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 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 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!
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
An explanation of the Mainstream Support phase
An explanation of the Mainstream Support phase
I’d like to write a little about the Mainstream Support phase. I think Mainstream Support is probably the best understood phase, but I want to ensure that we discuss this foundational piece before getting into some of the specific policies and offerings.
For all products, the Microsoft Support Lifecycle policy begins with the Mainstream Support phase. In this phase, we are able to provide all of the standard support services that Microsoft offers. For example, in-the-box support, paid incident support, design change requests, non-security hotfixes, security updates and online self-help support may all be available during the Mainstream Support phase.
Consumer products that are released annually are provided a total of 3 years of Mainstream Support. Some examples of these are Microsoft Money, Encarta, Streets & Trips, etc.
For the rest of Consumer, Hardware and Business & Developer products, the Mainstream Support phase is provided for a minimum of 5 years or 2 years after the successor product is released, whichever is longer. This means that the Mainstream Support phase may be extended to longer than 5 years, if the follow-on product release is delayed. A good example of this might be Windows XP. With the updated release date of Windows Vista, Microsoft provided additional Mainstream Support for Windows XP. Mainstream Support for Windows XP will now end approximately 2 years following the release of Windows Vista. The basic reasoning behind this policy is that we don’t want to move a product into Extended Support if there is no newer product to migrate to.
One other important thing to note is that support is only provided at a supported service pack level. We’ll discuss more about this policy in a future posting.
At the end of the Mainstream Support phase, support for Consumer products comes to an end. Business & Developer products, on the other hand, are provided a minimum of another 5 years of support in the Extended Support phase.
Next time, we’ll talk about the Extended Support phase. Please feel free to leave questions or suggestions or future postings!
*This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.*
I’d like to write a little about the Mainstream Support phase. I think Mainstream Support is probably the best understood phase, but I want to ensure that we discuss this foundational piece before getting into some of the specific policies and offerings.
For all products, the Microsoft Support Lifecycle policy begins with the Mainstream Support phase. In this phase, we are able to provide all of the standard support services that Microsoft offers. For example, in-the-box support, paid incident support, design change requests, non-security hotfixes, security updates and online self-help support may all be available during the Mainstream Support phase.
Consumer products that are released annually are provided a total of 3 years of Mainstream Support. Some examples of these are Microsoft Money, Encarta, Streets & Trips, etc.
For the rest of Consumer, Hardware and Business & Developer products, the Mainstream Support phase is provided for a minimum of 5 years or 2 years after the successor product is released, whichever is longer. This means that the Mainstream Support phase may be extended to longer than 5 years, if the follow-on product release is delayed. A good example of this might be Windows XP. With the updated release date of Windows Vista, Microsoft provided additional Mainstream Support for Windows XP. Mainstream Support for Windows XP will now end approximately 2 years following the release of Windows Vista. The basic reasoning behind this policy is that we don’t want to move a product into Extended Support if there is no newer product to migrate to.
One other important thing to note is that support is only provided at a supported service pack level. We’ll discuss more about this policy in a future posting.
At the end of the Mainstream Support phase, support for Consumer products comes to an end. Business & Developer products, on the other hand, are provided a minimum of another 5 years of support in the Extended Support phase.
Next time, we’ll talk about the Extended Support phase. Please feel free to leave questions or suggestions or future postings!
*This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.*
Saturday, September 18, 2010
What if you accidently delete a file or your data gets corrupted? How can you get your data back fast?
What if you accidently delete a file or your data gets corrupted? How can you get your data back fast?
This sort of thing happens to small businesses and even large businesses in Orlando Florida more often then many people believe. Data gets deleted by accident or a file or files gets corrupted.
Hard drives fail, computers crash, servers get to hot and overheat, these things do happen and being able to restore data quickly is very important.
One of the nice advantages of disk based backup is that it can be done quickly with little disruption to your businesses applications and operations. One of the many ways to protect files is with automated daily backups to DAS or a NAS. Most backup solutions allow you to make full backups to disk and frequent incremental backups of data that has changed since the last full backup daily or even several times a day.
Thanks to fast disk based incremental backups, if you accidentally delete a file or if a file, a directory, or an entire system becomes corrupted due to a virus or user or hardware failure, you can recover that file or data from prior state quickly and easily so you can get right back to work.
If you’re using a NAS solution to store backups, check to see if it comes with or works easily with software that offers point in time backup and recovery. Then you can rest assured that you’ll never really lose a precious file or data that you really need for your business.
If you accidentally deleted a file or if your server or computer crashed.
Do you know for sure you could easily and quickly restore your data?
When was the last time you actually tested your backup system?
Far too often we have seen small businesses in and around Orlando Florida use obsolete backup systems and when something goes wrong they learn all along their backup system has not been backing any data up!
TEST YOUR BACKUP SYSTEM and test it often.
Purposely remove a file or files and restore them from your backup.
This is the only way to know for sure your backup system really works.
Posted in Data Backups, Data Storage0 Comments
You know you should be backing up your desktop computers and servers but you dont
Posted on 27 May 2010. Tags: data backup, Network attached storage, SAN storage, server backup, tape drives, workstation backup
You know you should be backing up your desktop computers and laptops, which frequently store the most recent information at your company. Unfortunately, the sad truth is that you and your colleagues probably don’t. Why? Backing up a PC is time consuming and not as easy as it should be, so you put it off, and then you put it off again.
If some of your staff actually takes the trouble to back up their PCs, they’re probably doing it infrequently, and may in fact be doing it incorrectly. When it comes time to actually recover files and data you may be unpleasantly surprised.
