Microsoft MCTS Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist validates knowledge and skills to demonstrate your specialized technical expertise by earning this credential. Microsoft MCSD The Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer (MCSD) credential validates your advanced skill set, demonstrating to customers.
Microsoft is offering its own specialised MCITP exams (http://www.certkingdom.com) which also known to be the one of the best reputed certification world wide. It has the huge range of certification and training programmes which turn out to be really useful for the candidates. According to the recent survey, people who achieved and gained the credential of Microsoft certification are getting better career opportunities, why? Because Microsoft certifications and training programme specialises a candidate in a particular field therefore they stand out more infront of employers. Some of the most popular certifications of Microsoft are as follow; Microsoft MCDBA Microsoft Certified Database Administrator demonstrate your ability to design, implement, and manage the administration of Microsoft SQL Server 2000 databases successfully, Microsoft MCDST Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician, This credential proves your ability to successfully troubleshoot desktop environments that run on the Microsoft Windows operating system, Microsoft MCITP Microsoft Certified Information Technology Professional Demonstrate your range of expertise, real-world skills, and mastery of Microsoft technologies by earning this credentials and there are three tracks available to do this certification and that is MCITP Server, MCITP Enterprise and MCITP Business Intelligence,Microsoft MCSA Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator Prove your expertise in systems administration on Windows Server operating systems by earning this credential, Microsoft MCSE Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer equips you with the MCITP benefits (http://www.certkingdom.com)
technical capabilities and industry-recognized validation to help you compete. This certification is also being offered in two environments (Windows Server 2000 & Windows Server 2003 and in MCSE-Messaging & MCSE-Security). Microsoft MCTS Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist validates knowledge and skills to demonstrate your specialized technical expertise by earning this credential. Microsoft MCSD The Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer (MCSD) credential validates your advanced skill set, demonstrating to customers. Microsoft Certified Internetwork Professional validates advanced knowledge and skills required to manage service provider infrastructures and Microsoft MCPD Microsoft Certified Professional Developers validate your job-relevant skills and mastery of Microsoft Visual Studio and the Microsoft .NET Framework by becoming a Microsoft Certified Professional Developer.
Most IT professionals look for this document in determining the perfect candidate for the job vacancy. It’s better if you have newer certification because it speaks of fresher learning and knowledge, which is needed in the business today.
One leading industry that dictated the evolution of computers and the likes is none other than Microsoft. The rise of the IT industry is unstoppable at present. The said industry has created lots of opportunities through the development of its certification programs. They are specially designed to enhance the technical skills of these IT associates. With the growth of MCITP or Microsoft Certified IT Professional in this business many professionals will have the chance to follow a certain path for their desired free practice tests (http://www.certkingdom.com) . Wherein they can function well and display their knowledge and expertise.
Read the views of online Certification Experts, which provide the real questions and correct answer and explanation for the students / professionals who are seeking or enhancing their level of expertise. more at certkingdom.com
May 12, 2011
May 11, 2011
When will PlayStation Network be back up?
Perhaps the question should be: "If I hold my breath waiting for Sony to answer and I die, can someone sue?" Because Sony's continued promises when PSN will be back up are like the kid who incessantly promises to clean his room and never does. Subscribers grow impatient, with the vast majority answering our poll are ready to switch to Xbox 360 and Xbox Live.
Late last month, Sony promised partial PSN restoration -- gaming, music and video services -- on May 4, a pledge repeated on May 1. It's now May 8, and PSN is still down. I checked just before posting.
Two days ago, in another "I promise to clean my room soon" blog post, Patrick Seybold, Sony Senior director of Corporate Communications & Social Media, writes: "We know many of you are wanting to play games online, chat with your friends and enjoy all of the services PlayStation Network and Qriocity services have to offer, and trust me when I say we're doing everything we can to make it happen. We will update you with more information as soon as we have it. We apologize for the delay and inconvenience of this network outage."
