This has been a brutal month or so for tech layoffs. According to our Layoff Tracker, there have been 19,683 job eliminations at tech companies announced since mid-September, and we’re not even counting the 24,600 people at Hewlett-Packard who are being eliminated as a result of its merger with EDS.

But only five big companies make up more than 90 percent of the layoffs: Xerox (3,000), Dell (8,900), Yahoo (1,500), eBay (1,500), and German chipmaker Qimonda (3,000). The other 33 companies are mostly startups, and collectively account for 1,683 layoffs. Although three more companies (Sony Ericsson, Nvidia, and TicketMaster) account for an additional 1,110 job losses.

After stripping those out, you get closer to a pure number of layoffs at tech startups: 573

Online file storage and sharing service Box.net is helping to put the “cloud” in Dell’s first netbook, the Inspiron Mini 9.

With only 4GB of built-in hard drive space, Dell needed some way to boost capacity. So it placed a default Box icon on the desktop that leads to 2GB of free internet storage (twice the normal 1GB that Box provides for free).

While the actual term “digital nomad” has been around for a little while, it usually seems to fall under the shadow of the more expansive term of telecommuting. The fact is that really they are two different ideas altogether.

The idea of telecommuting has been around for almost as long as computers have been able to talk to each over a copper wire. I remember back in the days of bulletin board services (BBS) the idea of people being able to work from home was beginning to take shape. At the time, the big drawback was that the technology hadn’t advanced to the point where it was really feasible, not to mention the fact that employers were almost wholly unified against the idea.

Then along came the internet and with it increasing access speeds and more powerful machines that could handle what was needed for telecommuting to work. At the same time though, another phenomena was occurring that made the idea of telecommuting seem old fashion even before it really took off. Laptops started becoming primary machines as they started equaling everything that could be found in a desktop computer.

Tied in with that was the arrival of Web 2.0 and the idea that with nothing less than an idea and a laptop with access to the internet you could start your own web business. You could hold meetings either in a boardroom or remotely and you could then get together with your coding teams at coffee bars anywhere in the world as long as they had Internet access.

No more were you tied down to a single location if you didn’t want to be, no more did your development or business team all have to be in the same place. The days of the digital nomads had arrived and they were proving more and more that good ideas didn’t need four walls and an expensive address in order to get off the ground. Among the first to really discover this freedom of a nomadic working life probably had to be bloggers as they sat in Starbucks posting the hottest news or posting a Qik video interview they had with some young CEO over coffee.

With the rise of these digital nomads there were plenty of blogs talking about the concept, talking about living the lifestyle or how to deal with companies who weren’t use to this new style of doing things. What there wasn’t though was a service or meeting place on the Web where these digital nomads could virtually congregate and learn from each others’ experiences. Recently though this has changed, and while some might suggest it was done strictly for marketing purposes, Dell launched the new Digital Nomads community website.

There is no denying that Dell has a vested interest in launching a site like this and trying to attract all those digital nomads roaming out there, but when you actually visit the site you see very little overt Dell product tie-ins. Yes, there is the obligatory sidebar ad promoting one of the laptops but even the video in the sidebar isn’t a pushing heavy market speak production – rather it is an examination of how the workspace has changed and what these new workers are looking for in their tools. The idea here seems to truly provide these digital nomads with helpful information about their new lifestyle and reap any indirect benefits they can from the site. As Hugh MacLeod said when he wrote about the site:

The Digital Nomads blog is what I call "indirect marketing". People aren’t supposed to read it and go, "My, what a lovely blog. I think I’ll go out and buy me a couple of brand new Dell laptops". This is more of an "Alignment" play. In other words, by "aligning" themselves more with the digital-nomad crowd, they hope it’ll help them in time to create products that are more compelling and relevant to them. If you were in the computer business, you’d want to have the same alignment. "The Porous Membrane" etc. The good news is, Alignment plays can be extremely effective. The bad news is, they take FOREVER to gather momentum.

Even sampling some of the newest posts on the site and you can see that the focus is on the people rather than the product:

The Rise of the Digital Nomad – Jay White

Being a Digital Nomad used to mean either a traveling salesperson or perhaps the occasional work-at-home employee. Today, it means all of the above, but it adds a caveat that includes capitalizing on connectivity and opportunity regardless of your location. Who can respond to multiple conversations the fastest and who can create solutions and opportunity for less.

For example, today’s internet (a term I dislike) allows anyone to create the relationships needed to produce better products or services, for less. Younger generations realize this. If you and I can assemble a team, regardless of the location of its pieces, that can design, manufacture, and distribute a better widget, we’re in business. You are no longer looking local for help, you are looking in India, China, Russia – everywhere. Why work for a corporation right away when I can build one or perhaps build a niche that supports one?

12 Essential Services for the Digital Nomad – Chanpory Rith

Gmail Webmail doesn’t get any better than Gmail. It’s free and includes mobile access, POP/IMAP functionality, junk mail filtering, and oodles of space. It’ll even work with your own domain name. Each account also gets you access to Google Docs, a Web-based suite of word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation applications.

