Networking

What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing is not really well defined concept, at least from my understanding. Some say Cloud computing is part of web2.0, some say Cloud computing has been around for many years but under different names.

So what is Cloud Computing? If I can put it in the most simple from it would be “ the ability to do everything on-line, not only accessing the web, but to be able to run applications from the web and even access hardware.”

One short video I watched on Google described Cloud Computing as the ability to host your applications in way that you can scale up and down your storage and bandwidth needs depending on the traffic in your website.

Another video described it as the ability to do all your productive works using a thin client, a laptop with only basic hardware configuration and only the very basic applications, everything else will be available online.

Some professionals believe that Cloud Computing will put and end to the software applications as we know it now. There will be no more installation CDs, every piece of software will be available on line, you use it to do your work as if its installed in your local computer.

Will Windows Vista put an end to Microsoft dominance of Operating systems?

If we look back at the early days of windows based operating systems we can see the huge enhancement Microsoft made to the Desk top operating systems, from DOS to windows 3.1 to win95 to win2000 and finally Win XP.

For many users, win XP was (end still) the best operating system Microsoft ever written, with SP1 and SP2, Microsoft fixed major bugs in the system and the users community was content with winXP.

Only when everything seemed to be working great with winXP, Microsoft released windows Vista, I personally, and I am sure as millions of users, was not ready to let go of winXP and start the journey to learn new operating system with its all new features.

Recently, I had to replace my company’s computer systems with new systems, I wanted to get new systems with XP, but the vendor told me they only can provide us systems with windows Visa. I was not very happy to migrate to Vista yet.

The transition from windows XP to windows vista is not as smooth as it should be, for the average user windows XP is more user friendly than windows Vista. One feature of windows Vista that I particularly find hard to understand for the average user is the Network and file sharing properties in windows Vista.
In its attempt to make windows Vista more secure, Microsoft made setting up network and resource sharing in windows Vista a bit hard to configure, there are many security features the user have to configure.

From a historical point of view, I can tell that Microsoft reached its full potential with windows XP, there was no need to release a new operating system at the time when windows XP was performing real well with the users.

HP learning center-free online classes

During my early days as on-site tech, I was giving access by HP to their Tech-zone area, an online resources for various type of training offered by HP. Now HP is making these online classes free for everyone. This online courses are great tool for continues education.

They have classes in:
Software and Technology
IT professional
Business skills

You can enroll in any of these classes online, and you will be sent weekly or b-weekly study materials via e-mails, you will have a class instructor and you will also have an option to download the full class content on PDF format.

These are some great classes that are useful for a wide range of professionals; you can see the full list of classes at:
 http://h30187.www3.hp.com/all_courses.js…