Training for MCTS 70-640 Certification

I’ve taken quite an extended break from my last CCNA certification. After much thought, I’ve stepped back and decided to go towards a Microsoft certification. In particular, I will be training myself for the Microsoft MCITP: Enterprise Administrator.

The prerequisites for the MCITP: Enterprise Administrator are 70-640 Training, 70-642, 70-643, 70-647 and either 70-680 or 70-620 or 70-624.

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Right now I am starting off with the 70-640. At my organization we already have some Windows Server 2008 machines deployed but I’d like to get an expert grasp with this technology. I’d like to acquire more knowledge in creating solutions and deploying. The maintaining part is natural to me.

The tools I will be using to train myself for the MCTS 70-640:

* Sybex MCTS Windows Server 2008 Active Directory Configuration Study Guide by William Panek and James Chellis

* Various online material from Microsoft and Techexams

* Practice tests from the Sybex book

* Lab environment – physical or virtual

Since I do have a couple years experience working with Windows Server I will be putting myself on a fast track study guide. I plan on finishing the book and labs within 2 months and shortly after completing some practice tests I will take the real certification exam.

The most challenging part of all this will be managing time and resources. With full dedication I have no doubt that I can acquire this new knowledge and become MCTS Training and MCTS Certification certified through Microsoft.

Google’s Schmidt sees more partners for TV

Edinburgh, Scotland: Google is “absolutely committed” to its fledgling television business and expects many more partners to join it soon, Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said on Saturday.

Google TV, which allows viewers to mix Web and television content on TV screens via a browser, has received lukewarm reviews and been blocked by the major U.S. networks since its launch in the United States in October.

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Schmidt told the Edinburgh television festival its lack of success so far was partly because it was a feature designed into televisions, devices which consumers tend to replace only about once every five years.

“We’re absolutely committed to staying, to improving Google TV,” he said, adding that new companies would be joining existing partners Sony and Logitech for the next version. Logitech makes computer mice, speakers, webcams and keyboards.

“I believe that they’re both going to be on board and I believe there are many more coming. Wait shortly for an announcement,” he said.

Google has long harbored ambitions to extend its $28 billion online advertising business to the television arena, where the lion’s share of global ad budgets is spent.

It owns YouTube, the world’s most popular online video site, but has not announced any profits from that business since buying it in 2006.

Schmidt said in a keynote speech on Friday that he expected Google TV to launch in Europe early next year.

On Saturday, he said Google had not yet resolved its differences with U.S. networks ABC, NBC and CBS, and hoped the company would not encounter similar problems for its British launch.

“We certainly have talked to them about reversing their position and we certainly hope that won’t happen here,” he said, adding that Google was in talks with UK broadcasters.

Microsoft offers free Windows Phone gear to disenfranchised webOS devs

Now that webOS has zero official hardware manufacturers supporting it, Microsoft is hoping to lure webOS developers over to Windows Phone by giving them free hardware, training, developer tools, and so forth.



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This officially began on Friday with a tweet from Senior Director of Windows Phone 7, Brandon Watson. who said "To any published webOS devs: We’ll give you what you need to be successful on #Windows Phone, including free phones, dev tools and training, etc.”

Over 500 people reportedly responded to this initial message, to which Watson issued the following official reply:

"First things first. Thank you so much for reaching out to the Windows Phone team to signal your interest in bringing your talents to our platform. To be honest, we didn’t expect this level of response, so we were caught a bit flatfooted. It took a few days (on the weekend) to pull all the mails together into one place to allow me to respond in a smart way and not retype every mail by hand. Consider this a first step in building a relationship with the Windows Phone team. We are psyched to have you aboard and to see what your imagination can do on the Windows Phone canvas."

Windows Phone is currently the fifth-place mobile operating system behind Android, iOS, BlackBerry, and Symbian.

