LearnKey Blog
A+ 2009 Webisode #6
Started in 1982 as an “Association of Better Computer Dealers” the company that would become CompTIA emerged as the “Standard” for computer technicians. In fact, in April of 2007 some of CompTIA’s certifications (including their flagship product, A+) were recognized by the American National Standards Institute. A+ is meant to ascertain an individuals overall ability to handle computers. It is specifically meant to be vendor nonspecific, so a certified individual should be able to handle any computer whether it be an Apple, a PC, or Linux, and should be competent in dealing with the various hardware configurations for each. In short, it is the benchmark for proving technical competency, and it is a must have for anyone seeking a career in computer repair/maintenance/administration.
Featured Product : Indesign CS4
For anyone who read this post on Dec 3rd, I offer a sincere apology. It was woefully inaccurate. Just so the rest of you are in the loop, in attempting to describe Adobe’s Indesign CS4 product, I compared it to a print version of Adobe Photoshop CS4. Let it be known that I am (now) fully aware that Indesign and Photoshop are entirely different programs. For one thing Photoshop functions as a verb. You are not likely to hear anyone saying, “That brochure looks indesigned.”
Continue reading “Featured Product : Indesign CS4”
Why Web Browser Updates are Necessary
Your web browser is a portal to limitless information. Sometimes referred to as “the little E in the corner”, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is one of the most popular browsers. It comes with Windows pre-installed, so for Windows users it is by far the most easily accessible browser, but it is not the only choice. For those of us who prefer other options, there is Firefox, Safari (a standard on Mac OS X, also available for PC), Google Chrome, Opera…the list goes on and on. Which browser you use, even different versions of the same browser, affects how you view the internet a lot more than you may think.
Self Paced Learning vs the Classic Method.
It used to be if you wanted an education your mom or dad would take you by the hand, carry a bundle of coin over their shoulder and walk you the 90 miles or so to the house of Aristotle or Plato where if he felt you were worthy he would take you on and teach you as much as you were capable of learning.
You probably don’t remember those times because demographics shows that most people who are online reading this blog right now are less than 2,359 years old.
Continue reading “Self Paced Learning vs the Classic Method.”
Computer Forensics the CSI of IT
Have you ever been hit with a computer virus? MyDoom, Melissa, ILOVEYOU, Sobig. There is some seriously dangerous software out there, and when it hits, it seems impossible to track down where it began. That is unless you are highly skilled in the knowledge of Computer Forensics and Digital Recovery.
The discipline known as Computer Forensics has many uses beyond law enforcement. You may have had a hard disk fail and not be willing to part with the information you neglected to back up. There may be an employee that you suspect of misusing company equipment. You may simply be interested in a better understanding of how computers work for debugging, performance optimization, or reverse-engineering.
Whatever your reason, LearnKey has the course for you.
Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL)
As companies grow they enevitably reach a point of saturation from which further growth is impossible. Whether it be a restaurant that suddenly needs a larger kitchen, or a grocery store that needs more parking, or even a website that just needs more bandwidth.
ITIL is a system of standardizing IT Infrastructure so that as companies grow and merge, and splinter and such, there infrastructure continues to function in a flexible, functional format. There is a standard set of instructions for how to deal with a problem, even down to the definition of what a problem is. There are in depth detailed methods of proper Configuration Managment, Change Management, Release Management…etc, all put together with the design of helping folks take care of things in the simplest most standardized way possible. Some of the provisions are meant to minimize downtime by ensuring that upgrades, backups, and virus scans are run at the least busy time of day (or over the weekend if possible).
The ITIL framework is simple enough to be applied to a single server environment, but it is designed to handle the complexity of companies that are growing from having an IT person to having an IT department to having an IT division etc…
Last Day for Poster Contest
If you remember back to Oct 14 (or just scroll down), we started a contest challenging our readers to come up with creative quotes to go on our new motivational posters.
Tomorrow (Nov 6) is the last day to offer suggestions for the poster. For those of you who may have been waiting to post your amazing quotes, make sure to get your suggestions in before the contest ends!
Click here to see the original post for contest details and to submit your quotes.
VMWare Certification Requirements
As stated on the product page for our Virtual Infrastructure Administrator Course; “This course will provide students with the knowledge needed to take the VMWare Certified Professional Exam VCP-310.” A question has been raised regarding a requirement VMware insists on for certification. It is required of candidates who wish to certify that they attend a VMware authorized course. Generally a VMware authorized course runs around $2,400-$2,900 and is a four day intensive hands on experience. Research shows that many students fail the exam after attending only this course.
Why then does VMWare require you to take a costly course with such a low success rate? The following excerpt from a vmware forum explains the reasoning behind this requirement :
Dreamweaver MX 2004
Adobe’s newest version of Dreamweaver is CS4 (Creative Suite), which is sometimes unofficially identified as the 10th version of Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver MX 2004 would be the 7th version, so it clearly is a little behind the times. If you don’t have a version of Dreamweaver by all means spend the $399 to get the new one. But if you are on a budget and happen to still be running your old Dreamweaver MX 2004, you may be happier with a $34.95 price to help you make the best use of the software you are already using.
The Art of Meetings
Not many people know this about me because I keep a real tight lid on it, but I hate meetings. I find them to be the single biggest impediment to my job. Nothing irritates me more than to have to stop working on a project so I can give a status report in a meeting about why the project is not done yet. “It’s because I am here talking about it instead of where I should be, doing it.”