Visual FoxPro is still here, still very relevant

I am writing this article because I read a very interesting article about Visual FoxPro on SD Times web site! The title of the article is ‘Where have you gone, Visual FoxPro?’ Even though the Article did some justice to the FoxPro Product, and its great contributions and the many product milestones, I still thought that the basic question posed by the article had to be answered. This is important to many of us who still use Visual FoxPro to architect and deliver great MIS Products because as far as we are concerned, Visual FoxPro is still very much here!

So what then can we say is Visual FoxPro’s place in an enterprise application architecture today? Is it relevant when compared to other alternative offerings from Microsoft – the company that makes Visual FoxPro! This article attempts to document our experiences as a company that sells many custom-developed application software products made with virtually all of Microsoft’s Database Offerings (Ms-SQL Server, Ms Access and Of course Ms Visual FoxPro)!

I first started using FoxPro in 1992! Then it was version 1.01 running on a PCMOS 4.1 Network. I was fresh out of school with some little programming knowledge on GW-Basic, MF Cobol and dBASE III! The Mortgage Bank I joined and worked for ran its Banking Software (Swift Banking System) written with Clipper 5 on a FoxPro Database. At the time, most people wrote their programs on dBASE IV and then had those programs compiled with FoxPro or with Clipper! I fell in love with FoxPro immediately because it was so easy to use and had a much more polished interface than dBASE IV and what is more, I was also very impressed that a package as huge as Banking was running on a FoxPro box and was very stable in indeed!

Then in 1993, I left the banking sector and did not again use FoxPro until 2001 when I taught ‘Building solutions with Visual FoxPro 6.0’ to Students at MicroLink College (then the school had the option to use either Microsoft Access or Visual FoxPro to demonstrate Database Concepts)! It was during this time that I started exploring the idea of developing a powerful, versatile, modern and affordable MIS Package for Colleges and Universities since the college at that time had no computerized data storage and retrieval system – that package would eventually today become CampusManager™ University Advantage – still in commercial distribution and in use among several University Colleges in Ethiopia today (and running as a pure Fox solution).

The requirement was for a system that is feature –rich, user friendly, provided reasonable storage capacities for the sort of volumes of data that could be generated by a school or university college and was yet affordable by schools in the third-world. The combined features of an affordable and feature-rich system was necessary because most of the clients that buy our system can be considered as small or medium-scale enterprises that will ‘balk’ at the cost involved in licensing Ms SQL Server or Oracle Databases. Also, the programs would be running in an environment where these organizations may not necessary afford thousands of dollars to retain trained SQL Server or Oracle DBA’s so the system had to be light, easy to run and still provide all the storage capacity and power of an enterprise solution built to run on SQL Server or Oracle!

This reality for us was underscored by the fact that most of the Visual Basic programs we wrote that were designed to run with MS SQL Server; have always suffered from customer (small to medium scale organizations) complaints - Managers do not simply find that purchasing expensive Ms SQL Server database licenses is somewhat prohibitive! At the same time, Microsoft Access (Jet Database Engine)/MSDE did not present an attractive alternative because of the 2GB File Size limit that would sooner rather than later force a mid-sized company to look for alternative storage. Add to this the fact that in a typical school, we would have more than 10 users working at a time and Access’s well documented behavior when 10 (ten) or more users are accessing the database concurrently! To summarize, our ‘business parameters’ for selecting an application development tool for our CampusManager™ Offering was (and still is) as follows:

* System must be feature rich
* System must provide reasonable storage capacity for at least 5 years for a school or college with about 2000 student population
* System must be capable of supporting at least 20 concurrent users without signs of stress (imagine that at least 15 homeroom teachers at a time have to record marks and enter grading information during peak period such as exam time concurrently along with other routine activities by staff and faculty). Our first site, a premium private school boasted 60 homeroom teachers (Grades 1 to 12 each with five sections A to E)
* System has to be capable of routine performance on just about any environment (the first school we sold to had a P3 Server with Two Processors) since in our market, most clients may just have a PCs and may never even have heard of Servers
* System must be light and fast and be able to be easily, deployed, configured and implemented in the end-users environment
* Total cost of ownership for the system must be kept to a minimum. For example, can users easily administer the database (most of our clients may have a teacher or two with a background in simple applications and so would not possess the type of skills required to manage a typical SQL Server Database). FoxPro in contrast is easy and fun to learn!
* System must be affordable. If our clients can pay not only for our system but also license the database engine for online database maintenance, it is great for them and for us!

So for us it is against this backdrop that we realized that we had a copy of Visual FoxPro bundled with our Visual Studio 6.0 suite of enterprise development tools. After carefully assessing our options, we came to the conclusion that Visual FoxPro 6.0 was the best tool in the Visual Studio suite (we had been concentrating on Visual Basic and Visual C++ against Jet/SQL Server for our other applications) to build a fast, data-centric MIS system for schools, colleges and universities because it just about offered the right combination of power, speed, storage capacity and licensing cost for the market we wanted to target with our system. For us, this meant that we would not have to ‘fight’ with our clients about expensive database licensing nor would we have to explain why our clients need to move to a more expensive Database Server after just 2-3 years. At the same time, should the need arise, we can easily upgrade the system to run on a bigger database engine (such as SQL server or the Advantage Database Server that now provides full Visual FoxPro Compatibility) without expensive code rewrites!

Since our software was released in June of 2006, we have upgraded to using Visual FoxPro 9.0 and have found that our product has elicited quite a lot of interest because of the attractive cost of the package and licensing terms for a VFP Database (optional). But whether our clients accept to buy VFP Database licenses or not (in which case they can use the VFP runtime), our product is still a money-spinner for Microsoft since our clients will still need to license Microsoft Windows to run the application; plus, they always license the application with a promise to upgrade to Ms SQL after a number of years.

A couple of months after SD Times posed the question “Where have you gone Visual FoxPro?”; we want to supply an emphatic answer – “Visual FoxPro is still here today! Visual FoxPro is still very relevant in the enterprise!” Here in Africa, we are using Visual FoxPro to build modern, powerful, object-oriented and affordable applications for fast growing companies!

And yes! Even though Microsoft says they shall make Visual FoxPro no longer, the product can only get better as many members in the community work to make great add-ons and improvements in the product, adding badly needed functionality. With some of the cool tools we have found on CodePlex such as VFPX and most especially ActiveVFP, we can say that we are in no great hurry to re-write our application on the .NET framework anytime soon

Get Rid of Porn-how to Get Rid of Porn From Your Computer

Get rid of porn today! This is important to get rid of porn from your hard drive or it can lend you in some serious trouble! Sometimes while you browse the internet porn fragments and popups install themselves into your registry and it is almost impossible to get rid of this stuff. They always popup on your screen and do generally have viruses and spy ware attached to them! Whether you downloaded the porn yourself or it entered the computer by itself you need to get rid of porn fast!!!

The problem with internet porn fragments is it burries itself deep inside your hard drive and it makes getting rid of porn almost impossible task. Once it is on your hard drive you will NOT get rid of it wihout special porn deletion software! Any porn fragments can be traced back and found on your hard drive no matter how hard you try to get rid of it and this can cost you a pretty penny if you get traced by computer forensics and it can lend you in jail for illegal pornography! This is exactly why you need to get rid of porn now and Porn Terminator Porn Cleaner Works!

I had constant porn popups when i was browsing the internet and my hard drive and registry was fully littered with porn so i had to find a way to get rid of porn from my harddrive and i stumbled upon The Porn Terminator and i decided to give it a shot because i had no time to lose and i didn't want to lose my family or my job because my hardrive was littered with porn. I bought the software and downloaded it and within about 15 minutes i got rid of all porn that was inhibiting my computer, so getting rid of porn is possible and it can be done with the right software! I got rid of all porn on my harddrive and i encourage you to do thesame! Why risk everything you love

An Innovative Database Design Method

This article is intended to give you a single idea that we think is innovative and that you can hopefully use to spur on your design and development tasks and help you build a database system that will meet most if not all of your needs.

The Problems Encountered at the End of a Project

Toward the end of a project, just as you are about to go live with your new database system is often when things can go wrong forcing you to delay the introduction of your new database system.

For this reason, thinking ahead with the notion of meeting as many of the needs your company can use and preparing the ground work for documenting new requirements as they unfold and avoiding a troublesome ending should be at the forefront of your thoughts.

You can do something to prevent this from happing by planning ahead and by setting up an innovative method of documenting the design, development and deployment process with a separate dynamic database model.

The Solution

It all begins by documenting your new database feasibility study and your systems analysis effort and incorporating these documents into your final set of design notes that capture your business requirements, business logic and transactional data into the complete package.

The entire set of design notes could now be inserted into a separate database identified as the “Design Notes Metadata Database” or some similar title. Each table could relate to a major project phase such as requirements gathering, business data and logic collecting, table design and development, test data accumulation, testing, etc.

