Besides getting “MCSA: Windows Server 2012” certified , I also passed my Windows 8 exam “70-687 Configuring Windows 8“.
I’m still waiting for the results of 4 beta exams and hope I can pass them and get these certifications:
To be continued ……
PS: For more information about Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012, be welcome to check my “Microsoft Information Flood” post. I’m a bit behind on updates, but it should still prove to be a valuable resource.
After desperately checking if my results were in for the beta exams I took, I finally got the great news that I passed the first three beta exams for Windows Server 2012. This means I’m now officially “MCSA: Windows Server 2012” certified.
I’m still waiting for the results of the other 5 beta exams *fingers crossed*, but I couldn’t have wished for a better start 🙂
PS: For more information about Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012, be welcome to check my “Microsoft Information Flood” post. I’m a bit behind on updates, but it should still prove to be a valuable resource.
Even though charity is about giving and not getting, it is nice to get something as well. This is exactly what several people thought as well.
Most of the times:
(One of) the first bundles with this concept was the Indie Humblebundle and they have just released their latest bundle: Humble Indie Bundle 6 which in my opinion contains the best games I’ve seen in a bundle yet:
The Humble Indie Bundle 6 contains the following games:
PS: Even though it’s not in the Humble Indie Bundle, Torchlight 2 is coming out tomorrow as well. It is fairly priced (especially in a 4-pack), looks promising and will include modding options (expect a lot of fan made content).
Besides the Indie Humble Bundle, there are more bundles available. Not all of them involve charity and not all of them allow you to set your own price. But it might be interesting to check some of them:
http://indiegamebundle.wikia.com/wiki/Indie_Game_Bundle_Wiki
Office 365 has been available for quite some time and there have also been two exams available:
70-321 Deploying Office 365
70-323 Administering Office 365
These exams focussed on larger enterprises and features corresponding with this use. More information about these exams can be found in my previous blog post. Keep in mind however that Office 365 is an ever evolving service and that things might have been changed since I wrote this blog post. Even Microsoft has retired and replaced some of their learning content.
Recently a third exam became available that focusses on smaller businesses 74-324 Administering Office 365 for Small Businesses. At the end of August a Jump Start event was held and now the recordings of this event have been made available on Technet Video.
I hope this is useful to you and that it will help you leverage Office 365 better.
When Microsoft creates new (versions of their) software, they also create new exams to become certified. Part of this process includes testing the exams, determining the passing score, getting feedback and improving the exams based on the feedback (deciding which questions to use, removing questions, re-phrasing, etc.). More information can be found here.
To get feedback, Microsoft offers access to these beta exams for free. They do this publicly using by example the born to learn blog or privately using mail to select subject matter experts (SME) based on their profiles on Microsoft Connect. So if you’re interested in taking beta exams, update the information on the Microsoft Connect site to get private invites to the latest beta exams that are relevant to you. More information about the invite procedure can be found on the Born To Learn blog. Also keep in mind that public invites might be limited using a first-come, first served principle so check on a regular basis.
Advantages and disadvantages of taking beta exams:
+ It is free if you received an invite. Nowadays you can also take beta exams if you haven’t had an invite, but then you need to pay for the exam.
+ You have a chance to become one of the first people to become certified for the new software.
+ If you pass a beta exam, you passed it legitimately because there are no answers to download online.
+ Even if you fail the beta exam, you’ve still learned a lot about the new (version of the) software.
– In general there are no books available yet and you have to get all your information from hands-on experience, blogs, technet, websites, etc.
– The time frame you have to prepare for the exams can be (very) limited. For example with the last invites for the Server 2012 beta exams I had only 2 weeks to prepare for multiple exams.
– After you’ve taken a beta exam, it might take 2-3 months before you get the result.
Beta exams I’ve taken recently include those for Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, System Center 2012 and Office 365. I expect the next beta exams to cover mainly Office 15/Office 2013 related products like by example Sharepoint, Exchange, Lync. So if you’re interested in these beta exams be sure to keep a close eye on the beta exams and start working with and learning about the products already.
I hope this was informative and that it well help you and/or your company gain a competitive advantage.
Since Microsoft has recently released their latest server OS calles Windows Server 2012, they’re hosting free one day “IT Camps Windows Server 2012” events.
Check the link below for more information about the event contents, dates and locations:
http://www.microsoft.com/netherlands/evenementen/event.aspx?eventid=675&date=20121016&eventtype=TechNet#locations
I’ve attended an IT camp for Hyper-V in Server 2008 R2 in the past and I liked the concept. Back then however there were some points of improvements with regards to preparation and the number of attendees that could actively participate in the hands-on labs. I have learned from this experience and will not miss out on this again.
I’m going to attend the Eindhoven event on the 16th of October, so please let me know if you’re attending this event as well so we can meet up.
PS: For participating in the hands-on labs you need to bring your own laptop that meets the requirements stated in the event description.
