Posted by Rich Rodgers on Thu, Mar 11, 2010 @ 03:59 PM
For high-tech workers, it pays to be certified, according to research conducted by Dice Learning that shows 10 IT certifications stand out for delivering higher salaries.
"Not all certifications are created equal in terms of paycheck impact. While nearly half of all technology professionals have at least one certification, a minority attributed pay increases to certification," said Evan Lesser, director of Dice Learning, which offers technical training and information about certifications and career advancement, in a statement. "When you combine in-demand skill sets and proven salary impact, specific certifications become valuable to individual technology professionals."
Dice Learning used responses from some 17,000 high-tech professionals to determine which technical skills and IT certifications deliver more compensation and helped workers command higher salaries. For instance, IT pros certified as a Project Management Professional could demand more pay on the job and unemployed workers might find more open positions. According to Dice Learning, there are currently 1,400 available jobs on Dice.com with PMP certification listed as a requirement.
It's a particularly important job today, when companies are beginning to resurrect projects they'd shelved during the downturn, but want them completed as cost-efficiently and quickly as possible," according to a Dice Learning press release.
Other certifications helping IT pros increase their compensation are vendor specific. Microsoft Certified Systems Engineers (MCSE), Microsoft Certified Professionals (MCP) and Microsoft Certified Systems Administrators (MCSA) all landed on the list, showing that high-tech workers who can prove they are adept at Microsoft systems and associated skills will be in demand. For instance, Dice.com has 1,000 jobs listing a MSCE as a requirement.
"Sought by systems engineers, technical support engineers, systems analysts, network analysts and technical consultants, the MCSE is for professionals who spend their time maintaining the basic platforms on which so much business is conducted," Dice Learning states.
IT professionals trained as Cisco Certified Network Associates (CCNA) are also seeing bigger paychecks, according to this research. Having the "ability to install, configure, run and troubleshoot medium-sized routed and switched networks" is paying off for CCNAs, who by getting this IT certification also prove they can handle security and wireless technologies as well as a number of network protocols. Dice.com lists more than 650 available job opportunities requesting CCNA skills.
The Network + certification also landed on Dice Learning's list, which covers managing, maintaining, troubleshooting, installing and configuring basic network infrastructure. Offered by the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA), the Network + certification is also often included in programs by vendors such as Microsoft, Cisco, Novell and HP. The A + certification, also from CompTIA, is often associated with technical support professionals and shows an IT pro can install networks and conduct preventative maintenance, as well as secure and troubleshoot networks.
Security certifications such as Security + from CompTIA and Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) also deliver higher pay, according to Dice Learning, which states "security is a growing concern for businesses around the world." For CISSP holders, Dice.com currently lists 750 open positions.
Process skills could also mean more money, according to this research. ITIL certifications show IT professionals have studied the best practices and can apply them to an employer's IT service management efforts.
"The three-tier ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) certification demonstrates the expertise of professionals in tech management. Public and private organizations use the ITIL as a compendium of IT operational best practices," according to Dice Learning.
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/031010-microsoft-cisco-salaries.html?hpg1=bn
CED Solutions provides Microsoft certifications and Cisco certifications for many thousands of students each year. CED Solutions is #1 in Microsoft certifications in North America.
www.cedsolutions.com, info@cedsolutions.com, (800) 611-1840
Posted by Rich Rodgers on Wed, Feb 24, 2010 @ 10:21 AM
CED Solutions Challenge Coin Collection From Our Students
THE STORY OF U.S. MARINES IN THE PACIFIC THEATER OF WORLD WAR II DEBUTS MARCH 14 ON HBO
Directed By Carl Franklin, David Nutter, Jeremy Podeswa, Tony To, Tim Van Patten And Graham Yost; Written By Laurence Andries, Michelle Ashford, Bruce C. McKenna, George Pelecanos, Robert Schenkkan And Graham Yost.
"It is not a history, and it is not my story alone. I have attempted, rather, to be the spokesman for my comrades, who were swept with me into the abyss of war." Eugene B. Sledge, With the Old Breed
The epic ten-part miniseries event THE PACIFIC debuts with Part One on SUNDAY, MARCH 14 (9:00-10:00 p.m. ET/PT), followed by other parts debuting on consecutive Sundays at the same time through May 16.
The HBO Miniseries presentation of a Playtone and DreamWorks production is executive produced by Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and Gary Goetzman, the producing team behind the Emmy(R) Award-winning and Golden Globe-winning 2001 HBO miniseries "Band of Brothers." Hanks and Goetzman also executive produced the HBO miniseries "John Adams," which won a record-breaking 13 Emmys(R) in 2008.
