Stories by: Bill Snyder

It's not a myth. The technology industry is in the midst of a hiring surge stronger than any we've seen since the days of the dot-com boom. InfoWorld's interviews with economists, technology executives, job seekers, and hiring board managers indicate that employment in the tech sector is up a solid 10 percent this year -- by some bullish estimates, closer to 20 percent. And despite the tendency of the media to fixate on California's Silicon Valley, the hottest job markets are in places like New York and Washington, D.C., where firms in financial services and the federal government hire droves of IT hands.

Figures don't lie, the old aphorism goes, but liars can figure. And after nearly 20 years covering technology, I've realized that you could update that saying to: Benchmarks don't lie, but liars can benchmark.

If you're really on top of your money, never run up balances on multiple credit cards, don't miss payments and never bounce checks, you probably don't need the new version of Quicken, the popular personal finance software program from Intuit. But if you, like me, could use a little help, Quicken 2012 has a lot to offer.

It isn't often that software companies listen closely to their customers. Sure, every software exec I've ever met pays lip service to that, but few actually do it. So it's great to report that the Mozilla Foundation, which publishes the Firefox browser and the Thunderbird mail client, is responding to numerous complaints that its rapid upgrade cycle is causing big headaches for users.

I'm not cheap, exactly, but I do love to find a bargain. So when I'm thinking about a vacation or a business trip, I search the Web for the best airfare. Since I'm going to Chicago next month, I thought I'd try out Google's new Flight Search feature and see how it stacks up against Kayak, which is generally considered one of the best air fare finders on the Web.

If you read much about tech, you've undoubtedly been told by some snarky writer that if you're not headed for the cloud, you're hopelessly unhip, behind the times, and probably overweight. You know -- the cloud, that repository of all things digital contained on giant servers owned by someone else out there in cyberspace.

Over the years, I've had plenty of beefs with Microsoft software: It can be buggy, it's bloated, it attracts viruses like candy attracts flies and it nags you more than your Mom ever did.

School is just about to start, and if you have a kid heading for college you're probably grimacing at the thought of all those bills. You're on your own when it comes to soaring tuition and housing costs, but there are ways to spend less on your student's technology needs while still giving them what they need to succeed.

I've said it before: I'm a world-class pack rat, at least when it comes to my digital life. With several thousand emails on my hard drive, not to mention thousands of documents, photos, and music tracks, you might think I could never find anything. But I can.

I don't think of myself as having a particularly addictive personality. Yeah, I'm a bear without my morning coffee and quitting smoking was tough, but am I addictive? No way.