Stories about: RECKON

What if half the men in science, engineering and technology roles dropped out at midcareer? That would surely be perceived as a national crisis. Yet more than half the women in those fields leave -- most of them during their mid- to late 30s.

IT professionals unhappy about the state of the union would be wise to vote in the 2008 presidential election, according to research released by CompTIA, because this 12 million-strong group of educated workers could influence the outcome.

A little bit of chutzpah has gone a long way for one musician. Concert goers at last weekend's Homebake music festival in Sydney were the latest to find out why, as they heard the sounds of award winning producer and vocal artist, Gotye.

Charles Firth is renowned for his satirical treatment of current affairs, and his talent for capturing the stupidity of people in comedy shows such as CNNNN and The Chaser's War on Everything. More recently he has resurfaced as publisher of thirty-something news site Manic Times. Before all of this Firth was a budding IT operator and programmer. He still dabbles in programming today and is exploring how the Internet can help deliver his message. Andrew Hendry finds out more.

Working in the Microsoft Security Response Centre (MSRC) has been voted number six out of the ten worst jobs in science in 2007, however Microsoft staffers reckon there is nowhere else they can find an opportunity like the ones they meet every day

Mobile operator Vodafone could face legal action over its efforts to cripple VOIP on mobile phones.

IT managers may be ahead of the game in the salary stakes but it's a grim story for database administrators whose pay rate is in serious decline.

Mobile operators will push the office desk phone aside with more advanced "push-to-talk" (PTT) features, claims Kodiak Networks. Analysts, however, dismiss the company's claims.

Wireless security specialist AirMagnet believes it can settle a rumbling dispute in the Wi-Fi world, by offering a box that combines two access points with a full-time wireless monitor. The new device, based on multichannel silicon from Engim, could find its way into other vendors' Wi-Fi systems next year.

Westpac New Zealand's plans to move its mainframe processing to Australia have been scuttled by the country's Reserve Bank at a probable cost of millions of dollars.

Change is not only the only constant, in IT it brings with it the need to constantly upgrade and update skills to match technology changes and to keep your resume current. Siobhan McBride reports.