As the recession puts pressure on tech spending, many companies are deviation from the way to open-source software to handle more IT tasks

By Rachael King

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After the tech bubble burst, E*Trade’s technology chief, Lee Thompson, needed to gain arrive at a way to do more with less. In 2001 and 2002, the online stock trading company shrank its tech budget by one-third. "We had to go through and figure at a loss every penny that we were spending…and make alternatives to reduce those costs," says Thompson, vice-president and chief technologist of E*Trade (ETFC). So he began using software that be able to be downloaded at no require to be paid via the Internet. By the end of 2002, he was saving $13 million a year thanks to use of these freely employ applications known as open-source software.

It’s 2001 quite over again. With the economy in a tailspin, companies once again are under difficulty to cut IT costs (BusinessWeek, 11/13/08). Tech expenditure may contract 0.9% in 2009, according to place of traffic researcher IDC. The end of 2008 looks particularly bleak, according to every October survey by ChangeWave Research, which famed the sharpest decline for corporate software on record. About 40% of the 1,841 corporate software purchasers surveyed said their companies would spend less on software in the coming 90 days.

The tightening of the purse strings is causing some companies to step up use of open-source software. "Budgets are being cut, and more companies are looking at opportunities to use unenclosed source more in the enterprise,"says Matt Aslett, an analyst at consulting firm 451 Group. While open-source software is already widely used to help businesses run their servers and database management systems, it’s gaining wider acceptance in such areas as collaboration, customer relationship management, and supply chain management.

A resurgence of interest in open-source software bodes well conducive to the companies that have invested in its development but at times have struggled to compel money from it. Open-source vendors typically generate receipts from helping uphold or adding features to software that’s differently take advantage of as far as concerns free.

SugarCRM, a 4½-year-old company that offers both free and subscription-based open-source purchaser propinquity management software (BusinessWeek SmallBiz, 4/16/08)>, posted record revenue in the third quarter. Because it’s not publicly traded, the company doesn’privately expose exact figures, if it were not that it after this counts 4,000 paying customers, including H&R Block (HRB), Men’s Wearhouse (MW), and Japan’s Shinsei Bank. "We’re obviously not excited with reference to a global recession but if we’re going to have one, I’d rather be a engaged in traffic open-source company rather than a proprietary common," says SugarCRM CEO John Roberts, who says he’s seeing larger deals.

Other commercial open-source vendors that have clocked record quarters include Digium, which sells small transaction phone systems built from open-source software called Asterisk, and Zenoss, that makes open-source netting management software. Digium and Zenoss act money by selling sustenance services viewed like well as extra features that enhance the software, such as high-end security.

Here’sitting how top career experts say you can improve your job-seeking skills in a worsening economy

By Dan Macsai

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Just months ago, Citigroup’session (C) plan to eliminate 53,000 jobs (BusinessWeek.com, 11/17/08) would have been shocking. That was then. Within the past few weeks, Ford Motor (F), Starbucks (SBUX), General Motors (GM), Washington Mutual, and other big-name companies have announced resembling cuts, pushing the civilian jobless rate to a 14-year high of 6.5%. Today, more than 10 the masses Americans are searching for work. Many be the subject of college degrees, management skills, and white-collar work experience; in a stronger economy, they’first attempt be gainfully employed. But for the immediate future, an all-important question looms: What very lately?

Given the play loosely of piece of work cutting this year and the likelihood of further losses in 2009, BusinessWeek queried distinguished career gurus in various places in what progress skilled job seekers can best situation themselves for the period of the credence crunch. Following are their six top tips:

1. Stay positive.

Among the recently laid-off, there’s a tendency to assume the worst. But for many, pink slips come with a silver lining, says Maureen Anderson, author of The Career Clinic: Eight Simple Rules for Finding Work You Love. A recent Gallup survey found that 77% of Americans dislike their jobs. Using your newfound downtime to self-examine—"What swindle I really want to be doing for eight to 10 hours every day?"—could push you in a state of preparation a more satisfying course path, or at smallest offer an intriguing change of pace. To an extent, Anderson explains, "it’s best to think of [unemployment] as an adventure."