Each record within every table could relate to a feature of the new database and each field within that metadata record could describe a component of the feature. The record descriptions would remain intact through out the entire design, development, test, deployment and operation. They would in addition remain available for continual update and reference for new employees just becoming familiar with the application.

The entire process can contribute enormously to clarifying data during development and later when maintenance or troubleshooting needs to be performed, or new features need to be added. It would be a simple matter to query the metadata database and discover necessary information you can use to take the appropriate action.

Because all the design notes are embedded in a separate metadata database and because this represents a dynamic maintainable database that is updated during all phases of the project – you should not find yourself in trouble at the end of your project.

Better Data Acquisition with More Articulate Database Designs

Environmental data and life science studies are heavily dependent on data acquisition systems and these in turn are becoming more noticeably dependent on well designed collection systems best represented by database systems. The more articulate these database systems become the more accurate and plentiful does knowledge in these areas rise.

The environment and life science data collected thus far in history is beginning to become richer in terms of metadata and mapping strategies for building more dynamic databases. These new inputs help design closer phraseologies matching the scientific, engineering and technical scenarios necessary to build each new generational model.

Computers have long ago outperformed the promises made by database applications that suggested we would be able to easily collect various real world signals and waveforms and easily extract critical information for subsequent use as a systematic controlling agent for dynamic expansion of knowledge acquisition.

But as our data acquisition has grown exponentially through better sensors and more elaborate instrumentation, our knowledge acquisition has not. That is, until maybe, now. The heart of the solution might be the database system concepts slowly emerging and their more articulate reach into semantic scenario measurement systems.

Sensors working in conjunction with instruments all tied to a data logger provide the measurement configuration. Data loggers are electronic devices that collect data over time or in a specific radius.

These immediate flat data files connected to data loggers house the raw sensor signals. Their readings are periodically transferred to simple but more secure databases which in turn contribute to a knowledge database management system as more data feeds into relational and hierarchical databases.

The Knowledge base grows as the feed into relational and hierarchical database management systems grow to provide level-tag assignments and assist in the eventual manipulation that will be necessary for successful extraction of meaningful real world data to help develop an insight in understanding the environment.

Through the use of a human interface and because the databases mentioned above are so well mapped with predetermined location and expectation tags and are strongly aided with relevant metadata, a system of data highlighted reports are produced that help suggest different kinds of conclusions both scientific technical for practical engineering purposes.

This process continues to evolve into more intricate patterns as database designs become more articulate in their abilities to store, compare, manipulate and report data.

Database Management System Types and their Characteristics

Database management has become important part of every company that has got data to be managed and handled. Server databases and desktop databases are two types of database management systems. The desktop one is concerned with single-user applications and is connected with standard personal computers.

Whereas the server database is mainly connected with multi-user applications and have greater reliability and data consistency. It is costlier than desktop database and operates on high performance servers.

Any website should not blindly dive into the conclusion of database design selection, proper pre-analysis and research is necessary. Sometimes it happens that you decide to buy expensive server database but when calculating your business requirements, desktop database seems to be proper. Also many times requirements for server based database also arises.

In order to analyze the needs of the company about which database would be best, certain points have to clear. Like in how much time will your company data need to be changed and who would make these changes. The concerned authority who would be in-charge of using database and the work they would perform should be known. Also the person responsible for maintenance for data and the source that would be providing IT support should be having knowledge. See to it that which hardware is available and the budget for purchasing the hardware.

After clearing these important issues you can start the procedure of specific database management system evaluation. In order to fulfill database's complex needs, you may require sophisticated server platform that is multi-user based as in Oracle and SQL server. For simpler needs desktop database is the right choice like Microsoft Access. It is inexpensive and offers simple data storage and manipulation facilities. As the name suggests it operates on personal computers and is best for them. Apart from Microsoft Access, Lotus, FileMaker Pro, FoxPro and Paradox are some popular desktop database software.

Oracle, Microsoft SQL server and IBM DB-2 are some popular server databases. They provide enough expertise to manage large amount of data effectively and users can access to these data whenever required. The companies that can afford this particular type of database, they can get the benefit of detailed data management design and solution.

Thus a well structured and planned database design provides a strong base for future company success. Henceforth you can plan accordingly for better performance and futuristic growth.

Reverse Engineering MySQL Database Driven Applications on Windows

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Introduction

You've just started a new job, you need to hit the ground running and quickly, but the rest of the team are “too busy” with their work and you don't want to keep pestering your new colleagues or boss with questions. Enter the MySQL Binary Log.

If you have never heard of the Binary Log I suggest at least finding out what it is and what it is usually used for before you continue with the tutorial.
Tools of the trade

O.K. Let's start with the tools required for the job. You will need to download a neat little toolkit called unxutils from Source Forge and make sure it's install path is referenced in your Path. Unxutils is a handy tool which brings many Unix commands to the windows desktop. It especially useful if you commonly switch between Windows and Linux platforms. Once you have done this you need to open a Command Prompt window and test to make sure you can access the commands. Type the following command and hit enter.

ls -l

If you get a directory listing you can happily move on to the next step. Enabling the Binary Log on Windows. The above command was simply to test if unxutils was installed correctly.
The Service

If you search Google for "Enabling MySQL Binary Log on Windows" you will get a stack of results returned some of which will lead you to MySQL bug status results. The reason for this is that since most Windows users will have MySQL installed, using a Windows installer, on their system as a Service and by default Binary Logging is not enabled. If you follow the below instructions to the letter you will be one of few who has Binary Logging enabled on a Windows box.

For this example I am going to install another MySQL Service along side my original one as I do not wish to use Binary Logging all the time. If you already have a MySQL Service running make sure you stop it at this point. If you don't already have the command line open from the first task then fire it up and type the following command.

sc create MySQLBinLogging binPath= ""C:PathToMySQL Serverbinmysqld" --log-bin=yourmachinename MySQL"

After you have run this command you should see a success message at which point you can open the services manager and start the service. On a typical MySQL installation the binary log file will be located in the MySQL data directory on Vista this is typically in “C:ProgramDataMySQL Serverdata” and will be named as you specified with the –log-bin directive when installing the service. The log file is rotated on a size basis so the first log file should have a suffix of 000001 and so on. At this point we are ready to extract the juicy data we have been waiting to get at.
The Data

Again we will be operating from the command line for now so assuming you still have it open change your path to the data directory where the log file is type the following command and hit enter.

tail -f mylogfile

And that is it. If you want to output the data into a text file for further analysis just type the following.

tail -f mylogfile > myoutputfile.txt

NOTE: The binary log only stored update data so you won't get your select data here. You will need to work with the General Query Log for selects.

XML Databases Dynamically Redefine Meta-Databases

More and more implementations of XML related software are beginning to prove that the tree-like structures of XML databases may be the best useful working models of meta-databases with web service connections through web applications.

As you know, metadata is essential for understanding information stored in relational databases through schemas and other descriptors and has become increasingly important in supporting the growing notion that relational databases are falling behind when it comes to wireless networks, sensory arrays and numerous other kinds of complex networks associated with the corporate world of data trafficking.

Since metadata can describe how and when and by whom a particular set of data was collected, and how the data is formatted it can nicely become useful in a tree-like structure with attribute-tags serving as data-about-data.

For many years, databases were implemented as relation structures that kept records of kinds of data that many times lacked the appropriate pre-design and semantic relationships necessary for a normative vocabulary. This approach did not work well with different partially structured data types. But since many other kinds of data where already becoming well established within the specifications of relational type implementations, the concept of a regular corporate database became synonymous with being a relational model.

However, this started to change as the group of people who kept databases became more diverse. The more database designers began to explore the limits of the medium and of the electronic technology that made it possible, the more the boundaries of what could be called a "database" expanded.

Today, mobile data streaming devices may well change the definition of meta-databases entirely by making it possible for database designers to create new kinds of postings through growing web services connections. XML databases give designers a new flexibility in tying multiple kinds of different platforms to work together as one system

Another element of the XML database class of software that is starting to redefine meta-databases is the corporate database. The XML software has opened up a wide variety of web services that are drastically rearranging the IT departments within corporations.

As more companies experience the benefits of using XML datasets as metadata models for controlling relational structures with XML software, the more dynamic will the use of meta-databases become. Between all of these different forces that are constantly expanding and reshaping the XML database sphere of software, the more we will see new semantic tag systems reaching through the self defining nature of XML.

Database-Assisted Marketing Management

Database-assisted marketing management involves choosing target markets that not only get new customers but also retain the existing ones. It is a business subject, which is based on research and study of practical applications of marketing techniques and management of the marketing resources.

Anyone who practices techniques associated with this field could be referred to as a marketing manager with additional skills stemming from the ability to query and analyze database reports that improve marketing vision. The role of this kind of marketing manager is to use this analysis to influence the timing and level of customer demand so as to help the sales process.

