A proposed new law which passed the House of Representatives on September 17, 2009 would completely change how student loans are made under the U.S. student loan programs. Under this law, the federal government would take over all the lending duties from banks and other financial institutions. If passed, it would be one of the biggest changes in the U.S. Title IV student aid law since the law was first passed in 1965.

Get more details and links at the Community Business College Blog or Click HERE to read more

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Lexmark won the 2010 Consumer Electronic Show Innovations Award for making an inkjet printer with replacement black ink printer cartridges that list for $5 each. This flies in the face of the "give away the razor, charge for blades" business model so famously used by King C. Gillette, inventor of the disposable safety razor and founder of Gillette Safety Razor Company.

One warning - the other color ink cartridges are a little higher in price and need to be bought seperately which adds to the total cost, but the $5 black cartridge is a breakthrough, making the ink cost about 1 cent per page printed.

This might be the answer to the high costs of cartridges and may even give refilling cartridges a run for its money. Community Business College uses the services of our neighbor, LaserTone, for refilled cartrdiges to save money and waste, but even Costco is getting into the ink cartridge refill act.

The Conference Board released a report today about overall job satisfaction with results reporting that only half of Americans are satisfied with their current jobs. That's the lowest level in 20 years. One theory is it's not just the money but the feeling of teamwork.

Click HERE to read more

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Reports are coming in that many people receiving California Unemployment Insurance benefits are having a hold put on their claims as a 30-year-old computer system tries to cope with new rules. The computer software wasn't designed to handle the unprecedented number of extensions that the California Employment Development Department has been issuing. This, on top of the story that unemployment insurance claims unexpectedly jumped nationwide, makes a bad situation worse.

Click HERE to read more

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The argument rages as Windows 7 is released as to whether it is copying the Apple Macintosh operating system or if it is just going with the flow of technological progress. This article looks at those who say it is. It's always important to remember that even Apple "borrowed" the look and feel from Xerox PARC for its first Mac operating system. Remember, Community Business College students are eligible for the Windows 7 upgrade package for $39.99.

Click HERE to read more

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The co-inventors of the process that makes digital cameras possible (basically bouncing light off of silicon and capturing the electronic image) received half of this year's Nobel Prize for Physics. The charge-coupled device (or CCD) is what it's called in is found in today's digital cameras. Discovered by Willard Boyle and George E. Smith, the process led to the virtual wipe-out of the camera film industry.

Click HERE to read more

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Here's an article about texting abreviations. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203674704574328920789548170.html And a resource on Net Lingo: http://netlingo.com/ Sign up to receive updates

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With the economy still struggling, does it pay to volunteer to work for free? Might boost a resume but is it open to misuse? This article looks at the options.

Click Here To Read The Full Article

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Despite stories of hackers breaking into Twitter, the web application remains popular. This article describes how Best Buy is one of the first employers to put a requirement of Twitter knowledge and 250+ followers on a job description.

Click Here To Read The Full Article

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Community Business College has been informed that students who are receiving California Unemployment Insurance (U.I.) Benefits  checks will continue to receive those benefits through July. This is in response to concerns that U.I. benefits recipients might be included in those who will start receiving “registered warrants” or, what are commonly referred to as “IOUs,” after July 1, 2009, while the state legislature and governor resolve $24 billion in outstanding budget issues.

The State of California defines a registered warrant as “a promise to pay,” printed and sent by the State when there aren't enough funds to pay all of its General Fund obligations. Registered warrants bear interest and are redeemable by the State Treasury. According to the website maintained by the Treasurer of the State of California, registered warrants may be redeemed, with interest, on October 1, 2009, provided there is adequate cash in the Treasury.

Click read more...

Computers and their cords are causing more injuries and visits to emergency rooms, a new report  from the American Journal of Preventive Medicine states. There's been a recent seven-fold increase in incidents and now younger children, who are using more technological gadgets than before, may be at a particular higher risk.

Click HERE to read the article.

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Just as computers lead to an increase in awareness in carpal tunnel syndrome cases, now the overuse of cell phones and hand-held portable computing devices are bringing notice of cubital tunnel syndrome. How can it be avoided? Switch hands and don't overexert your elbow.

Click HERE to read the article.

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Hawaii tried an experiement and became the first in the country to use Internet-only voting and showed an 83% drop in tournout. Does this mean using the Internet for elections is doomed?

Click HERE to read the article.

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While some are predicting the new search site Wolfram Alpha (the name comes from its inventor, Stephen Wolfram, not Wolfman Jack) will wipe Google off the map. Others bet it will end in the pile of so-called "Google Killers." While it may influence Google's future, it's role as a "computational data engine" seems more likely to infringe on Wikipedia.

Click HERE to read the article.

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General Electric is reporting its labs have a new microholographic storage technology that will allow the equivalent of 100 DVDs to be stored on a single disk.

