June 1st, 2008
Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on January 7. Their “old new year” is a week later, on January 14. It is all Julius Caesar’s fault …
The Romans sometimes neglected to introduce an extra month every two years to amortize the difference between their lunar calendar and the natural solar year. Julius Caesar decreed that the year 46 BC should have 445 days (some historians implausibly say: 443 days) in order to bridge the yawning discrepancy that accumulated over the preceding seven centuries. It was aptly titled the “Year of Confusion”.
To “reset” the calendar, Julius Caesar affixed the New Year on January 1 (the day the Senate traditionally convened) and added a day or two to a few months.
He thus gave rise to the Julian Calendar, a latter day rendition of the Aristarchus calendar from 239 BC. After his assassination, the month of Quintilis was renamed Julius (July) in his honor.
The Julian calendar estimated the length of the natural solar year (the time it takes for the earth to make one orbit of the sun) to be 365 days and 6 hours. Every fourth year the extra six hours were collected and added as an extra day to the year, creating a leap year of 366 days.
But the calendar’s underlying estimate was off by 11 minutes and 14 seconds. It was longer than the natural solar year. The extra minutes accumulated to one whole day. By 325 AD, the Spring Equinox was arriving on March 21st on the Julian Calendar - instead of March 25.
The First Ecumenical Council met in Nicea in 325 and determined that the date to celebrate Pascha was on the first Sunday, after the first full moon, after the Spring Equinox on March 21st. In other words, it enshrined the Julian calendar’s aberration.
Thus, by 1582, the Spring Equinox was arriving on March 11. Half-hearted measures by Popes Paul III and Pius V failed to restore the essential correspondence between the calendar and the seasons.
Pope Gregory XIII decided - in his tenth year in office - to drop 3 leap years every 400 years by specifying that any year whose number ended with 00 must also be evenly divisible by 400 in order to have a 29-day February.
This would have the effect of bringing the Julian calendar closer to the natural length of the solar year - though an error of 26 seconds per year would still remain.
To calibrate the Julian calendar with the Gregorian one and to move the Spring Equinox back to March 21, 10 days were dropped from the civil calendar in October 1582. Thursday, October 4 was followed by Friday, October 15. People rioted in the streets throughout Europe, convinced that they have been robbed of 10 days.
But this was merely a convenient fiction. The Spring Equinox in the Gregorian calendar was, indeed, celebrated on March 21 in perpetuity. But, according to the Julian calendar, in the 17th century it arrived on March 11th, in the 18th century on March 10th, in the 19th century on March 9th, and in the 20th century on March 8th - 13 days earlier that even the erroneous date adopted by the Nicea Council.
The Gregorian calendar was controversial in Protestant countries. Britain and its colonies adopted it only in 1752. They had to drop 11 days from the civil calendar and move the official new year from March 25 to January 1. For centuries, dates followed by OS (”Old Style”) were according to the Julian calendar and dates followed by NS (”New Style”) according to the Gregorian one. Sweden adopted the Gregorian Calendar in 1753, Japan in 1873, Egypt in 1875, Eastern Europe between 1912 to 1919 and Turkey in 1927. In Russia it was decreed by the (bourgeois) revolutionaries that thirteen days would be omitted from the calendar, the day following January 31, 1918 becoming February 14, 1918.
It was Pope Pius X who, in 1910, changed the beginning of the ecclesiastical year from Christmas Day to January 1, effective from 1911 onwards.
All that time, the Christian Orthodox continued to observe the Julian calendar. In 1923, a Conference of Orthodox Churches in Constantinople reduced the number of leap years every 900 years and attained a discrepancy between the calendar and the natural solar year of merely 2.2 seconds per year.
According to this calendar, the Spring Equinox will regress by one day every 40,000 years.
They, too, had to drop 13 days to bring the Spring Equinox back to March 21st. Hence the gap between December 25 (Gregorian calendar) and January 7 (revised Julian-Orthodox calendar).
Sam Vaknin ( samvak.tripod.com ) is the author of Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited and After the Rain - How the West Lost the East. He served as a columnist for Global Politician, Central Europe Review, PopMatters, Bellaonline, and eBookWeb, a United Press International (UPI) Senior Business Correspondent, and the editor of mental health and Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory and Suite101.
Until recently, he served as the Economic Advisor to the Government of Macedonia.