This role of marketing manager is actually a virtual function and the ultimate naming convention depends on the size of the business and the type of product or service environment we are focusing on. If the work takes place in a huge production company there could be many general managers each assigned a particular product or product category. In this case, the manager would be responsible for database reporting analysis of the product or category and its profit and loss.

In a smaller business environment the marketing manager with database query and reporting credentials of a particular product or service may very well be the owner or partners of the company.

Creating and communicating best customer values can increase the number of customers. The steps taken and resources utilized to maintain existing customers and get new customers fall under database-assisted marketing management. The scope is quite large because it not only consists of developing a product, but also retaining it. The additional burden includes the constant renewal of proven sales and marketing concepts coupled with database query and data analysis necessary to sustain a growing business.

The term database-assisted marketing management has many definitions. The concept actually depends on individual firms and how the marketing department functions and activities of other departments like operations finance, pricing and sales. But our concerns rely mainly on the ability to obtain accurate sales and marketing data and when depending on a database system to deliver this data to us, we naturally turn to database verification, calibration and validation of its inputs and output processes.

Before deciding about a marketing strategy, the company must do an in-depth study about their business, and the market. This is where database-assisted marketing management merges with strategic planning. Usually the marketing strategies are of three types, customer analysis, company analysis and competitor analysis. Using the customer analysis, the market is broken down into different types of customers.

The database-assisted marketing manager realizes the characteristics and other variables of each group. They are geographical location, demographic, customer behavior pattern and need. Groups of people might be recognized as to who can be less price sensitive with growing purchases. Such groups can be worked on by heavy investments as they are worth the money and time. They cannot only retain such customers and make new customers in this group but they can go to the very extent of turning back customers who don’t belong to this group.
Understanding the needs makes customer’s expectations to be met per their satisfaction, better than the competitors, which will lead to higher sales and obvious profit.

Company analysis highlights the cost structure and resources of the company and cost position when compared to competitors. The accounting executives use it to learn about the profit earned by a particular product. From time to time, audits are conducted to study about the strengths of various brands of the company. Here again the functions derived from software database validation audits strengthens the reach of data reliability.

Marketers using competitor analysis build detail customer profiles using validated database queries and reporting techniques. It gives a clear picture about the strengths and weaknesses of the firm, when compared to a competitor. The competitor’s cost structure, resources, competitive positioning, degree of vertical integration, product differentiation, and profits are studied in detail and are compared to what each company is doing in those regards.

The database-assisted marketing analysis introduces additional query and reporting phases that help carry out the marketing research. The most common types of these researches are qualitative marketing research, quantitative marketing research, experimental techniques and observational techniques. All of these research marketing phases are enhanced with the employment of well known database validation processes that are approved by the company

Because of all the studies and researches conducted through the use of a software validated database, it is easier for the marketing manager to make strategic decisions and they then can design a marketing strategy to increase the profits and revenues of their company. This approach of database assistance extends the reach into profits over the long run, an increase in market share and revenue growth.

MS Access – An under utilised and under rated business tool

Lots of people own it, some tinker with it, a few are experts in it and most IT departments hate it.

Microsoft Access has been a part of the Office family for many years and has gradually evolved along with its siblings; Word, Excel, PowerPoint and the like. In many office environments, people use it as a glorified spreadsheet package enabling far more simple solutions than Excel’s “vlookup” type scenarios and catering for much larger sets of data, but this is very much where the problem lies. Ask anyone in your IT department and they will say it’s rubbish as a database. It’s not rubbish, it is just that IT departments cannot support an application that has not been developed by themselves and more often than not has not been developed by a professional using standard and accepted conventions.

So you end up with a half baked product, developed by someone internally who has “a flair for these things”, the IT department won’t get involved and the originator has long gone. Little wonder MS Access gets the press that it does!

The truth is, developed properly; applications in MS Access can be powerful and extremely cost effective. Okay, if you have more than 20 users and are processing millions of records it won’t be powerful enough for your needs but most companies aren’t processing those volumes and don’t have that many employees, let alone users.

Let’s look at the positives;

There are absolutely no licenses required (apart from the license you get when you purchase MS Office)

1. Development costs are a fraction of that of client server based applications like SQL or Oracle (This is not just down to the programmers wages. When you commission a system using these platforms you also end up employing business analysts, project leaders, accountants and all sorts of other people making up the “development team”).
2. Development time is very quick by comparison.
3. It is extremely flexible and can be altered or added to without fuss.
4. Because it is part of MS Office it interacts seamlessly with it’s siblings
5. It can easily be upgraded to SQL if your volumes do start to overwhelm it.

On the not so positive side, it is not designed for online use. You can set-up forms that allow access to the application through a webpage but the database engine really isn’t powerful enough to cope in this scenario.

So, if you need online functionality, MS Access is probably not for you. But if you have any type of administrative functions that are repetitive and time consuming, a well designed Access application will save you a fortune in time and money.

Employ an established developer to design and build your application and you’ll see that Access can automate a multitude of business processes, make sure they offer good “after sales” and support services and I promise you will not look back

Smart card security

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No security in this world is perfect. Security is always about the cost of implementing and enforcing the security versus the cost of the fraudster to break the security and the cost to be paid for the security breach. Depending on the type of the system, the cost may or may not be limited to just monetary cost but include the reputation damages, live lost but also national security. Certainly if human live and national security is concerned then the system cost may not be the most important consideration factor. However for many commercial smart card applications, it must be able to bring real benefits to all parties the application operator, cardholders and other service providers in the application. It must be able to help to make more money, lower cost and / or bring benefits to all parties in the application. Last but not least, smart card technology must be the most cost effective technology to be used.
Security in smart card applications
In any smart card application, a basic requirement is that it must be secured. The axiom for smart card application security is that the cost of enforcing the security must be much smaller than the effort to break the security and the cost to break the security must be higher than the potential rewards that can be obtained after breaking the security. In an efficiently designed smart cardapplication, the cost of the system implementation must be minimized but the security not compromised. A smart cardapplication is a distributed system. It compromises of a number of subsystems with each subsystem doing part of the system function. . The security of the system comprises of the front-end enforcement, frontend and back-end verification, backend audit and system fraud damage control. The system design always assumed a scenario of a fraud and how it can be controlled. Security must be addressed at the system level and not to be focused on just a small subsystem or component in the system. It can still make sense to use a lower cost card which is seemingly less secured in a smart card application but it does not mean that security will be compromised. Security can still be implemented in other subsystems so that the application remains secured and meanwhile lowering the entire system cost. To illustrate my argument, let's take a real application example of using the I2C free access memory card (e.g. 24C02) as a prepaid electricity meter card! This card is freely read and update and is therefore easily cloned. However a cloned card will not be accepted by the system. This is done as follows: The prepaid electricity meter is installed in the house and that it shall only accept one or a limited number of prepaid cards, using 24C02 free access memory card. A prepaid card is only acceptable to the meter if the card is authorized by the authority staff card for the first time, which his authorization system will ensure that the card is not being registered with another meter. The staff card can be inserted into the meter, followed by the prepaid card so that the card is registered by the meter. The card contains a serial number, a transaction counter and a stored value. These data is MAC-ed so that it cannot be tampered with being detected. During topping up of value into the meter, the meter shall first verify that the card serial number is registered in the meter and that the transaction counter is one higher than the previous transaction. Also the MAC indicates that the data has not been tampered. Then the transaction counter inside the meter is incremented and value is transferred to the meter. The fraudster will not know the MAC of the next transaction counter since he does not have the MAC key. He needs to pay for the topup before he becomes aware of the MAC. He cannot tamper with the stored value as it will be detected. A cloned card cannot be used as the meter expects the counter to be incremented in the card! This illustrate that even with a free access memory card, security can be achieved if the system security design is done correctly.
Is smart card really secure?
There has been some publicity in the smart card industry about how Mifare card can be cloned. People without good understanding about smart card application security design tend to focus only on the smart card and its algorithm. . Cryptographic algorithm in memory smart card such as Mifare certainly cannot be compared to CPU smart card. Competent smart card application designer using such type of card must implement other security measures in the card mapping design and in other subsystems to strengthen the application security. On the other hand, an incompetent designer, even if he uses the most secured card in the...(and so on) To get More information , you can visit some products about digital special multimeter, school supply counter, . The SF150 Fluorine Silicon Drilling Fluids Thinner (powder) products should be show more here!

Is All Your Data Slowing You Down

For some of you, you have been using the same accounting system for awhile. The good news is that you have years of historical data to draw upon for everything from measuring your company to negotiating vendor contracts to finding the product that Bob purchased five years ago. The bad news is you have to wade through years of transactions to get to the current data. A lot of data can slow down not only your searches for information, but overall system performance.

Wouldn't it be great if you could have the best of both worlds?

You can.

Consider this: Other than trending reports and the rare ad hoc lookups, you use only the current fiscal year and the prior year or two for most of your day to day functions.

An option for handling this situation is to make a copy of the current database for your company and use the copy as an "archive" company.