Inspector Gadgets: Windows 7 Gadgets for Monitoring Your PC

It's been nearly two years since Windows 7 was released, and yet there are still some features that Windows 7 users may not be taking full advantage of -- such as desktop gadgets. Similar to the Mac's Dashboard Widgets, Windows desktop gadgets are mini-applications that reside on your desktop and can display live data, perform simple functions like search or password generation, or give you a sneak peek inside the inner workings of your PC.

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Computerworld — It's been nearly two years since Windows 7 was released, and yet there are still some features that Windows 7 users may not be taking full advantage of -- such as desktop gadgets. Similar to the Mac's Dashboard Widgets, Windows desktop gadgets are mini-applications that reside on your desktop and can display live data, perform simple functions like search or password generation, or give you a sneak peek inside the inner workings of your PC.

Windows 7 Bible: Everything You Need to Know About Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system

Each new Windows 7 system ships with a handful of gadgets that show dynamic data such as the time, the weather and current news headlines, but there are more than 5,000 gadgets available that run the gamut from the frivolous to the essential. A few come from Microsoft, but the vast majority were written by third-party developers, and most work with both Windows 7 and Vista. All are available for download at Microsoft's (MSFT) Windows Live Gallery.

There are gadgets for gaming, monitoring online auctions, keeping up with email or social media, playing music, encrypting files and even showing the phase of the moon. More important, though, gadgets can be extremely useful for system monitoring.

In the following pages, I've gathered a dozen handy gadgets that display data about key computer operations: networking, system resources, component status, battery level and more.

While these gadgets sometimes duplicate functions provided by built-in Windows tools, what sets them apart is that they're always on the desktop in easy view. Together, they provide a wealth of information about how your computer is operating in an at-a-glance format.

The best of them go a step further by linking to key system software. For instance, with the Network Meter gadget, it takes one click to refresh the PC's IP address, saving the half-minute of clicking it normally takes to manually refresh the connection.

Like other Windows gadgets, these system monitors are small (from 26KB to around 2MB) and have a highly focused scope. Most take less than a minute to download and install and don't adversely affect the system's performance.

The best part is that they are all free for the download -- a great way to add to your system without subtracting from your wallet.

System overview

With Windows 7 having something like 15GB of software code, figuring out what's going on inside a PC is no easy task. The SysInfo and System Control A1 gadgets provide a valuable peek.

China stops fake Apple stores from using trademarks

The Chinese city of Kunming has been in spotlight for counterfeit Apple stores

The Chinese city of Kunming has stopped 22 fake Apple stores from illegally using the company's iconic trademarks after Apple lodged a complaint with authorities.

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Kunming authorities found 20 unauthorized Apple resellers, according to a Friday posting made on the city government's website. Currently, 11 of those resellers are being investigated. Two other stores were discovered for related violations.

IN PICTURES: Fake apple stores?

The city ordered all unauthorized Apple vendors to cease using the Apple trademarks by August 10, this past Wednesday. This included any decorative logos found on door entrances and clothes. All 22 stores complied with the demand.

Kunming authorities launched the investigation after Apple's Shanghai office sent a complaint about the fake stores on August 2, according to the government posting.

Apple did not respond to comment. Kunming's industry and commerce bureau could also not be reached.

News of Kunming's fake Apple stores appeared last month when a blogger posted photos from one of the vendors. The stores were built to closely match the decor of Apple's own official retail outlets, with employees even dressing similarly. The products sold, however, were said to be real.

Since the blog posting, the fake Apple stores have received unwanted attention from both the media and authorities. Kunming officials had launched an earlier investigation, in which they had found five unauthorized stores illegally using the Apple logo. Two stores were ordered to be shutdown.

Apple has become one of the most popular brands in China, according to analysts, with the company's products proving to be a hit among consumers. Last month, Apple COO Tim Cook said the company's revenue from China for this past quarter increased by more than six times from the same period last year.

But while Apple uses its own network of resellers in the country, the company only has four stores on mainland China, two located in Shanghai, the other two in Beijing. Long lines have formed at those retail outlets in the past when Apple launched its iPhone 4 and iPad 2 products, creating shortages for the products.