Visit Sam’s Web site at samvak.tripod.com
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May 14th, 2008
A greatly overlooked element of owning a PDA is that you actually need to take care of them if you want them to last. For most people this will mean two things - getting some software protection for your PDA and getting it a physical case to stop it getting knocked around.
As everyone knows, desktop and laptop computers need to be protected with firewalls and antivirus software. With so much malware, spyware and adware around it is pretty much a necessity. Unfortunately the same thing has to be done for your PDA. A good money saving tip is to search for software that can be used on both your computer and your PDA. There are tons of options available with Avast4 PDA Edition and Airscanner software both being very popular choices for protecting PDAs. Installing this software should be very high on your agenda when getting a new PDA as an unsecured device is just as vulnerable to attack as an unsecured PC.
The other thing you will need to consider is some physical protection for your PDA. The fact is that PDAs will get knocked around a lot in general use (even more if you are a PDA addict!). For this there are luckily an incredible amount of choices. You can go with a soft case or a hard case. The choice should really depend on how heavily you use the PDA - with heavier users perhaps being well-advised to stick with hard cases. Soft cases are fine for general users, but obviously they will not stand up to the same level of abuse as a hard case. Of course having a cool looking case is important too! Luckily there are no shortage of funky cases either!
By protecting your PDA both physically and from a software point of view you will extend its effective life significantly. As with any investment it is wise to protect it and get your money’s worth!
Rob Wood runs a PDA Accessory website at pda-assistant.info
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May 1st, 2008
You are a beautiful angel, a light being, a child of the universe who was sent here to fulfil your life’s purpose. This embodiment of pure universal love is perfect whole & complete and requires nothing to survive - that is until it puts on its human overcoat…
Now the spirit body has a skin, and gravity. It is presented to this planet as a human baby, and from the minute it arrives its time here on earth has already began to tick away until this being leaves this earth plane and its physical ’skin’.
So, we came as spirit, we leave as spirit - what happens in between?
Each and every one of us is unique, no two humans are alike, and that includes identical twins. No two people ever think exactly the same either. We are individuals but we share a common bond - that of a loving soul.
As spirit, before we ever came to this planet we were pure universal energy and that energy is love, it is the only true state of being, which is why, when we are in our true state we are at peace with ourselves.
We are always looking for something in life, we all want to belong. This is because we have come from a collective of energy and it is this memory that somewhere deep down our souls remember. We spend our lives looking for that connection externally. From an early age we try to belong, mix with others, but still something is ‘missing’. The truth perhaps is that we need to reconnect with our spirit selves. Only then can we know true happiness, peace and contentment. When we reconnect we enlighten ourselves and, in turn, others around us. We shine our light, and the universe shines back at us. We only need to look around and see the misery on peoples faces today to know how far away from our true selves we have come. Once upon a time we all felt the connection. People lived their lives naturally, holistically, using nature and the cycles of the sun and moon. They lived according to their surroundings and the circle of life. Now we expect our surroundings to change to meet our standards - we have forgotten to live with the ebb and flow of the tide. Instead we think we can swim against it. We have created a split within ourselves. We think we are more superior to our ancestors. We have more, want more and in return the universe gives us more, more busyness, more stress, more restrictions. So, you choose, what do you want more of? Time to relax or time to be busy; it’s your choice and your life… Isn’t it time you took control?
Copyright Alison Hall 2004
About the Author
About the Author… Alison Hall is a holistic life coach, reiki master and writer. An inspirational teacher, who draws on a number of holistic techniques to help others live their dreams. For more information on how she can help you please visit www.universalbeing.co.uk, email alison@universalbeing.co.uk or telephone +44 (0)1642 869440
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April 30th, 2008
Wi-Fi’s real security risks and rumored performance lags seem to
be small obstacles to its acceptance among institutions of
higher education. With increasing frequency, extending the
campus LAN means going wireless. The topologies are often
similar from campus to campus, applying one and sometimes two of
the IEEE’s 802.11x wireless protocols. Most often, 802.11b is
the standard selected, either as a precursor to the coming
802.11g (with which it is backward compatible) or because it is
so broadly available, having been first on the market. But some
campuses have also chosen 802.11a.
