Microsoft confirms 'nasty' Windows zero-day bug
Microsoft on Friday warned that attackers are exploiting a critical unpatched Windows vulnerability using infected USB flash drives.
The bug admission is the first that affects Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) since Microsoft retired the edition from support , researchers said. When Microsoft does fix the flaw, it will not be providing a patch for machines still running XP SP2.
Websense WSGA: Securing your Web and Data With One Console: View now
In a security advisory , Microsoft MCTS Training confirmed what other researchers had been saying for almost a month: Hackers have been exploiting a bug in Windows "shortcut" files, the placeholders typically dropped on the desktop or into the Start menu to represent links to actual files or programs.
"In the wild, this vulnerability has been found operating in conjunction with the Stuxnet malware," Dave Forstrom, a director in Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing group, said in a post Friday to a company blog . Stuxnet is a clan of malware that includes a Trojan horse that downloads further attack code, including a rootkit that hides evidence of the attack.
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Forstrom characterized the threat as "limited, targeted attacks," but the Microsoft group responsible for crafting antivirus signatures said it had tracked 6,000 attempts to infect Windows PCs as of July 15.
On Friday, Siemens alerted customers of its Simatic WinCC management software that attacks using the Windows vulnerability were targeting computers used to manage large-scale industrial control systems used by major manufacturing and utility companies.
The vulnerability was first mentioned on June 17 in an alert issued by VirusBlokAda , a little-known security firm based in Belarus. Other security organizations, including U.K.-based Sophos and SANS Institute's Internet Storm Center , picked up on the threat Friday. Security blogger Brian Krebs , formerly with the Washington Post, reported on it Thursday.
According to Microsoft, Windows fails to correctly parse shortcut files, identified by the ".lnk" extension. The flaw has been exploited most frequently using USB flash drives. By crafting a malicious .lnk file, hackers can hijack a Windows PC with little user interaction: All that's necessary is that the user views the contents of the USB drive with a file manager like Windows Explorer.
Chester Wisniewski, a senior security advisory with Sophos, called the threat "nasty," and said his tests showed that the exploit works even when AutoRun and AutoPlay -- two functions that have previously been used by attackers to commandeer PCs using infected flash drives -- are disabled. The rootkit also bypasses all security mechanisms in Windows, including the User Account Control (UAC) prompts in Vista and Windows 7 , said Wisniewski in a blog entry Friday.
Attacks can also be launched without using USB drives, Microsoft MCITP Certification and Wisniewski both noted. "Affected shortcuts can also be distributed over network shares or remote WebDAV shares," said Microsoft's advisory.
"[That makes] a very bad situation worse," said Wisniewski.
Microsoft did not set a timeline for patching the zero-day vulnerability; its next Patch Tuesday is not until Aug. 10.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Online Tutoring – A Boon for Quality Education
Online Tutoring – A Boon for Quality Education
Online tutoring is a planned teaching/learning process, live and fully interactive one-on-one methodology by which knowledge is imparted using a wide spectrum of technologies, mainly Internet to reach learners at a distance. It is a tutoring portal working for all your educational needs and where a student can learn via the Internet with the help of a professional, subject matter expert. It makes use of several web-based programs to achieve its goals. Online tutoring is now becoming the best way for students to get extra help in perusing their study smoothly and is being preferred by both students and their parents Microsoft MCTS Training.
Online tutoring is a collaborative process, which facilitates the students to plan out their program according to their own preferences. Flexibility of timings is an added advantage. Online educational constructive approach, provides a pool of subject matter experts and imparts one to one real time learning, with peer interaction for every student at its self paced working methodology.
The main advantages of online learning are…
Working in a highly safe, efficient, result oriented environment and round the clock educational services are provided to your child for considerably improving his/her results with better understanding of the concerned subject. Online tutoring focuses on improving their existing capabilities in solving problems, doing their homework in less time and also emphasize on the weak areas of your child, working with utmost perfection to bring out the best in them. It also strives hard for the considerable improvement in results of your child and provide them an extra edge over the other students.This technology is tailored for offering quality online courses by tutors who are screened, qualified and ready to help your child get better grades, brush up their skills and provide them with flexibility of time to pursue other extracurricular activities at the same time for an all round development of your ward. Moreover, with online tutoring students can go at their own pace and from the comfort of their homes to learn anywhere and usually at any time Microsoft MCITP Certification.
Online learning process and its goals…
This real-time tutoring/teaching process offers learning scenarios, worksheets, interactive exercises, an assignment, a multiple choice questionnaire, a quiz, a discussion or a case study for students via the use of multimedia tools such as VOIP, an instant messaging, email, online two way interactive whiteboards etc. This customized teaching service is most effective when voice, video, graphics, and text can all be used at the same time to make learning fun, highly interesting and relevant.
If you are looking forward to taking up an e-learning course but wonder if you have chosen the right e-learning site, so think before you choose…..
Online tutoring is a planned teaching/learning process, live and fully interactive one-on-one methodology by which knowledge is imparted using a wide spectrum of technologies, mainly Internet to reach learners at a distance. It is a tutoring portal working for all your educational needs and where a student can learn via the Internet with the help of a professional, subject matter expert. It makes use of several web-based programs to achieve its goals. Online tutoring is now becoming the best way for students to get extra help in perusing their study smoothly and is being preferred by both students and their parents Microsoft MCTS Training.
Online tutoring is a collaborative process, which facilitates the students to plan out their program according to their own preferences. Flexibility of timings is an added advantage. Online educational constructive approach, provides a pool of subject matter experts and imparts one to one real time learning, with peer interaction for every student at its self paced working methodology.
The main advantages of online learning are…
Working in a highly safe, efficient, result oriented environment and round the clock educational services are provided to your child for considerably improving his/her results with better understanding of the concerned subject. Online tutoring focuses on improving their existing capabilities in solving problems, doing their homework in less time and also emphasize on the weak areas of your child, working with utmost perfection to bring out the best in them. It also strives hard for the considerable improvement in results of your child and provide them an extra edge over the other students.This technology is tailored for offering quality online courses by tutors who are screened, qualified and ready to help your child get better grades, brush up their skills and provide them with flexibility of time to pursue other extracurricular activities at the same time for an all round development of your ward. Moreover, with online tutoring students can go at their own pace and from the comfort of their homes to learn anywhere and usually at any time Microsoft MCITP Certification.
Online learning process and its goals…
This real-time tutoring/teaching process offers learning scenarios, worksheets, interactive exercises, an assignment, a multiple choice questionnaire, a quiz, a discussion or a case study for students via the use of multimedia tools such as VOIP, an instant messaging, email, online two way interactive whiteboards etc. This customized teaching service is most effective when voice, video, graphics, and text can all be used at the same time to make learning fun, highly interesting and relevant.
If you are looking forward to taking up an e-learning course but wonder if you have chosen the right e-learning site, so think before you choose…..
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
How to Use Forums to Promote your Online Home Business
How to Use Forums to Promote your Online Home Business
If you plan to have a successful online home business, there is no better place in the world for you to hang out than the forums that the internet marketing gurus frequent.
There are numerous forums on the internet and it is important to spend time searching for the more highly respected ones, which are well managed with good moderators who maintain the standard of the forum by strictly enforcing the rules Microsoft MCTS Training.
In these forums you will find members share a common goal to make money on the Internet. As you start participating regularly in the forum, you will find yourself learning faster and earning more, guaranteed. Top forums are the stomping ground for the best online home business owners on the planet as well as the training ground for thousands of up and coming Internet marketers. They are a place to share ideas, find answers, make friends and develop partnerships. The top forums are an organic, always growing, support resource for your entire online home business. The only way to benefit from these forums is to experience them yourself.
Prior to actually joining a forum, spend sometime just browsing the forum and reading some posts to see that it actually suits your needs and that you feel comfortable in the environment. On joining a forum it is vital that you read the rules as you will find they do vary from forum to forum. Be sure to fill out your profile and most important be sure to complete the signature section, which will allow you to put the website details of your online home business, which will lead to back links, as postings get indexed by the search engines. The forum rules will dictate how many characters or lines or urls you can add.
Once you have joined a forum look for the category that invites you to introduce yourself and take advantage of this. Remember, you are not there to advertise your online home business, your signature will do that for you, simply tell the forum where you are from and a little about yourself. Then I would suggest that you read through some of the posts, get involved in some of the discussions and see if you can offer advice or help to some of the questions raised. Your main function in a forum is to contribute positively and constructively. You will find that by reading posts you will also learn so much as you will find advice and answers from the top gurus that you can use to promote your online home business. As you become more familiar with the surroundings you can then start new threads with questions of your own.
You can increase your presence on the internet very quickly by actively participating in a few forums and constructively posting 3 to 5 times a day in each forum. Spend time in the forums every day just browsing, reading through topics and responding to posts as desired Microsoft MCITP Certification.
Some forums have categories where you can submit your articles, do not ignore this if you have articles to submit because other members may select them to send to their lists. Also fellow members could be e-zine owners and they might just pick your article up for their newsletter. You may also find a category dedicated to discussion on all topics related to self-improvement. This most certainly fits into a money-making forum because power, energy and creativity translates into being able to make more money.
You may also find categories dedicated to joint ventures, free e-books, reciprocal links, special offers as well as off-topic forums where you can discuss anything.
The more you get involved, the more you will learn and the more you learn and apply, the more you will earn from your online home business!
If you plan to have a successful online home business, there is no better place in the world for you to hang out than the forums that the internet marketing gurus frequent.
There are numerous forums on the internet and it is important to spend time searching for the more highly respected ones, which are well managed with good moderators who maintain the standard of the forum by strictly enforcing the rules Microsoft MCTS Training.
In these forums you will find members share a common goal to make money on the Internet. As you start participating regularly in the forum, you will find yourself learning faster and earning more, guaranteed. Top forums are the stomping ground for the best online home business owners on the planet as well as the training ground for thousands of up and coming Internet marketers. They are a place to share ideas, find answers, make friends and develop partnerships. The top forums are an organic, always growing, support resource for your entire online home business. The only way to benefit from these forums is to experience them yourself.
Prior to actually joining a forum, spend sometime just browsing the forum and reading some posts to see that it actually suits your needs and that you feel comfortable in the environment. On joining a forum it is vital that you read the rules as you will find they do vary from forum to forum. Be sure to fill out your profile and most important be sure to complete the signature section, which will allow you to put the website details of your online home business, which will lead to back links, as postings get indexed by the search engines. The forum rules will dictate how many characters or lines or urls you can add.
Once you have joined a forum look for the category that invites you to introduce yourself and take advantage of this. Remember, you are not there to advertise your online home business, your signature will do that for you, simply tell the forum where you are from and a little about yourself. Then I would suggest that you read through some of the posts, get involved in some of the discussions and see if you can offer advice or help to some of the questions raised. Your main function in a forum is to contribute positively and constructively. You will find that by reading posts you will also learn so much as you will find advice and answers from the top gurus that you can use to promote your online home business. As you become more familiar with the surroundings you can then start new threads with questions of your own.
You can increase your presence on the internet very quickly by actively participating in a few forums and constructively posting 3 to 5 times a day in each forum. Spend time in the forums every day just browsing, reading through topics and responding to posts as desired Microsoft MCITP Certification.
Some forums have categories where you can submit your articles, do not ignore this if you have articles to submit because other members may select them to send to their lists. Also fellow members could be e-zine owners and they might just pick your article up for their newsletter. You may also find a category dedicated to discussion on all topics related to self-improvement. This most certainly fits into a money-making forum because power, energy and creativity translates into being able to make more money.
