FightAfter combing through the document, my math shows Microsoft MCTS Training on the hook for up to $4.49 billion including a half billion in legal fees. (Interesting note: legal fees were roughly double over the year prior’s fees). That means that Microsoft had to allocate 7.2% of its hefty 2010 revenues ($62.5 billion) to payouts. To be clear, it hasn’t actually lost that much — this is the total sum it could lose if all the pending lawsuits went against it.

It got me thinking. For all the grief and hubbub Microsoft gets over its patent portfolio — is the company making any profit on its IP licensing agreements? There’s no way to know, but I’m highly skeptical. More likely is that any income Microsoft makes from cross licensing, and RAND royalties goes right out the door to pay for losses. Microsoft doesn’t break out revenue from such agreements in its SEC forms — and in most cases, doesn’t disclose the dollar amounts from individual deals either — so I admit I’m only guessing that it isn’t collecting $2-$4 billion annually on settlements and royalties.

One might claim that Microsoft deserves to lose these sums of money, as it has a long history of taking the intellectual property it wants – and the largest bulk of loses came from suits that claimed it was engaging in anti-competitive behavior and/or overcharging customers.

On the other hand, we’re also talking about 50 remaining patent infringement cases which, if all went bad, could cost the company the better part of $1 billion. Some examples include a suit filed by so-called patent troll NTP (the company that won against Research In Motion), and a suit from a Wisconsin ophthalmologist over Zune’s “buy from FM” feature.

In recent years, Microsoft has earned the reputation of being the aggressor in patent infringement lawsuits. I think this is overstated, stemming from a lot of loud mouth claims by its top executives, the uproar over the Tom Tom case in 2009 and that its other suits have been fairly high profile. But they have also been relatively sparse.

In 2010, so far, we have had the much ballyhooed Microsoft case against Salesforce.com (in which both parties settled, with Salesforce agreeing to pay Microsoft an undisclosed sum). But mostly, Microsoft announced cross licensing agreements, such as one from HTC for Android. We had a similar one from Panasonic for exFAT and one with Amazon for Kindle. A less flashy deal was a licensing agreement with Tuxera, the Finnish company that created an open source driver for Microsoft NTFS (the NTFS-3G) for exFAT. The Tuxera deal likely won’t generate tons of cash, but it stems from the fact that Microsoft managed to get exFAT embedded as part of the new SDXC specification. The Redmond company will collect royalties (perhaps a few cents each) on all SDXC memory cards and devices, and that could add up.

Even so, when it comes to patent infringement, Microsoft MCITP Certification is more likely to be the victim than the bully — at least in terms of the number of lawsuits per year. The obvious and much stated conclusion is that the patent system is insane — and Microsoft should spend a portion of the money it spends defending itself fighting that system. Instead it has done an about-face since Bill Gate’s sentiments in 1991 condemning software patents. But The most recent best hope went up in flames earlier this year. The Bilski ruling reaffirmed software patents instead of squashing them. So I suppose there’s little point in wailing about that anymore.

Other than calling payouts “a cost of doing business” what other option does Microsoft have but to try to collect on intellectual property on the one hand, while paying damages with the other? And if that’s the case, will we see a Microsoft that becomes more aggressive to collect on intellectual property? I fear so.

Skype 5.0 beta 2 runs on Windows and includes an updated user interface, the company said on its blog. The release doubles the number of people that can be included in a group video call from the five people allowed with Skype 5.0 beta 1, released in May.

best online Microsoft MCTS Training, Microsoft MCITP Certification and more at certkingdom.com

Skype said the 10-person group video calling feature is being offered as a “free trial,” suggesting users will eventually have to pay for the feature. To use the 10-person group video call feature, all participants in the call must be using Skype 5.0 beta 2. The company did not say when the feature would be available for Mac versions of the software. However, the company earlier promised group video calls for the Mac before the end of this year.

Skype does not currently offer a beta version of its software for Mac OS X

The announcement of the 10-person group video call feature comes as Skype, which is preparing for an initial public offering, faces new competition from Google, which added a feature to its Gmail service that allows users to make calls to phones. For now, Google is allowing users to call phones in the U.S. and Canada for free and charges a fee for calls to other countries.

Skype allows users to make free calls between computers and some handheld devices over the Internet, but charges a fee for users to call phones using its SkypeOut service. Video calls between computers made using Skype are free.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.

The certification qualifies a person to analyze the business requirements and find solutions in information systems, and the individual is able to design and implement the infrastructure required. MCSE is available in two streams Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003. Both the streams have different sets of examinations. The certification is suitable for most engineers and analysts and is especially suitable for systems engineers & analysts and Network engineers & analysts.

The objective of MCSE is to provide the individual with knowledge such as:
Pin pointing the tasks involved in supporting Windows 2000/2003 networks.
Knowing the network concepts and how to implement it in Windows 2000/2003.
Gaining the knowledge of how to configure Microsoft Windows 2000/2003 Professional on stand-alone computers and on client computers, and to install configure windows 2000/2003 Server.
Gain the knowledge and skills in designing a Microsoft Windows 2000/2003 directory service and infrastructure.

MCSE Windows 2000

For MCSE 2000 certification the candidate has to pass seven exams.
The exams include four operating exams, one design exam and two electives. The subjects span syllabus such as installing, configuring and administering Windows 2000, implementing & administering Windows 2000 Network and Windows 2000 infrastructure.

MCSE Windows Server 2003

For MCSE Windows Server 2003 certification, the candidate must qualify seven exams. The exams include four networking exams, one client operating system, one design exam and one elective exam. The syllabus includes network infrastructure & security, SQL server, active directory, Microsoft products etc.

TRAINING

MCSE training is very intensive, time consuming and requires a lot of hard work. Many aspirants are not able to appear exams in the stipulated time. There are many ways to prepare for the examinations such as MSCE classes, boot camps, online study guides and practice exams. Many candidates prefer to approach local MCSE training centers. These training centers help the candidates in course work and practical sessions professionally and help the candidates in exam and career oriented study.

The candidates must be aware of the practical applications, Microsoft products and services since the aspirants face multi-level testing on design implementation and administration skills in Microsoft Windows platform.

BENEFITS OF MCSE

MCSE is the most specialized certifications available today. It provides industry recognition and expertise in Microsoft products and technologies. As per Fairfield Research survey on MCSE, the certification provides a 12.6% rise in salary on an average. MCITP Certification holders can also directly access technical and product information from Microsoft through the MCP Member site. There are spinoff benefits such as invitation to Microsoft conferences, technical training sessions and special events etc.

First of all, do you have any prior experience in the business world? If so, no matter what you decide to do, whether it is MCSE training or MCP training or anything else, you will be ahead of others with no prior professional expertise. However, if you choose to make a career change that is a complete 180 degrees from what you are doing now, you will have some trouble finding gainful employment without some concrete experience.

For instance, if you are an Administrative Assistant and decide to go for a Microsoft Certified System Engineer, better known as an MCSE, you need to have some practical experience (the basic requirement is about a year of previous experience) under your belt before even starting your MCSE training. How could you go about doing that? You have several options. Find a mentor. Maybe another person within your company who has an MCSE could give you pointers and some on-site knowledge into his job. Volunteering through a nonprofit or some other community organization could net you some valuable experience. Serving as an intern, whether paid or unpaid, is another option.

volunteer position or an internship also is beneficial for those people with a fresh Microsoft certification but no practical, hands-on experience. Practically every nonprofit organization or community group has computers. Some of them are small groups and others have computer labs (perhaps state-run job placement places) with no budget to hire full-time staff. You have got to think outside the box for ways to gain that practical experience.

Networking mixers or social time is another great idea. You can mingle with professionals in the field you are trying to break into and find out about their internship opportunities. It is the perfect venue in which to sell or market yourself. Check out your local Chamber of Commerce for any local trade organizations in the prospective field as a starting point in this networking endeavor. Many times, you can find out some priceless information about the ins and outs of your potential area of certification. Learning from the experts could be an eye opening experience for you. Heck, you could even change your mind from braving those MCSE boot camps and the seven tests for MCSE exams. Isn’t it better to gain that insight before you spend the time and money?

Once you have completed your certification, whether it is navigating through MCP courses or any other Microsoft certification, be prepared to start from scratch in your new endeavor. Just remember, anything having to do with technology will change again in a year or two, so you have to keep up with new trends and that means continued instruction. As long as you travel the Microsoft MCTS Training route, you’ll be successful.

The San Jose Mercury News reported Thursday that about 400 Yahoo engineers are moving from Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo, just a few miles up U.S. Highway 101 to Microsoft’s campus in Mountain View, while others are transferring to Microsoft MCTS Training outposts in Bangalore, India, Burbank, Calif., and the Microsoft mother ship in Redmond, Wash.

The two-companies have a mid-October deadline to get systems and people in place for Microsoft’s Bing search engine to power search results for Yahoo in an effort for the two search players to take on search revenue leader Google. Google holds a commanding 62.6 percent of the U.S. search market, based on figures released July 13 by comScore, compared to Yahoo’s 18.9 percent and Microsoft’s 12.7 percent. While those shares are based on number of searches, not revenue, it’s not hard to see where the money is going.

Globally, Google’s market share is 85 percent, according to Netmarketshare, while Bing and Yahoo are in the single-digits. However, a Microsoft official told me at a Bing search event last month that Bing is only available in a handful of countries outside the U.S.

The transition is going “as well as could be expected,” the Merc reports, adding that Yahoo says that all of its search traffic, apart from paid search, could be powered by Bing as soon as the end of August. However, if all other aspects of the transition aren’t in place by mid-October, the switchover might not be complete until 2011, which would deprive the alliance of the opportunity to maximize search revenue during the lucrative holiday season, the paper noted.

The alliance between Microsoft and Yahoo was struck in late 2009 after Microsoft’s failed acquisition of all of Yahoo. Under the terms, Microsoft MCITP Certification will maintain the infrastructure to handle search queries on both Bing and Yahoo. Yahoo will handle premium search ad sales for both sites while Microsoft will continue its own self-serve advertising and display advertising operations, according to a story posted on Network World when the deal won regulatory approval back in February.

Also, Bing will not have to add a ! to its name.

It will be interesting to see how Bing and Yahoo influence each other’s sites. While Bing — the extreme makeover of the MSN.com search engine that preceded it — still pales in comparison to Google in terms of traffic, it has generated buzz with innovation.

Microsoft executives, at the Bing first birthday party I attended in San Francisco, demonstrated how Big is “history aware,” in the words of Harry Shrum, part of the Bing team, in that it tries to anticipate what the user is searching for based on what it previously searched. The team also explained Bing Mobile innovations they’re designing for Windows Phone 7, and other features of Bing Maps.

As a way of illustrating that Bing — and Bing with Yahoo — could force Google to look over its shoulder at what’s gaining on them, there is some evidence that new Google features seem to mimic Bing’s. Better yet, Google also appears to have tried to mimic Bing’s practice of placing large, vivid photographs on its landing page, but then decided against it.

Janco pegged IE’s market share at 66.07 percent in August, down 4.54 percentage points from 70.61 percent in August 2009. That’s actually more generous than share numbers from the often-cited Netmarketshare, which put IE’s share at 60.74 percent in July, its most recent report. IE recovered in June from a dip below the 60 percent percent mark in April and May, according to Netmartketshare.

But while that uptick might offer Microsoft some temporary relief, Janco’s historical view is that “Microsoft’s browser market has continued to decay.” To be sure, IE has seen better days such in early 2005 when it had 90.61 percent share. Free and open source Mozilla Firefox was just a puppy in 2005 with a 4.44 percent share and Google Chrome was two years away from being launched.

This month, Firefox is at 18.6 percent and Chrome at 6.24 percent but they each have their own sets of issues in Janco’s view.

Firefox grew only slightly from 16.23 percent in August 2009 and had been as high as 21.23 percent in January of that year. Janco notes: “The novelty and uniqueness of its features have worn off and have been duplicated by IE … and Google Chrome.” The Mozilla Foundation released a beta of Firefox 4.0 in July.

Google Chrome has got the strongest momentum, doubling its market share this year from 3.19 percent last year. But Janco says one factor limiting Chrome is that it doesn’t work on all sites. Janco didn’t provide further details on that in the limited free version of it’s white paper; more information is likely in the paid version. Google released a beta of Chrome 6 Aug. 12.

All of this brings us to IE 9, a beta version of which Microsoft will unveil at an event Sept. 15 in San Francisco. Janco lauded IE 8 as being “feature rich and a step ahead of the other browsers,” but withheld judgment on IE 9, which is only available today in preview mode.

The fact of the matter is that the browser market has changed permanently since IE’s days of 90 percent plus market share, when Netscape was beaten by Microsoft’s competitive practices — practices ruled an illegal monopoly by the United States. Today, Firefox and Chrome are entrenched competitors, despite their own issues, along with Opera, Apple’s Safari and others.

Initial reports are positive about IE 9’s potential as a faster browser than IE 8. But it’s going to be under a lot of pressure to get Microsoft MCITP Certification browser market share numbers headed in the right direction.

1.Integration Manager. We understand that most of Great Plains Technical Consultants know how to setup simple integration, where the source are text tab or comma delimited files, including building document header by grouping text lines (by document date for example: General Ledger Transaction, Sales Order Processing Invoice, etc.). However, we saw pretty tough situations, where Dynamics GP integration consultants had hard time in complex data conversions, where transactions and master records are in SQL tables or ODBC compliant databases: Oracle, MS Access, Pervasive SQL/Btrieve, Ctree, MySQL, or when they are exported into very complex text files (where you have to weed out formatting lines, as reports are exported in human readable format, which is not something that text integration accepts without data massage). Good advice in our opinion in such scenarios is to import these text files into MS Excel, weed out formatting lines and then import the data into staging MS SQL Server tables. Then you create SQL View to pull data from staging tables and use it as a base for Advanced ODBC Data Source. We had cases, where we were able to import up to the whole year of mid-size company GL transactions via that method. We would like also to share IM ongoing and close to real time integration methodic via Integration Manager. If you have in-house programmed ecommerce website application, which requires close to real time or batch mode integration to Sales Order Processing (customer orders, invoices and returns) and new customers creation (where transactions are coming from Linux/PHP/MySQL based ecommerce application) – consider either exporting transactions in text file or even establishing ODBC connection from Dynamics GP hosting MS SQL Server to MySQL via Linked Server mechanism, and schedule IM Integration to run every 20 min or few hours via Windows Macro third party add-ons. We know that for some of you these complex technical passages might be too deep, but our mission here is to let you (as struggling ecommerce programmer) know what is possible with Dynamics GP ecommerce integration. And finally, the last observation, before we move on to eConnect technology, please know that IM for GP version 10.0 is available in two connection blends – traditional OLE Server and eConnect connectors. eConnect connectors are faster by their technology architecture and technically you may be achieving the same results as if you are programming eConnect directly from your ecommerce web application, where the advantage of Integration Manager is apparent – it is user friendly in integration design and doesn’t require programming (except simple VBA scripts, or data translation tables, which could be composed in MS Excel)

2.eConnect Integration Programming. eConnect was introduced for Dynamics GP version 7.5 and 8.0 as the Software Development Kit, initially dedicated to eCommerce software developers. eConnect was under certain evolution for Dynamics GP versions 9.0 and 10.0, where it was adopted as integration technical platform strategy (and it was announced by Microsoft MCTS Training Business Solutions that eConnect should replace earlier integration platforms: Integration Manager, Dexterity – as middle tier). And now as we are writing these lines (October 2009), eConnect is triumphing among Dynamics GP integration low level technologies and connectors. eConnect technology is in fact simple – it is the collection of SQL Server encrypted stored procedures, replicating Great Plains Dexterity Dynamics GP business logic (often in Object Oriented Programming style, and this is good improvement to Dex, which is not technically Object Oriented Programming compliant with some exceptions). In our opinion eConnect came to its maturity as reliable Dynamics GP ecommerce and generic integration Software Development Kit with Great Plains Dynamics GP version 10.0 and probably 9.0. If you got certifications and experience as Microsoft .Net VB or C# programmer, you should find very useful code samples and prototype Microsoft Visual Studio eConnect projects: Dynamics GP Sales Order import, Customer import and update (including addresses) to give you start up ideas

3.Dexterity integrations. Dex is capable to do the ultimate and the most complex programming surgery in Dynamics GP system environment. If Integration Manager and even eConnect don’t do the job or incapable to do the job (and this is possible as these tools have natural limitations). However, please recognize the challenges of Dexterity. In Dynamics GP realm there are no limits to Microsoft Dexterity customizations, and if you contact with Great Plains Dexterity programmers (who have access to Dexterity Source Code and have experience in Dex source code programming), please go ahead to evaluate these channels. The only advise we would like to feature here is fact that Dexterity requires too long learning curve for newcomers, and it is not recommended for small or mid-size companies IT department to do Dexterity custom programming inhouse

4.Direct SQL Data Feeding. If you are experienced Microsoft SQL DBA, please review Dynamics GP Tables Structure Tools->Resource Description->Tables (or install Dynamics GP SDK from DC#2, where tables structure is formally documented). We would like to make comments and recommendations, before you try direct SQL data feed via SQL Stored Procedures. Please, consider the fact that eConnect is already doing this job via its methods and Stored Procedures. Also take into consideration the fact that Dynamics GP business logic and data flow is quite complex and it is unlikely that you can do imitate this logic in couple of day, couple of week or even in couple of months. If you have unlimited IT budget, then please disregard and go all the way through until you consider yourself experienced eConnect programmer with comfort to send records directly to Dynamics GP tables: GL10000, GL10001, SOP10100, SOP10200, SOP30200, SOP30300,etc.

5.Great Plains Integration options for Old GP versions: 8.0, 7.5, 7.0, 6.0, 5.5, 5.0, 4.0 and Great Plains Dynamics on Pervasive SQL Server 2000/Btrieve and Ctree. If you are on archaic version, it is unlikely that you can get support directly from Microsoft MCITP Certification Business Solutions Dynamics GP subdivision (as you are likely not current in MBS annual enhancement program)

6.Great Plains Accounting for DOS, Windows or Mac integration options. GPA has its own integration module, and if this is your Corporate ERP, please contact us separately, we have access to GPA knowledge base, inherited from Great Plains Software – if your case is known and documented (plus if you can recognize your problem in GPA after 10+ years of GPA and Dynamics GP Consulting), we are uniquely positioned to support Great Plains Accounting for DOS, Windows and Mac: 9.5, 9.2, 9.1 or earlier versions USA and Canada nationwide and internationally most likely Central, South America, Mexico, Caribbean, Pacific, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Pakistan, Casablanca, Agadir, India, Bangladesh)

7.Unicode characters integration notes. Great Plains Dexterity doesn’t support hieroglyphs: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian, Thai. All we can do for you is enable hieroglyphs in Crystal Reports or Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services (often abbreviated as SSRS)

8.Dynamics GP Great Plains in Russian Federation, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Poland, Czech republic, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Georgia, Armenia. Great Plains Software tried to market and localize Great Plains (version 4.0 and 5.0) in Common Wealth of Independent States (most of the former Soviet Union territory, except East Baltic States) . When Great Plains Software was in its order acquired by Microsoft Business Solutions, MS recommended Navision as the Corporate ERP of choice back in earlier 2000th, and later on MBS localized Axapta Microsoft Dynamics AX for most of Western, Central and Eastern European Corporate ERP markets. To avoid further complexities, we recommend you to chose SAP Business One in former CIS, Baltic States and in Arabic World as good local branch Corporate ERP, which has simple integration tools and options to your Dynamics GP ERP in the headquarters

9.How to get help? Please, feel free to call us: 1-866-528-0577, outside of USA: 1-630-961-5918 or email us help@albaspectrum.com We are very technical and real Dynamics GP Dexterity, SAP Business One SDK and Microsoft CRM programming gurus. We have Great Plains Software Development Factory and could support unlimited Dynamics GP Customization and Programming needs. Plus we speak English, Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Russian, and not only as native speaking sales folks, but as real technical consultants. If you prefer skype: albaspectrum

This small publication is intended to current Microsoft MCTS Training Dynamics GP Great Plains customers, who are expanding internationally and would like to choose ERP system for relatively small foreign subsidiary. As you know Dynamics GP is localized in English speaking countries (including South East Asia, where English is the used in business), plus in Quebec (in French Canadian), to some extent in Spanish speaking Latin America and Caribbean states, Oceania. There is good support for Arabic in GP (with some options for Dari and Persian as alphabet is the same). If your subsidiary is located outside of the area, especially if you need hieroglyph characters support (China, Japan, Korea), or support in Russian, we recommend you to consider SAP Business One. You can host both Dynamics GP and SAP B1 on the same SQL Server with SB1 version 8.0 (2005 and 2007 versions had A and B releases and you normally would install them on two separate SQL Servers):

1.Corporate ERP localization. It has two aspects: local language adoption (screens are translated, plus you can enter documents in local language) and compliance to local legislation (tax reporting, invoice required fields, etc.). Localization is especially complex and important in lager countries, such as Brazil, Russia, China, India, Japan, France, Germany. It would be too complex to localize in house such application as Microsoft Dynamics GP for your Branch in Brazil (where Microsoft Business Solutions doesn’t have localized GP version, instead you can get Brazilian Dynamics AX Axapta, or NAV Navision)

2.Dynamics GP and Unicode language support (Chinese, Japanese, Korean). Dynamics GP Dexterity string resources do not support hieroglyphs (however Arabic alphabet is supported, even if looks complex to you – it is formalized in 2 bits ASCII codes table). This is why you cannot translate GP screens to Chinese (with some exception – if you place graphical pictures on the screens to represent translation)

3.SAP Business One Internationally. This small business Corporate ERP and MRP application supports Unicode and is available in China, Korea, Japan, Russia, most of Latin America, most of Europe (except some of East European countries, such as Latvia, Lithuania, etc). Historically SAP Business One is not available in Arabic speaking countries

4.How Dynamics GP and SAP Business One can communicate to each other? Well, both are available for Microsoft Windows Server and MS SQL Server 2005, 2000. In SAP B1 you can export virtually everything to Excel (or extract new documents via SQL Select statement directly in the company database for those who is more SQL savvy). In Dynamics GP you can import virtually everything via Great Plains Integration Manager (or program integration in eConnect SDK). Also, you can organize GL transactions level consolidation from SB1 foreign branch GL to mirroring Dynamics GP company (scheduled IM jobs)

5.IT support for GP and SB1 in Headquarters. Both Dynamics GP and SAP Business One could be enabled for remote users via Terminal Server or Citrix. This method allows you to serve both applications centrally in Headquarters (DB Backup and Recovery, Service packs and patches, Customization management, version upgrades). Let’s say, if you are VP IT, and your company has facilities in China, Germany, France, South Korea, Brazil – you do not want each office to have its own IT infrastructure to support their own SAP Business One Servers (or maybe you instead prefer the challenge to fly out internationally on regular base?). Plus, if all Accounting databases are located in Headquarters – you have tighter control over consolidated financial reporting (Balance Sheet, Profit and Loss, Cash Flow Position, GL Trial Balances)

6.Other options for corporate ERP in foreign countries. In Brazil, consider also such applications as Microsiga, or in Russia 1C Bukhgalteria. These locally developed and supported accounting platforms are often preferred by local CFO and Controllers. The drawbacks might be complication to audit these systems from US and host them in US Headquarters, but we certainly recognize these and similar Corporate ERP applications pluses, and if you need help in implementing them, feel free to check with us

7.If you would like to stay on Microsoft Dynamics platform. Microsoft markets Microsoft Dynamics AX or formerly known as Axapta internationally. AX is very flexible and powerful. It might be geared toward larger companies, but this might be just our opinion. We support AX in Brazil, check with us for options and prices. We definitely recommend Microsoft CRM for all the countries as very elegant CRM solution. Microsoft Dynamics CRM has web based interface and could be accessed from any part of the Globe, assuming that remote user has internet connection. In many European countries you can also consider Dynamics NAV or formerly known as Navision

8.Last fling on multinational firm Corporate ERP. There are countries, where Corporate ERP brand names, such as Microsoft MCITP Certification or SAP are not currently present with localized version (Afghanistan, Republic of Georgia, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbajan for example). If you have funded project for Corporate ERP implementation, you should consider some elements of in-house localization (especially considering the fact that these countries are trying to be reasonably compliant to international GAAP)

9.How to get help? Please, feel free to call us: 1-866-528-0577, outside of USA: 1-630-961-5918 or email us help@albaspectrum.com We are very technical and real Dynamics GP Dexterity, SAP Business One SDK programming gurus. We have Great Plains Software Development Factory and could support unlimited Dynamics GP Customization and Programming needs. Plus we speak English, Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, and not only as native speaking sales folks, but as real technical consultants. If you prefer skype: albaspectrum

The USB rootkit hole is a vulnerability in Windows Shell, allowing attackers to infect systems through hidden files on USB drives or shared network files.

“An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the local user,” Microsoft said in its patch notice. “The security update addresses the vulnerability by correcting validation of shortcut icon references.”

Microsoft to issue patch for dangerous USB rootkit hole

Most customers have automatic updating enabling and thus will receive the update without taking any manual action.

“For administrators and enterprise installations, or end users who want to install this security update manually, Microsoft recommends that customers apply the update immediately using update management software, or by checking for updates using the Microsoft Update service,” the company said.

The patch can be applied to 14 versions of Windows, including various versions of Windows 7, Vista, XP and Windows Server. Microsoft did not promise that the patch would work with older releases and took the opportunity to remind customers that they should “migrate to supported releases to prevent potential exposure to vulnerabilities.”

The vulnerability surfaced a couple of weeks ago, shortly after the most recent Patch Tuesday. Microsoft at first offered only a workaround that was deemed “highly impractical” by one security researcher, but felt the vulnerability was critical enough to issue a patch before its next regularly scheduled Patch Tuesday, which occurs next week.

The vulnerability has already been exploited in the wild, with “an uptick in infections in the past few days,” says Jason Miller, data and security team leader at Shavlik Technologies.

“If you have applied the workarounds suggested by Microsoft MCITP Certification, you should remove them as soon as your systems are patched,” Miller says. “The most surprising aspect of this release is how close we are to the regularly scheduled patch Tuesday. With a release this close to Patch Tuesday, it is safe to assume you should patch this security bulletin immediately.”

The subscription service, previewed at VMworld this week, will help deliver the right applications and data to users, whether they have an iPad, Android phone, Windows machine or a Mac, according to VMware. Partners will be involved in Project Horizon, presumably to deliver the end-user applications.
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Details on Project Horizon are scarce, but the key seems to be a security model that extends on-premise directory services to public cloud networks, giving each user a “cloud identity,” as VMware puts it.

Project Horizon may also play a role in VMware’s long-term project to diminish the importance of the operating system, particularly the Windows operating system sold by Microsoft, its greatest rival. (See also: VMware says Windows still matters … sort of)

Project Horizon — to be available as a hosted, subscription service sometime in 2011 — will create a “permissions and control structure that worries less about the operating system” than current technologies do, says Noah Wasmer, a director of product management for VMware.

“The role of the operating system is getting diminished every day on the server side,” and a similar shift is beginning to happen on the desktop, claims Vittorio Viarengo, vice president of desktop marketing for VMware. For users, “Windows is becoming the offline mode” as they increasingly use applications hosted entirely over the Web, he says.

Microsoft MCTS Training, of course, presents a different argument. Virtualization, particularly on the server side, is just a feature of the operating system, rather than a replacement of the OS, in Microsoft’s view. Even on the PC, Microsoft MCITP Certification provides virtual desktop technology within the Windows desktop operating system.

To state the obvious, operating systems and virtualization technologies have co-existed for decades, for example on IBM’s mainframe, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

But VMware’s attempts to move from being a company that simply virtualizes operating systems to one that provides the broader operating frameworks for data centers and desktops is interesting, nonetheless.

Horizon “securely extends enterprise identities into the cloud and provides new methods for provisioning and managing applications and data based on the user, not the device or underlying operating system,” VMware says.

Project Horizon aims to provide access to various types of applications including software-as-a-service, legacy applications and mobile apps. One example mentioned by Wasmer is a calendar and contacts application. But VMware is trying to build up interest in the project without getting too specific about it. Wasmer mentioned the phrase “cloud-based desktop,” but whether Project Horizon will be robust enough to replace existing desktops remains to be seen.

“We’ll deliver whatever applications users need to be productive, on whatever operating system they happen to be using,” Wasmer says.
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A more immediate example of VMware’s attempts to displace the operating system, at least the server operating system, is “vCloud Director,” a private cloud building tool that was formerly known as Project Redwood. VMware has announced that vCloud Director will become available Sept. 1, and will essentially extend the resource pooling capabilities in the vendor’s vSphere virtualization platform.

VMware says this allows IT to create “logical pools of compute, networking and storage resources with defined management policies, SLAs and pricing,” and offer computing services to users in a fully automated self-service system.

VCloud Director takes the basic unit of consumption — the virtual machine — and turns it into a “virtual data center,” while giving users a catalog of services that can be deployed within a virtual data center, says Bogomil Balkansky, VMware’s vice president of product marketing.

VCloud Director will be available in packs of 25 virtual machines for prices starting at $3,750.

