TECHNOLOGY

Gamer anger at Nokia's 'lock in'

Nokia relaunched the N-Gage service last month

Gamers have hit out at Nokia after learning that N-Gage titles bought for their handsets are locked to that specific device forever.

If a gamer changes or upgrades to a different Nokia handset they have to purchase the games again if they want to continue playing.

The issue was uncovered by website All About N-Gage.

"It's a bad idea for everyone... the N-Gage platform, gamers and third party publishers," the site said.

Nokia said it had made the decision to prevent piracy and to ensure its "partners receive their rightful revenues from our platform".

Hidden catch

Nokia relaunched its N-Gage mobile gaming platform last month.

About 30 games are available on a limited range of Nokia handsets, which are bought and downloaded direct to the phone.

It is the company's second attempt at making mobile gaming a success. In 2003 it released a dedicated handset for gaming, but the device never took off.

Ahead of the latest launch, Jaakko Kaidesoja from Nokia's Play New Experience division, told BBC News: "One of the best things we learned from the original N-Gage is that you can create a community and people appreciate the connectivity."

But the new platform has provoked anger amongst gamers.

Writing on the official N-Gage forums, one gamer said: "Changes need to be made soon, and sticking one's head in the sand will not change anybody's mind."

When gamers sign up for the service they have to agree to terms and conditions, part of which explains that games cannot be transferred between devices.

It states: "Content shall be... limited to one private installation on one N-Gage compatible Nokia device only."

But gamers have complained that the detail is buried in the terms and conditions and it is not clear enough at the point of purchase.

A statement from Nokia said: "Our policy is that the N-Gage activation codes only work on the device where they were first activated.

"As with any digital media there is a potential risk of piracy and this policy is one of the ways we are dealing with piracy and ensuring our partners receive their rightful revenues from our platform.

"If users need to repair their device, the activation codes will be reissued."

2)

Number keys promise safer data

The system hinges on multiple keys for multiple items

Sensitive computer files are to become both more secure and more flexible thanks to advanced mathematics.

Mathematicians at the University of California in Los Angeles have applied a fundamental rethink to improve the "one lock - one key" method that current encryption technologies such as RSA and AES operate on.

Amit Sahai, associate professor at UCLA, told BBC World Service's Digital Planet programme that they had decided to "rebuild the idea from the ground up," and developed the idea of multiple keys giving access to selected pieces of data.

"In our vision, we'll have some data that can be locked - but now that one lock is openable by many different keys in many different ways," he explained.

Key management

Currently, when information is encrypted, it is secured with a digital lock and key created together.

While this works well for individual computers, it presents problems on an industrial scale because company data has to be stored on large servers and accessed by large numbers of people.

The UCLA mathematicians point out that this leads to a big problem in terms of key management.

"That key management problem, of needing so many different keys to have access to all the files they should be able to have access to... is so complicated that they just don't use encryption," Dr Sahai said.

"Encryption is essentially not used by most large corporations, and to the extent that it is used, it is used incorrectly or in a silly way."

And in many systems, the key is put on the same server that holds the encrypted data.

Access to medical records could become much more sophisticated

"If a hacker is able to break into that server, he not only gets the encrypted data, he gets the key that opens that data. So what's the point?" Dr Sahai said.

He said that a good example of how his system could work is a person's medical records. Whereas currently access to the records is on an all-or-nothing basis, the advanced encryption would allow different amounts of access according to a person's relation to the patient.

Dieticians would be able to see blood sugar levels, while oncologists can see cancer reports.

"Similarly, many different people - depending on who they are and what their position is - should be able to access many different aspects of my medical records," Dr Sahai said.

"What we want to do - and what we've done, to some extent - is to have a mathematical encryption scheme where you encrypt your medical record once, and then different people with different keys can open it in different ways."

Engineering

Doing this with existing technology would mean all different aspects of data would have to be separately encrypted.

Meanwhile, Dr Sahai said that the "clever thing" about his system was that it was approached the problem using maths, rather than just as a data problem.