* Since this "archive" company will be a real accounting system company, it can be accessed as needed. You will simply log into this "archive" company and look for the data you need.
* The security for this company can be set as read-only so users will not be able to change any data.
* Software tools such as FRx, SQL Server Reporting Services, and Crystal Reports can make reports that combine the data for seamless reporting.

Once you have all your data archived, we are free to remove history in your current company using the accounting system's transaction history removal tools.

Next Steps

Creating an "archive" company requires significant accounting system and SQL Server knowledge and experience. Omnios professional consultants can assist you with planning the archival and implementing the change.

Giving Visual FoxPro a new lease life

I read an article on the Internet about what can be done by both Microsoft Corporation and Visual FoxPro programmers to give Visual FoxPro a new lease of life! For example, that article suggested doing away with the Fox icon at the top of the Visual FoxPro application window, reengineering parts of the FoxPro application including doing away with the Windows 95 dialog boxes and so on. This article seeks to contribute to the debate, suggesting additional ideas that the author considers to be critical to not only reviving VFP but also in attracting new developers to VFP cause. The author believes that a certification program (now discontinued for the VFP track my Microsoft) along with a ‘Built with VFP Standard’ Logo are critical to putting VFP back on the map.

Introduction

It is no longer news that Microsoft has announced that they will be no VFP10! Microsoft has since announced that aside from support through 2014, they will be no active marketing of VFP and Microsoft’s actions speak louder than words! In the interim, many new products and white papers have surfaced, advising VFP programmers on how to make the transition to the .NET Framework as well as products that promise to let you code your application in VFP while compiling to ‘IL’ – the primary executable language that enables .NET programs run.

Many Visual FoxPro Programmers have asked themselves what this means and what this will entail! I believe that events have already answered this question! Even before Microsoft announced their intention to stop making VFP, eligible members of the VFP community had already started building enhancements to VFP with the primary goal of making VFP competitive with other contemporary programming languages. These efforts crystallized themselves as VFPx and VFPy on Codeplex, eventually forcing Microsoft to publish their own efforts (Sedna) also on CodePlex!

Therefore it was with great interest that I read the many opinions and ideas that VFP Developers have on how to improve VFP. While I will not dispute these ideas, I just want to add to them!

I believe that Microsoft’s strategy to ‘kill’ VFP is simple – if VFP Programmers are give an ultimatum to change to .NET, and marketing, support and further development/enhancement of the VFP product line is discontinued then VFP programmers will have no choice but to change over to VB or C# (i.e the .NET Framework). But as programmers, we must ask critical questions! What are the critical performance benefits of non-.NET Framework applications as opposed to .NET Framework applications? Since the .NET Framework was touted as a platform independent solution, perhaps comparable to Sun Java’s Byte code, on what additional OS’s or platforms apart from Window is the .NET Framework running since inception?

These questions enable VFP Programmers to realize that there is nothing there are missing on the .NET Framework! (Don’t get me wrong! The .NET Framework is a great effort by Microsoft with some truly great features and promises)! This means that since Microsoft has agreed to at least open-source the VFP Environment, it will be up to the VFP community to keep the flame alive, through advertisements. What form might such advertisements take?

What can be done?

One form would be through the publication of new case studies for Visual FoxPro based projects. The Web provides a ready medium for this purpose. Another way will be to produce a new certification exam for Visual FoxPro programmers to replace the Certification exams now dropped my Microsoft Corporation for the VFP product line. To understand why this is important, consider for example, that if you were delivering an Oracle product, it would do you good to be an OCP or ODBA. Similarly, Microsoft retains certification for its other products apart from VFP. The VFP community could therefore setup new certification exams (considering also that in the developing world, this may be the only qualification available to VFP Programmers who are non-degree holders) that VFP Programmers could take. The aim of the certification exam would be to ascertain that a programmer is qualified to undertake and deliver solutions built primary with VFP as the primary development language.

Such certification exams could be structured to deliver credits earned in three levels viz: Certified Visual FoxPro Professional (CVFP), Certified Visual FoxPro Master (CVPM) and Certified Visual FoxPro Enterprise Architect (CVFPA).

The aim of each certification could be of course decided at a later stage, but for example, the Certified Visual FoxPro Professional examination could aim to ensure that a Visual FoxPro programmer can write workable VFP based applications and desktop applications using VFP. The CVPM certification could be used to certify that a VFP Programmer could build full-featured pure fox two-tier client/server applications using VFP as the primary application development environment. The CVFPA certification would test a programmers knowledge on how to use to VFP to build top-notch n-tier distributed web-based or windows based enterprise applications.

These certifications would be designed to give VFP Programmers something to hold onto and also publicized attract new programmers into the VFP fold. The trend we have observed in our part of the world is the importance placed on professional certifications of this type as testimony that the professional does indeed possess the requisite professional skills to deliver a solution based on the stated/proposed technology. We have also observed that most people look upon the availability of certification exams as testimony that the technology is current. Why should this be different in the case of Visual FoxPro? While MSCD on the Visual FoxPro track existed, Microsoft ensured that those for Visual Basic and Visual C++ overshadowed these! Now VFP Programmers can setup something on their own and ensure that it is properly marketed to developers!

Of course setting up certification exams would have to come with the full works such as setting up curricular, courseware and approved training materials that students could use to train. Such materials could also form the nucleus of another marketing ploy….marketing VFP as the principal tool to teach Database concepts at educational institutions and making sure people know that VFP educational licenses are available and very affordable.

Yet again another certification and therefore marketing ploy would be to certify VFP product sites as ‘Powered By VFP’ or ‘VFP Enterprise Approved’ or whatever you would want to call it. This would allow organizations that buy solutions built with VFP to be assured that they have received an enterprise solution engineered to the highest standards much as Lucent used to Certify networks sites for their ‘Systimax’ Structured Cabling standard in those days. Of course anyone who has been around would easily know that other cabling standards such as ‘Belkin Structured Cabling’ existed but who was setting the pace and standards and why?

Who would administer such a program?

Efforts such as VFPx and VFPy have already demonstrated the power that a community will can bring to bear. The same spirit can be brought to bear on the ideas contained herein. Perhaps, I will make bold to say that the VFPx Team can be used as a ‘rallying point’ to nominate imminent members of the VFP community with a sound knowledge of the VFP Product technology line to administer a VFP University Product foundation that could then oversee or implement the ideas contained herein, perhaps of course taking care to structure the organization in such a way that it does not violate Microsoft’s trademarks or copyrights but giving a new lease of life to existing VFP programmers while attracting new talent to take-up building solutions with VFP!

Since some of this programmers required to administer this idea would be working professionals working to make a living, the whose thing could be structured still around the idea of VFPx, with a core of professionals coordinating everything, making sure that certifications are properly gazette with both Microsoft and other professional bodies, while allowing VFP community members to contribute their ideas and thoughts on the curricular and other aspects of the organization to ensure that all certifications actually reflect trainings on current industry standard practice.

The VFP University Product Foundation team could:

1. Draw up curricular for VFP Certification examinations and promote such certification examinations world-wide through usual VFP Community site and other amenable technology sites
2. Publish Training materials that could be used for such trainings and certification study programs
3. Ensure that certifications issued are properly accreddited with both Microsoft Corporation and other industry standard bodies (whoever is taking this should know that it is worthwhile).
4. Appoint approved training centers world-wide that could offer such trainings
5. Provide a means for such trainings to be taken online (much as with other CBT offerings online)
6. Certify and rate project sites implemented with Visual FoxPro to ensure that these meet industry standard practice and upon certification, issue an ‘Powered by VFP’ Logo/seal as a mark of quality
7. Set and Publish standards for VFP Programmers
8. Provide a forum for publication of new case-studies for VFP Programmers and ensure that these are also published in other technology forums (not just the usual VFP ones).
9. Promote VFP to educational institutions and foundation to use as a primary tool in demonstrating Database concepts and teaching programming concepts
10. etc

The VFP University Foundation would just be just like Oracle University or Microsoft University! Providing critical lifeline of continuing education on the VFP product line; doing what Microsoft is not now doing for VFP, just as Microsoft University does for other Microsoft products and Oracle does for the Oracle product portfolio!

It takes Money! Where will the Money Come from?

Definitely, administering an initiative of this sort takes money and financial resources to setup web sites, produce and publish training materials, place adverts, print and send certificates, travel, etc but this need not be an obstacle! if programmers pay a fee to take the exam and are required to take a new exam say every two-three years as new features are integrated into the VFP product by voluntary community efforts, funds will be available. Additionally, certifying sites, speaking at community events and son on would be done for a token fee that would bring resources in to not only run the foundation but also to provide a token compensation for the core of people coordinating the activities of the university foundation. A seed fund would definitely need to be raised by voluntary donations to kick-start the whole effort.

What it all boils down to!