IBM’s X-Force security company, which released the report last week, acknowledged the error and issued a revised chart that shows Google patched all the vulnerabilities rated “critical” or “high” in its online services.

“We questioned a number of surprising findings concerning Google’s vulnerability rate and response record, and after discussions with IBM, we discovered a number of errors that had important implications for the report’s conclusions,” said Adam Mein, a security program manager at Google, in an entry on a company blog .

Last week, X-Force’s report claimed that 9% of all Google bugs disclosed in the first half of 2010 were unpatched, and 33% of the vulnerabilities ranked as critical or high had not been fixed.

According to IBM’s revised tabulations, Google patched every vulnerability revealed in the first six months of this year.

“After we released our trend report … we received feedback from two software vendors regarding the severity and remedy information for some of the vulnerabilities behind this chart,” said Tom Cross, a researcher with X-Force, in a mea culpa blog posted on Saturday. “As a consequence of this feedback, we have manually reassessed the CVSS scoring, remedy information, and vendor information for every vulnerability that impacted the percentages that appear in this chart.”

Cross’ blog post included a revamped table that showed the new numbers.

Although Cross did not name the other vendor that complained about the patching results, Sun Microsystem’s numbers also changed dramatically. Where the original table had Sun letting 24% of all first-half 2010 bugs and 9% of the most serious flaws go unfixed, the recalculated figures were 8% and 0%, respectively. The changes dropped Sun from the vendor with the largest percentage of unpatched vulnerabilities to the one in fifth place.

In April, Oracle announced plans to acquire Sun for $7.4 billion ; X-Force listed the two companies’ vulnerabilities separately.

Other vendors’ unpatched percentages also decreased after X-Force re-examined its data, including Microsoft’s and Mozilla’s, as did the catch-all category of Linux.

What caught Google’s eye, said Mein, was X-Force’s assertion that one-in-three critical bugs had not been patched.

“We learned after investigating that the 33% figure referred to a single unpatched vulnerability out of a total of three — and importantly, the one item that was considered unpatched was only mistakenly considered a security vulnerability due to a terminology mix-up,” Mein said.

Mein pointed to a 2009 blog post by Jonathan Ness, a member of Microsoft’s security team, as proof of what he called mistaken identity. Ness’ blog discussed the difference between “stack overflows” and “stack buffer overflows,” and said the former were not security vulnerabilities because they could not be used on their own to insert attack code onto a PC.

It’s not unusual for software vendors to dispute the findings of independent security researchers. Mozilla, for instance, has repeatedly disagreed with reports that claim Firefox has more bugs than rival browsers, calling some of those reports “misleading” because Mozilla’s open-source approach requires that all vulnerabilities be disclosed while Apple and Microsoft MCTS Training can fix flaws without revealing that they were ever there.
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At times, developers also quarrel with researchers over the severity of a bug, or even whether a flaw should be labeled a vulnerability. More than two years ago, Microsoft first claimed that a Windows bug was a “design flaw,” then weeks later changed its mind and called it a security problem.

X-Force has also had problems with its vulnerability counts and calculations. In the report it issued last week, the company admitted that the methodology it used to compile the 2009 edition was flawed and said it had corrected the problem to make the results more accurate in the mid-2010 report.

Cross said that X-Force would release a revised report this week.

Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft MCITP Certification, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at @gkeizer or subscribe to Gregg’s RSS feed . His e-mail address is gkeizer@ix.netcom.com .

Read more about security in Computerworld’s Security Topic Center.

While customers have had the opportunity to pre-order the “Zombrex” edition of Dead Rising 2 for a few weeks now, Capcom has revealed a second game bundle that will be available to order only through the company’s online store. The High Stakes Edition will include a poker set with a custom case and Dead Rising-themed playing cards, a tourist-map of the game’s fictional Vegas-esque city, a “ticket” featuring a code to download a “psycho” character skin and new abilities, and of course, the game itself. One purchaser of the game will get the most limited edition of all, as a golden ticket will be included with one copy of the game, rewarding its owner with a six-foot tall statue of Burt, one of the more snappily-dressed undead.
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The High Stakes Edition is available exclusively on the Capcom Store website for $90 — $30 more than the standard release and $10 more than the Zombrex edition. Dead Rising fans… which (if any) version will you be purchasing Microsoft MCITP Certification?

SOURCE: Announcing the Dead Rising 2: High Stakes Edition [Capcom Unity]

The tireless MMO auteurs at NCSoft have bestowed five copies of City of Heroes to the GamePro staff to celebrate the release of the game’s expansion pack, Going Rogue. Unfortunately, math has never been our strong suit, so we didn’t know at the time that five doesn’t divide equally amongst three (the number of sources for each GamePro Friday giveaway). So this week, we’re going rogue too and randomly giving out all five amongst GamePro, Twitter, and Facebook.
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Here’s what we’re going to do. At 6PM PST today, we’re going to bunch all of the valid entries together and assign each a number. GamePro will have the first batch, Facebook will have the second batch, and Twitter will have the third. We’ll then pick five numbers at random and give the games to those people. Because of the nature of random picks, it’s possible that one or even two sources could have zero winners, though odds are each source will have one. We’ll know for sure at 6PM Microsoft MCITP Certification.

To enter the contest, reply here on GamePro.com, to GamePro on Twitter, or to the Facebook contest post with the answer to the following question. “Who is your favorite fictional or non-fiction hero?” You can reply only once on each site, giving you up to three total entries into the contest. For more information, check out the rules of the GamePro giveaways.

Website Auction Hub features a comfortable forum environment where users can discuss website and domain name auctions from all around the web. Their innovative auction gathering service called the WAHbit, hops through other well known sources of internet auctions and collects websites for sale thus creating a master reference list. The auctions are categorized in established websites for sale, turnkey websites for sale, for more details visit to www.auction-professional.com and domain names for sale. This list is then presented on the front page so the users can assess the market at a quick glance.

The front page displays auctions as an itemized list with some of the key features highlighted. Users may click on these items to look at the details and to share valuable insight with each other. Since most of the auctions don’t actually take place on Website Auction Hub a truly free speech environment is created where users feel free to discuss all aspects of the website and the actual auction thread can be kept clean for the process of the deal making.

Website Auction Hub itemizes auctions in several categories for ease of use. Turnkey websites are websites that are ready to launch but have not been promoted, not been monetized with advertisement or other sources of revenue, and are not receiving traffic yet. Established websites are websites that have been in operation and are receiving traffic. An established website does not necessarily have to be making money. Domain names for sale are auctions that even though there might be a website associated with the address; for more details visit to www.auctions-profits.com the purchasing party will only receive the rights to use the particular domain name such as websiteauctionhub.com and then has to create a website for that address Microsoft MCITP Certification.

Website Auction Hub has created a website that features the largest collection of websites from all around the web neatly digested into a friendly environment for both website buyers and sellers. It gives users a quick glance at the market where they can instantly find the hottest auctions and it creates a truly free speech environment for the exchange of auction insights.

Benefit from the growing demand-driven and a strong support for emerging technologies, IT operation and Dell Latitude D610 Battery maintenance market in recent years has shown strong growth momentum, which in turn promote the business of marketing the program to upgrade innovation and competition. Face a new round of applications, mainstream business is making determined efforts, Reloaded, a new Warring States Period’s crowded soon Damukaiqi.

Capital wrestling

ASL acquisition in May last year after the year in April, Teamsun announced the acquisition of Mocha. In less than a year’s time, in the same company’s two acquisitions, make the IT operation and maintenance services to once again become a hot topic in the industry focus.

“The acquisition of the purpose of the two companies, mainly in the IT services enrich Teamsun portfolio, and then ultimately enhance the company’s IT operation and maintenance and service management capabilities.” Teamsun Lvsong Huan, senior vice president, said.

Time back to May 7, 2009, to 262 million Hong Kong dollars Teamsun acquired Hong Kong’s largest IT service provider ASL Group, this acquisition makes Teamsun be the first truly comprehensive coverage to include China and Greater China, including Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan and parts of Southeast Asia, local IT service providers in China.

This year in April, the company in turn BSM / BPM software vendors into its mocha. To take, Teamsun improve IT operation and maintenance services in the product system, but also to further achieve its business structure optimization and upgrading.

In Lvsong Huan view, the acquisition of these two companies there was a deeper meaning: “ASL is Teamsun open up the international market towards the ’sea’, and mocha on the one hand provides us with a professional transport dimensional tool, on the other hand makes the company’s operation and maintenance business from small and medium enterprise market extends to the market. “

Breadth to the application from the market depth, from large enterprises to small and medium industries, from home users to the global outlook, Teamsun these two events on the one hand from the acquisition of IT services company transformation strategy matching, but also for high growth IT operation and maintenance market has responded positively.

As we all know, with the application of the rapid in-depth information, at all levels of IT systems become increasingly large and complex, which corresponding to the enterprise operation and maintenance of IT systems to bring greater management difficulties. How to simplify IT management while better meet business needs, enterprises have become major challenges facing IT departments.

It is also for enterprise users demand for IT Operation of rapid growth, making IT Operation Management market has been to maintain a rapid growth rate. Data show that in 2009 the market scale of China’s IT operation and maintenance nearly 3 billion yuan, more than 20% growth rate. Professional bodies, in the coming two years, the market will continue to increase every year HP pavilion dv9000 battery to maintain momentum in 2011 the market size will reach 50 billion yuan.

There is market demand, competition in the market there. IT operation and maintenance of strong market growth and bring about a solution provider to upgrade the marketing innovation and competition. The face of new applications, mainstream providers have preparations underway, heavy makeup battle, a new attack the era’s crowded the Taimukaiqi soon. In particular, the power in the capital after the entry of the original structure has been relatively stable market break, IT operation and maintenance markets will certainly usher in a new round of shuffling and power division.

The pack and play

On the current market, IT operation and maintenance program can be registered under the business direction is divided into three camps. Line camp is an international software giants such as IBM, HP, BMC, Microsoft MCTS Training, etc.; second-line camp to both technology and service-based local solution provider. These programs as part of business in the transition from a system integrator of integrated services from providers, such as Teamsun, Shenzhou Taiyue, Digital China, East China software, 100 million ICT yang, Tai Chi and computer, the other is operation and maintenance management software professional developers, such as communication over wide, Mocha, Tian Yuan, North Tower, etc.; three-camps scattered across the country include hundreds of regional systems integrators and software developers.

In addition, the second-line camp also includes Hitachi JP1, NEC MasterScope as the representatives of the Japanese brand. Although these products have performed pretty well in the global market, due to enter the Chinese market later time, visibility and influence there are some limitations at present its main application in the Japanese Embassy in institutions and among affiliated enterprises.

Traditionally, powerful product line camp, primarily for telecommunications applications, fly in the ointment is expensive, more a lack of local support; second-line camp emphasizes localization features, meticulous service, price-friendly, but in some in-depth application Some areas of powerless; three-wire camps because the product functions are limited, clients are mainly local SMEs, the current first-and second-line still can not bring greater threat camps.

Although the short-term IT Operation three camps will be no fundamental change in market structure, but in the long run, as the international manufacturers accelerating the process of localization, as well as local programs in comprehensive technical ability on the rise, in the near future, several large camps or penetrate each other, their boundaries will become increasingly fuzzy, and even moving toward integration.

In fact, this trend has been the beginning of another.

Were in formations

“Integrated Service Management is not a big business patents, IBM has a series of new solutions to help SMEs in IT operation and maintenance of applications.” IBM Software Group’s Tivoli software general manager of Greater China, Xu Weili stressed.

In fact, as early as late last year, IBM proposed the Integrated Services Management (ISM) concept, designed to connect smart dynamic infrastructure and IT assets from business assets, so that the data center as the earth wisdom, the “brain”, a comprehensive integration technical and industry knowledge; in April this year, based on ISM concept, IBM introduced a number of family-oriented industries, service-oriented customization and implementation, as well as for the ISM data center solutions to enhance business intelligence products and services innovation for different fields and different sizes to provide better industry, service customization and implementation and control and automation of database management.

“Integrated Services Management philosophy can be summed up to help businesses achieve the ‘three of’: that is highly visual, control and automation.” Xu Weili explained visualization to help users to see the operation and maintenance ibm ASM 92P1126 battery of the business of IT influence to help users easily controlled is the control and automation systems through the automatic configuration management tools and repair, minimizing human error.

It is worth mentioning that, IBM Tivoli is also aimed at the SME market, especially China, launched the IBM Tivoli Foundations integrated service management software application solutions to help China’s small and medium enterprise customers in an efficient, fast and economical way to more fully Using service management to enhance corporate value, and get a satisfactory return on investment.

Test a low SME market with the international giants corresponds to the Chinese mainland to strive for program business.

“IT Operation Management’s ultimate goal is integration of IT technology and business.” Wide at the Beijing Communication Tech Co., Ltd. General Manager Xu Yuyi view, with the increased maturity of IT applications, customers will continue to change and expand, need to be into the operation and maintenance aspects of the more and more, not just after the IT equipment.

Such as its communication reach of a city to undertake the operation and maintenance support video monitoring system software projects, in addition to IT and network infrastructure, including 5,000 km of fiber optic cable systems, 200,000 cameras, and all the tube wells, should be incorporated into the operation and maintenance monitoring platform . “Includes each camera model, configuration, installation location, maintenance records, all the resources and their cable channels, tube wells, etc., into the uniform resource configuration repository. 只有 to each session, each small cut have been adequately considered to, this is a complete operation and maintenance solution. “

“Endless innovation, operation and maintenance everywhere. To meet the operation and maintenance of various sub-sectors need to create service value, the resources needed to sharpen their ability to integrate and apply innovation.” Xu Yuyi said, if you do not pay attention to R & D to enhance technical superiority and blindly relying on commercial marketing is hard to say how far companies can go in the future.

Wide communications provider over is just a Microsoft MCITP Certification of local programs, more like Tianyuan, mocha, etc., which were also occupied in the different fields of industry, certain advantages. Accumulated many years of industry experience, the depth of the industry, close application, supported by China’s unique “understanding” culture, when the time comes, local business development prospects also not be underestimated. At this time, but also enhance the local program will be a component of commercial markets a plus chips.

Corresponding rise

“In the past we talk about the IT operation and maintenance, and more support in the system or equipment maintenance level. And now, in addition to technology, we should also be infiltrated into the business process operation and maintenance and personnel management.” Hewlett-Packard Co., China’s vice president of China, Enterprise Business Group, Technical Services Division, said Ye Jian, general manager.

In his view, IT operation and maintenance had mostly concentrated on the single point of application, is now more concerned with the overall system; previously focused on hardware devices, and is now extended to the data center, including wind, fire, water, electricity, including all infrastructure, even the client’s business operations. “In this regard, operation and maintenance services for Hewlett-Packard attention has shifted to IT operation and maintenance life cycle, from technology, processes, people make a deal with three aspects.”

“HP’s technology services into China over 25 years, in addition to the traditional operation and maintenance support services, our business expanded to the data center consulting, design, implementation and on-line, data center transformation, network, infrastructure and other aspects of consulting and training services go all out to help customers improve their operation and maintenance management processes, to create the most flexible IT infrastructure, enterprise business development for the kinetic energy. “Yeh said.

Can see that business continuity as users demand rising, the corresponding operation and maintenance Dell Inspiron 9400 Battery programs are also on the IT service provider capacity to bring greater pressure and challenges. In this regard, Taiji Computer Co., Ltd. Sun Guofeng, general manager of strategic development is deeply felt: “In the past operation and maintenance work done, we mainly rely on people. We engineer into the customer’s room, the regular checks on system operation indicators, to ensure the system run; but now more and more complex systems, in addition to people, it must be a professional operation and maintenance tools to made a good operation and maintenance system. “

“IT operation and maintenance is the entire business chain, Tai Chi is an important part of Tai Chi is one of the important business strategy.” According to “do the most good IT service provider” business strategy, Tai Chi designated the government, financial , energy, metallurgy and so on several strategic industries and key sectors for the provision of IT consulting services, industry solutions and services, IT product value-added services, IT integration, infrastructure services such as IT services.

Sun Guofeng still clearly remember the Tai Chi in 2007 signed the first contract amount of more than 10 million single operation and maintenance projects – Beijing government information resources exchange platform and related applications, when the two sides signed a five-year strategic cooperation framework , co-operation this year has entered the third year, with the client business and constantly enrich and increase the commitment of the operation and maintenance Tai Chi has become more complex and arduous work.

“Customers now demand has not let you help him to see if the page is not normal, there is no system downtime that simple. Customers will have more new demands, including the requirement to timely service providers to optimize their systems, sometimes Changes related to customer business processes, and more level. “In this regard, Sun Guofeng that the face of new changes in customer demand, the program provider in addition to master the professional knowledge and professional tools, while the client applications have to very familiar to customers very familiar with business processes so that customers can easily correspond to corresponding rise in the IT operation and maintenance service needs.

Thoroughfare Wealth

January 25 this year, IBM launched a global scale, a software value-added services (Software Value Plus, SVP) program. Take this activity, IBM in the domestic real taste of the many partners from the “business experts” of support, and new ways to win the competition.

According to this plan, IBM will spend 130 million U.S. dollars to implement marketing and demand-pull programs, including cooperative marketing through a major expansion program to help partners design, identify more selling opportunities; by representatives of regional partners to increase their local partners support, to discover the business opportunities, develop solutions, large-scale cooperation in joint marketing activities.

Including integrated service management products, including Tivoli, IBM will SVP plans to provide new resources to help partners develop their own technology, marketing skills, successful sales of IBM software portfolio,HP Pavilion ZD8000 battery to help partners to better meet customer demands for higher market profit.

“I hope that through the SVP program, IBM ISM solutions can bring the city more affluent cities in China. Prior to this, we must first ensure that our partners to ensure that agreed to the indicator; At the same time, we also made a number of product line re-planning, such as the ISM in a range of products aimed at SMB’s, this product is easier with channel partners, but also make it easier for them to provide solutions to their users. “Xu Weili said.

Yeh said the diverse forms of HP’s technology services, including the standard responsive support services to enhance the active-site and on-site support services. One key business for enterprise customers to provide personalized service and the key of active business alliance, greatly protect the sustainability of enterprise IT systems to run.

For communications over wide, its channel strategy in 2010 mainly consists of two parts: the national ministries and other characteristics of users with the industry, the implementation of “big industry” strategy, by the Beijing headquarters of the operation and maintenance management experts provide customers with tailor- customized IT Operation Management solutions, and organize their implementation; for the regional market users, “has been extensive communication up all hope that close cooperation with partners in various regions rely on local partners, to sell wide standard tool for communication products . continued operation and maintenance management to develop the Chinese IT market, improve customer satisfaction, and create greater value for our customers. “Xuyu Yi said.

Earlier in the market, relatively low-NEC MasterScope also recently unveiled “2010 NEC development of innovative solutions.” In this exhibition, NEC set up a special “support services and cloud computing platform” exhibition, show management, including operation and maintenance, including NEC global platform for enterprise-class cloud point. “By NEC global standard of cloud point platform that can quickly respond and solve business problems encountered in various places, and to help businesses more fully and effectively grasp the various branches of the IT capability and conditions to enable enterprises to get the overall business continuity reliable protection. “NEC Global CEO Nobuhiro Endo said.

Prior to this, NEC announced that NEC (China) Co., Ltd. as the core, its in China a unified group of about 20 operations. Based on this integration, including the IT operation and maintenance, including IT solutions, network system, software development and so will be the top priority in the overall business NEC. Meanwhile, NEC propose to the 2012 year-end, in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan into the system integration service providers were Top 5 strategic objectives. At the same time, NEC will Dell Inspiron 500m battery be in North China, East China, three areas of the South regional director, to strengthen the channels of promotion and regional sales force.

Innosight president, “vision: to use theory to predict industry change the future,” Scott Anthony, co-author of “Harvard Business Review” published an article, summed up Apple’s Dell Inspiron 8000 battery offer of three key innovative experiences.

That was in September 2005, a media company’s CEO said to me: “Trees are not always long to heaven.” The company’s core business strong, but the CEO told the team, in the changing environment, the need for innovation in order to remain successful.

A few days later, a colleague said to me: “In the past few years, you are a supporter of Apple. Do you think Apple’s stock how to buy and what?” I said: “The tree does not always long to heaven.”

Since the second half of 2005, Apple’s stock price has tripled in market value approaching 250 billion U.S. dollars, second only to Exxon Mobil and Microsoft, the world’s first company worth.

The amazing story has repeatedly been analyzed to tired, but still have enough warning significance. Ten years ago, that is Steve Jobs returned to Apple to save the company three years later, the company’s market value was only 30 billion. Its PC products in niche markets with a group of loyal followers, but nothing more Microsoft MCTS Training.

In the past decade, Apple released a 5 game-changing innovation legitimate:

iPod: MP3 player look elegant opened Apple’s brilliant years.

iTunes: is a strong business model with the charm of the software, that as long as affordable, convenient interface enough that people are willing to pay for music.

iPhone: a smart phone, three years after the launch, still did not have competitors beyond.

AppExchange: Yes, Apple provides 98% of the application nobody needs. But this choice is still very alarming extent.

Apple store: This is the “Apple revolution” in the most quiet, the present 2 HP pavilion dv6000 battery billion U.S. dollars worth of goods flow through this revolutionary shop.

Many people think that Apple iPad is the sixth largest killer, although premature, but seeing my children every day to play iPad, let me just touch the surface iPad believe that the destructive potential.

For Apple, the next decade does not mean great as in the past ten years generally. Must now consider how cross-business conflict management. When the income of close to 100 billion U.S. dollars, the company will find it difficult to maintain high growth rates.

Recalling the error when I reply to my colleague, is quite simple. I did not think of innovative products in 5 3. After all, in decades to create 3 different multi-billion dollar new business handful the number of companies.

If Apple does stop at the iPod, then I recommend to my colleagues will be wiser. After all, in the past few years, as the market is becoming saturated, iPod sales has slowed.

But the wise is that Apple unremitting pace of change.

Apple’s glory years of experience provides the following three important lessons:

Do not just focus on the manufacture of fine products, but to build a beautiful business model, create, transfer and acquisition of valuable new model. If there is no difference with the use with iTunes and the AppExchange, iPod and iPhone is also very difficult to astonish.

Dimensions from the platform and channel for reflection. When the 6 months after Apple released the latest odd supporting applications, Apple’s latest invention to those chasing competitors will find themselves further behind Microsoft MCITP Certification.

To take the portfolio approach. Although Apple has made significant progress, but not any one product is “home run”, released in 2007 on such as Apple TV, Jobs would not produce the HP pavilion DV6 battery desired is so sensational.

Turning to the success of many companies when Apple will refuse to learn from experience, but stressed: “Apple has Steve Jobs @, but we do not.”

Indeed, Jobs is Apple’s success led to the central figure, if the reputation of such a visionary, charismatic, Apple may indeed such a success. But in my view, Apple innovation “black box” has been opened, innovation success can therefore be achieved more widely.

The first step, Sony plans to launch this fall in the United States Internet TV, which uses the Google Android operating system and the Chrome browser. Internet TV is not only listed TV channels, but also the screen is also built on Google search box, users can choose content viewing. As input devices, Sony consider providing a keyboard-based remote control.

Meanwhile, Sony is also preparing to develop the next generation of mobile phones with Google and e-book reader, through a series of products and network integration, Sony CEO Sijinboge expressed the hope to provide consumers with wider choices.

By using Android as the core product, Sony hopes to reduce the product development cycle and reduce costs.

To March 31 the year ended, Sony restructuring effect is obvious because the profit start to improve. To this end, Sony is preparing to further support the television, personal computers and video game sales.

As announced alliance with Google, Sony shares at 18 yen earnings Friday, the day the Nikkei fell despite the lowest point a year. However, Google software platform will be ready to open next summer, to Sony’s advantage when the message, as other TV manufacturers will also develop products on this platform.

Nomura Securities analyst Eiichi Katayama said: “The alliance with Google how much revenue will contribute to Sony, which depends on Sony to become the first Sony VGP-BPS2 battery Internet TV manufacturers are able to maintain the advantage after.”

Microsoft MCTS Training and Yahoo announced Tuesday that Bing is totally fueling Yahoo search results in the U.S. and Canada. The search integration comes more than a year after both companies announced that they were joining forces to better take on Google, the goliath of the search industry.
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It will be a while before there are any numbers to show how the pair is fairing against Google , said Hadley Reynolds, an analyst at market research firm IDC. However he said the launch was a positive start.

“It’s important for Microsoft and Yahoo that the shift from Yahoo search to Bing for organic results took place smoothly this week — apparently without any technical breakdowns,” Reynolds said. “These transitions are dicey in any software environment, and the fact that Yahoo and Bing pulled off the project successfully should build confidence among search marketers and advertisers.”

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With the 10-year deal, Yahoo gave up its own longstanding search technology in lieu of using Microsoft’s fairly new Bing search engine to power all searches on the various Yahoo sites.

Both the U.S. Department of Justice and the European Commission approved the search agreement earlier this year.

This week’s announcement marks a first step in putting the agreement into action. Satya Nadella, a senior vice president at Microsoft, noted in a blog post that at this point, Bing is only powering results in English in the U.S. and Canada. The setup is expected to expand into other languages and regions in coming months.

Yahoo users should expect to see few, if any, differences in their searches. What could change is the level of competition that Google faces.

“With Yahoo’s moving their volume of search users to Bing, it makes it a much more level playing field for Bing vs. Google ,” said Dan Olds, an analyst at Gabriel Consulting Group. “While the combined Microsoft and Yahoo search traffic is still significantly lower than what Google drives, it’s much larger than the two had on their own. This gives Bing better numbers to show advertisers and a chance to cut into Google’s lead.”

Neither Bing nor Yahoo separately has had any luck cutting into Google’s lead in the search market. Google captured 65.8% of the search market in July, according to market research company ComScore. Yahoo had 17.1% and Bing had 11%, ComScore reported.

The plan, then was for Bing and Yahoo to hitch their teams together and to make a reinforced assault on Google’s gates.

“This probably saved Yahoo, who, without the removal of the cost related to search and the influx of Microsoft revenue, would likely be gone by now,” said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at Enderle Group. “For Microsoft, it puts them in the search game but by creating a stronger competitor…. The onslaught against Google began when Microsoft basically wrote a blank check to Yahoo to fund the battle. But this [week's integration] will represent the biggest win Microsoft ever got in one move.”

Olds said Google should look over its shoulder and pick up the pace on search innovation if it wants to maintain its expansive lead.
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“Now that Microsoft and Yahoo’s teaming up on search has become a reality, it’s definitely something that Google will take notice of and react to,” he added. “Both Microsoft and Yahoo have moved from also-ran status to a credible threat in terms of their traffic and technology.”

Olds also noted that Microsoft MCITP Certification has deep pockets and probably can afford to invest in the search competition for years.

“For Google, search is the cash cow that supports everything else they do,” Olds noted. “Microsoft’s situation and perspective is different. They have their existing software franchises to generate money. This will put more pressure on Google’s profitability over time.”

With Microsoft and Yahoo officially teaming up in the search market this week, it’s time to wait and see if this move could eat into Google ‘s hearty lead over its top opponents.

Microsoft and Yahoo announced Tuesday that Bing is totally fueling Yahoo search results in the U.S. and Canada. The search integration comes more than a year after both companies announced that they were joining forces to better take on Google, the goliath of the search industry.
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It will be a while before there are any numbers to show how the pair is fairing against Google , said Hadley Reynolds, an analyst at market research firm IDC. However he said the launch was a positive start.

“It’s important for Microsoft and Yahoo that the shift from Yahoo search to Bing for organic results took place smoothly this week — apparently without any technical breakdowns,” Reynolds said. “These transitions are dicey in any software environment, and the fact that Yahoo and Bing pulled off the project successfully should build confidence among search marketers and advertisers.”

With the 10-year deal, Yahoo gave up its own longstanding search technology in lieu of using Microsoft’s fairly new Bing search engine to power all searches on the various Yahoo sites.

Both the U.S. Department of Justice and the European Commission approved the search agreement earlier this year.

This week’s announcement marks a first step in putting the agreement into action. Satya Nadella, a senior vice president at Microsoft, noted in a blog post that at this point, Bing is only powering results in English in the U.S. and Canada. The setup is expected to expand into other languages and regions in coming months.

Yahoo users should expect to see few, if any, differences in their searches. What could change is the level of competition that Google faces.

“With Yahoo’s moving their volume of search users to Bing, it makes it a much more level playing field for Bing vs. Google ,” said Dan Olds, an analyst at Gabriel Consulting Group. “While the combined Microsoft and Yahoo search traffic is still significantly lower than what Google drives, it’s much larger than the two had on their own. This gives Bing better numbers to show advertisers and a chance to cut into Google’s lead.”

Neither Bing nor Yahoo separately has had any luck cutting into Google’s lead in the search market. Google captured 65.8% of the search market in July, according to market research company ComScore. Yahoo had 17.1% and Bing had 11%, ComScore reported.

The plan, then was for Bing and Yahoo to hitch their teams together and to make a reinforced assault on Google’s gates.

