In the Canadian province of Alberta, the epicenter of a boom in the production of bitumen from oil sands, senior geoscientists saw a 14.5% rise in salary this year, to $231,000. When you include overtime, truck drivers in the province are earning up to $170,000.
The System Preferences application is found in your Applications folder and is also available at any time from the Apple menu at the top-left of the screen (click the Apple logo). It may also be in your Dock at the bottom of the screen - the icon is a set of interlinked cogs, like the image above.
System Preferences is the area within Mac OS X where a user can modify system settings and preferences. Mac OS X has a variety of preferences that can be adjusted to make changes to the system and how Mac OS X appears and behaves. Windows users are familiar with the Control Panel.