Education

Almost everyone says that computer games are bad for you. But some games you can have fun playing can also help you in school, and in life, if you let them.
There are all sorts of games, so let’s stick to one type: online, text-based role playing games. If you haven’t ever seen or tried one, they are actually pretty simple. These games are constructed verbally, as text intended to be read, rather than visually. You and a number of other people log onto the game and then simply type in descriptions of your actions…what you say, what you do. Most of the games have a virtual “presence,” which means that your actions happen in rooms that have a physical description you can read and react to. The game software allows you to interact not only with the game server itself, but with any number of other players in any number of ways. They usually don’t require any fancy skills, and are often completely free to users.
It’s handy to talk about online text-based role playing games because their attributes lend themselves to helping players with their lives. Role playing is used by teachers and corporate trainers because it is a good way to learn. Text-based games allow your imagination to play freely. And playing online with a group of real people creates an infinite number of play possibilities.
So, apart from obvious things like keyboarding skills, how can you improve your school skills by playing a game? Let’s see…
It’s a dirty little secret that when schools ask businesses what they think students need, the business people say “Good group skills.” No wonder: whether you call them committees or task forces or units or teams, the work of the world is done by groups.
Schools answer this by building group work into your classes. For instance, group projects and presentations are built into courses in business or communication. Sometimes there are entire classes called “Leadership” or “Group Dynamics.” All of these are graded on how well the group works, and the better your group skills, the better the group does and the better you do.
What are good group skills you can learn from playing games?
* The ability to both lead and follow. * The ability to contribute to planning, to analyze a problem and create a solution collaboratively. * The ability to persuade others and to accept complex reasoning. * The ability to take no for an answer!
Think that can’t be so? Watch this: Imagine you are Captain Berin, a fierce warrior and a Guardian of the City. A gang of cutthroats, kidnappers and murderers is plaguing the City. The Guardians meet to figure out how to finish off that gang of thugs once and for all!
At the meeting you offer to infiltrate the gang, but the answer is no – you are too well known a warrior. Instead, the Guardians arrive together at a plan: The older, less able Guardians will interview the victims, examining their stories for clues. The more agile members will take the clues and track the gang to their lair. And once they are cornered, the fiercest Guardians, led by Captain Berin, will attack!
The plan works perfectly, and one day, just before dawn, you lead your men in on the attack! The bandits resist, two are killed, three are captured and their hostages are released. You parade the captured gang members through the City to the cheers of the crowds, bringing them to the Hall of Justice to meet their inevitable fates.
This is not entirely a fictitious example. It’s based on a situation that happened in an online, text-based role playing game called Firan (www.legendary.org/firan) not too long ago. Firan is one of the largest of the online role playing games. Each week around 200 people from all over the world log in to play. This plot, which stretched over about three weeks, involved over thirty different players, as Guardians, victims, criminals and finally lawyers and judges.
And those things Captain Berin did? The leading, the following, the debating, the planning? You did them! You were playing his role, but you chose his actions and you wrote his words.
You can learn good group skills from playing games if you find a game that rewards you for playing with people. When you are looking for a game, ask about how people advance in the game: If one of the ways is to be nominated or voted on by other players, that’s what you want.
Apart from Firan, which is a bit unusual because it is based in a completely original world with a historical feel to it, there are plenty of other worlds out there for you to play in, based on Harry Potter, Star Trek, the Lord of the Rings, Dragonball…any place that has fans has games built around it. Discworld, Pern, even Pokemon, all sorts of worlds await you. Go to a site where they are listed, such as Mud Connector (www.mudconnector.com), pick one out and give it a try! There no telling what you might learn.
Prof. Dave D’Alessio studies commercial uses of new communication media and the phenomenon of media bias, and has been using games and simulations as teaching aids since the 1980’s.