"We're trying to take some of the very difficult job that we give to the security engineer and actually put it into the mathematics itself," he said.

"Once you have this kind of expressibility in the mathematics itself, it makes the job of the security engineer that much easier - because the mathematics is protecting you.

3)

Bright future predicted for Apple

• Darren Waters
• 22 May 08, 10:30 GMT

Analysts like to make waves. After all, if what they say lacks impact, then no-one pays attention.

So how about this prediction from Forrester: "Apple Inc. will become the hub of the digital home by 2013."

Forrester says Apple will evolve an "integrated digital experience" based on eight pillars.

Four of them you will probably recognise:

The Mac, Apple TV, the Apple store (the physical shop), iTunes.

Four of them are, ahem, guesswork from Forrester:

Apple home server product, AppleSound universal music controller, network-enabled gadgets (ie music, digital photo frame and alarm clock devices) and in-home installation services.

Now, I can certainly believe that Apple is working on a home server product, that's not really a big prediction. It's merely an extension of Apple TV and the Time Capsule wireless storage device it already ships.

But an AppleSound universal music controller? Do they mean a remote control? I'm not even sure why this is needed.

And can anyone else envisage Apple selling digital photo frames or alarm clocks? Nope, me neither.

And Apple offering in-home installation services? Erm, isn't the whole point of Apple's products that you don't need professional installation help? And what would people be installing exactly?

These predictions strike me as off key for a number of reasons:

1. I don't see Apple displacing satellite and cable firms so radically. In fact, I see more disruption of Apple's business by set-top box providers than the other way around.

2. Apple TV remains a work in progress and hasn't proved its potential.

3. Content providers are now very wary of doing deals with iTunes that leave them at the mercy of Steve Jobs. The music industry is doing everything in its power to break iTunes' hold. The film and TV industry won't make the same mistake

4. Open standards will triumph. I don't believe that "lock in" systems will ever work as the glue between our devices.

5. I don't think one company will ever be the hub. Interoperability will mean that we can cherry pick our devices and our content will run between them all.

4)

Sceptics question Microsoft move

Office is the dominant productivity suite of programs

Open source advocates have questioned Microsoft's commitment to using open document standards in the future.

The computer giant has said it will implement use of the Open Document Format (ODF), "sometime next year".

The Free Software Foundation Europe said: "It's a step in the right direction but we are sceptical about how open Microsoft will be."

The European Commission, which has fined Microsoft for monopolistic practice, welcomed the move.

"The Commission would welcome any step that Microsoft took towards genuine interoperability, more consumer choice and less vendor lock-in," it said.

The Commission added that it would look into whether Microsoft's announcement "leads to better interoperability and allows consumers to process and exchange their documents with the software product of their choice".

Governments will be looking for actual results, not promises in press releases Marino Marcich, ODF Alliance

Open source software advocates have long criticised the file formats used by Microsoft's Office suite of programs because they are not genuinely interoperable with software from third parties.

Microsoft has said it will add support for ODF when it updates Office 2007 next year.

Georg Greve, president of the Free Software Foundation Europe, said he remained dubious about "how deep" Microsoft's adoption of the standard would go.

'Right direction'

"This is definitely a step in the right direction. We have been encouraging Microsoft to support ODF natively for quite a while.

"Like all things, this will depend to some extent on how they do it."

The Open Document Format Alliance said it was sceptical about the extent of Microsoft's commitment.

Support for ODF indicates there are problems with OpenXML that Microsoft cannot resolve easily and quickly Georg Greve, FSF Europe

Marino Marcich, managing director of the ODF Alliance, said: "The proof will be whether and when Microsoft's promised support for ODF is on par with its support for its own formats.

"Governments will be looking for actual results, not promises in press releases."

At the moment, Office users can use ODF documents by using a downloaded "translator" program.

Critics point out

But critics have pointed out that the translator does not integrate very well with parts of the Office suite.

