Given the stock market's nonsense, it's a rare person who is happy with their 401k's performance, and I'm no exception. While my return has increased a good 10 percent or so from hitting bottom about a month ago, every dollar put into my Fidelity fund through the year has essentially been turned into sixty cents. With Americans feeling the pinch and looking to preserve cash and stay conservative, Fidelity e-mailed today to say they're changing the name of some of the funds I've been part of. The main change? Removing the word "Aggressive".

As the screenshot below shows, Fidelity is changing the "Fidelity Aggressive International Fund" to "Fidelity International Capital Appreciation Fund" and the "Fidelity Aggressive Growth Fund" to "Fidelity Growth Strategies Fund".


The reason, they write in an e-mail is to "create more consistency across the equity fund product line" although no changes are expected in the funds' objectives, strategy or management, an odd note, considering the Aggressive Growth Fund is down 43.85% this year, and the Aggressive International Fund is down a similar amount.

So... should I feel my money is safer, now that the word "Aggressive" has been replaced with "Capital Appreciation" and "Strategies"? I'm just hoping this isn't the first step, leading from "Aggressive" to "Capital Appreciation" to "Maintaining" to "Losing Slightly" to "Bankruptcy Quickening".

Thanks Fidelity! Good to know my money, or what's left of it, is safe and secure.

As blogging approaches the traditional role of journalism, traditional elements of journalism, including public relations firms, embargoes, briefings, and bias are going to surface, as they have with traditional marketing, media and business for centuries. Today's flare-up, kicked off by one of the best discussion starters on the Web, TechCrunch's Michael Arrington, isn't the first time embargoes have been slammed, and it certainly won't be the last time. Back in August, I discussed why I believed the embargo process was both broken, but necessary, and Marshall Kirkpatrick of ReadWriteWeb followed on with a great take of his own.

I think the bigger issue is not that embargoes are being broken - which they are by blogs both big and small - but instead, that there are a large number of sites who act like they are the only game in town, and that they must cover every single story.

To those guys, please stop. Seriously.

In the tech blogging sphere, there is a serious echo chamber. While I look forward to banging through my Google Reader feeds every day, I can pretty much bank on seeing the same story, spun a different way, a good dozen or two dozen times by every single tech blog - even if it's clear that they are just reporting that someone else reported the news. If you see a story has been covered already and you have nothing to add - leave it alone.

Given the ease of news distribution, let's now write with the assumption that everybody reading your site is reading a few others as well. If you see a story broken by TechCrunch, or ReadWriteWeb or Mashable or VentureBeat or CenterNetworks, there's no need to pile on and become story number 18 on the topic. Let it go and write about something else - unless you have unique insight, unique quotes or access.

In my day job, I work with press releases and embargoes and reporters on a frequent basis. There is a need to be sure announcements go out when the products and partners are ready, or the customer is ready to take press calls. But Arrington is no doubt right that, as king of the hill, which TechCrunch is, some companies and PR teams are making coverage on the site practically mandatory, and near harassment of him and his team is no doubt occurring.

When trying to get coverage elsewhere, memorably one time in 2006 in Computerworld, I know I aggressively called the feature reporter every few hours until they finally picked up. After berating them for covering a competitor, and not our story, I got hung up on (no doubt deservedly so). I can only imagine being a TechCrunch reporter getting hit over and over by desperate firms, begging for coverage and honoring of their embargo.

A suggestion to those PR teams, please stop. Seriously.

Take your story somewhere else, to one of the many other tech blogs who write well, and will give your company or service its due. There are many new writers who have posts to file, and they want your story - and they will honor your requested embargo.

On this site, when I was running the whole thing myself, and now, with the great team of writers we have here, no embargo has ever been broken. On one occasion, I prematurely posted the Seesmic/Disqus integration news, having forgotten the day it was due, but I promptly deleted and reposted the next day. But one of the major reasons I haven't broken an embargo is because I strive, and ask my cohorts the same, to write things that are new. Cover new stories and new angles and be unique. If it has been covered somewhere else, let it go. We're not TechCrunch, and we're not trying to be.

TechCrunch doesn't have time for stories like Gawkk.com, which we covered last night. They probably aren't interested in stories like the one today on Resume Donkey, or Monday's announcement of Twit Or Fit. TechCrunch also doesn't have the leisure anymore of introducing great new blogs, as we do every month, or highlighting how to better use FriendFeed and Twitter, as we can. That's because they have taken on a new role, as a very real media company, and with their focus on Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo! and other big companies, there's room down at the bottom for us small fry to find the stories that are in the cracks.

It takes a different mentality to find new companies and new angles that nobody else has written before, that doesn't require a PR firm's input or embargo. And it takes strength from the PR firms to turn away from their top target and take the story somewhere else. While I don't think today's missive from Arrington will do just that, it might make some think different about the way they blog and distribute stories.