THE PACIFIC tracks the intertwined real-life journeys of three U.S. Marines Robert Leckie (James Badge Dale), Eugene Sledge (Joe Mazzello) and John Basilone (Jon Seda) across the vast canvas of the Pacific Theater during World War II. The miniseries follows these men and their fellow Marines from their first battle with the Japanese on Guadalcanal, through the rain forests of Cape Gloucester and the strongholds of Peleliu, across the bloody sands of Iwo Jima and through the horror of Okinawa, and finally to their triumphant but uneasy return home after V-J Day.
The miniseries is based in part on the books "Helmet for My Pillow," by Robert Leckie, and "With the Old Breed," by Eugene B. Sledge, with additional material from "Red Blood, Black Sand," by Chuck Tatum, and "China Marine," by Eugene B. Sledge, as well as original interviews conducted by the filmmakers.
THE PACIFIC is an HBO Miniseries presentation of a Playtone and DreamWorks Production; executive producers, Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, Gary Goetzman; co-executive producers, Tony To, Eugene Kelly, Graham Yost, Bruce C. McKenna; producers, Cherylanne Martin, Todd London, Steven Shareshian; co-producers, Robert Schenkkan, George Pelecanos, Michelle Ashford; supervising producer, Tim Van Patten; directors of photography, Remi Adefarasin, B.S.C. and Stephen Windon, A.C.S.; production designer, Anthony Pratt; music by Hans Zimmer, Geoff Zanelli and Blake Neely; music supervisors, Evyen J Klean, Deva Anderson; casting, Meg Liberman, CSA, Cami Patton, C.S.A, Christine King; editors, Alan Cody, A.C.E., Edward A. Warschilka, Marta Evry, A.C.E.; visual effects supervisor, John E. Sullivan; special effects supervisor, Joss Williams; costume designer, Penny Rose; historical consultant, Hugh Ambrose; senior military advisor, Capt. Dale A. Dye, USMC (Ret.). HBO Miniseries president Kary Antholis is the executive in charge of the production.
Parts One, Seven and Nine are directed by Tim Van Patten (HBO's "The Sopranos"); Part Two is directed by David Nutter (HBO's "Entourage"); Parts Three and Ten are directed by Jeremy Podeswa (HBO's "Six Feet Under"); Part Four is directed by Graham Yost (HBO's "Band of Brothers"); Part Five is directed by Carl Franklin("Devil in a Blue Dress"); Part Six is directed by Tony To (HBO's "Band of Brothers"); and Part Eight is directed by David Nutter/Jeremy Podeswa.
Parts One, Two, Seven and Nine are written by Bruce C. McKenna (HBO's "Band of Brothers"); Part Three is written by George Pelecanos (HBO's "The Wire") and Michelle Ashford (HBO's "John Adams"); Part Four is written by Robert Schenkkan ("The Quiet American") and Graham Yost; Part Five is written by Laurence Andries (HBO's "Six Feet Under") and Bruce C. McKenna; Part Six is written by Bruce C. McKenna and Laurence Andries and Robert Schenkkan; Part Eight is written by Robert Schenkkan and Michelle Ashford; and Part Ten is written by Bruce C. McKenna and Robert Schenkkan.
In addition to James Badge Dale ("Rubicon"), Joe Mazzello ("The Sensation of Sight") and Jon Seda ("Close to Home"), actors featured in THE PACIFIC include (in alphabetical order): Jon Bernthal ("Eastwick"), Joshua Bitton ("National Treasure"), Dwight Braswell, Betty Buckley (HBO's "Oz"), Tom Budge ("Last Train to Freo"), Josh Close ("The Unusuals"), Nate Corddry ("United States of Tara"), Matt Craven ("Public Enemies"), Linda Cropper ("McLeod's Daughters"), Caroline Dhavernas ("Breach"), Noel Fisher ("The Riches"), Brendan Fletcher ("88 Minutes"), Leon Willem Ford (HBO's "Tsunami: The Aftermath"), Scott Gibson ("Breach"), Josh Helman ("McLeod's Daughters"), Ashton Holmes ("Smart People"), Brandon Keener ("He's Just Not That Into You"), Isabel Lucas ("Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen"), Rami Malek ("Night at the Museum"), Martin McCann ("Closing the Ring"), Ian Meadows ("Home and Away"), Toby Leonard Moore ("Dollhouse"), Henry Nixon ("The Black Balloon"), Keith Nobbs ("The Black Donnellys"), Conor O'Farrell ("C.S.I."), Annie Parisse ("Law & Order"), Jacob Pitts ("21"), William Sadler ("The Shawshank Redemption"), Gary Sweet ("Police Rescue"), Anna Torv ("Fringe"), Claire van der Boom ("Rush") and Dylan Young ("Canal Road").