Operating without a backup strategy is risky behavior if your company is highly dependent on applications and information. If your company falls under federal regulations such as HIPAA or the Sarbanes Oxley Act, you may be in the unsavory position of having to swallow a fairly steep fine. You don’t have to be a large hospital to fall under HIPAA, you could just be small doctor’s office.
That’s why just about any business needs to devise a workable strategy for backing up its desktop and laptop PC’s and, even more important, for restoring that information when a file is corrupted,or lost or when a power failure or natural disaster takes computer systems down.
For most small – and medium-sized businesses there are four basic ways to do backup:
* Backup to Tape….this is now obsolete technology by the way
* Backup to Disk–DAS
* Backup to Disk–NAS
* Backup to Disk–SAN
Backup to Tape
Tape was the chosen medium for backup for many years, thanks to its low cost and high reliability. Tape also has the advantage of portability, which meant it can be taken off site easily.
Tape is barely a viable backup medium today. and tape drives have major drawbacks in comparison to today’s other backup solutions:
It’s slow Compared to disk storage, tape performance is slow. While tape was viable for backing the volumes of business data typical in the past, data storage has grown so enormously and backup windows have shrunk so much in most organizations, that there is often not enough time in the day or night to execute a full tape backup.
It is difficult and time consuming Somebody must be routinely responsible for loading, rotating and changing tapes-typically on a daily or weekly basis- and many small businesses don’t have the staff time and expertise to take on that responsibility.
It’s not easily accessible Tape is not a random access medium. Restoring data from tape requires considerable staff time to find, load, and access a file from the tape.
It’s not always reliable Tape backup devices such as autoloaders and tape libraries have mechanical parts that will fail. If tape backup is not handled the right way, you may never find out about a mechanical failure or user error until you need to restore data from tape.
Despite these drawbacks, there are much better backup solutions today.
Backup to Disk
Hard disk storage used to be expensive and unreliable, but over the years prices have come down and reliability has gone up so much that disk is now a very viable medium for backup as long as you are backing up to more then one hard drive per backup. Backing up to one of those cheap external hard drives is really cutting corners and is not considered a professional backup solution.
The advantages of disk-based backup are many:
It’s fast There’s no comparison between the performance of disk-based backup and restore and tape. What might take hours when you’re backing up to tape could take minutes when you’re backing up to or restoring data from a hard disk.
In addition to traditional backup there are also other useful disk-based data protection methods. For example, replication copies data from one disk to a second disk at a separate location. For companies that have little or no backup window, there’s little alternative to the performance of disk based data protection.
It’s easy Once the disk storage is installed, there’s no need to load, rotate or change anything for a long time. You can configure an automatic backup strategy and then let it run on its own.
It’s easily accessible Hard disks are random access devices, so retrieving a file from a hard disk is almost instantaneous and can usually be done by the user. With a tape you often have to wait several minutes while someone loads the tape and the backup software winds the tape over to the correct spot for retrieving the file.
Disk-based backup can be accomplished using DAS, NAS, or a SAN.
DAS backup can be either PC- or server-based:
PC-based – You can attach an external hard drive to each PC and configure PC-based backup software to do regular backups. This can be practical for one or two PC’s, but it can quickly become impractical for a rapidly growing small business with lots of PCs. You usually have to depend on the PC users to let backups take place, which is risky, particularly if users are on the road frequently.
Server based – You can install a backup server with its own DAS and backup all your PCs over the LAN. This is a great way to have centralized control over the backup process. However, it does require setting up and maintaining a server and server operating system and software, with all the requisite tuning and updating. Servers can also become a network bottleneck if they’re pulling data off of several PCs over the LAN.
Nevertheless, DAS based backup can be a viable solution for many small businesses as a speedier alternative to tape. Some organizations back up PCs to DAS for performance and then back up server-based DAS to tape as a secondary measure for portability, taking the tapes off site for storage where they can be retrieved in the event of a local disaster.
NAS
NAS makes a great backup solution for many small businesses because it’s easy to set up and maintain. Like network-based DAS backup it lets you push all your PC backups over the network to a single storage device, but unlike DAS, which has to be attached to a server, NAS can be located anywhere on the LAN.
Some NAS products come with their own tightly integrated backup and replication software tuned and preconfigured to work with that device. That can make setting up and implementing your backup strategy quick and easy. And backups to NAS can be automated so there’s little need for a staff person who has other things to do to take on the daily task of backup, as is required with tape backup.
If you’re looking for extra protection from natural disasters, look for a NAS backup solution that can also replicate over a wide area network to another storage device. You get the offsite advantages of tape without the tape handling issues.
SAN
With their fast, block-based disk architecture, Storage Area Networks are great solutions for high performance backups. By placing storage on a specialized storage network, SANs take the burden of backup off your regular corporate LAN so the performance of other network applications doesn’t get bogged down.
You don’t have to know Fibre Channel technology to operate a SAN. iSCSI is simple to use, offers very good SAN performance, and runs over typical Ethernet switches.
Even simpler, however, is taking advantage of the iSCSI capabilities offered by some of today’s NAS products. Many NAS units can partition off some storage as fast block based iSCSI SAN storage. Plug your PC or backup server into the storage with an Ethernet cable, do some simple configuration on the storage device and the host server or PC, and you can run high-speed SAN style backups on a portion of your NAS, while the rest of the device serves files over the LAN.
The bottom line is if you do not take backing your data seriously, you will when your server or computer crashes and you loose all your data. Will you care then?
This sort of thing happens to small businesses and even large businesses in Orlando Florida more often then many people believe. Data gets deleted by accident or a file or files gets corrupted.