What's the excuse this time? Simply put, Sony cannot yet guarantee that PSN is secure enough to put back online. "When we held the press conference in Japan last week, based on what we knew, we expected to have the services online within a week," Seybold explains. "We were unaware of the extent of the attack on Sony Online Entertainment servers, and we are taking this opportunity to conduct further testing of the incredibly complex system."
Within hours of the May 1 promise to restore PSN last week, Sony Online Entertainment went down, and the company issued yet another security warning. Hackers had stolen data from SOE, and this time Sony confirmed that credit card information had been taken. At least 12,700 credit or debit card and 10,700 direct debt card numbers (with bank account numbers) were stolen from SOE subscribers in Austria, Germany, Netherlands and Spain. So the initial breach was much greater than Sony understood, and the company took much longer uncovering the problem.
Hackers broke into PlayStation Network between April 17-19 and stole massive amounts of personally-identifying user data. On April 20, Sony voluntarily took down the network, after discovering the hack. The action may have helped prevent further data losses and allowed Sony, third-party security investigators and law enforcement to begin a forensic analysis of the hack. To reiterate: Hackers didn't take down PlayStation Network. Sony did. The same can be said of SOE, which Sony took offline, arguably belatedly, after discovering the hack.
In mid April 2011, Sony took down PlayStation Network after hackers stole subscribers' personal data. PlayStation users, will you switch to Xbox?
Absolutely
Not even if Hell froze over
VoteView Results
Share This
Quantcast
The full extent of the data breach is still unknown. Hackers did steal subscriber account IDs, passwords, addresses and phone numbers, security questions, email addresses and birth dates. Sony has insisted that, despite reports of millions of stolen credit card numbers being up for sale, the data was encrypted. While 77 million stolen credit cards makes great headlines, the other information is far more damaging since it can be used to steal peoples' identities. Not surprisingly, lawsuits are piling up, one and one now, for each the PSN and SOE breaches and Sony's handling of the aftermath.
Last week, Sony accused Anonymous of the security breach. Based on my limited knowledge of the hacker group, stealing user information for profit is out of character. Anonymous denied the accusation.
"When will PSN be back up?" is the still unanswered qustion. "We're still working to confirm the security of the network infrastructure, as well as working with a variety of outside entities to confirm with them of the security of the system," Seybold writes. "Verifying the system security is vital for the process of restoration. Additional comprehensive system checks and testing are still required, and we must complete that process before bringing the systems online. As you've heard us say, our utmost priorities are the security of the network and ensuring your data is safe. We won't restore the services until we can test the system's strength in these respects."
That's perhaps good for PSN subscribers' personal data protection in the future. There are plenty of dissatisfied PlayStation Network users in the here and now. On April 30, I started a poll asking PSN subscribers: "Will you switch to Xbox?" The results aren't so interesting as how they changed the longer the PSN outage went on. In the first few days, the results consistently hung around 54 percent switching. But the number crept up the longer PSN stayed down -- to 60 percent, then 65 percent and as of this morning 72.94 percent based on 3,285 responses.
I'm surprised that someone hasn't started a betting pool for when PSN will be back up.
Late last month, Sony promised partial PSN restoration -- gaming, music and video services -- on May 4, a pledge repeated on May 1. It's now May 8, and PSN is still down. I checked just before posting.
Two days ago, in another "I promise to clean my room soon" blog post, Patrick Seybold, Sony Senior director of Corporate Communications & Social Media, writes: "We know many of you are wanting to play games online, chat with your friends and enjoy all of the services PlayStation Network and Qriocity services have to offer, and trust me when I say we're doing everything we can to make it happen. We will update you with more information as soon as we have it. We apologize for the delay and inconvenience of this network outage."
What's the excuse this time? Simply put, Sony cannot yet guarantee that PSN is secure enough to put back online. "When we held the press conference in Japan last week, based on what we knew, we expected to have the services online within a week," Seybold explains. "We were unaware of the extent of the attack on Sony Online Entertainment servers, and we are taking this opportunity to conduct further testing of the incredibly complex system."