All of the ideas itemized above will not of course obviate the need for improvements and modernization of the VFP product nor do we as a community need to take Microsoft’s place to advertize a product that it makes. This means that as long as the product remains largely close-sourced, many of the things will depend not on the community but on Microsoft! For example, taking off those Windows 95 dialogs and replacing them with new dialogs and so on. However, because we are the ones that use this product and some of us have too huge an investment in this product to start re-writing in another language, we have to take some action to ensure that the VFP product line is not just casually swept under the carpet like that…we do not have to accept a faith accompli!

This means that the campaign to get Microsoft to honor its ‘Corporate-community’ responsibility to the many VFP programmers who make a living by writing software with VFP, to open-source all of VFP (not just its environment) must be intensified. Now is as good a time as any for the VFP community to take a definite stance on their beloved venerable development tool of choice!

VFP has a reputation of having a vibrant active, dedicated and loyal user community; something that is the envy of most other products, including Microsoft’s Visual Basic or C#! Now is the time for this community to show its true mettle, taking the VFP Bull by the horns and doing what must be done to keep the product alive! It will require will on our part as a community and we need not be the underdog always! ‘Yes we can’

MS Access versus Client Server Database Platforms

Throughout my years working with Access, initially using it as a glorified spreadsheet package, I have gradually honed my skills but I am still learning new things everyday. Every new project takes my knowledge to a new level and I want the business world to realise just how versatile this product really is.

Having built systems as complex as Reinsurance pool ledgers I know just how powerful it can be. It is a shame that the IT fraternity have always mocked its capabilities as a reliable database application. This is mainly to do with the fact that users can build their own systems, which generally don’t follow standard programming conventions and it becomes, from their point of view, impossible to support. However, designed and programmed properly this needn’t be the case.

OK so you can’t build conglomerate size systems with Access, I accept that. But there are literally millions of companies in the world that aren’t conglomerates.

I have worked for Insurance companies that have invested millions of pounds in their systems which is obviously a completely different ball game, but for the small to medium sized business MS Access is invaluable.

Access can produce an extremely professional, user friendly interface or menu based functionality that easily rivals the bigger fish. Indeed, Access interfaces are often used to front client server systems such as SQL Server due to Access’s flexibility and ease of menu design. The only difference is the data is held on the SQL platform instead of internally in the Access platform. Obviously the volume of data here is what counts, but let me tell you, I have a database with over three million records in it and it works fine. It has only taken up 3/4’s of the memory space that Access can handle, so as you can see, for most companies this is more than sufficient.

Let’s talk about cost. For the price of developing a system in Access, you probably would have spent the same just getting the system spec’d out in Oracle. This is because the companies that develop these client server mainframe systems have huge infrastructures and as a consequence, huge overheads. They will charge a minimum of £100ph for every individual at every meeting they have with you, then there is the project manager, the accountant, the programmers and so on.

You then need powerful hardware to handle such a system, along with expensive licenses for every user. Access needs none of this! Any reasonable server can handle it or, if you are a small outfit, a desktop computer is fine. The only license you will ever need is the license you got when you purchased MS Access itself (most people already have it as it comes with MS Office).

So you are just left with the cost of developing it. Well most Access programmers either own or work for small establishments and simply don’t have the same massive overheads.

If you need a bespoke system, please consider the merits of using Access, it may not be for you but then again it just might. Find yourself an established company, with good support mechanisms, and you might just save yourself a fortune!

Salvage time along with currency with Dial-A-Tech

Most people of the fresh age regard time as equal to so. So, no one would endure their computer being idle on account of various tribulations in the hardware or software. Computers are definitely a vital element of our life, in the modern day along with age because the achievement of our enterprise depends upon them. Along with, a little stoppage in our computer can cause an intense failure. However, these failures could be prevented with correct upholding as well as defensive measures. Even so, now you can easily avail onsite
be augmented, due to the apposite computer support Sydney facilities from proficient technicians. The onsite computer repair Sydney facilities would cover all the central facades of your computer. The deletion and prevention of the virus in addition to spyware would be done by the technician along with the various new putting in along with data backup.
Now, it has become very effortless to avail the advantages of the online computer repairs Sydney. If there is any fault in your computer, it stops working, or does not operate appropriately, and then you can easily contact an organization that donates the onsite computer repairs services. Dial-A-Tech is the best alternative for you, if you are looking for a company that supplies computer support Sydney. They are total professionals in solving all the problems associated with the computer. They bestow their amenities in all components of Sydney. The utter professionals operating at Dial-A-Tech exert all days, round the year. In the specialty of onsite computer repairs Sydney, Dial-A-Tech is a most unfailing name. You can avail all classes of computer support Sydney for your computer that is employed at your dwelling as well as your office. Those computers that are impinged on due to spyware, adware and virus, cold be effortlessly treated by the professionals of Dial-A-Tech. This would augment the operation of your computer and it would work faster than before. Dial-A-Tech also donates services like laptop repairs Sydney, data recovery Sydney, computer support Sydney, remote backing and search engine optimization , excluding the mobile computer repairs Sydney services.
All your disturbances linked with your computer would definitely come to closing stages after contacting Dial-A-Tech for your onsite computer repairs. This would hoard your time along with cash for transporting the computer to the repair posting. You can straightforwardly call Dial-A-Tech for your help along with they would send their accomplished technician to sort out the harms in your computer. Enormously reasonable charge is charged by Dial-A-Tech from their clientele, for all their amenities.

Your Information Products Are Key To Easy Online Sales

Selling information products has been proven to be one of the quickest and easiest ways to earn extra money. It is also an honest and effective way to make a living income on-line and increase your internet wealth. These products constitute the second-biggest business on the Internet (selling software is first).



Products

A wonderful way of supplementing your income and not having to produce the products yourself is by joining an affiliate program which has already developed and tested the product for you. With proper planning, it usually takes less time and effort to maintain information products than it is to maintain physical ones. You are able to work on other projects while passively cashing in from information products, and once produced they can be reproduced again and again at minimal or no cost to you.

Marketing

Marketing can seem difficult but it is a science that anyone can learn. By itself, even marketing information products can be an expensive endeavour but with some thought and knowledge non-expensive alternatives can be found and used. The most important rule but often most forgotten is the old marketing rule of RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH. If done properly this is a major key to success. Reading relevant material and talking to fellow marketers will enhance your knowledge and short cut your learning curve. If you just read everything about Internet marketing but never apply any of the tactics and techniques you may be doing yourself a disservice and will take much longer to attain your goal. Testimonials can also be used, these transform into marketing gold if used correctly.

Selling information products is not a new idea. There are numerous ebooks available on the internet covering a plethora of subjects however many of them are thrown together with little thought about its usefulness to the reader. If you can find a topic that many people are eager to pay money to learn about, selling information products is a great way to earn money on the internet. No doubt, selling information products is a great idea; but it is something that you need to invest time for it to be a worthwhile venture.

Creating and selling information products is one of the most risk-free ways for anyone to develop an online business. The best benefit you’ll get from selling information products is you’ll be your own boss. Identifying hot markets, researching your market, finding opportunities and quickly turning that opportunity into hot selling information products can only lead to success.

Buying World of Warcraft Gold

When buying gold World of Warcraft it is best to keep your wits about you. To put it very mildly, there is a jungle out there, virtually (pun intended) speaking. A scam targeting World of Warcraft gamers has recently come to light. It is called 'phishing' whereby users (in the process of) buying gold World of Warcraft get an email stating that their account has been suspended and then directs them to a website directing them to click on it. The website, actually falsely set up by a hacker, then requests the users to punch their account details.

Blizzard Entertainment has now issued a notice to all its players educating them about the dangers of buying gold World of Warcraft. The company claims that the practice of buying gold World of Warcraft online using actual currency is threatening the stability of the game as well as that of the servers that support it. They report, rather alarmingly, about the high trade turnout in real money through hacked accounts. Just bear in mind that if you are found involved - albeit indirectly - in a scam or fraud you stand to lose your account, definitely. You could also be banned forever from all Blizzard games.

A good rule to remember is that on receiving an email, do check its address. If it ends as @battle.net or @blizzard.com you may consider it safe.

Sometimes phishing mail appears within the game as in through an avatar posing as an employee of Blizzard who asks you for your account details. Simply stand your ground and say an emphatic 'NO'. Blizzard Entertainment never ever asks its subscribers for their account details in-game - you would do well to remember this one important point. Blizzard representatives would never ask you for your account details, whether or not you are buying gold World of Warcraft. So if you receive a message asking you for your account details in order to claim a reward, you know what to do don't you? That's right; just go ahead and delete it without further delay. And if you're bent on buying gold World of Warcraft then it doesn't hurt to do your research regarding the reputation of potential sellers.

A word regarding your password. Certainly, don't let it out to anyone online - that's the golden rule (did we need to reiterate that?) Another thing to remember is that while it is a good idea to keep your password simple, don't make it so simple that guessing it becomes second nature to cyber crooks. The most common password, let it be known, is GOD. Ask scamsters. A mix of letters and digits makes your password perfectly secure.