You may also find categories dedicated to joint ventures, free e-books, reciprocal links, special offers as well as off-topic forums where you can discuss anything.
The more you get involved, the more you will learn and the more you learn and apply, the more you will earn from your online home business!
Sunday, July 18, 2010
5 reasons why you should learn Microsoft Language
5 reasons why you should learn Microsoft Language
First, Microsoft Languageare the common languages that used in the programming world. Microsoft Language were the basic languages used to program, these are useful for talking to machines, creating more complex program. Such complex program needs direct access to the memory. Use of pointers to the memory, linked list will be more transparent to the programmers.
are the common languages that used in the programming world. Microsoft MCTS Training Language were the basic languages used to program, these are useful for talking to machines, creating more complex program. Such complex program needs direct access to the memory. Use of pointers to the memory, linked list will be more transparent to the programmers.
Second, Microsoft Language are faster than other Python counterpart, because Microsoft Language create executable binaries. On the contrary, other higher level languages usually create interpreted files. Interpreted files will need intermediary like virtual machine to execute and compile, which result in a slower processing time.
Third Microsoft Language is a good way to learn the object-oriented programming (OOP) skill. OOP is an important aspect for programmer to develop their first interactive program. OOP skill ensures the flexibility of the program. Such useable features are like inheritance, polymorphism.
Fourth, the existing system programming is mainly written in Microsoft Language For example, Linux kernel code is written using C. This is to consider the fact that C has its features like pointers, structs, linked lists which enhance the flexibility of the programming.
Fifth, Microsoft Language is the ideal solution to the large projects. Microsoft Languagecombines the low level language like C and some of the high level elements of python language Microsoft LanguageStandard Template Library also provides allocation of memory for integers, chars (characters) and strings and so on. Furthermore, Microsoft Language object orientation provides modularize feature that help and improve in debugging.
To conclude, there are numerous reasons that one should learn Microsoft MCITP Certification Language As a programmer, one should learn other languages so that they can explore the suitable languages used for programming.
First, Microsoft Languageare the common languages that used in the programming world. Microsoft Language were the basic languages used to program, these are useful for talking to machines, creating more complex program. Such complex program needs direct access to the memory. Use of pointers to the memory, linked list will be more transparent to the programmers.
are the common languages that used in the programming world. Microsoft MCTS Training Language were the basic languages used to program, these are useful for talking to machines, creating more complex program. Such complex program needs direct access to the memory. Use of pointers to the memory, linked list will be more transparent to the programmers.
Second, Microsoft Language are faster than other Python counterpart, because Microsoft Language create executable binaries. On the contrary, other higher level languages usually create interpreted files. Interpreted files will need intermediary like virtual machine to execute and compile, which result in a slower processing time.
Third Microsoft Language is a good way to learn the object-oriented programming (OOP) skill. OOP is an important aspect for programmer to develop their first interactive program. OOP skill ensures the flexibility of the program. Such useable features are like inheritance, polymorphism.
Fourth, the existing system programming is mainly written in Microsoft Language For example, Linux kernel code is written using C. This is to consider the fact that C has its features like pointers, structs, linked lists which enhance the flexibility of the programming.
Fifth, Microsoft Language is the ideal solution to the large projects. Microsoft Languagecombines the low level language like C and some of the high level elements of python language Microsoft LanguageStandard Template Library also provides allocation of memory for integers, chars (characters) and strings and so on. Furthermore, Microsoft Language object orientation provides modularize feature that help and improve in debugging.
To conclude, there are numerous reasons that one should learn Microsoft MCITP Certification Language As a programmer, one should learn other languages so that they can explore the suitable languages used for programming.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Dhirubhai Ambani Institute Clinches HP Innovate 2009 Awar
Dhirubhai Ambani Institute Clinches HP Innovate 2009 Award
HP recognises outstanding creative ideas of young engineering graduates in India.
Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology, Gandhinagar, has won the HP Innovate 2009 award for the technical paper on Ce-Pal - an infra red based remote control for cerebral palsy patients Microsoft MCTS Training.
The paper aims to assist spastic cerebral palsy patients in using electronic appliances like TV, tape recorder, laptop, PC or any other equipment operating at Infra Red frequency.
HP India Friday announced the winners of the second annual edition of 'HP Innovate 2009'. The award recognises and rewards outstanding creative ideas of young engineering graduates in India.
NIT Calicut was awarded the second prize for the paper on Image Processing while the third prize was won by Jaypee Institute of Information Technology University, Noida for the paper on Processor usage monitoring and management system.
The awards include HP Mini, tablet PCs and laptops for the teams that stood first, second and third, respectively. Additionally, the winning team along with their faculty guide will be invited to a fully sponsored visit to HP Labs, Palo Alto, USA and interact with eminent researchers there Microsoft MCITP Certification.
"Going by the tremendous response to the programme, there is a wealth of talent in India and this is an opportunity for the bright young minds to meet and interact with senior researchers from Labs and exchange ideas," said Dr. Vinnie Jauhari, region lead, India, HP Labs Open Innovation. "HP's Open Innovation Office emphasises HP's aim to help universities drive innovation and create new models of success for integrating technology into learning."
HP recognises outstanding creative ideas of young engineering graduates in India.
Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology, Gandhinagar, has won the HP Innovate 2009 award for the technical paper on Ce-Pal - an infra red based remote control for cerebral palsy patients Microsoft MCTS Training.
The paper aims to assist spastic cerebral palsy patients in using electronic appliances like TV, tape recorder, laptop, PC or any other equipment operating at Infra Red frequency.
HP India Friday announced the winners of the second annual edition of 'HP Innovate 2009'. The award recognises and rewards outstanding creative ideas of young engineering graduates in India.
NIT Calicut was awarded the second prize for the paper on Image Processing while the third prize was won by Jaypee Institute of Information Technology University, Noida for the paper on Processor usage monitoring and management system.
The awards include HP Mini, tablet PCs and laptops for the teams that stood first, second and third, respectively. Additionally, the winning team along with their faculty guide will be invited to a fully sponsored visit to HP Labs, Palo Alto, USA and interact with eminent researchers there Microsoft MCITP Certification.
"Going by the tremendous response to the programme, there is a wealth of talent in India and this is an opportunity for the bright young minds to meet and interact with senior researchers from Labs and exchange ideas," said Dr. Vinnie Jauhari, region lead, India, HP Labs Open Innovation. "HP's Open Innovation Office emphasises HP's aim to help universities drive innovation and create new models of success for integrating technology into learning."
Friday, July 16, 2010
Trends In Software Testing
Trends In Software Testing
As the complexity of software applications increases, testing becomes more crucial. And in the process, more time consuming. Here is a list of emerging testing practices.
Software is everywhere today and is becoming increasingly mission critical, whether in satellites and planes, or e-commerce websites. Software complexity is also on the rise - thanks to distributed, multi-tier applications targeting multiple devices (mobile, thin/thick clients, clouds, etc). Added to that are development methodologies like extreme programming and agile development. No wonder software testing professionals are finding it hard to keep up with the change.
As a result, many projects fail while the rest are completed significantly late, and provide only a subset of the originally planned functionality. Poorly tested software and buggy code cost corporations billions of dollars annually, and most defects are found by end users in production environments.
Given the magnitude of the problem, software-testing professionals are finding innovative means of keeping up - both in terms of tools and methodologies. This article covers some of the recent trends in software testing - and why they're making the headlines. Test driven development (TDD)
TDD is a software development technique that ensures your source code is thoroughly unit-tested as compared to traditional testing methodologies, where unit testing is recommended but not enforced. It combines test-first development (where you write a test before you write just enough code to fulfil that test), and refactoring (where, if the existing design isn't the best possible to enable you to implement a particular functionality, you improve it to enable the new feature).
TDD is not a new technique-but it is suddenly centre stage, thanks to the continued popularity of software development methodologies such as agile development and extreme programming.
Optimisations to TDD include the use of tools (such as PEX/peer exchange for Visual studio - http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/pex/ ) to improve code coverage, by creating parameterised unit tests that look for boundary conditions, exceptions, and assertion failures.
TDD is gaining popularity as it allows for incremental software development - where bugs are detected and fixed as soon as the code is written, rather than at the end of an iteration or a milestone.
For more details on TDD, use the following links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test-driven_development
http://www.agiledata.org/essays/tdd.html
Virtualisation testing
Testing is becoming increasingly complex - the test environment set-up, getting people access to the environment, and loading it with the right bits from development, all take up about 30-50 per cent of the total testing time in a typical organisation. What is worse is that when testers find bugs, it is hard to re-create the same environment for developers to investigate and fix bugs. Test organisations are increasingly gravitating towards virtualisation technologies to cut down test set-up times significantly. These technologies include:
* accelerate set-up/tear down and restoration of complex virtual environments to a clean state, improving machine utilisation
* eliminate no repro bugs by allowing developers to recreate complex environments easily
* improve quality by automating virtual machine provisioning, building deployment, and building verification testing in an integrated manner (details later)
As an offshoot, virtualisation ensures that test labs reduce their energy footprint, resulting in a positive environmental impact, as well as significant savings.
Some of the companies that have virtual test lab management solutions are VMware, VMLogix, and Surgient. Microsoft MCTS Training has recently announced a Lab Management (http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/VisualStudio/Lab-Management-coming-to-Visual-Studio-Team-System-2010/) product as part of its Visual Studio Team System 2010 release. Lab Management supports multiple environment management, snapshots to easily restore to a previous state, virtual network isolation to allow multiple test environments to run concurrently, and a workflow to allow developers to have easy access to environments to reproduce and fix defects.
Theresa Lanowitz, founder of Voke, a firm involved with analysis of trends in the IT world, expects virtualisation to become ‘the defining technology of the 21st century', with organisations of every size set to benefit from virtualisation as a part of its core infrastructure.
Continuous integration
CI is a trend that is rapidly being adopted in testing, where the team members integrate their work with the rest of the development team on a frequent basis by committing all changes to a central versioning system. Beyond maintaining a common code repository, other characteristics of a CI environment include build automation, auto-deployment of the build into a production-like environment, and ensuring a self-test mechanism such that at the very least, a minimal set of tests are run to confirm that the code behaves as expected.
Leveraging virtualised test environments, tools such as Microsoft MCITP Certification Visual Studio Team System (VSTS) can create sophisticated CI workflows. As soon as code is checked in, a build workflow kicks in that compiles the code - deploys it on to a virtualised test environment, triggers a set of unit and functional tests on the test environment, and reports on the results.
VSTS takes the build workflow one step further, and performs the build before the check-in is finalised, allowing the check-in to be aborted if it would cause a break, or if it fails the tests. And given historical code coverage data from test runs, the tool can identify which one of the several thousand test cases needs to be run when a new build comes out - significantly reducing the build validation time.
One obvious benefit of continuous integration is transparency. Failed builds and tests are found quickly rather than having to wait for the next build. The developer who checked in the offending code is probably still nearby and can quickly fix or roll back the change.
For a complete set of tools that help enable CI, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous_Integration.
Crowd testing
Crowd testing is a new and emerging trend in which, rather than relying on a dedicated team of testers (in-house or out sourced), companies rely on virtual test teams (created on demand) to get complete test coverage and reduce the time to market for their applications.
The company defines its test requirements in terms of scenarios, environments, and the type of testing (functional, performance, etc). A crowd test vendor (such as uTest - www.utest.com) identifies a pool of testers that meet the requirements, creates a project, and assigns work. Testers check the application, report bugs, and communicate with the company via an online portal. Crowd testing vendors also provide other tools, such as powerful reporting engines and test optimisation utilities. Some of the crowd testing vendors are domain specific - such as Mob4hire (www.mob4hire.com), which focuses on mobile application testing. Testers will bid on various projects specific to their handsets. Developers will choose the testers that they require, and will deploy test plans for the mobile application they are developing. On completion of the test, the mobile tester will get paid for the work.
