Just a bunch of computers working together: that's clustering at its most simple. Be that as it may, I'm no candidate for Microsoft's newest exam,
Exam 70-690 TS: Windows HPC Server 2008, Configuring and Managing, that targets clustering experts. Microsoft Learning actually released 70-690 in mid-August through Prometric testing centers. The exam tests candidate's ability to plan, deploy ad manage hardware in a highly available environment that requires high availability, specifically with Windows HPC running underneath it all.
More details on what's covered in the exam guide.
Posted by Michael Domingo on 09/03/2009 at 11:59 AM0 comments
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenneger has been
asking state residents to tweet suggestions to MyIdea4CA.com on ways to reduce the state's budget crisis. A quick glance at the most recent results show that legalizing and taxing pot is favored by a majority of the first hundred Twitterers, but who knows how many of them actually live within state boundaries? Even so, tt's certainly an idea that Ahhnuld
could smoke on.
Posted by Michael Domingo on 08/27/2009 at 11:59 AM0 comments
Amid the recession and Microsoft is hiring? Didn't they just tell us earlier this year that
it was axing a couple thousand people over the next five years? Well, in an interesting reversal the company needs staffers for those new "Apple-Store-killer" retail outlets,
ars Technica reports. It's retail, but look at it this way: If you've been looking for a job that can test your technical chops, this job might be a step in the right direction.
Posted by Michael Domingo on 08/26/2009 at 11:59 AM0 comments
The controversy over too much Photoshopping reared its head yet again when Complex Magazine gave celebrity Kim Kardashian a transformation that took her no effort to attain by any means natural.
What might be just as absurd is switching heads in a picture not appearing on a fashion or beauty magazine, but on a tech site. Here's LA Observed's blog post on the switcheroo. The stuff that floats around on the Internet, like this, is something I usually check with some due diligence and I can't find evidence that this Pshop was done to trick the press into spreading it. (But if it is a joke, you can go ahead and laugh at me now.)
If I have anything to say, it's that I'm speechless, really. Okay, maybe one thought: If Microsoft is innovative, this is a strange way to prove it. Okay, one more: Talk about local color! Somebody stop me...
Posted by Michael Domingo on 08/26/2009 at 11:59 AM1 comments
With a recession, we can't say that IT workers shouldn't be worried. Anyone of us probably knows at least one IT person (and some of you can claim to know more than that) who's has lost a job.
Recent Bureau of Labor data says that unemployment is hovering around 9.5 percent and expected to hit 10 percent by the end of this year. And even though IT hiring is being called "sluggish" by some jobs analysts, the BLS shows a tiny uptick in IT hiring in July.
Looking at our own survey of MCPs, we know that 5.7 percent have become unemployed. Of those, 34.5 percent were able to find work elsewhere, while 7.3 percent were rehired within six months. Fifty-eight percent said they were still out of work as of the survey.
The MCPmag.com Salary Survey, which will be published in late October, was performed on a sampling of print and online subscribers to Redmond, Redmond Channel Partner, and Redmond Developer News, from May to June this year, with 1,729 valid responses.
Among 1,140 Redmond print readers from a survey conducted a month later, the results are better -- only 4.5 percent said they were out of work within the last 12 months. Of those, 25 percent found work and 4.8 were rehired by the same firm. Nearly 70 percent were still jobless when the survey was conducted in mid July.
Redmond's 14th Salary Survey will appear in the October issue.
Posted by Michael Domingo on 08/20/2009 at 11:59 AM0 comments
I recently
wrote a report for RCPmag.com that showed that Microsoft partner salaries have been holding steady, even with the recession in full swing. When I wrote that report, I have to admit that I found the results a bit surprising. But in my research, I've found that IT has been nearly untouched when companies were looking to cut corporate budgets.
In the upcoming
Redmond Magazine Reader Salary Survey, the same holds true (as well as in MCPmag.com's survey). Interesting as well is the that jobs held steady. (Results online later this year.) What we found was that most companies weren't hiring more people, but retaining the good ones. The IT profession seems almost, ahem, recession-proof. And there's even more evidence of this truism, with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
reporting a rise in computer jobs in July, up from the previous two months (which had dropped), and up by 8,100 from July 2008. The IT jobs uptick is in stark contrast to
jobs in other sectors, where the recession is having an obvious and painful impact.