Hard drives fail, computers crash, servers get to hot and overheat, these things do happen and being able to restore data quickly is very important.
One of the nice advantages of disk based backup is that it can be done quickly with little disruption to your businesses applications and operations. One of the many ways to protect files is with automated daily backups to DAS or a NAS. Most backup solutions allow you to make full backups to disk and frequent incremental backups of data that has changed since the last full backup daily or even several times a day.
Thanks to fast disk based incremental backups, if you accidentally delete a file or if a file, a directory, or an entire system becomes corrupted due to a virus or user or hardware failure, you can recover that file or data from prior state quickly and easily so you can get right back to work.
If you’re using a NAS solution to store backups, check to see if it comes with or works easily with software that offers point in time backup and recovery. Then you can rest assured that you’ll never really lose a precious file or data that you really need for your business.
If you accidentally deleted a file or if your server or computer crashed.
Do you know for sure you could easily and quickly restore your data?
When was the last time you actually tested your backup system?
Far too often we have seen small businesses in and around Orlando Florida use obsolete backup systems and when something goes wrong they learn all along their backup system has not been backing any data up!
TEST YOUR BACKUP SYSTEM and test it often.
Purposely remove a file or files and restore them from your backup.
This is the only way to know for sure your backup system really works.
Posted in Data Backups, Data Storage0 Comments
You know you should be backing up your desktop computers and servers but you dont
Posted on 27 May 2010. Tags: data backup, Network attached storage, SAN storage, server backup, tape drives, workstation backup
You know you should be backing up your desktop computers and laptops, which frequently store the most recent information at your company. Unfortunately, the sad truth is that you and your colleagues probably don’t. Why? Backing up a PC is time consuming and not as easy as it should be, so you put it off, and then you put it off again.
If some of your staff actually takes the trouble to back up their PCs, they’re probably doing it infrequently, and may in fact be doing it incorrectly. When it comes time to actually recover files and data you may be unpleasantly surprised.
Operating without a backup strategy is risky behavior if your company is highly dependent on applications and information. If your company falls under federal regulations such as HIPAA or the Sarbanes Oxley Act, you may be in the unsavory position of having to swallow a fairly steep fine. You don’t have to be a large hospital to fall under HIPAA, you could just be small doctor’s office.
That’s why just about any business needs to devise a workable strategy for backing up its desktop and laptop PC’s and, even more important, for restoring that information when a file is corrupted,or lost or when a power failure or natural disaster takes computer systems down.
For most small – and medium-sized businesses there are four basic ways to do backup:
* Backup to Tape….this is now obsolete technology by the way
* Backup to Disk–DAS
* Backup to Disk–NAS
* Backup to Disk–SAN
Backup to Tape
Tape was the chosen medium for backup for many years, thanks to its low cost and high reliability. Tape also has the advantage of portability, which meant it can be taken off site easily.
Tape is barely a viable backup medium today. and tape drives have major drawbacks in comparison to today’s other backup solutions:
It’s slow Compared to disk storage, tape performance is slow. While tape was viable for backing the volumes of business data typical in the past, data storage has grown so enormously and backup windows have shrunk so much in most organizations, that there is often not enough time in the day or night to execute a full tape backup.
It is difficult and time consuming Somebody must be routinely responsible for loading, rotating and changing tapes-typically on a daily or weekly basis- and many small businesses don’t have the staff time and expertise to take on that responsibility.
It’s not easily accessible Tape is not a random access medium. Restoring data from tape requires considerable staff time to find, load, and access a file from the tape.
It’s not always reliable Tape backup devices such as autoloaders and tape libraries have mechanical parts that will fail. If tape backup is not handled the right way, you may never find out about a mechanical failure or user error until you need to restore data from tape.
Despite these drawbacks, there are much better backup solutions today.
Backup to Disk
Hard disk storage used to be expensive and unreliable, but over the years prices have come down and reliability has gone up so much that disk is now a very viable medium for backup as long as you are backing up to more then one hard drive per backup. Backing up to one of those cheap external hard drives is really cutting corners and is not considered a professional backup solution.
The advantages of disk-based backup are many:
It’s fast There’s no comparison between the performance of disk-based backup and restore and tape. What might take hours when you’re backing up to tape could take minutes when you’re backing up to or restoring data from a hard disk.
In addition to traditional backup there are also other useful disk-based data protection methods. For example, replication copies data from one disk to a second disk at a separate location. For companies that have little or no backup window, there’s little alternative to the performance of disk based data protection.
It’s easy Once the disk storage is installed, there’s no need to load, rotate or change anything for a long time. You can configure an automatic backup strategy and then let it run on its own.
It’s easily accessible Hard disks are random access devices, so retrieving a file from a hard disk is almost instantaneous and can usually be done by the user. With a tape you often have to wait several minutes while someone loads the tape and the backup software winds the tape over to the correct spot for retrieving the file.
Disk-based backup can be accomplished using DAS, NAS, or a SAN.
DAS backup can be either PC- or server-based:
PC-based – You can attach an external hard drive to each PC and configure PC-based backup software to do regular backups. This can be practical for one or two PC’s, but it can quickly become impractical for a rapidly growing small business with lots of PCs. You usually have to depend on the PC users to let backups take place, which is risky, particularly if users are on the road frequently.
Server based – You can install a backup server with its own DAS and backup all your PCs over the LAN. This is a great way to have centralized control over the backup process. However, it does require setting up and maintaining a server and server operating system and software, with all the requisite tuning and updating. Servers can also become a network bottleneck if they’re pulling data off of several PCs over the LAN.
