c2 The Salt Lake Tribune BUS) NESS Monday, November26, 2001 Olympic Volunteers Get Etiquette Lesson Laid-Off Tech Workers Reviving Old Careers @ Continued from €-1 Patricia Hernas,48, was a school librarianfor 12 years before taking ‘THE WALL STREET JOURNAL an information-management job at “Wehope theselessons help them during the Olympics but 3Com Corp. in San Jose, Calif., in 1987. After being laid off in 1999, she also throughoutlife,” she said. Beames, whoal Dickson's seminar, managed another tech company’s Website. Laid off again in May, “! decided to go back to my roots.” Sheis applying to a library-science master’s degree program, with plans to work part-time at a li- more useful tips was to replace the word “block” with “street” when giving directions to a foreign visitor. Also, when giving hand directions use the entire hand instead of your index finger because pointing is offensive in rary. “T didn’t wantto spend more of my life in a company whose pur- pose is to make ... the next best somecultures. People whohavenottraveled outS. would not know these widget,” she says. “But economically, I'm starting all over.” Todd Lappin, a reporter who helped set up Guru.com, a site n't the only group polishing ational etiquette. Earlier this year the Lake Area Chamberof Commerce hosted a presentation by CultureGrams, a nonprofit Orem organization that provides information matching writers with jobs, left in February when his duties shrank after the dot-com crash — and returned to journalism. “You can’t pay me enough to be that bored,” says Lappin, 34, of his old job; he on world culture Cultur alsois providing the Lake City Hotel with inHilton format: n packets and software that nowedits for Business 2.0magazine in San Francisco. Fergus O'Reilly, a 33-year-old computer scientist from Ireland, just returned to Europe after mov- among other things will teach employees simple words and phrases in the languages ofgroupsvisiting Utah for the general manager Steve Lindburg said. sgoodman@sltrib.com Ryan Galbraith/The alt LakeTribune Olympic volunteersattend an etiquettetraining class that addresses proper waysof greeting Olympic guests. Topics included how to shake hands and make eye contact. Breanne Dickson,of Protocol Schoolof Utah, led the class. SLOCTightens Security For Computers BYALLISON LINN ‘THEASSOCIATED PRESS SEATTLE ing to California in the mid-1990s to be at “the heart of the action,” but his funding dried up. He then was laid off from anotherjob. He now is lookingfor work in Paris. — Way back in the dot-com craze, Amazon.com @ Continued from C-1 lived by the motto “get big fast.” it is morelike Theseday: “save money The renegade company that reveled in its unorthodox approachonce The Olympic computer network is responsible for managing all of the competi- tion results, such as ski race spared no expense times even’. if it figure-skating scores. It also controls an Olympicintranet site known as INFO2002. to get customers what they wanted, and meant searching a corner book store for a raretitle that was not availableon its trademark Web si hose areneatstories from a day when we were at much lowervolume,”said Jeff Wilke, Through this massive network, sports statistics go to TV commentators and sports journalists and living accom- modations are made for athletes. It also is the system that produces the credentials for chief of operations for the In- “That could be anything from taking a device offline to actually having someone investigate what anomaly has occurred,” Bussersaid. During the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics, attempts were madedaily to hack into the Olympic network. And, of course, normal everyday email viruses would SLES the system. “Like any organization, we receive e-mails that have viruses being sent without the sender knowing it,” Busser said. “But we’re updating our anti-virus software twice a day, and that will even be more frequent as we get closer to the Games.” There are more than 57,000 computer viruses_today, according to anti-virus software developer McAfee.com, and media, dignitaries and athletes attending the Games. more than a hundred new ones created every day. And the number of viruses and network attacks reported to The success of the Winter Carnegie Mellon University’s Olympics hangs on this system, which could make it a hoping to put a wrenchin the CERT Coordination Center, whichresearches Internetsecurity, more than tripled since 1999. and Wall Street is worried works. “Therewill be attempts on all fronts,” Bussersaid. “What topic right now,” said Satel President Kib Pearson. about the steepdrop in revenue we're doing is putting the ap- ternetretailer. Now, the 6-year-old com- 