last time you completed a project.

When we work on a puzzle, we usually take short breaks to rest our eyes, look away from the problem, and come back with a fresh perspective. It’s surprising how often you immediately see where some pieces go when you come back from a snack or just taking a break. It is important to take breaks, relax, and put your mind and body on hold for a few minutes.

At Flylady.com, the site’s author suggests doing things in 15-minute intervals, for example, if you have to clean your house in a hurry because company is coming, set a timer for 15 minutes and tackle a room, maybe the kitchen. When the timer goes off, he resets it and tackles the next room. At the end of those 15 minutes you tackle another room and at the end of 45 minutes you set it for 15 minutes again and take a break. Then you start all over again. It’s amazing what you can accomplish in 15 minutes when you’re focused.

Getting in the habit of organizing with SOS principles requires what every new skill requires: practice.

Studies have shown that it takes about 21 days or 3 weeks to create or eliminate a habit. So give it a try for the next 3 weeks.

Pick a goal or vision to focus on and place the SOS acronym on your bathroom mirror so you see it every morning. See how energized you feel completing that task, and think of a great way to reward yourself when you’re done.

Much has changed in the more than forty years that I can account for. Things that were not heard before are now things of daily life. The televisions have color and I have children. They ride in SUV watching DVD on LCD TV with IF wireless headphones while listening to cable TV. Did I mention cable TV? Oh well, come along as I listen to my favorite cable TV station on my unfading satellite radio as we talk about our family occupations in the woods and back roads of our Blue Ridge Mountain home.

I often wonder how my dear old tobacco gets dipped; The brothers grandmother wearing a beanie would relate to our 21st century life. I especially wonder what she would think of the Quads. Did I mention we have a set of Quads? Sometimes I get a little lost in all the concussion and repeat myself. Yes we have two wonderful daughters who are currently 12 and 9 years old and a set of 3 year old quadruplets.

Our family doesn’t fit your average demographic by almost any of the measures you use. Of course we have all six children in three pregnancies. My wife, in addition to being a gold medal mother, is also a very successful businesswoman. All of this has led me to be the domestic dad of six. None of which were on our hit list when we did our premarital counseling. When asked, I prefer the title “Quadfather”. I’m interested to see how Granny would fare with all of this because of the mixed reactions and weird comments I’ve encountered from others over the past few years. Grandma would be heartened to find that we’ve stayed close to the Faith. Not the Brethren faith, but rather interdenominational, New Apostolic-Reformed, Holy Spirit-filled Christianity. Then again, this and our African-American shepherd might do more to sink the one born to her into the 18th century ship than all the other changes combined.

Yes, things have changed. I feel lucky to have been born deep enough in the 1900s to have seen the oldies and the old ways. However, I have yet to be young enough to be shoulder deep in my son’s most unique and formative era.

I will never forget my grandmother forcefully stating that the first Moon Walks were done in Hollywood when I was in training and that the ’69 mustang was a new ride. Nor will I forget the times she was lost in the titanic struggle of good and evil found on Wrasslin TV, and would insist with equal ferocity that these events were real and important to our personal sanctity and national well-being.

Maybe Granny had a hard time with the changing times around her, but I know she had a firm grasp on the real stuff, the serious truth and the importance of God and family and the need to prioritize them and keep them together.

Granny was a temporary blessing in my life. When I was fourteen, my mother had two divorces and a nervous breakdown. About 40% of my growing up was spent in a single mother household with Grandma at home. My other grandmother was also raising several of her grandchildren. They were both widowed before I could walk and I never had a close or lasting father/son relationship during any of this period. I guess, in many unfortunate ways, our family was ahead of our time. But Grandma stood there trying to impart to me in words and deeds these two important foundational truths along with other insights that today are wry reminiscences about herbs and roots, the phases of the moon, planting, and the fight to purge evil from our coast through television. Wrasslin.

I would have loved to see Granny’s reaction to so much of the technological and unique dynamics of our special time and family. I can’t help but believe that she would see and understand how the two most serious truths are very much a part of the fabric of this family. They are what matters. They are the tradition we have embraced and will not lose.

It has been these very challenges and unusual twists that the Lord has seen fit to inject into our lives that have served the most to remind me of what I have been missing. Looking back I can see and appreciate what Granny was trying to insert so long ago into the confusion and isolation of a broken, mixed up and re-broken childhood. In this process and between many long nights and endless diaper changes, I have been given the opportunity to be the kind of dad I never had.

