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refers to the broad certification program for Microsoft, although it can also refer to an individual candidate who had completed any one exam within the program (subject to some exclusions).

The MCP program offers multiple certifications, based on different areas of technical expertise. To attain these certifications, a candidate must pass a series of exams within the program. The current certifications are Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS), Microsoft Certified Professional Developer (MCPD), Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP) and the Microsoft Certified Architect (MCA).

Popular previous generation certifications include Microsoft Certified System Engineer (MCSE), Microsoft Certified Solution Developer (MCSD) and Microsoft Certified Database Administrator (MCDBA).

 Some employers require or prefer certain MCP certifications for specific jobs that involve Microsoft products and technologies. Other vendors have their own certification programs such as the Sun Certified Professional program, the Red Hat Certification Program, the Oracle Certification Program, the Cisco Career Certifications program, the Ubuntu Certified Professional program and the Apple Certification Program.

In the developed world, each exam costs approximately US$125. Exams usually take between 2 and 3 hours to complete and consist of between 45 and 90 multiple choice, drag and drop, solution building questions and simulated content within exams where students are required to perform certain common administrative tasks appropriate for the topic at hand

Evil twin is the wireless version of the phishing scam. An attacker fools wireless users into connecting a laptop or mobile phone to a tainted hotspot by posing as a legitimate provider.

Wireless devices link to the Internet via “hotspots” – nearby connection points that they lock on to. But these hotspots can act like an open door to thieves. Anyone with suitable equipment can locate a hotspot and take its place, substituting their own “evil twin”.

Method

The attacker uses a bogus base station that latches on to someone using Wi-Fi wireless technology. Victims think their laptops or mobile phones are connected to bona fide wireless Internet connections. Once they connect to the wireless network, the evil twins can access and steal their login information, in addition to confidential information which could potentially lead to identity theft.

Unwitting web users are invited to log into the attacker’s server with bogus login prompts, tempting them to give away sensitive information such as usernames and passwords. Often users are unaware they have been duped until well after the incident has occurred.

Users think they have logged on to a wireless hotspot connection when in fact they have been tricked into connecting to the attacker’s base station. The hacker jams the connection to the legitimate base station by sending a stronger signal within proximity to the wireless client – thereby turning itself into an ‘evil twin.’

Virtual private networks or end to end encryption may be used to protect passwords, E-mail and other sensitive information.

The days of emailing documents to oneself or carrying around a USB flash drive may be over, thanks to Microsoft’s newly developed Office Live Workspace and its predecessor, Google Docs.

   Office Live Workspace and Google Docs will make group work easier and faster.

there are a number of similarities between Google Docs and Office Live Workspace. Both services allow users to create or upload existing documents, presentations and spreadsheets online, and share them with others simply by inviting them to your workspace using their e-mail address. The file’s creator can also choose which members can edit, and which can review the shared documents.

   Also, each has a “home” screen that is set up like a filing cabinet. This page displays the areas in which one’s personal files are kept, which files have been modified recently and quick links to adding new documents.

   These shared documents can be accessed from any computer or cell phone with an Internet connection and a Web browser. According to Microsoft’s Web site, over 1,000 Office documents can be stored on a workspace.

   Office Live Workspace, like Google Docs, is both platform and browser independent, allowing the services to work on PCs with Windows, Macs and even computers with variants of Unix (including Linux).

   In addition, both allow a user to set access levels for documents in their personal account, so one can choose who may view and make edits.

   The of features that come with Microsoft Office, however, are non-existent in Google Docs.

   Office Live Workspace has taken the platform a step further with functions such as footnotes, page numbers and numerous full-screen slide transitions for PowerPoint presentations that are not available in Google Docs.

   , Office Live Workspace is a way for Microsoft to compete with Google’s Docs service.

   Microsoft’s version of the service is a free plug-in for those who already have Microsoft Office installed on their computers, and will be widely available late this year. Currently, customers can pre-register and will be accepted into the service on a first come, first serve basis, according to Microsoft’s Web site.

   ”Ninety-five percent [of computer users] have Office installed If you have two or more people on a team, chances are that at least one of them will be able to edit the documents.”

   All UB students are provided with Microsoft Office for free via download, or for a highly discounted price through UB Micro. However, the retail price for the entire suite starts at $149 for students and the cost of the standard office suite doubles to $399, according to Microsoft’s Web site. Because of the price for non-UB students, some may be hesitant to use Office Live Workspace rather than Google Docs, which offers similar functionality for free.   ”Google is helping set the expectations that you don’t have to go buy these things,” McNabb said in a Wall Street Journal article.

