InsideTech

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Make the Most of InsideTech

Welcome to InsideTech, an online resource focused on helping both new and established IT professionals get the news they need, gain knowledge from peers, tap career resources for moving ahead and collaborate in forums where you can share valuable workday solutions and advice on issues to help you do your job better and make your day less stressful.

Here’s a guide to help you get all the value you can from InsideTech.

News

You can rate every news article that you read. Go to the box that says “Rate.” Hover over the amount of stars that you would like to give that article and click. Your rating will be automatically registered. In fact, you can start by rating this very article. That way I’ll know if it’s been helpful.

You can also leave a comment after any article that you read on InsideTech. Leaving a comment is a way of starting a conversation about the article.

You can submit your own news story by writing it yourself, or by providing a link to an article that you found interesting. If enough people read and rate your article it may just find its way to the front page on the “What’s Hot” list.

Reviews

You can review any of the products that you see, and you can even add products to your profile. Underneath each product there is a button that says “Add to my Favorite Gear.”

Own something we haven’t reviewed? Were you the first on your block to snag a MacBook Air? You can also add your own products for review. Just click “write a review” in the blue navigational bar and follow the steps.

How To

This section will hopefully be ‘the’ place for quick tips and in-depth tutorials on everything from Windows system administration to Web design and development. We’ll be adding multi-step guides on security, networking, and Linux; and we’re also inviting you to upload quick tips and how-to articles to share with your peers.

Career Advice

Entering the working world of IT can be daunting. There are as many job titles as there are tech products and figuring out which career path or specialty to focus on once you’ve earned your degree or certification isn’t easy. Our Career Advice section includes that will help you get your first IT job or keep your IT career on the right path.

You’ll be able to read profiles on various IT jobs and industries, dig into advice about consulting or contract work, and find out the best ways to move ahead in your career. We’ll also being providing lots of news and insight on the IT occupational fields, salary trends and knowledge on where the jobs are today and where they’re predicted to be down the road.

Job Search

Search our job listings to see who’s hiring in the IT world. We’ve partnered with Monster.com to bring you the most tech job listings on the Web. You can also add your resume to the career network, and employers will come to you. There are also some great articles about building resumes and interviewing techniques.

Forums

This is where much of the action on InsideTech occurs! You can start a discussion on any tech topic that you can think of. For instance, is Vista all it claims to be? Or is mobile computing getting any safer and more secure? Just start a discussion thread and people will be able to respond to your topic or question. Here are a few topics we started to get the juices flowing: Ask a Tech Expert: Get the answers you need from colleagues for solving every day tech issues and challenges. Bonehead User Moves: Share those extraordinary stories of stupidity that happen in your workplace every day. The Worst Part of Working in IT: Commiserate with colleagues on the bad and the worst about working in the tech world. Water Cooler: Share your rumors, paranoid delusions and what you did over the weekend news. How Do I?: Get answers you need on specific tech projects or issues from peers who have the answers. The OS Debate: Make your case for why open source, or Windows or god forbid, Macintosh, is the reigning system today.

Videos

There are fun and engaging videos about tech and working with tech hitting the Internet every day. If you see one, load it up on site and share your comments about ones we’re finding and posting.

If you need any ideas on how we can make InsideTech more valuable, or have questions about how you can participate at InsideTech, please send me a private message through my profile or at the email address below.

Eric Dahl General Manager, InsideTech edahl@affinitylabs.com

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