Leading me to the choice to be a father on a scale unheard of here, I found a loving and benevolent Father who brought me healing and restoration that I had not realized I needed in my life. Although some may think that we are out of order or that we should even sympathize. As some seem to see, they are commitments and expenses that would curtail his lifestyle, limit his opportunities for entertainment, and challenge his perceptions of Christian family life. I think I have seen the miraculous and have heard the solid and constant beating of the Father’s heart in two things, priorities and in order, God and Family. No roles or religion, vicarious fulfillment, expectations of tradition or self-actualization and satisfaction. All of which seems to haunt much of my generation as we have become “The Fathers”.

This series, if it ever sees the light of day, is my prayerful effort to share in this parenting world of broken, blended, broken, single, and wounded families, the healing, purpose, and encouragement that the seasons can seem. difficult and dark, but they change. , and that we may find our greater insight and understanding of God’s guidance and faithfulness by changing us and impacting through us on the lives of the little ones who follow us. In our difficult seasons as they walk to their appointments with adult destiny by our side, we miss so much that we may never get back if our focus is on ourselves, the tough ships or what or how well others are doing or a persistent neurotic sense of perfection. and performance Seasons change, we must embrace each one. Technologies change, people change, they get old, grow and leave, but God, his fidelity to each generation and the heart of his Parents have never changed and will never change or leave us. It is best to imitate its heartbeat in our priority and commitment to the loving families we create. care and nurture.

Embrace with me, if you will, the fun, the bewilderment, and the stimuli that lie on my path less traveled. I think you can find a lot in there that you will recognize even if you are not a quad parent.

Stephanie’s younger brother was playing in her bedroom while she was at work. He played all of her music and played her TV along with the DISH Network remote. After a long day at work, Stephanie sat down that night to watch television. She pressed the channel up button on the remote to change the satellite channel. But the remote changed the TV and all she could see was snow and not the show she wanted to watch.

The remote was not in satellite mode which made for a frustrating night after a long day at work. It turns out that his sister touched all the buttons on the remote control of the satellite. The remote instantly became inoperable. Stephanie’s little brother last pressed the AUX Mode button on top of the remote. Now when he uses the remote, he thinks he is controlling a device that is programmed for AUX.

Setting limited mode on a remote can prevent you from accidentally changing channels. For those of you who have embedded devices, this would inhibit the full functionality of those other devices. Programming this feature can reduce frustration, one phone call and one home visit.

limited mode:

For customers who only need Power, Mute and Volume for TV (or VCR) operation, program the remote to operate in Limited Mode. This prevents you from accidentally changing the TV channel away from where the satellite programming is.

There are two ways to set this mode, depending on the model: “Regular” or “Easy” modes are available on the most recent replacement remote, including 6.4 and 5.4 along with older versions.

regular limited:

On the 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, 4.0, 5.0, 5.3, 5.4, 6.0, 6.2, 6.3 and 6.4 remote controls, programming limited mode is as easy as adding the number 1 after the TV (or VCR) code when programming the mode button on the remote.

Limited Regular Programming:

The following procedure is used with the codes found on the back of the user guide that came with the receiver. Manufacturers often have multiple codes for each type of equipment they sell. If power scan was used, refer to reading the remote control codes in the user guide. The following instructions show programming with the TV code. VCR codes are programmed in the same way using the VCR mode button.

1. Press and hold the TV mode button until all the mode buttons light up at the top, then release.
2. Enter the three-digit TV code from the guide in the user manual.
3. Press number 1 (Limited Mode Setting)
4. Press the pound (#) button

easy mode:

5.3, 6.3 and future successors support easy limited mode. Remote controls that support Easy Limited Mode have a circle around the SAT button.

easy mode setup

After programming one of the buttons: Press and hold that mode button until all four mode buttons light up, then release.

1. Press the Page Up button once.
2. Press the pound (#) button.

remove limited fashion

To remove Limited on Easy Setup compatible remotes, press the Page Down button instead. This procedure can be done for TV mode, VCR mode, and TVs and VCRs programmed to AUX mode.

Eliminate this feature by reprogramming your device without entering “1” at the end of the program.

There are so many things that we can enjoy thanks to the advances that have been made in recent years. New products that make our lives easier, safer and more fun and nothing covers all of that like the new cell phones (smart phones) that are available. To get the most out of your phone and have the most fun, download cell phone apps to truly make your phone yours.

One of the biggest problems you’ll likely face is simply trying to decide which apps to get. With such a large (and growing) variety of apps available, it can be a daunting task to figure out which ones are best for you. Personally, I like to stick with those who make my day easier, more productive, and more fun. Apps like a GPS unit or the newest songs for my ringtones are what I get most often.

If you get a GPS app, for example, you won’t have to shell out a few hundred bucks for a standalone unit, but you’ll still have access to GPS when you need it. Whether you’re just trying to find a store across town or taking a cross-country trip is entirely up to you.