Referred to as WLAN, Wi-Fi, and 802.11x, these wireless
topologies find few roadblocks to implementation among colleges
and universities. In this environment, return on investment
(ROI) is calculated in terms of savings, value, services, and
the investment made in students themselves by enhancing the
learning environment.
Wi-Fi installations also present few physical challenges.
Usually, campus IT departments perform the installations quickly
- sometimes in just a few weeks. Once an institution has
invested in vendor selection and gathered vendor input, there is
little further delay before the proposed WLAN is up and running.
Wireless access points (APs) deliver freedom of movement and
untethered access at about 6 Mbps (adjusting from the advertised
11 Mbps for about 5 Mbps of overhead traffic, which routes and
delivers the payload). Campus constituents seem to be satisfied
with this speed - at least for now.
The following is a brief overview of seven campuses that agreed
to share their wireless stories.
Practical Considerations at Clarion University
The Clarion University library is currently served by a wireless
LAN of 30 APs optimally placed throughout the building. “The
library was recently renovated,” says Michael A. Phillips,
network and communications manager at the university
(mphillips@clarion.edu), “so, as part of that renovation, we
wired it with CAT5e cabling, but we also planned for a wireless
network.”
The five-story structure has adequate wireless coverage
throughout as well as some outdoor access. The WLAN is
interconnected through a dedicated VLAN, set up exclusively for
the wireless network. The infrastructure includes Cisco wireless
access points, a Bluesocket wireless firewall, and Marconi
Ethernet equipment.
Clarion chose the 802.11b standard in part based on price and
availability. Clarion is strongly considering 802.11g for
upgrades, as many campuses are. The 802.11g protocol is not only
backward compatible with 802.11b but is also expected to deliver
on the promise of 54 Mbps, almost five times the speed of
802.11b. (802.11a delivers 54 Mbps but is not compatible with
802.11b or g). The 802.11g standard is expected to be finalized
this year - perhaps as early as this summer - with some
producers like Linksys already rolling out 802.11g products.
What about Clarion’s wireless hardware?
“We’re not using the standard, ‘off-the-shelf’ APs from Cisco
with the integrated antennas,” says Phillips. Rather, Clarion is
using a model from the Cisco 350 Series that adds the option of
an external antenna. The Clarion library’s drop-ceiling tiles
were retrofitted with integrated antennas from Armstrong as part
of the networking. “We wanted uniform coverage cosmetically
consistent with the rest of the building,” says Phillips.
Wireless ceiling tiles allow Clarion more control over where the
radio signal travels. In dense areas such as Clarion’s library,
this helps keep any one AP from bearing the load for the whole
network. The wireless ceiling tiles keep the service seamlessly
invisible to its users.
Accommodating Students at RIT
Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) prepared for the
possibility of an upgrade in 802.11 protocols and APs while
deploying 802.11b. By installing two Ethernet jacks at every AP
location during the 802.11b installation, RIT made ready to
carry two standards to ease migration. Should 802.11a or g look
inviting, RIT can test the additional protocol and APs while
maintaining 802.11b coverage.
For RIT, Wi-Fi is an extension of a flat, single network on a
single subnet. “We expect that as wireless usage grows, we are
going to run into the typical problems that are present on a
flat, single network. That will dictate the need to change the
topology,” says Patrick Saeva, program manager for the IT
department at RIT (pjsits@rit.edu). For now, this simple flat
topology guarantees seamless roaming for campus constituents.
RIT plans eventually to consider additional wireless services
beyond surfing and basic Internet use. As traditional return on
investment concerns (and financing) are not obstacles, only a
strong demand for expanded services will determine
implementation.
Calculating ROI is a difficult process. RIT’s decision to invest
in wireless services was based on whether it would help the
students. A similar philosophy guides the decision-making
process at other educational institutions.
Flexibility at Syracuse University
“We bought APs that will accommodate either 802.11a or g,” says
Lee Badman, network engineer at Syracuse University
(lhbadman@syr.edu). With a solid 802.11b base, Syracuse would
lean toward advancing to 802.11g when the need for greater speed
arises. The 802.11g standard provides the same speeds as 802.11a
but within the 2.4 GHz ISM band. (Residing in the 2.4 band is
the commonality between 802.11g and b that makes g backward
compatible with b.)