Also be wary of carriers who promise to deliver if you 'pay half now'. They are as bad as 'players' offering you free trips but ask you to pay up 'NOW'. Walk away without looking back, is the virtual advice if you are buying gold World of Warcraft.

It may have occurred to you by now that buying gold World of Warcraft is not without attendant hassles and probably the best way out is to make your own gold easily. In order to expedite buying gold World of Warcraft in the most effective way try and find the best place for it.

When buying gold World of Warcraft put your common sense to the best use and just try this link http://www.warcraft-gold-wow.com

WoW Tips for Gold - Experts Tips on How to Make Gold in WoW

Get rich with Wow Tips for Gold! For those with a flair for the game, it is like playing the stocks' market. The really game-savvy players should know, however, that AH or the Auction House is the nerve center requiring manipulation. The one add-on or plug-in you should acquire for Gold is the Auctioneer which supports vital information such as the recording of prices and the quantity of each item as well as estimates regarding item prices. It gives you valuable insight into contemporary issues related to the auction house. Yet, according to success full players and their Tips for Gold it is always a good idea to conduct your own research in terms of price comparison so that you can 'buy low and sell high' and reap unimaginable profits. Bear in mind that you would have to invest valuable time in the exercise before you turn into an astute investor thanks to WoW Tips for Gold from experts.

As every WoW inhabitant is aware, there are two main types of professions - primary and secondary which come under three categories- service, production, and gathering. Experts recommend that the gathering profession, especially for beginners who can build up the level of their characters more proficiently - and build their fortunes more succinctly simultaneously - than if they were to choose other professions.

Experts strongly suggest that you take up two professions to be safe. The professions are skinning (owing to the magnitude of killing involved) and mining. Bear in mind that the latter, while being a money-spinner is also pretty cutthroat. You could also try your hand at herbalism with a growing market for herbal remedies, unguents et al.

Later, depending on your will and inclination, you can eschew the profession of gathering and choose another using expert Tips for Gold.

According to the experts in gold making, a guide might be a good investment. I know, the majority of guides don't come for free but look at them as time-savers which actually pay off by giving you fat, juicy tips regarding raking in the moolah.

You can try to get some free guide also on making gold subject but the stress is clearly on paid guides from experts on WoW which carry information that could be of vital value to you. This is because of the time and the level of quality invested in the creation of such guides. So instead of wasting time - and money - on false leads and ventures, making the wrong killings (pun fully intended) in the wrong locations, you could as well follow a well-delineated procedure, a virtual map which can lead you to real, tangible treasures.

To sum up, try getting an Auctioneer plug-in, choose the right profession and finally, take prudent shortcuts through tip-rich guides. These are the summary of WoW tips for gold from experts. But emphasized on certain points, we would like to add another. Don't get so lost in the quest for gold that you simply forget to enjoy the game. To enjoy the game and make gold easily instead of buying I suggest you to visit this website on many WoW tips for Gold : http://www.warcraft-gold-wow.com/

IT Training in the UK: How to Choose the Right Track

IT training is in high demand throughout the UK. Although this career path can be both rewarding and lucrative, sometimes it's hard to know what types of IT professionals are sought by employers. In this article, we'll suggest 2 possible tracks an IT career can take, both of which are widely sought by hundreds of employers.

Track One: Multiple Network Certifications

The computer network is the backbone of many companies. In the IT world, the two major network providers are Microsoft and Cisco. So, it's a wise decision to choose to pursue dual certification as a Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator and a Cisco Certified Network Technician or a Cisco Certified Network Associate. Even if you have little or no computer expertise, you can get started by taking IT training that begins with the European Computer Driving License course. This computer it training course will upgrade your skills and prepare you for more the more advanced professional it training courses, after which you'll be ready to tackle Microsoft Systems Administrator or a Windows Systems Engineer certification. Such IT training services cannot help but be beneficial to your career goals, since Microsoft products, especially Windows, continue to be the most widely used software in the UK. Although not so widely used, Cisco networks have maintained a respectable market share in the British Isles. So, Cisco certification is also worth pursuing via it training companies. On this track, you will learn to install, configure and troubleshoot Cisco software and hardware including routers and switches.

Track Two: Web Site Design and Development

Since so many of the companies in the UK have a presence on the Internet, the job market in web design and development is booming and so is the demand for UK IT training. It's possible to pursue a course of information technology training that will lead to certification as a web master or web designer. IT certification training will introduce you to the languages and techniques used to create and structure the Internet web pages that are so familiar to everyone. An IT training course should be vendor-neutral, meaning that it does not emphasize a single product or approach. In addition, it training companies should teach you about the software that's used to develop web pages, like Dreamweaver, FrontPage, Apache, ColdFusion and others. For those who want to pursue the Microsoft track, there's certification as a Microsoft Certified Applications and Solutions Developer. With the explosion of companies seeking to sell their products and services on the Internet, the job market for web designers is expected to continue to grow.

It's possible to complete a course of IT training in the UK in from 12 to 24 weeks, depending on the certification being pursued. Many training providers offer evening and Saturday classes. Why not take advantage of the booming IT job market? With just a few courses under your belt, you'll be certified to work in this lucrative field. For further details Click the following link http://www.nhanced.co.uk/it-training/ or Please log on to www.nhanced.co.uk

StoneHill Technical Solutions Is Affirmed Through Microsoft's Gold Certification

San Clemente, California- May 7, 2009- StoneHill Technical Solutions, Inc. is announcing their achievement of the Microsoft Gold Certificate, proving high quality service and technical expertise. Being Gold Certified, StoneHill Tech has confirmed the ability to meet customer needs and further establish their position in the Information Technology Consulting field. According to Microsoft, "Gold Certified Partners represent the highest level of competence and expertise with Microsoft technologies, and have the closest working relationship with Microsoft."

StoneHill Technical Solutions was able to meet the rigorous evaluation standards of the Microsoft Gold Certified Program together with total customer satisfaction and support. With less than 5% of all Microsoft Partners worldwide to be awarded the highest Gold Certified status, this recent achievement allows StoneHill Tech to offer more extensive service to their clients. Through the Gold Certification StoneHill Tech will receive the latest news, promotions, and updates regarding Microsoft's business and products. Because of this StoneHill is able to keep their clients up-to-date on latest and greatest technology and features. Yet another advantage of this classification is the access to premier resources including a variety of local classes, online courses, hands-on online labs, and independent study resources to further develop their technical proficiency. Through these resources, StoneHill Tech's technicians will constantly be updated and learning new ways to help their clients--this will give them a competitive advantage in the IT channel.

The Sun Solaris Certifications

The trend of certifications in the IT (information technology) is growing with great pace and the IT (information Technology) is also progressing with the same rate. There are so many courses of certifications which are offering by the IT (information Technology) institutes in these days. The amount of candidates of different certification courses is increasing very fast. The one certification course which is one of the most popular among the candidates of certifications is "Sun Solaris Certifications". There are so many IT (information Technology) institutes who are offering these certifications, and the amount of candidates in these IT (information technology) institutes is very much large. The philosophy of sun Solaris certifications is central to the learning process as it gives validation of knowledge and skills need for the specific job roles. These certifications also offer to the candidate of these certifications a natural progression to support his career goals. There are some basic steps to achieve these certifications such as gain basic understanding of UNIX commands and tasks on the Solaris OS and become a Sun certified Solaris Associate. The second step is learning how to perform essential systems administration procedures on the Solaris OS, and explain your skills by a SUN Certified System Administrator. The last step is to train and get experienced of system administrator for high value of knowledge need to perform a security or network administrator on Solaris OS, and go for specialization in the certifications. SCSA Solaris 9 Certification consists of the following exams:

• 310-301 exam • 310-014 exam • 310-015 exam • 310-016 exam

The sun corporation offers so many courses of certifications and there are following courses which are offered by Sun in Solaris OS professional certifications, Sun certified security Administrator (SCSECA), Sun Certified Solaris Associate (SCSAS), Sun Certifies Administrator (SCSA) and Sun Certified Network Administrator (SCNA).The goal of the sun certification is to test on a particular job. Sun Solaris continues to drive networks at the largest enterprises in all over the world. Solaris is being uses by 85% of the fortune 500 companies. This shows the popularity of these certifications all over the world. The courses provide to the candidates of these sun certifications preparation, with hand-on experience working with the complex and difficult administration tasks. The students are tested by complete assessments and example test questions in the training center of these certifications. The candidates of these certifications will under take a series of lectures and lab experience focusing on attending the Sun Solaris9 certification practice questions. This is not an easy task to achieve the candidates has to work very hard under the intense conditions to prepare for the exams and good grades.

SAP Training Skyrockets IT Careers and Salaries Worldwide

SAP- AG is a German organization and the term "SAP" refers to Systems, Applications, and Products involved in information processing. SAP-AG's business settled in Walldorf, Germany in 1972 and has steadily developed into the 3rd broadest software manufacturer in the world. SAP software is very flexible by nature meaning that the same software out of the box can be configured for a variety of industries. SAP offers popular methodologies, advanced software tools, streamlined practices and other perks making it a popular software choice among large companies. SAP educational courses are offered in many formats including on-site instructor-led classes, courses offered at SAP educational sites, e-learning websites, and most recently some new video solutions to the training challenge.