Principal photography for THE PACIFIC was completed on location in Australia's Far North Queensland and Victoria over a ten-month period beginning in August 2007.
ABOUT THE STORY
On Dec. 8, 1941, just over 24 hours after the Japanese surprise attack on the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Congress issued a formal declaration of war against the Empire of Japan. For a decade, tensions had been mounting between Japan and the U.S., as the Japanese expanded their conquest of a large region including much of China and Southeast Asia. As a result of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the United States officially entered World War II, already in its third year of being waged by countries of the Allied powers, including the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, China, Canada and Australia, against the Axis powers of Japan, Germany and Italy.
Practically overnight, military recruiting offices across the country were jammed, as thousands of Americans rushed to enlist in the armed forces. Many of those young men chose to join the Marine Corps, which saw its ranks more than triple in the six months following Pearl Harbor.
While HBO's miniseries "Band of Brothers" followed the experiences of one company of Army paratroopers in the European Theater of Operations, THE PACIFIC depicts the war a world away in the Pacific Theater of Operations, which encompassed most of the Pacific Ocean and its islands, including the Philippines, the Netherlands East Indies, New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. This miniseries follows the intersecting odysseys of three men of the 1st Marine Division, an infantry division nicknamed "The Old Breed" for its position as the oldest and largest active duty division of the U.S. Marine Corps. With the support of their fellow Marines and comrades in the Navy, Air Force and Army, the 1st Marine Division was at the forefront of many of hardest-fought campaigns of the Pacific War.
Private First Class (PFC) Robert Leckie (played by James Badge Dale) grew up in Rutherford, NJ, one of eight children. He began a professional sportswriting career for the Bergen Evening Record newspaper at age 16. Leckie, who would be christened "Lucky" by his comrades in arms, was one of those who enlisted in the Marine Corps just after Pearl Harbor. He served with H Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division as a machine gunner.
Sgt. John Basilone (played by Jon Seda) was raised in Raritan, NJ, one of ten children of Italian immigrant parents. In 1934, at age 18, Basilone enlisted in the U.S. Army and served three years in the Philippines, where he was a champion boxer. After a brief return to New Jersey, Basilone enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1940 and was a machine gunner with C Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, and later with the B Company, 1st Battalion, 27th Marine Regiment, 5th Marine Division.
Born to a privileged family in Mobile, Ala., PFC Eugene B. Sledge (played by Joe Mazzello) had relatives on both sides of his family who fought for the Confederacy. Sledge was the son of a physician who was a medical officer during the First World War; he had turned 18 just one month before the U.S. entered the war, but a heart condition kept him from enlisting until Dec. 1942. Although his family urged him to train as an officer, Sledge ultimately joined as an enlisted man and served with K Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division as a mortarman.
Over the span of ten hours, THE PACIFIC takes an unflinching "under the helmet" look at the experiences of these men and their brothers in arms, each of whom finds himself fighting for his life on faraway specks of land they had never heard of Guadalcanal, Cape Gloucester, Peleliu, Iwo Jima, Okinawa. Forced to endure extreme deprivation and a debilitating climate, while fighting a brutal enemy who would rather die than consider surrender, these Marines are driven to the brink of their humanity.
THE PACIFIC depicts these battles physical, mental and emotional as it explores the true human cost of war.
CED Solutions supports our Armed Forces and our returning veterans and offers the free tuition 12-day online Microsoft Office Suite of Word, Excel, Access, and PowerPoint course to service members returning from "In country." Contact lhamil@cedsolutions.com for more information.
CED Solutions is #1 in Microsoft Certifications in North America.
www.cedsolutions.com, info@cedsolutions.com, (800) 611-1840
Posted by Rich Rodgers on Tue, Feb 23, 2010 @ 10:22 AM
More than one million people are actively using Google Wave, the search engine's real-time collaboration platform, to work together on various projects. Collaborative debate Website Debatewise.org used Wave recently to let 1,000 people from more than 130 countries debate issues arising from the Copenhagen climate change conference. Caroline Dahllöf and Carolyn Uy, founders of application development outfit Lyn And Line, use Google Wave to create educational story applications. Forrester Research analyst Ted Schadler said Forrester is working on a session on Wave as an example of next-generation collaboration tools for distributed teams for its next IT Forum. More than one million people are actively using Google Wave, the search engine's real-time collaboration platform, to work together on various projects.