By Mona Nomura of Pixel Bits (FriendFeed/Twitter)

Yesterday, AppScout reported that the recently-released Mac OS X 10.5.6 Update is crashing users' systems. As an OS X user, I was concerned. Long ago (well, during my Windows years), I picked up the habit to wait before updating anything computer-related, and that's worked out well for me. And frankly, since switching to a Mac, I can happily report I've had no issues. Needless to say, the combinaton of "Mac + OS X + Update + Crash" in one sentence got me more than a little worried.

After reading the article, I applied the one useful thing I learned from school: question everything. So instead of looking through the comments of that piece written by people I do not know, then double checking that consensus by Googling for even more sources and view points, I asked the question on the social networking sites, specifically FriendFeed, since it is the most intuitive and easiest place to hold discussions. (for me)

I was floored by the feedback. From the mountain of responses (thanks, everyone!) two I learned something new from:

"Three systems so far. all updated fine. I used the [huge] combo updater and did Repair Permissions before and after the install" - Glenn Batuyong

"I always recommend people use Apple's Combo Updates for Mac OS X upgrades. If you own a jailbroken or unlocked iPhone I would not recommend upgrading http://tr.im/2dc1" - Vinko

Read the entire exchange here.

The best thing about the responses is this: Feedback from real people I know. Because I interact with several or all of the people who left comments on a close to daily basis, we have a rapport; a level of trust, and confidence I do not have with sites and services found via Googling.

That OS X question is not an isolated case. My social networking peers have helped me out on numerous occasions. We've discussed:

• Etiquette (What is the cut off age where it is not atrocious bad manners to get baby sexes mixed up?)
• Software (Contemplating installing TweetDeck)
• Cooking (Chocolate Cake in Five Minutes and recommendations for organic peanut butter)
• Fun facts (How fast do you read?)
• Entertainment: (What movie makes you cry no matter how many times you watch them?)
• Economical issues: (Should Costco accept Food Stamps? and the financial crisis)
• Exterminating (Operation Get rid of ginormous spider)
• Love: (Cheating and more)
• ... and of course tech goodness.

From Apple, Steve Jobs, iPhone, Windows and here, OpenID, Google, Android... and the list goes on and on.

I don't know about you, but signing up for and actively participating in social networks has been one of the best decisions I have ever made. Where else can I learn this much and amicably discuss topics beneficial to real life situations?

Now if only I can figure out how to monetize my feed...

Read more by Mona Nomura at Pixel Bits

By Mike Fruchter of MichaelFruchter.com (Twitter/FriendFeed)

We are living in dire economic times right now. The economy has been crushed, the housing market has tanked and the unemployment rate has skyrocketed. In November alone US employers axed more than 500,000 payroll jobs, the most in 34 years. No job sector is immune, Yahoo recently laid off close to 2,000 people last week. AT&T is cutting 12,000 positions. Sony is planning on laying off 16,000 workers in the oncoming weeks. The picture is not pretty, and surely is expected to get worse. Let's not talk about the big three US automakers, their fate is yet to be determined.

There is no denying it, we are in a recession. While it's going to be that much harder to find a new job in the current market, jobs are scarce but available. Having a polished and professional resume is crucial now more than ever. You are now competing against a much larger applicant pool than ever before. You may have the skills that can pay the bills, but if you have a poorly formatted resume, or it's missing the crucial components that employers are looking for, your chances of getting your foot in the door for an interview are slim at best. Now is not the time to be gambling with your resume. If you are not getting any callbacks, your resume is probably the culprit. It's imperative that it grabs the attention of the person making the hire.

Resume Donkey, an online resume review service that launched today, wants to help you stand out from the crowd. Despite the funny name, they are serious in helping you perfect and get your resume in top notch shape for potential employers. The concept is very simple and straight forward. Resume Donkey provides a thorough and detailed review of your resume, using a team of professional HR representatives, publicists and copywriters to ensure that your employment history is reflected on in an engaging, effective, compelling, and accurate manner.

The difference between a good resume and a great one is making your personal objectives stand out, clearly highlighting your accomplishments, using attention-grabbing phrases, keywords, and actions words, and of course spelling accuracy. This is what Resume Donkey does once they receive your resume. They re-craft your resume by making recommendations, revising the phrasing, revising the wording of your objective/mission/skills etc, and all of the other critical components of your resume. Resume Donkey does not write resumes from scratch, they enhance them and provide the crucial feedback that is needed to get your foot in the front door for an interview.

The reason that I like the service and would use them is simple. I'm currently looking for a new job, and my resume is far from polished. I'm tired of constantly tweaking it and hoping it will work. For someone like me, who recently became unemployed, I cant afford for my resume not to work. I have looked at and compared other resume review services, but they are costly compared to Resume Donkey. Their pricing is very reasonable, especially for someone like me now, who is trying to watch every dollar spent more closely then I ever did.

They charge half what the competition charges, $39.95 for a standard resume review with turnaround in one business week. They also offer an express resume review for $59.95, with turnaround in 48 hours. If you are not happy with the feedback, they will work with you until you are satisfied. If that's not good enough they will refund you back your money. Seriously folks, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Try them out and let us know what you think.

Read more by Mike Fruchter at MichaelFruchter.com.