Earth Class Mail But what about your snail mail? If you’re never home, Earth Class Mail can scan your postal mail so you can view them online anywhere. Addresses are available in 20 cities including New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle.

A Mailbox from The UPS Store If missing package deliveries is the problem, then you can get a real street address from The UPS store. Unlike a PO Box, they’ll accept packages as well as snail mail. The UPS Store won’t scan your mail like Earth Class Mail, but you get a much greater choice of addresses.

Mark’em, back’em up, encrpyt’em… Do it or lose it – Philip Torrone

My laptop “sleeve” is often made from a dirty t-shirt, or if you’re hardcore… old underwear. That’s right, no thief poking around in your bag when you’re not looking is going to want to wade through what seems to be a dirty laundry collection.

Laptop bondage… I once saw someone try and steal someone’s laptop at a bar, it was in their laptop bag and when the thief tried to make off with the bag it tugged the fellow having a beer. It ended quickly, words were exchanged, large men were involved. The fellow said that he always loops the laptop bag strap around his chair or leg wherever he goes, I’ve done that ever since.

So while this might strike the more cynical bunch out there who think that a company never does anything for the good of a community the fact is that I think in this case Dell is proving them wrong. I’m not sure how this project from Dell will work out over time, but I think that if more and more digital nomads make it a go-to resource it has a good chance of succeeding.

What do you think – marketing ploy or an honest effort to provide a valuable service to a growing segment of the workforce?

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Google Mail (Gmail) is currently down. As of 5:30pm Eastern, reports have been coming in for the last 20-30 minutes. In our testing, we too see that the beta mail service is currently out of action.

Using the Twitter theorem, Google Mail users are now moving to Yahoo Mail.

The good news is that Google is classifying this outage as a "temporary error 502". I would be more seriously worried if it was a 942.1 or a 610,8. As usual, please report in if your Gmail is down. We will continue to post updates as we get them.

Update 5:40PM - We are now receiving reports that some people have access to their email while most are still seeing the error message below. Rafe Needleman of CNET reports that if you were in Gmail before it busted, you are still able to use the service.

Update: 5:51PM - Veronica Belmont notes that if you access Gmail via the HTML option, it works fine. Go go go!

More CN Coverage:
– Docstoc
– Scribd
– Twitter

Source:CenterNetworks

The news I am about to share is very exciting. I had to take a deep breath before posting this news. You ready?

Dell has selected Twitter for live Q&A during their "Global Mobility Event" tomorrow. The event will be held in San Francisco and will be live-streamed. Rather than use a chat service, Dell has decided that Twitter is the way-to-go for the event. Dell notes:

Users of Twitter…will be able to ask questions about Dell’s new products and the company will “tweet” the answers. Reporters and customers on Twitter can direct questions during the news conference to www.twitter.com/Digital_Nomads. Dell will also blog about the Global Mobility Event at Direct2Dell. Dell is among the first major companies to offer reporters and customers the opportunity to ask questions on Twitter during a live news conference."

An interactive chat would make more sense as the viewers of the event can chat in real-time. Twitter doesn’t provide this type of interactivity and instead will act more like email with the back and forth. We will watch the event live and will report back on any major announcements.

In case you are wondering, here’s my first question to the Dell Twitter account during the event, "So Dell, what’s the status of your trademark claim on Cloud Computing?"

Sam Johnston, a member of the Cloud Computing group on Google Groups found a trademark application with serial number 77139082. The application is from Dell and is for the term "cloud computing". The application was made about a year ago.  Cloud computing is as general a term these days as mp3 or floppy disk. Would anyone receive a trademark on those terms today? I guess the question is whether the term was as common when Dell initially filed their trademark application.

Cyndy Aleo-Carreira from The Industry Standard found that this is not the first time that a company has attempted to trademark the phrase. She notes, "The first trademark application was made in 1998 under serial number 75291765 by NetCentric Corporation, a company that used to provide "carrier-class Internet fax technology." The application was killed less than a year later."

I haven’t heard anyone use cloud computing and Dell in the same sentence. Companies I do hear associated with cloud computing include: our host Mosso, AppNexus, SmugVault, Wuala and Etelos on the business side. Dell should stick to making the great, really great computers they make and their awesome tech support.

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That […]

Having returned to his own company, Michael Dell has seen his namesake PC maker fall behind Hewlett-Packard and stagnate on Wall Street. So far, he hasn’t done much to duplicate fellow company-founder Steve Jobs’s stunning second act with Apple. Forbes, in its profile, seems to be hoping he will, but Dell’s own words show why it’s unlikely:

Let’s suppose you had a business you could grow from $30 billion to $60 billion by focusing only on one thing. Then you do that, until you can’t do it anymore.

Dell is speaking of the company’s direct-sales model, which bypasses retail stores — a model Dell built but is now tearing apart. Instead, Dell is now chasing strategies he formerly derided or already failed at: retail sales, cool marketing, high-end hardware, and consumer electronics. Not only do these strategies not match Dell’s strengths, but they just highlight how he doesn’t measure up to Jobs.

As it turns out, two words: […]