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Thursday, March 6, 2008

Spend Time Preparing Your MCSE Study Guide

Access and understand the core logic behind the skills required to solve issues and problems in the workplace. Before you take an mcse exam from any site, you should first prepare yourself with a Mcse Study Guide. Not only that, but using a Study Guide, in combination with Interactive Exams - GUARANTEES you the best chance to pass the MCSE.

You can prepare yourself to succeed in your studies. Try to develop and appreciate the following habits:

Take responsibility for yourself Recognize that in order to succeed you need to make decisions about your priorities, your time, and your resources.

Center yourself around your values and principles Don't let friends and acquaintances dictate what you consider important.

Put first things first Follow up on the priorities you have set for yourself, and don't let others, or other interests, distract you from your goals.

Discover your key productivity periods and places Morning, afternoon, or evening? Find spaces where you can be the most focused and productive. Prioritize these for your most difficult study challenges.

Consider yourself in a win-win situation When you contribute your best to a class, you, your fellow students, and even your teacher will benefit. Your grade can then be one additional check on your performance.

First understand others, then attempt to be understood. When you have an issue with an instructor (a questionable grade, an assignment deadline, etc.) put yourself in the instructor's place. Now ask yourself how you can best make your argument given his/her situation.

Look for better solutions to problems. For example, if you don't understand the course material, don't just re-read it. Try something else! Consult with the professor, a tutor, an academic advisor, a classmate, a study group, or your school's study skills center.

Look to continually challenge yourself.

What you can control in your studies:

Get a dedicated space, chair, table, lighting and environment

Avoid your cellphone or telephone.

Put up a sign to avoid being disturbed or interrupted

If you like music in the background,OK, but don't let it be a distraction.

Stick to a routine, efficient study schedule.

Accommodate your day/nighttime energy levels.

Set a goal and make a schedule.

Focus

Before you begin studying, take a few minutes to summarize a few objectives, gather what you will need, and think of a general strategy of accomplishment.

Incentives

Create an incentive if necessary for successfully completing a task, such as calling a friend, a food treat, a walk, etc.

Changing the subject you study every one to two hours for variety Vary your study activities.

Alternate reading with more active learning exercises. If you have a lot of reading, try the SQ3R method.

Ask yourself how you could increase your activity level while studying? Perhaps a group will be best? Creating study questions? Ask your teacher for alternative strategies for learning. The more active your learning, the better.

Take regular, scheduled breaks that fit you. Do something different from what you've been doing (e.g., walk around if you've been sitting), and in a different area.

Give yourself a reward when you've completed a task.

Hopefully by following these suggestions you will be able to develop a good MCSE Study Guide.

Anthony T. Moss owns and operates http://www.mcsestudysite.com

Monday, March 3, 2008

Basics of Successful Web Design

The world of internet has changed the way information is accessed. The internet is known as the information superhighway. The World Wide Web mostly gained momentum after 1990s and especially after the world famous search engine Google appeared on the scene. Today the internet has become the place for marketing products and services and the ecommerce phenomenon is the most happening thing in the world of internet. For any business to flourish and reach to thousands of potential customers it has to have a website. Although making a website is easier if you overlook some important aspects such as attractive design, easy navigation, and useful content on the site then you cannot hope for an effective web presence for your online business.

A good web design is done from the point of view of the visitors and it incorporates simple and easy features. With the advent of Web 2.0 the websites in the cyberspace have now become much more interactive with user generated content and a lot of other such features. Some of the basic things that a website must include is content, usability, appearance and visibility or accessibility for the visitors.

Basics of Web Design

Web designing is all about being creative with simplicity of use for the visitors in the mind of the developers. In the web design process professionals such graphic designers, web designers, and a web developer are the main professionals and each does their job to make a successful website. A graphic designer is responsible for logo design, home pages and other developments in a web site. The web designer's job is to design the look of the site which the visitors first sees when they visit the site. The responsibility of the web designer is to see that developments done by the graphic and web designers work exactly on the internet. Before getting a website you must also watch for the pages which you want on the website.

There are static and dynamic pages and you can design the site depending on the kind of content it is going to have on the pages. The demand can be higher when you want to use the site for commercial purposes such as ecommerce. The first thing that comes to mind while web designing is the logo design because the logo of the site is the identity of the website on the internet and that's why the design a logo should perfectly describe your business. Visitors will recognize the site by its logo and you can get the logo designed from professional logo designers.