The wireless topology is a neutral, demilitarized-zone network
that sits outside the university’s main network. It exists on
one subnet across the campus. A gateway/firewall provides
protected access. “It’s considered untrusted, and the
gateway/firewall separates the users from the rest of the
campus,” says Badman.
Syracuse’s wireless LAN has presented no problems in the areas o
f speed, performance, and reliability. Security risks are
mitigated by the value of having wireless LAN service and by the
separation from other campus networks. Badman expects that there
will always be some security risks.
Dual-Mode Solution at UNC
The University of Northern Colorado uses Vernier Networks’ IS
6000 (an integrated control server and access manager) to
authenticate students on its 802.11a and b networks. The
wireless network is separated from the campus’s wired network.
Following a site survey (performed by NetCom International)
Vernier was selected along with Cisco for the APs and the
wireless virtual private network (VPN).
Asked why UNC uses both 802.11a and b, Jeanette Van Galder,
director of administrative information technology
(jeanetter.vangalderl@unco.edu), said, “While the 802.11b
network interface cards [NICs] are more prevalent in the
consumer market, we wanted a dual-mode solution for individuals
requiring higher speeds and additional capacity.”
Segmentation from the primary network is accomplished with
VLANs. UNC uses Cisco’s VPN for faculty and staff for data
encryption and for drive mappings to the current active
directory, says Van Galder.
UNC installed in-house based on NetCom’s findings for the
optimal placement of APs. It also installed its own wireless
security using not only VPN but also LDAP. Van Galder says that
although they use the network only for WLAN, VoIP could be
considered among added services.
Productivity and efficiency improvements are a big part of UNC’s
ROI. Because students are sharing files directly between
laptops, server loads are decreasing. Students are spending more
time on the network and are more productive.
Meeting Many Needs at OIT
“Basic service set [BSS] is the current layout for Oregon
Institute of Technology [OIT] wireless networking. Each AP is
connected to a wired Ethernet jack,” says Agnes Box,
telecommunications coordinator, information technology systems,
OIT (boxa@oit.edu). As with other 802.11 topologies, there is
some overlap of coverage by APs in order to ensure sufficient
coverage everywhere.
OIT used products from vendors Cisco and Avaya (formerly
Lucent), already familiar from their use at other Oregon
University campuses. Specifically, these are the Avaya Wireless
Access Point-3 Ps with power-injected Ethernet, silver and gold
wireless cards, and antennas from Avaya, which were once the
WaveLAN products.
Criteria used for evaluating 802.11b solutions included the
number of users connected at any one time, the ease of
migration, and scalability. OIT will likely migrate to 802.11g
to meet eventual demands for greater speed. Campus topology will
probably evolve to extended service set (ESS) when this happens.
With ESS, overlapping broadcast rings will provide roaming from
building to building. As a natural enhancement to the network,
the corrugated metal buildings at OIT act as antennas, sending a
strong Wi-Fi signal throughout the buildings.
An Integrated System at Collegis/Salt Lake Community College
Larry Maughan’s team at Collegis/Salt Lake Community College
went to Proactive Network Management Corporation “for
engineering, coordination, and support in integrating [wireless]
into the existing network,” says Maughan, director of netcomm
(larry.maughan@slcc.edu). Collegis/Salt Lake is now implementing
VLANs as a solution to conflicts between APs. Future services
will expand to include PDAs (in trial mode now) and soft phones.
As it has for other institutions, 802.11b have been very
reliable for Collegis/Salt Lake. The Cisco LEAP security product
manages security, and all users are required to log on via an
account on the active directory. The only problem seems to arise
from weeding out bad APs. The process will be greatly unburdened
by the adoption of the Cisco Wireless LAN Solutions Engine
(WLSE), which will allow remote identification, location,
troubleshooting and configuration of APs. Until this solution,
Collegis/Salt Lake has been searching for bad APs manually by
touring the suspect coverage area with wireless laptops upon
notification of the problem to technical support.
John Dunn and Proactive Network Management Corporation helped
Maughan and his group with their wireless deployment. Together
they set up 802.11b coverage for 13 sites including four major
campuses - every room in every building. “We used Cisco ACS
products for the authentication, and then it was tied back into
its closest switch where it also receives its power,” says John
Dunn, president of Proactive Network Management (john@pnmc.com).
Maughan and his team did most of the design, and the two
organizations worked together on the site survey and
implementations.