Of course, such "adventures" are tough during a recession: Your dream work at jobs might be less accessible than in years beyond, and you’ll probably face stiffer competition. But if you’re pursuing somebody you fondness, it’sitting easier to stay driven. "Enthusiasm is equal combustible matter," Anderson explains. During a prolonged work at jobs pry into, "it’ll carry you further than you think."

2. Establish a professional blog.

Employers are constantly scanning the blogosphere for "go-to guys," says Marty Nemko, a longtime career coach and host of Work with Marty Nemko, a hebdomadal show on National Public Radio’sitting San Francisco take. And if you’re writing about a specific industry, there’s a expert chance you’ll get noticed. Stay abreast of trends, offer insightful commentary, and engage your readers, much like Kerry Kerstetter does on his accounting blog, The Tax Guru. That way, says Nemko, "you won’t be seen similar to an ‘unemployed dude.’ You’ll be seen as a powerhouse in your profession."

3. Join a job site.

If you haven’cheek by jowl yet created a profile on LinkedIn or registered by of that kind online career hubs as CareerBuilder and Monster.com (MWW), you should. On LinkedIn, more than 30 million professionals "interchange information, ideas and opportunities," according to the site’s abode page. And roughly 300,000 employers hurry jobs on CareerBuilder, where overall traffic has increased 4% since last month’s Wall Street meltdown, says Jason Ferrara, the situation’s senior career adviser. Translation? The more contacts you make, the more jobs you can access. And for the period of rough economic times, social networking can streamline your career search. Adds Nemko: "I’catastrophe even try posting on a Yahoo! forum."

4. Pursue an "Obama industry."

On his Web site, President-elect Barack Obama promises to "save or create" 2.5 the public jobs by January 2011. Among the industries suitable to benefit: infrastructure, energy, education, and health care. Job seekers should lay hands on the moment, says Nemko. "Dovetail your strengths to fit [an expanding field]," he says, adding that extra schooling is not imperative. "Ride the wave of Obamania."

5. Get creative.

In today’sitting saturated work at jobs market, standing out is more important than ever. So have feeling charitable to be "a little unconventional," says Anderson. When you’re meeting career contacts—or even just schmoozing at a party—hear carrying self-made business cards, she says. You can give yourself a straightforward title, such as "experienced advertising executory," or make trial of something more pleasant, such as "professional job seeker." Explains Anderson: "It’sitting important to be of talent and likable. Before hiring someone, employers usually ask themselves, ‘Would I want to grab coffee with this person on a Tuesday morning?’"

Another way to master noticed is to create a video résumé, which you can upload to such sites despite example Monster and CareerBuilder. Beyond displaying your personality, the video supplement proves you’re willing to embrace new media—a decisive trait in today’s Web-savvy profession world, Ferrara says.

6. Fix your flaws.

Most employers say recessionary layoffs aren’familiarily personal. But more often than not, there’s a reason you were let go and other employees were not. Ideally, you should figure it out before starting a new job search, says Nemko. He suggests asking yourself some basic "introspective" questions: Did I ever slack off? Was I strictly trained? Did I get side by side through my colleagues? Was I on time for work?

If you find shortcomings in your professional self, resolve to resolve them. Otherwise, says Nemko, "you’ll with appearance of truth get laid off again."

Recent commercial in U.S. government debt has puzzled even seasoned pros. BusinessWeek looks into the Treasury market’s stratospheric pricing

By David Bogoslaw

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In a season characterized by an ever-growing list of unprecedented events—from repeated capital infusions by dint of. the treaty government into U.S. financial institutions to historically high market volatility—it’s tempting to shrug your shoulders whereas you come across truly puzzling valuations that show to shut one’s eyes to economic fundamentals. Still, the extent to which investor demand for U.S. Treasury bonds has sent prices soaring and yields plummeting seems to call to combat reason.

To get a sense of to what degree much demand there is for fully-guaranteed government bonds, just look at prices over the more than few months. The benchmark 10-year Treasury note was commercial at a price of 106-22/32 for a yield of 2.974% on Nov. 26; the worth was 102-06/32, and the yield 3.73%, on Sept. 2.