“This probably saved Yahoo, who, without the removal of the cost related to search and the influx of Microsoft revenue, would likely be gone by now,” said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at Enderle Group. “For Microsoft MCITP Certification, it puts them in the search game but by creating a stronger competitor…. The onslaught against Google began when Microsoft basically wrote a blank check to Yahoo to fund the battle. But this [week's integration] will represent the biggest win Microsoft ever got in one move.”

The site contains a list of talking points, including “Having Fun,” “Simplicity,” “Working Hard,” “Sharing,” “Compatibility,” and “Choice”.

It’s a bit of propaganda, perhaps. But Microsoft recognizes who its chief rival is, and has attacked it directly.

In the “Simplicity” section, for example, Microsoft says: “The computer that’s easiest to use is typically the one you already know how to use. While some may say Macs are easy, the reality is that they can come with a learning curve. PCs running Windows 7 look and work more like the computers you’re familiar with, so you can get up and running quickly.”

Users might interpret other comments less favorably: “Apple’s productivity suite file formats won’t open in Microsoft Office on PCs,” Microsoft MCITP Certification says in its “Simplicity” section. “This can be a real hassle for Mac users sharing work documents with PC users.”

Using the Value Based Drafting strategy and Excel spreadsheets, you can create a straightforward cheatsheet that’ll help you dominate your fantasy football draft.

NFL training camps are in full swing, and the regular season is only a month away. This is an exciting time for fantasy football players getting ready to draft their teams. If you own a fantasy football team and are looking to dominate your draft, creating a simple spreadsheet using Value Based Drafting (VBD) strategies can give you the championship edge. Fire up Microsoft MCTS Training Excel (or your spreadsheet of choice) and give it a try.

The ABCs of VBD
VBD is a strategy that goes beyond simply drafting the best player available and digs deeper to help you draft players that will give you the most value at their position. “It’s tempting to look at standard-scoring leagues and say, ‘Oh, clearly quarterbacks score the most points, so I should make sure and get one of those first,’” said Christopher Harris, fantasy analyst for ESPN.com in an e-mail to me. “But if all QBs score a lot of points, scarcity isn’t an issue, and you can potentially afford to wait.”

For instance, say you’re in a 10-team league that starts 1 QB and 2 Running Backs (RB) per game. If there isn’t much difference in quality among the top 10 QBs, but there’s huge gap in production when you get beyond the top 5 RBs, you’re better off drafting one of the top five RBs before the top five QBs even if those QBs score more fantasy points. As Footballguys.com writer Joe Bryant, the guy credited with coming up with the VBD concept, puts it, “The value of a player is determined not by the number of points he scores, but by how much he outscores his peers at his particular position.”
View Slideshow See all (8) slides
Step One: Determine Your Baseline
Step Two: Setup Stats
Step Three: Project Stats
Step Four: Sort Players by Fantasy Points

More

Another big advantage of using a VBD cheatsheet is you can tailor your cheatsheet specifically to your league settings and scoring system. “Gone are the days of counting touchdowns and field goals. Now yardage, receptions, bonuses for TD length, performance bonuses, etc., are all standard fare,” said David Dodds of Footballguys.com in an e-mail, “So it is natural that people want projections (and cheatsheets) that match up closely to their scoring system.”

Your VBD Cheatsheet
Creating your own VBD cheatsheet is fairly straightforward once you know the formulas involved in applying VBD principles, and have a good spreadsheet program like Excel. The first, and most time-consuming, step is projecting stats for the players to be drafted. You can do this by looking at each player’s stats from the past few years and factoring in their current playing situation to estimate this year’s stats.

To create my VBD spreadsheet I decided to trust the projected stats found on ESPN.com and CBSsports.com and my own intuition to estimate how well each player in my league draft pool will perform. Next, I used those stats to determine how many fantasy points each player would score and ranked them from the highest scorer to the lowest.

Ranking Potential Draftees
The critical step in determining players’ value is creating a baseline you can use to gauge other players at that position. The easiest way to do this is the Worst Starter method. With this method, you use the projected fantasy points of the worst starting player at a position as your baseline. So if you’re in a 10-team league that starts 3 Wide receivers (WR), your baseline for WRs would be the 30th WR in your rankings.

While this method works fine, Microsoft MCITP Certification I prefer to use Chris Harris’ method of counting how many players at each position are likely to be drafted in the first 10 rounds. This is harder to determine, but I feel like it gives me a more precise ranking. So if 28 RBs are drafted in the first 10-rounds of a draft, the 28th ranked RB will serve as my baseline player in determining the VBD values for other RBs. You can find a good estimation of what players are taken in the first 10 rounds of most drafts at FantasyFootballCalculator.com.

From there you determine each player’s VBD value by subtracting the projected fantasy points of your baseline player from the projected fantasy points of each player at that position. Finally, you rank all players of every position by their VBD value to determine each player’s overall value.

Go With Your Gut
As with anything in fantasy football, VBD isn’t absolute. There are times where you can afford to, or even should, deviate from the VBD concept. “I think of VBD as a way to normalize positions, so I can have a better sense of breaking points: where does it make sense for me to get my starting quarterback, or my flex player, or my starting tight end?” said Harris. “I’ll also factor in stuff like keepers, ADP(Average Draft Position), and what I know about the knuckleheads in my league (e.g., what positions they like, what players they tend to overdraft, etc.).”

Step-by-Step VBD
For the actual nuts and bolts of creating a spreadsheet using Excel, I called Todd Beckstead of FantasyStrategies.com, and he walked me through the process of creating a VBD spreadsheet of my own. Check out the slideshow to see how to create your own VBD spreadsheet.

If this seems like too much work, Beckstead and Dodd offer applications that can do all the heavy lifting of VBD for you. FantasyStrategies.com uses a Web-based application to generate a cheatsheet tailored to your league’s settings. FootballGuys.com’s Draft Dominator is an awesome standalone app that goes in-depth using dynamic VBD strategies that constantly change priorities based on needs/wants of the other teams and many other factors. The free versions work great, but you’ll want to pay for the premium versions ($4.95 for the premium Fantasystrategies.com draft guide, and $27.95 for the premium Draft Dominator) to get the most up-to-date projections.

Personally, however, I enjoy putting together my own VBD spreadsheet; it really helps you understand the nuts and bolts of your fantasy football league and it’s one of the best ways I’ve ever found to dig into NFL stats. And, as any sports fan worth his or her salt knows, the stats are half the fun. If you’re serious about fantasy football, give VBD a try—you’ll be glad you did.

Will security worries propel DNS into the cloud?
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Afilias will deploy DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC) on 13 of the domains it operates — including .info, India’s .in and the Hong Kong-based .asia — by the end of the year. DNSSEC prevents spoofing attacks by allowing Web sites to verify their domain names and corresponding IP addresses using digital signatures and public-key encryption.

“Afilias supports more different top-level domains across the Internet than any other provider,” says Roland LaPlante, senior vice president and chief marketing officer for Afilias.”When we start making a move and start expanding the use of DNSSEC, it really makes quite a big difference on the Internet.”

The Internet’s root servers began supporting DNSSEC on July 15.

Since then, 26 top-level domains — including .org for non-profits and .edu for universities — have begun digitally signing DNS look-ups with DNSSEC.

“Afilias supporting DNSSEC is a pretty big increase in the number of top-level domains that support DNSSEC,” LaPlante adds.
In order to be effective, DNSSEC must be deployed across the entire Internet infrastructure, from the root servers at the top of the DNS hierarchy to the servers that run .com and .net and other top-level domains, and then down to the servers that cache content for individual Web sites.

Once it is fully deployed, DNSSEC will prevent cache poisoning attacks, where traffic is redirected from a legitimate Web site to a fake one without the Web site operator or user knowing. Cache poisoning attacks are the result of a serious flaw in the DNS that was disclosed by security researcher Dan Kaminsky in 2008.

Afilias says it will support DNSSEC for the .info domain, which has 6.5 million registered names, in September, followed by .in and .asia in early October.

Next, Afilias will roll out DNSSEC for the following domains before the end of the year: Mongolia’s .mn; Seychelles’ .sc; Honduras’ .hn; Belize’s .bz ; Antigua and Barbuda’s .ag; St. Lucia’s .lc ; St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ .vc ; Gibralter’s .gi; and Montenegro’s .me. Afilias also will support DNSSEC for .aero, a Web site name extension restricted to the aviation industry.

Afilias already helped the Public Interest Registry add DNSSEC support to .org.

“We learned a lot from the .org DNSSEC deployment experience,” says Ram Mohan, executive vice president and CTO for Afilias. “When you digitally sign a zone, the size of the zone increases. The size and type of queries that you get increase quite a bit. There are all sorts of infrastructure changes that you have to accommodate on the back end, but the end user doesn’t really see that much of a change.”

Afilias says it has spent several million dollars upgrading its DNS software — it runs both the BIND and NSD open source offerings — as well as adding server capacity to support DNSSEC.

“It’s been a multi-million dollar effort on our part,” Mohan says. “If you look at the DNSSEC deployment since 2006-2007, all of the DNS infrastructure upgrades, the software, the energy and the time, and you add them all up, it’s many millions of dollars…I think we’re going to recoup that cost in attracting customers who want to have a dot-info name that is signed.”
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Afilias also is touting its DNSSEC experience as it markets itself to be the back-end registry operator for hundreds of new top-level domains such as .nyc for New York City and .ibm for IBM Corp. that the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a policymaking body that oversees the Internet’s DNS, plans to support next year.

“For the next round of new top-level domains, ICANN is requiring all registries to be DNSSEC signed from the start,” Mohan says. “When we talk to corporations about bringing up a new top-level domain, one of the things that has them liking us over others is that we have four to five years of design, deployment and practical experience doing DNSSEC.”

The Afilias announcement is another indicator that DNSSEC is gathering momentum across the Internet now that the root zone is signed.

The U.S. federal government is migrating all .gov Web sites to support DNSSEC, and that effort got a boost in early August when popular content delivery network provider Akamai announced that it was supporting the standard.

Another significant milestone for DNSSEC will occur in December, when VeriSign supports DNSSEC in .net. But the biggest boon for DNSSEC will occur next March, when VeriSign adds this extra layer of protection to the more than 80 million registered .com names.

One potential stumbling block for DNSSEC deployment is that some domain name registrars are lagging in their support of the security standard. Among the U.S. registrars that are leading the charge towards DNSSEC are GoDaddy, Dyn Inc. and NamesBeyond.

In a recent survey of domain name registrars, Afilias found that while 80% believed that DNSSEC was a good idea, only 69% had plans to offer DNSSEC services in 2011 or beyond. Registrars said they were waiting for their customers to demand the service, with 29% saying that a lack of user demand was their top concern regarding DNSSEC deployment.

“Cost does not seem to be much of a factor for registrars,” Mohan says. “They want enough time to roll DNSSEC out in a prepared and managed way, and they seem to want it to be market driven. They want to hear their big customers demand it.”

Despite these issues, Afilias is urging CIOs and other IT executives to prepare to deploy DNSSEC on the Web sites that they operate.

DNSSEC “is the single largest security upgrade of the core DNS, of the core of the Internet, ever,” Mohan says. “It’s happening right now at the network level, but in a short time, it will come up at your MIS level, and you have to be ready for it Microsoft MCITP Certification.”

Read more about security in Network World’s Security section.

Late yesterday, Microsoft MCTS Training announced two security advisories. One is new, while the other updates a previously issued advisory. Meanwhile, IT pros already are tying to cope with this month’s massive security update.

The updated advisory simply states that Microsoft has concluded its investigation into a security advisory issued in February. That problem concerns the Transport Layer Security and Secure Sockets Layer (TLS/SSL) protocols in general, and the Windows Secure Channel security package in particular.

The issue was addressed with critical security bulletin MS10-049  in Microsoft’s August patch. It’s designed address the flaw in Windows Server 2008, Windows 7 and 12 other supported versions of the Windows OS, including XP and Vista.

Left unpatched, the Windows Secure Channel vulnerability could allow attackers the ability to perform “man-in-the-middle” attacks via TLS/SSL connections. The problem is of general concern, and Microsoft’s issuance of a fix suggests that broad industry engagement occurred, according to Jason Miller, data and security team manager at Shavlik Technologies.

“In recent months, we have heard of Microsoft working with other vendors such as Adobe to address vulnerabilities as a whole and not as a one-company issue,” Miller said. “The release of MS10-049 shows that Microsoft is again working with the industry with vulnerability management.”

Miller added that the fix from Microsoft had long been in the works. The TLS/SSL vulnerability was “not just Microsoft’s problem” as it affected the “IT industry as a whole,” he said.

Windows Service Isolation Flaw
Next up, Microsoft issued a new security advisory on Tuesday concerning a Windows Service Isolation feature that could enable elevation-of-privilege exploits. The operating systems involved include Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7, as well as Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008.

Microsoft said that an attacker could use this feature to elevate processes running on a Windows-based “NetworkService account” to the “LocalSystem account” on a server. It could give the attacker the ability to take control of a system.

At-risk Microsoft products include the Windows telephony application programming interfaces, SQL Server and Internet Information Services (IIS) in Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008.

Because there is no known vulnerability and only a “potential” likelihood of such attacks at this time, Microsoft did not specify whether the issue would warrant further actions, such as the issuance of workarounds or patches. However, in this Knowledge Base article, the software giant describes various access control tools in both IIS and SQL that can restrict entry into the NetworkService account.

No Security Advisory for Clipboard Issue
On Wednesday, Microsoft provided an updated statement on the zero-day Windows kernel-level clipboard vulnerability uncovered last week by independent security researchers. The software giant said it will not release a security advisory for the heap overflow problem affecting all supported Windows versions.

For this issue to be exploited, it has to be an inside job, according to the rationale of the Microsoft security team. Redmond said “an attacker must have valid log-on credentials on the target system and be able to log on locally, or must already have code running on the target system.”

This assessment rules out the prospect that an urgent out-of-band patch will arrive soon. However, Microsoft MCITP Certification promised that the issue would be fixed in a future security update. Microsoft Security Response Center spokesperson Jerry Bryant wrote that Microsoft “will continue monitoring the threat landscape and alert customers if anything changes.”

The extension of the UTD upgrade offer “through September 30, 2010″ was announced on Tuesday by Eric Ligman, global partner experience lead for the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group. He provided a description of how the UTD offer works in a blog post back in January. At that time, Microsoft had said that the offer would expire in July.

The terms of the deal only apply under Microsoft’s “open value subscription” (OVS) three-year licensing program. Users can upgrade their copies of the Professional editions of Windows or Office to the current Professional editions, and Microsoft grants a half-off discount for the first year of the OVS subscription only. The cost reverts back to the nondiscounted price in years two and three of the OVS subscription.

This nondiscounted price is called the “estimated retail price” by Microsoft. In this case, according to Microsoft’s volume-licensing lingo, “retail” doesn’t mean the box price as found in retail stores. It’s the price set by Microsoft’s partners, who buy Open Value Subscription licenses from Microsoft. Consequently, the estimated retail price can vary, depending on the partner offering it, but it’s typically lower than store box prices.

The UTD discount plan permits upgrades to current Windows and Office Professional editions from releases that are two generations removed. Microsoft MCTS Training uses the math expression, “N-2,” as a shorthand explanation for this concept. The N-2 release for the current Windows 7 product is Windows XP. The N-2 release for the current Office 2010 product is Office 2003.

The older software being upgraded can be based on OEM, retail or volume licenses, but only the Professional editions qualify. In addition, if IT shops have some current releases mixed in, they will have to pay again for those licenses under the OVS program. To qualify under OVS licensing, organizations need to have more than five PCs but less than 250 PCs.

OVS is unlike other open-value licenses in that it does not require the purchase of Software Assurance (SA), according to Paul DeGroot, research vice president at Directions on Microsoft MCITP Certification . SA is a licensing option that lets organizations upgrade to the next version of a product within the SA contract’s time period. OVS costs less “because you never pay for the licenses,” DeGroot said in an e-mail. However, after the three-year subscription period is over, organizations will either have to buy the licenses, renew the OVS or just stop using the software.

OVS allows “true downs” in calculating annual licensing costs. So, licensing costs can go down as the number of PCs running the software declines in an organization. This kind of licensing might prove to be valuable for small companies that downsize the workforce, for instance.

“Web apps are becoming incredibly rich with HTML5. The browser is starting to manage full-bore applications and not just Web pages,” said Sid Stamm, who works on Firefox security issues for the Mozilla Foundation. Stamm was speaking at the Usenix Security Symposium, held last week in Washington D.C.
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“There is a lot of attack surface we need to think about,” he said.

On the same week Stamm expressed worry over HTML5, developers of the Opera browser were busy fixing a buffer overflow vulnerability that could be exploited using the HTML5 canvas image-rendering feature of Microsoft MCTS Training.

Is it inevitable that the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) new set of standards for rendering Web pages, collectively known as HTML5, come with a whole new bundle of vulnerabilities? At least some security researchers are thinking this is the case.

“HTML5 brings a lot of features and power to the Web. You can do so much more [malicious work] with plain HTML5 and JavaScript now than it was ever possible before,” said security researcher Lavakumar Kuppan.

The W3C is “gearing this entire redesign over the idea that we will start executing applications within the browser, and we’ve proven over the years how secure browsers are,” said Kevin Johnson, a penetration tester with security consulting firm Secure Ideas. “We have to go back to understanding the browser is a malicious environment. We lost site of that.”

Although it is the name of a specification on its own, HTML5 is also often used to describe a collection of loosely interrelated set of standards that, taken together, can be use to build full-fledged web applications. They offer capabilities such as page formatting, offline data storage, image rendition and other aspects. (Though not a W3C spec, JavaScript is also frequently lumped in these standards, so widely used it is in building Web applications).

All this new proposed functionality is beginning to be explored by security researchers.

Earlier this summer, Kuppan and another researcher posted a way to misuse the HTML5 Offline Application Cache. Google Chrome, Safari, Firefox and the beta of the Opera browser have all already implemented this feature, and would be vulnerable to attacks that used this approach, they noted.

The researchers argue that because any Web site can create a cache on the user’s computer, and, in some browsers, do so without that user’s explicit permission, an attacker could set up a fake log-in page to a site such as a social networking or e-commerce site. Such a fake page could then be used to steal the user’s credentials.

Other researchers were divided about the value of this finding.

“It’s an interesting twist but it does not seem to offer network attackers any additional advantage beyond what they can already achieve,” wrote Chris Evans on the Full Disclosure mailing list. Evans is the creator of the Very Secure File Transfer Protocol (vsftp) software Microsoft MCITP Certification.

Dan Kaminsky, chief scientist of the security research firm Recursion Ventures, agreed that this work is a continuation of attacks developed before HTML5. “Browsers don’t just request content, render it, and throw it away. They also store it for later use … Lavakumar is observing that the next-generation caching technologies suffer this same trait,” he said, in an e-mail interview.

Critics agreed that this attack would rely on a site not using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to encrypt data between the browser and Web page server, which is commonly practiced. But even if this work did not unearth a new type of vulnerability, it does show that an old vulnerability can be reused in this new environment.

Johnson says that, with HTML5, many of the new features constitute threats on their own, due to how they increase the number of ways an attacker could harness the user’s browser to do harm of some sort.

“For years security has focused on vulnerabilities–buffer overflows, SQL injection attacks. We patch them, we fix them, we monitor them,” Johnson said. But in HTML5′s case, it is often the features themselves “that can be used to attack to us,” he said.

As an example, Johnson points to Google’s Gmail, which is an early user of HTML5′s local storage capabilities. Before HTML5, an attacker may have had to steal cookies off a machine and decode them to get the password for an online e-mail service. Now, the attacker needs only to gain entry into the user’s browser, where Gmail stories a copy of the inbox.

“These feature sets are scary,” he said. “If I can find a flaw in your Web application, and inject HTML5 code, I can modify your site and hide things I don’t want you to see.”

With local storage, an attacker can read data from your browser, or insert other data there without your knowledge. With geolocation, an attacker can determine your location without your knowledge. With the new version of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), an attacker can control what elements of a CSS-enhanced page you can see. The HTML5 WebSocket supplies a network communication stack to the browser, which could be misused for surreptitious backdoor communications.

This is not to say that the browser makers are oblivious to this issue. Even as they work to add in the support for the new standards, they are looking at ways to prevent their misuse. At the Usenix symposium, Stamm noted some of the techniques that the Firefox team is exploring to mitigate damage that could be done with these new technologies.

For instance, they are working on an alternative plug-in platform, called JetPack, that would keep tighter control of what actions a plug-in could execute. “If we have complete control of the [application programming interface], we’re able to say ‘This add-on is requesting access to Paypal.com, would you allow it?’” Stamm said.

JetPack may also use a declarative security model, in which the plug-in must declare to the browser each action it intends to undertake. The browser then would monitor the plug-in to ensure it stays within these parameters.

Still, whether browser makers can do enough to secure HTML5 remains to be seen, critics contend.
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“The enterprise has to start evaluating whether it is worth these features to roll out the new browsers,” Johnson said. “This is one of the few times you may hear ‘You know, maybe [Internet Explorer]6 was better.’”

Joe Tiller, a famous football coach, said, “It’s always a chess game, and you’re trying to stay one move ahead of the competition.” Tiller’s words are as applicable to business as they are to football. Today, the Internet and the WWW (World Wide Web) are changing the way business is done, by providing a level playing field for small companies to effectively and efficiently compete with large conglomerates. No longer are cash-laden behemoths safe in their market-lead positions– those could be taken at any time by smart and agile new competitors.

Running an efficient organisation Microsoft MCITP Certification that delivers high-quality products and services at reasonable prices is essential for business success– but it is no longer sufficient to ensure survival. Customer satisfaction; early adoption and effective use of technology; better data collection, analysis and decision-making; automation of business processes, etc, are all essential for survival. However, these are not the key differentiators in today’s global Web economy.

Innovate or perish

Many research firms and industry analysts indicate that the only way for companies to compete is to constantly innovate; avenues for improving the bottom line have been exhausted, and the only way to move forward is to sustain top line growth and increase profits. So CEOs and the top management must change their focus from the operational issues to growth and innovation. According to Rosabeth Kanter, “To stay ahead, you must have your next idea waiting in the wings.”

Some well-known examples of companies that constantly innovate are Dell, which revolutionised the PC market; McDonald’s, which redefined the fast food market; and – of course! – Apple. Consider the barrage of new Apple products in recent years– the iMac, iBook, iCube, and eMac; the iPod and its multiple variants and versions; iTunes, the Mac Book, Mac Pro, Apple TV, the iPhone, and more. With such ceaseless innovation, no wonder other firms are always trying to catch up with Apple, and never quite succeeding! According to Apple CEO Steve Jobs, “Innovation distinguishes between a follower and a leader.” Today, innovation is no longer a luxury; it is the key to survival.

Innovation does not happen automatically; organisations need to foster it, to create an environment that is conducive to innovation. For example, at Google, employees can spend 20 per cent of their time on exploring and developing their own ideas. Some of the best Google applications and products are the result of such projects. Organisations must also prevent innovation stoppers and idea-killers from stamping out the innovative spirit of employees. In his book “The Myths of Innovation”, Scott Berkun defines an innovation stopper as “a person with the power and motivation to kill new ideas.” Idea-killers are those whose response to new ideas are, “We have tried it before” or “We don’t have the time/budget.”

Continuous learning

Continuous learning keeps employees up-to-date with the latest technological developments, and helps them improve their efficiency with newer methods, practices, tools and techniques. In his book,The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organisation , Peter Senge stresses the importance of making an organisation a home of continuous learning, where people continually expand their capacity to achieve the results they truly desire. New ideas, new knowledge and new findings are used to anticipate and to innovate.

Again, organisations need to provide employees with an environment that promotes learning, as well as ample learning opportunities. Well-stocked libraries and computer facilities are a necessity. HRD should study employee profiles to fill the gaps in employee skill-sets, in accordance with the organisation’s long-term strategies. For example, before a switch from UNIX to Windows as the main operating system, employees who are not familiar with Windows need to be trained to ensure a smooth transition.

Continuous evolution

The phrase ‘survival of the fittest’ – one of the fundamental laws of evolution– is true in the case of businesses too. Tech firms that adapt to new environments and evolve are able to survive and thrive even during difficult times. The two aspects of evolution are diversification and strengthening of core competencies.

All organisations have core competencies which they should identify and strengthen. For example, a car manufacturer should find ways to improve the quality of cars, make them safer, more fuel efficient and comfortable, while keeping prices as low as possible.

Diversification can be either horizontal or vertical. In the case of horizontal diversification, the organisation enters areas that are related to its core competency– like acquiring or developing new products that appeal to existing customers. For example, a car manufacturer can diversify into auto accessories. In vertical diversification, the company moves into the business areas of its suppliers. For example, the car manufacturer could diversify into manufacturing steel or tyre- making so that it could produce what’s required for its core business.

Diversification, if done properly, gives entry to new markets, provides new business opportunities, and reduces financial risk. Diversification can be achieved through mergers, acquisitions and by starting new business units. The advantages of the first two strategies are that you get a new product and a set of talented people, while eliminating a potential competitor.

Kaizen– continuous improvement

The Japanese concept of Kaizen, or continuous improvement, is one of the best ways to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of an organisation.

The difference between innovation and improvement is that innovation often involves drastic changes to the existing process, and requires large investments, whereas Kaizen signifies small but continuous improvements– the result of coordinated and continuous efforts by all employees. Improvements could range from the elimination of an unnecessary process to the introduction of a safer working practice.

Such small and minor improvements can have a dramatic impact on the overall performance of a company. Consider the example of AZ Technologies, which conducted touch-typing training for all its employees when they found that 95 percent of employees used computers for at least four hours a day. The productivity improvement was dramatic– many employees were able to save hours, as their typing speed doubled or tripled.

Recruiting and retaining the best…

Employees are the most valuable assets of any organisation. But recruiting and retaining the best minds is not an easy task– it takes a lot of work, coupled with really innovative and creative plans.

Google (the best company to work for, according to Fortune magazine, 2007), offers goodies such as stock options, an informal work environment, free meals, a spa, free on-site medical care, free transportation, hair saloons, gyms, massage parlours, childcare, on-site notaries, car services, and more. It’s no wonder that Google gets more than 1,300 resumes a day!

According to the 2007 Business Today study of the best company to work for, Microsoft MCTS Training India has toppled the 2005 and 2006 winner, Infosys. The reasons? A host of innovative strategies, including leadership development programmes, recognition of talent, seamless internal branch transfers, excellent compensation packages, an exemplary mentoring system, assistance with finding homes, school admissions, childcare, etc.

All the top employee-friendly companies have informal and flexible work environments, challenging assignments, a fun-filled and enjoyable work culture, comfortable and often luxurious workplaces, excellent perks, ample scope for personal and professional growth, and so on.

Business agility

Change is one thing that all businesses have to cope with. How well an organisation manages change is one of the factors that decides its success. New technological developments are revolutionising the way we think, work and do business due to the introduction of new business models, addition of new rules and regulations, and entry of new competitors. Customer preferences change so fast that most new products have a very short shelf-life.

In such an environment, the success of an organisation depends on how fast it can adapt, and how quickly and effectively it can respond to change– its agility. When an organisation has to adapt quickly, the responsibility of problem solving will go to its employees. Innovative and apt solutions for each new situation can be created quickly by the collective intelligence of employees. According to Kouzes and Posner (Management 21C, 2000), the secret of high-performing organisations is that everyone within them knows that leadership at all levels is expected and rewarded, and that individuals everywhere are responsible for making extraordinary things happen.

Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric, has popularised the concept of ‘boundary-less organisations’. These are firms that are not limited by the horizontal, vertical or external boundaries imposed by a predetermined structure, and where cross-functional teams dissolve horizontal barriers, while external partnerships and collaboration overcome the firm’s boundaries. Obstacles like hierarchy, bureaucracy, unnecessary regulations, and geography are removed, to achieve outstanding business performance– enabling the company to respond quickly to environmental changes, and to spur and stimulate innovation.

Staying ahead

To survive and stay ahead of the competition, the management must run leaner and smarter organisations. Whether a company becomes an industry leader or remains just another in the pack, depends on its ability to constantly innovate and learn, continuously improve, use technology intelligently and effectively, anticipate, adopt, and react to changes quickly. Organisations should hire the best talent, keep them happy, and make the best use of their talents. The four factors that are critical for the success of any organisation are people, innovation, information and technology.

Change is continual…

“It is change, continuing change, inevitable change that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be…This, in turn, means that our statesmen, our businessmen, our everyman must take on a science fictional way of thinking.” Isaac Asimov

For most computer users, an operating system is somewhat like the engine under a car’s hood. They know how to start and stop the engine, how to drive around, probably how to check oil levels, but beyond that, the knowledge is limited. With a car, that is okay, since we do not really need to know more unless we are hard-core enthusiasts, or working in the automotive industry.

Getting back to operating systems, the beauty of these ‘engines’ is that they allow users to run their computers and use their favourite applications, while they take care of allocating system resources, handling processes, and so on. Operating systems are far from perfect, but they are remarkable pieces of software for the sheer complexity of tasks that they handle.

We open up the engine and take a look at some of the recent innovations in operating systems.