70,000 members of the news pany — oneofthelast-:-standing dot-com standard-bearers — is more likely to tell stories about operating efficiencies, streamlining operations and smart inventory moves. Amazon predicting lack- in its all-important holida ison fourth quarter, propriate measuresin placeto deal with it. at its books, music and video That is Amazon's core ess, and its only profit- store. Still, Amazonexecutives remain almost obsessively upbeat. Although they haven't said when they expect to make a real profit, they say Amazon is still on track to turnits firstever pro-formaoperating profit this quarter. “If the economic environment hadn't gotten so bad we actually would have been well Jeff Wilke, chief of operations for Webretailer Amazon.com,is confidentin the company’sfuture. ability excludes costs such as true profitability. For example, Amazonhad anet loss of $170 million in the third quarter of this year, while its pro forma operating loss was just $27 million. But analysts say reaching that goal could makeor break Amazon.com. “That's what investors are looking for,” 's Jeetil Patel, ‘an analyst with eutsche Banc Alex. Brown.Patelis convinced Amazonwill meetits goal, and praises the companyfor its cost-saving measures. But other industry watchers are less optimistic and the company’s roller-coaster stock performance shows Wall Street is growing impatient. Shares in Amazon dropped more than 20 percent last month after the company said revenue would be flat or grow ‘by at most 10 percent in the fourth quarter, the most imsales period for retailers. Shares, which plunged by about 70 percent in the past year, have since rebounded ‘somewhat. More worrying to analysts, in the third quarter the com‘panysaw a 12.1 percent drop in , music and video sales compared with last year. ter Games. Imagine watching nine months, Amazon has struck deals to provide the Web retail capabilities for ec*cb- though, that it will be awhile onetries to break in and a re- the end of a ski race only to part to increased sales in the before these deals turn into have the results system crash significant sponse team that goes out and fixes whatever might get in- lished companies such as Tar- Amazon. boundfrom the drop thanksin ’s used-bool tion. os has takensteps, such as price cuts improved features, to bring busi tive Jeff Bezos boasted last month. Muchofthatco: come as Amazon has becon stock options, losses from in- And it certainly cannot happen during the 2002 Win- Wilke and Risher predict, who heads the company’: Worldwide Applications Group. Pro forma operating profit vestments and restructuring an intrusion detection system to alert operators when some- things that companies cannot afford to happen.” that to the nextlevel. In the past Operating co: re down20 percent, Amazon chief execu- charges, and it is a far cry from ai ~ nd anti-virussoftware, just because of the Code Red virus. Those are the kinds of company is confidentit will re- wouldbe,” said David Risher, aheadof where we thought we The security setup is made up of three main parts: Protecting the system with fire- laine Thompson/TheAssociated Press “Security is a very hot “There have been enterprises that completely shut down for terrupted by a hacker. before finding out who won. vince@sltrib.com get, Borders and Toys 'R’ Us. Such deals take Amazon's clear strength its Internet sales: and payment technology, and its strong customer base. “We want to be the place where you come and buy anything online,” Risher says. “Thething that’s changed over the past couple years is that better at predicting what inventory it needs to buy and store, and started farming out the costly warehousing task we've realized we'd be much betteroff ifwestart to do that in wheneverpossible. partnership with others rather Now, the companyistaking revenue than by ourselves.” | rn Young University Marriott School Executiy MBA Salt Lake City & Provo Classes Salt Lake City class begins August 2002 Provoclass begins August 2003 Offers a unique education opportunity without career interruption © Capitalize on the experience of other professionals 24-month evening program for working sionals. Nationally ranked and fully accredited by the AACSB. 1 Taught by the MBA faculty onthe Jeading eg oftheifields * Requires bachelor’s degree, GMAT, and three years significant experience Demand for good business leaders always exceeds supply. Ifyou are looking to buy orsell sporting eventtickets this February, look to the NEW Winter 2002 Event Tickets section ofthe daily Classifieds. = Fe: Call 237-2000 Mya now for the future. today! Classifieds It pays to read the fine print. heSatakeBribone(2) Deseret < luste! potential target for hackers