Another good thing to do is to get a lot of different ringtones. You can have a lot of fun choosing the best ringtones for your friends and then assign a different ringtone to each of your friends (you can also assign a different ringtone to different features of your phone, such as one for a call, one different for a text, etc.).

If this is the route you want to take, you should invest in a subscription site where you can pay just one low monthly membership fee and get all the cell phone app downloads and new ringtones you can handle.

So make sure you get the most out of your new (and expensive) piece of technology. It’s foolish to pay so much for a phone and not use all the features available to it. Invest in mobile phone app downloads and ringtones so you can get the latest apps before your friends do.

More and more people are addicted to online games. With tons of new and exciting games to choose from, people of all ages are now looking for great online games. Today, there are online gift cards that you can buy to buy the games you want to play. These cards can even be used to purchase your favorite songs, movies, and TV shows. The experts shared some of the pros and cons of online gaming.

Advantages

You can try it before you buy – Online gaming systems offer demos made for players so they can try to play that potential purchase and decide how much they would like before investing. In addition, you can also buy games right there, without the need to run to the store.

Access to exclusive content – This is one of the best reasons to choose to play online games. You have access to exclusive content for whatever you’re playing.

Comunicate with other people – Online games will allow people to interact while playing the game, helping people to maintain great relationships by communicating with family and friends around the world. Certainly this will be very useful for players. Teamwork skills will be reinforced. Also, more tactical and strategic elements will be added to the game. In turn, this can help boost your memory and develop lateral thinking.

Competitive – Allows you to compare how you play with different players. There will certainly be a feel-good factor to knowing that you are a much better player than someone else. Being aware that you are not against artificial intelligence will install more competitiveness. And since you’re not always going to be the best, you’ll learn how to display good showmanship.

Disadvantages

system updates – If you are about to download the game you want or maybe play online, there will be a time when a system update will suddenly appear and delay your game time. You have to wait and then reboot.

Server problems or failures – Glitches are viruses in the game that cause it to run erratically. This is really a problem with all types of games; however, they are more common in online games. You may experience a number of server difficulties that are very frustrating for players.

piracy – There have been incidents of breaching copyright laws, scandals, and allowing users to hack games illegally. And these situations have presented a huge problem for the world of online gaming. In fact, the scandal generated a lot of controversies, so there were some games that were closed.

When playing online games, consider knowing some of the pros and cons involved. And if you’ve finally decided to jump in, know that there are affordable gift cards you can buy to buy the games you want. More about online cards here.

The March 2013 Labor Force Survey published by Statistics Canada painted a disappointing picture of full-time employment in March. However, while there was a decrease in full-time positions compared to February, the employment rate increased from the same period last year with 203,000 more jobs, most of them in full-time jobs. Part-time and self-employment have continued to grow over the past three decades, and full-time employment has remained relatively stable at 50% of the total workforce.

The challenge of focusing on one month’s data when it comes to employment means we may be missing the mark on the future of full-time employment. Job growth should be about the continued growth of new positions, but it may not mean full-time jobs with the same employer for an extended period. New job development must be about creating and sustaining employment opportunities that come with a future and the ultimate challenge is matching current and future skills needs with job seekers.

Rick Miner, former president of Seneca College, in his report Jobs of the future: options and opportunities comments that “…the new jobs that we and our children must prepare for are not always going to be unrecognizable today; many will be modifications and adaptations of jobs that are already being done, albeit often with new titles and new training requirements.” Some old jobs will certainly disappear, though, as they have in the past.”

But, with the rapid pace of technological advancement, it can become increasingly difficult to develop, hire, or prepare for future skills when we may not know what they are. This means that employers and employees (current and future) will need the ability to convert trends into actual positions.

Today, workplace factors that affect the nature of work include;

• Increased communication on social networks both inside and outside the organization;

• advances in technology to support the storage and exchange of information and data;

• online training advancements to support skills development on the job and 24/7;

• business-oriented online sites to provide more opportunities for employers and recruiters to obtain a wider variety of potential candidates; and of course,

• aging workforce.

These factors suggest that employers and job seekers will need to continue to invest in skills development and training. In 2006, the Canadian Apprenticeship Council found that Canada was lagging behind the US and UK in investment in training. Thirty percent of workers in Canada participated in job-related education and training compared to 35 percent in the UK and 45 percent in the US. As a percentage of total payroll, US .. spent about fifty percent more than Canada. In 2009, this same council reported that 67 percent of future jobs would require some form of secondary education and skills training. Will entrepreneurs be willing to increase their investment?

Many management positions are held by boomers, and their experience must be passed on to the next generation of leaders. This will require a commitment to training and development where the mentoring and coaching processes help identify critical skills and create an alignment between these skill needs and those identified as future leaders. This could further increase training and development costs, which will affect the growth of full-time positions.