Nevertheless, DAS based backup can be a viable solution for many small businesses as a speedier alternative to tape. Some organizations back up PCs to DAS for performance and then back up server-based DAS to tape as a secondary measure for portability, taking the tapes off site for storage where they can be retrieved in the event of a local disaster.
NAS
NAS makes a great backup solution for many small businesses because it’s easy to set up and maintain. Like network-based DAS backup it lets you push all your PC backups over the network to a single storage device, but unlike DAS, which has to be attached to a server, NAS can be located anywhere on the LAN.
Some NAS products come with their own tightly integrated backup and replication software tuned and preconfigured to work with that device. That can make setting up and implementing your backup strategy quick and easy. And backups to NAS can be automated so there’s little need for a staff person who has other things to do to take on the daily task of backup, as is required with tape backup.
If you’re looking for extra protection from natural disasters, look for a NAS backup solution that can also replicate over a wide area network to another storage device. You get the offsite advantages of tape without the tape handling issues.
SAN
With their fast, block-based disk architecture, Storage Area Networks are great solutions for high performance backups. By placing storage on a specialized storage network, SANs take the burden of backup off your regular corporate LAN so the performance of other network applications doesn’t get bogged down.
You don’t have to know Fibre Channel technology to operate a SAN. iSCSI is simple to use, offers very good SAN performance, and runs over typical Ethernet switches.
Even simpler, however, is taking advantage of the iSCSI capabilities offered by some of today’s NAS products. Many NAS units can partition off some storage as fast block based iSCSI SAN storage. Plug your PC or backup server into the storage with an Ethernet cable, do some simple configuration on the storage device and the host server or PC, and you can run high-speed SAN style backups on a portion of your NAS, while the rest of the device serves files over the LAN.
The bottom line is if you do not take backing your data seriously, you will when your server or computer crashes and you loose all your data. Will you care then?
Friday, September 10, 2010
Cisco wireless controllers open to attack
Cisco wireless controllers open to attack
Cisco this week issued a security advisory for its wireless LAN controllers, which are susceptible to seven vulnerabilities including denial of service, privilege escalation and access control list bypass. The advisory can be found here.
The affected products include the Cisco 2000, 2100, 4100, 4400 and 5500 series controllers; Wireless Services Modules (WiSMs); wireless LAN controller modules for the Cisco Integrated Services Routers; and integrated controllers for the Catalyst 3750G switch. The products are affected by at least one of the seven vulnerabilities.
There are two DoS vulnerabilities, three privilege vulnerabilities and two ACL bypass holes. The DoS vulnerabilities are an Internet Key Exchange (IKE) DoS Vulnerability and an HTTP DoS Vulnerability.
The IKE glitch allows an attacker with the ability to send a malicious IKE packet to an affected Cisco controller to cause the device to crash and reload. This vulnerability can be exploited from both wired and wireless segments.
IKE is enabled by default in the controllers and cannot be disabled, the Cisco advisory states. Only traffic destined to the Cisco controller could trigger this vulnerability, not transient traffic, according to the advisory.
The IKE DoS vulnerability affects Cisco controller software versions 3.2 and later.
The HTTP hole allows an authenticated attacker with the ability to send a series of malicious HTTP packets to an affected Cisco controller to cause the device to reload. This vulnerability can be exploited from both wired and wireless segments. A TCP three-way handshake is needed in order to exploit this vulnerability, the advisory states.
This vulnerability is also triggered by traffic destined for the controller, not transient traffic.
The HTTP DoS vulnerability affects Cisco controller software versions 4.2 and later.
The three privilege escalation vulnerabilities could allow an authenticated attacker with read-only privileges to modify the device configuration. The privilege escalation vulnerabilities affect Cisco controller software versions 4.2 and later.
The ACL vulnerabilities involve traffic to and from wireless clients or to all traffic destined for the controller CPU. The vulnerabilities could allow an unauthenticated attacker to bypass policies that should be enforced by CPU-based ACLs. No other ACL types are affected by these vulnerabilities, the Cisco advisory states.
One of the two ACL bypass vulnerabilities affects Cisco controller software versions 4.1 and later. The second ACL bypass vulnerability affects Cisco controller software versions 6.0.x.
Cisco says it has released free software updates that address these vulnerabilities. There are no workarounds to mitigate them, the company says. Cisco also says it is not aware of any public announcements or malicious use of the vulnerabilities, which were found during internal testing and troubleshooting of customer service requests.
Cisco this week issued a security advisory for its wireless LAN controllers, which are susceptible to seven vulnerabilities including denial of service, privilege escalation and access control list bypass. The advisory can be found here.
The affected products include the Cisco 2000, 2100, 4100, 4400 and 5500 series controllers; Wireless Services Modules (WiSMs); wireless LAN controller modules for the Cisco Integrated Services Routers; and integrated controllers for the Catalyst 3750G switch. The products are affected by at least one of the seven vulnerabilities.
There are two DoS vulnerabilities, three privilege vulnerabilities and two ACL bypass holes. The DoS vulnerabilities are an Internet Key Exchange (IKE) DoS Vulnerability and an HTTP DoS Vulnerability.
The IKE glitch allows an attacker with the ability to send a malicious IKE packet to an affected Cisco controller to cause the device to crash and reload. This vulnerability can be exploited from both wired and wireless segments.
IKE is enabled by default in the controllers and cannot be disabled, the Cisco advisory states. Only traffic destined to the Cisco controller could trigger this vulnerability, not transient traffic, according to the advisory.