The move by Microsoft follows attempts by the company to have its own standard, the OpenXML format, recognised as interoperable.

The International Standards Organisation approved its use but the full specification of the OpenXML format has yet to be published.

Mr Greve said: "Support for ODF indicates there are problems with OpenXML that Microsoft cannot resolve easily and quickly.

"OpenXML is something all users want to stay away from. It's not clear if it will ever become an interoperable standard and so users should be very careful using it."

Mr Greve said "genuine adoption" of ODF would give consumers more choice.

'Full choice'

"People will no longer need to use Microsoft Office in order to interoperate.

"They will no longer need to choose a support platform for Office, i.e. Windows."

He added: "There will be full choice on the desktop; people could switch to Linux and choose Open Office or other applications that support ODF, like Lotus Symphony or Google Docs.

"There is fairly large amount of apps to choose from, which can be based on the merits of the application and their personal preference.

Waiting to Exhale

Posted: 03:16 PM ET

Imagine the anticipation of a countdown before rocket engines roar to life. Smoke billows, and it’s three G’s and eight-and-a-half minutes to space.

After you slip the surly bonds, you float over to the window and gaze wide-eyed at the majesty of Planet Earth. Perhaps you’d spot the Great Wall of China, or even a big hurricane. I’d have Bowie’s “Ground Control to Major Tom” playing on my iPod.

Spaceflight tickles the imagination. It’s the stuff of heroes and explorers. We remain in awe of the cosmos, and amazed at each incremental step toward the infinite.

Source: NASA

Now take a look at this photo. The folks at Johnson Space Center in Houston sent this picture to me today. Not exactly what you imagine while reading Jules Verne or Arthur Clarke. It might be the NASA equivalent of witnessing hot dogs in the making.

You’re looking at a test chamber scaled to be the size of the Orion crew capsule. Orion, of course, is NASA’s next-gen exploration vehicle. It will carry crew and cargo to the space station and on to the moon.

The umbrella name for the entire program is Constellation, and the space agency is hoping to launch the first manned mission by 2015.

The chamber is the size of a walk-in closet - about 570 cubic feet - and the people sitting inside are volunteers recruited to test a lunar breathing system called CAMRAS. (NASA likes its acronyms!) It stands for Carbon-dioxide and Moisture Removal Amine Swing-bed. Go figure.

But imagine sitting for eight hours in this thing with five other people you just met? Twenty-three volunteers did just that for a series of tests over a three-week period last month. The point: to breathe and sweat. Sounds like the perfect job for an executive producer!

Seriously though, NASA has to measure the amount of moisture and carbon dioxide absorbed by the system so Orion crews can breathe easily and live comfortably in space. Volunteers were asked to sleep, eat and exercise in the chamber. Some test sessions lasted a few hours and others were overnight.

CAMRAS uses very little energy. An organic compound called amine absorbs the CO2 and water vapor from the cabin. And when the system vents the waste overboard, the vacuum of space regenerates the amine. Think of the venting as wringing out a dirty sponge.

For more on the test and NASA’s Constellation Program, visit www.nasa.gov/constellation.

NASA delays Hubble mission to fix shuttle fuel tanks

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) -- NASA's final visit to the Hubble Space Telescope has been delayed at least a month, until the fall, because of extra time needed to build the shuttle fuel tanks needed for the flight and a potential rescue mission.

The Hubble Space Telescope orbits 350 miles above Earth.

Atlantis and a crew of seven were supposed to fly to Hubble at the end of August but now won't make the journey until the end of September or early October.

Shuttle program manager John Shannon said it's taken more time to incorporate all the post-Columbia design changes to the external fuel tanks than had been expected.

"It's a small price to pay, to tell you the truth, four to five weeks for all the improvements that we're getting on this tank," Shannon said Thursday.

The fuel tank for the next shuttle launch is the first to be built from scratch with the design changes. That work delayed Discovery's flight to the international space station from April until May 31.

