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Microsoft 70-447 – Q & A / Study Guide

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QUESTION 1
You work as DBA at Certkingdom.com. You administer two Windows Server 2003
computers named Certkingdom A and Certkingdom B. You install SQL Server 2005 on both
Certkingdom A and Certkingdom B to host a new company database. Certkingdom A hosts a
read-write copy of the company database in which all changes are made. Certkingdom B
subscribes to a publication on Certkingdom A and is only used for reporting. A Windows
domain administrator provides you with a domain user account named SQLSRV to use as
the security context for the SQL Server services. A password policy of 42 days exists in
the Default Domain Group Policy object (GPO). You install the database on Certkingdom A
and Certkingdom B and configure replication. Everything works fine for six weeks, but then
all SQL Server services fail. You need to correct the problem. What should you do?

A. Ask the Windows domain administrator to grant the Log on as service right to the
SQLSRV domain user account.
B. Configure the SQLSRV domain user account with a new strong password. Configure
the new password in the properties of each SQL Server service that failed.
C. Create a local user account on Certkingdom A named Certkingdom A and a local user account
on Certkingdom B named Certkingdom B. Configure Certkingdom A and Certkingdom B to run under the
context of the appropriate local user account.
D. Ask the Windows domain administrator to grant the SQLSRV domain user account
membership in the Domain Admins group.

Answer: B

Explanation:
The Default Domain Group Policy object requires that passwords are
changed every 42 days. In order to correct this problem you have to change the
password in the Active Directory AND configure the new password on both you
SQL Servers to the newly changed password.

QUESTION 2
You are a database administrator of two SQL Server 2005 computers named Certkingdom A
and Certkingdom B. You have a Microsoft .NET application that has been modified so that it
now accesses a database on Certkingdom B in addition to Certkingdom A. You do not want the
user application to connect directly to Certkingdom B. You need to enable the data retrieval
from Certkingdom B while maintaining the ability to assign different permissions to different
users who use the .NET application. What should you do?

A. Change the .NET application to define a new server connection to Certkingdom B.
B. Configure a linked server on Certkingdom A to point to Certkingdom B.
C. Change the stored procedures called by the .NET application to include the
OPENXML command.
D. Configure a linked server on Certkingdom B to point to Certkingdom A.

Answer: B

Explanation:
SQL Server lets you access external data sources from your local
Transact-SQL code. You need to define a linked server for each external data
source you want to access and then configure the security context under which your
distributed queries will run. After you create a linked server, you can use the
Transact-SQL OPENQUERY function to execute your distributed queries.

QUESTION 3
You are a database administrator for Certkingdom.com. Your company uses a different
company’s application that is based on SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition. The
application executes a query that uses an index query hint. The index query hint is not
suitable for your environment, but you cannot modify the query. You need to force the
application to use a different query execution plan. What should you do?

A. Create a plan guide for the query.
B. Clear the procedure cache.
C. Create a new covering index on the columns that the query uses.
D. Update the statistics for all of the indexes that the query uses.

Answer: A
Over the past few years, Microsoft SQL Server has increased its
presence in the industry and has reduced its TCO. This reduced TCO is a direct
result, primarily, of the numerous self-tuning mechanisms built into Microsoft(r)
SQL Server. These mechanisms automatically perform tasks that would otherwise
have to be performed by experienced database administrators. One such
mechanism is the cost-based optimizer (CBO) that is used to dynamically generate
query execution plans. The CBO probes several system-wide resource states and
employs many complex, heuristical algorithms to generate the best possible plan for
a given query and the underlying table and index structures. This mechanism works
well for the vast majority of user queries, but there are times when experienced
users need to force a particular query plan, based on some prior knowledge or
insights into future uses.

QUESTION 4
You are a database administrator for Certkingdom.com. Your SQL Server 2005 computer
contains one user database that holds sales transaction information. Users report that the
queries and stored procedures that they use every day are taking progressively longer to
execute. You also notice that the amount of free disk space on the SQL Server computer
is decreasing. You need to create a maintenance plan to correct the performance and
storage problems. What are two possible ways to achieve this goal? (Each correct answer
presents a complete solution. Choose two.)

A. In the SQL Server Maintenance Plan Wizard, use the Check Database Integrity option.
B. In the SQL Server Maintenance Plan Wizard, use the Reorganize Index option.
C. In the SQL Server Maintenance Plan Wizard, use the Shrink Database option.
D. In the SQL Server Maintenance Plan Wizard, use the Clean Up History option.
E. In the SQL Server Maintenance Plan Wizard, use the Execute SQL Server Agent Job
option.

