Innovative Resume is a web-based resume builder that enables users to create resumes without any advanced technical skills.

The creation process walks users through each step of the way, including data entry, template selection and finally the compilation of the results into an attractive looking resume that users can promote to hiring managers.

Try it for free, but pay to play

If you are serious about your job search and landing that next job, you’re probably willing to invest some time and money into making yourself stand out (or at least that’s what Innovative Resume is banking on). Users can try the service for free and test the resume building process, but will have to move to a paid plan if they want to share their resumes externally.

After 54 hours of caffeine, ideas and spinning hard drives, four startups emerged from Impromptu Studio in downtown Des Moines on Sunday, August 2, 2009.

Startup Weekend is an event where participants get together with local developers, the business class and technology enthusiasts to create ideas and start companies in a single weekend.

The Des Moines event was organized by Shane Reiser and co-moderated with help from Clint Nelsen of the official Startup Weekend organization in Seattle.

Friday night saw twenty ideas pitched, but the thirty participants narrowed the list down to four before breaking into teams and getting underway.

Startup capital and getting access to it seems to be a hot topic on TechSentry lately. And with the webinar happening at noon on Thursday, August 20 called The Cold Hard Facts on Cold Hard Cash – Accessing capital during tough times, sponsored by My.Entre.Net, the discusssion on capital is surely here to stay for awhile longer.

The webinar will present the dozens of loan programs, grant opportunities and business investors who offer capital for entrepreneurs in Iowa. As the three lead guests talk through which programs are best for what, we’ll be listening intently for a discussion around technology startups in particular.

Early this morning two top social networks (Facebook, Twitter) encountered various accessibility problems, causing social media users everywhere to panic…then to do some actual work. (That was a joke. Social media has been proven to be effective for certain businesses).

Twitter came back online around 9am, shortly after posting an update to the Twitter status blog, citing a DoS attack as the main cause of their issues.

Users were also met with error screens on Facebook, now the 4th largest website in the world. However, unlike Twitter being completely down for a number of hours, ReadWriteWeb reports that the Facebook outage appears to be intermittent and isn’t affecting everyone.

There are loads of options available to both businesses and individuals when it comes to building a web presence, but one of the more popular free blogging platform is Tumblr.com. Tumblr’s popularity comes from how incredibly straightforward their team has made it for users to create and publish content (text, photos, audio, and video) on a fully customizable site.

There are other free platforms, like Wordpress, Blogger, and Live Journal, but if you’re looking for simplicity and effortlessness, Tumblr was made for you. A “tumblog” isn’t right for every business blog, but for the shorter text posts and media-rich blogs, Tumblr will likely be a great fit.

While state authorities are busy battling cell phone use on Iowa’s highways, officials in St. Ansgar, Iowa are dealing with similar issues in their schools. Most schools have guidelines in place in regards to the use of cell phones during school hours, but recently St. Ansgar decided to take things a step further.

During its July 13 meeting, the St. Ansgar school board approved a motion to spend up to $5,000 to jam cell phone signals in its buildings. This effort was meant to aid officials in dealing with the rising use of such devices, as standard rule making and enforcing didn’t appear to be curbing student use. However, after learning that the FCC made the practice of blocking cell phone signals illegal, the school has given up on the plan.

The last Friday of July, for the past 10 years, sysadmins have been celebrated with the annual System Administrator Appreciation Day.

System administrators unpack and install the servers, set up the operating systems, run security patches, lay cable, install routers, configure networks and more, just to serve you content like the very website you’re reading.

Students on the Iowa State campus will experience university email in a whole new way this fall. Last week, after approval by the Government of the Student Body, the university signed a deal with Google to switch all student email addresses over to the Google Apps platform.

The old mail system, Webmail, will be retired in favor of the new CyMail. According to Kent Ziebell, information technology senior systems analyst, current students will have the chance to switch as close to the beginning of the fall semester as possible. Starting August 4, email addresses will be created for new students using the new system.

In the current economic climate, investment dollars seem to be shrinking or nonexistent, which can be a problem for entrepreneurs. In fact, in many cities and states it is during an economic downturn that so many startups and new businesses are created. Having some additional money to help move a project along may be just the thing entrepreneurs need to see their idea turn into a reality.

Small amounts can have a big impact

With the recent success of the Awesome Foundation in Massachusetts, I wonder why someone hasn’t developed a similar program here in Iowa. The foundation is comprised of twelve Cambridge-area trustees who have agreed to collectively put $1,000 towards “awesome” projects each month. Each investor contributes just $100 and one winning applicant walks off with a grand in their hands, ready to put the money to work.

Early last week Meredith Corporation announced it had taken a strategic stake in The Hyperfactory, the oldest and most awarded independent mobile specialist. According to The Hyperfactory, Meredith acquired a 19.9 percent shareholding in the company for an undisclosed sum.

Not just a publisher of female-oriented magazines

While Meredith is well-known for its rich catalog of publications, the corporation has been building Meredith Integrated Marketing in parallel to its print products, developing a comprehensive marketing services provider.

Since 2006, Meredith Integrated Marketing has added additional talent to its repertoire, including interactive marketing services firms O’Grady Meyers and Genex, viral marketing leader New Media Strategies, healthcare marketing communications specialists Big Communications and database strategy and analytics experts Directive.