Microsoft

Microsoft Unveils Thinnest Keyboard!

Recently I was browsing a press release from Microsoft about the thinnest keyboard ever available, which is slightly thicker than an AAA battery.

Pic Courtesy: Microsoft

The newly designed keyboard is exclusively for Bluetooth computers, and Microsoft called this keyboard as Mobile Keyboard 6000. The Mobile Keyboard 6000 comes with a ‘Comfort Curve’ that gives your wrists a rest with a slight 6-degree curve. While it might not seem like a big deal, Microsoft has already sold more than 10 million of its Comfort Curve keyboards so there’s definitely a wrist-concerned market out there.  One more unique feature of Mobile Keyboard 6000 is number pad can be separated and used separately.

Microsoft will be selling the Mobile Keyboard 6000 next month for $89.95. But if it’s just the Number Pad you’re after, you’ll need to spend $44.95.

Pearson Launches Certflashcardsonline, great news for Certifications aspirers.

Dear Friends what a good news at the beginning of the year, guess what Pearson launches the new browser based electronic flash card engine, www.certflashcardsonline.com  , an application that helps the Certifications’ aspirers to practice the IT Certifications exams.

Graphics Courtesy:www.certflashcardsonline.com  

Launching with multiple products on CompTIA, Microsoft and Cisco certifications, the custom flash card application, loaded with more than 250 questions per exam, tests users’ skills and improves their retention of exam topics. Cert Flash Cards Online also allows users to get all-important information at a glance, helping focus on areas of weakness. Available in both desktop and mobile device format, these fact-filled flash cards allow users to test at home, work, or on the go. This new certification preparation tool, Cert Flash Cards Online, along with Cert Prep Online, is available through InformIT.

Additional News Facts:

• A truly unique learning tool; robust features include: space to enter long answers, ability to mark individual questions right or wrong, score reporting, custom set creation, and online updates.
• Cert Flash Cards Online is a late-stage exam-preparation tool, which means that an IT certification candidate would typically use this product during the final weeks before sitting for their live exam.
• This alternative learning format presents a unique approach that compliments other self-study formats like books and practice tests.

Useable Quotes:

“The new Cert Flash Cards Online application from Pearson takes the old school concept of paper flash cards that we all used to memorize our multiplication tables and updates it for the digital age and the technical certification market,” said Brett Bartow, Executive Editor for Cert Flash Cards Online. “While practice tests are great for familiarizing candidates with the exam style, they are typically focused primarily multiple choice question formats, which exposes users to pre-formulated answers to choose from. Cert Flash Cards Online, on the other hand, forces users to supply the answer in their own words, and is thus a much more effective tool for assessing and reinforcing knowledge.”

“In today’s environmentally conscious digital society, it makes sense for certification candidates to use electronic flash cards instead of those made from paper,” said Tim Warner, Product Editor for Cert Flash Cards Online and host of the InformIT Certification Reference Guide. “Most folks carry a laptop or a Web browser-enabled mobile phone or PDA, so why not save some trees by using the online Cert Flash Cards?”

Video Tutorial Podcast: Introduction to Cert Flash Cards Online

Tim Warner, Product Editor for Cert Flash Cards Online introduces viewers to Pearson’s new Cert Flash Cards Online product, which makes flash card review easy and fun. Brought to you by, OnCertification: Your weekly vidcast series featuring study tips, reviews, screencasts, and conversations with IT certification insiders on certification test-prep technologies. Subscribe now.

