Over 90% of the software/ hardware professionals with whom I've worked have been excellent communicators. (The exceptions, for the most part, are people who strictly answer exactly the questions asked, as a way to rib people into better formulating their questions.) Customers, sales-clones, managers and executives should be such good communicators.

People who complain in a hand-waving way of others' "people skills" and "communication skills" are very poor at working with other people. Why? Because they lack clarity in their thinking. They can't home in on the details of exactly why they have these vague impressions and opinions.

The list Toni Bowers presents is somewhat promising. There are actually a few real jobs, and maybe even a few ethical ones, there between the lines.

I've lost count of how many web sites have been broken over the last several years by bad Javascript and .Net garbage. Perl, PHP and Python have a much better record.

Sister site BNET had a head-line about when you should tell you're boss he's wrong. D'uh. Politely tell him he's wrong when he's wrong. It's part of your professional obligations.