Answer: B,C

Explanation:
When you indexes are not heavily fragmented you can reorganize
indexes, which uses few system resources and runs automatically online. In SQL
Server 2005, certain operations such as large delete operations or -one-time data
loads might leave database files larger than they need to be. SQL Server 2005
enables a DBA to shrink each file within a database to remove unused pages and
regain disk space.

QUESTION 5
You are a database administrator for Certkingdom.com. You are responsible for a SQL
Server 2005 database that has several indexes. You need to write a stored procedure that
checks the indexes for fragmentation. Which Transact-SQL statement should you use?

A. DBCC INDEXDEFRAG
B. SELECT * FROM sys.dm_db_index_physical_stats
C. SELECT * FROM sys.indexes
D. DBCC DBREINDEX

Answer: B

Explanation:
The index_physical_stats function takes five parameters: database_id,
object_id, index_id, partition_id, and mode. This function returns row size and
fragmentation information.

QUESTION 6
You work as DBA at Certkingdom.com. You administer two SQL Server 2005 computers
named Certkingdom A and Certkingdom B. Certkingdom A and Certkingdom B contain a copy of a
database named Sales. The database is replicated between Certkingdom A and Certkingdom B by
using transactional replication. A full backup of each database is performed every night.
Transaction log backups are performed every hour. Replication latency is typically less
than two minutes. One afternoon, the Sales database on Certkingdom A becomes corrupted.
You are unable to repair the database. The Sales database on Certkingdom B is unaffected.
You need to return the Sales database on Certkingdom A to normal operation as quickly as
possible. You must ensure a minimum loss of data and minimal impact to users of either
server. What should you do?

A. Perform a full database backup on Certkingdom B. Restore the backup to Certkingdom A.
B. Restore the most recent full database backup and all transaction logs made since the
full backup was made.
C. Restore only the most recent transaction log backup.
D. Detach the Sales database on Certkingdom B. Copy the database file to Certkingdom A, and
attach the database on both servers.

Answer: A

Explanation:
Detaching the database will not apply to the minimal impact on users
as it will be offline during copy. Restoring only the latest transaction log will not
give you a working database and restoring last full backup and all transaction logs
after that will not apply to the restore normal operations as quickly as possible part
of the requirements.

QUESTION 7
You are a database administrator for Certkingdom.com. The company runs a popular
database-driven Web site against a SQL Server 2005 computer named Certkingdom B. You
need to ensure a quick response time and appropriate audit trail in the event that
Certkingdom B experiences excessive traffic due to denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. Which
two actions should you perform? (Each correct answer presents part of the solution.
Choose two.)

A. Configure the new performance alert to start a SQL Server Profiler trace.
B. Create a new performance alert to monitor the Current Bandwidth counter.
C. Configure the new performance alert to start a Network Monitor capture.
D. Create a new performance alert to monitor the Bytes Total/sec counter.

Answer: C,D

Explanation:
Using alerts, System Monitor tracks specific events and notifies you of
these events as requested. An alert log can monitor the current performance of
selected counters and instances for objects in SQL Server. When a counter exceeds
a given value, the log records the date and time of the event. An event can also
generate a network alert. Characteristic for a typical DoS attack is a large number
of Bytes/sec. Characteristic for a DDoS attack is also a large number of Bytes/sec
but also a large number of connections made from a large number of hosts.

QUESTION 8
You are a database administrator for Certkingdom.com. One of the databases on a SQL
Server 2005 computer contains a stored procedure. Users run this stored procedure to
import data into a table. The stored procedure needs to use the TRUNCATE TABLE
command before importing new data into the table. However, the users who run the
stored procedure do not have permission to truncate the table. You need to provide a way
for the stored procedure to truncate the table before it imports new data. What should you
do?

A. Configure the stored procedure to use the EXECUTE AS command.
B. Configure the stored procedure to be owned by the same database user as the table.
C. Assign the users DELETE permission in the table.
D. Add the users to the db_datawriter fixed database role.

