TR Hot 5: Hiring strategy offers less, expects more

I'm Sonja Thompson with TechRepublic's Hot 5, and in this episode -- on April 2nd, 2010 -- we're going to talk about the 5 reasons why YOU should join the Robot Skeleton Army. April Fools! Now, I'm sure there are plenty of reasons to join, including late late night laughs with TV show host Craig Ferguson, the MythBusters' robot-skeleton sidekick, and these fancy t-shirts via CafePress.com -- but instead, this week we're going to recap the hottest TechRepublic discussions of the week. Stay tuned.

TechRepublic's Head Technology Editor, Bill Detwiler, received quite a few comments to his post about Albert Gonzalez, aka the TJX hacker, who pleaded guilty for stealing credit and debit card numbers. It looks like U.S. prosecutors are requesting a 25-year sentence, which is the maximum amount under the terms of these plea agreements, but Bill wanted to know if you all -- the TechRepublic community -- think this is too much, not enough, or just about right. And according to the poll results, at least at the time of this recording, the majority of respondents actually think that he should get MORE time for the crimes he committed.

However, after a little digging in this discussion thread, I saw an interesting suggestion by Palmetto. He said, "Since Albert isn't a physical threat to anyone, there's no reason to give him room, board, and medical coverage on our tax money. It would be better to simply bar from computer use -- you know that would hurt -- and give him a minimum-wage job so that he can start paying the money back." 

It was great to see so many people talking about the TechRepublic event that I officially announced last week. As I explained in the video, last year we had a gathering to help us celebrate TechRepublic's 10-year-anniversary (that makes me feels so old), but this year, we're going to have an actual tech conference with a community twist on June 30th to July 2nd. This is a free event, and we'd love as many community members and contributor writers to attend as possible, so please check out the post (which I'll link to in the blog notes) for some of the details, including discounted hotel accommodations.

Senior Editor Mary Weilage, to know her is to love her, scooped up a discussion that was started by TR member jardinier, where he asked for some sci-fi movie recommendations. Mary listed several of the suggestions he received -- they're all compact and nicely put together -- such as The Chronicles of Riddick, Enemy Mine, Logan's Run, and They Live  but if YOUR favorite is missing, we hope you jump in this discussion thread and let us know.

According to Jason Hiner, TechRepublic's Editor in Chief, "It's official. Google has stopped censoring Chinese search results." And this hot post was actually last week's The Big Question, which is a podcast series that Jason co-hosts with ZDNet Editor in Chief Larry Dignan.

Jason started off the discussion thread by asking the TR community, "How has Google's move in China affected your opinion of the company?" Now, with over a hundred comments, you can imagine that there were several different viewpoints being expressed here. For example, TR member wahmed likened Google to a big baby on steroids, but gregb argued that the real villain here is China. There actually are a lot of great posts in this thread, and if it's a topic that interests you, I highly recommend that you check it out.

And the hottest discussion of the week was a little ditty by Toni Bowers, TechRepublic's Head Blogs Editor, about a job hiring philosophy by CEO Ben Huh -- and this is the belief that you get more passionate, hard-working employees when you advertise lower pay for the position. Toni said that she gets this, but throwing out lower salaries could also attract and exploit people who might be down on their luck.

In this discussion thread, I saw a lot of "you get what you pay for" comments, but I do work hard around here! I do! Just kidding, but not about the working hard part.

Last but not least, we want to extend special thanks to the following TR members who have posted the most comments on the site over the past week: Ron K., jck, Palmetto, Oz_Media, and santeewelding.

Be sure to tune in next week for another TR Hot 5.