Try as you might to justify these moves by citing the seemingly bottomless hunger for cash at American International Group (AIG), to the exhaustion of Lehman Brothers Holdings, to Citigroup’s (C) precarious principle, the activity in the Treasury market sparks a gust of wind of questions. Inexplicably, investors don’t seem concerned about the low-to-no yields they are acquisition for their riches.

Here are some of the Treasury market’s greatest puzzles:

Puzzle No. 1: The upward march of Treasury prices

Bill Larkin, portfolio manager for fixed profits at Cabot Money Management in Salem, Mass., thinks Treasury bonds are probably one of the utmost dangerous trades for investors right now. The stock and bond markets are pricing in the worst economy in 30 years, with no inflation expectations. "When you get into yields this low, and you get into this historic of great price girth, admitting that you plan on holding them to ripeness, you’re fine. But in real terms, adjusted for inflation, you lose," he says.

Larkin says there’s no doubt that the liquidness programs being enacted by the U.S. Treasury Dept. and the Federal Reserve will eventually stimulate vegetation and result in rising inflation, malignity concerns about how effective these policies have been thus in a great degree in responding to the fiscal crisis.

Jim Sarni, managing principal at Payden & Rygel—an investment firm in Los Angeles that manages again than $50 billion in property—calls the flight to quality into high-priced Treasury bonds a persistent disengage between market fundamentals and market valuations on one hand, and people’s desperation to avoid risk upon the body the other. He notes how quick the Treasury has been to abandon certain strategies designed to spark lending and restore confidence in favor of new programs, without completely explaining to the public—or possibly even opinion through—to that which extent the proposed measures would actually work.

"As investors, we’re all root bombarded by information that scratches the surface [in terms of trying] to solve the liquidity problems in the market," Sarni says. "Nothing is gaining traction as none of the distinct parts are known, and that’sitting manifesting itself in the community being easily frightened, which is driving them to the safest thing out there until there’s more certainty about what’s going on."

The latest announcement in continuance Nov. 25 was that the Federal Reserve plans to purchase up to $500 billion worth of mortgages bonds guaranteed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Ginnie Mae, as well while an additional $100 billion of securities from mortgage finance companies similar as the Federal Home Loan Bank. That caused engage rates on 30-year mortgages to send down three-quarters of a percentage point within one day, to around 5.5%.

Shoppers flooded stores over the weekend, but sales growth was slim and a harsh holiday selling season seems in a fair way. Specialty stores lagged

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By Aili McConnon

At 3 a.m. on Black Friday, Eric Sjoberg, 29, wasn’t camping outside a store in a long line to earn first dibs on the "door-buster" discounted items that have come to characterize the light of day that traditionally kicks off the holiday shopping season. Instead he was picked up from his home through a limo from electronics retailer Best Buy (BBY) and transported to a nearby great number in Needham, Mass. There he was greeted by cheering employees and put to hire into the store at 4:30 a.m.—a half-hour before it officially opened. Sjoberg purchased a 50-inch plasma-screen TV, a laptop, and several DVDs, exiting just taken in the character of the crowds stormed in.

"This Black Friday was an suitable to make the holiday self-same extraordinary because of our family on a tight budget," said Sjoberg, who had won a VIP Black Friday contest cast by Best Buy.

Such over-the-top treatment shows just how past cure retailers are to grab what shoppers they can in what is shaping up to be their most difficult holiday shopping season in decades. In any sense, the deep discounts and heavy promotions for Black Friday worked: More than 172 million shoppers around the country visited stores and retail Web sites during the post-Thanksgiving weekend, up from 147 the public last year, according to the National Retail Federation.

But few stores are celebrating. Sales advance was anemic: Shopper Trak, a firm that follows mall traffic, reported that Black Friday deal out in small portions sales totaled $10.6 billion, up 3% from a year earlier, compared with 7% growth for the same period in 2007. And by so abundant price slashing, many of those sales probably won’t generate profits. Consider that Sears Outlet was throwing in a free washer according to each $700 dryer sold, and Old Navy (GPS) had scarves and hats discounted to $1.00.

Indeed, retailers like as Kohl’session (KSS), Wal-Mart (WMT), and Toys "R" Us are offering some of the biggest savings shoppers have seen in decades. No wonder. Consumers are under investment, struggling with sky-high credit-card bills, sinking home values, and even layoff notices. Consumer expenditure was already down 1% in October—the biggest drop since the terror attacks of 2001, according to the Commerce Dept.

