The most reputable company in America: Google, which toppled Microsoft from the top perch in the 2007 Harris Interactive Reputation Quotient study released today — and sent it tumbling all the way down to No. 10.
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Chief Information Officer

* Serves as the company’s top technology infrastructure manager
* Runs the organization’s internal IT operations
* Works to streamline business processes with technology
* Focuses on internal customers (users and business units)
* Collaborates and manages vendors that supply infrastructure solutions
* Aligns the company’s IT infrastructure with business priorities
* Developers strategies to increase the company’s bottom line (profitability)
* Has to be a skilled and organized manager to be successful

Chief Technology Officer

* Serves as the company’s top technology architect
* Runs the organization’s engineering group
* Uses technology to enhance the company’s product offerings
* Focuses on external customers (buyers)
* Collaborates and manages vendors that supply solutions to enhance the company’s product(s)
* Aligns the company’s product architecture with business priorities
* Develops strategies to increase the company’s top line (revenue)
* Has to be a creative and innovative technologist to be successful

Yahoo Inc. is offering free e-mail accounts under two new domains in the hopes of attracting new users and keeping current users who are unsatisfied with their unwieldy e-mail names.
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Bill Gates ends his full-time job at Microsoft on a Friday afternoon and the company opens for business after the weekend as if nothing has changed.

At least, that is how Gates‘ successors want to play it.

The ‘transition’, as it is called inside the company, was announced two years ago.

On the face of it, the only difference after 27 June will be that Gates will be non-executive chairman rather than executive chairman, spending just one day a week on Microsoft business.
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It may be sitting pretty atop the PC market, but Hewlett-Packard isn’t going to sit still.

The world’s largest PC manufacturer plans to roll out 50 new products Tuesday at a conference in Berlin, the largest such product refresh in the Personal Systems Group’s history. Of those products, HP added new touches to just about everything, freshening up its Touchsmart all-in-one desktop, commercial and consumer notebook lines, as well as two machines within its high-end gaming brand, Voodoo PC.

HP TouchSmart

The new TouchSmart: It lost a lot of weight in the past year. Click on the image to see more pictures of HP’s new lineup.
(Credit: Hewlett-Packard)
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Given the current economy, maintaining contacts with other companies can be critical. Knowing the right people can help you land a better job, one with more pay or perhaps the chance of advancement. Getting that next job, of course, often involves an interview. Here are some tips to help you excel.

Note: This information is also available as a PDF download.

#1: Be on time

Give yourself enough time to reach your destination, especially if you’re unfamiliar with the area. You will have enough stress with respect to the actual interview. Don’t add to it by complicating your travel to there. Consider a dry run prior to interview day, especially if you’re driving. Remember that mapping and navigational services could take you (as they did me) through an empty field or the wrong way on a one-way street.

Don’t get there too early, either. Doing so makes you look as though you have no other job and could hurt you later during salary negotiations. Plan to arrive between 10 to 20 minutes before your time. If you really do get there on the early side, consider joking with the receptionist or your interviewer about your surprise or “anger” over the lack of traffic. Then get serious and say that all you need is a place to sit down, because you have work you can do while you wait.
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When surfing the Internet for safe Web sites, not all domains are equal. Web surfing may be more dangerous on some sites than others, report finds.
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Dell is joining the burgeoning ranks of companies offering cut-down laptops, called netbooks, aimed at the developing world and general consumers.

The laptop was shown by Michael Dell to the editor of website Gizmodo at the All Things Digital Conference.

According to the official Dell blog, Michael Dell “positioned it as the perfect device for the next billion internet users”.

Dell has not released pricing or specifications for its first netbook.

A number of firms are expected to enter the netbook market this year.

The market is being driven in part by the work of the One Laptop Per Child programme, the success of the Asus Eee PC and the availability of chips, made by companies like Intel and Via, designed for low-cost, low power consumption devices.

Hewlett-Packard has announced a cut-down laptop which will be powered by Via’s processors, and Acer is also entering the market.
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The Canadian manufacturer of Blackberry mobile phones has rejected demands by the Indian government that it help decrypt suspicious text messages.

Research in Motion says its technology does not allow any third party - even the company itself - to read information sent over its network.

The Indian authorities have been reluctant to allow the widespread use of Blackberries in the country.

They fear militants and criminals may take advantage of the secure system.

A number of other countries around the world have expressed similar fears.
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Michael is at the D6 conference in Carlsbad, California where Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates are set to take the stage this opening night and preview the user interface of Microsoft’s next operating system, known as Windows 7. It is expected to be released in 2010 and to replace Vista.

During the keynote, Corporate VP Julie Larson-Green demoed new multi-touch functionality based on the same principles as Surface. Microsoft is working with OEMs to get the multi-touch feature on at least some new machines once Windows 7 is released in 18 months or so. See a demo below and more info here.

For more coverage of Microsoft’s efforts in touch computing, see our recent coverage of TouchWall.