EDITED BY TIMOTHY J. MULLANEY

An E-Test to Help Workers Evolve

Lots of web sites let workers seek jobs and companies find staffers. But Robert Waterman Jr., co-author of In Search of Excellence, thinks companies should use interactive technology to keep the people they already have.

Waterman is co-chairman of MindSteps Inc., a Palo Alto (Calif.) startup that on May 5 unveiled its key product: an interactive self-assessment test that helps workers and companies figure out what workers like doing most. Why? To match their skills to jobs they'll stay in.

Costs to recruit and train knowledge workers can reach $100,000, which explains why Hewlett-Packard Co. (HWP) and others are paying up to $150 per worker tested. Since January, 4,800 HP employees have logged on to the test site on HP's intranet. ''It's one thing for us to say [career planning] is up to you--it's another to give something to help figure it out,'' says Employee & Management Development Manager Brad Harrington. Time will tell whether clients find dream jobs close to home.

Hacker-Tracking Gets Smarter

Intrusion-detection software is the new tool in computer security. These programs monitor corporate networks for hacker attacks or inappropriate activity by insiders. But they can be expensive and cumbersome. And large networks generate so much data that no one has time to read it all.

Now, a Denver-based startup called L-3 Network Security LLC has built a better digital alarm. Here's how L-3's Retriever program works: First, it lists all the hardware on the network. Second, systems administrators tell Retriever what software is on those devices. Rather than generate simple network-wide reports, Retriever lets managers tab specific mission-critical systems for close watching. The program also tracks specific hardware and software known to be vulnerable to intrusion. The more targeted reports let managers react faster to most breaches.

Retriever is easy to set up and relatively cheap. Intrusion-detection systems can cost more than $4,500, but L-3 charges $500 a year for networks with about 255 machines.

By Ira Sager

Now the Web Can Be the Way to Mom's Heart

Today's moms may spend just as much time with briefcases as they do with blenders. So for Mother's Day, Web sites are hawking upscale gift baskets over a medium June Cleaver never heard of.

Retailers in the $40 billion specialty-food business always run Mother's Day promos, but Seattle's GreatFood.com may be the most aggressive on the Web. Its offerings range from a $14 candy basket to a $990 Gift of the Month promising a year-long parade of potables. New York's Balducci's offers a $55 Basket of Delights complete with a ''ladylike keepsake basket.'' But Net awareness isn't universal: New York's Zabar's doesn't have a Web site. Washington's Sutton Place Gourmet and Draeger's in San Mateo, Calif., have sites but no online Mother's Day pitch.

GreatFood President Bill Cuff says gifts for mothers have ''E-volved,'' proving that even as the presents children buy their moms get pricier, the kids' puns remain as terrible as ever.

By Zlati Meyer

Do You Know Where Your Kid Is Surfing?

As word of Eric Harris' hate-filled web site spread after the Apr. 20 shootings at Columbine High School, people across America wondered how the parents of Harris and fellow gunman Dylan Klebold could not have known about the site. But a new study questions whether most parents really know what their kids do online.

Market researcher Greenfield Online Inc. in Westport, Conn., says most adolescents use the Net unsupervised whenever they want. And few parents use software that screens objectionable content. Only 30% of parents aged 35 to 44 use any of several widely available programs that screen out smut and hate speech. Even fewer older and younger parents use blocking software.

Parents and children should decide together what content is acceptable, says Greenfield Vice-President Leigh-Brindeland Bell. ''I don't feel [parents] feel the need to be with their older kids,'' says Greenfield Online researcher Margot Turk, but ''that might change based on recent events.'' Whether or not the Web or any other media exposure causes violence, the Littleton (Colo.) massacre suggests that parental ignorance isn't necessarily bliss.

TABLE: Watching Minors on the Web

ACTIVITY                       AGE 5 OR     6-10      11-15      16-18
                               YOUNGER 

Kids can use Web only 
if adult is present              89%         85%       34%        5%

Parents limit hours of use       34          52        47         21

Believe kids know which
sites are allowed                23          65        68         43

Kids may go online 
whenever they feel like it       10          19        54         75

DATA: GREENFIELD ONLINE INC. SURVEY OF 541 INTERNET HOUSEHOLDS

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Bits & Bytes Contacts

Do You Know Where Your Kid Is Surfing?
Leigh-Brindeland Bell or Margot Turk, both of Greenfield Online
1-888-291-9997 (Turk) or 415-547-7977 (Bell)

Now the Web Can Be the Way to Mom's Heart
Bill Cuff, President and CEO, GreatFoods 206-322-7539

An E-Test to Help Workers Evolve
CEO Andy Chan or Co-Chairman Shirzad Chamine (650) 473-4837

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