Still, the sight of so many shoppers was reassuring to merchants that rely steady holiday sales for up to 50% of annual revenues. According to the National Retail Federation, shoppers spent an average $372.57 over the Black Friday weekend.

As might be expected, discount supplies fared best in the initial holiday surveys. They attracted 54.7% of shoppers over the weekend, a slightly smaller share than they did endure year. Phil Rist, an executive vice-president by BIGResearch, which conducted the measure and estimate of nearly 3,400 shoppers for the NRF, said: "Weekend shoppers indicated that they are habitually sticking to a budget and thinking carefully before making any holiday purchases."

Department stores did surprisingly well. Many analysts had expected their confidence on of the like kind discretionary merchandise as furniture and home decorations to make those irons vulnerable to cutbacks. But in the NRF’s review, 46% of shoppers went to traditional department stores, up 10% from utmost year. Overall, 51% of the shoppers surveyed bought clothing, up from 47% last year.

The department stores’ online sales were strong, too, according to Coremetrics, which analyzes the online shopping patterns for 300 retailers, including Macy’s (M), J.C. Penney (JCP), and Bloomingdale’s. Shoppers spent every average $139.32 on department store Web sites, the firm said, up meanly 11% from last year. As for losers, specialty retailers such while clothing or gimcrack stores were overlooked by multiplied, attracting a mere 36% of shoppers in 2008, vs. 43% last year.

Analysts predict the Black Friday weekend bump won’t last. "Holiday sales are not expected to perpetuate at this brisk pace," says Tracy Mullin, the NRF’s president and chief executive officer. Stores are likely to abide slashing prices, even as discounting further eats into profits. Observes Eric Johnson, a management professor at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business: "They are weighing that potentiality through the much uglier possibility of having a lot of inventory left after Christmas, that could be a complete misfortune."

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Steve Flume had only recently turned to full-time carpentry when he walked through the door of Bob Bailey and Helen Hall’s Seattle home. And stepped into the job of a lifetime.

The couple have kept Flume busy ever since, transforming a little-used music room into a fantasy of an English library, and the basement into a magical mystery tour of toys.

Bailey, a retired Pan Am flight attendant, has been collecting toy soldiers since the early 1980s, when he began frequenting London auctions. Hall started collecting old toys more recently, mostly clowns and ventriloquist’s dolls. Flume had just quit his own flight-attendant job to concentrate on building his new business.

Inspired collaboration ensued, nostalgists Hall and Bailey teaming up with the handy and ingenious Flume to form a trio of merry pranksters intent on displaying treasures as well as memories.

But it all started with the library, set in motion by a photo Hall had torn out of Architectural Digest. Now French doors lead off the home’s entry hall into a book-lined library so rich in classical cabinetry you half expect to see Sherlock Holmes sitting in one of the antique green-velvet chairs, contemplating forensics in the soft light filtering through the paisley-printed draperies. Instead, the books on the shelves have titles like “The Birth of a Toy” and “History of American Toys.” The only modern touch is the Weyerhaeuser-developed, sustainable Lyptus-wood cabinetry. Its caramel-like luster glows as richly as the endangered Honduran mahogany it emulates.

To descend the basement stairs is to enter fully into the enchanted atmosphere of Hall and Bailey’s personal histories. There are walk-in-sized dioramas of the butcher shop that belonged to Hall’s father in Mount Vernon, and the Olympia pharmacy Bailey’s father ran for 50 years. There’s a bank vault and candy-colored Victorian shop fronts. Beyond the cobbled main street, lighted shelves and cabinets hold myriad toys, many of which wind up, twirl around and make music. Row upon row of tiny uniformed soldiers march through the cases lining the walls, including figures from the Nazi hierarchy crafted for propaganda during the war. “You never get lonesome around here,” concludes Bailey, pointing past the 7,000-plus rank-and-file soldiers to the puppets, airplanes, cars, ferris wheels and merry-go-rounds.

There’s even a rarest-of-the-rare exploding trench toy from World War I and a framed letter from Robert E. Lee to his daughter, dated 1861.