One obvious advantage is in terms of reducing the test cycle time. But crowd testing is being used in various other scenarios as well - for example, to do usability studies on new user interfaces. The cost savings can be substantial.
Tools driven developer testing
Traditionally, developer testing was primarily limited to unit testing and some code coverage metrics. However, as organisations realised that the cost of defects found in development was exponentially lower than that found in test or production, they have begun to invest in tooling to enable developers to find bugs early on.
IDE-integrated tools have made the self-testing practice acceptable to developers, and the unit-testing and coverage analysis process automated for them. These tools also make it easy to analyse performance and compare it with a baseline by extending the unit test infrastructure.
Development teams are also expected to perform a level of security testing (threat modelling, buffer overflow, sequel injection, etc). For teams developing on native languages such as C/C++, developers are also required to use run-time analysis tools to check for memory leaks, memory corruptions and thread deadlocks. Developers are also using static analysis tools to find accessibility, localisation and globalisation issues -- and in some cases more sophisticated errors related to memory management and performance simulation -- by using data flow analysis and other techniques.
As a result of using these innovative methods, testers can now spend a lot more of their time on integration testing, stress, platform coverage, and end-to-end scenario testing. This will help them detect higher-level defects that would have otherwise trickled down to production.
As the complexity of software applications increases, testing becomes more crucial. And in the process, more time consuming. Here is a list of emerging testing practices.
Software is everywhere today and is becoming increasingly mission critical, whether in satellites and planes, or e-commerce websites. Software complexity is also on the rise - thanks to distributed, multi-tier applications targeting multiple devices (mobile, thin/thick clients, clouds, etc). Added to that are development methodologies like extreme programming and agile development. No wonder software testing professionals are finding it hard to keep up with the change.
As a result, many projects fail while the rest are completed significantly late, and provide only a subset of the originally planned functionality. Poorly tested software and buggy code cost corporations billions of dollars annually, and most defects are found by end users in production environments.
Given the magnitude of the problem, software-testing professionals are finding innovative means of keeping up - both in terms of tools and methodologies. This article covers some of the recent trends in software testing - and why they're making the headlines. Test driven development (TDD)
TDD is a software development technique that ensures your source code is thoroughly unit-tested as compared to traditional testing methodologies, where unit testing is recommended but not enforced. It combines test-first development (where you write a test before you write just enough code to fulfil that test), and refactoring (where, if the existing design isn't the best possible to enable you to implement a particular functionality, you improve it to enable the new feature).
TDD is not a new technique-but it is suddenly centre stage, thanks to the continued popularity of software development methodologies such as agile development and extreme programming.
Optimisations to TDD include the use of tools (such as PEX/peer exchange for Visual studio - http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/pex/ ) to improve code coverage, by creating parameterised unit tests that look for boundary conditions, exceptions, and assertion failures.
TDD is gaining popularity as it allows for incremental software development - where bugs are detected and fixed as soon as the code is written, rather than at the end of an iteration or a milestone.
For more details on TDD, use the following links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test-driven_development
http://www.agiledata.org/essays/tdd.html
Virtualisation testing
Testing is becoming increasingly complex - the test environment set-up, getting people access to the environment, and loading it with the right bits from development, all take up about 30-50 per cent of the total testing time in a typical organisation. What is worse is that when testers find bugs, it is hard to re-create the same environment for developers to investigate and fix bugs. Test organisations are increasingly gravitating towards virtualisation technologies to cut down test set-up times significantly. These technologies include:
* accelerate set-up/tear down and restoration of complex virtual environments to a clean state, improving machine utilisation
* eliminate no repro bugs by allowing developers to recreate complex environments easily
* improve quality by automating virtual machine provisioning, building deployment, and building verification testing in an integrated manner (details later)
As an offshoot, virtualisation ensures that test labs reduce their energy footprint, resulting in a positive environmental impact, as well as significant savings.
Some of the companies that have virtual test lab management solutions are VMware, VMLogix, and Surgient. Microsoft MCTS Training has recently announced a Lab Management (http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/VisualStudio/Lab-Management-coming-to-Visual-Studio-Team-System-2010/) product as part of its Visual Studio Team System 2010 release. Lab Management supports multiple environment management, snapshots to easily restore to a previous state, virtual network isolation to allow multiple test environments to run concurrently, and a workflow to allow developers to have easy access to environments to reproduce and fix defects.
Theresa Lanowitz, founder of Voke, a firm involved with analysis of trends in the IT world, expects virtualisation to become ‘the defining technology of the 21st century', with organisations of every size set to benefit from virtualisation as a part of its core infrastructure.
Continuous integration
CI is a trend that is rapidly being adopted in testing, where the team members integrate their work with the rest of the development team on a frequent basis by committing all changes to a central versioning system. Beyond maintaining a common code repository, other characteristics of a CI environment include build automation, auto-deployment of the build into a production-like environment, and ensuring a self-test mechanism such that at the very least, a minimal set of tests are run to confirm that the code behaves as expected.
Leveraging virtualised test environments, tools such as Microsoft MCITP Certification Visual Studio Team System (VSTS) can create sophisticated CI workflows. As soon as code is checked in, a build workflow kicks in that compiles the code - deploys it on to a virtualised test environment, triggers a set of unit and functional tests on the test environment, and reports on the results.
VSTS takes the build workflow one step further, and performs the build before the check-in is finalised, allowing the check-in to be aborted if it would cause a break, or if it fails the tests. And given historical code coverage data from test runs, the tool can identify which one of the several thousand test cases needs to be run when a new build comes out - significantly reducing the build validation time.
One obvious benefit of continuous integration is transparency. Failed builds and tests are found quickly rather than having to wait for the next build. The developer who checked in the offending code is probably still nearby and can quickly fix or roll back the change.
For a complete set of tools that help enable CI, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous_Integration.
Crowd testing
Crowd testing is a new and emerging trend in which, rather than relying on a dedicated team of testers (in-house or out sourced), companies rely on virtual test teams (created on demand) to get complete test coverage and reduce the time to market for their applications.
The company defines its test requirements in terms of scenarios, environments, and the type of testing (functional, performance, etc). A crowd test vendor (such as uTest - www.utest.com) identifies a pool of testers that meet the requirements, creates a project, and assigns work. Testers check the application, report bugs, and communicate with the company via an online portal. Crowd testing vendors also provide other tools, such as powerful reporting engines and test optimisation utilities. Some of the crowd testing vendors are domain specific - such as Mob4hire (www.mob4hire.com), which focuses on mobile application testing. Testers will bid on various projects specific to their handsets. Developers will choose the testers that they require, and will deploy test plans for the mobile application they are developing. On completion of the test, the mobile tester will get paid for the work.
One obvious advantage is in terms of reducing the test cycle time. But crowd testing is being used in various other scenarios as well - for example, to do usability studies on new user interfaces. The cost savings can be substantial.
Tools driven developer testing
Traditionally, developer testing was primarily limited to unit testing and some code coverage metrics. However, as organisations realised that the cost of defects found in development was exponentially lower than that found in test or production, they have begun to invest in tooling to enable developers to find bugs early on.
IDE-integrated tools have made the self-testing practice acceptable to developers, and the unit-testing and coverage analysis process automated for them. These tools also make it easy to analyse performance and compare it with a baseline by extending the unit test infrastructure.
Development teams are also expected to perform a level of security testing (threat modelling, buffer overflow, sequel injection, etc). For teams developing on native languages such as C/C++, developers are also required to use run-time analysis tools to check for memory leaks, memory corruptions and thread deadlocks. Developers are also using static analysis tools to find accessibility, localisation and globalisation issues -- and in some cases more sophisticated errors related to memory management and performance simulation -- by using data flow analysis and other techniques.
As a result of using these innovative methods, testers can now spend a lot more of their time on integration testing, stress, platform coverage, and end-to-end scenario testing. This will help them detect higher-level defects that would have otherwise trickled down to production.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Extended Support Begins for Windows XP and Continues Until 2014
Extended Support Begins for Windows XP and Continues Until 2014
Recently there has been a fair amount of press coverage regarding the end of Mainstream Support for Windows XP. Released at the tail end of 2001, Windows XP has been a solid hit in the marketplace and there has been some concern about what the move from Mainstream to Extended Support means for customers.
To be clear, Microsoft MCTS Training will continue to support Windows XP until 8 April 2014 – about five years from now. So what are the differences between Mainstream and Extended?
Microsoft divides support for Business and Developer products (including the Windows XP operating system) into two distinct timeframes: Mainstream Support and Extended Support. In a nutshell, Mainstream Support provides both consumers and enterprise customers with a full offering of support including complimentary support, design change requests, security updates and other kinds of updates for the product.
Extended Support does alter the range of support a bit, but for the vast majority of customers the essential core remains the same. For example, customers will continue to receive free security updates and can call in for paid support until the second Tuesday in April of 2014. Enterprise customers with Premier Support who may need non-security hotfixes should consider enrolling in an optional support program named Extended Hotfix Support (EHS). EHS is required by very few customers as the product has matured to the point where design changes are relatively infrequent. For more information on obtaining Extended Hotfix Support, enterprise customers should contact their Microsoft MCITP Certification account representative.
Customers who purchased Windows XP pre-installed on their machines will continue to receive support from the manufacturer of their PC (often called the Original Equipment Manufacturer or OEM). Each OEM determines how long they will support products pre-installed on their machines. Therefore, the April 14th transition from Mainstream to Extended Support is most relevant for customers who purchased Windows XP through retailers or volume licensing, a relatively small piece of the XP installed base.
Recommendations for users of Windows XP
* To receive support and security updates, you must be running on a supported product and on a supported service pack version. For Windows XP this is currently SP2 or SP3.
* Visit Windows Update regularly and confirm you have installed all available security updates. These are critical to keep your machine free from malware.
* Rest easy knowing that Microsoft will continue to support Windows XP for another five years!
Thanks for your continued questions and comments. More information on Microsoft’s support policies can also be found on the Microsoft Support Lifecycle website. At Microsoft, we value our customer’s experiences using our products and providing industry-leading support is just one aspect of that commitment.
Recently there has been a fair amount of press coverage regarding the end of Mainstream Support for Windows XP. Released at the tail end of 2001, Windows XP has been a solid hit in the marketplace and there has been some concern about what the move from Mainstream to Extended Support means for customers.
To be clear, Microsoft MCTS Training will continue to support Windows XP until 8 April 2014 – about five years from now. So what are the differences between Mainstream and Extended?
Microsoft divides support for Business and Developer products (including the Windows XP operating system) into two distinct timeframes: Mainstream Support and Extended Support. In a nutshell, Mainstream Support provides both consumers and enterprise customers with a full offering of support including complimentary support, design change requests, security updates and other kinds of updates for the product.
Extended Support does alter the range of support a bit, but for the vast majority of customers the essential core remains the same. For example, customers will continue to receive free security updates and can call in for paid support until the second Tuesday in April of 2014. Enterprise customers with Premier Support who may need non-security hotfixes should consider enrolling in an optional support program named Extended Hotfix Support (EHS). EHS is required by very few customers as the product has matured to the point where design changes are relatively infrequent. For more information on obtaining Extended Hotfix Support, enterprise customers should contact their Microsoft MCITP Certification account representative.