Click HERE to read the article.

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The rumors are that Google might take over Twitter. Would it be a brilliant advertising plan or will Google pass over the microblogging site for greener pastures?

Click HERE to read the article.

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April 1 was the big day for the Conflicker Virus  but despite the worry and Microsoft offering a $250,000 reward for the author, it seems it didn't have as big an impact as people feared.

Click HERE to read the article.

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This survey dramatically shows what most people  have known - users are using Google almost twice as much as any other search engine. Will Microsoft's new Kumo be able to challenge it?

Click HERE to read the article and see the survey.

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Daniel Seddiqui is determined to have one of the longest resumes ever, with 50 different jobs, one in each state. His goal is to do a job in each state of the union along with the "theme"of that state (e.g. logging in Oregon, cheese maker in Wisconsin, farming in Nebraska, etc.) and then write a book about his adventure.

Click HERE to read the article.

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It's official. People are now getting more news from the Internet than they are from traditional printed newspapers. In a recent survey, 70% of the respondants report getting their news from television, 40% get it from the Internet and 35% from newspapers.

Click HERE to read the article.

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Want to know how the new Latitude program by Google works and what it can do for you? Check out this article about how it uses cell phone technology to tell you where people you know are located in real-time.

Click HERE to read the article.

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YouTube is putting together musicians to form an online version of a symphony orchestra. You must submit a video entry which will be combined into the first ever collaborative virtual performance, and the world will select the best of the best to perform at New York City's Carnegie Hall in April 2009.

Click HERE to read the article.

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With the increased number of unemployed people, Calfornia's Employment Development offices are being overwhelmed. Here's an article that describes what's happening and offers suggestings about how to get unemployment insurance benefits.

Click HERE to read the article.

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With the increased number of unemployed people, Calfornia's Employment Development offices are being overwhelmed. Here's an article that describes what's happening and offers suggestings about how to get unemployment insurance benefits.

Click HERE to read the article.

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The year 2008 will get one extra second before it turns the reigns over to 2009. At the very last second before midnight on December 31st, 2008, atomic clocks will slip in a second to make up for the Earth's wobbly rotation.

Click HERE to read the article.

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A new virus is trying to sneak into people who want to learn about the 2008 Presidential Election. When you click on the website, it asks to update your Flash software and, instead it installs a Trojan Horse.

Click HERE to read the full article

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This article from the Modesto Bee has some suggestions about what to do when you're employed but find yourself in a job you don't like. Among the suggestions are to take a more active part in your work.

Click HERE to read the full article

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A study recently released by the University of Lancaster and the Institute of Psychology in England called Mental Capital and Wellbeing says there are 5 things to do to keep yourself sane and your mind fresh. They are:

      1) Connect with other people, 2) Be active,  3) Be curious, 4 learn, and 5) give.

It's one of the reasons Community Business College has a committment to lifelong learning and vocational training.

Click HERE to read the full article

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One of the founders of the Internet, Vinton Cert, says that there are only 14% left of the original 4.2 billion IP addresses left available,  what with the advent of cell phones and other "Internet-Enabled" devices connecting to the Internet every day. He suggests an overhaul that would allow 340 trillion addresses to be accessed by the Internet.

Click HERE to read the full article

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Google News' search software 'bot posted an article from a newspaper that was from 2002 that the newspaper was using as reference material. The article reported United Airlines was facing bankrupcy. Investors saw it and thought it was a current article and caused a run on the airlines stock, proving that computerized automation is not perfect.

Click HERE to read the full article

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NASA reports that computer viruses got aboard an International Space Station mission by sneaking a ride on some laptops. They didn't get into the ISS but NASA is worried that they may have been transferred to the laptops via memory sticks.

Click HERE to read the full article

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Microsoft has announced that the new version of Internet Explorer (version 8) will have privacy features which will allow "InPrivate Browsing." This will allow more privacy to users but will also block some of Google's advertising techniques.

Click HERE to see the article

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The IQLeadership Business Group reports that 47% of employees rated as "high performers" by their employers are looking for other jobs while only 18 percent rated as "low performers" were. Does this mean that low performers like to stick around while high performers are looking for new challenges?

Click HERE to see the articles.

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The IQLeadership Business Group reports that 47% of employees rated as "high performers" by their employers are looking for other jobs while only 18 percent rated as "low performers" were. Does this mean that low performers like to stick around while high performers are looking for new challenges?

Click HERE to see the articles.

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This article from Forbes magazine tells of a 20-year-old college student who won the "fastest texting" contest and took home $50,000 for his efforts.

Click Here for the full article.

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Workers these days don't want as much increased responsibilities as workers have in the past. This article describes a report from the Families and Work Institute survey that says people don't look to more responsibility in a job as positively as they used to.