Like over 800,000 other people, I spent an incredible amount of time and effort studying to be an MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer). I took six classes, studied several books from cover to cover, took practice tests and used the knowledge in my job and on my own time. Why did I do all of this? Because I wanted to have one of the most prestigious certifications in the field – the MCSE! Recently, I found a site providing MCSE certification consultation service which can help us get certified more conveniently. They offer online consultation and solution for I.T certifications such as MCSE certification, Cisco certification, CompTIA A+ and many more! The best part about service is that you can begin from your own home and at your own pace. We are dedicated to providing I.T professionals with the highest level of certification solutions and certification materials that the industry has to offer. No matter how busy you are or how competent you are at this moment – they will get you certified in 7 days or you can receive a 200% refund, which it is the highest in the industry. My opinion on MCSE certification: For those of you who don’t know, the MCSE consisted of six tests designed to ensure that system administrators meet a minimum level of experience and knowledge with Microsoft products. The concept is this gives guidance to managers as to who they should and should not hire, and ensures that those people know how to use Microsoft products. In my experience, people who honestly pass the MCSE exams are indeed better qualified for their positions than others with equivalent experience and skills. Of course, boot camps, brain dumps and similar methods of cheating the process tend to allow people to dishonestly pass the exams. This, however, is true with all certifications (and tests for that matter) and not unique to the MCSE series. In their attempts to get people to upgrade from Windows NT 4.0 to Windows 2000, Microsoft has run into quite a bit of resistance from the industry. While there are very significant reasons to upgrade, Windows 2000 requires major changes in network configurations, applications and user training, which has tended to slow acceptance. In addition, since Windows 2000 was released around the time of large expenditures on the Year 2000 bug, system managers found themselves without funds or manpower to upgrade their networks. In order to force people to upgrade more quickly, Microsoft has, in it’s infinite wisdom, decided to retire the Windows NT 4.0 certifications. Thus, on December 31, 2001 any and all MCSE certificate holders who still have not upgraded will need to remove those four letters from their resume and business cards. It now appears that over half (at least 400,000) of these MCSE’s will be invalid in under five months! I know from experience that the change from Windows NT to Windows 2000 is not an easy one, and given that many people actually have to work for a living it’s not surprising that so many of them have not had a chance to obtain the new certifications. There is also a large amount of anger about the policy. It appears that Microsoft is only interested in increasing it’s bottom line, which translates into selling an endless procession of upgrades to the operating system and the office suite. It’s plainly obvious that Microsoft feels it’s dollars come from these upgrades, and thus those engineers who cannot or will not upgrade their certifications have little or no value. Even worse is that Microsoft has started the path towards Windows XP certifications! A large number of MCSE’s have not even started (much less finished) their training for Windows 2000, and now they have to figure out how to upgrade that to Windows XP! And, of course, it’s a sure bet that the next version of Windows will follow very quickly after that. Me and several of the people who work for me have obtained the MCSE certification for Windows NT 4.0. Given that we all work very long hours (a 60 hour week is a short one) and have lives, it’s a miracle that even some of is found time to pass these exams. And now Microsoft is saying that we are no longer valuable. They are directly implying that we are not worthy of their greatness because, well, we are too busy actually putting their products to work to take the time out to study and pass the exams. We do want to pass the exams and we do want to become certified on Windows 2000. Every single person that works for me strongly desires to pass these tests. Our objection does not come from the fact that the tests exist or that Microsoft is raising the bar or improving their products. Our objection is the underhanded, sneaky and downright unethical way that Microsoft is forcing us to put pressure on our company and our employers to needlessly upgrade over and over again. The pressure comes from every aspect of Microsoft – from forced upgrades via their licensing practices to their forced certification policies. Let’s play devil’s advocate for a minute and see what we can learn. Perhaps Microsoft has to do this because they are more intelligent and have a wider vision than the rest of the world. Microsoft knows they have a far superior product, and in order to ensure that we lesser beings provide the best value for our companies, they are requiring us to upgrade our knowledge. Heaven forbid that companies (especially large ones) actually keep Windows NT 4.0 installed on their networks (much less Windows 95 or 98). To allow that would be completely irresponsible of Microsoft, wouldn’t it? The problem that many of us are facing is that we are stuck with what we’ve got. We have already invested so much in Microsoft products that it would be extremely difficult to switch to something else. In addition, Windows NT 4.0 SP6a is a reasonably reliable operating system, and the Office 2000 suite is exceptional. However, every once in a while I get a little whimsical thinking back to the good old days, when I used to run our multi-billion dollar company on two large VAX machines. That’s ALL of our