Customers who purchased Windows XP pre-installed on their machines will continue to receive support from the manufacturer of their PC (often called the Original Equipment Manufacturer or OEM). Each OEM determines how long they will support products pre-installed on their machines. Therefore, the April 14th transition from Mainstream to Extended Support is most relevant for customers who purchased Windows XP through retailers or volume licensing, a relatively small piece of the XP installed base.
Recommendations for users of Windows XP
* To receive support and security updates, you must be running on a supported product and on a supported service pack version. For Windows XP this is currently SP2 or SP3.
* Visit Windows Update regularly and confirm you have installed all available security updates. These are critical to keep your machine free from malware.
* Rest easy knowing that Microsoft will continue to support Windows XP for another five years!
Thanks for your continued questions and comments. More information on Microsoft’s support policies can also be found on the Microsoft Support Lifecycle website. At Microsoft, we value our customer’s experiences using our products and providing industry-leading support is just one aspect of that commitment.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Three Cheers To Socio-Technological Enterprises, Again
Three Cheers To Socio-Technological Enterprises, Again
Drishtee, and now Neurosynaptic Communications, have proved the worth of socio-technological entrepreneurship, and in the process slotted India among the tech pioneers of the world!
Last year we interviewed Satyan Mishra, managing director, Drishtee, when the World Economic Forum recognised the company as a Technology Pioneer. Drishtee is concerned with connecting rural India and setting up rural BPOs and, incidentally, is going great guns!
India has done well this year too--with Bangalore-based {quotes}Neurosynaptic Communications Pvt Ltd being selected as a Technology Pioneer 2008, for ReMeDi, its remote medical diagnostics solution. It is extremely interesting to note that Neurosynaptic, the only Indian company to get the award this year{/quotes}, also works in the socio-technological space, just like Drishtee Microsoft MCTS Training!
When Sameer Sawarkar and Rajeev Kumar realised that 80 per cent of the nation's healthcare professionals are in urban areas, while 70 per cent of the population resides in its villages, they decided to bridge this gap using technology. After all, not every villager can afford to travel to the nearest township to consult a general physician, let alone a specialist. So, they decided to take the water to the horse, rather than the other way around, and started Neurosynaptic Communications, in close association with IIT-Madras' TeNeT Group.
After painstaking research in labs and in the field, ReMeDi was born--a remote medical diagnostic solution that enabled doctors to videoconference with patients who came to 'see' them, through Internet centres set up in the villages. They could remotely view the output of probe-fitted medical equipment like stethoscopes and thermometers administered by local operators, store and analyse medical records online, as well as prescribe medicines. In all, it was almost as if the patient and doctor were sitting across a desk.
It was not all about technology though--the team had to build a viable business model that split up the healthcare delivery model into various levels, ranging from the doctor to the local Internet centre operator, to the pharmacist, and ensure that it was profitable enough for all of them to stay in business. Plus, they had to shatter entrenched cultural mindsets to enable people to accept a local operator as a healthcare practitioner!
ReMeDi is now being used in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, while also being piloted in other countries.
On inspiration, etc....
What inspired you to create a range of products (and a whole company, in fact) with the goal of empowering rural Indians and bringing down the digital barrier in our country?
Rajeev and I formed the company in 2002, when we thought there was a great opportunity in integrating electronics with biology. We were exploring some ideas then. We approached Prof Vijay Raghavan (director, National Centre for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research), and requested him to advise us. He introduced us to Prof Jhunjhunwala of IIT-Madras, and we were inspired by the huge amount of work TeNeT and Prof Jhunjhunwala had been doing in the rural areas.
We clearly saw that technology could create a huge impact in the rural areas, and change the way the world looks at rural healthcare today. Seventy per cent of the Indian population lives in the villages, but more than 80 per cent of healthcare providers are in the urban areas Microsoft MCITP Certification.
The rural population is mostly left to be treated by a range of village health practitioners - that too, only where available. People prefer private healthcare, and those who can afford it end up spending much more than their urban counterparts for quality healthcare. Also, diseases are detected much later, increasing the burden of healthcare to an unbearable extent. Tens of millions of people get pushed below the poverty line because of healthcare expenditures alone!
We realised that a great part of this problem could be addressed, if only we could make quality healthcare available to the rural population locally. There was a great need and opportunity, only waiting for the right solution--and we decided to commit ourselves to this opportunity.
As we moved ahead, we realised that along with the appropriate technologies that were missing, the processes and business models also needed to be created afresh. There are quite a few cultural and other aspects to it, too. We spent a lot of time in the field, understanding people's real needs.
Can you tell us about any barriers you faced while coming up with the ReMeDi range, and how did you overcome these?
Yes, we did face quite a lot of challenges, such as:
* Contending with poor rural connectivity and power conditions; this meant that our solution would have to work in such conditions, at a low bandwidth, etc.
* Building a viable business model for multiple parties, such as the healthcare providers, technology providers, operators, pharmacists, etc.
* Ensuring affordability and usefulness to the villagers.
* Making do with the available manpower in the face of a dearth of trained health workers--figuring out what kind of services could be provided with the available skillset, exploring the possibility of training, and ensuring easy usability of solutions.
* Understanding the complete experience of healthcare to build an end-to-end healthcare delivery solution, including drug delivery.
* Making telemedicine culturally acceptable as a mode of healthcare--after all, it is not easy for villagers to accept the operator as the healthcare provider!
* Addressing medico-legal aspects, including medicine storage/delivery/dispensing, validity of electronic prescriptions, special issues with primary healthcare--when the doctor is not present right next to the patient!
And a lot more!
Drishtee, and now Neurosynaptic Communications, have proved the worth of socio-technological entrepreneurship, and in the process slotted India among the tech pioneers of the world!
Last year we interviewed Satyan Mishra, managing director, Drishtee, when the World Economic Forum recognised the company as a Technology Pioneer. Drishtee is concerned with connecting rural India and setting up rural BPOs and, incidentally, is going great guns!
India has done well this year too--with Bangalore-based {quotes}Neurosynaptic Communications Pvt Ltd being selected as a Technology Pioneer 2008, for ReMeDi, its remote medical diagnostics solution. It is extremely interesting to note that Neurosynaptic, the only Indian company to get the award this year{/quotes}, also works in the socio-technological space, just like Drishtee Microsoft MCTS Training!
When Sameer Sawarkar and Rajeev Kumar realised that 80 per cent of the nation's healthcare professionals are in urban areas, while 70 per cent of the population resides in its villages, they decided to bridge this gap using technology. After all, not every villager can afford to travel to the nearest township to consult a general physician, let alone a specialist. So, they decided to take the water to the horse, rather than the other way around, and started Neurosynaptic Communications, in close association with IIT-Madras' TeNeT Group.
After painstaking research in labs and in the field, ReMeDi was born--a remote medical diagnostic solution that enabled doctors to videoconference with patients who came to 'see' them, through Internet centres set up in the villages. They could remotely view the output of probe-fitted medical equipment like stethoscopes and thermometers administered by local operators, store and analyse medical records online, as well as prescribe medicines. In all, it was almost as if the patient and doctor were sitting across a desk.
It was not all about technology though--the team had to build a viable business model that split up the healthcare delivery model into various levels, ranging from the doctor to the local Internet centre operator, to the pharmacist, and ensure that it was profitable enough for all of them to stay in business. Plus, they had to shatter entrenched cultural mindsets to enable people to accept a local operator as a healthcare practitioner!
ReMeDi is now being used in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, while also being piloted in other countries.
On inspiration, etc....
What inspired you to create a range of products (and a whole company, in fact) with the goal of empowering rural Indians and bringing down the digital barrier in our country?
Rajeev and I formed the company in 2002, when we thought there was a great opportunity in integrating electronics with biology. We were exploring some ideas then. We approached Prof Vijay Raghavan (director, National Centre for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research), and requested him to advise us. He introduced us to Prof Jhunjhunwala of IIT-Madras, and we were inspired by the huge amount of work TeNeT and Prof Jhunjhunwala had been doing in the rural areas.
We clearly saw that technology could create a huge impact in the rural areas, and change the way the world looks at rural healthcare today. Seventy per cent of the Indian population lives in the villages, but more than 80 per cent of healthcare providers are in the urban areas Microsoft MCITP Certification.
The rural population is mostly left to be treated by a range of village health practitioners - that too, only where available. People prefer private healthcare, and those who can afford it end up spending much more than their urban counterparts for quality healthcare. Also, diseases are detected much later, increasing the burden of healthcare to an unbearable extent. Tens of millions of people get pushed below the poverty line because of healthcare expenditures alone!
We realised that a great part of this problem could be addressed, if only we could make quality healthcare available to the rural population locally. There was a great need and opportunity, only waiting for the right solution--and we decided to commit ourselves to this opportunity.
As we moved ahead, we realised that along with the appropriate technologies that were missing, the processes and business models also needed to be created afresh. There are quite a few cultural and other aspects to it, too. We spent a lot of time in the field, understanding people's real needs.
Can you tell us about any barriers you faced while coming up with the ReMeDi range, and how did you overcome these?
Yes, we did face quite a lot of challenges, such as:
* Contending with poor rural connectivity and power conditions; this meant that our solution would have to work in such conditions, at a low bandwidth, etc.
* Building a viable business model for multiple parties, such as the healthcare providers, technology providers, operators, pharmacists, etc.
* Ensuring affordability and usefulness to the villagers.
* Making do with the available manpower in the face of a dearth of trained health workers--figuring out what kind of services could be provided with the available skillset, exploring the possibility of training, and ensuring easy usability of solutions.
* Understanding the complete experience of healthcare to build an end-to-end healthcare delivery solution, including drug delivery.
* Making telemedicine culturally acceptable as a mode of healthcare--after all, it is not easy for villagers to accept the operator as the healthcare provider!
* Addressing medico-legal aspects, including medicine storage/delivery/dispensing, validity of electronic prescriptions, special issues with primary healthcare--when the doctor is not present right next to the patient!
And a lot more!
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Be Certifiable! The Basics Of MCTS And MCITP
Be Certifiable! The Basics Of MCTS And MCITP
It is not always who you know, but what you know. That is why obtaining Microsoft certification can be a valuable asset to your career. Of course, it does depend on what career path you want to take as to whether you want to get either MCSE training or MCTS training or anything else for that matter. So what do those abbreviations MCTS And MCITP stand for anyway?
MCTS stands for Microsoft Certified Professional and MCSE is an abbreviation for Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer. What exactly does having a Microsoft certification mean anyway? We know that it looks good on a resume and opens new doors in your career. Did you know that being certifiable - in Microsoft anyway - sometimes will also boost your pay? Experience counts for a lot, but having a Microsoft certification or two does not hurt either!
So what does it take to be and MCTS or MCSE? Lots of studying! The MCTS courses and MCTS exams are geared toward a more rounded technical professional. Candidates for MCTS must pass one current certification test from Microsoft. Passing one of the exams demonstrates that the candidate has a consistent level of technical expertise.
With the Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer path, there are MCSE boot camps that help prepare candidates for the MCSE exams. These MCSE boot camps are intense classes often packed into a full two week period instead of the traditional weekly MCSE training classes in preparation for the MCSE exams. This path is more involved. MCSE certification is standard in the IT field and prepares you for anything from the design of a systems infrastructure to analyzing the companys needs before implementing a design.
Unlike those individuals who take the MCTS training to prepare for MCTS exams, students of MCSE have a course of study that is more intense. Instead of one test to prepare for, they have seven tests that they are required to pass to get their Microsoft certification. Yikes! Seven! They have five main exams to take as well as two electives. The five required MCSE exams are broken down into four operating system exams and one design exam. The two electives typically deal with other issues in design and implementation not covered in the five core tests.