Google periodically publishes use cases for Wave. While these prove quite different in nature, they're all linked by a common thread: collaboration among multiple people or co-workers to achieve common objectives.
Co-workers are using Wave to instant message each other, share files and documents and edit each other's work, all in real time. Users can even play back Wave content and interactions.
Collaborative debate Website Debatewise.org used Wave recently to let 1,000 people from more than 130 countries debate issues arising from the Copenhagen climate change conference. This Global Youth Panel used Wave to debate climate change, sharing links and other content.
To do this in a manageable fashion, Debatewise.org founder David Crane said the panel created one index wave containing links to all the debates, each of which had its own set of sub-waves, one for each point making up the debate.
To get debaters to write summaries of the discussion in the first Wave blip, Crane and his colleagues exercised a little social engineering by leaving notes in a blip saying "Part of point added to the summary," to publicly pat participants on the back. Wave's design, real-time communication and playback feature enabled this to work.
"I'm a huge believer in collective intelligence and think these tools give Google Wave significant advantages over a traditional wiki for bringing new participants into the fold," Crane said. "As a result, we had healthy, live debates on a global scale, giving a voice to youth around the planet in an international forum, and have learned what to do next time."
Caroline Dahllöf and Carolyn Uy, founders of application development outfit Lyn And Line, use Google Wave to create educational story applications, such as The Rescue of Ginger. Ginger, targeted for children between the ages of 2 and 5, is available on smartphones based on the Google Android and Apple iPhone platforms.
Colleagues Dahllöf and Uy live more than 5,000 miles apart with a time difference of nine hours. While one is sleeping, the other is working, leaving messages and source code in Google Wave for the other to see at her convenience. Moreover, they use multiple waves to compartmentalize their workflows.
Dahllöf and Uy said they use a wave to work on source code changes together; one for tracking bugs, a wave for storyboarding, where they add, edit, or comment on each other's ideas. They have a separate wave for people they need to contact.
"The beauty of this organization is that every morning, we can look at our inboxes and get a quick overview of what the other person has been doing," Dahllöf and Uy said. "Because Google Wave notifies us when there is a change, there is no need for an extra e-mail summarizing what has happened.... Having all of our conversations in different waves has made it easy for us to stay informed despite the distance and time difference."
Dennis Elliot, the Web manager at Clear Channel Radio in Greensboro, N.C., said he created a wave called Big Game Home Invasion, an on air and online promotion involving two clients that required input from sales people, the sales manager, the station program director, the station promotions director, the online content coordinator and himself.
"Without a Wave, we would have had to resort to numerous back and forth e-mails, sending graphics files to each other for approval, having people go from office to office to see updates and answer questions and lots of time tracking people down by phone
. Instead, we did the entire project in Wave in just a fraction of the amount of time it would normally have taken," Elliot said.
So there are people using Wave for collaboration beyond just, the "OK, I'm here now what the heck do I do with it" reaction some consumers ascribe to the platform.
Forrester Research analyst Ted Schadler told eWEEK he doesn't discount the early use cases, adding that Forrester is working on a session on Wave as an example of next-generation collaboration tools for distributed teams for its next IT Forum.
"Wave is still in the 'what's it good for?' stage," Schadler added. "But it's a classic c&e problem [chicken & egg]. It's only disappointing, though, in the context of the big bang with which they launched it and it was received."
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Messaging-and-Collaboration/Google-Wave-Used-For-Disparate-Collaboration-Cases-804873/?kc=EWKNLEAU02232010STR2
CED Solutions is #1 in Microsoft training in North America. Microsoft SharePoint collaboration software training and Microsoft Office Suite collaboration software training is available in classroom and through Remote Classroom Training and distance learning.
www.cedsolutions.com, info@cedsolutions.com, (800) 611-1840
Posted by Rich Rodgers on Fri, Feb 19, 2010 @ 02:14 PM
The Cisco CCSP Certification now requires CCNA Security as a prerequisite course. These courses may now be taken at the warm Ft Lauderdale training center of the Institute of Professional Learning. The Cisco CCSP Certification encompasses the four courses of Securing Networks with Cisco Routers and Switches (SNRS); Securing Networks with ASA Foundation (SNAF); Securing Networks with ASA Advanced (SNAA); and Securing Networks Using Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS).
The Cisco CCNA Security is required prior to attending the above courses. Both courses may be taken back-to-back for a total of 15 days of training.