The next thing for a successful web design is the content. The content should be informative and written on the subject the site deals with since it is the soul of the site. The content must be in perfect English since most of the visitors understand the language. The standards and technologies used in web designing include HTML, CSS, XML, SSL, PHP, ASP, and others. SEO optimized content and other search engine optimization techniques gives greater chances for the site to get higher search engine rankings.

Follow the steps above and you'll be one step closer to having a great website.

Sign up for our special 7 Part eCourse - "Creating A Website Sales Machine" by visiting Netlyte Houston Web Design. You can also request a Free Quote to help you start designing a website for your business.

Solving Computer Science Algorithms

When I was a student, lots of my fellow students approached me and asked "Where do you start to solve a computer science problem?" A question could typically be something like "write an algorithm to calculate..." I hope the following will give a good starting point and building block to get you on the road to solving the problem.

Let's work through an example. You get the question to write an algorithm or program to solve "Pascal's Triangle". The question might be something like "The user will enter a row number, and then the program must calculate and display the elements of that row in the Pascal Triangle"

Pascal's triangle is a geometric arrangement of the binomial coefficients in a triangle. In plain English this can be explained as "every number in the triangle is the sum of the two numbers above". The number Zero is always invisible to the left and right of the triangle's edges. To read more about Pascal's Triangle, search for "Pascal's Triangle" in Wikipedia.

Here are the first few rows of Pascal's Triangle: (The triangle starts with Row 0 and each row starts with element 0 from left to right)

1

1 1

1 2 1

1 3 3 1

1 4 6 4 1

Now, to solve this in an algorithm / program, there are always 4 basic ways to approach the problem. The 4 approaches are here listed from generally easiest to advanced, and also generally from worst to best.

1) Hard Coding

2) Iterative

3) Recursive

4) Function

Lets look at all 4:

Hard Coding

The hard-coded solution is a silly solution! Bad programming! To solve the problem with hard coding, we will store each row as a variable/memory structure and then when required, we return that specific row. Only use this method if you are writing an exam and you are seriously running out of time!

Iterative

The iterative approach is in most cases the "model answer". This is generally a good solid solution. The solution is easy to write, and also easy for someone to understand when reading the code.

We will start with hard-coding only the first row. Then we will iterate calculating through the rows until we are at the required row. For Pascal's triangle, our algorithm will loop until the required row. Each subsequent row is calculated by using the values from the previously calculated row.

Recursive

The recursive solution is normally the "higher grade" solution. It is something that is not always understood by students. I used to call this the "job security" solution. Computer Scientists enjoy this solution.

With the recursive solution we will use a function to return each element of the required row. The function will call itself to calculate the answer by calling the same function (recursively). Each time the function is called, it will return "1" if it is the first element of the row, otherwise it will return the sum of the two elements above it.

Function

The Function is normally the best and fasted approach. It could however be very difficult to work out a formula. With a formula we want to say:

f(r,e) = some formula

where r = row number and e = element number.

For Pascal's Triangle there is a formula! nCr or n! / (r! * (n-r)!)

where n = row number and r = element number.

So, our algorithm will call this function with the row- and element numbers as parameters and displayed the return value.

That's it! Problem solved.

Andre Maakal -
http://www.maakal.com/maakaldb.htm

Andre Maakal is a Database Administrator for a Multi-National Mining Company. He has 15+ years experience in the full spectrum of Information- and Telecommunication Technology. He has a Masters degree in Information Technology. His experience includes analysis, design, programming, managing databases, fault finding-and-resolution, performance tuning, pc-, server-, and networking hardware. As a hobby he is actively involved in long-distance running and spends time as a web entrepreneur.

Saturday, March 1, 2008

How To Choose A Perfect Laptop

If you want to buy a new laptop then it is a good idea to find all the possible information about prices and configuration. The price of the laptop depends on it`s brand and configuration. You should try to find some online stores as most of them offer free gifts and discount coupons. Don`t always look for latest technology as you can buy older laptops with good technology for lower prices.

Before buying any type of computer you should know your needs. A laptop with 512 MB memory mostly runs all the applications. If you are a gamer you should also inquire for graphic memory. Latest processors available in the market are dual processors. The next thing which you need to know while buying a notebook for you is the speed of the processor.