The mission to Hubble, orbiting 350 miles above Earth, is unique. Not only must Atlantis be ready, another shuttle must be on the launch pad ready to rush to the rescue in case Atlantis suffers severe launch damage that might prevent a safe re-entry.

Unlike other shuttle crews, which travel to the space station, the astronauts on the Hubble mission would have nowhere to seek shelter in the event of a gaping hole in their ship's thermal shield. In the case of a rescue, the Hubble astronauts would put on spacesuits and float out of their ship and into the other shuttle.

Columbia was destroyed and its seven astronauts killed during re-entry in 2003 because of a plate-size hole in the shuttle's left wing. A chunk of fuel-tank foam insulation broke off during liftoff and gashed it.

Because of the delay in the Hubble mission, NASA will have to settle for five shuttle flights this year instead of six. Despite the setback, NASA still hopes to complete the space station and retire its shuttles in 2010, Shannon said.

As for Russia's trouble-plagued Soyuz re-entry April 19, NASA's space station program manager, Mike Suffredini, said Thursday that the investigation into the mishap will determine whether the three astronauts were at any more risk than normal.

The Soyuz spacecraft descended much more steeply than usual and subjected the crew to considerably more gravity forces. It was the second time in a row that the capsule malfunctioned like this.

The crew included U.S. astronaut Peggy Whitson, who was ending a six-month space station stay, as well as a Russian and a South Korean who ended up in the hospital with back and neck pain.

Russia hopes to complete its investigation by the end of May. With U.S. astronaut Gregory Chamitoff scheduled to fly to the space station aboard Discovery and remain there for several months, NASA will have to decide before May 31 whether the Soyuz will serve as a safe lifeboat if there is an emergency.

Suffredini said it would be "pretty dramatic" for NASA to pull Chamitoff or anyone else off the space station. "But we will do whatever is necessary based on the findings of the commission," he said.

As countries and companies plan to go to the moon

LONDON, England -- One of Francis Williams' favorite stories to tell is about the time he was pulled over for speeding.

As countries and companies plan to go to the moon, a debate heats up on lunar property rights.

Williams, who had been in London on business, was driving home through the English countryside when a police officer stopped him and wanted to know two things: Was Williams aware of how fast he was driving? And, what was his profession?

It turned out the response to the second question would help Williams resolve the first: "I said, 'I sell land on the moon,'" said Williams. "And [the police officer] said, 'Do you know, my wife has bought some of that.'"

The answer to the first question was subsequently forgotten.

Williams, who describes himself as the "Lunar Ambassador to the United Kingdom," is the owner of MoonEstates. He claims to have sold around 300,000 acres of moon land since he and his wife, Sue, founded the Cornwall-based company eight years ago. One-acre plots of lunar turf go for about $40.

As proof of purchase, new property owners receive a silver tin containing a personalized "Lunar Deed" and a moon map with a tiny black X marking their tract's approximate location. Most of the land Williams sells is in the northwest, in an area known as Oceanus Procellarum, or Ocean of Storms -- a desolate lava plain formed by volcanoes billions of years ago. "I know the Japanese are [selling] further east," he said.

Williams received his license to sell lunar land in the UK from Dennis Hope. In 1980, the Nevada-based entrepreneur claimed ownership of the moon after finding what he calls a loophole in the 1967 United Nations Outer Space Treaty, which forbids countries from owning the moon but, according to Hope, does not forbid individuals from owning it.

Hope, who estimates he has sold over 500 million acres of moon land, said he immediately filed a "declaration of ownership" with the U.N. along with the United States and Russian governments.

After 28 years, the moon mogul still has not received a reply. "I have never heard from them on that note ever," Hope told CNN in a phone interview.

While the U.N. may have ignored Hope's lunar land claims for almost three decades, it is unlikely the organization will be able ignore what could soon become a question of increasing international importance: Who, exactly, does own the moon?

