Eye candy can be fun sometimes, and I got a lot of pleasure watching some of the short videos people submitted for the "Best Job in the World" contest.

A total of 50 have been shortlisted to become caretaker of a tropical Australian island for six months while getting paid the equivalent of $96,000 for the privilege. Of course the contest is marketing, and very good marketing, by Queensland's tourism agency.

Since it began last year the contest has gained lots of space in the press, and resulted in 35,000 applications for the job. Out of the 50 shortlisted 10 will be chosen for interviews in Australia plus one chosen by the online voting audience.

The Australians who made the short list seem to be among the most qualified for the job, but check out the video by Mitchell, a Canadian, who wrote and performed a musical for his one-minute entry at www.islandreefjob.com

The only reason a not very good video by a Russian seems to be on top of the viewer voting list seems to be that she looks good and strips down to her swim suit. But it is all in fun and worth a laugh or two.

The videos demonstrate what a handheld and a good imagination can do once you bring them together.

Another eye candy site also used as marketing is an online game developed by Johnson Controls, to demonstrate the company's ingenuity in developing more efficient automotive products - such as car seats made out of coconuts.

This one was well spotted by the Bermuda Computer Society at www.ingenuitywelcome.com/game But it kept me from my work for at least half-an-hour as I tried to create a cart-like vehicle that could transport a load of coconuts over very challenging terrain.

I am going back to it after I finish this column while singing "I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts..."

And of course by now many may have seen the five-minute video put out by Microsoft that attempts to forecast through visuals how we may be using computers in the future. I especially like the clip of the digital newspaper.

To view, go to YouTube and search for 'Future in 2019'. To my eyes the video could have been made by Apple, which seems to have at least kicked off at least a few of the digital display technologies portrayed in it.

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If you are an IT manager searching for a more efficient way of looking after a company's resources, then consider what is being called 'managed hosting'. The term refers to outsourcing some of a company's servers and applications that you do not want to run yourself. It is kind of like a modular approach to outsourcing.

According to research by Forrester, it was the top category of infrastructure outsourcing service in buyers' plans.

Taking a modular approach allows a company to focus on the servers and applications that are crucial to a company and outsourcing those that do not really differentiate the business.

"Turning to a managed hosting provider means freeing up the capable people in your department to focus on implementing services that can really benefit and differentiate the business," Forrester says in explaining the trend in a new report.

Managed hosting is especially interesting for mid-sized companies as an alternative to IT outsourcing.

For midsize companies a few key applications allow them to compete with larger entities.

In a sense, the research shows that there is a middle ground between full outsourcing and total in house control. Managed hosting, which is now being offered by most providers, gives a company a means of managing its IT resources more efficiently while keeping control of the crown jewels.

It may also be a means for a mid-sized start up to focus on its core IT in house and bring the rest under its wings when it is sufficiently large enough to cope.

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