Cisco Certified Network Associate Security (CCNA® Security) validates associate-level knowledge and skills required to secure Cisco networks. With a CCNA Security certification, a network professional demonstrates the skills required to develop a security infrastructure, recognize threats and vulnerabilities to networks, and mitigate security threats. The CCNA Security curriculum emphasizes core security technologies, the installation, troubleshooting and monitoring of network devices to maintain integrity, confidentiality and availability of data and devices, and competency in the technologies that Cisco uses in its security structure.
Cisco Certified Security Professional (CCSP®) validates advanced knowledge and skills required to secure Cisco networks. With a CCSP certification, a network professional demonstrates the skills required to secure and manage network infrastructures to protect productivity, mitigate threats, and reduce costs. The CCSP curriculum emphasizes Cisco Router IOS (ISR) and Catalyst Switch security features, Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA), secure VPN connectivity, Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS), Cisco Security Agent (CSA), Security Enterprise and Device Management, Network Admission Control (NAC) as well as techniques to optimize these technologies in a single, integrated network security solution. In addition, CCSP leverages the new CCNA Security certification as a prerequisite.
The CCNA Security and the CCSP combined are 15 days in length with the next dates of March 1st to March 16th in Ft Lauderdale. The price of the course including roundtrip airfare, lodging, breakfast and lunch, snacks and refreshments, Cisco Authorized Course Materials, practice exams, and all certification exams is $9,995.
Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA®) validates the ability to install, configure, operate, and troubleshoot medium-size route and switched networks, including implementation and verification of connections to remote sites in a WAN. CCNA curriculum includes basic mitigation of security threats, introduction to wireless networking concepts and terminology, and performance-based skills. This new curriculum also includes (but is not limited to) the use of these protocols: IP, Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP), Serial Line Interface Protocol Frame Relay, Routing Information Protocol Version 2 (RIPv2),VLANs, Ethernet, access control lists (ACLs).
The Cisco CCNA Certification Boot Camp is also available in Atlanta. The Cisco CCNA Boot Camp training has two parts, CCENT and the completion of CCNA. CCNA Boot Camps are 7 days in length and include roundtrip airfare, lodging, breakfast and lunch, snacks and refreshments, Cisco Authorized Course Materials, practice exams, and all certifications for $4,495.
The Institute of Professional Learning has outstanding instructors and staff and is located in a Class A building in Ft Lauderdale.
www.iplearning.net, (800) 611-1840, info@iplearning.net
Posted by Rich Rodgers on Thu, Feb 18, 2010 @ 10:21 AM
3G broadband
Sure, it's not as good as it could be. And the competing mix of standards-as in UMTS/EvDO (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System/Evolution Data Optimized)-creates compatibility problems. But it wasn't that long ago that one could get Internet access only by finding a Wi-Fi hot spot or plugging in an Ethernet cable. With 3G broadband, smartphones, netbooks, laptops and even mobile offices can get pretty good Internet access pretty much anywhere.
802.11g
The first generation of wireless networking technologies were cool.And if you were just accessing Internet content, they seemed plenty fast. But you could forget about sending large files to other systems on the same wireless network. 802.11g made wireless usable for most networking tasks and helped boost the spread of Wi-Fi to offices, homes, parks and hotels around the world.
AJAX
It seemed simple at first-just a set of scripts and standards technologies that were already around for building Web applications.But the mix of technologies that make up AJAX launched a Web revolution, making it possible to build attractive and interactive Web-based GUIs that didn't require extra plug-ins or extensions and that worked well in most modern Web browsers.
Amazon EC2
Probably the first real iteration of a cloud-computing platform, Amazon.com's Elastic Compute Cloud is still one of the most popular.Making it simple for anyone to throw a virtual server machine onto Amazon.com's powerful server platform, EC2 changed what it meant to own a server or even run a business: A large number of new businesses don't even own server hardware-their entire operations run on EC2.
AMD64
At the beginning of the decade, general-purpose 64-bit computing wasn't looking promising. Intel's Itanium architecture was proving difficult to implement and was generally seen as a disappointment.Instead of taking Intel's rewrite approach, Advanced Micro Devices built its 64-bit platform on existing processor technology, and pushed 64-bit processors into the mainstream.
BlackBerry
You have to admit that if a product gets compared with a highly addictive drug, it must be a huge success. The CrackBerry, er, BlackBerry quickly became a must-have mobile device, and it's still pretty much the mobile device of choice for business users. By making it easy to stay connected anywhere, the BlackBerry certainly boosted productivity (and probably ruined more than a few vacations).
Blade servers
Blade servers have become so commonplace that it's easy to forget how stunning it was to see an entire server room of systems reduced to a single rack.