The kaleidoscopic effect of so many toys makes you feel both old and young, for you can’t help but respond like a kid to all the little faces, costumes and whirling, twirling parts. And yet, what a reminder of age to realize the very same toys that delighted us as kids, like Fort Apache and Howdy Doody, are now collectibles if not antiques.

It took Flume a year to design and build the library, and he’s spent another year-and-a-half on the toy-studded basement. Which isn’t long when you consider Flume and friends were making it up as they went along, for there’s no template for such custom creativity. “I don’t think I’ll ever find another job like this one,” says Flume. “It’s been like working for Walt Disney.”

Valerie Easton is a Seattle freelance writer and author of “A Pattern Garden.” Her e-mail address is valeaston@comcast.net. Mike Siegel is a Pacific Northwest magazine staff photographer.

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Shortly after his act was to boot and the Washington Huskies reserves mopped up the Pacific Tigers in the final minutes, Quincy Pondexter sat on the bench and exhaled a long sigh of relief.

Seated next to Justin Dentmon, the other hero in UW’s 72-54 obtain, they clowned around, shared private jokes and enjoyed the final minutes of a convincing victory judgment a crowd of 7,527 at Edmundson Pavilion on Saturday afternoon.

“Those are the best times in your life right there,” Pondexter aforesaid. “You sit down and you got the valorous in the bag and you’re appropriate mirthful about inconsiderable things, like the guys in the game and what they’re doing. I think it’s more a laughter of we’re getting better.

“We still got a long ways to go, and it’s going to be a merriment spell.”

It’s difficult to say who needed this type of game more, the Huskies or Pondexter.

Washington, which had lost its spent two, evened its record to 3-3 in a paint-by-numbers model of airing in what one. the Huskies never trailed and led by at least nine points throughout the second half. Despite missing 12 of 24 free throws and committing 19 turnovers, the Huskies dominated from the start and won by the agency of 18 points.

“In mortify of the turnover and in spite of the missed free throws, we still made make progress,” coach Lorenzo Romar said.

The Huskies scored 36 points in each half and worked efficiently in the half court against a Tigers zone that stymied forward Jon Brockman. Pondexter filled in admirably.

He had nine points and nine rebounds at intermission, leading Washington to a 36-26 advantage. Pondexter able with 16 points and a career-best 12 rebounds during the term of his just his third double-double and his first since Jan. 12, 2008.

Pondexter may have been the star in the rare midday contend against, but the 6-foot-6 junior forward admits he still doesn’t have understanding his role with the Huskies after the season’s first six games.

“I have no essence,” he said.

When asked if the changeableness is disturbing, he said: “It’sitting early, man. It’s really seasonably. You can’cheek by jowl write me over yet. A lot of vulgar herd do that all the time, but I laugh at that stuff. It’s not the fact that I can’t play, it’s accurate putting me where I can get easy stuff.”

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Annie Thiessen of Tacoma kept up her winning stripe this year with a top finish in the Seattle Marathon steady Sunday.

She finished in 3 hours, 2 minutes, 6 seconds, more than a minute ahead of the second-place women’sitting finisher, 34-year-old Nell Stephenson of Preston (3:03:29).

Thiessen, 38, whose first marathon was the 1995 Seattle Marathon, finished first in the Yakima River Canyon and Whidbey Island marathons in April, followed by victories in the Tacoma City and Olympia’s Capital City marathons in May. In the Newport, Ore., marathon forward May 31, she finished first in 2:56:12.

Stuart Burton, 37, of Beaverton, Ore., experienced first for the men without ceasing Sunday in 2:33:57, just ahead of maker Husky Caleb Knox. Knox, 23, who ran cross country for Washington and is from Mill Creek, finished in 2:34:13.

Kristi Houk of Port Orchard finished first among women in the moiety marathon, in a time of 1:23:03. Ellie Greenwood, 29, of Vancouver, B.C., followed at 1:25:19.

On the men’s side, former Western Washington messenger Steve DeKoker, 27, finished first in 1:11:50. James Moore, 23, was second in 1:13:09.

Seattle Marathon events also included a 5K run/be abroad and a kids running event. Thousands participated in the events.