Answer: A

Explanation:
In SQL Server 2005 you can implicitly define the execution context of
the following user-defined modules: functions (except inline table-valued functions),
procedures, queues, and triggers. By specifying the context in which the module is
executed, you can control which user account the SQL Server 2005 Database Engine
uses to validate permissions on objects that are referenced by the module. This
provides additional flexibility and control in managing permissions across the object
chain that exists between user-defined modules and the objects referenced by those
modules. Permissions must be granted to users only on the module itself, without
having to grant them explicit permissions on the referenced objects. Only the user
that the module is running as must have permissions on the objects accessed by the
module.
Syntax:
Functions (except inline table-valued functions), Stored Procedures, and DML Triggers
{ EXEC | EXECUTE } AS { CALLER | SELF | OWNER | ‘user_name’ }

QUESTION 9
You are a database administrator for Certkingdom.com. You have separate SQL Server 2005
development and production environments. You use the Business Intelligence
Development Studio to create a SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) package in your
development environment. Then, you use the SSIS package to import data into your
development environment from one of your company’s trading partners. You need to
deploy the SSIS package to your production environment. Your production environment
uses different table names than your development environment. What should you do?

A. Save the SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) package to a file. Copy the file to the
production server. Configure the SSIS package on the production server to use the new
file.
B. Back up the master database and restore it to the production server. Rename the
appropriate tables inside the master database.
C. Create a SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) package configuration. Build a
deployment utility. Copy the deployment folder for your SSIS project to your production
server. Execute the manifest file.
D. Back up the msdb database and restore it to the production server. Rename the
appropriate tables inside the msdb database.

Answer: C

Explanation:
You have to use a SSIS package to accomplish this but you can not use
the package built for your development environment as the table names differ.

QUESTION 10
You are a database administrator for Certkingdom.com. You notice that one of the data files
on a SQL Server 2005 computer is corrupted. You need to restore the database from the
most recent set of backups. You want to perform this task as quickly as possible, with a
minimum loss of data. What should you do first?

A. Restore the most recent transaction log backup.
B. Restore the most recent full database backup.
C. Perform a full database backup.
D. Perform a transaction log backup.

Answer: D

Explanation:
In order to restore from the most recent set of backups, you have to
first ensure that you can restore all transactions that have occurred between the
time of the backup and the time when the database went corrupt. In order to
accomplish this you should backup the transaction log.

MCTS Certification, MCITP Certification

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HP

Verizon says it doesn’t use Carrier IQ software

Verizon Wireless said Thursday it doesn’t add to its phones any software from Carrier IQ, the company that has come under fire in the past few days for what some say amounts to spying on mobile phone users.

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Also, Carrier IQ put out another statement clarifying what its software does, in an attempt to calm the uproar, which began when a security researcher published a report showing the software could be used to collect data such as user locations, keys pressed on phones and what applications are running. Phone users typically aren’t aware that their phones have the software and they aren’t able to turn it off.

Apple, AT&T, Sprint, HTC, Samsung and T-Mobile have said some of their phones use the software. Research In Motion and Nokia have said they don’t load the software onto their phones.

On Twitter, Verizon spokesman Jeffrey Nelson wrote on Thursday: “We do not add Carrier IQ to our phones. We do not use other similar software on our devices.”

Carrier IQ, meanwhile, continues to assert that it doesn’t collect any private information about phone users. In a statement it reiterated that its software does not record, store or transmit the contents of text messages, emails, pictures, audio or video. It captures information such as whether an SMS was delivered and which applications drain the battery, the company said. It “vigorously disagrees” with people who allege that Carrier IQ violates wiretap laws.

On Wednesday, Al Franken, the U.S. senator from Minnesota, sent a letter to Carrier IQ asking it to respond to questions about what kind of personal information it collects about users without their knowledge. He suggested the company might violate privacy laws.

His letter followed Carrier IQ’s threat to sue Trevor Eckhart, the researcher whose report kicked off the uproar. Carrier IQ has since withdrawn that threat and apologized for it.

Eckhart reported that Carrier IQ software runs on Verizon phones as well as those from RIM and Nokia. Developers have reported that they have some evidence that shows some Verizon phones run the software. Verizon did not immediately respond to a request for comment about those findings.

IBM

Ten Great Strategies For Today’s Climate

This is a challenging time to be in business but there lies the opportunity. I’ve listed 10 specific characteristics of downtimes and 10 positive strategies that embrace and capitalize on them.