If you you are having a low budget you can opt for second hand laptops. A one year old notebook can be bought for a reasonable price. If you are confused among several brands then it will be a good idea to visit a website or a blog which regularly write latest laptop reviews. Nowadays laptops are easier to afford and play the role of your office assistant as well as your entertainment power house. Now you can buy a computer for every lifestyle. Today`s laptops are better equipped than ever. Notebook PCs are always known for their portability and excellent performance. Follow the instructions which you have read in this article and you are ready to buy a laptop.

If you want to know more about laptops feel free to visit Laptop Advisor.

New SMS-Chat Threads Messages

If iPhone has proved anything, it's that there are a lot of what Robin Williams would call nose miners out there who enjoy using their index fingers for navigation among other things. It's what I'd call a picky bunch. If you are a Windows Mobile person who feels deprived, you will be glad to know that there is a whole suite of software introduced by Vito Technology that employs finger push navigation similar to the iPhone.

The latest release is SMS-Chat. If you are a Palm Treo packer, you already appreciate the virtues of threaded SMS messages and the convenience of having your messages all grouped together. That's what SMS-Chat will do for you. It opens up a whole new world for SMS organization and manipulation. But threading is not the only feature of SMS-Chat.

From within this application, you can easily delete, forward, resend messages, and add new contacts. You can also send the same message to multiple recipients, which I appreciate greatly.

When you invoke the program, all of your chats are listed in the main menu under the name of a recipient. You can scroll up or down the list using your finger to make the list glide like an air hockey puck. Select any entry and the whole thread of in and out messages involving that person appears. Tap on any message, a menu appears, and you can choose to delete, forward, resend, or cancel the message.

From the main, opening screen, tap the icon in the lower left of the screen to bring up a menu with the following options: About, Help, Language, Minimize, Exit, and Cancel.

To send a new message to a person in the list, select a name and just start entering text into the blue input panel at the bottom of the screen. When you're done, tap the envelop in the lower right corner, the message is launched, and a copy appears in the thread.

To initiate a new message to a new person, just tap on the icon with the pencil and envelop in the lower left corner and choose from the contact list. Your contact list will pop up in a new finger scrollable view, which makes it fun, but if your list is very long, you will soon grow weary scrolling and may wish to start typing in the person's name and let the predictive engine find it for you.

I was prepared to complain about the single line, blue input panel, but I soon discovered that it expands as you type to accommodate your text.

However, I am amazed that such a savvy developer as Vito would neglect to put in a character counter when the count is critical and there is a strict 160 character limit per message. I certainly hope a counter will be included in the next release.

I think it would be wonderful too if there were various ways that you could organize messages into groups by various criteria such as subject, date, recipients, color coding and so forth. Perhaps down the road Vito will make this possible too.

Depress the three bar red icon in the upper right corner of the screen to bring up a menu for adding recipients (as many as you wish), viewing contact information, deleting the chat, or cancelling the operation.

Push the arrow in the upper left, and you go back to the scrollable list of messages. And that, my friends, takes us back to where we started and completes the tour. Please be sure not to leave any of your valuables behind as you exit the vehicle.

SMS-Chat couldn't be simpler or more elegant, and it certainly adds important, missing functionality that has been seriously lacking in the Windows Mobile texting platform.

If you want to add this slick, new application to your pocket pal, just go to Vito's new http://iwindowsmobile.com site and download it. Try it out for 14 days free, kick the tires, and if you want to make it a permanent fixture, it will cost you $14.95. Be aware that Vito is very rigid about allowing only one license per application per installation. I tried to install it on a couple of my devices to test it, and I was out of luck. But that's only fair.

Note that this version only works on Windows Mobile 5/6 Classic and Professional models. If you have a Smartphone or Standard model, you are out of luck, which is just another reason not to have a non-touch screen device as far as I'm concerned.

Hey, while your visiting Vito's new iwindowsmobile site, check out its other offerings designed to make nose miners happy that include AudioNotes, FunContact, GoodWin, ZoomBoard, and AstroNavigator II, all of which I believe I've already reviewed.

Timothy Hillebrand, Ph.D. is a retired archaeologist and windows mobile expert who writes for Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine and several other publications. Visit his blog at http://professorpocket.blogspot.com/