After learning a few basics, it is easy to see that the MCTS or Microsoft Certified Professional is really just a stepping stone to bigger and greater things in the world of Microsoft certification. The individuals who go for the MCTS have a leg up on those peers who have no technical experience. They will have a better grasp on technical issues and usually stay a step ahead of trends. The MCITP Certification is more specialized and appeals to the techno geek with a penchant for design and implementation. They like knowing how stuff works. So market yourself and become certifiable!
It is not always who you know, but what you know. That is why obtaining Microsoft certification can be a valuable asset to your career. Of course, it does depend on what career path you want to take as to whether you want to get either MCSE training or MCTS training or anything else for that matter. So what do those abbreviations MCTS And MCITP stand for anyway?
MCTS stands for Microsoft Certified Professional and MCSE is an abbreviation for Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer. What exactly does having a Microsoft certification mean anyway? We know that it looks good on a resume and opens new doors in your career. Did you know that being certifiable - in Microsoft anyway - sometimes will also boost your pay? Experience counts for a lot, but having a Microsoft certification or two does not hurt either!
So what does it take to be and MCTS or MCSE? Lots of studying! The MCTS courses and MCTS exams are geared toward a more rounded technical professional. Candidates for MCTS must pass one current certification test from Microsoft. Passing one of the exams demonstrates that the candidate has a consistent level of technical expertise.
With the Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer path, there are MCSE boot camps that help prepare candidates for the MCSE exams. These MCSE boot camps are intense classes often packed into a full two week period instead of the traditional weekly MCSE training classes in preparation for the MCSE exams. This path is more involved. MCSE certification is standard in the IT field and prepares you for anything from the design of a systems infrastructure to analyzing the companys needs before implementing a design.
Unlike those individuals who take the MCTS training to prepare for MCTS exams, students of MCSE have a course of study that is more intense. Instead of one test to prepare for, they have seven tests that they are required to pass to get their Microsoft certification. Yikes! Seven! They have five main exams to take as well as two electives. The five required MCSE exams are broken down into four operating system exams and one design exam. The two electives typically deal with other issues in design and implementation not covered in the five core tests.
After learning a few basics, it is easy to see that the MCTS or Microsoft Certified Professional is really just a stepping stone to bigger and greater things in the world of Microsoft certification. The individuals who go for the MCTS have a leg up on those peers who have no technical experience. They will have a better grasp on technical issues and usually stay a step ahead of trends. The MCITP Certification is more specialized and appeals to the techno geek with a penchant for design and implementation. They like knowing how stuff works. So market yourself and become certifiable!
Monday, July 12, 2010
Microsoft MCTS Certification
Microsoft MCTS Certification
How can we help:
We (ready4exam.com) offer pass guaranteed MCTS Training, to assist you in passing the MCTS exam at first attempt. Our MCTS solutions are provided by our MCTS experts, who have over 20 years of MCTS instructional education experience. All our resources and efforts have pooled together to produce you a shortcut that will save you an incredible amount of time and effort. Complete the contact form below and receive free information on how your choice of MCTS certification is easily achieved. www.ready4exam.com
Service charge: $2400
Price includes one-on-one consultation charge until you get MCTS certified , unlimited exam retakes until you pass and any other expense until all the exams are passed. Additional, you are guaranteed a total reimbursement PLUS $500 if any exam is failed at first attempt.
Duration: 7 Days
From the very first beginning till the exam pass, you will not spend more time than the one given above. This is applicable to everyone, including those who are not good at taking exams and those who can not afford too much time per day.
Microsoft MCITP Certification Outline
Networking Systems
(1)Exam 70-290: Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment - 5 Interactive CD-ROMs, Microsoft Authorized MeasureUp ExamSim, Printable Courseware & more.
(2)Exam 70-291: Implementing, Managing, and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure - 5 Interactive CD-ROMs, Microsoft Authorized MeasureUp ExamSim, Printable Courseware & more.
(3) Exam 70-293: Planning and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure - 5 Interactive CD-ROMs, Microsoft Authorized MeasureUp ExamSim, Printable Courseware & more.
(4) Exam 70-294: Planning, Implementing, and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Active Directory Infrastructure - 5 Interactive CD-ROMs, Microsoft Authorized MeasureUp ExamSim, Printable Courseware & more.
MCTS Client Operating System
Exam 70-270: Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft Windows XP Professional - 5 Interactive CD-ROMs, Microsoft Authorized MeasureUp ExamSim, Printable Courseware & more.
MCTS Design
Exam 70-297: Designing a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Active Directory and Network Infrastructure - 3 Interactive CD-ROMs, Microsoft Authorized MeasureUp ExamSim, Printable Courseware & more
MCTS Elective
Exam 70-298: Designing Security for a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network - 3 Interactive CD-ROMs, Microsoft Authorized MeasureUp ExamSim, Printable Courseware & more.
How can we help:
We (ready4exam.com) offer pass guaranteed MCTS Training, to assist you in passing the MCTS exam at first attempt. Our MCTS solutions are provided by our MCTS experts, who have over 20 years of MCTS instructional education experience. All our resources and efforts have pooled together to produce you a shortcut that will save you an incredible amount of time and effort. Complete the contact form below and receive free information on how your choice of MCTS certification is easily achieved. www.ready4exam.com
Service charge: $2400
Price includes one-on-one consultation charge until you get MCTS certified , unlimited exam retakes until you pass and any other expense until all the exams are passed. Additional, you are guaranteed a total reimbursement PLUS $500 if any exam is failed at first attempt.
Duration: 7 Days
From the very first beginning till the exam pass, you will not spend more time than the one given above. This is applicable to everyone, including those who are not good at taking exams and those who can not afford too much time per day.
Microsoft MCITP Certification Outline
Networking Systems
(1)Exam 70-290: Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment - 5 Interactive CD-ROMs, Microsoft Authorized MeasureUp ExamSim, Printable Courseware & more.
(2)Exam 70-291: Implementing, Managing, and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure - 5 Interactive CD-ROMs, Microsoft Authorized MeasureUp ExamSim, Printable Courseware & more.
(3) Exam 70-293: Planning and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure - 5 Interactive CD-ROMs, Microsoft Authorized MeasureUp ExamSim, Printable Courseware & more.
(4) Exam 70-294: Planning, Implementing, and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Active Directory Infrastructure - 5 Interactive CD-ROMs, Microsoft Authorized MeasureUp ExamSim, Printable Courseware & more.
MCTS Client Operating System
Exam 70-270: Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft Windows XP Professional - 5 Interactive CD-ROMs, Microsoft Authorized MeasureUp ExamSim, Printable Courseware & more.
MCTS Design
Exam 70-297: Designing a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Active Directory and Network Infrastructure - 3 Interactive CD-ROMs, Microsoft Authorized MeasureUp ExamSim, Printable Courseware & more
MCTS Elective
Exam 70-298: Designing Security for a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network - 3 Interactive CD-ROMs, Microsoft Authorized MeasureUp ExamSim, Printable Courseware & more.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Microsoft Certification - Add One To Your Resume
Microsoft Certification - Add One To Your Resume
Add Microsoft Certification to your resume and see how it helps your career path. Microsoft has created numerous targeted certification programs. These certification programs do not just offer a new career option to those who are looking for a career, but also offer skills enhancement knowledge to those who are employed in various career fields.
So let us start our discussion with how different Microsoft Certification programs can help you in your job.
Software Application Developer
If you are a Software Application Developer, then you should think about adding MCAD (Microsoft Certified Application Developed) and MCPD (Microsoft Certified Professional Developer) certifications to your resume. MCPD will familiarize you with skills relating to software development on a variety of platforms using Microsoft NET Framework 2.0. MCAD will make you an expert in application lifecycle from development to maintenance.
Those who want to enhance their analyzing and designing skills should definitely opt for MCSD (Microsoft Certified Solution Developer). This will give you complete knowledge of the application lifecycle from analysis through design, testing, development and maintenance.
Systems Engineer
For Systems Engineer professionals, there are several Microsoft Certification courses. A MCSE or MCSA would always be an added advantage in your career path. MCSE will provide you with skills relating to analysis of business requirements and design and implementation of infrastructures.
IT Business Analysts
IT Business Analysts benefit greatly from MCP or MCSD certifications. You can start with an Office Specialist Certification, which will make you an expert in using Microsoft Office products. You can then go on to add MCP. MCSD would be the ultimate certification in your field, as it would cover the entire application lifecycle from analysis through design, testing, development and maintenance.
System Analysts
As a System Analyst, you would benefit from MCAD or MCSD certifications. MCAD will familiarize you with the application lifecycle from development to maintenance. However, if you really want to improve your career path, you should go for MCSD, which will teach you everything about the application lifecycle.
Software Engineers
There are MCSD and MCSE Microsoft Certification courses designed for Software Engineers. MCSD certification will equip you with skills relating to designing and developing using Microsoft development tools, technologies and platforms. MCTS Training with provide you with the skills to analyze, design and implement infrastructures.
Technical Writer, Office Manager, Executive Assistant
If you are employed as Office Manager, Technical Writer or Executive Assistant, Microsoft Office Specialist certification is the right one for you. This certification is ideal for those who use Microsoft Office products on a daily basis. Specialist, Expert and Master are the three levels of Microsoft Office certification. You can start at the Specialist level. As you become more and more proficient, you can take exams to reach the Master level.
Network Administrators
Microsoft also offers MCITP certification specifically designed for Network Administrators. Those who use Microsoft Windows and backoffice applications on a daily basis will now have the added knowledge to do the analysis, design and implementation of infrastructures, thanks to MSCE.
So irrespective of the field you are in, you can greatly benefit from all Microsoft certifications. First decide which certification will work the best for you and then proceed from there. These certifications will give you added skills to perform your job better. And this means a more productive career path. So find out which Microsoft Certification is ideal for you.
Add Microsoft Certification to your resume and see how it helps your career path. Microsoft has created numerous targeted certification programs. These certification programs do not just offer a new career option to those who are looking for a career, but also offer skills enhancement knowledge to those who are employed in various career fields.
So let us start our discussion with how different Microsoft Certification programs can help you in your job.
Software Application Developer
If you are a Software Application Developer, then you should think about adding MCAD (Microsoft Certified Application Developed) and MCPD (Microsoft Certified Professional Developer) certifications to your resume. MCPD will familiarize you with skills relating to software development on a variety of platforms using Microsoft NET Framework 2.0. MCAD will make you an expert in application lifecycle from development to maintenance.
Those who want to enhance their analyzing and designing skills should definitely opt for MCSD (Microsoft Certified Solution Developer). This will give you complete knowledge of the application lifecycle from analysis through design, testing, development and maintenance.
Systems Engineer
For Systems Engineer professionals, there are several Microsoft Certification courses. A MCSE or MCSA would always be an added advantage in your career path. MCSE will provide you with skills relating to analysis of business requirements and design and implementation of infrastructures.
IT Business Analysts
IT Business Analysts benefit greatly from MCP or MCSD certifications. You can start with an Office Specialist Certification, which will make you an expert in using Microsoft Office products. You can then go on to add MCP. MCSD would be the ultimate certification in your field, as it would cover the entire application lifecycle from analysis through design, testing, development and maintenance.
System Analysts
As a System Analyst, you would benefit from MCAD or MCSD certifications. MCAD will familiarize you with the application lifecycle from development to maintenance. However, if you really want to improve your career path, you should go for MCSD, which will teach you everything about the application lifecycle.