Seeking Security at Bridgewater State
Using Enterasys R2 APs and Cisco switches, director of
telecommunications Patrick Cronin (pcronin@bridgew.edu) and the
Bridgewater State College team set up 802.11a. As the topology
evolves from a simple routed network, Cronin plans for “some
sort of solution to segment the collision domains without
requiring an additional login as you roam.” Bridgewater is
considering Bluesocket, Vernier, and other solutions.
As far as security goes, “Right now we don’t allow access to our
administrative systems from the wireless network,” says Cronin.
However, as Bridgewater comes to rely more and more on the
wireless network, more critical data will be transferred over
it, and security will become more of an issue.
Just as many other institutions today, Bridgewater is
conservative about plans for services in addition to WLAN. It
has taken a glance at 802.11b phones.
Enterasys helped Cronin set up Bridgewater’s 802.11a network.
When asked about the topology, John-Paul Gorsky, director,
wireless product line, at Enterasys (gorsky@enterasys.com),
said, “The typical topology you will see is buildings, or floors
in buildings, connecting back to the intermediate distribution
frame on the particular floor.” The wireless topology depends a
lot on what the wired topology is - whether the wired networks
on each floor are individual subnets, for example. Roaming works
best on the same subnet.
Conclusion
There are a variety of ways to approach implementation of 802.11
protocols, and a selection of hardware solutions is available.
Flexibility, keeping your options open for the future, seems to
be the secret of success.
Sidebar
The 802.11 standard and the FCC
The FCC doesn’t require licenses for any of the 802.11 protocols
and so these are freely used.
“Since the FCC does not require licenses for use of the 2.4 GHz
or the 5.15-5.35 and 5.725-5.875 GHz spectrum bands, companies
may develop products and services according to business plans
that they think will best suit users - subscription, free or
whatever,” says Anita Wallgren, attorney at Sidley, Austin,
Brown, and Wood, LLP (awallgren@sidley.com).
Wallgren notes that the FCC does, however, stipulate that
companies obtain Part 15 certification for the APs and
receivers. This is in order to meet power and performance
specifications. The unlicensed spectrum model for 802.11 will
likely continue due in large part to its level of success.
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April 29th, 2008
To pass the CCNA exam and earn that coveted certification, you’ve got to know Cisco switches inside and out. Among the many important details you’ve got to know are the three methods that Cisco switches use to forward frames, and the differences between the three.
The first switching method is Store-and-Forward. The name is the recipe, because that’s just what the switch does - it stores the entire frame before beginning to forward it. This method allows for the greatest amount of error checking, since the Frame Check Sequence (FCS) can be run before the frame is forwarded. As always, there is a tradeoff, since this error checking process makes this the slowest of the three frame forwarding methods.
The quickest method is Cut-Through, where only the destination MAC address of the frame is examined before the forwarding process begins. This means that the part of the frame is actually being forwarded as it is still being received! The tradeoff here is that the FCS does not run, so there is absolutely no error checking with Cut-Through switching.
The middle ground between these two extremes is Fragment-Free, so named since fragmented frames will not be forwarded. The switch examines only the first 64 bytes of the frame for errors, since that is the part of the frame that will be damaged in case of a collision. There is error checking, but it is not as thorough as Store-and-Forward.
Keeping these three switching schemes straight is vital to your CCNA exam efforts, and it will help you in working with Cisco switches in the real world as well. Keep studying!
Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage, home of free CCNA and CCNP tutorials, The Ultimate CCNA Study Package, and Ultimate CCNP Study Packages.
For a FREE copy of his latest e-books, “How To Pass The CCNA” and “How To Pass The CCNP”, visit the website and download your free copies. You can also get FREE CCNA and CCNP exam questions every day! Pass the CCNA exam with The Bryant Advantage!
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April 15th, 2008
Camera cell phones are sweeping the nation! In fact, long gone are the days when a telephone is used for the sole purpose of speaking to another person. Cell phone cameras are all the rage and you’ll soon understand why! These days, people are using phones for all sorts of things! It is without a doubt, one of the greatest inventions that we’re able to enjoy today. We use it as a form of communication. We’re able to speak with our loved ones and stay connected on a daily basis. We use it every day to conduct business on a local, national, and international scale. It is so quick and easy to use - it’s no wonder why people depend on their cell phones every day!