"At some point the world community needs to come together and draft some new convention or treaty," said Paul Dempsey, director of the Institute of Air and Space Law and McGill University in Montreal. "It is an open wound that needs to be healed."

Dempsey pointed out that at the time the U.N. drafted the Outer Space Treaty, there were only two spacefaring nations -- the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Now there are over a dozen. And many of them, including China, Russia, the U.S., India and Japan, want to go to the moon.

NASA, for example, recently announced plans to return by 2020, eventually building a permanent base on the lunar surface. The Russian space agency, Roskosmos, has confirmed similar intentions.

The burgeoning commercial space sector is also casting its gaze towards Earth's only natural satellite with companies considering everything from mining the lunar surface to building extraterrestrial resorts on it.

"It is quite a complicated issue because it is international law we are dealing with," said Niklas Hedman, chief of the Committee Services and Research Section of the U.N.'s Office for Outer Space Affairs in Vienna.

There are five treaties that govern international affairs in space, said Hedman. Two of them -- the Outerspace Treaty and the 1979 Moon Agreement -- deal with lunar law.

The Outer Space Treaty provides a legal framework for the international use of space for peaceful purposes, including the moon and other celestial bodies. Widely considered the "Magna Carta of space law," this treaty lays down the fundamental principle of non-appropriation and that the exploration and use of space shall be the province of all mankind.

According to the treaty, states bear international responsibility for national activities in space, including by non-governmental entities. The Outer Space Treaty says governments cannot claim ownership of the lunar surface and that stations and installations on the moon shall be open to others, said Hedman.

The Moon Agreement builds upon the Outer Space Treaty but also says that any natural resources found on the moon are part of "the common heritage of mankind" - in other words, they must be shared.

While 98 nations, including all the major spacefaring ones, have ratified the Outerspace Treaty, only 13 countries have approved the Moon Agreement -- Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Uruguay and Mexico, to name four.

But Hedman said this does not mean the other 179 countries that have not ratified the Moon Agreement are free to make a lunar land rush.

"They are still bound by the fundamental provisions [of the Outer Space Treaty]," he said, adding that "when enough states of the world have ratified a treaty, and it becomes binding, then certain fundamental provisions become binding even on states that have not ratified it."

Henry Hertzfeld, a space analyst at George Washington University's Space Policy Institute, said he is not so sure the U.N.'s treaties provide an adequate answer to the question of lunar property rights.

"These treaties don't really have any teeth to them in terms of enforcement," said Hertzfeld. "They are agreements on principle."

Instead of focusing on who owns the moon, the international community needs find ways to incentivize future business activity on the moon by guaranteeing that rights to land and resources will not be preempted by competing interests, said Hertzfeld.

"Owning property is not the issue, the issue is finding a mechanism for businesses to make a fair return on their investment," he said. "Otherwise there is no point in investing."

But first, Hertzfeld said, there also needs to be a guarantee that there is something on the moon worth investing in at all.

"My feeling is until we know what is there, we shouldn't mess with it," he said.

PHOTOS

A member of the Border Patrol's tunnel team patrols the Grand Tunnel, a 15-foot-high storm drain running under Grand Avenue in Nogales into Sonora, Mexico, in May . Last year between July and October alone, Border Patrol agents made 1,704 arrests in tunnels; they also picked up more than a ton of marijuana. Although the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection has begun filling them in, the Grand Tunnel, one of the largest on the border, must remain intact to allow water to gush north from Sonora during summer monsoons.

Using the Web to Search for a Job

Using the Web to Search for a Job

Joel Cheesman is the Cheezhead, and that's a good thing. Cheesman is the brains behind Cheezhead.com, a popular blog covering the rapidly evolving world of online recruiting. From his base in Cleveland, Cheesman gives professionals plenty to chew on, whether he's musing about the recent launch of NotchUp.com, a site that connects companies willing to pay for interviews with top candidates, or rebuking a gaming company for its less-than-stellar careers page. We asked Cheesman for some insight into the newest job-search tools. Excerpts:

Joel Cheesman

What's the biggest mistake people make when hunting for a job online these days?
Technology has made it incredibly easy to broadcast your résumé or profile to a lot of companies very quickly, easily, and for free. So I think there's probably an overreliance on technology. I think that people get lazy. They tend to think that, well, if I just put my résumé on a few job boards, then the job should come to my door. And at the end of the day, the job hunt is largely about people and it's about networking—looking at who you know and where they work.