Microsoft Raises Exam Prices

Effective July 1, the price of many of the Microsoft certification exams is increasing. This is the first increase Microsoft has made to the program in nine years and the amount of change depends on what category candidate you happen to be. For example, a non-student U.S. resident will see prices change from $125 to $150 (a 20 percent increase), while student rates go from $60 to $83 (a 38 percent increase). The difference in percentage increases are all over the board -- in the United Kingdom, there is only a 12.5 percent increase, while exam candidates in Mexico face a 25 percent increase. The price change does not affect MTA, MCM, MCA or MOS exams.



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All exam vouchers issued prior to July 1 will continue to remain valid until their expiration date, so it is possible to purchase vouchers up to June 30 at the current rates. All Microsoft exams are given through Prometric testing centers worldwide. A FAQ about the price change can be found here http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/certification/cert-pricing-FAQ.aspx

IT Management: Leaving Microsoft: Software Giant's Key Employee Losses

As with any big company, Microsoft has seen its share of departures. Turnaround is an issue in every business and in every industry. However, if many of those who left Microsoft banded together to form a single entity, it would be enough to scare the living daylights out of many a startup or even some established companies.

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Microsoft has seen key people abandoning positions across the board—from high, C-level executives to middle managers to evangelists and strategic engineers and architects. Throughout 2010, there were several key departures, and the brain drain spilled over into this year, with some big names leaving in January. Perhaps the biggest fish to jump the net was Ray Ozzie, chief software architect of the company. Ozzie primarily made his mark at Microsoft in the cloud computing arena, but in the end he opted to exit. Ozzie leads what has been a virtual all-star team of technical, managerial and business talent to leave Microsoft over the last year or two. From Web development standard bearers to search folks, open source liaisons to database gurus, tools leaders to language geeks and consumer tech specialists, Microsoft has seen talent hit the door. However, Microsoft has a deep bench and, as in sports, when one player goes down, there is always someone else to step in and take that position. How well that replacement plays is another matter. Moreover, as veterans hit the door, significant new hires find their way in. In any event, the list in this slide show is by no means exhaustive; there have been several others to leave Microsoft’s ranks. But we thought this was at least representative of the talent to leave the software giant in recent

Microsoft Bing Must Stay the Course as Google Alternative

Microsoft Bing needs to stick around and not only drive Google to innovate, but to enjoy the fruits mobile, local and One backlash of Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) revelation that its online services business lost $2.6 billion in the last fiscal year is that it had financial pundits calling for not only CEO Steve Ballmer's resignation, but for the Redmond, Wash., software giant to dump the main culprit: Bing.





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Reuters Breakingviews columnists Robert Cyran and Martin Hutchinson July 24 called for Microsoft to shed its search business for cash. Cyran said:

Microsoft needs to concentrate on a different kind of search: finding a buyer for Bing, its online search business. Bing is the industry's distant No. 2 after Google. It has become a distraction for the software giant—one that costs shareholders dearly. The division that houses Bing lost $2.6 billion in the latest fiscal year. Facebook, or even Apple, might make a better home for Bing. A sale would be a boon for Microsoft's investors.

This prompted a public relations reaction from Microsoft, which quickly seeded The New York Times with an insider's piece on Bing. Microsoft granted the Times rare access to Bing leader Qi Lu, whom the software giant lured from Yahoo three years ago to power Bing. Lu talks about the need for a decision engine to make search more intuitive for users.

Analyst David Card, who recently became GigaOm Research's director, said ridding itself of Bing would be a bad idea for Microsoft.

"Microsoft must have a credible search-engine business to defend its core platforms and APIs, as well as keep its biggest rival, Google, honest by forcing Google to create sustainable business models in competitive markets like applications and mobile," Card wrote. "And a somewhat more successful search engine would solidify Microsoft's own ad business and open emerging revenue streams."

In other words, without Bing, Microsoft lacks the necessary firepower to counter Google online. Facebook enjoys a growing social display-ad business, but it hasn't quite taken off the way experts believe it should or will. There really are no other formidable challengers, not only to keep Google "honest," but also to keep the dominant search engine from resting on its laurels. That's prone to happen in the Internet era; see Yahoo for reference No. 1.