Google Docs is open to anyone with a valid Google account, which is free to create, and doesn’t require any installation.

   Since Google Docs offers more or less the same main features, and can even import Microsoft Office documents through Office 2003, Office Live Workspace must go the extra mile to attract users. numbers and numerous full-screen slide transitions for PowerPoint presentations that are not available in Google Docs.

   Office Live Workspace has several different workspace templates that are generated automatically when a new document is created. Two templates include a job workspace for resumes, cover letters and interview tips; and a school workspace with a GPA calculator, a calendar for classes, term paper outlines and thesis templates. These shortcomings of Google Docs are what make Office Live Workspace so appealing, especially for students.

   Regardless of preference, both services offer a fresh, new and easy way for transferring, collaborating, and editing documents.

I read today about  Avery  important concept for database which is Information life cycle management (ILM) which is a comprehensive approach to managing the flow of information from creation and initial storage to the time when it becomes obsolete and is deleted. ILM involves all aspects of dealing with data. Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) is a sustainable storage strategy that balances the cost of storing and managing information with its business value.

ILM products automate the processes involved, typically organizing data into separate tiers according to specified policies, and automating data migration from one tier to another based on those criteria. As a rule, newer data, and data that must be accessed more frequently, is stored on faster, but more expensive storage media, while less critical data is stored on cheaper, but slower media. However, the ILM approach recognizes that the importance of any data does not rely solely on its age or how often it’s accessed.

All information, or data, in storage has a specific lifecycle, from the time the information enters an organization’s system to the time it is archived or removed from the system. The information may have a finite lifecycle—where the data are eventually removed from a storage when the information becomes outdated or no longer needed—or an infinite lifecycle if the information remains valuable to the organization retaining it. In general, there are three stages in the information lifecycle: The creation or  acquisition of the data, The publication of the data and The retention or removal of the data .

The management of the information lifecycle involves keeping the data accessible to the users who need the information and determining how the information is stored based on how high of a priority the information has in the organization at any given moment. At each stage in the information’s lifecycle, the management infrastructure must determine the best software, hardware and storage medium required for the information at that stage, and how those factors differ as the data move through the lifecycle.

You Tomb is Videos Removed for Copyright Complaint is an interesting project by MIT Free Culture that collects YouTube videos taken down because of copyright infringements. “More specifically, YouTomb continually monitors the most popular videos on YouTube for copyright-related takedowns. Any information available in the metadata is retained, including who issued the complaint and how long the video was up before takedown. The goal of the project is to identify how YouTube recognizes potential copyright violations as well as to aggregate mistakes made by the algorithm.”

Since YouTube operates under Digital Millennium Copyright Act, it’s obliged to take down content if it receives a notification claiming infringement from a copyright holder. In some cases, videos are wrongly taken down because YouTube is in no position to judge the validity of a claim.

According to YouTomb’s stats, the companies that have recently taken down the biggest number of popular YouTube videos are: TV TOKYO, Viacom, Warner Bros, World Wrestling and other media companies. “YouTomb is currently monitoring 157340 videos, and has identified 4389 videos taken down for alleged copyright violation and 13330 videos taken down for other reasons.”

Google has a philosophy of keeping things simple so that people who are technically challenged can use it without getting confused, Also that simple things are fast.. Yahoo believes in feature rich application.. their products are more customizable and complex.”

 Yahoo looks hip and colorful, whereas Google looks simple and elegant; Google is more thoughtful and strategic, Yahoo is flamboyant and more reactive; Google concentrates on value added solutions rather than presentation and Yahoo concentrates on superb presentation followed by value creation.”

Yahoo has tons of media and ADS (loads slower). Google search is better (faster) only text ads. I started with Yahoo since I’ve known it first: Mail, I’ve been moving things to Google Mail, Photos Googlepages.”

So Google is strongly associated with simplicity, usefulness, pages that load fast (in one word: text), while Yahoo is connected with rich interfaces, complex designs, pages that load slowly (in one word: multimedia). Gags even called Yahoo flamboyant, which means “elaborately and heavily ornamented”. It will be interesting to see if the acquisitions of YouTube and DoubleClick will change people’s perception about Google.

What is different  and similarity between the Word press, Gmail and Delicious log in .