Being employed full-time can end up being employed by more than one employer at the same time, such as a contractor juggling several different projects at the same time, or moving from one contract position to another with little or no gap between contracts.

Flexibility and creativity will be required on the part of both employers and employees, as the nature of full-time work may be changing.

To say that social media has “changed the dynamics of how we use the Internet” would be an understatement. Since the launch of Orkut in 2004, Google has jumped on the social media bandwagon with its archrivals Facebook and Twitter. The latest edition to Google’s suite of web applications is Google Buzz, a new tool aimed at steering users away from other social networking sites.

What is Google Buzz?

Google Buzz is an email-enabled social media outlet that is (according to some) going to take the social media world by storm. It is designed to allow users to share photos, videos, links, and status updates with their friends, as well as discuss shared content. It’s very similar to Facebook News Feed in that regard. It’s also similar to FriendFeed, a social sharing service acquired by Facebook last year with a small but devoted following.

The best thing about this app is that it’s easy to integrate in one step with users’ existing Gmail accounts, something Google is probably counting on to make this product a success. With a user base of 174 million ‘Gmailers’, Google Buzz is looking for a large pool of potential users.

What’s not so great is that it’s similar to many services already on the market. Google Buzz seems like a “me too” product. People already have a myriad of ways to share content with their friends: Facebook and Twitter are two popular options. Blogging is another. Sending text and picture messages via email to friends is still very popular. So will Google Buzz make consumers change?

Dealing with the competition:

With a strong loyal user base of 400 million, social media giant Facebook has been in business since 2007 and is gobbling up the market pie faster by the minute. By constantly innovating and adding new features, Facebook has managed to attract and retain users more than any other social networking site, and is Google’s #1 competition. It is followed in second place by Twitter, with 18 million registered users.

Over the years, Google has made several attempts to catch up with the competition, but has failed to do so.

Unstable trajectory:

Google hasn’t exactly established itself in the social media space. The search engine giant has been struggling to build a loyal customer base and seems to distribute more apps than the market can handle. Most famously, Orkut failed to take off outside of India and Brazil, and Google’s other social media efforts also collapsed in the market: Dodgeball, Jaiku, and OpenSocial, to name three.

More recently, Google launched Google Wave, another medium for sharing information, data, and opinions, which didn’t really take off. Google representatives admitted that Buzz was inspired by Google Wave, describing it as “an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration.” “A wave can be both a conversation and a document where people can discuss and work together using rich text, photos, videos, maps and more.” Basically, Google Wave is email, instant messaging, an online collaboration tool, and a wiki all rolled into one service. So what is the difference between Buzz and Wave?

Buzz vs Wave:

Google Buzz uses email updates, while Google Wave is real-time communication (you can actually watch someone write their response or comment on an individual wave). Wave was built with collaboration features like editing a document, scheduling an event, creating meeting notes, and so on. But if you just want to share photos, videos, or comments that don’t require real-time communication, then Google Buzz is probably the best option.

One of the problems with Wave is that it’s a hard tool to explain to others, and once you understand what Wave is, it’s even harder to understand everything you can do with it. Buzz, on the other hand, works similar to email and focuses on one thing: sharing content with others. This is probably one of the reasons why Google Wave didn’t work as well as everyone expected.

However, Google Buzz could prove to be much more promising than its predecessor:

Buzz, from day one, is a better, fancier service than Facebook has become after six years. Part of this is because Facebook had to build its network from scratch and was a pioneer in the category, giving it a lot of baggage to overcome at this point. Meanwhile, Google has the advantage of building on Gmail and being able to borrow good ideas from both Facebook and Twitter. I call this “second mover advantage.” Google Buzz is simple, elegant, and pretty fast. Buzz makes it easy to include photos and other media in posts, which is an advantage over Facebook. Google is not in the habit of making breaking changes when users feel comfortable with the previous changes. Facebook seems adrift; Google no.

Google’s privacy trumps Facebook’s privacy. Despite the number 1 below, Google generally gets good marks for protecting user data. Facebook has had a series of privacy problems that have created considerable mistrust among users. Buzz works inside of Gmail. Having social media integrated into an app that most people live in email makes it a more natural part of communication, not a separate online destination and process. The Gmail users in your contact list are the foundation of your community. Buzz automatically builds relationships, resulting in a social network that includes more of your existing friends, as long as they use Gmail. Networking automatically has advantages and disadvantages, but it seems like a benefit to the user.

Marketing potential:

Another point I’d like to make is the fact that while Facebook has carved a niche for itself in the ‘pure social casual’ space, Google Buzz has the potential to target the business user space. As many people today also use Gmail and Gtalk for professional use, the chances for users to build sustainable business networks on this platform are high. This leaves a lot of room for B2B sellers learning how to use this medium effectively.