Indeed, Google has accelerated its pace of innovation. Perhaps Google's biggest search innovation since Bing formally launched in June 2009 came in the form of Google Instant predictive-search technology in September 2010.

Instant was first used for search results, but is now also employed for actual Web pages for which users are searching. The idea is to speed up the pace at which users search for and land on information they are seeking. Google believes this will save its 1 billion Web searchers countless hours of time.

IDC analyst Hadley Reynolds also said that Bing is better for Google, Microsoft and the rest of the world. Reynolds suggests that the reward for success—new business in software and services for social, mobile and local territory—could be bigger than Office for Microsoft at some point in the future.

"The business models may be different, more subscriptions and advertising, but the ability to provide users with an attractive and functional online experience is a constant," Reynolds told eWEEK. "They will refuse to cede this territory to Google, no matter how many mistakes like Zune and Windows Phone and their earlier Web-search products it takes to eventually gain a good, strong competitive position."

To that end, Reynolds doesn't see Microsoft shareholders forcing the company to give up their grip on future business franchises, no matter how many pundits clamor for the play.

"While Google will continue to innovate, the reason they are more focused on this is because there is a viable competitor in the market," Altimeter Group founding analyst Charlene Li told eWEEK. "Is this keeping Google honest? I prefer to think that it's serving our [consumers'] needs better."

Li—who admitted that she is a Google power user who occasionally goes to Bing for travel search, which she claimed is better than what Google offers to date—also pointed to the broad, deep partnership between Facebook and Microsoft: Facebook gives Microsoft social-network access and Bing powers Facebook's Web search, need each other.

"The social search on Bing is decent, and at some point, I expect that parts of it will show up in Facebook itself. So add Facebook to the equation, and the whole dynamic changes," Li said.

Black Hat Organizer Touts Value of Publicizing Cyber-Security Research

As the threat landscape evolves, researchers discussing their latest research and exposing vulnerabilities help organizations become more aware, a Black Hat organizer said.

LAS VEGAS—The threat landscape is increasingly sophisticated, complex and volatile, but there are some promising trends on how organizations are meeting the threat, a Black Hat organizer said as he kicked off the annual security conference.




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Organizations and international governments are now more aware of the necessity of cyber-security and are exerting a more concerted effort to protect core Internet infrastructure, Black Hat founder and director Jeff Moss said as he welcomed attendees to the conference in Las Vegas Aug. 3. This change could be attributed partially to researchers that publicize their security findings, Moss said.

“The researchers are always talking publicly about this, they are some of the few people who are actually talking out loud about what’s going on,” he said.

Historically, Black Hat was a good "proxy for a crystal ball" that revealed the "interesting things that will happen in the future," according to Moss. Organizations would say, "If that's what they're doing now, I probably should be doing something about that," Moss said.

The topics covered at Black Hat often are an accurate indicator of the kinds of exploits and threats that may be coming down the road, he said.

“Stories and talks that happen at Black Hat affected the world later,” Moss said, adding, “We have this great mirror” into the types of security trends that people are paying attention to.

The increased awareness also meant security was being discussed by senior executives much earlier in the decision making process, Moss said. It was easier for security professionals to make the case for security to the executive level since CIOs and CEOs were aware and nervous about what could happen.

“You’ve got more than enough stories now to explain to your management how (security) can be a business enabler,” Moss said, referring to the recent string of data breaches.

Organizations talking about security sooner in the process have more control over how it's implemented. “If you involve us in the decision making process we can help you. If you only call us when the house is on fire, you have much fewer options,” Moss said.

The U.S. government was also increasing international collaboration on cyber-security issues, which would help make the Internet safer for everyone, Moss said. If other international governments followed suit and published a policy document similar to the Department of Defense's Cyber-Security Strategy, than they can all start working together on "commonalities," according to Moss.