Rising Career Opportunities

A SAP trained IT specialist has a very marketable skill with ample job opportunities as well as a strong international demand for consultants. For 12 million SAP users in more than 120 countries, SAP training distinguishes the computer professional and becomes a critical success factor.

How hot is your current career path? Specialization through SAP Training can equal an opportunity to pro-actively move your functional experience and IT career to the SAP domain. Training is not only about immersing in knowledge, it's also about creating opportunities for bettering your career. Building a career in SAP requires you to have both educational and functional knowledge. Large businesses are active in many different areas and therefore have highly varied computer career software needs. Once you acquire skill and some experience in SAP R/3 though, you have a very marketable commodity for the right company or for becoming an independent consultant in this rapidly expanding computer career.

Knowledge and Training

The primary focus of SAP training should be the acquisition of configuration skills and knowledge; Certification is secondary. A professional with core qualifications, good business process knowledge and good SAP skills can easily become a sought-after SAP consultant.

SAP training is a specialized educational experience, usually provided for a fee. Standard training provides modular-based learning and is delivered at different levels depending on system complexity. SAP training becomes an investment that enables the IT professional to stand out in a competitive market. The bad news is that conventional SAP training is usually prohibitively expensive for the individual. For corporations seeking to train key users, or their entire IT staff, a traditional on-site training course is probably best. SAP-AG offers an excellent catalog of their training courses for both small and large companies at the SAP-AG International website.

New Training Possibilities

Since training in SAP creates new high-demand careers, educators have recently developed alternatives to the traditional classroom approach. Modern video technology has enabled educators to develop comprehensive training programs on DVD video for a mere fraction the traditional cost. My personal favorites are the DVD programs which provide an amazing combination of both theory and practice on SAP systems. Any IT professional serious about a high-paying and versatile career specialty should investigate these new home training possibilities.

Want to investigate the exciting salary potential for a trained SAP professional? You can learn more about training at home for a fraction of the cost of traditional classroom instruction. Click here for free SAP Training materials and to learn more about home training: More training information

Free A+ Certification for IT Professionals

There are so many fields came in the IT (information Technology) after the reorganization of IT (information Technology) on international scene. There are so many IT (Information Technology) institutes are available now, who are offering different IT (Information Technology) certifications courses. Although they all were very expensive in the past, but now so many IT (information Technology) institutes are offering these certifications courses free on internet. The one of many courses which are offering by IT (information Technology) institutes is A+ certifications. The one of the most popular and demanded certifications in the IT (information Technology) organizations.

A+ certifications is the first step taken by the certifier road to be an IT professional. Think about your future in the career of a professional certifier. All the certifier trainers are standing by you to help you for the certifications. And achieve your goals which a candidate has set for himself. The free education on these certifications is available on the websites of all the leading IT (information Technology) institutes all the time in each part of the worlds. The trainers are also available for required help of the candidate. The candidate need only these following things such as convenient schedule, hands on training, tests preparation, and someone to guide you etc. these certifications ensure that the right people have the right skills, the certifier trainers only polish the skills and give experience and right kind of guidance to the certifier trainer.

A+ certification consists of the following exams:

• 220-301 exam • 220-302 exam • 220-601 exam • 220-602 exam • 220-604 exam • 220-603 exam

The IT institutes have a goal to produce an A+ certified professionals, so they introduced a module system online with all the information and videos which are absolutely free for the candidates. The candidate of these certifications will have learn about the history of Comp TIA, the benefits and advantages of these certifications, the exam categories and the best practice to use when the candidate if these certifications exam at testing center.

The module is based upon different chapters which are as follow, 1st chapter is soft skills, 2nd chapter is safety and tools, 3rd chapter is Motherboards, 4th chapter is Processors and CPUs, 5th chapter is Memory, 6th chapter is BIOS and CMOS, 7th chapter is Personal computer storage, 8th chapter is personal computer power, 9th chapter is personal computer connector, 10th chapter is Adapter cards, 11th chapter is Cooling system, 12th chapter is Input, output and system resources, 13th chapter is Printers and scanners, 14th chapter is Laptop and portable devices, 15th chapter is Disk operating system, 16th chapter is Disk files, 17th chapter Diagnosing and Troubleshooting operating systems, 18th chapter is networking and the last chapter of these certifications is Security. The Free A+ certifications are very useful for the professional in the IT (information Technology) organization, and are available to all the leading training institutes of Information Technology

Follow your Dreams through CCNA Certification

Follow your Dreams through CCNA Certification

CCNA or Cisco Certified Network Associate is known as the mastermind in installing and configuring the LAN (Local Area Networks) and WAN (Wide Area Networks). In order to land a job like this, one must take a certification from Cisco first. This certification is described as the bedrock or the entry-level in networking. Once you've got the authorizing document, you are now all set to take charge in the networking realm. But this is just the first step or prerequisite of other Cisco certifications. Gain enough experience first before you take other training programs that can be beneficial in the future.

It is a well-known fact that there are no prerequisites in CCNA but it is best to arm yourselves with needed information in networking like CompTIA Network and protocols such as IP RIP, IP, IGRP, Serial, Frame Relay, VLAN's and others. This is not an easy job to do especially if you're starting in an entry-level but hard work and dedication to your work will give you a great deal of benefits later on. Everyone is required to start as a novice but as you go along you'll gain enough experience that will soon pave the way for a brighter future.

This certification has lots of benefits lined up for this kind of associates but you need to show your utmost devotion to your work as well as perseverance. In CCNA, you may enjoy a higher salary. This is definitely everyone's goal in life but having huge compensation only means having bigger responsibilities as well. You should be ready to the assigned tasks given to you. There's a possibility that your work will be doubled and should be done in a limited time. Just thinking about this responsibility might make you squirm but just think of the benefits you can get out of this challenging work.

Aside from getting huge income, your expertise in CCNA will also help you in creating an impact in the networking domain. Through the certification you got, you have a good chance of getting recognized. You can use this to further pump out your confidence and to aim for greater heights. Now, you have enough reasons to take other certifications. In this way, you can hone your skills and knowledge for your own good and the company you're working in.

Since the IT industry is the leading business nowadays it is really advisable to get updated with its latest trends. You can do that by enrolling in training programs such as CCNA. After finishing the said course, you can get a certification that will serve as your golden ticket to a more promising job in networking. You may start at the bottom level but don't take that as a discouragement because everyone really starts at the bottom. So your success strictly depends on your ability to work according to the program you have enrolled in. Make sure to do well in the training course Cisco offers because that will dictate your future in the networking realm.

American College Certification for IT Professionals

It is very important to be educated from a good institute in these modern days. It certainly helps the student when he put his first step in professional life. It is known that American College Certifications have become a global demand in a lot of successful IT (information technology) companies. To match their demands, the IT (information technology) institutes are offering so many Certification courses under the professional certified trainers. This certainly will help the student to polish his technical skills under the professionally certified trainers. The trainers provide the candidate some very useful training and study guides to pass the exams in his first attempt.

The American college is not making profit for giving the high level of education to the candidates. It is committed to it's of bettering the candidate's experience. It has a great support structure for candidates to rely on as they give their Certification Exams. The trainers of the IT (information technology) institutes will work hard to polish the technical skills of the candidate who has the ambition to be a professionally certified in these certifications. The candidate will be well prepared before the Exams if he worked very hard during the training classes. The course and training is program is designed by the group of professionals who has the years of experience in the training field. The experience of professionals will help the candidate in the certification Exams and also in his Professional career. The IT (information technology) training institutes will provide the candidate all the study material, training tools, Test sessions and all the information related to the certification Exams.

Chartered Financial Consultant:

ChFC Certification consists of only one exam:

HS330 Exam: Fundamentals of Estate Planning Test

The American College has decades of long history; it has a reliable reputation all over the world. It has prepared the candidate directly for the real professional world. So once the candidate has passed the certification Exams, he has recognized himself as someone who is well aware of the modern development in that particular field. The American college wants to raise the level of professionalism of those candidates who are associated with it. So it is great chance for the candidates who have the ambition to be professionally certified, to be counted as one of the best in that particular field in which he wants to be a professionally certified

The Advantage of the SATA Storage Interface

The Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) computer bus is a storage-interface for connecting host bus adapters, often found in laptops and desktop motherboards to mass storage devices. SATA host adapters and peripherals communicate with each other via a high-speed serial cable.

The Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO) is the group responsible for developing, managing and driving adoption of SATA specifications. Users of the SATA interface benefit from greater speed, easy-to-use upgradeable storage devices and simpler configuration.