applications, every single one of them. Plus hundreds of users, over fifty printers and fax machines and numerous other things. In fact, we ran payroll, accounting, order processing, delivery scheduling, human resources, printing, communications and everything else on those two machines! To top it all off, we ran for over ten years on these VAX machines without a major operating system upgrade! Yes, there were problems, but constant retraining, reinstalls, service packs, hot fixes and weekly major security alerts were not among them. And compared to the clustering in OpenVMS (the operating system for the VAX and Alpha hardware), the “clustering” in Windows 2000 is a complete joke! And now I need over 150 servers running Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000! The really sickening thing is I’ll bet I could run everything on a dozen or so Unix or Linux servers, or, again, two big Alpha (the successor to the VAX) systems. (It’s really too bad that Digital Equipment Corporation, which made the best hardware and operating systems on the planet, could not market their way out of a paper bag). I think that’s what is annoying is and many of our peers the most. The constant need to spend an outrageous amount of time to keep up with the new releases from Microsoft. I know it doesn’t fit into Microsoft’s hostile “do it our way and pay us for the privilege” business model, but we would much prefer a different approach to the MCSE certification model. Instead of constantly rolling it forward constantly, invalidating the certifications of those who cannot keep up, why not just append the operating system to the certification? Why not just make a “MCSE Win4.0″ and an “MCSE Win2000″? To me as a manager, it would be far more valuable than the current catch-all scheme. Look at it this way, I could scan a resume for “MCSE Win3.1″, “MCSE Win4.0″ or “MCSE Win95″. Wouldn’t that make it easier for me as a manager? You bet! However, it wouldn’t help Microsoft’s bottom line, would it? Fortunately, I am not in the business of helping Microsoft’s pr
ofit margin. In fact, on my list of worries, that wouldn’t even be in the top million! My job, and the job of each and every person in our company, is to support our users by giving them tools which enable them to do their jobs. To do that, we will get certified on Windows 2000, and probably Windows XP after that. However, we will do it on our schedule, fitting the training and testing time around our jobs and personal lives. In the meantime, we will take a closer look at other alternatives to Windows and Office, because, well, well really don’t like this situation. We may, or we may not, change to those alternatives, but before this we were not even looking … now we are.
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You just learned that you need to take a summer school class. You might have the perfect job lined up or a two-week vacation planned. Rest assured, you don’t have to change your plans or give up your free time.
Online summer school is the perfect way to fulfill your summer school needs without having to sacrifice your summer vacation. You can still go to work, see your friends and take a vacation. Taking a high school class online enables you to tailor your schedule to meet your needs.
It’s quick! You can fulfill your requirements in a short period of time. It’s flexible! You can fit your studies into your schedule. Keep your summer job. Go on vacation. It’s convenient! Learn from the comfort of your home. It’s transferable! You can easily transfer the credits to your regular high school. It’s the best alternative! You don’t have to sit in a hot classroom, or change your plans.
Imagine taking a summer school class from the convenience of your computer. All of the assignments, quizzes and tests are completed according to your schedule and in the comfort of your home. Whether you study late at night or in the afternoon, you can complete your coursework on your terms.
When it comes to summer classes, taking summer school online is the perfect choice to get the job done.
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Cisco CCNA Certification: Introduction The CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate) Certification is a foundation and beginner level of networking and the only exam required to achieve Cisco Routing and Switching certification at Associate Level.
CCNA is for individuals who are interested in building a future in networking domain on Cisco products. CCNA Certification is the prerequisite for any Cisco Certification. If you want to reach a Professional or Expert level in the Cisco Career Certification tracks, Passing CCNA test is the first step. Benefits of CCNA Certification In general, Cisco Certification validates an individual’s achievement, so it increases the holder’s professional credibility by ensuring high standards of technical expertise. In particular, passing the CCNA test indicates knowledge of networking for small to big enterprises. It also confirms the ability to work in small businesses or organizations whose networks have fewer than 100 nodes. You need to have CCNA for achieving higher Cisco Certifications.
How to prepare for CCNA? You have identified your goal and are ready to prepare yourself for the highly recognized CCNA Certification Exam. You want to score high, the course is large and the time is less. The Question is: How to prepare fast and accurate? How to focus on important topics first, master them fast and retain what you’ve learnt? Learn how to master the course and prepare scientifically with the help of CCNA Study Guide.
A CCNA can do the following: Install, configure, and operate LAN, WAN, and dial access services for small works of less than 100 nodes. Expertise in use of IP, IGRP, Serial, Frame Relay, IP RIP, VLANs, RIP, Ethernet, and Access Lists protocols. Install and configure Cisco switches and routers in multiprotocol internetworks using LAN and WAN interfaces. Provide Level 1 troubleshooting service. Improve network performance and security.