Posted by Michael Domingo on 08/13/2009 at 11:59 AM4 comments
Technology isn't immune to religious-like fervor. The battle among Windows, Mac, and Linux devotees is a given, particularly from those who develop tools for those platforms. Rarely is there true platform agnosticism. Well, this blog isn't about that.
It's about those who take such devotion a step further -- with techie tattoos. You have to be near-certifiable to do something like this, no? So, who among MCPmag.com's readers has gotten marked up on purpose with a tech-related tattoo? Send in a photo, and explain your deed. If tats are a bit too drastic, maybe it's your car license plate or the name you gave your pet. Let's hear it!
Posted by Michael Domingo on 08/12/2009 at 11:59 AM0 comments
How often do you think about the phones, desktop of laptop, network, or wireless device (well, the one you use for official business) that you use? Not that much? Consider yourself lucky, or maybe it's the systems administrators who keep things up and running that all you need to worry about is your real job or even updating your Facebook status. Yes, today is Systems Administrator Appreciation Day. And this message goes to everyone who has been well-served by their IT personnel.
Ted Kekatos has been touting the flag in recognition of a day for sysadmins for ten years now at his site, http://www.sysadminday.com/ and has suggestions for showing appreciation to them.
If you're a sysadmin reading this, know that your efforts are appreciated every day. Even so, SysAdmin Appreciation Day is a good excuse for those you live to serve to stop and give thanks for your efforts. So, don't be shy and pass this note to them. And if you're a sysadmin who takes this day seriously, let us know how you plan to celebrate today.
Posted by Michael Domingo on 07/31/2009 at 11:59 AM0 comments
The Black Hat Security Conference in Las Vegas never fails in newsworthiness, even this year. Some of the choice nuggets:
- Microsoft has yet another security initiative, and this one is for real this time.
- Researchers say they can hack OS X, and it's far easier to expose than Windows.
- Even scarier, iPhones are highly vulnerable (okay, iPhones is the attention-getter, but the researchers said that all phones are potential virus carriers).
More news from the conference on the MCPmag.com home page and next week's Security Watch newsletter.
Posted by Michael Domingo on 07/30/2009 at 11:59 AM0 comments
The dance between Microsoft and Yahoo was not unlike the sexual tension between Sam and Diane. Too old a cultural reference? Okay, how about between Ross and Rachel? Well Ballmer and Bartz have finally found a way to not step on each others' toes earlier this week. Even so, pundits' opinions span the spectrum, from the deal having absolutely no impact to their actions giving Bing a much needed boost to it makes total financial sense.
I can't wait until we're at the other end of the ten-year deal, looking back. Are we going to ask ourselves, "I wonder what happened to Google?" or are we going to be scratching our heads about the MicroHoo! deal? Let me hear it.
Posted by Michael Domingo on 07/30/2009 at 11:59 AM0 comments
Microsoft's MSN Messenger IM client turned 10. Yep, a surprise to me and probably most of you. When technology has been around a while, it seems it should change drastically or evolve to something else. In this case, I'm still using the same old IM client (Yahoo!'s) and once in a while MSN Messenger, because a few friends don't know anything else. It's only had the equivalent of some lipo around the hips and now has the clumsy Live moniker, but I'm happy for things staying practically the same for once. With that, here's a video.
Posted by Michael Domingo on 07/23/2009 at 11:59 AM0 comments
With news of Windows 7 making it out the gate, you'd think the media was reporting on a miracle. Well, the Dow jumped above 9K on news of home sales and values ticking upward and Chicago White Sox pitcher Mark Buerhle hurled a perfect game today, the first such feat since, oh, 2004 (ancient history in Internet years). Windows 7 RTM'ing is just a coincidence, right?
Windows 7's impending public release is supposed to be some sort of signpost that Microsoft is going to get back on track. At least that's the hope, anyway, despite one report that says Windows 7 adoption won't happen until well into 2010. That report might need to be revisited, if evidence of wild pre-sales figures in Japan are to be believed. (And on a side note: Microsoft announced a sharp drop in sales, affecting its quarterly revenue report today.)
Posted by Michael Domingo on 07/23/2009 at 11:59 AM0 comments