So how can technology help us do that?
There are applications that enable you to look at your network of friends on Facebook and find out where they work. And if there's a fit—you want to work at a company, and you find out you're one or two degrees from someone who works there—that's one way to get your foot in the door and make a human connection. With Web 2.0, I think that the key to success in the future is that technology is going to have to adapt in a way that makes it easier to connect with people. You have a flurry of job sites out there that are trying to take the job search to a different level. You look at sites like itzBig, Climber, and Jobfox—which recently got $20 million in investment money—and they're trying to create assessment environments where the job seeker puts in an eHarmony-type profile and the company puts in an eHarmony-type job description. Then technology magically brings those two personalities, people, and company together—hopefully for a good match, for the perfect match. That's an example of technology trying to bring people together for a human connection.

What sorts of companies are embracing Web 2.0 applications?
You certainly find high tech does a pretty good job. Google is obviously renowned for its recruiting efforts. A lot of it is because people just want to work at Google, and they've done a really good job of building an employment brand that makes people want to work there.

Healthcare has been a real catalyst for creativity. You look at the need for radiologists, nurses, and physicians. They're kind of forced to look outside the box of just posting a job on their local newspaper site and on Monster.com. And you're seeing some anecdotal evidence of hospitals and healthcare systems doing interesting things. Johnson & Johnson has its own social network for nurses. A healthcare system in Pennsylvania is using high-tech direct mail to attract physicians to a website where they can actually interact with the recruiter.

What kinds of job seekers are using these sites and networks?
It's really interesting. One of the things I hear is: Nurses aren't going to Google and typing in "nursing jobs"—they're happily employed. They know what kinds of jobs are out there, and they go there. But if you look at some of the search data, "nursing jobs" is actually one of the top phrases around jobs, at over 1 million searches per year.

Can we really expect to see some industries, like manufacturing, finding employees through social networks?
A lot of that is supply and demand. There are people to fill the jobs, so there's less of a pain threshold to say just putting it in the paper isn't doing it, just putting it on a job board isn't doing it. So there's less of a need to think outside the box. There are certainly manufacturing jobs out there, but I think the traditional ways of recruiting are doing the job.

Are recruitment podcasts and videos meant to humanize the job-hunting process, or are companies just using them as new ways to reach people?
I think it's about finding ways to connect with people. Certainly, hearing a voice or seeing a video probably has more impact than seeing text on a website, in regards to what a company is like, what kind of culture it has, what kind of personalities work there. [But] I think mostly it's another way to connect with people. Historically, companies had newspapers, websites, and radio and the traditional marketing methods. And with the advent of MySpace, Facebook, blogging, RSS feeds, Twitter—all these things serve as new and different ways to connect with people. I think there is no home run. Marketing is becoming much more fragmented, and I think you see companies trying these different outlets, whether they be social networking or blogging or video. I think a lot of it right now is putting toes in the water and seeing if the water is warm or not.

What will job searches look like 10 years from now?
I think that technology will continue to personalize. And I think that your connections will mean more. I can see a day where interviews are conducted online. You know, a company is in New York, and they're looking for a VP of marketing, and they funnel it down to 10 candidates, and they interview those candidates via webcam. Then, when it funnels down to the top three, they bring those three in to their headquarters. I think the video résumé debate is going to be hot for the next few years. Typically, they're frowned upon because of [Equal Employment Opportunity Commission] regulation. Companies are scared to death of getting sued. My hope is in the next few years, something comes down in [the courts] that says it's OK to view video résumés, or it's OK to look at a Facebook profile as a résumé.