The IKE DoS vulnerability affects Cisco controller software versions 3.2 and later.
The HTTP hole allows an authenticated attacker with the ability to send a series of malicious HTTP packets to an affected Cisco controller to cause the device to reload. This vulnerability can be exploited from both wired and wireless segments. A TCP three-way handshake is needed in order to exploit this vulnerability, the advisory states.
This vulnerability is also triggered by traffic destined for the controller, not transient traffic.
The HTTP DoS vulnerability affects Cisco controller software versions 4.2 and later.
The three privilege escalation vulnerabilities could allow an authenticated attacker with read-only privileges to modify the device configuration. The privilege escalation vulnerabilities affect Cisco controller software versions 4.2 and later.
The ACL vulnerabilities involve traffic to and from wireless clients or to all traffic destined for the controller CPU. The vulnerabilities could allow an unauthenticated attacker to bypass policies that should be enforced by CPU-based ACLs. No other ACL types are affected by these vulnerabilities, the Cisco advisory states.
One of the two ACL bypass vulnerabilities affects Cisco controller software versions 4.1 and later. The second ACL bypass vulnerability affects Cisco controller software versions 6.0.x.
Cisco says it has released free software updates that address these vulnerabilities. There are no workarounds to mitigate them, the company says. Cisco also says it is not aware of any public announcements or malicious use of the vulnerabilities, which were found during internal testing and troubleshooting of customer service requests.
Cisco Westcon pay US $48M for defects
Cisco Westcon pay US $48M for defects
Cisco and one of its distributors have been ordered to pay $48 million to the US government to settle claims that they misrepresented pricing information to the General Services Administration and other federal agencies, according to the US Department of Justice. The distributor in question is Westcon.
Cisco and Westcon are charged with violating the False Claims Act by knowingly providing incomplete information to GSA contracting officers during negotiations, which resulted in "defective" pricing of Cisco products and submission of false claims to the US, the Justice Department said.
Best online Microsoft MCTS Training, Microsoft MCITP Certification at certkingdom.com
The defects in the pricing were overcharges. In the private sector, the defects are known as the Cisco Premium.
"Overcharging the government results in waste of taxpayer dollars," said Brian D. Miller, GSA Inspector General, in a statement. "Our auditors and special agents keep vigilant watch to ensure contractors stay honest."
As a part of this settlement, the US has agreed to dismiss a whistleblower lawsuit filed in 2004 in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, United States ex rel. Rille. v. Cisco Systems, Inc. That suit apparently charged Cisco with violating the federal False Claims Act, which allows private citizens to sue on behalf of the government and share in any settlement, according to this report from Bloomberg.
The same whistleblowers also targeted HP, IBM, EMC, Computer Sciences Corp., Pricewaterhouse Coopers and others in the past, according to the Bloomberg report.
Cisco and one of its distributors have been ordered to pay $48 million to the US government to settle claims that they misrepresented pricing information to the General Services Administration and other federal agencies, according to the US Department of Justice. The distributor in question is Westcon.
Cisco and Westcon are charged with violating the False Claims Act by knowingly providing incomplete information to GSA contracting officers during negotiations, which resulted in "defective" pricing of Cisco products and submission of false claims to the US, the Justice Department said.
Best online Microsoft MCTS Training, Microsoft MCITP Certification at certkingdom.comThe defects in the pricing were overcharges. In the private sector, the defects are known as the Cisco Premium.
"Overcharging the government results in waste of taxpayer dollars," said Brian D. Miller, GSA Inspector General, in a statement. "Our auditors and special agents keep vigilant watch to ensure contractors stay honest."
As a part of this settlement, the US has agreed to dismiss a whistleblower lawsuit filed in 2004 in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, United States ex rel. Rille. v. Cisco Systems, Inc. That suit apparently charged Cisco with violating the federal False Claims Act, which allows private citizens to sue on behalf of the government and share in any settlement, according to this report from Bloomberg.
The same whistleblowers also targeted HP, IBM, EMC, Computer Sciences Corp., Pricewaterhouse Coopers and others in the past, according to the Bloomberg report.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Microsoft posts record revenue thumbs nose at Apple
Microsoft posts record revenue thumbs nose at Apple
So this won't be the quarter that Apple sells more stuff than Microsoft. Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) eked out slightly more revenue than Apple, and billions more in profit. Microsoft reported another record quarter for its fiscal fourth-quarter that ended June 30. The company booked 16.04 billion in revenue, a 22% increase from the year ago period. Operating income, net income and diluted earnings per share for the quarter were $5.93 billion, $4.52 billion and $0.51 per share, which represented increases of 49%, 48% and 50%, respectively, when compared with the prior year period.
In comparison while Apple also posted record revenue, it booked $15.7 billion in revenue with a net quarterly profit of $3.25 billion, or $3.51 per diluted share.
Microsoft gives most of the credit to Windows 7 which it says has sold more than 175 million licenses to date.
On the downside, looks like the failed Kin phone could have cost Microsoft about a quarter of a billion dollars. Microsoft notes: "Cost of revenue increased $584 million or 23%, primarily reflecting increased online costs, increased royalty costs and charges resulting from the discontinuation of the KIN phone." And then it gets more specific when reporting the losses the Entertainment & Devices Division racked up, the unit responsible for the Kin. The division lost $172 million in the final quarter. Microsoft says, "Cost of revenue increased $251 million or 38% primarily from charges resulting from the discontinuation of the KIN phone and increased royalty costs resulting from increased Xbox LIVE digital marketplace third-party content sales."