Bluetooth
It can be easy to think of Bluetooth as a failure, especially if one looks at its early promises. But then consider all of the wires and cables you aren't using anymore, and you come to appreciate the accomplishments of Bluetooth.
Firefox
Just a few years ago, the future of the Web and the browser looked bleak. Internet Explorer dominated the market, and Microsoft wasn't interested in browser innovation. But when Mozilla released Firefox, we finally got real browser choice and innovation. Firefox reignited the browser wars, and today we have more competition and choice in browsers than ever before.
Gmail/Google Apps
Sure, Web-based mail and other applications existed before Gmail and Google Apps. But none offered the features, convenience and reliability that Google did. Now, entire businesses are running using only Google's Web-based e-mail and productivity applications.
iPhone/iPod
It was called the Jesus Phone. And while that moniker was definitely hyperbolic, it's not hype to say that Apple's iPhone completely changed the smartphone market. And many of these changes probably wouldn't have come about if the iPod hadn't set the stage for the iPhone's usability and design.
Mac OS X
While the first iMac got lots of attention, it wasn't until Apple totally revamped its core operating system that the Mac revolution really took off. Mac OS X was a full rewrite built on a Unix core, and since its release has pretty much set the bar for operating system usability and innovation.
Multicore processors
People who have moved from a PC based on a single-core processor to one based on a multicore processor are typically blown away. There in your system-which most likely cost less than $1,000-is a processor that would smoke the most powerful servers and workstations of the 1990s.
Netbooks
Vendors have pushed microlaptops on us before, but these systems have all failed due to being underpowered and overpriced. The current wave of netbooks fixes those problems, achieving small size along with decent capabilities and low prices. While hardware vendors may hate them, netbooks continue to be popular with consumers.
Openoffice.org
Sure, if the bar for success is supplanting Microsoft Office, then Openoffice.org has been a failure. But if overall impact is considered, Openoffice.org has definitely been influential, especially when it comes to opening up document formats.
POE
Power over Ethernet is still a relatively new technology, and many companies haven't implemented it yet. But companies that have moved to POE have seen major benefits, especially in the ability to run devices such as VOIP (voice over IP) phones, access points and other appliances without the need for a wall wart to provide power.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Coming into the decade, Linux was already a hot commodity, but it wasn't until Red Hat launched the buttoned-down and subscription-priced Enterprise variant of its Linux distribution that Linux was truly ready-both in terms of road map stability and of business model-to truly storm the enterprise.
Salesforce.com
Rising from the ashes of the failed ASP (application service provider) market of the late 1990s, Salesforce.com proved that companies would run vital enterprise business applications-even CRM and sales force automation-over the Web.
Social networks
They may seem like a big waste of time, but social networks have had a significant effect on the way people and businesses connect and communicate.
Solaris 10
During the latter half of '00s, Sun Microsystems' Solaris 10 sat at the leading edge of operating system technologies, with unique capabilities that include Containers virtualization, Dtrace system instrumentation and the ZFS file system. Solaris 10 also helped put a stamp of inevitability on the x86-64 architecture and on open-source as a platform licensing strategy.
Treo
Looking at it today, the Treo may seem like just another smartphone.But the early Treo set the stage for and was very influential in the development of modern smartphones. Any phone today that isn't an iPhone or a new phone directly influenced by the iPhone owes a huge debt to the Treo (and even the iPhone is influenced by the Treo).
Twitter
Twitter is a waste of time. We'll just post that on our Facebook and corporate collaboration system status updates. Hmm. Maybe Twitter has been massively influential and changed the way we all communicate.
VMware
Virtualization has been around for more than 10 years, but it was in the last decade that it really took off. And, to a large degree, the impetus for this drive to virtualize was VMware technology. Offering everything from simple-to-use products that let consumers run virtual machines to the most robust enterprise-class virtualization platforms, VMware has made it possible to run whole farms of servers with very little hardware involved.
VOIP, Skype, SIP
Like virtualization, VOIP technology has been around for more than 10 years. However, it's only in the last 10 years that the technology has reached a real state of usability. Skype helped show consumers how cheap and easy voice calls can be from a PC, while SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) signaling eased standards-based interoperability among vendors, opening the door for the integration of many different kinds of products into the communications mix.
Windows XP
With all of the recent hype about Windows 7-and the bad experiences that nearly every user has had at one time or another with Windows XP-it might seem strange to see Windows Vista's predecessor on any top tech list. But XP is certainly the most dominant operating system of the decade. And when Vista proved to be a disappointment, a majority of users and businesses were happy to stick with XP (and many still are).