CCNA Path Details Option 1: You need to clear the following 1 exam: CCNA 640-801 : Introduction to Cisco Networking Technologies and Interconnecting Cisco Networking Devices
Option 2: You need to clear the following 2 exams. The above-mentioned exam is actually segregated into these 2 exams: 640-821 INTRO Beta: Introduction to Cisco Networking Technologies (INTRO) 640-811 ICND: Interconnecting Cisco Networking Devices
Types of Questions Asked Cisco has revised its exam pattern and included new question types to make the exam more practical in nature, covering all hands-on tasks. The exam includes following types of questions: Simulation (Router and Switching) Drag and Drop Multiple Choices (Single Response) Multiple Choices (Multiple Response) Fill in the Blanks
CCNA 640-801 Exam Information Objectives The following are the objectives on which the CCNA 640-801 exam will be based. Planning and designing Implementation and operation Troubleshooting Technology
Exam Details Exam number: 640-801 Title: Introduction to Cisco Networking Technologies and Interconnecting Cisco Networking Devices Prerequisites: None Number of questions: 55-65 Passing score: 849/1000 Time limit: 90 minutes Exam Fee: USD $120
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Conclusion As you know by now, preparation is the key to passing CCNP 640-801 exam. Practice, Practice and Practice. Don’t skip any area while preparing for this exam. It is an exam you must be prepared for. Be thorough about the concepts of all topics especially STP, VLAN, VTP and Multicasting. Do remember this exam is based on real scenarios, prepare yourself accordingly.
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Internet has become a bandwagon of entertainment, education and business. It beats tradition mediums in terms of the benefits it offers. But unfortunately there is much scope of anonymity/privacy on the web and helps the cyber terrorists prey up on the internet resources. That’s why, it is encouraged to learn computer hacking to counter the actions of unethical hackers (also known as black hats).
Hacking is a fraudulent act that is illegal in some ways and helpful in others. It is to know the programmable systems and how they work in a network. An ethical hacker shows the downfalls in the security system of an organization so they can improve it. Today hacking has become an art and very popular that hackers have formed groups and even have conferences together to share their knowledge. Hacking for whatever the purpose, good or bad, requires knowledge and much programming skills. An intelligent programmer can be a good ethical/unethical hacker. These days “hacker” is being used as a term for expert, intelligent and creative people. Let’s discuss how to learn computer hacking:
10 Tips to Learn Computer Hacking
As told before, professional hackers are generally more intelligent than any average programmer. So becoming a hacker depends a lot on one’s intelligence and efforts. However, the following tips will help you learn computer hacking in a systematically.
1. Be curious: Curiosity is the mother of hacking. Look under the hood. Take things apart. Know the details of your system directories, file systems, system files. Look inside your computer.
2. Read a lot: Buy lots of books, go through the tutorials. Read the help files on your system. If you are using Linux/Unix read the man files.
3. Experiment: Take precautions and experiment whatever you read. Apply to work the idea that just hit your mind. Don’t be afraid to change things. Doing this for a long time will give you much idea on the computer hardware and the operating system. Try using command options and switches. Tweak the registry and see what happens. Change settings in .INI files. In Linux/Unix, visit the directories where you normally don’t need to go.
4. Make backups: If you start mucking around with system files, registries, password files, and such, you will eventually destroy your system. Have a backup ready. If you can afford it, have a system you use just for experimenting, ready to reload on a moment’s notice, and do your serious work (or serious gaming!) on a different computer.
5. Think out of box: Hacking is not restricted to computers only. You can try trick on other networks also like mobile, telephone, etc.
6. Get some real tools: You can find numerous hacking tools on the net. Though some serious tools are not available for free, you need to have some Hex file editors, Snoopers, Compilers and APIs. In addition you also need Scripting tools, Disk editors/formatters and Disassemblers.
7. Learn to program: Serious ethical hackers are always very good programmers. If you want to be a hacker, you’re going to learn much programming. You should also be quite familiar with the popular operating systems like Windows, Linux, Unix, OS2 etc. Of course, the choice of language depends on you. In Unix and Unix-like OS (Linux, Free BSD) Perl is very good to start with. Use VB or Java to program in Windows. Which ever platform you use, you need to learn considerable C/C++. You should know more than one language because no one language is right for every task.
8. Discuss with peers: In isolation, you can’t learn anything. You need to take classes, join users groups and computer clubs. Talking to people on IRC or other chat programs proves really helpful. Share what you learn. Because to get something you have to give some.
9. Do some projects: Pick some projects and work consistently until you’ve finished them. Real time experience is better than reading. Build from ground zero, learn to create icons, associate it with some files, read how the search engines search, try to manipulate the programs that you use daily.
10. Use the Internet: There is no source greater than the Internet. Start with the Web. Learn how to use Boolean searches. Bookmark all those sites which you find worth visiting. Sometimes you will find useful information at the most strangest places.
Detailed Courses of Study to Learn Hacking