While the unit did manage to increase its profits over the course of the year, it didn't increase revenue. Microsoft was able to offset a lot of the failed Kin cost and show that year-end profit in that unit because it reduced costs associated with building Xbox 360 consoles and also because it had "reductions in other costs due to resource management efforts."
Could this statement reflect the fact that several extremely high paid executives in the Entertainment & Devices Division were shown the door? President Robbie Bach announced his exodus in May. Shockingly Bach was Microsoft's highest paid exec. He earned over $6 million in 2009, and was paid the largest cash bonus, of more than $1.1 million.
Likewise, J Allard also announced in May that he's leaving, though technically he's staying on until the fall. Allard was Chief Experience Officer and Chief Technology Officer, Entertainment and Devices Division, and best known for championing the Xbox as a platform for social networking and online functionality. His exodus was a surprise to many since Xbox Live -- the console's online capabilities -- has finally made the game console a hit. And users are fairly excited about the up-and-coming Kinnect gesture based interface.
Still, it is frustrating to see Microsoft pour this much money and effort into an Entertainment & Devices Division only to wind up alienating the young, hip customers it is trying to woo. Who pays for that? You, the enterprise customer, does. The $5.93 billion in operating profit comes from its software users, mostly the business users.
As evidence, Microsoft Office 2010 was praised for its contribution to the great quarter, as users were stopped from buying Word 2007 due to a court injunction forbidding the sale of it. Microsoft lost a patent infringement lawsuit which caused the injunction. Consumers bought an additional $357 million worth of Office 2010 products in the third quarter than they did the previous quarter (presumably with all those new Windows 7 PCs). All told, Microsoft raked in $5.25 billion in the division that sells Office. Of that $3.28 was operating income -- about half the total operating profit that Microsoft reported.
Microsoft has not yet released its audited financial report to the SEC, so these figures are based on the press release. I'll be looking at the formal documents after they post to see what else can be gleaned about Microsoft's past, present and future.
So this won't be the quarter that Apple sells more stuff than Microsoft. Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) eked out slightly more revenue than Apple, and billions more in profit. Microsoft reported another record quarter for its fiscal fourth-quarter that ended June 30. The company booked 16.04 billion in revenue, a 22% increase from the year ago period. Operating income, net income and diluted earnings per share for the quarter were $5.93 billion, $4.52 billion and $0.51 per share, which represented increases of 49%, 48% and 50%, respectively, when compared with the prior year period.
In comparison while Apple also posted record revenue, it booked $15.7 billion in revenue with a net quarterly profit of $3.25 billion, or $3.51 per diluted share.
Microsoft gives most of the credit to Windows 7 which it says has sold more than 175 million licenses to date.
On the downside, looks like the failed Kin phone could have cost Microsoft about a quarter of a billion dollars. Microsoft notes: "Cost of revenue increased $584 million or 23%, primarily reflecting increased online costs, increased royalty costs and charges resulting from the discontinuation of the KIN phone." And then it gets more specific when reporting the losses the Entertainment & Devices Division racked up, the unit responsible for the Kin. The division lost $172 million in the final quarter. Microsoft says, "Cost of revenue increased $251 million or 38% primarily from charges resulting from the discontinuation of the KIN phone and increased royalty costs resulting from increased Xbox LIVE digital marketplace third-party content sales."
While the unit did manage to increase its profits over the course of the year, it didn't increase revenue. Microsoft was able to offset a lot of the failed Kin cost and show that year-end profit in that unit because it reduced costs associated with building Xbox 360 consoles and also because it had "reductions in other costs due to resource management efforts."
Could this statement reflect the fact that several extremely high paid executives in the Entertainment & Devices Division were shown the door? President Robbie Bach announced his exodus in May. Shockingly Bach was Microsoft's highest paid exec. He earned over $6 million in 2009, and was paid the largest cash bonus, of more than $1.1 million.
Likewise, J Allard also announced in May that he's leaving, though technically he's staying on until the fall. Allard was Chief Experience Officer and Chief Technology Officer, Entertainment and Devices Division, and best known for championing the Xbox as a platform for social networking and online functionality. His exodus was a surprise to many since Xbox Live -- the console's online capabilities -- has finally made the game console a hit. And users are fairly excited about the up-and-coming Kinnect gesture based interface.
Still, it is frustrating to see Microsoft pour this much money and effort into an Entertainment & Devices Division only to wind up alienating the young, hip customers it is trying to woo. Who pays for that? You, the enterprise customer, does. The $5.93 billion in operating profit comes from its software users, mostly the business users.
As evidence, Microsoft Office 2010 was praised for its contribution to the great quarter, as users were stopped from buying Word 2007 due to a court injunction forbidding the sale of it. Microsoft lost a patent infringement lawsuit which caused the injunction. Consumers bought an additional $357 million worth of Office 2010 products in the third quarter than they did the previous quarter (presumably with all those new Windows 7 PCs). All told, Microsoft raked in $5.25 billion in the division that sells Office. Of that $3.28 was operating income -- about half the total operating profit that Microsoft reported.
Microsoft has not yet released its audited financial report to the SEC, so these figures are based on the press release. I'll be looking at the formal documents after they post to see what else can be gleaned about Microsoft's past, present and future.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Computer Training in Microsoft MCTS – Update
Computer Training in Microsoft MCTS – Update
As your research has brought you here there’s a good chance that either you’re considering a career change into IT and the MCTS Training has reared its head, or you’re already in a networking related industry and you’ve realised that you need a qualification such as MCTS .
