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Showing posts from 2008

IT - a means to maintain justice.

Fabrication of resume is not an uncommon act. Many are guilty of that. Especially in an environment where, there is no means to cross reference the resumes, have left many people who are guilty of such a crime in high positions of the government and other commercial sectors. How often do we cross reference the letters or certificates? How often do we check the given serial numbers or at least the actual certificates when the copies have been submitted? Many times there is even no way to check a tracking number to see whether the person is telling the truth. This is where the importance of databases comes in to action. Central databases play an important role in reducing such frauds by giving the opportunity for everyone to at least check the serial numbers to trace back to the original. Many times what happen is that people who are 'smart' and wicked enough to commit such crimes play nicely. They won't fake an entire certificate or document, they just change the part they w...

No More Windows? No OS?!!!!!!!!

Have you ever imagined a 'no windows' world? In a world where you don’t have to deal with any Operating Systems like windows? Sounds exciting aren’t it? Well, Microsoft has imagined it. They called it cloud computing. Steve Bass writes… It's true: Microsoft has confirmed that it's abandoning Windows as we know it. Cagey as ever, the Microsofties won't say when it'll happen, but they have talked a little bit about what the next OS is going to look like--or not look like. Microsoft code-named the project Midori. As best I can figure, its cloud computing: Everything, including applications and data, is on the Internet. What Exactly Is Midori? My colleague Elizabeth Montalbano, with the IDG News Service, tried making some sense of it in " Microsoft Prepares for End of Windows With Midori " and Erik Larkin, our crackerjack OS and Web guy, has plenty to say in " Cloud Computing, Microsoft's Midori, and the End of Windows ." There ar...

IT and Hollywood: The reality gap

Toni Bowers writes... In the movies, all you need is access to the Internet to change someone’s bank account or to launch nuclear missiles. We know it’s all for effect, but how much is too much? ————————————————————————————————————— I love movies. I love television. But if you knew only of the world what you saw in those two media, you’d be one delusional person. For example, going by movie and TV alone, here’s what you would think you knew about the medical profession: Nobody ever comes into the ER with anything less than a rare condition brought on by the bite of a insect that is one of only six left on the planet. Writers write this way because an hour-long episode about a tetanus shot wouldn’t be worth watching. And TV’s view of journalism is seriously flawed because it implies that newspaper reporters are always running around chasing down important stories that involve some secret government conspiracy. When in reality, most reporters make a living writing obituary copy ...

Linux Not The Savior For Our Economy

Robert McMillan, IDG News Service writes.... You knew the argument had to come up sometime: survive the economic down turn by using open source to help you save money. Now Computer World blogger Steve J. Vaughan-Nichols makes that claim in his Linux Will Save Us blog post. The title almost has religious overtones. I found Steve's article thanks to blog posts by Alan Shimel and Michael Farnum . Whether it's iPhones, Linux vs. Microsoft , or Macs vs. PCs, there's always a group who are so overly passionate about their favorite hammer that everything else looks like a nail. I've developed many products on Linux, Windows and some even on Macs, to know that taking your favorite technology too seriously creates other blind spots in your logic and decision making. That said, I can't claim I've never done the same, but hopefully I've learned from those experiences. (My picking on Apple is all in good fun, btw.) Okay, now back to Steve's post about ditching...

It’s not about what we know, but it’s about what we believe!

Wisdom comes with proper belief. It is always the team work which goes beyond the one man’s effort. We have seen and witnessed that. So did we find out what was the problem? Why one party went beyond the expectation and others were just spectators of their success? Surely we have seen a wonderful performance. But was it just a single person’s effort? Managing a team is a hard work; it can be the most difficult of all the tasks. Just having a good team or crowd doesn ’t work, it is always the guidance of the leader and support of the members which makes the team work. Teams can only be put to work with a people oriented manager. A manager who tries to understand and tries to listen to his team members can go beyond an ordinary person’s expectation and even can break the limit of human barriers. So it is up tous to decide what we want to be. Just knowing doesn ’t work and we have seen it by experience. The point here is very simple. Knowledge and wisdom are two different things. Just kn...

Is IT no longer about technology?

Author: Jason Hiner Writes... It’s become horribly cliche to talk about the importance of IT-business alignment and the need for IT professionals to become much more business-savvy, but Gartner’s Tom Austin (right) takes it to the next level. He believes that the IT professional of the future will be less of an engineer and more of a social scientist. What? Yes, you heard that right — the word “social” will become a key part of the IT professional’s job description. It flies in the face of most of the stereotypes about techies and it sounds a little corny, but Austin does draw some interesting conclusions that are worth a look, if only because they are so unconventional. Here are some of the most salient quotes from Austin on this subject (from an interview in Fast Company ): “The problem with IT today is there are too many engineers and not enough social scientists.” “Too often, we have measurement and reward systems that are focused on how many transactions did you process, how man...

We are messed up!

Still it’s not too late to start organizing! Forming a company is no child’s play. It is hard work. Things won’t work unless we make them work. Now we are facing a real challenge, the challenge of organizing the challenge of working together. We need to find ways that we can contribute. It doesn’t have to be always the hard way. There are various ways in which we can contribute, our company needs our help. We are really messed up. But still it’s not too late to start organizing. Ever wonder why we are lagging behind? Why we can’t organize? Why we are confused? Sure there are many reasons. But one thing is lack of commitment and guidance. There are people who can work but they are waiting for some guidelines. They need someone to tell them what to do, otherwise they can’t work. It is true, not everyone can think of their own and start working when leadership positions are being filled. So why we are falling back? So why we are messing the whole thing? One reason is we don’t have enough ...

