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Sometimes getting layed off is a blessing. I have a friend in San Diego who was layed off just when his wife discovered she was expecting. He thought the timing was terrible. It turns out that he was layed off just in time to prevent his gross income from disqualifying him from getting help from some public assistance programs. He found a decent job within 90 days and got back on his feet.

You have to possess competency in multiple disciplines to avoid getting dumped for limited capability. I've been in the business for almost 30 years. It doesn't matter whether the problem is DOS, Windows, QNX, UNIX (Linux, HP-UX, Solaris, AIX) or some embedded, real time OS. I write applications in assembler for Intel and Motorola processors, C, C++, C#, Java, python, JavaScript, HTML, XML, XSL/XLST. Data communications in X.25, LU6.2, TCP/IP. I've had the pleasure of programming Qualcomm chipsets to manipulate the CDMA provisioning process. Current work includes creating CAN controllers on PIC18F6585 using a Vector CAN-tech CANopen stack and pairing that with a CANopen stack that runs in Linux based on tool for port, GmbH.

Keep your skills fresh. Add new ones that look like they will be in demand soon. Be ready to offer your services in a new technology. I have a Microchip ZigBEE demo kit coming in tomorrow. I'll be using that to integrate a container tracking tag with my railcar sensors. ZigBEE is a bleeding edge wireless sensor data acquisition system based on 802.5.14. The vendor creating the tag is expanding the horizons of the technology. Search for 802.5.14 on Google to get a sense of just how "on the edge" ZigBEE is.

Correction: the protocol is 802.15.4. Google hits are much better. I'm downloading the user's manual for the demo kit that is coming in FedEx tomorrow. They also have the full source code for the ZigBee protocol stack for a reduced function device or a full function device.

I'm going to take the PIC running the ZigBee stack and transceiver and connect it with a I2C link to another PIC running the Vector CANopen stack. That essentially creates a generic CANopen/ZigBee device. Some of the data will be protected with AES crypto. I hope to offload that overhead to the Linux end of the connection. Lots of extra CPU horsepower and RAM there.

Containers are the next big thing for the transnationalists, look to see efforts to streamline processing for the "global supply chain".

"Containerization was an enabler of globalization," said Lisa Schimmelpfenning, Wal-Mart's vice president for imports administration and logistics.