“Stand Down for our Veterans”

I had the privilege to work The New England Job Show booth at the job fair, “Stand Down for our Veterans” on Wednesday at Harbor Homes Inc., in Nashua, NH. The event was dedicated to Veterans. This was a great event that offered a wide variety offered to the attendees, a nice selection of coffee and pastries for the morning crowd, live entertainment complete with country western music, a terrific lunch for the afternoon crowd consisting of a Turkey dinner complete with all the fixings, and finally free backpacks, toiletries, clothes and shoes.

The job show was present to explain how we work to help job seekers and meet with local area service organizations.

Harbor Homes serves more than 1,000 clients annually, about half are residential. We serve homeless men, women and families, people living with mental illness and veterans (male, female and family members), HIV/AIDS patients and family members, people overcoming substance abuse, low-income individuals and families, and housebound/disabled senior citizens. http://www.harborhomes.org/

The New England Job Show is an innovative grassroots project engaged in supporting and helping job seekers succeed in their job search. We produce and disseminate quality educational information and services to help unemployed individuals in the New England Region. Visit us on the web at http://www.nejs.org/.

Cisco pays $2.9 billion for Starent Networks

Most iPhone applications cost a couple of bucks. But Cisco Systems has agreed to pay $2.9 billion for a kind of mega-app of its own as the famously acquisitive San Jose networking colossus expands its stake in the smart-phone phenomenon.

Looks like Verizon will be probably moving to other Cisco networking gear as well.

Detroit firm buys Gomez

DETROIT - Compuware Corp., whose software improves the performance of computer programs used by companies to run their operations, said yesterday that it is acquiring Gomez Inc., of Lexington, Mass., for $295 million in cash...

Privately held Gomez employs 272 people worldwide. Gomez executives and the rest of the employees are expected to stay with Compuware. In 2008, Gomez recorded revenue of $47 million. Its clients include Google Inc. and Facebook.

LifeSize to Release Passport amid Cisco-Tandberg Deal

As Cisco looks to extend the reach of its high-definition video conferencing capabilities by buying Tandberg, rival LifeSize Communications is unveiling Passport, a device designed to bring HD video conferencing to small and midsize businesses, teleworkers and mobile employees. The Passport device is sized to fit into a small work environment, and the $2,499 price is designed to attract SMBs. LifeSize is also working with Skype to enable HD audio communications for Skype's 480 million registered users.

It will be interesting to see what HP & Polycomm do.

Video over IP is really helping cut costs by keeping travel expenses down. It will never replace the in person face to face networking that needs to cultivated at the start of a new relationship but is a nice plus over a typical PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) call.