Splashtop: A fast-booting OS

What do PC users do after they press their PC’s power button?

* Go get a cup of coffee
* Stare at the screen and practice meditation
* Chat with colleagues
* Any of the above

Jokes aside, most of us usually spend minutes waiting for the operating system (OS) to boot up. This is especially frustrating when we need to look up something on the Internet quickly, or just have a few minutes to check personal e-mail.

{quotes}A new operating system called Splashtop allows you to connect to the Internet without booting your main operating system{/quotes}. Splashtop has two components: a core engine that runs out of the BIOS, and an optimised Linux stack that boots rapidly. Splashtop boots out of the BIOS (basic input-output system) on the motherboard of the PC, generally in five seconds or less, according to the website, and provides quick access to certain applications, like the Splashtop Web browser (based on Firefox) and Skype– or offers you the choice of booting your main operating system.

Splashtop is currently available only on ASUS motherboards. When we enquired about how the company plans to make Splashtop available to customers, Andrew Kippen, press and blogger relations manager at DeviceVM (the company that provides Splashtop) revealed, “We spoke about many different ways to release Splashtop, but in the end decided that launching with a partner like ASUS, the world’s largest motherboard manufacturer, was the best way to reach consumers. Splashtop-enabled laptops and desktops will be released later this year.”

Splashtop uses flash memory on the motherboard to store its applications. Could that be a bottleneck? Kippen says, “This is not an issue, since we tailor each version of Splashtop to the manufacturer’s specifications. If there is a size issue, manufacturers can include a larger flash memory chip, or run Splashtop from a partition on the hard drive.”

On issues like vulnerability to attacks and whether it is possible to save attachments or documents, Kippen says, “Like I mentioned earlier, we tailor each version of Splashtop to a manufacturer’s specifications, so [the answer to] your question depends on the manufacturer. On current ASUS products, we allow persistent data (like bookmarks and cookies) to be written to memory. However, users cannot save files, for security reasons.”

Since Splashtop is Linux-based, it is immune to most of the attacks that plague traditional operating systems. Restricting access to memory, whether flash memory or the hard drive, further ensures that Splashtop always works properly.

Speaking on the reasons for the OS’s popularity, Kippen adds, “A major reason for Splashtop’s success is that more and more applications are moving to the Web. Users (excluding business users) spend more time with Web-based e-mail, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and other websites than on any desktop program. Online applications like Google and Zoho are quickly becoming viable options for most Office-like applications.

“We are targeting mass-market consumers, i.e., normal people who just want their computer to work without any wait or fuss. We see ourselves as a good complement to the traditional OS, great for lightweight applications like Web browsing and media playback, but not the right fit if you want to do video editing.”

Splashtop is not the only company in this space. Phoenix Technologies, a company that makes BIOS software, is developing software called Hyperspace that will launch along with the PC’s regular OS. Hyperspace, which is billed as a “compact and secure application environment”, will be able to run applications as well as perform systems maintenance (repair, back-up, recovery, etc) and security. Phoenix expects manufacturers to start offering Hyperspace in the latter half of 2008.

Desktop search

While Google is the leader in Web search engines, its dominance in the desktop environment is not so clear-cut. A probable reason for this is that both Apple and Microsoft MCTS Training have included better search capabilities in their operating systems, Mac OS X and Vista.

Leopard, the latest version of Mac OS X, allows you to flip through files just as you would browse album art on iTunes, perform Boolean searches, save searches, and even find files on your network. Vista’s search capabilities include tagging, search folders (pre-defined searches), and search integration with different applications.

About innovations in desktop search, Dr Michael Swift, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison says, “Since the introduction of Apple’s OS X 10.4 [Tiger], desktop search has become a predominant way of accessing files. This was followed by Vista’s search capabilities. Currently, these capabilities are not completely integrated into the OS, in that they execute as shell extensions, but I see search as becoming the dominant way to access files on a PC.”

BumpTop: Real-world desktop metaphors

Take a look at the desk where you work. Do you have piles of books, or maybe papers stacked on it or even strewn about? Most of us tend to organise in stacks– of books, magazines, and papers. What if you could organise your computer’s files on your desktop in a similar way?

BumpTop, software developed by Anand Agarwala and Ravin Balakrishnan, aims to do exactly that. The interface uses techniques like shading and animation to drag files with a fluid movement. You can drag, or even toss files into piles. You can view the items in the pile in different ways by using widgets– flipping them like you would flip pages in a book, or viewing them like a deck of cards. Other manipulation techniques let you organise your files in different ways.

BumpTop is in the ‘private alpha’ stage at the moment, but you can sign up on the website to try it once it is available. You can also view a demo video from the website at http://www.bumptop.com/

It is too early to tell whether BumpTop will change the way in which we organise our desktops. What is clear, though, is that BumpTop’s interface is an interesting and innovative concept.

Device driver reliability

Most of us are unaware that device drivers which are required for the different hardware that we use cause many of the crashes we experience with operating systems. Researchers are looking at ways to minimise the effects of device drivers when something goes wrong.

One such effort is the Nooks project, being conducted at the University of Washington by Dr Michael Swift. Nooks (as defined by the researchers) is a reliability sub-system that seeks to enhance OS reliability by isolating the OS from driver failures.

{quotes}The Nooks project worked on the Linux kernel, since the source code was freely available.{/quotes} According to Dr Swift, “The team also investigated an implementation in the Windows 2000 kernel, even going as far as to implement key portions: object tracking, wrappers, and limited recovery. However, the inability to redistribute code, and the lack of available driver source code for Windows, limited our ability to pursue this work.”

About the future of driver protection mechanisms, Dr Swift says, “I would expect that in the future, driver protection mechanisms will come in two formats: user-level drivers and driver protection integrated with virtual machines. Windows Vista added support for the User-Mode Driver Framework (UMDF), which allows certain drivers to be written for user mode. This does not provide the compatibility of Nooks, but does provide similar protection.

“You can see driver protection in Xen [an open source virtual machine monitor], in its ability to run drivers in a separate virtual machine. However, Xen to date has not added recovery support, so it does not tolerate driver failures in the same way as Nooks. I would expect that improved recovery would become part of virtualised drivers.”

Making back-up easier

Backing up your computer is like eating healthy– you know you should, but you probably don’t actually do it. Since operating systems in the past did not offer easy-to-use solutions, it made the task of backing up onerous. Dr Swift thinks that this will change.

He says, “As people put more of their life online, I think that back-up will be a place that desktop operating systems innovate. Apple has done this already with its Time Machine back-up system, which allows simple time- or date-based access to old versions of files. Microsoft MCITP Certification has added back-up capabilities to Vista as well, but not with the same level of UI (user interface) sophistication.”

Other areas of innovation

What are the other areas of innovation in the OS space? Dr Swift reveals, “Security continues to play a huge role on the desktop. Both Apple and Microsoft have added extensive new security features to their latest products, in the form of more powerful firewalls and the ability to restrict the permissions of executing code (Sandboxing on Leopard; and User Account Control and Internet Explorer safe mode with mandatory integrity controls on Vista).”

He adds, “As the hardware industry moves from single-processor chips to multi-core chips, desktop operating systems need to invest more in scalability and parallelism, to both reduce the cost of OS activity, and to enable applications to make better use of the multiple cores. Vista introduced several new mechanisms for writing concurrent code, including new types of locks and signalling methods.

{quotes}”Reliability has become an important place for innovation on the desktop. Vista has more support for detecting and handling application hangs, and a new kernel transaction manager with filesystem transactions.{/quotes} These transactions make it easier to simultaneously update several files, and to handle any failures that occur during the update process.”

Microsoft Research’s OS team is also working on a research project called Singularity in order “…to build more reliable systems and applications.” On whether the research would make its way into newer versions of Windows, a Microsoft spokesperson says, “We are not giving official guidance to the public yet about the next version of Windows. We are currently in the planning stages for Windows 7 and will provide updates when we are ready.”

In the case of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project, in addition to its hardware innovation, it has created a laptop with a Linux-based operating system and a radical desktop interface (SUGAR) that was designed for children.

Speaking about OS innovations, Walter Bender, president of Software/Content and COO of the OLPC Foundation, reveals, “From the OLPC perspective, there are a number of metrics we consider paramount in regard to the operating system, which are not mainstream considerations in an era of ‘bigger-faster’ computing.”

“Most important is power management. When you live off the electrical grid, making the most of every watt is critical. We are pushing the concept of power management to new extremes. Memory management is another area of concern: memory costs money, and consumes power. The extent to which we can better manage memory usage is correlated with the extent to which we can manage power usage. A further challenge is the lack of swap space, since we are using flash storage rather than a hard disk. Finally, the culture of free and open source is essential for the viability of a project such as One Laptop Per Child: it is the only way to scale, and at the same time, enable unencumbered local capacity development.”

In short, we may not be able to ‘see’ all the innovations in the operating systems space, but they are taking place!

What the future holds

If you look back to the days of DOS-based PCs, we have come a long way to our current operating systems. What will the future of PC operating systems be? Will we even have PC operating systems, given that Web-based operating systems are coming up? What about the fast-booting operating systems, embedded on the motherboard?

Dr Swift says, “To date, there have been many attempts to dislodge the dominant operating system vendors, with little success. I have not used the systems you mention [Web operating systems] enough to understand what their value proposition is, but I think they may be most useful as layers above a normal operating system. In this way, they would serve more as an advanced browser than as a full operating system, as they may not provide the complete hardware access and resource scheduling capabilities of Windows, Mac OS, or Linux.

“Fast-booting OS concepts make sense for embedded devices or closed products where devices cannot be attached, but the extensibility of the personal computer makes it unlikely that these products will supplant existing desktop operating systems.

“Regarding Web operating systems, I think they provide some benefit, but people today are comfortable going to individual websites for their content, so I am not sure they add that much value. What may happen instead is that more of people’s computing experience will migrate to mobile devices, such as smart phones, so the services that Web-based operating systems offer will be used from mobile devices rather than desktop PCs.” It looks like desktop operating systems are here to stay, albeit in a different avatar in the future.
Ubuntu: the new face of desktop Linux?

Linux has been around for quite a while now, especially in the server world — but distributions like Xandros and Mandriva have made installing and using Linux on your desktop much easier. The latest buzz around the desktop Linux world, though, is Ubuntu, which has become a major player since Dell began selling computers with Ubuntu pre-installed, in Europe and the US, in 2007.

Mark Shuttleworth (owner of Canonical Ltd, which sponsors Ubuntu) blogged that while a number of excellent companies like System76 already offer Linux pre-installed, Dell represents “the industry”, and it’s very important that the industry is now seeing a future for Linux on the desktop.

In other recent high-profile adoptions, the French National Assembly migrated to Ubuntu late last year. France’s Gendarmerie National recently announced plans to migrate 70,000 desktops from Windows to Ubuntu. In India, HCL has announced low-price laptops that run Ubuntu.

About Ubuntu’s innovations in the OS space, Gerry Carr, marketing manager, Canonical Limited, says: “Ubuntu’s innovation is that it ‘just works’. Linux was held back for many years by its perceived and actual difficulty.” Earlier, people’s peripherals would not work, and adding applications would require going to the command line. Ubuntu has changed that; due to the Ubuntu team’s efforts, adding drivers is now easy, and hardware compatibility has improved. New users usually have a wonderful experience on the desktop, rarely needing to go “under the hood”. Linux has had a lot of the fear that was associated with it taken away by Ubuntu’s simple, clean, and effective interface.

This is why it’s possible that Ubuntu is going to be the new face of desktop Linux; do keep an eye on the progress of this amazing Linux distribution– and if you haven’t tried it yet, maybe it’s time you did!
Backing up the back-up!

Apple’s Time Machine, released in October 2007 as part of Mac OS X Leopard, lets you do incremental back-ups, and allows you to go back to a specific date and see how a file looked on that date. Windows Vista also allows incremental back-ups, and allows you to back up to a location on a network. Vista’s shadow copy lets you recover files that you may have accidentally deleted. Maybe, someday, we will see operating systems that back up files via the Internet to a data centre

Intel has expanded its share of the server microprocessor market, taking advantage of a slow product transition at perennial rival Advanced Micro Devices, according to figures released late Wednesday by IDC.

Intel supplied 93.5 percent of the server processor units shipped in the second quarter, up from 89.9 percent in the same quarter last year. AMD’s share slipped to 6.5 percent from 10.1 percent over the same period, IDC said Microsoft MCTS Training .
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Most of AMD’s share loss occurred between the first and second quarters, when server makers were slow to offer AMD’s new 6000 series Opterons in their systems.

“AMD is in the middle of a product transition. It stated in late Q1 and they hoped it would be completed in Q2, but it turns out it took their OEMs a bit longer to ramp up the products they were building,” said Mercury Research analyst Dean McCarron.

AMD executives said as much during an earnings call for the second quarter, in which the company swung to a loss after two straight quarters of profit. Intel had a much stronger quarter, thanks largely to growth in its server chip business.

“Intel got significant sales traction for its new 32 nanometer Xeon DP products, formerly code-named Westmere-EP, and for its 45 nanometer Xeon MP products, formerly code-named Nehalem-EX,” IDC analyst Shane Rau said via e-mail.

“In contrast, while AMD launched its 8-core and 12-core Opteron products, formerly code-named Magny Cours, OEMs didn’t buy them and ship them in significant volume [in the second quarter]. I expect that to change in [the third quarter],” he said.

McCarron also said things could look up now for AMD. “Presumably in the third and fourth quarters they won’t be weighed down by those transition issues,” he said.

In the wider x86 market, including server, desktop and mobile processors, things looked better for AMD. Its overall market share increased a fraction between the first and second quarters, from 18.8 percent to 19.0 percent of processor units shipped Microsoft MCITP Certification.

AMD’s share of laptop processor shipments increased to 13.7 percent in the second quarter, from 12.1 percent in the first quarter, while Intel’s share fell from 87.8 percent to 86.1 percent. In desktop processors, Intel added a half percentage point of share from the first quarter, to reach 72.2 percent, IDC said.

Via Technologies accounted for 0.3 percent of overall processor shipments in the second quarter, up from 0.2 percent in the first quarter but down from 0.5 percent in the first quarter last year, IDC said.

Overall x86 processor shipments for all vendors were up 30.8 percent year-over-year in the second quarter, as IT buyers resumed spending on equipment. The mobile sector saw the most growth, followed by servers.

(IDC is owned by International Data Group, the parent company of IDG News Service.)

and third-party security experts warned that users could be subjected to drive-by downloads because of flaws in Windows and Internet Explorer that received fixes on Patch Tuesday this week.

Hackers are likely to use social engineering tricks to lure users to infected Web sites and media files, they warned. The vulnerabilities are among 10 security updates that patch a record-tying 34 vulnerabilities in Windows, Internet Explorer, Office and SharePoint.

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One bug in particular – a Windows kernel TrueType font parsing vulnerability – was rated as the most serious Patch Tuesday fix by Joshua Talbot, security intelligence manager for Symantec.

“Exploiting this – likely through a drive-by download attack – would give an attacker near system-level privileges. It’s doubtful that attackers would compromise a legitimate site to exploit this vulnerability, so users should be extra cautious of social engineering tricks coaxing them to visit unfamiliar Web pages, which could contain a malicious font.”

The TrueType vulnerability was contained in Security Bulletin MS10-032, one of the ten issued by Microsoft Tuesday.

However, Microsoft MCTS Training rated three other bulletins as being even more important than this one, with two of them involving potential drive-by downloads, which occur when users authorize a download without understanding the consequences, or that simply occur without the user’s knowledge.

MS10-033, a critical bulletin, “is a remote code execution vulnerability in both Quartz.dll and Asycfilt.dll and is rated Critical on all supported versions of Windows. Specially crafted media files could trigger the vulnerability when a user visits a web page or opens a malicious file,” Microsoft said.

With this vulnerability, hackers may use media files to lure users into downloading malicious code.

“This could result in a drive-by download where the user visits a specially crafted Web site, and in this case it would be like a media file that could start streaming or the user could open a specially crafted media file that got sent to them via e-mail or some method like that,” Microsoft security official Jerry Bryant said in a video accompanying the announcement.

These bugs are on par with some of the most critical ones observed on Patch Tuesday, says Andrew Storms, director of security operations at the security vendor nCircle.

Rather than making businesses vulnerable on the server side, this month’s most serious bugs mainly target end users, he said.
“What looks to be a normal movie file that you click on and watch could have embedded malware inside and take control of your system,” Storms said.

Similarly, the new bulletin MS10-035 involves flaws in Internet Explorer which could also result in drive-by downloads.

A third critical bulletin, MS10-034, involves ActiveX Kill Bits and affects Windows 2000, XP, Vista and Windows 7.
Kill Bits ensure that vulnerable ActiveX controls can no longer be exploited through Internet Explorer.

Typically, Kill Bits are issued for third-party software, rather than for software created by Microsoft, according to Storms. What is unusual about MS10-034 is that two out of the six Kill Bits being issued are for Microsoft ActiveX controls.

“What that means is Microsoft has found one of their ActiveX controls to be vulnerable as well,” Storms said. “Today they found two. That’s unusual. We haven’t seen that from Microsoft since last summer.”

Overall, this was a record-setting month for Patch Tuesday.

“This is the largest Microsoft MCITP Certification patch release of 2010 and ties the record for the most vulnerabilities ever addressed in a single month; a record set in October of last year,” Talbot of Symantec said. “This month’s release also features the largest ever single bulletin, with 14 vulnerabilities in Excel being addressed together.”

ESD is the practice of delivering software without the use of physical media, typically by downloading via the internet. Digital distribution bypasses conventional physical distribution media, such as paper or DVDs, reducing costs and waste. As broadband connections have become more widespread software downloads have become an increasingly popular method of purchasing programs.
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Traditionally Microsoft has sold the majority of its operating system software via OEM (original equipment manufacturer) deals. Manufacturers would buy Windows licences from Microsoft and pass the cost of the OS on to customers when they buy desktop PCs and laptops. Similarly, Office licences have typically been sold in large chunks to enterprises.

As digital media has become more capacious, Microsoft has targetted consumers with software DVDs sold from high street stores, with download purchases available only direct from Microsoft. Thus the decision to allow selected third-party vendors is a significant move by Microsoft.

PC Advisor has available for download a range of Microsoft MCITP Certification products including upgrades and full versions of all flavours of Windows 7 and Microsoft Office 2010. This is the first time that Microsoft has allowed third parties to sell downloads of its products in the UK, and follows a matter of weeks after the company first trialed ESD in France and Germany.

“The green lights go on and off when packets pass through,” he explained. “It had ramped up until the lights were more on than off.”

Bowers quickly began troubleshooting over the phone. He was able to determine that nothing on the school of medicine’s network had changed. Then he remembered that purple cable. He told his co-worker on the phone to unplug it, and activity on the switch went back to normal. Then he had his co-worker plug it back in and the switch overloaded again, proving that the problem was at the other end of the purple cable — in the university hospital building.

It turned out that an IT staffer who was normally based out of a satellite location came to the university hospital’s IT room to work on a project and needed extra connectivity. He inadvertently created a loop by plugging two network cables from the university switch into a hub he had added to the network so he could attach additional devices.

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“So it kept trying to send data around in a circle, over and over,” says Bowers, which in turn caused the switch in the school of medicine building to overload.

Bowers says the network was cobbled together like that when he began working at the university, so he inherited the setup — which a better approach to network planning and design would have no doubt flagged as problematic. But at least now the IT department knows one scenario to avoid going forward: Jury-rigged cabling and traveling techies can be a bad mix Microsoft MCTS Training.

“We didn’t do an official lessons learned [exercise] after this, it was just more of a ‘don’t do that again,’” says Bowers. However, this event, combined with another incident where a user unwittingly established a rogue wireless access point on the school of medicine’s network and overloaded the switch, has convinced Bowers of one thing: “I hold to the concept that human errors account for more problems than technical errors,” he says.
Save $35, lose all your data

More often than not, data center mishaps are caused, directly or indirectly, by employers’ attempts to save money. In this case, it was all about saving $35 on a backup tape.

In 1999, Charles Barber worked as technical support manager at a health-instrument company (one that no longer exists) that made stand-alone, server-based equipment that connected to treadmills to collect the data resulting from patient stress tests. One of the company’s customers was a small medical practice in St. Louis where the administrative assistant also served as the IT person Microsoft MCITP Certification.

“She was pretty competent” — but not a trained IT professional, says Barber.

One Friday evening, she heard strange noises coming from the equipment’s server and realized that the hard drive had failed. That Saturday she purchased a new hard drive, installed it and reloaded Microsoft’s Windows Server and SQL Server, since she had saved the discs and documentation. Barber had provided written instructions for her on how to configure the server, in case such a thing ever happened, and the assistant did so successfully. (“I’ve had field engineers call me to get help with these things,” says Barber, but this woman managed it on her own.)

What users hate about IT pros

Stupid data center tricks. D’oh!

These are just a few of the data center disasters that have been caused not by technological malfunctions or natural catastrophes, but by human error.

According to the Uptime Institute, a New York-based research and consulting organization that focuses on data-center performance, human error causes roughly 70% of the problems that plague data centers today. The group analyzed 4,500 data-center incidents, including 400 full downtime events, says Julian Kudritzki, a vice president at the Uptime Institute, which recently published a set of guidelines for operational sustainability of data centers.

“I’m not surprised,” Kudritzki says of the findings. “The management of operations is your greatest vulnerability, but also is a significant opportunity to avoid downtime. The good news is people can be retrained.”

Whether it’s due to neglect, insufficient training, end-user interference, tight purse strings or simple mistakes, human error is unavoidable. And these days, thanks to the ever-increasing complexity of IT systems — and the related problem of increasingly overworked data center staffers — even the mishaps that can be avoided often aren’t, says Charles King, an analyst at Pund-IT Inc.
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Has user error ever taken down your data center? Share the gory details.

“Whenever you mix high levels of complexity and overwork, the results are typically ugly,” says King. And as companies become more reliant on technology to achieve their business goals, those mistakes become more critical and more costly.

Wrong worker, wrong cable

Take the example of the university data center switch that overloaded because an IT worker mistakenly plugged two network cables into a downstream hub. That happened about four years ago at the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, according to Jeramy Jay Bowers, a security analyst at the school Microsoft MCTS Training, and MCITP Certification.

The problem arose out of less-than-optimal network design, says Bowers, who worked at the school as a system engineer at the time of the incident. The IT department for the school of medicine was split into two locations, with one room in the school of medicine building and another room at the neighboring university hospital — not an ideal setup to begin with, says Bowers.

The department had run fiber — a purple cable, to be exact — from a switch in the first building to the second, running it up through the ceiling, through a set of doors and across to the hospital’s administrative wing next door. That cable attached to a 12-port switch that sat in the hospital building’s IT room, and staffers could easily disconnect from the school of medicine network and connect to the hospital network through a jack in the wall, Bowers explains.

MCTS Training certification is incredibly important in the computing field, especially for those individuals who want to excel technologically as well as financially. The MCSE certification helps individuals prove that they are expert in this platform. The individual is able to implement and design the infrastructure required in the two available streams, Windows 2000 and Windows server 2003 and so they will have to give different sets of examinations for them.

Individuals planning to secure training in IT will have to go through MCSE boot camp. The MCSE boot camp provides an intensive training that helps students to get trained, pass the examination and handle any kind of work efficiently in any company. The concept of MCSE boot camp has earned its name for its intensity and not for any disciplined military approach.

Most MCSE boot camps last for two weeks. The cost of the boot camp is rather higher, especially when they include air transportation, lodging and meals. In most of the cases, employers pay for the cost of the camp.

During the boot camp, students take up seven certification examinations and work directed by instructors towards preparation for each examination. Every instructor is experienced in all Microsoft platforms and so students need not worry. Also, there are practical guides using up to date hardware and software. MCSE boot camps always have a twenty four hour lab access to the students.

The advantage of training under a boot camp is the success associated with it. Generally, there are guaranteed success assurances. However, if there are some failures, the instructors identify and correct any mistakes responsibly and facilitate re-examination of the failures at a reduced rate.

Individual attention is the key to a successful completion of the test and so many Microsoft MCITP Certification, MCSE boot camps have small classes and therefore a high instructor to student ratio.

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Why MCSE 2003

MCSE 2003 70-290 Certifications are among the most specialized certifications available today. The MCSE 2003 70-290 Certification give you industry recognition for your expertise for business solutions based on the Microsoft Windows? 2003 platform and Microsoft 2003 server software. Implementation responsibilities include installing, configuring, and troubleshooting network systems. The MCSE 2003 credential is one of the most

widely recognized technical certifications in the industry, a credential in high demand. By earning the premier MCSE credential, individuals are demonstrating that they have the skills necessary to lead organizations in the successful design, implementation, and administration of the most advanced Microsoft Windows platform and Microsoft server products Microsoft MCITP Certification.

MCSE 2003 Certification Requirement:

1. Core exams (six exams required)

• Four networking system exams: (four exams required)

Exam 70-290: Managing and Maintaining a Windows Server 2003 Environment.

Exam 70-291: Implementing, Managing, and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure.

Exam 70-293: Planning and Maintaining a Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure.

Exam 70-294: Planning, Implementing, and Maintaining a Windows Server 2003 Active Directory Infrastructure.

• One client operating system exam: (one exam required)

Exam 70-620: TS: Microsoft Windows Vista, Configuring.

Exam 70-270: Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft Windows XP Professional.

Exam 70-210: Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional.

• One design exam:

Exam 70-297: Designing a Windows Server 2003 Active Directory and Network Infrastructure.

Exam 70-298: Designing Security for a Windows Server 2003 Network.

2. Elective exams (one exam required)

Exam 70-089: Designing, Implementing, and Managing a Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003 Infrastructure.

Exam 70-227: Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2000, Enterprise Edition.

Exam 70-228: Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition.

Exam 70-229: Designing and Implementing Databases with Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition.

Exam 70-235: TS: Developing Business Process and Integration Solutions Using BizTalk Server.

Exam 70-236: TS: Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Configuring.

Exam 70-262: TS: Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 – Implementing, Managing, and Troubleshooting.

Exam 70-281: Planning, Deploying, and Managing an Enterprise Project Management Solution.

Exam 70-282: Designing, Deploying, and Managing a Network Solution for a Small- and Medium-Sized Business.

Exam 70-284: Implementing and Managing Microsoft Exchange Server 2003.

Exam 70-285: Designing a Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Organization.

Exam 70-297: Designing a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Active Directory and Network Infrastructure.

Exam 70-298: Designing Security for a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network.

Exam 70-299: Implementing and Administering Security in a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network.

Exam 70–301: Managing, Organizing, and Delivering IT Projects by Using Microsoft Solutions Framework 3.0.

Exam 70–350: Implementing Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2004.

Exam 70–431: TS: Microsoft SQL Server 2005 – Implementation and Maintenance.

Exam 70-445: Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Business Intelligence – Implementation and Maintenance.

Exam 70-500: TS: Microsoft Windows Mobile Designing, Implementing, and Managing.

Exam 70-501: TS: Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Hosted Environments, Configuring, and Managing.

Exam 70-620: TS: Microsoft Windows Vista, Configuring.

Exam 70-624: TS: Deploying and Maintaining Windows Vista Client and 2007 Microsoft Office System Desktops.

Exam 70-630: TS: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, Configuring.

Exam 70-631: TS: Configuring Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.

With rich experience in writing, often in the major websites, newspapers published articles and welcomed by a large number of readers,and articles written by others with a large number of quote.

MCTS Training exam vouchers are number tickets, which provide a discount or free passing the exams during a certain term. Vouchers can be both in electronic (only the number) or in paper form. The only way to get them is through the authorized centres of testing, which are VUE and Prometric. Vouchers can also be used in advertising actions as a prize. The other option is to get such vouchers before the increase of the exams prices.

The VUE centres of testing offer services on the organization of exams to the sponsor companies, such as Cisco, Ericsson and others. The full list of the exams given by system VUE can be found at this address: http://www.vue.com. System VUE supports the control centre of data including a database of candidates and examination questions. Within 3-5 minutes after the order of exam, the individual set of questions for the given order is sent on the Internet in the authorized centre of testing. After passing the testing, results of the examination are sent back to the control centre of data VUE, and from there – to the sponsor company or MCITP Certification.

The company Prometric is a world famous developer and provider of computer tests on products of leading world manufacturers of the software: Microsoft, Oracle and many others. The full list of the examinations given by the system Prometric can be found in the web site: http://www.prometric.com. Prometric puts forward worldwide a uniform extensive list of requirements to the opened centres of testing. Some of them are spacious and well-shined classes, special computer equipment, certificated personnel, and strict control for those who pass the exams.

As a rule, any interested person can be registered on exam of the sponsor company, having paid its cost. It is possible to pay for the examination in cash, or showing gotten in advance MCTS exam voucher. The voucher allows you to pass the exam or to receive a discount in any centre of testing VUE or Prometric.