4 Tips for Hiring Someone Who Will Stay

Employees leave jobs for many reasons, so predicting who will stay for the long term is more than a little challenging for hiring managers. Here are some tips that can increase an interviewer's chances of getting it right:

) Don't rush the process: "When people don't work out, the first question I ask them is 'How long did you spend with your boss at any single meeting in the interview process?' " says Bernadette Kenny, chief career officer of the recruitment firm Adecco Group North America. The answer is usually less than 90 minutes. "I think one of the biggest mistakes the job search process does is shortchange the time you need to spend with your boss," she says. "Not enough time was spent upfront in checking each other out."

2) Keep fit in mind: Last spring OfficeTeam, which specializes in the temporary placement of administrative professionals, found that 85 percent of human-resources managers polled said their companies have lost an employee who wasn't a good fit with the work environment. To help you find a good match, Reesa Staten, director of workplace research for OfficeTeam's parent company, Robert Half International, suggests asking candidates to describe the environments likely to bring out their best—and worst—performances.

3) Scrutinize a person's work history: Ask why candidates moved from one job to another, and look for patterns. If a person has changed jobs every few years over a long period, for instance, the candidate may already have an expiration date with your firm, too.

4) Identify the important traits: Consider the characteristics of those who have succeeded in the role to know which qualities to look for in candidates. Depending on the position, those may include attention to detail, persuasiveness, and ability to deal with ambiguity. "If you don't define what you're looking for," says Steve Gross, global leader of broad-based rewards at the human-resources consulting firm Mercer, "you run the risk of getting very much of a surface impression—how they speak, what their technical skills are—without getting to those behaviors that drive long-term success."

What to Do When You Hate Your Job

If fix-it strategies don't do the trick, here's how to find better work

By Marty Nemko

Posted September 21, 2007

Do you dread going to the office on Monday morning? If so, you've got lots of company.

With the unemployment rate quite low, you'd think job satisfaction would be high, since employers, theoretically, would have to coddle their workers to avoid losing them. But the opposite seems to be true. Employees are increasingly unhappy at work, according to the Conference Board, with only 50 percent of people satisfied with their jobs today. That's down from 79 percent in 1985. And if a recession is on the horizon, as many economists think it may be, the job market is sure to get tighter—and workers even edgier.

(bilderlounge/Getty Images)

Related News

A few obvious factors, like low pay or excessive hours, drive down job satisfaction, but our global, technology-driven economy is also making it harder to find fulfilling work. Many of the pleasant parts of a job, such as dealing one-on-one with people, are being replaced by machines or more efficient processes. Sales junkets are being replaced by teleconferences, for instance; gut feeling is often overruled by computer modeling. Global competition often whittles down companies' profit margins, forcing them to ask their best professionals to work longer hours. Among people earning $100,000 or more, for instance, one third work more than 50 hours a week, according to polls by Zogby/MSN.

To get ahead, workers increasingly need multiple skills. In addition to a core competency—accounting, say, or software engineering—many companies expect their employees to be entrepreneurial and IT savvy and speak another language. To be able to keep up with all that, of course, you must be a master of stress management, too. And even talented employees are increasingly being hired as temps, dumped when a project is over or the job is shipped overseas. With employers demanding more, job security declining, and the need for efficiency squeezing fun out of the job, it's not surprising that ever more workers are unhappy.

So should you quit a job you hate? Maybe—but many disgruntled workers bail out too fast, mistakenly assuming there's nothing they can do to make their current job better. Simply switching jobs doesn't always make people happier, either. Sometimes it's not the job or the company that's the problem, but the individual. So before quitting, consider some practical steps to help deal with these common scenarios:

You're overwhelmed. Maybe the work is too hard, or there's just too much of it. Possible fixes: Hire a tutor or take a short, pragmatic course to help improve your knowledge. Ask for help—it sounds obvious, but many people don't do it. Trade some of your most onerous duties with a coworker who finds them easier. Avoid needless perfectionism and put aside the things that can wait (possibly forever). You can even hire a "virtual assistant"—usually, a live person in India—for $6 to $15 per hour, at sites like Brickwork India and Your Man in India.