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More time to create a focused business: Use this slower paced market to revisit the business you are in – what defines you. This is the perfect time for repositioning, selling off non-core subsidiaries, sharpening up product road maps and value propositions.
Flight to price and quality: Now is the time to revisit your product mix and pricing strategies. Buying behavior changes dramatically in a recession. Lower priced versions of your product or subscription based business models may be relevant to ease customer cash flow pain.
Measuring the signals is vital:> Mistakes made in downtimes can prove fatal.
Convert your Accounts Department into a Metrics Center. Trap and visualize your key performance indicators. Audit the signals and constantly interpret the significance to your strategies.
Acquisitions just got cheap: PE ratios of the majority of public companies are in single digits and the valuations of private companies are low. Consider a proactive approach to acquisitions by building a robust acquisition process that is proven to work.
The “C” level suite just got a free pass to visit their customers: Never has there been a better time for the inner cabinet to visit their customers to understand the specific issues challenging them. It’s not only productive, it’s essential for shaping strategy. Define your engagement strategy and get on site.
Value Propositions must improve a customer’s performance: Receiving a purchase order, confirming a big deal is very satisfying but it’s not enough. You need to be invested in the improved performance that will be achieved because your customer uses your product. Does your sales process achieve this?
Curiosity & Urgency of managers dramatically increased: Well it certainly should have. This new level of alertness (perhaps it’s fear) needs to be channeled to produce results. Difficult projects shelved in better times are prime candidates for this energy. Staff want to be effective and busy to get things moving again. Tap into this momentum.
People and tasks are mis-aligned: Now is the time to think like a start-up. The key –Define Performance Profiles that your company needs to be executed, not job specs but tasks that need to be done well. This will cause old jobs to be merged and new jobs to be created.
Silo Management is broken: Urgent initiatives will fail without cross-functional support. Company visions need to inspire and flow across functions. Build cross functional teams to execute top priorities.
Competition thins out: It might be difficult to create double digit growth but you can grab market share. The best companies don’t just survive bad times; they grow and develop into more robust and valuable businesses.

As an experienced business leader, Ian Smith is passionate about maximizing the potential of fast-growing companies. The Portfolio Partnership offers Corporate Development Services on an advisory, operational or investment model. Specifically we execute growth strategies by repositioning companies organically and/or by acquisition.

Ian was educated in Scotland, earning a BA degree from the University of Strathclyde and qualified as a Chartered Accountant of Scotland with Grant Thornton. Post qualification he joined Thomson the publishing giant and became one of their youngest divisional Finance Directors at 26 and was awarded the prestigious, UK Accountant of the Year ahead of many experienced FDs. From 1988 to 2000 he successfully built up two major boutique M&A advisory firms, Livingstone Guarantee and Capita Corporate Finance. During this period he completed over 40 acquisition, disposal or finance transactions, many cross border, many in the technology sector. He assisted dozens of entrepreneurs execute their vision.

In late 2001 he moved to the states to successfully reposition and grow Teamstudio, an IBM business partner with HQ in Beverly, MA and offices in the UK and Japan. During the next 5 years the top line was grown by over 45% and losses were turned into EBITDA of over $10m. high achiever, Ian expects the highest performance from his staff but always mixed with a Glaswegian sense of humor!

IBM

Court rules that HP’s Hurd probe document can remain secret

A document tied to an internal Hewlett-Packard sexual harassment investigation of former CEO Mark Hurd will remain sealed, according to a ruling handed down this week by the Delaware Supreme Court.

HP shareholder Ernesto Espinoza had filed a lawsuit seeking to inspect the document, which was prepared by the law firm Covington and Burling on HP’s behalf.

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The Delaware Chancery Court had already ruled against Espinoza on grounds his need to see the document wasn’t sufficient enough to override “attorney-client privilege and work product immunity protections,” the state supreme court said in its ruling, which was handed down Monday. “We affirm, but on the alternative ground that Espinoza has not shown that the Covington Report is essential to his stated purpose, which is to investigate possible corporate wrongdoing.”

Hurd resigned from HP in August 2010 and also reached a confidential settlement with a former HP contractor, Jodie Fisher. Shortly thereafter, he took a job as co-president of Oracle.

Although the internal HP investigation did not conclude Hurd was guilty of sexually harassing Fisher, it found he had broken HP’s business conduct standards and uncovered a “systematic” series of inaccurate expense reports meant to cover up his relationship with her, the ruling added.

Hurd received a lucrative severance package from HP. Espinoza had argued that if HP’s board had reason to fire Hurd “for cause,” then the payments shouldn’t have been made, the court said.

