I want Steve Jobs job. He gets to introduce cool new techno-toys to adoring fans at MacWorld. The latest wizardry from the iconoclastic Apple? The iPhone...

It's 2007 -- the year that my passport expires. Passports last for 10 years and a lot has happened since I last renewed mine. The most significant change is the addition of an always-on radio frequency identifier (RFID) to ALL passports issued after January 1, 2007. Don't want the government -- or hackers -- to get your personal information from these chips? Read on...

I read a lengthy "analysis" at work the other day, and found it disappointing. I wasn't sure why.

In the busy office, it is often difficult to find the time to sit and talk with our customers. Even when we find the time, we may have to work around phone calls, walk-in interruptions, and internal distractions. None of these problems can undo the good that's done when we communicate interest, respect, and curiosity towards our customers and the projects they have for us. With their content knowledge and our technical expertise, we can fulfill the ideal of turning data into business information.

Given the availability of ETL applications and the sophistication of todayÂ’s large data repositories, it seems hard to fathom why data disorder is so common. There are plenty of data warehouse architects and scores of sophisticated applications. ItÂ’s not a lack of smart people, thatÂ’s for sure. What is going on???

I confess. IÂ’m a junky for the exchange of ideas that occurs on the net. I simply crave the education, information, and fresh thinking that I get from reading what others have to say. I particularly like the medium-rare thinking that gets published in blogs and recent essays.

IÂ’ve been baffled for quite some time by the job titles used for finding people like me. I call myself a business analyst or a data analyst because itÂ’s the analysis part that seems to be where I add value. After a few thoughts on job titles, I present a couple of job descriptions IÂ’ve found to illustrate the problem. It's up to you to suggest solutions.