The SATA interface debuted in 2001, and it is now the most popular interface for PC applications. With data transfer rates of 1.5 Gbps, SATA 1.0 soon became a replacement for the Parallel ATA (PATA) interface. As of 2009, SATA has replaced all but legacy ATA in all consumer PCs being shipped. SATA is advantageous over PATA in several ways, including its smaller and less expensive cable, faster and more efficient data transfer and ability to hot swap, or add/remove devices while in operation.

The next generation of SATA doubled the data transfer rate to 3 Gbps. The SCSI interface had been able to accept several requests and respond to them in the order which minimized response time. This feature, called native command queuing (NCQ), was adopted as an optional feature for both SATA 1.5 Gbps and SATA 3 Gbps devices. Given the importance of backward compatibility between SATA 1.5 Gbps and SATA 3 Gbps devices, SATA 3 Gbps is designed to fall back to SATA 1.5 Gbps when in communication with SATA 1.5 Gbps devices.

eSATA
Initially, SATA was designed as an internal, inside-the-box technology; however, designers quickly realized that the interface could be expanded outside the PC, bringing the same performance and features to external storage needs. This led to the development of a new connector called external SATA or eSATA which is specified for external devices.

With eSATA, consumers can receive the same benefits that SATA brings to storage. eSATA was released as a new standard in 2004, with specifically defined cables, connectors and signal requirements. It is hot pluggable and provides more performance than existing solutions. Several benefits of eSATA include its robust and user-friendly external connection, its ability to utilize a shielded cable up to 2 meters and its cost (eSATA delivers a higher gigabyte transfer rate per dollar than existing storage interfaces and does not require a protocol translation chip).

There are a few differences between the shielded connector and the internal connector. In order to prevent the use of unshielded internal cables in external applications, the external connector has no "L" shaped key, and the guide features are offset and smaller. To prevent damage, the insertion depth has increased by 1.6 mm to 6.6 mm and the contacts are mounted back farther in the receptacle and the plug. The cable also has an extra layer of shielding and the connectors have metal contact points. Additionally, there are springs as retention features built into the connector shield on both the top and bottom surfaces.

One key advantage of eSATA over other interfaces is its speed (up to 6 times faster than USB 2.0 or 1394). As consumers continue to collect a swelling number of high resolution photographs, videos and music files, data transfer rate is increasingly important. By using an eSATA interface, end-users are able to back up their computer systems significantly faster than with existing external storage solutions.

Because SATA is the common standard interface in nearly all new hard drives, eSATA doesn't require the overhead of converting the signal between the external interface and the internal IDE drive. Rather, a buffered direct connect is all that is needed to extend the computer's internal SATA ports outside of the PC.

Applications for eSATA include external direct attached storage for notebooks, desktops, consumer electronics and entry servers, and also support for multiple streams of content such as parallel read and write on a DVR.

Looking forward to the SATA 3.0 specification
The current SATA rev. 2.x specifications detail data transfer rates up to 3.0 Gbit/s. SATA IO presented the draft specification of SATA 6 Gbit/s physical later last year. The full 3.0 standard is anticipated to be available this year. While hard disk drives hardly saturate the 1.5 Gbps bandwidth of original SATA, a move from SATA 3 Gbps to SATA 6 Gbps will benefit the flash read speeds of ONFI drives that can reach well over 500 MB/s.

The new specification will include a few extensions to the command set, namely in the area of data and command queuing, and the enhancements are geared to improve quality of service for video streaming. The standard will support distances up to one meter. The new specification may require higher power consumption for supporting chips; however, new process technologies and power management techniques are expected to combat the potential problem. The future standard will be backward compatible with SATA 2.x specifications.

8 Day CCIE Routing and Switching Mock Lab Workshops

Experience our Routing and Switching mock labs which highly reflect the most current actual labs Solidify your existing knowledge, expose weaknesses Recommended for CCIE candidates who have attempted the actual CCIE(http://www.cathayschool.com) Exam without passing

CathaySchool's CCIE Routing and Switching Training Mock Lab Workshops are eight-day 1-one-1 Instructor-led classes provided in Guangzhou, China. They are designed for students to solidify their existing knowledge, expose weaknesses, and to fully prepare candidates as they lead up to their CCIE Routing and Swtiching Bootcamp Exam date. Please note that NO introductory material is covered during the lab experience. (http://www.cathayschool.com)

There are no scheduled lectures over the eight days, candidates will solidify their existing knowledge by taking numerous mock lab exams during Day 1 and Day 7, which are designed to meet the requirement of the most recent actual labs. However, the instructor is available to discuss 1-on-1 and clarify tasks you may be stuck on. At the end of each day, the labs are then reviewed step-by-step by the instructor and a detailed explanation is provided about the technologies covered, interpretations of the questions, and common mistakes that were made by students with relation to each topic.

Day 8 is a conclusion lecture of the week in review. In addition to this the instructors will review the students' performance for the last 7 days and give recommendations on readiness to take and pass the CCIE Routing and Switching Bootcamp(http://www.cathayschool.com/ccie-routing-and-switching-mock-lab-workshop.html) Exam, along with suggestions of what topics to focus on during further preparation.

Before you finish this course, you will be provided a full set of our full-scale lab materials (which mirrors the most current lab exam). The materials contain CCIE R&S questions, requirements and solutions, which can be comfortably studied and practiced during the period between your course finishing date and the lab exam date. Along with this, we will update your study materials free of charge and provide email support ("48 hour response guarantee") for 1 month after the class.

Intended Audience: These Mock Lab Workshops are intended for CCIE Routing and Switching Training(http://www.cathayschool.com/ccie-routing-and-switching-mock-lab-workshop.html) candidates who are within three months of their actual lab exam. Introductory material will not be covered, and thus, students are expected to have a CCNP-level of knowledge with extensive CCIE-level preparation. The lab scenarios covered during these workshops are designed to be highly close to the real CCIE lab.

Schedule of events Student instruction is conducted privately with one-on-one tuition, so you have the freedom to begin from almost any date of the year.

With rich experience in writing, often in the major websites, newspapers published articles and welcomed by a large number of readers,and articles written by others with a large number of quote. if you want to get more about CCIE R&S Information please visit Cathayschool

18 Day 1-on-1 Instructor Led CCIE Routing And Switching Lab Boot Camp

Your personal instructor walk you step-by-step through various CCIE Lab scenarios Experience our mock labs which highly reflect the most current actual lab Recommended for CCIE Training(http://www.cathayschool.com) candidates who need in-depth understanding on each lab topic

CathaySchool's CCIE Routing and Switching Lab Instructor Led Boot Camp ais 18-day 1-one-1 Instructor-led class provided in Guangzhou, China. This 18 day training course is designed for CCIE Routing and Switching lab exam candidates who have some confidence to pass the lab exam but are lacking in, or are desiring; some test-testing strategies. This course helps you become familiar with each lab question and solution. This training is also good for the CCIE R&S lab exam candidates who have failed the lab exam more than once. Our statistics show that over 93% of them pass the lab exam at 1st attempt after they finish this course. (http://www.cathayschool.com)

You will study with your instructor one-on-one during the training. Step by step, our highly skilled instructors will show you the best way to configure each full-scale lab. During the class, the instructor will identify the most common mistakes that candidates make. The course is fast-paced, allowing you to learn details of topics, focusing on your specific areas of weakness, strengthen more familiar topics, and improve your speed.

Before you finish this course, you will be provided a full set of our full-scale lab materials (which mirrors the most current lab exam). The materials contain CCIE Routing and Switching Bootcamp(http://www.cathayschool.com/ccie-routing-and-switching-lab-boot-camp.html) questions, requirements and solutions, which can be comfortably studied and practiced during the period between your course finishing date and the lab exam date. Along with this, we will update your study materials free of charge and provide email support ("48 hour response guarantee") for 1 month after the class.

Intended Audience: This 18-Day Instructor Led Boot Camp is intended for CCIE Routing and Switching candidates who are within three months of their actual lab exam. Introductory CCIE material is not covered, and candidates for this class should already have a firm understanding of the technologies on the CCIE Routing and Switching Training(http://www.cathayschool.com/ccie-routing-and-switching-lab-boot-camp.html) exam blueprint. This class will also benefit CCIE candidates who may have attempted the actual CCIE Lab Exam without passing and feel they need to learn a more advanced and structured approach to CCIE Lab strategy. The lab scenarios covered during these workshops are designed to be highly close to the real CCIE lab.

Schedule of events This course starts from every Monday and will last for 3 weeks as below: Week 1: Monday ~ Saturday (1-one-1 study with your personal instructor) Sunday off (Local tour accompanied by our friendly staff) Week 2: Monday ~ Saturday (1-one-1 study with your personal instructor) Sunday off (Local tour accompanied by our friendly staff) Week 3: Monday ~ Saturday (1-one-1 study with your personal instructor)

Since this is one of the most popular courses at Cathayschool, the course openings are quickly filled out. To make sure that you can get the most appropriate dates, we suggest that you can book your training ASAP by referring to the "View Schedule" tab above.