Oracle, Tech

Oracle: HP paying Intel to keep Itanium going

Hewlett-Packard has secretly contracted with Intel to keep making Itanium processors so that HP can maintain the appearance that “a dead microprocessor is still alive”, and make money from its locked-in Itanium customer base and take business away from Oracle’s Sun servers, Oracle said in a court filing on Friday.

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The market has never been told that Itanium lives on because HP is paying Intel to keep it going, Oracle said. Intel’s independent business judgement would have killed off Itanium years ago, it added.

HP however described the filing as a “desperate delay tactic designed to extend the paralyzing uncertainty in the marketplace” that it said was created when Oracle announced in March, 2011, in a breach of contract, that “it would no longer support HP’s Itanium platform”.

HP has made statements to the marketplace to the effect that Intel’s commitment to Itanium is its own, based on its normal calculations for investing in processors that it believes have a future, Oracle said in a filing before the Superior Court of the State of California for the County of Santa Clara.

A public redacted version of the filing was made available to The Wall Street Journal’s AllThingsD blog. Intel said it is not a party to the lawsuit, and therefore does not have any comment on it. “Intel does not comment on commercial agreements that we may or may not have with our customers,” the chip giant said in an e-mailed statement.

Oracle also claimed that HP had kept secret from the market, but revealed in a filing two days previously, that HP and Intel have a contractual commitment that Itanium will continue through the next two generations of microprocessors.

HP’s strategy behind its “false statements” about Intel’s support for Itanium was to take away business from Oracle Sun, and “reap lucrative revenues from the locked-in Itanium customer base using HP’s HP-UX operating system on Itanium servers”, as the company gets few service contracts on operating systems like Linux that run on x86 processors, Oracle said.

Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems last year.

HP filed a suit in June over Oracle’s decision to stop developing software for the Itanium processor, the chip used in HP’s high-end servers, claiming that Oracle’s decision violates “legally binding commitments” that it made to HP and the companies’ 140,000 joint customers.

Oracle said at the time that HP tricked it into signing an agreement last September to continue its support for Itanium, even though HP knew of an Intel plan to discontinue Itanium. HP already knew all about Intel’s plans to discontinue Itanium, and HP was concerned about what would happen when Oracle found out about that plan, Oracle said in a statement in June.

As Oracle well knows, HP and Intel have a contractual commitment to continue to sell mission-critical Itanium processors to customers through the next two generations of microprocessors, thus ensuring the availability of Itanium through at least the end of the decade, HP said in a statement.

“The fact remains that Oracle’s decision to cut off support for Itanium was an illicit business strategy it conjured to try to force Itanium customers into buying Sun servers — and destroy choice in the marketplace,” HP said.

IBM, Tech

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IBM

IBM to build e-commerce research labs for Chinese retailer

IBMhas reached a deal with Chinese electronics retailer Suning Appliance to build research centers in China and the U.S. meant to develop e-commerce products for the company.

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IBM, already a provider of internal management systems for Suning since 2005, will now help the Chinese company expand its e-commerce site and services, said IBM spokeswoman Harriet Ip.

As part of the plan, IBM will build a research center in the Chinese city of Nanjing that will be staffed with 15,000 Suning employees over the next three to five years. Some of the products the center will develop include applications to allow household appliances to connect with the Internet and mobile handsets.

IBM is also establishing a joint development lab with Suning in Silicon Valley. The planning for the lab is still in the preliminary stages, but it will also focus on developing e-commerce services, Ip said.

Suning made the deal as the company is aiming at a greater presence in China’s burgeoning e-commerce sector. While Suning has 1,700 physical stores, the company has to compete with the likes of China’s Alibaba Group, which operates two of the top online retail sites in the country.

Suning has launched its own business-to-consumer (B2C) site, which now has a 2.4% market share, according to Beijing-based research firm Analysys International. In contrast, Alibaba’s Taobao Mall has a 35.5% share.

“There is no question that we live in a time of rapid change that calls for the transformation of organizations in many industries,” said Frank Kern, an IBM senior vice president in a speech last Friday.

Suning’s goal is to build an e-commerce platform that will better personalize the shopping experience, by recommending appropriate products and providing better search. Financial terms of the detail were not disclosed.

Suning could not be immediately reached for comment. The company’s president Zhang Jindong said in a statement that his company was moving to a business model that could leverage both e-commerce and physical retail shopping.