Click HERE to see the full article .

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In this article, users are warned that spell check used without human intervention can lead to errors.

A computerized spell-checker run amok christened several Dauphin County high school students with new last names in their yearbooks.

Middletown Area High School's yearbook listed Max Zupanovic as "Max Supernova," Kathy Carbaugh as "Kathy Airbag," and Alessandra Ippolito as "Alexandria Impolite," just to name a few.

Click HERE to see the full article .

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Just when you thought things were safe and secure on your computer, this article shows how it might not be the case. The encription used to keep data secure might itself be flawed enough to let intruders in.

Click HERE to read the full article .

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With the availability of MP3 files so readily available for downloading, people are being tricked into thinking they're getting something for free, when really, they're just downloading a program that fills their computer with adware.

Click HERE to read the full article .

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This article includes a prediction that there may be a time when people won't need computer keyboards

Click HERE to read the full article.

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AOL announces the end of an era with Netscape Navigator. The software which had been purchased by the company in 1998 has been given it's last date of update as February 1, 2008.

Click HERE for the full article

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Employers are rethinking the value of "facetime" when looking at whether a job is eligible for telecommuting. One author is exploring the phenomenon further and expects the trends to become more important in the near future.

Click HERE to read the full article.

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This article mentions how many companies are weighing the trade-offs between employees wasting time on the Internet and the value of happy employees. It includes some thought provoking ideas about "mental vacations" improving productivity.

Click HERE for the full article.

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On October 16th, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to continue the ban on Internet sales tax. The ban will be for 4 years, instead of the permanent ban some had hoped for.

Click HERE for the full story

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The 2007 Nobel Prize for physics was awarded to Albert Fert and Peter Gruenberg for work on magnetoelectronics (also known as Sprintronics), which advanced the capacity of electronic devices to store information. This discovery allowed everything from computers to cell phones to iPods to keep a lot more information and run more sophisticated programs.

Click HERE for more details.

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Twenty-five years ago on September 18th, a college professor used the first smiley or "emoticon" to express emotion in his e-mail. Thus, the smiley was born. :-)

Click HERE to read the full article.

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Last month, the Internet hit another milestone when it added its 100 millionth website, according to Netcraft, a company that keeps count by using the ICANN domain name system as its guide.  It took almost 10 years for the Internet to reach 50 million websites but then only 2 years to double that.

Read the Entire Article By Clicking Here.

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www.modbee.comThis article fromt he Modesto Bee points out that PowerPoint is being used more and more. Community Business College specializes in PowerPoint and the development of "slideware." It's being used for college admissions and other endeavors where creativity can be expressed.

Click HERE To Read The Whole Article

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The winner of the "Dark and Stormy Night..." contest (also known as the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest) has been announced.

Click HERE to see bad writing at its best!

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Are teens keeping their information safe? This article gives a synopsis of a new study from  on Pew Internet & American Life Project that looked at just that issue.

Kids are pretty savvy about keeping private information secret, but as this article shows, there's still more to keeping them safe on the Internet.

Click HERE to read the whole article.

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This study by McAfee Site Advisor rates search engines such as Google and Yahoo. It describes the dangers in some of the addresses the search engines find and what the searchers are doing to combat them. Other search engines like MSN, AOL and Ask are included in the data.

Click HERE for the full study.

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This article  from Great Britain explores the explosion in laptop computer sales and the increase in back problems caused by poor posture. What's the answer? Like mom always said, sit up straight.

Click HERE for the full article.

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This umbrella has it all for the person who just can't stand to be away from the Internet.  It has a digital camera which allows you to take pictures and upload them to Flickr. Then you can look at the pictures as the underside of the umbrella turns into a display.  The umbrella also comes with a Global Positioning System system and a link to Google Earth.  Just be careful about getting it wet.

Click HERE for the full article.

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This article describes the Internet phemenon which started just 25 years ago at the National Science Foundation. From the founding of the World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee  to MySpace, this article gives 25 advances that made the Internet the tool it is today.

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Clike HERE for the full article.

If you had it to do all over again, would you do it differently? That's what Internet scientists are thinking today. The original concept of the Internet didn't include anything near what it's used for today. The possiblity of redoing the hardware and software to help it accomplish more is being discussed today.

Click HERE for the full article.

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In this LiveScience article, the science of saving computer data as artificial DNA in the bacteria bacillus subtillus (a commonly found soil bacteria) is explored.

Not only would a huge amount of data be stored, but every time the bacteria replicates itself, it makes a "backup" of the data which is stored in its offspring.

It could make today's miniature thumb drives seem gargantuan by comparison.

Click Here for the full article.

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According to scientists in this article, people in the know predict that new computer hard drives will store a terabyte of data. That's enough space to have a single song play continuously for two years without stopping. It's also enough space to store 100,000,000 reams of data (that's 50,000,000 pages) or 16 continuous hours of high-quality DVD movies. Looked at yet another way, it could store 1 million photos.