As you do your searches, you’ll hit upon training providers that compromise their offerings by failing to use the current Microsoft version. Steer clear of this type of college as it will create challenges for you with the present exams. If you are studying an old version, it will be hard to pass. Computer training companies should be completely focused on establishing the best direction for prospective students. Mentoring education is as much about guiding people on establishing which way to go, as it is helping to help them get there.
A typical blunder that students everywhere can make is to choose a career based on a course, and not focus on where they want to get to. Universities are stacked to the hilt with students that chose a program because it looked interesting – instead of the program that would surely get them the career they desired. Don’t let yourself become one of the unfortunate masses that choose a course that sounds really ‘interesting’ and ‘fun’ – and end up with a plaque on the wall for a career they’ll never really get any satisfaction from.
Spend some time thinking about how much you want to earn and whether you’re an ambitious person or not.
This can often control which particular exams you will need and how much effort you’ll have to give in return. It’s worth seeking help from an experienced person that knows the commercial realities of the industry you’ve chosen, and is able to give you ‘A day in the life of’ outline for that career-path. This is very important as you’ll need to know whether or not you’ve chosen correctly.
Trainees looking at this market often have a very practical outlook on work, and don’t always take well to classrooms, and poring through books and manuals. If this could be you, use multimedia, interactive learning, where learning is video-based. If we can study while utilising as many senses as possible, then we normally see dramatically better results.
Interactive audio-visual materials involving demonstration and virtual lab’s will beat books every time. And you’ll actually enjoy doing them. You really need to look at examples of the study materials provided by your chosen company. They have to utilise instructor-led video demonstrations with virtual practice-lab’s.
Some companies only have access to online training only; while you can get away with this much of the time, consider what happens when you don’t have access to the internet or you only get very a very slow connection sometimes. It is usually safer to have physical CD or DVD discs that removes the issue entirely.
Be alert that all qualifications you’re studying for are commercially relevant and are the most recent versions. ‘In-house’ certificates are not normally useful in gaining employment. From the perspective of an employer, only the top companies such as Microsoft MCITP Certification, CompTIA, Cisco or Adobe (as an example) will get you into the interview seat. Anything less won’t make the grade.
Some trainers only give support available from 9-6 (office hours) and sometimes later on specific days; not many go late into the evening (after 8-9pm) or cover weekends properly. Look for training with help available at any time of day or night (even if it’s early hours on Sunday morning!) You’ll need 24×7 direct access to mentors and instructors, and not a call-centre that will take messages so you’re parked in a queue of others waiting to be called back when it’s convenient for them.
We recommend looking for colleges that have multiple support offices active in different time-zones. Each one should be integrated to provide a single interface together with access round-the-clock, when it suits you, with the minimum of hassle. Don’t under any circumstances take less than this. Support round-the-clock is the only viable option when it comes to technical training. Maybe late-evening study is not your thing; usually though, we’re working when traditional support if offered.
As your research has brought you here there’s a good chance that either you’re considering a career change into IT and the MCTS Training has reared its head, or you’re already in a networking related industry and you’ve realised that you need a qualification such as MCTS .
As you do your searches, you’ll hit upon training providers that compromise their offerings by failing to use the current Microsoft version. Steer clear of this type of college as it will create challenges for you with the present exams. If you are studying an old version, it will be hard to pass. Computer training companies should be completely focused on establishing the best direction for prospective students. Mentoring education is as much about guiding people on establishing which way to go, as it is helping to help them get there.
A typical blunder that students everywhere can make is to choose a career based on a course, and not focus on where they want to get to. Universities are stacked to the hilt with students that chose a program because it looked interesting – instead of the program that would surely get them the career they desired. Don’t let yourself become one of the unfortunate masses that choose a course that sounds really ‘interesting’ and ‘fun’ – and end up with a plaque on the wall for a career they’ll never really get any satisfaction from.
Spend some time thinking about how much you want to earn and whether you’re an ambitious person or not.
This can often control which particular exams you will need and how much effort you’ll have to give in return. It’s worth seeking help from an experienced person that knows the commercial realities of the industry you’ve chosen, and is able to give you ‘A day in the life of’ outline for that career-path. This is very important as you’ll need to know whether or not you’ve chosen correctly.
Trainees looking at this market often have a very practical outlook on work, and don’t always take well to classrooms, and poring through books and manuals. If this could be you, use multimedia, interactive learning, where learning is video-based. If we can study while utilising as many senses as possible, then we normally see dramatically better results.
Interactive audio-visual materials involving demonstration and virtual lab’s will beat books every time. And you’ll actually enjoy doing them. You really need to look at examples of the study materials provided by your chosen company. They have to utilise instructor-led video demonstrations with virtual practice-lab’s.
Some companies only have access to online training only; while you can get away with this much of the time, consider what happens when you don’t have access to the internet or you only get very a very slow connection sometimes. It is usually safer to have physical CD or DVD discs that removes the issue entirely.
Be alert that all qualifications you’re studying for are commercially relevant and are the most recent versions. ‘In-house’ certificates are not normally useful in gaining employment. From the perspective of an employer, only the top companies such as Microsoft MCITP Certification, CompTIA, Cisco or Adobe (as an example) will get you into the interview seat. Anything less won’t make the grade.
Some trainers only give support available from 9-6 (office hours) and sometimes later on specific days; not many go late into the evening (after 8-9pm) or cover weekends properly. Look for training with help available at any time of day or night (even if it’s early hours on Sunday morning!) You’ll need 24×7 direct access to mentors and instructors, and not a call-centre that will take messages so you’re parked in a queue of others waiting to be called back when it’s convenient for them.