Imagine a day in the life without a phone. We wouldn’t be able to keep abreast of what’s going on. Now, imagine not having a telephone in your home or place of business. We would be completely lost if we weren’t able to communicate with other people in a quick and efficient manner. Now, enter the cell phone and imagine the possibilities! Millions of Americans have. We use cellular phones to our advantage because they’re compact, and most importantly, mobile! We can take it anywhere we want - whether in the States, Canada, or abroad. So, there’s no excuse to stay in touch with your loved ones! You can conduct business at any time of the day or night because you’ll always have some form of mobile service as you roam from country to country. Owning a mobile phone is like having a personal organizer all to yourself - a trusty friend that will never let you down when you need it the most!
Millions of Americans use wireless phones for many reasons - all of which are valid and effective as a method of communication. Many business savvy people use their cellular phones to log onto the Internet. They use their mobiles to check and send email messages, send and receive text and picture messages, access their personal and professional contacts, and keep organized daily. Even more, they’re fun to use! First of all, cell phones nowadays come small and compact. You can fit them into your briefcase or pant pocket! Women love that they can fit their mobile phones in the smallest of purses without any trouble whatsoever! Keep track of special birthdays and agenda items, make memos, download special ring-tones, and play games. Now, they’ll take your picture too, so you can capture that precious moment in time that you’ll never get again!
How many times have you been somewhere and missed having your camera handy? It’s true that we don’t always think to bring a camera when we leave our homes every day. Why would we? Then again, you never know when you’ll need a camera in the case of an emergency. This is why owning a camera phone is so convenient! Now there’s no need to carry around bulky and expensive photo equipment, when you can have a camera built into your cell phone - and we all know that once you own a wireless phone, it never leaves your sight! People come to rely on their phones a lot, especially for work. If you’re the type of person that travels frequently, having access to email doesn’t always cut it. If you’re on a plane, you may not be able to access the Internet from 40,000 feet above. What if your Internet server was down when you were trying to send an important message? Your email may end up getting delayed, costing you precious time when you could have just picked up the phone and conducted your business yourself through the tried and true telephone! There is no need for hesitation. This is the reason why more and more people today are realizing the benefits of owning the ever-so-popular multi-functional cellular phone.
Mobile phones are there for you when you need them the most! If you’re at the grocery and need to call home, no problem! If you’re in the car running late and on you’re way to pick up your children, no problem! You’d just pick up your telephone and it’s done. Remember how much time you’d expend looking for a pay phone when you needed it the most? Take a look around! You won’t see many pay phones anymore, simply because there’s no need! Young and old alike are using cellular phones for their own personal and professional benefit. Owning a wireless phone is just too convenient to consider alternative options! Now you can own one too!
If you have the notion in your head that a cellular camera phone will be way too expensive to afford, think again! They’re becoming more and more inexpensive because they’re being made in such large quantities, and Americans are picking them up like hotcakes! People see the value in these tiny photo devices! Don’t be fooled. These phones may be small, but they pack a lot of power! Most camera phones today come with at least two mega-pixels. Some even record video images! Once you’ve captured a shot on your cell phone camera, the fun begins! Take your photo, and just as you would with a digital image, create your own work of art! Customize your photograph as you see fit. Reduce red eye, brighten or sharpen your picture, or crop and resize. It’s all up to you! Then, you can take that image and store it on your phone! Now you’ll always have that very special photo to take with you wherever you go! Better yet, share your image with a friend and spread the love!
It’s so easy to enjoy cell phone cameras, no matter who you are. These amazing little telephones come in an assortment of sizes, weights, and colors, equipped with a variety of features perfectly suited to meet your needs. Whether you use your cellular phone for business or professional use, there’s something out there for you! Imagine the convenience and the money you’ll save. It’s important to know that digital cameras are dominating the market today. They’re handy, affordable, easy to use, and inexpensive to maintain. Cellular camera phones are no different! With digital photos taken on your camera phone, you can print your images quickly and effortlessly. Print your favorite photos on professional photo paper in the comfort of your own home. Why not save it to disk and share it online with friends and family. The sky is the limit! More importantly, you’ll end up saving money!
