Misread story of the week.

By now many of you have probably heard about the judge who ruled that web surfing at work was legal. The story goes that a worker in the NY Dept of Education was fired for using the web at work. The judge ruled that the employee was improperly terminated and stated that surfing the web was no different than reading a paper or making phone calls as a break time diversion.

Of course the media reported the story as "You can't be fired for surfing the Internet at work." Please dont' try to to test that one yourself.

The story behind the story is that the computer records showed the guy was only using the web on break periods and was only going to news and travel booking sites. The judge ruled that looking at news on the web, on your break, was no different than reading a newspaper and as many Americans now use web news over newspapers a prohibition was unfair unless it included traditional newspapers as well. PERIOD

If you are going to surf when you are supposed to be working, and especially if those sites are "inappropriate" then you might want to add http://monster.com and http://resumebuilder.com to your list as you can still get a one way ticket to the unemployment line, http://www.ncesc.com/ .

It might also be a good time to remind everyone that your employer knows, or can know, every website you go to and how long you are there. If you don't want the office to know you have a thing for Hello Kitty Pez Dispensers, you might want to do your Ebay at home.

D

Google Cheat Sheet

For all you Google-addicts out there I have the ultimate in Google-ness. The Google Cheat Sheet. This easy to use PDF covers every Google service and search option. Also, if you are among the few that haven't tried Google Earth yet, find out what all the fuss is about at http://earth.google.com/

Derek

OK, it has been pointed out that the Google cheat sheet has some parts that are not for everyone, it isn't a Dummies guide. But it does outline a lot of the extra features.

Welcome

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Thanks,

D