We recommend looking for colleges that have multiple support offices active in different time-zones. Each one should be integrated to provide a single interface together with access round-the-clock, when it suits you, with the minimum of hassle. Don’t under any circumstances take less than this. Support round-the-clock is the only viable option when it comes to technical training. Maybe late-evening study is not your thing; usually though, we’re working when traditional support if offered.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Ready for 2020? Advice for every career stage
Ready for 2020? Advice for every career stage
Source: Exclusive Computerworld survey of 465 IT professionals, July 2010
Best Practices in Protecting the Technology Systems Revolutionizing Healthcare : Download now
Druby agrees that colleges are in continual catch-up mode and have only recently added project management and soft skills training to computer science programs. "They're about five years behind where they need to be," he says. Students can fill that gap by pursuing internships, he suggests. "It can help them understand what the business is about, as well as the components of technology they wouldn't pick up at a university."
Tom Silver, a senior vice president at Dice.com, says more students are doing just that. And combining a technology degree with business knowledge will lead them to the higher-paying areas of IT.
Andrew Hrycaj is accomplishing this by working full-time as a network consultant while studying for an associate's degree, with the goal of earning a bachelor's. Hrycaj agrees that there's "an extreme gap" between the academic approach to IT and the real world, especially when it comes to cloud computing and virtualization. He believes the only way to learn how technology is really used is through experience. "It's the difference between being in it as opposed to talking about it from a thousand-foot view," he says.
Students can also seek out instructors who have spent time in industry. At Macomb Community College, for instance, Martin Kohl, professor of IT, not only teaches Java programming, but also has his students build an electronic health records system and then refer back to it throughout the semester. "We like to focus on, How can they apply this when they walk out the door? Can they use it?" he says.
To address the gap between college and real-world experience, the ACM has introduced new curriculum guidelines for undergraduate IT programs that address how computing is manifested in industries such as law, health, finance and government, Chesnais says. The guidelines are also influenced by trends such as the globalization of IT development processes, the ubiquitous use of Web technologies, and the emergence of Web services, software-as-a-service and cloud computing, he says.
Gretchen Koch, who heads CompTIA's "Getting America Back to Work" initiative, agrees that young professionals should think about IT as it's integrated into industry sectors. "They need to know about the industry they're participating in and the regulations those industries are bound by," she says. CompTIA is developing certifications for health IT and is working on programs for cloud security.
The Newcomers
These are the Gen Y'ers -- people in their 20s and early 30s who are in the early stages of their careers now and will dominate the ranks in 2020.
With its famously informal approach toward work, enthusiasm for social networks and ability to take digital multitasking to new heights, this group has already forced some changes in corporate culture and even in the technologies that IT supports.
Where the Gen Y'ers could stumble, Silver says, is in their upward progression toward roles that require relationship-building skills. Although they have a natural propensity to communicate digitally, they also need to understand the importance of face time. "Texting and e-mail are no substitute for a relationship," Silver says. This group could learn a lot from the older people at work, he contends, and forming cross-generational relationships would help them gain perspective on fitting into the higher levels of the organization.
Source: Exclusive Computerworld survey of 465 IT professionals, July 2010
Best Practices in Protecting the Technology Systems Revolutionizing Healthcare : Download now
Druby agrees that colleges are in continual catch-up mode and have only recently added project management and soft skills training to computer science programs. "They're about five years behind where they need to be," he says. Students can fill that gap by pursuing internships, he suggests. "It can help them understand what the business is about, as well as the components of technology they wouldn't pick up at a university."
Tom Silver, a senior vice president at Dice.com, says more students are doing just that. And combining a technology degree with business knowledge will lead them to the higher-paying areas of IT.
Andrew Hrycaj is accomplishing this by working full-time as a network consultant while studying for an associate's degree, with the goal of earning a bachelor's. Hrycaj agrees that there's "an extreme gap" between the academic approach to IT and the real world, especially when it comes to cloud computing and virtualization. He believes the only way to learn how technology is really used is through experience. "It's the difference between being in it as opposed to talking about it from a thousand-foot view," he says.
Students can also seek out instructors who have spent time in industry. At Macomb Community College, for instance, Martin Kohl, professor of IT, not only teaches Java programming, but also has his students build an electronic health records system and then refer back to it throughout the semester. "We like to focus on, How can they apply this when they walk out the door? Can they use it?" he says.
To address the gap between college and real-world experience, the ACM has introduced new curriculum guidelines for undergraduate IT programs that address how computing is manifested in industries such as law, health, finance and government, Chesnais says. The guidelines are also influenced by trends such as the globalization of IT development processes, the ubiquitous use of Web technologies, and the emergence of Web services, software-as-a-service and cloud computing, he says.
Gretchen Koch, who heads CompTIA's "Getting America Back to Work" initiative, agrees that young professionals should think about IT as it's integrated into industry sectors. "They need to know about the industry they're participating in and the regulations those industries are bound by," she says. CompTIA is developing certifications for health IT and is working on programs for cloud security.
The Newcomers
These are the Gen Y'ers -- people in their 20s and early 30s who are in the early stages of their careers now and will dominate the ranks in 2020.
With its famously informal approach toward work, enthusiasm for social networks and ability to take digital multitasking to new heights, this group has already forced some changes in corporate culture and even in the technologies that IT supports.
Where the Gen Y'ers could stumble, Silver says, is in their upward progression toward roles that require relationship-building skills. Although they have a natural propensity to communicate digitally, they also need to understand the importance of face time. "Texting and e-mail are no substitute for a relationship," Silver says. This group could learn a lot from the older people at work, he contends, and forming cross-generational relationships would help them gain perspective on fitting into the higher levels of the organization.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)