Those who already decide to use CCNA exam vouchers should know some of the requirements about these vouchers. The Voucher for the CCNA exam is ordered from the system of testing Prometric or from the system of testing VUE. Changing of the system of testing is impossible. The voucher can be used in the EMEA region

Cisco and the partners of the company, which are carrying out testing, do not guarantee authenticity of any discounts or codes of advertising actions (like vouchers), received from foreign persons or the organizations. So be careful and follow the advice of Cisco to get vouchers for passing the examinations directly in the centres of testing VUE and Prometric. As a sanction for using of not authorized discounts or advertising codes, the results of the exam can be recognized null and void. Besides, Cisco can eliminate such candidate for life from passing of any further exam and the certificates received earlier can be cancelled. Cisco will not make a replacement of the voucher, when it is recognized as counterfeit or used.

Patricia Stevens owns and operates http://www.Certkingdom.com MCTS TEST . Use of this article is permitted when bio and link to MCTS Test Exam is included.

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Generally, people may select to take a MCSE Messaging Training courses and reading the MCSE Messaging braindumps and pass the MCSE Messaging exam. Actually, There is no man selling the real MCSE Messaging dumps of Microsoft and Microsoft is keeping updating the MCSE Messaging Exam, so people can’t pass the MCSE Messaging Exam easily, MCSE Messaging training kits or any MCSE Messaging training is not torward for the real MCSE Messaging exam. In real MCSE Messaging Exam, Microsoft will not test the general work environment because it may be too easy, but it is most importain for us to study, so mcitp Training is not very related with the exam. Our services help the man who have enough experience(or MCSE Messaging Training) but seeking the way to get MCSE Messaging Certified. Or any SME who is willing to get MCSE Messaging Certification to get any Microsoft product discount.

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Microsoft MCSE Study Guide & Questions. Covers Core Exams 70-210, 70-215,70-216 70-298 measures your ability to implement, administer, and troubleshoot Windows 2000 as a operating system in any network environment with emphasis on actual exam Microsoft MCSE Study Guide & Questions. Covers Core Exams 70-210, 70-215, 70-216, 70-217 measures your ability to implement, administer, and troubleshoot Windows 2000 as a operating system in any network environment with emphasis on actual exam questions. Includes Windows 2000 Professional, Server, Active Directory, and Network Infrastructure topics including implementing and conducting administration of resources; implementing,& managing IT operations. exam focuses on the following server roles: file and print, database, messaging, proxy server or firewall, dial-in server, desktop management, and Application server (including Web hosting server). Connectivity needs include connecting individual offices and users at remote locations to the corporate network, and connecting corporate networks to the Internet. Also explains DNS, DHCP, Remote Access, Network Protocols, WINS, and IP Routing. In addition, measures the skills required to manage, monitor, and troubleshoot Network Address Translation (NAT) and Certificate Services. Explains and then tests you on Active Directory, DNS for Active Directory, the components of Active Directory, Active Directory security solutions, as well as change and configuration management. Wheelertech was founded in early 1999, in order to help the flood of students studying for the prestigious MCSE! Since we had also gone through the MCSE study cycle, we knew there were shortfalls in the area of exam materials. The most notable shortfalls were 1) the cost of the materials, and 2) the quality of the materials. So we decided to make good materials at a price students' could afford. Many companies spend a lot of money (thus making you spend lots of money) making their programs really complicated. Not us! We've kept in mind what's important: quality questions and a price that you can afford!.

MCSE Certification offer opportunity for those who are IT professionals to prove their ability on their area.However,people feel hard to pass the MCSE test and have to pay much passion and money on the preparation.Here we offer some good method to you get a 70-298 Exam.

Just in time for the back-to-school shopping season, tech’s greatest rivalry is back. No, I’m not talking about Apple vs. Google; that’s small potatoes. Long before Google launched its Android assault on Apple and its iPhone, Microsoft MCTS Training and Apple were publicly doing battle for supremacy in the personal computer market. And now, thanks to Microsoft’s latest campaign to mock the Mac, the rivalry has been renewed.

Microsoft this week added a new “PC vs Mac” section to its Web site, which touts the advantages that Windows-based PCs have over Macs. The multi-page site, which highlights the fact that Windows-based PCs can “easily share” Microsoft Office documents and play Blu-ray discs, was launched just days after a new report suggested that Macs have become the computers of choice for incoming college students.
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Forty-seven percent of college students who plan to buy a new laptop planned to buy a Mac, the report, which was published on CNN.com and based on figures from Student Monitor, a research firm that tracks higher education computer purchases. Student Monitor notes that Dell used to be the laptop brand of choice for college students, and says that in the last five years, Dell and Apple have swapped places: “In 2005, 47 percent of students buying laptops chose Dells. In 2010, 47 percent are choosing MacBooks.”

These numbers can’t be making anyone in Redmond happy, and it’s clear they haven’t escaped Microsoft’s notice. The new site clearly touts Windows features designed to appeal to college-aged students, as the first topic in its itemized list of the PC’s advantages is “Having Fun.”

“When it’s time to enjoy movies, games, and HDTV from anywhere in your home, PCs are ready to play,” the new site reads. “There are some things you simply can’t do out of the box with a Mac, like watch, pause, rewind, and record TV like a DVR.” This section of the site also highlights the fact that “most of the world’s most popular computer games aren’t available for Macs.”

The site then goes on to tout the simplicity of the PC, noting that they “just work.” (Hey, that sounds familiar.) Only then does the site go on to talk about the “working” capabilities of the PC, highlighting its ability to easily share Office documents and give presentations. “If most of the computers in your office or school run Windows, you may find it harder to get things done with a Mac,” the site notes.

Microsoft’s latest attack on Apple isn’t as high profile as some of the earlier salvos in this bitter rivalry. A Web site alone (there’s no word on whether Microsoft plans to expand this campaign to print or TV spots) isn’t going to gain the attention of Apple’s “switchers” ad campaign, or its classic (but recently pulled) “I’m a Mac” ads. Nor is this site going to gain the attention of Microsoft’s “laptop hunters” ads.

But maybe it doesn’t need to: Windows 7 is, after all, the fastest-selling operating system in history, so Microsoft MCITP Certification clearly is doing something right. Still, it’s clear that Microsoft isn’t willing to sit back and watch Apple gain any ground. That rivalry has always been fun to watch and I, for one, am glad it’s back. Here’s hoping this site is just the first strike of many to come.

Just in time for the back-to-school shopping season, tech’s greatest rivalry is back. No, I’m not talking about Apple vs. Google; that’s small potatoes. Long before Google launched its Android assault on Apple and its iPhone, Microsoft MCTS Training and Apple were publicly doing battle for supremacy in the personal computer market. And now, thanks to Microsoft’s latest campaign to mock the Mac, the rivalry has been renewed.

Microsoft this week added a new “PC vs Mac” section to its Web site, which touts the advantages that Windows-based PCs have over Macs. The multi-page site, which highlights the fact that Windows-based PCs can “easily share” Microsoft Office documents and play Blu-ray discs, was launched just days after a new report suggested that Macs have become the computers of choice for incoming college students.
Capacity Management in VMWare Virtualized Infrastructures: Download now

Forty-seven percent of college students who plan to buy a new laptop planned to buy a Mac, the report, which was published on CNN.com and based on figures from Student Monitor, a research firm that tracks higher education computer purchases. Student Monitor notes that Dell used to be the laptop brand of choice for college students, and says that in the last five years, Dell and Apple have swapped places: “In 2005, 47 percent of students buying laptops chose Dells. In 2010, 47 percent are choosing MacBooks.”

These numbers can’t be making anyone in Redmond happy, and it’s clear they haven’t escaped Microsoft’s notice. The new site clearly touts Windows features designed to appeal to college-aged students, as the first topic in its itemized list of the PC’s advantages is “Having Fun.”

“When it’s time to enjoy movies, games, and HDTV from anywhere in your home, PCs are ready to play,” the new site reads. “There are some things you simply can’t do out of the box with a Mac, like watch, pause, rewind, and record TV like a DVR.” This section of the site also highlights the fact that “most of the world’s most popular computer games aren’t available for Macs.”

The site then goes on to tout the simplicity of the PC, noting that they “just work.” (Hey, that sounds familiar.) Only then does the site go on to talk about the “working” capabilities of the PC, highlighting its ability to easily share Office documents and give presentations. “If most of the computers in your office or school run Windows, you may find it harder to get things done with a Mac,” the site notes.

Microsoft’s latest attack on Apple isn’t as high profile as some of the earlier salvos in this bitter rivalry. A Web site alone (there’s no word on whether Microsoft plans to expand this campaign to print or TV spots) isn’t going to gain the attention of Apple’s “switchers” ad campaign, or its classic (but recently pulled) “I’m a Mac” ads. Nor is this site going to gain the attention of Microsoft’s “laptop hunters” ads.

But maybe it doesn’t need to: Windows 7 is, after all, the fastest-selling operating system in history, so Microsoft MCITP Certification clearly is doing something right. Still, it’s clear that Microsoft isn’t willing to sit back and watch Apple gain any ground. That rivalry has always been fun to watch and I, for one, am glad it’s back. Here’s hoping this site is just the first strike of many to come.

Microsoft is building out its partner network to support the impending upgrade of its unified communications software, with a new deal with Polycom that will guarantee tens of millions of dollars in investment in new products and marketing programs.

The multi-year agreement with Polycom, to be announced Monday, is not exclusive but is “unique in the amount of commitment and resources,” says Ashima Singhal, manager of Microsoft’s unified communications partner marketing. The partnership will be key for Microsoft in persuading customers that Communications Server 14, slated for release in Q4, can be a real replacement for PBX systems.

Microsoft MCTS Training to kill Response Point VoIP sales Aug. 31
Getting the Foundation Right: Unified Communications: Download now

Microsoft and Polycom didn’t specify exactly how much money will be spent by the two companies, but said product development will include “next generation Polycom CX series endpoints optimized for Microsoft UC,” featuring Polycom’s high-definition video and voice technologies; “room-based video systems” that will compete against Cisco’s TelePresence; and guarantees of interoperability with “Polycom’s existing and future video conferencing solutions.”

Polycom isn’t placing all its eggs in the Microsoft basket. Polycom has partnerships with the likes of HP, IBM, Juniper, Broadsoft, Siemens, Avaya and Cisco. And Polycom will not be the only vendor delivering hardware using Microsoft’s Communications Server 14.

But with 14, Microsoft now has “an enterprise-grade communications” platform, whereas previous versions were not as comprehensive as they needed to be, says Mark Roberts, vice president of partner marketing at Polycom.

OCS 14 is more “elegant” and integrated into natural workflows, Roberts says. In particular, Roberts says OCS 14 lets users locate the proper contacts based upon their skills before initiating a conversation.

The user experience has also been updated with more integration with line-of-business applications such as SharePoint, Exchange and Office, according to Singhal.

“It’s really about connecting people,” Singhal says.

In addition to new products and integrations between Microsoft MCITP Certification software and Polycom hardware, the companies are expanding their go-to-market initiatives with sales training and combined marketing campaigns.

A bigger challenge is providing seamless access to applications and systems across corporate or network boundaries. It’s no trouble for IT to define and manage user names and passwords on their own network, but it takes more work — or is nearly impossible — to extend access to internal systems to numerous external users or to manage local user access to a system outside of their control.
Reducing Costs and Risks for Data Migration: Download now

[ Get all the details you need on deploying and using Windows 7 in the InfoWorld editors' 21-page Windows 7 Deep Dive PDF special report. Learn how to put AppLocker, BitLocker to Go, security accounts, and other key Windows 7 security improvements to good use in "The ultimate guide to Windows 7 security." ]

Microsoft MCTS Training has updated Forefront Identity Manager (FIM) 2010 and Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) to aid IT in applying identity management across domains and business boundaries. Both of these tools are intended to extend user access control across the enterprise; FIM uses a common platform to tie user, certificate, group, and policy management together, while ADFS provides trust accounts between different networks or organizations. Together, they provide a powerful platform for extending user management beyond the company domain or network edge.

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Active Directory Federation Services 2.0 Active Directory Federation Services, first available in Windows Server 2003, is now a server role in Windows Server 2008 R2. ADFS is a single-sign-on technology that uses claims-based authentication to validate a user’s identity across domains. Normally when the user’s account is in one domain and the resource is in another, the resource will prompt the user for local credentials. ADFS eliminates the secondary credential request; the user’s identity is validated, and access provided, based on information in the user’s home directory.

Through the use of ADFS, it is possible to facilitate a wide range of managed access. It makes it easy for users to access an Internet-accessible application on another company’s network or to allow outside contractors access to internal resources for the duration of a specific project. The key advantage is that neither domain need contain any of the other domain’s user information; no user information is shared, and each side remains responsible only for its own user management.

 

A claims-based system, like many others, uses digital tokens that contain information about the user. But unlike a request made directly against Active Directory and generating a Kerberos token, the resource being accessed doesn’t interact directly with the user data store. Instead, it talks to a Security Token Service, such as ADFS, which performs the check against the user information store and creates a claims token based on the result of the lookup. The claims token can contain as much — or as little — information as needed to access the particular service.

Using claims-based authentication between two different domains requires a Security Token Service in each domain. Each domain’s Security Token Service must trust the other one, and based on this trust, a policy is defined that specifies if access is granted or denied to a specific resource. For example, when a user on Network A attempts to access a Web portal on Network B, an authentication request is made to the user’s Security Token Service on Network A. After validating the claims for the user against the local user directory, Network A’s Security Token Service provides a token to Network B’s Security Token Service, which then issues its own token to the requesting user in order to access the Web portal. There is a lot of back and forth behind the scenes, but once the remote domain gets the all-clear from the user’s Security Token Service, the user gets a new token as if they were a member of the remote domain.

[ From powerful productivity enhancers to important security safeguards, Microsoft Office 2010 has a number of features that businesses will love. See "Top 10 Office 2010 features for business," "More great Office 2010 features for business," and "PowerPivot for Excel 2010: Power to Excel people." ]

Within a single domain — such as when you want to extend user access to a cloud service without implementing a direct authentication connection to Active Directory or another user database — a single Security Token Service will do the job. In addition to supporting claims-aware ASP.Net applications and (through an IIS Web server agent) Windows NT token-based applications on the resource side, ADFS 2.0 can communicate with third-party federation services and cloud services using SAML 2.0.

The great advantage of claims-based authentication — and ADFS 2.0 — is that no changes are made to either domain’s users and no confidential information is sent between domains. When a claims-based request is made from the resource, it simply performs an “is allowed?” request against the issuing claims server. The claim token returns a Yes or No response regarding the user and nothing more. This gets the application out of the user authentication business. It simply asks a trusted partner if it is OK to allow this person to access its resources. All the heavy lifting is done behind the scenes.

ADFS 2.0: Federation services and user claims There are three role services that make up ADFS: the Federation Service, the Federation Service Proxy, and the Web server agent. The Federation Service is the core of ADFS; it’s the part of the system that handles user authentication requests from other federation servers. The Federation Service Proxy runs on a server located in the network’s DMZ and proxies an external user authentication request to an internal ADFS server. It collects user credentials from browser clients and sends them on to the ADFS server. The Web proxy agent works with claims-aware (ASP.Net) applications on a website and redirects user login requests to the ADFS server. The Federation Service Proxy and the Web agent are optional and may not be needed in all scenarios.

Active Directory Federation Services 2.0 provides an extensible platform for handling claims-based authorization between local and remote domains. Here we see a list of the claims offered by the ADFS server to any other trusted Security Token Service provider. Each trust can have a different set of claims associated with it, allowing ADFS to fit in any situation.

To get started with ADFS, make sure you have a valid SSL certificate (self-signed is sufficient but not recommended for a production environment), Windows Server 2008 R2, Microsoft SQL Server 2008 (for the policy store), and Active Directory Domain Services. The ADFS 2.0 software is available as a free download from Microsoft through the Download Center.

Setting up ADFS takes quite a few steps, most of which involve importing the SSL certificate, exporting certificates, and creating shared certificates. Each ADFS server has to import the other’s SSL certificate in order to authenticate the external lookup request. The end result is that a trust relationship between the two federation servers (Security Token Services) is established using SOAP messages and SAML metadata. The last step is generating the claims rules appropriate for the exposed resource.

Claims rules can come in many forms and vary greatly based on the target resource or application. For the most part, each rule or policy must know the Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) of the application, which claims are being offered, which claims the application requires, the URL the application should expose to the user, and finally, if the token should be encrypted or not. Some rules might require user name, email address, and group affiliation, while others may only need first and last name. Rules can simply pass information through to ADFS or transform the data into something recognizable. For example, if ADFS talks to an LDAP server, it might need to reformat the user name so that the other ADFS (or Security Token Service) can properly process it. ADFS provides a very flexible rule engine that can handle most every situation.

Active Directory Federation Services is a great way to extend trusted authenticated access between domains using claims-based authentication. The fact that it works with other open Web standards allows it to extend its reach into non-Microsoft domains, while still allowing trusted access and single-sign-on capabilities. It does require a little work to get set up, but once in place, the benefits really pay off.

Forefront Identity Manager 2010 Forefront Identity Manager 2010 is a powerful platform for managing user identities, credentials, and identity-based access policies for both Windows and non-Windows environments. In FIM 2010, Microsoft took smart card and certificate management and merged it with identity lifecycle tools to streamline administration and improve user security and compliance. FIM 2010 also empowers users through self-service tools to manage their own group memberships or reset their user password from the Windows logon page. FIM 2010 is based on Web standards for greater extensibility and will work with third-party certificate authorities.

To get a feeling for how FIM 2010 fits into a real-world situation, I tested it in a highly virtualized environment made up of Active Directory domain controllers, SharePoint 2007 servers, Exchange 2007 servers, and two FIM 2010 and ADFS 2.0 servers in two domains, for a total of 13 virtual clients and servers. I was able to create and execute FIM 2010 policies on one server and see the results across both domains. I found the SharePoint-based UI easy to use, and after a couple of false starts, I had little trouble with the policy engine. The workflow wizard did a good job of walking me through workflow generation even though I had never created a workflow before.

A good portion of defining trusts in Active Directory Federation Services 2.0 is spent importing, exporting, and creating certificates through the ADFS management utility.

The previous release, Microsoft Identity Lifecycle Manager 2007, provided a platform for identity synchronization, basic certificate and smart card management, and user provisioning. Forefront Identity Manager 2010 takes these base features and enhances them to reduce the time, effort, and cost of managing a user’s account throughout its lifecycle.

One area that got a lot of attention in FIM 2010 is policy management. The administration UI is a SharePoint-based system that uses natural language queries and menu-driven controls to generate rules and policies for managing users. The rules can be applied automatically to other users and groups based on various criteria. For example, you can create a rule to automatically add a new user to a group, issue a one-time password for a smart card, and push the user’s email address and telephone number to another user directory while flagging HR to issue a request for a new health insurance policy.

One of the most powerful policy management features is the inclusion of Windows Workflow Foundation (WF). With WF, IT can create a multistep policy to easily automate user management. Workflows can be simple or complex with multiple branches depending on need. During my tests, I was able to create workflows to send approve or disapprove notifications to a specific manager whenever a user account was added to a certain group. FIM 2010 can also import and reuse existing WF-based workflows so that IT doesn’t have to re-create the workflow wheel and can speed up deployment.

Another very nice feature in FIM 2010 is that it will synchronize user information between heterogeneous systems. Forefront Identity Manager 2010 integrates with a wide range of systems, including Active Directory, Novell, Sun, IBM, Lotus Notes, Exchange, Oracle and SQL Server databases, SAP, and even flat file systems — in most cases with no additional software agent installed on the target system. A synchronization service takes care of passing user information in and out of FIM 2010.

A good example of this would be the scenario in which a new user is added to the company. HR creates the new user in FIM 2010. The synchronization service pushes the new user info into the enterprise’s Active Directory, and following the workflow, once the manager gives approval, this same user information is then sent to the company’s insurance provider (an external system, secured by ADFS) to add them to the health insurance plan.

Note that the synchronization isn’t merely a one-way street; when the insurance company creates a new account in their system and assigns the new employee an account ID, that information can be sent back into FIM on a subsequent synchronization and stored in the employee’s AD record or in FIM 2010 alone. Any update to the user record in any of these systems — FIM 2010 or AD or the external insurance system — is automatically updated in the others. With the multibranch capabilities of the policy engine, one change can create a cascade effect on other pertinent systems.

Forefront Identity Manager 2010′s intuitive SharePoint-based Web interface (above) provides access to all aspects of user identity management. Among the many new identity management features is user self-service password resets (below), with definable lockout thresholds and challenge-and-response prompts.

FIM 2010: Automating rights management Credential management has been greatly simplified for both IT and the end-user. Now all user credential management — including one-time password devices and third-party certificate authorities — can be done through a single console. FIM 2010 also provides a mechanism to allow end-users to reset their password from the Windows logon screen. Based on policy, the user can be presented with traditional question-and-answer prompts, or FIM 2010 can send a one-time password via text message, or any combination of these. This reduces the burden on IT and allows the end-user to continue working instead of waiting on a simple password reset.

A couple of nice enhancements to user management are built into FIM 2010. In addition to simply creating the user account, FIM 2010 can automatically provision resources, such as an email account or a one-time PIN for a smart card. This automation becomes especially important when the time comes to de-provision a user. By allowing the proper policies to automatically take the user out of the system, FIM 2010 helps maintain compliance and minimizes the chance of leaving a user account active and failing a compliance audit.

Another nice feature is the ability for end-users to manage portions of their own user profile. For example, FIM 2010 can be set up to allow users to update telephone numbers, addresses, or other personal information without being able to change email address or logon name.

Along these same lines, users can manage their own distribution and user groups. This can be done through the FIM Web portal or, via integration with Office 2007 or Office 2010, right from inside Outlook. Group managers can approve or disapprove user requests via Outlook, making user group management even easier.

In a world where users are not always the exclusive management property of one domain, Forefront Identity Manager 2010 offers a way to bridge the gaps between systems. The bi-directional synchronization between heterogeneous identity systems extends FIM 2010′s reach beyond Microsoft MCITP Certification only networks, while the use of policy and workflows helps keep the compliance train on track. If you have to work with multiple domains or authentication systems, Forefront Identity Manager 2010 is definitely one tool to check out.

* Greatly extends user management capabilities beyond local domains
* Supports traditional Windows-based authorization in addition to claims-based authentication
* No changes or additions to user directories required
* No confidential information is passed between domains
* Based on open Web standards (SAML 2.0, WS-Federation, WS-Trust)

* Powerful policy engine
* Extremely flexible workflow engine
* User self-support features
* Works with non-Windows directories and user data stores via synchronization engine

For the quarter, things looked good. Microsoft MCTS Training sold 1.5 million consoles in Q4 versus the 1.2 million they sold during the same time last year. Revenues for the Entertainment and Devices Division (which houses all Xbox-related stuff) were up 30 percent to $228 million in the quarter.
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From the full-year perspective, however, the gaming division slipped. Sales of consoles dropped to 10.3 million compared to fiscal year 2009′s 11.2 million, while revenues for both the Xbox and PC market shrank by $12 million with fewer consoles sold.

The silver lining here is that revenues from Xbox Live are booming. During the earnings call, Microsoft said that for the first time ever, Xbox Live market revenue exceeded the revenues they get from Xbox Live subscriptions. With over 25 million Xbox Live members, it’s easy to imagine how that happened.

Microsoft MCITP Certification hopes to keep the money train going with Kinect and the new Windows 7 phone due out this holiday season. Kinect is due out November 4 for $150.

Got any tips, corrections, or feedback? Contact GamePro’s news team or follow the author of this story on Twitter.

Microsoft MCTS Training is readying an update to its ASP.Net MVC (Model View Controller) technology for Web application development, leveraging the company’s new “Razor” view engine and offering enhancements for JavaScript.

The company posted on Tuesday Preview 1 of ASP.Net MVC 3, which provides an MVC programming model for building ASP.Net Web applications. ASP.Net 3 is the next major release of the framework. The preview is available at Microsoft’s website.
Lowering Total Cost of Ownership With Hybrid Web Security: Download now

[ See InfoWorld's report on the release of MIcrosoft's ASP.Net MVC 2 in March. ]

With MVC, the model contains core information for an application, such as data and validation rules, while the view encapsulates application presentation. The controller contains control-flow logic, interacting with the model and views to control information flow and execution of an application.

Preview 1 features two pre-enabled view engines: Razor and ASPX, said Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president of the Microsoft Developer Division, in a blog post. View engines are pluggable modules that implement template syntax options. Razor is optimized around HTML generation using a code-focused templating approach. Razor is intended to be compact, expressive, and fluid as well as easy to learn. It works with any text editor.

“‘Razor’ helps make view templates clean and concise and I think you’ll find it enables a very fluid coding workflow,” Guthrie said.

Razor file colorization and code intellisense is not yet supported in the Visual Studio IDE with the ASP.Net MVC 3 preview release, but plans call for adding these capabilities with a future preview. Another improvement planned for a future preview refresh is the ability to unit-test individual Razor template files without having to run the application or launch a Web server, Guthrie said.

Built-in JSON ( JavaScript Object Notation) binding support in ASP.Net MVC 3 enables action methods to receive JSON-encoded data and model-bind it to action method parameters, said Guthrie. Also, developers can connect client templates with action methods on the server that return and receive JSON data.

Future previews will include better support for unobtrusive JavaScript and direct backing for the jQuery validation library from within built-in validation helper  methods.

The preview also includes controller-specific enhancements such as global filters, for declaratively applying “cross-cutting” logic.

An Add->View dialog in the preview makes it easy to choose a syntax when building new template files, Guthrie said. “It allows you to select any of of the available view engines you have installed on your machine — giving you the ability to use whichever view templating approach feels most natural to you,” he said.

Model validation improvements in ASP.Net MVC 3 include support for .Net 4 DataAnnotations metadata attributes. Version 3 also offers better support for applying dependency injection Microsoft MCITP Certification.

ASP.Net MVC 3 is compatible with ASP.Net MVC 2, making it easy to update MVC 2 projects to MVC 3, Guthrie said.

Top Russian spy ring technology screw-ups

Bloomberg said a Microsoft spokesperson in Moscow confirmed that Alexey Karetnikov, who was detained by U.S. officials and deported to Russia, worked for Microsoft as a software tester for about nine months.

Karetnikov is “a Russian citizen in his early-to-mid-20s,” the Washington Post reported. Although federal authorities reportedly detained Karetnikov as part of their investigation into the Russian spy ring operating in the United States, there was not enough evidence to charge the man with a crime so we has detained on immigration violations.

“He was just in the early stages; had just set up shop,” and had “obtained absolutely no information,” an anonymous federal law enforcement official told the Post.

A Facebook profile for “Alexey V. Karetnikov” lists the man’s employers as Microsoft MCITP Certification and “Neobit,” and his current city as Redmond, Wash.

Follow Jon Brodkin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jbrodkin

Read more about security in Network World’s Security section.

Microsoft is hard at work preparing a Windows-based alternative to Apple’s already-popular iPad tablet, the company’s CEO Steve Ballmer told analysts on Thursday. Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Asus, Lenovo, and Toshiba are cooperating with Microsoft MCTS Training on such a device, expected later this year, in a bid to catch up with Apple and Google Android.

“It is job-one urgency around here. Nobody’s sleeping at this point,” Ballmer told analysts. The Microsoft CEO was also surprised to hear Apple sold more than 3 million iPads, since launched in April: “They’ve sold more than I’d like them to sell. We think about that,” he said.
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Ballmer’s idea of an iPad alternative will use Intel processors and Windows 7, instead of its mobile Windows Phone 7 platform. Besides that comment, he offered no details on the upcoming Windows-powered tablets.

Microsoft underestimated Apple’s flair for touch-based computers. Apple unveiled its iPad in January, and started selling it in April. Since then, the company sold over 3 million iPads, and expected to sell up to 10 million units this year.

Google Android, Apple’s biggest rival in the mobile computing arena, also secured its spot on several upcoming tablets. Cisco, Dell, Asus, LG, and Samsung, to name a few, have announced Android-based tablets, slated to arrive this autumn.

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Microsoft was the first to anticipate the future of mobile computing, when it launched in 2003 the Windows XP Tablet edition, yet the clunky first devices based on it were up to a very slow start.

After killing the Courier dual-screen tablet project just a few weeks ago, Microsoft MCITP Certification was left without any tablet plans in the pipeline, as HP also reportedly ditched Windows 7 on its Slate tablet in favor of Palm’s WebOS, which it acquired in June.

As it stands now, Microsoft’s lack of details on the upcoming Windows tablets is not encouraging, despite Ballmer’s promises:

“We’ve got to push right now with our hardware partners. People will say, ‘When?’ I’ll say, ‘As soon as they are ready,’ and it is job-one urgency,” he said.

Adobe and Microsoft are now working together to give security companies a direct line into their bug-fixing efforts.

By year’s end, Adobe will start using the Microsoft MCTS Training Active Protections Program (MAPP) to share details on its latest patches, according to Brad Arkin, Adobe’s director of product security and privacy. “The MAPP program is the gold standard for how the software vendors should be sharing information about product vulnerabilities prior to shipping security updates,” he said.
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Adobe initially wanted to reproduce MAPP, but soon realized that it would take a lot of work to build a program similar to Microsoft’s, which was piloted two years ago. Arkin’s team began discussions with Microsoft, at first in hopes of picking up some tips. “Eventually, together, we came to the conclusion that it would be a lot more fun to work together on this rather than Microsoft helping us to reinvent the wheel,” he said.