Think about it. With a digital camera phone, you can view your images right away! That means that if you don’t like a picture that you took, you can easily delete it. If you like it, store it and enjoy it! Remember, when you use a manual camera that requires film, you have no choice but to send it off to the lab for printing. You’ll end up paying for every single shot, whether good or bad. With digital images, you have the freedom to print what YOU want instantly, hence saving you valuable money and precious time! Why spend your time waiting to get your prints back from your vacation or a work function, when you can access them instantly on your phone camera!
Choose from top of the line cellular camera phones today! Again, these phones are being made to serve the general population, so it’ll be important for consumers to do their research before settling on a make and model. If it’s important for you to have high quality shots taken on your cellular phone with a camera, make sure that your telephone comes with at least 2 mega-pixels for high quality shots. It may be a little more expensive than the typical mobile phone, without the camera feature, but it’s proving to be well worth it - and if you’re a new subscriber, you may get the deal of a lifetime! You could easily get your wireless camera phone for free if you sign a contract!
Typically, higher end phones will also come equipped with many valuable features that one can use at their discretion. Undoubtedly, it is truly amazing what wireless mobile phones can do nowadays. Without question, cell phones are being used as a highly effective method of communication. Adding a camera feature to that list only enhances your already stellar communication device. So, if you’re thinking about getting yourself one of these amazing wireless camera phones, this is what you need to look for. First, you’ll need to pick from a wide variety of reputable cellular carriers. Narrow it down to a couple of your favorite companies. Ask your friends and colleagues to give you feedback about their phone and cellular carriers. It’s always best to go right to the source. If someone is happy with their service, they will let you know!
It’s also important to note that most of the bigger cell phone companies typically offer Americans the same types of deals. So, if you’re looking for more minutes during the day, free nation-wide long distance, or evening and weekend minutes, choose wisely! Many companies offer the same types of phones, so it’s best to choose what cell phone company will best suit your needs first. This also means deciding whether you want to go monthly or with a prepaid cell phone plan. Again, the choice is up to you! Going monthly offers consumers more value and bang for their buck, but some consumers can’t justify all the minutes and features. Some people use their phones in the case of an emergency only and don’t want to be burdened with monthly charges. Whatever suits your fancy, pick the phone, company, and cellular phone plan that rings true to your heart! Whether you choose a Sprint, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, or Motorola phone - be rest assured that you’ll have a great phone to call your very own!
So, get out there and explore your options. You’ll be surprised at just how much is readily available for consumers like yourself to enjoy! Let your cellular phone work FOR you. Use it as a personal organizer. Take pictures when you please. Get online! Most importantly, stay in touch! The lines of communication are open and ready for the taking. So what are you waiting for?
About the Author
©Copyright 2005. Caitlin Crosain is a successful writer and publisher of cell phone related information such as where to find the best Free Cellular Phones, Wireless Plans and mobile accessories and MP3 players.
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April 6th, 2008
To pass the CCNA exam, you’ve got to create a study plan. Part of that plan is scheduling your study time, and making that study time count.
You’ve scheduled your exam you’ve created a document to track your study time you’ve planned exactly when you’re going to study. Now the plan must be carried out, without exception.
What exceptions do I mean? Cell phones. Televisions. IPods. Significant others. The list can go on and on.
It’s one thing to have a plan, and an important thing now you’ve got to make sure you carry it out to its fullest potential. That’s easy to say until you’re studying and a friend calls, or you remember that TV show you wanted to watch is on tonight, or you start surfing the Web for Cisco information and end up playing a game.
You MUST make these small sacrifices in order to achieve your main goal, the CCNA. Any worthwhile accomplishment requires some small sacrifice.
TV will be there when you’re done studying. Your significant other will be there when you’re done studying. And believe it or not, people once existed without cell phones! Turn the phone off. Turn your instant messenger service off. Turn your text pager off. Despite what we think, the world can do without communicating with us for 90 minutes. Remember, it’s better to have 90 minutes of great study than 180 minutes of constantly interrupted study. Studies show that while a single phone call causes an 11-minute interruption on average, it takes well over 20 minutes to get back to what you were doing with the proper mental focus. This is true at the office and at your home!
How To Spend Your Study Time CCNA candidates generally spend their time split between book study, practice exams, and lab time on real Cisco equipment. The best study is done by a combination of these, not by overly relying on one. Let’s take a look at each method.