“With this innovative business model, consumers, suppliers and businesses along with society can all benefit,” he said.

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Luidia’s eBeam Edge – Setting the standard for interactive whiteboards

Who needs an actual whiteboard? Give me a light-colored wall, a mini projector, and the Luidia eBeam Edge and I can teach anywhere, anytime, in person or online.

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I’ve had an eBeam Edge sitting in a box in my office for a while now, waiting for me to unpack it and give the interactive whiteboard tool a test drive. This past weekend, I finally broke it out and I’m glad I did. At first blush, it reminded me of a small version of the early Mimio bars that attached with suction cups to any whiteboard and allowed capture of drawn content. Although Mimio devices have come a long ways, at the time (almost 5 years ago), our experience with them was pretty negative. Fortunately, the eBeam is vastly more sophisticated than the old Mimios and, more importantly, is supported by great software.

The eBeam Edge is about the size of one of the candy bars that are so coveted on Halloween and only obtainable in the wealthier sections of town. At around a quarter of an inch thick, the radio receiver magnetically attaches to a small bar that is mounted on any wall or whiteboard with 3M Command Strips. Every eBeam Edge system comes four of these magnetic mounts, meaning that the eBeam itself can move with a teacher from room to room or among teachers easily during the day. Just pop the device off the wall, grab the USB cable, and go (wireless BlueTooth versions are also available).

For me, the Edge will live in my laptop bag, along with extra Command strips and a micro portable projector. Since the interactive whiteboard components interface so easily with virtual classroom applications (and, in fact, Luidia offers their own free synchronous whiteboarding solution to customers), a complete e-teaching setup can fit in one main pocket of my small messenger bag.

There are a few things other than size that set the eBeam apart from other interactive whiteboard solutions. The most important is speed and accuracy. A quick calibration routine (tap 9 spots with the stylus in order) accessed from a virtual button the software places on the projected desktop, and you can have an interactive whiteboard up to 100″ diagonally on virtually any surface. From there, you can write on the native projected whiteboard or any other application that accepts mouse/tablet input using the stylus in near real time. Annotating a PowerPoint slide, for example, with written text, equations, underlines, arrows, and highlighting with none of the lag that often accompanies interfaces of this type.

The second is the software itself. While SMART and Promethean are the undisputed masters of prepared content for their interactive whiteboards, Luidia has focused on an incredibly intuitive interface for everything from drawing and annotation to mouse control with their stylus. The teacher in the image above (OK, she’s probably not a real teacher, but it’s a good marketing photo of the software in action) has the stylus resting on the palette that controls virtually all of the stylus capabilities. With simple taps, the palette shifts from straight mouse control to highlighting (including color selection) to drawing (including color and line size selection) to calibration. Many other functions are included in the icon-based palette as well, but it never feels cluttered. The palette also features adjustable transparency, so the instructor can make it more or less obvious based on need.

eBeam hardware comes with Workspace software (essentially an overlay of interactive features on any desktop application, including tablet-style input to touch-aware applications), Capture software (for building presentations and capturing either still shots of the projection or recording movies of the content loading on the whiteboard), and Scrapbook (for creating archives, organizing and sharing screen shots, building e-learning courseware, etc.). These launch automatically (or prompt the user to launch them) based on user actions and work across Windows, Mac, and Linux (there are currently some limitations on OS X and Linux, in particular a lack of Lion support). The software also supports interactive Flash content, including prebuilt widgets from Luidia (virtually any other Flash modules can be loaded into the Scrapbook.

The hardware isn’t cheap, but is competitive with Mimio; prices for systems hover around $1000 and schools/teachers will need to have a projector and computer in place. However, because an in-room PC is commonplace and projectors are increasingly ubiquitous, the Edge allows for easy use of existing whiteboard and projection resources without investing in expensive, full-blown interactive whiteboards.

For schools looking at more permanent installations, Luidia offers similar technology in fixed “digital-ready” whiteboards, short-throw mounted projectors, and multi-projector “InfoWall” setups.

Interestingly, Luidia also recently announced a partnership with Polycom to add their interactive whiteboard technologies to video conferencing installations. They also just announced a new partnership with NEC to layer not only their interactive capabilities on NEC mounted projectors but also to provide real-time whiteboard sharing and collaboration for distance and hybrid education using their synchronous technologies. This sort of industry traction certainly suggests some long-term viability, but more significantly, demonstrates the flexibility and utility of the core technology.