In one of the reorganizations I was involved in, the intent was to redesign the change process. The method used was the “Brown Paper” method. The “Brown Paper” method is called this way, because everything is being modelled on a (large sheet of) brown paper as can be seen in this example. I personally really enjoyed this approach and think it can be very useful.
This method basically meant that people actually performing the tasks were brought together, were interviewed and actively participated to model the current way of working and its shortcomings. Afterwards this got transformed to the desired processes and what was necessary to realize it.
If you want to know more about it you can find a lot of information on the internet. To get some more insight I read the dutch book called “De Brown Paper-Methode” by The Brown Paper Company because they were the ones initially assisting us.
In this book I came across some examples of desired characteristics and competences in a working environment. These examples matched my personal preferences for a working environment and are very simple and straight forward in my personal opinion. In the images and excel files below these examples can be found (I have to admit I took some liberties in the English translation):
First of all, for those who don’t know Half-Life, Half-Life was created by valve (which is responsible for the steam platform) and is one of the best games ever. It was released in 1998 and paved the way for many community made mods and maps like by example Counter-Strike and Day of Defeat. After Half-Life, some expansions were made and also Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2 : Episode 1 and 2 have been released. Since Episode 2 in 2007, people have been waiting for a new installment in the Half-Life series, but nothing has been announced yet.
So if you’ve missed out on Half-Life, there’s still hope for you. Because now you will be able to play a re-imaged version called Black Mesa Source which is made by fans on the source engine. Also if you need something to pass the time while waiting for a new Half-Life game, this might help.
Check these screenshots to see the differences or check the video below:
Black Mesa itself is free, but because it is created on the Half-Life 2 source engine you do have to install the Source SDK Base 2007. The reason I’m saying that Black Mesa has been released partly is because this release will only includes the game up until Lambda Core. Even though this will give users a solid 8 to 10 hours of gameplay, if you haven’t played the original Half-Life I would suggest you wait until all levels are released so you can play through the complete game in one go.
Another crucial part (at least for me) that is missing, is the multiplayer. In Half-Life 1 I’ve spent countless hours playing Half-Life Deathmatch and I was not bad at it. What I liked about it, where the multi-level maps with lots of routes, freedom and flexbility This combined with innovative guns and high speeds resulted in addictive gameplay (and high telephone bills because there was no unlimited broadband back then).
Black Mesa Source is currently only downloadable from their website, but I expect it to be available soon on steam as well through the Steam Greenlight program. If you want to see more screenshots made by users, check out steam.
If you want to show your appreciation towards the fans who developed this great re-imagination or discuss some things, please visit their twitter, facebook or website.
If you want to see what other Dutch people think about Black Mesa, or if you want to leave your own comments, I suggest you go to this thread about Black Mesa on the Dutch forum gathering.tweakers.net.
Have a great weekend.
Over the last couple of years I’ve been using an Asus WL-500W wireless router to provide wireless access to our network. As a real tweaker I ofcourse replaced the default firmware with DD-WRT firmware and set the transmit power to maximum. This worked perfectly.
Lately however, my parents were experiencing some issues with wireless access from their phones and tablet. So the first thing I tried was to check if there might have been wireless networks on the same channel that were interfering. I checked this on my Windows laptop using Wi-Fi inspector and on the android phones and tablet using Wifi analyzer. Even though the number of wireless networks in the neighbourhood have increased substantially, here were no real indicators for issues. I did try optimizing and changing to a different wireless channel, but this also did not solve the issue. I think the increased transmit power might have taken its toll over the years.
Since I’m up-to-date regarding ICT developments, I know there is a new wireless standard 802.11ac under development and that recently a number of routers have been released based on the draft of this new wireless standard. The added value of these routers is mainly speed, but they are also very costly AND they require the client devices to be 802.11ac compatible as well (which they are not).
Instead I bought the TP-Link TL-WR1043ND plus three 8dBi anttenas (TL-ANT2408CL) because:
The total cost of the router, 3 antennas and shipping was 65 euros at https://www.redcoon.nl. The wireless reception is perfect now and I recommend these products to everyone. Keep in mind however that wireless performance is very dependent on your environment and surroundings, so results may vary.
Thanks to the internet and the great communities and companies all over the world, there are a lot of great applications and tools available. In the past years I’ve found and used numerous of them for all kind of purposes, both personally and professionally.
Because there are so many of them, it is hard to remember all of them. That’s why I decided to create a list on my Office 365 SharePoint website for all people to see and use:
http://bjornhouben-web.sharepoint.com/Lists/Applications
The summary view is shown by default for this list. If you want to change to a different view, click on “Summary” at the top and choose the view you want to use instead:
I put a lot of effort in providing metadata for these applications, so you can search and filter more easily.
If you’d like, you can also export it to Excel. You can even subscribe to the RSS feed so you will be alerted when new applications have been added.
I hope you like the list. If you know of other great applications or tools that I have not yet listed, please let me know so I can add them.
Thanks in advance.
PS: I will update the other lists in the future as well. So they will work in a similar way and will also contain a lot of useful content.
blog.bjornhouben.com 