Book study - I’ve never understood why some people (usually the trolls we were talking about earlier) talk about book study like it’s a bad thing. “You can’t learn about technology from books.” What a load of manure. You have to learn the theory before you can understand how a router or switch operates. The best way to learn the theory is to read a good book.
At the CCNA level, you doubtless know that you have dozens of choices when it comes to books. Some of the better-known books really do gloss over some important topics, such as binary math and subnetting. Make sure to pick a book or books that go beyond just explaining the theory and that give you a lot of explanation of router configs and real-world examples as well.
Practice Exams: Practice exams are good in moderation, but don’t use them as your main focus of study. Occasionally, I’m asked for study tips by candidates who have taken the exam a few times and not passed yet. I ask them what they’re doing to prepare, and they give a list of companies they bought practice exams from. (You see a lot of this on Internet forums as well.)
Don’t fall into this trap. Practice exams are fine if used as a readiness check, but some candidates just take them over and over again, which renders them basically useless.
On top of that, some of them cost hundreds of dollars. That’s money you’d be much better off spending on Cisco equipment to practice on.
Again, I’m not against practice exams as a supplement to your studies. Just don’t make them the main focus of your study. Taking practice exams over and over and hoping the exam will be just like the practice exam is a recipe for disaster. As I tell my students, when you’re in front of a rack of routers and switches during a job interview (or at 2AM when you’ve been called in to fix a problem), the correct answer is not “D”. You’ve got to know what to do.
And how do you learn these skills? Funny you should ask…. Lab Time On Real Cisco Equipment. Again, speaking from experience: This is the most important part of getting your CCNA, succeeding on the job, and going on to get your CCNP.
Getting hands-on experience is critical to developing your networking skills, especially your troubleshooting skills. Although simulators are better than they used to be, they’re still not Cisco routers, and they never will be.
You do your best learning not only when you’re configuring your routers, but when you screw something up.
That’s so important, I want to repeat it - loudly: You do your best learning when you screw something up. Why? Because then you have to fix it that’s how you develop your troubleshooting skills. You can read about all the debug and show commands in the world, but you don’t really understand how they work until you’re figuring out why your Frame Relay connection isn’t working, or your RIP configuration isn’t working.
This is true at every level of the Cisco Learning Pyramid. I can show you the show ip protocols output or what you get when you run debug ip rip, and you might remember it for a little while. But when you use it to troubleshoot a lab configuration, you WILL remember it.
Putting your own practice lab together will also help get you over what I call “simulator question anxiety”. If you spend any time on CCNA Internet forums, you’ll see discussion after discussion about these exam questions. To a certain point, this discussion is justified. The simulator questions carry more weight on your exam than any other question while you can earn partial credit on them, you’ve got to get them right or you will most likely fail the exam.
There’s no reason to be anxious about them if you’re prepared. You don’t want to be the person who walks into the testing room that’s scared to have to create a VLAN or an access list you want to be the person who walks into the testing room confident of their ability to perform any CCNA task. The best way to be that confident is to know you’ve done it - on real Cisco equipment.
There are several vendors that sell routers and switches on ebay most of them sell CCNA and CCNP kits that include all the cables and transceivers that you’ll need as well. (And how is a simulator going to help you learn about cables and transceivers?) Keep in mind that you can always sell the equipment after you’re done with the CCNA, or you can add a little equipment to it to go after your CCNP.
Whichever of these methods you use (and I hope you’ll use all of them), make sure to keep them in balance with each other. Don’t depend too much on just one.
On the topic of learning how to troubleshoot… as you run labs on your Cisco equipment, you’ll run into questions or problems that you don’t know the answer to yet. Get used to using Google (or your favorite search engine) to find the answer to these problems - but try to figure it our yourself first!
There’s nothing wrong with asking questions of someone else if you’re not able to find the answer yourself. Trying to find the answer yourself is another important troubleshooting skill you need to start developing today. Don’t be one of these people who posts a simple question on a forum without trying to find the answer on your own. Besides, you get more satisfaction and build more confidence when you determine the answer yourself.
Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage, home of free CCNA and CCNP tutorials, The Ultimate CCNA Study Package, and Ultimate CCNP Study Packages.
For a FREE copy of his latest e-books, “How To Pass The CCNA” and “How To Pass The CCNP”, visit the website and download your free copies. You can also get FREE CCNA and CCNP exam questions every day! Get your CCNA study guide with The Bryant Advantage!
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