For example, if governments agree on definitions and tactics, they can work together to stop organized crime, phishing and money laundering, Moss said.

Vendors were also reacting deliberately and "intelligently" when a security vulnerability was discovered in one of their products, Moss said, noting that was a sign the software industry was maturing. "They don't have that knee-jerk reaction so much when someone points out a flaw in one of their products," Moss said.

Organizations are also taking steps to protect core infrastructure by adding security features such as DNSSec to secure online traffic. The eventual IPv6 upgrade will also bolster overall security, Moss said.

Launched as a vendor-neutral alternative to industry security conferences 15 years ago, Black Hat attracted more than 8,000 researchers and security professionals, according to organizers. The more technical and edgy DEFCon follows a week of Black Hat training sessions and briefings. DEFCon begins Aug. 5.

Windows MID has built-in phone

Taiwan-based DigiCube has announced a MID (mobile internet device) that doubles as a 3.5G cellphone. The "MIDPhone-50" uses an Intel Atom Z5xx CPU, has a five-inch touchscreen display, includes a 16GB SSD (solid state drive), and runs Windows XP Embedded, according to the company.



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(Click here for a larger view of DigiCube's MIDPhone-50)

It's been thought that phones running a desktop version of Windows wouldn't appear until next year, when Intel says it will release its "Moorestown" platform, cutting idle power consumption to just 1/10th of today's Atom CPUs. But, much like a prototype phone from BYD Electronics shown off by Intel during April's IDF in Beijing, DigiCube's MIDPhone-50 uses the chipmaker's original Z5xx Atoms, in either 1.1GHz (Z510) or 1.6GHz (Z530) flavors.

DigiCube says the MIDPhone-50 has a 1800mAh battery, which reportedly delivers a battery life of just two hours. So, while the device isn't well-suited to marathon talkers, it does provide an interesting mix of capabilities. The MID has a "voice-ready, 3G" cellular module or optional WiMax, plus 802.11b.g WiFi and Bluetooth. Meanwhile, there's 512MB or 1GB of DDR2 RAM, a 16GB SSD, and a microSD slot, according to the company.

The MIDPhone-50 has a five-inch touchscreen display with 800 x 480 resolution, a touchpad, and a QWERTY keyboard that slides out from under the display, says DigiCube. In addition to a VGA-resolution webcam, the device also has one USB host port, one USB client port, and jacks for an external microphone and headphones, the company adds.


The DigiCube MIDPhone-50 with its optional docking cradle
(Click to enlarge)

DigiCube says the MIDPhone-50, said to weigh 14.8 ounces with battery, is additionally offered with an optional docking cradle (above). It's said the compact cradle sports a VGA port, three USB ports, and a 10/100 Ethernet port, while adding just 2.2 ounces in weight.

Features and specifications listed by DigiCube for the MIDPhone-50 include:

* Processor -- 1.1GHz Intel Atom Z510 or 1.6GHz Atom Z530
* Memory -- 512MB or 1GB of DDR2 RAM
* Storage -- 16GB SSD
* Display -- 5-inch touchscreen display with 800 x 480 resolution
* Keyboard -- Slide-out QWERTY keyboard
* Wireless:
o LAN -- 802.11b/g
o PAN -- Bluetooth
o WAN -- "3.5g" module, voice-capable, or WiMax
* Other I/O:
o 1 x USB host
o 1 x USB device
o Microphone in
o Headphone out
* Expansion:
o microSD slot
o Docking station (optional), with:
+ 3 x USB
+ VGA
+ 10/100 Ethernet
* Battery -- 1800mAh
* Dimensions -- 6.76 x 3.3 x 1.0 inches (171.8 x 84 x 25.5mm)
* Weight -- 14.8 ounces (420g)



A video of the DigiCube MIDPhone-50 at Computex
Source: Jkkmobile
(click to play)


Availability

DigiCube did not release pricing or availability for the MIDPhone-50, but said the device runs Windows XP and Windows Vista as well as Windows XP Embedded. More information may be found on the company's website, here.