TTC Shelbyville – Technical Blog

Mobile computing is in its early stages.    The staff and faculty along with a lot of higher ed have jumped on board with the iPad but the IT department jumped on the droid bandwagon and got the Motorola Xoom (Wi-Fi only).   iPad has iTunes, the Xoom can be plugged into your usb and documents, movies, music or whatever can be dropped right on it or it can be synced with Motorola’s media link.     In my opinion, they are both great products and we won’t truly see a mature product for a couple of years.   We’ll still have desktops, laptops and netbooks and other forms of technology that we can’t imagine.  Watching the articles on the web reminds me of finding the old computer magazines (pre-internet) and listening to people who favored brand vs. clones and Apple vs. Windows.   Here’s a couple of articles that are out there -

The first article No Apps, No Sale: iPad 2 Vs. Motorola Xoom Vs. RIM Playbook Vs. HP TouchPad proclaimed the iPad 2 as the winner proclaiming there wasn’t as many apps.
 (We were able to download or locate apps on the Xoom and do everything the iPad could do)

The second article Motorola Xoom versus the iPad2 – the Xoom is a clear winner of course proclaimed the Xoom the winner.

 Xoom’s built-in apps such as Gmail, Google Maps, and Google Calendar still trump anything built into the iPad 2. and using the Xoom’s Tegra 2 chip, you get nifty new features, such as vector graphics and 3D rendering in Google Maps.

Business week recently had an article on how there is a higher demand for Droid app developers.  So what does this mean? It means simply that businesses are looking at mobile apps for both Droid and Apple.  It means we are becoming a mobile world and Moore’s Law is correct.

Another article that caught my eye (thanks to Kevin for pointing it out) – Don’t Buy a Dual-Core Tablet Until You See This Video

Droid phone sales which recently beat iPhone will have a direct impact on the development of applications and will help sales for the Xoom.   But currently, there is iPad fever.   It’ll all change and it’ll be fun to watch.  The iPad10 may win or the Xoom 8 may win?

Microsoft has a 55% off discount for students taking a 72 series test during the month of June.   This discount includes a free retake if you need it.

Opportunity is Everywhere for Hackers.

Information is in the air all around us. People are online everywhere from parks to airports to the neighborhood cafe. At a time of public Wi-Fi, data is everywhere and the criminals know it.

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Connectify is a viable alternative to connect your Xoom to the internet or to a local network.  Simply install Connectify on your computer. (You’ll need a wireless card or an additional wireless card).

My wife has verizon wireless mobile.  I connect to her through an adhoc network with my laptop and added an additional card to my laptop.  Installed Connectify and connected.  (I went into the wireless card properties and enabled adhoc N support).  So the Xoom connects to me through the extra card.  My wireless connects to her wireless and we are all thrown out into the world wide web.

Because Connectify gives your Xoom an ip address, you can now go to the web (if you don’t have a router) or connect to shared folders.

MOTOROLA MEDIA LINK for WINDOWS – Overview – Motorola Mobility, Inc. USA.

Transfer and Sync photos, videos and music
Easily move media back and forth between your phone.  You can use iTunes or Windows Media Player to manage your muic

No…not yet.   So I rooted the Motorola Xoom and amazingly I ran into zero problems.  After powering off the Xoom and taking a short break, I came back and re-powered it back up, it bricked and stuck at the Motorola screen.   I turned it off by pushing the power button and up volume button.  I tried the android recovery and got an exclamation point.

An old programmer, I didn’t panic, I downloaded rootmyzoom.zip a one click app.  My wife said “Oh well, you’ll get it” -even she didn’t panic.   I then unzipped the app to a c:\xoom folder, looked around and found the Stock folder.  I then erased the boot.img and system.img in the folder.  I went to Motorola, downloaded the stock images for my Xoom.  I then unzipped them in the folder (Stock).  I then started the rootmyzoom program and selected to unroot my xoom.  I booted up into the fast boot option.  (Powered on, pressed the down volume button.)   Followed the steps and waited.  The stock image and boot image were copied and the Xoom was back to normal.

Note: You may need the usb drivers for the program to recognize the Xoom.  (you will not see it as a Xoom)

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Makes Fine Xoom, iPad Alternative – Mobile and Wireless – News & Reviews – eWeek.com.

Thanks to a less-than-stellar reception of the Android 3.0 “Honeycomb”-based Motorola Xoom, analysts have come to take a dim view of tablet computers based on Google’s new tablet operating system…

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One of the most popular droid apps is now avialable online.  Angry Birds requires Chrome browser and can be played here.

The latest version of CompTIA Security+ is available today (English only, initially).  As part of the ISO/ANSI accreditation for CompTIA Security+, we update the exam every three years and there was a lot of new information to cover. The exam is still aimed at an IT security professional who has…..read more.

Scheduled to launch between Nov. 25 and Dec. 18, 2011, Mars Science Laboratory is part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort of robotic exploration of the red planet. Mars Science Laboratory is a rover that will assess whether Mars ever was, or is still today, an environment able to support microbial life. In other words, its mission is to determine the planet’s “habitability.”

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Recent Breaches Spur New Thinking On Cloud Security – Darkreading.

From an attacker’s perspective, cloud services providers aggregate access to many victims’ data into a single point of entry, experts say. And as their services become more popular, they will increasingly become the focus of attacks,

via Bookmark-DarkReading

Here’s a nice little program that will prevent a shutdown if critical data is open.  Foolish IT has a program that prevents automatic restarts.  ShutDownUnless is a program that can monitor your server and prevent corrupt data in the event something is open such as a database.  Often restarting and the automatic restarting of a server can lead to this.  Link

D7- All in One System Configuration Tool for PC Technicians is a great all in one tool that can be used to repair your computer or to tune it up.   Of course I found it by visiting Rick at Whats On My PC where Rick found an excellent review at WorthyTips.

Nashiruddin Molla has a good review over at WothyTips – go check it out.

IT Professionals in High Demand: Report – Midmarket – News & Reviews – eWeek.com.

As outlined in their recent report “America’s Tech Talent Crunch,” 18 states and Washington, D.C., have shortages of local graduates when comparing job openings to associate’s and bachelor’s degrees conferred. Those states overlap critical tech markets, including Silicon Valley, Seattle, Dallas, Boston, New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and Chicago.

Houston, Washington, D.C., Top List of Hot Cities for IT Jobs – IT Management – News & Reviews – eWeek.com.

As the U.S. economy continues to improve, companies have started to reinvest in new IT projects and technologies in an effort to remain competitive. Consequently, these organizations are beginning to staff up, meaning the war for qualified ITadministrator and manager talent is on the rise.

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Looking for a Multi Server Simulator – Paessler has an excellent program that allows you to test servers in a virtual environment.

Create Virtual Test Networks In Minutes
Using a standard Windows PC you can create large virtual networks using Multi Server Simulator. You are able to create as many servers and virtual switches as desired – limited only by the number of available IP addresses and TCP ports (as well as network and system performance).

ITWorld has a good article on Mac security.

Browse hundreds of top documentary films online for free.

If you’re tired of the hassle of maintaining your own server hardware, either locally or co-located, then a virtual private server may be for you. Ars looks at some of the main contenders, and at the advantages of going virtual.

via The ABCs of virtual private servers, Part 1: Why go virtual?.