Software Engineers
There are MCSD and MCSE Microsoft Certification courses designed for Software Engineers. MCSD certification will equip you with skills relating to designing and developing using Microsoft development tools, technologies and platforms. MCTS Training with provide you with the skills to analyze, design and implement infrastructures.
Technical Writer, Office Manager, Executive Assistant
If you are employed as Office Manager, Technical Writer or Executive Assistant, Microsoft Office Specialist certification is the right one for you. This certification is ideal for those who use Microsoft Office products on a daily basis. Specialist, Expert and Master are the three levels of Microsoft Office certification. You can start at the Specialist level. As you become more and more proficient, you can take exams to reach the Master level.
Network Administrators
Microsoft also offers MCITP certification specifically designed for Network Administrators. Those who use Microsoft Windows and backoffice applications on a daily basis will now have the added knowledge to do the analysis, design and implementation of infrastructures, thanks to MSCE.
So irrespective of the field you are in, you can greatly benefit from all Microsoft certifications. First decide which certification will work the best for you and then proceed from there. These certifications will give you added skills to perform your job better. And this means a more productive career path. So find out which Microsoft Certification is ideal for you.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Microsoft MCITP Messaging Certification Oveview
Microsoft MCITP Messaging Certification Oveview
This complete learning package is a single source for authoritative preparation for Microsofts challenging MCITP Training exam on Windows XP Professional (70-270).
The authors present a systematic review of every key topic covered on the exam, including installation, administration, managing hardware, monitoring and optimizing system performance and reliability; configuring and troubleshooting the Windows XP desktop; managing and troubleshooting networking; optimizing security; and more. The authors are both Microsoft-certified Windows XP specialists and leading IT consultants, and all content in this book has been reviewed for both technical accuracy and clarity by a team of industry experts. The authors reinforce their comprehensive coverage with an extensive collection of exam tips, study strategies, and case studies; hands-on review exercises; guided practice exercises; summaries and review breaks in every
chapter; and a complete practice exam. The accompanying CD-ROM contains an extensive library of additional test questions, delivered via the proven testing software. It also contains a complete electronic copy of the book, enabling you to study anywhere you can bring a notebook computer.This is more than a Microsoft MCITP Certification 70-270 practice exam, this is a compilation of the actual questions and answers from the Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft Windows XP Professional test. Where our competitor's products provide a basic 70-270 practice test to prepare you for what may appear on the exam and prepare you for surprises, the Certkingdom 70-270 exam questions are complete, comprehensive and guarantees to prepare you for your Microsoft exam.
What will you get with your purchase of the Unlimited Access Package for reasonalbe price at : www.Certkingdom.com
This complete learning package is a single source for authoritative preparation for Microsofts challenging MCITP Training exam on Windows XP Professional (70-270).
The authors present a systematic review of every key topic covered on the exam, including installation, administration, managing hardware, monitoring and optimizing system performance and reliability; configuring and troubleshooting the Windows XP desktop; managing and troubleshooting networking; optimizing security; and more. The authors are both Microsoft-certified Windows XP specialists and leading IT consultants, and all content in this book has been reviewed for both technical accuracy and clarity by a team of industry experts. The authors reinforce their comprehensive coverage with an extensive collection of exam tips, study strategies, and case studies; hands-on review exercises; guided practice exercises; summaries and review breaks in every
chapter; and a complete practice exam. The accompanying CD-ROM contains an extensive library of additional test questions, delivered via the proven testing software. It also contains a complete electronic copy of the book, enabling you to study anywhere you can bring a notebook computer.This is more than a Microsoft MCITP Certification 70-270 practice exam, this is a compilation of the actual questions and answers from the Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft Windows XP Professional test. Where our competitor's products provide a basic 70-270 practice test to prepare you for what may appear on the exam and prepare you for surprises, the Certkingdom 70-270 exam questions are complete, comprehensive and guarantees to prepare you for your Microsoft exam.
What will you get with your purchase of the Unlimited Access Package for reasonalbe price at : www.Certkingdom.com
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Creatively Use Microsoft Excel To Organize Your Home And Family
Creatively Use Microsoft Excel To Organize Your Home And Family
Although Excel is often viewed as a business application, it is popular as a consumer product as well. People use it for everything from tracking their personal finances to logging their DVD collection.
Home users find taking a Microsoft MCTS Training Excel course enhances their understanding of the spreadsheet and opens new possibilities for using it to manage their own lives. As an example, let's examine how some of the techniques learned in Microsoft Excel courses can be applied to a diet and exercise program.
Tracking Weight
Sticking to a healthy routine is hard at first. You are overcoming years of bad habits. To maintain motivation you need results and the easiest way to see that is by monitoring weight loss. Tracking weight loss is simple. Each day weigh yourself and enter the data into Excel. Of course you could do this with pencil and paper, but Excel lets you do something with the data.
Using techniques from a Microsoft Excel course, you can create a moving average which makes it easier to see the trend. Most people can't really wrap their head around numbers, so adding a simple graph lets you watch the weight drop off over time.
Make this more sophisticated with other statistics such as daily loss or Body Mass Index. Over a long time you can spot seasonal trends, such as the dreaded Christmas bump. Techniques from advanced Microsoft Excel courses let you add VBA scripts to make data entry easier.
Count Your Calories
As you get more sophisticated you might add another sheet to your workbook where you keep a meal log. Each meal you jot down what you eat and you enter it into your Excel sheet as well as the calorie count of each item. Using lookup formulas, add columns to tally your calorie intake for each day.
You could add a food database so that rather than trying to remember how many calories is in a grilled chicken breast, the sheet can look it up and enter it for you. Some people like to add more detail like grams of fat, cholesterol, or nutrition information. The extra detail is nice, but if you make it too much work you'll stop doing it.
Add As Much As You Like
The beauty of a self-created application like this is you can make it whatever you want. Some people track exercise. Runners might enjoy keeping track of time and distance. Weight lifters document different exercises, weights, sets, and reps. Even a simple step like wearing a pedometer and monitoring how much you walk each day can inspire you to do more.
The best way to use a spreadsheet like this is to have it with you all the time. Some keep it on a thumb drive in their pocket. Others use their PDA to track it. Remember: you are creating an application to keep you motivated. Keep track of the information important to you and don't worry too much about the rest.
There are countless ways to use Microsoft MCITP Certification Excel to improve your daily life. From managing birthdays, to keeping track of receipts, to managing stock performance, to tracking your personal health record, Excel can be a powerful tool for helping you organize your life!
Although Excel is often viewed as a business application, it is popular as a consumer product as well. People use it for everything from tracking their personal finances to logging their DVD collection.
Home users find taking a Microsoft MCTS Training Excel course enhances their understanding of the spreadsheet and opens new possibilities for using it to manage their own lives. As an example, let's examine how some of the techniques learned in Microsoft Excel courses can be applied to a diet and exercise program.
Tracking Weight
Sticking to a healthy routine is hard at first. You are overcoming years of bad habits. To maintain motivation you need results and the easiest way to see that is by monitoring weight loss. Tracking weight loss is simple. Each day weigh yourself and enter the data into Excel. Of course you could do this with pencil and paper, but Excel lets you do something with the data.
Using techniques from a Microsoft Excel course, you can create a moving average which makes it easier to see the trend. Most people can't really wrap their head around numbers, so adding a simple graph lets you watch the weight drop off over time.
Make this more sophisticated with other statistics such as daily loss or Body Mass Index. Over a long time you can spot seasonal trends, such as the dreaded Christmas bump. Techniques from advanced Microsoft Excel courses let you add VBA scripts to make data entry easier.
Count Your Calories
As you get more sophisticated you might add another sheet to your workbook where you keep a meal log. Each meal you jot down what you eat and you enter it into your Excel sheet as well as the calorie count of each item. Using lookup formulas, add columns to tally your calorie intake for each day.
You could add a food database so that rather than trying to remember how many calories is in a grilled chicken breast, the sheet can look it up and enter it for you. Some people like to add more detail like grams of fat, cholesterol, or nutrition information. The extra detail is nice, but if you make it too much work you'll stop doing it.
Add As Much As You Like
The beauty of a self-created application like this is you can make it whatever you want. Some people track exercise. Runners might enjoy keeping track of time and distance. Weight lifters document different exercises, weights, sets, and reps. Even a simple step like wearing a pedometer and monitoring how much you walk each day can inspire you to do more.
The best way to use a spreadsheet like this is to have it with you all the time. Some keep it on a thumb drive in their pocket. Others use their PDA to track it. Remember: you are creating an application to keep you motivated. Keep track of the information important to you and don't worry too much about the rest.
There are countless ways to use Microsoft MCITP Certification Excel to improve your daily life. From managing birthdays, to keeping track of receipts, to managing stock performance, to tracking your personal health record, Excel can be a powerful tool for helping you organize your life!
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Microsoft Access Database: Presenting The Most Preferred Desktop Database System
Microsoft Access Database: Presenting The Most Preferred Desktop Database System
As you know, there are different types of databases and when it comes to desktop database system, Microsoft Access database is without doubt the most preferred across the globe. It is also one of best-selling desktop database systems. And this database comes with Microsoft Office Professional suite of business products. As such, you can also buy computers in which comes with this suite so that you need not install the product additionally. And since Microsoft is software giant whose domination is simply overwhelming, any product from Microsoft will be supported by your system in the future. And Microsoft will continue to improve the database in the coming years. Another reason to prefer Microsoft MCTS Training Access is its ease of use. Since an overwhelming majority of the computers uses Microsoft operating system and other products from this software giant, familiarizing with Access will not be a problem. In fact, you will find it easy to use and user-friendly.
Well, there are other advantages of using Access database other than being a product of Microsoft. One of these is its cost-effectiveness. As this database is available as a package with other software solutions from Microsoft, you actually end up saving some bucks. Nevertheless, this product can be integrated easily with Microsoft Office. This means the end users can benefit. Not only this, Access databases are cheaper to implement in comparison to other database systems including SQL Server and Oracle. Also, it requires lesser maintenance cost which also adds up to its cost-effectiveness. Moreover, the consulting rate of Access is lower, again in comparison with Oracle and SQL Server consultants.
Access also has functional benefits. This database is a multi-user. Multiple users can access this database simultaneously. Another benefit is that Microsoft MCITP Certification Access Software is scalable. This means you can upgrade this software to meet your time defined requirements. And this software in itself is getting better with each new version launched. And you can bank on Microsoft for improved versions in the future.
Database software developers also prefer Microsoft Access due to its low development cost. Alpha Software, a leading database developer, offers all kinds of database software development at the most competitive rates.
As you know, there are different types of databases and when it comes to desktop database system, Microsoft Access database is without doubt the most preferred across the globe. It is also one of best-selling desktop database systems. And this database comes with Microsoft Office Professional suite of business products. As such, you can also buy computers in which comes with this suite so that you need not install the product additionally. And since Microsoft is software giant whose domination is simply overwhelming, any product from Microsoft will be supported by your system in the future. And Microsoft will continue to improve the database in the coming years. Another reason to prefer Microsoft MCTS Training Access is its ease of use. Since an overwhelming majority of the computers uses Microsoft operating system and other products from this software giant, familiarizing with Access will not be a problem. In fact, you will find it easy to use and user-friendly.
Well, there are other advantages of using Access database other than being a product of Microsoft. One of these is its cost-effectiveness. As this database is available as a package with other software solutions from Microsoft, you actually end up saving some bucks. Nevertheless, this product can be integrated easily with Microsoft Office. This means the end users can benefit. Not only this, Access databases are cheaper to implement in comparison to other database systems including SQL Server and Oracle. Also, it requires lesser maintenance cost which also adds up to its cost-effectiveness. Moreover, the consulting rate of Access is lower, again in comparison with Oracle and SQL Server consultants.
