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We've talked with experts and done the research to take the mystery out of this oft-misused piece of HR paperwork.

More followers on Twitter also means a higher percentage of your followers are probably fake accounts

PlayJam, which got Kickstarter support for its GameStick console, has delayed release of the portable device to its backers to early June from its initial April target.

The work is due next month, but you know it won't be done for three months. Now what? A group of programmers and consultants met at a recent software development conference to swap war stories and discuss management and firefighting challenges.

Cynthia Nustad, Senior vice president and CIO at HMS, also answers questions on forensics and network administration as a career path and the best programming languages to learn.

For more than a decade, Google has become synonymous with search. Despite Microsoft's well-funded efforts to get users to "Bing It," people are still "googling" with wild abandon. However, there are some signs that the company's dominance may not extend into the mobile age.

For years, Nick Brattoli had what some would consider an enviable IT job: It was steady, wide-ranging and at times, downright cushy. Working for a nonprofit mental health care organization as a Web and SharePoint specialist, Brattoli helped build the corporate intranet, trained employees and tended to traditional hardware and network support. He was reasonably paid and had ample vacation time. And the work came in fits and starts, so there was plenty of downtime.

While the economy as a whole remains slow-moving, 2013 is actually shaping up to be a year of growth, innovation and opportunity in the tech sector. That means that IT workers have good reason to be optimistic about their job prospects, and the 2013 Computerworld Salary Survey supports that: The percentage of respondents who said that the job market is poor or offers few opportunities decreased from 36% last year to 27% this year.

If you truly want to understand the chaotic nature of America's economic recovery, especially in the tech sector, think hard about three words: Quitting. Confidence. Fear.

The last time IT found itself awash in new job titles, evangelists, gladiators and gurus ruled the day.

At universities today, Cobol is mostly taught as an elective, and even then it's likely offered at less than one in four schools. There are strong opinions about whether that is the right direction.