Wordpres

• wordpress offer a “remember me option”
• wordpress – welcome back message
• wordpress shows account/toolbar above all pages listed on domain *.wordpress.com
• Word press has an image
• Once logged in the login part of the website changed and offers a link to the user’s blog site

 Gmail

• Gmail offer a “remember me option”
• Gmail offer a “forgot password/cannot access my account” link
• Once logged in you are redirected to your gmail account. You are offered a number of options such viewing email, make dates on the calendar, adding photos and viewing the blog site google reader
• log in screen is part of the home page ith gmail the login screen is shown first. This make the log in phase much quicker.

delicious

• delicious offer a “forgot password/cannot access my account” link
• Delicious does not offer a remember me option
• wordpress the log in screen is part of the home page the login screen is shown first. This  make the log in phase much quicker.

I hear a lot about ITIL and its exam. What is the ITIL about . IT infrastructure library (ITIL) is a series of documents that are used to aid the implementation of a framework for IT Service Management. It comprises a series of ITIL books and is intended to assist organization in developing a quality framework. This customisable framework defines how service management is applied within an organisation. It also aligned with the international standard, ISO2000. ITIL is organized into a series of sets (books) the two major ones being service support and service delivery. These in turn are divided into disciplines. Service support is the practice of those disciplines that enable IT services to be provided effectively.

Service delivery covers the management of the IT services themselves. In December 2005, the OGC issued notice of an ITIL, refresh, commonly known as ITIL v3, which is offered in spring 2007.

ITIL defines the organisational structure and skill requirements of the IT area and documents a set of operational management procedures to allow management of an IT operation and infrastructure. Importantly, the operational procedures are supplier independent. The ITIL framework itself comprises seven eight books each providing information on different IT topics, these books includes:

• Service support.
• Service delivery.
• Business perspective.
• ICT infrastructure management.
• Application management.
• Security management.
• Planning and implementation.
• Software asset management.

The two most commonly used are the first two service support and service delivery. These comprise of a number of disciplines.

COBIT

As I said in the last blog I will continue to talk about some tools help us to mange the information technology. One of them is COBIT .  The Control Objectives for Information and related Technology (COBIT) is a set of best practices framework for information management created by the Information System Audit and Control Association and the IT governance institute. COBIT provides managers, auditors , and it users with a set of generally accepted measures , indicators  , processes and best practices to assist them in maximizing the benefits derived through the use of information technology and developing appropriate IT governance and control in a company . The first edition was published in 1996, the second editions in 1998, the third edition in 2000 and the fourth edition in December 2005. It has more recently found favours due to external developments, especially after the Enron scandal with subsequent passage of the Sarbanes – Oxley Act. In its 4^th edition, COBIT has 34 high level objectives that cover 215 control objective categorized in four domains: plan and organize, acquire and implement, deliver and support, and monitor and evaluate.  COBIT package is a set consisting of six publications.(Enpsychlopedia.org 2007)

• Executive summary

 COBIT executive summary consists of an executive overview which provide a through awareness and understanding of COBIT’s keys and principles.

• Framework

 The framework explains how it processes deliver the information that the business needs to achieve its objectives.

• Control objectives

COBIT control objectives provides a clear policy and good practice for IT control.

Audit guidelines

Audit guidelines outline and suggest actual activities to be performed corresponding to each of the 34 high-level it control objectives.

• Implementation tool set

An implementation tool set , which contains management awareness and IT control diagnostics , and implementation guide.

• Management guidelines

The management guidelines are composed of maturity models , to help determine the stages and expectation levels of control.

How it is work?  In the first step, the voice of the caller is digitized, since in VoIP all transmissions must be digital. This digitization can be performed either by the telephone company, or by an Internet Service Provider -ISP, or by a Personal Computer. In the second step, using intricate algorithms, the digital voice is compressed and then divided into packets; and utilizing the Internet protocol, the packets are addressed and transmitted through the network to be reassembled in the right order at the destination point. Once again this task of reassembling can be carried out by a carrier and Internet Service Provider (ISP) or by the PC. In the third step, while in transit in the Internet, the data packets might be lost or delayed, or errors might cause damage to the packets. Conventional methods of error correction will request retransmission of unusable or lost packets, however, in the case of the sound which is sent as a real-time voice communication, that technique will not be functional, hence sophisticated error detection and corrective systems are employed to create sound to fill in the dropouts in sounds

I would say VoIP will influence the communication sector in the future years as the number of subscriber in broadband internet service increased year by year. The numbers of VoIP providers are increased   and they will offer many option to the user regarding the using feature and cost. 

The succeed of VoIP depend in three things  First, VoIP providers have  to overwhelmingly on price Secondly ,and More important, they also have  to match the quality of sound (Oos) . Finally, Independent VoIP providers improved their amenities to come over traditional phone companies