Why do we ignore and pretend that everything is all right?

Com on people! Speak it up! We are humans and we are not perfect. We all know that, don’t we? And it is our nature that we commit mistakes and that we do stupid things sometimes. As much as this is our nature, we should also try to contribute to make things work nicely instead of encouraging making mistakes. I think we all can agree on this. Isn’t it? Even though we all agree, we step back when it comes to implementation. Even if we know something is not right, we are reluctant to take any action. Why is that? Even we feel if something is not right, we turn back and we never do anything, of course other than just speaking about it to ourselves or with our friends who can really do nothing about this. Why is that? An example of this was seen and witnessed recently. Yes, I am talking about our class, the business computing class. When we all did know that the time given to complete the assessment was not enough and it was nearly impossible for many of us to complete it on time, st...

The three stages of a tech career

Stage one - You don’t know much You are in awe of all the other techs. You make a lot of dumb mistakes. You feel like you are swamped all the time. You have to read a lot before you dare try anything for fear of breaking something. Everybody dumps on you because you are the new kid. Things take longer for you to accomplish. You work a lot of overtime, often without pay. You don’t get paid a lot. You wonder if you’ll ever get a break. You realize that school didn’t quite prepare you for the real world. Work hard. You’ll make it. Stage two - You know a lot of stuff You’re good and you know it. So does everyone else around you. They can see that you are good. You don’t have to tell them. Things get done quickly. You even amaze yourself sometimes. You are valuable and can command a good salary. The managers and business owners want to keep you on board. They want you to be happy and offer perks to entice you to stay. You get calls from headhunters all the time. It is very flattering and a ...

10 ways humans could kill the Internet

Earlier this month, GigaOm’s Alistair Croll wrote a terrificly depressing and honest piece about the ways the Internet is changing and, as a result, some of the potential disasters that could bring it to its knees in the future. Below is Croll’s list of the top “10 Ways the Internet (As We Know It) Will Die.” Someone subverts DNS Zombie networks attack Massive physical infrastructure failure Death by a thousand fragments A really good virus breaks the routers Updates break how updates work The Net stops being neutral The lawyers get involved Walled gardens Humans take themselves out Bottom line for IT leaders Since the Internet is a mission critical system for doing business, IT leaders should take a general interest in promoting practices that support a stable, neutral, and secure Internet. Some of the issues in this article are a little overblown — such as DNS being subverted and updates breaking updates — but it correctly notes that the Internet is currently f...

The ten hottest certifications for 2008

Michael Trapp, writing for knowhow-now.com , has composed a list of what he believes will be the hottest certs for 2008. The list is based on job growth, sales of certification training material, and “a little guess work.” 1. MCP (Microsoft Certified Professional) With more than 80% of the Operating systems used in the world being Microsoft's, no surprise why this certification is on top of our list. 2. CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate) Trapp reasons that most network administrator jobs right now are IP related and they are in more demand at a higher professional level as compared to Microsoft Certifications. 3. MCPD (Microsoft Certified Professional Developer) Demand for these developers is up over 80% compared to last year. Trapp says there are only a little over 3,000 currently with the certification. 4. SCJP (SUN Certified Java Programmer) Trapp says that a Java credential is one of the most valuable credentials that a programmer or developer can have, si...

10 Tech Certifications that Actually Mean Something

There are hundreds of tech certifications out there, so how do you know which ones really provide a measure of your knowledge and skills? And which ones will really help you get a job or promotion? Here’s a look at 10 of the technical certifications that offer value in today’s IT job market. 1. Microsoft Certified Technical Specialist (MCTS) or Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP) (formerly MCSE) 2. Microsoft Certified Architect (MCA) 3. Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) 4. Systems Security Certified Practitioner (SSCP) 5. GIAC Security Expert (GSE) 6. Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) 7. Cisco Certified Security Professional (CCSP) 8. Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) and Red Hat Certified Architect (RHCA) 9. Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) 10. Certifications for Special Situations (including VoIP) In addition, for those who have little or no experience in IT, entry-level certifications such as those offered by CompTIA may...

American College - How american is it?

American College, famous for the colleges' population of Maldivian Students, is considered as one of the most reputed institutes in Sri lanka. Ooops! Did I said that? Not really is the case. However, many Maldivians are mistakenly believing that American college of sri lanka is actually an American college and is one of the most prestiges colleges in Sri lanka. This is can be the most inappropriate things to say, cos this is hardly the case. American college is just another institute which deals with Maldivians who want a customizable course and study environment, which many a times becomes so customized that even exam marks and assignment marks aslo doesnt count in giving any credential certificate. Cool! inst it? More about the college can be said later! The point is not to start a campaign against the college, but to clear the misconception. There are many institutes that can provide a higher educational satisfaction than American college and also takes less amount of money. Mo...

Windhu Returns with a new tast!

Windhu Returns! "Windhu" was just a beginning, a means to stay in touch with the art of blogging, just another way of being "IT". All these days without posting any article in this blog, the author almost forgot the URL even, don't! Blame worthy, isnt it? but it was brought our notice that doing a rather useful work and making this blog a little more useful will be a good idea. So here is the IDEA! Many people, especially, Maldivians who wanna study in Sri lanka wants to know about the institues, the good ones and the bad ones, the possible paths and the wrong turns and how great it would be to tell about the author's own experience? Living in Sri Lanka for 2 years as a Student and intereacting with many institues and knowing about the pros and cons of most of the popular places, makes him an advicible person, isnt it? So here is the good news, we are going to tell you about the courses and institues with a personal touch and in a students points of ...