On January 28, I delivered my Advanced Internet Research Techniques for Accountants webcast on CPE Link from 9:00 am PST to 12:30 pm PST.   The session was attended by CPAs from all across the United States including Virginia, Louisiana and California. 

The session revealed how accountants and other professional services providers can instantly improve their online search skills, boost their web productivity and transform how they use the web in their business, career and life. 

As always, thanks to the CPE Link webcast team -- Erhan Aksoy, Sue Anderson and Leeanna Hammer -- for their superb production support.



Here's some some outdoor art pieces on display in downtown Vancouver for the 2010 Games.

On January 20 2010, I delivered two presentations -- Advanced Internet Research Techniques for Accountants in the morning and Online Productivity Tools for Accountants for Accountants in the afternoon -- at the Hilton Garden Inn Hotel in downtown Saskatoon. 

The client was the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Saskatchewan (ICAS) and the audience was Chartered Accountants and other financial professionals from the Saskatoon area.  The sessions were high energy, the participants enthusiastic and the venue excellent.  A presentation trifecta! 

Thanks to the all attendees for their insightful questions and positive feedback. I had a great time and hope to return soon to Canada's sunniest province.

Major kudos to Shelley Thiel, Majken Wagar and the outstanding professional development team at the ICAS for their superb job in organizing and promoting the learning event.

It's 3:30 am.  Do you know where your Advanced Internet Research Techniques presenter is? 

Why he's in beautiful Saskatoon and preparing to deliver two presentations today -- Advanced Internet Research Techniques for Accountants and Online Productivity Tools for Accountants.  The client is the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Saskatchewan, a prestigious accounting organization that represents more than 2,000 Chartered Accountants and students in the Province of Saskatchewan.  The image is the view from my 12th floor hotel room at the Hilton Garden Inn in downtown Saskatoon. 

According to CNET, Google is investigating whether employees in its China office were involved in the attacks on its network that led to theft of intellectual property.

I discussed this very scenario three years ago in a forum on Google Blogoscoped, a leading Google blog.  I noted:

Google could be the victim of political or corporate espionage or sabotage. It’s not unreasonable to assume that numerous governments around the world (US? UK? Russia? China? Iran? Israel?) and leading multinationals already have spies or moles embedded undercover in Google. Some of the agents may be benign, but some may have agendas either bad or good depending on your perspective. Chinese agents, for example, could scan through Gmail and Google Docs and Spreadsheets to look for dissident activity. American agents could be looking for evidence of terrorist cells and operations.

In a January 18. 2010 Google Blogoscoped forum, I wrote a follow-up posting:

It appears Google has concentrated almost exclusively on containing malicious software and other external threats and perhaps overlooked and underestimated "the enemy within": rogue Google employees engaged in subterfuge right under their noses.

Pardon my histrionics, but this reminds me of that scene from the Quantum of Solace when Mr. White boasts "the first thing you should know about us is... we have people everywhere." Then M's own personal bodyguard pulls a pistol and opens fire in the room.

How many "Mr Whites" and "M bodyguards" now work for or with Google? And not just from China but other countries as well?