Access also has functional benefits. This database is a multi-user. Multiple users can access this database simultaneously. Another benefit is that Microsoft MCITP Certification Access Software is scalable. This means you can upgrade this software to meet your time defined requirements. And this software in itself is getting better with each new version launched. And you can bank on Microsoft for improved versions in the future.
Database software developers also prefer Microsoft Access due to its low development cost. Alpha Software, a leading database developer, offers all kinds of database software development at the most competitive rates.
Monday, July 5, 2010
How To Fix A Word Document Which Doesn't Open
How To Fix A Word Document Which Doesn't Open
Microsoft Word is, undoubtedly, the leading word processor for both beginners and advanced professionals alike. The feature-rich application lets you create, format and modify all types of documents. But, what if one of your important Word documents refuses to load one day. Such a situation can be encountered too often if you are a regular user of this Microsoft MCTS Training application. If you are unable to open a Word document, do not panic. The ideal way to tackle the problem is taking a step-by-step approach. A Word document might not open due to various issues which could range from permission problems to file sharing problems to corruption. Among all other issues, corruption is one scenario which would send the alarm bells ringing in your mind as it would involve the risk of grave data loss. Again, such situations can be handled by following various Word recovery strategies.
Here is a list of troubleshooting steps which you can consider for retrieving data from an inaccessible Word document:
Look for networking issues
If a Word document is stored in a network environment, and someone else has opened a Word document, which you are trying to access, you won't succeed. MS Word locks files on a network which prevents them from being edited or modified by more than one user simultaneously. The Word would display a message informing that the file is opened somewhere else.
The other network related issues can relate to the permissions set to a Word document. Though, you might have accessed a Word document previously on a network, if its user's permissions are changed, you might not be able to modify a document or use it properly. In such situations, you can check the permission rights.
Problem could also relate to Word or computer
If you are not able to open a document, it won't necessarily be an issue with the file. The problem could either be with the Word version installed or your system. In order to isolate these issues, you can first try opening other Word documents, if they work fine then it becomes concrete that there is no problem with the Word version.
You must open the file on another workstation, this way you will find out whether it is a problem with a specific Word file or your system.
Recovering a Word document
If you are still not able to ward off the issues with a particular Word file, try the following Word repair steps as suggested by
Microsoft MCITP Certification:
Open the document in draft mode without updating links
Insert the document as a file in a new document
Use a file converter to recover text
Open the file in WordPad
Use third-party software
If everything else fails, you must download a reliable third-party Word recovery software from the Internet. Such tools employ improved scanning algorithms to extract data from a corrupt Word document and are less time consuming.
Microsoft Word is, undoubtedly, the leading word processor for both beginners and advanced professionals alike. The feature-rich application lets you create, format and modify all types of documents. But, what if one of your important Word documents refuses to load one day. Such a situation can be encountered too often if you are a regular user of this Microsoft MCTS Training application. If you are unable to open a Word document, do not panic. The ideal way to tackle the problem is taking a step-by-step approach. A Word document might not open due to various issues which could range from permission problems to file sharing problems to corruption. Among all other issues, corruption is one scenario which would send the alarm bells ringing in your mind as it would involve the risk of grave data loss. Again, such situations can be handled by following various Word recovery strategies.
Here is a list of troubleshooting steps which you can consider for retrieving data from an inaccessible Word document:
Look for networking issues
If a Word document is stored in a network environment, and someone else has opened a Word document, which you are trying to access, you won't succeed. MS Word locks files on a network which prevents them from being edited or modified by more than one user simultaneously. The Word would display a message informing that the file is opened somewhere else.
The other network related issues can relate to the permissions set to a Word document. Though, you might have accessed a Word document previously on a network, if its user's permissions are changed, you might not be able to modify a document or use it properly. In such situations, you can check the permission rights.
Problem could also relate to Word or computer
If you are not able to open a document, it won't necessarily be an issue with the file. The problem could either be with the Word version installed or your system. In order to isolate these issues, you can first try opening other Word documents, if they work fine then it becomes concrete that there is no problem with the Word version.
You must open the file on another workstation, this way you will find out whether it is a problem with a specific Word file or your system.
Recovering a Word document
If you are still not able to ward off the issues with a particular Word file, try the following Word repair steps as suggested by
Microsoft MCITP Certification:
Open the document in draft mode without updating links
Insert the document as a file in a new document
Use a file converter to recover text
Open the file in WordPad
Use third-party software
If everything else fails, you must download a reliable third-party Word recovery software from the Internet. Such tools employ improved scanning algorithms to extract data from a corrupt Word document and are less time consuming.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
My Certifications Plans
My Certificaions Plans
I wrote the exam I was dreading the most, 70-297. It is an exam which has multiple case studies and you only have a short amount of time to read, and answer each one. I got pressed for time on the first case study, but after that, I learned to skim over some of the reading material and was quicker at getting through the case studies. Thankfully I passed and I am happy to have it out of the way. With that one complete, the finishes the MCTS Training on Windows Server 2003. I started that journey back in June of 2006, which I passed 70-290 using both a 50% off coupon and the second shot. That was a sweet deal, its too bad they don’t do that anymore. You can get the second shot again but not the deep discount.
Now that I have finished up my MSCE on Windows Server 2003, I have been thinking about which exams to write next. I know both Brad and Garth are wondering, so here goes. I am writing 70-646 (MCITP Certification: Server Admin) next to achieve some more teachable courses for Windows Server 2008. After that exam, the short list is MCITP: Enterprise Admin, MCITP: Enterprise Messaging (Exchange 2007), Server Virtualization, Vista and Office Deployment, and Office Communications Server with the order of the short list undetermined.
I wrote the exam I was dreading the most, 70-297. It is an exam which has multiple case studies and you only have a short amount of time to read, and answer each one. I got pressed for time on the first case study, but after that, I learned to skim over some of the reading material and was quicker at getting through the case studies. Thankfully I passed and I am happy to have it out of the way. With that one complete, the finishes the MCTS Training on Windows Server 2003. I started that journey back in June of 2006, which I passed 70-290 using both a 50% off coupon and the second shot. That was a sweet deal, its too bad they don’t do that anymore. You can get the second shot again but not the deep discount.
Now that I have finished up my MSCE on Windows Server 2003, I have been thinking about which exams to write next. I know both Brad and Garth are wondering, so here goes. I am writing 70-646 (MCITP Certification: Server Admin) next to achieve some more teachable courses for Windows Server 2008. After that exam, the short list is MCITP: Enterprise Admin, MCITP: Enterprise Messaging (Exchange 2007), Server Virtualization, Vista and Office Deployment, and Office Communications Server with the order of the short list undetermined.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Three Screams and a Clod
Three Screams and a Clod
Last week, I wrote a deliberately provocative commentary, "Kickin' It In The Cloud," in which I described how Google's cloud computing mindshare vastly outperforms the company's cloud computing revenues. Put more succinctly, close to 99 percent of the almost $24 billion in revenues Google posted in 2009 is tied directly to advertising revenue on search results. This makes complaints about Microsoft's inability to expand beyond its core products seems somewhat humorous by comparison Microsoft MCTS Training.
Last week's reality check shouldn't obscure one simple fact, however. The future of computing is very clearly in the cloud—just ask Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who spent last week explaining that to the nation's top CEOs. Although Google has yet to establish a financially successful cloud computing product to rival the software dynasties Microsoft owns, Google's advertising revenues are hefty enough to finance numerous projects for decades to come. Like the Microsoft of 15 years ago, Google can keep trying and trying until it establishes a beachhead, all while keeping less well-funded competitors at bay. And my expectation is that, left unchecked, it will be successful at doing so.
Not coincidentally, Google held its third annual Google I/O conference this past week. Like Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference (PDC) and Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), this developer-oriented show provides a revealing glimpse at where the company's platforms are heading. Google I/O 2010 was fascinating for a number of reasons, but for me it provided an interesting look at how Google views the world and how its competitors—Microsoft among them—can hope to beat back this seemingly unstoppable force. Here are the major business-oriented product and technology announcements Google made during this show, and how I feel Microsoft is positioned from a competitive standpoint.
Open Standards
Since its products are essentially all web-based, Google makes a big deal out of the open nature of the technologies underlying these products. And to its credit, Google does open source many of its technologies, effectively losing control of them in the process. With that said, the proprietary versus open source debate has been done to death. It's as hard to imagine a world of only open-source technologies as it is to imagine the reverse. The point is that proprietary and open-source technologies will continue to coexist going forward. Google gets that, even though the company doesn't point it out very often. I don't recall Google open sourcing its advertising engine. Just a thought Microsoft MCITP Certification.
In a bid to position Google as the future, Google vice president of engineering Vic Gundotra—a former Microsoft executive, by the way—noted that "the web is the most important platform of our generation." His aim was also to position Microsoft as the past. But come on, there's no reason Microsoft can't extend its traditional software product lines successfully to the cloud. And I'd argue that decades of experience in the traditional software market will only help Microsoft as it moves ahead to yet another platform. Google's occasional support of open source isn't going to prevent that.
Last week, I wrote a deliberately provocative commentary, "Kickin' It In The Cloud," in which I described how Google's cloud computing mindshare vastly outperforms the company's cloud computing revenues. Put more succinctly, close to 99 percent of the almost $24 billion in revenues Google posted in 2009 is tied directly to advertising revenue on search results. This makes complaints about Microsoft's inability to expand beyond its core products seems somewhat humorous by comparison Microsoft MCTS Training.
Last week's reality check shouldn't obscure one simple fact, however. The future of computing is very clearly in the cloud—just ask Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who spent last week explaining that to the nation's top CEOs. Although Google has yet to establish a financially successful cloud computing product to rival the software dynasties Microsoft owns, Google's advertising revenues are hefty enough to finance numerous projects for decades to come. Like the Microsoft of 15 years ago, Google can keep trying and trying until it establishes a beachhead, all while keeping less well-funded competitors at bay. And my expectation is that, left unchecked, it will be successful at doing so.
Not coincidentally, Google held its third annual Google I/O conference this past week. Like Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference (PDC) and Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), this developer-oriented show provides a revealing glimpse at where the company's platforms are heading. Google I/O 2010 was fascinating for a number of reasons, but for me it provided an interesting look at how Google views the world and how its competitors—Microsoft among them—can hope to beat back this seemingly unstoppable force. Here are the major business-oriented product and technology announcements Google made during this show, and how I feel Microsoft is positioned from a competitive standpoint.
Open Standards
Since its products are essentially all web-based, Google makes a big deal out of the open nature of the technologies underlying these products. And to its credit, Google does open source many of its technologies, effectively losing control of them in the process. With that said, the proprietary versus open source debate has been done to death. It's as hard to imagine a world of only open-source technologies as it is to imagine the reverse. The point is that proprietary and open-source technologies will continue to coexist going forward. Google gets that, even though the company doesn't point it out very often. I don't recall Google open sourcing its advertising engine. Just a thought Microsoft MCITP Certification.
In a bid to position Google as the future, Google vice president of engineering Vic Gundotra—a former Microsoft executive, by the way—noted that "the web is the most important platform of our generation." His aim was also to position Microsoft as the past. But come on, there's no reason Microsoft can't extend its traditional software product lines successfully to the cloud. And I'd argue that decades of experience in the traditional software market will only help Microsoft as it moves ahead to yet another platform. Google's occasional support of open source isn't going to prevent that.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Hyper-V Live Migration: A Step-by-Step Guide
Hyper-V Live Migration: A Step-by-Step Guide
The Create Cluster wizard automatically selects the storage for your quorum, but it doesn’t always choose the quorum drive that you want. You can check and change the quorum configuration by right-clicking the name of the cluster in the Failover Cluster Management console, then selecting More Actions, Configure Cluster Quorum Settings from the context menu. This displays the Select Quorum Configuration dialog box. A wizard automatically chooses the best quorum type, depending mainly on the number of nodes in the cluster. In my two-node cluster, it selected the Node and Disk Majority quorum type Microsoft MCTS Training.