CED Solutions provides training on Microsoft Certifications
Posted by Rich Rodgers on Wed, Feb 17, 2010 @ 08:38 AM
As CIOs consider new corporate computing options, they often find themselves awash in cloud metaphors thanks to the overwhelming desire to achieve the promise of cloud computing.
The potential for cloud computing is compelling. For business, it promises faster access to technology and better alignment to demand. That offers agility, which can deliver significant competitive advantage. For example, a retailer can use the vast capacity of the cloud to quickly analyze consumer behavior and respond with pricing changes, different inventory levels or new advertising-even when its own server capacity is fully taxed. That can make the difference in a quarter's financial results.
Cloud computing has the potential to make that extra computing capacity available in minutes or hours and provide the flexibility to turn it off as soon as it's no longer needed without the residual capital asset and operating costs. The problem is that it's hard to tell the difference between clouds and smoke. There is a lot of hype in the market. CIOs have heard many of the promises before with utility computing.
But things are different this time. We've already adopted cloud services into our personal lives with technologies such as the iPhone, and that's taken place as CIOs redefine the functions that really need to be done within the walls of the enterprise.
Bottom line: We've seen how cloud computing has benefited consumers, and many CIOs are ready to try it within the enterprise. Small and midsize businesses (SMBs) are already adopting cloud computing, since they lack the "advantage" of complex legacy environments that constrain their larger competitors.
Services such as Salesforce.com and Google Apps are well-established within the SMB market and are rapidly expanding.
CIOs of large companies are beginning to adopt certain proven services (again, Salesforce.com and Google Apps come to mind) while piloting cloud computing services for broader uses such as development and test platforms as they seek to understand the new service delivery option available to them.
So, what do CIOs need to know to tell the difference between a real cloud and the smoke of marketing hype? Consider three things:
• Decide how to best harness the cloud for your business needs. Develop a plan that fits cloud computing into your IT service delivery model. That means understanding when technology services must remain within the organization and when they can be shifted outside. Consider the complexity and integration of your application portfolio. And understand both your local regulatory environment and your company's willingness to move services and data outside your firewall.
- Recognize the limits of cloud computing. Understand the market and what it can deliver today. Compare your current costs to the price of available services. Compare available service levels to your needs. Recognize the constraints of your current agreements and what you can do to remove them.
- Set expectations for what the cloud will do for your company and when. Partner with your customers to progressively introduce new services and gain their support. Determine how cloud computing will be incorporated into your IT governance and get agreement among your corporate leadership.
Cloud computing offers real advantage to companies that can see through the smoke and get a clear view of the new business technology landscape.
Kevin Smilie is a partner in the CIO Services division of TPI, a Houston-based consulting firm.
http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Expert-Voices/Cloud-Computing-Demystifying-150976/?kc=CIOMINUTE02172010CIO1
CED Solutions is #1 in Microsoft Certifications in North America with courses on how to manage operating systems and applications in the cloud.
www.cedsolutions.com, info@cedsolutions.com, (800) 611-1840
Posted by Rich Rodgers on Tue, Feb 16, 2010 @ 01:32 PM
The HTML5 specification defines the fifth major revision of the core language of the World Wide Web: the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), also known as the lingua franca of the Web. The Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG) started work on the HTML5 specification under the name Web Applications 1.0. As of October 2009, the specification is in the "Last Call" state at the WHATWG.
The HTML5 specification is not expected to be finalized until 2022, although work on the spec began in the mid-2000s. HTML4 was published in 1999.
Work on HTML5 began in June 2004, and the specification is a joint effort between the World Wide Web Consortium HTML Working Group (W3C HTML WG) and the WHATWG.
Ian Hickson, editor of the HTML5 specification, said he expects the specification to reach the W3C Candidate Recommendation stage during 2012 and W3C Recommendation in 2022. However, many parts of the specification are stable and may be implemented in products now.
According to Hickson, the timeline for delivery of the HTML5 specification is:
• First W3C Working Draft in October 2007
• Last Call Working Draft in October 2009
• Call for contributions for the test suite in 2011
• Candidate Recommendation in 2012
• First draft of test suite in 2012
• Second draft of test suite in 2015
• Final version of test suite in 2019
• Reissued Last Call Working Draft in 2020
• Proposed Recommendation in 2022
HTML5 replaces HTML4, DOM2 HTML and XHTML 1.
