IT workers are love rats… Site turns cool designs into real products… Non-English background keeps earnings down… Rememble me

• IT workers are love rats
• Site turns cool designs into real products
• Non-English background keeps earnings down
• Rememble me

IT workers are love rats

IT workers are more likely to kiss a co-worker, according to a Harris Interactive survey of 5700 US workers reported by InformationWeek.

A poll of employees found that almost half (47%) the IT workers surveyed had smooched a co-worker. Although only 163 of the 5700 surveyed were IT workers, the remarkably high 47% could just be an aberration. One the other hand,maybe IT workers are love rats.

But, unsurprisingly, all that romantic success can be pretty tiring. Again, almost half of male IT workers say they’ve fallen asleep at work, while only 35% of women admit doing so.

They are doing a lot better than US public servants, however: 64% of them admitted to falling asleep on the job. Bet they’re not getting as many kisses, either.

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Manufacture outsourcing for one

A New Zealand business, Ponoko, is offering artists and other creative sorts with a new way to turn their creative ideas into real-world objects, according to Springwise.

Users simply upload their cool design to the Ponoko website, nominate a material – various plastics and woods are available – and the company will carve them out using a laser cutter in the required size and volume.

Of course, it’s not free to use. But then it’s a heck of a lot cheaper than buying your own laser cutter. And once you’ve made your idea a reality – people have used Ponoko to create everything from pendants to coffee tables – Ponoko also helps your sell your product through a profile page to which you can add photos of the product, a description, pricing information and descriptive tags.

Ponoko also serves as an online community for the artists and designers that use it, providing a forum for the exchange of ideas and problem solving. The larger goal, according to Ponoko, is to be a catalyst that helps bring personal manufacturing of individualised products to the masses.

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Native speaking migrants earn more

Migrants from non-English backgrounds earn substantially less than those who are native English speakers, according to a report from Monash University. The report looked at 2006 census figures and found that a third of male arrivals aged between 25 to 44 from non-English speaking backgrounds reported incomes of less than $20,000 a year.

Compare that to 70% of male migrants in the same age group from the main English-speaking countries, who earn more than $800 a week. Only a third of those from non-English speaking backgrounds earn as much.

Author Bob Birrell suggests accreditation standards may not be what employers are looking for. He says employer concerns may be alleviated if English skills were better.

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Rememble me

Mashable reports that a new social networking/organisation site tool has been created that is designed to help you track the passage of your life. Rememble allows you to create your own personal timeline by entering “membles”, which can be anything from a text description of an event, to photos, messages or links.

Membles can be added to your profile directly from your computer or as an SMS, photo or video from your mobile, so your friends don’t need to wait before finding out about the latest exciting happening in your life.

They are presented in a timeline format, with each memble tag coming off having a description of what it contains and a colour code depending on the type of event described.

And best of all, sharing options can be tailored for each memble, overcoming the problem some other social networking sites have when a user wants to allow users access to some content but not others. You can also view another user’s membles, leave comments, and share them as well.

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