Typically, whenever a major patch is released, hackers quickly begin to analyze the patch to see what flaws were fixed. They then rush to work out attacks that would exploit the vulnerability on unpatched products.

Adobe has been hit hard in the past two years by hackers who have found bug after bug in the company’s products. This often means hard work for security companies, who must scramble to add detection for these attacks.

It’s become so bad that one security company, SourceFire, is holding an exclusive Adobe Hater’s Ball on Wednesday here at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas.

The Ball is really a tongue-in-cheek joke, modelled on comedian Dave Chappelle’s Playa Hater’s Ball.

“My guys have a love-hate relationship with the guys over at Adobe,” said SourceFire Director Matt Watchinski. “Every time a vulnerability comes out of their stuff, we have to jump.”

Arkin said he and other Adobe researchers will be at the event.

With Adobe jointing the MAPP program, however, security companies like SourceFire should do less scrambling.

MAPP gives them early notice on upcoming patches — typically about 48 hours — so they have more time to build attack detection into their security systems. About 65 security companies participate in MAPP. All of them will soon start getting the Adobe data.

This is the first time that Microsoft MCITP Certification has extended the MAPP program to cover another company’s products, said Dave Forstrom, a director with Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing group.

However, it may not be the last. Forstrom didn’t rule out the possibility that other software vendors could also jump on board.

Verizon confirmed the talks have been ongoing with Google and the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for 10 months, the paper reported Microsoft MCTS Training.
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The agreement would apparently lay out principles around network neutrality, or the belief that service providers should not slow down certain kinds of traffic on their networks. The agreement, however, would reportedly allow service providers to prioritize traffic if customers paid for that kind of service, the paper said.

Network providers have maintained that they need to restrict some kinds of Internet traffic in order to keep a consistent quality of service across their customers bases. That has happened, for example, for file-sharing protocols such as BitTorrent. But it is feared that network providers may unfairly restrict other kinds of applications and protocols for competitive purposes. Wireless networks would not be subject to the agreement, according to the report.

The FCC has been talking to large service providers about how to regulate net neutrality. That has drawn criticism from groups such as Public Knowledge, whose communications director wrote that any agreement between Google and Verizon could be short-lived as it wouldn’t have the force of law.

A Google-Verizon deal “is no substitute for a legally binding, comprehensive agreement in the public interest that covers not only network management but universal service and the other issues rolled up in the larger question whether the FCC even has the authority over broadband,” wrote Art Brodsky on the group’s blog.

The DC Circuit Court of Appeals threw a major wrench in the Federal Communications Commission’s plans to implement network neutrality regulations today when it ruled that the FCC had no authority to regulate ISPs’ network management practices Microsoft MCITP Certification.

Google officials contacted in London said they had no comment.

Vista’s firewall profiles worked well except when a computer was connected to multiple networks simultaneously, such as an Ethernet and a wireless network. In those cases, the system would default to the most restrictive profile. This could cause problems when, for example, connecting to a corporate VPN through a public Wi-Fi hot spot; Vista would recognize simultaneous connections to both a public and domain network and apply the public profile to both.

All versions of Windows 7 allow computers to keep several firewall profiles active at the same time, maintaining the access and functionality of the more trusted network while blocking access via the less trusted network. Since many remote access functions require less restrictive firewall settings, users can now work securely while remaining protected from threats outside of the corporate network.

With fingerprint readers becoming more and more common on laptops, establishing a standard for the handling of biometric data has become important. Enter Windows Biometric Framework, a standardized method for storing fingerprint data and accessing it through a common API. Although most of the features of this subsystem are of interest only to developers, there are two important things that businesses should know Microsoft MCTS Training.

First, while fingerprint scanners could formerly be used to log onto a computer but not to log onto a corporate domain (a corporate network or network subsection), the Windows Biometric Framework allows domain log-in.

Second, users can store up to 10 unique fingerprints, one for each finger. While most of us probably don’t expect to lose a finger anytime soon, having all 10 fingers enrolled in the system is a good precaution in case of lesser injuries. A cooking accident or a hand caught in a door can easily modify a finger enough that it won’t register correctly with a fingerprint reader, and you don’t want a user to be barred access to his computer while he heals.

Fingerprints are added using the Biometric Device applet, which appears in the Control Panel of any Windows 7 computer with a fingerprint scanner attached and from which you can enable computer and domain log-in. You must be logged in as an administrator to add or manage fingerprints on Windows 7.

BitLocker To Go

One of the most serious security threats facing today’s businesses is the loss of a mobile asset containing confidential corporate information. Windows Vista’s BitLocker began to address this problem by allowing business users to encrypt a laptop’s entire hard drive so that if it were lost or stolen, nobody could access the information stored on it. BitLocker To Go extends the same protection to even more easily lost external drives, including pocket-size hard drives and tiny flash drives Microsoft MCITP Certification.

Microsoft rarely finds itself in second place, but Microsoft’s head of server virtualization says he doesn’t mind playing catch-up to VMware in the hypervisor market.

For one thing, Microsoft’s Mike Neil notes that Hyper-V’s market share is growing faster than VMware’s, and says “that’s a good position for us to be in.” A skeptic might say outpacing VMware’s growth isn’t much of an achievement, because Microsoft MCTS Training is starting from a far smaller user base, and gets easy access to customers by offering Hyper-V as a component of Windows Server.
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VMware vs. Microsoft vs. Citrix

But Neil expresses confidence for another reason, simply that VMware customers are by and large also Windows customers. Microsoft and its virtualization partner Citrix have repeatedly butted heads with VMware, notably by pulling out as sponsors of last year’s VMworld conference after claiming that VMware unfairly limited competition at the show. h

But Microsoft will maintain a limited presence at VMworld in San Francisco Aug. 30 to Sept. 2, as it did last year, and make its pitch to VMware customers. VMware, by the way, is led by CEO Paul Maritz, a former Microsoft official.

“The vast majority of people running VMware are running Windows,” says Neil, general manager of Microsoft’s server virtualization and Windows Server division. “That’s the reason I go to something like VMworld. People who are running Windows are running it on top of VMware and I want to make sure they’re having the best experience they can. From our perspective, regardless of whether customers are running on Hyper-V or VMware, first and foremost they’re a Windows customer.”

Neil made the comments during an interview at last week’s Burton Group Catalyst conference, which featured a little bit of sparring between VMware and its rivals Microsoft and Citrix.

Citrix CTO Simon Crosby was quite outspoken against VMware, taking shots on-stage at the company’s security model and writing in a tweet that VMware’s SpringSource general manager Rod Johnson’s speech was “patently nonsensical.”

“He’s a competitor,” Johnson said of Crosby, during an interview. “I wouldn’t argue with Simon about virtualization, but he probably shouldn’t argue with me about Java and middleware.”

On stage, Crosby said the Xen virtualization security model has proven its capabilities in the Amazon cloud, while Neil said VMware has acted irresponsibly by attempting to take antivirus agents out of guest operating systems, in effect moving security to the hypervisor layer.

VMware senior director Allwyn Sequeira clarified that VMware’s official position does not recommend taking antivirus tools out of guest operating systems, but he did say that running antivirus in every guest OS is inefficient. Sequeira also said that open source software such as Xen isn’t automatically more secure than proprietary systems such as VMware’s. Crosby pounced on this statement, noting that VMware’s SpringSource software is based on open source.

The comment seemed primarily to be a joke but is indicative of tensions between VMware and its rivals heading into VMworld. Last year, Microsoft claimed new VMworld rules prevented it from exhibiting its System Center Virtual Machine Manager technology at the conference, which VMware hosts, but set up a small booth on the show floor anyway.
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VMware’s new rules prevented vendors from sponsoring VMworld if they are not members of VMware’s Technology Alliance Partner program, but VMware said the rule should not have prevented Microsoft from exhibiting competing products.

VMware said the rule changes were spurred by Microsoft “shenanigans” in 2008, when Microsoft gave attendees poker chips in a package that said “Looking for your best bet? You won’t find it with VMware.”

Conflicts aside, Microsoft and VMware have to work together because customers use the two companies’ technologies in tandem. A VMware customer may not want to virtualize Windows with Hyper-V, but that customer is still using Windows.
As such, VMware’s hypervisor has been certified to work on Windows technology, and customers can call either VMware or Microsoft in case of system failures. “We have mechanisms between the two companies, we can hand off technical support issues between the two companies,” Neil said.
Use of Hyper-V has more than doubled in the past year, but it is still only the third most used hypervisor, after two VMware products: VMware ESX and VMware Server, according to IDC.

While Microsoft has been outspoken in its criticism of VMware, Neil blamed VMware for much of the conflict.

“Obviously VMware has taken sort of an anti-Microsoft MCITP Certification stance, they don’t want to be a partner of ours in the traditional sense,” Neil said. “But like I said it’s the same set of customers, so we’re going to talk to them regardless.”

Multiven agreed to drop its claims against Cisco, and Cisco dropped countersuits against Multiven, network expertise platform Pingsta, and Pingsta founder Peter Alfred-Adekeye. The terms of the settlement were sealed. Each party will pay its own legal costs, according to an order filed July 28. Multiven announced the settlement on Monday Microsoft MCTS Training.
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Cisco vs. Juniper
Multiven provides technical support, maintenance and consulting services for networks from multiple vendors. It sued Cisco in December 2008, charging that the dominant network equipment vendor did not make necessary software updates and bug fixes for its products available to third parties. Instead, Cisco made those updates available only to customers of its SMARTnet service, preventing third parties from servicing Cisco equipment, Multiven alleged. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, in San Jose.

Pingsta is a collaborative platform designed to let users procure network expertise on a pay-per-use basis from experts who work at will.

Cisco was not immediately available for comment. In December 2008, in response to the suit, the company said its customers were not required to buy Cisco’s services and that thousands of partner companies offered service programs, including bug fixes, for Cisco gear or Microsoft MCITP Certification.

Microsoft has run a version of its Windows Azure as a service since February, and the company has claimed the service has been used by 10,000 customers. The company is now offering the platform software, packaged with a set of servers.
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In a blog posting, Microsoft server and tools corporate vice president Robert Wahbe, explained that the appliance would provide a means for organizations to run a cloud service, either internally or for their own customers.

“Using it, service providers, governments and large enterprises who would consider buying, say, 1000 servers at a time, will be able to get the control they need,” Wahbe said.

“What we are talking about is a specific locked-down piece of hardware that can represent hundreds of thousands of servers,” said Amy Barzdukas, senior director of product management, in an interview with the IDG News Service. “Like an appliance, it is standardized and turn-key, so customers can deploy the Windows Azure in their data centers.”

Barzdukas said an appliance can be useful for organizations that wish to run their software both internally and on external Azure services, adding that the workload can be easily moved between multiple Azure locations. “It provides scale of the platform, but with the added benefit of control of the location,” she said.

According to Barzdukas, Dell, Fujitsu and Hewlett-Packard will each sell a “limited production release” of the appliance, as well as offer an Azure service for their customers. eBay intends to use the appliance for internal operations. A broader release is expected by later this year.

The Azure appliance will have all the functionality with Microsoft’s own Azure service, Barzdukas said.

Microsoft plans to post a new promotional Web page devoted to the offering on Monday. Bob Muglia, Microsoft senior vice president of the server and tools business, is also expected to talk about the appliance at WPC.

In addition to the release of the Azure appliance, Microsoft MCITP Certification also announced that it has shipped the release candidate of the System Center Virtual Machine Manager Self Service Portal, which is a Windows Server virtualization tool pack, and has released both the beta of Windows 7 Service Pack 1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1.

Microsoft has started rolling out more details about Office 2011, the upcoming upgrade of its productivity suite. On Wednesday, the company posted a brief video on its Mac Mojo blog showing off a few of the suite’s new features.

The video–which combines images of the software and interviews with Microsoft MCTS Training developers–highlights three main features: The revamped database and threaded Conversation view in Outlook (which will replace Entourage as Office’s e-mail client); and a new template gallery.
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Changes in Outlook

Microsoft reps say that the database underlying Entourage 2008–which stored your e-mail messages, calendar entries, and contacts in one huge file–was a “pain point” for customers. Among the reasons for the pain: If you made the tiniest change to that database file–by receiving an e-mail message, say, or adding a new phone number–then Time Machine would think it had to back up the whole thing.

In the video, the company sings the virtues of Outlook 2011′s new database structure, in which messages, appointments, and contacts will be contained in discrete files. That should make for smaller and faster backups; it should also make it easier to find Outlook items with Spotlight.

The video also previews that Conversation view, which will enable you to see all the messages in a single thread at the same time, no matter which folder they’re in. You could get something similar in Entourage, but only with much fiddling; it’s now the default view. (You can, of course, opt for the old unthreaded view if you wish.)

Template Gallery

The video also highlights Office 2011′s new template gallery, which is much more elaborate than the Project Gallery in Office 2008.

Instead of showing you low-res thumbnails of templates and themes, the new gallery gives you rich, high-def previews. If a template has multiple pages (the first page might be formatted one way, subsequent pages another), you can preview all of them before you start work. You can also customize the template’s color scheme and font; in PowerPoint, you can set the orientation (Landscape or Portrait).

The template gallery also includes a link to Microsoft’s online template library (which the company says contains thousands of templates, from professional designers as well as regular Office users). The searchable gallery is organized by categories and sports a recent documents list, with links to documents you’ve worked on today, yesterday, or in the past week or month.

Finally, the video offers a glimpse of the previously announced Ribbon, which replaces Office 2008′s Elements Gallery. Like that gallery, the ribbon provides quick access to commonly used tools. Unlike that gallery, you can completely collapse the Ribbon, to reclaim screen space.

Microsoft MCITP Certification hasn’t announced a firm release date for Office 2011 yet, only that it plans to ship some time in the last quarter of 2010. The company hasn’t publicly announced prices, either. But it does plan to release more of these teaser videos in the weeks and months ahead.

M&As in the IT industry for 2010

IBM will combine Storwize’s technology with its ProtecTIER deduplication appliances, its XIV disk storage and its Scale-Out NAS, as well as incorporate its functionality with IBM System Storage Easy Tier software. The software-based Storwize appliance works with heterogeneous storage from EMC, HP and NetApp.

The deal leaves one vendor, Permabit, in the independent compression business since Dell acquired Ocarina Networks last week. Permabit’s Abireo technology is OEM-focused.

Also in news last week included that Geminare launched Cloud Storage Assurance 2.0, a cloud storage replication product targeted at SMBs. Cloud Storage Assurance 2.0 now offers secure data backup and auditability through its Cloud Recovery Server Replication service. Auditability is done through authentication of data using a key identifier for each file. Cloud Assurance also allow archiving of file data automatically and provides a RESTful-base API kit that lets vendors write custom queries and integrate their document management and eDiscovery applications with Cloud Assurance Microsoft MCITP Certification.

Geminare sells Cloud Assurance through a network of service providers, MSPs and VARs. It runs Cloud Assurance on the Amazon S3, Atmos Partners or Iron Mountain Archive Service clouds.

As I previously wrote about, the exploit is a whopper on all levels. It comes into the enterprise via hidden files on USB sticks or via shared network files. It requires no user interaction to infect the system (simply viewing the icon is enough to trigger it). It propagates itself. It loads as a rootkit infection. It affects all Windows operating systems, even full-patched Windows 7 systems. It seems to target extremely sensitive information — researchers say it seems to have been made for espionage. If all that weren’t scary enough, a researcher has already published proof-of-concept code.

The attack exploits a vulnerability in Windows Shell, a component of Microsoft Windows. Although many anti-virus software makers claimed that they were able to update their wares to detect the rootkit, security experts remained highly concerned about the hole, as did Microsoft MCITP Certification. In a blog post today, Christopher Budd, Sr. Security Response Communications Manager at Microsoft, explained, “we’re able to confirm that, in the past few days, we’ve seen an increase in attempts to exploit the vulnerability.”

If the timeline is accurate, the IE9 beta release will come a month later than earlier speculation, which had settled on August, a pick based in large part on PowerPoint slides purportedly from a Microsoft MCTS Training presentation that focused on Windows 8 , the next iteration of the company’s OS.
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Today, Kevin Turner, Microsoft’s chief operating officer, said that IE9 would reach beta this fall. “We’re really excited about IE9, which will be beta and coming out in September,” said Turner during the company’s annual day-long presentation to Wall Street analysts.

Turner also boasted of Internet Explorer’s recent turnaround, claiming that it had gained usage share the last two months.

According to Web analytics company Net Applications, IE did increase its global share by a record six-tenths of a percentage point during June. However, Net Applications had IE losing, not gaining, ground worldwide in May.

As of June 30, IE accounted for an estimated 60.3% of all browsers used during the month.

Since March, when the company debuted a rough-around-the-edges IE9 developer preview, the company has updated the bare-bones browser twice, most recently in late June .

After Turner’s announcement of a September beta for IE9, Microsoft declined to answer additional questions, including when during the month users could expect the more stable preview, or whether the beta would be open to everyone, as the developer previews have been.

“We do not have any additional specifics to share at this time about when Internet Explorer 9 Beta will be available,” a company spokeswoman said.

Microsoft has also refused to name a release schedule for the final build of IE9. Most pundits now believe Microsoft won’t wrap up the browser until 2011.

That will be the case if Microsoft MCITP Certification mimics the timeline it used for Internet Explorer 8 (IE8), which reached the beta milestone in March 2008 but didn’t ship until March 2009 .

Using IE8′s schedule as a guide, users can expect to see the final version of IE9 in September 2011.

IE9 will run on Windows Vista and Windows 7 , but not on Windows XP, the nearly-nine-year-old operating system that still accounts for 68% of all versions of Windows still in use.

In a meeting with analysts yesterday, Ballmer spent a fair amount of time talking about Apple’s iPad and trying to explain why there are no Microsoft-based devices that remotely compare to it.
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[ Also on InfoWorld: Cringely is nothing if not an equal-opportunity satirist, as he proves in "Apple's Steve Jobs: He's no Old Spice Guy" | Stay up to date on all Robert X. Cringely's observations with InfoWorld's Notes from the Underground newsletter. ]

Fortune’s Philip Elmer-Dewitt distills the Ballmer discussion of the iPad into 11 words: “We’ll talk about slates and tablets and blah, blah, blah, blah.” (Apparently, Ballmer is also adopting the Steve Jobs 11-word rule.)

The “blah blah blah” part included a) an admission that the iPad has sold “more than I’d like them to sell,” b) “we’re coming full guns” to the slate market, and c) they’ll be “coming when they’re ready” — so don’t bother camping in line outside any Microsoft stores just yet. (Greg Packer, this means you.)

Meanwhile, the one Windows-based slate Ballmer could dig up to demo at last January’s CES — and got virtually heckled off the stage by the blogosphere afterward — may end up not being a Windows device after all. Now that HP has gobbled up Palm, its Slate PC may run Palm’s WebOS, a much more attractive tablet interface than Windows 7. Given how badly HP got jobbed by Microsoft MCTS Training during the whole “Vista ready” labeling debacle, I imagine this would be sweet revenge.

So, once again, Microsoft finds itself in the position of needing to imitate Apple to stay relevant.

Of course, imitation is part of Microsoft’s DNA. Copy something successful, then ram it down people’s throats. CP/M becomes MS-DOS, the Mac GUI gets reborn as Windows, though maybe “stillborn” is closer — it took Redmond 11 years to come up with an interface that approached the Mac’s features and simplicity. Intuit’s Quicken begets Microsoft Money. The iPod spawns the Zune. And so on down the line.

I’m not saying Microsoft has not come up with some innovations over the last 35 years. I still think Excel is the best software Redmond ever made. The Xbox, Microsoft Surface, Project Natal — er, Kinect — are all first rate. But its bread-and-butter strategy continues to be “imitate, then destroy.” And that strategy has grown less successful over time.

Now Microsoft has to play catchup to the iPad, as well as the 3,247 Android-based tablets we’ll be seeing over the next 12 months. Given how long it’s taking Redmond to catch up on cell phones, it may be two years before we see any tablets worth talking about. By then, it will be too late.

Still, this could explain Microsoft’s new slogan, unveiled at its annual Microsoft MCITP Certification Global Exchange confab last week: Be What’s Next. In this case, what’s “next” is Apple, a company it seems Microsoft now desperately needs to become.

Microsoft has always had a consumer side. Microsoft Windows has been established as the de facto consumer desktop operating system. Internet Explorer enjoys a dominant market share among Web browsers. Still, it seems that most of the efforts Microsoft makes in the consumer market are unsuccessful.
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Some Microsoft consumer technologies–like the Zune music player–have been technically sound, yet have failed to capture the attention of consumers or dent the dominance of the Apple iPod. Other consumer technologies–such as the Xbox 360–are a success in the market now, but operated at a loss for so many years that breaking even probably won’t happen soon. Then there are the abject failures like Microsoft BOB, or the recently executed Kin social phone.

Microsoft, Google, and Apple seem to all suffer from such an intense desire to dominate markets and crush the competition that they jump into every market at once and end up doing a half-assed job at everything rather than a focused and excellent job developing the products and services their brands were built on. It’s a sort of “throw every gadget, application, and technology at the wall and see what sticks” business strategy.

Historically speaking, fighting a war on too many fronts simultaneously is almost always a fatal flaw. It spreads valuable resources too thin, resulting in weakness, and eventually collapse. Just ask Napoleon.

Does Microsoft need a tablet? Will Windows Phone 7 be a success? Mobile platforms like tablets and smartphones are a computing revolution that Microsoft can’t ignore, but Microsoft needs to be sure it is looking beyond the impulse to compete for the sake of competing, and that its tablet and smartphone efforts fit into a larger strategic vision that makes sense.

Microsoft holds a virtual monopoly on the desktop operating system, and office productivity software markets, as well as a comfortably dominant position with Internet Explorer and Microsoft Exchange. Instead of consumer-oriented products like music players, and gaming consoles, Microsoft should focus its efforts on its core business customers.

At the same time, though, Microsoft can’t expect to just coast on the coattails of its former glory and rely solely on those products–at least not the way they are today. Microsoft needs to look at the direction technology is going–virtualization, cloud, mobility–and figure out how to adapt its core portfolio to continue meeting its customers’ needs in an evolving marketplace.

Microsoft has those efforts going as well with Azure, and the recently-unveiled Windows Azure Platform appliance. But–if Microsoft MCITP Certification would focus its resources on initiatives like that rather than consumer gadgets it might have much greater odds of success.

The company was given the award at the conclusion of the annual Blackhat 2010 security conference Wednesday in Las Vegas. I wasn’t there so I don’t know if anyone from Microsoft MCTS Training stepped up to accept the award, head perhaps covered by a paper bag.

According to a white paper produced by researchers Eduardo Vela Nava and David Lindsay, Internet Explorer 8 implemented an anti-XSS mechanism to detect such attacks. Here’s the funny part: “This feature can be abused by attackers in order to enable XSS on web sites and web pages that would otherwise be immune to XSS,” the researchers noted.

I’m not sure if he was specifically referencing the IE 8 XSS fail, but Kevin Turner, chief operating officer for Microsoft, said this during an analyst conference this morning in Redmond: “Yes, we had a little headwinds. We had several things we had to do with IE 8 this past year,” Turner said, right after describing the product as “the safest, most secure browser in the marketplace.”

Maybe now it is.

Microsoft beat out McAfee and IBM in the Most Epic FAIL category: McAfee for issuing an anti-virus update in April that rendered hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide inoperable; and IBM for handing out free USB drives at a conference loaded with malware.

The only other Microsoft mention was a Pwnie for Best Privilege Escalation Bug and this award went to Tavis Ormandy, the researcher who discovered it in multiple operating systems from Windows NT 3.1 to Windows 7. In awarding the Pwnie to Ormandy, Blackhat stated: “This privilege escalation bug required more than a few tricks to exploit. Its discovery shows a rare understanding of some of the more obscure aspects of the Intel architecture.”

Microsoft MCITP Certification was nominated, but failed to win — or should I say failed to lose — in the categories of Best Server-Side Bug and Best Client-Side Bug. Again, in these categories, the Pwnies went to the people who discovered the bugs, not the companies that created them.

By year’s end, Adobe will start using the Microsoft MCTS Training Active Protections Program (MAPP) to share details on its latest patches, according to Brad Arkin, Adobe’s director of product security and privacy. “The MAPP program is the gold standard for how the software vendors should be sharing information about product vulnerabilities prior to shipping security updates,” he said.
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Adobe initially wanted to reproduce MAPP, but soon realized that it would take a lot of work to build a program similar to Microsoft’s, which was piloted two years ago. Arkin’s team began discussions with Microsoft, at first in hopes of picking up some tips. “Eventually, together, we came to the conclusion that it would be a lot more fun to work together on this rather than Microsoft helping us to reinvent the wheel,” he said.

Typically, whenever a major patch is released, hackers quickly begin to analyze the patch to see what flaws were fixed. They then rush to work out attacks that would exploit the vulnerability on unpatched products.

Adobe has been hit hard in the past two years by hackers who have found bug after bug in the company’s products. This often means hard work for security companies, who must scramble to add detection for these attacks.

It’s become so bad that one security company, SourceFire, is holding an exclusive Adobe Hater’s Ball on Wednesday here at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas.

The Ball is really a tongue-in-cheek joke, modelled on comedian Dave Chappelle’s Playa Hater’s Ball.

“My guys have a love-hate relationship with the guys over at Adobe,” said SourceFire Director Matt Watchinski. “Every time a vulnerability comes out of their stuff, we have to jump.”

Arkin said he and other Adobe researchers will be at the event.

With Adobe jointing the MAPP program, however, security companies like SourceFire should do less scrambling.

MAPP gives them early notice on upcoming patches — typically about 48 hours — so they have more time to build attack detection into their security systems. About 65 security companies participate in MAPP. All of them will soon start getting the Adobe data.

This is the first time that Microsoft MCITP Certification has extended the MAPP program to cover another company’s products, said Dave Forstrom, a director with Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing group.

However, it may not be the last. Forstrom didn’t rule out the possibility that other software vendors could also jump on board.

Microsoft today pitched its own proposal for how software makers react to bugs reported by researchers, calling for a name change to describe the process it prefers.

Rather than dub the back-and-forth between bug finders and vendors “responsible disclosure” — a term that implies that the researcher reports a bug, then waits for the developer to patch it before going public with news of the flaw — Microsoft MCTS Training wants everyone in the security community to use a different moniker: “coordinated vulnerability disclosure,” or CVD.
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The company admitted the move is primarily a name change, and that much of the rest of its proposal is what Microsoft has urged in the past.

“This isn’t a drastic departure at all,” said Mike Reavey, director of the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC), Microsoft’s in-house security team. “What we want to do is what works best to minimize risk to customers, and to remove emotion, which isn’t helpful to anyone.”

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Reavey argued, as others have before, that “responsible disclosure” is a loaded name, since by implication anyone who doesn’t follow its bug-reporting steps — going public with details or attack code before a patch is ready — is by implication labeled as “irresponsible.”

“[CVD] is the same thing as responsible disclosure, just renamed,” repeated Reavey. “When folks use charged words, a lot of the focus then is on the disclosure, and not on the problem at hand, which is to make sure customers are protected, and that attacks are not amplified.”

Other than the name change, Microsoft’s proposal — which was spelled out in several blog posts by company executives, including the most detailed by Katie Moussouris, a senior security strategist on the MSRC ecosystem strategy team — is essentially a more explicit rendering of previous positions and practices.

One of the key points Microsoft made is that it wants to keep the lines of communication open between itself and security researchers, even when the latter broadcast their findings without reporting a bug to Microsoft or waiting on a patch.

“We want to be more clear about our philosophy, so first, we would appreciate a heads-up, even if the researcher does ‘full disclosure,’” said Reavey, referring to the label applied when a bug hunter goes public with all the details he has about a vulnerability before a patch is available. “And two, that we’ve operated this way before, so that if a vulnerability is under attack, certainly, we’ll release some information and advice.”

Moussouris echoed Reavey in her blog. “For finders who still believe that full disclosure is the best way to protect users, we respectfully disagree, but we still want to work with you if you’re willing,” she said. “We’d encourage folks who support [full disclosure] to still contact us, as we can then attempt to coordinate release of information with protections that are available.”

Microsoft isn’t the first to propose changes to the sometimes-rocky relationships between security researchers and the vendors whose products they label as vulnerable to attack.

On Tuesday, Google published what it called “Rebooting Responsible Disclosure,” a proposal that featured, among other elements, a call for a hard deadline of 60 days to patch a problem.
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Reavey disagreed with Google. “I don’t think there’s a one-size-fits-all-issues as far as a timeline,” he said. “If the update doesn’t work, it doesn’t protect anyone.”

Microsoft has long taken the position that it fixes bugs as fast as it can, but that testing the quality of an update is just as critical as patching. Screwing up a patch, said Reavey, can have an enormous impact on Windows users, who often apply the updates without testing them themselves.

John Pescatore, Gartner’s primary analyst on security issues, took Microsoft’s side, saying that Google’s proposal was colored by the fact that most of its software is in the cloud, and that the most prominent exception, its Chrome browser, is simple in comparison to an operating system like Windows.