In addition to specifying markup, HTML5 specifies scripting application programming interfaces (APIs). There are also new APIs, such as:
• The canvas tag for immediate mode 2D drawing
• Timed media playback
• Offline storage database
• Document editing
• Drag-and-drop
• Cross-document messaging
• Browser history management
• MIME type and protocol handler registration
HTML5 aims to reduce the need for proprietary plug-in-based rich Internet application (RIA) technologies such as Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight and Sun JavaFX, though it would take many years to do so. HTML4 did not allow the embedding or control of multimedia content, whereas HTML5's new audio and video elements enable developers to embed and control multimedia content without Flash.
HTML5 features such as Canvas, local storage and Web Workers enable developers to leverage the browser in ways earlier technology did not allow. Opera Software has been viewed as a leader in implementing HTML5 technology in its browser.
HTML5 technologies such as Canvas, for 2D drawing on a Web page, are finding their way into offerings from companies like Apple, Google and Mozilla.
HTML5's local storage capability enables users to work in a browser when a connection drops, and the Web Workers technology makes applications responsive by pushing long-running tasks to the background.
All the major browser vendors-Mozilla, Opera, Microsoft, Apple and Google-are involved in shaping the HTML5 spec and are implementing support for it, despite the spec not being finalized.
Google's Chrome browser has some HTML5 capabilities, such as video tags. Thus far, Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Opera and Firefox support HTML5 video. However, Opera and Firefox do not support the proprietary h.264 codec used for video players such as those from YouTube and Vimeo. Meanwhile, Microsoft's Internet Explorer does not yet support HTML5 video. However, IE users can take advantage of HTML5 video by installing Google's Chrome Frame open-source plug-in.
Microsoft has begun implementing parts of HTML5 in Internet Explorer 8. The software giant is adding such HTML5 features as local storage, AJAX navigation and mutable DOM prototypes.
YouTube and Vimeo has announced support for HTML5 video.
HTML5 has offline features similar to Google Gears, which enabled Google to shelve Gears in lieu of HTML5.
HTML5's Web Sockets API enables two-way communication with a server so developers can implement games, chatting, remote controls and more.
HTML5 delivers: a new, sensible tagging strategy; localized databases; rich animations without plug-ins; and real apps in the browser, among other things.
Link to related post: http://www.webmonkey.com/blog/How_HTML_5_Is_Already_Changing_the_Web
Palm's webOS supports the HTML5 database object and Palm also supports HTML5-based maps on the Palm Pre.
After HTML5 is released the spec will switch to an non-versioned development model for the subsequent release. .
Link to related post: http://lists.whatwg.org/pipermail/whatwg-whatwg.org/2010-January/024708.html'
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Application-Development/20-Essential-Things-to-Know-About-the-HTML5-Web-Language-329684/?kc=EWKNLEDP02082010A
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Google is feeling the heat from red-hot social network Facebook.
The search giant is upgrading its Gmail program to add social-media tools similar to those found on Facebook. Google will incorporate photo and video sharing within the Gmail application, along with a new tool for status updates. Google will hold a press conference at its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters today to show off the new features.
Google (GOOG) is still far and away the No. 1 most-visited website, with 173 million U.S. visitors in December, according to measurement service ComScore Media Metrix, up 16% from the previous December. But Facebook is close behind.
Facebook was the fourth-most-visited site in December, with 111.8 million visitors, up 105% from the prior year.
"If Google can get you to do more things in Gmail, they can sell more ads, because you've spent more time there," says Danny Sullivan, editor of the Search Engine Landblog.
That Google would feel the heat from Facebook makes sense. Many former Google executives now work at Facebook, including Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, who at Google helped build the lucrative AdWords pay-per-click ad program. Facebook has a similar pay-per-click program now.
Facebook invites members to share photos, videos and status updates on their personalized home pages. Advertisers reach out there with ads that are targeted by age, gender, location and more.
Wedding photographers, for instance, can reach out to women in a specific ZIP code who are engaged to be married.
"Initially, Google misunderstood social media and its significance," says Greg Sterling, an analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence. "They've got the religion now and have been trying ever since to add more social utility. Social is how the Web has evolved."
Yet he thinks that bringing social tools to Gmail doesn't make sense. "Gmail is a good product as it is. I'm not sure these tools add anything except to make it more bloated."
Google recently added a new social search feature that can in part show you "results from people in your social circle."
In order to participate, Google users first must fill out profile information, similar to Facebook, which lists interests, contacts and friends. Sullivan says few have participated because, unlike Facebook, it's not mandatory.
In the end, no matter how big Facebook eventually becomes, Sterling says it will "never take away" Google's core business: search.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2010-02-09-gmail09_ST_N.htm
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