Within hours of the May 1 promise to restore PSN last week, Sony Online Entertainment went down, and the company issued yet another security warning. Hackers had stolen data from SOE, and this time Sony confirmed that credit card information had been taken. At least 12,700 credit or debit card and 10,700 direct debt card numbers (with bank account numbers) were stolen from SOE subscribers in Austria, Germany, Netherlands and Spain. So the initial breach was much greater than Sony understood, and the company took much longer uncovering the problem.
Hackers broke into PlayStation Network between April 17-19 and stole massive amounts of personally-identifying user data. On April 20, Sony voluntarily took down the network, after discovering the hack. The action may have helped prevent further data losses and allowed Sony, third-party security investigators and law enforcement to begin a forensic analysis of the hack. To reiterate: Hackers didn't take down PlayStation Network. Sony did. The same can be said of SOE, which Sony took offline, arguably belatedly, after discovering the hack.
In mid April 2011, Sony took down PlayStation Network after hackers stole subscribers' personal data. PlayStation users, will you switch to Xbox?
Absolutely
Not even if Hell froze over
VoteView Results
Share This
Quantcast
The full extent of the data breach is still unknown. Hackers did steal subscriber account IDs, passwords, addresses and phone numbers, security questions, email addresses and birth dates. Sony has insisted that, despite reports of millions of stolen credit card numbers being up for sale, the data was encrypted. While 77 million stolen credit cards makes great headlines, the other information is far more damaging since it can be used to steal peoples' identities. Not surprisingly, lawsuits are piling up, one and one now, for each the PSN and SOE breaches and Sony's handling of the aftermath.
Last week, Sony accused Anonymous of the security breach. Based on my limited knowledge of the hacker group, stealing user information for profit is out of character. Anonymous denied the accusation.
"When will PSN be back up?" is the still unanswered qustion. "We're still working to confirm the security of the network infrastructure, as well as working with a variety of outside entities to confirm with them of the security of the system," Seybold writes. "Verifying the system security is vital for the process of restoration. Additional comprehensive system checks and testing are still required, and we must complete that process before bringing the systems online. As you've heard us say, our utmost priorities are the security of the network and ensuring your data is safe. We won't restore the services until we can test the system's strength in these respects."
That's perhaps good for PSN subscribers' personal data protection in the future. There are plenty of dissatisfied PlayStation Network users in the here and now. On April 30, I started a poll asking PSN subscribers: "Will you switch to Xbox?" The results aren't so interesting as how they changed the longer the PSN outage went on. In the first few days, the results consistently hung around 54 percent switching. But the number crept up the longer PSN stayed down -- to 60 percent, then 65 percent and as of this morning 72.94 percent based on 3,285 responses.
I'm surprised that someone hasn't started a betting pool for when PSN will be back up.
May 10, 2011
What is Microsoft thinking, paying $8.5B for Skype?
It's hard to envision what Microsoft intends to do with Skype for corporate IT. So what can users expect to get out of Microsoft's $8.5 billion investment?
The people who paid $2.5 billion for Skype two years ago are starting to look very astute.
A week or two ago that wasn't the case. Skype's IPO had been delayed. Google and Facebook were sniffing around Skype, but a buyout didn't seem likely -- too many samolies for Facebook to muster, and all sorts of potential problems for Google, including an antitrust hurdle of Brobdingnagian proportions.
But this morning comes the announcement that Microsoft will purchase Skype for $8.5 billion. As a defensive move, Microsoft buying Skype has some merit: a Google Voice-and-Skype combination would prove a formidable challenge to Windows Live Messenger and Lync, both in the consumer market and in the enterprise. The Skype international telephone number inventory -- and Skype's long experience with local telcos all over the world -- would provide an instant presence that Google Voice is still struggling to establish.
But $8.5 billion?