“Browsers are not typical of lots and lots of legacy software, like Microsoft’s or Oracle’s,” Pescatore said, adding that it’s unrealistic to expect every bug to get fixed in two months.

“There’s often a six-month time frame for an enterprise before they can even push patches [within their organization], even after a patch is released,” Pescatore said. “There’s all kinds of code that’s not as simple to patch as a browser, and that requires longer delays before a patch can be implemented.”

The Microsoft and Google proposals are the latest in an increasingly-heated discussion among researchers and vendors about disclosure that was prompted in part by an incident last month when a Google security engineer went public with a critical Windows bug just five days after reporting it to Microsoft.

In early June, Tavis Ormandy, who works for Google’s Switzerland office, published attack code for a Windows XP vulnerability, and immediately unleashed a heated debate. While some security researchers criticized Ormandy for taking the bug public, others rose to his defense, blasting both Microsoft and the press — including Computerworld — for linking Ormandy to his employer.

Ormandy said he disclosed the vulnerability five days after reporting it to Microsoft when the company wouldn’t commit to a patching deadline. Microsoft has disputed that, claiming that it only told Ormandy it would need the rest of the week to decide.

Reavey denied that today’s change was triggered by the Ormandy disclosure, saying that Microsoft MCITP Certification had been thinking about CVD for months, and had been working with outside researchers and security experts long before the June brouhaha.

But Reavey did admit that things might have worked out differently if the CVD philosophy had been in place last month. “We might have been more clear that we wanted to work together on this,” Reavey said. “That [event] was difficult for all of us. [With CVD], we want to explicitly make sure we communicate that we want to continue the dialog.”

Reactions by researchers to Microsoft’s name change and Google’s earlier 60-day deadline idea was mixed.

While Microsoft’s hosted Exchange and SharePoint will achieve most of the desired feature parity within the next year, Microsoft admits it has no plans today to provide the same parity with Office Web Apps, the Web-based versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.
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Office Web Apps, released in June, provides a “high-fidelity viewing experience,” but only limited editing capabilities, says Evan Lew, senior product manager for Microsoft Office.

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Lew blames the disparity on the limitations of current Web browsers (of which the most widely used is Microsoft’s Internet Explorer).

“It has to do with the capabilities of the Web browser and the limitations today,” Lew says.

With the addition of HTML5 “the lines [between PC and browser] may start blurring,” he continues, but as of “today, there are performance reasons why editing, video and PowerPoint is something that is a much better experience in the client than in the browser.”

Microsoft touts the ability to import Office documents into Office Web Apps without losing formatting — a supposed advantage over Google Apps — but editing scenarios like inserting charts or pivot tables into Excel and editing videos require the horsepower of the PC and native desktop client, Lew says.

Microsoft is meeting the challenge from Google Apps by providing some online capabilities, but likely doesn’t want to give businesses a completely Web-based alternative to replace the more expensive Office, Forrester Research analyst Sheri McLeish said in a recent interview.

“They’re walking a very fine line,” McLeish says. “While they’re nervous and worried [about Google Apps], they’re not nervous and worried enough to dramatically reduce the cost of Office. They’re delicately managing the pricing to protect their margins.”

Regular Office licenses give customers rights to use Web Apps, but a full-fledged cloud offering “is not going to happen in 2010,” McLeish says.

Things are a bit different on the hosted Exchange and SharePoint front, at least according to Microsoft’s spokespeople.
Formally known as BPOS, the Business Productivity Online Standard Suite, Microsoft’s hosted Exchange and SharePoint is still running on the 2007 servers.  But a planned upgrade to the 2010 servers will erase most of the feature differences between the hosted and on-premise versions, according to Microsoft.

We’re working toward a goal we call service parity,” says John Betz, director of product management for Microsoft Online Services.
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Customization is limited today, because the 2007 servers don’t fully embrace the concept of multi-tenancy, Betz says. With the 2010 rollout, customers will have access to the My Sites feature, which lets them run code in a sandbox, a separate process that has limited access rights and wouldn’t be able to take down an entire server farm.

Not every feature in BPOS will be exactly the same as the on-premise version, however. For example, BPOS support for data protected by ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations) is available only for government agencies. Also, customers need their own PBX system when they integrate voice capabilities with Office Communications Online, because of network latency issues.

Another BPOS limitation, mentioned in a recent Microsoft blog, is lack of support for the Office 2003 client.

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“We won’t achieve complete feature parity,” because certain processes need to run on a customer’s own servers, for a variety of reasons, Betz says.

In addition to BPOS, there are other examples of Microsoft trying to provide similar functionality in the cloud as they do in packaged software. The next version of Microsoft’s CRM product will let IT customize their CRM deployments in the cloud the same way they can on-premise, for example with complex .NET programs, says Brad Wilson, general manager of Microsoft’s CRM business.

Microsoft has also turned some of its cloud capabilities into on-premise technology with the Windows Azure Platform appliance, which lets businesses run an Azure-like private cloud within their firewalls.

Why does BPOS get a better “feature parity” treatment than Office Web Apps? With BPOS, Microsoft is operating the backend servers on a customer’s behalf, in the cloud, in much the same way customers would operate the servers themselves.
“With SharePoint, the SharePoint navigation experience manifests itself in the browser whether it’s on-premise or hosted in Microsoft MCITP Certification [data center],” Lew notes.

Tim O’Brien, senior director of Microsoft’s Platform Strategy Group, recalls showing BPOS to a customer at a conference:

“He’s looking somewhat underwhelmed during the demo, and he shrugged his shoulders and he said ‘it’s just SharePoint.’ But that’s exactly the point. Your investment in SharePoint moves forward.”

But Office Web Apps, which requires a SharePoint 2010 back end, isn’t likely to offer the same functionality as Office on-premise anytime soon. Although Lew promises improvement, he says it’s too early to say what features will be added. Complete replication of features across the online and on-premise versions of Office is not being promised by Microsoft, at least today.

“We don’t really see Office Web Apps as a replacement scenario,” Lew says. “It’s really more of a companion for people who already use Office.”

The largest cloud customers have received the 2010 upgrade already, a broader preview will be available later in 2010, and full general availability is expected in 2011.

Upgrades in 2010 server rollout that will bring BPOS closer to feature parity, include getting voice mails in e-mail inboxes, role-based access controls, single-sign-on between on-premise and cloud, and the ability to upload custom code to SharePoint Online.

The new license greatly extends the technologies Microsoft MCTS Training can make use of from Arm Holdings. The companies have collaborated for years on software and devices mainly in mobile, consumer and embedded products.
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“We have licensed our architecture and our instruction set to Microsoft,” said Ian Drew, executive vice president of marketing at Arm. “This type of license allows you to design your own microarchitecture.”

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Only a select group of companies hold similar licenses to design their own Arm-based microarchitectures, including mobile phone chip giant Qualcomm, as well as Marvell Technology and Infineon Technologies.

“As an architectural licensee, Microsoft wants to go public about adding itself to that short list,” Drew said.

Arm Holdings licenses Arm technology to a number of companies around the world. Arm-based microprocessors are found in the majority of the world’s smartphones. Intel, the world’s largest chip maker, has developed its Atom microprocessors in the hope of someday rivaling Arm-based microprocessors in smartphones and other small devices.

Microsoft and Arm said the size and scope of the deal are confidential.

“Arm is an important partner for Microsoft MCITP Certification and we deliver multiple operating systems on the company’s architecture, most notably Windows Embedded and Windows Phone,” Microsoft said in a statement.

Closer access to Arm technology gives Microsoft the ability to enhance its research and development around Arm-based products, the statement said.

A number of companies custom-design chips to meet the specific needs of a device or software. Apple said it custom-designed its A4 chip for the iPad and iPhone 4 to be more powerful for multitasking and yet extremely battery-efficient.

In comparison while Apple also posted record revenue, it booked $15.7 billion in revenue with a net quarterly profit of $3.25 billion, or $3.51 per diluted share.

Microsoft gives most of the credit to Windows 7 which it says has sold more than 175 million licenses to date.

On the downside, looks like the failed Kin phone could have cost Microsoft about a quarter of a billion dollars. Microsoft notes: “Cost of revenue increased $584 million or 23%, primarily reflecting increased online costs, increased royalty costs and charges resulting from the discontinuation of the KIN phone.” And then it gets more specific when reporting the losses the Entertainment & Devices Division racked up, the unit responsible for the Kin. The division lost $172 million in the final quarter. Microsoft says, “Cost of revenue increased $251 million or 38% primarily from charges resulting from the discontinuation of the KIN phone and increased royalty costs resulting from increased Xbox LIVE digital marketplace third-party content sales.”

While the unit did manage to increase its profits over the course of the year, it didn’t increase revenue. Microsoft was able to offset a lot of the failed Kin cost and show that year-end profit in that unit because it reduced costs associated with building Xbox 360 consoles and also because it had “reductions in other costs due to resource management efforts.”

Could this statement reflect the fact that several extremely high paid executives in the Entertainment & Devices Division were shown the door? President Robbie Bach announced his exodus in May. Shockingly Bach was Microsoft’s highest paid exec. He earned over $6 million in 2009, and was paid the largest cash bonus, of more than $1.1 million.

Likewise, J Allard also announced in May that he’s leaving, though technically he’s staying on until the fall. Allard was Chief Experience Officer and Chief Technology Officer, Entertainment and Devices Division, and best known for championing the Xbox as a platform for social networking and online functionality. His exodus was a surprise to many since Xbox Live — the console’s online capabilities — has finally made the game console a hit. And users are fairly excited about the up-and-coming Kinnect gesture based interface.

Still, it is frustrating to see Microsoft pour this much money and effort into an Entertainment & Devices Division only to wind up alienating the young, hip customers it is trying to woo. Who pays for that? You, the enterprise customer, does. The $5.93 billion in operating profit comes from its software users, mostly the business users.

As evidence, Microsoft Office 2010 was praised for its contribution to the great quarter, as users were stopped from buying Word 2007 due to a court injunction forbidding the sale of it. Microsoft lost a patent infringement lawsuit which caused the injunction. Consumers bought an additional $357 million worth of Office 2010 products in the third quarter than they did the previous quarter (presumably with all those new Windows 7 PCs). All told, Microsoft raked in $5.25 billion in the division that sells Office. Of that $3.28 was operating income — about half the total operating profit that Microsoft reported.

Microsoft MCITP Certification has not yet released its audited financial report to the SEC, so these figures are based on the press release. I’ll be looking at the formal documents after they post to see what else can be gleaned about Microsoft’s past, present and future.

The deal marks the first time Microsoft has full access to ARM’s architecture. Previously, Microsoft and ARM have worked together on building mobile and embedded operating systems for devices featuring ARM processors.
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The only other two firms to licence the ARM architecture, chip manufactures Qualcomm and Marvell.

It is thought Microsoft may use the licence to develop a version of its Windows OS to work smoothly with ARM processors, which currently feature in a number of low-power PCs, such as netbooks and tablets.

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“ARM is an important partner for Microsoft and we deliver multiple operating systems on the company’s architecture, most notably Windows Embedded and Windows Phone,” said KD Hallman, general manager, Microsoft

“With closer access to the ARM technology we will be able to enhance our research and development activities for ARM-based products.”

Mike Muller, CTO at ARM, added that Microsoft has been an important member of the ARM ecosystem for many years Microsoft MCITP Certification.

“With this architecture license, Microsoft will be at the forefront of applying and working with ARM technology in concert with a broad range of businesses addressing multiple application areas,” said Muller.

The company is in the midst of digesting and integrating Nortel’s enterprise division, which it bought last year for $900 million and from which it expects to reap big returns by next spring. At the same time, it is dealing with the same generally soft economy that other vendors are — though Cisco is registering surprisingly strong revenue gains.
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The Avaya FAQ

Avaya’s CEO says the next six to nine months are critical as it tries to integrate the former Nortel Enterprise division — including network infrastructure and business telephony — into its fold. The purchase was finalized last December, so the company has just completed its second full quarter since the acquisition. “On most operational details we have the normal first quarter challenges from shipments and logistics. Second quarter things are feeling pretty good, and the litmus test is ahead of us,” CEO Kevin Kennedy told Network World in an interview at Avaya’s offices.

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That test is whether the company can nail down significant long-term commitments from Nortel telephony and contact center customers and lock them into a migration toward Avaya UC. At the heart of that challenge is convincing Nortel customers to buy Avaya Aura, the company’s flagship communications server. With Aura customers can step into IP telephony, glue together disparate VoIP systems and — most significantly for Avaya — lay the foundation for adopting UC.

Kennedy says Aura can support Session Initiation Protocol trunking immediately to bring cost savings to corporations and over time bring increased productivity that will save money long-term but might have a longer return on investment Microsoft MCITP Certification.

He acknowledges that getting Nortel communications customers interested in sticking with Avaya as they make plans for transitions to UC is key. The company is trying to draw them in with a flurry of announcements about new products, product enhancements and integrations with Nortel products. “This period right now is about bringing a lot of innovation to market. Now the question will be, are our customers as excited about it as we are?” he asks.

The stakes are high since just 17% of Avaya accounts overlap with Nortel’s, and competitors are gunning for the rest with attractive deals. “These customers are a pretty loyal base,” says Zeus Kerravala, an analyst with Yankee Group. “But they’re loyal to Nortel, not Avaya.” Historically, until Cisco entered the VoIP market, very few telephony customers shifted from one vendor to another, Kerravala says, and the recent turmoil of Nortel’s bankruptcy and Avaya’s purchase of its telephony business puts Nortel customers in play.

Surprisingly, the purchase of Nortel by Avaya didn’t result in Avaya catapulting to the top of the IP telephony market as some analysts expected. With Nortel and Avaya ranking solidly among the top five for years with very nearly equal shares of the market led people to think combining the two would result in a formidable lead for Avaya, says Matthius Machowinski, an analyst with Infonetics. “We expected them to be ahead of everyone else,” he says.

The Visual Cert Exam Suite consists of two programs; a Manager and a Designer. According to Visual Certkingdom.com, the designer was developed “for authors involved in practice exam development” and the manager was “designed for taking exams created with Visual Certkingdom Designer”. Unfortunately, one of the popular features of the designer is the ability to import and convert TXT, RTF, and PDF formats to the VCE format which is read by the program and displays the questions and answers in a format that is more like the actual exam Microsoft MCTS Training.
How is the VCE Manager used in the IT Industry?

As with the PDF braindump when it was first released, the VCE braindump is a tool used to dupe the Inadvertent Cheaters into risking their certifications. The easy to use import feature of the designer has made it very popular among the same crowd of people that originally created the PDF braindump. Yes, the braindumps that used to be all PDFs are now PDF and VCE formats. If you’re looking for VCEs to study with, you’ll most likely find yourself studying with an authentic braindump.
How does the VCE affect the certification industry?

The use of the VCE has flowed over to the cheating crowd that is always looking for “FREE” practice tests and has made a very huge impact in how people (illegally) study for certification exams. The invent of the VCE is definitely changing our campaign on braindump usage and now that we’ve seen the program used primarily for converting braindumps, we are beginning to understand

We all know that PDFs (~99% of them) are braindumps and violate the Non-Disclosure Agreements of every certification vendor in the industry, so it shouldn’t be too hard to accept the fact that ~99% of all VCEs will also be classified as braindumps.
Is the VCE Manager a valid tool that can be used to study with?

To put it bluntly, no. An explanation is in order, however. Although there is nothing wrong with the program itself, it is extremely rare that you will find a legitimate practice test provider using this tool to create their practice tests. Any use of this program we’ve seen has been in converting the old braindump PDFs to the new braindump VCE format. There are many websites out there that provide such materials and we have most, if not all, of them classified as braindumps Microsoft MCITP Certification.

As always, before you jump into any contract with a practice test provider, make sure they’re not putting your certifications at risk by violating the Non-Disclosure Agreement you have to sign.

Private employment agencies have the largest share of the market and are now quite well known to most people from personal experience at local offices and advertisements in the press. Local employment agencies deal with jobs that are clerical, junior administrative, shop staff, IT professional etc. Another type of private agency concentrates on recruitment and, sometimes, the initial stages of selection of middle and senior managers or of professional and specialist staff in fields such as, law accountancy, engineering, etc. Private employment agencies provide at times a very valuable service, especially in recruiting staff in situations where there is a shortage of the particular types of employees required. However, since they exist to make a profit, employers have to pay for any employees they may recruit in this way.

There are also pros and cons that have to be carefully weighed, especially when these private employment agencies are used to assist in the selection of managerial or professional staff. The advantages are the specialist knowledge that an agency can acquire of the employment conditions and requirements in particular fields, objectivity of view and skill in conducting the selection procedure. The main possible disadvantage in using external assistance for recruitment and selection purposes is the agent’s lack of first-hand experience of the cultural and environmental aspects of the organization’s work and life Microsoft MCTS Training.

There has been substantial growth of so-called ‘head-hunters’ or recruitment consultants. As the terms suggest, these are private firms and agencies of recruitment consultants who earn fees by meeting the job needs of organizations for specialist and senior managerial staff. Much of their work is carried on by means of an informal network of contacts, whereby they keep records of career profiles of people likely to be in constant demand, and obtain information about the needs of employers for appointments to be filled. This method has provided its value to the employer and employee clientele of these agencies.

Professional Employment Agencies

Several different kinds of agencies are included under the heading or Professional Employment Agency. The features they have in common are that they are all agencies set up by particular organizations to help their own members or ex-members find employment and that they are generally non-profit -making. The agencies of this kind that employers are likely to need and use most regularly are:-

1. Career services of academic institutions: Universities and similar institutions maintain a full-time career advisory service. They serve as an employment agency for graduating or recently graduated students, are centers of information for graduates about employment opportunities and for employers who are seeking potential managers or professional specialist.

2.Employment services of professional institutions: A number of professional institutions, such as those representing accounts, engineers, etc. have an employment advisory service whereby a register is kept of members seeking employment and information is collected from employers seeking staff in particular professions Microsoft MCITP Certification.

3. Employment exchange provided by the state service for young people provides a regular liaison between employers and unemployed youth.

While both types of employment agencies have flourished, a private employment agency with experience and professionalism is the most sought after.

Techies love venturing into application development areas that are seen to be fun, as well as sought after by consumers. This perhaps explains the scramble among the tech community to enter the space of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) applications for GPS-enabled mobile phones. But in truth, the utility of GIS extends far beyond digital mapping to help solve cartography problems. Any environmentalist will tell you that GIS is an essential tool, which enables the modelling, analysis and management of fast degrading and scarce spatially-related natural resources. And while the masses using GIS-based location applications want relatively simple tools, the needs of more serious users calls for a full-scale GIS software environment.

But developing a GIS application is not a lark! Here’s a rundown of the difficulties that an application developer is likely to face, as well as the solutions suggested by experts Microsoft MCTS Training.

Capturing data

Collection of data often influences the cost of implementing a new GIS application, simply because of the sheer volumes of data that must be accumulated and edited. The fact is that a GIS application does not only make use of map geometry generated by vectorisation technology, but also requires the addition of feature information, such as a lake or river, so as to generate meaningful topology and the association of user data. This difficulty has led to the creation of raster databases based on data generated by remote sensors (satellites), rasterised paper maps generated by scanning, and grid data derived from digital terrain models. {quotes}Unlike the difficulty of data capture faced by developers creating vector-based databases, remote image processing systems face computational problems in dealing with the sheer bulk of data available.{/quotes}

It is increasingly believed that an ideal GIS system is a hybrid integrated system based on a raster vector database that facilitates the manipulation, viewing and analysis of both forms of data in a seamless environment. According to Rajesh C. Mathur, president, ESRI India, the voluminous data entailed in such a hybrid system is best handled by an RDBMS (relational database management system) Microsoft MCITP Certification supporting spatial geometry in a seamless manner such as ESRI’s vector and raster ArcSDE. A developer using this application would simply have to identify the mechanisms of the spatial relationships and structures that are common in the voluminous data and analytical techniques that are unique to both spatial (vector and raster database) data. This process is made easier by the wide range of geodata services ArcSDE provides for data extraction, replication, warehousing, mining and synchronisation. ArcSDE also provides a framework and the tools to manage large spatial datasets in an RDBMS, such as IBM DB2, IBM Informix, Oracle, Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL (structured query language) Server, and PostgreSQL. ArcSDE implements data warehousing and data mining sub-routines through its unique design.

If your answer is yes to any of the previous questions then this article is exactly what you need to read. I’m going to give you so many ideas for website promotion that it’s probably going to make your head explode. Don’t worry though because each idea I’m going to share with you has been proven to be effective and ultimately profitable for each website owner that has put these ideas into practice. So let’s get started with the list, shall we Microsoft MCTS Training?

1. Submit your website to search engines.

2. Submit your website to online website directories.

3. Contact other website owners in your market and see if they will trade a link with you.

4. Post your website to free online classifieds sites.

5. Sign up for free and low-cost Internet banners to exposure website to places they would not be normally exposed to.

6. Try pay per click advertising, one of the fastest ways to get traffic to your website.

7. Article marketing is a must, so if you aren’t already doing it then you need to start doing it now. Start submitting your articles to online article directories.

8. Do article swaps with other related websites in your market.

9. Search engine optimization is a must. You have to use the right keywords and keyword phrases to optimize your website in each and every search engine on the Internet.

10. Become involved in forum posting. Join and dissipate in as many forums related to your market as possible. Most search engines will recognize that each one of your posts equals equality link back to your website and this helps your search engine optimization.

11. Visit Yahoo! Answers and Google Groups and answer questions pertaining to your niche. In your reply, be sure to link to your website.

12. If you don’t have a blog, now is the time to create one. Blogs are highly effective in promoting your website and are becoming more popular with each and every day.

13. Write unique articles about your niche and submit them to quality article directories.

I have even more ideas that you can use to effectively promote your site but this list is more than enough to get you started. As a matter of fact, you really don’t need to do anything else until you start doing what’s in this list. As you start doing what’s listed here, more ideas will come and you’ll have another list of more site promotion ideas than you know what to do with Microsoft MCITP Certification!

Blogging to Stay in Touch with Friends

Staying in touch with friends and family members is just one of the many reasons a person may wish to start a blog. This is especially useful for those who move far away from their friends and family members. Staying in touch by phone, regular visits and even email is not always easy. This is because it can be difficult to keep up long distance interactions with several different people at once. However, by maintaining a blog, a person can greatly simplify the process of staying in touch with friends and family members because they do not have to repeat information in individual phone calls or emails or make time to visit several different people Microsoft MCTS Training.

When maintaining a blog, the individual can choose to post a variety of information and photos. Through this information and photos the blog owner can keep others informed about current events in his life. Friends and family members can view the blog at their convenience to catch up on important events in the blog owner’s life and in most cases can post comments to the blog owner. They can also read comments from others. This is beneficial if those viewing the blog know each other because they can not only stay in touch with the blog owner but also have a chance to communicate with other friends and family members through the comments section of the blog.

Blogging as a Form of Expression

Some bloggers begin blogging as a form of expression. They may right poetry, songs, short stories or even use the blog to vent about personal events or politics. These bloggers may wish to keep their blog private or can make the blog available to the public. Keeping the blog private is sort of like keeping a diary or a journal. It gives the blogger a multi-media form of expressing himself without the risk of others discovering his true feelings, innermost dreams or frustrations. Other bloggers opt to make these blogs public. This may be for a number of different reasons. Sharing these feelings with others allows the blogger to reach others who may have the same interest as the blogger.

Bloggers who use their blog as a form of personal expression may want to be cautious and consider the decision to make a blog public. This is important because the blog owner may initially not see problems with allowing others to view his personal thoughts. However, over time he may realize his blog could either be offensive to others or could result in problems if friends or family members view the blog Microsoft MCITP Certification.

Blogging to Keep a Record of Events

Another common reason for blogging is to keep a record of important events. Examples of some types of events which a blogger may wish to document include a pregnancy, weddings, vacations, sporting events or completion of school events. Using blogs to keep a record of these events gives the blogger an opportunity to record daily events in one simple location where they can easily look back on the blog or share the postings with others who might be interested in the events. In these cases the blog can serve as a form of scrapbook documenting the events as they occur. The blog owner can post as often as he desires and may choose to include elements such as photos, music, audio files and video files into the blog. The blog can also be designed to suit the events being documented. For example a journal depicting a vacation may have backgrounds, fonts and colors representing the vacation location while a pregnancy blog may feature elements which represent pregnancy, babies and being parents.

Still these tips are equally important and relevant regardless of the marketing type you choose. It is about capturing, holding the readers attention and getting them to follow through and purchase.

1. Spend money on targeted advertising instead of mass media advertising. You don’t want to waste your ad dollars on people who aren’t interested.

2. Increase your profits by concentrating on small details. Improving small things like text size, color, or graphics can really make a positive difference.

3. Keep your offers flexible. If you offer a set price for your product, you could offer the people that can’t afford it an optional payment plan.

4. Offer your knowledge or consulting as a bonus product. You could offer a free 15 or 30 minute consultation. This will add value to your product.

5. Personalize all your e-mail messages so they get read. Include the recipient’s name in the subject line. This will grab peoples attention quickly.

6. Keep your web site consistent. You don’t want to keep things on your web site that are unrelated to the theme of your web site.

7. Attract more subscribers to your free e-zine by giving them free bonuses like e-books, software, online services and other incentives.

8. Sell advertising space in your e-zine and on your web site. This will create an extra income stream for your business.

9. Make your web site ready for the public. Have an “About Us” page and clear descriptions of what actions you want your visitors to take.

10. Don’t just start advertising everywhere, plan out your marketing. Locate places and publications that your target audience would congregate around.

We strongly recommend you read your local papers classified section to get a feel for what type of advertising catches your eye. It will help you get a feel for the words and phrases that work.

There are also terrific classified sites all over the internet that you can look at Microsoft MCITP Certification.

If you are subscribing to newsletters or emails consider the headlines that make you want to click further. Jot them down and use them.

But the most important thing you need to do is to have the right system to it.

There are a lot of successful internet marketers offering free tips and guides in their newsletter. You just need to enroll to their list and you will learn how to grow your internet marketing business. You can enroll to as many list as you like but the bottom line is you need to apply what you learn from the internet marketers Microsoft MCTS Training.

Then you need to decide on your business model. Do you want to sell your own product or do you want to be an affiliate for other merchants? You might need to build your marketing materials if you want to sell your own product and if you want to be an affiliate marketer, the merchants might supply all the marketing materials you need.

After you decide on your business model, the next thing is to start building your own website. There are free software and templates that you can use to create your website. You don’t need to create any fancy website if you are just starting out on the business. Starts with a basic landing page to collect your visitors’ details and promote your product to them later.

After that you need to get traffic to your product for you to earn money from internet marketing. There are a lot of ways you can do that and referring your list members to your product is one of the easy and direct ways. Your members are more receptive to do as you ask because they trust you.

The following thing you should consider to earn money from internet marketing business is to craft your sales message. Now, your visitors can only see the picture of your product online. So, you need to write in a convincing way for your visitors to believe that the product is indeed what they need.

Then, you need to determine your product price. You won’t be earning any money from the business if you price your product wrongly. If you price it too low, you will be having a hard time supporting your business but if you price it too high, there will not be any buyer Microsoft MCITP Certification.

So, it is best that you look at other merchants with similar product of yours. How do they price their product? Do they offer anything else as a bonus? You can also email your list members and ask them about the best price for your product. Process your findings and propose a price that is worth your customers’ investment.

Let’s be realistic, you obviously can’t grow your internet marketing business if no one looks at your offer. Then what are you going to do to expose your product?

1. Write articles

Readers like quality and informational articles. They would like to find out more about you and your offer once they enjoyed your articles. So, it is important that you share what you know in your articles and have a link to your website.

The next thing you need is to submit your articles to article directories. Find out about the page rank of the article directories you are submitting. You will have a hard time getting traffic if you submit to a low page rank article directories Microsoft MCTS Training.

2. Pay Per Click (PPC) ad

This is another favorable way to promote your internet marketing business. You just need to create a free account on the search engines and they will have tutorials to guide you through the setups of your PPC ad.

You are only required to pay for the service if someone clicks on your ad. So, you can maximize the exposure of your advertisement to the desire market.

But take note that PPC is a big topic to master and the tutorials from the search engines are just for basic setup. You need to look for other sources to learn more about the topic and do your research before you determine your investment for each keywords. Or else, you will be burnt mercilessly.

3. Other people list

You know that the money is in the list but what if you don’t have your own list?

Then, you can try to advertise on other reputable internet marketers’ list to promote your internet marketing business. Your offer will be more receptive as it is recommended by the list owner.

Let’s say that you advertise in a list of 10,000 people. Can you imagine the traffic you will receive if 20% of them visit you daily? What if 1% of them bought your $67 product this month? You just cashed in $6700 this month and that is just one of your products.

You might earn even more if you have more product.

Of course the main issue you need to take into consideration is your budget. Generally, you need to pay more if you are advertising to a bigger list. Contact the list owner and ask for a discount or partial distribution to his members Microsoft MCITP Certification.

