It is a nearly half a year since I last ran a diagnostic on this blog to see what we most like to talk/blog about. Not surprisingly WINDOWS comes out top again.
To show off, I pushed our blog through the great Wordle engine to provide the following:
What do you talk about to your audience? Drop me an email with your Wordle graphic and if it is interesting, we will share it!
It takes 18-24 months to plan for and deploy a new operating system. If you haven’t started planning to migrate your Windows XP PCs to a modern OS, or if your migration plan have stalled here are some great tools to help you.
First of all, start by downloading the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT). It removes the need for disc imaging, migrates your data in place during deployment, and (best of all) it’s free.
Some other tools to help make your move from Windows XP to Windows 7 easier include:
Questions about Windows XP EOS and what it means to you and your company? Make sure to check out theEnd of Support website for Windows XP and Office 2003 and as always, visit the Deploy Zone on the Springboard Series on TechNet for all your Pilot, Deploy and Manage needs!
I came across the following blog recently, which highlighted the rapid disappearance of quality domain names left unregistered:
Companies now really struggle to secure a “real” word in their domain name following the rules below:
Even with the release of new top level domains, new start-ups are reluctant to deviate from the above “rules”.
The answer, and it seems a growing trend, is to simply make up the name and register that as a dot.com. I noticed this some years ago when Virgin Records sold out to a management buy out – they became Zavvi.com!
Now nearly all new entrants to the “internet arms race” are using made up names, or phonetic spellings, such as
And if a “made up name” is not up your street, you better get your cheque book out. Only yesterday “challenge.com” sold for $500k and and “vi.com” $325k!
Every start-up nowadays not only needs to come up with a neat idea, but also a savvy name, and ensure that name is available across all media outlets: web, twitter, facebook, google+ etc
Microsoft have just announced a new certification geared to help you prove your skills on Server 2008 R2 and System Center 2012 – together the essential ingredients for building, monitoring and operating your private cloud.
Most of our IT Academy students will already have achieved Step 1 and will be just 2 exams short of this exciting new certification.
Contact the academy for more information, or to schedule your exam at our test centre.
For me that was a few years at least. Yes I do have a MCSE. Which one(s) do I hold? (Does it matter really?) However they were hugely prized “back in the day” so I know some of you will want to know: was it obtained on Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000 Server or Windows Server 2003?
Actually mine was the latest one issued – Windows Server 2003 (which I earned in early 2005). For the newbies reading this, you could indeed be thinking, hold on… why am I reading a blog post about a certification released 9 years ago on technology that is equally old, no longer available to purchase and now nearing the end of its’ useful life? That is the point, people still do care, and passionately. Don’t get me wrong – I am very happy with what those 4 letters signified, proud and pleased to have achieved the certification, however I just doubt the validity of the usefulness now when applied to technology of today.
Well I brought up the topic to show how *some* people still rely on using this aged qualification as if it is like a support, or a throw-back to days when MCSE’s ruled the IT world back in the year 2003 when Concorde made its last commercial supersonic flight. A truly great icon of flight now no longer with us. Talking about flights – last week, I was doing some preparation for a course I am delivering later this month and I reached for a Server 2008 R2 book on my e-reader, and on the front cover the authors’ name was written as “Jingly Keyring, MCSE” (name have been changed to protect the author).
I thought it was funny, to see MCSE again, used as a badge of honor, especially on a book relating to a technology which effectively terminated that legacy acronym. In my world there are no Windows Server 2003 machines left whatsoever, and I doubt/hope I will ever see one again. Admittedly Server 2003 was a great, stable server operating system.
The next certification I will be proud to shout about will be one that qualifies me as proficient on the next version of Windows Server, whatever it may be called, and whenever it arrives…
Student run society York Entrepreneurs’ annual competition, The Market, concluded recently with the winning team taking home £1000.
13 teams took part in the four day competition completing three tasks aimed at rebranding York, to test teams’ “advertising, marketing, design and teamwork skills”.
Team Cognate, made up of Psychology students Jack Blake, Ros Baker, Joy Bothamley and Daniel Bennett, was crowned winners with Team Zeal and Team Prima coming joint second.
Amanda Selvaratnam, Head of Continuing Professional Development at University of York, attending the event said "from an employability perspective, the skills that these students are developing are vital to the workplace."
If your company would like help from students, and would like to set them a challenge, please get in touch!