It's hard to envision what Microsoft intends to do with Skype for corporate IT. Skype is widely regarded by network admins as anathema. Five years ago, at the BlackHat conference in Europe, Philippe Biodi and Fabrice Desclaux described Skype's obfuscated code, saying it "looks like /dev/random" and it hasn't gotten any better. Like any P2P program, Skype basically runs a backdoor, with random pings and relays going out even when there's nobody using the phone. Security people love software like that.
So if the software's no good in the corporate environment, what can enterprise IT expect to get out of Microsoft's $8.5 billion investment?
Not much, as far as I can tell. Speculation that Skype will integrate into the Lync or Exchange environment seem completely far-fetched: The architectures are completely different, and the software isn't reusable. Surely, Microsoft isn't expecting to keep many key Skype developers around, even with fat paychecks. Those international phone numbers and telco connections could help extend Lync, at least in theory. Skype has a good-sized user base, with 120 million active users every month, but that's small potatoes compared to Live Messenger.
Some analysts speculate that Microsoft will meld the Kinect (currently Xbox-only, but coming soon to a Windows 8 near you) with Skype, but that doesn't make a very compelling argument. Offering a $100 Kinect as a replacement for a $2.95 webcam makes about as much sense as ... as ... as buying Skype for $8.5 billion, eh?
The only positive note for IT, as best I can tell, is possible integration of P2P VoIP technology with Windows Phone. Microsoft may be playing a long game, with a Skype client for Windows Phone 8. Presumably the client wouldn't send chillls down the spine of Exchange and Lync admins. Having Skype available for free corporate calls worldwide certainly has a nice ring to it.
But $8.5 billion?
The people who paid $2.5 billion for Skype two years ago are starting to look very astute.
A week or two ago that wasn't the case. Skype's IPO had been delayed. Google and Facebook were sniffing around Skype, but a buyout didn't seem likely -- too many samolies for Facebook to muster, and all sorts of potential problems for Google, including an antitrust hurdle of Brobdingnagian proportions.
But this morning comes the announcement that Microsoft will purchase Skype for $8.5 billion. As a defensive move, Microsoft buying Skype has some merit: a Google Voice-and-Skype combination would prove a formidable challenge to Windows Live Messenger and Lync, both in the consumer market and in the enterprise. The Skype international telephone number inventory -- and Skype's long experience with local telcos all over the world -- would provide an instant presence that Google Voice is still struggling to establish.
But $8.5 billion?
It's hard to envision what Microsoft intends to do with Skype for corporate IT. Skype is widely regarded by network admins as anathema. Five years ago, at the BlackHat conference in Europe, Philippe Biodi and Fabrice Desclaux described Skype's obfuscated code, saying it "looks like /dev/random" and it hasn't gotten any better. Like any P2P program, Skype basically runs a backdoor, with random pings and relays going out even when there's nobody using the phone. Security people love software like that.
So if the software's no good in the corporate environment, what can enterprise IT expect to get out of Microsoft's $8.5 billion investment?
Not much, as far as I can tell. Speculation that Skype will integrate into the Lync or Exchange environment seem completely far-fetched: The architectures are completely different, and the software isn't reusable. Surely, Microsoft isn't expecting to keep many key Skype developers around, even with fat paychecks. Those international phone numbers and telco connections could help extend Lync, at least in theory. Skype has a good-sized user base, with 120 million active users every month, but that's small potatoes compared to Live Messenger.
Some analysts speculate that Microsoft will meld the Kinect (currently Xbox-only, but coming soon to a Windows 8 near you) with Skype, but that doesn't make a very compelling argument. Offering a $100 Kinect as a replacement for a $2.95 webcam makes about as much sense as ... as ... as buying Skype for $8.5 billion, eh?
The only positive note for IT, as best I can tell, is possible integration of P2P VoIP technology with Windows Phone. Microsoft may be playing a long game, with a Skype client for Windows Phone 8. Presumably the client wouldn't send chillls down the spine of Exchange and Lync admins. Having Skype available for free corporate calls worldwide certainly has a nice ring to it.
But $8.5 billion?
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