Who knows, maybe the list owner is kind enough to help you get started in internet marketing.

Dr. Dice’s advice? Self-regulate

In the absence of any national or international regulations policing online gaming, it is in the vital interest of online gaming operators to regulate themselves, and universally. Indeed this is currently being done as more and more sites purport to act as independent watchdogs, albeit often misleadingly. Though in fact most are just casino affiliates posing as policemen, this trend will ultimately result in more independent and reliable regulatory websites.

Number ones and total zeros

Our new and fantastic age of digital technology presents infinite possibilities never before imagined, and in all spheres of life including gambling over the Internet. And while it’s perfectly natural that online gambling websites are, for the most part, modeled after their predecessors – brick and mortar casinos – with such high stakes up for grabs and unyielding growth in competition, good old mommy of invention will naturally find her way into the laptops of those more original-thinking online gaming developers out there. What’s missing at this juncture, however, is initiative and innovative thinking. At some point in time online casinos will have to brand themselves not as virtual Vegas’ or Monte Carlos, but by sporting themes similar to those in perhaps online video games, which is already starting to take root. The sky, virtual or real, Microsoft MCITP Certification has no limits

UIGEA is good for business

What the US anti-online gambling law is doing in effect is forcing greater global competition among those gaming companies vying for new and larger market shares. In order to prevail in these new markets, casino site operators are scrambling for alternate means of winning the public’s confidence, and in this digital age, there’s no doubt democratic methods can be laid down and enforced far better than any government, especially those staffed by professional politicians. Those ubiquitous gambling blogs and forums are already forcing online casino operators to either get their houses in order or make way for the new kids on the cyber gaming block. Public opinion, in more than just the gambling biz, is fast shaping our future ways of life.

The bottom line is…

Instilling and maintaining higher-than-average player confidence remains a paramount concern for any online gambling venue betting on becoming a leader, let alone merely succeeding. Aside from absolute greed and shortsighted business sense, there’s absolutely no excuse for gaming firms to fail to play by the rules already accepted as industry standards. For instance, plenty of online casino sites provide visitors with access to their payout rates, that is, how much the establishment pays out in winnings. These rates typically range, depending on the games of course, between 93% and upwards. It’s no secret that online casinos promise better payout rates than land-casinos. After all, web-based companies enjoy significantly lower operating expenses.

For most computer users, an operating system is somewhat like the engine under a car’s hood. They know how to start and stop the engine, how to drive around, probably how to check oil levels, but beyond that, the knowledge is limited. With a car, that is okay, since we do not really need to know more unless we are hard-core enthusiasts, or working in the automotive industry.

Getting back to operating systems, the beauty of these ‘engines’ is that they allow users to run their computers and use their favourite applications, while they take care of allocating system resources, handling processes, and so on. Operating systems are far from perfect, but they are remarkable pieces of software for the sheer complexity of tasks that they handle.

We open up the engine and take a look at some of the recent innovations in operating systems.

Splashtop: A fast-booting OS

What do PC users do after they press their PC’s power button?

* Go get a cup of coffee
* Stare at the screen and practice meditation
* Chat with colleagues
* Any of the above

Jokes aside, most of us usually spend minutes waiting for the operating system (OS) to boot up. This is especially frustrating when we need to look up something on the Internet quickly, or just have a few minutes to check personal e-mail.

{quotes}A new operating system called Splashtop allows you to connect to the Internet without booting your main operating system{/quotes}. Splashtop has two components: a core engine that runs out of the BIOS, and an optimised Linux stack that boots rapidly. Splashtop boots out of the BIOS (basic input-output system) on the motherboard of the PC, generally in five seconds or less, according to the website, and provides quick access to certain applications, like the Splashtop Web browser (based on Firefox) and Skype– or offers you the choice of booting your main operating system.

Splashtop is currently available only on ASUS motherboards. When we enquired about how the company plans to make Splashtop available to customers, Andrew Kippen, press and blogger relations manager at DeviceVM (the company that provides Splashtop) revealed, “We spoke about many different ways to release Splashtop, but in the end decided that launching with a partner like ASUS, the world’s largest motherboard manufacturer, was the best way to reach consumers. Splashtop-enabled laptops and desktops will be released later this year.”

Splashtop uses flash memory on the motherboard to store its applications. Could that be a bottleneck? Kippen says, “This is not an issue, since we tailor each version of Splashtop to the manufacturer’s specifications. If there is a size issue, manufacturers can include a larger flash memory chip, or run Splashtop from a partition on the hard drive Microsoft MCITP Certification.”

On issues like vulnerability to attacks and whether it is possible to save attachments or documents, Kippen says, “Like I mentioned earlier, we tailor each version of Splashtop to a manufacturer’s specifications, so [the answer to] your question depends on the manufacturer. On current ASUS products, we allow persistent data (like bookmarks and cookies) to be written to memory. However, users cannot save files, for security reasons.”

Since Splashtop is Linux-based, it is immune to most of the attacks that plague traditional operating systems. Restricting access to memory, whether flash memory or the hard drive, further ensures that Splashtop always works properly.

Speaking on the reasons for the OS’s popularity, Kippen adds, “A major reason for Splashtop’s success is that more and more applications are moving to the Web. Users (excluding business users) spend more time with Web-based e-mail, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and other websites than on any desktop program. Online applications like Google and Zoho are quickly becoming viable options for most Office-like applications.

“We are targeting mass-market consumers, i.e., normal people who just want their computer to work without any wait or fuss. We see ourselves as a good complement to the traditional OS, great for lightweight applications like Web browsing and media playback, but not the right fit if you want to do video editing.”

Splashtop is not the only company in this space. Phoenix Technologies, a company that makes BIOS software, is developing software called Hyperspace that will launch along with the PC’s regular OS. Hyperspace, which is billed as a “compact and secure application environment”, will be able to run applications as well as perform systems maintenance (repair, back-up, recovery, etc) and security. Phoenix expects manufacturers to start offering Hyperspace in the latter half of 2008.

When you think of technology, what comes to mind? Typically, it would be sleek mobile phones, sophisticated computer systems, portable storage devices, stylish music players and gaming consoles, flat screens, high-end software, Internet and Web applications, faster processors, etc. All these, of course, are the gifts of technology.

Now, imagine a world without metals, alloys, gases, liquids and colloids, magnets, lights, lasers, plastics, polymers, ceramics, etc. More so, imagine a world without silicon and other semiconductors. Imagine a world without carbon and its derivatives, a world without DNA… “WAIT A MINUTE!” you say, “WHAT’S GOING ON?”. Welcome to the world of materials science– a science that is least talked about, in spite of its substantial role in the development of technology as a whole. While it might not strike a chord at the first instance, materials and their manipulation, the creation of new materials and their usage– all encompass materials science. And developments in this field have lead to new technologies (or significant improvements in existing technologies), and in turn into highly successful commercial products and even industries. It would not be wrong to say, at least, at the most basic level, that it is the non-stop progress and input of materials science that is– and continues to be– the foundation of almost any development in the field of information and communication technology (ICT). Perhaps it’s time to give due recognition to a science that has long been ‘silent’.

Silicon– everyone’s darling!

Without delving too much into the history of the materials sciences, one may begin with silicon, a semiconductor– the ‘darling’ of the industry. Without it, information processing would be virtually non-existent, considering that silicon, along with its variations, is among the most prominent components in various devices like chips, processors, insulators, transistors, etc. It is here that Dr Praveen Chaudhary, currently director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, points out the importance of materials science in the development of silicon technology. He says, “Silicon technology would not have been possible without continuous advances in materials sciences. This assertion holds for all aspects of IT hardware.” Speaking about current research in conventional silicon technology, Dr Chaudhary says,{quotes} “Research is on in designing thin insulators with large dielectric constants for use as gate insulators, and low-dielectric-constant materials to form substrates for higher-speed transmission of signals.” says Dr Praveen Chaudhary, currently director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory{/quotes}

However, since the introduction of integrated circuits way back in the late 50s, semiconductor science and technology has developed with unmatched speed. Future advances are expected to bridge diverse fields, such as semiconductor physics, magnetic materials, organic chemistry, polymer science, and biology. In addition, the physical contact between different materials on one chip will revolutionise transistor, sensor, memory, and communication technologies Microsoft MCITP Certification.

So, is there ever going to be an alternative for silicon in the future? Well, though there doesn’t seem to be a definitive answer to this question, there is a lot of research and study going on. In fact, two groups had reported superconductivity at high pressure in lithium, which was once thought of as the simplest of metals. In other developments, Intel and IBM have announced replacing silicon with hafnium, in a key part of semiconductors where transistors leaked. Interest is also focused on diluted magnetic semiconductors (DMS), in which silicon is made magnetic by doping it with manganese. DMS devices consume less power than conventional devices and have the capability to operate at considerably higher speeds.

Hi, this is Ruchi. I am calling from Moneymoney bank, we have a pre-approved personal loan of Rs. 40,000 for you, madam…” Does that sound familiar? How many times have you received such a call? Do you immediately hang up; do you humour the agent and carry on conversing; abuse the poor agent… or end up buying the product that she is selling?

A ‘call centre’ is a generic term for help desks, information lines and customer service centres. Call centres have become the central focus of many companies, as these centres stay in direct contact with the firm’s customers. Call centres are of two basic types: those that handle inbound calls, where customers call in for service, and outbound call centres, where agents from contact centres call customers to offer services. Call centres not only offer phone-based support, but also support through online chat, SMS and e-mail Microsoft MCTS Training.

Call centre to the world

India, today, is the call centre to the world. Companies outsource their call centre operations because that way they can get access to skilled and expert staff without having to worry about recruiting them, training them and retaining them. India has both the skilled manpower and the lower costs that make it the preferred destination.

But running call centres is a highly competitive business. The same reasons that make India attractive could, in turn, make some other location attractive in the not so distant future. In India, salaries are increasing, attrition rates are very high, and infrastructure costs are rising. So how does the industry stay competitive? Call centres are embracing technology to stay ahead.

Computers as interviewers

The call centre industry in India is growing at the rate of 40 per cent per annum. However, attrition rates are as high as 30 per cent. This means that lots of people need to be hired. For every one person that you hire, you need to interview ten people. So the cost of hiring one person can be as high as Rs 20,000 if the screening cost is included. The cost of interviewing and hiring a thousand agents is itself a couple of crores. Large call centres hire a few thousand new employees every year, so the cost of interviewing is a major expense for them. As the call centres move to second-tier cities, it is expected that the ratio of hires-to-rejects will be even higher, making the hiring process even more expensive.

Call centres hope to reduce this cost by automating the first level of screening. Software to test human language skills now exists. The basic language skills needed by an agent include fluency, good vocabulary, good grammar, proper pronunciation and good comprehension. An interviewer marks each candidate based on these skills. Today, speech recognition and natural language processing (NLP) technologies are maturing, and can be used to evaluate candidates on each of these parameters. For example, to test pronunciation, the system checks whether the person is laying stress on the correct syllables in a word. Many Indians pronounce available as ‘avlabel’, and a speech recognition system is able to detect the stress on the wrong syllables. Comparisons between automated systems and human interviewers show that they are usually in agreement about a candidate’s worth, thus paving the way for automated screening processes to be put in place. Now it is only a matter of time before such systems are widely adopted. Very soon, your interviewer may be a computer. Kiosks can be set up in remote corners, and candidates can go there and get interviewed at their convenience Microsoft MCITP Certification.

Good agent, bad agent

Once candidates are hired, they are moved to the floor to take live calls from customers. Agents on the floor are typically evaluated based on their call handling time and the call outcome. The average handling time for a call varies from process to process, and can range from a few minutes to an hour. For example, if you have a banking-related query, you would talk with the agent for about five minutes. On the other hand, if the problem is regarding a hardware or software issue on your computer, the call to troubleshoot it could go on for an hour. The call outcome is measured in terms of specific goals or targets being met. For example, banking loan agents would be assessed on how many customers they were able to convince to take personal loans. Thus, agents are evaluated based on how many calls they took and how many of those calls resulted in successful outcomes. To be viable, a call centre must have its agents perform well on both these parameters.

The message, “Please note that this call may be recorded for training and evaluation purposes,” should sound familiar to you? Most calls to a call centre are recorded and stored. Quality analysts review them to prepare agent-wise and general reports. They randomly select a few calls of individual agents, and then prepare reports on their strengths and shortcomings.

Natural language processing systems are capable of going through a large collection of calls and analysing the reasons for success and failure. Many agents, who were obviously fans of Amitabh Bachchan in Kaun Banega Crorepati, started using his famous phrase on foreign customers “Can I lock this for you?” The foreigners were not familiar with this phrase. A natural language system found that agents who simply asked, “Shall I make the booking for you?” made more bookings. Now, finding this kind of correlation between phrases and call outcomes is something that a human reviewing a few calls is unlikely to make out. But an NLP system analysing thousands of calls ‘sees’ this very easily. Such systems can be used to analyse the language and behaviour of ‘good’ agents, and compare them with the ‘bad’ agents to point out good practices that result in satisfied customers. Call centres are adopting natural language systems a lot more to analyse conversations, and to identify good and positive practices.

Do you think you are affected by advertisements? Do you recognise the companies with the slogans, ‘Information technology, today, tomorrow’, ‘Just do’ , ‘Connecting people’, ‘Fly the good times’, ‘Wherever you go our network follows’, ‘Connecting India’, ‘The nation banks on us’, and ‘Taste the thunder’? If you recall even some of these, then you have to agree that advertisements do have some impact on you.

Companies spend crores of rupees on advertising because they know consumers are affected by advertising Microsoft MCTS Training. The goal of advertising is to influence the purchasing behaviour of as large a population of consumers as possible. So how do companies plan their advertising expenditure?

Ad pricing

On traditional advertising media like TV, radio, print and billboards, the pricing is based on how many eyeballs or ears the advertisement captures. This is the cost-per-view model. For TV or radio, ad rates go up during a cricket match, because there will be a larger audience. Print ad rates are also based on the total readership of the edition.

In the world of online advertising, pricing is more complicated. Not only do you have cost per view options, but could also have cost per click (based on the number of times the ad is clicked on); or, if it is an online merchandising site, then it is based on ‘cost per action’–the number of times a product is purchased. The pricing model can be fixed or dynamic. The most popular dynamic model is the search-term-based advertising that has been popularised by Google. An advertiser has to bid for a keyword in an online auction. Popular keywords like ‘job’ go for many thousands of rupees; less popular keywords like, let’s say, ‘lalu’ go very cheap. Have you noticed the sponsored links to the right of your Google search results? The advertiser showing up at the number one spot bid the highest for the keyword you used in your search; those who bid less are ranked below this. Every time you click a sponsored link, the advertiser has to pay the amount that they bid to Google, Microsoft MCITP Certification.

We are watching you: We know what you need

Advertisers today try to collect as much information about you as they can–they can cash in on this knowledge by serving you ads tailored to your preferences or positioned to take advantage of your plans, as determined by your online activities. For example, when you search for a tandoori restaurant, the search engine dishes out related sponsored ads based on your search ‘interest’–your apparent plans to eat out. Similarly, when you read an e-mail about summer vacation plans in Goa, your friendly e-mail provider serves you hotel and airline booking ads, hoping to capture a booking or sale for their advertisers. This is true of SMS messages too; every SMS you send is automatically analysed to learn your interests, and to serve you relevant advertisements.

Remember, Extended Hotfix Support (EHS) only provides the opportunity to request a non-security hotfix for a new bug discovered during the Extended Support phase.  It has no impact on a customer’s ability to request support, security updates, or other non-security hotfixes created during the Mainstream Support phase.

To enroll in EHS, customers must already have Premier Support.  In addition, enrollment in the program must occur within the first 90 days of the product entering the Extended Support phase.  If the customer misses this deadline, there may not be an opportunity to enroll in EHS again Microsoft MCITP Certification.

The only exception to the 90 day enrollment rule is for customers with Software Assurance (SA).  Customers with Software Assurance on select products are eligible for a benefit which includes the program fee for Extended Hotfix Support and allows enrollment at any time.  Essentially, this means that the SA customers only need to sign the appropriate paperwork and pay the per hotfix fee.  The products that are included in this benefit are: Microsoft Office Professional, Microsoft Windows Client, Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft MCTS Training Operations Manager (MOM), Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS), and Microsoft Windows Server.

Pricing for Extended Hotfix Support consists of an annual program fee, plus an additional fee for each non-security hotfix they receive.  Non-security hotfixes produced during the Extended Support phase will not be made available to other customers in the program, without enrollment in EHS or the per hotfix fee.  This is to ensure that all customers are treated equal and are being charged the same fees for each hotfix.

Whew…  That’s a lot of stuff to cover.  I hope it makes the program easier to understand, though. 

Visual Basic 6 (VB6) can basically be divided into three main deliverables…

* Visual Basic 6 IDE — the Integrated Development Environment (IDE) used to develop VB 6.0 applications
* Visual Basic 6 Runtime — the base libraries and execution engine used to run VB 6.0 applications
* Visual Basic 6 Runtime Extended Files — select ActiveX control OCX files, libraries, and tools shipping with the IDE media and as an online release

Support for the VB6 IDE came to an end on April 8th.  This means that Microsoft MCTS Training will no longer provide any additional assisted support, security updates or development assistance on the IDE or the VB6 language.  However, online information (such as MSDN articles and the Knowledge Base) will remain online for at least the next 12 months.

Support for the VB6 Runtime will continue.  Generally, the VB6 Runtime is shipped as a component of the operating system and will be supported with the product that it shipped with.  For example, since the VB6 Runtime shipped as a component of Windows XP, the runtime will continue to be supported for the life of Windows XP.  The VB6 Runtime has shipped on all of our OS releases and will continue to be supported with all those OSes.

Since the VB6 Runtime is supported with the OS, customers will be able to open support cases and request assistance if the VB6 Runtime is not operating as expected or is causing problems with their application.  In addition, we will continue to provide security updates for the VB6 runtime.  We will not provide any development assistance or support for the IDE, however.

The VB6 Runtime Extended Files are generally installed by the IDE or from Microsoft MCITP Certification and are redistributed by developers with their application.  This redistribution is often required to ensure the functionality of the application.  The product team will be releasing a new, supported set of these tools online in the coming weeks.  To obtain support, customers will need to ensure they are running the supported versions of these files.

More information on how the Visual Basic 6 runtime will be supported can be found in the MSDN Visual Basic 6 Resource Center.  On this site, the product team has detailed a number of the support scenarios and files, especially as they pertain to Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.   It’s a great resource if you have any outstanding questions.

You may recall that Microsoft MCTS Training recently announced an update to the Service Pack Support policy.  In a nutshell, for Service Packs end of support is 12 or 24 months after a new release, depending on the product family.  After the end of support, customers should expect the following:

*
No security updates or non-security hotfixes
*
Limited break/fix support incidents continue to be available, but there is no option to engage Microsoft’s product development resources
*
If the support incident requires escalation to development for further guidance, requires a hotfix, or requires a security update, customers will be asked to upgrade to a supported service pack

7. If I am on an unsupported service pack, what type of support can I receive?  What is “Limited Troubleshooting”, anyway?

For customers on unsupported service pack versions, Microsoft offers limited troubleshooting support as follows:

*
Limited break/fix support incidents will be provided through Microsoft Customer Service and Support; and through Microsoft’s managed support offerings (such as Premier Support).
*
There will be no option to engage Microsoft’s product development resources, and technical workarounds may be limited or not possible.
*
If the support incident requires escalation to development for further guidance, requires a hotfix, or requires a security update, customers will be asked to upgrade to a supported service pack.

Limited break/fix troubleshooting simply means that support professionals will provide troubleshooting to customers on unsupported service packs, even without a Custom Support contract. Access to Premier Support resources, such as Premier Field Engineering, Technical Account Managers and Application Development Consultants will also continue to be available to the customer. Microsoft will still require customers to be on a supported service pack to receive hotfixes, security updates, time zone updates, or access to sustained engineering.

This policy is designed to provide additional support options and flexibility for customers who have not completed migration to a supported service pack. Customers are highly encouraged to stay on a supported service pack to ensure they are on the latest and most secure version of their product.

6. If I’m on an unsupported product, what type of support can I receive?

If you are on a product that has reached the end of support, you do not have many options to obtain support from Microsoft MCITP Certification.  Generally, existing online content may be available to resolve common issues, if the product is still within the Online Self-Help Support phase.

Custom Support is also available for purchase for those customers who have not been able to complete their migration to a supported product, and absolutely need additional support from Microsoft. The Custom Support offerings include access to security hotfixes and are specifically designed to help customers bridge the support gap while they complete their migration.

Note: To enroll in Custom Support, customers must have a Premier Support contract. Additionally, customers are required to have a migration plan in place, prior to purchasing Custom Support.  Please contact your Microsoft representative for further information.

5. What is “Custom Support”?

As we’ve already discussed, support for Business & Developer products terminates at the end of the Extended Support phase.  Support for service packs will end either 12 or 24 months after the release of a new service pack, varying by product family.

Customers are encouraged to migrate to a supported product as soon as possible, to ensure they can receive security updates and continue to receive product support. For those customers who have not been able to complete their migration, and need additional support from Microsoft, we have a support offering for select products called Custom Support.

Simply put, Custom Support provides support for those products that are no longer publicly supported.

Custom Support should be considered the option of last resort for customers who are unable to complete migration.  For complete details on the Custom Support program please contact your Microsoft representative for further information.

4. What happens to components at the end of support?

Once a product or service pack reaches the end of support, all of the components associated with that release will also be unsupported on that platform.  For example, Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) will continue to be supported on both Windows 2000 and XP SP2 until they reach the end of support on July 13, 2010.  After this date, customers who wish to receive support on IE6 will only be able to do so on a supported product version, such as Windows Server 2003 or Windows XP SP3.

3. Are these policies global?  Do they apply to all products?

In short, yes.  The goal of the Support Lifecycle policy is to provide consistent and predictable guidelines for product support availability for all Microsoft products in all of the worldwide markets where Microsoft does business.

2. Will Microsoft provide security updates for products after the end of support?

I know I’m sounding like a broken record here, but the answer is no. J  Once a product or service pack has reached the end of support, Microsoft no longer provides any new security updates.  Customers are encouraged to upgrade to a supported product or service pack to ensure they are able to receive continued support and security updates.

1.     Where do I find more information on the Microsoft Support Lifecycle policies?

There are a number of great resources to find more information on the Support Lifecycle policies.  First, I’d recommend visiting the Microsoft Support Lifecycle website.  This site is the primary source of information on the policies and specific support transition dates for our products.  If you are interested in getting quarterly news updates on the Support Lifecycle policy and a calendar of upcoming support transitions, I’d recommend subscribing to our customer-ready newsletter.  Finally, I’d recommend reading the blog on a on regular basis.  Since you are here, I assume you already know how to find it. J

Normally, Paul Schaffer would do a rimshot here and play some witty music.  Unfortunately, I don’t have a backup band. J

I hope this provides a useful rundown of the top questions related to the end of support.  If you think we missed a top question or if you have a related issue, please feel free to post them in the comments section.  We’ll do our best to read them and respond.

*This posting is provided “AS-IS” with no warranties, and confers no rights.*. What does “end of support” mean for a service pack (e.g. Windows XP SP2)?

You may recall that Microsoft recently announced an update to the Service Pack Support policy.  In a nutshell, for Service Packs end of support is 12 or 24 months after a new release, depending on the product family.  After the end of support, customers should expect the following:

• No security updates or non-security hotfixes
• Limited break/fix support incidents continue to be available, but there is no option to engage Microsoft’s product development resources
• If the support incident requires escalation to development for further guidance, requires a hotfix, or requires a security update, customers will be asked to upgrade to a supported service pack

7. If I am on an unsupported service pack, what type of support can I receive?  What is “Limited Troubleshooting”, anyway?

For customers on unsupported service pack versions, Microsoft offers limited troubleshooting support as follows:

• Limited break/fix support incidents will be provided through Microsoft Customer Service and Support; and through Microsoft’s managed support offerings (such as Premier Support).
• There will be no option to engage Microsoft’s product development resources, and technical workarounds may be limited or not possible.
• If the support incident requires escalation to development for further guidance, requires a hotfix, or requires a security update, customers will be asked to upgrade to a supported service pack.

Limited break/fix troubleshooting simply means that support professionals will provide troubleshooting to customers on unsupported service packs, even without a Custom Support contract. Access to Premier Support resources, such as Premier Field Engineering, Technical Account Managers and Application Development Consultants will also continue to be available to the customer. Microsoft will still require customers to be on a supported service pack to receive hotfixes, security updates, time zone updates, or access to sustained engineering.

This policy is designed to provide additional support options and flexibility for customers who have not completed migration to a supported service pack. Customers are highly encouraged to stay on a supported service pack to ensure they are on the latest and most secure version of their product.

6. If I’m on an unsupported product, what type of support can I receive?

If you are on a product that has reached the end of support, you do not have many options to obtain support from Microsoft.  Generally, existing online content may be available to resolve common issues, if the product is still within the Online Self-Help Support phase.

Custom Support is also available for purchase for those customers who have not been able to complete their migration to a supported product, and absolutely need additional support from Microsoft. The Custom Support offerings include access to security hotfixes and are specifically designed to help customers bridge the support gap while they complete their migration.

Note: To enroll in Custom Support, customers must have a Premier Support contract. Additionally, customers are required to have a migration plan in place, prior to purchasing Custom Support.  Please contact your Microsoft representative for further information.

5. What is “Custom Support”?

As we’ve already discussed, support for Business & Developer products terminates at the end of the Extended Support phase.  Support for service packs will end either 12 or 24 months after the release of a new service pack, varying by product family.

Customers are encouraged to migrate to a supported product as soon as possible, to ensure they can receive security updates and continue to receive product support. For those customers who have not been able to complete their migration, and need additional support from Microsoft, we have a support offering for select products called Custom Support.

Simply put, Custom Support provides support for those products that are no longer publicly supported.

Custom Support should be considered the option of last resort for customers who are unable to complete migration.  For complete details on the Custom Support program please contact your Microsoft representative for further information.

4. What happens to components at the end of support?

Once a product or service pack reaches the end of support, all of the components associated with that release will also be unsupported on that platform.  For example, Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) will continue to be supported on both Windows 2000 and XP SP2 until they reach the end of support on July 13, 2010.  After this date, customers who wish to receive support on IE6 will only be able to do so on a supported product version, such as Windows Server 2003 or Windows XP SP3.

3. Are these policies global?  Do they apply to all products?

In short, yes.  The goal of the Support Lifecycle policy is to provide consistent and predictable guidelines for product support availability for all Microsoft products in all of the worldwide markets where Microsoft does business.

2. Will Microsoft provide security updates for products after the end of support?

I know I’m sounding like a broken record here, but the answer is no. J  Once a product or service pack has reached the end of support, Microsoft no longer provides any new security updates.  Customers are encouraged to upgrade to a supported product or service pack to ensure they are able to receive continued support and security updates.

1. Where do I find more information on the Microsoft Support Lifecycle policies?

There are a number of great resources to find more information on the Support Lifecycle policies.  First, I’d recommend visiting the Microsoft Support Lifecycle website.  This site is the primary source of information on the policies and specific support transition dates for our products.  If you are interested in getting quarterly news updates on the Support Lifecycle policy and a calendar of upcoming support transitions, I’d recommend subscribing to our customer-ready newsletter.  Finally, I’d recommend reading the blog on a on regular basis.  Since you are here, I assume you already know how to find it. J

Normally, Paul Schaffer would do a rimshot here and play some witty music.  Unfortunately, I don’t have a backup band. J

I hope this provides a useful rundown of the top questions related to the end of support.  If you think we missed a top question or if you have a related issue, please feel free to post them in the comments section.  We’ll do our best to read them and respond.

*This posting is provided “AS-IS” with no warranties, and confers no rights.*

So here they are…  The 10 Top Questions About The End of Support:

10.  What does “support” mean?
Generally, the minimum bar for something to be considered supported is that we provide at least one type of assisted support option and no-charge security updates.  This means that, at a minimum, the customer will have some avenue to contact Microsoft for assistance and Microsoft will continue to provide security updates through channels like Windows Update and the Download Center.

It is important to note that the minimum requirement for support does not include any specific no-charge or paid support offerings.  This means that offerings such as Premier Support, Professional Support or no-charge support are optional – they are offered at Microsoft’s discretion, based on market demand and offering feasibility.

In addition, non-security hotfixes and design change requests are not included in the minimum requirement.  These hotfixes are optionally provided by Microsoft and are evaluated on a case by case basis by each product team.

9. What does “end of support” mean for a product (e.g. Windows 2000)?

Somewhat unsurprisingly, end of support for a product means that we will no longer provide support after this date. J For Consumer products, end of support is at the end of the Mainstream Support phase.  For Business and Developer products, end of support is the end of the Extended Support phase Microsoft MCITP Certification.

After these dates, no further support will be provided for the product.  This means that customers will not have access to:

*
security updates or non-security hotfixes
*
free or paid assisted support options
*
the option to engage Microsoft’s product development resources
*
updates to online content (KB articles, etc.)

Online content may be available, if the product is still within the Online Self-Help Support phase.

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