Product Information:

Cisco

CCNA Voice 640-460 Cert Flash Cards Online

ISBN: 1587202395

CCNA Security 640-553 Cert Flash Cards Online

ISBN: 1587058588

CompTIA

CompTIA A+ Cert Flash Cards Online: Essentials Test: (A+ 220-604), (A+ 220-603), (A+ 220-602)

ISBN: 0789739208

Microsoft

MCSA/MCSE 70-290 Cert Flash Cards Online: Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment

ISBN: 0789738406

MCSA/MCSE 70-291 Cert Flash Cards Online: Implementing, Managing, and Maintaining a Microsoft

Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure

ISBN: 0789738414

MCSE 70-293 Cert Flash Cards Online: Planning and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure

ISBN: 0789738422

MCSE 70-294 Cert Flash Cards Online: Planning, Implementing, and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Active Directory Infrastructure

ISBN: 0789738430

MCTS 70-620 Cert Flash Cards Online: Microsoft Windows Vista, Configuring

ISBN: 0789739240

About Pearson

The global leader in educational and professional publishing, Pearson is home to such respected brands as Addison-Wesley Professional, Cisco Press, Exam Cram, IBM Press, Prentice Hall Professional, Que, and Sams Publishing, which have as their online publishing arm, InformIT (www.informit.com) -The Trusted Technology Learning Source. In addition, Berkeley-based Peachpit (www.peachpit.com), the publishing partner for Adobe Press, Apple Certified, and others, publishes best-selling books for creative design professionals. Pearson is also co-founder, with O’Reilly Media Inc., of Safari Books Online (http://safari.informit.com), the premier on-demand digital library providing thousands of expert reference materials through a single point of contact, including expert technology, creative and design, business and management resources in video and text formats. Pearson Education is part of Pearson (NYSE: PSO), the international media company. Pearson’s other primary businesses include the Financial Times Group and the Penguin Group.

Source: Email from Jamie Adams, Senior Publicist, Pearson Education

GITEX 2008 is officially inagurated by H.H. SHEIKH MOHAMMED BIN RASHID AL MAKTOUM

UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum has opened this year’s GITEX TECHNOLOGY WEEK amidst great expectations of a week of announcements and knowledge exchange.

Dear Friends GITEX happens to be the biggest technological exhibition or fair in this part of world. If you happen to be in Dubai I would strongly suggest to visit GITEX 2008.

More than 3,300 companies from 83 countries are exhibiting at this year, including major international companies such as Blackberry, Dell, Du, Etisalat, Google, HP, Microsoft, Oracle, Panasonic, Samsung, Sharp, Sun Microsystems and Symantec, according to organisers the Dubai World Trade Centre.

GITEX 2008 is open from 1pm to 7pm on Oct. 19, 10am to 7pm on Oct. 20-22 and 10am to 5pm on Oct. 23. The exhibition is open to trade and business professionals only.

How to enable browsing with multiple subnets(VLANS) through Microsoft ISA Server 2006

Other day we installed Microsoft ISA Server 2006 for Internet Browsing as shown in the below figure.

The ISA Server has two NICS one is connected to the DMZ zone with a Real IP Natted to a Private DMZ Zone IP and the Second NIC is connected to the internal network.

Users were able to access the internet from the same subnet of the Windows ISA Server 2006  (10.0.0.0/23 with Default Gateway 10.0.0.1). But we were facing a problem with the users in other subnet they couldn’t able to browse the Internet. So we checked the connectivity from the client to Windows ISA Server 2006  network and VLAN configurations in the Cisco Catalyst Switch. Everything was fine. But we couldn’t able to ping the default gateways for all the VLANS (subnets). Finally we checked the event log in Windows ISA Server 2006 and found that the Windows ISA Server 2006 is dropping the packets due to a suspected spoof attack. Why should requests coming from a different subnet be considered as spoof? This is because Windows ISA Server 2006 believes that requests coming from any network which does not have a direct route mentioned in its routing table are spoof. So what is the solution? Quite Simple! Add a static route using the route add command.

Microsoft touchscreen technology (Microsoft Surface Sphere)

Microsoft is continuing its Research to come out with some interesting touch screen devices, first it was a coffee table, then the wall and now they are coming up with the Sphere. According to Gizmode the latest spherical mutli touch surface device, (still in concept stage) is going to unveil Microsoft Research Faculty Summit 2008. Check out this video