Next, the Configure Storage Witness dialog box is displayed. Here I changed the original value to the Q drive that I wanted to use as the quorum by selecting a check box. Clicking Next saves the cluster quorum changes. If you would like to know more about configuring Windows Server 2008 R2 failover clustering, the Windows IT Pro website has articles and FAQs that can help; you can start with “4 Failover Clustering Hassles and How to Avoid Them,” InstantDoc ID 103534.
Enabling Cluster Shared Volumes
The next step in cluster configuration is to enable Cluster Shared Volumes. The Cluster Shared Volumes feature lets multiple cluster nodes simultaneously access the shared storage locations, but it’s not enabled by default. To do so, use the Failover Cluster Management console and right-click the name of the cluster at the top of the navigation pane, then select Enable Cluster Shared Volumes from the context menu. This displays the summary pane for Cluster Shared Volumes, which initially is blank.
To select a shared storage location to be used by Cluster Shared Volumes, click the Add Storage option in the Action pane. This displays the Add Storage dialog box. The storage for Cluster Shared Volumes has to be visible to the cluster and it can’t be used for other purposes. Select the box next to the storage location you want to use. I selected the V drive, which is actually a LUN on the LeftHand Networks SAN. Click OK to enable Cluster Shared Volumes for that drive. This also results in the creation of a mount point on all the cluster nodes. By default, the mount point is labeled C:\ClusterStorage\Volume1.
Creating VMs on Cluster Shared Volumes
At this point, failover clustering is configured on all the nodes in the cluster and the Cluster Shared Volumes feature has been enabled, allowing all of the nodes to simultaneously access the storage. The next step is to create VMs that can take advantage of this infrastructure. Hyper-V VMs can be created using either the Hyper-V Manager or System Center Virtual Machine Manager. To create a new VM using Hyper-V Manager, click the Administrative Tools, Hyper-V Manager option at the Start menu, then select New from the Action pane to start the New Virtual Machine wizard. Figure 5 shows the dialog box you will see, labeled Specify Name and Location Microsoft MCITP Certification.
In Figure 5, you can see that the VM will be named vWS08-SQL01. Also note that the value for the VM location has been set to the Cluster Shared Volumes mount point: C:\ClusterStorage\Volume1. This causes the VM configuration files to be created on the shared storage.
Click Next to assign RAM to the VM. Click Next again to select the network connection for the VM. Assigning a network for the VM is optional. However, if you do select an external network, be sure that the external network connection is named the same on all of your Hyper-V nodes. In my case, I used the external network name of External Virtual Network on all of my Hyper-V cluster nodes.
Click Next to display the Connect Virtual Hard Disk dialog box. Here, again, it’s important to create the VHD files on the Cluster Shared Volumes storage. Initially, the dialog displays the Hyper-V Manager default values for name and location. I used the value of vWS08-SQL01.vhd for the VHD file and changed the location to C:\ClusterStorage\Volume1. Click Next to specify the guest OS installation options. All guest OSs including Linux can take advantage of live migration. The rest of the process for creating a VM is exactly like creating a normal VM.
When you complete the New Virtual Machine wizard, the VM will be created on the Cluster Shared Volumes storage. The next step is to start the VM and install the guest OS and the application that you want to run on the VM.
Enabling VMs for Live Migration
Open the Failover Cluster Management console, then navigate to the Services and Applications node under the cluster name and right-click to display the context menu. Select Configure Service or Application to start the High Availability wizard. On the Select Service or Application dialog box, select Virtual Machine from the list of services displayed, then click Next. This displays the Select Virtual Machine dialog box.
Scroll though the list of VMs until you find the one you want to enable for live migration. I selected the VM vWS08-SQL01 created earlier. The VM can’t be running while you perform this operation—it must be in the Off or Saved state.
Select the check box in front of the VM name, then click Next until you complete the wizard. A confirmation screen is displayed and the summary dialog box reports the status. If you see “Success” in the description, then the VM has been successfully enabled for live migration. If not, you need to review the VM properties and make sure all of the VM assets can be accessed on all of the nodes in the cluster.
Ready, Set, Migrate!
That’s all there is to configuring the Hyper-V live migration environment. At this point, you can initiate a live migration using the Failover Cluster Manager. To start a live migration, expand the Services and Applications node, then select the VM node displayed beneath it. This displays the summary pane, which shows the VMs that have been enabled for clustering, along with their current status, which Figure 6 shows.
In Figure 6, you can see that VM vWS08-SQL01 is currently running and that the current owner is node WS08R2-S1. To initiate a live migration, go to the Action pane and select the Live migrate virtual machine option shown in the upper third portion of the Action pane. A menu flyout prompts you for the name of the target node. In this example, the menu flyout shows 1 – Live migrate to node WS08R2-S2. Clicking this option starts the live migration. The summary window is updated with the status of the running live migration.
The running status is displayed until the live migration finishes. The length of time it takes to complete depends on the size and activity of the VM, as well as the speed and activity of the network connection between the Hyper-V host systems. Typically, my network live migrations take between about 10 seconds and a minute. When the live migration has been completed, the summary pane is redisplayed and the Current Owner value is updated with the name of the target node.
The Virtual Promised Land
Live migration addresses the issues of planned host downtime and lays the foundation for the dynamic datacenter. Although there are quite a few steps in the process, if you carefully navigate the critical points in the process, you will reach the promised land of Hyper-V live migration.
The Create Cluster wizard automatically selects the storage for your quorum, but it doesn’t always choose the quorum drive that you want. You can check and change the quorum configuration by right-clicking the name of the cluster in the Failover Cluster Management console, then selecting More Actions, Configure Cluster Quorum Settings from the context menu. This displays the Select Quorum Configuration dialog box. A wizard automatically chooses the best quorum type, depending mainly on the number of nodes in the cluster. In my two-node cluster, it selected the Node and Disk Majority quorum type Microsoft MCTS Training.
Next, the Configure Storage Witness dialog box is displayed. Here I changed the original value to the Q drive that I wanted to use as the quorum by selecting a check box. Clicking Next saves the cluster quorum changes. If you would like to know more about configuring Windows Server 2008 R2 failover clustering, the Windows IT Pro website has articles and FAQs that can help; you can start with “4 Failover Clustering Hassles and How to Avoid Them,” InstantDoc ID 103534.
Enabling Cluster Shared Volumes
The next step in cluster configuration is to enable Cluster Shared Volumes. The Cluster Shared Volumes feature lets multiple cluster nodes simultaneously access the shared storage locations, but it’s not enabled by default. To do so, use the Failover Cluster Management console and right-click the name of the cluster at the top of the navigation pane, then select Enable Cluster Shared Volumes from the context menu. This displays the summary pane for Cluster Shared Volumes, which initially is blank.
To select a shared storage location to be used by Cluster Shared Volumes, click the Add Storage option in the Action pane. This displays the Add Storage dialog box. The storage for Cluster Shared Volumes has to be visible to the cluster and it can’t be used for other purposes. Select the box next to the storage location you want to use. I selected the V drive, which is actually a LUN on the LeftHand Networks SAN. Click OK to enable Cluster Shared Volumes for that drive. This also results in the creation of a mount point on all the cluster nodes. By default, the mount point is labeled C:\ClusterStorage\Volume1.
Creating VMs on Cluster Shared Volumes
At this point, failover clustering is configured on all the nodes in the cluster and the Cluster Shared Volumes feature has been enabled, allowing all of the nodes to simultaneously access the storage. The next step is to create VMs that can take advantage of this infrastructure. Hyper-V VMs can be created using either the Hyper-V Manager or System Center Virtual Machine Manager. To create a new VM using Hyper-V Manager, click the Administrative Tools, Hyper-V Manager option at the Start menu, then select New from the Action pane to start the New Virtual Machine wizard. Figure 5 shows the dialog box you will see, labeled Specify Name and Location Microsoft MCITP Certification.
In Figure 5, you can see that the VM will be named vWS08-SQL01. Also note that the value for the VM location has been set to the Cluster Shared Volumes mount point: C:\ClusterStorage\Volume1. This causes the VM configuration files to be created on the shared storage.
Click Next to assign RAM to the VM. Click Next again to select the network connection for the VM. Assigning a network for the VM is optional. However, if you do select an external network, be sure that the external network connection is named the same on all of your Hyper-V nodes. In my case, I used the external network name of External Virtual Network on all of my Hyper-V cluster nodes.
Click Next to display the Connect Virtual Hard Disk dialog box. Here, again, it’s important to create the VHD files on the Cluster Shared Volumes storage. Initially, the dialog displays the Hyper-V Manager default values for name and location. I used the value of vWS08-SQL01.vhd for the VHD file and changed the location to C:\ClusterStorage\Volume1. Click Next to specify the guest OS installation options. All guest OSs including Linux can take advantage of live migration. The rest of the process for creating a VM is exactly like creating a normal VM.
When you complete the New Virtual Machine wizard, the VM will be created on the Cluster Shared Volumes storage. The next step is to start the VM and install the guest OS and the application that you want to run on the VM.
Enabling VMs for Live Migration
Open the Failover Cluster Management console, then navigate to the Services and Applications node under the cluster name and right-click to display the context menu. Select Configure Service or Application to start the High Availability wizard. On the Select Service or Application dialog box, select Virtual Machine from the list of services displayed, then click Next. This displays the Select Virtual Machine dialog box.
Scroll though the list of VMs until you find the one you want to enable for live migration. I selected the VM vWS08-SQL01 created earlier. The VM can’t be running while you perform this operation—it must be in the Off or Saved state.
Select the check box in front of the VM name, then click Next until you complete the wizard. A confirmation screen is displayed and the summary dialog box reports the status. If you see “Success” in the description, then the VM has been successfully enabled for live migration. If not, you need to review the VM properties and make sure all of the VM assets can be accessed on all of the nodes in the cluster.
Ready, Set, Migrate!
That’s all there is to configuring the Hyper-V live migration environment. At this point, you can initiate a live migration using the Failover Cluster Manager. To start a live migration, expand the Services and Applications node, then select the VM node displayed beneath it. This displays the summary pane, which shows the VMs that have been enabled for clustering, along with their current status, which Figure 6 shows.
In Figure 6, you can see that VM vWS08-SQL01 is currently running and that the current owner is node WS08R2-S1. To initiate a live migration, go to the Action pane and select the Live migrate virtual machine option shown in the upper third portion of the Action pane. A menu flyout prompts you for the name of the target node. In this example, the menu flyout shows 1 – Live migrate to node WS08R2-S2. Clicking this option starts the live migration. The summary window is updated with the status of the running live migration.
The running status is displayed until the live migration finishes. The length of time it takes to complete depends on the size and activity of the VM, as well as the speed and activity of the network connection between the Hyper-V host systems. Typically, my network live migrations take between about 10 seconds and a minute. When the live migration has been completed, the summary pane is redisplayed and the Current Owner value is updated with the name of the target node.
The Virtual Promised Land
Live migration addresses the issues of planned host downtime and lays the foundation for the dynamic datacenter. Although there are quite a few steps in the process, if you carefully navigate the critical points in the process, you will reach the promised land of Hyper-V live migration.
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