You're not up to the job. Tempting as it is to blame others, sometimes employees just don't have the skills, smarts, or drive required to thrive at their jobs. But that doesn't mean solutions are out of reach. If tasks continually seem too difficult, for example, start or join an online professional group like those on Yahoo!, where people help each other solve thorny problems. Find a smart retiree who might tutor you. Tweak your job to make it more interesting; you'll be more likely to succeed. Ask trusted friends and coworkers to list your weaknesses—and insist that they be honest. Then gulp hard, and carefully consider their advice.

You have a nightmare boss. It often takes gumption—and humility—to work with someone like that, but it might be better than the alternatives. Instead of confronting a cranky boss, ask what you could do better; if nothing else, you'll earn a bit of respect for soliciting feedback. To deal with a hothead, have a tepid response ready so you don't react impulsively: "You make some good points. Can we meet later to discuss them?" If you feel you have to go over your boss's head, develop a face-saving premise for doing so: You'd like to approach a senior executive, say, because he's an expert in a subject you're working on.

If none of that works, and you've concluded that you have no choice but to quit, here's how to do it:
Negotiate a layoff. It's better than just quitting. You might be able to negotiate a severance package, including a one-time payment of a portion of your annual salary and an extension of your health insurance. Plus, a layoff might make you eligible for unemployment benefits. In exchange, you'll probably have to agree not to claim wrongful termination.

Network for a new job—before you leave. Hit up your best contacts—sometimes, that can help land a new job quickly. Make the time to research jobs and careers that might best fit your skills or personality, to make your networking more effective. But if you're tempted to shirk at a job you know you'll be leaving, don't. It's unfair to your coworkers and could lower the quality of your references.

Prepare for a long job hunt. It might take a few months, so even though it's not ideal, you'll probably have to quit before you've lined up your next gig. Many people find that it's easier to stay upbeat by joining a job-seeker group. My favorite is the Five O'Clock Club.

Secure good references. If possible, get reference letters before you leave, so you can hand them out on the spot if necessary. Before asking your boss for a recommendation, set the stage by first finding something nice to say about him or her or the company. Reminisce about projects that worked well.

Hold your tongue. Don't bash your boss or your company in chats with coworkers, and try to stay positive in a resignation letter or exit interview—you never know when you'll need to ask for a favor. Don't bad-mouth your employer in job interviews either; it could get back to your former colleagues and ruin your reference. Besides, it's unseemly. If you can't resist dispensing a lecture on how to improve that asinine organization you used to work for, at least wait until you're firmly installed in your new job.

Worst Work Spaces in Tech

What makes a work space terrible? Is it the gray-beige color scheme, the industrial-grade carpet, or the chipped Formica desks and fluorescent lights? Or is it the opposite, when a company is so desperate to keep up with the Googles that they try a little too hard--filling the offices with ping-pong tables, plastic toys and a few too many "chill-out rooms" for most grown-ups' comfort? Valleywag, a tech gossip blog, on the heels of choosing The Best Workplaces in Tech, set out to find the ten worst, topping the list with Yahoo's New York offices, replete with employees sleeping uncomfortably in some cubes and the curious use of white-picket fences around others. Google did not escape their clutches, which a surprise given that most media outlets cannot say enough good things about Google's offices. Valleywag called them out for having gray cubicles despite the "kindergarten campus color scheme," lamps, scooters and ball pool. LinkedIn's offices were criticized for being "just like LinkedIn: utilitarian and utterly boring." The graffiti at Jahjah, an Internet-phone company, is mocked for trying way too hard, and Facebook's offices are taunted for looking just like the college dorm rooms where their product gets the most attention. It's easy for Valleywag to point fingers when they get to work in an office that looks like this though.

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