Click HERE for the full article.

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Will the change in Daylight Saving Time throw computers for a loop? This article explores the problems with the new law that changed the start of Dayling Saving Time to March 11, 2007 and ending November 4, 2007, due to the changes in the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Because most computers don't know about the change, many will have the wrong date until somebody fixes them. Will people end up going to school and work and coming home at the wrong time?

Click HERE for more details.

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According to a new British survey, people in their 60's and above now use the Internet for entertainment more than any other form of entertainment, with the most popular activity sending and receiving e-mail.

Click HERE for the full article.

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Happy New Year! While ringing in 2007 we also rang in some new state laws.

Car manufacturers have to give the owners the codes to their keyless locking devices which means you don't have to go to the dealer to get a new key beeper. The minimum wage is now $7.50 an hour. Dogs cannot be tied to an unmovable object for more than 3 hours a day. Oh, and you can't ride in the trunk of a car anymore.

Click HERE to read an article about the new laws.

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Can Blackberry and other handheld devices hurt your hands? Apparently so, if you use them too much. This article describes the problems and suggests how to take some preventative measures.

Click Here for the article.

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Thinking about buying something through the Internet? This article from the Modesto Bee describes what to expect and provides some tips for the beginning Internet shoppers.

Click Here for the article.

Click Here for the tips.

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A device found on May 17, 1902, in an ancient sunken ship, might be the world's first "computer." The Antikythera mechanism has been discovered to be a mechanical computer of an accuracy thought impossible when it was built in 80 BC. The ship carrying the mechanism was sunk around that time.  Its wheels and gears create a portable orrery of the sky that predicted star and planet locations as well as lunar and solar eclipses. The Antikythera mechanism,  is 33 centimeters high and similar in size to a large book.

Click HERE to see NASA's picture of the Antikythera mechanism and read more.

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This article from the local Modesto Bee takes a look at getting overloaded by e-mail and what to do about it.  The article takes data from the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) and offers suggestions about managing e-mail.

Click HERE for the full details of the article

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Use the computer and the Internet to help you find the best shopping deals.  This article from the Modesto Bee lists some of the more popular price comparison websites. 

Click HERE to read the full article.

Wonder what this Internet might look like next year? How about in 5 years? Ten years?

A group of thinkers has been surveyed by the Pew Internet  and American Life project have given their thoughts.

The results are certainly thought provokers. Questions like "Will English be the dominant language on the Internet," "Will more people choose to live 'off the grid,'" "Will virtual reality trump 'real' reality?" "Will autonomous machines leave humans out of the loop?" "Will national boundaries be displaced by new groupings?"

Read the survey online to find out what 742 Internet "stakeholders" came up with.

Click HERE for the full survey.

This article stresses the importance of customer service to businesses. A bad customer service incident and seriously damage a company's reputation. It reinforces that old cliche': the customer is always right - even when the customer is wrong, the customer is right.

Click HERE to read the article.

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Spammers are trying to get people to reveal their passwords and user names by sending fake layoff notices. They spoof a companies e-mail address and attempt to make it look like a real e-mail layoff notice. Once an employee clicks on the e-mail and "logs in," they're stuck and the perpetrators now have access to the company's computer system.

Click HERE to read the article

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Many Internet savvy employers are now using their skills to check out future employees by doing background checks on the web. The article suggests that when you start your job search, look at your MySpace or other publicly available information and make sure it helps you make your best impression with your future boss.

Click here to read the full article

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Click here to download Windows Defender 

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Microsoft has just released Internet Explorer Version 7. It is designed to have more protections against intruders and a "friendlier" interface. This is the first big release for Microsoft's Internet Explorer 2001 when Version 6 was released.

Click here for a description and review

Click here to download Microsoft Internet Explorer (Requires XP operating system or higher)

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A new study suggests that some people are using the Internet in ways that might be classified as an addiction.

Click here for the story.

This article explores the idea of spreading cold and flu germs by using computers and what some people are doing about it. From anti-bacterial keyboards to the germ-free mouse, at least some people are trying to slow down the cold and flu season.

Click Here For The Article

A group of technology companies in the Netherlands believes they can speed up home and business Internet connections by using the copper wire already leading into most buildings and avoiding the need to install more expensive fiber optic cables.

Click here for more

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Imagine this scenario: You turned down one job and took what you thought was a better offer from another company. It didn't work out and you wished you would have taken the other offer. Can you go back? This article from Career Journal offers a suggestion.

Click Here For The Article

This article looks at the growth of jobs in Stanislaus County and Modesto in particular. According to the Modesto Bee, the bottom line is future jobs will require at least basic computer skills.

Click Here for More

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