This is starting to read a bit like Luidia marketing schtick, but only because I was incredibly impressed with the usability and quality of the eBeam Edge. If I were looking at whiteboard solutions in a school at this point, I’d skip expensive, heavy interactive whiteboards and just leave big blank walls, ready for eBeams that can be purchased, deployed, and used as budgets allow for far less money and far greater whiteboard real estate than any smartboard manufacturer can currently match. The Edge has officially made my list of dead-finger tech (the hardware and software that you’d need to pry from my cold, dead hands if you wanted me to give it up).

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HTC reports record numbers, sells more smartphones than RIM

After reporting sales of 13.2 million smartphones during the third quarter, HTC is now the fourth largest smartphone vendor after having outpaced Research In Motion, according to market research company Canalys.

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A diverse product offering, expanded distribution network and growing global brand recognition resulted in HTC’s highest-ever quarterly revenue at $4.5 billion for the period ending Sept. 30. That is a 79 percent improvement year-on-year, the company said in a statement on Monday.

At 13.2 million smartphones, shipments increased by 93 percent year-on-year. For example, in China HTC sold nine times as many phones during the third quarter this year compared to the same period last year. That has helped turn HTC into the fourth largest smartphone vendor, passing RIM by a margin of 1.4 million units in the process, according to Canalys. “It has seen a lot of success in the Asia-Pacific region, and it is doing very, very well in the U.S. market,” said Pete Cunningham, analyst at Canalys.

The company is also closer than ever to Apple and Nokia, which sold 17.07 million and 16.8 million smartphones, respectively. “It is going to be very competitive. Nokia is probably the vendor that is the most vulnerable from HTC in the short term. Nokia’s Symbian volumes will tail off, and its success depends on how fast it can ramp up Windows Phone sales,” said Cunningham.

Good products combined with a lot of support from operators have helped HTC increase its shipments volume, according to Cunningham. When an operator wants an Android-based phone, HTC and Samsung, which is the biggest smartphone vendor, are the first port of calls, he said.

To further expand volume, HTC is opening a factory in the beginning of next year, which will help increase the company’s total manufacturing capacity to about 40 million phones per year.

Two areas in which the company is currently investing are LTE (Long Term Evolution) technology and entry-level smartphones. An LTE device upgrade cycle will come in 2012 in the U.S. and some advanced markets in Asia, and HTC hopes to take advantage of that. At the same time, it aims to continue to attract first-time smartphone buyers, it said.

“In the long term, we will have a very healthy market in terms of competition and that drives innovation, which is great for end users,” said Cunningham.

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Windows 8 Features Vastly Improved Boot Times

Windows 8 news continues to trickle from the Building Windows 8 blog at a steady clip: today, Gabe Aul detailed changes to the Windows 8 boot process that promise to drastically reduce startup times.

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The team wanted to come up with a startup method that would deliver the benefits of a cold boot (a “fresh session” at startup, no power usage when off) while reducing the amount of time that it takes to load the operating system from disk to RAM.

To accomplish this, Microsoft has combined aspects of a traditional Windows shutdown with system hibernation, which saves the contents of your RAM to disk and then restores it to RAM at next boot. While a Windows shutdown currently closes all user programs (the “user session”) and then all system services and processes (the “kernel session”) completely before powering off, Windows 8 closes the user session and saves the rest of your RAM’s content to disk. The kernel session can then be restored to RAM quickly at next boot – this is more speedy than traditional hibernation both because there’s less data to restore to RAM from the disk (just the kernel session, as opposed to the kernel session and the user session), and because restoring hibernation files is a fully multithreaded process in Windows 8.

Microsoft notes that drivers are still initialized during this startup process, which means that driver and system updates should no longer require a “full” reboot of the system (something Microsoft has been promising since the Longhorn days). However, for those of you more comfortable with a traditional “full” shutdown, there are command line options to toggle the new feature on and off (“powercfg /hibernate off” which has the unfortunate side-effect of completely disabling hibernation), and also to initiate one-time full shutdowns (“shutdown /s /full”).

According to Microsoft, these improvements should benefit users with SSDs and HDDs alike, and will be especially noticeable when paired with systems supporting UEFI, the BIOS replacement that is slowly being adopted by most major PC manufacturers and motherboard makers. For full details, as always, you can check out the very detailed post on the Building Windows 8 blog.