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Job Hunt Challenges for the Over 50 Crowd If you have just recently lost a job or maybe are not happy with the job you are currently holding, you are going to be on the hunt for a new job. Hunting for new job is never easy, whether it is your first or your tenth job. You know that it takes a good amount of preparation till you might hold another permanent job. But for the older crowd, especially the crowd over fifty, the challenge of finding a new job is even greater. Explore some of the facts why it is more challenging to find a job after 50. Starting out by the age factor, many companies want young and dynamic employees that are open to new and challenging tasks. Many employers believe that a person over 50 is set in his or her ways and therefore not able to tackle the same great tasks that might open up as a young, fresh out of college open minded person. A person over 50 is closer to retirement and might not want to take any risks as a young career fresh from school employee. Risks are sometimes what a company needs to get forward, new ideas, new thinking. Another reason is the salary competition. If you are over 50 and looking for another job, you most likely have a lot of experience in you sector. Experience usually is measured in money and the salary for an experienced person is generally higher than a starter salary. While experience is desired, some companies can just not afford to hire somebody for 10-20 thousand dollars more than they can get the fresh from college employee. If you lost your job, you might accept one of the lower salaries, but while you are in the application process, the human resource person reading your résumé does not have that information about you. Some of the bigger companies get scared by the fact that you are really close to retirement and if there are certain retirement plans and structure in place at a company, they might not want to hire you. You could retire within 10-15 years or less and then the company is stuck with paying you retirement payments. Hiring a younger person instead guarantees them no retirement payments or plans for retirement in general for the next 20-30 years. From the employer’s side, these are great savings for their pocket. Another reason often seen from employers as a reason not to hire a person over 50 is that the person they are hiring might be more prone to sickness and take more sick days than a young person. Why would they think that? Statistics have shown them that the tendency for time off due to sickness is greater for people crossing the age threshold of 50 years versus younger people. Be honest, being over 50 means for most people more aches and pains all over the body. You are more tired and get exhausted quicker. So if you do get a chance to go to an interview when looking for a new job, you need to make the best out of it. Besides all the factors mentioned above, a person that is over 50 and is looking for a job can be a great addition to any company and you need to make sure that you let your interviewer know that. An interview is a great challenge and can be mastered quite well if keeping these thoughts that employers have in mind. Emphasize the fact that you do bring experience and connections. Let them know that if they hire you, they get a person that at least is settled in life. You have had all your children, or did not want any, but at least you will not be missing because of pregnancy, birth of a child, and sickness of a young child or similar events.

Music copyright infringement How Does Music Copyright Infringement Affect Me? Music copyright infringement happens all around us every day, by both well meaning people downloading music from their favorite social networking site to the guy who’s reselling MP3s. To be certain, most people who commit music copyright infringement don’t realize what’s going on, and are in turn doing something very illegal and prosecutable in the United States. Copyright Infringement, as defined by Wikipedia.org states: “Copyright infringement (or copyright violation) is the unauthorized use of material that is protected by intellectual property rights law particularly the copyright in a manner that violates one of the original copyright owner's exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works that build upon it. The slang term bootleg (derived from the use of the shank of a boot for the purposes of smuggling) is often used to describe illicitly copied material.” We’ve all heard of ‘bootleg’ recordings – usually audio recordings taken from concerts and sold on home made cassettes or CDs and distributed (sometimes out of the trunk of a car) to anyone that will buy. Bootleg recordings have changed, however, as music copyright infringement has branched into video recordings. Music copyright infringement has exploded with the advent of the internet, and now people from all over the world are sharing every type of imaginable file – from eBooks to audio to music – and small label artists began feeling the pinch years ago. However, many new and older artists are beginning to see the beauty of the internet, and are offering their music for sale track-by-track on iTunes and other MP3 sales websites, as well as through their own band websites and MySpace pages. The internet has exploded in the possibilities it’s given up and coming musicians to become visible, while at the same time drastically increasing the number of music copyright infringement cases – some of which were against innocent people who just weren’t informed. Music copyright infringement cases have helped to create organizations that protect the fair use of an item, such as a song. Organizations such as CreativeCommons.com and the Electronic Frontier Foundation help individuals to know their rights under copyright acts. While there are organizations that help you understand your rights as a purchaser of copyright use, there are organizations that want to limit the ways in which you use the products you buy. It is rumored, for example, that record distribution and production companies want to limit the ways in which you use the music you buy – they don’t want you to put it on your computer or make a Mix Tape or CD from it – for fear of ‘sharing.’ It seems to me, however, when music publishers and distribution companies limit uses like this, they’re opening up a tidal wave of music copyright infringement cases. By limiting the use of purchased material, the companies are alienating their client base and pushing all their sales away from physical products and toward electronic ones – which are much harder to control. A way in which these companies tried to limit the uses was by creating a DRM program, which severely limited the where a CD could be played (on one computer, for instance). And, in one drastic measure, Sony placed a DRM program on all their CDs in the Winter of 2005, and severely crippled several networks when their ‘program’ was actually malware that seriously crippled network security. As you can see, music copyright infringement is something that is currently being fought between end users and music production and distribution companies. In this new century, we must find a way to retain copyright, and allow the customers to use the products they buy in a meaningful way, or otherwise the market will shift and the industry as we know it will be abandoned.

Sync your Technology with Free Organizers Found on the Net Are you looking to simplify your online presence? Do you want an easy way to keep social and business contacts organized accordingly? Do you wish you had an easy way to keep track of your different online passwords, your favorite websites and manage your life away for the computer? There are now many options for those seeking to sync their technology with their Internet life. Here are some fast and easy resources that allow you to sync your technology with your online presence. Many of these organizers make it possible for you to keep track of your web activity with your life away from the computer. Here is a quick run-down of just some of the free organizers and resources that are available on the net that can help make your life easier. Using Planner.Excite.com to Organize Your Technology There are so many organization tools these days—personal digital assistants, outlook email, smart phones, mp3 players and several others coming out every season. Many of us use several different disparate electronic planners to organize work, school, business and home. Work email, calendars and planners often overlap with personal business, school and home calendars. Wouldn't it be nice to have all of your meetings, dates, appointments and contact numbers organized in a single area? This is where Planner.Excite.com comes in. This service allows you to sync all the information on your palm pilot, pda, outlook and smart phone so that you don't have to enter the same information more than once. Moreover, it allows you to sync different schedules—work, home, business, family and school—into one master schedule that is easy to follow. Other organizational tools include email and pager reminders so that you never miss another event, date or appointment again. Organize Your Online Discussions with Delphi Do you like to hold web-based discussions or send messages for business or social purposes? If so, delphi.com is an advanced web-based messaging service that allows you easy access to threaded discussions. You can choose to keep your threaded discussions public, or protect them with a password. It's up to you. This is a great and secure way to organize your online conversations and discussions. For Easy Event Planning, Choose Evite.com Are you looking for an easy way to use the World Wide Web to organize your events? If so, turn to Evite.com, the place for electronic events and event planning. Evite.com is an easy and free service that allows you to organize all kinds of events, from baby and wedding showers to surprise birthday parties. This is an easy way to keep in touch with all your online friends and family. It is simple to use—simply create your own attractive electronic invitation and email it to everyone on your invite list. The site allows you to create and personalize your own electronic invitations using their templates. Palm.net Allows You to Sync Your Whole Life Ever wish your personal digital assistant allowed you to sync up your whole life? Palm.net allows you to do just this. This online organizer works with your handheld organizer in order to help you organize and schedule your whole life, including what's playing on television, your local movie theater, local sporting events and other activities. Organize Your Files with Visto.com What is Visto.com? This website is a calendar and task manager that allows you to organize all of your disparate files. This is a great way to organize files, especially if you work from different computers or simply need a new and easy way to store files. Choose from online file storage and organize and sync your work and home Visto files.