Top 10: Once again, worrisome financial news prevails

Start to finish, the week was full of news related to the sorry state of the global economy, with Sun capping things off by announcing it will cut thousands of jobs. Casting a little hopeful light on yet another week of dismal news was optimism from IT professionals who say that, unlike with previous downturns, they aren't being ordered to make drastic cuts.

1. Sun waves goodbye to 18 percent of workforce: Sun Microsystems is cutting 5,000 to 6,000 jobs -- 15 percent to 18 percent of its workforce -- in an effort to save US$700 million to $800 million in costs, the company said Friday, ending a week that was rife with dismal financial news for IT vendors. The company is also reorganizing its software division, with Executive Vice President of Software Rich Green deciding to take his leave from Sun.

2. Wall Street Beat: Bad news gets worse for IT: Although many believe that IT will weather the current economic crisis (see number five), that optimism didn't do much to make it any easier to stomach yet another week of dismal financial reports, layoffs (see number one) and general turmoil.

3. AMD launches 'Shanghai' quad-core Opteron and AMD bails out IT: Advanced Micro Devices launched Shanghai, its latest quad-core Opteron processor, ahead of schedule and insisted that problems with its Barcelona chip earlier this year are behind the company. AMD lost market share and credibility after bugs were found in Barcelona's cache memory, causing mass shipments of the processor to be delayed. Although at least one analyst said that the current plight of the global economy means this is not the optimal time to launch a new processor, early reviews of Shanghai were good, with Infoworld's Tom Yager saying that IT could really use the boost brought by the launch.

4. 2008 Salary Survey: IT pay takes tiny leaps: Some 7,000 IT workers responded to Computerworld's annual salary survey -- if your pay hasn't changed and your bonus has been eliminated, you're not alone. Besides providing IT salary data, the survey package of stories includes a look at hot jobs to consider, as well as ways to plump up the old paycheck.

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